CHAPTER 18: Landslide
2185 CE
'It's a culturally bound phenomenon, like how Batarians who lose an eye suddenly lose vocabulary. There's no medical reason for it except that they believe it happens so it does. It's all the placebo effect.' I explain.
'But how does that relate to the Elcor?' Kelly asked.
'Gravity weakness is a real thing, but not on modern mass effect ships, and not for short trips, but the increase in falls by Elcor who head into space and return to Dekuuna is much larger than should be expected from mere chance.' I explained.
'So you end up with Elcor who are afraid space travel might make them fall, but actually the fear is what makes it more likely that they'll fall.' Jacob observed.
'Right; and you need to be aware of these sorts of culturally bound phenomena because they can come out of right field and their only justification sounds like folklore. The problem is that they have effects in real life.' I instructed.
'I get that for Kelly this stuff is relevant, but how do I use it?' Jacob asked, confused.
'Culturally bound phenomena are extremely useful to know. They tend to tap into a group's deepest fears. They're equally useful to avoid offending a group of elcor by asking to meat in space, or in torturing a Batarian to give you information. All knowledge is a tool, and like any specialized tool it might not be the most useful thing for every problem you run into, but if you run into the right problem it can be invaluable to have.'
2185 CE
'Liara.' I began the vid call.
'Grandfather. How are you doing?' Liara replied.
'Reasonably well, your girlfriend is fine. Getting plenty of exercise.' I continued our small talk.
'You don't normally call.' Liara pointed out.
'Henry Lawson. Next year he teams up with the Illusive Man in order to indoctrinate a large amount of civilians for Cerberus. He's also an imminent threat to Miranda. You remember her, right?' I pointed out.
'Right. I remember her. The biotic that was upset about how perfect she was. Did you know she's barren?' Liara gossiped.
'I did. she has a younger clone. Doesn't want her father to get a hold of her. Apparently he is a very bad father.'
'Grandfather...' Liara scolded, perhaps aware that I myself am not the best father in the galaxy.
'Anyway, I would very much prefer if he were dead.' I explained, ignoring any hint of subtle rebuke.
'Well, I suppose I don't have any real moral qualms about assasinating a man who thinks it is a good idea to indoctrinate civilians.' Liara admitted.
'Tell me when he's dead?' I asked.
'I'll look into him. If he seems like he's going to do what you predicted, I wil take him out.' Liara offered.
'That's fine. If you have anything you want me to give Shepard, send it over.' I agreed.
'Nothing at the moment. Enjoy your adventure. Keep Shepard alive for me?' Liara asked.
'I'll certainly try my best.' I smiled back.
Liara nodded and cut the line.
2185 CE
'I got an interesting call from the Illusive Man earlier.' Shepard admitted.
The Collector ship. Had to be.
'Just do what you think is best with the information you have.' I advised.
'Anything else I tell you won't help.'
2185 CE
Shepard didn't end up choosing me for the Collector Ship. My advice. Didn't want to get in the way by reacting to things no one else realized. Not for this mission at least.
Of course, that didn't mean I escaped questioning from Shepard.
'You knew it was a trap.' Shepard stated as she found me in the cargo bay.
'I did.' I admitted.
'Why didn't you tell me?'
'Miranda and the crew. It's one thing if your boss send you unknowingly into a trap and you endanger the crew because of that. It's quite another thing if you're in on the knowledge that it's a trap and bring the crew in anyway. It doesn't really have anything to do with you. But you would have told the crew that they were going into a trap. And that would have undercut the effect of the Illusive Man's callousness and lack of respect for them.'
'You want them to defect.' Shepard realized.
'You do too. Cerberus is the enemy of our enemy right now. That doesn't make them our friend.' I explained.
Shepard nodded.
'Anything else I should know?'
'Just secure the team's loyalty before you poke around in that dead Reaper. I'll help out for the missions on Tuchanka. And the one on Pragia.'
Shepard agreed, not really understanding what she agreed to. She'll understand soon enough.
2185 CE
'What do you want, Krell?' Miranda asked, clearly upset but trying not to take it out on others.
'As of 3 hours ago, Henry Lawson was found drowned in his toilet.' I calmly state.
'What.' Miranda asked, not quite sure how to take that.
'He's dead.' I explained, in case humans could survive drowning using their secondary lung. I didn't think they could, but there was a lot about Human biology I forgot, or just never learned.
'How?' Miranda asked.
