Thessia
"Do we have anything on the coordinates Tevos sent me?" I asked Liara when I visited her office. I thought that the Shadow Broker would have piles of information ready for me, but when I saw her disappointment, those hopes were quickly dashed.
"Not as much as I was hoping for," she sighed with her soft voice. "There is an ancient temple at these coordinates. One of the oldest Temples of Athame on our world."
"A temple?" I did not understand, "why would she send us there? And isn't the Athame doctrine one of the older Asari beliefs?"
"Yes. Though enough still hold to the old ways. When I tried to dig up some information for us, I came up completely empty except…"
My Asari friend hesitated and became unsure.
"What?" I pushed for an answer. Liara tapped a few buttons and a picture of an older Asari came up on her screens, an older Asari who I recognised.
"Is that Benezia?" I asked. My mind flashed back to Noveria where I had watched Benezia die after breaking free of Sovereign's indoctrination to help me.
"She had heavily encrypted records on the temple, and for some reason it gets classified funding from the government," Liara did not like any of this.
"So we don't know much," I said, "but it sounds like we're on the right track. Do you know if the Reapers are on Thessia yet?"
"In force," Liara barely whispered. She was scared, terrified. I pulled her away from the data screens that now showed images of Reaper capital ships thundering onto the ground on Thessia and starting to tear apart the cities, not to mention their inhabitants.
"We'll find the artefact, find the Catalyst and use it to deploy the Crucible," I told her, "we can save your world Liara, don't let them take your will to fight!"
"I won't, Scott," she stiffened her jaw and gave me an affirmative nod. She could not lose hope, none of us could.
Liara was trying to be brave and stay focused like she normally was, but for her this fight was personal. Liara had been born and raised in the city of Armali on the Asari home world, where we were about to descend to, and right now everyone knew that the Reapers were laying waste to her home like they were to every other world. As the team formed up in the hanger and Cortez prepared the Kodiak, I caught her watching live feeds from Armali where Asari Commandos and regular military units were putting up a desperately brave fight, but were being utterly crushed at every turn. A Reaper Destroyer fired a laser through a building that came toppling down onto the streets below as hundreds of civilians fled for their lives. Reaper troops rushed around, slaughtering anything they could at will.
I stopped Liara watching the horrific scenes by gently taking the data pad from her,
"Don't torture yourself, Liara. This will never help."
"But that's my home down there," she wept openly, "what if we're too late?"
"Cease your grief, Asari," Javik said from further back. The Prothean warrior stood with arms crossed and a grim look on his face. "Against the Reapers, there will always be great losses. To let this distract you from our purpose is to give up."
"I can't be that callous," Liara roared back. Garrus, Tali and the rest of the team all turned to see what the noise was, but I signalled for them to board the shuttle.
"Liara… Javik's right. As much as I hate to say it, we need to get in, find the artefact and get out again. We can't save Thessia like this, not without the Crucible."
"You have to keep fighting, Asari," Javik added. Liara, furious with us both, stormed off to the shuttle and we followed as the engines powered up.
"Commander!" Joker said in a warning tone over the comm, "more Reapers have just arrived in the system. ETA to Thessia two hours."
"Then let's go!" I ordered Cortez.
Steve was pushing the Kodiak to its limits as we hurtled through space and burst into the atmosphere of the planet. The smoke from the inferno that was our destination city filled the skies and suddenly I regretted being hard on Liara. I remembered how I felt when I saw the Reapers hit Vancouver, the blazing buildings and the bodies of innocent people lying in the streets. The noise that the Reapers made, that horrifying metallic drone that froze your very bones. This city was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I had ever laid eyes on, if it were not for the Reaper invasion. The city was both on land and extended out from the coast with long, slender bridges connecting the Asari-made islands. It was evening, and the burning, low sun cast a very grand reflection on the water that burned almost as fiercely as the fires of the buildings that had been wrecked by our enemy.
Liara clutched her submachinegun tightly as we headed towards the temple, but Cortez had some bad news.
"The LZ is too hot, Commander! Reapers and their soldiers are all over that area. But I've got friendly forces on scanners that you could link up with."
"They could help us fight to the temple," Ashley said.
"They will not know what lies at the temple," Liara stated.
"Well, neither do we… really," James added.
"We know that there's something at the temple. I meant that any regular soldiers that we meet will not be allowed to know that there's anything there at all," Liara replied.
"All they need to know is that it's important and could lead to us winning this war," I said, "if they still don't want on board, then we tell them."
"That's not your information to give, Scott," Liara said cautiously.
