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Brucipher
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Part 65 of the walkthrough of Mass Effect for the PC.
Transcript
00:01You are not Prothean, but you are not machine either.
00:06This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated.
00:10This is why we sent our warning through the beacons.
00:15Looks like some kind of VI program.
00:18Pretty badly damaged.
00:20I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you.
00:24Unlike the other that passed recently, perhaps there is still hope.
00:30This is incredible. An actual Prothean VI and I can understand it.
00:34I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility.
00:38I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend.
00:43My name is Vigil. You are safe here for the moment.
00:47But that is likely to change. Soon nowhere will be safe.
00:53Are you some kind of artificial intelligence program?
00:56I am an advanced non-organic analysis system.
00:59With personality imprints from Keisad Aishan, Chief Overseer of the Ilos Research Facility.
01:08Why did you bring me here?
01:09You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years.
01:12But to stop it you must understand, or you will make the same mistakes we did.
01:17The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and the seat of government.
01:23As it was with us, and as it has been with every civilization that came before us.
01:28But the Citadel is a trap. The station is actually an enormous mass relay.
01:34One that links to dark space, the empty void beyond the galaxy's horizon.
01:40When the Citadel relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through, and all you know will be destroyed.
01:49How come nobody ever noticed the Citadel was an inactive mass relay?
01:54The Reapers are careful to keep the greatest secrets of the Citadel hidden.
01:58That is why they created a species of seemingly benign organic caretakers.
02:03The Keepers maintain the station's most basic functions.
02:08They enable any species that discovers the Citadel to use it without fully understanding the technology.
02:16Reliance on the Keepers ensures no other species will ever discover the Citadel's true nature.
02:22Not until the relay is activated and the Reapers invade.
02:28How do the Reapers survive out in dark space?
02:31We have only theories. The researchers here came to believe the Reapers enter prolonged states of inactivity to conserve energy.
02:40This allows them to survive the thousands and thousands of years it takes for organic civilization to rebuild itself.
02:46But in this state, they are vulnerable.
02:50By retreating beyond the edges of the galaxy, they ensure no one will accidentally discover them.
02:56They keep their existence hidden until the Citadel relay is activated.
03:06The Reapers can wipe out the Council and the entire Citadel fleet in a single surprise attack!
03:11That was our fate. Our leaders were dead before we even realized we were under attack.
03:17The Reapers seized control of the Citadel and through it the mass relays.
03:23Communication and transportation across our empire were crippled.
03:28Each star system was isolated, cut off from the others.
03:31Easy prey for the Reaper fleets.
03:35Over the next decades, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people.
03:40World by world, system by system, they methodically wiped us out.
03:45Some of you must have managed to survive.
03:48Through the Citadel, the Reapers had access to all our records, maps, census data.
03:56Information is power and they knew everything about us.
04:00Their fleets advanced across every settled region of the galaxy.
04:04Some worlds were utterly destroyed.
04:07Others were conquered, their populations enslaved.
04:10These indoctrinated servants became sleeper agents under Reaper control.
04:16Taken in as refugees by other Protheans, they betrayed them to the machines.
04:22Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy.
04:28They were relentless, brutal and absolutely thorough.
04:32I don't understand.
04:34Where did the Reapers go after they conquered your people?
04:36Our worlds were stripped bare, harvested by the indoctrinated slaves.
04:42Everything of value, all resources, all technology was taken.
04:47Certain that all advanced organic life had been extinguished,
04:51the Reapers retreated back through the Citadel relay into dark space, sealing it behind them.
04:58All evidence of the Reaper invasion had been wiped away.
05:02Only their indoctrinated slaves were left behind.
05:05abandoned.
05:07Mindless husks, no longer capable of independent thought.
05:11The indoctrinated soon starved or died of exposure.
05:15The genocide of the Protheans was complete.
05:20What did the Reapers get out of this?
05:23Why do they keep repeating this pattern of genocide over and over?
05:27The Reapers are alien, unknowable.
05:30Perhaps they need slaves or resources.
05:31More likely they are driven by motives and goals organic beings cannot hope to comprehend.
05:38In the end, what does it matter?
05:42Your survival depends on stopping them, not in understanding them.
05:46You said you brought me here for a reason. Tell me what I need to do.
05:52The conduit is the key.
05:54Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology.
06:00Eilos was a top secret facility.
