Chapter 85. The Harbinger Revealed
Two Hours Later, 2158 CE, New Canton, Crash Site, Temporary HSA Command Center
Desolas stepped to the edge of the forest and looked at the burned clearing up ahead. The trees had been blown apart by gunfire and explosions and only a few dots of green had been spared the onslaught that had unfolded around the epicenter which was the besieged brown behemoth in the center of the crater. If it weren't for the pieces of dark-grey alloy and the still dimly-yellow glowing lights in its rear-half, one would be hard pressed to not mistake the craft for a small mountain or a very large asteroid and wonder just what the inanimate object had done to deserve the kind of military force that it had drawn. In the two hours it had taken his forces to rally and march through the forest, the human garrison had clearly been productive. A ring consisting of Makos, Paladins Mechs, light reconnaissance vehicles and several mobile anti-air platforms built on the chassis of the former Hammerhead APCs surrounded the immediate vicinity of the crashed Collector ship. Sporadic tracer fire from these positions lit up the dimming sky and behind the wall of steel, hidden from sight by camouflage nets and the surviving tree line, he could spot a pair of prefab bunkers. He assumed they had been airlifted in now that the humans seemed to have gained air superiority in the main theatre since he doubted that they'd been here before the attack. That would've been too much of a coincidence.
"Major Kurnik, we've arrived at the crash site," he spoke into the radio of his helmet. Mercifully the smell of vomit and blood had aired out by now. "Where should we meet?"
"You can rally up by the bunkers. That's our FOB. You'll meet my XO there. A Spectre called Captain Alenko."
"Understood," he waved for one of the two commanders that were accompanying him on this mission. "Barro, get over here!"
The commander jogged over and came to a halt in front of him. Like all Blackwatch soldier, he was clad in a black-golden suit of power armor that was still marked with the insignias of his original corps. As the pale orange dots showcased, Barro had been a combat engineer prior to making Blackwatch. Compared to the other commander, who like Veltax had been a Hastatim in his prior service, that background made Barro the ideal choice for this assignment.
"Sir?" he asked.
"Spread the teams out along the tree line, hunker down and start planning our breach of the ship. I'll come and get you when we know more about the battlefield."
"Yes, Sir," the Blackwatch officer replied before moving out to relay Desolas' orders.
"Hold up. Did the major just say our contact's a guy named Alenko? We know that name, don't we?" Galviat muttered from Desolas' left before adjusting the weight of the signal amplifier that he was carrying specifically for this mission. They'd brought the device with them to ensure that they wouldn't lose radio contact, even after entering the ship. It might not be a Reaper, but he wasn't going to take any chances on becoming lost and ending up like Saren had.
"Yes, we do. He fought with Commander Shepard two years ago," Desolas confirmed.
"Looks like he moved a social tier or two if he's a Spectre now," Galviat figured while the moved along the tree line and towards the bunkers.
"Humans don't have social tiers, Galviat," Veltax stated.
"I was speaking metaphorically," the other turian replied. "You know. Like humans."
Veltax only sighed in response and opened the door of the bunker for Desolas. The general nodded his thanks and stepped inside. It was far less crowded than he'd expected it to be. Besides a few screens, it only really contained two things, a comm station and a holo-table.
"Either way. I don't remember hearing anything about another human making Spectre," Galviat injected. "You'd think that'd be news, even if they had two already."
"They didn't exactly advertise Shepard's status either until the op on Noveria made it impossible to hide it," Veltax figured while they approached the human. He heard them speak and turned his head.
"Yes. But with the Sovereign mission, they kind of had a reason to hide it back then," Galviat replied.
"Maybe they do now as well?" Veltax figured before both fell silent.
"General Arterius?" Alenko greeted with surprise.
"Captain Alenko," Desolas replied before extending a hand. "It's always good to see a familiar face," he glanced the way he'd come from. "Even under circumstances as dire as these."
"Likewise, General," the biotic officer nodded before looking at his honor guard. "Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad your team is here," then he frowned, "but what in god's name are you doing on New Canton?" Alenko inquired before shaking it.
Desolas answer came in form of a look towards the hologram of the wreckage of the Collector ship and the thinned-out swarm of flyers circling above its hull, which were depicted as little red dots. "Looking for answers," he replied before glancing at the other Spectre. He seemed familiar but he just couldn't place him yet or remember his name.
"That makes two of us," Alenko said before clearly realizing that something was different from two years ago. "Where's Lieutenant Callius? Did something happen to her?"
"No. The lieutenant is on a different assignment right now," the general stated before looking at the salarian again. It bothered him too much not to ask. "Apologies, but have we met?" he asked with uncharacteristic uncertainty. He usually didn't have a hard time placing people, yet somehow he did just now.
Maybe his head had been rung worse during the fall than he'd initially believed and it was now showing?
It'd certainly explain the hint of a ringing he had in his ear for the last couple of minutes.
"Not directly," the salarian replied quickly. "Jondum Bau. Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. Worked with Blackwatch on Palaven once. File might have crossed your table," he blinked once after offering an explanation. It sounded plausible enough. Still, Desolas had a feeling that it was more than that. But right now, he didn't have the time to inquire any further or question his honesty. The general looked at the projection Alenko and the other Spectre had been studying. It appeared to be a section of the crashed ship that had been blown open by anti-air batteries, one near the center of the vessel where the layer of rock thinned out and revealed the broken alloy carapace underneath. Considering the scale of the ship and the hole, he'd estimate that the humans had blown a two-story sized chunk out of the craft. While that didn't seem like a lot of damage given how enormous the ship was, they had clearly hit something important enough to cause the crash. "You wouldn't happen to plan the same thing as we, would you?" he inquired with a curious look on his face.
"That depends," Alenko shrugged in return. "Are you thinking about boarding the damn thing to finally put an end to the stream of Collectors that's been bugging us for hours now?" Desolas looked at him, wondering how he knew what they were called and trying to decide if Alenko had really just made that terrible pun intentionally or not. He ignored the latter part of his question and glanced at the other Spectre. If anyone would know about the Collectors, it would probably be a salarian Council operative. He nodded.
"Something like that, yes," he responded. He was less interested in where they came from as he was into figuring out how they even got here in the first place. Since this ship clearly belonged to the Collectors, it was safe to assume that it had transited the Omega-Four Relay. As such, it held the key to their home world.
"Well," Alenko exclaimed before shrugging, "in that case I suggest we join forces like back in the day."
He looked at the ship and remembered what Major Kurnik had told him. Thousands of Collectors had already streamed out of it and an unknown number was still inside. Given that scale, he' be a fool to turn down reinforcements of two Spectres, even if they didn't exactly fit into the plan he'd drawn up for the boarding.
"Agreed," he looked at the section of the ship again and then at the two Spectres. He found it very unlikely that they'd be this crazy, but still, he had to ask. "You weren't planning on going in through that breach, were you?"
