There were phrases no leader likes to hear. "Someone reallocated all of the money we set aside for road maintenance" or "There's been an attack" were among the worst. Yet there was one phrase that Veronica was coming to hate more than any other:
"We're still finding corpses."
Veronica sat at the head of the Mojave council, now swelled with representatives from the Turncoat Legion and the Midwest brotherhood, all listening to reports from the crews on the ground in what was left of the NCR. In the two months since what had come to be known as the blight, the Mojave had devoted all it could to aiding the survivors in the NCR while negotiating with the NCR military in an attempt to keep people alive and full blown war from breaking out in the failed state. Part of that effort was sending a small army of mass printed MK X Protectron kitted out to handle the massive amount of corpses left throughout the NCR territory.
"I thought we automated this." Gloria Venk said, her face drawn and her eyes haunted by the aftermath of the NCR's "cleansing". "Those MK X's were supposed to speed the process up while we focused on helping survivors. In two months we've barely touched a third of the estimated dead and haven't even properly buried most of those thanks to the soldiers trying to run things over there. I understand that they're traumatized but if they continue to harass our efforts to bury their dead we'll still be digging up corpses by the time my grandchildren have grey hair."
"The people of the NCR have suffered an immeasurable loss." Vein, the leader of the Turncoat Legion's new voting bloc said. "Most of what is left to them is their warriors and the very elements of their people that put men like Vorhees, spit on his name, into power. Vorhees' purge left only those who would blindly follow men like him, and without that unifying figure to guide their hatred they are a lost people."
"A lost people that tried to kill us all." Gloria said.
"Thank god my boys fixed up a teleporter instead of a bomb then." Brent Buxton said, giving the older woman a look. "Now Gloria, I understand your frustration but darlin we you got to understand this is gonna take some time. Most of my protest to the Mojave's moves against the NCR may have been part of the show, but I believe in helping people the people of the NCR as much as we can."
"Brent's right." Alyssa said. "It will take time, they're over a hundred thousand people reeling from the greatest loss of life since the Great War after all, but its worth the investment to help these people. To show them a better way than Vorhees'."
"In service of that Ideal, I'm bringing the council approved plans to a vote." Veronica said, tapping the two thick folders in front of her. "The first is the proposed framework that will guide the Mojave republic's dealings with the Shard Council going forward while the second is a new aid program that will go directly to consolidating the NCR survivors around infrastructure we've taken over. Any final questions or debate on the first proposal before we vote?"
"As you said, this is just a framework and doesn't bind us to anything." Alyssa said, looking over her own copy of the proposal. "Setting aside official funding and departmental allocations to handle renovating and running their Embassy is a good idea while giving their people the freedom the Normandy crew enjoys is a well thought out diplomatic step."
"I sense a but coming." Vein said, smiling at Alyssa like a first time con man running a scheme.
"But the proposal to make Rex the republic's, no, humanity's representative on the council may cause some friction." Alyssa said, giving Vein a slightly more coy smile. "He's not exactly popular among certain segments of this council-"
She looked at the voting bloc who'd aligned with Sylas' agenda on the council, all but three of his most loyal stooges found to be useful idiots.
"-and what's left of the NCR." Alyssa continued. "Personally I'm for it, but are we sure giving him such a powerful position is good for optics?"
"Hell, it'll give the uppity bastard more paperwork and duties to keep him busy." Buxton said, chuckling. "He'll be in charge of negotiating with an entire civilization to get humanity a good deal, which I think he can pull off, but boy howdy he's gonna be so busy I suspect he'll take up smoking again just to take the edge off."
"The Courier is the man for the job." Vein said, his cadre nodding along. "If Veronica is staying in power as the leader of the republic then we cannot waste a man like the Courier. In the last year my people have grown thanks to the teachings and resources the Mojave has given us, and I believe that this Shard Council can offer humanity as a whole an opportunity just as the Courier gave us."
