Shuttle in orbit of Elerise
Javik did not want anyone else coming with them. As a result, Liara was now piloting the shuttle towards the ruins of the prothean city.
Piloting was just one of the skills she picked up in the last two decades. When she graduated the University of Serrice, she naively thought she was going to spend the rest of her life as archeologist. Her plan was a century or two on dig sites and then get a teaching job on her Alma Mater. But now, she was an expert in fields she never even imagined – biotics, weapons, demolitions, electronics, intelligence gathering.
And all thanks to an impromptu encounter with the first human spectre… who also became her bondmate and father of her children.
It was not all thanks to Shepard's influence though. There were times where she was truly alone and still had to fight and learn – after the destruction of the first Normandy and during Shepard's imprisonment on Earth.
And however painful her time on Illium was, it forced her to really grow up. She changed so much in those two short years that when she met Shepard again, they nearly did not recognize each other anymore…
"Rrr, are we there yet, asari?" Javik growled from his seat, interrupting her reverie.
She rolled her eyes. "For the hundredth time, I have a name, Javik… and yes, we are just coming for a landing."
The city was in good condition despite being 48 500 years old. The protheans built their structures to last. In addition, the part of the city that Javik selected as their landing site was in excellent condition, minimizing any danger. Liara landed the shuttle in middle of large open plaza that, while dirty, was clear of any rubble.
They exited the shuttle and she saw the city for the first time with her own eyes. There were not many prothean ruins that well preserved in the wider galaxy. The only exceptions were the hardly accessible ruins of Feros and the Archives on Ilos. The rest was destroyed by looters or erased by elements long ago.
Remembering well the early lessons of her studies, Liara knew that the prothean artifacts were classified into 4 time periods from the oldest to youngest.
After discovery of this city, she knew that a fifth period would have to be defined just for it.
The buildings were similar enough to the last known prothean styles of the fourth period, but the cultural gap was obvious in their architecture style.
The structures were stark. Gone was the extravagance and luxury associated with the peak of their empire. Reduced to a single star system, this city was prothean's last refuge. Functionality and resource conservation must have been their main concern.
According to Javik, the place they landed in was a communal center of the colony. The plaza was surrounded by slowly decaying public buildings. In distance, one could see few skyscrapers emerging from the otherwise homogenous urban landscape.
Located in an arid part of Elerise, the city was not overgrown with vegetation as the Archives on Ilos. The satellite images indicated that a river used to run through it, but it changed its direction eons ago, leaving the city dry and desert like.
Javik and she walked away from the shuttle in the direction of one of the more important looking buildings.
The last prothean kept looking around as if searching for the ghosts of his people. As for Liara, she had her omni-tool up and was taking pictures and video records of everything they encountered.
In the following years, there would be a rush to research this place. Javik is going to hate that, but that's just how it will be. Even now, there was still much people of this cycle could learn from the protheans. All Liara could do was try and document the city while it was still unspoiled…
Suddenly, both Liara and Javik jumped into battle stance as they heard a noise coming from a pile of rubble that they just walked by. Javik grunted in annoyance when he saw that it was merely a small rodent like creature that made its living there. He immediately resumed his walk, but Liara stopped him.
"Javik, wait!" she said, looking and pointing at the creature in excitement.
"What?"
"That creature. It's called Toluuka," she explained. "And it's from Thessia."
"Asari were really here…" she whispered in awe.
Javik was still not convinced. "Are you certain?" he said, looking at the creature with suspicion. It squeaked under his gaze and jumped back into the rubble.
"My people could have brought it with them… what does it do? Is it tasty?"
Liara smiled. "It does nothing really… it is neither useful nor tasty."
"But it is very cuddly and loyal when domesticated. Ancient asari used to keep it as a pet."
Liara supposed that it was possible the protheans brought Toluuka as pets, but somehow she doubted it. The idea of Javik petting a purring animal on his lap did not sit right with her.
"Absolutely not! Wasting resources on useless animals was punishable by death within the empire," Javik responded when she suggested it.
Liara was glad when he said that because it meant that all of it had to be true… this planet was not only the last prothean colony but also the first asari colony.
Normandy
"There it is again…" Tali cursed under her breath.
