Chapter. 29
Blaze1992 asked about complications due to Solana ingesting levo DNA. I actually forgot about that at the time but fortunately, on Pinnacle station Solana talked about how it's more of an allergic reaction that someone might or might not have and there are tests you can take to be sure (like the test to see if your allergic to bees)
Sora Shovesha asked about tali being involved in the shower and while I was considering to have her join in on an alternative scene there is the problem of her needing her suit and the fact the bathroom wasn't clear. That, and I'm unsure if taking parts of her suit off while leaving the majority on would have worked.
Watched the latest Guardians of the Galaxy on the weekend. I'm surprised there aren't more fanfics between the Guardians and mass effect, I can totally see Yondo shouting "I'm Mary Poppins y'all!"
Good personal news everyone. After nearly a year in county court the appeal to my wife's intervention order was finally dismissed. Lets just hope that the other party finally gives up and stops bothering us.
story start
"Huh, I could have sworn I heard something." I said to myself before returning to a still nude Gamora "Now where were we?"
The sex might have come to an end but that didn't mean the fun was.
In the end, we used up both our shower time and only just managed to finish washing any soap off before the water cut off.
After finishing the shower we eventually got dressed and exited the bathroom, finding an empty sleep pod I hesitated.
"Hey Gamora, want to join me?" I asked "It will be a bit tight but we should both fit."
" I would like that." answered Gamora
Climbing inside it was a bit more cramped then I hoped. I was pressed against one side of the pod while Gamora layed half on her side and half on me.
Pressing the button enter sleep mode the pod retracted into the side of the ship. As Gamora's hand trailed down my arms her fingers found the large oval ring I always wore.
"I've wondered why you always wear his?" asked Gamora "Does it mean something?"
"It's my clan crest." I answered as her finger ran over the raised castle in the centre of the ring.
The castle was detailed enough that you could make out out the bumps and ridges that made up the 'stones' the castle was made of. Framing the castle were two oval rings, one inner and one outer with the words VIRTUE MINE HONOUR embossed between them. At the bottom of the ovals was belt buckle turning the two ovals into a belt with the excess looped over it.
"The words on it are virtue mine honour. Its the clan moto of the Macleans, it means my virtue is my honour."
"It suits you." responded Gamora as she held onto my arm and that is the position we fell asleep in.
The next day
Hours later we were both awoken the by the sound of our omni-tools going off.
"This is a message to all ground crew, IIlos is 45 minutes away and the Commander wants you to get ready." come Joker's voice over both our omni-tools at once.
"You ready for this?" I asked
Giving me a kiss, Gamora answered
"As long as you are by my side I will be."
Leaving the sleep pod we got a couple of glances from those who were already up before sitting down to eat. None of them were the ground crew though, I guess most of them were already in the cargo making last-minute preparations. Grabbing a few nutrient bars we headed for the elevator.
Entering the cargo bay we started to strap our gear on, almost everyone else was already ready aside from Shepard who hasn't yet joined us.
On my left shoulder was my Settler rifle, on my left hip was my ever-present Fat Bastard with my sword right next to it while on my other hip was my bow. On the holter usually used for shotguns was my assault rifle, modified to take universal heat clips and something that I expected to use a lot more than I usually did. On my right shoulder was the heavy ammo I was carrying for Shepard. On top of that I was carrying my own ammo plus my arrows wrapped with explosives
Gamora had her Dirty Harry on her hip, assault rifle and shotgun all in their standard holsters while she carried another heavy ammo pack in the holster typically used for snipers.
After checking to ensure everything was secure, I didn't want to take any changes of something falling off, the elevator diggned an Shepard stepped out in full gear.
"Is everyone ready?" asked Shepard getting nods all around "Good, I just spoke to Joker in the cockpit. Told him to get us as close to where ever Saren is as he possibly can. Now this is going to be a bumpy ride so make sure everything is secured, I don't want something breaking because someone fell on it." ordered Shepard
"Hey Commander?" said a female operative over the lago bay comms "We're picking up a signal but there's only one place nearby that you can even land but it's small...to be extremely crass Commander it's like the micro dick of micro dicks of landing zones, even if Joker gives you the perfect arch, even with VI assistance you could end up stuck on a roof or wedged between something."
