Log 7

Date: 5TH OCT 2186

Location: ALLIANCE FALLBACK SHELTER, VANCOUVER, CANADA

I'm not sure where to begin. Looking back it's hard to see why I didn't just shoot the General the second he mentioned trying to attack those Destroyers. But that's not really fair; as easy as it would be to blame this all on him I should've done more to prevent it myself. I can't believe I had the arrogance to imagine anywhere could be safe once the Reapers arrived. If you're reading this I guess you're realizing I'm not great at writing journals. I keep skipping to the end so I'll do it properly and start from the beginning.

I was tense from the moment I woke up that morning. I knew what the General was going to try and part of me couldn't help but hope he'd succeed. Luckily I still feared the worst so I'd arranged to meet Maria and Daniels early that day before the mission started. I was hoping they'd found out some intel so I could start working out how I would react to the situation. I was more than tired of being left in the dark.

"So what've you found?"

Maria started with "I may have found something. I'm not sure."

"What is it?"

"I had my detectives start looking round and try to ask some questions without raising too much suspicion. At first we didn't find much. The base has three main tunnels that lead out of the place, but if it came to an evacuation with the base under attack..."

"You'd be worried about being caught in one of the tunnels and trapped?"

"That's part of it, aye but the worst part is when we get to the surface. Those Destroyer things have been leveling all the building surrounding the base. We'd be caught in the open."

"You said you had something though?"

"Well don't get your hopes up but we think the General might have a few ships still stashed away."

"What would a ship hanger be doing in some random temporary underground base?"

"One of my officers asked about this place and it turns out it's actually an old military bunker, well most of it anyway. They've broken through into other basements and collapsed buildings to expand it."

I shook my head.

"That can't be right. I would've been informed about another military base in Vancouver."

"Oh it's ancient and a bit of a secret apparently. Supposedly it was built after the First Contact war. Alliance brass got it into their heads that Earth could be invaded, but they didn't want to worry anyone so they kept this place a secret. Crazy right?"

"Not if you were on Shanxi," Despite the years that had passed, the memories of our brief war with the Turians were still with me. As the war was our first contact with an alien race and had swiftly lead to the occupation of the human colony of Shanxi I was hardly surprised the Alliance had reacted with a little paranoia.

"OK so it's an old military base, what makes you think there are any ships still here that can still fly?"

"We've learned the general's been sending fuel and spare parts up to the old hanger."

"Spare parts? Sounds like whatever it is might still be broken. Still its the best option I've heard so far. Any idea what's in the hanger?"

"I've gotten hold of a list of some of the parts being sent there but I'm a police officer not a mechanic."

I looked back at Daniels.

"You were the mechanic for the Gunship where we found you right?"

"Yes sir, want me to take a look?"

I nodded and Maria passed him the list; he ran his eyes across it for a few moments before pointing to a particular item.

"There, that's a battery pack for an Armadillo 290. That model never caught on, but it was employed at Shanxi."

"I remember, damn birds had a tendency to fall out of the sky if you ran them for too long but they sure were fast."

"Fast enough to get us past the Reapers?" Maria asked.

"I'm not sure about that, but it's a start. Daniels, have any luck?"

"Yes sir, you're looking at the newest base mechanic. General Coberg wants me with him during the mission. Says he needs a mechanic on hand in case there's an issue with communications to the teams in the field."

More likely he wants to keep an eye on the soldier I brought back with me I thought.

"That's good, just be careful."

"I also overheard the general talking about something called phase two and if it was in position?"

"Phase two? I'm not sure what that could be. What did he say about it."

"They just confirmed the coordinates of it's current position"

"Which was?"

"That's the odd thing sir. If I heard him right it's about two miles out to sea."

I had Daniels read me out the coordinates but he was right whatever phase two was it was underwater apparently.

I put it aside for the moment so I could focus on the next job. I headed over to the operations center where the Colonel was currently in charge.

"Admiral? I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"I asked someone to look into the Quantum Entanglement Communicator. Do have any updates on how that project is going?"

"We have a small team working on it right now sir."

