EPILOGUE

Gillian lay in her hospital bed and looked up at the ceiling of the infirmary, she had awoken from surgery an hour earlier her squad mates and recruits from the military base had all bought get well balloons and candies even Rear Admiral O'gilve had visited with albeit news the crushing that Hendel, her mentor for the last three years was missing in action. Gillian kept the hope that she would one day see him again. The doctors instructed her that she would not be able to eat any until she had fully healed as she looked over at a box of chocolate longingly. Nick was snoring audibly in a nearby chair, he still had his armor under suit still from the night before and his black hair was a ruffled mess and Anna Kaye was relaxing on the bed beside her's the doctors said they were keeping her for observation so she flipping through channels on the room's vid screen. That moment Khalee Sanders entered the room. With a dark skinned man in an Alliance Admiral's uniform. Anna Kaye attempted to get out of bed to salute the Admiral. "At ease solider" said the man in a sharp military tone. The private then went back to a relaxed posture.

"GILLIAN I HEARD WHAT HAPPENED, ARE YOU OKAY" said Khalee, her hair was uncombed.

"Ms. Sanders, Hi, I'm good as can be" said the girl.

"This is all my fault Gillian and Hendel I can't believe they took him, I should have given your new Identity before you left the Migrant fleet" said Khalee

"It's okay Ms. Sanders we didn't even contact you until we had already landed on Illium they had probably been tracking us since then." said Gillian hoping to comfort a distraught Khalee.

"Hi Gillian I'm Admiral Anderson a good friend of Khalee here, I read Private masters mission report and I believe congratulations are in order, you and your squad were able hold off a Cerberus assault with mainly practice weapons. Private Anna Kaye you and Private Ricardo can expect commendations from myself and Rear Admiral O'gilve" said Admiral Anderson.

"I kinda got knocked out pretty early, Sir" said an embarrassed Anna Kaye.

"Don't be modest Private that Cerberus Assassin had heavy cybernetic augmentations she is being interrogated now".

Gillian leaned back on her pillow as her Omni tool began to flash. It was her big sister Jack, she answered the call.

"Hey, Heard you kicked some ass down there girl, Cerberus picked the wrong person to mess with, next time leave some of the action for me" Gillian's face lit up with an ear to ear grin.

"Will do Jack" she replied.

Cory was being lead by her alliance captors as an innocent lamb to slaughter could feel the increased influence of the mysterious second party still controlling her movements. On her way she recognized no less that twelve openings she could have easily exploited to escape with out the need for any blood shed but each time she was blocked.. She was being lead into a small room with world INTERVIEW ROOM ONE printed in bold letters. Her mairne escort secured her to the table and guided her to take one of the empty seats.

A Caucasian man in a pristine Lab jacket with the acronym N.C.I.S then entered and took a seat in front of her.

"Good Morning ma'am My name is Victor Cross a Medical Examiner with the Alliance. I just want to ask a few questions before the Detectives and Interrogators arrive, Full disclosure this session is being recorded" the man said

"Okay Mr Cross ask away" said Cory who was now quite certain that the Reapers were exerting control over her entire being and she had been kicked to the back seat of her own body.

"What is your name dear ?"

"Cory Kim, Cerberus operator"

Victor activated his omni tool typing in her name into the Alliance database "C-O-R-Y Kim, says you were Alliance dishonorably discharged for Killing a prisoner of war during the Blitz the file says he was the Slaver that took your younger brother, So tell me Cory, What is Cerberus up to these days and how do your upgrades play in"

"Cerberus is the Guardian for humanity, A treat is incoming we will stand to protect, We have something big planned" Cory's head then exploded sending blood over the room. Victor awkwardly staggered back off his chair as it fell to the ground from his surprise while fumbling for his side arm unaware of what happened. Two guards rushed in.

"I don't know what happened, she was talking then boom" said Victor his Voice shaking in confusion.

"Possibly a suicide explosive sir we checked her for cyanide capsules in her teeth but it looks like Cerberus has changed their methods" said the guard looking at the damage done to what was left of Cory's face.