The two of them shared a look and Desolas had a realization in the process.
Spirits.
That was exactly what they had planned.
"We don't exactly have another way in, General. The hull might not look like it, but it's pretty tough underneath all that dirt. I don't see us making another hole, at least not without a whole lot of collateral damage to the containment forces. It took a nuclear warhead to make that gap. We can hardly deploy another one."
"I see. One moment," he stated. "Barro, have you made any progress regarding our breach?" he asked over the battle-net before bringing up his omni-tool, tapping into the frequency and adding the two Spectres into the otherwise locked-off channel so that they could hear what was being said.
"Yes, Sir," the commander confirmed. "The hull looks like a composite of natural-occurring, asteroid-like carapace and a hardened, artificial layer underneath. Scans indicate that it's roughly comparable to the armor of one of our dreadnoughts, so it's very tough, but not uncrackable. At least not everywhere," Barro explained. "There's a part of the hull that was weakened significantly by the crash and the blast. Its structural integrity is down to about fifteen percent. If you buy me the time to set up a layered detonation, one to blow away the asteroid material and one to cut through the armor layers, I should be able to make us an entrance at this location," Desolas glanced at the image that appeared on his HUD. It was close to the tip of the vessel, near what he'd assumed to be the main gun.
"Understood Commander," Desolas replied. "How much time do you need?"
Barro was silent for a second. Then he answered.
"Once we're there, about five minutes," he estimated and knowing Barro and his demolition team, that meant he'd do it in three.
"Understood. Send me the exact location of the segment you're planning to breach," Desolas replied before looking at the Spectres. "What?" he asked in response to their questioning looks.
"Well. That at least solves the problem of breaching," Alenko said. "Which just leaves one other issue," he sighed. "What do we do about the swarms?"
"You mean the Seekers?" he guessed, remembering Solus' report on the creatures.
"They paralyze you," Alenko stated. "And once that happens, you're pretty much fish in a barrel for the other Collectors."
"Only if they catch you," Desolas retorted before walking over to the projector in the middle of the bunker. "May I?"
"Sure."
He placed his hands on the hologram and started to manipulate it until he found the spot Barro had sent him, ignoring the burst of static that came through his radio. It was likely the bunker interfering with a transmission or something along those lines. The breaching spot Barro had suggested was far away from the location where he'd seen the cloud of flying insects prior to stepping into the bunker and as such he figured that they shouldn't be a problem as long as they were quick and lucky.
"If we use your mobile anti-air platforms to transport us here, they should be able to keep the air clean for as long as it takes us to make the breach, won't they?" he remembered the maneuvers with the older AA-platforms that the HSA had been trying to phased out ever since First Contact, and subsequently and constantly being interrupted by another large-scale conflict that delayed the effort. While they were nowhere near as accurate as comparable, missile-based turian systems or other, newer human systems, the aged armored vehicles did have one advantage based on the war during which they had been constructed. They were incredibly effective against large numbers of smaller targets such as hunter-killer drone swarms, or as in this case, actual insect swarms. "They still use airburst shells, don't you?"
"Yes. They do," he nodded before considering the projection of the hologram." This could actually work," Alenko went on before walking up next to him and looking at the dozens of small red dots circling above the Collector Ship. "But there's still the issue of what we do if we run into more of these seekers inside the ship."
"If it's like any other ship, it'll be a close quarters fight and we won't have to worry about the sky above us," Desolas replied quickly. He'd planned for this after all. "I ordered my unit to modify their weapons with explosive incendiary ammo mods and we brought as many incendiary, shrapnel and airburst grenades as we could carry. If the terrain is in our favor, we should be able to deal with the swarms in the corridors. After all, they don't seem to have any kind of armor or shielding, right?"
"None that we have observed, no," Alenko replied. "But what if it isn't like any other ship? What if there's a lot of open spaces? They'll pick us off one after another."
"The two of you, maybe," Desolas replied before looking at his armored gauntlets. "I'm operating under the assumption that these things won't be able to penetrate Blackwatch armor."
"Very confident, despite operating on assumptions alone," Bau injected.
"If I don't believe that we can win, we've already lost," Desolas replied. It sounded reckless, he realized that, but they didn't really have much of a choice, did they? This was a one in a life-time opportunity and he wouldn't let danger get in the way of seizing it.
"The only defenses that have proven to work against them are camouflage and biotic barriers," Alenko retorted. "Other than that, the stasis effect they cause upon contact seem to be able to penetrate everything, including traditional kinetic barriers, kinetic-shield hybrids and our old, unhybridized shields from before First Contact," Alenko retorted. "No offense, but Jondum's right. Your plan rides on a lot of what-ifs, General," he already knew that.
"Just two," he corrected before taking a step back from the projector and once more looking at the larger breach, a plan for a diversion forming in his head. "If you feel like the risk Is too big, you are welcome to stay here. But Blackwatch will board this vessel, with or without you. We need to secure it, at any cost. It is crucial to the success of our mission."
Suddenly the other Spectre who'd stayed silent up to now injected himself in the conversation.
"Didn't come here to stop the attack," the salarian muttered before putting his hand in front of his mouth. He paused and blinked. "Came here because you're searching for something specific inside the vessel."
Desolas looked at him through the hologram.
"Yes," he confirmed.
"What for?"
"Something that tells us how they travel through the Omega-Four Relay. We want to strike them at their base of operations. To do that, we need to know how their ships survive the transit."
"Why?"
"Because this is just the latest in a string of attacks."
"Two vanished colonies, work of Collectors?"
"Yes," he confirmed again.
"Worrying," the salarian replied before looking at him with his dark, black eyes. "But why worthy of your attention? Last I heard, your focus was the Reapers, not missing humans. Explain, please."
"I will. But before I do that, I think it's about time you answer some questions yourself, Spectres," Desolas replied before moving so that he wouldn't have to look at the salarian through the slightly translucent blue hologram. He took a step closer and looked down at the slightly shorter salarian. Now that he was face to visor with him, Desolas went on. "What are the two of you doing on a human frontier world in the first place?" Bau briefly glanced at Alenko and so did Desolas. The question included the human just as much as it did the salarian. Then he looked back at Jondum Bau and suddenly he remembered where he knew him from.
And it hadn't been a joint op with Blackwatch.
It had been a report forwarded to him by Primarch Fedorian that had crossed his desk shortly before he'd left to fortify the turian portion of the galactic rim, one concerning the clean-up operation in the wake of the Battle of the Citadel. Due to the dangers posed by the pieces, the Council had assigned one of their best Spectres to the case and tasked him with assuring that everything went down smoothly and more importantly safely. "Or more specifically, what's the Spectre who got charged with securing Sovereign's debris doing on a human frontier world? Last I heard, you were supposed to oversee the clean-up in the wards, not sneak around the fringe of Council Space, fighting the Collectors. What happened?"
