And by soon I mean now.
The blare of security alarms wakes you far too early in the morning. Your VI immediately sets about filtering the various security alerts in order of priority, highlighting a message from ERCS Lieutenant Martin asking you to report immediately to the Security Centre for a crisis meeting.
Having a few too many of them, these days.
You throw off the covers, roll out of bed, grab your mask from your bedside and a breakfast smoothie from the fridge, and set off.
Though it's early, you're not the only one in your district up and about. There's a few maintenance techs doing check-ups on various power and comms relays - part of Nomi's work to keep everyone occupied even if it's a little pointless.
There's quite a few security staff, as well. A squad of ERCS guards is walking not too far ahead of you, and from their conversation you gather they've just rotated off the night shift.
Kioka pings you as you walk, letting you know she's going to have to miss the meeting as she's still in the clinic, having some routine checks done on her new lungs. You acknowledge, and start filtering through the rest of your mail.
Not too much of it, nowadays. Without access to the broader extranet, the amount of spam you've been exposed to recently has dropped dramatically.
You meet up with the Chairman and Matriarch T'Sar in the lobby of the NDC Spire, and walk together to the Security Centre, briefly sharing what little you all know about the situation. Unfortunately, both of them seem just as locked out of the loop as you are.
By the time you arrive at the Security Centre, it's already bustling with activity. ERSC and NSID personnel are rushing back and forth, yelling messages and passing datapads around.
Captain Matsuo, Director Sevarus, and Sannat Vakk are all standing around the strategy table in the centre of the room, looking pensively at a holographic map of Noveria's orbital shipping lanes - and five blinking red dots rapidly approaching the planet.
"Status report?" the Chairman asks as you draw closer to the table.
Kodak, unsurprisingly, is the one who answers. "Four Reaper Destroyers and a Reaper Heavy Transport, on a vector to seize orbit."
"They're already on an orbital approach?" the Chairman asks, as the three of you join the security staff at the strategy table. "What happened to the salarians?"
Kodak's answer is as blunt as it is brief. "They're gone."
"They left?" Matriarch T'Sar asks, incredulous.
"No. They died."
Kodak waves his omni-tool over the terminal, and the holographic image shifts, displaying instead a rapidly expanding cloud of very recognisable debris. Almost all of it is obviously salarian in origin.
"They took out two of the Reaper Destroyers," Kodak explains as the display returns to Noveria, "but they've still got another four, plus the transport. At least, we think it's a transport - it didn't stop to shoot anything, but it ran through the Aegohr and didn't seem to notice."
The Aegohr, you recall, was Rear Admiral Telish's flagship. Unfortunate.
The Chairman pulls up one of the chairs around the control desk and slumps into it. "What do we do now?"
Matsuo shrugs. "Defensive options in space, we're down to the GARDIAN sats, and they don't have the firepower to take out any of those monsters. Maybe if they deploy fighters, but..."
"Can we at least slow them down?" T'Sar asks, in a tone that suggests she already knows she won't like the answer.
Shrugging again, Matuso lets out an exasperated breath. "I don't know. Void warfare isn't my area."
"Nor mine," Kodak adds. "But even if we had a T'Vael or a Korvantus on our side, it still wouldn't matter. It's not a matter of strategy - there's just no way a small cluster of satellites can defeat these things."
"So they're going to make it planetside?" you ask, making a mental note to run a diagnostics routine on your long-unused kinetic barriers when you get a chance.
"If they want to, we can't exactly stop them," Kodak answers. "At their current speed, they could be here within four hours."
"And if they land?" The Chairman asks. "What then?"
Kodak shrugged. "Find a gun. Make them pay for every step they take. Hope they run out of bodies before we do."
It's a very turian response, you think. It also makes you regret not visiting Port Hanshan's shooting range more often.
"Of course," Sannat points out. "That's assuming they don't just blast us all from orbit."
The six of you stare at the map in silence for a moment.
"Damn," someone says, a sentiment quickly echoed by everyone else.
"Damn."
