"Welcome back to the Citadel, Agent Shepard. It seemed that you were delayed. We expected you two days ago." was how Councilor Tevos greeted Cassandra as she entered the private briefing room the Council had called her to, which in and of itself told Cassie just how stressed the asari was.
"Yes, ma'am. I received intelligence that Saren had been spotted on the world of Noveria, and headed there immediately in the hopes to catch him before he could get off-world." she acknowledged, saluting briefly before sitting down at the chair Tevos gestures towards in the same moment. "As you know from my preliminary report, I was unsuccessful."
"Indeed, and due in no small part to the interference of the local administration as well, from what we gather, and corrupt local security forces. Though such matters are best left to local Internal Affairs. If you could instead focus on your encounters with the geth and, far more importantly, with the rachni." Valern confirmed, bobbing his head in a sharp nod, and Cassandra nodded with an imperceptible sigh, having expected them to focus on that. And she couldn't even say that they were wrong to do so, really. It had certainly struck her as the most important part of the mission.
"Yes, of course. The geth were predominantly an issue on the mountainside and the road to Peak 15. Our presumption, based on what we were told, is that Saren smuggled them onto the world and past security by having them compact themselves into large shipping containers. Between the lack of life-signs, Saren's reputation, and the fact that he was a major shareholder in Binary Helix, no one on Noveria seemed to be interested in paying any further attention to his activities than that." Cassandra began the debrief promptly and directly, remembering the mission's events all too easily. "Fighting them in the blizzard was…difficult, even with our Makos and a Grizzly that we were able to commandeer from the authorities on Noveria. They blended in with the environment perfectly. If it wasn't for Tali'zorah doing some very quick work with the sensor suits, we'd have been in trouble."
"The geth had also set up defensive positions at the facility entrance, including turrets and heavy weapons." Cassandra continued, her mind replaying the intense firefight. "Their tactics suggested they'd been expecting resistance or assault. Not from us specifically, maybe, but they were prepared for a fight."
Councilor Sparatus leaned forward, mandibles twitching slightly, a flick of his talons dismissing the geth for the moment. Somewhat understandably, given that the entire galaxy still remembered what had happened during the Rachni Wars. "And the rachni? Your report mentioned a living queen and some manner communication. Have the rachni truly returned to the galaxy?"
Cassandra felt a chill that had nothing to do with the room's temperature and everything to do with the events on Noveria. The memory of that massive creature, suspended in her containment tank, reaching out with thoughts that weren't quite words…for someone who thought that she had spent her entire life as the only psionic in the galaxy, she seemed to be running into an awful lot of them these days. Not that she could tell the Council about that, of course.
"Binary Helix found an egg —possibly thousands of years old, from a scout ship that they found drifting— and hatched it without understanding what they had, all with the intent of raising slave-soldiers. They wanted to weaponize the rachni." she confirmed instead, alarmed looks dancing around the room as the Council murmured in dismay. "The queen we encountered was separated from her children at birth. According to what she communicated to me through another clone of the asari from Feros, who served as a temporary intermediary, this separation drove her offspring insane. And neither she nor I use that word lightly. I mean genuinely insane."
She paused for a moment, thinking hard.
"It wasn't just that they were violent, or even brutal in their violence." she elaborated after a long moment, a slight furrow appearing between her brows as she tried to find the right words. "They were... disconnected. Unnatural. Just, destroying everything The queen explained that rachni communicate through some kind of…song, and require it to develop properly. Without her guidance, her children were essentially born into silence, a complete biological and psychological void, and it drove them mad."
Sparatus's mandibles flared slightly, the expression on his face making it quite clear that he wasn't happy about what he was hearing. "And you believe this explanation? From a creature whose species nearly destroyed the galaxy? A creature tens of millions died to drive back during a war that left dozens of planets uninhabitable?"
Cassandra met his gaze evenly. "I do, Councilor. The queen showed genuine remorse for the actions of her children, and her ancestors. She understood why we might choose to destroy her, even told us how to flood her tank with an acid that would destroy her utterly, but she asked for mercy. For a chance to withdraw from the settled portions of the galaxy and rebuild her species in peace, away from others."
