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Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the personal favor to Admiral Hackett.
[spoiler]Soon after this exchange with the Illusive Man, we received a call from Admiral Hackett on Arcturus Station. He wanted a word with me in private, so I went to my quarters to speak with him alone. It would appear a personal friend of the Admiral, one Doctor Amanda Kenson, is held prisoner in a Batarian prison, on charges of terrorism. With batarian scum this happens quite allot, to nearly every human found anywhere near their space. That or "spy".
It would appear that Dr. Kenson claimed to have evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. She was a deep-cover operative for the Alliance and searched for a Reaper artifact of some kind. According to Hackett, her last report said she had found it. He asked that I go in to save her – alone, or not at all. I asked him why I could not enter with a team, they are all competent. Hackett is concerned however that a squad will scare the batarians into killing her, and asks for discretion, or no help at all. I agreed to help him, and we headed for planet Aratoht, in the Bahak system of the Viper Nebula.
I arrived on Aratoht alone and undetected. I swear batarians are entierly incompetent – I have no training in stealth, have no gear enabling me for stealth, wear bulky, heavy, loud armor, wear easily identifiable Alliance insignias, I'm bristling with weapons and still not one guard saw or heard me until it was far to late. The first that saw or heard me was the interrogator, and he was floored with a single blow to his head. Through his helmet. After freeing Dr. Kenson and arming her we made for the easiest escape option; steal a shuttle from the batarians and simply flee. To do that, we gunned down a dozen guards and hacked into their security systems, disabling local security and the orbital-tracking network while I hold the batarians at bay. I enjoyed every minute. After a while Dr. Kenson is finished hacking, and we catch an elevator ride to the shuttle-bay. The doors were locked shut, but simply destroying the locking-mechanisms forced them open. We then commandeered their shuttle and took off, with no pursuers.
While in the shuttle, Dr. Kenson and I have a brief conversation. She told me how she was captured a few days ago by batarians while she and some of her men were in a scouting mission – the actual base of operations was not discovered. Their base was a collection of thrusters, coupled together by guidance systems, run by a good VI and powered by an after-market Eezo core – it's purpose was to accelerate the gigantic asteroid the base was on, aiming it towards the system's mass relay, and destroy it. The reason for that was that the local relay was the Alpha Relay, a key to the Reaper's invasion, and that the only way to stop them was to remove the relay and thus deny them near-instant travel across the galaxy to invade wherever they please.
Because the explosion the destruction of a relay could cause were likely to destroy the whole solar-system and thus kill all the people on Aratoht, I needed to see proof that the reapers would invade. To provide this, Dr. Kenson brought me to Project Base – the location of the reaper artifact and the results of long hard work on the part of Dr. Kenson's team. Upon arrival, I was introduced to a count-down timer on a wall over the first door. A little over two days, and the count-down were for the reaper's return. When I asked why they were sure of this, Kenson explained that the beacon had given off steady pulses that decreased in intervals; reacting to the proximity of the reapers and when they arrive, the pulse from the artifact would be a constant signal.
In barely two days, the reapers might be all over Earth. We had no time to waste. Dr. Kenson led me to the artifact at all haste, claiming the proof I needed was in the room with it. When we arrived by it, I was shocked – the artifact was simply sat in the middle of the room in the open, with no security measures or shielding at all. I have never felt a colder chill go down my spine than realizing nearly all – if not all – the people on this station might be indoctrinated by this point. A split second later, the artifact pulsed, and when it hit me, it showed me a vision – the reaper armada traveling to the alpha relay and spreading all over the galaxy – ergo the evidence I looked for.
Having this vision forced into my mind was painful and had a stunning effect on my nervous system for a brief moment. I found it hard to stand, vision was blurry, and muscles felt numb and unresponsive for a moment. My hearing however was still excellent, and what I heard were a clearly indoctrinated Dr. Kenson pointing a gun at my head, claiming I could not stop the arrival. We would just have to see about that.
Now it became clear to me why Kenson was a Dr and not a Sir – she took her eyes off me to look at her companions, all the time I needed to flip the gun out of her hands and break her wrist. Her companions pinned me down with gun-fire for a moment while she fled, ordering my death. At this point, the hardest fight of my life took place around this pile of reaper tech.
The Project troops flooded the room in waves, half-dozen every time. Trying to avoid getting shot while taking down multiple enemies while entierly alone was a major challenge, but I persisted – at the time I was convinced it was the last fight of my life, I was going to die, taunted by the artifact itself, with indoctrinated fools attacking me from multiple sides at once, while Kenson urged me to put down my weapons and give up. If I were to die, all these wretches would die before I did. After several of them died and the fresh reinforcements had to avoid tripping in the many bodies, they sent in a YMIR heavy mech to kill me. It nearly achieved what all the others could not do, but I somehow managed to down that one as well. They soon ran out of troops they were willing to risk, and locked the doors. I had just finished looting for ammunition and devised a plan to blow open a door with my Geth plasma shotgun, when the reaper artifact pulsed again, knocking me out.
By the time I woke up, two days had passed. I got off the bed, gathered my senses and knocked out the two guards sent to restrain me. The third one, apparently a tech responsible for keeping me sedated all this time, sealed me in the room with a forcefield. I soon found a way past this however. In one end of the room I were sealed into there were a mech command and control station. I used it to commandeer a LOKI mech. The mech killed the tech, the four other mechs sent to stop it, and then overloaded the power-junction feeding the forcefield keeping me locked in. I wasted no time to get out and pick up my gear,, stored in a locker.
Alarms went off all over the complex, so they knew I was up, and they were eager to stop me. I had less than an hour and a half until the reapers would arrive, I had to start this asteroid's attack and get out of here before that happened. The first two guards that tried to stop me fell easily enough. Kenson commanded over the intercom system and told the remaining guards to mass ahead and stop me before I got to project control. The pressing need to push through these indoctrinated troopers before the reapers arrived and the fact I was entierly alone presented a unique challenge, but I persisted eventually, fighting my way to and into the project control room. Humanity and the galaxy at large can count itself fortunate that none of these people came up with the idea to destroy the controls or otherwise sabotage the system's ability to start. The station's VI asked me if I really wanted to start the asteroid – it would kill the 300 thousand batarians on Aratoht, something it reminded me off with very accurate numbers – and I ordered it to do so. The engines came alive and a gigantic rock bigger than a mass relay suddenly started accelerating towards the alpha relay.
The dear Doctor Kenson, however, would have none of this. She claimed over the intercom that because I insisted on activating the project, she would now have no choice but to destroy the asteroid, citing that an element zero core meltdown will be sufficient to do this. From this point onwards I had to fight my way down into the reactor core and find a way to abort the core overload process that Kenson had just started. When I arrived in the core, I asked the VI for advice, and it informed me the only way to prevent a core meltdown would be to insert cooling rods A and B from their respective stations. I inserted rod A, then fought my way to rod B and inserted that one too. The core's temperature was returning to normal and a meltdown was averted. However, Kenson were entierly lost to the reapers and cooked up one last chance to stop me – overriding the power to the engines.
Getting to the engine control section was not a hard or time-intensive task – a few moments of elevator and a door – then I finally came face-to-face with Kenson again since she pressed her gun to my head in front of the reaper artifact. She ranted on how I had ruined everything, and the moment I saw her detonator I shot her dead. Unfortunately, she still managed to press it and destroy the engine control, the blast also knocked me out for a moment.
When I came to, I realized the damage to the engine section was, fortunately, not sufficient to stop the asteroid's already considerable momentum and thrust, and the alpha relay would be destroyed, the only question was if I would live to tell of it. I swiftly consulted the VI, asking it to contact the Normandy. When it replied that communications were damaged and for all personnel to evacuate by shuttle, I asked for directions and received them. I did not have much time, impact with the relay would occur in less than thirty minutes.
