AN:- Such imaginative titles, how do I do it?
Chapter Two: Man's Reach Exceeding His Grasp
Through the doors and down the stairs beyond she felt eyes on her, flickering green at the edges of her vision. She shoved it away, ignoring it as she led them down and out into another concourse area. Over the railing she could see trees just outside the compound, the view marred by more dead bodies hanging off the railings or slumped over the walkway.
Their path went round to the left, following the only available route down into a lounge area. There were screens everywhere and she saw eyes in every one, following their movements through the facility. Her eyes burned in her head and she fought the urge to rub them. Ahead was another short corridor that she sent Tali and Garrus down while she and Miranda provided cover. A camera overlooked their actions and she resisted the urge to blast it off the wall.
An automated voice warned them of geth activity on the station. It should have provided an encouragingly simple explanation for everything that had happened. The geth had gone rogue surely. They had taken control, just like on the Alarei. Anyone would accept that explanation and accept that her only option was to nuke the place from orbit.
The corridor opened onto the mess hall, and the second she stepped through the door her shield sparked and flared with bullet impacts as a dozen shots landed home. She raced for cover behind a small wall, her back slamming against it as Miranda crashed next to her. They both stuck their SMGs over the top and fired blind, forcing the geth back under cover. Garrus' rifle cracked once and there was a bionic scream as one geth went down.
For Shepard there was another scream as well, similar to the one she had heard before. She could distinguish more from it now though. It wasn't pain, like she had thought before, there was anger in there. Another geth went down and she heard it again, clearer still. Not anger, she realised. Rage. Pure unfiltered rage was being pumped through the entire station.
She drew her pistol in her other hand and glanced quickly out from behind cover. To her eyes the geth seemed to be encircled by a green halo, patterns and geometric shapes covering their bodies. Even in that quick glance she had another impression, that the geth weren't moving of their own accord. Although the difference would have been unnoticeable to the regular eye these geth were being used like puppets, their limbs controlled by something beyond their control.
A single shot through the eyeplate put down the closest one to her and the scream echoed in her head again. When she ducked back behind cover this time she could see every screen in the place lit up with light, green eyes glaring down at her. It felt like she was being pulled in two directions at once, trying to keep her focus on the fight while her mind longed to find the VI and confront it directly.
As quickly as it had started the battle ended, every geth downed and the eyes disappearing from the walls. She could still feel it though. And looking around spied two cameras tracking their progress. She shook her head to try and clear it and led her squad up the stairs to where a small bunkroom lay open. Inside there was another datalog from Dr Archer.
"Memo to all project personnel. Congratulations on all your hard work! Tomorrow we make the next leap forward. It'll be a great day for Cerberus and an even greater day for humanity."
"Is this guy's doctorate in ironic statements?" Garrus said as they moved back out into the mess hall, heading for the tram station.
Some of the lights in the tram station had been smashed, casting the whole room in uncomfortable gloom. There were yet more bodies scattered around, and Shepard wondered fleetingly how many personnel had been assigned to this station. She wondered if any of them besides Archer had managed to make it out alive, and just how Archer had seemed to be the only one to survive when so many others had been slaughtered.
There were too many questions being raised, and standing in the dark listening to off key music wasn't going to help any. She waved them all onto the tram and Tali got to work on the controls. For a moment Shepard thought that they would be held in place by the AI but then with a whine the engine started and they began to move down the track.
None of the squad spoke as the tram slid out of the station but she could feel their apprehension. She couldn't blame them for it, she was nervous about her own behaviour as it was. It would have been bad enough if it was only the threat of the AI, but the way it seemed to be affecting her was reminding her of their time on the derelict Reaper.
An alarm sounded over the base before they were halfway to the second station and Archer's voice came over the radio again.
"Damn it all, he's aligning the dish to a new upload target. He'll have a clear line of sight to our satellite. This is gonna be tight."
The tram locked into the second station and they piled out into another scene of chaos. Wires had been ripped clean from the walls and bodies lay tangled amongst them, blood staining the walls all around. The unease Shepard felt with the situation began to resolve itself as she realised what was worrying her. The geth were never normally so brutal. They were efficient, they were methodical, but they would never tear apart a building or a body unless they were looking for something concealed inside it.
This station was open to the air, and they moved quickly through to a metal gantry in the shadow of an enormous satellite dish. Shepard spared a moment to scan for hostiles and found none, but as she rounded a corner a flock of birds that had been perched on the railings ahead of them took flight, disappearing into the darkness.