06:04Here, researchers worked to create a small scale version of a mass relay.
06:09One that linked directly to the Citadel, the hub of the relay network.
06:14The conduit is not a weapon. It is a back door onto the Citadel.
06:18How did you manage to stay hidden?
06:22All official records of our project were destroyed in the initial attack on the Citadel.
06:27While the Prothean Empire came crashing down, Eilos was spared.
06:33We severed all communication with the outside, and our facility went dark.
06:38The personnel retreated underground into these archives.
06:41To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis.
06:47I was programmed to monitor the facility, and wake the staff when the danger had passed.
06:52But the genocide of an entire species is a long, slow process.
06:57Years passed. Decades. Centuries. The Reapers persisted.
07:03And my energy reserves were dwindling.
07:08You should have fought.
07:09We were a few hundred against a galactic invasion fleet.
07:14Our only hope was to remain undetected.
07:17I began to disable the life support of non-essential personnel.
07:22First support staff, then security.
07:25One by one, their pods were shut down to conserve energy.
07:29Eventually, only the stasis pods of the top scientists remained active.
07:34Even these were in danger of failing when the Reapers finally retreated back through the Citadel region.
07:39I was in danger of delay.
07:40There were hundreds of stasis pods out there. You just shut them down? You killed them?
07:48You were programmed to protect them, not kill them.
07:51This outcome was not completely unforeseen. My actions were a result of contingency programming entered on my creation.
07:58I bet they didn't tell the non-essential staff about this contingency.
08:03I saved key personnel.
08:06When the Reapers retreated, the top researchers were still alive.
08:10My actions are the only reason any hope remains.
08:14When the researchers woke, they realized the Prothean species was doomed.
08:19There were only a dozen individuals left, far too few to sustain a viable population.
08:25Yet they vowed to find some way to stop the Reapers from returning.
08:29A way to break the cycle forever.
08:31And they knew the Keepers were the key.
08:37I still don't understand what's going on here. Why is Saren trying to find the Conduit?
08:42The Conduit gives him access to the Citadel and the Keepers.
08:46The Keepers are controlled by the Citadel.
08:49Before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station compelling the Keepers to activate the Citadel relay.
08:55After decades of feverish study, the scientists discovered a way to alter this signal.
09:02Using the Conduit, they gained access to the Citadel and made the modifications.
09:08This time, when Sovereign sent the signal to the Citadel, the Keepers ignored it.
09:13The Reapers are trapped in dark space.
09:17Saren must have some plan to undo everything you did.
09:21The one you call Saren will use the Conduit to bypass the Citadel's defenses.
09:26Once inside, he will transfer control of the station to Sovereign.
09:30Sovereign will override the Citadel's systems and manually open the relay.
09:35And the cycle of extinction will begin again.
09:41Is there any way we can stop them?
09:43There's a data file in my console.
09:45Take a copy when you go.
09:46When you reach the Citadel's Master Control Unit, upload it to the station.
09:51It will corrupt the Citadel's security protocols and give you temporary control of the station.
09:58It might give you a chance against Sovereign.
10:03Wait. Where's the Citadel's Master Control Unit?
10:06I've never heard of anything like that.
10:08Through the Conduit. Follow Saren.
10:10He will lead you to your destination.
10:12If the Reapers are trapped in dark space, how did Sovereign get here?
10:17It is logical to assume the Reapers would leave one of their own behind after each extinction.
10:23A sentinel to pave the way for their inevitable return.
10:27Like those in dark space, Sovereign probably spent most of the last 50,000 years in a state of hibernation.
10:34Periodically, it would wake to analyze the situation.
10:37Keeping its existence hidden, it would evaluate the state of galactic civilization.
10:44And when the time was right, it would signal the Citadel and usher in the next Reaper invasion.
10:51But this time the signal failed.
10:54The Keepers did not respond.
10:56Sovereign's allies were trapped in the void.
10:59Alone, it was forced to try and discover what had gone wrong.
11:02Sovereign's the largest ship in the galaxy. Why all this secrecy? Why not just attack the Citadel?
11:10Sovereign is not invincible.
11:12Revealing its true nature would have united the forces of every organic species against it.
11:18Even a Reaper couldn't survive such odds.
11:20But the Reapers are patient. They will not rush into the unknown.
11:26Sovereign could have been planning this for centuries, moving deliberately, gathering allies.