"Good, then I want to speak to them as soon as possible."

"Sir, isn't the assault on the Destroyers our first priority at the moment?"

"Has the General requested I be involved in his assault?"

"Uh not exactly sir no."

"Not exactly?"

"Um I think his exact words were he'd ask for a lapdance from an Elcor before he asked you for help sir."

"Which is why my priorities are slightly different."

"But you could help us, you have more experience with the Reapers."

I could see the doubts in her eyes, the hesitation. She didn't want to go against the General but she worried I was right about this plan.

"I am going to help you if I can, I can promise you that. Now please, ask the techs to come see me about the entangler. It's very important."

"Thank you sir, I'll see to it right away."

I was told Xi Chan was being kept busy but he sent his 'team' to come meet with me. The team in question turned out to be a couple of kids, apparently they were training Cadets who specialized in this technology but I swear they were young enough to be in college.

"You wanted to see us, sir?"

"Yes, this technology is our only link to the rest of the galaxy which probably makes it the most important piece of tech we have right now."

"We understand that sir."

"We need to keep this out of enemy hands at all costs so I need to know how portable this technology is. Can we move it, or duplicate it elsewhere?"

"It wouldn't be possible to duplicate this si-"

"Well we could probably reproduce the -"

"Slow down, now one of you explain."

"Sorry sir. To be accurate we might be able to create another one but we wouldn't be able to reach the stations entangled to this device."

"Stations? As in plural? I thought we could only ever contact one end point with these things."

"It's true each particle is only bound to one other at a specific end point but Admiral Hackett started an initiative to build a network using communicators containing multiple entangled particles bound to different end points."

"So where else can we reach with this thing?"

"That's the trouble sir, all the comm channels have been locked down, the idea was to stop unauthorized access from potentially indoctrinated agents."

"Is there no way to access the locked channels?"

"We have managed to decrypt some of the channels but so far we haven't been able to reach anyone on any channel except the Citadel one."

"Is the device damaged in some way?"

"No sir, we believe the issue may be at the other end. Since we don't know which channels we're hacking we could easily be accessing-"

"Channels for places already overrun by the Reapers, I see. Is there any way we can find out which channel we're hacking ahead of time?"

"They all have an identification code sir but we've lost all the databases telling us what those codes mean. The Reapers have basically wiped out a lot of the information we once knew."

"Aren't there backups?"

"The backups were stored on Arcturus Station sir."

"I see, well let me take a look."

"Sir I don't think-"

"That was an order Cadet -"

"Monroe, James Monroe and this is Sarah uh- Cadet Smith I mean. We'll show you right away sir."

It took a long time for the techs to find and load up the codes. Part of me wondered why I was spending so much time on this, but I had a hunch that this technology might just be our edge. I've been thinking a lot about that lately, what sort of edge or advantage we might have over the races that came before us. They all fought the Reapers and every single time, every species that came along lost the war.

This cycle has already been slightly different, we managed to delay the invasion by about three years by stopping Sovereign. We prevented the Reapers from tearing through the Citadel or catching us by surprise (sort of). I can't help looking closely at every advance we've made in the last three years (such as the QEC's). It's time we never should've had, time no one who came before us was ever given. Maybe it'll be enough, maybe it'll give us a chance if we fight for it hard enough. In any case the Cadets finally got hold of the codes and we spent some time pouring through them. The codes were long complex and seemingly meaningless at first but I felt sure that something about them was familiar. Eventually after a period of mind numbing staring at the codes I finally saw it.

"There, that's what I spotted at first."

"What is it, sir?"

"Commander Yeldman's Alliance record number. It's embedded in the middle of this code."

"Are you sure sir?"

"Certain, he got so many official reprimands I found myself looking at his record more times than I can remember. He was eventually transferred to Arcturus Station."

"They must embed the ID of whoever the channel contacts within the code. We already hacked this one and got no response though."

"If this channel links back to Arcturus that's not surprising. Let me take a look at some more, see if we can identify some priority channels to unlock."

"Right away sir."

