Mass Effect: Knight of the Old Republic

The first thing Revan did after she confirmed there were no more surprises waiting for her was leave the area and try calling the Normandy crew. Yes, her assailants had called her out specifically. But that didn’t mean there weren’t other teams tasked with killing Revan’s allies just in case the attack on her failed.

It took several tries to get out from under the jamming effect - whatever the Asari used must have been really high end - but once she was, her comms were assaulted by a flood of messages from various contacts.

Most of them were attempts to contact her with little extra information attached, but the last one was a message from Shepard. Apparently Revan wasn’t the only one having issues with assassins today. Shepard’s friend Liara had been attacked by mercenaries hired by the Shadow Broker. The Asari had been investigating the Broker’s identity and location and either got too close or was being used as a message, but either way Shepard had decided leaving the planet quickly was the best way to deal with the small army after them.

She had mentioned that if anyone wanted to come along she would hold the ship for half an hour, but Revan was nowhere near the docks. It looked like she would be separating from the Normandy crew without a formal farewell.

Unfortunate, but they would see each other when Shepard dropped off Tali’Zorah. The Sith Empress simply didn’t have time to run off on a mission to protect a single information broker right now. She had two previously hostile races to integrate into a single empire and now a hidden Jedi sect to hunt down which were going to be headaches on their own. Putting those off would only make them worse too, especially the Jedi sect.

As much as it would entertain her to dump a video of an Asari dressed up like a Justicar trying to assassinate a head of state with a kill team…not many people would care at the moment.

Sith Empress of the Quarians and Geth sounded impressive, but in reality Revan had very little power associated with the title right now.

The various politicians in the galaxy were definitely cautious about the remerging of the two races after three hundred years of conflict, but beyond that single accomplishment Revan herself was an unknown.

The Geth would follow her with little effort thanks to their nature, the promises she made, and the updates they received from Legion but the Quarians had very little trust in her. The only thing keeping them from splitting off and remaining independent was the fact Revan was offering them the single thing their entire race desired - the return of their homeworld.

Revan could bring the assassination attempt to light - simply dump it on the extranet and let the fire spread from there - but all it would accomplish is cause the Asari Republic to disavow the Jedi as someone using the Justicar uniform as a false flag and make the Quarians nervous. She needed to actually spend some time ruling them before the thought of their Empress coming under attack sparked the desire for retribution that would make further assassination attempts a risk for those attempting them rather than a passing event for the rest of the galaxy.

No time like the present then.

“Legion, are you still at the warehouse?”

“Yes, Revan-Empress.”

“Good. The transport ship should be there momentarily. As soon as it is, start loading the cargo and prepare to leave. Keep an eye out for potential enemies. It seems we’ve run out our welcome on Illium.”

“Understood. Are we returning without Creator Tali’Zorah?”

“Unless Shepard is waiting for us in orbit we will probably have to.“ Revan replied. “But if the Shadow Broker is after their friend they might stay radio silent until they can hide her or pay him off.”

Liara was essentially evicted from the planet without enough time to retrieve the databases she had built up. Without those she would be starting from scratch if she was going to attempt searching for the Shadow Broker again. Enough credits or a favor owed from a famous figure like Shepard should be plenty to get the mysterious information broker to back off. Provided Liara agreed to some conditions, of course.

-o-

“There’s Hagalaz. The oceans boil during the day, then snap-freeze ten minutes after sundown.” Liara commented as they watched the planet grow closer on the monitor. The entire planet was a series of seemingly never ending storms that raged across the surface, throwing lightning strikes miles long.

Shepard frowned as the turbulence grew worse. “The Shadow Broker lives in this?”

“His ship follows the sunset. Completely undetectable in the storm, unless you know where to look.”

“How do we get inside?”

“The shuttlebay is locked down. We’ll need to land on the ship and look for a hatch.” Liara explained. “But we can’t stay outside for long. There’s a constant lightning storm where the hot and cold air collide.”

“Then we’ll move quickly.” Shepard said shortly and began checking over her gear.

