Log 5
Date: 3RD OCT 2186
Location: UNNAMED BUNKER, VANCOUVER, CANADA
Predictably Udina wasn't available when I tried to reach him yesterday. I was told that he and the rest of the Council were tied up in 'emergency meetings'. It didn't take a genius to work out that they were busy with the war. I'd assumed any news from Earth would be top priority but who knows how badly other worlds have been affected? To be honest I don't see how it can be much worse than it is here but it's frustrating not to know. With all other communications cut off this QEC feels like a delicate strand of spider's web. Our last surviving link with the outside galaxy.
I finally got to speak with Udina the day after my meeting with the general. From the moment his hologram appeared in front of me I could see the anger and horror in his eyes. This wasn't the same man that had advised me for years while I was a Council Representative. Back in those days Udina had a tendency to be arrogant, demanding and abrasive. I always felt he placed reputation above all other concerns.
Don't get me wrong, he had his merits as well. He'd certainly been useful when I was on the Council; one thing you could say about Udina is he always knew how to get things done and his methods were undoubtedly effective. The trouble most people had with the man is that his work fed his reputation and his reputation fed his work. The more he looked after one the more the other looked after itself and no one (not even me) was quite sure which Udina was more concerned with. Certainly he had never been forced to chose between them. To Udina the politically wise decision was always the right decision and he seemed to show no doubt in his conviction that he was doing the right thing.
In any case over the years we'd gone from bitter rivals to having a grudging respect for one another's abilities. Not that we were ever what you would call friends but in a professional capacity I probably knew him better than anyone else. Most people thought of him as just another bureaucratic politician. The butt of endless jokes from those who only had brief dealings with him I'd wager. Most people never got to see that his attitude was just part of his determination. It made him worry constantly at every little thing that might embarrass our species in front of the galactic community (don't get me wrong there were still days when I felt like punching him again).
"Anderson I'm glad to see you're not hurt given the circumstances. I apologize for not seeing you sooner but Sheppard's arrival kept me busy for some time."
"He made it to the Citadel? Was he able to secure any help for Earth from the Council?"
Udina sighed, already looking weary.
"Normally I would advise leaving the diplomacy to me instead of a common soldier but I must admit I wasn't making much headway with the Council. Sheppard's arrival served as a catalyst that got things moving again."
"That's sounds like progress."
"Perhaps. The Council itself stonewalled both Sheppard and myself. They're too concerned with their own precious territories to join us in a united effort against the Reapers."
"But you said things are moving forward?"
"We decided to bypass the Council Representatives and speak directly to the leadership of each race. Commander Sheppard will be chairing a war summit between them assuming he can extract the Turian Primarch from their homeworld."
"Palaven?" I asked as my blood ran cold.
"The Reapers have already reached it?"
Udina nodded slowly.
"As I understand it the Turians were able to destroy several Reaper capital ships before they reached the planet and begun deploying ground troops. The attack on Earth was more severe but they have still suffered heavy losses."
It was a major blow to be told that. The Turians commanded one of the strongest, most powerful fleets in the galaxy. Alongside the Alliance (and even more so than us) they kept Citadel space secure. It seemed the Reapers were attempting to devastate the most militaristic races in the galaxy (this even extended to their first target; the Batarians). It was frightening that they could advance so quickly and so recklessly. Still I took some comfort in hearing that Asari space was still safe for now. While the Turians had the larger fleet, the Asari had the most sophisticated technology of any Council race. It seemed plausible they might be strong enough to make the enemy pause, at least momentarily.
"Do we know how the Reapers were able to penetrate our defenses so easily?"
"Our strategic analysts have been piecing together what happened for the past two days. From what I understand they bypassed the Sixth and Seventh fleets entirely before attacking Arcturus where Hackett and his fleet were waiting," Udina explained.
Some of that didn't make much sense to me but I figured I'd be better off pouring through the data myself than getting it off Udina. Not a military man by nature, he was unlikely to have spotted some of the oddities in the Reaper strategy. Besides I had much more pressing questions to ask.
"What happened at the battle? Have you heard from Admiral Hackett since?"
"I'm told the battle was a disaster. The automated defenses of Arcturus Station were still offline thanks to the saboteurs, seriously weakening our defense. Hackett managed to retreat but he was forced to sacrifice the Second fleet to give the Third and the Fifth a chance to escape."
He looked at me, pure fury radiating from his body with each word he spoke.
"The Second and Forth fleets were lost that day and Arcturus station was destroyed."
Arcturus destroyed? I had expected as much given what the situation had been last I'd heard but it was still a gut wrenching blow. I'd known several of the ministers stationed there but it occurred to me how much worse it was for Udina. He had known all of them.
"I'm sorry."
He nodded briefly, acknowledging my condolences but not even attempting to make a reply.
"With the station gone and Earth largely out of contact, the responsibility of leading humanity has fallen to me. Though Hackett will now lead all our military forces."
"I know you'll do everything you can to get us through this."
