44 Leviathan

--> The orb in Bryson's office is secure, the building under lockdown. We still don’t know much about Indoctrination, but we have by this point determined how to block its effects through jamming. We’ve shielded the artefact, and C-Sec has established a perimeter around the building; we cannot afford to have this thing tampered with until we can figure out more about it.

Given that Hadley was fine one moment and dominated the next, was the only person in the room to be affected, and the personnel at the Mahavid mine suddenly regaining their senses upon destruction of the resident artefact there, Leviathan’s indoctrination is significantly different from Reaper Indoctrination. While Reaper Indoctrination is gradual, permanent, and irreparable, this other method was sudden and temporary, a sharp suspension of the subject’s will rather than rewriting its mind. Reapers and their artefacts emit an ambient signal of control without cessation until thoroughly destroyed. These strange orbs, on the other hand, imply a more selective approach, either that they themselves can choose when to activate and for what purpose, or that they are more or less merely doorways, doorways that something or someone else on the other side can open.

Our next best lead is in the Pylos Nebula; Dr. Bryson has a daughter, Ann, searching in the Zaherin system. According to a recently transmitted message, she may have found another such artefact on Namakli.

--> We have Ann Bryson, but the rest of her team was killed by Reapers; it seems they too were after the artefact, trying to activate it to trace Leviathan.

They may have succeeded.

We don’t know if Leviathan is a rogue Reaper or something similar, or exactly how powerful it is. What we do know is that we need allies, and Leviathan, if found, could become a very powerful ally. We need to find it before the Reapers do. Summon bigger fish. With the Reapers hot on this thing’s tail, we have no choice. I hope this doesn’t end badly. But in the end, even if it weren’t for the Reaper war, this creature is precisely the sort of thing the Alliance would be bound to investigate. If there’s a predator out there, hitherto undiscovered, lurking somewhere in the gloom, we need to know what it is, where it’s hiding, and what it’s intentions are.

Our best means of tracking the Leviathan to its lair seems to be the same method used by the Reapers. We have the artefact on the Citadel shielded. If we unlock it and Leviathan reaches through, we should be able to trace the signal. It’s a dangerous plan, but Ann has volunteered as bait. She’s already felt the control of the artefact she dug up on Namakli, and is likely to be the easiest subject. She wants the creature responsible for her father’s death found, no matter the cost to herself.

So be it. We’ll get what we need then shut it off. Unlike the miners which felt only minor behavioural modification, Hadley was used as a direct mouthpiece by Leviathan, and is still in the hospital. This could prove fatal for Ann, but the choice is hers.

--> Done. We have a trace in Sigurd’s Cradle, but will have to narrow it down through search pattern. Ann is shaken, but unharmed. She says that she thinks Leviathan is angry at being found. That comes as no surprise. Let’s hope it’s willing to negotiate.

--> We’ve followed Leviathan’s signature to the planet 2181 Despoina in the Tophet system. It appears to be underwater. Splendid.

--> We found Leviathan.

The shuttle was struck, and crashed-landed by mixture of luck and our pilot's skill on the hull of a derelict freighter, floating in interminable confinement upon a vast, grey ocean of heaving waves and sullen skies. This freighter, a human prospecting ship, had been disabled in the same way as our Kodiak: an EMP weapon, the source of which lay hidden deep beneath the surface, down in the dark where Leviathan lurked. Our quarry was old and cunning, and had ensured that, should it ever be discovered, the ones who found it would never escape to tell the tale.

And so it was for the crew of that unfortunate vessel: their corpses lay in slow decay before more of those sinister orbs, the Artefact of Leviathan. They'd sought to find food and water on neighbouring wrecks, and brought back nothing but this: the cold, baleful stare of an alien mind, watching them slowly perish, alone on this desolate and lifeless ocean. No gulls, no scavenger of any kind, had touched their remains. They died utterly alone, but for the lurking creature that lay silent in the deep beneath.

