42 Defectors and Crime Syndicates

--> It’s easy to forget that not all of the combat-ready forces of the galaxy are government-sanctioned fleets and armies. Besides local militias and makeshift civilian resistance, there are also the criminal elements, from local gangs to galaxy-class mercenary bands. The Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Bloodpack are the three most powerful and well organized of these disreputable brigands. They have thus far taken but little part in the Reaper war, beyond of course avoiding the Reaper invasion front and taking advantage of whatever resources become exposed. If they could be recruited, it would add a welcome boost to our combat-ready forces in this everywhere and everything against the Reapers.

There are two difficulties with such a plan. The first is getting them to cooperate with our command structure. The second is getting them to work together without tearing each other’s throats out. They are, after all, criminals, and have fought each other perhaps even more than the authorities.

As fortune would have it, the second difficulty seems to be clearing itself up already.
Prior to expulsion by Cerberus from her seat of power on the pretentiously named waste bin of Omega, Aria T’Loak was the biggest crime boss on that station, the centre of criminal enterprises in the whole of the Terminus Systems. Despite her sour disposition, Aria was an unusually pragmatic crime boss, providing what little security and stability Omega had. She’s currently trying to unite the Blue Suns, Bloodpack, and Eclipse under her rule. She's smart enough to realise that it’s in her interest to help combat the Reaper threat, and that she has the means to rally these disparate factions into a joint force for that purpose; and her own personal power of course.

Under any other circumstances, helping a crime lord amass more power would be a capital offence, but we need more guns on the ground, and Aria’s coalition presents an opportunity to take advantage of a resource that would otherwise be very difficult to utilize. I am officially requesting permission from Alliance Command to proceed with perhaps the most unorthodox mission ever undertaken by an Alliance officer.

--> Orders received. I am authorized to solidify Aria's control of the Terminus gangs, and ordered to take all reasonable measures to obtain Aria's cooperation against the Reapers.

As part of our deal with T’Bitch, I will help her retake Omega and its stores of Ezo. The Cerberus occupation force there is commanded by Oleg Petrovsky, one of the Illusive Man’s top military strategists. He should prove a tough nut to crack. Aria has made it clear she cannot operate with my combat team. She named no names, but it seems perfectly obvious the individual in question is Garrus. Archangel united the merc bands once before in a group effort to kill him. Bringing my best friend along would in this particular case be inadvisable.

I’m leaving the Normandy under Ashley’s command: her orders are to continue running standard interference against Reaper occupation forces. Williams knows the ship and crew, and should have little difficulty keeping the Normandy intact and her crew alive.

I can't say I'm looking forward to seeing Omega again. Aria's company is also something I'd hoped to avoid. It's no accident such a waspish and unprincipled individual feels at home on that filthy rock.

--> Aria's coalition has breached the Cerberus defence fleet and engaged the entrenched enemy in a street-to-street, door-to-door fight through the dark and dirty streets of Omega, the garish and neon lights of shady vendors illuminating a gruelling and savage fight between mutated soldiers and murderous hoodlums. The run-of-the-mill gang warfare of Omega has merely been replaced by an augmented and intensified variant, one where the usual factions have been united by the intrusion of a new adversary, the jack-booted control of Cerberus domination.

We've got our first foothold, now it's time to make our next move. Cerberus has blocked off most of the avenues of advance with energy barriers. Aria's engineers are trying to find a way to bypass control directly, but with little success. There are, however, chinks in the armour. A small team can bypass the barriers through maintenance routes without attracting attention. Aria's ensuring all teams are ready to assault the moment the shields go down.

--> I've received an encrypted transmission from Ashley. She's caught wind of some Cerberus defectors on the run in the Minos Wasteland, and is taking the Normandy in to investigate. Apparently she found it necessary to correct Javik's assumption that the goal is to kill the defectors.

She also relayed a surprising update from Hackett. The Crucible is being built far faster than I'd anticipated; Alliance engineers have through herculean effort completed perhaps fifty percent of the known work. Once decoded, the plans are easily translated for seamless construction. But even at this late hour, we still don’t know how it will utilize the massive power it stores. The means for its application, the Catalyst, is still a complete mystery.

Despite being our single most well-informed expert on Protheans, never in all of her work did Liara find anything regarding the Catalyst, and neither her extensive network of intelligence nor any government and their official archives hold a solid lead on what it might be. Javik is himself a Prothean soldier, and doesn't know squat; not surprising as this Catalyst was obviously a tremendous military secret of the Protheans. They apparently safeguarded this secret very well. So well perhaps, we may never discover it.

What an incredible irony. We've discovered and are well on our way to completing the designs for this Prothean super-weapon, only to have the same security of knowledge that preserved the plans for our time prevent us from finding the last and crucial component. Could such success be achieved only to be thwarted by one final, obstinate, detail? God send that our fate will not prove so fickle.

--> Aria and I have made contact with an old friend of hers. Nyreen Kandros, ex Turian military, it seems she and Aria have a history. Apparently they parted ways when their incompatibilities grew more clear than infatuation. In Aria's sneering words, Kandros “practically oozes virtue.” It's hard to see how this upright Turian soldier found anything compelling in Aria. I personally find our Asari confederate to be a pain in the neck.

