Anderson contacts the ground crew, "Commander, the interference has cleared up now. ETA 20 minutes to pick up."
Jane sags with relief as she gets that news and the tacnet updates with red dots moving around back near the dig site. "Kaiden, Ashley, we have full tacnet, and pick up's on the way, ETA 20 minutes. Relax for a bit, you deserve it."
As Kaiden starts to wander around, Ashley stand in the middle of the landing pad looking a little lost, so Jane walks over to talk to her.
"Hey Ashley, you said you followed in your grandfather's footsteps?"
Ashley shakes her head, "Huh? What?... Oh. Yes. He served on Shaanxi during first contact."
Jane nods, "Your last name was Williams, any relation to the General Williams that authorised the snatch and grab?"
Ashley looks down and away, "That was my grandfather."
Jane puts a finger under Ashley's chin and lifts her head up, "Don't be ashamed of your grandfather. I happen to think he made the right call. Both with the initial snatch, and the subsequent quarantine decision."
Ashley shakes her head, "It's kind of you to say so, but he still got two people killed."
"Ashley, I know what the papers and some history books have said over the years. But you need to take those with a large grain of 'fuck nazi's'. I've seen the original reports and Histories, and I don't know of any responsible officer that would make a different call."
Ashley snorts, "'Fuck nazi's'? Really?"
Jane nods seriously, "Really, The Stellar Star and the Galactic Times are both run by people with close ties to Human First. The same organisation that started the rapid colonisation process outside Alliance space."
Out of the corner of her eye, Jane notices Kaiden get closer to the artifact until he crouches down just out of arms reach to look at something. As he leans forward to get a closer look, the device activates and catches him in some sort of force field.
Jane breaks into a run and leaps at him while reaching for her emergency portkey. Just before Jane collides with Kaiden, her hand whips away from the portkey as she remembers the Normandy won't be in that orbit.
The next thing she knows, her arms and legs are being pulled apart, and Kaiden is sprawled on the floor as she's turned to face the device.
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She reaches out to the Pillar of One and puts her hand down to join The One. As she does, she is one with the others, looking up at their worlds as thousands of black ships with tentacles at the rear attack the various worlds. Some, as few as three, others thousands.
Pulling her hand back, she separates from The One the familiar feeling of loss compounded by the news she's just received. Turning to one side she has a brief conversation with another that ends with briefly becoming one with the other.
As she does, she sees everything at once, and then the contact ends. After the contact, she has a long conversation with the other before turning back to the Pillar of One.
Reaching out her hand once more, she touches the Pillar of One, this time it's to add a destination and message of hope to the collective.
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With a groan, Jane reaches up and pushes the heel of her hands into her eyes. Abruptly, she sits up and looks at her hands in a panic, "Where's my suit!?"
From across the room, Dr Chakwas stands up from her chair, "Easy Commander, you're safe on the Normandy." Jane looks around wildly, as she pats her body, "Relax, your pouch is in the cupboard by the bed."
"Why am I here?"
"Kaiden and Ashley dragged you in when we landed. Apparently you saved Kaiden's life, as the beacon exploded. I've been told your omni-tool, armour, and undersuit were all damaged beyond repair. Probably the only reason you're still alive."
Jane shakes her head and clamps down on her occlumency. Like an ice water bucket being poured over her head, it brings Jane to instant alertness and clarity.
Now professional, Jane asks, "How's Lt Alenko?"
Chakwas looks at Jane curiously, "He suffered some burns and contusions, but a little medigel sorted that out."
"And Gunnery Chief Williams?"
"She was outside the initial blast area, and her armour prevented any other injuries."
Jane nods, "You said my omni-tool and undersuit were damaged beyond repair. Who made that call?"
"Commander, what's got into you?"
"An Alliance technique to suppress your emotions and allow you to think clearly when under stress. I asked you a question Doctor."
"The quartermaster, I sent them down for maintenance when they didn't respond."
Jane nods, "I saw him earlier, is he Alliance trained?"