"And what did you do with this queen?" Tevos asked, her voice carefully neutral, though Cassandra could detect the underlying tension. The other woman, more likely than not, already knew the answer to that question. In fact, Cassandra was willing to be that all of them knew what she had -or, perhaps, hadn't- done, but she wasn't going to be ashamed of it.
"I allowed her to leave."
The Council chamber fell into a heavy silence. Cassandra could feel the weight of their stares, particularly Sparatus's burning gaze. She kept her posture straight, shoulders squared—the posture of a soldier who stood by her decision.
"You released it?" Sparatus finally spoke, his subharmonics vibrating with barely contained outrage, and what sounded very much like bewilderment. "A queen capable of birthing thousands, millions of the same creatures that nearly brought down galactic civilization, and you not only let it live, but set it free?"
"I spared her and set her free, yes," Cassandra replied, keeping her voice level, even as she stressed the words. "And I believe it was the right call at the time. I still believe it now."
"On what grounds? Most would have defaulted to extermination given historical precedent, with due cause." Valern asked, his rapid blinking betraying his agitation despite his controlled tone.
"Ethical and moral ones, to begin with." Cassandra replied, biting back an acid comment about the salarian fondness for genocide as a solution to problems. It wasn't fair, and she was at any rate better than that. "The queen demonstrated intelligence, remorse, and a desire for peace. She understood why we might fear her species, but she herself had no part in the Rachni Wars, no involvement in what happened. She was born thousands of years after they ended, thanks to the greed and the hubris of our own people."
"That hardly matters," Sparatus countered, his tone as hard as steel and just as unyielding. "We're discussing a species that nearly wiped out galactic civilization. Your ethical considerations might seem well-intentioned now, but they could have catastrophic consequences later."
Cassandra maintained her composure, despite feeling her muscles tense beneath her uniform. "With respect, Councilor, if we're judging entire species by their past actions, we'd have to apply that standard universally. The krogan were uplifted specifically to combat the rachni, then sterilized when they became inconvenient. The turians deployed planet-killing weapons during the Krogan Rebellions and tried to conquer my own species without informing their allies. The salarians created the genophage." She paused, letting that sink in, well aware that she was risking trouble with her nominal superiors but unwilling to back off. "And humans? We've had our share of atrocities too." she paused, eyes hardening. "In the end, though, none of that matters. I will not be party to genocide, and I certainly won't be it's instigator."
Tevos raised a hand to quiet all parties, her expression carefully diplomatic, her eyes narrowing. At Cassandra specifically not mentioning asari issues, she wondered, which -to be fair- she really hadn't. Mostly because the asari worked hard to keep their 'dirty laundry' buried by playing the other races against each other instead of acting directly, from what her aunties had always taught her. "Your point is noted, Shepard, though perhaps delivered more bluntly than would be preferred. Your moral values and staunch refusal to do what is easy rather than right does you credit, though I caution you against inflexibility. The life of a soldier, never mind a SPECTRE, does not lend itself to a rigid mind."
"I understand, Councilor." Cassandra simply nodded at the gentle rebuke, well aware even without her abilities that this was not the time to press any further than she already had. It would only do her more harm than it would good right now, and she wasn't stupid enough to risk throwing everything she had, or could, accomplish away just to try and dig a nail a bit deeper into the Council for her own satisfaction.
"Regardless of the moral complexities that may be at hand," Valern interjected, focusing as he was wont to do on rather more practical matters, and Cassandra felt her eye twitch involuntarily at the use of 'may be'. "what safeguards did you establish? What assurances do we have that this queen will not simply rebuild her forces and become a threat once more?"
"None beyond her word," Cassandra answered honestly, resisting the urge to shrug. "But she understands that if the rachni become aggressive again, they will face extinction, this time for good. She's intelligent enough to know that she's been given a single chance."
Sparatus made a dismissive sound, somewhere between a scoff and a growl. "The word of a rachni. That's what stands between us and potential devastation."
