Aria's Advisor (Mass Effect SI)

[Xeno Major]

Speaking as one of the founding member of the League of Beards, I approve of your facial hair. Use it to intimidate C-Sec into letting you through.

Click to shrink...

While I approve of the idea, my beard is slightly too wild to be tamed, and thus the progression of titles for my beard goes like this: 'Stubble, Hair, Beard, Abe, Logger, and finally Wildman.'

The Citadel wouldn't dare let me in, lest my beard destroy the Citadel by accident.

Dunno, what about being raised on omega/Terminus systems, and since there are not citadel space, of course no indentity exists.

After all, the whole lawlessness/outside of citadel jurisdiction is the whole point of Omega/Terminus...

Kinda like asking the USA about having all the birth records of people from Somaliland. Not the same political entity...

Click to shrink...

Very good, you're closer than anyone so far, but still not quite there.

But if that were the case they'd still pick up his lack of genetic alterations, and it was already said that humans are pretty much non existent on Omega.

Click to shrink...

Reece has a point, but there is more to the Terminus Systems than just Omega. There's a bunch of human colonies that aren't technically Alliance colonies, but independent.

But even then, you get records and blips everywhere. Birth, home, tax, school, even travel, so long as it is by a legit company that operates at least partially in Citadel space. The Council has the ability to get their records (and most colonies via Spectre) and incorporate that data into the C-Sec scanners. Kinda like a high-tech, slightly Big-Brother no-fly list.

It help STG and Spectres monitor interesting individuals.

So if I don't have a blip, that means that I've never travelled by legit corporation, never travelled to any Citadel affiliated system (excluding batarians), never visited most colonies (even the ones that don't like the Council), never had surgery from any properly-licensed doctor, never bought anything from any company that operates even partially in Council space, nothing.

(The Council has a fucking scary amount of intelligence and control over the Galaxy)

 

[Xeno Major]

Doesn't C-Sec have such niceties as presumtion of inocence? Becuase if so, you do not need to explain anything. Just give your story, or any other story you feel like. If they have lost your records, well, it's their problem -you are not triing to open an account or marry or do anything else that needs those records, after all.

Click to shrink...

That's good, until we involve the trampling of rights that most of the galaxy knows as the Spectres, especially since I'm travelling with a suspicious individual like Aria. Spectres keep tabs on the players in the Great Game.

Seriously, when I say that the Spectres can call Exterminatus on a civilized planet, they fucking can. They'll just bullshit that it was the Rachni or that it was 'too dangerous to contain.'

Escaped slave?

Click to shrink...

DAMNIT.

Enjoy, and remember to thank Weaver!

Chapter 5.1 (Snip 2)


"What'd the punk do this time?" Anto asks quietly as he moves closer. "Nothing dangerous, I take it, or you'd have already gotten him in cuffs."

"Here," the agent (Pallin, was it?) points to a section of the screen. "It says it can't find his identification."

Yup… that's… what I thought would go wrong. Damn it. Stupid dimensional portal.

"But that's very unlikely, seeing as the scanner can access every record down to birth certificates." the agent continues, her eyes sweeping back up to meet mine. Her gaze is sharp, as if to cut me open and reveal the problem.

"Sorry darling, I'm a very private person." I reply easily, smiling and stretching out my hands to show no harm done despite the fact that internally I'm completely freaking out. Instead of smiling in return, the agent's lips twist into a minor frown.

"Everyone has records, kid, nobody is this unknown." the agent retorts, fingers flying across a curiously different omnitool interface, the orange beams wrapping bizarrely around her arm, looking completely different than a normal omni-tool. Maybe it's C-Sec issue?

Anto steps forward a little and lightly taps the agent on the shoulder. As she turns, he gives her a smile that seems… sad? Why would he be sad of all things?

"I was." Anto murmurs, his words low and not meant for me, though I hear them anyway.

The agent looks at Anto once more, her controlled expression slowly turning into one that's understanding, and a little… sympathetic, of all things.

"Alright kid, it's fine. Your lack of id is fine for now, but I will need to appoint a basic Citadel identification profile for you."

A… what? Like a basic id? …O-kay?

"First off, name?" she asks, bringing up a small orange holographic form to replace the red error report.

