Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
Ezekiel 7:25, Christian Bible
The Citadel, Serpent Nebula, Widow system
3 days after the Reaper invasion began, the turian fleet triumphantly limped through the Citadel mass relay.
60 hours of continuous fighting had scarred the surviving ships, but the Turian Hierarchy was unbroken.
The flagship docked, and Sparatus, resplendent in his Councilor robes, marched triumphantly towards the Council's chambers. He had taken an ill-timed vacation to Palaven just days before the Reaper attack.
As he entered the Council's chambers, Tevos and Valern turned to face him.
Tevos nodded at Sparatus.
"Greetings, Councilor Sparatus. What news do you bring?"
Sparatus's mandibles flared with pride. "The turians prove themselves the greatest military in the galaxy once again with our defeats of the Reapers. What news from the rest of the Council races? Where does the turian war machine need to prove our might next?"
The other two councilors shared looks.
Valern spoke next.
"Both our races faced several Reapers and fared well. But. There has been… disturbing news from Earth."
Sparatus flared one mandible. "So they still have transmission capabilities? The Reapers must not have hit them hard, if at all."
Tevos shook her head. "No. We can confirm that Earth has indeed been attacked by Reapers and in fact continues to be attacked, but somehow the humans are still managing to send out sporadic bursts of communication."
Sparatus bared his needle teeth. "So. Humanity cannot even defeat the small pittance that the Reapers sent their way? A threat so small they still haven't lost communications during the fight, even though it still continues?"
The other two councilors shared another look.
Valern coughed. "Sparatus, how many Reapers did the Hierarchy face?"
Sparatus grinned. "We defeated five. Three at once at the final climax. It was glorious. How many did your races face?"
The other two councilors glanced at each other again.
Tevos spoke next. "The asari defeated two, and the salarians destroyed one, and drove off three. But..."
"Ha!" Sparatus interrupted her. "Truly a great victory for the Council, despite humanity's poor showing."
The other two councilors shared another silent glance.
"Why are you two staring at each other so much?" Sparatus irritably snapped. "Just tell me."
Valern gestured for Tevos to speak. She licked her lips. "As far as we can tell, Earth is under attack from multiple Reapers. Over a hundred, probably. More than ten. At least."
Sparatus started, then shrugged. "Ah yes, Shepard's dark spaces full of Reapers. Until I see the evidence I will dismiss that claim."
Wordlessly, Valern pulled some audio files from his omnitool.
The first message played.
An asari voice played. "This is Fiala Karalosi of the Earth News Network reporting from Montreal." A quiet sob. "Something terrible has happened. A monster, a giant black thing came down on the city. There are bodies everywhere."
There was a jump in time as the recording picked up again later.
"I'm being chased! Something came into the studio and started attacking everyone." Running sounds, panicked breathing. "No! I'm trapped!" Scuffling, the sound of something approaching, and a scream that cut off as the recording ended in wet crunching sounds.
Tevos looked at Sparatus. "Emily Wong of Future Content Corporation news is dead. Before she died she got her hands on a QEC at an Earth university across the continent from Montreal. She reported seeing at least 2 distinct Reapers in the city region there. Other reputable sources across Earth also reported seeing Reapers before communications were cut."
Sparatus was silent for a moment. "All of that was from the beginning of the Reaper invasion." He said slowly. "But you said they are still sending out messages."
Valern nodded. "Yes. Somehow Earth is sending out messages; mostly audio, some text. Many of them are disturbing at best, or sound completely insane."
He queued up another set of audio logs.
A female human voice spoke, gasping. "They've killed my men and now they've killed me. I'm…" the voice took a shaky breath, "holding my guts inside of me with both hands. I'm almost done..." A few breaths passed in silence. Her voice picked up again, softly but gaining volume as she continued. "Resist. This is bigger than my little life, the lives of my men and the lives of the people I was forced to kill. Resist. Humanity demands it! Resist!" Her dying gurgle trailed off and the recording ended.
Valern spoke quietly. "This message came from a local point-to-point based communication radio. Which then leads to the question; how was this transmitted from her radio after she died if she was the last one to die?"
Then next log played.
A calm male voice spoke quickly but clearly. "Citadel station, do you read me? The Reapers are blitzing Earth! We're really taking a pounding. Don't know how much longer we can hold out."
