32 The Ensuing War

--> Hackett has assigned us rescue of SSV Agincourt. Agincourt went missing behind enemy lines and is presumably damaged and unable to respond: last reported position was Farinata system.

--> Agincourt recovered, ship and crew accounted for and ready for action. Still missing are the SSV Nairobi, and SSV Leipzig, the first in the Ming system, the second in Pamyat. I've offered to take the Normandy in again, and been granted permission.

--> Nairobi and Leipzig recovered. Leipzig was the first Alliance vessel to field test the Normandy's Thanix Cannon. Nairobi completely missed the failed defence of the Sol System. Her captain is eager to amend the record.

--> Finding something as small as a ship in space is painstaking business, especially when that ship is doing its utmost to remain hidden from hostile forces. Weeks have passed, long enough for Ashley to get begin walking again, and still the war summit hasn’t happened. Primarch Victus is patient, but at this point he looks about ready to put his Turian head through a wall, and I don’t blame him. This is no time for posturing and petty politics. Every day that passes more people die. The time for action is now.

At least Normandy has not been idle. Over the past few weeks, we've not only recovered the three Alliance ships assigned, we’ve rescued several other smaller support craft and over a dozen isolated combat teams trapped in hiding behind enemy lines, besides conducting reconnaissance and covert strikes against vulnerable Reaper forces as opportunity permits. 

The Normandy is proving uniquely suited to rescue work: with our superior speed and stealth, we can scout ahead and ensure a safe rout for a ship that didn’t dare show its nose for fear of being spotted. Failing such subtle methods, the Normandy can instead run loudly amok and play decoy, casting aside stealth and depending solely upon her fantastic speed to save herself. Joker seems to positively delight in zipping past Reapers and leading them on a wild goose chase. He’s even started taunting the Reapers at such times, singing at them a gleeful song of own devising: “Old fat reaper chasing after me, Can’t catch S-S-V Normandy. Harbinger, Harbinger, won’t you stop, stop your reaping and look for me.” If it helps him keep his nerve while evading certain death by a margin of a few hundred meters, then let him sing. Besides, I think it really does annoy them.

I asked Liara why she had chosen to operate her network as Shadow Broker from the Normandy when all links were tied in to her ship on Hagalaz. I was surprised when she told me her ship no longer existed. She’d taken what she could store in a shuttle with Feron, evacuated the crew, then rammed the ship into a Cerberus cruiser. The Shadow Broker’s ship had no long-range mobility, so being found by Cerberus had been inevitable. Cerberus was clearly not expecting Liara to so easily part with the vessel. But the loss was a nominal one; Liara still has all of her contacts and resources, and continues to utilize the monumental assets with a deft and caring hand.

--> Ashley has recovered sufficiently to begin physical therapy. The doctors say she’s past the danger of long-term cognitive impairment. Given time, she’ll make a full recovery. Thank goodness. So many people have died already, so many loved ones lost and so many more yet to die, and Ashley survives. This chance, so nearly lost, is more than she or I have the right to ask for. We’ve begun talking. There’s a lot to sort out between us. I begin to see once again the same light in her eyes that shone there before Cerberus.

Alliance intel has tentatively identified Harbinger as one of the Reapers to attack Earth. The exact numbers of the enemy, ranging across the Galaxy, are uncertain, but our most optimistic estimates peg them at about two hundred Sovereign class capital ships, with perhaps two to three times that number of smaller, destroyer class Reapers, with assorted troop transports and processing ships. Of course, their infantry increase proportionately as ours decreases.

When we fought and killed our first Reaper, Sovereign, it took the combined firepower of the entire Arcturus Fleet to bring it down. We’ve upgraded our ships offensive and defensive capabilities since then, due in large part to using tech from the dead Reaper. Now we can overpower a Reaper with far better odds, only four Dreadnoughts being needed to breach its shields. 

 Only four. Ha. Three years ago the Alliance Navy only fielded five Dreadnoughts, and they don’t exactly breed like rabbits. Our improvements have changed the playing field dramatically; instead of a curb stomp battle of a bear vs a hamster, we have a respectable losing proposition akin to a fight between a bear and house cat. The defining principle of Alliance military strategy, “meet strength with weakness and weakness with strength,” is as relevant now as ever, but for the foreseeable future we’ll be exercising the first part more than the second. Whatever that Prothean device is supposed to do, it had better be good.

