Dancing through Tears, Chapter 5

No-one likes us humans, we don’t care

Normandy doesn’t have a full crew. In fact, it’s got a rather random selection of people on board. I make note of this as I carry Ashley into medical, where we’re lacking a doctor. That’s a problem I can do nothing about, as I carefully lay Ashley down on a diagnostic bed and remove the shatter remnants of her helmet.

And then, all I can do is stand there looking helplessly at her. I might be able to apply field dressings and medigel, but that isn’t enough for brain trauma. In fact, it’s exactly what The Book says not to do. There’s a crash as James drops the Cerberus machine on another bunk, but I don’t think he’s got any more medical training than me.

Liara leans over the bed and glares at me. “Ashley needs medical attention.” I know, but I can’t do something about that. “We need to leave the Sol system. Have Joker take us to the Citadel. They will be able to treat her there.”

That makes sense. “Joker!” I address the air, knowing he can monitor the ship. “Get us to the Citadel.”

“Yes, Commander.” At least he’s a familiar voice, if not face.

“Commander.” EDI is another one. “Admiral Hackett is attempting to contact you on the secondary QEC.”

“I’ll take it.” I turn round to leave, and notice the Cerberus mech. “See what you can get from that thing.” I look at Liara, and set off.


“Commander. Can yo... me? Ar.... ving this?”

Interference is making Hackett nearly impossible to understand. “EDI, can you clear this up?”

“I will try, Shepard.”

It doesn’t take EDI more than a few moments before she resolves the problems. Hackett comes through much more clearly. “Shepard, have you been to Mars? What happened there?”

“We got to the archives, Admiral. The Illusive Man had troops there too. Including a synthetic, that managed to download part of the data into it’s memory. Liara and EDI are trying to recover it.”

“I’m not surprised to hear Cerberus was there. Do you have any idea what they wanted the data for?”

“We speculated that anything that could destroy, or perhaps control, the Reapers was something the Illusive Man would be interested in, Sir.”

“That’s a sound theory. Cerberus are a wild card in all this. They may not want the Reapers to win, but they also want to come out ahead themselves.”

“I suggested that to the Illusive Man, that we needed to co-operate to survive. He dismissed the idea.” Behind me, the door swishes open, and Liara comes forward.

“Ah, Dcotor T’soni.” I shouldn’t be surprised Hackett knows her. “Do you have any idea what the data shows.”

“A ‘device’, designed by the Protheans.” She taps her omni-tool, displaying an unfamiliar object, an arrangement of spheres, antennae and gantries. “I cannot say yet what it does, but given the power output it would be capable of unimaginable levels of destruction.”

“Enough to destroy the Reapers?”

“I... cannot say. Not without more time to study the plans.”

“Send them to me. I’ll get the best experts I can find to look at them. If they concur, we’ll start gathering materials to construct this ‘device’.” He looks back at me. “What are you planning now, Commander?”

“We’re on our way to the Citadel, Admiral.”

“Good. We’ll need the Council’s if we’re to fight the Reapers.”

“And if they won’t support us, sir?”

“Then find a way.”

“Understood, sir. Also, Commander Williams was critically injured in the confrontation with the Cerberus mech. We’ll be seeking medical attention for her.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Commander. But we both know she’s just one of many. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Send me that data. Fifth Fleet out.”

I stare at the blank space where Hackett’s image was standing long enough for Liara to get worried. “Shepard?” I blink, and look at her. “I managed to get Ashley stabilised, but she needs proper medical treatment. The Citadel is the best place for that.”

“I suppose.”

"The admiral's right, isn't he. It's going to get worse."

"Unless we stop the REapers, yes." I head out towards the CiC.

She hurries after me. “At least Hackett is supporting mor research into the prothean data. I think it’s our best chance to defeat the Reapers.”

“Hmm.”

“I get the feeling you don’t entirely believe it, though.” Liara sounds sad, as I lean on the rail looking away from her.

“It’s hard to believe, yes.”

“Isn’t it worth a try, though? There’s no way we’ll defeat the Reapers conventionally.”

I pause for a moment. “I’m going to go and check what we have for a crew.” I start towards the cockpit.

“At least the Council can’t deny the existence of the Reapers any more. They have to support us now. Haven’t they?”

I stop and give her what’s half a grin and half a grimace. “It’s going to be a hell of a short war if they don’t.”



“Barely getting a pulse.” The medical team is rushing Ashley out on a stretcher.

“More IV. Move it along, there.” The turian seems to be in charge.

Rather than crowd them in the elevators, I step aside and halt Liara and James. “Where are you taking her?” I look at the turian.

“Huerta Memorial. Best care on the Citadel.” I nod at him in thanks.

“We aren’t going with?” James seems astonished by it, when I shake my head at him.

“We need to get ready for our meeting with the Council.” Liara may not sound happy, but she understands the main priority.

“Or perhaps they’re coming to us.” James points down the corridor leading to our docking bay. A C-Sec officer is coming towards us.

He holds his hand out when he gets close, and I shake it. “Commander.”

“Captain Bailey. Good to see you again.” For a moment, he grimaces.

“Likewise. Though, it’s ‘Commander’ Bailey now.”

“Congratulations?” He doesn’t sound happy about it.

“Meh.” He makes a disgruntled sounds. “I preferred it down in the wards. Now I spend most of my time playing gatekeeper for the Council and showing visitng dignitaries around. Ah, no offence.”

“None taken.”

“Anyway, I’ve been sent down to tell you that the Council are expecting, and are willing to see you, but they might be delayed owing to the Reaper invasion and all, and they’re sorry, blah blah, etc, etc. You might have time to go by the hospital if you want to see how your friend is doing.”

“Thank you. I might do that.”

“And I will go to Councillor Udina’s office and prepare our presentation.” Liara sounds decided, and I shrug. I don’t need her with me to visit Ashley, and she’s right that we need to know what we’re going to tell them.

“And you?” Bailey looks at James.

“I’m just a tourist here. I’ll try to stay out of trouble.”

Before we can discuss anything else, Bailey’s communicator beeps. “Chief, we need you up in the diplomatic offices. Some sort of trouble outside the Elcor embassy could use your presence.”

“I’ll be there.” He shuts down his comm., and looks at me. “It’s like this all the time. I’ll see you later, Shepard.”



We disperse. Liara heads to Councillor Udina’s office, and I feel a little sympathy that she’ll have to deal with him, tempered by the knowledge that she volunteered for it. James heads down to the Wards after mumbling something about getting a drink, and I’m fairly sure he’ll be in a bar frequented by Alliance soldiers within the hour.

Meanwhile I head up to the hospital. Huerta Memorial is named after the president of the UNAS, and it’s fair to say it’s a controversial name. President Huerta had a serious stroke a year or so ago, and spent several weeks in a coma. There are claims that he suffered serious brain damage, and that his cybernetic implants include a VI that is now operating his body without his brain’s input. The “cyborg zombie president” is a touchy subject, with mass protests and riots against him. That the anonymous donor who funded this insisted it be a ‘Memorial’ hospital implies they want to emphasise that the President is dead.

Not that the politics of the situation matter to me. I’m not even from UNAS. I’m here to check up on Ashley. In the lobby, I meet two doctors talking to each other. I assume Doctor Michel works here, but I do wonder about Doctor Chakwas. As I approach, Michel sees me coming. “Here she is.” She steps away, giving me privacy to talk to Chakwas.

Chakwas turns towards me. “Hello, Commander. It’s good to see you again.”

“You too, Doctor.” I hesitate a moment. “Ah, what are you doing on the Citadel?”

“Oh, I’m working at an Alliance R&D lab down in the Wards. When I heard about Ashley, I came up to see if I could be any help.”

“So the Alliance kept you in work after our little escapade?” That makes me feel a little resentful. I was a prisoner for six months.

“They didn’t seem to know what to do with me.” She sounds slightly amused. “I was officially on leave for the period, I was never involved in any Cerberus activity that the Alliance considered illegal, so I think they just decided to ignore everything.” Slightly less amused, she continues. “I suppose if they had decided to charge you with treason, I’d have had to insist on being tried as an accessory.”

“And they’ve got you doing R&D?”

“Yes. Useful work, but not really something I enjoy.”

“I remember you saying how you liked being on starships. You know, the Normandy doesn’t have a chief medic. Or any medic, come to think of it.”

“Is that an offer, Commander?” Now she definitely sounds amused.

“Get your gear, and take yourself down to the Normandy. Docking Bay D24. It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back, Commander.”

After we shake hands and Chakwas heads off, I go over to Doctor Michel. “Hello, Doctor. You’re looking well.”

“I am. Chief Physician at the most prestigious hospital on the Citadel. It’s a long way from my little clinic down in the Wards, and I owe it to you. If you hadn’t helped me out with Fist’s thugs and then with Banes, I’d never have got here.” She sighs. “But I suppose you want to hear about Commander Williams rather than reminisce.”

“How is she, Doc?”

“It could go either way. We’ve operated to reduce the swelling in her brain and that went well, but until she wakes up we’ve no way to tell what the damage might be. Scans show there is some, but brain injuries are hard to predict. She’s in excellent physical condition, which should help.”

“Can I see her?”

“There’s no reason why not. Of course, she is still in a coma, induced this time. I’ll get a nurse to take you.”

Williams’ room is a side one, with a large window overlooking the Presidium Ring that will give her an excellent view when she recovers. That she will is not in question. I sit down, and look at her for a moment. Her face is bruised and swollen, and some of her hair is gone, but she doesn’t look that different. “Hey, Ash.” She can’t hear me, but I’m still going to talk to her. “You know, I was pretty angry with you on Mars. When you expressed your doubts about me loyalty, well... But the thing is, right now you’re hurt and all I can think is that I want you to get better. We were friends once, and you still matter to me. You’re a fighter, Ash, and this war is going to need fighters. I don’t care whether you wake up hating me, but we’re going to need you. So get well, Ash.”


On the way to Udina’s office, I pass Bailey’s. When I hear a raised voice inside, I poke my head around the door. He’s got Khalisah in there! Not sadly, under arrest. She appears to be trying to get an interview with the Council, and it’s his job to say no. From what I overhear, she may be pushing a line about the Council being against humanity because they won’t let her interview them. Bailey sounds thoroughly weary as he tells her that the Council is just a little busy, what with the war, and isn’t giving interviews to anyone. When she threatens to camp out until she gets it, his rejoinder amuses me. “I hope you brought a sleeping bag.”

She spots me as she leaves. “Commander Shepard! Commander, humanity has questions. I insist...” With the door closing in her face, I don’t hear what she insists.

I talk to Bailey for a while, commiserating with him over having to play gatekeeper for the Council. He has n interesting insight into conditions on the Citadel. Even though refugees from worlds the Reapers have attacked are arriving, even they seem to want to act as if everything will get back to normal. The Citadel residents want to ignore that a war is happening, and manage to do so a lot of the time. That could make my job, getting support for Earth, hard. I also find out how he got to be Commander of C-Sec, and that it was mostly down to Udina pushing for it. When I suggest he could have refused, he points out that while I might be able to get away with refusing Udina, he has to live on the Citadel. We part, rather gloomily, after he mentions how his ex-wife and children are somewhere on Earth.

Udina isn’t actually present, but his asari secretary is waiting for me. She sends me up to the Council Chambers, where the Council is in session. Udina is, as seems to be his style, trying to browbeat them. “Earth is under attack! The Council must respond.”

Tevos doesn’t sound happy. “We are all facing difficulties, Councillor. The Reapers threaten all of us.”

“But Earth is the first Council homeworld to be attacked. We are facing the brunt of the attack!”

“According to your reports, perhaps.” Trust Valern to express the opinion of salarian intelligence.

Udina looks as if he’s about to burst a blood-vessel, till Liara shakes her head slightly at him. I decide to intervene. “The rports are true. I was on Earth when the Reapers attacked.”

“Commander Shepard.” Tevos doesn’t sound too happy to see me, either. “It may be so. Even so, what would you have us do? The Reapers press on our borders as well.”

“We aren’t going to get anywhere if we spend all our time looking after our own problems. The Reapers are too powerful for any of us to deal with alone.”

“So we should just send our forces to Earth and leave our worlds unprotected?” Tevos is definitely hostile to that idea.

“That’s not what we’re asking for.” I almost sigh, but that would be likely to offend someone we need on our side.

“You have a plan?” It’s the first time Sparatus has spoken, which is unusual considering his normal hostility to humans.

“We do.” I look at Liara. “Something we discovered in the Prothean archive on Mars.”

Liara takes up the tale, activating her omni-tool and displaying the device we came across. “This is a device the Protheans were trying to build during their war with the Reapers. Something they hoped would change the course of the war. According to Admiral Hackett’s experts, it is within our capabilities, but it would require your help.”

“The Protheans were defeated by the Reapers. What good did this device do them?” I think Tevos would like to disregard this.

“It wasn’t finished. There was a component missing. This, here.” Liara highlights a section of the display. “The Protheans simply ran out of time.”

Valern has been studying his omni-tool. “It would be a mammoth undertaking.”

“Yes.” I’m aware of that. “That’s why we would need the Council to support it.”

They look at each other, and then the Valern shakes his head slightly. Tevos gives a small nod in reply, and turns back to me. “The sad truth is that we have too many problems of our own to provide assistance at this time. Perhaps, when we have secured our borders, we may be able to give further consideration to helping with this device.”

Well, that’s extremely stupid. Not entirely unpredictable, though. As I’m about to go, Udina calls over to me. “Shepard. Meet me in my office. I’ll catch up with you.”


When Udina storms in, I’m seat on a corner of his desk. He certainly wants to vent. “They’re blind, stupid fools, Shepard.” He stomps over to the window and leans on the sill. “Humanity may have a place on the Council, but we’ll always be seen as second-rate. You saw how they dismissed me in there. Well, I may not be able to do much now, but rest assured I will not be counted out forever.”

“This whole ‘Council races stand on their own’ is going to be a problem with the Reapers here. None of us have the resources to stand them off alone. What are they thinking?”

“They’re thinking about their own people and how to protect them best.” Both of us whirl round at the unexpected, Turian, voice. Councillor Sparatus is standing there, and gives me the expression that on a human would be called a wintry smile. “Commander.”

“Councillor.” If he’s being polite, so will I. “Can we help you?”

“Yes. And I can help you. I know how to get the support you need for Earth.”

“What do we need to do?” Udina’s voice is sharp, but hopeful.

“The Reapers are attacking Palaven.” For a moment, Sparatus looks less stoic. “The Primarch is trapped there. The Normandy is one of the few vessels that might be capable of getting him out.”

“So far, I’m hearing how we can help you.” My tone comes out sharper than I’d like. “Not the other way around.”

“If you rescue the Primarch, the Hierarchy will be grateful. Not to mention the Primarch himself will owe you a debt, Commander. He had already proposed a meeting of government leader to decide a strategy for this war. If you make it possible, it’s quite likely that he’ll decide supporting Earth is in everyone’s interest. And swing Turian support behind this project your asari proposed as well.”

“Makes sense.” Although it’s interesting that what he proposes basically sidelines him, and if others agree the rest of the Council too. “All right, what information have you got? Where can we find the Primarch?”

“The last communication I had said Fedorian has been evacuated to Menae.” When I blink, he adds, “Palaven’s largest moon. That report is several hours old, and we know that Reaper forces are landing on Menae too. You’ll need to contact the Admiral in charge of the space forces still fighting in the system. He may have more information. I’ll make sure he knows to expect you and to co-operate. The rest is up to you, Commander.” He starts towards the door, and then pauses. “Incidentally, I’ve been asked to inform you that the Council has agreed to sustain your Spectre status. Do what needs doing, Shepard.”

That was strange. Udina remarks on it too. “It’s a strange day when the turians are the least hostile race to humanity. Still, they need you. Use that.”

“How about the other Councillors? What’s your read on them?”

“Tevos is dedicated to the asari. She’s like a mother tiger trying to protect her cubs. Valern is out of his depth. The salarians like there wars won before they start.”

“I suppose the other races aren’t so important.”

“No. But they can still help. Humanity has won a few friends over the years. Now I politic, call in favours, make promises, offer bribes, and do everything I can to get assets for your project and Hackett’s fleet.”

“You must have a lot of power.”

“Arcturus was one of the first places the Reapers attacked in human space. Parliament, the government, are gone. I have more power than any human being in history. I can literally move mountains.” He looks sharply at me. “Don’t forget that, Commander, because the task before us is literally moving worlds.”

“You must have known a lot of people on Arcturus. I’m sorry.” Damn, I’m starting to feel sympathy for Udina now.

“A huge number, on a first name basis. I had a second VI just to keep track of their anniversaries. Monstrous to think they’re all gone. And of course there are all the people on Earth as well, though that’s less... personal.”

“It’s not going to get better soon.” I sigh. “I better get started. The turians are going to want their primarch back.”

“Do that. I’ll be here if you need to see me.”



On the way back to the Normandy, I tell Joker to make sure the crew is aboard. So it’s a bit of a surprise when I reach the waiting area on the dock to find an ensign with a Normandy ship badge being interrogated by a news reporter. “But you’re from the Normandy, aren’t you. Is it true that Commander Shepard is on board? That she escaped from Earth after the Reaper attack. Why would she be here if she wasn’t meeting the Council?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” At least he’s keeping his head. “I can’t confirm or deny any rumours you might have heard.”

The reported has good peripheral vision. “You don’t need to. Here she is.” She steps over to me. “Commander Shepard.” She holds her hand out. “I’m Diana Allers, Alliance News Network. I’m a reporter on a show called Battlespace, showing conflicts and talking to military heroes from all around the galaxy.”

“I suppose you want an interview.”

“Better than that. My chief has ordered us to find an Alliance warship we can do embedded reporting from, and I want my ship to be the Normandy.”

She sounds enthusiastic. “Why would I want to allow that?”

