29 Prothean Designs

--> We got the data. Liara says that it is indeed plans for a weapon capable of defeating the Reapers.

The Mars Archives were overrun by Cerberus, commandos sent in to steal the same information Hackett sent us to collect. It seems the moment word of the Reapers’ arrival spread, everyone jumped at once. In the ensuing fight for the data on Mars, Lieutenant Commander Ashley Williams was critically injured by a Cerberus robot disguised as a scientist, the same infiltrator that opened the gates for the Cerberus strike team. The Normandy was launched in emergency, and lacks a full crew. At this time, a doctor is especially wanting.

While we have seized both the data and the Cerberus robot carrying it, it is unclear if Cerberus received transmission of some portion thereof (it is a large file). We've sent the information to Admiral Hackett, and will be presenting our findings to the Citadel Council alongside a formal and urgent request for immediate military aid. The Citadel is Ashley’s best hope for proper medical treatment. She has to hold on a few hours.

It seems Cerberus has thrown their customary habits of deception and guile out the blooming airlock. Their standard approach with the rest of humanity is one of subtlety, manipulating events from the shadows without leaving a trace. There was no trace of subtlety in the Mars attack. Their mole vented most of the main facility, killing almost everyone inside. The rest were slaughtered by the Cerberus commandos that assaulted immediately thereafter. So far as I know, Dr. T'Soni is the only survivor of that assault. Why Cerberus has abandoned all pretence of care for human life is beyond me. It's the basis of their entire ideology, their only claim to moral legitimacy, the assertion that they fight for Humanity's interests. Perhaps it should come as no surprise; they'd hardly be the first human cult of the civilized era that slaughtered humans in the name of the “Greater Good” of Humanity. The question is, why now?

Their method itself seems flawed. Why march in and slaughter everyone if all you really care about is obtaining the data? They could have just as easily had their infiltrator copy the data and slip away with no one the wiser. Trying instead to not only steal the data but also wipe the servers clean while slaughtering all Alliance personnel assigned to the archives tells us that the Illusive Man no longer simply thinks he knows better than the rest of Humanity, it seems we are no longer to be trusted even with our own defence.

But why would he object to us building this device ourselves? Perhaps he fears the likelihood of a joint operation with Humans and Aliens working together, with more potential for leaks and infighting. Perhaps he wants more than anything to ensure that it is Cerberus that enters in the eleventh hour with the super-weapon to save us all from the Reapers, Cerberus's crowning moment of heroism and triumph, with the lives of a few soldiers and scientists on Mars being seen as an equitable trade.

Whatever the reason, whether the Illusive Man is motivated by security interests, building the device in absolute secrecy to a degree that the Alliance will not be capable of, or if he was attempting to ensure Cerberus status as the saviour of the Galaxy, his means thereto tell clearly the cost. Whatever the Illusive Man used to believe and to stand for, he now sees human lives as being secondary to his primary goals. I had hoped when the Reapers came that whatever was left of Cerberus would set aside its aloof and hostile pride and unite with us. It seems that is not to be. Mars establishes two things: firstly, Cerberus is a force to be reckoned with, and secondly, that in this war, they are an enemy. Not the enemy, to be sure, but an enemy nonetheless.

This Prothean device poses substantial questions. The proposed construction will require tremendous resources to build, and despite its resulting power will be unlikely to exceed the firepower-to-investment ratio of standard combat vessels. The weapon may indeed be capable of destroying Reapers, but it will only be one such weapon, if we even succeed in finishing its construction; one weapon, one target for the Reapers to destroy, and boom, all of our last-minute efforts and resources pinned on one massive investment are gone in a single stroke. It’s been many years since the short story Superiority was required reading for military officers. It is true that we cannot hope to defeat the Reapers conventionally; in a straight-up fight we lose through insufficient firepower, in a running fight of attrition, they grow stronger as we grow weaker. In order to win, we have to cheat somehow.

This Prothean device, in order to fulfil its purpose, cannot simply utilize provided material through known methods. It will have to use either a technological trick, a secret scientific breakthrough as great as the discovery of mass effect technology, or instead tap into another power source, greater than what we can through normal means utilize. Maybe I’m drawing to much of a distinction between those two options. If it fails to do either of these things, then our narrow window of time would be better spent conducting emergency production of frigates and cruisers.

We don’t know a lot about the device yet, but Liara says that the plans are incomplete, as was its construction when the Protheans lost. It’s missing a piece referred to only as “The Catalyst.” Clearly a code word of some sort, we’ve no idea what the Catalyst is, but it had better be good. I hope we’re not making a big mistake.

