STG – STG – STG
Report 93243-2 Girthon-Suelis
Classification: Black – Collapse Five
CONDENSED TIMELINE OF THE INCIDENT:
Dates are absoluted from Benezia's invasion of the Citadel, on Vevia 18, 5939, or Fifth-Month, CE 2184.
NOTE:
Sourcing for most of the information came from six primary sources.
The main source was, as always, the humble extranet, particularly news extracts. We rate the reliability of these at 96%.
Secondary sources include conventional data-hack comms taps, either via info-war sequestration of the actual telecommunications hardware or decrypting transmissions themselves. We rate these at 84% and 71% reliability, respectively.
Tertitary sources were STG unit observations, often at a remove and tangental to their primary focus. Given that very little follow up was done even on red-flagged events, we rate these as 56% reliability.
A final source was post-Incident recovered data : the reports of Commander Shepard, historical records, Council Minutes, et al. A coherent reliability rating for these is not feasable – assume the baseline 25%.
There is a consistant theme of almost dissassociation in this period of time, and frankly we end up asking more questions than we answer. We have no resources to follow up on most of the more interesting snippets we found, and much of the financial, travel and communcations records were sabotaged or destroyed in the Incident or just prior to it.
Neither Saren nor Benezia were sloppy in their tradecraft – while when gathered in once place the chain of events seems downright obvious, keep in mind the context of this timeline – it occurs across almost thirty years, and we have seen two STG masters in that time. Every agent who reported on events prior to 2160 is either dead or inactive now.
We desperately need more long term analysis personnel to trawl older observational files and look for correlations.
PRE-INCIDENT GROUNDWORK : 2157 through 2182
2157: Relay 314 incident. Earliest indication of issues. Evidence recovered from scrapped Systems Alliance military comms systems and deep-network penetration of Hierarchy command circles indicates Desolas Arterius given special instructions by the Palavanus to recover wreckage of turian science warship from what would later be known as Eden Prime.
Facts scarce. Data dumps indicate a device was excavated in rock strata dating back some 300,000 to 500,000 years – pre-Prothean, and pre-Inusannon. Details on the recovered artifacts are varied – most of the material was actually textual iron slabs and other cultural items, but definite references were made to 'Arca Device' and 'Arca Engine'.
Translation from high turian clawspeak – arca is a base word for the turian concept of 'elevated' or 'ascended' with spiritual overtones. The word shows up contextually in six thousand filtered hits when cross referenced with ancient turian legends of Valluvian priests. Again, turian historical information is tightly guarded and Deathwatch teams counterstrike against attempts at penetration of historical archives. What information we gathered was Valluvian priests were once a ruling class on Palaven destroyed by vulcanism and societal collapse. (See Sub-file A: Palavanus Imperatorium).
Recovery of device on Shanxi appears to be possible cover. Why would turian ship crash on newly discovered world and why wouldn't humans notice? More likely possibility – dig site on Eden Prime pointed to Shanxi, which would explain turian hostility to human tech team at Relay 314.
Recovery apparently unsuccessful – fragmentary footage and data elements indicate Desolas Arterius was initially rebuffed and returned during the orbital bombardment of Shanxi later. Clear data suggesting heavy firefight near crash site, involving elements of Shanxi militia lead by resistance leader Benjamin Hislop.
As you may know, STG inserted high-cybernetics strike team using complete body modification toolkit to appear as turians in the early days of the Relay 314 incident. We believe Broker teams also present. Quick investigation shows that Broker interference on behalf of turians resulted in deaths of the Hislop militia force and turian recovery of the artifact, in return for turians surrendering the fate of defeated biotic strike team leader Tetrimus to the Broker.
Curious exchange, given power of Tetrimus. STG unit could not approach site, mysterious mental breakdown in two team members anytime site was approached. Several militia members captured, with video footage of young female human, Eva Core, brutally executed by Desolas.
Key note: image shows younger figure identified as Jack Harper (aka Illusive Man).
