So, finally done with Part III of Ayla's story. Having a bit of a writer's block right now, so hopefully it isn't too dull to read. I also wanted to include the Rachni mission in this part, but I just couldn't come up with something nice. *shrugs* Perhaps tomorrow.
I will also try to comment on some of the other Shepards posted here since yesterday later tonight.
Ayla's Story - Part IIIAyla began to like her new Communications Specialist, Samantha Traynor. She might not know or acknowledge it herself, yet, but she was very good at what she did. Traynor herself insisted that EDI had helped her, but she had deduced by herself that something was wrong with the signal of the turian cruiser that had answered the evacuation request from Grissom Academy. She had EDI analize it and it turned out that the turian signal was false, just like it had been when the Illusive Man claimed that a turian cruiser had managed to take out a Collector Ship. Grissom Academy wasn't evacuated, it was under attack by Cerberus!
Shepard wasted no further time and ultimately managed to save almost all students still on board. There was one girl she couldn't save; Cerberus carelessly gunned her down, like she was some kind of animal. No, less than an animal even. And when she read what Cerberus planned to do to these students... it was then that Ayla decided that the Illusive Man was already beyond redemption.
While the students were throwing out some impressive biotic powers, Ayla agreed with Jack, who had become a teacher at Grissom Academy, that they weren't ready for the front lines. They would go to war, but instead as a support unit. The students didn't like it, but Ayla couldn't care less. Once they saw the horrors of war for themselves, they would be grateful.
The next mission led Shepard and her team to Eden Prime, the place where it all began three years ago. Ayla sometimes wondered how her life would look if she hadn't pushed Kaidan away from the Prothean Beacon, only for herself to almost die from the visions that filled her head, visions of the destruction of the Prothean Empire. Of course, she knew it had no use thinking about it; if they hadn't stopped Saren, the Reapers would already have won the war. Now they at least still stood a chance against those monsters...
It was strange, seeing a real, living Prothean awaken ride under their noses. It must have been even weirder for him, given the reaction he gave upon seeing Ayla, Liara and EDI . It appeared that the 50.000 years of stasis had not hindered his biotic abilities, as he literally blew them away. Ayla wondered if this was what her enemies felt when she pounded them with her Nova attack?
Earlier, when the pod whas still closed, Liara wondered what role the Prothean played in his society. Perhaps he was a scientist, or maybe a wise councilor. Back on the Normandy it became clear that she couldn't have been more wrong. This Prothean, or Javik, as he called himself, was not only a soldier, he was the embodiment of vengeance. He was also quite rude and arrogant… Ayla didn't exactly like him, but she needed all the help she could get, so he was allowed to stay.
Meanwhile, the Turian Primarch was getting impatient and Ayla couldn't exactly blame him. It was time for the war summit to commence and the Turians, Krogan and Salarians (the Asari didn't bother showing up, not trusting the Krogan) were quick to agree with the Normandy serving as 'neutral ground'. There was nothing neutral about the negotiations, though.
The Salarian Dalatrass proved to be a complete ****, one that would rather wage a pointless war against the Reapers, a war they would surely lose, than help cure the genophage so that the Turians, Krogan, Humanity and the Salarians would stand united against the Reapers. At least she couldn't deny Wrex the Krogan females, who were immune to the genophage and were kept prisoner on a STG base on Sur'Kesh.
The STG base proved tightly secured, but not tight enough to prevent Cerberus from assaulting the base. Luckily, there was one Salarian willing to help Shepard and the Krogan as best he could. While only one female had survived, even though Ayla had saved Maelon's data, logs inside the base made clear that Padok Wiks did everything he could to keep them alive when all the other Salarians would've left the females to die.
There was another friendly Salarian on the base, though. While it seemed that he felt indifferent about the Krogan females, Major Kirrahe was quick to assure her the support of STG in retaking earth from the Reapers, no matter what the Dalatrass would decide.
As for Wiks, well, he proved to be a little bit... odd... back on the Normandy. Maybe that was why Ayla immediately liked him. He was smart and quite the deep thinker, but at the same time he called Krogan children "large and presumably irritable infants" and he seemed a little bit too interested in how Krogan mate ("Very clumsily!" according to Eve). He also punched Mordin in the face once.
***
"EDI? Busy with something?"
"Excuse me, Shepard, I was just talking with Chief Engineer Adams about the updated Reaper IFF."
Ayla suddenly heard Adams' voice over the speaker. She decided to listen to their conversation, maybe she could learn something from it.
"…So I'm looking at the tests for the IFF upgrade. It looks like you've got a few million duplicate encryption keys."
Duplicate encryption keys?"That is correct. I keep them in the system in case I need to restart a particular key's evolution."
"The keys evolve?" Adams asked.
Yeah, what's up with that?"Reaper interrogation signals do not simply look for a friendly transponder code, they look for a friendly intelligence. The extra keys help me seamlessly swap in simulated intelligence identifiers from divergent synthetic origins."
"I see," she heard Adams say. "So we need all the copies to seem like a living Reaper."
Makes sense.EDI nodded. "Yes. I tried saying,
"HUMANS ARE DUST IN THE STELLAR WIND," but apparently that is no longer sufficient."
Ayla almost threw the coffee she was holding in her hand at Joker in surprise. EDI did not only imitate what a Reaper would say, but also how he would say it! To suddenly hear Harbinger's voice on the Normandy's bridge... She was prepared for a lot of things, but that wasn't one of them.
"EDI, that was a great impersonation of a Reaper."
"Thank you, Shepard."
"But… could you please not do that again?"
Retour en haut
. I'm going to vote #2 
. Go for the late romance!
). Thanks. 
Poor Jennifer. ). So, please meet Erin Shepard. My plan for her is to ultimately romance Garrus, whether she be paragon or renegade, she's leaning to renegade. A little early to tell yet. She's a colony kid who lost everything on Mindoir and then lost everything again on Akuze. It was a promise she made to her dad that's kept her moving forward. He made her promise to never let 'them' take her alive.