The next few minutes were a flurry of excitement in the base as word started to get out. Several more officers soon joined us and started hunting through the codes for anyone they recognized who might still be alive. I think I'll remember that time as the first moment I felt hope again since the arrival of the Reapers. People were starting to crowd round hoping to get a chance to get some news from the world outside our base. There was a big cheer when someone finally spotted Hackett's ID on one of the comm channel codes. The military personnel here had plenty of family they knew were serving in the Fifth Fleet. I thought that one was going to be the pick of the draw and was about to order the Cadets to start hacking that channel when I got an even bigger surprise.

"Admiral we've found your channel." One of the officers said laughing.

"Mine?" I went over to take a look and sure enough there was my own ID number.

"So I guess that leads back to an entanglement device in the Homeworld Defense Division building sir?"

"No I never had a communicator set up there, it was only a temporary post until I -"

I stood up sharply having just realized the implications. "I was going to take the SSV Normandy as my flagship, maybe that's where this one is pointed?"

The Cadets still in the corner started nodding. "Yes that makes sense, we were assigned to help Specialist Traynor with retrofits to the Normandy that included a large quantum entanglement communication network."

"In other words this channel would let us contact Commander Shepard."

The room went silent just at the mention of his name, to everyone else present he was just a legend. But they all knew that he'd once served under my command. I realized that Commander Sheppard had become a symbol to these people, one that I could use.

"I know you must have lots of questions but I'll have to keep this brief for now. Some of you may have heard that Shepard was a criminal or that he'd gone crazy when he warned us about the Reapers for the first time. Well... you only have to take a look outside to see he wasn't crazy. Everything he warned us about is true." I began by saying but they needed more than restored faith in an icon. They needed hope.

"When I chose to stay behind and fight I sent him to the Citadel to get help. To bring back as many allied fleets as he could and take back our home. But until that day comes our duty is to hold out, to save as many lives as possible so we have something to come back to when this is all over. I know General Coberg has other ideas, that he and his men are busy right now preparing their attack. I won't try to stand in his way right now but there may come a time when I need to take command. I hope I'll have your support in that as you all have mine. In the meantime we'll do everything we can to try and establish contact on the other channels and maybe get word to your loved ones. Dismissed."

The gathered officers, troops and civilians all filed out and I was left standing with the two Cadets again.

"You know you never answered my original question. Can we move this thing if we have to?"

"The only important component is the Quantum Hub that stores the entangled particles sir, if we removed that we could transport it easily. We'd just need to find another standard communication platform somewhere to plug it into."

"Good work, start by hacking the comm channel to Admiral Hackett and then the one to the Normandy."

"At once Admiral, but can I just ask why we're expecting to have to move this thing? Are we going somewhere sir?"

"Just focus on your work for now Cadet."

I headed away, we'd made some good progress here but it was time to monitor the General's attack. Far as I could see he was about to kick the hornet's nest and bring the whole mess down on top of us. Since I couldn't stop Coberg from launching his attack it wasn't a case of if we were going to have to run but when. No point scaring the techs with talk like that though. Right now I needed to know what was happening outside.

I hurried through the crowded corridors looking for Maria or Daniels but couldn't spot them. Eventually a burly man beckoned me over, looked to be civilian not military but I headed over anyway. Without speaking he lead me round the corner to a deserted corridor.

"Right then, let's get started. We don't have much time."

"What?" I turned round confused and slightly concerned that this could be one of the general's men.

"Maria said you'd want to monitor the progress of the mission."

"You're one of her men?"

"Her deputy actually, the name's James. James Burges not that it matters. Anyways if we set up in one of the offices near here we can get an idea of what's going on."

I let him lead the way and we headed up into the derelict office block adjoining the base.

"So where are the others right now?"

"Maria's in barracks complex B with most of the refugees we've taken into the base and the rest of her men. If the Reapers start to get interested in the base she'll lead them out before things start to get heavy. Private Daniels is with the General now, he's managed to link up a feed so we'll be able to see and hear the same info the General's getting."

"That's good work, looks like we're all set for the mission. It's due to commence in just over an hour."

