Capítulo 33: Til I Change Your Mind (Mass Effect Krogan SI) by Stratagemini
One of the best mass effect sı's out there also full of tons of comedy
Words: 170k+
Link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/til-i-change-your-mind-mass-effect-krogan-si.1036170/
(The most surveilled Krogan in the Galaxy tries to obtain a happy ending to the Reaper War. Hijinks ensue.)
CHAPTER 1: Welcome to the Jungle
2080 CE – No Entries
It was almost time. Hard to tell, actually, given that all of the dates in the games were given in CE and BCE. The Asari don't use that. Turians either. Nor Salarians. I'm not fully convinced my own people actually have a calendar. We definitely had one once, but no one seems to care about it now. Most Krogans seem to use Asari dating methods.
I dated an Asari once. Even had a kid. Didn't turn out too well. I found out that she fought in the rebellions a decade or two short of my thousandth birthday. She'd blown up Kalros Station up above Digeris. My favorite sister was the head medic on-board. Only reason I found out was that her spycraft fell through. She'd been sent by the council of matriarchs to 'keep an eye on me' and 'make sure I didn't get any big ideas.'
She didn't deny it when I confronted her. Admitted the whole thing. Said she'd have to kill me now that I'd found out. I told her that was fine, but we couldn't not tell Aye-Aye at least the basics of what was going on. Without the background that her mom was a spy who only had her to get closer to me, I came off somewhat of a villain in that call I guess. But we both agreed we didn't want to ruin Aye-Aye's image of her parents any more than we needed to.
My wife found a decommissioned space station closely orbiting a star far away from any population. Set it as the place for the Duel, and then set it up to crash into the system's sun. I blew up the station from the outside with her still in it.
Didn't turn out well for my wife, obviously. Couldn't face Aye-Aye after that. Ended up faking my death and leaving. Felt less awkward that way.
Little Aye-Aye had a few kids herself. I've kept an occasional eye on the girls but aside from one troublemaker-to-be they all seem to be living quiet lives. Maybe as a matter of rebellion? Probably says something that the grand-kid I know is going to end up in trouble is the only one that doesn't know little Aye-Aye. Aye-Aye's idiot wife didn't want her in the kid's life. Something about needless fighting ruining her plans.
Like I said, idiot.
Anyway. The First Contact war started in 2157 CE. The Rachni War started the year I was born. 1 CE, if you're wondering. I worked it out a while back; Jesus and I have the same Birth year. The Krogan Rebellions started in 700 CE and ended in 800 CE. My favorite granddaughter was born 3 years ago and the first Contact War's gonna start in 77 years. It's probably time to start getting ready.
Not that there's all that much more to do other than reach out to my contacts and start on my newest line of work.
My name is Nakmor Krell. As far as I know I'm the longest lived Krogan, ever, and I last played the Mass Effect over 2,125 years ago. I remember that I got the perfect Synthesis ending; all possible squadmates saved, Paragon all the way. Let's see how well I can do now that the stakes are a hell of a lot higher.
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2154 CE - The Shepard is born. The Shepard is the only hope to stop galactic genocide of all species by Reapers.
To say that I'm starting on easy mode isn't quite true. I mean, as a Krogan in this universe there's a lot of issues that I don't really have any way of getting around. As a former warlord and clan chief I'm under pretty much constant surveillance from every polity in the galaxy as they decide whether I'm worth spending the assets needed to kill me or not. And when I say every polity? I mean it. I've even caught my fellow Krogan spying on me from time to time.
I've managed to live a long life by following a couple simple rules; I don't get involved in politics, I stay away from biology research, and I don't do merc work.
'So what else is there?' I hear you ask. 'Do you work on ships? That's the only other thing that Krogan do!'
That's not a simple answer. I've been all sorts of things. A warlord, a clan chief, a father, a grandfather, an engineer, a writer, a musician, a poet, and even a philosopher. Nowadays I'm a researcher. Not a genetic researcher. I don't even research weapons, anymore. I used to, though. I'm responsible for the Nakmor Krell line of assault weapons. Well, the NK-47, anyway. Still my favorite weapon I've fired. Sturdy, packs a punch, easy to make, and so rugged you could take a shit down the barrel, rinse it in Ryncol, and it'll fire just like the day it was first bought.
