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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40 Udina's Folly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The team's ready. We’re going in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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38 The Battle of the Shroud

--> A Reaper has landed on Tuchanka.

Thankfully it’s one of the smaller destroyer-class monsters, not a Sovereign-class megalith. Nonetheless, a sentient and deadly-cunning hunk of metal one hundred sixty metres tall is a matter of grave concern. Not to mention the army of Husks, Marauders, Cannibals, and Brutes clustering around its feet that have commandeered the Shroud and are using it to disperse poison into the atmosphere of Tuchanka.

Available resources are limited. Despite the associated stakes, this showdown on Tuchanka is but a backstage skirmish compared to the ensuing battles of the Alliance and Turian fleets against the Reapers.

The Normandy can’t join this fight on account of Cerberus occupying, repairing, and arming an old Krogan planetary defence cannon in range of the airspace over the Shroud. We can’t spare the time to disable the gun, not while the Shroud is actively pumping toxins into the air. Without time to neutralize that cannon, we'll be marching on the Shroud without even the chance to attempt meaningful air superiority.

The presence of the Primarch aboard the Normandy makes it all the more impossible that we expose the ship to the direct view of that heavy gun, to say nothing of the Reaper. One or the other the Normandy might stand some chance against. But against both combined the outcome would be certain defeat.

We need a way to take down that Reaper, but despite the ferocity of the Krogan footsoldiers, they possess little in the way of advanced military hardware, certainly nothing to match a mountain of prehistoric alien metal. The best they can bring to bear against the monster is a few detachments of small-scale mobilized artillery, largely outdated.

The most that Palaven can spare us at this time is one fighter squadron, craft too small for the Cerberus gun to threaten. This, with Krogan artillery vehicles, will have to suffice for fighting the Reaper. They may or may not manage to bring it down, but they should at least be able to distract it and draw it away from the Shroud.

Here's the plan. The Krogan artillery will in concert with the Turian fighters engage, and if possible destroy, the Reaper. The bulk of the Krogan infantry, spearheaded by clan Urdnot and their redoubtable chieftain Wrex, will engage the Reaper footsoldiers while I take a small insertion team to the Shroud. Hopefully we can get Mordin and Eve there without exposing them to the attention of the entire Reaper defence force.

It is uncertain if Eve will survive the process. I hope so. She’s proven herself capable of impressive leadership skills in rallying the dubious Krogan. Should both she and Wrex live, they will make an excellent match.

--> The Salarian Dalatrass has just covertly made contact. She says that the STG sabotaged the Shroud years ago to prevent just such an attempt as we are about to make. Mordin will likely detect the malfunction and repair it. Otherwise the cure will be rendered inert, and no one the wiser. She all but told me to murder Mordin, promising me in return full Salarian support.

I’m insulted. To think I’d kill a trusted friend for political leverage. Besides, I would never betray the Krogan like that. Of course there’s a chance the Krogan will start a war. Wars happen. There is no nation, no treaty, no mortal provision of any kind perfect enough to guarantee lasting peace. All such constructs are innately flawed because they are made and held by flawed creatures. History is one long account of disaster and renaissance, treachery and virtue, triumph and defeat, peace and war, civilization constantly pulling itself out of the rubble to rise and fall again in endless struggle against mortal failings. We cannot guarantee the future. All we can do is our best to make peace in our time. This cure for the Genophage, and the leadership of Wrex, constitute the best possible chance for lasting peace between the Krogan and the rest of the Galaxy, and there is no more certain way to guarantee their undying enmity than to betray them now. I will not for fear of war lend my hand to ensure it. The Dalatrass can go to hell. But that’s none of my business.

--> We’re groundside. Turian wing Artimec is inbound to the Reaper. Krogan tanks will rendezvous with them at the Shroud in one hour, infantry moving to engage.

This will be bloody, and it looks like the Krogan are up for it. It's been centuries since the Krogan have fought a proper war, and the soldiers I see before me are chaffing at the bit to spill some Reaper blood. Despite the very real threat posed by this Reaper on Tuchanka, despite the possibility that it could prevent us from successfully curing the Genophage, this fight for the Shroud gives us a perhaps essential opportunity to motivate the Krogan. When asked to go fight alongside Turians, the average Krogan will find but little motivation to risk his neck for his hereditary enemies. But when a new enemy arrives in presumptive arrogance to directly threaten their own homeworld of Tuchanka, every Krogan will immediately reach for his shotgun; and once committed to their own war against the Reapers, deployment to Palaven is a mere extension of that reprisal.

Shroud is in sight, Reaper in the way. The rumble of our tank-treads is matched by the growl of occupants eager to tear and rend. Now let the Krogan do what they do best.

--> The cure is deployed, the Reaper destroyed. The Krogan emerge victorious.

The Krogan soldiers tore through the Reaper thralls like a fire through dry grass. The Krogan may have been largely disarmed by the Turians, but they've not lost that brutal ferocity that earned them the fear of the entire galaxy. Now that Krogan have gained a taste for Reaper blood, they hardly need asking to march against the Reapers on Palaven.

Despite the Krogan's easy victory against the Reaper footsoldiers, the Reaper itself proved a far harder nut to crack: available forces proved insufficient to defeat the monster, and Wrex resorted to the summoning of Kalross, the Mother of All Thresher Maws. It was quite a sight to see, two behemoths, one metal the other flesh, grappling under the fierce Tuchanka sun and laying waste to the terrain around them. The Reaper disappeared underground in the grip of the Thresher Maw, and now appears completely inert to orbital readings. Kalross’ status is unconfirmed. Liara has issued strict warning to the Krogan to avoid approaching the Reaper corpse. The last thing we need now is for the Krogan to become Indoctrinated.

The Shroud was razed to the ground in the ensuing carnage, and Mordin sacrificed his life braving explosions therein to ensure the successful launch of the cure. The Salarian who died to save the Krogan will live as an example of goodwill to strengthen the bonds of peace between the races. 
 

Mordin was a good friend, and comported himself with all the selfless courage that may be expected of the bravest soldier. At the end, he insisted that he could not have done otherwise: “Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.”

And he was likely right. Due in no small part to his caring expertise, Eve survived, and will be rallying the Krogan at home while her husband leads them into battle.
 

Wrex is much pleased, and with good reason; the Krogan united, invaders smited, the Genophage cured, and peace made with the Turians? Not bad for a bloody merc who three years ago had nothing to his name but his armour and a gun. I'd known when I first met him there was more to Wrex than most Krogan, but what he has accomplished surpasses all possible expectation. He's done well by his people, and they've made him proud this day.

Wrex is as good as his word. Now that the Cure is delivered, there will be no more delays, and his soldiers will begin deploying to Palaven immediately. Even better, they’ve revealed massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons, carefully hidden from Turian eyes till now. The Turians will now welcome those weapons as the Krogan bring them to the defence of Palaven. Logistics must be seen to. We'll need troopships and supplies, rations and shipping to get the Krogan to Palaven and keep them sustained once they arrive. Keeping our vicious and voracious friends nourished throughout this war will be no light consideration. Krogan can sustain tremendous injury, but that entails a monstrous appetite.

It remains to be proven how the Krogan will live once the war is over, but with this Cure we have good reason to hope for peace. Friendship is born of shared adversity, and the strongest bonds are those forged in war.

With the Krogan and Turians fighting side by side, we just might live long enough to see that peace.

Even the Reapers have to be worried by that alliance.

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36 A Cure for the Genophage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The dead know that better than anyone.

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34 The Means of Resistance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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