Log 15

Date: 25TH OCT 2186

Location: SEATTLE RUINS, WASHINGTON, USA

As I pointed out the next day despite the progress we'd made on our attack plan we still had some issues to figure out. First and foremost of course was how to sneak an Asari into the base. The Reaper agent we planned to fool might be almost brain dead but even then I suspected he might notice the 'human' he was bringing in was blue. Not to mention that she would accompanied by several members of her crew included two other Asari and Karlakh, the Drell I had encountered in their ship. Fortunately they were all humanoid species whose outline more or less matched that of a human but as I said three of them were blue and one (the Drell) was an almost luminescent green.

We did our best on that problem, dressed them in bulky hooded clothes and gloves that would hide most of their skin. To be honest with winter moving in, it wasn't so far off what we'd seen survivors of the destruction of Seattle wearing (well where d'you think we got the clothes anyway? Don't worry we didn't leave anyone without any).

For their faces we did the best we could with some skin tone blusher(easier to get hold of than you might think, there were plenty of abandoned homes in the area). It was fairly hopeless, certainly wouldn't fool any of us for a second but we just had to hope that this agent would be too confused to notice. Luckily we didn't have to worry about his guards. Not exactly sure what the Reapers do to them but Husks don't appear to have any sign of sentience left.

The next issue which I resented slightly was me. When we had drawn up the plan I had announced my intention to personally command the main assault. Again the question of my face potentially causing Harbinger to pay us another visit was raised. I wasn't exactly keen to see another Daniels incident occur myself but at the same time I had no intention of riding out the rest of the war in a basement (I've been referring to it as a 'base' up until now but being honest it is just a basement). I tried arguing that I couldn't lead the resistance effectively if I was stuck down here forever but it was simply pointed out I couldn't lead at all if I was dead or captured.

It did look like I might be consigned to hiding in a basement for a long time but I had an idea. Grumbling with bad grace (I'd gotten pretty grouchy by this point) I picked out a set of armor that included a helmet with a face mask. Given I could barely even see out of the visor I argued that the Reapers were unlikely to identify me. My appearance was subject to quite a lot of scrutiny but eventually everyone had to admit I had a point. We still had a long list of problems but it looked like Harbinger wouldn't be one of them, at least not today.

While I assisted in getting the infiltration team ready I decided I needed to get to know them better. I wanted to understand the men and women we were sending into the Reaper equivalent of a slaughterhouse. I started with the two Asari twins Lara had insisted on bringing along with her. Their names were Siri and Benevola. They were both talented biotics (hence Lara bringing them along) who saw this as their first step in becoming Justicar. They tried to act tough in front of me but it only served to highlight their naivety (from what I've heard the actual training required to become a Justicar might be even worse than what we were sending them into).

Strategically speaking it was only T'Ren's insistence that convinced me they should be on this mission but their story did move me to sympathy. It was the sort of tale that was all too depressingly familiar for anyone born in the harsher part of the galaxy known as the Terminus Systems. Eager to explore the galaxy as many Asari do in their early maiden years they hatched a plan to raise enough credits for their travels. Anywhere else such an innocent desire would have been harmless but Illium only appeared to be less shady than the rest of the Terminus (not much competition there) at first glance. Its laws and practices left the innocent open to easy exploitation just as Siri and Benevola learned when they decided to enter an indentured service contract.

Indentured service contacts are common on Illium and essentially mean selling yourself into slavery, albeit a supposedly tame and cultured slavery. The idea is that your position is enshrined in law, you have a contact and your welfare is protected. In theory it's the same as getting a job only considerably more profitable and with guaranteed job security for the employer. The contracts are common on Illium and are intended to be completely safe, no more than a means of keeping up with more 'aggressive' economies in the Terminus. The reality, as these girls found out is that indentured servants can all too easily slip through the cracks and be lost in the system. As the shady became the outright illegal the girls felt too ashamed of their mistake to go to the authorities. By the time they were being sold to the Batarians there was nothing they could do about it. They refused to talk about what had happened to them when they were with their new owners. Not surprising really, no one ever talked about their slave labor camps except in hushed whispers.

The ship they escaped on, Athame's Tears had actually belonged to their own family. The warlord who captured them had taken it as ransom about a month before. When he failed to release the girls as promised their mother had begged the Justicar to rescue them. Apparently she'd stowed herself away in a transport in order to get there. To any but a Justicar it would have insanely reckless plan (if she was caught the Batarians would have happily destroyed the entire ship just to kill her) but was a standard tactic of the order (as they have no ships of their own). She reached them just as the Reapers began descending on the planet and in the madness they eventually managed to steal back their ship and escape.

When you hear about stuff like this you often ask yourselves why you didn't do more to free those people. While I was Humanity's Councilor, I wrestled with similar questions every single day. I knew that no action we took short of invasion would have any impact on the Batarian's policies. The Alliance was their scapegoat to blame all the issues afflicting their own civilization. Their power rested on not bowing to outsiders on any issue and they were quite happy to let their own people suffer to maintain control.

