Mass Effect: Salvation

by OptimumCamski

Galactic peace balances on the tip of a knife, as an ancient evil rises again. It threatens to engulf the races of the galaxy, and only one man can stop it. But that man is broken, beaten, and scarred. The first in a six-part saga of the life and legend of Commander John C. Shepard.

11. Chapter 10: The Hardest of Choices

Chapter 10: The Hardest of Choices

"Killing is making a choice, you choose between one life or the other. You have nothing to threaten me with! Nothing to do with all your strength! But don't worry, I'm gonna tell you where they are! Both of them, and that's the point. You'll have to choose."

Command Room – SSV Normandy, Hercules System, Attican Beta Cluster

The communications terminal in the command room flashed to life as the Citadel Council strove to contact Shepard over the most encrypted of Spectre communications channels. The signal rang throughout the Normandy, and within minutes Shepard was barreling up the stairwell of the frigate to the command room, frantically pulling his Alliance uniform over his head as he did so.

The feed from the Citadel flickered on, revealing the Salarian and Turian councillors standing at their pedestals in the Citadel tower.

"Shepard," Councillor Valern began, "we've just received contact from one of our Salarian STG Teams in the Traverse."

The Special Tasks Groups – the Salarian infiltration regiment and inspiration for the Spectres – were known for operating well outside of Union jurisdiction, but Shepard had never heard of them doing so on the Council's behalf, and certainly not out in the Terminus systems. "What's an STG team doing out in the Traverse?"

"Spectres aren't our only tool for keeping tabs on potential enemies of the Council," Sparatus noted, the tone in his voice suggesting that Shepard should have known this already. "We use STG teams in the Traverse to monitor the Terminus systems – they're less high-profile than Spectres, and there's more coordination between groups than with the Spectres."

"What was the contact about?"

"They've found Saren, or at least one of his outposts. It's located on Virmire – a planet well outside of Council jurisdiction. It was broadcast over top-level emergency channels, and they're requesting reinforcements; they took heavy losses in their first assault on the base, and can't get either evac or another attack going."

"I'll investigate as quickly as I can," Shepard replied, his omnitool already punching in the orders to the bridge. In seconds, he had a response from Joker and Pressly, as the navigator began to plot their relay jump to the system. It was on the very border of the Terminus, and according to the data now streaming to his omnitool colonization attempts had been made on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, the political situation in the Terminus – an endless turf war between rival cartels, gangs and mercenary groups – made negotiations unfeasible, and blunt-force colonization too risky.

"They requested substantial reinforcements, but the Council is not willing to provoke a full-scale war with any of the cartels in the area – one of our top Terminus Spectre operatives informed us that the Attican Fists and the Skylian Shadows gangs are in the midst of a full-scale war, and that it would be ill-advised for us to intervene in the middle of it. The Normandy can get in fast and quiet, and extract the STG team." Valern glanced across at Sparatus, then at the empty seat of Tevos, "good luck Shepard."

The hologram darkened as Joker's voice rang in over the comms system. "We'll be probably six hours to Virmire, assuming optimal Relay traffic."

"Garrus, will the Mako be ready in time for that?"

There was a brief pause before the Turian's observations echoed through the command room, "should be. Tali and I are just reoptimizing the targeting metrics – they got thrown off slightly on Binthu by the gravity. Should be back to optimal pace inside of four hours."

"Excellent. Tell everyone on the engineering deck that I want a full command meeting one hour prior to our arrival on Virmire."

"You got it."

Back on the crew deck, Shepard found the Mess Hall table occupied entirely by Wrex, who was hurriedly polishing an ornate and ancient set of Krogan battle-armour. Originally belonging to his ancestors during the Krogan Rebellions, the ceremonial set had been confiscated after the Genophage, before eventually ending up in the hands of a Turian smuggler and artifact scavenger. They had stumbled across the man's base of operations while discharging their drive cores shortly after Feros, and Wrex had been eager to regain the armour for the sake of his ancestors. Shepard had led a team groundside and recovered the armour, and had earned a great deal of respect from Wrex for the act.

The way Wrex seemed to stare at the armour seemed almost…wistful, as he beat and polished every last dent, scrape and stain out of the armour. It looked positively ancient – its plating decorated in gold and platinum in a manner befitting a clan chief. "I don't suppose that armour is still usable in combat," Shepard mused aloud as he rounded the curve of the cabin into the mess hall.

Wrex stopped his work to look over at Shepard, his intense eyes focused on him with a mix of grudging admiration and amusement. "Hah," he chuckled, "as combat armour, this was a piece of junk even when it was made. It's purely ceremonial."

"Then why put so much effort into it?"

"It's a reminder of what we were once, of what the Krogan were capable of before…"

"Before the Genophage?"

Wrex nodded, "I'm just shy of eight hundred years old, and for my entire life the Krogan have been in the death throes of civilization, and all due to the genophage." Wrex paused, almost reading Shepard's thoughts as he answered the question Shepard had been about to ask, "it decimated our numbers – one in a thousand births survive the first day of life. Krogan civilization was great once – our empire spanned the entire sector, but the genophage reduced them to animals – fighting over fertile females, over territory, over old grudges earned during the Rebellions and before. To the Krogan, power is life, and when it is scarce they fight for every last scrap of it."

The Genophage had been a catastrophe for the Krogan – that went without saying – but the descent from proud (albeit violent) civilization into the scattered and warring factions of today seemed a far fall even given the annihilation of their population. "Hasn't anyone tried to stop it – stop the factionalism, the civil war, the drain away to mercs and criminals?"

"Krogan have always been naturally violent – Tuchunka is the harshest, most brutal planet in existence, and the Salarians 'uplifting' us specifically to commit genocide didn't help. I've already told you that most would rather kill for credits than save their civilization."

"You don't."

Wrex laughed aloud, but it was with a mix of sadness and anger at the edge of its resonance. "I tried once. I led a smaller branch of Clan Urdnot – this was about four centuries ago – and I tried to negotiate truces centred around the female clans – establish common breeding grounds, shared rituals, mutual protection. It was gaining traction, but some of the older clan chiefs –the ones who had fought in the Rebellions – wanted to keep going to war," he scowled as he remembered it, "including my father. My own father tried to kill me, because I was a threat to what little power he had left. That's how far the Krogan have fallen. It's a much better use of my time to pursue Saren than to follow the pipe-dream of a Krogan renaissance."

"If the Genophage is so destructive, why not try and cure it?"

"You think we haven't tried that? Each clan goes through the motions of hiring a genetics company to try, they fail, we sue, they countersue, it gets settled either with credits or gunfire. Besides, when was the last time you saw a Krogan scientist? If the choice is between working in a lab for a century and killing for credits, take a wild guess which one wins out."

Shepard turned to go into his cabin, planning to catch a few hours of much-needed sleep before they went groundside. "For your sake, I hope someone finds a way."

Wrex made no acknowledgement of the comment, "I won't get my hopes up."

Virmire – Hoc System – Century Omega Cluster – seven hours later

The distant main sequence star burned a dim orange as it rose through the hazy atmosphere of Virmire. It was a lush world, coated in verdant jungle and tropical coral reefs. They had landed on one of the larger islands in the midst of a vast ocean of dark blue. Ten miles at its widest point, white limestone cliffs rose majestically against the sea-swept shoals that lined the surface. There was water everywhere, with a climate similar to Earth's equatorial islands, and it was extremely humid. As far as Garrus was concerned, it was far too humid – Palaven was a dry world, the Citadel even dryer, and the sheer volume of water in the air played havoc with his lungs as he slowly scaled the eighty-foot face of one of the limestone bluffs, with Ashley and Liara tethered into the cable behind him.

Tactical analysis by the Normandy's sensors had indicated that Saren's base was heavily defended, using state-of-the-art anti-air batteries that could punch a hole through the Normandy at close range. Their best drop point was four miles out from the small camp the Salarian STG team had established, but heavily guarded by Geth armoured units and troops. Communications with the Salarians were stalled by a jamming tower two miles from the drop, but the approach would leave them dangerously exposed. Shepard, Tali, and Wrex went groundside, while Garrus, Ashley and Liara moved to provide sniper cover from a high bluff overlooking the jamming tower. Shepard was now deep in the internal corridors of the jamming tower's bunker, having breached their defenses on the far side, and he was now preparing to engage the Geth units in the bunker itself.

It was an odd feeling, being in command of a unit. All his working life he'd been restrained by orders – the iron discipline of the Hierarchy Navy, the tactically brilliant but personally infuriating will of his Blackwatch commander, the forty miles of red tape and regulation that came with being a detective at C-SEC. But working under Shepard had been different – freeing, almost. Yes, he had still reigned Garrus in with certain guidelines – no vengeance-killing, minimize civilian casualties – but the manner in which he did so was so different from that at C-SEC that Garrus found himself no longer wanting to cross the barriers that Shepard set. His caution and maturing sense of judgement was reciprocated with higher and higher expectations from his commander, and he now waited patiently with two other squad members in tow.

"Garrus, this is Shepard. We're preparing to breach the main internal blast doors. What's your status?"

"Still climbing the ridge," he glanced down at Ashley and Liara, both of whom were gaining ground on him as he slowed to concentrate on his comms unit, "shouldn't be more than five minutes to the top. We should have a solid view of the jamming tower and the antiship battery when we get there."

"Excellent, we're moving out."

