“...and then Eve just rips the Claymore out of Wrex’s hands and blows away the two troopers that showed up. You should have seen his face!” Shepard finished narrating as the rest of the room broke out in good humored laughter.

  She was feeling pretty good despite what happened on Sur’Kesh.

  Yes, the mission started off rocky and only got worse when Cerberus attacked. But everyone made it through with only a few cuts and bruises at worst and they succeeded in retrieving the surviving female Krogan. Mordin had joined back up and was working on completing the Genophage cure after taking over nearly a third of the medbay. And most importantly, the treaty between the Krogan and Turians looked like it was going to go through. They were finally making solid strides towards a coordinated effort against the Reapers.

  “What about you, Revan? We never managed to link back up during the attack, any stories you want to share?” She asked their resident evil Empress, who was actually not wearing her visor for once. Considering her team ended up facing an Atlas on foot, she was half expecting the Elf to say she fought an armoured division by herself.

  “I ended up running into almost a dozen Cerberus infiltrators with proto-sabers.” Revan replied while typing furiously on a datapad, causing several heads to snap towards her.

  “Wait…proto-sabers? Are those what I think they are?” Garrus asked. “Cerberus has versions of your lightsabers now?”

  Revan shook her head. “Nowhere near as refined. Emitted blades connected to an external powerpack with several flaws in their design.”

  Which Shepard felt was missing the point a bit. “But they are still plasma blades that can cut through nearly anything with minimal effort?”

  “I suppose, but it would be like comparing a modern firearm to a black powder flintlock. Even a shoddily constructed lightsaber would have a chance of causing the powerpack to overload with enough hits or crack the focusing crystal.”

  Shepard rubbed her eyes in annoyance. “Right, you mean the weapon only one person in the galaxy knows how to make.”

  “Not true. There is a Jedi sect in the Asari Republic capable of making them that I’ve crossed blades with twice now. And a possible quarian offshoot I’m still investigating.”

  “WHAT?!” Liara all but explodes. “When was this? Why don’t we know about it?!”

  “The first time was after we split up after the Collector mission. If I remember correctly you and Shepard had left the planet urgently for some reason.”

  Shepard held back a groan.

  Revan was talking about when they had to rush to take down the previous Shadow Broker after he sent a hit squad after Liara. With everything going on afterwards, Liara probably missed it. Or someone had misreported it.

  Now she was almost afraid to ask what the second encounter had been like.

  “Wait, I remember that incident.” Liara said. “A Justicar was killed by an unconfirmed party…if that was you…are you saying this Jedi sect is impersonating Justicars!?”

  “That or they genuinely belong to the Justicars and are just a specialized sub-group.” Revan admitted. “I haven’t had the opportunity to find out much about them without them attempting to kill me.”

  “But you’re saying there are other groups using lightsabers in the galaxy.” James cut in. “That mean there's a chance for a few to slip our way? I wouldn’t say no to a few upgrades…”

  “Get in line, Vega.” Shepard half-joked. “I need to negotiate for everyone to get blaster rifles before you go asking for a fancy glowstick.” She didn’t tell him Revan had already shipped over enough to outfit everyone on the Normandy. If anyone was getting a lightsaber on her ship, she was going to be first!

  “Bah, they aren’t that great anyway.” Wrex grumped. “No weight to them, no heft. If I’m getting close enough to hit something, I want to feel it.”

  “You're just mad Revan won’t let you play with hers.” Shepard teased as she felt a message buzz on her omnitool. Hackett wanted a meeting, and it looked like he invited Revan too unless she just happened to get a message at the same time.

  “Or he’s just sore from all the tests Mordin needed.” Garrus jabbed. “I heard something about needles…”

  Wrex glared at him. “Watch it, Vakarian.”

  “Play nice boys.” Shepard shook her head. “Anyways, I should go. I need to speak with the Admiral.”

  Revan stood at the same time which confirmed her guess about the message she got, and the two of them headed to the QEC room. A few minutes later, they were greeted by the blue holographic form of Admiral Hackett.

  “Commander, good to see you.” The increasingly haggard looking Admiral greeted once the connection was complete. “And Empress Revan, thank you for coming. I wish we were meeting under better conditions, but the Reapers are making things difficult.”

  “How’s the fight going?” Shepard asked, worried by his tone.

  “Mostly the same. We’re holding but bleeding a little more with every battle. Though news that the Reapers have actually been defeated a few times thanks to your friend has kept morale up quite a bit.” Hackett replied. “I also heard chatter you’re attempting to broker a treaty between the krogan and the turians?”

  “If I get krogan boots on Palaven, the turians promised their support.” Shepard confirmed, before grimacing. “It's a work in progress.”

