Political fallout… and a krogan?
Disclaimer
Starcraft is the property of Blizzard entertainment.
Mass effect is the property of Bioware.
Any elements used in this story are used only in order to create a story for no monetary gain nor do I claim any ownership over them, beyond the names and characters unique to this story.
Council chamber
Garrus vakarian
Garrus hated the red tape that always seemed to appear in his path.
It always appeared at the most inopportune moment.
And something bigger would happen this time if he wasn't able to get to the truth.
"Saren's hiding something! give me more time, stall them" Garrus pleaded, panicked.
"Stall the council? You must be mad Vakarian" replied executor Pallin, his boss "This investigation is over" he finished as he then turned to leave.
Garrus cursed under his breath.
The executor had informed him that the report given to the council about the investigation had not been received in it's entirety as the council had been over demanding on the report and wished for it immediately.
Knowing that his investigation had most likely been for naught he intended to return to his office in defeat.
As he was turning in order to return to his patrol car he could make out three forgives as they made their way towards him.
A smile appeared on his face.
It would seem that the exact group he wished to interview about what had happened on Eden Prime had just arrived.
"Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian, I was the officer in charge of the C-sec investigation into Saren" he presented himself as quickly as he could as he was trying to share what little he knew about the case.
"What did you find, officer?" Shepard asked respectfully, but Garrus could identify resignation in his voice. He knew what Garrus was about to say.
"Saren's a specter. Most of his activity is classified, but he is up to something. As you humans say, I feel it in my gut" Shepard chuckled at this.
At least Garrus managed to improve someone's mood today.
"I think the council is ready for us" spoke one of his companions and this brought the commander back to reality.
"Thank you Garrus" he said as they made their way towards the council chamber.
Knowing what would most likely await them, Garrus spoke again "Good luck commander. I hope they listen to you" and after the group of humans had disappeared, he made his way to the patrol car.
He let out a sigh of frustration the moment he was in his patrol car.
This day was getting worse by the minute.
First he blew his chance to root out one of the biggest conspiracies in galactic history, then he got lambasted by his superior.
This day was horrible.
But Garrus wouldn't give up that easily. He didn't wish to desecrate the name Vakarian, even less after he got so close.
He tuned to the frequency reserved for reports on ongoing situations and as he listened he began to see a pattern…
A report came in about quarian's body had been recovered in the presidium, a pilgrim, as another officer reported.
Garrus found it odd that only one quarian had been reported. They tended to clump together once they reached citadel space since the migrant fleet was on the other side of the galaxy.
A secondary notice reported a trail of blood making its way to the wards from the presidium, odd.
It was most likely the result of an assassination attempt or a fight that had gone wrong as the presidium was one of the most monitored areas in the station
And lastly there was a report from the wards that two bodies were found with their windpipes crushed.
They were turian.
…
He rubbed his throat in discomfort at the mention of that last detail.
The officer in charge reported that they were found near Chora's den.
That was fist's territory…
That slimy bastard had been a part of his investigation as some recent transactions had linked him to Saren's inner circle, this could only mean that the idiot had sold out his allegiance to Saren against his previous contract with the shadow broker.
As he headed towards the section of the ward that comprised that slimy bastard's territory he began to piece in what the other reports could mean to his ongoing investigation.
A dead quarian, blood and some dead turian's on fist's territory.
…
There was a hospital in the level above fist's liar.
…
There was another, Saren wanted what they had…
Garrus accelerated his vehicle as he made his way towards doctor Michel's clinic.
Little did he know that his path would be hindered by the reports of more bodies in the area.
Council chamber
Shepard
Shepard's group had arrived in the middle of the hearing.
But in his defense this was mostly the councilor's fault.
They had originally arrived along with captain Anderson and ambassador Udina, but just as they were about to enter the elevator that lead to the galaxies center of power they were barred by C-sec as the council wished to hear about the report from Udina with only one person being allowed to company him.
After the initial round questioning towards the humans had ended, the rest of the group were motioned to enter the chamber.
To Shepard's misfortune and disgust he found that the council had seen it as feeling to have the accused since the very start of the hearing…
Or rather a hologram of the bastard.
Saren starred in delight as his accusers had run out of arguments a while ago and had not hard evidence to accuse him.
But once he saw Shepard and his team approach, the turian gave a blank stare that showed no feeling whatsoever…
Not even satisfaction.
"...The geth attack is of some concern. But there is nothing to indicate that Saren was involved in any way…" councilor Tevos of the asari spoke as she stood between her companions as all of them stood on a platform overlooking the ambassador and the approaching humans while Saren's projection stood heads above them all.
"The investigation by citadel security turned up no evidence to support your claims of treason" added councilor Sparatus of the turians. His disdain by this whole charade was clearly plastered in his face as he saw all of this as a waste of time.