"Nick." I inform her, my unease fading away. I didn't think they'd had a procedure for this possibility, but maybe the Citadel is a little more organized than I gave it credit for. After all, they do deal with most of the known galaxy.

"No last name?" comes the surprising question.

"Uh…" I pause uneasily, considering giving her my family name.

But what if she uses the name to connect to 'next of kin'?

She seems to be expecting me to not have one, anyway, so I'll play along for now.

"No…" I answer hesitantly, eyes flicking from side to side. I'm quickly glancing away for some other honest reason, but the agent must think I'm nervous to talk about… whatever it is. Her expression softens further, and suddenly I'm looking at a friend, not an agent.

"That's fine, we expected that."

What?

There are no more questions, just an orange beam that scans across my body, making me jolt a little in surprise. It must be reading my physiology or biometrics or something like that, I suppose.

"I'll arrange for your omni-pass to be sent to your friend, he seems to know how to install a person."

"O-kay…" I respond slowly, very confused by this point. What was up with the way people talk nowadays?

"Thanks, officer. I'll handle the rest of this stuff."

"It was not problematic." the agent shrugs. "Get counseling. It helps."

"Yeah." Anto sighs. "It does. Thanks again, this helps explain a lot about this kid."

The agent waves him off, and gives me a pitying nod.

I manage to nod back, but my confusion is only growing. What the hell just happened?

Aria, Grizz, and Liselle are already out of sight, so Anto and I walk to the elevator in awkward silence. Anto hits the mark for the Presidium offices, and I lean back against the smooth metal wall.

"Who and where?"

"Huh?" I say in surprise, looking up to see Anto scrutinizing me with a different look than I've ever seen before.

"Who was it, and where was it?" Anto repeats more thoroughly, his voice oddly patient with my manner.

"I… I'm sorry man, but I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

"Look kid, the jigs up. I know Liselle was suspicious of you before, but she couldn't recognize the signs."

"And you… can?" I ask.

"Believe it or not, I endured the same shit as you." Anto says. "You aren't the only one to survive that hell."

Unable to resist, I give out a dark chuckle or two. When I look back up at Anto, he's looking angry.

"Sorry, I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but I doubt you know what I've gone through." I mutter, the pangs of longing for Home coming back very strongly.

"Look, punk, I don't want to know how you got out, so don't think that I'm going to betray whoever helped you. You put on a good show, I'll give you that, but... well, I just want you to know – I want you to see this."

With that, Anto ducks his head a little and beckons me forward, his armor retracting to expose the back of his neck.

The mood sobered by his out of character moment, I move forward and see…something on the grayish-pink flesh of his neck. Frowning, I lean in closer, and make out what looks like a tattoo.

Oh.

Oh… that's not a tattoo.

A string of numbers in batarian script are branded into the back of his neck, next to a hollowed out pit of matted flesh and scar tissue, where it looks like something was once there. My unease becomes horrified understanding.

Damn…

I had it all wrong before, when I thought Anto was just another batarian asshole that shouts about 'you humans are all racist!'

I didn't know…

"No, you didn't." Anto agrees, meeting my gaze and deliberately nodding slowly, as I belatedly realize I must have said that thought out loud. I didn't think it possible before, but his expression is… soft, almost brotherly.

I'm stunned. I never knew that Anto was a former slave.

"It never occurred me…" I murmur slowly, leaning back against the wall of the slow moving elevator. "I mean, I intellectually understood that there was a caste of batarian slaves... but it didn't...click, you know."

"Yeah, kid." Anto sighs, seeming ancient and tired. "It doesn't really. We all go through this shit, and some of us are lucky enough to get out with only a few scars."

It's silent in the elevator after that, but as Anto seems to accept me a little more now, it's only awkward for me.

Now Anto thinks I'm an escaped slave. Fuck, how do I get myself into these situations?

 

[SemiSaneAuthor]

If they have lost your records, well, it's their problem -you are not triing to open an account or marry or do anything else that needs those records, after all.

Click to shrink...

That only works when you don't take into account how many backups and such would have to be lost. To lose his so much they'd have to have lost at least several thousand record of other people. Meaning that their could be at least thousands of people with faked records or lost records. Which either means criminal negligence or a massive conspiracy.

Either option is going to lead to people freaking out and heads rolling.

Edit: Ninja'ed by Author.

