[Mass Effect Heroic Roleplaying] "This evidence is irrefutable!"

chiasaur11

"Well, the dying is kind of your call now."

(It wasn't. It really wasn't.)

"Just tell us everything you know about Saren, and you won't get hurt."

(Shepard was amazed she could finish the sentence with a straight face.)

Captain Carrot

"He's paying me a lot of credits to make sure this recording of him never reaches the Council. Apparently it's real bad stuff, but as long as I got paid, I didn't care," he replies wearily.

"Guessing that was a bad decision, huh. Anyway, a quarian's got it, on a geth something or other. I sent my boys out to get her, but you might still catch her if you hurry."

Oh, please, let them go after her and leave me alone.

chiasaur11

"That's interesting, Fist. Is Fist your first name? It's awkward talking like this. You don't know my name, I don't know yours, just a mess."

(Oh, she was going to hell. Then again, that was sure for a while now. Might as well have some fun on the way.)

Cambiata

@spool32 Heya you said you haven't played ME1, and as I have been capturing all of the cutscenes (and even some of the ambient dialog) from my recent ME1 game I thought you might find this helpful: I uploaded my capture of Shepard and the gang meeting Tali for the first time, and her explaining to Shepard and the player why her evidence is so particularly irrefutable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPtkv09-ZyI

No reason to quote any part of it if you don't want to, but I figured the knowledge would help you when when get to RPing that scene.

.

Captain Carrot

"Fist's my only name, at this point. Been a long time since I went by what my momma gave me. And -- hey, I know you. Seen you on the vids. You're Shepard, right?"

His eyes widen, and his shoulders slump. "You're going to kill me anyway, aren't you?!"

chiasaur11

"Guilty as charged. You made a lot of mistakes, Fist, and they're all coming back to haunt you. There's no way you can walk out of this room alive. Best I can offer? Last chance to make peace with whatever you worship, a last note to anyone you still give a damn about, and a choice of death from a fairly limited pool, which mostly consists of shooting, stabbing, and blunt force trauma. Anything more you tell us, that's just a balm on your blackened little soul."

Captain Carrot

Fist sighs, and stops squirming. "Okay, here's the thing -- "

And he bolts, tossing down a smoke grenade and activating turrets around the room. Unfortunately for him, everyone was more or less expecting that. Garrus shoots the turrets, Kaidan sabotages the grenade and prevents it from being more than a firecracker, Ashley trips him, Shepard stabs him, and Wrex provides the final piece by shooting him in the face.

Ashley examines the body, checking for life signs. "He's down, Commander. And it looks like he has something on him, too."

Shepard frowns. "The geth core?"

Ashley shakes her head. "No, it's an OSD. Probably something interesting on it if he had it on him, though. Should I bring it along?"

Mild Confusion

Wrex doesn't even look at Fist's corpse, no interest in dead meat that's not cooked right. He'll let the humans and the turian pick over the leavings.

Instead, Wrex checks the heat gauge on his shotgun: 88% till overheat. Interesting. What Fist lacked in brains, he made up with lots and lots of thugs and turrets. Still, it was a good fight.

"You can watch Fist's hanar porn later." Turning to Shepard, "That was a good fight Shepard."

Cambiata

Garrus looks at the device speculatively. "That OSD is worth analyzing. Some of the CSEC lab boys could do it, but I'd be concerned Pallin might have it destroyed as illegally obtained evidence."

chiasaur11

"Grab it. We can sort out details later, if it's even relevant to the case. Wrex, Vakarian, pleasure doing business. Got a hearing to attend, and a quarian to talk to beforehand. Probably want you both present for the second one, if possible. Got anything better to do?"

Mild Confusion

"I work for two things Shepard: A good fight or a good paycheck. Which can you offer?"

Wrex is still disillusioned about his people's future. It's not until meeting Shepard and fighting Saren, does he rediscover a purpose. Specifically, it's living through Virmire that does it. So right now, Wrex only cares about money and fighting.

Shepard doesn't know she's gonna be a Specter yet, so...

chiasaur11

"The first one. Saren can't be left loose. If I can't get the Council to help, I will do it freelance. If the Alliance won't help, I'll steal a ship. And I will track him down and either kill him, bring him in, or die trying. I've seen what will happen if we lose here, and I will be damned if I let it happen while I'm still breathing."

She stares Wrex in the eye.

"Way I see it, only good fight is one with people who need killing on one end, people worth saving on the other, and shit odds in between. I'd say this one qualifies. Of course, if you want to keep wasting your time and your talent killing two bit thugs like Fist, it's your call."