"The word of a sentient being, that has every reason to be honest." she shot back a bit sharply, before turning her attention back to Valern. "Additionally, she left on a single heavy military transport shuttle. She has no infrastructure, no resources, no tech base. It will be a long, long time before she is remotely capable of posing a threat to the galaxy at large."
Tevos held up a hand before Sparatus could respond. "What's done is done. The decision was within Shepard's authority as a Spectre, and the responsibility for the long-term results as well. We must now focus on the primary mission." She turned her attention fully to Cassandra. "The more pressing concern is Saren. Did you find any evidence of his activities on Noveria beyond the rachni?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes. From what I gather, Saren gained information from the Prothean Beacon, just like I did. Information relating to the 'Conduit', whatever that will turn out to be, and it's location. Apparently, the only way to reach it is through the Mu Relay. That is the information that Saren sought to retrieve from the rachni." Cassandra explained, tapping on her omni-tool and 'casting' information to the Council as she continued speaking. "The Mu Relay was, according to Doctor T'soni, pushed out of it's orbit four thousand years ago by a supernova. While no Council race has found it again, the rachni did. Unfortunately, as you can see here, the coordinates of the relay are…well, not something I can understand. I was hoping that the Council might have a solution?"
Councilor Valern's eyes narrowed as he studied the data scrolling across his omni-tool. "These coordinates appear to be encoded in a manner inconsistent with mechanical or digital data, which is logical given the difference in rachni intelligence and technology. Fascinating, but problematic under these circumstances. We will get our best analysts on this and have them retrieve what surviving records that we hold from cryptography and SIGINT during the Rachni War." he paused and grimaced. "Unfortunately, many records were destroyed during the Korgan Rebellions. It could prove difficult to break the code. We must continue pursuing other means of locating Saren in the meantime."
"The Council will collect what intelligence we can and prepare it to be forwarded to you while your ship is resupplied. In the meantime, please ensure that your crew receives some down-time while the opportunity is available." Tevos finished off the meeting firmly with nary a glance at the visibly displeased Sparatus. Honestly, she felt kind of bad that he was getting pushed to the side a bit during this meeting, but at the same time, he clearly didn't approve of the way that she did things, and all it would do was create conflict and slow things down if the two of them got into it.
Cassandra nodded, recognizing the dismissal for what it was, no matter how it was worded. She stood and offered a crisp salute. "Thank you, Councilors. I'll await your findings."
As she exited the chamber, Cassandra felt the tension in her shoulders slowly unwind, though she didn't dare show it until she was well away from both the Council and the various dignitaries that lingered outside the Council Chambers waiting for their own meetings. The weight of her decision about the rachni queen still hung heavy in her mind, but she wouldn't second-guess herself now. She'd made her choice based on what she believed was right, not what was politically expedient or what would make her bosses happy. If they didn't like it, they could fire her.
Her omni-tool pinged as she stepped into the elevator. A message from Joker: "Shore leave approved. Crew already scattering across the Citadel like varren after a pyjak. Strike team in the markets. Funds came through for better equipment. Anderson wants to see you when you're done chatting with the bigwigs."
The corner of her mouth twitched upward. Leave it to Joker to deliver a report and instructions from their old captain in his own unique way. Well, at least that told her what she had to do next, and she cast her eyes about for the nearest air-taxi station. It looked like it was time for her to head for the Alliance Embassy.
Hmm?
Was that Kahoku?
Her Mom's old Admiral?
He…well, he seemed like he needed a hand, and was he saying something into his omni-tool about a missing Marine unit?
Turning sharply away from the taxi terminal, Cassandra made her way towards the man who had been one of her mother's mentors. Even if all he needed was a friendly and sympathetic ear, she could hardly leave him like this. And if he needed help finding some of her brother or sister Marines, she could certainly see if a hand could be lent…
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"I never know, when she is like this, if I should be terrified of her or even more in love with her than I already am."
