Mass Effect 1: Vigil AI Conversation on Ilos Transcript

(Shepard and Squadmates approach a functional machine in the Prothean vaults on Ilos after being diverted by a force field)

You are not Prothean. But you are not machine, either. This eventuality was one of many that was anticipated. This is why we sent our warning through the beacons.

I do not sense the taint of indoctrination upon any of you. Unlike the other that passed recently. Perhaps there is still hope.

Shepard: Why aren’t you speaking the Prothean language?

I have been monitoring your communications since you arrived at this facility. I have translated my output into a format you will comprehend.

My name is Vigil. You are safe here, for the moment. But that is likely to change. Soon, nowhere will be safe.

Shepard: Are you some kind of artificial intelligence program?

I am an advanced non-organic analysis system with personality imprints from Ksad Ishan, chief overseer of the Ilos research facility.

Shepard: Why did you bring me here?

You must break a cycle that has continued for millions of years. But to stop it, you must understand or you will make the same mistakes we did.

The Citadel is the heart of your civilization and the seat of government. As it was with us, and as it has been with every civilization that came before us.

But the Citadel is a trap. The station is actually an enormous mass relay. One that links to dark space, the empty void beyond the galaxy’s horizon.

When the Citadel relay is activated, the Reapers will pour through. And all you know will be destroyed.

Shepard: How come nobody ever noticed the Citadel was an inactive mass relay?

The Reapers are careful to keep the greatest secrets of the Citadel hidden. That is why they created a species of seemingly benign organic caretakers.

The Keepers maintain the station’s most basic functions. They enable any species that discovers the Citadel to use it without fully understanding the technology.

Reliance on the Keepers ensures no other species will ever discover the Citadel’s true nature. Not until the relay is activated and the Reapers invade.

Shepard: How do the Reapers survive out in dark space?

We have only theories. The researchers here came to believe the Reapers enter prolonged states of inactivity to conserve energy.

This allows them to survive the thousands and thousands of years it takes for organic civilization to rebuild itself. But in this state, they are vulnerable.

By retreating beyond the edges of the galaxy, they ensure no one will accidentally discover them. They keep existence hidden until the Citadel relay is activated.

Shepard: The Reapers can wipe out the Citadel and the entire Citadel fleet in a single surprise attack!

That was our fate. Our leaders were dead before we even realized we were under attack. The Reapers seized control of the Citadel and through it, the mass relays.

Communications and transportation across our empire were crippled. Each star system was isolated, cut off from others. Easy prey for the Reaper fleets.

Over the next decades, the Reapers systematically obliterated our people. World by world, system by system, they methodically wiped us out.

Shepard: The war was lost. If you had surrendered, they might have let you live.

No offer of surrender was ever given. Our enemy had a single goal: the extinction of all advanced organic life.

Through the Citadel, the Reapers had access to all our records, maps, census data, information is power, and they knew everything about us.

Their fleets advanced across every settled region of the galaxy. Some worlds were utterly destroyed. Others were conquered, their populations enslaved.

These indoctrinated servants became sleeper agents under Reaper control. Taken in as refugees by other Protheans, they betrayed them to the machines.

Within a few centuries, the Reapers had killed or enslaved every Prothean in the galaxy. They were relentless, brutal and absolutely thorough.

Shepard: What do the Reapers get out of this? Why do they keep repeating the pattern of genocide over and over?)

The Reapers are alien, unknowable. Perhaps they need slaves or resources. More likely, they are driven by motives and goals organic beings cannot hope to comprehend.

In the end what does it matter? Your survival depends on stopping them, not in understanding them.

Shepard: I don’t understand. Where did the Reapers go after they conquered your people?

Our worlds were stripped bare, harvested by the indoctrinated slaves. Everything of value–all resources, all technology–was taken.

Certain that all advanced organic life had been extinguished, the Reapers retreated back through the Citadel relay into dark space, sealing it behind them.

All evidence of the Reaper invasion had been wiped away. Only their indoctrinated slaves were left behind, abandoned.

Mindless husks no longer capable of independent thought, the indoctrinated soon starved or died of exposure. The genocide of the Protheans was complete.

Shepard: You said you brought me here for a reason. Tell me what I need to do.

The Conduit is the key. Before the Reapers attacked, we Protheans were on the cusp of unlocking the mysteries behind mass relay technology.

Ilos was a top secret facility. Here, researchers worked to create a small-scale version of mass relay. One that linked directly to the Citadel: the hub of the relay network.

Squadmate: The Conduit's not a weapon. It’s a back door onto the Citadel!

Shepard: How did you manage to stay hidden?

All official records of our project were destroyed in the initial attack on the Citadel. While the Prothean empire came crashing down, Ilos was spared.

We severed all communication with the outside and our facility went dark. The personnel retreated underground into these archives.

To conserve resources, everyone was put into cryogenic stasis. I was programmed to monitor the facility and wake the staff when the danger had passed.

But the genocide of an entire species is a long, slow process. Years passed. Decades, centuries. The Reapers persisted. And my energy reserves were dwindling.

Shepard: You should have fought!

We were a few hundred against a galactic invasion fleet. Our only hope was to remain undetected.

I began to disable life support of non-essential personnel. First support staff, then security. One by one their pods were shut down to conserve energy.

Eventually, only the stasis pods of the top scientists remained active. Even these were in danger of failing when the Reapers finally retreated back through the Citadel relay.

Squadmate: There were hundreds of stasis pods out there! You just shut them down? You killed them?

Shepard: (YOU BETRAYED THEM.) You were programmed to protect them! Not kill them!

This outcome was not completely unforeseen. My actions were a result of contingency programming entered on my creation.