"An eye witness saw as Saren tried to kill Nihlus while his back was turned!" replied Udina.
"The testimony of a traumatized dockworker is hardly compelling evidence" replied councilor Valern "And Nihlus' wounds do not coincide with any weapon our governments or those of the terminus systems can produce. This was most certainly the result of a geth ambush".
Oh they were having a field day with this.
"I resent these accusations. Nihlus is a fellow Spectre and a friend" Saren said while trying to play coy.
"That just let you catch him off guard!" replied Anderson as he slammed his fist against the railing.
"Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me" Saren replied with arrogance in his words as he literally looked down at the captain. He turned his head to the commander "And this must be your protégé, Commander Shepard. The one who destroyed the beacon".
How did he know about the beacon?
"There is no way you should have known about the beacon unless you were there" Shepard replied while pointing a finger at the turian.
"I was informed about these events as the charges were levied against me" the bastard shook his head all while mocking the humans "And to try and shift the focus of facts to weigh in your favor, just like captain Anderson. He's taught you well".
"You little…" Anderson was interrupted.
"But what can you expect from a human?" Saren did not event try to hide his xenophobia as he turned with a knowing glance towards the council.
"You see? Saren despises humanity and that is why he attacked Eden Prime" Sheaprd accused the turian of what was well and truly his fault.
"Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard. You rattled the geth and this is you reaping what you sowed. Your people are not ready to join the council and you will never be ready to join the Spectres" Saren replied with as much disdain as his words would allow.
"He had no right to say that! That is not his decision!" Udina now intervened as this comment had the politician up in arms.
"Shepherd's admission into the spectres is not the purpose of this meeting" Tevos said while trying to defuse the situation.
How sly of her.
"This meeting has no purpose. The humans are wasting your time, councilors. And mine as well" with this final statement, the turian disconnected without even listening to the final statements.
The councilors did not even seem to care as they also agreed with their top agent.
"Anything else you may add?" Valern asked these questions to the humans out of courtesy rather than genuine interest.
None of the humans dared to speak.
All save for Shepard.
"He can't hide behind you forever. There will be justice for the lives lost on Eden Prime. Mark my words" Shepard said with a ruthless and cold stare before he turned and left the council.
Sparatus turned his head to his fellow councilors and just shook it in disapproval.
"As it would seem that no evidence has been found that connects Saren with the geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him dibbared from the Spectres is denied" Tevos concluded the trial with that final verdict.
They had lost.
Several hours after the hearing
Chora's den
After the shambles that had occurred in the council chamber one may forgive the commander for the place he now found himself in.
Or that would be if he was in that place for some entertainment rather than what his true intent was.
Work.
…
No, not that kind of work.
Paserbys would have asked why he was armed as if he intended to go to war with the place, and he would have chuckled while answering that it was protection against anything.
And appropriately to this answer, Shepard had been treated as an idiot all day long and he sure as hell wished to act like one if stupid people got in his way.
Like those would be assassins that tried to get the jump on three professional alliance soldiers.
Three WELL armed soldiers.
After that little foot note in the record of his life, the commander found himself face to face with one of the most disgusting creatures to disgrace the universe with his presence at the behest of his captain.
A washed up officer called Harkin.
He found the former C-sec lieutenant in the deepest part of the bar after he almost was ran over by an angry krogan.
Rude.
"Hmm. You must be Anderson's little errand boy" the slimy bastard began to speak "He told me that the people he would be sending were supposed to be the best of the best. Guess he was wrong".
"Let's cut to the chase, Harkin" Shepard interrupted. "Anderson sent me since you are the only washed up cop who was willing to cooperate with us".
This was true. Right after Anderson and Shepard were lambasted by Udina, the captain had told him of a way to acquire more information as to what had happened to the report given by C-sec because they later learned that most of it had omitted critical details on the true scale of the assault and the report also omitted any mention of the dreadnought that had decimated the colony.
Things did not add up.
"Indeed I am" Harkin stopped resting his feet on the table and smiled at the commander as the soldier slammed a credit chit on the table and pushed it towards the bastard.
He wasted no time in graving the chit and transferring the credits into his omnitool. He smiled as he tossed the empty piece of junk to Shepard "This buys you two questions".
"That's not what you told…" Shepard was interrupted midway.
"The tariff I placed for Anderson was for a rejected Spectre and seeing as he is not here…" Harkin replied with a devious smile.
Why did it have to be Anderson? He was never a candidate to be a Spectre…
Unless…
The bastard smiled "He didn't tell you, did he?" the bastard smirked as he reclined once more on his seat "I will toss that as a free one".
Shepard growled.
He would have to speak with Anderson after he was done with Harkin.
