Chapter 2 – Citadel Boogaloo
The room was quiet, save for the low hum of the Tantalus drive core, which could be heard all throughout the frigate.
Behind his desk, Anderson sat with a cup of coffee in hand, as he and Chakwas waited for one more person to arrive. At last, the door to the captain's quarters opened with a hiss of pneumatics, and Shepard stepped through. She was out of her armor by now, wearing the standard Alliance fatigues. As she stepped through the room's threshold, the N7 looked at both of the officers, waiting for the permission to come into the room fully.
"Come in, Jane, I won't be angry because of some protocol." Anderson stated over his coffee. The redhead, now closer to the desk, spoke, if a bit tiredly.
"You wanted to see me, sir?"
"Yes." answered the man, tapping the terminal on his desk to bring up one of the widgets on it to full size. It Shepard's tired mind full 10 seconds to realize that it was a view of the cargo hold, from rather high up. It was the feed from one of the security cameras. It was now showing Seven, still in armor, sitting on the floor, cross-legged. Over him stood his mech, though a better word would be crouched. The stealth frigate was not built with storage capacity in mind, and thus the bottom's deck largest room was not as spacious as one might've thought. It fit a Mako without issues and allowed for the ground team's lockers and a small workshop to be placed there without making the space cramped.
Add a ten meter mech inside, however, and it suddenly does feel cramped. The robot was tall enough, in fact, for its top-mounted cameras to be near the ceiling, near the security camera's level. It was looming over the man, casting his form in shadow, which he didn't seem to mind. In the darkness, the glowing parts of his armor were the only things allowing anyone to differentiate him from a statue. He sat, unmoving, staring at the opposing wall. Ashley, the only other person in the room, kept giving him wary glances as she cleaned a rifle on one of the workbenches, but kept silent.
"This man, how did you say he called himself?"
"Seven." murmured Jane.
"Seven. Well, he has been like this ever since our doctor let him go from the medbay. Speaking of, did you find anything of note, Karin?" the man turned his head to face Chakwas.
"I did. He was surprisingly cooperative. Didn't complain, bicker or anything. In fact, he stayed silent most of the time, speaking only when I asked him about something. And he only replied in single sentences. Quite a change from you, I must say." she chuckled turning to the Commander, but the smile on the doctor's face died almost immediately.
"He got out of his armor. That AI of his said that spoofing scanners is a thing it does passively." Chakwas kept going. "They allowed me to document it all, so I didn't have to record it without them knowing. Now, saying this might be excessive, but… well, it is.. disturbing, I would say." having said that, the woman opened her omnitool, and sent a file to Anderson, which he opened after giving the woman a look. As Chakwas said, it was a recording, with the first few seconds showing Seven standing in his armor, towering over the doctor and the camera. At the request to get out of his armor, he slipped off his helmet, allowing the three people watching to see the man's face. Just as Jane remembered, it was marred with scars of all kinds, and incredibly pale, something she had not noticed the first time. It was a if he never got out of that armor.
After a moment, the heavy plates started glowing, disappearing one by one, until Seven was left in just a black and grey bodysuit, which covered him head-to-toe, going up to his neck, leaving only his head visible. Soon, it went slack, with a hiss audible even through the recording. The man slipped it off, and set it down on one of the cots. It left him bare, so while he was doing that, the camera went up and down, surveying his scar-covered body. Or, at least, whet was left of it. The remains of all sorts of wounds pock-marked almost every bit of his pale skin, the most prominent ones tracing the muscles and bones, dividing Seven's body into neat sections. It looked sick, like he had been cut into pieces and reassembled. His left arm, up to and including the arm joint, was dark, and made of what looked like metal. Jane couldn't tell from her spot, away from Anderson's desk and terminal. The lower part of his body was made of the same material, which meant…
Shepard's further musings were halted by Chakwas.
Pausing the holo-vid, the doctor began talking. "So, as you can see, a lot of his body has been replaced. Most likely from injuries suffered in combat, given all the scars he has, but we would need to ask him to confirm." The woman tapped a key on her omnitool, enlarging the image. It closed in on Seven's lower body section, specifically his legs.