Once outside I followed the VI's instructions, and headed towards the shuttle evacuation station next to the external communication's tower. In the middle of combat with a small handful of surviving guards I got to watch as the last shuttle took off and fled in the direction of the relay, abandoning their fellows to die on the asteroid. They were not happy about that, though that only lasted until I killed them soon after. The final obstacle between me and my new objective – the coms tower – was another heavy mech. Again, challenging but not unstoppable. I activated it, hoping to contact the Normandy for pick-up. Instead I was greeted by a large hologram of the Collector's leader, Harbinger. It ranted at me, offering the same shallow taunts it did during combat, explaining that our time was ending, they would soon be here, so on and so forth. The claim that we should prepare for their arrival pretty much told me the collector general either speak for the reapers or are directly controlled by one. It was nevertheless indisputable proof that the collectors answer to the reapers, if that was not already clear. Once the hologram died down the Normandy swung by, responding to my message through the open coms from the tower, and picked me up. Joker got us out of the system mere seconds before the relay were destroyed – this impact proved Dr. Kenson right; the detonation obliterated the whole system, destroying the relay, planets and likely the sun itself. At that point the alpha relay did not exist anymore and the reapers were delayed by several months, or perhaps years.
Once back on the Normandy I had a very surprising visit. Admiral Hackett came aboard an official Cerberus ship in person to debrief me, naturally he had many questions. I answered them as well as I could, explaining the situation and the sequence of events. Hackett however had bad news. While he believed me and saw the need for the relay's destruction, the deaths of 300 thousand batarians meant the Batarian Hegemony would want blood, these worthless filth have looked for an excuse to make war since humanity first appeared in the galaxy, it might easily lead to one – a war we don't have time for with the reapers coming in months or years. When I finish with this mission and the collectors have been stopped, I can expect a court-martial and charges for the destruction of a batarian colony. Even now I can hardly believe it. I realize where we – humanity – stand now and why this is needed, but I can't help but feel betrayed. Charges and trial, when by any rights, if I cared for medals I'd ask for one. They should be thanking me, we lost 300 thousand batarians, we might save trillions of sapient being all over this galaxy, the Batarian species might very well survive in the long run thanks to my efforts. But no. No thanks, and no freedom once this is over. My reputation is in ruins, my life is in turmoil and when this is over I'll be a scape-goat to enact damage-control. There is no god-damned justice in this universe.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the favor to Jack.
[spoiler]A day went by after the destruction of the Alpha Relay and the halting of the Reaper's arrival, and life moved on much as it normally does. Jack wanted a word with me and I indulged my curiosity despite the events of the past days weighting on me. Turns our Jack had a bit of a story for me. I had only a little time to even speak with her previous and knew only that Jack had a history with Cerberus and that it was not pretty, ergo she wanted files on Cerberus – files I handed her as soon as I could – and she were hoping to find dates, names, places etc. Turns out her plan is not very original – much like corporal Toombs; find the ones responsible and kill them, their associates, friends and everything. A bit more extreme than I would have liked, but if Jack wanted to kill Cerberus I for one would never get in her way.
This time however Jack informed me of why she hated Cerberus. It was not a pretty story; she had been raised in a Cerberus facility on Pragia since she was a small child – countless experiments were done on her to boost her biotic powers, any means needed were used. There were other kids as well, and according to Jack, all of the guards, scientists and even the other children tried to kill her when she eventually escaped – only to be found, raped and sold as a slave by the ship that found her. "Uplifting escape story" indeed. Jack asked for time to go to Pragia, now long abandoned, set up "a big fucking bomb" in the middle and blow the place to hell from orbit. I was only to happy to accept and have Joker adjust our course. Perhaps reminding me how much I also hate Cerberus can get my thoughts back on the mission and our task at hand, instead of the depressing welcome I will get when I return to the Alliance.
I decided to be careful with this one, Jack may have wanted this visit to clear up her head and be ready for our mission, but she is still a highly powerful biotic with an unstable mental condition – I would not want to risk my neck with her possible freak-outs on Pragia without trustworthy backup. I brought Garrus along, and in hind-sight I am glad I did. Upon approach our scanners picked up several life-signs in the facility, but none near the landing-zone. Either the facility received a visit from others than ourselves, or large packs of wild animals made their homes inside.
Jack was eager to explain the use and purpose of each area we passed by as we made our way inside, much to the disgust of myself and Garrus hearing what Cerberus is willing to do to "preserve and advance" humanity. Her memories however were not always trustworthy. Many times we would find indications for one transgression or another or proof of Cerberus' crimes that told a story slightly different than Jack's, and this would visibly confuse her, or anger her, in some cases. I've not known of Cerberus for as long as Jack has, but I will stand by my earlier claims and beliefs – I hate Cerberus. I can understand their desire to protect humanity, but I have that same desire and I did not torture and kill children in an extreme variety of ways in this facility. What Cerberus has done and likely still does is unacceptable – as a result I will kill all of them. This facility is another example of their guilt, and their uncaring attitude towards human lives and suffering. Garrus said it best, when we passed through their morgue. "I'm saying, some sick son-of-a-bitch killed allot of children here, and then studied his handi-work." Entirely unforgivable.
The first indication of other visitors were a pair of dead Varren, shot to death by other guns than ours. We soon found the responsible party – a small band of Blood Pack mercs, apparently looting the facility. They proved some sport but by now killing blood Pack Vorcha and even Krogan is not very hard to neither myself, nor any of my companions. We pushed deeper, wary of any mercs we might run into, and kept checking the consoles for any more logs. Early on we found a log that might indicate the facility here on Pragia went rogue and started working on it's own. This might have alleviated some of Cerberus' guilt in the atrocities that took place here, but it makes little difference. The different logs we found painted a grim picture.
The facility's main purpose was to utilize kidnapped children with biotic potential to discover any and all means to build up their powers and make them as biotically strong as possible. They were willing to do anything for this, and tested all possible solutions on the children here, besides Jack. Jack, or Subject Zero, was the key to their efforts – the one with the greatest potential and thus the catalyst. If a means were found to have good results and none or acceptably few side-effects it was applied to Jack, who was held in solitary confinement behind a two-way mirror; her isolation was part of the training regime, as were the gladiatorial battles where they pitted her against other children. She would be tazed for hesitating, rewarded for attacking, and usually pumped full of drugs while fighting anyhow. Any methods that had a fatality-ratio was not used on Jack – and as a result of many tests having very high fatalities, they killed a very great number of children here. Once they had what they needed – a long list of functioning means to boost Jack's biotic skills to their absolute greatest hight – this could be used as a blue-print on every other biotic capable person to reach the hight of their skills as well. The deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of kidnapped kids was apparently an acceptable prize. There is little that is not an "acceptable prize" to Cerberus.
Just outside the area holding Jack's cell, we ran into the leader of the Blood Pack, a large Krogan. He notified his boss, whom he named Aresh, over radio that he had found us, and argued a prize to bother killing us. They soon agreed to something and the Blood Pack attacked us. Big mistake. Once we were done ending the sad would-be mercs, we moved into Jack's cell and called out for Aresh, asking him to get out of cover, as we knew he was there. It was at this moment that we found the saddest remnant of Cerberus' sins on Pragia.
It turned out that Aresh is another survivor from this facility. Along with all the other kids he attacked his guards in unison when they were all moved one day, and started the riot that enabled Jack to escape. He was the most broken person I've seen so far, and by now I've seen quite a few. In his warped mind, the injustice and suffering he and his fellow children suffered in this hole had to have been worth something. He had hired the Blood Pack to go back here and salvage the facility and re-start it, stating that if something useful could come of it, all their suffering would be worth it. I was not about to let that happen.
Jack wanted to kill him, bury this part of her past and move on with some peace of mind. Jack – or whatever she was named by her parents before her abduction – is an incredibly powerful biotic and the more stable she is the safer others will be around her. Furthermore the more stable she is the better it will be for our mission. Ergo she could move on an unstable killer or a useful asset to ensure the survival of humanity throughout the galaxy. Jack asked if it was okay to shoot Aresh and if it would fix her head. I was quite sure it would help greatly, and told her to kill him. She was visibly relieved when she complied with that request, and after spending a few moments reminiscing about her past in the cell, we left for the Shuttle and planted our "big fucking bomb". Then we left, and blew the place to hell along with a large section of jungle.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the search for the Prothean site and doctors Cayce and O'loy.
[spoiler]After we returned from Pragia, I wanted to accelerate our completion of any useful secondary objectives. The locations mentioned in the data we recovered from the crashed MSV Rosalie were not far off, so we set out for the closest one and explored it. This location was a small research station the good doctors had set up inside an active volcano on Karumto, of all places. Dangerous, unstable location, but the Hammerhead gunship took us in as safe as possible and we found the coordinates for the Prothean site they looked for, along with much research data regarding the protheans. Collecting all of this we set out for the second site.