It took them four minutes to scale the ridge, and Pressly hadn't lied when he told Garrus it would give him the best sniper perch he had ever seen. Well over one hundred feet above the shoaled surface of the island, he had a good view of the jamming tower, its electronics buried into the deep recesses of another spire opposite him; it towered well over their ridge, but he had a picture-perfect view of the door to the bunker through his sniper-scope. The ridge wasn't spacious, but there was room enough for him and Ashley to both lie flat in the short grass, their rifles fully extended. Ashley's jaw practically dropped as Garrus unhooked his Volkov VI from his back. He had custom-fitted a new scope that allowed him a high-optics view for more than five kilometers, and the kickback had been reduced down to nothing; it was semiautomatic, yet reloaded so fast that it could properly be considered a very long-range pistol with substantially more firepower. Ashley's own rifle – an S-37J Striker IV – was a combat-oriented design, intended to be used at a much closer range than Garrus. Behind them, Liara knelt and prepared to deploy a biotic barrier around them both. She, Shepard, Kaidan and Wrex had reverse-engineered a method of deploying the barrier so that it would dull the impact of incoming fire, yet actually heighten the speed and force of anything that went through it the other way; it gave their sniper rounds more killing power, but also guaranteed that they were safe from return fire.

Garrus put the scope to his right eye, as he flicked the button that integrated the rifle's targeting with his visor. He saw heat and electronic signatures displays flare up near the jamming tower, concentrated along the defensive wall that Saren had erected. "Garrus here, we're in position. Cover is minimal, but the angles are so bad from the ground that you'd have to be a genius sniper to even have a chance at hitting us, and that's before you account for the barrier Liara's going to put up. I've got a clear thermal and electromagnetic view of the jamming tower. I'm picking up seventeen standard Geth signatures, one Geth armature signature, two large mobile Geth signatures," his eye focused in on the patches of red, "and three Krogan near the exit from the bunker. You'll run into them on your way out."

"Give Saren credit where it's due, he isn't afraid to pay out to hire serious muscle," Wrex remarked wryly over the link.

"I've got a clear view of the entrance to the control bunker – from our vantage point it's about a 400-metre shot, but the wind is minimal so there won't be a lot of tracer warping. We're also close enough that we won't have to account for the coriolis effect, at least not much."

"Garrus, you're doing that sniper-speak thing again," Shepard noted. "We're getting ready to breach. Be ready to provide cover in thirty seconds."

Garrus focused in on one of the Geth, colloquially termed a 'Destroyer' for the heavy flamethrower and nitro tanks stowed firmly on its back plating. His synced targeting system did the legwork for him, rapidly calibrating the armour and shield-load distribution and giving him an optimized firing angle. His forefinger began to toy with the trigger, flexing it back and forth to make sure the shot was perfectly straight and perfectly timed.

"Fifteen seconds until breach," the voice in his earpiece cautioned. Ashley knelt beside him, her sniper resting on her upraised right knee and scanning the ground below them.

"Ten seconds."

This is living, Garrus thought to himself. Who wouldn't take this over being stuck in an office at C-SEC, with enough paperwork to sink a cruiser and enough red tape to infuriate even a Volus? Give me hunting a dangerous, highly-effective and potentially megalomaniacal ex-Spectre over that any day of the week. You know, on second thought, that's probably not healthy. I should go see a psychotherapist when this is done.

"Five seconds."

Garrus closed his unused eye and forgot the world around him – it was just him, his rifle, and a dozen targets arrayed below him.

"Breaching."

Even from his lofty perch, Garrus could hear and feel the force of the blast that seemed to shake the sheer wall of rock that the bunker was carved into. A tiny billow of smoke and flame shot out of one of the narrow openings in the canyon's face, and the atmosphere of the troops patrolling the blast wall changed almost immediately. The two Krogan nearest the bunker's exit charged in, ready to lay waste to whatever scum had dared to enter their guarded territory. Garrus hesitated for a fraction of a second as the Destroyer turned to the exit, and cursed silently when it temporarily disappeared from view. He quickly shifted his focus, and found himself presented with the appealing target of a Geth shock trooper.

"Scoped…" he pressed down on the Volkov's trigger, and felt the inevitable kickback of the rifle against his shoulder as the Geth's head-plate exploded into a thousand shards of metallic alloy, "…and dropped."

To his right, Ashley fired off several rounds from her own sniper as Liara deployed her barrier around the three of them. It obstructed Garrus's view slightly, as a purple-blue haze settled over his scope's line of sight. It proved a useful defense; almost instantly, a sniper shot grazed the barrier and repelled off of it harmlessly. Garrus's visor tracked the pathway of the shot and quickly locked on to the assailant. A second later the Geth sniper's chestplate was blown open by a sniper round.

"No fair," Ashley mock-pouted beside him, "you're stealing all of my targets."

"Feel free to try and keep up," Garrus shot back as he lined up another target and calmly downed it. The sounds of rifle-fire were drowned out by the chatter in his earpiece from Shepard, Tali and Wrex, as their comms came back online beneath the bunker.

"-keep up the pressure. We have to break this line of defense."

"Shepard, we've got Krogan on the far side; I'll handle them!"

"Tali, hack the two shock troopers coming around the corner!"

"Krogan are down but there are more coming! We're pinned down and they're rapidly closing in!"

Behind him, Garrus could feel Liara's concentration begin to waver, as her concern for Shepard began to show in the increased pitch and speed of her breathing. The barrier began to falter, and it barely held under the strain as another Geth sniper threw shot after shot against their defenses. Ashley calmly put several rounds through the attacker, as Garrus focused to line up one last opportunity to kill the Destroyer, which had begun to move through the now-open door to the bunker.

If you hit this right, he told himself, you touch off the Destroyer and the Krogan and possibly a dozen Geth to clear a path for Shepard and Wrex. If this doesn't go well, your shot is too late, the Destroyer doesn't get touched off until it's way too close to Shepard and they get caught in the blast, Liara loses her concentration and we may as well be target practice for those snipers down there. No pressure. He exhaled slowly as he brought the volatile tank of chemicals on the Geth's back into focus, and time seemed to slow as his finger squeezed the trigger.

The explosion from the Geth Destroyer was enormous, as the mixture of chemicals was touched off by its contact with the oxygenated air of Virmire. The two Krogan were caught in the blast, and both disappeared to Garrus's eyes and targeting life-sensors as the inferno tore through the upper reaches of the bunker. Everywhere he looked, electronic signatures that were faintly veiled by the sheer rock began to disappear.

"Hold on," Shepard came on through the earpiece, "whatever you did out there Garrus, it's definitely working. Just saw a large pile of Geth parts fly against the far wall. What on earth did you do?"

Garrus chuckled to himself, "I earned my pyrotechnics license I think."

He heard Shepard laugh on the other end of the comms. "We're moving into the jamming tower's control room. Tali, see if you can hack the mainframe and shut this thing down."

"Whatever you're doing, you'd better do it quick," Garrus noted as a Geth dropship descended between the towering columns of stone that surrounded the jamming tower. Drop pods rocketed to the ground as the dropship attempted to open fire on the three of them perched on the ridge. Liara got the barrier up just in time, but the heavy impact of an enlarged mass slug sent shudders through the field, and even with his eye firmly focussed on the targets in front of him he could hear the strain and concentration in Liara's breathing as she struggled to hold the field together. Garrus downed three of the Geth emerging from their drop pods before they had a chance to hook their pulse rifles into their circuits.

"Hold on, just finishing up the secondary bypass," Tali's thickly accented voice came over the comms, and it sounded from the background noise as if Shepard and Wrex were fighting off a small army as she finished the hack, "rearrange the code sequences…bypass Geth neural defense systems…got it!" Garrus watched through his scope as the electronic signature around the jamming tower's antennae first dimmed, and then went completely dark. "the jamming tower is down. We should have full comms with the Normandy and the Salarian STG team."

Sure enough, Garrus's omnitool came alive with chatter on the STG comms, as they struggled to get a message through the communications grid and to the Citadel Council. "All Citadel units, this is STG Team Beta Seven. We are stranded on Virmire in the Hoc System; requesting reinforcements from the Citadel Council, the Hierarchy Fleet, or the Special Tactics and Recon Branch. Does anyone read this?"

Shepard was still locked in combat, so Garrus took the opportunity to respond. "This is First Lieutenant Garrus Vakarian of the Fourth Blackwatch Regiment on board the Alliance-Hierarchy Frigate Normandy." He hadn't gone by that designation in years – not since well before he became a C-SEC detective, but it seemed to carry more brevity than a simple C-SEC posting when dealing with Salarian or Asari special forces. "A team is en-route to your position once we disable the antiship gun. Recommend you hold your position and wait for our arrival." Garrus switched off the channel and connected to Shepard and Wrex again, "Shepard, you there?"

The reply took time, and for several seconds all Garrus could hear was muffled rifle-fire and the warped shockwaves of biotic attacks. "We're kind of busy right now, what do you have for me?"

"I've made contact with the Salarian STG Team. We're to link up with them at their base."

"Well that's just fine," Wrex practically screamed over the comms to drown out the hail of the gunfire in the background, "except for the fact that we're pinned the fuck down by about two dozen Geth, not to mention another four or five Krogan in addition to the three we've already killed."

"Shepard," Tali's voice joined in the shouted conversation, "I've got an idea, but it's a little bit crazy."

"No wonder she's fit in just fine," Garrus muttered to himself.

He didn't catch the next part, but Shepard and Wrex seemed to acquiesce, and moments later there was a sudden spike of electrical energy on Garrus's targeting visor. All the pings of blue light on his scope seemed to concentrate on a single point, as the Geth shells became lifeless, devoid of energy or power. The energy concentrated itself around three unmistakable forms deep in the bunker, its concentration so dense that even through thirty or forty feet of rock Garrus could see their forms – a Krogan, a Quarian, and a Human. They seemed to positively radiate on his visor, and he saw them move rapidly through the twisted corridors or the bunker and up towards the surface. When they emerged from the tunnel, they tore through the few remaining Geth in their path in a flurry of biotic and tech attacks, and Garrus's targeting system noted that their shields were nearly five times as strong as they were supposed to be.

"As a third-party observer, I have to ask: What the hell was that?"

