The breakfast in the mess hall that morning was unusually extravagant, endless meats of both dextro and levo origins in the forms of steaks, burgers, ribs and the like piled upon the center table, gifts from classic garden worlds. "And so it begins," Javik muttered as he scooped some meatballs onto his plate, "The last meal for Protheans had been more extravagant," he added as he sat down, "I understand that it is frowned upon these days to be seen dining on fried Hanar and Salarian livers - the meal of Avatars."
At his side, Steve Cortez rolled his eyes as he bit into a burger and Samantha Traynor snorted into her drink and tersely retorted, "Be glad that you're not trying to swallow down MREs. This," she violently stabbed into a piece of her cut steak with a fork and proceeded to wave it in the air, "is wagyu beef. I'm tempted to bring out the wines if the situation wasn't this dire."
Before Javik's reply was interrupted by the arrival of additional crew members. Joker stumbled and swayed through the doors with EDI not far behind. After letting out a huge yawn and a mumbled greeting to the nearest persons, he grabbed a Panini from the vegetarian plate and wrapped it in a napkin. The monitor hanging on the forward wall showed Emily Wong of FCC news and Admiral Hackett standing side by side, the latter looking very much haggard despite his neatly pressed uniform. The news crawler at the bottom of the screen read: BREAKING NEWS FROM SYSTEMS ALLIANCE REGARDING PALAVEN'S AND EARTH'S FALL TO REAPERS.
The atmosphere in the room transitioned from dread to apprehension. "Is this his last 'hoorah' to Earth?" On the other end of the table, James Vega tapped his chin as Hackett cleared his throat.
Joker answered through a mouthful of crumbs, "That doesn't seem to be the old man's style. He must have something important." At that moment, the doors to the elevators opened. Shepard and Vakarian stepped into the room amide a hush from an audience that was enraptured by the Admiral's speech. - But never before have had we faced an enemy such as this. The Reapers will show us no mercy. We must give them no quarter. They will terrorize our populations. We must stand fast- "Morning Shepard," Joker lazily saluted, "Permission to eat at the cockpit?"
Shepard crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "You know the rules."
"Just this once?" The pilot wheedled, "For this extra special occasion?" Undeterred, Shepard smoothly slid into her usual place at the center of the table and threw a significant look over her shoulder until Joker reluctantly plopped down on the seat across and shuffled to make room for EDI who's gaze had not strayed from the monitor.
"Tell you what," Shepard smiled with an almost offensive calm that was not in line with the dreary gloom that permeated the room, nodding in thanks as Garrus returned from the banquet with two plates, "Watch the press conference. I'll let you eat wherever you want afterwards."
James leaned over and squinted suspiciously, "Is there something important that you're not telling us, Lola?"
"Is it something to do with the Crucible?" Garrus gave a nervous side eye toward his Commander, who, to the people who have served long under her, looked like she was about to burst into song.
Shepard faux-casually examined her gloves, "Just a short communication message Anderson sent to me last night. I'll bet my Space Hamster that this is what Admiral Hackett is going to talk about." - We will prevail. Each of us will be defined by our actions in the coming battle. Stand - Joker exchanged a puzzled glance with Chambers and Traynor before shrugging. Tali entered amidst the charged air and made a beeline to the food. - chosen not to only believe in ourselves, but in each other. Today there is not a man nor woman in here that shall stand alone. Not today. Today- "Here it comes," Shepard rubbed her hands together in uncharacteristic glee.
Admiral Hackett recited a speech humans have been hearing stories about since childhood, a throwback to the bygone days when monsters were defeated in epic battles that were told repeatedly until they became legends. It slowly dawned upon the human crew of Normandy just what the Systems Alliance was planning on unleashing upon the Reapers. - face the monsters that are at our door, and bring the fight to them. Today, we are CANCELLING THE APOCALYPSE!
The reactions of the human crew members were varied in their surprise. James' mouth dropped open. Samantha Traynor involuntarily grabbed Javik's hand, releasing it immediately after and giving it an awkward and apologetic pat. Steve Cortez choked on his orange juice. Joker dropped his Panini into EDI's lap. On the monitor, the admiral took a few moments to regain his composure. - Stand fast. Stand strong. Stand together. Hacket out.-
The entire room erupted into cheers.
"What?" Garrus Vakarian struggled to make himself heard as crewmates around him hugged each other, slowly edging away from those that started crying. "What?" He repeated blankly as the news crawler changed into: SYSTEMS ALLIANCE REVEALS HIDDEN JAEGER PROGRAM. The non-humans in the crowd wore expressions of consternation, aware that some vital piece of information was lost on them. The Turian had noted, when Shepard came to fetch him in the morning by the Mako that something big had occurred, noted it by the impatient bounce in her step even though her facial expression struggled to maintain professionalism. Even with the reveal, he was lost. "Shepard?"