The salarian Spectre looked at him with an unsurprised, blank expression as if he'd already expected him to make this connection. Then he folded his arms in front of his black armor.
"Originally came here for reasons related to the operation you mentioned," he stated just before yet another burst of white-noise traveled through Desolas' radio. This time he also heard it come from Bau's radio though, so he concluded that the problem wasn't unique to the network of his unit. The human comm stations however remained silent. "Now Collectors have interfered with mission of mine in a manner that suggests a connection between them and Reapers," Bau said with a shrug, "Given personal history with Reapers, don't see someone like you losing focus of them and suddenly showing interest into Collectors. Conclusion, your attention was drawn because you believe same thing. Correct?"
"Correct."
"In that case, here for the same reason as you. Motivations clear. No more questions necessary. Time for action."
While he didn't feel like there wasn't a need for more questions, he'd give it a break for now. At least until he'd given his orders. He took a step back from the salarian and set his plan in motion.
"Captain Alenko, can you get us the vehicles we need?"
"I'll get right to it," the human nodded.
"Galviat, you stay here. Escort the captain back to our position as soon as you're done."
"Yes, Sir," the turian sniper said while Desolas walked towards the entrance of the bunker.
"Veltax, Spectre Bau and I will get back to the rest of the unit ahead of you. We'll be waiting there."
"Understood."
The two turians and the salarian climbed out of the bunker and walked about a minute. In that time, Desolas noticed that his radio seemed to act out more and more and dialed the volume down a bit. When he was done with that, he sighed and, against his better judgement to do this out in the open, came to a halt and stopped the salarian Council agent as well. Veltax walked a few more steps ahead of them, then noticed what was going on and stopped by one of the trees, far away to not intrude but close enough to observe the two of them.
This wasn't really a good time to do this but since they were about to enter the Collector ship, he couldn't postpone it either.
"Alright. You and I need to have a conversation, Bau," If the salarian was here because he knew something about the Reapers, then that knowledge had to become Desolas'. Ever since the incident with Captain Haliat, he had known that even the tiniest detail might make the difference between victory and disaster. and as such, he'd chase it down.
"About?"
"About what the Collectors have got to do with your mission to collect and destroy Sovereign's pieces. We agree on the link to the Reapers, obviously. But I fail to see how you made the connection or why you came to New Canton of all places."
"Afraid that won't happen, General."
"Why?"
"Don't have security clearance to know," the salarian shrugged. "Besides, didn't we just agree on actions, not words?"
"No, we didn't," he'd backed off for a minute to discuss a plan. The salarian had clearly mistaken that as him yielding to his arguments. "You said that there's no need for more questions, but I disagree. If you know something about the Reapers, then you have to tell us. Trust me when I say this, I've been down this road before. Keeping secrets form our allies is the surest way to the Harbinger's victory, "the turian general countered. "Whatever connection you discovered, you need to tell me about it."
"Understand reasoning and recognize your experience on this subject," the salarian Spectre retorted before folding his arms in front of his armored chest and once more blinking longer than needed. "Still. Can't tell you. Council matter of highest classification."
Desolas felt his mandibles tighten against his jaw, a classic expression of turian anger. He couldn't explain why he'd done it and he relaxed as soon as he noticed. He wasn't angry, after all.
"You know exactly how crucial knowledge is in this fight," Desolas said while he noticed Veltax pull of his helmet and inspect his inside for some reason. Then the other turian started to dial on his radio as well.
"Which is precisely why I can't tell you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Lack security clearance."
Desolas felt the need to insult him over something so trivial but kept himself in check.
"We don't have time for labels like security clearance."
Again the salarian remained stoic. The only action he took was to change the hand that was holding his helmet.
"Don't have time to discuss this matter further. Would like to tell you, can't. Have my orders, will follow them. From one soldier to another, sure you understand."
The salarian made a move to walk away but Desolas grabbed him by his shoulder before he could do so. This exact mindset was the reason why they'd ended up where they'd ended up, why Saren had been killed. If they didn't trust their allies with their secrets, they'd be picked off one after another.
"I don't. Not anymore," he told Bau, who still looked at him with the same, stoic expression. "The time for secrets is over. The Reapers are coming. They could be here any day," he stated, "and if we waste what little time we have left to prepare with lying to the people on our own side, we've already lost this war."
"What's greatest weapon of the Reapers?" Bau suddenly retorted. "Ship-based firepower? Geth allies? Husks?" he listed before Desolas saw his face shift into what passed for a grim salarian expression. "All those insignificant compared with indoctrination," he finally clarified. "Reaper ability to turn key-figures into puppets and employ them against own people means that one second of misplaced trust will doom all of us," suddenly the salarian snapped free of Desolas' grip. "First known case of indoctrination occurred in your legion. Been around Reaper tech for last two decades. Artifacts, people, husks. By own admission, been practically obsessed with Harbinger from the very beginning. Even more so since failed attack of Sovereign and death of Saren," he took a breath. "Can't account for personal credibility anymore," the grim expression suddenly grew more intense just as the white-noise picked up again.
Desolas frowned behind his visor and then grimaced equally until dialing his radio to the lowest possible setting. This was becoming infuriating quickly. As was the conversation with the salarian. Just as he was done with that, Alenko and Galviat caught up with them and looked at the two of them, presumably wondering what was going on, Desolas gave his reply in a low, icy-cold tone, ignoring the sense of rage that was boiling up within him.
"What are you implying, Spectre Bau?"
He knew exactly what Bau was implying.
"No one had similar number of prolonged interactions with Indoctrination-Hazards as you. No one walked away from as many without seemingly becoming affected as you. Makes you anomaly. Outlier in consistent set of data and observations," he narrowed his eyes and his tone shifted into something that strangely enough sounded like anger. His stoic behavior was slipping quickly. "Considering current understanding of indoctrination and study of past cases, risk of you being affected one way or another cannot be dismissed. In fact, has to be considered likely possibility," the salarian slashed his hand through the air in a denying gesture before a burst of painfully loud white-noise shot out from Desolas' nearly muted radio. Quickly Galviat sat down the signal amplifier.
"Spirits, it must be this damn thing," the sniper stated. "I've been getting interference ever since we entered the bunker. Wait one, I'll fix it," the turian stated before kneeling down and inspecting the device.
"So what you're saying is that you don't trust me?" Desolas concluded, not thinking much of the brief interruption and taking Galviat's word as the explanation for the anomaly that had been occurring for the better part of the last ten minutes. It made sense. These amplifiers weren't usually meant to be carried in the field like this. It was only natural for them to act out, especially under the current circumstances with presumably hundreds of the humans' more primitive communication channels cluttering the air. As a number of exercise had proven, the less sophisticated devices of the humans tended to bleed frequencies and overlap with each other the more there were of them.
