Chapter 84. The Inside Man


1. April 2417 AD, New Canton, Vicinity of Trada Beach

With half their vehicles down and the only non-forested path cluttered by the wreckage of two APCs they had no way of moving, Kaidan had taken his squad and his fellow Spectre off the streets and through the woods to reach the shelter. Although the canopy of trees blocked out most of the sky and it was still a good twenty-minute walk until they'd reach the shelter, they could see the smoke pillar from where they were standing. Needless to say, the biotic officer wasn't holding out too much hope for anyone to have survived the attack of the flying, husk-like monstrosity they had just killed. But then again, first impressions could be misguiding. The last time New Canton had been attacked, the shelters themselves had sustained little damage but casualties had been incredibly high. Maybe this time around things had reversed. It might be a flawed assumption, but it gave him enough of a reason to hold out some hope.

As he took another careful step forward, the foliage was thick in these woods and he didn't want to risk stepping into a hole or an animal burrow he couldn't see and injure himself this close to their objective, his radio crackled into his ear.

"Alenko, do you read me?" Major Kurnik asked, his voice interrupting the silence of the woods. While there was still audible fighting in the background, Alenko got the impression that it had eased somewhat compared to earlier.

"Loud and clear, Major," he replied, his voice muted to the outside by his helmet.

"Good. You had me worried there with your black-out. Status report?"

Behind the black-tainted visor of his dark-blue helmet, Kaidan frowned.

Right.

After a year and a half of not answering to anyone other than the Council and Bau, he'd forgotten that he was once more part of a regular chain of command and had people to update. He held out a hand and formed a fist to make his squad stop. Then he took a knee on a dirt-brown patch of earth that stood out in between the sea of plants and trees. The soldiers and Bau, who were following on his height in a spaced-out line that spread across roughly forty meters of forest, twenty in either direction of himself, obliged immediately and came to a stop. In silence they scanned their surroundings while he pushed a button on the side of his helmet.

"We engaged the enemy flyer. Eight KIA, five injure. Took it down though," he paused and glanced into the woods ahead of them after hearing a branch snap. However, when no one started shooting or shouting, he went back to his report. "We're headed for the shelter now. They hit it prior to our arrival, but I can't tell you how bad until we're on site."

"Understood. Your ETA?"

He looked ahead again. Just like the way they had come, a seemingly endless forest extended into the direction of the ever-larger smoke pillar.

"Round about twenty. Maybe closer to thirty."

"Understood. Report in when you get there."

"Will do, Sir."

Alenko got up, opened his fist again and then pointed his hand the way he was facing. The squad and fire team leaders mirrored him. After a second, the formation was in motion again.

He didn't know what they'd find in the shelter and he didn't know why their enemy would choose to target it in this manner. With the exception of the orbital strike on the capital, these Collectors had taken great care to not target the civilian population with lethal force, instead opting to take them alive and bring them back into their ship. They had bypassed other shelters in favor of more easily accessible groups of civilians and, again with the exception of their initial attack, not used deadly force against anyone who wasn't armed.

So, what made the Trada Beach Shelter different?

Were they getting desperate because of the noose that the HSA was tying around their ship?

Was it an attempt to draw away troops to enable a breakout?

Did something about Trada Beach make it an acceptable target?

As several booms echoed in the sky above them, Alenko was drawn away from his questions about the shelter. He instinctively looked up to see the source of the sound but could only make out the thick smoke trails that the pair of ballistic missiles were drawing while on their way to their target somewhere south of Alenko's current position.

He didn't know how to interpret the sight.

Either it was a good sign meaning that there'd soon be fewer enemies around or it was a pretty bad one indicating that the HSA was getting desperate enough to deploy large ballistic missiles on their own planet and that the Collectors were not as contained as he had liked to believe.

"Shit. Are those-"one of the soldiers began.

"No. The nuclear ones are bigger," a fireteam leader replied, reading his worry correctly. Then they drifted back into a silent march, ignoring the audible echo of a pair of explosions that reached them a minute later. They walked on for another five minutes before stepping into the reach of what appeared to be a short-range transmission. It started out as white-noise and broken up sentences but when they reached a spot where the trees became less dense, the signal cleared up enough for Alenko to tap into it. He put the formation on hold again and listened.

"This is an automated emergency broadcast authorized by the New Canton Colonial Administration Branch of Trada Beach. New Canton is under attack by an unknown hostile force. HSA forces are engaged on a planet wide scale. Abandon all tasks and immediately relocate to your nearest shelter for safety. Follow the instructions of local security forces. For your own safety, do not attempt to flee on your own accord and without prior communication. There are active combat theatres in your immediate vicinity and your safety cannot be guaranteed should you enter them," a synthetic voice spoke before once more looping to the beginning of the message. He decided that it was nothing noteworthy and gave the order to move forward again. If they were still broadcasting, there was a chance that there were still survivors left. After all He still wasn't holding out too much hope just yet but certainly more than after he'd witnessed the initial blast or spotted the smoke pillar

Alenko took another couple of steps and prepared to jump over a tree stump before his HUD suddenly registered the hint of a movement. He froze in place and noticed that someone had tapped into their communication with an HSA army identification.

"Blue, blue, blue. Hold your fire. Down by your foot. Friendlies," a male voice whispered before Alenko looked down and suddenly saw something move in the greenery. He took a knee and, upon closer inspection, registered the faint disruption of light lying on the ground. Damn. He had nearly stepped on him but still hadn't been able to see him. Their camo really was getting better every time he worked with them. When his HUD linked with the newly registered one, the ASOC soldier was outlined with a bluish glow and received the tag 'Prizrak-Lead'.

"I didn't know there was an ASOC team here," he replied before looking around and realizing that they'd already passed two other members of Prizrak Squad without noticing. Why had the major not told them about this?

"And I didn't know that we had a Spectre heading our way," the soldier replied before his outline shifted to where he was look now lying on his back and looking at Bau.

"Two, actually," the salarian replied before nodding at Alenko.

He ignored the acknowledgement of his status and mustered what little he could see of the soldier. "What are you doing here?"

"You first."

"We're here to secure the shelter," Alenko replied before pausing. "Or rather what's left of it."

"Then that makes two of us," Prizrak-Lead replied before once more shifting and then kneeling as well.

"Why wasn't I told about you being here?" Alenko pushed.

"I'm assuming that it has something to do with my orders coming from off-world," the soldier answered before leaning against the tree stump. For a second the gesture made him more visible but then his camo caught up with the new environment and he once more blended in perfectly. "As soon as the capital went dark and word of the attack reached our outpost, we got an encrypted mission package from Shanxi Command. Go to Trada Beach and extract an HVT."

"Who?"

"Some guy named Doctor Bryson. Works for a group called Task Force Aurora. Don't know anything about that though," judging by the outline on Kaidan's HUD, the soldier seemed to shrug and then briefly glance up at the smoke pillar, unaware of the fact that the biotic's face had just frozen in a mixture of surprise and realization. "Not that it matters anymore. Pretty sure my op turned into a corpse recovery anyways."

