Being a matriarch of high status meant that Benezia had developed an almost unshakable public demeanor that could not be fazed by even a full fledged krogan rebellion. The days since the near-death experience of her daughter had tested that persona. Behind doors, with Aethyta, yes, she let loose, releaseing her pent-up anger, and her fear. Fear for her daughter.
Outside of those walls, however, her face had to remain impeccably calm. Even in the face of the onslaught she was receiving. Twenty-two of the most influential Asari in the galaxy, advisors to ten times that many major Houses in the Republic. A meeting of what she had dubbed the Hungry Hyenas, after that horrifically hideous Terran mammal. Her daughter was not dead yet, but they were already circling her as if they wanted to start their meal without even waiting for the carcass to cool down.
She knew where those crass thoughts were coming from, and she relished the searing hot anger they incited. Today, she had to stand for both herself and Aethyta.
"As it stands, House T'Soni has been too careless with their handling of the prothean cache of Ilos."
That was Kalina T'Balei. Once, not long ago, she had been personally in charge of adjudicating the developments found in the prothean beacon. Far, far too self-important for that responsibility. Why yes, you have pleased me today, as a reward I shall allow myself the freedom to indulge in your curiosity about the protheans, by the teachings of Athame. Aren't I a generous priestess?
She had half a mind to walk back to the hospital to watch her daughter, and send Aethyta in her stead.
"House T'Soni," Benezia replied, her tone clipped and dry, "has not handled anything regarding Ilos. That discovery, and that venture, belongs to Liara, and Liara alone."
She wanted to say much more, starting with the implication that the security had been lax. The Systems Alliance was in charge of that facility, and she knew well enough how seriously they took it. She had seen the STG reports. Which made the attack all the more vexing. But doing that would give a foundation to the claims that she controlled Ilos. She would not take that away from her daughter. And no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't allow herself to shield her daughter using the T'Soni name. It had the unfortunate side effect of sounding as if she was heaping the blame onto her daughter. She was not, and would make that clear when appropriate.
"Yet she is surrounded by the followers of her father, with whom you are mixing waters again," Kalina insisted.
Benezia took a moment to cast her gaze around, making sure she made eye contact with as many of those present as she could before speaking.
"If any of you wishes to tell Aethyta that she is not to protect her daughter, do not let me stop you."
Not Matriarch Telan, Aethyta. Oh, they would know which Telan she'd have been speaking of had she used that name, but the image of Gallyea Telan, current head of House Telan, was very different, and more firmly attached to that moniker. Aethyta, coming out of her lips, that was a different thing.
You can come for my floating dead body, but my daughter is off limits.
"Of course there is no chance that your daughter might take some direction in her dealings from her mother." Pria K'Larre. Their best claim to fame was that one of their clan had made the earliest mating with the turians. That had been enough to cement their position. Sometimes she thought even Aethyta was too generous with her assessment of the asari. "And it is just a coincidence that her discovery came just days before we revealed the existence of our beacon to the Council and the humans, a position that you yourself pushed this very group to adopt. So were the fleet expansions, the Corridor project, the Thanix project! All, one after the next, casually falling onto your lap. Oh I know I know, it was the turians who started the Thanix, but we both know Trina didn't swim with her own tail on that one."
"You were only too happy to follow, as long as you got your bite in," Benezia replied, not even giving the long tirade a fraction of a second to consider. This, they would notice. Not worthy of her attention. "There has been no change in our position. With the knowledge out, investment will flow into technological advances. The human fleet will expand and trade will improve. The Corridor project will-"
"Not see another credit from us!" Pria snapped. "Not until it has new leadership."
It was a loss of decorum, one that she knew Pria loved to play up. Turian blood, she'd claim, even though there was less than one twentieth of Turian in her.
"You have no exposure to that project," Benezia replied evenly.
It was true, Pria had not invested in the initial stages. Benezia's gaze wandered around, but soon started noticing gazes being averted whenever she made eye contact. Her borrowed fury stirred in her. Too cowardly to talk to her face, but the rest were going to withdraw support, too.
Pria gave her a pleasant smile. Benezia didn't even blink.
"Without the Corridor project," Benezia continued, "human fleets will soon hit the limit of their new duties. The economic consequences of that will cripple their economy. We, in not so many words, promised them that demand for fleets would continue, long enough for them to recover the investments made in their shipyards and the changes in their economy."
"They can weather a recession or two, they're a short lived species," Kalina said, taking control of the conversation. She did not like sharing the spotlight. So much for enlightened asari leadership. "We can help of course. Withdraw the excess credits stoking their forges and they will, ah, reconsider the wisdom of rapid expansion."
"You will crush the future of thousands of humans, and quarians." There was a snort coming from somewhere to her left, and she very deliberately did not turn to find its origin. She didn't need to know who had done that. "All for a petty political game."
"You lost control of a prothean VI!"
Control. Of course. That's what it all boiled down to. Control. They thought they had control over Liara. That one of them did. That was never the case, but the illusion had been built in their heads. Now they did not. Now it was a completely unknown variable. They were trying to punish her the only way they knew. Control.
They were as bad as the dalatrasses of Sur'Kesh.
"It stings, doesn't it?" she said, ignoring the outburst completely. "That a short lived race came along, and upset your carefully crafted crystal world. Three hundred years, and you... and we simply waited for the quarian and geth problem to go away, like they always do. Not this time. Not the humans. They are short lived. They don't have time for games." She put both hands on the table and stood, her body leaning imperceptibly forward, her eyes menacing. It was Benezia's voice, but it was Aethyta's poise. "All the projects will continue as scheduled. With or without your participation. This is my only warning. Get on board, or be left behind. And if any of you even swims in the same ocean as my daughter, Aethyta will serve your for lunch to her clan in Tuchanka."
There was a pause. That wasn't asari politics. That wasn't even politics. That was a direct challenge. Kalina rose to her feet, and others followed.
"You will hand over leadership of all projects to better hands, including the one in Ilos," she was saying. Chairs scraped on the floor as the rest of the hyenas started to leave, some more hurriedly than others. "Current contracts will be fulfilled, but after that, you will either agree, or they river will dry up. Not even you can afford to keep them all going. Give them up to save something, or try to keep them and lose it all."
Benezia had her eyes fixed on Kalina. "We'll see," her mouth said. Over my dead body, her eyes added.
