The moment she took a selfie, Max found herself at the beach, facing the ocean. Was it another vision? She looked around and saw Reyes and Fokin at the forest edge.
What the fuck?
Before she could do anything else her omni-tool beeped. She turned it on and found a video that hadn't been there before. When had she recorded herself?
"Hey," the other Max from the recording said. "I know it's weird and, please, forgive me for what I've done. I've tried everything. I've changed my present many hundreds if not thousands of times. I've been going further and further into the past in hope to change everything for the better, but nothing has worked. And the further I go the more dangerous it gets. You are my last hope. I fear that if I go any further, I would make things worse, because we weren't ready to face what comes."
The other Max looked down for a moment.
"I had to try it," she continued. "Otherwise... Everything goes to hell. You've seen the vision. You know what I'm talking about. First thing first, your omni-tools were compromised after Elysium. I cleaned up and patched them to protect against malware, but that's a temporary solution. I can't guarantee that you won't be hacked again. Never trust any electronic devices if they have access to your private data. If you want to keep something secret, you keep it to yourself. Most communication methods can easily be intercepted. Even if you think you're alone, you are not. Someone will always be watching you. Even in a toilet."
"It may be not this bad at the moment, but it will be once things get serious. Anderson knows that you have special abilities. What's a bit worse, Cerberus knows too. I'm not sure if you know about Cerberus, but anyways, it's an extremist paramilitary group with a goal of establishing human dominance over the galaxy. They have powerful backers in the Alliance. Don't try to go after them. You'll likely fail. Even if you succeed, it's still a bad idea, because they are most useful in the war against the Reapers. The Illusive Man, the leader, is the only one who knows about you. He got rid of everyone else. There's a Cerberus cell that studies your DNA, but they have no idea, who you are. I think they're creating our clones at the moment, trying to recreate our abilities. They won't succeed.
"Although the Illusive Man and Anderson know that we have some ability, they're unaware of its real extent. They think you're just faster than normal humans. You can trust Anderson, however, don't make him doubt you. He won't choose you over the good of the galaxy or the Alliance.
"Now, our abilities. Rewinding causes anomalies, but they're localized and unimportant considering the stakes. Don't be afraid to use your abilities, because billions of lives depend on our success. Going back in time using a selfie doesn't require a selfie. Just close your eyes and focus on your memories about the time and place you want to go back to. A selfie is but a useful crutch. Still... keep taking them.
"I know that you try to learn more about our abilities. I'm nowhere closer to understanding. I spent years of our relative time to learn more, but it's a wasted effort. It's an inefficient use of time. Studying AI, computer security and working on your fighting skills is a much better time investment. By the way, don't install a greybox. I know it's tempting, but just don't. Greyboxes and our abilities don't work well together. You'll cripple yourself.
"Anyways, you remember what's happened when we've saved Chloe's dad? You have to be careful when going back in time though a selfie. Everything you do in the past may easily cause catastrophic changes in your present. It's difficult to kill us, but it's easy to trap us using something like a cryopod. If you're killed or trapped before your present, it's game over unless you have a conscious clone. Probably. I learned it through my own experience when I woke up in a body of a clone created in a Cerberus lab.
"I have a few theories about our abilities. I used to think that it might be somehow connected to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, but there are multiple contradictions. I would really like to tell you more, but I don't have enough time. I can only ask you to grow your own clones just in case. Keep them somewhere hidden in cryopods programmed to release them on various dates. One clone should always be awake at any time. I'm from 17th November 2201. Please hide a clone or two for me. Don't expect it to work though. It happened once and I don't want to check if it'll work again. It's a backup of a backup plan.
"Going back to Chloe's dad. Remember how we had no memories of Maxine's life? I learned that memories come back. Eventually. You may use it as a shortcut to learn things, but be careful. As I said, this ability is highly dangerous.
"And finally, the Reapers. You had the vision about them. They're a machine race, whose bodies you saw in the vision. The squid-like ships. The Reapers built the Mass Relays and exterminated the Protheans. They harvest all developed species every fifty thousand years. The Reapers justify their actions by claiming that every organic civilization sooner or later creates an AI, which destroys them. Our cycle already has the geth. The Reapers are trying to preserve species at their high by creating a Reaper that stores their history, art and genes inside an immortal body. They do what they were programmed to do.