“...Shepard…I-”

“Don’t Liara.” Shepard interrupted. “You were the one that wanted to stay focused on the mission. Get in, get Feron, get out. Kill anything in the way.”

The Spectre wasn’t exactly thrilled with her friend at the moment.

She had hoped the last meeting with Liara had been an outlier, but the Asari Scientist had truly changed over the past two years. The sincere, slightly naive young maiden had been completely buried under the cold information broker facade she now wore, and it had killed a lot of Shepard’s hopes that the two of them could salvage what was left of their budding relationship from two years ago.

Liara was absolutely right that two years of grieving didn’t just vanish, but when someone’s personality changed so much that you barely recognized them…did you really know them at all?

Shepard had known Revan for slightly less time than she had Liara on their hunt for Saren, but the Commander knew that the Sith despised innocents getting caught in the crossfire of organizations. For all she disagreed with Revan’s ‘big picture’ approach to most problems, Shepard knew the Sith would take steps to make sure the damage was as light as possible even if it made things more difficult for her. Liara had recently written off teams of Shadow Broker Agents killing their way through the city as a good distraction.

Maybe it had been a deflection from how she really felt, maybe it had been a slip of the tongue, it could have even been an act she was used to keeping up…whatever it actually was, Shepard decided to listen to Liara’s advice and focus on the mission. Personal feelings could be soothed later…or reevaluated if it came to that.

It wouldn’t be the first time Shepard had lost friends over some poor word choices after time and trauma changed them or her.

“...of course…most of the exterior machinery will be maintenance equipment. Our best bet will be to find an entrance by the more protected areas - likely towards the back shielding…”

Shepard finished her equipment check and did her best to settle in and listen to Liara’s brief despite the shuttle’s shaking. But part of her couldn’t help thinking that they were supposed to be celebrating a successful mission right about now, not jumping into another one on short notice.

Hopefully the team members they needed to leave behind made it off Illium without too much trouble. No one had been able to reach Revan during the rush back to the Normandy which worried the Commander. The Sith had been simply finalizing some details for the trip back to the Migrant Fleet. There shouldn’t have been a reason for her to ignore all attempts to reach her.

Shepard gave herself a mental shake.

She could worry about her fellow squad leader later. Right now she needed to keep her mind focused on what she could affect right now.

-o-

Riossha Raus was close to a mental breakdown.

It had been a completely normal day on Illium yet in the last three hours half of Nos Astra seemed determined to tear the capital city apart in some kind of shadow war.

Normally Riossha would have written the whole thing off as the various corporations jockeying for a better negotiating position and let the various contract enforcement branches take a chunk of credits out of the offenders but then she had heard who exactly was involved.

Commander Shepard - the possibly disgraced, possibly not Council Spectre that had been rumored dead only to come back just as suddenly. Even if Riossha had managed to get the human in custody there was no way she would dare to actually level charges. That was a good way to end up dead since the Council really didn’t like anyone else touching their Spectres without their permission or very strong evidence that the Spectre in question had gone rogue. And as far as she knew Shepard had nothing like that announced.

Liara T’Soni - on the surface a middling tier information broker that was shifting careers after a rather spotty record with archeology. Swapping careers was not an uncommon act for Maidens after getting in over their heads, though Riossha would have expected the Maiden to choose something more physical like dancing or mercenary work after failing an intellectual field. But Liara was also a T’Soni. Her mother might have pissed a lot of people off with her support of Arterius, but Benenzia had been one of the most powerful Matriarchs in the galaxy and had a lot of friends, even after her death. Even more blackmail too. If she had given that to Liara maybe it made more sense for the girl to play at being a broker.

And then there was the Shadow Broker - one of the most untouchable forces in the galaxy simply because of the service they provided. Everyone wanted information and secrets that belonged to their opponents after all. And as long as you could cough up the credits, the Shadow Broker would deliver. The problem with that was you often found out a previously trusted subordinate just so happened to be an Agent of theirs at the worst possible moment. Riossha’s secretary had suppressed the notifications to security forces about a small army shooting Nos Astra up until it spread to every vid-cast show on the planet. Riossha could certainly blame the Broker, but even if everyone believed the damage was not her fault she would still be held responsible simply because the Broker was too valuable to lose access to.