"What if it means saving Thessia?" I asked her. Liara knew I was right and ceased arguing.
"I'm landing us at the nearest friendly unit to the temple," Steve piped up, "they're holding one end of the bridge down there but they're under heavy attack!"
"Ok everyone, weapons ready," I told the team, "get stuck into the fight as soon as we land. We need to save these soldiers then try to get them to help us."
The side door of the Kodiak opened and we spilled out onto the rubble-covered street, about fifty metres from the Asari position. A missile fired from the Reaper-held end of the bridge exploded against the building just above us and showered us with glass and metal.
"I can't believe this!" Liara screamed, "my home!"
"Just get to the Asari platoon," I urged her onwards. We charged along the road and, much to the surprise of the unsuspecting Asari soldiers, we threw ourselves into action against the Reaper soldiers trying to force their way over the bridge. The friendly soldiers had formed a barricade at their end of the bridge made out of any debris that they could find.
Further back from our side of the barricade, was a grim scene. Body bags were laid out on the street, at least twenty of them. The Asari had been holding out here for at least a day and had paid for it. There was a gunship around a corner that was receiving some quick, rudimentary repairs from a patched together ground crew. There was one Asari, presumably the leader of this platoon, who was ordering them to get the gunship in the air as soon as possible. Her attention was ripped away from the gunship when a massive boom from my Black Widow announced our joining the battle.
I had my team helping to engage the Reaper troops that were advancing across the bridge while Garrus, Ashley and I fired at those giving covering fire from the other end. Ravagers, Marauders and Cannibals were there in abundance, and having so many targets to choose from gave me a slight rush of excitement. My crosshairs came to rest on a Marauder manning a heavy turret, but when my Widow recoiled into my shoulder and my bullet was released, the enemy's head snapped back and the monster crumbled into a heap.
An enemy Ravager took two hits to put down. While I was reloading, I saw Garrus snipe another of the Rachni mutations. With two of them out of action, the punishment that we were taking from the Reapers was reduced enough that more Asari were able to stay out of cover to shoot the rushing Husks for longer. I kept my attention on the rear-most troops and killed a score of them, my trusted Widow racking up a high body count. However, I then saw the massive bulk of a whole squad of Brutes approaching.
"Brutes coming in!" I screamed for all to hear, "they're going to break right through the barricade. All heavy weapons focus on them."
The Asari all heard me and their two heavy machine guns turned to unload everything at the incoming Brutes. But just as the first fell, a shot from another Ravager came screaming in and wiped out one of the machine gun positions. With one gun and a couple of Asari soldiers down, I brought my Widow to bear on the brutes and hammered away at them. I took the knee off of one and brought it to the ground. It was still very much alive, but it was not coming any closer so I left it alone and focused my heavy rifle on the rest of the massive Krogan/Reaper hybrids. Our bullets were pinging off of their heavy armour and only little damage was being done. We were able to kill some of them, but at the rate we were going we would still have at least six Brutes upon us at any second.
The first Brute reached the barricade, and with one enormous swipe of its claw hand, the whole pile of rubble and debris seemed to vibrate like it had been hit by a massive explosion. But then, just as the second and third Brutes were charging in, the voice of our guardian angel rang in my ear.
"I'm coming in hot with a missile strike, Commander" Joker warned, "missiles away!
The Normandy screamed over-head and two projectiles came hammering down from the heavens and struck the Brutes, making them disappear in a cloud of molten metal and smoke.
"Targets destroyed, Joker," I confirmed, "nice shot."
"So now can you tell me just who the hell you are?" an assertive female voice said from behind me. I turned to the Asari whom I had judged to be the leader of this platoon. Her skin was a dark cobalt colour and her traditional scalp and facial tattoos gave her a commanding presence.
"I'm Commander Gardner of the SSV Normandy, Alliance Navy," I told her. From her eyes I could tell that she already suspected that.
"Lieutenant Kurin," she replied, "we heard you were coming, Commander. I just didn't expect you so soon or to come in like that. D'you mind telling me what you've come for?"
There was an anger to her tone that Kurin was definitely not trying to hide.
"What are your orders?" I asked, knowing that I should not divulge every detail of our mission straight away.
"We have to hold this grid at all costs," Kurin started but was interrupted by another volley of heavy fire from the Reapers. "But our perimeter is collapsing and I'm getting my people out of here."
She said it in a way which told me that she had already made this decision before we had arrived. I hoped that I could still count on her support.
"This is highly important," I said.
