[ She just shrugs. But she’s as bound to the dialogue wheel as any Bioware character, which means she begins rattling off what she knows. ]
Depends on who you ask. The recruitment ads peddled the allure of a new galaxy, one completely different from the Milky Way. Ripe for new adventurs, unseen sights, etc. It might have even been the truth in the beginning.
But if it had stayed like that, I don’t think it would have gotten all the way to Andromeda. You can’t fund something like this on hopes and dreams.
[ Ryder shifts, restless. She'd already mentioned this to Garrus, briefly, but it felt odder to tell Shepard—The Shepard, to her face. ]
I found out shortly before I came here. At some point, the Initiative ran out of money, resources. Then they got a new sponsor. One with a lot of money, and who was apparently a fan of you. Or at least, believed what you said about the Reapers. Enough to pour an absurd amount of credits into getting as many people out of the Milky Way as possible.
…You know, I never told anyone in Andromeda about this. [ She gives a haggard laugh, running a hand through her hair. ] I heard the last transmission sent from the Milky Way, this horrible—call? Signal? It sounded like…a nightmare. Didn’t think anyone else needed to know.
Probably for the best. Even if the sheer time didn't kill everybody's families, the Reapers probably cut them off early. I stopped looking at the casualty reports before long, but it was something like a trillion dead in the first day alone.
[A trillion is a number that doesn't feel real, isn't really possible to imagine, but— but you think about it on the scale of planets. Even at it's miserable, polluted, packed-in height, the population of Earth never got to even a tenth so many.]
There isn't a Batarian Hegemony anymore; if they could scrape together a breeding population large enough to keep from going extinct it'd surprise me. Palaven was a shit-show, and Thessia; the Asari had been holding out on us, but they wasted their advantage and went down as hard as any of us. I was there that day. Humans were hit pretty hard too— we lost Earth early. Surkesh never even stood a chance.
But you know what? The Krogan are doing just fine. Funny how that works.
[She's quiet a moment. This is... probably not reassuring, any of it. Jesus, her standards really have shifted, huh?]
[ Ryder listens to Shepard's description with an uncharacteristically bleak expression--but then, who wouldn't be feeling a bit somber when you're hearing about what amounts to the genocide of your entire galaxy?
Earth lost early. If Ryder had still been in the Milky Way--
No, she couldn't just think about herself. Instead, her thoughts drift to her crew. Liam, warmly telling her about his family and their car, Cora and her strained relationship with her parents, Sulli and her family... Lots of people left behind. Like Shepard had said, the families would already be dead by the time they defrosted, but to find out they hadn't had a long, peaceful life, but been slaughtered-- ]
It's funny. All the shit happening in Heleus--not quite Reapers, but we were still looking down the barrel of dying out--the Krogan were also the only ones who seemed to actually thrive.
I guess we know who's gonna be surviving, at the end of it all.
[ She fidgets with her phone for a moment, just to have something to touch, something to do. There's a feeling for gratitude, perhaps for the first time, that no one from her crew is here, to hear this conversation, to see her so vulnerable. How does Shepard handle it? How does she always seem in control? ]
It's fine. I mean--You won, in the end. That's...something.
The Reapers are dead. And we killed them. Countless cycles of harvest and genocide, the Protheans and untold numbers of others before them— and we won. We inherit the galaxy, now.
[She's not as proud of it as she should be, but her voice is resolute, firm. For a minute, Shepard is the vision on all those recruitment posters, back in the day.]
We lost a lot to do it. But if it's any comfort at all, we were all marked for dead from the beginning. So technically we are way in the black on this one. My only real hope is that the Reaper Problem is limited to the Milky Way alone. Then again, I'm sure you'd have said something if you showed up in another Galaxy and stumbled across a Relay.
[You would have, right Ryder? Right? Right?]
But enough about Reapers, they've had more than their share. Tell me about Heleus.
[ It's a dumb thing to think about, but Ryder feels a sudden stab of emotions, watching Shepard. Proud, stunned, inspired, a weird jealousy--Why can't Ryder have that kind of bearing about her? Would people respect her then? Well, they respected her now, to an extent--But it would never be the way Shepard held people. ]
Well, no. We don't have Reapers. We have Kett, which are--well, they aren't as deadly, but they're pretty bad, and we don't have the numbers. Or the military power. Still, their leader is dead, now, so. We're managing.