She snapped her pistol up just as the first geth appeared from a small side room. A single shot ripped through the wiring in its neck and it dropped, only to be replaced by a second. Miranda and Tali opened up and blasted it in half. The green after-image of the AI's control faded as the geth died, seeming almost to sink into the metal surrounding the bodies. Shepard shook her head and the effect vanished.
Inside the room the geth had come from they found yet another log, though this one was a broadcast message out. Only when Shepard checked the logs it didn't look as though there had been any outgoing messages since the crisis had begun.
"This is Project Overlord with an emergency message to Cerberus Command. We've experienced a catastrophic security failure and are requesting assistance. We… What do you mean our outgoing comms are jammed. How can it do that?" The message cut off in a burst of static that sounded unsettlingly close to the binary squeals of the AI.
Outside Tali had found the controls to extend a bridge to reach the next set of gantries but the second their feet touched Shepard was nearly deafened by an electronic wail and a hail of bullets came from the opposite walkway. They dropped to the deck as a squad of geth assaulted their position, Shepard switching to her sniper rifle and joining Garrus as they quickly brought down two rocket troopers. Machine gun fire served for the rest and they sprinted for the entrance to the dish.
Tali knelt to unseal the door, and after a second it flickered green, but when they went to enter the lock turned to red again. She swore and started the hack again, only for the lock to open before she could get halfway through. She tried to activate the opening sequence but the door stayed resolutely shut.
Shepard looked down at her. "Tali?"
"This bosh'tet is keeping the- ah." She jammed her omni-tool into the holographic display and the door slid open with a screech. Bullets filled the air again and Garrus yanked Tali back as her shield flared. Shepard spun and added her fire to his, taking down the half dozen geth who had gathered beneath the dish. She could see sloping stairs inside that would lead them up to the outside of the dish but there were more geth coming from above, including a geth prime that glowed vividly green when it spotted her.
"Catch up to me," she said, handing her rifle off to Miranda and drawing her pistol instead. She sprinted forwards, heading for the stairs, but switched direction at the last minute and jumped for the column in the middle of the room. She hit it with both feet and pushed off hard, sending herself up to the second level of the staircase. The geth prime tried to adjust for her sudden change of movement but she was on it before it could, slamming the palm of her hand into its rifle and sending it clattering away.
Not giving it a second's pause she jammed her pistol up under the chestplate and emptied the clip, the heavy bullets punching holes clean through and producing a fountain of sparks as the prime staggered back but didn't fall, swinging a lightning fast blow for her head. She dodged it with ease and kicked out the prime's knee joint, sending it down. She finished it off with a heavy pistol whip that cracked the outer plating on its head and sent it cartwheeling down to the floor where its headplate came entirely off.
The shootout was lessening down below and she was confident that her team could handle it. Drawing her SMG she carried on up the stairs, kicking a geth trooper down to the lower level as she went. The upper access panel was open and she was able to step right out onto the face of the dish.
Archer's voice came from a speaker on the central antenna. "You need to destroy the support struts now. They have their own capacitors, try blowing them up."
She sighed and reloaded her pistol, looking over to where the control panel for the first support strut was. Her nose twitched a little as the Cerberus implant took over and gave her a lesson in support strut maintenance and care. She didn't know why anyone had thought that would be essential to her work as an assassin-cum-commando but it would be helpful now. She walked over and opened the panel to reveal the inexplicably destructible capacitor and stepped back to launch a single round into it.
Explosions rippled along the length of the support strut and the entire dish groaned as the pressure increased in the antenna. She whirled round to see two more support struts, their maintenance hatches at the base. She also saw more geth piling over the side of the dish, a sight which spurred her into a sprint for the next capacitor.
She made it just as the first bullets began to pepper her position, and as she opened the capacitor one of the geth's bullets hit it and did her work for her. She dived for cover and reloaded her pistol, drawing her SMG to return fire and keep them at bay. She didn't know how many geth there could have been on the base but it seemed as though the AI had an inexhaustible supply of them to send her way.
More fire came her way and she risked a quick glance to see another dozen geth join the fray. Cursing she lobbed an incendiary charge at them but it only took down a couple. She was going to get overrun the minute the AI realised just how badly outnumbered she was.
At that moment the rest of her team arrived, appearing on the stairs right behind the geth and cutting them down in seconds. Shepard made a break for the third capacitor, aware that the dish was almost in alignment. From thirty feet away she put a pistol bullet into the control panel and the blast shield slid down. The rest of her clip went into it and the capacitor blew, sending a deep rumble through the dish.
Each of the support struts was cracking along its entire length, pieces collapsing down onto the dish around them. Shepard swung round and raced back to her team, not stopping as the antenna began to implode into the dish, cracks spider-webbing out across the edges, right under their feet as they sprinted for the edge of the dish.
