Spectre

Spectres, formally the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch and abbreviated ST&R, were agents entrusted by the Citadel Council with extraordinary authority, including the power of life and death over the inhabitants of the galaxy. They formed an elite group drawn from many species, charged above all with preserving galactic stability by whatever means necessary. Generally held to be above the law and given complete discretion over their methods, Spectres answered only to the Council, which could revoke an agent's status for gross misconduct. The most famous of their number was Commander Shepard, inducted in 2183 after exposing the rogue agent Saren Arterius.

Origins#

The Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch was founded in 693 CE, shortly before the Krogan Rebellions began, at a time when the Council was uneasy about the unchecked expansion of the krogan into Citadel space. The first Spectres were chosen from the finest salarian Special Tasks Group operatives and asari huntresses, intended partly to function in an observational capacity and partly to serve as the Council's first line of defense. When the krogan turned against the Citadel, the Spectres were ready, slowing the krogan advance with guerrilla tactics such as computer viruses and devastating sabotage until the turians joined the conflict. For years their activities were a Council secret, and their existence was made public only after the rebellions had ended. The first Spectre, Beelo Gurji, was a salarian operative who had been accused of using thirty civilians as bait to flush out a target; rather than imprison him, the Council released him and asked him to establish the branch.

Authority and method#

All records of the Spectres were sealed, accessible only by permission of the Council, and even their total number was unclear; Alliance intelligence estimated there were fewer than a hundred. Spectres had no command structure and answered only to the Council. In some cases the Council preferred not to know the exact details of how a mission was carried out. An agent could act in any way they saw fit, whether through careful diplomacy or ruthless force, being officially above any law. To some, such as the C-Sec executor Pallin, this made them a potential danger, free of the constraints that bound everyone else; to others they were figures of awe, portrayed in popular vids as super-agents forever saving the galaxy. The assignment of a Spectre to a situation was often less contentious than a military deployment, yet it signaled that the Council was aware of and concerned about a problem.

Selection#

Each Spectre was hand-picked by the Council after proving themselves an individual of exceptional ability and self-reliance. In theory a Spectre could be chosen from any race, but in practice they were usually selected from the Council races, and having one chosen from a given people often raised that species' profile on the Citadel. Many races had belonged to Citadel society for centuries without ever producing a Spectre. Candidates typically had years of military or law enforcement experience before they were even considered, and the screening process involved background checks, psychological evaluations, and a long period of field training under an experienced mentor. The rigor of this process meant that, while Spectres might use unorthodox methods, they rarely went rogue; when one did, the only remedy was to revoke their status and send another Spectre after them, since no one else would be equal to the task.

The Spectres were modeled on the salarian Special Tasks Group, but with key differences: they were granted supralegal authority rather than placed beneath common law, declared exempt from oversight rather than embedded in a command structure, and selected in recognition of past excellence rather than formally trained as a unit. Unlike the STG, which was funded by the salarian government, Spectres were expected to maintain their own financial independence.

Human candidates#

The drive to place a human among the Spectres became a matter of galactic politics, since it was widely seen as the first step toward humanity gaining a seat on the Council. Ambassador Anita Goyle and her successor Donnel Udina both pressed the case. The first candidate was Captain David Anderson, whose evaluation was sabotaged by his observer, Saren Arterius; Saren falsified his report to make Anderson appear responsible for casualties that Saren's own ruthless tactics had caused, and the Council refused Anderson entry. The second candidate, Commander Shepard, secured induction by exposing Saren as a renegade Spectre. Shepard became the first human Spectre in 2183, an appointment that came before humanity attained its Council seat following Saren's attack on the Citadel a short while later.

Notable agents#

Among the Spectres named in galactic record were Nihlus Kryik, one of the most decorated turian agents, killed by Saren during the attack on Eden Prime in 2183; and Saren Arterius himself, the youngest turian ever appointed and once called the Council's top agent, whose status was revoked in 2183 after his rogue activities were confirmed. The asari Tela Vasir was renowned for breaking up a slave-trading ring and investigating thefts from the Council's Ministry of Finance, but was later exposed as an agent of the Shadow Broker. A Spectre's status appeared to lapse once they were declared legally deceased, requiring reinstatement upon proof of living through measures such as biometric verification. In only a thousand years, no more than a handful of candidates were ever known to decline the honor, among them two asari matriarchs.