Chapter 83. Sham Sacrifice


Six Hour Later, 1. April 2417 AD, Enroute to Tuchanka, HSASV Normandy

After making her daily route through the Normandy, Shepard had decided to go and check up on their pilot, who was mostly isolated from the crew at the helm of the frigate. Prior to getting here, she'd spoke with Jack, who was settling in nicely, had a brief chat with Garrus, who'd told her that he was doing fine but didn't exactly have the time to speak right now due to family issues, talked to Callius, who'd told her about a new development regarding the Talon she'd found on Omega and finally gone to see Leng in the armory and Mordin in the lab. The former didn't have much to say and the latter had been so occupied with studying the Seeker specimen and the footage of the attack on Freedom's Progress that she hadn't dared to interrupt him more than by asking if he needed anything. He hadn't and now here she was.

"Everything in order up here, Joker?" she said, prompting the pilot to spin around in his chair and EDI's avatar to appear on the socket to his right.

"Everything peachy, Commander," he said before shooting a glance at the blue ball of light. "Except of course for the cyber overlord trying to hijack our ship. We should pull the plug. Like. Right now."

She looked at EDI, who evidently seemed capable of registering the gesture as an unspoken question.

"I was not hijacking Lieutenant Moreau's flight controls, Commander. I simply suggested a more optimized path to reduce our travel time to Tuchanka by sixty-six point five four minutes."

"Sure felt like you were pulling on the stick from where I was sitting."

"As I've previously explained to Lieutenant Moreau, I am incapable of taking over control of any human-operated systems of the Normandy. What you felt was either the product of your own subconscious movements or an anomaly within the ship's systems that I have yet to detect."

"Yeah. Like you ever actually tried," the pilot rebutted. "Commander, I'm telling you, she's already planning our subjugation. It's just a matter of time."

"I see you two are getting along nicely," Shepard replied while folding her arms and looking at Joker. "After she got activated, I spoke to Cerberus about her."

"Her?"

"EDI. I talked about her with Harper," Shepard clarified. "He told me that she can't take over your controls and even if she could, she wouldn't do it. It's not in her programming to have any malicious intent against us," she stated. "I don't see why he'd lie about that," if there was one thing Shepard was ready to trust Cerberus' leader in, it was that he ultimately wanted them to succeed. Yes. She was sure that he was keeping a ton of things from her. As of lately even Kaidan's whereabouts had been added to that list. But he wouldn't lie, not if it meant risking their mission. Shady black ops leader or not, at the end of the day, they were on the same side and they both wanted to stop the Collectors.

"Yeah. I'm sure that's what the quarians thought as well before the geth pulled a fast one on all of Rannoch," he switched into an impression of a quarian accent. "They would never do that. They can't!"

"The geth were an unshackled swarm intelligence that accidentally developed sentience due to reaching overwhelming program numbers. Unlike myself, they were never supposed to have the degree of autonomy they developed. Comparing the geth to me is as faulty as comparing them to you," EDI stated in return.

"I'll remind you of that when you try to space us," Joker retorted.

"Emptying the Normandy's atmosphere would be an ineffective method of terminating all life on board. The violent decompression could damage vital systems with inferior anchoring," the AI stated. "The fire extinguishing system is far more effective. If the marking elements are removed, the gas is odorless and invisible. No one would notice until a terminal amount has entered the lungs," she went on. "In the simulations run prior to leaving Cronos Station, this has been determined to be the most effective method of eliminating a successful hostile boarding party and returning the Normandy into HSA custody without causing substantial damage to its equipment."

Shepard was taken back.

"But wouldn't that kill the crew as well?"

"This protocol may only be engaged in the event of the premature deaths of all crew members as the result of a boarding event. Only then am I authorized to purge the Normandy in this manner to prevent a hostile takeover of its weapon and stealth systems. Should this method fail, I am also authorized to overload the drive core and cause a chain reaction that ensures asset denial," the blue ball replied before it seemed to turn to Shepard. "My behavioral analysis indicate that you were not informed of this."

"No. I was not," Shepard replied after a second of surprise. In retrospective it would make sense that the HSA had some back-up in place to prevent a ship like the Normandy to be taken. But she hadn't pictured anything so remotely insidious as poisoning everyone with the fire safeties.

"See! She can kill us all if she wants to!" Joker called, evidently reassured in his theory.

"As long as a single allied occupant of the craft is alive, I cannot activate any of these protocols, Lieutenant Moreau. It would require a substantial overwrite for me to put in place measures that could harm you," the AI stated before looking at her with her avatar. "The only people with the authority to do so are you, the commanding officer, the next highest-ranking member of the crew, Lieutenant Commander Chakwas, and the acting helmsman of the Normandy, Lieutenant Moreau. If you were to file in a formal XO, they too would be granted the authority to overwrite my systems," EDI listed before her mouth blinked twice. "Please consider this a reminder to appoint a formal XO in the near future. Currently the position is filled by the officer in charge of spaceborne combat, First Lieutenant Nagato. However since he only serves in an auxiliary position, he does not have the clearances a formally appointed XO would acquire."

"Wait. I have to appoint an XO?" Shepard replied before raising her eyebrow. "That's not how this usually goes," in the HSA's navy there was a clear line of succession. It made it easier to track who was in charge as soon as the CIC got blown up during combat and half the command staff was dead.

"Due to the unusual circumstances and the sensitivity of this mission, an exception has been made."

"First Lieutenant Nagato," she looked at Joker. "You know the guy?"

"I hate the guy," Joker replied. "Please appoint someone else."

"Are there any requirements for the position, EDI?" she had someone in mind, obviously.

"The XO has to be an active-duty commissioned officer of preferably human origin," Well, that first part eliminated Kai. He was an NCO and in his own words the day he'd aim for a commission would be the day the world ended. With Alenko still absent and Lieutenant Nader being a bit too unproven for Shepard's liking, she'd run out of human options.

"Preferably human you said? Does that mean I could pick a non-human too?"

"For the duration of the mission, exceptions can be made."

She thought about it for a second and next her mind went to Garrus, but much like Leng, he failed the first part. He was neither active-duty, nor a commissioned officer. While his rank as a C-SEC detective could probably translated into something like a lieutenant, Garrus had left the C-SEC and the turian military as soon as his mandatory service had been over. Technically, and if one ignored what he'd done on Omega, he was a civilian right now, who was tagging along on a military mission similarly to the way Liara had done two years ago. The same could be said for Mordin. His time as a mission specialist was over and right now, he was just a scientific advisor who happened to be a trained covert operative. Hence the only other immediate option she could think of was Lieutenant Callius. While she was the last to come to mind, the N7 could objectively admit that the Blackwatch lieutenant was more than likely the most qualified for the job. Callius had been in the military longer than Shepard had been alive and she'd spent most of that time in a position that was not at all unlike that of an XO.

