So well we actually have gotten near to the End of the first game, believe me I will write up the end of the first part soon but I'll probably split the last mission into two, maybe three parts, smiler to how Feros went in order to keep the story consistent and also to give you cunts something to enjoy so yeah, any case not going to write up much here other than grab something to eat and enjoy.
Mars, Olympus Mons.
Location: Headquarters Building of the Bureau for the Administration of Labour and Industry. High Administrators Office.
High Administrator Tang Yu would type up several commands on his computer Terminal as he looked through a number of ledgers that detailed the output of several Core ward planets along with the progress of both Centrally Planned Development Programs that his department had came up with in order to increase the pace of development within several of the outer colonies along with the more, natural, developmental pace of several privately owned industrial enterprises and companies that would soon be forcefully brought out by the Bureau.
The Union contrary to popular belief did allow for a limited amount of freedom within its economy. Tang thought to himself as he look at several more charts, satisfied with what they displayed Tang would continue on with his train of thought.
The point "Limited" should be expressed rather clearly however as Terrans in general held a large level of distrust towards the Capitalist market based economies that dominated much of the Galaxy.
This distrust could mostly be attributed to Humanities past, with many blaming the old capitalist models of government of the old-western nation states for spreading rampant corruption and degeneracy and in turn creating the Men of Iron in order to fight their battles for them, granted this wasn't the only reason for that conflicts beginning, but it was one of the main reasons why his organization existed in the first place.
The other reason was also related to that same conflict, the damage caused to Earths biosphere, along with the Material loses of close to 800 Million to potentially even 1 Billion lives during and in the immediate aftermath of the conflicted called for drastic, revolutionary, measures just to ensure that Human civilization didn't collapse.
Of course it would be false to say that the Emergency Reconstruction Committee of the old Terran Emergency Government and his organization had all that much in common, for one the ERC only had to worry about rebuilding one planet, and of course his organization has parts within it completely dedicated to making sure that those within the Bureau where the best the Union had to offer, well, when it came to administrative tasks at the very least, while those of the old ERC had to more or less rely on whoever could count up to ten with their hands, figuratively speaking of course most of the old officials of the ERC where probably the most competent men humanity had at the time, otherwise he would probably not be in an office reading production ledgers while complaining about how his Intern assistant fucked up his coffee again.
His current side hobby, well if you could call it a side hobby in all reality, was researching the economic models that where used by the Nations outside of the Arcturus League, and to say that he wasn't exactly impressed would be an understatement.
For one it seemed that the entire galaxy, minus a few notable exceptions such as the USWR, more or less had the same form of Free-Market Capitalist based economies, with of course a few changes here or their to make it palatable to that particular State.
And of course as seen throughout Human history to say that this economic model was unstable would be a fairly huge understatement, of course there were the obvious signs of instability, the more or less bi annual economic crashes, rampant wealth inequality between the proletariat and the upper classes, and of course blatant corruption and nepotism to name a few.
It should be said that some of these issues where less pronounced in some of the Council states, for an example the Turian Hierarchy only really had issues with the first two but that more so was because its economy was directly reliant upon the Asari Republics to keep it afloat as the Hierarchy had probably one of the most bloated military budgets he had ever seen.
Sure the Terran Union certainly invested a lot into its military but in comparison to the Hierarchy it paled in comparison, which made it somehow more impressive that somehow with all this investment the Hierarchy when it came to total military scores in terms of Military professionalism, equipment, and other such important statistics, was a fair bit behind the Terran Union with one of its main strength being that it outnumbered the Terran National Army in terms of ground troops by 5-1.
Of course it probably helped that the Terran Union has a Larger economy than the Hierarchy but still the Hierarchy wasn't all that far behind the Union, and while the Council had been on the back-foot in terms of Production capabilities in the immediate aftermath of the first contact war. The Council hadn't been sitting on its ass for the past 30 years and had built up its industry through certainly less than free market means to be only slightly inferior to that of the League when it came to industrial production.
