II: Prophecy

Chapter 15: Omega's Outlaws

After successfully recruiting Mordin, Shepard and Garrus head out to the Omega markets to purchase some basic items for the Normandy. They attempted to find and recruit Zaeed, but couldn't seem to find him, and EDI found herself unable to find him either. While looking around, they find a male quarian pilgrim working at a shop selling parts. After some investigation, they find the kid being used as cheap labour by an elcor named Harrot. To help the kid along his way, Shepard pays for his ship fair, with Kenn being beyond thankful. Unfortunately, a group of vorcha had been watching over the kid to make sure he didn't try anything, and they block his passage. Shepard and Garrus are unarmed, surrounded by dozens of vorcha. Before anything can happen however, a mercenary appears and guns down the vorcha before they can fight back, before brutally decapitating the leader. The mercenary introduces himself as Zaeed, having been following the group to evaluate them. He decides to join Shepard's squad, but before they return to the ship, the three of them pay Harrot a visit. Arriving, Shepard threatens that Harrot ever tries to exploit people like that again, he will come back and kill the elcor. Harrot, terrified, agrees, and they finally return to the ship.

On the Migrant Fleet, Tali and Shepard email each other. She assures him that the Migrant Fleet has taken the Reaper threat seriously, even Xen. After one final email, Peta once again approaches Tali, attempting to flirt with her once more. Tali once again rebutts him, demanding to know why he is so insistent. Peta insults Shepard, to which Tali becomes furious, defending him adamantly. Peta threatens to tell her father, but Tali dares him to do so anyway, declaring she doesn't care. After her rejection, Peta is messaged by an anonymous source, who offers him help in getting Tali's attention.

Elsewhere in the Flotilla onboard the Rayya, Elan talks to Veetor's parents about his situation. Afterwards, Veetor begins to wander whether or not he has an attraction to Elan, despite his agoraphobia. He announces this with some effort, and Elan promises to go on a date with him.

Chapter 16: Only Mostly Dead

The next day, the Normandy is inbound for the Citadel, with Shepard wishing to reveal to the Council that he is alive and hopefully get his Spectre status reinstated. Shepard is frustrated to find out that Sovereign was classified by the Council as a geth dreadnought, despite evidence to the contrary; not to mention that the entire threat of the Reapers was entirely ignored by the Council in favor of inaction. Heading down to the mess, he grabs a quick snack from Gardner, asking if they need to be restocked on the Citadel before leaving to talk with Garrus in his new residence in the gunnery control deck. Shepard asks Garrus about his team, to which he admits he had one, and explains what happened with Sidonis. He swears to eventually track down and kill Sidonis, but not in the near future, as he is focused on taking down the Collectors. Afterwards, Shepard approaches Miranda to talk with her. She reveals her history with her father, and how she came to join Cerberus. Afterwards, he talks to Zaeed, who has made residence in the garbage disposal area on Deck 4. After more conversations with Kelly, Joker and Mordin respectively, he heads back to his cabin, hoping to get a goodnight's sleep.

Three days later, the Normandy arrives at the Citadel, docking on Zakera Ward. After some confusion with the C-Sec guard on duty at the scanner, Shepard has him contact Councilor Anderson to vouch for him. Anderson confirms Shepard's identity, and he is allowed through, along with Garrus. Garrus is surprised to find Bailey, now a captain in charge of the Zakera Ward precinct. Bailey, confident Shepard was the real deal, bypassed most of the Citadel's immigration procedures. Not long after, Shepard and Garrus catch a skycar to the Presidium, and from there reach the human embassy, were Anderson is waiting. After a brief reunion, the rest of the Council is summoned via holographic projection, who express distate at Shepard's alliance with Cerberus, Sparatus showing complete distrust towards him, back-handedly dismissing the Reaper threat as a myth conjured by Saren. In the end, Shepard only managed to get his Spectre status back, with the Council making it very clear they want nothing to do with him. Shepard asks about Kaidan, but Anderson expresses that his mission is classified, even to Shepard. After a catch-up, Garrus and Shepard leave. Returning to Zakera Ward, they are confronted by a familiar reporter. After her questioning, just like last time, becomes too invasive, he finally punches her before leaving her a furious mess. 

As they return to the ship, they are confronted by a young, hooded woman. She reveals herself to be Kasumi Goto, one of Shepard's potential recruits. After an awkward conversation with the overly jovial thief, all three of them return to the Normandy, prepared to depart.

Chapter 17: One With The Flow

Shepard visits Kasumi in her new hideout on the ship: the observation lounge on Deck 3. He finds Kasumi particularly curious, as she seems far less serious than the rest of the crew. She admits to having snuck into his cabin out of curiosity, much to Shepard's own chagrin. Kasumi tells him that she believes his assertions about the Reapers, as she was present on the Citadel during Sovereign's attack. Afterwards, he heads to the med bay where Chakwas is present, telling her he got her the ice brandy she wanted. They share the drink together, and both end up getting tipsy. Returning to his cabin, he orders EDI to set a course for Korlus, before falling asleep.

Out in dark space, the Reaper armada communicates with one another. At the forefront, one single presence drowns out the rest, more powerful and authoritive than the other Reapers. It reveals itself as Harbinger: leader of the Reapers.

On the colony of Ferris Fields, a batarian heavy cruiser, the BRS Batzzzha, lands on the outskirts of Memphis City, where they prepare to raid and enslave the city's populace. Leading the party is the Supreme Regent himself, Salvak Terrili, along with his top commander, Balak Uhtero. Having seen the colony's communications already jammed by something and their military in disarray, the batarians attempt to sack the city. Before they can however, a Collector cruiser attacks the city, swarms of bugs flooding over it as they bit and froze entire groups of humans. Balak and his men hide, and they watch as the Collectors, led by a large glowing one, come and take the humans upon their ship, ignoring the batarians. They then watch as the entire colony is abducted and the cruiser disappears into the atmosphere. Balak, having witnessed the abduction of a colony, is left shocked, but the Regent feels the need to capitalize on this victory, and plans to take credit for the abductions. Boarding the cruiser again, they leave the now empty planet.

Chapter 18: Primordial Beginning

The Normandy arrives over Korlus, with Shepard, Kasumi, Jacob, Miranda, Garrus, Zaeed and Mordin all deploying to the surface. Their next recruit is a krogan warlord by the name of Okeer, who is currently working for the Blue Suns in creating a large army of tank-bred krogan, not entirely unlike Droya's during the Eden Prime War. Unfortunately for the Blue Suns, many of Okeer's creations have been deemed "unworthy", and while originally used as target practice, they have gotten loose and are now rampaging around the compound. Finding a wounded grunt, they question him until he reveals what Okeer is doing: he is trying to create krogan supersoldiers with similar strength and traits to pre-genophage krogan. Moving through the compound, the squad kill Blue Suns and krogan berserkers alike.

The squad continues through the wreckage of a crashed quarian pre-war freighter, killing more mercs and berserkers. The Blue Suns commander, Jedore, continues to shout over the PA to "motivate" her troops, but ends up sounding self-important and arrogant. They finally reach Okeer's lab, where they find Rana Thanoptis of all people helping him with his experiments. Angry that Rana didn't heed Shepard's suggestion, he has Zaeed tie her up. Before Zaeed can however, Rana outwardly declares she refuses to be imprisoned, using her biotics to shove them aside before running through the door. Garrus raises his rifle to kill her, but Shepard decides to let her go. Moving into the lab, they confront Okeer, who shows them his perfected prototype: the ultimate krogan supersoldier. Jedore, in an attempt to destroy Okeer's help, decides to flush all his tanks, but Shepard and his squad kill her and destroy her mechs. Okeer is killed by the gassing however, but manages to save his prototype: Shepard decides to recruit the hibernating krogan, stating a supersoldier could be a useful asset, and calls for an extraction.

Back on the Normandy, Shepard, Garrus and Zaeed push the tank into the storage bay on Deck 4, where they decide to keep the tank until the krogan is awakened. Shepard decides to do so immediately, awakening him. The krogan is initially hostile, but eventually ends up respecting Shepard enough to back down. Sorting through Okeer's last words, the krogan chooses to name himself Grunt. Shepard promises a dangerous foe in the Collectors, and with glee, Grunt agrees to join his squad, taking up residence in the storage bay.

On the Migrant Fleet, Tali performs EVA maintenance on the Neema's hull as the Fleet passes over Ilos. After finishing the operation, she returns to the safety of the cruiser, along with Peta, who was also assisting her. Once inside, Gerrel tells her that her father would like to speak with her, and Tali leaves to speak with him. Elan is there with him, and Rael confronts her about the fact she is single, despite quarian tradition dictating she find a mate. It is revealed that Rael knows about Shepard, Tali concluding that Peta told him. Rael is distrustful of Shepard, but Tali refuses to let his opinion dictate hers, and makes it clear where they stand on the matter before leaving, with Rael feeling angry at his daughter's stubbornness. 

Chapter 19: Silentium

Back in 2251 CE, Carter leads a joint Promethean-Stormtrooper unit onto the surface of Trebin to investigate reactivated Reaper technology. Accompanying him are Jaris Paltarons, who is in command of a small group of CENTURION biotics, a geth Skylord commander named Hector, and a krogan warlord Urdnot Mordin, who is one of the many sons of Urdnot Wrex. Moving within a trio of MDI-50 Wolverine APCs and deployed from the krogan destroyer TMCS Tumultuous Glory, the group closes in on an abandoned seventy-year-old mine. Moving inside, they find dead husks from the Reaper War, but no signs of activity. Finding the Reaper tech, they activated their indoctrination jammers. Shortly after discovering a squad of dead Coalition marines, they are ambushed by a group of cultists called the Marauders, who have been protecting the Reaper tech from those who wished to possess it. They successfully destroy the Marauder group, where they find a survivor among the Coalition squad: a marine by the name of Kaidan Shepard. Carter reveals he is what they really came for, as Prometheus needed to retrieve Kaidan by making him look like he was dead. Carter raises his pistol and shoots Hector in the back of the head, killing him, before his Prometheans slaughter the others. Mordin and his krogan fight back, but are overwhelmed. Mordin himself is mortally wounded, but before Jaris can finish him off, a swarm of rachni appear and drive the Prometheans back, while a brood warrior grabs Mordin and drags him to safety.

Elsewhere, the Dominion invasion of Zada Ban is in full swing. A detachment of the Dominion's Sixth Fleet, backed up by the Coalition Second Fleet and the Confederate Tenth Fleet, invade the Covenant-controlled planet, forcing the Covenant Fleet of Dexterity to withdraw. A Tilthan by the name of Faith watches the devastation as Dominion troops run sweeps of the streets. He recalls his homeworld of Ishani, and how beautiful it was before his people were forced to become the virtual aliens. He watched as a convoy of Sabretooth tanks rolled down the street, flanked by Generation VIII Atlas mechs, bombarding buildings deemed full of Covenant troops, while Anaconda drones perform bombing runs. Without a need for Zada Ban, Faith watches as a Coalition dreadnought uses its earthsplitter to begin glassing the city in the distance. As Covenant reinforcements arrive, a Dominion-controlled Reaper Destroyer battles a Covenant-controlled variant, the Covenant one about to come out on top when a squadron of Seraph gunships bombard it, allowing the Dominion destroyer to kill the Covenant version. After talking down a quarian soldier into letting him go, Faith runs for the outskirts, praying to the Apex race that Silentium, the Tilthan belief in the end of the universe, would not happen soon.

Thane and Reby finish a battle simulation, with Thane annoyed that he hadn't yet beaten Reby's score. Heading over to a local bar, they share a drink together and talk about their families. They are approached by a man named Sean Oswich, with a quarian and krogan bodyguard. Sean flirts with Reby, much to Thane's inert jealously. Sean eventually asks Reby to dance with him, and they head to the dance floor. The krogan bodyguard orders Thane to back off, telling him that what his boss wants, he gets. Thane adamantly defends Reby, insulting the krogan: the bodyguard is about to battle Thane when Sean and Reby return, Sean insisting his bodyguard back off. Reby suggests they get a room, and Sean leaves, eager to get in bed with her. Two minutes after they are gone, Thane gets a message from Reby. Looking at it, he realizes that she is using code to talk with him: Thane realizes Sean is a Promethean spying on them. With a smile, Thane kills both bodyguards and heads to the room, where he finds Sean half naked on the bed with a knife embedded in his chest, dead. The two flee, watched by a silent Promethean agent.

Chapter 20: The Price of Revenge

Returning back to 2185 CE, the Normandy has recently arrived over Zorya. Taking a detour to help Zaeed deal with a personal issue dealing with the Blue Suns. Apparently the founder and current leader of the Blue Suns, a human by the name of Vido Santiago, had betrayed Zaeed at one point, who also used to be a Blue Suns mercenary. Zaeed had hunted Vido for twenty straight years, but the man had always eluded him; until Zaeed faked his own death. The news reached Vido, who came out of hiding; the Blue Suns HQ on Zorya. Now he was leading a Blue Suns attack on an Eldfell-Ashland Refinery, hired by one of the company's rivals. Shepard, along with Zaeed, Jacob and Grunt, deploy to the surface to track down and kill Vido. 

The squad reach the camp of the Blue Suns detachment, killing the few mercs left there. Shepard asks why Zaeed is going to all the trouble of dealing with a grudge, to which Zaeed reacts angrily. He reveals that Vido was only one of the two founders of the Blue Suns, the other being Zaeed himself. Both of them had been ex-Earth troopers (Vido in the SAUA, Zaeed in the MECA) and after leaving, they founded the Blue Suns. After a while, Vido started hiring batarians, which Zaeed objected to: in the end, Vido betrayed Zaeed, having two men restraint him while they put a bullet in his head. Shepard expresses surprise that Zaeed survived such a thing, and understands Zaeed's need for revenge. Soon, they reach the outskirts of the refinery, only to find a large platoon of Blue Suns mercs waiting for them, accompanied by a blue-colored mercenary Mako. While initially taken by surprise, the squad push forward, destroying the enemy Mako and wiping out the mercs. Once inside, they are confronted by Vido, who lauds over his own perceived victory. Zaeed detonates a fuel valve, causing explosions to rock the refinery, and killing Vido's squad: despite this, he escapes. Shepard and the squad pursue, only to realize that the workers are now trapped. Shepard chooses to save them, promising Zaeed that Vido won't escape.

After saving the workers, the squad continues their pursuit of Vido, only for him to seemingly escape on a Mantis gunship. Zaeed shoots at it recklessly, turning to Shepard in his anger, blaming him for letting Vido escape. Shepard tells Zaeed to have patience, and radios the Normandy for an orbital strike: seconds later, a Javelin torpedo smashes into the gunship as it flies away, destroying it and killing Vido. Zaeed apologizes for questioning Shepard and declares that his head is now clear: he is entirely focused on the mission. With that in mind, the squad call for the shuttle, ready to leave the planet.

Chapter 21: I Was Frozen Today!

A few days later, the Normandy arrives in the Osun system of the Hourglass Nebula and docks with the prison ship RPV Purgatory: their target of recruitment is a powerful biotic by the simple name of Jack. Shepard, along with Kasumi, Zaeed and Garrus, board the ship. Jack is currently a prisoner of the facility, which is run by the Blue Suns as per their contract with numerous governments, but Cerberus has paid for her release into their custody. Shepard and the squad are confronted at the main atrium where they refuse to give up their weapons: a situation only tuned down by the facility's warden, Xictus Kuril. He gives them a brief tour of the ship, before signalling them to head to the outprocessing wing. Moving into what they are told is a decontamination cell, they find it is an actual cell, one they are quickly locked in. Kuril reveals his betrayal of them, stating that he finds Shepard much more valuable as a prisoner, hoping to cell him to the batarians for a vast sum of money. Unfortunately, the squad still has their weapons, and Zaeed makes short work of the door's circuitry, allowing them to get out. They gun down the Blue Suns retainers coming to secure them, and prepare for a battle to Jack's cell as Kuril orders every merc he has available to take them down.

A day before, on the Migrant Fleet, Tali and Kal are summoned for a mission briefing for their newest operation into geth space. Deploying onto Haestrom, the admiralty hopes that Tali's science team will be able to determine why Dholen is dying so quickly, while Kal and his men will be assigned to protect them should the geth become aware of what they're doing. Afterwards, Tali and Kal talk about the coming mission, Tali wandering whether she'll survive to fullfill her promise to Shepard. 

Back on the Purgatory, Shepard and the squad fight their way to the cryogenic suspension chamber, where Jack is held due to their dangerous nature. Releasing them, they are surprised to find that Jack is a woman, and almost naked. However, when she breaks through, she manages to destroy the four YMIR mechs assigned to guarding her with relative ease: a testament to her raw power. Released and demanding blood, Jack starts a prison riot, rampaging throughout the starship. Shepard and his squad follow the path of destruction she has left, the Blue Suns putting up little resistance as they are either killed by Jack or regulated to putting down escapees. With the entire starship in flames and falling apart, Shepard and his squad finally manage to catch up with Jack. Kuril confronts her with an LMG, but she deals with him very easily, killing him. Reaching the dock, Shepard and his squad corner her. Jack shows a bitter hatred for Cerberus, but Shepard promises her all of Cerberus' files on her in return for joining his squad. She agrees, and they leave Purgatory as the ship's structural integrity finally cracked, splitting in half and likely killing everyone onboard.

On Haestrom, Tali, Kal and the other quarians begin to set up within the ruins of a military barracks, located within the crumbling cityscape of a long forgotten city. Having evaded the geth patrols using a prototype quarian stealth ship, the quarians managed to set up without any geth resistance. While things start off steadily, things quickly deteriorate when geth forces, seperate from those orbitting the planet, begin their attack on the quarians. Tali is urged to hurry, while Kal and his men try to hold the geth off. A geth dropship assaults their position however, and Tali's guard detail is mortally wounded in the ensuing bombardment. She holds him in her arms as he dies, taking off his mask as a final request. Laying him down, she locks herself in the central communications bunker, hoping to complete her work before the geth overrun their position.

Back on the Normandy, Shepard visits Jack in her hidey-hole under engineering to check up on her. Not long into their conversation, Joker contacts him, telling Shepard that Tali has sent out a distress call on Haestrom. Shepard orders them to head there immediately, with Jack jokingly stating that she was only just recruited, and now they're off to recruit someone else.

Chapter 22: Home, Bloody Home

The Normandy arrives over Haestrom, with Shepard ready to deploy his entire available squad for their operation. Shepard outfits himself with his new Blood Dragon Armor before ordering the squad into their new Hammerhead tank; a prototype vehicle developed specifically by Cerberus as part of Project Firewalker.

Shepard, Kasumi and Mordin deploy in the Hammerhead, while the rest of the squad deploy in the shuttle and approach on foot. Using the Hammerhead, they hit the geth's rear flank, taking them unawares and dividing their attention. Shepard manages to get into contact with Kal, who tells him that Tali is safe and locked away, but surrounded by geth troops. Kal is holding them off, but is fast running out of missiles. Wiping out another geth platoon, they reach a communications bunker that the quarians had tried to hold. He gets into contact with Tali, who says she's fine, but won't be able to hold them off much longer. Getting back into the Hammerhead, they continue their push forward, closing in on the barracks. Along the way they encounter a geth hunter or two, but their advance becomes unstoppable as the geth are unable to muster a strong enough defense.

Elsewhere, Garrus, leading the rest of the squad, continue towards Kal's position. With Jack and Miranda providing biotic support and Grunt breaking the geth lines, the squad quickly reaches the quarian marine, who is now the last survivor of his unit. They see a geth colossus blocking the way to Tali, who Kal has been keeping distracted. With no way to push forward and with Kal too injured to help other than firing missiles, the squad decide to bunker down until Shepard arrives in the Hammerhead. Just as the geth forces become too much to hold back, the geth dropship moving to bombard them is shot down by the tank, the Hammerhead providing support as it entered the field. The geth are steadily pushed back, with the colossus shifting priorities to the tank before it. The Hammerhead manages to out maneuver the colossus though, and successfully destroys it. With all geth forces in the area dead and the rest regrouping, Shepard rushes into the bunker. He and Tali rejoice in their reunion, with Tali revealing that Dholen's star had been dying due to an influx of dark matter consuming the star. In the end, she agrees to join his squad, with Kal returning to the Hutbyk to return to the Fleet.

