Mass Effect: Rise Act III Update 6

The scene fades in to show Kaidan sitting at a small desk, an old looking book lay open as he studied the words intently.  “Still reading from books I see LT.”  Shepard said behind him which startled Kaidan slightly before he spun around.  

His eyes lit up “Commander Shepard as I live and breathe.”  He said standing up and saluting his old friend.

Shepard snapped off a salute before rushing in and shaking Kaidan’s hand “Oh it’s Admiral now, but who’s counting.  Cerberus has promoted you as well Captain.”  Shepard said tossing Kaidan a credit chit.  “Two million credits in back pay, all yours.  You can finally have a life away from fighting or…”  Shepard tailed of his words raising an eyebrow.

“Or can I fight alongside you again?”  Kaidan asked with a smile.

“Whichever you chose the money is still yours it is the least Cerberus could do.”  Shepard said sitting down in a chair on the far side of the room.  

“Yeah, but if they hadn’t grabbed me I would be dead.”  Kaidan said sitting down in the chair at his desk but spinning it first to face Shepard.

“The Ledan have to be stopped, they nearly killed off the entire human race with their damn virus.  The Alliance is doing nothing as usual and we have reports they are massing to invade first Ilos, then the Sol Relay, then Earth.  Then they will spread across the Galaxy like a plague killing all who stand in their way enslaving those who do not.  I’ll be putting a team together, the first order of business is to get a cure for the virus they unleashed.”  Shepard said in a business tone, the jovial nature now completely gone from his voice.

“How can we get a cure?”  Kaidan said.

“It would require us going to Krios in the Williams galaxy.  A small team should have no problem best we can tell that planet is their military HQ and a where a small science facility where the virus was made is located.” He continued “the science facility is a soft target it should be a straight forward mission.”  He finished then stood up “I understand if you turn this one down.” He added stepping toward the door.

“Not on your life Shepard, I with you one hundred percent.”  Kaidan said still sitting in the chair.

Shepard smiled and nodded “Good then, get some rest we go recruiting in the morning.”  With that he left the room and Kaidan returned to his book.  

On Omega, Anima is finally waking up in her bed.  Sarha lay by her side, they had way too much to drink and Anima was certain she gave Bray a pay raise but the night was blur.  “The brain is a blackboard, and booze was the eraser” an old war vet once told her when she was just a child.  She didn’t understand it then but Goddess it sure made sense now.  Her head throbbed, she slowly sat up and placed her feet on the cool floor.  She got out of bed slowly so not to wake Sarha and made her way into the bathroom.  Her belly gave a lurch and she burped up a sour tasting liquid of Asari whisky and whatever food she had eaten in her inebriated state.  She swallowed causing the noxious liquid to return to her stomach and it burned going back down.  She was hung over, her head was bursting, her gut was filled with whatever cheap food she had eaten last night to tamp down the booze but… she was still drunk.  Trying to remember the night she checked her credit chit “damn, no way had I spent 20,000 credits on booze” she thought.  The night was still a blur of booze and sex but pieces began to trickle back into her mind.

“No more drinking, no more booze.  I swear it.”  She said to herself for the hundredth time or was it the thousandth?  She couldn’t remember.  She finally turned on the lights which caused her bloodshot eyes to wince in pain as they protested against this new onslaught on them.  Finally after a moment they adjusted to the light though they continued to throb.  Splashing some water on her face Anima left the bathroom the lights turning off automatically behind her.  Walking into the living room she sat down on a large couch and places her head in her hands as she does something catches her eyes.  A clear bag of a fine red powder “What the fuck is Red Sand doing in here?”  She thinks though the memories were slowly coming back to her.  Yes it was slowly coming back, being an Asari the Red Sand didn’t do much for her but Sarha had heard it gave non-biotics a short bust of biotic ability although very weak ability.  “Explains the high cost of last night.”  Anima though picking up the bag and walking over to the sink in the kitchen.  Turning on the water, she then dumped the contents down the sink and watched it turn the water pink before swirling down the drain.  After that was finished Anima turned on the coffee pot and started on making coffee.

Sarha slowly opened her eyes her head was spinning her world slowly came into focus.  She reached for Anima but found the bed empty.  Anima never woke before her but then again she had never done Red Sand before either so it was a morning of firsts.  Slowly she untwined herself from the blanket and got out of bed.  Naked as the day she was born she shivered slightly in the cool air of the apartment bedroom.  She quickly walked over to the closet and put on a silk robe before leaving in search of Anima.  Walking down the hallway she could smell the coffee, but she didn’t think she could drink anything right now other than water.  Then something made her think of the Red Sand how good she felt the wave of euphoria that washed over her.  The warm waves took all the worry away the bitter taste from the sand still in her mouth.  The warm waves led to a feeling of static electricity washing over her.  She remembered giggling as she moved a book into the air with just her mind.  Then there was the sex “my god was that great” she thought.  It was always mind blowing but last night it was amazing.  Suddenly she wanted another hit, “just enough to dull this headache” she thought to herself as she walked into the kitchen seeing Anima standing naked drinking a cup of black coffee.    

“Sleep okay?”  Anima asked.

“Aren’t you cold?”  Sarha asked her in response.

“Byproduct of drinking all night is running a little warm.  We should probably talk about last night.”  Anima said taking a sip of coffee.  