Task Force Aurora.

Before Alenko could muster a reply, Bau injected himself and hunkered down next to the ASOC soldier.

"Task Force Aurora? You're certain that's what the package said?" he repeated with an urgency in his voice that the biotic captain had never heard in the time they'd spent together. It was understandable though, considering that Aurora was the name of the human compartment of the Council's Reaper task force, which had helped with the clean-up of Sovereign's attack, the destruction of the pieces and, as of recently, the situation developing in batarian space.

"A hundred percent," the ASOC soldier confirmed.

Bau turned towards him and Alenko already knew what would come next.

"Still think being paranoid?" he asked, referencing his earlier suspicion regarding the Collector's orbital strike target. Coupled with this revelation and what he thought he'd seen when fighting the enemy earlier, he could slowly see a picture being painted. And he didn't like what it was showing one bit. The biotic looked forward, he could already see the trees get less dense and make out the hint of a colonial town.

"We better hurry," he replied before looking at the invisible soldier in front of him. "Are you with us?"

"Well. Since you compromised our infiltration," Prizrak-Lead muttered before getting up, which caused his cloak to glitch out again. "I don't think we've got much of a choice unless we want to waste another hour making a new approach," he gestured for his team to fall in and then visibly nodded towards Kaidan. "Lead the way, Spectre."

The rest of the way to the town limit went by without another incident and the next time the formation of Colonial Watch soldiers, Council Spectres and army special forces stopped was at the edge of the forest. As far as overwatch positions went, theirs was perfect. In the valley below Kaidan could see all of Trada Beach. As usual for towns on colonies that were less than a century old, it was made up of a core of aging prefab buildings and newly constructed, permanent houses that extended from the first settlement. Contrary to its given name however, Kaidan couldn't see any kind of beach. The only noticeable natural feature, other than the enormous woods that surrounded the place on all sides, was a large rock formation on the other side of the valley. On top of it sat what looked like a radio observatory that had either been in the process of deconstruction or never been finished to begin with. Prior to First Contact, observatories had been a common sight on frontier worlds. They had been part of the HSA's effort to find signs of another civilization that didn't boil down to destroyed ruins. But ever since the galactic community had been encountered over Parnack, the initiative to find other space-faring civilizations had come to a full-stop.

He tore himself away from the artifact of past-times and looked to where the smoke pillar was climbing. The upper layer of the shelter, which acted as an entrance to the actual subterranean bunker, was no longer armor grey, but a mixture scorched black and searing orange. However, from what he could tell, it seemed like the shelter had actually held. Although the smoke made it hard to see, it didn't look like there was a hole. Just molten steel and burnt-off alloy plating. The entire surface was scorched, but other than that, the structure was fine and in one piece.

Sadly, the same couldn't be said for the token army force stationed in the town.

A pair of APCs parked in front of it had been reduced to smoldering piles of scrap metal. As a glance through the scope of his rifle confirmed, the small crimson-green and brown-yellow dots he could see sprawled out in front of the entrance fortifications, were deceased HSA soldiers and dead Collectors. By the looks of it, the Colonial Watch detachment had fought to the last to prevent someone from breaking into the shelter. They had succeeded at the prize of their lives. He frowned. At least that part of New Canton's history hadn't been repeated.

"Doesn't look like the shelter's been compromised," Prizrak-Lead observed from next to him.

"Maybe you're not recovering a corpse after all," Kaidan replied optimistically.


Meanwhile, 2158 CE, THS Parnack

Desolas stood in the CIC of the turian frigate and stared at the mission timer. It would take them another six hours to reach New Canton and they were the fastest ship in their fleet. While the Parnack's helmsman was pushing the Tantalus drive core to its absolute limit, the rest of the turian forces, which didn't have the fortune of flying on the fastest frigate-class the galaxy had ever seen, would arrive no sooner than twenty hours. Although a bulk of the Blackwatch forces that he'd taken with him were on the Parnack, numbering at six teams and his own honor guard, Desolas knew that they wouldn't be of much strategic use until the mechanized forces of the troop carrier that was accompanying them arrived. Despite the chaotic situation on the colony and the rapidly shifting position of the THS Parnack, he'd managed to receive a status update form another nearby human colony, Shanxi. The had given him the following report.

With the exception of a few smaller theatres, the battle on New Canton wasn't one that could be fought by infantry forces. Large swarms similar to the large fly his forces had found on Cyrene were covering the colony's skies and preying on everything that wasn't locked behind several layers of tank-grade armor or hidden by state-of-the-art camouflage. While the local forces were killing them by the thousands, it seemed like the crash ship that they had encircled had an endless supply of them. Where one was squashed, two more took its place and if not for the mechanized forces stationed on the planet, the human resistance would've likely been crushed before their reinforcements could arrive. The turian general folded his arms behind his back and then turned away from the mission timer.

Even if the alloy of Blackwatch's armor suits was technically rated as tank-grade and he was certain that they'd hold up against whatever measures the Collectors were using, Desolas was aware that his soldiers technically didn't have a place in this fight. Compared to the larger flyers and the vastly more numerous enemy foot soldiers, twenty-seven turians would not make a difference. At least in theory. However as the Collectors would soon come to find out, Blackwatch had a habit of beating the theoretical odds.

Besides. He wasn't going to let glorified flies get in the way of helping his allies. He glanced at the mission clock again and then at the two remaining members of his honor guard. Five-fifty-nine hours until the Parnack entered orbit around New Canton.

It was time.

"Veltax."

"Sir?"

"Inform the squad leaders to start with mission preparations. Once they and their squads are armored up, they are to meet me in the conference room."

"Yes, Sir," the first sergeant nodded.

"Galviat?"

"Yes?"

"Go to the helm and inform the commander that we'll be joining the battle the armigerian way this time."

The second sergeant paused for a second.

"Sir," the sniper started with a confused look on his black-plated face, "the Parnack doesn't have any drop-pods."

"But a compartment of drop-packs," the general replied, this time linking the expression on Galviat's face to the turian's personal dislike to everything that resulted in his feet not being on solid ground. He put his hands on the soldier's shoulder and his mandibles locked themselves in a hint of a smirk. "Make sure to tell him to fly as low as he can. That way there's less time for you to empty your stomach inside your helmet again."

The black-plated turian closed his eyes and sighed.

"Once, Sir. It happened once."

"Are you sure?" Veltax injected while looking up from his omni. "Because of the top of my head- "

"Permission to go the helmsman, General?"

"Permission granted, Sergeant. Try not to lose your lunch on the way," Desolas nodded with a smirk before looking to his left where Lieutenant Callius would normally be standing and again remembering that his honor guard commander wasn't around to reign the three of them in. This would be the first operation he'd participate in ever since being named Blackwatch's commander that didn't see the former cabalist as his XO. His smirk quickly vanished at that. An op like this wasn't exactly a good place to be down on an officer as experienced as Callius. Even if he'd been the one to send her to her current duty, which was no doubt just as important as the upcoming battle, right now a part of Desolas wished that he hadn't.

