47 The Fall of Thessia

--> A priority message from the Citadel. The Asari Councillor has asked to meet me in private, saying she has information too sensitive for transmission, even over an encrypted channel.

The Asari have thus far been spared the horrors of a direct invasion, but Reapers are amassing on their borders with the obvious intent of a full-scale assault. There's no question about whether the Asari can repel the enemy. The only question is how long can they withstand the onslaught before their defences buckle. The Asari have some of the deadliest commandos in existence, and their ships are possibly the most advanced of any fleet in the galaxy, but neither their nature nor their military structure are suited to drawn-out fights of grinding attrition.

While the Asari did indeed send scientists to assist in the construction of the Crucible, and promised us their fleets to defend it when launched, they have volunteered surprisingly little in the way of professional advice in the field where their expertise is unparalleled, that being the knowledge of Prothean history and technology. This secretive transmission from the Asari Councilor could mean that their reticence is at last shaken. Pity it took the prospect of imminent destruction.

We’ve nearly completed the Crucible, and lack only the Catalyst. If the Asari know something, we need it now. Our fleets won’t last forever. Garrus tells me he just advised the Primarch to cease all offensive operations, to preserve Turian fleets for the deployment of the Crucible. If we hope to win this war, it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

Citadel in sight. Shore leave denied. Whatever the Asari Councillor has to say, I don't want any delay in acting on it. Things are coming to a head, the dice are all in the air. We can't afford any mistakes.

--> The Asari have an artefact long hidden on their planet, known only to a few scientists and high-ranking government officials. It’s been a source of information for Asari advancements for centuries. With luck, it can provide us with a lead on the Crucible.

The Asari have many virtues, but at a time such as this, I would they were endowed with a nature less meditative and more spontaneous. This could be the key to everything, and they’ve kept silent about it until the Reapers are breathing down their necks. We need to move fast.

I've ordered the ship to Thessia, flank speed. The invasion of Thessia could begin at any moment. Pray we arrive there before the Reapers do.

--> Thessia is under attack. Their defence fleet is still engaging, but it won’t last for long. Reaper forces have already breached orbital defences and touched down on multiple points, their heaviest concentration being the Asari capital. That's the location of our artefact, in the Asari temple of Athame. Asari forces hold the position for now, but their casualties are mounting. I’ve ordered the Normandy to run what interference it can for the Asari fleet. Deploying in the shuttle.

--> We failed. We lost. The data is gone. Asari defences, weakened by Reaper attack, had nothing left to respond with when gunships attacked the temple; Cerberus forces led by Kai Leng had slipped through the crumbling perimeter. My team pinned down by heavy fire, Leng took the contents of the artefact, a Prothean VI, and left.

We were so close to the key; we had it in our grasp, and it is snatched away. I stood helplessly watching as Lang’s gunship flew away, taking with it our hopes of victory while Reapers crushed the beautiful Asari underfoot. Thessia, the heart of the most advanced and beautiful race in the Galaxy, now a broken flower, crushed under the tread of the unstoppable demons.

Poor Liara is crushed. She nearly came to blows with Javik for scoffing at the defeat of the Asari. Her composure recovered, she's buried herself in her data consoles, helping orchestrate the retreat and provide what evacuations lie within our power to effect. There is little I can do for her, and little she or I can do for her people. Never before, not even at Vancouver, have I felt so keenly the futility of my own puny strength against the awful might of these juggernauts of death.

Cerberus has done it. They’ve achieved the impossible, making themselves a subject of priority exceeding even the Reapers themselves. For months, we’ve fought Cerberus over our shoulder, fending of their attacks while focusing on the Reapers. That changes now. Cerberus stole the knowledge of the Catalyst, and it’s time to take it back. The Illusive Man has given me cause for anger before, but now, he has made me desperate. He might not be glad that he did.

EDI and Specialist Traynor tracked Lang’s shuttle, and charted its projected course through the Thessia Relay. It stops in the Ierra system. Ierra, home to the planet Horizon, the location of a widely-publicized sanctuary for refugees. All transmissions from that area are blocked. I have a bad feeling about this.