If that was all it would have been a massive headache, but something that could be eventually suppressed or spun into something that no one would care about in a few years. But then Riossha was handed a report that a Justcar had been found dead in a park along with a team of Huntresses with no sign of their enemy and now Riossha had to very seriously consider that her planet might become the frontline to an actual war between the Asari Republic and the Shadow Broker.

Shepard was known to have picked up a Justicar for her team somehow and Liara had been seen fleeing with the Spectre on the other side of the city so it would take a very large bribe to spin either of them being the killer, which meant the only realistic party Riossha could pin the blame on when the Republic inevitably called to demand why one of their most venerated agents was killed on what should have been a safe world was the Shadow Broker’s forces.

It was something that was almost guaranteed to end in either Riossha’s dismissal or death but there was nothing she could do.

The best she could hope for was that the Broker and the Republic could come to a backroom deal soon that would leave the bigger players satisfied and she provide a scapegoat for the Justicar that would let her keep her life and cushy position at the same time.

In fact Riossha had an idea. All she needed to do was find the camera footage from the area around the Justicar and selectively pull a few individuals that looked dangerous enough to have a chance at ambushing a Justicar and replace the actual assailants with them. With some luck she could push the blame on to a few small mercenary teams and not the Shadow Broker’s agents!

She quickly wrote up the new orders and sent them off to a few agents she hoped she could trust, praying to the Goddess she wasn’t just giving another infiltrator more ammunition to get her removed.

-o-

“It’s gotten pretty crowded lately.” Rosu'Caedor vas Saezorn commented casually as his group waited in line at the cafeteria.

Quarian ships tended to be crowded at the best of times, but with so many returning to the Fleet the problem had only gotten worse. Rosu could barely walk through the halls at times because of how many people were trying to pass by!

“Not surprising. The Admirals called back everyone they could to resettle Rannoch.” Rine'Molun replied. “Not all of them had ships of their own so they’re getting packed anywhere that has room. I hear even the Liveships are running out of space.”

“Can you blame them? We’re going back to Rannoch! I’d have dropped everything too.” Ken'Sorrel exclaimed. “We really lucked out the Empress was so generous. No more war, new tech to examine, and our home back. She really saved us.”

“Are you joking? She’s exploiting us with our own planet!” Huli'Lumor shot back. “I don’t trust her either. Shows up out of nowhere and accuses the Admirals of all that nonsense. If she didn’t have some leash on the Geth we should have just shot down her shuttle and taken Rannoch back ourselves.”

“You mean the very clearly documented and proven manipulation of Tali’Zorah’s trial to forward their political agendas?” Rosu quirked his head. “I don’t like some alien deciding they are in charge any more than you, but except for Shala’Raan the Admirals pretty obviously stabbed Tali in the back.”

“But the Empress straightened them out.” Ken insisted. “She’s clearly a good person.”

Huli snorted. “Yeah right…”

“BUT,” Rosu continued before the two could keep arguing. “I have to admit Empress Revan has been holding up her end of the deal pretty well so far. Those Geth ships have been providing a lot of material we were pretty desperate for. Even with all the people coming back I think the ships are running more smoothly than they have in decades.”

“...do you think they’ll keep them around when we get to Rannoch?” Rine asked the group softly. “We’ll have a planet again. We won’t need them.”

The group was silent for a bit as they realized despite any misgivings, life for every Quarian was going to change in a way unprecedented for over three hundred years.

“We’ll still need them.” Huli eventually said. “Revan said those Reaper things were on the way, right? We’ll need the Heavy Fleet at the least for that. Plus vessels for shipping and transport. The Migrant Fleet might not be around after this, but our ships won’t just disappear.”

“They’ll be better than ever.” Ken added, ever the optimist. “With a proper dock we can even do some refits. Maybe even build new ships! I got a look at the designs for something called a Harrower…”