Chakwas shakes her head, "No, he's part of the IHA complement."
Jane nods and takes her bag from the cupboard, "I see. In future Doctor, Systems Alliance equipment is blood bound to the owner, and will not work for anyone else. I will show you what to look for later. Right now I need to retrieve my equipment."
Chakwas steps in front of the door, "Now see here Commander, I have not yet done my final exams."
Jane looks at the Chakwas icily, "This is more important. You can accompany me, and ensure that I return to the sickbay for your final evaluations. However, my omni-tool is classified Systems Alliance equipment. It must be retrieved."
Chakwas doesn't resist as Jane pushes her out of the way of the door and marches through towards the lift.
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Jane walks out of the lift still wearing her sickbay issue clothes. Looking to the right, she puts on her best, 'The shit's rolling down hill fast, are you at the bottom' smile as she stalks over to the desk that the quartermaster is standing behind.
"Quartermaster?"
The quartermaster looks up with a bored expression, "Yes Commander?"
"I want my personal blood bound I5 suit and faceplate returned to me. I also require that you hand over the Systems Alliance Issue omni-tool that is also blood bound to me."
The quartermaster shakes his head, "I'm afraid I can't do that commander."
Jane arches an eyebrow, "Oh, and why not?"
"As they were irreparable, they have been disposed of."
"Then you will get me the records of the people who authorised that disposal, as well as the details of the person who disposed of them. Additionally, I require the Systems Alliance certificate from the evaluator, showing that they are qualified to work on Systems Alliance magitech. I will then be arresting all of those people for improper destruction and disposal of classified military equipment, and sue them for the cost of replacing my personal I5 suit. Which would cost them 300k Citadel credits to replace, plus any additional damages the court awards."
Very confidently, the quartermaster shakes his head, "You can't do that, you don't have the authority."
Jane cocks her head to one side, "Don't I? I am N7 Commander Jane Shepherd, N8 candidate. Where does it say I don't have the authority?"
The quartermaster smirks, "I'm not a Systems Alliance citizen."
Jane's smile widens noticeably as she draws her sword from her bag, "I wanted you to say that. You are under arrest for international espionage and alleged destruction of Systems Alliance military property. You may comply and retrieve the equipment, or I will subdue you and search the stores myself."
As the man steps backwards, Jane adds, "Before you wonder if I can use this sword, I am an N8 candidate, and I have been trained by the N8 team. While I don't have the thousands of years experience they do, I have been deemed competent for a human."
From behind her, the sound of the shutters of the lift door opening is loud in the silence as everyone else in the Hanger has crowded around to see what's going on.
From the middle of the rush of crew pouring out of the lift, Captain Anderson sounds amused as he calls out, "Commander, I hope you have a good reason for threatening my crew member."
Jane nods, "I have arrested this man for international espionage after he admitted to authorising and destroying or disposing of classified Systems Alliance property, namely my N7 omni-tool that was blood bound to me. I will also be suing him for the destruction of my personal blood bound I5 isolation suit, that was a gift from my mother. This was after he claimed I didn't have the authority to arrest him, due to not being a Systems Alliance citizen."
Anderson sighs, "I see, Marines take the quartermaster into custody, Lt Alenko, take an inventory I want to know if anything is missing."
Anderson then pulls out his ID and swipes it over a spot on the table, before overriding the storage locks.
Jane puts her sword back in her bag and draws her stylus, "Captain, permission to use magic on ship."
Anderson frowns as he looks at her, "I thought you were PS positive."
Jane holds up the stylus, "I am sir. One of the benefits of being trained by the N8 team was playing guinea pig for their new ideas. This is a rune scribe specifically designed for non-magical use, the flake of magicite in the end is used to activate the array. Last I heard, they were going to train other N7's in its use, before creating a new N3 specialisation for it."
Curious, Anderson walks next to her, "What do you need commander?"
"A piece of metal, ceramic, or something equally hard about the size of a note."