It had been a strange day, probably aided by the fact that I was still getting reacquainted with my implants. Just like back in the day when I first got them, things felt a bit surreal. Although I had to admit, the whole situation with the kidnapping had a lot to do with it. As I found out, it was the turian detective, Talen, who had found out where I was being held. Process of elimination, he had called it. I'd have said that I owed him one, but I didn't because he had already been paid, and paid quite well at that. I saw the bill, and how much of it I had paid.
He was working was working for the volus investment manager that had been playing with my money - which, as I found out, had grown to be a rather considerable fortune - and said volus was rather invested in my continued survival and good health. I didn't even know he had made all that scrap. The ten thousand share options I got from Liara's company had turned into a ridiculously large sum, which he had leveraged to the hilt and then some.
Come to think of it, I never even said thank you. I had forwarded the info to the volus, he replied with instructions to scrub the message off my omni-tool, and I had forgotten all about it. I should probably thank Liara at some point. I made a mental note of that - mental because I had no omni-tool.
The other puzzle had been Tela. She had been insistent, but not really pushy at least, which was a refreshing change of pace. Then again, we had reached an agreement for one of the two I owed her. We had been sitting at one of her work offices for a while, going over some of the Cerberus data to try and shake my memory loose, and doing the opposite by trying to correlate her intel with whatever I told her. We had had breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and we were on after-dinner drinks at that. Her with another criminally strange alcoholic concoction, and me with a glass of Chateau du Ciel from Terra Nova. Some grape variety I didn't know but tasted almost like Petit Verdot.
"That's all I can remember," I said, looking at the map.
Even the broker had nearly nothing on Anadius, off in the Norsehead Nebula. A big dying star with only empty space around it. No planets, no asteroids, and a very thin Oort cloud with nothing of value. I remembered a lot about the assault to the Cerberus base, mostly because the simulation had shown it to be hard. I wasn't sure whether the defenses I remembered would still be there, specially some of the manned, oversized mechs. I had never seen anything like those before. I could see the similarities between the Model 30s from Hahne-Kedar and the larger YMIR Mechs from the simulation in the future, but those big manned mechs in the Cerberus base didn't look like anything I had seen.
"I could help you remember," Tela said.
I looked at her, and she just returned her gaze placidly at me. No edge to the suggestion, no teasing. It was... odd.
"I'd rather not," I said, and she just shrugged in response.
"Normally I'd use some of my assets to observe the place for a while, but that could prove difficult with such an empty system. Not a bad spot to hide," she said, a crooked smile on her face. "Not that I could make use of that now, since it'll be compromised."
"I guess," I replied.
I stretched on my chair, but the pain made me wince a bit. It still hurt. Most of my wounds have been tended to, but the body took a while to catch up with the fact that modern medicine had already solved all its problems.
"You're in no condition to join the operation," Tela said.
I gave her a sharp look. "Like hell. They tried to kill Shepard. I'm going to put a bullet in Timmy's head myself."
"Mind the bloodrage," she said, and smiled at my irritation. "That's all well and good, but you're not going to put my people in danger if you're not a hundred percent."
I furrowed my brow, but didn't say anything. I wasn't going to keep repeating myself. There was no way the Broker was taking that base without me. I had three people on my shitlist now, two of them I knew by name, and one of them I only knew by beard.
I'll know him when I see him.
"Tell you what," Tela said after a while. "I'll find you some bodyguards. But the doctors have the final say. It'll be a few days before we're ready to take the base anyway."
There it was again. Tela was confusing the hell out of me. Why was she being so... so... reasonable? I must have given her an odd look, because she started laughing. She took another sip of her cocktail - her third so far, I noticed - and gave me a look.
"I have to make sure I keep the people working with me happy."
"Don't remember agreeing to that," I replied.
"Oh honey, you have," she said, and now there was pure silk in her voice. "Not with words but, you know," she paused, gesturing around her, at the Shadow Brokerness of it all. "Now I know all about what you've been doing. You don't take risks like that unless you're committed. For the reapers? You'll work with me."
"You don't just deal with the reapers," I replied.
"Of course not!" she said, laughing softly. "But everything else is just to make the galaxy safer. Don't worry your pretty little head with that."
Wahea still couldn't get over the fact of how much Uncle Farreus had aged. He was fifty-four now, which she could reconcile easily enough with the face she was looking at, but she felt like she had missed something. Last he remembered him he was thirty-something, smart, handsome, full of energy and jokes. The turian looking at her from the other end of the vid call was weathered, tired, and looked like his eyes had seen a little too much.
She had missed a third of her uncle's life and she couldn't figure a single thing she had gotten out of it.
Of course, uncle was more of an affectionate name than anything. Technically she was two generations older than him. But the turian half of her family always matured so fast. She called them cousins until they hit bootcamp, after which they became uncles and aunts. Eventually she'd be old enough to just be aunt herself.
"You found him?" she said, the relief so palpable she could hardly hold a giddy laugh. "You just saved my scalp uncle! I didn't even know where to start looking! I've been chasing my tail for weeks!"
"Yeah, old friend of mine still in C-Sec, he dug a bit and found where he's at. Got out of a seriously sticky situation he tells me, but not much else. Sounds like he might have been in protective custody or something like that. I didn't ask."
"Thank you so much!" she chirped, beaming.
"You're welcome lil' fry," he said, a smile spreading his mandibles wide. "I have to say, it's good to see you doing something a little more serious. Who is it you're working for these days?"
"Yes! I... ah, well, I... I don't actually know if I'm supposed to say or not."
"Hmmmm," his voice rumbled in amusement. "C-Sec does have pretty good sources you know. My friend only told me you seem to have landed some seriously high level asari politicking."
"Something like that..." she said, looking away evasive.
"Well, as long as you're careful. I'm just glad to see you settle down."
Even with his deep and even turian voice, Wahea could hear the affection behind those words. It was strange, but it was comforting. Her turian father had passed away more than half a century ago, yet the turian side of her family seemed ready to always consider her part of them no matter how long. Even after years with almost no contact. At first, she had dropped out just because she was angry, wanted to do whatever she wanted. Then, she had been having too much fun. Or so she thought. By the end of her bid for independence, she hadn't called because she was simply ashamed. But the second she had called, it had been like she had never left.
"Thanks uncle," she said, smiling as hard as she could to show just how happy she felt right then and there.
"Sooooo... Any thoughts on really settling down and giving me a little niece or two?" he said. Wahea nearly chocked at the sudden burst of laughter that overcame her. "I don't want to leave it to your uncle Regimus to do the babysitting."
