November 29, 2186
Asteria Station, Pangaea Expanse
The reports from Palaven were devastating.
Reaper reinforcements had arrived on the planet and were laying waste to all in their way. Even with aid from the krogan, the turians were quickly losing their home-world. Primarch Adrien Victus stood on the observation deck, staring out the viewing window, his hands gripped the railing tightly. He noted the distant starlight of Trebia, a flickering speck in the void of space, fearful that it might go out. Anger and despair welled up inside him; millions of good turian men and women were dying while he played bureaucrat half-way across the galaxy. He would rather be on the front lines, a gun in his hand, and his men at his back than hiding in some remote star-system.
Asteria Station wasn't actually in a star-system, but resided in the empty space between stars. The perfect place to keep away from prying eyes, especially when working on something you wanted to keep hidden. The station lay not too far from the star Refuge in the Pangaea Expanse, a cluster that was lost until a little over two years ago when Shepard chased the rogue spectre, Saren, through the MU relay. Though the relay was in the Terminus systems—outside of Citadel jurisdiction—the Citadel Council declared the Pangaea Expanse to be an unknown and restricted access. Only archaeological expeditions to Ilos were granted passage. Asteria station was built and funded by a private group of wealthy investors within the Citadel government who were concerned about the Reapers. The station consisted of fourteen levels with fifty-three labs and boasted a one hundred and sixty-two member staff of some the galaxy's brightest minds. Its purpose: to research and assess the Reaper threat. The arrival of the Reapers brought the facility's existence to light and every lab was repurposed for research and development on the Crucible project. Upon first arriving, Adrien had been amazed at the massive scope of the device. The galaxy's last bastion of hope floated in the darkness of space like some Prothean magic wand. Just wave it and the Reapers would disappear, Victus thought. In reality, none of them knew what would happen when they activated it. They were putting all of their eggs in one basket as the humans would say, and for all they knew that basket had a hole in it.
"Primarch?" Adrien turned to see one of his men, a thin turian with red facial markings. "It's time," he said. Victus nodded.
The facility's corridors were sterile and utilitarian; the one outside the conference room was no different save for the luxury of windows along the outer wall. A familiar face stood in the hallway; an asari gazing out at the gathering fleets. "Eliana," Victus said, approaching her.
She turned, "Hello Adrien," she said, with a smile. It warmed him making him smile in return. Eliana Varinelle had had that effect on him since the day they met— on the Citadel—about twenty years back. The cruiser Victus was stationed on had stopped to refuel and Eliana worked in the embassies. She had a natural affinity for politics and at only one hundred and seventy-six was considered the next contender for the asari councilor's position. At the moment she served as the councilor's personal assistant and representative. Eliana was also the only diplomat that Adrien cared for.
"What are you doing standing in the hall?" he asked.
"I just needed to get some air," she said, nodding toward the doors, "The salarian Dalatrass is getting fussy."
"Ah, that's not surprising."
"So you're the new Primarch?" she said, changing the subject with a smirk, "I never would have pegged you for a politician."
"I'm not" he said, "Just playing my part until this war is over then I'll step down."
Eliana turned back to the window, "If we win the war you mean?"
"You don't think the Crucible will work?"
She shook her head, "I don't know. I think part of me is afraid that it will work and what that will mean."
Adrien frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Well," she paused, trying to find the right words, "If it doesn't work, then we die, but if it does work…" she stopped and took a breath. "Look, we've put superfluous amounts of funds into this project. There is going to be a recession if we live through this."
"Always the politician."
This time Eliana frowned, "I just think about these things."
"And someone should," he put a hand on her shoulder, "but I would take not dying over money issues any day. Now Dalatrass or no Dalatrass, I think we should head in." She nodded in agreement.
