Great First Impressions

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works, if you recognise it from somewhere else, surprise it isn't mine.

Betad by morde24, Atrius, Hermes, Priapus, Marethyu, Old man of the mountain and TheDonFluffles

The Guild of Gamers: The Operative

Chapter 02: Great First Impressions

— Jane Shepard —

"Commander," Miranda said as she entered the Cerberus operative's office, no doubt typing reports to the Illusive Man. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"You have a past with Maxim, don't you?" Jane asked, making Miranda scowl again. She usually kept her emotions under control, but the mention of Maxim was apparently a sore spot. "I want to know about it, and if your past with him is going to be a problem moving forwards."

"I hardly have a past with him, he's just a black mark on my record," Miranda refuted, before sighing. "As you know, I was assigned to recruit him to Cerberus when Section Seven was shut down. Tracking him down was… difficult, to say the least, and he realised he was being tracked. He laid a false trail, and ambushed me when I followed it," Miranda admitted, obviously reluctant to explain this.

"But he didn't kill you?" Jane asked, making Miranda shake her head.

"No, he thought I was an assassin and wanted to interrogate me to find out who hired me. When I explained I wanted to recruit him into Cerberus, he actually let me go. Section Seven and Cerberus have a lot of similarities, both in goals and operations, so he made a counteroffer," Miranda continued, her scowl deepening. "If I assisted him with his current mission, to take down a Batarian slave ring that was targeting human fringe colonies, he'd join Cerberus afterwards."

Ugh, Batarians. She wasn't supposed to be biassed against any one race as a Spectre (or was it ex-Spectre now?), but nothing good had ever come from Batarians in her experience.

Both the raid that made her famous in Elysium, and the whole mess with Balak and Terra Nova, any time Batarians were involved, things went to shit.

"A rogue agent was fighting Batarian slavers?" Jane asked with narrowed eyes, making Miranda nod.

"As I've said, I highly doubt Section Seven has actually shut down, it's more likely the remaining agents have simply gained far more independence, Maxim often takes actions to defend humanity or Alliance interests," Miranda agreed, seeing her suspicion. "Regardless, with the aid of Cerberus, we took the slavers down. Having seen him in action, I can't deny that he's incredibly talented. He'll be a useful asset in our mission."

"And yet I can't help but notice he agreed to join Cerberus afterwards, and yet here we are," Jane pointed out, making Miranda sigh.

"And this part is why I don't like him," Miranda admitted. "After our success, when he no longer needed Cerberus, he drugged me, emptied one of my bank accounts, sabotaged my communications devices, stole my ship, and escaped, leaving me passed out in a shitty hotel room in the terminus systems, with no resources or way off the planet," Miranda admitted with a deep sigh.

She tried not to look amused, she really did, but Miranda noticed her slight grin.

"Maxim isn't trustworthy, keep that in mind. His promises mean nothing, he'll try and use you for his own ends before cutting you loose and betraying you the moment you are no longer of any use to him," Miranda said with a deep scowl. "I attempted to track him down again, but he went to ground and can be incredibly hard to find when he doesn't want to be. A Cerberus squad located my ship in the port of another terminus planet, but he had rigged it to explode and they were wiped out when they attempted to reclaim it."

Max betrayed Cerberus, but frankly she was probably going to do the exact same thing when she didn't need Cerberus to help stop the Collectors, so she wouldn't judge him for it just yet.

"If he's trying to protect humanity, he'll have as much reason as we do to want to fight the Collectors, I'll make sure he doesn't run off with the Normandy afterwards," Jane promised, before pausing. "Miranda, you said he drugged you in your hotel room, what exactly was he doing in your hotel room?"

The tiniest blush crossed Miranda's cheeks, making Jane grin.

"You slept with him, didn't you?" Jane asked, making Miranda sigh.

"We were… celebrating our success, that is all. Will that be all, Commander?" Miranda asked, an incredibly fake smile on her face.

Oh yeah, she definitely slept with him.

"That will be all, we should arrive at Omega soon," Jane said, leaving Miranda to her reports.

Hopefully, she'd have better luck with recruiting Max than Miranda.

— Max —

With the Shadow Broker as my enemy, I should assume they definitely know both who and where I am, and that there are assassins or mercenaries already on their way here to kill or more likely capture me.

Which is the less preferable outcome, I doubt he'd be a particularly gracious host.

Fortunately, I can prepare a few nasty surprises for anyone heading this way, I have cameras all over the area around my apartment of course, but I think I need something a little more impactful.

