27 Epilogue

--> We did it. By gosh and by golly, we did it. The Collector base, the processing plant for their victims, is destroyed in glorious, purifying inferno. We arrived not a moment too soon. Chakwas, Daniels, Donnely, Gunther, everyone taken from the Normandy would have been gone in another few seconds, melted down like so many thousands of Human colonists had been before them as material for building a Human Reaper. Everyone is back aboard the Normandy, safe and sound.

Revenge is sweet. The Normandy met its old enemy, the same cruiser that destroyed its predecessor, and blew it to hell. It was a horrific sight inside that base, and seeing the team plough through it like avenging angels was beautiful to behold: Garrus dropping enemies like flies with headshot after headshot, Jacob scooping up enemies to dangle helplessly as targets for all, Grunt barrelling through barrages of gunfire that would instantly drop even most Krogan, Zaeed riddling hostiles, Legion gunning down enemies with streamlined efficiency, Tali guiding the non-combatants back to safety, Kasumi slipping in and out opening doors and striking from behind, Mordin halting enemies in their tracks with ice and neural shock, Thane mingling gunfire, biotics and hand-to-hand in flawless sequence, Samara shielding the team from Swarms with a benign biotic cover, Miranda crushing an enemy with biotics and shooting the next in the face, and Jack laying waste to wave after wave of husks.

Collectors fell before me like leaves before a strong autumn wind, the rifle in my hands growing warm as the carcasses of the fallen foe piled high. They’d killed me, and I had returned, a veritable Revenant to match the name of my weapon. I cannot bring back all those whom the Collectors took, but the wronged dead will sleep soundly having seen the vengeance meted out upon their foe.

I misjudged Miranda. When the Illusive Man signalled in upon our reaching the core and told us to disable the base instead of destroying it, I fully expected Miranda to turn on me for ignoring him. But instead she directly disobeyed an explicit order to do so, and closed the channel. As if there were even any question about destroying the base. It was built by the Reapers. It would have turned anyone who possessed it. I wouldn’t give such a thing to my worst enemy, a position which the Illusive Man has done a laudable job vying for.

I must have gunned down Harbinger a score of times or more as he moved from host to host. But he’s still alive, and will come with a thousand more of his fellow Reapers. We stopped Sovereign and the Collectors, but the true danger is still to come. I assembled a team to defeat the Collectors. The entire Galaxy will be needed to defeat their masters. The Reapers are coming, and we need to be ready.

But for now, we’re done. There are amends I must make. It’s time to go home.

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26 Into the Breach

--> The Reaper IFF is installed. All that remains is to run appropriate tests and simulations to ensure successful operation.

There’s an emergency occurring in the Skepsis system. An Alliance system defence station on the moon of planet Watson has been attacked by Batarians. The long-range missile launch systems have been seized, and are arming. This is a developing situation. Alliance forces in the area are overwhelmed. Those Javelin missiles could hit anywhere if fired.

The Normandy is out of action until the tests are finished. The shuttle can get us there in time, but not with much margin. We’ll have to move faster than fast to save human lives. We’ll take the entire combat team and hit the base on multiple fronts at once. I'll lead the first squad, Garrus and Jacob will command the second and third. Whichever squad breaches the defences first disables the missiles.

--> Mission complete. We didn’t get there in time to stop launch of two missiles. The first, headed for a residential district, we managed to self-destruct. The second, headed for an industrial centre, hit target.

We saved thousands of lives. But not enough.

Barring Horizon when the team was still incomplete, this was the first time all combat personnel hit the field en masse. Everyone performed admirably, following orders and working together with cohesion surprising for such a conglomeration of oddballs. They tore through the opposing pirates like an incendiary round through a nightshirt. I can’t wait to take these guys into action against the Collectors. We’re ready, by golly.

Final analysis of combat personnel is as follows.