"Well, unless you can give me a good reason to stay, we're not dying for a field of rubble."
"What exactly were you told about me?" I asked.
"Nothing but your name," Kurin gave me a glare, "mission details were classified, which just means we'll die without knowing why."
"I know what that's like," I sympathised with her, "but you have to respect the chain of command."
"A chain which might not even exist?" she growled. "So what are we doing here?"
No more messing about. Kurin was a soldier who needed a reason to fight, and I was a soldier who needed all the help I could get.
"We're looking for an artefact inside the Temple of Athame. It's important."
"That's what all this is about?" she still did not sound convinced, "one of our outposts has been trying to reach the scientists over there, but we lost all contact."
The Asari gunship finally finished its quick repairs and lifted off, flying over our heads back into the fight.
"I'm sorry, Commander," Kurin said to me, "but if your relic has lasted this long it can wait a little longer. I've lost enough people today. I'm pulling the rest of them out."
"No," Liara pleaded. "You're witnessing the extinction of our entire race. You have to help us."
"My mind is made up and my order has been given," Kurin rebuked her. However, before she could walk away from us, Javik marched right up to her and roughly grabbed a hold of the Asari officer. To others it looked like he was attacking her and some of the Asari soldiers went for their weapons, but I was able to calm them before any bullets flew. Having had it done to me, I knew that Javik was reading the Asari, diving into the depths of her mind.
"I sense you have the lineage of a leader," Javik said to Kurin. She was terrified of what was going on, but there was no attempt to struggle as she slowly realised that she was not in any danger.
"You have a warrior's skill and cunning, they are strong in your genes. But you've grown tired of war, you're exhausted by defeat, and now you worry you don't have the courage to carry on."
Kurin finally had to shove Javik away and she backed away warily,
"By the Goddess… are you..."
"Find your resolve. This war can end if you do," the Prothean told her. Now, for the first time, I saw that a change had come over Lieutenant Kurin. While Javik had been reading her, she would have seen images from Javik's own experiences, his own battles against the Reapers.
"We're building a Prothean superweapon that could defeat the Reapers," I backed up Javik, "we need this artefact to find out how to complete it!"
"I believe it," Kurin said, not quite sure whether she could believe her own words.
Lieutenant Kurin gathered her troops and told them all her decision.
"Listen up everyone. Commander Gardner's mission is to destroy the Reapers, and we're gonna help him succeed in his role! Prepare for an offensive towards the Temple of Athame. We will make sure that this day is known as the day that the war was won on Thessia!"
Her soldiers were ready and willing to join us, and after many curious looks at Javik, they formed themselves into their squads and prepared to take the fight to the Reapers.
"We'll go in first," I told the Asari soldiers, "we'll take the heavy fire and you follow up with supporting fire. Everyone fight smart and keep your heads low. We'll all get out of this in one piece."
Kurin got on her radio and contacted another position that was along our path of advance,
"Outpost Tykis get ready, we're coming your way."
"Understood, Lieutenant. We'll try to hold our positions but we're under a lot of pressure here!" a tired voice replied. In the background I could hear the sounds of heavy fighting. The Reapers were launching a huge assault on the outpost, so much so that I could hear Marauders and Husks grunting and roaring over the gunfire.
"We have to hurry," I shouted aloud, "over the barricade!"
Like going "over the top" back in World War 1, my team vaulted over the barricade while the Asari laid down a storm of bullets and biotics to cover us. I was right at the front of my squad and charged headlong into the enemy firing line. I had to make as much ground as possible before the Asari troops joined us to limit their casualties. Once we had made it over half way across the bridge, I finally took cover and set myself up with my Black Widow. Tali fired off an incineration attack that flew straight into the face of Cannibal. Liara biotically threw two Husks over the side of the bridge at the same time and Javik biotically ripped the legs off of a Marauder while it tried to dart from cover to cover. With the three rounds in my clip, I blasted three enemies before I gave Kurin the signal to move in. James' machine gun chattered away while Ashley, Garrus and EDI tried to suppress our foes. Incoming fire was intense, but the Asari soldiers made it to their positions without loss.
"Ok Normandy team," I rallied my squad, "let's show them how it's done and let's take the other side of this bridge!"
The battle to secure the opposing side of the bridge was short but savage. On more than one occasion the fighting was close enough for Omni blades to come out. Tali had switched to her shotgun and was leaving a healthy number of Reaper corpses behind her. With my squad behind me and the Asari joining the fray with fire in their hearts, we cleared out the Reaper troops with lethal efficiency. But we had a long way to go until we reached the temple and I urged everyone to keep the momentum up. There were no intact roads that we could use for easier transit and so we were forced to cautiously crawl our way through the twisted ruins of buildings that the Reapers had brought down in their wanton path through Armali.