The metal beneath her feet bucked as the dish began to fall apart, jagged shards of metal cracking loose and spinning through the air towards them. The few geth remaining were shutting down, the green life fading as they collapsed and were immediately swallowed by the destruction. They made it to the edge just as the entire thing gave way and crashed down into the gulley below with a deep roar.
Shepard landed hard on a gantry, turning back to grab Tali and steady her as she landed. Garrus came down hard on his leg, yelling out and flopping to the ground, his rifle spinning away from him. Miranda landed half on and half off, her legs scrambling wildly to find purchase. Shepard grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to safety with a single pull.
For a long moment they lay spread-eagled on the gantry, panting and listening to the dish fall apart below them. Dust and grime was kicked up and over them, coating their armour and skin. Garrus was groaning slightly as he tried to straighten his leg so Shepard turned her head towards him.
"You okay Garrus?"
"Might need a minute Shepard."
"Take all the time you need," she said, coughing and struggling to sit. "I think we just bought ourselves a little."
At that moment a man appeared out of the smoke to their right. She recognised him as Archer.
"Over here!" He shouted, waving unnecessarily.
She sighed and forced herself to her feet, giving a hand to Tali as well. Miranda was steadying herself against the rails already.
"What the hell is going on around here?" She growled at the doctor, and he took a step back at the anger in her voice.
"Man's reach exceeding his grasp," he said. Oh great, another philosophical madman. "Come on, I'll explain."
/|\
"You have my thanks Commander Shepard." They were standing in the original foyer, looking down on the devastation. Below, Tali and Miranda were trying to make some sense of the chaos, cataloguing bodies and moving them as respectfully as they could. Archer was at her side, and with every word out of his mouth she disliked him more. "You brought us some time, though probably not much. This isn't over yet."
She kept her tone carefully level. "You owe us that explanation."
"This is Project Overlord, an attempt to gain influence over the geth by interfacing a human mind with a VI." She gritted her teeth. It was worse than she could have imagined. "The results have been… less than satisfactory."
She folded her arms and let some of her contempt creep into her response. "I'd hate to see what you call a disaster."
"You can't dismiss the entire project. We did succeed, at least partially. My brother David, volunteered to serve as a test subject, but his mind couldn't handle the VI Connection." She suddenly thought of the eyes she had seen. Could that have been David, trying to communicate? "He's like a virus now, infecting our networks and seizing control of any technology he finds. It's why you had to destroy the dish. Imagine if his program got off world."
"How does he take control of electronics?" And why do I keep seeing him? She suspected the one question might answer the other.
"This is a hybrid intelligence the likes of which I've never seen. I don't know where the man ends and the machine begins."
So you don't know. Convenient. She put the question on hold and got back to the problem at hand. "What's the worst case scenario?"
"A technological apocalypse. Every machine, every weapon, every computer, could be turned against us. If he hit the extranet, who knows where it would end."
Maybe he'll discover some of Joker's sites and get distracted. "You should have considered that before you started the experiment."
"We couldn't be expected to account for every outcome, certainly not the abomination David has become." Now she definitely didn't like the man. Not accounting for every possibility was one thing, but given the history of crapshoots in AI development it had been madness to work directly with so many live geth units. "David, the VI, has fortified itself in the main laboratory at Atlas station. It's in lockdown now. To enter, you need to manually override security features from our facilities in the Prometheus and Vulcan stations."
She resisted another sigh. They named their stations after mythological figures known for the cost of their hubris and still managed to be surprised when things went wrong for them. Where's Aidos Station, or Moses? "How does the lockdown work?"
"It's a failsafe procedure in the event of an emergency, normally all three project leads have to agree to cancel the lockdown. I'm the only one left now. I can give my authorisation but you'll need to manually reset the other two yourself."
She looked down at the madness in the station and tried to control her feelings. Another three stations full of people had been wiped out, just like this one. "And what happens if I have to kill your brother?" She asked, curious as to what his answer would be.
"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." He sounded sincere enough, but there was an ugliness in his eyes she couldn't fully read. He had also avoided telling her exactly how his brother had become what he had become.
"I'm heading out now," she said, nodding to Garrus. He was lying in state on one of the couches, a medipack held to his knee. He nodded back and rose, limping down the stairs to collect the others.
Archer looked a little relieved to see them gone. "The other stations are all within driving distance. Best of luck Commander."
AN:- There's not a great deal to discuss here that isn't already in the chapter. I added a lot of additional snarky banter and humour, because that is what I do, and I cut down some of the gunfights, because like all Mass Effect DLC this is padded like the bra of an a-cup Hooters girl.