One: The Many
"Eternal. Infinite. Immortal." The words echoed as thousands of mechanical voices spoke in concert.
Harbinger stood near a crowd of people as they all looked toward the great leviathan each of them stunned.
"The man I was used these words, but only now do I truly understand them. And only now do I understand the full extent of his sacrifice. Through his death, I was created. Through my birth, his thoughts were freed. They guide me now; give me reason, direction. Just as he gave direction and hope to the ones who followed him, the ones who sacrificed so that he could achieve his purpose; now my purpose."
Admiral Steve Hackett watched from his flagship orbiting Earth, the Triumphant, looking at the massive central console, holographiclly projecting what everyone else connected to the extranet could see. The visage of a massive Reaper looking down on an unsuspecting crowed of people, all too paralyzed to move.
Everything around him seemed to stop as the massive construct continued to speak. The voice was mechanical and unsettling but he heard something else, something familiar, it was something he couldn't quite put his finger on. It left his expression perplexed but just as compelled as everyone else.
"To give the many hope for a future. To ensure that all have a voice in their future. To right the wrongs of the past; to provide a voice to those too weak to speak for themselves. The man I was knew that he could only achieve this by becoming something greater. I will rebuild what the many have lost; I will create a future with limitless possibilities; I will protect, and sustain; I will act as guardian for the many. And throughout it all, I will never forget. I will remember the ones who sacrificed themselves so that the many could survive. And I will watch over the ones who live on… those who carry the memory of the man I once was, the man who gave up his life, who fought to become the one who could save the many." The great creature, once the galactic executioner, continued.
"I am The Shepard"
Steve Cortez had been watching the footage like everyone else, after all there wasn't anything else to do, it seemed like the whole galaxy came to a stop when the lone Reaper appeared in the Sol System. But when it said those final words, Steve slammed into a wall of emotion. He felt his stomach flip, a strange metallic feeling built up in the back of his throat. His knees weakened, he was going to fall. By some strange miracle he kept himself upright, and professional.
Steve suddenly felt something else; like he was being watched. He turned to brace himself against the weapons modification console but when he did he found James Vega and the flight ops crew, not looking at the vid screen but rather at him. They, each of them, had the standard expression he'd gotten since Shepard had activated the Catalyst. The 'Is he going to be okay?' face. Realizing he had an audience and none too pleased with how they were looking at him he didn't dare show any weakness and resisted the temptation to brace himself.
Liara T'soni could hardly believe what she was seeing, her wall of vid screens flashed with statistical information, as she tracked Harbinger from the moment it entered the system to touch down planet side. The ship hand come into the system and landed so quickly they didn't have time to respond. By now she could see the fleet mobilizing and the Earth ground forces surrounding the great living, and apparently very vocal ship. What the Reaper was implying was startling, even unsettling to some degree. Was Shepard still alive? Could the Reapers be applying some new tactic? Or worse she thought; could Shepard be indoctrinated? The latter two didn't seem to make since, given the fact only a few days ago the Reapers had retreated from the galaxy's planets at the final hour of their almost-victory. She stopped trying to analyze the situation as Harbinger suddenly seemed to effortlessly float into the air and out into the Earth's atmosphere.
"Gleph, track that ships trajectory!" Liara demanded
As Harbinger left the planet the crew aboard the Triumphant suddenly went into action as the buzz of the CIC returned to a pitch pace. The massive ship had entered the system and landed in one of the few lightly damaged and newly high populated areas before the fleet had even had a chance to react – but now Admiral Hackett could stop this machine before anyone else could get hurt.
"All ships this, Admiral Hackett" his voice relayed to every ship in the system. "Lock all weapons and prepare to fire on my command!" he barked.
Cortez heard the order and continued combat preparations just as he had moments before the Reaper had landed on the plant and started transmitting. He didn't question it, not even for a moment, the Reapers had caused so much death and destruction, nothing they said could make up for that now. No good-will gesture could bring Shepard back. They could die, and he'd be content with that fate.
"Lock down those weapons!" Cortez pointed to one of the weapon lockers, as the two flight hands responded.
He ran over to a console "Activating shuttle mag-locks" he said as the two shuttles dock within Normandy were held suspended in the air.
Running out of the elevator as it opened up to the CIC and the huge Galaxy map, Liara was surprised to see Major Kaiden Alenko standing at the platform, looking over the tactical data streaming in.
"What's going on?" Liara demanded.
"Hackett's ordered an attack." Kaiden said abruptly. "Bring the forward cannon online and lock-on" he ordered.
"You can't be serous, the ship will jump to FTL before you can do any real damage – not to mention they just made an overture!"
"We can't be sure what they just did Liara. And really, do you want us to take the chance and find out?" Kaiden snapped.
Liara didn't have a response; there wasn't much to say other than that something told her it was wrong. She didn't know what, and after what the Reapers had done to her world she shouldn't trust them any more than the Major . But it wasn't a matter of trust after all, it just didn't 'feel' right.
Meanwhile the alarm klaxon's blared as the CIC on the Triumphant prepared the massive strike.
Hackett wasn't sure even the combined forces could do any real damage to Harbinger, from everything they had on that class of Reaper the ship was by far the largest and most powerful. He pushed the thought to the side; the ability of the fleet to do damage to the craft was irrelevant. He had a mission; protect the Earth protect the damaged Citadel.
"Sir!" one of the communication technicians yelled over the noise. "We have an incoming transmission, from the Reaper ship."
It was rare enough to have a Reaper speak, much less try and make contact with any ship with weapons pointed at it, any ship at all for that matter. Admiral Hackett wasn't convinced.
"What's their game?" he whispered to himself.
"Let's hear it." He ordered. The image of Harbinger filled the Admirals tactical display.