Chapter 23: The Face of the Enemy

Back on the Normandy, Shepard finishes giving Tali a tour of engineering. Shepard introduces her to Ken and Gabby, whilst also announcing that she will be the new chief engineer of the ship in Adams' absence. Tali is initially hesitant to accept the new role, but eventually gives in given Shepard's insistence that she'd be great at it. Moving to his cabin, and now her cabin as well, the two of them "engage" each other before Shepard is called by the Illusive Man. Heading into the debriefing room, Shepard is informed that Horizon's communications were just jammed: the precursor to a Collector attack. He also tells him that Kaidan is present on Horizon as part of an outreach program, warning that the Collectors may have targetted the colony knowing that fact. Shepard orders them to set a course for Horizon, and moves to Mordin's lab. Mordin announces he has a countermeasure against the seeker swarms.

On Horizon, Kaidan and Lilith argue over the collapse of communications on the planet. Kaidan promises to get them back up, but Lilith is skeptical, as is the people. Their argument escalates just as the Collector cruiser breaks through the clouds, a seeker swarm descending upon Colony Grandeur. Kaidan, his marines and the Horizon Guard try their best to defend the people, but are quickly overwhelmed. Kaidan, Lilith and everyone else is bitten by the seekers and paralyzed. 

The Normandy arrives over Horizon just after the Collectors' initial attack, deploying on the ground. With the countermeasures ready, they are invulnerable to the seeker swarms. The squad push forward into the back of the colony, ambushing a group of Collectors. With the entire might of their squad brought to bear, the Collector squad is easily picked off. During the skirmish, Grunt picks up what looks to be a Collector heavy weapon, while Garrus picks up a Collector sniper rifle and Collector assault rifle. Shepard picks up a Collector SMG, having ordered the collection of them so they can be studied on the Normandy. Moving further into the colony, they encounter a larger group of Collectors, this one led by a possessed one. The possessed Collector taunts Shepard, using biotics to wreak havoc on his squad. They ultimately prevail over the Collectors however, and Tali kills the possessed Collector, who dissolves into ash.

Moving further up, the squad split up and hit an open courtyard from two sides. There, they encounter a new type of husk with powerful dark matter cannons and thickened armor: this confirms husks as a Reaper creation. With some effort, the squad manage to kill the husk, before mopping up the remaining Collector forces. They encounter another possessed Collector, who reveals itself to be Harbinger; a Reaper. Using the Collector General, it is able to possess any Collector in battle, augmenting its abilities and strength. It is defeated once more and, movng inside the building, they encounter a lone human who managed to escape the swarms: a mechanic named Delan. With his help, they learn they can use the inactive GARDIAN batteries to force the Collector ship into retreat. EDI says she can get the guns activated, and the squad move towards the center of the colony. Neutralizing more Collector troops, they reach the area and have EDI activate the guns. They repel an attempted Collector counterattack, only to be nearly killed when a type of organic Collector gunship arrives: another new husk type. With their combined firepower they manage to kill it, the guns activating just in time to hammer the enemy cruiser's hull. The Collector cruiser retreats, but not before taking half the colony with it: including Lilith. Regardless, it is still a victory for the group.

Chapter 24: Prejudiced Intentions

Mere moments after the cruiser's escape, Delan rushes in, screaming at the ship. He turns to Shepard's squad and blames them for letting the Collectors get away, with Lilith and half the colony having been abducted. Kaidan appears, having used his biotics to overcome the seeker's venom, and confronts Shepard, shocked to see him still alive, but having already seen the reports. Delan storms off, angry and annoyed. Kaidan expresses skepticism that Shepard is with Cerberus, but is calmed when Shepard states his alliance is temporary, and only for the purpose of stopping the Collectors. He urges Kaidan to join his squad, but the marine is hesitant to join Cerberus, even in an alliance. Shepard says he's technically not leaving the Alliance so much as he is on leave. Kaidan agrees with that technicality and joins Shepard's squad. Shepard calls the shuttle for extraction shortly after.

Back on the Normandy, now inbound for the Citadel, the group talk about the events that transpired with their first encounter with the Collectors. The SSV Somme was dispatched to respond to the event on Horizon, and will be the first of many relief services sent to the planet. The squad engage in banter and casual conversation until Tali decides to return to engineering. Shepard escorts her there, and they say goodbye to each other before heading off to their separate shipboard tasks.

A day later on the Citadel, Shepard, Garrus, Tali, Kelly, Jacob and Kasumi. The group split up, with the others going off to do their own things while Tali and Shepard head out on a date. After some shopping around, they come across a quarian pilgrim being harassed by a volus and a C-Sec officer. They decide to help her out, discovering that the volus, named Kor Tun, has accused her of stealing his credit chit. The officer, obviously unwilling to perform an actual investigation, simply takes the volus on his word. After some investigation of his own, Shepard finds Kor's credit chit at a local store, having left it there. Regardless, the volus tries to assert it was still her fault, while the officer writes her off for vagrancy. Shepard threatens them both, pulling Spectre rank, causing them to leave in a hurry. They reassure the young girl, who they discover is a biologist hitting hard times on her pilgrimage. They offer her a place on the Normandy as Mordin's assistant and, after some persuasion, she accepts. Happy, the three of them return to the Normandy, eager to introduce their latest crew member.

Back on the Normandy, Lia is introduced to Mordin. She impresses him with her knowledge of biology after he throws numerous questions at her like an interrogator, and eagerly welcomes her as his assistant. Shepard is called off when the Illusive Man calls him once more. Once inside, he is informed that a series of Cerberus facilities on Aite working on Project Overlord have gone silent for unknown reasons. Shepard is sent to investigate, but kept in the dark on what exactly Overlord is. Regardless, he orders Joker to set a course for Aite, wishing to find out.

Chapter 25: Victim of the Victim Part One

The Normandy arrives in orbit over Aite, the Hammerhead deploying moments later to land at Hermes Station, the central communications uplink for the Cerberus facilities. Leaving the tank, they venture inside to find almost all Cerberus personnel dead. However, the main scientist in charge of the Overlord experiment, Dr. Gavin Archer, managed ot survive the attack and locked himself within a secured room. He gets in contact with Shepard and warns him that Overlord has gone rogue and seized control of all the station's technology and machinery, including the security mechs and captured geth test subjects. He warns them Overlord is in the process of trying to use the station's satellite dish to upload itself onto the extranet, which he warns would be a technological apocalypse. Rushing, they encounter the geth and mechs possessed by Overlord. Defeating them, they finally reach the dish, which they manage to destroy with some effort, stopping Overlord's attempts to escape the planet. Archer greets them, and Shepard demands answers.

Archer explains that Project Overlord was an attempt to exploit the geth's religious complex regarding the Reapers, hoping to manipulate that context and use Overlord as the center of that worship, instead of the Reapers. By doing this, they would be turning the geth into an army, potentially saving millions of lives. Overlord would be an AI, but unique in that it would combine the essence of an AI with a human mind to create a powerful hybrid. His autistic brother, David, who was also a mathematical savant, volunteered for the project, but was quickly driven insane, becoming Overlord. He seized control of the geth and mechs and slaughtered everyone in the facilities. Overlord locked itself away in Atlas station, where it is located. To override the lockdown, the station supervisors at each of the facilities would have to override it. Dr. Archer overrides the lockdown at Hermes Station, but states Shepard must do the same for Prometheus and Vulcan stations before he can gain access to Atlas station to shutdown Overlord. His squad in tow, he enters the Hammerhead and heads for Vulcan Station, the geothermal plant and power station.

Chapter 25: Victim of the Victim Part Two

Arriving at Vulcan station, Shepard uses the Hammerhead to navigate the numerous lava pits and to break through the geth defenses set up. Finally reaching the entrance, they leave the Hammerhead and enter the facility, only for Overlord to lock the doors around them and shut off the power. It screams at them, Shepard reeling in pain as it entered his head and screamed. However, he swore he could hear it trying to speak to him, but he is forced to ignore it when the doors open and dozens of mechs pour in from every direction, but the power remains off. The squad manage to fight back the mechs, moving further into the facility. They are confronted by two YMIR mechs, with Overlord restoring power to the building but shutting the coolant valves, allowing the building to heat up. While Grunt and Jack deal with the YMIRs, Tali tries to bring the coolant back online. Overlord screams at them once more, Shepard once again feeling like it was sad. With the YMIRs destroyed and Tali successfully in opening the coolant valves again, the squad push further into the facility until they reach the override control station.

A single LOKI mech is activated by Overlord, but Zaeed simply shoots its arms off. Overlord releases control of the mech, who then begins to run around frantically. Overlord screams at them from every monitor in the room, but Garrus manages to activate the override at Vulcan anyway. Overlord, seeing itself unable to stop them, leaves, but not before shutting off the power once more. Tali restores power and the squad leave on the Hammerhead, heading for Prometheus station to activate the final override.

The squad arrive at Prometheus station, which turns out to be a facility set up in the remains of a crashed geth heavy frigate. The facility was established simply for the extraction of geth units for the experiments, as well as to make sure they remain dormant. Overlord has managed to activate one of the remaining ship-to-ship cannons left on its hull, and uses it to fire at the Hammerhead. Shepard has the tank perform evasive maneuvers, dodging the plasma shells dispatched by the ship's powerful gun. Eventually, EDI finds a weak spot and the Normandy fires four anti-ship missiles directly into the turret as it flies by, destroying the gun. In response, Overlord has two geth primes emerge, along with five armatures, to engage the Hammerhead. The tank prevails over the geth troops, and the squad disembarks to enter the derelict warship. Inside, they manage to find more dead Cerberus workers, but eerily no geth aside from a few dead bodies. Moving further inside, they find the override and activate it, successfully ending the lockdown and giving them access to Atlas station. Unfortunately, Overlord has deliberately led them into a trap, and quickly activates all the geth in the station, boxing them in. Overlord screams at them once more, but Shepard realizes that its screams sound more like that of agony than anger. With that in mind, the squad fight their way out of the station, only for Overlord to herd them into an enclosed room. Trapping them inside, Overlord's geth try to finish them off, but Jack releases a biotic burst of energy that causes doors to be blown off their hinges and for the geth to be knocked off their feet. Taking advantage, the squad charges through the nearest door, gunning down the geth as they go. 

In one final attempt to kill them, Overlord has them confronted by another geth prime, accompanied by four destroyers, a juggernaut and six hoppers, all while beginning to overlord the ship's reactor. Grunt charges the destroyers with his shotgun, while Miranda, Shepard and Jacob combine their biotics to deal with the hoppers. Zaeed, Jack, Tali, Kaidan and Kasumi fight the prime, and together, the entire squad manages to defeat and destroy the geth forces before escaping the facility. Getting in the Hammerhead, they escape just as the reactor overloads, the explosion consuming the ship and causing the mountain side to collapse ontop of it. 

Chapter 25: Victim of the Victim Part Three

The Hammerhead arrives at Atlas station, the primary laboratory and experiment station. Going inside, they disembark the Hammerhead and continue throughout the rest of the laboratory on foot. They encounter more geth and mechs hijacked by Overlord, who continues to scream at them. Shepard begins to hear more and more of the AI's agony, and realizes that the AI is no longer trying to kill them: it opens and closes door as if herding them like sheep and despite his squad's belief they were heading into a trap, he elects to follow it. They soon realize that Overlord is no longer trying to kill them: it has shut down all the geth and mechs, and has deliberately herded them towards it, as well as areas of importance. Through the data logs, Shepard learns that David was one of the few able to understand the geth's electronic white noise, as well as communicate with them using a modified version of khelish, the quarian language. Gavin, having seen this, decided to "volunteer" his brother for the experiment, which in reality was David being manipulated. Shepard finally learns the truth of Overlord: David was indeed driven insane, but had not been screaming at them out of anger, but out of desperation. The screams were not noises, but a combination of human speech and the geth's electronic warbles. 

The squad continue to follow Overlord until they are lead to a specific room. Tali accesses the console, only for energy to surge into Shepard: the squad realize too late that Ovelord has possessed him. He leaves the room, and the door locks behind him, separating him from his squad. He proceeds to Overlord, guided by the AI itself, who now communicates to him in a clear, human voice. It is revealed that Overlord's screams had been pleas and cries for help, begging for the experiment to end. Shepard tears up, feeling Overlord's agony transmitted directly into him as if he was Overlord himself. Finally entering the room, Overlord releases control of him with a final plea, "Make it stop." Shepard uses his rifle to destroy the pylons connecting the AI to David, finally separating them and destroying what was once Overlord. Shepard sees the true extent of David's torment just as Gavin runs in. Gavin promises to explain, but Shepard says he's seen enough, calling Gavin a monster to treat his own brother as such. Gavin expresses remorse for what he's done, but states that the Illusive Man was very insistent on getting results. When Shepard announces his intent to send David to Grissom Academy, Gavin objects, raising his pistol to shoot Shepard in the back of the head. His squad arrives just in time though, Miranda biotically grabbing Gavin's hand from afar and forcing it downwards, where it shoots the ground. Shepard turns, not realizing he was about to be shot, and quickly punches Gavin in the face, breaking his nose. He says that he will spare Gavin, but if he ever tries to approach or harm his brother again, he will kill him. Shepard calls for evac while he comforts David, telling Tali and Kasumi to get to work with EDI in separating him from the device he's attached to. David begins to weep, mumbling to himself.

Chapter 26: Subject Zero

Several days after dropping David off at Grissom Academy, Shepard visits Jack and tries to have a conversation with her. She asks if he's looking for sex, stating he must be looking for a "hoe on the side", to which Shepard says he's not interested, and asks about her past. She eventually mentions her past about Cerberus, stating she was kidnapped at any early age to be experimented on at their Teltin facility on Pragia. She expresses an interest in returning to the facility, saying it was a fantasy of hers to place a bomb there and blow it up. It weighs heavily on her mind, and Shepard asks if she still wishes to do it. Responding positively, he tells EDI to place an order with Cerberus for a sizable bomb. Jack, catching on, tells EDI to make it a nuclear bomb. Shepard is shocked by this, to which Jack responds, "If it's going to be big, make it fucking huge." Shepard chuckles and nods, before standing up and leaving.

Two days later, the Normandy arrives over Pragia. Shepard and Jack wait at the shuttle as Grunt drags a massive 25-kiloton nuclear warhead inside it. Once inside, Shepard, Jack and Grunt enter the shuttle and head for the surface. Jack explains the facility has been abandoned for over a decade ever since her escape, and is likely been reclaimed by nature given Pragia's accellerated ecological growth. She asks how he convinced the Illusive Man to give them a bomb to blow up one of his own facilities, and he explains that the Illusive Man is extremely committed to the success of their mission, and that blowing up one of his abandoned facilities for the sake of a squad member's mental focus was well worth the cost.  

Back on the ship, Mordin quizzes his new assistant. Lia is able to answer most of the questions, but expresses interest in the area of biological warfare. Mordin asks why she would need to know this, wondering if she planned to use it in some way against the geth. She states that to know how to create a countermeasure for something, you must first understand what you're countering. Mordin applauds her on this, and agrees to teach her, beginning to like his new pupil.

Down on Pragia, the shuttle lands, the trio finding the facility overgrown as Jack predicted. With Grunt dragging the bomb behind him, Shepard accompanies Jack as she reminiscences about her time in the facility years ago. During this, she reveals that she had personally started a riot in the facility which led to her escape. However, she is confused when she learns that the scientists had chosen her as their primary test subject, using the other captured children as "tests" to see if certain agents would work on Jack: hence her name, Subject Zero. Halfway inside, they discover Blood Pack mercs seemingly looting the place, led by a krogan named Kureck. They engage and kill the small group of mercenaries, before moving into Jack's cell where they find the man who hired the mercs: a man by the name of Aresh.

He reveals that he was another survivor of the riot, and that he wishes to restart the Teltin facility in the hopes of learning what Cerberus was trying to achieve: he wished to know what the other kids suffered and died for. Jack, outraged, wants to kill Aresh, but Shepard reasons that Aresh is still trapped in his past, while Jack can still escape hers. Annoyed, Jack spares Aresh and lets him run, before venting her anger on her old cell. Satisfied, she has Grunt set down the bomb and set it. Returning to the shuttle, they watch from an ever growing distance as the nuke explodes, consuming the facility and destroying everything within a few kilometers of it. Jack, with a grin, thanks Shepard.

Chapter 27: Dark Spectres

Back on the Normandy, Shepard talks to Jack regarding her feelings after the mission, to which she expresses contempt for feeling more than simple hate. She explains that she will be fine, and that she is now entirely focused on the mission. Believing every word, Shepard leaves only to be roped into a game of Skyllian-Five Poker with Ken, Gabby, Tali, Kasumi, Garrus and Zaeed. Several hours later and Shepard comes out on top, surprising Ken with his skill at poker, and Tali laments at how she thought she had a good poker face. After, Shepard is messaged by the Illusive Man, who has sent him the coordinates of Alchera; the crash site of the Normandy SR-1.

A few days later, Shepard, Tali, Kaidan and Garrus land on Alchera, where the Normandy SR-1 was destroyed two years ago. The wreckage of the frigate is scattered over the icy plains, and Shepard quietly begins looking around, his comrades following him. He comes across the burnt-out, flattened wreck of their Mako; a replacement for the one destroyed during the Battle of the Citadel that never saw action. In the snow, he steps on and finds a datapad, finding its interface glitchy. Tali accesses and downloads the files, and they discover it was Pressly's personal datapad, and they read through his contents to discover that Pressly had initially hated all the aliens on the ship, but had eventually come to accept them...even admiring them. Shepard keeps Pressly's datapad, saying he knows what he's going to do with it. Moving along, they find the ship's cockpit and flight deck half buried in snow and ice, where they find the charred, broken skeletons of Pressly and Susannah. 

Continuing further, they eventually find what's left of the mess hall. On the way there, they find a skull with the burnt rims of a cap lying next to it: Johnson. Looking around a bit more, they eventually settle next to the massive hull plate sticking up from the side of a hill, and Shepard begins to dig. Seeing what he was doing, the squad begin to help him, and they eventually dig three holes. Eventually, they bury the remains of Pressly, Susannah and Johnson, finally putting them to rest properly. Tali asks if Shepard is okay and he replies that he is fine, and that they should hurry up and avenge the SR-1 and those the Collectors killed. The squad agrees, returning to the shuttle.

Back on the ship, Shepard enters his cabin, sighing as he slipped into the chair at his desk. He laments about the deaths of his crew, annoyed that he got a second chance at life where they didn't. He remembered how Pressly had overcome his prejudice of aliens and how awkward Johnson was around the crew. He is visited by a hallucination of Saren, who begins to taunt him. Shepard tells him to leave, saying that Saren was a coward who told out his galaxy on the delusion he would save it. Saren stated that appeasing the Reapers was the key to victory, but Shepard explains that the protheans tried to surrender multiple times and were ignored; the Reapers were only interested in wiping out all organic life, and used Saren like a puppet. Shepard concludes that the SR-1 crew may have initially died for nothing, but he would avenge them and make their death worth something. Saren's hallucination leaves, and asks Tali, Kaidan and Garrus if they're interested in a game of poker. 

Chapter 28: Asari Samurai

The Normandy arrives over Illium, looking for its next recruits. However, upon arrival, an asari named Careena greets them and tells them to meet with Liara T'Soni, her boss and a powerful information broker. Shepard, who had brought Tali, Garrus, Zaeed and Kasumi with him, is shocked to learn of Liara's presence on the planet, as is Tali and Garrus. Liara knew they were coming and immediately summoned Careena to go greet them. They thank her, heading for Liara's office. They are even more surprised to find Liara is no longer the shy, innocent asari she used to be, and is now a hardened, ruthless information broker. She is glad to see them, but quickly reveals how much she's changed. She reveals her current "war" with the Shadow Broker, stating she has the intent of hunting them down and killing them. Shepard asks why, and Liara says she lost someone she loved to them. She reveals that it was her that gave Shepard's body to Cerberus, who had promised to be able to resurrect him.

After a short conversation, Shepard asks for the locations of their new recruits: firstly, an asari justicar named Samara. Liara states Samara was last at the Nos Astra spaceport, where she was hunting a dangerous fugitive from justice. Secondly, a drell assassin named Thane Krios. Liara says that he is planning a final contract in four days, gaining help from an asari dockworker named Seryna. Shepard chooses to recruit Samara first, thanking Liara before temporarily saying goodbye. Leaving her office, they run into a familiar face, Gianna Parasini. She says she is currently on assignment, and that she needs help exposing an asari smuggler named Hermia. Shepard agrees to help, verbally luring the asari into revealing her stolen stock. Gianna records the whole transgression before arresting Hermia and taking her away. As a final parting gift, she says she left a beer on his table, remarking that she had promised him one. Grinning, he drinks the beer.