And down we must needs go, to find home. Neither the crippled shuttle nor the orbiting Normandy, should it descend, could hope to escape this trap. Our only means of return was to follow the snare to its source; the Lair of Leviathan.

Reapers had followed us. Their scouts closed in round us as we prepped for descent. A single diving suit, salvaged from the wreck, was made ready. Alone I entered the suit, and alone I took the plunge, leaving behind the light of day, down, down, and ever further down, until at last I stood alone on the ocean floor, and searched for Leviathan, with no guide beyond the light of the suit, and the certainty that Leviathan would be found in the deepest crevice of that watery void, dark, and soundless.

The rock bed shook when it rose from the deep chasm where it lay. The Leviathan.

It’s not a Reaper, it is in fact something far older; it is the original of which the Reapers are but imitation. Leviathan ruled the Galaxy in their time. The lesser races, meaning people like us, were their slaves, slaves ruled by the voice of Leviathan in their minds, and by that same means Leviathan spoke in my mind. I've heard and seen the thoughts of others in my own mind before, and though this strange conversation with the Leviathan comes nowhere near the horror of the Beacons, it was nonetheless an ordeal I wish never again to relive.

Long before the first Cycle, races across the Galaxy created artificial intelligence, and were invariably destroyed by their own creation. Leviathan, in its arrogance, created an intelligence of its own to solve the problem. Leviathan gave the Intelligence wide powers and resources, and it created servants to search the Galaxy for information that would provide it a solution.

But the Intelligence found no solution to the pattern of rise and fall, civilization and destruction, so instead chose to streamline the process, and created the Cycles for maximum efficiency of rise and fall, ensuring that future species would follow predetermined paths. The Galaxy was turned into a colossal science experiment, the Intelligence its master, and the Reapers its servants. The Leviathan were the first to be harvested. The Reapers had thought to render their predecessors extinct, but Leviathan survived, hidden in dark corners of the Galaxy. They are alive. They have been watching, and waiting, for the Reapers to find their solution. For uncounted millennia they have lurked in the shadows. Until today.

Obstinate and imperious, the Leviathan initially refused to heed my words, saying that the Cycle could not be broken, that it was pointless for them to become involved and reveal the location of the last of their species to the Reapers. I pointed out to them that the Reapers had found their hiding place, that they could remain secret no longer, that this cycle was different from previous cycles: we’d thwarted the Reapers’ first attempt three years ago, and were now fighting a drawn-out war with better odds than any previous civilization.

After a show of hesitation, Leviathan agreed to help, destroying the Reaper that had pursued us to their planet. They will not directly expose themselves to danger in open war, but they have provided us with a great many of their artefacts. These covertly deployed behind enemy lines could turn vast numbers of Reaper forces against each other when crucial.

The suit's systems were failing, and oxygen had been long lost when I reached the surface. The next clear memory I have after concluding parley with the Leviathan is the anxious faces of Ashley and Garrus bent over me, the shuddering rumble of the Kodiak's engines whirring as we left that grim sea behind.

Garrus has made jokes about me having already died once and it not sticking. That dive very nearly did the trick. Ashley suggested, with all due respect, that it should have been her who went down, citing Alliance protocols forbidding unnecessary risk of senior officers.

Out of the question. Never in a million years would I consent to send Ashley into that black and cold depth alone.

I’ll not pretend I’m entirely pleased with the result of this search. The Leviathan dominated the Galaxy once before, uncounted millennia ago, and may well attempt to do so again. Such an attempt may not occur for centuries; Leviathan has proven itself nothing if not patient.

Ashley has taken a philosophical view of the matter. She says that in the end, the origin of the Reapers is mere detail, irrelevant to our purpose. The Reapers were and are monsters that seek to defile the Galaxy, and therefore must be destroyed.

Despite the risks, one definite advantage has been gained. We have definitively and categorically proven that, despite their patently absurd claims, the Reapers are not infinite. The Galaxy has found the Origin of the Reapers, and is thus given new determination to provide them an end.

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