Human government, instead of rescuing militia group, uses comms signal as homing beacon for artillery strike. Artifact damaged, discharged, killing some and allowing Harper and other humans to escape. Key footage uploaded: several humans turned into creatures much like the husks sighted on Eden Prime by Commander Shepard.
Secondary detonation of ship engines discharged radioactive contaminates. Desolas Arterius escaped, but artifact destroyed. Arterius photo shows luminescent eye alterations identical to those of Jack Harper, as well as other turians converted to husk-like form, communicating in high turian temple language.
Desolas Arterius vanished from the battlefields of the 314 Incident for almost four months after this. The only clue to his whereabouts was that his diplomatic credentials stamped at Thessia – groundcar rental records show him and Saren visiting Benezia T'Soni at her home for almost an hour. Unable to determine reason, but notable due to Benezia communicating with elements of Temple of Athame immediately after visit. STG surveillance shows a full meeting of all high Temple officials and the entirety of the Council of Matriarchs not thirty minutes after the meeting with Desolas. Negotiating with P. via disconnected proxies to attempt to discover more information.
Desolas returned to Shanxi, reasons unknown, for almost a week before departing for Palaven itself. Met with Palavanus family along with brother. STG has never been able penetrate security around Palavanus moon, but the next day death of Desolas Arterius announced due to 'natural causes'.
Notably, body immolated and ashes launched directly into Palaven's sun. Saren Arterius noted to have same blue-eye alterations as his brother.
2158: No activity related to the Incident for six months. Saren reassigned to black turian project, operating in Traverse. His partner, Mithana Vakarian, is killed in pitched battle with separatist forces on this date. Data-trawls of Saren activities indicate 93% probability Saren and Mithana were romantically or at least sexually involved.
Before Saren can be assigned new partner, his entire Cabal was destroyed in the Galthaos Separatist Incident except for him, recovering from wounds. Saren depressed for several weeks – hospital records penetration was laughably easy. Saren had wounds consistent with repeated sniper rifle fire and possible brain damage (minor).
Saren moved to the Deathwatch as a temporary stopgap measure until a new Cabal can be instigated with him as trainer. Six weeks after this, Praetor Mithrax Arterius, Spectre, died of wounds related to his battle with P almost twenty years earlier.
Saren is tapped as the newest Spectre of the Turians, and is sent back into the war. He is successful in driving back several operations but is nearly killed by Tradius Ahern in operations behind enemy lines, knocked off the top of dam into irradiated water. He suffers severe damage and burns from this, requiring some level of cybernetic enhancement.
When the Relay 314 incident is suppressed by the Asari, Saren is a primary voice in decrying this. He refuses to take on additional partners and instead begins a campaign against the separatists that killed his last partner, ending with their complete destruction in 2160, but this comes at a heavy cost, as he is heavily wounded by fusion explosions and required more cybernetic adjustment and artificial plating.
Saren's interest in rebuilding himself develops into a minor hobby, and he buys stock in a rapidly growing turian bio-tech firm. Later the firm merges with a volus and human interest to become Binary Helix. Notably, the second IPO is heavily invested in by House T'Soni.
2161: Edan Had'dah appears on STG threat reports for financial expenditures, sponsoring a series of digs near suspected Prothean colony locations. At the time this is merely filed, but it is now highly suspected Had'dah had discovered Prothean information revealing information about Reapers.
[Addendum: The Batarian government sealed all of Had'dah Family estates and then burned everything to the ground almost ten years later, and no STG unit was able to penetrate the Hegemony deeply enough at the time to put together more information. Fragmentary comms traffic from the SIU units dispatched indicate the orders to obliterate all traces of Had'dah came from the Emperor himself, an ominous fact.]
Later in 2161 Had'dah bought out mining company Strike-Time Explorations and began long-range surveys of several worlds, strangely mostly gas giants not suited to HE3 extraction in deep FTL locations far from existing mass relays. STG front companies supplied him with deep travel FTL survey ship fitted with discrete tracking locators, and ship plans appended in subfile 41-B – no units are available for follow up at this time, but see below.
