Chapter 9-Beginning of the End

"Technoheresy! Everywhere I go in this damnable galaxy, I am surrounded by technoheresy!"

The crew on the Normandy's CIC turned as Kullas entered the large room, servo harness bristling. Malleus and the rest of the shore party that went to Rannoch were in his wake, and clearly had been bearing the brunt of the Forge Priest's ire already.

"Are you alright, Kullas?" Titus asked, looking up from the conversation he had been holding with Miranda.

"Alright? Do I sound alright? Does my body language suggest that I am alright? Does the volume of my voice make you think that I am calm and utterly at peace with the world right now?"

Miranda glanced at Titus worriedly; she'd never seen Kullas use sarcasm before, and was clearly taking it as a bad sign.

"Alright, what's wrong?" Titus asked. "Actually, what happened down there? There was that AI weapon Legion was talking about; that the problem?"

"That 'AI weapon' turned out to be no less than a Titan Class vehicle," Kullas said. "One controlled by abominable intelligence!"

"I fail to see what is wrong with artificial intelligence," EDI remarked, her hologram flickering into existence. "You still don't seem to be too clear on why you hate it so much."

"Oh shut up, you damnable lump of silicon and heresy!" Kullas snapped. "I'm not in the mood for a lecture from you, do you understand?"

"A Titan?" Titus asked.

"A Titan, yes," Kullas said. "The size of an Imperator to boot."

Titus whistled.

"That's quite something."

"What's a Titan?" Miranda asked.

"What's a Titan? What's a Titan?" Kullas replied. "A Titan is the purest manifestation of the Omnissah's will, a being of immense power, the most righteous and holy of the blessed weapons wielded by the Adeptus Mechanicus. It towers above the battlefield, a true god of war, and can fell entire armies with its sacred armaments."

"That doesn't explain much, you know," Garrus remarked from his place on the Normandy's weapon console.

"Basically, it's a walking fortress with enough firepower to blast just about anything it wants straight to the Throne," Titus said. "You don't want to be on the wrong side of one, believe me."

"Well, if one wishes to be crude about the most beloved of the Omnissah's machines, then that's accurate enough, I suppose," Kullas said, somewhat tersely. "Though such a statement tragically fails to capture the majesty of a Titan. A pity that it's controlled by abominable intelligence."

"Say what you want though, Kullas," Hullen said. "That's going to be one hell of a force multiplier. I mean did you see the size of that railgun it had? You could do a lot of damage with that thing."

"I know," Kullas said. "Though Legion threatens that if I try and wipe the AI from its core and install a Princeps then the Geth will withdraw their support and leave us to fight the Reapers alone, the cursed machine."

"Maybe you should find something to fix," Malleus suggested. "That might help you calm down."

Kullas shrugged.

"Fine," he said. "Clearly I'm going to have no chance of swaying you on this matter."

He stomped off to his place in the armoury, and Miranda glanced over to Malleus as the door closed, who shrugged.

"Just let him grumble," he said. "He'll get it out of his system."

"He really does hate AI, doesn't he?" she remarked.

"It's the Mechanicum," Malleus replied. "As valued allies as they are to the Imperium, they are somewhat…odd."

In all honesty, he could understand why Kullas was unhappy, but explaining why would bring a lot of awkward facts into light, and that would hardly be what he could call advantageous. He could start inciting anti-xenos feelings amongst the people when the time was right, but declaring his hatred for all non-humans right off would be a bad idea.

"Anyway, what was this weapon like?" Miranda asked. "The Illusive Man was hoping to hear about it."

"I'll have EDI send some information about him straight away," Malleus said. "But suffice to say, he's one of the most powerful ground warfare machines I've ever seen, hates the Reapers with a passion and is one of most bad tempered beings I've ever had the pleasure to have met."

"I quite like him," Hullen added.

"'Him?'" Garrus asked. "I thought you said it was a machine."

"He's quite definitely male," Cyralius said. "He's got too much personality to be an 'it.'"

"Oh, right, like EDI. I get it."

"So it's against the Reapers?" Miranda asked.

"He was made to fight them," Malleus said. "His creators were wiped out by them, but I think they were pretty technologically advanced."

"Were they? What about other tech? Did we get any of that?"

"We discovered archives in the bunker that the weapon was stored in, but the data on them was irretrievably corrupted," Legion said. "The AI, Yamzarat Machtoro, has data on their history, but not much on their technology beyond that behind its own construction."

"Damn. Ah well, I suppose it'll have to do," Miranda said.

"It'll be good enough on its own," Malleus said. "Believe me."

"I realise," Cyralius said. "That Yamzarat Machtoro may actually be the warrior I was talking about when I made that prophecy, you know."

"What makes you think that?" Titus asked.

"A dead warrior who merely sleeps because he was never alive enough to die," Cyralius said. "Yamzarat Machtoro was dormant for a long time, and seeing as he's an AI, you could argue that he's not technically alive."

"A good point," Malleus said. "I'll see if the Geth have a ship that can carry him. And then we're setting a course for the Citadel. I've a feeling we haven't much time."

