#spectrien

shepard has nothing in particular against aliens. he was far too young for the first contact war — his childhood memories are vague and few, but he thinks he remembers the anxiety that tensed his caretakers from head to toe until they were wound tight enough to snap, and until they did; perhaps some of that had been the war, and the burden of knowing that humanity was not alone in the far expanses of space, after all — and still too young for the grudges built after and upon it. though that hardly stopped many of his brothers in the reds from fostering hatreds of their own, there was little they could do about it... little time to think of worlds beyond when it was trouble enough to survive their own. and, now that shepard thinks about it, his contact with the galaxy at large has been somewhat limited considering the decade he's now spent with the alliance. ( in his defence, he had other concerns of his own to manage. )

his recruiters had pulled enough strings getting his AFQT scores waived once they had seen biotic potential and a willingness to do whatever it took so long as he could enlist and get off of earth. there was nothing that could've been done for him if the alliance had an intergalactic history class prerequisite; but, luckily for shepard, his interests didn't lie in turian-human relations. relations that, from the spectre's sudden ( unwanted. but it doesn't appear that what shepard wants matters very much ) interest, appear to be on the up-and-up.

still, shepard would have to be an idiot to not have questions.

his lack of knowledge on both turians and spectres aside, it doesn't take a studied mind to know that nihlus kryik doesn't exactly fall within the boundaries of one definition or the other. nihlus likely defies the former, from what shepard knows of turian society; and from what he has heard recently of what it means to be a spectre, he suspects that nihlus exceeds the latter.

" what's your stake in all this? " thinly-veiled distrust colours his curtly-spoken enquiry. no point in masking his wariness. nihlus is an unknown variable on the normandy, on anderson's ship. ( never mind that captain anderson himself authorised this. he had authorised shepard as his XO, too ... so it's shepard's prerogative to exercise however much caution he deems necessary, until he determines the spectre is neither a threat nor risk. )

so the alliance wants more say in council matters ... that makes enough sense. but one of the council's own — a species already nestled quite comfortably within the status quo — taking such an unlikely and proactive interest? he doesn't buy it. not unless nihlus has something to gain from this.

... the one thing that does give him pause is nihlus' declaration of respect. shepard doesn't know enough about turian behaviour to discern honesty from flattery from placation. without adequate data, his first instinct should be healthy scepticism. nihlus seems clever and well-spoken: a perfect combination for deception, and make it pretty and pleasant to the ears. ' capable of caring? ' and what did that have to do with anything? shepard might have laughed in his face if he wasn't certain that that would surely be crossing the line.

"you need a lawyer when you've broken laws. spectres are above the law," was shepard's retort. the younger of the two did little hide the bemusement in his voice as the lift began its ascent. when the status of spectre had been bestowed upon him, there had not been a true briefing of his responsibilities and the protocols he was supposedly meant to adhere to.

as the elevator lurched to a halt, he took the initiative to step out first with the expectation nihlus would be at his heels.

"i hadn't even left the system before the council called me in."

"something big must be going on if they need both of us."

She barely catches herself before she can roll her eyes at Kryik. He doesn’t seem the type to care about such things, nor is there technically  any chain of command  between them, as that’s not how Spectres work, but then again  —  Wren isn’t a Spectre yet, and hierarchy, knowing one’s place, and respectful manner towards her superiors is ingrained in her, after all her time with the Alliance. It’s not easy to act casual towards a... mentor, someone who’s assessing her, even if he’s kept tabs on her without her knowing it, for a longer time, to even put her name forward for the Specters.

No, it’s not a challenge, for her; just not something most people would start with, the target running away at a great distance. Of course, Nihlus is already aware of her skills with a sniper rifle.

Then he adds the crowd, as she’s setting up on her perch  —  she flashes him a grin, she can’t help herself  —  that’s more like it. Combat sims have always been fun for her, and the added pressure of being watched doesn’t change that; she loves this. It’s the adrenaline of the job without the stress, without the weight of people relying on her and the weight of killing. Her targets are pixels, not people.

She’s not used this specific model of a rifle before, but she feels like she’s in her element, nevertheless. No doubt he also wants to see her handle weapons that aren’t her own. It’s a strange mixture of confidence (she knows she can do this) and nervousness (first human Spectre is bigger than reaching for even N7 ever was). She adjusts the scope and clears her mind of everything but the present moment. Don’t risk civilians. Get the target. She is not one for reckless shots, would rather wait than risk it, if she’s not 100 percent that she won’t hurt a bystander; the salarian figure escapes to further distance, but when she makes the shot, it’s clear to his head and the figure instantly scatters.

⭐     ⤷ @spectrien ✧ nihlus kryik.

Okayyyy!!!! Let's see what we've got here for Nihlus. (I'm leaving Kat out since we already discussed that, lol).

Something that might be interesting is with Ashley's ME2 AU, where she becomes a Spectre in between ME1 and ME2 at some point, and maybe she trains a bit under Nihlus? Could be if he was around in ME1 and saw what she was capable of, and maybe even understood her family name a little, so akin to how he chose to vouch for Shepard (in the sense of "a turian vouching for a human"), he does the same for Ashley as she moves up in the Alliance. That, or maybe part of her mission between the two is he enlists her to help with something he's investigating, and that leads to the referral from him. Could definitely be interesting to play with!

