Dark Tidings

Since the end of the Reaper War, the nightmares that I had constantly suffered from had slowly faded away over a period of a few months. Or so I had thought. Every now and again, very rarely indeed, some of the memories would come rushing back with a vengeance and cause me a very restless and disturbed night. I saw the blinding flash of light as the nuclear bomb went off on Virmire and took Kaiden away from us. I saw Mordin disappear up into the Shroud on Tuchanka to spread the Genophage cure for the Krogan, only to die in an explosion seconds after the cure had been released. I envisaged legions of mindless Reaper troops charging through the war-torn streets of cities all over the galaxy, watched planets turn to ash and millions of innocent people get slaughtered before my very eyes. My cybernetics would begin to play up and the faint burning sensation would cover my entire body. I would itch and scratch where the feeling was most intense but it would do nothing to alleviate it and, eventually, I would wake up in a state of panic, drenched in sweat.

I had grown accustomed to this feeling during my time on the Normandy, but here in the comfort of my own home that we had built from scratch, it was simply not right. I knew myself well enough though and knew that something big was on my mind and I managed to slip quietly out of bed without waking Tali. I went to leave the bedroom, but stopped at the door and looked back at the slumbering Quarian. I listened to the gentle purring noise that she sometimes made when she was in a deep and blissful sleep. Content and happy with great hopes for the future. Our future.

A bead of sweat ran from my hairline down the side of my face and I wiped it away, remembering what I was going to do. I moved silently into the office and turned on my computer and did a quick bit of thinking. Yes, Liara would probably be awake. It was difficult to think when my Asari friend would be up as it depended what base she would be at. However, with a knowing smile, I knew that it didn't matter. Liara did not make much time for sleeping anyway.

Her publicly known job as a more innocent and ordinary information broker was time consuming enough without Liara's secret identity taking up all the rest of it. As the Shadow Broker, she was constantly working on dozens of operations and coordinating her agents that were spread across the entire galaxy. There was not a single government out there that she did not have top level access to, and her skilled operators had infiltrated almost every single underworld syndicate out there.

Aria T'Loak, the ruler of Omega, would never admit it, but Liara probably knew more of what was going on in her realm than Aria herself knew. Very few people indeed knew of her true identity, not even all of the normal crew of the Normandy had known about her. The only person outside of the Normandy that knew was Admiral Steven Hackett. It was he that had contacted Liara about helping with the impending conflict with the Reapers while I had been in an Alliance jail. It was thanks to Liara that we had even found out about the Crucible, never mind actually building it and using it to finally destroy the Reapers forever. Even if the galaxy did not know it, everyone owed Liara a huge debt.

The comm rang for a few seconds before I saw Liara's face appear on the screen.

"Scott!" She said happily, "it is good to see you. How are you doing?" she checked a clock somewhere off screen before a concerned look overcame her, "you can't sleep?"

"Can't hide anything from you, can I?" I laughed quietly. "Just some old nightmares coming back, I'm afraid. Nothing to worry about though. How are things with you? How's Sam?"

During the Reaper War, Liara and my comms specialist, Samantha Traynor, had grown very close and ended up in a relationship which was still going strong.

"She is well," Liara replied, "we are thinking about having another holiday sometime soon. It would make a nice change of scenery from our desks."

"Ah nice, anywhere in mind?"

"Horizon," Liara said carefully. "Samantha's family returned there a number of weeks ago once their home had been rebuilt. It will make a good change from when we were last there."

I had been to Horizon twice in my life and both times I was witness to scenes from utter hell. The first time, I had fought a vicious battle against the Collectors when they attacked the colony in 2185. In the following year, I had uncovered and shut down a secret Cerberus laboratory which they were using to study and implement Reaper indoctrination. To do this, they had taken unwitting refugees fleeing from the war and deliberately turned them into Reaper soldiers to try and find a way to control them. The worst part was that they had actually succeeded, albeit on a small scale. Liara knew that I was thinking this, but I swiftly moved on.

"Well, I hope you get out there soon. You both deserve a holiday, I'm sure."

"Well…" Liara sounded doubtful, "current events may put any plans on hold."

That confirmed my suspicion that Liara would have been watching these attacks on the Asari politicians closely.

