Rather than try to explain what Prism using long conversation between characters who should already know or introducing a new character that doesn't I have created my first ever Codex entry at the bottom for anyone curious enough to read. If you like it I might create more.
Edited 30.05.2021 for grammatical, stylistic and logical errors.
08/01/2174 Serpent Nebula, Widow, Citadel, Chora's Den
"Look girl, I don't much know about much about humans and your relationships but I can tell you that that guy is one of a kind. So you better catch up to him." Chora said to the young human woman who had been silently fuming for the past ten minutes after the guy who could drink like a krogan walked out. This wasn't the first time she had seen this, humans for some reason being fond of talking about private stuff in public. And the woman seemed like trouble, Chora saw the way she moved and it screamed silent killer to her. Unlike the guy who was clearly some kind of special Chora could not help but tease her. Humans in general were fun to tease.
Miranda looked at Chora and decided against saying anything just in case her temper got the better of her. Instead she nodded and stalked out of the bar looking for the nearest rapid transit point. This mission had seemed simple enough at first, find the guy, flirt with him and get him to talk and if he revealed anything interesting enough get him somewhere private and wait for a capture team. Instead this guy recognised her, knew she worked for Cerberus and who knows what else. While he was talking she had run several scenarios in her head how this was possible and one of the morel likely ones was that the whole mission was a trap. Someone from Cerberus sold her out to her father and sent her on a mission to get captured. But when Sam Knight walked out without even attempting to capture her or put a location beacon on her she had to reconsider. The only problem was that none of it made any sense. Postponing the problem for later she decided to focus on the task ahead, she now had a datachip which apparently provides some information on her employers that they wouldn't want her to know. Miranda had always been curious and from the early age she had preferred knowing rather than not knowing something. As the cab arrived she sat down in the drivers seat and manually typed in the code of her personal safe house here on Citadel. If the intel was sensitive in nature when it came to Cerberus she would not want to look at it in her usual apartment paid for by Cerberus. Miranda might be a trusted operative but she knew better than to think that her apartment hadn't been bugged.
Same day, two hours later, apartment Z351, Feng Hu Apartments, Bachjret Ward
Miranda Lawson always prided herself on being objective, being able to look at events from a dispassionate point of view. She was also smart enough to understand that being completely objective was impossible but she believed that she came closer than most people.
So looking at the information given to her by the target assigned to her just a few hours ago she could not help but see all the reasons why Cerberus was regarded as a terrorist organisation. Miranda thought that after all these years working for them she knew the worst that they would do. She was sorely mistaken. Her knowledge didn't even cover half of what Cerberus has done and was responsible for. She had carefully searched extranet and various secret databases where Cerberus had gained access and she had verified that 90% of the information on the datachip was genuine and true. The other ten percent were simply impossible to validate without arousing suspicion. The examples were simply too specific. The images of children from Teltin facility alone were heartbreaking enough but knowing that it was done in order to create a perfect biotic that grated strongly against her very core. Miranda herself was an attempt at creating a perfect human. Her sister as well. She knew exactly what the kind of people that were thinking of perfection could do. Her father was cold, callous and calculating. Extreme narcissistic tendencies.
Miranda patted herself on the back mentally for being so careful with setting up a totally new data terminal, untraceable, when she decided to take a look at what was inside the chip. If she had loaded it into her omni-tool she was certain that a hit squad would have been dispatched already to her location. She knew that Cerberus had killed for less, she had killed for less on behalf of Cerberus. This was a veritable treasure trove of information, the kind that even Shadow Broker would pay more than enough for her to buy a nice chunk of a planet. And yet she knew that Sam Knight had only revealed a portion of what he knew. He didn't say it but after seeing this he didn't need to. Miranda wondered for a moment if he also knew who Illusive Man was, where he came from maybe even his real name. She had met him once and while he had not been a physically imposing man his gaze and his presence told everyone who was in control. She remembered how impressed she was with that. How she wanted to be in that position too. Now she was not so sure anymore. Despite saying that everything that Cerberus did was to safeguard humanity she now saw that many of the things they did made them lose their humanity.