In retrospect that was probably a mistake on my part, but I was young and there were Rachni that needed killing. Now it's the most prolific weapon in the galaxy and I've never seen one single cent of profit from it.
Anyway, nowadays I research the Reapers.
Now I know that sounds bad, but it's not quite so stupid as all that. Yet.
Technically, what I actually research are the Protheans. I look for their vaults, and beacons. I know where one is, obviously, but I'm never going to be able to get access to the Temple of Athame to use it. Which leaves a couple of remaining sources for the knowledge I need: the vid terminal on Joab, the beacons on Eden Prime and Virmire, the Prothean archives on Mars, and of course, Ilos itself. Though, good luck finding it.
Mind you, you'd also need the Cipher to comprehend the damn thing. And I don't feel like sacrificing an Asari to the Thorian in exchange for that just yet.
I applied for a grant to study the conduit directly of course, in my days as a Mass Effect specialist before the morning war made me shift my focus. Didn't get it. Asari politicking. Shame, but as a Krogan I just don't have the pull I need to get what I want in scientific circles.
Other circles either. A long life grants you a lot of benefits, time to improve your mind. Time to plan. Time to start some companies and amass a fortune. It does not grant you access to STG intelligence, or Asari matriarch parties.
Well, maybe it would if I were still married to an Asari. That didn't work out the first time, and I wasn't interested in trying for a second.
Anyway, what does the most heavily surveilled Krogan in the galaxy do with the knowledge that all the eyes of the universe are upon him?
Well, if he's not an idiot he starts researching things that he wants the entire galaxy to know. Stuff like the Prothean extinction, and by unspoken implication... the Reapers.
Which brings me to Eden Prime. Of course, it's not called Eden Prime yet, and it probably won't ever be now. It's called Krelltopia now. My idea of a joke, I'm afraid.
The Noveria Development Corporation, of which I am 30% owner and the largest shareholder, just bought surveying and technological salvage rights to the planet. I told them that I had evidence that there was a cache of Prothean artifacts on the planet including a Prothean vault.
I actually did have that evidence, shocking as it was to discover about 30 years into my study of the Protheans. Of course, it took over a hundred and fifty years just to get council approval to buy the world, and they want copies of literally everything found. The Asari campaigned particularly hard for that, after campaigning so hard against the giving us rights in the first place, too. Odd, isn't it? Almost like they have a reason not to want Prothean knowledge to spread.
Luckily I'm not the sole power in the Noveria Development Corporation. There's plenty of greedy Asari fingers in this pie that aren't part of the secret Asari conspiracy. After a couple decades of backroom deals, I finally had my rights.
If I do nothing else in this galaxy, at least I'll make sure we're fucking prepared for the Reapers. I have the date in my calendar actually; '2185 Reapers return.' 31 years hence. Makes me wonder what sort of code STG thinks I'm using with that notation.
Like I said, it's my goal to make sure everyone knows about and is prepared for the Reapers, and if that means spoon feeding everyone the information, then that's what that means. I've been putting important dates in my calendar years ahead of time for centuries. That's why the Quarians started bugging me actually. Turns out they take notice when you have a big entry labeled "The Year The Morning War Starts" in your calendar on the year the Morning War started. I got an angry visit or two after they found out about that. Quarians were a lot harder to kill back then. Didn't need their suits as badly. Kind of a shame really.
The Quarians eventually got the message and started bugging me like everyone else does. It's not like I keep my calendar private. Well, I say that, but for the last millennium or so I've suffered extremely mysterious software malfunctions every time I've tried to make my calendar public. I think my wife clued the Asari into its contents, bet they're doing it out of fear of what the public knowledge would do. Seems like them.
Wonder what they're thinking about this year's entry; "The Shepard is born."
I look over the world that now will never have the name Eden Prime and smile. It might take a decade or two but I'm pretty confident that we'll find Jaavik sooner rather than later.
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2155 CE – Joker Born.
You know what's more annoying than having a gaggle of Protheans unearthed from a subterranean bunker on Eden Prime bungling about your facility? Having a gaggle of Protheans unearthed from a subterranean bunker on Eden Prime stolen from your facility.
I have half a mind to complain to the council and see if it was all three of them or if someone pulled off a black op without the knowledge of the others.
Fuck.
I mean, it's not a total loss. I have the cipher now, and I'm pretty sure the Salarians stole the beacon that we found inside the Bunker so at least the Asari don't have a monopoly on Beacons anymore. And we managed to revive more than just Jaavik.