It was hot, sweaty work and every second was full of tension and apprehension at what could be lurking around the next corner or in the dark shadows that swarmed all around us. Our way was often blocked by fires or collapsed walls and ceilings. At one time we almost lost one of the Asari soldiers when a ceiling nearly collapsed on top of her, but her unit quickly mucked in and cleared the rubble away and dragged the soldier out unharmed. There were many clashes with Reaper soldiers along the way, but we actually increased our numbers when we encountered a two-strong Asari sniper team that had been fighting by themselves in the city for days. I could not even see the colour of their skin because the dust and dirt was encrusted so thick upon their skin and armour.
After two hours of digging our way through the ruinous city, interrupted by occasional fire-fights, Kurin finally told me that we were approaching the location of Outpost Tykis. The Lieutenant had been keeping in constant contact with the outpost to make sure that they would still be there when we arrived. However, in the last message Outpost Tykis had reported that they were about to be overrun, leaving us wondering what we would be facing.
To answer our question, we exited the remains of what used to be someone's home out onto the street. We were on an esplanade above the water below and Outpost Tykis had been located at the corner of a hotel up ahead, from where it was a short dash to the entrance to the Temple of Athame. However, what we saw was a smoking crater and the ugly, gigantic form of a Reaper walking away victoriously to tear apart another section of the city. The machine towered above us, lasers blasting ahead of it and ending many an Asari life and bringing entire structures clattering down to the ground. Its form stretching up to meet the clouds of smoke above and that deep, mechanical roar resounded across the city as it left dozens of Asari corpses behind it.
Reaper troops were already crawling all over the outpost and I geared myself up for a tough fight when I heard a new noise coming closer.
"This is Talon Five reporting in. You need some help, Lieutenant? I've got Talon One with me too."
The look of relief on Kurin's face was almost comical and she was straight on the radio,
"You're damn right, Talon Swarm! Start laying into those ground troops and clear a path in for us."
The two gunships came to a hover over the water and their guns opened up with a blizzard of bullets that ripped the Reaper soldiers apart as they were hopelessly exposed. I advanced with my Mattock and popped a bullet into a Marauder's skull. EDI shot a Husk as James wrecked a Cannibal with the butt of his gun. As it lay on the ground, struggling to get up, he fired a burst into its eyes. A Cannibal appeared on a higher level but was abruptly thrown off by a shotgun blast from one of the Asari troops. With their planet falling, the Asari soldiers were fighting for their lives and throwing everything that they had into this fight. Nothing motivated people to fight more than seeing everything that they knew and loved being mercilessly destroyed before their very eyes.
"Keep it up!" Kurin yelled to her soldiers, "we're almost at the temple."
From where we were, we had to traverse the bombed-out ruin of what might have been a luxurious hotel, the reception area still in decent shape other than the Asari corpses strewn across the marbled flooring and crystal desk. Once out onto the other side and in the open again, Kurin informed me that the Temple of Athame should have been a short dash along a pedestrianised road that was there specifically for visitors to the temple. According to her, it should have taken about two minutes to get there, but as soon as I saw the road, I knew it would take much longer than that.
The road was littered with debris from buildings that had been blown apart and water was spilling out onto it bringing the level up to knee height. To add to this, the Reaper soldiers were already rushing to engage us and took cover behind jagged bits of metal and blocks of debris, creating a lethal kill zone for us to have to run through. But we still had the two Talon gunships and they swooped in over us and cleared the first few positions for us. However, in payment for her efforts, Talon One was suddenly wiped out by a Harvester that dived down from the air above for a hit and run. The gunship went up in a dramatic fireball that sent bits of metal and sharp pieces of shrapnel shooting everywhere. This added a new obstacle as it partially blocked the path and we could not use the blazing wreck for cover.
Bullets from the Reapers zipped past me and made me duck down, unable to move forward. An Asari soldier was caught in the open and her shields lit up as they deflected the first few rounds, but one then passed right through her waist and out the other side. She fell to the ground but fought hard to get back up on her feet, blood gushing from the wound and cascading down her armour. But just as she started to limp forward, the front of her skull was ripped open by a shot and she fell dead into the arms of her friend who was running to her aid.
