The galaxy was a wonderful place full of surprises. That was undoubtedly true. However, some things barely changed. And those things included the tastes of the decadently rich and famous. The decorations, the food, the surroundings, all of that. It may all as well come out of an assembly line. It wasn't about originality, taste, or even comfort. Oh no, it was all about being rare and expensive. The more expensive, the better. The planet they were on barely qualified as a garden planet. Arid to the extreme with a few pockets of moisture that supported a few hospitable spots. Someone with far too much money and far too few neurons to put it to good use had decided to make a statement by transforming one of those spots into a veritable garden of Eden. Plants and animals from all across the galaxy, even levo and dextro species made to cohabitate in the artificial setting, it must have cost a fortune to build, and an even bigger one to maintain. The rest of the planet was poor and miserable, a few million souls barely scraping a living off the land. Not here.
Kasumi wouldn't have given the place a second look. Oh, there were plenty of expensive items around, but there was nothing interesting about them. They were the equivalent of a burger at Relay Rob's. Tasty, sure, but completely lacking in anything special.
However, the information they had gotten made it worth the trip. The source had always been reliable - and, after taking a thirty percent cut, they better be - and they claimed there would be some very unique items up for auction tonight. They just had to wait. The list of guests hadn't been quite promising, but after Keiji had run some background checks, she had perked up considerably. Most of them were bagmen for bigger fish. That meant the sale was indeed serious. A vanity social gathering would have the titular names front and center, see and be seen with the top of the crop. This was serious work with names kept off the official record, but visible to those in the know.
It was her kind of place.
With a deft move, she dodged out of the way of an asari hanging off the arm of a greasy-looking human. The phenomenal curves and gravity-defying dress didn't distract Kasumi one bit. There was a holdout gun hidden under her waist, and the way she kept her eyes around the room betrayed the acts of a professional at work. She probably should have kept to a corner and just observed, but like them or not, those nauseatingly rich people did know how to put together a nice buffet. She made sure nobody was looking, and an Elysian Seabug disappeared from the tray.
"I saw that," Keiji said over the comms.
Because you were looking, Kasumi thought, not saying anything out loud. One, because she was in stealth in the middle of a busy room, and two, because because she had a mouthful of quite excellent food.
"They're coming up to the next item, get in position," Keiji said, his voice now clipped and professional.
Kasumi swallowed the morsel and moved to the back of the room, as the guests filed towards the auction. Security made their move too, securing the area as the vault was opened to bring out the next item. It was the time when the system was most vulnerable, which explained why security had stepped up as they had, but it was not something Kasumi would have a problem dealing with. There were still two dozen items left in the list, and the night was still young. The expensive ones were still to come, once the crowd had some more of the excellent alcohol and high quality drugs on offer in their system. That, too, was quite telling. Some people were partaking freely, as expected. Others had been nursing their drinks with barely a sip all night long.
She discreetly moved behind the large plant pot on the opposite side of the vault door and brought her omni-tool up. It was the only tell for her position when she was cloaked - or so she had thought before meeting Roy - but it was still necessary. It was extremely dim, and only her enhanced eyes were able to make the details, but still somewhat visible.
"Item six," the auctioneer announced, "a rare artifact from a, so far, unknown pre-Protean civilization."
Kasumi looked up from her work, passing curiosity at what the artifact might be. She was about to go back to her omni-tool when she stopped. They brought the artifact out on a small trolley. It was maybe the size of a melon, looked like a stand of some sort. Three little arms like branches reaching up and opening wider at the end, with a small sphere floating in between those three branches. It was the colour that caught her eye. Black, deep black. There was a thin pattern like circuitry all over the surfaces, blue and glowing faintly.
"What's going on?" Keiji called over the radio.
Three taps. Stand by. There was something disquieting about that item, she couldn't quite put her finger on it yet. she creeped in closer towards the auction stand, carefully assessing the mood in the room. Everyone seemed suddenly interested in that thing. Even herself, she had to make an effort to stay focused and pass unchecked.
"So far the function of this item, other than being decorative, remains unknown," the auctioneer continued, "but let's face it, it looks pretty harmless."
