Shepard sighed. He fixed the ruffles in his suit and sighed again. After the last mission, he knew that he had to gain the support of both the salarians, turians and the krogan. But the genophage results are a flipping factor that proved too unstable to completely count going one way or another. But he had to agree that things went well on the last mission. He was gaining teammates left and right. Vega and Ashley did well as fire team leaders, and Garrus had practically saved his ass on more than one occasion.
It was strange. After the Normandy got dock-listed by the Alliance and he was sent to court for the... incident, he thought his career was over. He thought he was never going to see his team again. He thought a lot of things... but at this point he didn't have the luxury of self-doubt. Leaders weren't meant to second-guess themselves. There was an entire galaxy who was willing to do that for the past four years. Besides, he had done everything from saving lives to... murdering them. And now he had it all back, much thanks to Joker, EDI and his
thieving little friend.Their next objective was set. With Vega, Williams, Garrus, Kasumi, Miranda, Zaeed, Isaac, Jacob and Aron at his side, he already had a dangerous force at his disposal.
On top of that, Tali, Samara and Legion had all sent him messages regarding them joining his cause.
And they were already on their way to visit Liara back on Hagalaz with her new information.
There was a lot going on. And surprisingly this was actually looking up. But regardless of how many people he had on his team or how talented they were... they needed a solution to the Reapers. A way out... a safeguard. Until they found that missing piece to their puzzle...
There was nothing they could do.
Not like that stopped them before though.
This is apparently a chapter in the fanfic of a Shep/Kasumi romance!
I also got this other little snippit
GarrusGotoLawson gave me!
Shepard mused through the details. You're sure?
Kasumi nodded. "Shep I came for a good reason. Well two. One was to get your ship and crew back from the Alliance. But there's another reason."
Ashley scoffed to herself, "Wonderful." she looked at Shepard, "We're trusting criminals now?"
"I'd advise you put your suspicions behind you, Spectre." Miranda said crisply. She waved to Kasumi's direction, "We've called on Kasumi for help before."
"I see you've picked a second in command, Shepard." Ashley snipped.
Jacob laughed just enough to lighten the tension, "She kind of fell into that position herself. She tends to do that."
"Ms. Goto has proven her value to the fight against the Reapers time and again. Something that I have yet to see you do." Miranda stared at Ashley whose gaze, if gazes could kill, would have struck Miranda where she stood.
Shepard rose his voice into the argument, "Enough."
Kasumi grinned, "We call Shep 'the mediator'."
Shepard raised a quirky eyebrow at the thief, who only laughed back at him.
"I like to keep things... happy." she shook her head, "But seriously." she took her finger and a small onmi-tool pad appeared at her palm. As she waved the glowing insignia in front of her a few digital panels popped up. Four in total, they showed a picture of a beautiful garden world, a mass relay, an alliance building and a Reaper.
Miranda, Ashley, Garrus and Jacob's attentions all turned to the panels with widened eyes. Kasumi sighed as she shifted her weight to one leg. Shepard peered at the data panels with intrigue beyond measure.
Kasumi pointed to her commander, "That's how my face looked too when I read this."
"Kasumi... what am I looking at?" Shepard asked.
"What you help me steal back from Hock, Shepard." she replied simply, "This... is Keiji's graybox."
Ashley sighed, "What isn't illegal about you?"
"My adorable personality?" Kasumi shrugged.
"A for effort sweetheart." the Spectre rebutted, crossing her arms and leaning against the ship's walls.
Miranda placed her hands on the metal table that took up the Normandy 3's new briefing station. "What does it say exactly?"
Kasumi moved her hand and brought up the panel with the Alliance building, "Originally I thought it was only information regarding an Alliance scandal." she said, "At least, that's all I thought Keiji had acquired."
Ashley's eyes widened, "Shepard? You let a thief keep intel on an Alliance scandal?" she shook her head, "Are you out of your mind?"
"You're lucky he let me." Kasumi came to Shepard's defense, "This is a key in how to defeat the Reapers." the thief grinned, "What I've found could make or break this war." her voice softened for a bit, "And I was this close to erasing it. Keiji knew the Alliance information was better deleted. It would save my hide... and the Alliance's. But little could he have guessed it would also save the galaxy."