He closed his eyes and reminded himself of another one of Blackwatch's creeds.

The success of a hunt was not determined by circumstance, but by the resolve of the hunter.

He knew that the resolve of his troops to win was as unwavering as his. Hence Lieutenant Callius' absence, while regrettably, would not change the ultimate outcome of this operation. The Collectors might not realize it, but they had just handed him the key to their defeat. They would secure their crashed ship, unravel their weaknesses and with the help of their allies, crush them and then move on to defeating their master, the Harbinger. Before long, the Collectors and the Harbinger would just be another footnote in history and everyone they had ever killed, including Saren, would be avenged.

Desolas would make sure of that.

Preferably personally.


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

"And you can't hotwire it?" he asked the squad's engineer.

"No, Sir. These things are built to keep people outside. As long as no one opens it from the inside or the administration lifts the general alert and gives us access, I don't see us getting in here with anything short of an orbital strike."

Alenko looked at the locked blast door of the shelter and sighed. While the Prizrak-Lead was still angrily debating with someone on the inside and demanding that they be let in, his counterpart on the other end, an official of the colonial administration, kept repeating the Colonial Security Protocol over and over again. The doors would stay closed until official channels gave them the all-clear to open.

"Alright. I'll tell it to you again since I don't think it registered the last two times. I've got orders to evacuate someone from your shelter and I'm not leaving until I complete those orders."

"And I'll give you the same answer. Until the fighting stops, I'm not opening the shelter," the voice replied. "I don't care who you are or what you want. This door stays closed."

He knocked his fist against the shoulder of Prizrak-Lead and nodded to the side. "Let me try."

The army operator nodded and stepped out of the way. The biotic leaned against the terminal and looked up to a corner of the sloped entrance area, where a camera was pointing back at him. Although it only drew his attention to the top of the shelter by coincidence, Kaidan now had a plan to get them inside. It was simplistic and probably wouldn't work, but it was worth a shot.

"My name is Captain Kaidan Alenko. I'm with HSAMC. Who am I talking to?"

"Vijya Barigai. I'm the representative of the New Canton Colonial Administration in Trada Beach."

"Vijya," he started his ruse. "Your shelter got hit by an enemy dropship. When we got here, it looked like there was a hole in your ceiling. We can't tell if its compromised form out here. We'll need to go inside and check. For your own safety."

"I appreciate your concern, Captain, but we ran scans after the attack happened. The damage is only superficial. Nothing got in here."

Alright.

He hadn't expected it to work anyways.

Alenko looked away from the camera and towards Bau, who was taking meticulous care to stay out of sight. If the salarian was right and the Collectors were here for the same reason as the two of them, which was rather likely now that three 'coincidences' linked the attack to their investigation, then they needed to find Doctor Bryson. After watching the salarian for a few more seconds, he placed his hand against the push-to-talk button of his helmet and radioed his superior. This time he remembered that he was once more part of a chain of command.

"Major Kurnik, this is Captain Alenko. Come in."

"Reading you, Captain," again there was the dampened sound of gunfire in the background. They were still fighting around the crash site then.

"We've reached the shelter. The guards are dead and there's superficial damage to the structure," he said before walking away from the console he'd just talked to Barigai through. "But according to the people inside, the shelter hasn't been compromised," he paused a second. "They're not letting us inside to check, so we'll just have to take their word for it."

"Understood, Captain," Kurnik replied. "Anything else?"

He glanced at Bau and the ASOC squad leader.

"We ran into some friendlies, Sir. Prizrak-Squad."

"An ASOC unit? What are they doing in Trada?"

"Apparently they got a mission from Shanxi Command as soon as news of the attack reached them. They're supposed to extract someone from the shelter, but they're not being permitted entry either," he neglected the detail that the person they were supposed to extract was related to his mission and the fact that the motives behind the Collector attack were slowly but surely being pushed into the same corner. Right now, he was just hoping to get the major's help with getting inside.

"Okay. And what do you want me to do about it?" the paladin pilot replied. "The way I see it, no one in that shelter's going anywhere. Hell. With all the flyers, it's probably safer if their mark stays put for now," the voice of his robotic suit interrupted what Kurnik had been about to say by informing him of the imminent collapse of his shields. "Take command of the squad and tell them to link up with the rest of their unit. We can't afford to use an asset like them for a protection detail."

"Sir, I don't think- "

"Armor integrity compromised," a loud, deep voice declared, this time interrupting Alenko.

"I can't talk right now. Follow your orders, Captain. Kurnik out."

And just like that, the channel closed.

So much for maybe getting Kurnik's help.

However, when one door closed, another one opened.

This time literally.

The first thing he noticed was the sound of the heavy blast doors opening and the flashing of the orange warning lights built into the frame. Then he noticed the frantically blinking terminal. Kaidan rushed over to the device and pressed the talk button.

"We need your help, Captain!" Barigai shouted.

"What's going on? Was there a breach?"

"Someone just started shooting!"

"Who? What's going on?"

"I don't know!" Barigai replied. "Just get in here!"

He looked to Bau and nodded. With a finger, he hit the mute button.

"Changed his mind quickly," the salarian observed. Alenko didn't feel the need to point out that it was only natural on the man's part given the circumstances. He turned to Prizrak-Lead. "You and your team are with me," they were special forces who did counterterrorism for a living. He could trust them to have the reaction times and awareness needed to go into a shelter full of civilians on a seek and destroy mission without turning it into an accidental massacre. Finally, he glanced at one of the squad leaders of the regulars. They were trained well, at least when it came to conventional warfare. However, in a situation like this? He wasn't going to take the risk. They were still twitchy from the last firefight. The last thing he needed was to have them light up innocent colonists. "You post security. No one gets in or out," then he once more pushed the talk button. "We're coming in."

"Hurry!"


Twenty Minutes Later, 1. April 2417 AD, Cronos Station

Harper placed his hand over his mouth and looked at the set of holographic projections in front of them. All depicted various perspectives of the battle unfolding on New Canton at this very moment and all raised the same question.

Why?

He glanced at the screen depicting a life-feed of the casualties as they were being reported to Shanxi Command, the closest, intact military stronghold of the HSA in the region. Outside of the capital, which was impossible to get a clear number on due to the state of devastation it had been left in, seven thousand, five hundred and thirteen people had been confirmed as dead since the beginning of the attack with an estimated fifteen thousand still trapped in the crashed ship.

This wasn't how the Collectors operated. Not once had they fought a straight battle with their targets. They ambushed, overwhelmed and left with as many abductions and as little casualties as possible; the polar opposite of what was happening on New Canton right now. What were they thinking?