Kandros is running an underground network of militants in opposition to the Cerberus occupation. They call themselves the Talons. She's agreed to coordinate with our assault, on the condition that we ensure the safety of civilians. It seems she not only commandeered this local gang she now commands, she's whipped them into shape to resemble a regular militia, uniformed and orderly. The ranks all seem to bear a strong loyalty for their leader. They speak of her with genuine regard, and salute with more than token spirit as she passes by. I admit I'm impressed Kandros successfully transformed what had been an ordinary gang of lowlifes into a disciplined and conscientious defence force that prioritizes safety of civilians over their own lives.

All forces are set. Petrovsky's defences are waiting for us. He thinks this is a game of chess. He's about to find out that his enemies don't play chess. They play dirty.

This is going to be bloody.

--> Operation complete. Omega is under Aria’s control. The Cerberus forces there have been driven out, Petrovsky taken prisoner. Aria had wanted to kill him, and I’d have had no objection, but she let him live long enough to surrender. Given that he’d ordered his men to stand down and formally asked for quarter, I could not in good conscience stand by while Aria strangled him. Aria and I nearly came to blows when I demanded she desist. But the matter is resolved, and Aria will be sending Omega’s considerable supply of Ezo to the Alliance, in addition to fielding her forces alongside the Alliance soldiers in combat.

Kandros is dead. She sacrificed herself to save civilians from Cerberus monsters. It appears Cerberus is not content merely to modify their soldiers using Reaper methods, they’ve begun going the whole hog and manufacturing monsters of their own design from the bodies of prisoners. It is becoming more and more obvious that, whatever the Illusive Man’s original intentions were, Cerberus is irredeemable. Everything the Reapers are doing, Cerberus is doing, only slower.

With Kandros gone, it's unclear what will happen to her followers. The Talons will almost certainly fall under Aria's command. Whether they will maintain their own structure and discipline without their leader remains to be seen. Omega needs Kandros. One hopes her example, her spirit, will not be forgotten. I've sent a report to the Turian military, with a recommendation for Kandros' posthumous exoneration and commendation.

I now take my leave of Aria, and Omega. Normandy awaits!

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41 Asari Distress

--> Ashley has settled in aboard the Normandy, and despite an involuntary twitch of the gun hand, she refrained from shooting EDI on sight. Even with prior warning that the same cerberus robot which nearly killed her is now occupied by our ship's AI, it was plainly no easy matter for Ashley to abide its presence upon meeting, and I don't foresee the two of them having tea together any time soon. Had I been so foolish as to bring EDI with me to reclaim the Citadel, things would have gone far, far worse.

The Reapers have conquered and occupied a lot of territory, but their alarming rate of expansion is beginning to ebb. Numerous and awingly powerful as they are, even they cannot defend all points at once. The Alliance Navy cannot reclaim lost ground, but we've begun putting severe dents in Reaper occupation forces left to subdue captured worlds. Forced to begin covering their proverbial tails and intermittently back-tracking, the Reapers cannot sustain their hitherto headlong rate of expansion. Instead of wasting our forces in futile defence against overwhelming odds, Hackett has preserved our fleets at the cost of ground, focusing on counter-attacks whenever and wherever the Reapers leave themselves vulnerable.

The inevitable long-term result of this conflict is still a foregone conclusion, but their advance is in abatement. We can hold them for a long time yet.

Liara has informed me of an Asari distress call in the Nimbus Cluster. Asari High Command sent in commandos. Those soldiers have failed to report back.

They aren’t the hardiest race the Galaxy, but Asari commandos, lithe and powerful biotics, some with centuries of experience, are among the most cunning and lethal hunters in the Galaxy. If a team of them were somehow outmatched, the danger must be great indeed. Liara tells me that out of all the threats Asari face at this time, they’ve asked for my aid in this matter. They haven't said why, only giving us the coordinates for a habitation on the planet Lesuss.

This sounds important. Especially as there is no intel available; both the planet the commandos were sent to and their mission there are conspicuously lacking in details. An Asari colony in the Mesana System, Lesuss has no disclosed population or industry, its environment is barely habitable; dark, barren, inhospitable, and cold. A grim place.

Setting course for Lesuss.

--> O horrors. I’ve seen many grim things in the course of my service, the Reapers have been cause of all the worst. But for all the atrocities and twisted abominations that I’ve seen, what we found on Lesuss chills me to the bone.

We found the outer grounds of the monastery vacant, filled only with the bleak light of a cold and distant sun, dominated overall by an absolute silence. The pale and cheerless light of the grounds left behind for the pitch-dark halls of the interior, our torches almost seemed weaker than they ought: the clinging darkness receded grudgingly before our advance, only to close in again behind us like some grim curtain that crept and closed round our small circle of light. And over all hung the same constant of deathly silence.

We searched through that place, room after room revealing no living thing; neither friend nor foe was to be found in all the upper levels. And so we searched deeper, creeping further and further down into the depths of that lifeless edifice, hands gripping weapons and trigger-fingers twitching at the sound of our own footsteps, we strained to penetrate what seemed an iron curtain of almost tangible dread surrounded by a mute and hollow blackness. I swear I could hear the sound of Ashley's heartbeat behind me; Liara's sharp intake of breath at the clatter of something brushed off a table as we passed, Garrus' rasping hiss of anticipation at the turn of a corner, seemed loud and dangerous.