Burges shook his head. "More like five minutes actually, Coberg brought the schedule forward."

"Of course he did. Well let's see what he's getting us all into then."

Burges activated the monitors and we started to see video from two feeds; one for the distraction team the other for the main assault force. Both teams appeared to already be outside maneuvering through the ruins of what used to be Vancouver. It was eerily quiet now, no longer the war zone it had been a few days ago. Evidently the Reapers had succeeded in their efforts to comb through this area of the city; stripping it bare of both resources and people.

The Makos from both teams slowly crawled towards their objectives, as I'd predicted the rough terrain was making it impossible to move quickly (not that it actually stopped them either. I swear Makos could drive up the sides of the buildings if they had to). As the infiltration team reached the peak of a pile of debris the first of the Reapers came into view. They would need to move it into position so that the strike force could-. Well it didn't happen that way, they'd just gotten within sight of the Reaper when alarms started going off throughout the compound.

"What is it?"

"Unauthorized transmission." Burges replied, urgently scanning the feeds. "Someone sent some co-ordinates from a secure terminal. I don't understand, why would anyone-"

"What do you mean? What co-ordinates?"

"For the assault teams. Someone just sent their position directly to the Reapers!"

"Goddammit! There must be an indoctrinated agent within the base. Can you find out where the signal was sent from? Or who sent it?"

"No, the command was routed through the main operations center but I can't tell if that's where it originated from."

It wasn't long before we saw the first Reaper beam, shooting across the feed and hitting one of the Makos from the main assault force. The armored truck was thrown into the air like a toy then the whole screen went red just before the feed cut out.

"Daniels, are you there, do you copy?"

At first there was only silence and static then what sounded like shouting on the other end of the line. Looking at the remaining monitors that still showed an image of the battle it wasn't hard to see why everyone might be busy over there. We waited a few more minutes, unable to make sense of the sounds of arguing and general commotion we were hearing, it was coming though too quietly to make out what was being said but I gathered panic was setting in. I was about to give up on the comm when Daniels voice finally came through.

"I'm here Admiral, looks like everyone's too busy to overhear us right now. What are your orders, sir?"

"The Reapers wouldn't waste a good ambush like this, bring up the feeds for the main entrance to the compound."

"Aye sir"

A few moments later the feed appeared on my screen and the sight of it felt like a kick in the guts. I'd expected the Reapers to try another assault while our troops were elsewhere but nothing on the scale we were now seeing. I saw several hulking shapes lumbering forward. They walked like gorillas I guess, hunched over, fists dragging along the ground most of the time but they were two maybe three times the size, their skin an abhorrent mix of metal and flesh. I've still no idea what they are or how the Reapers made them.

I saw a soldier try to use the mounted turret against one of these new monster. The creature simply charged through, ignoring the damage it took. When it reach the barricade it lifted him off the ground and ripped his arms out of their sockets, leaving a bodied corpse for the Cannibals. And all along the line the story was the same, these Brutes took the brunt of the attacks as they approached our defenses. Then the Husks and Cannibals climbed over them in an endless wave, butchering everyone too slow to get away.

Burges swore at the screen at looked back towards the open door behind us. It was clear he was thinking of running but I only shook my head briefly to indicate I thought it was a bad idea. If he decided to go I wouldn't try to stop him or blame him for his actions. Not given the massacre being played out on the monitors in front of us.

"Sir? What are your orders?" Daniels had clearly been watching the feed as well, I could hear the panic rising in his voice.

"Warn them and then get yourself out of there Daniels. Go and secure the Quantum Entanglement tech. Get it on a ship headed out of here."

I ended the connection and immediately called up Maria.

"Anderson, are you there? What's going on? We've heard alarms, gunfire even. The people down here are terrified."

"Someone sold us out or has been indoctrinated. The Reapers have got a new kind of soldier. Massive Brutes that are overwhelming our outer defenses. You need to get the civilians on to those ships and to out of here. Start a full evac; this compound has been compromised."

"How are the hell are those ships going to make it past those walking death machines out there?"

