A/N
Hi everyone! So my goal of more regular updates is going well so far. Not that that means much seeing as I am only on my second post here since I changed the way I was approaching writing. But I foresee good things.
The next chapter is already on my pat-re-on, as well as a couple of other things that are exclusive to my page there for now. If you want to take a look then head on over and search of Bored Peasant's Written Works. More pa-tr-ons means I have more time to dedicate to writing, which I really enjoy doing, so please feel free to lend a hand and it will make it easier for me to keep going here.
Special shoutout to Ranger for their patronage!
Anyway, plug done. On with the story!
…
CHAPTER 30 – A SPECTRE'S MISSION
The hours that had passed from leaving the embassy had not been uneventful. They had been approached by a turian from CSEC that called himself Garrus Vakarian, asking to help with investigating Saren the Spectre. They had gone to CSEC headquarters to Garrus' office to review some security tapes that they had seen of footage of some of Saren's know associates on the Citadel fighting a quarian, who did a great job fighting multiple opponents on her own.
They kept track of the associates after the fight and watched and listened as they contacted some guy they called Fist to keep an eye out, saying something that the microphones didn't fully pick up about the Shadow Broker and the quarian's information.
They decided to go visit this Fist and see if the quarian made another appearance, though they hadn't. However, on their way our they ran into a krogan that called himself Wrex, that was talking about killing Fist. Jane made the decision to include the krogan, despite Garrus' concerns in having a mercenary with them who had already given his intent to murder. Shepard had only fought a few krogan but even she had seen how tough they could be, as well as how much damage they could take before being put down. It seemed like a sound tactical decision.
Fist hadn't even seen them coming. She had tried to make sure that there would be no civilian casualties, seeing as the club, Chora's Den, was still full up of patrons. Though she honestly wouldn't have minded if that former CSEC human that Garrus pointed out, Harkin, was caught in the middle of a firefight between the club's security and her group. The way the guy leered at her made her want to take a shower.
Things deteriorated quickly after that. They found out that the quarian never showed up to the meeting that she had organised and he had no idea where she was. Then the krogan went rogue, pulled his shotgun and blasted Fist into the afterlife, saying something about a bounty for the Shadow Broker.
The shotgun blast was enough to alert security, who cleared the club of innocent bystanders and let them conduct business in the way that she was trained. She kept an eye on the two soldiers with her, noting that Alenko fought well, and Williams wasn't too bad, but could use some more experience in squad drills. The other woman also clearly didn't trust the turian and krogan and never let them get into a position that she couldn't immediately see. She was going to have to work on that.
Eventually they made it back to the human embassy where she got chewed out by Udina for the firefight in the Wards. And while that was happening, who should casually stroll into the meeting but a very well dressed human with blonde hair and a partially faded scar down the right side of his face, escorting the very quarian that she had been trying to chase down, her arm looped through his as though they were on a romantic stroll instead of a mission to find evidence of a Spectre's treason, casual as you please.
She held back on the very real temptation to punch him.
"Sorry I am late, everyone," the human in question said breezily, his Australian accent coming through, now that there wasn't a helmet altering his voice. "I had a few things to sort out that were completely essential to our meeting before I could get here. My people also came across this very charming young lady who just so happens to have something that could make our case even more airtight. May I present the absolutely delightful Tali'Zorah nar Rayya of the Quarian Flotilla. And for those who don't know, I am Brock Nielson, president of Shieldstar and the ground commander of the main forces that repelled the geth attack at Eden Prime."
Jane grit her teeth a little. The man had the style that she would expect from a rich businessman. It was hard to connect him with the man that she had met on the ground at the Beacon. Though she could grudgingly admit that she had met a lot of soldiers that became serious when the armour went on.
"About time you got here," Williams muttered harshly, clearly agreeing with Jane's feelings on the man.
"Up, bup," Nielson said reprovingly, wagging a finger at her. "Minions that have nothing to contribute should be seen and not heard."
"Yes," Udina agreed dismissing the fuming soldier. "I take it that you have the evidence that you promised to help us?"
Rather than speak, the man turned on his omni-tool and tapped away for a few seconds. The ambassadors wall screen turned on, allowing a large view of the spaceport on Eden Prime where Jane had come across Nihlus' body after it he had been killed. Only this footage didn't have a dead Nihlus, but a very much alive one walk on screen, holding his shotgun. The footage played through as another turian walked on screen, this one having no face paint and an artificial arm. The two turians conversed shortly before the paintless turian shot Nihlus in the back of the head.
Nielson tapped away at his omni-tool for another moment, before an audio recording played out through the speakers at the ambassador's terminal.