That's all Shepard needed to hear. "Please tell us everything, Kas."
Everyone flashed a quick glance at Shepard, including the thief. The commander shrugged, "What? She can do it but I can't?"
Kasumi pushed the Alliance panel back and focused on the digital of a green and lush planet. "Way before I met my partner, he was a soldier. An Alliance techie recruited from the Sakura Isles in Japan. He was recognized for his technical genius and was drafted for a secret project. An Alliance ship, 'Death Before Dishonor' took to some engine issues and had to land on an uncharted planet. While they were there, the discovered an object on this planet. They called it an Arruvulas. It was an item made up of metal bars and a rare emerald-like jewel encased in the center."
Miranda bit her lip, "Arruvulas... that's a turian tongue. Spevikeil for 'message in a bottle'." she shook her head.
Kasumi nodded, "That was the code name... because they had found it when they came across a partially destroyed turian cruiser. It had been shot down... made a crash landing on the same planet. They stripped the cruiser of the Arruvulas and any of its working parts and got Death Before Dishonor past the atmosphere again. When they returned to the Alliance base on Hoenheim, they gave it to the officials there who in turn assigned Keiji and his team to study it."
"Stealing from a turian battle cruiser." Jacob sighed, "Not the wisest idea."
Miranda crossed her arms, "That was sloppy. With luck the turians would have thought the Alliance shot the ship down themselves and took the treasure."
Ashley stayed quiet, arms still across her chest.
"The Alliance thought it was more prothean technology." Kasumi said, "They thought they were about to propel man another 200 years into the future... give us an edge against the other races."
Shepard looked to the data panels, "It wasn't prothean?"
"Nope." Kasumi replied, "It was... too old."
Miranda's eyes widened, "Are you saying this is tech dated before the prothean reign?"
The thief silently nodded. "When Keiji unwrapped the secrets of the Arruvulas... it told him of the Reaper's coming storm." she whispered, "He knew what was on the horizon... he knew what awaited us." she took the panel of the green planet and increased the size, "And he also knew that the aliens who built it... survived the Reaper onslaught."
And then silence took the entire room. All Kasumi could do was continue.
"He tried to get the word out, just like you did Shepard. But the Alliance branded him a liar. And when he tried to take things into his own hands he... well, let's just say he didn't make any friends that way. The Alliance hunted him, tried to track him down. They captured him... and said he was a liability. They erased his memory and sent him to a mental institution, brushing all of these happenings aside."
The thief cleared her throat. Shepard looked to her and knew... this couldn't be easy for her to speak of. He reached out and patted her on the shoulder. He could feel her eyes under her hood staring at him, but she said nothing. She eventurally looked back to the floating panels and continued her story.
"However... on his way to the asylum, his former teammates busted him out of Alliance captivity. They took him back to a safe unused Alliance base and while they didn't have the tech to bring his memories back, they had a plan. They stored all of his intel, all his research into a graybox and planted it in him. They gave him new memories, a new life. And... that is how my Keiji was born. But somehow he got seperated from his team, most likely due to Alliance gunfire... and with nowhere to go he simply vanished. He became a thief, stealing items of significant value all for the thrill of the chase. I'm not sure what happened to his team, but one thing was for certain. Buried in those memories was this secret... this scandal, and the Arruvulas. Deep in that artifact was the secret that Keiji had found. It had coordinates. To a mass relay somewhere in the Teslon system. Directions to a world that jumped so much space we couldn't even begin to fathom how to get there from here. This relay, which he named the Ryu's Spark Relay, would take you directly to a system where this race's home planet would be."
Shepard shook his head, "This race... these aliens... Keiji said they faced down the Reaper threat?" he stared at the screens in front of him, "And they survived?"
"Impossible." Miranda whispered. "It... it has to be."
Jacob rubbed a hand across his forehead, "Surviving isn't enough. We're at war... we need to know how to destroy these things once and for all."
"Can they even be destroyed?" Ashley asked the former Corsair. "I'm not so sure anymore."
"Yes." Kasumi punched in a few commands to her omni-tool, "They can."