"Energy collection field," Tali replied as Wrex and Shepard finished off the last of the Krogan, "something I've been working on for a while. It collects electrons in the vicinity and concentrates them around specific armour capacitors."

"It seems to have done the job," Shepard noted through panted breaths, and even over the comms Garrus could tell that his adrenaline was in overdrive. "Now we just need to take out the damn anti-ship battery."

"I think I might be able to help with that," Joker's voice came in over the comms, and Garrus turned in time to see the Normandy speeding towards them, its engines running on full stealth situated barely twenty feet above the water to avoid LADAR detection. He felt as much as heard the deafening roar of the Normandy's deuterium ion engines as it raced over them, firing a concussive barrage of disruptor torpedoes and Javelin missiles at the gun battery. By the time the massive turret had turned to lock onto the frigate, it was already too late, as it disappeared in a column of fire and smoke under the onslaught. Enormous shards of durasteel and gutted electronics fell from the pedestal it rested on, crushing one of the blast walls between Shepard and the Salarian camp. Burned-out electronics rained down on the few remaining Geth in their path, either crushing them under their sheer weight or making contact with their circuits and frying them completely. When Garrus lifted his eyes to look at the scene, the Normandy was gone as fast as it had come. "I figured you guys could use the extra firepower," Joker responded, and Garrus could almost picture the pilot's sly grin in his mind's eye.

"Roger that Joker; thanks for the assist. Garrus, Liara, Ashley – we'll rendezvous at the Salarian camp."

Garrus holstered his sniper rifle as Liara brought down the barrier. "Our work here is done. Let's move."

Base Camp – Salarian STG Platoon Beta Seven – Virmire – twenty minutes later

The Salarians had made camp amidst the shoals that hugged the edge of the island, their prefab tents established within twenty feet of the waterline on the white sand that covered the shore. Though STG platoons tended to deploy a strength of thirty or forty, barely fifteen Salarian operatives remained active, with another three lying wounded in the makeshift medical tent they had established. The Normandy had nestled itself in a narrow space between the two limestone bluffs that towered above the camp and provided shelter from the sea wind. The rest of the combat crew had disembarked, and now squatted amongst the cliffs, waiting for Shepard's orders to continue.

Shepard approached the leader of the STG team – a tall Salarian who carried himself with an air of importance and precision. "I'm Captain Vaelon Kirrahe – Salarian Third Infiltration Regiment." He held out a hand in greeting, which Shepard readily accepted, "we're thankful that you've come – we were beginning to think the Citadel wouldn't respond. It's nice to get the beginnings of support."

"Commander John Shepard – Special Tactics and Recon and Alliance Navy. What's the situation here?"

Kirrahe waved him, Garrus and Wrex over to a tactical map display that the Salarians had set up in their command tent. "Three weeks, two days and sixteen hours ago, Union intelligence identified this outpost as a major base of operations for Saren Arterius – an ex-Spectre declared by the Council to have gone Rogue. We deployed with the intent of monitoring the base and ascertaining its function. Five days and seven hours ago, we attempted a reconnaissance attack on the base – we wanted to probe its defenses and see how hard it would be to take." The tactical monitor swivelled, outlining the contours of Saren's base. The defensive perimeter was one of the strongest he had ever seen, with multiple choke-points for defensive counterattacks, a network of automated turrets and aerial recon drones, and heavily-reinforced shield generators that rendered the base near-impenetrable to aerial attack. "It's a tough nut to crack, and we sustained heavy losses probing its defenses for weaknesses. We did, however, figure out what they're doing here." Kirrahe's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the three commandos in front of him, "he's trying to cure the Genophage – breed an army of Krogan that will fight for him."

Shepard and Garrus both expressed surprise, but the most telling reaction was that of Wrex. Krogan were nearly impossible to read, but even Shepard could tell that Wrex's entire tone had changed. His body seemed to tense up and his eyes locked forward. "Curing the Genophage? But that seems impossible."

Kirrahe shook his head, "it's not impossible, I assure you. Our intel suggests that their genetics labs are frighteningly close to finding a cure. We have to shut them down and destroy it."

Wrex was aghast, "destroy it?! I don't think so. The Krogan are dying off, and if Saren really can cure the Genophage, that's a chance we have to take." Shepard didn't like where this line of reasoning was going at all.

"It would be a mistake to allow Saren to breed an army of Krogan – they're much more powerful than the Geth, and would be much more loyal. We can't make the mistake of allowing that to happen."

Wrex crossed the distance between him and Kirrahe in a matter of moments, and Shepard was anxious as he watched the massive Krogan lift himself to his full height, his red eyes boring into Kirrahe with a cold fury and outrage. "We…" his every word seemed laced with a threatening rage, "are not…a mistake!" With that, Wrex turned and stormed out of the command tent towards the shore.

Kirrahe watched him leave, and turned back to Shepard with an air of caution in his voice, "is he going to be a problem? We're going to have enough difficulty as it is breaking down Saren's defenses without a Krogan that's ready to gut us from behind."

"I'll handle it." Shepard turned to Garrus, "figure out tactics with them. I'll go deal with Wrex." His ears rang as he heard the sound of Wrex firing his shotgun into the shore, its modded rounds sizzling as they made contact with the water.

As he stepped out of the tent, he found himself face to face with Liara. She studied his face for a moment, a slight edge of concern etched into her expression, "is everything okay?"

Shepard thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head, "I'm not sure. Wrex seems extremely pissed off, and I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to calm him."

Liara moved her hands up, resting them on the underside of his wrists as she looked into his eyes. "Be careful, alright?" Shepard nodded, and lifted his hands out of her grip, leaving her looking at him helplessly.

Wrex positively seethed with rage when Shepard walked up to him, his hands trembling with anger as he held his shotgun at the ground. "This isn't right Shepard. If Saren's found a cure for the Genophage, we can't destroy it."

Shepard moved slightly closer to Wrex, so close that if he had wanted the Krogan Battlemaster could have had him in a death grip in a matter of seconds. "Wrex, I know you want a cure for the Genophage, and I can't blame you. But this isn't a cure to bring back the golden age of the Krogan; this is a cure to breed an unstoppable army to conquer the galaxy. We have to stop it."

"If Saren wants a cure to the Genophage, that would be good enough for most Krogan." His voice dropped to a menacing growl, as his grip tightened around his shotgun, "I trusted you – hell, you've done more to help our cause than my own family did, but help me out here Shepard. As far as I can see, the lines between friend and foe are starting to get really blurry." His hand was on Shepard's shoulder, and rapidly tightening its grip. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"Wrex, you talk about saving the Krogan race. Do you honestly think that the ones in Saren's army are the ones you want to save? You saw what his flagship does to those who serve under him – they're mindless shells of themselves, thralls that exist only to serve Saren. He broke one of the most powerful Asari Matriarchs in the galaxy; the Krogan mercenaries will be easy pickings for him." Shepard flared his biotics in warning, and Wrex's grip loosened slightly. "These are not your people; they're Saren's slaves, and I don't think he'll be that generous with his gifts to those who didn't serve him; do you?"

Time around them seemed to stand still, and for a moment the world consisted only of Shepard and Wrex, each with a will of iron daring the other one to bend. Finally, Wrex backed off, "no. We were the servants of the Salarians once, and in exchange they neutered us. I know Saren, and he won't be nearly that kind." He holstered his shotgun, but eyed Shepard cautiously. "But I need to know that we're doing this for the right reasons."

Shepard nodded, "I give you my word. I will do everything in my power to get you your cure, but not like this."

"That's good enough for me, but I'd ask one thing in return," Wrex said, his eyes darkening with battle-rage, "when we find Saren, I want his head."

Wrex wandered into the supply tent to restock on medigel, and Liara immediately ran to Shepard. "Did you manage to get Wrex on-side?" Shepard nodded, "thank the Goddess!"

Shepard returned to the command tent to find Garrus, Kirrahe, and his second-in-command Captain Rentola pouring over a near-endless set of maps and holograms of attack patterns and strategies. "What plans do you have?"

Kirrahe shrugged his shoulders, "we definitely have an end-point, but we haven't figured out to get there yet. We can hardwire the reactor from our vessel to act as a ten-megaton fusion bomb, which – if we placed it here," he gestured to a large unloading bay on the far side of the facility, "would probably destroy the entire facility. The main threat is the genetics labs, which would almost certainly be incinerated in the blast. The difficulty is getting to them – we could use the Normandy to deliver the bomb, but it can't get through the shield unless it's deactivated first. We'll have to go in on foot."

Garrus pulled up one of the hologram patterns, "all my Hierarchy instincts are telling me that we should attack along this single access bridge here and grind it out simply through attrition," he indicated on the projection, "but we don't have the capacity to take that many casualties."

"What about here," Shepard offered, highlighting a back entrance to the facility as well as two secured blast doors on the front side of the base. "I could take a team and infiltrate the maintenance area of the facility, and then use that to cut across to the labs. If you can send teams to capture the control room the Normandy could then airlift the core into the landing bay."

"It might work," Captain Rentola offered, "but we're dangerously low on ammunition and soldiers. They'd just thrash us defensively."

"Then split your force; make them divide their defenses between two or three groups, and that way you lessen the burden on any one force. If we're really lucky, it'll make the route to the labs easier."

Kirrahe pondered the plan for several minutes, retreating to the back corner of the tent to talk with Rentola in hushed tones. Garrus turned to Shepard, "glad to see you were able to sort things out with Wrex. I thought that was going to end badly."

"It was just a matter of convincing him that we're doing this for the right reasons."

"And are we?"

"I'd like to think so. I don't harbour anything against the Krogan, it's just that Saren with an army of them is a terrifying prospect, not to mention that the Krogan's current leadership – at least according to Wrex – is so backward and violent that the Rebellions would restart inside of a week."

