[A/N: Big thanks to Humanist and Biohazard here on Fimfic for helping to organise and improve upon my original ideas, as well as pre-reading this chapter. A big thanks to pre-reader Tactical!Rainboom over on Ponychan too. Without them this story would be a lot lamer. Seriously, they've probably saved me from making a complete fool of myself. While we're here, I'm also going to say that Javik will not be making an appearance. I didn't shell out for the day one DLC, and I don't think I can write a companion I've only read about.]
Shepard didn’t hesitate. With a subtle manipulation of his fingers, he drew his omniblade and... he drew his omniblade and. With a wince, Shepard realised that whatever was blocking the omnitool display coming up had also restricted his omniblade. Shepard tried to keep himself composed as he looked over the creature that had just appeared in the elevator with him. It was quadrupedal, and stood slightly lower than Shepard, like a short legged elcor. Its coat was a midnight blue in colour, and a vicious, sharp horn protruded from its head. A long flowing mane of dark blue adorned the back of its head dotted with stars. It reminded Shepard a lot of the galaxy map, an identical tail jutting from its rear. Then it hit Shepard: this was a unicorn. He was eye-to-eye with a unicorn, which seemed to be waiting for him to speak.
Calm down Shepard, first appearances are everything. You've spoke with Rachni and Protheans, you can handle a uh... unicorn. With his best diplomatic tone, he began, “My name is Commander Shepard: Systems Alliance ship captain and Council Spectre.” He held out his hand in what he hoped would be perceived as a friendly gesture. His universal translator was installed in his N7 armour, which at the current moment in time was in the armour locker on deck five. He was just hoping that the gesture would at least be understood, maybe even reciprocated.
The unicorn’s horn glowed again and Shepard flinched backwards. With an impassive face, the unicorn opened its mouth and spoke in perfect English. “I am Princess Luna, co-ruler of the planet Equus. You are trespassing on our territory. We would like to know why.” Got him. Mimicking speech patterns was foal’s play. Remember what Faust taught us, “In most diplomatic incidents the course of which side wins is decided in the first few minutes.”
Shepard tried his best to maintain a façade of calm on the outside. Inside, however, his brain was a torrent of activity as it tried to make anything out of the irregular situation. Some kind of alien disguised as a unicorn… wait… disguised as a winged unicorn has caught me defenceless. Breathe Shepard, don’t show any weakness. For all you know this could be a Cerberus construct, something to keep you off track. With a carefully measured smile, Shepard replied with, “We are searching the nebulae for a rogue human sect. We have detected a signal emanating from your planet; Equus as you called it.”
“We can assure you that there are no humans on Equus, and that there never have been. We suggest you bring your ship into lunar base where we can speak more freely,” Luna suggested, excitement creeping into her voice. I hope that the human takes this chance to dock. Nothing will revitalise our planet like a visit from an alien race. Intellectual freedom is something that every species needs to thrive, even if Celestia can’t see that yet.
Shepard mulled over the creature’s request. I can’t take this thing’s word for it. Chances are it’s a Cerberus construct. I’m not flying this ship into a Cerberus trap. Okay, as tactful as possible, Shepard. You can’t risk a diplomatic incident if it is real. “While I appreciate the gesture, it is of the utmost importance to galactic security that I am allowed to examine the signal source directly.”
Luna cursed inwardly. He had refused the offer. Things were not going to get pretty if he persisted on this route.
The voice of her fellow Alicornian suddenly filled her head. “Celestia reporting in, station defences are fully operational. Leave the ship, and I’ll take care of it.”
“Not now, Celestia. I am trying to resolve this peacefully,” Luna sent back.
“You didn’t have any reserves about destroying potential enemy vessels in the past.”
“This is a military vessel; not the usual pirate or slaver ship coming into the system to hide. The captain seems almost reasonable for once.”
“If the ship is allowed to leave, how many aliens will know of our existence? Better to have ships scanning debris than vessels approaching our planet.”
“Sister, we both know this couldn’t last forever. Besides, blowing up a military vessel will lead to a long investigation. If this ship picked us up, how many of the rescue vessels will too?”
There was a short pause before Celestia replied, “I'll hold back for now.”