It's just really fucking disappointing to be on the verge of publishing the information I know and have the proof all stolen out from under me. Well, the facility's basically been declared off limits now that the council found out there are dead bodies in it. Weird fucking cultural taboo, but now the world is basically useless to both me and the Noveria Development Corporation.
Well, I guess it's time to start lobbying to get the rights to sell the place off as a colony world to a new species. Luckily one of those is just about to show up in two years.
It'll be nice to know if my calculations were accurate. I'll have to update my calendar if they're not.
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2157 CE – The First Contact War Begins.
I was right! I was fucking right! Take that Battlemaster Wren! I am too good at math!
The First Contact War just started. Course the Turians and the rest of the galaxy are calling it the 'Relay 314 incident.' Won't take them long to hear what the Humans are calling it though. I expect that the various intelligence services spying on me will have a fit at that. I'm pretty sure the search for the source of the information on my calendar has driven more than one Salarian insane. Gosh I hope Mordin's okay.
Anyway, I'm now a pretty respected expert on the Protheans. I'm certainly the foremost Krogan expert on them. For the longest time my analysis of the Protheans as a warlike empire focused on survival of the fittest were only introduced in classrooms as a classic example of cultural bias in observations.
I started getting offers to guest lecture at the University of Thessia two years ago. Around the same time as Jaavik and his goons disappeared. Odd, right?
I've stopped trying to publish my papers on the similarity of Protheans to the images of the Asari cult of Athame. I've been emailing it to the Matriarchs directly instead. And Liara, obviously.
She was in my first lecture at University of Thessia! She had such amazing questions. I've really taken a shine to her.
Hates my theories of course. Thinks I'm a lunatic for saying that the Protheans were warlike. She's turned her razor intellect to Reaper theory, if only to prove my support of it wrong. I think I might have rubbed her the wrong way by treating her like an adorable kid.
I've CCed her on my papers on Prothean methods of communication too, though I sent that one to all three of the councilors too. I actually got a thank you from the Salarian counselor along with a very nice gift basket of fruits and an offer to lecture at some universities on Sur'kesh as well.
I'm probably going to take that offer. The Salarians haven't tried to kill me since just after the start of the Morning War. Too much of a puzzle for them to be okay with not solving, I assume.
I haven't really decided what to do with Saren yet. He becomes a Spectre in two years, so now is really the last time to deal with him if that's what I plan to do. Of course, that sends the entire plot totally off the rails. With Saren the Council will at least be aware of the threat, even if they don't take it seriously. Without him? Sovereign acts in a way I can't predict.
I think I have to leave him alive, however much it galls me to do so.
I think I'm going to stop by Shanxi. I'm looking forward to becoming the foremost Krogan expert on Humans and being part of the delegation that brokered the truce between Turians and Humans would be a nice feather in my cap. The Asari can't stop me if the Humans are the ones bringing me to the table, after all!
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2161 CE - Tali'Zorah nar Rayya is born.
You know that feeling you get after fighting a Thresher Maw? Shanxi was everything I hoped for and more. Oh man. The look on Matriarch Benezia's face when I showed up as part of the Human detachment speaking perfect English! It's now my most treasured memory. Cut my daughter out of her daughter's life, will she?
She'll get what's coming to her. I don't have to lift a finger.
Shanxi was a ride and a half though. I had to pay a smuggler to get me past Turian lines and drop my unarmed shuttle near the planet. The shuttle was so low powered that the Turians completely ignored it coming in.
Once I was on the planet I started broadcasting; Morse code, radio, real 'I come in peace' kinda stuff. Whatever it was that convinced the Humans, it worked and they let me land on their remaining territory without shooting me out of the sky.
From there, as the only friendly English-speaking alien any of them knew of, I got debriefed and introduced to command to advise them. And of course they wanted my advice with them when they went to sign a treaty. Which I gave them. Pretty sure my description of the Genophage made them a lot more wary of the Turians and Salarians. Ah well, they'd find out soon enough one way or another anyway, right?
Since then the System Alliance has put my expertise to good use; and I managed to end up in the history books as the Alliance's first non-human citizen. I've been researching the Prothean observation post on Mars. Even helped the Humans discover the subterranean archives over two decades ahead of schedule.
