Thank God Garrus is back. I don't think I'd be able to get through this without him.
So, we jumped into the Alpien Crest, and as we were riding the shuttle down to Menae, Liara remarked on what she saw, and asked if the invasion of Earth had been this bad. It was worse, I said, because the Reapers caught humanity with our pants down. The turians also have one other advantage, because, except for the children, all turians have military training. Humanity, however, have the smallest percentage of people volunteering for military service in the galaxy.
Anyway, my team readied their weapons, and I took a moment to look at our loadouts; Vega had an Eviscerator shotgun and Harrier rifle, which I expected, since both are better than the basic Avenger and Katana that the Alliance gives us. Don't get me wrong, they're good quality weapons, but we're fighting Reapers now. However, Liara's loadout surprised me a little; she still had that Phalanx pistol she used on Mars, but instead of the Tempest SMG that I got for her, she was using a Kassa Locust. In fact, it was the other Kassa Locust that we found at Hock's estate, the one that I brought back to the Normandy and set aside. Apparently, Kasumi must have taken it when she left, and then given it to Liara.
As for my loadout, I took the three guns I got specifically for me; the Black Widow, the Wraith and the Paladin, and also took a Harrier as my assault rifle. All three have some real firepower, so all three will be useful in the battles to come.
Anyway, unlike Luna, Earth's moon, Menae had a breathable atmosphere, so we were able to open the door without putting on our helmets. I opened fire with the Harrier rifle on a couple of husks, to check out its impact, speed and stopping power. It is comparable to the Mattock, actually, but with the ability to go full auto.
After a couple of skirmishes with husks, we entered the turian base and met the general in charge, General Corinthus. I asked him where the Primarch, and he revealed some bad news; Fedorian is dead, and with their communications dish down, they couldn't contact Palaven to find out who was next in line. And of course, the dish was in Reaper controlled territory. So I took my people to the dish, fighting Reapers the whole way, and had Liara do some quick repairs. After those repairs were done, we helped Corinthus' men fend off the husks while Corinthus contacted turian command. Once he had a name for the new Primarch, we headed back.
Once we were there, Corinthus told me who was the new Primarch; Adrien Victus, and that if we wanted him, we needed to retrieve him. And it was that moment that a very familiar voice spoke. I turned around, and saw a very familiar face; a familiar scarred face. Garrus Vakarian was right there in front of me again.
And in that moment, I forgot that I was supposed to be Commander Shepard, and I was simply Ana; reuniting with the man I love after being apart for 6 months. I dove into his arms and held him tight, glad that he was alive and with me again.
Garrus too forgot who he was supposed to be, and wrapped his arms around me, and whispered "I am so glad to see you again." And God bless them, everyone around us just gave our moment; they understood what the Reapers could do to us at any time, and just gave us the heartfelt reunion that both of us needed.
Liara brought us back to reality by clearing her throat after what felt like an eternity in Garrus' embrace, but was likely only a few seconds, which reminded me that I was Commander Shepard now, not just Ana. I introduced Garrus to Vega, and we got caught up on our situations; Garrus had been promoted up the turian hierarchy, since he was the turians' Reaper expert, because, as I noticed, Corinthus had saluted him, and called him "sir".
Anyway, Garrus said that he knew where Victus was, and could get us there. I remarked that it was "just like old times", and Garrus smiled. However, before we could head out, we got notification that the flightline was being attacked, and that we needed to defend it if they were going to keep the Reapers off our asses while we retrieved the Primarch. Unfortunately, Liara had to go back to the Normandy, to check on some malfunctions; not many people on that ship right now, and Liara's got some technical skills. I also assume that she's got the schematics of the SR-2 as well, since, you know, Shadow Broker.
Anyway, Garrus, Vega and I headed out to the flightline, where we fight off some husks, and what are being called Marauders, which were turian husks. However, the turian husks are smarter; they don't just run toward us. They use guns, and are being used to lead teams of human husks and batarian husks, who we're calling Cannibals, due to their tendency to eat other Reapers troops to regain their strength.