"Eden Prime was a costly victory, but a victory none the less," a voice came across the speaker. "We were not expecting the armed response we received but we were able to use the beacon. Now it has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."
A female voice cut in. "And one step closer to the return of the reapers."
The wall display and the terminal shut down, leaving a stunned silence in the room. "Doesn't get much clearer than that," Nielson broke the silence, his voice tinged with satisfaction.
"No, it doesn't", Anderson agreed, a smile growing on his face.
"So, the question remains," Nielson continued, "how much do we let Saren dig a hole for himself first?"
Jane blinked and looked over to him. "What do you mean? We could just show this to the Council and they should accept it as proof."
"Well, there are ways to fake videos like this but even a blind STG agent would be able to tell that this is the genuine article," Nielson replied. "But it would humiliate him more if we let him protest his innocence first and had him be exposed for his racism. Plus, the fact is that the turian councillor will support him too. If we let him build a case for himself, then shatter it with solid evidence, it won't give Sparatus the chance to think of a way to justify things. He won't like it but throwing it in his face will be the way to make sure he doesn't outthink himself. And finally, the more humiliated they are, the more likely we can get better rewards without them protesting."
"He's right," Udina said, looking smug. "Councillor Sparatus has been known for taking a harsher stance against humans. If we were to have him set up to fail so spectacularly, then we will be able to have more leverage when the platform he uses for his defence falls out from underneath him."
"That's only if the councillors respond the way you hope they will," Jane spoke up, feeling like this could go wrong very easily.
"Maybe, but I doubt it," Nielson responded calmly. "I have had some dealings with both the salarian and asari councillors and pretty much can guarantee their acceptance of our claim. I haven't had much to do with the turian councillor, but I do know that Saren will protest his innocence to the hilt and will do what he can to disparage humanity as a whole. Having a Council agent openly deriding an entire species will not look good once it is proven that their agent is a traitor and we will see Sparatus suck on a lemon so hard you will be convinced it assaulted his daughter."
Jane blinked as she vaguely registered Udina nodding. Surely it couldn't be this easy now? The way that both Anderson and Udina had been setting it up, they were going to have a huge mountain to overcome. She frowned at the billionaire. What sort of person was he to be able to guarantee the favour of two councillors? Especially one that was apparently also capable in combat and not a member of any official government? Surely rescuing slaves wasn't all it took, was it? There was something else at play here, she was sure of it.
"It's almost time for us to meet with the Council," Udina's voice broke Jane out of her thoughts. "I have ordered some aircars to take us to the tower. If everyone is ready, we can go." He looked over at the suited alien. "Miss nar Rayya is welcome to join us as your guest, Mr Nielson."
"It's Miss Zorah, but thanks Donnel," Nielson corrected with an easy smile. "Lead the way."
…
The trip to the Council Spire was certainly scenic. Thankfully, they were taking more than one aircar, so I didn't have to spend the trip with Williams glaring holes into my head. The woman had an interesting character arc during the games but at the beginning she was a loud, outspoken racist that was so pro-Alliance that it made me groan just thinking about it.
Shepard was… problematic, if the games were anything to go by. Sure, she was generally a paragon, but certainly not full paragon. At the same time she definitely wasn't a renegade, especially not a full one. Which, again, if the games were anything to go by, meant that there were less options to save people that needed to be saved down the track.
After all, a Shepard that was either most persuasive, or most threatening, meant that more people would follow them. The threatening one probably wasn't an issue, but if Shepard was only persuasive to Alliance soldiers… well, that wouldn't work for me. There were people that needed to be saved that would be useful down the track that would need to be saved *cough Wrex cough*. That's only one example.
Tali's wonderous exclamations as we flew across the Presidium drew me from my thoughts. Clearly, the young quarian had never been this close to it before. It was rather adorable to watch, seeing her be this excited.
We landed at the base of the stairs, just like in the games. While there was a very long elevator that would get from the Presidium at the base of the tower, the aircar was permissible for those that had a specific meeting with the councillors, as long as they had pre-approval through CSEC. Luckily for us, that meant we were allowed for today.
As we walked up the stairs, Garrus and Wrex peeled off from the group, making me smile in amusement as they took up places in front of a monitor on the second level landing. The different aliens standing around in pairs or groups of three or four watched us curiously as our group of six humans and a quarian made our way up to the platform where we would present our case against the Council's favourite unleashed dog.