Anderson turns around and shouts at a Marine, "Find something in the armoury."
While the marine was away, Jane lowers her occlumency until the effects of the beacon can just be felt.
Less than a minute later, the marine returns with a spare covering for the inner forearm of their armour, "Here sir!"
As she has an audience, Jane pulls out a book of runic arrays and pages through it, "Sorry about this sir, while they drilled me on runes, they only made sure I memorised a few of them, like the stasis rune I used on Nihlus. On the plus side, I've also been trained in portkey programming, and I have a programmer in my bag too."
Once she finds the summoning array, Jane reads the text at the bottom of the page, before putting the piece of armour on the book, just below the runes.
As she carefully copies them out, deliberately making a mistake on the rune that governs how much force the item will be summoned with, Jane says, "Because we don't have magic, this stylus is enchanted to carve 1mm deep grooves into whatever you're using it on. That's why we can't use parchment."
As she finishes the array, Jane curses, "Damn it, now I remember why we didn't memorise this array. It needs a description, one moment."
Flicking to the back of the book, Jane looks up the runes for 'My suit' and adds them to the array.
Behind her, in the crowd, one of the engineers says, "That would reduce the utility of it. But I can think of a few places it would still be useful."
One of the other Engineers laughs, "You just hate crawling down the ship to check the radiation stickers."
The chatter dies off when Jane turns the stylus over, and touches the flake of magicite to the array. Immediately, a bang sounds from one of the lockers on the wall, followed by a louder bang.
Following the sound, Kaiden walks over and touches the opening switch. As he does, the panel flies up as Jane's suit flies out and bowls her over, to the laughter of the crowd.
Groaning, Jane pushes herself up, "I guess I need to practice that more."
As the laughter intensifies, Kaiden looks into the locker, and pulls open a concealed compartment in the back of the locker.
"Captain, you need to see this."
Anderson walks over and the laughter dies down as everyone watches the locker intently.
Stoney faced, Anderson reaches in and pulls out a portkey programmer as well as a box of ceramic N1 insignia's. As he puts them on the table, he says, "I may not be SA anymore, but even I know this is a restricted product that should have been given to me as soon as it arrived." He puts his hand on the box of insignia's "The lack of these could have cost lives."
Over the next 10 minutes Kaiden finds three more concealed compartments at the back of different storage lockers. They all look like they were added after the quartermaster was assigned, as there are a few tap welds concealed by the standard equipment in those lockers. Jane's omni-tool is at the front of the last locker, that also contains six suits of Alliance armour, I5 suits, and the omni-tools to go with them.
As the first one is pulled out, Jane looks at Anderson, "Captain, may I take one of the suits while I find out if my suit can be repaired?"
Anderson nods, "Go ahead."
"Corporal Williams and Lt Alenko should both be given a suit each. The rest should be spread out amongst the other soldiers."
Anderson looks at Jane questioningly, "Why?"
"When they're blooded, these suits save lives. Jenkins may still be alive to be put in review today if he'd been wearing one, as the faceplate will protect your head and brain from incoming fire."
Anderson nods, "Well, you heard the Commander."
Chakwas steps in, "If the excitement is all over, I need to take my patient back to the sickbay."
Anderson chuckles, "Go on. She's not as bad as the Healers, but she's getting there."
Jane nods, "Before I go, we need to deliver the quartermaster to Shaanxi on the way to the citadel."
Anderson shakes his head, "No can do Commander, we don't have time to dock."
Jane hangs her head before picking up the portkey programmer, "We don't need to. We can send both of them to the surface from orbit."
Anderson frowns, "Both?"
Chakwas replies, "I have Nihlus' body in the research room. The Commander claimed he needed Magi or Warlock healing. My professional opinion is that he's beyond saving, as the shot tore through his spinal column at the base of his skull. If it wasn't for his own armour, the shot would have penetrated the skull."
Jane turns around, her eyes wide, "You didn't remove his armour did you?"