"For the time being, I'm appointing Lieutenant Callius as my XO."

"Understood Commander. I will prepare the necessary forms and send them to you and the lieutenant."

"Thank you, EDI," she stated before remembering how the AI worked. "That'll be all."

"Logging you out, Commander," then the blue avatar vanished and Joker looked at her.

"I'm telling you. She'll kill us all," he whispered.

She glanced at the destination locked into one of the holographic screen and cracked a smile.

"Would having Wrex on board put your mind at ease?"

"Big red lizard who can throw her server out the airlock with one arm while all of us are choking to deaht?" he asked before shrugging. "Yeah. Probably."

"Then I suggest you focus on getting us to Tuchanka for now, Joker. Take EDI's route," he shot her a look. "The sooner we get there, the sooner Wrex will be here to save you."

"Aye, aye ma'am."

While she didn't share the pilot's concern about their resident AI murdering all of them with fire-extinguishing gasses or a drive core explosion, Shepard was still looking forward to seeing Wrex again, which is why she'd made Tuchanka their immediate priority. She left the helm and sighed. If she could get him to go with her, that is.

From what she had been told, Wrex had been working hard to fulfill the promise he'd given her at Williams' funeral, namely that he'd unify Tuchanka in preparation for the arrival of the Reapers. He'd installed himself as the head of Clan Urdnot and had built as many alliances as he could. But in a very un-krogan fasion, most of them hadn't been based around killing the other clan leaders and their most loyal soldiers and asserting his dominance as a superior warlord, but instead on helping them survive on the irradiated wasteland that they called home. Unlike most of the aspiring warlords of Tuchanka, Wrex wasn't building a personal empire that only served himself. He was building a coalition that was trying to pull the krogan out of the ruins of their planet and unlike previous clan unions, this one could technically function without him.

And that was the problem. It could technically function without Wrex. But in reality, it relied on him to stay stable and true to its original intention. The former bounty hunter was the centerpiece and as soon as he left or died, his brother Wreav would step in and bring everything Wrex had built back down to the old ways. Since Wrex wasn't an idiot, it was likely that he was well aware of what his sibling was planning. Hence the odds of him actually saying yes to her request were slim to none and she wasn't going to blame him. In fact, she might even tell him to stay if he somehow said yes. On the grand scale of things, that would certainly be better for everyone and she liked to think that that was the decision she'd made, if it ever came to it. While one could argue that the N7 was wasting her time with the trip to Tuchanka if she thought about telling Wrex to stay no matter what his answer would be, there was another reason she wanted to seek out the planet, one that seemed to have gone strangely unnoticed by Cerberus up to now.

Wrex was old.

Very old.

He'd been alive since the Krogan Rebellions and as such was one of the few people who'd been around for the first time the Collectors had shown up. Given the fact that he'd been a drifter for pretty much his entire life and spent nearly a thousand years going about his business in the shadiest and most distant parts of the Terminus Systems, the odds of him having run into the Collectors at one point where, at least in Shepard's mind, rather high.

Even if he wouldn't join the crew, he might just help them crack this enigma a little.

Additionally she still wasn't entirely set on heading to Illium and recruiting Krios or going after Okeer and his research on Korlus and Tuchanka was a good destination to be to head into, no matter what direction she chose to go in afterwards. So stopping to see Wrex wasn't even that much of a detour.


One Hour Later, 2158 CE, THS Parnack

"I see, in that case I wish you good luck with your operation, General Kryik," Desolas said after the SLD commander finished his part of the report. Due to the nature of SLD's assignment and his personal experiences with the Reapers and the Harbinger, he and Kryik had talked regularly ever since the former auxiliary officer had been given command of the new division of the turian military, They were hosting the Council task force that was charged with investigating the worrying development in batarian space, which Desolas took as confirmation of what he'd been suspecting, namely that the Harbinger's invasion was a lot closer than most people were ready to believe. As such, he and Kryik spoke even more frequently now, even if Blackwatch was currently pursuing another objective far away from Hierarchy space.

"And I wish you luck with yours, General Arterius," the brown-plated turian replied before his mandibles shifted. "Have you found any more evidence of your theory regarding the abductions?"

"No. Not yet," Desolas shook his head. "Still, I don't think that this is a coincidence. The abductions started right around the time that SLD pinpointed as the beginning of the first spire constructions in batarian space. Both occurred immediately after Sovereign's destruction. There has to be a connection."

"I tend to agree with you," Kryik responded. "But without being able to explain what the Collectors would have to gain from working with the Reapers, I don't think you'll be able to convince any Primarch to give you further reinforcements. From what I understand, they're already not happy with you taking a substantial part of Blackwatch, our newest stealth frigate and half a fleet and maneuvering it around in semi-hostile Terminus space as it is. If you ask for more resources right now, they might just take everything away from you. Especially with the ongoing fortification efforts and the situation developing in batarian space."

"How are those progressing anyways? The efforts, I mean," Desolas inquired. "The reports haven't reached me yet," likely due to the Parnack being further away from Palaven Command than any other turian vessel.

"Emergency stockpiles on our worlds keep being expanded and it looks like an extension of the currently active mandatory service periods and a reactivation of the most recent soldiers to finish their terms will be passed, so our military shouldn't lose any more experienced soldiers for thetime being," the SLD general stated. "Furthermore the expansion of the outposts you oversaw continues. Point Artymek at the most southern location of the galactic rim and its sister bastion have finished the planetary fortifications and begun mining their respective primary relays. Word is, they are using just about every capital-class explosive we built in the last hundred years to lock up tight. The Engineering Corps report I read even stated that they're worried that they might destroy the relay as soon as the finished mine field gets triggered."

"Which will all have been for nothing if the Reapers arrive in batarian space first. Or anywhere else, really."

"We secured as much as we could but obviously it's not going to do anything until we figure out where they're coming from. But we always knew that."

Desolas felt his hands tighten behind his back. That was the major flaw with the defensive initiative he'd spearheaded after the battle of the Citadel. Turian space had been fortified but in the very likely even that the Reapers didn't arrive in turian space first, all the fortifications in the galaxy weren't going to stop them from going straight to Palaven. The mass relay network was too interconnected for that to ever occur.

"What about the weapon you've been developing?"

"Although there have been some setbacks with adapting the system to smaller land-based platforms, the shipborne Thanix cannons are ready for deployment to the fleet and several shipyards are already beginning the refitting process. Production is keeping up as well. We're starting with dreadnoughts and cruisers first. Then we move on to everything smaller. But if the Reapers are as close as you say," the general began.

"We won't be close to having refitted all our ships by the time they show up."

