Book I - Chapter 14: Vigil
"Who votes to take the Mako down the creepy underground tunnels?" Liara joked to lighten the mood as the previously locked bunker door hissed open. Using humour as a stress reliever seemed to work well for humans, so she figured it should work for asaris and quarians as well.
"Yes. It would be very convenient when we inevitably find geth blocking our way. Nothing the cannon fire won't fix." Tali agreed eagerly as she climbed inside the vehicle.
"Ok then, thanks for volunteering, Tali. I drive, you shoot." Shepard said as she strapped herself into the driver's seat.
Liara had anticipated encountering substantial opposition inside the bunker that would be similar to, if not greater than the force they had engaged outside. Contrary to her expectations, the tunnel seemed to be deserted. Daylight filtered through the planet's rust tinted atmosphere, casting a soft warm orange glow down from the ceiling of the enormous complex. Weather, water, and natural vegetation had invaded the facility during the millennia, reducing the monument from the pinnacle of Prothean erudition into an ornamental tombstone.
"I thought Saren would have set some kind of trap or ambush for us. They must have been in too much of a hurry." Tali commented, clearly as perturbed by the lack of opposition as Liara was.
"Or we just haven't run into it yet." Liara suggested. She did not want to point out that the alternative would have spelt greater trouble; if Saren were in such a hurry to leave Ilos, it could only mean that he had already obtained the Conduit.
They sped down the empty tunnel, completely unopposed for a long while. The underground bunker seemed to stretch on forever.
Just how big was this place?
"What are all those things on the walls? Some kind of containers?" Tali asked, if only to break the eerie silence.
Liara had a fair idea what they were. Judging by the somber expression on Shepard's face, she knew the answer already. "They look like stasis pods. The Protheans probably tried to keep themselves alive by cryogenic freezing."
"But there are so many of them..." Tali blurted out with a start. "Oh! This place is a tomb…!"
"Incoming!" Shepard alerted while dodging rocket strikes from a few geth troopers. Tali returned fire and took them out quickly. The last straggler was ran over by the Mako without fanfare.
That was it.
"Ok, is it just me, or is this token resistance kind of pathetic?" Tali wondered out loud.
"It's not just you." Shepard replied curtly. "We saw Saren bring an army of geth in here before he sealed the gate. The better question is, where have they gone?"
This horrible sense of wrongness steadily intensified the further they drove into the complex. While repeated telling herself to get a grip, Liara was unable to stop from twisting her hands together in a nervous gesture. As the silence dragged on, the sound of her inner voice freaking out over the mysterious disappearance of an entire geth army kept on getting louder. This had to be a trap.
The sinking feeling of dread coiled in the pit of her stomach once again, threatening to drown out all her logical thoughts. Quickly stealing yet another glance in Shepard's direction, Liara hoped to garner strength from the woman's steady presence. The determined set of Shepard's jaw had reassured her somewhat, but Liara could not completely shake the doubt in her mind that perhaps, they had been too late.
Abruptly, Shepard stopped the Mako and unstrapped the safety harness. Though unexpected, this was a welcomed change to the nerve wrecking silence.
"What's happening?" Tali followed the Commander's lead, even though she sounded very confused.
They jumped out of the vehicle, and Liara saw the reason why they had to continue on foot. Two translucent layers of energy curtains had sprung up along the tunnel, trapping the squad inside. Oddly, there was no additional power source, nor any geth device nearby to sustain the energy curtains. In fact, the energy signature felt strangely familiar.
Therum. The stasis bubble.
"I don't think Saren is responsible for this." Liara commented with bewilderment.
"Joker, report." Pressing against the side of her helmet to turn on the onboard communicator, Shepard asked again with a deep frown. "This is Commander Shepard. I need a status report." When no one answered, the frown morphed into a scowl. "No signal."
With no way to contact the Normandy to get a status update and nowhere else to go, they went into the smaller side tunnel and entered the elevator - the only place they could go. It took them down, deep into the bowels of the complex. Through the side of the elevator, Liara saw rolls upon rolls of stasis pods, grimly aware that they were coffins to house the dead rather than vessels to sustain life. By her estimate, Liara could see hundreds, if not thousands of stasis pods lining the walls of the enormous complex like a beehive.
More like a catacomb. Liara reflected morbidly. "I have studied the Protheans for decades, but I have never felt this sense of foreboding. What will we find down there?" Apprehension coloured her voice; Liara could easily imagine the ghosts of long deceased Protheans prowling the empty halls, crying out hollow omens of doom:
Beware! Beware of the Reapers!
"Whatever we find, be cautious. If this were simply an automatic trap, Saren would have triggered it as well." Tali warned.
A lone central control console sat on the end of the chamber, surrounded by several stasis pods and fallen debris. Beyond her wildest imagination, the console activated on its own when the squad approached it. A degraded hologram flickered on. Though its light was dim and its voice tinny, it began to speak in asari standard. "You are not Prothean, but you are not machine either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons."