Of course, this privileged position hasn't come without its perks! Not only am I the definitive mind in the field on Humans due to my incredible firsthand research embedded in their culture, I also got to kill two birds with one stone by selling the now useless world of Krelltopia to the Humans as a colony world! They renamed it Eden Prime all on their own, which, well... I might end up having to face some questions in a few decades about whether I knew the planet was going to be attacked before I sold it to them. But that's a few decades from now! That's future Krell's problem.
And of course my unparalleled access as the sole alien Prothean researcher on Mars has really made me a lot more prominent in my field. I think I might be giving Humans the wrong impression of Krogan though. I'm worried they're starting to assume we're all extremely talented intellectuals.
Well, maybe worried is a strong word. But I'm definitely feeling something reading these extranet posts of people asking about how they felt when they realized that most Krogan weren't like me. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have appeared on Sesame Street. But the show was almost 2 centuries old! And it still uses puppets! I couldn't resist!
Also! I was born on December 25th! Which means I don't just share a birth year with Jesus, I share a birthday! The reaction to that fact coming out on Jack Spacey's late night talk show was absolutely wild. Last year people took to wearing masks of my face on Christmas. They'd sold out the past couple of Halloweens so a lot of people had them. I'm really hoping that started a tradition. I can just imagine the faces on the matriarchs when they learned what happened this year. Asari were just starting to get immigration rights and the matriarchs were encouraging young maidens to start learning about Humans. Intimately. The fact that every year Humans have a holiday where they wear masks of my face must be excruciating to those old hags. Well, I'm hoping for every year anyway. It's only happened once, but it seems like the sort of thing that can definitely stick around.
Liara's leaving grad school soon. She emails me after every paper I publish. She doesn't even insist that I'm wrong all the time now! She seems to have come around to my Reaper theory, anyway. Still thinks I'm a scumbag with no academic integrity making up lies out of whole cloth, though. She wants to go out and find proof independently. I sent her an NK-47; told her to practice her marksmanship. Warned her about pirates.
Of course, the gun I sent my favorite granddaughter wasn't the only NK-47 I gave out this year. There was an extremely confused thank you card from Rael'Zorah vas Rayya thanking me for the shuttle craft full of guns I sent to him with a Quarian I caught on pilgrimage trying to open relations with the Humans as a birthday gift for his daughter since he had no daughter as far as he was aware, followed up with an extremely suspicious thank you card the next day wondering why I knew his wife was pregnant before he did.
Whoops.
Well, birthdays are hard. I can't be expected to remember every last one. Huh. That sounds sufficiently off-beat that it feels like it'd be a good response! I should type up my reply right now.
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2165 CE - Humans get an embassy on the Citadel.
8 years after first contact to their first embassy! I never really appreciated how fast Humanity shot onto the galactic stage until this happened.
I'm starting to have to worry about indoctrination. The Batarians discovered the Leviathan of Dis, and Saren's going to get indoctrinated sometime between now and 2183.
The Batarians and Humanity have been feuding in the Skyllian verge and I probably haven't helped that at all by expressing my opinion of the slaving scum to my new friends in the Systems Alliance. Mindoir's only 5 years away. I'll be able to narrow my search a bit either way, but if Shepard's the sole survivor I probably won't have to look all that hard for them. Oddly enough most earth street gangs don't have public records, and there are a hell of a lot of Shepards out in space and I'm not sure if anyone keeps a database of all of 'em. Certainly not one they'll let me have access to anyway. Although maybe I can ask as a researcher doing a Human ethnography? Maybe I can say that I want to do a paper on Human naming conventions? Of course, then I'd need to actually write the paper too. What would be a good design methodology for that kind of... Wait. I'm distracting myself.
It's going to be an interesting few years waiting for Shepard to come into their own. Wonder if they'll be my Shepard?
I can't wait to find out.
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2178 CE - Invasion of Torfan. A lethal airborne virus sweeps through the Quarian migrant fleet.
Jane Shepard is the Butcher of Torfan and there's only 5 years left before the Eden Prime War. I'm pretty sure that Binary Helix found the Rachni eggs 8 years back. But even as the main shareholder of the Noveria Development Corporation I can't make the companies involved give up their secrets. I guess I'll just have to go with Shepard to make sure I encounter them. Give myself some blackmail on Binary Helix.