While that mean that they were easy to hack or jam, it also had the strange side-effect of messing with a number of communication methods common in Citadel Space. After a certain critical mass of devices, human radios produced so much background noise and feedback that more delicate devices, which weren't as isolated as the average turian battlenet, got prone to mixing their own signals with the human ones, thus producing an unintentional jamming effect or, as apparent in this case, white noise. The first time this had been observed on a large scale was the first time large human military forces numbering in the tens of thousands or more had fought against someone using Citadel communication tech, namely against the batarians during the Skyllian Blitz.
"Want to trust you. Would've never stopped initial Reaper attack if not for your early recognition of threat," then he looked to the crashed Collector vessel. Desolas trailed his gaze and, in a second without any gun firing or auto cannon rattling, noticed that its engines still seemed to whine ever so slightly. It wasn't strong and it sounded like it was fading. Furthermore it was definitely strange that he could hear it from all the way across the battlefield despite all the background noise. Still, now that he had noticed it, it was there, like a dying breath he couldn't ignore, lingering in his air even after the salarian started to speak again. "But can't endanger galaxy out of personal sympathy. Stakes are too high. Therefore, cannot trust you with sensitive information."
Suddenly Galviat stopped his tinkering on the device and looked at the two of them.
"Is he saying what I think he's saying, Sir?" Galviat muttered. The tall sniper took a few steps towards Bau but then halted when the Spectre's head spun towards him lighting fast as if he had crossed the imaginary line after which the salarian considered his space to be intruded and saw Galviat as a threat. The stare Bau shot him was pure murder and for a fraction of a second, Desolas expected the salarian to pull out the heavy pistol on his hip and put a round in Galviat's head.
But he didn't.
Instead he took a deep breath.
"Don't want to. But still have to consider you and your immediate associates as potential victims of ongoing indoctrination process. Cases of Saren Arterius and Elanos Haliat prove that turians are susceptible to indoctrination in above average manner. Both were turned in a manner of days," he blinked before suddenly grimacing in pain. Desolas felt it too, the whining had gotten louder. While Bau pulled out the ear-piece he'd been wearing, Desolas sat things out. As the noise faded, Desolas noticed that Bau's face had become stoic again and that the grim expression and angry tone had vanished. "Comparatively, it took weeks of constant input to achieve similar result in Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. Years with batarian subject Had'dah. Only ones affected quicker than turians seem to be humans," Bau looked at Alenko and so did Desolas. In the process, there was another painful burst of noise. It caused Desolas and the sniper of his squad to clutch their helmets and grunt. Bau obviously didn't seem to be affected since he'd just pulled out his earpiece but despite not having taken any action, it seemed like Alenko was unbothered by the noise as well.
"What the-" he exclaimed. "Everything alright, General Arterius?"
"Getting strong feedback over the amplifier," he replied through clenched teeth. "Galviat, turn that thing off," Desolas called before nodding towards the amplifier. It had to be the source of their problem. Ever since Galviat had shown up with it, the little static had gotten increasingly worse.
"On it," the sniper said before folding up his rifle and walking back to the device. Meanwhile the salarian continued.
"By probability alone, entirety of your team should be compromised by now," Bau went on. "Following along that path, so should the Blackwatch and any humans you worked with," he let out a breath. "If the center is tainted, so is the entire fruit. Old salarian saying," he concluded.
Desolas stayed silent, despite briefly feeling his talons extend against the inside of his gauntlets in an unusual and very much unnatural response and noticing the ringing in his ears grow louder. He felt angry, angrier than he ever remembered. But why? Pragmatically speaking, Bau made a sound argument. Desolas knew that better than anyone. Ever since the operation that had led to the death of Haliat and the discovery and subsequent destruction of the first Reaper artifact, Desolas and other Blackwatch operatives had been screened for signs of being affected for precisely the reasons Bau had just outlined?
So why?
Why was he so angry all of the sudden?
He balled his fists but kept himself controlled.
Galviat didn't. He stopped what he was doing with the amplifier and stomped back towards the salarian.
"You're out of line, Spectre. Watch your tongue or lose it," the sniper threatened before taking another step forward. Unlike earlier, Bau didn't look murderous this time around. Since Desolas knew Galviat, he knew what the turian had in mind, hence the lack of a reaction from the Spectre surprised Desolas. While Galviat clenched his hand into a fist, Desolas was still weighing on the salarian's words. They echoed through his mind alongside images of what had happened to Saren. They were detailed, far more detailed than he remembered them being. And then there was that whining.
Spirits.
Enough already.
He reached for his radio and pressed the mute button. Meanwhile his inaction towards Galviat prompted Veltax, who had silently observed up to now, to step in.
"Stop it, you idiot," the slightly older Hastatim called while tilting his head to the side and then looking at Desolas. It was then that the general noticed that the other member of his honorguard still wasn't wearing his helmet. The stone-grey-plated turian was standing a good way away from them. About twenty paces and since he was no longer speaking over the radio of his helmet, his voice was only amplified by the strength of his own vocal cords. And like with any good hastati NCO, that meant that it sounded like he was standing right next to them and shouting at the top of his lungs. "I don't like what he's insinuating either, but didn't you hear what the General just said? We don't have the time to fight with our allies."
"You're just going to let him talk about our legion like this? Galviat replied with another snarl. His voice echoed over the squad intercom, overshadowing the whining noise that was increasingly growing louder, despite Desolas just having muted his radio.
Something was clearly wrong here.
His mind started to race, just as his eardrums felt like they were about to burst.
What was happening?
"Are you trying to prove his point?" Veltax replied. "Whatever's wrong with you Galviat, you got to cut it out. Now."
Focus.
What could this be?
He looked around himself, despite feeling like his head was getting kicked repeatedly by a krogan. Somehow it landed on a section of the combat engineer course he'd taken right after boot camp.
Of course.
Sonic weaponry.
He made a move to remove his helmet but paused halfway due to the pain. Then the thought of what he'd wanted to do slipped away.
"He's insulting all our brothers! And you're defending him? What's wrong with you, Veltax?"
"Okay I think you really need to cool it," Alenko suddenly injected, unknowingly making himself a target for the Blackwatch sniper. "We won't get anywhere if you keep this up." Again it seemed like he wasn't hearing anything.
"And what makes you think I'd listen to you? Last I checked, you're just an XO who wasn't even around to defend his commander. What do you know?"
"I wasn't trying to-"
"Considering Shepard's dead, you obviously you weren't," the statement didn't seem to make sense but nonetheless, the arguing continued. Meanwhile Desolas struggled more and more to think.
He had just had the answer, yet it was gone again.
What had it been?
He looked at the floor, trying to ignore the whining and the pain. They stopped him from thinking about what was going on and kept him from listening to the voice in his head that was telling him why he should take action immediately.
Then, as the whining seemingly reached its peak, he suddenly remembered again.
Crap.
Sonic attacks.
