Plan for the Galaxy Chapter 63

PFTG

A/N Hello again my friends! Here is the latest update of my PFTG story. We have finished following canon are moving back to original storylines, but hopefully that stays interesting for you. I guess we will see.

Sorry there was such a gap between this update and the last one. I had a few things come up that took my time, but I wanted to get this done too. You deserve that much. I look forward to writing the non-canon stories for you going forward. Here we go as a start!

…

Chapter 63 – Full Council Discussion

(Brock POV)

I hadn’t thought that I would be back at the Citadel for a while yet. After revealing one of the biggest secrets that one of the main races had held since long before humanity had crawled past the age of bows and arrows to the wider galactic community, I knew that I was likely going to be on a watch list in asari space for a good long while yet.

Despite that, I believed that I would have enough goodwill on the Citadel itself to trust that I would be able to make it through this meeting without any complications. The public nature of the Citadel and its multiculturalism would be enough to protect me from any likely repercussions that the Republics might try to hit me with.

I landed a shuttle in docking bay 08, which was right near Citadel Tower; a gift, organised for my use by Councillor Anderson. I hadn’t expected that. Other than the first time that I got on the Normandy, I hadn’t had much to do the with former Captain. I had advocated him a little with President Marcus White, but other than that, I didn’t interact with him.

Still, it was convenient and meant that I didn’t need to walk through the whole Presidium to get where I needed to go.

Still, there were enough people around between me and the Council Chamber that I had been invited to that I saw plenty of happy faces directed towards my group. Not just towards me. Beau, Jurt and Persei were all getting appreciative looks and smiles. One asari woman, a low-level aide from what I could tell, actually ran up to Beau and hugged him, thanking him for saving her.

I could have sworn that another asari, an upscale shopkeeper on the Presidium, was giving Jurt bedroom eyes as we passed. She was just lucky Polissa wasn’t here.

It wasn’t just happy looks though. From one of the asari offices off to one side, I could see a pair of asari in business-type clothes glaring at us as we passed. I had a feeling that they were connected to one of the matriarchs, which was why they were not happy to see us.

Before they could do anything, we were approached by a salarian wearing some fancy tech armour.

“Mister Nielson,” he greeted as we approached the Tower elevator. “I am Captain Hillsam from Salarian Special Guard. I have been tasked to take you to the conference room. The councillors will meet you there.”

“Can I see some ID?” I asked. I wasn’t going to take it on faith. Even if he was legitimate, the STG were experts at deception and I had no doubt that the STG were able to cook up legitimate fake IDs. I would have to trust in Hectar’s programs and hope that they were up to snuff.

A moment of checking IDs later, which if they were fake they were good enough to fool Hectar’s programs, which meant STG anyway, and we were on our way up the Tower elevator.

Once we reached the top, instead of climbing up the stairs to the normal Council meeting platforms, the salarian took us down a hallway to the left of the main thoroughfare. It was somewhere I had clearly never been to and that made Beau and Jurt uncomfortable behind me. They kept turning left and right, their hands close by their weapons.

It all turned out to be unnecessary. Only a minute later, we were led to a door that looked fairly inconspicuous, if it wasn’t for the clear glass panel that looked into what looked like an expensive table, and the six heavily armed guards waiting out the front of it. Already seated at the table was the entire Citadel Council.

“We’ve arrived,” the salarian guiding us said unnecessarily. “Mister Nielson, you will go in and may be accompanied by your aide. Your guards will need to wait outside.”

Beau narrowed his eyes at the guards, but nodded. Jurt simply stomped over to one side and leaned against the wall. I noticed that he didn’t restrict access to his gun in anyway, regardless of his pose.

The security officer scanned me with his omnitool, and I passed over my pistol, the only firearm I had on my person, to Beau. Once that was done, the salarian hit the door control I stepped inside the room.