Admiral Anderson was in the officer's chambers that had been organized for him looking over the mission reports and witness statements for the hundredth time he remembered getting an early morning call waking him from his slumber while he was on Earth from Rear Admiral O'gilve informing him that Cerberus had attacked a training exercise and one of his officers was missing in action. He sprang out of bed quickly got dressed and woke up the medical examiner Victor cross who was still on the base dragging him half asleep he booked an Alliance transport shuttle for Elysium. On his way he got a frantic call from Khalee Sanders explaining that one of her students had been attacked and ordered the shuttle to make a small diversion to pick her up at Grissom academy. The situation was surreal for both of them they had worked so hard and risked so much to take down Cerberus and now they had come the the grim realization the organization was back stronger that ever. The officer that was missing was no other than Hendel Mirtra, Khalee's good friend. Both Anderson and Khalee knew first hand what Cerberus was about to do to Hendel. She had held back the tears when she visited her former student who had been injured during the attack but now she was leaning on his chest quietly, her eyes were red from crying. Anderson did his best to console her.

Anderson came to the latest report on his data pad from Victor Thomas. The captured Cerberus operative had committed suicide in the interview room. This was no surprise to Anderson as over the years that was a popular move of Cerberus field operatives. The cryptic message she left however puzzled Anderson as he wondered if the Alliance would have to contend with Cerberus and the incoming Reapers. The examiner also inspected the scene of the attack finding the canisters that contained traces of the paralytic drug they used to incapacitate the Alliance Recruits he noted that it was similar to the serum from the collector swarms but the fact that they had not used more implied that it was prohibitively hard to synthesize or they had run out.

The Illusive man inhaled a hit from his favorite brand of tobacco cigarette while swirling a cold glass of brandy in his left hand, he was looking at twelve vid screens in his office each giving either live or delayed updates on the various operations taking place across the Galaxy. He contemplated sending another recovery team for Gillain Grayson but decided against it as Project Phoenix an Initiative to improve Human Biotics using Reaper based augmentations had been giving the same results with Dragoon operatives. Dr. Rotham team had been researching the schematics recovered from Kar'shan, they had learned that the Reapers seem to upload the collective knowledge of each Race they end in each cycle of extinction and store it in a device called a core resembling the race in each ship. The campaign Cerberus funded against the Collectors lead by commander Shepard destroyed the one they were creating for Humanity the remains of the gargantuan device was now housed on the Chronos station below. Lawson's work had already went through the majority colonists captured on Cyrene testing different configurations of the reaper nanides but still unsuccessful in finding an exploit. The Illusive man began to organize for more colonies to be captured a feat that would not be as easy due to the fact that the remnants of the seeker swarms were now fully expended. His omni tool flashed Dr. Rotham had sent him a message noting that he was ready for the latest demonstration of the mental compiler the device that used the infra sound signals of the Reapers to indoctrinate a subject aligning ideals with that of Cerberus. Hundreds of recruits had joined Cerberus' ranks after the agents in the media let is slip that the organization had defeated the Collectors but that number was nowhere near enough. Cerberus had to look to other sources that included some who may not be as co operative.

The Illusive man ascended form his chair and made his way to the training room. There he could see nine of the Alliance marines captured on Cyrene and Hendel all with electrodes placed over their heads, their skin showed that they each had been implanted with cybernetics. "Good evening Sir our first test of the Mental compiler is ready to be demonstrated using a Dragoon operative" said the Doctor as he removed the electrodes from Hendel. "Hendel move forward ten paces" Said Dr. Rotham. Hendel complied like an obedient child. "Impressive, send the schematics to our manufacturing plant and have them ready as soon as possible. "Indeed, sir, The device can also impart new moves, observe" "Hendel perform a Biotic whip on that practice dummy. The man complied without question he gathered dark energy forming two long visible blue whips then slapped them on the floor creating a shock wave like attack that devastated the helpless dummy. The Illusive man made a small smile but he knew all these achievements paled against the scale and size of the Reaper fleet. He felt as if he was a College student that had scribbled a few haphazard paragraphs to present as his Thesis before a panel but still held on to the hope that Humanity could survive.