Log 34
Date: 23RD DEC 2186
Location: EARTH RESISTANCE HEADQUARTERS, LONDON, UK
I was all alone, that was my first thought when I woke up. No, not completely alone I realized, I still had the dead to keep me company. They were all around me, the bodies of my fallen comrades and their enemies. I could see them everywhere I looked, their eyes still wide open in silent accusation. I had led these people to their deaths. Every fresh corpse I spotted felt like a blade piecing my heart.
I was in a ditch with about five other people, none of whom were still alive. But it was only when I hauled myself back onto my feet that I saw the true scale of the destruction. Everything around me had been flattened, the tower demolished along with all the nearby buildings. I couldn't see anyone, Human, Asari or even Reaper in the area. A thick fog obscured much of the area from view but the silence told it's own story. No gunfire, no sounds of battle, no voices. I walked around aimlessly, trying to piece together what had happened after I lost consciousness.
In the fog it was difficult even to know which direction to head in. Without any landmarks left standing that I could use to navigate I was effectively blind. In the end I marched toward the heaviest concentration of fallen Reaper soldiers, knowing it lead away from the tower. Once I reached the perimeter of the battlefield I could orientate myself and set off in the one direction that might (if I was extremely lucky) provide me with some answers.
The original battle plan had been to exit the tower after we had what we needed from it and wait for Reaper reinforcements to arrive. We figured that once they realized the tower had been attacked their scouts would fan out into the surrounding area searching for the culprits. The perfect opportunity to ambush one of their scouting parties and deploy our plan against Harbinger. Obviously that plan had failed spectacularly now but we'd set a specific site to fall back to, to wait at after we left the tower. I hoped it might now serve as a rallying point for any survivors of the battle. Assuming there were any.
No sign of a Reaper corpse on the battlefield. It was possible the fog was covering it but unlikely. A two kilometer long capital ship isn't something that's easily missed. Which meant in all likelihood Harbinger had survived the battle. Not surprising, given the circumstances but painful nonetheless. With so much slaughter it would have been easier if I had anything to show for it (well slightly easier in any case). And still no sign of any living Reapers which was odd to say the least. The last thing I remembered they had been on the verge of overrunning us, so where were they now? As strong as I knew Justicar to be I seriously doubted they'd managed to destroy the entire army alone.
Indeed the one thing I could say for certain as the fog started the lift away from the battlefield is that the Justicar were no more. I could see more clearly now where each Asari warrior had fallen, their distinctive armour making them easy to pick out. Many of them lay next to Resistance fighters they had died fighting alongside, Humans, Turians even a Krogan who fell with a smile on his lips and his knife in the enemy. I looked for Xi Chan but I couldn't see any Salarian bodies, at least not yet.
As the fog dissipated I hoped I would spot something that might explain what was going on. Unfortunately 'explain' isn't quite how I would describe it as the gray curtain rolled back somewhat to reveal the Citadel hanging over the city. It was an eerily strange moment, the Citadel is such a familiar sight to me that it took me a moment to recognize just how surreal the scene was. The Citadel is located, was located in the Serpent Nebula thousands of LY away. Briefly I wondered if I'd simply gone insane or was dreaming all of this. Nothing I was seeing now seemed to match up with what I remembered happening before I lost consciousness.
I was just thinking this when I heard a shout call out from the distance.
"Stop right there! Don't come any closer or we'll shoot."
The voice sounded human or possibly Asari. I raised my hands and stepped closer so they could see me more clearly.
"It's alright, it's just me."
"I said stop right there," I was close enough now to recognize the voice as Lara's, she sounded angry and unsure of herself.
"Come on Lara, it's me."
"And how do I know you're not the indoctrinated agent?"
"What?"
"I'm serious Anderson. How did you survive out there, why didn't the Reapers kill you as well?"
"Just blind luck, I guess. I was knocked unconscious in the battle, the Reapers probably mistook me for one of the dead."
"Why should I believe that?"
"It's the truth. I don't really know what else I can tell you beyond that."
"Give me something Anderson," she pleaded, the desperation clear in her voice.
"Give me I reason to trust you again, please."
I hesitated. A reason why she should trust me again? I'd just lead more than a hundred people to their deaths in a single failed mission. I wasn't sure I deserved to lead anymore. Or deserved anyone's trust. My throbbing head made it so hard to think about anything except my recent failure. In the back of my mind I heard constant whispers filling me with self doubt. I could almost imagine they were the voices of my dead comrades blaming me, accusing me.
It wasn't until that moment that it had occurred to me that there might be another explanation for my symptoms. The headaches, the bleak depression, the whispers. I could be the one that was indoctrinated. I almost had a seizure from the the realization. That was how it felt as the fear, the horror rose within me, rooting me to the spot. Fear in the face of what might happen was something I'd seen and faced many, many times in my life. But this was a kind of fear I had only ever seen a handful of times. Often in the eyes of wounded soldiers, learning for the first time that they had lost an arm or a leg or an eye. It was the fear you feel when something horrible has already happened and there is no way to go back or undo it.
Desperately I searched inward, trying to find some hint that it was true (or possibly just desperately trying to disprove it). As I did so the whispers receded and then vanished entirely to the point that I started to question if they had ever been more than my own thoughts. My headache too seemed less bad, as if I had been making more of a fuss about it than was warranted. Was I convinced? No not by a long shot but I still hoped it had simply been my imagination (and feared it wasn't).
