Act 5: The Daybreak
SSV Normandy
They deal a big blow to the Reapers with the last mission. As everyone leaves the shuttles for a hard-earned rest, Shepard escorts Liara back to the conference room. Rasa, Miranda, and Jacob go with. Shield who hasn't been asked to go to one in awhile is dragged along by Ash, as she's had enough of his wallowing. His 'intel' had been spot on for a majority of their mission. Not having his briefs on the situation have really hampered their mission readiness. Anyway, once everyone's assembled, Liara explains to them (and TIM) her study of the beacon as one of the special researchers invited by the Council. Though there was a VI detected by the team, it refused to cooperate on any interface, remaining dormant for centuries of the Asari Republic, and for the new Council Paleotechnology Taskforce too. After months of study, Liara was able to use her deep background on prothean society and research from Ilos to trick it into giving her limited access to some of its data-banks. When asked what she had found, Liara replies IDK. Otherwise known as the Indoctrination Detection Key. When used, it could detect if anyone was turned into an agent of the Reapers. Theoretically. As she activates the prototype inside the room, the IDK remains dormant.
TIM asks if Liara would be willing to let Cerberus take the IDK for study. She refuses, though offers a schematic of it, which she has already done for the Council. TIM is thankful for her contribution none the less. Liara is then invited to stay due to the heat she's currently attracting. She's ecstatic to be on the same ship as Shepard again and accepts. Due to the limited space, she sets up a small office in the garage across from Shield's makeshift hovel. Her eagerness to be back aboard the Normandy, her joy to see the rest of the old team, her enthusiasm to fight alongside Shepard again, is incredibly infectious, and slowly starts to drag Shield out of his withdrawn state. After badgering, he starts occasionally telling her stories on what she's missed, with most of them centering on Jane. Shepard would have really gotten into her rounds now too, speaking with all the crew mates and squad mates and what have you. Kelly would be lampshaded to have fallen heads over heels for her in their psych evals (which Shield has stopped doing), and Shepard ends up not deciding not to dump all the pets aboard. At first she hated them, but they've been growing on her since.
Loyalty: Going Commando
Zaeed demands Shepard's assistance in a personal matter too now. Going after Vido. Zaeed had still been fuming after missing him on Zoyra. In order to keep him on, TIM has acquiesced to what he has asked, helping Zaeed hunt down the missing CEO. The Blue Suns are not totally out of business yet anyway, as they still have their Steve Jobs directing them from his hidey hole. Their intel leads them to a Blue Suns base on Caleston, or rather, the base BEFORE they were the Blue Suns. A warehouse that had been abandoned for years. And one Zaeed vividly remembers. In the place where Zaeed had half his skull blown out, they find Vido. Zaeed gets his revenge, but the tables quickly turn as Vido was clearly used for bait. The Broker lied to Vido, using him in order to spring another trap. Geth fall out of dropships to siege the position, and the group barely make it out of the death trap alive. Despite the close call, Zaeed's never been happier.
Loyalty: Missing Marksman
Thane's loyalty pops up next, as Shepard continues to win her crew's respect and trust. Due to the nature of the mission, Shepard goes in with just Thane and Garrus as they smuggle themselves onto the Citadel. After talking with Mouse and some questing, they discover that TIM's countermeasures (previously discussed in Garrus' Loyalty mission) haven't been entirely successful. The Broker had found Thane's son, Kolyat. And even worse, had hired him to kill a big time target. One David Anderson. With just enough luck and help from the Broker, Kolyat could succeed and also get himself killed in the process, thereby killing two birds with one stone.
As the Military Liason of the Alliance Embassy, Anderson constantly preaching about the threat of the Reapers has hurt his credibility and standing. He's been reprimanded several times, but the man just keeps going, and no one wants to commit political suicide as firing the mentor/father father of the Citadel's Martyr would be not looked fondly upon. The fact that he's released evidence supporting his (and Shepard's pre-mortem) claims has actually started turning some heads too. Too many heads apparently, as the Reapers don't want the bad press anymore. The Broker is ready to cross him off their list.
After some investigations and local tips from Garrus, they stop Kolyat right as he gets to the human embassy. Anderson finds them all there in the doorway and is shocked, as he heard the rumors but can't believe Shepard is really back. As Shepard and Anderson have a heartfelt reunion, Thane has his own with Kolyat, relaying his story of what happened to his mother, killing the batarians responsible, and who made the entire murder possible in the first place. That's right. The Broker is why Thane's wife died. It's actual canon. He's the only one that Thane hadn't gotten in his spree of revenge. Thane should have honestly had first dibs and a few lines in the LotSB DLC because of this. Anyway, Kolyat is aghast at agreeing to his contract and agrees to be taken to a safe location. Shepard tells Anderson about the Collectors, Broker, and that Vamshi is a traitor 100%. And Garrus calls in a favor with Executor Chellick to allow them to leave without too many questions.