 

[Mizuki_Stone]

It certainly would make it harder for people to 'reclaim the merchandise'

 

[Arthur Hansen]

Interesting, I wonder what the politics of the Batarians trying to treat slaves as legal non-entities by not keeping records of them works like.

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Er, don't you usually keep track of slaves more because of selling/buying. Probably also medical transcripts to prove it's healthy to buyers. IIRC, Alan Dean Foster had a very cool story about slaves in a 'future' world.

 

[Arthur Hansen]

If they think he was born a slave or was captured as a young child then they might think the Batarians only issue serial numbers to those slaves with only the most basic information like their species, what it is they've been trained to do and other such things.

Since Nick doesn't have a brand or a tattooed serial number they might think he was electronically tagged instead or something and the tag has since been removed.

Click to shrink...

I was pointing out the fallacy that slavery equates 'bad records'. IIRC, the Romans actually kept track of their slave records pretty closely.

 

[Xeno Major]

Since Nick doesn't have a brand or a tattooed serial number they might think he was electronically tagged instead or something and the tag has since been removed.

Click to shrink...

Anto had an electronic tag, where the scar tissue was. The script-stamp brand was for a backup, just in case.

Really, the main thing here is that they don't assume I'm an escaped slave.

Anto assumes I'm an escaped slave, and manages to pass me off as one to the C-Sec agnet, who'd already been told to not make a fuss for Aria.

When Anto tells Aria that I'm an escaped slave, it'll take her about a second to realize that Anto's got the wrong idea, because just like Cronos noticed, I don't have any kind of tag, and an electronic tag would leave a gigantic mess of scar tissue (they don't exactly make it easy for the slaves and leave the tag easily accessible, after all). Anto's really fucking lucky he had a good friend to dig his out for him, because otherwise Anto might've paralyzed himself clawing open the back of his neck (which, incidentally, is why most slavers put the tag in the neck).

Combined with my strange clothing that doesn't match any existing company or group except for a now-prestigious school on Earth, and my already noted speech differences, it's pretty damn obvious I'm not a slave.

But for a brief period, Anto thinks I am one, and he's not going to ask more questions because he knows what it is like to endure that pain. Of course, if Anto did ask more questions, he might realize that I'm not a slave, but alas he does not.

I was pointing out the fallacy that slavery equates 'bad records'. IIRC, the Romans actually kept track of their slave records pretty closely.

Click to shrink...

Not sure about the Romans, but the 'good' batarian slavers do indeed keep track of their slaves via the aforementioned brand and tags, though medical records are a bit more shoddy.

It's worth noting that even if the stupider slavers didn't keep records per say, they did include a brand of some kind. That will be the primary flaw in the 'Nick's an escaped slave' argument. There are no slaves without a brand, they get the damn things within a day of being captured. Children born in captivity suffer... much worse than a slave captured in a raid.

 

[Lone Wolf 666]

"Have agent Xeno Major successfully cross the dimmension wall?."

"Yes, emperor Udina. Although there was a slight glitch, it went without a problem."

"Good, reset it. I want my right hand shepard and the crew off I.S.S Normandy to go through, and prepare the way for the invasion fleet let by Grand Imperial Admiral Anderson."

"My emperor!, there was another attack by the terrorist group cerebrus freeing several formal citadel species slaves."

"TTTTTTTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMM!."

 

[Mizuki_Stone]

Mirror Reapers: ...Helping elevate all species while trying to screw them over?

Also I think I get this setting, everything is flipped. Where Udina was incompetent, he is now so competent he runs an interstellar empire, where TIM was a violently Pro Human Xenocist, he's now the most paragony paragon to have ever fired off a Paragon interrupt.

Oh gods... just think about what the success rate of Cerberus Labs must be in that setting... They've got to be centuries more advanced then anyone else in the field!

 

[Álli Méra]

well..... Cerberus/BEARD!Cerberus switch.

 

[Xeno Major]

Ask me no questions, and I will tell no lies.

Click to shrink...

More like 'Ask me for anything you desire, except a straight answer.'

 

[Arthur Hansen]

Mirror Reapers: ...Helping elevate all species while trying to screw them over?