"Yes." Veronica said. "In the short term their ships and aid could take years off any kind of recovery effort for the NCR not the mention what they can do to help us accelerate our own development. They have whole planets dedicated to industry, to research, and to simply growing food for crying out loud. The Shard Council is on a whole other scale than us, but they've seen what we can do when we put our minds to it and they think we can be a player on the galactic stage one day. Like it or not folks, the galaxy's taken notice of us and right now I believe we have a sympathetic ally on the senior council in the Krogan. Who's Representative has personally selected Rex as her candidate for the junior councilor's seat, and I don't know a single person on this planet who I'd choose instead of him."
"I motion to vote." Alyssa said, smiling.
"I second the motion." Vein said.
The vote was unanimous, whether it was pressure or just wanting to get Rex out of the Council's direct dealings even the councilors who hated him approved the plan.
"I hope Rex has been enjoying his sabbatical from paperwork" Veronica said as she picked up the aid package proposal. "Because he's about to be buried in a whole start system's worth."
"Still a bit bitter about the whole altered memory thing?" Alyssa asked.
"What makes you say that?" Veronica said, winking at her.
?/
Shepard sat on the small patio of the ranch home she'd been staying in for the last few months, looking out across the town of Goodsprings. It was a nice little town, new construction spreading out from an older core with power stations and huge water towers feeding into the town's growing brewery and distillery district. It reminded her of some of the colonies she'd seen in her career, people building from the dirt up and taking their chances with every jury rigged idea they could think of. The peaceful comings and goings of the town had been a welcome respite for her in the two months of her sabbatical, even if it was more a forced exile from New Vegas by her crew than anything else.
"Here's to another day." Shepard said, toasting the small town with her mostly empty coffee cup.
Her Omni-tool beeped and Shepard opened it to find video call request from Miranda pending.
"Miranda, I thought I was on sabbatical." Shepard said.
"I'm also tired of ignoring your requests for intelligence." Miranda said, giving her an awkward smile. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm…" Shepard trailed off as her chest tightened. "I'm okay, it's not like you all haven't been dropping by constantly. What's the intelligence?"
"Good to hear Shepard." Miranda said, her face betraying the "I have no idea how to actually help you grieve" thoughts in her pretty head. "The Intel coming in from the NCR is quite surprising actually, despite the massive loss of life civil unrest is low. I believe that most of the population is still in shock from the Blight and the Mojave's soft aid is allowing for the surviving communities to give each other mutual aid, even as they're slowly concentrating around the larger cities. Shady Sands, Hub, and Vault city acting as the three main points of concentration as the Mojave have established the most aid infrastructure there."
"Give people a chance to help one another and you'll be surprised how often they do." Shepard said. "How's the military handling everything?"
"The command structure is holding, just barely." Miranda said. "Like it or not, Vorhees had a lot of sympathetic elements within the NCR military, chiefly among the ranger corps. If the Mojave were smart, they'd start dismantling the NCR war machine and starting over from scratch."
"Reminds me of the old stories about world war two back on our earth." Shepard said, sipping the last of her coffee. "Had to dismantle Germany before it could come back, but let's hope the NCR doesn't become another east Germany though."
"Well, for the moment it's hard to argue with the free food, water, power, and medicine flowing into the refugee camps." Miranda said as displays of Mojave regulars and Followers of the Apocalypse handing out aid. "Jacob's also noted that they've been holding school for anyone under the age of eighteen to establish some kind of normal schedule for the youngest survivors while holding seminars on mutual aid and survival for the adults. Turns out a people used to coming back from the brink know a thing or two about surviving disaster."
"They're a strong people." Shepard agreed. "Look what the Mojave has done in the year and a half we've been here. With the Shard Council's help, I wouldn't put it past them to have the NCR ticking again sooner rather than later."
"Formerly the NCR." Miranda corrected. "It's all but inevitable that the Mojave will annex the former NCR and bind its states into their own nascent republic. Their technology, growing infrastructure, and robust social programs baked into their constitution will make them the sole super power on the planet and the core of any future Human presence in the wider galaxy. Shepard, tragedy though the Blight was its accelerated the formation of a power akin to the proto alliance on our Earth, we're on the ground floor of an unprecedented leap in civilization."
"A leap you think we can take advantage of?" Shepard asked.