Cambiata

"Shepard, I'm in this to the end, if you'll have me. Saren is a traitor to my people. The idea of him getting away with what he's done makes my blood boil." Garrus looks thoughtful for a moment. "I will need to go, uh, notify Executor Pallin of my 'vacation' though."

Mild Confusion

Wrex smiles, but it's a smile with absolutely no humor in it. This is the smile of a hungry animal, who can smell its next meal right around the corner. It's been too long since Wrex has been in a worthy battle.



"All right Shepard, we'll see if you can deliver."

chiasaur11

"Haven't ever failed to find a good fight before."

The next few words were a muttered post-script. A private regret made a little more public.

"I just don't bring everyone back alive."

She straightened her stance, and ignored the shot to the gut from earlier. Medi-gel would solve it.

"Well, we have a quarian to interrogate. All goes well, we can play it polite, and everyone wins. Otherwise, I need a bad cop. Who wants to volunteer?"

Captain Carrot

Garrus calls the officers who'd taken the quarian and gives them an update, then heads to C-Sec, while the rest of them make their way to the human embassy, where it turns out Tali'Zorah has beaten them.

"There you are, Shepard," Anderson greets them.

"I suppose now we finally get to hear this recording," Udina sourly comments. "The captain insisted that we wait for you."

"Well, let's hear it, Miss..." Kaidan trails off.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema, but you can call me Tali, the rest of it's kind of like my -- " Tali babbles, until Udina clears his throat.

"Right. Well, I managed to salvage it from a geth, and I guess I'll just let it speak for itself."

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." Saren's voice rings out from the quarian's omni-tool. All of them start to speak at once, but she waves impatiently, and the room falls silent again.

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." They hear an asari, though they don't know who she is.

Cambiata, feel free to narrate Garrus quitting, and then arriving at the embassy whenever you like.

chiasaur11

"Okay, so Saren's got a weakness for strippers. Good to know. Well, and that he's guilty as sin, to the point where the council won't argue much with bringing his ass in on a platter. Only hope they won't shut us out entirely. Is the council ready to talk?"

Corehealer

"This stasis field is holding well" Liara thought. "It's actually quite tingly on the skin. I hope there are no negative side effects to using it... Although I guess it's better then the alternative". Liara could still hear more and more movement and chirping coming from the upper levels, and the remaining Geth trooper from earlier had reappeared on the far side of the room she was in, clearly waiting for orders from some higher power. She glanced over at it's now light blue eye, fixated on her. Creepy.

Whoever or whatever came down the lift next, she hoped they would be reasonable or at least communicable, and unable to break the field.

Captain Carrot

The human embassy

"Don't be ridiculous," Udina replies wearily. "That asari is most likely an ally of Saren's, not his bedmate."

"The ambassador's right," Anderson adds. "Saren's got a lot of flaws, but stupidity's not one of them; you don't discuss plans like that with just anyone. The question is, what is the Conduit? A Prothean weapon of some sort? And why on earth does Saren want to bring back the Reapers?"

"Frankly, I'm not sure we're going to get an answer to any of that," Udina grumps. "I'd like to follow up on your conjecture on the ship, Shepard. That recording is pretty damning, but I want to make sure Saren and Sparatus can't wiggle their way out of this."

Therum

The chittering and chirping continues, as the geth spread throughout the mining complex. Liara can't see much of it, but the device appears to have shielded her from their vision somehow; if someone does come to rescue her, there won't be an army of geth directly in front of her. Just in the general facility, and likely the surrounding area on the surface as well. Not for the first time, she regrets not simply leaving with the others when she had the chance. Perhaps Dr. Sivahn and the rest will be able to get the word out that she needs help.

21stCentury

Wait, at this point, I thought no one was aware that the reapers were a thing? I'm fairly sure almost no one believed Shepard about the return of the Reapers in ME2, and that was after they saw and killed one.

Captain Carrot

No one believed Shepard then because the Council had been engaging in a misinformation campaign for two solid years. At this point, the Reapers are a known phenomenon, though quite a few people choose to believe that the whole thing is a myth.

Mild Confusion

Saren specifically mentions the Reapers in the geth audio log. No one knows what they are, but when Shepard is talking to Udina and Anderson after rescuing Tali, she does assume that they are what killed the Protheans.

That's actually the weakest part of the main plot in ME1 imo. Saren does this pointless monologue that just happened to implicate himself and Liara's mother, that just happened to be recorded by a geth, and then that geth just happened to be attacked by Tali, that just happened to not destroy it's logs like all geth do, then she just happened to know it was important, then she just happened to contact the Shadow Broker, and then just happened to be rescued by Shepard, who just happened to want to bring her along or ordered to by Udina because reasons, the Council just happened to believe it was not faked, even though geth recording tech has gone through 300 years of self advancement and it's unrealistic to assume they know it's not altered or faked in any way.

