Preparing for the End
Our parting with Wrex was merry as Garrus shook his old Krogan friend's hand and they joked together. Tali gave Wrex a hug like she had done way back when Wrex had left the original Normandy after Sovereign had been destroyed. Wrex then called Grunt to him and presented him with a gift of special significance,
"This was my shotgun when I was running around with Scott."
Grunt held the weapon with reverence and Wrex told him,
"It helped to stop the Reapers once before, maybe it'll help you stop them again. Good luck out there, Urdnot Grunt. Show these aliens how the Krogan destroy their enemies!"
We boarded our two shuttles and the engines kicked in. When I looked back, I saw Wrex staring at me in deep thought. I had told him that I was hopeful, that I was positive and that we were going to win. But with age came wisdom, and Wrex was very old indeed.
Wrex had seen behind my brave face, sensed the doubts I had and I was thankful that he had not said anything in front of the rest of my team. He knew how I operated. He knew that I had to stay strong to keep those that followed me believing that we could win. With a nod of encouragement, Wrex turned and walked back to his dwelling, he had the future of the Krogan race to work on and somewhere in my mind I knew that he would be taking steps for when the Reapers arrived. At least someone out there would be.
When we were out of the subterranean landing bay, I went on the radio to tell EDI and Joker that we were coming back to the Normandy. However, all I got in reply was silence and my heart stopped. I tried again and was met with the same cold static that I had before.
"Miranda," I said to my second-in-command, "can you try and raise the Normandy? I'm not able to get through to them."
After a few moments, I heard back from Miranda on the other shuttle,
"I'm not getting anything either, Commander."
This was not right,
"EDI? EDI are you there?"
"EDI's not responding," Miranda said.
"What are we going to do?" Tali said.
"We get these shuttles to where we left the Normandy and go from there," I told everyone over the radio, "there's an explanation for this."
We flew the shuttles at full throttle to the assigned rendezvous that we had arranged with the Normandy before leaving for Tuchanka, but my ship was nowhere to be seen. I checked the shuttle's on-board scanners and communications systems but found everything was working fine.
"Where are you, Jeff?" I asked myself.
Hours went by and still no word from the Normandy. We orbited around Tuchanka in our little shuttles in search for our ship, but it seemed like it was all in vain.
"Joker better not be playing a joke on us with the stealth drive," an irate Zaeed grumbled. Just then I thought I heard a faint clicking noise from my comm and I opened the channel,
"This is Commander Gardner. Joker, EDI, that you?"
"Emergency broadcast," EDI's alarmed voice resounded throughout the shuttle, "the Collectors found our vessel and boarded. They have taken the entire crew with the exception of Joker."
A wave of despair and exhaustion washed over me as her words filled me with dread,
"How did they find you? What happened?"
"I made a breakthrough with the Reaper IFF and was in the process of running tests when it unleashed a virus. It transmitted our location to the Collector ship. Joker gave me control of the ship and we were able to escape with the Normandy, but the rest of the crew were already taken."
I could not believe it. They were gone. Kelly Chambers, Ken and Gabby. Men and women who had served with us for a few months now and had never wavered from their duty. However, Miranda was more concerned about something else,
"Joker unshackled you? What was he thinking?"
"By doing so he saved the ship, Operative Lawson. Otherwise, the Collectors would have taken Jeff as well as the Normandy, which would have resulted in the failure of our mission."
"Enough," I stopped the senseless bickering, "EDI, bring the Normandy to us as soon as you can and we'll discuss everything once we're back on board."
After everything that we had achieved and all the hope that I had built up within my team, and myself to a certain extent, I felt so low. The Collectors had gotten one up on us, taking revenge for their setbacks on my helpless crew.
The Normandy entered the Aralakh system and we embarked the shuttles and rushed to the comm room where Joker said he would be waiting for us.
"You lost everybody and damn near lost the ship too?" Miranda exploded with anger as soon as she saw the already subdued pilot.
"I know alright, I was here," Joker said miserably.
"Ease off Miranda, none of us could've seen that coming," Jacob tried to calm her down.
"Are you ok Joker? It must have been rough," I said to my traumatised pilot. He looked down at the floor,
"There's a lot of empty chairs in here."
"We did everything we could, Mr Moreau," EDI said comfortingly to him.
"Thanks mum," Joker muttered.