❝ saints above help me… don’t look at me like that. ❞     ⤷ @spectrien ✧ nihlus kryik.

“Like what, Nihlus?” She bit out, the exasperation audible in the rising pitch of her voice. “Like you being here isn’t a massive liability for my mission?” Sure, he’d been helpful in the first few seconds at the gate on Noveria, as Matsuo and her guards clearly hadn’t read the news when it came to her Spectre status, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to be a liability. She’d let her crew have a bit of shore leave for food and socializing at the hotel bar so she could talk to Nihlus privately, at least.

Feeling a headache coming on, she rubbed her temples, groaning audibly as she tried to figure out a way this could work. Nihlus was undoubtedly a target, given what he knew about Saren. Spectre or not, he’d been caught off guard once, so there was no telling what other tricks Saren might have to pull it off a second time. And on the other hand, Nihlus’ knowledge could prove useful to taking down Saren… if he was willing to cooperate.

And besides that—she wouldn’t admit it, but she was worried about Nihlus. She knew how a near-death experience could affect a person, and adding in the level of betrayal from Saren just made it worse. She worried he’d become reckless and end up getting himself killed… and if he did, she’d consider his blood to be on her hands. Taking down Saren was her mission, her responsibility; if he, too, ended up dead along the way, it would be a loss she’d carry on her shoulders like the rest of them.

“I’m just… I’m worried, Nihlus,” she admitted, her tone softening. “I’m worried that you’re being reckless, and needlessly so—and I’m worried that that recklessness is going to end up in you being collateral damage. I can’t have that. I won’t.” She was nothing if not dedicated to her duty and her mission, but she also knew she couldn’t shut Nihlus out, either. He was a resource and an asset, one that could be helpful in their mission against Saren. What kind of fool would she be to ignore that?

Taking a seat, she drew in a deep breath, fixating him with her silvery gaze. “Look… if you want to help—if you want to be a part of dealing with Saren, however we do that—then do it from here, on the Normandy. We both know this ship’s capability, and we both know the unique design that’s gone into it. We both know the crew’s hand-picked, and everyone that’s been brought in against Saren is no different.” She’d made a point of intentionally diversifying where she could; human or alien, any help was welcome in the endeavour.

“You hand-picked me for this, and we both know that with the nature of human and turian relations, regardless of our own personal views on them, that fact means something bigger. I don’t know your reasoning, and I’m not going to ask you to explain it to me. But you made that decision to put my name forward for a reason. You put your trust in that knowledge—in me—because you saw something. You made a call to go off on your own, to lone-wolf it—and believe me, if I could, I would do the same—and it almost cost you your life. What really saved you was that you chose me to be there. That judgement call alone decided whether you lived or died down there.” It wasn’t just luck; it was knowledge, quick thinking, and expertise.

  CONTINUED     ⤷ @spectrien

It’d taken too long—but finally, despite pushback from the Council, she was a Spectre. She’d just wished their Plan A to out Saren as a traitor would’ve woken up before their wild goose chase, but sadly that wasn’t the case. Either way, now they were in a bit of limbo; Anderson and Udina were ironing out further details, and the wait left Kat heading to the hospital on the Presidium, in an unexpected turn of events that surprised even her.

There she was, sat in a comfortable chair in the room, legs folded underneath her as a large paper sketchpad was scrawled across her lap. Only the faint sound of graphite scratching across the paper could be heard; not a common sound with the advances to digital technology, but nevertheless it was an art form. Katrina knew exactly why she was there; it was going to be nearly impossible to wipe the memory from her mind, no matter how hard she tried. The intensity of the situation, the sound of gunfire, barking orders at Ashley and Kaidan. Kneeling there in a pool of blue blood, the gloves of her hardsuit slick with it as she rapidly pulled on every bit of knowledge she’d learned at the Villa about turian-specific first aid measures in the hopes that no one else was going to die on her.

He was alive—barely—by the time they reached the Citadel, and all that could be done was hope. Going after Saren would be a hell of a lot better with a second Spectre to lean on, and Nihlus was one that would know him well. On top of that, he had a rapport and a reputation that would undoubtedly be useful for everything they were likely to encounter.

Kat’s attention was drawn as she could hear shuffling from the bed, rapidly setting aside the sketchpad as she stood from her seat, rushing over in the hopes that he was waking up. The sound of his voice—with that unique, flanged effect to it—was a relieving sound.

“Getting the job done while you napped, Sleeping Beauty,” Kat teased lightly as she rolled the small stool next to the bed, sitting comfortably on it. “We’re on the Citadel. A lot happened—but nothing you need to worry about immediately. I don’t know how much you remember, but the Council knows about Saren—about Eden Prime. The rest’ll just give you a worse headache than you probably already have.” He didn’t need the rest of the details; about Tali, about the beacon, all of it. What mattered was the one important target: Saren. It was harrowing to think that Nihlus—who despite his clear stubbornness, seemed to have a good, sound head on his shoulders—had been trained by Saren. By her observations, they felt like polar opposites. She could only imagine how he felt; if she were in the same position, where Anderson might’ve betrayed her in a similar manner, Kat wasn’t sure how she’d feel about it. Angry, perhaps—that was one thing for sure.