Their Finest Hour
folder
+M through R › Mass Effect
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
20
Views:
8,821
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
+M through R › Mass Effect
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
20
Views:
8,821
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect or EA, and I do not make any money from these writings.
Chapter 16
Title: Their Finest Hour, Chapter 16
Author: Draygon
Game: Mass Effect
characters/pairing: F!Shep/Garrus
Disclaimer: Bioware owns it all. I am just playing with their toys. U No SU. Also, SPOILERS for All the things!
The body heat from half a dozen species forced the cooling systems to work over time as the mass of people jostled and bumped into each other in the two-level extranet cafe that seemed to stretch on forever in the Tayseri Ward on the Citadel. The roar of the fans forced every one to nearly shout their conversations, making the noise nearly unbearable for the chestnut haired woman elbowing her way past the two elcor so deep in conversation, she nearly choked on their pheromones.
The meter and a half walk to the check-in kiosk felt like a kilometer with the crowd that had gathered for the Galaxy of Fantasy tournament. Margaret hadn't kept up with the game much, but what she had gathered from all the ads playing along the walls, was the new expansion released today had everyone in a frenzy to play it. It was something about an invading force from beyond the galaxy threatening all life and required the factions to put aside their differences to combat it.
Margaret scoffed. 'They don't know the half of it.'
She finely reached the kiosk and input her information and had her booth number sent to her onmi-tool. Again, she had to shove her way past the crowd loitering on the stairs to the second level, nearly having to break up a squabble between two salarians who couldn't agree on which of the in-game classes had the stats to take on one of the hulking behemoths solo. The loudest one seemed to think that humans, if min/maxed just right, could solo anything in the game. The other swore by krogan Mystics since the latest patch had them overpowered with mana regenerating buffs.
Margaret finely squeezed by the two as a C-sec officer with a long scar on her face came up to talk to the two. The second level wasn't as crowded, however people were standing elbow to elbow at the large displays, watching as players sampled the new content. Margaret's reserved booth was in a relatively quiet part of the area where most were engaged in their game, paying no attention to anyone around them.
She slid into her station, cursing the red and black dress she wore as it tried to twist around her legs. After a second attempt, she settled in comfortably and engaged the privacy settings, the glass shifting to translucent within the small egg shaped cubicle. Reaching into a small pocket inside one of the openings of her dress, Margaret pulled out a mini-OSD and slid it into the terminal's corresponding socket. Immediately, the discreet program executed, bypassing the monitoring software on the computer.
Hopefully, with all the excitement and net-activity, her actions wouldn't be noticed at all. Margaret setup a secure connection to a private chat room, using a low priority signal to avoid suspicion. She then brought up Galaxy of Fantasy and waited for the game to load.
Margaret gawked at the sheer variety of character races and classes. She had remembered a few of the crew members she had served with talking about how 'lame' it was that GoF had caved to a few complainers and made humans a playable race. 'The game is supposed to be set thousands of years ago,' they had groused. 'how in the world would it make any kind of sense to include humans?'
She remembered the two salarians arguments and picked a krogan Mystic. If if was as overpowered as they said, it should be easy to blow through the first twenty or so levels and access the new content. Margaret was half way through her first quest when her contact messaged her through the private chat room. "Don't have long. Boss is on a tear."
Margaret pursed her lips. "Isn't he always?" She replied. Best to make this look like a normal chat in case someone did manage to log her activity. The connection being bottom on the priority list, the reply took several minutes with all of the bandwidth being eaten up. It was a risk, but a calculated one.
Just as Margaret reached level ten, the reply came. "I've never seen him like this. What ever he 'acquired' from Four-Eyes really has him cracking the whip."
Margaret paused a moment to read the message again. Four-Eyes? Did he mean Batarians? Margaret doubted their employer would have ever bought anything from the Hegemony. Stolen was probably the best descriptor for his means of acquisition. "What is he doing?"
Margaret, despite herself, lost herself in the story. The mystic's trials were harrowing and brutal. Her character had been starved for three weeks until all of the stored fat in her hump had been depleted, escorted to a cave and had the entrance sealed behind her. It was strange seeing a krogan without their hump and she was immediately reminded of a crocodile with a shorter snout. Her task was to dig herself out of the cave before she ran out of air. Now she understood why she had seen so few mystics in the krogan starting area. This quest alone would cull all but the most determined players. As she finely spotted daylight and the cut-scene started to play, she noticed the chat icon flashing notifying her that she had gotten a message. The time stamp put it's delivery as ten minutes ago.