This wasn't exactly unexpected by most people either, Terran Command assumed that the League would have 15 to 20 years of industrial superiority until the Council had managed to mobilize its massive population reserves and move its economy from a largely service based model to that of a Industrial model seen within the League, of course this Mass Industrial push by the Council following the First Contact War was massively hampered by its own economic model as the councils many corporate entities often had to be encouraged with monetary incentives to convert their factories from producing Light Industrial goods to that of Heavy Industrial goods in order to facilitate the rapid expansion of the Councils industrial centres, such as Shipyards, Factories and Munitions plants for an example.
This wasn't to say that the Terran Unions economy didn't have Free Market elements within it however, as independent entities were allowed to form and grow their corporations to a certain extent, this "Asset Cap" as he and his collogues liked to call it existed for a few primary reasons. The first one was to prevent the formation of independent Mega Corporations like those seen in pre-machine war western states and the degeneracy and corruption that came from that particular era of history.
The second reason was to keep the means of economic production under the state, and in turn the peoples control, as mentioned before there was certainly ideological reasons for this but there were very good, and very practical reasons for this as well as the Majority of the Unions state budget came from the profits directly associated with the state owned corporations as Taxation of the general populous had been done away with more than 135 years ago with the reforms of the Eighth High Marshal of the Terran Union which allowed for the general public to be liberated from most forms of taxation while still enjoying the benefits of being a citizen of the Terran Union, Mainly Free-Healthcare, Free Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Education, along with a generous pension, well depending on your citizenship tier of course.
The third reason was mostly to allow the Union to rapidly transition its economy to deal with disasters or any other such crisis, as surprisingly enough not having to appease corporate parasites and other such entities made it really easy to transition the economy to suite the needs of the State, and in turn the people of the Terran Union.
Before Tang could continue down his train of thought however his Terminal would beep with his secretary appearing on the screen of the device a few moments later before saying.
"Sir, The High Marshal wishes to speak with you." Tang would nod his head before responding.
"Alright, any idea on what she wants to speak to me about?" The Secretary would shake his head before responding.
"No idea sir, but if I where to guess this meeting she's called for is most likely going to have something to do with the war." The Secretary would say as Tang would reply saying.
"Most Likely, in any case tell her I'll be taking a shuttle to Io as soon as possible, in the meantime I should probably get my ass of my chair and make my way down to the transit station." Tang would say as he sat up from his chair, stretched his legs, and went to grab his black leather coat before making his way out of his office and towards the transit station.
Normandy, Deck Three.
Location, Medical Bay, en-route to Ilos.
"Doc, I ever told you how much I hate doctors." Havier would say, his voice still somewhat hoarse as Chakwas gently slapped him on the shoulder before saying.
"Don't be such a grouch, and in any case it could have been a lot more worse than a sore throat." Havier would not silently to himself as he scratched slightly at his neck, which even now was still sore and bright red.
Chakwas would turn her head to where Tali was seated before saying.
"Alright, make sure that he doesn't try and do anything too strenuous with his neck, oh, and make sure he drinks plenty of water it'll help his throat heal faster." Chakwas would say as Havier would groan slightly, his voice still hoarse though a hell of a lot better than before saying.
"Doc I've already drank like, 8 Glasses of water in the past 30 minutes at this rate I'll end up becoming the bloody rain man." Havier would say as Tali, who would of normally of laughed at Havier's Joke would sternly say.
"And normally your throat wouldn't be half crushed, if Chakwas says you need more water then your getting more water." Tali would say as she handed her boyfriend another glass of water which he reluctantly took to the bemusement of Chakwas before saying.
"Alright as said before you make sure that he keeps drinking plenty of water, I have to go and file some reports so I'll give you two some privacy." Chakwas would say as she opened the med-bay door and exited out of the room, with said doors closing a few moments later.
