Dan stumbled backwards, cursing. Teel went pale and his hand went to his mouth. Lia merely cocked her head.
"Most disturbing."
"No shit! What the hell? I mean, I thought all Reaper parts were renditioned and destroyed, the bodies burned?"
"Evidently not, Mr Sharrocks. The condition of these…"
"Can you shut the bloody crate? How are they screaming? They've got no bloody lungs…"
"Vocal cords replaced by synthetic oscillating speakers. No exhalation required."
"Oh bloody brilliant. Just… shut the bloody crate, ok?"
The crate sealed shut, just as Klin and Rogilia jogged up, pistol and shotgun ready. Rog shot Dan an angry and confused look.
"What in the seventy layers of the hell spiral was that? Sounded like…"
Dan shook his head and leaned for breath against the buggy. With a sigh he pushed himself off, "You weren't wrong love. Seems our package is a whole grab bag of creepy, nasty shite. Boxes are full of husk parts. Living husk parts."
Rogilia recoiled, then shot a glance at Lia. her four eyes blinked, one after the other - clearly a sign she was stressed, "What?"
"The Lieutenant is correct. However, whilst this is Reaper tech, the live support modules are not. The crates are sealed and shielded - the indoctrination effect is minimised…"
"MINIMISED?" Dan spun round and levelled a finger at the crate, "We've seen what hanging around concentrated Reaper shite does to ye. Even small bits gets in yer head. How can you be sure we'll be…?"
"I am sorry, Lieutenant. The effects of indoctrination are well studied but not entirely understood. However, it takes prolonged, direct exposure to major concentrations to have a rapid effect on the organic brain's electrical patterns. I theorise that I should be able to shield the crates further with a low level biotic field. Remember, Husks themselves only emit a short effect field and usually only act as an amplified to a concentrated signal. The extant indoc-signal present in non-sentient Reaper technology usually exists in large scale, independently powered objects - such as Rho, from the seal files for Project Arrival, or the 'dragon's teeth'."
Dan shook his head slowly, "Still don't trust it."
"Understandable. I can shield the crates further. No need to be careless. Whilst the effects are likely minimal without a major power element, the indoc frequency appeared more a side effect of Reaper design than…"
"Yeah yeah, built in. Right, I don't want this shit on my ship longer than necessary." he massaged the bridge of his nose, "Grand. Box full of hell - can't destroy it, we lose our lead. Can't leave it here - either it gets picked up by another idiot or melted, so same result. Can't hand it to the Alliance, again cos we'll lose the lead. And I'm not hot on handing it over, in case Bad Shit happens."
Klin shifted on his huge feet, eyeing the crates, "We could toast some of them… blame it on the Volus?"
Dan chuckled, "Not a bad plan… but then we look incompetent and risk not getting any further intel from the Fists. Doesn't matter it wouldn't have been our fault. No… no. We gotta drop this stuff off, then hope we can track it before some idiot plugs it into a derelict Reaper or an AI or shoves it up their arse to see if it gives them space magic.."
"Ever the poet," Rog holstered her pistol and shivered, "Really hoped we wouldn't have to deal with this shit again. Really hoped we were just taking on smugglers, or slavers, or some sort of third column terrorists bent on overthrowing Galactic peace."
Teel grimace under his transparent breather, "Seconded."
Klin chuckled throatily, "Naw, another chance to kick the Reapers in the ass? Count me in."
Dan nodded, then gestured to his crew, "Right, we've burnt enough daylight. Let's get this stuff loaded. Lia, set up that field, whatever you need to do. Guys, wouldn't recommend sleeping until we drop this shit off. Briefing says it can take days with Indoc, but I don't want to chance it. Load it, stow it, let's get airborne and en route to the RV point."
Half an hour later, the Corvette was breaking atmosphere, angling towards the Cluster centre and the mass Relay. Rogilia fidgeted in the pilot seat and glanced over at Dan. The LT was leafing through the paper documents, punching co-ordinates into the nav computer.
"What do you reckon all this is about?"