Shepard wordlessly reached behind her and pulled out what Garrus had assumed to be a child's toy: a bipedal robot that strongly reminded him of Legion. He stared incomprehensively at the figure before clicking his mandibles together in confusion - faded blue paint job, romanticized decal - it was obviously well cared for; he couldn't help but think that Shepard was expecting a bigger reaction. Steve Cortez's eyes widened and he leaned over the table for a closer inspection, "Is that the first edition of Gipsy Danger?"
"Signed by Mako Mori herself," Shepard said with a smug air.
"How the hell...? If you don't mind me asking, ma'am." The man gave the robot a disbelieving and admiring look. "Only ten of them have ever been made. And I thought Mr. Vega here was the only one on the Normandy who specialized in antiques. My own parents bought me Eden Assassin on my seventh birthday. It's with me in my pod."
"My Cherno Alpha is older than me," Samantha Traynor piped in, her half-finished plate long forgotten, "It belonged to my grandmother and passed down to my mother and then to me."
"You have a Cherno Alpha? I have a Cherno Alpha!" James exclaimed. "Don't mind Cortez, he doesn't appreciate the classics." He thumped his chest twice with a fist, "Cherno Alpha rules! The protector of the Siberian Wall since its launch in 2015!"
"The heaviest Jaeger ever built. Six engagements in six different areas around the globe. Z14 fists powered by Tesla cells able to give 415kv to its enemies." Samantha continued, solemnly sharing a fist bump with the Arms Master. She would have continued with her long list of facts if it wasn't for Joker's subsequent return. The pilot wheezed as he eased back into his original seat that had remained empty since he had rushed, as fast as his body would allow, out of the mess hall in a fit of spastic excitement. He slapped his own toy - 'Jaeger' Garrus mentally corrected - into EDI's open hands. After turning over the object several times, EDI pressed a button on its upper thigh. Tali peered over EDI's shoulder and curiously prodded one of the three figurine's three arms.
"Check it," Joker announced proudly, adjusting his cap as the fingers on the robot's right arm split into miniaturized sawblades and started to spin, "My Crimson Typhoon can go into Thundercloud Formation. Donnelly and Daniels made some adjustments on the specs two weeks ago as a favor." Everyone watched the robot returning back into ready stance.
Garrus decided to take advantage of the momentary silence that had bubbled around their small group, seemly separating them from the rest of the festivities around them. "So," he tried to be casual in his tone, "can someone explain to me what exactly a Jaeger is?" His question was met by looks of disbelief from the humans.
"What do you mean by 'What exactly is a Jaeger?'" Councilor Donnel Udina delicately asked, leaning back from the screen, as if the question itself held some physicality. He coughed into a hand, taking a moment in an attempt to puzzle out why the other councilors had turned on him after Miss Wong's report and demanded answers, "The Jaeger Program and the Kaiju War are integral parts of Humanity's history. The knowledge is commonplace."
Councilor Tevos tapped her nails against the side of her podium, face betraying nothing but placid calm. "Integral parts that obviously no one outside of Humanity knows about. Why don't you care to enlighten your fellow councilors? Perhaps if you had told us earlier, we could have helped you mass assemble these Jaegers. There might have been a chance that we could have saved Earth or," her eyes flickered to her right, "Palaven." Only a slight flare of the mandibles betrayed Spartacus's response at the Asari talking of his homeworld.
Udina resisted the urge to knead at the skin between his brows or snarl at the rebuke. Truly there were times in this chamber that he thought he was dealing with sharks more than any sentient being and fear could be detected by scent. He had many responses poised on the edge of his tongue. One of which was to laugh hysterically in the face of their ignorance - but alas, these last few years have gifted him with heightened self-preservation.
Palaven's resistance forces, unlike Earth, has maintained some amount of communication with Spartacus after it had fallen to the Reapers, meager as it was. Earth, however, now relied upon their outdated radio towers and few quantum entanglement apparatuses that paired to other continents or specific areas outside of the Sol system. Besides, he highly doubted that these Councilors would have assisted his people – if anything, they would be building the mechs for their own use, each of them turned inwards towards the defenses of their own planets, refusing to consider any plan of a counterattack to retake Earth and the surrounding territories.
The unknown fates of their brethren back on their homeworld had spurred Humanity into an ever increasing frenzy of mass production. The Jaeger Program had been revived during the First Contact War but never unleased against the Turians due to Asari peace talks. The factories were kept though, on larger colonies, as a deterrent against piracy and as a way to promote jingoism. Jaegers were deployed only twice since: once against the raid in Mindoir and once against the Skyllian Blitz in Elysium - both with astounding success that left no witnesses (that would explain why the news never spread to Council Space).
