8th July 2183, Citadel Wards

After Douglas gave a proper thrashing to his brother Bryce, drank a couple pints of beer and had a merry time with his friends in the Red Carp, formerly known as Chora's Den, he left. Having his brother and his old mates in the Citadel is a welcome development. Plus, having a few trustworthy eyes and ears, or even potential hired muscle, is also a useful asset for the mission:

"So, what to do now? Go to the councillors? Nah, let them stew a bit more and see what's going on around the Wards." Shepard decided. Who knows? Listening around, maybe providing some assistance could yield some interesting tidbits of information, even rewards.

First stop, the shops. While mass effect weapons lack the punch and reliability of human made guns, they are still lightweight

and versatile, plus Wrex, Garrus and Liara are more used to them. Some thousand credits fewer for 6 guns. Elkoss Combine is not the best when it comes to quality, but it still makes decent hardware. Also, these guns wouldprove more than useful in case Douglas and his crew need to perform deniable ops. Terran weapons are too rarein the wider galaxy, Elkoss Combine are more common than dirt. Shepard decides to take a stroll. A bit later, he hears a voice:

"Hey, Commander Shepard. Commander Shepard, over here." Douglas Shepard sees a woman dressed in a magenta dress. Douglas glimpses in her mind and sees that the woman's name is Emily Wong and she is an investigative journalist. An actual journalist, not some drama seeking hack like Khalisah Al-Jilani. Douglas heads towards her:

"Commander Shepard, Emily Wong, investigative journalist, may I have a minute of your time?" She asks:

"If what you have to say interests me, you may have more than one minute." Shepard crosses his arms in a relaxed and disinterested pose:

"Excellent, I am writing an article on corruption and organised crime in the Wards. As I am sure you are aware, C-Sec has little control to some areas of the Wards. As you are the first human Spectre, congratulations by the way, I would appreciate it if you could get me some files or evidence to connect all the vague leads I have. I know there is a batarian crime boss named Fist, but he died in a gunfight." Emily said. Douglas thought for a bit and pulled out the OSD he got from Fist's safe:

"I found this in the safe of Fist. Now you know who killed him." Douglas smirked. Emily's eyes went wide for a bit:

"You sure work fast commander Shepard." Emily reached for the OSD, but Shepard moved it slightly oit of her reach:

"I sincerely hope this will go to C-Sec afterwards, right?" He asked:

"Of course, I worked closely with C-Sec in some cases. Still do":

"Good, here you go." Shepard gives the OSD:

"Thank you commander, you will not regret this." Emily promises:

"You're welcome. By the way, I looked you up and I see that you are honest. Also that case where you were shot because of your sniffing around. So, I am willing to give you a tidbit of information in exchange for keeping your eyes and ears open around the Citadel. Are you interested?" Shepard extended his hand. Emily took it:

"As long as it is nothing illegal or outside of my abilities, I can provide useful information. Given you hold your end of the bargain and the intel is good." She answered as she took Douglas' hand in a handshake:

"Oh, it is good info. I believe you know that the Council made me a Spectre, but do you want to know why? It's because a top Spectre of the Council, named Saren Arterius, went rogue. Saren is the one behind Eden Prime and the Geth. That little outburst I had on live TV wasn't a technical issue nor a prank." Shepard said, making Emily Wong go pale:

"Saren Arterius? The top Citadel agent who hates humanity? That Saren?" She asked and Shepard nodded:

"Whoa, that's big news. Too big to be declassified or even completely believed yet. Plus, there are too many questions. What is Saren's motive? Why betray the Council and the Turian Hierarchy? How can he control the Geth? Why attack Eden Prime?" Emily asked:

"The motive is still unknown, also the how he can control the Geth. All I can say is that Saren wanted a piece of Prothean tech from Eden Prime, that's all I can share now and please keep them to yourself for now, for both our sakes." Douglas warned. The information aboit Saren's betrayal were restricted and the wider galaxy didn't know about it. Shepard took a risk trusting Emily, but knows that she is an honest journalist and will keep it secret until not needed to keep it as such:

"Thank you commander, this has been very enlightening. I hope this partnership of ours bores fruit. Meanwhile, I will try to find whatever details I can, Spectre files may be hard to crack, but there are always details leaking through the cracks. By the way, you on live TV doing everything in your power to anger Saren, quite memorable." The 2 humans gave their respective goodbyes. Later, Douglas assisted a salarian scientist collect data on some keepers, helped said scientist mend the relationship between his volus partner and talked with an odd fellow named Conrad Verner. That guy claimed he is a huge fan of Douglas, recounting all of the Commander's known missions like they were some grand adventure. Still, it was a pleasant to meet someone cheery who didn't look to give Shepard work, threats or try to kill him. So, when Conrad asked for an autograph, Douglas gave him one .357 bullet used by his Ruger revolver instead. Seriously, how can an adult be so cheery? A nice change of pace, even though this Conrad guy was fairly weird and a bit obsessed with Shepard, seeing him as some comic book super hero. Oh well:

