Day 18: Backroom Politics

Day 18

     We did it! We opened trade between Irune and Palaven, now we just need to fix the other problem in the galaxy: the Council.

     After arriving at the embassy station orbiting Irune, I was escorted, along with Artemis, to see my brother. After protecting our conversation from any type of eavesdropping, I told him the plan: That we could open up a new route through the relays from Irune to Palaven directly and that we needed him to ready the Volus relief efforts. Arian informed me that the Asari are watching everything that is going on in the station, especially him and the Turian dealings. He isn’t sure, but he suspects an Asari spy is in deep with most things going on in this station. So we’ll need to think of a way to distract the Asari while we set up this new route.

     Once I debriefed the crew on the situation we all agreed that we needed to infiltrate the Asari embassy. This would be the most direct way to distract them and allow Adrian sufficient time to prepare the supplies and get them to Palaven. KQO scanned the Asari embassy for the security systems and revealed something startling: the Asari have an AI spying on the station. The Asari just get crazier and crazier.

A few members of the crew made some BS extranet news accounts of the Asari’s depravity on the station. Some of that stuff was ridiculous, why would you ever want to eat Volus babies? How would that even work? This was incredibly successful in getting an angry mob in front of the Asari Embassy’s doors to distract the Asari from our covert entrance via the air ducts. Nienna, dressed in her dancing outfit, walked into the embassy so we could have some eyes on the inside. Lúthien and the Geth stayed outside to keep the Volus riled up and the guards distracted. I don’t really know what the Krogan was doing.

     Once inside we wound our way to the elevator shaft and descended to the level with the AI. All was silent as we exited the elevator; the floor was abandoned. We cautiously made our way forward when we heard the whine of a weapon charging up to fire. We hit the deck and attempted to take the AI firing a spitfire down. KQO informed us that the AI was drawing power from the ship to boost its shields and maintain a ridiculous rate of fire. After a few intense moments KQO was able to cut off the AI’s access to the station power and Artemis blew the bloody thing’s head half off.

     Somehow a riot broke out above us and the Volus found a way into the same air duct that we came in. There were more than a few Volus casualties as a result. They died for a good cause. They helped save Palaven, although no one will ever know that.

     We hurriedly left the station and used the confusion to mask our flight from Irune to Palaven. KQO asked the relay AIs for passage to Palaven and Aliya was able to capture the request code and pass that on to Adrian and the relief fleet. The siege on Palaven is being relieved even as a type. This was a successful mission, and that brings us a little bit closer to ending a little bit of the craziness in the galaxy.  

    

Mission Emails

From: {sourcenotfound}

To: Corinthus.A@embassies.gov.pal

     Adrien: I’m sure you’re more aware of the situation with Palaven than I am. I can’t give you many, or any of the details, but know that we have a way open the relay from Palaven directly to Irune. With this we need the Volus to be ready to send supplies and continue trade with Palaven.

     I hope you’re safe, and I hope that this madness will be ended soon. Send my regards to Sophie and Ysabell.

General Terryck Corinthus

     P.S. – I can’t thank you enough for helping to protect my family. It is a debt that I will never be able to repay.

From: {sourcenotfound}

To: Primarch@gov.pal

     Primarch,

     I received your message and know that it distresses me greatly. My squad and I are doing what we can to help Palaven and alleviate the siege. We will attempt to avoid galactic war, but you must be prepared for any fallout our actions might create, including lethal force if necessary. Palaven must stand strong and united against this threat and be the leaders that unite the galaxy against the depravity of the Asari.

     Know that I will do my best for the Turian people; we will do our best to resolve this conflict with minimal loss of life.

     Don’t forget Irune, if things turn for the worse head for Irune.

May the Spirits protect and guide us,

General Terryck Corinthus

Day 17: The Day the Galaxy Went Mad

Day 17

     That was a nice reprieve. We landed at the station out in the terminus systems that my contacts provided to help us. We spent the time gathering information and supplies.

     Aliya and KQO used this time to gather the information I requested about Nienna. Aliya has some nerve in thinking to withhold, and convince KQO to withhold some of the information from me. She said that she withheld the information due to its private nature and she thought that I didn’t need to know it. I’m just going to have to trust that the Quarian is right, and that any of the information being withheld won’t harm my family. It is a hard thought to let that go, especially since we’ve really only known each other for such a short time. I can’t let anything happen to my family. And if anything does as a result from this… let’s just say that Aliya will never seen Rannoch again, or any other planet for that matter… but, I’ll have to trust my squad, that they’ll make the right decisions. We won’t accomplish anything if we are at each other’s throats.