The noises came slowly at first. Faint whispers. Our own movements had become so loud in our ears as we slipped through those still and noiseless halls, with no living thing to be found, our hearing was keyed to the highest pitch. We stopped stock still, trying to tell from whence the whispers came. Had there ever been such a thing as a mouse in some hidden corner of that place, the noise that broke suddenly upon our ears like a knife in the dark would have struck it dead with fear: for the whispers of menace that seemed first near then far were suddenly consummated by such a scream as no natural thing can make.

A banshee had found us.

The Reapers have harvested and warped many races; Human, Batarian, Rachni, Prothean, Turian, even fusing Turian and Krogan together into one powerful monstrosity. Hitherto, the Asari have had but little contact with the Reapers, and none have been turned. That changed on Lesuss. The beautiful and serene Asari were being taken and changed.

The results of the Reapers’ diabolical machinations are always gruesome and horrifying, an unliving blasphemy against the life and beauty of the original. But the Asari; the difference was even more acute. Nothing could be further from those fair, gentle blue nymphs than the menacing aberrations they were transformed into. Dark, towering mockeries of feminine form, those monsters emit a shriek that curdles the blood: it is as though the all-consuming hatred of the Reapers were mingled with the voice of a woman’s last cry in all-surpassing fear and pain.

They are very hard to kill.

Lesuss was home to an Ardat Yakshi monastery. Unlike Morinth who chose to indulge her mortal appetite and feed upon the minds of an endless sequence of lovers, these Ardat Yakshi chose to live a life of seclusion. Born with defects beyond their will or control, they made the only choice they could in remaining there on Lesuss, a lonely and celibate company of mutual isolation living out the many long years of their Asari lifespan on this cold and lonesome rock, a place where even the sun at its height fails to warm the stone or lighten the sky.

Samara was there. We found her fighting the Reapers in the depths of the monastery. Of her three daughters, one she has killed for murder, with my help: Morinth was the reason why Samara had become a Justicar, and now she had returned here to save her two remaining daughters.

Three daughters, all of them Ardat Yakshi. It is no great wonder that Samara chose to bind herself to a code of absolute justice, or that her mate, an Asari whose name I never learned, ended her own life.

But only one of Samara’s daughters could be saved. Falere, who tried so hard to save her sister Rila, is the only survivor from that grim harvest of Lesuss. Rila, too far gone to be saved, regained control of her own will long enough to detonate the bomb that the now dead commandos had brought with them. She died in cleansing inferno amidst those that sought to claim her. The reapers thralls were purged from Lesuss. Rila’s bravery is to be commended.

It is uncertain what Samara’s original intentions had been when she came to the monastery; perhaps even she herself did not know. But Rila’s strength and resolve even as the shades of blackness were falling across her eyes rendered once more firm in Samara’s mind the duty of the Justicar code. It forbids any Ardat Yakshi to live outside of a monastery, on pain of death. In what she saw as her only way to avoid breaking her code, Samara drew her weapon, and nearly took her own life rather than kill her last daughter. With my intervention, and Falere’s voluntary promise to abide in the ruins of the monastery rather than leave, Samara was spared from her own adherence to a code that brooked no compromise.

It will be difficult for Falere to survive here in this barren and desolate landscape, but she may well outlive the rest of us. With the monastery and all who were within destroyed, this out-of the-way planet no longer holds anything of value to the Reapers. Were we to fail, it is possible Falere would eke out a meagre existence on this rock, and in the end die a natural death here on Lesuss, long after the rest of the Galaxy had been consumed.

The Normandy has provided Falere with enough supplies to last for some months, long enough to for the war to be decided, one way or another. Clean-up for whichever side wins could take decades even centuries, but within a few months we will have completed and deployed the Crucible, and determined the fate of the Galaxy.

We're all soldiers. Even Liara, sweet and harmless though she may seem, is battle-hardened; there's not a soul aboard this ship that hasn't seen Reapers and their abominations before, but even they seemed shaken by what we found on Lesuss. We'd all known, sooner or later, Asari too would be seized by the Reapers. That knowledge fails to mitigate the horror we witnessed. Even the snide and arrogant Javik was quiet after seeing what the Reapers had wrought upon the fair Asari. The monastery isn't all. There'll be more of them.

Should Samara survive the war, she will return to her daughter. Sentiment; sweet it may be in peace, but in war its bitterness arises at the loss of those that are loved. So much death. Those two are the sole survivors of a family fraught with pain and loss. Most women would not bear it with strength as they do. Perhaps in times like these, even the weak are granted strength beyond their nature.

May that strength that comes from above be with us all.

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40 Udina's Folly

--> We’ve hit a Cerberus research base. They’re studying Reaper tech in earnest. Despite playing into the Reaper’s hands at almost every opportunity, despite captured intel on “integration” of their personnel, it appears that Cerberus is not directly allied with or under the control of the Reapers. It’s still possible that the Reapers are influencing them without their knowledge.

Besides detailed diagnostics on volatile Reaper tech, the base's databanks also held, among other things, significant intel on the nature, composition, and dispersal of Reaper forces. This information should prove quite valuable.

Admiral Hackett has a certain cruel pragmatism to him. Due to the advantages of Reaper technology and the hazards entailed in studying it, Hackett ordered us to leave the research base intact, bugging the systems rather than blow everything up. Cerberus will continue studying Reaper technology, and we will learn everything they do with none the associated risk. Clever plan. Brutal, but clever.