"My unc- You mean cousin Regimus?" Her uncle didn't respond at first, but the bait had dangled so obviously she couldn't have missed it. "Oh Goddess," she muttered, putting her hands on her face and leaning on the table.
"He got out of bootcamp five years ago. Time flies for us, lil' fry."
"I'm so sorry uncle," she said, still covering her face.
"Well... What matters is that you are doing well now. So!" he called, and Wahea uncovered her face, looking at the terminal. "What you need to do is come visit already. There's a lot of younglings that have never met the asari half of the family."
"Yes uncle..."
"Meantime, I'll send you the contact info," he said, his voice now the clipped, calm tone of a professional at work. "You should be able to arrange a meet, but you will need a good secure transport. Can you get one or do you want me to arrange it?"
"No, I have that part covered. And I'll go visit, I promise."
"Good. I'll see you soon lil' fry."
With that, the call ended, and almost immediately her omni-tool pinged with an incoming message. There it was. She decided to go arrange for the transport before making the call, to make sure she had all the pakae in the basket before moving. Luckily she could do all that easily enough from the Citadel. She didn't like the place, but she had to admit it could be rather convenient.
She opened the door to her small apartment and she hadn't even set foot outside when an asari clad in black armor suddenly stepped in front of her. By instinct, she took a quick step back, biotics flaring as she reached for her gun.
"Peace!" the asari called, raising one hand. She stopped. "I did not come here to fight."
"What are you..." her voice trailed as she took a look at the surprise visitor. The insignia on the armor was unmistakable. "Spectre?"
"Yes. Maka T'Kali, Council Spectre."
"Okay..." Wahea said, her biotic barrier still up, but with her hand moving away from her gun. "What brings you here?"
"Your uncle," she replied. "He does good work. The Council has tasked me with finding this human, Roy Morgan."
"The Council?" Wahea replied, doubt dripping from every word.
"Councilor Tevos gave me the orders," Maka replied. "Your uncle's search pinged on my radar, so to speak."
Wahea's head was spinning fast. The Council... No, councilor Tevos was looking for Morgan too? Maybe she shouldn't be surprised, but she was, specially as she realized what it meant for her. Whatever Aethyta had her doing, it had to be quite high level. Goddess help her, she was way in over her head.
"My... orders were to find him and bring him to, ah, safety."
"Those were my orders too," Maka said. "And you have a location. Perhaps we could work together?"
Or perhaps if I say no I'll be thrown in jail and lose Morgan anyway?
Tentatively, Wahea lowered her biotic barrier and forced herself to relax. "I was told I would require a good secure transport."
"I am a Spectre," Maka said, allowing herself a smile.
"All right," Wahea said with a sigh, leaving her fate to the Goddess' will. "I guess I can't say no to that."
Maka smiled openly now, and with a gesture for her to follow, led the way out of the apartment complex. The Citadel looked exactly like always, transports whizzing by at eye watering speeds, people coming and going at all hours of day, it was a very strange place. And luckily for her, the Spectre didn't seem to be in a hurry, because she walked past the fast transport terminal and kept walking towards the docks.
Thank the Goddess for small mercies.
Waking up to the song of Singer-of-Dawn had been a very strange experience. Physically he had been so close to death she was sure the scythe had left a mark somewhere in her soul, and the only reason she had recovered from that was, apparently, the rachni. Her first five days had been spent inside the hive itself, under the care of the queens themselves. Nobody had been allowed anywhere near her.
As a result of that, she was about twenty percent rachni now. She didn't understand how that could be possible, but she had to imagine it must have been something similar to the pheromone organs on the back of her hands. But there was quite a leap from there to her heart. As well as assorted bits and bobs through her body. Goldie had brought her a mirror so she could look, and what she saw shocked her. Her eyes were now a bright blue. They weren't glowing, but they almost reflected like they were made of sapphire. The whites themselves weren't completely white, there was a very slight blue tinge to them.
Goldie thought they looked amazing.
Alenko didn't say a word.
She had only gotten the story of her arrival after the doctors had decided she could handle a little bit of stress. At first all she had done was sleep. Sleep, and dream of songs. The songs of Singer-of-Dawn had been so strong, so powerful, that more than once she had woken up in tears. She knew she had not been dreaming, she had been remembering. Rachni didn't dream like humans did, their memories were crisp and clear when they slept and recovered. They learned the melody that the songs had painted during their waking hours when they slept.
For Shepard it had been a challenge. There was that wedge of pain stuck between Mindoir and her new life. And it never stopped hurting. She was glad to have the company of others from her hive, it made the pain easier to carry. One on each side of her bed.
"So I was down on the floor, and I had him hooked with my legs like, tighter than McCallister's credit chit," Goldie was saying. Alenko and Shepard chuckled at the description of the cheapest member of the Einstein, by popular vote. "But I wish I had bene naked because my pants slipped, and he turns, and then he's digging with his boot on my chest. And when it broke I was like gasp and shit and I was so screwed, then he went blue and bam! Gone!"
"Yeah," Alenko replied quietly.
"It was amazing! I had been going at him and almost didn't make it, then you just got him like that!" Goldie said, snapping her fingers.
"Goldie, stop," Shepard said, her voice soft.
"But-"
"Goldie." A little louder now, but still soft.
The blonde furrowed her brow, clearly confused. "But it's a good thing, he saved me, and you!"
"It's not that easy," Shepard said. Her voice had a hint of red to it. She had heard from Alenko and his training. It had taken a lot of ribs at Relay Rob's to get it out of him though.
"Why?" Goldie said.
Shepard reached out and put her hand on Alenko's arm, giving it a squeeze. It was hard for her, she still felt so weak. But she wanted to give him some reassurance. She would do the talking. He didn't have to dig for that song.
"You know how some people think of biotics. Imagine hearing all your life how dangerous and terrible you are, even when you know you're not. Then using that same thing people are afraid of to kill someone."
"Well screw them!" Goldie said, indignation so over the top in her voice it was almost comical, except it didn't hide that she did feel some of it. "Same could be said for this," she added, flexing her arm and pointing at her biceps, "but people don't run away screaming from me!"
"That's because they don't know you yet," Shepard said, chuckling - painfully so.
"Shep-"
"I'm fine. Just... You remember when I jumped out of that hangar? Right before... this?" Shepard said, gesturing at all of herself.
"Yeah?"
"And I made him catch me in the air?"
"Yeah! That was awesome too!" Goldie exclaimed.