Loyalty: Trooper's Consensus
Anderson has mentioned in their brief meeting that the Geth War (also called: the Geth-Council Conflict, the Eden Prime War, Saren's War, and the Synth Uprising) has slowed since most pockets have retreated to Terminus Space. But the attacks on shipping lanes to human colonies have not, and due to the specificity of the attacks, the Alliance is not gaining much support in cleaning the geth still outside the Veil up. After all, every government is still dealing with the economic recession and rising prices from the Volus economic strike. Moving ships costs a lot of fuel, you know? Did I say that's still going on? That's still going on. And the Shadow Broker is helping perpetuate it, inciting rampant speculation and feeding intel to divide the community's government even further. It's kind of a big deal. The Hierarchy's suppression of the Volus homeworld has not helped matters or returned them to the fold. The Heretics basically have free reign to continue keeping the Alliance blind inside the Terminus Systems, allowing the Collectors to continue doing their job.
Long story short, the Geth activity prompts Shepard to finally talk with Legion, who she has given the cold shoulder since getting aboard. She has only allowed it's existence due to Tali specifically vouching for it due to its earlier help on Aequitas. Once they're officially introduced, Legion immediately clears the air on the status of the True Geth and Heretics, shocking Shepard that they even have factions. Legion then relays that they even know where said Heretics' attacks are coming from. And how to stop them. Cue, A House Divided. They board the station, wipe out some platforms, and start the self-destruct. They take down another arm of the Collectors' (and therefore the Reaper's) strength. Shield has lost his interest in most events going on (the loss of Vendetta on Thessia only compounding his apathy) so he did not give his two cents on the matter. Shepard's opinion toward the Geth slightly improve.
Loyalty: Star Engineer
With the Heretics being destroyed, Tali finally has the opportunity to follow up on the mission her father first assigned her back before Aequitas. Shepard obliges to take her into the Perseus Veil to investigate Haestrom. Though Legion communicates with his people to let them through, Heretics are already on the planet below, and they're forced to fight through the small army protecting the ancient quarian colony's data. The entire team is brought along due to the amount of platforms present (including Shield). Since Aite, Shield's mind has started aching presumably because of the Gray Box, and since Fehl Prime, it's discomfort has only begun to increase along with his nightmares. Haestrom's sun has dramatically exacerbated the matter, as its beams fry his brains. Though the team defeats the Heretics and gets the star's data, Tali is unsure why so many forces were here to protect it. After the mission, it becomes clear that they were actually the ones gathering it, and that the Heretics are studying dark energy. And the Collector technology present leads Lazarus to believe so are the Collectors. Regardless, Tali is glad she had Shepard along to help her as the Geth there could have easily slaughtered an entire force of quarian marines.
Assignment: The Horizon
TIM has recently got another priority mission for the Normandy. A colony's being attacked. Now's their chance.
Horizon is pretty much by the books. Get there really early into the abduction, walk through the colony, fight off Harbinger, save everyone frozen, etc etc. At least for the ground team. To avoid the catastrophe on Fehl Prime, they launch a two-pronged assault while the bugs are still distracted. While Shepard leads Lazarus' sizable ground force, Miranda leads a second shadow team full of their elite infiltrators onto the Collector Ship (Rasa, Legion, Kasumi, Shield, you know the deal). Making it to the bridge in record time and having EDI help by hacking the Collector's systems, they are able to extract what they were looking for. The IFF. The Collectors are not happy once they discover the intruders, and immediately have the ship begin to leave orbit. The Shadow Team barely makes it off before the Collector Ship jumps with them on it.
In the aftermath of the mission, Shepard meets Kaidan who was stationed there. Instead of a heartfelt reunion however, Kaidan is not happy. He can't believe she's working for Cerberus, and double pissed Shield actually went through with it. He questions if she's really her, lectures her on what Cerberus has done, the whole shebang. Shepard is prone to anger it's true, so she becomes pissed that he's pissed. After all they've done, the threat they've seen, he's that single-minded? The encounter leaves both of them frazzled, and Shepard is not happy. With the IFF though, the Omega-4 relay (and Suicide Mission) is now on. Shield, having gotten back some of his social skills, does make certain it's scrubbed, warning what will happen if the IFF is just interfaced with the ship.
Author's Notes:
...I got nothing. Uh, I guess the stress is really getting to Shield. That's an important plot point. Sure. His mental health obviously hasn't been too great since Jane's exited the stage. Which is pretty sad. But we'll get into that next chapter so...yeahhhh. Hm. This Act's really just cleaning up loose ends. The upcoming finale is a little bit more packed.
