Detective's Archive - DP

Archiver’s Note - These events occurred after the Geth attack on the Citadel (exact dates are excluded from the initial logs and reports). Still, later entries can have the dates extrapolated from concurrent events and therefore take place three months after this initial entry from Agent Tanlus. These interviews take place as a part of the Spectre Investigation into the events surrounding Tayseri Ward following the attack.

Archivist Note (Addendum) - Some language expressed during these archives is harsher than most and does not follow the Council’s Guidelines regarding the Cataloging and Indexing of Archived Material (Section 3.12-B) set by the Repository or its affiliates. Such language is to be redacted and will be marked as such by the archivist in charge. It shall be denoted with a (####) as per the Citadel Standard Notation - but retain any inflectional forms imposed on the word. According to the Guidelines and other legal protections for Law Enforcement, Spectres, and other military/paramilitary groups (Section 56.3-A / B) - various names, locations, organizations, and descriptions will be redacted to maintain operational security or protection of the subjects' well-being.

Tanlus, Citadel Station, Tayseri Ward – A few weeks Post-Geth Assault (Sometime during January 2184)

“We know we see those ubiquitous uniforms on the Citadel every day, but do we know the people behind those uniforms? We at the Citadel NewsNet have taken it upon ourselves to help with this endeavor. Today, we are happy to have a special interview with a Senior Detective formerly with C-Sec Special Forces. So, without further ado, let's invite Detective Flolin Tanlus to the booth to answer a couple of questions.“

Good thing I can hold my liquor and keep a straight face. But I had a bad feeling about the interview as the woman handling the interview was a human named Khalisah al-Jilani. She had a reputation, she was politically connected and was a well-known and well-viewed newscaster - screwing up an interview with her could be career suicide.

To be fair - the interview went well enough in the beginning. I just had to answer her ridiculous questions about the Geth attack; How was C-Sec able to react so quickly? How did the Geth get onto the Citadel - I didn’t know and was classified by any means. I can’t remember but a few questions since I only paid half attention. It was the captain’s fault - he knows how my ‘business meetings’ tend to go when I'm at The Shard.

At the end of the interview, unfortunately, I couldn't help but run my mouth just a sentence too far – you know those moments where you’d be fine if you had the wherewithal to stop a sentence short?

At any rate, the offending question was simple enough; “How was it fighting the Geth? Was it comparable to any other military or C-Sec operations you’ve been a part of?”

It was a similar question to one I had answered during my binge meeting – wait, no – business meeting, yeah that’s right. . . anyways moving on.

In the ‘business meeting,’ I was at, I managed to explain smartly that the Geth are very similar to animals in terms of intelligence when they are in small groups and that scientists had proved it and whatever the hell the rest of it is.

But what I said to the interviewer was this extraordinary statement instead: “The Geth are just acting on instinct when they fight, just like an animal. Or a Human, for that matter, they're little more than animals as well.”

I said in a very uh, matter-of-fact and professional tone. Look, what I said was terrible, and it makes me look like a total Human hating ass but I’m remarkably self-aware and immediately tried to backpedal and save the interview.

She looked at me with a blank face and a slack jaw, saying nothing and dragging the silence on. Trying to cover the horrible silence that was brewing, I gave her as apologetic a smile as I could manage and said;

“Oh, yeah I can see how that probably sounded bad. Can I try that one again? Ill ”

She kept staring at me for a long moment and slowly reached over while shaking her head and killing the microphone with a tap. The damage was done and couldn’t be undone - the interview was live from the start.

As I saw her start to pack up her things in that quietly disapproving way that women of any species possessed, I sat there frozen like a statue with a remarkably similar blank look. A couple of thoughts ran through my mind. First, that DEFINITELY could have gone better. Second, I am so fired when I get back to the office. And third, Well, there’s going to be hell to pay. I might as well prepare for the worst, bend over now, and take it like a man.

As I got up to leave the booth – al-Jilani had left by this point – I looked at the tech outside the glass and said, “Well, damn. That was fun. I’m just going to see myself out.”