"I take it you'll have heard the news from Serrice?" I asked her. She nodded sadly. Liara had attended university and gained her doctorate in Archaeology there, and so had fond memories of the city. "What do you know?"

"Nothing solid, yet," Liara replied, "they are certainly all connected, but I am yet to find the person, or group, who are responsible."

"Any Intel on a motive?"

"Again, nothing. No one was paying attention to the low-level assaults on individual dignitaries, so they have evidently upped their game. It's certainly not a racial issue, as some of the terrorists are Asari as well. I'm afraid I don't have as much as I'd like on whoever is behind this atrocity."

"There has to be something that they want," I said, "if they're just doing this for sport then that's even more dangerous. No knowing where they'll strike next."

"Exactly," Liara said, "I am placing agents within the security details in the most vulnerable government sites. With the help of some non-government regulation equipment, perhaps they will have advanced warning if another attempt is made. That is all I can do right now until I know more."

I knew that, if Liara was handling such operations, then things might go much better next time any kind of attack was mounted and I felt a little more at ease.

There was nothing more to say on the subject and my conversation with Liara turned more into an ordinary chat that two ordinary friends would have. I liked the distraction from the nightmares, and I suspected that Liara was glad for a break from her work.

"Heard from any of the crew lately?" I asked her. The Normandy team regularly checked in with each other and made a point to keep in touch and keep the bonds between us strong. Of all the things that I loved about my teams from the Normandy, that was what I loved most. The strength of the friendships forged on the Normandy had never faded. Tali and I had been to meet up with them whenever we could. Only last year, in 2189, I had managed to get everyone together again for a big reunion that turned into one of the most legendary weekends I had ever had with everyone. They still talked about my questionable dance moves in the hotel in Malta to this day.

"Wrex called me a few days ago," Liara said. "He is well. He told me that he had seen your Human sport called "Rugby" for the first time and organised a game with some of his soldiers. Unsurprisingly, Grunt seemed to be quite the natural at it."

I had to stop myself from laughing too loudly and waking Tali. The idea of the immensely powerful Krogan playing rugby was a hilarious concept. The fact that none other than Urdnot Grunt proved to be a class player did not come as a shock either.

"I would love to watch a Krogan rugby game!" I admitted. Liara chuckled with me,

"Indeed. How they had not discovered it sooner is beyond me. Also, I have an interesting update about Miranda's SPARTAN project, if you're interested?"

This made me raise an eyebrow,

"Does Miranda know you've got an agent in her super-secret project?"

In answer to this Liara smiled innocently, highly entertained by her achievement.

"Ok," I relented, "what's happening?"

"The first squad of Spartans has been officially declared ready for testing themselves. They are impressive to say the least."

"Is Miranda still using her data from Project Lazarus as a baseline?"

"Yes. She is combining the data and procedures from Project Lazarus with her father's work in creating herself and Oriana, not to mention all the ones that must have come before them." Liara said as she read over the Intel that she had, "obviously the volunteers were not in the same kind of condition as you were…"

"You mean they hadn't been blown up, spaced and then splattered onto a planet's surface at terminal velocity after having burned their way through the atmosphere?" I laughed aloud,

"In layman's terms, yes," Liara grinned. "The augmentations they have received are tremendous! You may have been the first successful Human super-soldier, Scott, but I'm afraid these soldiers are in an entirely different league. Their skeletons had to be greatly reinforced just to be able to wear their new armour. The bones of regular Humans would be crushed under the strain."

"Wow," I was amazed at what I was hearing. "And that's just the first batch? I wonder where Miranda could go from there."

"It is an amazing feat… although you can forgive me if I hope that we never actually have to use them. The galaxy has been a better, safer place since the Reapers were destroyed, except…"

"…For now," I said. Liara agreed and somewhere in her office another call was coming in and my Asari friend's expression grew very serious all of a sudden.

"I have to go, Scott, but it was nice to speak to you. I promise I will tell you if I find out anything about these terrorists. I hope you sleep well, and say hello to Tali for me."

"I will, thanks Liara. Take care of yourself!"