We fought them off, and then had to return back into the base, where we had to defend the wall for a few moments to keep the Reapers from overwhelming the command center. I hopped into a turret, and mowed down husks while Garrus and Vega cleaned up any I missed. Of course, we got knocked off the wall by thing big Brute thing, which is best described as a krogan husk with a turian head on it. This seems to give the Brute the power of a korgan Reaper with the military knowhow of a turian. Regardless, I got to see how effective the Black Widow was in battle, since I managed to blow the turian head clean off, which unfortunately didn't kill it. No, that took two more body shots and Garrus, who used his Phaeston, which is basically the turian made version of the Avenger, and his custom Mantis he'd been using since his Archangel days, and Vega unloading their weapons into it. Apparently, this thing has krogan regeneration, which is a scary thought.
At that point, we had what we needed to clear the path to the Primarch. And that's when Vega started venting his frustrations about the politics inhibiting our efforts, as well as his lack of confidence in the summit. And I agree with him in part; asari and salarians aren't frontline fighters. I mean, the asari are built around sabotage and fast strikes, and the salarians like striking without forewarning. And neither strategy will be of any use against the Reapers. The only two Council races that can meet the Reapers head on are the turians, with their fleet and military training, and us, with our N7 marines.
He also brought something interesting, which shows that Vega is smarter than he plays himself off to be; bringing in krogan and batarians would help the war effort immensely. Unfortunately, Garrus and I had to remind him of the political situation; the batarians are all but extinct after the Reapers rolled their territory. Didn't help that a good chunk of their leadership being indoctrinated due to them fucking with a Reaper corpse, and essentially let the Reapers in. As for the krogan, not only do they lack a unified government to appeal to, but they're still sore over the genophage; particularly the turians and salarians. So we doubted they'd be willing to join the summit anyway. Which is actually a bit amusing, come to think of it now.
Anyway, we kept moving, kept fighting, until we got to Victus' base, which was overrun by husks, Cannibals and Marauders, and two of those Brute bastards. Fortunately, the turians had a heavy weapon lying around; a Blackstar. This thing's Reaper tech, thought thankfully, in the "Mass Relay" vein instead of the Object Rho vein in terms of indoctrinating capability. This thing is essentially a biotic gun, firing a singularity so tightly packed that it can rip anything apart at the molecular level. Not even Samara or Jack can create a singularity that powerful. And I managed to get both Brutes in its blast. They never stood a chance against that gun, and we were given plenty of time after to mop up the other Reaper troops.
We told Victus that he was the new Primarch, and saying he was incredulous to say the least. He pissed people off in the same way Garrus and I do, and I reminded him that we aren't going to beat the Reapers conventionally; we need his out of the box thinking and strategy. He took the opportunity to say goodbye to his men, and Garrus and I dropped our "leader masks" and spoke about our fears for a moment, and how we have no idea how we're going to beat the Reapers. I told him about the Crucible, and that it was so far our only shot at winning, but he was no more reassured by that fact than I am. We both know that getting what we need is going to be an incredible undertaking, with lots of roadblocks along the way.
At that point, Victus, now…I wouldn't say he was okay with his new job, but he had accepted it, said that we needed the krogan. I almost laughed at that point, given that Vega had said the exact same thing earlier, but I was also concerned; most krogan aren't like Wrex and Grunt. They don't work well with other species that they can't boss around. And that's when it hit me; Wrex. Wrex's clan was, when I last spoke to him, the strongest clan, and he'd be leading their war effort, so he'd be the one that Victus would be contacting. This alleviated some of my concern, but also raised another; Wrex WILL want a cure of the genophage. I just hope Mordin's alive, so he can speak about the benefits of a united krogan, because it'll be hell to get the salarians on board with this without him.
We waited for Cortez to return with the shuttle after he took Liara back to the Normandy, and Garrus said that he's coming with me on the Normandy. I said, in no uncertain terms, that I was glad that he was coming, that I can't do this without him.
