3-25-2184 1238 hours (Citadel standard time)

SSV Normandy

Corvette

Captain's cabin

To say that this was possibly the most uncomfortable situation Shepard has ever been in would be an understatement. Garrus refused to talk about Ashley's death or anything else for that matter and instead has chosen to remain stoically silent. He wasn't the only one to take Ashley's loss hard; every member suddenly felt a piece of them had been left back on Haestrom, and to Shepard they weren't wrong. He personally thought of Ashley as a survivor, someone who would always survive the impossible, but as it turns out fate had other plans. But, right now he needed to make sure Garrus was stable. Finally after ten minutes of awkward silence Shepard decided to speak first.

"Garrus, what happened on Haestrom wasn't your fault. No one could've prevented it. You can't blame yourself forever." Placing a hand on Garrus's shoulder, he continued. "I know it's hard right now, but eventually the wound will heal."

Garrus remained silent for a few moments, before speaking. "Does it ever get easy?" He asked finally meeting Shepard's gaze.

Shepard sighed, before answering. "No it doesn't. Every soldier, every comrade, every friend lost under yours or someone else's command will always be painful. The trick is to stay strong for those that remain at your side and to honor those that have left it."

"I appreciate your concern for me Shepard, but I don't think I'll ever forgive myself." Garrus told him, staring at the ground.

"At least try, Garrus."

"I will. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to calibrate the Normandy's gun again. It helps me deal with many problems I've had over the years and distracts me for a while." He said getting up from Shepard's leather couch.

"Don't overexert yourself, Garrus. This team still needs you."

"Thanks Shepard. The feeling is mutual."

EDI's avatar suddenly appeared in the cabin. "Shepard I've received an emergency transmission from Head Admiral Hackett. I would advise you to immediately order Joker to patch him into the Normandy's vid-com."

"Thanks EDI. I will. Coming Garrus?" He asked Garrus as he headed towards the elevator.

"Sure, unless of course you intend to leave me alone in your cabin unsupervised." He answered sarcastically as he stepped into the elevator with Shepard.

SSV Normandy

Personal Quarters

Miranda's Office

Miranda walked through the door into her own personal office/quarters with her usual strut, masking all her emotions perfectly. And it was a good thing she could do that; the report she was about to give to the Illusive Man was likely to upset him. She walked forward to her personal holo-pad, raised her chin and waited for the scanners to read her and project the Illusive Man's office. She made sure to always take the necessary precautions when communicating with the Illusive Man, from encrypting the signal of the transmission to locking the door to her quarters.

A few moments later, she was looking at that familiar blue star, with her employer seated in his trademark chair, a drink in hand. As ususal.

"Miranda, I'm glad to see the operation on Haestrom was a success. We don't need to lose any more members of the team before we even get to hitting the Collectors. How was action against the geth?"

Momentarily surprised at the Illusive Man's knowledge of the operation and its outcome, Miranda quickly regained her composure. She raised her arm, activating the omni-tool to project information and statistics about the geth the ground team had encountered on the planet. "It went very well, despite the tragic…loss. The quarian entourage was successfully evacuated and sustained no losses after our arrival."

The leader of Cerberus stood up from his chair, walking towards Miranda and stopping as close as he could without interrupting the holo-feed. "I'm well aware of the importance of both the quarian's meeting with the Alliance as well as maintaining our secrecy. The quarian's are known scavengers and engineers, practically the whole race is. That being said, I'm counting on you and EDI to make sure no human technology falls into their hands. If necessary, confiscate their onmi-tools and personal scanners or just confined them to a room. Whatever it takes."

Miranda nodded her head in agreement. "Absolutely, but I don't think it will be so easy. The quarians are sneaky as they are intelligent, never mind if Shepard would ever agree to confining them. I believe avoiding violent confrontation if only as a diplomatic gesture."

The mysterious man smiled at her, taking another sip of his drink. However, he was quickly interrupted by his personal assistant barging into the room. "What is it now?" he asked, slightly agitated.