"I can get you there Commander." promised Joker
"Joker you'll be threading a needle at thousands of kilometres a second. If get the Commander killed she's going to put a boot up your ass." promised/threatened the female operator
"I can do it!" repeated Joker
"I trust you Joker, get us as close to Saren as you can get us." said Shepard
"Aye aye Commander." responded Joker seriously
"Okay, everyone you heard them. Everyone in the mako and strap in, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
Climbing into the mako I make sure all my straps are tight. At the front of the mako were Shepard and Ash while the rest of the seats were filled up by Gamora who sat next to me. Liara, Kaiden and Tali who sat opposite to me. In the centre of the mako tied down, was the power source for the VI and two crates of ammo.
"Commander are you ready?" asked Joker
"Ready when you are." answered Shepard
"In that case 3..2...now!" exclaimed Joker
Pressing down hard on the accelerator we flew out of cargo bay before flying towards the planet. Keeping an eye on the readings Shepard carefully balances between getting to the planet as quickly as possible and landing in one piece.
As soon as we landed Shepard activated the thrusters trying to build up speed as quickly as possible. While the cannon and turret fired above us Shepard tried to bridge the distance.
"Comeoncomeoncomeoncomeoncomeon...FUCK!" swore Shepard suddenly as she slammed on the breaks and we skidded to a stop.
"I'm guessing we didn't make it?" I asked Tali
"Not unless we wanted to risk tearing off the gun or having our ass crushed. 9 out of 10 there's no safety features stopping that door from crushing anyone under it when it closes. Any chance we can blast our way through it?" asked Shepard
After looking at some readings Tali answered
"I don't think so. The door is incredibly thick and dense. Even if we can break the door up we'll have to then clear the rumble to get through. I'm also not picking up any electric signatures, whereever the console to open it is, its not here."
"Well then, we just have to find it " said Shepard turning the mako around "Ash did you see Saren when you were firing?"
"No Commander, but I was able to thin his army a bit." answered Ash
"Normandy this is Shepard, we've engaged with some of Saren's forces and are going to pursue them." ordered Shepard
"On it Commander...good luck and don't get yourselves killed." said Joker
A short time latter we had to come to a stop as the road in front of us ended.
"What's the problem?" asked Kaiden
"Bottleneck up ahead, too narrow for the mako to get through." answered Ash "I have to say this place is quite defensive. First that door that belongs on a bunker and now this. With the right amount of resources and equipment, a handful of troops could hold back a small amy here for hours if not more. I'm glad we didn't land on the on the other side of this."
"This was probably one of their last strongholds, they wouldn't have given it up without a fight." said Shepard "Tali can we break through this one?"
"I don't think so Shepard. Its just as thick as the door back there and there's some evidence that someone's tried to break it up." answered Tali
"So in other words Saren's tried to blow it up but given up, either its too hard or was taking too long." said Ash before something occurred to her "Hold on, I saw geth tanks on the other side of the door! How'd they get through?"
"The geth can be dissembled and then reassembled." answered Tali "I'm guessing they could have been taken apart and then walked through."
"The ceilings also open. Unlike us they didn't have to be worried about being shot down, geth ships could have just hovered and dropped them in." added Shepard "However, I doubt we interrupted Saren on his way to invade the Citadel, more likely he was planning on putting a few more geth on ground first so hopefully we've cut down a bit on how big a force he puts through the miniature relay. Now we can't leave the mako here, while I like the idea of all of us getting out and taking the geth out before finding the override controls we need the mako. Even if the miniature relay is close, which I doubt. We still need something to protect us as we use it to travel. If a single geth sneaks past us to do so much as jack our wheels we're stuck here however the only ones here that can fully operate the mako on their own are Ash and Kaiden. One is our heavy and the other has biotic and tech abilities, Callum do you remember anything that happens here?"
Thinking carefully I answered "I'm not sure. My memories on what happens on Illos are incredibly faint, all I can remember is some statues, some buildings and open spaces. The console we need is either indoors or out in the open I can't remember sorry. What I can remember is that there are a number of the geth tanks we have to deal with. Though if you're right about interrupting Saren moving geth down to the relay there could be more.'