But whatevers, ME was all about the characters anyhow.

Captain Carrot

No, Shepard mentions something about the Reapers supposedly being a hyper-advanced machine race that vanished 50,000 years ago. The only real coincidence here is Tali encountering that geth; Saren wouldn't necessarily care about individual geth hearing his conversation exulting in their progress, Tali's a skilled engineer and managed to recover the recording before the geth fried itself, she was looking for help to get it to the Council because it sounded important, Fist told Shepard where Tali was, the recording was incriminating so naturally Shepard brought her to Udina to explain it, and the Council probably had their own people examine it to verify it.

Captain Carrot

Anyway, once everyone has had their say we'll move on. @spool32 I will probably talk as Tali a bit.

Cambiata

Garrus isn't going to quit the force until after Tali has her say and we testify for the council and all.

Mild Confusion

Wrex is just gonna stand in the corner and be all cool 'n' shit. Cool people don't give a fuck. It says so under the rules of cool.

Rule 1: Don't give a fuck.

chiasaur11

Which reminds me. Council meeting. That's going to be BEFORE getting Liara, right?

Captain Carrot

Nope. Major deviation, I know, but I want to get Corehealer with the rest of you guys, especially since there's not much more to be said about Therum before the Normandy gets there.

21stCentury

I'm not sure if Kaidan should ask what Reapers are... i'm not sure how common the knowledge of Reapers is and I don't want Kaidan to look too foolish when he's supposed to be a savvy dude.

chiasaur11

Reapers aren't exactly common knowledge in setting. They're a fringe archaeologist idea at most.

Captain Carrot

Shepard can say "The Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that vanished 50,000 years ago, right?" with Tali/Anderson/Udina adding bits of additional info, so I'd say that could come just as easily from Kaidan.

21stCentury

Kaidan speaks up.

"What are Reapers? I don't think i've ever heard of those before... Are they from Geth Space? From beyond the Perseus Veil?"

Kaidan might not know what the reapers are, but he can tell they are bad news... And that certainly worries him more than the geth memory core cheered him up. And if they are allied with the Geth, it certainly can't be good news.

Cambiata

.

Mild Confusion

Wrex looks annoyed.

"Just look it up on your omni-tool, pretty-boy."

Bringing up his own omni-tool, Wrex pushes a few keys.

"R-E-A-P-E-R-S. Search. Now do that yourself and get back to me. And don't ever send me an email again."

Mild Confusion

Sorry. I couldn't resist.

Wrex is snarky.

21stCentury

Kaidan takes a moment to do a quick extranet search on Reapers...

...

Are... Are they kidding me? All i'm getting are conspiracy theories, from nutjobs and doomsday cheerleaders... It can't be serious.

"All i'm finding are fringe theories by questionable sources. That can't be right, can it? We're not really being threatened by, and I quote 'ancient cosmic horrors that killed all the Proteans'. i think we're gonna need some expert advice, here. We'll need to find someone who really knows Proteans, an archaeologist who studied the last days of the Proteans. Maybe someone who could tell us what they do know about their end. Because, really? The Reaper theory is... not the one i have the most faith in, at the moment. Some of the people who talk about it on the Extranet seem a bit nutty to me."

Now we have a reason to find Liara! If Shepard doesn't kill me for not believing her vision, that is. :P

Thanks, Space-google.

Mild Confusion

Captain Carrot

Udina nods briskly. "I agree completely, Lieutenant. And I've managed to find an expert on Protheans, although getting to her will be a bit tricky. While you were out shooting up the Citadel," he looks askance at them, though he can't be too angry considering their lack of options, "I went looking for someone who could be of assistance. Unfortunately, the few I could find on the Citadel knew what I was after, and they're not eager to risk getting on Saren's bad side. However, there is a Prothean dig site on Therum, abandoned only today, and the lead researcher was asking for someone to pick up the last recalcitrant doctor there. Shepard, if you and your team leave now, you can probably be back in time for the hearing without Anderson or me having to burn hard-earned favors to delay it."

Corehealer

I've been in the process of moving into a new house for the last couple of days so a slight lull in my contribution has actually been helpful. I am now ready to be saved from my bubble of doom when you guys are ready to board the Normandy.

Cambiata

Garrus looks speculative. "Shepard, from what I know of the council, getting as much corroborating evidence as we can is a good idea. Their preferred position is to do as little questioning of Spectres as possible. If the evidence is too easy to ignore, they'll oblige."