Mass Effect is own by BioEAWare. Concept based off the A&E Entertainment program 'LivePD'.

Headquarters, Future Content Network, New York City, New York, United North America, Earth, Sol System, Helios Cluster, February 8, 2175

Executive Producer Julia Davenport sat in her executive-style office chair, leaning back slightly as she looked at the bank of monitors in front of her as LiveC-SEC continued to air.

She had just gotten off the phone with about half-a-dozen very important people. One of them was the Future Content Network Chief Executive Officer, Chairman Vincent leFlamme. Another was another network drooling at the thought of syndicating the show onto their platform as well to reap in on the sudden explosion of viewers (that wasn't up to her). Some sissy-ass politican in the European Union cried about how there wasn't any kind of similar show in Europe to highlight Human cops on Earth (no doubt said same politician was likely one of those thumbsucking assholes Corporal Jane Catherine Shepard bitterly complained about handcuffing cops from doing their job to score points for the polls on live holovision). There was a Chief of Police in Sydney, Australia who was interested in doing something similar for the Territory of Australia to at least show Australians their own Finest at work (Julia could respect that). She had also surprisingly gotten a call from an Asari for a Citadel network about including a few more reporters and introducing a few others (meaning aliens) onto the show for diversity and equality (read: we didn't think of this but we want to jump on the band wagon).

The last phone call was the biggest though. And that phone was ringing right now unknownst to her.

"Julia? You have a call from an Adjutant Lictvus Bortalmus?" Paul Watkins said, her assistant told her, looking at her questioningly. "Says he's the Adjutant of the Hierarchy…?" Watkins didn't know what that was, and Julia had to think about it. She had heard of that term before somewhere… on the news…?

"Wait, as in…" Julia went to her terminal and did a search engine look-up on the name Lictvus Bortalmus, and the top result had her jaw drop.

This fucking guy is the right hand man of holyfuckingshit…

"Adjutant Bortalmus? This is Seras Julia Davenport with Future Content Network." Julia said over the phone on her desk, waving her hand at Watkins to indicate he'd rather be anywhere else other than in her proximity. "Do I need to go to a quieter location?" She was in the middle of the control room for LiveC-SEC where the show was running, and right now was focusing on a Centurion/Sergeant Marcus van de Walt, who was currently chastising a young Human teenager who was sitting flat on the corridor of the Citadel for vandalism while the C-SEC Officer was evidently going to make the young man clean up his art to avoid jail time.

"Seras Davenport, thank you for your time." Came the flanged voice of a male Turian over the receiver. "I am told that you are the Executive Producer of this Human 'reality' show called 'LiveC-SEC'."

"That is correct, Adjutant." Julia wasn't sure what the honorific was, but she knew Turians didn't say 'sir' or 'ma'am' like Humans did. There wasn't a 'Mister' or 'Misses', either. This guy's position indicated that this wasn't a part of the riff-raff or ye huddled masses; this guy had a political position that had most anyone with a brain stand up and take notice regardless of what government they served or what species they were a part of. No one blew this guy off.

Not when one was the right-hand man of the fucking Primarch of Palaven, they didn't.

"We just finished watching the latest segment," likely the 'Shepard' segment since the others were rather benign, "and found something interesting of note." Read: The Primarch found something interesting of note, thus I am calling you.

"I'm listening."

"This widow, Shaltis Adepdos?" Julia grunted in acknowledgment, wondering where this was leading. "What do you know of her?"

"Other than she is the wife… sorry, bondmate of Centurion Castis Adepdos and a mother… dam of two hatchlings, not much else, Adjutant." Davenport replied, wondering what this conversation was about. While she sincerely doubted that there was a file on every Turian for the Hierarchy for one to peruse, she suspected that the Adjutant didn't need a briefing from her about one of his own people, especially concerning a cops' wife. That sort of thing should be on record. "Can't gauge much else save she seems to have a nice place on the Cit. Never been there myself, and I can't compare how nice the furniture was since I've never seen a Turian house or domicile before. Could be fancy or basic for all I know."