Tali was amazed. "Looks like some kind of VI program. Pretty badly damaged."
The VI continued. "I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you. Unlike the other that passed recently. Perhaps there is still hope."
"This is incredible!" Liara marveled in reverence. "An actual Prothean VI, and we can all understand it!"
"I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend." The VI explained. "My name is Vigil. You are safe here, for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe."
"What are you and what do you want?" Shepard asked impatiently, before adding, "and spare me the rhetorics. We're in a real hurry."
If it was possible for a VI program, Vigil seemed to be perturbed by Shepard's bluntness. "I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of Ilos research facility."
"Got it. You're a VI." Shepard summarized the tedious introduction down to two letters. "Now get to the point! And Tali, please go grab the bluebox from the Mako. You know what to do."
Tali stifled a delighted squeal and hurried to follow the Commander's order. Liara, on the other hand, was barely able to contain her glee at this turn of event.
Vigil started, "the Citadel is the heart of your civilization and seat of government. As it was with us, and as it has been with every civilization that came before us. But the Citadel is a trap. The station is actually an enormous mass relay. One that links to dark space, the empty void beyond the galaxy's horizon. When the Citadel's relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through, and all you know will be destroyed."
Liara felt her insides freeze at this revelation. One surprise attack from a legion of Reapers, just as the warning from the beacon had described. The horrifying images of senseless death and destruction Shepard had shown her before would happen again if they didn't stop Saren in time.
Shepard visibly held herself back from growling at the VI. "I've seen the warning from the beacon. I know that's how the Reapers jumped the Protheans. They destroyed their central government and seized control of every mass relay through the Citadel in one surprise attack. Except this time, something went wrong, and they could not remotely open the Citadel's hidden mass relay. They are using Saren to look for an Prothean artifact called the Conduit. That's exactly why I'm in such a hurry. Just tell me how to stop them."
"The Conduit. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mystery behind the mass relay technologies. Ilos was a top secret research facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of a mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel: the hub of the relay network."
"The Conduit is not a weapon. It is a back door onto the Citadel!" Liara exclaimed in horror. Of all the possibilities, this one was by far the worst. If Saren could use the Conduit to transport a great number of geth troops directly to the Citadel, it could assume control of the station and open the hidden mass relay to commence the next cycle of extinction. "How could the Reapers overlook this world? How did you keep this hidden for so long?"
Vigil answered, "all official records of our top secret project were destroyed in the initial attack on the Citadel. While the Prothean empire came crashing down, Ilos was spared. We severed all connection with the outside world and our facility went dark. The personnel retreated underground into these archives. To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis. I was programed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed. But the genocide of an entire species was a long, slow process. Years passed. Decades, centuries. The Reapers persisted. And my energy reserves were dwindling."
Shepard finished the VI's miserable tale. "So you had to disable the life-support of those pods. Starting from non-essential personnels and slowly worked your way up the hierarchy until all the Reapers had gone back to dark space. You were their custodian, but you had no choice. Either you could save some of them, or none at all. I wouldn't want to trade places with you."
Vigil lamented in its mechanical monotone. "I saved key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, a dozen top researchers were still alive. The Prothean species was doomed. Yet they vowed to find some way to stop the Reapers from returning. A way to break the cycle forever. And they knew the keepers were the key."
Liara fought against the revulsion she felt towards the VI that had to commit this monstrous crime against the people under its care- to sacrifice hundreds of the brightest minds so that trillions from the next cycle would have a better chance to defeat the Reapers in their stead.
"How do the keepers factor in all this?" Liara asked with a frown.
"The keepers are organic servants controlled by the Citadel. The Reapers created them to maintain the station in order to keep the Citadel's secrets hidden. Before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station, compelling the keepers to activate the Citadel relay. After decades of feverish study, the scientists discovered a way to alter the signal. Using the Conduit, they gained access to the Citadel and made the modifications. This time, when Nazara sent the signal to the Citadel, the keepers ignored it. The Reapers are trapped in dark space."
Shepard chuckled at this information. "The Protheans sabotaged the Reaper's preemptive strike. That's why they need Saren to find an alternative way to take over the Citadel."
"Nazara?" Liara puzzled.
Shepard clarified, "Saren named it Sovereign. It's the same Reaper that called itself the vanguard of our destruction." Even though Liara was eager to hear all the details regarding the Prothean's experience with the Reaper invasion, the Commander was plainly starting to lose her patience. Tapping her foot restlessly, Shepard demanded, "I'm tired of your long winded epic saga, Vigil. There must be some way to stop the Reaper from taking control of the Citadel. Either you're going to help us, or just let us be on our way. I don't have time to chat."
Sensing the urgency, Vigil complied immediately. "There is a data file in my console. Take a copy before you go. When you reach the Citadel master control unit, upload it to the station. It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocol and give you temporary control over the station. It might give you a chance against the Reaper you called Sovereign."
"Finally!" Shepard groused as she copied the file with her Omni-tool.
