28The Prothean Council chambers rise high up above the pavilion floor and come to a point in the shape of a curved cone. Windows sit between the tightly forged beams letting in the rays of the blue skies beyond.
Alianna stands before the council arguing for an evacuation of the planet and for consideration of joining the fight against the reapers. She lays out everything she had witnessed in the archive footage recorded by the one called Rhou’ke Shaa. Five men and two women sit on chairs ringing the front edge of the chambers in a crescent pattern and stare at her from across a pearl inlaid bench.
“We’ve seen this footage and it is troubling,” councilor Grizun says and leans onto the bench in front of him. “Evacuating a whole planet is no simple matter though. What certainty do you have that they are coming here?”
“It is the only logical conclusion,” Alianna pleads. “Commander Shepard has convinced me that a return of the reapers is imminent. When our people first arrived here, we found the relics of a bygone era. Our scientists struggled to understand how an entire civilization, one built around such extraordinary technology, could just cease to exist. We came to understand these people, our precursors, as the inusannon. And we came to understand that they worshipped this site with great reverence. Document upon document laid out on the greatness of the forbearers, on the beings of light who gave us all life. How could we expect that they would empty the crypts of those revered beings?”
“But it is possible that the Detos were moved,” Jestera, a female on the end of the bench, speaks. “It’s hasty to assume it was the reapers who came and took them. Wouldn’t the reapers have also removed this nodule that could unite all the relays as one?”
Alianna frowns and nods her head, “All that you say is possible. However, everything I know and believe tells me that the inusannon would not disturb the graves of those they held dear. And had they, it would have triggered the projection. They would have known about the fate to befall them. But nothing of that place shows it was disturbed before us. We have the crystal node! We know they were not disturbed! So if not the inusannon…then who?”
Alianna holds her hands out towards the council who take in deep breathes and think heavily on what she is saying. Several councilors are rubbing their jaws trying to wrap their minds around the enigma. Then one council towards the right of the head councilman speaks up.
“If there are no signs of disturbance, how then could the reapers have gotten to them?”
Alianna shakes her head, “I don’t know.”
Genevieve steps forward them and holds up her hand, “I have a theory on that, councilors.”
The head councilman, Grizun, nods towards her and gestures his hand for her to continue, “I’ve thought on this and have come to surmise that they never entered the chambers.”
Low murmurings echo in the hall as the head councilman motions for quiet, “What makes you so certain, commander?”
“There is no way that the inusannon would have disturbed those units. And there is no evidence of it having ever being opened elsewise the recording wouldn’t play. We have the master nodule to the Citadel. Nobody else has ever retrieved it. And it automatically ejected after the recording was finished. It therefore stands to reason that the Detos came under attack by the reapers before they were able to finish the cryo sequence,” Genevieve swallows Grizun furrows his brows. “When I looked into the units, I saw that they were still in pristine condition indicating that they were never turned on. Therefore, the Detos must have initiated the sequence without entering the cryotubes.”
“Your reasoning is sound. But then the reapers would have no reason to return to this world after said fact,” Grizun says and sits back awaiting her rebuttal.
“The inusannon are your proof. Those ruins your people found fifty thousand years ago…they were nearly fifty thousand years at that point. Think how much development takes place in that time. Do we know if the inusannon were native to this world?”
Alianna shakes her head, “This was a colony world. Our people discovered the inusannon homeworld some years before discovering this one. The records of those discovery are in the archives. The rooms surrounding the spire hold the information you inquire about.”
Genevieve holds her arms out as if to say, ‘see’.
Grizun frowns and rubs his hand on his chin.
Genevieve lowers her arms and looks to the floor, “And then there’s Lykins.”
“Who is ‘Lykins’?” Grizun asks.
“An admiral in the Alliance military. Head of our Seventh Fleet. He went rogue and was trying to find the location of the weapon we’ve been searching for. This location.”