As he gestured to the item, the ball started to spin lazily on its horizontal axis. Outwardly Kasumi didn't really notice anything, but it almost seemed like something started to gently squeeze her head. Her mind. That was something she immediately recognized. She hadn't forgotten it, and doubted she ever would. The moment that ship, the reaper, had landed on the Citadel.
Up until that point she had even thought of finding Roy and helping him out of whatever trouble he might have gotten himself into. It wouldn't have been her first time breaking someone out of C-Sec, after all. But after that, all she could think of was to run as far away as possible.
That feeling was there again. Even through it was hard to tear her eyes out of that spinning sphere. she looked around, and the looks on everyone's faces told her she wasn't alone. Some more than others. She stumbled back, caught herself before hitting anything important, and started beating a hasty retreat. She had to get out of there.
"Kasumi, what's going on?" Keiji called, his voice concerned.
With trembling hands, Kasumi tapped her comms repeatedly. Abort. She sprinted across the bottom floor as fast as her feet would carry her. A couple of people seemed to catch a sound or a whiff of her passing, but nobody paid her more mind than that. She had to go.
"I'm waiting by the canal," Keiji said. He didn't know what was happening, he probably wanted to ask a million questions, but right now what Kasumi needed was for him to stick to the plan, and that's exactly what he was doing.
She bolted out of the side door of the embarrassingly large house, and rushed through the gardens towards the canal on the side of the property. The perimeter security still hadn't caught their breach, thankfully, so all she had to do was rush down the slope, jump through the open door of the vehicle, ad strap herself in as Keiji sped off and away from the compound, skimming the surface of the canal.
"What happened?" Keiji said. "Kasumi!" he insisted, grabbing her arm.
"Just... Just drive..." she replied.
Keiji did so, but never let go of her. She grabbed his hand and interlocked her fingers with his, and by the by, as the miles passed, she got herself again under control. It was several hours before they could get to their safehouse, but Keiji didn't wait that long. He found a secluded spot between two rocky outcroppings, and parked their small transport out of view.
"All right, what the hell happened? Are you okay?" Keiji said. "I didn't see anything weird, what was it?"
"That thing, the artifact," she replied. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then looked at Keiji. "It felt horrible, like the freaking reaper on the Citadel. But worse if that's possible."
"What? Reapers again?" he said. He put an easy smile on his face, one he knew she loved to see. "Come on now, you're starting to sound like Morgan. Should I be jealous? I mean, he's a handsome dude and all, but..." he paused, but today, Kasumi wasn't finding the humor in it. Keiji dropped the smile and leaned closer, kissing her on the cheek. "Okay, look. I'll send him a message, ask if he's seen a thing like that, and put you at ease. Okay?"
"All right," Kasumi replied.
Keiji brought his omni-tool up, typed a quick message, and started browsing through the security feed footage. "Look, I'm sure it's nothing. Maybe we just need a longer holiday, it's been stressful lately." With a theatrical gesture, he sent the message and looked at Kasumi. "You were all worried about me, and didn't take care of yourself. So why-"
He didn't even finish the phrase before his omni-tool pinged with an incoming message. No points for guessing who it was from.
GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT THING RIGHT NOW! DON'T THINK, JUST RUN! CALL ME!
Keiji and Kasumi looked at each other, and all the mirth was gone from Keiji's usually confident face. He brought his omni-tool up and put the call through. It barely had time to blink before Roy answered.
"Keiji, what the hell where are you? Tell me you didn't steal that freaking thing!" he blurted out.
"Steal? We don't steal things Morgan, that's just crazy talk," Keiji replied.
There was a pause before Roy started talking again. "Right, where is it? You didn't touch it or anything did you?"
"No, no, we're about a hundred miles away," Keiji said. "We're on holidays, and heard there was an auction of rare and expensive items, so I went to take a look and see if I could find something nice for Kasumi," he added.
The breath of relief coming from Roy's end of the line was loud enough to stop all conversation.
"Thank goodness for small mercies," he said.
"So what is that thing?" Kasumi said.
"Oh hey Kasumi. That's... remember what I said about the reapers? People going crazy and all that? Indoctrination?"