Tali came back from the Mako with the bluebox Shepard requested. This expensive hardware had been scrubbed, modified, and armor-plated during the few months since its acquisition. On the way to Ilos, the team had deliberated several probable scenarios they might encounter on the planet. This was one of the scenarios they had discussed. In case of discovering a large cache of data on Ilos, Tali was tasked to retrieve the data for further analysis with the quantum computer they salvaged from the lunar base. Liara just hoped the bluebox had enough memory to accommodate a Prothean VI.
"Vigil, listen," Shepard spoke to the VI sternly. "From what you've said, it is apparent that your prime directive is to break the cycle of extinction at any cost. This coincides with my own mission. You possess a tremendous amount of critical information that can be extremely helpful to us, but I really don't have time right now. Your power supply is already depleted. Either I walk away and leave you here to die, thereby wasting all the information you possess. Or you can save us time by voluntarily duplicating a copy of your data bank onto this quantum computer, fulfilling your own mission by assisting us to combat the Reapers. Your choice."
The VI paused for a brief second. "This eventuality has not been anticipated by my original programming. However, I can see the necessity behind your request. Very well, I choose to assist you in your war against the Reapers. I will release all of my security protocols to expedite the data transfer. This will not take long… Assigning new user: Commander Shepard. Updating user security level: Warden. Initiating remote file transfer…"
x-x-x
Standing at attention in front of Councillor Tevos' desk inside her private office, Vasir silently watched with great concern. The normally unflappable Councillor exhibited very little of her usual grace as her entire body recoiled as if struck by a physical blow.
"Was that her exact wording?" Tevos asked faintly while grabbing onto the edge of her desk for support.
Once again, Vasir relayed the message word for word while carefully ridding her face of all expression. "Indeed. Commander Shepard said, 'the asari was chosen amongst many to lead the war against the Reapers in this cycle for a reason. If they refuse to step up, Thessia will fall.'"
Tevos sat heavily down on her plush office chair; her hands cradling her forehead as if in great pain. "Thessia will fall…" After a long moment of pause, she slowly straightened up in her seat and asked cautiously, "and you have not repeated this to anyone else?" The question came out more like a warning than anything.
Vasir shook her head. "Not at all. I understood the need for discretion since Shepard was being exceptionally vague on purpose. I must admit, I was thoroughly confused by her cryptic message."
All she could deduce was that whatever Shepard learnt from the beacon must be akin to blackmail material of the highest order, and that the simple fact that someone not from their ingroup was also privy to this secret was enough to get those supercilious old crones' panties in a twist. Why else would they exclude asari Spectres from being in on the secret if they weren't clearly in the wrong? But of course she was not so dim-witted as to let Tevos know she suspected as such. Vasir was content to feign ignorance, lest the Matriarchy's ire be directed at herself.
"So much power, so much potential. All in the hands of a child." Tevos grimaced. There was no doubt who the Councillor was referring to. "Off the record, what's your opinion of her? And don't give me the same drivel you gave to Valern. We both know the salarian commands little respect from you."
"Shepard is…" Vasir rubbed her chin thoughtfully, taking a moment to organize her thoughts. "... different."
Tevos' eyes flashed with irritation at the reply. The matriarch was clearly not in the mood to play the usual game today. Vasir elaborated before Tevos lost her patience. "Where do I start? If you had the chance to observe her without the hardsuit obscuring her aura, you would have been more inclined to believe her claim regarding the beacon. Enroute to Virmire, I spent four days trapped inside a tiny frigate with her. Her natural aura was like nothing I've sensed before. She exuded life. When the beacon obliterated the barrier of her mind, I felt her consciousness actively assimilating the essence of the relic, rather than being overwhelmed by it. Anyone else with a weaker will would have been rendered comatose. After the mission, I spent another four days studying her. I swear to the Goddess, Shepard's aura aged. If she weren't so painfully human, I would be inclined to argue she was not. Had I not witnessed the incident up close, I never would have dreamed it possible. You could call her a variety of unflattering names, but she is most definitely not a child."
Tevos stood up from her chair and walked up to the Spectre. "Show me." She demanded.
Vasir bowed her head with her eyes closed in deference, wordlessly giving her consent to the Councillor to initiate the meld.
"Embrace eternity," Tevos intoned solemnly, and Vasir pushed the specific memory to the forefront of her mind.
The beacon's ethereal light pulsed in one heartbeat before its ancient energy smashed through the human like a divine sledgehammer. The sheer force of this collision of wills locked the human in a state similar to stasis. Even from a distance, the shockwave of the strike pricked her mind like a thousand frozen needles. Instead of being ground down to nothingness, Shepard's spirit bounced back from the devastating blow. She did not bend, did not shatter; instead, she folded herself around the supernova and embraced it. At that moment, all was one.
Utterly inconceivable! No human with their underdeveloped mind was capable of this! And yet, here this impossibility was, unfolding right in front of her eyes with absolutely zero regard for logical sensibility.