There is a definite alteration in the mood of the crew. With the list of allies growing ever stronger, with the Crucible so near completion, I believe all had begun to hope that victory was near, that no more worlds would perish. Or at the least, there had been hope that Thessia, the flower of the milky way, would be spared. Now suppressed hope is replaced by grim countenance and foreboding silence.

If Thessia cannot be protected, it will be avenged. The Reapers will pay for all their sins in due course; but first, Cerberus. When I see the steely glint in Ashley's eyes, the ominous precision with which Garrus readies his weapon, the unusually sinister glower of the last Prothean, and the grave composure of Liara, I see the quiet before the storm.

I almost feel sorry for Cerberus.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

35 Survivor

--> Cerberus just gets worse and worse. They’re carrying out a full-scale attack on Eden Prime. This isn’t just a raid, hit and run. This is an occupation. Our forces are overtaxed as it is, and the resistance on Eden Prime has had but minimal aid from the Alliance.

Hackett has issued a priority order to the Normandy. Cerberus is looking for something specific on Eden Prime. Something Prothean. We don’t know anything else at this time, but anything Prothean is by definition worthwhile, and if Cerberus has devoted a full-scale invasion and occupation force in search of this artifact, it must something big.  Guess there was more to that dig in 83 than we'd thought.

--> Mission complete. It wasn’t a Prothean artifact Cerberus was after. It was an actual Prothean. Years ago we’d found Prothean stasis pods on Ilos. Those failed from power loss. This one didn’t. Out of thousands of Protheans sleeping deep beneath the surface of Eden Prime, one survived. We found a living Prothean.

He calls himself Javik. He possesses telepathic ability even more advanced than that of an Asari, more or less the same method by which the Beacons communicated their message, and can after only brief contact speak English fluently, if contemptuously. This bitter and surly fellow constantly refers to the “primitives” that surround him with intense disdain.

He’s a soldier, not a scientist or an engineer, and knows no more than we about the Prothean super-weapon. Nevertheless his help will prove invaluable. He cannot tell us how best to build it or what it does, but he can provide us with accurate translation for the Prothean script the plans are provided in. Even Liara, our best Prothean expert, knows only a little of the Prothean language. Getting full translation of the instructions will cut short the decryption process and allow construction to begin immediately.

Beyond that, Javik’s true power lies in what he represents. After the Battle of the Citadel and the destruction of Sovereign, I was seen as the embodiment of Humanity’s defiance of the Reapers. When I died, The Illusive Man moved mountains to have me revived (while he was still interested in fighting the Reapers), to ensure that the symbol of the Reaper’s failure was seen alive and fighting. By that same principle, Javik represents the defiance of the entire Prothean race; he is the Survivor of his cycle, living proof of the Reapers’ failure to exterminate his kind.

Javik has agreed to fight alongside us against the Reapers. For now, staying with the Normandy offers optimal exposure, both diplomatic and combat. Future arrangements can occur if necessary. Once the upcoming summit is complete and the terms of cooperation between the species have been determined and agreed upon, Javik will be asked to either go to the Citadel for diplomatic employment, or join the frontlines at a point of his choosing. I sincerely doubt Javik will be inclined to sit quietly on the Citadel giving speeches while there are Reapers to be killed. That maverick means business.

Garrus told me of a Turian proverb: if even one survivor is left standing after a war, it was not in vain. In this context, that saying holds true. Let the whole Galaxy see the Survivor of the last cycle alive and fighting. Let the Reapers know of their failure. It is yet to be determined whether or not they can feel fear. We shall see.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

23 Exit Strategy

--> Tali has completed her inspection and given me her report on the Normandy. She’s done what discreet probing she can without giving herself away to either EDI or the engineers, and has not found any failsafes or command overrides. The only part of the ship she has not been able to covertly investigate is the AI core. EDI has undisclosed contingencies in her programming. I’d wager my old Vindicator that’s where the Illusive Man has hidden his leash on the Normandy.