As I looked around, I idly noticed that nearly everyone in the area looked reasonably fit. I looked at the amount of stairs we had to walk to get to the Council. I had a feeling I could understand why. It seemed like the Council probably relied on people being out of breath and sweating, therefore at a disadvantage to the clean and poised councillors. I could have been wrong though. Not that it mattered to anyone in this group. Nearly all of us were soldiers and therefore had above average fitness. Udina was the odd one out but even he looked reasonably fit and wasn't breathing any heavier than normal.
We finally arrived and I hung back a little from the group staring up at the three aliens, Tali staying next to me and making herself as small as possible. The little group of Alliance personnel were enough for now.
"Now that the humans are finally here," Sparatus began in a very belligerent tone, "we can finally deal with this… ludicrous accusation."
Tevos stared at me for a long moment before she turned to the Alliance group. "Indeed. Let us begin." She hit a panel on her console and a giant hologram of a turian in armour shimmered into view to the left of our platform. "This meeting is to deal attack on the Human Systems Alliance colony of Eden Prime and to hear the accusations that have been levelled by the Alliance regarding the Council Spectre Saren Arterius. We shall deal with the attack on Eden Prime first."
"We have heard the report and the requests of the Alliance in their submission," Valern spoke up, taking the lead. "We have also received the findings that have been provided by CSEC from their independent investigation. As members of the Council, we take the requests of all of our member systems seriously, especially in the event of an attack by a hostile force, such as that done by the geth. We considered the best approach to respond to this attack and have made our decision."
"Simply put," Sparatus spoke up, sounding far too smug, "while the attack was a tragedy and the Council is willing to provide aid in the repairs of any damage that came from it, any claims that have been made to Saren's participation in the attack are clearly without evidence and is a baseless search to settle an old grudge."
Tevos shot him a warning glare, as did Valern, causing the turian to stop talking, but he still stood there looking radiating smugness.
"I hardly think an eyewitness is a baseless accusation," Udina scoffed. "Especially seeing as it is extremely unlikely for the eyewitness in question to even have heard any turian Spectre's name before, let alone Saren in particular."
"A lone dock worker suffering from the trauma of a geth attack is hardly reliable," Sparatus dismissed. "He could have come across that name in any number of news report over the last ten years and it stuck with him."
"That is a valid point," Tevos said. "The effects of trauma have been extensively studied by your own specialists and that could very well be a reasonable explanation."
"I resent these accusations," Saren cut in. "Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend." I trained him myself."
"That would just give you greater opportunity to catch him off guard," Anderson said smoothly, sounding nothing like the near panicking version of the game. Having a greater insight into how this would go had apparently made him far calmer.
"Captain Anderson," Saren said snidely. "You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me. And this must be your protégé, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed."
Shepard's eyes narrowed at the accusation, which nearly caused me to frown. Clearly Anderson and Udina were happy to be casual. After all, we knew how solid our case was. We were all just willing to have fun while he dug himself his own grave. Shepard didn't seem to know the game.
"You're the one that destroyed the beacon," she snapped back. "Then you tried to cover it up!"
"Shifting the blame from your own failures," Saren mused condescendingly. "Just like Captain Anderson. He's taught you well."
"I can see why you don't like him," I said casually to Anderson, as if we were just spectators to this meeting. "He embodies all the most repulsive things of turian society while proclaiming to be the best. He fits the natural mould of a corrupt politician. I guess it's natural that a corrupt Spectre be a stepping stone to that goal."
Saren's eyes seemed to burn as he turned to stare at me. "Did you have something to say, human?" he demanded.
I waved him off. "Nah, don't worry, Bareface," I said dismissively. "I'm talking about you, not to you. You should be used to that."
Even on the hologram, it was easy to see the fury radiating out of Saren over the Bareface comment. "How dare you!" he barked.
"That's enough, human," Sparatus cut in furiously. "Clearly manners are something that a human like you has never learned before working with polite society."
"And clearly Saren has learned his bigotry from his sponsor in the Council," I said, completely unphased. "I wonder, was his hatred of humanity something that came first, or did you foster that in him, Councillor Sparatus?"
"Mr Nielson, that's enough," Tevos cut in before a response could be given. My eye twitched, but otherwise I hid my annoyance. Clearly the asari was going to stop our little game from going before the turians said something truly damaging. "Nothing is gained from inciting division here. If you do so again you will be expelled from this hearing."
I gave her a conceding nod. "As you say, Councillor Tevos."
Saren scoffed at the byplay. "What else could you expect from a human?"
"And that goes for you too, Spectre Arterius," Tevos added sternly.
"Humanity as a species needs to learn their place," Saren bit out. "Clearly humans are not ready to join the Council, and you are not ready to a Spectre if you can't even get that right!" Saren sneered.