"What struck us was that Seras Adepdos had a cooking surface that she exchanged from the one she used to cook for her hatchlings." Yes, Julia remembered that; the one ringed with red. That had struck her as funny, knowing it for what it was; a grill for levo foods to avoid cross-contamination. Obviously, Shaltis looked out after for Jane Shepard as her bondmate's partner, and that kind of thing wasn't unusual amongst cops, families being semi-adopted due to the closeness that cops tended to have. "What we noted that you might not have is that it was kept in easy reach, Seras, not in a location that Seras Adepdos had to locate or move several things in order to use. It was close by, on-hand, even."

"You mean to imply that it might be an everyday occurrence." She got the point that Adjutant Bortalmus was getting. "Shaltis is the bondmate of a deceased C-SEC Police Officer. I don't know how they do it on the Cit, but on Earth, a cops' wife gets what we generally call 'widow's benefits' when their spouse dies in the line-of-duty. I assume Shaltis is getting something like that… but Castis Adepdos had only been on the Force for… eight years?" Cit years and Earth years didn't exactly mesh, but it was somewhere around there. "Those can't be very healthy paychecks." Now she got the point the Adjutant was getting. "You think Jane moved in to help support Castis' family."

"Yes, we do." Read: The Primarch thinks that. "Seras Adepdos would only receive Tier II Widow Stipend; it is approximately a quarter of her bondmates' annual salary broken down into a monthly stipend. It is… not a stipend that one can afford to raise a family with without seeking employment elsewhere. And it is easy to tell that Seras Adepdos is a caregiver… I believe 'housemaker' is the Human term."

"Homemaker, a house wife." Husband earned the money, wife raised the kids at home. With the husband now gone, Shaltis Adepdos had two little ones possibly too young for daycare or whatever the Citadel did and a meager stipend after losing and burying her husband. Was it any real surprise that Jane Shepard had found a solution by possibly moving in, caring for the family of the man that she had heart-wrenchingly mentioned had in fact saved her life? For the partner she trusted and the one she couldn't save, she paid that debt in the only way she knew how; by providing as Castis did. Julia realized that LiveC-SEC was technically now successful; it had accomplished the goal she had pitched, to ease tensions between Humans and Turians. Oh, she doubted it would actually happen, but it was a good pitch. But now there was a Human cop who was looking after the family of a slain Turian cop, possibly living with them to help them make ends meet. Those two little hatchlings were certainly not at all afraid to run up right to their 'Auntie'. Hell, Jane spoke Unifying Cipritine! Very well, according to Turian-oriented comments on the message boards. "While I do appreciate the heads-up, I doubt this is why you called, Adjutant." Read: Get to the point, please. I'm running a show.

"We know that your network cannot pay the Officers involved with the show; it would be considered legal graft, which is not allowed on the Citadel." Or on Earth, Julia thought to herself, but didn't interrupt. "We are also aware that these segments containing Decantus Shepard have become quite sensational, and are undoubtedly making your network a great deal of money." Am… I about to be extorted by the Primarch of Palaven?, Julia thought next, but didn't interrupt. "We would greatly appreciate it if a contribution were made in Seras Adepdos' honor to help her out in her time of need."

Read: The Primarch wants you to help pay Shaltis' rent since you're making so much fucking money off a star cop you can't reimburse.

"That shouldn't be an issue, Adjutant." Julia replied honestly. Of course, you're probably going to hold me over a bucket if I didn't, but something tells me there's more to this story than just rent.