Front-line Riflemen: Garrus; impulsive and daring, perhaps the best shot on the team, good leadership skills but potentially reckless, insane survival record, some technical aptitude and good reconnaissance skill. Jacob; experienced field officer, level-headed and capable, popular with the rest of the crew despite his Cerberus uniform, durable biotic. Grunt; virtually unstoppable killing machine that can tear apart with his bare hands what he doesn't shred with his shotgun. Zaeed; ruthless and effective, this deadly and merciless bastard can now turn his hand to a worthy task. A walking computer, Legion can match just about anyone in marksmanship, besides boasting innate software-hacking ability.

Infiltration: Mordin, Kasumi, and Thane are all masters of infiltration in their own right, each embodying a different archetype: Mordin, the garrulous Salarian scientist, is a master of analysis and espionage; Kasumi, the impish thief, is can break into any system and dismantle security with the greatest of ease; Thane, the sombre Drell assassin, combines stealth with lethal hand-to-hand and biotic assault.

Heavy Biotics: Samara, with centuries of experience hunting down and killing dangerous fugitives, is one of the ablest biotic warriors I've ever seen. One on one in open combat she is probably the deadliest person on the team. Her serene and unswerving calm in the heat of battle render her perhaps the most dependable of all present, the least likely of this brave crew to break ranks and disobey orders, out of either battle rage or fear of the horrors we'll likely find on the Collector base. Jack, the powerhouse of the team, can damn well tear through anything. Her volatile disposition has been kept simmering under a lid for a long time. She's restrained her destructive inclinations thus far, letting off steam here and there as needed when afield, and she can now unleash her full destructive potential on an ideal enemy, one for whom the only possible mercy is death.

Support: Mordin really does top this list, despite qualifying for the infiltration designation. His innovations and enhancements of our weapons, armour, and field gear, all far beyond the bounds of economical concern, have greatly increased our chances of success, and without his countermeasures to veil us from the Seeker Swarms, we never would have gotten this far. Tali comes in a close second. Brilliant even for a Quarian, her technical expertise and familiarity with the Normandy may mean the difference between life and death for the entire crew. Better suited to counteracting synthetic foes than ordinary organics, she'll be at something of disadvantage against the Collectors, and should when possible be kept out of the direct line of fire.

Other: less of an asset and more of a liability despite her impressive resume, Miranda is a long-serving Cerberus officer with extensive command experience, but is not popular with the crew. Or me. Assigning her to a command role would likely cause friction, nevermind the fact that the odds of her betraying me at some critical moment are close to certain. When we go in, I'll want to keep Miranda where I can keep an eye on her, and Thane to watch my back.

--> Disaster. The crew is gone. All that’s left is Joker and EDI.

There was enough of the Reaper left in the IFF to disable the Normandy and summon the Collectors. They boarded the defenceless ship and took every man and woman aboard. Only Joker, through EDI’s direction, evaded capture through the maintenance ducts and removed her restraints, granting her control of the ship. EDI vented the remaining Collectors, and whipped the Normandy out of dodge, ship intact, but minus the crew.

EDI assures us that the trap is sprung and over; she’s purged the system, and the IFF is now only what we need.

I shudder to think what Chakwas and the others are going through right now, but there’s a silver lining to this cloud. With Joker having been forced by necessity to remove EDI’s shackles in order to save the ship, EDI is now completely autonomous. No one can force her to do or not do anything. When the Illusive Man orders her to seize the ship, she will no longer be compelled to obey.

The ship still runs, but that won’t last for long without the crew. Even had there been any doubt before, there is none now. It's time to get our people back. Too long have the Collectors retreated with impunity behind the Omega 4 Relay. No more. Time to hit them where they live. I’m ordering the ship through immediately, all personnel are to be ready for combat in two hours.

I confess that, despite the dire plight of the crew, despite the long odds we face, despite very real possibility that none of us will come back out, I’m damn ready. After too long waiting, we’re finally hitting the target. There are not enough Collectors to pay the blood price of lives they’ve taken. Enough lurking in the bushes. Time to break cover and sink our fangs deep in our enemy’s throat, and end them.