Still at the very least I had finally thought of an answer to Lara's question (who had grown increasingly impatient as I had wrestled with my own conscience).
"If I had betrayed you, the Reapers would be waiting for us here. I knew about this place same as you did."
Lara hesitated and then lowered her weapon.
"Fine then, you better get inside."
"How many of the others made it?" I asked as we headed into the building.
"See for yourself," she replied. "This is everybody."
"Jesus..."
There was less than ten of them in total or to be precise, five humans, two Turians (who I'd seen in the resistance but never met) and one Salarian. Xi Chan was lain down on a table in the center of the room.
"How is he?"
"Alive. Just about. I managed to get him and one other off the battlefield and to safety."
"And the others?"
"Survivors that got clear of the tower and made their way here while we kept the Reapers busy."
"But there's so few of them. Do you think there might be any more still out there?"
"I think if they aren't here, they're either dead or deserters."
"I can't say I blame them. What about your sisters?"
"All dead," she said simply.
"I'm sorry."
"I begged them to come with me. To run and maybe help save a few more lives along the way," she sniffed, a single tear rolling down her cheek.
"But they wouldn't, they fought to the last woman. True Justicar right to the very end. The code demanded that they should fight the battle, so they fought. Matriarch Ophelia gave her life cutting down Harbinger's puppet."
That was a surprise. I'd assumed that they hadn't been able to complete the plan (given the lack of Harbinger's body on the battlefield).
"Did it, did it work?"
Lara gave me a strange look before speaking again.
"For a moment we thought it had. Harbinger went berserk for several minutes, firing randomly all over the place. He blew several holes in his own army which gave us a chance."
"And then?"
"He just seemed to get a grip on himself again. He stopped firing and just said 'Virus purged' or something. Then he just went back to attacking us."
"How did any of you survive?"
"Everyone on the battlefield, everyone except for you was killed. But Harbinger was merciless, it combed the streets hunting for anyone who'd managed to slip away."
"So how did you-"
"Eventually another Reaper arrived, a Capital ship. It said they had to leave, something about the 'time of the Harvest being at hand'."
"And they just went?"
"Yes the whole army just packed up and left, like we weren't even important anymore. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you say the Harvest was-"
"Harvesting genetic material from humans, yes. But they've been doing that for months now, despite our best efforts to stop them, this has to be something more."
"Like what?"
"I'm not sure but it does sound like something else is coming, something big. I think it might have something to do with the Citadel."
"The Citadel? How is that relevant?"
"Well I imagine it's here for a reason."
"What do you mean it's here? It's on the other side of the galaxy!"
"I mean it's here," I replied pointed up at the ceiling by means of demonstration.
"Take a look for yourself."
With a deeply skeptical look she went outside to see for herself, she was back rather quickly.
"What's going on Anderson?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know anything more than you do, not for certain. My best guess is that the Reapers are responsible."
"Then they've taken the Citadel, the capital of galactic civilization. We've lost the war."
She had a point. I hadn't really had time to process this latest revelation myself but she had hit on the key issue. The last safe place in the galaxy was lost and now it was just a matter of time.
"No," I said, shaking my head as I banished all thoughts of despair. "I won't accept that. Not while the fleets are still fighting, not until the last soldier we have has been killed. We should get back to the base and warn the rest of the Resistance."
"We managed to salvage a roller that can get us there."
"Is that safe?"
"There's no other way of getting Xi out of here given his current condition. Fortunately I think the Reapers are distracted at the moment, now might be our best chance."
"Alright then, let's move out."
We packed a few essentials onto the roller, climbed aboard and started driving back towards the base. To be honest for the first few miles I was still worried a Reaper would blow us off the road but the city was quieter than I'd seen it for awhile. Not that we couldn't see the Reapers mind you. There were still several in view but all high above us and hurriedly flying towards the center of the city where the Citadel was waiting.
Back inside the roller Lara had very different concerns.
"Anderson, what if we're leading the indoctrinated agent right back to the headquarters?"
"Most of them came from that base," I pointed out.
"But not all of them, we drew troops from several of the smaller Resistance bases for this operation."
"No one is going to be given a chance to contact the Reapers or do anything else for that matter until we resolve that matter once and for all," I reassured her.
"Personally I'm more concerned that the agent might still be at the base."
"No one back at the base even knew about our plan, that was the point."
"Didn't they? No one overheard anything? Or had someone reporting to them? Let's just say I'm keeping an open mind about it."
We exited the vehicle and took the elevator down towards the Resistance headquarters still discussing the subject as we descended.
"I know who you think it is but there's just no evidence that he was ever involved."
"Well you've certainly changed your tune."
"Anderson I had a lot of time to think, waiting at the edge of that battlefield, wondering if Xi was going to make it. I understand why you hate him. I hated him myself for a long time but you were right there's no reason to think he's the-"
The elevator doors slid away, revealing a surprising scene before us. There were a few military officers present along with two of the leaders of the resistance. One was the leader of the Paris resistance now lying on his back in a pool of his own blood. The other stood over the body, pistol in hand and wearing the same military uniform I'd seen him in when we'd first met. From the expression on General Coberg's face he was clearly shocked to see us. Or more likely to see that we were still alive.
"Oh," said Lara.