9 AWOL

--> I'm alive.

I’ve lost two years. By rights, I should have lost all of them. I died. Apparently. The Normandy was investigating the disappearance of three ships. We didn’t find the source. It found us. An unidentified cruiser ambushed the Normandy, ignoring our stealth systems as though they didn’t even exist. Devastating particle beam fire crippled the Normandy in seconds. With engines compromised, weapons disabled, and navigation destroyed, I gave the order to abandon ship.

I was the last on-board. An explosion, one of the last, sent me flying through the ruptured hull out into space. Seconds later, the enemy ship delivered the killing blow, and the Normandy was no more. That’s when I noticed my airline was ruptured. Things blur out shortly afterwards.

I dimly recall waking to a sterile-looking room, an alarm beeping, some anxious words, and a sedative being administered.

It could have been moments or months afterwards that I awoke for a second time. This time I was alone, but a voice over the com was telling me get up and arm myself from a nearby locker. I found the pistol before I properly found my feet: standard-issue Predator; high-calibre, decent RPM, good accuracy. Explosions rocked the place and gunfire could be heard.

Mechs came to kill me. I moved by drilled instinct, my gun hand dropping mechs while my hazed and aching head tried to sort out what was happening, what had happened. I prowled through deserted halls and rooms marked with a strange insignia, thoughts and questions shooting cross my dim consciousness like bullets from the gun I was firing. Where was I? Shouldn't I be dead? Whose facility was this? Had anyone else survived the attack on the Normandy? Who was attacking this facility? Who had attacked the Normandy? Was it affiliated with Batarians? Reapers? How many more ships had been ambushed? Had the strange vessel been caught? Was it an individual threat or one of many? How long had I been out? Where was everyone?

Finally I found another Human, also exchanging fire with the mechs. Enemies in the immediate vicinity disposed of, he identified himself as Jacob Taylor, head of security. He said he knew no more than I about why the security mechs had gone rogue, only that it had to be an inside job.

He told me I’d been more or less, but progressively less, dead for two years. Apparently, I’d just been awakened prematurely. The voice of warning I’d heard over the radio had been Miranda Lawson, senior officer of the station and chief overseer of my revival, Project Lazarus.

The crew of the Normandy had not escaped without casualties. Navigator Pressly and twenty-odd servicemen had died; the rest of the crew, including the combat team, had been recovered by the Alliance. I had been declared killed in action. Jacob hesitated to tell me who he was working for, who had recovered and revived my lifeless body. Project Lazurus, he said, used cutting edge technology and incredible resources to secretly bring me back to life. When he eventually told me that the party responsible was Cerberus, I was not pleased.

Jacob Taylor seems a trustworthy man despite his affiliations. He put himself in jeopardy with both me and his superiors by telling me who he worked for. I’ll reserve judgement of this individual; he may well believe his association worthy, but I have no such delusions about Cerberus. Cerberus had been a top secret Alliance black ops organization. They went rogue during my mission to stop Saren. When the Reaper had been dealt with and invasion averted, I’d turned my attention to Cerberus. They’d been conducting illegal biological research, lured marines into death traps, murdered an Alliance Admiral, and set themselves up as a militant shadow organization of highly suspect motives.

Jacob has promised to take me to his boss, The Illusive Man. That should prove to be a most interesting interview.

Jacob and I found only two other survivors on our way to the shuttles. The first was the station’s chief medical specialist, Wilson. The second was Miranda, waiting at the shuttlebay. She shot Wilson on sight, telling me and an alarmed Jacob that Wilson had been responsible for the attack. It would explain certain oddities in Wilson’s behaviour. Nevertheless, Miranda’s snap judgement call with immediate lethal force upon an erstwhile friend in no way makes me feel safe around her. And not a hint of regret. Jacob asked her “What if you’re wrong, Miranda?” To which she replied “I’m never wrong.” I have little doubt, should Miranda deem it necessary, she’ll put a bullet in the back of my head. If I had any inclinations to let my guard down around Jacob, Miranda will keep me alert.

--> So I’ve met the Head of Cerberus. Only one of him. The Illusive Man was too canny to meet me in person, instead communicating face-to-face via hologram. Smart man. Otherwise, I may have been inclined to lay hands upon his person.

The Illusive Man tells me that Humanity is under attack. The disappearance of the three ships, the attack on the Normandy, was just the beginning. Human colonies in the Terminus Systems have been disappearing, the citizens gone without a trace. The official explanation is that the disappearances are the work of slavers and pirates. Apparently the Alliance is devoting its attention to expanding its influence and control in Citadel Space, now that they have a seat on the Council, and have little time to spare for sporadic disappearances. But tens of thousands of Human colonists vanished without a trace should warrant more action.

I asked the Illusive Man why he spent the price of an army to resurrect one soldier. He says it's because of what I represent, defiance of the Reapers. Apparently he deems it absolutely essential that the symbol of Sovereign’s defeat be seen alive and active.

I’ve agreed to investigate the most recent colony to suffer abduction, Freedom’s Progress. When I’ve conducted my search we will speak again.

A fine fix this is. I’ve been gone two years. Officially, I’m dead. And I’m now connected to Cerberus, essentially a terrorist network. If I immediately report back to my superiors, as is my duty, then best case scenario I’ll be a free man again in another two years. I don’t have time for that. If there’s a threat to Human colonies, especially if there’s suspicion the Reapers are somehow connected, I have to move fast. If the Alliance is too caught up in politics to ensure the safety of frontier worlds, I have no choice but to intervene as best I can before I submit myself to all but guaranteed arrest and delay. For all of its principles and virtues, the Alliance is still a massive bureaucracy, with all the inertia that entails. If they aren’t moving now, by the time they finally get their momentum underway, it may well be too late.