Also I think I get this setting, everything is flipped. Where Udina was incompetent, he is now so competent he runs an interstellar empire, where TIM was a violently Pro Human Xenocist, he's now the most paragony paragon to have ever fired off a Paragon interrupt.

Oh gods... just think about what the success rate of Cerberus Labs must be in that setting... They've got to be centuries more advanced then anyone else in the field!

Click to shrink...

No, no.
They have 100% safety as their primary concern.

They have only managed to actually make old stuff everyone else quit working on while they were in progress with it.

 

[Larekko12]

Eh don't Cerberus usually churn OmgWtf rate stuff ... at cost of lives and it often turning on them? I mean they made Jack who can match Samara.

 

[Álli Méra]

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What do you say? Pick up that Omnitool!

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[HecateGW]

Hmmmm....this is rather interesting so far.

I shall be keeping an eye on this story.

 

[thag]

I am watching this. I am watching this very closely.

 

[Xeno Major]

Chapter 5.2 (Snip 3)

By the time we catch up with Aria, we'd entered the Presidium proper, the land of crystal spires and togas.

It was… refreshing, in many ways. In others, it killed me.

I see a young, twenties-something human laughing with an asari on his lap, just enjoying the beautiful sights of the Commons and basking in the togetherness of the moment. It brings a slight smile to my lips, but then I see an image of the same human, dark hair and clipped goatee, screaming as he burns, crushed beneath a hover taxi knocked down by Cerberus in two years time.

I shake my head and my smile turns sad again, a recurring thing today. It's not a premonition, just my mind working hand in hand with my fucked-up imagination. I could see the same damn thing for any of these people, the multitudes of civilization that traipse across this elegant concourse like nothing will ever be wrong.

How could anything go wrong? They're on the Citadel, the most defended place in the Galaxy, no danger at all, and everything is happy-go-lucky as the wheels turn in the background.

Damn. I'm getting pessimistic again. Now I know what Joker feels like, though at least the people of the Citadel have an excuse this early in the timeline.

Anto and I tread silently along the path, the crowd parting before us. Anto, a grim batarian specter of death in his dark armor and carrying an assault rifle, is easily the scariest thing some of these pampered brats have ever seen.

We're given a wide berth, despite the thronging crowds, and most of the people glance unsubtly at us, eyes looking from Anto to me in confusion, if not worry.

I'm less of an obvious threat than Anto, but still some of them shy away from me, perhaps because of my willing proximity to the blunt weapon that is Anto, perhaps because of my body language.

Here, in the home of luxury and decadence, I don't have to act like I do on Omega. Here, I look around confident and secure, eyes zipping to and fro beneath my glare-shades, my smirking mask hiding my real emotions. I don't slow my stride or roll my shoulders back like when I'm trying to blend in, but instead walk as I prefer, the barest lean forward, feet slightly outward, and aggressive. I move with sure feet, training making my feet glide, and a few of the civvies that glance at me look away, just as disturbed as when they look at Anto. I don't play the part of a predator, because I am not a predator. It's hard to describe, but it's just confidence.

Some of the turians in the crowd seem to get it, and they don't make a fuss or seem annoyed by our presence, merely nodding at the sight of another person on the promenades of the Citadel.

My eyes dart around, taking in the beauty of the Citadel, and I find myself full of remorse at the thought that this sleek construction is nothing but a gilded cage. No matter if the Reapers or the Leviathans made it, it's a work of art.

But if I have to burn a masterpiece to save a way of live, so be it.

That said, I don't see any reason I can't enjoy it while it lasts. The graceful architecture is beautiful, and I even think I see the Krogan Monument off it the distance, up the curve of the Presidium.

"Nice, isn't it?" Anto says, gesturing to the planters and walls, the greenery playing with the sterile white of the walls.

"If you like golden lies, sure." I reply idly, humorously noting one of the younger-looking asari recoiling as she overhears my comment.

I turn my head to grin at her as we pass, and she moves further away, her face morphing into shock.

"Heh." I chuckle. "Wonder what her problem was?"

"Your hair, punk." Anto answers easily.

"What?" I protest lightheartedly, running a hand through my hair. I'd only had a haircut a week before I came here, so it's still pretty short. "My hair is not that bad."

"It's not the hair on your head, it's the hair on your face." Anto replies, gesturing to the wildman beard I've got going.