"Armature of Colossus?" asked Shepard
"Armature I think." I answered
"...Kaiden stay here with the mako, back up and man the gun. Ash you're with me, you're the only one that's practiced using the new backpack and we already have three biotics and Tali as a tech expert."
"Understood Commander, I'll let you know if I run into any problems while you're gone." answered Kaiden
After everyone aside from Kaiden climbed out we headed through the bottleneck. While the area behind us and to the door was roughly the length of a mako the bottleneck wasn't even half of that as the walls folded inwards, almost meeting. Shoulder to shoulder there was enough room for two krogan or geth Primes but that was it.
As the mako backed up we made our way through the bottleneck.
Shepard and I went first, Shepard with her grenade launcher out and me with my Fat Bastard. Almost immediately we came under fire, the geth must have known that attacking us on the other side of the bottleneck where only a few could attack at the same time and they were in sight of the mako was a waste of time. So instead they waited for us to come to them.
As Shepard fired two grenades at the nearest geth I created the largest biotic shield I could to stop those behind us from coming under fire. When Ash appeared she immediately opened fire, mowing the geth down from left to right.
She must have adjusted the grain size of her rifle as it was making more noise than usual. The geth were taken completely by surprise, the majority of the ones Ash took down were advancing on us at the time, clearly trying to push us back into the bottleneck and keep us there. Usually, it would have been a good strategy, especially since two of the geth advancing were Juggernauts. But usually, Ash had to worry about overheating. Thanks to the backpack her assault rifle had turned into an LMG with a magazine to match and she was able to spray an almost unending wave of bullets down range.
While everyone else was opening fire on the geth, either helping Ash take down the geth she was focusing on or picking off geth that had managed to get into cover I kept up the shield. Changing from covering the front to slowly moving to cover the right flank, minimising the number of geth that were able to shoot at my teammates.
In record time we had dealt with the geth.
"Venting!" said Ash
From out of the backpack came dozens of rectangles, red hot. Each was the size and shape of a small wooden chopping board. After a few seconds they cooled and retracted.
"How did the pack go?" asked Shepard as she reloaded her grenade launcher
"Good, didn't even get halfway to overheating." answered Ash
"Good" said Shepard before turning to Tali
"You picking anything up?"
"... I'm not picking anything up Commander." answered Tali after she opened up her omni-tool
"It was a long shot at best." said Shepard "Not much point having a bunker like door if the override was so close."
For the next half an hour we looked for the console or override that would open the door without any luck. During those thirty minutes we continued to encounter geth in various platforms and numbers. There were even two Armatures.
Shepard immediately used another two grenades to damage their shields and get their attention.
As Ash opened fire on one of the Armatures, I headed for cover and quickly swaped from my pistol to my bow. Loading one of my explosive wrapped arrows I ducked out of cover at took aim. Both of the Armatures were mainly focusing on Ash and Shepard, trying to keep their two main threats as down as much as possible while a few standard units started to circle around.
Releasing the arrow I managed to hit its necks, the arrow penitrating deep, seeing that i hit my target I hit detonation switch.
Normally I would have to use a lot more than a single arrow to take down an Armature. The Primes on Eden Prime I nearly had to turn into a pin cushion and that was with help. However, it turns out not much can survive having the equivalent of two grenades going off inside your neck.
With one of the Armatures down everyone else focused the majority of their fire on the other one I swapped to my Settler. Using the overpowered shots I took out each of the geth that were attempting to flank us before they could do any damage.
Finally, Tali was able to pick something up.
"I'm detecting some electrical signals up ahead." said Tali, speaking up "It's faint but that could be due to how dense everything seems to be, whether by design or coincident everything could be being muffled."
"Take us there." ordered Shepard
A few minutes later we had made our way to a large building, it was bigger than the ones around it but not enough to really make it stick out. After making sure we weren't about to be ambushed we entered.
"Fuck me sideways." swore Ash, not that I could blame her. The building had two stories and the bottom one was completely full of Armatures. There had to be at least a dozen in the room, all folded up.
