Mass Effect: Saren's Normandy (Hawke & the Nail)

[The Supple Nail]

Jane Shepard kept her face a careful mask of dispassionate professionalism. None of the worry, anger, or suspicion that roiled inside of her showed on her slender features. She stood at ease in the CIC, ostensibly studying the holographic map displayed there. In truth she was shooting surreptitious glares at the tall figure pacing near the helm.

Saren.

He had been there at Eden Prime. Hell, he had been moments from death. Shepard's quick thinking had saved him, and the quick action of Nihilus, the council Specter attached to the mission. Nihilus had pushed Saren out of the way, had given his life to save him. Or had he given his life? The last Shepard had seen of Nihilus he was caught in the beam, being drawn up towards the unknown craft. He was gone, captured by the Geth, and Saren had taken his place.

And how had Saren repaid her? He had used his Specter influence to have himself appointed the new liaison aboard the Normandy. There were even rumors that he had blocked her appointment as the first human Specter, although the brass wouldn't confirm or deny. And as soon as he was installed he began using his rank and influence to do as he pleased.

It was a sticky situation. Nominally Shepard was still commander of the Normandy. She called the shots, picked the missions, had field command over the ground team. But Saren's Specter clearance gave him almost unlimited requisition and intel access. He had already pulled rank on her, dismissing some of her most trusted crew members and bringing in his own cronies. Men more loyal to him than they were to Shepard. It was becoming a daily struggle to control the crew. Already divides were arising. Crew members ate in scattered knots in the mess, those for Shepard and those for Saren eyeing each other warily. But invariably the crew members that Saren replaced were high ranking, or in key positions.

Garrus walked by on her way to the weapons array and caught Shepard's eye, jerking her head towards Saren and rolling her eyes.

The turian officer had been one of Shepard's closest allies since they had joined forces on the citadel. And perhaps there was more there as well? Shepard had never been attracted to women, let alone turian women, but something about Garrus' easy confidence and playful banter made her wonder. They trusted each other, told each other everything. They were definitely closer that just squad mates.

Again Shepard seethed, glaring at the back of Saren's head. She hated having him on board. Hated the way he was slowly co-opting her crew. Hated that she had to salute the smug bastard and ask him to sit in on briefings. But most of all he hated the way he looked at her, as if he was sizing up a piece of meat.

Something would have to give soon.

 

[MS-21H 'Hawke' Gundam]

Saren was currently taking the time to inspect the piloting area of the Normandy, keeping an eye on the Human Pilot and Co-Pilot. 'Joker' was extremely good at the job he did, even Saren could admit that, so he didn't touch Joker or his position. Several other crew members had to be shuffled out though, Including the former XO. Pressly was a racist, and Specter ships like this one tended to gather a multi-racial crew, so the man was a liability. Several other crew members suffered similar fates due to one thing or anouther, the resulting tension was unfortunate, but the crew would integrate before too long. Saren took a moment to subtly glance at Commander Shepard, and caught one of her glares. The Specter had been through much in his career, so Shepard couldn't hide her irritation from him. Saren didn't necessarily care though, because it would serve as a learning lesson for future encounters with Specters.

Saren walked back to the navigation area. When Saren reached the area, he walked up the steps and behind Shepard onto the destination selector. "Do you have a destination commander?" Saren asked, getting somewhat uncomfortably close "I would suggest the Feros colony first, while the other leads would likely pull up more evidence, we can find something AND save lives."

 

[The Supple Nail]

Shepard bristled as Saren approached, looming over her shoulder and looking down into the map. She remained as professional as she was able, unaware that her seething resentment was as plain to Saren as the curves displayed by her form fitting tactical armor. Her grip tightened on the rail and she leaned subtly away from him.

As much as she hated to agree with him he had a good tactical assessment of the situation. While Noveria could present some interesting leads the attack on Feros made it the clear priority. Shepard nodded curtly and touched the glowing glyph on the tactical display, pulling up the calculated route, planetary information, and risk assessment. It was relatively close, only a few relay jumps away.

She set the course without looking at Saren, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of being right. Instead she turned a cold shoulder, brushing past him imperiously and making her way aft. She stood over Joker's shoulder at parade rest, her eyes roving over the hololight displays of the helm. Joker gave her an easy nod and rolled his eyes towards Saren, doing a silent but stiff limbed impression as he punched at the controls. Shepard swallowed a smile and forced a disapproving frown on her face, shaking her head microscopically. It wouldn't do to mock a senior officer, even behind his back.

With the course laid in she moved through the crew. A word here, a suggestion there, making her presence known. She wanted her men to know that she was there for them, that she had their best interests and the best interests of the mission at heart. She may have to lead them into danger and she needed them to know that they had her complete confidence. She stiffened ever so slightly and ignored the knowing looks that Saren's new cronies threw her way.

"I'll be in my quarters." She said to him curtly as she brushed past into the elevator.

