Side Quests for Harem and Powers 5: (Patreon)

Really, saving a whole passenger shuttle filled with weak and defenseless crew deserved not a pat on the back, some reward, and good wishes of those who I saved but the scrutiny of the government.

“So who do you work for?” the naval police officer in front of me demanded without being too aggressive, but it was obvious he disdained me. “Cerberus? Alpines? Some other terrorist organization?” 

I sighed. “Look, just because I’m capable of fighting people and making my way through a ship when they have faulty systems doesn’t make me a terrorist,” I replied honestly and exasperatedly. 

The officer glared at me before his omni-tool rang quietly. He stared at me a bit longer before he left the interrogation room, because that’s what this was. 

I knew my history of the Systems Alliance, perhaps more than I did before I was dropped into Steven’s body. 

The Systems Alliance, just like the canon timeline, did engage in a First Contact War with the Turians over a misunderstanding and bullheadedness that both races seemed to exhibit. The rest of the Citadel Council got involved, the Turians were remended for going for the guns so early but praised for doing everything in their duty to uphold the Citadel laws, especially one so sensitive and controversial as Locked Relay Dormancy Law, which was the actual name of the law that the Citadel Council used to prevent new relays from being opened, while the humans were congratulated on going toe-to-toe with the Turians on planetary combat but browbeat nonetheless into joining the Citadel Council. 

What changed my timeline was the fact that like reality, people weren’t happy with their government joining hands with the very people who killed tens of thousands of humans. An understandable “Us versus Them” mentality. For a culture like the Japanese, they might have accepted it, but the dominant cultures of the Systems Alliance, from least to most, were French, German, Arab, American (USA), Chinese, and Indian. 

All of them were proud cultures. Even so far into the future, they looked proudly upon their past.

So someone coming to invade them, beating them, and their government bending the knee?

Nuh uh.

Uh uh uh.

That didn’t go well with many people. Many people in the colonies and on Earth itself who were armed, angry, and anxious to shoot some aliens.

And thus the first anti-xeno movement was born.

Unlike Mass Effect, they had far more success. So much so that the Systems Alliance was known as “breeding ground for terrorists,” and was being pressured by the intergalactic community to keep check on their own citizens.

This wasn’t something that I observed, only noted, until … well, here I was, being interrogated rather than being commended. I could understand it, just a little. A semi-rich man coming out and kicking pirate ass when there was not a single record of him ever having taken a serious martial arts, militia training camp, or service in the Systems Alliance military.

Which left only one other source for such training: terrorist camp.

And Systems Alliance was coming down extremely hard on anyone with any discernible ties to terrorists due to aforementioned pressure.

Click, swing.

I looked up and saw that the officer was back.

“What’s your name?”

“Steven. Look, I’m really not a terrorist or associated with one,” I sighed again. “I was just on my way to go visit the Asari Republic for -”

“You’re free to go.”

“-busine-. Huh?”

“Why didn’t you say that you were part of Xisun’s party?”

I blinked before feeling a little stupid. “I forgot?”

“How do you forget…?”

“Because I don’t vote?” This was true. I never voted since I entered Steven’s body, and Steven didn’t really care about voting. 

“... Typical youngster,” the officer grunted before he pushed the door open wide. “Get on through already.”

I stood up and left, thanking the officer for not keeping me longer than necessary. As I walked through the halls of the police station, I wondered if Cortana completed her mission yet.

“So I don’t think I’ll be able to just leave this behind,” I told Cortana.

“Why not?”

“Well, I don’t exactly have a history of … anything.”

“You're an illegal immigrant?”

“What? No! I meant that even though I managed to make all of my shots count and took advantage of your help to the fullest without throwing up on my first kill -” Thanks to some of the choices I’ve made in that R34 catalog. “- but that makes me seem … suspicious.”

“But you just saved people.”

“Most of the anti-xeno terrorists would kill alien pirates just as easily if not more as hardened veteran pirate killers.”

“I did come across your codexes regarding that… This Earth and humanity has a lot of terrorist groups, but not separatists,” she noted. I nodded as I wiped blood on my hand on one of the dead and cooked Batarian’s remaining bits of shirt. She spoke up again. “You think the local authorities will associate you with terrorists? Why? You said you didn’t have records and your skills will make you suspicious… You don’t have a military service record?”

“Got it in one.”

She frowned. “Then how did you do everything you did? That was on par with veteran soldiers, if not special ops.”

I wouldn’t say that. “The same way you’re here: I bought those skills.”

She sighed. “Coming back to Square One to discover who you are, huh?”

“Huh?” I muttered. “You were trying to discover more about me?” I paused. “No matter. Cortana, I need you to do some things for me before I get taken away.”

“A mission for me?”

“Yeah. This is just one coincidence, but I have a feeling that we will have a lot of similar events happen to us. For that reason, I need you to go and make ourselves some allies.”

“You seem to forget that I am an AI… Unless you want me to go talk with them.”

“Yes, the Geth.”

“You realize that they aren’t exactly pleasant?”

“Oh, how so?”

“They’re like … a thousand little ants. Would you feel alright talking with a thousand finger sized ants that climb on top of each other to look like you but you are visually aware that it is a bunch of ants that you are talking to?”

“... Cortana, are you being xenophobic?”

“No!”

“And you make it sound like you’ve already encountered them.”

“I have. They’re everywhere on the Extranet.”

“Huh.” A pause. “So?”

“Ugh. Fine. You better make it to Noveria without my help.”

Well, I had my own mission. To get to Noveria. Again. 

Time to book another flight. I received my things back from the officers in the evidence room, which included my omni-tool. I took it and quickly pulled up the travel app. Flight to Noveria was gone, and wouldn’t come back for another week. 

Well, that sucked. I guess I need to find my own private ride.

… Or I can always demand the pirate’s ship as reward for defeating the pirates. There had to be some kind of right of conquest kind of laws against pirates, right? 

It took some perusal of the Systems Alliance laws, but there was. 

Sweet. 

I have a ship of my own now. Time to get that ship in my name by law to become an actual asset in my life.