My every instinct tells me that this is a losing proposition, that the only tactically sound option is to evade, “meet strength with weakness and weakness with strength.” But there’s nowhere to run to, nowhere the Reapers will not follow to hunt us down and destroy us. We have no choice but to stand and fight. And pray.

Launched as it was in emergency without a full crew, the Normandy is potentially vulnerable to insufficient engineer oversight. Ashley grabbed Joker, Adams, and a handful of maintenance and security personnel. Nothing like a full complement, all hands will be pulling long shifts in order to ensure the Normandy remains at peak efficiency. It's a lot to ask of the crew, but at time like this, we cannot afford a malfunction. There will likely be a great many Alliance personnel in our embassy at the Citadel who will jump at the chance to sign on to the Normandy. Not exactly regular, but at a time like this no one will care. We need every able-bodied man and woman engaged in this fight, and desk-workers everywhere will find themselves dropping their datapads and picking up tools and weapons, and the sooner the better.

Citadel is in sight, docking clearance granted. There's a lot of ships here.  Nimble and knife-like Salarian frigates, graceful and sleek-skinned Asari cruisers arrayed with glistening ribbons of light, ponderous Turian dreadnaughts with their signature wings and couched stance.  Let's see if we can't persuade the Council to put them to use.

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28 They're Here

--> It’s happened. I knew this day was coming. I told my superiors, but no one believed me. Now they’re here. And we’re not ready.

But could we ever be ready, really? Could we ever prepare enough to match the Galaxy-ending force that has maintained a cycle of genocide for countless billions of years? Could we ever be ready for the sight of our fleets cut to ribbons and our streets swarming with enemies?

Maybe not. But we could have done more, should have prepared more. The Reapers should have been met when they came by a single, unified force drawn from all corners of the Galaxy to repel the common foe. But instead the Reapers have before them a Galaxy still fractured by mistrust and self-interest, politicians who refused to believe the existence of the threat when they had time, and who refuse to work together now that time is up.

The Reapers hit the Batarians first. I don’t know if there’s any of them left. That gave Earth some margin of warning, but not enough. First we lost contact with two deep space outposts, then communication with all colonies and outposts outside the Sol System. And before we knew it, the Moon had gone silent, and Reapers were landing.

I was in Vancouver when they hit, a nightmare coming down out of the clear sky, hellish blasphemies against the daylight that revealed their monstrous forms. Then the deaths started: soldiers and civilians, men, women, and children, innocents crushed beneath horrible feet of iron or burned to ash, individually or en masse, entire blocks leveled in an instant, whichever suited the humour of the merciless and implacable Reapers.

If the Reapers wished to simply destroy Earth outright, they could do it. We are hopelessly out-gunned, and there is nothing we could do to prevent them using their full firepower to reduce our planet's entire surface to ash and dust. But their purpose here is far more grim than that; the gruesome infantry the Reapers are deploying tell all too clearly their intentions for Earth. They’re not here to destroy us: they’re here to repurpose us. If they continue unchecked, if we can’t find a way to stop them, every Human that doesn’t fall in battle will instead serve as either raw material for building new Reapers, or worse, transformed into Husks, and set loose upon Earth as the Reapers mindless slaves to capture and kill more Humans. This is the fate that faces not just Earth, but every planet in the Galaxy.

The only reason we have any fleets left is because not all were directly in the Reapers path. Our technology had improved, thanks to salvage from Sovereign, but it’s still not enough. I saw a Dreadnought weather three direct hits from a Reaper before being destroyed. That’s a vast change in odds since our battle against the first Reaper three years ago, where its weapons carved through our ships like a knife through butter. But it’s not enough. The Reapers are still too strong, too many, and our ships cannot stop them.

I am sent by Anderson to persuade the Council to lend us aid. It should be him. He’s an Admiral, I a Commander. But he’s staying on Earth to lead the resistance. While I flee the scene of danger. It’s true that I’m a Council Spectre, but Admiral Anderson was for a time Councillor Anderson. He turned in his robes for his old uniform, seeking to do what he could in person to prepare for the Reapers, having faced only intransigence and willful ignorance on the Citadel. Now those same fools I must persuade to help us.

Perhaps Anderson sends me for the same reason that everyone else expects me to have a plan for stopping the Reapers; I was the one who warned everyone, first about Sovereign, then about the rest of the Reapers. I am inexplicably and absurdly credited with having killed Sovereign. I am the symbol of the resistance, known across the Galaxy as the one who warned and was not listened to, the one who killed a Reaper. If Earth falls, I must survive as a banner for the Galaxy to rally round. Anderson stays to fight, perhaps to die, so that hope can live.

I never wanted this. I’m a soldier, not an icon. My job is to kill the enemy and save lives through direct action, not look good for an audience of billions.