"Not sure, love. Reaper tech usually means mind control or something. Cerberus cooked themselves playing with that crap. If someone else is trying to go for round two, doesn't bear thinking about. Who knows what they could do without the Reapers in action?"
"Yeah, no higher power to curb stomp them or co-opt it."
The comm terminal bleeped. Teel, sat at the terminal, blinked in surprise, "Uh…. yes sir, putting you on now."
The Quarian turned in his chair and gestured to the control panel. Dan shrugged and pushed a button. He blinked in surprise as a familiar face popped up.
"Lieutenant Sharrocks?"
"Erm, it's just Mr Sharrocks now, Co-Admiral Shepard."
The chiseled face on the other end of the comm quirked a grin, "Yeah, the ranks all fade after time. Always preferred Commander myself. Glad to put a face to the name, finally. Kasumi talked a lot about your team. Solid work, by all accounts."
"Thank you sir. I'm sure this isn't an overdue thank you call?"
"Correct. Tali passed me what your friend Lia managed to decipher. I've passed it onto C-Sec and the SPECTRE central command. What I'm about to brief you on is key. I have half the Geth Consensus scrambling this transmission and my wife's own encryption running as well. It'd take a team of asari their whole lifecycle to break that."
Dan looked around the cockpit and shrugged weakly, "aren't you at a function… sir?"
"Just another bilateral talk between the Dominion, Conclave and consensus. Plus tali's holding court know. Did my part earlier, just warming them up so she can shout at them properly. Now, onto the main business. We're talking about Code LEVIATHAN."
Rogilia glanced across and frowned. Shepard continued,
"During the war, we encountered a species that we identified as the source of the original Reaper - Harbinger. These creatures employed a vast bio-technological array of systems, including a precursor to the indoctrination and Reaper assimilation systems. They are a vehemently anti-synthetic race and, until now, isolated to a single planet. We forced assurances upon these creatures that their involvement would not be tolerated. We have five geth dreadnaught and an auxiliary fleet permanently on manoeuvres in their home cluster. Honestly, we aren't one hundred percent aware of their capability. We have speculated that they maintained several holdouts of their cached technologies were located, as a method of monitoring the harvest cycles."
Dan nodded slowly, "You have reason to believe they're involved?"
"The VI you uncovered uses a similar architecture to the wave functions and frequencies that some of their artefacts utilise. Said artefacts can only be analysed by synthetic intelligences… safely, that is. And even then we are damn cautious. Prolonged exposure to an organic mind has a debilitating effect. It's not unlike indoctrination, but unlike the Reaper version, its effects are more easily reversed. However, if the people you are dealing with have Leviathan tech, I'm concerned their end game is more than just smuggling."
"Aye sir. We sent another report to ONI -the cargo we're carrying - seems to be Reaper parts."
Shepard shook his head slowly and frowned, "Leviathan tech can co-opt Reaper equipment. It's about the only reliable thing that can, as the in built nano-machines tend to enforce a singular drive - at least in the basic husks. Tali or Liara may know more. I don't want to co-opt Garrus' command on this, but I advise you proceed with extreme caution. Make use of Lia. I've just dispatched a dossier with breakdowns of what to be on the look-out for - abnormal behaviour, personality ticks, specific technology you observe lying around."
"Thank you sir."
"Good luck, Lieutenant. You may leave the Alliance, but it never leaves you. I'll ask Garrus to tie in with you again."
With that, the comm cut out dan leaned back in the chair and checked the destination timer. 30 minutes until they hit the system limit and could shift the drive up further. Another hour to the central cluster, and 20 minutes to reach the Relay. He shouted down the access hatch:
"Right everyone, conference call, mess room. I'll get the bird man dialled in."
The flickering holo of Garrus crackled on the tables surface.
"Daaaamn. Shepard's given you access to that? Not a fun trip to the seaside. All that sea air, no good for my complexion."
Rogilia whistled under her breath as she paged through a data pad, "So this is what those asses in Central Command were researching?"
Garrus nodded, "Yeah, we reckon their initial data on the derelict Reaper they found led them on the initial hunt for the Leviathan. Allowed Sovereign… that first reaper who attacked the Citadel.. Well, evidence indicates it beamed that back to the main Reaper force, hence their little hunting expedition. The Batarians almost found them too, before the invasion happened. Can you imagine the hegemony with mind control power?"
