Chapter 11
Nevermore watched as the small landing craft containing the delegation from the Eden Prime landed on his surface. Accompanying it was a craft similar to the SSN Normandy and I could already feel the alien microorganisms inside the ship. They were far more robust, radiation resistant, and used Dextro-protein and Levo-Sugars instead of the Terran Dextro-Sugar and Levo-Protein. The last time he encountered such microorganisms was inside the gut of a certain prisoner he had. The Turian Spectre was here.
The landing site he’d chosen for them was specifically made for their arrival after he reheated his surface and put all of his stored fauna and flora back in place. It was a scenic mediterranean-esque series of islands he pulled off of the seafloor. Accelerating the formation of limestone islands was a bit of a pain for him, but seeing the white cliffs adorned with purple plants was well worth the effort.
LIttered around the islands were a series of faux greek ruins he made just for the occasion. Doric columns and monolithic slabs of limestone littered the area. Even the landing pad was one solid slab of white marble which was polished and sculpted to perfection. Why did he do this? The simple answer was that it looked cool and he wanted to fuck with the human deligates; figuratively off course.
There on the island, he focused his senses on a particular tentacle which sprouted out of the ground beside Raven and Jinx. The two glared at each other from time to time but they kept it a minimum for now. After all, this was an important meeting. They could not afford to mess this up given how he was holding a Spectre in prison.
“So, are you girls ready?” He asked as took a deep breath to calm himself down. He did not need to breathe but the motion alone was quite therapeutic.
“I only had a day to read the script, no pressure.” Jinx replied as she bounced on the ball of her feet. She looked uncomfortable with her greek inspired toga. “Also, I know you wanted to troll them but couldn't you have given me something with a shorter skirt? She then added as she tugged at the long silken cloth.
“You could have, I don’t know, stayed at home?” Raven pointed out as she stared ahead and kept an eye on the landing craft.
Both he and Raven winced when he heard a ripping sound in Jinx's direction. Jinx had torn off parts of her clothing to reveal her legs. ”Now that’s better. A little breezy down there but just the right length.”
“Really?” Raven asked as she gave the other girl a flat look.
“Yup. Can’t hide my biggest asset after all.~” Jinx replied as she flaunted off her long slender legs. He had to admit, she had her allure but Raven only had to cross her arms beneath her chest to catch his attention once again.
“Like there’s any asset to speak off.” She replied with a smug smile as she pushed her chest up. He was happy with those assets as well, as he felt them through her modified clothing.
“Cute.” Jinx rolled her eyes at her antics, but even she couldn’t help but take a quick glance at Raven’s chest from time to time.
“Bitch, I am adorable.” Raven answered back, which only angered Jinx.
The two might be angry at each other but he did not miss the way Jinx looked at Raven. Those stolen glances she made were quite adorable in his eyes. He just needed to bring it up later but for now, his visitors were coming out of their craft. “Look alive people. It’s showtime.”
The landing crafts soon disgorged their occupants to his surface. The awed look on their faces was hard to miss, even the Turian looked impressed, though he couldn’t be sure as this was the first time he saw one in person. Calling them armored bipedal raptors was a bit reductive but it was an apt description to Turians. He was having a field day scanning their DNA and adding to his ever growing collection.
Opening his senses near the group as they walked up the steps leading to the designated meeting place, he listened closely to their conversation. Eyes and ears sprouted along their path, which unnerved most of the humans but not the three people ahead.
“Captain Anderson, When you told me that your government found something so unbelievable that the Council would need the words of a Spectre to even believe it, I did not expect this.” The Turian, a fierce looking fellow whose armor and face paint gave him an aura of danger, said in his foreign tongue as he gestured around the island to the human beside him. Thankfully for him, he had already learned Raven’s translation spell making it easy for him to understand the Turian and not have to rely on an omnitool.
“I know the feeling all too well, Nihilus. It’s one thing to read about it and another to see it.” Captain Anders replied as he walked ahead of the human delegation. The man could only be described as grizzled and tough with a stoic and serene look in his face despite the strangeness of Nevermore’s garden.
“Still, the reactions of your crew member intrigued me more. I think your pilot said something along the lines of ‘this planet is a japanese school girl's worst nightmare’? What does tribal separation have to do with Nevermore?” the spectre asked, making the old Captain cough.
“Hah, funny you said that Nihilus. The thing is-” A red head, who he assumed was the infamous Commander Shepard, was about to answer only to be cut off by the Captain.
“Shepard, please, this is not the time.” Anderson sigh out a he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Ok, ok, just saying. Geez, don’t have to be a killjoy about it. Don’t worry Nihilus, I’ll show you exactly what Joker meant.” Shepard replied, making Anderson sigh out as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“So, that’s Shepard? I see why you mentioned she had a lot of art.” Raven said as she looked at the red head with curiosity in her eyes.
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“Yeah, future savior of the galaxy and all around badass.” He replied. There was no mistaking it, that really was Shepard, and a female one at that. A surprise for sure but a welcomed one.
Jinx whistled as she leaned forward to try and get a better view. “Well, she definitely looks the part of a heroine with that figure. If even half that is real beneath that armor then hot damn.” She said as she gave the future Spectre an appreciative look. Shepherd was a heavily armored and attractive figure whose playful smile and striking blue eyes caught his eyes. She was relaxed yet the way she carried herself, with a hand in her gun and eyes accessing things, showed him she wasn’t being too cocky.