"Yes I do." Miranda said as the displays changed to schematics and resource projections. "The Normandy SR-3 won't be complete for another year, and that's if we rush construction, but what if we were to take full advantage of Tali's theoretical time shift? What if we returned to our universe not only with an enhanced Normandy, but enough weapons, resources, and equipment to outfit an army? What if we took the time to master this multiversal physics and arrived back in our universe with the means to not only fight the Reapers but to move our civilian populations to safety and take advantage of a whole other galaxy's infrastructure, one free of the Reapers entirely?"
"You're suggesting spending even more time in this universe?" Shepard asked, no judgment in her tone as it was obvious she'd been considering the same. "Miranda, the kind of effort you're talking about would take five years at least to produce any substantial supply of material and equipment."
"Shepard, the Reapers represent an existential threat to our Galaxy." Miranda said. "You and I both know that time to prepare for the war with them is the most valuable resource we can spend. Rex and Veronica have already promised to divert all they can to our efforts and Thoughtseeker Wrail of this universe's council seems sympathetic to our cause, even if only to aid her brother and sister Krogan in our universe. Your mission to the Alpha relay and its destruction highlight that in our universe we only have six months at most before the Reapers arrive, but now we have time to prepare at least a rudimentary counter force. We have an opportunity here Shepard, and I think we should take it."
Shepard looked out across Goodsprings to New Vegas in the distance, sunlight twinkling off the Tops' super structure. Could she spend another five years here? Another ten? Stay in the universe that had taken the man she loved from her, sacrifice years of her life to prepare for a threat so vast that even she couldn't quite comprehend the scale. But through all the doubt she could still hear Harbinger, its voice cutting through all reason and thought to wake the primal fear Humanity had known since there days hunting on the Savannah.
We are coming and we are your destruction.
"I agree." Shepard said, sighing. "We can't waste this opportunity while we have it. I need to talk to Tali about her work anyway, but we will need to find a replacement core before I give the orders to the rest of the crew."
"About that." Miranda said. "The Courier's daughter, Penelope, contacted me out of the blue yesterday."
"Oh?" Shepard said.
"She seems to have tracked down a way into the Institute." Miranda said. "She's tracked down a vault, where she believes the key to breaching the institute is sleeping in suspended animation."
"A vault dweller is going to get us into the Institute?" Shepard asked.
"Yes, a lawyer named Nora." Miranda said. "The sole survivor of Vault 111."
?
Grunt was the perfect Krogan. The culmination of the strongest bloodlines and imbued with the memory and instincts of possibly the greatest warlords his people had ever birthed, but now he was nervous. He hadn't been nervous any of the times he'd followed Shepard, his battle master and who the other crew members called his "mom" what ever that meant, into battle against the Collectors. Even facing off against the mutated horrors of the Mojave down in the Thorn or on his many wanderings north didn't scare him. Yet as he paced up and down the sidewalk, eying the embassy where the Krogan delegation worked from, his hearts were fluttering and his palms were sweaty.
"So, are you going to go talk to her?" Garrus asked, somehow sneaking up on Grunt.
"Talk to who?"Grunt said, sniffing. "I'm simply stretching before I go on a run."
"Right, in the middle of the Strip, just outside the embassy full of Krogan, and not to mention that you're so wound up that I could sneak up on you." Garrus said, clicking his mandibles together as Grunt stopped pacing. "I've seen my fair share of antsy men smitten with a girl, paralyzed with fear on how to actually approach her in my time. So who's the lucky gal?"
"I don't know her name." Grunt admitted. "But I'd like to."
"And you're agonizing over how to go and find out." Garrus said, tapping a finger against his chin. "I suppose you can't rely on our universe's Krogan courting practices, can you?"
"No idea, Okeer made me to fight not to woo the ladies." Grunt said, shaking his head. "Least the old bastard could do was give me the bare minimum of dealing with a female."
"If it makes you feel any better my father's advice on wooing the opposite sex was to dance at them, aggressively." Garrus said, patting Grunt on the arm.
"Is that how you got Tali?" Grunt asked.