I closed the computer down and sat at the desk a while longer, rubbing my temples. I had thought that, perhaps, Liara would have known more about the mysterious group that had it out for the Asari government. If the Shadow Broker knew so little then there really were no other paths to follow. Perhaps Garrus or Ashley would have known something, both of them were Spectres after all and may have been pursuing leads. However, both of my Spectre friends were always in contact with Liara to exchange Intel as well as simply catching up with old friends. If Liara knew very little, then Ash and Garrus would know even less.

I did not know why I was getting so worked up about something that seemed so far away from Rannoch and my life here. Perhaps it was just how I processed these kinds of things since my life in the military had ingrained it into me. I felt like I should have been out there trying to stop these people before any more innocents could be hurt. That was how I had lived, moving from mission to mission and eliminating threats wherever they appeared. Now, I was just a helpless civilian who watched such things on a vid-screen and could do nothing about it except wear a look of shock and horror. I was under no illusion that I was happy with my life on Rannoch with Tali, but some old habits die hard.

A couple of days passed by since the call to Liara. When Tali had woken the next morning, I had told her about what had transpired so that she was clued up. However, with no more news coming in we had quickly settled back down to just enjoying life. When we had the house built, a stairway had been cut into the cliff face next to our home that went down to a pebble beach that ran alongside the cliffs around most of the bay. One lunchtime we went down to the beach and had a small barbeque just for the two of us while the sun was at its full height and the water was the perfect temperature to go swimming in. It had taken Tali a while to get used to swimming, but she could paddle along quite comfortably now, although she still had to wear her envirosuit. Of course, I had to use two separate barbeques to cook our different food but, as always, I did a pretty good job.

I would always tell Tali that I wished she could try my dad's barbequed trout and salmon, as he always got it absolutely perfect. We had a visit from our friend, Churchill. Since they had gained true sapience, the Geth had come to like the idea of having real names for themselves and drew inspiration for their chosen names from all over the place. This Geth, however, had taken a keen interest in Human history while he had been helping us build our home, and chose to take the name of an inspiring and historical British figure, Winston Churchill. He had started out as a grateful Geth who wanted to repay Tali and I for bringing about the true awakening of his race when my friend Legion had uploaded his Reaper-enhanced code to the entire Geth race. Thus, they effectively became living creatures like us. However, the more time we spent with Churchill, the more we came to enjoy his company and now he still came over quite regularly.

"Tali and I still have a score to settle on Call of Honour: Modern Battlefield 3," Churchill made his way over to our vid-screen and booted up the game. "I am still uncertain that our last session really counted as a win for her."

The three of us were avid players of the first-person shooter, but Tali and Churchill were so good at it that, instead of competing against the sixty-four players on the enemy team, they competed with each other over score, kills and objectives captured and/or defended. While the two of them constantly fought to outdo each other, I was quite happy sneaking around the edges of the map and setting myself up in a nice little sniping perch and taking out any enemy unfortunate enough to expose themselves to my scope. Either that or jumping into a tank and wreaking havoc on anything that got in my way.

"You are a sore loser Church, you know that?" Tali had a cheery dig at the Geth.

"Only if you keep stealing my kills I am," the Geth retorted in a synthesised, humourous tone.

"That was one time, Church!"

Our Geth friend stayed silent but kept his eye trained on the Quarian who shifted her feet for a second and then uttered a strained confession,

"Ok… maybe it was more than once."

We settled into a game and the fierce competition started right away with Tali and Churchill pulling out all the stops to get an edge over each other. We all had a great laugh and paved the way for our team to gain the victory when I decided that I was going to sit the next one out to make Tali and I some lunch. For a joke, I would always offer Churchill "lubricant, bolts and nuts" for his lunch, which always had my wife laughing while the Geth told me where I could stuff the nuts.

That was when my Omni tool started bleeping and when I checked who I was receiving a call from, I saw that it was a special channel that Liara had set up to contact me in the event of an emergency. As she was not one to joke around with such matters, this meant that something was going seriously wrong. I bolted up to the first floor, leaping three stairs at a time and straight into the office where I booted up my comm and saw Liara already waiting on me.

"Liara," I saw the grievous look on her face, "what's going on?"

"Turn on your vid-screen, Scott," she said hastily. Whatever was going on had Liara very concerned and that was enough to have me very worried.

