August 22, 2168Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula
The Council would be receiving a briefing on the preliminary results of the investigation today.
Tevos, despite the severity of the situation, was content to leave the experts to work on the problem.
Tela's decision-making recently had been suspect, but Tevos would never assert that the matron was incompetent at any aspect of her job. She was less sure of the C-Sec side of the investigation, but the executor had only good things to say about Captain Castis Vakarian.
Instead of concerning herself with problems already in hand, she analyzed the reactions of the other political blocs, focusing primarily on the Coalition.
The Alliance hadn't responded beyond condolences and the Hierarchy was working more closely with its long-term allies rather than coordinating with the other Coalition members.
The most interesting response was coming from the Hegemony.
The fact that the attackers had been batarian aboard a Hegemony-registered vessel had become known to the public only hours after the attack. Tevos had considered the idea that the release of that information was initiated by the attackers' associates, but she refrained from further thought on the attack itself before she heard the results of the investigation. She didn't want to get attached to her theory only to have it immediately discredited.
On her terminal, she was watching Emissary Jath'Amon Khemmarak handle the Citadel Press Corps.
"Emissary, were the attackers known to the Hegemony?"
"Yes. Both the crew and vessel were Had'dah."
If Tevos were to credit Hegemony diplomats with anything, it was their complete lack of hesitation. If her people were in his place, they would be trying to disassociate well before acknowledging any connection. The Hierarchy would hesitate and delay, but eventually, they would release whatever information they had. The Union, in comparison, probably wouldn't be having a press conference at all.
"Surely, the actions of House Had'dah are not endorsed by the Hegemon?"
Jath'Amon's neutral mask slipped long enough to tell the journalist he was an idiot with just a look before the mask returned, "Had'dah is no longer a House. I will remind you that Foyrud was executed for treason months ago and his family stripped of their caste. What few members were cleared by the SIU are 'kokan or 'magan now. The personnel involved in this incident were not acting under any orders from the Hegemony - in fact, as they had not submitted to a reevaluation, they were legally casteless."
"Do you think this was retaliation for that?"
"No," Jath'Amon replied and pointedly didn't elaborate.
Tevos wondered if that was a lie. It was such an obvious reason and should have been relatively difficult to disprove, not that he was under any real obligation to explain further.
That wasn't like him, however. Responding so strongly pointed to the Hegemony already having equally strong evidence to rule it out or that they had already settled on a specific narrative, perhaps both.
The emissary moved to the next reporter who asked, "how did this group escape the SIU?"
"They were not in the Hegemony. Until now, they had been hiding in the Terminus, as befitting of degenerates. Only after tampering with their transponder did they dare to return to C-space."
"Do you believe Citadel Security bares responsibility for their failure to stop this attack?"
Jath'Amon frowned slightly, "the attackers are dead, other casualties total less than one hundred dead and the cost in property damage is no more than two hundred million credits. The intentions of these terrorists is unknown. Who are you to say Citadel Security failed?"
Tevos could acknowledge that he had answered that question well. With his even tone and neutral language, viewers could interpret that answer however they wanted through their own biases.
"Councilor," Anelia, Tevos' secretary, interrupted, "Spectre Tela and Captain Vakarian are ready to deliver their reports."
Salva had wanted to include Jath'Amon in the meeting under the logic that he might have more to add regarding this case that the Hegemony had not been willing to share with the Spectre Office or Citadel Security.
Tevos had objected for two reasons - one, including an ambassador in what was ostensibly a Council meeting could be taken as a signal that their inclusion on the Council was being considered. That was not something she would entertain. The new salarian councilor, Valern, had objected for the same reason.
The criteria for inclusion on the Council was nebulous for a reason, only sincere desperation would permit Tevos to change her stance.
The second was centered around how the Hegemony had not willingly shared anything directly with the Council and she saw no reason that would change. All of the information sourced from the batarians had come through Spectre Saren. The Hierarchy wasn't even sharing anything the batarians had a hand in collecting. It was just Spectre Saren, with the tacit permission from Councilor Salva, and the STG offering insight into Coalition activity. Tevos didn't know why that was the case, but it was very strange. The apparent arrangement had been too consistent and had gone on long enough that there was little reason to believe the Hegemony was still unaware of what the Hierarchy was doing.
If she were pressed for an answer, Tevos would guess that the Hegemony were signaling their continued annoyance at being an associate race.
Matriarch Benezia had claimed she had made progress in ingratiating herself with the Coalition, but that hadn't materialized into anything useful yet. Not that she had deigned to share, at least.