Ashley couldn't necessarily disagree, though she didn't think the calm, conversation, downright casual tone of voice that Liara was speaking with was entirely appropriate under the circumstances, and she winced slightly and increased the intensity of her audio filters at the loud, echoing shriek of agony that slammed into them. A shriek of agony from the full-grown thresher maw that Cassandra was currently disassembling with her bare hands, and she grimaced at the wet splatter and spray of cobalt-blue blood that stained the ground when the sensor-tendril that the glowing Dragon had just torn from the beast's head landed a few dozen feet away.
Their shore leave on the Citadel had barely lasted long enough for the ship to be resupplied and for the strike team to upgrade their equipment -she ran a pleased hand absently over her new Colossus armor- before Shepard had sent out a message instructing all hands to return to the Normandy and prepare to cast off. They'd been airborne within the hour, and that's when more details had been given.
Apparently, Admiral Kahoku -the Alliance's current military representative to the Citadel- had some missing marines, marines that had gone to investigate a distress call in Artemis Tau before dropping entirely off the grid without a word. Not typically something that their ship would be investigating, at least not under the current circumstances, but without any further leads on Saren they were more or less at odd ends. And while Shepard would very much have liked to give them a longer leave, when the man whose fleet liberated Mindoir and who helped mentor The Fox of Shanxi asked for help, she couldn't do anything but give it.
It had all been very routine, of course, flying to the planet the unit had gone missing on and setting down at the nearest location they could to the coordinates that the last report the marine's had given held. Into one of the Makos the 'girl team' had gone, confident that both IFVs and the full strike team wouldn't be necessary.
Then they'd found the bodies. The bodies, the transmitter that had sent the distress call that had pulled the marines here…and the jammer that had kept them from calling for help or evac. That would have been bad enough, and God knew that all four of them had been angry enough to spit nails by that alone. Then Shepard had realized that the marines had been killed by a thresher maw, that the beacon had been deliberately placed in the middle of a maw's territory to lure the marines to their death, and that someone had watched them die and collected data on it. At least, according to Tali.
At which point, The Dragon's wrath had been well and truly awakened, and the thresher maw that had attacked within a handful of minutes after that reveal was now bearing the brunt of it. She'd almost feel sorry for it, if it wasn't for the fact that it had killed thirty marines and tried to kill them. And if thresher maws weren't famously aggressive and frankly murderous.
The creature's agony was near palpable as Shepard grabbed another tendril and yanked with such force that the massive creature's head jerked sideways, its scream cutting through the air like a physical thing. The maw thrashed wildly, its colossal body churning up dust and rock, but it could neither escape nor harm glowing figure that was tearing it apart.
"Is…is this typical for human biotics? I mean, I saw the vids with the juveniles, but she had help then and they weren't adults. A-and with those prothean thralls, they were the same size that she was, so…is this something humans can do, typically?" Tali asked tentatively, watching the ongoing carnage with wide eyes.
"No, just Shepard." Ashley replied with a dry, nervous laugh. "This isn't typical for human biotics at all. This is... something else entirely." She winced as Shepard ripped away another chunk of the creature's armored hide, the sound of tearing flesh audible even over the maw's shrieks. "Liara, are you recording this?"
"Of course I am, if only for anthropological purposes or for the sake of any follow-up investigation. Rest assured, I'm not recording our girl slaughter that thing out of some psychopathic thrill." the doctor responded immediately, adjusting something on her omni-tool even as she spoke. Ashley couldn't restrain the blush that immediately swept over her cheeks at the words 'our girl', entirely unable to keep her mind from briefly dipping into the realm of fantasy, though she was able to shake it off for a moment. At least until the asari continued blithely. "She's going to need an awful lot of comfort after something that brings up as difficult a memory as this will. Tell me, do you have plans tonight, Ashley? Tali?"
Ashley swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly dry. "I—what?"
Not the most impressive response, but it was better than Tali's breathless squeak, and surely Liara didn't mean what she seemed to be implying? Surely this wasn't some sort of proposition, was it?