Big Stick Diplomacy was an ideology that Admiral Hackett had loved to expound upon during his usual tours towards fresh faced newcomers of the Systems Alliance Military during harried peace time. Hackett's remarkable optimism on Jaeger retaliation had soothed his darker, more desperate thoughts. Udina will have to send a message to Hackett: it's not Big Stick Diplomacy if no other government knew that you had a big stick. He had dimly wondered, on occasion, between bouts of fury at his own helplessness at the major blows dealt towards the Systems Alliance's infrastructure, why no leader had asked him about the ongoing Jaeger Program, and had assumed that they had scoffed at the thought of reverting back to pre-Element Zero technology.
On the glass terminal before him, next to the frame that showed Miss Emily Wong, FCC News correspondent, getting harassed by fellow reporters who were demanding an explanation, was a blinking red notification. "It was in our First Contact Package," Udina smoothly replied as he opened the link and briefly scanned a message from Captain Anderson regarding the renovations achieved on the remaining colonies' communication systems to ensure that future Reaper invasion wouldn't result in another blackout. The lessons learned, though valuable, had costed Earth and... (He knows... knew many good men and women on the Arcturus Station) but only time will tell if they can be reclaimed. "This would be in our histories and easily accessible through public domain."
"Are you implying that the STG has missed such valuable data, that I can find what I am missing on any available interface?" Councilor Valern straightened and asked sharply. Sometimes, very rarely, Udina wished that Anderson never stepped down from his position, claiming that the dogs of war were calling like a siren (privately, Udina speculated that the man also wished to spend more time with First Lieutenant Sanders before the inevitable spread of the Reapers). A military man through and through, Anderson, like Spartacus, could afford to be curt with his peers. Udina, on the other hand, built his life around maneuvering through political channels and gained a reputation that made such behavior unacceptable.
But this meeting has gone on hours past its expected scheduled end and his work, leaning against allies for more aid in developing Jaegers and that enigmatic Crucible, tentative talks with Cerberus who claimed to have found a way to control the Reapers, awaited him at his desk and he was growing testy. He squashed the side of him that refused to give the Councilors what they wanted, to let them stew in their flailing panic while he, for once, had a clear direction for his goals. It was not his fault that Valern and the rest of the Salarians overlooked something that was lying right under their (figurative) noses. "Yes," Udina flatly replied, raising an eyebrow, "and if you hand me your datapad right now, I can pull up the pertinent information directly from the Codex for your perusal." right under 'Humanity and Systems Alliance,' between 'Human Diplomatic Relations' and 'Military Doctrine'- goes the unspoken insult.
The problem with Humanity...- Councilor Valern thought sourly as he stalked back to his office after watching the five minute long propaganda video that did not so much as hide the might of the Jaegers as used it to make human worlds more alluring as tourist destination hot spots. After an hour of conversing with current and past operatives of the STG, postures straight with perplexity, sorting through all of their intelligence on the human race with fresh eyes, Valern reviewed his summary of his findings with a baleful eye - The problem with Humanity stems from its eccentricity
Since they started recording their history, Humanity has spawned 114 movies, 27 finished and 4 ongoing network shows, and 2 musicals about mech robots. Their 32 documentaries and any offered information pertaining to the jaegers (all public domain, just as Councilor Udina had informed them) had been glossed over as part of the fiction by Salarian reconnaissance. Museum exhibits showcasing retired Jaegers were seen as and vision ineffectively parading itself as reality. Because what a reality it was: that someone had thought to create a bipedal machine hundreds of meters high with surprising dexterity and destruction that required two synchronized minds in order to battle interdimensional monsters.
The mere premise of the Kaiju War was more ridiculous than the most fantastical stories that came from other species. The data had been sitting in plain sight, looked over because Humanity had moved on from robotics to E-Zero and had not emphasized this striking piece of history because they did not see the need to because they perceived it as 'common knowledge.'
"In primary school," replied Officer Eddie Lang from C-Sec after he had regained his bearings from being roughly grabbed from a parking lot in the Citadel Wards by interviewers and asked when the Kaiju Wars were taught to children, "right after the Beginnings of the Eighteen Nations and before the Manswell Expedition and Mars Colonization Attempts." He perked up, reached into his back pocket, seemly out of nowhere, and pulled out what Valern assumed to be a jaeger with broad shoulders, dual propulsion balance fin towers, and bladed gauntlets, "But even before then I heard so many stories from my folks about my great-uncle Herc Hansen and how he drifted with the legendary Stacker Pentecost. It's a point of family pride, you see."
"Did…" The Asari reporter floundered with her grip spasming on her recorder, "Did- did you just imply that humanity built those weapons before they achieved space flight?!"
