SHADOW BROKER VESSEL
SYSTEM: UNKNOWN
OCTOBER, 2187
"Through all this horror my cat stalked unperturbed.
Once I saw him monstrously perched atop a mountain of bones,
and wondered at the secrets that might lie behind his yellow eyes."
DOCTOR LIARA T'SONI sat in the control centre of her personal frigate, the Blue Shadow - her crew entirely asari, all sworn to her to the death, veteran Death Mistress commandos.
She watched Glyph analyze the current data feeds coming in from her agents on the Citadel and Alliance Command. Behind her Feron gave from a screen, his latest report.
"Agent Fareelsin reports that the Reaper Flotilla that had passed Parnac has actually turned and attacked the planet."
"The yahg are under attack?" Liara tried to look concerned. There was nothing anyone could do for them.
"So she says, Broker. I have no way to verify it one hundred percent, but there'd be no reason for her to make it up." Feron paused, as if reading. "It's a huge force, several million troops, but with no real Reaper control, it appears indiscriminate. They just happened to be near the system. Fareelsin thinks it may be because of the local noise of the yahgs' planetary communication networks."
"They were overheard, in other words."
"So it seems."
"Unfortunate for the yahg or the Reaper troops?"
"It's a toss-up, definitely."
Liara got up, refreshed herself with a cup of salarian yulna tea.
"Keep an eye on it as it develops. Any word from our sleeper in the Despoina team? News from Psi Tophet is far more scant than I like."
Feron shook his head.
"The Alliance has an unbelievably tight seal on the whole system, which is surprising for them. Their security usually has more holes in it than a dead husk." He paused again. "What has reached me is a little odd."
"Explain."
"It's fragmented. All I have is, 'Alliance concerned', 'massive bodies', 'Captain says on the surface.' That's all, Broker."
"That is odd." She pursed her lips, thought. "It's too odd to leave hanging, Feron. See to it. I want to know exactly what is happening there as soon as possible. This is not a system we can allow to remain silent."
"I'm on it. Will get back to you as soon as I can." He ended the transmission.
Liara nodded at the asari that brought her lunch, dismissed her. Despoina was the planet of the Leviathans. For it to go silent – that silent – was troubling. The powers-that-be that knew of their existence were grateful for their aid in the war, but they were no fools. Any race with that ability – coupled with that level of colossal arrogance – had to be watched, and watched closely. She knew of the Extinction Protocols in place, should the Leviathans think of reasserting their eons-old claim to the Galaxy. Any race that threatened the Galaxy as a whole, or had that capability would be summarily attacked en masse and reduced to pre-industrial levels. If necessary, it would be expunged from the universe. It would be officially regretted, but it would happen.
It was a different Galaxy now, most definitely, a lesson the Reapers had hammered home with apocalyptic finality.
Still, she was surprised that she could extract so little from her agents there. That was rather uncommon.
She was even more surprised when, moments later, she received a anxious call from her father.