Miranda needed to talk to Sam again, somewhere where they would not be overheard. Then depending on what he said she would decide what to do. Right now her choices were limited and she did not like either of them. But it wouldn't be the first time she had to choose lesser of the two evils and right now she did not know which was the lesser one. She knew that this is not something to be decided in a hurry so she opted to do something both useful and relaxing. She took of her clothes and put them in the cleaning unit in the kitchen and then padded with her bare feet into the bathroom where she would enjoy a long shower and a good scrub, two things that always took her mind off from the current problems no matter what they were. As she switched on the water she took off her underwear and glances briefly at her reflection in the mirror opposite the shower. For a split second she remembered Sam Knight's face and how he looked at her but with a shake of her head she dispelled the strange notion that she was seeing something different in his eyes that the usual look of lust she so often saw from men and women and walked into the shower letting the hot water stream over her body washing away her worries. Even if only temporarily.
Same day, Arcturus Station, Storage room B122
Mr Orange's holoprojector hummed into life and projected his likeness into the darkness of the room. Mr Blue's hologram was already there waiting for Mr Orange. This time it was Mr Blue that asked for a meeting.
"Iron 6 has been compromised." Mr Blue said without waiting for a question from Mr Orange
"How? His last report was true, your own follow up team confirmed nearly everything it said." Mr Orange said puzzled and his left hand reached for something out of the holoprojectors field.
"By Cerberus. Miss Green before we handled the situation with her and others sent out a file to Cerberus informing them that it was Iron 6 that raided their facility. She also sent an abridged version of his file to them. Cerberus has likely already dispatched agents to intercept Iron 6." Mr Blue said and for a moment there Mr Orange could swear that the usual monotone had an angry undertone. Miss Green had indeed caused them more problems than she should have and even now after she has been safely neutralised along with her supporters Mr Orange knew that the organisation will never be the same.
"Did she leak anything else?" Mr Orange asked
"No, Miss Green might have been too ambitious for her own good but she was never actually stupid. She kept her identity and any possible connections between Iron 6 and us completely out of the file. At this stage I am satisfied that our internal structure is now secure. The recent revelations obtained by Iron 6 and the follow up team are a concern however." Mr Blue replied and Mr Orange knew that it was more of a question than a statement.
"Yes, I know. Miss Green's actions and the reports I have seen concerning the matter investigated by Iron 6 are changing our priorities. Cerberus as well. We no longer can continue on as we have so far. How is the progress on Prism?" Mr Orange said and raised a glass to his lips
"Currently at Theta stage. Projected completion schedule is stage Omicron in 18 days and stage Psi in 28." Mr Blue answered and shifted slightly, a change so slight that no one would have noticed but Mr Orange has been meeting with Mr Blue like this for years and knew exactly how motionless Mr Blue usually is.
"Is there something you want to say?" Mr Orange prompted raising his glass in Mr Blue's direction
"I have reservations of activating Prism. In my assessment Prism as a reaction to Miss Green's actions is too severe." Mr Blue said a hint of unease in the way he spoke. A slight delay between words.
"If it had only been Miss Green then you would be right. But you know as well as I do that Miss Green was just one of many. There are now only two of us left from founders and all the replacements we have found for our original members have proven to be less than satisfactory. It is why Miss Maroon came up with Prism all those years ago. I wanted to believe she was wrong but as you can see she saw this right from the start. And considering the revelations provided to us by Iron 6 activating Prism might be our only chance to salvage what has left of us before it's too late." Mr Orange said and his hologram made a motion sitting down on empty air.
"Then we shall proceed as planned. Iron 6 however cannot be used in Prism, his exposure to Cerberus leaves us little choice." Mr Blue agreed.
"Then we shall proceed without him. As useful as he was and as intriguing a mystery as he was Prism is far too important. A retirement package then. What about Silver 9 and Copper 3?"
"Silver 9 is currently involved in preparation of stage Lambda. Once that is done she shall be relieved. Copper 3 is no longer our concern as per stage Zeta. Type or retirement package for Iron 6?" Mr Blue reported and Mr Orange nodded going through the mental checklist of Prism.