Right now, he had a hundred analysts and an equal number of advanced analytical VIs looking for a reason behind this attack. They had been ordered to search for anything that made New Canton stand out, an explanation for this anomaly. Up to now, they had been unsuccessful. Cerberus' director looked at the black floor panels that were projecting the holograms and rubbed his brow, then he folded his hands together.

He exhaled exactly once.

There was a thought on his mind, and he was now at the point where he'd consider it.

General Arterius believed that the timing between the destruction of Sovereign and their attack on Shepard made it probable that the Collectors were somehow working with the Reapers. While there was a possibility that this was a partnership between the Reapers and the Collectors and that the latter weren't being meticulously controlled, everything they thought they knew about the Harbinger made that incredibly unlikely.

If Harper accepted this believe as a fact and followed along the path of Arterius' assumption, he had to ask himself a different question.

It wasn't 'what were the Collectors thinking'.

It was 'how does this action fit into the Harbinger's plan'.

The greying man spared another glance at the climbing casualty reports. If he didn't find an answer to that question, the ever-expanding list in front of him would just be a fraction of a fraction of the death toll waiting for them. He sighed and then looked at the blue and orange star flaring just beyond the reinforced windows of the observation deck he'd repurposed into his office.

The dance that the two colors of the star engaged in day in and day out had always fascinated him.

At times it would look like one would wash over the other and finally end the colorful battle but then things evened out and the balance was once more restored. Then the process began anew. People had asked him if he hadn't gotten tired of staring at the same thing over and over again for nearly thirty years, but truth be told, he discovered a new detail every day. The star was large, larger than anything he could imagine and even from as far away as Cronos Station was from it, it was hard to see anything but its enormous surface so there was always something new to admire or to find just by looking at it.

Maybe that was unique to him.

Unlike most other people, he could view Anadius without being bothered by its brightness or having to look through a filter to save himself from retina damage. That was the single advantage of the incident that had marked him for life. It might have led to decades of paranoia from others and from himself and subjected him to regular medical check-ups and random headaches. But the eyes in his skull, which he no longer called 'his eyes' since understanding the true origin of the artifact that had caused him to look the way he did, didn't suffer from the sensitivity of their organic predecessors. They allowed him to observe Anadius in its entire, unfiltered glory for as long as he wished or could afford to. There was no painful stinging, no optical illusions and no dizziness. There was just raw, unfiltered beauty for him to behold.

He watched the blue and orange clash again, mesmerized by their interaction. Like fiery waves they washed over each other, back and forth, again and again. In the middle they met and turned into a searing, radiantly white core and in the other direction, towards the edges of the star, they slowly lost color and faded into blackness.

It was everything he strived for humanity's future to be.

Balanced.

Harmonic.

Timeless.

Beautiful.

Perfect.

An embodiment of his life's commitment. That vision was the reason he had fought and also the reason he couldn't let himself be outsmarted, no matter how infinitely larger his opponent seemed to be.

Harper drew in a deep breath and then he tore his gaze away and looked at the screens, fixating on the perspective of a Paladin fighting on the frontlines and tearing into the surviving Collectors. The brutality of the sight didn't bother him one bit. He'd personally done far worse things to his human kin in the past. Therefore, watching an alien get slaughtered by a mostly robotic killing machine in the defense of his species didn't bother him in the slightest. There was no pity and no disgust, just a cold realization every Collector that died on New Canton was one that wouldn't stand in Shepard's path when she brought them down for good.

However, despite this high note, he still couldn't feel at ease or focus on his work entirely. His inability to understand the reason why all of this was happening nagged at the back of his mind. It demanded an answer. But he couldn't give it. Not right now, at least. It would take time, patience and-

Suddenly there was a vibration by his foot, one of the panels informing him of new intel. He touched it with the sole of his shoe and found, surprisingly enough, found the nagging at the back of his mind silenced, at least partially.

Interesting. It wasn't an angle he'd considered up to now or one he had been aware of. But if this was the truth, then he should see to it that he understood it and warned the people who it concerned. He pulled a cigarette out and stuck it in between his lips. Before he lit it, he muttered something into the emptiness of his room, despite knowing that the one he was addressing would never hear it.

"So, this is your next move," he produced a lighter and then the cigarette's tip started to glow orange. "Fair enough. My turn, then."

His hand danced through the air and produced a holographic selection menu. After a few seconds of dialing, a figure assembled itself in front of him. Before he started speaking, he blew out a cloud of smoke.

"Miranda," he greeted.

"Director," the woman replied.

"Have you been informed of the newest development?"

"New Canton?"

"Yes."

"I've been made aware of it, yes. Why are you asking?"

He pulled on his cigarette and, after a few seconds, exhaled. He had an answer for that. One of the holographic screens contained information he shouldn't have but still received due to having made a worthwhile investment into a certain Council agent some time ago. While it didn't paint a whole picture, it gave him cause to worry. He thought about how he'd phrase it for a second without tipping Lawson off on his source, which was a rather challenging task, and then came up with a satisfying response.

"Consider this a heads-up to watch your back and a suggestion to increase your working speed. You might be working on a tighter schedule than either of us anticipated and you may also not be as secret as we wanted you to be."

For a moment it seemed like the operative was shocked, but she hid it well enough that the former spy didn't feel the need to point it out. It was understandable. Up to now they had worked under the assumption that they might be faced with an attack in the next couple of years and that their efforts to prevent that attack were the best kept secret in the galaxy. If his source was right, that assumption had been faulty. Critically so. The Harbinger wouldn't make a move this bold unless he was getting ready to go for the kill.

"Should I inform SLD? Do we need to prepare for an attack? Is the operation in danger."

"For now, it will suffice to just keep an eye open. I don't believe that any of you were compromised."

"What makes you say that?" she replied.

"I'm afraid for a change, yours is not the reason why, Miranda."

"But to do and die," she finished the quote. "Understood. I'll handle it," she paused for a second. "Was there anything else?"

"Are you in a rush?"

"The first missions are starting. I want to be around to personally observe them. We might not get a second chance at learning as much as we can," she said. "And given what you just told me, then I also need to be there to keep an eye on how the people around me are acting. If there is a leak, it could be anyone except me."

"I understand," he tipped his cigarette against the edge of the ashtray. "No. There's nothing else. Just a reminder of something we taught you."

"You taught me a lot of things, Director. I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific."

"Always be properly paranoid. But never let it get in the way of working towards the same goal as your peers, Miranda," he reminded her. She nodded but didn't say another word. "Thank you. That'll be all. You're dismissed."

And thus, the woman's hologram vanished. This little call wasn't a game-deciding move, obviously. But if Shepard was the king of his game and Team Machai was his cheating piece, Miranda was one of his two rooks. A versatile piece that might not achieve victory on its own, but which could still play a crucial role in a complex plan. Humanity had invested a lot of time and a lot of money into her and up to now, they hadn't been disappointed. If Lazarus had proven one thing, it was that Miranda was the all-rounder Cerberus had intended her to be. If the task force had a leak like the information on the screen he was still looking at suggested, then Miranda would find it.