It didn’t take long before the delegation reached the top of the hill where he and the girls stood. They stood in the middle of a circle of half broken pillars. Arranged in a circle was a series of seats for both their groups to sit on for later.
“Welcome to my surface! I would have made a better looking meeting place but I only had a day to work with.” He greeted them as the last of their members reached the top of the stairs.
“The pleasure’s all ours. It’s not every day that we get to see such natural beauty on display.” The old Captain replied with a friendly smile in his eyes as he extended an arm out for greeting. “Captain David Anderson of the SSV Normandy. Beside me is Spectre Nihlus Kryik of the Citadel Council and behind us are the Eden Prime government representatives” he introduced himself and the group with him. He took a quick glance at Shepard who only smirked at his attention before he replied.
“The name’s Nevermore, but I might have a feeling you already know about me.” He started off. He had a feeling that the System Alliance would share some intel on him as it was hard to keep him a secret after all, but hopefully it wasn’t too much. “Beside me is my Queen, Raven and our new resident, Jinx.”
Raven palmed her face at his greeting while Jinx waved at the group. “Just… just call me Raven.” His lover said as a light dusting of color darkened her cheeks,
“Name’s Jinx and don’t you forget it.” Jinx greeted.
The older man looked amused as he glanced at Raven and him before asking “Married?”
“No, not yet at least. There’s really no priest around and Eden Prime is no Vegas.” He replied. He and Raven were effectively married at this point with how close and intimate they were. They just hadn’t made it official. “You wouldn’t mind if we invite them over if we finally find a priest, right Raven?” He then added.
Raven snorted as she smiled light-heartedly at him and said, “I wouldn’t mind, but I’d rather have it be a small gathering.”
“Well, good news for you, love birds. We do have a ship chaplain up in the Normandy.” Shepard piped up, making him raise a brow at that. He had not considered that such traditions would continue till this day. He shared a look with Raven who was equally intrigued.
“While we wouldn’t mind extending the service of our chaplain to you, we still have some business to attend to.” The old captain reminded the others.
“Right. This way inside. Don’t worry about the weather, it’ll always be sunny unless I don’t want it to be.” Nevermore then said, making the Spectre and the Captain raise a brow but they remained quiet.
It didn’t take long before they were all seated, or, in his case wrapped around one of the columns, and exchanged more pleasantries and some thank you’s for saving Eden prime. There were some prodding questions about how he came to know about the attack, but a quick explanation with the radio answered that quickly. With those things out of the way, he could finally get to why he called them all to his surface.
“I’ll cut right to the chase. I know what that thing I captured is and, no, it’s not some advanced Geth Dreadnought. This thing is a Reaper, it’s one of thousands and they’re coming to kill every space faring species again.” He said, laying it nice and thick to catch everyone’s attention; and catch their attention it did. There were looks of alarm on the Eden Prime representatives while the military men and women in the group frowned at that.
“That’s… certainly quite the claim.” Nihlus started slowly, breaking the silence after he laid down what’s going to come.
“What do you mean kill every space faring species again…?” questioned Captain Anderson as he leaned forward from his seat.
“Wait, you're telling us there’s more of those?”’ Shepard then said as she pointed up at the massive moon in the sky. In truth, the moon was extremely small but it was close enough that everyone on his surface could see the imprisoned Reaper inside.
“Oh yeah, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof but thankfully the beacon down at Eden Prime is still up. Also, I’m feeling a weird organism down beneath the surface of Eden. He’s not Turian or Human. Also yes on the other two questions. As for how many… how many… rough estimate… two hundred million divided by fifty thousand times ten. That’s at minimum. Not sure how older they are.” He replied as he pondered on just how many Reapers there really were. There were certainly a lot, and from the ashen looks of one of the Eden prime officials, it was a whole lot if his guestimate was correct but he had a feeling that the Reapers were much much older.
“Woah woah woah slow down. Condense that down to five words or less.” Shepard said as she looked like she’s trying to wrap her head around what he just said.
“Killer spaceships regularly commit genocide.” He answered back truthfully. He didn’t wish to dilly dally around with the details. He was going in as blunt as possible, damn the consequence just to make sure these people understood.
“What my husband here is saying is, the Galaxy’s in danger.” Raven added helpfully. He’s really grateful that she’s around to help him with these kinds of situations. She was really just better at diplomacy than he’ll ever be.
“You’re… you're not joking are you…” Shepard asked, to which he just shook his head sadly. They were on a timer the moment Sovereign appeared.
“Ok, so you're implying that a fleet of… genocidal spaceships are out there and they cause an extinction event of all space faring species every fifty thousand years…” Nihilus then said as he tried to parse through what he just said before adding, “The date many Prothean Scholars believe is the date when the Protheans suddenly disappeared was that long ago.” Thankfully, the Spectre was getting it.
“More or less. There are some nuances and extra tidbits too but that’s about it.” He replied. There were a lot of things he had to leave out, but he had a whole council to talk to about that later. For now, he just had to convince these people here of the danger they were in.
“And you have reason to believe that the Prothean Beacon, a beacon no one told you about, has information about it.” The Captain then said with a bit of suspicion in his eyes but he did not look like he wasn’t believing him.
“Yes. If you don’t believe me, why don’t we go to the moon to hear what my prisoner’s been shouting?” He replied as he pointed at the moon. Saren could be a bitch and a half with how slimy he could be but he was banking on Sovereign’s wounded pride to mess things up. With the beacon left intact, he believed that the people here would be more inclined to believe him.