“What does it matter if he knows? We will capture him when he tries to enter this system. Just as we brought you aboard the Waurin.”
“Lykins works for the reapers. Even if the reapers never came back here, didn’t suspect something was hidden here, without a doubt he will inform his masters of what he’s found. But I truly believe it’s only a matter of time before the reapers come here. They have the Citadel. They can go anywhere in the galaxy. They controlled the collectors who were what became of your people. And the collectors were at the core of the galaxy! They know you’re here!”
Councilor Grizun sighs and leans deeper into his chair, “Have the fleets prepare for immediate evacuation,” he says to the general standing at the back wall. “All warships on the ready for imminent invasion.”
“Yes, councilor,” the general salutes and turns to rush out of the chambers.
“Commander Shepard, I’m giving you your ship back. I am convinced that this is a threat we cannot ignore. Does any object to my verdict?” he looks to his other councilors who bow in acquiescence. “It is decided. You will take this master nodule to the Citadel and implant it into the control core. Make haste for if the reapers have the Citadel then this war is already waging out of control. I do not envy your task. It is…suicide.”
“I’m not dying until this job is done!” Genevieve says and turns to leave the room.
Councilor Grizun nods and heads out of the chamber quickly with the other councilors close behind. Alianna and Genevieve’s crewman follow quickly after Genevieve.
“Okay, you’ve got your ship back and the cities are being evacuated,” Alianna says as dignified as possible as she comes up to a fast walk with Genevieve.
“Are there enough ships available to be able to accomplish that?”
“There are emergency protocols in place that would make a full evacuation possible. We’ve just never done it. The ships are there. Hopefully there will be no major issues.”
“This is a good first step. Will the council agree to assist us in fighting the reapers?”
“This is a major first step. However, I believe they will once they realize what a threat this is. There is another world we can hide on first. We need to deposit the civilian populace and that will take time. At any given time we can transport some two hundred million people and our society currently numbers just over ten billion. That’s around fifty transports. That could take several weeks to a month for full evacuation.”
Genevieve looks at Alianna with her brows raised, “Your people move fast. No other species could even begin contemplating such an evacuation. We might save a few hundred thousand but certainly not in the millions.”
“We’ve had fifty thousand years of advancements to fall back on while devising these protocols. Few civilizations have that kind of preparation time.”
“Very true.”
Liara and EDI come up beside the two, “So what’s the plan, Shepard?” Liara asks.
“We get the crew back on the Normandy and we make a beeline for the fleet. We’ve been gone far too long. It took two days for Alianna to get that meeting with the council and I feel that we just keep falling even further behind,” Genevieve shakes her head. “And now we finally have a leg up on the reapers. But now we have to figure out how to get it to the Citadel.”
“We are going to win this, Shepard,” Liara says. “I can feel it.”
“Wish I shared your confidence, Liara.”
The group heads across the atrium gardens and towards the landing docks.
KELDAS NEBULA
SOLAR NEIGHBORHOOD OF REIDAX
At the edge of the Keldas Nebula wherein lies the last remaining prothean solar system of Reidax, dark vessels emerge from the gaseous surroundings. They pause along the edge of Reidax’s heliosphere and gather for their siege. Fourteen reaper capital ships, twenty reaper transports, forty destroyers, and sixty reaper processor ships perch at the edge of the system awaiting the signal to invade.
The lead capital ship, a two kilometer mesh of metal that has been mangled from countless cycles of conflict, comes forward and bellows where the others can hear.
“Once more we come to Telifor. The Detos made their home here,” Praxxus speaks. “As did the heiphor, the candogen, the yrol, the karlak, and the inusannon. None native to this star. All sought the knowledge of the Detos. That knowledge will not fall to the hands of the organic creatures weak of will and body. Only we of Ch’nok may possess it. We will find it. I will personally bring it to Harbinger. Where my precursors failed, we will not. The journey has been long. Now we feed.”