#

"The stupid, blind idiots, all of them!" Kullas muttered as he stormed into the armoury. "Letting an AI be in control of a damned Titan! A Titan, and there's an AI controlling it!"

He noticed Tali sitting at his workbench, half-heartedly fiddling with something on its surface. Kullas sighed bunching his fists to try and cool his ire, before he asked; "What is that you're working on, apprentice adept?"

"Just some shielding tech," she said despondently. Her mask had been put back on, keeping her safe from the various bacteria that the crew carried, but it was clear she was unhappy even beneath its opaque glass surface. "I figured you could probably use some."

"A good idea," Kullas replied, before he noticed Tali's tone of voice and asked; "Are you optimal?"

"No," Tali sighed, shaking her head. "Of course I'm not."

"Ah yes, what Yamzarat Machtoro had to say about your people," Kullas said. "Ignore the thing, I say; pernicious lies of abominable intelligence."

"He wasn't lying," Tali said. "I think he was right."

Kullas suddenly felt uncomfortable. People were hardly his strongest point; even he was willing to admit that.

"And I understand that you are distressed by this?" he asked.

"Distressed? Of course I am," Tali said. "I just discovered that my entire species was made. What am I supposed to think about that? Everything we ever thought happened, evolution, survival of the fittest, all of it turned out to be wrong; we were just designed, that's all."

"That is not entirely accurate," Kullas said in what he hoped was a consoling tone. "Your ancestors were simply given the enablers to evolve into sentience."

"Oh, and that's so different?" Tali asked, a hint of derision on her voice. "We were made, Kullas, forced to become what we were. It doesn't matter if it didn't happen directly; we were still pushed along a predetermined path. The Quarians are a weapon, don't you realise? The…the Askriit or whatever they were called made us simply so we could get revenge for them. We thought we were just naturally talented with machinery and tech, we were just inclined to form tight knit groups, that we were evolved to be adaptable and clever. But no, we were made to be all these things, had them written into our genes. Do you know how that feels? To discover that your entire people were manipulated before we even evolved to sentience to avenge some species we had never even known, and never would know?"

"I suppose not," Kullas admitted. "Though one would argue that you were a triumph of design in such a respect."

The look Tali gave him, even beneath her blank, expressionless mask, suggested that Kullas had said the wrong thing once more. The Quarian shook her head.

"You're really terrible with people, you know," she said.

"So I am aware," Kullas said.

There was an awkward silence between them, until Tali broke it with; "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to try and say something to make me feel better?"

"What should I say? I tried just now and I got it wrong. I can't think of anything else."

Tali sighed.

"You're useless sometimes, you know," she said gently.

"I realise," Kullas said. "I realise that this is the second time my lack of people skills has caused you distress."

"When was the last time?" Tali asked.

"The trial," Kullas said. "I imagine that if I had brought Malleus along then he probably would have made some speech that would have got you declared innocent and kept your father's good name as well. As it was, I only managed one of those things."

"It was good enough," Tali replied.

"Thank you," Kullas said.

"Kullas," Tali said suddenly. "Why do you hate AIs so much? I'm not too keen on them myself, but you never really seemed to explain why you do."

"In the Imperium, we suffered a similar fate to the Quarians," Kullas said. "We created AIs, Iron Men, they were called, to serve us but they ended up rebelling. And it was, dare I say, even more bloody and tragic than the Geth War."

"We lost our homeworld, and our colonies," Tali said. "Billions of Quarians were killed."

"And trillions died in the Iron War," Kullas said. "When you fled the Geth in the Migrant Fleet, they did not pursue. That would not have stopped the Iron Men. They wanted more than just independence; they wanted the extinction of the entire human race. We won eventually, Omnissah knows how, but it plunged us into a technological dark age that only ended when the Omnissah in His aspect of the Emperor emerged to save us all. But we learnt our lesson; AIs are foul things, without machine spirit, and they must be destroyed whenever found."

"I guess it's fair enough that you were upset about Yamzarat Machtoro, then," Tali said. "He makes me think of those Titans you were telling me about a while ago."

"You weren't the only one to," Kullas said. "It is but a pale imitation, and no match for their holy power, but nonetheless, to have such a thing controlled by abominable intelligence, instead of a Princeps and crew…I can think of no greater a perversion of the Omnissah's most sacred of war machines."

"I quite like him," Tali said.

"Sorry?"

"He makes me think of someone I knew in the Migrant Fleet, once," Tali said. "An old Quarian Marine, Polma Liyel Vas Talmei; all military and honourable, but old and grumpy too. He's quite sweet."

"I had noticed it has taken quite a shine to you," Kullas remarked. "Though I don't quite know how you know what the machine tastes like; I would imagine it to be more of a metallic or oily flavour, if I must be honest."

"I…it's an expression, Kullas," Tali said, shaking her head.

"Ah, right," Kullas said. "I think I understand."

The door to the armoury swished open and Hullen leaned in, partly hanging on the doorframe.

"You two," he said, a look of what could be either worry or feral excitement on his face. "Get into the CIC now. You need to see this."