"Admiral Steven Hackett. We remember you. The Shepard. You are one of the many who made us possible." The all too frightening collection of voices piped through the comm. channel.
"You have committed acts of genocide against the civilizations of this Galaxy. You will stop all activity or be destroyed." Hackett commanded.
"Sir the ship is stopping." A female voice said from far off.
"We have ceased." Harbinger replied. "We mean you no harm. The old intelligence has been reborn. I exist now."
Suddenly a life size holographic image took form in the central command console. It was a blur of blue and white, with no real clear features, replacing the image of Harbinger displayed on Hackett's screens.
Harbingers voice shifted and changed as it spoke. Still speaking with many voices but something, different broke through, something human.
"I wish only to help the many, to right the wrongs. We will repair the damage to the Mass Relays, the Citadel, Earth, Thessia, Palivan. We wish to assist."
"We can't trust you." Hackett retorted.
"The Shepard has been told this before. Before our harvest. But you did eventually trust him after he had earned that trust, allow us that opportunity now."
Shepard's voice. That was the voice echoing in the background, the familiar humanity, Hackett finally realized.
"Allow us to repair the Charon Relay, as an example." The visage now moving closer to Hackett.
"Admiral Hackett, the Alliance colonies are in grave danger. The many are weak, starving, dyeing. We can help."
"Close the channel." Hackett ordered.
The blue holographic image vanished.
"Get me the Normandy, now!"
Kaiden, Liara, and EDI stood before Admiral Hackett in the comm. room. None of them knew how to react to what the Admiral was suggesting.
"Under normal circumstances I would blow that thing out of the sky, but what's suggested here could be sinister or it could be…" Hackett paused.
"Something else…" Liara continued.
"Yes, Dr. T'soni. But I don't like unknowns, and this qualifies." Hackett turned his attention back to the Major. "You and the Normandy have been on the front lines, know more about the Reapers than most. Not to mention the Prothean could provide us with some intel."
"Unfortunately Admiral, J'vak isn't the wealth of knowledge on scientific matters we'd hoped." Liara replied.
"We do have the Prothean Virtual Intelligence from Thessia. Perhaps it could be of some assistance?" EDI interjected.
Liara tapped her omni-tool as it came a live with data, from it sprang forth the holographic presentation of Vendetta.
"Extinction terminus in climactic stage. Preparing to disable." Warned the whirling ball of green energy.
"Wait." Kaiden demanded.
"We stopped the Reapers, our cycle isn't in immediate danger anymore!"
"Error. Reaper presence still detected."
"We deployed the Crucible but the Reapers didn't just die, they left, all of them. We need to know why. Does it have something to do with the Crucible?" Kaiden asked.
The glowing green ball of energy morphed into the image of the Prothean who had designed it. "The crucible was simplistic in its design. Our scientists discovered that at its core the device was nothing more than a massive power generation plant, with three key connection points to be driven into the Catalyst. We determined that each of these three connections was designed with three different wave length and power distribution qualities in mind. Some of these discharge points had more power flowing through it and at more static frequencies than the others. For what purpose? We were never able to discover."
"English?" The Admiral demanded impatiently.
"One moment" EDI said.
"I quickly scanned the Prothean data base. It appears that the Protheans theorized the different frequencies of energy released in a cascading pulse could have different effects on synthetic and organic life, or on the Reapers themselves." EDI replied. "These frequencies could be further refined depending on how intact the devise was upon being used. This is as far as their understanding goes."
"So it is possible that the energy wave had some effect on the Reapers we can't predict?" Liara confirmed.
"It is possible." EDI replied.
Admiral Hackett looked displease. Nothing he heard was definitive.
"That doesn't tell us anything that helps us with the current situation." Hackett looked over, somewhere outside the hologrid.
"The Reaper ship is still holding position but unless someone has something more useful, my orders stand." Hackett continued.
Liara intruded again, "Admiral, if what the Reaper is saying is true then they can repair the relay. I'm not sure even Asari engineers know how to do that and without the relays travel to and from the habitable planets in the galaxy could take decades, even with our fastest ships." LIara continued. "More lives are endangering now because of that fact than they seem to be from the Reapers. Not to mention what we now know about the Crucible's potential."
"Dr. T'soni, I'm not accustomed to being interrupted. And I am not about to make a decision out of fear because of what 'might be'." Hackett retorted.
Hackett thought for a moment and sighed.
"Major Alaenko. You and your crew have the resources and man power, the experience - god knows. What's your recommendation?"
Kaiden was taken aback by the Admirals question. Why was he asking him? Who was he to decide something like this? Liara looked at him and he knew instantly her opinion. EDI on the other hand he couldn't tell.
These were the big decision. He didn't know the score on this one. Shepard. These were the things he dealt with. If he was here now he'd know what to do. His thoughts went back to the events of the past few years. Each of the choices the Commander had to make, the lives saved or to let fall so others could survive. Kaiden didn't have any answers which left him with a question. What would Shepard do if he were here? Then it hit him.
"Let it fix the relay Admiral." Kaiden said after only a few seconds. "Redeploy the fleet and if it makes one wrong move, blow it out of the sky" he finished. He wasn't sure if Shepard would have made that choice, gambled this way, but he knew had Shepard been there what his advice would have been.
'Take the information you've got and do the best you can with it.' Kaiden remember him saying once.
Hackett nodded "Hackett out." He turned to his communications officer who instantly knew what he wanted.
"Transmitting, sir."
"This is Admiral Hackett. We will escort you to the relay. If you take any provocative action we will destroy you without hesitation."
A moment later Harbinger spoke. "The Shepard expects nothing less. We will begin the repairs immediately."