The personal assistant whispered something into the Illusive Man's ear, which Miranda couldn't hear, but was interested nonetheless. After the assistant had delivered the information, he awaited the Illusive Man's orders. Judging by the grim expression on the Illusive Man's face, Miranda knew it was not good.

"Thank you. You know what needs to be done. Purge all the computers and terminals and make sure to only message those I personally touch." The Illusive Man said to his assistant. He turned his attention to Miranda. "Miranda, execute order 57."

Miranda was shocked to hear this. Order 57 called for the immediate purge of all information regarding Cerberus, contacts, bank accounts, and any other traces that might lead back to Cerberus itself. In essence it meant Cerberus would have to relocate everything and sever whatever is deemed unnecessary. She knew that once the transmission ended, Cerberus command would go dark until whatever had caused the problem was dealt with.

"Of course sir. If I may ask, for what reason?" Miranda asked.

"We have a mole." The Illusive Man relied in a deathly whisper. "Keep doing your work and form time to time I'll send you messages if there any assignments that come up." The Illusive Man walked back to his chair, switched the feed off and began purging all information stored in his computer. He then pulled out a hard drive that acted as a backup and walked out of the room with the intent of never coming back.

SSV Normandy

CIC

Shepard walked in front of the vid-com and waited for Hackett to appear. Almost instantly Hackett's hologram appeared with a very grim expression. He had bags under his eyes as if he hadn't slept for two days. "Shepard, we have a problem."

"What type of problem?"

Sighing, Hackett activated his omni-tool and EDI's avatar appeared. She activated the screen near the vid-com and Shepard noticed it was a news feed, and displayed in big bold letters…

'Breaking news, Council lies exposed'

A human female newscaster appeared on screen just as the volume peaked. She had short cut brunette colored hair. Her eyes were deep brown and she wore a mixed blue and rid outfit.

"Earlier this morning, we've received word of the truth surrounding the prothean's fall from power, the sudden technological boom of the geth, and the sudden appearance of the Collectors, whom is apparently assisting the Batarians. For what reason remains unknown."

Shepard leaned forward, a couple of crew member to his left turned to the screen as well. He hadn't been paying attention to the news lately, only hearing brief mentions of war updates on the Council-Batarian war. No one really talked about what would happen if the truth of the Reapers were ever exposed since it was hidden so well.

"An unidentified source managed to acquire confidential Council records and the information was a complete shocker and incredible hard to believe. Shepard clenched a fist, narrowing his eyes, "The Council, since the appearance of the Protheans, have been informed of a continuous cycle of extinction at the hands of sentient AIs of unknown origins. These advanced AIs, deemed Reapers by the Protheans, have been responsible for eradicating the galaxy of intelligent life every 50,000 years. It would seem the cycle has already begun. Those 'advanced geth' dreadnoughts and ships that attacked Eden Prime and other colonies were actually Reapers, who have allied with the geth. The status of this alliance remains unknown; however it seems to be related to the sudden overthrow of the Hegemony's leaders. Former Commander Torn Iselk has seized total control of the Batarian government and has declared total war on the Council and its allying races. When asked for comment, the Council refused and has called an emergency session. Riots throughout the Citadel and Council space have broken out in response to a lack of trust and leadership on the Council's behalf. What else haven't they told us that may endanger us? Stay tuned for more updates. This is Khalisah al-Jilani, Westerlund News."

Shepard shut the vid screen off, unable to stand it anymore. He glanced back to Hackett, who has since remained stoic through the whole ordeal.

In a shaky voice, Shepard asked, "Orders, sir?"

"I need you to go to the Citadel. I'm on my way there as is Anderson and Director Granger." Hackett announced keeping his calm stature. "Shepard I now is this a lot to take in, but beating the Collectors has become even more imperative."

"Sir, how are boys holding out?" Shepard asked, not sure if he really wanted to know the exact condition of the System Alliance's military.