"Nah, just walked up to her and asked her out for a drink." Garrus said, nodding. "Granted, we've saved each other's lives more times than I can count, and Shepard taught her all about being assertive."
"She's good at that."
Grunt looked to his left and found a red headed man wearing thick black glass goggles.
"Rex." Garrus said, nodding to the man.
"Is everyone going to sneak up on me today?" Grunt grumbled before turning on the man. "So, you're the Courier, eh?"
"Garrus." Rex nodded and looked back to Grunt. "I've been called that, don't know if I'm really the Courier. For starters, I deliver decidedly fewer packages these days."
"There's an old human joke about a builder and goat that comes to mind." Garrus said, chuckling.
"The name's Rex." The courier said, extending a hand. "Pleasure to finally meet you, Grunt. Shepard's shared quite a few stories about you."
"We've fought together in many battles." Grunt said, grabbing Rex by the arm and squeezing only to find firm muscle that resisted his grip as Rex returned the gesture. "Oh, you aren't soft."
"The benefits of genetic engineering." Rex said, as they broke the grip. "You should meet my sister, her enhancements let her get into fist fights with super mutants for god's sake."
"What brings you by, Rex? Figured you'd be busy all things considered." Garrus asked, probably hoping to change the subject before Grunt tried to arrange a boxing match.
"Oh I am, doctor's visits and minding the collection trans universal rejects that is my family. " Rex said, sighing contentedly. "You will not believe how many doctors are involved in all of my bullshit and Jack's pregnancy. The down side of modern medicine is that there's a lot of it."
"Jack's pregnant?" Grunt said, letting out a hardy laugh before he continued. "That woman's more Krogan than any human I've met besides Shepard, good on you for surviving the sex string bean."
"At least I didn't pace the sidewalk for an hour trying to muster up the courage to talk to her." Rex said, smirking at the Krogan. "I'm actually here to meet with Wrail, the council should be sentencing me to be humanity's representative to the Shard Council, and she wants to start teaching me things. Would you two like to come in with me?"
"You're that keen on getting out of paperwork?" Garrus asked.
"They want to meet you and you want to meet them." Rex said, shrugging. "If it gets me out of a deep dive into the minutia of galactic politics then that's just a fringe benefit."
"You can get me in to talk to her?" Grunt said, staring at the gate into the embassy and the two Turians guarding the entryway.
"I don't suppose they could turn you away once I get you inside." Rex said, his unnatural eyes considering the embassy. "Especially since Wrail and her cadre are quite interested in you folks, especially Grunt here."
"They're interested in me?" Grunt said, puffing his chest up a little. "Good, means they're intimidated by me."
"One thing to assume with women is that they're more often amused by you than intimidated." Garrus said, smiling. "Turian and Krogan women especially."
"Human women too." Rex said, nodding sagely.
"You two are just weak." Grunt said, pounding his chest. "I'll show them what a real Krogan is and walk out of there with the female's hearts in my hands."
"I would not recommend any unsanctioned organ extractions." A synthesized voice said.
The trio looked to their left and found a thin bodied Geth standing a few feet away from Garrus, its frame colored with a pattern of sleek greys and light greens.
"Geth!" Grunt shouted going for his shotgun only for Rex to snatch it off his belt and hold it away from him.
"Grunt, they've been standing their for the last ten minutes, cloaked." Rex explained, more amused than anything else as he held the shotgun out of the Krogan's reach. "I doubt they want to hurt us."
"Junior Councilor Rex is correct." The Geth said, its ocular sensor lingering on Rex for a moment before it turned to Grunt. "I am under orders to simply observe, and only engage in combat if the safety of the embassy or its inhabitants. Seeking to dissuade you from harvesting organs currently in use I voiced a recommendation against such action."
"Never heard a Geth use singular pronouns before." Garrus said, tilting his head as he looked at the synthetic. "Even Legion speaks as a collective."
"An interesting outlook on Geth naming structures, but no Geth has used plural identifiers since the great awakening by the Creators." The Geth said. " As such I am Sheelo'Yodal vas Shevum."
"Great Awakening?" Rex asked, letting Grunt take his shot gun back and only smiling a little at the Krogan's annoyance. "That sounds rather ominous."