Liara's attention flickered briefly from her omni-tool to Ashley's flushed face, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth, a teasing glint -a warm and teasing glint- in her eyes. "I merely meant that Shepard will need emotional support after confronting something so connected to her past trauma. Thresher maws were responsible for what happened at Akuze, after all. Anything more than that will need some frank discussion."
Before Ashley could stammer out a response, or even try to contemplate what that last bit could possibly mean, the ground beneath them trembled. The massive thresher maw let out one final, gurgling shriek as Cassandra tore through what appeared to be a vital organ. The creature's massive body convulsed violently before collapsing in a spray of blue ichor, slumping to the ground like a particularly large toppled weed.
The glowing aura surrounding Shepard began to fade, the intense white-gold light dimming until it was just a woman standing amid the carnage, her armor spattered with thresher blood. She stood motionless for a long moment, staring at the corpse, before the saw her lift a hand. A moment later, her voice -harsh and raw- came over the comms. "Joker, bring the Normandy in to retrieve the Mako, thirty deceased marines, and one beacon. Figure out where the nearest Alliance battlegroup is so we can deliver the dead."
There was a moment of silence over the comms before Joker replied, his usually flippant tone subdued. "Aye aye, Commander. ETA five minutes. TFC 7.3, SSV Jakarta commanding, is in the Voyager Cluster. About six hours out at FTL."
"Good. Thank you, Joker, that will be all." Cassandra's voice remained flat, drained of feeling and so utterly unlike her normal self that it made Ashley's skin crawl. She'd heard that tone before, from soldiers who were ruthlessly strangling their emotions under iron-clad control, but she'd never thought she hear it from her hero. And she most certainly didn't like hearing it, and never, ever, wanted to hear it again.
Liara took a step forward, then hesitated, looking to Ashley and Tali with questioning eyes. What could they do but respond with simple, but firm, nods of agreement and fall in behind her? Nothing, and so together they approached Shepard, who still stood motionless beside the massive corpse of the thresher maw, staring sightlessly down at it.
"Skipper…" Ashley said softly, coming to stand at Cassandra's right side and reaching out to lay a tentative hand on her arm, a bold action that she would never dream of doing without invitation in any other situation.
Cassandra didn't react immediately to Ashley's touch, her body rigid beneath the armor. When she finally turned, her eyes were distant, haunted in a way that made Ashley's heart clench.
"The beacon was a trap, Ash." Cassandra said, her voice still hollow. "Someone deliberately lured those marines here to die. Someone took advantage of their good nature, their oath to protect the innocent, and used it to murder them. And they watched, watched them fight and die."
Liara stepped forward, positioning herself at Cassandra's left side and mimicking Ashley's own gesture of comfort. "We'll find who did this, Cassie." she said with quiet determination and no small amount of the same wrath that Ashley was sure they were all feeling. "We have the beacon, and Tali can analyze the transmission data."
"I already started preliminary scans, while you were fighting the thresher maw." Tali added, moving closer to complete their protective circle around Shepard, though she didn't reach out and touch her. Too shy or not sure where to grasp, Ashley was willing to bet, which was certainly fair enough. "There are markers in the signal coding, very distinctive ones. I think I can trace them back to their source given enough time and the equipment on the Normandy."
Cassandra nodded once, sharply, then seemed to gather herself as the sound of the frigate's engines began to fill the air around them. A moment later, Cassandra is gone, and Shepard is back, and she starts to give orders to fire-team and ship crew alike as she starts to organize the respectful but rapid collection of the fallen.
Hours later Ashley -dressed in her usual, comfortable-but-modest sleeping clothes- had found herself pulled into the Captain's Cabin by an intent Liara and planted on one side of Cassandra while Liara took the other. With Tali having demurred joining them in pursuit of delving into the intelligence that the captured beacon might provide, the younger girl determined to do her part in comforting Shepard by helping her achieve justice, the three of them settled in for their first - as Liara called it- 'girls night', with the implication that there would be more. And sitting there in Shepard's bed with the two women she had long since given up pretending she wasn't attracted to, Ashley couldn't help but feel like this was a date…and hope that there would, in fact, be more to come.