"That's a broad question, Shepard, but I'll answer it best I can. Some units have joined the riot, others have gone AWOL, and others have been detained. Director Granger has had to call martial law on all Alliance controlled colonies. Thankfully the majority of our boys remain ready to answer the call. Recruitment has increased by 14%. However, other races are dealing with it their own way. There are reports of mile-long lines in nearly every turian recruitment office. It seems the turians are ready to stand against the Reapers. The raloi and salarians have ramped up military spending, though there are reports of severe civil unrest. Public response from the volus, hanar, and elcor governments has been mixed. The asari seem to be in the worst situation. Already they're receiving threats from multiple colonies to secede from the republics. In short, it's a god damn nightmare. In any event we'll talk more when you get here."

"Yes, sir." Hackett's avatar disappeared, leaving Shepard with multiple questions in his head. Exhaling a breath he didn't know he was holding, he turned his attention EDI. "EDI, have Joker change course. We're heading to the Citadel." He said as he walked off. The crewmembers that crowded around the screen returned to work, with a new profound sense of urgency.

Citadel

The Wards

"Fuck you, pigs!"

A Molotov cocktail soared overhead and Captain Bailey barely had enough time to raise his C-SEC riot shield. A pool of flame splashed across his shield and he considered using his riot shotgun to quell the massive crowd in front of him. He, along with dozens of other C-SEC officers, was responding to the looting and rioting that seemed to engulf the entire station. A C-SEC Special Response unit arrived not a moment later and fired non-lethal rounds and tear gas upon the crowd, forcing them to momentarily disband.

'Looks like they're late to the party.' He thought.

Bailey looked at the stores and buildings, all of which were damaged, broken into, or looted of anything of value. Whatever had happened here, the damage had been done long before he had arrived. A C-SEC outpost had been bombed by rioters, killing several inside. With the crowd dispersed, it seemed Bailey and his squad could finally take a breath. Looking around for his partner, Bailey found him by an ambulance getting patched up by a medic.

Quickly jogging over, Bailey saw the extent of the damage. Sergeant Haron, a turian C-SEC officer and Bailey's assistant and partner, had multiple cuts around his face and was receiving stitches as a result.

"Quit twitching." The medic ordered.

"I'm not twitching." Haron replied calmly, as if he was just reading a report. "Turian mandibles are just sensitive." His left hand slowly stroked his left mandible, which was receiving stitches.

"I said stop twitching or else this'll take longer." The medic ordered, slightly aggravated at not being listen to.

Haron muttered something Bailey couldn't hear. The turian's green eyes found Bailey. "Hey Cap, can you believe that a few pieces of glass managed to cut my beautiful face?"

Bailey laughed at his compatriot's humor. "You look like shit, Haron."

"You don't look too good yourself. I've seen krogans with better grooming than you."

"At least underneath my gear I'm protected. I told you to wear your helmet and now look at you."

"Yeah yeah." Haron retorted.

Sighing, Bailey took another quick glance at the still burning C-SEC outpost, "So, give me a sit-rep."

"Well…" Haron began, shoving the medic away as he ignored the pain that erupted from his mandibles as he stood. "A crowd of angry rioters managed to get their hands on a dirty bomb and threw it at the outpost and well…you can see the results." Haron, said motioning his head to the burning building. "Executor Pallin has ordered every single C-SEC officer to be ready to deploy, though I think we don't have the numbers to take on millions of rioters. The Citadel defense fleet has allocated some of their operatives to assist us and no ship is allowed entry or docking clearance without the permission of the Council. Basically the situation is FUBAR."

"You can say that again." He agreed.

Haron flexed his cut mandible as he ordered the medic to start stitching him again, then he turned to his friend. "You know, there rumors that the Council has ordered some of their Spectres to help quell the unrest."

"Pfft, I doubt Pallin would even take any help from him unless directly ordered do so." Bailey responded.

Bailey's headset beeped in his ear, indicating C-SEC control needed him. Grunting, Bailey pressed a finer against the headset, "Unit Five-One, go ahead control."

"Unit Five-One, this is control. We need you to head to Tayseri Ward, apartment complex six. Reports of armed civilians looting and fighting armed officers. They're requesting additional help. Over."

"Roger, control. Can you tell us with what are the civilians armed with?"