11:32Slowly, it has assembled the pieces of the puzzle, working through agents to keep itself hidden.
11:38Saren is the most visible pawn of the Reapers, but I doubt he was the first.
11:46Now Sovereign has grown bold.
11:49Whether from confidence or desperation, I cannot say.
11:52But it is determined to reopen the portal to dark space.
11:55What about the beacon on Eden Prime? And the one on Vermeer? What were they for?
12:04At our apex, the beacons spanned the breadth of our empire.
12:08We used them as a single galaxy-wide network to transmit data and communications rapidly from world to world.
12:16Virtually all the beacons were destroyed during the invasion.
12:19But once the Reapers were gone, the survivors here on Ilos decided to risk sending out a message.
12:26We knew it was unlikely there were other survivors.
12:30But if there were, we wanted them to know about Ilos.
12:34We wanted to give them hope.
12:36So a message was sent across the network.
12:39You could have exposed yourself to the Reapers.
12:42In truth, we didn't expect any of the beacons would still function.
12:46But we had to try.
12:47If there were survivors, we had to reach them.
12:51The message was meant for our own people.
12:54It was coded so only organic beings could interpret it.
12:58We still didn't understand the power of Reaper indoctrination.
13:02We never realized it could lead an agent of the machines, like Saren, to this world.
13:08But it has also led you here.
13:11So perhaps we did not fail after all.
13:14So when the Reapers created the Citadel, they created the Keepers as well?
13:21A more likely scenario is that the Keepers were one of the early harvested civilizations.
13:26Perhaps the very first.
13:27Perhaps they responded well to indoctrination, or the Reapers simply bred them to be obedient.
13:35In any case, they were left behind to operate and maintain the Citadel.
13:40But the Keepers are no longer directly controlled by Sovereign or its ilk.
13:44They evolved so that they only respond to the signals emitted by the Citadel itself.
13:50When the Protheans altered the Citadel's signals, they broke Sovereign's hold over the Keepers.
13:56Now, they are completely harmless.
13:58Sovereign must have realized that organic raises were difficult to control.
14:04A likely hypothesis.
14:06The Keepers evolved in an unanticipated direction.
14:10Non-organic servants like the Geth would be more predictable.
14:13What happened to the survivors from the Conduit project?
14:19They used the Conduit to gain access to the Citadel.
14:22But the Conduit is only a prototype.
14:25The portal only links in one direction, so they were trapped on the station.
14:29I do not know what became of them then.
14:34It is unlikely they found any food or water on the station.
14:38I fear they suffered a slow, grim death.
14:41I only know they succeeded in their mission to seal the relay.
14:46Your presence here proves their sacrifice was not in vain.
14:51Saren's got enough of a head start. Grab that data file and let's go.
14:55Shepard, are you sure? Who knows how much longer Vigil will be here?
14:59Even now the projection is weak.
15:01This might be our only chance to speak with it, our only link to the knowledge of the Protheans.
15:05It is the opportunity of a lifetime.
15:08We're in a race to save the galaxy and you want to play Q&A with a hologram?
15:13You are right. I am sorry. My personal feelings clouded my judgment.
15:18We... we should go.
15:20The one you call Saren has not reached the Conduit.
15:22Not yet. There is still hope if you hurry.
15:52All their culture, all their advanced technology, and the Protheans were taking in either way was just as we were.
16:06They failed.
16:08The Protheans did not.
16:11They gave us a chance. It falls to us to make the most of it, so I suggest we hurry.
16:15Ask us. We need to get Santaya.
16:16We need to work a little more dressed. We try asению.
16:19We need to get 60 vision
16:24That's what is your vision.
16:25Let's go ahead and stop.
16:27Task answer is elemento for you.
16:29Let's go.
16:59Let's go.
17:29Let's go.
17:59Let's go.
18:01I think we're good.
18:01Let's go.
18:03Let's go.
18:05Let's go.
18:07Let's go.
18:09Let's go.
18:11Let's go.
18:13Let's go.
18:15Let's go.
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18:35Let's go.
18:37Let's go.
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19:01Let's go.
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19:07Let's go.
19:09Let's go.
19:11Let's go.
19:13Area secure.
19:43There, the conduit. It's incredible.
19:47We don't have time to admire the view. We have to get through that relay, and these geth aren't going to make it easy on us.