Shepard ordered her to monitor the relay, but since there was absolutely no change in its status in the last five hours, she put it on automatics.
Meanwhile, she worked on focusing all of the ship's sensors on the planet below. There will be many follow-up surveys to be sure. The wreckage of the Crucible alone should keep citadel engineers busy for years to come. Still, the more data they'd bring back, the bigger the success of their mission.
Everything was going well… but then Tali spotted an almost invisible discrepancy in the received data. It was noticeable only after she did a detailed and focused survey of the planet's surface.
"The probability indicates that our readings are influenced by the galactic core or the residual energy from the Crucible, Tali'Zorah," the geth told her.
"I know, Chiktikka," she admitted. "But in worst case, it could also mean that we are receiving false or inaccurate data."
"The probability of such conclusion is less than 0.6 %."
"Call it organic paranoia, then."
The machine flapped its head plates at her in curiosity. "Geth are incapable of paranoia, Tali."
The quarian nodded. "And sometimes, I envy you," she whispered even as she ordered the computer to thoroughly analyze the readings.
Liara and Javik reached the large building.
"This was the imperial chamber…" he told her as he looked at it. "The seat of our government," he added to explain.
"How can you know that?" Liara questioned him. Javik was prothean, but even he was 1500 years out of time here.
"It is a crude copy of the Chamber on our original homeworld," he explained, pointing at the lines of the structure.
"It also proves that this is the last colony my people… they would rebuild it on this planet only if certain that everything else was lost to them."
Liara did not know what to say. She was about to tell him that she was sorry, but Javik already surged forward towards the building.
"Javik, wait! You can't go inside, it's too dangerous!" she warned him.
Even though they seemed stable enough, it could still be deadly frolicking through forty eight thousand years old buildings without repairs.
Fortunately, Javik did not go inside the building. Instead, he stopped near a large stone column that was positioned at its entrance.
"This is it… that is why I wanted to come to this place… before any alien primitives polluted it with their presence. I prayed that it would still be here… the Memorial," he said, looking worshipfully at the stone.
"It contains the history of my people. I… we can learn what truly happened here," he told her while tracing the column with his hand.
Liara scanned the column with her omni-tool only to find nothing. The column was made out of smooth stone and contained no visible writing. Liara was confused. She was about to ask him what he meant when she realized.
"Your ability… you can read it like you did with your room on Normandy,"
The prothean nodded. "Yes. Since ancient times, structures like these were often used to permanently record our history. Events embedded into it like a memory."
"Won't the trace be decayed already like it was at that supply depot?" Liara asked in curiosity.
"No. Special measures were taken so that the record would not decay like it would in the open," he explained.
He began to take of his gloves. Liara wanted to remind him about the radiation, but according to Dr. Michel, the inoculation should protect him for a short while. Besides, it was clear that Javik would not let anything stop him from touching that stone. She wished him good luck and walked away few paces to give him some privacy.
She only hoped that the truth was not going to be too painful for him…
"Tali… what is the situation?" Shepard asked as she walked into room.
"Shepard. I was just about to call you! We may have a problem."
At first, Shepard feared there was something wrong with the mass relay, but then Tali showed her sensory readings of the planet.
"What am I looking at?"
"Some time ago, I have detected this… a small discrepancy in the received data," Tali showed her.
"Interesting… but then again, there is a lot of interference here," Shepard immediately pointed out.
"I know, but take a look at this…" Tali would not give up. She displayed the map of the planet and overlay it with the detected interference.
"The interference is only occurring in specific areas! Now, it could be natural or…"
"… artificial," Shepard finished her thought. "Which would mean that somebody is down there."
"Exactly. Chiktikka thinks it is nothing, but…"
"Based on new information, the probability of your theory has been updated to 12.3 %, Tali'Zorah," the geth informed them.
Shepard frowned as she looked at the planet's map. Her instincts were screaming at her at that moment.
Something wasn't right here.
"Focus on this, Tali," Shepard decided. "I need to know if this is a natural phenomenon or not…"
"Will do."
Shepard walked away. As soon, as she was out of the room, she tapped her ear bud.
"Joker, patch me to the ground team immediately…"
A moment, later, she heard here bondmate.
"Shepard… what is it?" Liara asked in concerned voice.