The dead Asari was dragged out of the firing line of the Reapers and her friend hugged the body to her and cried openly at the sudden loss of her friend. The dead Asari's eyes were looking right at me, wondering why she had died just to get me to this damned temple. I had no answer. Why did we need to get to this temple? I was angry with Councillor Tevos again for not just telling me what was here. Perhaps it would give more meaning to our mission, and to the sacrifices that the Asari were making for us today. I did not want to ask the Asari soldiers or lieutenant Kurin to risk themselves any more than I would ask of my own friends. So I jumped over my cover and charged forward right to the front of our platoon, my Mattock blazing away as I went.
Dodging enemy fire and ducking from cover to cover, I forged a path through the enemy forces for my team to follow. I could feel my cybernetics burning under my skin again as my focus intensified, and to others it looked as if I was moving at super-human speed. Around one corner, I came face to face with a Marauder and scythed his face in two with my Omni blade before I rolled into another set of cover. From there I blasted several foes with my Mattock, the heavy rifle hitting every target and putting them down hard. Throwing a grenade into the enemy ranks, I waited for the thudding boom that sent a Husk and Cannibal to their deaths. I poked out to shoot a Cannibal a few times in its bulky body then took out another grenade.
A Ravager at the far end of the path was giving our allies a tough time and so, with cover from Tali and James, I made a well-aimed throw and managed to land the grenade right under the beast. It tried to move but the explosion ripped it apart from underneath in a flash of fire and the Asari were able to move up and continue their vicious assault on the enemy defences. I could see the entrance to the temple and was worried that it would be crawling with Reapers inside as well, but was puzzled when I saw that the huge opening was entirely shielded off instead.
"Maybe the scientists did it to protect themselves," Tali said when she followed my line of sight.
"That doesn't explain the loss of contact with them though," I stated.
I hoped that I was over-reacting and that Tali was right about the scientists laying low behind their protective barrier until we arrived. But as I popped out of cover and shot a Husk before running for the barrier, nothing changed. The barrier remained and no one could lay a hand on it unless they wanted to be fired back with several tens of thousands of volts surging through their body.
"Anybody see an access console?" I yelled to the team. Back where Kurin and her soldiers were fighting, I saw another Asari get killed by four bullets to the chest.
"Anybody?" I yelled again.
"I found out about one in another of my mother's files," Liara said as she checked along the far wall, running her hand along its smooth, curved surface. My Asari friend had to go back and forward along the wall a couple of times but she eventually hit what she was looking for. Her fingers found a point in the wall that seemed a little spongier than a solid metal wall should have been, and when she pressed against it in a particular fashion, a small panel slid open revealing a small console.
"Brilliant, Liara!" I was ecstatic.
"It may take me a moment, this shield as military grade encryption," she then told me.
"A bit excessive, isn't it?" Garrus exclaimed as he gunned down a Marauder with his assault rifle.
"If this temple has such protective measures, then the value of this artefact must indeed be great," Liara said and went to work.
We were so close. I could feel it. I wanted this artefact to give us the lead we so desperately needed to find the Catalyst. We would find it, send it to the Crucible where the superweapon would then be completed and then all the leaders of the different species would decide where and when to use it, then the Reapers would be history. What could stand in our way?
Liara brought the barrier down much faster than I had anticipated and we moved into the temple with all haste. Curiously, the few Reaper soldiers that had survived our onslaught also disengaged and retreated away from the temple, leaving Kurin and her unit to catch their breath.
"We'll search the temple for the artefact," I told Kurin, "get your soldiers into defensive positions around the entrance and watch for the Reapers coming back."
"You got it, Sir," she said, "I didn't think we would make it."
"I did," I said back and went back to the Asari soldiers as they busied themselves setting up new positions. "You all fought brilliantly! Without your help, we wouldn't have made it here. Just know you've helped to bring us one step closer to defeating the Reapers."
The Asari whooped and cheered quickly before getting back to their jobs with a new burst of energy. Kurin gave me an affirmative nod and joined her soldiers as I rejoined my friends in the Temple of Athame.
The interior of the Temple of Athame was without a doubt an awe-inspiring sight. The ground upon which we were walking was actually a raised level held up by strong support struts that extended up from below. I did not know how far down the supports went. The bottom was totally obscured by darkness. From our level, the supports continued up another fifty metres and more to the ceiling in a very gently curving fashion. There were rows of pews on either side of the central aisle which led us straight to a massive statue of what looked like a crowned Asari.
Liara told us that the statue was of Athame, and the statue certainly commanded a high degree of reverence whether or not you believed in such things. Around the periphery of this grand place of worship, there were glass topped cases with items of great import contained within them. They were mostly pieces of paper with writings upon them, and they certainly were not the galactic language spoken today.