Now that we've a small breathing space, I can spare Councillor Valern his requested time to look into Udina's dirty laundry. Bloody waste of time.

At least this gives me the opportunity to visit Ashley. She should be almost back to normal now, and if I know her, chaffing at the bit to get back in action. There's Reapers out there that need killing, and she's been stuck on the Citadel with nothing to shoot at but targets in a gun range.

--> Emergency. The Citadel is under attack by Cerberus forces. There’s no signs of ship combat, only infantry. They completely bypassed perimeter defences. Both their purpose and means of entry are unknown. C-Sec is in disarray and the Council uncounted for.

All official channels are scrambled, but we’ve got radio contact with Thane. The terminally ill Drell is out and fighting Cerberus. He lost sight of Ashley; she eluded his care and ran off to protect the Council.

Thane Krios, the best assassin in the Galaxy, lost Ashley. She’s good.

The team's ready. We’re going in.

--> Situation secure: the Citadel is cleansed of Cerberus infestation and the Council is safe; minus one half-witted numbskull of an idiot. Turns out Valern was right to be concerned about that gormless skunk Udina: he was the one responsible for smuggling Cerberus in. Without him, Cerberus would never have gotten past the patrol fleet. I’d have far rather taken him alive, but he panicked when confronted, and moved to shoot the Asari Councillor; a fatal mistake.

And here I’d thought Valern was making mountains out of molehills about Udina’s back-room dealings. It seems fairly obvious in hindsight what he was doing this for: he'd appealed for aid to retake Earth, and been overruled by the rest of the Council. So, to save Humanity, Udina sought to use Cerberus as means to stage a coup. With the Citadel under his control, he’d have launched an immediate joint-species attack on the Reaper forces occupying Earth.

This demonstrates not only foolish desperation, but complete disregard for the decided strategy of Alliance military. If we were to move on Earth sooner rather than later, the time has long passed. All large-scale resistance on Earth has been wiped out; all that’s left is a mobile network of commandos under Anderson’s command carrying out guerilla style hit-and-run strikes against the Reapers, doing as much damage as they can to local reaper detachments before scrambling to evade the retaliatory Reaper bombardment. To retake Earth now will require us to finish the Crucible, and attack with the combined power of all fleets at once. Even with a successful coup, Udina would not have control of all fleets. He would have spent the bulk of our forces prematurely in an almost certainly disastrous attack that would only deplete our strength and all but guarantee our eventual defeat.

I strongly suspect that, had he succeeded in the attempted coup, Udina would have found himself just as quickly thrown aside, having been but an unwitting and convenient puppet for Cerberus (assuming they even let him live). I don’t think Udina meant for things to get out of hand as they did. I suspect his idea was to capture and take the other Councillors prisoner, secretly if possible, or to be killed if necessary. It seems highly unlikely that flooding the streets of the Citadel with Cerberus assault troopers, shooting civilians and C-Sec alike, was actually part of his plan: he was clearly not in control of the situation as he’d thought. Deal with the Devil, pay the price.

More people than Udina paid a price today. A lot of civilians died at Cerberus' hands, and a not-inconsiderable portion of C-Sec died trying to defend them. Thane too is now numbered among the dead.

He was stabbed while defending the Salarian Councillor from a Cerberus assassin. The doctors did what they could for him, but the blood loss combined with his illness rendered all treatments moot. Thane died in peace, his son at his side. He died a hero’s death, having spent his life to save another. His passing was soon to come anyway, and the Cerberus attack afforded him the opportunity to die nobly.

Thane spent the last years of his life trying to wipe out the red in his ledger, to counterbalance the sins of his past as an indiscriminate killer for hire. I trust his efforts to achieve redemption were not in vain, that whatever gods he worshipped, the God of mercy will smile kindly upon his contrite soul.

The assassin who spearheaded the attack, the one who killed Thane, is well known to Anderson. Kai Leng, ex Alliance, achieved N7 designation, top performance record, evaded disciplinary action for theft on account of excellence of service, eventually was dishonourably discharged and imprisoned for murder. Cerberus broke him out of prison, and he became an augmented agent of the Illusive Man. Anderson thought he’d killed Leng on one occasion, only for him to return with cybernetic implants. This is one tough bastard, and likely only failed to kill the Councillors through miscalculation born of hubris. We haven’t seen the last of him.

Things were tense, to say the least, when we cornered Udina. With C-Sec in disarray and scrambling to remember up from down, Ashley had swooped in, effectively neutering Udina’s immediate plans by whisking him and the Turian and Asari Councillors out of immediate danger and rushing them to a shuttle. But the shuttle was disabled, and my team found them grounded and cornered.

I admit it looked pretty suspicious. Cerberus attacking the Citadel, clearly with inside aid, and me, the soldier who had worked with Cerberus, pointing a gun at a Citadel Councillor.

My mind stayed low, refusing to acknowledge the fact that Ashley and I were one twitchy finger away from killing each other. Udina loudly insisted that that I was the traitor working with Cerberus, then immediately [without meaning to] defended me by declaring that my accusations of him being the traitor were outrageous and without proof, as always. I couldn’t have said it better myself. For years, I issued warnings that our superiors ignored, and Ashley had been right by my side through most of that.

Ashley took a risk and chose to trust me, then turned to arrest Udina. That’s when he panicked and got himself shot.

