Epilogue

Gamma sat in ASA's research facility when the email came through.
The Quarian had to read through it three times before she fully comprehended what it said. Her head slowly fell to the desk, and she let out a cry.
Project Earth had been defeated. Zeta was dead. They all were.
Somehow these Sigma-Geth had defeated the best team of human operatives; it was a thought with enough implications to make Gamma shudder.
ASA wouldn't let it go, not now their best had been taken down. They'd wage war on whatever this Sigma was.
Gamma felt the same way. On the email was a summoning to meet with the Commander of Project Earth. She doubted she'd be the only one there; the others had to have had friends and family. She quickly calmed herself down and packed away her things. Storing most of what she'd found out on her omni-tool. After logging out, she left the centre and went straight to the meeting room.

"What's all this about?" asked Theta.
The Asari had woken to the sound of the door ringing, outside stood a soldier in full armour.
"Your presence is requested," said the figure.
"By who?" she asked.
"The Commander, I'm afraid he has some bad news, please follow me," he said, and began walking off.
"Wait!" she called, "I'm not properly dressed yet!"
"Five minutes, the meeting's about to start."
Theta shut the door on him and hurriedly packed on her armour. It was early in the morning, too early. Something big had to have happened, ASA didn't just send out reps to retrieve people for meetings, and they never happened 'in five minutes'.
She walked quickly outside and met up with the rep.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"All I can say is it holds galactic implications, and it involves your friend Eta," said the figure.
Theta stopped, "Eta? How do you know that name?" It bought chills to hear it.
"We know a lot more than you think we do, now please, follow me."
"Eta's dead, she died five years ago," Theta said.
The rep paused and turned to her, "Not quite."

Psi browsed through Delta's unfinished work.
The Sentinel had left his room unlocked in a hurry and failed to secure everything. Luckily, Psi had been wandering and happened to come across the Sentinel's room. He'd gone inside and found nothing was stolen or abused, but Delta's research had him interested.
It seemed Delta had been researching the biotic reactor he'd gotten Alpha from five years ago. He'd tracked down a few mission summaries from around that time, including his own. Psi looked through it and tried to see what Delta had been looking for. His friend had traced the passage of the Cargo ship used to retrieve Alpha through the galaxy, it had made two or three stops. He'd also been searching for a symbol that Psi couldn't recognise, but what Delta had been interested in, Psi could only guess.
His omni-tool flashed, a message popping up on the holographic screen. Psi closed down the computer and secured the room on his way out.
In the hallway, he opened the message.
He muttered a curse under his breath, and bowed his head and said a short prayer.
His eyes came back to focus, and with a quick, determined step, he began making his way to meet with The Commander.

Rho hadn't slept.
He'd been at the bar, preparing for the return of Kappa. A news announcement had flashed up on the screen. Kappa had been declared dead. It was over just like that.
The Salarian hadn't cried. He didn't feel as bothered as he probably should have. Kappa didn't keep anyone close, the guy had had no friends, only acquaintances; but Rho liked to think he was the closest person to the cold hard steel Engineer.
He'd certainly been in a more melancholic mood since, however. The bar had quietened down after that. Everyone had left, but Rho had sat there for a little while longer, lost in thought.
Now, the Salarian sat in his ship, going nowhere, just enjoying the darkness of space beyond the visor. He'd stayed there all night, not moving, not making a noise, and trying to figure out… things. For the first time in his life, Rho couldn't think clearly.
The flash of his omni-tool distracted him from his cloudy thoughts.
A meeting. It was a further three hours after the announcement of Kappa's death, Rho had heard no more reports about what had happened to the rest of the Team. Maybe they were heading back now, bringing Kappa's body. He decided he'd better go.
It was four in the morning, ASA headquarters would be quiet.

Iota sat looking over his notes on Eta's condition when the news came in. Five years of hard work and new theories had just died. Private medical work was hard to come by on ASA; his best client had just left him.
He sighed, "Why couldn't you just live a little longer Eta?"
He had been summoned to a meeting with the Commander.
"To hell with that," he said.
His best option now was to leave ASA. There would be no more work here for him; he had to move elsewhere, further afield.
They must have discovered he was treating an unregistered patient. Eta was a special case, surviving an explosion that should have ripped her body to pure atomic nuclei. He had kept her quiet, if he could discover how she'd done it, he could utilize the ability. It'd secure his retirement plan.
The Turian doctor loaded all he could on his omni-tool, and wiped the rest.
He locked his office door and walked to the transport bay. He had no ship of his own, so he'd have to keep his head down.
Iota left the security of ASA, and went into the galaxy of chaos and turmoil. His first stop would be the biotic reactor Eta exploded. Maybe he could find some clues there.