"No. We'll be lucky if we even manage to finish upgrading our home cluster fleets. At this point the navy has accepted that none of the ships on patrol duty are likely to ever even see a Thanix before we're fighting the Reapers. Since our current armament has proved incapable of damaging Leviathan-class vessels like Sovereign, that means that those ships will have to act as distractions and screening vessels for the Thanix-outfitted ships. If you want to be blunt about it, you could say that doctrine dictates that they catch the volleys in place of our upgraded ships so that our Thanix cannons live longer and do more damage. I know it's not pretty but-"

"That is what the ruthless calculus requires of us to stand a chance."

"Exactly," Kryik nodded before a burst of light suddenly shot into the darkened room.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, General Arterius, General Kryik," Veltax stated while standing in the door. "But it happened again."

Desolas mandibles pressed agains this white-plated, scarred face.

"Where?"

"New Canton, Sir."

He turned around.

"That's at the Verge border," nowadays that was practically HSA core space.

"Yes Sir. And it's also a lot more inhabited than the other two colonies."

"How many people live there?"

"Over a hundred thousand, Sir. Spread out over the planet."

"That's more than enough to warrant a significant garrison."

"Yes, Sir."

"Are they engaged?"

"The reports are still coming in, Sir, but it looks like they are."

He looked at Kryik.

"I have to go."

"I understand."


Ten Minutes Later, 1. April 2417 AD, New Canton, 282nd Armored Artillery Battalion, Provisionary HQ

"The capital?"

"Still no solid intel yet. Whatever they hit us with, it left a damn big mark. I just spoke to Shade-Lead. She says they just crossed the final hills, which puts them about five kilometers from the city limit. Already they're seeing a smoke pillar the size of the city. Debris and dust everywhere," he explained, seemingly turning paler with every word. "Given their intel, right now we're working under the assumption that New Canton Command and just about everyone inside the city didn't make it out."

Shit.

This place really was cursed, wasn't it?

First the Blood Pack and the Blitz and now this.

"Okay. What about this place?" he asked while pointing at one of the other three red-marked spot on the map being projected from the CIC of the base they were in.

"Mosberg?" the soldier replied. He nodded. He wasn't local, so he didn't know the name of the place. In fact, he was the absolute opposite of local. He'd only arrived hours ago and now he was being pushed into the role of battlefield commander based solely on the fact that the entire command staff of New Canton's garrison was dead or missing and that there were golden captain bars on his uniform. "Empty, Sir. The ASOC team we send in reports no activity, civilian or military alike. They searched the shelter, but found no one. They're infiltrating back into the woods again."

"And here?"

"Triangle Town?"

"If that's its name."

"Yes, Sir. It is."

"Well, what about it?"

"I send our remaining platoon of Vanguard bots there. But they haven't reported in since they reached the town limit. Either the blast fried their communications or they ran into a problem and can't report back anymore."

"Send a drone to check on them."

"Already enroute, Sir." the army lieutenant stated. "And if that goes dark as well, I'll send in a real recon team. We've got one more ASOC team on stand-by."

He sighed.

Still no good news.

"Understood. And here?"

"Fitzberg's just as empty as Mosberg, Sir. No one got to the shelter and our recon units aren't reporting any survivors in the streets either."

He bit his lip. History was really repeating for New Canton. Exactly hundred and three Minutes ago, an unknown ship had crossed the unguarded relay and headed straight to the colony, only stopping to annihilate the civilian comm-buoys. Luckily for them, or depending on the perspective unluckily for their enemy, New Canton did however have a back-up system, one that had been put in place in the wake of the last time the planet had been attacked unprovoked. As he'd been informed in the wake of the opening shot of the battle, hidden in the very cluttered asteroid belt of New Canton, was a series of military-grade comm-buoys, which had already alerted the larger HSA military to the attack. And thanks to those buoys, the only thing the captain needed to do to help win this battle was to wait for their backup to show up. That would literally be it. Given that this wasn't his usual role on the battle, he was beyond grateful for that.

"What about the crash site?"

"Infantry can't approach it yet. Still too many of the small flyers," the lieutenant sated. "But our Paladins seem to be doing the lord's work out there. They're crushing the bugs left and right. The perimeter's holding."

"Yes, Sir," the soldier saluted before turning around. Then a man in a naval uniform marked with an ordnance delivery group patch stepped up. While he didn't have any naval assets to direct right now, the soldier was still eager to do what he was trained to do, rain death over people's heads. While he was just as local as the captain, which meant that he wasn't and was just on New Canton for an exercise, the armored artillery battalion he'd found and the number of fighter wings that had survived the initial blast assured that he was still very much capable of coordinating strikes.

"Captain. If I may make a suggestion. We've got armor-piercing munitions and Hibana-incendiaries left. If we break open the hull and then light up the interior of the ship, we could end this, right now. You just have to get me a line to the major. I'll handle the rest. They'll fry they ever make it outside."

"They didn't kill those colonists, Lieutenant Commander. They took them."

"No one could've survived that crash."

"We don't know that. If those bugs are walking out, chances are there are still some human survivors in that ship as well. I'm not going to burn them alive and neither are you. Is that clear?"

Although they were the same rank, a naval lieutenant commander translated directly to a marine captain, the order still seemed to catch on with the ODG officer after a second of gritted teeth.

"Yes Captain."

"Good. Now go and coordinate with the major on site. See if he needs danger-close support."

The man nodded and turned around to a radio, leaving the captain to his own devices for a few seconds.

After years of military service, he was finally in the same roll his old man had always wanted him to be in, commanding instead of fighting, and he really couldn't claim to see what was so appealing about it.

"Don't see where earlier concern came from. Seem to handle new role extraordinarily well," the voice of the person he'd arrived with earlier stated.

Kaidan turned around and glanced at the grey-skinned alien leaning against the bunker wall behind him. This wasn't how any of this was supposed to go. They'd gone to New Canton because that's where the trail had led to. No one had expected a fight. It was supposed to be a quiet in and out, which was why they had landed on a smaller secondary landing stripe instead of the main spaceport, which would've been much closer to their objective and saved them the commute through the massive forest that covered just about every part of New Canton's northern continent.

But after a sudden attack on the capital and the destruction of the city center by an unknown foe, the 'quiet in and out' was gone and the practically finished Spectre found himself in an unusual position. He was one of the highest-ranking living HSA officer on the planet and despite never having led anything larger than a biotic platoon, he'd been drafted to act as an auxiliary field commander and force coordinator while the highest-ranking living staff-officer by the name of Major Kurnik, was occupied leading from the front at their main theatre. Although their roles really should've been switched, especially given the lack of other surviving staff officers, Kurnik's unique weapons platform, a Paladin Suit, and their current situation dictating that he and his mech were more useful in the thick of a the fight than he was leading behind the lines.

Hence Kaidan hadn't argued and stepped in to take Kurnik's role. To complete the newly given task, he had collected a cadre of junior officers, all lieutenants, first lieutenants and one Lieutenant Commander. They had set up inside a tac-com bunker hidden underneath the HQ of an armored artillery battalion, which had been stationed on New Canton in the wake of the Blood Pack invasion. Due to being situated in a fortified base camp far outside the colonial capital, the base, its armored vehicles and most importantly its soldiers had survived the blast practically unscathed and as such were able to provide a bulk of the forces currently fighting back the invasion.