2162: PROJECT VISIONARY, deep-cover System Alliance framework to develop mimetic learning VI-AI hybrids for use in combat warforms, begins on Sidon with some possible input from asari elements (still researching this link, all communications were done by physical FTL drones and zero transmissions, comms security very tight). VISIONARY discovered by deep STG review of cash flows through known front banks used by Manswell Institute of Mechanical Arts – this is also the first link we have to banking structures showing some connection to human terror organizations like Eternity Earth.
[Addendum: in hindsight, it appears even this early the SA was developing disposable 'terrorist' fronts to use for deniable operations. At least through this point we have no hard evidence of a connection between the SA and Cerberus]
Deep survey ships of Had'dah skirt near edges of Perseus Veil, then return to batarian space.
2163: STG intercepts show two-way data flows between asari agents present at VISIONARY and known asari Nightwind / Daywind elements. Orders surmised to invalidate research – much of it fell into asari hands. To cover their tracks, they leak evidence of the installation and it's goals to the Spectres, and Saren Arterius responds independently, raiding the facility. The raid fails.
2164: Matriarch Trellani, Priestess of the Stars, flees asari space with her family, all of whom are murdered by Broker and asari assassins. The reasons for this are still unknown, but Benezia is summoned to the Council of Matriarchs and departs crying.
Later this year, Benezia made a public statement to the media suggesting that she would be focusing on expanding her outreach to other alien races, including humanity. A week after that, she suddenly declared she was engaging in solitude, and retreated to the fastness of the Temple of the Sun.
2165: A second facility related to VISIONARY is discovered, this time without official sanction by the SA. The Council is perturbed by this and decides to use the issue to test human candidacy for the Spectres.
Tradius Ahern, David Anderson, and Kai Leng are all selected as possible candidates. Kai Leng is eliminated due to his avowed anti-turian stance, while Ahern is instead partnered with Tela Vasir and Anderson with Saren Arterius for separate evaluations. Ahern and Vasir are very nearly killed by Aria's forces but decorated for bravery, however Ahern withdraws himself from Spectre candidacy due to birth of his first child and uncertainty about the Spectre program's long term suitability.
Anderson and Saren decimate the new VISIONARY facility, but are unable to resolve who was funding the scientist in charge. The failure of the mission is blamed on Anderson, who is dismissed from Spectre consideration, and Saren claims evidence he found leads to a belief that human firms are conducting AI research illegally. Saren fails to convince the Council to censure humanity, given that the firm in question is outside of human space, but authorize him to strike.
STG operatives monitoring Noveria record Saren meeting with former operative Anoleis. Anoleis reports Saren sought approval to raid labs of AI scientist Shu Quan, in return for Saren shutting down volus operations hindering Noveria Development Corporation efforts to buy out Novatech Pharmaceuticals. Anoleis agrees.
Fate of Shu Quan is unknown, but likely interrogated and executed. Four weeks after this event, Saren delivers evidence that Edan Had'dah is investing in illegal AI research related to harvested Prothean relics he had not announced to the Prothean Technological Review Center as well as illegally mining Prothean sites for data.
Saren authorized to strike, and takes out Had'dah and his entire force. Shortly thereafter, Saren suddenly changes his entire personality. Begins investing his money, researching various Prothean texts, and conducting deep investigations in to a number of AI related companies.
2168: After almost three years of mostly baffling inactivity, Saren shifts focus, investigating a series of hanar projects on the hellworld of Minron. Six months later he present evidence that the Hanar have hidden yet another Prothean site from the Council, and is sent in to open it up. Hanar appeals are denied, and the site is damaged by drell resistance to Saren's probing, resulting in him reacting violently, with seventy three drell deaths.
Saren shuts down operations and turns it over to a Council tech team, but a large amount of data is missing from the site as well as several textual translations prepared by the hanar. Saren becomes inactive again.
Around this time, some evidence of SA involvement in Cerberus operations, particularly some operations on Teltin, Corlais and Mindoir, emerge. Initial analysis suggests the SA is actively dominating Cerberus facilities in several locations.