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Wrex wasn’t going to move until his people had a completed cure. The promise of one a few years down the line wasn’t enough to satisfy him. And Primus Victus wasn’t going to send aid until the krogan were on the ground. To make things more complicated, both of them had mentioned additional issues that they refused to discuss with others present.

  Shepard had initially thought Wrex was only holding back to needle the turian leader, but he had refused to talk about it with the rest of her ground team earlier when they were all trying to unwind.

  Thankfully Hackett just nodded at the report and moved on. “And how did Cerberus get involved?”

  “I don’t know.” She spread her hands helplessly.

  “I have a theory about that, actually.” Revan spoke up unexpectedly causing both of them to look at her. “While Shepard was busy retrieving the female krogan, I was listening to some of the conversations around the base. Unidentified aircraft in the area, encrypted messages being passed from inside the base.”

  “You think there was an infiltrator?” Hackett asked.

  “I think there was an inside informant. One highly ranked enough to not only know about Shepard retrieving the female Krogan, but also one that could convince an STG agent to send a signal moments before she would be the most vulnerable.” Revan corrected. “The timing of the attack was already suspicious. The bomb planted in the elevator and Cerberus specifically targeting the female Krogan despite the STG efforts to bury her status and location strains credibility. That Cerberus was able to slip that large of a strike force onto the Salarian homeworld without notice is ridiculous.”

  Shepard rocked back on her heels at the thought of what Revan was laying out. That a highly positioned Salarian had sold them out to Cerberus to stop the possibility of a Genophage cure, and by extension any hope of a treaty.

  This wasn’t just some middling bureaucrat.

  “You’re saying the Dalatrass betrayed us.” She whispered.

  The Sith nodded. “Of course I have no solid evidence I could present and any ties to the event will have been thoroughly covered up by now.”

  “That isn’t good. If Cerberus and the Salarian government are working together–” Hackett started before Revan interrupted again.

  “I don’t believe it's an official alliance. In fact I am inclined to believe this was a personal decision from the Dalatrass out of convenience. Otherwise I doubt Cerberus would have felt the need to raid an unrelated lab for archeological data about a digsite on somewhere called Eden Prime.”

  Shepard shared a look with the Admiral. “That’s where we found the beacon.” She said. “The one that warned us about the Reapers in the first place.”

  “And a good place for Cerberus to look if they think the Protheans left more behind like they did on Mars.” Hackett nodded. “There was a small security flotilla stationed there, but they went dark recently…” He trailed off before seemingly snapping to a decision. “Shepard, I know you have your hands full trying to broker the treaty, but the Normandy is the only ship we have that can get a closer look without drawing attention. Can you investigate?”

  “I’ll find the time, sir.” Shepard agreed. Besides, it wasn’t like Wrex or the Primarch were going to budge until they had the completed cure.

  “Good. And speaking of the protheans, I have an update about the device you found, Commander.” Hackett said. “Alliance R&D has officially started construction. They are calling it 'Project Crucible’. We’re throwing everyone who knows how to swing a hammer at it, but we could always use more hands.” He looked at Revan. “The Quarians and Geth are among the most advanced engineers in the galaxy. Can we count on the Sith Empire’s assistance in the construction?”

  “Unfortunately not.” The Empress said bluntly. “Not at the moment at least. My entire workforce is tied up in weapons and ship construction. I simply don’t have anyone to send.”

  Hackett frowned at the refusal and Shepard couldn’t help but feel a bit hurt.

  Revan had been the first to declare her support…and now she was holding back. Something wasn’t adding up.

  “You have the biggest fleet in the galaxy.” Hackett pointed out a bit accusingly.

  “And the most outdated and disparate.” Revan countered. “The Quarian fleet hasn’t been properly maintained for decades at the least and the Geth ships have no life support systems. Outside of direct combat they are mostly useless. The only ships I can reliably call on for every scenario are my Star Destroyers and like I said, I have every hand I have dedicated to making more.” Her amethyst eyes turned to meet Shepard’s green ones squarely. “And not just those. Blaster rifles, shields, vehicles, and more…everything is being produced as quickly as we can make it in preparation to supply the Empire’s allies. Focus on your device if you wish, I will focus on making sure you have enough time to build it.”

  “We’ll take everything we can get.” He nodded. “Shepard, keep up the good work. Hackett out.”

  -o-

  “So what’s the real reason you don’t want to send help for the Crucible?”

  Revan closed her eyes and silently cursed Shepard’s habit of pulling information together.

  “I wasn’t lying when I said I needed all the hands I have working on producing war material to fight the Reapers.”