"Keelah, you scared me down their." Tali would say as she took Haviers hand in her own, three fingered one before Havier would reply saying.
"Yeah sorry about that, If I hadn't been so fixated on what was in front of me then the Turian Bastard..." Before Havier could continue Tali would silence him before saying.
"No, its not your fault, you couldn't of known that he was that close, I'm only thankful that you had something to use when he did grab you." Tali would say as Havier would look at the large, formerly poisoned covered knife, that was seated on a nearby table.
"Yeah, its surprising that such a, primitive, thing is the only reason I'm alive." Havier would say as he felt a chill run down Tali's spine, Havier would quickly respond by moving to encircle one of his arms around her wastes before saying.
"Hey, I'm sure I would of found another way out of Saren's greasy claws." Tali would sit up slightly before saying.
"No its not that its just, when I saw you get hoisted up by Saren I thought you where going to die, Keelah It was horrible, I swear my heart almost stopped beating when he..." This time Tali was silence by Havier as the Human would say.
"Tali, I can't promise you that I'll live to the end of this journey, but what I can say is that if I did pass on then I will always be watching you, caring for you, and loving you in this life or the next." Tali would nod her head before respond, her voice clearly chocked up a little as she would say.
"I know, and if I where to pass on then I'll always be with you, in this life or the next, and no matter what I will always love you." Tali would say as the two of them would close in for a long, drawn out hug.
The two of them would simply stay in that state for some time, simply sharing the embrace of each others warmth before the door to the medical bay would open.
Tali and Havier would quickly break the hug that the two of them had been in for a long time with Havier looking towards the door to see who had intruded in on him and Tali only to see Eorveth by the door, grinning like he had won a game of some kind.
"Eorveth, what are you doing here?" Havier would ask as his friend would respond saying.
"Making sure that my friend is okay after nearly being strangled by some Quer'ta prick." Eorveth would say before continuing.
"Any case, how you doing?" Eorveth would ask as Havier would respond saying.
"Fine mostly, throat still feels like shit but it could have been a hell of a lot worse than it actually works, still though for some reason still feels the need to force me to drink water near constantly, which her assistant constantly reminds me to do." Havier would say before jabbing a thumb towards Tali who would respond saying.
"Only because you couldn't tie your own shoelaces even if they where on your backside." Tali would say sarcastically as Havier would groan slightly before responding.
"Hey I distinctly remember having to save your ass from Fist's thugs back on the Citadel." Havier would say as Eorveth, realising that this could go on for awhile if he didn't intervene in the two lovers arguments, so to accomplish this he cough slightly to get the two's attention before saying.
"So I take it you and miss Zorah are close Havier?" Eorveth would ask as Havier would respond saying.
"Yeah you could say that, met her like god, probably been a month or so, right Tali?" Havier would ask as Tali would nod her head before responding.
"Yeah I would say we've known each other for that long." Tali would say as Eorveth would respond saying.
"And what does Havier mean to you miss Zorah?" Eorveth would ask as Tali would respond saying.
"He's my Saera aren't you?" Tali would ask Havier as the Human would nod before saying.
"Yep I'm all yours Miss Zorah, from this life to the next." Havier would say as Tali would giggle a little before Eorveth would respond saying.
"Just make sure to keep him out of trouble miss Zorah, he's known for getting himself into spots." Tali would nod before replying in a sultry tone.
"Believe me, I'll do my best." Tali would say as Havier would cough slightly before saying.
"So Eorveth I appreciate that your here but I thought you would of flown back to where your based out of by this point?" Havier would ask as Eorveth would reply saying.
"That's because we both want the same thing, Saren dead." Eorveth would say as Havier would respond saying.
"But why though?" Havier would ask as Eorveth would respond saying.
"Well for the obvious reasons of attacking and butchering our allies and converting them into those abominations you call husks." Havier would respond not entirely believing that was the entire reason.