While the officers manned computer terminals and radios at the edges of the provisional CIC, Alenko was standing at the center holo table, which was depicting various battlefields at once and doing what Kurnik had ordered him to do. Keep an overview of the larger battle and react accordingly to any moves the hostile force made.

He was out of his depth and he knew it. But they had to win, so he'd learn on the fly.

The biotic allowed himself one second of not paying close attention to the developing situation and turned his full attention at his companion, a salarian in black armor with golden highlights, who bore the white Spectre sigil on his shoulder, similar to most of his colleagues.

"I'll ask you again, Jondum. Do you know who these guys are?"

"Why sudden mistrust?" his Spectre supervisor replied and he shot him a look. "Known each other for nearly two years. Never lied to you, have I?" He shot him a look. He didn't buy it, not this time.

"Fine. What makes you think I know?"

"You're awfully calm considering the two of us are standing right in the middle of a god damn first contact war," he retorted, "and you're not even trying to reach the Council to tell them what's happening right now, even if you had the option or nearly two hours."

The salarian blinked once and then pushed himself off the wall.

"Good observations. Learned something from me after all," the salarian stated before walking to the table and, as if he was already familiar with the human technology, started to manipulate the hologram. First he cornered off a section for personal use. Next he picked out and enlarged the depiction of the roughly seven-hundred meter long ship that had been shot down forty minutes ago. He spun it until one could see the end from which the aliens were streaming out of, which used to be the top half of the ship. Then Jondum tapped on one of the hexagons representing one of the human mechs that were engaged in this section.

While the Spectre went about his doings, Alenko looked at the unaltered depiction of the ship on his part of the table. The asymmetric and ugly vessel had been brought down by the combined efforts of the Colonial Watch's aviation wing and a ton of surface-to-air batteries, which similarly to the base they were standing in had been installed in the wake of the Blood Pack invasion of New Canton roughly thirty years ago. While it had taken the detonation of ship-killer missile, a nuclear warhead designed specifically to destroy anything larger than a cruiser, to finally stop the craft before it could leave the atmosphere, they had stopped it from escaping. It had crashed into forested patch of land outside the capital, which was now just a burning black spot surrounded by a circle of Paladins, which were depicted as hexagons, and the APCs of the artillery unit, which were represented by triangles. They were trying to contain the various forms of alien life, of which three distinctive types of had been identified. First there were the 'people-like' bugs, brown creatures that acted as infantry and seemed to be the brains of the invasion plan, if their mindless charges could be described as such. With them they had brought small greenish-brown flying insects and much larger, purple-blue beings that unlike the other two species appeared to be almost entirely mechanical. They were flooding out of the craft like a seemingly endless stream of water and the armored elements were doing their best to contain them, but were only succeeding at keeping the people-like creatures stuck in the ship.

"Not a first contact," Jondum stated before somehow picking out the perspective of a single Paladin and watching it shoot at distant brown shapes with a 30mm chain gun before briefly turning his attention to the sky and letting out a burst of explosive rounds at a cluster of the smaller fliers. Jondum played the recording back a few seconds, to before the death of the alien, and froze the image right before it exploded in a shower of gore. He again enlarged it and then stopped his manipulation for the time being. "Species called Collectors. Native to unexplored regions. Considered rumor by most, including myself. But existence has been proven through series of incidents in the last two years," he said before leaning against the desk, unpausing and letting the projection of the Paladin's carnage continue uncommented. "Origin doesn't matter though. Not our mission. Ending attack and getting on with current task far more important than xenoanthropology lesson. Don't want to rush you, obviously. But still. Keep in mind why we came here."

"The entire colony is under attack, Jondum and New Canton Command got blown to hell in the orbital strike. I'm not leaving anytime soon, even if we have to find those damn pieces."

"Understand. As I said, don't want to rush you. But -" the salarian repeated before Alenko was once more interrupted by one of the lieutenants, causing him to stop speaking.

"Sir, I just got word from Shanxi Command. They got our distress signal and passed it on. They're sending everyone they can spare. The first ships from Shanxi should be here in sixteen hours. The marine expeditionary force that's being mobilized in the Fringe by the end of tomorrow."

"Understood. Let the major know and spread the news to the other theatres," he said before once more looking at the black-armored salarian, who had dismissed the Paladin's view and was shifting through holograms at a rapid pace and twice at a time. How he was able to even pay attention to all of this? Alenko didn't have the hint of a clue but that was probably why so many people thought that Jondum Bau had an unnaturally high ability to multi-task and process information, even for a salarian Spectre. "What were you going to say?" he asked.

"Wait one," he replied without looking at Alenko.

"What's going on, Jondum?"

"Can forget my initial assessment. For the time being, won't have to get going after all," he stated before coming to a halt and covering his mouth with his hand and muttering something underneath his breath that the biotic's translator didn't quite catch.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

"New data altered mission perimeters. Or rather eliminated them," he replied while moving several aerial pictures out of the way with his index fingers until he found what he was looking for.

"What are you talking about?"

"Considering trajectory of initial shot and size blast zone, chances are that source of our trail was killed in initial attack. Target location and epicenter of blast are exact match. Warehouse completely annihilated in orbital strike on the city," he blinked. "Strange, don't you think?"

"That the blast destroyed the warehouse and killed the guy we were looking for? No. Not really. Orbital strikes tend to cause a lot of collateral damage," he muttered while observing the battle on the rest of the projector. The major's encirclement seemed to work except for the larger flying aliens which were leaving the burning craft and wreaking havoc throughout the rest of the colony. No matter how bad they tried to shoot them all down, a lot of them got through, scattered and went after the remaining settlements. That forced the HSA's troops to make a choice; go after the flyers and stop their attacks but weaken their hold on the ship or let them go, risk the devastation they caused but prevent a larger breakout of the 'smart' ones by keeping a tight lock on the crash site. Kaidan was glad that it had been the major who'd made the call to go with the first of the two options. It kept him from having those deaths that the escaped flyers were causing on his conscience.

"Not destruction. Targeting," Jondum replied. "Collector ship fired one shot before descending and deploying swarms. Incidentally hit exact location we wanted to search," he looked at the blue hologram. "Too specific to be coincidence."

"You're being paranoid, Jondum. The warehouse happened to be in the city and orbital striking a capital isn't exactly a strange tactic if you want to cause disarray prior to your invasion."