"I want you and Javik to wrap things up and return... the Elerise might not be as uninhabited as we thought."
She quickly explained the situation to Liara who then agreed to come back as soon as Javik finished using his ability.
"Be careful, Liara… something is wrong here."
As Javik touched the stone with his bare fingers, he was instantly overloaded with thousands of images and information embedded within.
Back within his days, it would not happen to him. Unfortunately, his long stay among the primitives left him unable to train and it somewhat dulled his abilities. It took him a moment to focus on the specifics.
He saw how the colony came to be. A group of protheans invented a new cloaking device, capable of evading even the reapers. They used it to bypass the massive blockade at the Serpent Nebula and reached this system. Once there, they managed to stay hidden until the harvest was over and the reapers left the galaxy.
Javik also saw that Liara was correct as well. The colony was founded by people from the asari uplift project. When they ran from the reapers, they took the asari with them. The New Elerise was found.
To prevent discovery, the prothean survivors chose not to venture back out into the galaxy. Instead, they slowly built the super-weapon that was supposedly capable to destroy the reapers once and for all. Javik saw that the plan ultimately backfired on them in the manner that they already guessed.
But when he focused on the last records, he got confused. In the aftermath of the Crucible's activation, people were dying from the radiation… that much was clear. But there was no desperate record of the last survivor.
Instead, there was a strong mental imprint in its place:
"The empire will endure."
He let go of the stone, deep in thought.
"If they all died, how could the empire endure?" he thought.
He looked behind him. Liara was waiting for him at the edge of the plaza. She has just finished speaking into her radio and was signaling him to come to her. There was a sudden change in the way the wind was blowing and he looked closely at the ruins around him as he sniffed the air.
And then it struck him.
"Of course. The empire could endure… because not all of them died"
Javik silently growled as his four eyes narrowed. He should have felt it before. He was so overwhelmed by this place that he didn't…. and so he allowed himself to walk into an ambush.
"They were not alone on this planet. The enemies have surrounded them… and they were about to attack. His time among the primitives must have really dulled his senses…"
With lightning reflexes he drew his assault rifle and readied his biotics.
He was about to warn his companion when he felt something hitting him in the exposed skin of his hand – the one place not currently covered by his armor. He lifted his hand to see what it was.
A dart.
His four eyes rolled into his head as he helplessly fell to the ground.
Liara saw Javik collapse to the ground as two armored figures suddenly appeared near him.
"Shepard was right," she thought even as she prepared to defend herself. She primed her biotics, ready to deploy a singularity near them.
However, before she could to that, more armored figures decloaked, this time around her… four. Ten.
They all wore helmets and she could not see who they were. Although, judging by the prothean particle rifles they carried, she had a good guess. They were all aiming at her and she knew that she stood no chance.
With no way out, she put her hands up, hoping that the gesture of surrender was culturally universal.
Along with the motion, she inconspicuously activated her distress beacon. She silently cursed when it twice vibrated against her skin, indicating that it was being actively jammed and could not reach Normandy.
"We mean you no harm!" she tried calling to them in the prothean language.
The attackers did not react as they edged closer and closer…
"What did you learn, Tali?" Shepard asked as the quarian engineer came running into the CIC.
"Shepard, it's a cloaking device!" Tali announced breathlessly. "Someone is using a cloak to mask a large portion of that planet."
"How is that possible?" Shepard wondered in astonishment. "We did visual surveys… I thought the cloaking device could only mask energy emissions"
Instantly, she remembered Legion and the no windows policy on geth ships.
"Not this one…" Tali clarified. "If I am right, they can hide or replace all emissions, even light. They can literally make us see whatever they want"
"Tali'Zorah is correct" Chiktikka joined them in the CIC. "She decoded the seed number used to generate the random signal…"
Shepard nodded. As an engineer, she could fully appreciate the difficulty of what Tali just accomplished.
Unfortunately, she did not have time to give her the praise she deserved.
"Liara!" she screamed into her microphone. "We have confirmed presence on the planet. Get back now!"
"Understood, Shepard. We are returning now," Liara replied.
Meanwhile, Shepard considered their situation. They have been transmitting messages ever since entering the system.
If there was someone on the planet with such high level technology, she had to assume they heard the messages alright but chose to ignore them.
