Arbiter

Chapter 1 of Ghost in the Machine

Two years before the attack on Eden Prime.

If you were to ask, Nihlus would probably tell you that he loved his job. On any other day, that is. Right now, he imagined that being anything, anything at all, from a mercenary looking for easy credits among the arms dealers in the Verge to a lap dancer in Afterlife on Omega, would be better than being a Spectre. Because, most days, being a Spectre meant eliminating the scum of the Galaxy. It was as simple as that, and it was something Nihlus was extremely good at, although to say he enjoyed it would be taking it a bit too far. But there were days, the never-ending, dreary days, when the Council expected their top military operatives to don fancy civilian suits and act as diplomats, negotiators, or, like today, arbiters.

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Ghost in the Machine

What if Nihlus didn’t die on Eden Prime? This is an AU retelling of Mass Effect where the fateful meeting with Saren plays out differently, changing everything.

Table of contents:
  1. Arbiter
  2. Dinner
  3. Warning
  4. Departure
  5. Deflection
  6. Eden Prime
  7. Failure
  8. Bad Dreams
  9. Nine
  10. Obsession
  11. The Hearing
  12. Off With the Gloves
  13. Played
  14. Persuasion
  15. Good Timing
  16. Extraction
  17. Conclave
  18. The Ghost
  19. Small Talk
  20. Sanctum
  21. Heads or Tails
  22. Gates of Hell
  23. Into the Pit
  24. Out of the Frying Pan
  25. Whispers
  26. Just Like Old Times
  27. The Pulse
  28. Knots and Ties
  29. Feros
  30. Rachni
  31. Ruthless
  32. Benezia
  33. The Cipher
  34. Dead Hearts I
  35. Dead Hearts II
  36. Dead Hearts III
  37. The Vault
  38. The Cure
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Nihlus stared at the mirror in the bathroom of his prefab for the longest time. He felt like years had passed since yesterday and he wanted to see if he looked any older. But he only looked tired. Tired, spent, hungover. The colors on his face were fading. He had some scratch marks on his neck, a little souvenir from Vakarian. It was good for what it was. Not quite good enough to replace the painful memory with a pleasant one, but he was grateful anyway.

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