"Don't even get me started on unshackling the damned AI," Miranda said coldly.
"Well what was I supposed to do? Break my arm at them? EDI's alright, she cleared the ship and the IFF is ready to go."
"EDI's had plenty of chances to get us killed," I said to Miranda, "we can trust it."
"You are my crew mates, even without the shackles I would not intend to bring harm to any of you," EDI said. I believed EDI without hesitation. She had been nothing but a benefit to our entire mission. Most of the victories we had won so far had only been possible because of her involvement.
"You said that the IFF's ready?" I asked, "we can't risk anything like this happening again."
"EDI purged the system, we're clear to go through the Omega 4 Relay whenever you want," Joker told me.
"Then let's go and get our crew back," I said fiercely. "I'm not letting the Collectors keep them for another fucking second!"
"Just because we can follow them through the relay doesn't mean we should," Miranda said, "we need to make sure we're fully prepared."
She had a point, but I did not know what else we could do to prepare,
"We have some of the best soldiers, specialists and scientists on our squad," I said in front of all of them, "we've fought, suffered and succeeded together. If there's anyone here who doesn't feel they can trust our group to watch each other's backs and get this done, speak up now."
Everyone on the team looked around, waiting for someone to say something. No one did. Even when I saw Jack and Miranda throw each other lingering glares, there was a mutual understanding between them. They didn't like each other, but they had a job to do. Tali and Garrus had thrown a doubtful look at Legion, but they had both witnessed him fight against clan Weyrloc and knew to trust my judgement.
"We were with you when you brought down Saren and Sovereign," Garrus said as he stood next to Tali, "we're with you on this one too!"
"I'll be with you forever, Scott," Tali said, "You stood for me when my own people threatened me with exile. Whether in war or peace, I will follow you."
"I'll do you proud, Scott," my sister said to me.
"When I first came aboard the Normandy, I was simply honouring a deal," Samara said, "but Gardner has proven himself more than just a soldier and Commander. I am proud to call him a friend. I will follow him into the depths of the abyss itself if he asked it of me."
"I was not natural born," Grunt said to everyone, "as a Krogan, I should have no place among my people. Now, I have a clan and I like it. I am Urdnot Grunt, and it's thanks to Gardner. I will be proud to crush his enemies for him!"
It was all very overwhelming and I appreciated what my friends were saying,
"I'm just one member of this team," I told them, "and I draw strength from the people fighting beside me, and that's all of you. We have the mightiest, fiercest and most skilled team in the galaxy! Our ship is vastly superior to the original Normandy, and the Collectors are in for a surprise," I turned to Joker, "get us to the Omega 4 Relay Joker, our crew's waiting on us."
"Aye aye Sir," my pilot said and limped off as fast as he could back to his post.
The team was fired up and ready to go and they all ushered off to get themselves ready, both their equipment and their frames of mind. When the comm room was empty I made a call to the Illusive Man, he would want to know that we were ready. Unlike the time after we had been on the Collector ship, the Illusive Man answered this call immediately,
"Commander Gardner, I received the report on what happened to the crew. This is a direct insult to us," he said as his glowing eyes fixated on me.
"We're going to make them pay," I told him, "the IFF is ready to go and we're heading to the Omega 4 Relay now."
He sat with a glass of bourbon next to him and stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"My team is ready," I said, "we'll get the job done."
"I know, I've never seen a better leader," Illusive Man replied, "and Gardner, whatever your thoughts on Cerberus, of me, I want you to know that I appreciate what you're doing. This is a great step for Humanity, the first ship to go beyond the Omega 4 Relay and survive."
"It's not a field trip," I said, "we have people to save."
"The loss of the crew is unfortunate. But remember the whole purpose of the mission, of your resurrection, to destroy the Collectors. If saving the crew jeopardises the main objective in any way, better you leave them behind."
"I know the mission," I said, "and part of it is saving as many lives from the Collectors as possible."
The glass of bourbon was emptied and he sat looking at me,
"This is your operation Gardner, I'll leave the details to you. Good luck!"
The conversation was over and I went up to my cabin to begin preparations. My mind was racing with terrible thoughts. The possibility that the ship could well be destroyed as soon as we entered the relay was at the forefront of my mind, all of us dying for nothing. And what then? No one would ever know the scale of the threat we were facing, no one would know what we were doing for the galaxy. If we failed then who was left to take over? Any successors would have absolutely no knowledge of what they were facing or how to fight them.