As I left, I was thinking about getting a drink on my way back to the office - initially, I thought against it, but #### it. May as well add a glass or twelve towards this ‘amazing’ evening and turn towards the shard.

Which I did - and regretted it later.

Kururugi, Citadel Station, En route to Tayseri Ward - April 4, 2184

I was pissed; I had worked hard at the Zakera Ward Precinct. I did have to overcome the whole ‘Udina fast-tracked your promotion through the rank’s blah blah blah BS.’ But I was used to some other officers' smart-ass comments and sidelong looks. I knew that I could break them with Biotics, and they did too. Especially after what happened to DiSanto – ok, to be fair, I didn't mean to break his leg like that - he just had soft bones. But that was beside the point. This whole cover story of placing her in charge of that damned Turian was galling, to say the least, for an officer of her caliber and for ‘Sensitivity Training’ of all things to boot! It was remarkably ridiculous, in her opinion, to have any faith in that cover story, to begin with. Still, the actual assignment was basic enough that it should require the level of secrecy it was garnering.

Investigate reports of corruption in the Tayseri Ward Precinct.

It was stupid, and I don’t fully understand why Bailey was going along with it. Sending one of his senior agents along with me (Who was also going along with the whole thing – even though we knew damn well that Kanlos had a similar opinion about this entire thing) was even more insane.

So, I am unsuccessfully sitting in Kanlos’ sky car and pretending not to be in a mood. The ride to Tayseri Ward should only take a half-hour, but Kanlos was taking her time. Even considering how the time would drag on in a quietly awkward ride like this, I was sure that Kanlos was doing everything in her power to make the time drag.

She was savoring seeing me in this current state. Which I’m nearly 90 percent sure Kanlos wouldn’t do. I’d only ridden with Kanlos while on patrol. And there was the background chatter of the dispatch in those situations. Finally, I bit the bullet.

“Why are we taking the longest flight of my life to one of - if not the most ridiculous assignment on the Citadel? I feel like you're driving me to a disciplinary meeting.”

Kanlos laughed. “First off, Matsue, it’s simply so fun to screw with you. Secondly, the Council gave you the assignment, and I want to make sure you appreciate that fact. So, I left you in relative silence to ensure you did so. Do you appreciate it any better?” Kanlos said with a straight face and only the subtlest hint of humor.

I snorted in a rather unladylike fashion and looked at her with my best ‘are you kidding me’ face. “Do I look like I appreciate this assignment?”

“No, most certainly you do not.” She replied quietly, with a hint of acid in her voice.

“Then no, I don’t think your tactic worked. We both know this is a stupid Machiavellian-style plan to investigate the captain in a damaged backwater ward.”

Kanlos stayed quiet for a long beat and stared out the car's window. After a few seconds, she opened her mouth as if to say something but then thought better of it. She tried again, “I think you need to change your thinking about this assignment. You’re looking at it like a soldier; an unusual assignment is a punishment run or worse most of the time. This could be your chance to make a name for yourself in the precinct, maybe even work your way up to detective. Fine, you have to babysit a racist for a few months and play the part while investigating. It sucks, but it's not expressly a punishment – it could be Captain Bailey giving you a chance.”

I chewed on that for a while as we flew on in silence. Eventually, we could see the Ward itself with our own eyes and the damage from the attack. Towers were gutted and damaged from the falling debris of that Geth ship that latched onto the presidium. The lower portions of some buildings showed signs of the floors above collapsing from the weight. You could even see some of the floors visibly sagging from the weight but having yet to collapse. Construction crews were working on those sections – reports said they were still finding bodies. More bodies than the hospitals or other temporary medical sites could keep up with. The illumination grid of the entire Ward was dimmed, the damage being isolated to near the Presidium. It gave the ward as a whole that noir type of feel. Although the damage was severe in these locations, there were signs of normalcy. We could see commuters using the sky-rails and walking along the repaired catwalks and other walkways that connected the buildings. There were even some food vendors hocking their greasy street food. Some C-Sec were out on patrol, but they didn’t seem overly busy or enthused about the patrol.