Admiral Hackett has ordered me to meet Dr. T’Soni at the Mars Archives before leaving the Sol System. The transmission was garbled, but he said something about “only way to stop the Reapers.” Is it possible that Liara dug up some Prothean information on a superweapon capable of turning the tide? It seems unlikely. If they had such information and lost, what more good will it do us? We’re scrambling to catch up late in the game, caught with our proverbial powder wet and flat-footed.

The Normandy is airborne, pulled out of retrofit by Lieutenant Commander Williams with but a skeleton crew. We are en route to Mars, leaving behind us our home to be crushed and burned.

I should be back on Earth. There's a lot of people dying there, and live or die, my place is with them. The world is going down in flames.

But I cannot, must not, will not, despair.

Never.

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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.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

26 Into the Breach

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

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

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

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

We saved thousands of lives. But not enough.

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

Final analysis of combat personnel is as follows.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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25 Unlikely Ally

--> Reaper corpse is in sight. There appears to be a small, unregistered ship alongside. Now who in blazes would be fool enough to board that thing I wonder?

--> We have the Reaper IFF. EDI has begun the process of assessment and installation.

The situation aboard the Reaper was even worse than I had feared. The science team Cerberus had sent was not only indoctrinated, they had found the means inside the Reaper to turn themselves into full-fledged Husks. Waves upon waves of mindless, howling monsters came pouring down the black halls of the Reaper’s innards, a grisly flood of death clawing to reach us, only to fall like chaff before our weapons. A lesser team would never have survived.

We found the strangest thing aboard the Reaper. A Geth sniper; one that shot Husks as they ambushed us. It then disappeared further into the Reaper. We caught up with it at the Reaper’s power core, hacking open the security. Husks sprung upon it from behind as we entered. The core destroyed, the Reaper crashing, we hauled the inert Geth out with us.

This is the first Geth I’ve ever seen working solo; and the only one that didn’t try to put a bullet inside my skull. What was it doing by itself aboard the Reaper, and why did it aid us? Perhaps strangest of all, when first spotted, it addressed me by name in plain English.

--> I’ve reactivated the Geth. It calls itself simply “Geth”, all of its programs forming one consciousness. EDI recommended the name “Legion.” It accepted the title as appropriate, naming the precise Bible verse it references. I confess I’m not proud to have been outdone in my own cultural knowledge by a pair of Ais.

Legion has told me many strange things. That the Geth as a whole did not serve Sovereign, that it was only a fraction of their number that chose to worship “the old machines” as Legion calls the Reapers. Consequently the Reapers are a threat to the remaining Geth. He calls the Geth who sided with the Reapers “Heretics.” When asked why the schism came about in a unified Geth neural network, Legion told me that “Geth believe that all life should self-determinate. The Geth will build their own future. The Heretics asked the Reapers to give them their future.” I asked what future Legion and his fellow Geth were planning for themselves. He replied simply “Ours.” When asked if organics would be affected by the Geth’s future, he responded “If they involve themselves, they will.”

Legion summarized the situation. Both of us oppose the Reapers, or Old Machines, and the Collectors serve them. In the interest of mutual goals, it suggested cooperation. Simple sense.

Hence we now have a Geth team-mate in our fight against the Collectors.

This new insight into the state of the Geth rewrites much of what we know. Firstly, Legion has individuality, personality, and opinions. He is not merely a machine, but a person. Even if he is the best of his kind, an exceptional step in their evolution, the Geth are far more than I had ever thought. How many hundreds have I killed while thinking I was only shutting down a machine? I’d do it again in an instant; they served Sovereign and sought to destroy organics, but the estimated cost in life Sovereign’s failed attempt on the Citadel entailed, already high, has now perhaps been doubled.

Secondly, if only a fraction of the Geth joined Sovereign, that means Geth can disagree, and all have at least some potential for individuality.

Thirdly, if the Geth who failed to join the Reapers were indeed doomed should Sovereign succeed, that means the Reapers do not discriminate; organic or synthetic, all who do not become slaves are to be destroyed. This means the motivations of the Reapers are not “machine vs man” but “greater vs the lesser.”

Legion had been aboard the Reaper corpse to obtain information on Reaper programming. He needed the information to use against a virus the Heretics have formed using Reaper methods. Once released upon Rannoch, all Geth will be turned to serving the Reapers. Mass Indoctrination of an entire species in a single shot.

Legion has the coordinates to the Heretic base. An abandoned deep-space outpost of Quarian design in the Phoenix Massing, it fell off star charts hundreds of years ago.

There’s a time limit on this. If we don’t stop the Geth Heretics now, their numbers will be increased a hundredfold. They won’t be hijacking civilian freighters. They’ll be invading Earth. We have to move now.