Squadmate: I bet they didn’t tell the “non-essential” staff about this contingency.

I saved key personnel. When the Reapers retreated, the top researchers were still alive. My actions are the only reason any hope remains.

When the researchers woke, they realized the Prothean species was doomed. There were only a dozen individuals left far too few to sustain a viable population.

Yet they vowed to find some way to stop the Reaper from returning. A way to break the cycle forever. And they knew the Keepers were the key.

Shepard: I still don’t understand what’s going on here. Why is Saren trying to find the Conduit?

The Conduit gives him access to the Citadel and the Keepers.

The Keepers are controlled by the Citadel. Before each invasion, a signal is sent through the station compelling the Keepers to activate the Citadel relay.

After decades of feverish study, the scientists discovered a way to alter this signal. Using the Conduit, they gained access to the Citadel and made modifications.

This time, when Sovereign sent the signal to the Citadel, the Keepers ignored it. The Reapers are trapped in dark space.

Shepard: Saren must have some plan to undo everything you did.

The one you call Saren will use Conduit to bypass the Citadel’s defenses. Once inside, he will transfer control of the station to Sovereign.

Sovereign will override the Citadel’s systems and manually open the relay. And the cycle of extinction will begin again.

Shepard: Is there any way we can stop them?

There’s a data file in my console. Take a copy when you go. When you reach the Citadel’s master control unit, upload it to the station.

It will corrupt the Citadel’s security protocols and give you temporary control over the station. It might give you a chance against Sovereign.

Shepard: Where’s the Citadel’s master control unit? I’ve never heard of anything like that.

Through the Conduit. Follow Saren. He will lead you to your destination.

Shepard: If the Reapers are trapped in dark space, how did Sovereign get here?

It is logical to assume the Reapers would leave one of their own behind after each extinction, a sentinel to pave the way for their inevitable return.

Like those in dark space. Sovereign probably spent most of the last 50,000 years in a state of hibernation. Periodically, it would wake to analyze the situation.

Keeping its existence hidden, it would evaluate the state of galactic civilization. And, when the time was right, it would signal the Citadel and usher in the next Reaper invasion.

But this time, the signal failed. The Keepers did not respond. Sovereign’s allies were trapped in the void. Alone, it was sourced to try and discover what had gone wrong.

Shepard: Sovereign’s the largest ship in the galaxy. Why all this secrecy? Why not just attack the Citadel?

Sovereign is not invincible. Revealing its true nature would have united the forces of every organic species against it. Even a Reaper couldn’t survive such odds.

But the Reapers are patient. They will not rush into the unknown. Sovereign could have been planning this for centuries, moving deliberately, gathering allies.

Slowly, it has assembled the pieces of the puzzle, working through agents to keep itself hidden. Saren is the most visible pawn of the Reapers, but I doubt he was the first.

Now, Sovereign has grown bold. Whether from confidence or desperation, I cannot say. But it is determined to reopen the portal to dark space.

Shepard: What about the beacon on Eden Prime? And the one on Virmire? What were they for?

At our apex, the beacons spanned the breadth of our empire. We used them as a single galaxy-wide network, to transmit data and communications rapidly from world to world.

Virtually all the beacons were destroyed during the invasion. But once the Reapers were gone, the survivors here on Ilos decided to risk sending out a message.

We knew it was unlikely there were survivors. But if there were, we wanted them to know about Ilos. We wanted to give them hope, so a message was sent across the network.

Shepard: You could have exposed yourself to the Reapers.

In truth, we didn’t expect any of the beacons would still function, but we had to try. If there were survivors, we had to reach them.

The message was meant for our own people. It was coded so only organic beings could interpret it. We still didn’t understand the power of Reaper indoctrination.

We never realized it could lead an agent of the machines – like Saren – to this world. But it has also led you here. So perhaps we did not fail after all.

Shepard: So when the Reapers created the Citadel, they created the Keepers as well?

A more likely scenario is that the Keepers were one of the early harvested civilizations. Perhaps the very first.

Perhaps they responded well to indoctrination or the Reapers simply bred them to be obedient. In any case, they were left behind to operate and maintain the Citadel.

But the Keepers are no longer directly controlled by Sovereign or its ilk. They evolved so that they only respond to the signals emitted by the Citadel itself.

When the Protheans altered the Citadel’s signals, they broke Sovereign’s hold over the Keepers. Now they are completely harmless.

Shepard (THAT EXPLAINS THE GETH): Sovereign must have realized organic races were difficult to control.

A likely hypothesis. The Keepers evolved in an unanticipated direction. Non-organic servants like the Geth would be more predictable.

Shepard: What happened to the survivors from the Conduit Project?

They used the Conduit to gain access to the Citadel, but the Conduit is only a prototype. The portal only links in one direction, so they were trapped on the station.

I do not know what became of them then. It is unlikely they found any food or water on the station. I fear they suffered a slow, grim death. I only know they succeeded in their mission to seal the relay. Your presence here proves their sacrifice was not in vain.

Shepard: Saren’s got enough of a head start. Grab the data file and let’s go!

(If Liara is a Squadmate)
Liara: Shepard, are you sure? Who knows how much longer Vigil will be here? Even now the projection is weak. This might be our only chance to speak with it – our only link to the knowledge of the Protheans! It is the opportunity of a lifetime!

Shepard (YOU'RE RIGHT): It might know something useful.

I will provide whatever information I can. My data banks, however, are limited to information directly related to stopping the Reaper invasion.

Shepard: I've got the file. Come on!

The one you call Saren has not reached the Conduit. Not yet. There is still hope if you hurry.