And I return. So much for trying to establish a regular writing schedule. XD I've been putting it off for weeks. However, something has recently happened that inspired me to post.

The following entry has absolutely nothing to do with Bionicle. It entirely has to do with the upcoming Mass Effect 2. I did warn you that I was a fanboy.

So. Like the true fanboy that I am, I have been following Mass Effect 2 info as it comes out. I have assimilated all the information that is available, and even managed to formulate a tentative theory as to the nature of the story in the second game. For those of you unfamiliar or who simply haven't been following as obsessively as I have, I'll recap the info that I am currently aware of. If I'm missing anything or got something wrong, feel free to tell me.

The setup of Mass Effect 2: Shepard is dead. At first we thought that it was just something BioWare came up with to rile up the fans; later on, they revealed that although Shepard isn't dead in the game, he could quite possibly die in one outcome of the game. And no, they don't mean a oh-look-you-can-see-his-body-but-he's-really-in-a-coma or oh-my-god-he-fell-off-a-cliff-no-one-could-possibly-survive-that. No, they mean dead. Deceased. Flatlined. No more. This is an ex=Shepard. The third game will still be played in this instance, but you will not play as Shepard. However, it goes beyond that as well. Apparently, at the beginning of the game Shepard is involved in an incident. The nature of the incident is unknown, and the violence of the incident apparently depends on your actions; one outcome has you looking completely normal, no scarring or damage apparent in most of the gameplay we've seen. It also goes to the other side of the violence scale, where the aftermath of this mysterious incident leaves you looking like this. Either way, everyone thinks you're dead. Your closest companions believe you to be deceased; at least, most of them. There's a comic in which Liara, refusing to believe you dead, goes to the Terminus Systems, the black underground of the galaxy, to look for Shepard. In any case, it appears that the first words out of the mouths of many people you meet will be, "Shepard! But you're dead!"

I should say that most people think you're dead. One particular group of people know that you're alive and kicking, or are perhaps even responsible for your continued breathing privileges: Cerberus. Yes, Cerberus. The former human military black-ops group. The black-ops group that went rogue and split off from the military as a whole. That performed a large number of illegal and definitely immoral experiments on aliens and humans alike, even fellow soldiers. That killed a high-level admiral, amongst others, to keep their secrets safe. The organization that you have killed a very, very, very large number of its operatives in the course of your optional investigations. The organization you at least partially exposed, in the process bringing a large number of their vital, very expensive project to a grinding, screeching halt. That Cerberus. Yeah.

However, they do not greet you with a pistol to the forehead. Or by using you as target practice for their new anti-vehicle acid cannon, which wouldn't be an unreasonable response giving the amount of hurt you potentially caused them in the first game. No, they decide to give you a mission instead. Considering this is openly described as a suicide mission from which you have little to no chance of returning from, I get the impression that they aren't feeling very kindly towards you despite saving you/pulling you out of the wreckage/engineering the incident in the first place/randomly bumping into you at the Sniping Addicts Anonymous meeting. However, you really get the feeling that they're trying.

So, you accept this mission. This is something of a given. Cerberus fills you in: all over the galaxy, humans are going missing. These aren't cases of random men and women walking into dark alleys that they don't walk back out of. No, entire colonies, hundreds upon thousands of human from remote locations and settling attempts across the galaxy are simply vanishing, one by one. There is no evidence for who or what is behind this. They need someone to look into these disappearances, and your deadness makes you a prime candidate. With it, you can go through channels that you would never have access to otherwise; various enemies who would otherwise get in your way are unaware of your presence, and you can move with freedom through the underworld that you must investigate. As legendary as you are, you cannot do this alone; to this end, they allow you to gather at least some of your old companions, and give you a list of some of the most powerful (and, in more than a few cases, psychotic) characters in the galaxy to aid you in your task. I'll do a separate entry on them. View with discomfort the fact that, although these people are very good, and will undoubtedly aid tremendously in your quest, they are also by and large people who the galaxy will be much, much better off without. Erk.

So you are given what information Cerebus possesses (or at least what they feel like telling you) and you bundle off in your ship and go on your merry way to save the galaxy once again. This is where the factual info that BioWare has provided straight-up ends, and where my observations being.

After the debacle that was Sovereign's attack on Citadel, much of the geth fleet that attacked was destroyed. Following this incident, the remaining geth seem to have returned to their preferred behavior prior to their discovery of Sovereign: lurking behind the Perseus Veil, viciously protecting their territory but otherwise not taking any actions or venturing beyond their borders. Recently, however, geth reports have been on the rise again. Suspicious, Cerebus seems to think that there is a link between them and the disappearing colonies; they appear to be evolving faster than they have before, with more and more specialized combat models appearing and the rest wielding more of the innovative and unusual weaponry that they were wielding in the previous game. Equally and perhaps more troubling is the reappearance of husks, the cyber-zombies always present in the aftermath of a geth attack on a populated area. However, husks have been appearing on planets that are heavily populated and developed, and upon which there are apparently no geth. And the geth have not been previously noted for their subtlety. In addition, you only encountered one type of husk in the first game; now, you are facing at least three new types in addition to the standard husk. Hm.