The screen changed. A bearded man who identified himself as Conrad Verner grinned at the camera and give the unseen audience a little wave. "Oh! Commander Shepard once asked me that exact same question about a few weeks ago. Can you imagine? Commander Shepard asked for my expert opinion. She knows that she can count on me!"
There was a cough in the background. "Mr. Verner? The topic at hand?"
"Right. I was getting to that." Conrad Verner waved his jaeger figurine at the growing crowd who perked up in interest - pincher hands, white paint design with red accents, robust body that sacrificed speed for heavy strikes. "The knowledge needed to travel to Mars is different from the knowledge needed to scale up brute force, thermal, electric, et cetra, weaponry," the man continued amiably as he passed his miniature around for the reporters to inspect. "I did my second doctoral dissertation on how mass effect shielding holds up to jaeger schematics ...though nobody seemed to want to cite it. Commander Shepard offered to peer review but she's a busy lady. It'll be interesting to get her second opinion on simple Newtonian Physics meeting Mass Effect. See: though the normal range missiles could probably be repelled by the alternative current like properties of element zero, if one should continuously bear tons of alloy, sometimes upgraded with electric surges and/or with superheated carbon nanotubes, you put considerable strain on the force field like how any habitable planet withstands solar wind and-"
The screen changed again. The Asari leaned across the bar of Chora's Den, struggling to raise her voice in vain to be heard over the pounding music. "- such firepower is dangerous in the hands of a young and upcoming race. Would you agree with those analysts?"
Jenna the waitress set down a cleaned empty glass and frowned, "Are you comparing us to the Krogans during their rebellion?" She demanded.
The reporter shook her head and raised up both hands in a human-placating gesture, "I never said that. I just want an on-the-spot response from one of the masses."
"Does it matter?" Jenna raised an eyebrow as she took the order of a Turian customer, "We... Humanity," she corrected a beat later, "survived. We did not immediately afterwards populate at a threatening rate across the galaxy, the Fermi Paradox was proven false, and time goes on."
The screen changed again. "I am a journalist," Emily Wong insisted, looking mildly peeved at the three recorders held out before her, "not a public relations manager for an entire race." She patted her hair in an attempt to flatten it to its previous, respectable style, "If you wish to know more of the program, please ask Admiral Hackett who has been overseeing production since the First Contact War or Relay 314 Incident. He will be holding an official press conference two days from now at 0800 hours. If you wish to delve deeper into the human psyche as to why we decided that mech robots were our solution to the Kaiju Wars, please ask a psychologist." The human reporter tugged her skirt straight with a slight huff, "Now, with that said, I don't think there is anything else I can help you with."
"Wait!" The Asari reporter tried one last time, "Miss Wong!"
"No more questions, please." Emily Wong's voice grew faint as she moved away from the mike. Then, just as she was about to move out of the camera's view, she added, with coincidental likeness to Commander Shepard's tone and pitch, "I should go."
Councilor Valern scrolled through his datapad through countless literature on Humanity in a way to explain their behavior: genomic differences in relation to intron and exon mapping, brain lobe stimulation and corpus callosum chemical reactions - but nothing that was pertinent. There were not a lot of Salarians participating in field research of colloquially termed "soft science," tending to gravitate toward the natural sciences. After seemly fruitless searching, Valern and his assistants managed to discover a total of fourteen papers written on the topic of human cultural anthropology by Salarians.
"They are known for their innovation which would in part explain their alarming progress after the Relay 314 Incident." Dr Veero Solus, the more inconspicuous clutchmate of renown Mordin Solus, main author of Cross Cultural Adaptation and Learned Behavior and Cultivating Creative Minds, explained happily. "Their young are inherently illogical because they learn by acceptiing everything they encounter as fact. They contain the most mutable minds of the galaxy - you can ask my colleague Dr. Krals for his literature analysis on the field of Human Psychology. However," the doctor folded his hands, "I cannot offer you what you need, Councilor"
"The research conducted by Humans would prove much useful," Councilor Valern grimaced at the pain of an incoming headache, "However, all data that is not engineering, chemistry, or biology had been corrupted after the Reaper Invasion. The last known locations of the scientists that I need to contact were all on Earth."
After taking a moment to commiserate on Valern's bad fortune, Dr Solus signed off. Rubbing his cranial horn, the Salarian stared out his window at the view offered by the Presidium. If he concentrated, he could hear Ambassador Din Korlack's filtered breathing four walls away. He then looked down at his notes with a short summary written at the far edge encompassing an entire day's worth of digging and despaired.
Many races, when faced with an outlandish course, will ask "why."
Humanity is the only one, I have found, who will ask, "why not."
- Message from Urdnot Wrex - I don't know what strings you pulled, Shepard, but your bosses gave me the Mark-4 and Mark-5 Jaeger schematics. It's not even my birthday. I don't know how many we can have ready by the time the Reapers come but I'll make sure to have at least one spoiling for a fight.
