TWO
Admiral Anderson was in a naval criminal investigative services room at the Earth systems alliance headquarters in Vancouver ,Canada on earth. The back wall of the room was filed with refrigeration units used to store cadavers of crimes that the Navy had Jurisdiction to investigate. The room itself was filled with various scientific equipment used to run forensic tests the modified of the late Paul Grayson was lying on a metallic observation table with a young man sitting beside it. It had been two weeks since the attack on Grissom Academy the preliminary results were in and the Admiral was present to hear the report in person.
"Good morning Admiral my name is Victor Thomas it is truly an honor to meet you, after the Geth attack on Eden prime, three years earlier the then Admiral Hackett created a research team to determine the nature of the modified humans called husks, I am a medical examiner from the team " said the young man of Caucasian descent.
"Show me what your team found regarding to Grayson" said Anderson
"The findings are interesting to say the least our cybernetics specialists found six forms of nanobots modified versions of the ones found in husks present in the body"
the technician said as he used his omni tool to activate a video screen in the room, the screen showed what appeared to be six distinct magnified cell like structures.
"This one can convert fats and minerals in the body to use as a power source ,this one can construct the internal circuitry needed for the components by using the body's carbon to make metals by a process we have yet to even begin comprehending ,this one shows similarities with quantum engagement communication possibly a link to the creators of this technology we have not been able to pinpoint their location or decrypt the communication protocols, this one is able to manipulate bone and muscle structures making them exponentially stronger, . This one can be used to manipulate dark energy as Biotics do, even in a previously non biotic person as Mr Grayson here. This one is most interesting however it is able to actually manipulate or rewrite the brains synapses and electo-chemical responses but unlike the ones present in husks that takes over at least ninety percent of the brains in corpses we have observed over the years this one only took over around sixty percent we speculate that Mr. Grayson would have had the ability to do high level tasks and retain some of his personality unlike the average husk" said the tech
"Grayson was accessing test data on the biotic students while he was at the academy,... Could Cerberus possibly drop the manipulation of the brain even further and deploy this on a large scale ?"
"Theoretically yes, all the nanobots are capable of self replicating given a power source and minerals they could easily make a weak lab rat like me into a strong front line solider in a few hours if they find a way to control the neural overwrite then the outcome would be sinister."
"Thank you to and your team for this excellent work, can you send me all the data and findings ?"
Anderson felt distraught, the strikes on Cerberus bases had been a crippling blow to the organization but the fact that they could easily rebuild and even surpass their previous strength using this technology troubled him. The council had to be warned however he had to no reason to go to the citadel in person as a short video conference with the council would suffice to inform them about this development.
Anderson having left the lab proceeded to his personal office a small room with a mahogany desk flanked by the emblem of the Earth systems alliance and his home country of England.A large window was also present with a view of the earth systems alliance headquarters he could see a well kept grounds with ut-47 drop shuttles flying around a few Mako armored personnel carriers driving about and various officers and their families . Taking a seat he booted up his personal computer and sent messages requesting a meeting with each of the four council members an hour later the video calls from each councilor were incoming.
"Good evening councilors"
"Good evening" replied each councilor simultaneously
" I've sent the medical examinations done on a Paul Grayson who recently attacked the Grissom academy killed three staff members entered the academy's OSD library apparently in an attempt to steal research"
Anderson had been cautious not to mention the word "Reaper" as the council were reluctant to believe that the massive star ship sovereign that had attacked the citadel three years prior was not a Geth ship even worse it was part of an entire race of star ships.
"Interesting the special tasks group has intelligence on Grayson that tags him as Cerberus he went off grid about two years earlier, Speaking of Cerberus the recent strikes by general Orina's strike teams should put end the organization right ?" said councilor Valern the Salarian representative
"Unfortunately no, Grayson had allegedly defected from Cerberus it was his intelegence reports that led us to the bases. we believe Cerberus captured him and implanted him with the nanobots found in husks to create a form of super solider his capabilities were quite formidable from what I saw. Our scientists speculate that they will use this technology to attempt creating a new army possibly larger than before." said Anderson
"Spirits ! if that is realized then the operation at least cleaned out high level members from the Alliance" said Spartus the Turian councilor.
"Cerberus is creating an army of super solders using husk technology ? Don't be ridiculous David they are a small terrorist group who got popular for stopping the collectors they are but a memor after the recent raids" said Councilor Udina
" Councilor Udina you have to see the facts before you, they are still a clear and present danger we cannot ignore the detailed findings of the NCIS" shouted Anderson
I will forward this military and intelligence officials we will definitely be on high alert Admiral Goddess be with you." said Councilor Tevos the Asari councilor"
"Thank you for this meeting councilors I have nothing further to present" one by one the councilors ended the short meeting he called it a victory as all the Councilors except Udina had seemed to be taking the threat of a Cerberus army seriously and Udina didn't matter as the Alliance was already making preparations.
Admiral Anderson left his office and proceeded down a hall to preliminary hearings for the ?Commander Shepard case being overseen by the defense committee a joint group of tacticians and military leaders and judges from across the systems alliance military. He passed the communication room that contained live feeds of intelligence reports from all off world colonies and information gathered by clandestine agents from non human worlds, being collated and organized by a room of analysts the guards and younger officers all saluted him as he walked by. the words Alliance courtroom was printed on a near by room which Anderson entered. The room had a large table in front of a large window with a view of the city scape of Vancouver, around the table sat Admiral Monica Morales a stout woman of Latin descent sat in a single seat infront of ranking admirals and rear admirals on either side. the room was filled with seated Majors and staff commanders and a single Batarian who made no attempts to hide her obvious anger, behind a small podium to the left sat a young operations chief who was a veteran of Fhel prime one of the colonies attacked by the collectors.
