Massive Disaster 5-13B
“Victors.”
Zedd looked up from his cuticles, even as he slowed his pivot just enough to acknowledge the Captain himself. Anderson’s voice was a familiar thing, even if the last time they’d met in-person had been a good few months prior.
There was a benefit to having a higher-up like Anderson as his liaison to the Alliance, especially in the way it allowed more inroads into humanity’s military arm. He raised an eyebrow at the older man, though, one syllable leaving him. “Hm?”
“We need to talk.”
“Kinda talking now, Anderson.” Zedd tilted his head as his eyes met the man, the blue lenses of his aviators catching industrial lighting and flaring it back. “Unless it’s the ‘let’s stand five feet away so Udina doesn’t hear us’ kind of talk you mean?”
Anderson didn’t smile, not even as Ambassador Udina made an offended noise. The man simply jerked his head toward a stack of shipping crates stamped with the logo of some minor Elkoss Combine subsidiary.
As close as you could get to privacy in the open chaos of the Citadel docking bay.
Alright. Zedd allowed himself a sigh, the exhale short and sharp as he picked up his feet and followed behind the Alliance captain. Anderson marched like he was inspecting the floor tiles for insubordination, Zedd’s pace more a slow rolling gait with his hands in his pockets.
“Kai, I’ll be back.”
The ninja that had already been moving stopped immediately, nodding back at his boss.
Both men stopped in the shadow of a fuel pump, dark skin hidden in the gloom as Anderson turned back to stare at him. “Victors…”
Zedd’s eyebrow went sky-high, the exhaustion on the old soldier’s face damn-near tectonic with deep lines and fissures of stress layered years deep. “Anderson?”
“The Citadel Council gave Jane the authority as a SPECTRE.” Anderson breathed out, voice almost vibrating with the hum of the station. “And I’ve given her brother the SR-1 to command as he pleases.”
Brown eyes blinked back at the Captain, waiting for a follow-up. When none came, Zedd simply nodded slowly. “Yes, I heard. I was right there. Both times, man.”
He leaned back against a crate, arms crossed. “Congrats to the twins, I guess. You need me to buy them a shipwarming gift or something? I don’t get the point.”
“Look, Victors, authority and a ship aren’t enough. Not for this.” Anderson stepped closer, invading Zedd’s personal space just enough to make a point. “Saren has the geth. He has resources we can’t even begin to comprehend. And he’s a Spectre, at least a former one, and with a grudge against humanity. He knows the Alliance. He knows the Citadel. He knows how we think, how we operate, and exactly where we put the red tape.”
A drop of sweat tracked down the side of Anderson’s face, Zedd watching it as it slid free and splashed against the floor. Hm.
“And you think I can make this somehow better?” He picked a piece of imaginary lint off his jacket sleeve.
“I don’t think it, son. I know it.” Anderson’s voice was gravel, teeth grinding together as he stared right into Zedd’s eyes. “Even if you were somehow Cerberus, you’ve been a headache to me since you were eighteen years old, in more ways than you can know.”
Huh. Zedd opened his mouth, actually unsure what Anderson was talking about. Yet again in the same half-hour, words escaped him, leaving the only option left a simple shrug. “…I try?”
“And you’ve succeeded. From your first stunt on stims saving your colony to five years later at Eden Prime…” He gestured vaguely at Zedd, as if words were failing him too. “And that’s not even getting into all of your tech and resources.”
Zedd was pretty sure the Alliance had been trying to get into his tech for years now, Sirta Foundation as well, all to no real luck. Hell, he’d pretty much handed everything on a platter to Sirta and they were still clueless.
“You’re a pain in the ass to Alliance Counterintelligence and a constant headache to the top brass with the Citadel constantly expecting us to do something about you.” The man breathed in and shook his head, gathering himself for a second. “But we need that now. A wild card like you is exactly what we need the most. Saren won’t know how to predict you because we both know you don’t make any damn sense.”
A scoff left Zedd’s lips. ”Oh, so now you need me?”
“The Shepards are the best the Alliance has to offer.” Anderson pressed, ignoring the jab. “But they’re still playing by a rulebook Saren has read cover to cover. So, I’m asking you to join them.”
And there it was.
The ask.
“Look…” Zedd sighed, the sound leaving him with more force than any breath. “I’ve already told you long ago, that I am not working f-
“Not as a subordinate.” Anderson interjected, a single hand raised to hold off any more arguments. “As an ally, a consultant even. Bring your people and use The Normandy as your base of operations. Just help us stop Saren.”
Zedd went quiet, simpy tracking the activity in the bay behind his glasses.
With no HUD active to analyze, he used his own eyes to look past Anderson to the predatory curve of the SR-1 Normandy. Pretty, expensive, and over-engineered in that charming Alliance-Turian way where they spent billions to save milligrams, it was nothing he couldn’t make better in a single week at most.
His gaze slid to his crew looking over at him; Kira, Kai, and Nina standing by the four Alliance soldiers near the airlock, along with the three strays they’d picked up. This is some kind of… suicide squad.
What else would you call a chaotic, volatile, disorganized mess of conflicting loyalties and unverified backgrounds? It was also the most interesting thing he’d personally been part of in the last two years. Designing weapons and ships and other tech for the Blueguard and Iron Legion was already a vacation from constant meetings with new colonies.
This? This was hunting a rogue agent with a god-complex across the galaxy.
Even still… Accepting too quickly would make him look easy, and he couldn’t afford to play too nice. “…and how are you gonna make this worth my while?”
Now it was Anderson’s turn to sigh. “I assume that doing your duty for humanity isn’t enough?”