Praxxus moves beyond the Nebula gases and into the heliosphere of Reidax, that which was once known by the Detos as Telifor. The whole armada of the reapers, the Antara, follow him through. Their FTL trails blaze behind them as they push through and towards the prothean world beyond.
REIDAX SOLAR SYSTEM
ARDIX-NEW PROTHEAN HOMEWORLD
ORBIT
The Normandy exits through the atmosphere of Ardix as dozens of warships gather in orbit. Several transport ships leave the stratosphere and head off into FTL drive.
Onboard the bridge, Genevieve watches the action transpire. Behind her stands Alianna who stares at her world beyond.
“I’ve never left Ardix before. I know I’m just staying until we rendezvous with the Qoran, but…it’s kind of unsettling. Your ship is so…small.”
Genevieve smiles at her, “Being on an alien vessel can be disorienting if you’re not used to it. I’ve done it hundreds of times.”
“Aprica IV…have you ever seen a world like it?”
“…I’ve been to a lot of worlds. Many are similar to Earth with blue skies and blue oceans. Green vegetation with colorful flora. But a few stand out as uniquely alien. My boyfriend is from Palaven. And there the skies are nearly always orange and the fauna is covered in metallic platelets because of the radiation of Trebia, their central star. The forests are even metallic. It is so…strange. Yeah kinda peaceful.”
“You find a metal planet peaceful?”
“Only the aura. Metal is a little harsh and makes everything hotter. But with the architecture and the animals it all just kind of fits. It’s not like places like Tuchanka where the world is just about one big desert with very little vegetation or the rachni world of Carsus that is a planet in the void of space with no star yet somehow has an atmosphere and is warm like the tropics. The sky is always full of stars.”
“Incredible. I never really thought about the diversity of worlds out there in the galaxy. Never considered going to space. Our society is very insular. You’re taught to not look to the stars for answers, but to protect our world from those who would take it from us,” Alianna says and stares out at the rim of Ardix shifting into the dark side far beyond. “At night, it’s never completely dark. The nebula surrounding this cluster of stars always tints our nights in a yellowish red but not quite orange. To see Ardix from here…”
“I remember seeing Earth for the first time. It was so beautiful. I’d see so many worlds growing up but Earth was where my parents were from and so it had a special meaning to me.”
Alianna looks at Genevieve, “I’d love to see Earth like that.”
Genevieve tenses her lips, “I hope we still have an Earth to come home to.”
“Communication coming in, commander,” Joker says quietly.
“Let’s hear it.”
“Actually, it’s a projection.”
An image floats into the air before them and between Joker and EDI’s chairs. The image is of councilor Grizun.
“We already have transport leaving. We have an unsettling issue we’d like to ask you to investigate before you leave, commander.”
“What’s the problem, councilor?”
“We’ve lost contact with several vessels at the edge of the system. The Qoran, Jhildres, Harks, and Alinese have all stopped reporting in after the Harks opened frequencies. All we received was a short burst of static. When we tried to hail them, we received silence.”
Alianna gasps as EDI checks long range scans. She makes as close to a frown as her narrow face will allow and turns to Genevieve.
“I’m reading nothing but a void in the electromagnetic spectrum from the rosette degree. Electromagnetism continues unabated on all other degrees.”
“Councilor, send out your warships! We have incoming,” Genevieve growls and narrows her eyes. “Joker, take us down the rosette corridor.”
“I’ll send word to stand ready. Launching our juggernauts as well. Report back what you find.”
“We’ll be right back with you, councilor,” Genevieve replies leaning over Joker’s seat as the Normandy repostions towards the outer edge of the solar system.
“What is the rosette degree and corridor?” Alianna inquires.