“Wars can be won on the cutting room floor, Commander, and this is a war that needs to be one. I won’t take up much space, my gear is entirely portable. You’ll have full editorial control over anything I broadcast.” She hesitates. “I know you’ve had some bad experiences with reporters in the past, but I won’t give you any problems. I just want to get people to support the Alliance.”

I think for a moment. “All right. We can give it a try. Get your gear on board. We’re moving out within an hour.”

“How much can I bring?”

“Whatever you need for your broadcasts, and one footlocker. If you need help, I’ll have a deckhand assist you.”

“Understood, Commander.” Her salute, well meant, is nevertheless something she shouldn’t do.

Overheard on the Citadel:

Turian: “They’re shipping us out later today. To the battle zones on Palaven.”

Asari: “I’ll send you a holo-message every day.”

Turian: “I don’t know if you’ll be able to do that. There are strict limits on how much we can communicate. They want to keep channels free for military material.”

Asari: “But… how am I supposed to keep in touch with you?”

Turian: “We’re supposed to be allowed one personal communication a week.”

Asari: “All right. I’ll make sure to include the children when I speak to you.”

Turian: “Good. I’ll try to reply when I can.”

Asari: “Well, that shouldn’t be hard. It’s not as if you’re going to be on the front line. Yours is an engineering unit. You’ll be building fortifications in the rear.”

Turian: “Yes, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be in combat. Sometimes the front will come to us, and there’s also the fact that they will sometimes want us to assault enemy fortifications. That’s what they’ve trained us for.”

Asari: “But… You’ve done your service. Surely they wouldn’t put you at risk like that.”

Turian: “Serving the Hierarchy is what we do. Listen, I’ve been thinking. If you don’t hear from me, try to take the children and get away from here. This “Sanctuary Project” that’s being advertised. A place to hide from the Reapers. Try to get on that.”

Asari: “All right. I’ll look into it.”

Turian: “Good.”

Dancing through tears, Chapter 4

One last show

“So why are Cerberus here anyway?” Williams seems to enjoy interrupting any moment of calm I have with Liara.

“Yeah, they seemed pretty intent on catching you.” James looks intently at Liara.

“I assume they’re here for the same thing the rest of us are. The Prothean data.”

“That makes sense. Because anything that could destroy the Reapers...”

“Is something Cerberus might be interested in.” Liara finishes Williams’ sentence.

“Then we better get moving.” I start towards the elevator, until something bangs on the door into the facility. After a few moments, someone outside starts using a cutting torch down the seam.

“More Cerberus people.” Liara sounds rather annoyed.

“Bring them on.” By contrast, James sounds happy to have a fight coming.

I think for a moment. “Not right now, James.”

“What? But...”

“I want you outside with the shuttle. If Cerberus beat us to the data, you’ll be able to stop their evac attempt.”

“I... Yeah, all right.”

I can sympathise with his feelings, assuming they’re like mine. Earth made me feel helpless and frustrated, and an outlet in the form of Cerberus troops would be good. But there’s a larger picture I have to keep in mind. So I wave him onto the elevator, and send it off

It doesn’t take the Cerberus troops long to cut through the door. When they do, some of their troopers come through. “There she is!” They point at Liara, who is standing in the open as bait. She ducks for cover, as we planned. As the Cerberus troops move out to flank her, two grenades fly out from where Williams and I are concealed, and then we open fire with assault rifles, pushing them into a tight group. Ideal for Liara’s singularity to finish them off.

“We need to get up there.” Liara points at the door the Cerberus troops came in by.

That should be easy enough. There’s a personnel elevator just there.

Which turns out to be sabotaged. I look around. The landing around the room has an overhang, so there’s no way we can climb up. The vehicles are too far from it to climb off their roof, or too low. Although...

One of the rovers is on a maintenance lift in the corner. I activate that, and raise the vehicle to the maximum height. Then we climb up some cargo pallets, jump across to the top of the vehicle, and get onto the landing that way.

Meanwhile, Ashley and Liara are talking as they follow me.

“So, what happened here?”

“Well, first we got the news from Earth, which started a bit of a panic. The next thing we knew, Cerberus troops had infiltrated the base. Security simply wasn’t ready for them.”

“Sounds like they had help from the inside.”

“Yes, it does.” For a moment, Liara’s biotics flare. I think if she finds that ‘help’, they might be meeting with a fatal singularity.

We set out into the base, moving through the corridors. Liara knows the layout, and tells me which way to turn while she stays behind me, with Williams at the rear. As we’re moving, she murmurs to me. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to visit you on Earth. I... wasn’t sure it would be appropriate.”

I glance at her. “Well, in the circumstances, I think I forgive you. I missed you, though.”

“I missed you too.”

Before all the happy feelings can lead to anything, we run into a small patrol of Cerberus idiots. There are several of the ordinary troopers, and one of the commanders. Centurions, to use the pretentious name Cerberus gives them. They’ve an annoying habit of throwing smoke grenades, allowing the others to find better cover. They don’t seem terribly able to take advantage of this to outflank us, but that probably reflects the nature of the terrain as much as tactical stupidity. Biotics, and the occasional grenade, work as effectively as you’d expect.

At the first security office, I check the console. It’s locked down. Liara frowns. “We aren’t going to be able to use the pedway to get to the archive. We’ll have to get out on the roof and use the tram system.” She points at one of the exits. Before we can go there, Ashley interrupts.

“Who’s that?” She points at one of the monitors, which is still showing a feed from a security camera. A dark haired woman is purposefully hacking the terminal on a desk, before heading off.

“Doctor Eva Core.” Liara recognises her. “She joined the project a couple of weeks ago.”

“I think I’d like to have a word with her.” Even if it’s only to find she isn’t the Cerberus mole.


Through the door we get another corridor of Cerberus mooks. Some of these are carrying ballistic shield, large enough to cover almost their whole body and resistant to gunfire and biotics. The most obvious weakness is the vision slit, carefully positioned at head height so the troopers can look through it. Thus, they’re perfect for a decent sniper to split a few heads. The other significant problem is that they’re one-directional, and that direction is not ‘up’. Once Liara sends a singularity above their heads they make excellent target practice. The other Cerberus troops end up dead as well, which isn’t the worst disappointment I’ve had, especially since they drop a few thermal clips to replenish our supply.

On the roof, the wind is noticeably strong. The storm is closer, perhaps twenty minutes away. We head along the section of roof, and down a ladder to another. “Look, over there.” Williams points to where a tram is moving towards the archive proper. Fire is being exchanged between Cerberus troops on board it, and some unknown enemy inside the archive.

“The Alliance must still be holding out.” Liara sounds optimistic. “Hurry, that way.”

She points me along another section of roof, and up some stairs. Climbing them, my communicator crackles. “Commander.”

“That you, James?” It certainly sounds like him.

“I’m ... the shuttle. Storm’s playing.... reception. I can ... reach... Normandy. What is .....”

“What was that, James? I couldn’t hear you,”

“What .... –tion?”

“James?” Static is the response. Well, at least it sounds like he’s reached the shuttle. If Cerberus try to evacuate, he can interfere. I trot across a roof, leap the small gapto another and look around. There’s an entrance to the building here.

Liara frowns at it. “That airlock should not be open.”

Sounds like sabotage, and as we move inside it becomes apparent, firstly that this was a canteen, and secondly that a lot of people were gathered here when the atmosphere was evacuated. Williams sounds horrified. “It looks like some of them died trying to claw their way out.”

“This is brutal, even for Cerberus.”

Liara sounds distressed. I suppose these are people she knew. With a flashlight on, I move across the canteen.

Williams has had the same thought. “Did you know many of these people, Liara?”

“Not really. I encountered them, but I was the only asari here. They seemed to regard me with a degree of suspicion. I spent most of my time translating on my own.”

Hmm, well, that’s bad. Liara must have been lonely and perhaps a bit miserable. But it’s good, because no-one was trying to flirt with my asari. That sounds really pathetic even in my mind.

Fortunately, I don’t have to dwell on my inadequacies. There are some Cerberus troops, perhaps a rearguard, at the bottom of the room. If they are a rearguard they’re a very bad one, not paying attention to what’s happening around them. Perhaps they were under the impression that the glass between us and them was armoured, but it wasn’t. A few seconds of fire, and all bar the last are down. He lasts moments longer, caught in a singularity.

“We’ll need to repressurise the room.” Liara points. “Environmental controls are over there.”

In addition to environmental controls, there are two dead Alliance security personnel. While Liara works on the controls and Willilams watches for hostiles, I check the bodies. They were shot in the head at close range. That isn’t something likely to happen if they were alert.

As the lights come on, and air starts pumping back onto the room, Liara checks the console for more. “I have a recording showing what happened here.”

She puts it on the monitor. One of the, now dead, guards is talking to the screen. “Control, we’ve got some sort of problem down here. Security alarms just tripped.” The second guard moves into shot behind him. “I’m locked out from the system for some reason.” Doctor Core walks into the picture, and he glances at her.. “Doctor, we’ll let you know what’s happening when we know more.” As he turns to the screen, she draws a pistol and shoots the second guard in the back of the head, and follows up on him. As his body slumps forward across the terminal, she reaches in and starts accessing controls. The hiss of sudden atmospheric loss is audible in seconds, and in the background one of the scientists is visible collapsing.

Liara watches it in shock. “I should have... I was so busy concentrating on finding a way to defeat the Reapers that I didn’t even think to check up on her.”

“Hey.” I step towards her. “The only thing that matters to anyone should be defeating the Reapers. Don’t blame anyone but Cerberus for this.”

“But what if we’re wrong.” She turns away. “What if there’s no way to win, and we spend our last days scurrying around hopelessly.”

“We will beat the Reapers.” I take her by the shoulders, and turn her around to look in her eyes. “You and me, together. I promise.”

She wipes at an eye. “I believe you. Or I believe that you believe it, anyway.” And she sniffs. “I don’t know how you do it. You’re always so strong, so confident.”

That’s easy. “I think about the people I care about. Those I love.” I run my thumb along her jaw, and she leans into it.

“Then, I will do the same. Thank you, Shepard.”

A few more corridors, and we’re close to the tram station. There’s a problem, however. Cerberus have left an automated weapon turret behind. It isn’t going to break under small-arms fire or biotics., and it’s mingun can shred our shields in seconds. We have to dash between bits of cover, sheltering behind them until it hits a reloading cycle. And keep that up long enough to get behind it, where we aren’t within its arc of fire.

If the Cerberus troops in the next room had been paying attention, they’d have engaged us while we were doing this. They didn’t. On the other hand, while their equipment is pretty good I’ve not been impressed by their training so far. This group die rather easily too.

Looking around, Liara heads for a terminal. After a couple of seconds, she accesses a recording. Doctor Core is walking through the room we’re in, talking to a Cerberus centurion. “Set up the turret. And hold the trams at the archive. No-one gets through here.”

“Some of my men are still inside the facility.”

“No-one!” Well it’s clear who is in charge here. We got the turret, that’s for sure. Unfortunately, getting to the archive without using the tram could be difficult. Especially if the weather outside is still deteriorating.

Fortunately, Williams has a brain. “Don’t these Cerberus troops have communicators in their helmets?”

“The suits I saw did.”

“So, we need to get one of those and call for evacuation. Persuade them that we’ve dealt with the hostiles.”

“Good idea. See to it.” Williams moves into the next room.

Liara stares after her, then looks at me. “The Lieutenant Commander has become very competent.”

“I agree.” Ashley is. Perhaps satisfied, Liara turns back to the console.

I wander after Ashley. She’s working on one of the casualties, trying to get his helmet open. When she does, she steps back. “Oh God.”

I take a look. The man’s eyes have been replaced by some oddly organic looking cybernetics. They remind me of husks. When I glance at Ashley, she’s looking at me with a strange expression, a mixture of horror and pity. “Is that what Cerberus did to you, Shepard? Made you into a monster?”

“Do I look like that?”

“Well, no, but...”

“Doesn’t seem likely, then.”

“They rebuilt you. How am I supposed to trust that you’re, well, you?”

“Liara believes it. Doctor Chakwas believes it. Alliance Medical believes it. No offence, but they’re better qualified than you are to judge this.” I take the microphone from inside the Cerberus helmet. “Now, let’s see whether we can do this.” I lower my voice, and speak into the microphone. “Ah, Command, this is Delta Team.” They had Charlie and Foxtrot teams, from what I overheard. Delta seems likely.

“Where the hell have you been?” Whoever I’m speaking to sounds annoyed.

I try to sound aggrieved. “We’ve been engaging the intruders. They’re dealt with. And we have that asari we were hunting down captive. Need extraction.” Liara, who just walked through, wrinkles her nose hearing this.

“Well done. I’ll send Echo Team across to secure the base.”

“Down there.” Williams points to an area with a good line of fire on the tram terminal. We can ambush them from there.”

“Do that.” I move round to the other side of the room, where once Williams and Liara open fire I’ll be able to catch Cerberus troops engaging them in crossfire.

After the engagement, I look around. Fifteen dead Cerberus troops, no injuries on our side. I’m almost starting to feel like a bully, but their willingness to execute prisoners and murder civilians means my sympathy is limited.

We move onto the tram, and I set it going. “Wonder what we’ll find over there.” Williams sounds doubtful.”

“Lot of pissed off Cerberus troops, I expect.” Maybe this time, they’ll actually be ready for trouble.

The explosion by the side of the track, when it comes, is rather a surprise. All I can think as I pick myself up and look around at our wrecked tram-car, is that perhaps Cerberus aren’t so stupid after all. And with another car full of Cerberus troops heading our way, they look as if they want to keep their advantage.

They fail to do so. Grenades into both ends of the car bunch them together, Liara throws a singularity into the middle of them, and the two that try to leap across get a stock strike to the face while they’re still in the air. Over a hundred metre drop this is rather fatal. We shoot the ones caught in the singularity, then leap across. The controls are still functioning, so I reverse direction and take the car into the archive station.

More Cerberus troops are there, this time with the advantage of position. We still defeat them, taking advantage of the way their Centurions like to throw smoke grenades while they reposition. Two can do that, and on several occasions when the smoke clears we are left outflanking people who had moved to outflank us. I do get some amusement from moving past a shield-equipped trooper under cover of smoke, and shotgunning in the back. And the Centurion, who has been directing his men from behind a computer console, is rather surprised when I reach over it and pull him forward, before putting a pistol against his helmet and pulling the trigger.

With his death, the gunfire dies down and the smoke starts to settle. Liara points ahead. “There. That’s the archive.”

We get into position outside the door, and then activate it. Guns point inside, but no fire comes out way. In fact, as we move in, there doesn’t seem to be anyone present. I gesture to Williams to check around the room, and cover Liara as she makes for a terminal. When she reaches it, she starts tapping in commands.

A hologram lights up behind us. “Shepard.” Turning, a familiar face looks at us, cigarette in hand.

“Illusive Man.” Liara has a pistol drawn and aimed at him. That’s not likely to be too effective, since he’s only present in hologram form, but he can be shot through one I’m all for it.

“I see you survived the invasion of Earth.” He puffs on his cigarette. “This isn’t your problem any more, Shepard.”

“What do you want?” I let my annoyance show in my voice.

He looks at the prothean data stream for a moment. “The same thing I’ve always wanted.”

I remember the phrase. The survival and preservation of humanity.

“A fascinating race, the Protheans. The Alliance has known about this archive for years, and squandered that knowledge entirely. This archive might hold the key to controlling the Reapers. Perhaps the only place that exists, since you destroyed the Collector Base.”

“I destroyed that base because I didn’t trust what you’d do with it.”

“Short sighted as always. Stay out of this fight, Shepard. It’s not for you.”

“You’re playing games while Earth is under siege. Defeating the Reapers will take all our strengths, including yours. Give me control of your forces, for everyone’s good.”

“You’d do better with them than most, but your chances still aren’t good. Stay out of my way, Shepard. I won’t hesitate to remove you.”

“Good luck with that.” I turn away, “Liara.”

“On it.” She moves back to the terminal, then pauses. “Shepard, the data is being downloaded. I can’t access it.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the Illusive Man smirk, before his holo winks out. “Where from?” If he’s doing it, we need to destroy a communication array.

“It’s local.” Liara looks around, as I do. “Someone here.”

Williams has been round most of the room. I’m about to call to her, when she calls out. “Hey! Get away from there.” After a second, she steps into an alcove. “I’m warning you.”

It’s a bit of a surprise when she’s thrown out a moment later. There’s a sharp flash of electronics exploding, and then Doctor Core comes out and dashes for the door. “After her! She has the data.” Well, yes, Liara, I’d guessed that.

She’s certainly fast, and dangerous with a pistol and her omni-tool. I pursue, hardly able to shoot because she’s moving so fast. Out of the room, through doors she slams shut, up ladders and across sections of roof, having to dodge blasts of flame and take pistol shots all the way. And then she’s running across the roof, and a Cerberus shuttle is descending with its doors open. I activate my commlink. “Normandy. James. Anyone. Intercept that shuttle.”

As Doctor Core leaps aboard, I think she’s got away. Then our shuttle appears. “Not getting away this time.” James is on his comm.. He steers our shuttle directly for the Cerberus one, and I realise what he plans.

Kamikaze is not a normal tactic. But when the shuttles collide, the Cerberus one comes off worst, spinning round and crashing onto the roof before bursting into flames. Ours is also damaged, and I move to flag it in to a safe landing spot.

Williams moves over to where Liara is lying, and I’m relieved to see both of them standing. Although Liara looks upset, before James lands the shuttle between us. I hear her call out. “The data is on that shuttle.” Then there’s some banging, and a loud crash.