Needless to say, the crew is not entirely pleased with this turn of events: Tali in particular is apprehensive of the consequences should Legion attack. Honestly though, I'm not worried, for four reasons.

Firstly, the entire ship is already under constant surveillance, precluding the possibility of [ahem, unauthorized] surprise attack.

Secondly, we're hardly helpless babes; any one of the combat team could tackle a single hostile Geth, even one so advanced as Legion.

Thirdly, EDI is by definition an all but insurmountable impediment to hacking of the Normandy, and has already demonstrated such: if the Collectors could not effectively hack the Normandy, then even Geth hacking techniques bear little chance of success.

Fourthly, Legion himself has already passed up ideal opportunity aboard the dead Reaper to try killing us. Geth are nothing if not logical. It is indeed theoretically possible Legion's motivation for not trying to kill us earlier was for the sole purpose of getting access to the Normandy, but such a hypothesis has significant problems: there was no way Legion could reliably predict being taken aboard the Normandy in the first place, and given the hazards already outlined, trying tricks once aboard would be dicey at best. Geth are suicidally bold in pursuit of a given goal, but they're neither gamblers nor are they stupid. Such slim odds of success hardly constitute a viable stratagem.

--> The Heretic base is in sight. There are millions of Geth ground units in there. With the Normandy’s stealth drive to get us in and Legion to hack the security, we should face minimal resistance.

--> The Heretic base is now spacedust. It turns out the window was closing faster than even Legion had thought: the virus had been completed and was ready for launch. Legion suggested the possibility of using the Heretics’ own weapon against them and turning them into allies.

Absolutely not. I’ve no qualms about destroying an enemy, but I’ll be damned if I ever turn someone’s own will against them.

Legion discovered how Tali’s father had been conducting experiments on the Geth, and that the Quarians were considering launching an invasion. I can’t really blame him for wanting to transmit that information back to his people. Those weren’t just experiments; we now know they were actually war crimes, atrocities committed upon another sentient race. I persuaded Legion to not tell his people; the information would turn war from a possibility to a certainty, and both the Quarians and the Geth would be weakened.

The Reapers are coming. We need every ally strong.

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24 A Final Resting Place

--> We’ve assembled a good team; some of the best damn fighters in the galaxy. All potential distractions have been dealt with, and everyone is up to speed. We’ve upgraded the Normandy’s weapons, shields, and armour; this swift and stealthy frigate now boasts the defences of a cruiser and the firepower of a dreadnought. Mordin has upgraded our combat gear; amps, omnitools, armour, and guns all surpass performance ratings of standard models by an average of fifty percent. We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. We have everything we need to hit the Collectors. All that's left is to acquire the Reaper IFF, then anchors aweigh and into the breach.

But first there are two stops I need to make, two old friends to visit, one living, the other dead.

--> Liara is doing well as the Shadow Broker. She has the whole operation running smoothly and has started turning its operations around. Instead of selling her network’s services to the highest bidder, the Shadow Broker’s assets have become an extra-legal aid to peace and order in the galaxy.

I gave Liara two things. The first is a file; names, dates, locations, operations past and present, procedural patterns, everything I’ve been able to get my hands on over the past few weeks on Cerberus. Added to the Shadow Broker’s already extensive intel on the subject, this combined information dump should prove a tremendous asset to the Alliance in shutting Cerberus down. Also in the file is all the information we have on the Collectors. If the worst comes to worst, if we die without completing the mission, the Alliance can pick up where we started.

The second thing is a letter. Addressed to Ashley Williams, I entrusted Liara with seeing that it reaches her safely.

--> The grave of the SR1 Normandy, an icy and lonesome planet in the Amada system. Here lies the pride of the Alliance, now a fractured and splintered corpse spread across the snow of Alchera. The hull that gleamed so proudly aloft now catches a bank of snow. The crewdeck where never more the crew will sleep and chatter, the cockpit that points towards a horizon it will never reach, the engine room never again to hum and thrive with power, and the bridge that commands only a field of white and silence.

The Normandy, the ship that sailed among the stars, the vessel that carried her brave crew through dangers and peril, now rests alone in this remote and silent grave so far from the chaos and danger of the living world. She has served her part, and now her remains rest beneath a shroud of solemn white, snowy and silent, to lie there undisturbed till Kingdom Come.

Her end, so violent and so sudden, was nearly my own. But I have been given a second chance, an opportunity that must not be wasted. Normandy, now broken and shattered, was my home. What was done to her will be done to every home if we fail to stop the Reapers. They’ll come eventually. Their servants, meanwhile, must be dealt with.

The monument is in place. Now to turn from the past and prepare for the future. Time to take the Reaper IFF.

 ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

23 Exit Strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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