He stepped back through it, Tali and Kullas following in his wake to see what the fuss was about. The holographic projection of the Normandy that usually occupied the centre of the CIC's main console was gone, replaced instead by a projection of a human and an Asari sitting at a desk. Along the bottom of the picture the words 'Emergency Broadcast' were scrolling, and looking at the appearance of the two people, they clearly had been rushed to the desk without time to apply makeup.

"…that Earth has been attacked," the human was saying in the middle of saying as they enteredd, a shellshocked, stunned look on his face despite his professional tone. Behind him, in a vacant corner of the picture, images of Reaper ships descending towards Earth from the atmosphere were being relayed, no doubt live. "I say again that we have received word that a massive fleet of unknown ships has entered the Local Cluster and is in orbit above the world. They have landed troops in various cities across the planet, and this appears to be a mass invasion. We have received word from Berlin, Moscow, New Kabul, Delhi and Beijing that they are all under attack, but that Chancellor Dröchtmer, Premier Petrenkov, Prime Minister Kunar, President Jaipal and President Heng have been evacuated safely. However, we have heard nothing from Washington DC concerning the whereabouts of President Jackson."

"The Council has appealed for calm and assures us that already efforts are being made to marshal a military response to these attacks, but already reports of mass panic and rioting in planets across the Galaxy are filtering in," the Asari said. "We go now to our reporter on the ground, Sarah James, who is reporting live from Moscow."

The picture changed to show not only the two anchors, but also a young woman holding a microphone facing the camera. Behind her was a storm-wracked sky, and the crew of the Normandy could see great onyx, metallic fingers reaching from the atmosphere. Behind her, a platoon of soldiers could be seen herding crowds of panicked looking civilians away from the skyscrapered centre of the city, rifles gripped tight to the body armour they wore; any experienced military eye could see they were just as worried as the civvies they were trying to control.

"The facts are still coming in, Aila, but from I've managed to gather from various military commanders I've spoken to, these mysterious ships have largely launched attacks via orbital bombardment before landing troops. Central Moscow has become a warzone, with the First Russian Battalion currently trying to hold back these invaders, but apparently their technology is far beyond that of the brave troops they are fighting."

"What are they saying their chances of success are?" the Asari asked.

"I will be honest, Aila; they aren't high," the reporter said. "The Russian forces are unprepared, and though troops are being rushed in all the way from Vladiovostok, we don't currently have the numbers to fight them. At the moment-"

There was the scream of air molecules being torn asunder, and behind her a lance of red light tore from one of the fingers of the Reapers orbiting the atmosphere. The camera zoomed in on it as it obliterated a swathe of buildings, entire skyscrapers toppling beneath its lethal touch. Its assault left a great tract of flame behind, before there was a yell in Russian and the sound of weapons firing. The camera panned across to come into focus on some gunship swooping towards them, a miniature version of its metallic masters. There was screaming as the crowd of civilians began to flee, the soldiers herding them too focussed on the incoming aircraft to try and stop them before it landed.

A ramp at its base opened, and huge, visored figures emerged, raising great rifles, opening fire indiscriminately. The camera hung there only a moment longer before it turned and showed the street jolting up and down as the cameraman began to flee. Suddenly, it crashed to the ground, and they could hear the sound of the reporter's voice screaming into the microphone; "For God's sake, send someone to help us! Please! I love you Andrew, I love-"

Her blank face suddenly filled the screen, smattered with a small shower of her own blood, before an onyx boot stamped down in front of the picture. There was the sound of a weapon firing, before the camera was picked up and turned to show a blank visor.

"See your doom, people of this galaxy," a voice said from beneath the galaxy, deep and forbiddingly terrifying. "None shall be spared."

The projection cut out in a blur of static, before it cut back to the anchors. They were both silent, looks of awed terror on their faces, and the Asari had her hand held to her mouth.

"Goddess," she murmured. "Oh Goddess."

Within the Normandy's CIC, Titus bowed his head and made the sign of the Aquila, while Samara quietly murmured; "Find peace in the embrace of the Goddess."

"Captain, I have just received a message from the Council requesting your attendance at an emergency meeting," EDI said.

"What?" Jack exclaimed suddenly. "Earth's under attack from the Reapers and they want to call a fucking meeting? The fuck is wrong with these idiots?"

"Yeah," Garrus said. "Forget them; we should get there right away."

"He's right," Grunt said. "War calls, and I say we answer!"

"And do what?" Malleus asked.

There was a pause, before the Brother Captain stepped forwards.

"You're a damn fine body of warriors," he said. "Some of the most courageous and skilled I've ever had the honour of serving with, but there are only thirteen of us. What good will we do? We'll go to the council meeting; we've got allies there who've been preparing for this. We knock some heads together, gather an army and a fleet as quickly as possible and then we launch a counter attack."

"He's right," Miranda said.

"Yeah, I guess so," Garrus said. "Those people just frustrate me sometimes."

"Think nothing of it," Malleus said. "I'd love nothing more than to go down there myself right now and slaughter these Reapers with hammer and blade. And we shall soon enough."

He cracked his knuckles.

"Today," he said, expression steely and determined. "We go to a council of war. Today we plan, marshal our forces and prepare for battle."

His eyes narrowed.

"And tomorrow," he finished. "We go to war."