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One week of hunting and killing later found Cassandra and her full strike team standing amidst the wreckage of the Cerberus research base that they had just annihilated. One filled with not just Thorian creepers, but rachni soldiers and husks. And, of course, the badly injured, nearly-dead Admiral Kahoku, who it seemed hadn't been sufficiently protected from Hades' Dogs and was currently being worked on by Ashley and Kaiden as they tried to keep the man alive.
Cassandra, however, had other concerns. Such as talking to the camera hanging from the ceiling pointed directly at them.
"Murdering marines was bad enough. Thorian creepers, rachni, husks? Monstrous and brainless. But kidnapping and trying to murder an Alliance flag officer, a war hero from the Rebuke? You realize that you're going to die for this? The Alliance will hunt you down, if I don't find you first." she was growling, purple-black biotics laced through with thick ropes of red-gold fire swirling around her body like a storm, a tangible thing that could be felt in the air.
"The actions of this unit were unsanctioned, Commander." the cultured Australian accent of the woman who had greeted them when the last enemy had fallen dead spoke in response, sounding genuinely remorseful. "That's why the unit was still present when you arrived, that is why they weren't evacuated or assissted, and that is why you were able to trace them so easily."
"I traced them because my team is the best." The Dragon's words rolled across the room like a thunder, and there was a soft sound from the far end, one of agreement.
"The competency and talent of your strike team is certainly not in doubt, Commander, but the fact remains that if we hadn't wanted you to succeed, you wouldn't have." the mysterious woman agreed and denied in the same breath. "Cerberus' purpose is not different from yours: the protection of mankind at all costs against the threats that lurk in the forest of the stars. Sometimes, there are those -like the unit you've just confronted- that allow their zealousness to overwhelm them. But we are not your enemy, Commander. We don't want to be. We just want to help humanity survive in a dark and dangerous galaxy."
"…you seem like you actually believe that, and I'll give you credit for it. Maybe you're delusional enough to actually believe this wasn't sanctioned. But I know that it was, and I'm not going to let it stand." Cassandra warned after a long, quiet moment of contemplation, and the woman was equally silent for a long moment before responding, sounding a bit sad.
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Commander. Maybe you'll realize the truth, someday. But I…what?" she, whoever she was, cut herself off, and everyone present and conscious frowned as a distorted voice, murmuring lowly, said something in the background of wherever the speaker was. After a moment, that cultured voice voiced an impressive string of vile obscenities. "Commander, you need to leave, immediately."
"What, you just found out about a self-destruct, or are you trying to get me to leave before I find some evidence, because if that's the case…" Cassandra started to scoff in denial, only to be briskly interrupted.
"No, none of that matters. We've just received intelligence that batarian supremacists under the command of Balak have taken control of a large asteroid in the Asgard System. They're planning on crashing it into Terra Nova. It will wipe out the planet! You're the only one with command of a stealth ship that can make it in time, you need to get moving, now!"
"Do you really expect me to…" Cassandra started to scoff, only for an urgent chime from her omni-tool to draw her attention. Looking at the message she had just received, her expression grew thunderous. A sharp gesture to her team had them readying to move out, and she shot one last glare at the camera. "Looks like you're telling the truth about the asteroid. But this isn't over, whoever you are. You want to do the right thing for humanity, for the galaxy? Think about who you're working for, and think about what people do in their name."
With that final warning hanging in the air, Cassandra turned and barked orders to her team. "Move out! Joker, prep the Normandy for immediate departure to the Asgard System. We need to hit FTL as soon as we're aboard."
"Already on it, Commander!" Joker's voice crackled through the comm. "Nav course plotted and engines hot."
Wrex hefted Admiral Kahoku's unconscious form over his shoulder with surprising gentleness. "What about him? He needs a real medical facility."
"We stabilize him in the medbay and then go from there after saving the colony." Cassandra decided, her mind already racing ahead to the mission. "We don't have the time for anything else, so Chakwas will have to keep him alive until then. Let's move."