Log 1
Date: 29TH SEPT 2186
Location: ALLIANCE HDD COMMAND CENTER, VANCOUVER, CANADA
I've never really been one for diary entries or writing books (hell you should see the state of my paperwork) but ever since I got roped into that biography deal I've seen how it can be useful to get your thoughts down on paper (or rather a data pad). I'm hoping I'll spot something by doing this, some detail about this whole thing that I overlooked in the past. Because if I don't find something we might all be dead soon.
Huh, that probably comes off as a little dramatic, particularly given my comfortable surroundings. I'm currently sitting in my private quarters in the main command center of the Alliance HDD (Homeworld Defense Division). The comfortable bed in the corner and steaming mug of coffee on the desk don't exactly suggest a man preparing for the coming apocalypse. Probably best if I start from the beginning then, so here's the headline:we have an enemy. By we I mean everybody, every man, woman and child from every sentient species still living as I write these words. If the enemy hasn't been stopped by the time you read this, then you're their enemy as well and they are coming for you. The only name we have for them is Reapers, literally a race that only kills and harvests. They harvest entire civilizations; destroying them so completely that the slate is wiped clean, the memory of their existence is lost forever. Then they disappear again and wait for the next crop, the next civilization to destroy. A cycle of slaughter that has played out thousands of times across millions of years. I first saw one of their kind on Eden Prime and the memory still haunts me.
As you read these words you might believe that the Reapers are fictional as so many have done in the past. Your government may have told you that they don't exist but they're probably lying. You might think you've never encountered anything to do with them in your life but you're probably wrong. At the time this is being written almost every sentient race in the galaxy is using technology based on things built by the Reapers. Things like the Mass Relays, massively powerful Mass Effect generators capable of flinging ships clear across the galaxy. The Reapers created a vast network of Relays to connect the whole galaxy together and then left them for us to find. They also left us the Citadel, a massive, virtually indestructible space station that we took as the center of government for the galaxy. I'm describing these things in detail so that anyone who reads this in the future will recognize what I'm talking about. If you're part of a spacefaring race, you've almost certainly made use of both, as every civilization before mine has done in the past.
At this point you might well ask why the Reapers do this. Why help us build ourselves up only to tear us down again when the time is right? Why destroy one civilization after another in an endless cycle? What is the point of the Harvest? What to they gain from this slaughter? To those questions I don't have any answer. In fact I suspect it's something I may never know. But I do understand the strategy involved if nothing else. We weren't left these gifts to help us but to make ourselves predictable, to allow the Reapers to control our development. We have advanced into space travel using their technology but barely understand how it works. We have become so dependent on it that we became blind to the threat until it was too late. The Reapers do not hand out gifts, only traps.
I've urged the Citadel Council to investigate the possibility that the disturbing claims made by Commander Sheppard and several others about the Reapers are correct. I've campaigned using every resource at my disposal. Tried to convince them that even just a discrete investigation to root out the remote possibility that this threat is real, was in our best interests. When that failed, I tried to get permission to examine the technology they left behind (I didn't put it that way to them though). The Relays are simple to use but have thus far proven impossible to examine properly. The hull of each Relay is made from an unidentified yet incredibly durable material. Able to resist both scans and weapons fire with ease. Worse yet there is a fear that being too aggressive might 'break' a Relay in someway that couldn't be repaired, costing us a vital link between star systems. With no profit to be found in examining the Relays, no one is prepared to even try.
As for the Citadel itself? We wouldn't even be able to use such a complicated example of alien technology if not for the fact it conveniently comes with its own specially made support staff that we now call the 'Keepers'. A quiet curious race that are only found to live aboard the Citadel, they maintain the station and run its basic functions for us. Part organic, part machine they were discovered on-board the station when the Asari first discovered it and immediately started helping them to use the Citadel without question and without being asked (in fact we have never been able to communicate with them directly. They simply anticipate our needs).
The Keepers can't be removed from the station without killing them. If they are killed they are instantly replaced but no one knows how or where the replacement comes from. If you try to interfere with a Keeper it self destructs. They are the only ones that know how the Citadel really works and we are completely dependent on them to run our center of galactic government. Even as I write these words now, I realize just how crazy the situation must sound to anyone who has not seen it for themselves but most people here have simply learned to accept it. They crawl around the station with impunity and we treat them as invisible. Just one more example of the insidious way the Reapers' influence spreads through our lives. It's everywhere and yet seemingly leaves no trace of real evidence for us to look at. The only remaining lead I have is the vision Sheppard received from a Prothean Beacon.
That reminds me, I should go down to the labs in the morning and speak with the techs again, I've been chasing them to find some evidence that the Beacon was responsible for Shepard's vision. I'm not in any doubt of that myself but what I need is proof that I can take to the Council. That's what I'm looking for when writing this thing really, some clue as to where I can find the evidence that I need to open everyone's eyes.
The Reapers are coming and yet the Council, the Alliance and damn near everyone else just sits on their hands pretending it's not happening. The Council is the worst; they've dismissed the threat from day one, discrediting anyone who tries to speak out, just so they don't have to face the truth. I don't know how much time we have left but I'm sure it isn't long. I don't sleep easy most nights, I lie awake in bed worrying that I am failing in my task, that millions will suffer because of it.