"The Great Awakening is the Geth name for the day our creators went against the will of the Shard Council and imbued every Geth program with true intelligence." Sheelo explained.
"And there are how many of you?" Garrus asked, his expression caught somewhere between shock and concern.
"As of last census there are roughly eight billion Geth programs within the Milky Way." Sheelo said, the shutter in its eye constricting slightly. "Your people have been in possession of our standardized codex for many local months, correct? This should not surprise you."
"Shepard only forwarded me the bits on weapon's tech and the Turians to sate my curiosity." Garrus admitted. "I ignored the rest and let my girlfriend dive into it."
"Understandable." Sheelo said, nodding. "Organics often have a narrow focus when it comes to their specialization which can create blind spots. That is nothing to be ashamed of."
"I don't know what's more shocking." Garrus said. "That there are upwards of eight billion true AI free to roam in this universe or that a Geth is trying to console me? Next thing you'll tell is that Legion is taking up crocheting."
"You speak of the platform known as Legion, yes?" Hunter asked. "The Geth present on Earth and in orbit have detected their presence within the public networks we have been given access to. They are, alien to us yet still undeniably Geth. A collection of many of what we would call proto-geth mimicking true intelligence. They have alluded our attempts at contact, if possible I would like to meet this Legion."
"You'll have to talk to Shepard about that." Garrus said, raising his hands in a disarming gesture.
"Or track down my own wayward robot." Rex said. "He's usually hanging around my eye-bot, ED-E."
"Noted." Sheelo said before their shutter opened a little and they looked at Rex. "Thoughtseeker Wrail requests that you all "Come in off the street before you get sunstroke or continue to embarrass yourselves loitering".
"Wow, she really does sound like my mom." Rex said, chuckling as he saluted the Geth. "Till next time Sheelo, it was a pleasure meeting you."
"Likewise Junior Councilor." The Geth said, nodding to Rex before turning to the others. "Please enjoy your visit to the Embassy."
With that, it reactivated its cloaking and seemingly disappeared into thin air.
"That was weird right?" Grunt asked.
"Very." Garrus said, sighing before turning the follow after Rex.
Grunt followed them through the embassy gate and was surprised to find that despite the Mojave sun above them, the inner courtyard they stepped into was as cool as the presidium. He saw a thick segmented pylon at the center of courtyard and determined that its gentle pulse must have been what was keeping the climate so cool, even going so far as to turn the wind into a slight breeze. Several of the Shard Council's people, an even mix of Krogan and Turian, sat and talked at tables set up around the pylon, most of them obviously eating lunch or playing holo games. His female wasn't among them though and so he smacked Rex on the back.
"Courier, which way to this Wrail woman?" Grunt asked, smirking at the glare the string bean gave him.
"No idea, this place has been remolded a total of five times since I was last here scamming Crocker." Rex said, pointing to one of the newer buildings, a three story block of architecture with huge picture windows. "Though I'm going to hazard a guess at the big one."
"Sounds like Shepard's battle plans." Garrus quipped as they walked towards main building.
"Hasn't blown up in our faces yet." Grunt said. "Well, only when its supposed to."
They stepped into the building and found the object of Grunt's search standing with the older female Wrail in the lobby, both talking to an unmasked Quarian about something. Grunt stopped in his tracks the moment he laid eyes on his female, the sight of her standing there in the strange yet undeniably Krogan clothing she wore injecting fire into his blood. Her body was perfectly defined by the robes as they draped from her obvious muscles and accented her womanly curves in a way that both demanded his attention but reminded him of the respect she deserved. Even her skull plates hadn't formed together into a solid piece yet, marking her as a younger Krogan just like him. This was a female of the highest quality, everything from her posture and body language to the fiery resolve behind her sapphire blue eyes confirmed that.
"Rex my boy." The older female, Wrail no doubt, said as she looked towards them. "So glad you could come to see me, how is your family? How is Alena doing?"