Chakwas shakes her head, "I didn't, after reading up on the stasis charm, I decided it would make transporting the corpse easier than needing to take up a bed to preserve it."
"Thank the goddesses."
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A couple of hours later, Jane has been released from the sick bay after a full IHA standard physical. Privately, she thinks that Chakwas was just punishing her for leaving AMA.
As she's fishing around in her bag for her ID card, Anderson walks up and taps his card on the scanner, overriding the lock. "After you, I need a private chat."
Jane nods and walks to the back of the cramped cabin as Anderson walks in after her.
"Commander, I'd rather you had reported your concerns to me before you confronted the quartermaster. But I can't fault you for your actions, as I almost certainly don't have clearance to know what's on that omni-tool, let alone why it's special."
Jane nods, "Thank you sir, and under other circumstances I would have informed you on my way. But I didn't have my omni-tool to communicate with you."
Anderson snorts, "I can see that. The other reason I needed to talk to you, is that we're not just going to the Citadel to drop off what's left of the beacon. You're going to need to give evidence to the Citadel Council."
Jane nods, "I see. What's our ETA?"
"11 hours, as we had to turn around to return to Shaanxi. We should be sending the two of them planet side in 50 minutes. You were right about how quick it would be, as they have already given us portkey coordinates. Why don't the Alliance use them more often?"
Jane shrugs, "Because they're dangerous. A portkey will take you precisely where you tell it to. If that place is currently occupied by something, you'll appear in and around that something. Even magicals need special training before they are allowed to make them, as they need to have a clear picture of the destination in mind, or use coordinates."
Anderson nods, "I can't say I've ever been trained in their use."
Jane shrugs, "If you use the computer, or provided coordinates, the reader will give you a checksum that you can compare with the source. Part of my training was how to calculate the coordinates myself."
Anderson raises his eyebrows, "Sounds like you had a packed visit to Sandhurst."
Jane nods, "All I'm allowed to say is that the N8 team sacrificed my R & R for more training sir."
"I will leave you to it then."
Jane nods and salutes as the captain leaves. Then she sits down at her desk to write a report to Shaanxi command on her old datapad.
With her official duties out the way, Jane walks into her cabinet, where her lace making jumps up from the table and the soothing sounds of the clacking bobbins fills the air while she repairs her I5 suit and manually sterilises it with a scourgify before she puts it back on.
Now re-suited, Jane puts the face plate on, and uses her spare omni-tool to monitor her viral load.
When it comes up zero, she throws her hands in the air, "Oh, come on! It was only a couple of minutes, if that. Fine!"
Fishing around in her pouch, Jane pulls out a syringe of virus and injects it through her intake port. A quick check of the other omni-tool reveals it's dead. Which necessitates another report, this time to Central Command, where she summarises the mission, and recommends that all garrisons have at least I4 suits on hand. And that future joint operations have the blood bound equipment blooded in front of a ground-based quartermaster, rather than just being assigned on ship.
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Finally, after 2 hours, Jane brings up all the information the ship has available on the IHA, and retreats into her cabinet. Walking through the library and kitchen, she makes her way into the small garden.
Finding a sunny spot, she sits down cross-legged and starts to go through her occlumency exercises. Once she finds her magic, she calls out, "Hela Goddess of Death and Darkness."
While she's waiting, she begins to look around an icy tundra that wouldn't look out of place on the surface of Europa, where she was born. Dotted around are the asari influences from her repeated exposure during her time living with the family. Showing her that their joining is far more than they think it is. If only she had more to show from her turian upbringing, but that's not how the magic works.
Suddenly, a strange bird with four wings flies out from a patch of tundra grass, and Jane reaches out to catch it.
From the inky black tree near the centre of her magic, Petunia's presence steps out and looks around. "I thought you swore off inviting me in here after the first visit?"
Jane shudders as Petunia's sheer presence begins to energise her magic, and the tundra starts to melt away into a summer meadow, more suitable to Mindoir than any of the sol system planets.
"I did, but this is more important. What do you make of this?"