Despite the narrow cliff edge we passed, I’m glad the issue of Cerberus, the mountain of doubt between me and Ashley, came to a head. Until it had been truly tested, that matter, even if shelved and suspended, would always have been an unspoken wall between us. The worst that could occur was made an immediate possibility; everything hung in the balance. When it came down to it, when everyone's life hung on her decision, Ashley chose to believe in me, and her trust was proven justified. It is a debt I will always owe her.

Cerberus really shot themselves in the foot with this attack. They bungled their seizure of the Citadel, and instead accidentally did the Alliance a favour. Such a sudden and dangerous attack upon their impregnable fortress, so nearly successful, has shaken the Council. The Asari have begun sending scientists to assist in the Crucible, and have promised us their fleets when we launch it, including the Destiny Ascension. A powerful symbol, that beautiful ship. Despite its heavy armaments, its effect on morale may be even greater than its tactical impact.

Ashley has been medically cleared for duty. She has officially, and unofficially, requested reassignment aboard the Normandy. Ashley's been missed, and not just by me. I don't think there's a single member of the crew, from Garrus and Liara to Adams and Chakwas, that won't be happy to see Lieutenant Commander Williams back in action with us.

It means more than I can say to once more have her by my side, without doubt, without complications. The air is clear now. We are free.

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39 Rachni

--> I've received two messages. The first was from Surkesh. The Salarian Dalatrass sent a grim transmission prophesying the doom of all galactic society, beginning with her culture, and had the gall to blame me for Mordin’s death. Despite the Salarians officially refusing both military aid and technical assistance with the Crucible, there appear to be schisms forming in Salarian leadership. The STG has joined the fight against the Reapers, and certain Salarian captains have promised their ships in support of the Crucible. Even some Salarian scientists have volunteered immediate service for the project. It’s heartening to see that, despite the idiocy of their politicians, the Salarians are not uniformly fools enough to sit back and watch the Galaxy fall around them.

The second message was from the Citadel; Councillor Vallern discreetly confides in me a suspicion that his human colleague is crooked, and has asked for my help in dealing with suspected corrupt dealings by the Councillor Udina.

At a time like this, the Salarian Councillor wants to dig up petty criminality? Of course Udina is dirty. I’d be surprised to hear that he wasn’t. I'll get back to Valern on this later. In the meanwhile I have more urgent matters to attend to.

--> The Cerberus forces holding the defence cannon have been dealt with. If they aren’t working on behalf of the Reapers, they’re making a darn good impression of it. That wrinkle nearly cost us the Krogan.

Now that we have a breathing space I can turn my attention to the rumours coming from the Rachni relay. Wrex's scouts aren't the only disappearances reported in that quarter. I have a bad feeling about this.

The Rachni were a force that terrorized the Galaxy millennia ago. So far as I know, this enigmatic and creepy species was the only non-biped race besides the Reapers ever to achieve space-flight. They are fast, cunning, and deadly. And they are very hard to kill. It was only through the arming of the Krogan that the Citadel races managed to defeat them. The Krogan hunted the Rachni to extinction, following them to their home system and killing every last soldier, worker, and queen.

Or so they thought. During Saren’s attempt to hand the Galaxy over to Sovereign, his agents found a derelict ship adrift in the depths of space. Held in stasis aboard that ship was an egg; a Rachni queen. They took it to Noveria, there to breed in secret an army of Rachni soldiers. But the Queen’s offspring, taken from her care, turned mad, and nearly destroyed the research base. I was there. My team found the station crawling with rabid, armoured insects the size of bears slaughtering every victim that fell into their clutches. The Queen I let live. A caged innocent who had done no wrong, the last member of a sentient race which knew of beauty, I could not murder when mercy was humbly asked. Freed from her confinement, the Queen left for a distant world, there to raise her children in peace, telling them of the mercy granted them. She promised to come to our aid when the Reapers returned.

Instead, we met Rachni among the Reaper forces on Tuchanka. With mutated and grotesque bodies, almost unrecognisable as Rachni, their mechanized joints and the artillery welded onto their backs made clear their exclusive purpose of destruction.

We’re headed toward the Rachni Relay, there to rendezvous with Arlakh Company. We’ll find out what happened to the Krogan scouts that disappeared. If it was Rachni, we must reach the heart of the nest and find the Queen. There are three possibilities. The first is that she lied, and joined the Reapers willingly. The second is that she has been turned, and is no longer a true self. The third is that she is prisoner, bound and controlled. If either of the first two, she must be destroyed. If the latter, she may be saved.

--> We’ve landed at the site of the scouts’ disappearance, on the planet Utukka in the Mulla Xul System. The Krogan of Arlakh Company are led by none other than Urdnot Grunt. The proud great monster baby has come a long way from being a mistrusted “tank-bred.” He now holds command of the finest Krogan fighting team in the Galaxy. His immense carnivorous jaw stretched wide in gleeful pride as he told us of how he’d won his way to command. With him and a troop of his fellows at his back, I’m confident we can tackle anything we find ahead in the tunnels the scouts never came out of.

Night is falling. That shouldn’t matter, we’re headed underground anyway. But for all his eager ferocity, Grunt is as close to worried as I’ve ever seen him. This place smells wrong, he says. And he’s right. But it’s more than the smell. Something about this whole place feels wrong; something warped is lurking beneath. We’re about to plunge into a darkness concealing Heaven-knows what unthinkable horrors.