"Pages from the Athame Codex," Liara said, not hiding her respect for the religious relics, "they tell the story of how the Asari grew and evolved as a species over several thousand years."
I was not certain, but I thought I heard Javik scoff at Liara's words, but he otherwise stayed silent.
Along with the pages of the codex, there was a statue of a sword and one of a shield, both of which had apparently belonged to the ancient Goddess. On either side of the statue of Athame, I saw stone tablets showing depictions of the Goddess speaking to her followers, but something was off about them and I moved closer to inspect them before Tali side-tracked me. The Quarian was looking at the bust of one of Athame's servants called Janiri, but Janiri did not look the least bit like an Asari. The bust looked far more like another species.
"Doesn't Janiri look a little bit like Javik?" Tali asked. I took a look at Javik and then back to Janiri and knew that she was dead on. Everything from the thick, layered carapace head to the four eyes and three sets of nostrils. The statue was made of a stone grey in colour, but if I closed my eyes, I could almost see it with the deep green skin of Javik with the exposed, slightly pink flesh at the throat. Now I looked closer at the stone tablets that I had seen and saw much the same thing. Upon the tablet I could see that the followers were clearly Asari, but the almighty being towering over them giving them instruction was definitely not. It also bore a striking resemblance to a Prothean.
This raised serious questions for all of us about the history of not just Asari history, but the history of every species. Javik had mentioned a few times the changes that he had seen in the species of modern times compared to how they were way back in his time fifty-thousand years ago. Indeed, we knew that the Prothean base on Mars had been used to study Humanity back when we were at our most primitive. What if they had actually landed on Earth and played a role in shaping our technology, culture and beliefs. This appeared to have been the case with the Asari, but no claim had ever been made to support this and I could see from Liara's face that she was extremely confused by all of this.
I grouped us all together at the base of the statue of Athame and addressed the gargantuan elephant in the room.
"Liara, why do the earlier depictions of Athame show her as being a Prothean, and yet the statue looks a lot more like the Asari?"
"Yeah," Ashley added, "and what about Janiri and the other one I saw, Lucen?"
"Athame's appearance became more like ours over time," Liara said.
"And less Prothean," Tali said matter-of-factly. Liara looked quite distraught at what lay behind the truth about the nature of her species' evolution,
"I admit that…"
"Your ancestors were trying to hide the truth," Javik suddenly said. "Athame, Janiri and Lucen were all Protheans."
"That's not true!" Liara protested.
"Open your eyes, Asari," Javik said, "every relic here tells a tale from encounters between your people and mine. From when we came to give you guidance."
Liara was not hearing what Javik had to say and continued to rebuke him, so much so that Javik went around almost every relic and told the true story behind them.
"This page from the codex tells of Athame giving the Asari seeds and telling them about the seasons. Your people were suffering from starvation and we did not want you to go extinct. We were there at the beginning of your agricultural age."
"Why?" Liara asked.
"You already know why. The goal of my people was to unite every organic species that showed potential against the threat of synthetic life. We were cultivating your people to join our empire when the time came."
"So we were not ready when the Reapers arrived?" Liara asked.
"No," Javik replied bluntly, "we ceased all study of primitive species in the hope that the Reapers would leave you alone."
"But… it doesn't make sense," Liara continued to argue. Javik now pointed to the shield said to have been carried by Athame to protect the Asari when the heavens grew angry.
"It was a meteor shower that would have destroyed your world, we deflected it."
Javik moved on to the sword,
"A race called the Oravores desired to conquer Thessia for its wealth of natural materials and we stopped them. We, the Protheans, are the Sword of Athame."
"You're trying to tell me that everything we know about Asari history is a lie!" Liara shouted, tears now visible in her eyes. "I'm not willing to believe that any of that is real."
"Then why does Athame speak Prothean?" Javik asked aloud.
The question confused all of us and we all gazed questioningly at Javik.
"What do you mean, Javik?" I asked. He looked around, the four perceptive eyes checking every corner of the room.
"There is something powerful here. I can sense it. But it lies dormant"
"In this temple?" Liara asked, "I admit it is strange that this placed has been so well preserved."
That was when EDI suddenly called to our attention a new discovery and we all went over to investigate. However, as I walked past the base of the statue of Athame, I felt a strange sensation wash over me, it was so familiar and yet so alien at the same time that I had to stop and shake it off first. Tali watched me and cocked her head as if to see if I needed help, but I carried on to where EDI was pointing and saw what she had found.