'Well, when a person hates someone enough that they hire an assassin, or, five assasins, to choose a random number with no actual relevance to this story because no assassins were involved here, because if there were it would probably be considered a crime... But when a random number of assassins, such as five are sent a target and then locate him on his isolated and poorly protected vacation home on Bekenstein and easily break in because the target is far too weak properly defend themselves with more than fancy electronics and armies of hired goons, then they can take their time and kill their target in the way that they think is the most fun!' I explained.
Honestly, Miranda really sould know this already. These are just basic facts of life. The fact that Henry Lawson never taught her about them really just goes to prove how terrible of a father he was.
'Why?' Miranda asked.
'The spotters determined he was in contact with the Illusive Man. Lawson was in possession of your sister's new location. We verified to make sure it was the correct one, just in case he was being lied to. Orianna was there.' I admitted.
'No. That's impossible. I compartmentalized that information. the only Cerberus member outside this cell that had it was the Illusive Man himself.' Miranda protested.
'I have the surveillance pictures if you want?' I offered.
Miranda accepted them, her eyes bulging with either shock or rage as she saw her sister in them.
'How could he do this? And the Collector base trap too... he why didn't he tell me, so that I culd move her? Why didn't he tell us so that we could be prepared?' Miranda asked.
'That's probably a question you'll need to answer yourself, Kid.' I admitted.
Miranda looked distressed.
'Look, you will have to decide how to deal with this, but you probably can't do wrong following Shepard. She has a good hear on her shoulders. Good judgement.' I admitted.
'I... thank you, Krell. If you don't mind I'd... like to be alone.' Miranda admitted.
I nodded. 'I should go.'
2185 CE
The facility on Pragia was a shithole. Overrun with vines and other foliage.
Green wood, fortunately. Wouldn't want to start a forest fire with us in the middle of it.
Not that that seemed likely either, sing from what I could tell this was a rainforest. Everything was extremely moist.
I decided to put Pragia on the list of worlds to ask the council for after the Genophage is cured. If anyone can tame this planet it'll be the Krogan.
Jack seems singularly focused.
'Wrong! This is... It's all wrong! This was a window! It wasn't a fucking mirror! The logs, everything it's... It's not like I remember it.' Jack complained.
'We are all unreliable narrators of our own tale, Jack.' I offer.
Shepard was more blunt.
'What the hell does Cerberus have to offer by facking all these little details? Wouldn't they have covered all of it up instead?'
'You're saying I was wrong? That I don't know what I'm saying?' Jack accused.
'Not wrong, mistaken. You had no way of knowing about the mirror from inside your cell. It's one way glass. And the rest of the details were picked up in the heat of combat. You never had the real story from the scientists either. How could you possibly have the whole story under those circumstances? How could anyone?'
'Fuck you, old man.' Jack agreed.
'Now, you wanted to bomb the shit out of this place. I was promised the chance to outrun a bomb. We still doing that? Or not?' I asked.
'Fuck yeah, we are.' Jack decided, and began to set up the bomb.
2185 CE
The confrontation between Jack and Miranda didn't happen as I expected it to.
Which isn't to say it didn't happen at all.
'Kids. Kids! Did you think I was making this shit up?' Jack demanded, shoving a display pad into Miranda's face.
'I... Cerberus isn't like that! I've been in charge of the Lazarus cell for years! The Illusive Man trusts me, and--'
'Trusts you? Are you sure about that? He didn't trust you enough to give you a heads-up about the fucking trap he sent us to! He didn't trust you enough to come clean about the fuckin' atrocities!' Jack shot back.
'Those were Rogue Cells!' Miranda protested.
'Were they?' I ask.
'What do you mean? Of course they were!' Miranda asserts.
'The way I see it, one of three things is possible. Either the Illusive Man is so blindly trusting and naive that bad actors can repeatedly take advantage of him and seize Cerberus resources for themselves. The Illusive Man has fostered a culture of such reckless disregard that cells are able to go rogue by accident. Or, those cells weren't going rogue at all, they were doing exactly what they were meant to and then disavowed because The Illusive Man didn't like the results.' I argued.
'No there are-- there are other options!' Miranda argued.
'What are they?' Jack asked.
Miranda's silence was more telling than any words she could have spoken.
Author's Notes: The title for this chapter comes from Miranda's arc. Landslide is about having the people you love and trust pull the rug out from under you. This chapter is shorter. I didn't get all the exposition scenes I wanted into it. I wrote them, but honestly they were trash. Less is a lot more here, I think.