As I come round our shuttle, I see Williams confronting a synthetic. Presumably Doctor Core, with her human skin burnt off. Williams shoots her once, then is grabbed by the helmet and lifted up. Between me and the synthetic, so I can’t help her. Doctor Core touches her ear for a moment. “Orders?” I don’t hear the reply, but Doctor Core spins round and smashes Ashley’s helmet, head and all, against the frame of her shuttle. Not once, but twice, even as I start shooting her. Then she turns, and starts towards us. Shot, shot, shot, another shot, and it falls.

I look around. The shuttle is wrecked, Ashley is down, and we’ve a synthetic full of data we need. Then, I hear the whine of turbines. Joker speaks over the communicator. “Shepard. I’ve got Reaper signatures in orbit. We have to get out of here.”

Fair enough, Joker, if you say so. “Grab that thing.” I point James towards the synthetic, and move over to Ashley. She’s still breathing, though I can’t tell how much damage there is. But her helmet is crushed, I pick her up as gently as I can, and move up the loading ramp where Joker has brought the Normandy down. James has the synthetic, and Liara is moving aboard too.

The first Reaper is landing even as we flee from Mars.

Dancing through Tears, Chapter 3

What do you expect to happen on a planet named after a god of War?

“Commander, we’re in orbit. Can’t raise the surface, though. No one is responding to our hails.” We’re armoured and ready, waiting in the shuttle to drop, when Joker calls us.

“What do the sensors show? Any sign of Reaper activity?”

“The facility appears to be intact, Shepard.” EDI’s voice is calm as usual. “I detect no obviously unusual activity, however there are a significant number of vehicles outside the main entrance. It is possible that an evacuation is in progress.”

“That’d make sense, if they heard about the attack on Earth.” James moves into the pilot seat as he speaks. “Launching.”

Rather than wait in the back, where I’d end up staring at Commander Williams, I stand behind the co-pilots seat to observe. James is a competent enough pilot, so the descent goes well, till he points out the side. “We may have a problem, Commander. There’s a dust storm building up.”

He’s speaking loudly enough to be heard by Williams, so she’s able to respond. “How long till it hits?”

“An hour, tops.”

“Better get on with this, then.” We can’t afford to be stuck here for the weeks one might last.

James lands the shuttle on the bluff overlooking the facility set up to study the Prothean data archives without incident. There are a large number of vehicles parked outside it, but no visible movement when we debark from the shuttle. What we can see is the dust storm, 15 kilometres high and covering most of the eastern horizon.

“We need to get this done before that comes in, or we’ll have trouble getting out or communicating with the Normandy.” Of course, Williams has to make her comment. It’s not as if we aren’t familiar with the reputation of Martian dust storms.

I start down the path, and halt next to a rover. There’s a body, an Alliance soldier, shot in the head at close range. “We’ve got company. Weapons out.” While that might not have been necessary before, I’m sure it is now. I pull my sniper rifle, while James and Ashley get out assault rifles.

A little down the path, there’s a group of armoured people standing around another on his knees. They’re not paying proper attention to their surroundings, being more interested in the impending execution. We can’t interrupt it, but they don’t even start looking around after the man is shot in the head. This lets us get into an excellent ambush position. I squeeze off the first shot while they’re still gloating, and a head explodes. Then a second, as they start to look around. Assault rifle fire bursts around them as the duck for cover. I wave to Ashley to pin one group down, and to James to use a grenade on the others. Even if it doesn’t kill them, they’ll be forced to move, and that leaves them in the open for me to snipe. Repeating with the other group, this leaves us a score of eight dead idiots without breaking sweat.

Then I get a closer look at the bodies, and recognise their armour. It’s something I’m familiar with, and have even worn.

James recognises it too. “That looks like Cerberus gear.”

“It is.” I keep my eyes down the path, not wanting to be as dumb as these people.

“What would Cerberus troops be doing here?” I notice Williams is staring at me.

“How should I know?”

“You worked for them, didn’t you?”

“And I don’t any more.” There’s no movement visible, so I start up the path. We haven’t reached the area immediately in front of the building, where most of the vehicles were. I expect more resistance.

I’m not disappointed. This group at least is paying some attention to the world around them, rather than executing prisoners. We have a short, intense fire fight with them, before they’re all dead. When they are, Williams looks around. “A lot of vehicles for the number we’ve seen.”

So presumably there are more inside. This is hardly unexpected. I move into the entrance, and head for the elevator controls. Before I can activate them, Williams interrupts me. “Shepard, I need a straight answer. Do you know anything about what Cerberus is doing here?”

So she still thinks I’m associated with Cerberus. I try to keep my temper in check. “I worked for Cerberus for one reason only; to deal with the Collector threat when no-one else would help. Nothing else.”

“But they rebuilt you. Gave you resources, a ship…”She trails off suggestively.

“Let me be very clear. After I refused to hand the Collector base over to the Illusive Man, I have had no contact with Cerberus. I have no idea what Cerberus troops are doing here.”

“Since she handed herself in to Alliance custody,” James unexpectedly speaks up in support of me, “Commander Shepard has been under constant surveillance. At no time has she contacted or attempted to contact anyone associated with Cerberus”

So get over yourself. I want to say it, but don’t. Instead, I shove the lever on the elevator. “Williams, you don’t have to trust me. But Anderson is aware of everything I’ve done, and didn’t hesitate to reinstate me.”

She stops to think about it as the elevator descends. At least when we reach the net floor, a vehicle hanger, she’s reached a conclusion. “I know that, but I still…”

Banging in the air circulation vents interrupts us. There’s someone, or more probably several someones, moving over our head. And at least one has a gun, because I hear a shot being fired. As the noise gets louder, I realise where it seems to be coming out, and move into position where I can see the air filter. Vega and Williams follow.

There are several bangs, and then the filter comes away and an asari pushes herself out, dropping to the floor. Two Cerberus troopers follow her out of the vent. Before they can do anything, she turns and releases a singularity. The troopers are left floating in the air. She draws her pistol, takes careful aim, and shoots the pair of them, before letting her singularity dissipate and drop them to the floor. Two more shots are enough to ensure they’re dead.

I step out, a dumb grin on my face. When James follows, rifle levelled, I push it down. “It’s all right, Vega. She’s with us.” [i[Or me, at least.[/i]

Liara turns round. “Shepard!” Her face, momentarily happy, falls, even as I step forward ant take her hands.. “I heard about Earth. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. It was bad.” Williams has stepped up next to me, perhaps because she wants an elbow in the face for interrupting a reunion.

It certainly makes Liara hesitate. She lets go of my hands and steps back. “Ashley. I’m… sorry.”

For a moment, there’s an awkward silence, till Liara breaks it again. “What are you doing here, Shepard? The last I heard, you were still on Earth.”

“We got away from the Reaper attack. Anderson told me to go to the Citadel. Only, Hackett got in touch. He asked me to go to the archives on Mars. I think he thought there was something here which might help.” He also said you were here, so I’d have come by anyway. “Do you know what he was on about?”

“I think I do.” She steps towards a window.

“Finally, some answers.” James sounds as if he was holding in a lot of frustration.

“Perhaps.” Liara looks thoughtful. “After what happened at Bahak, Admiral Hackett knew we were running out of time. He got in touch with me, and arranged for me to come to the Prothean archive on Mars. I think he hoped I’d be able to find something, anything, that other researchers had missed.”

“And have you?”

“Yes. At least, I think so. I have uncovered the plans for a ‘device’ that the Protheans were building in their last days. Something that they hoped would be powerful enough to destroy the Reapers.”

“Finally some good news.” Williams sounds pleased.

“Maybe.” Liara is less so. “But it is just a blueprint. Building it would be a colossal undertaking.”

I shrug inside my armour. “It’s still more than we had a minute ago. Where do we find this plan?”

“In the archive.” Liara gestures out the window, towards a vehicle line on the far side of the building. “We’ll have to make our way across the building, and then take the tram line to the archive itself. Researchers aren’t normally allowed to download material directly, but with Cerberus troops running around the facility I don’t think that will be a problem. We just have to get there before them.”

“All right. Let’s move out.” I smile at Liara, and she smiles back.

Dancing Through Tears, Chapter 2

Can’t save them all

“Shepard.” Now why is Anderson yelling at me when I‘m having a nice rest admiring the swirly ceiling? Slowly, I focus my eyes on him. I think he wants me to get up, so I let him pull me to my feet. Hey, this room is quite a mess.

I may have a mild concussion. I’ll get over it. Instinctively, I check the nearest body for signs of life, which aren’t there. I’d move on to looting, but Anderson hands me a pistol and a thermal sink. “Take these.” I grimace, since it’s a Phalanx, but if that’s what he has I’ll do the best I can. “Come on.” He heads for the windows, or rather the space in the wall where there used to be windows, and in some cases wall. Outside, a ledge runs along the edge of the building.

We move out onto it, and start making our way around the building. The Reaper in the harbour has at least one friend downtown, and there’s more objects dropping from orbit as we go. Anderson appears to have a goal in mind, and it’s not reaching the ground because he passes a ladder which would take us that way. I’m not familiar enough with the layout to say what it is, but we move across the roof of a walkway towards another building. Anderson starts talking into his communicator. “Commander Williams. Lieutenant Vega. Normandy, can you hear me? We need pickup, Vancouver harbour.”

Well, at least I know where we’re going. And then I notice movement on the wall of that building.

“Husks.” Anderson does too. “Take them out.”

I wouldn’t personally have picked a Phalanx pistol for this, but it does the job. Hitting them while they climb sends several dropping several stories to the ground. It’s a good job there weren’t more, though, because Anderson announces he’s out of thermal clips a few moments before mine clicks dry.

Anderson drops down a ladder here, onto the veranda of an apartment. I think he’s planning to take us through, but there’s a problem. A couple of husks are trying to break through the armoured glass, and we’re out of ammunition. I wave him to take cover, and close up behind them. The Phalanx may not be a good pistol, but it’s a decent enough club for smashing husk skulls in. I do that, and take a look at the door. Locked.

“Look out.” My head jerks around at Anderson’s shout. A husk has come up the wall and onto the balcony. It lunges at me, and gets a pistol smashed into its face for its trouble. And then gets kicked off the edge, for good measure. And then I look round. The Reaper is swinging its gun this way. I dive behind a section of wall, and the building shudders as the stream of projectiles hits. And then it loses interest, and starts firing at something else across the harbour.

At least it blew open the apartment Anderson wanted us to enter. It must, at some point, have been quite fancy. Given the military equipment and decor, possibly senior officer quarters for people working at headquarters. There are even I few heat sinks I can scavenge, and I reload before passing one to Anderson. He takes us through, to an internal door. A husk is trying to break in through it, so I let it have a whack in the face and then force the door open enough for Anderson to squeeze through. I’m about to follow, when I hear a noise.

Hiding in a crawl-space on the other side of the room is a small boy, I think the one I’ve seen playing with a frigate model. I hold out a hand to him. “Come out of there. I’ll get you somewhere safe.”

He shakes his head. “Everybody’s dying. You can’t help me.”

I’m about to try another argument, when the building shudders. I look round, and one of the Reapers is walking past the window. The damn things walk! At least, some can. The one that landed in the harbour wasn’t anywhere close to the size of Sovereign, so there’s more than one type.

“Shepard. Come on!” Anderson sounds impatient. I turn back to the crawl-space but the child has gone. Well, I can’t do anything for him now. I head out the door.

The fire from the Reaper has brought down significant amounts of internal fittings. Anderson and I have to pick our way through them. As we move, he starts talking. “Ah, this is a god-damn mess. Every hour these monsters are here, thousands of innocent civilians are going to die.”

I’m not sure there’s anything we can do about that at this point. “I’m not bothered by the risk to me, but I’ve chosen this life. There are a lot of people going to die for no more reason than being human.”

“Yeah. Ah, I don’t want to think about it. We were so sure we had more time. And they came sooner than we expected, and cut through our defences as if they didn’t exist.” We edge along the remaining floor overlooking a stairwell, most of which has been destroyed in the Reaper fire. “We need to get to the Normandy. You have to go to the Citadel, get help from the Council.”

“You think they’ll help us?”

“Well, I don’t know. They have to have their own fears. But you’re one of their Spectres, that has to be good for something.”

I think he might be a little optimistic. Before I can point this out, the building rocks to another blast and I find myself wobbling over the stair well. Anderson grabs me, and pulls me back. “Thanks. I owe you one.”

“More than one.”

Back on a more solid section of floor, Anderson takes us across and out the window. We’re on a ledge overlooking the harbour, where the Reaper is idly blowing up any resistance it identifies. The shuttle pads are still intact for now, hidden as they are from its position. Anderson heads towards them, when his omni-tool lights up. “Anderson, we’re on the Normandy.” Commander Williams must have moved quite quickly. “We’re... Oh hell. What are they doing?”

I look up. Someone has brought a dreadnought into the atmosphere, and is exchanging fire with the Reaper in the harbour. That’s not a clever idea. “That dreadnought. It’s going to blow.”

It does.That is good news for downtown Vancouver, in terms of future urban renewal schemes and lots of deformed children as toxic eezo spreads around the area. It’s bad if you’re standing on a ledge overlooking the harbour, and get to see the explosion close-up. Anderson and I drop to ground level rather faster than I hope he planned.

I still get to my feet faster than him, which I attribute to being younger and in better shape. Maybe he’s wrong about what soft living has done to me after all. Some of the boats in the harbour are burning, and there’s a couple of Alliance soldiers in cover at the end of one wharf. We head over to them, and the one who is patching the others wounds doesn’t seem happy. “Get down. You’ll draw their attention.” He points onto the wharf.

Some nicely original creatures are on there, bent over something that might be a body. Eating. They almost look like some warped version of a batarian, with four eyes and that particular proportion of limbs. They have spotted us, and unlike husks they have assault rifles. For a few seconds, we exchange fire, but even when I have a pistol and lack armour they aren’t the most formidable enemies. Anderson is also a pretty decent shot, and we finish them quickly. He slides over closer to the soldiers, while I keep an eye for other interruptions.

“What happened to you two?” Anderson is doing his best ‘officer calming the troops’ voice.

“Shot down over the harbour. I got us here.” The soldier hesitates. “Sir, do you have some medi-gel?”

“Here.” Anderson hands over his supply. “Have you got a radio?”

“Not with us.”

“There’s one on the gunship.” The wounded soldier sounds a little dazed.

“You can’t get at that.” The other sounds worried. “There’re more of those things over there.”

I’ve no insignia on my uniform, and Anderson is dressed like an Admiral. So he may not realise who we are. Two special forces N7 people, armed and ready to fight. Anderson seems to feel the same way. “Son, you let us worry about that. Stay here while we get help.” He waves me forward, and I don’t mind taking point. Onto the wharf, I grab a medpac in passing. As we pass the dead creatures, I notice what they were eating. Another of their own kind. I guess they have to be called Cannibals.

The soldiers were right about more cannibals being on the wharf, in the area by the wrecked gunship. I counted eight of them, which we shoot, stab, and beat with pistol butts until they’re all dead. I duck under the gunship wing, and grab the rifle, some heat sinks and another medpac from it’s survival gear.

Anderson makes for the radio. “Normandy, can you hear me? This is Anderson.”

“Admiral?” The signal is poor, but just understandable. “Where are you?”

“We’re near a crashed gunship in the harbour. I’m setting off the distress beacon.”

Our only response is static. “Hope she got that.”

I have been keeping watch. For a while, I’ve been seeing objects falling from orbit and crashing into the city. Now, one comes down near us and I realise what they are. When they hit the ground, they split open and a mix of Husks and Cannibals spill out. “We have other problems.” I draw Anderson’s attention to them, and we duck into what cover we can find.

There’re a lot of these drop-pods coming down. Even when we dispose of one lot, more keep coming at us. Heat sinks run low, and then I have to toss Anderson my last one as he runs out. I switch to single shots on the rifle, going for head shots on the husks and shots between the eyes on the cannibals. Taking longer to aim for such precision means I’m taking more fire in return, and they start to close in. So I’m relieved when I hear the whine of engines, and Anderson’s omni-tool broadcasts a welcome voice. “Have no fear. The cavalry is here.”

Normandy swoops in and fires a short burst from its Gardian battery, clearing the area in front of us of hostiles – and probably anything else alive. The pilot brings her round, and the landing ramp descends as she hovers over the harbour.

I dash for it, and jump. “Welcme aboard, Commander.” Ashley and James are standing on the ramp, armed and ready to shoot.

Anderson jogs towards us. “Shepard.”

“Come on, jump for it.” It’s not too far.

“I’m not coming.”

“What?”

“You’ve seen those soldiers. They need leadership. I’m staying here to co-ordinate Earth’s defences.”

“We’re in this fight together, Anderson.” If he can stay, I can stay.

“It’s a fight we can’t win. Not without help. Get to the Citadel, and get that help. That’s an order.”

He might have forgotten something. “I don’t take orders from you any more.” No military rank, no need to obey the military chain-of-command.

He’s thought about that. “Consider yourself re-instated. Commander.” He pulls a chain with a set of dog-tags on it, and throws it across to me. “You know what you have to do.” He steps back, and glares at me.

“I’ll be back.” Williams and Vega start into the ship. “And I’ll bring every ship from every fleet I can find to help!” Anderson nods at me as I make the promise. I half turn away, and then back for a moment. “Good luck.”

“You too.” Seeming satisfied, he heads back towards land.


As the Normandy starts to lift off, I see shuttles landing on the pads. Civlians are being evacuated, including the boy I saw playing earlier and couldn’t get out of his crawl-space. He looks scared as he gets aboard one. A Reaper is walking towards the pads.

As the shuttles lift off, the Reaper turns towards them, destroying first one, then the other. There’s one I didn’t save.



In the hold of the Normandy, equipment is laid out. It looks like there have been some modifications, to make this into the primary armoury as well as the vehicle bay. I move over towards a locker, which has my name on it, when James comes across. “What’s going on? Why are we leaving?”

“Admiral Anderson ordered us to the Citadel, so that’s where we’re going.”

“What? No way we’re running from the fight. Take us back.”