In a tight corner, in the darkest shadows of the temple, were two bodies that had been carelessly and disrespectfully thrown there like they were nothing.
"These must be the scientists that were supposed to meet us," Tali said.
"But what happened to them?" Liara asked. James pulled one of the bodies off of the other and then lay them both shoulder to shoulder on the ground in the light. Now having a better look at them, it was clear as to what fate they had suffered.
"Their throats," James gasped, "they've been slit."
"That's not exactly something that says "Reapers" to me," I stated. "Someone else is here."
"Then we need to find that damn artefact fast," Ashley said. We all agreed and renewed our search, but I felt drawn back towards the base of the statue again. Javik joined me there and closed his eyes to focus his other senses.
"You feel it too, Commander," he said, "it calls to us in the tongue of my people."
That was when I knew what we were searching for.
"There's a Prothean beacon here!" I called out suddenly to everyone.
"You're sure?" Liara sounded sceptical. I had vivid memories of the beacon on Eden Prime, receiving the Cipher on Feros and all the times after that I had seen the vision scarred into my mind from that day forth.
"It's not something you forget," I said with authority.
"But why hide it?" Liara said.
"The answer is obvious," Javik said, "power and influence. Your people are hoarding the knowledge of my race for their own gain."
"That can't be! I can't believe my people would keep this a secret."
"A beacon like this could explain why Asari are so advanced," I proposed.
"This temple is thousands of years old, time enough to make serious progress," Javik said accusingly to Liara.
"This is how the Asari can stay ahead of the other races and give them greater power," Tali agreed, "which, I think we can all note, they have."
"That doesn't make it true," Liara was still on the defensive.
"You can't keep denying reality, Asari," Javik walked right up to her now. "Even a small amount of data could give your people an edge. Or are you insulted that your government didn't involve you?"
"The ruins on Mars are where Humanity got Mass Effect technology," I said.
"And we learned it from the ruins of the Inusannon, the race that came before us. It was our secret for centuries," Javik said.
Javik and Liara could have argued for hours, but we did not have that kind of time. With a quick check over the shoulders of my friends to the Asari soldiers outside, I decided to get our focus back to the beacon located somewhere in the temple.
"We're not having a go at you, Liara. This had nothing to do with you. The point is, the Asari should have shared this knowledge," Garrus said to Liara, "we might not be in this mess if they had. Now let's find the beacon and get on with the mission."
"To activate a beacon of the size that I believe this one to be, we need to find and activate separate power sources," Javik explained. He went over to the bust of Lucen and after standing motionless by it for a moment he nodded to me and placed his hands on either side of the statue. Suddenly there was a faint but definite humming noise within the temple and I could feel the buzz in the air as something stirred around us. Then, from inside the massive statue of Athame there came a light with the seemingly trademark green hue that belonged to that of Prothean technology.
We were all astounded as the statue lit up, beams of energy pouring through small cracks in Athame's form.
"The one called Janiri, Commander," Javik said, "that should complete the reconstruction of the matrix."
I hurried over to Janiri and placed my hands exactly the same way as Javik had done and instantly felt the huge surge of power flowing through the building. All at once, the humming became far more prominent and the statue of Athame, where before it was so tall and proud, now fell to ruin around us. In its place was the beacon we sought. I could not believe that we had finally found it, and from the size of it I knew that we were on course to discover the truth behind the Catalyst. The beacon was even larger than the one on Mars, which was no small piece of kit, and it stretched from where Athame's head had been all the way down to the bottom-most floor which only now became visible because of the eerie green light.
"We need to hurry," Liara said excitedly, her eyes wide as she took in every detail of our miraculous find, "this place isn't going to last very…"
When I touched the beacon, there was a blinding flash of light. When I was able to see again, I was surprised to find a glowing ball of green energy hovering over the floor in the middle of our team.
"…Long."
We wandered around this orb of raw data programming and tried to see if we needed to do something to activate it. But a synthetic voice now spoke as the VI processed what was going on.
"Obtaining chronological marker. Hold. Time scale established. Post-Prothean cycle confirmed."
"One of our computers," Javik said, his voice slightly sad. The VI then raised itself above our heads and I was sure that it was looking all around,
"Reaper presence detected. This galactic cycle has already reached its extinction terminus. Systems shutting down."
My heart turned to ice and I found myself bounding forward towards the VI as it came back down to our height.
"Hold on!" Liara shouted at it.
"We need answers," I yelled, not even trying to hide my distress.