"Or perhaps they did not believe us…" Shepard had a terrifying thought.
Regardless, the smart thing to do was to withdraw and carefully consider their next moves.
She nervously eyed the monitor which showed Javik's and Liara's position in relation to the shuttle. After few minutes, she frowned as they were moving to it in an absurdly sluggish pace.
"Liara, what's taking so long? We have to get out of here!"
"The road was damaged, Shepard. We are doing the best we can. Liara out."
Shepard cursed. Another ten minutes and they were still not in the shuttle…
Just as she was about to shout again, Tali inconspicuously gestured at her to mute the channel.
"Shepard… we are now detecting the same kind of discrepancy directly from their position," Tali said when she muted the channel.
"Are you saying… oh god," Shepard realized what it meant and gulped down.
"Could somebody be impersonating Liara?"
She turned the microphone back on. "Liara… can you please give me your personal identification code?"
Nothing but silence on the other side.
"Liara?"
Suddenly, the signal from the ground team went dead and their lifesigns instantly vanished from the display.
Before anyone could say another word, half of the consoles in Normandy's CIC sounded an alarm.
Not only did the ground team and the shuttle disappear, but Joker now had even more shocking report.
"Shepard… the mass relay just vanished from our sensors!" he reported.
"How can the relay…" she began saying before turning to Tali. "Can they possibly cloak an entire relay?"
Tali shrugged. "It would not surprise me…"
"Shepard-spectre," Chiktikka spoke. "If we immediately jump to the relay's last known coordinates, we should still be able to calculate its present position."
"No," she decided right away.
To do so, they would have to leave their people behind. She was not going to do that. And she was just about done playing this hide and seek game. She ordered that communication be opened on all channels.
"To the inhabitants of this world… we did not come to harm you. Everything we said in our broadcasting is the truth. The reapers are gone and the galaxy is free. We only wish to establish peaceful relations with your people"
"However, know that we consider kidnapping of our crewmembers an act of aggression and will respond accordingly"
She waited a minute for a reply that never came. If they were heard, they were again ignored. Obviously, whoever was hiding on Elerise thought she was making empty threats. By hiding the relay, they prevented Normandy from escaping or calling for reinforcements… or so they assumed.
"Thank the god for the QEC…" Shepard thought as she turned to the geth.
"Chiktikka, use Normandy's quantum communicator… inform the Citadel and the geth about the recent development here," she instructed.
"Please request a geth fleet to stand by… if we do not report for more than an hour, have them come here. And warn them to use reaper IFFs."
The invasion of synthetics was not the brightest diplomatic move. Unfortunately, the geth were the only navy in the galaxy with enough ships equipped with reaper IFFs.
Contrary to what the public believed, only certain kinds of reaper technology were destroyed by the Crucible. Namely, the unique components responsible for reaper sentience, like their main CPUs and quantum blue boxes. The Crucible also completely destroyed the nanotechnology responsible for indoctrination.
However, the more conventional portions of their 'bodies', such as the ship mounted weaponry and FTL drives were left fully functional.
After the victory, the allied war council decided to have the reaper corpses carved up and salvaged for useful resources and equipment. Of course, only when it was thoroughly verified that indoctrination was no longer a threat.
It was a controversial decision, but since illegal salvage was going to happen regardless, they figured that all of galaxy might as well profit and not just few criminals. Besides, scrapping of the reaper's oversized eezo cores alone was a large boost to the otherwise decimated galactic economy.
The salvaged reaper tech was distributed equally among the victorious allies or at their special request.
Since the geth planned to thoroughly explore the relay network in the following years, they asked for large number of the reaper IFFs and the war council granted their request.
Shepard was glad they did because now it meant that they could assist Normandy, if necessary…
Chiktikka's headlights blinked few more times before it confirmed the order.
"The message has been transmitted. The reinforcements are ready and awaiting your orders, Shepard-spectre."
"Good" Shepard thought. In the meantime, Normandy can look for Liara and Javik.
"We may have yet another problem…" Joker announced over the intercom.
"I am detecting an approaching ship… apparently, it's a prothean battlecruiser. And it is powering weapons."
"So it's true…" Shepard thought in shock.
Despite all odds, the protheans were still alive… and they were attacking them!
"Prepare for battle."