"Not-"
"Not for me it wasn't," Alenko said. Shepard looked at him, but he just taped her hand resting on his arm, and continued. "For me it was like trying to catch a water balloon that was falling from the sky. Wearing boxing gloves."
"A water balloon?" Goldie said. "Sheppy?"
"Yeah. Because that's how it feels with biotics. It's so... easy to put too much of it. Too much strength. I've... hurt people before Goldie. When I didn't want to. This time I did, but if I lose control..."
For once, it looked as if Goldie didn't have a response. For all of two seconds.
"It can't be that hard to catch a water balloon," she said.
"Oh? Really?" Shepard said, looking at her with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Yeah, I mean, just being careful right?"
She closed her eyes and put her arms out to the side, arms reaching out of the bed. She concentrated, looking for the song of her hive. "Guys, I need a little help here."
Not ten seconds passed before half a dozen rachni workers quickly made their way to her room, coming in through the narrow tunnels on the far wall of the room.
Work songs! Work songs!
The workers immediately started crawling onto the bed, at least five of them. The sixth crawled up Goldie's back and perched on top of her head, munching away at the ends of her hair.
At that, Shepard started laughing, which ended in a painful wince after a moment.
"You okay?" Alenko said, holding her hand.
"Yeah. Just... Goldie, what have you done to him? He's totally taken with you."
"I like him!" Goldie replied. "I want to hug him and squeeze him and call him Johnny!" She too the worker in her hands, and gave the tiny rachni a very heartfelt hug.
Shepard struggled not to laugh again.
"Anyway," Shepard said, once she had everything under control. "Guys, I need you to make water-filled balloons." She made a gesture with her hands as if making a ball the side of her head. "About this big."
Not too long after, Shepard was sitting on a wheelchair out on the landing bay, with Alenko standing next to her, his left hand resting on her shoulder. At the top of the bay, a good twenty-five feet up, a rachni worker was holding what appeared to be some sort of elastic ball filled with liquid, and Goldie was standing directly under it.
"Ready Goldie?" Shepard called.
"Ready!"
"Go!"
Gravity. Hands reaching out. Fragile membrane. The result was as inevitable as it was hilarious. Goldie dissolved into sputtering laughter as she shook herself of the water, and asked to be allowed to try again.
And again.
Shepard had to be taken inside or risk rupturing something tender with all the laughter.
"Are you all right Alenko?" she asked before he left her for the night.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Like I said, this time I wanted to get that guy. Not letting anyone hurt my friends."
Shepard smiled at him. Brood warrior of the hive. It didn't occur to her until much later how alien her thoughts were at the time.
Having found myself at the business end of all sorts of unpleasantness in the past, I knew what to expect from recovery in less than a week. My body would be healed, and my brain would just need a bit of time to catch up. I had fought in those conditions before. I knew I could manage. And as luck would have it, I managed to convince the doctor that I was perfectly ready to go out there and shoot the hell out of Cerberus. As I started to dress myself again in the medbay, the door opened and Tela walked in.
"Well, well, so you're tougher than you look," she said. The doctor had apparently made himself scarce, and I had no idea when that had happened.
"Maybe that's why so many people call me the son of a krogan," I replied, getting a laughter back from the asari.
"Here, happy birthday," she said. She tossed something at me, and I caught it easily. An omni-tool. "You're going to need one. Are you sure your old one has been wiped?"
"Pretty sure," I said. I didn't put the gizmo on, just looked at it, turning it in my hand. "So what, you've got this one bugged or something?"
"No." Her smile dropped, and she gave me an annoyed look. "Now you're starting to offend me Roy. I have been honest and straight with you every time we have spoken, and you still insist on mistrusting me."
"Yeah well, I've got history."
"Not with me," she said. "We've met once before. I was pissed at you, still am, but that's not here or was there."
I had to take a moment to think about that. "That's neither here nor there," I corrected her. And sighed. She had a point. "You're right. I apologize."
"...but?" she added.
There was no nice way to say it, so I just decided to go straight for the point. "Thing is, everything I've heard of you says that you're... dangerous."
Now the smile was back on her face. But it was tight, and slightly crooked too. "You bet I am. I wouldn't be here otherwise."
I put the omni-tool on, and when I flicked it on, it first brought up a flat interface that only said scanning, while several scanning probes seemed to shot up from it, aimed all over me. Weird. As this happened, Tela walked to my side and leaned against the medbay bed, hands resting on the edges to hold herself up.
"Biometrics. The good kind," she added. So they weren't the shitty biometric locks one could break with a sneeze, neat. "Also has encryption hardware and is set up so you can securely contact my network. And me yours."
"This looks a lot more expensive than the one I had."
She sniggered a bit, but sobered up fast. I gave her a sideways glance, and realized she wasn't looking at me. She had her eyes lost in the distance.
"These reapers have taken every second of my sleep since I caught Benezia's current," she said, talking to me, or maybe to the room. "When she and Tevos planted me here, I thought that was Benezia just reaching for more power. Then she started asking questions that didn't make any sense."
"Such as?" I prompted.
"Oh at first it was simple. She wanted blackmail information on the other governments. Then, she started digging into the things that didn't make sense. Movements out of remote systems. Exploration contracts. Other Spectres. I started picking up the scent, and then got a picture of that thing. The ship they used to get the Thanix from."
"The one out on Mnemosyne?"
She thought for a moment. "Yeah, that's what you humans call that system. You know what Tevos said when I asked about that abomination? She told me to shut up and do as I'm told."
I laughed softly at that, not much humor behind the sound. "I bet you loved that."
"Like a shark up my ass," she retorted hotly. "I took the pieces, rebuilt the reef, and saw there was something a lot worse than anything I ever dreamed of below the waves. So I knew I had to break free no matter what it cost me. Because I am the only one I trust to make sure my daughters have a future."
That was news to me. Daughters, plural. We looked at each other for a moment, then she tilted her head to the side slightly and relaxed.
"All that to say that if you want Cerberus because they tried to kill your Shepard, I understand. But," she put a finger to my head, an inch from my forehead, "don't get yourself killed, because I still need what's in there."
"I'll make sure I remember to duck."
After that there were no more arguments. She stayed home while I was taken away in a shuttle, no windows or any glance of the outside system that I could see, and at least three relay jumps before I had any news of where we were going or how long it was going to take us to get there. I toyed with the idea of sending a few messages out but decided not to. Tela said she had made arrangements for my return to the Systems Alliance, and I decided I was going to trust her. At least that far. I might have to figure out the omni-tool she gave me, double-check for bugs, but I was edging close to believing her when she said it wasn't bugged.
