Mass Effect: Knight of the Old Republic

While Revan waited for the Cerberus agent to get on with his proposal she took a moment to analyze the troopers surrounding her.

They concerned her because the armor they wore was a big departure from what she had seen the organization use previously.

Cerberus, like the Systems Alliance, had tended to use close-fitting hardsuits that focused on protecting the wearer from combat damage and while they had equipment to survive hostile environments, it was clearly not the suit’s primary function. These new troopers did not wear those. Instead they had much bulkier systems clearly meant to allow the trooper to operate in hostile environments for much longer and take much more punishment without additional support from an established facility or base.

That told Revan that Cerberus at the very least had squads that were prepared to deploy into enemy territory for long periods of time without support. And unless this was an elite team, which she somewhat doubted considering the mass produced look of much of the equipment, Cerberus was planning on expanding their operations in the near future.

This team might not even be here specifically for her. It was just a meeting of convenience.

“The Illusive Man was impressed, you know?” The only Cerberus agent not wearing the new armor said. “It’s true we gave you a lot of room because we wanted a cooperative relationship, but you managed to surprise all of us with the career change. Lone merc to Empress? And in only a few short months? Definitely impressive.”

“I’m glad you were entertained.” Revan said shortly. “But I’d rather hear this message so I can return to my rather busy schedule.”

“I’m sure. But that’s fine, we’re all busy people. Especially with the Reapers on the way.”

“Mhmm.”

“The Illusive Man is doing his best to make sure humanity is prepared for them, of course, pouring billions into making sure we have the weapons to fight them.” The operative made a gesture to the troopers surrounding her before reaching down to his belt and removing a metallic cylinder with a cable attached to one end. “But we both know your own tech would be much more useful. Simply reverse engineering the devices we’ve seen with the help of scavenged Reaper-tech has been a waste of time we can’t afford anymore.”

Revan watched with disbelief as the orange proto-saber hissed to life. The engineer in her was impressed that Cerberus’s scientists had managed to recreate a primitive form of her own weapons from merely observing a working model, but the rest of her was too busy reeling from the admission that they were using Reaper technology.

A thought chilled her to the bone as she looked at the faceless troopers surrounding her.

“You’ve been using Reaper-tech…in all your equipment?”

“Not all of it.” The operative denied with a negligent shrug. “But we’ve learned enough to use what we have safely.”

“Fools!” Revan hissed. “There is no way to use Reaper-tech safely, the core of its design is to open up anyone exposed to manipulation by its masters!”

“We have quite a few experts willing to prove you wrong. So about the Illusive Man’s offer, both of our groups want to stop the Reapers. We have the knowledge of their technology you can’t get and you have the weapons and industrial base to use it. Help supply Cerberus with the weapons it needs to prepare and we’ll share everything our researchers learned along with the materials.”

The Sith Empress didn’t even need to think about the offer. “If you are willingly using this technology the entirety of your organization is possibly Indoctrinated. There will be no cooperation between us if that is your plan.”

The man smiled. “You know, I was hoping you’d say that. Take her.” He ordered, but Revan had been expecting something like that if their conversation turned sour.

A short, omni-directional Force Push was enough to disrupt the balance of the Cerberus troopers long enough for Revan to draw her own sabers and attack.

Three troopers died before they recovered as Revan rushed to break the encirclement, their thicker armor not able to slow the Sith from cutting them down. But an issue occurred when she slashed at the operative with the proto-saber.

That he was able to recover fast enough to use his own saber to block one of her blades was not the issue. Nor was the fact Cerberus was able to find a crystal capable of withstanding the stress of meeting her lightsaber without shattering. Both those were expected and taken into account. The issue was that when Revan moved to bring her second blade down and bisect the Cerberus operative it was blocked by a handheld translucent blue shield like Revan had never seen before.

“Those powers of yours are more troublesome than I thought.” The agent sneered as the two of them fought to overpower the other. “But it seems they aren’t absolute.”

The Force cried out a warning and Revan threw herself out of the way as the rest of the troopers recovered their footing and opened fire. Her lightsabers spun rapidly to vaporize the majority of the incoming gunfire while her shields and armor dealt with the rest. The Empress looked back to the lead operative only to find him making his way back to the alleyway, intent on escape.

In one motion, Revan threw one of her lightsabers - impaling one of the troopers - and sent a torrent of Force Lightning after the man. Only for the man’s shield to spring to life again and completely block the attack.

“Don’t be so impatient, Revan.” The man taunted her as she was forced to cut off her assault and return to defending herself. “It’s not time for your legend to end just yet. Cerberus still has a role for you to play. Once that is complete then I will kill you.”

With those parting words, the Lead Agent fled. The remaining troopers didn’t stand a chance against the undivided attention of a full Sith Lady and were quickly killed soon after, but it was too late to chase after the one that got away.

