This meeting was getting nowhere. Metal creaked slightly as John's grip tightened a touch too much on the steel railings of the speaker's platform. Above him, the members of the Council retained their usual demeanors, even as Councilor Udina railed futilely. They had a point--while Earth burned, the turians, asari, and salarians had to look after their own constituents and client states as well. To redirect their armies to the Sol System would almost certainly leave their forces and supply lines stretched thin. To compound the issue, only the turians had the manpower and mindset capable of going toe to toe with a Reaper force--the asari reliance on small commando units and the salarians' asymmetrical warfare techniques were useless in the face of an enemy that knew no fear, had no logistics, and possessed nigh impregnable communications and nearly endless reserves. Despite the anger he felt against the Council's seeming ingratitude for the Alliance's deeds, the points made were all reasonable.<br/><br/>'However,' said the asari Councilor, 'if our borders were to be secured properly, we will do what we can to aid the Alliance. You mentioned that Dr. Liara T'soni uncovered some manner of Prothean device? Can it be used to aid the war effort?'<br/><br/>John shrugged. 'That was the gist of the message, ma'am, but Dr. T'soni did not send me her full write-up. She's currently back with Commander Shepard, so the best answer I can give you is to wait until--'<br/><br/>'There's no need,' said a familiar voice from behind. Shepard and Liara, still armored and looking as tired and worn as the<span style="font-style: italic">Midway's</span>crew, hurried into the meeting. Shepard gave her counterpart a weary smile. Liara pulled up a holo of a bulbous, elongated machine, simple yet elegant in design, bringing it up to a larger size for all to see. Upon reading the notes Liara attached to the image, John realized that it was an installation or space vessel of colossal scale, beyond even the largest dreadnoughts fielded by the Citadel races.<br/><br/>'This,' Liara began, 'is the Crucible. I have not translated the entirety of the texts regarding its purpose, but this is a latchkey discovery. The Protheans believed that it could have turned the course of the war had they not started its construction so late.'<br/><br/>The salarian Councilor squinted, appraising the holo presented before him. 'This design does not seem entirely Prothean in origin--the geometries and architectural techniques do not match those of most Prothean designs.'<br/><br/>Liara nodded. 'That is because it may not be of Prothean origin at all. Some of the tablets I studied made use of the word, "discovery", which seems to indicate that they derived this design from an even older precursor species. Its exact purpose or function is still unknown to me, but given time--'<br/><br/>'We understand, Doctor,' interrupted the asari Councilor. 'Please keep us updated on the data and your findings. If that device is central to this war effort, rest assured that we will allocate whatever resources we can to its completion and security.'<br/><br/>'And me as well,' said Udina. 'I'll get that data to Naval Command and whatever scientific personnel I can pull together.'<br/><br/>'That still leaves us with the issue of Earth,' Shepard said. 'Is there anything at all you can send to help the Alliance?'<br/><br/>The Council responded with a unified negative. They told her what they told John--that if Earth had fallen so quickly, they, too, had to watch and protect their own borders. John, Shepard, Liara, and Udina departed. Thus far, the politicians had lived down to their expectations.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">___</div><br/>'It's a load of political bullshit,' muttered Udina, somewhat hypocritically. 'Shepard saves their lives at the cost of countless Alliance souls and for what? Platitudes and half-hearted apologies.'<br/><br/>As before, John forced his biases and rage aside, calming his humors and letting reason take the stage. 'Ambassador, we'd be doing the same thing in their shoes. What we need to do now is figure out a way to deal. If we can scratch the other Council races' backs, maybe they'll scratch ours.'<br/><br/>'I may be able to help with that,' said Councilor Sparatus. 'Ambassador, I'm not officially capable of simply sending you an army outright, but we may be able to come to an arrangement.'<br/><br/>Shepard raised an eyebrow at this. 