Wednesday waited until Samantha and EDI, assisted by Anacrusis, had finished for the day, before she went into the communications suite. She uncoupled a small device from her omni-tool and connected it into a slot Sam had included into the main console. Once the device had synched, she pressed every button on the face. Some of them connected instantly, some took a few minutes, but shortly she was connected in real time to her family, the Addams. Included also was a connection to Garrus, Tali (accompanied by Legion), and Liara, who as Wednesday's lover (and bedroom Mistress) was considered an honourary Addams. She only had to complete her Mamushka to gain full entry into the clan. Either that or finally marry Wednesday, but that would be far too neat, and not nearly as much fun.

"It's been six months since Aratoht, which by most of our estimates means that the Reapers are in the galaxy proper," Wednesday began. "Are we ready, as a galaxy?"
"Well, from what we've been getting from the comm chatter over the QEC network infrastructure I dropped in their laps, there's about a 50% penetration of the quantum communications in the Alliance fleets, less than that in the other significant alien fleets," Granny answered, with minimal maniacal cackling for once. "The salarians, crafty little bastards that they are, have managed to reverse-engineer a design from mine, so we are getting less traffic from them. As for my 'special project' on Arcturus, let's just say even the Reapers will be surprised when they get here." The mad gleam in the elderly woman's eye told them all they really needed to know about what she had been doing at the Alliance's centre of government.
"From what I've been able to see, which is a lot considering my father and the Primarch include me in a lot of discussions these days, the turian fleet is probably the furthest along both in upgrading weapon technologies and decentralising command structures," Garrus continued. "It's difficult to complete remove command chains, given that we based most of our culture around it, but we're moving better than we were before."

"Dear Steven and David are certainly making waves on Earth," Gomez said with his ever-present smile. "They actually sent me a request for you Wednesday, apparently Steven needs you to unnerve a few people to get them motivated, or some such. Said he also had something he wanted to discuss with you in person. As for the rest, I'll make sure that we're up to scratch here if it comes to a ground war, always preferred it to fighting in space anyway."
"I'll make arrangements with him after we're done here," Wednesday said with an acknowledging nod. "And the rest of you?" she asked the assembled group.
"Not much to say for me really," Fester said. "I've already released a few of my more explosive designs out there for free, and greatly reduced my prices on a lot of other stock as well. It's making the corporate stuffed shirts on Noveria go out of their minds trying to figure out why, which is always entertaining."
"The resettlement of Rannoch is pretty much complete, and the geth are helping us refit the rest of our civilian fleet for war," Tali reported. "Except the liveships of course, we're keeping them and a select fleet ready for evacuations. Han and Xen are keeping the Heavy Fleet and special projects pretty separate, but then they never cared for the geth."
"The geth have detected unusual signals emanating from the Heavy Fleets, but so far analysis of the signals is inconclusive," Legion added. "We are suspicious, but have no cause to be anything other than concerned." Wednesday furrowed her brow, a schism in the geth and quarian ranks could be potentially disastrous, but she didn't have the resources to deal with that right now. Her ship was only just ready for combat, the refit now complete, and she didn't have time to cross the entire galaxy just to knock their heads in again.

"Alright, keep an eye on them you two. I wouldn't put it past them to try something, given what we discovered of Rael's experiments on the Alarei," Wednesday warned.
"My unit is ready for deployment, even got the new miniature Cain models ready for shipment to every ship as well," Pugsley said with a note of pride. Even now, it was obvious he'd been too close to another of his explosions recently, the scabs were still healing on the patches of burnt hair around his ears. "They might not pack as much punch as the full-sized ones, but they can be wielded by your average grunt rather than a krogan."
"The Ascension project is a little more problematic," Pubert said with just a hint of teenage sneer. "They're all pretty powerful biotics, and between Jack and myself we've gotten them into pretty good shape, but most of them are still kids. They aren't ready for the frontlines."
"The front lines will come to them, of that you can be certain," Wednesday said. "There's nothing wrong with them being more in a support role, especially if you and Jack take the lead in combat." Pubert considered it for a second, then nodded.

"Mother, Liara, how goes the Broker network?" Wednesday asked.
"Surprisingly well," Morticia replied. "I've finally managed to sort through the backlog of data the old Broker had on the Reapers, and it really is quite fascinating what he'd found. Based on the data and analysis by myself and Liara, we have a rough estimate of which systems the Reapers are most likely to target, and which ones will be likely ignored. Of course Earth is in the first list along with Thessia, Sur'Kesh and Palaven; he was largely unconcerned, given the yahg homeworld, Parnack, was in the latter category."
"Not surprising, given the yahg are pre-space," Garrus said with a nod, appreciating the tactical analysis.
"And your own search, Liara?"
"I'm close now," the asari said with conviction. "I've found pieces of data that I'm collating, but there's still something hidden, I'm certain. It should only be another day or so before I have it, then I can get off this planet and never have to return," she added with slight distaste. Wednesday couldn't blame her. Hailing from Thessia, a planet largely similar to Earth in oceanic volume, the dry, dusty conditions of Mars must be maddening.

"Well then, it seems we're as ready as we can expect," Wednesday said. "I expect I'll see you all sooner or later, war brings the Family together after all. Until then, we gladly feast - ".
"- on those who would subdue us," they replied in a cacophony of voices, before they faded one by one. At the end, only Liara remained connected, looking directly at Wednesday.
"Do you really think we can win, Wednesday?" the asari asked. Her tone was not as someone afraid, but more looking for a shared conviction.
"We've gambled too much not to Liara," Wednesday replied. "We either win, or we lose, but we will all distinguish ourselves as those who fought back against mindless oppression and genocide with our own."
"I thought you'd say that. So, have you finished moving my stuff in yet?" she asked her human lover.
"Yes, we've gotten the stuff in and connected down in the old XO space Miranda once used," Wednesday confirmed. "Though Samantha was most interested in it. I think she'll figure it out first."
"She's an intelligent woman, I'd be surprised if she didn't. However, I think it will be easy enough to buy her silence."

"Let's not talk of Sam right now Liara. I want to know what you have planned for your first night in my cabin," Wednesday said with a sultry grin.
"Oh really?" Liara asked with a chuckle. "Well then, I'd best not disappoint then," she said with a light chuckle and a predatory grin.

A/N:The time has come, the walrus said, to think of other things.

As a Wizard once said, "We come to it at last. The great battle of our time."

The Galaxy will stand or fall with the Reaper victory or defeat. Find out when Wednesday Shepard (nee Addams) returns 'In The Balance'.