"Well, let's hope the rest of the Krogan in the galaxy see it that way too."

Kirrahe and Rentola returned from their corner, the former with a look of apprehension on his face. "Commander Shepard, we think it's a good plan, insofar as it gets you access to the labs. However, we also think that there's a very high probability that most of our platoon will die in the diversionary attacks, which makes what I'm about to ask even more difficult." He drew in a breath, waiting to see how Shepard would react, "I need one of your crew to join my platoon for the assault. Rentola and I can coordinate the first two assault teams but we need someone experienced in command to lead the third."

Shepard had dreaded that suggestion, but he had seen it coming. He mentally went through the list and crossed off those he couldn't spare. Of his crew, only Wrex, Garrus, Kaidan and Ashley had prior experience in a commanding position; putting Wrex in charge of a team of Salarians was just asking for chaos, and Shepard needed Garrus on his infiltration team. That left him with the difficult decision of which of his human squad members to select.

He motioned for Kaidan and Ashley to join him, "The Salarians and I have a plan to get into Saren's base and destroy the genetics facilities," Ashley's face brightened at the news, "and it's going to involve three diversionary teams attacking the main entrance to the facility while Garrus, Liara and I sneak in through the maintenance areas. Kirrahe has asked that one of you join him to coordinate one of the fire-teams. Kirrahe and Captain Rentola also expressed their fear that the mission could possibly end in slaughter on their end."

Kaidan stepped forward, "in that case Commander, I volunteer."

"Wait a second LT," Ashley interjected, "no one said you'd get first claim. I volunteer myself for the role as well."

"With all due respect Williams, I have more experience in command than you, and I'd much rather put myself in harms' way."

That caused Ashley to roll her eyes, "why is it that whenever anyone says 'with all due respect', they really mean 'kiss my ass'?"

It was so typically Alliance for two soldiers to start trying to out-volunteer one another for a suicide mission, so Shepard decided to end it quickly. "Kaidan, you're the most experienced field commander I have with me – I'll need Ashley to help with escorting the bomb to its drop-point. You'll go with Kirrahe and his team."

"Yes commander, I-," Kaidan's voice caught in his throat, "-I'll get to the Salarians."

Ashley looked at the young lieutenant with concern, "you ok LT?"

"I-, yes. Just…just be safe out there." Kaidan replied.

Shepard turned to Kaidan, "I need you to treat Kirrahe as if he were me – if he orders you to jump, you ask how high. if he orders you to attack, you attack. If he orders you to retreat, retreat. Can you do that?" Kaidan nodded curtly, "excellent. Good luck out there."

Kirrahe assembled the remaining twenty members of his platoon in front of their command tent, their briefs already complete and their mission orders given by Kirrahe's lieutenants. The commander paced back and forth as he attempted to rally his troops for battle.

"You all know the mission, and what is at stake." He surveyed the twenty Salarians in front of him, "I have come to trust each of you with my life – but I have also heard the whisperings of discontent, and I confess that I share your concerns. We fight an enemy that is well-equipped, one who holds the high ground, the sky, and outnumbers us ten to one. Yet this is our way; we are trained for espionage – we would be legends, but the records are sealed." His voice began to rise as he worked himself into a battle-inspired fervour, "think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who brought down empires with a single shot. Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay armed only with the truth. Time and time again, they were outnumbered ten to one; time and time again, they were victorious in the shadows, denied glory by the nature of their victory." He punched his fist in the air, emphasizing the grandiose conclusion of his remarks, "before the network, we had the fleet. Before diplomacy, we had soldiers. Our influence stopped the Rachni, but not before we held the line! Our influence stopped the Krogan, but not before we held the line! Our influence will stop Saren, because we will hold the line!"

Kirrahe turned to Shepard as the Salarian commandos jogged at a brisk pace toward the edge of their camp, their spirits reinvigorated. "Commander, get your team ready. When we're in position, it's time to unleash hell."

Genetics Labs – Unidentified Outpost, Virmire, Hoc System – Two Hours Later

Shepard watched in satisfaction as the lead Krogan scientist's body hit the ground, his armour riddled with the jagged holes produced by his and Liara's combined warp blast. Behind them, the bulk of the genetics lab lay in ruins, its rare and expensive instruments a smoldering heap of twisted metal and its data corrupted beyond recognition by a mainframe hack that Tali had designed for the purpose.

The three Salarian assault teams had proven extremely effective, pulling virtually the entire defensive force away from the maintenance area and giving Shepard, Garrus and Liara a clear run at the back entrances to Saren's base. They had managed to sabotage much of the Geth infrastructure that coordinated their defenses against the Salarian teams – the communications grid that powered the automated turret defenses, the refueling stations for Geth aerial drones, the internal alarms for the base's security, and even the targeting systems for the antiship batteries that would have proven lethal to the Normandy's armour.

"Aegohr Team, this is Alenko, we're almost at the shield control room. What's your status?"

"Rentola here; we're taking heavy fire from several Geth positions, but Kirrahe and Manovai should be able to take the pressure off. Recommend you hold course until we hear from Shepard that the labs have been cleared."

Shepard knelt and swiped the access pass from the Krogan's body and continued through the door on the far side of the labs. Preliminary scans of the base showed that there were several more rooms to go, and he wanted to be sure that they left nothing of value behind. The door responded to the touch of the card and opened to grant them access to the exterior of the base once more. Two Geth Destroyers were waiting for them, and Shepard threw himself out of the path of the arcing flame that raced towards them. Liara froze one of them in a stasis bubble, and Garrus quickly sent a circuitry overload into the flamethrower of the remaining mobile unit. The release system backfired, and Shepard and Liara barely rolled behind cover before they felt the wave of staggering heat hit them as the Geth was consumed in an inferno of volatile chemicals. When the second Geth was released from stasis, Garrus and Shepard were ready for it, and it only took a few well-placed rounds from both of them to leave it a scarred heap on the catwalk.

The next chamber at first appeared to be nothing more than a long and curving hallway, yet as they entered it Shepard saw the shapes of individual panels on the walls, each with a clear glass window eight or nine feet in height. These were holding cells, and they lined the walls on both sides – there must have been fifteen or twenty of them. Each of them was filled with a single specimen – several Asari, a handful of Turians, and several feral species of animal that Shepard had never seen. One cell in particular caught his attention, and he traversed the distance to the far corner rapidly, where an armoured Salarian was clawing furiously at the window, trying in vain to escape. His armour bore the mark of the Third Infiltration Regiment; this was one of Kirrahe's solders. But there were several things about this Salarian that seemed…off: his thrashings against the window were powerful, too powerful for a Salarian's normal range; the skin around his eyes seemed ringed with mechanical implants that forced the eyelids permanently open. His pupils were dilated completely, and they gave off an iridescent blue glow that eerily reminded Shepard of the eyes of the Geth husks that they had seen on so many occasions. The Salarian fixed him with a baleful stare, the muscles in its face twitching in contorted pain.

Shepard leaned forward until his face was nearly touching the glass, searching for some recognition in the Salarian's face. "Who are you? Are you one of Kirrahe's soldiers?" He rocked back sharply as the Salarian smashed its curled fists against the glass, trying in vain to break out of its prison. It emitted a scream of frustration –a low-pitched wail that was edged with a sound that was almost mechanical in nature.

The soldier collapsed against the glass, his knees barely holding him up as the blue glow in his eyes faded slightly. Words struggled to come out, and when they did they were tinged with that same mechanical sound, "I've….I was captured during the first assault…they've been doing….tests….I can't even hear myself think anymo-….the growl….it's always there…always instructions…orders…always shouting….its orders are….so simple….so…damn….simple!" The last word turned into a snarl as the eyes glowed again, and he leapt at the door with renewed vigour, before again dropping in exhaustion. "please…just end it…I beg of you…"

Shepard nodded solemnly, and quickly hacked the door to allow the Salarian out. He threw himself at Shepard violently, and Garrus reacted quickly by putting two pistol rounds through the soldier's chest. He collapsed to the floor, green blood pouring from the twin wounds. "thank….you…"

They kept moving, leaving the other prisoners staring blankly ahead, the same glow in their eyes as the Salarian. None of them, however, made the same mad leap at the bulletproof glass as the Salarian had. Shepard quickly ushered Liara and Garrus through the far door, which opened onto another catwalk on the exterior of the facility.

"We've already got the Krogan research destroyed," Garrus observed as they hustled across the gangway to the door in front of them, "what else was he researching here? What haven't we discovered yet?"

Liara answered as Shepard connected his omnitool to the door's security panel and began the hack, "I don't know, but whatever it is can only be dangerous."

The security panel proved more difficult to hack than Shepard had anticipated. The encryption was far more complicated than that in any other part of the base,

"Shepard, this is Kirrahe," the voice on his comm-link interrupted his thoughts as the hack neared completion, "we've captured the control room for the external defenses of the facility. We're waiting to deactivate the heavy shields until your team has finished in the labs. What's your status?"

Shepard smiled to himself as the hack finished, and the light on the central electronic hub of the door flashed from orange to green, "we got through the genetics labs without problems. We're just investigating the second set of research rooms." His voice darkened, "we found one of your men in a holding cell. They'd been…experimenting on him. We…" Shepard paused as he tried to find the right words, "gave him peace."

"Thank-you Commander. Several of my men were captured when we attempted our first attack, and I'm not surprised that that was their fate. They deserved better. We'll wait to deactivate the shield until you're done in the labs. Kirrahe out."