[ But if Shepard wants to know about Heleus, well, that sounds like a good start. ]
The Kett, though. They aren't trying to wipe us out, like a decontamination routine. They're more like a virus? They don't reproduce sexually, or even like the Asari. They have this...process, that changes you. Turns you into one of them. And they view it like a religious ritual. They want to do it to everyone--though what happens after that, after they don't have anyone else to convert? I don't want to know.
Sound Reaper enough to me. [Though when she says it like that, it's more like a threat: Reaper enough to die.] That's what the Reapers do; they process people. Turn them into husks, or worse. You ever hear of the Collectors?
[Most colony kids had; if not from recent events, then from the old spacer's tales. But unlike star-eaters or mothmen, Collectors were very real.]
They're Protheans. Or, they used to be, before the Reapers got ahold of them. It's probably not very xeno-friendly of me, I'm sure there are people that would say that it's wrong to judge aliens for having weird life cycles.
But fuck 'em up, Pathfinder. If what you're saying is true, then a dead Kett sounds like the best kind, to me.
I've…heard of them. [ Nothing good, mind you, which feels a bit mean when Shepard tells her the secret of them. Protheans—that's what happened to them? Her mind goes briefly to her old archeological team in the Alliance, and what they would have thought about that information. She wonders if they ever found out. ]
Evil transcends galaxies, I suppose. I mean, I knew that—but it’s eerie. Hearing about that.
I won’t call you xenophobic for it, don’t worry. I’ve done enough harm to their 'reproductive cycle', I don’t think there’s much room to lecture. [ Like she would lecture Shepard about anything, really. ]
And trust me, I have been. [ Certainly not making back room deals with them and taking advantage of political schisms!! Ha ha would that be crazy or what. ] Or I was. I hope everyone is holding down the fort without me. The Kett aren’t native to Heleus, what we’ve come up against are just their version of colonists. Which means there’s even more of them out there—Hopefully they won’t want to keep bothering with Heleus, if we make it tough enough for them.
[ Not like Ryder can take the fight to them. No idea where they were, what their capabilities were, and the Initiative has only just gotten over the hurdle of making enough food to self-sustain. ]
I'm not sure they have an N program in Andromeda...But whatever. Who's gonna argue with me about it?
[ Ryder brightens a little at the mention of her brother. Ah, right, she hasn't told Shepard much about him, has she? ]
Scott. He's my younger brother--only by a few minutes, but I've never let him forget it. We joined the Alliance together, though while I worked with Prothean researchers, he was stations at the outpost near Arcturus Station, keeping an eye on the relay over there.
[ The fact that Sara had secured a much better job is not entirely lost on her, but she doesn't mention it. It wasn't Scott's fault, after all. ]
But what happened with Dad tanked both of our careers. So we joined him and went to Andromeda--Not like either of us were going to stay and let the other one go off to new and exciting adventures.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ She just shrugs. But she’s as bound to the dialogue wheel as any Bioware character, which means she begins rattling off what she knows. ]
Depends on who you ask. The recruitment ads peddled the allure of a new galaxy, one completely different from the Milky Way. Ripe for new adventurs, unseen sights, etc. It might have even been the truth in the beginning.
But if it had stayed like that, I don’t think it would have gotten all the way to Andromeda. You can’t fund something like this on hopes and dreams.
[ Ryder shifts, restless. She'd already mentioned this to Garrus, briefly, but it felt odder to tell Shepard—The Shepard, to her face. ]
I found out shortly before I came here. At some point, the Initiative ran out of money, resources. Then they got a new sponsor. One with a lot of money, and who was apparently a fan of you. Or at least, believed what you said about the Reapers. Enough to pour an absurd amount of credits into getting as many people out of the Milky Way as possible.
…You know, I never told anyone in Andromeda about this. [ She gives a haggard laugh, running a hand through her hair. ] I heard the last transmission sent from the Milky Way, this horrible—call? Signal? It sounded like…a nightmare. Didn’t think anyone else needed to know.
no subject
[A trillion is a number that doesn't feel real, isn't really possible to imagine, but— but you think about it on the scale of planets. Even at it's miserable, polluted, packed-in height, the population of Earth never got to even a tenth so many.]
There isn't a Batarian Hegemony anymore; if they could scrape together a breeding population large enough to keep from going extinct it'd surprise me. Palaven was a shit-show, and Thessia; the Asari had been holding out on us, but they wasted their advantage and went down as hard as any of us. I was there that day. Humans were hit pretty hard too— we lost Earth early. Surkesh never even stood a chance.