“Mister Nielson,” Valern greeted me as I entered the room. It was a conference room of sorts, with the single long table. It was set out in such a way that the four members of the Council were sitting side by side on the length of one side, while I was seated across from them on my own. It didn’t escape my notice that Tevos was seated slightly further away from the other councillors, the gap between her and David Anderson being more pronounced than the rest of them. Persei stood behind me as the only other person in the room. “Thank you for coming. It is good to see that you are up and doing well.”

I nodded back. “Thank you, Councillor Valern,” I said politely as I took my seat. “In the interest of time and safety, shall we get on to the purpose of this meeting?”

“Very well,” Sparatus spoke up. He leaned forwards slightly. “Firstly, in recognition of the efforts that you and your people played in defending the Citadel and its citizens during the Geth Invasion, you are to be awarded with the Diamond Clasp of Merit and Honour. It is the highest award for non-military personnel for service to the Citadel Community. Your company as a whole will be recognised as an official partner of the Citadel Council for the work of your people in defending the Citadel.”

“I’m honoured to accept on behalf of myself and my people,” I said easily. After all, positive promotion would go some way to pre-emptively counter the slandering I was likely to receive from the hands of the asari in the near future. It was the whole ‘hearts and minds’ thing that I had been doing with the Citadel community and the movies I had been putting out. “If I may ask, what, in practical terms, does it mean to be a ‘partner of the Citadel’?”

“In practical terms, it doesn’t mean much,” Valern responded easily. “You are not beholden to follow our commands like the military does. Nor are we obligated to rescue your company in the face of financial ruin caused by mismanagement. It is really more of a publicity stunt, in that we rare giving your company recognition for services performed. You will likely get significantly more business from the various governments as it will act as a stamp of reliability, but that will not be pushed by the Council; it would only be a flow-on effect from naming your company a Citadel partner.”

I nodded my understanding. “Thank you,” I replied. “Is there to be a ceremony, or is this meeting enough?”

“We’ll have a short press announcement once this meeting is over where it will be granted to you despite your absence, and it will be presented to the news tonight,” David Anderson said. “We understand that there may be some interest in you needing to keep a slightly lower public profile for the immediate future.” His eyes flickered slightly towards Tevos, who sat still, her face blank as she didn’t even seem to see the human councillor looking at her.

To be fair, she wasn’t looking at me, either. She was alternating between staring into the distance or looking over at Persei.

I ignored the byplay for the moment and nodded. “Thank you,” I replied. “I appreciate it.”

“The next thing that we wish to talk about,” Sparatus said, “was how did you know that there was a beacon on Thessia?”

Tevos’ eyes shot to me and for the first time, I noticed that they were slightly bloodshot. Clearly, she hadn’t been getting enough sleep. Her lack of proper rest didn’t take away from the intensity of her expression as she looked at me. Rather, it gave her an almost manic look.

“As I mentioned to Councillor Tevos a few days ago when I told her that I knew about the beacon in the Temple of Athame,” I started, “I used my people to recover the beacon that Saren had hidden in his base on Virmire. I once had someone tell me that beacons could talk to each other. That was how I was able to learn about the beacon and the prothean VI that you found. The one I suggested you ask about the reapers.” Might as well get them to focus on the right target.

“And how did you know about how to activate the beacon and the VI?” Tevos asked intently.

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Is that really the important question?” I asked. “Or is it only important to the asari matriarchs who are being embarrassed?”

She pursed her lips and glared at me. “It is important,” she countered. “If something as well hidden as that was able to be learned by an outside party, then it is possible that all of the critical systems of the Citadel could be compromised.”

That earned her a flat look from the other three councillors as I shook my head. “That’s a stretch,” I said with a tiny shake of my head. “Still, I can tell you that some of my prothean experts who went to Ilos before Saren found a reference to the VI. As for how to access it, that came from another source of information that I am not going to reveal at this time. But I can say that I am not the only person who knows about the hidden beacon. I had an informant inside of the terrorist organisation Cerberus who informed me that somehow the leader of that organisation, who goes by the moniker of ‘The Illusive Man’ also managed to find reference to at least the beacon. From what I was told before the informant went dark, Cerberus was some time away from accessing it. They were unable to gain access to the temple and had put their plans for it on hold for a time.”