Tevos also had to keep in mind that the Hierarchy and Hegemony had gone out on their own to approach the Lystheni Domain. Coming to an arrangement with them to end the fighting in the Terminus couldn't be punished, as her people wanted an end to the fighting. It couldn't be rewarded either - the Salarian Union would never allow it.
"Thank you, Anelia," Tevos replied and stood up. She deactivated her terminal and went to the briefing room the Council used for these types of situations.
Once her and her fellow councilors were seated, Vakarian began with the facts, "the Gholin Had'dah arrived in the Widow System two days ago with its transponder reporting the vessel as the 'Foldinar', registered under the Illium Commercial Registry."
Anything from the ICR would be a dead-end at best and Tevos mentally marked any details from that body as 'suspect'.
Illium was one of the few acceptable corridors for trade between C-space and the Terminus Systems. The ICR had enough rules and regulations governing its registered vessels to appear legitimate at a casual glance, but there were enough loopholes and carve outs that it was all but useless for determining anything beyond the fact that its owner wasn't an amateur.
"It did not have expedited docking clearance," Vakarian continued, "but it was still able to dock the next day. After docking, the crew of eight batarians attempted to pass through customs. These batarians were already in the database under assumed names consistent with non-Hegemony batarians. We know they were carrying weapons and explosives, but the data streamed to C-Sec Headquarters showed that they hadn't been detected. The only sensor that pinged anything unusual was the one that alerted the Spectre Office and Spectre Vasir.
"When Sergeant Vaeras, the shift sergeant, contacted Spectre Tela, the batarians threw some Overloads which cut off the call, drew their weapons and opened fire. Sergeant Vaeras was the first casualty. A short firefight inside the intake office ensued. The firefight ended when one of the batarians set off all of the explosives he was carrying. We're not sure as to the reasoning for that.
"A minute later, the Gholin Had'dah suffered a drive core detonation after a disruptor torpedo left next to the drive core detonated. This torpedo was tied to a dead-man's switch one of the attackers had been carrying.
"There were no follow-up attack or other incidents that appear to be related. Damage is still being assessed, but I have a final count for casualties. Ten C-Sec personnel and twenty-four civilians killed. Another nineteen C-Sec personnel and forty-one civilians were injured. At least two of the civilians would have survived if Spectre Vasir hadn't deviated from established procedures."
Tela had the audacity to roll her eyes at the reproach. Salva reluctantly spoke in her defense, "Spectre Vasir had good reason to do so, Captain."
Captain Vakarian appeared unconvinced, but he didn't argue.
"I sure did. Those cleanup teams found two devices. I had them destroyed in place and the remains disposed of."
Tevos exchanged glances with her fellow councilors.
Tevos would have to make the matriarch council take this more seriously, it seemed. No more letting her peers going on wild tangents about Coalition activity.
"Is there any indication as to what their actual target was?" Salva asked.
"Not at this time, Councilor," Vakarian answered.
"My contacts haven't turned up anything yet," Tela added. "I can confirm that the attackers were formerly military caste from House Had'dah and that the vessel was personally owned by Edan Had'dah. None of them have ever been to the Citadel before, their entries in the database are fabrications. Someone edited existing entries to match them months ago. The captain has someone running down how that happened right now."
"The Shadow Broker has used that method before," Tevos commented. Between the emitters, the connection to Edan and techniques they have used before, their involvement was not in question.
It would also explain why the vessel's original association was released so quickly. Publicly available information of the Citadel should have only had the ICR registration.
She refrained from mentioning that the Geth could be involved as well. Tevos had been alarmed when Spectre Saren had reported sightings outside of the Veil and had summoned him after the Hegemony apparently succeeded in contacting them.
Councilor Salva must have been just as alarmed because he had not protested the summons. He had even attended that meeting.
Geth capabilities weren't well understood, but it seemed logical that they would be very proficient at hacking and other forms of electronic warfare. It was a possibility she would raise at a later date.
"Is there any evidence to say they were on a tight timetable?" Valern asked, pulling her from her musings. She was still getting used to her new colleague and was still occasionally surprised to hear him speak up. He was much quieter than Palaki had been.
Tela shook her head, "can't say without a better idea as to what their plan actually was."
"Based on what we know now," Vakarian said, "it could go either way. They definitely had inside assistance, based on the edited entries, which could also explain how quickly they got docking clearance. It's not impossible for a vessel to receive it as fast as the Gholin Had'dah did, just unusual."