"Why are these folded up?" asked Shepard
"They're in repair/sleep mode just like the one on Feros was." answered Tali
"That was just one Armature, and unlike of Feros I can't see anything here that would damage one Armature let alone over a dozen." responded Shepard
"Maybe there was some self defense protocols in place that attacked them when they landed. Or they were damaged in firefights elsewhere? While we've had the most encounters with the geth we're not the only ones." added Ash
"I think Saren just wanted to make sure they were at peak efficiency for when he attacked the Citadel and that he was cycling them through. I think these were just the last." theorised Tali
"Well I think having another tech would have been extremely useful right now." added Ash looking at all the Armatures "I think we should have taken the risk of leaving the mako on it's own or leaving someone else behind. Kaiden hasn't reported signs of any geth attacking his position."
"Not necessarily." argued Tali "The geth know how to count and how many are likely to fit in the mako. Also another tech might not me useful in this position. As good as Kaiden is, disabling geth...even those in sleep is difficult. I'm not sure how well he would do."
"I'm betting once one wakes up the rest will, or when they finish their maintenance...whenever that is. Tali get to work, the rest us will cover you." said Shepard
As Tali got to work the rest of us kept an eye out, it took some time but Tali was able to deactivate one row of Armatures before getting to work on the second. However halfway through the second row, as she was moving towards the next Armature it started to move, as did the ones next in line.
"Shit Tali get to cover!" shouted Shepard as she started firing grenades at the Armature the furthest away from Tali to avoid risking damage to her suit. In total we had three more Armatures to deal with, with another arrow reduced. Shepard grenades reduced that two to one and that one was soon dealt with. As Shepard reloaded her grenade launcher she had a look around.
"Spread out and look around!" ordered Shepard "We're starting to run out of time, if the consoles not here I want to know as soon as possible but keep an eye out for any hiding geth!"
With that we spread out, swapping to my pistol I started to search the right side. Other than bits and pieces that would have normally had Liara jumping over the moon for the only thing I found was bits of geth technology.
"COMMANDER! I think I've found it!" called out Liara from the second level
Heading up to her we found Liara standing in front of a working console displaying a green holographic screen
"I've found things like this on other dig sights." continued Liara "I believe this is the place where we can unlock the door."
"I think your right." said Shepard typing away "That should do it, lets get outside and radio Kaiden to see if it worked."
"Hold on it's doing something!" said Ash suddenly as an orange and seriously fragmented hologram appeared and started playing something that was a mix of static and something else.
"Its playing recording." said Shepard
"But its incredibly fragmented. I wish we had time to see if we could clear it up." added Liara
"You two could understand that?" asked Ash
"I understood it as well." added Gamora
"It's the cipher. It allows Shepard to understand the Prothean language, also for some reason it turned a screen of purestatic into something recognizable. How I have no idea." I answered
"That answers how Gamora and I understand but what about Liara?" asked Shepard
"I..ahhh asked Gamora to share the cipher with me too." said Liara sounding embarrassed "It just seemed so useful, I've been going through my old reports and findings as well as many published documents. It is remarkable how the Prothean perspective changes things, how many things that we had taken as fact we incorrect." said Liara
"Good thinking, Liara do you think you can share the Cipher with Kaiden and Tali? It could come in handy when you're fixing up the VI." said Shepard
"I should be able to." answered Liara
"Good, when we get to the VI I want you to share the Cipher with them." said Shepard
Leaving the building Shepard opened her omni-tool to contact Kaiden. The walls of the building were too thick to get a good connection from the inside.
"Kaiden we think we've overridden the door, can you confirm?" asked Shepard
"Their open." answered Kaiden "I also just had to deal with a couple of Juggernauts so be careful on your way back. Overriding the door must have sent out an allert."
"Thanks for the update." said Shepard before hanging up "Alright, back to the mako we go."
As we made our way back to the mako we encountered no resistance. That said we still kept an eye out, if two Juggernauts managed to go unnoticed and there could be more geth in hiding.
Climbing into the mako, Kaiden quickly relinquished the gunners seat to Ash.
"Strap in everyone. We're going hard and fast, Callum do you remember which way to go?" asked Shepard
"Follow the water, by memory the path is pretty straightforward. " I answered
"Well lets hope this isn't one of the times where something is different from how you rememeber it." said Shepard, slamming onto the preverbial accelerator.