With that theatre taken care of, Harper looked at the hologram of the crashed ship and wondered if that too had been a part of his enemy's plan or if for once, they actually had the advantage.

It was either a carefully crafted trap or a gold-mine of information. If it proved to be the former, they would tear it down piece by piece and find out everything they could. And if it proved to be the latter, they'd just use drone again. That had worked like a charm the last time around, so it would work here as well.

As he felt the heat of the cigarette's glowing bud touch the two fingers that were holding it, Harper dropped it into the ashtray and ignored the stinging pain of the burn he'd just inflicted on himself due to being too focused on another subject. With a stoic expression, Harper leaned back in his chair, dipped his burned fingers into the glass of bourbon to his left and again addressed the invisible Harbinger in the room.

"Let's see what you do with this."


Ten Minutes Earlier, 1. April 2417 AD, Trada Beach Shelter, Secondary Administration Center

"What do you mean? They're locked inside with the shooter? And you're not letting us in?" Prizrak-Lead inquired before suddenly shoving the administrative official backwards. Alenko quickly stepped between the two of them, effectively dividing the office into two parts. "Are you fucking serious right now?"

"We're just following Colonial Security Protocol!"

"You begged for us to get inside here!"

"Because we didn't know that the threat could be contained so easily!"

"Contained? From what you're saying, you just shut in a bunch of people with a gunman!"

"That's the protocol! If there's a breach in a shelter, the section's closed off to protect the rest of the bunker!" the Indian man with rimmed glasses replied while Alenko struggled to keep back the soldier, who'd jumped at him again. "Sacrifice the few to save the many! That's how it works out here!" he insisted before the biotic standing between the two of them failed at containing the angry special forces officer. Within a second, Prizrak-Lead had shoved past Alenko and thrown his punch. Barigai was lying on the floor with a split lip. He whined in pain and then clutched his jaw before staring him down.

"We wouldn't have this problem if your comrades hadn't insisted on making a stand outside under the guise of keeping the corridor open for as long as possible. If they had been in here, we would have had security to stop him. But we didn't. So, we had to prioritize," he justified while blood dripped out of his nose. "It's not our fault that you Terra Novan's are all so eager to die," he stated while getting up and walking behind Alenko. Then he looked at the altered version of the HSA eagle that betrayed the ASOC soldier's home world. Unlike its more peaceful HSA cousin, who's wings were protectively spread over an empty globe, the Terra Novan one was claw-bearing, side faced and diving at its prey. Although it wasn't exactly forbidden and technically didn't harm any regulations it had become associated with some of the nastier things Terra Novan units had done during the Fringe Wars and as such wasn't exactly popular in this part of the HSA. Still, there was hardly a unit originating from humanity's first colony that didn't include it in their insignia in one way or another. "If we'd be allowed to have a militia, they definitely wouldn't have been this stupid. Us New Cantonese have been down this road before. None of this would've ever happened if it weren't for you core world scumbags."

"Oh? Is that what this is about? You fucking piece of Iffy shit- "

Not this time.

Before he could finish what he'd started, Alenko gave Prizrak-Lead a soft biotic shove and shouted at both of them.

"Cool it god damn it," he turned towards Prizrak-Lead. "Cut that shit out or I'm detaining you," he said before turning around to Barigai. "And you are going to open the section for us."

"Or?"

He pointed his finger and the ASOC soldier behind him.

"Or I'm not stopping him next time."

Barigai looked at Alenko for a second and then nodded to one of the technicians that were in the room with them.

"End the lockdown for the section. Engage it again after they're inside."

"Right away."

Barigai stared down Prizrak-Lead again and then nodded his head towards Alenko. "Well? What are you waiting for. Stop him."

"You say it like that. But do you even know where he is?" Alenko retorted.

"Go to the control center of the section. They'll point you the right way," Barigai replied before pinching his nose and tilting his head backwards. "Bloody go already! You were eager a minute ago, weren't you?" he insisted again.

Without another word, the formation moved out.

After a few minutes of going to the section and following the markers to the center the injured Indian had spoke of, they found what they were looking for. Strangely enough and completely contradictory to the situation they were in, there was a man casually sitting in front of it on a chair. His legs were trembling a bit and he looked pale, but other than that, it seemed like he was fine. No injuries, no gun.

Safe to approach.

"Friendlies!" he called, prompting the man to look up for a second. After being alarmed by their appearance, he nodded his head, got up and walked into the room he'd been sitting in front of without saying another word.

"Don't like this," Bau muttered.

"Probably just trauma," Alenko replied. "Still. Approach carefully," he ordered. The team did as instructed and funneled into the room as if they were expecting the man to be the shooter. But instead of running into a gunman, they just found him sitting in front of a bunch of terminals.

He was an elderly man in a grey, blood stained overall and by now the trembling had turned into shaking, and his face was nearly as pale as the white shirt he wore underneath his blood-covered overall. Just like before, it was Prizrak-Lead who took the initiative, likely due to getting more anxious about finding his target. "Where is the shooter? Where's Doctor Bryson?" the special forces officer inquired while Alenko kept his eyes on the door they're come from. Since the situation was unclear, there was still a chance someone could jump them.

"Come on. I know you were there. You're covered in blood. Give us something," the ASOC operative went on. Although the man probably didn't notice it, it didn't go by Alenko that Prizrak-Lead was holding his Valkyrie rifle as if he was expecting the man to suddenly attack after all.

He looked at the soldier for a second with glassy eyes and the suddenly shook his head before tapping his finger against one of the screens that showed a room with two bodies and a lot of blood. "There," his voice started out weak but then slowly turned normal after another breath. "Room Three."

"What happened?"

"One of the scientists just started shooting while we were getting a head count of the shelter section," he paused. "He killed Charles. Or at least I think he killed him. I didn't check. As soon as it started, I ran here," there was a heavy silence in the room when everyone realized what that meant for the people inside that particular shelter. "I don't even know how he got the gun in here."

"Did he leave?" the ASOC soldier replied.

"He can't. I closed the door behind me," he repeated.

"And then what? What about the others?"

"I don't know. I didn't look," he buried his face in his hand. "I locked them in with him. Jesus, I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to die-" he paused. "I'm such a coward."

Alenko looked at Prizrak-Lead, half-way expecting him to attack again.

"Go," he ordered preemptively. "We'll update you."

The man nodded and shot out the door alongside his team, leaving the bunker technician alone with the two Spectres. He and Bau shared a look and then Alenko went ahead and asked.

"Who did he shoot? How many dead were there?""

"Another scientist and a couple of others, I think. Or maybe just the other scientist and Charles. I don't know. I just ran. I'm sorry."

"Does this record? Or is it just for viewing?" Alenko asked while pointing at the screen.

"Records."

"Okay. Can you roll it back?"

He didn't act.

"Can you roll it back, please?" Alenko repeated.