The same emerald light from inside the beacon now shone from within Shepard. A breath later, the light disintegrated into millions of tiny sparks of faint glimmers before melting into the impossible human's own vibrant cyan glow. Shepard's aura thrummed like a brewing thundercloud; Vasir was genuinely terrified that the human's volatile mind would lash out and attack her own like a lightning strike - an untamable force of nature…
Whatever force that was locking Shepard in place evaporated as the beacon's internal light dimmed after the exchange. The human fell on the floor, kneeling in front of the dormant relic for a moment to catch her breath, before slowly raising to her feet. Was this being still Commander Shepard, human Spectre? Or was it something else walking in Shepard's skin? To have one's mind torn asunder in this brutal manner, it was unthinkable that anyone could retain their sanity afterward.
Vasir pulled out her pistol and got ready for the worst.
Hovering over the relic, a red holographic image of the ship Sovereign blinked into existence. A VI? No. Didn't seem like it. Most curious.
Shepard slowly climbed up the stairs towards her with unsteady feet. Her face was a shade paler than usual, and her potent aura was whipping around her like a tangled knot of furious vipers. Her hardsuit did little to contain this maelstrom of chaotic biotics. Would she snap?
"Well, you're not dead. I guess it went well?" Vasir asked nonchalantly, feigning disinterest to the best of her ability.
Shepard smiled. There was a distinct taste of vulnerability to that guileless expression. It was like a sunrise breaking through the raincloud. Haltingly, but surely, Shepard's aura began to calm as her mind rebuilt the mental barrier ravaged by the traumatic experience. If Vasir could compare Shepard's aura to a camp fire before, now it resembled a raging smelting furnace. How was this possible? What the hell was this human's will made of? How could anyone's mind go through this meatgrinder only to come out stronger than before? In the short span of several heartbeats, Shepard had managed to tame the colossal ancient energy dwelling inside the beacon and transformed the storm of dark energy into a serene pool of tranquil water.
Goddess damn it! How?!
"It's not what I expected, but yeah, I suppose. I'm still standing. But that," Shepard pointed at the red holo image and said, "is not so good."
Vasir frowned at the hologram. Having her mind ripped to shreds by the Prothean beacon, no sweat. Seeing this one holo image of an enemy ship, not so good. Fucking hell?! Whatever this was, it had Shepard spooked. She supposed she should also be really worried, then.
Tevos withdrew from Vasir's mind with a deep breath. The incredulous expression on the Councillor's heavily tattooed face accurately reflected Vasir's own thoughts regarding the many impossibilities surrounding the first human Spectre.
"How is this...?!" Tevos echoed the same question Vasir had been asking herself countless times. "She's human!"
"To use Shepard's own words, she is 'not a typical human.'" Vasir answered drily. "As I said before, she is different."
"Different? Different doesn't even begin to cut it! She should have been dead! Her brain should have been pulverized into mush and dribbled out of her ears! This is impossible!" Tevos remarked with blatant disbelief.
Vasir crossed her arms casually. "We can rant and rave about this impossible feat all day, but it did happen. How is this any more impossible than her warnings about the Reapers?"
"The Reapers." Tevos shook her head in disgust. "Let's say Shepard was right, the Reapers destroyed the Protheans just as she claimed. Where are they now? It's been 50,000 years. If they still exist, we would've seen some evidence of them over the years."
"That's because you're determined to ignore them. What's 50,000 years to machines? They're not really alive. Sovereign is a Reaper. Acknowledge it or not, they are coming. I have to agree with Shepard on this one."
"Not you too! That human is like a disease. You spent some time with her, and now you're starting to sound just like her." Tevos narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Vasir.
Vasir rolled her eyes. "Hardly. Remember, I was there when Sovereign spoke to us via a hologram. I can show you if you want."
"That thing is clearly a VI of Saren's creation. A simple bluff. Designed to keep his pursuers off balance." Tevos dismissed Vasir's explanation with a wave of her hand. "A pointless extermination of all advanced organic life? Please. I have yet to hear a more ridiculous excuse to start a conflict. Every war requires a cause, be it resources or pride. I've read the report. What you've suggested is mindless wanton destruction with nothing of value to be gained."
"They are really coming!" Vasir exclaimed urgently.
Tevos clicked her tongue disapprovingly at Vasir's outburst. "There's no need to raise your voice, Vasir."
"No! They are here! Look!" Vasir spun the Councillor around by her shoulders to point at the numerous tiny dots heading toward the Citadel. In the middle of the hundred geth ship formation was the distinct shape of the Reaper dreadnought Sovereign.
"But…" Tevos' ability of speech had all but vanished the moment she saw the massive fleet of geth ships from the window.
"Spectre Tela Vasir to C-Sec HQ. I'm with Councillor Tevos at the tower. Ready a shuttle with escorts ASAP! Requesting immediate extraction!"