"That is not the purpose of this meeting," Tevos cautioned firmly.
"This meeting has no purpose," Saren barked. "The humans are wasting your time, Councillor, and mine."
"Before you go," I spoke up again, interrupting the turian before he could hang up, "there does happen to be a little more evidence that came to light that I managed to bring with me. You see, I have been paranoid about some of the shipments that I had ordered being tampered with, seeing as how they on occasion do involve weapon systems. As a result, I decided that it would be better to install some of my own security monitoring equipment to ensure that nothing happened to any of our shipments before my staff picked them up."
Not that this would happen as I always had some of my people stationed at the spaceport full time. After all, why would I risk sensitive private shipments to the Alliance, Cerberus or Shadow Broker's inquisitive eye? But it did let me see Saren stiffen slightly.
"As a result," I continued before any of the councillors or Saren could speak up, "I was able to get a rather interesting recording that I will show here for the first time, before I give it over to CSEC for verification."
I tapped at my omni-tool for a moment before a holographic display next to Saren's giant holographic body lit up. It showed exactly what happened; Nihlus arrived at the empty spaceport and looked around for a few moments before Saren appeared. They talked, then Saren shot Nihlus in the back of the head, then led a group of geth to where the beacon was waiting.
I crossed my arms as I stared up at the Saren. "So, any more treasonous lies you would like to push, Bareface?"
Saren gave the most malevolent snarl I have ever heard and disconnected instantly. Everyone was completely silent for a long moment as we allowed the councillors to process their shock at what they just watched.
I turned my gaze to Sparatus. "So, seeing as you have spent so much time and energy defending a traitor that you pushed for promotion to the Spectres, should be begin an investigation into your actions and credibility? It seems odd that you would so eagerly defend a traitor without knowing his actions beyond a shadow of a doubt. Then there is the fact that you were the person to recommend Saren to the Spectres. Do you make a habit of promoting traitors, Councillor Sparatus?"
"That is unwarranted," Valern spoke up smoothly, overriding the visibly vibrating turian before he had a chance to speak. "Councillor Sparatus is not the one subject to this hearing. If this proof that can be deemed irrefutable, not to mention Saren's clearly guilty response, we can be assured of Saren's treason. This has now become a mission to find and bring Saren to justice. What matters now is to determine our response to this information."
"With his guilt being determined," Sparatus bit out, his voice resigned but firm, "his Spectre status will be revoked, his assets frozen, and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes."
"I do wish we had a reason behind his motive though," Tevos spoke up.
"I think we can help out with that too," I said lifting my omni-tool again. I had asked Tali on the way here if she wanted me to bring her up to the Council and she had immediately declined. I guess the young lady still had some confidence issues.
The speakers on the councillors' podiums, and from the left where the holographic displays were, came to life and we were all treated to Saren's statements about the Conduit, and Benezia's mention of the reapers.
"I recognise that second voice," Tevos said, her tone troubled as she turned to look at her fellow councillors. "Matriarch Benezia."
"Who's she?" Shepard spoke up.
"Powerful asari biotic," I said, interrupting Tevos before she could respond. "Combine that with the money that one can accumulate from half a millennium of good business decisions and the arrogance of the upper class and there you have her in a nutshell. Also, she has quite a few asari commandos as her immediate entourage. Nothing to worry about."
"Be that as it may," Tevos said, her voice tinged with annoyance at my interruption, "she would be a formidable ally to Saren."
"I'm more interested in the reapers," Valern spoke up. "What do you know about them?"
I tuned out the speakers as they ran through the dialogue that I had heard repeatedly and could nearly recite from memory. That wasn't important to me so much, but the next step was. After all, getting a Spectre might sound like a big step, but in all respects, it really wasn't. Except for the fact that it was Shepard who seemed to be some weird saviour of the galaxy.
Still, the human woman stood proud as the Council made her a Spectre and gave her the mission to hunt down Saren. There were plenty of spectators watching it happen and murmuring softly to themselves as they watched history in action, which told me that her appointment would be made public galaxy wide in the next few days. But still, there was always something about this that had bothered me that I felt needed to be addressed. And now seemed to be the best time to address it, since Shepard had shown her determination to stop Saren.
"If I may interrupt again," I cut in, moving forward to stand on even footing with Udina, "while I will be the first to congratulate the new Spectre for her ground-breaking new position and I don't wish to spoil the mood more than necessary or take that away from her, can you please clarify your earlier comments, that you are refusing to move Citadel fleets into an area that has had confirmed large-scale hostile activity, in complete contravention of the obligations required of the Citadel Council in Article 23 of the Farixen Treaty?"