"Ladies first," he said, waving his hand towards the door, and following her into the conference room. Only two weeks since taking Fedorian's position and Adrien found himself attending his second war summit. Along the left wall were rows of chairs for any members of the science team interested on sitting in. Clearly they had not brought enough as many were left standing. A large bay window filled most of the right wall; the Crucible loomed in the background. Four individuals sat at a circular table in the room's center: Dalatrass Linron, Urdnot Wrex, Shala'Raan vas Rannoch, and next to her, a geth prime. Victus was only half surprised by the prime's presence. It was shocking to see geth ships arriving with the quarian flotilla. Peace between the geth consensus and their creators seemed unimaginable. And yet both races have put their differences aside to secure a future together.
The Dalatrass was scowling. "I don't see why that thing has to be here," gesturing at the prime. "Haven't we risked enough with the krogan? What if the geth are still working for the Reapers?"
"The geth oppose the old machines," said the prime, very matter-of-fact.
"Do you really trust them now?" Linron said, turning to the quarian. "After everything they've done."
"What we did was wrong," she replied, turning to the prime, placing her hand over its. "We have to earn their trust."
"You afraid we're going to team up and kill all salarians?" Wrex said with a grin.
The Dalatrass paled and then anger spread across her face once more. "Is that a threat?" she said.
"No one is threatening anybody." The Primarch said, as he and Eliana took two of the remaining four seats.
"I don't know about that," said Wrex, "Salarian liver is quite tasty."
Linron glared at him before turning to Victus, "So good of you to join us," her words laced with sarcasm, still angry with him for siding with the krogan on curing the genophage.
"I'm glad to see your still being civil, Linron." he replied.
Admiral Hackett entered the room, a green skinned salarian trailing behind him. They took the remaining two seats. "I've just gotten word that the council members will be sitting in," he said, before calling over to a technician, "patch them through, we're ready."
Three holographic forms appeared off to the side revealing the turian, asari, and salarian councilors. "Let's make this quick, Admiral," said the turian councilor.
The admiral was quiet for a moment, and then he said, "As most of you know, construction on the Crucible has finished." Applause from the science team filled the room while everyone else looked on. Hackett held up a hand to still the room, "Yes, you should all be proud of what has been accomplished here, but we are still missing a vital component to make it work…the Catalyst. What we do know," he said, "is what the Crucible will do when it's activated." He had the room's attention. "I'll now turn it over to Dr. Padok Wiks, the lead scientist on the Crucible project," he said, waving his hand toward the salarian.
The salarian stood to more applause from the science team. "Thank you, Admiral," he said before turning to the table, "Throughout the course of the project there have been many theories about what the Crucible might do. Some said that it would cause the Reapers to retreat, others that it would take down their shields," he smiled. "There were even some who believed that it would turn the Reapers against each other. All absolutely fantastical ideas if you ask—."
"Doctor!" Victus said. Adrien was glad the scientist was enthusiastic, but he didn't need him babbling. "Get to the point. What does it do?"
"Yes, Right." Padok said, he made a few keystrokes on his omni-tool and a hologram of the Crucible appeared over the table. Three parts were highlighted in orange. "The three highlighted sections serve as massive eezo generators. Based on the data we've been able to extrapolate we believe that the Crucible will release a highly-concentrated burst of dark energy when actuated."
"I'm no scientist, Doc," Wrex said, "What will that do?"
The Dalatrass smirked, "Tell us something we don't know." Wrex shot her a dirty look.
Padok seemed oblivious to their exchange or he ignored it. "Our ships need faster-than-light drive cores to travel throughout the galaxy. However, drive cores can only be active for a certain amount of time before reaching charge saturation. After that point they will need to be discharged; the best way is to land on a planet establishing a connection with the ground. Ships incapable of landing will need to discharge into a planet's magnetic field. If a ship is not able to reach a planet the core will discharge into the hull, killing all ungrounded crew members and melting bulkheads."
"What does that have to do with the Reapers?" Shala'Raan asked.
"All of our technology is based on Reaper tech," said Wiks, "Reaper vessels use drive cores very similar to ours, just on a much bigger scale." He emphasized by spreading his hands out. "The dark energy burst should over saturate their cores causing them to discharge instantaneously."
