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* {{Paparazzi]]: Khalisah bint-Sinan al-Jilani, though she believes herself to be an IntrepidReporter



* {{Paparazzi}}: Khalisah bint-Sinan al-Jilani, though she believes herself to be an IntrepidReporter
* PlayfulHacker: Edi and Tali. Played with, as the former is a program running on the ship's computer.



* TheHacker: Edi and Tali. Played with, as the former is a program running on the ship's computer.
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* FantasticRacist: Saren questions Shepard's candidacy behind her back, seemingly just because she's human. Little did he know she recorded the whole thing for use as insurance—and so did his former protegé Nihlus! Ashley acts similarly, but only in private, and in a more benign way than Saren.

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* FantasticRacist: Saren questions Shepard's candidacy behind her back, seemingly just because she's human. [[LittleDidIKnow Little did he know know]] she recorded the whole thing for use as insurance—and so did his former protegé Nihlus! Ashley acts similarly, but only in private, and in a more benign way than Saren.
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They Fight Crime is no longer a trope


All right, now that you're properly confused, here's a better description: TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, a lady captain and FriendlySniper in TheRepublic's Main/SpaceNavy rescues a TuxedoAndMartini special-ops Main/CowboyCop of an alien species. He takes up residence in her ship, and together with a RagtagBunchOfMisfits, TheyFightCrime Murderers, terrorists, cult leaders, and omnicidal artificial intelligences, watch out, because Shepard and Kryik are on the case! Definitely a fun read even if you've never played the games.

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All right, now that you're properly confused, here's a better description: TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, a lady captain and FriendlySniper in TheRepublic's Main/SpaceNavy rescues a TuxedoAndMartini special-ops Main/CowboyCop of an alien species. He takes up residence in her ship, and together with a RagtagBunchOfMisfits, TheyFightCrime they fight crime. Murderers, terrorists, cult leaders, and omnicidal artificial intelligences, watch out, because Shepard and Kryik are on the case! Definitely a fun read even if you've never played the games.
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* MoreDakka: Although there are three snipers on the team and one sharpshooter, all except Legion use conventional anti-personnel scoped sniper rifles (think Dragunov). Legion's WeaponOfChoice, on the other hand, is an ''anti-tank rifle'' designed to be used off a tripod (think Barrett). The carnage is a sight to behold.

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* MoreDakka: Although there are three snipers on the team and one sharpshooter, all except Legion use conventional anti-personnel scoped sniper rifles (think Dragunov). Legion's WeaponOfChoice, weapon, on the other hand, is an ''anti-tank rifle'' designed to be used off a tripod (think Barrett). The carnage is a sight to behold.
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Available at https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359791?view_full_work=true

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Available at https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359791?view_full_work=true
Can be read [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359791?view_full_work=true here]].
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* SkunkStripe: Shepard's hair looks like a badger's arse and ends up significant in a plot to frame her for murder by its absence.
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* HighConcept: Film/LethalWeapon... InSpace!
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* MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness: Very much on the hard side, even more than the games, with just OneBigLie.
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thesouthpaw is detroped per TRS, doesn't fit any subtypes


* TheSouthpaw: Wrex. Because of his rare and unorthodox gift (well, for a krogan), he's reduced to holding his more conventional firearm (generally a shotgun) in his right hand; his left hand is for biotics. After all, facility with weapons is a way of life for krogan, but biotics are special!
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Fixed some article links.


* Main/Ambadassador: Legion. They're a sort of ambassador for the Orthodox faction of the geth, a robotic HiveMind race experiencing a sort of civil war; they're also a scarily competent sniper who pull more than their own weight in the squad.

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* Main/Ambadassador: {{Ambadassador}}: Legion. They're a sort of ambassador for the Orthodox faction of the geth, a robotic HiveMind race experiencing a sort of civil war; they're also a scarily competent sniper who pull more than their own weight in the squad.



* Main/Foil: Udina to Legion (they're both ambassadors, though Legion is a sniper/infiltrator with a Medici-like outlook, while Udina is a sedentary Borgia-style jerk). Also, strangely, the ''ships'': the SSV Normandy and turian ship Impera are both frigates, both armed with a Thanix, and both [[spoiler:have AI's]]. Normandy has Edi and Impera has [[spoiler:Nazara]].