I turned on the vid-screen in the office and was immediately greeted by the horrific sight of a vicious fire fight going on between Asari law enforcement and a group of individuals with no discernible markings. There were Asari, Salarians, Turians, Humans amongst the terrorists. I was also certain that one of the figures was a Batarian. There were already a few dead Asari officers lying on the street outside of what I assumed was another building belonging to the Asari government.

The terrorists were heavily armed, armoured and seemed to be in possession of the building. There were fires coming from inside the windows and one of the law enforcement vehicles had been blasted to pieces by a Hydra missile. This was no recording, what I was watching was a live feed.

"Liara, what's going on? Where is this?"

"Armali," Liara said as she read over incoming data. "One of the terrorists was caught by one of my agents with an explosive. But when an arrest was attempted, the other terrorists that were in the crowd began to open fire without warning. There are still security forces inside the building, but their numbers are steadily getting smaller. Scott, Councillor Tevos is trapped inside!"

Councillor Tevos was still on the Citadel Council and had done incredible work to ensure that the Asari worked closely and harmoniously with the other races in the aftermath of the Reaper War. During my time as a Spectre, I had more than a few disagreements with the Citadel Council, Tevos included, but since then I had gained more respect for the work that they were doing. As a politician, Tevos' mandate was the continuation of galactic cooperation between all the species and was actually the first of the Council to see the benefits of having the Rachni back in the galactic community.

However, as a politician, she was always going to be someone's enemy and as I watched another Asari officer get gunned down, I knew that this had to be a deliberate attempt to kill Tevos.

"Has there been anyone claiming responsibility? Any demands? Why has the bomb not gone off yet?" I asked, my mind racing as I tried to make sense of all this. On the screen, I saw another two terrorists smash out the windows and set up machinegun positions from where they begin hammering the police's positions.

"No one has claimed that this is their doing as of yet. As for the bomb, my agent was able to steal the device away but didn't manage to get out of the building. She is still being hunted through the building, but I lost communications with her a short while ago. But… as there has been no explosion yet, I hope she is still evading them."

I was bringing up anything that I could find on the attack on my computer. Of course, it was all pure speculation as the gruesome attack went on.

"Are there reinforcements inbound?" I asked Liara, "Have Ashley or Garrus been looking into the attacks?"

"Only recently, yes. As for reinforcements, there are a large number of Asari military units based in Armali and they are on their way as we speak, but that doesn't solve the problem of the bomb."

"Then that might actually make it worse," I said as I ran through the possible outcomes in my head, "the terrorists will know that they don't have long and that will make them desperate."

"I think they're past desperate, Scott, but I see your meaning."

I watched the vid-screen a little, the rage building inside me with every second of footage that I witnessed. Unintentionally, I ended up banging the table with my fist which made Liara jump at the loud bang I made.

"I hate just sitting and watching this!" I groaned, "If I had stayed as a Spectre, maybe I could have been out there chasing these people down. Maybe this wouldn't have happened."

My eyes lingered on the bodies of dead and wounded Asari police as they lay strewn about on the street. An Asari sniper on a rooftop was able to pick off one of the machine-gunners, but the other gunner saw where the shot had come from and started laying into the position with hundreds of bullets. The snipers beat a hasty retreat right before a missile went screaming into the building and wiped out half of the roof. It was chaos. The sirens and screams were almost as loud as the gunfire and I wondered how far it would go. Then it all stopped. The terrorists suddenly stopped fighting and retreated inside the front doors and sealed themselves in. For a few precious moments, the police did not move as they seemed utterly baffled by this sudden change of situation, but for some reason my gut suddenly went very tight.

"Liara… anything from your agent?" I asked with a building sense of dread.

The explosion that shredded the front section of the building scared the life out of me. I had not seen ordnance so powerful since the Reaper War. Anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the blast seemed to simply disappear with no evidence that there was ever a person there to begin with. The blast tore up part of the street and every window within a huge radius had been blown in, showering the Asari police officers with deadly shards. Thick black smoke belched out of the building and went up into the sky as a dark, ominous pillar.

Liara's eyes stared at her vid-screen, stunned into silence. I had collapsed into my chair without even knowing that I had done it, feeling like all the air had just been punched out of me. I grasped my head in my hands and screamed out, utter outrage killing me inside.

"What is going on?" I yelled. "Why are they doing this?"

