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Aethyta glared at Matriarch T'Scate opposite her and wondered if she would have to take her out. Had the break-down of society progressed far enough yet that such an attack would be forgiven or even expected to decide between two diametrically opposed positions? Would people still follow her if she did? All she knew is that she could not afford to lose this argument. The asari couldn't afford for her to lose this argument. Unlike so many times in the past, when the stakes were not as high, when she would get frustrated with political debates and walk away in disgust, this time she would get her way. She had to.
When the idiot human group Cerberus tried to take the Citadel, she knew it was time to go home. She knew the reaper's attack on her home world was nearing and she knew that she had to be there. She also knew that she might very well die for doing so. She certainly had the money and resources, which had more to do with her long life rather than any particular financial acumen, to run and hide from the reapers until she likely died from natural causes but what would be the point? She was a matriarch. She might not be your stereotypical matriarch but it was still her duty to lead her people in their time of greatest need. She had lived a long life. If she could help save even one younger asari's life and lose her own in the process, so be it.
"You are being illogical, Aethyta." The matriarch nearly dripped with condescension. "We have only two choices here. We surrender or we try to evacuate. We still have ships available."
"You are the one who's illogical!" Aethyta responded. "No. I take it back. Either of those things would be insane, not illogical. We already KNOW that the reapers do not take prisoners. Anyone who surrenders will be processed or turned into a reaper, a monster. No one survives! And as for evacuation, we have to stay and fight to give those who are evacuating a chance. We need to hang on long enough so that the asari can survive this!"
"So we commit suicide? When there is no evidence that our dying is having any affect on getting our ships through?" The Matriarch moved closer to Aethyta and spoke softer. "Look around you, Aethyta, please. Everyone here is exhausted and scared and heartbroken. And it's only been a few days. This is hopeless. At least if we try to evacuate, we'll have a chance."
Aethyta did look around her and noticed that everyone in the large underground bunker seemed to be watching and listening to them, some overtly but most more subtly. What happened next was important. She had to make her point now. She went over to the row of communication's officers.
"Huntress Vaira," Aethyta asked one of the maidens stationed there, "how many ships are actually getting through the mass relay?"
"Hard to say with any certainty, Matriarch, as communications off planet are becoming more unreliable, but the latest reports indicate that only one ship out of three that makes a run to the relay is actually able to make the jump. The others are either destroyed outright or disabled and their crews captured."
"And can you put up some of the cameras of areas around our position?"
"Of course, Matriarch. The ones that are not destroyed already."
All the eyes in the room looked up at the monitors above, horrifying scenes of destroyed buildings and black, towering machines of destruction dotting the horizon below the fiery, smoke-filled skies. Aethyta pointed up to the monitors and looked at Matriarch T'Scate.
"One out of three. Every asari on those other two ships gone. Forever. If we stop fighting down here and just try to escape? All those bastard machines you see out there, will head to that relay. And then how many escape? One out of five? One out of ten? None? We HAVE to stay here and fight! Distract them as long as we can."
"Maybe you are right", Matriarch T'Scate conceded. "But you are asking the people here to willingly commit suicide. All the commandos here and out there to face certain death so that some *might* have the chance to escape! You would leave them NO hope."
"There is hope!" Aethyta yelled. "Turn those things off."
After the camera views left the monitor, Aethyta paced a couple times before she stopped again in back of the communication stations. She punched at her omni-tool before she spoke to Huntress Vaira again.
"I just sent you a recording. When I tell you to, I want you to play it. Do we have any planet-wide channels that still work?"
"Yes, ma'am. Several."
"Put me on the busiest channel."
"Seriously?" T'Scate asked. "You are just going to break in on one of the busiest channels when people are fighting for their lives and might need it? Like you are High Command or speak for the Conclave or something?"
"Yeah, as you pointed out, we're pretty fucked here and there is no High Command any longer. There is no Conclave. We *are* High Command. We remaining matriarchs can either spend our energy fighting each other or we can use it to fight the reapers. You can talk after if you want but I'll have my say either way."
The Huntress looked at Aethyta and then at T'Scate who nodded. After punching on her HUD, she then nodded at Aethyta and pointed to her omni-tool. After a moment, Aethyta brought her omni-tool closer to her mouth and spoke.
"My name is Matriarch Aethyta Pesaria. Most of you don't know me from the goddess but you might have known my former bondmate, Matriarch Benezia T'Soni. By now you've all heard about how she was indoctrinated by the reapers. You've heard about how she helped Commander Shepard and her daughter, Liara T'Soni, with vital information that helped defeat Saren and delayed the reaper's coming." Aethyta let out a bitter laugh. "I know everyone listening to me now doesn't give a fuck about that now. But I have something to share with you that I received from Liara T'Soni right before we lost contact with the Citadel. Listen to what she has to say."
