At 2:42 GST the Reaper embassy on Sur'Kesh was destroyed. A tiny thermonuclear charge detonated on the second storey, atomising eighteen synthetic drones and five organic employees. Of the building itself nothing remained.

At 3:07 GST the Reaper collective intelligence known as the Shepherd mobilised it's organic agents. Although no one knew it at the time this attack was the opening shot of the second Krogan rebellion.

The conditions of the Reaper War Armistice prohibited the Shepherd from making overt military deployments, except in the case of mandatory peace keeping actions and even then only with strong supporting evidence. Whoever detonated the bomb had likely been incinerated along with their motives.
Without official sanction from the council to retaliate the Shepherd was forced to employ mercenaries to do its dirty work.
Some of those mercenaries where a group known as the Kepesh-Ardate: 'the blade demons.'

The Kepesh-Ardate was founded by Asari soldier of fortune Karla D'mel in the wake of the Reaper War to fill the vacuum of power brought about by the severe casualties sustained by the Blue Suns, Eclipse and Blood Pack. Although much smaller than any of its competitors the Kepesh-Ardate managed to win out through superior equipment and meticulous battle plans. The fact that they are almost always out numbered earned them instant respect from both their employers and their enemies. It also caught the attention of the Shepherd.
The mercenaries had fulfilled a small number of contracts with the Reapers over the past ten years and they had enjoyed funding and intelligence perks that rivalled those of the council Spectres while on those missions.

The Shepherd had intentionally made the incentives ridiculously high in hopes of temping new allies but each time anti-Reaper insurgents had wiped out almost everyone willing to accept Reaper money. Among the select group to survive was the Kepesh-Ardate.

Sur'Kesh, ground zero.

A young Asari scurried through the crime scene. Her target was the broad figure of another Asari silhouetted against the harsh chemical lamps the Salarian Disaster Prevention Group had erected around the blast zone.
Dashing through the holographic police cordon she skirted around two haz-mat wearing Salarians and held out the file she was clutching to her employer.

"Here you are Ma'am."

Karla D'mel turned to face her subordinate, there was an unnerving anger in her left eye. Her right eye as always was hidden behind a cotton eye patch.
"Thanks Beck." Taking the file she quickly scanned it without apparent interest.

Beck decided to risk her own neck by questioning her boss's plans while she was in a mood. She knew it was a bad idea but curiosity overwhelmed common sense.

"Ms D'mel, if you don't mind me asking why are we here? We where hired to find the terrorists so why are we here at ground zero? We're not forensic experts." Even as she was talking she thought 'why am I saying this, this is dumb.' She tried to stop but the words kept pouring out.

Surprisingly while D'mel still looked livid she didn't turn her aggression on her subordinate. Apparently the rumours that she had mellowed a little over the last decade where true.

"Because I need to see it, to get down on the ground floor, otherwise I can't get pissed about it and I don't except contracts I don't care about. Simple as that."

"And?"

"And it worked. This is messed up. I mean what are these people trying to do? We're still rebuilding from the Reaper war and they want to start a cluster-fuck. This is messed up." Karla suddenly turned away from her assistant as if she had been struck with impulsive inspiration. "I've seen enough. Prep the shuttle."

"Yes ma'am."

Karla immediately marched off through the cordon but Beck held back to get a look at the scene. The DPG had set up shimmering radiation shields around the crater but she could still see the devastation. 'That's one hell of a way to send a message.' She stepped to one side to let two medics pushing a gurney pass. Not a survivor, just a civilian who had seen the blast, wandered too close and been poisoned. Radiation burns scarred the whole of the Salarian's chest and most of his face. 'Overkill.'

"Beck!" Karla was standing past the cordon, hand on hip, she looked even madder than she had a minute ago. "Let's go!"

Illium, Nos Astra.