"Right, right. Sorry. Give me a moment," the man pinched his nose and then got to work. The screen turned black and then showed a group of people standing around the technician and another blonde man in the same overall. As soon as it did, the man in the chair turned away in shame. Alenko wouldn't blame him for it.

They couldn't hear what was being said but like the technician had told them, it looked like they were doing a headcount when suddenly a dark-haired man standing a little secluded from the group reached into his bag and rested his hand on something inside it. He looked at the person next to him, an older man with greying, receding hair and a stubble beard and muttered something, which prompted the other turn around. They engaged in a short conversation and then the head of the younger man coiled back ever so slightly as if he was trying to release tension in his muscles. The older man took a step towards him to check what was going on and then, seemingly unprovoked, the younger pulled a white mass accelerator pistol from his bag and started to shoot.

The first set of rounds hit the older man in his chest and then impacted with the technician that wasn't sitting in the room with them right now. Both fell to the ground right as the person in the room with them started running and shut the door behind him, shutting in the others with the shooter in an incredibly selfish display self-preservation. They started banging against the door, but no one opened them. Alenko prepared himself to watch a massacre unfold, but instead of turning his weapon against the survivors, the man just stood there for a few seconds. He looked at the body on the ground, fired off another shot, this time aimed for the head, and then turned towards one of the cameras in a weird, almost robotic manner. The motions were far from fluid. They looked staggered and unrefined, as if he had unlearned how to move his body effectively. Additionally, the didn't make sense. If he'd just want to look at the camera, he could've just turned his head instead of his entire body. After once more coiling his head backwards, the man extended his arms in front of him and then turned the mass accelerator against his own torso. He shot himself several times over until he collapsed, falling on his back with his face looking upwards, revealing a totally blank expression. There wasn't a hint of pain to be seen as blood soaked through his black shirt and stained the white lab coat he'd been wearing.

It was weird.

"Pause it," Alenko ordered. They'd seen all they had to see. Without looking at the screens, the man silently complied.

"Strange method of suicide," Bau observed while Alenko contacted Prizrak-Lead.

"The shooter's dead. We're opening the door and coming your way," he said.

"Copy."

Then he turned to the salarian. "You were right," he admitted. Then he looked at the technician. "How do I open the doors?"

The man got up without another word and pressed a button.

"They're open," he replied.

"Good. Stay here."

There'd be consequences for his actions, even if it didn't look like any of the people he'd locked in were dead. But they wouldn't come from the Spectres. Bau and he weren't here to dish out retribution. Without another word of judgement, the two headed the way the ASOC unit had gone and quickly found the room where the scene had transpired. It wasn't very far away and by the time they got there, which wasn't more than thirty seconds, they found the survivors standing outside alongside one of Prizrak-Squad. The rest of the ASOC unit had stepped inside. Prizrak-Lead was inspecting the older of the two dead scientists and cursing about how their target was dead and the rest of his team was checking on the other two bodies. While he wasn't going to rule out that one of the survivors was responsible for the gunshot wound to the head of the younger scientists, which Alenko knew hadn't been self-inflicted, the mass accelerator was still where the dead man had dropped. Hence it was unlikely that one of the shocked civilians was responsible for the centered gunshot in the middle of what remained of the man's face. Not only did he think that they weren't capable of doing something like shoot a person in the face, he also assumed that they'd be too shocked to pull it off, even at close range. He looked at the ASOC soldiers and decided that they were responsible. Apparently, the squad's understanding of counterterrorism involved double-tapping unresponsive shooters. He wondered briefly if that was something they'd picked up for themselves or if the HSA's Army Special Operations Command were actually trained to not capture their foes in their base of operations on Terra Nova.

Either way, if he hadn't been dead before, he was now.

"And?" he asked, already knowing the answer he'd get.

"It's Bryson," Prizrak-Lead replied before going over to the body of the shooter. "And that fucker was my secondary objective. Bryson's assistant. Derek Hadley."

Alenko looked at the two bodies and then opened his omni. There was someone who'd want to hear this.

"You got body bags?" he asked who he assumed was the medic of the ASOC squad while typing and sending the short notification.

"Yeah," the member of Prizrak-Squad replied.

"Good," Alenko nodded before pointing at Bryson and Hadley's corpses and kneeling down next to the latter. "I'm seizing both of them."

"Be my guest. My orders were to extract them. Can't do that if they're dead," the ASOC officer replied. Alenko only paid half a mind to what he was saying. His mind was already somewhere else and judging by the way Bau reached into the destroyed remains of Hadley's face and started to dig, the salarian had caught on to what he'd seen. After prying around the man's jaw for a few seconds and showing no aversion whatsoever to digging around in what used to be a person's face, he pulled out a nail-sized grey device from somewhere above his jaw.

"Ocular nerve flashbang," he looked at him, holding the bloody device in his hand. "Standard issue for human scientists?"

"No. We don't exactly make a habit of implanting things designed to kill us," he replied. As far as he knew, not even HSAIS went anywhere near suicide implants. While he was sure that there was some sick bastard in a high-up position who'd rub his fingers in glee at the thought of never having to worry about any operative giving up information because they could just flip a kill switch, the risk of a malfunction was simply too great.

"Why shoot yourself if implanted with ocular nerve flashbangs?"

Alenko sighed and looked at Hadley, only now noticing that he was wearing a Hahne-Kedar shirt underneath his lab coat.

"Maybe whoever made him pull the trigger didn't know about the implants?" he asked while digging around the coat and pulling out two access passes, one for an HSA lab on Shanxi, the other for what he figured was a Hahne-Kedar facility. The shots had damaged that pass so badly that his omni could no longer access it.

"Implying-" Bau began before stopping and looking at the ASOC team.

"Yes," Alenko nodded. "Exactly."

"Not good."

He only nodded in response.


Five Hours Later, 2158 CE, THS Parnack, New Canton

"Your unit is patched in with the human commander, General Arterius," the voice of a communication officer informed him while Desolas stood at the opened ramp of the frigate. The rushing of the wind outside and the whining of the engines were muted by his helmet, leaving him alone with the sound of the radio and his own breath.

"Major Kurnik, this is the commander of the turian reinforcements speaking. Be advised, we're dropping now," he stated as the Parnack visibly slowed down. Thanks to the motion dampeners and magnetic boots however, Desolas and the soldiers behind him weren't thrown backwards.

"Copy that, General. I already told my guys to expect Blackwatch reinforcements. So ideally, you won't be shot on the way down. Skies should be clear as well, at least from where I'm standing."

"Understood, Major. I'll see you on the ground."

"Hold up. Did he just say ideally?" he heard Galviat question right before the Parnack came to a stop and the light rail over the ramp turned from black to blue, indicating that they could jump. Without another word, Desolas leapt out of the frigate alongside twenty-six other Blackwatch operatives. The ground below was mostly green, except of course the fires of battle burning around the tiny brown dot that was the crashed ship and the enormous ruin of the colonial capital.

