There are spoilers after the break. Continue reading at your own risk.
Meriel's Journal, Entry Thirty-One
Location: The Citadel
Active Companions: Garrus/Williams
I don't know where to begin. Let it suffice to say that as of now I, the Normandy, and my crew are wanted fugitives. How did things get so bad? Well alright, that is a badly formed question. Clearly we are forced into vagrancy by the Council's and Ambassador Udina's actions.
Upon setting the Normandy's sights on the Citadel, Joker let me know that Udina wanted us to report in, because the Council was "massing a joint-species fleet to deal with Saran and his geth." After the hell my team had been through with this last mission, I felt broken down enough to actually take what the Ambassador said at face value. More the fool am I. Once at the meeting, we discovered that the Council now had "patrols" stationed at mass relays linking the Citadel to the Terminus Systems, but I'll be damned if they were going to do anything proactive like actually sending troops with me to Ilos. The Council and Udina kept stressing that everything must be done in "secrecy." What secrecy? Saran knows we are after him. Sovereign (whom they still do not believe in) knows we are after him. If he was laughing at humanity's puny efforts before, Sovereign is certainly breathless with mirth at this very moment. God forbid that the Council actually go after the menace bearing down on us instead of waiting for the menace to arrive at the Citadel - the administrative and power center of Citadel Space. In no planetary system can that strategy ever make sense.
If honest, I must say that I'm not terribly surprised by the Council's nonchalance about the whole matter. They made their skepticism quite clear after the last mission, and with so little faith in me (and that little respect for the lives lost), what more could one expect from them? I was taken aback, however, by Udina's outright betrayal of me. Sure he is and always has been a power hungry, power grabbing miscreant. This is common knowledge. I had just hoped that he would have been please to see "his" human Spectre leading (i.e. in control of) an alien fleet fighting to save Citadel Space from a rogue alien Spectre. Surely he would be able to see the strategic appeal of such a venture, and would be able to calculate all the fabulous things it would do for his position as humanity's ambassador should we succeed? Apparantly not. Instead, he nodded his head as the Salarian Councilman went on about how taking care of Saran needed a "deft touch", and then he announced that I was essentially placed under house arrest until this was all over. The Normandy was in lock down, and I had no way to exit the Citadel. "It's just politics," Udina said, making me sick to my stomach. "You've done your job, now let me do mine," he said, making Williams turn red with fury. Rendered speechless, I turned on my heel and walking proudly away. After everything I and my men have sacrificed for those bastards, they had absolutely no right to dismiss us so thoroughly. Clearly anything that needed to be done would not be accomplished by official means.
Thankfully Captain Anderson, God bless his soul, heard about our situation. Once I was back on the Normandy, trying to find away around the lock-down, Anderson contacted me through Joker. Anderson had a way to break the Normandy and send us on our way to Ilos. The problem? It meant that all of us would be committing an act of treason. I was not so worried about those aboard the Normandy - treason was only an issue if we were caught. No, Anderson was my main concern. He would be risking himself for our sake, and then would be left alone to deal with the fallout. The fact that I agreed to let him hack into a central computer, in order to unlock the Normandy's systems and get us back online, shows how truly desperate I was, am, to get to Ilos. Well, desperation was part of it. The other part was that Anderson and I have always been two of a kind. While more diplomatic than I, he understands the importance of what we do, even if the bureaucrats do not. Thus, I understood his need to do something, anything, if it helped put this matter to rest. It is nice to know that Anderson continues to have my back, despite the Council giving me control of his ship and crew.
I hope that the captain is alright. He promised to get the Normandy off the ground, and he followed through with his word. I just hope that the Council does not do something stupid when he's arrested for his part in all of this. Thanks to Joker's deft touch, we evaded all efforts to further detain us, and are now well on our way to Ilos. I had been afraid that the Normandy's crew might resist, but I should have known better. While they have not been out in the field with the rest of my team, they have often dealt with the fallout of many missions. They know what is at stake here. Even by-the-books Navigator/ Executive Officer Pressley is falling in with his support. "I know we'll all be court-martialed if this doesn't work out," he said when we last talked, "but part of me loves this!" It's true we may be court-martialed if this fails, but it's more likely that if this fails the Normandy's theft will be the least of ours (and the Council's) problems.
Upon setting the Normandy's sights on the Citadel, Joker let me know that Udina wanted us to report in, because the Council was "massing a joint-species fleet to deal with Saran and his geth." After the hell my team had been through with this last mission, I felt broken down enough to actually take what the Ambassador said at face value. More the fool am I. Once at the meeting, we discovered that the Council now had "patrols" stationed at mass relays linking the Citadel to the Terminus Systems, but I'll be damned if they were going to do anything proactive like actually sending troops with me to Ilos. The Council and Udina kept stressing that everything must be done in "secrecy." What secrecy? Saran knows we are after him. Sovereign (whom they still do not believe in) knows we are after him. If he was laughing at humanity's puny efforts before, Sovereign is certainly breathless with mirth at this very moment. God forbid that the Council actually go after the menace bearing down on us instead of waiting for the menace to arrive at the Citadel - the administrative and power center of Citadel Space. In no planetary system can that strategy ever make sense.
If honest, I must say that I'm not terribly surprised by the Council's nonchalance about the whole matter. They made their skepticism quite clear after the last mission, and with so little faith in me (and that little respect for the lives lost), what more could one expect from them? I was taken aback, however, by Udina's outright betrayal of me. Sure he is and always has been a power hungry, power grabbing miscreant. This is common knowledge. I had just hoped that he would have been please to see "his" human Spectre leading (i.e. in control of) an alien fleet fighting to save Citadel Space from a rogue alien Spectre. Surely he would be able to see the strategic appeal of such a venture, and would be able to calculate all the fabulous things it would do for his position as humanity's ambassador should we succeed? Apparantly not. Instead, he nodded his head as the Salarian Councilman went on about how taking care of Saran needed a "deft touch", and then he announced that I was essentially placed under house arrest until this was all over. The Normandy was in lock down, and I had no way to exit the Citadel. "It's just politics," Udina said, making me sick to my stomach. "You've done your job, now let me do mine," he said, making Williams turn red with fury. Rendered speechless, I turned on my heel and walking proudly away. After everything I and my men have sacrificed for those bastards, they had absolutely no right to dismiss us so thoroughly. Clearly anything that needed to be done would not be accomplished by official means.
Thankfully Captain Anderson, God bless his soul, heard about our situation. Once I was back on the Normandy, trying to find away around the lock-down, Anderson contacted me through Joker. Anderson had a way to break the Normandy and send us on our way to Ilos. The problem? It meant that all of us would be committing an act of treason. I was not so worried about those aboard the Normandy - treason was only an issue if we were caught. No, Anderson was my main concern. He would be risking himself for our sake, and then would be left alone to deal with the fallout. The fact that I agreed to let him hack into a central computer, in order to unlock the Normandy's systems and get us back online, shows how truly desperate I was, am, to get to Ilos. Well, desperation was part of it. The other part was that Anderson and I have always been two of a kind. While more diplomatic than I, he understands the importance of what we do, even if the bureaucrats do not. Thus, I understood his need to do something, anything, if it helped put this matter to rest. It is nice to know that Anderson continues to have my back, despite the Council giving me control of his ship and crew.
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