"Yeah," she said, already dreading the answer.
"Well that's an indoctrination device if I ever saw one, pretty damn sure of it."
There was a pause, like nobody involved in the conversation wanted to say a single thing. Kasumi rubbed her forehead, and Keiji reached across and grabbed her other hand. It was Roy who finally broke the silence.
"Who has the thing now?" he said.
"No idea," Keiji replied. "It was being auctioned off."
"We need to find out."
Keiji and Kasumi looked at each other.
"We?" Kasumi said.
"I... was hoping to retain your services again. We need to figure out who's been in contact with the thing, who's kept it, and who has it. And if possible, blow it to smithereens. And if there's more of them, find them too."
"Roy..." Kasumi said.
"Look, don't do anything illegal. Just a little detective work. Those things tend to end up in the hands of the well positioned, which isn't good. We can be all personable and deal with it reasonably."
Good grief but he was terrible at that. Kasumi looked at Keiji, he looked back at her, and the entire conversation happened once more without having to exchange a word. They were going to do it, and they both knew it.
"I'm not going anywhere near that thing again," Kasumi said.
"I sure as hell hope you won't," Roy replied, and he sounded serious. "So?"
Keiji sighed. So did Kasumi.
"Well, consider us hired then," she said. "You do remember we're hideously expensive, right?"
Life. Life after the reapers. Life after Shepard. Life after the death of her mother, after her betrayal of the galaxy. She didn't think there would be one. Not with that much pain. But there was. And with someone who felt the same only too keenly. She was trying to think about the future, and worried about whether Nihlus actually saw any future at all. He had been close to quitting the Spectres at least three times. He had been lost like a ruderless ship at sea. She had tried to be there to catch him, but now she worried whether he was just looking for a way to die and end it all. She knew what he wanted to do. She wasn't sure whether it would work or not. But at least it was something, something he thought he could do to make a difference.
She looked at Shiala. The commando was scanning the crowd, assault rifle up and biotics visibly swirling around her. Finding her back in her life had been odd, specially given that they had broken her out of jail and falsified a death report on her. She hadn't even blinked at that. She fell in more because of Liara's presence than actual interest in Nihlus' plans. And she butted heads with Nihlus more than she agreed with him, specially when it came to putting her in danger. She would probably always be Benezia's little kid to the commando.
Now, they were in the middle of a standoff with a group of turian mercs, some small outfit out in the Traverse she had, of course, never heard of. They had shot a fair share on their way in. Most of them would recover, but not all. They had fought their way in until the leader showed his face.
Leading from the back. Way, way back, Liara thought with a mental chuckle.
"So you're a Spectre," the leader was saying, his voice full of disdain. "That supposed to impress us?"
"If you had a brain," Nihlus said, "it would worry you."
"And why are you after us exactly? Never been to your side of the border, why do you care what we do?"
"Because of what you do," Nihlus said, his voice raising. "Protection! You protect colonies out here, don't you? Too small to protect themselves. They pay you protection! Only they really only pay to be protected from yourselves, don't they?"
The leader opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again without a sound. Clearly, he had no idea what Nihlus was driving at. Liara knew, of course. It was a matter of whether he'd take the bait, and whether the rest would fall in. If not, it was going to get real hot, and real fast.
"I can't really blame you all," Nihlus continued, looking around once more. "It all starts from the top. When the s'kak covers the pond, all the water gets fouled underneath. What you really need is proper leadership."
"Are you challenging me, Spectre?"
"The challenge has already been made!" Nihlus yelled, throwing his own weapon aside. He grabbed the handle of his combat knife and pulled it free. "The question is, are you too much of a coward to hear it?"
There it was. The moment of truth. If he backed out, it'd be easy. If he tried to shoot Nihlus, Shiala and her had to just make sure they took him down first. In that case, it'd be a matter of whether the others would join in or see the coward for whom he really was. Or, once again, it could get real hot.
All eyes were on the leader, whose name, she realized, they hadn't even asked. He didn't offer it either. He took a quick look around, feeling the pressure from the rest of his troops. Yeah, that was a tell. Leadership fell on him, but he didn't have the support. It was only a matter of time before someone challenged him for it.