EDI is linked extensively throughout the ship to all primary and secondary systems. Removing any of these connections without immediately tipping her off is impossible, so we cannot act until the last moment, and then we won’t have time for surgical removal of all the links. There are two ways to counteract the Illusive Man ordering EDI to commandeer the ship. The first is to shut down or destroy EDI completely. Drastic and potentially suicidal, this measure should be considered a last resort. The second option is to disable all communications, starting with the quantum entanglement particles linking directly to the Illusive Man. Surrendering to the Alliance without being fired upon will be risky if we cannot signal our intentions. It’s a chance we’ll have to take.

That still leaves the Cerberus crew. Most of them are like Jacob; they work for Cerberus because they want to do the right thing. Once this mission is over, once the Collectors are dealt with, I’ll give anyone who wants to the option to drop off on Illium before I take the Normandy back to the Alliance. I think most of them are as loyal to me as they are to the Illusive man, and would be amenable to either option. There's only one person I’m worried about: Miranda. 

Miranda is a veritable Cerberus fanatic; she’s the Illusive Man’s devoted agent, through and through. When I break contact with Cerberus after concluding the deal and completing the agreed-upon mission, there’s no telling what she’ll do.  And given her potent combat abilities, everything from marksmanship and hand-to-hand to crushing an opponent through the power of dark energy, she poses a significant threat should she choose to strike without warning.

I’ll need someone watching my back. Someone capable, someone that I can trust and count on. First thoughts of course turn to Garrus. I’d trust him with my life, and have already done so on countless occasions. He’s one of the best damn fighters in the galaxy, and has survived battles that should have killed him more times than I can count. But despite his wariness and cunning, deception and subterfuge are anathemas to him. He could more easily swallow a Thresher Maw than conceal his mistrust of Miranda. Moreover, he’s only just dealt with the issue of treachery already, and the subject is a sore one for him. Best leave him out of this.

Jacob is out of the question. He’s as solidly dependable a chap as could be wished, but he not only trusts both Cerberus and Miranda, he also has a soft spot for the latter. He’d refuse to believe Miranda might turn on me; such backstabbing is in direct contrast to his forthright nature.

I’m not sure if Jack or Grunt would be the worst possible option (except for a certainty Zaeed. I don’t trust that man as far as I could throw him.) Jack and Grunt both possess the subtlety of a freight train, and would refuse to wait around for the possibility of Miranda committing treachery. Either one would instead insist upon going to kill her immediately. Jack in particular stands the risk of doing real damage to the ship should a fight break out.

Samara, absolutely bound by her code, would also insist upon confronting Miranda directly, though with potentially less lethal results. Whether Miranda is a traitor in waiting or not, that would be a terrible idea. If she is a traitor, we’d be betraying ourselves prematurely and compromising our chances of completing the mission. If she isn’t a traitor, confronting her with the suspicion would only serve to sow discord and undue mistrust throughout the ship, again compromising the mission.

Neither of the girls would do. Tali is undoubtedly loyal, and thanks to her mask has an excellent poker face, but she’s primarily a mechanic and hacker, Miranda far outstripping her in combat ability. Kasumi is cunning and sly and deadly at stealth attacks, but would be inclined to take the whole thing as some kind of game, perhaps even dropping hints to egg Miranda on.

Mordin might be a good choice. He’s an ex-spy with exceptional observational skills, but he has a hard time keeping his mouth shut, and I wouldn’t bet on the frail Salarian wining in a fight against the nimble and biotic Miranda.

Thane. Where the heck did this guy come from? He seems almost ideally tailored for this task. A master of deception and concealment, he not only possess the trained perception and combat ability to spot impending trouble and take effective action, he also has the ethical restraint to strike only when absolutely necessary.

Apprising Thane of his new assignment while on the Normandy is too risky. I’ll inform him of the plan next time we're off the ship and away from the surveillance bugs that are aboard.