"Full package. What is the progress of the follow up teams on Tau Volantis?" Mr Orange asked changing the subject
"Iron 6 has left little for us to work with but everything we can extract shall be transferred to Mr Slate as per stage Rho." Mr Blue replied
"Very well. We shall proceed as planned then. Anything else?" Mr Orange asked and as an answer he saw Mr Blue's hologram disappear. Shutting down his own hologram Mr Orange poured another two fingers of the golden liquid into his glass inhaling the scent and then emptying the glass in one go. Prism. A plan made by Miss Maroon when they had all come together to found the council. Mr Blue, Miss Maroon, Mrs Viridian, Mr Slate, Miss Indigo and him, Mr Orange. Mr Maroon had always been the smartest of them, able to see patterns that no one else could have guessed at. Her death he still saw as one of his biggest personal failures. Despite Prism signifying the end of his life's work he was grateful that Miss Maroon had written it. Even now as he was drinking his cognac assets were being redistributed, each stage of the plan erasing just a bit more of the organisation that he had created. And once it has been set in motion it was impossible to stop it. When it's all done only four people will know what it truly was. Once it was done Mr Orange would stop being Mr Orange and would only retain the power that his public persona had. It will take time to get used to, working within the confines of the system again. Mr Orange looked at the report he was reading, the report that Iron 6 had tried to amend very carefully. Mr Orange read the word Iron 6 used to call the creature and did not like it one bit. Reapers. Leviathan was bad enough but it had been singular and Iron 6 was able to negotiate with it. Reapers was plural and sounded like something that you could not negotiate with. Sighing Mr Orange stood up and looked out at the vista opening below from his panoramic window on floor 284 of the tallest building in St Petersburg. As preparations for stage Sigma he had an election to win.
Primary Codex Entry/Systems Alliance Secret Organisations
There are several prominent secret organisations most infamous example being Cerberus but on the other end of the scale there was an entity known simply as Organisation or Unit by people who have come across it. It is impossible to say how big the Organisation is or who it is controlled by or what it's true goals are but two things are clear, it acts in the interests of the Systems Alliance and humanity in general and no person, company or government have been positively identified with the organisation. Alliance Office of Naval Intelligence, Alliance Secret Service and Alliance Internal Security have all been on the hunt for any details on this organisation for years but it has eluded all their efforts so far. Described as a shadow cast by a shadow by several senior Alliance intelligence operatives it has been theorised at various points that the Organisation is an old total deniability unit set up either by the CIA, FSB or Chinese Ministry of State security but after a thorough investigation that theory has been proven wrong.
The Organisation was founded in 2148 just a month before Systems Alliance by a group of private citizens only identified by their code names even in the internal records, Mr Orange, Mr Blue, Mrs Viridian, Miss Maroon and Mr Slate. The commission as they called themselves separated the various areas of controlling the Organisation between the founding members of the organisation with Mr Orange retaining the overall control to coordinate between the branches. The military branch of the organisation had adopted Knights Templar symbology as a cover with other branches adopting similar disguises. Prism was enacted during the first days of 2174 marking it as the end of the Organisation. Although that is being disputed as a cover story for the organisation going totally underground. Though the Organisation was dismantled after 27 years of operation the assets including manpower had been shifted to appropriate branches of Systems Alliance or divisions of corporations owned by the various members and supporters of the Organisation. As such while the Organisation might have ceased to exist, the people behind it shall continue to act in their new roles for the protection of Systems Alliance, humanity at large even if they have to protect it from itself.
Primary Codex Entry/Systems Alliance Secret Organisations/Prism
Prism was a multi-stage plan written down by Miss Maroon, one of the founders of the Organisation as a way to reintegrate it and it's members back into the everyday political, economic and military organisations of the various governments around the world. The initial plan had been written before the formation of the Systems Alliance however it had been kept updated since then by a dedicated team of analysts. The plan calls for a deliberate and total dismantling of the Organisation in such a way that all traces of it's existence are erased. Miss Maroon had convinced the rest of the founders to keep the plan ready for the day when the Organisation starts failing from the inevitable internal strife. Prism once enacted cannot be stopped as each stage of the plan is compartmentalized and only the top members are aware of the full picture. As such each branch, each cell is not even aware of the significance of their actions until they are done. This plan while drastic has been deemed necessary as the amount of power and information that the Organisation possesses is too dangerous to be left intact if there is a significant risk of abuse by it's leadership. The name Prism comes from the concept that once fully coherent as a beam of light entering a prism the organisation will be divided into separate parts, but even separate they would still continue on the same general course. Change rather than destruction, preserving the resources even when changing the form.