He finally dropped his gun and pulled his own knife out. She heard the guttural rumble of approval run through the room. She lowered her gun, just like the rest of the mercs did. Shiala was the last one to do so, but never let go from her ready grip on it. The two turians were now circling each other, knife at the ready. Their forms were almost identical, crouched low, knife held pointing forward with their left hand at their shoulder level. They looked like spring coils ready to jump at the slightest disturbance.
For a while, it looked like neither of them would move. But even as they circled each other, she could see the changes in their demeanours. Nihlus looked more and more centered, his steps careful and measured. His opponent, on the other hand, looked increasingly nervous. He weaved and bobbed, continued to feint and make slashes in front of him, trying to get a reaction out of Nihlus. There was none. Soon, a few murmurs started to brew up. After the surprising turn from three people assaulting their base, to having the leadership of their outfit, now they wanted action. And it was dragging too long.
Nihlus was the first one to make a move. She had almost expected the nervous leader to be the one to do so. She gasped and held her breath. It was a fast exchange, both knocking each other's knife hands out of the way and neither scoring a it. Or so she thought at first. The merc grunted and changed knife hands as blue blood started dripping from the elbow joint.
That's a deep cut.
With his opponent bleeding profusely, all Nihlus really had to do was wait. Soon his opponent would grow weaker and lose concentration. He knew it too. With the strength of desperation, the merc leader sprang forward, reaching with his wounded arm towards Nihlus, and knife hand following. Without even missing a step, Nihlus made a swipe up with his knife, finding flesh and cutting through his opponent's free hand, swatted away the knife arm, and pushed forward. His hand came down to bury the knife in his opponent's neck.
It wasn't until Nihlus sliced his neck open that the blood came pouring out. The arterial spray hit liara across the chest, leaving a trail of blue blood slowly crawling down her armor. She winced visibly, but held back any other reaction. Not the time.
Nihlus just watched the merc leader struggle weakly, until he stopped moving. Just in case, he kicked the knife away from his hand. Then, he looked up and around him.
"Any objections?" he said.
Looks were exchanged. Most of them didn't look quite sure about what had just transpired. Finally, one of the mercs found his voice.
"What do you want with us Spectre?" he said. It sounded alfway between a question and a request for orders.
"Four months ago the Citadel was attacked by the Geth," he said. "Some of you may know about it, some of you may not. Doesn't matter. What matter is that they were not alone. They had a dreadnought so powerful it took the entirety of the Citadel fleets and the help of the humans to take down. A dreadnought from a race of machines called the Reapers. Fifty thousand years ago, the reapers destroyed the protheans. Soon, it may be our turn."
More looks exchanged. They had discussed this, Liara had suggested that there was no reason to talk about the reapers to these mercs. They wouldn't care, if they understood at all. They were not the kind of people who thought about tomorrow, other than to wonder whether it might come or not.
"So why do we care what happens to the Citadel?" another turian shouted.
"Because it's not just the Citadel!" Nihlus shouted. "When they come, they will come for us all. And I don't intend to let that happen! And if the politicians, the Citadel, the Hierarchy, if they all want to pretend that all is well. If they won't do anything, I will find those who will."
Liara looked around. It didn't seem to be taking. Nihlus, too, must have noticed it.
"But for all of you, right now, it won't matter. What matters is what you do next. You have been selling protection, only from yourselves. Not anymore. From now on, you will earn every credit you collect when selling protection. Under my leadership, you will actually protect those who pay you to be protected. And we will also look for others and give them a purpose to live, or a reason to die," he finished, giving the fallen leader of the mercs a kick.
Now the looks were more obvious. This was something they could chew on. A Spectre, with a somewhat weird story, but giving them clear instructions of what they'd do next. And they had broken through their defenses with only three people, to boot. Well, if Liara was honest, two and a half.
Maybe three quarters, don't sell yourself short. Shepard hated when you did that.
"Now, if any of you ladies wants to walk out, now is your chance. Your only chance. After this, you will straighten up, fall in, and follow my orders. Let's find out if your bones are made of stone or not."