On a different front, there are the activities of a mysterious synthetics corporation and the group of mercenaries known as Eclipse currently in their employ. What exactly this company does isn't known for certain, apparently they specialize in making mechs. Clarified, they appear to be making mechanical soldiers, humanoid synths who specialize in combat. Nothing unusual, right? Wrong. Apparently their mechs are more advanced than any others currently in development. Take a look at the standard troops. Yes, I know it isn't that great of an image, but still look. Nothing all the remarkable, right? Now then, take a look at this. I don't know about you, but the big guys remind me of the geth. A lot. And remember Nassana Dantius? Let me clarify: remember the asari chick who asked you to "rescue" her sister who had been "kidnapped" by mercenaries? And how it turned out that her sister was in fact leading said mercenaries and all Nassana really wanted was for someone to kill the black sheep of the family so she would stop blackmailing her more influential sister? Yeah. One of your companions is an assassin hired to kill her. You have to get to her before he does, so you can at least meet up with him. Sounds inconsequential, but on the way, she is protected by Eclipse mercenaries fighting in tandem with the smaller mechs, called Loki. This heavily implies that Nassana is part of or at least is affiliated with the shadowy company.

Now for my theory. We know that the threat of the Reapers isn't over with by a long shot. We know that they are still out there; it is heavily implied that there are factions working for them, and it is very possible that Sovereign managed to do more indoctrinating that we previously thought. So, I thought, it is possible that this shadow company was indoctrinated by Sovereign into doing the Reapers' work. The geth were instructed to work with them, to go with a plan B Sovereign formulated in the laughable possibility that he should fail. So, the geth have been quietly kidnapping these human colonies around the galaxy, humans being the ones who destroyed their lord, and are delivering them to this shadow company. The shadow company has then been using these humans as test subjects, creating more and more powerful husks. Factor in the presence of Nassana Dantius, who has access to extremely high-level biotic technology and research, and you get the possibility of psychic cybernetic zombies. At the same time, they have been upgrading the geth, making them more powerful as well, and creating marketable, stealth versions of the geth, spreading them throughout the galaxy, and strengthening the synthetic army in preparation for the day of the next Reaper's appearance. Once it appears, the synthetics will rise up with their strengthened army, and cause enough chaos for this new Reaper to get to the Citadel and bring the rest through.

That was my theory. I was very proud of it.

Then, earlier today, BioWare released a new video, this one detailing some of the enemies you will be facing in the game. Excited, I hurried down to the official site and downloaded the video, like a good little fanboy.

Now, indulge me a metaphor. Let us say that my theory is a poor, confused sap standing in the middle of a field with his head coated in red paint. And the new video is a high-powered sniper rifle. BioWare takes this rifle and points it at my theory.

Boom. Headshot.

My theory is destroyed.

This new video tells us a lot about the story of the game. A lot. It introduces an entire new species: the Collectors, odd bug-like people who have a taste for acquiring genetically odd individuals. It also goes into more detail about the husks and the geth.

Now, let me tell you what's really going on.

It isn't the geth who are rounding up the humans. It's the Collectors. They land in the colonies with massive ships and release swarms of small (well, small when compared to the actual Collectors) insects. These insects have poison that can paralyze humans; once the humans are helpless, the Collectors drag them into pods and whisk them away, leaving no evidence that they were ever there. Why? No one knows yet. But the Collectors are using advanced technology that they, somehow, got from the Reapers.

Someone is performing experiments on the husks. But it doesn't look like the humans now. It may be the geth. Or it may be the reapers themselves. But now I have no clue how they fit into this.

And the geth themselves are changing. Some of the m have managed to evolve, so separate themselves from the mass consciousness that once allowed them to operate and become truly sentient. Why? How? What do they want? Are they with the rest of the geth, or are they against them? These separated geth apparently hold different beliefs than that of the collective; time will tell if this means that they clash.

With one video, BioWare turned my theory on its head. By showing much more info than they usually do, they have served to obfuscate the battlefield and throw what was once thought to be certainties into chaos and confusion. Now I have no idea what's going on. All I can do is wait for the next news article, for the next video or batch of screenshots. In the meantime, I must come up with more theories, theories that will also likely be turned on their heads.

Well played, BioWare. Well played.