Using boosters and thrusters at every opportunity she had we quickly (hopefully) stsrtrd to make up for lost ground. Thankfully, while there were some side paths the one we were on was full of flowing water and looked to be the same path I remembered.
"Grab on to something we have a ledge aproaching!" shouted Shepard in warning
Flying over the make shift waterfall, Shepard gave a couple quick shots to the thrusters to arrest the enertia as much as possible before turning the thrusters on.
For the ten or twenty so minutes that how things continued. But so far...nothing. There were no kinetic barriers suddenly appearing infront of us nor were there any sign of Saren or his geth. If the Juggernauts that attacked the mako before were alerted to the door opening there was no way Saren didn't know. I would have thought that he would have left a trap or some geth behind to slow us down.
Unless...unless I was wrong. While there weren't many paths wide enough for the mako branching out from the main one there were a few. If we were meant to go down one of those...
"Hey guys you'll want to see this this." said Ash suddenly from the the front.
"Goddess!" breathed Liara as soon as she looked at the vid screen.
Stasis pops. Thousands of them, millions of them.
"Are those?" started Tali
"Stasis pods." I answered "One's that ran out of power forty something thousand years ago."
"So in other words we're driving through the biggest graveyard slash mass grave in the galaxy." said Ash
"He's right, I'm not picking up any energy signatures." said Tali doing a check
"They must have all died in their sleep...now that's a morbid thought." said Kaiden
At this point it was almost like we were in the middle of a city, there were dozens of corridors on either side and multiple levels. Soon after we entered the city of failed stasis pods a barrier sprung up much like the one we encountered on Therium when we picked up Liara except this one was yellow.
"Ash is the way behind us blocked?" asked Shepard
Turning the turrent around to face the back Ash nodded. "It sure is commander.
"Then this is our stop. Ash, Liara, Callum and Tali with me." said Shepard
Bending down I reach to pick up the portable power source, Ash about to do the same on the other side.
"Leave it." ordered Shepard suddenly
"Commander?" Ash asked confused
"I'm going to film the VI, Tali I want you filming me filming the VI. Just incase this doesn't work and we can't save the VI, I want some proof that the Council will find hard to dismiss. The story is that Tali and Liara had the idea of making a mobile generator/power source in case Saren knocked out the power to whatever we were trying to access and that it just so happened to be able to save the VI.
Because of that it can't look like we knew the VI would be there or know anything that Callum has told us, understood?" asked Shepard
Leaving the mako we headed to the nearby elevator, thankfully the ancient elevator wasnt any slower than the one on the Normandy.
"50,000 year old elevator, yet isnt not any slower than the one on the Normandy which is less than a year old...I'm not sure if that says something about our elevator or this one." said Ash
Apparently, I wasn't the only one comparing elevators.
When the elevator came to a stop and opened, we found ourselves on a long balcony with a single server at the end illuminated in light.
"You do not carry the taint of indoctrination as the other one did." said a voice suddenly as a green fragmented and glitching image appeared "You are not Prothean but neither are you machine. This is one of many possibilities anticipated."
"You can speak english?" asked Shepard as she activated her omni-tool and started to record. Tali doing the same behind her
"I have been monitoring your communications, it was a simply matter to access your language data base and your codex as you overrode the security door before." answered the VI "You may address me as Vigil
"Indoctrination, that's the process the Reapers use to control people right?" asked Shepard
"That is correct, Reapers...a name given to the beings that attacked us. What they call themselves if anything I do not know. Indoctrination is the process where an individual or individuals no longer act on their own will and becomes a totally different person. A general will betray his people, a pacifist will become a violent murderer. What kind of individual they were before will be completly gone as they blindly follow the Reapers command. Worse, in most cases they do not know that their free will is gone and those that do realise too late.
Perhaps this amount above all else is the reason the Prothean Empire fell. We were surprised when they came through the Citadel but if the threat of indoctrination had been known than we could have fought back harder. Instead, refugees were accepted into new colonies, colonies that they could then sabotage. Soldiers that survived battles were promoted only to lead their troops into slaughter"
"Hold on the Citadel? So Sovereign was telling the truth that they created the Relays and the Citadel?" asked Shepard
"I do not know who this 'Sovereign' is or what is its designation but that is correct. We did not create the Relays or the Citadel. We found them just like you did, made the Citadel our centre of power, just as your cycle has done. We thought that they had been made by the Inusannon, a species that once called this planet their homeworld. With the Relays and the technology left behind we became unmatched in the galaxy.