--> We scoured the colony. I’ve seen deserted habitations and locals before, but this was different. There were no signs of evacuation, no indications of violent withdrawal, every empty house looking as though the inhabitants had simply vanished, dropping everything at once and leaving without a trace.

Ghost town indeed. Every empty house, every deserted street, seemed to silently scream of terror. What in Creation could have happened here, I asked myself. No damage to be found anywhere; no blast holes, no bullet marks, not even traces of chemical weapons. This colony didn’t have a proper garrison, but the civilians had been armed. There should have been signs of a fight.

Finally we found someone. But not colonists. Quarians. Tali'Zorah with a team looking for one of their pilgrims, still here somewhere. Working together we found him, hidden and trembling. Veetor was nearly hysterical, jabbering and muttering. Something had clearly frightened him out of his wits. It’s unclear why he alone had been left behind. Perhaps, immediately making himself scarce, his environmental suit had masked his location from scanners. Or maybe the attackers had only been interested in finding and taking Humans, either not scanning for or simply ignoring an out-of-the-way hidden Quarian.

We did get some information out of him. He kept talking about Swarms, bugs that flooded the colony and froze everyone. Then Monsters. He kept jabbering about the Monsters, how they took the colonists away, of how they would be back for him.

However incoherent and frantic he may have been, Veetor had had the blessed presence of mind to scan and record the “Monsters.” The footage was blurry, but the readings confirm that the “Monsters,” human-sized bipeds, are what Jacob and Miranda call “Collectors.”

Apparently Collectors are a race of aliens possessing advanced technology, appearing on the galactic stage only recently, while I was under. They have no official public relations, and appear so infrequently and in distant locations that most people don't believe they exist. Their standard MO is to collect specimens with mutations or genetic anomalies from slavers, paying exorbitant sums for seemingly useless captives, then they vanish whence they came, through the Omega 4 Relay.

The Omega 4 is a Primary Relay of unknown destination. No one has ever mapped its mate because no one other than Collectors has ever passed through it and returned. This suggest the Collectors possess unique knowledge of Relays, or at least this one in particular.

Of significant interest is the Collectors abrupt change of procedure; there is a great deal of difference between select purchasing of dozens of unfortunate souls from slavers, and whole-sale abduction of colonists by the tens of thousands. And only Human colonies. Their previous acquisitions were of all races, but only those individuals with abnormalities. Now it seems any Human will suit their needs, as many as possible, and all other races are forgotten. Why?

Either The Illusive Man is a very bad liar, or he simply doesn’t care to be cautious at this time. He says the data from Veetor “confirms” the Collectors are responsible for the disappearances. He had told me before that we knew nothing. Why do I get the feeling Cerberus may have conducted business with them? If so, it seems the deal went sour. Is the Collectors new focus on exclusively targeting Humans a consequence of the estrangement, or the cause?

The Illusive Man also keeps hinting that the Collectors are working with the Reapers, but won’t say why, only that “the patterns are there, buried in the data.” He cites the Collectors apparent familiarity with Relays, and their possible motive in targeting humans as being revenge for the death of Sovereign. Possible, but that doesn’t explain why they capture the Humans instead of simply destroying them.

I've made my decision. With an immediate emergency before me with the lives of tens of thousands at stake, I have little choice.  I am now doing what I would, and do, call myself mad to even consider. But I have no better option. I’ve agreed to work with Cerberus to stop the Collector threat. The Illusive Man has promised me a ship, and, to my surprise, has offered me a list of dossiers; soldiers, mercs, spies, and scientists for consideration and recruitment. I’d expected he’d insist upon providing me with a detachment of Cerberus soldiers, not offer me a head start on assembling an independent combat team. It seems he wants me out in the field with as much freedom as possible, more than he wants me under his command.

Of course, Jacob and Miranda, along with the crew of the ship, will all be Cerberus officers, and the ship itself will be sure to have failsafes to ensure control, if necessary. Given the circumstances, I’d expect to have something of the same sort installed in me. I’ve just had enough long-term surgical implants put in place, it would be the easiest thing in the world to put a control chip in my brain. I might very well think there probably was one, were it not for the fact that Miranda herself was complaining that The Illusive Man had forbidden her to do just that. She said he was afraid it might alter my personality, shed doubt upon my genuine identity, that me being known to be truly alive and not just an imposter superseded all other considerations. Moreover, I have carefully examined recent events, and every action and decision I’ve made holds up to logical consideration; thus far, I cannot detect in myself any slides of judgement in The Illusive Man’s favour, even my decision to work with Cerberus holds water, however bitter. I have of course, at this time, no conclusive evidence either way about the presence or absence of a control implant of some sort. It could be a simple failsafe primed only to activate in emergency, in which case I’ll have no evidence of its existence until such time as the emergency occurs. 
 

I need allies, people I can trust not affiliated with Cerberus to protect me from myself should the worst occur. This prompts the question of why The Illusive Man would encourage me to find just such people. Then again, he could be confident enough in his own provisions, he feels safe in granting me an illusion of autonomy and safety. 

Damned mess.

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