Epilogue: What Now?
Post Attack on the Citadel
Day 1:
Liara regains consciousness while Shepard is busy speaking with the Council. Shepard is relieved to see her friend awake when she returns to the ship.
Day 3:
The Normandy is cleared to leave the docks once more. Shepard begins work on cleaning out geth outposts while she struggles to find a way to avoid the events of the Amada system.
Liara is given the file retrieved from Vigil. The damaged VI was unable to completely translate everything that was given to Shepard and Liara is asked to help Shepard interpret what she is able to translate.
Day 4:
Shepard receives a message from the Council. They are also working to translate the information provided by Vigil, but cast doubts on the veracity of the material considering the only person who witnessed Shepard retrieve said information is Liara T'soni – the daughter of a known traitor, no one knows who might have interacted with the VI prior to Shepard finding it, and there is no way to verify the data wasn't tampered with after it was collected. They plan to send someone else to Ilos to speak with Vigil and to try to determine if the information provided by the VI is reliable. Shepard already knows that won't work.
Day 6:
Garrus begins receiving back channel messages from his contacts on C-Sec. After the attack on the Citadel, they are ready to listen to what he has to say.
Day 10:
Shepard receives a private message from Councilor Valern asking her for a private meeting. The Normandy returns to the Citadel so that Shepard can speak with Valern while Garrus meets with his contacts.
Valern requests Shepard's discretion about their meeting privately, he doesn't wish for the others on the Council to know just yet. He tells Shepard that he has spent some time reviewing what he could of the prothean files and had many conversations at length with Captain Kirrahe and his men. He tells her he will send her what salarian support he can and in the meantime, will continue to attempt to convince Councilor's Tevos and Councilor Sparatus. Shepard is pleased to see the changes in attitude and encourages him to collaborate with Anderson.
Garrus reports that several of his contacts have agreed to begin pushing for preparations for the war on the Citadel but that there really isn't a lot else that they can do to help.
Day 11:
Shepard confides in Liara about Jane. She holds no noticeable doubts over what Shepard has to say. Shepard takes that as a good sign and tells Liara of the important roles she will be needed to play in upcoming events. It is a difficult conversation and seems to cause significant distress to Liara.
Liara agrees that she will go to Mars for Shepard to find the plans for the Conduit, but she will not do so until she knows that Shepard is safe and has avoided the events of the Amada system. She says that she does not wish to have to search for Shepard's corpse, nor turn it over to Cerberus but she will do as she must should the events of the Amada system come to pass. Liara begs Shepard to not even go to the Amada system and to tell the Council to send someone else instead.
Shepard contacts Admiral Hackett to see what the Alliance is doing to prepare for the reaper invasion. Admiral Hackett assures her that he has taken her warnings seriously and is doing everything he can to convince the Alliance High Command of the impending threat. He tells her that they have increased their recruitment efforts, are patrolling Alliance space, and have begun to stock resources as much as possible. He tells her that there isn't much else that he can do until the reapers hit.
She tells him that the collectors might soon start abducting human colonies on the edges of Alliance space and urges him to send reinforcements to their locations. He promises to do what he can. She tells him that she has reason to believe that there are plans for a weapon capable of defeating the reapers in the prothean ruins on Mars. Hackett agrees to have the research teams there start looking and to allow Liara T'soni to join the team.
Day 12:
Tali is returned to the Migrant Fleet with all of the geth data they were able to collect. Shepard promises to send any more that she finds to Tali. Tali vows to make her people aware of the seriousness of the reaper threat and help them to prepare to take what actions they can.
Shepard tells Garrus that she intends to make a video warning of the reaper threat and send it to the military of every known species. Garrus warns Shepard that if such a video got out it would likely incite panic in the masses, leading to an uptick in violence, hoarding, riots, and looting. Shepard tells him that she knows, but she thinks it needs to be done anyway. She tells him that the people need to be prepared to defend themselves if the Council won't.
Shepard's message:
"My name is Commander Shepard. Many of you might recognize me as the first human Spectre. I'm recording this video today in the hopes that my message won't fall on deaf ears. As we stand today, the galaxy is facing an approaching threat that we are not yet ready to defend against. The ship that many of you saw on the Citadel – Sovereign was not geth technology, but one of many to come. Sovereign was what the protheans called a reaper, and they were responsible for the downfall of the protheans."
"I am not telling you this to incite panic, or to cause terror – although I accept that will likely be a consequence of my doing so. I am telling you this because I think that you have the right to know. I am telling you this because the galaxy is going to need all of the help it can get."
"If you are hearing these words and you are in a position of power, then I ask that you do what you can to prepare for what our future holds. Gather resources, gather men, train yourselves, and seek new recruits – whatever it is that you can do."