Then one day an overwhelming force appeared, before we could understand what was going on the heart of our Empire had already fallen. It is only due to a few scattered survivors that managed to escape the initial fight that we know the Reapers appeared not from the Relay but from the Citadel itself.
Though it may look different the Citadel has the same function as the Relays. Perhaps that is why is is centred in the middle of the Relay system. Both to ensure that no matter where a space fairing species originated from, they would one day find the Citadel and to allow the Reapers to attack any system they chose at will. If we could have limited their movement from one system to its neighbour it would have given others more time to prepare. Instead, their destruction spread like a ripple in a pond that we were helpless to stop."
"Saren...the one who's been indoctrinated has been searching for something called the Conduit. Can you tell me what that is and what it has to do with Illos?" asked Shepard
"Once it was realised that the remnants of the Prothean Empire could never hope to beat the Reapers. Even if we were prepared it is possible we still have lost alternative solutions were made." said the Vigil "Of all the planets the Empire controlled none was more of a secret than Illos. When defeat was all but assured all Protheans on Illos entered stasis. The plan was for them to sleep undetected until the Reapers had left before waking up and preparing for their return. llos was not the only place where this plan was put into place, though the locations of the other bunkers have been removed from my data banks."
"I'm guessing the fact that there's no Prothean Empire and the stasis pods back there have no power something went wrong?" asked Shepard
"The Reapers remained significantly longer than was calculated. If I was given a correct estimation I could have insured that there were enough to rebuild the species. Instead pod after pod I had to dectivate. Starting with those who worked in menial areas, support staff, then the lower class soldiers. Eventually only the leaders, Generals and our greatest scientists were left and by the time the Reapers left all that was left was a handful of the last. Should the Reapers have lingered even a decade more, even those would have been lost." answered Vigil
"You just killed them off?!" asked Ash "If they were going to run out of power why not just wake them up?"
"While this facility is reinforced to withstand bombarded, muffle electronic signatures and signals if the Reapers detected anything they would have investigated and it would all have been for naught. I give a 70% estimation that the reason why the Reapers lingered so long was that they discovered a population of Protheans that had nearly been undetected. Most likely in the scenario that you just proposed." answered Vigil
"What does this have to do with the Conduit?" asked Shepard
"When the few that were left they realised that their species was doomed. There was only enough genetic diversity to insure two or three generations of healthy individuals. Using whatever beacon was still connected to the network, which was few they tried to see if any other Prothean was alive, either by remaining undetected for generations or by going into stasis as they had done. Unfortunately, they were alone.
While their species and civilisation were all but dead and there was no hope left there was still vengeance, vengeance and a hope they could stop this from happening again. For years the remaining scientists worked tirelessly. The Reapers started their invasion from the Citadel and spread from there but why? Their numbers were overwhelming. They could have attacked the Citadel and multiple other targets simultaneously without fear of spreading themselves too thin.
It was known by then that they were the real creators or at least controllers of the Relay and Citadel, the amount of control they had over the Relays made that fact indisputable. Yet their first and only target was the Citadel, they arrived through the Citadel and left the same way. As you know there are two main types of Relays, ones that connect to a singular Relay over a massive distance and ones that connect with multiple others over a much shorter distance. It was theorised that far outside the Relay network is one that pairs with the Citadel.
After carefully looking at all readings taken up until contact was lost with the Citadel they discovered a signal was sent out shortly before there was a massive output of power and the Reapers arrived. After a lot of research they found a way to stop the signal, the Keepers were the key.
Now that a solution was found they needed a way back onto the Citadel. Thankfully one was already in place, we had started to discover the secrets of the Relay, two were built that remain to this day. One is on Illos and the other is in the centre of the Citadel. It was meant as a precaution, should the Citadel ever fall,
a force would be sent to recapture it or deal a heavy blow."
"Hold on, you mean the Relay monument is an actual Relay? How did no one realise this?" interrupted Ash
"It is not a true Relay, at least not like you would understand it. The one on Illos only sends while the one on the Citadel can only receive, thusly it can not be activated. Even if one was to look at it closely they would merely think it was a deactivated or incomplete Relay or a model.