Davenport thought about it for a moment; wasn't C-SEC something like seventy percent Turian? No doubt there were cop casualties on the Cit; Jane did mention that no less than five in her Precinct alone had lost their lives in four months, and that was just the ones a part of Operation: Sandstorm. Five Police Officer fatalities in a city in a year was a big deal on Earth, but Jane literally worked in a small section of the Citadel. Possibly the worse, true (according to Shepard), but likely there were other deaths. There was something like two-hundred thousand Citadel Security Officers in the Center of the Known Universe, and Julia had an inkling of an idea that a good deal of their presence graced the Presidium Rings (the 'sidium was what Jane called it, and it was a pretty good nickname, actually). Throw in more cops in the high-presence, high-value, high-visibility areas like the Upper Rings of the Presidium, then all the admin types and whatnot that ran the Headquarters for C-SEC, and it was a wonder what the Precincts consisted of in terms of personnel. Julia wasn't even sure how many precincts or stations there were. That could be something to look up and put onto the next segment.

"Are you aware how Decantus Shepard knows Unifying Cipritine so well?" That actually sounded like an honest question.

"No, I don't." Julia replied honestly. She had looked up Jane Catherine Shepard's information when Michael Patrick Greene had selected her. "Citadel Security blocks most information from the public about their Officers for their protection as well as deterring possible blackmail, threats, collusion, and graft." Most law enforcement agencies did that, honestly, and for good reason. "I wasn't able to get much out of her except a birth date and the date she graduated Citadel Security Services' Training Academy three years prior. Obviously her past is classified so no one could locate any parents or siblings to threaten them to get to a cop. I just assumed that she learned it from her partner."

"To a Human, that would seem the case since you likely couldn't tell the difference." The Adjutant replied. "But to a Turian, they would be able to hear the pronunciations, the inflections, the accent. Her Cipritine is nearly flawless, and at conversation level, likely… native-level linguistics." That was considered a Level IV Speaker, being able to speak as if born knowing the language, more or less. "True, she had a Turian partner, her Precinct is likely heavily-populated with Turians, and she no doubt learned words in the Academy. But with Universal Translators, most don't bother learning how to speak another language. I certainly don't know the three Thessian cants or how to speak Sur'keshian other than a few words and numbers." Julia was getting the point Adjutant Bortalmus was getting. With a Universal Translator, Jane wouldn't have needed to learn Unifying Cipritine or any other language to perform her job as a C-SEC Officer. Yet, somehow, she had learned it not only proficiently, but to a degree that Turians would recognize as extremely well. "It would take one years to learn it that well. I believe I met an Asari with a Turian bondmate that learned it for his sakes, and it took her around a decade to speak it to a degree where she sounded as if she had been born to it. Decantus Shepard has that same ability, and yet has only been a C-SEC Officer for three years where half of her day is spent enforcing the law, not learning a language."

Read: Who, what, when, where, and why.

"Surprisingly, I can't tell you anything about her past save that she graduated from the C-SEC Training Academy with a high score and yet ended up in one of the worst locations in the Citadel." Julia had a pretty good idea how that happened; none of the Human C-SEC Officers were in 'good' locations, none of them protecting and serving any closer to the Presidium Rings than the Mid-Arm Section. They were also all Civil Patrol Officers; not one Mobile Patrol Officer, not one in the Investigations and Evidence Division, or the Financial Crime Division, or Narcotic Enforcement Bureau, or any of the other 'higher-level' offices and precincts of C-SEC. Every single one of them was a street cop, and the highest-ranking one was a Sergeant; no Detectives, no Lieutenants, no Agents or Special Agents (if they had those), none of those things. Hell, the longest-serving Human cop in C-SEC had just hit his ten year mark, so perhaps that wasn't that unusual. But she doubted it. No, Jane Shepard was in the Orlop Wards of the Outer Tract of the Zakera Arm because C-SEC dumped the Humans in shitty precincts. Yes, the turnover rates were pretty high in those locations (from quitting, being fired, being arrested themselves, or getting injured and/or killed) and so the numbers would have to be brought back up… but it was still pretty telling.

Jane was the only Human in her Precinct. Davenport wondered how that would look when Mike arrived there.

But the Adjutant did bring up a good point; how did Jane end up speaking Cipritine so well?

Thankfully, she happened to work for a network that employed both reporters… and investigative journalists.