On the planet Lattesh, the harsh sub-zero temperatures makes for an entierly unforgiving environment. According to the data left by Dr. Cayce, these anomalous weather patterns might be the workings of prothean technology of some kind, and he had deposited several probes on the planet to find out. When we went to recover these we had to work swiftly, the temperatures were freezing the Hammerhead and if the engine failed we would be trapped on this world, doomed to die in the extreme cold. Fortunately, we worked fast and found the probes, extracted their collected data and left before this happened. While the data did not reveal any prothean tech at work on the planet, it might prove useful in many fields, such as terraforming methods. We had one location left to check before heading to the supposed prothean site, however a message from the Illusive Man changed our priorities around quite badly.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the discovered Collector ship.
[spoiler]The Illusive Man contacted us in the middle of our search for the prothean site and informed us that he had intercepted a signal from a Turian patrol that ran into a Collector ship. Apparently the turians managed to disable the vessel before they were destroyed, providing us with a great chance to enter and extract as much information as we could about our enemy. We wasted no time, and immediately set our new course for the disabled collector vessel. According to the Illusive Man the turians did receive the message their patrol sent, but they were being fed false reports from Cerberus, this gave us the time we needed to arrive first.
Upon arrival, the collector ship did indeed seem to be disabled. Engines were cold, no emissions came from it, weapons and most other systems were off-line. The ship was sitting silently in space, not far from the wrecked turian ship that apparently crippled it. We moved up the side of the ship and entered by shuttle, again I brought Garrus and Jack. After landing we began to move into the ship. There were no activity anywhere, no collectors in sight, not even bodies. Erie, but we had no other choice but to press on. According to EDI the ship's signatures matched the one attacking Horizon, it seemed the GUARDIAN defense towers might have damaged it and softened it for the turians.
We still encountered no collectors or anything else that moved, however we did run into a large pile of dead bodies after a while. Grim. Soon we ran into another cruel fact. Further into the ship we found a console monitoring a pod, much like those seen on Horizon. These pods were everywhere in the ship, however the one monitored by these machines had a dead collector in it. EDI ran an analysis and determined that the collectors DNA match that of the long-extinct protheans. It appears that after – or perhaps even during – their eradication of the prothean empire the reapers captured several protheans and re-purposed them as their mutated slaves. They are entierly at the reaper's will and according to EDI have extensive genetic re-writes to their DNA.
Saren Arterius once believed that organics could prove their worth to the reapers and be spared. At that time, I told him I'd rather die than live a slave. The grizzly sight before me now is a grotesque example of how right I am in that regard – killing a collector is likely doing it a huge favor. Benezia claimed being indoctrinated is like beating one's fists against a barrier, while helplessly watching one's own actions, powerless to stop it from happening. I wonder if the collectors are aware of their actions, somewhere deep down in their shackled minds. If so, I pity them their miserable existence.
Despite this cruel revelation we had to move on. Our objective in the ship were to find a way for EDI to tap into the collector ship's data-banks and take what we could for ourselves before getting out and, if able, destroy the ship entierly. We soon found a terminal we could bridge to EDI and establish a connection, and did so. This terminal was on the bottom of a gigantic room several kilometers in diameter, with pods lined along the walls as far as th eye could see. The collectors had room for considerably more than even all the humans in the terminus systems. Garrus hypothesized that the collectors would hit Earth. With this possibility literally hanging over us, we linked EDI to the collector ship and started the data-mine. At that point, the trap most of us expected for so long was triggered.
Soon after starting the data-mining the Normandy experiences an overload attempt from the Collector ship; likely intended to fry electronics and cripple the Normandy. EDI managed to divert most of it to non-critical systems and the result was a very brief power-surge, followed by attempts to hack into the Normandy's systems from inside the collector ship. My squad and I were at this point lifted far into the air as the platform we stood on moved up to meet and link up with several others, full of collectors. According to EDI, she would have to finish the download before she could over-ride any systems on board the collector vessel – we would have to hold our ground until then.
A short but fierce battle followed. Harbinger assumed control of a minion often, directing his troops towards us in person, and several long-range husks and collectors assisted him in the battle. After some intense fighting we beat them off however, and re-activated the panel to allow EDI access to the collector's systems. She then lowered the platform down towards ground-level, allowing us to make our way off the ship – we had what we came for.
While moving down however, EDI informed us that there could be no way the Illusive Man did not know it was a trap all along – she explained that the signal originated from the collector ship and contained an error clearly identifying it as a non-turian signal. She discovered this using Cerberus detection signals that the Illusive Man himself wrote, he would know it was false and chose to send us to the ship regardless. I were looking forward to having a word with him when we were off the collector's ugly excuse for a ship.
After touching down the way out was relatively straight-forward. We ran down the winding corridors as fast as we could, Joker informed us the collectors were activating their ship's weapons and powering up. Besides Harbinger trying to stop us along with his troopers, the greatest danger were another of those huge death-machines we faced in the spaceport on Horizon, along with a few more collectors. It took a while, but tried and true tactics helped us bring this beast down as well. Now, between us and the shuttle was a final human-wave attack comprised of several dozen husks. Please, I have a shotgun. So did Jack – that and biotics like shockwave. We made it on board the shuttle, then on board the Normandy, after that we managed to dodge a particle-beam attack and retreat to FTL speeds before we were hit.
Once back on-board the Normandy I went to have a stern word with the Illusive Man about waltzing into a trap with no information available. This disgustingly self-loving scum has one use I'll respect – information. If I can't trust that his information is good, he has no use to me. His argument of course were that things are never that simple, that it was a calculated risk and that he had "faith in my abilities". Really. He sure work hard to get me and my team killed despite how valuable I seem to be to him. The only good thing to come from that conversation was the discovery of how the collectors travel back and forth between the Omega 4 relay, enabling us to enter. However we would still need an advanced Identify Friend/Foe beacon to enable us to land in the safe-zone on the other end – the other end is in a reportedly shielded area in the galactic core. It would appear that the reapers have a station or base there that somehow survives the black holes and nova explosions that comprise the core. We will need the IFF to enter safely, and Cerberus knows where one can be found – a derelict reaper, long dead.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the finding of the Prothean site.
[spoiler]When we were sent to the trap on the "disabled" collector ship, we were in the middle of finishing our search for doctors Cayce and O'loy and the Prothean site they supposedly found. Now that we were done and knew our final objectives – finish building our team and acquire the reaper IFF, then head through the Omega 4 relay to fight and stop the collectors – finishing our side-tasks would be a good idea. The trip to Corang, in the Veer system of the Hawking Eta cluster took little time, and we touched down in the Hammerhead. On this planet there were five artifacts of prothean origin that Dr. Cayce wished to study. As well as several Geth trying to claim them for themselves, apparently. I love the Hammerhead's mobility and ease of firepower, it's absolutely a major improvement over the Mako. We made swift work of the geth, then brought the artifacts with us for study. Sadly, no traces of the good doctor. However, we already have the location of the main dig, and headed there.
Our final destination was the moon of Kopis, in the Hoplos system of the Hades Nexus. Upon arrival, we are greeted by a large kinetic barrier over the dig-sites entrance, and had to destroy the four generators maintaining it. A large force of rocket drones hid in the ground all over the area and dodging missiles while trying to neutralize them all and make it to the generators wasn't easy. They would likely have killed us all in the open terrain if we had gone in on foot.
Once the rocket drones were destroyed the the generators down, we landed the Hammerhead and went in on foot. There was not much inside, a handful of dead mercs – Blue Suns to be exact – and the artifact. The logs we found provided more questions than answers – they spoke of geth, among other things, but we found no signs of them, the artifact was still here and we took it with us when we left without trouble. I still wonder who killed Dr. O'loy, who killed the mercs, and what even happened. I guess I will never know, and truth be told I don't care enough to know. The final artifact was recovered and will apparently be of great help in the development of new tech. I have it here in my cabin on board the Normandy – like everything else here, I will be handing this item over to the Alliance when we are done.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the recruitment of Tali'Zorah vas Neema.
