Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect games. This story is written with no profit in mind. I make no money from it. It isn't for sale or rent.
Chapter 6
=DC=
Part 6
=DC=
28.04.2183 GS
Port Hanshan
Noviera
Pax system
Horse Head Nebula
Shepard and Hunter finally disentangled themselves from Vasir's show after they all left the hotel's lobby. The Asari Spectre practically dragged Qui'in towards the docks, with her whole being screaming her obvious intent for the world to see.
"Can we get the evidence without breaking too many local laws?" Shepard inquired. It didn't strike him as particularly smart to go in guns blazing, so to speak, after all the dancing around stepping on toes they had to do already.
Hunter lit up like a Christmas tree. "While Vasir was busy demonstrating needlessly complicated mammal mating habits, I was working!" The Hanar proudly announced. Holographic light surrounded his tentacles, followed by four omni-tool interfaces lighting up and blinking rapidly. "I sent a statement of intent and request for authorization to my colleagues. They will forward it to Noveria's Board of Directors. Under the circumstances, we've got a good enough excuse to enter Turian's office and retrieve the data."
"Can you define good enough?" Shepard pushed while they headed towards the office building in question.
"The kind that will have any issues tied up by Asari la
wyers until both of us are safely dead if the Board decides to take an exception to our actions. There's nothing to worry about."
Somehow, those words failed to reassure Shepard.
Ten minutes later, it turned out that his gut was right…
On the outside, the office building was no different than most buildings they saw so far at Port Hanshan. Tinted glass, dark metal, and dominating amount of stone – the price of building into a mountain. Inside was no different, though there was a bit more color to the offices.
As soon as they went through the door thanks to Loriq's access card, Shepard and Hunter's luck ran out. Complications were waiting for them. They came in the form of two bored Noveria security personnel hanging in the Synthetic Insights lobby.
"Hey, you've got no right to be here!" The closer one, an armored human woman, exclaimed.
"On the contrary, the Administrator has no right using you to cover his illicit deals!" Hunter's body flashed dangerously as he spoke. "Be a pair of good rental cops and walk away. This is now Spectre and Council business, not just Board of Directors issue!"
The human woman, who towered over her much smaller Salarian colleague, looked at his large dark eyes. He blinked rapidly, glancing between his fellow hired goon and Shepard, then shook his head.
"I'm not paid enough to deal with Spectres!" The private security slowly raised their hands in order not to be threatening and moved sideways towards the exit.
"That went better than it could have," Shepard relaxed a fraction once they were alone in the lobby.
"That's true. However, we're now on the clock."
The two of them raced towards the second floor and Qui'in's office. It took them a few minutes to locate it, find and copy the data. By the time they were done and on their way out, a squad of Noveria's security waited for them. The ERSC unit was deployed at the small courtyard separating the regular and executive offices on the second floor of Synthetic Insights.
"I knew it! More Alliance meddling!" Sergeant Stirling gleefully exclaimed. "I told you he'll be trouble!"
"That you did, Sarge!" One of the hired cops answered hungrily.
"It was such a tragedy that you Alliance types are so arrogant," Stirling happily announced and aimed an SMG at Shepard. "It was a mistake making one of you a Spectre, and we're going to remedy it."
"Do you even listen to yourself, Sergeant? This one finds your conduct insane!" Hunter's sharp words didn't help.
"Take them down!" Stirling snapped and opened fire.
Shepard wasted no time. A deft motion dumped reserve power into his barriers, strengthening them. At the same time, he retrieved his heavy pistol and rolled to a nearby potted plant – it wasn't much of a cover, however, it could slow down bullets, making them easier for his defenses to handle.
A shotgun thundered, followed by rapid SMG fire.
Hunter lit up again, this time in with a glowing barrier. His tentacles snapped up, either picking up pistols or surrounded by omni-tool interfaces.
By the time Shepard was behind his dubious cover and launched a fabricated grenade at the crazy cops, the Hanar already had the situation well in hand. Multiple blinding overload charges struck the enemy squad, staggering them. Hunter followed up with precise shots, cracking the skulls of two hostiles.