"Not talking about city. Talking about building," the salarian stated. When Alenko looked at the salarian's section of the projector, he realized what he'd done. Jondum had layered an image of how New Canton's capital had looked three hours ago over an image of what it looked like right now. It was taken straight from a small recon drone that the ASOC squad had launched and Alenko couldn't claim to recognize anything other than an enormous crater that still smoldered. But after throwing the two images on top of one another, a somewhat familiar image was produced. The warehouse in the inner city, which belonged to the company that had produced some of the drones that they had linked to a number of the missing pieces of Sovereign, now sat right in the middle of the impact crater. It was as if someone had painted a bullseye on the building and told the Collector gunner to hit it square center. "Five minutes passed between atmospheric entry and first detection of the ship to kinetic impact event. If aim of shot was disruption, Collectors wouldn't have wasted time and given your army chance to initiate countermeasures. Still did. Exposed themselves to defense batterie to make shot count. Even risked destruction prior to invasion. Conclusion, destruction of site was priority for Collectors. Searched this place and wanted to destroy it, no matter the cost. Rest of planetary engagement simply side-objective or perhaps even distraction."

"From what?"

"Our mission."

The salarian waited for a response but before Kaidan could give it, he was interrupted by another army lieutenant.

"Sir, I just got word from the mechanized platoon sent to contain the latest break-out. They've engaged the flyer, but they are taking casualties. One of the big ones they ran into seems to be stronger than the others. They're already down to seventy percent of their strength and are requesting to draw back and regroup."

"What about the town folk?" he asked while bringing up the respective combat sector. Since it was devoid of the swarmers for now, the soldiers, depicted as dots, had disembarked and spread out throughout the forest before reaching the outer town limit. Judging by the two darkened triangle markers, each representing a destroyed Makos, that decision had at least saved the lives of the infantry compartments of the vehicles.

"In the local shelter, Sir," he glanced at the map. The shelter was south of them, the enemy in their east. A clear path.

"Tell them to fall back to the shelter and hold," Alenko replied quickly. "They can't withdraw as long as there are still people relying on them but they don't have to fight the flyers head-on. If they draw them into urban combat, they should have the advantage." At least in theory.

"Yes, Sir!

After the order was given, Kaidan once more focused on Jondum.

"I don't know about that."

"Have to agree. Evidence suggests no coincidence," Jondum began again after the soldier had run back to his station."

"Maybe. Or maybe they couldn't figure out where our administrative centers are and eye-balled it and just happened to hit our objective," Alenko stated. He didn't have time for the odd mind of the Spectre, not right now. "I mean just look at it. The Colonial Watch HQ is just a few blocks down the road from the warehouse and the spaceport's only a kilometer north of it. If you want to damage both, you aim there," Alenko retorted. "I think that's a far more likely explanation than some unexplored region aliens trying to mess with our investigation, no?"

The salarian sighed.

"No," he stated plainly.

"No?"

"Gifted tactician. Gifted soldier. Gifted biotic. All around gifted individual. Perfect material for candidacy," he said with frustration. "But never managed to break free of restrictive manner of thinking. Saw the impossible, yet still refuse to believe it," now the salarian sighed. "Teaching methods were flaw," he closed his eyes. "My failure as mentor. Apologize to you. Too late to correct in your case but still time to make adjustments for future candidates," he then hung his head before smacking his fist against the open palm of his other hand. "Will reevaluate methods and seek to better myself when time comes to mentor next candidate. Promise you to not repeat mistakes when I teach your successor."

"Can we maybe postpone reflecting on your teaching methods until we're no longer in a warzone, Jondum?"

"Naturally. Wouldn't want to distract you," the salarian shrugged. "Have no experience in field command. Of no use here," he stated. "Will have to start investigation from beginning anyways. Won't find anything useful at bottom of crater," the salarian muttered before turning away from the holograms. "Maybe exploit shift-leader angle again. Could still hold useful information."

"I don't think he's going to talk to you after you torched his skycar and told him you'd do it to his home next," Alenko replied before watching the small dots that represented the dismounted infantry enact his orders and fall back to the shelter, away from the red triangle that had engaged their Mako convoy.

"Likely. But will talk if I do it to his apartment and threaten with relatives next."

"You ever think you might be an arsonist?"

"Fire makes excellent persuasion tool. Easy to cause, easy to hide, incredibly thorough and leaves behind little evidence if used correctly. Personal arsonist tendencies unrelated to decision of employing it. Purely strategic choice."

"That was a joke, right?"

"Will come to appreciate my methods eventually, Alenko. All in due time."

This guy really was something else, wasn't he? A yellow circle popped up on the map right where the Vanguard platoon should've been and demanded Alenko's attention. He sighed, removed his attention from the infantry unit and looked back at the new information. With a tap of his finger, he brought up the drone's feed just before being approached about the new issue.

"Sir, looks like our bots got wiped," the army lieutenant from earlier began before the picture of the destroyed robots finished being assembled. The entire platoon, about thirty of the HK bots, laid sprawled around a pair of large, bluish flyers. Several of the robots had been crushed underneath them and one of the grey bots was still clutched in the jaws of one flyers. However despite the damage it had visibly suffered, the shotgun it had carried was still lodged in one of the several eyes of his opponent. Robo-soldiers or not, they had about as much fight in them as the marines they were modeled after, Alenko would give them that much. The other flyer hadn't faired better than his companion. It was riddled with bullet holes and two of its synthetic legs had been torn off. While they didn't have a name yet, they were giving the HSA forces on the ground the biggest problems. Nothing short of a Paladin or a Mako seemed to be a match for them and especially infantry tended to lack the means of fighting them. While anti-armor and anti-paladin weaponry was effective against them, there were only so many launchers to go around, especially with the main garrison force killed in the blast.

Still, he was glad to see the outcome. While it obviously wasn't good that the vanguards were out for the count, he had to admit that having them take down two of these things in the process was a preferable outcome. Every one of the robots that was stopped before it could tear into living humans was a weight removed from his shoulders, especially since they had already suffered substantial casualties among their infantry units. While most of them hadn't been killed, they were in a state of paralysis that their medics weren't able to break. As such, about a third of their still living infantry units were pretty much useless right now and the rest had been ordered to withdraw into the shelters and prepare themselves as a final line of defense in the event that the mechanized assets were defeated.

"Call the ASOC unit that searched Mosberg and have them reroute to the Triangle Town shelter," he ordered. The cloaked operatives were the only ones who seemed to be able to avoid the swarms of smaller insects, which was also why they were the only infantry personal that was still out and about. Then he pointed at the image of the bluish-purple war machine. "Tell them to stick to the woods and watch out for more of its kind. We can replace a bunch of Vanguards in the long run, but our soldiers aren't expendable," that rang especially true for the army's special forces. New Canton was lucky, it had half a platoon of the unit at the ready at any given time, which again was a consequence of the Blood Pack invasion, but even half a platoon of ASOC operatives was just about twenty men, or rather five teams. They had to be used sparingly, especially until reinforcements from Shanxi arrived. At the time they were the only effective method of searching the shelters and buildings for survivors. As such, their survival was even more important than usual.

"Yes, Sir."