Going after the Collectors on their home turf will be one of the most purely dangerous missions any of us have ever been on, and I'll be hanged if I see us succeed only to all die at the hands of a souped-up computer and a deluded biotic tart.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20 Dangerous Paths

--> Garrus’s old contacts on the Citadel have spotted Sidonis. The traitor went to a specialist criminal named Fade to obtain false ID and a hiding place. We’ll take the Normandy there right away. Thane also has business on the Citadel. He has a son who is trying to follow in his father’s footsteps and has been hired for a kill. Thane wants to stop his son making the same mistakes he did.

--> Thane’s son Kolyat had been hired by a Human crime boss on the Citadel named Elias Kelham to assassinate a Turian political candidate who was telling his constituents that all Humans were uniformly criminal and racist in nature. He then sent his security to harass Human shopkeepers. We found Kolyat at the last moment and had a textbook hostage situation on our hands. Kolyat made the mistake of raising the gun from the Turian to point it at me. He’s now in C-Sec Custody, his target alive and well.

Thane paid his son little heed in the past. It will take time for them to patch up matters between them. At least we stopped the young Drell from committing murder.

--> We found Sidonis.

Garrus and I have both killed many times, but always by necessity.  This situation with Sidonis was different. Garrus was going to kill a man, not to prevent future deaths, but to avenge past deaths. There's no question the traitor deserved death. I’d have had nothing to say but for the fact that Garrus wanted me to talk to Sidonis first; to draw him out for a clean shot.

I can not look someone in the eye with a lie while someone else shoots him unawares. I told Sidonis the facts: Garrus was here to kill him; if he had anything to say for himself, now was the time.

The sorry bastard didn’t even beg for mercy. He pleaded his cowardice more to the air than to me, his words tumbling out over themselves like rocks from a collapsed dam too long holding back a flood of guilty misery, telling of how he’d betrayed his fellows to save his own miserable skin, of how he saw their faces wherever he looked, how he wished it were over.

Garrus wavered, his simple Turian view of a black and white world troubled by the wretched creature before him. Sidonis walked away with his life. It is not for his worthless sake that I am glad Garrus chose mercy over vengeance. Had he pulled that trigger, if he had taken a life that was no longer a threat, it would have been his first step down a dark and dangerous road.

There is blood on both our hands, and the hands of every soldier. Killing is our trade, and our duty: it is necessary. But where to draw the line? I'm no saint, and cannot say for certain. Were one to attempt to draw the line of just action, it seems better to err, when tenable, on the side of mercy, that we kill only when doing so will save lives.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

18 Demon of the Night Winds

--> Sometimes I think Garrus doesn’t sleep. Every time I check in on him he’s always tinkering and tuning restlessly in the main battery. “Calibrations,” he’ll say, and bury himself in his work again. He’s grown more reckless in combat, taking needless risks with no apparent regard for his own safety. The lives of his lost crew weigh heavily upon him. He told me how his squad died. They were betrayed by one within their own ranks. The traitor, a Turian named Sidonis, is unaccounted for. When Garrus finally finds the one who betrayed them, that man’s life won’t be worth a spent thermal clip.

Miranda seems to have taken courtesy on my part as some kind of suggestion. I don’t know if she’s contracted a genuine crush, perhaps on a backswing from recently-deceased Niket, or if this is some sort of plot to tie me more tightly to Cerberus, to compromise my judgement and learn my inner thoughts. Either way, I want nothing to do with it. I wish the woman would at least put some decent clothes on. Her face alone is distracting enough without flaunting her everything in plain view.

Jack doesn’t mingle much with the crew. She spends all of her time lurking in her lair staked out in the shadowed recesses of the ship’s innards. The engineers have begun scheduling their maintenance with her rare vacancies of the area when I have her out in the field. I still haven’t taken her to blow up Pragia yet, and her impatience is tangible. It’s not healthy for the Normandy to have a disgruntled and anxious super-biotic fuming silently in its bowels.

Joker and EDI are constantly squabbling. If I didn’t know better, just listening to them across the bridge, I’d think they were an old married couple or something.