Shepard's grenade struck an ERCS employee in the chest. The explosion that followed was more than enough to crack up the light armor the human wore and throw him out of the fight.
In response, bullets shredded the Spectre's cover, petering him with pieces of foliage and dirt. A couple of tiny bullets shattered or deflected right in front of his visor, making him blink at the novel experience. Nevertheless, trained reflexes responded, and a moment later, he had an incineration blast curving towards Stirling.
The Sergeant tried to dodge, however, another Overload struck her, courtesy of Hunter. It was enough to stagger her, leaving her open for the magnetically guided plasma. The resulting detonation was enough to throw Stirling on the ground. She writhed screaming, while the plasma ate through her armor.
The Sergeant going down, gave Shepard and Hunter all the time they needed to focus on the two remaining crazy cops. The Spectre struck his target with an overload, and followed with precise shots, cracking the Turian's helmet. A moment later, bone, brains, and alien blood painted a nearby wall.
Hunter, once again proved that he was anything but an ordinary pencil-pusher by taking out the last enemy with rapid precise shots from no less than three pistols. After this display, Shepard knew he would never look at any Hanar the same way ever again.
And finally, there might have been some truth to Blasto, as far as the action scenes went.
Shepard shook that odd thought off and focused his attention on Stirling's writhing form. She was still on the ground, trying to extinguish herself. A somatic gesture had his omni-tool smoking due to super-cooling and containing a mass of sub-atomic particles. Another gesture threw them at Stirling. A steam explosion surrounded the Sergeant, followed by a shrill scream and the sound of cracking armor.
A few moments later the steam and smoke were gone, revealing the woman's brutalized form half-frozen to the floor.
"Hunter, do make sure she doesn't die. I would love to hear the thought process behind openly attacking a Council Spectre and Diplomatic Representative."
"Wouldn't it better if you treat her? As a Human, you should be much better familiarized with her physiology than This One."
"I'm afraid that she might hurt herself even worse trying to get to me. The woman has issues with Alliance personnel." Shepard pointed out. Bloody colonials. Who pissed in her breakfast anyway?
At that point, the situation got even more complicated. Tense shouts came from downstairs – some human, others distinctly Turian. There was no mistaking that warbles to the aliens' voices.
"That's our backup I guess. I'll try to sort that out," Shepard sighed and headed downstairs. So far, being a Spectre was more trouble than it was worth it.
=DC=
Part 7
=DC=
28.04.2183 GS
Port Hanshan
Noviera
Pax system
Horse Head Nebula
An armed standoff in progress awaited Shepard in the lobby. An ERCS Captain in gray armor led thee squads worth of well-outfitted security. Every one of them had at least a medium armor, and either a shotgun or assault rifle aimed at a group of spiky, angry-looking Turians. They were spread throughout the lobby, taking advantage of what little cover there was in the large space.
According to his HUD, a group of Turians led by Lieutenant Karsis faced the locals. They held the entrance, placing Shepard in an uncomfortable position. At least, if the situation went even more to hell, they would have the local security caught in a crossfire, the N7 Operative thought. Needless to say, such an outcome was to be avoided if practical.
Shepard took cover behind a solid stone pillar, taking no chances, and shouted: "Lieutenant Karsis, Captain! This is Spectre Shepard. Explain yourselves!"
"Spectre, I'm Captain Matsumoto, ERCS. You have no jurisdiction here! You're trespassing at a crime scene. You are the one who will explain yourself and the shooting we just heard!" The Captain turned to look in his direction, revealing herself to be a middle-aged Human woman with Asian features.
"We were doing a favor for NDS Internal Affairs when a group of your people jumped us. I would love to hear the thought process behind that stunt from their leader when she recovers. Does Sergeant Stirling ring a bell?"
A brief grimace flickered over Matsumoto's face at hearing that name.
"Captain, we can do this two ways," Shepard continued, "We can be reasonable adults, and get out of here without a further incident. Your bosses will get their evidence, and if it's credible, you get to work with a new Administrator. If you're lucky, they might not be a piece of work like Anoleis," He paused, "Or, we can do this the hard way. We've got the high ground, and your unit is in a cross-fire with little in the way of cover. We both know how that ends."