"What do you know of the investigation on Saren?" Shepard made his first question.
"You waste your time asking that question, kid" Harkin said "I know exactly what you know. Somebody dropped the ball and the 'wrong' report reached the council".
Wrong?
"I know this might be wasting my second question, but why was it the 'wrong' one?" Shepard used his last question in a dismissive manner since he thought that he wouldn't be able to get anything useful from this worm.
How wrong he was.
Harkin smiled "Because I know that Garrus wouldn't write something so stupid" he paused for a moment as his gaze turned to the dance floor "Since the show is about to begin and I have wasted enough of my time on this, I will give you one final piece of advice…" he reached into his pocket and grabbed a pen which he used to write a note "Search for Garrus and you will get your lead on who screwed you all over".
Shepard was handed a note and inside was the number for a radio frequency and a password.
He wasted no more time and got up from his seat.
Ashley and Kaidan had remained next to the entrance so as to not intimidate the bastard.
As he approached them, Shepard realized that they were not even looking in his direction.
"Time to go, people" Shepard said but the both of them continued to stare at one point in particular without even acknowledging the commander "Erm… Guys?".
Shepard made the mistake of turning around…
Over the platform he saw a vista he never knew would curse his human eyes.
"We are leaving, now!" Shepard turned back around and pushed his companions out of that cursed place.
They made their way towards the market in the wards all while shivering in disgust…
Why did it have to be an elcor?
"Was it even worth going in there?" Kaidan asked in frustration.
"Nothing could be worth having to watch that" Ashley replied.
"Please stop talking" Shepard then tuned his omnitool to the frequency that Harkin had given to him.
"... Be advised. Officer Vakarian has reported a hostage situation in the clinic of doctor Michel on the lower wards. To all units in range, please respond…" The female voice of a police operator had given them just the information they needed.
"Where is this clinic?" Shepard asked his companions.
Ashley was the one who found the location as she had begun to search for the local while the commander listened to the report "It's in this section of the wards, one level above".
Shepard nodded and ushered his people to make their way towards the clinic.
It wasn't that far to his surprise.
But there was no sign of Garrus on the outside.
"Should we enter or wait for the officers to arrive?" Kaidan asked.
Shepard knew they had to enter as soon as possible as the situation inside could turn gruesome should C-sec be too late to do anything.
He signaled for his group to follow and as they readied their weapons and opened the door they weren't ready for what awaited them on the other side…
Shepard sure as hell didn't expect to find Garrus sneaking around on account of his big size, but they saw the turian nimble his way behind some medical equipment while he approached a group of humans.
This group was mainly made of thugs who were clearly trying to coerce something from who Shepard guessed most be the doctor.
"Drop your weapons or she gets it" said one of the attackers as he realized that Shepard and his team had entered the small clinic while he took the doctor hostage.
These were his last words as a matter of fact, for Garrus had the drop on them.
Garrus killed him with one clean shot, missing the doctor by mere centimeters.
Shepard's squad followed suit and made quick work of the remaining attackers.
Shepard rushed to the doctor as Garrus spoke "Great work Shepard. You gave me a clean shot" the commander then turned to Garrus while a little irritated.
"God dammit Garrus… you almost got the doc" Shepard retorted, anger in his voice.
Realization struck Garrus "I… Damm, you are right. Doctor Michel, are you okay?" He said trying to help dr. Michel to her feet.
"I don't know how I am anymore. First that creature brings me the quarian and threatens my life. Then she escaped without allowing him to see her and then those goons held me at gunpoint and threatened me with death if I didn't tell them where she went" rambled the doc, creating more questions than answers.
"Wow, wow, wow… doc, please. Start from the beginning" Shepard said and as the doctor retold the details of what had happened to her earlier that day he couldn't begin to believe what the doctor had to say, what the hell.
Urdnot Wrex
Wrex was a simple krogan.
You got in his way? You are dead.
You steal what is his? You are dead.
You betray an influential person and this person hires him?
You are dead.
Urdnot Wrex was one of the most experienced fighters the galaxy knew…
His centuries of work as a both a warrior and a gun for hire had allowed him to carve a path of destruction through the stars as the crimson krogan stomped any enemy that dared to get in his way with brutality and wrath.
But he was now checking his property to see if everything was there.
…
The quarian had not stolen his credits, good.
He was a Krogan on a mission.
But he wouldn't allow any pickpockets to go unpunished.
Wrex focused once more on the task before him and remembered why he had come to that particular section of the wards.
He had been contracted by the shadow broker through an intermediary in order to go an get rid of an idiot who thought it would be a good idea to betray the most powerful creature in all of the galaxy.
This was supposed to be easy.
But Wrex knew when he was outmatched.