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* Main/Foil: {{Foil}}: Udina to Legion (they're both ambassadors, though Legion is a sniper/infiltrator with a Medici-like outlook, while Udina is a sedentary Borgia-style jerk). Also, strangely, the ''ships'': the SSV Normandy and turian ship Impera are both frigates, both armed with a Thanix, and both [[spoiler:have AI's]]. Normandy has Edi and Impera has [[spoiler:Nazara]].



* Main/Paparazzi: Khalisah bint-Sinan al-Jilani, though she believes herself to be an IntrepidReporter

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* Main/Paparazzi: {{Paparazzi]]: Khalisah bint-Sinan al-Jilani, though she believes herself to be an IntrepidReporter



* Main/Ubermensch: Nihlus. "He was like a force of nature. He had his own ideas and codes that governed how and why he did things. Galactic law and even his former mentor could not get him to do something he did not want to do. He was chaos itself, and Shepard feared to place her trust in the unpredictable. After that, it was all a matter of making excuses."

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* Main/Ubermensch: {{Ubermensch}}: Nihlus. "He was like a force of nature. He had his own ideas and codes that governed how and why he did things. Galactic law and even his former mentor could not get him to do something he did not want to do. He was chaos itself, and Shepard feared to place her trust in the unpredictable. After that, it was all a matter of making excuses."

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* HateSink: Udina. There is nothing redeemable about the man, and he exists solely to attract everyone's irritation. Even the humans hate him; he's a bureaucrat doing the job of a politician.

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* HateSink: Udina. There is nothing redeemable about the man, and he exists solely to attract everyone's irritation. Even the humans hate him; he's a bureaucrat doing the job of a politician. Which may explain how he got the job: the Diplomatic Service is part of the Civil Service in most Westminster-style countries.



* KnightInSourArmor: Wrex. More or less everything he says is sarcasm or Aussie-style humour.

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* KnightInSourArmor: Wrex. More or less everything Sarcasm is his first language (or rather, irony, as he says is sarcasm or Aussie-style humour.rarely if ever intends to hurt anyone with it).



* RedOniBlueOni: Legion (blue), Garrus (blue), Kaidan (blue) to Ashley (red), Nihlus (pink), and Wrex (red).

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* RedOniBlueOni: Legion (blue), (ultramarine) to Tali (pink), Garrus (blue), (blue) to Nihlus (pink) and Wrex (red), Kaidan (blue) to Ashley (red), Nihlus (pink), and Wrex (red).



* TheFederation: The Galactic Council is either this or a confederation; it has its own special forces, but the turians, humans, salarians, and asari have their own armies and navies as well.

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* TheFederation: The Galactic Council is either this or a confederation; it has its own special forces, but the turians, humans, salarians, and asari have their own armies and navies as well. There's the Spectres (Citadel jurisdiction and like the FBI), and then there's the Special Tactics Group (salarian jurisdiction and like the CIA with spaceships). There's also the Shadow Broker (privatised and like Paladin Securities).


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* TranquilFury: Saren's default state of mind. Yes, even when he's alone with Nihlus.
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* ASinisterClue: Notably averted for Wrex. He's left-handed but absolutely not evil in the slightest; he'll advocate physical force and PayEvilUntoEvil somewhat more than most people, he has a mercurial personality (as opposed to Jenkins who's all hot), and has a callous disregard for the law where it conflicts with the right thing, but his multiple hearts are firmly in the right place.

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* DualWielding: A variation, with Battlemaster Urdnot Wrex, as per his title (the krogan name for a paladin, with the human equivalent being a Vanguard). He's left-handed, though he fires his shotgun with the right hand, because his left hand's for ''magic''.



* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Legion and Tali (leukine); Saren, Ashley, and Udina (choleric); Wrex (melancholic); Shepard, Kaidan and [[spoiler:Liara]] (phlegmatic); Nihlus and Jenkins (sanguine).

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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Legion and Tali (leukine); Saren, Ashley, and Udina (choleric); Wrex (melancholic); (melancholic, though notably extroverted); Shepard, Kaidan and [[spoiler:Liara]] (phlegmatic); Nihlus and Jenkins (sanguine).



* KnightInSourArmor: Wrex. More or less everything he says is sarcasm or Aussie-style humour.



* SherlockScan: Thanks to his grasp of Shep's habits, Kaidan deduces, or rather abduces, that she didn't order him to play a role for C-sec's benefit and that Nihlus did. That's just an example (Lt. Alenko has good logical skills all round). Nihlus as well: he figured out that the ship's executive officer was a (highly illegal) computer program, from day one, and was unfazed by the fact.