"What is the typical wait-time for civilian vessels?" Tevos asked. She had only ever come to the Citadel as a councilor or as a councilor's aide, so she wasn't familiar with normal wait times. She didn't think anyone present would be surprised by her question.
Each councilor had a few docking bays reserved for their use and as a result they didn't have to wait for one to be clear before receiving docking clearance. Military vessels could expect similarly immediate responses.
"One day under ideal conditions, two to five under normal conditions. Of course, recent traffic volume and new customs procedures are hardly ideal."
Tevos nodded at the answer.
"Where did the Gholin Had'dah come from?" Valern asked.
Tela answered, "I've traced it as far back as I can. It entered C-space through the Eagle Nebula-Valius March connection. Before that, it was observed transiting the Hourglass Nebula-Crescent Nebula connection and making a stop at Illium. Time between its sighting at Illium and entering C-space indicates that it hadn't stopped on the way. I haven't been able to trace it beyond the Hourglass Nebula relay. I only have a few contacts in that cluster and none of them observed the Gholin Had'dah at any point."
"Is it possible they did not use any of the relays in that cluster? Primary or otherwise?" Tevos asked.
"Not conclusively. Best guess is that they used conventional FTL prior to going to the Crescent Nebula, but I can't say that confidently."
Not for the first time, Tevos cursed the relay-sparse nature of the Terminus. Watching relays, especially primary relays, made it very easy to track movement. Without them acting as chokepoints, it became almost impossible to reliably track anyone very far.
And there were a lot of potential hiding spots in the Terminus.
"We might still get something, but it will take time," Tela said.
"We're going to have to do more to lock down incoming traffic from the Terminus," Salva said.
Tevos was inclined to agree and said as much. Convincing her fellow matriarchs of the necessity might prove difficult though. She would ensure that there were indoctrination detectors installed before then, to ensure that the obstinance was legitimate and not the product of enemy action.
Knowing how those meetings normally go, she didn't have much hope that her difficulties as councilor could be blamed on indoctrinated peers.
***
August 23, 2168Pildea Station, Dor Orbit, Dranek System, Krogan DMZ Cluster
Professor Mordin Solus had been taken off of field work after his encounter with indoctrination emitters.
Data from the Hegemony indicated that his superiors were being overcautious, but he wouldn't argue. It would arguably be suspicious for him to do so.
Besides, he was content with where he was now.
He had always intended on becoming a scientist for the STG and this let him begin that part of his career earlier than anticipated.
He had been able to use his time in custody to finish his doctorates. Once they were in hand, the STG decided to make use of his new skill sets and sent him off to his first assignment as a researcher.
A research lead, actually. Apparently, he had impressed a number of his superiors.
"Statistical analysis does not lie, Sub-Director," Mordin said, "my analysis agrees with prior findings - Genophage losing potency."
When Mordin had first been brought aboard Pildea Station, the headquarters for the Citadel Demilitarization Enforcement Mission, he had been unsurprised to discover that the STG had a team of scientists monitoring the Genophage's effectiveness. Knowing what he knew about biology in general and the krogan specifically, it was only a matter of time that a course correction would be necessary.
The Genophage required maintenance, the same as any other construct.
Confirming the outgoing team's findings had been his first task and was the work of only a few days.
"How severe is the loss in efficacy, Professor?" Sub-Director Kej Kotn asked. Mordin would admit to some curiosity as to how Kotn obtained his position. A prestigious posting on the surface, like any sub-directorate, but subject to a significant amount of oversight due to joint nature of CDEM that STG personnel typically chaffed at.
That the Krogan DMZ warranted a sub-directory of the STG struck Mordin as an inefficient allocation of resources and he was not alone in that evaluation.
There were rumors that this sub-directorate was a dumping grounds for poor performers. The STG did have its share of internal politics, after all.
The CDEM was intended for surveillance and enforcement. The infiltration regiment and the substantial commitment from the Hierarchy should have been more than enough for a dedicated sub-directory to be considered redundant.
It was possible that it was as it appeared, however; an old STG veteran being given one last symbolic honor before he went back to the Wheel.
Mordin answered the question promptly, despite the tangent his thoughts had flowed along, "Not at all. Thousandths of a percent per year. Loss of potency is accelerating, but will only become noticeable with cursory examination in two centuries or so. Krogan themselves unlikely to notice for another century."
The sub-director and Legate Adas Ivaris of the Hierarchy Armed Forces considered his words carefully. There was no ambiguity in how the Hierarchy internally viewed a CDEM posting. The legate's posting was neither prestigious nor a punishment, only a necessary assignment. The infiltration regiment assigned to CDEM viewed their mission similarly.