"Hey, it's not like it's going to bite." I parry, glancing over at the C-Sec outpost off to our right, closer to the 'wall' of the Presidium.

Strangely enough, I swear I saw the same agent from the customs station in there, but then the door closes off, and she disappears from view. Hmm…

"So you say. Many of these people haven't seen your human facial hair before, since almost all of your kind are smart enough to shave." Anto rumbles back.

"What, so that they can 'blend in' with all the aliens better? Heh, that won't make me shave."

"It might be better for if you do, or at least try to tame it. It puts some of them off their meals a little to see any facial hair, much less something that looks like it came off an animal."

"Tame it?" I laugh at the idea, imaging trying to get my beard to smooth down and stay close to my skin instead of exploring out. "Hell no. I like messing with people's heads, if the beard does it for me, then I've killed two birds with one stone."

With that, we settle back into an easy silence, comfortable with each other's presence, much as I would have been with my older brother, or another close friend.

Strange sights keep revealing themselves to me, and I'll admit that I stare a little at the first quarian I see, though the shades hide my eyes.

While I'd hung out with Kenn a little, this quarian was a girl, and is wearing a black and red encounter suit, seeming a little up-armored for hanging out around the Citadel. She's conversing angrily over an extranet link with someone, but it looks like she's forgotten to shut off her external speakers, so most people are steering clear of her, a little wary of walking into someone's conversation.

I can see why most people from my time seem to prefer Tali as a love interest, those encounter suits are definitely snug.

But then I get a look at this quarian's inhumanly large hips and those weird legs, and any thoughts I had of her body turn away from that direction.

 

[Protodermis]

[snip]

I can see why most people from my time seem to prefer Tali as a love interest, those encounter suits are definitely snug.

But then I get a look at her inhumanly large hips and those weird legs, and any thoughts I had of her body turn away from that direction.

Click to shrink...

Pfff... I'd still tap that.

 

[Yog]

Beard power!

Nice snippet.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

If you ever need a cover ID, and you do not use "William Riker," then you are dead to all of us.

 

[Sorain]

ROTFL. Okay, the facial hair thing is perhaps the most funny thing I have read all week, mostly because it is so believable.

Overall I am liking your approach and style here. A good chunk of realism and the kind of mental sidetracking I can relate to from experience. I look forward to seeing more.

 

[Larekko12]

Could it be that's it's a geth posing as a Quarian? Not the sinful appelation that the legs aren't glorius.

 

[Xeno Major]

Thanks, but I only had to convert the first four chapters from FF.net, the rest is being written currently, so I'm good.

 

[Lone Wolf 666]

Hips don't lie.

 

[Xeno Major]

Chapter Four

Standing on the 'bridge' of Aria's corvette (now that brings up a few thoughts…), I stare out the transparent view-screens at the enormous space station that's slowly filling up the entire screen as we approach.

It's… enormous.

Sense of scale in a video game is hard to come by after so many Death Stars and helicarriers and other sci-fi invention, but in real life?

The Citadel, slowly opening it's prongs to the Serpent Nebula and fully showing it's sheer size looms above us, and I can't help but give an impressed nod. I've seen some architectural wonders from my own time, of course, from the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque to Petra and Ephesus (and was just from one trip), but this was on a whole 'nother level of engineering.

Click to shrink...

This concept is what I'm basing my opinion of Tali on.

Sense of scale in an media is hard to get because we've seen so many exaggerated attributes and idealized women (and men). So many pairs of Hartman Hips, so many cases of the Most Common Superpower, you start to ignore the smaller cases of them. Then only the bigger examples will do, until a perfectly beautiful model or real person can be criticized as having 'hips too thin' or 'chest too small.' Then the pattern escalates until we've fetishized enough that we rip a hole in reality and create Slaanesh - ohwait.

The Hips Don't Lie, but the Game does.

So while playing the Game, Tali seems beautiful and sexy, in real life, the proportions are just a bit past my personal preferences. Also I keep thinking her legs are broken.

Besides, it's not like I'm bashing on Tali. I'm just saying that any possible attraction to Tali is based of her personality, who she is, because I don't find her physically attractive (and c'mon guys, this is same reason people are divided over Miranda; because on one hand she's a frigid bitch, and on the other, unbalanced hand, she's drop dead gorgeous.)