Crossing all of my digits now. Readiness rating: 100%. Total Military Strength: 8092. Effective Military Strength: also 8092.
Please let the end of this game suck less than I dread it will!
With that prayer typed out, I set a course for Cerberus Central.
Hackett explains the stakes via holo-call, that once we start we're committed, giving me one last chance to back out. But no, we're ready.
Another dream sequence, in which I hear the voices of Thane, Legion, and Samara. The kid runs into the arms of...me (pretty sure that isn't my clone) and then I watch both of them burn. When will I find out what these are all about?
As the assembled forces under Hackett's command assault the Cerberus base, EDI says she should go with me. This is the kind of thing that gives me sort of a bad feeling, taking the Cerberus-created AI to the Cerberus base where her Cerberus creators are. I'll just have to hope that I earned EDI's undying loyalty and, picking Kaidan to fill out the group, I get moving.
Joker voices the same basic concerns I just did after learning EDI will go. He asks me to keep her safe.
Cortez flies the shuttle through the unwisely-still-wide-open hangar doors and the three of us begin shooting shit up.
They try to vent the hangar, but EDI puts a stop to that, so they decide to throw more mooks at us. We kill them, EDI uses the fighter launch controls to bring up a fighter and make sure it's facing the sealed doors to the interior of the base, and uses the ship as a battering ram. More mooks, more making mooks die, and we press on...
Oh lovely. In addition to learning that there will be engineers ahead setting up turrets—and I just love getting shot by turrets—EDI informs us that these troops are being used as cannon fodder to slow us down, and that they aren't expected to survive. Why is Cerberus throwing them into the meat grinder? Because Cerberus has taken to bolstering their ranks by capturing and brainwashing civilians! I'm having to shoot people who never had a choice. This really sucks.
As EDI works on opening another door, she directs me to a console that allows me to watch video of the Illusive Man talking to a scientist about the Lazarus project. In the first entry I learn that I was brain-dead when they got me. I'm actually surprised I was breathing at all. In the second entry the scientist says that I survived Akuze, where thresher maws wiped out my whole unit as part of a Cerberus experiment. The Illusive Man says that I won't hold a grudge and that I'll realize we have to work together. And the third and final entry shows the Illusive Man ordering a crew assembled that I'll be happy to work with: Joker, Chakwas, Ken & Gabby, Garrus, Tali, etc.
More mooks, and those turrets I was so looking forward to. I hope there's extra medi-gel lying around here somewhere. After that, there's another door for EDI to hack, and another console with more videos.
Holy crap, they're talking about EDI's creation, and it turns out she's a combination of the rogue VI I killed in the first game on Earth's moon and Reaper tech! EDI says she's pleased that her relationship with organics has become more cooperative. The second entry here has the Illusive Man insisting that EDI is Just a Machine and an "it" rather than a "she". Hopefully that has not endeared him to her. The third entry shows the Illusive Man being pissed after EDI refused to help him spy on the people aboard the Normandy after we left Cerberus and just sent them a lot of porn instead, presumably as a joke. But "it" doesn't make jokes, the Illusive Man insists, and orders them to create a new VI, named "Eva", who will stay loyal. Um. Let's hope that if any of Eva's personality remains in that body, that it can't influence EDI to betray us.
I'm being really nice to EDI here. Please don't let her turn on us!
Hackett calls in to ask about our status, and mentions that this isn't Akuze and he wants everybody coming out alive. SO DO I!!!
More video logs, this time of Kai Leng. He underwent "therapy" at Cerberus' hands, including cybernetic enhancement, and the Illusive Man tells him he reminds him of me. Later on, the Illusive Man says he's not writing me off as a total loss just yet, and hopefully that isn't anything to be worried about.
We find the remains of the human-shaped Reaper from the Collector base, which Cerberus somehow managed to scavenge. Kaidan says he wished he had been there to help, but Shepard tells him he's here now. EDI says that the thing's heart is being used as a power source by Cerberus.
We climb up through the dead proto-Reaper and finally fight our way to a long hallway with a long ramp leading up to a well-lit door. Wouldn't it be anticlimactic if neither the Illusive Man nor Kai Leng were behind that thing? Kaidan, EDI, let's open it and see...
It's the Illusive Man's office! And he isn't there, but a holo of him is. I try to talk him out of what he's doing, but he still isn't listening. Then he talks to EDI (oh, so NOW he's talking to her like she's a person instead of a machine?) saying he's surprised at her for trying to bring about the destruction of the Reapers, and how she decided to control Eva's body instead of destroying it, which is the same thing he wants to do with the Reapers. Shepard tells her not to listen to him, and I'm silently hoping that she'll take that advice until the very end.
Then the Prothean VI is brought online and reveals that the Catalyst is...the Citadel! Before I ask for any more information, I guess that kind of makes sense. We're talking about a weapon that needs to affect the entire galaxy. The Citadel mass relay connects to mass relays all over the galaxy.
Oh. Fucking. Shit. That idiot the Illusive Man told the Reapers about this, and so they attacked the Citadel and moved it. To Earth's system.
Well, at least I'll get to take out my frustrations on Kai Leng now! For the first time (he never did it in the first fight) Kai manages to get close enough to melee me, which never ends well when I face Phantoms but in this case I'm able to fight him off and put some distance between us. During the fight I say what I've seen said elsewhere: he ran on the Citadel and he ran on the Citadel, and that pisses him off. Not that it does him any good, since I soon beat him.
He tries to pick himself up and backstab me. I take the Renegade interrupt to stop him because when you're about to get stabbed any interrupt is a good idea, right? I break his sword, stab him with my omni-blade, and tell him that was for Thane, you son of a bitch. And Kai Leng, seemingly, dies. Although one of the things I happened to read in my unsuccessful attempts to avoid spoilers was that Kai's status was up in the air, which I don't see how that can be considering he looks very dead to me. Still, they were able to bring me back from the dead, so who's to say the same can't be done with him?
Total Military Strength and Effective Military Strength are now both at 8117. Hopefully that will be enough...we're about to Take Back Earth.