- Message from Grunt - MY BatLEMasTER sTriks FEAR In the haRTS of oUr eeNeMIes. I;ve sene THees WORTHY VeSelS. WITH Ur TEecHINGS' I;ll MAN THE FIRST JeeGAR AND ILL call IT SHEPAURD.
- Message from Urdnot Wrex - Grunt is in the hospital after celebrating the occasion with a couple of berserkers and got into the Ryncol. Don't listen to him. He hasn't even found anyone he can Drift with.
- Message from Grunt - S HEEPARAD. TeLL The OLD MaN to StOP TeLing Me thaat i CANNT TaKE tHE
While Shepard tilted her head to the side as she squinted at the letters in the dark lighting, confused as to what Grunt did to cut the text off prematurely, at the front of the room, Dr. Karin Chakwas was trying her best with EDI as an assistant to give what essentially was Jaeger History for Dummies to Liara and Tali. Liara had a hand up; Shepard caught the last half of her question, given in half disbelief and half awe, "- thermonuclear bomb through the portal where these precursors were creating the Kaiju?"
Chakwas raised a hand to her chest in an empathetic gesture that she usually employed when trying to haul in rowdy patients to her infirmary and stopped halfway as she considered Liara's words. "Though it sounds implausible, you must believe otherwise. Granted, we had only a leap in technological advancement in melee robotics while such fields as emergency medicine failed to make any historical discoveries until medi-gel," that part of her statement was muttered ruefully and had passed unheard.
"In every other civilization," Liara's mouth remained pursed as she continued to protest, "the design of large scale kinetic energy by tactical ordnance is predated by efficiency in fuel engines." She thumbed through her data pad, her scowl growing darker by her fourth pass.
Shepard tried to console the frustrated Asari, "You probably aren't finding it because it's not considered blackmail material that the Shadowbroker can use against the Systems Alliance." Tali pretended to be engrossed in her new data cache about the OSIH Achilles Shock Absorbers as Liara vibrated with barely restrained mass effect fields. Shepard tried to diffuse the situation, though mildly puzzled as to how her words had escalated the tension in the room, "I can give you some of the trifold posters from Humanity history museums. They're gathering dust somewhere in my files and might offer a better picture than Chakwas, EDI, or I."
"That is decidedly not why I am angry, Commander," Liara T'Soni replied with false calm after taking ten meditative breaths. She turned to the doctor and they exchanged a knowing glance, "At least Chakwas somewhat understands my plight." When Shepard's nonplussed expression did not change, Liara added, "I pride myself on my in depth knowledge of certain interests. To see that my information that I have been building up for years had a foundation with gaping holes, well, do you understand?" Shepard did not understand – but she nodded regardless. Liara pressed her hand against her facial markings, a tick she indulges in whenever exasperated, "Nevermind that. EDI, can you please pull up the timelines for the different Mark numbers? I want to see their improvements side by side by other mechanizations." Within the hour, EDI, Tali, and Liara had converged onto the central table and quickly launched into a discussion that flung out words such as "platinum photochromic displays" and "particle dispersal plasmacasters" like candy.
"I must admit that your crew is taking it a lot better than I had anticipated," Chakwas murmured out of the side of her mouth as she stood at Shepard's left. "I received a few messages from a couple of associates who reported patients needing fainting couches when being divulged of this 'secret' that is not a secret." Shepard hummed in response as she watched EDI manifest a 3D hologram of Mark-4 Mammoth Apostle. "I'm grateful to be on the Normandy at this time. I've heard some recent news of humans being accosted on the streets with endless questions."
"A foldable blade?" Tali asked with her head askance, "How did the engineers account for structural weaknesses in the angle gears? Hydraulics?"
EDI blinked – the hologram of the sword arm enlarged; spec details appeared on the side bar, "Hydraulics and pneumatics were manipulating movements in the earlier versions before quantum field resonances overtook the manifold after computational calculations revealed that these Jaegars were ill suited for underwater combat and instead-"
"I'm sorry. Did you just say 'underwater combat'?" Liara interjected.
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Shepard held up her communicator and scrolled through her notifications. "Kasumi Goto, for one, is reveling in this sort of chaos, says that it's good for business." Lately, Kasumi has taken the time to send Shepard nonsense messages without words such as - ! - and - ;DDDD - that are attached with pictures of the thief standing proudly under the shadows of various stolen Jaegar parts such as the WMB2x90 Anti-Kaiju Missile Launcher used by Striker Eureka and the remnants of the Vulcan Specter HUD (the Museum of Science and Industry at Shanxi would be pleased to know that their prized exhibit was only 'procured' rather than destroyed as previously feared).