And if we had instead tried to impose our will militarily the death toll would have been in the millions. I knew that to the Batarians slavery was their way of life; their culture as their government so often said. They would fight us, even the billions of Batarians that suffered under the oppressive rule of the Hegemony. Considering the brutal lengths Batarians are willing to go to to win a war I think occupying Khar'shan would have crippled, maybe even broken the Alliance. But would saying any of this make any difference to the Asari? No they would always curse the fact that they hadn't been rescued sooner. So which do you do? Stand back and watch others suffer or wade in and suffer the casualties? I didn't know the answer but I know I prefer the simplicity of fighting Reapers to trying to deal with that. Maybe if we survive this a new Khar'shan will rise from the ashes freed from its despotic origins. I certainly hope so.

After Lara saved them they explained their whole story and she told them they'd been fools to enter such an agreement. She'd berated them thoroughly for their actions for days before finally relenting. I can understand why she might react that way but dozens of Asari do enter such contracts and are completely fine. Maybe what's at fault is the system for making something so incredibly dangerous seem benign.

After those two were ready Lara was next, already looking impatient to begin the mission. I tried my best but it was clear she had little interest in sharing her background with me. She said now was not the time to discuss such matters. Since she was probably powerful enough to flay me alive with her mind I decided now might not be the best time to press the issue. But the real eye opener was the last person to come in, the Drell named Karlakh. It's difficult to read a Drell's expression, their faces are so different from ours in many ways (he'd really need to keep his head down on the mission) but I could still see clear signs of anger on his face. I don't think I ever saw him not wearing that expression.

"If you don't mind me asking Karlakh, how did you end up being captured by the Batarians? I don't recall hearing of any raids on Hanar territory recently."

"No you wouldn't have," he muttered.

"Then how did-" I began.

"Is there a point to this Admiral?" he asked.

"I prefer to get to know the people serving under my command."

He turned to face me head on, his stance directly confrontational.

"Am I under your command Admiral?"

"Yes," I answered bluntly. "For as long as you remain part of this operation anyway."

He nodded slowly and took a seat so that I could begin helping him adjust his appearance.

"I see. Well then I'd better tell you then," he said.

"Let's see then, firstly in answer to your question: no I was never taken from Hanar territory. I was born into slavery on one of the Batarian colony worlds."

Realization dawned, or at least so I thought at the time.

"So it was your mother who was captured not you? Makes more sense why I hadn't heard of the raid if it was so long ago. I can't imagine what you must have gone through to survive all those years, I'm sorry."

"Actually you still haven't gotten the full picture Admiral, there was no raid at least not against the Hanar."

"I don't understand."

"You think the Hanar are the only ones who came for my people all those years ago?"

I frowned, he was certainly correct, up until this moment I hadn't considered that possibility. The Drell were originally from the planet Rakhana. By about the 1900's while man was still fighting with itself over our own planet the Drell had managed to use up all the natural resources of their world. Overpopulation and industrial expansion had left their planet virtually uninhabitable and they lacked the technology to explore space and find new and planets to colonize. With no where to go the Drell looked set to fight a grim civil war over the last resources. At the last moment, at some point in the 1980's the Hanar race chose to intervene by attempting to ferry as many Drell as possible from the doomed planet to their own home world, Kahje. Over ten years they managed to transport hundreds of thousands to safety before the war began. The Drell adapted quickly and are now as familiar with our level of technology as any other Council race.

"About twenty or thirty years after the Hanar saved those of us they wanted to help our people were approached by another race."

"The Batarians," I said. He nodded in response.

"Yes, from the stories I heard from the prison camps you can't imagine how thrilled everyone was when they first appeared. The war had started slowly, each faction fearful of sparking a full scale war. But it was getting fiercer every day, every attack was another provocation, another excuse to escalate the fighting. When the Batarians arrived my people were delighted, they imagined they would see thousands maybe even millions more saved by offworlders. The Batarians smiled and waved everyone they could onto their ships, packed them into the cargo holds assuring them they only wanted to save as many as possible."

"But it was a slave ship," I commented feeling sick, maybe asking about their backgrounds hadn't been such a great idea.

"I suppose the Batarians saw us as an easy target, not to mention discrete. The Council had written us off as dead with all their 'non-interference' policies, certainly they weren't likely to notice when some of us went missing."

"How have they managed to keep this a secret for so long?"

He laughed at that.

"Admiral, they control their media carefully. They don't let outsiders in unwatched and they certainly kept us hidden at all times. Lots of us died just trying to let someone outside the Hegemony know about us."

I looked back at my earlier thoughts about the Batarians. Did knowing what I knew now make it any easier to decide whether we should have intervened? For me? Not really, I knew it would still be horrible whatever we did but looking at the expression on Karlakh's face I could exactly what he would've done in my place. Reflected in his eyes I could see the whole of the Batarian Hegemony burning to the ground. Given half a chance I suspect he'd be willing to do just that but Lara assured me he would remain focused during the mission.

Regardless, finally they and we are ready for what needs to be done. Tomorrow the Resistance strikes back.