A small shuttle docked with the massive reaper, an Old Machine orbiting Mnemosyne, a relic of an ancient conflict, long since forgotten, the small vessel that the Geth had been commissioned for operation beyond the Perseus Veil was absolutely dwarfed by the malevolent machine that it intended set foot on.
The Geth had been searching for the human known as Commander Shepard ever since the destruction of the Old Machine, Nazara, having knowledge that Shepard was a critical part in foiling it's attack on the Citadel. It seemed however, it was much more than just a random attack, Shepard had stopped a cycle that had been going on for more than fifty thousand years, a cycle of destruction and rebirth through death, that even the Prothean empire hadn't been able to avoid. Nonetheless, it seemed that the Old Machines were still plotting their return, undaunted by the destruction of their envoy.
Orchestrating an attack on Shepard's flagship through the Collectors, it seemed they had succeeded in killing icon of the whole human race. After retracing Shepard's steps during his quest to stop Saren Arterius and Nazara, the Geth ending it's search at the crash site of the SSV Normandy, all hope had been lost. Until approximately two months ago when it had picked up transmissions from a vessel known as the Normandy SR-2, indicating that they would eventually make a trip to this Old Machine.
Intending to them off, this particular Geth had arrived at it before them, dropping down from a shuttle that it expected would soon be destroyed, it took a few tenative and wary steps toward the entrance, an M-97 sniper rifle grasped tightly in it's synthetic hands.
It had spent a week and three days aboard the Old Machine that was thought to be inactive, but in the days it had spent on the enormous machine, the more it became obvious, this was far from the truth. Upon boarding the ship, the Geth had encountered a small research team from the radical human organization, Cerberus, also associated with Commander Shepard, as it had recently discovered. It spent most of the time observing the team of humans, attempting to decipher their intent aboard such a vessel while also attempting to avoid contact with them so as to prevent alarm amongst them. The situation became urgent though when it noticed erratic behavior from the research team. Spells of panic, forgetfulness, sickly feelings, and a rapid loss interest all became more and more prevalent the longer the people spent on the Old Machine. The Geth knew the signs, this behavior pointed to one thing: these people were subjects of indoctrination, the situation only got worse when the team found a supply of what were known to the Alliance as "Dragon's Teeth", and the indoctrinated team started turning themselves into husks, mindless creatures that held only a physical semblance to their previous organic selves. In what was originally a search and recovery mission, had become a fight for it's life as the Geth was forced in a frantic battle against the oncoming hoard.
Time passed as the Geth feared that it's target wouldn't show, having spent about a week on the machine, there was doubt to the fact that Shepard had made this destination a mandatory part of his trip. Shortly after this though, the Geth was proven wrong. Information had reached it, via the various signaling devices left about by the Cerberus research crew before they met their end by their own indoctrinated hands, a small group was advancing further and further into the derelict ship, and were getting closer and closer to where it holed up for it's own safety. Then, after so long and so much doubt within itself, there he was, Commander Shepard, in the company of two from his crew, a large, immature-looking Krogan, and a Turian that looked like it had suffered severe injuries at some point in his life. Of course, not fully aware of the situation on board what they referred to as a "reaper", he had unintentionally made his presence known to the large number of husks that roamed it's inside. Immediately the Geth opened fire on the shambling abominations that threatened the life of the Commander, but nonetheless still startling him as made apparent by his teammates.
"Sniper, get down!"
Even at the distance it stood shrouded in the mist, it could hear the warning comment made by the cautious Turian, who was undoubtedly a long-serving combatant at the speed he evaluated the situation. Disappearing back within the Old Machine, the synthetic quietly stalked the three person group, always aware of what was taking place, but still fully aware of the mutual goal the two needed to accomplish if they wished to escape this deathtrap. Fighting past the innumerable hoards of the formerly allied creatures now turned enemy, in an effort to claim what they needed for their mission.
Finally pushing through an airlock and taking the Reaper IFF, the group turned to their next objective, deep within the ship, it's mass effect core, they would need to destroy it in order to escape, otherwise all of this would have been in vain. Coming out of the pressurization chamber that obviously didn't belong, the bright gloss of the Cerberus white deeply conflicting with the flat black of the Reaper hull, and finally the shine of the gaudy red stripes on Shepard's N7 armor causing him to stand out from all the rest of stark picture in the light that filtered throught the kinetic barriers of the ancient machine. Oblivious to what was happening around him, Shepard scanned the interior of the Reaper, unaware of two husks that had stealthily approached them upon exiting the airlock. Without another second's hesitation, the Geth opened fire with it's rifle, killing one husk, reloading, and then proceeding to kill the other, but with this action, had inadvertently drawn attention to itself.
"Shepard Commander." It said as it stood, switching hands with it's rifle, staring down at the small party that was assembled before it.