Petunia takes the bird and looks at it, "What is it?"
"I think it's prothean. Look." Jane pulls a silver strand from a nearby plant and holds it out to Petunia.
Petunia takes the strand and stretches it between her fingers as she considers it. Finally she reaches up to her head and holds it against her forehead, where it jumps off the finger and burrows into her head.
Grabbing the end of the memory, she pulls it back out, "My, isn't that interesting. I take it you want help getting rid of this infestation?"
Jane nods, "I will do, but first we need to understand what I saw, and what they were saying."
Petunia nods, "I will approach the courts and see if there are any apprentice Lore Keepers that are willing to move to Shaanxi."
Jane nods, "Thank you. I'm going to try and keep pruning my magic whenever I can."
Petunia nods, "That's a good idea, especially if we need to do magical healing afterwards. What about these bits, they're not native to sol."
Jane smiles, "I think they're from the asari I was rooming with. At least the resemble some of the plants native to asari space."
"So what's the difference?"
Jane looks fondly at a bush, "I consented to these, while that is an invader."
Petunia nods, "Well said, I'll return this to you. Try to compile the vision into a History and put it into a crystal."
Jane nods, "I will. I'm due to meet the Citadel Council to give evidence, do you have any suggestions?"
Petunia smiles, "They have a memory viewer."
Jane smiles, "Thank you, that will help a lot."
After Petunia leaves, Jane spends a bit of time looking for anything that doesn't match her magic, and trying to eliminate it.
Once she's done as much as she can inside her mind, she returns to the waking world to put her memory of the mission into a crystal before starting to read up on the IHA, starting with the manifesto of the leaders and the rights their citizens have.
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As the alarm on her omni-tool goes off, Jane jerks awake in her garden, the artificial moon high in the sky above her. Glancing at her omni-tool she groans as she fell asleep halfway through some of the reading the IHA site recommends.
Shaking her head, she pushes herself to her feet and staggers into the kitchen to make a mug of coffee. While that's brewing, she puts her faceplate on and frowns when her viral load shows zero again.
"Gee, thanks Petunia. I really wanted to infect myself twice in one day."
Grumbling, Jane checks her bag, and then groans when she finds no more vials. Grabbing her mug of coffee, she climbs the spiral staircase, and goes through the 'hidden' door into the main part of the cabinet.
As she's trying to ignore the subtle luxury of the place, her heels click on the marble floor, making it difficult. Eventually, she makes her way to the small hospital and takes a couple of vials out of the medical stasis cabinet. Swigging one down, she places the other one in her bag as she makes the walk back to her part of the cabinet.
As she passes one of the bedrooms, she spots a black cloak lying over a bed. With a smirk, Jane duplicates the cloak twice, and turns one red, and the other purple, before adding a sizing charm so that they'll remain floor length.
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Whistling a jaunty tune inside her face plate, Jane walks into the hanger 10 minutes before they're due to arrive at the Citadel.
Making her way over to Kaiden and Ashley, who are armouring up. She throws each of them a cloak before putting the spare I5 suit on the armoury table.
"Put those on, and make sure your faceplates are slightly tinted. Ashley, do you have an expanded pouch?"
Ashley nods and looks down, "I do, it's at home though. I can't go home again, can I?"
Jane lets her shoulders sag as she puts her hand on Ashley's shoulder, "I don't know what they're going to do with Eden:2. For all I know, they could be planning on turning Eden into another Shaanxi. Also remember, I lived with my mum for six years before I had to go off planet for training. It's certainly possible to see your family again, but get used to living in that suit. Read the manual and buy yourself an omni-tool. For today, grab one of the Systems Alliance tools, and link it to your suit. Kaiden, you should link yours to your suit too. Once you get used to it, you can do a lot using just the sensors in your hands, and eye movements."
While they're arming up, Jane slips into a new suit of Alliance Armour and shrugs her own cloak back into place.
20 minutes later, the three of them are waiting by the airlock for space traffic control to direct Joker to a landing berth.