"You won't defeat them head-on. They're tens of thousands. Larger, more powerful and better defended than any dreadnaught of the Citadel races. No matter how many ships the Citadel races build, it won't be enough. Conventional warfare won't get you anywhere. We need something else. Something that can destroy or disable them all.
Tens of thousands ships larger and more powerful than dreadnought? How the fuck do we defeat something like this.
"Their most dangerous weapon is indoctrination. It's some kind of an electromagnetic field, sound waves or something else entirely. It affects brain and especially limbic system of a victim, turning them into a marionette. It's irreversible. Victims aren't aware of the indoctrination, but can fight it on early stages. You can only identify them through changes in behavior. In the later stages, victims normally get more and more erratic, however the indoctrination can be subtle too. The longer and closer a victim is to a Reaper or a Reaper artifact, the higher is the chance that the victim is going to be influenced by the Reapers. Indoctrination takes between two days and a few weeks depending on the victim's willpower and the intensity of the signal. There is a faster method of indoctrination. The Reapers turn humans into hybrids or mindless husks using implants and nanomachines. They're easily recognizable. They look like those zombies from your vision. Direct contact with a Reaper artifact is likely required. We're immune to the slow variant of indoctrination, but the nanomachines will kill you.
"I don't know how to defeat them. Perhaps there's a technology which can help us fight them or a way to reprogram them." The other Max sighed. "I really don't know. We're fighting them eighteen years and we're almost extinct. Asari, turians, krogans, humans. We all are fighting, but there's not many of us left and we can't gather our forces. As long as you have time, explore Prothean ruins, look for remnants of ancient civilizations. There's evidence of Protheans fighting the Reapers for hundreds of years. Perhaps you'll find something we didn't. If anything can help us to stay alive and to fight longer, it's a small win. Victory is the sum of small wins."
The other Max stood silent for a few seconds.
"As soon as you finish the OCS, they'll invite you to the ICT. It's going to be hell to go through it, but it's the best training you can get. What to do next? You'll have to decide it yourself. I served the Alliance and was a Staff Lieutenant by the 2180. A year later I became the first human agent of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. The Alliance had high hopes for me, but I let them down. They call me a hero, but what kind of a hero suffers defeat after defeat? The Spectre status opens doors, but you won't need the Spectre status to open them with the information on your omni-tool. You have to make your own decisions," she said with a sad smile. "I failed and didn't save anyone. I can only suggest to be subtle.
"Anyway, let's talk details," she said. "Most Reapers in 2176 are still in dark space between galaxies. Every time they finish the harvest they return there, leaving a single dormant Reaper in the galaxy. It's known as Sovereign. At the moment it's probably brainwashing Saren Arterius, a decorated turian Council Spectre. For the next seven years Saren will successfully do his job for the Council. Apart from Sovereign there are Protheans turned into mindless drones, who are known as Collectors. There are rare sightings of them in the Terminus Systems. They buy slaves for experiments. In the latter years the results of these experiments were used to create hybrids and husks of various species. Their cannon fodder and means of psychological warfare.
"The Citadel is actually a Mass Relay leading to dark space. The Reapers use it to begin their invasion from the heart of the galactic civilization. The Protheans have managed to complicate things for the Reapers a bit. The Reapers can't activate the Citadel remotely. That's why they need Saren. He needs access to the Master Control Terminal, but even a Council Spectre can't just go into the Council's audience chamber and use the terminal. He needs a way to bring his troops to the Citadel which consist mostly of geth and krogans. He'll do it using a miniature mass reley at the Presidium, which everyone mistakes for a monument. It can be accessed through its sibling is on Ilos. There's a functioning Prothean VI on the planet. I advise you to copy it before everything goes to shit, because the VI contains a lot of useful information. I left you the coordinates of a mass relay, which can be used to get to Ilos. Don't let anyone learn anything about the planet or the relay coordinates.
