Chapter 14- STG

January 12th, 2161. Relay 314 system.

The STG ship entered the system, immediately requesting docking permission. It was granted. Major Kirrahe, ex STG, smiled. At least something was going his way. The ship docked with Gateway station, an armed platoon of guards greeting the ex-STG troops.

"State your name and business here Salarian." The lead marine said.

"I am Major Kirrahe, ex-STG, and I have urgent news regarding the Reapers." Kirrahe replied.

"We'll see about tha-" The soldier started to say, before a message came in. The soldier answered it, before looking up at Kirrahe and saying "You may proceed. We have someone who wants to talk to you."

"Very well." Kirrahe followed the soldier, walking to a small room. Inside, several Alliance officers were waiting.

"You have information about the Reapers?" One of them asked, getting straight to the point.

"Yes. I have indisputable evidence that they have captured Sur'Kesh." Kirrahe said. The admirals were silent. Then one spoke a single word.

"Explain."

"The Reapers, as you all know, possess an indoctrination ability. This ability allows them to take control of any and all people that encounter their artifacts for extended periods of time. One of said artifacts ended up in Dalatrass Linron's possession. She used it to dispense indoctrination nanites into the ecosystem of Sur'kesh, indoctrinating most of the big cities in the span of a few weeks. We only managed to avoid it due to our outpost being in a remote location of the planet. We got off the day before the nanites would have otherwise overwhelmed us."

"I see. What is your recommended course of action?" The admiral asked.

"The Dalatrass is likely spreading the nanites to other worlds by now. It is likely that, in the time it took for us to slowly FTL our way here, she has succeeded in doing so."

"Why did you slowly FTL here?"

"The Reapers have shut down the Sur'kesh relay."

"Again, what do you want us to do?"

"Attack, fast. We need to contain this outbreak."

"I am afraid that we cannot do that. The fleet is stretched thin as it is, patrolling our new space. It will take approximately 3 years for us to finish refitting the Migrant fleet and the Geth armadas with our technology, and until then our limited fleet is all we have. We simply cannot spare the ships to attack Sur'kesh without leaving our space defenseless."

"WHAT? MY PEOPLE ARE BEING ENSLAVED, AND ALL YOU SAY IS MAYBE LATER?" Kirrahe screamed.

"Not 'maybe' later. Just later."

"That's not good enough! We need your support NOW! If we don't, there won't BE a salarian people left to save!"

"We are willing to send in ships to your outer colonies to begin evacuations, but we cannot mount a full scale invasion of Salarian space. We simply don't have the ships!"

"Very well. Its more than I expected, but far less than I had hoped."

"What do you want us to do? Send in rescue fleets with some kind of 'Miracle Cure' to Sur'kesh and take everyone away and heal them with rainbows? Just because we humans are leagues beyond the council doesn't mean we have a solution to all your problems."

"Ugh, fine. My ship stands ready to assist."

"Good. As for now, we need every scrap of data you have on the indoctrination process." The admiral said.

"Talk to Mordin Solus. He's our scientist." Kirrahe answered.

"Very well. Enjoy your stay at Gateway station." The admiral said, before turning and leaving, leaving Kirrahe stewing in his thoughts.

"Are you sure that the source of this information is valid?" The voice on the other side of the comm channel asked admiral Hackett.

"Yes. This information is valid." Hackett answered.

"This is... disturbing, to say the least. One nanite drop on one of our worlds and the whole damn place falls."

"I agree, sir. We need a way to counteract this. Has project Purge turned up anything yet?"

"No. Project Purge, in fact, has recently gone dark. We dispatched one of our frigates to investigate, only to find that the entire project crew had gone insane. We had to destroy our Aratoht research station, and we lost Object Rho in the process."

"Damn. We need a way to counter this indoctrination."

"Yes, and we managed to recover 6 Project Purge scientists before we destroyed the station. Experiments have turned up nothing."

"Are things so bad that we are experimenting on our own kind?"

"Those things that we recovered were no longer human. They were reaper puppets. Might as well discover what makes em' tick."

"What about our other projects?"

"Phalanx has reported a success. We can begin armoring our ships with Relay steel immediately. Also, projects Carnifex and Aegis are estimating 2 months til completion. Project Yamato has started construction."

"What about unthinkable?"

"The first test has been conducted in the Dholen system, which was the site of a former Quarian colony on Haestrom. The device accelerated the star's decay, but it will still take at least 30 years before it goes nova. Unless we can get the reapers trapped in a system for 30 years, we have nothing. The second test is due in three months.'

"Good. We'll need that firepower."

"Lets pray that we won't need it."

"Likewise." The channel cut out, ending the transmission. Hackett turned, and exited the room, heading for the Invincible's CIC.

May 1st, 2161

The evacuation of all non-indoctrinated Salarian colonies had been completed. Just over 100,000 Salarians had been evacuated. Several worlds were evacuated mid-indoctrination, and were glassed with antimatter warheads to contain the nanites. The Asari had provided a world for the survivors, in the middle of their space. What is left of the once proud Salarian people is now dependent on Asari care.

The second test of Project Unthinkable detonated a star near the corporate world of Noveria. The detonation was delayed by 3 days, but the project was deemed a success. Projects Carnifex, Aegis, and Echo have reported full success. Quarian and Geth ships could now be mounted with Antimatter cannons and Null barriers. However, Aegis self sustaining Null Barriers could not be mounted on anything smaller than a Geth Dreadnought, or a Quarian liveship. Standard Null barriers had to be used by all smaller ships. Meanwhile, the Turians have successfully conducted a test of their own antimatter cannon. They have begun refitting their Dreadnoughts to mount them. The Council had developed the Thanix Magnetohydrodymanic cannon, which fired a stream of ferrofluid at its target. This weapon gave council frigates near Dreadnought levels of firepower, and the Asari have made great use of it in the construction of their new Destiny class Dreadnoughts.

Jack Harper stood in his quarters on Vesta, reviewing this information.

"How much longer do you think we have?" Miranda Lawson, his chief aide, asked him.

"If I knew that, I would be an admiral, not a scientist. The data from Object Rho, however, revealed something interesting. The artifact emitted strange pulses, with the frequency of pulses increasing at a steady rate. Some of our scientists have had a theory that the pulses were a form of countdown until the reapers' arrival. If so, then we have 20 years, perhaps less." Jack replied.

"Then we have no time to lose."

"Exactly. Divert resources from Carnifex, Aegis, Mutation, and Phalanx to Project Hoplite."

"Yes sir."

A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUNNN! Just what is this mysterious Project Hoplite? You curious? WELL THAT'S TOO BAD, CUZ I AIN'T TELLIN YA!

Seriously though, I am thinking of ending Special Task earlier than anticipated, and writing a Sequel based on Shepard's adventures in this universe. Or, I can continue Special Task as a parallel story, although that would require me likely slowing update rate for this story due to ME's short timeframe.