There are a couple of points where I can intercept Shepard, actually. I know about the existence of the Normandy, obviously, but I'm actually not sure if they've started building it yet. I am pretty sure that I won't be informed about it once it's built though. Everyone knows I'm a security nightmare.
I can head to Eden Prime once they unearth the beacon, but I think the Normandy left as soon as that was announced and I don't think I'll have anything faster than the Normandy to get there. I suppose I could head to Eden Prime before the beacon is found and head to the area once it's unearthed. Never fought Geth before though, and having my first encounter be against an entire army with no backup... I have to admit that I like the idea. Of course there is Saren, and I wouldn't have anyone to watch my back... Something to think about then.
Of course, if I miss Shepard on Eden Prime, I can always just hang out in Cora's Den until Tali walks by, or Shepard pops in guns blazing.
I can visit my granddaughter on Ferum to check in on the progress of her dig, or I could wait by the Noveria hub for Shepard to stroll by there. There are a lot of options. I'll have to think on which one works best.
I wonder if I managed to save Tali's mom or not. I've had this year's virus in my calendar for a long time. I know the Quarians have been bugging my calendar the same as anyone else since the Morning War. I wonder if they managed to contain the plague? I'm not sure how I'd feel about that. The council is a lot more aware of Reaper theory now than they were in the original timeline. They know I take it deadly seriously. And they have access to beacons and real live Protheans. So if I butterfly away Tali getting the Geth data on her pilgrimage, that would be terrible, but maybe not a total loss. On the other hand, why risk it if I didn't need to? If it happened, it happened. I didn't go out of my way to influence the outcome one way or the other.
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2183 CE - The Eden Prime War. Battle of the Citadel. The Shepard delays Galactic Extinction by 2 years. Shenanigans with the Normandy Crew. Shepard killed. Shepard resurrected by Cerberus.
As it turns out I didn't need to go looking for Shepard after all. As the leading expert on Reaper Theory, Udina hunted me down almost as soon as Shepard mentioned the term. That was a fun time, telling them exactly what the Reapers were, and my theories on indoctrination, the conduit, the crucible, and the catalyst. The Alliance already knew about all of this as of earlier this year, and like any democratically elected government they planned to completely ignore the problem until it was too late. They were building the Crucible just in case, but it wasn't a project with anything like major priority. I'd included the untranslated plans in my initial paper on the matter, sent out to the usual suspects, again, but this time also published in one of the scientific journals which had oh so graciously come to appreciate my genius when I was the sole access to Earth's Prothean archives for non-Humans. Minds other than mine, Human and alien both, would decode and translate them. Hopefully that would make all the council races start their own crucible projects. A cold war but instead of nukes, it's Reaper killers. Yeah, I can enjoy that fantasy. Shame I couldn't release the paper earlier, but with elements of the Batarian Government indoctrinated I don't have as much leeway as I used to. Didn't want to get Sovereign kicked off earlier than he was supposed to be, after all.
Anyway, it turns out that Tali did in fact get the recording. I got to help rescue her with my old buddy Urdnot Wrex after he dealt with Fist with Garrus and Shepard. Well, I say old buddy, but we don't exactly travel in the same circles. He's somewhere around a hundred years older than my son, but he's a battlemaster from another clan. I never fought with him in the Rebellions, and after the rebellions he did merc work and I didn't. I know him because he's a minor celebrity from another clan, and he knows me because I was a Warlord; which makes me a major celebrity from another clan. People forget I'm a contemporary of Shiagur. Humans, I mean. Krogan, not so much. I get respect and a little fear from it, even among old men like Wrex.
Wrex didn't tell me his reasons for coming to help Tali, but from what I can remember I think he wanted to secure her information for the Shadow Broker? I just claimed a personal interest in the case and that I sent her birthday presents every year on her birthday. A lie, that. I still had no idea when Tali's birthday actually was so I just randomly sent a gift once every Earth year. Usually a new gun or omnitool, but once I did send her a book on Quarian fairytales that was written before the morning war by an Asari I once dated. It was a physical copy, and signed to me actually; she personalized it before she died. I signed the card accompanying the gift as 'Uncle Krell.'
Anyway, I claimed a personal interest in saving the kid and Shepard wasn't in any hurry to argue.
Since Tali had the recording, and I recognized Benezia's voice, I was able to suggest that perhaps her daughter who was also an expert in Reaper theory might know more of what her mother might know about the Reapers and be better able to discern their motives.