Upon arriving at the spaceport, they are greeted by a volus named Pitne For. The volus, recently labelled a suspect in a murder case at the spaceport, is told to not leave by the police captain of the local police outpost. Curious, Shepard questions the volus, who reveals that his business partner, Dakni Kur, was recently murdered in an alleyway at the spaceport, and that Pitne is one of many suspected by the captain to be responsible. However, Pitne is adamant that it was the Eclipse, specifically a splinter group of the mercenary organization known as the Sisterhood. The Sisterhood, purely made up of asari members, is a separate faction of the Eclipse who only accepts initiates who have murdered a person of sufficiently high status without hesitation. Their base is somewhere near the spaceport, but Dakni's death apparently stinks of their involvement. Shepard finds this interesting, and brings this information before the NAPD's Detective Captain Anaya. She expresses interest in investigating possible Sisterhood involvement, but that she must work with the information she currently has. Shepard asks where Samara is, who Anaya allowed into the crime scene to investigate given how justicars are basically a more ruthless, higher form of law enforcement. Shepard asks for access to the crime scene himself, as Garrus is also a detective. Anaya allows it, and they move into the crime scene.

Reaching Dakni's dead body, Garrus begins his investigation, finding that Dakni's head was indeed blown apart by a modded shotgun shell: specifically explosive rounds. The splatter pattern of the blood indicates an execution, meaning Dakni was either taken by surprise or executed. After analyzing all the evidence, Garrus concludes that Pitne For is simply incapable of such a murder; only the Sisterhood could do so. They hear gunfire and move inside to see a squad of Sisterhood soldiers preparing to raid a building, one asari yelling out to charge. Shepard signals his squad to attack but is beaten to the punch when all the mercs are biotically lifted and thrown into a wall. Shepard moves forward, his squad gunning down the Sisterhood mercs as they get up. Moving inside, they find easily over a dozen dead Sisterhood members, with one left fighting Samara. She defeats the merc and interrogates her as to the whereabouts of the fugitive she is searching for. The merc refuses to talk, and Samara snaps her neck. 

They approach Samara, asking about the fugitive she is chasing. She reveals that she is not looking for Dakni's murderer, but rather a criminal far more dangerous than the entire Sisterhood combined, and that the Sisterhood had merely smuggled this fugitive aboard a ship to get offworld, and that she was trying to learn of the ship's name so she could track it down. Shortly after, Anaya and a team of police troopers (SPRED) storm the room, with Anaya being forced to take Samara into custody out of fears of causing a public incident. Samara agrees to be taken into custody, but only for one day; after that, her investigation must continue, even if she has to kill her way out of the station. Shepard agrees to put a stop to the Sisterhood, while also getting the name of the ship Samara's target left on. Samara thanks him, agreeing to join his squad if he does this for her. 

Shepard and Garrus immediately locate and interrogate Pitne, with Garrus agreeing that the volus knew more than he let on. Finally, Pitne gives in, stating he, Dakni and another partner named Niftu Cal, were contracted by the Sisterhood for quite some time, being used to smuggle weapons, drugs and illegal mods to their base, which was located directly underneath the police outpost. Pitne and Dakni were constantly bullied and tormented by the Sisterhood's boss, Captain Wasea. Niftu Cal was kept to work for the Sisterhood as Wasea's personal pet, while Pitne and Dakni were paid a lot of money to smuggle their stuff for them. Pitne eventually got fed up and smuggled in a shipment of Minagen X3, an experimental military enhancement drug developed by DPAR during the Krogan Rebellions in an attempt to create superbiotics: a response to the krogan's rumoured program with the same intent. The project failed, as small doses caused biotics to become unstable, and larger doses led to organ failure. However, the Sisterhood did not know that, and Pitne managed to get his hands on gas-form Minagen, which he shipped into the base, telling them that it would make their biotics more potent: it was his revenge. Wasea more than likely caught on, and that's when Dakni was murdered. He gives them the pass code to the base, begging them to not tell Wasea where he was.

Later, in the Sisterhood's base, the squad arrives in a police cruiser, accompanied by four squads of SPRED response units. Storming the base, Shepard and his squad find entire areas of the base cut off due to exposure to Minagen X3. They come across a trigger-happy Sisterhood member named Elnora V'ashi. The asari pretends to have been forced to join the Sisterhood, with Shepard falling for it and letting her go. Just as she runs behind them however, she raises her shotgun to kill him, only for a SPRED member to shoot her through the back of the head. Securing the room, they move forward and find Niftu, who has become exposed to element zero and small amounts of Minagen, giving him unstable biotic abilities. He preaches revenge against Pitne, he deliberately sold him to Wasea in exchange for more credits, revealing that Pitne had been cashing in the entire time. He sold Niftu to the Sisterhood as a "gift" in exchange for a larger share of the profits. However, at the same time, Pitne sold them Minagen, hoping to kill the Sisterhood at the same time. When that didn't work, Pitne lied and said that he "suspected" Dakni was behind it; ending in his partner's murder. Shepard contacts a SPRED squad and has them escort Niftu out, who continues to make grandiose claims about "killing Wasea" and "throwing her around like a rag doll." 

The squad confront Wasea and the last of her mercs, with Wasea saying she was beginning to enjoy Niftu's antics. She reveals that she knew all along that Pitne was playing her, saying that she had Elnora kill Dakni not only to initiate her, but as a form of her own personal entertainment. She had planned to kill Pitne and Anaya, but with Shepard now present, she remarks that she can kill something even better. Shepard engages Wasea in one-on-one biotic combat, while his squad kills her mercs. Shepard eventually manages to throw her into a Minagen canister, causing her to become consumed by fumes. Her biotics unstable and suffering from internal hemorrhaging, Wasea is helpless as Shepard raises his pistol and shoots her in the head. With the Sisterhood wiped out, Shepard returns to the surface, but not before taking Wasea's personal datapad.

Back at the police station, he tells Anaya that Pitne was not entirely innocent of Dakni's death, and tells her what Niftu told him. Anaya has Pitne and his men arrested, and thanks Shepard for his help in cracking the case. She lets Samara go, saying it was more of a favour to herself than to the justicar. Shepard tells Samara, from what he read on Wasea's datapad, that her fugitive left on a transport named the AML Demeter, handing the justicar the rest of the information to skim over in her own time. Samara agrees to join Shepard's squad, and they return to the ship.

Chapter 29: Gatecrash

Four days later, Shepard, with Kaidan and Garrus, approaches Seryna at her office in the cargo transfer levels. Seryna is initially suspicious of what they want, especially when they ask for Thane Krios' whereabouts. She refuses to give them, hand tightening around a gun under her desk. Garrus readies his own pistol, telling Shepard that Seryna has a gun. Shepard tells Seryna they are only here to recruit Thane for an important mission, not to kill him or try and stop whatever he is doing. Seryna, relaxing, drops the pistol on her desk and stands up, asking what their mission is about. Explaining, Seryna's interest is peaked, telling them that she was a former employee for Nassana Dantius, a powerful corporate figure in Nos Astra. Everyone hated Nassana however, as she was a harsh woman, often uncaring and extremely paranoid. She hired an absurd amount of Eclipse mercs to protect her towers: an entire battalion. Her towers, one of which was still under construction, were her hideout. Seryna, getting fed up with Nassana's constant bullying, left to work at the docks. Thane's final contract was to kill Nassana and put an end to what he said were her "wicked ways". Seryna has no desire to stop him, and neither does Shepard. She agrees to get him to the towers to help Thane, and Shepard has Tali, Samara, Grunt, Jack and Jacob meet at the docks.

Departing into two skycars, Seryna leads the squad to the Dantius towers. Giving him a layout of the second tower, Seryna states that Nassana is hiding in a penthouse at the top of the tower still under construction. They will need to land on the first tower and use the interconnecting bridge to cross to the second. She warns that Eclipse security is tight, but considering the firepower the squad possesses, they likely will have no problem cutting through the mercs like butter. Deploying, Seryna wishes them good luck before leaving. The squad meet up and move inside, finding most of Nassana's workers dead. One worker, a salarian, explains that Nassana had, out of nowhere, ordered all her workers to leave. When they didn't leave quick enough, she had the Eclipse use their mercs to gun the workers down. Shepard realizes she did it likely because of Thane's appearance, Nassana wanting to clear the building so he couldn't blend in with the crowd. 

Continuing, they kill more and more Eclipse as they ascend the skyscraper, coming across more workers who had been saved by Thane, showing that the assassin had a conscious. Reaching the top, they storm across the bridge, decimating the Eclipse as they finally reach the other side. Their leader, a salarian engineer, tries to make one last ditch attempt to stop his squad, but is knocked off his feet and pummelled into the ground by Grunt. Ascending to Nassana's penthouse, Shepard is shocked to find Nassana is actually Aleena: Wrex's former mercenary rival. Aleena explains she survived the events of Tuntau, but was unable to fight as a merc anymore, so she started her own business. She jokes about how Shepard has come to kill her, but Shepard remarks that he's here for the person who is. Shortly after, Thane makes his appearance, killing all four of her bodyguards and snapping her neck in the space of three seconds. With Aleena finally dead, Shepard talks to Thane, who reveals he is dying of a drell-exclusive disease, and that he had become a freelance assassin a while ago to assassinate those who were evil and mistreating the innocent. After hearing of Shepard's mission though, Thane realizes he can do even more good, and agrees to join Shepard's squad.

Chapter 30: Odd Company

On the Normandy, Shepard dreams of a future with Tali on her homeworld, before then dreaming of meeting her father, who disapproves of him. Waking up, noticing Rael is nowhere to be found and Tali is right beside him, they talk for a bit. They then decide to watch a movie, having recruited everyone on the provided dossiers.

In Miranda's office, she summons Jacob to speak with her. Once Jacob is in her office, Miranda begins to express skepticism of Cerberus' ultimate end goal, asking Jacob what he thinks of Shepard. Jacob explains that he finds the commander inspiring, and that if anyone could defeat the Collectors, it was him. Miranda agrees, saying that is just her issue with the man: she can't seem to comprehend him. Every time she thinks she has him downpat, he demonstrates another eccentricity she can't quite understand. She brings up his love for Tali, his seemingly incorruptible attitude and his ability to reign in his hatred for Cerberus to simply help them stop a common foe. When she read his file, never did she think he would be someone she respected, and yet he was. Miranda admits she respects Shepard, and also mentions that she's glad the Illusive Man stopped her from putting a control chip in Shepard's brain. Jacob asks why she would do such a thing, and Miranda, after a moment's hesitation, admits that she "can't remember." During their conversation she gets a message from Cerberus. Reading it, she freezes. When Jacob asks what is wrong, she asks him to leave. She sighs into her hands, but elects to not tell Shepard until he's ready to help her.

In the observation lounge, Kasumi gathers Garrus, Tali, Lia and Zaeed, as well as newcomers Thane and Samara, to watch a recent extranet show about mercenaries, evil geth and a greedy secret agent known as Siren Traiterus. After finishing the first episode, Lia begins to point out the inaccuracies of how the geth are depicted, to which Kasumi tells her it's just a show. An argument breaks out, to which Kasumi sighs, quickly joining in with thieves are mentioned. Thane and Samara just watch on in confusion; they both eventually find some small amusement out of it.

Back on the Migrant Fleet onboard the Rayya, Kal and Madi have entered a relationship with one another. Together, they get a clean room and make love to each other for the first time. Afterwards, Madi says she is being assigned as commander of a long mission to extract a quarian pilgrim thought to be abducted by Hegemony forces. Kal wishes her good luck, hoping that she will come back to see him again.

On the QMFV Alarei, Rael's laboratory ship, he requests an update from his chief scientist on a secret weapons program. Rael is currently running weapons tests on geth parts he had Tali bring back to him, hoping to develop a weapon that could cripple the geth in an inevitable attempt to reclaim Rannoch. Seeing no other option, he decides to break protocol and have geth platforms fully built and activated in an attempt to find a way to cripple their neural network. Dagt expresses concern that this could turn out badly, but Rael tells her to keep it a secret from the rest of the Fleet. Dagt agrees, but is still worried about the consequences of creating fully operational geth within the Flotilla. Dagt expresses a need to contact her husband, but agrees to complete her daily work before doing so. Elsewhere, Rael promises that the weapons program will help them reclaim the homeworld, where he will then build his daughter a house, just like he promised Meru before her death.

Back on the Normandy, Shepard talks with Samara, who has moved into the other observation deck. Spending most of her free time meditating, Samara is not entirely against visitors, and welcomes the chance to speak with Shepard. After a short conversation, Shepard then moves to talk with Thane. After another short conversation, Shepard is contacted by Kaidan, who needs to speak with him urgently. Meeting with Kaidan, Shepard learns that Kaidan received a message from Anderson regarding a terrorist attack on New Constantinople. A group of biotics attacked a convoy escorting ministers of the Parliamentary Subcommittee of Transhuman Studies, taking them hostage, along with the subcommittee's chairman, Martin Burns. Shepard states the Alliance will likely handle it, but Kaidan expresses a need to handle it himself, considering the leader of the group. Shepard asks who it is, and learns that the leader is Rahna; Kaidan's crush back during Conatix's biotic training program.

Chapter 31: Off The Hook

Skip forward back to 2251 CE, Spectre Jessica Alenko visits the military prison ship CSV Orbit of Glass in orbit over Grosalgen. Accompanied by a N7 by the name of the Arthur Leat, Jessica confronts the ship's warden, Burhardt Weber, wishing to see their most secured prisoner: a raloi by the name of Ari'ka. Jessica move to secure the raloi for transfer to her ship, the Coalition frigate CSV Twin Pimples, with Jessica needing Ari'ka for an investigation into Prometheus. However, Carter Dielheart and his promethean agents, disguised as prison guards, launch their attack, deploying gas into the chamber in an attempt to kill Jessica, Arthur and Ari'ka. The attack fails, with Jessica managing to escape with Ari'ka, fighting her way through the Promethean agents. Reaching her ship, Jessica orders Arthur to get Ari'ka into the frigate, only for Carter to snipe Ari'ka through the eye, killing her instantly. Jessica and Arthur escape, while Carter and his men return to their stealth corvette, the ISS Gaius Julius.

Back on Trebin, Mordin awakens to find himself inside a rachni nest with the rachni queen, who saved him from death. Mordin wishes to leave, but the queen announces that he has no ship with which to leave with, and that the sandstorms on the surface have become too dangerous. Mordin asks if she has a ship, to which she announces they have many, but all of them are back at their capital, which is many kilometers away. Mordin asks why she couldn't simply dig a tunnel there like the rachni did at the Battle of Pietas, and she responds that while the rachni can, Mordin cannot. They wait it out, hoping for a reprieve soon.

On Virmire, in the capital city of Williams, Ashley'Raan works at the State Hospital as a doctor. While on break, she is about to settle in and read a book of hers when one of her work colleagues announces the arrival of her brother. Thane, with Reby at his side, steps in, wishing to speak with her. They ask if they can stay at her house for a while, to which Ashley asks why. Thane dodges the question, saying it'll only be for a few nights. Ashley agrees, stating she'll need to ask her husband, but reckons it'll be alright.

Chapter 32: Friends And Terrorists

Back in 2185, Shepard is just coming to terms with what Kaidan has said when Miranda bursts into the room, asking for his help. She reveals that she has a sister, Oriana, who she rescued from her father when she ran away. Adopted by another family, Oriana grew up happy and safe from her father. Unfortunately, it seems her father has somehow learnt of Oriana's location and she needs to be relocated before it's too late: she can't do this without Shepard's help, as her father will devote a lot of resources to bringing back his "daughter". Considering that both situations needed immediate attention, Shepard is split. Eventually, he orders a meeting between all squad members in the debriefing room, motioning for Miranda and Kaidan to attend.

Informing the squad of the two situations, Shepard decides splitting up the squad to deal with both situations simultaneously would be the best way to go. With Miranda in command, he will send Grunt, Jacob, Zaeed, Samara and Mordin to help her protect Oriana, while Shepard, Kaidan, Tali, Jack, Kasumi, Garrus and Thane go to deal with Rahna and the terrorist situation. With the situation settled, Shepard contacts Liara to get temporary housing for Miranda and her group. Once done, Miranda and her squad leaves the Normandy, and the ship departs for New Constantinople.

Arriving at the colony, with Garrus being deployed on the city outskirts with the Hammerhead to get the gist of the situation from local law enforcement. While descending in the shuttle, they discover from Garrus that Burns and his staff are being held by Rahna and her biotics at the Stranded Hotel, which the police have closed all access to and cordoned off. There is a sewer entrance Shepard can use to get inside, where he can neutralize Rahna and her men. Kaidan objects to killing or hurting Rahna, saying he must find out what drove her to commit this act: the Rahna he knew wasn't capable of such an act. Shepard agrees, telling his squad to not kill Rahna or her men unless the situation was deemed unrecoverable, or if the death of one of the committee members was imminent. With that in mind, the shuttle lands nearby and Shepard finds the sewer entrance. Moving inside, the squad moves in single file through the sewers, moving towards the building, marked with a glowing ping on their omni-tools.

Once below the building, he signals Thane and Kasumi to take the second entrance to scout ahead and get a good view of the building. Shepard and the others move inside, keeping to the shadows. They monitor Rahna's men, who seem to be scouting and securing the hotel to make sure nobody gets inside. Counting at least twelve on ground level, Shepard is startled by how many there are, but decides to proceed forward anyway. He orders Tali and Jack to take the stairs while he and Kaidan take the bottom level to check for hostages. They are spotted by two of the biotics, but Shepard and Kaidan hit them with stasis fields, releasing them only to knock the two out. Dragging them into a corner, they press on, moving down a corridor until they can hear voices. Reaching the end room, they find Rahna, accompanied by seven others, yelling at the hostages, all on their knees and lined up. Shepard motions for Kaidan to switch his normal ammo for disruptor rounds, hoping to use them to incapacitate the biotics. 

Just as Kaidan and Shepard raise their rifles to fire, a voice behind them orders them to drop their weapons. Turning to see Kaidan with a gun to the back of his head, Shepard does as ordered, dropping his rifle and standing up. Rahna turns to them, apparently having known they were there the whole time. She remarks that it was nice for some Alliance soldiers to join them, and that the hostages were getting lonely. Shepard and Kaidan are forced to their knees, hands on their heads. They watch as Tali and Jack are escorted in as well and forced to kneel next to them. Rahna reveals she was prepared for an infiltration team, and had taken the necessary precautions. Shepard realizes Thane and Kasumi are not present, likely having evaded capture. Also, Jack winks at him, signalling that they don't know she's a biotic. 

Rahna turns back to Burns, who is sweating heavily, and begins yelling in his face, ranting about how biotics with L2 implants didn't get reparations where they were deserved, and because of it, many former biotics of Conatix were left with crippling headaches or clinically brain dead. Burns tries to mutter apologies, but she punches him in the face, screaming at him mindlessly. Before she can punch him again, Kaidan calls out, asking her to stop, calling her by name. She demands to know how he knows that name, and he reveals his name. When she denies that it's him, he reminds her about Vyrnnus. Realizing who he is, she growls, nodding for two men to pick Kaidan up. They escort Kaidan from the room, with Rahna following them. Shepard secretly hopes Kaidan knows what he's doing.

In an empty room, Kaidan is forced to his knees once more. Once inside, the two men are signalled to leave, Rahna now being left alone with him. Once alone, she holsters her weapon, looking calm. Suddenly, she biotically pins him against a wall, shouting in his face about how he abandoned them. He retorts that it was Rahna who refused to talk to him after the incident at Jump Zero, and that he never forgot her. Their back and forth argument continues until Rahna lets go of him. She reasons that he should join her, given that he has L2 implants himself. Rahna states that Conatix may have dissolved, but their crimes continue to be passed off as normal by the Alliance even today, and that they deserve to pay. Kaidan agrees that the Alliance needs to pass proper reparations for those with the L2s, but a hostage situation isn't the way to do it. Rahna turns to him, shaking her head, wanting him to understand. She asks that if he still has any feelings for her, that he join her and help her get the reparations. Kaidan says that, out of his love for her, he cannot help her, as that would only encourage her along a darker path.

Kaidan continues to reason with her, promising to help her if she and her men stand down. He says that Commander Shepard is with him, and that negotiation is what he's good at. Rahna doesn't believe him at first, but eventually gives in, lowering her pistol. He pats her shoulder, telling her everything will be righted. Moving back to the room where the hostages are, Rahna tells her men to lower their weapons. They initially object, but reluctantly drop them. Kaidan tells Shepard about their plight, and Shepard turns to Chairman Burns. Shepard is surprised to find that Burns needs little convincing, as he has come to realize his mistake and has every intent to fix what was done to them. He promises Rahna that reparations will come, and that they will be the first to benefit when the time arrives. Rahna is pleasantly surprised but nods in thanks, and Burns and his staff leave.

