Eric POV
I sat in my cabin, doing nothing other than stare at the wall. It seemed to be the only thing that wasn't making me sick with myself. My actions on Ilos were disturbing and unforgivable. Even if it was the only option to keep the galaxy free, it doesn't make alleviating the guilt any easier.
When we arrived, Cerberus had torn the planet to pieces trying to find the Ilos. All they knew was that it was on this specific country. But that meant that meant they had 10 million square miles to cover, with gave me time.
Joker had to do some insane drop off where the MAKO only had about couple hundred meters to land. Once we got there we immediately encountered resistance from Cerberus. Since all hands were on deck for the mission, I would have thought it would be less work to take everyone down. I didn't count on Cerberus having all hands on deck also.
The LZ was crawling with Cerberus and every time one died, another 3 took his place. After I realised that we were hopelessly outnumbered I led a charge into the old Prothean facility. Once everyone was inside, Rael locked the doors behind us.
There were 3 Cerberus ATV's in the tunnel so I hopped into one with Hannah and Kieran, then drove straight down the tunnel since that was the only option available and we prayed that it would lead us somewhere useful instead of the bottom of an active volcano.
After driving for about 10 minutes of driving, a barrier appeared in front of us. Wrex tried to shoot his way through, but nothing seemed to work. There was a door open on the side of the path so we walked through it. Little did I know that, that was a moment that would have huge repercussions.
There was a Prothean VI in the room we entered. It appeared to be ancient, just like everything else on the planet. From the looks of things a combination of nature and time has taken its toll on the circuitry.
It explained to us what happened to the Protheans. It spoke of a weapon that was built on the Citadel called the Catalyst. It was the Protheans last desperate attempt to beat the Reapers and it worked. After its use all Reapers were dead, however there were too few Protheans left to build a viable population on the citadel.
In order to build this weapon the Protheans needed the Leviathan's schematics and knowledge. In exchange, the Protheans were meant to outfit them with technology that would have allowed them to get out of the sea. But the Protheans never had any intentions of doing that. They knew the Leviathan would enslave them.
According to the VI there were 200 lifepods still functional, which meant that there were 200 Protheans still alive in these ruins. There was still hope for the species to survive into this cycle. I know Benezia is going to be over the moon about hearing this.
Apparently the Leviathan was almost as terrible as the Reapers and there were more around the galaxy. If it managed to get onto the Citadel then it would take over the galaxy.
After hearing that, it was pretty clear that Leviathan was the biggest problem and we needed to deal with it if we wanted to survive in the galaxy.
We all raced to the ATV's and the barrier curtain had been dropped. We drove for about a kilometre down the tunnel before encountering more Cerberus resistance.
This time it was purely MECHs and dropships. That much artillery against a couple of ATV's led to a very short fight. We all had to evacuate to save ourselves. The shields were shot out immediately and there was a huge hole on the top were the turret used to be.
Surprisingly, the Cerberus troopers didn't kill us on the spot. Instead they opted to capture us. We were flown up to Minutemen Station. I was taken to one of the bases offices, whereas everyone else with the exception of Rylee were taken to the holding cells. Rylee was taken to an interrogation chamber.
They took me to meet The Illusive Man. I wasn't face to face with him; he was on the holo projector bragging about how Cerberus was now on the cusp of greatness. But he wasn't the person I was there to speak to.
Right at that moment, Leviathan rose out of the ocean and appeared on the screen in front of me. It was everything that I had feared and more. It easily dwarfed any Alliance Dreadnaught and even the Ascension. The worst part being that this was an organic living thing.
It reprimanded me for being a nuisance to it and constantly interfering with its plans. It wanted to restore its people to the apex of the galaxy and enslave others. It wanted to use me as its poster boy to try and get the galaxy on its side, and if that failed then it would use me for cannon fodder.
I told it to go to hell and that I'd sent it there. Leviathan had a few more preparations to make before going through the conduit itself. But I still had no idea what the conduit was.