And one of them was pretty much sitting right in front of the subject in question.

Orlop/Lower Outer Tract Precinct, Block 3850 (Lower Wards), Zakera Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 8, 2175

Prelate Britus Syltius was getting a call on his personal receiver in his personal office; not a number that was known to the general public. The CallEID had him a bit shocked, but he supposed that he should have expected it.

"Prelate Syltius? This is Councilor Sesius Algonius." The flanged voice in the receiver confirmed what the CallEID on the receivers' base had said. Britus did his best not to sigh; why the vrack was he getting called instead of the Chief Executor? That was what a meritocracy was for. "I'm sure you're aware of your Officers' involvement of what just happened spreading throughout the ExtraNet like plasma fire. Do you have any idea how this will make C-SEC look?" The tone wasn't pleased at all.

"Good." Syltius replied, making the voice pause. "Because not only was every word Shepard said true, she actually didn't tell anyone some of the other bad bits that I've been fighting fang-and-claw against. Like the part that Adepdos' widow isn't receiving her surviving widow stipend, Shepard herself was stuck with her medical bills, that I was forced to suspend her for a month without pay from the Office of the Executor, or the fact that the sapient that killed her partner had a CitPass approved in record time through Customs and Immigration. I haven't gotten any resolution at all for the murders of five of my Officers through the Bureau of Investigations and Evidence or the Office of Internal Action Affairs. Of course, all the evidence was destroyed by order of the Tribunal, and done by C-SEC. That little s'kak-scraping scumbag who existed in another jurisdiction for seven years unmolested was debiting in millions in Red Sand into the Citadel itself through means that neither my Officers or myself were able to fully track down." The voice hadn't responded yet. The cold fury that Britus felt at all that slipped through the cracks was now talking; that cold fury that had him in charge of one of the smallest Precincts in the Citadel with the worst jurisdiction in terms of crime, population density, poverty, and domicilelessness numbers. He had the worst location, and the fewest amount of Officers. "I picked Shepard along with five other Officers for Operation: Sandstorm because they were damn good at their jobs and I trusted them. She's the only one left alive, and she was looking at a complete and utter failure on C-SEC's behalf when the case was not only completely dismissed by the Tribunal, but all the evidence destroyed and the records sealed. Probably should ask if you met Pitne For in some political-oriented party or other event, shook his hand, or accepted a campaign contribution. As I understood it from that evidence that was destroyed by Internal Action Affairs, he was pretty generous with his donations."

There was a significant pause.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Councilor?" Syltius asked. There was enough scorn in his voice to jump-start a stellar singularity.

"This will likely cost her her badge."

"Rolling the guilt and blame on the lowest-ranking individual?" Britus scoffed at that. "Let me remind you, Councilor, that the public can be very fickle. While the physical evidence that my Officers collected and I reverified before sending it to Department of Judicial Prosecution was destroyed by order of the Tribunal, there's likely plenty of electronic evidence available on the ExtraNet that can be obtained by anyone. You try to take Shepard's badge, and I don't doubt that this Future Content Network will make a push against it, along with the Human Embassy. You try to bury her, and they'll turn her into a hero and a martyr as being the only damn cop that actually did her job right.

"Oh, and good luck with her sire. I'm sure he'll be quite pleased when he finds out." Syltius could almost hear the mechanics in Councilor Algonius's head trying to jump-start the engine core of his brain, probably wondering why he should be worried about a Human father.

Britus wondered how the public would react when they found out that little truth.

Apt. 1408, Stannis Fields Building, 3125 Block (Lower Wards), Kithoi Arm, Citadel, Widow System, Serpent Nebula, February 8, 2175

Decantus/Corporal Jane Catherine Shepard found herself receiving a phone call from, of all people, her boss's boss's boss's boss… give or take a few.