“Thank you, Celestia.” Luna said almost joyously.
All of this had occurred in a split-second. As far as Shepard was concerned she was just meditating on a reply.
“We can’t let just anypo-anybody scan the planet. For all we know you could be looking for a gap in our defences. Perhaps if you could shed some light on these human antagonists, we might be able to come to a compromise.” Luna gave up a tiny slither of ground, but in as strategic a manner as she could manage. Let’s hope he doesn’t push any further.
Shepard seized the opportunity with all his gusto. If I can talk not one, but two angry Krogan into standing down, then I can handle a winged unicorn. That is, unless it actually is a Cerberus construct. Well, here goes nothing. “This group of terrorists, calling themselves Cerberus, has stolen a top secret artefact from the Asari home world of Thessia. This artefact held the key to defeating the Reapers, an adv…” Shepard began in his impassioned and inspirational tone.
“Reapers?” It was Luna’s turn to recoil in shock.
Shepard tried his best not to frown, despite being more than a little put-off from having his carefully orchestrated speech interrupted. But had that been a spark of recognition, and not just recognition, emotion? There’s no way a Cerberus construct would react like that; even an AI wouldn’t have been able to fake such strong a reaction. In fact, only something that knew what a Reaper was would act that way. “Luna” had just shown her first card. Now it’s time to push the point home. “You know of the Reapers?” Shepard asked, as he tried his best not to look smug about it.
Look at his face. That cost me a few negotiation points, but maybe I can turn this around. “As do you, and that means you’ve reached the end of your cycle,” Luna replied, switching back to her neutral voice. Shepard maintained his façade of calmness, but Luna could sense that had hit hard.
Wait a second! If they know of the Reapers, then they must have some pretty advanced technology. Advanced technology that could help us stop the Reapers, maybe it’s time to start recruiting? Here goes nothing. “If you know of the cycle and the Reapers, then I can only assume that you have seen their work firsthand.”
“Unfortunately,” Luna said with a sad sigh. Luna tried her best to maintain composure, as images bombarded her mind: pictures of cities in ruins, Alicornians butchered in the streets, entire worlds in flames; and behind it all was the mechanical cries of the merciless machines themselves.
There was a reason that he was allowed to speak on behalf of Humanity and the Council; Shepard was a born negotiator, able to read anybody regardless of species. He could clearly see the effect it had on Luna, despite her efforts to prevent it. Her lips pursed a little tighter; her irises moved slightly downwards, almost imperceptible to the untrained eye. This could be turned to his advantage. “We’re fighting back,” Shepard shouted confidently, as he took a step forward.
Luna barely stopped a scoff. Adopting what she thought was her neutral voice again she replied, “The Protheans fought back. No species can resist the Reapers for long.”
Shepard could hear the slight tinges of sadness in her voice as before, but there was something new; it was very faint, but Shepard could sense the seeds of hope. He adjusted his speech accordingly. “Not alone. In order to get through this we need to work together. Every species is joining together to form a galactic armada. Together, we will defeat the Reapers, and liberate this galaxy from its cruel cycle.”
She wanted to cast it down as lies and slander. The Reapers were nigh invincible. But what if it were true? What if this cycle has finally progressed past the mistakes of the previous cycles? What if they finally managed to consolidate their resources, and cast aside petty differences? With a glow of her horn she attempted to glean something from his mind, but it seemed oddly unresponsive to her. Must be some kind of species difference, she reasoned. She prepared another mental message for her sister. “Celestia, this Shepard. He claims the Reapers have returned.”
“Then we might as well destroy the ship now. They’re already dead.” Celestia replied flatly.
“This human told me that the entire galaxy is working together to destroy the Reapers.”
“Hah! Pull the other hoof. Our cycle wouldn’t listen to anything but force! Intergalactic cooperation? I’ll believe that when I see it!” Celestia replied rather rudely.
“I’m not joking. My instincts tell me that he’s telling the truth, and my instincts never lie.”
“No, but aliens do. It’s not worth endangering the pony race for a ship full of aliens. Get back here and let me open fire.”
“No, Celestia,” Luna replied adamantly.