“About the fact that we finally joined consciousness?  Or did you have something else in
mind?”  Sarha asked sitting down at the kitchen table.  

“About the Red Sand.”  Anima said bluntly.

“What about it?  I just wanted to do something stupid for once.” Sarha said knowing it was stupid but shit when did she ever do anything stupid?  If Anima can drink herself into oblivion why couldn’t she try a just as legal drug on Omega not that anything on Omega was illegal.

“I’ve seen people lose everything for that crap.  It was a big problem on Earth as I was growing up.  It always starts with I just want to try it.  I was drunk enough to go along with it.”  She said sitting down at the table next to Sarha.  

“Okay, I get it you don’t want me taking it no problem.”  Sarha said placing her hand on Anima’s.  

Anima smiled yet she wasn’t convinced completely but decides to let the subject drop.  
“We’ve had sex before you know.”  Anima said.

“Did you forget?  We have never linked consciousness before.”  Sarha said.  

Anima felt her heart in her throat “Goddess please tell me I didn’t do what I think I might have.” She thinks.  Being drunk Anima could have easily messed up and got herself pregnant.  She didn’t think she was old enough yet but seeing how her Mother of the year never really taught her anything she really had no idea.  “Well this will make for an awkward call to Seryna.”  She continued to think.  “Well I am glad you enjoyed last night as much as I did.”  Anima finally said. A few beads of sweat forming on her forehead.

On Eden Prime Delta sat next to the future Prime Minister sharping his sword “so you finished with that speech you have been working on yet?”  Delta asks not looking away from his sword.

“Not yet, but as they say the pen is mightier than the sword.”  Richard Kelly said with a smile.

“I can prove that false if you like Prime Minster.” Delta said back with a chuckle.  

“I am very sure you can, have you heard from my Asari bodyguard?” Kelly asks.

“Got a thing for her sir?”  Delta said smiling.

“Very cute Captain, she never lets me out of her sight.  The Asari claim she isn’t with them so what am I to think?”  Kelly replies.  

“I am sure once you are sworn in the Alliance will put an end to it if you want them to.”  
Delta says carefully sliding the sword back into its sheath.  “However I got a feeling you are sweet on her.” He said standing up.

“I get the feeling you don’t like it here on Eden Prime Captain.”  Kelly said standing up with him.  

“I don’t.”  Delta said coldly.

“Care to share?”  Kelly said not letting the issue go.

“I was trained on this planet, by a sadistic son of a bitch who enjoyed killing recruits.”  Delta said as his eyes lost focus and just stared out at the horizon of Eden Prime. “Gavin Jacks, an Alliance black ops leader, 201st Regiment.  He turned out to be a Cerberus mole, if someone had talent he was to recruit them.  If they said no… well we had a lot of ‘training accidents’.  He tried to recruit me but I was quicker on the draw, shot him across the right cheek.  Finished the job later on Earth during the Reaper invasion.”  Delta said finally blinking.  

“I never heard of the 201st Regiment.”  Kelly said.

“No you wouldn’t, it was black ops, very black ops.  Unless you had the highest clearance and now I am sure those records conveniently were lost.”  Delta said turning to the Prime Minster. “It was a long time ago I was young and foolish after Jacks ran off I was put in charge got three of my team members killed.”  Delta said.

“What happened?”  Kelly asked with concern in his voice.

“Got bloody cocky, ignored Alliance Intel, was just my time to lose take your pick?  We were tasked to check out a planet named Epsilon.  There were rumors of Yahg on the planet which had the Alliance Brass chomping at the bit.  They wanted to capture one to see if they could be trained as soldiers or at least so we could learn about their weaknesses in case we had to fight some.”  He said taking a knee and looking at the falling sun.  “Well I didn’t buy it, let the men get soft.  We landed the shuttle went on a patrol didn’t take armor we thought we were invincible.  Turns out we weren’t, and now I have the scars to prove it, I barely made it back my team wasn’t as lucky.”  Delta said quickly wiping a tear from his eye.  

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”  Kelly said resting his hand on Delta’s shoulder.

“Few people did, it was a huge failure I was sent to help train N7 cadets and it’s the reason I am still a Captain.  Anyway we better get you back to your room it’s getting dark.”  Delta said standing up.  Kelly nods and Delta looks over his should thinking he saw something but shrugged it off walking behind Kelly.

As the two men disappeared Agent Sapphire emerged from one of the shadows and turned on her Omni tool.  A ping sounds moments later and a voice comes over her radio.

“Report” the voice was female but nothing else was discernable.

“The Prime Minster doesn’t need me anymore, can I be reassigned?”  Sapphire said holding two fingers to her right temple.

“Negative, get comfortable you are in this for the long haul” the female voice said.

“But…” Sapphire protested.

“Your new cover will be to get him to fall for you, tell him your name and back story.”  The female voice interrupted.

“With a human?! And a male one at that?  Also you really want me to use my real name?”  Sapphire said in protest.

“Make something up, think on your feet for once.  I want you close to him very close, you’ll be well paid… Shadow Broker out!”  With that the connection was terminated.

Sapphire shook her head but she wasn’t about to defy her boss those who did had a habit of disappearing.  “Fine so be it, guess I’ll be the future Misses Kelly.”  Though the thought of being with a human male wasn’t ideal at least he wasn’t a Turian.  She takes a look at the skyline as the scene fades to black.