He had arrived at the hideout of that bastard and had been turned away due to him being 'undisposed'.
Wrex knew that quivering coward was waiting for him in the back of the building but there were too many thugs for this to not get messy.
He went away for a while and intended to return later in the evening when the number of hosts was supposed to lower itself greatly.
But something had rattled Fist something fierce…
HE returned to find that Chora's Den had become a fortress as Fist's thugs sealed the main entrance and if the screams on the other side of the door were something to indicate, they had taken most of the club as hostages.
Not even the experience of this legendary krogan mercenary could save him from the amount of punishment 20 men could lay on him.
He needed more hands and it wouldn't come cheap if he recruited more mercenaries.
Couldn't rely on C-sec, he would die of old age before they got their act together.
But who to call then?
As if his ancestors had finally decided to give him anything more than insults and the luck of a Pyjak, came four figures over the approach to Fist's dingy little hideout.
Four heavily armed figures.
"You" he called to them, they in turn immediately trailed their weapons on him.
Good, he could guess that they weren't a bunch of rookies.
"Who are you?" Asked the turian in the group.
"I'm Wrex" he replied "I came after Fist's sorry excuse for a head" half expecting them to just shoot at him, he hovered his hand over his own gun.
"Are you now?" One of the humans said. The leader as it would seem"This might be a coincidence but he has something we want" One of the humans said.
Wrex glared at the human "I warn you, Fist's head is mine" he said.
"Never said it wasn't. We just need it to be attached to his body long enough to get answers from him" the human said.
Wrex liked how this one thought.
"Name?" He asked next.
"Shepard. Commander Shepard" he extended a hand. Wrex took a moment before he shook it, he would remember that name.
"Let's see what your people can do then, Shepard" Wrex said as he took his shotgun out.
The carnage would be fun.
Bloody, but fun.
Xiltar.
Xiltar felt ashamed.
Not only had more assassins been sent his way and no matter how many he eliminated, more would just come out of nowhere and try to make their way to the clinic.
On top of that, he had almost run out of places where he could drop more bodies without creating a commotion.
And to top it all off he had somehow made the biggest of mistakes that day…
She was gone.
How could she give him the slip?
She was on the verge of death and she had apparently recovered in just a couple of hours without him stumbling into her as she made her escape.
After he had disposed of another wave he was surprised to find the clinic empty save for the human healer.
She was trembling in fear.
(Where is she?) Xiltar asked in an irritated tone.
"I-I… I don't know. She suddenly jolted awake while saying something about the geth and somebody called Fist… Please. I did as you asked" the human answered in fear.
…
Threatening the innocent was beneath him.
He approached the doctor and rested a hand on her shoulder (I thank you for saving her life. I won't be taking yours) as he said this he removed his hand and disappeared into the shadows once again.
The human stopped trembling as she collapsed in her chair.
He wasted no more time in that place and exited the building to try and search for the now goen alien.
He searched for hours but as he thought he recognized the signature of her mind he was barred by a gate or a group of people he couldn't circumvent.
Her trail ended at a corridor that led to an elevator.
He now knew that this whole exercise had most likely been a waste of his time and Saren would certainly not be dethroned by the actions of one single alien.
He mentally rambled about his frustration as he took a moment to rest next to a wall and began to consider what other course of action could get him closer to Saren.
To his surprise, something unexpected occurred.
He saw as a group composed of turian and another two aliens he did not recognize began to make their way towards him and particularly to the place he had been resting against the wall.
He moved out of their way as they reached towards him
He was certain that they weren't aware of his presence and these aliens were clearly not looking for him.
One pressed a button he had not seen before and then he realized that he had been resting on a door that led towards a dark alley.
They entered this palace and out of sheer curiosity he followed them.
As they stopped near some crates, he began to pay more attention to what they were thinking.
(All right. Fist told us to wait for the quarian girl to come. Once we are sure she has the information on Saren we will get rid of her) the leader thought as he waited restlessly.
Xiltar did not know if it had been fate what brought him to this place or if it was something else that he had not experienced before.
But whatever it had been, it promised to deliver him the information once again.
He stood behind the group and waited for the quarian to come.
Failure was not an option.
Afterword.
I would actually like to apologize to two reviewers, I don't know why their reviews didn't register until now.
Guest - No, I don't see a race of machines overpowering literal parody gods. But the integration upon Protoss flesh was an "Exchange" of some sort. You will see what was given in time.
RandomReader - Thank you for the input. English isn't my main language, so I need to aid my input with the autocorrect, so sometimes it fails me. I will fix it when I can. And for Ashley that part about his family was obscure to me, try not to rely too much on the Wiki my friends :v
kukuhimanpr - Get ready for a wild ride boio.
/°\
Edit - Things are going according to plan.