The static filled reply she got was even more alarming than Vasir had anticipated. "Copy that. This is officer Chellick, we're already on our way. Geth is attacking HQ right now! All the comm channels are jammed. The only frequency still working is the backup short range radio. All the comm buoys are down! We can't call for reinforcements!"
Vasir cursed loudly at the bad news. Saren must have found some way to smuggle enough geth onto the Citadel to overwhelm C-Sec HQ in an ambush. The signal jam would explain the lack of station wide evac alarm. Without reinforcements, whatever garrison they had over the station at the moment would have to hold off the geth fleet on their own until communication was restored. "We're under siege! Close the ward arms!"
"Negative! Air control tower has been destroyed in the first wave of the attack. It's impossible to close the arms. All available personnel are currently split between restoring communications and containing enemy ground force from spreading to the Wards." Chellick's reply painted a grim picture of their current situation. If they couldn't close the arms, civilians would be hit hard by the collateral damage. Ship debris and fire alone could cause tremendous damage to the station, killing thousands.
"Get a team to find the other two Councillors. Evacuate the Council to Destiny Ascension, now!" Vasir shouted into her communicator.
"Already on it. Step back. We're coming through the windows." Chellick replied.
"The blockade…" Tevos muttered to herself weakly, unable to comprehend the dire situation at hand.
"Fuck your blockade! Shepard fucking told you so! Let's just hope our asari dreadnought is enough to match the Reaper dreadnought. Otherwise we're all dead! 'More than ready for him,' my ass!" Vasir snarled as she dragged the reluctant Councillor back away from the floor-to-ceiling windows and stood guard in front of her with her barrier at full strength.
Less than a minute later, a C-Sec armored shuttle pulled up and fired repeatedly at the windows until the the ballistic glasses shattered. When the shuttle door opened, Vasir did a double take at the familiar sight of former C-Sec officer, Garrus Vakarian standing at the door to greet them. "Fancy seeing you here, Spectre." Garrus jumped inside the office through the broken window. "Chellick, old chap, please escort Councillor Tevos to Destiny Ascension. This is my stop." The turian turned to look at Vasir expectantly and asked, "you staying?"
"Take the Councillor and go." Vasir said to the C-Sec escorts inside the shuttle as she none too gently shoved Tevos into the armored vehicle. Having done her duty, she turned around and glared at Garrus. "After three days of playing dumb, you have a lot to fess up to, Vakarian. Start talking."
"Really?" Garrus' mandibles flapped slightly in good humour as he headed out of the office with Vasir close at his heels. "The Citadel is being invaded by a geth fleet several hundred ships strong, led by a sentient machine dreadnought, crewed with tens of thousands of geth troops and krogan clones, armed with gruesome tech that could turn people into mindless husks. And now you wish to talk? Typical asari."
Vasir visibly fumed at the turian's reply. "For three days I asked, and not one of you would tell me anything useful! Obviously you are much better informed than I am. The Citadel is under siege! Now it's not the time to test my patience."
"Fair enough. I suppose you've got a point there." Garrus put up his hands in a placating gesture to forestall the ill-tempered asari Spectre from snapping at him. "No reason to keep quiet anymore, either. Although I must say it was absurd that we had to treat the people we intended to protect as enemy combatants just so they wouldn't sabotage our efforts."
Not stopping to chat, Garrus briskly walked towards the elevator as he explained, "Commander Shepard warned them the blockade would not stop Saren's fleet. The Council thought by exposing Saren's secrecy, they had defanged him. The Commander thought a cornered animal to be more dangerous than a hidden one. With or without the Conduit, with Sovereign on his side, we all knew Saren already had enough raw firepower to punch a hole through the blockade. The only difference was how many ships he would lose during the attack. If he had wanted to simply destroy the Citadel, this place would have been space junk ages ago. Therefore, logic dictates that Saren must be here for reasons beyond wholesale slaughter. He is here to take control of the station. The Reapers built the Citadel. If I were an evil sentient machine that had been using this fancy place as a gilded trap for eons untold, I would've left a shiny red button labelled 'TAKEOVER' hidden somewhere I wouldn't forget. My bet is..."
"...It's right here in the Council Chamber, the command centre of the Citadel." Vasir finished his sentence faintly.
Garrus confirmed with an amiable nod, chatting while continuing to lay down trip wires and explosives on the hallway leading up to the courtyard. "This is pure speculation based on the information we've gathered, of course. The Commander had three tasks for me. One, to inform C-Sec of geth combat capabilities and assist them to improve existing station-wide evacuation procedures. Two, to delay Saren any way I can during the attack. And three, to live through this. Your presence here has markedly improved my odds at completing the latter two tasks with all my limbs intact."
"Damn it! She should've kept me in the loop. This is important! I would've helped her." Vasir scowled while trying to push down the strange feeling of hurt she felt by the exclusion.
Garrus gave her an odd look, but didn't slow down until he had finished booby-trapping the hallway. "The Council grounded her. She is in enough trouble defying their orders as is. I don't think those politicians would be too pleased if she dragged you down with her."