In the short few weeks since the Reapers hit, we’ve lost Arcturus Station, the Hades Gamma Cluster, and the Sol system. Hackett sacrificed the entire Second Fleet to buy the Third and Fifth time to escape. Anderson and whatever is left of the ground resistance are on their own. Colonies are being lost faster than we can evacuate them. Palaven is still in the balance, but that could change at any time. We need to tip the balance of power in our favour; we need the Krogan. And if the Rachni intend to deliver on their promise, now is the time.

--> Emergency at Grissom Academy. They'd been ordered to evacuate before the Reapers finally send something their way, and their acknowledgement has been received: falsified.

Cerberus involvement is suspected, and the Normandy is en route at full speed. We've not been assigned, but I'll not wait for that: I've sent in the preliminary report, and will sort out the official details afterwards. The last thing I want to hear is that our young officers in training there have been abducted by Cerberus; I know their methods: those students would be better off dead.

As if we didn't have enough trouble on our hands. Damn the Illusive Man.

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31 Menae

--> We have just passed the boundaries of Turian space. I've ordered the now expanded crew run check and double check on all systems. We can't afford the slightest hitch here. We'll not be running away from a war zone this time, but instead diving straight into the heart of the fray. It would never do to offer the Primarch a ride only to be embarrassed by a flat tire and capture by giant space lobsters.

Liara has set up shop in Miranda's old office, filling it to the rafters with various and sundry servers and monitors and mechanisms I know not the purpose of. She is now multitasking overtime, balancing her role as Shadow Broker in assessing and managing tremendous resources and intelligence to aid the Alliance and gather material for the Prothean device, and studying the device's blueprints herself in effort to aid construction, all while assuring me she's still ready for combat. While I appreciate the support, it would be the height of miscalculation to heedlessly pull her away from her more crucial work while there are dedicated soldiers standing ready for combat. She'll likely need diversion from time to time to prevent working herself mad at her desk, but her talents are far more urgently needed in shining light upon the secrets of this mysterious Prothean contraption.

What a surprise it would be if this oversized wonder gadget were to simply blow up in our faces.

In addition to the recruits from the embassy, Engineer Adams is back on board, as is Dr. Chakwas. It is cheering to see the ship once more manned by old friends. Some of them, anyway. There are a lot of new faces among the crew, and at least twenty of the old crew are history, killed by Collectors on the old Normandy, SR1.

There’s no way everyone aboard the new Normandy, SR2, will come through this war alive. Some are going to die, quite possibly everyone. We’ve seen some tough assignments, but no one alive has ever seen a challenge like this.

I've looked at the reports, and following surrender to the Alliance when we left Cerberus, the Normandy has been properly scrubbed for any Cerberus monitoring or control devices. Everything is guaranteed secure, specifications are in line with Alliance regulations, and the stealth systems have been upgraded. The capacity of the heat sinks has been improved to the point where we can drop out of lightspeed without setting off every sensor in range. Of course, it was always possible before to enter system behind a planet, but this new development affords a tremendous degree of flexibility. Moreover, the weaknesses in the stealth systems that the Collectors exploited have been corrected. Unless we're deliberately trying to get their attention, even Reapers should have a hard time detecting us now. We also have a pair UT-47 Kodiak Shuttles primed for deployment, both equipped with the same stealth tech as the Normandy. And the final delight, all Cerberus logos have been removed: the Normandy once again flies her true Alliance colours.

It’s good to be back.

--> Extraction complete, the Primarch is on board.

Barring Humanity, the Turians have the best military in the Galaxy, and the Reapers are hitting Palavan with half of what they threw at Earth, but the Turians are still fighting a losing battle. They’re holding their own for now, but their world is in flames, and the eventual outcome is a forgone conclusion. The focal point of the fight there has moved from the planet to the moon. The Turian heavy weapon emplacements there are strong enough to deny the Reapers undisputed control of Palavan airspace, and even the Reapers have hesitated to attack the defence batteries directly from orbit, instead fielding vast numbers of infantry across the rocky surface of the moon to take it on foot.