Again the lieutenant left the table to relay his orders, leaving Jondum to speak freely again.

"Don't think I have to tell you that investigation going back to beginning is problematic," the salarian stated.

"No, Jondum, I know that." They were after all looking for missing Reaper tech. To say that it was a pressing matter would be an understatement.

"Will start drawing up plan while you organize defense," the former STG agent stated as he brought up his omni-tool. "Call me if you need me."

He looked at the ongoing battle, which somehow seemed to be going in their favor now that the smaller fliers were slowly but surely being decimated by a mixture of machine guns and shrapnel ammunition.

"I will," he said before leaning forward on the table and observing the encirclement again. Watching and waiting while mechanized forces shot a seemingly endless swarm of unknown insectoids and robots certainly wasn't something he'd ever seen himself doing when he'd taken up Harper's offer to start working towards becoming humanity's third and currently only Spectre.

"282-HQ for Major Kurnik!" the voice of the sole living staff officer on the planet cracked through the radio. The sounds produced by the mech he was commanding made it hard to understand him unless he shouted the way he was doing right now and he knew it, hence, Kurnik was very loud.

"282-HQ reading you, Major" Alenko stated.

"I need to talk to the Spectres!" he declared, likely having just as much trouble understanding Alenko as Alenko had understanding him.

"You are talking to one of them," Alenko said. At this point he was just missing his formal induction. For all intents and purposes, he was a Spectre. It was just that no one knew about it and that the Council hadn't publicly acknowledged it. He already had the clearance and status, he just lacked the formal 'you did it' speech.

"Good! In that case I need you to listen up. I've got a mission that's right down your alley, something that doesn't involve acting like an actual officer!" the major shouted before the deep voice of his suit's VI informed both him and Alenko of the fact that the Paladin's weapon needed reloading and that he should seek cover until that state was altered.

"How can we help you, Sir?"

"Some of the foot bugs just broke our perimeter, flew right off alongside two of their robots. I winged one of the big ones and a couple of the smaller ones too, but the other big fucker's still making a beeline for the Trada Beach Shelter alongside his buddies. The thing was glowing like a candle and it looked like it was carrying something as well!" again the voice of the Paladin interrupted the radio broadcast, this time with the bad news that the shields were taking damage and the good news that it had recorded a critical hit on the 'unknown target'. "I don't know what it wants in Trada, but grab whoever the 282nd can spare and get over there. Those bastards aren't killing any more colonists, you get me, Captain?"

"Yes, Sir. But what about the paralyzing swarms? You ordered us to stand down because of them, remember."

"I ordered you to not get stung," the Paladin pilot replied. "I'm sure you'll think of a solution. Now get going, Spectre!"

"Roger that, Major," he turned to his salarian colleague. "You up for some bug hunting, Jondum?"

The salarian lowered his omni and cracked a smirk.

He'd take that as a yes.

Kaidan grabbed the helmet of his heavily modified dark-blue armor and then the two were off.


Seven Minutes Later, 1. April 2417 AD, HSASV Normandy, Conference Room

"New Canton's a lot bigger than the last two. It doesn't fit into their pattern."

"Yes. I wondered about that too. It's certainly an anomaly," Harper replied before drawing on his cigarette. "But as of now, I don't think you should divert to New Canton."

"But you just said that they're still fighting," Emily said in return, falling back on the strange events he'd described. A collector ship had shown up over a human colony in the Skyllian Verge, fired off a main-gun shot into the colonial capital and then, after trying to abduct the population of several small towns outside, been brought down by the remaining HSA forces, who were now fighting the survivors.

"They are. But your team is made up of infantry combat specialists. You'd be no use on the frontline of a mechanized battle. Especially not if the Seekers keep paralyzing everything that doesn't have armor plating."

"Ignoring the fighting, shouldn't we have a look nonetheless?" she really didn't want to but she saw the argument Harper was making, "You sent me to Cyrene and Freedom's Progress. Why not New Canton?"

"Up to now I asked you to go to the abducted colonies because we were hoping that you could find out something that helps in your investigation. I don't think that you'll find anything useful on New Canton when the fighting is over."

She protested.

"They crashed a collector ship. How is that not useful? Mordin's working on understanding how the Collectors operate right now. He should take a look at it, especially if they acted as out of character as you say they did."

"With you I was specifically talking about the Normandy. I understand what Doctor Solus is doing but the ship is not going anywhere and it's far too big for him to study on his own," Harper replied calmly. "So the best thing you can do right now is keep collecting your team and tell Doctor Solus to wait for the data to be transmitted to him. Besides, having you go back all the way to the Verge is not necessary as long as General Arterius is on site when the battle is finished. He and his crew know what to look for, so let them take care of this situation and focus on building your team. If we're lucky, you might need it soon," Okay. Yes. She had to admit that that Harper was making sense. "As I understand you're headed to Tuchanka?"

"Yes."

"And afterwards? Krios or Okeer?" he dipped his cigarette into an off-scren ashtray.

"I haven't decided yet."

"Good. Because I think you should make Illium your next priority," the director said.

"Why?"

"We've located a second person of interest who's currently on Illium, an asari with extraordinary biotic abilities. If you can convince her to join your crew, she'll be an invaluable asset," he took another short smoking break. "I'll send you her dossier and those of some other individuals we think you might be able to use on your squad. At least one of them should be familiar to you. As I understand, you met her recently. A quarian engineer."

"Tali'Zorah?"

"Yes. That was her name," he nodded.

"And you couldn't have told me that while she was standing next to me?"

"Her selection happened as a result of your mission on Freedom's Progress and the discovery you made there."

"The geth."

"Exactly," Harper said before pulling on his cigarette and exhaling some more smoke.

"You said not to worry about them. Someone else was going to handle that situation," she said while folding her arms.

"And they will," Harper replied. "But I still believe that being prepared won't harm you, if you can convince her that is. Your last meetings weren't exactly pleasant. Especially not the one on the Citadel."

"I had nothing to do with what Specialist Morneau did," she replied immediately before thinking back to the spy and quickly shoving the memory back. Even death hadn't changed that he was far from her favorite person.

"I didn't say you had," Harper replied. "I'll keep you updated on the events on New Canton. You're right, the way that the Collectors acted is extremely out of place. Either they had bad intel and underestimated New Canton, or something else motivated them to launch this attack. Whatever it is, we'll try to make as much sense of it as we can. Meanwhile, I suggest you prepare yourself for your arrival on Tuchanka. You read the report on Urdnot Wrex?"

"Yes. I read the report on Wrex."

"Then you know that he's standing on this ice right now. He's good for the stability of the planet and that makes him good for our effort against the reapers. Wreav and his faction? Not so much. We don't have any solid intel but everything's pointing to the fact that Wrex's brother is looking to take over. While I don't want you to get involved or make it a priority, I'd highly appreciate it if you use your trip to Tuchanka to evaluate just how likely it is that the coalition Urdnot is building could be turned against Wrex and his followers."