Zedd simply stared, expression flat as he could make it.
“I’m not going to pretend I have the budget to pay you.” Anderson shook his head. “But what I can do is promise that the Systems Alliance will directly work with you, if not openly, no matter what the Citadel has to say.”
…wait. “Hold up.” The smile slid clean across his face. “You mean the Alliance is gonna stop pretending like I don’t exist and actually buy from me for real?”
Anderson nodded.
“Well, that’s all you had to say, Cap. You got me.”
Anderson’s shoulders dropped half an inch.
“But,” Zedd pushed off the crate, voice slicing through Anderson’s relief before it could settle as he stood to his full height. “My people answer to me. My tech stays mine unless you’re ready to buy. Are we clear?”
Just for a second, Zedd could see the hitch inside the man as the career officer in him recoiled at the idea of a loose cannon. A moment later, the pragmatist strangled the officer to a quiet death. “Clear.”
“Good.” Zedd tapped the side of his glasses. “Now let’s go SPECTRE hunting.”
Zedd turned on his heel, coat flaring as he walked toward the group beside the SR-1, not too far from his Jade. Nina was already watching him as he got closer, her dark eyes sharp as she made it clear that she’d heard everything even from a few dozen feet away.
Zedd stopped in front of her as thenoise of the docking bay seemed to fade into a dull roar around them. “You’re going back.”
Nina stared at him, lips pressing into a thin line at the immediate command. “Yeah, yeah, the VCA needs its Head Councillor, the Blueguard needs its funding approved and the colonies need to know we’re still in control and not chasing ghosts in the Terminus. I’ve been thinking about it already.”
She stepped closer, dropping her voice under the whine of a fuel loader. “But are you sure about this, Zee? This is their mess. The Council, the Alliance; just let them clean it up.”
“It became our fight the moment I got shot at.”
She searched his face, looking for the lie. A split second later, she let out a short frustrated breath. “Be careful.”
“Always.” The lie slid free.
Zed watched her walk away toward the Jade — the violet cruiser that was so much better than the Alliance frigate sitting next to it. Nina paused at the ramp, one look over her shoulder as the airlock opened for her.
Then the ramp hissed shut, Nina disappearing inside.
A few seconds later, the Jade’s engines hummed as the ship lifted; a shadow detaching itself from the station as it slipped out into the void.
– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –
Zedd walked through the corridors of the SR-1 Normandy as the new crew settled in.
If “settling” was the word for a bunch of apex predators and outcasts gearing up to go to war.
He’d already passed Engineering, the quarian vibrating her helmeted head off as she hovered over the massive glowing sphere that served as the ship’s drive core. “Keelah… heat sinks woven directly into the shielding. Gloved fingers had traced the air above a power conduit, terrified to touch but desperate to understand. “Efficiency ratings must be…”
Sure, weaving the sinks was clever if you were interested in dealing with thermal bleed in your containment field, but that was something he’d moved past almost immediately after his first stealth fighter design. Even still, watching her religious ecstasy over an oversized battery was amusing but Zedd moved on before she could ask him to pray to the engine.
The Mess Hall was louder as he made his way through it, demanding a meal from a terrified service tech.
Zedd kept walking. None of my business.
Up on the Command Deck, the air was tighter with Garrus Vakarian hunched over a tactical console, mandibles twitching as the Turian’s fingers flew across the haptic interface. Whatever the turian was doing, it looked like homework.
Zedd stepped onto the bridge and strode to the center, Kai Leng materializing from nowhere to flank him. Kira was already at the galaxy map, her cobalt eyes reflecting the swirling star clusters.
The newest SPECTRE in the galaxy, Jane Shepard, stood in the center of the CIC next to her brother as she turned, green eyes locking onto Zedd.
No smirk this time. No “terrorist” accusation.
Just the cold calculation of a woman who realized she had a loaded gun and was ready to aim it at whoever needed to go.
“Joker…” The commander nodded, the blond blue-eyed Shepard leaning forward. “Set a course.”
Jane nodded with him. “We’re going hunting.”
– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –
– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –
5k Words (100 FP)
5k Words (100 FP)
5k Words (100 FP)
Game Start (300 FP) – Begin the hunt for Saren
Forge Points: 100
FAIL: An Order To Things (800 FP) [Gunnerkrigg Court] {Knowledge Abilities and Skills}:
ROLL: Resource Efficiency (400 FP) [Mass Effect Andromeda] {Quality Resources}:
It’s nice being efficient. It lets you make more with less, stretching out vital supplies even further. With this perk, any time you are crafting something, you can make it for half the materials. Just don’t ask how you got a full cake from half the amount of ingredients. In addition, anytime you break down an item, you get the full amount of resources that went into it. So, breaking down a gun you made for 50% resources would give you those 50% resources, compared to a gun made by someone else who used the full amount in the construction, and thus giving you the total amount.
ROLL: Neuromancer (200 FP) [Generic Cyberpunk] {Knowledge Abilities and Skills}:
You’ve mastered the arts of interfacing machines and the human mind, able to both design and build things to seamlessly interface with the human nervous system and the actual consciousness housed within it. Building an implant or accessory to let people access the net with just a thought wouldn’t be difficult at all, neither would making sure that a cybernetic connects so seamlessly with the user that it feels more natural than their original arm. You’ve also mastered the use of such a simple if almost magical technology, not just it’s construction. Combined with some programming skills, full immersion Virtual Reality would easily be within your grasp. You’ve bridged the gap between mind and machine, it’s up to you to discover where you go with it from here.
NOTE: There is one more failed roll. I forgot to write it. Tired