The fact that she's an Asari and might be able to help Shepard out a bit was also something I might have mentioned.
I've seen what happens to Liara if she's trapped for too long in that stasis field. If I can avoid that for her, I will.
I don't think anyone else realizes what the Reapers are yet. I put forth the theory that the Reaper cycle's regular intervals were like regular cicada cycles, or a badly coded computer program. I don't think anyone took that line anywhere near as literally as I meant it though.
We're heading to Therum next.
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2183 CE
Therum was a blast! Never had to escape an exploding volcano while it was still exploding before! Made my way onto the ground team by telling Shepard that I knew the girl and would make it easier for her to trust him. Tali came on the basis that there were Geth, she wanted to kill Geth, and she was good at killing Geth. Solid reasoning, that. Very Krogan-like. I approve.
Liara thought she was hallucinating when she saw me, poor thing. Probably should have mentioned I was her grandfather then. If there's ever a good time to do something like that then that was the time for it.
Shame I missed it. Kind of awkward to mention it now. She'll find out eventually when she offs the Shadow Broker anyway.
I'm actually not sure what to think of the Normandy crew. Joker's fun to talk to, but he's a bit wary of me, he stopped watching Sesame street before I was on it, I guess. He seems a bit... star-struck maybe? I heard him describing it to Shepard as if Enrique Farenko came up to talk to you covered in the blood of his conquered foes and then told you a dirty joke.
Enrique Farenko runs a popular kids show about sharing and dealing with emotions, by the way; a modern day Mr. Rogers. In case you thought maybe he was an action hero.
Pressly's kind of a jerk, but there's nothing for it but to be patient with him, I guess. I'm not really interested in getting too attached.
My sole interaction with Doctor Chakwas was making sure she got my updated medical records. I've been seeing Alliance physicians for years since, you know, I was working on Mars. For obvious reasons Krogan doctors are sort of sparse on the ground, even outside human territory; and we mostly focus on combat medicine when we do focus on medicine.
So, Human doctors who literally didn't know how many livers Krogans are supposed to have were both the superior, and only option. Still, after all this time I'm finally convinced that some of them might actually know what they're doing when they're trying to treat a Krogan. Don't know what to think about her specifically yet though.
Honestly, I like Human Doctors. They're a hell of a lot more ethical than Asari and Salarians. And even at their worst they're more competent than Turians. I like the Human doctor oath too. Confidentiality, do no harm, all that jazz. Beats the pants off the Turian medical oath which includes always obeying your superiors and working for the good of the Hierarchy instead. So Chakwas is already in my good books, but aside from a positive inclination towards the woman I really haven't interacted with Chakwas enough to make a sound judgment about her as a person.
Engineer Adams on the other hand is actually really interesting. He's read some of my papers from back when I was a Mass effect researcher. Cited one too actually. He didn't realize I was that Nakmor Krell; asked if I was related. It's a weird thing with humans. They hear 'I have the same birthday as Jesus' but they don't really understand just how much time that is until they realize that I spent 900 years studying Mass Effect science and still had the time to devote another 103 years to becoming an expert in the Protheans on top of that, while studying Humans as a hobby hard enough to make me the most cited author in the field of Human ethnography. He asked me what other Krogans did with their long lives and I answered. 'The vast majority of my fellow Krogans devote themselves wholly and without reservation to the arts of war. There is no more experienced or bloodied soldier on any field of war than when a Krogan stands on that field. Even a dabbler like me has participated in far more battles than any Human still living.'
He seemed taken aback by that.
It's true, though. Even counting conservatively and only counting the Rachni war and the Rebellions, and excluding my time in weapons development, I still have around 70 years of experience waging active war. No human has that kind of resume. Adams has been a lot more polite near Wrex since. Not that he was ever really impolite, but It lacked a certain amount of respect before. Now it doesn't.
As for Wrex himself? He's a pretty interesting guy. We swap war stories sometimes. He read some of my work from just after the Genophage. My philosophical stuff. I tried to emulate Marcus Aurelius after I was deposed and write the definitive work on being a good Krogan warlord in the aftermath of the Genophage. There might have been an element of Machiavelli in my attempts to share my wisdom with the new leader of my clan.
I kept away from Tuchanka after the regime change though; It's one thing to be reading the works of a great former Warlord. It's quite another to be reading the books of a great former warlord while he's right there. One's acceptable, the other's a powder keg. None of my Krogan kids were in any danger, but they would have been if I decided to stay around.