[spoiler]With the search for the Prothean site and the collection of artifacts and research concluded, it was time to get back to our job. The three dossiers I had left required me to travel to Illium, for two of them, and Geth space to find Tali. With geth space being what it is, I decided to go find Tali first, Illium is a considerably safer place than Haestrom. Upon arrival in the system we were instantly greeted by our most dangerous foe; the sun. Haestrom's sun, Dholen, is maturing into a red giant, bathing the system with intense radiation, this has overwhelmed Haestrom's magnetosphere. Seconds in the sun will overload shields, minutes are liable to kill electronics, hours will prove fatal to organics. With the handicap of having to fight in the shade at any and all times, I, Grunt and Garrus set out to find Tali on a hostile world overwhelmed with geth. The geth themselves had no problem adapting to the dangers of the world. Typical.
Our first obstacle was a gate, locked down and blocking our way. Luckily the door was locked from our side and we soon found the means to open it, along with a dead Quarian and a dead geth – obviously Tali did not come here alone. Pushing on soon revealed plenty more geth, these ones fully functional. We fought on through several of them until we ran into a few more dead quarians, one of them had an active radio and their commander tried to hail them through it.
After picking it up we got in contact with the quarian commander, Kal'Reegar, and were briefed on the situation. The quarians arrived with a dozen marines and a team of scientists including Tali. They were here to study the phenomenon of the sun, apparently destabilizing and erupting prematurely into a red giant. The geth found them when they were nearly done and so the quarians were now in this desperate situation, fighting for their lives. The good news was Tali were among the ones who were still alive. We agreed on a simple strategy – the quarians held their ground, while we pushed on, rolling up the geth forces from the rear.
There were no shortage of geth to try and stop us, they had even blocked the way forward behind a thick pillar they collapsed in front of the door leading on. This forced us to make a detour to acquire two sets of demolition charges, and subsequently kill even more geth. The down-side were that, by the time we had destroyed the pillar and pushed on, only two quarians were left alive, Kal'reegar and Tali'Zorah. Eventually we made our way to Kal'reegar's position – the geth had managed to get between him and Tali, who were locked into a room on the far end of a large, open area filled with geth. According to Kal'Reegar the geth colossus at the end was the greatest concern, shelling us with heavy weapons fire and if damaged, huddling up and repairing the damage in the field. Nasty. Getting past it to save Tali would be challenging, but not impossible – Kal'Reegar had a plan. He would utilize his rocket launcher to keep the colossus occupied or in a state of repairing itself while my team pushed on, killed the geth infantry and flanked the colossus from close range, killing it swiftly before it could fix itself. This plan worked nearly flawlessly, except Kal'Reegar was hit during the fight and died, leaving only Tali as the last surviving quarian on Haestrom.
She was naturally saddened to hear of this when we had silenced all the geth and made our way inside to her, but claimed that they knew the mission was high-risk. Brave of her, putting up a front, but even with her envirosuit I could easily tell she would need some time to work this over. In an attempt to get her mind on other things I inquired about their mission here, and Tali filled me in better than Kal'Reegar did over the radio. The mission to Hastrom was conducted for the Admiralty Board on the flotilla, they were concerned that the instability of the Haestrom's sun was artificially created by the geth and wanted to send a team to this lost quarian observation post to learn the truth. Well, the mission was a success and they got the readings and information they wanted, though at a near-total cost to the expedition.
Tali came along with us to the Normandy and sent her findings to the flotilla from there. She was concerned for me and the fact I work alongside Cerberus. She reminded me about the experiments Cerberus did on Thorian Creepers, Rachni and more. I had not forgotten, but it was good to know I could still trust Tali to be hostile to Cerberus and look after my back. With both her and Garrus with me now I feel far better, and safer, than I did before. Before we go to Illium, we have two reasons to go to Tutchanka.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the favor to Mordin Solus.
[spoiler]Tutchanka. Bombed out, ruined, crumbling homeworld of perhaps the most violent and brutal species in the galaxy. Both Mordin and Grunt had requested some help from me – Mordin had heard one of his assistants while working on the modified Genophage, Maelon, was captured here. He was naturally worried, if the Krogan learned that Maelon was involved in an update for the genophage his entrails would likely be decorating a wall somewhere soon. Grunt however was restless, agitated and more aggressive than normal. This worried him, as he said it, "fury is my choice, not a sickness". We decided it would be best to consult an experienced krogan on this matter.
Mordin was first up. I brought along Tali as well, to see her in action again and have one provenly reliable companion with me. Mordin had by now proven himself as well, but I've known him for a considerably shorter time than Tali. We set down in a deep underground complex underneath the crumbling ruins of a krogan city. A grim back-drop to our visit, but I had to admit, it gave you some perspective on the krogan species, as well as providing some grim reminder of the consequences of constant war, especially nuclear war. I had to wonder how many times this city has been bombed and fought over.
Krogan on Tutchanka are generally very hostile to alien outsiders, with few exceptions. Once we had made our way to the Urdnot clan-leader we were in for a good surprise; it was Wrex. Despite his previous claims that he had no-where to return home to, it would seem he chose to do just that regardless after the destruction of the original Normandy. When first I inquired about it, the Illusive Man did state that Wrex had returned here, but I never expected he would be clan-leader, of all things. Suits him just right.
Wrex was happy to see me, a strange prospect for me to consider after Virmire and everything that happened in the past. It did however give us time to chat. Wrex told me of his plans for the krogan and his achievements to this end. Strange. I agreed, and still agree absolutely about the need for the genophage, but hearing about Wrex's successes in uniting the clans and re-building his species makes me glad. There is a line between wanting everyone else safe from the krogan and the desire for all krogan to die. At the time, I was glad to note that I am not an unfeeling genocidal monster. At least not yet.
After a pleasant conversation with Wrex I inquired about Mordin's problem, the Urdnot clan-leader pointed us to his chief scout and we bid our farewell. The chief scout however, had interesting news. It would appear that a different krogan clan, the Weyrloc – the founders of the Blood Pack merc band – had captured a Salarian, likely Maelon, and held him in their fortified hospital some distance away. He also spoke of a scout he had sent to check on the situation who had not reported back, likely captured by clan Weyrloc. We prepared for the trip then took a large, armored krogan truck out to the hospital.
Upon arrival we had to walk the last distance to the hospital, and ran into some local wild-life then several Blood Pack Vorcha and a couple krogan members. Either they noted us coming, had good intel or perhaps the gun-shots from killing the native wild-life alerted them. Most likely it was the latter. Tali made a good accounting of herself, constantly disrupting the enemy with her combat-drone and providing heavy fire support with her shotgun. Mordin as usual provided a great deal of tech abilities and between the three of us the Blood Pack died very quickly.
Right inside the the hospital proper and down the very first flight of stairs we found a dead human body, nonchalantly disposed here to rot in the middle of the entry. Very vorcha-like behavior to simply leave the poor guy here like this. Mordin scanned and examined him and found that he had been heavily tested on, apparently he was used as a control-case for experimentation. The signs indicated a high likelihood that the Blood Pack aimed at curing the genophage. Entirely unacceptable, for obvious reasons. As we pushed on, we ran into a big room with a cat-walk above. A so-called "Speaker" for clan Weyrloc entered from the other end and ranted at us about our situation – their salarian would cure the genophage and clan weyrloc would conquer the galaxy and so on and so forth. Should have named himself the clan weyrloc "braggart" instead. I grew tired of his bullshit faster then I'd expected and decided to end it swiftly.
Underneath the Weyrloc speaker ran a gas-line. Shooting it once caused a leak. Shooting it twice with incinerate active caused ignition. I swear, death by incineration looks... painful. With their speaker a charred corpse the remaining krogan and vorcha wasted no time in opening fire on us. When I told them that running away as they requested would bring the danger of tripping in several dozen dead Blood Pack, I did not lie. The ones facing us here were no different, and krogan buildings, having no electronic security, is easy to move around in when the guards are all dead.