  “I believe that.” The Commander nodded. “But I know enough about engineering from talking with Tali that you are going to have idle teams at times. Not to mention the Geth can share skills across platforms. You don’t need every single one of them working all the time. Actually, I don’t think you could have them all working even if you wanted them too, so there’s another reason. Spill.”

  Revan was tempted to deflect further, but the flash of hurt she had picked up from Shepard made her pause. Revan wasn’t particularly close with very many people in the galaxy. Partly because joining Shepard on her mission to investigate and eventually defeat the Collectors had limited how many people she interacted with, but also because Bastila’s betrayal had made her hesitant to allow people to get that close again.

  Yet, Shepard was the person Revan was closest with. It was unavoidable after the Sith had helped her deal with the trauma of her scars, the meditation sessions they had together, the spars and planning sessions…

  Shepard was probably the closest thing Revan had to a peer and a friend. So the Sith felt she at least deserved a bit of the truth.

  “Do you remember what I told you about how I found myself in this galaxy?” She asked.

  Shepard nodded hesitantly. “Something about being ambushed and an experimental hyperdrive?”

  “Yes, what I didn’t tell you was that it was a trick. A betrayal from my closest friend, someone I considered a sister in all but blood.” Revan began. “She had a vision that an ancient device we were in control of would corrupt me and send me spiraling into becoming a threat to the galaxy we were trying to save.”

  Shepard was quiet for a moment. “...I’m guessing that was Bastila? You mentioned that name on the derelict Reaper and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that pissed off at something before.”

  The Sith nodded in confirmation.

  “What kind of device was it? That she thought the only way to stop you from using it was to run you off to another galaxy entirely?”

  “It was an automated factory. A massive facility built by a fallen empire that could build entire fleets by harvesting material from a nearby star. The downside was the Star Forge was steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. It would push anyone using it to be more aggressive, more warlike.”

  “Okay, but you were preparing for a war you knew was coming, as long as you knew about the effects, shouldn’t that be worth the risk?”

  Revan shook her head. “You are assuming that the users would remain united against the approaching threat. Remember the Dark Side promotes individuality, chaos, and instinct. Nothing inherently unacceptable, but one of the many reasons the Infinite Empire no longer exists in my galaxy is that they became incapable of working together. It was one of the factors that pushed my apprentice to betray me as well. After I seized control of the Star Forge again, I made sure to restrict how many people interacted with it and made sure they were capable of resisting the influence. There were a few near incidents that were stopped but Bastila supposedly decided that if I Fell, I wouldn’t be stopped. So I had to be removed before then.”

  “Supposedly?”

  Revan shrugged slightly. “I did some reflection when I faced an illusion of her on the Reaper. It’s possible she saw the Reaper threat here and manipulated things so I would arrive here while she continued to prepare for our own omnicidal invasion.”

  “That…okay, going to ignore that for now. What does that have to do with the Crucible?”

  “The Star Forge was a weapon that allowed whoever controlled it to make an automated armada that could bring the entire galaxy to heel with enough time.” Revan said. “I could have simply waited until I had a force so massive that no one could resist. But I never trusted it.

  “From the beginning, my plan was to convince the Republic to fortify and rearm itself. To build up its own strength to repel the Vong. Relying on a device I did not fully understand with the fate of the galaxy was impossible. For all we knew there was some kind of flaw or hidden threat that could cause us to lose control.

  “The Crucible is like that.

  “It’s a device that we know nothing about. Know nothing about what it does or even where it comes from. For all we know it is a trap set by the Reapers designed to waste our time and resources in a final bid for survival when it could be spent fighting the Reapers directly.”

  “Not all of us have super ships capable of fighting the Reapers evenly.” Shepard pointed out.

  “I know. Which is why I don’t blame your admirals for pushing the project. But I can’t support it. Not without knowing more about it.”

  Shepard let out a long puff of air and looked at the ceiling. “Okay. Can’t blame you for that. Besides, it’s not like you aren’t helping. I just don’t want to think about what happens if our best hope turns out to be a trap like you think.”

  “It’s entirely possible I’m wrong.” Revan admitted. “If that’s the case you’ll have my full support, but until then like I told your Admiral, I’ll focus on fighting the Reapers directly so you have the time you need to finish the Crucible.”

  “We have plenty of other problems too. Are you hanging around until we hit Eden Prime?”

  The Sith shook her head. “I need to return to the Terminus Systems. There’s a pirate fleet disrupting my supply lines that are remarkably adept at detecting when our patrol fleets are out of position. I suspect the Jedi have something to do with it.”

  Revan felt a pang of disappointment from the Commander before it was buried under a surge of determination. “Sounds like we’ve both got our work cut out for us then. Just remember, our alliance goes both ways. If you ever need help just ask.”

  “I’ll be sure to.”