They were prosthetics, evidently. Metal, dark blue and grey in color, just as his left arm. They had strut-like structure, resembling normal human limbs, if only in shape. What looked like pistons and servos could be seen along their length, along with parts that not one of them could name. Near the hips, the legs began to take a shape more similar to 'normal' human appendages. The dark metal went up his body, ending only just below the ribcage, shaped like metallic skin. There, instead of meeting the organic skin smoothly, like modern limb replacements did, the partition was rough, and covered in long-healed cuts and scars.
"His whole lower body is simply gone." Chakwas stated flatly. "Any organs normally present in the lower abdomen aren't there either. No liver, no intestines, kidneys are gone too, his stomach was cut in half it looks like…" the doctor looked at Anderson. "Those prosthetics are the only thing keeping him alive, he'd be dead without those organs."
With another click on her omnitool, she fast-forwarded the video a bit, before stopping it again. This time, Seven's back was shown, and it made Shepard want to vomit, but she managed to hold it down. There were so many scars. Knife and bullet wounds, many burns, bite and claw marks, and many more. As with the rest of his torso, some looked like they were what was left after a surgery, the rough lines tracing muscle groups, joints, and surrounding his spine.
Which was not his spine at all.
A dark, metal… thing jutted out of his skin, resembling a human's spine, though only vaguely. Some parts of it were glowing, others not, and the whole thing looked like it was shoved into place after the original spine was forcibly ripped out. Scar tissue surrounded the synthetic spine, making it stand out even more. The dark metal went all the way up into the base of Seven's skull, where it ended near a small, smooth hexagon of metal.
"That- " began Chakwas. "-is connected directly into his brain. An interface, I was told, which allows for more effective use of his armor. A 'neural lace' they called it, I believe."
Unpausing the recording, she continued. "As you can see, those replacement limbs do not seem to hinder him in any way, and the missing organs aren't bothering him in the slightest. Now, I have managed to get internal scans, but only on the highest power of the larger medical scanners. We use those only for full-body imaging before major surgeries. For him, it only barely penetrated his skin and most of the internal organs. The prosthetics stopped all scan attempts anyway, but it at least allowed me to check if his insides are in order."
As Chakwas spoke, the video continued, showing Seven getting under the medical scanner at the doctor's request. Now, she stopped and closed the file, opening another instead. This one was a static image, showing the results of the scans of Seven's body.
"He has multiple additional organs, most of which are adrenal glands. Most look like they grew naturally, though they shouldn't have, but a couple look like they were put into him with surgery. The synthetic parts of his are also connected to his circulatory system, for what purpose, I am not certain." after pausing to take a breath, Chakwas continued. "His bones are much, much denser than a normal human's, I'd say they are almost unbreakable. Also, some sort of material is stretched over and attached to his ribs. The scanner says it might act as built-in body armor. The nervous system is… Altered. I cannot say for sure what was done with it, but it has accelerated all his thought processes, and vastly enhanced his reflexes. I managed to take a blood sample, but it's still being analyzed. Once that's done, I'll come back with the results. "
Once the doctor finished, Anderson spoke.
"So… who… or what do we have onboard, Karin?"
"The best description I can come up with is a super-soldier. A living, breathing, killing machine."
Silence reined for a long moment after that statement, all three occupants of the room digesting the information. It was only broken by Joker's announcement over the ship's PA, calling Anderson up to the CIC to receive a call from Admiral Hackett on the ship's QEC. The dark-skinned captain looked to Chakwas, nodding to her in thanks. The woman nodded back, and shut off her omnitool, standing up to leave. Anderson did so as well, prompting Shepard to join them.
"The brass will want to keep the existence of our 'guest' a secret, Shepard." He began, as the Normandy's doctor left the room. "I would expect the call from Hackett to be about him. I want you to try and persuade him to work with us."
"He worked with us on Eden Prime. Given that, I think he'll cooperate." Jane replied.
"Do as you see fit. He's an unknown, and it's up to the brass to decide what to do with him." Anderson left her with a nod, going up the stairs to the top deck. Jane, meanwhile, went to the elevator, and rode it down to the hold. There, just as she had seen on the camera feed, was Seven, sitting in the same spot. This time, there was a disassembled rifle in his hands, with… magazines? neatly arranged on the floor before him.
"You use chemical propellant in your guns?"