I’m a marine. This is my job.

Shame Ashley's missing out on this.

--> Mission complete. That Stygian pit was a veritable labyrinth of twisted passages and whispered menace, half-heard sounds alternately approaching and retreating as we pushed forward into the darkness.

We were cut off from the Krogan by a cave-in almost immediately upon entry.

We found webbing first; great, dark strands of clinging blackness that barred entry towards the innards of the caverns. Then we found wires, Reaper nodes, and more artificial barriers blocking access. These lengths and walls of metal, intermittently found along our path into the tunnels, should have seemed less alien and threatening than the webbing and clustered egg sacks they stood amongst. But instead the unnatural metal, undeniably Reaper in origin, screamed silently of an Alien hatred for us, greater than from any organic form we might find.

Then they hit us. From all angles at once, the walls, the floor, the ceiling, dozens, scores of the insecticival monsters poured out upon us. All was blood, bullets, and carnage, and then they were gone; only to return again in even greater numbers when we pushed forward again. That place was crawling with mutated Rachni, the Reapers were breeding an army down there, and we walked right into the middle of it.

We found the Queen. She was herself, prisoner and bound, breeding against her will the offspring that the Reapers warped and weaponized. Her shackles broken, she followed us out of the tunnels with all haste and fear. The Reaper-controlled Rachni would rather destroy her than see her free.

The Krogan team, tough as they were, were hard put to survive. They still retain the numbers to continue as a coherent fighting force, but they took casualties. Grunt himself nearly lost his life charging alone into a horde of Rachni to cover our retreat. He didn’t need to do that. A couple of grenades, rationed and held in careful reserve from the rest of the fighting, finished off the last of the enemy that swarmed after us. I’d thought Grunt dead, having seen him plunge off the side of a subterranean cliff, taking one last enemy with him. But that indomitable reckless wonderful stupid fool pulled his Krogan hide out of there. Covered from hump to hoof in the blood of his crushed foes, Grunt stumbled out after us. That Krogan is hard to kill. It seems even his best efforts can’t achieve it.

The Rachni Queen is now sent to help in the construction of the Crucible. Despite the misgivings of the engineers, her workers, hive-minded as they are, prove quite efficient at whatever task they are assigned.

It is probably in great part due to that hive-minded nature that the Reapers found them uniquely easy to dominate. Given what we know, it is almost certain that the Rachni invasion thousands of years ago was driven by Reaper influence. Even more interestingly, Javik tells us that the Rachni were an active enemy even during his time in the last cycle, fifty thousand years ago. This seems to break the rule of Reaper doctrine, that they defeat, enslave, and eventually destroy all space-faring species present in any given cycle. It seems the Reapers thought the Rachni too much fun to eliminate, the archetypical scary monsters with which to terrorize the Galaxy between cycles.

I dare say the Rachni Queen is embarrassed, to say the least. I’d found her on Noveria a pawn of Sovereign. Rescued and released, she’d promised to return the favour and send aid against the Reapers. Instead, I had to come after her again in very incriminating circumstances, once again rescuing her. She may not have been able to uphold her prior boast of direct military aid, but her children can help us build the Crucible. I don’t think anyone, least of all her now, wants to risk sending any more Rachni against the Reapers. We’ll keep them safely out of the enemy’s reach.

In the meantime, the Reapers have lost their source of Rachi terror-troops. They still have what they’ve already fielded, and may even be able to clone a few more, but they’ll have to ration that resource carefully, instead of flooding every battlefield with giant insect monsters like they’d planned.

The Alliance, hitting the Reapers at any weak spot that presents itself, is still losing ground. The Arcturus Stream, Exodus, Kite’s Nest, Gemini Sigma, and Attican Beta Clusters have all been occupied to one extent or another by Reaper forces. We’re losing resources fast. We need to finish building the Crucible before we lose the means to do so.

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36 A Cure for the Genophage

--> The Salarian Dalatrass has finally agreed upon a place and time for meeting. Having stalled and dithered for so long, I expect she has little intention of playing ball now that she’s finally deigned to partake in our summit.

This will be a tense meeting. Everyone knows what Wrex will demand in return for military aid: a cure for the Genophage.

Our backs are to the wall, we’re facing imminent extinction, and the Krogan hold the diplomatic advantage. The ethics of the Genophage are arguable; it may have been the lesser of available evils at the time. I’m just glad the decision was not mine to make. But now, we have no choice. It’s either provide the Krogan with a cure and risk revival of the Krogan rebellions after the Reapers are defeated, or the Reapers destroy us all now.

I’ve asked Liara to get me everything she has on the Dalatrass. We need this deal, and we’ll need political leverage.

As for the possibility of actually formulating a cure, our best chance of that lies in the brilliant Dr. Mordin Solus. He left the Normandy with, among other things, possession of the data from Maelon’s research on the matter. He didn't say where he was going. We need him, and fast, but even Liara has no intel that could give a hint of his whereabouts. Mordin is conscientious as well as capable. I expect the wily Salarian will pop up in an unexpected place.

Ashley has been offered status as a Spectre. Udina is quite keen on getting Humanity as much leverage as possible. Despite the advantages it affords, I’m not very happy with me being a Spectre; I object to the position on principle. No one should be above the law. It's true I needed the autonomy to track down Saren without political delay, but I can’t very well see what good it will do Ashley to hold Spectre authority. Nevertheless, it’s her decision. At the very least, it is an honour to be chosen for such a select role.