Vasir wasn't sure what to say to that. "... No, I suppose not. But the stake is too high. She should've involved me regardless... And where did you get all those explosives?"
"They are modified grenades. Commander Shepard gave me her entire stock before she left for Ilos. She could only carry a few with her on the field anyway." Garrus said, taking a moment to survey his handiwork. He had lined the hallway leading out of the elevator towards the audience chamber with explosives that were attached to tripwires installed on the staircase. Once the enemy at the front of the line triggered the tripwires, the entire contingent of troopers would go boom.
Not entirely satisfied with his work, Garrus planted more explosives around the courtyard. "Take this and attach it to the wall at waist height." He gave Vasir a small device. At her questioning look, he explained, "something I've been working on. It's a laser proximity tripwire. There's still room for improvement. Anyways. After they get blasted with incendiary explosives at the hallway, they'll either try to put out the fire by jumping into the fountain, which I've electrified, or scramble up the stairs and get hit by another round of cryo explosives. If that combo doesn't kill them all, it'll slow them down enough for me to pick them off with head shots. Speaking of which, I should get into position on the balcony."
Soon after they set up at a vantage point on the balcony behind a roll of heavy duty furniture appropriated from some random diplomat's office, the shrill wail of the emergency alarm blared throughout the station, notifying every person on the Citadel of the current situation. Vasir let out a sigh of relief - it seemed someone at the C-Sec HQ had managed to at least un-jam the emergency channel. As per standard procedure, the VI Avina would assist in damage control, such as fire containment and environmental control, as well as guiding evacuation for the civilian population.
"Excellent. I knew the Alliance marines would come through." Tapping into his Omni-tool, the former C-Sec pulled up several screens showing security feeds coming from all over the Presidium. From the poor picture quality and the awkward camera angles, Vasir could tell the footages was not from standard C-Sec security cameras. At her questioning look, Garrus explained, "low bandwidth, hence the grainy vids. But baby cams are easy to acquire in bulk, and they are so primitive, no one in their right mind would bother to jam this frequency. I'm using pre-spaceflight technology specifically to take advantage of the fact that the Reapers only target advanced civilizations."
Vasir's eyes flittered across the row of monitors hovering above Garrus' arm as her brows slowly knitted together in mounting horror. Geth were everywhere. On one of the cameras located at the base of the Council tower, they could see how the synthetic army had boarded the station - they were shooting out of the Mass Repay monument like a hail of cannonballs. "The monument is a working relay!" She almost choked on her words.
Garrus made a distressed noise in his throat. "That miniature relay is the Conduit! Saren must have brought his geth in straight from Ilos!"
"And they're coming this way." Vasir pointed at one of monitors showing an army of geth troopers swarming towards the Council tower. They were climbing up the building like spiders by using mag-locks built into their limbs. She sincerely hoped the other two Councillors were evacuated already, because the geth were firing at all the rapid transport cabs within range as they scrambled up the structure.
Outside the windows, Vasir saw several hundreds geth ships all attempting to break through the C-Sec fleet to fire at Destiny Ascension. At the rear of the geth fleet, Sovereign loomed while waited for the opposition to thin out.
"If the Council were on Destiny Ascension, they should flee while they still can." Vasir stated with gritted teeth.
"They can't. They need to get past the geth fleet to reach the mass relay. There is no chance Sovereign will let it through… Spirits! They are using dragon's teeth!" Garrus exclaimed in dread.
Whipping her head around to look at the screen Garrus was pointing at, Vasir watched with morbid curiosity as a ring of the atrocious devices were set up near the bottom of the tower. With typical machine efficiency, a team of geth grabbed half-dead civilians from around the Presidium and mounted them atop of the tripods. Having not seen this particular Reaper tech in use before, Vasir flinched as spikes erupted through the still squirming bodies of wailing civilians in a macabre display. When they finally stopped struggling, they were slowly transformed into grotesque half-synthetic Husks that barely resembled what they looked like in life.
"By the Goddess!" Vasir whispered in revulsion.
"Get ready." Crouching behind an upturn durasteel desk, Garrus shut off the security feed before pulling out his trusty sniper rifle while carefully aiming at the opening elevator door. "Here they come."
x-x-x
Kneeling behind a heavily scorched short wall, Ashley idly wondered whether it was her helmet comm unit that was on the fritz, of if it was her own hearing that was damaged by the electric surges. Even the normally high pitched sounds of bullets whizzing through the air all around her seemed somewhat muted.
It's definitely me, then. Ashley thought, noticing how her vision was beginning to dim.
"Goddammit, Ash! Hang in there!" Followed by a team of marines, Kaidan dashed across the room and slapped a package of medi-gel onto her hardsuit interface as soon as he reached her.
The familiar cooling, numbing sensation of medi-gel sliding down her body was a welcomed one. Sighing with relief, Ashley perked up with a hard shake to clear the wool stuffed inside her head. "Did it work?" She asked, as her heart sank when she counted only seven marines guarding their position.