The trip was long enough that I managed to squeeze in a good sleep and a shorter nap. As the saying goes, if told to stand, sit, if told to sit, sleep, and if told to eat, eat, because who knows when you'll have a chance again. Or something like that. I slept, I ate, and I stretched every time I got. And also cycled over and over through the memories of the simulation and what we were about to face. It was going to be hard, and we were going to need a fleet.
My musings about the difficulty of the mission would remain unanswered until we were in the thick of it. But my worries about the fleet all but disappeared when we landed in a space station somewhere and I got out. It wasn't a big space station, which made me wonder if the Broker owned it, but it was apparent it was being used as a staging area. Outside, as I could see through the windows and kinetic barriers, a whole fleet was assembled. I recognized the type easily enough, mercs. But there were a lot of them, with ships of all kinds of designs. That wasn't just one mercenary group, the Broker had gotten...
Shit, she's gotten all of them.
I wasn't sure if that was the case, but it sure looked like it. I was shown to a group of about twelve people whose outfits I recognized as the Broker's elite troops, and two I didn't Well, they were asari, and one of them looked like a Spectre. Didn't recognize the other, but she reacted as if she did recognize me.
"Roy Morgan?" the asari said.
"Yes?" I replied.
Odd, I didn't recognize her. Light blue skin with no facial markings I could see other than a few dots along the crest, which could just be natural spots. She was wearing a light armor suit that was hugging her very tightly and, despite not being that tall, made her look like all her curves were long for days.
"Wahea Potillius," she said. She offered her hand, noticed her gloves, then hurriedly took the glove off and offered it again.
Great.
I shook it with some reluctance, and as expected, she had something to say.
I'm with Matriarch Aethyta. You're a HARD man to find!
I was on holidays.
I offered a brief glimpse of my holidays, mostly of me getting punched in the face, and let go. Her eyes opened wide as saucers for half a moment, then she shook herself and nodded.
"Yes! Well, ah, we're here to take you back with us," she said, gesturing at her and the Spectre.
My skeptical look was probably not what she expected. The Spectre laughed softly and offered her hand. Gloves on, no shenanigans.
"Maka T'Kali, Council Spectre," she said.
"Good to meet you. Is she your apprentice or something?"
"What? No! I'm- No!" Wahea piped up, visibly flustered.
Maka and I laughed at the response, which only made her more flustered.
"We shared a common goal. I was sent by the Council to locate you and bring you back to Council space, after your disappearance aboard Arcturus."
"Why would... you?" I said, confusion making me blunder through my words.
"Given your involvement in the various projects that Wahea here has no clearance to hear about, we were worried about it. Being as you were in the heart of the Systems Alliance only made it more suspicious."
Suspicious. I had to think about that one. Calling a kidnapping "suspicious" was about the same as calling a beheading a "shaving accident", but then I realized she was probably talking about who had done the kidnapping. Inside job of some sort. Well, maybe I could explain.
"Not the best place to go into details," I said.
"My ship is docked," she replied, pointing over her shoulder. "You can explain on the way back."
"Ah. That's not- I'm not going back. Not yet."
"What?!" both asari said at the same time.
"We're about to hit- I thought you'd know already?"
The two of them exchanged a look, and it was Maka who spoke. "We better discuss this in my ship," she said.
I extracted a promise not to take off and kidnap me from there before agreeing, but off we went. The ship reminded me a lot of Tela Vasir's ship back when we attacked the Shadow Broker's base, but it was substantially smaller. And less luxurious, too. Everything in there was utilitarian, from the seats to the bed in the back room and everything else I saw. No leather couches with a bar at the back.
Once we were inside, and after one last sweep for bugs, we sat down, and I started explaining. My kidnapping. Cerberus. The fact that we were about to hit their main base. Maka brought up the fact that she recognized the Broker's troops out there, and I explained it was the same people who got me out. After comparing notes I found out that the Broker had considered this a "favour" to both Maka and Wahea. And of course, me. That's one way to run a business.
Surprisingly, Maka had been quite amenable to the idea of attacking the Cerberus base. I gave all the details I remembered about the place, much as I had done with Tela, and described as much of the plan as I knew. All I really wanted was to find the man in charge and put a bullet in his head. The Broker would probably want information. Maka didn't seem convinced about that point, but came around when she decided she, too, would poke around for some information on Cerberus.
Wahea, on the other hand, had a very different reaction to all that.
"Are you two crazy?"
"What?" I said.
"Are you really going to let him go in there and- I have orders from Matriarch Ae-" she stopped talking and put two hands over her mouth, looking at us with big wide eyes.
"I know who you work for, girl," Maka said. "I am a Spectre."
"Right!" Wahea yelled, dropping her hands. "I have orders from her! I can't let you get killed!"
"I don't plan to," I replied.
"And you think this is a good idea?" she said, turning to Maka.
"It's an excellent idea. Bringing him back is good, but doing so after retaliating against the people who kidnapped him makes me an overachiever. I like that."
Maka stood up and headed for the back of the ship, while Wahea kept switching between looking at her and looking at me, mouth open and a face like she had been dropped on an alien planet. Totally lost.
"You can stay here if you want," I said.
"I- No! I have my orders! If you're going to do this, then I'm coming too!"
"You even know how to shoot a gun?"
"I'll have you know," she said, crossing her arms and leaning back on her seat. "I went through boot camp when I was younger. Turian boot camp."
"Really? How come?" Maka called from the back.
"My uncle said it'd straighten me out, whatever that means."
"Did it work?" I said.
"Not really..."
"Well, good," Maka said. She fiddled with a control panel, and one of the walls at the back slid open to reveal a veritable wall of guns. "I've got some turian pieces here. Let's get you two properly geared up."
I was very glad the ship had a hardened-grade fabricator, because the suits of armor she had available had a lot more ass and boobs than I was comfortable filling. Unfortunately, for all the high quality weaponry she had available, there was nothing like the Mamba. I made a point to mention I'd put in a good word for her with Hahne-Kedar.
"Hang on, we're going in!"
I took a moment to think about all the times I had heard the same thing in the past... three years now. Or was it four? It felt like a lifetime. I also considered what that same phrase could have been interpreted as in different circumstances, but all I managed was a small smile out of it. I was too focused on what lie ahead. A little bit of banter might have eased me up for the mission, but not with people I barely knew.