I was then surprised when the sound of gunfire and rockets erupted from outside. That commotion was enough to distract my guards for a second. So I got up from my seat and kicked him in the nuts and head-butted the other one.
I grabbed their weapons and ran out of the room, determined to find my squad. When I arrived at the source of the commotion, it was the very last person I could have thought of.
Joker was inside one of their MECHs and he was raising hell. I swear to god he honestly said 'IT'S JOKING TIME'. He had used one of the Cerberus shuttles we had taken on Tuchanka and flew it into the base. The problem was that Cerberus was now trying to invade the Normandy.
With his help I managed to find the holding cells where everyone was present with the exception of Rylee. The Illusive Man told me that Cerberus had fixed the Conduit and troops were already invading the Citadel. So I'm guessing it's sort of like a mass relay. But I neglected to tell the crew about that.
I divided the squad into two. Wrex, Mordin, Titus, Aleena, Samara, Legion, Zaeed and Rael were all going to the Normandy, since I knew that was going to be the harder task so I sent more people. We all headed to the armoury in the next room where our weapons were being held and moved out.
Hannah, Joker, Kieran and I were going to go find Rylee and find a way to stop Leviathan. We fought through Cerberus to find the interrogation room. Thankfully, they hadn't started yet and Rylee was just tied to a chair. We gave her, her weapons and looked for the control centre.
TIM was there and he showed no fear. Only the same arrogance he'd always exuded. Every combat personnel on the base was dead, so there was no way he was escaping us.
He bragged about his victory. Leviathan had finished its preparations and it was now speeding towards the conduit. If it gets on the Citadel then it's all over. I could not allow that to happen.
Another Prothean VI appeared before me.
It explained that the Conduit was a mass relay built by the protheans to get to the Citadel. Cerberus was trying to use the Leviathan's knowledge of the conduit to try and take the Citadel. The conduit was created so it could only be used once. This would prevent the Reapers from using it against them. Cerberus had been on the planet for weeks trying to fix the Leviathan so it could get out of the sea.
The VI then showed the schematics for the Conduit.
I had to destroy the Leviathan. I had EDI hack this stations defence systems and I ordered an air strike on Leviathan, but I was moving too fast and it's technology prevented anything from locking on to it.
That meant I had to destroy the conduit. EDI warned me that destroying something with that much energy could potentially destroy a significant part of the planet. It would certainly destroy the Prothean VI and the last surviving Protheans.
I knew I didn't have time to think so I immediately opted to destroy the conduit. The explosion could be seen even from outer space. It covered a significant part of that planet. Hell I'd say it blew up a 10th of it.
I ordered Hannah to take the VI and give it to the Council. It probably had vital information about the Protheans.
We were days away from the Citadel so there was little we could do to help the fight over there, but we still tried to get there. I still had to try, so I called Executor Chelick. He informed me that there were only a few Cerberus combatants on the Citadel, enough to cause a problem but not enough for C-Sec to be in any real trouble.
Right now I'm in my cabin with Hannah hugging me from behind. She was trying to reassure that I had done the right thing. I found it hard to believe her. The reapers didn't murder the protheans, I did. I killed the last of the protheans and doomed them to extinction. It was hard to look at the situation in any other light.
Kieran, Rylee, Hannah and I all agreed to never tell anyone about what happened. I don't think they need to know about that. Benezia will probably figure out what happened since she saw it from the Normandy, I'll have to tell her not to tell anyone either.
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Nate POV
Now it all makes sense why Cerberus invaded the Citadel Archives. They didn't just need the Leviathan technology for indoctrination. They needed the Prothean VI for its schematics on how to build the Conduit, and whatever technological knowledge it possessed.
"You're father killed the last of my people" Javik seethed
"I know Javik…but we both know he didn't have a choice"
"Yes I know that" he lamented "That doesn't mean I have to be happy about it."