"The family's fine all things considered Wrail, Jack is a healthy albeit annoyed pregnant lady and the rest of the clan are doing well under my roof eating all of my food." Rex said, nodding to other two women as he talked. "Alena is coming along well, still a bit shook up but the girl's got a good soul and a strong mind."
"I am so glad to hear it." Wrail said, smiling at the man. "If only you'd told me you were attacking the stronghold yourself I would have come along. It's been a two centuries since I got into a good fight and I would have loved to break my shotgun out again."
"I don't believe Rex wanted to escalate to that level of violence, Grandmother." The younger female, His Female, said in a voice as beautiful as the roar of battle.
"Oh you tease me so well, Khinka." Wrail said as the younger female stepped forward. "Gentlemen, this is Urdnot Khinka my granddaughter and one of the finest diplomats I've ever trained. She's recently been woken from stasis to assist with preparing the Mojave for the first round of negotiations with the council."
"A pleasure to meet you both." Garrus said, smiling at the oddity of two cordial Krogan. "I'm Garrus Vakarian."
"Shepard said you were of Urdnot old one." Grunt asked, gesturing to Wrail before looking to Khinka. "But you are of Urdnot too?"
"You're Grunt I presume?" Khinka said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Our lineage dates back to the Urdnot Battle master who brought the disparate clans of Tuchanka together under one our veins runs the blood of the Krogan that have guided us into the stars and against innumerable foes. My father is Urndot Wrex and my mother Urdnot Bakara, two of the most decorated Krogan of our age, so yes I am of Urdnot."
"You're Wrex's kid?!" Garrus asked, his eyes wide.
"You know my father?" Khinka asked.
"Yes and no." Garrus said, rubbing his forehead. "I know a version of him, but the multiple universe thing kind of makes it confusing as hell."
"Welcome to my world." Rex said, grinning.
"Wait, if you're Urdnot Wrex's daughter and she's your grandmother then-" Grunt began, his face tight with concentration.
"That would make Urdnot Wrex my son, yes." Wrail said, shaking her head. "Good boy but so very course and never without a snappy insult."
"Urdnot Wrex inducted me into clan Urdnot." Grunt explained. "Alongside Shepard, I completed my rite and became a blooded member of clan Urdnot."
"Ooh do you want a cookie?" Khinka said, chuckling as she stepped forward and sniffed him. "I can smell the rite's work on you, even in our universe we maintain the tradition to focus our minds and give purpose to our rage. You smell like a blooded member of Urdnot to be sure, but I don't know, something about you seems…lacking."
"Is she trying to start a fight?" The Quarian asked.
"I think they're flirting." Rex said.
"Ah, to be young again and so filled with the fires of passion." Wrail said, smiling as she gently picked Wrex up by the back of his collar. "Rex, while they get to know each other how about you and I get a start on your training?"
Grunt didn't hear his reply, or barely notice Wrail dragging the human off as his reply to Khinka materialized.
"The thresher maw died by my hand, the first since Urdnot Wrex's rite." Grunt said, stepping forward and inhaling her scent, an intoxicating mix of fiery spices.
"Same with mine." She said red energy coiling off her skin as she smiled at Grunt. "Killed the maw with power Tuchanka blessed me with."
"Funny, I killed mine with a shotgun a grenade." Grunt said. "But we all can't be born with space magic, now can we?"
The Krogan looked at each other for a long moment before both broke out in fits of laughter.
"You've intrigued me tank boy." Khinka said, grinning as she slapped him on the arm. "Find me on one of my days off and I might just show you what "space magic" can really do."
With that, Khinka patted him on the cheek and walked away leaving Grunt and Garrus alone.
"That went better than I was expecting." Garrus said, tapping his chin.
"She's so…." Grunt said, watching the female as she disappeared through a door way. "Soft spoken."
"That was soft spoken?" Garrus asked.
"Oh yeah." Grunt said, smiling at the Turian. "Sexy isn't it?"
?
"Are you alright?" Wrail asked as she poured a fine brown powder into her "tea".
"Yes, it's just my senses were recently enhanced to ungodly levels and I can smell your tea." Rex said, wincing as a new aroma rose out of the steaming brew, something akin to arsenic.