"To what questions?" the VI asked monotonously.
"The Catalyst," I said, "we need to know what it is to finish the Crucible."
At the mention of the Crucible, the VI started to shift and change in shape, and when it finished we were all left in disbelief at what stood before us. A holographic image of another Prothean.
"A memory… one of my people," Javik said reverently.
"I am called Vendetta. An advanced virtual construct of Pashek Vran, overseer of the project you refer to as "Crucible". He died fighting the Reapers in the battle of Tranbir Nine." The VI raised a finger at me, "your remaining time is also at an end."
"Were all Protheans so grim?" Liara could not help saying with a sideways look at Javik.
"What happened to the Crucible in your time? Why didn't the Protheans deploy it?" I asked the construct.
"We were sabotaged from within. A splinter group argued that we should dominate the Reapers rather than destroy them. It fractured our order of battle. Later we discovered the separatists were indoctrinated."
"They must have had their own Cerberus to deal with," Garrus said.
"And now we're facing the same problem," I mused with a heavy sigh. The VI nodded at my statement and its form changed into a map of the galaxy,
"Our studies of past ages led us to believe that time is cyclical. Many patterns repeat."
"Like the Reaper attacks," I said.
"And beyond," the VI quickly stated, "the same peaks of evolution, the same valleys of dissolution… the same conflicts are expressed in every cycle, only in a slightly different manner. The repetition is too prevalent to be merely chance."
"We assumed the Reapers were responsible for the patterns," Liara said.
I recalled a conversation with Javik where he explained to me about the wars between the races in his cycle. The Zha'til turning against the Zha was similar to the Geth turning on the Quarians. Many of the other conflicts he had described could easily be compared to the major wars of our cycle. Then I remembered Leviathan's statement about how the entire galaxy was simply one giant experiment for the AI that created the Reapers. It was searching for a way that organics and synthetics could live peacefully with each other. The Prothean VI standing in front of me was right when he said that this could never be down to chance. Now the VI continued,
"Perhaps they are responsible," he said, "but we believe that they are only servants to the pattern, not its maker."
"Then who is?" James asked.
"Unknown. Its presence is only inferred rather than observed. The only certainty is its intention… galactic annihilation. You now stand at that precipice."
"There's still hope for this cycle," I argued back, "we need to know what the Catalyst is. Trillions of lives are at risk."
"Trillions of lives are always at risk, but if the Reapers have arrived to end your cycle this discussion is too late."
"We can break the cycle. We found your plans for the Crucible. We're building it right now!" All my passion was breaking loose now. Everything I had fought for over the last three years had led me to this point and I was not about to be foiled now.
"The Crucible is not of Prothean design," Vendetta told me.
"I know. The blueprints have been passed down through the cycles for hundreds of thousands of years, maybe millions. So far, none have successfully used it. But we will be the first! Tell us what the Catalyst is."
My team looked on in wonder as I threw everything I had at the VI to convince it to help us. Tali's eyes were wide as she watched me. However, the VI then turned to Javik and closed in on the Prothean warrior.
"My readings suggest that you are one of us."
"I am," Javik said proudly, "I am Javik, the last voice of our people."
"Commander Javik. We knew of your mission. You are Prothean, do you believe that this cycle can succeed against the Reapers?"
Javik looked around us all, members of most of the main species in the galaxy, men and women that he had been fighting alongside now for about four months now. Then his two pairs of eyes came to rest on me. Not only had Javik and I come to respect each other greatly as soldiers, but had also formed a friendship of sorts despite our different ways of seeing things. Above this, he had read me back on Eden Prime when we first revived him from his stasis and again when we had brought him on board the Normandy. He knew from these brief explorations of the very essence of who I was that there was nothing in this universe that would make me quit. That there was no fight that I would ever shy away from and that I was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice if it meant safeguarding the future of every species. He slowly turned back to Vendetta and said clearly,
"They have earned the right to try."
Vendetta took in the sincerity of Javik's words and nodded,
"Very well. If you have followed the plans for the Crucible, I will interface with your systems and assist with the Catalyst…"
He suddenly stopped and the vision of the Prothean disappeared as the VI once again appeared as the green orb of raw data.
"Indoctrinated presence detected: Activating security protocol."
The VI moved back to and dispersed upon the beacon as my team all checked back towards the entrance to the temple. I was blinded by a powerful searchlight and was forced to shield my eyes, but I was sure that I had seen a figure approaching within the temple itself.
"I've been looking forward to seeing you again, Gardner," a cruel voice called out.