"Okay, what now? Go to the Council or let them stew a little bit more? Heads for Council, tails for not yet." Shepard took a british one pound sterling he kept with him when he took such small decisions and flipped it. While within the Terran Coalition the fund was the main legal tender on Earth and the human colonies, most countries on Earth kept using and producing their own currencies, although in limited numbers. The coin spinned in the air, panded on Shepard's hand and showed tails:

"Welp, looks like the Council will have to wait for a little while longer. But what to do, oh what to do?" Douglas pondered. Eventually he settled for going to the Presidium. He met a gangster named Helena Blake, who wanted Douglas to hunt down 2 of her competitors, claiming she would keep her own operations cleaner and low-key. Of course Douglas would take over and pass the clean operations to Old Man Theo and Talon, anything to support his old outfit. Shepard also remined himself to help release Frazer the Irishman. Talon however? Weird namimg choice, but irrelevant in the long run. Afterwards, the commander decided to go to a bar in the Presidium. He ordered an Irish whiskey and heard something about someone called the asari consort Sha'ira, some sort of advisor/entertainer/conversationist/shrink. This Sha'ira apparently has many influential customers, a good place for Shepard to subtly use his psionics and collect some potentially useful information without anyone knowing:

"Greetings, are you here to make an appointment for the Consort?" An asari receptionist asked:

"I have a question actually, what exactly does the Consort do? I heard rumors but I want to know for sure." Shepard asked:

"Well, Consort Sha'ira offers a wide range of services to relax the body and the mind. Think of her as a psychologist, there is no medicine involved. She can help by conversation, singing, massage, mind melding or aromatherapy. She is very good at advicing people about how to solve their problems too." The asari, Nelyna, answered. One thing that Douglas caught is that Sha'ira sometimes can get frisky with the clients who are willing, making her a glorified whore. Plus, she acts as an agent of the Asari Republics to monitor and influence important politicians, economists, military personnel and others. The Coalition advisory for keeping certain information classified reminds Shepard that he mustn't impart any important secret to Sha'ira, her handmaidens or their clients:

"Alright then. Sign me up, commander Douglas Shepard." The human spectre gave his name, which Nelyna wrote:

"It's unusual to have Coalition military in our clientele. I hope we will perform to your satisfaction. Unfortunately, you will have to wait 4 months for your appointment, payment at appointment time... wait... yes, I will send him to you. Commander, the Consort will see you know." Nelyna said, after she heard Sha'ira's voice from her omni-tool:

"And why is that? Does she need something?" Shepard cocked an eyebrow, genuinely curious:

"I don't know, but it is a great privilege to be accepted by the Consort herself so soon." Nelyna answered.

'Privilege my ass.' Shepard though. Still, he wanted to see what this Sha'ira could possibly need him for. He walked to the Consort's chambers and saw her. Definitely a matriarch, but relatively young looking:

"Welcome commander, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Sha'ira, you must have heard of me." She introduced herself with a slight bow:

"I did hear about you recently yes, and I was interested to see what the talk was about. The question is what do you need me for, you definitely didn't call me up here due to the goodness of your heart." Shepard replied straightforwardly. The Consort chuckled:

"You are certainly not one to mince words, are you commander? And yes, I called you here to help me with a problem. A retired turian general, Septimus Oraka, has been slandering me lately because I couldn't become more with him, you understand what I mean, right?" She asked:

"I get it. He confessed his love, you politely refused, he got angry and now drowns his sorrows in a bar while spewing whatever lies you don't like to hear right? Where is he?" Douglas asked. Sha'ira raised an eyebrow:

"A very condensed version of the events but yes. You are quite perceptive too. General Oraka is in the Flux currently, drinking his troubles away. I would like you to approach him and convince him to stop, military man to military man." She inquired:

"Okay sure, I can do that. But why ask me? Don't you have other soldiers or officers who could be willing to do the same thing?" Shepard asked. Sha'ira explained that Septimus knows all of her military personnel clients and wouldn't pisten to them. Shepard being new however... Douglas went to Flux and saw Septimus. The guy looked miserable, pathetic really, unwilling to do anything. So, Douglas made him fall and then demanded him him to get up and act like the general he was supposed to be. That seemed to shake the Turian general out of his funk. As a reward, Douglas received a Prothean artifact from Sha'ira, some sort of key, along with some words that were supposed to reaffirm his value as a living being, a soldier and a spectre:

"Well, I guess this whole debacle wasn't a total loss. Okay, I let the Council wait long enough." Shepard chuckled. A slow elevator ride later, Douglas reached the Citadel Tower and approached the Councillor, who were already talking with ambassador Udina, who turned and addressed Shepard:

"There you are commander. Do you have any idea what political shitstorm you caused? Calling out Saren on live TV, shutting down C-Sec's power suits, what do you think you are doing?" Udina angrily said:

"Relax ambassador, I will explain both to you and the Council." Shepard answered in a calm voice:

"Explain how? We are lucky most people considered the time where you openly called out Saren to be a technical issue. We are trying to keep Saren's involvement a secret and you do the exact opposite. Have you lost your mind, are you trying to cause a mass panic because I fail to think of anything else." Sparatus retorted:

"What I did is piss Saren off. Angry people tend to get hasty and hasty people tend to make mistakes. I simply want to force him to make mistakes, to disrupt his concentration. And I am fairly certain it worked, if you called me here with new information." Douglas answered, trying to show discipline with just a hint of smugness. No need to further antagonize the Council:

"While your idea was tactically sound, you still caused too much of a ruckus, unless looking like an imbecile is also part of your plan." Valern said. Shepard preferred the salarian from the other Councillors, as he was more practical and straightforward than the others:

"It is just another way to keep them guessing. I assume that Saren still has eyes and ears within the Citadel, so I have to act erratically to keep them from understanding me. All part of the plan." Douglas assured them:

"A peculiar way of doing things but we will let it slide, we wasted enough time as it is. We have information that the new colony of Feros, founded by the ExoGeni corporation and filled with Prothean ruins, is currently under attack by Geth. Due to it not being an official colony and too close to the Terminus Systems, we cannot send an entire fleet. We are unsure if Saren is involved but the Geth certainly are. Your task is to stop the Geth and find out if they are actually acting under Saren's orders."

Tevos, the asari Councillor said:

"Aye aye ma'am, me and my crew will get the job done." Shepard smirked and saluted, then left. Sure, he may be unpredictable and sometimes not very respectful, but he is still a professional soldier, not some thug or mercenary. Shepard sent a message through his omnitool to his crewmates, telling them that they have one and a half hour to return to the Normandy for take off. He took the time to

go to C-Sec and hasten the release of Frazer. Isn't the power of a spectre a beautiful thing?

19th July 2183, Normandy SR-1, Orbit of Feros

"Alright everyone, we are fighting Geth once again. The area of operations is full of Prothran city ruins, cramped and offering plenty of cover, so watch the corners, the ceilings and any high ground, these bastards can be hiding anywhere. Bit it is not so simple, there is a small town named Zhu's Hope under there which is most likely under attack. Our mission is to eliminate the Geth, save as many civilians as possible and find out what these bloody clankers are after. Any questions?" Shepard asked. None had any questions:

"Good. We are splitting up in 2 teams. I will take Tali, Wrex and Ashley with me first. Nihlus, you take Kaidan, Liara and Garrus and cover our rear. You will stay at Zhu's Hope and protect it unless called." Douglas continued, until Nihlus raised his hand:

"What do we do if the situation becomes untenable?" The turian spectre asked:

"You hightail it along with any friendlies and civilians you can get. Make your stand at the ship, do not let the Geth go any further. Anyone else? Alright let's get to it." Shepard made the final preparations. During the travel to Feros, he spent time training and chatting with his crew, ensuring they all operate well and without distractions. He heard some stories from Wrex, Garrus' grievances about wanting to join the Spectres while his father wanted him to stay in C-Sec, Kaidan's stories about the Jump Zero biotic Academy, tinkering with Tali and much else. Now they are all fully armed and armored, ready to deploy. Shepard's team goes first. The kill multiple Geth and reach Zhu's Hope. The colony is in bad shape, yet the coloniats hold their ground really well. The leader of the colony, Fai Dan, said that there is a Geth transmission tower behind enemy lines, which they use to call for reinforcements and transmit themselves between the Geth platforms. While Shepard headed with his team to neutralize it, Nihlus with his own team stayed to assist the colony with various tasks, like varren hunting, repairs and water procurement. Shepard couldn't talk without exposing his own psychic abilities, but he detected elements of mind control among the colonists coming from an unknown source:

"Nihlus, once you are done with your tasks return to the ship. Something doesn't seem right with the colonists." Shepard said through the comms:

"I noticed, they act like a hive almost, whatever it is doesn't seem right. Plus we found a guy down in the sewer saying about resisting the master's whip." The turian specter answered:

"It looks too much like mind control, don't you agree skipper?" Ashley asked Shepard:

"Yeah, and I don't like it one bit." He answered. All crewmates went to alert after the possibility of mind control taking place on Feros. Could it be Saren's doing? Is it not enough to control the Geth, he wants to control organics too. Douglas will have to talk to the Terran Coalition directors, especially Yuriko Omega, who he doesn't like at all. While he doesn't like Yuriko, Shepard is actually afraid of her and other psychics. Due to keeping it a secret, he doesn't want to be punished or forced to join the others on Mars. He wants to be free dammit. Still, he shook away his fears and proceeded to the geth dropship responsible for all the Geth reinforcements. The team found a bunch of ExoGeni employees hidden in a room. One of them gave Shepard an access keycard. After some intense firefights with Geth and krogan mercenaries, they finally arrive to the room where the Geth dropship was hanging from:

"Shepard look at this, I can use the shutters to shear the ship's claws clean off to make it fall."

Tali pointed at a console:

"Smart thinking Tali, you do it we will give you cover." Shepard said as he took cover behing a wall, the Geth firing at him, Wrex and Ashley with their olasma weapons. It took a minute of fighting, until the shutters closed, successfully shearing the claws like a knife through butter. The dropship couldn't support itself and plummeted at the bottom, crashing loudly before violently exploding:

"What goes up must come down." Tali cheered:

"Your one liners could use some work Tali." Shepard teased:

"Aw, come on it was a good one." She whined. The 4 fighters soon found a krogan mercenary trying, and failing, to access files on a VI assistant:

"Wrex, can you kill that guy please?" Shepard asked. Wrex gave a toothy grin and blasted the krogan from behind, killing him with one point blank shotgun shot. Not very polite or clean, but effective. Shepard showed the ExoGeni employee keycard to the VI and learned about the Thorian, a sentient, thousands of years old plant with the ability to produce mind controlling spores, making it capable of controlling those who inhale them. And those ExoGeni bastards built Zhu's Hope right above the Thorian in order to study its telepathic and mind control abilities:

"Commander, the colonists are trying to enter the ship! They have gone completely insane!" Joker said throught the comms to Shepard. Thankfully Nihlus and the rest were already inside:

"I hear you Joker, don't let them in but don't kill them either. Also ensure the ship is sealed." Shepard ordered. Shepard and his squad moved to the ExoGeni employees they met previously. Things got a bit heated but they weren't stupid enough to try their luck against 4 heavily armed and trained fighters. The female employee who gave Shepard the keycard also gave Shepard some canisters of weed killer to use against the infected colonists so that they can knock them unconscious without killing them. They reached the outskirts of the colony:

"What is that smell?" Ashley asked:

"Smells like rotten plants and shit." Wrex answered. Soon they saw these blobs of green vine like humanoids. They used to be humans but were too far gone, so they put them down. The fight was not easy, as Douglas and the squad had to avoid killing the colonists mixed with these Thorian creepers. Bullets for the creepers, melee and weed killer for the colonists. Luckily they were successful, all colonists alive and unconscious:

"It whispers to me, it wants me to kill you. But I won't... I WON'T!"

BANG!

Before the leader of the colony could shoot himself, Shepard shot the gun out of his hand. With a quick apology, he punched Fai Dan's face, knocking him out cold:

"Nobody dies on my watch unless I wish it so." The commander delivered his own one liner, making Tali huff and turn away with her arms crossed, mubling about one liners and how are they good. Douglas always enjoyed teasing the little quarian, treating her almost like a sister. Sure, they were officer and soldier, but still they were friends too. Shepard remembers how he trained Tali to help her earn her gene treatment which allows her to walk without the constant need for a mask and a protective suit. But this is not the time to reminisce, the have to find and kill a plant:

"Okay, the ExoGeni stooges said the plant is underneath the colony, but where?" Ashley asked. The 4 spread out and looked around, eventually finding a secret tunnel under a prefabricated building. The smell emanating from inside was like rotten compost. It was dark, damp and slimy everywhere. Once they saw the creature, they all stopped dead in their tracks:

"Okay, that thing is definitely disgusting." Tali said:

"And people call me ugly all the time." Wrex added:

"Jesus, is that the Thorian?" Ashley asked:

"Heh, nothing is ever simple, is it?" Douglas huffed in annoyance. The Thorian was huge, easily the size of a small house. It was green and had tentacles, using them yo hang above ground. What looked like a face had holes that looked disturbingly like eye holes and some proboscis like protrusion that looked like an elephant's. The gigantic plant spat out a green asari from within:

"Intruders, a thousand feelers appraise you as meat, fit only to dig and decompose. You stand before the Old Growth and your every step is a transgression. I speak for it as I did for Saren."