Samara has asked that we divert to Omega where her target landed. She tells me the fugitive, an Asari with centuries of regular murders, is what her people call an Ardat Yakshi, or Demon of the Night Winds. A rare genetic fluke found only in purebloods, these Asari cannot mate without destroying their partner’s mind. The effect becomes a narcotic to the Ardat Yakshi, and killing becomes addictive. When the condition is detected in a young Asari, they are offered a simple choice: to live a life of monitored seclusion, or to die. This Ardat Yakshi, Morinth, fled. She has evaded pursuit for centuries, and the corpses of those who have lain with her number in the thousands. Samara has devoted four hundred years of her life to tracking down this one Ardat Yakshi, her daughter. When she finds Morinth, she will kill her.

I’m starting to understand why Samara chooses to bind herself to the Justicar code.

Setting course for Omega.

--> Morinth’s presence on Omega confirmed. Her latest victim, a reclusive human girl with artistic talent, was declared a death of brain haemorrhage. That may be technically accurate. Given information found in the girl’s journal, Morinth can likely be found in the VIP section of Afterlife.

Samara wants to handle this differently from my inclination. I’d simply wait in ambush in sight of Afterlife with Garrus and Thane. As soon as Morinth walks out, she receives three high-calibre sniper bullets in the head. Samara thinks it too risky. Having evaded pursuit for centuries, Morinth is naturally cagey and slippery. She might, against all odds, get wind of us and simply disappear again. Or she might survive lethal injury long enough to kill surrounding innocents in a flurry of biotic power amidst her death throes.

Instead, Samara wants me to pose as a potential victim, to lure Morinth out and lower her guard. Morinth is selective in her choice of prey, singling out artists and those who stand out. I daresay I could make myself noticeable among the civilians and thugs in Afterlife easily enough. Once I’ve gotten her attention, I am to engage her in conversation and take the encounter to her apartment, where Samara will confront her and conclude her quest.

I do not like this. Not one little bit. I’ll be walking right into the spider’s web. A most sinister and distasteful spider at that. But to be fair the plan does have its merits. It improves the odds of successfully catching Morinth and limits the chances of civilian casualties. But I still don’t like it. Nevertheless, this is Samara’s mission, and her plan is the most sound. We’ll do it her way. Garrus is furious at being left out, and insists on covering me from a discreet distance the whole time. I’ve agreed, on the grounds that he take every precaution against detection and hold fire unless absolutely necessary. This kill is rightfully Samara’s.

--> Mission complete. The Spider is dead. Making an impression on Morinth was a breeze. Lulling her into a state of greedy assurance was easy. The hard part was resisting the impulse to break her neck the moment I was within arm’s reach. I understand now another reason why Samara chose the plan she did. It wasn’t just to protect bystanders or put Morinth off-guard. It was a trial; giving Morinth one last chance to prove herself to be other than a murderer. But Morinth failed the test. She took the bait and sought to devour the proffered victim. Samara then concluded her four-hundred-year mission, and killed her daughter in single combat.

I have no children of my own. What must it mean to Samara, I cannot imagine. There is nothing I can say to ease the pain. Samara has done the only thing that could be done. It should never have needed to be.

But justice is now served. The Monster is destroyed, and the dead now can rest in peace.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17 The Shadow Broker

--> When we got to Liara’s apartment we found a police investigation underway. Someone had shot at Liara through the window. A Spectre, an Asari named Vasir, was overseeing the investigation. Turns out she was the one who tried to kill Liara. Long story short, Vasir and a small army of Shadow Broker commandos blew up an entire building and killed dozens of people trying to finish Liara off. I’m pleased to say none of these professional murderers will be continuing their careers of indiscriminate homicide.