"I think I may have an idea. Focus on getting the civilians onto the transports but don't take off unless I give the word. Or if the Reapers reach your position."

Burges turned to me. "What do we do?"

"I have an idea. Half of one at least. The general and his staff kept talking about a 'phase two'. I got the impression it might be able to get us out of this mess."

"But you don't know what it is?"

"I'm heading to the command center to find out."

"But the traitor or indoctrinated agent or whatever we're meant to call them, they might still be in there."

I paused for a moment. "It's a possibility. Mind watching my back for me on this one?"

He looked like he was going to be physically sick at the suggestion. I'm sure he'd seen a lot in his time as a cop but even then he wasn't even halfway prepared to face this invasion of monsters. I felt a momentary surge of even greater hatred toward the Reapers.

This man had dedicated his life to serving others with courage and integrity. If the Reapers had never come he would have lived his life a proud local hero and never have to wear this expression of shame as he contemplated running away. He had nothing to be ashamed of, this was something he should never have had to face. To my surprise just as I was about to suggest he head back to Maria instead he nodded his agreement.

"We'll try to avoid the worst of the fighting," I promised

We headed back into the main military complex again. We saw a column of soldiers rushing towards the nearest tunnel entrance. Again I felt the familiar pang of guilt as I turned away and headed for the command center. Those men were going try and hold the tunnels against the Reapers. They were going to fight and probably most of them were going to die just to buy us some more time to evacuate. I understood why what I was doing was more important, if those Reaper Destroyers weren't stopped none of us were getting out of here alive, but I couldn't help hating myself for not fighting alongside those men.

I spent most of my military career as a front line soldier, in the trenches at Shanxi, flying missions as captain of the Normandy. I thought of myself as a fighter but every promotion had taken me further away from it. From soldier to captain to Councilor and Admiral. I'd stayed on Earth so that I could fight the good fight; to be a soldier again but now I realize I can never again be what I once was. I see now it wasn't just the promotions, I have changed. Seasoned might be the right word for it I guess. I've come to understand the importance of thinking before you jump in. I'm just not sure I've worked out how to live with it yet.

When we neared the command center we found Colonel Travis hurrying away in the opposite direction.

"What's going on Colonel, why aren't you at your post?"

"The command center has been abandoned, I was the last one out sir."

"And the General?"

"He went with his personal guard to fortify the position at the main entrance."

"How bad is the situation?"

"So far the tunnels haven't fallen, the bottleneck is still keeping them at bay but I doubt it will last much longer, we've also had reports of Reaper forces spread out inside the base, we think they got in by tunneling through from some of the adjacent buildings."

"And up top? Are the destroyers still active up there?"

"The assault force managed to disable one of the Reaper Destroyers before they were wiped out. The other two are now positioned directly next to the compound."

"So if we try to get out using the ships in the hangar they'll just shoot us down?"

"How did you know ab-"

"Nevermind that, just let me know if those ships are still operational."

"Only about half are still working at the moment but their kinetic barriers won't withstand Reaper fire."

"Huh no kidding. Which why you'd better tell me about phase two."

"The General said that was classified."

"And by now he's probably dead. Unless we we all want to join him I need to know what phase two is."

"Phase two relates to the second part of our plan to attack the Reapers, once the Makos had destroyed the first wave, we were going to deploy this weapon to surprise the second wave."

"And what was this weapon? I know it's under water, is it a missile silo or something?"

"It's a fleet of Arcadia class submarines that we're still in radio contact with. They are carrying large versions of the experimental Thanix Cannons."

"All of them?" I have to admit a certain among of surprise. Thanix Cannons are based on Reaper tech salvaged from Sovereign. It's one of the few weapons we have that even slightly affects the Reapers.

"Well that would certainly have given the Reapers a nasty shock."

"But it's a one shot deal sir. After they subs open fire they'll have to dive and scatter to stop the Reapers from finding them. They'll go dark so we'll get no more radio contact from them."

"Well there's nothing worse than having a weapon that you're too dead to use. Call in the strike Colonel, hopefully we'll all be long gone by the time Reaper reinforcements arrive."

"I can't do that sir."