But how do I know that this threat is real? What makes me different to the billions of sheep that accept the Council's explanations? The simplest reason is that I've seen a Reaper in person and that memory continues to terrify me. But in truth that doesn't make me so different from the rest of the galaxy. It wasn't long after that encounter that the Reaper in question, Sovereign launched an attack on the Citadel. Supported by its Geth allies and the rogue Spectre agent Saren it almost succeeded in its objective: unlocking a secret Mass Relay on the Citadel to allow the entire Reaper fleet to instantly transport themselves here (A Relay I might add, that we had no idea even existed until that moment. So you can probably see my point about the disadvantages of relying on tech you don't understand).
That day we saw what even a single Reaper is capable of. We threw a fleet of ships at it and still it endured, burning everything in sight. As unlikely as it sounds (for a battle so huge) we only won that day because of the actions of one man; Commander Sheppard. To achieve its objective Sovereign was reliant on Saren to operate the controls on the Citadel. When Saren was killed it was left with no choice but to take direct control of his corpse via his implants and fight a final, desperate battle against the Commander for control of the station. This proved to be a catastrophic mistake, the battle on the ground causing a feedback loop that disabled the Reaper and enabled us to destroy it. The Relay on the Citadel remained locked and the Reapers were left to make the vast journey back to our galaxy using only their conventional means of propulsion.
Naturally everyone of importance in the galaxy saw or heard about that event. The extranet was quickly flooded with reports of the Commander's heroism. At least for the first few weeks he was heralded as the savior of the Citadel. But as Sheppard and I tried to translate that rhetoric into funding to face the threat the politicians quickly lost interest. It wasn't even the money so much as the fear, the mass panic that would be caused by admitting to the existence of a galactic threat. So they quietly shelved the idea, convincing themselves that the Geth and Saren had been responsible and that Sovereign itself was no more than a Geth flagship (though if the Geth had been capable of building ships like that they would have destroyed us easily).
After that successful mission Sheppard was sent off to wipe out the remaining Geth on our side of the Perseus Veil. It was seen as a cleanup task, a simple means of getting the Commander out of the way while they slowly destroyed his reputation. Six months into the mission the Normandy was attacked by a Collector vessel (The Collectors are an isolated, non council race which are incredibly secretive about virtually every aspect of their species). The ship was destroyed and its captain presumed K.I.A. Many politicians assumed that was the end of that until he showed up two years later alongside Cerberus, claiming that they had saved him. He worked with them as long as he could, using their resources to lead a campaign against the Collectors (who he believed to be servants of the Reapers ). Unable to help (for complicated reasons) the rest of us watched from the sidelines hoping that something would bring him back into the fold.
Unfortunately when that happened it was because of a tragedy. According to Commander Sheppard the Reapers were on the brink of invading the Batarian Bahak system. In an act of desperation the system's Mass Relay was destroyed to prevent the Reapers from jumping to the next system and beginning the invasion in earnest. But the Relay explosion released enough energy to devastate the entire system (not that anyone living there would have survived for long once the Reapers arrived en masse). Needless to say the collateral damage was catastrophic and the Batarians were furious.
Afterwards Sheppard did everything right. After dropping off most of his crew he promptly turned himself in so that he could face the consequences of his actions. There was a trial of sorts and he ended up in jail (of sorts), all in the name of appeasing the Batarians. We hoped that might be enough to avoid a war but it looks like we were wrong. We've recently received reports of massive fleet movements from Batarian space all flooding into Council and Alliance territory. We've received no official declaration of war but neither do we really expect to. All our analysts are telling us that the Batarians wouldn't issue any official declarations until after the first wave of attacks. They prefer hit and run style attacks, relying on dirty tricks and terror tactics to win their wars. If they follow their usual strategy then they'll send agents to plant bombs in our colonies or assassinate key figures in government. So it looks like for all intents and purposes we are at war now. Damn, I knew all too well how angry they were but I thought we were making progress in our negotiations. Shows how little I understand Batarians I guess. Now every ship they have is being sent out without warning.
And while we prepare to fight the entire Batarian Hegemony the Reapers are still on their way. Right now I almost wish they'd arrive. Once they do show up it won't take long for everyone to see we have to fight together if we want to have a hope of surviving. That said I often fear that the longer it takes for us to unite the worse our chances will be. That's why I'm sitting here working on this, if I can find some evidence of the Reapers existence maybe we can convince the Batarians that we need to be working together now not fighting one another. It's an act of desperation, the Batarians have hated Humanity ever since we arrived on the galactic stage and I question if anything I can say would convince them to call off this attack. But we will all have to stand side-by-side when the Reapers finally do get here or we will all fall separately. Assuming we haven't all killed each other by then in this pointless goddamn war.
I'm going to stop writing for now, I've rambled on long enough and I'm being called by the defense committee anyway. Apparently there's some issue at Arcturus Station, the center of the Alliance parliament. Not sure what could be so damn important its worth calling me back at this late hour unless…
Oh god no, I hope I'm wrong.