Garrus punched the holo-button and the door opened, revealing yet another antechamber – this one devoid of any covering or decoration. This appeared far older than the rooms that had made up the rest of the facility. While the genetics labs had been pure concrete and durasteel, here the walls were smooth obsidian, and they positively glittered as their mirror-like surface scattered the newly-introduced light to all four corners of the room in a dazzling display of shadows and rays of light. The temperature dropped too; it was nearly ten degrees colder inside than it was in the hot tropical air of Virmire. There were no lights on the inside; instead, two narrow glass-covered openings in the ceiling flooded two solitary points with light, yet the opaque obsidian floor did not reflect and scatter the rays as the walls did.

"Goddess, I've seen this before," Liara remarked in awe as they slowly and carefully made their way into the room. She closed her eyes, standing perfectly still as she breathed in everything about the room – the feel of the air against her throat, the ancient smell of obsidian that permeated the chamber, the feel of the cooled air against her skin. "I've got it," her eyes shot open and she stared directly at Shepard, "Shepard, this building is Prothean!"

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, "absolutely. It reminds me almost perfectly of one of the first digs I was on. We ended up digging through this antechamber with these same sort of Obsidian walls – even the air feels the same in here."

"What sort of building was it?"

"It was a Prothean temple of some sort, and if I remember correctly there was-," Liara's eyes widened as the memory seemed to strike her across the face, "Goddess, there were the remnants of a Beacon there!" The three of them raced for the far wall, which parted seamlessly to reveal an ancient yet ornately simple elevator, carved of the same pure and flawless obsidian as the antechamber. The elevator seemed to respond to their movements, as the door closed behind them and it began its rapid descent into the bowels of the facility.

"Unlit ancient building," Garrus observed, "creepy elevator that takes us to some unknown destination in the midst of the base of a megalomaniac…in the movies, something bad typically happens about now."

After a minute-long descent, the elevator door silently opened to reveal a vast underground chamber. The walls stretched more than forty feet high, and ran perhaps ninety or a hundred feet further down. Water poured through small openings in the ceiling, running down along the walls to collect in a vast pool that surrounded the raised platform. The ledge they were standing on extended twenty feet in front of them, and was lined with red holographic terminals that Shepard's omnitool indicated were foreign to the room – likely belonging to Saren. In the middle of the pool was a small square platform, barely ten feet across, on which sat an intact and functional Prothean Beacon.

"Goddess, I've never seen anything like it." It looked so perfect, so majestic and sublime, as if fate had deemed that this Beacon was to lay at this spot for the remainder of eternity, undisturbed by the world above it. It felt like being on hallowed ground; the Beacon pulsed with an invisible energy that sent ripples throughout the room, and regularly caused all three of them to shiver as if electricity was arcing up their backs Liara stared with eyes as wide at saucers at it – the ultimate dream of anyone who ever considered studying the Protheans. Even Garrus seemed awed by it, as he muttered a near-silent curse under his breath. The red-coloured panels of information on either side of him disappeared from his vision, and Shepard began to feel as if some unseen force was drawing him towards the beacon.

As they neared the edge of the platform they were standing on, the water beneath them began to shift. Liara was nearly thrown off-balance as a narrow block of obsidian rose from the pool to connect their platform with the Beacon's. As they moved to the stone catwalk, the Beacon began to shift in colour, moving from the green haze similar to the one Shepard had seen on Eden Prime and towards an orange-yellow shade of electric light. The air around it bent towards the Beacon as Shepard approached, his movements cautious as he walked ahead of Liara and Garrus and towards the Beacon.

All at once it happened, just as on Eden Prime. He felt himself lifted into the air by the force-field around the Beacon, and in moments he felt his mind become overwhelmed by the images that the Beacon forced through his head. They were the same as before, yet clearer than when he had beheld the Prothean vision as part of the Cipher. Where before many of the images had been blurry, almost rushed, these now held themselves steady before his mind's eye, his senses taking it all in. The scale of the destruction seemed more vast than it had been in the Cipher, the fire was sharper and clearer and more all-encompassing.

Words swirled through his head, an unknown Prothean voice shouting above the fury and chaos with clarity. "They cannot be stopped, they cannot be reasoned with, and they cannot be outrun. The doom of the Prothean race is at hand, yet hope remains. Seek out the Lost Planet – the ancient haven of knowledge and civilization where only the Electors of Pangea dare walk, and you might yet find salvation for all life." The Beacon's message ended, and Shepard collapsed to the ground on all fours, his mind burned out and drained by the intensity of the encounter.

Liara was at his side in moments, her soft hands gently guiding him back to his feet. "Shepard, are you alright? What did you see? Was it the same message as before?"

"I-, I think so, but it was much clearer, and-," he clutched the side of his head as pain rang through it, "much more…intense." He pushed himself up off his knees and moved towards the stone catwalk, "let's get out of here. We have to plant that bomb and get off this planet."

As they crossed the distance between the two platforms, the bank of red holo-terminals along the platform near the door began to shift. The screens and keypads morphed into a towering colossus of pixelated light, stretching nearly twenty feet high in front of them and striking an imposing figure. The figure vaguely resembled a cuttlefish, yet with an elongated spinal ridge. Four mandibles extended downward to form a claw of code, with six additional leglike structure in the centre of the body. As far as Shepard could tell, this colossus did not have eyes, yet he got the distinct and eery feeling that whatever this thing was – even through a holo-projection – it was watching him.

"I get the feeling that something really bad is about to happen," Garrus remarked as he, Shepard and Liara stepped off the catwalk and stood in front of the image, level with what appeared to be the head

"You…are not…Saren." When it spoke, its deep and metallic voice reverberated throughout the chamber, sending ripples across the pool of water from the force of its voice. Worse still, it seemed to speak within Shepard's mind as well – he could hear its echo across the vast chamber, but he could also hear it in the deepest recesses of his own thoughts, as if an outside force was imposing its will on him.

Liara and Garrus seemed to feel the same way, and both reacted to it with a mix of panic and fear on their faces. "What the hell is that thing? Some sort of VI interface?"

"You are rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch My mind, fumbling in ignorance; you are incapable of understanding or comprehending. You are no different from the other I have influenced."

Shepard felt Liara clutch at his shoulder, overcome by fear. When she finally spoke, it was with an edge of terror in her voice as Shepard felt the words and exhale against the back of his neck, "I don't think this is a VI."

The feeling of her breath against his skin brought a momentary respite from his own inner panic, yet within an instant the voice was back in his mind, assaulting his senses as it demanded his attention. "There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension – the sum of all your fears, of all your nightmares. I am the answer to the question left unanswered at the dawn of time, and I am the ending of your age. I…am Sovereign."

The realization hit him with the force of a cruiser, as understanding dawned on Shepard for the first time. "Sovereign isn't a Reaper vessel," he spoke to no one in particular, "it's a Reaper."

"Reaper – a label created by the Protheans to give voice to their annihilation. In the end, what they chose to call Us is irrelevant; We simply are."

"You wiped out the Protheans," Garrus asked incredulously behind him, "but that's impossible. That was 50,000 years ago; you couldn't have been alive then."

Shepard could feel Sovereigns…emotions (if they could be called that) as it studied the three of them: Curiosity, contempt, revulsion. "Organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation – a cosmic accident. Your lives are measured in years and decades. Your forms are fragile – you wither and die, leaving nothing behind you. We are eternal," A chill ran down Shepard's spine at the thought, "We are the pinnacle of evolution and existence. Before Us, you are nothing. Your extinction is inevitable. We are the end of everything." The holo shifted slightly, its head adjusting itself so that it was focused forward and intently on them. "I know what you are about to say, human. You are going to tell Us that you will stop Us. This is confidence born of ignorance and fear. The cycle cannot be broken."

Every question that this conversation answered seemed only to bring up a dozen more, "cycle? What cycle?"

"The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, and at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first; they did not create the Citadel, or the Mass Relays – they merely found them. They are the legacy of My kind."

"Why the hell would you create something as powerful as the Mass Relays and then simply leave it for others to find?"

"Your civilization is based on the technology of the Mass Relays – Our technology," the omnipresent voice pounded into his head, "by using it, your society develops along the paths that We desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic evolution." It regarded them coldly, "you exist because We allow it," it let the final thought hang in the air, terror gripping Shepard and his companions as they waited for the inevitable conclusion of the statement, "and you will die…because We demand it."

Shepard could have gone for an entire range of responses; he opted for defiance. "There is an entire galaxy of races, united under a single banner and ready to stop you."

When the voice echoed through the chamber and his mind again, it sounded amused by his bravado. "Really? I know your universe, human, and I know that you are lying. I see Batarians and Humans fighting each other over scraps of land and food. I see the Turians always ready for the commencing of a war with your kind, and you with theirs. I see the Terminus Systems, a haven of anarchy and chaos. You are not united, and even if you were, it would not matter – We will destroy you. The time of your doom is at hand. We cannot be stopped – We will not be stopped. I am the vanguard of your destruction. This conversation is over." With that, the holographic projection vanished, leaving the chamber dark and empty.

It was a long time before anyone spoke, until finally Garrus broke the silence. "Well that was…insightful."

"All this time we thought it was Saren pulling the strings," Liara mused aloud, "but it looks like he's just as controlled as Benezia was."

"We can't worry about Sovereign right now, so let's just plant the bomb and get out of here." Shepard tried to contact Joker, but the two hundred feet of solid rock between them and the surface cut communications entirely. They sprinted to the elevator, which immediately began its ascent as the last of them crossed the threshold from the chamber. It shot up rapidly, pressing Shepard's feet to the floor from the weight of the acceleration. As they neared the surface, Joker came in hazily over the comms

"-ard, Shep-, Comm…please tell me that's you, Commander. Your signal's been off my readings for the last fifteen minutes. Please come in."

"I'm here Joker. What's going on?"

"We've been monitoring Geth fleet traffic in the Hoc system, and that ship – Sovereign? It just pulled a turn that would sheer an Alliance dreadnought in half. It's heading your way, and fast. You might want to deploy the bomb before they blow us halfway to the Sol System."