Taking all they could, the remaining scientists used the Relay to get to the Citadel were they were successful in removing the control the Reapers had over the Citadel. If they didn't this Cycle would have long since fallen. However, even without the Citadel Relay, the galaxy would not be safe. While Relays allow travel of thousands of light years in an instant it is still possible to travel that space in FTL, while it could take years, decades or even centuries for the Reapers would return they would eventually have come back. To warn the young races they sent a final a final message through the remaining Beacons."
"I got that message, it nearly turned my brain into mush." shot Shepard
"We expected intelligent life to develop along the lines the Protheans did. The asari had already developed some similar mental abilities as us, unfortunately, we were wrong. We were also wrong in thinking that all the Reapers had returned from where they had come from. One remained behind and his agent has been searching for a way to undo our work, using the Conduit he will be able to override the Citadel's defences to allow the Reaper to start the invasion manually. Take this data drive, if you insert it into the Citadel's master control unit is should allow you to overide the Citadel's defenses. It might even allow you to open fire on it."
"This master control unit, I've never heard of it." said Liara
"In the base of the Citadel there is a tower, unless the miniature Relay has been moved it should be nearby. Near the top of that tower is the master control unit, the one you have been chasing will be heading there as well. He has not yet reached the Conduit so there is still time to reach it before it is activated." answered Vigil
"Hold on Saren got here before us, why hasn't he started sending his army through?" interrupted Ash
"Let me clarify, the bulk of his machine army has already arrived at the Conduit. However the Conduit was only ment to be used in an emergency, not for everyday use. Over the last 50,000 years it has gone without proper maintenance. That combined with dwindling power reserves means that the is 90% chance that it will only stay active for a brief time and once it stops significant work shall be required to enable it to work yet again.
To allow more of the machines to use the Conduit they have augmented the Conduits power with their own. Despite this they will only have a short window to push there army through. At my calculations, with your driving you should be able to reach the Conduit one to five minutes before the Relay is no longer active." explained Vigil
"What happens to you afterwards?" asked Shepard
"After the Conduit activates I will have less than one solar day before I run out of power. Due to how damaged my code has become it is unlikely I will be recoverable afterwards. " answered Vigil
"Lucky for you Tali and Liara came up with the idea of bringing our own power source in case Saren ever cut the power to something we were trying to open. I'll leave them and Kaiden behind to install it."
"Thank you, how to provide me with power it may be necessary to disconnect me from the rest of the facility. Less the power go towards running it." said Vigil
"Understood. Tali, Liara get to work on open Vigil up. Vigil I'm going to be sending down Kaiden with the power source. When he gets here can you make sure the elevator is locked down? While I don't think there are any geth nearby I don't want to take that risk." said Shepard
Quickly entering the elevator, asside from Liara and Tali we headed back to mako.
"Kaiden help Callum carry the power source to the elevator. Ash take the spare heat clips and all the emergency supplies we have. We don't know when we'll be back to pick them up and I don't want them going without." said Shepard before turning on her omni-tool "Joker can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear commander what's up?" asked Joker
"We just found out what the Conduit is, the Relay monument is an actual Relay. Saren's not sneaking his geth onto the Citadel! He's kicking down the back door and storming in!" swore Shepard
"Shit you seriously? Shepard its going to be a slaughter, they'll never see it coming." said Joker
"I want yo head back to Citadel space, join up with Hackett. I'm sending you something that is for his eyes only. As soon as you get close enough I want you to start trying to warn the Citadel. How quickly do you think it wiĺ take you to get back to Citadel space? Keep in mind that as long as don't blow up the engine you can red line it as much as you can."
"Support has gone over the data we got when we went through the Mu Relay. They think we can connect to other Relays to travel instead of using FTL. That and if we cut the queues and skip space mcdonalds we could be near the Citadel in a matter of hours."
"Good make it happen, I'll keep following him. See if we can cut some of his down forces before he can send them through. I want the Citadel forces to come down his throat while we go up his ass. If we're lucky we'll meet in the middle and pump his heart like a fucking accordian."
Just one more chapter and m1 finishes and m2 begins...are you ready?