At her voice, Seven perked up, his helmet snapping in her direction in but an instant. For a moment, the lifeless, gray visor was dead-still, looking at her. She took that time to look for any changes in his armor. It was now bereft of all the grenades and gear that it had been plastered in when he fought down on Eden Prime, and only one weapon present: the scoped rifle he had been using. Jane had, oddly, grown used to its characteristic report during the short time Seven was working with them, and it was interesting to finally have a look at it inner workings.
"The alternatives to chemical propellant for handheld firearms were… limited where I am from. The few options that we had, were heavy, expensive, impractical for infantry use, or alien technology."
"Huh?"
"You asked about the method my weapons use to fire their payload. I have some that use different means, but they require firing in bursts to not overheat, or still need reloading with batteries." Seven stated calmly, as he reassembled the DMR he was holding.
"Hm. Good to know." Jane grunted. "I… I wanted to thank you for your help on Eden Prime."
Looking back up at her, Seven tilted his head in question.
"Well, without you, we probably would've been vaporized by a nuke, so I think a word of thanks is in order."
He let out a 'hm' in response, going back to the rifle, now fiddling with its scope. After a moment of silence, Jane spoke again.
"That's it? Nothing else to say?" her eyebrows rose in unison.
"I believe so." he said quietly, as the bullpup DMR was wrenched back into hammerspace, and was replaced by the Alternator, which he began to disassemble and clean as well. For the next minute or so, the silence in the Normandy's hold was only broken by the clicks and clatter of the double-barreled SMG being taken apart and put together again. When he was done, the weapon disappeared in a flurry of blue particles, and he looked to the Commander.
"Avei had gathered some information form this 'extranet'… And from it, the three of us have reached the conclusion that the best option is to stay onboard the Normandy for now, and remain under your command."
"Can't say I'm not glad to have you with me for now. Wait, three? Aren't you alone?"
The glistening grey visor stared into her eyes, absolutely still. "Both Avei and Cray have a say in matters concerning all of us. They may refer to me, but it does not mean that I ignore what they have to say."
Jane froze. "Oh… Yeah, I forgot about them. That they're… yeah." she paused. "Well, you'd need to ask Anderson, but I think he'll agree."
"Thank you, Commander."
Shepard smiled.
"No problem. Though you'll have to give me something else to call you. Seven won't cut it."
She got a grunt in response as Seven phased in another weapon and began cleaning it.
[]
Spires of white, red and purple moved along the landscape, burning the very ground to glass, filling the sky with ash, and lighting it with a red glow.
. . .
Ancient machines rending flesh, fusing it with metal.
Pain, screams, all under the looming presence and watchful gaze of an entity eons old.
. . .
A blue orb, crackling with power, bending time and space itself, cracking the planet beneath it into pieces, pulling it apart.
Blinking, he was back in the waking world, his twitching limbs holding the pieces of a Smart Pistol in his hands.
^Brain activity just spiked. I managed to pick up some of the stuff you saw. It looks to be from that Prothean Beacon that caught you.
^Anything it did to me?
^Nothing I can detect for now except those memories. Though it might reactivate the protocols.
At the last sentence, Seven froze. If what Avei was saying wound up being true, then they'd have problems.
^There is nothing you we can do about that now. Return to passive scanning and diagnostics.
As he felt the soft warmth in his skull that meant an affirmative from Avei, Seven quickly reassembled the now cleaned Smart Pistol and allowed it to be pulled into hammerspace. When he began to look through the list of remaining munitions Avei had compiled for him, the motion scanner on his HUD blinked, a single yellow dot joining the two of the engineering crew that were on duty.
It was an oddity for him. To have over double the crew than what was required to run the ship was unnecessary, at least where he had been. Bigger UNSC ships had AI onboard, which took care of the simpler and menial tasks, and provided the computing power needed to calculate MAC and missile trajectories, while assisting with point defense.
Militia and IMC vessels, on the other hand, took advantage of the abundant MRVN and Spectre units, which did almost all physical labor onboard, while more sophisticated AI helped the bridge crew. After all, most combat on the Frontier was ground-oriented, so many ships carried a sizable, at least compared to the actual crew, compliment of troops, which also assisted when repelling boarders.