As we came in for a landing outside the C-Sec building itself, and I could get a better look, I could still see signs of gunfire scarring some of the buildings and other ominous dark stains. I had a sinking suspicion. The signs of ‘normalcy’ seen from the air were lost when landing on the C-Sec landing pad.

Kanlos parked in the sky car lot outside the main entrance, and we hopped out - as gracefully as one can in a skycar - and headed to the doors. As we walked up, I could see several C-Sec agents (all turian) milling about outside the building acting as guards - 4 or 5 of them; they looked at us with something close to suspicion, but they just glanced up at our badges that we flashed as we walked past and went back to their business. It was like we weren’t even a blip on their radar after that. Well, not that we would be; we were just another pair of random agents like them. Although their suspicious attitude was strange - I wasn’t concerned. As we continued walking past more agents and a few guards at some of the doorways, receiving more suspicion and dirty looks. I got a ping on my visor - a text message from Kanlos.

Just keep it cool, Matsue, keep walking and ignore them. We got a job to do - you don’t have to follow me into the captain's office at first but stay close to the door if he calls you in. I’ll handle this - you’re obviously not going to keep a straight face.

I realized that I was scowling and quietly muttered a curse under my breath and made my way to a nearby desk by the captain's office while Kanlos kept walking toward the back of the bullpen. It was unlike me to get so worked up by something like this. It wasn't unlike any number of military assignments when I was in the Alliance. Maybe it was the location or lack of other humans or something. I had only seen precisely three humans so far in this precinct; the rest were the usual mix of Turians and Salarians and some Asari. Oh, and a single Volus acting as a receptionist (I felt kinda bad for him, he was standing on a chair to look over the desk, his name was Yera Vot according to a placard). The xenophobia towards humans hadn’t dimmed much after the 5th Fleet rescued the Councilors. Most species were quietly judgemental and dismissive of us and it showed in C-Sec the most.

I thought about that for a little while and decided to look less like a brooding agent by messing with my Omni-tool, checking the time and emails, and looking around at the desk I was at. The desk was clean except for some datapads and loose sheets on one side in a tray - open case files? - no pictures or any other real nicknacks. I didn’t see a name-placard either. It didn’t matter, I was only gonna be here for a few minutes anyway. After 5 minutes of checking my emails and my nails (not that I had any - I wasn't into the girly stuff anymore being a detective), I had a realization that I was probably going to be here for a little while - paperwork and the like. So I started my daily time waster, the daily Tusme on my shogi app, and zoned out. I would have kicked my feet up and relaxed a little, but my prosthetics were acting up today - I’d have to go in for another appointment.

After a while, I felt a shadow and looked up to see a Turian standing, datapad in hand. He looked down at me with that typical hawkish face, wearing a scowl(?) - I wasn't sure. I couldn’t read their expressions very well. God, they were intimidating-looking. I’ll never understand how evolution decided that was a winning face. I certainly never got used to looking at them - seeing them at Shanxi was enough for me. They reminded me of my military service every time I saw them. They were one of the most common species in Council Space and the galaxy's primary military and police force, so I tried to get over it.

As a rule of thumb, I found them uncomfortable to be around in any setting - but I tried not to show it.

“You're in the wrong chair; get up. Give me your first and last names and case code.” The Turian ordered. His voice had the distinctive flanging sound that all Turians had. It sounds like they constantly have a cheap voice distortion. I decided that I didn't like his attitude and mentally prepared myself for battle.

“Excuse me?” I bit back, raising my voice slightly.

“I said name and case code and to get your ass out of my chair. Now get up.” His voice was even and non-aggressive. He simply stood there tapping his finger against the datapad and staring at me.

As I stood up from the chair, I swiveled around slightly to hide my legs both from him and myself. I never liked seeing my legs move from a sitting position with the prosthetics. They had a jerky and spastic movement that was unnatural. I knew why it was happening; the nerves were partly dead and didn’t like actually working correctly, they just needed to warm up, and I would be fine. But I wouldn't let this stop me from winning the dick-measuring contest here.