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* SherlockScan: Thanks to his grasp of Shep's habits, Kaidan deduces, or rather abduces, that she didn't order him to play a role for C-sec's benefit and that Nihlus did. That's just an example (Lt. Alenko has good logical skills all round). Nihlus as well: he figured out that the ship's executive officer was a (highly illegal) computer program, from day one, and was unfazed by the fact. Shep, on the other hand, has a knack for crime scene investigation, which is half a Spectre's day-in-day-out work.


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* TheSouthpaw: Wrex. Because of his rare and unorthodox gift (well, for a krogan), he's reduced to holding his more conventional firearm (generally a shotgun) in his right hand; his left hand is for biotics. After all, facility with weapons is a way of life for krogan, but biotics are special!
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* CommanderContrarian: Councillor Sparatus will nitpick and argue ''because he likes to argue''. Had Shep killed the Rachni Queen, he'd have said something along the lines of "The Council doesn't promote genocide", but since she saved her, he instead said "You risk the rachni killing us all." Fortunately, Shep knows this.

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* CommanderContrarian: Councillor Sparatus will nitpick and argue ''because he likes to argue''. Had Shep killed the Rachni Queen, he'd have said something along the lines of "The Council doesn't promote genocide", but since she saved her, he instead said "You risk the rachni killing us all." Fortunately, Shep knows this.this, although it takes her forever and a day to realise it.



* OfficerAndAGentleman: For the humans, it's Staff Lt Kaidan Alenko, Officer Commanding of the Normandy's Marine detachment. Aside from that, there's Nihlus Kryik, who's [[spoiler:the estranged stepson of Lucian Pallas, the Governor-General of Taetrus, and Camilla Pallas nee Kryik, the daughter of a general in the Turian Hierarchy]].

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* OfficerAndAGentleman: For the humans, it's Staff Lt Kaidan Alenko, Officer Commanding of the Normandy's Marine detachment. Aside from that, there's Nihlus Kryik, who's [[spoiler:the estranged stepson of Lucian Pallas, the Governor-General of Taetrus, and Camilla Pallas nee née Aurelia, once known as Camilla Kryik, the daughter of a general in the Turian Hierarchy]].
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* DaChief: Saren and the Council, particularly Sparatus.

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* DaChief: Saren and the Council, particularly Sparatus. [[spoiler:Or so it seems; Sparatus is actually a CommanderContrarian, partially to fill the role of the DevilsAdvocate and get people to assuage every possible complaint people might throw in the Spectres' direction, and partially because ItAmusedMe. He'll say the sky is green and the grass is blue, so that people ''prove'' the opposite rather than taking it for granted.]]

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* BlueBlood: Camilla Pallas, née Aurelia, her husband Lucian, and her son Octavian. She's the daughter of a general (in turian society this means a lot), and he's the planetary Governor-General. This was her second marriage, though; Camilla Pallas was previously known as [[spoiler:Camilla Kryik]], meaning that [[spoiler:her other, estranged, son Nihlus is also a blue-blood]].



* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Ambassador Udina. On a scale of Medici to Machiavelli to Borgia, he's just a bit past Borgia.

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* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Ambassador Udina. On a scale of Medici to Machiavelli to Borgia, he's just a bit past Borgia. Thing is, he's not even remotely competent; he's a paper-pusher, an ObstructiveBureaucrat promoted to a job where he needs to relate to people and aliens. Nobody likes him, not the human Alliance Navy, not the turians, not the asari, not the salarians, and ''definitely'' not Shepard or Nihlus. Exactly the wrong type of temperament for a diplomat.



* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Small arms in this fic are railguns firing supersonic slugs; a few ships have Thanix beam cannons, but those are rare, expensive, and nowhere near man-portable. They are also not energy weapons; their ammunition is boiling metal, so they're ''thermal'' kinetic weapons, like HEAT rounds but continuous.

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* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Small arms in this fic are railguns firing supersonic slugs; a few ships have Thanix beam cannons, but those are rare, expensive, and nowhere near man-portable. They are also not energy weapons; their ammunition is they fire boiling metal, so they're ''thermal'' kinetic weapons, metal in a continuous stream--still kinetic, just with a thermal kick, like HEAT rounds but continuous.anti-armour rounds.