Primarch Fedorian is dead, his shuttle shot down as it tried to leave the moon. The Turian line of succession is designed for situations like this, but the sheer mass of causalities, rumoured and confirmed, complicated things. Palavan Command finally settled upon General Adrian Victus as the new Primarch. An unconventional tactician, popular with his men but not his hitherto superiors, Victus is understandably torn to be taken away from the scene of action where his men so desperately need him.

Victus is a practical man. He’s agreed to join forces with Humanity on one condition: that we recruit the Krogan to assist Palavan. While they lack any kind of meaningful fleet the Krogan are the toughest fighters in the Galaxy, and if the Turians can keep the Reapers on their toes in space, the Krogan can turn the tide on the ground.

So far as I know, the Reapers have thus far completely ignored Tuchanka, likely on account of the Krogan having neither political position nor fleet, so they should be anxious to get in on the fight. The primary challenge in gaining the aid of the Krogan will be not only getting agreement, but getting all of them to work together. The Krogan have fallen back on a splintered framework of antagonistic clans since the Krogan Rebellions. Urdnot Wrex, last I knew, had been attempting to garner enough support to unite the Krogan and end some of the more self-destructive customs. Let us hope his work has been successful.

General Victus will remain aboard the Normandy for now.  At this time it's as safe a place as can be found in the known Galaxy. The man doesn't dally about. He's already called for a war summit with the Asari, Salarians, and Krogan to discuss terms for emergency military cooperation. Unfortunately, despite this brisk and efficient Turian soldier-turned-politician and his prompt action in the face of emergency, the Salarians are dragging their heels, and the Asari have outright refused to attend. Customarily the exemplars of diplomacy and negotiation, the Asari have declared the odds of successfully uniting the disgruntled Krogan with their hereditary enemies to be so slim as to be not even worthwhile. A pity. With Turians on one side and the Krogan on the other, and the snide Salarian Dalatross in the wings, we could use the able talents of Asari persuasion.

Despite all of this chaos, doubt, and peril, I can at least remove one worry from my mind: Garrus is back, alive and well. Like Victus he was on Palavan's moon, and now is back on board the Normandy, multitasking in his official role as "Chief Advisor on Reaper Forces" to the Primarch and away team soldier and chief calibrations officer for the Normandy. It's good to once again have his dry nonchalance. The Normandy just wouldn't be the same without him.

EDI has occupied the Cerberus robot body. It was not a seamless transition. A hidden back-up in the robot's processing unit tried to sabotage the Normandy in the process. EDI assures me that the synthetic form is now completely safe and purged of remaining Cerberus software. She's walking around the Normandy in her new body like a Human woman might in a new dress. Joker is of course beside himself with glee. I can't say I'm especially pleased to see the form that nearly murdered Ashley Williams, the same that tried to steal the Prothean data, sauntering about the ship. Even if only for Joker's sake, I wish EDI hadn't occupied that deceptively feminine body; the poor fellow seems to be growing confused.

Despite the overall danger the crew seem buoyant, confident that the great Commander Shepard will lead them to victory, certain that Humanity will never be defeated. While I maintain an attitude of brisk direction to sustain morale, I am far from easy at mind.

Humanity has yet to meet an enemy it could not best. We barely got our feet wet with the Turians, and the Batarians were little more than a backstreet brawl. This struggle, the Reaper Invasion, will test the strength and resolve of Humanity to its very limits. Live or die, this war will be like no other, brutal and horrifying beyond the scope of mortal imagination. While our fleets and our colonies still remain, we've seen Earth struck with more carnage in the space of three days than throughout the sum total of known history.

And it's only just begun.

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30 Politics

--> The Council refuses to send aid. Their apologies are civil, but adamant; they will not commit their forces to a joint effort.

When all is said and done, I cannot blame them. Setting aside the now nearly non-existent Batarians, Earth does face the worst of the attack, but the Reapers are everywhere. Turians are facing an invasion of their own, even the Asari have met their first Reapers, and the Salarians, well, are typically Salarian. It seems obvious the Reapers have thrown just enough at each of the other races, commensurate to their strengths, to keep them properly occupied while they crush Earth at their leisure. Despite the exhortations of an uncharacteristically lucid Councillor Udina, no immediate military alliance will be forthcoming.

The Turian Councillor has offered a suggestion. In the chaos of the attack on Palavan, the Turian Primarch is unaccounted for, and the Normandy still has the best stealth drive in the Galaxy. If I can extract the Primarch and ensure his safety, it will be a strong card in the game of political manoeuvring. So be it. If this is what needs doing to gain the cooperation of the Turians, I’ll see it done. If I can bypass the Council and appeal directly to the Turian leadership, the other races will be inclined to follow.