"It is not my intention for this video to be aired to the public but I understand that is a potential outcome. If you are a civilian and you hear this, know that your military is going to need more able bodied men and women who are willing to fight for their people and for the galaxy. Make the right decision to use this knowledge to help the war effort and not hinder it, lives are at stake."
Day 14:
Shepard begins receiving messages from various government officials. Some request more information, some promise support, while others dismiss her as a lunatic. Shepard is disheartened at how many there are of the last.
Wrex tells Shepard that he's secured passage back to Tuchanka. She offers to take him there herself but he insists she stay on track clearing out the geth and rounding up support. He says he has a few stops to make along the way. Wrex tells Shepard that he's going to toss Saren's head into the sun of Aralakh before knocking a few heads around on Tuchanka to whip his people into shape.
Day 20:
Shepard's video is leaked to the public. Wide spread panic begins. Riots begin to break out in more heavily populated areas but are quickly quelled by the authority figures that were prepared for the possibility.
The Council demands that the video be completely removed from the extranet and all methods of public access. A statement is issued by the Council denying Shepard's claims and ensuring the public that the Council has things under control.
Shepard is publicly reprimanded and forced to recant her statements or face imprisonment. She is charged with a fine in the sum of 1,000,000 credits to aid in the repairs of damage done to the Citadel by rioters. Shepard is aware that she was let off easy, likely thanks to Anderson and Valern.
Alliance High Command has refused to send Shepard any reinforcements insisting that they are needed to stay in Alliance space to protect humanity's interests and to prevent political backlash if they are reported to be gathering in allied territory.
Day 21:
All of the Council races report an alarming rise in people showing up to enlist in the military. C-Sec also reports an increase in the number of applications it has received in the last galactic standard day.
Jane expresses hope and optimism.
Valern tells Shepard that her actions with releasing the video was reckless but that it does not change the fact that he is preparing the salarians for war. He cannot, however, aid her directly without a majority vote from the Council. Tevos and Sparatus are still doubtful of the threat. Attempts to access Vigil on Ilos were fruitless, as the VI was no longer functioning.
Day 22:
Shepard records fail safe video messages to be delivered to everyone that was on her team including Joker. The videos are set to be automatically sent in the event that Shepard does not log into her account for 15 consecutive days. In the videos she explains to each of them about Jane, about her death, and impending resurrection at the hands of Cerberus. She begs them all to understand why she felt she needed to keep this all from them, and that she did her best to keep this from happening. In the end, either she was unable to prevent her death or she decided that the risk to the galaxy was too high if she attempted to change this part of her cycle.
She creates secondary videos for Garrus, Ashley, Liara, and Joker. In the video, she tells Garrus that she loves him and that she hopes that he can forgive her. She begs him not to let her death be the thing that destroys him. To Ashley, she pleads for understanding and promises Ashley that although it may look like she has defected to Cerberus she is only doing what must be done to save the galaxy. To Liara, Shepard apologizes for how hard all of this must be on her, but thanks her for her promise to do what must be done. To Joker, she assures him that despite the dream she had foretelling of her death in the Amada system and regardless of whatever role he may or may not have actually ended up playing, that she in no way blamed him for this and that he needed to know it was a choice she made.
Jane asks if Shepard is resigned to dying in the Amada system. Shepard assures her she hasn't given up hope yet.
Day 25:
Shepard discreetly attempts to contact Cerberus, requesting a meeting with the Illusive Man. She does not know if her message was received or not.
Day 29:
Shepard forwards all geth related information that she has to Tali.
She has still not received a response from Cerberus.
Day 32:
Shepard makes one last desperate plea to the Council for them to take further action in preparing for the reaper invasion. She is warned by Councilor Sparatus that the gratitude that the Council felt after the attack on the Citadel will only allow Shepard so much more latitude and that he is beginning to agree with Ambassador Udina's assessment that she is becoming more trouble than she is worth. The Council devolved into arguing amongst themselves as first Anderson and then Valern came to her defense. Tevos, as usual, attempted to remain neutral and diplomatic. Shepard told Joker to cut the call.
Day 38:
Shepard still has not received a response from Cerberus. She attempts to send another message.
Jane begins to lose hope that Shepard will find a way to bypass dying in the Amada system, and consequently spending two years of precious time being brought back by Cerberus.
Day 45:
Despite all efforts, Shepard has yet to devise a plan that she felt could guarantee her continued success in fighting the reaper threat and still avoid the events of the Amada system. She secures passage for all non-essential personal aboard the Normandy to the Citadel. Dr. Tulina refuses to leave unless Shepard orders her away. Shepard does not.
She has still not received a response from Cerberus.
Shepard spends the night crying into Garrus' arms while Jane rages in her head.
Day 46:
Shepard sets course for the Omega nebula. It is all that remains to be cleared of geth. She plans to save the Amada system for last; still hoping that Cerberus will contact her or something else will fall into place.