"Got it. We'll meet you and the Salarians in the main courtyard." He flicked several buttons on his omnitool to contact the STG Team, "Kirrahe, this is Shepard. What's your status?"

"We're pinned down in the control tower and taking heavy fire. We'll lower the shields in thirty seconds to allow the Normandy through the perimeter. We'll do our best to rendezvous with you at the landing zone."

Landing Bay 2C – Unidentified Outpost, Virmire, Hoc System, Century Omega – ten minutes later

Shepard watched as Ashley and Normandy Corporal Silas Crosby carefully maneuvered the core of the Salarian frigate down the ramp of the cargo bay and onto the watered surface of the landing bay. The size comparison brought into focus just how powerful the systems on the Normandy were; the Salarian's drive core was barely a third the size of his ship's Tantalus Drive Core, its domed radiation cover made of rusted copper instead of the polished titanium of the Normandy's perfectly-sphered cover. During flight, the lights emitted from small outcroppings in the dome would flash between green and yellow, indicating the remaining supply of deuterium; they now glowed a dark red, flaring occasionally to orange as its deadly cargo was primed for detonation by Kaidan.

The courtyard looked to be the perfect setup for the blast. Boasting hundred foot-high walls of solid concrete, the ground lurked just below sea level, meaning that water flowed continuously beneath their feet towards a large set of drain pipes on the far end of the landing pad. Kirrahe had calculated this to be the perfect epicentre of the facility; if they detonated their drive core here, it would turn a six-mile radius into a barren wasteland of ash and fire.

They slowly carried the converted drive core to the far end of the landing yard, placing it near the drains and well away from any point where reinforcements could be deployed. The blast doors were sealed tight, and the Normandy had yet to detect any Geth or Reaper signatures in the area.

"Shepard, this is Alenko," his comm link barked at him with a hint of panic in her voice, "we're pinned down hard at the control tower, and taking losses fast. Rentola is wounded, and we're down to ten men; we won't last much longer up here!"

Time was of the essence. Every moment that they lingered was another moment that Sovereign and its Geth fleet were bearing down on them, threatening to trap them and destroy them on this planet. Every impulse in his head screamed at him to go to their aid, but the cold, hard, rational commander part of him told him that there wasn't time, that it was necessary to get out of here as quickly as they could.

Ashley made the choice for him, "go Shepard. I need some time to program and arm the bomb anyways – I'll be a few minutes." He gestured to the small spire barely two hundred metres in front of them, "the tower isn't far. Go help them."

That settled it then. "Kaidan, Kirrahe, this is Shepard. We're on our way. Hold the line a little longer."

Shepard motioned to Garrus and Liara, who quickly followed him to the set of blast doors towards the control tower. A large open-air corridor extended fifty feet in front of them, flanked on either side by the same hundred-foot walls of concrete that protected the landing zone. They quickly fought their way through the Geth and Krogan on the other side, Liara and Shepard combining their biotics to deadly effect as explosion after explosion of element zero tore through their foes. As they reached the elevator on the far side of the corridor and piled in, their comms overwhelmed by chatter from Kirrahe and his team.

"Alenko, reinforce Manovai's flank – those Destroyers are gaining too much ground."

"Captain, Aegohr Squad has been depleted to three men. We'll be overwhelmed in moments. Where's Shep-."

"He'll get here Lieutenant. Just hold the line! Watch out for that crossfire!"

Shepard sprinted across the upper courtyard, reaching the short railing that separated ground from sky in a matter of seconds. Moments later he was vaulting over the short wall between the two catwalks, moving as fast as his six-foot frame would carry him towards the control tower. At a distance of less than a hundred metres, they could see tracer-fire and stray rounds spraying through the now-shattered glass windows, and the shouts of the Salarian commandos were discernible even from this distance.

"Commander, this is Normandy. We've picked up multiple Geth signatures inbound to our position – what looks like four transports and a frigate. We're bugging out to avoid getting hemmed in. We'll circle around to the atoll forty clicks from here and swing back around when you're ready for extraction." The air around him became deafeningly loud as the Normandy rocketed away from the facility, disappearing over the horizon in a matter of seconds.

As if on cue, Shepard heard the distinct roar of the engines of a Geth transport as it passed above them, its clawed underbelly opening its bay doors to reveal multiple deployment pods. Garrus braced himself for a vicious firefight, his rifle ready as Liara charged her biotics back up to combat levels. The transport, however, seemed to ignore them, cruising overhead to deploy its ground forces directly into the courtyard where Kaidan was finishing arming the bomb.

"Commander, this is Williams. We've got Geth in the courtyard."

"How many?"

"Lots – too many. It's me and four Marines from our detachment down here. The bomb is armed, but if the Geth get too close it'll be deactivated."

"I'm on my way back! Hold on!"

"Commander!" Kaidan's voice was frantic as it cut through his head, "we're getting overwhelmed here! There's too many of them!"

"Fucking hell!" Ashley swore into Shepard's comms unit, "Shepard, go and get Kaidan and the Salarians. We'll hold out as long as we can!"

"Belay that, Chief," Kaidan shouted back at him, "get that bomb armed and get the hell out of here!"

A knot had begun to develop in Shepard's gut, and now it coursed outwards, flooding his veins with panic. Every officer cadet was taught to dread this situation, to pray to whatever gods they prayed to that it would never befall them, that their fate would never hang on such a decision, that they would never have to make such a decision. He couldn't save them both – time was against him, the deployment of the battlefield was against him, even his own damn subordinates were against him, each madly urging him on to try and save the other. A mixture of emotions – anger, horror, crushing despair – flooded through him as he grasped the totality and gravity of what lay before him: He had to choose who lived and who died.

His thoughts overloaded with the endless variations of trying to make this impossible choice. He could think of it from a command level – Kaidan outranked Ashley, and thus was considered more important to the Alliance chain of command. But there were also four other Marines with Ashley – men he had trained with, fought with, drilled with, flown with, weighed against a single Alliance life. But then there were the Salarians – maybe ten of them left in total. Did their lives count for less than those Alliance Marines? Did theirs count for more? He didn't want to do this, he couldn't do this, and yet if he hesitated, there was a good chance that they all died.

The presence of the Salarians complicated things. His father would have abandoned them; he had viewed a dozen Salarian lives as worth nothing compared to those of five humans. But he was not his father, and the intel that Kirrahe and his team had acquired would be lost with them if they were gunned down by the Geth or an atom bomb.

He found the words tumbling out of his mouth, and he wasn't even sure why he'd made the decision the way he did, only that it was final and total. "Joker, meet us with the Normandy at the control tower. Kaidan, be ready for evac in five minutes."

"I-," the lieutenant's voice choked back over the comms, "yes, Commander."

"It's the right choice, and you know it LT!" Ashley sounded as he always did while in combat – resolute, determined, and stoic. "Good hunting Shepard. I'll see you at the end."

"Ashley? I'm sorry."

That was it then. It was done, the decision made. Time was of the essence, and Shepard wasted no time in making good on his decision. The three of them sprinted towards the base of the control tower, ducking and dodging through rounds of tracer-fire that the Geth above them were now pouring down. Two more transports flew overhead, both rocketing towards the landing courtyard to deposit more troops.

Shepard reached the foot of the tower and quickly ascended the several flights of stairs between the base and the control room. Two descending Geth attempted to stop him, and were quickly smashed into the wall by a pair of biotic-fuelled punches. From the base of the stairwell, Garrus managed to place a well-aimed bullet straight through the skull of a Krogan mercenary at the top of the stairs, and Shepard had to throw himself against the wall to avoid its giant frame as it plummeted towards the floor, blood streaming from an enormous head wound. They quickly reached the top of the staircase and burst into the control room.

Though it once must have been a luxurious and well-equipped station, capable of manipulating the automated defenses, shields, cloaking and detection devices, as well as a host of other instruments, the control room had since degenerated into utter chaos. Panels of instruments sat burned out and charred by the small fires that continued to sweep through the chamber. Where once an enormous glass screen had provided a holographic projection of the entire base and its monitoring systems, only the skeletal frame remained, the rest shredded to a fine powder by the sheer number of bullets that had been traded back and forth. The bodies of Geth, Krogan and Salarians littered the floor, and Shepard had to struggle to keep his balance as he slipped and slid on the thin layer of blood and lubricating fluid that coated the floors. The remnants of Kirrahe's plaoon were clustered around the raised central platform. Kirrahe and Kaidan still lived, as did nine other Salarians. Rentola sat against one of the inner instrument panels, clutching at a steadily-worsening stomach wound. Geth were everywhere, and they seemed content to simply throw endless rounds of crossfire at the raised platform as the Salarians vainly attempted to break out of their boxed-in position. The exhaustion and stress were clearly showing on Ashley's face as she killed another Geth trooper with her shotgun.

Shepard, Liara and Garrus fanned out as they advanced into the control room, each attacking a separate column of Geth as they sought to meet up with the remainder of the STG Team. Garrus deployed an overload in the midst of a large group of Geth Shock Troopers, downing five of them with the electronic burst before felling another two with his assault rifle. Liara caught another column of the synthetics with her Biotic Singularity, which Shepard quickly combined with his own biotic attacks to incinerate them in a massive explosion of biotic energy. The Geth turned from their onslaught against the Salarians and shifted their focus to fight these new enemies, yet quickly found themselves losing ground to the three commandos in their midst. Likewise, the Salarians were bolstered by the presence of allies, and they redoubled their efforts to break out of their isolated perch in the centre of the room.

As the last of the Geth and Krogan fell, Shepard moved to help Rentola to his feet. His wound had subsided somewhat, but he still struggled to shift his feet forward; the blood loss was beginning to eat away at his consciousness. "Joker," Shepard shouted into his comm unit, "we're ready for pickup! How soon can you be here?"