Four people sat patiently awaiting the arrival of the Commander.
"Does anyone know what's going on?" Theta asked, breaking the silence. She knew none of the others sat in the room. They were all sat strangely quiet, so she guessed they didn't know each other either.
"What'd they tell you?" asked the Quarian; to Theta she seemed strangely familiar.
Theta paused, "That someone I thought's been dead for five years is actually probably alive."
"Alive?" asked the Salarian.
The door opened before she could reply, and an elderly man wearing ASA uniform walked in.
"Greetings," he said, his voice crisp, "I believe you all know why you are here, except for you Theta?"
She nodded, looking at the others.
"I'll explain everything in a minute, for the rest of you; I thought it would only be right if I gave you a first account on the events that occurred tonight."
The Quarian shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and the Salarian looked like he was thinking hard. The Drell had his head bowed.
"I'll start from the beginning for Theta's sake," the Commander said, "five months ago; ASA funded a new project called Project Earth. We assembled the best human operatives on our records into one team; people who had survived exceptional circumstances and performed exceptional feats. We had six operatives, one of them was your friend Eta."
Theta gasped, "She survived?"
"She did, but no one knows how. She's been being tended to by a Doctor in ASA, he was supposed to be here, but it looks like he's left the station. Somehow Eta blew up the biotic facility and managed to get out barely alive. She was mutilated head to foot, and it fried parts of her mind, she was never the same since."
"You didn't think to tell me?" Theta asked.
"We didn't know you had a connection until quite recently. Project Earth was signed on for three missions. After failing two and succeeding in the last, we terminated the programme, however, circumstances changed. They were sent to plant data transmitters into a Cerberus stronghold, whom we believed was our only main threat. Things changed rapidly. According to the team's reports, Cerberus had been cleared out and in their stead were what we are now calling Sigma-Geth. These are not normal Geth, it appears they have some control and usage of biotic powers; you can probably imagine what repercussion that held. Following on from their reports, ASA tracked down an S-Geth stronghold on the planet Noveria. We sent a drone in there to pick up some information, but it was knocked out. I persuaded the board of directors to assemble the team one last time to send them in and retrieve it," he paused, "They succeeded; they got the drone to the upload point, but none made it out. At 3:03am we got a distress call from our Vanguard saying their Engineer had been terminated. This was the only death they registered. It went quiet after that. Our communications were knocked out, evacuation was never called for. The team never made it off."
The Quarian was silently crying to herself, the Drell hadn't moved, and the Salarian looked more lost in thought.
Theta didn't know what to think, if she'd have known Eta was alive, it would have affected her more, but now, it appeared the woman had died twice.
"We received vital information on the S-Geth, information that we can use to help us secure ourselves against any threat they hold. Your friends did not die in vain, I promise that to you now."
"May I see the information?" the Quarian asked.
The Commander hesitated, "It's confidential, and is being looked over at this moment by our finest Engineers. We're using every byte we've gotten, and will look over every scrap twice just to make sure."
"You only bought us here to tell us what happened?" the Salarian asked.
"Right now, there's nothing we can do but purge through our findings. To give you more closure, we're holding a small ceremony in three days," the Commander said, "You're all welcome to give speeches."
"Is there nothing we can do?" the Quarian asked.
"I'm sorry, this overcame our best; we have to be extra scrupulous about this. If you have a hard time, there's help available in ASA for you," the Commander folded his sheets up, passed each one the notes of their friends and left them alone.
"I feel like we've missed something," the Quarian suddenly said.
"Like what?" Theta asked.
"They faced the S-Geth before, something had to have been different tonight. Something's just not right."
"Could have been anything," the Salarian said, "Larger numbers, improved units, team stress, many factors."
"What do you propose we do about it?" the Drell asked, it was the first time he'd spoken.
"I don't want to just sit here and accept defeat. Maybe they're all dead, maybe they're not. My friend, Zeta, the Vanguard, told me some things about these S-Geth, I think I have enough to go on for an investigation," the Quarian said.
"Have you researched possibilities? Formulated theories?" the Salarian asked.
"Wait, are you suggesting you're going to go looking?" Theta asked.
The Quarian nodded, "It'll be hard on my own; I could really use a team."
"You want us to defy ASA regulations and go wandering into unknown territory to look for speculation?" the Drell asked.
"I want the truth. I don't think ASA have it. Something about this Sigma unsettles me. I think we're in as good a position as they are to look into it. Except we'll be less easily found," the Quarian argued, "I don't want to just sit and accept my closest friend is dead because he couldn't take out a couple of Geth units."
"Interesting idea," the Salarian said, "Do you have the means?"
The Quarian shook her head, "All I've got is tech skills. I could really do with your help."
"I didn't know anything about this until fifteen minutes ago," Theta said.
"Regardless, it involves you. I'm not forcing anyone into this, but, the offer's there," the Quarian finished.
"I for one am also not satisfied. I'm also interested to see these S-Geth for myself, I've been suffocating here on ASA HQ, I'm in," said the Drell, "Delta was my best friend, and I believe he was onto something. I will avenge him."
"You can't go skating across the galaxy without means of transport," the Salarian exclaimed, "Luckily for you, I have transport. No one kills a human like Kappa without putting up a good fight."
They looked at Theta.
"We could really use an adept," the Quarian said.
Theta considered her proposal, "I'd like to know just how Eta got out and got into this, count me in. If she can survive an explosion, but die at the hands of Geth, then they've got to mean business."
"Six is usually a good strength for a team," the Salarian said, "Five at least to run my ship."
"We'd best get recruiting then," the Quarian finished.

The Commander listened in, it was happening just liked he expected.
He turned to face his assistant, Tau, who had escorted Theta to the meeting.
"Keep them off record, make no contact with them, keep your distance, but follow them. They will come in useful for defeating these S-Geth, I'll need someone on the inside to keep tabs on things," the Commander said.
"I think we both know who that's going to be," Tau said.
The Commander smiled, "Call in the Batarian."

Omega snuck a quick glance over his shoulder at the four people emerging from the Commander's office. He was positioned at a bar, somewhere quiet, and the bug he'd left in the room had revealed everything to him.
He was a human Vanguard, just what they would be looking for. The Boss had been right after all.
He stood up and followed them from a distance, planning how he'd infiltrate the team. He'd have to wait till they decided how to get people to join. The boss could get him into anywhere though, he had no worries.
His golden helmet shone under ASA light as he manoeuvred through people, yet no one seemed to notice the small symbol engraved into the back of it:

Σ