Matsumoto glared up at Shepard, then at the Turians. However, after that, the Captain wisely waved her people to lower their weapons.
"That was the smart call, Captain," Karsis added.
A moment later, Wrex's massive form walked through the door.
"We've got a Krogan Battle Master too," The Turian needlessly said.
"Shepard! I'm getting bored! Will we be fighting or going after Benezia already?!" Wrex's voice thundered, and his voice sounded particularly bloodthirsty.
Shepard was sure that if the Krogan didn't have his helmet on, he would have a chilling smile on his face too.
"The Captain here doesn't feel particularly suicidal today, so we can avoid another incident," Shepard said and slowly went out of his cover. "Go get your people. Stirling looked like she could use a hospital."
The Turians used the distraction to fan out into the lobby, bypassing the choke point that was the entrance. That got any fight that the hired cops had out of their system – a firefight under these conditions would be a bloodbath and they knew it.
"She'll live if she gets to a hospital soon," Hunter in the Shadows floated down the stairs. "We're done here, aren't we? There is no need for further diplomatic and legal complications."
"That is my understanding as well," Shepard noted. "Captain?"
"Get out of my sight, damn you!"
"You heard the lady, we're leaving."
=DC=
Thirty minutes later, Shepard and company found themselves back in front of the Administrator's office, watching an unfolding show. Gianna Parasini, Anoleis supposed secretary dragged out the cuffed Salarian, who kept threatening or trying to bribe everyone in sight. She handled him to even more uncomfortable looking Captain Matsumoto for processing and waved the Spectres to follow her back into the office.
"When I contacted you, I hoped for a bit subtler resolution," The Internal Affairs agent began.
"Your local goons had other ideas," Shepard pointed out, "I say again, I would love to hear the thought process that led to Stirling's stunt."
"Shepard, many of the Humans working out here are doing it either for the huge pay or because they want to have nothing to do with the Alliance. As a grunt, Sergeant Stirling wasn't on board exactly for the money, even if we pay the ERCS rather well. But we digress. You want access to the Binary Helix's facilities at Peak 15."
"Preferably without jumping through any more hoops," Vasir stated bluntly. We just scratched your back, we expect that you will do the same."
"Indeed," Parasini nodded and went to sit at the Administrator's desk. "I'll issue you passes to the garage and authorization to visit Binary Helix's compound. However," She began working on the terminal, "there is a nasty storm in progress as you might have noticed. As it's typical around here, shuttle flights are grounded for a good reason. Your military birds might be able to make it to Peak 15, though I wouldn't bet on it."
"If it comes down to it, we might bring down a frigate for insertion…" Shepard suggested.
"That would be too much of an escalation. The Board would prefer to keep things quiet and save face. It's one thing to hide or deny a convoy went into the storm, it's another for a frigate to go there. Many of the corporate facilities planet side have their sensor suites and will notice, then ask uncomfortable questions."
Shepard didn't bother to note that the Normandy was a stealth frigate. At any rate, she might be more useful back in space, along with the CDF detachment, making sure that Benezia didn't escape, or that a bunch of Geth wouldn't jump in to ruin everyone's day.
"If you can provide enough sturdy vehicles, we might try for a quiet insertion," Vasir reluctantly agreed.
"Your authorization is ready. There are several old Kodiacs and Makos in the garage. The weather outside is nasty enough at the best of times that it does require military-grade transports for safety reasons." Parasini explained.
"They would help dissuade pirate raids as well," Hunter noted.
If any pirates dared brave the orbital defenses – they almost exclusively went for soft targets that couldn't shoot back at their ships. Elysium had been one of the few notable exceptions to happen in the last hundred years.
"And your passes are ready. Do try not to shoot up the whole mountain," Parasini picked up a stack of freshly printed security cards and stood up.
"We'll try our best but can't make any promises," Vasir picked up the passes.
"We're getting all hands on deck for this one," Shepard said and sent an alert for the ground crew to assemble at the garage.
=DC=
If you want to support my writing or discuss this story, see the following links:
Pat re on: Delkatar's writing corner
the space battles forums - this is where most discussion over my stories takes place
the sufficient velocity forums
the alternative history forums