Rogilia shuddered, "I saw what they did without it. Hell, my own family weren't paragons, but we weren't as bad as the core system Houses… anyway, this is bad nether stuff."
Klin shifted and growled, "What do a bunch of mercs want to do with this? Piracy? Ransoming?"
Teel shrugged, "Mind control a ship - less risky to board? More compliant captives? Seize a colony even?"
"Or they're working for someone else. Either way, we need to find out what it has to do with those Reaper skulls in the crates. So, we make the RV. Drop off, then track. We may need to step back, let the rest of ONI pick up some slack."
Garrus folded his arms and leaned back, "Yeah. Have you found a way to track? Not exactly a stealth ship are you?"
"Your fault, boss… not splashing the cash, big man."
"Toupe."
"Touche, I think you mean, lad."
"Ugh, English. Japanese was hard enough to learn. You guys with your fifteen different words for the same thing. Anyway. Lia may be able to try something?"
Lia "blinked" her eye flaps, "Difficult. If the rendezvous ships contain the same or similar VI, we will be unable to compromise it. The consensus has not been able to find any form of direct chink, or coding flaw we could reliable exploit to allow us to track their systems, comm relays or beacons."
"Damn. Well, we may have to be old fashioned. Hunt by signs - once you've done the drop off, see if you can use the relay beacons, or comm buoys. Even if they're erasing their tracks, they should leave some trace…"
"I have an alternative theory," They looked at Teel. The quarian grinned nervously, "Well, we can open their crates, right?"
"Put a tracker inside? They're shielded, you know that. Even if they opened it up, the place on the other side could be equally shielded. So we still wouldn't find it."
"Not a tracker…. A person."
They fell silent. Dan shook his head, "You're mad, wee man."
Lia piped up, "I believe Teel is suggesting a proxy."
The quarian nodded, "Lia brought some Loki mechs on board. I suggest we crack open the crate with the nuke in it, replace that with a Loki, with some bespoke programmes. Then bam."
"The nuke?"
"Well, it's probably the one crate they won't immediately open, right? It's just a failsafe device, so in all probability, it'll get shipped to whichever armoury they have for deactivation and repurposing?"
"A lot of IF's in there, lad," murmured Dan. Lia nodded her flashlight head,
"But Teel raises a good point. Considering their cargo, their priority will be the husks. I can suitably update an alternative frame and deliver a custom VIA with pilots…"
"Wait, what?"
"Some of… myself. More reactive that way, plus they have a chance to infiltrate the local network more effectively."
Dan looked at Rog, who shrugged, then at Klin who just grunted. Finally he looked at Garrus, "That's what we got."
"Not great. Lots could go wrong. But hey, I'm a guy who jumped on a ship with twelve nutcases, flew to the centre of the galaxy and too out a whole starbase. Lotta stuff going on on the fly there. Not my greatest strategic decision, but on balance… could've been worse. Just to be sure, I've tasked a couple of other teams to your destination system - they've got cover business in the area, but should be able to respond if you hit issues."
"Thanks boss man. Right team. Let's make this happen. And hoping we avoid any giant space squid…. Again."
The hologram flashed off and the team dispersed to prep. Dan stopped Lia as she was exiting the mess room.
"Lia, you alright with this? Breaking off a part of… yourself. Cannae be great."
"It's not something I do usually. But remember, we geth are gestalt. Each individual programme its own thing. Its own individual. We do not think as you do, do not operate. But I will be careful. I know which of my constituents are best suited to the role… and I have something more effective than a LOKI mech in my… carry on luggage."
Dan arched an eyebrow, "Be prepared?"
Lia quirked an eye flap, "I'm no Boy Scout, but I find the adage appropriate. Shall we?"
As they trudged down to the cargo hold, Dan still couldn't shake a tension in his stomach. In his mind he remembered those dark spaces below London, of Lizzie falling to madness. This... this was starting to sound like it could go the same way.
But it was either hell now or hell later. And at least this way, it was on their own terms.