“Luna. If you are not back here in ten seconds, then I will open fire with you onboard! Forget this ridiculous notion of yours that we can just change the plan. Faust’s word is law! I’m beginning to think that maybe you weren’t reset far enough!” Celestia shouted back; her voice was full of rage.
“Sister…” Luna mumbled weakly in reply.
The anger in Celestia’s voice was gone in a heartbeat; in its place was sorrow. “I-I’m sorry, Luna; I lost it a bit there, didn’t I?”
“Tia. I know- I know this is hard on you. You were always Faust’s favourite. But we haven’t received a signal in years.”
“That’s still no reason to abandon hope.”
Luna had to stop another snide comment from bursting through. Then an idea hit her. She may not be as good at convincing other ponies as her sister, but she knew Celestia well. She knew which buttons to press, and she was willing to press them, if there was a chance that it would get these humans onto the lunar base. “Look, maybe these humans could help locate Faust?”
“What?”
“They have a ship. They were able to locate our signal. Stands to reason that they would be able to locate Faust’s too. Same technology, isn’t it?”
After a few tense microseconds, Celestia relented. “Bring them up to lunar base, but if we’re letting them in then I’m going to need access to their records. I’m not letting a potentially hostile species assist with such an important task.”
Luna sighed with relief. If Celestia hadn’t agreed, then it would have been bye-bye humans and farewell progress.
“Oh, and I’m leaving the defensive grid active. Any alien that wants to board will need their DNA recorded in the archives. I’m only going to approve aliens with unblemished records,” Celestia replied a bit haughtily for Luna’s liking.
“Thank you, Celestia. That’s all I ask for.” Luna replied as politely as she could manage, before severing the link. Without skipping a beat, she turned straight to Shepard. “Your ship has been given permission to dock at lunar base. There we will give you access to any scans or equipment you might find necessary.Get your ship to follow me in. If you stray too far from the intended course though, then we will be forced to open fire. I’m sure you understand, Shepard.” With a smile and another flash of light, Luna was gone.
Shepard fell to the ground as the elevator suddenly started up again. He shook his head. Was that real? Did I dream that?
The elevator suddenly found itself bathed in red light, and full of too much noise. The loud warble of the alarm was eardrum-splittingly loud. Shepard stumbled to his feet, and brought around his omnitool. A press on the central button brought up the screen display, as if nothing had ever gone wrong. Inside the floating display was a picture of Joker bathed in the same red light as the one in the elevator.
“Commander! We’ve got weapons powering up on the moon!” Joker shouted. His arms could be seen flying from panel to panel of the pilot’s console.
Shepard instantly recalled Luna’s last words. “Don’t do anything rash! It’s an invitation to enter.”
“What?” Joker shouted back over the deafening alarms. His eyes as he glanced at the display said it all.
“It’s a long story. Don’t do anything until I reach the bridge.” Shepard shouted back.
“As long as you’re sure, Commander, I’m not losing another Normandy.” Joker said with a sigh as he disconnected.
Shepard retracted the display back into the omnitool. With a sharp push, he checked the omniblade. Sure enough it extended and returned completely fine now. That winged unicorn must have been suppressing it somehow, Shepard reasoned.
When he elevator door finally rumbled open, Shepard sprinted onto the deck. Crewmen were running between consoles, then tapping in key information before sprinting to the next. On reflection, maybe we shouldn’t be running with a skeleton crew, Shepard thought to himself as he ran past. Somehow the din of rushed conversation and orders was louder than the trill of the alarm. Shepard passed a few manned stations before bursting into the cockpit. Joker was in the pilot’s seat, but turned it around when Shepard walked in.
“Geez Commander, I hope you can explain why we’re not reacting to a heavily armed platform taking aim at us,” Joker said flippantly.
“In a minute, Joker, just follow that spark. Shepard pointed out of the window and to a bright white light that seemed to be hovering in front of them.
“What the hell is that? It’s not showing up on any of our sensors!”
“Pinging it with laser detection and ranging software,” EDI announced from her co-pilot seat.
“There’s no need. We’re just wasting time. Follow it in, Joker,” Shepard ordered, adopting his authoritative voice.
“Laser detection and ranging software is still scanning. Engaging FTL speeds will distort results.” EDI synthetic voice announced with its usual tone, but at a higher volume.