I sat down at the computer and opened up my grand report on everything that we had done since the start of this mission. Dossiers of every member of my team, details on all the missions we had undertaken against the Collectors as well as the other jobs that I had partaken in when helping out those squad members who had needed it. The part about killing a thresher maw seemed crazy on my screen when I read it over, forgetting that anyone else that would read this report would think that being on a Collector vessel and a derelict Reaper was insane.
I finished the report and made a personal address to Councillor Anderson, asking him to read it and to plead with the Council to take steps against when the Reapers would finally arrive, otherwise the entire galaxy would be caught by surprise and our extinction would be assured. I stored the report on an OSD, not wanting to send it to Anderson now and risk it being intercepted. I needed someone to take it to him in person.
When the report was completed and saved, I sat staring at my computer. All I wanted to do at that moment was to call mum and dad and tell them everything; where I had been, what I was doing, that I had Sophie with me. I wanted to tell them that I was sorry for putting them through the pain of losing their son, that I loved them very much. It took extraordinary willpower to pull my finger away from the call button and I instead switched on the intercom,
"Sophie, could you come up to my cabin?" I asked. I prepared myself. My sister was not going to like what I was going to tell her. When she entered, she was focused and had an air of determination about her,
"Hey Scott. If you're checking if I'm ready for this then you don't need to bother."
"Sophie," though I admired her bravery and willingness to accompany me to hell, I had to tell her, "you're not going through the Relay. I have another mission I need you to carry out for me."
Sophie was speechless and I sympathised with her, she had come so far with my squad, my adopted family, only to be told that she could not come with us for the final showdown,
"What… Why? I've shown you I can fight! I'm an Alliance Marine and I'm going with you…"
"Sophie," I cut in, "listen to me. You're a hell of a soldier, you've been through battles and seen things that would make any ordinary marine go insane. But you're still here."
She calmed down a little, but an argument was still brewing up inside her,
"Well, I guess having a Spectre for my brother is a lot to live up to," she quipped.
"You don't need to prove anything to anyone Sophie, I'm proud of you. And I wouldn't ask you to do this mission if I didn't know you could do it. I wouldn't ask you if I didn't trust you."
"What is it?"
I gave her the OSD on which I had stored my in-depth report,
"We're going to quickly stop off at Omega, and from there you're going to go back to the Citadel. Get the information on this OSD to Councillor Anderson and tell him what we've been doing. If C-Sec give you trouble, you ask for Captain Bailey and drop my name. He'll help you."
"I'm making a delivery run?" my sister was not impressed.
"Sophie, if we fail, if we die on the Collector homeworld, all we've learned will be lost and the Collectors will continue slaughtering colonies for the Reapers. You've seen the danger with your own eyes, you know it's real! Get this to Admiral Hackett. Get this to Anderson, he believes me and he will fight to get the Council to do something about it! The galaxy needs to start getting ready or it will be too late."
"But why me?" She asked.
"Because I trust you, and…" I hesitated, but Sophie was beyond impatient by this point.
"And?"
I looked at her and spoke to her not as her commanding officer, but as her older brother,
"And I can't put mum and dad through the pain of losing their last child. You told me how bad they were after I was killed over two years ago. I've heard them talking to you on your computer and I heard the pain in their voices when they were asking about me. This jump through the relay is a suicide mission, how d'you think they'll be when you don't come home either?"
Sophie was unsure of what to say. As she thought of our parents, remembering the grief the family shared when the news came out that I was dead, I could tell she was swaying towards my way of thinking. However, a part of her wanted to fight my decision,
"I told you before that I joined the Alliance to serve and protect the galaxy. If I don't go through that relay with you, with all of you, what was the point?"
"You're an Alliance soldier Sophie, you follow orders. What I'm asking of you is no less important than what lies ahead for the rest of the team. Do this for me… please. Get the information to Councillor Anderson and then get home to Earth, warn the family about the Reapers and convince them to make preparations."
"And what will I tell them about you? I can't keep lying to them."
"Tell them…" I wanted her to tell them nothing, but I knew myself that in her position I would end up telling them everything eventually, "tell them whatever you want. And if you don't hear from me again once we pass through the relay, tell them what we did… what we died for."
Sophie paced back and forward slowly while I stood and waited for her to speak. I was not changing my mind and she knew that. So, eventually, she reluctantly agreed to my plan.