“Don’t you think I’d rather stay and fight too? We have our orders.”

“This is bullshit. You can’t…”

I don’t know what it is I can’t do, as I turn and jab him in the chest with my finger. “This is not a democracy, Lieutenant. We are going to the Citadel. If you want to come back, you can get desert and get transport from there.” He gestures angrily at me, before walking off.

“What’s on the Citadel?” Ashley seems rather calmer.

“Anderson told me to go to the Council, try and get their help.”

“And if they won’t?”

“Then we find a way to get help anyway.” My temper starts to flare at her doubts, fortunately, we get interrupted on the intercomm.

“Commander?” A familiar voice speaks over it.

“Joker. Is that you?” Although it almost has to be.

“In the flesh, Commander. Ah, you know what I mean. I’ve got Admiral Hackett on a secure line wanting to speak to you.”

I look round, and find a comms terminal nearby. “Put him through.”

“Commander.” Hackett’s picture is terrible, the signal badly distorted. “What’s the situation?”

“Reaper forces have landed on Earth, Admiral. We’re making for the Citadel to try to get support.”

“Good. Reapers hit… at Arcturus. Parl.. … gone. ….. fleet retreating. No way … ….. conventionally. Before.. del I need you to go…. Prothean arc… Mars. Researchers… able… Doctor T’soni can fill… in.”

“Head for the Prothean archive on Mars. Understood, Admiral.”

He nods. “Hack... out.” The communicator closes down.

“Mars. What’s there? Having we explored those archives.” Williams sounds doubtful.

“You heard Hackett. Mars, then the Citadel. Joker, make it happen.”

“Ah, aye aye, Commander.”

“Gear up.” I raise my voice. “Armour and weapons, ready for heavy combat.” Hoepfully, my locker holds my own combat gear. Otherwise, I’ll find something.

Dancing through Tears, Chapter 1

Prepare to be ascended

The Alliance frigate swoops low over the countryside, banking sharply over the forest below. Sensors should be scanning for targets, weapons officers watching their boards, the pilot looking seconds ahead to ensure there aren’t any mountains about to tear the belly out of the ship while he showboats. No one wants a repeat of the Nordlingen incident, especially not people in downtown Vancouver when the eezo spreads from the wreck. Another sweeping turn, and then the ship shows a slight flutter. Fortunately the hand holding it regains control, and the child’s toy doesn’t go dropping into the harbour.

I sigh. Watching the boy play with his toy is as a close as I get to any sort of excitement these days. This set of officer’s quarters is starting to become dull. Especially since I’m not allowed to interact with anyone who isn’t cleared, and very few are, and my meals get delivered here. I don’t even have a terminal, though I can see where one used to be fitted, and they confiscated my omni-tool, so I can’t even check the news. I’m starting to think the Alliance doesn’t know quite what to do with me, and have stuck me in a room in their headquarters until they can think of something.

The door chimes, and I turn around to see Lieutenant Vega come in. He’s an enthusiastic body-builder, young James. He salutes me. “Commander.”

“You know, you shouldn’t call me commander, James.”

“Shouldn’t salute you either, sir.” He pauses to let me process that, and then continues. “You need to come with me.”

Well,, that’s a surprise. “Is something happening?” I’m not normally allowed out of this room.

“Defence committee wants to speak to you.” And he’s in enough of a hurry to step out without waiting for me.

I hurry to catch up. “What’s going on?”

“Couldn’t say. Just told me they needed you. Now.” He looks briefly at me before moving towards the conference rooms.

Headquarters corridors are full of busy, purposeful officers in their dress uniforms and guards in working uniforms. James in exercise gear and I in undress uniform without any insignia look definitely out of place as we move past people. Traffic is light enough, and James is large enough, that people don’t get in our way much.

“Shepard!” Although as we turn down one corridor, I hear a voice I recognise. I turn round to see him.

“Anderson.” Back in his uniform, with an Admiral’s rank insignia as well. “How have you been?”

“Not so bad.” He reaches out, and pats my stomach. “You look good, Shepard. Maybe a little soft around the edges. How are you holding up since being relieved from duty?”

“Yeah, six months of hot food and soft beds does that.” He starts down the corridor next to me, with James following behind us. “What’s going on, Admiral?”

“The defence committee wants our input.” Anderson looks grim. “Several of our deep-space stations have gone dark. We’ve lost contact with our extra-solar systems. And long-range scanners are picking up a mass moving in from out-system. A large one.”

“The Reapers?” I stop, and stare at him.

“Perhaps.”

“What else could it be? The Reapers are here. And we’re not ready for them.”

“That’s what the committee wants to speak to us about.”

“Unless we’re planning to talk the Reapers to death, the committee is a waste of time.” My tone is venomous.

“They’re just scared. None of them have seen what you’ve seen. We’ve all reviewed your reports, seen the data you’ve collected, but it’s all just theory to us. You’ve been there, in the trenches. You know what they’re capable of. Hell, you’ve spoken to Reapers. And then blown them up!”

“That why they grounded me? Took away my ship?” Kept me from Liara.

“You know that’s not true. The shit you’ve done, they could have court-martialled you and thrown away the key. It’s your knowledge of the Reapers that kept you from being tried, court-martialled, and discharged.”
“That, and your good word.”

“Yes, I spoke to the committee. They trust you, Shepard. And so do I.”

I think I might have hurt Anderson’s feelings. I’m angry myself. A vague hand-wave is the best I can manage as an apology, but it seems to be enough. He turns and heads towards the committee room.


“Anderson.” Up a short flight of stairs, we meet Ashley Williams, who is out of uniform and is wearing her hair longer than regulations allow. Her greeting for the admiral is oddly informal too.

“Lieutenant Commander.” I wonder when that happened. Technically that’s my old rank, and the last I knew she was an Operations Chief. “How did it go in there?” Anderson seems interested in her opinion.

“I don’t know. I never can tell with them. I’m just waiting for orders now.” Her eyes flicker towards me as I move up alongside. “Shepard.”

“Williams.” If she expects a friendly greeting, she should extend one. It’s not as if I don’t remember how she reacted on Horizon.

For long enough for it to become uncomfortable, we stand staring at each other. It doesn’t seem like Anderson wants to interrupt. For a moment I smirk, wondering if he wants to see a cat-fight. When Ashley sees me smirking, her fists clench.

Fortunately we’re interrupted. A female yeoman walks obliviously over to us. “Amdiral Anderson? The committee is expecting you.”

“Understood. Come along, Shepard.”

I step after him. Behind, James asks Ashley, “Do you know the Commander?” He sounds surprised.

“I used to.” Yeah, and I’ve changed so much, have I.


The Defence Committee is a bunch of Admirals and Generals, with a few Captains around to carry the coffee. They don’t often meet in full session, but here they are. With all the data feeds on, the room is noisy. They quiet down as Admiral Anderson advances.

The chairwoman takes charge. “Admiral Anderson. Shepard.” Anderson salutes her. I, of course, not being in the military any more, don’t bother to. “We’ve called you here to see if you have any insight into what is going on. The reports coming in are unlike anything we’ve seen. Whole colonies have gone dark. We’ve lost contact with everything beyond the Charon Relay.”
“Whatever this is, it’s incomprehensibly powerful.” Another Admiral interjects.
Anderson looks at me. Well, he has to deal with these people every day, so probably doesn’t want to annoy them too much. I have less to lose, or to gain.

“You called me because you want me to tell you what you already know. The Reapers are here.”

“Then, how do we stop them?” An Admiral I don’t know asks me the question as if I’ve got a magic answer.

“Stop them? This isn’t about strategy or tactics. This is about survival.”

“That’s it?” It doesn’t sound like a popular option.

“The Reapers are more powerful that we are. They’re more advanced than we are. They don’t fear us, and they’ll never take pity on us.”

“But there must be some way...”

“We need to seek out our allies. We need to get every fleet in the galaxy together if we’re to have a chance.”

“Sirs.” There’s a communication jockey at one of the stations. “We’ve lost contact with the moon.” A murmur goes round the room.

“So soon.” Anderson sounds shocked. “They couldn’t be that close already.”

“How could they have got past our defences so soon?”

“Why haven’t we heard from Hackett?”

That’s a slightly puzzling question. Hackett’s Fifth Fleet should be at Arcturus, rather than Earth . Before I can ask, another comms tech pipes up. “UK headquarters has a visual.”

He puts it up on the screen, but at first all we get is a soldier yelling onto the camera at close range in a building that’s already showing signs of damage. Then we get an outside shot. A reaper, the size of Sovereign, had landed in the centre of the city. More are descending in the background. Combat has already started. On other screens, pictures from around the world show the same thing. Reapers landing in earth’s cities.

The room starts to buzz with conversation. “What do we do?” The senior admiral is looking at me.

I look at the screen. “The only thing we can. We fight, or we die.” I glare at everyone.

“We should get to the Normandy.” Anderson is at my elbow.

I’d have replied, but a noise outside draws attention to the window. Through the cloud layer a Reaper is descending into Vancouver’s harbour. “Oh my god.” I’m not sure which of the admirals said it, but it’s appropriate. As it lands, it starts firing into the city. As the beam swings round, I realise it’s going to hit this building.

“Get down!” As I hit the floor and start rolling for shelter, I realise most of the people in the room are too far removed from their combat days to react instantly. Although Anderson and a Captain are on the floor with me when the beam hits, most of Earth’s Defence Committee is standing in the open when the end of the room explodes.

The good thing about being frequently in combat is that you react quickly to danger. The bad thing about being young and frequently in combat is that you can be back on your feet quickly. So when the secondary explosion sends another shock wave through the room, I’m the only person standing. My head smashes against something, and the ceiling looks very nice from down here.

Mass Effect 3

Being the climax of my Mass Effect stories, part 1 and part 2




Anderson: "How bad is it?"

Hackett: "Bad. We just lost contact with two of our deep space outposts. There's something massive on long range scanners."

Anderson: "Is this what Shepard warned us about?"

Hackett: "I'd stake my life on it."

Anderson: "How long do we have?"

Hackett: "Not long. I sent word. The fleets are mobilising."

Anderson. "God help us all."




Starting tomorrow on a thread not far from here.

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 76

The accused will sulk

“Joker. What is going on? Why have I not been able to talk to Shepard, and why is the Normandy orbiting Hagalaz?” I make no attempt to hide my impatience as I boards the Normandy.

“Shepard...” Joker sounds hesitant, nervous. “Is behaving a bit oddly. As in, really oddly. Not like you’d expect Shepard to act at all.”

“And what, specifically, is she doing that you find odd?”

“She’s, ah, she locked herself in her room and won’t come out, or talk to people.. When Kelly persuaded EDI to unlock the door so she could go in to talk to her, Shepard threatened to shoot her. And then shot at her when she didn’t leave immediately.”

“Is Ms Chambers seriously injured?”

“Oh, she wasn’t hit. But she was pretty shaken up by it.”

“If Zoe shot at someone at the range involved and missed, it’s because she didn’t want to hurt them. Let Miss Chambers know.” I take a deep breath. “Now for the important question. Why is she doing this?”

Joker shrugged. “That’s the thing, we don’t know. She seemed pretty normal till Hackett’s visit, maybe a little down about all the deaths, but otherwise her normal sarcastic and generally annoyed self.”

“So this relates to Bahak?”

“How do you... Oh, right, Shadow Broker. None of our secrets are safe any more, I suppose. Creepy.”

“If you wish I can post the listing of your extranet hotlinks for public discussion.”

“Yeah, let’s not go there.” Joker grimaces slightly. “Anyway, yeah, after Hackett came aboard they went into the sick-bay, and when they came out Shepard looked more annoyed than usual, went up to her room, and doesn’t seem to want to come out. Though she has been eating the meals we leave outside. Sometimes.”

“Let us start from the beginning. I understand Admiral Hackett contacted Zoe to ask for help with an extraction. One of his contacts had been captured by batarian security forces. This was a Doctor Amanda Kenson, if I’m correct.”

“Yeah, that was it. He wanted the Normandy, ‘cause a stealth ship could get in and out unnoticed. And he wanted Shepard, because she was deniable, I reckon, but he span her some sort of line about her expertise. Not sure I trust the Admiral as much as I used to.”

“I see.” I felt my eyes narrow. “Please, continue.”

“Well, the insertion went perfectly. The batarians never picked up the Normandy, we dropped Shepard’s pod on target, and withdrew to a safe distance to wait developments. Next thing we notice is a shuttle lifting off fform the prison, ‘bout an hour later. It heads off to an asteroid. A few days after that, the asteroid starts moving, so it’s on a collision course with the Mass Relay. You should have heard Mordin when this started, going on about the effects being unknown, how fascinating it all was, and why it was probably a bad idea to be nearby when the asteroid hit the relay, but it would be a great scientific opportunity, until we ended up dead, so perhaps not.” Joker puffs his cheeks out. “Only he said it faster, with less pauses and longer words.”

“Well, the whole galaxy knows the effects of crashing an asteroid into a mass relay now. The batarians are up in arms about it. I suppose three hundred thousand dead will do that. Can you think of any reason why they would be blaming Shepard, or is this merely a case of blaming the usual suspects?”

“Pretty sure it’s the last. Shepard was wearing a suit of Cerberus armour, not her N7 gear. Full helmet and everything, so the most they could say would be a Cerberus agent. And I’ll swear on anything that they never even noticed the Normandy.”

“And you left the system.”

“Yes. Right at the last moment we got a call through from Shepard, who was on the asteroid. There’d been some pretty heavy jamming, and it cut out right before she started talking to us. As if she’d just turned it off, you know. Anyway, she called me in, and I swooped in and rescued her, then we hit the relay and got out before it blew up. And that was that, till Hackett got aboard.”

“She did not seem upset about what happened in Bahak?”

“Well, yeah, a bit. She didn’t snap my head off like she normally would, even when I tried to provoke it. I mean, she’d killed three hundred thousand people, and I don’t think she was happy about it. Even if they were batarians.”

“Shepard’s behaviour was consistent with someone who was thinking about a topic or topics in sufficient depth to be distracted from activity going on around them.” EDI unexpectedly offers her interpretation.

“So the event which precipitated her current behaviour was the visit from Admiral Hackett.”

“Seems like it.” Joker shrugged. “But since she didn’t tell us anything, and we’ve cleared the bugs from most places, no-one but she and Hackett know what they talked about.”

“I see.” I sigh. “I shall have to go and ask her about it, then.”

“Last time someone tried to speak to her, shots were fired.” Not that Joker sounds terribly upset about it.

“Zoe might have been willing to fire in Ms Chambers’ direction, but she was not prepared to shoot her. If Ms Chambers had persisted, she would no doubt have forced Zoe to speak to her. She will not even attempt such silliness with me.”

“Yeah, well. Pictures! The galaxy wants to watch your reconciliation.”

“In your dreams, Joker. I believe that is the human saying.”

“I wish.”


Before heading to Zoe’s cabin, I went down to the mess and picked up a tray of food, enough for the two of us to have a quiet meal together. If Zoe wasn’t eating, this would make her feel better.


“Go away.”

Muffled though it was, Zoe’s voice was unmistakeable. I glare at the door. “Zoe Shepard. Open this door at once.”

The crash inside suggested someone falling off a bed and for a moment I winced, Then I set my mouth in a firm line, and started tapping my foot. Sympathy is not the first approach to try with Zoe. She’ll mistake it for pity, and that will make her defensive..

When the door opened, Zoe peered out, half-dressed and looking dishevelled. “Liara. What are you doing here?” She blinked twice, and rubbed her eyes.

“Visiting you.” I swept through the door, grabbing Zoe by the elbow and pulling her over to the table. “We’re going to have a little meal, and you’re going to tell me why you’ve ignored four emails from me.” A couple of bottles lay on their side on the floor, and the air smelt faintly of alcohol. “Have you been drinking? Are you drunk?”

“Erm. Yes. And no. Maybe a little hung over, but it’s only been two bottles of beer.” Amused, Liara noted that Zoe was trying to sit at attention, and wasn’t making any attempt to reach for food after a first glance at the tray.

“I see.” I managed, with some effort, to keep my tone clinical. “What provoked you to do that? I have never seen you drink while anything important was happening.”

“Do you know what I’ve been doing?” Shepard lowered her head.

“I know that Admiral Hackett asked you to go to Bahak to rescue an Alliance agent, I know that an asteroid was rammed into the Bahak relay and the detonation killed everyone in the system, and I know that you are likely responsible. I also know you well enough to be sure that if you did it, there was a very good reason for it.”

“Well. Yes, I suppose.” Zoe sighed. “I didn’t want to do it, mind you. But that was apparently the “prime relay”, the first one the Reapers built. They could use it to connect to any other relay anywhere, and apparently they were about to reach a relay that connects to it outside the galaxy. In another hour or so, we’d have been ass-deep in Reapers. There wasn’t really much choice. It doesn’t make me happy, but it seemed like a necessity at the time. And Harbinger sounded pissed over the comms, which is always fun.”

“You fended off another Reaper assault.” Stubborn, amazing woman. “Well. That does not explain why you are hiding in your room getting drunk and ignoring my messages.”

Zoe squirmed in her seat. “That... I was annoyed. Upset.” She clasped her hands together and looked down at her lap. “After what Admiral Hackett said, part of me just didn’t want to bother any more.”

“Really. So what did Admiral Hackett say that bothered you so much?”

“He pointed out the implications of what I’d done in terms of relations between the batarians and the Alliance. We can’t afford a war, right now. Even more so if the Reapers are coming. But that batarians want blood. It was one of their systems that got destroyed. And so, at some point, I’m going to have to come in and stand trial for what I did.”

“What!” Zoe winced at the volume. She may be more hung over than she claims. “That is just... unfair.” Yet, my mind reminded me, perfectly consistent with a policy of preserving and enlarging human military capabilities.