Shortly after incinerating the speaker and killing his companions we ran into a room with information about their attempts to cure the genophage, and a dead krogan female. She was apparently infertile and volunteered to undergo the testing in hopes of a cure. Mordin was clearly distressed and ultimately considered her to have died a painful, pointless death. He felt responsible because while his actions were needed, they did bring desperation and suffering to the krogan on a wide scale as a result. Mordin had long struggled with the ramifications of his actions, seeking solace in religion, having a crisis of faith, and ultimately deciding to run a clinic on Omega, where we originally found him. I offered some comfort to his distress, or so I hoped. I reminded him about why the updated genophage was needed, and that while he was responsible for it's creation, the fallout was inevitable and unavoidable. After a while Mordin gathered himself, and we pressed on; we still had to find and save Maelon.
A few rooms later, we ran into the only decent opposition available in the entire Weyrloc clan; it's leader, Chief Weyrloc Guld. We had nearly arrived by the labs and gunned down another group of Blood Pack when several krogan, showed up and attacked us. Most of them were no harder to kill then your average krogan, but Guld was harder. Utilizing biotic skills like barrier and warp, armed with a powerful shotgun and being an exceptionally hardy krogan, it took severe volumes of fire to bring him down, he got close to killing Mordin in the process. Unfortunately for Guld, he sent his troops at us while he himself lingered in the back for a while, and by the time he cough up, all his krogan were dead, giving us a hefty 3-on-1 advantage in firepower and tactics. When we walked past his perforated corpse and headed inside the lab, I had this strange feeling; this here was another corpse in the wake of my passing, but one that I knew for a fact had family. The Urdnot chief scout informed us that Guld's followers considered him to have a special destiny because, to a krogan, having a child is very rare, two is therefore special – especially as one of them were female. I don't believe in destiny, and Guld's inglorious and pointless death is proof.
However, even now while back on the Normandy, I have problems describing that feeling. Did I care that his kids had lost their father? Was it guilt? I know how it feels to lose one's parents. It's not a nice situation to be in, however my father did not die because he charged three well-armed enemies with a shotgun, he did not deserve to die. Guld however, did. I've killed countless other people already, at this rate I will without a doubt kill countless others as well. At least in the case of sapient species all the people I've killed were someone's offspring, and many were likely parents as well. So why would I now start to bother with this fact, looking at this bleeding piece of armored meat on the floor? I did not know, still don't, and ultimately, it is irrelevant. We came to Tutchanka for a purpose after all.
When we entered the lab Mordin was in for an unpleasant surprise. Maelon had not been kidnapped, he had come to Tutchanka to to cure the genophage of his own free will. As Mordin's assistant, he had been part of the team that updated the genophage, and the guilt weighted to heavily on him. Maelon believed that, because he helped create it, he could end it, and with his hands already bloody, a little more for the sake of curing the genophage was an acceptable price to pay. This was unacceptable to Mordin – the simulations the STG ran showed that an increase in the krogan numbers always led to war, always. He concluded that the only option left was to kill Maelon and destroy his work. He did, and then considered what to do with the research Maelon had already done. I argued that if the STG was clear on the results of the krogan adapting and their numbers increasing, then the destruction of the data was the only solution. Mordin agreed, deleted the data and followed us back to Urdnot territory.
Once we arrived back in the Urdnot clan's compound I had the displeasure of telling the chief scout about the fate of his companion that we found in the hospital. The Blood Pack had used him as a test-subject, and in his unstable state he concluded that he had to stay and persist to help the krogan species overcome the genophage. When he learned we were there to stop the cure, he became enraged, attacked us, and we were forced to kill him. Needless to say, he was not very happy about that. After this we headed to the Normandy in orbit to get some rest.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the favor to Grunt.
[spoiler]After some rest and recuperation, I notified Tali and Grunt, and we headed back down to Tutchanka to have a word with Wrex again. It turns out there is nothing really wrong with Grunt; he is merely aging, and are now at an age where normal Krogan go through a rite of passage. He directs us towards the shaman, while an envoy from the Gatatog clan, Gatatog Uvenk, protests Grunt's status as a tank-born clone. Wrex was unfazed and did not care for his protests, resulting in Uvenk storming off.
By the time we finished with Wrex and reached the shaman Uvenk was already arguing with him, invoking a denial. At this, I and Tali agreed to be Grunt's Krantt, his companions in arms while he undergo the rite of passage. Uvenk whined that being unnatural, the dangers of the rite may as well ignore him like a lump of plastic. He did not get much further in his crying before I lost patience with him and head-butted him into submission. He was clearly offended by the act. The shaman was clearly amused. Having prepared as well as we could we got into the trucks and headed for the site used for clan Urdnot's rite of passage.
In the last surface-city to fall in the rebellions there was a small arena-like area with a huge piston at one side. When prepared, we pressed a button on, activating it, and starting the rite. The first test, comprising of several waves of Varren, represented the krogan conquest of Tutchanka itself. Given that both Grunt, Tali and I had shotguns, these wild animals were absolutely no match. The next one however was somewhat more interesting.
The second wave, was meant to represent the Rachni wars, and several waves of Klixen – a fire-breathing bug-race that have a tendency to have their bio-fuel sacks ignited when dying, resulting in a violent explosion – served as our opponents. These were a far greater challenge, but we overcame those too with cool heads and steady aiming. The third trial however, was a great challenge.
The piston stated that since all krogan now bear the genophage, survival is the number-one goal and a high aspiration. For a few seconds I wondered what it might be where survival, was the number one requirement. Then the Tresher Maw showed up. Intense fight. We spent most of our time dodging the acid-globs is spat at us, any direct impact could easily be fatal, especially in Tali's case. The test called for surviving for five minutes. We managed to kill it in four. It was highly unexpected; we kept dodging it's attacks and firring away with all we had when it suddenly toppled over and died. Perhaps one of the rounds from my anti material rifle finally hit something important, I don't know. But it died, and we had achieved the results of the rite.
A few minutes after we had killed the Tresher Maw and re-gained our breath, Gatatog Uvenk arrived with four of his warriors. I fully expected him to attack us, this was his perfect chance to re-pay his earlier humiliations. He was impressed with Grunt's performance and the killing of the tresher maw. It became clear that he wanted to offer Grunt the supposed "merciful" position as Uvenk's pet, a trophy treated more like a glorified item than a person, and he only considered this because his own predictions about grunt were proven false. I was sure Grunt's reply would be swift and painful. I was right.
When Grunt turned down Uvenk's offer and told him where he could stick it, a fight broke out. Putting down Uvenk's Krantt was not hard, and killing Uvenk himself was in fact considerably easier than killing Weyrloc Guld yesterday. With Uvenk and his troopers rotting in the dusty wastes of Tutchanka, we signaled the Urdnot honor-guard to pick us up, and returned to clan Urdnot's camp.
The shaman was happy to welcome Grunt to the clan and congratulate him for killing a tresher maw, a feat that appears to be rare, last who did it was Wrex himself – I'm not surprised at all. We then went over and talked to Wrex, who recognized Grunt's position in the clan. I was dearly tempted to ask him if he wanted to come with us. I could absolutely need him for our mission, and I know only one other krogan I might come to trust as much as I trust him. However, I decided against it – clan Urdnot, and all krogan, needed Wrex where he is. Besides, if he did Urdnot would need a new chief, and I might one day benefit greatly from having a powerful krogan clan as allies. The reapers are not exactly getting any further away from the galaxy. With both Grunt and Mordin happy to have their respective problems solved, though it was not in ways they had imagined, we departed Tutchanka for a quite different place; the Asari trade-world of Ilium.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the recruitment of the Assassin.
[spoiler]It has been said about Bekenstein that it's "The Humans' Illium" because it's a haven for business that is not always legitimate, but highly profitable to those who manage, and poor for the rest. In truth, Noveria should have this title, being founded by a large group of human corporations and technically not being part of Council space, ergo it can operate with a variety of lenient or non-existing laws, much like Illium. This world was founded by a large group of Asari corporations and lies in the Terminus, ergo it is not technically a world in the Asari Republics, or under Council regulation, for that matter. Everything can be found here, legal or otherwise. Including slavery. "Indentured servitude" they call it. Stuck-up asari would never get comfortable about the fact it's essentially the same thing, likely because it proves these long-lived, supposedly morally-sound people are anything but. This fact surprises none but the naive and gullible.