[Demolitions Mastery (Expert)]

You have years of experience dealing with explosives, able to disarm, craft and use them to their utmost efficiency.

It's an old favourite trick of mine, and this safehouse is expendable, so if anyone tries to force their way into my place they're in for an unpleasant surprise.

I've gone over the data I managed to extract, but frankly I'm not sure where to even start my quest to track down the Shadow Broker, sure I have a couple of agents names and locations but they probably know exactly what I stole, so the agents will be relocated before I can find them.

I might have to let the Broker make the first move, see if I can get him to expose himself in the slightest, which is why I'm not changing my name or face yet.

That, plus I don't trust any of the back-alley docs in Omega to not screw me over, accidentally or deliberately.

Shit, it might even be time for me to consider getting some hardware upgrades given the seriousness of my current mission, but again I don't trust any of the ripper-docs around here.

This new galaxy has some incredibly advanced cybernetics, but I don't have any myself at the moment.

There are considerable risks to getting augmented, dodgy implants, viruses, your cybernetics getting hacked, cyberpsychosis, so it's a question of whether the benefits are worth the risk.

While the other risks are valid, you have no chance of falling to cyberpsychosis, no matter how augmented you get. Consider it a benefit of your system.

Well, that's nice to know but even if I wanted augments, I certainly wouldn't get them in Omega. I'd go to the Citadel if I wanted the safest choice, or Illium if I wanted the less restricted, more risky tech.

The Council has some strict laws on cyberware, but a lot of companies do their research outside of council space in places like Noveria and Illium to avoid the Council's laws. It's riskier, but you can definitely get better gear if you go outside of council space.

Something to consider, but there's no point thinking about it now since only a truly desperate fool would let an Omega ripperdoc work on them.

But I will either need to acquire the services of a talented Netrunner for this mission or get some hardware upgrades. I barely managed to fight the hacker off last time, despite my skill. Both have risks, if I get chipped then I'm at risk of being hacked, and I've seen what a talented netrunner can do to someone with too many augments. I once watched a netrunner force three guys to kill themselves without even putting down their drink.

But anyone I hire can be bought by the Broker, who has far more resources than I do. I have a lot of credits, split across multiple banks, but I can't outspend someone like the Shadow Broker.

Section Seven used to have a very talented netrunner, but when we all went to ground I lost contact with most of my former comrades, I know several of them ended up dead, and we never had the biggest numbers to begin with.

Section Seven was the best of the best, and even then it was only people who the Alliance brass thought could thrive in the shadows. Just because someone had the skills to be an agent didn't mean they had the personality to handle it.

Plus, it's been so long that I can't count on any of them actually being reliable or loyal to the cause anymore. It's a mess.

Though I'm not overly loyal to the Alliance itself either, I'm loyal to humanity. The Systems Alliance is just the best chance humanity has amongst the stars.

Cerberus probably thinks they are, but from my memories I don't trust them. They've got noble intentions, but they're a little too extremist for me, plus I've seen some of the projects they're responsible for. They go too far, and that's coming from me.

Under better leadership, Cerberus could be a powerful tool for humanity, but under the Illusive Man? They're a fringe threat, not my focus but certainly something to keep an eye on.

I can't be dealing with two shadowy organisations at the same time, T.I.M will just have to wait his turn.

My proximity alert goes off, making me stiffen as I grab my pistol and open the cameras, they go off a lot since my apartment is in a fairly populated place. Still, I'm understandably on edge this time.

This only increases as I see an armed turian heading straight for my door, I know him. Grizz, one of Aria's bodyguards.

His weapon is on his back, and I can't see anyone else coming with him so I doubt this is an attempt on my life but it's certainly going to be trouble.

He knocks on my door and I pause before I sigh, heading for it and opening it up. I'm in my armour, can't take any chances and I'm pretty sure I can take this guy, it's his boss I'm worried about.

"Aria wants to speak with you," Grizz says immediately, not waiting for me to speak. "Head to the Afterlife, now."

That's about what I expected, but I'm not thrilled at Aria giving me orders.

"Tell your boss I'll be by later, I'm in the middle of something and I'm not dropping everything because her majesty wants my attention," I say back, making him narrow his eyes.

"Aria won't be happy-"

"Aria's never happy, now fuck off and tell her I'll be by tonight," I say, interrupting him as he scowls. Aria won't like it but I can't just bend over every time she tells me to.