The look of alarm that crossed Tevos’ face spoke all the words she wasn’t saying. Even the other councillors shared a look of concern amongst themselves.

“While that is quite alarming,” Valern said slowly, “I believe that is something that we will need to address after our meeting here.” His eyes flickered briefly to his human counterpart.

I nodded. “I shall pass on all information I can regarding Cerberus once we are finished and I am back on my ship,” I said. I looked over to Anderson. “That said, if you could keep my name out of any reports that you share with the Alliance, I would appreciate it. After all, while I don’t know exactly who, I do know that there are several high-ranking officers in the Alliance military who are either members or sympathisers.”

Anderson flinched as the other three councillors looked at him. “Sadly, I can believe that,” the dark-skinned man replied, his tone resigned. “I will keep your name out of any documents or conversations. That said, if their intelligence capabilities are as formidable as you claim, I wouldn’t be surprised if they find out that I learned about it from you.”

I nodded my acceptance of that. I always knew that there was going to be a time when the tentative treaty between Cerberus and Shieldstar, between Jack Harper and myself, would come to an end. While I still wasn’t taking direct action against them, I was not the sort of person that would let Cerberus take the initiative in ending our loose association.

I wasn’t naïve. I knew that now that Jacky Harper had Jane’s body and was in the process of resurrecting her, our non-interference treaty was going to end. Just like me, though, Jack Harper didn’t do things in a hurried or rash way. He would do something that would make it look as bad as possible for me, while making Cerberus look as attractive as possible. I had a list of probable responses going; the most likely was that he would get another extremist group to do something and fake a connection between myself and that group, while sending Cerberus people in to ‘assist in the clean-up’. Removing my people to our own planet of Bastion was probably a double-edged sword, in that my people would be safe, but we would also be out of sight and therefore unable to verify our innocence.

Whatever it was, he was going to try and make Cerberus look like they were crapping gold for whenever Jane was back on her feet. He wanted her to be his number one recruiting tool, after all.

Still, this would be the time that I could bring it up with the highest body in Citadel space without any reprisals.

“You should also know,” I said slowly, “that I have come across Cerberus in the past. They attempted to recruit me.”

That got all of the councillors sitting up straight, with Anderson tensing a little. I waved them off as reassuringly as possible.

“Don’t worry,” I said as soothingly as possible. “I said no. I have no interest in being associated with any terrorist group, let alone one that thinks that the best thing for the galaxy is to have humanity as its’ master, with all of the other races beneath our boots. More than half my people are from other races. I was like that long before I came across them. They were looking for financial donations and probably for me to provide them with weapons. I can assure you that I am doing neither. However, it is because of that, that I am able to give you the information of a bunch of prominent human business leaders that have had contact with a Cerberus agent that you might want to start looking into.”

The councillors, especially the turian, human and salarian, all exchanged looks. “I trust that you are able to prove that you are not involved with them?” Anderson asked, sounding suspicious.

I gave an exasperated sigh. “I am not sure how you want me to do that,” I said, my tone mildly sarcastic. “If I don’t have any dealing with them, I would not have anything to show that they are involved in any way. If I did have dealings with them, I wouldn’t tell you about them and I wouldn’t keep any records of any dealings I had in a place that anyone could just find. You are going to have to have a little faith that my telling you all here in this meeting, plus my previous actions and notable not giving credit to Cerberus for the good actions when I could have made them be put in a very good light as proof enough.”

I tilted my head at David Anderson. “By that same note,” I said ‘innocently’, “I hope that you can prove that you don’t have contact with Cerberus? After all, getting the human councillor in their pocket would be quite the coup for them.”

David frowned at me, before giving a conceding nod. “Ok, I can see how that sounded. However, you do admit that you have been in contact with them. Can you tell us how and when they got in contact with you?”

I nodded easily. It wasn’t like I needed to hide the information. I told them about being approached by a Cerberus recruiter, but didn’t mention Miranda by name, at the bar and how they had a hit team on standby in case I refused, which my team had noticed and prepared for. I told them about the party I had been invited to by Tevos and seeing Miranda again.

