Captain David Anderson watched the globe of Earth slowly spin beneath him. The Wycoff Blight Zone was visible through the cloud layer - despite the best efforts of both Orgotek and Edenites, the zone was a clear scar on the center of North America, surrounded by the glittering lights of megacities. He tried to imagine what it must be like to be a Turian, to have three whole planets that were all one, big, unstoppable Blight Zone...and found he couldn't. Anderson was career military, he'd gone from the slums of the FSA east coast to the United Nations Navy. He'd been there, in France, when the
Esperanza had been dragged out of orbit and smashed into France, and provided orbital support from the bridge of his frigate. He'd been in orbit around Shanxi when they had needed to fall back, their ships dragged home by the quick action of the Upeo wa Macho teleporters before the unknown aliens had arrived to blow them out of the sky. He could remember the panicky fear, the thought that the Aberrants had gotten allies.
Or, worse...
They had
built the fleet.
He shook his head as, behind him, Chancellor Udina scrolled through the files, shaking his head. "No," he said, quietly. "No, this is unacceptable, Larsson. We need-"
"She's the best we have," General Larsson said, from her seat. The Legionary general was dressed in the simple uniform she preferred - simple blue and white, enough to almost make you forget she could tear this entire space station apart with her mind.
"We need a normal operative," Udina said. "Shepard is a psion. These people have been fighting our castoff freaks for a hundred years, longer than we have. We should find a skilled neutral. Fuck, steal one of those augments from Nippon for all I care."
Larsson frowned. Anderson, as the UNN's representative here, figured he should mediate before things got awkward. "Udina," he said. "If the Citadel Council can't tell the difference between a decorated psion and an Aberrant, then I'm not entirely sure anything we can do can matter. Larrson is right. Shepard is perfect."
"Perfect?" Udina asked.
Choose One
[ ] "She's practically a fascist. She joined the Federated State's military when she was sixteen - lied on her documentations to get out of those slums. The fact she turned-coat the instant she was within five kilometers of the 5th Legion's base camp in north America is irrelevant. You can't trust Americans. Never can." (City Rat Origin - sneaky, talky, former would be revolutionary against a fascist government who faked joining the military to get out of the slums and joined the good guys as soon as possible)
[ ] "She's a dyed in the wool Aberrant cultist, for god's sake. She was born on Eden, a planet run by Aberrants - and no, I don't care how sane they act around us, I don't trust a one of them. Officer exchange program? Bah! The whole planet should have been glassed to the mantle the instant the ISRA found the coordinates." (Edenite Origin - raised on a world colonized by superheroes who left before the majority of their kind went insane. Lived in post-scarcity luxury space communism provided by spandex clad gods for your entire life)
[ ] "She's an Oceanic. We should be sending human beings to the Citadel Council, not fish people!" (Oceania origin - newest member of the United Nations and thus, the System Alliance, populated by humans who have been augmented to be fully aquatic. Shark gills and teeth!)
Larsson and Anderson had the same glares, but Udina ignored them, scrolling through Shepard's records. Anderson, knowing he couldn't deck this beuracratic asshole in the jaw as badly as he wanted to, cut in. "Listen, Udina..."
Choose One
[ ] "She fought on Khantz Lu Ge, in the VARGs. Do you know how many VARG pilots survived that campaign?" (VARG pilot career - what's a VARG? A biomorphic bipedal armored walking vehicle armed with railguns and missiles! Why that sounds like a mech. It's a mech! VARGs are the Aeon version of mechs!)
[ ] "She served with distinction in the Battle of Eden. Without her, we'd have lost the UNSd Denali with all hands when the Colony hit her with his damn spore-soldiers. She saved almost two thousand sailors that day, and that was before her talents were triggered." (UNN Commander career - you know spaceships and can command spaceships. Spaceships!)
[ ] "She took down the Batarian slaver citadel on Torfin with a single fireteam and an artillery shell, and got ninety percent of the hostages out - human, alien, even the poor nova bastard they were rendering for parts. We've never seen a better marine." (UNMC career - badass ground combatant)
Udina looked irate and waved his hand in the air. "Oh...fine. We aren't exactly swimming in options..." He sighed. "But..."
Choose One
[ ] "Will the Specters take a former Legionary?" (Legion membership. The Legion are the psi-active armies of the United Nations and, now, the System Alliance. Despite being only 30,000 active members strong, the Legion is widely agreed upon to be the most potent fielded by the human species. This is because 1/3rd of them are telekinetics that can make tanks explode with their fucking brains.)
[ ] "Will the Specters take a member of the Miranda Project? Don't look at me like that Larsson, I'm not an idiot." (Project Miranda membership. Top secret branch of the Aeon Trinity, a United Nations (now System Alliance) backed private organization with the goal of humanitarian projects and unified responses to existential threat. Project Miranda agents are to the System Alliance as Special Task Groups are to the Citadel Council: Fearless, hand selected, top secret.)
[ ] "Will the Specters take a bloody freelancer?" (Freelance Psion membership. You were in militaries before. Decided to leave, and now, you're on your own. Until, of course...they dragged you back in.)
Anderson and Larsson exchanged a glance. The blond woman arched an eyebrow. Anderson inclined his head. They both looked back at Udina, and Anderson felt a faint smile grow on his features as he saw the administrative official start to settle into his chair, rolling a stylus between his fingers.
"Commander Shepard is the best chance we have at getting an in with the Specters. The galaxy? They adore Specters." Anderson crossed his arms over his chest. "The first human Specter will do more to reverse the past century of aberrant activity than anything else we can do, and if you want the best of the best, the most qualified person humanity can offer?" He inclined his head. "Shepard is the one to choose."
Larsson nodded.
Udina pursed his lips.
"...I'll make the call."