Our first objective on this glorified Omega was to gather information about our two recruits, to do that I had a word with an old friend. Liara T'soni seem to have set up a respected info-broker business on this planet, in just two years. I'm quite impressed, honestly. Liara paid all fees related to our docking in Nos Astra and asked the greeter to inform us that she wanted a word with us – this was not only a good reunion, as I had, perhaps strangely, missed her – but also a far simpler way to gain intel on my targets.
Liara informed me that the assassin I'm here to recruit, a Drell named Thane Krios, is on Illium to kill a corporate executive, Nassana Dantius. I remember when I killed Nassana's sister, Dahlia Dantius, the slaver. If Thane wanted to kill Nessana, I would not get in his way, though I still had to go and ensure he survived his hit, I have no use for a corpse. Liara told me Thane contacted an asari who work in the docks, Seryna, and she might know more. I thanked her for the info, and we made our way to the docks area.
Seryna was originally skeptical of us, but soon became very cooperative when she learned we were here to find our assassin, not hinder him. It appears Seryna was head of security for Nessana then got fired, after confronting Nassana about her strategies of killing rivals and even government officials if beneficial to her. She told us much about the Dantius towers, still under construction, and even helped by driving us to the base of the towers right in the center of Illium's capital city. There were no electronic security in the unfinished tower so we only had to worry about Eclipse mercs hired to guard the place. Not a problem.
Tali and Garrus came with me for this one, and we had barely exited Seryna's skycar before we heard gun-shots and watch as the Eclipse's mechs gunned down the salarian workers. It would seem Nassana were so worried about the assassin out for her life she wouldn't even give her own workers time to get out of the towers before they got gunned down. Being an uncaring asshole is a Dantius family trait, apparently.
After silencing the mechs and the few Eclipse we found on the bottom floor, we administered some first aid to patch up the worst damage to one of the salarians, who had survived the massacre. His information about the towers layout helped us greatly in scaling it in far less time than we would have needed otherwise. Along the way, we periodically ran into Eclipse and the mechs, but no heavies. Mostly techs, soldiers and vanguards, only the latter was somewhat challenging. We also ran into a couple pockets of salarian workers who had survived. It would appear Thane locked them into the rooms he found them hiding in, to keep them save. That's interesting to me – a person who treats his lethal job as just that; a job. Thane is out here to kill only one person and anyone who gets in his way, and do in fact care what happens to others, even total strangers. A person like that is respectable, it might mean he is more than an unprincipled thug.
Eventually we had worked our way to the top of the unfinished tower 2, hitching a ride in the elevator after killing it's former occupants, a Krogan bounty hunter and a pair of Eclipse techs. On the top, we ran into a single Eclipse trooper who were occupied forgoing situational awareness to ensure his bosses he would "handle us" alone. Sure he will. We walked right to him and interrogated him. I gave him the options of either walking down alive if he told us what we needed, or taking the express through the window. He was stupid, tested to see if my threat was idle and denied us any useful info. I never make idle threats, shoving him through the window's glass was not hard considering my strength-enhancing implantations and cybernetics. After this we made our way to the bridges.
This area was interesting, if only because there were no guard-rail or security net of any kind to stop a fall, we had to be careful not to drop off and fall to our deaths, a more likely prospect than Eclipse killing us. I swear Nessana must have hired the most incompetent mercs I've seen to date. The biggest danger was in fact a pair of rocket-turrets that I noticed on the other end of the bridge – if we got into their range the explosions could bring down the bridge. Garrus and I sniped them from a distance, actually a challenge in the strong wind, then we pushed on to Nessana's penthouse.
Nassana were not happy to see us, especially not me, whom she believed to be dead. Obviously she did not believe me when I told her I wasn't there to kill her, and her paranoia was easily apparent, though justified in this case. Eventually she concluded that because I was not there to kill her I was there for money. Please, money? Earning creds is not hard. The scene that followed was quite entertaining and impressive. After ordering one of her three remaining guards to check on the other entrances, Thane dropped down from the the ventilation shafts above, silently. Within seconds he had snapped the neck of one, killed another with a crushing punch to the throat, and shot the third in the face before he grabbed Nessana herself and shoved his pistol in her gut, shooting her at point-blank range. In a few seconds, he had ended four lives and completed his work.
Thane then did something unexpected. He stopped over Nessana's body, whom he had laid down on her desk carefully, praying. When I asked him why he did so, he responded that prayers for the wicked should never be neglected. To the notion that Nessana did not deserve that, he replied that it was for him. When he was done and had thanked us for proving able distractions for his infiltration, we explained who we were and why we wanted to recruit him. He informed us that he was dying, and that since he had less than a year left, a mission considered suicidal would be just fine. He agreed to work with us, at no charge and accompanied us back to the Normandy.
Back on the ship, Jacob greeted Thane's arrival, but were suspicious of him, claiming an assassin was just a hired gun, a merc. One hired gun complaining to another. Hello pot, I am kettle. Thane was unfazed and asked if we had a place on the ship that was dry. EDI informed him the most arid location was the life-support section, and Thane made his way there, settling in. For my part, I returned to my quarters for some hours of rest, and updating my log.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the recruitment of the Justicar.
[spoiler]Back on the streets of Illium Tali, Garrus and I headed for Tracking Officer Dara's office, directed by Liara's information provided earlier. Dara grants us some information about Justicars in general and directs us towards the commercial spaceport, where our recruit supposedly spends her time right now. We hail a cab and move over.
Upon arrival we meet with the local police division and one Detective Anaya. The detective informed us that Justicar Samara is in one of the local back-alleys, investigating a crime-scene where a volus was killed not to long ago. Eclipse mercs in a local band known as the Sisterhood, all of them Asari, control this area, the detective warned us about them, but gave us permission to go in after Samara. Before we did, we had a word with a detained volus trader named Pitne For, as it was his parter who was killed earlier. He claimed to know nothing about the murder or the sisterhood except that all of them supposedly kill someone to earn their uniform. With this in mind, we set out.
Navigating the alleys , we soon ran into our first opposition; a small band of Eclipse sisters and their mechs, concerned for one of their teams who went to stop Samara – they were not responding anymore. I lined up the shot with my anti-material rifle and blew the leaders' head clean off her shoulders as a greeting, then we silenced the rest and moved on. These mercs would not be responding either. Further in we found the remains of the first Eclipse squad, all dead save for one, about to be interrogated by Samara.
The last Eclipse sister refused to cooperate with Samara and were promptly killed for the offense. Samara inquired with us who we were and what we wanted, stating she had no quarrel with us, but rather the Eclipse sisters in the local area. We explained our errand and our need for Samara's skills in stopping the Collectors, and she agreed to the need to help us, however stating she had an important job on Illium first. It appeared that Samara tracked a dangerous fugitive out of asari space, and will follow this fugitive wherever she goes. The Eclipse smuggled her off the planet just before Samara arrived, and she needed to know the name of she ship used to track her prey, before the trail goes cold. At this time, detective Anaya arrived and said she wished Samara would go with us, as she has been ordered to detain her.
Under the Justicar's code, Samara were allowed to cooperate with Anaya for one day, after that she must continue her investigation, even if that means killing her way out of custody to do so. The prospect of being killed by a Justicar because of opposing orders and ideals were not pleasant, but the rule allowing for one days worth of cooperating proved to be a saving grace; Samara would accompany us on our mission if we could find the shipping manifest in the Eclipse sister's base and bring it to her. She would then be able to leave, her code satisfied, without having to gun down a drove of cops.
Samara claimed that the volus merchant, Pitne For, was involved with the sisters and may know something about their base of operations. A swift application of persuasive gun-diplomacy and stern words reveals he smuggled narcotics and drugs to the sisters, one of them, Minagen X3 is a biotic-boosting drug that is also toxic. He did not mention that last part to the sisters and they wanted him dead for it, they already killed his partner. For gave me a copy of the pass card he used to enter, before he did returned the original to the sisters, he made a copy. No idea why, but it would prove useful to us.
Following For's directions and using the passcard we soon made our way to and inside the sister's base, where we were met with the predictable initial resistance. After silencing these we ran into a small room where a sisterhood initiate, Elnora, were trying to hide. As I prepared to shoot her and my companions did the same, she excused herself by claiming she had not yet killed anyone and were only pretending to fire her weapon due to the others, not knowing how the others really were like. I did not buy that claim, nor did Tali or Garrus, but Elnora soon made a damning mistake – she moved for her weapon. The three of us gunned her down and moved on.