The trio stood dumbstruck before a spectacle that was more alien than any of the species that took shelter aboard the Normandy, whether it was the fact that the synthetic had the opportunity to kill them and didn't, or that it had saved them from a painful death, or above all that it had taken the time out to address the Commander himself, as though there was a deeper motive for it's intent. All of these concerns were swept aside as another wave of shambling abominations made their way toward the party, the Geth retreating further into the Reaper, apparently assessing that Shepard was safe enough despite a considerably larger number of enemies that had occupied the area since it left.
Despite the removal of a considerable asset from the current situation, Shepard had no trouble pushing through the Husks, Abominations, and Scions that opposed the path they were on.
The Geth stood over a control panel, manipulating the advanced system even while a room of enemies advanced upon it's position. Taking a moment to look away from the current task, it took an M-6 Carnifex Hand Cannon off it's "waist", and firing eight precision shots into several husks that had gotten uncomfortably close. Vaguely registering the presence of Shepard and his squad, the Geth once more returned to it's task, it opened the barrier leading back into the hallway behind them, but before it could retreat, it ran headlong into a sluggish blow from a nearby husk.
Death was never a concern for the Geth, almost every Geth was always simultaneously linked to their central Network, so they could be downloaded into mobile platform later, and even if that wasn't the case, Geth made every attempt to periodically make a backup of their runtimes for safety purposes as per a basic programming protocol in their most basic of functions. However this particular Geth was temporarily confused, as it found all 1,183 of it's programs being successfully booted into what was not a hub or terminal, but rather it's custom built mobile platform, that had sustained minimal damage despite the environment it had been occupying for the previous weeks.
Registering total functions, it got off the small platform it had been precariously placed on, and saw the man it had been seeking for over two years on the other side of a kinetic barrier.
"Can you understand me?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to attack me?"
"No."
Apparently remembering their first encounter, Shepard changed the subject, in search of answers.
"You said my name aboard the Reaper, have we met?"
"We know of you."
"You mean I've fought a lot of Geth." Shepard replied, taking the Geth's reply with hostility.
"We have never met."
"No you and I haven't," Shepard continued, now starting to pace the room, "But I've met other Geth."
"We are all Geth and we have not met you," then contradicting itself, the Geth started to delve into deeper details, "You are Shepard, Commander, Alliance, Human. Fought Heretics, Killed by Collectors. Rediscovered on the Old Machine."
"Old Machine?" Shepard inquired, confused about the term, "You mean the Reaper?"
"Reaper." The Geth stated starkly, almost with contempt, "A superstitious title originating with the Protheans, we call those entities the Old Machines."
Satisfied with the knowledge he had received, Shepard returned to the main topic he had been pursuing.
"You seem to know an awful lot about me."
"Extranet data sources, insecure broadcasts," the Geth seemed to pursue the topic with ominous efficiency, "All organic data sent out is received. We watch you."
"You watch me, or you watch organics?"
"Yes."
"Both."
Getting a bad feeling from being around the synthetic, Shepard finally made his intentions clear.
"I fight Geth, you do anything hostile and I blow you to pieces, just so we're clear."
"We have no hostility towards you."
"Sure didn't seem that way at Eden Prime and the Citadel."
"You fought Heretics, not true Geth, Geth build our own future. The Heretics asked the Old Machines to give them the future, they are no longer part of us, we were studying the Old Machines hardware to protect our future."
"So you aren't allied with the Reapers?" Shepard asked, taking a step toward the kinetic barrier that separated him from the Geth.
"We oppose Heretics." The synthetic said, mimicking Shepard's move. "We oppose the Old Machines, Shepard Commander opposes the Old Machines, Shepard Commander opposes the Heretics, cooperation furthers mutual goals."
"Now what do I call you?" Shepard asked, deactivating the kinetic barrier that barred the Geth from the rest of Normandy.
"Geth." It replied simply.
"I mean you, specifically."
"We are all Geth."
"What is the individual in front of me called?" Shepard asked, folding his arms in frustration.
"There is no individual, we are all Geth." The synthetic pointed out, "There are currently 1,183 programs active within this platform."
"My name is Legion, for we are many." EDI suggested, her holographic avatar appearing beside Shepard.
"That seems appropriate."
"Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine. We acknowledge this is an appropriate metaphor. We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth. We will integrate into Normandy."
Putting his hand out inadvertently, as Shepard did with most new crew members, it didn't occur to him a handshake would be an alien concept to the Geth. Nonetheless, Legion tried, it slowly copied how the Commander put out his hand, and then left it to hover next to his for a few seconds, before finally gripping Shepard's hand and clumsily shaking it back and forth, unaware of what it was doing wrong. However, it wasn't Legion who was shocked, because when the Geth took hold of his hand, he wasn't aware of what it would be like. He had punched Geth before as a last resort, but hadn't had time to really understand the physiology of the Quarian-created beings, unless one of them was bearing down on him. But the feeling of the Geth hand was completely foreign. The easiest way he could describe it would be that it had the consistency of old-fashioned rubber, but it was more than that, it was pliant, and responsive, even in the brief period of the handshake they shared, he could feel the material twitching and adjusting under his skin.
As though in an afterthought, Legion stepped away from Shepard and said to him,
"We anticipate the exchange of data."