They were all their own grown up people anyway. Didn't need me anymore.
I didn't expect Wrex to be a fan. He likes that I'm making the arguments and actually doing intellectual work to try and unite us. Of course, he also thinks I'm an idiot. Doesn't think much about my ideas for a shared Krogan morality code. My idea, copped off the ten commandments, and done far enough before first contact that I can totally claim the idea for myself instead of being accused of stealing Human ideas.
Wrex doesn't think morality is so easily taught, or adhered to for that matter. Makes for an interesting discussion on a Human ship. It pulls in Garrus too, obviously. Former C-Sec, he has a lot of thoughts about morality and justice. I think Wrex and I are playing his requisite Shoulder devil and shoulder angel respectively. I've been encouraging him to understand that justice doesn't exist without proper process, that the process is important and that if C-Sec has it wrong it's just a matter of degree, not kind.
Wrex has been encouraging him to shoot anything that offends him.
I'm pretty sure he's listening to Wrex a lot more than me.
Liara joins our discussions sometimes. Those tend toward academic research. I told her and Tali both to call me Gramps. That'll be amusing once Liara becomes the new Shadow Broker. On a number of levels, actually.
Liara mostly seems interested in the Protheans. She's seen enough to confirm my Reaper theory, up to a point. She doesn't think my papers on Indoctrination are very based in fact. And she thinks I'm making up some of the details I can't give her sources for in the papers to the matriarchs.
Didn't respond well to me patting her on the head and telling her that she'd understand why I didn't cite those sources someday.
She put me on blast for a full hour talking about academic integrity and spreading dangerously unsourced rumors to the Council of Matriarchs. Didn't take my laughing well.
Tali looks a little like she's in over her head during those discussions, but she really shines when Wrex and I talk about the mass effect. I studied it for longer than folks from most races are even alive, and Wrex has been a biotic for his entire life; so he's had ample time to play around with things too. Liara, despite being a biotic, hasn't explored her own powers all that much. She only knows 'a few tricks' she 'played around with' when she was younger. Tali, of course, is an aerospace engineer on an eezo-propelled vessel. So we actually all know a few things to add to the discussion.
Tali knows a lot about ships, and apparently weapons too. I brought up the NK-47 clamped on her back when we got back to the Normandy for the first time after rescuing her. Apparently she's had it since she was a kid. She's been getting birthday presents randomly for as long as she's been alive from this crazy Krogan. Never actually on her birthday, apparently.
I told her to stop for a second, and that that reminded me that I needed to do something and that I'd be right back. The only problem was that with that suit on I couldn't see the look on her face when I came back with a brand new Logic Arrest Tool mark X omnitool and a birthday card.
I've refused to tell her anything about my motives, but it's always fun telling her about what Rannoch was like back before the Morning War. Tali hasn't ever spoken to someone who's actually been there before.
I let her tinker with my shuttle when she's nervous. I made sure to bring my Kodiak UT-40 with me when we left the citadel. I've been using it as my personal transportation vehicle for years.
The Kodiak line was the only thing the systems alliance had that could handle my weight back then. Eventually they just gave me one for my personal use so that they wouldn't have to give me a car and a driver any time I wanted to go somewhere. It's kind of a status symbol, honestly. Turians go crazy over the chance to get a look inside a piece of military history, since my Kodiak served in the First Contact War. Krogans appreciate that she's seen battle and come out fine, and also the built-in weapons locker in the seats. Humans like that I support Human engineering. Asari are drawn to the exotic, and Quarians appreciate I have my own ship. Not a big hit with Salarians though, or Hanar. Don't know why.
Tali and I avoid talking about the Geth. I've chided her before about her assumptions regarding synthetic life and she's yelled at me accusing me of having sympathy for the Geth. Which, I mean, I do. So that's a hard argument to refute. I don't think she took my argument that 'Maybe you shouldn't start a genocide if you aren't willing to suffer one yourself' very well. Garrus definitely didn't.
Kind of makes me wanna punch the Turian.
Of course, thoughts of punching Turians just makes me think of Kaidan Alenko. He still got BaAt closed in this timeline by killing that one Turian asshole, can't even remember his name. It made the news actually. I don't think anyone else on this crew besides the Humans and me realize just how well known Alenko is. Seems like kind of a dick move to bring up though, so I don't. Kid already avoids our Mass Effect discussions. Don't need to give him any more reason to avoid me.