* OfficerAndAGentleman: For the humans, it's Staff Lt Kaidan Alenko, Officer Commanding of the Normandy's Marine detachment. Aside from that, there's Nihlus Kryik, who's [[spoiler:the estranged stepson of Lucian Pallas, the Governor-General of Taetrus, and Camilla Pallas nee Kryik, the daughter of a general in the Turian Hierarchy]].



* SapientShip: The Normandy hosts a highly illegal AI. Debatable if the ship is sapient, or if it's just a peripheral for a sapient computer.
* SherlockScan: Thanks to his grasp of Shep's habits, Kaidan deduces, or rather abduces, that she didn't order him to play a role for C-sec's benefit and that Nihlus did. That's just an example. Nihlus as well: he figured out that the ship's executive officer was a (highly illegal) computer program, from day one, and was unfazed by the fact.

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* SapientShip: The Normandy hosts a highly an AI, which is illegal AI.under international law because of the potential for AIIsACrapshoot. Debatable if the ship is sapient, or if it's just a peripheral for a sapient computer.
* SherlockScan: Thanks to his grasp of Shep's habits, Kaidan deduces, or rather abduces, that she didn't order him to play a role for C-sec's benefit and that Nihlus did. That's just an example.example (Lt. Alenko has good logical skills all round). Nihlus as well: he figured out that the ship's executive officer was a (highly illegal) computer program, from day one, and was unfazed by the fact.



* TheChessmaster: Nihlus Kryik. [[spoiler:Saren, his mentor, wants him to sabotage Shep, his mentee, by filing an unfavourable report, because Saren is a racist wanker (well, it goes deeper than that, but see ItsPersonal and FreudianExcuse). Saren even implies he'd be fine with disposing of her in a more permanent fashion. Nihlus parks himself where he knows Shep will find him and, knowing her penchant for eavesdropping, record the conversation; of course, Shepard doesn't realise this, thinks he's a traitor, and after a tense moment or two, Nihlus admits that it didn't matter whether she'd recorded the conversation (she hadn't, but by a fluke, Garrus had), because ''he did'', and then suggests blackmailing Saren or going to the government and having his clearance revoked. And Edi, the ship's computer, encouraged him in this!]]

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* TheChessmaster: Nihlus Kryik. [[spoiler:Saren, his mentor, wants him to sabotage Shep, his mentee, by filing an unfavourable report, because Saren is a racist xenophobic wanker (well, it goes deeper than that, but see ItsPersonal and FreudianExcuse). Saren even implies he'd be fine with disposing of her in a more permanent fashion. Nihlus parks himself where he knows Shep will find him and, knowing her penchant for eavesdropping, record the conversation; of course, Shepard doesn't realise this, thinks he's a traitor, and after a tense moment or two, Nihlus admits that it didn't matter whether she'd recorded the conversation (she hadn't, but by a fluke, Garrus had), because ''he did'', and then suggests blackmailing Saren or going to the government and having his clearance revoked. And Edi, the ship's computer, encouraged him in this!]]
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Saren wavers between this and JerkWithAHeartOfJerk. Yes, he's less of a jerk than Udina—no Reapers, so he's free to be himself.

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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Saren wavers between this and JerkWithAHeartOfJerk. Yes, he's less of a jerk than Udina—no Reapers, so he's free to be himself. On the other hand, he's an eye-wateringly xenophobic, prejudiced, egotistical chauvinist with a grudge against the Shepard family in particular... but he actually gets the job done. Unlike Udina. [[spoiler:Until he screws the pooch and his ship runs away from him, because AIIsACrapshoot, which is why it's illegal. Shep covers for him, because doing anything else would be massively hypocritical... it's just that her ship's equally illegal AI is nice, helpful, and sane.]]



* WillTheyWontThey: Shepard and Kryik, Shepard and Garrus. The unresolved (for now) romantic/sexual tension takes a backseat to the action and comedy, though.

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* WillTheyWontThey: WillTheyOrWontThey: Shepard and Kryik, Shepard and Garrus. The unresolved (for now) romantic/sexual tension takes a backseat to the action and comedy, though.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Legion and Tali (leukine), Saren, Ashley, and Udina (choleric), Wrex (melancholic), Shepard (phlegmatic), Nihlus and Jenkins (sanguine).
* FreudianExcuse: Saren's racism. Humans killed [[spoiler:his brother (in ship-to-ship combat during the Contact War)]].