The green asari said. That confirms the rogue spectre's meddling in the area. The green asari, formerly one of Benezia's disciples, was given as part of a deal so that Saren could gain the knowledge and experience of the protheans. Of course, Saren sent the geth to kill it along with all witnesses like the treacherous, backstabbing snake he is. The Thorian then tried to kill Shepard and his team, no longer willing to negotiate. After killing dozens of thralls and severing the Thorian's tentacles, the colossal plant fell to it's doom, dying forever:

"Anyone else who wants to have a bath after this?" Tali asked. All agreed with her. Suddenly, the same asari as before, in a normal blue color, apptoached them, raising her hands in surrender:

"Hold fire, I am free from the Thorian and I thank you for this." She said:

"Who are you, your green self said you were Benezia's disciple." Shepard asked, still aiming at her:

"My name is Shiala. Yes, I served matriarch Benezia. I joined her as she tried to influence Saren into a more peaceful path. Unfortunately, it didn't work, Saren is very charismatic. Even Benezia lost her way." Shiala explained:

"Hold on, how did he manage to do that? Matriarchs are powerful and wise beings, not so easy to fall, unless there is mind control involved." Shepard stated:

"Saren has an enormous, black warship unlike anything I have ever seen. He calls it Sovereign. It has the ability to indoctrinate his followers to his will, slowly but steadily. The longer you stay the more absolutele the control becomes. It works both with organics and synthetics." She further explained:

"A black, mind controlling vessel? It must be the same as the one that attacked Eden Prime." Ashley shivered, as she remembered the attack all too well:

"Commander, Saren wanted the experiences of the protheans to understand the message of the Eden Prime beacon. I still have it and I can give it to you throught mind melding." Shiala offered. Douglas accepted. He used his psychic abilities and camouflaged the melding as a standard melding, erasing Shiala's memory about Shepard being a psychic. The commander knows that, now that Saren dabbles with mind control, he will have to tell the truth eventually, but not today:

"I remember the prothean vision better now, but there are still gaps. For your service, I will allow you to stay free Shiala. I hope you don't tangle with any of this business ever again." Shepard offered. Shiala accepted gracefully and went to assist the colony.


Back to the Normandy...

Shepard made his report to the Council. Feros was saved, the geth destroyed, the colonists alive The councillors didn't want to believe that Saren is mind control capable, but the evidence was there. While Saren's motive is still unknown, the Council will not send warships to hunt him down unless a good reason appears. Overall, it was another unproductive report, plus with Sparatus scorning Shepard for killing the Thorian instead of letting it live for study. Shepard simply shutted down the comms:

"As expected, these retards still don't believe how dangerous Saren is. An army of geth, a 2 kilometer warship and now mind control, yet they still debate. I am going to call the Coalition directors about the matter and get us some mind control protection equipment." Douglas annoinced and dismissed his crew. He sent a message to the directors along with evidence and footage of the mission. While the call came however, only Yuriko Omega appeared as a hologram:

"Commander Douglas Shepard. I heard there is a mind control issue in your mission against Saren, if the data is to be believed." Even from a distance, Douglas could feel the power. He knew that he mist tread lightly, so he saluted:

"Director Omega, all the evidence and footage is conclusive. Saren Arterius possesses the means to control minds in the form of the vessel that attacked Eden Prime. It is suspected that the vessel named Sovereign also possesses the ability to affect synthetics too, unless the geth follow Saren willingly." Shepard said. Yuriko nodded:

"I will arrange you get mind control protection equipment, you can't fight mind control without the necessary precautions after all. Also, I suggest you check yourselves daily for potential intrusions, as you were trained for it. Teach it to your non human crewmates too, the mission is too important to allow mistakes." Yutiko ordered:

"What is the situation with the Coalition? Are we invading the geth or anything?" Shepard couldn't resist the curiosity so he asked:

"While I cannot divulge information, all our olanets and borders are secured and we are running patrols daily. Saren will not find any breach in Coalition space. That will be all." Yuriko turned off the comm. Shepard let off a shudder. Compared to Yuriko fucking Omega, the Council is but a bunch of powerless idiots. Considering the fact that the woman can rip a warship in half with just a thought makes her even more dangerous:

"What happened commander? You look pale." Ashley asked:

"Yuriko Omega happened, that's what happened. Kaidan, Ashley and Bradshaw, the requisitions officer, let off a shudder too. The mission just got a lot more complicated.