"People go in for testing and don't come out. Some in my department haven't seen their families for months. And some of them have disappeared, too." After a few moments, another message popped up in the chat. "I hear he's doing biotic experiments again. Adults this time. Heard someone mention he's itching to get his hands on 'Subject Zero', who ever the hell that is."
Margaret clenched her jaw. The records at Pragia had been destroyed, so it seemed logical their employer would want the only success. Through she had believed him when he had said that he had nothing to do with the 'Rogue Cell', she had her doubts confirmed.
"What have you found? Hard evidence?" Margaret paid almost no attention to her game as she waited for the reply. She kept dying at the same spot on an escort quest. She was supposed to deliver a fertile female from the makeshift shelter she had built in the middle of nowhere to one of the clan chieftains as a gift. Her eyes would shift over to the chat icon just as she got to the edge of a rocky outcropping and the moment she set foot on the sand, her character was set upon by a thresher maw and torn to pieces. Finely the icon flashed with a newly received message and she clicked over to it.
"Too much. Like he wanted it to be found. Think he knows there's a leak."
She took a deep breath, the game forgotten. She knew full well what would happen to him if he sent the data. The Illusive Man was as unforgiving as he was paranoid.
"Send it."
Several minutes passed, enough for Margaret to think her contact had had second thoughts. Then data started streaming to her mini-OSD. A massive amount of it. What ever her contact had found, it was big. After the transfer completed, the connection was cut. Hopefully, her contact had left as soon as he started the transfer. There was almost no telling if he survived or if she had just killed him. Though considering what was at stake, she understood that his possible death, while tragic, was unavoidable.
The game, however interesting, no longer held her interest. Margaret removed the OSD, exited to the main menu and deleted her character and account. She wouldn't need it where she was going. She got out of her pod and quickly exited the extranet cafe. It wouldn't matter if anyone found evidence of her hacking, there was no way anyone could find her. She turned a corner into an ally and ditched her onmi-tool in a small alcove, smashing the small device with the heel of her shoe. It wouldn't matter if anyone found it, either, because Margaret Solheim had never existed at all.
Author: Draygon
Game: Mass Effect
characters/pairing: F!Shep/Garrus
Disclaimer: Bioware owns it all. I am just playing with their toys. U No SU. Also, SPOILERS for All the things!
The body heat from half a dozen species forced the cooling systems to work over time as the mass of people jostled and bumped into each other in the two-level extranet cafe that seemed to stretch on forever in the Tayseri Ward on the Citadel. The roar of the fans forced every one to nearly shout their conversations, making the noise nearly unbearable for the chestnut haired woman elbowing her way past the two elcor so deep in conversation, she nearly choked on their pheromones.
The meter and a half walk to the check-in kiosk felt like a kilometer with the crowd that had gathered for the Galaxy of Fantasy tournament. Margaret hadn't kept up with the game much, but what she had gathered from all the ads playing along the walls, was the new expansion released today had everyone in a frenzy to play it. It was something about an invading force from beyond the galaxy threatening all life and required the factions to put aside their differences to combat it.
Margaret scoffed. 'They don't know the half of it.'
She finely reached the kiosk and input her information and had her booth number sent to her onmi-tool. Again, she had to shove her way past the crowd loitering on the stairs to the second level, nearly having to break up a squabble between two salarians who couldn't agree on which of the in-game classes had the stats to take on one of the hulking behemoths solo. The loudest one seemed to think that humans, if min/maxed just right, could solo anything in the game. The other swore by krogan Mystics since the latest patch had them overpowered with mana regenerating buffs.
Margaret finely squeezed by the two as a C-sec officer with a long scar on her face came up to talk to the two. The second level wasn't as crowded, however people were standing elbow to elbow at the large displays, watching as players sampled the new content. Margaret's reserved booth was in a relatively quiet part of the area where most were engaged in their game, paying no attention to anyone around them.
She slid into her station, cursing the red and black dress she wore as it tried to twist around her legs. After a second attempt, she settled in comfortably and engaged the privacy settings, the glass shifting to translucent within the small egg shaped cubicle. Reaching into a small pocket inside one of the openings of her dress, Margaret pulled out a mini-OSD and slid it into the terminal's corresponding socket. Immediately, the discreet program executed, bypassing the monitoring software on the computer.