By now Tali and Churchill had thought that something was off, and my wife came into the office. Upon seeing me in my state of rage, but also helplessness, she put her arms around me.

"What's going on, Scott?"

I pointed to the vid screen and acknowledged the fact that I was online with Liara.

"I'm sorry, Tali," Liara said, "but something terrible has happened."

Tali stared at the appalling scene unfolding in Armali, aghast at what she was seeing.

"Keelah," her voice was so quiet, "who has done this? Is it the same group again?"

"Yeah, has to be," I growled. I wanted to find them, wanted to make them answer for the atrocity they had just committed.

This was not how the galaxy was supposed to be after the Reaper War had ended. That war had cost us so much in such a short space of time that I was surprised that any of us had the capacity to actually feel emotions anymore. The Reapers had come in and started their genocidal campaign to the complete surprise and shock to everyone, despite the efforts of my team and I to be heard when we issued our warnings. It had changed the face of the entire galactic civilisation in an instant, and all the bad blood that had existed between certain groups had simply evaporated in the face of this dire threat. Privately, I had always given the Reapers credit for one thing: It had brought us all together in a way that previously would never have been thought possible.

During the war, we had fought back against the Reapers side by side. Turians and Krogan, Geth and Quarians, Humans and Batarians, Salarians and Asari, Volus and Elcor. When a soldier was fighting on the front lines, it did not matter what species the soldier next to him belonged to, only that their lives depended on each other watching their backs. It was not even all down to species either. Before the war, the gangs of the Terminus Systems had a less than favourable reputation as their mercenary bands were basically a front for full-blown crime syndicates. Yet, during the war, Aria had managed to rally these rival gangs and get them fighting the Reapers together. I saw it first-hand when I was helping Aria retake Omega from Cerberus. Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns mercs all stood shoulder to shoulder to face their enemy and threw all of their combined might at them.

The Terminus Systems and Council Space had always opposed one another in all matters. Yet, when the Reapers steamrolled their way through the galaxy, there were mercenary groups helping Turian forces on Palaven and a number of their colonies, Alliance marines fighting to save colonies in the Terminus Systems, Asari commandos launching operations from Omega. The accomplishment of true unity had actually been attained when everyone used to laugh at the notion. The Milky Way had become a unified galaxy and that had continued even after the Reapers had been destroyed by the Crucible.

Now this group of vile, terrorist renegades was trying to destroy that.

Fires whipped in the wind as emergency services tried to get the flames out before they spread. It was still unknown if any of the terrorists had survived and the Asari police were in a state of high vigilance. As for Councillor Tevos, not to mention dozens of other innocents trapped in the building when the bomb went off, there was no word at that stage. The Asari reporter was dumbstruck by the horrifying sights that half of the galaxy must have been watching by that time. It was disgusting.

"Anything from your agent, Liara? Or does that explosion mean they got her."

"I think I will need a new agent for that sector," Liara replied a little coldly for my liking. Yet considering the circumstances, I knew that my Asari friend's mind would be going over a thousand different plans for how to deal with the deteriorating situation in Armali. Just then, the image blurred out for a second before reappearing as it was before. Then it greyed out again and again until it remained that way.

"Liara, anything?"

"Hold on," Liara analysed a new report on what we were seeing. "Someone is hacking into the live feed and…"

A cutting and cold voice suddenly filled our ears and only the faintest shadow of a figure clad completely in black could be seen.

"I hope we got your attention," the chilling voice instantly told me everything we needed to know about who we were watching. Our new enemy. The voice was hazy and obviously camouflaged behind an ID disguiser, like the one my clone had once used when trying to take my place as Commander of the Normandy. However, it also sounded as if there were many different voices layered on top of each other.

"By now you will have seen what we are capable of," the faceless being continued while we all remained glued to our vid-screens. "Know that this is only the beginning. Our attacks will continue until the Asari government has paid the full price for their deception, for their lies!"

On my computer screen, I could see Liara racing around as she scrambled to get any Intel she could on this unidentified foe. I knew her first port of call would be to figure out where the black figure was broadcasting from. Our enemy seemed to grow bigger as if standing out of a chair. My eyes checked over every centimetre of my screen for any kind of clue as to where they were, but I came up empty.