"Aria-

"Grizz, have you ever had a single independent thought? One that doesn't start with 'Aria'? I've given you my answer, now be a good lapdog and run back to your owner," I say scornfully, seeing his hand twitch towards his pistol.

If he goes for it, I'll overload his shield and put a single round through his head, my omni-tool ready to go, but he grunts and walks away, giving me one last dirty look.

Aria's boys are well and truly whipped, and my reputation precedes me. Grizz knows how many successful jobs I've done, I'm a pretty famous solo merc after all, and he's just a glorified bouncer, so he knows all too well who would win in a fight between us.

Aria would be angry if I killed him, but that wouldn't make him any less dead.

The truth is, Aria only cares about things that directly affect her, she shouldn't give two shits about my new war with the Shadow Broker (unless there's something in it for her, better check I haven't had a large enough bounty out on my head).

Hell, she used to have a batarian bartender that poisoned human patrons, she definitely knew and didn't lift a finger to stop him from killing her clients. She also didn't give a shit when I forced him to drink his own poison, because I wasn't challenging her.

If it doesn't affect her, or look like a challenge to her 'rule' of this shithole, she shouldn't actually care.

Besides, I have two very valuable pieces of intel that she would want, so I'm pretty sure I can take the risk and go meet with her. The chance of it ending in violence is fairly slim.

For now, I need to put out some feelers to my contacts, make some arrangements for my upcoming crusade against the galaxy's premier information broker.

— Aria T'Loak —

Watching Maxim finally arrive, she scowled briefly at his almost lazy strut, uncaring that he'd blatantly ignored her for the last five hours.

He glanced at the bar, but if he'd had the balls to go and get a drink first she might have actually ripped them off, so she was pleased when he ignored it and walked towards her little lounge.

Ignoring Grizz, he walked up the stairs towards her, taking a seat on the couch she had without waiting for her to speak.

"One day, I'm going to run out of patience for your disrespect," Aria said simply, sipping her drink as she stared at the human.

"That will be an interesting day, but it isn't today, is it? So, what can I do for the Queen of Omega today?" Max asked, his tone mocking as she glared at him.

The truth was, he was too useful to get rid of for something as simple as his attitude. He was a very good and reliable merc, plus she'd piss off the various fixers and the bounty brokers if she took him out.

A reliable solo like Max was worth a lot.

"You know why you're here, did you really think I wouldn't notice you blowing up a ship in my own docks? I don't care when you idiots kill each other, but I draw the line when you risk blowing a hole in Omega," Aria growled, glaring at him as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, I haven't blown up any ships," Max said lazily, making her glare intensify.

"Don't play games with me, Max, nothing happens on Omega without me knowing about it," Aria said, pausing as he laughed. "I have footage of you fleeing the scene moments before the ship damn near blew a hole in my space station and almost vacuumed the entire docks."

"I'm sure you do, but I didn't blow the ship up. I was investigating it for a job, but the pirates boss took offence to me hacking their systems and blew up the ship to try and kill me," Max explained easily, making her eyes narrow.

She was very good at reading people, it was one of the reasons she'd lasted this long, and Max seemed to be telling the truth.

Unfortunately, he was also an extremely good liar.

"For a job? Don't bullshit me, Max. I know what you really are. You think I wouldn't notice an Alliance agent working in my own backyard?" Aria said, annoyed that Max didn't even flinch at her words.

"I know you know, I also know you don't actually care. You aren't my target, I'm not here to try and take down your little kingdom," Max said waving his hand. "The pirates were attacking human interests, on the orders of the boss who blew up your dock, they were my target and now they're gone. Not quite how I wanted them gone, but ah well."

"You expect me to believe that the Alliance doesn't want to take me down?" Aria laughed, she knew how infamous she was.

"Aria, I know you have a very high opinion of yourself, but you're barely a blip on the Alliance's radars, mostly because you haven't actually done anything to the Alliance beyond a few minor raids. We both know that if you actually pushed too far and got their attention, they wouldn't bother with a single agent and I doubt you want Omega to become the next Torfan," Max laughed, making her pause before she nodded in reluctant agreement.

She had a lot of people under her control, but so did the Batarians at Torfan and the Alliance had exterminated them to the last man. She knew her limits, it was why she avoided Council space.

"You still caused the explosion, even if it was indirectly, you owe me for that mess," Aria said simply, making him pause before he nodded.

"So, do you want information or do you have a job you need done?" Max said simply, and this, this was why she tolerated him. He knew the limits, and when he had to play nice.