Now there were actual discussions breaking out, small groups getting together, stealing furtive glances towards them. She noticed Shiala shifting in place. weapon held a little tighter but in an overtly threatening manner. But after maybe ten minutes, nobody left.
Maybe Nihlus had been right after all. He had been searching for weeks, but believed he had found the right place to start. Strong leadership and a clear purpose, and many of these paramilitary turian groups fell into step.
"Good. Let's get the wounded up and get rid of this trash," Nihlus said, and nudged the dead, now ex-leader with his boot. "The Council fears the Terminus systems, and there's a good reason for that. Everyone here knows the price of freedom. It's up to us to get them ready for when it counts."
Entry 28:
The test made on Specimen seven, recovered from Shepard's brain stem, has once again resulted in failure. So far all the hardware inside Shepard has undergone catastrophic failure once removed from her body. The cybernetic "organs" won't be an issue, we are currently growing a clone to have spare organs to replace them, but the neural inserts are proving to be a real problem.
Fortunately, it seems as if the infiltrations' growth has finally come to an end. Either they have completed their programming, or they have been stopped by the cold storage temperature. We had considered storing Shepard's body in a sub-zero environment despite the risk of ice crystals damage, but it won't be necessary. Now that the infiltrations have stopped growing, we have been monitoring changes in the neural makeup of Shepard's brain, but have not detected any significant changes other than the expected slow rate of decay.
Our next step will be to attempt to reprogram the neural infiltrations, even though it will have to be done while still attached to Shepard. The first step will be complete deactivation to evaluate how compromised Shepard's brain has become, and assess the risks when it comes to their removal. I would like to say that with some luck we might be able to replace them with standard Deep Brain Stimulation implants and restore function, but I know better than to hope for luck when it comes to this technology.
I have begun drafting contingency plans, but I do not intend to discuss them with the Illusive Man for the time being.
Miranda Lawson signing off.
Author's Notes: More intermission moments! Kasumi thought she was out of trouble. I mean, she spent some time with Keiji doing absolutely nothing but relaxing and getting pampered (if her assertions on the subject were to be believed), went for an easy job to get the ol' blood pumping again, then ended up biting more than she had expected to chew. But the whole point was that the call from Keiji and the instant response kind of amused me, so in it went LOL.
As for Nihlus? Well, guess we know more about what's going on with him (and Liara), and what's being planned for the future. Spectres are supposed to be the "nice" version of Judge Dredd, after all, right? Do whatever the hell they want as long as they get the job done. So there you go. Of course, it's not like a Spectre can go and raise an army without anyone noticing, right?
I mean, it's not like it's happened before *cough*.
Anyway, as usual, if you want to support me and my works, you can do so here:
tinyurl (period) com (slash) y2q9cop6
(Still think FFnet sucks at hyperlinks).
Reviews! Thanks for all the reviews! I do read them all and they really make posting those chapters better. :)
maesde: Yeah, I believe the way they wanted to present Vasir in-game was the anti-Shepard, kind of contrasting with what Shepard had to go through with Cerberus but going down the rabbit hole, so to speak.
Coolest bane: Thanks a lot, glad you've enjoyed it!
RIOSHO: Roy the Heavy is still to come, hang onto your hats! It might be... a while, maybe 10-15 chapters? I'll keep you wondering because it won't be clear which of the two timelines he slots in until it happens - there'll be possible hooks on both haha!
Surprise Catfish: Thanks for the welcome back!
Uemei: Oh boy, do I have a twist for you (won't be long now)!
Rainsfere: Yeah these coming chapters are going to be a bit lighter, since it's basically small scenes to give a taste of what happens in the two years and change before the Collector crisis. Which, as you can imagine, will be looking a little different this time! I actually don't have the entire changes to the Collector crisis itself figured out. For one, they won't be surprising anyone since Cerberus already knows about them, and in a lot more detail than they did, but they still have to be stopped. I do have a fair idea though.
Tom712, SpecterXCove, BJ Hanssen, Guest, thanks for dropping a comment!
Next time, on My Effect: Convergence! Omega, the shithole that never sleeps. Until then, thanks for your support!