Tevos looked shocked that there had been a terrorist recruiter at a function she had organised. Understandable, I suppose. Though, considering how corrupt many ultrarich businesspeople there were in the galaxy, I would have thought she was used to hanging around criminals.

I also told them about the agreement of non-interference with The Illusive Man, which got a few frowns.

“Why did you not say anything after that?” Sparatus asked me suspiciously.

“Because,” I replied, “as I told Jane Shepard when I informed her about Cerberus, they are a massive, very well-connected organisation. They have people from business executives, Alliance military, scientific specialists and a whole slew of privateers and assassins on their payroll. I believe that they either have already got, or are looking to get an N7 by the name of Kai Leng on their force.”

That one caused David Anderson to sit up in alarm. “Kai Leng?” he asked. “You’re sure about that?”

I nodded, causing him to curse. “Kai Leng was dishonourably discharged years ago for killing a krogan in a barfight. Unarmed.”

That little piece of information made all three of the other councillors’ blink in shock.

“The Alliance wasn’t ready for one of their best to be put on full public record, plus it was a krogan so people thought that it would be easier to sweep under the rug and end it with a dishonourable discharge, seeing as he had started the fight, but not thrown the first punch,” Anderson explained wearily. “But we were not going to tolerate his blatant racism, which is why he picked the fight in the first place, so he was discharged.”

That brought a slow nod from Sparatus, who was looking at Anderson like he had never seen the man before. Tevos and Valern were much more approving in their nods.

“Regardless,” Anderson went on, “if he joins Cerberus, that will be bad news for us. He was an extremely capable infiltrator and very proficient in close quarters combat.”

“Yeah,” I nodded slowly. “To finish off my earlier point, when they first contacted me, I wasn’t in a position to do anything other than refuse. I have no doubt that they continued to monitor me to ensure that I didn’t immediately go and report them, and I wasn’t in a place where I was beyond the reach of their connections. I was a small-time player being approached by the big shadow leagues and needed to stay out of danger. I am in a more secure place now, but as the former Admiral Kahoku can attest, that doesn’t make me untouchable, just more secure.” Anderson flinched again and nodded, his expression glum. “I do feel confident enough to give you what I have, so I will pass it on to all of you. You probably aren’t going to like what I can give you though. Just as a warning. And remember to keep my name out of it.”

That got me a few very concerned looks, but they clearly decided to move on.

“The last thing we wanted to ask,” Sparatus said, “was probably the most important. How do you know about the reapers, and how did you know to ask us to ask the VI about them?”

I gave them a lopsided grin. “Because I was working with Jane Shepard,” I replied. “She found out about the reapers. We guessed, with Liara T’soni the prothean expert of the crew, that the protheans had been killed by the reapers. When my people find Ilos first and had some time to dig around before Saren and the geth got there, they got more information about the reapers. When I found out about the VI on Thessia, getting you all to ask about it seemed like the most logical thing to do. Otherwise, I can imagine that you would all sweep it under the rug and ignore it in an effort to keep the peace, instead of doing what you could to prepare for their invasion.”

“We wouldn’t have done that!” Sparatus objected.

I gave him a sceptical look. “Really?” I asked. “If the only evidence you had was Jane Shepard’s word, and that of a dead traitor in Saren? If the only information that was available was considered suspect and no new information could be found in a hurry? How long would it be before your searchers were sent on other duties? Before other operational needs took precedence? I fully suspect that you have people searching over the remnants of Saren’s ship, Sovereign, which was in fact a reaper itself. How long before the researchers are indoctrinated by the remains and start sending reports in that it was only a geth ship and not some mythical reaper that a raving traitor claimed it was?”

Each question seemed to hit the councillors’ confidence. By the end, they were all exchanging uncertain looks now.

I shook my head at them. “It would only take a couple of months with no new information and you would have almost disavowed Jane Shepard because of the lack of evidence and the falsified reports of your indoctrinated workers,” I said. “Anyway, what else did you want to talk about?”