Once on the Normandy, Victus sent out notifications to the Salarian Union and the Asari Republics about the summig. Unfortunately, the asari decided to bow out of the summit with the mention of the krogan, and due to the way their government is run, I had to attempt to convince Councilor Tevos to change her mind. You see, unlike the Alliance, which has a republic form of government, and the Salarian Union, which has a form of matriarchal dynasty thing, the asari, despite the name of their government, have a direct democracy. So they have no singular leader to represent them expect for their Councilor. And since Tevos is technically one of my bosses, I had to play nice and ask for her help, instead of make demands.
After she cut me off, Hackett called, and I told him what was going on; the asari refused to be part of the summit, because we were expecting Wrex to join us. Hackett, while knowing that Wrex was my friend, knew that the summit was NOT going to go well, and just asked me to keep the peace while they were on my ship. Which I actually find funny; I'm being force to be a solider AND diplomat, when Anderson said, just before speaking to the ADC, that he didn't need me to be either.
I talked with Victus a bit, and we both confided our fears and frustrations in each other. We're a lot alike in a lot of ways, and we're both dealing with the same burden; being a leader and a politician in a war we can't win. And as we parted ways for now, he mentioned that Garrus went down to the gun battery, which got me smiling. That gun battery is his baby after all; he maintained it, and he got us that Thanix Cannon that saved us during the Collector Base assault.
On my way down, I noticed some temporary power losses, and was told that EDI went offline. I ran down to the AI core, and found a couple of servicemen with fire extinguishers and breathers. We opened the door to the AI core, and I asked for a status update from EDI. And she stepped forward in the mech that Cerberus was using on Mars. Apparently, she had taken control of it, and her fighting it was what was causing the power fluctuations and blackouts. She assured me that she was in control the whole time, and didn't call for help because any help would not get there in time.
EDI then told me she planned on using that body to help me on the ground, and I told her to test it; we didn't want a repeat with the Reaper IFF with Cerberus' crap, after all. She did so in seconds, and sent me a report without me asking, since she knows that like seeing those reports for myself, and that I'm pretty much the only person who can understand then. Though, maybe Traynor can too, now that I think about it.
Anyway, I went to see Garrus after that ordeal, and we caught up a bit. And Garrus must not have understood the importance of my hug on Menae, because he was initially hesitant about our relationship. I assured him that yes, I still want to be with him; he's the only thing keeping me sane with everything that's going on. This calmed him down, and he assured me that he wanted this to work too.
From there, we chatted for a bit, and he pretty much told me that he had better luck with the turians getting prepared for the Reapers than I had with humanity; he got himself a "Reaper Task Force" which did as much preparation as he could; hardening communication lines (which is how we were able to find out that Victus was the new Primarch in the first place), made sure there was going to be food and medicine in strategically important places, and doing everything he could to give the turians the fighting chance they have.
From there, I made my rounds around the ship; Liara showed me that, the Alliance had indeed been preparing for the Reapers, but that effort had been led by Anderson, not me. Anderson made sure that every N7 and N7 recruit began training on the strengths and weaknesses of the Reaper troops. (Except for me, of course, because I hadn't been reinstated until recently, and the fact I've been fighting the Reapers longer than anyone else.) Vega's Collector data factored heavily into this training, and now, all N7 squads have at least 1 biotic in them, to counter Reaper biotics.
I also talked to the rest of my people, checking up on them, and then made a special trip up to the cockpit, to see how Joker reacted to EDI's new body. And let me tell you, it was like a 12-year-old discovering porn for the first time; excitement, and that unfamiliar feeling of arousal. EDI picked up on this, but ignored it, and took me aside, and basically explained that the body was a way for to feel more human, but she needed more insight. She said that Joker tried to deflect a lot of uncomfortable questions with humor, and she asked if I would answer what Joker would not. Essentially asking me to play the role of a mother for her. I agreed, but I know that she's going to start asking some odd question in the future. Just like a real daughter would.
We're heading to the Citadel now, to get some turian food for Garrus, and to check on Kaidan and see if anyone that I began a search for had been found. And I'd better wrap this up, because I think I hear the elevator coming up. I told Garrus to bring his stuff up to my quarters, because I don't want to spend a single night without him there. Maybe having him here might help keep the nightmares away.