"This is Decantus Shepard." Jane spoke into her EarComm, connected to her OmniTools' Li-Fi link and encrypted through the Citadel Security Services Communication Server that was connected to her Haliat Armory's Regelius C-SEC Edition BlueTool. She had walked into her 'bedroom' in the Adepdos Domicile when she saw who was trying to contact her, glaring at Mike Greene to let him know that this would be a private call. She certainly didn't need a one-sided conversation with her boss's boss's boss's boss broadcasted.

"Decantus, this is Chief Executor Kaius Contenus." The Executor of Citadel Security Services identified himself, likely out of habit despite Shepard's BlueTool having a CallEID linked to the person-in-question. "That… cameraman isn't there?"

"No, I'm in another room, and the door is closed." Jane didn't mention that it was her room. She was pretty certain on how this conversation was going to go.

Badly.

"This whole… debacle," that was putting it mildly, "has made a real mess of things." Shepard knew Turian tones, and this one sounded… resigned. "When I tell you to take the rest of your shift off, it isn't because you are being suspended or investigated. For the moment at least, though I will make sure that if there is one that it will be fair. I just looked up your suspension that I did sign off on and discovered that what was handed to me had nothing to do with the events that you described. But since C-SEC was ordered to destroy all the evidence against Serah For that included the shooting involving yourself and your partner, which the report didn't cover, the investigation will likely be a procedural one where we annotate what evidence we do have left; whatever it is that you saw and collected."

A part of Shepard was shocked, but not really surprised.

"My Prelate did also see that evidence." Shepard responded, frowning. This wasn't what she had been expecting. It was better to be sure, but she wasn't sure if it was merely scrambling to recovering from losses or a screw-up. "If you need collaboration, he would be the one that can confirm what we discovered."

"It may come to that." The Executor sighed audibly. "I won't lie Decantus; this will get ugly. I don't doubt that Pitne had important people in his suit pockets, and I don't doubt some of those same sapients have political positions; his case is a testament to that. Someone will go after you for overstepping your bounds, but what I saw today was the galaxy watching one of our own righting a wrong in a heavy-handed manner, and I don't actually disapprove. I'm glad you didn't execute him on live holovision; that I was afraid of. Since there is technically no murder, no body, no item used, and no real evidence that For-Clan is dead, any charges brought upon you at a later date will be quashed by this Office personally. Your partner was murdered, and we failed him. Spirits know were I in your position, I would have gone in with a shotgun and watched that Volus cur pop with depressurization with a smile. But I must warn you, Decantus; you are now very visible.

"I wouldn't celebrate that."

"Yeah." There really wasn't such a thing as a 'popular' cop. And the few that did exist were generally hounded by criminals. "Bet you're regretting this whole show thing."

"If there's one good thing to come of this, Decantus, is that people just got a damn good reminder to respect the law."

"Yeah, I'd say." Jane saw the door to her bedroom open, and Shaltis pop her fringed head in, indicating that she needed to say something. "Hold on a second, Executor." She looked to her partners' widow. "Is everything alright, Shaltis?"

"Yes, Jane. Your brother is here, though." Jane blinked at that. She hadn't seen her brother in almost a year due to their positions in C-SEC; both duty-wise as well as location upon the Citadel. She was already smiling though.

"Go visit your family, Decantus. We'll talk later, I am sure." The Executor said, in which Shepard thanked him before hanging up. She left her mostly-bare bedroom to enter into the main domicile to see Mike Green sitting on one of her Human chairs looking at the newcomer, the reporter looking at her with a questioning look. She ignored him as Jane practically bolted forward to give her older brother a hug.

"Garrus!"