"When the Reapers came, tens of billions of people lost their lives in less than a year. The relentless harvest of all our species by the Reapers cost this galaxy almost everything! But what the Asari government are hiding from you, is that they always knew about the Reapers. They knew they would come and yet they did not warn us, they did not prepare, and all of us paid dearly for their inaction."

I did not know what the figure was talking about. There was no way that the Asari could have known about the Reaper invasions that had spanned our galaxy's history for a billion years. It was not possible. However, the image flickered and we were all given a new picture to focus on. Like being swept away in a hurricane, I almost lost the power in my legs as I realised that I recognised the location.

"Is that…" Tali started, also experiencing the same sinking feeling that I was.

"The Temple of Athame," I finished for her.

The image was a picture taken before the war, as the building had been completely destroyed by the Reapers in the days following our own escape from the planet. The memories of that place still made me sick whenever I thought of them. The way that Kai Leng had swooped in and stolen the Prothean data we needed on the Catalyst to complete the Crucible. Cerberus had dealt us a major blow that day. What made it worse was when we had to retreat from Thessia in the Normandy while millions of Asari remained trapped on the planet, most dying a vicious and fiery death.

"This," the figure started, "was the Temple of Athame in Armali, Thessia. Before the Reapers came to defile our beautiful galaxy, this was a place of peace. It represented solace, solitude, redemption and hope for those that still followed the old but respected Athame Doctrine. But what no one except the top-level members of the Asari government knew, was that there was something much more powerful, and potentially life-saving here."

Damn! This new foe of ours somehow knew about the Prothean Beacon that had been hidden there for thousands of years. The Asari had studied and gained insightful knowledge from this beacon, which allowed them to have the advanced technology that kept them as one of the more dominant species in the galaxy. The ironic thing was that hiding any discovered Prothean technology was one of the most illegal acts that any government could commit in Council Space.

As if to prove their point, an intact picture of the uncovered beacon was then displayed on vid-screens across the Milky Way. I could not believe it. The picture could have been taken minutes after I left with my squad after our failed showdown with Kai Leng. In fact, in the pictures the fires from our fight there were still burning.

"This is the Prothean Beacon which has kept the Asari government in power for millennia," the shadowy, menacing figure went on to say. "For thousands of years, this Beacon, this fountain of pure knowledge and truth, lay hidden here right under the very noses of the galactic civilisation and yet they never shared it with anyone else. Not even their own people. The technological breakthroughs that the Asari achieved as a direct result of using this beacon always kept them ahead of the "competition" and left the other races behind. So much knowledge came from this very place. The Protheans had hoarded so much data in this beacon that it is impossible that the Asari government were unaware of the Reaper's impending invasion. Had they not been so selfish and self-concerned with their own political and personal agendas, they could have saved the billions of lives that were taken from us. If you want proof of this… here it is!"

If I had felt sick before, then I sat bolt upright in a state of disbelief and astonishment when the next image flashed up. Tali and Churchill both slowly looked at me and I heard Liara gasp when she too saw what we were all looking at. A picture of me. There I was, plain as the eye could see, on nearly every vid-screen in the galaxy. What was their game? How could they involve me in their insane plot of revenge? Straight away, I knew that the picture was from my initial Spectre inauguration back in 2183, when the Council ordered me to hunt down Saren.

"I hope you all recognise this man," the harrowing voice hissed. "He is, after all, the man who saved what was left of us from the Reapers. He was the man who rallied the disparate groups of the Milky Way into a formidable, if desperate, military force that only barely managed to save us from the machines."

The figure's voice grew faster and louder as they carried on with their rant.

"The knowledge that led to the completion and deployment of the Crucible came from that beacon in the Temple. But if the Asari government had been studying this device for thousands of years, how could they not have already known about the Citadel being the Catalyst? And how could they not have the Crucible ready to deploy as soon as the Reapers arrived? How is it that, if Commander Scott Gardner knew of the Reapers after momentarily touching his Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime, the Asari government could not have known about the Reapers after thousands of years of study?"

Our shrouded enemy paused to add impact to their line of questions. Then they started again.