"We now know what the conduit is. That explains how Cerberus was able to spread around the Citadel so quickly. Now we have a backdoor to the Citadel."
"We know where Ilos is, let's inform the Admiral and we can attack"
"No we can't attack"
"Why not?"
"Do you know where the Conduit is?" I asked. His silence was all the answer I needed. "Even though my dad blew a lot of it up, Ilos is still a planet. Cerberus probably has a sleet guarding it so we can't scan it from space. And actually searching for it would take weeks. And during that search, Cerberus would have sent an army to take us out."
"So what have we accomplished?"
"A lot. Now we know that Ilos is our ace in the hole. Cerberus doesn't know that we know about Ilos. I mean look, the only people who knew about the Conduit were my mum, dad, Rylee, Kieran and Benezia. Three of them are dead and the other two are trapped on the Citadel with no means of communicating with us. They'd never expect us to go for Ilos."
"You've thought this through very quickly. Your fathers abilities are slowly being transferred to you. You're starting to develop his tactical mind."
I ignored his comparison to my father and continued "I'm going to need Rylee to find some more information on Ilos. We'll only get one chance at this so it needs to be perfect. I refuse to go into Ilos blind."
I scanned the room and I noticed that there was a holo projector that had my name on it. There was another one with Rylee's name and another with my mums. I'm guessing they're going to be DNA locked too so I'll reach for mine.
The holo projected my father. He was wearing his revered N7 armour and looked as though he was about to leave on a mission.
"Hello, Nate." He said as though they were in the same room.
He chuckled lightly before saying, "Relax I'm not psychic. This message is key locked onto your DNA. There's one for your mother and sister too. But that's beside the point."
He cleared his throat before continuing. "If you're seeing this then more likely than not, I'm dead. I'm not entirely sure how you're going to feel about that. I understand your anger with me. I wasn't there for you as often as I should have been, but that was the nature of this job. I know it might seem like I don't care, but never doubt that I love you Nate and I want you to be happy. My deepest regret is that I'll die without making things right by you."
"Since I'm gone Nate, that means you're now the man of the house. I need you to be strong for your mother and sister. You're mum loves you very much and never doubt that whatever she does, is always I for you and Rylee. I also need you to be there for Rylee, she's going to look to you for guidance and support and you need to lead her down a good path."
"I love you, son. If you take nothing from this message, please take that. Good-bye"
I put the holo down and fell onto his bed. I looked up at the screen and I saw something. In the reflection from the glass I noticed a stack of drawings and miscellaneous crap. I looked into it.
Inside were the drawings and arts and crafts projects I used to send to my dad when I was a kid. Pictures of us and holos we made together. He kept all of it by his bed.
He actually cared about me. I always knew that on the surface but deep down I always felt that I was an unwanted son. He always missed my birthday but was always there for Rylee's, he was never there during my childhood and whenever he was home he was busy liaising with the Council and the Alliance. But he regretted it all.
Now my biggest regret is that we never mended our relationship. Dammit dad.
"Let's get out of here" I urged before storming out of the room.
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April 17th 2190
Immediately after discovering the Conduit, Javik and I told our old instructors. They were again shocked with the amount of information we discovered. Even they didn't know about the Conduit as I suspected. We immediately took the information to Admiral Hackett, he was sceptical at first, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
I told him about my idea to get one of the girls infiltrating Cerberus on to Ilos so we have an idea about what we're dealing with. The Admiral was impressed with my determination and ability to find this information. That was when I told him that I was going to be a part of the fight. I didn't care about any medical opinion or regulation and protocol. I was going to prepare and I was going to fight on the Citadel.
He didn't openly agree with what I said, but I could tell he supported me.
So I've been taking part in the Legendary Alliance N training. I only just completed N1 and it was easily the hardest thing I've had to do in my life. 20 hours of training with little food or sleep took its toll. We'll be starting N2 training soon, there's no way I can become an N7 before we re-take the Citadel. That would take 3 years at least. But if David, my mum, my dad and Kaidan's dad could do it, then I can do it too.