We were looking for a shipping manifest, but despite the fact the sisterhood's base was a series of docking bays we found no evidence of what ship Samara's prey was smuggled on. What we did however find evidence that Elnora was the one who killed Pitne For's partner as part of her initiation-rite and further evidence of Pitne's smuggling for the sisters. We held on to this evidence, intending to give it to detective Anaya when we were done here.
After plenty of fruitless searching we ran into a former companion of Pitne For, another volus that the sisters had pumped full of drugs as punishment, or testing, we did not know. He was delusional and high, claiming to be a biotic god of all things. He claimed he would charge into Sister's captain Wasea's office and "toss her around like a rag-doll". Suicidal plan in his case. A gentle tap at the back of his head was sufficient to knock him over and prove how foolish his plan would have been. After he left the way we came, we entered Wasea's office and prepared to stop her.
Wasea was not very happy to see us, nor were her few remaining companions. After drinking a glass of liquid that seemed to be distilled Minagen X3, she opened the fight by tossing containers of the drug towards us, the clouds of gas it generated made it hard to see anything. This engagement lasted for several minutes, but eventually we had found and killed the Eclipse captain and put down the few remaining sisterhood initiates in the area. The information Samara looked for were on Wasea's personal datapad. We brought this with us and left for the police-station again.
Samara was happy to see the information she looked for, detective Anaya were happy to see her leave and to have her murder case solved and Pitne For charged with smuggling, and I were happy to be done with this business. Samara claimed she could come with us, but only if she swore an oath she called the Third Oath of Subsumation. This oath supposedly over-ruled her code with my orders as long as it was in effect. Samara warned however, that she would still offer her opinion when applicable and eventually she would be freed from this oath and return to her code – when that happened she would likely have to hunt me down and kill me if my actions were highly dishonorable and of the nature that would usually provoke a response from her.
Back on the Normandy, Samara requested that she be placed in a room with a view of space, so we let her set up in the starboard observation room of deck 3. Jacob was wary of Thane as a hired gun, but an asari Justicar who kill people for violating her order's code of honor was a welcome sight on a Cerberus ship? I wonder, if I had a long chat with Samara about the nature of Cerberus and what they have done, would Jacob be as eager? Somehow I don't think so.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the favor to Miranda Lawson.
[spoiler]Soon after our arrival on Illium, Miranda asked me for a personal favor, and after recruiting Samara and Thane, I decided to grant it. I don't like Miranda, I hate Cerberus, and I can hardly stand living on this ship when it's run by Cerberus – but ultimately, Miranda is a person too, and she did ask a favor of me – someone she don't like in return – thus this means she has no other options available. I decided to hear her out, at the very least.
It would appear that Miranda was engineered from her creepily ego-maniacal father to be the start of a dynasty, not a daughter in the proper sense of the word. Miranda fled from this life as soon as she could, but took with her Oriana, her younger sister made to replace her when her father was unsatisfied with her. Oriana had lived in hiding until now, and it seemed Miranda's father had caught up with her, and found Oriana. Miranda wished for my help in ensuring that the re-location of Oriana and her "new" family went off with no hikes. Very well, Cerberus lover, if no-one else can do it, why not.
Miranda came along obviously and I notified Thana. Then we set out and EDI informed us where we could meet Miranda's contact on Illium, a bar named Eternity. Very original. I wonder how many places use that name on Thessia or other asari worlds. Miranda's contact, an asari by the name Lanteia, was very informative and warned that Eclipse mercs hired by "an organization we know to be wary of" was on their way to interfere. We could likely look forward to a running gun-fight. Again. I wonder if anyone's favors are ever simple.
An old friend of Miranda whom she trusts, Niket, were going to be involved in the transfer for Oriana's family. We had to hurry to intercept the mercs and stop them before they got to Niket and his charge. On our way to the cargo-loading area for the spaceport's terminal we were passed by several Eclipse gunships, they dropped off troops ahead of us, and these opened fire, crashing our skycar behind them. At this point, a cocky Eclipse engineer greeted us with a short rant; his boss, Captain Enyala, were moving in on Oriana and that Niket would be of no help. Miranda accused him of lying, to that the engineer gloated that his men had gained enough time to line up shots on us. Worst mistake of his life.
I'm a marine. I've trained for combat and practiced for well over a decade. Before I was killed and rebuilt by Cerberus I already had several enhancements and implants to boost performance, strength, speed, endurance and much more. Since accepting my role as a soldier I've never stopped improving myself towards this role, this includes several enhancements like Heavy bone weave, heavy skin weave and Heavy muscle weave implants. I am far more durable than I look and considerably stronger – snapping a grown man's neck is not a problem for me.
Most mercs are not ex-military. If this fool had been military he would know how incredibly dumb it is to reveal something like "I have men lining up shots right now" while standing no more than two meters away from me. That kind of claim triggers an mediate reaction based on self-preservation and the defense of my squad. He might also have realized that kinetic barriers don't stop physical contact at considerably less than muzzle velocity and when you don't wear a helmet your head is fairly exposed... in a single second I had taken a step towards him and wrapped my hands around his head, in the next I snapped his neck like a dry twig, while Miranda gunned down his amateurish, hapless companion.
Eclipse are to used to getting their way, been in to little serious combat. The reaction they had for the loss of their engineer and his closest trooper was nothing less than shock. It was shocking that their opponents not only could fight back and were willing, but did it well. As usual, killing Eclipse proved no real challenge and there were no heavies to bar our way, only vanguards, engineers and troopers, for the most part. Infantry. Poorly trained infantry at that. With Thane's sniper rifle and Miranda's skills in combat combined with my own mowing down any Eclipse in our way to Niket's position was incredibly simple. The situation with Niket proved less simple however.
Early on we picked up one of the radios used by the Eclipse and listened in on their coms. We were a short elevator-ride from Niket's position when it became clear Niket were aiding the Eclipse, he intended to hand the family and Oriana over to them. Miranda was incredibly frustrated by this, she trusted Niket and every time I asked if he could be trusted, she would respond with the same message "There is no way Niket would betray me". Well now he was doing just that, and we had little time. Miranda hacked the elevator and speed it up, cutting down on our travel-time.
Upon arrival in dock 94 we were faced with Eclipse captain Enyala, Niket and a docks official. When we confronted the three of them and guns were armed and pointed, the dock official wisely tried to flee. Enyala used the chance to shot her in the back, killing her. Unprincipled asari whore – this is the difference between a marine and a merc – I would never gun down an innocent person for kicks. Enyala essentially signed her own death-warrant at that moment, and right after, so did Niket.
Niket's response to Miranda's accusation of betrayal was that he helped Miranda escape because it was her own free choice. Oriana however, as Niket claimed, had never asked for it and were "kidnapped from a life of luxury and wealth" by Miranda who wanted to get back at her father. When I pointed out that moving the family was pointless if Miranda's father knew, Niket quietly said that he did not know – Niket had arranged the whole thing without letting Miranda's father know. Being her friend, one would think Niket knew what Miranda would do in such a situation – silence the only lose end. She promptly did, shooting Niket dead right there and then. Then it was Enyala's turn.
It should be said for captain Enyala that she was slightly harder to kill than her many troopers. Only slightly. After silencing her and another dozen of the Eclipse's happy-go-lucky murderers, we left the area and ensured that nothing further prevented Oriana's family from leaving safely, observing them from a distance. No further dangers presented themselves, and after a while, Miranda wanted to leave, so we did.
On the Normandy however, Things were heating up. I had barely got out of my suit and were almost by the mess to get some food, when Joker informed me a fight were brewing between Jack and Miranda in Miranda's office. I came in time to watch furniture being tossed between walls with biotic powers and threats being made. Rather unacceptable. Jack were pissed that Miranda would not agree that the treatment Cerberus gave her were wrong, and Miranda were rather unhappy to hear Cerberus being accused when the facility on Pragia technically went rogue.