"I will tell the galaxy this: The Asari government knew all along. But it was simply too inconvenient for them to have to deal with and did not fit in with the individual greed and self-indulgence of the politicians. It would also not be too good for the Asari for their government to ashamedly admit where they got their information had they released it. They were more concerned about keeping themselves ahead of the Turians and the Salarians and keeping their place at the top of the galactic food-chain. They cared not about the billions of innocent and unknowing souls that were so tragically taken from us in a completely avoidable war! Look no further than Commander Scott Gardner of the Systems Alliance Navy and Council Spectre for your proof! The blood of the hundreds of billions that died in the Reaper War is on the hands of the Asari government."

Tali had her arm around my shoulder and I instinctively took a hold of her forearm with my hand. My head was spinning from all of this. This group of terrorists were trying to use me as a way to spur people to believe in what they were doing. The most worrying thing was that it might actually work. I hated to admit it, but the argument put forward by the mysterious figure actually had some solid points behind it, enough that plenty of people out there would actually take their words on board. I knew that it could not be true, but I knew a lot of things that the ordinary citizen would never know from my time as a soldier.

"Keelah, this is so wrong. Scott, are you ok?" Tali knelt down in front of my chair to bring her eyes level with mine. I tried to make eye contact with my worried wife, but my head was bursting with thoughts and my eyes were looking back and forward as I tried to sort through all this new information in my mind.

"I… I don't know," I eventually stuttered. "What the hell just happened?"

"Scott, look," Churchill motioned back to the vid-screen where I saw a sombre image of the charred, bloodied corpse of an Asari. Her face was far too burnt to make out who it could possibly have been. However, looking down to where her dress was still somewhat describable, I felt like I had seen the design many times before. Then it hit me, it was a preferred style choice of Councillor Tevos.

"So, they got her," Liara said dismally.

"And she won't be the last if we don't do something about this terrorist group!" I snarled. "Liara did you get anything? Where was that broadcast coming from?"

"I traced it to a remote system in the Minos Wasteland. A planet called Temerarus, it's completely unsuitable for any kind of colonisation. A perfect place to hide. I have a team on their way to investigate already and they should report back within a few hours. That's the soonest I will have anything."

"Better than nothing. These people need to be dealt with," I said. Liara could only nod as she tried to hide her grief over what we had all just witnessed. My blood was coursing through my veins at the events that had just transpired. First the attack itself and the deaths of all those innocent people. Councillor Tevos had been difficult with me like any politician, but there was a likable person underneath. Secondly, they had then gone and made it personal by using me as an excuse for their disgusting actions which were by no means permissible under any circumstances.

As if reading my thoughts, Tali then said,

"Scott, people are going to want to come and ask you what your take on all this is. I bet this was another intended effect of using you as an example, to have you harassed by journalists."

"I do not think so," Churchill said. "While there is a 99.8% chance that reporters will want Scott's opinion on today's events, the figure in the vid did not seem to blame Scott himself for the lack of preparation against the Reaper invasion. Their focus was on the Asari government."

"I have no problem if reporters come calling," I said with sudden inspiration. "The terrorists are trying to use scare tactics to get people to believe in what they're doing and blame the Asari. But we can fight back against that while we don't have any leads to go after yet. I'll gladly tell the galaxy exactly what I think of these… cowards!"

"And we'll stand with you, Scott," Tali said, glad to see that I was on my feet again and planning like I used to back in the Normandy days.

My comm never stopped for the rest of the day as my friends from around the galaxy called to check in with me about what had happened. At one point, I had Garrus, Wrex, James, Zaeed and EDI all lumped together on one channel where the debates about what the hell to do about this new threat flared. Each of us wanted to settle a score with these villains now.

"I thought we were done with all the mass killings," Wrex said to everyone's surprise. "All they've proved is that they can take out helpless civilians."

My mind flashed to the images that I had watched on the vid-screen and remembered everything that happened before the explosion had gone off.

"No," I said, "the terrorists held off a small army of Asari police for a while. They had a hefty stock of weapons and ammo, they had kinetic barriers which reduced the effects of the Asari biotic attacks… whoever they are they must have a good supplier and financial backing for an operation like that."

"And the fact that they've promised to carry out more attacks," Garrus stated. "As soon as Liara finds any Intel on these guys, I'm gonna focus all my energy on them, Scott, I promise you. Ashley said she would be on it as well."