For the most part, their fall was free, quiet and without any deceleration. Only about two minutes before they'd impact the ground at terminal velocity did their drop-packs kick in to slowly deaccelerate them and allow them to touch down gently and without feeling like they'd come to a sudden full-stop. However, it was in the last sixty seconds of the drop that the problems started. While the majority of his unit started to hover down without interruption, a sudden shout of surprise traveled over the squad intercom from where the sixth squad and the two members of his honor guard brought up the back of the formation.

"Incoming hostiles! Break formation! Break!" he heard Veltax shout. Due to already being in the process of deceleration, Desolas could afford to look up and see what the other turian was talking about. Right as he tilted his head upwards, he spotted a silver-purple shape flying towards the black and golden figures. Three dived, three unfolded their weapons and returned fire. They started shooting and continued to do so, even when one of them was lashed at with a large, sharp limb. His barriers flared and cracked and although his armor wasn't compromised, something else went up in sparks.

His drop-pack.

In one moment, the Blackwatch soldier was shooting. In the next, he was falling past his decelerated comrades. Desolas watched the scene and heard an explosion above him but ignored it. His team would handle the attack, he'd handle this. As the black and golden shape fell past him, time slowed down for Desolas and in less than two seconds, he did three things. He glanced at his HUD and determined that they were still in the red zone. That meant that an impact form this height would be deadly. Then he realized that they'd hit the ground very soon. In less than thirty seconds to be precise. Without doing much thinking, Desolas disengaged his drop back and once more started to accelerate. He positioned himself in a manner that would allow him to achieve a high speed very fast and the other soldier, realizing what his general was planning, did the opposite. While Desolas pressed his limps against his body and shot down headfirst, the other soldier sprawled himself out to create as much air resistance as he could. The gap between them decreased very quickly, but so did the distance between them and a lethal impact. About fifteen seconds before impact, Desolas reached the soldier and clung onto him as tightly as he could. About ten seconds before the impact, he engaged his drop-pack for maximum thrust and then a painful sensation rocked his entire body. His stomach was thrown upwards, prompting him to empty the contents against his visor and his spine felt like it had been pulled apart one vertebra at a time. By the time he'd realized that his HUD was still flashing warnings about the force of the imminent impact underneath the contents of his stomach that he'd just covered it in, the two soldiers fell through the canopy of trees and the Blackwatch soldier he'd caught turned both of them so that Desolas wouldn't be the one to hit the ground with his back.

Then both hit the ground far harder than expected.

While it didn't feel like he'd died or broken anything, once the pain hit him, Desolas spent a second wishing he kind of had. On pure instinct, he pulled of his helmet first. Then he remembered that he wasn't alone and turned to the soldier he'd saved. He was moaning in pain and his right arm and was bent to a very odd angle, Instantly Desolas realized that he probably couldn't breathe properly due to vomit and blood flowing down his throat. He turned the soldier on the side without a broken arm, pulled of his helmet and let the mixture of body fluids run out of his mouth.

Then Desolas got to his feet, removed his drop-pack and sat out to secure their immediate surroundings. All the first aid in the world wouldn't help the two of them if they were ambushed. After scanning his surroundings and finding no immediate threat, he walked back to his comrade, dropped back down to his knees and spat out a worrying amount of blue blood while feeling incredibly dizzy all of the sudden. Going form the pain in his mouth, he assumed, or rather hoped, that that was caused by how he had bitten his tongue upon impact and not related to his organs being torn apart.

On the scale of miserable and painful things he'd done during his time in Blackwatch, this jump had just easily made it into the top three.

"General Arter-" he heard from the soldier behind him.

"You're going to be fine, Sergeant Illiat," he stated before reaching for the soldier's first aid kit and pulling out the painkillers, ignoring how his own back muscles felt like they'd been cut apart piece by piece due to the sudden stop. "Just breathe."

Breathe he did, but it sounded a lot more like coughing.

"Sir. You shouldn't have done that," Illiat coughed while Desolas administered the painkillers. "Losing you over one casualty isn't-"

"A hunter doesn't abandon the pack, Sergeant," he said before reaching for his helmet and wiping the inside off with the palm of his hand. He needed to see his vitals, even if that meant getting a face full of the smell of his own vomit. After a second of blackness, the helmet recognized its wearer and powered up again. He looked at Illiat, who's nametag was now being displayed and sighed in relieve. A lot of broken bones, but nothing too lethal. If he got a Blackwatch medic in the next hour, he'd live.

With the casualty taken care of, Desolas took the time to look up to where the silhouettes of his unit were descending from a cloud of smoke. He wanted to count and see if everyone had made it, but his head was ringing too badly to do so right now.

"Sir!" he heard Veltax shout behind him, prompting him to turn around. Again, there was a stinging pain. Since he didn't want to deal with that for the entire mission, Desolas now reached into his own med kit and injected himself with a stim pack. It would keep him going for the operation.

"I'm fine, Veltax," he told the honor guard before glancing at him. There was a streak of brown liquid sprayed over the length of his torso and his helmet had a superficial but still deep cut at its right side. So did his drop-pack. "As is Illiat. Relieve me for a second, will you?" he asked and then got up and pulled of his helmet. "Casualties?" he asked, glad to breathe fresh, vomit-less free air again.

"Just the two of you, Sir," he said before taking a knee next to Illiat. "You'll be fine. Just hang in there until the medics get here" he stated before grasping the soldier's good arm.

"I'm not a casualty," Desolas insisted before spitting out the blood that had collected in his mouth over the last minutes. While most of it hit the ground, a little ran down his white, unmarked face. He made a move to wipe it off but then remembered that his hands were covered in something a bit nastier than blood so he stopped himself and instead took a sip from his water pack to rinse out his mouth.

"I think the medics should decide that," Veltax stated while observing the general.

"They can do that when we're done here," Desolas replied.

"You look beat, Sir."

"I've had worse," he replied. "The thing that attacked us. Is it dead?"

"Sure, would like to think so."

"How?"

"Galviat distracted it and I cut its hide open and stuffed all my breaching charges inside," the soldier replied before looking into the forest. "While we're on the subject. I'm now out of breaching charges," then he hung his head ever so slightly, "and I lost my talon."

"When we're done here, we'll forge you a new one," Desolas said before taking another sip from the water pack and rinsing off the palm of his hand and the inside of his helmet. It would still need cleaning after this, but for it would do the job.

Veltax looked at him.

"Lost your breakfast, didn't you?" the turian figured.

"Lunch, actually," Desolas replied before looking at the helmet. There was the hint of a crack in the visor from where his head had collided with Illiat's but other than that, it looked like he could still wear it in battle. He decided to give it a few more minutes to lose the scent and simply spoke into the integrated radio without actually putting it on. "All squads rally up on my position. We'll collect the drop-packs and start our march to the crash site. Medics, double-time it. We've got a casualty. Drop-related injuries," he ordered through the radio before once more addressing the sergeant directly. "That's what I get for teasing Galviat."