"Is it possible to correct that, Professor?" Legate Ivaris asked.
"Of course - sooner the better, Legate. Delaying will result in more complexity. Higher chance of failure and complications."
"Is there anything you'll need, Professor?" Kotn asked.
"No, Sub-Director. Lab is well equipped."
"Good, I want you to start working on this as soon as possible," he ordered.
Mordin nodded, "Will be in the lab if you need me."
He pinged his teams' omnitools to have them gather in the lab as he left. Setting up samples for future examination was their first critical task. While doing so, he and his team discussed what avenues to pursue, which were likely to not be worth the effort and complications they might encounter with their preferred options.
Mordin found that he was greatly enjoying the experience. He had always enjoyed puzzles and this one was wonderfully complex.
The challenge and the potential consequences of getting it wrong made it an exhilarating one.
Hours later, just as their first experiments were about to finish, Legate Ivaris' voice came over the station's PA system, "all personnel, be advised - an unknown enemy vessel has destroyed the comm buoy and is burning towards Pildea Station."
Mordin was looking at the station's sensor feed before the legate had finished speaking.
The HNV First Wall and HNV Cibis, the pair of Hierarchy frigates that happened to be present, made to intercept the contact. The sensor system's VI tentatively identified the contact as some type of modular freighter, but as Mordin examined it more closely, he became increasingly certain that the enemy vessel was either purpose-built to masquerade as a civilian vessel or heavily modified from whatever its base design was.
Mordin watched the situation develop as he made his way to the station's armory with the rest of his science team.
He settled on purpose-built when the enemy contact opened fire with a spinal mass accelerator.
That conclusion was further reinforced when a pair of hits from the Hierarchy frigates failed to collapse the contact's barriers. Between that and the spinal weapon, it was very unlikely to be a converted vessel.
The sudden and sharp decline in sensor efficacy was also very informative. Such jamming was typical of dedicated electronic warfare vessels. This contact possessing such capabilities was telling. The expense, technological requirements and potential motives for this attack left only a few polities capable of carrying it out.
Lystheni, the Shadow Broker or a Council government.
All of which would want to board the station rather than destroy it. The Shadow Broker wouldn't have even been on the list of suspects a few years ago.
Bothersome timing, Mordin thought. Their experiments were time-sensitive and they would almost certainly have to restart them due to this interruption.
With the sensor feed rendered mostly useless, Mordin looked away long enough to put on a hardsuit. The procedure for the station coming under direct attack was a simple one - largely because the station was essentially helpless against direct attack.
As a precautionary measure against vacuum exposure, personnel were to don hardsuits before rallying in the armored sections of the station - engineering, life support and the headquarters section. There, they would hold until relief arrived.
The station's defensive measures against direct attack included kinetic barriers roughly equivalent to a heavy cruiser and GARDIAN arrays. Neither of which were particularly useful against bombardment from spinal mass accelerators.
The plan was far too close to 'hold on and hope' for Mordin's liking. Their attacker would be on them soon if the Hierarchy frigates were forced away.
When he looked back at his omnitool, he found that he had been locked out. "Station systems compromised," he said aloud. As his last teammate finished putting on their hardsuit, both of the corridors leading to the armory locked down.
Tentatively, he and several of his teammates attempted to open the door only to find the authorizations on their omnitools were no longer valid.
"Severely compromised," Mordin revised his earlier statement. His team looked to him for a decision.
"I can't contact anyone else aboard the station, Professor," Specialist Daetin said.
"The jamming is heavy enough that it will cause long-term health consequences," Professor Osan observed, looking at his omnitool.
"More concerned with gunshot wounds," Mordin replied. He mentally ran through what the enemy might want aboard the station. With the systems as compromised as they were and the STG momentarily locked out, the enemy should be able to access almost everything that they could want if it were accessible wirelessly.
Unless the jamming was thoroughly indiscriminate and their attackers couldn't access anything wirelessly either.
Not interested in data nominally available elsewhere. Genophage data not accessible wirelessly anyway - only target that fits.
"First task, secure lab - most likely target of attack," Mordin said. He gestured to the door leading back to the lab and one of the junior specialists started a manual override.
Security on the station was quite good, but the STG would not be bested by static security, even - especially - their own.
The door opened again a few seconds later. It was obvious that the enemy knew the futility of relying on locked doors. Subverting the station's security was only meant to delay and hamper their response.
The audible hiss of air evacuating the armory into the corridor hammered home the severity of the situation.
The important controls - power, life support, damage control overrides and weapons - were only controllable by physical access in their specific compartments.