"I feel sorry for them already," I said in a meek attempt to lighten the conversation. I had grabbed a beer as I thought I would need it, but instead I had been nursing it all night as the conversations flowed between my old squad-mates. Tali sat next to me and Churchill was downstairs in our living room as he connected to other Geth to have a discussion of their own. I had no doubt they would be able to figure things out far quicker than I could. I hoped they could.

"Scott," Tali said, suddenly alert, "I've got a priority vid-call coming in from Liara! She says it's urgent."

Tali answered Liara's call and I patched her into the group chat that we were all having so that everyone could hear what she had managed to learn about our unknown enemy.

"What have you got, Liara?"

"I'm afraid I don't have the best of news, Scott… uh, everyone. My agents found the base where the broadcast came from, but whoever had been there had already destroyed it and left nothing for my agents to find. No clues to follow. Nothing."

"Damn it," I thumped my fist again. "Is there anything? What about the bodies of the dead terrorists from the explosion?"

"Most of the bodies were incinerated by the blast and the two that they did recover had DNA samples taken, but no matches came back whatsoever. Their identities have been completely erased before this attack. They must have travelled using false ID of exceptional quality."

"What about the weapons? Can we trace them to a dealer? Can the police piece together when each of the terrorists arrived at the building from security footage?" Garrus asked. I could see the cogs in his mind turning fast and it felt so good to be a part of this group again, brainstorming and trying to solve the latest problem.

"I have agents inside Armali Police Department working on that already, but it may take some time," Liara told us.

"Maybe…" I pondered, "maybe Kasumi would know of an ID forger who could make ID's that good. It is a lead we can pursue."

"I'll contact her right away," Liara hurried away to another console in her hidden base.

I sat at my comm for hours with Tali as we tried to find some avenue of attack that we could take against our new avowed enemy. Kasumi said she would get to work looking for a forger who could create such exquisite works, but without any of the actual fake ID's to check out, it would be harder for her. I knew that I could trust everyone to do their absolute utmost to help each other sort through this conundrum. That was what the Normandy team did best. However, soon I began to tire. When mixed with emotional drain of the day's events, I eventually had to admit defeat and head for bed where Tali had now gone ahead of me.

However, just as I was about to leave the office my comm blipped one more time and I instantly shot back to it in case someone had turned up some new information for us to work on. Instead, I noticed that it was a call from Daro'Xen who had been one of the Quarian Admiralty Board before the civilian governing body was given control.

"Daro," I greeted her, "what can I do for you?"

I was tired, but I kept an upbeat tone. Daro'Xen had actually become quite fond of me in the years that I had been living on Rannoch. The fact that I had managed to get the Quarians and Geth to work together had initially greatly annoyed her, as it put her work on regaining control of the Geth to waste. However, seeing the Geth work with the galaxy as equals rather than as a slave race had changed her opinion. When coupled with the fact that the Quarians were indeed back on their ancestral home world again, she had become quite pleasant towards Tali and I.

"Hello, Scott." Daro said in her well-spoken manner, "no doubt you have seen the abominable actions that took place on Thessia earlier today?"

"Do the Quarians have any information on it?" I asked in great hope.

"Unfortunately, no," Daro said stiffly, which usually meant that she was telling the truth even though she did not like it. "However, we have been contacted by the Council as they are forming a joint-species investigation team to find these radicals. I am calling you to give you a warning that there are a great number of journalists and news teams on their way here… to speak to you."

"I figured that would happen," I frowned. "You don't believe what the figure said about the Asari knowing about the Reapers do you?"

"They… made a compelling argument," Daro admitted with a hint of shame in her voice. "However, I believe even the Asari are not so self-important that they would literally risk the entire galaxy for the sake of political prowess. Why attempt to become the leader of the Milky Way if it has been wiped clean of life by genocidal machines?"

Daro made a good point and I made sure to log that one away for when I was talking with the press.

"As there will be no way of actually stopping the reporters arriving," Daro said, "I have arranged that they be taken to the main square in Baska at midday, where you can answer their questions. I thought it preferable to them surrounding your idyllic little home and storming the doors."

"Definitely," the thought of such made me recoil with distaste, "that's really appreciated, Daro'Xen. Thank you."

"You're quite welcome, Scott. Good luck."