"How would that work? All of our Intel suggests that the Reapers have no need to discharge their cores." The asari councilor asked.
"Not quite," Wiks said, another keystroke on his omni-tool and a Reaper projection replaced the Crucible. Sections of its legs were orange. "After Shepard took down the Reaper on Rannoch we began studying it, trying to find a weakness." Several people in the room must have shown alarm because he said, "Not to worry. We took every precaution necessary to prevent indoctrination."
"What exactly are we looking at here?" said the salarian councilor.
"The highlighted sections act as buffers for the drive core's charge. When a Reaper enters a planet's magnetic field the buffer releases the charge. That is why some Reapers are seen wreathed in static electricity when landing."
"So when the wave of dark energy hits them it will over-charge the core past the buffer's safety zone and kill them." stated Eliana.
"In theory, yes"
The quarian raised her hand as if to get everyone's attention. "Am I the only one concerned about what this will do to our ships; won't this burst destroy us as well?"
This brought murmurs and exclamations from the crowd. If Padok was surprised by the question, he didn't show it. "Correct. The energy pulse would do the same to our ships."
"Are you implying that the Crucible is a failure?" the asari councilor inquired.
"No, no, not at all," Wiks said, shaking his head, a smile forming at the edges of his mouth. "We'll know when the Crucible will fire. All we need to do is power down the FTL cores before it does and bring them back online afterwards."
The silence in the room was palpable. Victus could not believe what he was hearing and from the looks on everyone's faces he was not alone. Their secret weapon, the thing they've been building to save the galaxy required them to be vulnerable in front of the enemy. This basket didn't just have a hole in it, it was falling apart. "You're suggesting that we deactivate our drive cores and lower our shields in front of the enemy?" he said, enunciating each word slowly.
Wiks nodded. "Basically, yes. It's crazy I'll admit."
"Crazy? It's fucking suicide," the turian councilor said.
"It would be a slaughter," Linron exclaimed.
"We can barely withstand the Reapers with our shields up," Victus added.
Padok continued nodding. "All excellent points, but the cores need only to be down during the energy pulse, once passed they can be reactivated. It shouldn't take more than a minute."
"And how would we coordinate this?" Hackett asked.
For this the scientist did not have an answer. He shrugged.
"Well that's just great," said Linron, waving her hand.
"You got a better idea?" Wrex growled.
"Yeah, we just keep throwing krogan at them till they're dead," she snapped.
Wrex opened his mouth to retort when the Prime spoke up, its synthesized voice silencing the krogan, "Hackett Admiral, we have a viable solution."
Hackett raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"
"The geth communicate via FTL com buoys. A geth platform aboard each vessel would allow a synchronized shut off of their mass drive cores reducing the risk by fifty-six percent."
"Could you restart them just as quickly?"
"Affirmative."
"You cannot seriously be considering this?" the Dalatrass cried, "They could still be working for the Reapers."
The Prime swung its eye in her direction, "The geth oppose the old machines."
"I will not allow that on a Salarian ship!" she said.
"Will you shut up!" the salarian councilor yelled, "This may be our only solution and I will not have you jeopardizing our race with your bigo—" The councilor turned suddenly, acknowledging something off-screen. The other two turned as well, a voice could be heard, but the words were unclear. The holograms flickered, and then the turian and salarian councilor's projections died, leaving only the asari.
She turned back to the room, her voice breaking up, "We're getting reports…Reaper activity…Citadel…trust you…needs…done." She disappeared.
Gasps and outcry filled the room. Hackett held up both hands, "All right everyone, settle down," looking back to the table he said, "The Prime's plan gives us a shot, but we still need to be in agreement, those in favor?" Wrex raised his hand, Shala'Raan—placing one hand over the prime's—raised her other, Eliana and Victus raised theirs. The Dalatrass scowled at the table and held up her hand.