“What would you recommend we do regarding the reaper’s invasion?” Valern asked.

That probably was the most pertinent question, really. The odds were already that the actions I had taken would do quite a bit to tilt the odds in favour of our galactic survival. With my fleet alone, not to mention hopefully rooting out the indoctrination of the batarians, having the volus expanding their own fleet, getting the quarians a planet and letting their population have a chance to grow for the first time in centuries, and possibly having an inroad in with the geth early, the things we had already been doing would go a long way to increasing our odds of survival.

Still, that didn’t mean that there couldn’t be more done.

“The first thing we would need,” I said slowly as I considered the best points that could realistically be done in a short amount of time, “is to rapidly build up the fleets.”

“That is already being done,” Sparatus cut me off. “Not just because of the reapers, but because of the new race that we had appear at the Geth Invasion.”

I nodded, not bothering to tell him that it was really my ship. No need to pull on that particular thread right now. “I understand that,” I said. “But I don’t just mean your four races. I mean everyone needs to work on their fleets, including the minor ones. The elcor, hanar and volus will all need to increase their planetary defences at the very least. I am already selling more orbital defence platforms to those races to defend their worlds. I would also recommend that someone pull their heads out of their arses and send some aid ships to the drell home world and see if there are any other drell that are physically and mentally able to get off the planet.”

“Why the drell?” Valern asked, his tone a mix of confused and dubious.

I stared at him blankly. “Why not?” I asked flatly. “They can make excellent ground troops and are suitable for hand-to-hand combat in a way that the salarians don’t quite match. They are also just a people that need help and the Citadel community as a whole have been content to ignore them, except for the hanar, which leaves them to be on a planet that is going to kill their species early due to not being genetically capable of acclimatising to it. Each of you have large planets that could easily cater to the entire population of drell living on the hanar planet and yet none of you have done anything to lift a finger to help them in any meaningful way. You are killing them just as much as the reapers will, just slower. In that sense, the reapers have more mercy than you because they won’t drag it out.”

That drew some uncomfortable looks from Anderson and Tevos. Sparatus and Valern sat looking stone-faced. I shook my head in disappointment. Clearly nothing was going to be done for the drell today.

“Other than that,” I continued before any of them could voice the objections they clearly had, “the buildup of your fleets should be given a reason publicly that wouldn’t give the reapers an excuse to come earlier. As it is, there are going to be a lot of nervous people in the galaxy as they see that the amount of combat ships is drastically increasing.”

“Taking us to a wartime footing will be damaging to our economies,” Tevos highlighted.

“And not doing so will be damaging to our entire survival,” Sparatus said with a trace of condescension. “While the asari might have more concerns with being able to keep their power, the turians have a greater focus on living through the next conflict to be able to spend their money in the first place.”

Tevos winced and looked away. Clearly there was still a lot of bad blood between the asari and the other races. I wondered how much that is going to impact the upcoming conflict. We really couldn’t afford to be fighting among ourselves.

Apparently, Valern agreed. “Enough,” he said, not looking at either of the two contenders. “Mister Nielson, we have been informed by the prothean VI that the reapers were unable to connect to the Citadel due to the work of their scientists after their people were wiped out. Have you come across any information about how they would come into the galaxy, and what time frame? I don’t believe that a race that can live for as long as they can would simply give up just because they were thwarted in such a manner.”

I gave a slow nod as I considered that. I wasn’t against giving out that information. I just wasn’t sure how accurate it would be. I know that a rough timeline existed, but I wasn’t completely sure if it was still accurate. Still, it meant that I would be revealing secrets that would give me more attention.

“From what my people were able to put together,” I said cautiously, “it could be anywhere between two and three years. Not more than five though. But that is only if the reapers don’t rush when their sources tell them that the fleets are building up. I would nearly guarantee not earlier than two years but I have no idea if it is going to be faster than that. But,” I looked over at Anderson, “I do know how to possibly get more information on that.”

That got all four of the councillors looking at me. “How?” Valern demanded.