This 'Alliance', however… he did not know if this was the case for their entire navy, but overstaffing ships was a bad idea in his opinion. More hands onboard meant more manpower lost with each vessel, especially when it was lost with all hands. Which was the baseline during the war with the Covenant, and a quite common occurrence when fighting the IMC. And, from Avei and Cray had gathered from the extranet, their worlds' locations were public knowledge, available to every person with access to the network.
The security risk of openly displaying your location, especially the homeworlds… From what he read, at least the Salarians didn't allow everyone to just waltz in, but the locations was still known. Security checks meant nothing to an invading armada, and nobody seemed to understand that.
All those thoughts flashed in his mind and were already tucked away when the elevator doors opened. Out came a face he recognized from Eden Prime. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, stationed on the colony, and member of the planet's garrison before the Geth attack. And, technically, now that he was under Shepard's command, his superior. At least that's what he assumed, based on the ranks in the UNSC. When he worked under ONI as Headhunter with B312, he had been given the rank of Warrant Officer, which he kept when they were assigned to NOBLE Team and stationed with them on Reach. He still remembered the callsigns the two Headhunters had been given: Six and Seven. Six at least took the place left by another. He was an outsider, even more than her, a patch slapped on top of an already existing team.
Blinking, he dismissed those thoughts. That was the past. A long-lost one. He did not need to brood on it.
"You there, big guy?"
His head snapped up, zeroing in on the origin of the voice. Williams, now in fatigues instead of white-pink armor, was standing over him, arms crossed. He nodded slowly, keeping his eyes on the woman, not that she could see it behind the polarized visor of his ODST helmet. He was still not certain if anybody but Shepard took kindly to him, and was thus wary of any hostilities.
"I just… wanted to say thanks. For helping us down there. I don't think even Shepard could've gone through that unscathed." Ashley said, voice quiet, almost drowned by the near-silent thrum of the Normandy's core. Not a problem for his hearing, though.
"You're just going to stay silent, are you?" the woman asked, now louder.
He nodded again, still sitting cross-legged under his Titan.
"He doesn't like to speak. I suggest you get used to it, since we're probably going to hang around." Avei's cheerful tone sounded from his MJOLNIR's speakers, as the AI's hologram flickered to life, her avatar sitting on his shoulder.
"Oh-kay then…" Ashley stuttered. "I was wondering… You asked Shepard about our guns when we found you. Do you want me to show you how they work?" she asked.
After a moment, the man nodded eagerly, while Avei's avatar flashed a cheeky smile and disappeared, giving Williams a wave. Standing to his full height, Seven followed the Gunnery Chief to the workbench, impatient to put his and Avei's theories about this 'mass effect' to the test.
[]
Why is this lift this damn slow?!
Shepard's mind ran rampant, still addled by the… visions that she experienced when she tried to catch a nap in her quarters. A mere 5 minutes after laying down, she woke up, nearly screaming, her sheets soaked with sweat. Sleeping pills Chakwas prescribed her did not do much, only causing her to fall asleep faster, and see the vision that much quicker. So, with hardly an hour of sleep, the Commander had decided to go down to the hold, and chat a bit with their 'guest'. About guns, of course.
Normally, she would've been giddy to see some interesting weaponry, but she was so tired now, that all she felt was annoyance at the painfully slow elevator. Then, at last, she heard the oh-so-sweet sound of pneumatics working the sliding doors open. As she stepped through and surveyed the cargo area, she was privy to an unexpected sight.
Hunched over the weapons table, Seven was fiddling with an Alliance assault rifle, Ashley standing over him, pointing out the steps required to reassemble the weapon, whose pieces were scattered across the workspace. A small violet avatar of Avei stood by, smaller than usual, wandering around and between the pieces of the gun.
"Having fun, you three?" Shepard asked, a small smirk on her lips. Oh, she was going to enjoy teasing Ashley about this later. She'd probably get away with it too, considering how friendly she had gotten with the Gunnery Chief and how little they had actually talked.
"Commander!" said Gunnery Chief snapped a picture-perfect salute, obviously startled by Shepard's sudden appearance. Now standing ram-rod straight, a slight blush crept onto the woman's cheeks.
"Commander." Seven's much calmer and deeper voice called out as well, as he gave Jane a respectful nod. Avei's avatar merely gave her a small smile and a wave, staying silent for now.