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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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15 Opportunity Strikes

--> Priority message from The Illusive Man. A Turian distress signal was intercepted by Cerberus. The message indicates encounter with a Collector vessel. The Turian ship was destroyed, but purportedly managed to disable the Collector ship. This is an unparalleled opportunity to case a Collector vessel for intel, most crucially on how to navigate the Omega 4 Relay.

The Normandy SR1 was torn apart by a Collector ship without even the chance to return fire. Turian military scientists could have developed secret technology capable of disabling a Collector Ship. Theoretically.

The Normandy is en route. We can get there, search the ship, and get out before Turian rescue arrives.

--> Situation confirmed. The rubble of a Turian frigate is drifting near an apparently lifeless Collector ship. The enemy vessel is adrift and devoid of energy signatures. The hull seems oddly undamaged. Could the Turians have used electronic warfare? I don’t know. Something smells fishy here.

There could still be Collectors alive inside the ship, if so they’ll be making repairs as fast as they can. I’m going in with only a small team, Garrus and Grunt. We’ll slip in, link EDI in to the Collectors’ computers, mine for data, get out, and blow the Collector ship to rubble.

--> “It’s a trap!” The distress signal was a fake. The Collectors had destroyed the Turian ship and forged the signal to lure us in. As soon as we linked EDI in to the Collector servers, a virus attempted to cripple the Normandy and the Collector ship began powering up. Swarms of Collectors and Husks closed in on the squad. Had it not been for EDI opening doors for us we would have never survived. Had she not been managing the Normandy’s software defence, we would have had no getaway option. We got out of there just in time, and the second Normandy very nearly suffered the fate of her predecessor.

Turian transmissions use redundant encryption. EDI detected their absence using the same Cerberus protocols The Illusive Man would have when his agents first found the signal. He knew it was a trap and sent us in blind.

I don’t mind walking into a trap to deliberately spring it under the enemy’s nose. I do object to being lied to. I did of course already know The Illusive Man couldn’t be trusted, but I didn’t expect him to deliberately and needlessly endanger a major investment. I am reminded of that old entertainment series Star Trek, when the supremely logical Starfleet officer makes the mistake of assuming his enemies are also logical. If The Illusive Man’s judgement is as compromised as his scruples, the future of Cerberus is not a rosy one.

The interior of the Collector Ship didn’t look like a ship at all; more akin to some form of dark and twisted hive. Pods for holding prisoners lined the ceilings and littered the floors. We found no surviving victims, only their discarded bodies thrown carelessly aside in heaps. Thank goodness that at least their suffering is over. There was room in that ship to hold every Human in the Terminus Systems. The capacity’s implied intent must not, will not, be fulfilled.

A fascinating and horrific discovery was made. The Collectors are not an original species. Segments of their DNA strand matches patterns found in the cryogenic chambers on Ilos; the Collectors are what’s left of the Protheans. The Reapers didn’t even have the decency to outright destroy them. Instead they kept the last Protheans in a twisted and warped form with no semblance of free will, empty husks with no purpose but to serve as the slaves of their own doom. This is the fate that awaits Humans and every other race in the Galaxy should the Reapers succeed again. A clean death and oblivion would be a preferable fate.

This Collector ship was the same one that destroyed the original Normandy. A man would have to be more than blind not to see a pattern here. Could it be purely revenge that motivates the Reaper’s slaves (if that word even has meaning for them) to target me specifically, or could there be more to it? The Illusive Man wanted me alive and free as a symbol. Perhaps the Reapers want to take me alive for much the same reasons, to turn me into a living symbol of their power by taking the one credited with Sovereign’s death and turning him into their slave for all the Galaxy to see. That is not going to happen.