Valern spoke again. "This message repeated variations of this request for assistance every five to ten minutes for over 27 hours. They kept the channel open. We know it's not just a canned speech but an actual 27 hour-long message. Careful analysis of the recording shows not only does the voice fluctuate uniquely during each request, but also there are actual sounds of battle in the background for the entire duration of the call. This message's broadcast station held out for over a day of continuous battle against Reaper forces. We know of no ground station ever built that can withstand assaults of that magnitude, let alone for that period of time.
"We have one more message that bears consideration. This was an encrypted Alliance conversation snippet one of our STC passive listening buoys picked up, by accident. The encryption was… difficult to overcome."
The last message played.
Two unknown male human voices spoke. "When the deep ether exploration fleet gets back here, we'll crush them in a pincer trap against Doissetep and Mus."
"You have an extra fleet? An exploratory fleet? Where is it?"
"En route from mapping the lower umbra."
"The what?"
"The lower umbra. You know, hell."
"…"
The recording ended.
The Citadel Council glanced at each other.
Tevos spoke. "We were just discussing this before you came. There are no relevant records of either 'Doissetep' or 'Mus'. In fact…"
A subtle chime sounded.
A VI appeared. "Councilors, you have an incoming transmission from Admiral Anderson of Earth. Shall I have him hold?"
After a moment of shock, Tevos shook her head. "Put him through immediately."
"As you wish, Councilor."
The display appeared, but was black. No video signal, but they could hear muffled sounds in the background. Strange grinding noises. Static and distortion as Admiral Anderson spoke.
"-sn't an issue yet but we aren't in a position to do anything about it. As it stands we can still hold out for at least two days."
Tevos spoke, "Admiral, we are amazed to hear that you are alive. Can you tell us-"
Anderson's voice continued, cutting Tevos off. "If anyone is left alive on the Citadel, please relay this message to the other races. We all have a chance here, but only if we can all work together in the face of extinction."
Valern lifted his omnitool and glanced at it. "Signal is one way only. They cannot hear us. Pity."
The Council shared looks as they heard the rumbling in the background behind Anderson get louder. The steady thump of artillery fire started, and an air raid siren started blaring.
"Regardless, I have today's casualty numbers." Anderson continued, unconcerned. "We're up from yesterday, which is incredible when you think about the-"
A sudden –crack- interrupted Anderson, and the audio cut out for a moment. As the signal regained strength, the Council could hear screams and erratic gunfire.
"WE DEMAND YOUR EXTINCTION."
The Council flinched as the Reaper bellow echoed through the connection.
Anderson's voice came back onto the call. "Ahem. Ignore that please. Where was I? Ah yes. Casualties. Quite incredible when you consider-"
"Admiral, I think someone's listening to this from their side!" A young male's voice interrupted the Admiral.
Footsteps approached the audio pickup, getting louder.
Anderson's voice sharpened. "Explain."
"You know how speaking to an empty room feels different from speaking in a room full of people, even if you have your eyes closed? You can feel their eyes on you? Little things like that. Pattern spiders especially are really good at feeling these response vibrations. Iteration X cognition software modeling agrees. Something sentient is listening to this broadcast. Someone from in the Council chambers!"
"Good work son! Citadel Council, this is Admiral Anderson with an update to the siege on Earth. We have-"
The kid interrupted Anderson again. "Sir, I think I can get a two-way connection set up!"
"How? We have no reception. The Reapers made sure of that. All the hardware's gone." Anderson said dryly.
"We can relay a return signal through the internet."
Anderson paused for a moment. "Son, even I know that's bullshit."
Apparently Anderson's disbelief didn't faze the other speaker. "No, seriously. First, they don't have the properly configured system for subspace tunneling, right? We can use virtual hardware emulation to generate the return signal on their end, and broadcast it through the extranet. The tricky part would be connecting it to the internet from there, but between pattern spiders, machine spirits, and a splash of correspondence, it's totally do-able."
Anderson spoke again, slowly. "We don't have any satellites; the Reapers shot them all down. Even if you can configure the return signal, how can you get it connected to the internet? We can't get any external signals from anywhere. We're cut off."
"Uh, did I forget to mention the internet is also a physical place as well? We'll build a receiver, set up a gateway to the internet, and walk the connection out far enough until we can connect it up to the extranet. Or, we could get a Verbena or an Etherite in here and make a portal out of blood or nuclear mercury legos or whatever. Totally do-able."
A deep sigh. "Alright son, go ahead if you think it can be done." A pause. "How long do you think it will take?"