As Vasir lay bleeding her lifeblood out on the ground, riddled with bullets far past what would have killed an ordinary soldier, she spent her dying breath accusing me of being no better than her because I’m “friends with Cerberus.” She then lacked the courtesy to stick around long enough for me to tell her off. Yes, I am affiliated with Cerberus, a terrorist organization guilty of a long list of crimes and atrocities. The difference is, unlike Vasir, I’m not doing the bad guy’s dirty work. I’m not the one who murdered innocent civilians. I am by necessity of circumstance taking Cerberus resources for my own ends, saving people from the Collectors. Funny thing is, she kept telling me not to dare judge her. I don’t have to. She’s gone to meet Someone who will.

Liara has the Shadow Broker’s location narrowed down to a star system in the Hourglass Nebula, Sowilo. Time to pay the fellow a friendly little visit.

--> Rather than carry out the painstaking and time-consuming process of searching every planet in the system, Liara calculated the most likely hiding places and prioritized the most bizarre and descriptively prestigious options. Sure enough, we quickly found the Shadow Brokers base, a cruiser of unregistered design, in a site high on Liara’s list. Hidden in the constant storm that follows the edge of the sunset on planet Hagalaz, where the oceans boil during the day and snap freeze ten minutes after sundown. Pleasant locale, this place.

Whether the Shadow Broker lacks the technological sophistication of the Collectors or the storm concealing his ship also hinders his sensors, the stealthy Normandy has managed to slip into a parallel course without apparent detection. Preparing for shuttle launch. Garrus, Liara, and myself will be taking on unknown odds together just like old times.

--> Mission complete. We successfully infiltrated the Shadow Broker’s ship and stormed his office. Quite a sight he was. BigAndUgly’s the word for him. An immense dark red-skinned biped with a three segmented jaw and more eyes than I could count while busy shooting at them.

I’d initially planned on offering him the chance to surrender, but he didn’t seem interested. It’s not like he didn’t know who we were; being the Shadow Broker, and referring to us each by name, he knew everything about us. Which begs the question of how he thought he had any chance against Liara, an Asari pureblood possessed of biotic ability exceptional even for her kind, Garrus Vakarian, AKA Archangel, a Turian vigilante who survived half the thugs in the Omega Nebula trying to kill him, and myself, Humanity’s finest marine. Spectres are the best fighters in the Galaxy, and I’ve killed two of them.

His hubris was somewhat justified on account of a unique defence system in his office, a shield projector in the ceiling that rendered conventional weapons fire against him nearly useless. But lo and behold, Liara had the brilliant idea to destroy the shield projector. Pulled the whole mess down on that monster’s head.

Naturally, the Shadow Broker’s staff started noticing something was amiss, and started radioing in for orders. Liara stepped up. She commandeered the Shadow Broker’s translator, ordered standard procedures resumed and a report on all operations within the next twenty-four hours. No one, not even the people who worked for him on his own ship, had ever seen the Shadow Broker; he was completely anonymous. With control of his terminals and office, Liara is the Shadow Broker.

This turnout surpasses my best hopes for mission results. I’d expected to salvage some data before pulling out of a potentially crashing ship. Instead, Liara now has full access to all of the Shadow Broker’s resources; all of his agents, all of his intel, everything his Galaxy-spanning network has accumulated, is now at our disposal. This is an enormous challenge, but Liara has embraced it. With her direction, this immense web of ominous power with feelers in every major organization and government in the galaxy can be turned from a threat into something better.

I’d suspected that, despite Liara’s hopes, Feron would be long gone, but I was wrong. He was alive and imprisoned on the Shadow Broker’s ship, having spent two years subject to intermittent torture whenever the Shadow Broker got bored. Feron is surprisingly sane and calm despite his treatment, and is even helping Liara sift through the tremendous mountains of information available to her.

The scope and detail of the Shadow Broker’s intel is incredible. Liara can access up-to-date information on what The Illusive Man ate for breakfast, on my crew’s internet activity, on the identity of nearly all major crime bosses in the galaxy, on security codes for top-level access to Turian and Human governments, the list goes on and on. The immediate danger is being overwhelmed by the sheer mass of information available. Liara seems not only to be handling the situation, but even perhaps thriving in it. She never ceases to amaze me.