'Let's hear it, Councilor.'<br/><br/>The turian shifted uneasily, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of back-channel politicking. 'To put it simply, you need a primarch. If you can secure the support of a turian primarch, Earth would have a very powerful ally in this war.'<br/><br/>John leaned forward in his seat. 'So what's the catch?'<br/><br/>'Palaven is under attack, Commander. Simply put, we're being pushed back. Aiding Palaven will go a long way to raising turian support. We may have numbers and firepower, but the Reapers can beat us at our own game.'<br/><br/>Shepard responded as expected--with the obligatory air quotes. 'Ah yes, "Reapers", so-called divine bringers of death with the power to end all life in the galaxy. We have dismissed that claim.'<br/><br/>Sparatus tried to piece together some sort of response. It sounded like a mishmash of unintelligible syllables and half-finished curses.<br/><br/>'You'll have your support, Councilor,' Shepard said. 'In times like these, we'll all suffer together whether we like it or not.'<br/><br/>'Um. Very well, then. Thank you, Commander Shepard.' With that, Sparatus left Udina's office.<br/><br/>John rose from his seat, catching Shepard on the shoulder as she stepped out. 'You sure you want to take this mission? My team can--'<br/><br/>'Relax. You've had it worse than us. Your crew needs some rest.'<br/><br/>He couldn't argue with that. Despite the temporary loss of Kaidan Alenko on Mars, Shepard's crew was still fresh by comparison. Where Saber had tackled Reapers and cutthroat urban combat, Shepard and her team had only dealt with mortal Cerberus forces at the Martian Archives. It was a moot point, figuring out who was more up to the task.<br/><br/>'We'll be fine.' Shepard gave his shoulder a light punch. 'Just stay safe while we're gone, alright?'<br/><br/>'Alright. I'll refrain from doing anything stupid in the meantime.' Bullshit, obviously. Idiotic ploys were here to stay. Shepard called him on it with a knowing smirk. Ever since the Skyllian Blitz, she knew just what sort of playbook he followed.<br/><br/>'Don't make promises you know you can't keep, John.'<br/><br/>As she departed for the<span style="font-style: italic">Normandy</span>docking bay, Bau materialized from behind, dropping his cloaking field. Like John, the salarian had spent their whole sleepless journey studying the numbers and datafeeds coming in from countless systems, analyzing indoctrination, communications, and  financial data to get an idea of the war effort's progress. Thus far, progress had gone poorly. In almost all non-Alliance systems, purchases of luxury goods, civilian industrial machinery, foodstuffs, and civilian starship parts vastly outweighed those of military goods and medicine. Galactic media focused more on the latest trivia and celebrity tripe rather than on the impending apocalypse. Granted, simply cutting everything to broadcast the Reapers' arrival would only complicate things by inciting mass hysteria and panic. Still, it was distressing how little the galaxy seemed to care. They weren't ready. Not for war. Not for the scale of the atrocities the Reapers and their servants could cause. However, there was a curious hiccup in today's feeds that deserved attention.<br/><br/>'Alliance after-action report,' Bau said. 'A botched joint-op with hanar agents. The hanar operatives' behavior doesn't match standard mission doctrine.'<br/><br/>'And if you take it with these messages between Kahje and the Citadel, the diplomatic delegation here uses the same codenames as the ones the hanar operatives used to refer to the Reaper artifacts during the raid. There's also something here about "special research assignments".'<br/><br/>The salarian scratched idly at his chin. 'Precisely. There's something fishy here, Commander, and I intend to get to the bottom of it.'<br/><br/>'You think they're indoctrinated?' John said.<br/><br/>'Almost certain.'<br/><br/>'Where did you get this info, anyway? Even with your skills, I imagine cracking Alliance encryption would take longer.'<br/><br/>'I got it from a thief I've been tracking on the side. Her name is Kasumi Goto.'<br/><br/>Oh. Crap. John brought up his omni-tool and began uploading the data to the others. 'One to Team, you should be getting some data inload from me right about now. We've got a situation here on the Citadel. See if you can find anything regarding the hanar diplomatic delegation on your ends. Five and I will scrub the embassies.'