"The first encounter with the Reaper occurred on 7th February 2183 right after discovery of a Prothean beacon on Eden Prime. The beacon broadcasts a warning about the Reapers directly to brain. Normal humans may have problems with it, but we can interface with it without any adverse effects. I'm still not sure why Saren needed the beacons. Anyway, the Council sent me to retrieve the beacon, but Saren and his geth got there first. I used our powers, but it didn't change much, he still got his hands on it later. Then I was on a voyage around the galaxy, pursuing Saren. In the end he found Ilos and brought his army to the Citadel and went to the Master Control Terminal. At the same time Sovereign accompanied by a geth fleet attacked the Citadel Fleet. Don't ask me, although you can't, how many times I went back in time to stop Sovereign. You'll need a lot of firepower to breach its shields. You'll need a big group of dreadnoughts to have a chance.
"I know, it's tempting to kill Saren before he attacks Eden Prime. I killed him in the 2180. Sovereign became even more subtle and things got much worse. The only sure way to destroy the fucker is to lure him to the Citadel. It's going to be a slaughter, but it's a lesser evil. This way the war against the Reapers started in August 2186 in my timelines. You really don't want them to invade the galaxy any earlier. Once the Sovereign is destroyed, you'll have to hunt down the Collectors, otherwise they'll build another Reaper and things will get ugly. That aside, there is the Alpha Relay in the Bahak system. The Reapers will use it as an incursion point, because it's connected to the most important mass relays in the galaxy, including the Citadel. You'll have to destroy it to slow the Reapers down. It's easy. Just push a large asteroid hard enough against the relay and it goes boom along with the whole system.
"Cerberus. They're terrorists, unethical scumbags and racist assholes, but they were more useful in the Reaper war than the Citadel Council. I had a very hard time to convince the Council that the Reapers are real, while Cerberus invested astronomical sums of credits into research and development, had some brilliant scientists working for them, built a fleet and gave me amazing weapons to fight the Reapers. Cerberus supported me at every single step, while the Council and the Alliance kept their heads in the sand, unwilling to believe me even after they saw and fought Sovereign. Everything you need to contact the Illusive Man is on the omni-tool.
"I don't ask you to join Cerberus. As I said, they're assholes responsible for many atrocities. The choice is yours. I left some Cerberus access codes on the omni-tool in case you don't work with them. They'll get you access to Cerberus resources. The organization's divided into multiple independent cells which have no knowledge about other cells. Nobody will know about you. Need an access to some Alliance research outpost or to get onto the Citadel without notifying C-Secs? Need some intel, weapons, shuttles and even small vessels? Cerberus can get you anything you need. It's more complicated if you need some creds. Don't ask for more than hundred thousand creds a month and million creds a year using one access code. It's better to use other means to get money if you don't want to draw the Illusive Man's attention. I left you some information that can easily make you the richest human in the galaxy."
"In case you don't want to have anything to do with Cerberus, I've provided you with means to impersonate an Alliance Intelligence agent. Don't expect much, but it may be helpful. There isn't much more to tell you, Max. There are tons of useful information on the omni-tool. Dates, contacts and access codes. Everything I've been able to collect and to memorize. I want to highlight a few things. There are coordinates of the Shadow Broker Base. If you take it from the Shadow Broker, you'll get access to a massive intelligence network. Don't go there without a well-trained platoon. I also advise you to read up the Reymond Yu's last preprint about unexplored principles and methods of movement in space. He died before he could share it, but the preprint is still available on his personal page. A certain organization took notice of the preprint in the 2180 and soon there was a collaborative project between the Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy. They produced the first stealth frigate of the Normandy class. But what most people don't know is that the project was initiated by Cerberus and the frigate was built at the Cerberus owned shipyard. They got access to the newest turian technologies and reinforced the Alliance Navy.
"Anyway, I was glad to see Taylor and Nikita again. They died in 2178 on Torfan and I was afraid to use a year-old selfie. Fucking coward. I didn't tell them anything. You have to decide if you want to tell them. You know them better than me. I would tell you more, but I'm almost out of fucking time. Besides, you should be aware that always in motion is the future. Every word I tell you influences you and changes your future. I did it many times and things always were different. A man, who was alive, is dead. A dead woman is suddenly alive. An enemy becomes a friend. A friend becomes the greatest enemy. A butterfly flapping its wings can cause a supernova on the other side of the galaxy, Max."