“Maybe. But, to be honest, I can see the need, and I’ll do what’s necessary. I just felt so pissed off that they’d throw me under the bus over this. Seems so ungrateful, you know.”

“You deserve better.”

Her eyes sparkle for a moment, and she grins. “’I get better, Liara. I got you.’”

“You will have to explain that to me.” That means more than just the words she said, though it warmed my heart.

“Something Tali said, after her trial on the migrant fleet. I said something about her deserving better, and that was her reply. Except she said Shepard instead of Liara, and probably wasn’t angling to get into my pants when she said it.”

“I would not be sure about that. Many people find you attractive.” A smirk. “Of course, I am the one who is in your bedroom with you only partly dressed.”

“And do you intend doing anything about that state of dress, Doctor T’soni?” Her voice sounds mischievous, and then she looks appalled as her stomach growls loudly.

“Later, certainly. But first, I think we need to see to the problem of feeding you.” I sidle across to be closer to her. “Otherwise, the noises your digestive system is making could be terribly distracting.”


For a few minutes, I spend the time nibbling on various items and feeding Shepard. Then, I sigh. “What are you going to do, Zoe? About this demand of Hackett’s.”

“I’ll have Joker take the Normandy wherever people want to be let off, and then we’ll head to Arcturus. Turn myself in, like Hackett wants.” She doesn’t hesitate as she says it.

“And then what? We cannot lose you. I will not lose you.”

“The wheels of justice grind ever slow, or something like that. And to be honest, I’m starting to show signs of combat fatigue. A few months under house arrest won’t hurt me.” She looks intently at me. “But if you say no, I’ll do whatever you want. Because for damn sure, I’ll miss you. And if you say so, well, Hackett can stuff it.”

“No. That would not be reasonable of me. But if they should try you, do not expect me to allow you to martyr yourself.”

“I wouldn’t ask it of you. I wouldn’t want it myself, truthfully. I’m a lunatic, not suicidal.” She looks down at the remnants on the tray. “You know, you commented on my clothing state earlier, and said you’d do something about it after we ate.” Her grin is mischievous. “We’ve eaten.”

When the Reapers come, at least I’ll have her back. For the rest of our lives.

So, what else about the Forgotten Realms setting appears unfairly biased?

I'm not sure I'd use the word biased so much as cliched or, as in the thread title, stereotyped. To be truthful I think it's often helpful to give a quick introduction to what a particular group is like if you can point to an Earth-analogue. This does of course cause problems when the resemblance isn't quite as close as it might be, and someone assumes that the viking-analogue worship Odin and Thor.

Well, you have to give these things time. Back in the day, D&D was mostly based on Tolkien. Tolkien wasn't a racist, he was just an Oxford man who mostly knew about European mythology. Then they added Kara-Tur, mostly because some people liked Japan. Now there are countries that at least theoretically represent other Asian cultures, and they're sure to get more sophisticated with time.

I dunno, I always thought part of the beauty of D&D was the ability to explore different cultural and intellectual values in a safe, relatively judgment-free environment. When you're running a game, you can make whatever you want out of it; same when you're writing a BG mod. If something seems offensive, I think the answer is to create one's own content that addresses the perceived deficiency.

Heck, if I'm not mistaken, D&D clerics don't even need to worship gods anymore, they can get their spells from "ideas." I might personally roll my eyes a bit, but whatever, I'll see where people go with it. Could be interesting.

I'd like to say I don't think Tolkein was a major influence on D&D. I'm not sure he's even in the original Appendix N of inspirational source reading. Sword and Sorcery stories (Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar novels, Howard's Conan) were in that, and given the way the game was played I think they had a bigger influence. Tolkein was most significant for the races involved.

As for D&D clerics worshipping gods, that has always as far as I remember been a question of setting. Clerics of "Ideals" were mentioned in 2e sourcebooks, for example. In the Realms they always had a patron deity, but that wasn't true everywhere else. And doesn't entirely make sense for certain cultures, as the efforts to squeeze Al-Qadim and the Adama in attest.

Kara-Tur (first attested in 1st ed. DnD's "Oriental Adventures" as you mentioned) is straight out of the quasi-medieval Far East on Earth, as Mulhorand is on Egypt, etc. Also being you could (in theory) not have to worship a specific deity as a cleric of that culture, but if you were a Kozakuran priest, a million different spirits. Or eight million, to be precise (after animalism and/or Taoism).

Mulhorand being New Kingdom Egypt, that is. Medieval Egypt is further south, although it's perfectly sensible to argue that Durpar is a vaguely arabic middle-east rather than specifically Egypt.

Well, I've worked out what was wrong with my attempts to write up the Arrival DLC. Hopefully get that out tomorrow or Saturday. And my copy of ME3 is on the way

So now, I just need a name for the adventures of Zoe Shepard, Part 3. And to stop myself trying to recreate her in SW;tOR, of course.

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 75

Re-enacting scenes from movies

We did have a mission to go to. Something involving clearing a group of Blood Pack mercenaries out of a mine. There were krogan, and vorcha, and flame throwers and rocket launchers. I think they may even have been some serious attempts to kill me. I didn’t end up dead, and we did get paid, so I suppose the mission was a success.

In the future, I shouldn’t allow myself to get distracted when I’m going into combat. It could be dangerous.

But I still don’t understand what’s happening with Liara! Doctor T’soni. Whatever I should call her or think of her. She’s in love with Feron. I know that. At least, I think I know that. She was obsessed with him, her reactions when she found out he was alive and when we found him on the Broker’s ship, her ship I suppose it is now...

And then she went and kissed me. Which I certainly don’t object to, but also don’t understand. I need to know what relationship we have, whether I should be distancing myself from her… or doing what I want, which is the opposite. So although we found some data indicating the location of another Blood Pack facility and have someone very willing to pay us to deal with it, and I could certainly return to the Citadel or the Alliance for a debriefing, we’re back at Hagalaz.

At least this time the reception is polite, and we bring our shuttle into the ship’s bay with no problem. When we hit a locked door, I tap the intercom. Liara’s voice comes over it. “Oh, Speard, you’re here already. I’ll let you in, hold on.” The door panel turns green, and I cycle it open. “I got caught up in a conversation,” she continues, “But I’ll send my assistant down to guide you up here. This ship is very confusing to find your way around.”

Liara’s assistant is a floating metal ball. “Hello, Shadow Broker!” It sounds very cheerful and just a little confused if it thinks I’m the Broker. “The Shadow Broker sent me down to show you the way to the crew quarters. She is in a meeting right now.” It floats off down a passage, and I follow.

“So, what are you, anyway?” This rather weird mechanical device is something I’ve not seen before.

“I’m you’re VI, Shadow Broker.” Still insanely cheerful, too. “You had me made in this form to give me access to all areas of the ship.”

“An eezo core for power, mass effect generator for movement, and synthetic voice simulation.”

“Don’t forget the armoured shell, the mass effect shield, the built in pistol and the manipulator appendages, Shadow Broker.” Bits of the shell open up as it speaks of this.

“How useful.”

“Of course, Shadow Broker. You wouldn’t want me around if I wasn’t useful.”

After a few turns at junctions, we go through a door. Liara has obviously been remodelling, unless the parts of the ship we saw last time were very different from this area.

“Here we are, Shadow Broker.” The VI floats over to a computer terminal. “The Shadow Broker set up this terminal for your personal use, and you have full access to all data. Or,” a light shines in the direction of another doorway. “The kitchen and living quarters are through there. The Shadow Broker is currently making his lunch in there, if you wish to speak to him.”

“And Liara?” I want to see her, as soon as possible.

“The Shadow Broker is through there, Shadow Broker.” The light points another way, up a set of stairs towards a door. “The Shadow Broker is in conversation with a group on Illium, and has given orders that she is not to be disturbed. But it won’t be long before the Shadow Broker is able to see you, Shadow Broker.”

Well, that’s good to know. I go through to the kitchen to speak to the Shadow Broker, otherwise known as Feron. He looks mildly depressed, sat on a bench devouring some sort of sandwich. He looks up as I enter. “Shepard, right? I here I have you to thank for Liara being alive to rescue me. Thank you.”

“That might be right.” My voice sounds a little harsher than I’d prefer. “She’s a tough girl, though. She’s harder to kill than she thinks.”

“That’s true.” His voice is soft, like Thane’s. “Did you want to speak to me about something, Commander?” Although he’s a lot blunter than Thane would be.

“I’m here to see Liara, but since she’s not available I thought I’d make myself something to eat.” I glance over at the kitchen section for a moment. “I suppose i have been wondering about your relationship with Liara.” If he can be blunt, so can I.

“She’s my friend. Nothing more.” If he sounds slightly wistful, I don’t want to notice.

“Okay.” Not good. Say something intelligent. “So you were the Shadow Broker’s prisoner for two years. How did you survive?” That’s perhaps not particularly clever, Zoe.

I can see Feron shaking slightly. “Most of the time he took no real interest in me. I could lose myself in memories of happier times. When he did, though. Well, I knew he’d eventually get tired of it. And if I was to die, that was fate.”

“Right.” Fate, who I spend half my time fighting against.


That was a very depressing conversation. I grab a small pie from the kitchen, before mumbling something and heading down to the console. For a while it’s amusing to call up dossiers about my companions. Grunt’s extranet purchases and searches, and I wouldn’t have expected him to be a fan of Hemingway, although dinosaurs is perhaps less of a surprise. Jacob’s workout routine, and I’m not surprised his body is as toned as it is after reading this. Jack writes poetry, rather dark poetry, that’s good enough to be published. And then I find Miranda, and the fun of reading people’s secrets stops abruptly.

There as some other interesting things on the terminal. Video clips from various locations. With Khalisah bint-Sinan al Jilanih being kicked by a volus, head-butted by a krogan, and dancing with an asari. A few other things that amuse me, too. Some correspondence between Admiral Hackett and an SI Intelligence Officer, with a very carefully written proposal by the spook to arrange an ambush for the Normandy, take me and my crew into custody, and give me a full and proper interrogation. Apparently if I co-operate fully I should be out in six months or so. Hackett’s reply, “Request denied.” I always liked him.


Of course all this is a delaying tactic. When the door at the top of the stairs opens and Liara comes out, I stand up to meet her. “Hello, Liara. You’re looking fine.” She is, too.More at peace with herself. “How is being Shadow Broker treating you?”

She smiles, but doesn’t come any closer to me than she has to. “All this data, I could get lost in it for years.”

“You know, if you don’t like it we could blow this place and get out of here.”

“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant. I spent so many years tracking down ancient sites, piecing together bits of information to make a whole picture. This is just like that, just with more resources. And I can use all that to help you with your missions.”

“So you’re enjoying this.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.

“I am, yes. It’s not as if I miss the company. Well, mostly. I spent a lot of time alone on my digs. And the Shadow Broker has so much information.” Her voice turns more enthusiastic. “Even data about the protheans. I think he knew about the Reapers, and was trying to find a way to survive when they return.”

“We already found Vigil. What more might there be?”

“I don’t know. But the Broker seemed to think the Protheans had some other hidden projects. They were a major focus of his recent efforts.”

“That’s... interesting.” I think about that for a moment. “If you need me to help you investigate, let me know.”

“Oh, I will.”

Liara sounds pleased, and happy, so I decide to broach the subject of why I’m really here. “You know, I didn’t come here to talk about work.”

She blushes. “Listen, about the kiss. It was just after the battle, we were both feeling emotional.” I smile at how flustered she’s starting to sound. “I don’t want to put pressure on you.”

“I’ve got fond memories of the last time you put pressure upon me.”

“So do I.” Her cheeks are almost purple now. I decide to go further.

“I tell you what.” I try to sound casual and spontaneous, but I’ve been thinking about this for the last day. “Why don’t you come up to the Normandy for a visit? I can get someone to show you around, and we can catch up on what we’ve been doing.”

“I’d like that. Feron can look after the ship while I’m gone.”

“And me, Shadow Broker!” Her VI never sounds less than chirpy. Reminds me a little of Kelly Chambers.

“All right. I’ll see you later. Call the Normandy, and I’ll have the shuttle pick you up.” I stride away, as Liara is obviously starting to think about this and I don’t want her to have a chance to change her mind.


That evening ship time, I’m waiting nervously in my cabin, wearing a dress uniform with an unusually stiff and tight collar. Kelly, having tired of my requests that she check my appearance, is showing Liara round the Normandy, with strict instructions not to do anything that might be considered a pass, on penalty of being used for target practice. My fish have been fed, I’ve got a nice bottle of wine chilling, and everything is as ready as it could be.

Except for me. When the door chimes, I jump. Is the Normandy smaller than I thought, or has it really been a couple of hours since Liara came aboard. I said hello to her, of course, but then made the excuse of work to leave her with other people, since I don’t want to put pressure on her by getting too clingy, which would probably be off putting for her, and that wouldn’t be my intention at all. The door chimes again.

“Come in.” Belatedly, I acknowledge it.

Liara has an expensive, sheer, conservative dress on, properly accessorised of course. Very different from the archaeologist I knew who was always rather indifferent to her appearance. She smiles at me as she comes in. “Hello, Shepard. I’m glad I’ve had a chance to see the Normandy.”

“Like her?””

“Yes. It’s a wonderful ship and crew. And it was nice to run into some old friends. Garrus, Tali, Doctor Chakwas. Although Joker did say something strange. He said if we needed to make a recording if we were re-enacting any scenes from some vid called Vaenia.”

“Of course he did.” I offer Liara a glass of wine, and take a sip from mine.

“I have something for you.” After politely sipping some wine, Liara puts it aside and reaches into her purse. What she pulls out looks like a small jewellery box. “It took some digging, but I found these.” What she holds out is a metallic cord with two flat metal plates hanging from it.

It takes me a moment to recognise them. “My old dog tags.” She nods solemnly as I clutch them. “I thought I’d lost these forever.” When I was dead, and didn’t need them any more, and my throat is suddenly tight.

Liara looks a little concerned for a moment, till I manage a rueful smile. “How are you feeling, Shepard? Really feeling, not the face you put on for your crew and other people.”

“Honestly.” I lean on my desk, and can’t help sounding angry or bitter. “I’m tired. Tired of being the only person who seems to be taking the threat seriously. It feels like I’m beating me head against a wall, and not achieving anything even then.”

“You’ve done plenty.” Liara sounds as if she disagrees with my self-analysis. “You’ve done the impossible, more than once. Beaten Saren, beaten Sovereign, defeated the Collectors, returned from the Omega Four relay with your crew intact. No-one else could have done more.”

“The Reapers are still coming. And, I don’t think we’re ready ot fight them.”

“You’ll find a way. I know it. I know you and I know you’ll fight for our future.”

“Do we have a future, Li?” I know she understands what I mean, as her expression changes, becoming almost wary.

“I... don’t know.” She steps a little closer to me. “If this all ends tomorrow, what do you want to be a future, if we have one together?”

I’ve never really thought past being together. “Marrriage, old age, lots of little blue children?” A family, is what I don’t say.

“You just say these things.” She punches my arm, though she’s smiling. Then she starts to look rather upset. I’m not even sure why, as she turns away from me. “Goddess.” She sounds close to tears. “You were dead.”

“I got better.”

“This time.” She turns to face me, and her eyes glisten with unshed tears. “But the Reapers are coming, and you’re going to throw yourself into the fray like you always do. I lost you once. I can’t do this again. If we’re going to try this, I need to know you’re always coming back.”

“I don’t know.” I step in, and put an arm loosely round her waist as I lean in so I’m whispering in her ear. “That’s an awfully big thing to promise.”

“Oh, is it.” At least now she sounds amused.

“Mmm. I’d have to know there was something worth coming back to.” I kiss her behind the ear, and then start to trail suggestively down her neck.

“I’m open to suggestions.” Her hands pull me closer.


And the rest will disappoint Joker, as while I’ve never watched Vaenia I know its reputation as an asari-female human porn vid. Sadly for him and despite his request, we didn’t have any recorders on.


“Thank you, Shepard.” It’s the morning, and Liara is leaving. “For the drinks, and... everything else. Don’t be a stranger” She steps into the elevator, and her scent slowly dwindles.

“Come back soon, Liara.” I know she can’t hear, but I whisper it to the door anyway.

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 74

Long live the Shadow Broker!

“We’re in.” Liara sounds smug. “I wonder how far we can get before we’re…”

“There they are! Engage them.” I suspect the answer to Liara’s unfinished question might be ‘not far’, as three mercenaries appear at the opposite end of the corridor.

In the race to see whether the mercenary with the rocket launcher can fire before I can get my sniper rifle up, I win. I don’t think the other two appreciate this particularly, and they take up sheltered positions at the end of the hall, ducking into and out of cover to send a few rounds our way. This could continue indefinitely, except that they’re rather more likely to be reinforced.

I wave at Tali to send Chiktika forward, and realise I have to follow. I’ve got the longer range weaponry, more effective at these distances, but I’m also the best protected. If they fire on us, I’d rather I took it. And if I get to the far end, I’m probably better suited to smashing people in the head than either Tali or Doctor T’soni.

This works well, though. While they fire on a drone, I get close enough to shoot the one that Chiktika is electrocuting at close range. The other gets a smack in the helmet with my rifle stock, and goes down hard. Just to make sure, I shoot him in the head.

As we move through the ship, we encounter a few more groups of mercenaries. As we fall into our old tactical routine from the days we were chasing Saren, defeating them becomes routine – almost too easy. Push through doors or down corridors, attract attention, let Tali and Liara get into position and start softening the opponents up and disabling them, then move forward to finish off the survivors. We move down corridors and through rooms, and despite the prompting of the Shadow Broker’s synthetic voice we’re everywhere one step in front of his forces. I suspect he can’t quite believe how quickly were moving through his forces.