In one move, he ripped his helmet off and tossed it into the field, tearing out his earpiece in the process. Then he looked at Galviat, who was taking a fighting stance, and the large comm-pack behind him. He practically jumped at the device and ripped of the antenna. Once that was done, he spun on his feet to face Galviat and grabbed a hold of his helmet seals. With another yank, he removed it and then ripped out the ear-piece attached to the side of the turian's black-plated face.
The sniper never even had time to react and as soon as the general had successfully destroyed the expensive piece of Hierarchy equipment and taken away the soldiers' helmet, the audible whining he could hear from Galviat's unmuted radio stopped.
"What the-" Galviat cut himself of before taking a step back from Alenko and looking at Desolas. "What's going on, Sir?" he asked in expectation of an explanation. But before Desolas could offer it or check on the rest of their units, all Blackwatch members, the two Spectres and presumably everyone else froze just as badly as Galviat and stared at the source of the sickly yellow light that was being emitted from the downed Collector ship and illuminating the by now dark nightsky.
"All units! Take cover!" a voice that sounded like Commander Barro called over the general squad intercom loud enough for Desolas to hear it through Galviat's earpiece, despite it dangling in front of the sniper's chest. No wonder he'd been affected this badly if he'd set his radio to be so loud. Despite his instincts to do so, Desolas didn't throw himself to the ground. While everyone was expecting this to be the sign of an imminent explosion, something told the general that it wasn't.
And he was right.
Instead of going up in flames due to a reactor overload, the Collector ship simply produced a pillar of yellow light that extended into the sky like a searchlight used by anti-air guns in the days before radar guiding. Since he didn't have a visor to filter out the brightness for him, Desolas shielded his eyes with his hands. As the brightness increased, everything but the yellow light slowly turned black for Desolas until there was just the pillar and the countless of small dots flying around it in a circular, upward pattern. With his free hand, he reached for his earpiece and, after making sure the whining was gone, stuffed it back into his ear just in time to get a piece of the conversation between his soldiers.
"Hold up. Are those all Collectors?" one Blackwatch soldier said with an unusual quivering in his voice.
"Yes," another muttered while Desolas walked up next to Spectre Bau, who'd pulled on his helmet in response to the display. If he'd known this would happen, he wouldn't have thrown his own into the burned clearing.
"Where did they all come from?" another turian wondered.
"From the ship I think," Barro responded. "Looks like they're bunching up."
A human had presumably drawn the same conclusion as Barro and recognized the target of opportunity that was forming in front of them. Within a second a synchronized storm of machine guns, auto cannons and rockets was unleashed on the swarm surrounding the light. While he didn't have his HUD to look at his mission clock and as such had no idea how long it lasted, Desolas was under the impression that the next two minutes of his life consisted of nothing but watching a human garrison unload its entire stock of ammunition into the swarm of Collectors. By the time they were done, the pillar of light had vanished and there was no further sign of any surviving invader. There was just an eerie silence, a dark night sky and the sight of what had to be hundreds of glowing hot gun barrels on all sides of the ship and a small firestorm dancing over the surface of said ship.
Alenko was the first to break the silence.
"Alright. What the fuck just happened?"
"Do you mean with the Collectors or with us?" Desolas restored before walking to where he could see the lights on his helmet glow in the field.
"Both."
"I'm assuming it had something to do with the light," he said before pointing his hand at the destroyed signal amplifier. "Whatever caused the glow, also caused the whining."
"What do you mean? What whining?" the human Spectre retorted.
"So you didn't hear it?" Desolas asked as he picked up his helmet and brushed off the ash that had settled on the visor. Today wasn't really a good day for the piece of equipment.
"No. I didn't," Alenko replied, confirming his suspicion. "Your guy just lost his shit for no reason,"
He looked at Veltax and then gently slapped Galviat's face with his palm to knock him out of the state he was currently in.
"Feeling like yourself again, Sergeant?" he asked the sniper, who visibly shook his head.
"Yes, I think so, Sir," he said before rubbing his brow. "What was that?"
"A sonic weapon," Desolas stated. Then he looked towards Veltax.
"I'm fine," the Hastatim replied without Desolas ever needing to ask.
"Could you please explain what's going on now?" the human captain asked again before Desolas held up a hand.
"In a moment. Commander Barro," the general spoke over his radio. First he had to check on his unit. "Did you just get targeted by a sonic attack?"
"No, Sir. Why?"
"Because we did. Shut off your amplifier. If you get whining on your channel, turn off your radios," he ordered before letting go of the talk button after Barro acknowledged. With that out of the way, Desolas looked at Alenko.
"I think we were just targeted by a sonic weapon tuned in on Council frequencies and designed to cause a psychological respone. I don't know how the Collectors got their hands something like that, but the signs are obvious," he reasoned. While they were far from common due to how difficult they were to pull off on a scale as small as this, the event ticked all the boxes. Painful sounds, sudden shifts of emotion, anger response. "Sergeant Galviat was likely the most affected due to carrying the amplifier," he reasoned.
"Sorry about that, by the way," the other turian muttered in between Desolas' explanation.
"As for the why, I'm assuming it had something to do with the light that caused the Collectors to commit mass-suicide," he went on before remembering the reports of what the remaining geth on the Citadel had done. "And I think all of us can guess what that source was."
"Reaper tech," Alenko said in a low tone and Desolas nodded.
"Precisely," he looked at the ship again. "We're going in. You are welcome to join us," then he focused on the salarian. "If you trust us, that is."
The salarian stayed silent, his expression unreadable behind the visor of this black helmet.
"Jondum?" Alenko asked after a few more seconds of silence.
"Lead the way," the Spectre responded.
"So you can shoot us in the back?" Galviat retorted before shaking his head and earning a glare from Veltax. "Sorry. I'll shut up now," he apologized, despite Desolas assuming that he was entirely right in his assumption.
"So you can't," Bau replied before turning to Desolas. "Suggest in-depth examination of your squad after the mission. Exposure can't be denied now." He eyed Galviat. "Especially in his case."
"Naturally," the general nodded. They always went through those when the Reapers were involved, which was why he was rather confident that the salarian wasn't right in this regard. "I take that means you're with us?"
"Yes."
"Well then," he said before pulling on his helmet and giving his voice a filtered sound. "Time to capture ourselves a Collector ship. Commander Barro," he radioed again. He wouldn't expose all Blackwatch operatives, not now that it looked like all the Collectors were dead.
"Reading you, Sir."
"Establish a perimeter. We're going in alone for now."
After a second of hesitation, Barro acknowledged again. Desolas knew that he wanted to object, but Barro was too stereotypically turian to ever think of actually doing that.