Fifteen of us. The Spectre, the young asari, me, and twelve of the Broker's best. There were two salarians and one turian that were not going to be much help in the fight I knew. Oh, they carried themselves with the air of seasoned professionals, and they were armed and armored like the rest of us, but we had to keep them sidelined as much as possible so as to not risk their tech expertise. I was not sure how complex the security protocols of Cerberus would be a decade and change before the events I remembered, but better safe than sorry. Besides, I might have been looking for a kill, but the Broker wanted information.
To be honest, I didn't much mind. I wanted to believe Tela would keep her word and go at it.
The battle outside the station was fierce. The Cerberus base had launched a rather obscene number of fighters to counter the coming attack, and there were even a few larger vessels that had been docked to the station. We were not going to be the only boarding party, some of the mercs' fleets came with breaching pods as well, but ours was the main attack force. We were going for the prize, everyone else was a distraction. A lot like the suicide mission of part two of the simulation.
Our shuttle rocked hard as we came under fire, and soon our pilot was working hard on evasive maneuvers. I heard Wahea yelp next to me and crash against my body, and she struggled for a second before regaining her footing.
"First time?" I yelled over the noise.
She looked at me and simply nodded. She was definitely scared.
"Just keep your head down and move fast. Don't freeze and get in the way, move, find cover, then cover whoever is coming behind you. You practiced this at boot camp?"
"Y-Yes!"
"Good. It never works like the practice, but follow the basic instructions."
"Breaching!" the pilot yelled.
And as those words rang, the shuttle dove straight through a kinetic bulkhead barrier, and we were inside the base. My heart was beating hard in my chest, and I could feel the initial battle tremors in my hands, shaking in anticipation of what was coming. Those first few seconds were the worst. Settle down after that, and you get the rhythm. Adrenalin, fear, it will still come, but hands and arms will obey better.
The shuttle landed less than gracefully and crashed to a stop on the left side of the hangar, and the doors opened even before the ship had settled down. Maka was the first one out, wreathed in a thick biotic barrier with her assault rifle spitting rounds like crazy. Three of the Broker's people followed, and I pushed next with Wahea hot on my heels.
"Go go go!" I yelled. "Go hard!"
I didn't want to pile in with the others behind the first piece of cover by the shuttle, so I legged it as hard as I could through the hangar and landed heavily on the other side of the area, shields low but mercifully still holding. I didn't give them time to recharge, I peeked out of cover and started firing, my turian-made Crossfire spitting heavy rounds at a good clip. Even with the modded barrel and ammo block, it still was an assault rifle. Decent accuracy at the range of our engagement, and several bullets to go through barriers.
As I had almost expected, there was movement on the catwalk above the far hangar doors, and I dove into cover as the sound of heavy sniper fire mixed with the cacophony from the other weapons.
"Sniper!" I yelled over the comms, and next to me, Wahea crouched down behind the barrier.
"I see it," that was Maka. She had taken command almost by default, and none of the others had complained. "Call it when ready."
I waited a couple of seconds for my shields to recharge, readied the assault rifle, and called loudly over the comms.
"Cover!"
The staccato of every single gun at our disposal filled the air as I popped out of cover, implants kicking in. No time for finesse. I started firing at the sniper, center mass shots as long as he was visible. A singularity coalesced on the platform above, but he managed to hold tight to the railing. Still enough to stop him from diving into cover. Fire, fire fi-
Shit! Down down down down!
I always felt the disconnect between my body and my head when the implants were behind the wheel. A second sniper had appeared, upper platform and close enough to the door upstairs that he had perfect cover and a great angle at me. I fought with every fiber of my being to get down, and managed to dive just as a bullet hit me. I felt the impact against my barriers, and heard the distinct sound of a round skidding on the surface of a ceramic plate.
"Second sniper!" I yelled on the comms.
Shortly afterwards there was a very distinct, very loud s'kak! yell on the comms. I didn't look but given the sound I guessed someone hadn't gotten into cover in time. The hangar was lousy with Cerberus troops, but we were well entrenched and positioned. It was the two snipers that were giving us grief.
"I don't have a shot from here, I need to move," I called.
"On my mark," Maka replied.
I looked at Wahea, who had gotten down into cover again, and was looking at me. Stress was written all over her face. It wasn't simply fear, or excitement, this was the face of a FNG who'd seen combat for the first time.
"Keep your head down and cover me, got it?"
She nodded repeatedly, and readied herself. At least she was handling the gun and positioning herself properly, so she was probably telling the truth about her training.
"Cover fire!" Maka called. "Morgan go!"
I was already going, the moment the cover fire had started. I teared through the hangar as fast as I could. A grenade blasted somewhere deep at the back of the hangar, and the back was filling with smoke from a smoke grenade. Even then I knew I had to haul ass, and didn't go as far as I'd have wanted because one of the snipers hit me right on the leg. I skidded to a stop behind one of the launch bay heat shields and tried to get my breathing under control. Checked the leg. No leaks, but one of the plates had shattered.
Fucking good armor thank goodness.
"Morgan?" Maka called over the radio.
"I'm good!" I replied. "Still two?"
"Yes. Going to shock them, get ready."
I waited for my shields again, and as soon as they were full, I yelled and peeked out of cover, rifle firing furiously as I did. A moment later a biotic shockwave hit the upper walkway, hard enough that the entire place shook, and I was already firing at the same sniper I was shooting before. Center mass, always center mass, chew though those shields. Don't let him go for cover, don't!
I managed to squeeze two last shots before they recovered, and got down after seeing the spray of blood.
"Two in the chest!" I yelled. "Don't let anyone get to him!"
Let him bleed out.
Around me, combat was still raging. I had to trust that the others would be able to deal with it, my job was to deal with the upper landing. I was close to the ladder now, but the other sniper was very well entrenched. I made to get out of cover only to immediately dive, and a heavy sniper round passed right above me, grazing my kinetic barrier.
There were more sniper shots, and a scream of pain through the comms.
"S'kak! Someone kill that futtari sniper!"
The accent was thick, so much so that the VI wasn't picking the curse words and translating them. A moment later I got a ping on my comms, and Maka came through.
"Morgan, I'm going to push you up to the upper walkway," Maka said. Three markers appeared on my HUD overlay, one of them somewhere above the walkway where I couldn't even see. "Step up, I'll push you on the second, there's cover on the third."
Crap, being pushed up by a biotic was not my idea of a good plan. Before I could consider the implications, I saw something move on the other side of the hangar, and several doors opened revealing large mechs behind them. I recognized them, Model 30-S heavies.