"Meh? Five minutes maybe? Less? Any longer than that, and I won't bother. I'll just bounce the signal off the atmosphere or something. Hey, you were a Council member before, right? As a last ditch backup I'm sure we could make a voodoo doll and forge a sympathetic connection to them."
There was the sound of shuffling feet, and Anderson's murmuring voice could be barely heard as he spoke to himself. "Every time. They get me every time I think I've got this figured out. I'm getting too old for this shit."
Anderson cleared his throat.
"Council, the situation on Earth is dire. We are under constant siege by Reaper forces. Multiple Reaper landings have been detected at nearly every large population center, as well as at military and transit assets. Currently we have been able to slow the Reaper advance across America, Western Europe, and Asia. The Reaper assault in Eastern Europe has been stopped." Anderson paused. "Don't ask how. Seriously."
In the background rose a chorus of howls. There was a series of muffled clunks and crunches. A rippling series of sonic booms pounded through the audio. Voices raised, shouting orders.
Anderson continued over the noise, "We have even begun counter assaults where the Reaper forces have become overextended. Initial attacks have been successful, and intelligence is cautiously optimistic of continued operations."
The council shared a glance. Humanity was throwing a ground counter offensive against the Reapers? And winning?
More screams and orders rose from the background noise.
"They're coming in for another attack run!"
The shriek of grinding metal on metal.
"Quintessence reserves depleted!"
"They're breaking through the right flank! Counter charge! Send in the reserves! Send the Ahroun! Send everything!"
Another voice yelled out from the background. "Two way sound is working now Admiral!"
Anderson paused. "Council members, can you hear me?"
Tevos spoke, "We can hear you Admiral. We don't quite understand, but we can hear you."
Anderson sighed in relief. "Thank goodness. You have no idea how glad I am to hear you are alive, Councilor Tevos. Now, can you tell me-"
"Hey, Admiral?" It was the interrupting youth again.
The Council heard Anderson sigh. Then he sighed again.
"What is it, son?"
"While setting up the audio I ran into some Glass Walkers. We think we can get the video up and running as well, if you like."
"I'm not going to ask how. Yes, please."
Sparatus leaned forward. "Admiral, can you repeat your current status? It sounds like your current position may be too close to the front. Are you in danger?"
"Nonsense Councilor. I-"
Someone screamed from the background. "They're coming up from under the ground!"
With a series of cracking noises, the chittering wails of husks screeched through the audio. The sounds of gunfire and roar of chainsaws filled the room. Screams and yells.
Over the cacophony of noise the Council barely heard someone yelling, "Admiral, we're going to drop a few thousand grenades on our position. I need you to step back now. Please."
"Alright son." Anderson's voice was calm. His footsteps methodically stepped away from the melee. Behind him, the chainsaws started up again, joined by the ripping sounds of grenades continuously going off echoed for over two minutes.
As the wailing of the last husk abruptly tapered off, Anderson's voice came back over the line.
"What were you saying again, Councilor Sparatus?"
Tevos cleared her throat, "Perhaps there's a better time or place to continue this discussion, Admiral?"
"Nonsense, everything is fine on this side, and my schedule is clear now to continue."
The Citadel councilors looked at each other in silence. Whatever was happening on Earth was madness.
Anderson spoke, "As I was saying, Councilor Tevos, can the Citadel spare any resources to assist Earth? We certainly could use some assistance."
Another voice spoke up before Tevos could respond.
"Step back a moment Admiral, let me get the vid feed working." After a few moments, the screen in the Council chambers flickered to life. A tired human face filled the screen. It smiled at the camera then pulled back, revealing Admiral Anderson, and behind him, filling the sky, the rising bulk of a Reaper larger than anything the Council had ever seen.
"Admiral, behind you!" gasped Councilor Tevos.
Immense beams of destruction spread from a great baleful red eye on the Reaper, spiking into the human entrenchments. Gouts of plasma plumed into the sky, rippling explosions striking down the beleaguered human defenders. An endless tide of husks spewed forth beneath the hulking form of the Reaper, leaping towards the now-broken human defenses. The Council was witnessing perhaps the last defense of humanity. Admiral Anderson stood unconcerned facing the camera, his back to the advancing foes.
The Council stared at the scene unfolding before them.
The smoke from the Reaper artillery cleared, revealing strange colored shields gleaming with sigils of blazing light, unbroken.
Forms strode out towards the tide of husks and threw them back. Giant monstrous shapes with teeth and claws, wielding rough blades that glowed with inner light.