“How arrogant.” Revan muttered to no one in particular as she returned her sabers to her belt.

The agent obviously never expected her to accept the Illusive Man’s proposal. And going by how quickly he retreated, this wasn’t even an assassination attempt. This entire situation was just a way for Cerberus to test their new technology against her.

Technology the Empress was going to be forced to respond to.

The proto-saber and that shield were interesting but with only a single example Revan wasn’t going to worry about unless more Cerberus agents started using them. The real issue was going to be the troopers’ new armor. The new design would greatly reduce the effectiveness of most of the galaxy’s preferred weapons and even Revan’s blasters would struggle against so much armor. But the biggest concern was the inclusion of Reaper-tech.

Cerberus had just declared themselves an enemy Revan couldn’t ignore. Just when she was about to launch a war against the Batarian Hegemony.

Not a situation she was prepared for.

It might be time to reach out to some of Shepard’s human contacts for help.

While the Sith doubted they would assist her with the Batarians, she hoped at least some of them would be willing to put pressure on Cerberus until she could free up some of her forces to handle both problems.

Revan sighed as she made her way back to her ship.

Noble as it might have been to allow herself to be judged for her actions regarding the Alpha Relay, Shepard was certainly not making things easy. Hopefully the Alliance courts would make their ruling soon so Revan could contact the Spectre and acquire her help with the human terrorist organization.

Force knew the last thing she needed was more distractions.

-o-

When Revan returned to Rannoch, she immediately called a meeting with her admirals to inform them of the new developments. And while the news that their Eezo supply problem was handled in the short term was a relief, the new development with Cerberus left everyone with concerns about future plans.

“Our biggest worries are going to be raiding and sabotage.” Han’Gerrel muttered as he looked at a digital map of the galaxy. “We don’t have enough new ships to stop Cerberus from hitting us from behind while we engage with the Hegemony and our older ones simply are too outdated to be a threat in small numbers.”

“What about Geth ships? We have been breaking them down at a rapid pace, but there are still enough for a decent size fleet. They should be able to act as escorts, surely?” Zaal’Koris suggested, only for the newly promoted Admiral Tali’Zorah to shake her head in disagreement.

“Against any other opponent definitely. But if Cerberus is using Reaper-tech we can’t be sure the Geth will be safe from virus attacks.”

“What about the Cerberus AI you were working with on the Normandy?” Daro’Xen asked. “Would it be able to tell us more about Cerberus’s E-warfare capabilities and how to defeat them?”

“No, EDI gave us everything she had, but was very clear that Cerberus held some things back before Commander Shepard took the Normandy for her mission. Probably programs they hadn’t cracked yet not to mention any raw Reaper code they managed to scrounge up.”

“No defense is guaranteed to work, and Geth frames are much easier to replace than organic bodies.” Han’Gerrel pointed out. “I say use them while we can and replace them as the new ships leave the docks.”

“No, Admiral Gerrel. We won’t be using the Geth on their own unless there is no choice.” Revan put her foot down. “Their old systems are too interconnected to risk a Reaper virus infecting them. Without the newer defenses, the entire Geth collective could be open for attack or they would be forced to isolate every ship while it is deployed. The former is unacceptable and the latter limits their ability to function too much.

“We’ll continue with our projected timeline and the ships we have regardless of Cerberus’s potential interference. If they launch an attack against our forces we’ll leverage what we can with the Systems Alliance to put pressure on them. I doubt the rest of Citadel space will be very happy with a rogue organization with the capabilities they’ve revealed and will probably demand at least a task group to put pressure on their operations. From there we can–”

Revan was interrupted by an alarm going off and several demands for her attention popping up on her Omnitool. A quick glance confirmed that every person in the room was experiencing the same thing and considering this was a scheduled meeting and only high priority messages should be sent through until it was over? Something very bad just occurred.

Revan skimmed the first message that popped up. One of the spy ships they had monitoring Batarian space had just reported the planet they were observing had been attacked by an unknown force coming through the local system Mass Relay.

A second message from a different ship reported the same thing.

And the same from a third. And a fourth.

More and more ships were sending back messages about unknown forces showing up and attacking out of nowhere. It was impossible.

“Empress Revan…these reports…” Admiral Shala’Raan said hesitantly, unwilling to say what Revan already knew but unable to keep silent thanks to her role as leader of the Scout Fleet. It was her job to inform the rest of them about incoming threats, after all.

But Revan knew there was no point denying reality. There was simply no other known force capable of an attack of this scale.

“It seems we are going to have to completely scrap our plans.” The Sith Empress said gravely. “Cancel all deployments and ready every ship we have. And send a message to every species we can. We are out of time.”

“The Reapers are here.”