If she could collar him and make him work for her exclusively, she would, but his allegiance would always be elsewhere so she settled for using him as an independent contractor.

"I've already told you, nothing happens on Omega that I don't know about-" Aria started again, and once again he laughed. "…what do you know?"

"I have two valuable pieces of intel I've been holding onto, both involving you. One personal, one business," Max said smugly, making her scowl.

Personal? About her? Bullshit, she didn't do personal.

"Tell me, and I'll decide if they're enough to pay off your debt," Aria finally said, making him shake his head.

"I know they are, individually. Take your pick, and I'll give you one of them for free as my apology for the mess earlier, if you want the other you'll have to pay," Max said, making her glare at him.

He seemed confident, what the fuck did he actually know?

"Business, and this better be good," Aria finally said, watching him open his omni-tool and send her some files, a conversation log between the leaders of Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns sects on Omega.

Most of it was about Archangel, which she skimmed but she paused as she came across her own name.

"I was looking into their little alliance, I didn't believe three groups of rivals would team up over a single vigilante, and suspected they played a part in the attacks on humanity, I was mistaken but still got some good information," Max explained as she read about their plans to deal with her once they finished off Archangel.

She'd be having words with her men later about how exactly this had slipped under the radar, she had some traitors in her ranks from the way they were talking.

"If this is fake…" Aria started, making him roll his eyes.

"I'm not dumb enough to try and lie to your face, Aria. I might not particularly like you, but I at least respect you that much," Max said seriously, making her nod with a frown.

Mutual dislike and respect then?

"And the personal intel?" Aria asked, making him shake his head.

"I don't give freebies, but how about this? You can owe me a favour, no questions asked, you can decide the size of the favour based on how much you think the information is worth," Max offered, making her scowl.

She didn't like owing anyone, but she considered it for a moment before nodding. His information seemed solid so far.

"Fine, talk."

"Nyreen never left Omega, she took over the Talons and has been using them to fight the tyranny and corruption of Omega," Max said, and despite her usual cool composure she immediately glared at him as her ex-girlfriends name left his lips.

"Bullshit," Aria said immediately, making him chuckle. The Talons were a formerly minor gang that had become a hell of a lot more effective lately, taking territory and even occasionally taking out her shipments.

"It's easily verified, they've just stayed under your radar this entire time because Nyreen doesn't want you to know she's still here," Max said, making her pause.

That was right, he wouldn't lie about something she could easily confirm, and as much as she hated to admit it, it made sense.

Their sudden change in operations, the way a bunch of small-time nobodies had actually become an effective force, Nyreen's military training would let her make the most use of them.

"You didn't find it strange that a gang of scumbags became such a bunch of bleeding hearts do-gooders, just months after your bleeding heart girlfriend 'left'?" Max asked, making her scowl at him.

Trying to fight corruption on Omega was like trying to sweep up during a sandstorm, it didn't matter how much you did, things would just be worse once you were done, everyone knew that, everyone but deluded fools like Archangel and apparently Nyreen.

Fuck, this both was personal and informative that was worth a favour, and Max knew it.

"Leave me, I've got work to do," Aria ordered, making him smirk.

"I'll be in touch about my favour, or maybe I'll just hold it over your head for later," Max said as he rose, making her scoff.

"You do that," Aria said, not letting his words get to her as she watched him leave.

Nyreen, and now the mercs who thought they could plot against her. Apparently some people needed a reminder of the first and only rule of Omega.

Don't fuck with Aria.

— Maxim Russ —

Aria is predictable, as I find most asari are in truth.

I think it's their immense lifespan, habits get very ingrained over the centuries, and Aria is no exception.

She's like a dog I've just thrown two juicy bones, and that means she'll be too busy dealing with them to care about what I'm doing, she didn't even remember to ask who actually blew up the ship.

[Cold Reading]

You aren't psychic, but years of training and experience have made you extremely good at reading people's faces, working out what they are feeling and thinking with a glance.

She cares for Nyreen, more than she's willing to admit, and the idea that one of the only people she actually trusted lied to her and is working against her rule has stabbed into her cold dead heart.

I truly do not care about the in-fighting on Omega, but Aria is a known factor and I would rather she be in charge than deal with whoever comes out on top of a new power struggle.

Plus, Aria fighting the merc gangs only benefits me in the long run, they're all known threats and anything that weakens them is beneficial to my mission.