“Just go, Joker. We can’t afford to wait five minutes for the LADAR to churn something out! They have weapons trained on us; follow them in,” Shepard practically barked the order. We’ve been lucky so far; we can’t afford to insult them. That “Luna” didn’t seem the joking type.
Joker met Shepard’s stare and held it for a few seconds, before giving a resolute nod. “You got it, Commander,” he said professionally. With a few button presses, the ship once again shot into FTL speeds.
The spark managed to keep at exactly the same speed; it easily kept pace with the Normandy. With a tight grin, Joker shoved the throttle forwards with his firm but gentle grip, coaxing a bit more speed from the drive core. His grin instantly vanished when somehow the spark managed to continue to keep at their pace. In fact, the spark seemed to speed up in retaliation, beginning to push away from the Normandy. “Oh no you don’t,” Joker whispered to himself as he narrowed his eyes. Without tearing his gaze away from the spark, he tapped away at the console in front of him with his free hand.
“Joker, are you sure you want to redirect power from the weapons to the engines?” EDI asked from behind him.
“I know what I’m doing, ma!” Joker shouted back.
Shepard rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a race, Joker.”
“I know that too, pa!” Joker replied, somehow even more sarcastically than before.
Even with the power boost, the spark still easily outran the Normandy. Joker’s teeth gritted tighter as he began to tap furiously at his consoles. The alarm suddenly stopped blaring and the lights began to flicker.
“Hey! What gives? I just boosted output by another 2% when somebody stole all my power!” Garrus’s throaty voice shouted over the intercom.
“Will you shut up, Garrus! Here’s a newsflash: nobody cares.” Joker shouted back.
“Whoa! What’s with all the hostility?”
“It’s nothing, Garrus. Joker’s just getting schooled by some errant light bulb,” Shepard replied. There was a short pause afterwards, presumably as Garrus tried to assemble his thoughts.
“You know what, never mind. Just get the cannon back up as soon as you can manage,” Garrus eventually replied.
“Will do, see you in a few,” Shepard replied before turning the intercom off with a quick button press.
Joker was now hammering at his console, his eyes mere slits as he stared daggers at the spark that dared to fly ahead of them.
"Joker, we're approaching the moon. You can slow down now," Shepard said calmly.
The spark was right in front of them when it suddenly vanished. Behind it a piece of the moon that looked identical to the rest separated; the rocky floor parting to reveal a secret hangar bay.
"That's no moon. It's a space station!" Joker shouted as he slammed on the brakes. The ship slowed down to a crawl mere miles from the exposed hangar bay. "What now?" he added.
“Intrusion attempt detected. Activating cyberwarfare suite,” EDI announced from her co-pilot seat.
“They’re hacking into the Normandy!” Joker shouted to Shepard who still seemed focused on the open bay in front of them.
“Blocking port 724, rerouting signal blockers to port 213,” EDI continued as her fingers danced across the keyboard.
“Enter the hangar bay, Joker,” Shepard said quietly.
“Port 452 is compromised, quarantining ports 452-483.”
“Shepard, this is clearly a trap!” Joker returned.
“Activating viral defence procedures.”
“It isn’t. Joker, bring us in. EDI, let them in.”
“Shepard, this is highly inadvisable.”
“I’m not going to risk the Normandy just so,” Joker began simultaneously.
“If they wanted us dead, they would have just blown us out of the sky. It would be rude to turn down an invitation."
“Allowing foreign signals access to systems,” EDI said in her impossible to gauge, synthetic tone.
“Yes, Commander,” Joker replied in his much more telling organic tone.
Joker tapped a few more buttons and eased the ship into the hangar bay. As the ship entered the cavernous white room, the holographic display that used to show EDI suddenly lit up. On the dais was another winged unicorn made of blue light.
“We bid you welcome to the lunar facility. My name is Cadence and I will be your VI guide. Before we allow you into the facility proper however, we need access to your databases, if you’d please.”
“EDI?” Shepard called, turning to the AI.
“Granting remote access to stored data; despite personal reservations.”
“Your hesitance is duly noted.”
“Excellent choice, Commander. Give us an hour to sift through this and we will get back to you. Thank you for your assistance,” the hologram announced before vanishing again.