One more room, though this one isn’t occupied. I glance around quickly. It looks like some sort of recording studio. Perhaps the Shadow Broker records morale boosting messages to his troops here. There’s an alcove in the corner with a control panel in front of it, which I approach quietly. Unless the Shadow Broker is a drell, strapped in a rather uncomfortable position in a chair, I don’t think thiat he’s here. Although who the drell might be…

“Feron!” Liara pushes past me.

The drell, Feron, opens his eyes. “Liara?” He sounds confused. “What are you doing here?”

“Getting you out.” Doctor T’soni sounds determined, as she reaches for the control panel.

“No, don’t… Argh!” A rather long-drawn out scream from Feron shows what the control panel is meant to do. Rather than being any sort of control for his restraints, it’s the controls for his torture. Liara leaps back, looking horrified, as electrical current plays up and down his arms.

“What has the Shadow Broker done? Why is he doing this to you?” Now Doctor T’soni sounds angry.

“I’m a warning. And an example. Of what happens to people who betray the Shadow Broker.” Feron takes a deep breath, as Liara looks at the panel. I gesture to Tali to have a look, and shift so I can watch the corridor outside. “Don’t bother with the panel.” Feron sounds tired when he continues. “It’s controlled from the Broker’s office. That’s the only place to release me. It’s not far. Just down the hall.”

“What’s the Broker like?” There’s no one in the corridor, and it would be useful to know what we’re getting into.

“Big.” Feron sounds like he wants to shudder. “ I’ve never seen him properly, and I don’t know what species he is, but the guards are terrified of him. They hate patrolling near his chamber. Sometimes they just disappear.”

“Don’t worry, Feron.” Doctor T’soni’s determined voice is back. “We can deal with him.”

“Be careful.” Feron leans back further, and closes his eyes. I follow as Doctor T’soni stalks away from her boyfriend and down the hall.


The Shadow Broker can I suppose afford a large room. Circular and domed, we enter along a wall where a series of computer terminals are set up. There’s a large open area, with a skylight that appears to look out directly onto one of the external lightning capacitors. And on the far side, a stone desk with the Shadow Broker sat in his chair in the shadows on the far side of it. We fan out to support Liara as she moves into the room, and I take as good a look as I can at the Broker.

He’s a large figure, clearly humanoid, with horns on his head a little like a salarian. Even seated, his head is higher than mine. A large chest and thick arms increase the impression of power. His voice, when it comes, is predictably deep.

“Doctor T’soni. I suppose I have you to thank for this inconvenience.”

“We’ll do more than inconvenience you for what you’ve done to Feron!” Yes, the Doctor is angry all right. She’s already starting to glow blue.

“The drell? I need to make an example of those who betray me, as you should understand.” He glances in my direction. “I see you brought me Shepard. Her body will sell for a great many credits in many quarters. Although I am surprised you brought the quarian. Her so-called leadership got most of her team killed on Haestrom.”

“Don’t think you can scare us by showing off what you’ve been able to spy out about us.”

“But I do scare you, Doctor T’soni.I know all about your abilities, while you fumble in ignorance. You do not even know what I am!”

“Is that right.” T’soni sounds smug, surprisingly. “You’re a yahg. A pre-spaceflight species interdected by the Council because they massacred the first team sent down to make contact with you. This base predates your species discovery. You must have been brought here by a previous Shadow Broker, as a trophy. Or a pet. How am I doing so far?”

As Doctor T’soni spoke, the Broker went still. As she finished, he stands up. And up. He’s a fair bit bigger than I thought, perhaps not quite as heavily built as a krogan but taller and still muscular. He slams his fists down on his table, smashing it in two, and throws one of the pieces at us as he steps forwards into the light.

I drag T’soni aside, but Tali is hit. She goes against the wall with the table on top of her, and I check my HUD for group life signs before breathing a sigh of relief. She’s not even unconscious and her suit is already handling the single fracture she picked up. But from her inability to move, I think the table is too heavy for her.

So it looks like it’s down to two of us against the Shadow Broker. He pulls out a gun, which if I’m not mistaken is a Revenant light machine gun. This could get unpleasant.

It does, but he’s still one person in a circular room with plenty of cover. Once he concentrates on one of us, we can just duck behind a pillar or one of the computer terminals. While the cover gets quite chewed up, it’s a chance for our shields to recover and for the other person to start chipping away at his shields.

Eventually he stops firing. I smile slightly. His shields must be down, and he’s got a lot less cover than us. I ship my rifle, pull out the shotgun, and take a look.

Rather than sensibly trying to use the cover he has available, he’s stood in the centre of the room, bent over and supporting his upper body on one hand. There’s a glow around him. Doctor T’soni has her pistol out, and takes a shot at him. And then another. “Shepard. I think I’ve read about this. A specialised form of mass effect shield, that can’t be penetrated by high-velocity projectiles. He can’t move, but we can’t hurt him either.”

No high velocity projectiles? Not a problem. I slip my shotgun back into it’s sheath, and start walking towards the Broker. “What are you doing?” Doctor T’soni sounds worried. Meanwhile the Broker can move, a little, at least if his eyes tracking me are anything to judge by. I may not be able to read yahg expressions, but I think he might be a little puzzled too.

Yahg have a wide mouth with an awful lot of, admittedly small, teeth in it. My fist removes several of them. It appears an old-fashioned punch in the face doesn’t trigger the high-velocity projectile part of his protection. For a follow up, I give him a nice jab in the eye, and an elbow driven into the jaw.

This is fun. He stands, breaking the field around him, and I land a solid kick to his knee. Then another punch on the jaw, and a shoulder block to send him staggering backwards. For all his size, I don’t think the Broker really knows how to fight hand to hand. He keeps trying to back away, playing with his omni-tool for some reasons even as I follow him.

“Keep at it, Shepard.” I glance over at my cheerleader section for a moment as he takes another step back. As I turn towards him, he finally gets whatever he was trying for working. I step forward right into an energy shield, quite literally a shield like in an ancient story, which the Broker then smash into my face and uses to shove me stumbling backwards.

All right, perhaps I was wrong about him not being any good at hand to hand combat. As he raises his machine gun again I roll behind the nearest computer terminal. And we’re off again.

This time, it’s a little harder. He can manage the Revenant with one hand, firing at one of us while keeping the shield between him and the other. It takes precision fire to hit him while avoiding it, although every time T’soni hits him with a biotic Warp or a Singularity his control over the shield wavers. When he lowers his head at one point, I start to believe that he’s about to go back behind that rather specialised barrier of his.

Instead, he charges me. Through the computer console, smashing it aside. At the last moment I duck aside, managing to avoid the impact. For good measure, I shoot him from point blank range with my shotgun. That does something , as he glances worriedly at his omni-tool and starts to activate a command. Then Liara fires a burst from the SMG I lent her, and he disappears behind that barrier again.

This time, I know what to do. The stock of my shotgun impacts his forehead, a land a roundhouse punch under his chin, and a kick sends his gun skittering across the floor. As he backs away, the barrier dying, he raises his shield and glares directly at me.

I’m not inclined to pass up a challenge. I step forward, pause for a moment to see how he’ll react, then drive my shoulder into his shield and start trying to force him back. For a few seconds, we hold a position braced together, both leaning on the shield and trying to push the other over. His greater body mass is counterbalanced by my leverage beneath him, and it seems my cybernetic muscles are a good match for his natural ones.

Then T’soni steps in, breaking my concentration. His push sends us both staggering. The Doctor whispers in my ear. “Get him into the centre of the room. I have an idea.”

Centre of the room, eh. All right, Ill see what I can do. I start circling the Broker, baiting him, as you might a bull, while T’soni retreats to the side. Quite predictably, he doesn’t stand this for long. He lowers his head and charges me with the shield raised.

This time, I let contact happen, but on my terms. We engage, and I turn him slightly so he’s charging at the centre of the room. A small push to ensure he keeps going, a I quick tangle of legs, and then we’re both down on the ground there. The Broker gets part way up, and activates his barrier agin, presumably hoping to recharge his protection. As I roll away, I see T’soni raise her hands towards, biotic power shining off her. I assume she’s going to do something biotic to him.

My assumption is wrong. The skylight is directly beneath one of the lightning capacitors, and when her biotic energy shatters it the shortest path for the energy to go is downwards. Into the Broker. I don’t know how many volts that is, but the effect is explosive, literally. Close to him, I get flung against a wall.

The next thing I notice is a blue hand reaching down to me. I let Doctor T’soni help me to my fight, and give her a slight smile. She returns it, slightly sheepishly, before wandering towards the back of the room where the Shadow Broker had his seat. The communication terminal there has lit up, and lots of voices are clamouring for attention.

“Shadow Broker, what is this situation? We lost contact with you.”

“Shadow Broker, this is Operative 47. What just happened?”

“Shadow Broker, what…”

I tune the voices out and look around for Tali. She’s still stuck under the table, and I move over to lift it off her and help her to her feet. I pull my helmet off, and inspect the dent. Time to split this joint and….

“This is the Shadow Broker.” The synthetic voice over the speakers is rather a surprise. “A power fluctuation during the installation of new equipment caused a momentary loss of communication capability, but all systems are fully operational.” Doctor T’soni is standing by the communication board, speaking into a microphone. “Carry on with your activities. I want a full report on all operations within the next forty-eight hours.”

I think she realises how aghast I am, and possibly Tali is too, as we walk over towards her. She shuts down the microphone and looks rather plaintively at us. Before I can say anything, though I’m not sure what I would have said anyway, the door bursts open and a familiar drell storms in, pointing a pistol he seems to have appropriated from a dead mercenary in our direction. I draw on him, but he almost immediately lowers it. “Liara?” He sounds shocked. “You’re the Shadow Broker now?”

“I… I had to do something.” She doesn’t sound very sure of herself. “What… I…” Her voice trails off.

Feron looks a little sheepish. “I’ll just go and take a look at some of the systems. See what’s been damaged.” To my surprise, he reaches out to Tali to take her with him, leaving me alone with his girlfriend.

She’s obviously upset. While she’s facing away from me looking at the comms boards, I can see from her posture and the droop in her shoulders that she isn’t happy. I reach out, and gently turn her around. “Hey, it’ll be all right. We’ll work this out.” I start trying to think of how, when my thoughts get interrupted. Liara grabs my head with both hands, pulls me towards her, and her lips close over mine.

Which is a very pleasant surprise.

And when she tries to pull away and say sorry, I reciprocate, pulling her towards me and giving her a proper kiss.

Eventually we have to stop for air. My hair is probably rather mussed where Liara has been pulling on it, and she looks rather flushed. “Okay.” She takes a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll start sorting things out her. You need to… you need to go and do whatever it is you do when you’re not here. Er. Yes, you do that.” She turns back to the communication board, looking even more flushed than before.

As I stride out into the ship to look for Tali, I’m sure there’s a ridiculously huge grin on my face.




Sorry about the delay. We've people off at work, and I'm trying to do two jobs and help plan for a big summer refit. It's left me short of time and energy.

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 73

She loves me... not? Get another daisy, this one is faulty!

Liara is waiting impatiently. “Finally. Sekat’s data and some clues of my own, give enough information that I know the Shadow Broker’s main base is on Hagalaz, and that’s where he has Feron. We’ll need the Normandy’s stealth systems to approach undetected, but we’ll have surprise on our side With his primary agent dead, we can leave while his mercenaries are still shooting their way through Illium..”

“The deaths they’re causing not being any of our problem, I suppose.”

“You know what I mean.” Liara sets off walking briskly towards the shuttle park.

“Do I?” I hurry after her. “When I hit the ground back at the Trade Centre you’d didn’t even slow down to see how I was.”

“A little fall wasn’t going to kill you.” She keeps on walking. “I had to stay focus, keep after Vasir. You taught me to focus on the objective, to follow the plan whatever the cost!”

“So, what is the plan?”

“Get in, get Feron, get out.”

“That’s it?” I know Liara is smarter than that. She needs to start thinking, not emoting. I taught her that, too.

“That’s it.”

“Will you stop a minute.” I grab her arm, and turn her round to look at me. “We’re not even back at the Normandy yet, and then there’s the flight time. We have time to talk.”

She steps away slightly. “Talk. About what?”

“About US!”

Liara turns so she’s leaning over a railing, facing away from me. “Look, Shepard.” Her voice is softer. “I’m glad you’re here...”

“Worried there might be some terminals you need hacked?” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tali backing away. To give us some privacy, I hope.

“That’s not fair!” Liara glares indignantly at me. “You were dead. I couldn’t just put my life on hold for two years in case you came back!” She sighs, and continues in a softer tone. “Let’s not fight. I need your help if I’m to rescue Feron.”

I wish she’d shut up about Feron. I know who he is. Anyone would think we were off to rescue her boyfriend.

Oh.

How very stupid of me. That really makes sense of so much that I didn’t understand about how Liara was behaving. It’s strange how much this hurts, compared to being shot. Although I suppose I couldn’t really expect her to say it straight out, as I don’t believe even now that Liara would deliberately hurt me.

“Let’s go.” I pull down the visor of my helmet. “We’ll get this mess sorted out, Liara. Don’t worry.” And if no one can see my face as we head back towards the Normandy, that’s fine by me.


Hagalaz

Hagalaz is a second-tier garden world that receives little attention from the galactic community. A salarian mining expedition initially discovered the planet, which was promptly strong-armed away from them by organized crime figures. Hagalaz's exploration rights were then sold to the highest bidder, which led to a brief burst of mining colonies in the 2000s, but most of those were abandoned when other planets were found with more accessible resources.

Though Hagalaz has a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere capable of supporting life, its rotational period is slower than Earth's, making its day and night 98 Earth hours long. The intense heat on one side of the planet and the extreme cold on the other make for violent storm cells wherever the sun is rising or setting. As a result, the flora and fauna of Hagalaz have developed the capability to live in cycles of ice, flooding, baking heat, and dramatic air pressure changes. The biota of the planet has been largely unexploited by the exotic pet and gardening trades, since simulating their natural conditions is problematic for the average consumer.

What the entry doesn’t mention is the atmospheric conditions where the hot air meets the cold air. There’s a permanent, moving thunderstorm of extreme power, which serves as a natural screen against most sensors. The Broker’s ship hides in this. Only a ship with remarkably effective sensors could hope to detect it. EDI takes four minutes to pinpoint it.


“The shuttle bay won’t open for us.” Liara is looking at the images as we take the Nromandy’s shuttle down. “We’ll have to land somewhere on the exterior of the hull and find a way inside.”

“There.” Tali taps the screen decisively. “That looks to be the only place with enough space to touch down. And it looks like there’s a maintenance bay here, which should give interior access.”

“That’s at the other end of the hull. It should be an interesting trip.” Two hundred mile an hour winds, lightning, rain on metal, and a kilometre drop to an ocean that’s alternately boiling or freezing.

“Do it.” Liara sounds determined, and it is her show. I’m just along to shoot things.

As expected, the surface of the ship isn’t terribly comfortable, but it’s not impossible to move around. Some of the wind’s effect is dampened by being inside the shields. It still wouldn’t be safe to be lifted off the hull, mind you. At first, there’s nothing around but then a group of mechs appear.

I’m hardly surprised when they start shooting at us. “Maintenance mechs.” Liara shouts above the wind. “They must think we’re debris from the storm.” If that was so, part of me thinks, wouldn’t they be attacking with rubbish bins?

I concentrate on shooting them rather than talking. We shoot the first three, and then some more. I think they were passing information back inside, as some rather unfortunate mercenaries get sent out to deal with us. There’s a lot of clutter on the hull, which gives both sides plenty of cover. That could get awkward, if more get here before we deal with these. We’re outnumbered already.

Fortunately Tali has an idea. “Electrical capacitors. This ship probably gets struck by lightning a lot.” She designates some objects for me with her omni-tool. “Shoot them.”

I do so. Delightfully, they explode and discharge their energy at the same time. This is unfortunate for anyone who happens to be close to one at the time, which is to say the mercenaries. Since that worked so well, I shoot another capacitor and watch the rest of the mercenaries enjoy the effects.

With the next group, we aren’t so fortunate to be fighting them in a similar location. Instead we concentrate on keeping them pinned down while Liara works her way into a flanking position. Then, she lifts some of them into the wind in a biotic field. I don’t see where they land, but it’s not on the ship. The others attempt to deal with Liara, keeping her pinned down by fire, but that lets me get close. I shoot a couple, and hit the last with the stock of my rifle. He falls, and starts to slide on the wet slope of this section of hull.

The Shadow Broker doesn’t believe in safety rails. As we move further along the hull, Liara peers over the side, and then takes a step back. “Well, looking down there was a mistake.” I smile to myself, and make sure I’m between her and the edge as we move.

It doesn’t really take long before we’re outside a large hatch near the stern of the ship. There’s an extremely sophisticated locking device on it. Tali takes one look, before shrugging. Liara has the solution.

“I got this data shunt from an intrusion specialist on Omega.” She plugs a device into the door controls, which start flashing wildly. “It should get us inside.”

“Don’t you miss the time you could just smear omni-gel on anything?”

“That security upgrade made a lot of people unhappy.” She sounds amused at my quip.

Tali interrupts. “More mercenaries, people.”

This time, we’re in a slightly different position. We can’t really move far from our position without letting the mercenaries get to the door and halt our access attempt, which would be unfortunate. That doesn’t mean we can’t be aggressive, but it does require that we hold this area. There are more capacitors, so I shoot one which disables about half of the initial group. The rest we get rid of, with shotgun fire, biotics, and an occasional grenade.

I look around. The shunt seems to be showing some progress, but not enough. “Is this thing working?” I yell to Liara.

“I’ve never had a chance to test it.” She yells back. “It didn’t come with a warranty.”

“But it will work.” Tali sounds worried.

“I don’t know. I’ve never broken into the Shadow Broker’s base before.” Liara doesn’t sound unhappy about this. “At least, not this one.”

“Please tell me you’ve tested it.” Or I might have to put you over my knee.