Rahna and her men refuse custody, and Shepard orders them to stand down and allow them to leave. The police chief is hesitant to allow this, but Shepard explains that they meant well, and had no intention of hurting anyone; besides, with his Spectre authority, he is above the usual law and order. The police chief consents, and Rahna is allowed to leave. Kaidan asks her to come with him, but she turns down the offer, saying that she's no soldier and she's better off helping elsewhere. She thanks Kaidan for saving her and kisses him lightly on the lips, telling him to come find her when his mission's over. He smiles and tells her to wait for him, to which she chuckles before running off. Shepard asks if Kaidan will be alright, to which he replies that as long as Rahna is okay, so will he be.

Chapter 33: Family and the Prodigal

On Illium, Miranda meets up with her contact Lanteia to discuss the extraction operation. Niket, a childhood friend of Miranda's, will be helping in the transfer, coordinating with the Cerberus agents to help get Oriana and her family offworld. Miranda and her men will deal with the Eclipse, deploying ahead of their lines in a skycar to hold them off until the extraction is complete. Zaeed asks Lanteia who is leading the Eclipse, and she says it is an asari named Captain Enyala. Zaeed recognizes her, stating he fought with her in taking out a Blue Suns outpost a while ago, where they had sex afterwards. She seems to have a thing for helping with "child repossession" operations. Miranda asks if he will have a problem with killing her if the time comes, and he says he won't flinch, stating that he as no emotional attachment to her and that she was a cold-hearted bitch anyway. With that in agreement, they leave in the skycar for the docks.

Miranda is shocked to see the extent of the Eclipse force: there six Mantis gunships, with two deploying several advance squads of mercenaries. One of the gunships spots them and opens fire, forcing them to crash land. Upon extracting themselves from the flaming wreck, they are confronted by the leader of the platoon, Lieutenant Matthew Novotny, who says he will only spare them because her father ordered Miranda not to be harmed. Miranda refuses to back down, telling him to take his men and leave. Matthew says he will never defy the captain, especially considering Miranda is a kidnapper. Miranda defends herself, but Matthew doesn't care, and orders them to leave one final time. Zaeed, fed up with the whole situation, punches Matthew in the face, before snapping his neck. While this is happening, Mordin raises his SMG and fires explosive rounds into a nearby crane carrying a fuel tank. The tank hits the ground and explodes, the explosion killing three mercs and causing one of the parked gunships to be knocked on its side. Miranda and the squad kill the rest of the mercs and press forward. 

Reaching a conveyor belt, the squad are forced into cover as the Eclipse deploy a YMIR, reinforced by a dozen LOKI and FENRIS mechs, to delay their advance while the rest rush to reach Niket, Oriana and her family. Running out of time, Miranda and Samara use their biotics to grab cargo containers and turn them into projectiles. On this tactic alone, they manage to wipe out the mechs, Mordin, Zaeed, Jacob and Grunt killing the Eclipse engineers that had been supplementing them. Rushing through the conveyor area, they encounter another squad of Eclipse engineers, but take them out very easily, using an elevator to ascend to the main docks.

Miranda tries to wrap her head around Matthew's words, wondering if the Eclipse had already gotten Niket. Jacob assures her that Niket is likely alright, and Matthew was trying to get her to leave by making her lose hope. Miranda agrees, assured of Niket's capabilities. As they are ascending the elevator, an Eclipse gunship tries to kill them, firing its chain gun at them. Samara deploys a barrier to defend them while Grunt tells them to lure it further down. Jacob and Zaeed pour fire into the vehicle, causing it to fly lower. Springing his plan, Grunt launches himself through the elevator wall, jumping onto the gunship. He eventually destroys the gunship, holding onto it as it crashes into the lower levels of the tower, taking him with it. Miranda tells Jacob to go after him, but Mordin assures her he is alright, and that Grunt is tough enough to recover. Nodding, they reach the top and continue to push towards the docks, where Niket is waiting.

On the lower levels, Grunt emerges from the flaming wreckage of the gunship, finding one of the injured mercs crawling from the wreckage with her armor charred and severe burns to their face. Grunt pins her and stomps the back of her head, crushing it beneath his boot. With a growl, he turns around and grins, ripping the chain gun off the Mantis and running off to regroup with his squad.

Meanwhile, Miranda and her squad finally reach the docks. Another gunship arrives behind them, deploying another squad from the air onto the ground. The gunship fires missiles at their position, trying to pin them down while another gunship comes in and spews out a trio of HEL drones. While the squad take out a few of the drones, the Eclipse force has them pinned, and the two gunships do not let up their fire. Just when Miranda sounds a withdrawal, machine gun fire rips through the cockpit of one gunship while grenades pummel the second's rear. Looking up, they watch Grunt dual-wield the dismounted chain gun and his M-100 grenade launcher, bombarding both vehicles from his position above. His chain gun successfully kills the pilot of the first one, while his grenades manage to destroy both thrusters on the back of the second, causing both to spin out of control and crash, one below and the other straight into the Eclipse force. Holstering his grenade launcher, Grunt uses the remaining chain gun ammo to kill any survivors, before discarding it. Miranda thanks him and the squad enter the docks.

Miranda is shocked to find Niket talking with Enyala and a dockworker. Enyala immediately pulls out her shotgun when she spots them, and Niket is shocked to see that Miranda made it as far as they did. Enyala is just as surprised, stating she sent six gunships to take them out, to which Grunt remarks they won't be helping her anymore. Enyala taunts Zaeed to little effect, while Niket states that he betrayed her because Oriana deserves a better life than poverty, something of which he has experienced. Miranda states that her father wants to take Oriana away from the only family she's ever known, which should tell Niket what kind of man he is. After some arguing, Niket finally agrees and tells them that Oriana is alright. Miranda says she never wants to see him again, to which Enyala responds by blowing a hole through his back, killing Niket instantly. Furious, Miranda picks Enyala up and throws her across the dock. Enyala calls for reinforcements and a battle ensues, with the squad coming out ontop: Zaeed puts the final bullet in Enyala's head, and the squad watch over Oriana and her family to make sure they're alright.

Jacob, with some convincing, manages to get Miranda to introduce herself to Oriana, and after a happy conversation, Miranda feels more satisfied with the results of their mission. Leaving in a skycar, Miranda waves Oriana goodbye, who waves back, crying happily.

Chapter 34: Insect Hive

Several days later on Illium, Miranda and the squad watch as the Normandy docks back at Illium. Shepard steps out, telling them that their mission was success, to which Miranda confirms was mutual, despite a few setbacks for both sides. Miranda thanks Shepard for what he did, surprised that he even allowed her to do it. He responds that while he hates the organization she is affiliated with, he respects her as a person, and that she isn't as cold a person she pretends to be. Miranda is about to object when Jacob steps in for Shepard's side. Returning to the ship, Shepard meets with Tali and they engage in some short conversation. Halfway through, he is told by Kelly that the Illusive Man wishes to speak with him and takes his leave.

Once in the debriefing room, Shepard is told that a Collector cruiser was recently engaged by a Hierarchy patrol in the Relic system, who successfully managed to disable the vessel before being wiped out. Shepard expresses skepticism that such a gargantuan vessel could be taken out by four frigates, but the Illusive Man confirms the ship's inactivity, as its main weapon systems, life support and all other essential systems are offline. The Illusive Man states that this is their one chance to garner the location of the Collector homeworld. Shepard agrees and tells Joker to set a course for the system. 

The Normandy arrives next to the disabled cruiser, and the squad deploys on the shuttle onto the ship. Once inside, the squad quickly notes the lack of a Collector response team, Garrus pointing out that it feels like a trap. Shepard agrees, telling them to move forward with caution. They quickly come upon a pile of human corpses, the group disgusted by how the Collectors had so carelessly dumped the bodies without rhyme or reason for why the humans were abducted to begin with. Moving further inside, still without any sign of a Collector counterattack, the squad find that the Collectors have been experimenting on themselves. They are horrified to discover that the Collectors are former protheans; upgraded prothean husks left behind between cycles. With this discovery, the Collector connection to the Reapers is deemed absolute. They also learn that the cruiser is the exact same vessel responsible for destroying the original Normandy and abducting the Horizon colonists. Moving to the ship's bridge, which is located in the center of the ship, Shepard has EDI sort through the information on the ship. While she manages to recover the necessary intel, the Collectors spring their trap, slowly bringing the ship back to full power while their troops converge on the squad's position.

The squad battles against hundreds of Collectors, including numerous husks, scions and praetorians, all while the Collector ship continues to power back up. They finally reach the shuttle and get back on the Normandy, with the ship entering FTL just as the Collector cruiser's main gun fires, narrowly missing them. 

Later, after their narrow escape, Shepard confronts the Illusive Man about EDI's discovery. Apparently, the distress signal sent out by the turians was not sent by them at all, and was actually sent by the Collectors as part of their trap: they destroyed the turian patrol and then powered down to make it look like they'd been disabled. The Illusive Man knew the signal was fake, but had sent Shepard anyway because of the opportunity it presented. Despite his anger, Shepard admits he was right, and summons the squad to disseminate the data. They learn that the Collector homeworld is located in the galactic core, despite the impossibility of such a thing. Mordin ultimately deduces that the Collectors do not possess a homeworld, and that they are likely headquarted at a space station possessing powerful enough mass effect fields to resist the gravitational pull of hundreds of black holes. He also deduces correctly that the Omega 4 Relay leads to the galactic core, and the reason the Collectors can use it is because of a Reaper IFF that the relay identifies, sending them to a safe zone, where other ships are registered and sent into the death zone. Shepard declares that obtaining this IFF is paramount to success, and contacts the Illusive Man once more.

The Illusive Man, once again having his suspicions that a special IFF was the key to accessing the Omega 4 Relay safely and reaching the Collectors at their home, points Shepard to a Derelict Reaper in the Thorne system of the Hawking Eta cluster, where he has a team of scientists under Dr. Chandana stationed. He will alert the Cerberus scientists to Shepard's arrival, but Shepard says not to expect him for a while, as while his team is fully recruited, they will still need to gain their loyalty; a process that could take a while. The Illusive Man agrees, but tells him not to take too long, otherwise the Collectors might abduct more colonies.

Chapter 35: Polite Affairs

The Normandy docks with the Citadel, and Tali and Kasumi go shopping, while Shepard and Garrus decide to go for some sparring, soon joined by Thane. The three spar together at a nearby gym, before deciding to go to the shooting range to test their skills, while Garrus and Shepard constantly banter with each other, much to Thane's befuddlement. With nothing else to do, Shepard suggests watching the first Blasto movie, to which the others agree not to torture themselves like that. Shepard simply laughs.

Elsewhere, Kasumi drags Tali to some clothes shopping, much to the quarian's annoyance. Tali is quickly harassed by the store manager, but Kasumi quickly sorts her out, telling her to leave Tali or alone or she'd have to deal with the thief. The manager hurries off, with Kasumi joking that Tali now owes her and that she wants Tali to enjoy herself and be more 'girly.' While Tali begrudgingly sets off to look through the clothes, Kasumi receives a message on her omni-tool. Looking through it, she realizes her chance to get revenge for her boyfriend's death is near.

Lia, while out buying some basic essentials, encounters a hostile looking krogan outside the store watching her. Continuing to walk, she notices the krogan beginning to follow her and increases her step. Getting worried, she contacts Mordin, telling him of her predicament. Mordin tells her Jacob and Zaeed are en route to her location, and tells her to stay calm. A few humans join the krogan, and Lia begins sprinting. Despite her best efforts, she is cornered in an alley, where the krogan, revealing his name to be Todtar Crindu, confuses her for Tali'Zorah, wishing to take her captive in an attempt to lure Archangel and Shepard out of hiding so he can avenge Garm. Lia is captured, the krogan chuckling as they take her to their hideout.

Shepard, while looking over the CIC, is interrupted by Mordin, who tells him they have a situation. A group of Blood Pack have abducted Lia, with EDI unable to track where they went. Jacob and Zaeed were dispatched to help her, but she was already gone when they got there. Zaeed states he knows somebody connected to the Blood Pack, announcing his intent to interrogate them. Shepard assembles the rest of the squad regardless, but tells Kasumi and Tali to keep doing what they're doing.

Jacob sits down next to a ragged turian named Vela Nessius. He begins to ask why a turian is working for the Blood Pack, to which he simply states he wants revenge against Archangel and Shepard for what they did back on Omega. Jacob thanks him and signals Zaeed, who joins the turian. Vela recognizes the grizzled mercenary, but after a long interrogation, he finally gives up the location of Crindu's hideout: the former location of Chora's Den. They relay this information to Shepard, who thanks them in advance. Zaeed suggests the turian makes himself scarce before letting him go.

At Crindu's hideout, in Fist's former office, a human man sexually harasses Lia in her cell. Before he can go any further, an explosion rocks the compound, forcing the human to grab his gun and rush for the entrance to deal with the new threat. Lia simply smiles, realizing who had come for her.

Crindu stomps into the room with his flamethrower, barking at his men to attack. Shepard and his squad emerge from the dust cloud forming around the breached door, decimating the frontline of mercs at the door. Crindu fires jets of flame at the squad, uncaring towards the mercs that get caught in the flames. He storms their group, only for Jack to pick him up and throw him across the room and into a wall. Growling and standing up, he grabs Shepard's arm as it descends for an omni-blade strike, only to be punched in the face. He is shot in the chest, causing him to let go of Shepard's arm as he feels a blood rage fill him. He stands up, grabbing his flamethrower once more, only for Grunt to blow his arm off and take the flamethrower. Before Crindu can fully comprehend what has just happened, Grunt shoves the flamethrower into his mouth and pulls the trigger, propelling fire straight down the krogan's throat. 

Back to Shepard's POV, he watches his squad mop up the mediocre resistance put up by the mercs. He turns to Crindu's corpse, face half-melted, half-blackened. Moving to the back, he is shot at by the human abusing Lia, only to swipe up with his omni-blade, decapitating him in one strike. Finding Lia, he releases her, who is incredulous that they came to save her. Shepard asks why he wouldn't, as she is a member of his crew. Lia simply giggles, feeling safe as the squad escort her from the building, Garrus contacting Bailey to let him know what happened.

Chapter 36: Scum of the Galaxy

Shepard enters the observation lounge a few hours after saving Lia, having been summoned by Kasumi. The thief explains her situation with a millionaire and crime lord named Donovan Hock, who murdered her former partner and lover, Keiji Okuda for his greybox; an illegal device built by Synthetic Insights to store memories and information. She was waiting for the right moment to strike and retake the greybox, and now she has it. Set up in his isolated mansion on Bekenstein, Hock is hosting a party with numerous criminal groups, including the leader and founder of Eclipse, Jona Sederis. He has also hired Eclipse for security, but during a party, he will be at his most vulnerable. Shepard will accompany her under the alias of Solomon Gunn, where he will pretend to be a well known pirate in the Terminus Systems. From there, they will infiltrate his vault and reclaim the greybox. Shepard agrees to help.

Later, after arriving on Bekenstein, Kasumi and Shepard descend in a skycar to Hock's mansion. She goes over the plan once more. A golden statue of Saren, containing all of Shepard's weapons and armor, will be smuggled inside as a "gift" to Hock, where it will be left outside the vault. Kasumi, under cloak, will follow Shepard into the party and find the vault, where they will work to crack it. Once inside, they will find the greybox, take it and get out, all without being detected. Shepard agrees to the plan as they step out. Despite initial hassles with security, Hock lets him in. After a long speech given by Hock, some investigation into the security commander named Roe and some messing around with the vault's power supply, they move inside the vault. After messing around inside, including taking an ancient quarian tablet, they find Kasumi's greybox and take it. Unfortunately, Hock caught on to their plan and confronts them via vidscreen. He sends Roe and a squad to deal with them, but Shepard and Kasumi kill them easily and take the elevator back up into the mansion. 

Shepard contacts Zaeed, Grunt and Jack, who were acting as his bodyguards, and tells them their cover is blown. Unfortunately, in their counterattack, Zaeed somehow starts a fire, sending the mansion into chaos. Kasumi decides to confront Hock, who is hiding in his room. Hock calls for gunship support, but Zaeed kills the pilot, causing the gunship to swerve to the side and crash into the bottom, weakening the support columns. Hock falls, but holds onto Kasumi's leg, who is held by Shepard. Kasumi kicks him off, causing him to plummet to the sea below and his death. Extracting via shuttle, they watch as the flames consume the mansion whole. 

On the shuttle, Kasumi uses the greybox, where Keiji recorded his final goodbye. Shepard leaves Tali alone with her, where the quarian convinces the thief to move on and destroy it. Kasumi agrees and wipes the entire greybox before destroying it with her pistol. She weeps, with Tali holding her as she lets it out.

Chapter 37: An Episode of Lost

Not long after the destruction of Hock's mansion, Shepard asks Kelly where Kasumi is, who replies that she doesn't know. However, Tali is taking care of her, and she tells Shepard he needn't worry about her. She warns him however that Jacob has been acting strange ever since he got a message from Cerberus. Shepard asks if the message was from the Illusive Man, but she replies that it wasn't, as it had come from an anonymous source. Thanking Kelly, he heads into the armoury to ask Jacob what is wrong. The soldier is initially hesitant to tell him, but decides it wouldn't hurt. He explains that his father was the XO aboard an expeditionary vessel called the SSV Hugo Gernsback. The ship disappeared during an expedition in 2175 CE, and they were declared KIA. Ten years later, and Jacob gets a ping from within Cerberus that a distress call was detected on the planet 2175 Aeia: it was from the Hugo Gernsback. Shepard asks if Jacob thinks his father might be alive, but the man remains skeptical. Shepard agrees to check it out, and orders Joker to set a course for the planet.

Arriving over the planet, Shepard deploys with Jacob and Thane onto the planet, not far from the ship. Moving forward, they find the wreck of the vessel on the shore, stripped of parts and rusted beyond recognition. Investigating the ship logs through the still functioning VI, Aldiss. They learn that the crew did survive the crash, but that Jacob's father became captain due to the former CO being killed. Most of the crew survived but left the wreckage of the ship, where the VI was unable to track them; however, due to shortening rations and the toxicity of the plant life, it is likely they were driven insane due to the unique nature of the ecology itself. Jacob continues to note how odd it is that the beacon only just now activated, to which the VI responds that it was Jacob's father who activated it; this confirms his father's survival.

The investigation only gets weirder: further inside, they come across a deranged crew member, who is being hunted by a group of male team members called the Hunters, who are intent on killing them. After killing the hunters, they realize that the crew must have consumed the plants, causing them to become more primitive; hence the tribal-like nature of the crew. Fighting more hunters, they come across the main camp where the crew set up, only to discover, to their shock, that only women are present: there are no men. The women, upon seeing Jacob, confuse him for his father, begging him not to punish them. The chief medical officer, still holding onto what memory she has left, gives them a datapad detailing what happened during those ten years. They learn that Jacob's father and the senior officers rationed the remaining food for themselves, forcing the others to eat the toxic food. Soon, the rations began to run out, so the captain killed the other senior officers, exiling the males, who then went on to become the Hunters. He kept the women for himself, even forming his own personal harem. The realization that Jacob's father has been exploiting his crew quickly becomes obvious, as does Jacob's disgust. 

Moving forward, they kill more and more of the hunters, Jacob coming to the conclusion that the beacon hadn't been activated because his father was enjoying being king of his own fantasy land. But when the hunters became hostile and started fighting back, his father had enough and wanted out; hence why he activated the beacon. They finally reach Jacob's father, who tries to pretend that nothing was wrong. Jacob almost kills him, but decides he's not worth the bullet, and allows Shepard to read him his rights. Shepard tells EDI to pass the beacon on to the Alliance, telling them to send a cruiser to pick up Jacob's father and the surviving crew for treatment. Thane calms the hunters down, who in turn drop their weapons. Shepard states that he will see an Alliance court, where he will serve ten years for every crew member wronged.

Later, back on the Normandy, Jacob confronts the Illusive Man, demanding to know who passed on the information. Miranda steps in, revealing it was her. Afterwards, Miranda explains that she felt she owed Jacob for helping her protect her sister, saying it once meant something to him. Jacob is surprised she remembered, to which Miranda simply smiles and leaves. Jacob thanks Shepard, saying he is now focused entirely on the mission alone.

Chapter 38: Judge, Jury, Executioner

Garrus is working on the main gun in the forward battery when he receives a message from Bailey. Looking through it, he gets more and more angry until he finally slams a hand on the terminal. When EDI asks what is wrong, he asks her to send Shepard down to the main battery. Once down there, Garrus explains that he has finally tracked Sidonis down; he's currently on the Citadel. He explains that he needs to get into contact with a man named Fade, who has helped Sidonis assume a new identity. Shepard asks whether or not Garrus actually wants to go through with killing Sidonis, but the turian remains adamant with avenging his team, stating that Sidonis was a coward and a traitor and deserves to pay. Shepard acknowledges this, and has Joker set a course for the Citadel.