“In batarian space, there is a planet in the Bahak System,” I explained. “There is also an asteroid belt there. On one of the asteroids there is an artifact that was left behind by the reapers. It is able to give information on the reaper arrival, but it also has the ability to indoctrinate anyone in range of it. I don’t know what that range is, but I do know that the Alliance either is already looking at building a base there or they already have one.”

Anderson sat up sharply at that. “You are certain?” he asked suspiciously. “How do you know about it? The Alliance would never share information about a black site with you.”

I shrugged. “The Alliance isn’t the part of this conversation I care about. What is far more important is that anyone that is sent to that asteroid without appropriate measures is going to be indoctrinated.”

He frowned at me. “How do you know so much about the inner workings of the Alliance?” he demanded.

“I just told you,” I replied. “I don’t. What I do have is more information about the reapers. I already have the asari matriarchs likely to be hunting after me for blabbing about their dirty little secret. I don’t need the Alliance coming after me too.”

He glared at me, clearly not believing me, but he thankfully stopped talking.

“Ultimately,” I continued to the whole Council, “you can either blame that new race as the reason why you are building up your forces, or you can announce the reapers to the whole of the galaxy and let them know of the coming threat. Each path has benefits and pitfalls. You would probably be better at figuring them all out than I am. As it stands, I will forward what I know about the reapers on to you once I get back to my ship and my people. You lot need to start making those indoctrination detectors and putting them out to everyone with access to anything more secure than a suitcase lock.” I looked at them intently. “You already know all at least that much though. Why ask me about it?”

“We may have an understanding about the decisions ahead of us,” Tevos said, being part of the main conversation properly for the first time. “However, we don’t know enough about the reapers. The fact that you know about their artifact in batarian space shows that you are already more aware of their current activities than we are. The prothean VI didn’t give any hint about this.”

“Though,” Anderson spoke up, “to be fair, we didn’t ask about artifacts and relics they had left behind. Still, Councillor Tevos is right. I will be in contact with the Admiralty about this.”

I nodded. “Sure.” I stood up. “I have to get back to my people. I will forward on any information that I have on them.” Vigil would hopefully be helpful in giving up more information on the specifics. That was a little ace up my sleeve that I wasn’t going to be sharing today.

“One last question,” Sparatus said before I could move towards the door. “Do you have an idea on the numbers of the reapers that we are going to be facing?”

I thought about it. From my memory of the games and what lore I had looked into, there was no solid number on how many reapers there had been. The best I got was promotional images that showed the reapers in orbit of some planet, along with game knowledge that they had been like that at many other planets. That gave me a hint that the number was going to be large.

“There are at least two different types of reaper ships that I have come across in our intel so far,” I said. “The dreadnought size that we saw here during the geth invasion, and a smaller ship, about the size of a destroyer. Think heavy frigate, or maybe light cruiser. And I know that their numbers were large enough to be able to invade several heavily armed and populated worlds at the same time with hundreds, if not thousands, of ships at each location.” I shrugged. “If I come across anything more specific I will let you know.” I took two steps towards the exit when one last thing occurred to me. “Oh, and don’t discuss your plans if there is a keeper nearby. They are tools of the reapers too. They are mostly concerned with maintaining the Citadel, but I wouldn’t put it past them to have some monitoring equipment either.”

I saw the exchange of heavily concerned looks that all four of the councillors had before I left, my guards falling into step with me and Persei once we left the room. The Spectres didn’t bother me as I made my way through the hallways to the exit. It wasn’t until I was sitting in the privacy of the elevator that I let out a sigh. “Well,” I said to my team, “hopefully that will light a fire under their arses.”

Jurt snorted. “If not, maybe that ‘new race’ will make an appearance and put them in their places.”

I shook my head, trying not to laugh out loud in amusement. To think that my people’s tech would be considered so advanced or powerful that it would be attributed to a new race. Sure, that’s what I had been going for, but to see it in action… I almost felt bad for the prank I was playing!

The elevator opened, drawing my out of my thoughts.