These arguments were both rather irrelevant to me. I would be leaning towards Jack's anger for Cerberus and way of thinking, but right at that time the only thing that mattered were their wasted energy – they could save that kind of anger and drive for the Collectors, so long as they both serve on the Normandy, a ship I am supposedly in charge over. So long as this is reality my opinion and my orders are all that should matter to either of them, and if they want to kill each other, they can feel free to do just that – after we are done dealing with the collectors. I informed them of these things and managed to break it up, setting things back to it's normally tense, but manageable standard. After that, I finally got my food, then I returned to my quarters to update this log, and now I'll get some rest. There is one last thing to do on Illium tomorrow.[/spoiler]
Personal log, Daisy Shepard – Commanding Officer, SSV Normandy.
Regarding the hunt for the Shadow Broker; Illium.
[spoiler]The last visit to the streets of Nos Astra took us right to Liara's office again. In between recruiting Thana and Samara we gathered some information for her, and again between recruiting Samara and helping Miranda we did so again, exposing Liara's assistant, Nyxeris, as a Shadow Broker agent code-named the "Overseer". One guess on who she oversaw. This time, we returned to cut Liara's hunt for the broker short. I got right to it once we were in Liara's office, handing the data Cerberus found over to her right away.
Naturally she was ecstatic about this info, more so because it changed her objective. It was revealed to me that Liara's original purpose for finding the broker was to kill him as punishment for the death of Feron, Liara's Drell companion. Feron had helped Liara save my body from the broker, who had hoped to sell it to the collectors. That was quite the revelation to me, and when I asked how Cerberus ended up with my body instead, Liara told me she handed it over to Cerberus because they claimed they could revive me. I have mixed feelings about this – on one end Liara's choice did get me back to life, but on the other, my current predicament with Cerberus and the ruination of my reputation and all the other consequences of my work with them can effectively be blamed on Liara. Well, I would have to consider this at another time.
Cerberus' intel for Liara changed her primary mission – it was a recent conversation between broker operatives, speaking about Feron, it indicated he was still alive. Liara's mission was now a rescue operation, and if Feron was partially to blame for my return to life, I owed it to him to help Liara save him. Liara went home to formulate a plan, and after a brief round of shopping for upgrades to our gear, we took a skycab to her apartment to meet with her.
When Tali, Garrus and me arrived however, the apartment was a crime-scene under investigation by the Nos Astra police force, under the leadership of an Asari Spectre, Tela Vasir. Vasir swiftly dismissed the police force, and allowed me to enter the apartment. According to her there were an assassination attempt on Liara moments before, using a high-powered rifle to snipe her. Liara had established a kinetic barrier behind the thick, armored glass to her apartment, and while the glass was pierced the barrier were not. Despite the danger Liara had lingered in her apartment for nearly four minutes, apparently for a good reason. Neither Vasir nor the police had found anything, and the spectre offered to let me look around.
After some searching I found a picture of the Normandy SR1 on Liara's night-stand – it changed when I picked it up, apparently coded to my personal I.D. The new picture was of a Prothean dig, a hint meant for me to look around the apartment at Liara's many prothean artifacts. After touching the surface of one montage, another apparently I.D coded reaction was a small slot opening, revealing a back-up data disk. After inserting this disk into her drive, we found that all that was on it was a copy of a conversation Liara had with one of her contacts, a Salarian named Sekat – he claimed he could narrow down the shadow broker's base to a sector, or even a system, and Liara wanted to meet with him in his office located at the Baria Frontiers in the Dracon Trade Center. We wasted no time to get there, hoping to find Liara and the info we needed before anyone else did.
When we arrived at the Dracon trade center and moved to get inside, a massive explosion pushed out of the building, and despite our heavy armor the shockwave knocked us off our feet. Vasir claimed the explosion was apparently powerful enough to take out three floors. Sekat's office would be on the third floor, so we rushed inside to work our way up while Vasir took her skycar to the top to work her way down.
The trade center was a disaster scene, the dead were everywhere and the building had taken massive damage. Elevators were expectedly out of order so we took the stairs, we only needed to get three floors up after all. After a while we found a man who did not die in the explosion – he was shot very recently – whoever set up the bombs were still around. We made our way to the entrance to the Baria Frontiers offices and noted that Liara had signed in mere minutes before we arrived – she would likely be inside. We turn a corner and are instantly greeted with a flash-bang grenade, prompting us to take cover.
The shadow brokers personal army proved to be responsible for the bombings, and now they were shooting at us, trying to stop us from getting the info on the broker's base or finding Liara again. A few minutes of combat would prove the broker's army to be only marginally more dangerous than most mercs I've fought – their tactics, training and gear made them more challenging. Despite that, we made steady progress onwards and soon found our way to Sekat's office. We came in time to meet Vasir again, who just killed one of the broker's agents after the latter killed Sekat. Vasir asked about Liara body and I was about to tell her we had not found her and that it was foolishly early to assume she was dead, when Liara appeared from behind us and pointed her gun towards the asari spectre. Liara told me how she doubled back after a sniper tried to kill her, to find that it was Vasir, who soon set about looting her apartment for clues. Seems I was used, and the broker's men hit the Dracon center because I showed Vasir what she needed to know in order to silence Sekat and take the intel – it was likely to be on her person still. Tela Vasir, however, was not interested in surrendering quietly, smashed the window behind her with biotics, and shower us with the pieces.
Liara's biotic barrier shielded us from the glass, I then used the chance to jump after the traitor spectre and tackle her in mid-air. The landing three floors below was softer than expected due to Vasir's biotics slowing the fall. I tried to subdue her, but asari biotics are not easy to beat down, especially not spectres. Vasir broke off and tried to flee when Liara arrived, jumping out the window and cushioning her own fall with biotics as well. More of the shadow broker's agents arrive to stop us at this point, Liara blows past a couple of them with her biotics, while Tali, Garrus and I are pinned down, losing valuable time gunning down the broker's private troopers.
By the time we catch up to Liara, Vasir has reached her personal X3M skycar and boarded it, taking off. Liara quickly commanders a cab and allows me to drive, being the more experienced pilot. Unfortunately the X3M we took were a 3-seat version and I picked Tali to come along on a split-second decision, Garrus had to remain behind. I have to admit the following chase was quite entertaining, despite the severity of the situation. Vasir tired to lose us in heavy traffic, sharp turns, and eventually even proximity mines she recklessly dropped from her skycar in the middle of traffic. We did not hit any of them, but I barely dared to hoped no-one else did either. Eventually, she tried to ram our X3M and crash us, only to be pushed into an approaching car herself, losing control and crashing on the roof of a local hotel. We swiftly land on the roof as well and vacate the cab to pursue her.
Nearly instantly after landing the broker's personal goons catches up and lands several troops to cut us off, costing us time. After fighting them off we found Vasir's crashed car, and noticed a dripple of purple asari blood trailing away, as well as the steady rate of destroyed mechs from the hotel. Following this trail was child's play, however by the time we finally catch up to Vasir, she grabs one of the hotel guests and use the frightened woman as hostage.
Tela Vasir had by now proven beyond doubt that her Spectre status would be revoked and she herself would be put to trial. Aiding and abiding the Shadow Broker, detonating bombs in a public trade center, killing multiple innocents, deploying military-grade mines from her skycar into oncoming traffic, vandalizing her way through a hotel, using a civilian as hostage and threatening her life. There would not be a trial however; I would do to her like I did Saren Arterius. In order to get her hostage lose I told Liara we would resolve this issue "the normal way" and she understood what I meant. While Liara prepared, I drew Vasir's attention by going on a short monologue about how taking a hostage was - just - like an asari would do it – no spine for a stand-up fight. I further angered her by being apathetic towards her hostage, pointing out how little value one life had to me in the longer run and how I were going to kill her hostage, then show her how a "real" spectre does things. At this point Vasir was rather distressed and angry, and did not see the biotically lifted table from behind before it was far to late, and Liara slammed it into Vasir, knocking her off her feet and away from her hostage.
Tela Vasir were still a Spectre however. Cornered up here with no way out and no future unless she somehow kill us and get away, she would fight back as well as she could. Despite her loss of blood, she proved a highly able and dangerous enemy to confront and it took all our skills to stop her. There were a few close calls as well, especially as the battle dragged on and a last few of the broker's troops arrived to help Vasir. Eventually however, despite her speed, agility, backup and endurance, we managed to put her down, and found Sekat's data on her, intact and working. It was time to leave Illium for the broker's base.[/spoiler]
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Topic: Cause and Effect (Read 14740 times)