"Reports from officers onsite have confirmed that civilians are using baseball bats, bows and arrows, axes, screwdrivers, machetes, and even the occasional personal side arm Be advised Executor Pallin has authorized the use of lethal force, only as a last resort. High powered noise machines and hose cannons seem to be working best."

"Thanks control. We're on our way." Looking at his partner, Bailey said "Tell the men we're loading up. We're heading to Tayseri Ward."

Haron cursed silently. "Great, because I haven't already felt the love from the local residents."

It was only going to get worse from here on out and both officers knew that. Blood was going to be spilled before this was over and they were going to have to clean up the mess. Haron was confident that it was going to be one big mess.

Tayseri Ward

Citadel Housing Complex

"Citadel citizens return to your homes or you will be arrested." The sea of protesting citizens didn't seem to listen to the order. Detective Decian Chellick growled and shouted again. "Return to your homes or face the consequences."

The Chellick wasn't prepared for this, literal ocean of bodies formed around the entire complex. Every square inch of flooring was taken up by the denizens of the Citadel. In the massive crowd, he spotted a few krogan and that worried him. The fact that a many of the protestors were armed with blunt and improvised weapons worried him more.

As a detective, Chellick's job description was to investigate crimes and bring criminals to justice, however every single able bodied C-SEC personal was called into the field to quell, what is now considered an uprising.

Chellick was momentarily pleased that his words seemed to start having an effect. The massive crowd seemed to be stepping back and it looked as if they were returning to their homes. Then Chellick's blood ran cold, the crowd wasn't dispersing it was moving aside and from the crowd emerged a krogan holding a shotgun.

Chellick, along with the other hundred C-SEC officers readied their weapons and aimed at the krogan. "PUT THE WEAPON DOWN OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!" Chellick yelled.

The krogan didn't seem to be listening, instead he turned around and started to address the crowd. "These people wish to see you cower in fear. i say let's show them we are not afraid!" The krogan yelled. He received an applause of approval and they began charging at the C-SEC blockade.

"WEAPONS FREE! OPEN FIRE!" Chellick ordered. Then all hell broke loose. High powered hoses, tear gas, and weapon fire was poured into the massive crowd, the krogan was the first to fall. The sight of hundreds being gunned down only seemed to anger and encourage the crowd, and then hostile shots were fired upon the C-SEC group. A large group of armed citizens amassed and began fighting the C-SEC officers. The sound of a sniper rifle, followed by a fellow officer falling to the ground with a grained sized hole in his armor, made the rest of the officers take cover behind the C-SEC armored vehicles.

"C-SEC control, this is unit Five-Eight! We are under heavy fire, south of deck twelve. Multiple shooters, all of mixed races. Be aware, we have an unidentified sniper requesting air support. I repeat we need air support!"

Chellick hissed a curse as another bullet punched a hole in his armor above his left shoulder. He applied medi-gel and shakily forced another heat sink into his M-15 Vindicator, before jumping up to fire towards a pair of human males with rifles. He was met with a quick rebuttal of lead, forcing him back into his deteriorating cover. The guns on the armed let out a THUMP THUMP as they fired on the civilians, or at least in Chellick's mind they were. A massive nail bomb exploded on top of Chellick's head. He looked up to see the asari officer who had been manning the machine gun was dead, with various protruding nails sticking out of her flesh. As a veteran detective, Chellick was used to the sight of such carnage; however it didn't mean he enjoyed seeing it.

"Shit." Chellick placed a talon in his ear. "Control? Control! I need somebody over here," he glanced at his fellow officers who were fighting off the hordes of civilians. A few were wounded, but still fighting; a few were dead, slumped over on the floor not too far away from Chellick. "Me and my unit can't hold out forever, man!"

Suddenly, the hostile shots ceased and the sounds of footsteps retreating quickly followed. Chellick, acting like a brash brash varren jumped up and kept firing until his rifle overheated. He then switched to his pistol and screamed as he fired again and again, "Running away won't help! I'll just shoot you in your asses!"

