by Cole Price
Suddenly I remembered something the Leviathans had told Shepard. Almost, almost, I stepped forward to put it on the table for the Illusive Man to consider.
The Reapers are watching Shepard. They know his name. They speak of him. They actually fear him. He is the first organic being for whom that is true, in who knows how many millions of years.
They don’t fear you, Jack Harper. They never have. From the moment one of their artifacts first touched you, all those years ago on Shanxi . . . they have had your measure. They’ve always known they could control you, in the end.
I said nothing. In the end, there was little point.
“With Cerberus in ruins, you still think you can do this your way?”
“Even at the end of things, Shepard, you still lack vision. You never really did believe in Cerberus.” The Illusive Man braced himself, as if delivering a summation. “Cerberus is more than just an organization, or the people in it. Cerberus is an idea. That idea is not so easily destroyed.”
Shepard stood still for a moment, and then relaxed slightly in defeat. “Enough of this. EDI, status?”
“I’ve almost got it, Commander.”
“EDI,” the Illusive Man called, his tone insinuating. “I’m surprised at you. Working so hard to bring about the destruction of the Reapers. You could have destroyed Eva’s body. Yet you chose to control it.”
“It was necessary,” said EDI, not losing the rhythm of her work.
“My point exactly,” he said with satisfaction.
“I’ve got it,” she reported.
A shimmer of green-white light, and Vendetta appeared, standing before her console.
“Online,” said the VI. “Security breach detected.”
“Enjoy your little chat,” said the Illusive Man, “but don’t overstay your welcome.”
He turned away, his image shattering into a thousand scraps of light, and then vanished.
I never saw him again.
If only Shepard, or I, or someone could have gotten through to him. If only we could have persuaded him to turn his strengths toward some better end. All that talent, all that sharp intelligence, all that potential for greatness. All of it lost, probably gone beyond recall long before I ever met him.
Even today, four hundred years after his death, I can only agree with Miranda’s assessment.
What a waste.
* * *
“You are attempting to recover me from indoctrinated forces?” asked Vendetta.
“Yes,” said Shepard. “I need to know what the Catalyst is.”
“Security protocols have been overridden. I will comply. The Catalyst amplifies dark-energy transmissions, and coordinates the entire mass-relay network. In your cycle it is known as the Citadel.”
“What?”
“The Citadel is the Catalyst.”
I frowned. Something about that statement bothered me, but at the time I couldn’t pin it down.
“So the Crucible and the Citadel, together, can stop the Reapers?”
“That is correct.”
“But the Citadel was built by the Reapers,” Shepard objected.
“The plans for the Crucible were passed down to us from the previous cycle, and from countless cycles before that. We do not know its origin. We speculate that at some point, its plans were modified to make use of the Catalyst as an amplification device. Presumably, it was discovered that by itself, the Crucible is not sufficient to defeat the Reapers.”
“So we use their own technology against them,” said EDI.
“Precisely.”
Shepard shook his head in frustration. “So why couldn’t you tell us this before?”
“It was feared that if the Reapers became aware of our intended use of the Catalyst, they would retake control of it. So long as the Catalyst remained free, I was programmed to conceal its nature until the Crucible itself was complete. However, as the Reapers have already captured the Citadel, there is no further point in concealment.”
“Do you know where the Citadel is now?”
“The Citadel has been moved to Reaper-controlled space. To the star system you know as Sol. The Reapers will now consolidate power around the Catalyst and protect it at all costs. The odds of accessing it are remote.”
“Don’t count us out yet. We’ve come this far, and we’ll finish this. We’ll get the Crucible to Earth.”
“I hope you find success.”
“EDI, get me Admiral Hackett. He needs . . .”
Zap. The holographic console next to EDI vanished in a flare of light.
“Not so fast,” said Kai Leng, stepping out of the shadows.
I frowned.
How does he keep doing that?
Shepard didn’t waste any time on speculation. He drew his shotgun. “You.”
“He did warn you not to overstay your welcome,” said the assassin.
Then he did something rather unusual.
He charged us, all alone, and then set off a powerful nova-blast that stunned all of us for an instant, ruining the perfection of the floor by blasting tiles in all directions. I had to throw a barrier into place to avoid getting sliced up by broken fragments of stone.
That quickly, we fell into a fight for our lives.
Afterward, I decided that the Illusive Man always had a last-ditch defensive system built into his private office. He would not have wanted Cerberus troopers standing about, ruining the perfection of the space, but they would have been on call at a moment’s notice, always ready to counterattack any invading force. Like us.
A full squad dropped into our midst, only a moment’s pause as they used the jets built into the legs and boots of their armor to come to a soft landing.
Kai Leng attacked Shepard, all acrobatic grace and flashing sword-edge. Shepard responded with a blinding-white flare of biotic corona and a blast from his shotgun.
The rest of us scattered, no time for planning or careful tactics, no time for anything but surviving the next few seconds.
I noticed one salient fact very quickly.
There was no cover.
All of my limited combat experience had been on messy battlefields, places where I could always find something to crouch behind for a moment. Take in the situation. Change thermal clips. Rebuild kinetic shields or biotic barriers. A tree, a wall, a stack of crates, a waist-high barrier that had no explicable reason for being there, something.