But you know what? The Krogan are doing just fine. Funny how that works.
[She's quiet a moment. This is... probably not reassuring, any of it. Jesus, her standards really have shifted, huh?]
Sorry, this is... uh. Kinda grim.
no subject
Earth lost early. If Ryder had still been in the Milky Way--
No, she couldn't just think about herself. Instead, her thoughts drift to her crew. Liam, warmly telling her about his family and their car, Cora and her strained relationship with her parents, Sulli and her family... Lots of people left behind. Like Shepard had said, the families would already be dead by the time they defrosted, but to find out they hadn't had a long, peaceful life, but been slaughtered-- ]
It's funny. All the shit happening in Heleus--not quite Reapers, but we were still looking down the barrel of dying out--the Krogan were also the only ones who seemed to actually thrive.
I guess we know who's gonna be surviving, at the end of it all.
[ She fidgets with her phone for a moment, just to have something to touch, something to do. There's a feeling for gratitude, perhaps for the first time, that no one from her crew is here, to hear this conversation, to see her so vulnerable. How does Shepard handle it? How does she always seem in control? ]
It's fine. I mean--You won, in the end. That's...something.
no subject
[She's not as proud of it as she should be, but her voice is resolute, firm. For a minute, Shepard is the vision on all those recruitment posters, back in the day.]
We lost a lot to do it. But if it's any comfort at all, we were all marked for dead from the beginning. So technically we are way in the black on this one. My only real hope is that the Reaper Problem is limited to the Milky Way alone. Then again, I'm sure you'd have said something if you showed up in another Galaxy and stumbled across a Relay.
[You would have, right Ryder? Right? Right?]
But enough about Reapers, they've had more than their share. Tell me about Heleus.
no subject
Well, no. We don't have Reapers. We have Kett, which are--well, they aren't as deadly, but they're pretty bad, and we don't have the numbers. Or the military power. Still, their leader is dead, now, so. We're managing.
[ But if Shepard wants to know about Heleus, well, that sounds like a good start. ]
The Kett, though. They aren't trying to wipe us out, like a decontamination routine. They're more like a virus? They don't reproduce sexually, or even like the Asari. They have this...process, that changes you. Turns you into one of them. And they view it like a religious ritual. They want to do it to everyone--though what happens after that, after they don't have anyone else to convert? I don't want to know.
no subject
[Most colony kids had; if not from recent events, then from the old spacer's tales. But unlike star-eaters or mothmen, Collectors were very real.]
They're Protheans. Or, they used to be, before the Reapers got ahold of them. It's probably not very xeno-friendly of me, I'm sure there are people that would say that it's wrong to judge aliens for having weird life cycles.
But fuck 'em up, Pathfinder. If what you're saying is true, then a dead Kett sounds like the best kind, to me.
no subject
Evil transcends galaxies, I suppose. I mean, I knew that—but it’s eerie. Hearing about that.
I won’t call you xenophobic for it, don’t worry. I’ve done enough harm to their 'reproductive cycle', I don’t think there’s much room to lecture. [ Like she would lecture Shepard about anything, really. ]
And trust me, I have been. [ Certainly not making back room deals with them and taking advantage of political schisms!! Ha ha would that be crazy or what. ] Or I was. I hope everyone is holding down the fort without me. The Kett aren’t native to Heleus, what we’ve come up against are just their version of colonists. Which means there’s even more of them out there—Hopefully they won’t want to keep bothering with Heleus, if we make it tough enough for them.
[ Not like Ryder can take the fight to them. No idea where they were, what their capabilities were, and the Initiative has only just gotten over the hurdle of making enough food to self-sustain. ]
no subject
[Ah, if Ryder only knew the backroom deals Shepard's been offered in her time. But then, those stakes had been very different.]
Heard you mention a brother in there.
no subject
[ Ryder brightens a little at the mention of her brother. Ah, right, she hasn't told Shepard much about him, has she? ]
Scott. He's my younger brother--only by a few minutes, but I've never let him forget it. We joined the Alliance together, though while I worked with Prothean researchers, he was stations at the outpost near Arcturus Station, keeping an eye on the relay over there.
[ The fact that Sara had secured a much better job is not entirely lost on her, but she doesn't mention it. It wasn't Scott's fault, after all. ]
But what happened with Dad tanked both of our careers. So we joined him and went to Andromeda--Not like either of us were going to stay and let the other one go off to new and exciting adventures.