"Colonel-"

"Whoever sent the transmission to the Reapers sabotaged all communication systems immediately afterward. All the consoles in there are dead now."

"But they're just the end terminals, the physical equipment was stored elsewhere in the base. Would it be possible to manually send a message if we got to it?"

It's all down in the communications room on the level below us. It won't be easy to reach it now, they are already Reapers in that area. Even if you got it to work the Reapers will definitely detect the signal as soon as we send it."

"Hopefully the Destroyers won't live long enough to do anything about it."

"The Destroyers maybe but the ground troops will be on our back."

"We'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

The colonel nodded vaguely and started to hurry down the corridor, I think she understood the sentiment in any case. Luckily there was an armory close to the command center full of scavenged armor and weaponry, we grabbed whatever was closest and pressed on. We probably looked a bit strange in that odd mismatch of gear but at this stage I really didn't care. We didn't meet any resistance until we reached the elevator down towards the East Wing. As we called it up one of those Brutes was in there waiting for us, it almost filled the entire space, crammed in. As it started climbing out of the lift so it could rip us apart we decided the stairs might be easier. Good thing to note about the Brutes through is that they're slow. We managed to head back kick down the door to the staircase and race down the steps leaving it in our dust.

A single Marauder barred our path as we headed on. A few steps above it I was able to give it a swift boot to the face to knock it down and then jumped down and used my omniblade to finish it. The East Wing was connected to the surface by one of the tunnels that had been under siege. It was pretty clear that by now East Wing would be overrun but we had to find a path through. We came out of a corridor and saw a firefight ahead. A bunch of Cannibals had a group of Alliance soldiers pinned down but they hadn't seem us yet. We came up behind the Cannibals and a quick grenade helped up remove them. The soldiers headed up towards and their leader, a lieutenant I think saluted me.

"Glad to see you made it in one piece sir, thanks for the assist. The radio transmitter is down that way," The soldier pointed to a side door. "Sounds like your man is encountering a lot of Reapers down that way, we'll stick to holding this corridor as your escape route sir."

"Sorry? My man?"

"Sir? He showed up saying he worked for you and that you'd need access to the transmitter."

"Very well, hold this position, we should be returning shortly"

We headed in the direction the lieutenant had indicated but I was still bewildered by this development. Who had he been talking about? No one knew I was after the transmitter... Unless it was one of the General's men, he might've suspected I'd learn about phase two and known I'd need the transmitter. Still didn't make much sense though, I wasn't sure what game he was playing right now.

As we moved forward we could see the lieutenant had been right about the Reaper presence, there were clear signs of battle and bodies of Reaper foot soldiers. There was red blood spilled here too, human blood, who ever had fought their way through before us had clearly been injured in the process. As we approached the transmitter room we heard loud crashes and a low roaring sound. We entered to find a Brute standing over a man who was lying flat on his back. Well that was no good at this rate he'd be squashed before I could ask him any questions.

We moved in on the monster peppering its massive back with fire from our assault rifles as we charged but it seemed to have little effect on the behemoth. It swung round with one arm aimed at knocking us flying but I grabbed Burges and dragged him to the ground. He got squirmed out of my grip and got back up, opening fire at the creature's chest. I didn't even see the Brutes other fist come round but I felt it pass over my head before smacking into Burges's chest and knocking him against the far wall. The creature turned towards me and I raised my gun thinking I would go out fighting when the creature stumbled and almost fell on top of me. The unknown strange had put a shotgun to the back of it's right knee and blown the joint apart. Still the Brute still focused on reaching me as if nothing else mattered. It crawled across the ground towards me as I scrambled to get away, then the stranger put the shotgun to its head and ended it.

"Sir? Are you alright?"

"Daniels? What the hell are you doing here? I told you to get the QEC and go."

"It's secured sir, but I heard about phase two from the general and thought I should come here."

"That's... Quick thinking there Private, well done. Thanks for the help just now."

I went to check on Burges who was still slumped in the corner where the blow had left him. His neck had been broken by the force of the impact. I closed his eyes and then turned back towards Daniels.