I stood up quickly to disguise the shaking and felt my leg prosthetics get back to spec. I turned to face him and did not reply immediately. I wanted to make sure he knew I was defying him.

While staring him down, I took in a couple of details in those brief seconds: He was well-built and imposing. He easily stood over me, and I was 5’7’’(ish) - maybe 6’ something with broad shoulders. He didn't have any face paint on - barefaced, they call it? - so his carapace had that shiny look, and he had lots of tiny scars on his shell. He was tall, muscular, and battle-hardened - your typical Turian and, if I had to guess, a longtime military vet. He wore a standard Sentry Interface visor- similar to the one I had, but he was the full-brow model and a set of personalized armor and a black and gray trench coat.

Considering his position as a detective, I’m not surprised that he had a custom rig, but he was completely unmarked. He had no identifying markers for a C-Sec agent - which is technically against 7 or 8 different regs (which state he must be easily identifiable as C-Sec). Still, he also was a detective and not in my ward. Some captains play a little loose with regs for their detectives.

After the beat passed, I stepped aside and gestured to the desk chair. My sarcasm was thick as I finally replied.

“Of course, sir, I wouldn’t want to hold up an IMPORTANT detective like yourself.” I rolled my eyes and stepped aside.

He glared at me with those dead raptor-like eyes; they had flecks of silver mixed with the blue-gray iris that contrasted against his black sclera. Those were the eyes of a demon - and you couldn’t tell me otherwise. He blinked slowly, clicked his mandibles, and walked to the chair, sitting down heavily. Like my presence was an unimaginable burden weighing him down.

As he sat there for a second, staring off into the distance, collecting his thoughts? Leaning back, he clicked his mandibles a second time and then looked up at me while folding his hands on his desk as he sat up straighter. The clicking was disgusting. It made his mandibles move in all the wrong ways, drawing attention to his face.

“Okay - wrong foot, let's start again, shall we? I’m Senior Detective Flolin Tanlus. How can C-Sec help you today? I’m assuming you have an active case code? Otherwise, the officers at the front desk would have redirected you to one of the other agents for a consultation and assistance filing charges or the like.” He gestured to the opposite chair with one hand while saying this, so I decided to do a little de-escalation. I didn’t sit but instead leaned against the edge of the desk. I didn’t trust my legs to let me sit gracefully. I held out my hand for a shake.

“Sure. I’m Officer Kururugi. From Zakera Ward. I was supposed to have a meeting with the Captain soon; I was simply waiting until you walked up and barked at me”. I said as smoothly as possible - this was Tanlus? He’s not exactly what I'd expected. I had a mental image of a redneck turian with the beer gut and the other stereotypical habits of a bad cop. He didn’t have the dirty claws or the smell of cigarettes on him - the typical movie stuff (so I'm not imaginative - sue me). Considering his earlier outburst, the Tanlus of reality was well dressed, clean, kept, and capable of being somewhat professional.

“You were supposed to be meeting with Captain Setebos? My apologies, ma'am. I didn't mean to come off as rude. I’m sure the captain will be with you shortly.” He replied quickly, almost like he suddenly got nervous. He turned away from me and started working on his terminal. As he worked the interface, keys clicked quietly or at least sounded like they did - holograms and all that. He didn’t really look my way after the conversation, and I wasn’t supplying any small talk. I turned to my Omni-tool and started making some notes - really a shopping list, but he didn’t need to know that - and glanced up occasionally. I caught him sneaking looks at my Omni-tool once or twice, and I made a note after each time. Just to make him sweat.

Five minutes later, I heard some raised voices in the office behind us. Apparently, the captain and Kanlos were discussing the new assignment. I thought about sending Kanlos a message to see if she needed backup. As soon as I finished drafting it, the door opened; a piercing voice cut through the bullpen:

“Tanlus! Kururugi! Get in here!” And as we hesitated, he got even louder - “SHIFT IT!”