"I know you've been showing Seven our guns, but I suggest you get ready for a formal occasion. We're going to see the Council. Sidearm only, leave the helmet here, and maybe clean up your hardsuit if you haven't already." Jane stated, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm convinced that this Saren is responsible, but the Council won't do shit on the words of a terrified civvie." she sighed.
When she saw Seven tilt his head in question, she explained. The single dockworker they had found on the tram station on Eden Prime had told them what he overheard and saw, if only barely, before Nihlus' death. Another Turian, barefaced, with glowing eyes, dressed grey. Most likely with cybernetics, which would explain the glowing eyes, and was apparently named Saren. Killed Nihlus with the help of some Geth, and then left. The man, Powell, said they listened to Saren's commands.
"So yeah, I'm pretty sure Saren is responsible for the attack. I don't have the slightest idea where he got that giant ship from, but it's obvious he was the one that ordered the Geth to attack the colony. But, we 'don't have enough proof' to convince the Council, at least that's what Anderson is saying."
A grunt sounded from Seven as he processed the information. After a short moment, he looked back up to the Commander.
"What is my role in all this?" he asked.
"To be honest, I'm not sure. The spooks would probably chain you up and ship you off to some research facility. Admiral Hackett apparently gave Anderson free reign, though. And he decided you're coming with us." Shepard said with a huff. "You're free to stay here, if you wish."
"That won't be the case, Commander. I am coming with you." he said, standing up from the workbench. "No, what does classify as a sidearm in you're here, Commander?"
[]
Heaving a long, tired sigh, Garrus ran a taloned hand down his face. Damned red tape. If not for all these 'classified' stamps on all the files regarding Saren, he would've solved this case a long time ago. But, alas, he was a mere Detective in C-Sec, and Executor Palin himself had closed the investigation. Now, with almost no evidence to speak off, he would have to try and prove Saren's fault to the Council.
Spirits, how he hated all this bureaucracy.
"Hey there, what was that about?"
With no small amount of surprise, he heard a friendly voice off to his side, and turned to see three humans and what looked like a mech standing before him. The one in the front, a female with fiery red hair, spoke again.
"Your boss, I take it?"
"Unfortunately, yes." he replied, biting back a curse he gladly would've thrown at the Executor. "Closed my case, and now I have to prove Saren attacked a human colony, using Geth, no less, with barely any evidence. Though calling it such is an overstatement, really."
Ending his short rant, he noticed a faint glimmer in the woman's eyes at his words. "You're the one investigating Saren?"
He nodded solemnly. "Yes, I was. Now it's done, though. Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec." the Turian said, extending his hand in what he believed was a human 'handshake'. The woman flashed a smile at him, and accepted the hand.
"Jane Shepard." she stated, and pointed at her companions. "The two beside me are Ashley Williams and Kaiden Alenko." the two other humans gave him nods in greeting, the haired man a more polite one than the woman, but greetings nonetheless.
"And the big guy behind me calls himself Seven." at that, to Garrus' surprise, the mech inclined its head as well.
"Why is his name a number?" was all the Turian could say, as he realized that, indeed, what he believed was a mech was instead a human, and a very large one at that. It towered even over him, which was especially surprising, considering Turians were a fair bit larger than other Citadel species.
"I'll… that's for another time." Shepard dismissed his question. Truth was, even she didn't know why the man called himself that. A question for later, perhaps.
"Now, I think we've got a Council meeting to attend, yes?"
[]
Author's Note:
Well hello there everybody! Sorry for nearly two moths of delay, but I got a bit sidetracked. I would blame it on school and three exams back-to-back for the same subject, but it's games. Got into Cosmoteer, too much most likely, and I played when I meant to be writing.
Yeah, kind of a bad excuse.
But, here it is!
I decided to shorten the chapters, as I said, for the sake of writing them a bit quicker. Also, I have a solid idea for Seven's character, and read up on some Mass Effect lore, so I can write a bit better. Now, because of the shorter chapters, what I have written so far will be stretched a bit, likely to five, maybe six chapters. I'll make some changes, and probably won't skip most of the first Citadel visit.
Anyhow, have a nice rest of your day, ladies, gentlemen and dwarfs, and
ROCK & STONE