"Yeah, it did. Emergency channel is back online. Evac is in progress. More C-Sec are coming this way. Thanks for buying us time." Kaidan replied.
Even though they knew an attack was coming, it was still a nasty shock when it actually happened. As per their Commander's orders, Ashley and Kaidan each led a team of six marines and hung around the Presidium and the Upper Ward area to keep a close watch over the C-Sec HQ. Their objective was to protect the strategically important location that was bound to be the first place to be under attack if Saren were to invade the station.
As luck would have it, Ashley's team had the front row seats of watching Saren fucking Arterius and his geth shoot out of the mass relay monument in the first wave of attack. The stunned Gunnery Chief only had the time to send out one franatic message to alert all of the Normandy crew currently on the Citadel before the geth jammed their comm channel. Knowing there was no way a small team of infantry could hold off Saren's army, Ashley had order her team to retreat into the C-Sec HQ to rendezvous with Kaidan's team.
When she finally arrived at the HQ, the place was a hub of confused chaos. Apparently the sudden communication blackout had caused numerous accidents and did major damage to the station's already overworked air control system. While C-Sec was working double time to figure out how to restore communications, an army of geth stormed in, and set up a forest of dragon's teeth right in the lobby of the C-Sec Academy.
It was a complete massacre. Instead of being gunned down like animals, civilians trapped inside the building were dragged away to be impaled on the sinister devices and transformed into hideous terror weapons.
Ashley had yelled at Kaidan that her team would hold off the enemies so that the technically savvy LT could assist C-Sec to restore communications. Their plan worked, but at a great cost. Gripping her assault rifle tightly, Ashley scowled at the bodies sprawling on the floor around her. "Gladstone and Waaberi didn't make it."
"We lost Barrett, Crosby, and Felawa in the air control tower, too. The geth blew the top of the floor. They didn't have a chance." Kaidan said with a grimace.
"So what now?" Ashley asked, feeling angry and lost.
"We stay here and guard the place until reinforcements arrive. C-Sec needs the emergency channel open. Short range radio just won't cut it. And Chief," Kaidan narrowed his eyes warningly at her. "Don't be a hero. Getting zapped by exploding Husks is not how you want to go down. The Commander will have my head if we don't come out of this alive."
Ashley cracked a tired grin. "Duly noted, LT."
x-x-x
"Hold on tight!" Shepard shouted out her warning as she stepped hard on the gas. Downloading Vigil into the quantum bluebox took only minutes, but it was minutes too long in her opinion. With all her preparations, there was never a guarantee everything would go according to plan. For all she knew, last time she had stopped Saren in time out of sheer dumb luck. No amount of clever scheming on her part could outsmart Lady Fortuna.
So what if she left a whole team of heavy hitters on the Citadel to delay Saren from reaching the master control unit? All she did was put her best people in the rogue Spectre's crosshair. That was not a safe place for anyone to be. Her foreknowledge and her meticulous planning had saved Kaidan and Kirrahe's men on Virmire, however the battle of Citadel was a completely different story. Shepard had made the conscious decision to allow this battle to take place when she had ample opportunities to prevent it from happening at all.
Putting millions in danger, letting hundreds of thousands of people die so that trillions would have a better chance at winning the war against the Reapers. In essence, she had done the equivalent of what the Illusive Man did to fight the Collectors. What a monstrous crime she had committed.
To gain the Council's support to retake Earth and to build the Crucible, humanity must be regarded as a valuable asset as well as a formidable ally they could not afford to antagonize. What would be a stronger show of goodwill by bringing in the cavalry to take down Sovereign and save the Council? Admiral Hackett had been alerted discreetly through a secure back channel (i.e. her mother had passed along her heavily encrypted message directly to him). Fifth Fleet would be much better prepared to mobilize at a moment's notice than last time.
More importantly, this battle must not be avoided so that the entire galactic community would be shocked into action. Using the blood of the innocents as ink, she was going to to drill the painful message through everyone's skull - if the Citadel was not safe, no where else would be, either. The Protheans on Ilos laid down their lives to give the next cycle a fighting chance against the Reapers. Shepard refused to let their sacrifices go to waste.
Countless new research only got the necessary funding to proceed after the world saw what the Reapers could do. Take the Thanix cannon, for example. This weapon was developed by the turians from studying Sovereign's main gun. Without this technology being made available to all Council races, conventional weaponry could barely scratch a Reaper's paint job. Last time around, only half of Sovereign's hull was recovered in the aftermath. The other half was secreted away into high security laboratories around the galaxy, by all the races. While the Council very publicly denounced Shepard's claim that Sovereign was a Reaper, behind the scenes, they were frantically conducting research to gain an edge over each other.
Shepard could not afford to lose this. No. She needed all the races to get into a heated arms race in preparation for the Reaper invasion, regardless of whether they believed in her claim or not. Heck. She needed Cerberus to get their hands on some Reaper tech from Sovereign's body so their scientists could build EDI. Without EDI, they had no chance of defeating the Collectors, much less the Reapers.