" Lieutenant James Vega and our team were tasked with constructing Guardian anti ship cannons to protect the colony of Fhel Prime from the collectors, It was a normal day our scanners picked up some strange reading a few miles from the city one of the colonists gave us a decomissioned M-35 mako as we did not have any long range vehicle so we drove out to investigate and found what we thought was a Prothean relic it was broadcasting a jamming signal blocking all our long range communications we were ordered to destroy it, An Asari Archaeologist name Dr. Treyaa had taken the remains to be analyzed at a Prothean dig site that when it happened, I saw a massive ship fly over us, I thought the collectors were a myth but that day proved me wrong . The attack came fast, the collectors used a swarm of bugs to deliver a paralytic to the colonists and before we knew it every one was frozen in place and the collectors had started loading the colonists into pods with flight capability and sending them one by one to their ship. We fought our way to the Guardian anti ship cannons and got them operational and were waiting on them to fully charge however Our Lieutenant decided to fire them at half strength to minimize damage to the colonists on board the ship the attack had no effect and gave away our position the collectors.
The retaliated and destroying the cannon as we ran to an alliance research facility that was recently set up, While there our technical officer was able to synthesize an antidote for the paralyzing toxin in the collector swarms we then found a Krogan prisoner that had attacked the colony two years prior, turns out he had a ship hidden away on the colony we used it infiltrate the collector ship by firing through one of it's cannons and entering there. We were however betrayed once inside by the colonist who had given us the Mako he was a Cerberus agent, he betrayed us killing the Krogan Prisoner piloting he ship preventing him from destroying the ship's drive core and allowed the collectors to capture us using their paralizing toxin. he then forced Dr. Treeya access a specialized computer on the collector ship it only worked via a mental link all Asari have, it showed the fall of the Protheans their conversion to collectors and the reason they had been taking humans they were building a Reaper ship for their masters. Luckily we had taken the antidote to their toxin earlier and were able to escape via a ship the collectors had taken aboard, we destroyed the collector ship's drive core but not before Dr. Treeya was spaced, she had taken the data forcing Lieutenant Vega to make a choice between saving the Colonists or the data, he choose the data in the hope that it could be used to save more colonies from the Collectors " said the chief his voice starting to break up as he held back tears.
"Thank you chief Milque " said Admiral Monica Morales as Anderson entered the room.
Anderson went up to take a seat at the large table fellow solders nodded acknowledging his arrival the operations chief left the stand that moment the Batarian stood up
" THE HEGOMONY DEMANDS A RESPONSE FOR THE ALPHA RELAY INCEDENT THIS HEARING IS A WASTE OF TIME" shouted the Batarian.
"Counselor Kerent'Halat we have commander Shepard in custody, Admiral Anderson here brought in the commander who is now being watched by military guard a tribunal is being set up to determine the nature of the incident this preliminary hearing serves to provide multiple witnesses to the existence of the Reapers and their possible agents, we invited you out respect as a representative of the Hegemony " said Admiral Monica Morales in a calm but controlling tone.
" A TRIBUNAL ? , THE COMMANDER SHOULD BE COURT MARTIALLED FOR KILLING SO MANY OVER SOME CRAZY THEORY." shouted the Batarian.
"You seem to misunderstand counselor The commander is being tried as a civilian for actions taken while serving with Cerberus,however if you continue these outbursts I will have you removed from these proceedings" said Admiral Monica Morales retaining her Military composure.
The Batarian attorney returned to her seat. A Caucasian man in his early thirties then took a seat at the podium and a bailiff handed him a bible to swear on
"I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God" said the man
"Please state your name and occupation for the record" said Monica Morales
"Thomas Ellis mechanic for the Horizon Colony sir"
"Tell us about the events of the Collector attack on Horizon"
"It was after those alliance types installed that GUARDIAN planetary defense system they never got it to work but one day swarms of little bugs came out of the sky followed by a insect hive looking ship people just started freezing in place and then those flying bug looking things loaded them into pods I ran into my garage and was lucky enough to escape them, locked down the place that's when Commander Shepard hacked the door or something and came in, I detailed the attack and gave directions to the the the GUARDIAN system the commander fought off those guys and fixed the GUARDIAN system but half the colony had been taken by the collectors even Lilith the colony mayor.
"Thank you Mr. Ellis" said Hackett
"Admiral also note that docket forty one states that the Naval Criminal Intelligence Service has established a link between the husk and Scion corpses that were found on Horizon with the ones on Eden prime during the Geth Attacks two years earlier" said Major Maya lee-chan an officer in the navy and military lawyer the counselor representing Commander Shepard.
"That is irrelevant Commander Shepard is deluded and his Reaper theory caused the death of three hundred thousand" shouted Counselor Kerent'Halat
"Every single species has distinct designs, methodology, to their entire culture Salarians have espionage and mastery of the natural Sciences Turians are masters of the Military arts and we Humans can be called Jack of all the trades. The artificially modified organic beings used as shock troops such as husks are the sign of Reaper involvement not only does the construction of the nano bots used to modify the collectors bear striking similarities to the ones used by the Geth to create husks. They have alos been present at many attacks on Human colonies not limited to those encountered by Commander Shepard. Also the DNA analysis on Collector drones match archaeological samples form ancient Prothean sites giving some credibility to the claim that they have been in operation of eons long before the Quarins even thought of inventing the Geth, so yes counselor it is quite relevant in this case as Commander Shepard destroyed the Alpha relay to delay an invasion by these beings."
The meetings went on for the rest day survivors of Eden prime and Horizon gave testimonies while scientists presented research findings allowing the alliance brass begin determining the nature of the Reaper threat.