Mercs come in three forms, the larger organisations like the Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns that work more like corporations most of the time, with thousands of members, most of whom have never met their leaders, and the groups are usually corrupt as fuck, or they have ties to some larger organisation

Then there's the smaller merc bands that tend to have a small but reliable crew, they tend to know and trust each other much more.

I prefer those groups if I need a job done, they tend to be more focused and incentivised to actually do the job right. Plus, their bonds mean they work together better, and I can get to know the entire crew I'm hiring, whereas if I hire the larger organisations, I might not even meet the guys who'll be running the op.

Then there's the third type, solos like me. Usually they end up dead in a week, but the ones who survive end up living legends.

Or just legends, the living part is highly optional, just look at Silverhand.

I don't tend to trust them, which is ironic considering I'm one of them, but solos tend to have egos that greatly outweigh their skills, and they can't work in groups because they're too independent and can't take orders.

The Blue Suns, Blood Pack and Eclipse getting pulled into a war with Aria should keep their men on Omega busy, could open up some interesting opportunities for me.

Busy enemies are distracted enemies, I could use this to get some serious intel on the groups involved (including Aria) while they're distracted with each other.

Tch, unfortunately I can't spend the time doing that while I'm dealing with the Shadow Broker, and this is going to be a long term mission.

I have a few leads, people I know work for him, like Barla Von, a financial advisor on the Citadel, but I doubt any of the Broker's agents actually know who or where the Broker is.

I'm fighting a shadow war with someone who knows who I am, where I am, probably has my entire background and every secret at their fingertips and I don't even know what race or gender they are.

The Broker could be a human, an asari, a turian, a salarian, hell it could be a group of three elcors, a hanar and a vorcha for all I know.

That's the difficulty of my current target, it's the same game as always but this time I'm playing with a massive handicap and the other guy/girl is cheating.

Getting a drink, I spend some time mingling with my fellow mercs. Afterlife is basically a gathering spot for mercs and bounty hunters on Omega after all.

Getting a message, I pause as I check it, frowning as I realise it's from a number I don't have. It's not one of my contacts, who I was actually expecting to call me.

'You've kicked the hornet's nest, there's a Shadow Broker hit squad headed to Omega.'

Already? They're not wasting any time. This could be a problem but I was expecting something like this.

'Wonderful, I was just getting bored. May I ask the name of my guardian angel?'

'No, not yet anyway. Just the enemy of your enemy for now.'

Ugh, secretive people. It's only funny when I'm the secretive one, everyone else should just spill their secrets to me immediately.

'Stop trying to trace me.'

'Can't blame a guy for trying, can you? So, how's Illium?'

'Better than Omega, that's for certain. The squad will arrive soon, don't die and I'll be in touch.'

Aww, I think I annoyed my mysterious saviour, how sad. I don't trust them, obviously.

Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is just another enemy, but I'll have to wait and see since they shut down the connection and beyond the information that they're somewhere on Illium, I don't have much to work with.

Information is power, and I'm not feeling particularly powerful right now.

My guardian angel sends me the ship my would-be killers are coming on, so I contact one of the traffic controllers I'm paying off and make sure I'll know when they arrive.

Even a shithole like Omega has traffic control, otherwise you'd have ships smashing into each other every time they tried to land, and that means a bribe in the right place can give you a lot of info on who's coming and going.

They do give me an interesting piece of information as well, based on an old request. A ship with the Cerberus logo on the side just arrived, because my life wasn't complicated enough as it is.

I don't know that they're here for me, but with how my day has been going I'm just going to assume Miranda finally tracked me down and is still slightly upset about my little white lie.

So, what's a guy to do when the entire galaxy is apparently hunting him down?

Omega is a big place, plenty of cracks for a guy to slip into and disappear for a while, as long as you know how to survive in them but that's not the plan, no I have a much better idea.

Opening up the BBA app, I skim the contracts that wouldn't require me to leave Omega, smiling as I find one.

Some Blood Pack vorcha who got a taste for flesh, and pissed off enough people to get a bounty placed on his head, last seen in the quarantine zone in Omega. Wanted dead or very dead.

Not many hunters are interested in the contract because he's in a quarantine zone that's full of a virus that kills any aliens who catch it, which is also a war zone between the Blue Suns and Blood Pack at the moment.

Only a madman would actually try and claim his head in such a situation, and no one sane would actually follow me into such a dangerous place.

The disease doesn't seem to affect humans, and more importantly there's a very good doctor in the quarantine zone I want to check in with.

Accepting the contract, I head back to my home and grab my gear, the high-end infiltration specialised armour, my sniper, vibro-blade and pistol, plus some explosive surprises since vorcha travel in packs.