"Hackett has officially declared the Sol system off limits to all Alliance vessels. I'm afraid we won't be able to offer you or Earth any assistance at this time. It's too dangerous for us to send in any more ships for the moment."
"I understand."
"There is one more thing but before I can tell you I need to impress upon you the need for absolute secrecy. You should discuss this with no one except myself, Commander Sheppard and Admiral Hackett. Assuming you get the opportunity to speak to them again."
"You can count on that Udina. What's this about?"
"Before Sheppard departed the Sol system, Hackett ordered him to visit the Prothean Archives on Mars."
"Mars? What for?"
"He met up with a specialist there, an expert in Prothean history. For the past several months she'd been assigned to looking through the archives for anything that might be related to the Reapers."
"Months? I thought the Alliance were still denying their existence back then. Why the hell wasn't I informed about any of this?"
"It seems the project was run privately by the Admiral. I had no idea this was going on until Sheppard arrived on the Citadel."
"I take it they found something."
"A means to destroy the Reapers."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
"You're forgetting that you're the one who makes impossible claims without any proof to back it up. You and Sheppard at any rate."
"You have proof?" I asked skeptically, still struggling to wrap my head around the idea that we might have stumbled across a solution.
"After a considerable amount of digging Dr T'Soni was successfully able to locate the blueprint for a Prothean superweapon. We believe they intended to use it to destroy all the Reapers simultaneously."
"And we think that it will work?"
"It's already clear that we won't be able to destroy them by any other means at our disposal. Our scientists have studied the plans and I'm told that theoretically it is capable of producing enough energy to achieve that goal though we have yet to fully understand how it works."
"Even so, we've had access to the Archives for as long as we've had the ability to travel though space. To find something now, after all this time?"
Udina straightened up and looked me straight in the eye.
"At the very least it has given me a goal to focus on. Levying enough resources to build this device and conscripting soldiers from the colonies to buy us enough time to complete the work. Before I heard of its existence, everything I did seemed..."
'Pointless' I thought to myself. I can understand that well enough, being trapped down here. A slim hope, even a fool's hope would give some meaning to our efforts to delay the Reaper's victory.
"Yeah I hear you," I said. "I'll do the same down here on the ground. Try to hold off the Reapers as long as it takes to build this weapon."
"Very good Admiral. Now you must excuse me, my schedule has a way of catching up to me these days."
As ever he ended the call before I could say another word, typical Udina. At least he also sent through a data stream containing war updates for me to look through. In many ways reading through it was pointless (I was trapped on this planet and unable to help) but I was desperate for any news I could get. That being said, it didn't exactly make for pleasant reading.
On Earth the Reapers were wiping out our satellites from orbit and burying our nuclear missile silos. Not that the nukes were much of a threat to our new robotic overlords. I figure they just didn't want us blowing ourselves up before they were ready to harvest us. Our colonies were being hit opportunistically by the Reapers, but the damage was minimal so far. Elsewhere the news was just as grim. The Batarians had been hit first and taken the brunt of the initial assault. Their homeworld of Khar'shan was swiftly occupied and then fell into a total communications blackout, followed swiftly by the rest of their empire. The Turians were still clinging on to some parts of their home system but that was more because sheer bloody minded stubbornness than from military victories.
There was too much in the reports to write about it all here but there was one thing that did catch my eye. Apparently there's another faction in this war: Cerberus. Originally I had always assumed that they would end up working with us if the Reapers arrived, just as they had supported Sheppard's efforts against them. It made me deeply uncomfortable to consider them as allies (not that the end of days gives you much choice) but it looked like it wasn't going to be an issue.
Instead of joining the fight against extinction the Illusive Man had revealed a different agenda; take the Prothean weapon for themselves and use it to try and control the Reapers. Obviously the sheer number of potential problems that this could raise is staggering. We don't know if its possible, or even if it is whether or not the Reapers could be controlled long term (to say nothing of the morals of the man that would be controlling them). We've made some (not many) attempts to reason with them, to suggest that now is the time to regain control of the situation, not pursue insane goals but it's been a waste of time. With our goals irreconcilable, they've become a separate faction to both the Council and the Reapers. A faction quite prepared to sabotage our own efforts in order to get control of the superweapon for themselves.
Does the Illusive Man's really believe he can control the Reapers? Hard to say given we don't know enough about him to accurately predict his actions. I've seen his file and all in contains is a picture of a virtual projection of him (possibly fake), a recording of his voice from the projection (also possibly fake), his "name" (definitely fake) and a list of missions he may (or may not) have ordered. The only thing we can say for certain is that he is a smoker (because that detail is so obscure even he wouldn't fake it). For a major criminal it's an absurdly thin file and almost everything in it is based on supposition and guesswork.
The thing about Cerberus is that they are the wild card in this fight. They're unpredictable, know us much better than the Reapers do and they've gotten their hands on a whole bunch of Reaper tech to make themselves more of a threat to all sides. According to Shepard the Cerberus soldiers he fought looked more like husks than humans. It seems the Illusive Man has being using Reaper tech in his attempts to create super soldiers.