Ashley Williams is not what I was expecting. I knew her grandfather. He was at the First Contact War treaty signing. It actually wasn't until a few years after that that his reputation started getting attacked. We talk sometimes about him, and about what it's like being so different from other Krogan, or about immersing yourself in an alien society not your own to do research. She's never said anything even vaguely Xenophobic where I can hear her, either. Hell, Liara joins in on those researcher chats! I'm not sure what to think of her, really. I've started giving her shooting lessons. Also, one of the NK-47s in my shuttle.
Weird aside, but apparently if you personally designed the weapon in question, it doesn't count as a weapon under Citadel law for the purposes of needing to be declared. It's instead classified as 'personal luggage of sentiment.' I'm pretty sure that's a loophole the Salarians put in to help make their STG work easier; but the practical upside is that I can drive around the praesidium with a trunk full of NK-47s and no one can stop me from doing it. So of course I do it all the time.
Which I guess brings me to Shepard. She's intense. Renegade I think, which isn't necessarily great news for me and the Krogan.
By now Saren's probably got a working Genophage cure and I can't do shit about it. There are upsides to being the most heavily surveilled being in the galaxy. Being in a position to to stealthily steal anything isn't ever going to be one of those upsides, especially if the thing I want to steal is a cure for the Genophage that other people know exist. I'm almost certain he got it through Binary Helix, which has that outpost on Peak 15 in Noveria. I think I'll need to go there with Shepard, see if I can steal the cure before anyone else knows what it is. Chances probably aren't great though. Peak 15 studied Rachni. I don't think they'd do Genophage cure research in the same facility.
Still, Binary Helix is going to get up to a lot of bullshit in the next few years. I definitely wouldn't mind having some blackmail. On them or on Exogeni. I think I'd rather stay in the village on that one. Which leaves a few things left unfinished before Virmire. I'm gonna have to address that. maybe talk to Shepard about it or something.
My very own Loyalty mission maybe? I do have some things I want to do...
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Author's Note: So, I don't have any idea why I'm writing this. No. That's a lie. I replayed Legendary Edition, so I do have some idea why I'm writing this. I sat down on August 10, 2022 and started writing. That's almost three weeks ago today. So far I have 114 pages done; about 57,151 words, approximately. I'm about half way through ME2 in terms of writing. I figure that's enough of a backlog to start posting it up here. The ME1 portion of this story is currently about 20k words. I might add a bit to that in editing, but I figure that I'll post at a regular, to be determined rate until I have all of ME1 up here, then start posting ME2 once I'm done with that and into ME3. I'm vacillating between once a week and once a day. I'll figure it out.
When I started writing this I wanted to write my own novel. I haven't worked on anything like a story this large before and I was inspired by the work of Saphroneth and TheIrishDreamer in terms of the sheer volume that they manage to put out. I tried to emulate the sort of narrative diary style of TheIrishDreamer and the short humorous scene style of Saphroneth to see if that upped my productivity.
It did.
Nakmor Krell is loosely based off my sense of humor, which I suppose makes him a self-insert in that sense. But I'm a pretty forgetful person, and I figure that without regular reminders, he's probably forgotten most of his major memories. That means that stuff like the events of the games? Which he actively works to remember and writes down reminders for? He'll remember it as long as I remember it without looking it up. Music, musical theater, history of the early 21st century; that sort of stuff will come pretty easily to him because at this point he can just look it up. Anything else? Not really something that is going to figure into the story. Krell's forgotten it.
The goal here for me is to complete a story large enough to be called a novel in a reasonable amount of time (a month or two). This is a warm-up, in a sense for me to write my own original story. Also, I need to get this thing out of my head before I can manage to even start on that. So... you know. There's that too.
I'm writing this in one long stream of consciousness, mostly. I edit before I post, but the only notes I'm going off of are the contents of Nakmor Krell's in-universe calendar app, both because those are the details he'll remember best, and because all those details are effectively public at a high level in-universe so I need to keep track of them.
I've filled it out from 1 CE onward until 2820 CE, but this story won't be going to Andromeda.
Mainly, I guess this is an excuse to write Mass Effect-themed Gilbert and Sullivan parodies?
We'll see how this goes. I hope it's gonna be a wild ride.
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