"We've cleared the island chain and are swinging back around. ETA three or four minutes."

"Williams, how are you guys holding out?"

"Van Sant and Hawkes are down. Kim, Lee and I are still holding on, though we're starting to see Geth heavies moving in. I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out."

Shepard's thoughts were interrupted by the clanging of a small metal object off the panel beside him. His mind recognized the telltale beep of the proximity grenade before he saw it, and he threw himself at Liara, pinning her underneath him as the proximity charge ignited. He deployed his barrier in a knick of time, and moments later he felt the impact of the grenade against his barrier as he shielded himself and Liara from the blast. The panel behind them was completely engulfed in the blast, and another of Kirrahe's Salarians was thrown bodily into the wall, his skull cracking against the concrete – he died instantly.

Shepard had pushed himself to his feet when the second blast hit, this one from a pistol-launched electronic charge. He turned to see a small hovercraft descending towards the control room, a lone Turian with both feet planted firmly on either side of the craft. Silver armour coated his reptilian body, with several holes and wounds replaced by synthetic technology and prosthetics. His flanged face was purely metallic, devoid of colony markings or tattoos, and his black eyes glowed a light blue, filled with malice and hardened resolve. This was the man that Shepard had hunted these past months, the one who had eluded him at every opportunity, now come for what would surely be the final confrontation, amidst a doomed base with the threat of a nuclear explosion hanging over both their heads. At long last, he had found him: Saren Arterius.

Saren dropped off his hovercraft, a pair of Asari-made Acolyte Pistols firmly gripped in his hands Garrus dipped behind cover and continued to scurry towards the Salarians, while Shepard joined Liara behind one of the few intact instrument panels. Each of the pistols launched a small warp charge, and Shepard felt his biotic powers begin to ebb away as the charge drained biotic energy from the vicinity, culminating in a massive explosion of power that sent tremors through the panel they hid behind. They could only delay this for so long, and Shepard waited for a brief lull in the fighting before drawing his Predator VII pistol and emptying his magazine at a quickly-advancing Saren.

The rogue Spectre made no move to evade the shots, and Shepard watched as the rounds bounced harmlessly off of Saren's biotic barrier. Turians with biotic tendencies were rare, their secretive Cabal units a virtually unknown quantity even to Salarian intelligence, but Saren's powers were clearly augmented and frighteningly potent.

"Well done Shepard," the Turian called to him as he futilely lowered his pistol, "my troops were utterly convinced that the Salarians were the main point of attack; they never saw you coming. I must say, I'm impressed." He holstered both of his Acolyte pistols, pausing to throw a biotic attack against the bulkhead the Salarian commandos were now clustered behind. "Of course, it was all for nothing. I can't let you disrupt what I've accomplished here. You can't possibly understand what's really at stake."

"You bastard," Shepard spat as he holstered his own, "you betrayed Nihlus, you slaughtered the colonists on Eden Prime, you nearly unleashed the goddamn Rachni on the galaxy, and you made a deal with the devil that nearly resulted in an entire colony being destroyed! And then you joined the Reapers, just to go on your own bloody power-trip!"

"You've seen the visions from the Beacons, Shepard. You, of all people should understand what the Reapers are capable of. They cannot be stopped! Do not mire yourself in this pointless revolt. Do not sacrifice everything for the sake of petty freedoms. The Protheans chose to stand and fight, and they were utterly destroyed." Saren walked towards Shepard, projecting calm and reason in his entire stance, "trillions dead. But what if they had bowed before the invaders? Would the Protheans still exist? Is submission not preferable to extinction?"

It sounded ridiculous, the very notion that a hypermachine race dedicated to wiping out organic life would even bother to offer negotiations. "Submission under those…things…I'd rather die a thousand times."

Saren shook his head in disappointment, "now you see why I never came forward with this to the Council. Organics are too…emotional, driven by feeling instead of logic. We will fight even when we know we cannot win – it's an idea that is ingrained in everything I was taught by the Hierarchy." He shot his right hand forward, seeming almost desperate to convince Shepard of the righteousness of his cause, "but if we work with the Reapers – if we make ourselves useful to them – think of how many lives could be spared!" He walked past one of the Salarians that was struggling to get up, and coldly delivered a powerful biotic blow to his skull, breaking it in an instant. "Once I understood this, I joined Sovereign, though I was aware of the…dangers…from the start. I had hoped that this facility would protect me."

"You're afraid that Sovereign is influencing you," Shepard observed, "you worry that it's controlling your thoughts, just like it controlled Benezia's."

"Contrary to what the Salarians might think, the primary purpose of this facility was not to cure the Genophage – it was to study the effects of the Indoctrination that Sovereign exerts over its subjects. The more control Sovereign exerts, the less capable the subject becomes," Shepard felt a chill run down his spine as he thought back to the Salarian who had vainly tried to claw his way out of the captive pen, his eyes an electric blue from the force of Sovereign's will, "and this…is my saving grace. Sovereign needs me to find the Conduit, and my mind is still my own…for now. But the transformation from ally to servant can be subtle. I will not let it happen to me."

His bravado rang hollow against the balance of the evidence – Saren's actions didn't speak of someone who was cogent or cogniscent of what they were doing. "Sovereign's manipulating you and you don't even know it. You're already under its control!"

"No," Saren shouted back, a hint of desperation in his flanged voice, "Sovereign needs me. If I find the Conduit, I've been promised a reprieve from the inevitable. This is my only hope."

"It's not inevitable. You can still fight Sovereign, we can still stop the Reapers!"

"I…I no longer believe that Shepard," there was a hint of regret and sorrow in his voice, as if this was a path that he did not want to walk, yet felt compelled to, "the Reapers cannot be stopped. Sovereign is a machine, it thinks like a machine. If I can prove my value, I become a resource worth maintaining – organics become a resource worth maintaining. There is no other logical conclusion. I'm not doing this for myself – my way is the only way that any of us survive the coming apocalypse. I'm forging an alliance between us and the Reapers, and by doing so I will save more organic lives than have ever existed!" He regarded Shepard coldly, flaring his biotics in warning, "but you would undo my work – you would doom our civilizations to total annihilation. And for that, you must die."

Saren charged Shepard with incredible speed, faster than he thought a Turian could move with that heavy of armour on. The first blow caught him squarely in the jaw, throwing him back against the instrument panel. He rolled sideways to narrowly avoid the second blow, which shredded the panel into fine durasteel dust. He managed to bring his booted foot around to make contact with Saren's side, giving him time to recover his balance. The two battled across the room, locked in an epic melee of biotic blows. Shepard eventually managed to gain a hold on Saren's shoulder, raining down a series of punches on his upper body and driving him back towards the edge of the control room's floor. At the last moment the Turian twisted with unnatural speed, landing a blow on Shepard's face and stunning him backwards. He recovered quickly, swinging his left foot in an arced circle that tripped Saren to the ground. As he made to land a killing blow on Saren's face, the Turian kicked upwards violently, propelling Shepard violently into the ceiling, and he landed with a crash of steel and bones on the other side of several instrument panels.

Both drew their sidearms, and in moments they were cycling around the room, pacing twenty feet apart from each other and firing volley after volley of bullets between them. Liara tossed Shepard her pistol, and both threw themselves behind cover as Saren fire several of the warp charges from his Acolyte pistols in their direction. Shepard rolled out of cover and fired a stream of shots at Saren, but the Turian was too quick and evaded him once again. He tried to follow his target but quickly lost sight of him amidst the maze of computers and instruments.

Saren found him before he could locate the Turian, and the gloved hand that clasped around the back of his neck violently told him that he had made a fatal error of judgement – he had allowed Saren to get behind him. The rogue Spectre lifted him bodily in the air, his strength overwhelming as Shepard struggled against his grip. Saren carried him to the very edge of the control room's floor, lifting him high in the air in a display of triumph. He could see stars in his vision as the flow of oxygen was starved from his body. He couldn't last long against this.

Shepard saw a moment of hope as the evacuation sirens grabbed Saren's attention. The facility was in full lockdown and evac as what little remained of central control realized the presence of the bomb. Saren's moment of hesitation was exactly what Shepard needed. He brought his clenched fist firmly into contact with Saren's face and bruised his knuckles as the Turian recoiled in pain, dropping him to the floor. His head reeling from the bursts of air flowing through his body, Shepard turned to get a shot off at Saren, yet only saw the last glimpse of his boot as he stepped back onto his hovercraft and propelled himself skyward.

He saw the Normandy descend towards the control tower, and he faintly heard Joker's voice over the comms, but his fury at letting Saren get away drowned out his surroundings He was slightly aware of his shouted appeals to withdraw to Kirrahe and the Salarians, of Garrus and Liara dragging Kaidan bodily towards the Normandy's cargo door, and of the deafening silence as the hatch closed around them, the surviving Salarians on board.

"Joker, get us the hell out of here, as far away from this planet as you can."

Ashley saw Lee fall to the ground, his shields pierced by the barrage of Geth weapons fire that was pouring towards them. Her own shields had overloaded close to a minute ago, and her armour was barely holding on under the strain of the onslaught. They'd succeeded thus far in their objective – the Geth had yet to get close to the bomb, and as long as Shepard managed to evac the Salarians and Ash, they wouldn't be able to disarm it.

She felt a sharp pain in her side as the first shot from the pulse rifle punched through her armour and struck her in the stomach. She spun his assault rifle in the direction of the attacker and dispatched it with a hint of satisfaction. She downed another, and another, then another with another burst, yet still more of them came. She felt more shots rip through her body, drawing blood at her chest and shoulder. Pain began to overwhelm her, her shots slowed in their frequency as bullet after bullet tore through the armour. Her knee gave out as a shot passed through it, and she crawled and limped to the rear of the bob to find cover from the Geth.