While they refuse to promise warships and troops, the Council have not refused to aid in the construction of the Prothean device. If they can give us anything, resources, scientists, we can use it. Confirmation of such assistance is still in the air.

Udina is on fire. After having been so long on adversarial terms with him for being a self-serving politically motivated blockhead, it is a relief to find him animated and engaged doing everything he can. With Humanity’s civilian leadership on Earth and Arcturus all dead, Udina not only represents Humanity’s face to the Galaxy, he holds the sum of authority for our entire species. He’s ordered all available resources devoted to immediate construction of the Prothean device, a draft across the colonies, all civilian ships armed, and is using every ounce of political clout and leverage he has to conjure up support for Humanity amongst the other races.

It's strange being here on the Citadel, only three years since it all began, but it feels longer than that, as though it all occurred in another life. I suppose in my case it was. How very droll.

Here's where we first embarked upon our mission to hunt Saren down, before we even knew what the Reapers were, when the team first assembled. I keep expecting to see Garrus in his old C-Sec uniform sniffing out information in the back alleys, and Tali with her cryptic message stolen from geth soldiers. But they're not here. No telling where they all are now. Garrus is probably stalking through the smoking rubble of some burning city on Palavan hunting Reapers. Or he could be dead. Tali is most likely sitting in the back seat of Quarian politics waiting for everyone to notice that the rest of the Galaxy is under attack. Wrex is likely solidifying power on Tuchanka, chafing at the bit to get out there and kill monsters. Kaidan is dead, so long ago it seems a lifetime away on Virmire, laying down his life for the rest of us so the mission could continue. Now Ashley is in critical condition, a mere inch away from following him. I tell myself it's not my fault, but I don't believe me. Of all the old team, only Liara can I know for certain is alive and well.

--> Ashley has been treated in a Hospital on the Citadel, and pulled through initial surgery. Head trauma was severe, and final results are still uncertain, but the doctors think she’ll live.

I spent months in custody after returning to the Alliance. Ashley and I didn’t see each other at all during that time. I’d not even been told of her promotion. The sudden arrival of the Reapers is the only reason we found ourselves in direct contact, fighting Cerberus together on Mars. Anderson at least has decided that I’m real, but everything related to my working with Cerberus was classified, and I don’t think Ashley even had clearance to read the Alliance reports on my mission against the Collectors. She still doesn’t know for certain that I’m actually me, and before I have a time to make amends, a Cerberus robot nearly kills her. There’s still so much unsaid between us. She can’t die. She’ll make it.

I’m taking the Normandy into Turian space. That Primarch had better be still alive.

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29 Prothean Designs

--> We got the data. Liara says that it is indeed plans for a weapon capable of defeating the Reapers.

The Mars Archives were overrun by Cerberus, commandos sent in to steal the same information Hackett sent us to collect. It seems the moment word of the Reapers’ arrival spread, everyone jumped at once. In the ensuing fight for the data on Mars, Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams was critically injured by a Cerberus robot disguised as a scientist, the same infiltrator that opened the gates for the Cerberus strike team. The Normandy was launched in emergency, and lacks a full crew. At this time, a doctor is especially wanting.

While we have seized both the data and the Cerberus robot carrying it, it is unclear if Cerberus received transmission of some portion thereof (it is a large file). We've sent the information to Admiral Hackett, and will be presenting our findings to the Citadel Council alongside a formal and urgent request for immediate military aid. The Citadel is Ashley’s best hope for proper medical treatment. She has to hold on a few hours.

It seems Cerberus has thrown their customary habits of deception and guile out the blooming airlock. Their standard approach with the rest of humanity is one of subtlety, manipulating events from the shadows without leaving a trace. There was no trace of subtlety in the Mars attack. Their mole vented most of the main facility, killing almost everyone inside. The rest were slaughtered by the Cerberus commandos that assaulted immediately thereafter. So far as I know, Dr. T'Soni is the only survivor of that assault. Why Cerberus has abandoned all pretence of care for human life is beyond me. It's the basis of their entire ideology, their only claim to moral legitimacy, the assertion that they fight for Humanity's interests. Perhaps it should come as no surprise; they'd hardly be the first human cult of the civilized era that slaughtered humans in the name of the “Greater Good” of Humanity. The question is, why now?