--> As expected, Wrex has demanded a cure in return for Krogan boots on Palaven. But unexpectedly, his demands were not delivered on a bare table: he is already on top of the matter. He knew about Maelon and his experiments on Krogan females. More than that, he’d found out about a few females that survived. These females stand a good chance of, if not being immune themselves, at least containing the beginnings of a cure. Wrex then declared that the females had been taken from Tuchanka by the Salarians, and demanded they be returned forthwith.

The Salarian Dalatrass is not only ornery and obstinate, she is also stupid and grossly incompetent. First she failed to lie convincingly about the Krogan females, then she caved in and told us where they were being held the moment she was put under pressure. I didn't even need to pull Liara's intel. The most she accomplished was to ask what good it would do her people to cure the Genophage, apparently missing the context of Reaper threat, then hurl a vague and petulant threat after me as I left the room, as though I were somehow personally responsible for the straits of desperation we find ourselves in.

As an independent in this matter, and with the authority and autonomy afforded by my position as a Council Spectre, I can oversee the release of the Krogan females from Surkesh into Wrex’s custody.

--> Surkesh is in sight, approaching the research base where the females are being held. STG Control is stalling. This had better not go south, or Wrex will likely start a one-man war against the entire Salarian homeworld.

--> Cerberus got wind of the females, and attacked the STG base shortly after we arrived. Only one of the females was alive when we got there. The Salarians hadn’t killed them: Maelon’s treatments had simply caught up with them. Mordin Solus [ta-daa] was there as special consultant. It is thanks to him that even one survived. Eve, as Mordin dubbed her, will live healthfully, and holds within her the blueprint for a full cure for all Krogan.

Cerberus tried very hard to kill Eve. They may not be working for the Reapers, but they could hardly be more trouble if they were.

Eve is an anomaly not seen in fourteen hundred years: a healthy Krogan female capable of safely and dependably bearing children. Wrex is adamant: he will not lift one finger to aid Palaven until all Krogan receive that same immunity. It will take time for Mordin to synthesize a proper cure from Eve’s cells. Far less time than if we were starting from scratch, days instead of years. But at a time like this, every day is counted dearly. I can certainly understand Wrex’s position. He has to look out for his own people’s survival beyond this war, and has good reason to demand results up front. Nevertheless, this delay is not one lightly taken.

The Alliance has officially begun construction of the Prothean device. It’s location is a carefully guarded secret: even I don’t know where it is. If the Reapers were to find it, there goes the war.

Our engineers have dubbed it Project Crucible. An appropriate choice of name. Successfully completing this device will be a trial indeed, and the results will determine the fate of the entire Galaxy for the countless millennia that lie ahead between us and the end of time. Will this be the last of all Cycles? Will we stop the Reapers once and for all? Or will we fail like all every other race before us, becoming just another entry in the long list of civilizations crushed by the Reapers? What lengths will we have to go to win?

Javik scoffs at the suggestion that we can win this war with honour intact. He said to us “stand on the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honour matters.”

A rubbish question if I ever hear one. One way or another, we all die. In the end, honour is all that matters.

The dead know that better than anyone.

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34 The Means of Resistance

--> There’s something not quite right here. A vague doubt has been growing in the back of my mind for several weeks, with precious little time to spare for examination; only now that I turn to address it do I comprehend the astounding weight of its implications.

To the best of our knowledge, a certain pattern has remained an absolute constant in the execution of every Reaper invasion: across all previous cycles, the Reapers commenced their invasion by signalling the Citadel Keepers to open the station, actually a large mass relay, to where the Reapers hid in dark space. The Reapers would then surge through and capture the Citadel, and through it, control of the entire Mass Relay network. All movement, all communication, between star clusters instantly shut down, each star system isolated and vulnerable, each fleet and world a hanging fruit for the Reapers to pluck at their leisure. So it was for the Protheans before us.

But unlike previous cycles, the Protheans successfully laid the groundwork for the survival of the next cycle. A team of Prothean scientists hidden in a top-secret research bunker on the planet Ilos survived the Reaper invasion, suspending themselves in stasis until the centuries-long harvesting of the galaxy was complete, and the Reapers withdrew back to dark space. The surviving scientists, no more than a dozen in number, completed their design on Ilos: a small-scale secondary-class Mass Relay, aimed right into the heart of the Citadel. A one-way trip, they went to the Citadel, and rewrote the Keepers’ reception protocols, rendering Reaper signals meaningless.

When the time for our Reaper invasion came, when Sovereign, the Reaper assigned to hide in the Galaxy and choose the time, signalled the Keepers to open the Citadel, they ignored him. So he sought another way into the Citadel, a Turian Spectre named Saren Arterius. With an army of Geth at his back, Saren boarded the Citadel through the Prothean relay, or Conduit as they called it. A fierce battle ensued in and around the Citadel, with the timely arrival of the Alliance fleets putting an end to the Reaper, driving off his Geth like so many jackals. The Reaper invasion had been thwarted. For a time.

The Reapers were denied their easy one-step trip back into the heart of the Galaxy, but they still had other means. They began the long trek on foot, so to speak, and arrived here after three years of FTL space travel. Their course took them through Batarian space first, but their primary goal was the homeworld of those minuscule insolents responsible for the death of Sovereign: Earth.