"Naturally, Dr. T'Soni, if the portal is underneath Earth's largest ocean, then our weaponry will need to be able to maneuver underwater at rivaling speeds to that of the Kaiju." Shepard briefly wondered if the hallmark of a successful AI was to use sarcasm in a way that no organic being can confidently call out whether that AI had actually used sarcasm.
Sarcasm, however, is completely lost on Tali'Zorah when she's preoccupied with new engineering marvels. Despite the enviro-suit coverings, it was easy to note her agitation through her twitching fingers as she no doubt was imagining the flotilla with similar augmentations. (Could the Neema even be fitted with 98BD/Hyper-torque drives?) "The 08FS/Oceanic cooling vents used the salt water as a circulatory system and its open paneling decreases fluid resistance. But how did that not degrade the system? Maintenance?!"
"Why did you request my help when it was clear that EDI was competent enough to give the lesson on her own?" Chakwas asked Shepard.
"Some individuals need a gentler hand than EDI," Shepard said diplomatically. Some individuals require the same answer repeated multiple times in different paraphrases before accepting the truth as palpable – as many humans all around the galaxy have begun to realize when interacting with their counterparts.
"Underwater combat," Liara repeated fruitlessly as EDI brought forth another schematic of the inner carbon nanofiber muscle substitutes that were used in the Mark-3 and above machineries. Tali's brightened up and leaned forward for a closer look, rapidly interfacing her wrist communicator with that of EDI's and descending into even more techno-babble. "They achieved underwater combat before space flight. There are so many easier ways to fight Kaiju than underwater combat. I just wish to understand why."
Tali was obviously more interested in the 'how' than the 'why' - "Fighting robots," she simply replied, as if those two words were the be all and end all, the universal answer, which was a remarkably humanistic opinion, though for a Quarian, perhaps not too unusual.
Shepard solemnly held up her first edition Gipsy Danger to the screen. On the screen, Miranda Lawson held up a first edition Striker Eureka with equal gravity. Shepard's professional mask broke apart in lieu of a wide grin and would've fistbumped her compatriot across the HUD if she could've. "Oriana is over the moon with the news. She showed me her collection of tapes on the post war interviews. She has a recording of the Pentecost speech," Miranda excluded the air of a self-satisfied cat, as if the treasures that her sister had collected reflected upon herself.
"The Pentecost speech?" Shepard's eyes minutely widened.
"The Pentecost speech." Miranda confirmed, almost preening under the other woman's awe.
"A leader that knows no equal and yet is equal to all," Shepard murmured with no small amount of hero worship. Stacker Pentecost was the epitome of what every Systems Alliance commander strived to be: not only one of two ever to have survived a solo piloting with his mind intact but also the only man ever to take nothing into the Drift with him, neither rank nor ego, making him compatible with virtually everyone. A character like that needs the perfect distillation of practicality and empathy, tactical genius and camaraderie, unbiased and aware. Human scientists had postulated that the more emotionally stable a Jaeger pilot, such as Stacker Pentecost who did not falter in the face of many obstacles: Kaiju, political enemies, radiation poisonings and the like, the more potential Drift compatible partners he or she could find. Speaking of Drift compatibility, there had been a rush among Systems Alliance officials to find potential pilot pairs or trios… "Donnelly and Daniels mentioned that you would likely Drift successfully with Oriana." Shepard thoughtfully tapped her lip.
"I would think that would be obvious," Miranda mimicked Shepard's actions before glancing off screen to type in a few notes on her own monitors, "genetics has been proven to trump upbringing to a point. Jacob mentioned something similar but fighting for hours in a hot, poorly ventilated conn-pod does not sound appealing in the slightest. He says hi, by the way." Before Shepard can give an acknowledging nod, Miranda continued, leaning in conspiratorially, "Between saving scientists and finding a girlfriend, that man has picked up a side-hobby of matchmaking… Looking for Drift couples," the ex-Cerberus officer clarified when Shepard tilted her head in askance.
"Oh?" Shepard crossed her arms with a wry smile, "and who did he find for me?"
"Obviously anyone from your handpicked squad," Miranda turned back to the screen with a blow torch, "Within the Normandy and not including you? A little harder. He sent me a list a while back." She started listing off with her fingers, "Donnelly and Daniels. Cortez and Vega. Joker and EDI." Shepard raised an eyebrow; Miranda lifted a shoulder. "I was also surprised but when I stop and think about it..."