A long message appeared in free floating words above the table. As Kasumi scanned over it with her omni tool, the letters quickly changed to the english language as if it was perfectly decrypted.
Miranda's eyes traced through the wording as it translated, "It appears to be a message."
The commander read through the writing, "An invitation." Shepard corrected.
"Saying what?" Ashley asked.
"Find us." Kasumi replied, "Join us."
Shepard's gaze never left that screen.
"And we will destroy them... together." the thief grinned.
Shepard knew what this was. It was a calling from a race so old that they had faced the Reapers before... and were able to escape their wrath. Now they were calling out to any sentient life still out there with the tech to reach them. Asking them to join in their assault on the Reapers.
"These aliens may be the key to winning this war." Shepard said, smiling.
"That's only if these facts are just that: facts. We have no way to verify any of this." Miranda said.
Kasumi raised a finger, "Once he unlocked this part of his graybox... Keiji knew that something big was happening. Or rather, had happened. But..." she rubbed the back of her neck, "Hock got to him before he could make a move. He trusted it to me... begged me to destroy it. But I just couldn't."
The thief breathed in, "Focus Kasumi, focus." she punched in a few more commands and a list of data came up in front of her, "He estimated they called their home planet Skaarsvel. Orbital period 1.2 Earth years, radius 6,125 km, day length 31.9 Earth hours, surface temperature 28 degrees celcius. Inhabitants are said to be described as resembling the canidae family on Earth, specifically canini. They are extremely advanced, intelligent and more than likely have access to enhanced translation methods."
Shepard and his group looked over the data. If what Kasumi was saying is true... then they may have found their one and only hope in this fight against the Reapers.
Kasumi looked to Shepard, "It's true Shep. The proof... the proof is all there."
Shepard looked back to his friend. He sighed, "It's the best we have. If what your... Keiji, said is true... he may have just saved us all."
Kasumi smiled slightly.
"Maybe Liara has some intel on this. Maybe the Shadow Broker left some sort of breadcrumbs we can follow." Shepard said.
"And I know the perfect quick-talking, melody-belting, just a little creepy with how his big eyes stare professor who may be able to help us with Keiji's data." Kasumi sang.
Miranda nodded, "It may be a wise idea to see what Mordin is up to. Last I heard he was on Sur'Kesh."
"We'll need to head there anyway. The salarians are a force we can't afford not to have backing us up." Jacob replied.
"Not to mention Wrex is on the planet as well." Ashley replied.
"We'll get to Hagalaz and see what Liara knows on all this. Then we'll head for Sur'Kesh and see if Mordin is up for a little recruiting." Shepard replied, "With any shred of luck... Kasumi's info may lead to something big." Shepard smiled to her.
One thing was for certain. They needed a way to send some kind of message back to these aliens. If they could find this relay... if they could find a way to get to Skaarsvel... these aliens may have the answers they needed in order to defeat the Reapers.
They had to act, and soon. Time was running out.
I estimate this is his take on what will happen in ME3. So far I LIKE IT! Kasumi is apparently a HUGE role in his verson of the series' story! Who would have thought??!?!
I asked him how exactly the story would progress if Kasumi died in ME2 or if she was never recruited. He said that if Kasumi was never recruited in ME2, she would appear to Shep in ME3 already with the graybox stolen and Hock dead as she had done it on her own. She would then proceed to say she heard of Shepard's trial and about the Reapers and decided to go to him. He said if she had died, one of Keiji's former teammates (who he named Rene, would have tracked Shepard down with a copy of Keiji's graybox, saying that he was the only survivor when his team was attacked by the Alliance and that he had been searching for Keiji for years and had assumed him dead) would have played a major role where Kasumi would have played. He actually said he's working on several versions of this story but can't get them all off right now due to the book he wrote taking off a bit. All in all I think it's a cool twist on things!
Modifié par ilovemesometurian, 29 septembre 2011 - 03:17 .
....Just waiting on Kasumi then myself...eveyone else for me....check....BW please give us news on Kasumi....
...we're dying here...
...
Retour en haut
....She'll keep it all because it is Sheps, the difficulty...or fun... 
...will be trying to get her to hand it back over...
....
...
...as it makes him look spooky (slightly evil)...