The Reapers are an arrogant breed, and resented in the extreme the temerity of primitive and puny Humans successfully thwarting them. But once Earth was taken, why not proceed with their established strategy? Once into the Relay network, they could reach the Citadel in less than twenty-four hours. Why on Earth are they instead crawling through the Galaxy in their gruesome conquest upon our people while still leaving us the means to manoeuvre? They could still seize the Citadel, and through it the Relays. But this time around, they have so far completely ignored the Citadel. It cannot be through idiocy; Reapers are cunning and adaptive, and would never abandon in entirety a tried-and-true strategy because the first step was compromised. It cannot be through hubris; the Reapers are taking losses only because our fleets can still mass, evade, and strike where they choose.

The only possible solution is that something has changed about the Citadel. This change must have occurred after the battle against Sovereign. I know for a fact that the Citadel’s control of the Relay network was in place at the time of that battle: Saren used it to lock out all Relay access to the Citadel to prevent both escape and reinforcement, and I used the same means to open the Relays again for the Alliance Fleet.

So what happened? Is that control blocked somehow? Could it be that, despite their denial, for all of their adamant insistence that Reapers were a myth and Sovereign an isolated threat, the Citadel Council actually did something about it? That they realised their greatest strength, the Citadel’s control of the Relays, was also their greatest weakness, that should any enemy accomplish what Saren so nearly achieved, all resistance across the Galaxy would be crippled and blind? Did the Council uncouple the Citadel from control of the Relays?  If so, then we owe our only means of resistance to the Citadel Council.

I have no conclusive evidence, but this hypothesis matches all of the available data, and explains an otherwise inexplicable mystery.

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33 Grissom Academy

--> Cerberus Cruiser with Fighter escort sighted at Grissom. Communications out of the station are being jammed, but we've managed to make contact with a Lieutenant Sanders who says she has students still inside.

The Normandy will draw off the Fighters and cause a diversion while the away-team extracts the students in the shuttle. We'll have to rendezvous outside of system.

--> Extraction complete, students are safe. Illusive Man thwarted again.

Cerberus never ceases to surprise me. I'd honestly thought that Mars would constitute the extent of their hostilities against us. But I'd been wrong: this attempt to abduct our students from Grissom Academy is not their only offence since Mars, merely the latest and most dangerous since that first outrage. Ever since their failed attempt to snatch away the Prothean Plans they've ignored all attempts at negotiation and harassed and harried the Alliance at every possible turn, culminating in this failed abduction attempt.

At this point it seems there is nothing they will not do to hamper our war effort, though why is still a mystery.

There’s never been any doubt in my mind that Cerberus was the enemy, but you’d think, if anything could unite us in common cause, it would be the arrival of a mutual enemy hell-bent on destroying us all. Apparently such is not the case.

Hostile or not, Cerberus should not even be a factor at this time. Upon first returning to the Alliance, I had brought with me an intel dump on Cerberus big enough to choke a bureau for months. I don’t know if Cerberus’ resources exceeded the scope of the intel to such a degree as to render that exposure ineffectual, or if their influence in the Alliance was strong enough to throw sand in the cogs and keep the files locked up. In either case, Cerberus is still alive and strong, and kicking the Alliance in the shins every chance they get.

Fortunately we rescued some fairly adept shins today, shins that are good and ready to do some kicking back. It's clear the students have not yet reached their full potential: if they had then my services would not have been needed. Nevertheless our best and brightest were trained at that school, and are eager to see some action. The biotics will, with supervision, be assigned front-line combat roles supporting our soldiers engaging Reaper forces; revenge against Cerberus will have to wait.

The tech students, along with David Archer who has recovered from his horrific condition remarkably well, will be lending their aid in the building of the Prothean Device. It is quite possible that younger minds will see solutions that older scientists would overlook.

Jack was at Grissom Academy, serving as the students favourite combat instructor, and was instrumental in ensuring the their escape, as much through her surprising leadership as by biotic power.

The Illusive Man tried and failed to contain Jack as a child. Now having escaped from his machinations, she stands between him and other innocents that he would subject to the same tortures that she endured at his hands.

A woman who went through what she did, captured in her infancy and raised to become an inhumane monster of destruction, ought to be a wrecked and crippled specimen of humanity, incapable of empathy or caring for others. Instead, I find her thriving amidst her students, a veritable momma bear of rough love and protection for them. I’m more glad than I can say to see her find goodness in herself for others, to see her find a purpose other than destruction. Not that she’ll lack outlet for her able talents in that regard. There’s Reapers enough for all. Jack is overseeing the kids’ deployment in combat roles. So long as they’re led by “The Psychotic Biotic,” there is little than can stand before them.

An ominous hint was found in captured Cerberus briefings on the mission to Grissom Academy. Mention of planned indoctrination of the prisoners prompts the question of whether Cerberus is still an independent player. Does “indoctrination” in this context mean the dreaded results of prolonged Reaper contact, or does it refer more conventional methods of brainwashing? The new modifications Cerberus is making to its troops, eerily Husk-like in appearance, do not bode well.

The Illusive Man mentioned through com projection on Mars that he wanted to control the Reapers instead of destroying them. He’s mad. If that madness costs us this war, I’ll kill him myself if I have to follow his damned soul to hell to do it.

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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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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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