2169: Benezia T'Soni emerges from the solitude of the Temple of the Sun, resigning as Solarch and allowing Thana Vathan to take the role, as she becomes the asari ambassador to the humans. Those familiar with Benezia note that she has lost a great deal of weight and is clearly unhappy. STG research found ugly breakup between her and Aethyta Vasir (e.g., Black Blade of the Vasir) likely cause for this, as well as friction with certain elements of the Triune and with her daughter, Liara.
2171: Cerberus is believed to have assassinated the War-Pope, Clement, based on his opposition to biotic experimentation and his acceptance of Benezia as a holy figure on par with his own role as church leader.
2172: Benezia translates six books of the works of Matriarch Dilinaga for human readers. She says the rest are merely a pile of superstitious trash.
2173: Benezia T'Soni is allowed entrance into the Mars Archives. Shortly thereafter, she resigns her ambassador position, returning to Thessia in clear anger. P. indicates that there was possibly a fight between herself and the Solarch of some kind.
Benezia is reinstated as Lunarch, but begins research into a variety of obscure topics, and starts a purge of the Triune. She also widens her portfolio, buying up a large portion of various stocks, including Binary Helix.
Given her previous statement about the writings of Dilinaga, it is strange she expends almost thirty million credits obtaining most of the matriarch's later works and even begins searching for more.
Also around this time, General Rachel Florez is sighted with a man we now know is Oleg Petrovsky, noted confidante of Jack Harper.
2174: STG units indicate very high probability that Cerberus has been completely overtaken by elements of the AIS. Limited evidence suggests heavy fighting between some Cerberus units and the Commissariat for a short period of time.
2175: Benezia and Saren meet at Binary Helix investors meeting on Noveria. Benezia is visibly gaunt and drawn, and spends much of her time there in discussion with Saren. STG was unable to achieve direct monitoring, but comms logs of security forces indicate Benezia was accompanied by biotic commando team that used biotic dampening to ensure they were not listened to by others. Suspicious level of caution.
Five weeks later, Saren pulls investment in other companies and along with Benezia, takes primary ownership of Binary Helix. Work is shifted on improved cybernetic control interfaces and medical graft technology.
More evidence of Cerberus activity of a questionable nature – while always hostile to aliens, this is the first year Cerberus acted in direct threat to STG operatives.
2177: Saren requests a long-term leave of absence from Spectre and Deathwatch duties due to 'personal issues' and sleeping problems. This is granted.
Later this year, Okeer appears on Thessia for the first time in a century, to participate in blade dance with Justicar Mistress Layana. Notable for the fact Okeer's entourage had two fertile females based on chemical skin sampling done by remote STG probe.
Okeer left known space in 2143 with eleven MALES, and that he had not returned to Tuchanka or any other known krogan worlds since that date, or had even been seen since that date. This was Black-Flagged twice with no response from higher ups.
2178: Benezia purges Triune again, based on news articles retrieved from asari press, and purchases several bases scattered across the Traverse and asari space. She also seeks a chemical analysis of a spherical crystal object from a salarian tech lab. STG did not note this at the time [agent has been disciplined] but photographic image of the crystal is identical to the device found atop the Batarian Emperor's Standard of Office, except this one was broken and did not shine with inner light.
This artifact is a high priority acquisition should we find it.
2179: Rumors clearly link Benezia and Saren romantically, although we are unable to confirm. STG sub-cell assignment recommended for Saren, but no funds for this available.
A routine deep core penetration of the Perseus Veil by unmanned STG craft is destroyed far more rapidly than usual. At the time , the significance was unknown.
Late in the year, Binary Helix applies for and receives a license to work on sublimated non-queen rachni DNA to search for possible neural links to explain rachni communications abilities. Given that Saren is a board member of the company, permission is granted with stern warnings.