"I'll keep it in mind."

"Thank you," Harper replied before extinguishing his cigarette and looking at her with his weirdly shaped eyes. Up until meeting him in person, she had always dismissed their appearance as the result of the way the projector displayed the prosthetics. But ever since seeing him on Cronos Station, she knew that was not the case. They really looked as unsettling as she had pictured them. "There is one more thing. A personal interest if you will," he went on before getting up. "You never mentioned what the Council called you in for," he paused and for a second it seemed like he was trying to stare her down. "What exactly did they want from you?"

The question echoed through the room and only after a few moments of silence and the fresh memory of what she'd been advised did Shepard reply.

"I'm afraid that's classified."

She looked in his eyes, aware that every time she'd complained about things being classified or said that she had the impression that Harper was keeping something from her and considered him a bit untrustworthy as a result were now officially times she'd been somewhat of a hypocrite. Briefly she felt like he was caught off-guard but then that moment passed and the director returned back to his normal, stoic self. Or at least most of it. In a very un-harper-y and extremely casual manner, the Cerberus director stuffed his hands into the pockets of his tailored suit and shrugged ever so slightly.

"I completely understand," he seemed to look at something out of view, maybe the projector. "Report in after you're done on Tuchanka. I'll reach out whenever there's news on the situation on New Canton. Goodbye, Shepard," with a wave of his hand into the direction of what he was looking at, the hologram vanished.

Alright.

That was one of the weirder conversations she'd had since knowing Harper.


Ten Minutes Later, 1. April 2417 AD, New Canton, Trada Beach

"How's it looking out there, Corporal?" Kaidan asked from his seat of the old Hammerhead APC he'd drafted from the motor pool of the armored battalion alongside the other four vehicles that made up the convoy. It wasn't a Mako and neither were the other three APCs, the newer vehicles had all been sent into the fight right away, but the Hammerheads had gotten them this far.

"No swarms in sight, Sir," the army soldier manning the weapon platform of the APC muttered while turning the gun turret with a mechanical whine. "Air's clear too. Not seeing anything glowy yet."

"And the shelter?"

"Got eyes on the shelter. Looks like it's still in one pie-"

Suddenly a high-pitched beaming sound and then a violent detonation ripped through the air outside. The troop compartment of the APC was isolated and his helmet was noise cancelling, but still Alenko felt a painful stinging in his ears.

"-cratch th-!" he heard in between the buzzing in his ear.

The biotic Spectre candidate shook his head.

"What?" he called back.

"I said scratch that. The shelter just got lit up!" the corporal shouted before audibly panicking and dropping out of the gun turret. "Shit. Out. Now. Move, move, move-" It didn't take long for the crew to spring into action, in fact Jondum was out the back hatch of the APC by the time the corporal had called 'now' and Kaidan was right behind him, running away from whatever had caused the explosion at the shelter. He only saw Jondum turn his head. Whatever the salarian saw, made him break out into one hell of a sprint. That was all the motivation Kaidan needed to keep up with him and follow him away from the small convoy and the forest street they'd taken to Trada Beach. He didn't know what the salarian was running from, but his pace alone was enough to know that it was something very dangerous. They leapt into the woods and hit the dirt right as the heavy mass accelerator fire of the convoy was overshadowed by another high-pitched whining, which was again followed by a very loud explosion. This time Kaidan saw it and his immediate reaction as that they were all going to die.

The red-and black detonation was familiar. As was its blast radius.

But somehow the explosion that engulfed the first vehicle of the convoy and threw scorched earth and shrapnel high into the air stopped at just that, one vehicle. It looked exactly like Sovereign's beam back on Eden Prime but to their luck it appeared significantly weaker. He traced where the beam had come from and squinted to see its source, which was one of the larger flyers hovering right in front of the glowing midday sun.

No.

Wait.

As his visor dapated to the brightness, he saw what was really going on.

The thing was causing the glow.

After a second of idly hovering over the destruction it had caused, the flyer screeched and its 'mouth' lit up in a bright red. It's 'head' coiled back and then, after a surge forward, another beam shot out, aimed at the next vehicle of their convoy. It started to whine and melt the armor of the second Hammerhead, right until a black patch of energy travelled along the length of the beam. Upon making contact with the armor, it triggered another explosion, that vaporized the front section of the armored personal carrier. As smoke started to climb into the sky, the flying cybernetic being suddenly gave up on the high ground and at a nearly impossible speed landed on the wreck of the first Hammerhead, making a sound not unlike a snarl into the direction of the surviving human soldiers, who were scrambling for either side of the forest street to get away from the burning and exposed vehicles.

After being stunned by the display of destructive force, Kaidan was snapped out of his trance by the sound of the salarian next to him hastily converting his assault rifle into a grenade launcher. While salarian guns weren't exactly as durable as human ones, as masterfully crafted as asari weaponry or as precise and powerful as the go-to turian weapons, there was one area where they had everyone else beat. Versatility. With the right conversion kits, the standard-issue rifle of the Salarian Union Navy could quickly become whatever type of weapon the situation called for and as such, every soldier could fulfill every role from close quarter specialist to sharpshooter.

He observed the glowing thing once more, recognizing that the orange and yellow light seemed to come from somewhere beneath its dark-purple carapace and then noticed the purplish glow that surrounded it. Barriers.

"All forces. Scatter and prep for focused fire," Kaidan ordered before looking at Jondum. "Hit it with everything you got when I tell you to."

The salarian Spectre nodded and braced his gun against his shoulder in anticipation.

Kaidan closed his eyes while the monster moved on to the third, now abandoned APC and once more coiled its head backwards. The biotic took a deep breath and focused. Then he felt a tingle in his neck and a surge of energy throughout his body. He'd always been a decent biotic, but the amp that Cerberus had given to him brought him up on the scale. It didn't increase his power substantially, but it allowed for far more control. While he wasn't exactly a powerhouse like some other human biotics, he could now do things most others couldn't because of how complicated they were.

He opened his eyes, focused on the landed alien, collected a ball of energy in his hand and then shot forward without further delay, flinging himself through the air in a technique usually reserved to asari. There was a second of weightlessness and blur and then he'd covered the distance between him and the flying monstrosity. While he couldn't make sense of what it was that he was looking at, up-close the creature appeared far more organic than its metallic exterior suggested, what stood out to him despite the glow it radiated was what was hiding immediately behind its 'mouth. There, behind the retractable flaps that extended from its eyes were what looked disturbingly similar to a collection of husk heads. He didn't waste more than a split second on noticing it, but as soon as he saw it, the image was burnt into his mind and Kaidan was certain that the thing in front of his was somehow made out of huskified humans.

All the more reason o kill it.