“No time to talk.” Smugly, she starts firing at another party of mercenaries.

This time, they include asari commandoes. They have to be kept at a distance, as I’m fairly sure a shockwave would send us off the hull entirely. I don’t fancy the fall, even if it isn’t orbital re-entry. I snipe two of them, explosing myself to plenty of fire as I do so. The third is still working her way into position hen Tali pops up and hits the capacitor she is moving around. The others aren’t much more effective, as there isn’t a huge amount of manoeuvre room for them to outflank us. Any attempt to do so is too exposed. Though they do have a couple of useful sniper positions overlooking us, any sort of push or lift in those positions leaves them on a section of sloping hull with no handholds. That’s not a safe location. As the second goes over the edge of the ship, I look around to see the rest are finished.

“They’re not fighting cleverly.” Liara yells as I get closer. “If they massed and came at us in a group they’d do a lot better.”

“Stop giving the mercs tactical advice.” Even if I don’t think they can hear it.

“But at least this way there’ll be less of them inside for us to deal with.” Maybe she’s trying to reassure us.

It doesn’t seem to enthuse Tali. “Keep dreaming, T’soni.”

The third wave has a real surprise in it, in the form of airborne combat drones. How they keep them flying in this weather is beyond my understanding, but it does seem to severely affect their accuracy. Even so, rocket fire is nothing to laugh about. They’re also less vulnerable to being close to the capacitors. That doesn’t help the ground troops, who we finish off quite rapidly now that we’re familiar with the tricks of the location, but dealing with the drones is slower and more tedious, though fortunately not fatal.

And then, there’s no more waves of mercs. At least, none that we have to deal with. The shunt has done its work, and the door is ready to open. Into the Shadow Broker’s Den.

DLCs that come later are another story entirely, unfortunately, because you'll still have to go somewhere and flash your credit card and download them, and this sucks. I would, again, offer an option: you buy a new game, but pay, say, 15$ extra(maybe more). And for this 15$ you have a right to download the entire pack of DLCs for this game, no matter how much later in development they come, just enter your game's registration code once(if you have a Bioware forum account). Good karma all around.(Then again, I only care about convenience and don't care about the money, because when it's a really good book/game/film I never care about the money. I would starve my children to get DA3 early - if I had children, of course ).

I'm sure that several games have produced "Game of the Year" versions including all the DLC on the disc(s). My most recent purchase was Hearts of Iron III with all the dlc included, not just things like the sprite packs and extra music, but the two expansions too. I don't think Bioware have ever done it quite like that, though - they did make an edition of DA:O complete with all the DLC, as downloads rather than on disc in that case.

While Shepard Watched 72

Dead Spectres who met Zoe Shepard, three from three

Vasir made quite a mess of her car, all things considered. I’m surprised it got down in one piece. That she survived is quite obvious, given the bullet hole in the head of the security mech that came to investigate the landing. That doesn’t mean she’s in good health, if the splatters of blue blood are anything to go by.

We follow the trail, into a “hotel” room which looks like it caters to a particular type of guest. The pornographic holo, soft cushions on the floor, and several other features are rather a give-away. Just to make sure, I ask Liara. “What is this place?”

“This is Azure. A rather specialised establishment where rooms are rented. Among other things.”

“Azure?”

“It’s a slang term in certain regions of Illium for areas of the asari body.”

“Which parts?” This is fun, given how prim Liara sounds about it.

“The lower reaches, near the bottom.”

“I meant on the asari body.”

“So did I.” If Liara’s tone was any darker, I could use it to darken coffee.


In the next room, we manage to interrupt two of the guests. Or possibly one guest and one staff. The asari ducks under the blanket as soon as she sees us. The male human may be trying to appear braver, but the quaver in his voice doesn’t inspire confidence. “What do you want?”

“Where’d she go?” I jerk my thumb towards the other exits.

He points towards an exit that leads onto the landing. I smile at him. “Thank you. You can carry on with what you were doing.”

“Shepard!” Tali sounds slightly scandalised this time. I sometimes think there are too many people in this group from upper class backgrounds. Where I grew up, this place is classy.


We move through the door indicated, and immediately spot more blood. Tali comments on it. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”

“She’s a tough bitch, I’ll give her that.” It won’t stop me killing her, mind you.

“She’s a Spectre.” I suppose that Liara wants to remind me that I’m facing someone as qualified as me to be called a badass.


Round the corner, we see Vasir again. She’s limping past a group having a party on a balcony overlooking a rather nice set of fountains. I’m less impressed by the concrete steps surrounding it, which aren’t what I’d like to see in landscaping. Not that my taste is important, and Illium does seem to be a place where nature isn’t allowed to intrude much.

Unfortunately, as I draw my pistol, Liara decides to let Vasir know we’re here. “Vasir! It’s over.” That might have been a mistake, I’d rather have dropped her without fuss. At that point though it attracts the attention of the party, and the sight of an armed confrontation isn’t something they seem to have been expecting. Their decision to stick around and watch might be caused by confusion, but it’s certainly annoying.

Vasir is quick to take advantage of their presence. “Hey you. Yes you.” She picks out a human woman. “Come here.” If I could have interrupted her, I would have, but she takes one pace towards Vasir, and then another. Vasir grabs her, pulls her into a position where she’s covering most of Vasir’s body, and puts a pistol to her head.

That’s the time the rest of the group decide to start screaming and leave. This leaves Vasir, her hostage, and us alone to sort things out. Vasir starts talking to the woman. “What’s your name, honey?”

“Karen.” She sounds scared, which I suppose is fair. “Please. I have a son. He’s only three.”

“A son.” Vasir sounds pleased. “I hope he’s going to be lucky today. I hear growing up without a parent can be traumatising.” If that’s a dig at Liara, or Tali, or even me I think I’ll make her regret it. Vasir looks over at us. “Guns on the floor, Shepard. Thermal clips, too. Or Karen’s son is going to grow up with one parent.”

“Let her go!”

Liara sounds as if the crack about growing up with one parent has annoyed her. I make a clam-down hand gesture. “Ease down. We’ll handle this. The usual way.” A slight huff is her only verbal response.

I keep my gun trained on Vasir, who carries on looking at us. “Come on, Shepard. Guns on the floor, and thermal clips. And we can just walk away from this with no problems.”

“That’s it?” I scoff at her. “You should go back to stripping in sleazy bars with the other asari.”

Her eyes narrow for a moment. “You think I won’t kill her? I’m a Spectre. We do what we have to.”

“You’re a Spectre, and can do what you must. I sent thousands of humans to their death to save the destiny Ascension. I sent most of my platoon to their death on Torfan.” Behind Vasir, a table is rising quietly with a blue biotic aura around it. “And you think one lousy hostage is going to stop me ripping a hole in you.” I snort. The table is in position, and Vasir still has her attention on me. “Liara, now!”

I think being hit from your blind side by a table is a valid excuse to lose your grip on your hostage, even if you are a Spectre and supposed to be tough. Falling into a fountain, though, is probably considered insult added to injury. I yell at the hostage, “Get out of here,” as we start down the steps. She complies, just in time to miss Vasir rising out of the water in a blaze of biotics, dripping and furious. I roll into cover, wave Tali and Liara into more, and the shooting starts.

Vasir is a rather tough opponent, with her ability to zoom around biotically being particularly irritating. One moment she’s on one side of the area, the next she’s on the other. And she’s got some nasty tricks to use against targets in the open, with a powerful shotgun and the ability to biotically charge people, knocking them around. She can even use a Shockwave, to push people away from her or from any cover they might be in. Her disadvantage is that all of this is short-ranged. This isn’t particularly helpful for Tali and Liara, who don’t have great range themselves, but Tali’s Chikitika is capable of following anywhere and my rifles have plenty of reach to hit her. After a while, she starts to flag and I think we’ve got her, but then I hear the whine of an approaching vehicle. “I’ll let my friends deal with you.” Vasir pulls out of the fight, astonishingly, but biotically charging to the roof of the hotel.

Her friends are a group of shadow broker mercenaries, arriving in a small air truck which drops off a team of engineers and combat drones. They’d be an annoying group, but promptly get a singularity in the middle of them courtesy of Liara, It even warps the vehicle, which also gets its electronics blown out by Tali and set on fire by my incendiary bullets. The enemies don’t survive very long, and then Vasir is back. “Miss me?” Not very often, to be honest, although sometimes when I’m using my assault rifle as you shift away some bullets go astray.

I don’t think Vasir likes this fight very much. We’re not really giving her the chance to do what she does best, forcing people into the open, charging them, and then taking them out with her shotgun. We’re rather too good at sticking to cover, and when she closes in there’s always someone moving to assist the person she’s attacking. Tt’s apparent that she’s becoming frustrated, when she starts taking chances, staying in one place long enough for Liara to drop a singularity right on her. I’d never seen anyone break out from one of those, so when Vasir makes a supreme effort of will to charge herself back to the top of the building it’s quite a surprise.

The arrival of more mercenaries is less of one. More engineers, a couple of asari commandos, and a turian with a smiper rifle whose position on top of a wall lends itself to a concussive shot followed be a rather long drop. The asari close in on me, apparently believing this is likely to go better for them than exchanging fire at medium and long ranges. I suspect if they knew I was carrying a flamethrower they might have chosen differently, and then I pull the fuel tank off my back and throw it into the cover the engineers are using. I’ve used this trick around Tali before, and she promptly sends an Overload from her omnitool towards it. The explosion is quite pretty, though probably less so for the engineers it kills.

“Here I come, ready or not.” Vasir re-enters the fray, showing plenty of courage. This time, she’s playing for keeps. Rather than shifting around the edge of the area looking for opportunities to isolate someone, she goes straight for Tali. It’s enough of a surprise that, spread out as we are, Liara isn’t close enough to intervene. I move towards them as fast as I can, abandoning cover as I do so.

This might have been Vasir’s intention all along. Tali is on the ground, vulnerable, but instead of trying to shoot her Vasir launches herself at me biotically. The impact knocks me backwards, and Vasir fires her shotgun. The first round splashes on my shields, reinforced as they are by the best technology in the galaxy, but the second takes them down and hammers into my body armour. Before Vasir can fire a third shot she staggers, as I lunge desperately at her and jab the muzzle of my rifle right into her ribcage. She ducks under the follow up swing with the stock of my rifle, hits me in the ribs with her shotgun butt, and then staggers away from an elbow in the face.

And then she staggers as Chikitka discharges electricity directly into her. Before she can recover, I kick her legs away and fire a five-round burst into her belly.

As Vasir slumps to the ground, Liara trots up. She reaches around Vasir’s belt, feeling through her pouches until she finds a datachip. “This is it. Sekat’s data. Let’s go.” Without a backward glance, she heads off.

“You’ll fail.” There’s enough life left in Vasir to talk, but if I’m any judge she won’t last long. “The Broker has been in power for years. He’s more powerful than anything you’ve ever faced.”

Which suggests she has no idea of the sort of things I have faced, but still. “Is that why you’re working for him?”

She glares at me. “You think I betrayed the Council, like Saren. Never. The Broker has given me damn good information over the years, information that has saved lives. So if I had to do a little of his dirty work, that was a price worth paying.”

“The Council wouldn’t see it that way.”

“We do the Council’s dirty work, Shepard. They look the other way rather than look too closely at the methods we use. And it’s not as if your hands are clean. You do work for Cerberus. Do you know the sorts of things they do? Biotic death camps, thresher maw experiments, they’ve killed more humans than the First Contact War. Look in a mirror before you dare judge me. Don’t you… dare… judge me.”

As Vasir dies, I step away from her, Tali at my heels. Liara is waiting impatiently on the path to the taxi rank. I lift my communicator. “Garrus, can you get away from the police and get back to the Normandy. We have a situation. And they need to get a clean-up crew to Azure. There’s a lot of dead mercenaries, I am in pursuit of their employer, and there’s a dead Spectre here. The Council will want to know.”

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 71

Gunfire, explosions, chases – just a normal day, then

Vasir grabs my elbow. “Shepard. I’ll head up to the roof and start clearing the building downwards. Take your team in and go up. We’ll meet at Baria, third floor.” She doesn’t wait for my reaction, simply moving back to her car.

Survivors, many injured, are starting to come out of the building as we move towards it. They get out of our way as best they can, and I don’t stop to question anyone. Liara is in there, possibly hurt and possibly needing assistance. Anything slowing me down is going to regret it.

The lobby was expensively decorated, which I suppose is expected on Ilium. A lot of that decoration is broken, smashed, or knocked over. A few stragglers make their way past us as Tali and I move forward, while Garrus picks a position with a good view. Not that there seems to be any resistance. Sprinklers are operating, though there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of fire.

It’s easy enough to make our way to the back of the lobby. Predictably, the elevators aren’t working, but I can’t imagine anyone in this situation using them anyway. Unless they were very, very stupid. Or wanted to be ambushed.

The second floor holds a nasty surprise, as Tali grabs me. “I’m scanning explosives. There, to the right. Hold position while I disarm it.” I’m slightly reluctant, but she is the best choice. Garrus and I move to cover the area, while Tali gets the charge disarmed. “Not very well done,” she comments.

“Vasir.” I tap my comms. “Be aware, we have disarmed one UXB. There may be more.”

“Sounds like the people doing this were in a rush, Commander. Sloppy.” She sounds mildly contemptuous, before singing off.

The second floor has a complication. The stairwell is blocked by a collapsed ceiling. We check a plan, and find a secondary staircase towards the rear, through some of the office space. We move in, and I notice movement ahead. Armed and armoured figures in black, with full-face helms and an insignia I don’t recognise on their shoulders. As we take cover, one of them shoots an injured asari in the head. He lifts a hand to his ear. “No survivors. Moving on to the next section.”

He’s wrong, actually. Although there are six of them, they’re notaware of our presence, nor as good as they seem to think they are. A quick burst of fire drops two before they can find cover. I make sure their attention is on me, while Garrus and Tali handle those who try to flank me out of my position behind someone’s desk. Then I pin the survivors down, while Tali moves to flush them from cover where Garrus and I finish them off.

I move over to check the bodies, and scan the emblem. “Vasir, I’m in contact with hostiles. Mixed force, heavy on tech. Unknown emblem, I’m sending you a copy.”

After a couple of seconds, she gets back to me. “Meet the Shadow Broker’s elite mercenaries, Shepard. Someone has been a naughty girl, to make him act this openly.”

That would be Liara. Three floors of a building blown, and mercenaries sent in, to get her. And if they know where she’s going, the opposition will be tougher as we get closer to Baria Frontiers’ office.

Sometimes I regret being right. We have one more encounter on the second floor, with a similar group to the first. On the third, we run into tougher groups, with more firepower and technology and including asari commandos. Who always look very surprised, when they end up dead. That sense of superiority that they all seem to have really doesn’t do them any favours. We work our way to the back of the floor and into the Baria office. Liara was the last person to sign in, only moments before the explosion. And at least the offices don’t seem to have had explosives inside.

They do have a small group of mercenaries, who we kill. And as we move towards the back, there’s a single gunshot from the main office. Cautiously, we move into it.

Vasir is there, holding a pistol and standing over a dead mercenary. There’s a salarian slumped against the wall, executed by a single shot to the head. “Damn.” Vasir sounds mildly regretful. “A few seconds faster, and he might not be dead.”

I glance at the body. “Sekat, I assume.” And still no sign of Liara. I’m getting worried.

“Yes.” Tela doesn’t even glance. I assume she’s already checked. Business-like, she continues. “There’s nothing on the top two floors. Have you seen any sign of your friends body?”

“You mean this body?” I didn’t notice her come in, but Liara sounds angry. And looks as if she’s been sheltering under a fire sprinkler for the last ten minutes.

She’s also aiming a pistol at Tela. So I do as well, with Tali and Garrus following my lead. “Liara, this is Vasir. She’s a Spectre.” It’s not a criticism, just information.

“This is the woman who tried to kill me.”

“I think you’re a little confused.” Vasir doesn’t sound scared, but rather patronising. “Put the gun down, and we’ll say nothing about this.”

“After I left my apartment, I doubled back to watch. It was you that broke in before the police arrived. You’re working for the Shadow Broker, one of his agents.” Liara sounds quite certain.

I move slightly in front of Liara, and Tali and Garrus spread out to cover Vasir from more angles. “That’s why you wanted me at the apartment. You needed to know where Liara had gone, and thought I might be able to find her.”

“Bright girls, both of you.” Vasir now doesn’t sound particularly pleased at all. She hasn’t reached for a weapon, but one of her hands is behind her back where she’s standing by the window. “A shame you’ll never get to exploit that, you pureblood bitch!”

Vasir’s biotics flare, and the inner surface of the window explodes towards us. I bring an arm up to protect my face, and start forward as Vasir bolts for the exit. There’s another another flare of biotics, and then I’m charging across glass where it hit Liara’s biotic shield and dropped to the floor. One slight adjustment, and then I hit Vasir, shoulder first, and both of us crash through the damaged window.

Three floors would be quite a fall, but grappling Vasir I can ensure that she’s the one at the bottom. It then occurs to me that we’re falling slowly, and I realise that Vasir is supporting us both with her biotics so we float downwards. Since I don’t want to let go, I attempt to disable her with a head-butt, but lacking proper leverage I don’t think it had much effect. Admittedly she’ll have a nice black eye. And then she pushes a hand into my stomach and lets go with a biotic blast. We’re flung apart, I feel myself falling and try to twist, and we hit the ground several metres apart.

Vasir recovers faster than me, no surprise as she hit me with biotics as well as the ground. Before she can do anything, there’s a blue flare above us. Liara has jumped out of the window. I don’t think she’s particularly experienced at this biotic flying, and she’s a lot less graceful than Samara was, but she’s getting down to the ground just fine. Vasir curses, and takes off out of the plaza. Without hesitation, Liara follows her.

