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.

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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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37 Tuchanka

--> Mordin is well on his way to developing the cure, working feverishly while maintaining his signature cheery-chatterbox manner in constant (and nearly one-sided) conversation with Eve. When I asked him privately about how easily, even readily, he is voluntarily undoing years of his work, Mordin insists his motives are purely practical, providing the means for the now essential cooperation of the Krogan in order to save the Galaxy from immediate destruction. But I suspect there’s more to it than that. Mordin isn’t a callous or unempathetic fellow. Despite all of the very good reasons for the Genophage, I think having reinstated the waning Genophage took its toll on Mordin’s conscience. Despite the risks, I think he delights in the opportunity to undo that work.

The Krogan were bloodthirsty and aggressive to begin with: that’s the reason the Genophage was created in the first place. But while it curbed the full potential of the Krogan race as a dominant force in the Galaxy, it also nearly guaranteed that Krogan would almost uniformly seek out conflict rather than build families, ruling out even the possibility of a peaceful and productive life. With the Genophage technically reducing Krogan reproductive viability to a barely sustainable birthrate, the steady decline of the Krogan population, and their eventual extinction, was all but ensured.

Before Wrex, there was no recognized leader of Tuchanka: the Krogan race consisted of disparate clans that killed each other as much as anyone else. Wrex is an anomaly among Krogan. He not only had the strength and brutal charisma to unite most of the violent and volatile Krogan under his rule, he also has the sense and foresight to see that retribution and galactic war would be counterproductive for all concerned. It’s true he’ll want to expand; Tuchanka is little more than an ashen waste heap, but he wants to do so peacefully, through colonization rather than conquest. As fate would have it, the creation of a cure for the Genophage coincides with the arrival of a leader among Krogan who represents their first real chance for peace. If anything were to happen to Wrex, it would be a very different story.

Wrex has discreetly informed me of some ominous news. He’d heard rumours of activity around the Rachni Relay, and sent a team of scouts to investigate. They never reported back. He’s prepared to send in Arlakh company, his best men, to find out what happened to the scouts, and wants me to accompany them. If something’s gone wrong, if the Rachni are once again a threat, it could mean being caught between them and the Reapers.

Primarch Victus has also asked for my help in addressing an immediate emergency. He only spoke in private, and told me almost no details, only that a Turian platoon had been deployed to Tuchanka in secret, “a matter of galactic peace,” he says. The platoon crashed and lost radio contact. He asks that I rescue the team and ensure that they complete their mission, at any cost.

I have no idea what a Turian platoon could be doing on Tuchanka, but it’s bound to be something truly extreme to draw dearly needed assets away from their imperilled planet. The Turians are up to something desperate, and don’t want the Krogans to know about it.

This should be good.

--> Platoon secured. Turians were surrounded and outnumbered by Reaper forces. We’ve yet to see a true Reaper show up in Krogan space, but they’re slipping in various infantry, clearly trying to stall proceedings in the region without devoting resources already engaging Human and Turian fleets. We’re still loosing territory to them at an alarming rate, being forced to flee nine out ten engagements, but it is some hope to see that their assets are not unlimited, that they too must allocate forces carefully in effort to not compromise their primary operations.

The platoon is commanded by Lieutenant Victus, the Primarch’s son. He says their mission is to disarm a massive bomb held by Cerberus on Tuchanka. The Lieutenant has rallied his disgruntled men, and will scout out the bomb site. I’ll rejoin them in twenty-four hours’ time. In the meantime, I have a few questions to ask the Primarch.

--> Primarch Victus still won’t tell me anything more, only insisting again that I must see to it that the platoon completes its mission no matter what. I won’t disagree with that, but I would like to know why he didn’t tell me about the bomb before, what more he isn’t telling me now.

Mordin reports the cure complete, ready for mass production and dispersal. Consensus is that the Shroud, a facility on Tuchanka built by the Salarians to stabilize the atmosphere, and also used by the Turians to spread the Genophage, is the best way to disperse the cure.

I'm ordering a delay. We have a major situation brewing with this bomb, an imminent catastrophe that could render the Cure all but meaningless. Why Cerberus wants to blow up half of Tuchanka is anybody’s guess. We don’t know what’s going on, and locking down this bomb takes absolute priority.

--> Bomb secured and disabled. Lieutenant Victus sacrificed himself to ensure the success of the mission. The bomb had been planted centuries ago by the Turians as a safeguard against potential Krogan aggression in the event that the Genophage fail or prove insufficient. Had Cerberus succeeded in detonating it, all chance of peace between the Turians and the Krogan would vanish.

Wrex knows. And he is not pleased. Tis certain he would be angry with Victus, if time were convenient.

I don’t know what Cerberus thinks they’re up to, but it sure as hell looks to me like they’re helping the Reapers.

If so, it’s quite possible even they don’t know that.