“Alright,” I said to the group. “I am going back to the ship. If you need to do anything on the Citadel, do it now; we are going to be leaving the system in the next six hours.”

Beau and Persei nodded, moving off across the Presidium. Jurt moved closer, taking his role as my guard seriously. It made sense that he didn’t have anything to go take care of. Polissa was already on the Balrog. Getting me there quick meant seeing her.

I turned and headed to the private docking bay. No need to stay in the open for the matriarchs to find.

…

(Torrin POV)

He couldn’t help tapping his talon against the railing as he looked over the refurbished cargo bay. Though, refurbishing might not be the right word for what had been done there. After all, the vast empty space that had been there before was more than two-thirds gone. Now, a giant tube and a whole bunch of shielding, power, eezo and cabling was now filling that space.

A planet-destroying weapon was a large device, after all.

But it wasn’t the presence of the weapon that had him on edge. He had been in the monitoring room, filling in for Beau while Brock had been meeting with the councillors. Torrin had wanted to join in, but he had lost the coin toss. That meant he had been on duty receiving information from the two operations that had gone off today against a single mid-sized slaver group. It was a mix of batarian and asari, with a couple of krogan thrown in for good measure, that had operated out of a base on a planet with a xenon-rich atmosphere. Getting there had been more difficult for our normal operations.

The group also had a few corvettes and a single frigate for defence. Brock’s makeshift fleet was more than enough to be able to prevent them from escaping in their ships.

Once the raid had successfully concluded, the teams had gone through the base looking for anything that might be of value, particularly information.

They struck metaphorical gold.

The information from previous ordered raids was enough to be valuable on its own. However, one particular raid stood out for Torrin and he knew he had to call Brock in first.

His human brother appeared on the walkway, walking towards him quickly, but not betraying any sense of urgency. It was just fast enough to know that Brock was taking Torrin seriously, but not so fast as to make other people worry about why he was rushing about.

“Hey Torrin,” Brock said, once he reached the young adult turian. Not a kid anymore. Certainly not the kid from the slums of the Citadel. “Your message sounded urgent. What’s up?”

Instead of replying vocally, Torrin opened his omnitool and transferred a file to the human. Brock raised an eyebrow, but opened his own omnitool to read it.

It didn’t take more than ten seconds for Brock’s face to almost turn to stone. Just like Torrin’s own face when he first read it.

“Does she know?” Brock asked.

Torrin shook his head. “I don’t think so,” he replied. “I didn’t tell her and I don’t think the ground crews would contact her directly. They would go through either you or Beau, if they didn’t just go through the ground team coordinator. I just happened to be covering the monitoring room today.”

Brock gave a slow nod. “Well,” he said slowly. “She needs to know. And once she does, she needs to have some support around her. Let’s get her to the third-level conference room. You call Ely and I’ll call Aleria; have them meet us there.” He sighed. “After Aleria, I’ll call Persei.”

Torrin nodded and made a call to the quarian Chief Engineer as he started moving to the conference room, Brock right behind him. It didn’t take long, but Ely promised to go there immediately.

Less than five minutes later, Torrin was sitting in the conference room, with Brock standing next to him. Ely and Aleria were also standing, waiting for the guest of honour.

He shook his head. Honour wasn’t exactly what he would call it.

Finally, Persei arrived. He knew the asari was smart. She took one look around the room and her face immediately looked concerned. “What’s wrong?” she asked, staring around at them.

Brock gestured to a chair. “Why don’t you take a seat?” he asked softly.

Her alarm seemed to get even worse, her whole body stiffening as she slowly stepped towards the chair next to Torrin.

He could almost feel the air around her becoming as tense as her body.

Brock sighed and took a seat on her other side. “We got some information from one of the raids,” he said, his tone gentle. “Torrin was on standby as the information came through. We found the crew of pirates that captured you. Our ground teams took them out.”

Persei’s breath hitched. A shaky hand slowly rose to cover her mouth as she stared at Brock. “Really?” she asked, her tone sounding fragile. “You’re certain?”