With that out of the way, the general stepped onto the burnt soil and started to walk into the direction of the now once again only dimly glowing behemoth of a ship. The group followed him and they traveled in silence for about five minutes before being forced to do something very stupid; stopping in the middle of the battlefield. Even if one ignored the heavy footsteps that the mech caused with every step, the lights on its armor and the sight of its still orange-glowing gun barrel would've still given its approach away. Since it was heading directly towards them, even after one attempt to walk around it, Desolas knew that the pilot wanted something for them. So he complied with the mech's gesture for him to wait up, even if that left them exposed. When the mech reached them, its pilot sent him a comm-channel. He accepted the request and entered the channel it.
"You really want to go in there, don't you General?" Major Kurnik asked as the mech knelt down so that its green, boxy chassis shielded them from the direction of the crashed ship, showing that the human officer knew of the dangers of stopping them in the middle of the field and acted accordingly.
"We have to," Desolas replied while looking at the mech. Although the darkness made it hard to tell just how badly it was damaged, one thing was clear. The Paladin had taken a lot of fire during the battle. Pretty much everything that wasn't its weapon system was covered in black streaks that seemed to have a hint of a yellow glow to them, as if crystalline fragments of whatever ammunition the Collectors were using were still stuck in the armor layer.
"Understood," Kurnik said before a moveable set of armored cameras that sat on the top of the chassis, turned towards the ship. "In that case I have a request."
"What is it?"
"I know they likely died in the crash, but thousands of our people were inside that thing before it came down. If you find any survivors, bring them back."
"I'll try my best," Desolas nodded before looking at the main 'eye' of the mech, a large, glowing camera that was placed in the middle of the chassis and had a slightly red glow to it. It seemed to nod at him and then Kurnik commanded his mech to get up again. "Most of the Collectors seem to have been killed in the attack, so I gave the all-clear for infantry to enter the battlefield. If you need reinforcements, just give the word," as if to reinforce his point, several V-shaped formations of human shuttles flew over the battlefield and into what Desolas assumed was the direction of the colonial capita, or rather what was left of it. Despite the darkness, he recognized them by the lights on their bottom sides and the whining of their comparatively crude eezo drives. He'd been around the human military long enough, after all.
"I appreciate the offer, Major," he said without adding that he'd rather not go into what might be similar to a Reaper alongside a bunch of regular human soldiers, or anyone who didn't know what to expect when fighting Reaper forces. "Say, Major," he went on. "You wouldn't happen to pick up on a sonic attack around the time of the light showing up, would you?"
"My Paladin got some weird readings and picked up on a lot of radio interferance. But nothing I'd call a sonic attack, why?"
Desolas frowned behind his helme.t
Not good.
"Because we did," he stated before extending a warning. "If your radios start to pick up whining or a lot of white noise, shut them off."
Again the camera seemed to nod. Then it zeroed in on Alenko.
"The situation here seems to be under control now, Captain," Kurnik said as his mech rose to its full height again, now towering over the five regular sized people in front of him. "You can consider yourself relieved of your command," he went on while taking several steps back before turning again, likely to avoid accidentally stepping on his allies.
"Understood, Sir."
"I appreciate the assist."
"Just doing my duty."
"Good. Then finish this. We'll be right here if you need us." With that informal order, Kurnik closed the line and commanded the Paladin to walk away, once more taking its position in the encirclement.
"You know it's not likely that anyone survived the crash, right?" Veltax said from his left as the group once more started walking. He still hadn't put on his helmet again, instead opting for a monocle visor. Given what had happened earlier, Desolas wouldn't scold him. If he carried such an eyepiece at the time, he'd probably use it as well.
"Yes. I know," the turian general responded before adjusting the grip on his Phaeston. "But I can't blame him for holding out hope. If these were our colonists," he reasoned before trailing of.
"I know," Veltax responded before the two of them drifted into silence again. After another five minutes of advancing across the battlefield, this time without interruption, they stopped in front of the massive hole. Although they had already passed plenty of dead Collectors, the density of bodies was very high at this point. One could tell that the human defenders had exploited the fact that this hole had acted as a choke point. The group had a hard time of finding spots to step on in between the insectoid body parts and pools of brown blood.
"Doesn't the smell bother you?" Galviat wondered as he looked at Veltax. Unlike the other four, he didn't have a helmet filter to take care of the presumed stench.
"I was a hastatim for twelve years, Galviat. I've seen worse," the grey-plated turian replied, letting that statement speak for itself. Although many turians just saw them as a military police force who at times went from door to door and wiped out entire families of separatists, the hastati acted as first responders to urban disasters and an all-round law enforcement division far more often than they actually went about their infamous role of being execution squads. "Besides. It doesn't really smell like corpses around here," he went on before kicking a Collector body. "Whatever these things are, I don't think they're fully organic. There's a metal scent to them. Kind of like cooling fluid, really."
"Shit. You don't think these guys are robots, do you?"
"I don't know. But they don't look the part, do they? They're flesh and bones. Or at least they seem to be."
"Leave it to TNI to figure out what they are," Desolas suggested before he stepped inside the ship and looked up ahead. Bau, Alenko and the other two turians were right behind them. Almost immediately, Alenko let out a whistle.
"Well," the human Spectre said while the turian general looked at the rows and rows of insect-like combs that lined the walls to his left and right and the clearly floor-like structures fifty paces above his head. It took him a second to realize but they were upside-down. The ship had crashed with its topside towards the ground. "I think this is going to be a problem."
Although it really should've been something they could have considered before entering the ship, Desolas had to admit that he hadn't expected to find himself standing on the ceiling. He looked around himself and realized that his first impression of insect combs had likely been spot on. The large, uneven chamber they were standing in looked like an insect hive and the brown pods embedded into the rocky walls to either of his side, while upside down, looked like cocoons. And just like cocoons, he got the impression that there was something inside of them.
He got over the feeling of everything being upside down and set his eyes on the closest cocoon. It was worth a look, wasn't it?
"There's a door up ahead. Looks to high to reach though," he heard Alenko say while walking towards it and kneeling down so that he could take a closer look at the orange weaving.
"Fear not. Brought enough ascension cables for everyone," Bau replied as Desolas placed a hand on the weaving. Despite its look, it didn't feel sticky or organic at all. It had the texture of transparent plastic. He checked the brown material of the cocoon next and was again surprised. It didn't feel soft or organic either. It was just cold metal that had been warped to look as though an insect had made it. He dragged his finger across its uneven surface and realized that even the 'cracks' within the material were artificially placed and intentional.
Weird.
He knelt down even lower but realized that he couldn't see through the orange plastic completely. The weaving pattern made it impossible. The only thing he could say for sure was that there was something behind it. It looked like a person. His eyes widened it realization and he pulled his curved blade from its sheath. He stuck it into the cocoon right where the orange weaved-glass connected to the dirt-brown metal and started to pry until it came loose.