The councillors froze for a long moment. Silence pervaded the area as the councillors looked at each other. I guess that they had hoped that the announcement of a new Spectre would be enough to distract us. And it probably would have if I had not been expecting it.
"The Council is opting not to move fleets from current assignments due to identified risk, under Article 25 of that same Treaty," Sparatus said stiffly.
"I believe that you will find, under the definitions section in Article 3, that confirmed risk must have priority over identified risk," I rebutted. "So you must move fleet units to cover the attacked areas of space or be prepared to pay the penalty listed in Article 42."
Sparatus' hands clenched into fists as he leaned against the console in front of him. "There will be no penalty for not moving fleets in to cover a human colony!" he barked at me, fury etched in his clenched mandibles. Valern shot the turian a warning look that was ignored. "The appointment of a human Spectre should be enough for you today!"
I looked calmly back, ignoring his anger because I know there was nothing he could do right now, seeing as Valern and Tevos were both extremely tense, but not on his side.
"So what I am hearing from you, Councillor Sparatus," I said mildly, "is that the Citadel Council has no intention to follow through with the obligations that they have to the so-called lower races, in treaties that they forced lower races to become party to in the first place. That you are going to enforce the non-Council eligible races to become party to, by force if necessary, but when your own obligations that you wrote into the treaty are coming to play, you have no intention to abide by them. Is that what I am hearing from you, Councillor Sparatus?"
Sparatus visibly pulled in his fury and stood back stiffly, his hands were clenched into fists by his side. He remained completely silent, refusing to reply.
"Well, while I am not a member of the Alliance," I said, keeping my voice casual as if I was commenting on the weather, "I suppose that they would be grateful to you giving them an excuse to revoke their membership of the Treaty without penalty under Article 63. So that's nice of you."
"The Council has not said that there will be no action coming as a result of this incident," Tevos finally spoke up after exchanging a look with Valern. "However, Councillor Sparatus is correct when he said that there are real concerns identified which would prevent us from moving our fleets away from their current assignments. Our current fleet levels don't allow us to make large scale movements lightly. This situation has shown us that there is currently an inconsistency in the way that the Treaty of Farixen works with the associated races that has handicapped the Alliance unfairly."
"Upon review of this whole situation," Valern took over, "the majority of the Council," his eyes flickered to Sparatus before turning back, "has made an unprecedented decision to review the Treaty of Farixen. There is now a distinction between sizes of associated races and their territories. Because of this, any associated race with more than four colony planets, will have their permitted fleet sizes adjusted to cover their territories. The previous ratio of 5:3:1 has been amended. It will now stand as, for every five dreadnoughts the turians have, the asari and salarians will be allowed three, any associated race with four colony planets will be enable to have two, and the remainder will remain at one, changing the ratio to 5:3:2:1. This will effectively double the Alliance fleet capacity."
I blinked in surprise at that and turned to look at Udina. The man looked over the moon but was trying to hide it and badly failing. This was probably better than any of the expected outcomes that the Alliance could have hoped for from today's meetings. The only other way that the Council could have helped humanity more would be to appoint them a council seat.
I looked over at the Council to gauge their thoughts on the matter. Sparatus definitely didn't look happy. Truthfully, he looked mutinous, but he merely stood with his arms crossed and didn't fight against the decision. Somehow, I doubted that he was going to get away with anything less than a displeased reprimand from the Primarchs. Tevos was tense still but resigned. It would be harder for people who had not been able to see her reactions over the last couple of years like I had but she didn't seem to want this very much, but she was certainly willing to let it happen and hope for the best.
Valern was a stone. I couldn't pick up anything from him but somehow I had the feeling that he may have been the driving force in this decision. He probably made some excuse about how it would be a necessity as humans and now the Volus were expanding, though extremely slowly in the little fart-bubbles case, and as a way to check batarian aggression. How it would be better to drain Alliance resources than the Citadel's.
Looks like he really had taken my suggestion to be generous to heart. Good for him.
"I believe that I can speak on behalf of the entire Alliance when I say I thank you most humbly for this decision," Udina schmoozed. "I am relieved and grateful for the alterations that are being made to the Treaty and, barring any other serious issues, we would be happy to remain signatories to this newly edited agreement."
The councillors looked gave a nod.
"This topic shall be continued at another time," Tevos took over. "For now, we must focus on Saren. Spectre Shepard, you have your assignment. We will forward any relevant information to you. We shall leave the specifics to you. This meeting is adjourned."
The councillors all stepped back from their podiums and walked away, leaving our group standing at the edge of our platform. I turned around and faced the group directly.