Brock nodded, looking her right in the eyes. “I read the report myself,” he confirmed softly. “But there’s more. After looking through the base, they found the name of the person who ordered the raid in the first place.”

It was like Persei’s whole body clenched. Torrin was afraid she was going to tear a muscle with how hard she was tensing.

“Who?” she asked, her voice surprisingly level. “Who was it that ordered my capture? Who was it that sent me to hell?!” She shouted out the end of that second question, her composure long gone.

Aleria crouched down next to the older asari and hesitantly reached out a hand, putting it gently on Persei’s forearm. The contact made the matron start, looking at Aleria like she had forgotten the younger asari was there. It took another moment before Persei managed to regain a small amount of composure and looked back at Brock, her face expectant.

“It was Matriarch Fless,” Brock said. “She is the one that ordered the raid.”

Persei arched a tattooed eyebrow. “Matriarch Fless in on the Council of Matriarchs,” she said, as if she was thinking out loud, more than she was talking to Brock. “She is heavily into shipping and trade.” Persei’s hands clenched. “Her niece took over as ambassador once I was captured.”

Torrin’s mandibles clenched for a moment, before he released them. It sounded like a pretty cut and dried case. Even if there was more to it than that, it was enough for him to start looking in that direction, if that’s what Persei wanted.

“How do you want us to handle it?” Brock asked. “Do you want to be involved?”

Persei’s eyes flickered around the room for a moment as she looked ready to start biting hull metal. “I want Fless destroyed. I want her world taken apart, piece by piece. And right at the end, right when the knife is about to fall and cut everything about her from asari society, I want her to know that I was the one that did it.”

Torrin was surprised. He didn’t think that Persei had it in her to be that vindictive. Not that he disagreed. The older asari had been a slave for something like eighty years. She was more than entitled to want vengeance against the one that put her there.

Brock nodded, accepting his aides… his friend’s answer. “Then I am going to need to learn about asari society a bit more,” he said, a soft lopsided smile on his face. “If I am going to burn someone out of it, I want to know how to make it hurt as badly as possible.”

Persei gave a jerky nod. Then, crouching down in front of her, Brock gently brought the asari in for a hug. The matron didn’t resist for a moment, allowing Brock to bring her in.

The moment that her forehead made contact with Brock’s chest, her emotions burst and her wails began.

Aleria and Ely almost teleported to her side and gripped her into a four-way hug. Torrin couldn’t see any room to join them, so he merely reached a hand out and held her shoulder as it shook with her cries.

The four of them stayed that way for more than ten minutes, feeling the long-standing pain of their friend be cried out to the galaxy.

…

1 film, 4 reviews

Transformers

Thessian Suns Publication

By Helia Mis’audis

Coming on the heels of the Geth Invasion, this story was rather poorly chosen. Whoever was in charge of the scheduling should receive a mark on their file for not changing the film schedule to adjust for such a sensitive time.

That said, I am unfamiliar with the history behind this franchise, though I am aware there is one. There is a mix between well done special effects and rather uninspired screenplay. This could have done so much more but the director clearly was more interested in explosions.

Sur’kesh Leaf Script

By Silarn Moduk

The concept that there might be artificial intelligences that would side with biological life to fight against other sects of artificial intelligences might be absurd at first glance. However, if one was to consider that artificial life was a mirror of biological life, it would be logical that there are conflicts between differing groups.

Apologies. While the concept of differing artificial lifeforms is a possible theological debate, this vid is summarised as: large on explosions, medium on comedic value, short on depth.

Palaven Daily Call

By Marticus Lossus

This is not exactly a highlight of human vid-making. Still, it had enough raw value that

The Krogan Word

By Ognut Grax

Those explosions! That director knew what he was doing when he blew things up! And killing mechs with them? *&^% yeah! (Edited by Citadel News Network). You know, I think I’d almost be willing to fight alongside geth if it meant I could blow up other geth with those sorts of explosions!

I don’t think there was much of a story there. I was too focussed on the explosions.

I’m a krogan. Deal with it.