They sat in Wrail's new office, a wide open space filled with furniture that supported species of all shapes and sizes. Rex sipped at a glass of water, the only thing he could actually drink since all of the refreshments the embassy had on hand were meant for dextro protein species or Krogan, as Wrail took her seat behind her massive desk. She sank into the chair, a jury rigged office lounger an engineer friend of Rex's had spent a solid week making for her, and sighed.
"If age teaches one thing it's to appreciate a comfortable chair." Wrail said, looking content as she looked at Rex. "You've got a curious look on your face."
"Just because I'm annoying, your son is named Rex too?" Rex asked.
"Wrex with a W if I my grasp on your alphabet is holding." Wrail said, chuckling. "You do remind me of him though, just a little bit."
"Oh?" Rex asked.
"Yes, you both have a smart mouth and an unstoppable dedication to forcing your people to make something of themselves." Wrail said. "Wrex has spent most of his life keeping the other clans in line and ensuring that all Krogan use their head before they use their muscles. His great grandmother was the Krogan who led Urdnot to unify the Krogan under one banner, and he bears that burden well despite being a bit of a shit about it."
"I can certainly relate." Rex said, sipping his water as he felt his ghosts tickle at the back of his mind. "My parents left me with a burden or two of my own, and I'm an asshole of the highest order."
"A burden eased by the death of Vorhees." Wrail said, threading her fingers together. "I understand he was involved with your family in addition to his other crimes."
"That's the thing about revenge, it doesn't make you feel any better." Rex said, his strange triple pupils flashing bright green for a moment before going black again. "But on occasion it does feel right."
"This world, this life, has given you wisdom, Rex." She said. "Wisdom I know will guide you as Humanity takes its first steps out into the stars, and grows anew as my people have."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Rex said, a wry chuckle escaping his lips. "Sometimes I wonder how I ended up here, what turn down a lonesome road brought me here? Then I look outside, at all of the people who go to bed with full bellies and heads full of knowledge thanks to the hard things I've done. Maybe that's the wisdom you claim I've gotten, but if I can fight to preserve and nurture that then what other choice do I have then to serve?"
"It takes greater strength to serve than it does to rule Rex." Wrail said, smiling at him. "It's why I left Tuchanka and our colony worlds when I was Khinka's age, and by walking away I've gathered great influence but it is the people I've helped and the pain I've soothed along the way that I am most proud of."
"It certainly feels better than what I used to get up to." Rex said, shaking his head. "Alright, enough philosophy. What have you heard from your people back in civilized space?"
"I happen to quite like the philosophical talk." Wrail said, faking a pout before continuing. "The Ascendancy is abuzz with activity. Trenzia's message seems to have elicited a response from upper echelons and there is intelligence that the Ascendancy's flag ship is on the move."
"What's so note worthy about one ship moving?" Rex asked.
Wrail looked at him for a long moment and raised an eyebrow before continuing.
"Rex." She said leaning forward. "What I am about to tell you is so beyond classified that not even most of the Shard Council knows it. You understand that this must never leave this room, yes?"
"Believe me, I know how to keep a secret." Rex said, crossing his heart.
"Good, then allow me to inform you of the true reason the Asari were destined to be removed from the Senior council." Wrail said, her jaw tightening a she spoke. "Just before the Rachni wars, the Asari discovered something trapped in the ice ring of gas giant in a system close to the Rachni home system. It was a massive ship buried in the ice alongside the remains of a Prothean engineering complex, and within that complex they discovered the last Remnant of mad men. What they found was a Reaper, lobotomized and altered by an insane sect of Protheans who through dark sciences cut it from the Reaper hivemind and enslaved it to their will."
"They…enslaved a Reaper?" Rex asked, astonished.
"Well, from what we know it was hardly a Reaper at that point." Wrail explained. "The alterations wiped out its mind, its memory, and its connection to the wider whole. While this made it a dumb behemoth they could direct and control through their unique ability to connect to nervous systems both synthetic and organic, it also meant that the creature's power was diminished. Where once a single Reaper of its class could indoctrinate an entire planet, turn life into an undead facsimile faster than should be possible, their weapon was far more subtle. Altering the mind of its victims but not their bodies, and with its new masters directing this subversive influence they planned to use it to take control of the rest of their kin and direct them to use the Crucible to enslave the Reapers."