"Soooo…." I began in my best nonchalant tone, "how do you think that went?"
"As far as outcomes goes, I don't believe that we could have even hoped for more, short of Saren being dropped in the meeting gift-wrapped with a full confession," Udina crowed. "A human Spectre and an alteration to the Farixen Treaty to increase our fleets. I can already hear the celebrations in parliament."
"He's right," Anderson spoke up. "This is a major win for humanity. But Shepard, we need to focus on getting you started."
Udina shook himself off and focussed on the present again. "He's right," he declared, his earlier sharpness a distant memory. "You'll need a ship, a crew, supplies…"
"You'll get access to special equipment and training," Anderson said. "You should go down to the CSEC Academy and speak to the Spectre requisitions officer."
"Anderson, with me," Udina declared. "I'll need your help setting all this up."
Anderson gave a nod and started following after the ambassador, who apparently didn't have the manners to wait. I shook my head at the display. "I'll come with you, Anderson," I said. "I have a few things I need to bring up with the ambassador. Tali, do you want to come with me for that?"
At the quarian girl's negative head shake, I gave a nod to the group, which now apparently included Garrus and Wrex who had come up while we were talking without anyone calling them out for it, before I fell into step with the good captain.
…
Jane Shepard led her eclectic group of humans and aliens to the Normandy. She may not have been the most switched on to a lot of the intricacies of galactic politics and so forth with all the different races. However, even she could see the benefit in having an extremely experienced krogan battlemaster, a turian detective and a quarian combat engineer on hand.
She was a little iffy about that last one, mostly because she didn't see the younger alien girl in combat directly, other than what she had seen on security vids, but the girl had begged to be included in the mission. Still, she seemed competent enough to help against Saren's army of geth. Besides, Jane still had Alenko and Williams, who had apparently been reassigned somehow which she would investigate when she had a chance, on hand to assist with training if the suited alien needed the help.
Arriving at the Normandy, Jane was expecting to see Anderson waiting outside the airlock. She wasn't surprised to see Udina there, even if she wasn't exactly thrilled to see him. What she hadn't expected, was to see Brock Nielson waiting there with the turian she had seen him with on Eden Prime.
"I've got big news for you Shepard," Udina said as she approached. "Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now."
Jane blinked at the unexpected declaration. She had assumed that she would still be stationed on the Normandy for the duration of the mission. She hadn't thought that it meant that Anderson would be gone.
"She's quick, she's quiet, and you know the crew," Anderson said with a sense of false calm. "Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well, Commander."
Jane frowned. That didn't seem right. There was something else at play here. "I want the truth," she demanded, crossing her arms. "Why are you stepping down, sir?"
"You needed your own ship," Anderson explained. "A Spectre can't answer to anyone but the Council. And it's time for me to step down."
She considered that for a moment, wanting to deny it, even if she couldn't. she didn't honestly know how the Spectre operated seeing as how much of their operations were confidential, but she had to admit that on a political level the Council was higher than the Alliance. There was clearly a lot of history here that she didn't know, and she couldn't help but worry that it might be affecting the mission. "Come clean with me, Captain," Jane demanded. "You owe me that much."
"I was in your shoes twenty years ago, Shepard," Anderson said immediately, knowing what she was referring to. "They were considering me for the Spectres."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Jane asked.
"What was I supposed to say?" Anderson rebutted. "I could have been a Spectre but I blew it? I failed, Commander. It's not something I'm proud of. Ask me again some time and I will tell you the whole story. For now all you need to know is, I was sent on a mission with Saren and he made sure the Council rejected me. I had my shot; it came and went. Now you have the chance to make up for my mistakes."
She mulled that over for a second before deciding to move on for now. "What kind of leads do we have?"
"Saren's gone," Anderson declared. "Don't even try to find him. But we know what he's after. The Conduit. He's got his geth scouring the traverse looking for clues.
"We had reports of the geth in the Feros system shortly before our colony there dropped out of contact, and there have been sightings around Noveria," Udina provided, surprisingly helpfully, in Jane's opinion.
"Find out what Saren was after on Feros and Noveria," Anderson finished. "Maybe you can figure out where the conduit is before he does."
"The reapers are the real threat," Jane objected.
"I'm with the Council on this one Shepard," Udina said slowly, his voice full of doubt. "I'm not even sure they exist."
"But if they do exist," Anderson cut back in, "the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Stop Saren from getting the Conduit, we stop the reapers from returning."
"I'll stop him," Jane declared firmly.