"Mechs!" I yelled, opening fire at the closest one.
"Ignore them!" Maka yelled. "Go! We'll cover you, go!"
Shit!
It was a good call. We had combat engineers in the team and the mechs were still powering up and acquiring targets. I had a small window to get to the vantage point. Not that I had made all the math, I was at the front and too pressed to strategize the whole situation, but luckily our Spectre wasn't.
So I complied immediately. Pushed out of cover with all the strength I could muster. I felt rounds hitting my shields, but only the indistinct impacts of inaccurate fire that wasn't aimed at me. First marker was a small ledge, which I planted my foot on to give myself an impulse, landed on the second marker, and then I shot out of the ground straight towards the narrow opening at the top of the ladder, my body weightless in an extremely disturbing way. The sensation only lasted an instant, I felt my full weight as soon as I was on top, and landed heavily on the ground without crashing on the wall. No time. I scrambled to my feet, rushed towards the third marker, and threw myself at a roll to land behind it.
I felt the pang of pain only when I stopped moving. There was blood on my armor, coming out of a hole on my left side. Bullet had gone in and out, big hole too, but it was shallow. Entry and exit point showed it had probably hit skin and a bit of muscle, but nothing else important. It could wait. I took a deep breath, called for cover, and as soon as it hit, I let the implants kick in a third time and got out of cover.
The sniper was close now, and I moved fast. Center mass shots, it was a huge target. I ran, left and right, don't give a target, jumped over the fallen body of the other sniper. My bullets weren't as accurate as before, but they punched through the kinetic barriers, and hit the sniper rifle itself. It was thrown back skidding over the floor as I rushed. And in that moment, the sniper made a mistake, and went for the rifle again.
I was faster.
I tackled the sniper and then the grappling commenced. I was bigger, and heavier, which in a world of gene mods is sometimes less important than otherwise, but I managed to pin her down, raised my omni-tool and...
Nothing.
In that moment, the implants probably saved my ass, because they gave me a moment to absorb the surprise and think on my feet. Of course, I didn't have the omni-blade protocol installed, it was new. I changed my mind and instead of that, hit her with my elbow to the helmet and managed to dig the elbow right over her throat, in one of the few soft parts of the hardsuit. We struggled like that, with her having managed to get her hooks on my other arm, skidding along the floor as we both struggled. But her body gave in before mine, and there was a distinct crunch when I crushed her windpipe. Her strength abated. I reached to grab my combat knife, and drove it straight into her neck, slashing it open with a shower of arterial blood.
After that, she struggled weakly but ineffectively. I got up, almost out of breath, and called it on the comms.
"Upper landing clear."
"Then give them some crossfire," Maka called. "Now!"
I couldn't find my assault rifle at that moment, so I pulled the shotgun out and took the same spot the sniper had been using. The gun barked angrily with each blast, spread wide enough that none of my shits were kill shots, but hard enough to give everyone something to worry. Soon I was joined by two more of the Broker's troops, and before long the hangar was ours.
"Achilles Protocol Initiated."
"Shit, they're venting the hangar!" I yelled. "Get to-"
"Already on it," a distinctly salarian voice replied.
I took a moment to evaluate the battlefield. I could see two people down, a third being fussed on by one of the Broker's people. At the very back I saw Wahea sitting on the ground, and when I saw her, my brain finally dredged up what I had wanted to do but couldn't while we were in combat. I headed for the ladder, slid down to the ground, and with resolute steps, made my way to her.
"Wha-"
"Get up!" I yelled, grabbing her by the collar of her armor and easily yanking her to her feet. "Where the hell did you learn to shoot! Boot camp? Bullshit!"
"W-"
"I've fought turians! They know how to shoot, and they know how to fight!" I continued unabated. Goddamn I was pissed at her. "You don't just press the trigger and hope for the best. You have ten thousand rounds in the ammo block of that rifle and a single one of them can be the one that makes the difference! You take your targets, you aim properly, and you hit with every bullet you shoot!"
She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. She just had her big, wide open eyes fixed on me.
"And when your unit moves, you move with them! You don't stay here at the back just throwing bullets and hoping they're useful! Is that clear?"
"I..."
"I said is that clear?!"
"YES DRILL CENTURION!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
I let go of her and took a deep breath. I couldn't be sure, but going over it in my head, I was almost convinced that she had actually hit me while laying covering fire when I went for the ladder. I was sure I got impacts on my barrier from behind.
"Get your head in the game," I said, a bit calmer. "And stay close."
She nodded vigorously, and her breathing started to slow down. Before we could exchange any more words, Maka called over the comms.
"All right, the venting has been disabled, but we can't get past that blast door," she said.
I looked back and saw that, just like in the simulation, there was a fighter ready that had never been launched.
"You could turn the fighter around and launch it towards the inside of the base," I suggested.
The translator VI had a bit of trouble with what appeared to be about half a dozen replies coming in at the same time, but they all sounded pretty much the same to me.
Are you crazy?!
The fight had been absolutely gruesome, but we managed to pull through. Going through engineering had been a nightmare. We lost one of our salarian engineers, but Maka once again stepped up to the plate and showed us the stuff Spectres were made of. On top of combat skills and top notch biotics, she had good tech skills as well, and added to the mayhem by sabotaging drones and turrets whenever she had the chance, freeing up our two engineers to deal with the heavy duty counter-tech combat.
Worst moment had been when I was nailed in melee by a Cerberus trooper, bugger was fucking fast on his feet and good at close range too. Took me down to the ground and would have probably killed me had it not been for biotics. Maka and Wahea both had the same idea at the same time, and did a biotic pull on the poor bastard to try and push him off the platform where we had been fighting. Except Maka pulled left, Wahea pulled right, and both of them had put a lot of oomph in their pulls too. As a result, the poor bastard was pulled in two directions at once, and basically was ripped open. It was gross as hell, and Wahea had to take a moment to throw up.
She wasn't even the one that got showered, either.
At the end of all that we made our way to what I knew was the Illusive Man's office. I wasn't sure whether to expect him to be there or not. He wasn't stupid, I expected him to have escape plans, but we had a fleet out there, and I knew the mercs had started boarding the station, since our engineers had taken control of most systems.
The Illusive Man's office was empty.
"Goddammit," I muttered, while the Broker troops went to work. The engineers went for the terminal, the others went to put the backup in place, or took positions along the back in case reinforcements came.