EPILOGUE

By the end of the solar day on several homeworlds, colonies, and space stations, word-of-mouth had spread around about the newest HV sensation; LiveC-SEC. New subscriptions were ordered in the millions, and the show was viewed more than three hundred million times before the next calender day. Messages on ExtraNet boards supported by a hundred social media outlets numbered in the billions as trolls, memes, troupes, picquotes, and gifs were pasted and linked. The show was publicized on thousands of commercials on thusands of stations, talked about my late night hosts and Netbloggers, Netstreamed through thousands of locations throughout the Milky Way. Before the next workday, it was the newest sensation, friends introducing it to friends, workers to workers, acquaintances to acquaintances. One could find sapients streaming it on their OmniTools and Datapadds while waiting for public transportation, viewing it on console screens in Skycars, watching it at their homes, sneaking peeks on their work terminals when they should have been employed. What had looked to be a cop with a grudge about to execute her partners' murderer had turned into something even more diabolical, where somehow everyone walked away alive… whether that was a good thing or not only the Gods and Spirits knew. Yet as much as the show became the newest thing in a galaxy that always seems starving for the latest 'new-new', it was shadowed by one thing and one thing only; its newest star.

By the end of February Eighth on the Terran Calender, Jane Catherine Shepard became the most famous cop in the galaxy.

STAY TUNED FOR SEASON TWO OF 'LIVEC-SEC'! SAME PROVIDER, SAME SUBSCRIPTION!

AND NOW, A WORD FROM OUR SPONSORS…

"Crest a mess? Getting ready for the big date? Check out Armali Councils' CrestGel. When you want to look your best, forget the rest!"

"Valluvius Aeros' Ghost; the highest-rated sports Skycar in the galaxy. Get it today with a low APR and down payment! Valluvius; fly faster than the Spirits!"

"Sha'ira's Secret new line of intimate apparel has released its latest line; the Barkini Edition. Come check us out!"

"Yan'bola's Labor Union is expanding its employment services through the Hegemony and Traverse to address the needs of growing businesses and labor-intensive workloads. We guarantee efficiency and compliance."

"Not a morning person? Perk up with Starbuck's; the galaxy's most popular drink!"

Author's Notes: I cam up with the idea of LiveC-SEC literally about five or six days ago (perhaps even on Mother's Day, shame on me). I wasn't watching LivePD, didn't reminisce about COPS, and I think I was working on Andromeda: A Better Tomorrow as the counterpart to Mass Effect: Of Lions And Angels where Jane Shepard goes to Andromeda instead of playing ME3. To make that work out, I had Jane be a career cop in C-SEC, raised by the Ryders on the Citadel and joining the force at eighteen. I made her a famous cop by introducing an incident where a reporter had been doing a show called CitPD, and then there was a highly-publicized incident when Jane had been the one followed where Mike Greene is a tag-along to a massive shootout, and Shepard becomes a famous cop. I like the idea so much that I literally wrote it for context, and like that so much that I decided to say screw it and made it a story. And that's how I roll, cookie dough.

Yes, that one advertisement is, in fact, for 'indentured laborers from the Hegemony'. Batarians (and their Embassy) are still a part of Council Space. The original 'Citadel Blues' (which had CopShep and CopGarrus as partners) would have had them cracking into a drug-ring that would have lead to the Batarian Ambassador 'importing' not only Red Sand, but 'laborers' as well, which would have led to the expulsion/pulling-out of the Batarian Embassy. Mind you, that doesn't mean the Batarians as a whole are gone; just the government ones.

The advertisements are all joke advertisements of 'products' I've created once upon a time or another throughout the various Mass Effect stories I've written, such as Sha'ira's Secret being the ME version of Victoria's Secret, the Cipritine Ghost being the car Lieutenant Janey Shepard stole in Mass Effect vs. Aliens, and the fact that I've used Starbuck's as the joke 'most popular human brand in the galaxy' because Earth is the only place with the coffee bean… and the galaxy has a dire craving for caffeine. (BTW, tea is the most popular drink on Earth today. Thank you, England)

Prelate Brilus Syltius gets a chance to hang up on a Councilor. He fits the mold that I see Police Chiefs and Commissioners; absolute hard-asses that you do not want to get on the bad side of. Like Tom Selleck on steroids.

Wait, that Garrus? Yes… THAT Garrus. Stay tuned.

Coming up next?

LiveC-SEC: Season 2 - Armed And Dangerous