     Also while at the station, I was approach by a Lieutenant from Palaven with some very disturbing news: Palaven is under siege by Asari forces, and the Council is behind the Asari action, the bastard of a Turian Councillor included. They say that a rebel faction of the Hierarchy has taken over Palaven and they are trying to ‘aid’ the situation, even worse, there are over a million Asari on Palaven and the Primarch is fairly certain that they are all commandos. The Primarch doesn’t want to start a war, as that would undoubtedly bring the Reapers in, which everyone would be glad if that was avoided.

     I presented this to the crew and we tried to think of a way to bring about a peaceful (well, as peaceful as we can) solution. KQO gained permission from the Relay AI to allow the relay in the Apien Crest to transport cargo ships from Irune to Palaven to alleviate the embargo. Lúthien was able to gather that the blockade around Palaven was overkill, as far as going four or five relays deep; and that the Asari republics were having a bit of a tantrum with respects to the Turian’s demands once I informed them of their actions on Omega. The Primarch asked me to find a way to expose the Council and essentially stop this madness and help the Turian people, and the rest of the galaxy from their depravity.

     That’s a pretty tall order, but I’m sure that this squad, these people, can do it.  

Day 16: When Plans Don't Go According to Plan

Day 16

     That was a terrible idea. It was completely unforeseeable; nevertheless it was a terrible idea. Aliya almost died! If I weren’t there to watch her back she would have been toast!

     We landed on the relay and made our way over with a safety line. Once aboard the relay Aliya hacked us into the substructure of the relay. Once there the group dispersed: Aliya and I went off to find the control centre, the Asari disappeared, the Geth and Krogan took a different path.

     Aliya and I were exploring the maps she found in the system and determined the best path to the control room. All of a sudden Fenris short at Aliya, being the ever-ready soldier I shot the assailant, causing the robot dog to explode. We then heard a sound. This thump, thump, thump sound from down the hall and rounding the corner was this giant, formidable-looking machine. We opened fired and barely took down its shields. We started running. I rounded the corner as the thing opened fire. I was fine, Aliya not so much. She took a direct hit to the abdomen and collapsed to the floor. I quickly grabbed her, hauled her over my shoulders and ran away from the thing.

     Once I though we were a safe distance away from that monstrosity I put her down and tried to patch her up with my limited first aid capabilities. I stopped the bleeding at least. Shortly thereafter the Asari both showed up, Nienna had an impressive sword at her side. Suddenly everything got really bright and then we were all back on the ship. I rushed Aliya to the med-bay for some immediate professional care.

     Once Aliya woke up we were debriefed. The LT was unconscious in the med-bay, his internal computer fried again. Apparently there is an AI in each relay and when Aliya broke us into the relay it perceived her as a threat and was determined to eliminate her. Thanks to KQO’s persuasiveness she was able to convince the AI to transport us back to the ship.

     The Lieutenant woke up and couldn’t remember anything, and logically I was made second in command until the LT is fit for duty again.

     Due to the recent attack by Asari on my family I asked KQO and Aliya to dig up information on Nienna and any relations to her and her mysterious, unknown past that would give any information on Asari military movements and any insider, turn-coat information.

      

Day 15: Escorts

Day 15

     Well shoot. It’s one thing to suspect something like this (even with some incredible evidence) and to then have it actually confirmed: the Council really is trying to rebuild the Crucible. This cannot end well.

     After we arrived at the location of the ship, Aliya failed in gaining control of the ship’s systems (something about a redundant security system) and they tried to bolt. We opened fire on their engines, aiming to only disable the engines, which probably wasn’t the best idea considering the cargo and amount thereof on the ship. I’m pretty sure if that had exploded we would have cause the system’s star to go nova and I wouldn’t be here to write about it. Or see my family again…

     After the ship was disabled we interrupted their distress signal and convinced them that we were really the ship that was there to escort them to the location of the crucible and sent KQO and Aliya’s Fenris mech as ‘repair drones’ to speed up repairs and also do some covert intel recon. This is how we found out the Council’s plans for the eezo. The ship’s Asari commander had the blueprints to the crucible on her main computer, which Fenris was able to hack into.

     After the repairs were completed we escorted them through the relay and to the system. We wanted to keep this visit as short as possible so no one would suspect we weren’t who we said we were. While there we found the code the crucible uses to use the mass relays, or rather Aliya found it by rifling around their systems. So we reprogrammed it to atomize once it jumps through the relay.

We quickly left the system, on the other side of the relay we were approached by platoon of Reapers! Apparently they are grateful for our intervention with the crucible and bequeathed us with a cannon, apparently an adaptation of the very cannons they use! That’s a pretty big gun! Everyone was pretty excited, especially Lúthien. They then departed from the same relay that we exited from, apparently that was of great interest to Aliya.

     After a while of hypothesizing she asked an interesting question: what if we could program the relays to transport us from one relay to anywhere in the galaxy instead of following the determined relay system destinations. The commander agreed to let us explore a relay. Something that hasn’t been tried, or at least it hasn’t been publically stated that it has been tried.