When it did, he nearly doubled back. There was a human inside. A male with fair, yellowish skin. He didn't look to be conscious at first and much to Desolas' worry, who was familiar with something very similar, had a faint glow underneath his unnatural skin color. But unlike with husks, this one was orange and yellow and seemed to radiate much more. Furthermore, Desolas got the impression that it was ever expanding underneath the skin. He took a closer look at the inside of the pod and found the inside to be metallic grey and filled with cables, tubes and spikes. It reminded him of a torture device and much to his horror, he noticed that the human was somehow still breathing.
He wanted to explore the ship, obviously, that was why he'd come here. But if this guy and the other colonists were still alive, his curiosity had to wait.
"I found one! Get over here and help me!" he shouted back to the rest of the group before getting up and looking how he could release the pod from the wall it was attached to. It might look organic but everything he'd seen suggested that it was a machine and as such, could probably be detached from the ship. As he ran his hands over the uneven surface of the metal prison, because that was what it really appeared to be, a container build to trap people, Veltax joined him.
"What do you need me to do, Sir?"
"Start prying over there," he said before pointing to a spot opposite to where he'd just stuck his knife. With their combined effort, the two turians managed to loosen the container to the point where it started to fall. Both reacted in unison and caught it. It was surprisingly heavy, even with the help of their powered armor it took Galviat and Alenko to help them set it down gently and then turn it around so that they could look at the captured human.
"Spirits. What'd they do to him?" Galviat wondered before Alenko. "Did you see something like this during the attack?"
"No, they just carried the people away. We don't know what they did to them. Up to now at least," the human replied before running his fingers along the side of the cocoon-like machine and feeling for a button or something along those lines. "Help me get this open," he said as Desolas looked around. They were just in one room of the ship and even from here he could spot a hundred machines similar to the one in front of him.
Not good.
Not good at all.
They started to work on the device and, after even more knife-prying and a bit of biotic force, heard an audible crack and a hiss of air.
"Open," Bau pointed out before they lifted the top off the container and revealed a human colonist lying inside. His entire body radiated a somewhat orange glow that seemed to stem from the four tubes of orange liquid that were connected to his wrists and his chest but other than the obvious intrusion, he looked fine. An orange scan light danced over him and Desolas recognized that it was Bau's omni-tool that was taking the readings.
"Technically still alive. Stable heartbeat, stable breathing rhythm," the salarian displayed. "But no brain activity. Clinically speaking, dead."
"Christ. This is what they're doing to us?" Alenko muttered before the human's eyes suddenly opened, he gasped for air and grabbed a hold of the biotic's hand. "Holy shit!" Alenko exclaimed in surprise before getting a grip again. "You said he was dead, didn't you?"
"Still detecting no brain activity," the salarian replied while the colonist stared at Alenko with empty eyes.
"Okay. Listen to me. You'll be fine," he began saying as Desolas noticed a change in their surroundings.
The orange weaving on all the pods was starting to glow in a sickly yellow again. Or rather, what was behind them was starting to glow.
In one moment Alenko was trying to calm the catatonic colonist, in the next the human suddenly sat up right and grabbed a hold of the collar of Desolas armor, ignoring the fact that the turian general was now holding his knife against his throat. He stared at the human and noticed that his eyes were now beaming with a yellow-orange light, as were the lines running underneath his skin.
"Oh shit. Not this again," he heard Alenko mutter while keeping his blade steady and just one stroke away from killing the human.
He didn't like this.
"What do you mean?" Veltax wondered in return.
"I saw this before, it's-" the human said before
Suddenly the room was filled with a choir of human voices, all speaking in unison.
"Turian!" they declared with a baritone they shouldn't be able to muster. "You have changed nothing!" they shouted. Desolas' eyes narrowed while those of the human that was holding him seemed to grow larger and larger. "This seems a victory to you. But these pawns were merely an insignificant swarm of failures, created and fated to die as we command. A mere breeze advancing ahead of the storm that will crush you. Like dust you struggle against a cosmic wind and like dust, you will be obliterated by it," Desolas considered dragging his knife across the throat of the human and ending this exchange but he got curious, despite having a feeling that he already knew who he was talking to.
"Who are you?"
"We are the beginning and the end. We are all that has been and all that ever will be. We are eternal. We are beyond your understanding. We are the master of all that were and the masters of all that will be. Life is ours to shape and ours to take," a chill ran down Desolas' spine. "For we are the Harbinger and before us, you are nothing," the human choir stated, again in perfect unison.
Desolas clenched his free fist.
He'd been looking forward to this.
He grabbed one of the hands of the human that was holding him and stared right back at the glowing eyes.
"If you are who you say you are, then know this. I won't rest until the last miserable member of your species is dead," he threatened.
"An empty threat spoken by the latest incarnation of a hopeless believe in victory that has persisted in every cycle before you," the human Harbinger choir spoke. "As those who walked your path before, you too will perish under our might. With time, your memory will be forgotten while our will endures. And with our arrival your actions here will amount to nothing, just as your insignificant victory over the Nazara amounted to nothing. Every hard fought victory and every sacrifice you make only delays the inevitability of your doom," suddenly the human pressed himself against the cutting edge of Desolas' blade and a spray of blood hit the general's visor. But despite what should've been a fatal and crippling injury, the colonist kept talking.
"Before you, there was the last harvest. And after you, there will be the next. Despite your certainty, you are not special. You are not a chosen champion. Your determination is born of the flawed believe that you may yet alter a destiny infinitely larger than you can ever hope to comprehend," he went on while the yellow and orange glow underneath his skin started to break through the human's skin and bubble on the surface. It dripped on Desolas' blade and armor alongside the flow of crimson blood. "Know this as you die in vain," the Harbinger spoke through the human. "You will never change your fate for it was never your fate to begin with. Ever since the beginning of your civilization, we have watched and ever since you displayed the hint of sapience, the end of your kind has been inevitable. Despite your struggle, you will not break the cycle for the cycle is eternal. Every choice you have made, every step you have taken and every life you ended, all transpired as the cycle designed it to transpire. Your actions are the product of our will and you will never overcome us. You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it. That is the cycle," he'd heard that line before.
"Sovereign said something similar before he failed to take the Citadel. I figured you would've learned not to underestimate us by now," Desolas growled in return. Since this was about as close as he'd get to actually looking at the Harbinger, now was as good of a time as any to finally speak it out loud. "But don't let that stop you from trying. I've been looking forward to killing you for the last twenty years. It'd be a shame if I didn't get the chance to do it."
"We are eternal. You will not best us."
"We'll see about that, won't we?"
"No. We won't," the voices boomed in an instant reply. "There is no escape. There is no hope. There is no victory. There is only the harvest. Prepare yourself for your doom. Prepare yourself for our perfection. Prepare yourself for the arrival," the voices shouted and then were silenced except for the colonist in front of him. "This exchange is over," he whispered. Then the human's eyes rolled in the back of his skull and the glowing stopped, revealing blood shot white in the process. Then the body slumped forward and did something Desolas could only compare to melting. In one moment, the colonist was holding on to the collar of his armor with incredibly strength and in the next, he was reduced to a puddle of orange, yellow and crimson liquid and bone that dripped into the pod. He looked at it for a second and then noticed that all the other pods were leaking as well. From the floor of the chamber all the way to the ceiling that they were standing on, a mixture of yellow, orange and red ran down the walls and as a glance to the entrance they'd come from confirmed, the Collectors were starting to dissolve as well. He sheathed his blade again and got up from next to the pod.