Shepard blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and contemplated the scientific definition of an AI and gestalt intellect as she stared at a blank spot on the adjoining wall. Shepard wondered how Admiral Hackett would respond to the idea of the Geth Consensus as Jaeger pilots: positively, maybe a bit too positively. Whatever he decides - it'll be the right choice. There's a reason why the man was still so venerated after the First Contact War and why he's an advocate of the Jaeger program despite dissidents pointing out that eezero was a far superior field. But Hackett believed that Jaegers aren't inferior, just… different. As she mulled through her thoughts, her datapad lit up and vibrated softly. "Jack," Shepard answered when Miranda lifted an eyebrow and dutifully ignored slight grimace that pulled at the other's mouth.
- Message from Jack – Shepard, explain please? What the fuck are Jaegers?
"Ahh," Miranda let out slowly, "She wouldn't know, would she?"
Shepard rubbed her nose bridge and chuckled, "I thought that the people at Grissom Academy had told her everything. Chakwas' presentation would not cut it."
"Maybe she did ask her students. But she also asked you. Therefore, you are the one responsible for teaching her, I guess you can call it, our heritage."
Heritage? More like… Legacy. Pride in Jaegers are almost kin to a birthright. "Fine by me. I'd love to initiate another person into the fold." Shepard hummed as she began drafting a reply.
Regarding the Jaeger Program: its military division balked at the sudden influx of requests for an alliance from other species, organic and synthetic, worrying about security risks and the pros and cons of setting aside resources for other worlds while R&D came together and discussed the merits of finding more compatible pairs. The Geth, as Commander Shepard's had speculated, were extremely interested and had been the first to contact Admiral Hackett for a gentleman's agreement for neither side could even afford time to write an official contract with the threat looming. "-as a whole," Dr. Newt Gottlieb (the great grandnephew of renown Dr. Hermann Gottlieb) tapped his cane against the shoulder of a Geth Prime that acted as a diplomatic envoy. The Geth Prime did not seem to mind. "We can easily trade out one for the other due to their mobile platform. They have answered our question of if we were to ever run out of pilots, what was to be done. They're presence is a relief."
The next group to contact the Jaeger Program were the Turians – those that still remained in communication with the Citadel, scattered across their homeworld and colonies – mobilizing their resistance forces in a mad scramble to keep their head above the Reaper invasions. "We expected them to stick their noses… mandibles," the scientist corrected after giving Garrus a considering glance, "into our business, due to a militaristic and disciplined culture." Then, Dr. Gottlieb tapped Garrus on the shoulder with his cane and continued down the hall.
"Charming isn't he?" Garrus muttered from the rear as the group, Shepard at the helm, flanked by Tali and Javik. "Must be an engineer thing." Tali turned and gave a displeased hiss.
"Krogans were on board the minute we had our press conference. Asari and Salarians: not so much. The Quarians, I believe, are still securing Rannoch but overtures have been made. And, surprisingly, a song from the Rachni Queen." Everyone, even the Geth Prime that stood at the scientist's right, stopped in their tracks. "We have you to thank for that, Commander Shepard. They're industrious nature and teamwork make them very useful for our projects. Though to hear them sing songs about quantum entanglement and Tesla wirings when they attached the missiles into the holsters," Dr. Gottlieb pressed an ominously large red button on the door and waited for the wall with a radiation warning symbol painted on in bright yellow to twist and pull apart to reveal another long hallway, "is quite interesting; the experience is …ineffable."
A blue mist hissed out of the cracks from the sides of the steel reinforcements at the side of the pathway by the aisle lighting. The effect was probably for show: Humanity never got over their penchant for histrionics, to mimic the stories that they produced. "Don't mention it," Shepard demurred after throwing a warning glance over her shoulder to Javik who had whispered a backhanded compliment about the facility. "Thank you for inviting us here and taking the time to show us your work." The purpose of said tour was to hopefully convince the Normandy to offer some men and women for Jaeger Academy. Even if Shepard were to say no to volunteering her crew, she definitely wouldn't say no to a guided tour through the biggest mech stronghold on Eden Prime.
"My pleasure. Right this way." Pairs of flood lights turned on with each step that Dr. Gottlieb made as the group entered the final chamber, loud rhythmic metallic switches flipped at every interval until, just in the distance, one realized that the silhouette in the background was a larger than life bipedal robot. The entire group held their collective breath as they stood in the shadow of a monstrous being. "The upgrades made enabled us to work on an even larger scale. This is our newest model. Mark-10 NS513." At his audience's aghast look, he hurriedly added, "It's a label. The name is still in the works. That is," he spread out his hands and gestured at the being, "any of you like to give suggestions?"
Javik was the first to recover from the awed silence. "I have a few in mind based upon the inspirations you used to make its outer aesthetics." The Prothean eyed the paneling on the Jaeger's head that could possibly move to simulate facial expressions. The Geth Prime's flaps raised in imitation of human eyebrows.