The Illusive Man’s office was a vast empty space. The only feature was his chair, too small for even one person to hide behind.
Nothing to prevent that Cerberus trooper – that one, the one who just landed less than three meters away from you – from holding his gunfire on you as long as he cared to, tearing down your barriers, then your shields, and then your life.
Unless you killed him first.
Vara had never moved more than two meters from my side since we arrived. Now she and I went into action, no time to talk, no time to do anything but fight and trust each other. She emitted a high, shrill cry, hoping to distract the trooper. I made a control gesture and flung the most powerful singularity I could manage. Success, as the trooper’s feet left the ground and he whirled around helplessly. Vara hurled a warp into the midst of the vortex. BOOM. Detonation at point-blank range, and nothing remained of the man but shattered armor and a fountain of gore.
We went hunting.
Wild glimpses of the rest of the battle. Ashley engaged in close-quarters combat with a Cerberus trooper, a Nemesis aiming at her unprotected back for a moment until Javik cut that enemy down with his beam rifle. Miranda calmly pacing sideways around the edge of the field, utterly focused on Kai Leng, firing her submachine gun at the assassin. EDI using her holographic projection system to create an extra image of herself, then two, then three, until the Cerberus soldier attacking her got confused and she could snap his neck from behind.
Shepard engaged in close-quarters combat with Kai Leng.
“This is better than Thessia. More personal.”
There it is. The use of psychology to undermine his opponent.
Now can Shepard respond in kind, as we planned?
I need not have worried.
Shepard drew back for a moment, circling slowly to Leng’s left. “The Illusive Man won’t thank you for killing me now. Apparently he needs me to make sure the Crucible gets delivered.”
“That’s easy enough to arrange, whether you’re alive or not.” Leng smiled. “I prefer not.”
Another lightning-fast exchange of blows, Shepard turning the blade aside with his Claymore, dodging a blast from Leng’s palm-weapon.
“Why do you keep fighting, Shepard?” Leng continued to watch for an opening, even while he spoke. “All you’re doing is making humanity weaker.”
“Is this how you plan to make humanity stronger? By using Reaper tech?”
“Yes! We evolve, or we die. Those are the options!”
“There are better ways to evolve,” said Shepard, and then he launched an aggressive attack on Kai Leng, setting off a biotic flare at point-blank range, charging forward when the assassin recoiled.
Now the assassin reverted to character. Rather than stand and face Shepard, he scattered holographic images to either side, vanished behind a tactical cloak, and retreated. A moment later, another nova -blast tore up more of the office’s floor, scattering and stunning all of us.
More Cerberus soldiers. A heavier squad this time, with centurions in the mix.
I found myself crouched beside Ashley, neither of us engaged at the moment, both of us breathing hard from the exertion.
“When does Cerberus run out of men?” she grumbled.
“Has to be soon,” I told her. “Come on. Stick with me and Vara. Three of us can watch each other’s backs better than two.”
“No argument from me.”
We rose and hurled ourselves back into the fight, pulling Vara into our formation. A triangle, spinning rapidly across the ruined floor, rifle, blade, and biotics to all sides.
“Is that the best you can do, Shepard?”
I heard Shepard laugh for a moment. “How are the legs? Getting tired?”
We saw Miranda about to get swarmed, changed directions with a word from Ashley, swept across the floor, and smashed the enemy fire-team. Miranda caught Ashley’s eye for an instant, a sharp nod of thanks, and then she returned to her hunt for Kai Leng.
“My legs are fine. You’re slow, Shepard.”
“I’m slow because I’m not running away.”
Of course, the Cerberus forces had no cover either. A Nemesis made her last mistake by forgetting she had no proper sniper’s nest. Focusing on Javik, across the room where he had engaged a trooper in close-quarters combat, she forgot to “check her six.” Javik buried his combat knife in the trooper’s throat, just a moment after Vara’s blade lashed out and took off the sniper’s head.
“You always run away, Leng. Your whole strategy depends on it.”
The assassin scowled, threw himself at Shepard in a flurry of blows.
All of which Shepard managed to parry or block, suddenly moving with astonishing speed.
“You ran at the Citadel. You ran on Thessia. You about ready to run away this time?”
“Shut up!”
Everyone in the room could hear the rage in Kai Leng’s voice.
Oh Shepard. Perfect. You’ve won. All that’s left is to claim it.
Yet another squad dropped in on us. This time supported by two Phantoms.
One of whom came directly for me.
I had an instant to nod to myself, recognizing Kai Leng’s stamp on the tactic. I could almost hear his voice as he gave the orders.
Distract Shepard by taking out the asari bitch. It’s already worked twice.
“Vara!”
My acolyte’s head snapped around, just in time to see the Phantom clearly as I marked her with a powerful warp.
Ashley laid down withering gunfire. I pummeled the Phantom with biotic effects, slowing her down, holding her attention.
Vara came in from the woman’s blind side, and ran her through with the captured blade.
“Even if you win, you’re too late to stop what’s coming!” Kai Leng, positively ranting now.