“It indicates where the Rosette Nebula lies. When traveling through the galaxy, our position changes dependant on galactic movement and ship orientation. As a result we came up with a means to reduce disorientation. That meant having to map the various locations across the galaxy so that at any given time we know where we are. Since we’re at the core, our systems have mapped out navigation beacons detailing latitude and longitude points that will orient us towards the correct coordinates. In this case, we’re travelling in a straight line towards the Rosette Nebula which means that the black out of electromagnetism we’re detecting is on this vector.”
“So we’re heading right for whatever is out there?”
Genevieve looks over her shoulder at Alianna who is standing in the back of the bridge twirling her forfingers around one another, “Yeah. But don’t worry. This is a recon mission to check out what we’re about—“
“Holy shit!” Joker screams out and jerks the controls.
Genevieve nearly falls over as she looks back and Alianna is forced to grab on to a fixture on the wall. They all look forward and see dozens of giant craft coming out of FTL drive.
“Fuckin’ reapers!” Joker screams out.
“Connect me with the councilor!” Genevieve commands. Within a moment the councilor is back online looking startled. “They’re here, councilor! I had hope you’d have time to get out!”
Grizun furrows his ridged brows, the ridges of his cranium wrinkling in the effort, “Get out of the system, commander. Take Alianna with you. Upload that master nodule to the Citadel’s core! It is the only thing that can stop the reapers now!”
“Grizun! I can’t just leave you here! I can!”
Grizun raises his hand, “As you told me before, it was only a matter of time before they came for us. It is why I agreed so easily. Too many civilizations have fallen. We will hold them here for as long as possible! Go! Don’t come back until these beasts have been sent back to the abyss that spawned them!”
The councilor nods at Genevieve and the feed goes back. Alianna steps back as the Normandy rocks up a blast. Joker maneuvers the ship back towards the gathered warships and tries to avoid the reapers who open fire on every vessel hey see. The prothean fleet flies head first into the assault formation and fires back at the reapers.
“Find us a way out of this, Joker! Take us back to the fleet!”
“Here’s to hopin’ they don’t follow us!” Joker replies as he angles the Normandy between several warships laying siege to several destroyers.
Those destroyers fall to pieces under the aggression prompting the capital ships to push forward and destroy those warships. The Normandy evades the rubble as a massive discharge rams one of the capital ships in the face. A large gash rents across the reapers front end as another volley rips off a leg.
“What the hell was that?!” Genevieve raises her brows and stares at the reaper reeling from the hit.
“It came from…” Joker angles the Normandy towards three incoming vessel nearly as large as the reapers themselves. “Those guys.”
“Juggernauts…” Alianna says. “I’ve seen them on the docks but I’ve never seen one in action.”
“Its attacks are…impressive,” EDI intones and watches two more of the vessels arising from the atmosphere.
“How many of those do you guys have?” Genevieve asks.
“I’m not sure. Around a hundred, I think.”
“A hundred of those?!” Joker says. “Hey, commander! I think it might be safer here!”
Genevieve shakes her head, “I hope they can handle themselves. Get us out of here.”
As the Normandy pushes past the juggernauts and towards the space beyond the moon of Ardix, two capital ships and four destroyers make to head them off.
“We’ve got a quick blockade, commander!”
“Is there another vector?”
“Negative,” EDI says. “The reapers are trying to stop us from leaving.”
A squadron of warships intercepts the reapers and destroys two of the destroyers as a pair of juggernauts focus on the capital ships. The reapers get distracted and turn their attention to annihilating the juggernauts. Three heavy lasers tear through the outer hull of one of the juggernauts while one of the capital ship dreadnoughts attempts to latch on to it. The other juggernaut unloads several rounds of heavy fire power into its legs causing the legs to disconnect and the dreadnought to slide onto the top of the juggernaut buckling a large portion of its hull.
The Normandy flies through the battle and past the ships as explosions erupt from both vessels. The bridge crew remains quiet as the Normandy slips into FTL drive and makes a break for the Alliance Fleet several weeks away.
“Are they going to make it?” Joker asks not looking up from his lap.
“They have to,” Genevieve replies.
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