Garrus whistled and nodded in agreement, "You want to call it Geth Prime? That's a terrible name. Besides, it looks more like a juggernaut or an infiltrator." The Turian turned to the Geth Prime, "You should have a say in this, seeing how you and..." He waved a hand up at the Jaeger that stood easily over 100 meters: rusted red accents on the shoulders of an overall grey and black toned metal plating, leaving little in the way for embellishment. "What's your name?"
The Geth Prime's photoreceptor flickered. "Geth. This unit has no other designation."
The Turian sighed. "So much for that idea. You are just like- hmmm, what about…" He glanced at Tali who had been silent since they first laid eyes on the gargantuan figure that, for all intents and purposes, seemed to be dormant, sleeping. Keelah se'lai. "You're thinking the same thing, right? They look awfully alike. It's your call."
Tali'Zorah wrung her fingers as Shepard craned her neck back and ran her eyes along the mech's sides, imagining the three fingers gripping onto a geth spitfire assault rifle, down to the lower limbs, bowed back in a similar make to their creators. Error, copying code is insufficient. Direct personality dissemination required. Shepard-Commander. I must go to them. I'm… I'm sorry. It's the only way. "I think he wouldn't mind," Shepard gently nudged the Quarian with an elbow, "He'd be happy to give his name up for an important occasion."
Does this unit have a soul? The Geth Prime lowered his head, machinery and software giving a low hum. Dr. Gottlieb did not interrupt the suddenly solemn moment and waited patiently for a response. Even Javik didn't not offer an acerbic comment. On Tali's other side, Garrus closed his eyes, as if reliving past, fond memories. "He would be," Tali straightened after a long minute. Slowly, deliberately, she turned to Dr. Newt Gottlieb and announced, "There is a name we believe that you should strongly consider..."
My name is Legion: for we are many.
The denizens of the Citadel, still reeling from the confusion that came from an attempted coup by Cerberus, gathered in the ruins of the streets left behind by the works of assassins and unlawful armed forces. They converged on any given monitor that hung from the tall structural poles. Across the galaxy, countless others did the same: visually following the military might of the Galactic Government's best that were sequestered aboard frigates, carriers, cruisers, dreadnaughts, and… Jaegers. Journalists of all species took their shuttles and sky vans into the space above Thessia, and waited, and watched.
Shepard walked by the Normandy mess hall, reading through a memo from Anderson about yet another Systems Alliance mission that Kai Leng had almost thwarted, mentally constructing a haphazard plan to track down clues to the elusive Leviathans on Namakli and peered through the door when she heard Dr. Liara T'Soni whisper faintly, "By the goddess," with eyes glued upon the screen hanged on the wall.
Billions watched as Reaper ships appear next to the relay and arranged themselves in a formation that anticipates orbital bombardment onto the planet, as the Asari forces partook in guerrilla warfare, flitting in and out of FTL, blasting a Reaper ship, then disappearing again out of gun range. It was a defensive strategy that took into consideration Thessia's minimal military might. But it was not enough: Reaper numbers were much too high and the battle would've been sadly one sided if not for the influx in Jaegers provided by the remnants of the Systems Alliance.
The audience in the Citadel oohed and awwed like children as Jaegers with the characteristics of Humans, Quarians, Turians, Krogans, Geth, and even one Rachni, banded together to flank and take down a sovereign class reaper ship, to use their arms to crush the main gun of a destroyer subtype. Despite their reliance upon agility and fast coordinating movements, in one instance, a number of Jaegers and lauded pilots were lost to the 450 kilotons of TNT, courtesy of the magnetohydrodynamc cannon. Still, the robots clutched onto the Capital ship and little by little, bypassed the kinetic shields with slowly applied pressure and deliberate saws into the weak points of the mass effect field. The tide of battle swung slowly from one side to the other like a metaphorical pendulum.
Too often, debris from the wreckage of skirmish, nearby asteroids, and from the earth below wiped out the cameras that allowed the public to view the war. Slowly, the first wave of Reapers died down to give the defensive forces a moment to breath, to recuperate, to assess damages and numbers. A stray piece of ship hull took out the last working camera from the investigative war journalists. The screens blacked out across the Milky Way, leaving behind an error message – SIGNAL LOST - and quantum entanglement tunnels as the remaining form of communication.
Hours after the first footage of the assault on Thessia, in the Normandy mess hall, Liara T'Soni turned around and blinked in surprised: she had expected only Shepard as company, not the entire crew, all hushed and silent as they stared at the black screen above her head in trepidation. "What." She paused and cleared the throat, hoping that her face did not show any evidence that she had been crying. "What does this mean?"
The crowd gave the young Asari a thoughtful look. "Time." Someone, face hidden within the mass of uniforms, said from the back of the group after two beats. "We have more time."
A low murmur of agreement washed across the room; people shifted in a restless, anticipatory manner. "And hope," someone else added, "And chances."
And… maybe… it'll be enough.