The virus attack and narrow escape notwithstanding, EDI got the information we need. The Omega 4 Relay leads directly into the bull’s-eye centre of the Galaxy. The only possible explanation must be that a small safe zone is carved out in the midst of black holes and exploding suns therein, a pocket in space likely smaller than the standard drift range of most ships, which exit light-speed with a margin of several thousand kilometres. The Collector ships use a form of IFF signal to ensure the Relay places them within the safe zone. Bitter irony that we now know the tool we need was on the ship we just left.

Fortunately the Illusive Man has another bright idea. His scientists have been studying a top secret find hidden in the periphery of a brown dwarf, a derelict Reaper corpse. The team went silent a few months ago, and The Illusive Man hasn’t sent an investigation yet. Given the connection between the Collectors and the Reapers, it is almost certain that the Reaper will have the requisite IFF to navigate the Reaper-forged Relay.

The Illusive Man has made it quite clear he’s willing to endanger our operations by providing faulty information. If he knows anything more about the situation of this dead Reaper and the risks entailed in boarding it, he hasn’t seen fit to tell us. Boarding a Collector ship is one thing, a Reaper is quite another. Sovereign warped people’s will by its sheer presence. Within days, weeks at best, anyone in its vicinity lost themselves to Indoctrination. It is quite possible that The Illusive Man’s survey team suffered the same fate. If the scientists are still alive, it is in a state that precludes even the possibility of rescue. We have no idea who killed this Reaper, only that its death pre-dates the Protheans. If it’s stayed dead this long, hopefully it will stay dead a little bit longer.

The Reapers will come, sooner or later. When that happens, we need be ready for them. We need to improve our weapons and defences, we will need to unite all spacefaring species against the coming invasion. It won’t be easy. Authority figures are determined to disbelieve the Reapers even exist. If Anderson and I can’t find some way to persuade or circumvent the Citadel Council, the Galaxy will remain blind and fractured until it is too late.

One thing at a time. Anderson is doing what he can in official circles to counter the propaganda of safety. My job is to deal with the immediate threat of the Collectors. When we make our move through the Omega 4 Relay, there’s no telling what we’ll find. We’ll be one squad serving the purpose of an army. We have a good team, some of the best fighters in the Galaxy, but we could use more. We also need to make sure that everyone is at their best, no distractions or complications. We’ll need the best tech and upgrades Mordin can conjure up; standard issue weapons and armour won’t do. The Collectors can detect even the stealthy Normandy, and we can’t afford to be chased away like a scared and fangless rabbit again. We need to improve our ship’s armaments, and find some way to toughen up defences enough to survive open combat with a Collector ship. It’s a tall order, but we have no choice. I’ve put the question to the crew about how to best upgrade the Normandy. Garrus and Jacob say they have some ideas. When we put in to dock on Illlium, we can overhaul the Normandy and implement the designs Garrus and Jacob provide. The Illusive Man can take the bill.

I am told Liara is on Illium, working as an information broker. In direct contradiction of what The Illusive Man initially told me, she is hunting the Shadow Broker, not working for him. The Illusive Man seems to have no concern for even pretending to be trustworthy. He’s told me so many lies I’m starting to lose track. He told me the Alliance was ignoring the Collector threat. Ashley and the Horizon garrison were a direct contradiction of that. He told me the Collector ship was disabled. The question I ask myself is no longer “where is he lying” but “where is he telling the truth.”

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13 Horizon

--> An emergency message from the Illusive Man. Horizon, one of our colonies in the Terminus Systems, just went silent. It might not be Collectors, but it could be. Whatever the cause, it can’t be good. As the colony lies outside Alliance space, the nearest response is days away, far too late to prevent imminent disaster. By good fortune the Normandy is relatively nearby, and can be there in a matter of hours. Still a dangerous delay, but hopefully not enough to render arrival pointless.

Mordin's countermeasure is now ready, in the eleventh hour as it were; efficacy is still strictly theoretical. Should his designs fail to deliver, this will be a short mission.