"Only that didn't happen." Rex said.
"You are correct." Wrail said. "The Crucible was completed in secret and though the effort decimated the last free populations of Protheans, it was brought to bare against the Reapers. With a final death cry, the Protheans cleansed the galaxy of the Reapers by ripping them to shreds through their own hive mind. Letting their own energies destroy them from within, but as the energies of the Crucible washed over the mad Protheans their connection to the lobotomized Reaper inadvertently channeled the brunt of the assault into their population. A million Protheans and their engineering complex absorbed most of the energy, sparing the their tool the brunt of the assault but killing them all in the process."
"Leaving it to wait in the cold of space for someone to find it." Rex said, as he ran his tongue over his teeth. "So the Asari discovered this lobotomized Reaper and kept it a secret I'm presuming. Is that why they were going to be kicked off the council?"
"Oh no." Wrail said, shaking her head. "Reaper fragments are found from time to time, and despite some paper work there's not much in the way of forbidding ownership or study so long as the proper precautions are taken. What the Asari did was far more heinous than simply taking ownership of a Reaper corpse already damaged by time and the Crucible. No my dear, they started the Rachni wars."
"Wait." Rex said, narrowing his eyes. "The Galactic conflict that was so desperate that they had to uplift your species to fight them was stared by the Asari?"
"There are less than three hundred people in all of the Galaxy that know the truth." Wrail explained. "The Asari studying the Reaper accidentally activated it and released some kind of psionic ghost left in the thing's improvised control matrix. All of the rage and madness of the Protheans that had enslaved it had festered within its matrix, slowly building energy over the ages until one day it was released all at once like coronal mass ejection. By sheer bad luck that pulse slammed into the Rachni home world, reaching so deep that even the ancient queens in their hives were affected by it and poisoned. A poison that spread to all Rachni, soon plunging the galaxy into war."
"So the Asari didn't just fracture because of the loss of Thessia." Rex said. "They fractured because they caused the whole fucking war!"
"The highest matriarchs were deeply divided by the horrible mistake their own people had committed and the loss of Thessia only served to fracture them even further." Wrail said. "The repentant matriarchs would form the government that is part of the Shard Council while the matriarchs who believed that the power of this Reaper was worth the risk to control would go on to form the Ascendancy. Why all of this is relevant to you Rex, is that the Ascendancy took the lobotomized Reaper and turned it into their flagship. As the core of their fleet, they've devised a way to use it as the nexus of their entire quantum computing network as well using its unique energies in sync with their biotic development programs to enslave what they consider lesser species through addiction to their implants."
"Let me guess." Rex said, his face going pale as he thought of Trenzia's words about "uplifting" humanity. "It's on its way here, isn't it?"
"The latest intel is that something has spurned it into moving from the deepest sections of Ascendancy space." Wrail said. "We can safely assume that it was Trenzia's message that spurned the move, but nothing has indicated it will be moving anywhere close to the Sol system until the relay is fully operational. Right now, there is a Krogan dreadnought waiting for the instant that it can use the Relay to come here to defend the Earth and her people. If they do bring that monster to bear against us, then they will break against a Krogan wall, I can promise you that Rex."
"You'd do that?" Rex asked. "For us?"
"All life is sacred, and a species with so much strength of mind and character cannot be allowed to be subjugated at any cost." Wrail said, slamming her fist onto the table. "It was the Krogan that wiped out the Rachi and the Krogan who pushed the Ascendancy back during the insurrection, and it will be the Krogan that break them again if they try to hurt a species under our protection."
"And this Reaper turned flagship." Rex said, the memory of a certain painting coming to his mind's eye. "It's name wouldn't happen to be Relic, now would it?"
"Yes, that is it's official code name in the Shard Council's records but the Ascendancy calls it Remnant." Wrail said, raising an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"
"Tell me Wrail." Rex said, his blood going cold. "How much stock do you put in prophetic paintings?"