24 A Final Resting Place

--> We’ve assembled a good team; some of the best damn fighters in the galaxy. All potential distractions have been dealt with, and everyone is up to speed. We’ve upgraded the Normandy’s weapons, shields, and armour; this swift and stealthy frigate now boasts the defences of a cruiser and the firepower of a dreadnought. Mordin has upgraded our combat gear; amps, omnitools, armour, and guns all surpass performance ratings of standard models by an average of fifty percent. We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. We have everything we need to hit the Collectors. All that's left is to acquire the Reaper IFF, then anchors aweigh and into the breach.

But first there are two stops I need to make, two old friends to visit, one living, the other dead.

--> Liara is doing well as the Shadow Broker. She has the whole operation running smoothly and has started turning its operations around. Instead of selling her network’s services to the highest bidder, the Shadow Broker’s assets have become an extra-legal aid to peace and order in the galaxy.

I gave Liara two things. The first is a file; names, dates, locations, operations past and present, procedural patterns, everything I’ve been able to get my hands on over the past few weeks on Cerberus. Added to the Shadow Broker’s already extensive intel on the subject, this combined information dump should prove a tremendous asset to the Alliance in shutting Cerberus down. Also in the file is all the information we have on the Collectors. If the worst comes to worst, if we die without completing the mission, the Alliance can pick up where we started.

The second thing is a letter. Addressed to Ashley Williams, I entrusted Liara with seeing that it reaches her safely.

--> The grave of the SR1 Normandy, an icy and lonesome planet in the Amada system. Here lies the pride of the Alliance, now a fractured and splintered corpse spread across the snow of Alchera. The hull that gleamed so proudly aloft now catches a bank of snow. The crewdeck where never more the crew will sleep and chatter, the cockpit that points towards a horizon it will never reach, the engine room never again to hum and thrive with power, and the bridge that commands only a field of white and silence.

The Normandy, the ship that sailed among the stars, the vessel that carried her brave crew through dangers and peril, now rests alone in this remote and silent grave so far from the chaos and danger of the living world. She has served her part, and now her remains rest beneath a shroud of solemn white, snowy and silent, to lie there undisturbed till Kingdom Come.

Her end, so violent and so sudden, was nearly my own. But I have been given a second chance, an opportunity that must not be wasted. Normandy, now broken and shattered, was my home. What was done to her will be done to every home if we fail to stop the Reapers. They’ll come eventually. Their servants, meanwhile, must be dealt with.

The monument is in place. Now to turn from the past and prepare for the future. Time to take the Reaper IFF.

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