Victus said that the platoon sent to Tuchanka must complete its mission, at any cost. That cost has been paid. Half the men of that platoon, the Primarch's son among them, fought and died on Tuchanka to ensure the survival of the Krogan. The Krogan should honour them.

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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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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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22 Overlord

--> Cerberus is asking for my help in containing an emergency taking place on Aite in the Phoenix Massing cluster. The report is vague and urgent, saying only that disaster is imminent and details too sensitive for broadcast over open channel. Whatever’s going wrong, whatever Cerberus has been up to, better it be investigated by me than someone else, and better now rather than later.

--> Damned fool Cerberus. Some experiments are illegal for a reason. Does the Illusive Man think he can ignore obvious dangers without consequences, or does he simply not care about the damage if there’s a chance it will give him what he wants? How many lives have been lost to satiate his curiosity and greed?

Project Overlord has been developing a Human/VI hybrid in the hopes of exploiting the Geth’s worship of Sovereign: fabricate an VI god we can control, hope the Geth worship it, and we control the Geth. Madness. Depraved, unholy madness.

The Human subject, David Archer, brother to the chief scientist Dr. Gavin Archer, was plugged into the VI prematurely when the Illusive Man threatened to cut funding for want of results. Now the Archer/VI hybrid has gone berserk, turning all security drones against the scientists, even activating all the on-sight Geth Cerberus had been using in tests, and tried to launch itself off-world through the extranet. We managed to shut down the upload by destroying the entire com dish, but that still leaves us with a series of Cerberus research stations on the planet filled with dead Humans and homicidal robots under control of the VI. The only Human survivor we know of is Dr. Archer.

Time to clean up this damned mess.

--> I’d foolishly assumed David Archer’s role had been voluntary. I was wrong. He had been plugged into that damned VI like an electrical appliance, a tool without the choice of consent to the horrible state he was thrust into. The incoherent sounds the VI screeched at us throughout the mission grew clearer and clearer as we neared the centre. The sound of its voice became coherent enough as we reached the last doors for us to finally understand the words. It wasn’t an angry mass of synthetic noise as we’d thought. It was English, badly garbled but eventually decipherable “Make it stop, please. Please make it stop.”

We pulled David Archer out of that hell-hole and are taking him to Grissom Acadamy. If anyone can help him, it will be the Alliance doctors and teachers there.

Dr. Gavin Archer is lucky to have seen the last of me with his face still mostly intact. Humanity has real enemies, creatures that will eagerly destroy us and subject us to horrors. We don’t need Humans doing the Enemy’s work.

As horrific as project Overlord was, it is just one more entry in an already lengthy list of atrocities committed by Cerberus. How Miranda and Jacob can continue to tell themselves that each incident is an anomaly, and the Illusive Man is responsible for non of it, is quite beyond me. I'd known Cerberus was crooked and cut-throat before. If I'd known a few weeks ago what I know now, I'd have never agreed to this deal; I'd have instead gone straight to the Alliance, no matter the ensuing delay. But I am here, and I intend to make damn sure I don't waste it. The Illusive Man's empire of evil must at all costs be exposed and destroyed.

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19 The Clutches of Cerberus

--> The long-promised trip to Pragia has been seen to. What we found there, I’m sad to say, doesn’t even surprise me. Amidst the crumbling ruin clutched by mutant plant vines we found the fading story of a veritable hell-hole. The Teltin Cell had abducted every child with biotic potential they could get their hands on. All of them were used as test subjects, just so many human lab rats. Any procedure, no matter how horrific, that might theoretically improve biotic strength was carried out upon these children. All were expendable, all except Subject Zero; Jack was the focal point of the entire project. All of the atrocities inflicted upon her and the other children were for the sole purpose of turning her into an invincible super-biotic.

It is unclear if Jack matched their expectations. Her strength certainly exceeds that of any other biotic I’ve met. The astonishing thing is that she retains any level sanity. A mind subject to a childhood of constant torture and abuse, no human contact beyond killing other children, should have turned her into a genuine monster, completely devoid of any semblance of basic humanity. How she managed to cling to sanity, to remain a functional human being in any degree, is beyond me.

Exactly what happened at Teltin is unclear. All that we know for certain is that Jack broke out of her cell and tore through anything in her path. She escaped Teltin, then was captured and abused by pirates. After a mixed career of crime she was again captured and imprisoned on the Purgatory. She’s never had anything like a chance at a normal life. Hopefully, if we survive the mission to stop the Collectors, she will finally get that opportunity.

We found another escapee from Teltin there. The poor fellow, Aresh, he called himself, was drawn back to the place he couldn’t forget. In his crazed state he planned to restart the Teltin project, to discover why they had inflicted such horrors upon him. Jack sent him scampering, where to I know not.

Something fishy about Teltin. We came across communication records that implied the details of their experiments were unknown to the Illusive Man. Aresh claimed to have been in the ruin for about a year, but his hired security escort spoke as though they’d just arrived. Did the Illusive Man send Aresh to plant false evidence and shift the blame down the chain of command? I shouldn't be the slightest bit surprised.