"Yeah but the Qwirna doesn't usually send you guys unless someone's done something to thoroughly piss them off, sure they'll probably send a lot of help when we begin to push into the Vail but commandos explicitly tasked with killing Saren is a bit of a stretch, so what's the real reason for you being here?" Havier would ask as Eorveth would think for a moment before leaning into where Havier was seated before saying.
"From what I heard they attacked a Isolated Temple complex, not entirely sure why exactly but they appeared to be, experimenting, seeing what abominations they could make from the priests and their acolytes at the site, as you can imagine such, blasphemy, would likely provoke the ire of my bosses if you get what I mean." Havier would nod his head in understanding before saying.
"Yeah I understand, so what have you been up to in the past two years?" Havier would ask as Eorveth would respond saying.
"A lot as you can imagine, and for starters..." Eorveth would say as the three of them would continue talking for what felt like hours, each attempting to distract themselves from the battle that was to come.
Normandy, Deck Two.
Location: Elevator, en-route to Ilos
Shepard would sigh to herself as the elevator ascended upwards.
Of course to say that her conversation with Ashley had been hard would be a bit of an understatement to put it likely.
While Ashley didn't exactly blame Shepard for her choice, after all from a tactical perspective it made sense to guard the objective of the mission than risk it all to rescue a single solider, this was something that was instilled into every Terran for the moment they took the oath of allignece to defend the Terran Union, that the life of a single solider, no matter how skilled, was ultimately minutely small in comparison to the Greater whole of the Union.
This didn't exactly make it easy for Ashley though, which Shepard couldn't exactly blame her in all honesty, the fact that you where alive and your companion was not, simply due to pure blind luck wasn't an easy thing for anyone to accept, not less Ashley who had developed a strong bond with Kaiden over the month that they had been hunting Saren.
Shepard was only thankful that no one else had died except for the marines that had been guarding the Bomb, Shepard sighed to herself, all of those men and woman who were guarding the bomb where hero's in her eyes, a shame that they didn't have the time to recover their bodies and ensure that they where cremated with full military honours, but they simply just didn't have the time, at the very least their dog-tags where recovered so their families could start mourning their losses, Shepard thought to herself.
To make up for the almost complete annihilation of the Marine's on her ship, Eorveth's commandos and what remained of the STG force that was on Virmire agreed to "volunteer" as replacements for the lost marines, under normal circumstances she would of turned down their offers but, these weren't exactly normal circumstances and she had decided to accept their offer until she was able to get some replace for her now dead Marines.
Shepard would be pulled out of her thoughts as the Elevator doors would open allowing for Shepard to exit out of the thing and begin her walk over to the comms room for her long await chat with Natasha Fox.
Entering the Comms room Shepard would see the holographic form of Natasha Fox standing with her hands behind her back.
As usual Shepard would stand to attention, saluting the High Marshal before saying.
"High Marshal Ma'am." Shepard would say as Natasha fox would reply saying.
"At Ease Captain." Shepard would nod lowering her arm before saying.
"I take it theirs a reason you decided to E-Mail me instead of simply ordering Joker to get my ass over to the comms room?" Shepard would ask as Natasha Fox would chuckle slightly before saying.
"Yes there is, from what I have learnt recently you have decided to employ several alien mercenaries, including a Machine cultist if what I hear is correct?" Shepard would reply, raising an eyebrow of concern before saying.
"I take it you disapprove?" Shepard would say as Natasha Fox would shake her head before replying.
"No I don't, aside from that reletivly minor skirmish 23 years ago we have very little to go on to discern what capabilities the Geth posses, and pretty much nothing on their Masters, the Reapers, but I would suggest you keep a close eye on certain members of your crew, like a certain woman named Cyreen for instance?" Shepard would look at Natasha surprised before saying.
"How do you know her name, Ma'am?" Shepard would ask as Natasha would respond saying.