We both jumped up and double-timed it to the office, I was beginning to think I was going to hate it here.

Tanlus, Citadel Station, Tayseri Ward Market, April 4, 2184 - A few hours earlier

I was walking back towards the precinct, thinking to myself and worrying. This morning, the captain had made a vague comment that ‘things would change around here. He said it like it was a threat. He’s been on my ass more recently, especially after the interview debacle a couple of months back, but I thought that was over. I worked the horrible shifts patrolling the back alleys and the classes with Zil, our Asari HR drone, the pay cut, and everything the captain threw at me. I thought the worst had passed and that I was in the clear. I’d kept my nose clean and buckled down and out of view. Even an incident last week where I’d tasered that human - I didn’t know the perp was wearing some metal jewelry, and it conducted the charge extremely well - wasn’t blown up by the media or the captain after my name was dropped in the news bulletin. However, the eye of the storm had passed apparently, and the storm was coming again in full force.

I took my usual detour past the markets in the ward, hitting up the local food vendor for some Levo-Protein noodles, and took a short break off my feet. Watching the people pass by was my custom. When you’re a cop, that reflex never goes away, and you constantly find yourself doing it. But anyway, I was sitting there eating and listening to the dispatch. Some normal petty stuff: dine and dash, parking violation runners, some batarians being drunk and disorderly. I spotted a Quarian being hit on by another Turian at one of the other vendors in my immediate area. A human argued with a salarian shopkeep at the game shop about the return policy or something. An average day on the Citadel all in all.

“23-19, Repeat 23-19,” I heard the garbled dispatch code - I was only half listening so I didn't catch the end.

23-19 was for private priority communication. Dispatch only used this code to tell officers to respond on a private channel. It was usually for issues that needed to be attended to like personal matters that were pressing or have officers respond to special assignments or urgent notices that required extra security precautions. I took my noodles from the guy and tucked in, after a minute or two the earpiece buzzed again.

“Officer Tanlus 23-19, please respond. Repeat, Officer Tanlus 23-19, please respond.” Damn it, I barely started eating - they time this ####, you can’t convince me otherwise. As I swallowed a bite I checked the time; 10:47; it wasn’t even close to the middle of my shift. So it must’ve been something big.

“23-19, Officer Tanlus, acknowledge.”

The dispatch repeated. Insistent little bastard today, I huffed to myself and finished another bite. I might as well be pissed off on a full stomach. I responded after swallowing into the mic intentionally.

“23-19 Received, Officer Tanlus here, go ahead.”

“Officer Tanlus, the Captain, requires your presence at 1400 hours. No other changes to your patrol route or shift are in effect.”

“Understood Dispatch, I’ll be there.” Dispatch double-clicked its mic to indicate receipt of my call and went silent. I hung my head and cursed silently, I was beginning to think that I was going to hate today. I paid and went back on patrol - nothing happened in my section which was a surprise but a pleasant one to be sure. As the time got closer I started thinking about getting back to the precinct.

Technically I was only 5 minutes by Skycar no matter where I was on my patrol route but I didn’t feel like hauling ass on my way back if I didn’t need to - which I didn’t given it was barely 1330, and started meandering to the taxi terminal 2 levels down and down away from the precinct. It was out of my way, but I didn’t care. I was almost sure I was gonna be ripped a new one for some ridiculousness. At any rate, I detoured, and there was nothing dispatch, or the captain could do about it unless they came and directly picked me up. So I walked, not paying attention to the backdrop around me, got to the terminal unmolested, and called a cab. And with the usual infuriating efficiency, a taxi showed up within a minute and a half. So I took a quiet car ride back to the precinct, the Batarian driver droning on about political topics like all cabbies do. I didn't listen to him, but I did catch some blip on the newsfeed.