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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Legion and Tali (leukine), (leukine); Saren, Ashley, and Udina (choleric), (choleric); Wrex (melancholic), Shepard (phlegmatic), (melancholic); Shepard, Kaidan and [[spoiler:Liara]] (phlegmatic); Nihlus and Jenkins (sanguine).
* FreudianExcuse: Saren's racism.prejudice. Humans killed [[spoiler:his brother (in ship-to-ship combat during the Contact War)]]. To top it off, the officer that ordered the shot was [[spoiler:Shepard's mother.]] Small wonder he doesn't like Shep very much.
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* HighConcept: Film/LethalWeapon... InSpace!


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* WillTheyWontThey: Shepard and Kryik, Shepard and Garrus. The unresolved (for now) romantic/sexual tension takes a backseat to the action and comedy, though.
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* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Administrator Rannadril Ghan Swa Fulsoom Karaten Narr Eadi Bel Anoleis is skimming three million credits a month off Noveria's accounts.

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* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Administrator Rannadril Ghan Swa Fulsoom Karaten Narr Eadi Bel Anoleis is skimming three million credits a month off Noveria's accounts. Noveria's InternalAffairs team is not happy about this, to say the least. [[spoiler:He gets arrested.]]
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* MoreDakka: Although there are three snipers on the team and one sharpshooter, all except Legion use conventional anti-personnel scoped sniper rifles (think Dragunov). Legion's WeaponOfChoice, on the other hand, is an ''anti-tank rifle'' designed to be used off a tripod (think Barrett). The carnage is a sight to behold.

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* TheEngineer: Tali.

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* TheEngineer: Tali. Edi also takes the occasional stab at this, and Garrus---only Garrus is an ''artillery'' engineer, and Tali is a ''propulsion'' engineer.


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* WrenchWench: Tali. She keeps the ship's engines in order, along with providing tech skills on missions.
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* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Legion and Tali (leukine), Saren, Ashley, and Udina (choleric), Wrex (melancholic), Shepard (phlegmatic), Nihlus and Jenkins (sanguine).
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* DirtyCop: Kaira Stirling, Thomas, Hodder, Moira, and Gilian in Port Hanshan (all bribed to dispose of evidence that Bel Anoleis had his fingers in the cookie jar).


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* InternalAffairs: Gianna Parasini, using a secretarial job as deep cover.
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* FantasticSlurs: ''Suit rat'' for the quarians, ''bird'' for the turians, [[spoiler:''tin can'' for the geth]]. ''Tawny'' might fit for human ''women'', but it's more a sexual term than a racial one—Fantastic CountryMatters, perhaps.
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* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: SOP for Cerberus. The thresher maw on Edolus is just the beginning (and, for now, unexplained), only that [[spoiler:Armistan Banes]] had something to do with it.
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* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Small arms in this fic are railguns firing supersonic slugs; a few ships have Thanix beam cannons, but those are rare, expensive, and nowhere near man-portable.

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* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Small arms in this fic are railguns firing supersonic slugs; a few ships have Thanix beam cannons, but those are rare, expensive, and nowhere near man-portable. They are also not energy weapons; their ammunition is boiling metal, so they're ''thermal'' kinetic weapons, like HEAT rounds but continuous.
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* Main/Foil: Udina to Legion.

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* Main/Foil: Udina to Legion.Legion (they're both ambassadors, though Legion is a sniper/infiltrator with a Medici-like outlook, while Udina is a sedentary Borgia-style jerk). Also, strangely, the ''ships'': the SSV Normandy and turian ship Impera are both frigates, both armed with a Thanix, and both [[spoiler:have AI's]]. Normandy has Edi and Impera has [[spoiler:Nazara]].



* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Weapons in this fic are railguns firing supersonic slugs; no directed-energy weapons are mentioned.

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* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Weapons Small arms in this fic are railguns firing supersonic slugs; no directed-energy weapons a few ships have Thanix beam cannons, but those are mentioned.rare, expensive, and nowhere near man-portable.
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* Ambadassador: Legion. They're a sort of ambassador for the Orthodox faction of the geth, a robotic HiveMind race experiencing a sort of civil war; they're also a scarily competent sniper who pull more than their own weight in the squad.

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* Ambadassador: Main/Ambadassador: Legion. They're a sort of ambassador for the Orthodox faction of the geth, a robotic HiveMind race experiencing a sort of civil war; they're also a scarily competent sniper who pull more than their own weight in the squad.


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* Main/Foil: Udina to Legion.

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