At least the metal wasn't melting.
Yet.
"Radio the fleet," he stated to Veltax before folding up his Phaeston and ignoring how many deaths the sight he'd just witnessed implied to have occurred. "Tell them what they'll be recovering."
"Yes, Sir," Veltax stated before Desolas glanced up to the floor of the ship where he could see a door in a height of about fifty paces. He planted his feet and hands on the metallic and uneven surface of the pods and then started to climb upwards by kicking in the orange plastic panels of the pods and using them as a footrest. The liquid mixture running down from them obviously made it a hard climb, but due to Blackwatch armor being modified for mountain warfare, something that went back all the way to the roots of the unit, it was still manageable. He looked up at the door. It wasn't like he had anywhere to go until the rest of the fleet arrived. So he might as well do some recon.
"Uh," Galviat began. "Where are you going, Sir?"
"I said we'd take the ship, didn't I?" he called before looking down and noticing that Veltax and the other turian had already begun to climb as well.
"Yes, Sir," Galviat replied before following the path Desolas was picking.
"Then let's find whatever the Collectors considered to be their bridge," he looked at the two Spectres while dangling about ten paces in the air. "Are you coming or not?"
Codex: The Krogan Rebellions (700 CE – 708 CE)
After the initial attack on the Citadel and the lighting fast take-over of dozens of Council colonies by the krogan Peacekeeping Corps, it took several weeks for the Citadel Council races to mount an organized military resistance. Although more militarized species such as the salarians were able to slow down the initial krogan attack, the first year of the Rebellions painted a dire picture that indicated a complete krogan victory within the next year. Every day was marked by major defeats and the loss of key positions and only after two hundred and twenty-three days of continuous defeats could the Council claim its first conventional victory over the now unified krogan military.
The fighting during the early years of the Rebellions was dominated by two major concept of warfare, fighter craft-based space battles rooted in the krogan's tendency to use inhabited worlds as shields from Council main guns and increasingly brutal and static urban fighting on the frontline colonies. It was here that the first steps towards the salarian resolution of the conflict, the genophage, would be laid. While other Council associates and the Asari Republics picked their battles and retreated whenever they were confronted with the usually numerically superior krogan, the salarians, who next to the krogan had maintained the largest standing military force within Council space, refused to give in. While the professional Union military and STG's armed compartment was deployed only where the odds of success were high, infantry regiments made up of conscripts, mostly of the lystheni, were entrenched everywhere else and only received one order.
Hold the line, at any cost.
This approach caused salarian and lystheni casualties to skyrocket fast. By the end of 701 CE, fifty five million salarian military personal had been killed in action and by 706 CE, way past the five hundred million mark, the Union had officially seized all efforts of counting. It was also around this time, that the salarian objectives in the war started to shift. While initially only seeking to defend their core space and end hostilities as quickly as possible, more and more members of the Union government started to adopt the dalatrasses' believe that the Rebellions would only end one way.
The complete annihilation of the krogan species.
Although it took the Citadel forces the better part of a year to achieve its first victory over the krogan, the initial successes of the Krogan started to become rarer as the war went on and the experienced veterans of the Peacekeeping Corps were killed on the frontlines and replaced by overeager child soldiers. With the salarians still refusing to yield and the other Council associates providing key support, the lines stagnated. Where the krogan would take one system, the Council would reclaim another and where the Council pushed into one direction, the krogan seized the chance and invaded elsewhere.
For all intents and purposes, the next seven years of the conflict turned into a stalemate on a galactic scale until one fateful day in early 708 CE when the krogan opened a relay connecting to the turian colonial cluster Oma Ker. After determining the colony to be the underdeveloped turian homeworld and seeking to exploit its raw resources for the war, the krogan launched an asteroid into a minor secondary settlement of the Colonial Cluster Capital Oma Ker and prepared for an invasion.
As the history books show, this would mark the turning point of the war.
Unbeknownst to them, this one attack would awaken the collective wrath of one hundred billion turians.
A/N:
So. I'm pretty sure this is the first time a SV chapter is actually depcited as ONE, uninterrupted scene withut any breaks or POV switches.
Kind of fitting, I think.
Now. For those of you who wonder why I basically took an easy out and had the harbinger kill all the collectors (so that there wasn't any real action scene other than the sonic attack)...
It honestly just felt like a show of power that the harbinger would make to display just how enormous the foe that's coming for the galaxy is. I kind of picture him thinking this.
"Look how powerful I am. These thousands of collectors served ther purpose and now I am disposing of them because that's how much of a fuck I give about life."
The same goes for him just liquifing all the humans because he can't get them.
He just doesn't give a single fuck about life.
It doesn't have a meaning to him.
It's just something he snuffs out whenever he feels like doing it because HE CAN.
Yup.
I am going for a Harbinger interpretation that basically turns him into an entity that's so powerful, he just snapped his finger from all over darkspace and all his little indoctrinated collector-bots (I left it amibigious just how much of the collectors is still 'organic' because that's also the impression I got from Mass Effect 2. I mean they don't even seem to have a digestive tract anymore) just drop dead and turn into goo.
That's how much power he has over things under his DIRECT CONTROL (I really had to force myself nto to make an assuming direct control joke yet).
So yeah.
That's SV's Harbinger.
As for why Desolas got this scene and not Shepard... I just felt like it made more sense?
Compared to canon!Shep, SV!Shep hasn't really had that much to do with the Reapers. But SV!Desolas? That guy's been bugging the hell out of the Reapers since day one. Well, he and Saren. Everything the Harbinger's done, Desolas has been there to try and stop it.
So yeah.
I feel like I would've robbed Desolas of an integral part of his plot to just give Shepard Harbinger's attention when all she's really done was fight Sovereign.
Other than that, I don't have a lot to talk about despite someone (finally) adressing the obvious elefant in the room.
Desolas and his buddies have been fucking around with Reaper Tech and indoctrinated folks more than anyone in the story (safe for Harper, who got his scene in the last chapter) ... so naturally people (in the story and among the readers) are slowly but surely going to ask "can we still trust this guy".
So yeah.
Going on from what the asari councilor said (and the Harbinger's obvious focus of making sure Bau doesn't figure shit out), maybe it's time we all start asking ourselves the same question as Bau:
Who among the cast can we still trust?
And who's already gone?
Ponder on that for a while, why don't you? :)
Up next: The conclusion of the Collector Ship raid and ... something else :)
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See you around next time.