 

[MS-21H 'Hawke' Gundam]

Her Quarters, hmm? That would work perfectly for what Saren had planned. So when Shepard disappeared fully from view, Saren situated everything on the bridge so the ship could run without him or the Commander for a while. With that done, Saren strode purposefully to Shepard's room. While he was doing this walk, the Specter took the chance to observe how the crew was working together. The separation of social units was obvious upon inspection, but when the crew worked together across 'lines', they performed admirably. Saren noticed the little comments and gestures at his expense, but these were healthy considering what Saren had been doing to thier ship, all in the interest of improving performance it may have been. When Saren came upon the Captain's Quarters in which Shepard resided sense she had been given the ship from Anderson, Saren bypassed the lock with the hacking program on his omnitool, a special one he bought recently in preparation for dealing with a certain Suit-Rat. Saren needed the practice in using the app, and he had no interest in wasting time.

"Shepard, I'll be honest with you." Saren said, walking into the room "The reason you weren't advanced to specter is because I wanted to use this mission to evaluate you myself." Saren took in the surrounding room, and decided that it would be big enough for the exercise he had in mind. "I'm sorry to interrupt your private space, but this room will prove perfect for the first test I want perform." The Specter said, subtly relocking the door to avoid interruptions "We're going to run through a CQC exercise I do with all my Female 'Potentials' to gauge where you are right now, and what we have to work with in the future."

 

[The Supple Nail]

Shepard shrugged out of her armor and hung it neatly in the rack near her desk. If there was one lesson she had learned from long years of military service it was discipline. Keep things neat and orderly. Take care of your equipment. Your life may depend on it.

In the safety and privacy of the captain's cabin she stretched languorously. It was nice to take a break from the rigors of command, and doubly nice not to have to deal with Saren and his ilk. Just thinking of him put her teeth on edge and she decided that the only way she was going to calm down was to get some work down. She sat down at her terminal and began to bat idly at the hardlight keyboard. Tactical briefs, engineering report, crew roster, she was just getting into the mind-cleansing swing of routine when her door unexpectedly slid open.

"What in the..." She jumped up. Suddenly she realized that she was only wearing a light tank top and thin exercise pants, her PT gear. Even in the dim light of her cabin the tight fabric hugged her curves.

"Saren! These are my private quarters! You DARE to..." She rounded on him and began to rant but he cut her off.

"Shepard, I'll be honest with you..."

How did he get in? Did he have some sort of Specter override code? She'd have to look into it. She was ready to begin tearing him a new one for barging in on her when she realized what he was saying. She fought a grin off of her face. She knew a line of bullshit when she heard it, but Saren was saying something about a CQC exercise. All she had wanted to do since he came on board was punch him in his smug face. If he wanted to indulge her under the guise of a 'sparing' session who was she to say no? She was gleefully wondering how much damage she could do to him without being court martialed. He had asked for the exercise, so probably a lot.

"Alright Saren, you're on." She said, a ready grin quirking the corner of her mouth.

It didn't occur to her that she could lose.

 

[MS-21H 'Hawke' Gundam]

Saren sighed to himself, if this girl did want to be a Specter, there was alot of work to do. "I was going to explain the rules of the excersize and what the punishments for failure of it were, but this is a great chance for anouther lesson you appearently need to learn." Saren Said, stalking up to Shepard while dodging any punches she threw "Specters and Even Specter-Trainees undergo the most dangerous and important missions in the galaxy, they CANNOT afford to go in half cocked." Saren took this chance to grab a handful of Shepard's top(and bra under the top) and rip them open so it'd expose her breasts. "The objective of this isn't to beat me in a CQC fight, the objective is to stop me from disrobing and violating you." Saren said matter-of-factly, groping one of the newly freed breasts "IF you had asked about terms, you would know that there are various stages to this excersize with penalties for failing each, for instance: I've already revealed your rather nice breasts, if I get everything off of you, you only get to wear what I tell you to wear from that point on." Saren dodged out of the way of the hit Shepard was doubtlessly going to go for, and kept baiting her to go at him. After a bit of doing this, he waited until a rather large attempt, and then dodged to the outside of the offending limb and used the momentum Shepard was working under to get behind her and pin her arms to her front.

"Is this what the Alliance thinks makes a specter?" Saren asked, using a free hand to finish riping off the straps on the top and tossed it aside "If it's this easy to strip you down, I have to wonder what really took you so long in Chora's Den on the Citidel." Saren's tone during all this was as patronizing as possible, he wanted to make Shepard angry and prone to mistakes. The honest issue was that Shepard was good, but Saren was a Specter for likely as long as Shepard's been alive....and was Blackwatch before that.... The fact that she was wearing clothing that seemed designed to be torn off by a Turian did make a difference though. "Are you sure you don't want me to violate you?" Saren asked, in a teasing and husky tone as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her pants "These clothes seem designed for my claws to tear right through them." Saren started to pull the pants down, making sure to grab any panties too, as slow as possible to preserve the suspence. "I believe that you humans sometimes call this the 'Back Door', I'll be going for that last, and if I release into it you will have lost the excersize." Saren said, dragging an idle claw against a check of Shepard's ass. "If you fail the excersize, not only will you have to endure the other punishements, you will also be forced to have a tatoo that says 'Property of Saren Arterius' on the small of your back and I will make you wear something suitably humiliating on the Citadel....I'm also thinking about other punishments because you got so caught up in your grudge against me that you didn't think to ask about the excersize...the full scope of punishments might be punishment enough for that though."