She was about to give into the pain when he heard the reassuring roar of the Normandy's engines scream overhead, as the frigate raced across the sunlit sky. The force of the engines kicked up dust and wind around the bomb, throwing several of the Geth back and into the far wall. She heard the last of the chatter in his ear that told her that Kaidan and the Salarians were aboard; she smiled to himself, knowing that her comrades were safe.

She only had four shots left in her assault rifle before it would overheat beyond the point of repair, so she had to make them count. She pinpointed the first into one of the large tanks of volatile fuel chemicals near the back of the landing pad, touching off several heavy Geth units in a colossal fireball that swept through the courtyard. The second caught a Geth Shock Trooper in the face-plate, and the third shot out the leg of a Geth Juggernaut that had been advancing on her.

The next shot cut through her gun-hand and shredded her omnitool to scrap metal, rendering both the last of her weapons useless. Another tore through her stomach, spilling blood across the upper dome of the armed drive core. Her strength failing her, she mustered every last bit of willpower he had to bring her hand down on the pad that triggered the overload sequence.

"Warning: Core overload imminent. Estimated detonation in twenty seconds."

She watched in the reflection of the water as the Normandy disappeared from his view, and he suddenly felt a gut-wrenching fear in her bones. She knew she would die here – she had known since the moment the first of the Geth began to deploy on the landing pad, yet she still found himself gripped in terror. Frozen in fear, she turned for comfort to the most basic instinct of humanity, one that had been with them since the dawning of civilization.

"Lord, you have searched me out and known me," she intoned the words almost silently as his hands gripped tighter and tighter against the metallic frame of the bomb, "you know my sitting down and my rising up," the beeps of the timer, ever-increasing in frequency, filtered themselves out of his head, "you discern my thoughts from afar."

Shepard watched through the lone porthole of the Normandy, his face a mask of calm as he watched Virmire's surface disappear, waiting for the inevitable.

"Indeed, there is not a word on my lips but you know it altogether," the fear began to subside, a sense of peace overtook her as the tracers flying over her head were reduced to mere chatter, "you press upon me behind and before, and lay your hand upon me," she brought her limp and bloodied hand to her forehead, then her abdomen, and then across her chest from left to right. She could die here, confident that she had succeeded in her mission, "where can I go then from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I climb up to Heaven you are there; if I make the grave my bed you are there also. If I take the wings of morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me. Your right hand will-,"

A blinding light and a searing heat filled her vision for an instant, the force of a thousand suns burning against her, and then all was dark and silent.

Captain's Cabin – SSV Normandy, Century Omega Cluster – one hour later

Shepard stared into the void as the Normandy raced towards the Mass Relay out of the Century Omega Cluster. He had watched as the massive fireball consumed the entire island chain on Virmire, enveloping everything in its path and wiping all traces of life from the area. Ashley had died instantly, of that much he was certain.

It was not a decision he had enjoyed making; it wasn't one that any commander would wish upon his greatest rival in a thousand years. Even now, Shepard's emotions reeled at the loss of one of his crewmembers – a fellow Marine, a fellow soldier, and a sympathetic, ambitious soul who had brought such a lively intensity to her duties, which she performed with excellence. She was now the fourteenth Marine lost under Shepard's command, and the second of his dog-tags already bore the etched marks of a combat knife in their reverse side. He would carry them for the rest of his life, a reminder of the sacrifice that Ashley and her four fellow marines had made.

Kaidan had been beside himself as they dragged him back onto the Normandy and Joker began the evacuation protocols. Shepard had expected it to take a long time to calm him, yet before the blast had even occurred he was seated in the medical bay in complete silence, simply staring ahead with a glazed over stare that Shepard had seen on himself so many times before. His mood had carried over to the rest of the Alliance crew, most of whome had subsided into a mournful silence; several had created a small memorial wall behind the Galaxy Map – a small memento to those who had served beside them, and a promise that they would not be forgotten.

Shepard found himself trembling, but with very different emotions and for very different reasons. The shock of the realization that Sovereign was an actual Reaper, the revealing of its intentions and of the origin of the Mass Relays – it was almost too much to bear. His entire conception of what they were fighting for, what their mission was, and their priorities seemed to have been turned on its head. Saren was not the enemy – he was merely another puppet in Sovereign's ruthless quest for the annihilation of organic life. Even now, he could still hear Sovereign's voice ringing through his head, its dark and omniscient tendrils touching at the fabric of his mind and seeking to turn it, to control it and bend it to its will. The feeling sent shudder up his spine. How did you fight something like that?

As insightful as the new information they had received from the Beacon, Sovereign and Saren was, it still didn't put him much closer to understanding what the Conduit was; the vision was clearer, more complete, but it still presumed a great deal of knowledge on the part of the viewer that Shepard simply didn't have – couldn't have. The lights were gradually growing brighter, but they were still very much fumbling in the dark.

The sound of his cabin door sliding open interrupted his thoughts as Liara entered the room on padded feet. She bore the same look of concern that had dotted the faces of the entire crew for the last hour, unsure of how Shepard would react to the death of five of his subordinates. Shepard turned to face her as she entered the room.

"Is there something you wanted to see me about, Shepard?" Her voice was hopeful, enthused and prodding.

He nodded, and her face lit up, "strictly business though," that brought a slight droop to her face, but it was quickly replaced by a professional enthusiasm. "The Beacon completed the vision, made it far clearer than it was before, but you know the Protheans better than I do. I'd like to link minds with you again, see if you can fill in the blanks on the details."

Liara didn't answer, but simply put her hand on his cheek, drawing him close until his eyes were locked with hers. He could feel the electricity and warmth on her fingers as they pulsed against his skin, and his own heartrate accelerated at their proximity. She closed her eyes, inhaling slowly as they both relaxed their minds in preparation for the attunement. "Shepard, embrace eternity!"

For the second time, he felt the world around him melt away as his senses became fixed solely on the fiery images of the Beacon. He could sense Liara's shock at their clarity, and he subconsciously moved to take her free hand in hers. He felt her mind and body relax in his sure grip, and she concentrated fully on the vision in front of her. The images flew by rapidly, as she examined and intook them with ease. He felt her draw in a breath as the vision reached its apocalyptic conclusion, a single orb of fire and rock in the midst of the void, then a system of five planets hidden from the world. Where only the Electors of Pangea dared to walk, you will find salvation. The words rang through his mind, over and over again, filling him with a mix of hope and dread. At last they stood before Sovereign, its steel-carbon tentacles outstretched in preparation for the unleashing of its wrath against the Protheans.

The linking of their minds ended sharply, and the world pulled back into focus with a slight shock to the head. His cabin swam before him in his vision, and he was only faintly aware of Liara across from him, her eyes still shut in concentration.

They burst open in a flash, a spark of life and intensity playing into them as a single name escaped her throat. "Ilos!" She took a moment to reacclimatize to her surroundings, then stared directly into his eyes, "the Conduit is on Ilos!"

"Ilos? I think you mentioned it to me before."

"It was a Prothean planet near the edge of the Galactic Core. It's unique in that not a single firsthand record or account of the planet survives – it's only mentioned in secondary sources, and even then it's sparse and rare for Ilos to be mentioned."

"Is that what's through the Mu Relay?"

"It must be. The exact path to Ilos was lost millennia ago – every century or so an Asari university's archaeology department would investigate the possibility of an FTL voyage to Ilos, but it was always deemed too impractical. The Mu Relay must lead through – it's the only explanation as to why Saren would have been so obsessed with its location. Shepard, we need to get to Ilos as quickly as possible; Saren may already be there!"

Shepard shook his head, "If Ilos really is the location of the Conduit, Saren will be there with the full might of Sovereign and the Geth fleet; we'd be slaughtered. I'm taking this to the Council – we need the might of the Hierarchy, the Union and the Republics behind us if we're going to pull this off."

He looked at her a moment longer, and part of him wanted to take her in his arms again, to feel her embrace against his, but both of them were so single-mindedly focused on the mission itself that the impulse was quickly buried beneath his burning desire to put an end to this threat. Liara clearly felt the same, for she quickly left his cabin, calling back in her hypnotic voice that if he needed her, she'd be in the lab analyzing the latest Prothean data they had retrieved.

Shepard quickly went to his terminal, hammering out a stark and vivid report to the Council on the nature of the situation, noting in particular the sacrifices of both the Salarians and his own Marines, the true nature of the threat posed by Saren and Sovereign, and the new information they had gained on both the Protheans and Sovereign itself.

The reply came over the most heavily encrypted channels open to the Council, and was as diplomatic and decisive as it was cryptic.

Commander John C. Shepard, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, SSV Normandy

You are hereby ordered to return at once to the Citadel on board the SSV Normandy. Beta Platoon under Captain Kirrahe will disembark for a full briefing of Union Special Tasks Command, and is hereby awarded the Silver Dagger on the recommendation of Councillor Valern.

You are also authorized for a Priority One meeting with the members of the Citadel Councillor, as well as Ambassador D. Udina of the Human Systems Alliance, to be attended at the nearest possible convenience.

Time is of the essence.

Councillor Tevos of the Asari Republics

Councillor Valern of the Salarian Union

Councillor Sparatus of the Turian Hierarchy

Joker seemed to have received the exact same message, and Shepard was thrown against the bulkhead of his cabin as the Normandy pulled a hairpin turn that shuddered the crossbeams of armour that held the ship together. The FTL burst caught him equally by surprise, sending him sprawling back onto his bed, butterflies roaring through his stomach.

"I can have you at the nearest Relay inside of twenty minutes Commander. We'll be at the Citadel in two hours; I hope they're ready for you."

So did he, and he prayed that they took the threat as seriously as he did, that they listened to reason, to evidence, and that – for once – someone in a position of power would listen to him.

Or the sun would set on the races of the galaxy for the last time.