The Shadow Broker had extensive information on Cerberus, enough to allow the Alliance to put a sever dent in their resources and sniff out a great many nefarious operations and plots, past and present. The list of tamperings in politics conducted by Cerberus, slander, bribery, and murder, is extensive. This information, once revealed, rewrites much of recent history.

Unfortunately, even the Shadow Broker had little information on the Collectors. We do know that he knew about the Reapers, perhaps even before we did, and had been searching for clues the Protheans might have left behind. It doesn’t quite make sense that, knowing about the Collector’s and their connection to Reapers, he had been conducting business with them. Did he calculate his dealings as being of insufficient benefit to the Collectors to constitute a tangible aid to the Reapers?

I now leave Liara one of the most powerful people in the Galaxy, with perhaps the most demanding job in the Galaxy. If anyone is capable of steering the Shadow Broker’s ship, it is her.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16 Illium

--> Illium is the centre of Asari trade in the Terminus Systems. A superficial veneer of safety and upper-class tidiness masks a core of corruption and crime as dangerous and dirty as Omega. I was stationed here for a time before I was first assigned to the first Normandy; a cushy security assignment as a reward for Elysium. I didn’t much care for it.

Jacob has pulled a few strings and gotten a hold of an experimental armour design for the Normandy, Asari in origin.

Garrus has almost certainly broken regulations to provide me with Turian blueprints for a radical new weapon design, Thanix Cannons. The weapons fire a stream of super-heated molten metal rather than a solid projectile. Not only will it penetrate Collector ship armour, it will in theory, with the right calibration, penetrate the hull of an enemy ship, then the conservation of energy will transfer the force of momentum into heat upon the deceleration of impact, tipping the balance of the molten stream into a full-blown plasma explosion inside the hull before it passes out the other side. This technology and method, if it works as promised, is a massive improvement, not just over Alliance tech, but even Collector armaments. Their particle beam weapon drilled holes clean through the first Normandy. If they had used these Thanix Cannons, no one would have survived that attack. I’m reminded of the old Earth American patrol boats used in the second world war. Their lightweight, thin wooden hulls would allow enemy torpedoes to shoot right through them without detonating.

It will take some time for the new weapons systems and armour to be installed on the Normandy. Fortunately funds are not an object. I’m granting the crew shore leave in cycles, with orders to enjoy our brief stay on Illium and stay out of trouble.

I going to see how Liara’s doing. I don’t expect her to be any more inclined to trust me than Ash or Anderson, but I should at least give her what intel Cerberus has on the Shadow Broker. Being an information broker herself, Liara may have some suggestions for recruits here on Illium.

--> I expected civil courtesy from Liara. I didn’t expect her to welcome me with open arms. It turns out she has good reason to believe I’m actually me; she was the one to recover my lifeless body from the Shadow Broker’s agents who first found me. She’s waited two suspenseful years for the completion of project Lazurus. The poor dear was afraid I would hate her for handing me over to Cerberus. A significant risk, I’ll admit, but hardly worth hating her for. I owe her my life.

Liara does indeed know of two likely candidates for my team. Samara, an Asari Justicar, and Thane Krios, a Drell assassin.

Justicar’s are something akin to knight errants, a monastic order of independent individuals who pursue evildoers and bring justice wherever they go. Absolutely devoted to a strict moral code, they are selfless and tireless warriors, representing the highest beliefs of the Asari. Justicars operate above the law, but are not recognized or even widely known of outside of Asari culture, and there is some concern among the Asari in general about the diplomatic ramifications should a Justicar inflict justice upon a member of another species.

Thane is an assassin of high repute. Despite an extensive kill record, he has had no contracted hits for a stretch of many years. He reportedly has a target on Illium, but Liara cannot find anything regarding a fee.