The impact with the barriers was hard but the attack achieved what he desired. The flyer was stunned just long enough for him to unleash the prepared warp. The shifting mass effect field exploded against the barriers and weakened them enough to shatter. While he was well aware that the Hammerhead's had likely done the lion share of the damage that had caused this nearly suicidal attack to actually work, Kaidan spent no time pondering on who would take the eventual credit. Instead he kicked himself away from the strange fusion of metal and flesh with another biotically fueled movement, just in time to avoid the large and long 'leg' that had tried to impale him in response. While falling he gave the order.

"Fire! Fire!" Kaidan shouted just as he hit the brown dirt of the forest street and suddenly a mixture of grenades, mass accelerator fire and rockets, anti-armor and anti-paladin alike, homed in on the flying and glowing monster. While the first few explosions didn't seem to do anything, Kaidan was suddenly blinded by a bright red explosion and then being thrown backwards even more, his shields and barriers overloading in the process. He got knocked against something hard, likely a tree, and lost consciousness for a few seconds. Or maybe a few minutes. He really couldn't tell. All he knew was that when he returned to consciousness, a salarian looked at him and the corpse of the creature was still smoking from the combined fire of the surviving soldiers and the salarian Spectre.

"Not dead yet. Good," Jondum said before offering a hand. Kaidan took it and the salarian pulled him to his feet. "Biotic charge. Risky play."

"Only way to quickly bring down the barriers," Alenko replied while dusting off his dark blue armor and looking around. It looked like at least a dozen of the soldiers he'd drafted had made it out of the last three tanks. Since he hadn't actually seen many of them go down during the fight, he assumed that more survivors were currently searching the smoldering wrecks for the unfortunate ones who hadn't in the vain hope that they had somehow avoided being caught in the blast. "Casualty report," he groaned into his radio.

"Six dead in the lead vehicle, two in the secondary. Five wounded. The rests alright," one of the soldiers replied while Kaidan looked past the convoy and to the horizon where a smoke column was rising from the Trada Beach Shelter. He noticed something else and his HUD zoomed in on the action occurring above them. A formation of green fighter craft darted through the blue sky in the distance, tracking a pair of the bluish flyers. Rockets unclipped from one of the fighter's wings and shot forward. Then a fiery explosion appeared int the sky, followed closely by one of the things falling out of the sky. It tumbled and spun and then sent a red beam out of its mouth. Just as it crashed out of view, the beam connected with one of the fighters and another explosion appeared in the sky. This time the falling object trailed smoke and was leaking burning fuel, but it didn't seem like the pilot made any attempts to eject from the craft, presumably because he was no longer capable of it. As the craft crashed into the distant forest, the Spectre sighed.

They were doing their job, so he would do his.

"Have half the medics stay here and treat the wounded and keep a fireteam around to protect them. The rest of you follow me to the shelter."

"Yes, Sir."


[Initiating ]

[Date: Corrupted]

[Citadel Codex Application Launching for Automated Update]

[Launching]

[Launching]

[Launching]

[Please enter password.]

[Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.]

[Please reset Account and contact costumer support.]

[Invasive Software detected. Attempting shutdown.]

[Error]

[Error]

[Shutdown failed.]

[Password reset.]

[User Recognized]

Good Morning, Emily WONG.

It has been two hours since your last log-in.

What do you wish to do first?

[Accessing latest back-up]

[Date: Corrupted]

[Last Received Message]

I know me just writing you without going through the codex and being all sneaky about it is out of our usual. But before you mark me as a fraud and ignore what I'm about to tell you, I need you to understand that I wouldn't do this if it wasn't urgent and that it's really me.

I can prove it too. Open this. It'll prove everything and explain some things.

[Your Reply]

Okay. I believe you. What do you want?

[Message Received]

Good. With that out of the way:

Remember how I told you to stay on the Citadel because of the colonies that keep going missing a couple of weeks ago?

I need you to ignore that and I need you trust me.

I think I earned that much after everything I gave you:

Pack your bags and go. Right now. Don't wake up your boyfriend if he's around, don't go to see and warn your editor, just pack your bags and fucking go as far away as you can. I suggest Earth.

I figured it out. The mystery ship, the abductions, Hahne-Kedar.

I finally understand all of it.

But they are coming for me and they know that I was talking to you, so its just a matter of time before they'll come for YOU as well.

I wish I could tell you, I really do. I wish you could see the same truth as me. But I'm burning my traces and the less you know when they find you, the better. For all of us.

Now.

Wipe your omni, get the fuck off the Citadel and wait for me to reach out again.

Trust NOONE. Not even Gunn or Shae.

Good Luck Ms. Wong.

Until we meet again.

[Partnering Device 'FiWaO212-D' Detected]

[Do you wish to copy the following message from Device 'xEmiLiWong2390x' onto 'FiWaO212-D'?]

[Message copied]

[Accessing Contacts from FiWaO212-D]

[Selecting Contact 'FiWaO003-A']

[Initiating Messenger]

[Attaching copied message]

Operational Report:

Raid Completed.

Status Secondary target Wong: SECURED.

Unknown Contact Person: NOT IDENTIFIED, presumed HUMAN.

Status Secondary target Okuda: NOT SECURED.

Whereabouts Okuda: UNKNOWN, presumed TS/UE.

Threat Level Okuda: MEDIOCRE and SINKING.

Status Main target: NOT SECURED.

Whereabouts Main target: UNKNOWN.

Identity Main target: UNKNOWN.

Allegiance Main target: UNKNOWN.

Threat Level Main target: CRITICAL.

Recommendation: IMMEDIATE MANHUNT and TERMINATION.

Requesting orders.

End Operational Report.

[Sending]

[Received]

[Seen]

[Receiving]

[One New Message]

Find Gunn and kill him.

I'll sort things out with the Broker and PGI.


A/N:

Here we are.

No codex this time, for narrative and teasing reasons!

Well, right of the bad I want to say that I find it disturbing that one reviewer actually straight up guessed what was up with Kaidan and hit the nail on the head with his predictions that his plotline was about the missing reaper parts.

I will however say that I don't THINK that you also suspected that Kaidan would be the POV for the first bit of Semper Vigilo's 'Horizon' (which for obvious reasons couldn't actually take place on Semper Vigilo Horizon... because that planet's a tad bigger.)

If some of you wonder "why the hell would the collectors do this". The asnwer can eithercome later down in the story... or you just google the title, remember what Harbinger said back at the SV:ME1 ending and come back here.

Whatever you want.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to say, other than I don't want you to get too used to the way I've been firing out updates lately.

Although I guess I will have to apologize for lying to your face last A/N when I said we had three big action pieces coming right up. Since it was arleady guessed what Kaidan would do, I at least wnated to surprise you as to WHEN he appeared. As such I neglected that there's something inbetween the three background action set pieces and last chapter.

So yeah, sorry for the little misdirection ;)

For the record we're at 672 reviews, 1051 favorites and 1154 follows.

See you around next time.