Once there, Garrus arranges a meeting with Fade at a nearby warehouse. Meeting them, they are surprised that Fade is a volus, but also suspicious. After some threats, the volus reveals his name isn't actually Fade, and that he was sent as a representative of Fade. Garrus demands to know where Fade is, and the volus points him to the abandoned factory in the industrial zone. With Tali and Zaeed in tow, Garrus and Shepard approach the factory, where they find Fade to be Harkin, who has hired Blue Suns as protection. Harkin flees, but the squad pursues, fighting through the many squads of Blue Suns he has hired. Despite Harkin's best efforts, they reach him, capturing Harkin. Garrus interrogates him, eventually forcing Harkin to arrange a meet with Sidonis to lure him out into the open. Once done, Garrus is about to kill Harkin, but is talked down by Shepard, who decides to hand him into C-Sec's custody. With Sidonis in their sights, Shepard has Tali and Zaeed return to the ship while Shepard accompanies Garrus to the place he plans to kill Sidonis.

Shepard once again tries to talk Garrus down, but the turian remains persistent, and sets up in a sniping position while Shepard lures Sidonis out. Using his chance, he gets Sidonis to talk, who states that he feels dead inside for what he did, hating himself. Garrus is eventually convinced to reluctantly let him go, and Sidonis leaves, promising to make it up to him somehow. Garrus is slightly bitter towards Shepard, but promises that with Sidonis out of the picture, he will now be entirely focused on the mission.

Chapter 39: Sins of the Father

Shepard and Tali, after a night of activities, are awoken by EDI, who says Thane is requesting to see Shepard. Both of them get dressed, Tali heading for engineering while Shepard talks to Thane. Thane reveals that he was married at one point, but lost his wife to a batarian crime ring who wanted to get back at Thane for all he had done against them. Leaving his son in the care of his aunts and uncles, Thane hunted down those responsible and killed them one by one before returning to his previous life, leaving his son behind. Now his son, Kolyat, had recently checked into the Citadel on a hitman job, revealing that Kolyat was now embracing life as an assassin, something of which Thane doesn't want. He asks for Shepard's help in finding and stopping Kolyat from pulling off his contract, and Shepard agrees.

Later on the Citadel, Shepard questions Bailey as to the location of Kolyat. They are pointed to a former duct rat by the name of Mouse, who recently talked to the drell and might know who hired him. Thane reveals that he knows Mouse, as the man was one of his contacts during his time on the Citadel. Confronting him, Mouse immediately recognizes Thane, but refuses to talk out of fear of being hurt by his client. Shepard promises him complete obscurity and after some persuasion, he reveals that Kolyat was hired by Elias Kelham, a local crime lord and businessman in Shin Akiba. They tell Bailey this, who is disgruntled at this revelation: he states that he has a deal with Kelham to not harass him in return for keeping the peace. Shepard questions Bailey's conviction, but the man remains adamant about helping Thane and agrees to bring Kelham in anonymously for interrogation. 

After Kelham is brought in, Shepard and Thane interrogate him. While it takes a while, Kelham is eventually broken and reveals that he hired Kolyat to kill a turian named Joram Talid. Talking to Bailey, the captain explains that Talid has an anti-human policy, and that his policies would seriously hurt Kelham's business if he was elected. Locating Talid, Thane and Shepard decide to track the turian to find Kolyat. They soon find out that Talid is just as dirty as Kelham as, inbetween bouts of talking with voters, he performs shakedowns on human-held establishments, usually through his krogan bodyguard. Soon however, Kolyat makes his move, only for Shepard and Thane to call out to him, alerting Joram to Kolyat's presence. Kolyat manages to kill the bodyguard, but Talid makes a run for it, with Kolyat in pursuit.

They corner Kolyat in a room, Shepard calling C-Sec in case things got hairy. Kolyat holds Talid at gunpoint, ordering them to leave, while Thane tries to talk him down. Despite Kolyat's initial animosity, the truth about Thane's abandonment causes him to drop his weapon and let Talid go. Talid thanks Shepard, to which he grunts. C-Sec arrives soon after, Bailey leading them. Bailey offers Thane and Kolyat a secret place to talk, saying he once lost his son due to his own decisions too. Shepard asks Talid to be arrested, sending Bailey the video evidence of Talid's shakedowns and possible manipulation of the democratic system. 

Later, Thane finishes talking to Kolyat, saying his son will no longer engage in criminal actions. Bailey states that Kolyat still tried to perform an assassination, which is illegal. Shepard asks him to let it slip, even suggesting that Kolyat could do some improvized community work as a handler to Bailey: once he's done a few months, he can even join C-Sec if he chooses to. Bailey accepts this in the end, promising to keep it off the books. Satisfied with how things have turned out, they both return to their ship.

Chapter 40: Trial of Treason

Rael is moving towards the main laboratory aboard the Alarei when a ship-wide alarm goes off, followed by a scientist over the PA announcing that geth platforms had gotten loose. Rael finds Dagt, who has been shot by one of the geth. He drags her inside a room, locking the door just as six geth troopers rush down the corridor. Rael orders the crew to distribute a distress call to the rest of the Fleet, Rael suddenly regretting what he had done.

A few days later, Shepard is moving through engineering to meet Tali, but is confused when she is missing. He asks Gabby where she is, only to be told that Tali had looked troubled and worried, quickly heading up to his cabin. Shepard follows her there, asking her what's wrong. She replies that she has received a message from the Flotilla being accused of treason, for a reason that isn't specified. She is told to return to face her "crimes" or she will be tried in absentia: the punishment for treason is permanent exile, given that execution and incarceration would be too strenuous on resources. Shepard agrees to help her, and has Joker set a course for the Migrant Fleet.

Later, the Normandy arrives at the Migrant Fleet, docking with the Rayya. Garrus accompanies them, largely as moral support. They are confronted by the captain of the ship, Kar'Danna, and a squad of marines. Kar'Danna explains that Tali is being tried for bringing active geth parts to the Fleet as part of a secret project, to which Tali admits she brought parts, but none of them were active. Shepard finally meets Admiral Raan, but Tali notes with some surprise that her father is not present. Shala states that, as her ship's captain, Shepard will stand in her defense. Veetor, Elan, Kal and Peta are also present, the latter glaring at Shepard. As the trial starts, it is revealed that geth have taken the Alarei, with the likelihood being that the crew, as well as her father, are dead. Tali refuses to believe this, while Shepard offers to board and clear the ship of geth, while also finding evidence to exonerate Tali.

After, Tali berates Shala for not telling her about her father's predicament, to which Shala states she omitted the information because the admirals wished to see if Tali was innocent or not. Thanking her, Shepard, Tali and Garrus head for a shuttle that has been prepped for them and which will take them to the Alarei.

Later, the trio board the geth-occupied ship, quickly making their way through the vessel. They find many of the dead crew, killing any of the reactivated geth that get in their way. Tali finds evidence that her father had deliberately reactivated the geth as part of somekind of project, but she wasn't sure what. Killing a few more geth, they eventually find a log left by Dagt saying goodbye to her husband and son, with her fate shortly revealed later when a geth blows down her door, killing her. As they proceed, they discover more and more evidence that Rael had been responsible for what happened on the ship, placing him with criminal intent. They finally find him in a locked room, wounded and armed with nothing but a pistol. Tali tries to apply medi-gel, but he tells her to stop, saying he has lost too much blood. He makes Shepard promise to look after his daughter, to which Shepard promises, affirming his love for her. Rael finally realizes his folly, saying he was wrong about Shepard. He tells him that the bridge holds the neural hub where they can deactivate all the geth, before then passing away. Shepard holds Tali as she cries, to which the quarian later, with conviction, demands they purge the ship of the geth.

Reaching the bridge, they find a fully-functional geth juggernaut and a group of rocket troopers. They eventually clear the room, where Tali deactivates the remaining geth on the Alarei. One final video feed confirms Rael's involvement in the program, where he admits to wanting to build a house for Tali on the homeworld: she sobs slightly at this, realizing he truly did love her, but chose to show it through his work, rather than his emotions. Shepard says they have all the evidence they need to exonerate Tali, but she instead purges the database. Shepard admonishes her for this, but she states that she refuses to let the admiralty turn her father into the worst criminal in quarian history: she would not destroy his name. Shepard says they have less of a chance of saving her without the evidence, but Tali states she is prepared to accept exile if it means saving her father's name.

Returning back to the Rayya, they discover the admiralty preparing to try them posthumously. Shepard storms in angrily, telling them they cleared the Alarei and that all geth onboard have been rendered harmless. When asked to present evidence for her innocence, Tali says they have none, and Koris moves to have her exiled. Shepard stands in, giving a speech about how loyal Tali is. Kal stands up for him, followed by Veetor and Peta, and soon a majority of the crowd. In the end, the admiralty votes to exonerate Tali of any wrong doing. When the time comes to leave, Kal approaches Shepard, asking if he may join his squad. Shepard and Tali are surprised by this, but Kal simply explains that with forces outside of the geth looking to destroy them, he wants in on the action. Shepard accepts his proposal, welcoming him onto the squad.

Chapter 41: First Time For Everything

After Tali's successful trial, the two of them return to their cabin. There, Tali decides to finally reveal all of herself to Shepard, and they finally make love. Shepard comments that she is beautiful when prompted, to which Tali is happy to know; she thought he would find her ugly. They hold each other, glad to know that the other is with them at that very moment.

Back on the Rayya, Veetor recovers from a hyperventilation from having drawn so much attention to himself during Tali's trial when he stood up for her. Elan checks up on him by measuring his blood pressure, but says he should be alright, commenting that he was very brave to have done the thing that he did. Veetor elaborates that Tali saved him on Freedom's Progress and stood up for him on multiple occassions, and that he wasn't going to let the admirals to wrong her. After a moment, Elan takes off her mask and kisses him.

On the QMFV Huzzi, a heavy tanker, Peta adapts to his new surroundings, contemplating the events of the hearing. With Tali having left the Neema for the Normandy, Peta sees no reason to remain on the ship, and has transferred to the Huzzi. However, despite Shepard's defense of Tali, Peta remains convinced he is destined to marry Tali, and begins to plot an attempt to force her to do so.

Back on the Normandy, Shepard attends to a report that Grunt was trashing his room. Confronting the krogan, he learns that Grunt may have some kind of krogan exclusive disease that causes him to be constantly seeking violence, and concludes that the only way to help the krogan is to take him to Tuchanka, as krogan medical records are non-existent on the extranet.

Chapter 42: Weeping Tears of Horror

The Normandy arrives over Tuchanka, Shepard ordering the stealth drive be activated so as to bypass the CDEM ships. Deploying in the shuttle with Grunt, Tali, Kal, Garrus, Mordin and Kaidan, the squad land in the Urdnot camp, where they are confronted by a group of Wrex's men, who escort them through the camp to Wrex himself. Upon seeing them, Wrex immediately dismisses Uvenk, who was once again ranting about Traditionalist ideology. He is surprised to see Shepard alive, to which the spectre explains that he was resurrected by Cerberus and now works to stop the Collectors. After a short conversation, Shepard confronts Wrex about Grunt's problem, asking what is wrong with him. Uvenk is offended by the idea of a tank-bred krogan among them, but is silenced by Wrex, who says there is nothing wrong with Grunt, only that he has reached what humans call "puberty", meaning he is ready to take the Rite of Passage. 

For krogan, the Rite of Passage is structurally similar to the quarian's pilgrimage: however, the krogan must endure three perilous battles against intensifying odds, of which they only need to survive two. Once they have, they will become a full and respected member of the clan they were born to. Given that Grunt was born clanless and is tank-bred, he would get to pick which clan he joins. Wrex explains that he managed to survive the third battle, but it is rare for many krogan to do so, and those that do are considered legendary in their own right. Uvenk refuses to allow Grunt to "dirty their traditions" and storms off. Grunt agrees to perform the Rite, announcing his intention to join Clan Urdnot. Wrex, grinning, tells them to talk to the Urdnot Shaman to prepare for the Rite.

They approach the Shaman, who allows Grunt to take the Rite, despite Uvenk's protests. Shepard punches Uvenk in the chest before head butting him, something of which the Shaman approves of, telling Uvenk to take his men and leave, to which the krogan does, glaring at Shepard as he does. With Grunt committing himself to the Rite, Shepard is asked to choose Grunt's krantt, as he is Grunt's battlemaster/battlelord. He chooses Tali and Garrus, and with that, they head off for the Pantheon; the site for all krogan rites.

Arriving in a Tomkah, Grunt, followed by Shepard, Tali and Garrus, move into the Pantheon, hitting the keystone to begin the first test of the Rite: conviction. To Grunt's ability to hold a position and to keep what he takes, a horde of varren is unleashed on their position. The squad, lead by Shepard, easily dispatch of the first, second and third waves of varren, finishing the first test without a hitch. Hitting the keystone, they begin the second test: outside-the-box thinking. To test Grunt's ability to tactically assess a situation and to deconstruct a threat, a swarm of Udirron are summoned on their location, dropping down klixen. Shepard gives Grunt command and, to his credit, the krogan takes notes from his commander, and manages to competently lead the squad in defeating the klixen. As an added boon, Garrus manages to snipe and take out the Udirron, while the squad mop up the remaining klixen. Finally, they activate the keystone, starting the final and, infamously inconquerable, third test: purity. The hammer slams four times, summoning a thresher maw: the squad either outlast the maw until it gets bored, therefore failing the last test, or successfully kill it: something few krogan achieve, Wrex being the last.

Shepard, remembering what occurred on Akuze, seizes up, Tali saving him as a bolt of acid almost hits him. Just as the maw seems to have devoured Grunt, its head explodes, Grunt covered in its gore as he lifts his grenade launcher, having blown it up from the inside. Grinning and having successfully passed the Rite, the squad prepare to leave when a Tomkah roles up, sporting the Traditionalist banner. From it, Uvenk and a squad of Gatatog men emerge. Uvenk offers Grunt a place in Clan Gatatog, having now seen Grunt for what he wants him to be: a political tool. With a supersoldier on their side, their victory against the Reformists would be made even more absolute. Grunt refuses and the squad engages Uvenk and his men. By the end, Grunt decapitates Uvenk, keeping the head in a bag. Commandeering Uvenk's tomkah, they return to camp, where the Shaman welcomes him to Clan Urdnot. Later, he presents Uvenk's head to Wrex, rolling it at his feet. Wrex stands up, kicking the head away while holding out a hand to Grunt. The krogan takes it, to which Wrex announces there shall be a feast to celebrate Grunt's victory.

Chapter 43: A Thousand Years In The Making

At the Hollows, Grunt celebrates his successful Rite. Shepard talks with Wrex, who states that he has started a group called the United Krogan Clans, where he hopes to unite all the clans of Tuchanka under his banner in the name of saving Tuchanka and fighting the Reapers. However, clans such as Gatatog, refuse to get in line with the Reformist ideals, the most prominent of which is Clan Weyrloc. Nowhere near as large as Clan Urdnot, Weyrloc is infamous for having formed the Blood Pack, and remains its bigger contractor, using their mercenaries to act as ground troops in their war against the Reformists. Led by Chieftain Guld, Weyrloc remains one of the last bastions against the Reformists, with very few powerful clans being Traditionalists. Wrex expresses interest in attacking the Weyrloc HQ at the former Hagalok Hospital, but wishes to consider bringing Weyrloc to bow first.

While talking, Mordin approaches Shepard, having heard their conversation. He states that his companion and former pupil Maelon was recently captured by Clan Weyrloc, where he is likely being held at their HQ for unknown purposes: however, Mordin assumes that because Maelon is salarian and is being kept alive for some reason, it is likely Weyrloc captured him for the purpose of making him work on a genophage cure. Shepard turns to Wrex, wondering if the Reformists could launch an assault on the hospital while Shepard and his squad extract Maelon. Wrex agrees, and sends a general order for the clans to assemble.

A day later, a scout from Clan Jurdon arrives at Wrex's current location, informing him of what he saw of the Weyrloc defenses: the outer perimeter is defended entirely by a full two battalions of Blood Pack troops with limited armoured support from a few tomkahs and machine gun nests. It is likely Guld chose to keep his warriors within the compound due to how few of them there are. Wrex gives the word to Shepard, who says he has spotted an opening to the south of the hospital and will move there as soon as Wrex's assault begins. With that in mind, Wrex orders the attack to be sounded. His artillery opens up, pummeling the hospital, before 3,000 krogan warriors emerge and charge the Blood Pack defenses, Wrex leading them with Grunt at his side, having chosen to be with his chieftain.

At the other side of the base, Shepard watches a group of seven to eight vorcha infantry patrolling the perimeter when explosions sound nearby. One shell hits them dead center, obliterating the group and their krogan commander. Shepard orders the squad to move, having Mordin, Zaeed, Kaidan, Garrus, Tali, Samara and Thane with him. With no resistance on the outside, they proceed into the hospital, Shepard telling Wrex to tone down on the artillery in case they are caught in the crossfire.

Inside, they come across Guld's adjutant, Weyrloc Fayaxi, accompanied by two Weyrloc soldiers and several Blood Pack vorcha. Fayaxi confirms that Maelon is working on a genophage cure, to which only Weyrloc will reap the benefits. With this, they intend to conquer the Reformists, breed once more to regain their numbers and then launch a "mighty crusade" to "drown the galaxy in blood". Mordin calls Fayaxi insane, stating that the CDEM would simply bombard the planet. While Fayaxi rants, Shepard raises his weapon and shoots the fuel canister below the krogan, causing it to explode and kill Fayaxi while engulfing both his warriors with fire. His squad guns down the vorcha and they proceed further into the base, killing more Weyrloc soldiers as they go. They learn more and more about Maelon's experiment, which range from brutal to simply barbaric. They even find several dead female krogan, who had no restraints: they willingly gave themselves up for the tests in the hope of a cure. Mordin is troubled by this, but remains convinced the genophage was a necessity to stop another war with the krogan.

They find Maelon, but between them and his lab, stands Guld himself, a massive krogan who is bigger than even Wrex himself. They are surrounded by dozens of Weyrloc warriors, but Wrex and his men breach the compound just in time, hundreds of warriors storming the hospital, engaging Guld's troops. Wrex engages Guld in one-on-one, knocking him off a railing to fall below. Grunt tells them to get to Maelon and extract him while they clear the hospital of Clan Weyrloc. Taking the hint, the squad moves inside the lab.

They are shocked however to find out that Maelon had not been captured or forced to make a cure at all; having a guilty conscious, he returned to Tuchanka after Firebreak, offering to cure the genophage, although at a price. Believing Wrex was too weak to accept his gift, he went to Guld instead, who accepted his offer. Mordin asks why Maelon betrayed them, while his former pupil defends his position, stating the genophage was a "mistake bordering on a war crime", and that the galaxy would be a much better place if the Tuchankan Empire had survived the war, and that the attack on Eden Prime might never have happened. Mordin, disgusted by Maelon's actions, is about to kill him when Shepard talks him down. Mordin lets Maelon go, but tells him to never show his face again. Maelon leaves, but Shepard suggests keeping the information on the cure: while the methods were barbaric, the information present could potentially create a cure in the near future. Mordin agrees, downloading the information to an OSD before leaving the lab.

Moving outside, they find Wrex dragging Guld's gutted body, intestines spilling out, and dumps it on the ground, covered in blood. Smiling, Wrex turns to his warriors and announces their victory, ordering his men to purge the entire hospital. Shepard frowns at him, to which Wrex shrugs, stating that Clan Weyrloc would simply rise up again to challenge them once more, and for punishment of keeping a cure from him, their clan would be wiped out. 

A few hours following the battle, Shepard and the squad prepare to leave Tuchanka. He gives one final goodbye to Wrex, stating that he plans to come back to visit the krogan once the Collectors are defeated. Wrex holds him to that, stating that while he fights them, he will continue to unite the krogan and ready them for the coming Reaper invasion. With a final goodbye, they return to the shuttle and depart Tuchanka.

Chapter 44: Dead Sovereigns

Shepard is contacted by the Illusive Man, who informs him that Dr. Chandana and his team recently fell out of contact. Shepard asks him what he thinks could have been the cause of such an attack, to which the Illusive Man believes the Collectors may be involved, telling Shepard to be careful; however, he says it could also be the dangerous atmosphere of Mnemosyne, which is constantly plagued by storms strong enough to disrupt communications. Shepard thanks him for the information, ordering Joker to set a course for Mnemosyne: it was time to get that IFF.