Nielson stepped forward. "Thankfully we have another lead," the Australian businessman said. "Matriarch Benezia T'soni was the other voice in the recording from Tali. She has a daughter called Liara who happens to be a keen archaeologist in all things prothean. My resources say that they haven't been in contact for some time seeing as they had a falling out over some of the research papers Liara had published through her university on Thessia. But it would be good to find out for sure if she knows anything on what her mother plans and even if she knows nothing, on a hunt for prothean beacons, Conduits and so forth, having a prothean specialist would likely be a bonus. She is currently on a dig site in the Artemis Tau cluster. Might be worth a look."
Shepard couldn't help frowning at the businessman. She couldn't deny that he had been helpful during the hearing, and that he had even been a massive help during the defence of Eden Prime. Still, he seemed arrogant and dismissive of the Alliance, two things that didn't sit well with her. His personality seemed completely at odds with the type of person she usually surrounded herself with. Luckily, she wouldn't have to see him while she was on the Normandy.
"I'll take it under consideration," she said, refusing to admit that it was likely going to be her first stop. "I'm sure if you have anything else to pass on you can let Anderson know."
The smirk that he returned with was sending warning flares down her spine.
"I mean, I could," he agreed. "But it would just be a lot faster to tell you to your face. So, I'll be coming with you."
Her frown hardened. "Excuse me?" She really didn't like the sound of that. She had no desire for an arrogant businessman to be in her proximity at any time, let alone stuck on a ship with her.
"Mr Nielson will be joining you on board the Normandy," Udina explained. "It was an agreement we made in exchange for his help."
She shot the politician a look that she usually reserved for condescending jerks who thought she was a lesser soldier because she was a woman. Though she didn't show it, she was pleased with the way his shoulders tensed. "I thought you said that I couldn't answer to anyone but the Council."
"And you won't," Anderson assured her. "You're in charge. Mr Nielson is your financial backer and a capable member of any ground team you want. Torrin is likewise capable. Their actions over the last two years speaks for them. You can ask them more about that on the ship."
"Financial backer?" she asked, feeling confused. Why would an Alliance ship need a financial backer?
"The Council didn't tell you, did they?" Nielson asked, but his tone was understanding. He gave a tired sigh when she shook her head in the negative. "Spectres don't have a budget, they don't have an allowance and they don't get paid," he explained, leaving her feeling some despair at the realisation there was no monetary support offered for her new role. "Any funds that you acquire during a mission will be yours to keep, but the financial responsibility to get your gear such as guns, armour, mods and even your ship," he gestured to the Normandy, "are yours to bear completely. You can make your money by taking anything you acquire during a mission, like taking the guns and armour of any enemies you kill and selling them; that sort of thing. Paying for your crew is also your responsibility.
"Now, the Alliance were planning initially to pay for the crew's wages, but that would still leave you on your own for getting gear for you and your ground team. I agreed to pay for all of it, on condition that I can take part in the fun. And where I go, Torrin follows. So, for the price of admission for two people, your entire mission is fully funded, your ship and crew are paid, and you gain two more experienced members of your ground team if you need us." He gave a big, stilted smile. "Isn't that just wonderful?"
He stretched out his neck, causing a cracking sound. "Anyway, I brought my gear on board already, including my armour and personal firearms plus a few goodies I think you'll enjoy. I'll be in the garage if you need me. Anderson, Udina, you know how to get hold of me if needed. Cheers!" With a jaunty wave he and the silent turian strolled into the open airlock of the Normandy, letting it hiss shut behind him.
Shepard stared at the closed airlock incredulously for a long moment, before slowly turning back to stare at Anderson and Udina. "Is he for real?"
Udina nodded. "That man is saving the Alliance millions of credits and has generously offered to buy you and your ground team whatever equipment you reasonably think you would need. You will be able to get whatever you wanted from the Spectre acquisitions office's restricted stores. So, I suggest you find a way to work with him. It is the price for loaning you the Normandy."
The politician shot a look at the ragtag collection of aliens standing behind her on the dock. "Keep in mind, your actions reflect humanity as a whole," he growled. "You make a mess and I get stuck cleaning it up. Remember, you were a human a long time before you were a Spectre." He straightened up. "I have a meeting to get to. I believe Captain Anderson can answer any other questions you might have." With that, the older man turned and left without even a nod.
Jane closed her eyes for a moment letting the frustrations be shoved back into the recesses of her mind. A lot of things had happened in a short amount of time, a lot of which she had no say in, even with her newfound status. Give her a combat situation any day of the week. This politics nonsense was a headache she would rather not deal with.
She looked over at Anderson, who was still standing there, watching her. "Yes, Commander?"