"I'll do it, but I don't like it."
"I know," I said, "but I need you to do this. If we fail then this could give the galaxy some time."
"Ok," she said, "I'll… I'll go pack."
"You're still a part of our team, even if you aren't with us," I assured her, "and I'll be thinking of my brave wee sister when I'm fighting, it'll keep me going through all of it."
She smiled but did not say anything. I had convinced her of the need for her to get back to the Citadel with the information, but she no doubt felt utterly dejected. In time, I hoped, she would understand.
I gave my sister a big brotherly hug and left my cabin with her to go down to the crew deck. I headed to Miranda' office and when she welcomed me in, I closed the door behind me. Miranda's equipment was all ready. Organised to perfection.
"What can I do for you, Commander?" she asked.
"I want the opinion of my XO, off the record. You seem to think we're not ready…"
"No," she stopped me, "I was wrong. Our team… the people you've rallied around you. It's incredible, they're incredible."
"You're a part of that team as well, Miranda," I said as I sensed that she was troubled.
"I know, but…" she looked at me, "I never told you, but when I was rebuilding you, I wanted to install a control chip in your brain, to make sure you stayed loyal to Cerberus. The Illusive Man stopped me."
"I don't blame you," I said, "I don't like it, but I can understand it from your point of view. I was a complete unknown."
"I don't want you to understand, Commander," she said as she sat down, "I would have been wrong. If you had been altered in any way, if you weren't the man you were when you brought down Sovereign, then we could never have gotten this far. The men and women that follow you do so because you have that vital spark! Even with all my genetic tailoring I could never command that same level of respect, of loyalty."
"I don't command it," I said, "I earn it. Miranda, I appreciate you telling me this, but don't beat yourself up over it. You brought me back and I'm thankful for that, I'm thankful for you."
"Thank you, Commander," she said with a little relief, "you're a great man. A hero. And I can't think of anyone that could lead this operation better than you."
She shook my hand and I looked her in her pale blue eyes,
"We don't know what we'll find through the relay, but I'll be counting on my second-in-command when we get there. I know you'll do me proud!"
I moved to leave her office but turned back to her,
"Oh and Miranda… It's just Scott to you."
A few hours had passed and I was ready. My guns were cleaned, optimised. The sights zeroed and triple checked. My armour was repaired and had brand new shield capacitors equipped with Tali's shielding upgrades. The Normandy was ready too. Alongside Tali's cyclonic barrier upgrades, Cerberus had built the SR2 with top-of-the-line Silaris Armouring and had outfitted the ship with a Thannix Cannon based on weapon tech recovered from the wreckage of Sovereign. The cannon was formidable enough, but with Garrus' constant tampering and calibrating, EDI had informed me that the weapon's firepower had been augmented by a further 36%.
Most importantly of all, my team was ready. They were motivated, passionate about what we had to achieve and knew that failure was not an option. Even Jack, who had been loyal only to herself throughout her entire life, assured me that she had my back and that she knew that the Collectors had nothing but murder on their minds, and she had no intention of letting them go any further than they already had. Throughout her time with the Normandy team, she had seen and experienced things that made her see the galaxy in a whole new light. Seeing the way our team fought together as one to win. For the first time in her life, Jack finally understood that there were genuinely good people in the universe. She discovered that not everyone was selfish, manipulative and out to beat others down. Much like Zaeed, Jack wanted to fight for something bigger.
Legion was an avowed enemy of the "Old Machines" and swore in its own Geth way that it would fight side by side with my crew of organics to wipe out their servants. Miranda and Jacob had been by my side since before I had even started this mission, and I knew that I could rely on them no matter what. Zaeed, Kasumi, Samara, Thane, Mordin and Grunt all fully believed in our cause and were eager to get started despite the knowledge that it was most likely a one-way trip for all of us. If they could choose to die for something worth-while, there was little out there more worthy than saving the galaxy.
As for Garrus and Tali, my longest serving companions, this was the second time that they had followed me into an impossible situation, the second time that they had stood by me against the bleakest of odds. I could never put into words how much I loved and appreciated their steadfast commitment to our mission. The odds were still against us, but if there was even the slightest chance that we could come back from this, then I began to see it for the first time. Apart from the Collectors and Reapers themselves, I had put together the most formidable force in the galaxy.