"Where's that damn transmitter? We need to get that message out now. Too many lives have been lost today already."

Daniels nodded slowly as if distracted but didn't move at first, his expression unreadable. I realised he was looking at Burges body, probably one of the first corpses he'd come in contact with while still conscious.

"I know," I said quietly. "But we have to get moving, there are people counting on us."

"Oh. Right. Yes Admiral, right this way," Daniels said as he came out of his daze and led me the rest of the way to the communications room.

The equipment was undamaged and fortunately it didn't take us long to get the signal out but we had no way of knowing if it had been received and even if it was that the order would be obeyed. Those subs would probably be able to get away before the Reapers regrouped and went after them but it would still be a risk for them. There was nothing I could do but pray they'd come to our aid in our hour of need.

With nothing more that we could do here I gave the order to evacuate the base. As we returned to the soldiers we'd left to hold the position we found them in another firefight against a dozen Marauders. This was seriously bad news, the Marauders were clearly capable soldiers, equipped with personal shields and assault rifles. I grabbed Daniel's shotgun and put both barrels in the chest of one attempting to charge us and it went down.

All eyes then turned on me and the Marauders stopped firing at us, instead simply staring at me intently. We stood, all of us frozen, wondering what was about to happen and then one of the lead Marauders suddenly collapsed dropping to its knees. The creature shrieked in pain, writhing on the ground in agony like it was possessed. When it looked up I saw that it was.

"Assuming direct control."

The voice seemed to come from everywhere, deep and hollow and filled with power. I'd heard of this before, a Reaper was using this creature as a puppet.

"Admiral David Anderson, Alliance, Formerly the Human Representative on the Citadel Council. Rejected candidate for the Special Tactics and Recon Division."

Well he or it or whatever had certainly done its homework on me.

"Harbinger I presume? This trick of yours isn't new to me. I know you used it to speak to Sheppard."

"Harbinger. One of the many names I have been given by races attempting to comprehend their inevitable destruction. In the end such labels are meaningless."

So, the leader of the Reapers wanted to speak to me, this was certainly unexpected. Just as Sheppard had described to me I felt an aura of power and arrogance around him. We aren't exactly chatty with the Reapers but Harbinger isn't the first that's communicated with us. Sovereign was confident, prideful even but not actively hostile or aggressive (it did try to kill us but it's attitude seemed to indicate it was simply a duty it needed to perform). Harbinger has always been different in many ways. It's larger than the others, more powerful and seems to bare real malice against us. All in all not the sort of 'person' you want to get the attention of.

"How do you know who I am?" As I tried to keep Harbinger distracted I signaled the troops to fall back, this wasn't a battle we'd be able to win.

"The creature you called Saren shared much knowledge with us. We wish to understand your failure."

"What failure? I don't understand."

"You failed on the path where the Shepard succeeded. We must understand the nature of our enemy."

"Why the hell d'you think I'd help you?"

"You are trying to save these creatures, small things of flesh that wither and die. We can make them immortal."

"Immortality? From you? I think they'd rather die."

"Then you will watch them perish, all of them, day after day until you submit."

"But you won't kill me? Not until you get this information on Shepard?"

"You will tell us what we wish to know."

"Well thanks for confirming that." I said and switched my shields off.

"Everyone get behind me and run, don't let them get a clear shot at you."

The troops fled and I stood my ground letting them get a head start on the Reaper forces. In the spur of the moment I realized I wasn't entirely sure I was going to get out of this myself. The Reapers seemed to notice this issue as well and started moving towards me, keen to grab their prize. They didn't get far before a massive crash knocked everyone to the floor. As I hit the ground the heavy pounding continued and I grinned to myself, imagining each blow as it struck the Destroyers above us. With any luck 'phase two' had just done its work, but that meant I needed to get going. The window for my escape (i.e. Before more Reapers showed up) would be small.

When the smoke and debris cleared, Harbinger's Marauder was one of the few still left standing but it probably shouldn't have been. It was badly injured, one arm broken, the left side of its head caved in from the force of its collision with the wall. But still it remained standing, its controller not feeling or caring for the creature's pain.