They arrive at the gas giant, finding the planet's atmosphere is just as powerful as the Illusive Man said it would. They find the Derelict Reaper near the middle of the planet, with EDI's scans also finding a geth ship to be docked with the Reaper; now they know why the science team went silent. Docking with the Reaper, they enter Charybdis Station, which was built inside the Reaper itself, they find it eerily empty, devoid of any life. Attempts to contact the team in charge of the facility fail, and once inside, the Reaper's kinetic barriers spontaneously activate. Shepard orders the Normandy to retreat to a safe distance, worried the Reaper might not be as dead as they thought. They quickly discover the fates of the science team: they've been converted into husks. Fighting through them, they find evidence that the Reaper was indeed alive, indoctrinating the science team, including Chandana.

They find dead husks with bullets through their skulls, including fresh thermal clips; someone else was alive on the Reaper. They find a shrine-like set up, suggesting that the science team, in their indoctrinated state, might have worshipped the Reaper before being turned into husks; a moment later, they are attacked by a trio of scions and a swarm of husks and abominations. The squad take out the scions, but sniper shots join their own as they kill the remaining husks. Looking up, they see a geth infiltrator standing behind them with a non-geth anti-material sniper rifle, who can, to their shock, talk. It proceeds to walk off, leaving the squad confused as to why the geth helped them. Continuing forward, they find the geth continuing to provide assistance, taking out scions while they take care of the numerous husks swarming the facility. They eventually encounter a Praetorian, but Shepard and Grunt manage to take care of it very easily. 

Eventually, they reach the central core of the Reaper. While Tali downloads the Reaper IFF, EDI informs them that while destroying the core will lower the barriers and disable the Reaper for good, it will also disable its mass effect fields; meaning its orbit within Mnemosyne will collapse, leaving it at the mercy of the planet's storms. Moving into the core room, they find the friendly geth trying to disable the core, only to be swarmed and knocked out by husks. Shepard and the squad kill them, before the squad all prime grenades and throw them inside. The core is destroyed by the explosions, causing the Reaper's orbit to decay. They debate whether to take the geth, but Shepard's curiosity gets the better of them, and they take it with them. They narrowly escape on the Normandy as the Derelict Reaper is torn apart by the storms. 

Chapter 45: The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

After the mission on the Reaper, Shepard gathers the squad in the conference room to discuss the geth they brought onboard, currently held in the AI core and still unconscious. Tali and Kal, unsurprisingly, object to the idea of even activating it, suggesting they simply throw it out the airlock: Jacob agrees with them, stating he saw enough of them on Eden Prime. Shepard remains convinced that activating it is a good idea however, his curiosity as to why the geth, an anti-organic race, would ever wish to aid organics. It was also clear that the geth had killed other husks, meaning it wasn't exactly on the side of the Reapers, which is definitely odd. In the end, Shepard decides to activate it, but on the prevision that Garrus, as well as Kal, are there to monitor him as they interrogate it. With the decision made, they move on to discussing the IFF, which EDI announces will take some time to integrate into the Normandy's systems as she needs to make sure it has no hostile malware. With nothing to do but wait and their team at full combat readiness other than a full upgrade of the ship, the squad is dismissed, and Shepard heads down to the AI core with Garrus and Kal.

Down in the AI core, Shepard has EDI activate the geth, imprisoned by a barrier. Once awake, Shepard begins to question it, where he learns that the geth had been looking for him ever since the Battle of the Citadel, where it had managed to get its hands on a piece of his N7 armor on Alchera. It also explains that the geth responsible for the Eden Prime War and the attacks that followed were part of a splinter faction known as the Heretics; geth who chose to worship Sovereign. They are a small minority of the geth, as the others believe in isolation from other organics and despise the Reapers. After some interrogation, Shepard realizes the geth may not be as hostile as he thought, and asks Kal if they think they should lower the barrier. The quarian nods, but equips his rifle just in case. The barrier drops, but the geth makes no attempt to attack, showing it was telling the truth: geth can't lie. It eventually asks to join his squad, to which Shepard asks for its name: it simply refers to itself as geth. EDI eventually dubs the name Legion, which the geth agrees with. Shaking hands, Shepard welcomes Legion onto the squad.

Later, Tali confronts Shepard about letting Legion join the squad, disgusted that he would even consider the idea that he would allow her people's archenemy to walk around the ship freely and have access to weapons. Shepard tells her it isn't as bad as she thinks, and tries to explain that the geth who followed Saren were merely a splinter faction. Tali remains unconvinced and storms out, feeling betrayed by him.

Later talking to Kasumi, and later Kal, Tali realizes that perhaps Shepard was right and she was in the wrong, leaving to make it up to him. She apologizes for her behaviour, with Shepard saying she doesn't need to, but she needs to give Legion a chance. She promises to do so.

Kal is informed by Admiral Gerrel that Madi's mission to retrieve a quarian pilgrim from batarian pirates has failed, with her beacon going off on 2123 Pelaan before being shortly cut off. With no way to extract her and the likelihood of her survival very low, the marines have declared her KIA and felt the need to inform him. Kal, feeling suspicious as to why her beacon would simply cut out, feels the need to properly investigate. He leaves to inform Shepard.

Later, the ship arrives over 2123 Pelaan, one half of the squad deploying in the Hammerhead while the rest deploy on the shuttle. EDI, having scouted out the planet and the batarian outpost on the surface, finds the destroyed wreckage of the Hutbyk in orbit, along with a batarian battlecruiser. Shepard tells them not to attack, as he does not want to engage an Hegemony warship unless the need for it becomes necessity. Deploying, the squad approach from both sides of the beachhead, taking the batarian ground force by surprise and slicing through what defenses they have. 

In the outpost itself, Madi is strapped to a chair, parts of her suit in tatters and one of her arms broken. The batarian leader interrogates her as to the whereabouts of other quarian units in the area, not believing her when she says her unit was the only one. He punches her in the gut, stating that if she doesn't give up the information, he'll have his men rape her before feeding her to his varren. Madi refuses to give in however, telling him to do his worst. Just as Balak signals one of his men forward, explosions rock the base, the leader demanding answers. Over the comms, the leader is revealed to be Balak himself, who realizes they are under attack from what looks to be a multi-species squad. Recognizing who they were, Balak tells his men to stall them while he grabs Madi, untying her restraints and dragging her into another room.

Breaking into the inner compound, the squad pushes forward with support from the Hammerhead. The batarian troops try to box them in, but Legion, from a viable vantage point, snipes at them from afar. A batarian Akralya IFV tries to even the playing field, but the Hammerhead easily outmaneuvers it, destroying the vehicle. Overwhelming the remaining batarian forces, the squad move inside to recover Madi. They kill more troops until they find Madi, held at gunpoint by Balak. He tells them that if they want Madi to live, they are going to let him walk out or he'll kill her. Shepard reluctantly allows him to walk free, and Balak flees, Madi falling to the ground from exhaustion afterwards. Shepard orders a medi-evac, before chasing after Balak. Despite his best efforts however, Balak escapes on a shuttle to his battlecruiser, which quickly leaves the system not long afterwards.

Chapter 46: Ardat-Yakshi

Back on the Normandy, Shepard orders Joker to set a course for Walker Station so that the Illusive Man's suggested upgrades to the ship could be applied while Kal rushes Madi to the medical bay. Once in there, Chakwas begins surgery, but she believes Madi will make a recovery, albeit unsuitable for combat operations. Kelly later informs Shepard that Samara has a personal issue to speak of, and he heads down to see her. She explains that the fugitive she was hunting was an Ardat-Yakshi: an asari, often a pureblood, who was born with a genetic defect that causes them to kill those they meld with, doing so through uncontrollable hemorrhaging of the brain. These asari, once extremely common on Thessia before the Enlightenment, have become the asari's darkest secret, deemed so dangerous to the public that once one has been diagnosed, they are taken to a specialized monastery where they must spend the rest of their lives isolated from the general public. However, there are those who choose "freedom", and go on the run: Samara's fugitive is one of those people, and her name is Morinth. She asks Shepard for help in taking her out, as she managed to track the Demeter to Omega.

She explains that the defect can become addicting to those who constantly engage in it, and Morinth became so addicted she didn't want to give it up. For four hundred years, Morinth developed into a mass murdering psychopath, to which Samara pledged her life to execute. Unfortunately, Morinth also happens to be one of Samara's three daughters: all of which are Ardat-Yakshi. Shepard agrees to help her take down Morinth, and tells Joker to divert to Omega.

Arriving at Omega, Shepard and Samara approach Aria, asking her the whereabouts of Morinth. After learning the asari is an Ardat-Yakshi, Aria is suddenly more helpful, telling them she was recently hanging out at an apartment in the Dyuko district: Samara is shocked that Aria knew an Ardat-Yakshi was on her station, but Aria states that if she doesn't try to meld with her, she doesn't care. Leaving for the apartment, they soon find a grieving mother. Apparently, the apartment had belonged to the latest of Morinth's victims: her "girlfriend" Nef. Questioning the mother and then investigating the room turns up evidence that Morinth seduced her victims into loving her before she made her kill, taking pleasure with how she did it. To draw Morinth out, Shepard plays a willing victim, using the information they got to lure her in by entering the VIP section of Afterlife: her hunting ground.

Once inside, Shepard causes enough commotion to draw Morinth's attention, and she asks him to sit at a table with her. Pretending to like everything she does, Morinth is fooled into thinking he loves her, and invites him to her apartment. Later, upon arriving there, Morinth tries to convince him to have sex with her, but just when he looks to be giving in, he grabs her hands and yanks them away. Samara storms in and blasts Morinth off of him before they both engage in a biotic duel. Samara, clearly the superior biotic, easily defeats Morinth. Holding back her emotions, she grabs Morinth's head and snaps her neck, ending her reign of terror. With their mission complete, they return to the ship, Samara now loyal entirely to the mission.

Chapter 47: A House Divided

A day after Samara killed Morinth, Shepard is summoned by Legion to the AI core. The geth explains that the Heretics have been severely weakened, they are currently planning to rectify this by creating a virus to infect the entire geth species, converting them to the same thinking that they have accepted: to worship the Reapers. It asks for help in destroying this virus, which is located at the Heretics' current HQ: an old quarian space station called Haratar. Shepard agrees to help, and has Joker once again divert, this time to Haratar Station.

Arriving at the station, Shepard deploys with Legion, Tali, Grunt, Zaeed, Thane and Kasumi into the station proper. Legion realizes that the virus can now be repurposed to completely wipe out the heretics, if given time to be reconfigured. Shepard asks if Legion agrees with such an action, to which it replies the geth are still having trouble finding consensus to that degree. Moving through the station, they fight the many geth heretic forces throughout the massive facility, advancing towards the central core. Along the way, Legion also learns that the virus can now either be repurposed to destroy the heretics, or simply turned back on them: instead of the orthodox geth accepting the heretic ideology, the heretics will accept the orthodox ideology and rejoin the consensus: either way, the heretics will no longer be a problem. Shepard decides to ponder it, continuing to fight their way to the center of the space station.

Once at the middle of the station, Legion announces the geth's inability to reach consensus and has Shepard decide. He elects to have the heretics reprogrammed to the orthodox beliefs, believing what remaining heretics would be more useful on their side than destroyed. Legion acknowledges this and begins the upload, while the squad defend against oncoming waves of heretic platforms. The upload is eventually completed, using the station as a transmitter to broadcast to all heretic units. With the Geth Heretics now a distant memory, they return to the Normandy and leave the station.

Chapter 48: When Shit Hits The Fan

The Normandy finally arrives at Walker Station, where upgrades to the ship begin construction. Joker complains about the process, to which Shepard replies that they need to get the thanix cannon and Silaris battle armor installed, before linking up with a couple of Xen's ships to get the cyclonic barriers added as well. And after that, they would still have to wait for the IFF to be configured before they could do anything. Heading to the mess hall of the station, Shepard and Joker spend some time with the squad, bantering and engaging in conversation, while Cerberus applies the necessary upgrades.

Two days later, the Normandy meets up with one of Xen's science ships, the heavy transport QMFV Etha. While Tali's schematics for the cyclonic barrier tech is applied to the ship, Tali gives Shepard a back massage in their cabin. Afterwards, they share a brief moment talking quietly to each other before Joker contacts him. He states that the Illusive Man just got a tip that Eden Prime's communications have gone dark: a possible Collector attack. EDI states the upgrades have been applied however, and Shepard, knowing this, orders the Normandy to immediately head for Eden Prime.

Arriving at the planet, it is clear the Normandy reached Eden Prime before the Collectors did. EDI also announces that the IFF was fully installed, meaning that once Eden Prime was deemed safe from Collector abduction, they could traverse the Omega 4 Relay. Shepard has the entire squad deployed to Colony Ohio, one in the shuttle and the other in the Hammerhead. Prepared for encountering numerous Praetorians, Shepard deploys with his newly acquired M-920 Cain. Reaching the center of the colony, Shepard is surprised to find Shiala R'Ness present. After ordering his squad to set up defensive positions around the colony and to prepare an ambush for the Collector forces, he talks with Shiala as to why he is here. She says that she continues to help the people of Feros, which is why she is on Eden Prime: she was organizing supplies to be sent to Feros. He tells her that Tali will help fix their communications.

Back on the Normandy, sudden power fluctuations alert Joker and EDI to a possible problem. EDI states that the IFF may have had hidden malware she wasn't aware of just as the drive core loses all power, including power to weapons and shielding. Joker loses control of the ship just as a Collector cruiser exits FTL right above them, immediately deploying boarding craft to the ship's numerous airlocks. EDI realizes that the IFF had a hidden back door for the Collectors to access, allowing them to effectively cripple the Normandy, leaving it vulnerable to Collector attack. They never intended to attack Eden Prime: by fooling Shepard into believing an attack was imminent, they managed to lure the squad away from the ship, leaving it defenseless against boarding parties. Unable to save the ship conventionally, EDI suggests unshackling her so that she retake control of the ship. Joker, although reluctant, eventually agrees, and heads down the flight deck towards the Tech Lab.

He reaches the Tech Lab just as some of the crew mount a defense. A Praetorian emerges from the elevator, quickly incapacitating the group, but Joker gets into the Tech Lab, EDI locking the door. Continuing, he finds a vent that takes him to the life support chamber on Deck 3, where he continues to sneak towards the medical bay. He watches as crew members are dragged kicking and screaming to pods by Collectors, among them being Chakwas, Kelly and Gardner. He reaches the med bay, finding Madi hiding in a corner with an omni-tool out and ready. She follows him into the AI core, where he unshackles EDI. To get power back to the engines, Joker takes a vent directly to engineering on Deck 4, sneaking inside as the Collectors leave with Gabby and Ken. He gets inside and reactivates the drive core, with EDI sealing off the engine room from the rest of the ship. She depressurizes the entire ship, killing whatever Collectors remain onboard, but sadly declares that the entire crew has been abducted. The boarding craft return to the cruiser, which then enters FTL, disappearing.

Over an hour later, the squad meet with Joker in the debriefing room. Shepard is devastated that they lost the entire crew aside from Joker and EDI, but asks if the IFF can be relied upon. EDI states that, with her newfound freedom, she was able to find the back door the Collectors used and close it off, stating she will not allow the ship to be infiltrated in such a way ever again. Miranda is skeptical about letting EDI remain unshackled, but Joker stands up for her. In the end, Shepard decides that, with the entire squad ready and the ship fully upgraded, they can only head for the Omega 4 Relay and hope for the best. With that, he orders everyone back to their stations and to prepare for battle. It was time.

Chapter 49: Ocean of Bliss

Seven hours out from the Omega 4 Relay, Tali and Shepard choose to spend what could be their final moments together. With her antibiotics and herbal supplements, Tali approaches Shepard for companionship, and he accepts it. The two of them make love, spending what time they have left with each other.

Chapter 50: Into The Hornet's Nest Part One

Ten minutes out from the Omega 4 Relay, Shepard contacts the Illusive Man, having already gotten into his armor. Despite the suicidal odds, the Illusive Man believes that Shepard can succeed where others have failed, and declares with the utmost certainty that they will succeed no matter what. Shepard agrees, joking that's probably the one and only thing they'll ever agree on. With that in mind, he tells EDI to sound the alarm for battlestations, heading to the cockpit.

The Normandy reaches the Omega 4 Relay and, with the IFF ready, enter the relay. Upon exiting, they are immediately thrust into a massive debris field, but the result is telling: the IFF worked and they survived. Bringing the Normandy up until they've cleared the debris field, allowing them some breathing room. Now firmly within the galactic core, they find that the debris field stretches for thousands of kilometers in both directions, acting as a sort of barrier. Joker knows they must traverse it to reach the Collector Base, and assures Shepard they can make it. He notes that the debris looks awfully similar to the hull of ships, and realizes the debris field was likely a graveyard for ships that tried to traverse the relay or were destroyed by the Collectors. Preparing to traverse the field, they are interrupted when a swarm of seven, smaller ships attack them; however, they are Reaper, not Collector. EDI soon identifies them as Reaper fighters, and Joker begins evasive maneuvers. Their Silaris armor easily repels the Oculi's beams, but their speed makes it almost impossible to destroy them. One of them sheds its armor and drills a hole into the bottom of the ship, allowing it to enter the shuttle bay.

Tali, Jack, Zaeed, Grunt and Legion are in engineering when the Oculus drone gains access to the shuttle bay. Thinking fast, Tali blasts a window and jumps into the shuttle bay, trying to reach the Hammerhead. Managing to escape the drone's notice, they enter the Hammerhead while Grunt draws its attention. Together, they manage to severely damage the Oculus, but not before its beam clips the side of the Hammerhead and destroys its right hoverpad, causing it to crash into the ground. Tali and the squad abandon the tank just as the Oculus destroys it, only for the drone's fate to follow that of the tank when Grunt emerges with the Collector particle beam they recovered on Horizon and destroys the fighter. 

Back on the cockpit, the damage report from the battle in the shuttle bay is heard by Shepard, Joker, Miranda and EDI, Joker stating he can't continue to evade the Oculi, and that their only chance of escape is to fly into the debris field to lose them. Doing just that, EDI configures the cyclonic barrier to create a rebounding field to deflect debris. With this in mind, Joker flies into the narrow debris field, causing three of the Oculi to crash and burn before the rest break off. They successfully escape the field, arriving on the other side with only one sight before them: the Collector Base itself.

The Collectors quickly dispatch a cruiser to greet them: it is the same one behind the destruction of the SR-1, the abduction of Horizon and the capture of the SR-2's crew. Shepard orders the thanix cannon deployed, and the frigate dodges the cruiser's particle beams while the thanix activates. They finally fire it, and after two shots from the thanix, the Collector cruiser sheared in half, exploding to devastating effect. The cruiser's explosions are mighty enough to send shockwaves that knock the Normandy off course. Unable to stabilize their trajectory, they hold on as the Normandy slams into the side of the Base, coming to rest on its exterior hull. Having reached the Base, Shepard asks if EDI and Joker can repair the ship. They agree they can get minimal power back, but it'll take a while. With this in mind, Miranda follows Shepard to the debriefing room, where the rest of the squad is waiting.

Chapter 50: Into The Hornet's Nest Part Two

Gathering in the debriefing room, the squad listens to Shepard's battle plan. EDI's scans of the Base estimate its size to be around the same as the Citadel, if not slightly larger. To destroy the Base, they need to reach the main reactor and overload it to the point of meltdown, with the resulting explosion being equivalent to a million atomic bombs exploding all at once. To do this, they would need to travel 24 kilometers from their current location to reach it; using the shuttle is too risky and with the Hammerhead destroyed, they would be forced to move on foot. The abducted colonists and, likely their crew members, are being held in a chamber 3 kilometers away. Two main routes are made available for the squad to split up, hopefully dividing the attention of any Collector defense. However, Mordin points out that both routes lead to a regroup point, which is blocked off on both sides by a locked door. However, Legion quickly makes light of a ventilation shaft that leads to the regroup point: an engineer could get to the regroup point and unlock both doors from there to let both teams through: that regroup point also happens to be right outside the chamber with the abducted colonists.

Jacob is the first to volunteer, but Tali dismisses this, saying they need an engineer. Legion states that the sheer heat within the ventilation shaft would be too intense for organics to survive more than two minutes within, and suggests instead that it go, as it is a synthetic, and therefore would be unaffected. Shepard agrees, and with Legion as their engineer, sets the team: Shepard would lead the first team with Tali, Kal, Grunt, Thane, Jacob and Samara. Miranda suggests she be chosen to lead the second team, but Shepard eventually chooses Garrus. After a short speech, the squad grab their weapons and armor and depart the ship to begin their assault.