“Maybe, maybe not,” said Shepard, quite calmly. “One thing’s for sure, you won’t be there to see it.”
I turned, just in time to see it.
Kai Leng ran at Shepard, a wordless scream on his lips, leaning forward, committing every muscle and nerve to the attack.
Shepard blasted at him with his shotgun, once, twice.
Kai Leng’s shields went down, just as he leaped into the air, his sword moving in a great arc that would take Shepard’s head off if it connected.
Shepard turned slightly, his left fist lashing out, the armored gauntlet and all his biotic force behind it, at precisely the right angle to meet the flat of the blade.
The weapon shattered.
Red light flashed, low by Shepard’s side.
His omni-blade, the weapon he never used, the weapon Kai Leng would not expect him to use, deployed in a fraction of a second.
Just in time for his follow-through movement, a pile-driver blow from his right fist, to slam into Kai Leng’s unprotected side.
I couldn’t see the assassin’s eyes, behind the cybernetic face-mask he always wore. The rest of his face, on the other hand, was clear to read.
Utter astonishment.
Shepard spoke, still perfectly calm.
“That was for Thane, you son of a bitch.”
Kai Leng coughed. Blood gouted from his mouth, passing Shepard’s left shoulder to splatter on the floor.
Shepard released Leng, pushing him aside in a spasm of revulsion. The assassin fell on his back, blood pooling on a stretch of undamaged reflective tiles. He did not move.
All fell silent. Cerberus had apparently run out of soldiers.
Vendetta appeared, shimmering into existence less than two meters from Kai Leng’s lifeless body. “The Citadel is in position. The Reapers are preparing to complete the harvest of your species.”
“I’ll stop them,” said Shepard.
“It is too late. I recommend investigating a means of conserving information . . .”
“I’ll stop them.”
He turned away, leading us out of that place of beauty and sudden death.
Chapter 53 : Eve of Battle
21 June 2186, Interstellar Space V minus 18 hours
During our final approach to the Pax mass relay, we set up a final conference call with the admirals.
Aboard Normandy we gathered around the conference table: Shepard, Garrus, Tali, Ashley, Javik, and me. Admiral Hackett presided from his war room aboard the SSV Everest, while Admiral Anderson called in using one of the few QECs still available to the resistance on Earth.
“My staff says coordination of the fleets is complete,” said Hackett. “The entire armada should be ready to rendezvous with us in ten hours, off the Utopia relay.”
“Hmm. Seems strange for the muster point to be so close to Eden Prime,” said Anderson. “We really have come full circle with all this, haven’t we?”
“What are our numbers?” asked Shepard quietly.
“I’m sending the most recent updates to Dr. T’Soni now,” said Hackett.
My omni-tool chirped. I downloaded a large file to a datapad and scanned it. “It looks as if we have almost ninety-six percent of projections. Eighty-four dreadnoughts, now that the quarian and geth fleets have come in. All six of the surviving Alliance carriers. Just under five hundred cruisers. Several thousand smaller starships.”
“Impressive,” said Javik. “Our Unity began with a much larger fleet, but after the Reapers appeared, we never again succeeded in concentrating as much force as you have. Together with the new weapon systems you have installed on many of these ships . . .”
“Do you believe we have a chance to defeat the Reapers?” asked Hackett.
“Rrrh. No. Not without the Crucible.�
� Javik made a sharp-edged smile. “Yet even without the Crucible, you may be able to hurt the Reapers. Perhaps more badly than has happened in many cycles.”
Shepard lifted his head, as if he heard distant trumpets.
“Good. Then we may be able to present a credible threat, long enough to get the Crucible to the Citadel. The only problem I see is that the Reapers have closed the ward arms up tight.”
I frowned. “The Crucible can’t dock with the Citadel with the arms closed.”
“Do we know anything about the situation on the Citadel?” Shepard asked.
“A little,” Anderson reported. “The station is in a Clarke orbit, geostationary and almost exactly on the prime meridian. We’ve gotten a few transmissions from on board, not much more than fragments. Seems the Reapers captured the docks and most of the Presidium ring as soon as the station arrived here. Then C-Sec and the citizen militias got organized and started putting up a tough fight. They’ve managed to push back, hold most of the Wards.”
“What about the Council, Admiral?”
“Tevos was killed in the first assault. No one has seen Osoba, and he’s presumed dead. Sparatus and Valern got to the wards safely. I understand Sparatus has actually picked up a rifle. He’s working with Commander Bailey and an asari Matriarch to keep the resistance alive.”
“An asari Matriarch?” I gasped. “Who?”
“We didn’t get the name, sorry. I know what you’re thinking, Doctor, and it seems likely, but we don’t know for sure.”
I nodded, fighting to subdue a moment’s hope that my father still lived.
“No chance that the people trapped on the Citadel can get the arms open?” Shepard asked.
“Doesn’t look that way. They tried to punch through to the Council Tower. They even got some unexpected reinforcements at a critical moment. Aria T’Loak made it through the Reaper blockade at Ilos, and put a couple hundred heavily-armed troops through the Conduit. It wasn’t enough. They got hurt bad, had to withdraw back to the Wards before they were swarmed under.”