"Is this what you expected?" Maka said.
I was standing in the middle of the room, looking at the star outside through the polarized windows. She came to stand next to me, looking the same way.
"Kind of. I was pretty sure he was aboard the station, but took us so long to get in here..."
"We may still catch him," Maka said.
"He's a pretty sneaky bastard."
A moment later, a voice I knew only too well filled the air.
"You're in my seat," the Illusive Man said.
Really? You have no other lines?
Every head turned in the direction of the hologram that had materialized in the middle of the room. It looked exactly like it did in the simulation, down to the bad construct and incomplete surfaces.
"Feel free to come and claim it," I replied, stepping in front of him.
"Mister Morgan. I suspected you were involved in this somehow. The man who chose the aliens over his own people. Tell me, what do you think the Systems Alliance will make of your actions?"
I was ready to read him the riot act, taking a moment to gather steam. My upcoming, profanity-laden verbal explosion was interrupted by Maka, who stepped into view without missing a beat.
"Chief Morgan is acting under Spectre authority and well within our jurisdiction," she said, her voice calm and even. "Jack Harper, you are wanted for... well, for so many charges of terrorism, murder, and everything else in between I can hardly read the whole list before the star outside goes supernova. I recommend you give yourself up now, I have absolute authority to shoot you on sight otherwise."
Timmy didn't reply to that, he just looked at me, taking a moment to pull a drag of his cigarette.
"You've set us back today, Morgan. I won't forget this."
"Give it up Jack," I said. "You can't control them. You can't use them. It's too dangerous a game. Give up and we can put Cerberus' resources to better use."
There was a very long pause. If Maka had any inkling as to what I was talking about, she didn't show. She did, however, stay quiet and acted as if it was all perfectly natural. The Illusive Man just looked at me for a while, smoking his cigarette and never even blinking. When he was done, he put the cigarette out somewhere out of view and looked at me again.
"I will ensure that humanity comes out on top, Morgan. It's a shame you don't see it our way."
And with that, the comms died.
"Anything?" Maka called over her shoulder.
"Couldn't follow the transmission, it wasn't using standard frequencies." That was our remaining salarian tech, nobody else could speak that fast. "Strange, I'll investigate."
Meanwhile, I had made my way to the edge of the platform, and had sat down at the edge, trying to catch my breath back. It had been a hard fight, made harder by the fact that I didn't use stims, trying to avoid a repeat of the Victory of Galatana critical implant failure, and the fact that I had had to fight myself to keep from using the implants too much.
I had a pounding headache again.
"How are you feeling?" Maka said. She had come to where I was sitting, and stepped down the platform so we could be a little more eye level.
"Disappointed," I said with a huff. "I'm pretty sure the bastard isn't aboard the station anymore."
"Yeah, I wonder if he received a warning."
"Could be. Or just that he's a paranoid asshole."
The techs were hard at work with the main terminal, and the rest of the troops had spread wide. I could hear the radio chatter now, the mercs that had been boarding the station were cleaning up the rest of Cerberus troops, and while it sounded like they were being pressed hard, there was no doubt as to who would come up on top. We had the numbers, and we had control of the station's systems.
"I am going to stay here and make sure I get all the data I can," Maka said. "Why don't you head out with Wahea to my ship and take a break? Once we've secured this place of course."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. The Broker and I have a good understanding here. Enemy of my enemy as you would say."
"Still my enemy," I replied.
"I can take care of myself. Go ahead and rest, or whatever it is you two need to do in the meantime. I will take you back home once we are all done."
Author's Notes: So there it is! IMO the Cerberus base mission is only hard if Shepard's not a biotic. If he is, then just throw people off high places left and right and laugh your ass off as you do. Dunno, maybe it's my sense of humor.
I mentioned a piece of headcanon at the end of the last chapter. That piece of headcanon is the location of the base itself. At the start of ME2 we see Miranda talking to the Illusive man with the same giant star as the backdrop for the conversation, in a room that can only be the same room the mission ends in ME3. Yet apparently she had no idea where the base is in ME3. This is "explained" with the following tidbit (and I'm paraphrasing): Only six operatives are authorized to freely visit the base (presumably everyone else who was there shooting at you just lives there, forever, permanently), and every time one of them goes there to hang out, they move the entire fucking base.
Let me repeat so you don't have to go back to re-read it: Every time an operative visits the base, they move the whole fucking base to a new location.
The whole thing is so beyond ridiculous that I just can't stomach it. As far as I'm concerned, the base is well hidden and doesn't move, and people who come and go have as many restrictions as those who came and went to the Shadow Broker's Lair. There's no need for that stupidity. It's a ploy by Cerberus themselves in case anyone ever gets wind of the existence of that base. If Miranda didn't know, then it probably means they are knocked unconscious or something like that whenever they want to visit. The base doesn't move every time. Just big fat NO. NO.
So that's some of Roy's debt paid. Still owes one to the Broker, we'll see if it comes into play.
Reviews! Did you know this fic is almost to the front page of ME fics if you sort by favourites? So exciting, thanks everyone!
First off, several people (Guestinator, Guest, Zeru'Xil) were very ticked off with Cerberus. Now, I hope it's clear that in-universe Roy is very much up for squishing them to a bloody pulp, even though Timmy boy got away this time.
RIOSHO: Next chapter! :D
Shoytahn: Yeah, let's hope it doesn't look like an asspull when I get there!
Littter: A little suffering never hurt anyone. No, wait...
Uemei: Hah yeah, the tensions between the hegemony and earth were indeed quite high, but then again, the batarians weren't believers in total war like the turians are. More importantly, as you point out, Roy and Bluffing don't go well together. And that's hilarious on your RPG, I'd love to hear more! I'm planning on starting a 5e D&D campaign soon, called "Dungeons and Dragons and Delivery", pizza delivery in the D&D world. Started as a NaNoWriMo project, but I soon realized it'd work best as an actual campaign (I shamelessly took inspiration from effed-up, weird, and downright hilarious pizza delivery stories that populate the internet, and turned them up to 11). If you think pizza delivery in the world of Exandria is easy, well, you haven't met me! Either that or Forgotten Realms, but Critical Role has gotten quite a few people I know into D&D so I'm sticking to the same setting for them.
I've read all the reviews, I always do, they're awesome, and thank you everyone for the support! Next chapter? Well, next chapter might not be as action-packed, but oh boy, I think it's going to be fun. Thanks for all the reads, reviews, follows, favourites, and everything else!