I’ve given Liara the Cerberus intel on the Shadow Broker, and even helped her to discover one of his spies in the person of her secretary. Liara thinks she can use the information to finally track the Shadow Broker to his lair. I’ve never seen Liara so strongly hate or desire the destruction of anyone like this before, not even Saren or Sovereign who turned her mother into a slave of evil. She says the Shadow Broker was going to sell my body to the Collectors before she stole me from his agents, that her partner in the mission, a Drell named Feron, sacrificed himself to allow her to escape with my corpse. She’d thought him dead, but the Cerberus intel implies otherwise. She’s spent the past two years planning revenge. Now she has the chance to make it a rescue. I’m glad her mission to take down the Shadow Broker (a criminal mastermind with a galaxy-spanning network of spies) ties in with my official goals. Not only is the Shadow Broker a threat in and of himself, his dealings with the Collectors render him a potentially game-changing source of information.

Liara needs some time to work through the data. I’ll come by her apartment when she’s ready. In the meantime, I have two fighters to recruit, and Miranda’s sister to protect.

--> Samara and Thane both agreed to help me stop the Collectors. Each one was on Illium with the intent of killing a target. Both exhibit exceptional combat ability, with both biotics and more conventional methods, though with vastly different approach methods. Samara marched into an Eclipse hideout and massacred the heavily armed mercs in open biotic combat, a veritable goddess of grim and inexorable justice. Thane, in keeping with standard assassin doctrine, prefers the more covert approach; his target never saw him until just before he pulled the trigger in her face. Contrary to standard assassin method, however, he agreed to lend his aid against the Collectors, without charge.

Thane’s target was a wealthy Asari businesswoman with a nasty reputation of murdering her business rivals. Upon infiltrating her property in our search for Thane we discovered her mechs and security shooting the workers assigned to the building. It seems she got wind of Thane’s coming, and had ordered her men to clear out the building immediately. Questioning the workers revealed they hated their employer, but hadn’t quit because of rumours that anyone who did would disappear. Whatever nefarious business Nassana Dantius conducted, she wanted no chance of it getting out.

Samara is pursuing what she only describes as a very dangerous criminal. She’d tracked her target to Illium, but the Eclipse had smuggled the target off-world. I helped Samara find the name of the ship, and she vowed to aid me in my mission against the Collectors. The oath came with a warning that, if ordered to commit a dishonourable deed, she would be obliged to kill me.

I like Thane. He spoke of having done to much to make the Galaxy darker, that he wants to spend what time he has left making it brighter before he dies. Nassana was to have been his last mission, but an opportunity to stop attacks on Human colonies changed his plans. He suffers from terminal illness, non-communicable and painless, but his window is closing. If I can offer him more of what he seeks, atonement for past murder, I am glad.

Samara I do not like. While Thane seems to act from the promptings of his conscience, Samara apparently allows her Justicar code to dictate her actions to the exclusion of all else. As far as I can tell, the code in question is a worthy one that demands its adherents protect the innocent at all cost to one’s self, to smite the evil and the unjust wherever found, but it cannot possibly provide dependable moral guidance for every conceivable situation. I mistrust anyone who hides behind an institutional dogma rather than taking responsibility for their own actions. I believe Samara to possess righteous intentions, but her exclusive and absolute devotion to the code may indicate a hidden frailty of will, perhaps even mental cowardice.

--> Miranda’s sister and her adoptive family are safe in their new location. Miranda and Oriana’s father have no idea now where Oriana is. Unfortunately, the security of Oriana’s family came at a price. Niket, Miranda’s oldest friend, the man who first helped her escape from her father, had been the only link. Niket hadn’t known about Miranda stealing Oriana away from her father, and wanted to return the girl to a life of wealth and safety. When we began convincing him to deceive Mr. Lawson and permit Oriana to live with the only family she’d ever known, the Eclipse captain assigned escort Niket shot him.

It’s come as a welcome change to see Miranda busy thinking about the safety and happiness of another human being, her sister, rather than ceaselessly obsessing about her devotion to Cerberus and adulation of The Illusive Man.

--> Liara sent me a message saying she’d sifted through the data and narrowed down a solid lead. I’m on my way toward her apartment.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________