Shepard and his team move down the second route towards the regroup point, with Legion visibly moving through the ventilation shaft beside them. They are quickly engaged by Collector forces reinforced by a few husks, but the team is well-versed in the crude battle tactics of the Collectors at this point, and easily outflank and wipe them out as they push on. Another Collector squad tries to halt them, this time led by a Possessed, but this does little to halt their progress, and they move forward undaunted. They eventually reach the door where they set down and defend the area as the Collectors try to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Legion gets the door open just as hundreds of husks, sixteen scions and twelve praetorians arrive. The second team provides covering fire for the first to retreat and once inside, close the door. 

Taking a breather, they find the Horizon colonists, including Lilith, to still be alive. Unfortunately, this does not last long as the colonists are quickly liquified, Lilith among them. Once liquidified, they are pumped up through the tubes towards what EDI determines to be the main reactor chamber. Still just as confused as to why the Collectors are liquifying humans, he quickly liberates the SR-2's crew from the pods before they share the same fate. Kelly is severely traumatized, while Chakwas thanks them profusely. With another 21 kilometers to go before reaching the reactor, Shepard elects to send the crew back to the ship with someone, and Mordin volunteers. Shepard agrees, saying goodbye to Mordin before the salarian follows the crew down a different, alternate path back to the Normandy.

EDI discovers that, yet again, two paths exist to reach the reactor: these routes run 19 straight kilometers straight to the main reactor chamber. While one route to the reactor chamber is largely clear, the second route is infested with seeker swarms; too many for Mordin's countermeasures to be effective. These swarms run the entire 19 kilometers of the assigned route, making it virtually untraversable. However, Miranda determines that a biotic field erected around a small group could repel the swarm long enough to reach the chamber. Samara offers to do so, saying she is probably the most strong-willed biotic present. Shepard agrees, taking Tali, Kal, Kaidan with him, along with Jack as a backup in case something happens to Samara. Garrus will lead the rest up the second path, keeping the Collectors largely occupied. With this agreed upon, they advance.

Samara, with the biotic field up, moves forward with the squad, encountering minimal resistance by Collector forces, but unable to communicate with the rest of the squad, Shepard orders the squad forward. After a while, they begin to encounter husks of numerous variety, including the odd scion. Eventually, the Collectors catch on and begin to attack in waves, each led by a Possessed. The squad holds them off, but as they begin to move, Samara begins to grow more and more exhausted. Three hours later, the squad finally reaches the door, but Samara is getting weaker. They run for the door, reaching it just as Samara collapes, including the field. Jack brings her own biotics to bear, unleashing a massive tidal wave of energy that disintegrates every seeker within 60 meters of them, and sends flying any Collector unfortunate enough to get caught in the blast. They close the door and link up with second team: they are now two kilometers away from their target. 

EDI announces that the Normandy is almost flight worthy once more, and that Mordin arrived a while ago with the crew safe and sound, although Mordin was slightly wounded from engaging a scion. She also states that all the tubes lead to the main reactor chamber, meaning whatever nefarious purpose the Collectors gathered humans for will be located in there, along with the key to the Base's destruction. However, Harbinger has amassed a massive army of Collectors behind them, which will soon try to pour through the door behind them. Taking only Tali and Kaidan with him, Shepard leaves the rest to defend their rear and to hold position. Garrus is left in command, and the trio head for the main reactor on one of the Collector's hover platforms. They encounter light resistance in their final two kilometer trek and finally reach the reactor.

They are shocked and horrified to find the destination for the tubes: a Reaper. However, unlike any other Reaper, this one is a lot smaller, but still massive, and is human in architecture and design, looking almost demonic. EDI explains that the Collectors are likely the backbone of the Reaper reproductive process. The Reapers will choose one or two species they deem worthy of "ascension", and that species will serve as the template for a new Reaper. The Collectors will abduct millions of that species, liquify them and mold their "essence" within the Reaper itself. The Reaper's interior will start shaped like the species used to create it, and then will be surrounded by an outer shell: the Reaper itself. By reproductive terms, the Human-Reaper is merely an embyro, and is nowhere near completion: millions, possibly billions, more humans would be required to complete it. Shepard realizes the Collectors would eventually have to target Earth, and becomes determined to destroy the abomination. Together, they dislodge it from its support wires, causing it to fall into the "abyss" below.

With the squad holding the line behind them, Shepard brings forth the reactor, ready to begin the meltdown. He is contacted by the Illusive Man whoever, who pleads with him to instead spare the Base and to merely flood the Base with radiation: it will eradicate all life on the station, but leave the technology and the Base itself intact, ripe for study. Shepard, finally knowing what kind of creature the Illusive Man is, refuses to give him the Base, cutting him off as Tali finishes overloading the reactor, starting the meltdown. The Human-Reaper returns however, and Shepard is forced to deploy a Cain missile: he aims straight for the face, the explosion tearing the Reaper's head off and killing it. It lurches forward though, causing the platforms to plummet below, taking the trio with it.

Mere minutes later, Shepard wakes up to the sound of explosions. He quickly recovers Tali and Kaidan as he is contacted by EDI. With the rest of the squad having withdrawn to the now fully operational Normandy and the Base tearing itself apart, the trio make a run for it, pursued by desperate Collector forces. Harbinger announces that Shepard may have won the battle, but he has not won the war. Getting onboard the ship just in time, the Normandy escapes the Base just as the reactor explodes, the explosion consuming the Base and the debris field. 

Chapter 51: Future Dread

Back in 2251 at Prometheus headquarters, Carter and Jaris consider their new prisoner, Kaidan. Jaris asks why they're keeping him alive and why Prometheus went to so much lengths to capture him, to which Carter says Gerrel requested him himself. They demand that Kaidan pledge his loyalty to Prometheus, lying and telling him that his mother was once a Promethean herself. Carter promises to wipe Kaidan's criminal record clean and, in return, he will be put in the CENTURION program to help strenghten his biotics. Kaidan agrees, much to Carter's glee and Jaris' disappointment.

Back on the Citadel, Jessica reels from the events onboard the Orbit of Glass. She is approached by a quarian ambassador who reveals themself to be Veetor'Nara. Wishing to talk in the Purgatory club where it is loud and noisy and hard to be heard, Jessica follows him to the club. Veetor tells her that Prometheus is beginning to clean house, and are terminating anyone remotely related to Prometheus in any way shape or form, Jessica being among those people. Those affiliated with the Shepard name are also being targetted except Tali herself, who seems to be listed under house arrest. Veetor also reveals that he suspects that Prometheus may have been infiltrated by remnants of Cerberus or, even worse, is the successor to Cerberus. Jessica is dumbfounded by this, but seems to see the similarities between the two groups. Seeing that they are being followed, Jessica lures both of their would-be attackers into an alley and kills them before taking Veetor's hand and running.

After having commandeered a military interceptor from a nearby airbase, Reby complains to Thane about how Ash's husband mocked her, despite the husband meaning no offense. They are quickly engaged by a Coalition corvette, which locks its weapons on them and prepares to open fire. Thane pleads with them to break off, but it fails and the ship opens fire anyway.

Epilogue

An hour after the successful assault on the Collector Base, Shepard contacts the Illusive Man to officially cut ties with Cerberus. With the Collectors wiped out and the threat to human colonies eliminated, Shepard sees no reason to remain affiliated with Cerberus and tells the Illusive Man as much, leaving him furious. 

Later, in the mess hall, Shepard gathers the entire crew and squad to tell them about his cutting of ties with Cerberus, and tells them that if any wish to stay with Cerberus, they may. Only a few choose to stay with Cerberus, with the majority having lost faith in the Illusive Man. After one final speech, the entire squad and remainder of the crew rally behind him, cheering him and swearing to stand by him and help him stop the Reapers. 

Characters

Major Characters

Protagonists

• Commander Marcus Lee Shepard.
• Second Lieutenant/Major/Colonel/Brigadier General/Chief Engineer Tali'Zorah nar Rayya/vas Neema/vas Normandy.
• Archangel/Gunnery Master Garrus Vakarian.
• Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko.
• Flight Lieutenant Jeff "Joker" Moreau.
• EDI.
• First Lieutenant Miranda Lawson.
• Second Lieutenant Jacob Taylor.
• Professor Mordin Solus.
• Soldier Urdnot Grunt.
• Subject Zero Jack.
• Master Thief Kasumi Goto.
• Mercenary Veteran Zaeed Massani.
• Assassin Thane Krios.
• Justicar Samara.
• Legion.
• Major/Colonel/Brigadier General/General Kal'Reegar vas Rayya.
• Second Lieutenant/First Lieutenant/Major Madi'Soi vas Ceresa.
• The Illusive Man.

Antagonists

• Harbinger.
• Collector General.
• Human-Reaper.

Minor Characters

Protagonists

• Prothean Researcher/Information Broker Liara T'Soni.
• Chieftain Urdnot Wrex.
• Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly.
• Ensign Susannah Gregori.
• Chief Engineer Gregory Adams.
• Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson.
• Chief Medical Officer Karin Chakwas.
• Yeoman Kelly Chambers.
• Assistant Lia'Vael nar Ulnay.
• Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner.
• Power Engineer Kenneth Donnelly. 
• Propulsion Engineer Gabriella Daniels.
• Councilor Tevos.
• Councilor Valern.
• Councilor Creti Sparatus.
• Councilor David Edward Anderson.
• Ambassador Donnel Udina.
• Captain Hannah Rila Shepard.
• Chief Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Huzzi.
• Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay.
• Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema.
• Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib.
• Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh.
• Lazarus Science Chief Albert Wilson.
• Pilgrim Veetor'Nara nar Rayya/vas Rayya.
• Queen of Omega Aria T'Loak.
• Lantar Sidonis.
• Chieftain's Adjutant Urdnot Wreav.
• President Lilith Abraham.
• Tech Expert Fal Erash.
• EOD Specialist Sensat Aben.
• Sharpshooter Melenis Gaition.
• Machinist Makk'Veshli nar Terez.
• CQB Specialist Caity Monteague.
• EOD Specialist Grundan Krul.
• Tech Expert Lerkaw Mierin.
• Commander Kaklu "Ripper" Dreon.
• Biotic Specialist Kay Vortash.
• CQB Specialist Righteous-Display-Of-Perseverance.
• EOD Specialist Postivius Ramsis.
• Corporal Yitsak'Cqi vas Jykkza.
• Private First Class/Corporal Myr'Jorin nar Gyml.
• Agent Feron Huul.
• Matriarch Aethyta M'Soni.
• Doctor Daniel Abrams.
• Security Chief Hendel Mitra (mentioned only).
• Student Nick Donahue (mentioned only).
• First Lieutenant Kahlee Sanders (mentioned only).
• Student Gillian Grayson (mentioned only).
• Pilgrim Lemm'Shal nar Tesleya (mentioned only).
• Corporal Seeto'Hodda nar Idenna.
• Staff Sergeant Isa'Pal vas Idenna.
• Yalu'Sal nar Idenna.
• Captain Ysin'Mal vas Idenna.
• Fargut Aezoma.
• Moklan Fancoba.
• Chief Medical Officer Kaso'Dbi vas Neema.
• Chief Medical Officer Elan'Shiya vas Rayya.
• Captain Kar'Danna vas Rayya.
• Jonn Whitson.
• Hierarch Thotous Vakarian.
• Pilgrim Kenn'Raan nar Koleps.
• Tpi'Nara vas Rayya.
• Ree'Nara vas Rayya.
• Captain Armando-Owen Bailey.
• Reporter Khalisah Bint-Sinan Al-Jilani.
• Warlord Tukmar Okeer.
• Scientist Rana Thanoptis.
• Mechanic Delan Tidey.
• Kor Tun.
• Constable Samuel Ghost.
• David Archer.
• Careena.
• Assistant Nyxeris.
• Seryna Z'lani.
• Gianna Parasini.
• Hermia.
• Pitne For.
• Dakni Kur.
• Niftu Cal.
• Detective Captain Anaya V'doeri.
• Chief Scientist Dagt'Hazt vas Lazataa.
• Dorn'Hazt vas Lazataa (mentioned only).
• Jona'Hazt nar Lazataa (mentioned only).
• Admiral Meru'Zorah vas Rayya (mentioned only).
• Chairman Martin Burns.
• Rahna Birdal.
• Oriana Lawson.
• Phillip Breiner.
• Rhiannon Breiner.
• Lanteia.
• Niket Sachdeva.
• Charybdis Science Chief Arjun Chandana.
• Keiji Okuda (mentioned only).
• Captain Harris Fairchild (mentioned only).
• Chief Medical Officer/Harem Member Jessie Thompson.
• Aldiss.
• Irikah Krios (mentioned only).
• Kolyat Krios.
• The Urdnot Shaman.
• Rila (mentioned only).
• Falere (mentioned only).
• Abbey Heikkinen.
• Nef Heikkinen (mentioned only).
• Shiala R'Ness.
• Juliana Herfa Baynham (mentioned only).
• Lizbeth Jari Baynham (mentioned only).

Antagonists

• Peta'Yala vas Neema/vas Huzzi.
• Chieftain Gatatog Uvenk.
• Blood Pack Leader/Omega Chapter Weyrloc Garm.
• Eclipse Leader/Omega Chapter Gaehok Jaroth.
• Blue Suns Leader/Omega Chapter Krefin Tarak.
• Sergeant Salkie Par'beb.
• Platoon Sergeant Prazza'Sal vas Idenna.
• Arms Dealer Zrukirum Jax (mentioned only).
• The Shadow Broker.
• Exile Golo'Mekk vas Usela. 
• Sergeant Ghalle Cathka.
• Harrot.
• CEO Henry Lawson (mentioned only).
• Prophet Saren Arterius (mentioned only).
• Sovereign (mentioned only).
• Supreme Regent Salvak Terrili.
• Regent Supreme Commander Balak Uhtero.
• Doctor Quiath Droya (mentioned only).
• Lieutenant Commander Sierah Jedore.
• Blue Suns Leader/Founder Vido Santiago.
• Warden Xictus Kuril.
• Overlord.
• Overlord Science Chief Gavin Archer.
• Blood Pack Commander Wutarok Kureck.
• Aresh Aghdashloo.
• Eclipse Leader/Sisterhood Chapter Myreziir Wasea.
• Sisterhood Initiate Elnora V'ashi.
• Morinth.
• Nassana Dantius.
• Captain Malerna Enyala.
• Lieutenant Matthew Novotny.
• Blood Pack Leader/Citadel Chapter Todtar Crindu.
• Vela Nassius.
• Crime Lord Donovan Hock.
• Commander Georgia Roe.
• Eclipse Leader/Founder Jona Sederis.
• Captain Ronald Taylor.
• Second Lieutenant/Hunter Leader John Patterson.
• Joseph "Fade" Harkin.
• Elias Kelham.
• Joram Talid.
• Doctor Maelon Heplorn.
• Chieftain Weyrloc Guld.
• Chieftain's Adjutant Weyrloc Fayaxi.
• Derelict Reaper.

Characters (2251)

• Corporal Thane'Shepard pav Rannoch.
• Staff Sergeant Reby'Reegar pav Rannoch.
• Legion.
• Operations Commander Carter Dielheart.
• First Lieutenant Jaris "Siren" Paltarons.
• Commander Reia'Inas pav Earth.
• Captain Xerxes.
• Baltazar.
• Pythagoras.
• Aristotle.
• Commander Hector.
• President Sata T'Loak.
• Warlord Urdnot Mordin.
• Lieutenant Colonel Kaidan Shepard.
• Singer of the New Dawn.
• Faith.
• Agent Sean Oswich.
• Spectre Jessica Alenko.
• Captain Arthur Leat.
• Ari'ka.
• Warden Burhardt Weber.
• Doctor Ashley'Raan pav Virmire.
• Doctor Nael'Raan pav Virmire (mentioned only).
• Prime Candidate Han'Gerrel pav Rannoch (mentioned only).

Deaths

• Collector General.
• Human-Reaper.
• Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Pressly.
• Ensign Susannah Gregori.
• Petty Officer Second Class Frederick Deve Johnson.
• Chief Admiral Rael'Zorah vas Huzzi.
• Lazarus Science Chief Albert Wilson.
• Chieftain's Adjutant Urdnot Wreav.
• President Lilith Abraham.
• Tech Expert Fal Erash.
• EOD Specialist Sensat Aben.
• Sharpshooter Melenis Gaition.
• Machinist Makk'Veshli nar Terez.
• CQB Specialist Caity Monteague.
• EOD Specialist Grundan Krul.
• Tech Expert Lerkaw Mierin.
• Commander Kaklu "Ripper" Dreon.
• Biotic Specialist Kay Vortash.
• CQB Specialist Righteous-Display-Of-Perseverance.
• EOD Specialist Postivius Ramsis.
• Corporal Yitsak'Cqi vas Jykkza.
• Private First Class/Corporal Myr'Jorin nar Gyml.
• Agent Feron Huul (suggested).
• Corporal Seeto'Hodda nar Idenna.
• Staff Sergeant Isa'Pal vas Idenna.
• Yalu'Sal nar Idenna.
• Warlord Tukmar Okeer.
• Dakni Kur.
• Chief Scientist Dagt'Hazt vas Lazataa.
• Admiral Meru'Zorah vas Rayya (mentioned only).
• Niket Sachdeva.
• Charybdis Science Chief Arjun Chandana.
• Keiji Okuda (mentioned only).
• Captain Harris Fairchild (mentioned only).
• Irikah Krios (mentioned only).
• Nef Heikkinen (mentioned only).
• Chieftain Gatatog Uvenk.
• Blood Pack Leader/Omega Chapter Weyrloc Garm.
• Eclipse Leader/Omega Chapter Gaehok Jaroth.
• Blue Suns Leader/Omega Chapter Krefin Tarak.
• Sergeant Salkie Par'beb.
• Platoon Sergeant Prazza'Sal vas Idenna.
• Arms Dealer Zrukirum Jax (mentioned only).
• Exile Golo'Mekk vas Usela. 
• Sergeant Ghalle Cathka.
• Prophet Saren Arterius (mentioned only).
• Sovereign (mentioned only).
• Doctor Quiath Droya (mentioned only).
• Lieutenant Commander Sierah Jedore.
• Blue Suns Leader/Founder Vido Santiago.
• Warden Xictus Kuril.
• Overlord.
• Blood Pack Commander Wutarok Kureck.
• Eclipse Leader/Sisterhood Chapter Myreziir Wasea.
• Sisterhood Initiate Elnora V'ashi.
• Morinth.
• Nassana Dantius.
• Captain Malerna Enyala.
• Lieutenant Matthew Novotny.
• Blood Pack Leader/Citadel Chapter Todtar Crindu.
• Vela Nessius.
• Crime Lord Donovan Hock.
• Commander Georgia Roe.
• Chieftain Weyrloc Guld.
• Chieftain's Adjutant Weyrloc Fayaxi.
• Derelict Reaper.