The hiss of air was indicative of either severe damage to hull integrity - unlikely given the lack of impacts or detonations to cause such breaches - or the life support control room falling under enemy control.
Irrelevant, everyone should be in hardsuits by now.
The twelve of them filed out of the armory and ran back to their lab.
The lab technician acting as pointman rounded the last corner and collapsed under the hail of fire that greeted him the moment he came into full view.
Mordin reached out and pulled Maelon back before he could get more than a foot around the corner. The junior geneticist's barriers still flared from incoming projectiles in the brief moment of exposure.
It was a shame to lose the lab technician, but it would have been a greater one to lose such a promising geneticist.
Mordin spent a moment visually inspecting the corpse before sending a omnitool drone around the corner to confirm what he suspected.
His drone didn't last much longer than his teammate but it did confirm that there were Geth aboard the station.
They appeared content to keep them from reaching their lab.
He took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Geth," he said, turning to his team. "Professor Osan, take half of the team. Loop around to other end of the corridor. Will keep their attention while you do so."
"Understood," the older salarian replied dutifully. He picked out his team and doubled back down the corridor.
Minimizing exposure was of critical importance. Geth reaction times far too quick to try engaging with small arms.
Keeping the Geth's attention was as thoroughly unpleasant as he had expected, despite he and his team's extensive use of omnitool drones, grenades, Overloads and other tech attacks - the Geth simply didn't flinch. Such a small thing had an outsized effect in such confined quarters.
In the very brief moment where they were exposed they received accurate return fire. Only their barriers saved them from more grievous injury, though they seemed less effective than they should have been.
Mordin couldn't even contact Osan to check on his progress due to the jamming. By the time the other professor had appeared behind the Geth platforms, Mordin's team had one more fatality and all of them had been at least lightly wounded by Geth small arms.
Mordin himself was lucky to still be alive after a round grazed his helmet.
The platforms didn't retreat once they were in a crossfire and were destroyed where they stood.
He and his team met up at the intersection, careful to not actually step into the intersection.
Mordin doubted that was all of them between his team and the lab, and the drone that rounded the corner only for it to be immediately destroyed by a Geth Overload confirmed as much.
Professor Osan hummed, "I'm afraid I don't have any ideas to get through that. Mordin?"
Their lab was sequestered away from the main body of the station, as a standard precautionary measure should any of their research go awry. It had a single featureless corridor that started at this intersection that led to the lab's own airlock, both the airlock and its own atmospheric systems kept the lab's air supply separate from the rest of the station's.
As a practical matter, that made it highly defensible and the dozen or so Geth platforms were an insurmountable problem for what equipment they had.
The solution, as always, was to approach the problem from another - preferably unexpected - angle.
Moving along the outside of the hull would bypass the defenses. The lab itself was still a restricted area to fight in, but it was better than the choke point they were up against at the moment. They just had to come up with a way to get back inside the station.
"Any breaching charges or supplies to improvise them?" Mordin asked.
His team understood his intentions immediately. Osan tilted his head as he considered the idea, "we don't have anything dedicated. An improvised charge might not have enough energy to breach the hull."
Mordin glanced at the corridor leading to the lab, "better chance than here."
Osan nodded and started working while Mordin made preparations for an EVA. He determined that two of his teammates had compromised suits that could not be fixed with omnigel. They would be left behind to keep the Geth as distracted as they could.
Just as their preparations were completed and he was about to lead his team back to a maintenance airlock, the situation changed.
Osan's omnitool pinged. He glanced at it and said, "the jamming has ceased."
A series of small explosions sounded from where the Geth platforms were standing a few seconds later. A careful look around the corner revealed that the platforms had self-destructed.
Mordin immediately tried to contact others on the station to better understand the overall situation. It became clear that all of the Geth platforms that had been delivered to the station had self-destructed at the same time.
Checking the station's sensors revealed that a returning Hierarchy patrol had forced the Geth to withdraw. The Geth had delayed until the last second to do so and had even chosen to abandon the hardware committed to boarding the station to give themselves more time to pursue their objectives.
Returning to their lab revealed the Geth had been after the Genophage data at least as much as any other target aboard Pildea Station. Logs showed the data had been accessed and then erased.
The destruction of the data represented a setback of a month at most, they would be able to restore most of their data from off-site backups quickly enough. Even their destroyed equipment would be replaced quickly enough to not be worth mentioning.
The more worrying prospect was what the Geth or Shadow Broker intended on doing with the data.
A/N: I'm working towards increasing the number chapters Patreon is ahead by.