"Shepard, the Normandy's a top of the line next generation stealth ship don't you think we wouldn't have any way of monitoring the crew to make sure they don't try and run off with the damn thing?" Natasha would pause for a moment before continuing. "In laymen's terms the ship is bugged to hell and back, hell I could even pull up a transcript of every single word you have said to that Turian of yours." Shepard would blush brightly at Natasha's comments before replying.
"Is my relationship with Garrus going to cause any problems, ma'am?" Shepard would ask as Natasha would laugh loudly before replying.
"No of course not, just make sure that the pillow talk isn't about anything serious and everything should be fine." Again Shepard's face would turn a bright red before Shepard would cough slightly before saying.
"I take it theirs another reason that you wanted to talk, Ma'am?" Shepard would ask as Natasha would respond saying.
"Yes, I think you should know that Horst and the 2nd fleet are currently making their way towards Ilos as we speak, I take it your also on your way their at this very moment?" Natasha would ask as Shepard would nod before responding.
"Yes I am but Ilos is within the Terminus systems Ma'am, aren't you scared that sending a fleet their could potentially spark a conflict?" Shepard would ask as Natasha would respond saying.
"Yes theirs a chance it could but we don't have much of a choice here Shepard, Saren has at least eight thousand Geth warships at his beck and call and a few dozen Reapers as well if he's able to use his entire fleet against the Citadel that will almost certainly be to much for the Council to handle on their own." Shepard would raise an eyebrow at Natasha's statement before saying.
"Ma'am how do we know that Saren is going to attack the Citadel in the first place?" Shepard would ask as Natasha would reply saying.
"From undisclosed sources captain, nothing that you should concern yourself about, all that I can tell you is that Saren intends to use whatever this "Conduit" is to access the Citadel and take control of the station." Shepard would nod though she was fairly certain that Natasha was lying or at the very least withholding information from her.
"Understood Ma'am." Shepard would say as Natasha would nod before replying.
"Good, signing off." Natasha would say as the holo-projector would shut down leaving the room in silence.
Sighing to herself Shepard would begin to walk back to the Elevator, intending to take it down to the crew deck so she could get some rest before what could quite possibly be her last mission.
Just as Shepard was about to enter the Elevator she would see Garrus, somewhat clumsily, enter the Elevator.
"Garrus, thought you where still on duty?" Shepard would ask happy to see her Turian, Garrus would shake his head before saying.
"Yes but the way I figured it, would I really want my last memories to be calibrating the MAKO's targetting matrix." Garrus would say before involuntarily lowering his voice before saying somewhat hesitantly.
"Or would it be spending my last hours with someone I... love?" Garrus would say as Shepard would smirk before raising her right hand to caress his right mandible sending a wide plethora of feelings through Garrus body before saying.
"Hmm... I wonder what we could do with all that free time?" Shepard would say sultrily before taking Garrus right hand in Hers.
Before Garrus could come up with a response however the Elevator doors would swing open to the Crew Deck.
The two of them would then walk the short distance towards Shepard's cabin, Garrus himself tried to come up with a response or well, anything, to say to Shepard but that was something that was hard to do at first, then became impossible as Shepard locked the door to her cabin, then pushed him onto her bed before slowly, and excruciatingly, removed her clothing which more or less rendered him incapable of speech, not that Shepard minded though as she seemed to be fine leading by example it seemed.
Either way Garrus knew that whatever happened his heart belonged to Shepard for the rest of his live, and he would do anything to protect her.
Yeah a bit of a shorter Chapter but hey its better than nothing, any case if you do not say that goldfish should be eaten by rats then you'll be turned into a blobfish and explode.
Umm but in all honesty it do intend for Ilos to be like two maybe three chapters in length, now I don't know when the next chapter is coming out as I kind of do this stuff when I want to as with writing you kind of have to take your time with these things. Though in all honesty I kind of what to flesh out the lore for this shit so I may work on a Codex of somekind, well a more indepth version than the ones I created for the earlier chapters in anycase.