But she was getting ahead of herself. If she couldn't stop Saren in time, they were all doomed.
"Brace for impact!" Shepard shouted as she rammed the Mako into the Conduit's light.
x-x-x
"This is fun!" Wrex cackled as he plowed down several geth troopers with his shotgun. He had to dodge out of the way of a shot from a Colossus after whacking a shocktrooper over the head. His sudden movement caused the Colossus to misfire at the wrong position. Instead of hitting its intended target, its impressive artillery round reduced a group of unfortunate geth troopers in the vicinity to pieces. "The only thing that's better than killing geth, is watching geth killing each other." The battlemaster exclaimed gleefully.
Zaeed jumped out from behind a crate, stormed up to the hulking machine, and let loose a barrage of bullets at close range before diving behind a sturdy metal column to avoid the return fire. "I should get paid extra for anti-armor duty!"
"Bah! Quit your whining, princess." Biotics crackled around his body in a shroud of visible cyan light. With a growl, Wrex threw his hand forward, forcibly tossing two nearby geth troopers at the Colossus. At the same time, he sprinted at the distracted anti-tank unit with a warcry while unloading pellets of incendiary rounds into the machine with his trusty shotgun.
While Wrex was occupied, Zaeed emerged from cover and sprayed a rain of coverfire to keep the other geth units away from Wrex's dual with Colossus.
All around them, the streets were littered with debris. There was leaked fuel everywhere, so inevitably, everything was burning. Even the Presidium lake was on fire.
When the geth boarded the Citadel, Wrex was hanging out with Zaeed near the krogan statue, swapping old battle stories with the cantankerous sour-faced merc. Whatever other operations Shepard had Zaeed roped into before, he was asked to drop it all to come to Citadel to provide much needed fire power. Wrex was actually impressed. He had known the guy only by reputation, but had never worked with him in person. He was pleased to find the man did not disappoint. Other than his unusual obsession with his gun, this human was mostly tolerable.
"Incoming!" Wrex bellowed. Both of them dove behind cover again to avoid another anti-armor round from the heavy duty geth unit.
"What's taking so long?" Zaeed yelled at the krogan.
"This thing's shield is damn tough, but it's slow. We'll finish it soon enough." Wrex growled.
A vicious grin split Zaeed's scarred face. "Bringing down shields is my specialty." He boasted as he adjusted the ammo setting of his assault rifle.
The two veterans mercs bolted out from cover again, guns ablazing. Using the brief moments it took for the Colossus to charge up its artillery round, they sank as many bullets into the machine as they could, before jumping out of the way and looping around the hulking mechanical beast in two different directions. They ran circles around it, firing as fast as they could until their weapons were too hot to hold. Slowly but surely, the Colossus finally crumpled to the floor in a giant heap of twisted metal.
"It's gonna blow!" Zaeed shouted with alarm. The two of them dove behind a decorative pillar with their heads down. Except, even though the broken machine was sparking and twitching with excessive electricity, nothing happened.
Wrex poked his head out cautiously. "It's not gonna blow." He said, sounding almost disappointed.
Behind them, the mass relay monument lit up again. Wrex docked back down behind cover and ready his weapon. The heavy whirring sound that came through the miniature relay hinted that the next geth walking through that portal was going to be another big one.
It wasn't geth.
Wrex and Zaeed jumped out of the way at the last second as a familiar looking Mako barreled out of the Conduit and crashed landed on the heap of partially melted Colossus, further reducing the broken geth to smaller pieces.
"Haha! Look who's finally here!" Wrex cheered loudly at the upside down Mako.
"Holy hell!" Zaeed hurried to open the hatch and helped them out of the vehicle. "What kind of maniac drives a Mako through the mass relay?"
"Ugh. Thanks." Shepard tumbled out of the upturned Mako and rolled out of the way for Liara and Tali to get out. Looking around at the fire and destruction in dismay, the Commander asked the mercs, "have you seen Saren?"
Both men shook their heads. "No." Wrex answered. "We were at the other side of Presidium when it went down. Haven't seen him. Killed a few Colossus, though."
A dull rumble crawled through the ground of the station. Shepard jerked her head up and saw the ward arms slowly began to pull close. "I have a good idea where he is now. Liara, Tali, with me. Zaeed, Wrex," She stabbed at the direction of the Mako with a thumb. "I have a cache of Prothean data bank sitting inside the Mako. I need you to keep it safe."
"Consider it done." Wrex cocked his shotgun. "Go kill the bastard for everything he's done."
Shepard replied by cocking her shotgun while mirroring the same savage grin on the krogan battlemaster's scar-ridden face. "With pleasure."
x-x-x
A/N: Hey I'm back! The wedding was literally the best party of my life. Expensive as hell, but totally worth it... and I've used the time off to replay the trilogy. Twice. Currently in the middle of my third replay. Yes, I have a problem. And for those who are wondering, this is not a crossover. All references to Dragon Age are just me paying homage to all things BioWare.