Mission Accepted

[Bounty Hunt: Hungry, Hungry Vorcha]

Objective: Kill Zreek

Optional Objective: Kill Zreek without ever alerting his men

Huh, that's new. So this is my fabled system?

Legendary Mission Accepted

[Bounty Hunt: The Shadow Broker]

Objective: Kill or Neutralise the Shadow Broker

Hidden Objective: ???

Hidden Objective: ???

Hm, I'm not much of a gamer, but I take it that completing optional and hidden objectives increases the quest rewards?

Of course.

Well, I've always been a perfectionist at heart.

As for my pursuers, if they want to follow me into a plague-ridden war zone, they're welcome to, because it's all too easy for the hunter to become hunted around here.

People will see me going into the quarantine zone, and the Bounty Brokers Association know I've accepted this contract, which means word will get around Afterlife soon enough. I couldn't make where I'm going more clear if I left them a glowing neon trail to follow.

Basically? Come and get me.

— Bonus Scene — Jane Shepard

With Miranda and Jacob following her, she heading towards the apartment Aria had claimed was Maxim's safehouse, they'd decided to go for the agent first since he was the most likely flight risk, before they'd go for the Salarian doctor, then Archangel.

Zaeed was already making himself at home on the Normandy, having been waiting in the docks for them, she wasn't sure what to think about the older mercenary yet but Cerberus was apparently footing the considerable bill so she'd take him.

Aria seemed to think Maxim had gotten himself into some trouble with something, claiming someone had tried to blow him up recently, though she didn't seem interested in explaining more, so she'd have to find out more from the man himself.

Getting no answer as she knocked on his door, she frowned to herself and looked around.

"Maybe he's not in," Jacob said, making her frown.

"Or he's not accepting company at the moment," Miranda added, looking up at a rather well concealed camera that was pointed at the door.

"Maxim Russ? I'm Commander Shepard, we need to talk to you," she started, banging on the door.

Maybe she was too used to getting her way, because when there was no response still she made her mind up and looked at the lock.

A fairly simple electronic lock, which should have set off alarm bells in hindsight given who she was here for, but as she bypassed it and let herself in, looking for any sign of her missing target, she immediately realised her mistake.

The quietest ticking made her eyes widen, and only her years of combat experience saved her as she quickly used her biotics to charge back out of the apartment, just in time to see the whole thing explode, the blast still catching her as it sent her flying into a wall, her shield and armour taking the brunt of the damage.

Getting up with a grunt, she knew if she hadn't dashed out of the apartment she'd have been killed, again. Miranda and Jacob seemed fine, though Jacob's outfit was damaged as he brushed himself off.

"I see Max is as paranoid as ever," Miranda scoffed, her hair somehow still perfectly in place despite the explosion.

"Was that bomb for us, or was he expecting some other company?" Jacob asked, wincing as he rose.

His question was answered as a squad of heavily armed men in white armour charged towards them, opening fire without bothering to introduce themselves.

"What- I know that armour. They're the Shadow Broker's private army, what the hell did Max do?" Miranda asked frantically, diving behind cover as she lifted three of them into the air with her biotics.

A very good question, she knew very little about the Shadow Broker but it had to be something that truly pissed him off to get a response like this.

Shepard didn't reply, already charging towards the attackers, shotgun in hand as she sent one flying backwards, unleashing a biotic-charged punch at another.

Despite the chaos, she hadn't missed the fact that the camera, once pointing at the door, was now facing the street, perfectly placed to watch the fight.

— Aria T'Loak —

…okay, that one was definitely Max. What was it going to take to stop him from blowing up her station?

— Tela Vasir —

As a Spectre, there were plenty of times you had to make decisions you didn't particularly enjoy. The galaxy wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, it had a dark, disgusting underbelly that most people didn't even want to admit existed.

Spectres had to interact with that underbelly, and sometimes they had to make deals for the good of the galaxy.

When someone had information she could use to save millions of lives, what was an assassination or two in return?

That was the reality of working with the Shadow Broker, he gave her information that had saved countless lives, and in return she occasionally dealt with problems for him.

Reading a file on Maxim Russ, she briefly considered that the human sounded like he'd make a good Spectre himself, before shaking her head. There was no point considering that, he was going to be dead soon enough.

Still, with a life like his, he would probably understand better than most about why she was going to kill him. One life taken for millions of lives saved, it was simple mathematics.

It was just business, no hard feelings.