Chapter 5- Shopping
Shaw ward
'A fine addition to my collection' Shepherd mused at the tubular gold and green fish.
It had been floating careless in the fish tank snapping at bubbles rising from the chrome filter, only to dash quickly to the blue translucent food pellets dispensed from the bottom of the filter unit.
Everyone needs a hobby, a chance to develop your personality beyond work, to enrich the soul. Or even to remove yourself from the wider world, if only for a short time.
She looked into the fish's sapphire blue eye. What a serene existence it had. After all what could it regret and fear? It had none of the burdens of command, nor grand choices shaping Galactic great power politics, no suicide mission to prepare for and no impending Reaper threat looming.
Perhaps ignorance really was bliss she thought darkly before trying to suppress the thought.
"A fine creature is it not?" asked her guide in a gruff if somewhat amused tone.
Shepherd mentally thanked the man for blocking her train of thought before turning to view him. The man was on the worst side of middle age with a scraggly black beard, and dishevelled white shirt.
"Indeed, I've always found fish soothing".
The fish were in a ward close to Chell district which was crawling with armed mercenaries and few others. Fear that the war would spill into here was palpable. Shepperd could just make out a line in the distance desperate looking young people in front of a few Blue Suns recruiters. Probably eager for credits and with little to lose. No doubt they were using them as cannon fodder. Just like they did when fighting Arkangel.
They had arrived by aircar by a man named Gregor who had explained the outline of the plan. Shaw ward was closest access point to a labyrinth of disused maintenance tunnels that could get them into the heart of the Ecclesiarch's domain whilst attracting minimal attention and avoiding the worst of the fighting. Though difficult to navigate, a more direct approach had been proven deadly on numerous attempts. However, she had a few unanswered questions before she'd start the mission.
"Mind if you tell me more about what the plan is?" Sheppard asked looking directly at Gregor's mahogany eyes.
He nodded slightly.
"Alright, shoot".
"How is Aria comfortable potentially working with someone so…?"
"Anti-alien? It's not as if Omega is known good relations between species. Take Carran district, which is dominated by the Elcor. Its neighbour had a Volus-Batarian war back in '83. Recently slums were hit by a virus that killed everything but humans and Vorcha. Many think it was created by humans. Plus, there's a mad prophet not too far from Afterlife that gleefully pronounces humans, Krogan and Vorcha lesser races."
Not to mention a Batarian barman who poisoned humans for revenge, Shepard thought, though a hint of grim satisfaction flow through her, as she recalled how she dealt with him. It angered her that such bigotries, thrived out here. Superficially different but fundamentally the same as the ones the plagued human history.
"Tolerating such things is the price of rulership on Omega. Besides he has picked his targets carefully. Turians for the first contact war, Batarians because of the slaving, and Vorcha… because everyone hates the Vorcha. Scarcely a word about Asari, Volus, Salarians, or any other species. The political astuteness of the strategy made Aria think he could be reasoned with" Gregor shrugged.
Shepperd could think of a number of less flattering ways to describe this "strategy" but didn't voice them. She had more questions.
"Why did Aria give this job to me, and why does this have to be done covertly?" Shepard asked.
"The job requires human agents for obvious reasons, which Aria has few of; fewer still that are competent enough and also ones that aren't directly in her employ. We aren't that established on Omega. She's taking the subtle approach with this, given the power of the Blue Suns." he responded.
"Didn't she say many of her agents vanished?" Shepard asked.
"We tried other ways to entered into the district, but the fighting has been more intense than we thought. The Ecclesiarch wasn't the only one to strike out against the Blue Suns in this district. Aria believes that her previous efforts were thwarted by these groups. It's still plausible they were killed by the Ecclesiarch's forces by accident though. Poor extranet connection means we can't know for certain".
"How come access is so weak? I thought virtually everyone had free access to it outside of a few backwaters in the Terminus systems." Sheperd asked.
"You know how big companies are able to buyout bandwidth, so they get priority access?" Gregor responded.
"Well, it's the same access much of Omega but to a far greater extent. Much like territory and housing there's a lot of subletting though. Chell has some of the most extortionate rates and poorest residents. As such, the Ecclesiarch doesn't have an online presence to speak of, and we haven't been able to find any extranet accounts tied to him yet. Most of what we know about him comes from word of mouth and propaganda made over close circuit TV or short-distance radio."
"Radio?"
"Even the cheapest omni tools can access it, though you must know the right frequencies. Not that it helps, its mostly bizarre myths, cod-philosophy, and rants about the Alliance."
"Like what" Sheppard asked.
Gregor's omni tool glowed orange as he brought his arm up to search for an audio file.
"Have a listen for yourself" he said.
"I hear their vitriolic cries" the audio began.
It was the softly spoken voice of man: coolly confident, carefully enunciated, and cogent, with a slight central or maybe eastern European accent.
"From their positions in the so-called respectable media, higher education, and the halls of power more generally. The intelligentsia of the Alliance tell us that humanity is at fault for our sufferings. That we should never have verged beyond the Alliance Space, that the disappearing colonists are facing their just deserts for unrelenting human expansionism. That those who struggle and suffer in the Terminus Systems, have only themselves to blame. That humanity has usurped the natural order of things becoming head of the Citadel council! Even as councillor Anderson ignores his own kindred for the interests of not merely the Alien, but the defilers of Shanxi themselves!
This culture of social loathing, this intellectual masochism, is endemic to the Alliance. The educated are taught to despise the very social order that produces them. They come to sap the honest loyalty of the hard-working people who keep it afloat, have for it and ridicule their sense of duty. They turn the culture against itself and cause it to whither and die.
How are we to survive the predations of this Galaxy and beyond if we are told that we not only have no right to thrive, but not even the so-called privilege to exist?"
Gregor paused the recording.
"You'll find that sentiment on dozens of podcasts, streams, vids, and the like across worlds that are distant from the Alliance and Citadel space. Although the Ecclesiarch uses bigger and fancier words, with less logical inconsistencies" he shrugged.
Shepard pondered the words. She had increasingly come to believe it had been rash for humanity to chair the Citadel Council, despite how badly the institution was run. Humanity can't survive the oncoming reaper invasion without allies after all, and this move alienate many species. Introspection was never fun, but necessary for progress. Blind faith never did anyone any good.
On that note she curtailed the train of thought and focused on the mission again.
"Anyhow" began Gregor.
"Taking the Blue Suns down a peg means a lot to Aria, but she isn't willing to place trust this theocrat too much. If he takes over the district that is one thing but if he is ambitions upset the balance of power too much…you can decapitate his regime and resulting chaos will be a sufficient roadblock for the Blue Suns. Although the reward won't be as substantial".
"What kind of ambitions?" asked Sheppard.
"Territorial ambitions beyond the district. Not willing to listen to reason, when he starts becoming a prominent player. Promoting more vicious anti-alien rhetoric and expanding the range of targets. That sort of thing."
"Sounds like a risky move. Human history is litter with cases of fighting proxy wars with fanatics turning into a shitshow".
Gregor shrugged.
"That's above my paygrade. If Aria can permanently weaken the Blue Suns here it will at least mean they won't be in a position to think challenging her again for at least a few decades. That will at the very least buy her time for a more long-term solution. Anyhow, you ready to head off?"
"Just need to check a couple of things with Miranda and Jacob, plus I need check out that weapons shop on corner." Shepard replied.
"Then I'll be good to go".