Even Miranda seems shaken by what we found on Pragia. She adamantly denies Cerberus proper had anything to do with it, insisting that the Teltin project had gone rogue. Sure. Whatever helps her sleep at night. Jack, desperate for satisfaction, nearly started a biotic brawl with Miranda for refusing to apologise on behalf of Cerberus. The sooner we complete our mission and those two go their separate ways the better. Jack has agreed to remain below decks and leave Miranda alone. For now.

Strange that Jack should have escaped the clutches of Cerberus so many years ago, only to find herself once more ensnared in their machinations. Of her own volition, to be sure, but little better for that. We're all in this web together now, all by choice and with good purpose. But once purpose is fulfilled, when the game is played and the cards laid bare, It's all of our necks on the line, even if we survive the mission. It's up to me to find a way out of that noose.

--> I’m seeing reports in the Cerberus intelligence network of an increase in Geth sightings. I’ve just saved a civilian munitions vessel, the MSV Broken Arrow, from colliding with a planet in the Nariph system. The ship had been commandeered by Geth and deliberately set on collision course. That’s just plain odd. The Geth are perhaps the most technologically advanced species in the galaxy, viciously logical and deadly in combat and planning. If they’re resuming hostilities outside of their home system again, why are they resorting to paltry tactics like seizing a civilian freighter? That’s the sort of strategy I’d expect to see used by Batarian pirates, who are more interested in hurting as many people as possible than risking their own skin. Geth are cunning and deadly fighters, ruthlessly implementing vicious attacks upon their enemy, optimizing damage dealt and paying no heed to the cost in their own forces. They’re not at all senselessly suicidal, but destroying their enemy is their primary focus; their own casualties are a mere detail.

There are also reports of Quarian’s encountering the Geth. Tali, in command of a stealthy investigation, has been sent into the Dholen System in the far rim. That system is occupied by Geth. I don’t know why the Quarians sent their people in there, but I plan to find out.

There’s another, seemingly unrelated, reason to investigate Dholen: the Cerberus web. When the Collector threat is dealt with, I’ll be cutting ties with Cerberus and taking the Normandy back to the Alliance. When that happens, the Illusive Man will almost certainly activate failsafes built into the Normandy to prevent me from doing just that. I need help discreetly finding the hooks hidden in the Normandy, and removing them. Immediately if possible, or at the last minute if necessary. Tali is brilliant, even for a Quarian, and knew the old Normandy inside and out. Moreover, she’s someone I can trust. If anyone can free the Normandy, it’s her.

--> Tali and her team are on the planet Haestrom. It looks like they’ve been detected, and are engaging superior Geth forces. Moving in.

--> Most of the Quarian’s are dead, shot by Geth infantry or bombed by the Geth dropship. Tali is alive, as is the Quarian marine charged with her safety, Kal Reeger. They’d been sent to investigate the system’s star, Dholen. It’s aging prematurely, the interior’s mass increasing at an unprecedented rate. Within a hundred years, perhaps more, the star will go critical.

Understanding in theory how to increase the star’s mass is simple; application of dark energy through mass effect technology. There are however two massive problems: the problem of scale and the problem of origin. No known species has every created a warp field powerful enough to crush the interior of a star. It seems unlikely the Geth would use such an inefficient weapon, the effects would take a century at best to come to fruition, and their opponent would have long since discovered the danger and evacuated. Moreover, the Geth are eminently practical, and wouldn’t destroy an entire system and all of the resources on every planet, asteroid and comet therein.

To my surprise, Tali not only agreed to accompany me, she even got official clearance from her superiors to do so. She says I’ll need people I can trust if I’m working with Cerberus. I suspect her superiors sent her orders to infiltrate the Normandy and spy on Cerberus, find out what precisely Commander Shepard is up to.

This business of Dholen reminds me of the mystery of Rothla. An entire planet blown to bits by Krogan. They didn’t live to tell us how they did it, and I suspect they didn’t do it on purpose (you never know with Krogan). It’s possible that clan discovered a hidden super-weapon from a previous cycle meant to fight the Reapers. It’s also possible this soon-to-be-exploding star is something of the same sort ticking over, perhaps accidentally triggered by the Geth. In any case, neither super-weapon, intentional or not, is likely to prove useful.

I’ve received a message from Admiral Hackett. He’s asked me to recover the missing dog tags from the crash site of SR1, and plant a memorial to mark the spot.

According to the Shadow Broker’s intel on Hackett, he refused permission to Alliance forces to detain me. I’m grateful. This job would be much more difficult if I were constantly dodging Alliance agents. I owe Hackett a great deal for his allowing me a chance to prove myself. I’ll plant the memorial before I board that dead Reaper. It won’t be a pleasant experience, but I’m honoured to be given the job.

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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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