Briefed on the Situation of the Galaxy

You peruse the Presidium as you take your first step outside as a free man. You take a deep breath through your nose, and let it out slowly through your mouth. "Why didn't we see this sooner?"

Bau looks at you questioningly, but says nothing.

"All the trouble in the Galaxy... Rachni, rogue Spectres, ACTUAL Spectres, merc groups, slavers, terrorism, and now Reapers, and everyone here just seems so oblivious to it all," you elaborate.

"Not everyone," Jondam Bau replied.

"Shepard and their crew," you state.

"Not just them. According to intel gathered by Ria, Spectre Arterius and a merc named Harper may have been aware of the threat posed by the Reapers long before Commander Shepard," Bau informs you. "If true, it only further highlights the threat of indoctrination."

"What do you mean?" you ask as the two of you began to make your way to the Spectre Office near the Human Councilor's Office using the rapid transit. After checking out the aircar for listening devices and finding none, the two of you resume your conversation.

Bau looks grim. "The human merc named Jack Harper only shows up sporadicaly in a small number of Alliance reports, pre-First Contact. After First Contact with the turians, he appears on a number of heavily encrypted, classified, turian documents during the Siege of Shanxi, along with Spectre Arterius in an incident revolving around Saren's older brother, the Temple of Palavan and some very Reaper-like cybornetics. Harper disappeared not long after that, though some circles believe him to be the one who published the Cerberus Manifesto."

"The Illusive Man was one of the few to believe Shepard," you whisper contemplatively. "And he didn't have a Council all too willing to bury their heads in the muck."

Bau nods. "Intel from the Shadow Broker indicates that The Illusive Man might be Indoctrinated, though this remains largely unconfirmed."

"Have you passed any of this along to Kirahee's group yet?" you inquire.

"Some. He informed me he's already begun mobilizing as many operatives he can in an effort to aid Shepard regardless of what any Dalatrass might decide," Bau informs you.

"What's going on?" you ask with concern. The fact that your government might be staying largely out of the war effort was more than a little concerning.

"With the Council still looking out for their own interests, the Turian Primarch, Fedorian, called a peace summit to organize some sort of mass united counter-offensive against the Reapers, only The Reapers shortly after invaded Palavan, killing the Primarch and his immediate successor," Bau continued to brief you.

"I heard a bit about that while in lock-up," you tell him.

"Here's where things get complicated," Bau states. "The new Primarch, Victus, invited the recently named Krogan Overlord, Urdnot Wrex, to the summit."

"The very same Overlord who has spent most of the last three years uniting his people in a way they haven't been since the Krogan Rebellions?" you asked with cynical sarcasm, "I'll bet the Dalatrasses loved that!"

Bau glances at you disapprovingly. "The threat of a united Krogan people, even with the genophage still in effect, is a very serious matter."

"Maybe, but one that would be effective if pointed at the Reapers," you argue. "As much as our people and the asari like to bask in our perceived superiority, no other species in the galaxy war like the turians or humans, except for the krogan."

"True," Bau concedes. "Unfortunately, the Dalatrasses are as spiteful as ever, given that they sent Linron in retaliation."

You grimace.

While salarians were culturally indoctrinated to hate krogan on mere principle (something krogan also did towards salarians), Dalatrass Linron hated krogan with an almost zealot-like passion. No peace summit, no matter how needed, would end well if Linron was **** to sit in the same room as a krogan.

"As much as I distrust krogan in general, that was my response as well," Bau admitted. "Not that it did them any good in the face of Primarch Victus, Overlord Wrex and Commander Shepard. Urdnot Wrex's contacts within STG revealed that there was the start of a viable cure for the genophage on Sur'Kesh."

"Wiks or Solus?" you ask.

Both were lowkey sympathetic to the krogan, not that the Dalatrasses knew. STG, while bound to follow the orders and edicts of the Dalatrasses, were more often than not, more loyal to their brothers in arms. Of course, it helped that not all salarians hated krogan like all good salarians were supposed to. There was also the fact that those within the Spectres, like Bau, who did still dislike the krogan on principle, were far too practical to let centuries long petty grudges get in the way of preserving galactic peace and stability.

"Likely, both. Perhaps Kirahee too, though highly unlikely. It's hard to say, really. Urdnot Wrex isn't like your typical krogan. Far less predictable. He's smart and tends not to hold needless grudges. He might be slow to trust salarians as a whole, but he doesn't hate individuals simply because they're salarian," Bau replied. "Either way, the sole surviving krogan female has been released to the custody of the Normady, with Dr. Solus synthesizing a cure to secure krogan aid for Palaven, so that Palaven can allocate resources to help the Alliance defeat the Reapers."

"How's that going?" you ask.

"No word yet, though the Normandy is once more docked here at The Citadel," Bau answers.

"I'd've thought they'd be headed straight for Tuchanka," you reply.

Bau frowns. "We're looking into it."