"EDI? Could you ask all our squadmates to meet in the meeting room; we have something to discuss."
"Yes, Commander," EDI replied.
"Commander, are you sure you're okay? I mean, if these guys are tricking you, then aren't you just handing yourself over on a silver platter?"
"Come on, Joker. Have a little faith." Shepard said with a reassuring pat on Joker's shoulder. Joker sighed quietly before returning to his console. Shepard turned with a nod and walked back down from the bridge. He continued to the door on the left side of the elevator with a passing nod at Traynor. She was too engrossed with the console in front of her to notice; she was probably trying to piece something together from the scraps of data from the ship's sensors. Shepard stepped through the door and into the scanner.
"Commander!" Privates Campbell and Westmoreland shouted simultaneously as he walked in before returning to their previous conversation.
"I heard that this could be another Cerberus trap, just like Thessia!" Westmoreland said from her corner.
"Impossible. Commander Shepard wouldn't walk into the same trap twice." Campbell returned.
"I don't know. Cerberus can be pretty tricky."
"Do you two mind not talking about this while I'm right here?" Shepard said resignedly, while the wall of blue light passed through him and back again.
"Sorry, Commander. You're free to pass," Westmoreland said with an apologetic nod.
"Thank you," Shepard said with a curt nod. He then proceeded through into the meeting room. Knowing he had some time to spare before the other would arrive, he decided to check up on the war room data. He walked passed the meeting room and a brief glance told him that the rest of his squad hadn’t assembled yet. With a shrug, he decided to enter the circular room at the end of the corridor. More consoles lined the walls in here too, most manned by other crewmen.
Walking up to the dais in the centre caused an orange keyboard of light to materialise. With a few taps, the blue light inside the dais began to take form. He was now staring at the near-complete Crucible. As soon as the Catalyst was located, it could be quickly fitted and fired. Fortunately, the Reapers hadn't located it yet. A few decoy projects had recently been ravaged by the Reapers, and everyone knew they were getting closer. Shepard sighed. Every person killed since he had lost the Prothean VI at Thessia was entirely his fault. All of these Alliance staff who had died defending decoys would still be breathing if he'd beaten Kai Leng. The only thing stopping Shepard from falling into despondency was the knowledge that if he did, even more lives would be lost as a result.
"Shepard?" a voice called out from behind him.
Shepard didn't even need to turn to recognise Tali's Quarian twang. "One minute, Tali. Is everybody else ready?" Shepard asked as he continued tapping at the holographic keyboard.
"We're just waiting on James." she reported.
"I'll be with you in a second," Shepard replied.
"Don't keep us waiting too long. Garrus has some concerns about the status of the main cannon," Tali said jokingly as she turned and left.
Shepard couldn't help but smirk at that. With a few final taps, the display turned off and the dais once again dulled. Shepard turned and returned to the hallway to see a human marine walk in from the security checkpoint.
"Loco! Just the man I wanted to see! Do you have any idea why we need to go through that security scanner every damn time we want to enter the war room? I know they're all about security and stuff, but they know who we are," James said as he strolled down the corridor.
A glance through the glass walls of the meeting room told him that everyone else was indeed waiting. Turning back to James, Shepard replied with, "It scans for any traces of indoctrination. A single indoctrinated individual could shut down the entire war effort from that console. We need to be extremely careful," Shepard replied professionally.
James just shrugged and stopped right in front of Shepard. "Going in?" he said with a smile.
"After you, Lieutenant Vega," Shepard replied with a nod towards the door.
James shrugged again and entered the meeting room, and took his place around the table.
Shepard walked in after him and stopped at the head of the table. Looking around at each individual's face, Shepard tried to gauge their current reactions to what was going on: Vega looked uninformed, as always; EDI was a robot, so almost impossible to tell; Tali's helmet obscured her face from view, only showing two pinpricks of purple light where her eyes should be; Garrus looked slightly cranky, probably still sore about losing his calibration data; Liara was puzzled, she obviously had some clue as to what was going on but not a complete picture; Kaidan returned Shepard's stare, ready for anything as always.
"I'm sure most of you are at least somewhat aware of what has happened over the past hour. In case you aren’t, let me fill you in," Shepard began..