"You have gained nothing here. This victory only sows the seeds of your inevitable defeat."

I remained silent and we stared at each other for a moment before I turned and fled, leaving a grenade behind to discourage pursuit.

I don't really have time to recount the rest of the fight through the base in detail. My team fought well, taking on swarms of Husks, Cannibals and even a Brute or two. We didn't lose anyone but it was a tough fight and not many of us came through unmarked. When we reached there were still several ships left, more than I expected really. We found the Colonel there with a few men and a makeshift monitoring station.

"What are you still doing here Colonel, I'd have thought you'd have taken a shuttle by now."

"Actually I asked them to wait behind for you, Admiral."

"Xi Chan? You're still here? I sent Daniels to evac you and the other techs as soon as this started, where are they?"

"Cadets Monroe and Smith are already on an evac shuttle along with the QEC, sir."

"Then why did you stay behind?"

"I've designed a short range communicator to interface with the QEC, for your personal use sir. You'll need me with you to operate it."

"Very... Uh very forward thinking of you Xi Chan, thank you. But there's one other thing."

"Sir?"

"Can you rig up something that can broadcast a signal to the rest of the city?"

"What should it say?"

"Warn them that the Reapers will return soon enough, bringing retribution for the Destroyers we killed. Tell them to get out if they can, anyone that stays..." I didn't finish the sentence, I didn't need to.

"I can probably set something up once we're on the shuttle," Xi Chan promised.

"Okay good. In the meantime wait here, I expect we'll be ready to go soon."

I turned back towards the Colonel.

"Why are there so many ships left, is the evac not complete yet?"

"We found a civilian woman organizing the evac by the time we arrived, said her name was-"

"Maria, yes I asked her to start getting people out, where is she now?"

"She went back to North Wing to get the last group of refugees. And-"

"And what?"

She pointed to a monitor and I saw the video feeds again. More than half the cameras were gone by now, Reaper forces could be seen in every single video by now, all over the base. Then I saw North Wing itself, the survivors were grouped in the main hall there was maybe twenty or thirty fighters still standing but what they were up against...

The rest of the hall was filled with Reaper troops, there were no gaps between them, no way of distinguishing between them any more. It was just a wall of metal and gray flesh, pressing against the fighters so close in places that they were forced to fight hand to hand. For a moment I thought I saw Maria, fighting side by side with the General but then there was shift in the crowd and they vanished from view. I scanned the other feeds but there was no one else left.

"Shut it down."

"What?"

"I said shut it down, we're leaving."

"But those people, I thought you could-"

"I can't save them, don't make this any harder Colonel, that's an order. Are the skies clear of Reapers?"

"Yes phase two did its work."

"Then we go now, the Reapers have identified me as a priority target. If we wait any longer the Reapers will send reinforcements and we will all die."

I hate myself for those words but I promised myself that this would be an honest record of events on earth. If you're reading this from the next cycle, if we failed and you're facing the Reapers, I hope this helps you understand the hard choices you're about to face. I hope it helps you succeed where I think we're going to fail.

I shouldn't think that way but right now I'm on one of the shuttles, looking back at what used to be the city of Vancouver behind us. We were the last shuttle out, behind us there are no signs of life left. Beyond any doubt I know this city is finished and I don't know if it will ever rise again.

I've seen this view of Vancouver a dozen times over, it used to be so beautiful, the way the clear blue river snaked its way through the city with the mountains rising up behind it. Even the high rise buildings had a certain pleasing aesthetic in the way the light reflected off them each morning. Now most of those buildings are flattened (some of them crushed by the Reapers as they died no doubt, I can still still their broken corpses strewn out atop the rubble).

If I use my binoculars I can still see the Husks on the remaining buildings. They look like ants, the way they swarm over the buildings, there must be tens of thousands of them at least. There are fires burning everywhere and the river looks like a spaceship scrapyard, full of half sunken wrecks.

Shepard I hope you can bring help soon because looking at the way the Reapers consumed this city one thing is abundantly clear. We can't do this alone.