According to the reports when the Alliance captured some of these soldiers they turned out to be civilians from Eden Prime with no obvious connection to Cerberus at all. We think they may have been grabbed off the streets and implanted with control chips to ensure their loyalty. An easy means by which to replenish their ranks. What worries me is that the chaos here on Earth might give them a chance to make even more, threatening our efforts to keep the population safe. By all accounts these things are more machine than human now, incapable of free will and a danger to us all.
Having lost so much time, studying reports and looking at the war beyond Earth I turned my attention back to lending a hand where I could. Everyone is busy here; building up barricades, training civilians in combat or out scouting the perimeter watching for the next attack. It's funny how something like this brings people together and helps them focus on the task. All normal life has stopped, there's no nine to five so most people just go and see what they can do to help and there's always more things to be done in a time and place like this.
But unfortunately while we're mostly pulling together there's an ugly side to things as well. We're a mostly human population here (it is Earth afterall)with an entirely human military running the base (the Alliance is human recruits only as is the NASDF) but there are still some aliens living here too and they tend to have the hardest time of it. I saw this today when two Alliance recruits had cornered a Salarian for some reason. He was clearly distressed, almost freaking out as one of them was gripping one of the two fleshy growths (referred to as 'horns' by the Salarians) on his head. Salarians hate this being done to them, it was a common tactic of the Krogan after the Genophage to grab both and rip them apart, killing the victim. Doubtless the guards had little idea but what they were doing was tantamount to torture. I quickly moved in, my hand closing around the wrist of the arm that was holding the Salarian.
"Let go of him now or I will have you court martialed, is that clear?"
The soldier let him go and turned to face me.
"Sir, we caught him messing around with our communications equipment."
I turned to the Salarian, his skin was a deep brown with some slighter stripes on his right horn. He looked to be about twenty (which roughly equates to middle age in his species) and was still wearing a very nervous expression on his face.
"What's your name son?"
"Xi Chan, I used to be an electrical engineer before all this started."
"And is it true you were interfering with our systems?"
"I was just trying to boost its output to see if I could contact survivors further afield. I thought my efforts might be appreciated."
"He's lying sir, he could've been doing anything to that equipment. He might even be indoctrinated; afterall everyone says the Salarians are the sneakiest race in the galaxy."
"That's enough now, you sound like a pair of paranoid Krogan. The Salarians are our allies, just like everyone else on the Council and we are not going to start turning on our own. As for you," I said turning my attention back to Chan. "You need to get proper authorization before you start messing around with Alliance equipment."
"I'm sorry sir, I overheard some soldiers discussing the problem so I looked into it. I meant to talk to someone about it but I just got distracted working on it, I'm always doing that. Sorry."
"Well I don't want you working on that radio any more."
"I was just trying to help."
"I need you to work on our Quantum Entanglement Communicator, that's the priority right now. Under suitable supervision of course"
"I trust you understand the basic principals?" I added as I watched his face light up with enthusiasm at the prospect.
"You have a QEC here? That'd be much more effective for long distance communication than these radios. Of course it depends where the corresponding entangled particles are being held. I wonder if-"
He trailed off as he headed away. I hoped I'd done the right thing in letting him have access but it was a risk I felt we needed to take. Communication was the key to getting us back into this fight, if we could talk to each other, share information on the Reapers we might give other bases like this one a better chance (assuming there are any other bases still out there).
For the rest of the day I just focused on the tasks I was assigned. I'm happy enough to let the general find me things to do for the time being, as long as it's useful work and I'm able to get involved with the planning and strategizing. They haven't discussed their crazy plan to attack the Reapers with me again yet but I'm involved in meetings about the defense of the base and so on. I lend my ideas where I can but in the face of such a powerful enemy it's hard to know what to suggest. In a way it bothers me that we've been able to hold out against the Reapers so effectively (so far our defenses haven't really even been tested). I've raised my concerns with the officers here but they have quickly brushed them aside. They just don't want to hear it, frankly I don't blame them.
Later in the afternoon I managed to get some time on one of the radio's. All bad news at first but I found a signal from a couple of soldiers still alive but pinned down by enemy fire. I cast around on the different frequencies until I found a group of civilians nearby. With me giving advice via the radio they set off a distraction that gave the pinned soldiers a chance. They managed to overwhelm their attackers and led the civilians back here. I abandoned the radio so I could watch their arrival. Every life saved feels like a victory in all of this chaos.
Well that's all my news for today; the general has called a big meeting tomorrow to discuss the plan to attack the Reapers. Hopefully I'll be able to call it off that nonsense. The Reapers have a massive occupying force; our entire armada couldn't defeat them. We should be focusing on protecting who we can, not throwing ourselves at an enemy we can't stop. That's my mission now; to save as many lives as I can until help arrives. I can only pray it comes soon.