2181: Definite sightings of geth outside the Perseus Veil for the first time in centuries. Notably, Saren investigates and determines the sightings are actually, according to him, cleverly disguised smuggler ships operating out of Omega. Aria denies this.
In mid 2181, large monetary drafts from the Bank of Eldfell-Manswell are deposited in known Cerberus funding accounts. This is red-flagged by the STG twice, but no action is taken.
Six weeks later, Okeer buys up properties on several remote colonies in turian space – colonies that were primary branch locations of Binary Helix. Lenal V is one of those colonies.
In late 2181, several volus ships servicing Prothean dig sites are mysteriously attacked by forces unknown (later identified to be geth). The motivation for the attacks is a mystery at the time.
2182: Saren returns to duty – many note his personality, once fiery and angry, is almost glacially calm now. Benezia is still Lunarch but expends almost all her time and energy on the Triune, which is gaining converts at a nearly exponential rate.
Review of data later gathered shows Cerberus buys up several disused worlds at this time, including the world flagged as Virmire.
Several additional volus ships destroyed. Fragmentary reports from turian mercenary units report krogan forces involved.
Additional geth sightings reported in the last month of the year, as well as garbled reports that geth attacked batarian slave world of Brendan-IV.
ANALYSIS:
Our conjectural analysis thus far is shaky but holds together.
Desolas discovered a pre-Inusannon device, at Palavanus urging, and in the attempt to recover it was somehow changed, as was Saren (and likely Jack Harper). They went to Benezia for more information – why, at this time, is unclear – and then returned to turian space, where Desolas was for some reason executed by the Palavanus, who appear to have washed their hands of the incident.
We don't know what the device was, but based on the name, the noted effects, and the fact that the Palavanus wanted it, it may have been some form of Reaper weapon. It may have indoctrinated Desolas and Saren, or at least made Saren more vulnerable to such.
Saren, unstable, becomes more so at the loss of his likely sexual partner, and possibly by cybernetic disassociation and social separatist disorders. He blames these things on the Hierarchy, and possibly the losses against the humans.
Edan Had'dah discovers something in Prothean ruins hinting at a location or locations that he spends vast sums investigating, and then more on studying AI. Given the remoteness of the locations and the known background of Shu Quan in bionetic / mind-machine interfaces and heuristic AI, it is possible Shu Quan discovered the Reaper called Nazara.
The tie of Shu Quan to an asari project they decided to pull out of alerted Saren to this, and it is fairly clear that Saren got information from Shu Quan that lead to Had'dah, and from there to Nazara. Frankly the shaky nature of such a link is extremely suspect, moreso given the fact that the matriarch in question who made the call to pull the investment was none other than Matriarch Trellani, who mysteriously flees a short time later.
Saren begins researching something. Benezia discovered something in the Mars Archives that lead her to also research something, and before long they're working together. Again, we lack the hard data, but the context is clear – both were exposed to Nazara, but it is possible Nazara was not functional or awake at this time.
Given geth involvement by 2179 (probable), it's likely the Reaper was not fully functional (for whatever reason) or that Saren was researching it to protect himself. Certainly, based on some of the turians and asari captured in the Incident, they were recruited via indoctrination sometime in the time-frame of 2181 to 2182, meaning the Reaper was definitely active then.
CONCLUSION OF FURTHER REQUIRED INVESTIGATION:
Three things stand out.
First, the entire question remains: what was Nazara doing before Saren came along? What did Had'dah discover, and why did he end up working with a rogue AI researcher? What did the asari know about said research?
Second, Benezia goes from sane and calm to intently researching the very things she tossed off as superstitious trash in a matter of months. The catalyst being something she saw in the Mars Archives. What was it, and why did she want to view said archives in the first place?
Finally, there is slow but clear escalation of SA involvement in Cerberus, and a clear link between Cerberus cash and Okeer – but when exactly did Cerberus and Okeer get involved, and what were the channels used to involve them?
STG - STG - STG
A/N: You can just fucking guess how much fun it is to make up a timeline that works for the pre-ME1 stuff based on the tiny scraps we have from the books and the comic books.