His adrenaline prevented him from hearing the sounds of another unit approaching on armored personal carriers. Catching his breath, he turned around to see the casualties. C-SEC officers were wounded, burned, and a few had impaled knives and nails. A human male officer approached him.

"Are you detective Chellick?" the officer asked.

"Yes I am."

The officer motioned to the newly arriving officers and personal. "Captain Bailey from unit Five-One responding to your distress call."

"Thank the spirits. I only wished you'd gotten here sooner. Chellick looked upon the now barren Tayseri Ward. Barren of life, anyways. There were plenty of bodies; human, asari, turian, salarian, volus, raloi, elcor, and even a few krogan corpses littered everywhere like leaves fallen from a tree. Blood pooling and mixing in with the others. "Captain Bailey, have some of your men set up a medical tent and search the bodies on the civilians, see if there are any survivors. If their badly wounded, ease their suffering. If they can be saved bring them here."

Bailey nodded and began relaying the orders. Even though a detective couldn't normally order a captain, this situation was all, but normal.

Then came a series of updates on the C-SEC radio from various officers.

"…multiple fires have started across the Jayatta Ward! I need Emergency Response teams down here now!"

"…opened fire! Repeat, several people have opened f-"

"Stay the hell out of Tiberius Towers! All officers make a fall back towards the Citadel Archives, we have a field HQ and Spectre teams have been deployed. I repeat Spectre teams have been deployed."

"Send….send an Emergency Response team d-down here…I'm hit…bleedin' real bad…"

"Security breach, security breach! Huerta Memorial Hospital has been taken by unknown hostile forces…"

"All units, the Citadel is experiencing a full revolt and is under attack. I repeat, the Citadel is under attack!"

Citadel

Council Chambers

"We've made a grave mistake keeping this information hidden." Silence was all that followed Tevo's statement. The asari's blood shot eyes looked out at the arms of the Citadel. Never had the other councilors seen the woman so broken up. She was always the voice of harmony between the three councilors, even more so since the volus joined, the one who brought them both off their soap boxes when they got enthralled in the concerns for their own people. The wise asari was always looking towards the future, the big picture. Now she looked like a hollowed-out shell, her arms at tucked at her sides as she silently observed the chaos before them.

"Calm Tevos. The release of this information was always going to start a panic. The question is how we can de-escalate the situation." Said Matriarch Benezia, her soothing calm voice seemed to relieve Tevos of some of the anxiety she was having. She, along with the Hackett and Director Granger, were the only ones who weren't part of the meeting who were called into the chambers.

Valern sighed as his dark eyes gazed upon the Citadel from the Council's tower, far above the riots and killing that was going on below. The salarian could make out the pillars of smoke drifting upwards from burning buildings and explosions from hand-made car bombs, which were becoming a frequently used weapon against C-SEC forcecs.

"Military intervention is going to be necessary…" Sparatus said aloud to no one in particular as he paced back and forth, the turian ignoring whatever his asari counter-part had said. He wrung his clawed his fingers together as his eyes glanced from the vid-screens along the wall and his omni-tool, both displaying constant streams of info regarding the current, tumultuous situation sweeping the Citadel. "…It's obvious C-SEC can no longer handle this problem."

"Tevos sulked in the corner, not even willing to look up at the station's skyline anymore, "Problem? I'd say this is slightly larger than a mere problem, Councilor. I'd say it's more of a disaster. By the goddess, we have had to deploy Spectres! Spectres!"

"Regardless of the terrible circumstance we find ourselves in. I suggest closing the Citadel temporarily. At least until we've regained control." Udina suggested.

"No! Absolutely not! Such action will only embolden the batarians. No doubt they'll this that as propaganda to gather allies." Valern objected. "Besides that'll only have the effect of the citizens even becoming more desperate and how are we going to be supplies from the outside?"

"Citadel markets… would further….drop reaching….a record….low." Korlack stated. The Council sighed. The markets had taken a steep drop due to the release of the Reapers' existence. Already a few companies had completely pulled from the Citadel. Thankfully the human run Sirta Foundation had been one of them, no doubt seeing this situation as a good way to make a huge profit. It was being heavily guarded by squads of C-SEC officers and a few Spectres for good measure.