"THE CYCLE CANNOT BE BROK-HRRrnnrnrgngggggnn"
As the Reaper bellowed, something struck it too fast to be seen, leaving only a pulsing afterimage. The Reaper stood still for a moment, then slowly started to topple, its baleful gaze dimming.
The Council started to cheer, but as the Reaper fell, it revealed multiple Reapers advancing behind it. Four Reapers strode over the corpse of the fallen Reaper. Artillery fire rippled across the human defense line, and explosions peppered the massive Reapers. Out of the smoke two additional massive Reapers appeared, and the sextet continued to bear down on Anderson's position, intent on grinding the humans into dust.
The Council gaped in horror. Anderson turns around, and shrugs.
"It's just their 3rd assault wave. Shouldn't be too long before we can relocate forward to the next front."
"What."
One of the human defenders yelled out, "Take cover! Solar bombardment incoming!"
There was a shrieking wail that went on for an eternity and Anderson ducked as the view went white. The sound cut out for several seconds, and when the view reappeared, the Reapers were simply GONE.
"Solar... bombardment?" Valern said weakly.
Anderson straightened. "Yes. Like orbital bombardment... but from the sun."
"... I see."
Left unsaid was how humans were lobbing artillery from their sun.
Anderson turned to a nearby tech. "What's the Reaper death count up to now?"
The tech checked his omnitool. "143,586."
Anderson frowned. "Wasn't it higher yesterday?"
The tech shrugged. "We decided not to count anything smaller than a dreadnaught. The small fry were dropping too rapidly so it was skewing our hard numbers, and thus, our force projections."
Sparatus was silent. The Reapers the turians faced were all cruiser sized, or smaller.
Anderson looked back at the Council. "We're killing them faster than they can kill us now, relatively at least. They know this. They're going to try overwhelm us before that. They need to crush us, or we'll stop them all. Every Reaper in the galaxy is being called to Earth. We're holding out for now, but as more and more Reapers arrive…" Anderson shrugged. "We need to stand together. Now more than ever. The Reapers won't stop at Earth. They'll destroy every organic being in the galaxy if we don't find a way to stop them. As leaders of the galaxy the Council needs to unite the races and help us defeat the Reapers, or they'll crush us, and turn on the rest of the galaxy. If we do not hang together, we shall surely hang separately."
Tevos sighed. "The cruel and unfortunate truth is while the Reapers focus on Earth, we can prepare and regroup."
Valern spoke, "We are convening a summit amongst our species. If we can manage to secure our own borders, we may once again consider aiding you."
Tevos nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry Admiral that is the best we can do. We admire your sacrifice, and will not squander this precious chance. Hold firm, we will come."
Anderson face was still. "Tell that to the Spartans."
The call disconnected.
The Council was silent for a few minutes.
"They're… killing the Reapers faster than the Reapers can kill them?"
The other Councilors turn to Sparatus.
Sparatus was grey, mandibles slack. "I've never seen anything like that before. Why didn't they release any of this madness on us at Shanxi? We picked a fight with them," Sparatus muttered, rocking back and forth. "I can't believe we picked a fight with them. What were we thinking, picking a fight with humanity? It must be our mother's faults. They must have dropped us on our heads when we were fledglings…"
Valern turned to Tevos. "I'll analyze these recordings for any clues. Meanwhile, since Sparatus looks broken, it's up to you to start gathering up the strength of the galaxy."
Tevos and Valern turned and left, leaving Sparatus in the middle of the Council chambers.
Sparatus stared blankly at the walls, muttering to himself.
"How were they doing all of that? What technological sorcery do they possess?"
Oh Sparatus, if only you knew.
6 hours ago, Eastern Europe
When the invading forces reached Transylvania, the Reaper invasion was crushed in an instant. Almost a billion husks across Eastern Europe simultaneously froze, then all spoke in the same gurgling voice before melting into organic slush, "ALL FLESH IS TZIMISCE." Their skin split like to release a larger, slimy, chitinous creature part ape, part insect, part reptile and all nightmare. Their bodies twitched, swelled and churned as eyes, mouths, tentacles and other organs erupted from their flesh and sank back in again. Amid all the changes, the husks laughed a deep, ugly laugh; mirrored voices rising in a chorus of horror.
All the writhing husk-flesh pooled together, forming a twisted organic mockery of a Reaper. The Reaper- vampire shell of Tzimisce then leapt onto the nearest Reaper and began to feed.