"How are you holding up?" she asked. While she had some problems, she couldn't help but worry for how her mentor had basically been screwed over by the government that they both served.
"Honestly, this isn't how I pictured my career coming to an end," Anderson admitted with a trace amount of bitterness in his tone. "Pushing papers really isn't my thing, but you are the only one that can stop Saren. I believe in you Shepard. If that means I have to step aside, so be it."
She had to admit she felt a bit touched at his faith in her. But it was time to focus. "Tell me what happened with you and Saren," she said, though they both knew it was a demand. Still, she knew that Anderson wouldn't deny her this anymore.
"It's close to twenty years ago," Anderson began, his tone reflective. "Ambassador Goyle wanted the chance for a human Spectre and she chose me. I was assigned to help Saren. We had intel of a rogue scientist being funded by batarian interests. He was setting up a research lab developing illegal AI technology out in the Verge. The Alliance had done the work, but the Council wanted a Spectre. I was sent with Saren as the compromise."
"What happened?"
Anderson shrugged. "Long story short, we had a plan to get the scientist. We were going to go in nice and clean to avoid civilian casualties. We separated to cover more ground and halfway through the mission there was a series of massive explosion. More than five hundred of the civilians died and Saren blamed me. I think he was looking for an excuse to blow the factory. Maybe he liked the killing, maybe he just hated me. But I had a bad feeling about him right from the start. I should have been more careful. Maybe I could have stopped him then. But he used the mission to show that we weren't ready. But Saren's report was all the excuse the Council needed to kill my chances of becoming a Spectre."
"Don't blame yourself Captain," Jane tried to reassure him.
"I don't," Anderson said firmly.
Well, that was good at least. Still, Jane felt the need to move on. "Any extra intel you can give me on Feros or Noveria?" she asked.
"Brock Nielson will know more than I do," Anderson admitted. "Him being part of the business sector will help with Noveria, they don't like Citadel authority and barely tolerate the Spectres. For Feros, the entire planet used to be one giant prothean city. It's mostly ruins now but some of the infrastructure is still intact. Our colony there tried to build on what the protheans left behind. We lost contact with them after the geth attacked. And Commander, use him and his intel. I know that you normally wouldn't get along with someone like him, not at first anyway, but he will be useful for your mission. And before you ask, I don't know much about the Artemis Tau cluster. You would be better off getting more information from Nielson. He seems to at least know something about it."
She still had lingering doubts about that, but Anderson had done more than enough to earn her trust. She could give him that much at least.
"Yessir. I won't let you down."
"I know you won't," Anderson said, his tone filled with warm confidence. Confidence in Jane and her abilities. It was one of the things she appreciated the most about her mentor. "Good luck. I'll be here if you need me."
And with that, Jane led her new alien friends into the Normandy airlock.
…
1 film, 4 reviews
Top Gun
Thessian Suns Publication
By Helia Mis'audis
This vid gave me moments of anxiety, amusement, despair and determination. All wrapped in an all-round entertaining package. I just wish that modern human vids were of decent enough quality to allow me those same feelings. Something has been lost in the human art of vid making. But this film certainly drew out my emotions in all the best ways.
Sur'Kesh Leaf Script
By Silarn Moduk
The dubious military doctrine of using individual fighter craft to fight wars goes against the established doctrines of the Citadel community. However, the camaraderie between Maverick and Goose, the topic or connection and loss, the rivalries and the undeniable action are certainly enjoyable. The action scenes certainly did draw interest. Though I do wonder why they were required to perspire so much.
Palaven Daily Call
By Marticus Lossus
With the coming of humanity to the galactic community, it brought about a unique aspect of naval warfare that had never really been a major focus; that being the introduction of large scale fighter craft. This movie shows the concept of this, though in admittedly a much smaller scale. It also embraces the fact that it is truly a tool for enlistment. The use of legitimate fighter craft, ocean-going naval vessels and all other craft, all of which were borrowed from active military service to promote their field. And it worked! Some reports said that recruitment went up by up to 8%. Something for the Hierarchy to think about.
The Krogan Word
By Ognut Grax
Krogan don't fly. But we do airdrop. Right before lunch. Menu: salarian. HA!
…
A/N Please Follow/Favourite and Review as you like!
Things are moving properly into canon now and already there are some changes. I was hesitating on joining Shepard at all. But there are things that Brock wants to do that can only be done satisfactorily if he is on Shepard's team for a while. I won't give any more than that for now but I hope you will stick with me and see how things go. To read the next chapter a month earlier and the other stories that I am posting, head over to my pat-re-on.
Hope you liked the Reviews this time.