Hopefully, with all the excitement and net-activity, her actions wouldn't be noticed at all. Margaret setup a secure connection to a private chat room, using a low priority signal to avoid suspicion. She then brought up Galaxy of Fantasy and waited for the game to load.
Margaret gawked at the sheer variety of character races and classes. She had remembered a few of the crew members she had served with talking about how 'lame' it was that GoF had caved to a few complainers and made humans a playable race. 'The game is supposed to be set thousands of years ago,' they had groused. 'how in the world would it make any kind of sense to include humans?'
She remembered the two salarians arguments and picked a krogan Mystic. If if was as overpowered as they said, it should be easy to blow through the first twenty or so levels and access the new content. Margaret was half way through her first quest when her contact messaged her through the private chat room. "Don't have long. Boss is on a tear."
Margaret pursed her lips. "Isn't he always?" She replied. Best to make this look like a normal chat in case someone did manage to log her activity. The connection being bottom on the priority list, the reply took several minutes with all of the bandwidth being eaten up. It was a risk, but a calculated one.
Just as Margaret reached level ten, the reply came. "I've never seen him like this. What ever he 'acquired' from Four-Eyes really has him cracking the whip."
Margaret paused a moment to read the message again. Four-Eyes? Did he mean Batarians? Margaret doubted their employer would have ever bought anything from the Hegemony. Stolen was probably the best descriptor for his means of acquisition. "What is he doing?"
Margaret, despite herself, lost herself in the story. The mystic's trials were harrowing and brutal. Her character had been starved for three weeks until all of the stored fat in her hump had been depleted, escorted to a cave and had the entrance sealed behind her. It was strange seeing a krogan without their hump and she was immediately reminded of a crocodile with a shorter snout. Her task was to dig herself out of the cave before she ran out of air. Now she understood why she had seen so few mystics in the krogan starting area. This quest alone would cull all but the most determined players. As she finely spotted daylight and the cut-scene started to play, she noticed the chat icon flashing notifying her that she had gotten a message. The time stamp put it's delivery as ten minutes ago.
"People go in for testing and don't come out. Some in my department haven't seen their families for months. And some of them have disappeared, too." After a few moments, another message popped up in the chat. "I hear he's doing biotic experiments again. Adults this time. Heard someone mention he's itching to get his hands on 'Subject Zero', who ever the hell that is."
Margaret clenched her jaw. The records at Pragia had been destroyed, so it seemed logical their employer would want the only success. Through she had believed him when he had said that he had nothing to do with the 'Rogue Cell', she had her doubts confirmed.
"What have you found? Hard evidence?" Margaret paid almost no attention to her game as she waited for the reply. She kept dying at the same spot on an escort quest. She was supposed to deliver a fertile female from the makeshift shelter she had built in the middle of nowhere to one of the clan chieftains as a gift. Her eyes would shift over to the chat icon just as she got to the edge of a rocky outcropping and the moment she set foot on the sand, her character was set upon by a thresher maw and torn to pieces. Finely the icon flashed with a newly received message and she clicked over to it.
"Too much. Like he wanted it to be found. Think he knows there's a leak."
She took a deep breath, the game forgotten. She knew full well what would happen to him if he sent the data. The Illusive Man was as unforgiving as he was paranoid.
"Send it."
Several minutes passed, enough for Margaret to think her contact had had second thoughts. Then data started streaming to her mini-OSD. A massive amount of it. What ever her contact had found, it was big. After the transfer completed, the connection was cut. Hopefully, her contact had left as soon as he started the transfer. There was almost no telling if he survived or if she had just killed him. Though considering what was at stake, she understood that his possible death, while tragic, was unavoidable.
The game, however interesting, no longer held her interest. Margaret removed the OSD, exited to the main menu and deleted her character and account. She wouldn't need it where she was going. She got out of her pod and quickly exited the extranet cafe. It wouldn't matter if anyone found evidence of her hacking, there was no way anyone could find her. She turned a corner into an ally and ditched her onmi-tool in a small alcove, smashing the small device with the heel of her shoe. It wouldn't matter if anyone found it, either, because Margaret Solheim had never existed at all.