I take a little more time. The wind has been knocked out of my, several of my weapons are detached from the harness, but I’m still ready to go before Tali and Garrus catch up. They took the safe but less scenic route down the stairs. We set off after the two asari, before a rather rude interruption. More of the Shadow Broker’s people try to stop us. I suspect Vasir may have got some more backup.

Several lots, in fact. Though I want to just charge through them to get to Liara, it’s too risky against what are reasonably competent opponents. We make relatively short work of them, though, and get out onto the taxi rank. There’s a rather ineffectual firefight going on, with both VAsir and Liara in cover behind vehicles, every so often poking their heads out and letting off a few shots against their opponents biotic barrier. For Vasir, our arrival is much more of a problem. I see her tapping commands into her omnitool, and then her speeder descends. She steps back, drops off the ledge, and drives off.

Liara is already after her, getting into the passenger seat at the front of a taxi, leaving me the driver’s seat. At least she remembers that much. “Quick, after her.” And she sounds impatient.

I look at Tali and Garrus. The chaos here needs someone to explain things to the police. “Garrus, stay here. When the police arrive, tell them there are people on the trail of the mercs who did this. Spectre involvement. Use my name, and get them to back off till it’s settled.”

“Will do, Commander.” Garrus gives Tali a sympathetic look as she gets in, before moving towards the main entrance area where emergency vehicles are arriving.

I get into the taxi. “I’m fine, by the way. Thanks for asking.” I’m still just a little annoyed with Liara running off like that, and let some sarcasm out to show it.

“Come on, she’s getting way.” It doesn’t seem to bother her. Perhaps she so determined to catch Vasir that she doesn’t care.

“Righty-o.” I lift the taxi off, and we head after Vasir’s bright red air-car at the best speed I can manage. Which is quite a lot higher than a safety-conscious driver would favour on Illium.

It’s not hard to gain on Vasir, since she appears to be driving conservatively to avoid notice. On the other hand, when she notices us she swings off to the right. Oncoming traffic in a one-way flight-path isn’t light, either, but she dodges and weaves and we dodge and weave with equal skill. “We need to be careful. A head on collision at this speed...”

I try to reassure Liara. “Yeah, I hear those can be bad for you.” It may not have come out quite as intended.

Vasir turns again.

“We’re not going into the construction site at this speed.” Liara seems less enthusiastic all of a sudden.

Of course, we are. When Vasir exits by what will one day be a window and turns, I slide our taxi through a gap between the wall and a lift to gain a little distance. Slight moans from my passengers as we head again into oncoming traffic can be ignored.

I think Vasir is starting to get a little nervy. Small objects start dropping out the back of her car. “Oh goddess, she’s dropping proximity mines.” That’s a little annoying. We have to take a few lines that are a little wider than I’d have preferred if we don’t want to get blown up, and that let’s Vasir grab some distance again. “She’s getting reinforcements.”

I glance around. Four more aircars have dropped into the traffic, and familiar black-armourd figures are visible inside them. We might want to deal with that. “What’s this thing armed with, anyway?” I don’t think my flamethrower would be all that useful at this distance.

“It’s a taxi. It has a fare meter.” Liara sounds a little stressed. I drop below another mine, and swerve between two cars. Does she want me to rip it out and throw it at the mercs? I wouldn’t have thought that would work well, although exploding fare meters would be an interesting design choice.

As it happens, that mine takes out one of the mercenaries. Another swerves to avoid the explosion, and side-swipes a civilian vehicle to fall out of the chase. Vasir stops releasing them. Either she’s out, or she doesn’t want to waste them. It’s not as if they’ve hit us. She concentrates on pulling away. And notices a tunnel.

A one-way tunnel, and we’re at the wrong end. Vasir speeds through it, with me and the mercs inpursuit. “Truck.” I can ignore that comment. “Truck!”

“I see it.” Stop distracting me, Liara. I could have got my arm out the window without losing it, that’s how much space we had. And with the truck swerving, there’s no space at all for the mercenaries to go. Kaboom.

“There we go, all clear.” I sound quite satisfied with myself. Four vehicles destroyed, no ammunition expended.

“You’re enjoying this.” Liara makes it sound like an accusation.

Vasir doesn’t seem to be doing quite as well as us. She swings off again into another one-way zone, heading again into the oncoming traffic. “Truck!” Liara sees it first.

“What, another one.” How tedious. I swerve round it with plenty of room to spare, even as it starts to spill its load. And then we’re up alongside Vasir. She looks out the passenger window, and I give her a wave and a smile.

Looking angry, she swerves to give our taxi a little nudge. You’d think she’d have more respect for her paint job than to do that. Still, anything she can do...

Two side-swipes later, I notice oncoming traffic that isn’t getting out of our way. And realise that Vasir hasn’t. I lock up with her just long enough, than drop away. In the last second before she looks ahead, I think I can see her smile. And then the oncoming vehicle and her aircar smash into each other. Sadly it’s not in a full head-on smash, as the other driver noticed something was going on and managed to turn enough to leave two damaged vehicles rather than one explosion.

As I swing around to land, I see Vasir limp out of her wreck. Our chase will continue on foot.

A new website, Baldur's Gate, Some of the source code is interesting.

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Now, this might be some sort of fake. Or joke. Or Chris Avellone's musing about a kickstarter project may have some substance.

While Shepard Watched, Chapter 70

A Two-Spectre problem

Liara has a new secretary, who seems rather easily alarmed. I’m sure it’s perfectly normal for heavily armed and armoured humans, turians, and quarians to turn up unannounced. After all, it happens to me all the time. At least we’ve removed every trace of Cerberus logos. I jerk a thumb at the office door. “Liara in?”

“Yes. But...”

“Don’t let anyone disturb us.” I push the office door open, and we barge in. Liara looks up, startled, from her terminal, a faint blue glow forming and then dissipating as she recognises us.

“Shepard!” I can read Liara’s emotions pretty well, and she’s surprised, excited, and... guilty? “And Tali and Garrus too.” And now she’s calming down, putting on her ;Information Broker’ face. “What can I do for you?”

“Take a look at this datapad.” I toss it on her desk, feeling slightly low. “It’s got some Cerberus information on it that you might like to read.”

Liara looks a little puzzled as she picks it up and starts reading and then excited. “This is a series of transmissions between Shadow Broker agents! Cerberus must have intercepted them. There’s some dates, hints about locations... It’s Feron!” And now, definitely distressed. She presses a button, and the datapad displays the image of a drell.

“Who is Feron?” The name is new to me.

“I... Do you know how Cerberus got their hands on your body?” She looks at me as if she expects me to be angry.

I shrug. “All I know is that you recovered it and handed it over. None of the details.”

If anthing, she looks even less happy. “Yes. I gave you to them, knowing what they’d do. And I’d do it again.” She sighs. “But Feron, he was there. He was infuriating. He was working both sides, he betrayed me at least twice. And in the end, he sacrificed himself so that I could escape.” She looks at the image, longingly. “And now he’s alive. All this time I’ve been planning revenge, and now I can think about a rescue.”

She looks down, trying to compose herself. “I need to contact a few people. It might take a little time. Come by my apartment in an hour or so, and we’ll start planning what to do. Until then, you can use my office. Or, whatever you want, I suppose. Thank you, Shepard. But for you, I’d have never had this opportunity.” Gracefully she rises, picks up her things, and leaves.



I could get used to sitting in an office chair with my feet on the table, ringing my (Liara’s} secretary and demanding tea, it’s dextro- equivalents, and the relevant biscuits. I don’t think the secretary is too happy with the situation, but after Liara told her to look after us I felt compelled to take advantage of the hospitality. As we leave after the hour is up, I’m quite certain her smile is faked.



Liara’s door is open, and there’s a police barrier inside. Three Ilium police appear to be investigating an ‘incident’. I also suspect they’re not terribly attentive, as I walk right up to the barrier without them noticing. “What’s going on here?”

The officer in charge appears to combine laziness – she was standing watching her juniors work - with not paying attention and not thinking quickly. “I’m sorry,” she says in a bored tone, “but this is a crime scene. Civilians are requested to leave.”

I can see signs of combat damage here, and no Liara. An asari in police uniform isn’t sending me away. “What... Is.... Going... On... Here?” Maybe if I keep it simple she’ll get the picture.

Before she can do more than look annoyed, another voice interrupts us. “Someone attempted to kill your friend, Commander.”

The asari who comes down the stairs isn’t in police uniform. She does look rather more combat ready than they are. “Thank you Officer, you and your people are dismissed.” And she’s getting rid of the person who is attempting to stop me looking for Liara, which is a big plus.

“What? This is my investigation. You can’t do that!”

“Already done.” The visitor has sent an omni-tool command, and the other two police are packing and leaving at once. She’s obviously of some importance, although she has enough patience to wait until the police have left before introducing herself. “Commander Shepard. I’m Tela Vasir, with Special Tactics and Reconaissance.”

“Another Spectre.” And they never bothered to teach me the secret handshake.

“I heard they reinstated you, too. Good. You’re one of our most famous agents.” She smiles slightly. “Maybe I’ll get you to sign my breastplate later.”

“So, what happened here?” I’m getting a little tired of the question.

Vasir looks at her omni-tool. “About 17 minutes someone attempted to assassinate your friend, Doctor T’Soni. They failed. They used bullets designed to penetrate the kinetic barrier on the windows, but they weren’t expecting her biotic shield. Clever girl. Paranoid, but clever.”

“Hence the mess, and the bullet holes.”

“I gave the police a gold star for finding those.” Vasir’s smirk is pronounced. “T’soni didn’t leave for nearly four minutes after the shots were fired. Any idea why she might have done that?”

“She was expecting me.” I glance around. It’s not a small apartment. “I suspect she may have recorded a message.”

“Then I think we should look for it.” Vasir sounds decisive. “She’s your friend, Commander. Where might it be?”

“Let me have a look around.” I glance at Garrus and Tali. “See if you can get anything from the forensics or the computer.” As they move to comply, I start moving around the apartment, Vasir at my elbow. I suspect we’ll find anything somewhere I would recognise.

A large painting on the wall catches my eye. “That’s not Thessia.” Vasir sounds curious. “I’m not sure where that might be.”

“It’s Ilos.” But it doesn’t have any sort of message attached. Nor does Liara’s doctorate, from the University of Serrice.

There’s one display piece catches my eye. A glass case, which holds the cuirass from a suit of combat armour, with an N7 badge on the torso and a bright red stripe starting on the shoulder. A very battered chestpiece. Vasir looks at it. “That seems a little out of place.”

“It’s the chest piece from my old combat armour.” Which I suppose was cut from my body after I dead, and restored as much as it could be.

“Looks like somebody didn’t like you very much.” Vasir has a nice line in sarcasm. She might even sound impressed that I survived that sort of damage to my armour. Of course, I didn’t.

We head up the stairs. Liara’s bed, neatly made, with fresh flowers on the bedside table and a small holo of the original Normandy. I pick that up, and it changes. “That reacted to your touch.” Vasir sounds pleased. But I don’t recognise the scene.”

“It’s the dig site from Eden Prime. Where they found the prothean beacon.”

“There’s a few prothean-looking items around the apartment. Let’s take a look at them.” Vasir starts down the stairs.

I follow here. What seems likeliest. We check a couple of possible items, before a third reacts to my touch when a drawer slides out. Vasir grabs the datachip. “Let’s put this into a reader.”

The chip is a recording of a conversation between Liara and a Salarian. She gets right to the point.

“What have you got for me, Sekat?”

“There is some location data on there, Doctor. A bit vague, mind you. If you’ll come over, we can discuss it. Frankly, I’m a little worried about discussing this over the com. What have you got Baria Frontiers into?”

“Nothing that should lead to trouble for you.” Liara doesn’t quite sound as soothing as I think she’d like to. There’s a sound in the background, of breaking glass. Liara looks around. “I will come and speak to you shortly.”

“Baria Frontiers.” Vasir sounds thoughtful. “They have an office in the Drakon Trade Centre. Come on.” She starts for the door, raising her voice. “My car is outside. Enough space for everyone.”


Vasir knows the way around Ilium, which I suspect is a regular location for her Spectre activities. She drives us to the Centre, half listening to the conversation I have with Garrus and Tali.

“Did you get anything from your scans?”

“The shots were fired from the building opposite Liara’s apartment. Not from the roof, although at first it seems like it. The angle doesn’t work correctly for that. I would say the floor below, most likely from a landing on the fire escape unless the end apartment was used.” Garrus sounds thoughtful. “The gun was a Mantis, or a close copy. Nothing with the hitting power of your Widow. If it had, I don’t think there’d have een a window left.”

“Someone attempted to access the computer between Liara leaving and the police arriving.” Tali sounds displeased. She and Liara were my regular partners in, not crime but extreme violence, when we chased down Saren. I don’t think she’s happy someone is trying to kill her friend. “They didn’t get very far against the security, but they were trying to download her datafiles and introduce a sleeper program to record and later retransmit her messages.”


The Drakon Trade Centre is five stories high, in the typically expensive looking Ilium style. Vasir parks in front of it. “Baria Frontiers is on the third floor.” She starts talking as we get out. “Let’s head up there and...”

An explosion inside the building blows out windows on the bottom three floors. With glass raining down around us, I hear someone scream, “Liara’s in there.” And they borrowed my voice to do so.

Whoa. Is anyone else getting ? in the older posts where there should be " ? I'm not looking forward to going through changing those.

While Shepard Watched, chapter 69

Party Favours

“Councillor,” The VI speaks as soon as her owner enters the apartment. “You have an incoming call on your family communication node. Shall I transfer it to your terminal?”

“At this time of day? It must be important. Accept it, please.” The asari moves gracefully over towards her holo-display, just in time to see it flicker into life.

The asari who appeared is a stranger to Councillor Tevos. A pale purple tone to her skin is set off by dark and clearly expensive clothing as she leans back on a wide seat. In the background, the beat of dance music is audible. A single batarian leans into the screen, passing a holopad across, before moving out of the display. “Ah, Councillor Tevos.” She smirks slightly. “How good of you to give me some of your very valuable time.”

“Who are you? How did you get hold of my family communication link?” How did someone obtain a private communication address for a member of the Citadel Council?

“Why, I’m hurt.” The sarcasm was obvious. “And here I thought my reputation preceded me. Perhaps I should start an advertising campaign. ‘Visit exciting Omega, spend some money, and if you’re lucky perhaps the Pirate Queen will keep order long enough for you to leave safely.’ How does that sound, hmm?”

“Aria T’loak.” Tevos can’t quite keep the disdain from her voice, which only provokes a smirk and a nod. “Why, and how, are you communicating with me in this way?”

“You don’t know how communicators work?” Aria’s tone is mocking. “Well, you press a button here and another button there, and then you can talk to somebody who isn’t even in the same room as you. It’s very useful. No doubt you have a VI which could handle it if you aren’t familiar with such things.”

“I see you don’t intend anything more than mockery. Since that is the case, I see no reason to continue this conversation.” Tevos reaches for the switch to terminate the signal, but Aria’s next words give her a reason to pause.

“That Spectre of yours, Shepard, I’ve got to say she throws a good party. One of the best there’s been at Afterlife in months.”

“Shepard.” The name itself is a surprise, the reported situation… perhaps less of one.

“Yes.” Aria suddenly sounds much more serious. “The Normandy, that’s her ship in case you’ve forgotten, came back from the Omega Four Relay earlier today, and is currently berthed at one of my docks. And then all the crew came ashore and trooped into Afterlife, and they’ve been having a high quality and very expensive eight hours entertainment since. As well as entertaining everyone else, with their human customs. There’s still a, I believe it’s called a Konger Line, going round now. Music and singing and dancing and sex and money being spent. They’re normal in Afterlife, but every so often there’s a night like tonight which becomes special. Spectacular. Something to tell people about for a long time. So I‘m telling you.”

“So Shepard and the Normandy went through the Omega Four Relay. And now they’re back.” Aria nods as the Councillor tries to ignore the party to concentrate on what matters. “How?”

“Went through the relay, shot up the Collector vessel that tried to stop her, boarded their base, rescued her crew who the Collectors had attacked the Normandy while she was off the ship and taken most of them, and then set off a nuclear device on the base that destroyed it and wiped out the Collectors entirely.” Aria smirks . “If you want the details, you’ll have to speak to Shepard yourself. I did.”

“She does persist in doing things in the most spectacular manner possible.” Tevos sounds tired. “Why can’t she be discreet, like other Spectres?”

“If you think she’s not being discreet, you need to look at things from the perspective of someone who hasn’t got half the intelligence services in the galaxy reporting to you.” Aria’s tone is derisive. “It’s all rumours and suggestions, even among people who accept she’s alive.”

“I’m still astonished anyone doubts it. She gave an interview to that al-Jilani woman. It’s not really something people can question.”

“A lot of people, once they’ve been told what they should believe, will carry on believing regardless of anything as trivial as facts. Though of course,” Aria’s sounds distinctly smug, “That’s not always confined to people with limited information.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” While Tevos prided herself on keeping her temper publicly, this was a private conversation where she didn’t need to keep up a diplomatic front.

“Why, nothing, Councillor. I’m sure your opinions are informed only by facts, and not at all by personal prejudice.” Aria smirks “Anyway, I have told you what I wanted to tell you. Now I’m afraid I must go. Give my regards to your grand-daughter, and advise her that she really shouldn’t lick drell when she’s going out in public. It starts all sorts of rumours.”

“Wait, how did you...” As Aria’s image disappeared, Tevos stopped talking and exhaled. “Make some notes for the morning. Have some technicians check my terminal for any intrusion software Aria may have left, ask Metellus if the STG can confirm Aria’s report of Shepard, and make an appointment with Councillor Anderson. I’m sure he’ll want to know his protégé is around.”

“Of course, Councillor. Good night.”

Give it a couple of days, and this story will be going again. Sorry about the long absence.