Speaking of Kaidan's dad. I've discovered something very interesting about Kieran Alenko. It's more shocking than anything else and it made me want to save him even more when all of this was done. The only thing is I don't know how Kaidan will react.
"Kaidan"
"What are you doing Nate? We start N2 in 3 days, I need my sleep before going through that again."
What surprised me about this whole N training was that they were allowing aliens to do it too. Garrus, Thane, Javik, Aria and Liara did the N1 training. Only Garrus, Javik and Aria are continuing to N2. Thane said this training was merely conditioning training, he preferred the Hanar's training methods, so he continued his own routine. But if his routine got him fighting the way he does, then he might not need this training. Liara was called to help research Prothean technology and help weapons development with Tali.
I've been worried about Thane lately because of Rylee leaving
"There's something you need to know and I don't know how you'll react."
"If you woke me up to tell me a joke then I will kick your ass" he threatened whilst sitting up.
"Jack's your sister"
"What Jack?"
"My Jack… my girlfriend Jack"
He wiped his eyes and he was now fully awake. "Explain" he demanded.
"Javik and I were going through the ship looking for more memories that could help. He showed me a conversation that her mum had with my mum."
"Show me"
Javik was already awake so he did the honours.
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Rylee Leigh POV
December 2172
Hannah has been real happy with Eric the past couple of years. The start was a little rocky considering we had to help him through what happened on Ilos, but it's been smooth sailing from then. Well as smooth as it can get for those two.
They got married a couple of years later and even had a kid. It turned out to be a boy and they actually listened to me and called him Nate. He's the cutest little boy ever and he had Rylee's eyes. And to make things even better for the happy couple she was 3 months pregnant with another child.
This is why I'm here with Hannah, Eric and little Nate. He was walking around the room looking for his father. They were playing hide and seek. "I didn't think that Eric could ever have a cute baby, but Nate is so adorable." I cooed
"I'll take most of the credit for that. And trust me he is far from an angel. He's always running around the place, breaking plates and hurting himself." She smiled lovingly whilst picking up her son.
"Mum… I …want… Ryle" he said.
"You want Rylee to hold you?" Hannah asked and Nate nodded.
She handed him over to me and he grinned. "Did he just give up on finding me?" Eric hollered from his hiding place.
"No he didn't, daddy should just stay there forever" I called out. "Shouldn't he?" I cooed at Nate and he nodded and smiled.
Eric got up and sat next to me. "So what's the big news you were so eager to tell us?"
"I'm pregnant"
That caused Eric to fall out of his seat and his son to applaud. "Rylee… are you being serious?"
"Yep, I tested myself… 10 times, all positive. That plus the morning sickness, horniness and my violent mood swings all gave me a hint"
"What's new about the violent mood swings, you've used me as a punching bag for the past 6 years"
"That's when you were being an ass and being blind to my best friend"
"Do you know who the father is? Please tell me it's not that jackass Wade" Hannah inquired.
"God no… I broke up with him almost a year ago and I'm 3 months along" I defended myself.
Hannah's face brightened up at the news "I'm three months along too. That means our kids could be born on the same day." She chirped
"How awesome would that be" I smiled
"Who's the father?" Eric asked, trying to get us back on track.
"Yeah, and I'm not sure how you two are gonna react to this"
"As long as it's not Eric we should be fine." Hannah glared at us.
"No- no not him..." I waved away immediately. "It's… Kieran"
"Kieran Alenko" Eric repeated.
"Yeah…"
"I thought Kieran already had a son with his girlfriend." Hannah interjected.
"They broke up a 8 months ago. I got with him a couple of months back. We agreed it wouldn't work so it ended pretty quickly. He wanted to be around Kaidan all the time; he didn't want to be a part time dad, so he's trying to patch things up with his ex. But we still had enough time to make a baby."
"Are you sure it's his?" Eric asked.