"We can still right all of this, stop this violence." Valern tried saying, hoping the other Councilors would listen to him. "Have C-SEC use S-gas, that'll do well to calm the crowd. Then we need to show the people our strength. Let them believe we can protect them." Sleeping gas, or S-gas for short, is an oneirogenic general anaesthetic that is used to put subjects into a state in which they are not conscious of what is happening around them.

"How do you propose we do that? In case you haven't notice, there is literally an uprising!" Sparatus said, a hint of desperation could be heard in his voice.

"By repelling the Treaty of Farixen." Valern said, silence quickly following. Every Councilor looked at each other, before looking back at him. No Councilor had ever suggested such extreme measure, but salarians always believed in extreme measures if it got the job done.

"Very well. We will announce our decision. Assuming the vote is unanimous." Tevos said. No one protested the decision. Clearing her puffy eyes with her hand, she then turned her attention to Hackett. "Tell us what information has Admiral Palavenus wished for us to see?" she asked. Fleet Admrial Palavenus, the supreme commander of all council forces, had chosen Hackett as his liaison to the Council in order for him to be on the frontline commanding his troops.

Hackett handed Tevos a portfolio that Palavenus had given to him. It contained plans and targets Palavenus himself had chosen. "Dubbed Operation: Talon, Palavenus has asked for the Council to supply arms to rebels on Anhur in the Eagle Nebula. As of now the entire colony is embroiled in a civil war, activists on one side and the Na'hesit, a batarian dominated faction on the other. He believes by helping the locales we can show both strength and compassion as well as have a forward base into batarian territory."

The Councilors absorbed the information. Anhur had a great deposit of platinum, its addition to the Council would mean an economic boom, precisely what the Council needed at the moment.

"We'll do one better," Tevos said. "The Raloi will liberate the colony in exchange for rights. They'll be responsible for the maintenance and the colony's compliance with Citadel law." All four Councilors agreed with the decision whole-heartily.

"Also Palavenus wants a concentrated attack on Ersbat in the Kite's Nest. By depleting the batarians of a critical ship manufacturing colony will mean a quick victory for the Council. If we take Ersbat, the batarians will only have six major ships manufacturing colonies left." Hackett finished and awaited the Council's decision.

"Very well. Tell Palavenus that we approve of is strategy."

It was now that Director Granger let his presence be known. Due to the number of groundside canons as well as the extreme freezing conditions of the planet, the Alliance has announced to activate the 1st special forces group, specifically 3rd battalion since they are most suited for that type of environment. The 1st Special Forces group contained the top three battalion in the entire Alliance army, only the best got invited to join.

"Primarch Fedorian has also approved the use of blackwatch to take action in this battle. I suggest we deploy a Spectre team to Anhur to set up channels when the raloi arrive."

"Assuming they… accept." Korlack said, reminding everyone that it was ultimately the raloi's decision to engage the batarians.

"We'll I believe now would be the time to bring them in." Tevos suggested. Just then Bland, Udina's assistant walked into the room. "I apologize greatly, however an Alliance vessel is asking for permission to dock."

"And the vessel is?" Udina asked.

"The SSV Normandy sir." Bland answered.

Udina smiled in response. "Great, now we can have talks with the Quarian delegates."

"Quite." Tevos focused on the assistant and said "Tell them they have permission to land."

"Yes ma'am." With that the assistant turned tail and ran, no doubt intimidated by the group of important political leaders.

"Well I suggest we kill two birds with one stone." Valern suggested.

"Exactly how will killing two birds help the situation, Valern?" Sparatus asked, his eyes still glued to the screen. How he craved to order C-SEC in this crisis, instead of being trapped in a room. The Councilors, instead of explaining to Sparatus the human idiom, got ready for the diplomatic talks.

A/N: Holy shit I bet you didn't expect that did you? Yeah will it sucks to be C-SEC right now. Imagine a huge riot and being ordered to go into it. Anyway due to my busy schedule if anyone is interested with assisting me with my story or wishes to be a co-author to speed updates just PM me