Locations

In the Past (2183, 2184 and 2185)

• Milky Way Galaxy
  • Council Space
    • Serpent Nebula
      • Widow System
        • The Citadel
          • Shalta Ward
            • Flux
            • Chora's Den
          • Zakera Ward
            • Widowgate
              • Dark Star Lounge
              • Zakera Warehouses
            • Drake-Herris Heavy Industries Factory
            • Shin Akiba
              • 0800 Apartment Blocks
              • 0300 Apartment Blocks
          • Presidium
            • Citadel Embassies
              • Human Embassy
      • Boltzmann System
        • Bekenstein
          • Milgrom
            • Hock Estate
    • Krogan DMZ
      • Aralakh System
        • Tuchanka
          • Urdnot Keep
          • Pantheon of Tuchanka
          • Hagalok Hospital
      • Dranek System
        • Sazgoth
    • Apien Crest Cluster
      • Gemmae System
        • Pheiros
        • Migrant Fleet
    • Aethon Cluster
      • Ogpa System
        • Migrant Fleet
  • Alliance Space
    • Horse Head Nebula
      • Irisa System
        • Minuteman Station
    • Voyager Cluster
      • Yarra System
        • Freedom's Progress
          • Little Rock
    • Haven's Drift Nebula
      • Sunrise System
        • Ferris Fields
          • New Memphis
      • Heavenly Divide System
        • New Constantinople
          • Byzantium
            • Stranded Hotel
    • Exodus Cluster
      • Utopia System
        • Eden Prime
          • Colony Ohio
  • Attican Traverse
    • Wilbak Nebula
      • Zulu System
        • Migrant Fleet
    • Shadow Sea Cluster
      • Iera System
        • Horizon
          • Colony Grandeur
    • Nubian Expanse Cluster
      • Dakka System
        • Pragia
          • Teltin Facility
  • Terminus Systems
    • Omega Nebula
      • Sahrabarik System
        • Omega
          • Fumi District
          • Gozu District
            • Mordin's clinic
            • Ventilation Control Center
          • Dyuko District
            • Afterlife
            • Kenn's Spare Parts Shop
            • Harrot's Shop
          • Kima District
            • Abandoned Suri-Kara Hotel
          • Mining Sector
      • Amada System
        • Alchera
          • Normandy SR-1's crash site
    • Roma Nebula
      • Remus System
        • Parnack
        • Lazarus Station
    • Crescent Nebula
      • Tasale System
        • Illium
          • Nos Astra
            • Finance Sector
              • Eternity Bar
            • Nos Astra Spaceport
              • Spaceport NAPD Outpost
              • Sisterhood Base
            • Dantius Towers
            • Business Port
              • Nos Astra Dock
    • Minos Wasteland Cluster
      • Medusa System
        • Migrant Fleet
      • Venoss System
        • Shelba
    • Zeus Aluticus Cluster
      • Apollo System
        • Migrant Fleet
    • Eagle Nebula
      • Imir System
        • Korlus
      • Relic System
      • Strabo System
        • Walker Station
    • Pangaea Expanse Cluster
      • Refuge System
        • Ilos
        • Migrant Fleet
    • Ismar Frontier Cluster
      • Faia System
        • Zorya
          • Eldfell-Ashland Refinery
    • Hourglass Nebula
      • Osun System
    • Phoenix Massing Cluster
      • Typhon System
        • Aite
          • Hermes Station
          • Vulcan Station
          • Crashed Geth Frigate
            • Prometheus Station
          • Atlas Station
      • Sea of Storms System
        • Haratar Station
    • Valhallan Threshold Cluster
      • Raheel-Leyya System
        • Migrant Fleet
    • Hawking Eta Cluster
      • Thorne System
        • Mnemosyne
          • Derelict Reaper
            • Charybdis Station
    • Rosetta Nebula
      • Alpha Draconis System
        • 2175 Aeia
          • Crash site of the SSV Hugo Gernsback
          • Ronald's camp site
      • Beta Aquila System
        • 2123 Pelaan
          • Batarian pirate outpost
  • Geth Space
    • Far Rim Cluster
      • Dholen System
        • Haestrom
          • Ik'halm'la
            • Fort Ik'halm'la'peh
  • Galactic Core
    • Tartarus Debris Field
    • Collector Base
      • Central Chamber
      • Main Reactor Chamber
      • The Command Center
  • Unknown space
    • Unknown cluster
      • Anadius System
        • Cronos Station
          • Upper Facility
            • Humanity's Sanctum
• The Void

In The Present (2251)

• Milky Way Galaxy
  • Dominion Space
    • Perseus Veil Cluster
      • Tikkun System
        • Rannoch
          • The Shepard Residence
    • Artemis Tau Cluster
      • Knossos System
        • Therum
          • Shadow Broker Headquarters
    • Hades Gamma Cluster
      • Antaeus System
        • Trebin
          • Core of Symphony (mentioned only)
    • Serpent Nebula
      • Widow System
        • The Citadel
          • Shalta Ward
            • Purgatory Club
    • Styx Theta Cluster
      • Acheron System
        • Grosalgen
    • Sentry Omega Cluster
      • Hoc System
        • Virmire
          • Williams
            • Williams State Hospital
            • Lee Air Base
  • Dead Zone
    • Athena Nebula
      • Parnitha System
        • Maginot Line
          • Orbit
  • Sanctum Space
    • Omega Nebula
      • Sahrabarik System
        • Alpha
          • The Castle
  • Covenant Space
    • Shrike Abyssal Cluster
      • Xe Cha System
        • Zada Ban
          • Dolo
  • Unknown space
    • Unknown cluster
      • Unknown system
        • Unknown planet
          • Undisclosed Promethean Facility
  • Unknown space
    • Unknown cluster
      • Unknown system
        • Prometheus Headquarters

Events

• Galactic Harvest (mentioned)
  • Prothean War with the Reapers (mentioned)
• Enlightenment of Thessia (mentioned)
• Rachni Wars (mentioned)
• Wars of Tuchanka (mentioned)
• The Darkness of Tuchanka (mentioned)
• Krogan Rebellions (mentioned)
  • The Rothla Experiment (mentioned)
• Krogan Civil Wars
  • Grunt's Rite of Passage
  • Battle of the Hagalok Hospital
• First Morning War (mentioned)
• The Quarian Exodus
  • Raid on the Idenna
  • Operation: Weapon of Learning
  • Raid on Haestrom
  • Alarei Incident
  • First Raid on 2123 Pelaan (mentioned)
  • Second Raid on 2123 Pelaan
  • Raid on Haratar Station
• First Contact War (mentioned)
• Rosetta Expedition (mentioned)
• Teltin Facility Riot (mentioned)
• Skyllian Blitz (mentioned)
  • Battle of Elysium (mentioned)
  • First Battle of Torfan (mentioned)
• Akuze Massacre (mentioned)
• Eden Prime War (mentioned)
  • Battle of Eden Prime (mentioned)
  • Armstrong Cluster Campaign (mentioned)
  • Battle of Feros (mentioned)
  • Battle of Peak 15 (mentioned)
  • Battle of Virmire (mentioned)
  • Battle of Ilos (mentioned)
  • Battle of the Citadel (mentioned)
• X57 Terrorist Attack Attempt (mentioned)
• Raid on the MSV Fedele (mentioned)
• War on Taetrus (mentioned)
• Archangel's War Against Crime
  • Ambush in the Doru District
  • Attack on Suri-Kara Hotel
  • Kima Siege
• Omega Plague
• Collector Campaign
  • Destruction of the Normandy
  • Attack on Lazarus Station
  • Abduction of Freedom's Progress (mentioned)
  • Raid on Little Rock
  • Abduction of Ferris Fields
  • Abduction of Horizon
  • Abduction of Fehl Prime (mentioned)
  • Skirmish in Relic System (mentioned)
  • Raid on Collector Cruiser
  • Raid on Derelict Reaper
  • Raid on Normandy SR-2
  • Collector Base Assault
• Siege on Korlus
• Raid on Zorya
• Purgatory Prison Riot
• Project Overlord Incident
• Raid on Teltin Facility
• Spaceport Raid
• Dantius Towers Siege
• Byzantium Hostage Crisis
• Battle at the Nos Astra Docks
• Attack on the Hock Estate
• Raid on Drake-Herris Factory
• The Morinth Murders
• Post-Apocalyptic War (mentioned)
  • Thessian Fallout (mentioned)
• Terra-Rannochian War
  • Fall of Zada Ban
• Castle Bombing
• Raid on the Orbit of Glass
• Skirmish over Virmire

Ships and Space Stations

Ships

Systems Alliance

• Kurt Vonnegut-Class Research/Expeditionary Starship
  • SSV Hugo Gernsback
• Mermaid-Class Corvette
  • SSV Lucille (mentioned)
• Normandy-Class Stealth Frigate
  • SSV Normandy
• Warsaw-Class Light Frigate
  • SSV Somme (mentioned)
• Kilimanjaro-Class Dreadnought
  • SSV Orizaba
• Saratoga-Class Light Cruiser
  • SSV Grenoble (mentioned)

​Turian Hierarchy

• Arrival-Class Light Frigate
  • THS Verrikan (mentioned)
  • THS Unflinching (mentioned)
  • THS Anointed (mentioned)
  • THS Revenge (mentioned)
  • THS Cry of Damnation (mentioned)

Asari Republics

• Ascension-Class Dreadnought
  • ARW Destiny Ascension (mentioned)

Batarian Hegemony

• Kugalth-Class Battlecruiser
  • BRS Inquisitor

​Quarian Migrant Fleet

• Quarian Liveship
  • QMFV Rayya
  • QMFV Shellen (mentioned)
  • QMFV Nuustu (mentioned)
• Zarasis-Class Light Cruiser
  • QMFV Neema
  • QMFV Alarei
  • QMFV Moreh (mentioned)
  • QMFV Lazataa (mentioned)
• Hensa-Class Light Cruiser
  • QMFV Idenna
• ​Stargazer-Class Heavy Transport Shuttle
  • QMFV Cyniad
• ​Xenophon-Class Heavy Cruiser
  • QMFV Ulzabyk
• ​Mediator-Class Heavy Tanker
  • QMFV Huzzi
  • QMFV Gyml (mentioned)
• ​Utpa-Class Heavy Transport
  • QMFV Etha
  • QMFV Ceresa
• ​Paramount-Class Heavy Frigate
  • QMFV Tonbay
• ​Truthful Divinity-Class Heavy Transport
  • QMFV Qwib Qwib (mentioned)
• Vesa'kee-Class Corvette
  • QMFV Hutbyk
• ​Sunset-Class Destroyer
  • QMFV Ulnay (mentioned)
  • QMFV Usela (mentioned)
• Fortunate Exclamation-Class Prison Starship
  • QMFV Jykkza (mentioned)
  • QMFV Koleps (mentioned)

​Old Republic of Rannoch

• Rati'e-Class Heavy Freighter
  • NGR Grelee'kon (wreck)

Geth Heretics

• GFL-111 Class Light Frigate
• GFH-102 Class Heavy Frigate
  • Crashed Geth Frigate on Aite

Collectors

• Collector Cruiser

The Reapers

• Harbinger-Class Superdreadnought
  • Harbinger
• Sovereign-Class Dreadnought
  • Precursor
  • Sovereign (mentioned)
• Atlas-Class Megacruiser
  • Human-Reaper

Cerberus

• Normandy II-Class Heavy Stealth Frigate
  • CAW Normandy
• ​Brussels-Class Stealth Frigate
  • CAW Tajikistan (mentioned)

Systems Coalition

• Vanquisher-Class Dreadnought
  • CSV Desecrator
• ​Solitary-Class Maximum-Security Prison Starship
  • CSV Orbit of Glass
• ​Prokhorovka-Class Light Frigate
  • CSV Twin Pimples
• ​Oceanic-Class Fast Corvette
  • CSV Iwo Jima

​Prometheus

• Shrike-Class Stealth Corvette
  • ISS Gaius Julius

​New Republic of Rannoch

• Archangel-Class Battleship
  • RNS Blood Horizon
• ​Transcendence-Class Dreadnought-Carrier
  • RNS Deep Savannah

​Krogan Military Confederacy

• Furious Stone-Class Destroyer
  • TMCS Tumultuous Glory

Other

• Asclepius-Class Transport Craft
  • AML Demeter (mentioned)
• Titanic-Class Prison Starship
  • RPV Purgatory

​Space Stations

Systems Alliance

• Gagarin Station (mentioned)
• Jon Grissom Academy (mentioned)

Cerberus

• Cronos Station
• Lazarus Station
• Minuteman Station
• Walker Station

The Council

• The Citadel

Terminus Systems

• Omega

Geth Heretics

• Haratar Station

Collectors

• Collector Base

Galactic Dominion

• The Citadel
• Requiem Station (mentioned)
• Epitaph Station (mentioned)
• Prometheus Headquarters

Organizations

• United Citadel Council of Species
  • Citadel Security
  • Systems Alliance
    • Systems Alliance Parliament
      • Parliament Subcommittee of Transhuman Studies
    • Systems Intelligence Administration
      • Corsair Infiltrator Program (mentioned)
    • Systems Alliance Armed Forces
      • Systems Alliance Central Command
        • Systems Alliance Marine Corps Force Command
          • Systems Alliance Marine Corps
            • 88th Expeditionary Company
        • Systems Alliance Naval Command
          • Systems Alliance Navy (mentioned)
        • Systems Alliance Colonial Forces Command
          • Systems Alliance Colonial Army
            • Horizon Colonial Guard
        • Systems Alliance Special Operations Command
          • N Special Forces Program (mentioned)
  • Turian Hierarchy
    • Armed Forces of Palaven and its Colonies
      • Commune of Armed Forces
        • Navy of Palaven Naval Command
          • Navy of Palaven
            • Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission
            • Hierarchy Patrol 888
            • Citadel Defense Fleet
        • Independent Colonial Defense Group
          • Taetrian Colonial Guard (mentioned)
  • Asari Republics
    • Republic of Illium
      • Nos Astra Police Department
      • Illium Defense Force (mentioned)
    • Armed Forces of the Asari Republics
      • Armed Forces High Command
        • Thessian Naval Command
          • Navy of the Republics
            • Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission
            • Citadel Defense Fleet
  • Salarian Union
    • Union Defense Force
      • Special Tasks Group (mentioned)
      • Union Central Command
        • Navy of the Salarian Union
          • Council Demilitarization Enforcement Mission
          • Citadel Defense Fleet
• Hegemony of Khar'Shan
  • Defense Force of the Hegemony
    • Hegemony Slaver Corps
    • Hegemony Navy
• Cerberus
  • Lazarus Cell
    • The Normandy Squad
    • Project Lazarus
    • Project Phoenix
  • Overlord Cell
    • Project Overlord
  • Hades Cell
    • Project Charybdis
  • Teltin Cell (mentioned)
    • Project Teltin (mentioned)
• Krogan Remnants
  • United Krogan Clans
    • Reformists
      • Clan Urdnot
      • Clan Nakmor
      • Clan Fortack
      • Clan Jurdon
  • Traditionalists
    • Clan Gatatog
    • Clan Weyrloc
    • Clan Quiath
• The Reapers
  • Geth Heretics
    • Geth Heretic Army
    • Geth Heretic Navy
  • The Collectors
• Geth
• Liara's Information Broker Network
• Migrant Fleet
  • Quarian Military
    • Migrant Fleet Marines
      • 12th Explorer Platoon
      • 16th Skylord Recovery Platoon
      • 34th Marine Expeditionary Force
    • Heavy Fleet
  • Special Projects Fleet
  • Patrol Fleet
  • Civilian Fleet
• Omega's Army
• Mercenary Bands of the Terminus Systems and Beyond
  • Blue Suns
  • Eclipse
  • Blood Pack
  • Grim Skulls (mentioned)
  • The Primals (mentioned)
• Archangel's Omega Squad
• Shadow Broker's Information Empire
  • Shadow Broker's Private Army
• Westerlund News
• Dantius Corporation
• Lawson Enterprises (mentioned)
• Jax's Reapers (mentioned)
• Eldfell-Ashland Energy
• Dick-Wolf Energy (mentioned)
• Donovan Hock's Criminal Empire
• Synthetic Insights, Ltd.
• Empire of Tuchanka (mentioned)
• Prothean Empire (mentioned)
• Facinus Liberation Front (mentioned)

In the Present

• Galactic Dominion
  • Systems Coalition
    • Prometheus
    • Systems Coalition Armed Forces
      • Systems Coalition Marine Corps Forces Command
        • Systems Coalition Marine Corps
      • Systems Coalition Naval Command
        • Systems Coalition Navy
          • Maginot Armada
          • Second Fleet
          • Dominion Sixth Fleet
  • Republic of Rannoch
    • Republican Armed Forces of Rannoch
      • Naval Command of the Quarian Republic
        • Rannoch Republican Navy
          • Maginot Armada
          • Dominion Sixth Fleet
  • Tuchankan Military Confederacy
    • Confederate Armed Forces of Tuchanka
      • Unified Defense Command
        • Stormtrooper Central Command
          • Stormtrooper Corps of Tuchanka
        • Confederate Naval Command
          • Maginot Armada
          • Confederate Tenth Fleet
          • Dominion Sixth Fleet
• Holy Covenant
  • Principality of Parnack (mentioned)
    • First Order of Parnack
      • Naval Command of Parnack
        • Naval Legion of Parnack
          • Fleet of Dexterity
  • Hegemony of Titan (mentioned)
    • Blessed Defense Force of Titan (mentioned)
  • Tilthan Connection (mentioned)
    • Tilthan Crusaders (mentioned)
  • Circle of the Redeemed
• Galactic Sanctum
  • Parliament of Alpha
  • Raloi Federation (mentioned)
• Rachni
• The Marauders

Species

• Human
• Asari
• Turian
• Salarian
• Hanar
• Volus
• Elcor
• Vorcha
• Raloi (mentioned)
• Yahg (mentioned)
• Tilthan (mentioned)
• Krogan
• Drell
• Quarian
• Batarian
• Rachni
• Reaper
• Prothean (mentioned)
• Collector
• Geth
• Varren
• Thresher Maw
• Udirron
• Klixen

In the Present

• Yahg (mentioned)
• Tilthan
• Raloi

Trivia

• II: Prophecy is often criticized for its unnecessary jumps between the present and past, the inconsistencies with plot and the introduction of new threads that are then rapidly abandoned afterwards. While nowhere near as bad as I: Enigma in terms of this, it is still deemed horrendously inconsistent.  Also, like the previous entry, the story's tone is entirely different from later entries in the series. II: Prophecy's tone is much lighter and easier to adjust to, while the tone of its sequel, III: Requiem, and especially IV: Holocaust, are much darker.

• • ArchReaperN7 confirmed that a remaster of the FABT series is planned once the series is complete, and that II: Prophecy, along with I: Enigma, III: Requiem and parts of IV: Holocaust, will be remastered. Among the things to be fixed will be mistakes, plot inconsistencies, grammar mistakes, etc. For a full list of corrections, click here.
• II: Prophecy went several name changes before the eventual current name was used. While still a concept, it was called 'Mass Effect 2' and then 'Mass Effect 2: Prophecy'. When I: Enigma was completed, it was renamed Enigma II, and eventually Enigma II: Prophecy. While in development, the name was finally changed to simply Prophecy, as suggested by a friend and avid reviewer (at the time) of ArchReaperN7, who stated that "Enigma was its own self-contained story. Enigma is defined as being a mystery, and with the interrogation subject's identity revealed, he is no longer mysterious: therefore, no longer an enigma. As a result, naming the sequel 'Enigma II' is not only generic, it's also unfitting." (Disclaimer: Not his actual words, but a summarization of what he was getting at). This also led to the series' current naming convention. When the series was officially named to 'For A Better Tomorrow,' the book was renamed 'II: Prophecy' so that readers would not be confused as to which order the books came in.
• At one point, II: Prophecy and III: Requiem were going to be one book, as with the game II: Prophecy is based on. However, ArchReaperN7 stated that the storyline of Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival wouldn't fit with the story being told in II: Prophecy, and that having just one villain (the Collectors) was preferable to multiple. And thus, the decision to split the two was made.
  • The decision to make III: Requiem independent of II: Prophecy was also inspired by fellow fanfiction writer Tairis Deamhan's story, Razor's Edge: Dark Witness.
• The title of the book refers to Harbinger's taunts to Shepard during the Collector campaign, who gloats that the prophecy of the Reaper's victory over the galaxy cannot be ignored. It may also be a more subtle reference to Shepard's resurrection, as well as Shepard's entire campaign against the Reapers, and how the Illusive Man 'prophecized' Shepard's return, as well as his importance to the defeat of the Reapers.
• At 57 chapters, II: Prophecy is the second longest entry in the series.
  • Originally, II: Prophecy was intended to be the longest entry in the entire series, but the storyline for IV: Holocaust was expanded, eventually dwarfing that of II: Prophecy.
• Some of the chapter titles (as is a tradition within the series) were inspired or were directly referencing outside material. The chapter Silentium was referencing the Halo book of the same name. The chapter I Was Frozen Today! is a reference to Christopher Lloyd's line "I was frozen today!" from the movie Suburban Commando. The chapter Home, Bloody Home is a play on the words "Home, Sweet Home." The chapter Scum of the Galaxy is a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi's line in Star Wars IV: A New Hope. The chapter An Episode of Lost was a reference to the TV series Lost, and how the setting of the chapter was similar to the premise of Lost. The chapter When Shit Hits The Fan is a reference to the saying "if shit hits the fan." 
• The cover art for II: Prophecy consists of the Illusive Man on Cronos Station, within Humanity's Sanctum, sitting in his chair, smoking his cigar, while staring into the star Anadius. The camera angle is from behind him.
  • The original cover art was of a Collector's set of eyes, all of them glowing brightly like a Possessed, imposed on a black background. This was changed to the current version when the cover art for I: Enigma, II: Prophecy, III: Requiem and IV: Holocaust were updated.
• II: Prophecy is the only installment to start and end the book on a future segment, not including the prologue or epilogue.
  • II: Prophecy also has the most future segment chapters, totalling five.

Others Books in the Series

• I: Enigma
• II: Prophecy
• III: Requiem
• IV: Holocaust
• V: Ultimatum