"Of course I'm sure. I wouldn't be telling you otherwise. Besides… he's the only guy I've been with"
"Does Kieran know?"
"No and I'm not going to tell him. I don't want to complicate his life any more than I already have" I confessed.
Hannah and Eric frowned whilst they looked at me. "You were in love with him, weren't you?" Eric guessed.
"What are you talking about?" I retorted.
"You're venturing into dangerous territory, love" Hannah warned her husband
"OK I'll drop it" Eric complied
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Nate POV
When he snapped out of the memory he sat down on the bed in shock. I don't think his parents told him that they broke up after he was born. And I know for a fact that his dad never told him about having another kid.
"Wow… at least you weren't wasting my time" Kaidan sighed
"How are you feeling?" I asked
"I don't really know right now… finding out that I have a half-sister isn't something that happens every day."
"Do you think your dad knows?"
"I don't know; he probably wouldn't have told me even if he did. Besides, the only people who know who Jack's mother is are your mom, Jack, you, Rylee, Garrus and me"
"I think my dad probably would have told your dad at some point"
"I've noticed that you're talking about your dad a lot more lately. Did something happen?"
"Yeah, I found a holo he left for me. He said he wished that we could have sorted things out before he died and that he wanted me to be happy."
"According to EDI it was recorded the day he died, so he probably knew he was on a suicide mission. I'm guessing he sacrificed himself for his squad."
"I'm sorry Nate."
"It's alright Kaidan. At least now I know exactly what kind of man my dad was now. I know what kind of leader he was, and according to Javik, some of his mind bled into mine. I've learned from my father one last time and I will make him proud to call me his son"
"Good, we're gonna need everyone at their best. Now let's go to sleep and rest before N2 starts." Kaidan suggested
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October 10th 2190
Location: Pangaea Expanse, Refuge System
This is the day we've been waiting for, for over a year now. Today was the day that we reclaimed the Citadel. The plan was in place. We were positioned at the edge of the system. When Joker receives the signal we'll rush toward Ilos with FTL.
The plan is in place. And it's going to be initiated when Rylee sends us the signal.
The main problem behind this plan is the timing, it has to be perfect. The Illusive Man demands hourly reports from Cronos station while he's gone so he can stay on top of things. If the reports don't come in, teams are sent to investigate ASAP. The great part is that Ilos' reports are relayed through Cronos station. So we need to take that over first.
Thane practically jumped at the chance to be with Rylee again, so he volunteered to go along with Liara, Tali, Javik, Samara, Zaeed and an Alliance black ops unit, to be a part of the team that takes the station.
They were going to fly to Cronos Station in the Cerberus shuttles which the Alliance had built, along with the security codes that Kasumi had provided. Once docked they would wait for Rylee and Rikki to open them and the invasion would begin.
Rylee has to wait for the exact moment that the report is delivered and then place the virus that Sam created in the system. This will prevent the red alert from being sent out and The Illusive Man from becoming suspicious. Once that happens and she's opened the shuttles, they will have 55 minutes at max to take the station. If they have everything in control before the next report is due, then Rylee will send TIM a generic report every hour, on the hour. Then the ship will steam toward the Citadel.
Cronos station will take about 36 hours to get to the Citadel so the people fighting on Ilos have a lot more time. But we still have to work quickly. Once Cronos is taken, we rush to Ilos. Me, Garrus, Aria, Aleena, Kaidan and an entire black ops squad will invade. Thanks to Sam we have the location of the new Conduit that Cerberus has built.
Storm Ilos and rush to the Conduit. When we're through the Conduit we're on the Citadel. Then we'll find my mother and other resistance fighters. Once they're found we'll have to come up with a plan to open the Citadel arms to allow Cronos station, which by that time will be loaded with Alliance ships, into the Citadel and we fight and kill all Cerberus ops.
I just hope that no one kills Jen, Miranda, Jacob or Kelly before we figure out a way of severing Cerberus control over them.
HERE WE GO!