Chapter 99
Timing is crucial as I plot the pivotal scenes of history. There were several important events I needed to ensure happen. Primarily Shepard needs to be appointed as a spectre and be sent to investigate Saren. Secondarily he needs the opportunity to recruit Garrus, Tali, and Wrex. However, after this, I'm done holding the plot's hand. Shepherd doesn't need this level of micromanaging, and if he does, it would be a better use of my time doing it all myself.
I had very little I could do to influence council actions. The only thing I could do to guarantee Shepard becomes a spectre is making sure he has all of my data from Eden Prime, but because this attack was the Batarians and not the Geth, I don't know what will happen. I can't tell if being brazenly attacked by Batarains is better or worse then the Geth. It's going to be a bigger diplomatic issue seeing as how the Batarians have some ties to the council and citadel space.
That brings me to my second problem. Garrus is still working with C-Sec, so no need for outside meddling. Wrex was automatically hired to kill Fisk by the Shadow Broker network. I got lucky with that, so again I don't need to interfere. The problem is with Tali. Originally, Tali finds the evidence and tries to sell it to Shadow Broker, she is intercepted by Saren's men, and then is saved by Shepard. I briefly wonder if Tali is an integral squad mate if they're not going to be facing the Geth. In the end, I side with caution.
The easy way to prove Tali's competence is to fake a Geth data source for her to obtain but that would, unfortunately, implicate the Geth. The last thing I want is for this to tie back in any way to the Geth. I tempt Tali with a refined encrypted data transmission. Hoping to pique her interest by teasing her with a potential payday. She takes the bait and begins to decode the transmission. She makes quick work of it, and it's not long before my automated system picks up someone wanting to sell us info. It detects it as a duplicate, so I override it, so I can order a purchase before it's automatically rejected.
As Tali sets up a meeting with me and unknowingly another interested party. Shepherd arrives at the citadel. He and the rest of the surviving ground team were quickly brought to the Presidium Tower, home to the Council. Where a council meeting was already occurring between the councilors and a Human ambassador.
"This is an outrage! The Batarians have gone too far this time" The ambassador yelled up to the towering podiums where the councilors stood.
"Ambassador calm yourself. We understand your outrage, but there is nothing we can do at the moment. Without more information" Tevos the Asari councilor calmly said.
"For now, despite the severity of the attack, we have nothing to suggest this was anything besides a large pirate attack." Sparatus the Turian councilor explained.
"Yes. Yes. Investigating this attack is of the highest priority. Pirate activity of this scale outside of the Terminus sector is concerning. The loss of life and the Prothean beacon on Eden Prime is substantial." Valern the Slarian councilor added.
"This is not..." Udina the Ambassador started to say before being interrupted by Tevos.
"Ah. It seems we may now have the information we've been looking for. Captain Anderson, Commander Shepard welcome. The events surrounding the attack on Eden Prime are still unclear. Please explain the events of the attack."
"The SSV Normandy, was en route to Eden Prime to extract and transport the recently discovered beacon. Onboard was Spectre Nihlus, who was overseeing and evaluating the mission. We received no word of an attack until we arrived in the system. By the time we arrived at Eden Prime the largest portion of the Attacking fleet had already left. I signaled back requesting reinforcements and deployed a ground team to investigate. "Captain Anderson stepped forward to say. Then taking over from where Anderson left off, Anderson stepped back and Shepard stepped forward.
"My team and Spectre Nihlus rode a shuttle down planetside. Nihlus separated from my squad to about forward. After the split, we were immediately met with resistance. Private Jensen was killed in a surprise ambush by Batarians. We pushed forward down a man until we came across Srgt Hess. She had just escaped pursuit and joined us for the rest of the mission. We made our way toward the beacon site, however, the site had already been evacuated and the beacon moved. We made our way further into the colony. There we discovered the body of Spectre Nihlus who had been shot in the back. There was a surviving colonist who partially witnessed the attack, however, all he told us was Nihlus met with another Turian. Then after they finished talking the second Turian shot and killed Nihlus. We didn't have time to question him further, because we discovered the Batarians had set up a series of explosives to cover their tracks. We disarmed the bombs and found the Beacon. Lieutenant Alenko passed in front of the beacon, triggering something within the beacon. I pushed him out of the way but was lifted by the beacon. I saw flashes of information and was knocked unconscious when the beacon exploded." Shepherd explained
"You want us to believe that you received visions?" Sparatus asked incredulously
"If the Prothean's had abilities similar to the Asari's. Then having technology take advantage of their mental communication makes sense." Hess interjected, being met with equal parts scorn and support.
"She has a point. The current archaeological theory is that the Protheans had a more advanced version of our meld. So for now, despite how ridiculous it sounds, I don't want to fully rule out the commander's visions." Tevos said before anyone else could voice their displeasure at being interrupted.
"I believe we are at an impasse. We still need more evidence, so I vote we take a brief recess. For the Alliance and our agents to gather what they can." Valern said receiving nods from the other two councilors.