At that, Aethyta pointed to the Huntress who started the message.
"Hi Dad. I can only hope that this message finds you. We were on Thessia right after the invasion. I tried to contact you but could not reach you. I'm sending this in a delayed, heavily encrypted packet in the hopes that you receive it even if you can't respond, as I know communication with Thessia might soon be lost." A small pause before Liara continued. "We failed on Thessia, Dad. We did not get what we needed to make the not so secret Prothean weapon work. But we are closing in on it. We are on our way to finally defeat Cerberus and get what we need. If you are a..." Liara's voice broke. "If you are alive to get this message, things on Thessia must be beyond grim right now." Another pause. "Unlike my mother, I am not a religious person. I am a scientist. I believe in what can be observed and measured. I've never believed in fate or destiny. And I can't even believe that I am going to say this out loud but I feel like all this was meant to happen. I feel like we...Shepard, the Normandy, and I, like we were brought together for a reason. So, I you need to hold on, Dad. Shepard WILL succeed. We will succeed. I need you to hold on because I will NOT be cheated out of this chance to finally get to know you."
The recording ended and Aethyta was quiet for a moment, assessing the asari in the crowd. Some looked hopeful but others still looked skeptical. She needed more to convince them.
"I know that everyone out there who can hear my voice is scared. You're horrified by all the death. You want it to stop. Unlike my daughter, I'm not a scientist. I'm also not religious. I don't know if I believe any of that crap. But you don't live as long as I have without having a sixth sense. Without sometimes knowing what's going to happen before it does and I have one of those feelings now. My daughter and her bondmate Commander Shepard, are something special..." Aethyta stopped, frustrated. "Fuck. I've never been good with words. Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me. But I KNOW that they are going to beat these fuckers. The reapers are over. This is where their cycle ends. The only question is will there be enough asari left so that we survive? Will these fuckers take everything we are away? Will they take tens of thousands of years of asari culture and history away? Will we let them just because we fucking lack hope? Because we are too scared to believe in ourselves? We need to hang on. We need to continue fighting these fuckers to give our sisters a chance to get away and hide until the reapers are gone. I'm willing to die to make sure this happens!"
Aethyta paced a couple times before continuing. "But we don't need to die. We have our biotics, we have explosives, we have weapons that will take these bastards down. We do what we do best. We hit them, and then we run and we hide. Until my daughter, our modern-day fucking Goddess Kurinth come to life, and her crew find a way to kill them all. Stay off the radios. From now on, we use runners. We are faster and more nimble than any of these lumbering husks. We use melding to communicate. No need to let them know anything. No reaper can indoctrinate an asari without repeated exposure, unless they capture us, because we naturally have more mental discipline than any other race because of our melding. We USE our strengths to fight them and to take away their strengths. We can get through this and we WILL get through this."
"They very well may find a way to destroy the reapers eventually", Matriarch T'scate stepped forward, "but how can we survive here for any amount of time if we can't even slow them down?"
"We can do more than slow them down", Aethyta said smiling, "we can bring them down. You don't need to trust me on that. I'll prove it to you. No matter where you are, if you can, watch a feed of Armali. You'll see."
With that, Aethyta turned around, went over to a table, attached a pistol to her leathers, a few lift grenades and picked up a backpack. Six asari surrounded her, their hands securing their own equipment, while their eyes were glued to the Matriarch.
"Are we ready to go kick a reaper right in the quad, Huntresses?" Aethyta asked them.
"Everything is set, Matriarch." A matron answered. "Our runners have already left for the other positions."
She nodded at them and was about to move towards one of the exits when several more asari came over to join them and then several more. Within a minute, hundreds of asari were surrounding her.
"We're ready, Matriarch! What can we do to help?" The asari shouted.
"Go back to your stations. Defend this location. I already have all the team I need. We already have a plan in place." Aethyta cackled. "But thank you. And don't be disappointed. You'll all get your chance."
The body of asari parted to create a corridor for Aethyta and her squad to move through. As she moved closer to the communication's bank, the Matriarch spoke again.
"You might want to put those cameras on the monitors again. You're going to want to see this."
Aethyta cackled again as they left the bunker. About two hours later, the gathered asari had largely gone back to their assigned duties when one of them shouted and pointed to one of the monitors. In the middle of the screen, one of the reapers, all five hundred plus feet of it, started to stumble and crackle with electricity. A few seconds later, it crashed to the ground and exploded.