The Kepesh-Ardate headquarters in the business sector of Nos Astra was packed. There hadn't been anything more than one or two man assignments for almost five months so no one was currently out in the field. All sixty of the full time combat personnel where barracked as where the hundred and seventy support staff. The headquarters itself was situated on the two hundred and first floor of the Gerellie conglomerate building and looked out onto the interior of a high speed skycar tunnel allowing easy access to the city's arterial transport routes via its three hangers.

The D'mel personal shuttle touched down in hanger three and almost the second Karla and Beck left the exit hatch behind them they were swarmed by members of logistics department. Karla batted them off irritably until Beck physically placed herself between the boss and her over eager employees. She gathered up all the datapads and paper printouts that they shoved in her face and soon her arms where over flowing. She only had time for a cursory glance at each but almost all where transcripts of communications from the Shepherd. Whatever was happening must be big for the Reaper supreme intelligence to get so heavily involved, in the few contracts that the Kapesh-Ardate had fulfilled for the Shepherd it had never bothered to communicate beyond its initial message. Looking up Beck realised she had lost track of Karla in the press.

Deafening music (if you could call it that) was blaring from the open door of the officer's staff room, muffling Karla's approach. She grimaced as she barged her way in, shouting to make herself heard. "What the hell is that crap!"

Claire Perry, one of the company's most veteran members, looked up from her lunch without concern. The last two decades had been kind to her, her curly blonde hair was only slightly shot through with grey and the barest hints of crow's feet were starting to gather around her calm brown eyes.
Of all the lieutenants Claire probably had the closest friendship with Karla, she could see through her bluster.

"Expel 10's anniversary album." Said Claire, idly chasing a strand of carbonara around her plate with her fork.

"I didn't know they were still together." As always Karla's anger was quick to burn itself out, she perched on the edge of the desk and helped herself to a slug of Claire's juice.

"Well the non-Asari members have died but they have a new Turian vocalist who could turn your marrow to jelly."

"That's great and all but I don't care. You hear back from shrub?" Before she departed for Sur'Kesh Karla had asked her lieutenant to contact the aging Salarian, who now headed up D'mel enterprises as a legitimate procurement company to supply the Kepesh-Ardate.

"Yeah give me a sec." With a few swipes on her Omni-tool Claire cancelled the ear splitting playback and scrolled through her messages until she found what she was looking for.

"Here we go: he says he's having some trouble but he should have ordered the new suit barriers by the end of the week; apparently the Alliance doesn't want to share."

Karla visibly relaxed. With those barriers the Kapesh-Ardate would be ready for frontline service again.
"Good. When you write back tell him to-"

Beck staggered into the lounge, sagging under the weight of all the reports she was carrying, seeing Karla she blurted out: "Boss I've…" She silenced herself when she realised that her boss was still talking. "Sorry."

"-Tell shrub to order one disruptor unit and one polonium per head." Karla finished, swigged down the last of Claire's juice and turning to her assistant. "Yeah Beck what is it?"

"I've sifted through the reports from logistics."

Karla nodded. "Give me the short version."

"We're no closer to learning who the bombers are."

From her place behind the desk Claire laughed lightly. "Wow that was the short version."

Karla seemed less amused.
"Then why are you bothering me with this?" In answer Beck dumped the paperwork on the desk, fished out a particular datapad and handed it to her employer.

"A human private investigator by the name of Hughie Marshall wants to hire us to do some heavy lifting. Intel ran a check on the perp and apparently his parents were heavily involved in the anti-Reaper riots of 2188. Plus he just got back from Sur'Kesh. It's not much of a lead and it's a chump change job but every little clue helps right?"

Claire hopped to her feet. "I'll do it. The lead is solid." Beck frowned quizzically but Claire waved her off before she could ask the obvious question of how she knew.

"It doesn't matter what the job is to be honest. I'm going stir crazy cooped up in the office all day. I'll read the briefing in the car on the way over." She waited for Karla's nod of approval before snatching the datapad from her fingers and practically skipping out the door.

N/B: These first few chapters will be taken up with the the search for the embassy bomber but the story will be moving on to more familiar characters in time, promise.