The illusive man let out a thick puff of smoke while watching several monitors at once. His calm and detached demeanor didn't reflect the panicking screams coming from the speakers, "Stealth is useless, we can't run for much longer!" He tapped a button on his consul before calmly asking, "can you confirm Shepard escaped through the anomaly?"
"Yes...but we will not be able to retrieve any battle field wreckage...Evasive maneuvers two vessels ahead, requesting reinforcements!" The illusive man replied by cutting off the transmission. He took a long drag from his cigarette thinking about what move to make next. The war on the reapers almost destroyed Cerberus, most operatives dead, captured or turncoat. They stood on the bring of financial ruin, but worst of all they are now publicly exposed. It was by sheer fortune they managed to intercept Shepard's transmission to the alliance about this 'wormhole' and the powerful vessels that come through it. A few shuttles with stealth drives waited in system, hidden watching from afar hoping to recover anything from the battlefield.
'Well not a complete failure,' he though as he forwarded the recording of the attack to a lab for analysis, 'we now know they don't rely on thermal imaging for detecting objects in space, rendering modern stealth useless,' he concluded. He ordered different teams of scientist through his computer to analyze the footage each focusing on specific parts before turning away to oversee the rest of Cerberus's operations. It was quiet for a few hours before a blaring alarm was sounded, one of the monitors opened up to a Cerberus trooper, "Sir several large ships of unknown design have just came through the mass relay, opening video feed to you." He couldn't believe it, it was those same strange spiked ships that came through the wormhole.
"I'm ordering a full evacuation of all essential personal! I want all non-essentials to form a diversionary force immediately!" He ordered. Not waiting for a reply, he pressed a button that immediately began scrambling his computers, electricity flew about as micro detonators in the hardware exploded ensuring nothing could be recovered. With the first step done he turned to exit his secluded room before stumbling as the whole station shook with the sounds of explosions in the distance. He tapped his omni-tool calling up a security personal, "what's happening, how far along are the evacuations?"
"We are surrounded, the attacking force have simply ignored our first and second wave of fighters and jumped directly on the station, they are attacking defense batteries we are losing guns the kinetic barriers are useless," almost to reinforce his point another rumble was heard in the distance as the Illusive man now assumed was another point defense turret exploding. The report continued, "they have begun launching boarding parties they are forcing their way into sector 7, 14, and 21...they are cutting off our launch bay escape is no longer possible...they are now heading into sector 22 requesting permission to fall back into defensible positions!" With all options taken from him, he gave the order, along with placing additional security personal around his office, he turned back into his dark star lit room to sit alone.
He lit another cigarette reflecting on his actions with a pistol on his lap. As he took a deep drag he wondered if he could have done anything different, the reapers where neutralized but thanks to Shepard's idealism their great power was lost, the galaxy now stood vulnerable to what ever these things were. Screams and gunfire drew closer, he assumed the other sounds to be gun fire many sounded like the high pitched noise a laser makes cutting through metal, and another was a deafening load bang that sounded every few seconds or so. Suddenly intense gun fire erupted just outside of his office, lasting for a while slowly growing less intense as he assumed the last of his defenders died. He loaded his pistol with a thermal clip, stood up and aimed at the door.
He was expecting the door to explode open, but instead it was opened, almost in a polite formal manner of entering a room. What stepped inside had human forum, but looked completely like a machine, it's skin or exoskeleton for that matter was mix of green and gold metals made the illusive man think it was android of some terrifying sort. However it failed to cause him to hesitate as he squeezed the trigger and fired at it again and again. The android didn't seem to react as the bolts struck it shielding, it calmly opened the door allowing more of it's kind to follow in showing no signs of self preservation. As the forth round struck the machine it's shields seemed to finally give as the round struck armor beneath causing it stubble a bit before standing to face to the Illusive man. Five of these machines stood inside the room facing him, four of them seemed to be carrying golden rifles while the last carried what looked like a large silver tank turret, but they made no hostile action against him. Their human machine appearance reminded him so much of reaper husks, he felt a wave of fear. A paranoid idea came to him, 'maybe these where human's only a few hours ago, who's to say reapers of a different kind didn't come through that wormhole that transformed them'. He slowly put the pistol against his own head shouting, "you won't be taking me!"
"That will be quite unnecessary," a deep and commanding voice said. A human shape strolled leisurely into the room, while he looked to be in a dull gray combat suit he was unarmed. He reached up and took his helmet off, reviling a bald, scarred human face. "Come let us have a seat we have much to discuss you and I," he said with a gesture. The Illusive man looked down to see one of the androids had carried in a chair for the bald man placing it opposite to his lone chair.
The Illusive man holstered his pistol, regaining his cold and confident appearance. He sat down first then gestured to the bald man as if to give his non-verbal permission for him to seat himself. His guest bowed his head slightly before taking his seat. There was silence for a moment before the Illusive man asked, "so who are you people and where are you from?"
His guest nodded before answering, "A practical and yet a meaningless question, we are the Nation, and we come from a galactic cluster called New Eden."
The Illusive man smiled, yes a meaningless question neither of these terms meant anything to him, he followed up with "are you human?"
His guest gave some thought before answering, "Now that is difficult to answer in my case, I don't know how but the people from my galaxy and yours are the same species genetically, as for me I was once only human, but have since transcended and have become a messiah for the Nation."
The Illusive man paused, questions of how humans exist outside of the galaxy, let alone the obvious advancement they have would have to be explored after he got through the obvious and personal ones, "how did you find us and why attack, why so much effort on us first?"
"Well tracking you was easy, your people still rely mostly on transmissions in space, albeit well encrypted but an old technology by our standards, I do apologize about these past hostilities I had to speak with you personally and our intelligence suggested you do not simply meet with those that ask," he replied. Before the Illusive man could respond his guest continued, "yes you. I understand you, the vision for humanity and the galaxy that cannot comprehend," with that last bit he gestured to the androids standing by. "To answer the questions you no doubt have, these where the people that couldn't embrace the future so the future choose to embrace them instead, and to you and your people I also offer the future, I know you are the only person in this galaxy that can share and understand the future I offer!"
The Illusive man let out a long puff of smoke almost shrouding himself before saying, "I am interested in both peace and possible technology that you could offer, but I'm not completely satisfied with your answer that you'd go to these lengths only just to talk with me, what's you're angle, and while we are on that you still haven't told me who you are, do you have a name?"
The bald man nodded as if agreeing with his questions, "yes that is right I am after something," he said standing up announcing, "I am Sansha Kuvakei, I am the Nation! And I am interested in everything Cerberus has in terms of data and artifacts regarding reaper indoctrination."
