Chapter 1030: Chapter 1029: Mission from the Council
The door opened silently.
A middle-aged man walked into the room, pressed his fingers to his temple, and then sat behind the desk. After pondering for a moment, he reached out to initiate a communication.
"Connect me to SSV Normandy, Commander Shepard."
"Please hold on......"
The mechanical electronic voice quickly disappeared, and after a moment, a young blonde Caucasian woman appeared on the screen in front of the man.
"Hello, Sir."
While speaking, the Caucasian woman saluted the man, who couldn’t help but smile wryly at this sight.
"Alright, Commander, you don’t need to salute me. I’m no longer your commanding officer, but a councilor......"
"Alright then, Councilor Anderson."
Hearing Anderson speak, Shepard quickly corrected herself. The two exchanged a smile, and then their expressions quickly turned serious.
"Commander Shepard, what is the current status of the Normandy?"
"All systems normal, Anderson, but our primary mission now is not to chase and eliminate those Geth remnants. You know, the Reapers are our greatest enemy!"
"Hmm......"
Hearing Shepard’s words, Anderson’s expression became somber, as this name was something he would never forget.
Anderson remembered clearly that not long ago, humanity’s Eden Prime was attacked by the Geth, and a large number of humans were captured. At that time, it was Shepard who was responsible for investigating the matter, eventually discovering that it was orchestrated by the renegade Ghost agent Saren, intending to summon a terrifying species known as the "Reapers" to destroy all life in the Milky Way.
The situation was extremely critical, and at the final moment, Saren’s Reaper "Sovereign" led the Geth army to nearly take over the entire Citadel. It was at this critical juncture that Shepard and her Normandy stepped up, destroyed Sovereign, and ended the conspiracy of the Reapers and Saren.
Although victory was achieved, the councilors of the Citadel Council were all wiped out. After this, Shepard recommended that her former superior, Lieutenant General Anderson, become the human representative on the Citadel Council.
Originally, Shepard intended to continue investigating the intelligence on the Collectors and Reapers, but the Citadel Council insisted that the so-called Sovereign was merely a strange and huge mechanical creation of the Geth, and that Shepard’s visions of the prophecy were just her own hallucinations. As a result, the Citadel Council ordered Shepard and the Normandy to continue tracking and clearing Geth remnants.
Shepard was naturally very dissatisfied with this, but Anderson had no solution. Although he was one of the Citadel Council’s members, he could not overturn their decisions.
However, this time, Anderson contacted Shepard not for this reason.
"Shepard, I have a very important mission for you to complete."
"What mission?"
On the other side of the screen, Shepard immediately became serious, while Anderson furrowed his brow and spoke helplessly.
"Perhaps you don’t know yet, but just a few days ago, a border fleet of the Turui Empire was mysteriously attacked at the edge of the Nomadic Galaxy. The entire Turui fleet was wiped out......"
"Was it the Reapers?"
Hearing this, Shepard became instantly excited, but Anderson quickly raised his hand.
"Wait, calm down. Although I wish it were the Reapers, the fact is......according to the news from the Turui side, the attackers of the Turui fleet were humans......"
"???"
Hearing this, Shepard looked utterly bewildered, as if saying "What are you talking about?" towards Anderson, while Anderson was speechless. Actually, when he received this news from the Turui councilor, he was quite helpless too!
"Could this be a signal from the Turui intending to attack humans again?"
Shepard immediately had her own idea, and it’s no wonder she thought so. In fact, humanity’s first war with aliens upon entering space was indeed with the Turui.
At that time, a human exploration team attempted to activate a dormant Mass Relay, discovered by the patrolling Turui fleet. Since this was prohibited by the Citadel Council, the Turui fleet attacked the human exploration fleet, subsequently occupying one of humanity’s colonial planets----Shanxi.
Both sides fought a bloody battle for months, with humans eventually reclaiming Shanxi from the Turui. However, the Turui were unwilling to concede and prepared for a full-scale war with humans.
Their war caught the attention of the Citadel Council, and under the mediation of the Alisa Clan, the two sides shook hands and reconciled, with humanity joining the Citadel, becoming part of this intergalactic alliance family.
Although their current relationship is gradually improving, with even the Normandy being a combined creation of human and Turui advanced technology, Shepard clearly hasn’t forgotten the war back then.
"Though I also think this is the Turui’s nonsense, they submitted evidence."
As Anderson spoke, he transmitted a video file. Soon, images appeared before Shepard’s eyes.
Turui fleet, unknown terrifying creatures, a peculiar fleet, and......a human male youth by appearance.
"......Immediately report to the Citadel Council......"
The video ended with screams, and Shepard stared intently at the static on the screen, remaining silent for a long time.
"What does Star Alliance think? Is this really not our fleet?"
"Based on the signal and fluctuations captured from the Turui fleet, their technology is completely different from ours."
"......Could it be Cerberus?"
Shepard referred to Cerberus as an infamous human supremacist organization that claimed to protect humans, placing human interests above all other species. If only it were that, but the biggest problem with Cerberus is their frequent abduction of aliens for inhumane experiments, and their attitude towards other aliens is quite poor......or rather, full of hostility.
"We’ve also considered that possibility, but for now......it’s hard to say."
Anderson shook his head.
"You heard it, they completely deny any connection to us humans. If it were Cerberus, they wouldn’t say that."
"That’s true......"
Hearing Anderson’s words, Shepard nodded in agreement. Cerberus is diehard human supremacists and proud to be human. In the previous video, the opposite side indeed showed an indifferent attitude.
"But in any case, we must investigate this thoroughly."
Anderson stood up, staring at the screen.
"The Turui Grand Duke has already protested and warned our Star Alliance through diplomatic channels. One wrong move, and a full-scale war between humans and the Turui might actually break out, so Commander Shepard, I want you to lead the Normandy, head to the Nomadic Galaxy immediately, and investigate everything about this affair! I need to know, where this mysterious fleet in the video is coming from, and who they are!"
"Yes!"
Hearing Anderson’s order, Shepard stood at attention, raised her hand, and quickly saluted.
"Mission guaranteed to be completed!"