“The body of the recently deceased Commander Shepard has not been located in the orbital wreckage surrounding Alchera, but the Council has decided to not press the search onto Alchera's surface. Citing cost over rewards, the Council has come to the 3-1 vote to simply turn Normandy's crash site into a memorial to those lost on that fateful day and leave their bodies untouched. Councilor Udina neglected to comment on the Council’s decision - but was reportedly very upset after the deliberation, according to one witness. This seems like another sign of the Council’s lack of . . . “

The News Feed trailed out of my concentration. I wasn't surprised the Council had changed their tune about Shepard so soon. The bastard was dead after only about a month of being a Spectre - it must seem like a black mark.

I snorted to myself as I saw the precinct’s landing pad come into view around a skyscraper. The cabbie started landing at the front doors, some of the C-Sec agents looking up at the sky car as it landed. They immediately lost interest when I climbed out and paid my fare. I turned to walk inside, feeling the warm blast of air from the skycar’s lifters hit my back. A human agent looked at me as I walked up, nodding his head in greeting.

“Hey Tanlus, Just a fair warning. Setebos is looking for you. He doesn’t seem super thrilled. I’d be careful today.” The human, a male in his late 30’s, made a face. Not entirely sure what he was going for, but it looked like he was constipated.

I nodded towards him, “I had a hunch. Thanks anyways, Stevens.” I continued walking inside and checked in with the main desk. Yera Vot told me that Captain Setebos was in a meeting, but he wanted me to wait until he was done and gave me some requests to look over while I did so. I walked towards the bullpen on instinct and read my datapad while walking. They were just requests for further paperwork about some people I had detained earlier in the week - nothing serious. As I filled out said documentation, finishing as I reached the bullpen, I saw a human sitting in my chair.

I sighed to myself. I didn’t want to deal with whatever crap she would undoubtedly throw in my lap. I took a second to regain my composure and be the professional I’m supposed to be and walked towards my desk.

Tanlus, Citadel Station, Tayseri Ward Precinct, April 4, 2184 - Captain Setebos’ Office - Current Time

I rushed in with the lady - Matsue - following barely a half step behind and came up to the Captain’s desk and we snapped to standing attention with a quick salute.

“Tanlus, do you know why I’m not happy right now?” My eyes flicked to the Asari standing in the corner, she was in C-Sec colors - didn’t recognize her though.

“I wouldn’t presume to assume sir.”

Setebos continued to stare; his face paint making him look more devilish than ever.

“Uh, sorry. If I were to hazard a guess, I did something stupid sir.”

The Asari let out a little laugh,

“You didn’t mention that he did stand up Captain.” She stood up and flattened her uniform, “Stick to your day job detective, it’ll save us all some time.”

I turned to face her, but she cut me off with a hand.

“You’re not in trouble yet Tanlus, don’t change that now. Sergeant Kanlos by the way, not that you asked.” She gestured to my partner in the spotlight, “This is Matsue Kururugi, if you haven’t met yet. She’s going to be your new partner.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard her Tanlus, you have a new partner - get used to it. She’s not going away,” Setebos wore an evil grin. “It’s part of your new ‘Sensitivity Training’.”

I stood there trying to think of a polite way to respond when I heard Kururugi;

“What the ####?” While the Captain and Sergeant looked at her surprised, I just shrugged and looked between them.

“What she said.”

Kururugi, Citadel Station, Tayseri Ward Precinct, April 4, 2184 - Captain Setebos’ Office

I felt both the Captain and Kanlos’ eyes on me - I hadn’t meant to blurt that out, it just manifested itself

“I would suggest you keep a more professional tone Matsue.” I looked at Kanlos and nodded and snapped to even more attention.

“Yes ma’am. Apologies, sirs.”

“As the Captain was saying, Tanlus is going to be accompanied by Officer Kururugi as a part of a new Sensitivity Training program - it’s not targeted at Tanlus specifically, it's for the Citadel and C-Sec as a whole. There’s been some incidents between human and non-human C-Sec officers that the Council wants to address - they think that it's been caused by some anti-human and xenophobic attitudes respectively to both sides. So, the Council has ordered this new program to match non-humans and humans together in an attempt to help bridge social gaps and facilitate unit cohesion.”