Their method itself seems flawed. Why march in and slaughter everyone if all you really care about is obtaining the data? They could have just as easily had their infiltrator copy the data and slip away with no one the wiser. Trying instead to not only steal the data but also wipe the servers clean while slaughtering all Alliance personnel assigned to the archives tells us that the Illusive Man no longer simply thinks he knows better than the rest of Humanity, it seems we are no longer to be trusted even with our own defence.

But why would he object to us building this device ourselves? Perhaps he fears the likelihood of a joint operation with Humans and Aliens working together, with more potential for leaks and infighting. Perhaps he wants more than anything to ensure that it is Cerberus that enters in the eleventh hour with the super-weapon to save us all from the Reapers, Cerberus's crowning moment of heroism and triumph, with the lives of a few soldiers and scientists on Mars being seen as an equitable trade.

Whatever the reason, whether the Illusive Man is motivated by security interests, building the device in absolute secrecy to a degree that the Alliance will not be capable of, or if he was attempting to ensure Cerberus status as the saviour of the Galaxy, his means thereto tell clearly the cost. Whatever the Illusive Man used to believe and to stand for, he now sees human lives as being secondary to his primary goals. I had hoped when the Reapers came that whatever was left of Cerberus would set aside its aloof and hostile pride and unite with us. It seems that is not to be. Mars establishes two things: firstly, Cerberus is a force to be reckoned with, and secondly, that in this war, they are an enemy. Not the enemy, to be sure, but an enemy nonetheless.

This Prothean device poses substantial questions. The proposed construction will require tremendous resources to build, and despite its resulting power will be unlikely to exceed the firepower-to-investment ratio of standard combat vessels. The weapon may indeed be capable of destroying Reapers, but it will only be one such weapon, if we even succeed in finishing its construction; one weapon, one target for the Reapers to destroy, and boom, all of our last-minute efforts and resources pinned on one massive investment are gone in a single stroke. It’s been many years since the short story Superiority was required reading for military officers. It is true that we cannot hope to defeat the Reapers conventionally; in a straight-up fight we lose through insufficient firepower, in a running fight of attrition, they grow stronger as we grow weaker. In order to win, we have to cheat somehow.

This Prothean device, in order to fulfil its purpose, cannot simply utilize provided material through known methods. It will have to use either a technological trick, a secret scientific breakthrough as great as the discovery of mass effect technology, or instead tap into another power source, greater than what we can through normal means utilize. Maybe I’m drawing to much of a distinction between those two options. If it fails to do either of these things, then our narrow window of time would be better spent conducting emergency production of frigates and cruisers.

We don’t know a lot about the device yet, but Liara says that the plans are incomplete, as was its construction when the Protheans lost. It’s missing a piece referred to only as “The Catalyst.” Clearly a code word of some sort, we’ve no idea what the Catalyst is, but it had better be good. I hope we’re not making a big mistake.

My every instinct tells me that this is a losing proposition, that the only tactically sound option is to evade, “meet strength with weakness and weakness with strength.” But there’s nowhere to run to, nowhere the Reapers will not follow to hunt us down and destroy us. We have no choice but to stand and fight. And pray.

Launched as it was in emergency without a full crew, the Normandy is potentially vulnerable to insufficient engineer oversight. Ashley grabbed Joker, Adams, and a handful of maintenance and security personnel. Nothing like a full complement, all hands will be pulling long shifts in order to ensure the Normandy remains at peak efficiency. It's a lot to ask of the crew, but at time like this, we cannot afford a malfunction. There will likely be a great many Alliance personnel in our embassy at the Citadel who will jump at the chance to sign on to the Normandy. Not exactly regular, but at a time like this no one will care. We need every able-bodied man and woman engaged in this fight, and desk-workers everywhere will find themselves dropping their datapads and picking up tools and weapons, and the sooner the better.

Citadel is in sight, docking clearance granted. There's a lot of ships here.  Nimble and knife-like Salarian frigates, graceful and sleek-skinned Asari cruisers arrayed with glistening ribbons of light, ponderous Turian dreadnaughts with their signature wings and couched stance.  Let's see if we can't persuade the Council to put them to use.

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