"I won't tell him if you don't."

"I appreciate the loyalty, Sergeant."

"Tell me what exactly?" the tall sniper asked while emerging from one of the bushes, rifle in one hand and drop-pack in the other. Much like Veltax, it looked like his armor and gear had taken a superficial beating. There were cuts and dents in it, but nothing too critical. The sniper looked at the puddle of vomit nearby and shrugged. "Oh. I see."

"Save it for after the mission."

"Given the circumstances, I think I'll give you a pass on this one, Sir," he said before dropping of his pack and kneeling down to cover their backs with his Phaeston. "That's Illiat, isn't it?"

"Yes," Desolas replied as anther pair of Blackwatch operatives stepped out from the thick forest and joined Galviat in securing a perimeter.

"How is he?"

"He'll make it."

"Good," the sniper was silent for a second and Desolas watched his shoulder drop ever so slightly. "Say Veltax, that thing we killed back there," he began as a medic rushed out of the bushes and dropped down next to Illiat before getting to work.

"What about it?" Veltax replied after giving Illiat a final hand squeeze and then taking position next to Galviat.

"Did you get a good look at it?"

"Kind of. Why?"

"Was it just me, or did it looked like it was made of reaper tech and human husks?"

Despite the painkillers numbing his back, Desolas felt a chill run down his spine. He looked at his sniper.

"So, you saw it as well. Then it wasn't just my imagination after all," Veltax replied.

"Are you sure you saw what you think you saw?" Desolas injected.

"Excuse my language, but I'd recognize that shit anywhere, Sir," Galviat nodded.

"Veltax?"

"Yes, Sir. I'm sure."

Spirits.

He'd been right all this time.

The Reapers and the Collectors were on the same side.


Codex: Human Colonial Demographics (Topic: Terra Nova)

Established in 2105 AD as the first human colony outside the Sol System, Terra Nova's original settlers consisted of humans from all over Earth who volunteered to try and escape the overpopulation, pollution, war and poverty of the early 22nd century.

As the first and only human colony on an earth-like planet for nearly twelve years, the first decade of Terra Nova's colonialization saw more immigration than the planet could initially support. Only with the emergence of the HSA did the situation on the planet improve again. Due to this initial spike of population growth has led to Terra Nova being the by far second most-populous planet in human space and the most populous human colony. As of 2417 AD, its population reached the three point five billion mark and, due to continuous support policies of the local colonial administration, is estimated to break four billion by early 2425 AD.

Due to its proportionately large and immigration-ready population and the fact that no other colony has been around as long as Terra Nova and thus hadn't had as much time to contribute to the growing human population, 'Terra Novan' has been the second most-common heritage in human space.

In addition to being over-represented among the ancestry of human colonies, Terra Nova's inhabitants also make up a disproportionate number of active and former servicemen of the Human Systems Alliance Army, with nearly every third soldiers of the branch of service having been born on Terra Nova. This can be attributed to a number of factors, the HSA's unrivaled popularity on the planet, the famed military academies and boarding schools of Terra Nova and the dense presence of the HSA Army on the planet and in its population.

This presence includes but is not limited:

Army Central Command

Army Logistics Command

Army Special Operations Command

Army Education, Recruitment, Reenlistment and Reserve Command

Additionally, a quarter of the army's recruit training depots and a fifth of all army combat units are based around Terra Nova or within the Asgard System.

Due to the growing difference in population growth and birth rates between Earth and Terra Nova, with Earth-born numbers continuously receding and Terra Novan numbers rising steadily, hypothetical estimations predict that, if growth were to follow along its current trend without interruptions or extinction events on either planet, Terra Novan will become the most populated human world by 2574 AD.


A/N:

We're back.

Since writing my thesis, training and work has taken (and will continue to take) a lot of time, I'm glad I got this out as "quickly" as I did, since "The Inside Man" is a pretty important chapter. In addition to confirming to the characters what all of us already knew, namely that the Collectors and the Reapers are working together and clarifying Kaidan's role (to which I'll say a bit more soo), it also starts the weaving together of the plot lines. I'm sure it was rather obvious what's going on here with Bryson, so I won't outline it again.

As for Kaidan, I always found it stupid that the Virmire survivor hates you in ME 2 for working with Cerberus... so I made the Virmire survivor in Semper Vigilo do exactly what they hate Shepard for doing in ME 2.

He's working for Cerberus.

Now that doesn't mean that he's NOT a sincere Spectre.

It just means that he's got a bit of a... sidequest. (Isn't that a fun way to describe spying :D?)

So. Enough for Kaidan.

Let's talk about Desolas, who finally gets his time to shine in SV:ME2. I will admit that he got a bit sidelined considering how important of a character he actually is. (I mean he and saren pretty much kicked of the plot) ... therefore, it is my intention to have most of the next chapter, which is obviously going to be SV's version of the Collector Ship raid, from his badass perspective. He might be getting a bit old... But he's definelty not TOO OLD FOR THIS SHIT just yet. Fuck yeah to Semper Vigilo's habit of making people past 50 kick other people's asses (I'm talking about you, Redford! Yeah. You'renot fooling anyone. You're getting old as well mate. Remember that when you show up for your super-relevant plot sometime in the future!)

Oh wait.

Did I just write... Redford?

Yeah. I did.

In addition to Desolas and Harper, he's probably the POV character who's been around the longest (and the most) in terms of both chapters and story years and while I want to use this opporuntiy to tell you that I didn't forget about him, I'd also like to use it to do some teasing again, but this time for the other story I write. As some of you might know, there is a second story on my profile. Semper Vigilo Anthologies. As of now, it consists of two "short" stories (both over 10k words) set in the past (one during the Geth War, the other during the Krogan Rebellions) and, in the (undefined future), I will add a THIRD one and another writer will (for the first time ever) also add their own story to the SV universe. I won't talk too much about that story, at least not for now, but I already want to do some teasing for the one I will write.

As you can probably guess form this introduction, it's going to be about Redford and it will basically be an immediate prequel to the events that transpire right before Semper Vigilo kicks off above Parnack all the way to the point where Redford first shows up in the story.

Since I have the impression that's he's a fairly popular character (I'm going by the reviews who told me they love him for this assumption) I just wante dto give all of you who fall into that group, or just want to read more about the HSA prior to and immedaitely after first contact the heads-up that more of that time period is in the works.

So yeah.

With that out of the way, off to the usual.

For the record we're at 685 reviews, 1064 favorites and 1164 follows.

By now we have climbed to the MIDDLE of the second pages of both favorites and follows. While I know it doesn't say anything about the story, I can't admit that I'm not proud of the community this story has grown and as such, would once more like to thank all of you for using your time to read my shit.

It's humbling and it always feels surreal when I see that hundreds of people take time out of their day to read what I write here.

So thank you for that.

See you around next time.