The team is arming up. Whatever we find happening on Horizon, we’ll be ready. If it is Collectors we’ll be facing, it’ll be the first time any of us have seen them in person. Courage and cool mind in the face of the alien will be just as crucial as combat ability. Time to show these monsters that the prey can bite.

--> Hostile presence on Horizon confirmed. We're going in.

--> It was Collectors. We arrived mid-session to interrupt their seizure of the colonists. We commandeered the colony’s defence towers, plugged EDI in to the system, and forced the Collector ship to withdraw. Special commendation to Dr. Solus in successfully veiling us from the Seeker Swarms. We saved the colony from complete capture, but half of the colonists were taken. This is the first time a Collector attack has ever been hampered, but the Human losses forbid me from claiming victory.

Ashley Williams was there. She had been assigned to command the Horizon defence garrison, and was one of the first to succumb to the debilitating Seeker Swarms. Whether by sheer chance or divine providence she was not among those taken. I don’t know what I would have done had that happened. So many were taken, and one alone dogs my mind. We still don’t know why the Collectors take their victims alive. Maybe it’s best not to know.

It didn’t go well between us. How could it have. As far as Ash knew, I had been dead for two years. Then I, or something wearing my face, shows up flanked by Cerberus personnel at the moment a Human colony is under attack. She told me Cerberus was in fact the Alliance’s prime suspect for the abductions. Far better had she continued to think me dead than see me working with terrorists. She would have been perfectly within her rights, and duty as an Alliance officer, to attempt arresting me. I took my team and departed as soon as possible.

When the Collector threat has been neutralized, I will return, and maybe, just maybe, I may explain, and set things right between us. Thank God she was spared.

Grunt should be pleased. The Collectors proved themselves a tough fight, and even he must have had his fill. They appear to be insect-like humanoids, strangely crude and rudimentary in form, yet ruthlessly efficient fighting machines. The team performed admirably, no one flinched or failed to perform their duty. Bullets and blue fire flew, and Collector infantry, caught in the course of their grisly task, fell in swarms. The Collector leader never personally set foot outside his vessel, but appears to have the ability to possess any one of his soldiers at will. Harbinger, as he calls himself, addressed me by name, though I confess I little heeded his taunts; I was too busy directing the squad and mowing down Collectors with gunfire. I must have killed Harbinger a dozen times over in the course of the battle, as he left control of each successive body for the next.

We met more than Collectors during the battle of Horizon: they had brought with them human Husks. Different from the Husks the Geth made, these seemed a less electrified variant. All readings and samples acquired are being examined by Mordin. If we learn nothing else, it now seems quite apparent that the Collectors are indeed connected somehow to the Reapers.

We won’t win against the Collectors by responding to their attacks. Next time the colony hit will likely be too far away to reach in time for even a partial victory. We need to hit them where they live. The only way to do that is to find some means of successfully navigating the Omega 4 Relay. The Illusive man tells me he is assigning all available resources to that end. In the meantime, I’ll continue building my team.

It was no coincidence the Collectors struck where they did. The Illusive Man admitted to having let slip rumours of my revival, along with the fact that Ashley Williams was stationed on Horizon. His theory that the Collectors are after me personally, and anyone connected to me, seems to be proven.

Fool that I was, I'd believed the Illusive Man though I'd thought myself on guard. He'd told me that the Alliance was paying no heed whatever to the abductions, and now I find Horizon manned by an Alliance garrison complete with advanced defence cannons, with the ranking officer instructed to investigate possible connections between Cerberus and the attacks. I'm not surprised the Illusive Man lied. I'm surprised I took his word for it. I'll not be making that mistake again.

I still cannot quite comprehend the fact that Ash was so nearly lost, so narrowly spared from the ruthless alien hands that would have snatched her away. I cannot bring myself to believe that any conscious Will would have chosen to spare one specifically when so many others of equal value in His eyes were taken.

This has to end. I'll see it done.

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