Ch. 11: Lost World
The inside of this Geth ship was not as I expected. It was completely bland. It was of a dark purple color with no windows, seats, or anywhere really to rest. I followed the boarding party into a large chamber and noticed some immediate rumbling, followed by the unmistakable force of a ship going into motion. I ran up to the large, red Geth and forced it to turn around.
"Where are we going?" I cautiously asked with the utmost of curiosity.
"Grimm, Blaine we are a mobile platform connected to that which you know as Legion. We understand you have the intention of creating peace between us and the creators," it responded.
"So I'm talking to you, Legion?"
"We are all Legion. We share that mobile platform's data,"
"Okay, fine. But you still haven't answered my question,"
"We wish to show you the state of the creator homeworld. You are the only organic we deem we can trust to share this data with, as you are not from our time or consciousness. You do not possess any of the apparent emotional bonds between other organics and the creators. We are taking you to Rannoch,"
"You're taking me to the Quarian homeworld?"
"Yes,"
"I understand you want me to help orchestrate peace between your species, but I don't quite understand what taking me there is going to do to help that,"
"It is simply an attempt from our side to convey our will for peace. Perhaps you can gather necessary data on their homeworld to distribute to them, and carry on our message. We have only fought for our continued existence, not because of aggression, and we have fought this battle for too long. We know the Old Machines are approaching. To preserve our future, we wish to disengage all hostilities to ensure our own readiness as a nation against the aggressors," it responded to me, moving its head from side to side as it spoke. Words couldn't describe how surprised I was. These machines were incredibly rational and seemed to display some degree of emotion through their insinuations of peace and trust. They desired and supported. They had a human-like logic and consciously considered others. I couldn't look at them as merely machines any more, or simply as A.I.'s, not after this conversation. I had my suspicions of their self-awareness from my dialogue with Legion, but I had no clue that they had developed into something deeper than that.
"I was brought back to stop the Reapers. That's what I intend to do. Maybe I can make the galaxy a better place while I'm still here. Lets go to Rannoch. I want to end this war between the Geth and the Quarians," I solemnly responded. Pain started shooting through my hands again, and I immediately hunched over and clenched them. The red Geth approached me as I brought my hands in close to my stomach.
"Grimm, Blaine. Your hands bear the colors of the creators' Admarsu,"
"Yeah, they said they fixed them up,"
"We detect massive structural damage to the organic parts of your hands. It appears you have had synthetic implants to help stabilize them,"
"Synthetic implants?" I asked and furiously grabbed at the gloves covering my hands. As I pulled them off, I could see my hands were no longer normal human hands; they had black mechanical pieces that mimicked hand structure. They appeared to be interwoven into my flesh, and I strangely had sensation in even those parts. "What the fuck is this?"
"It appears you sustained massive structural damage to your hands. The creators used technology similar to ours to enable continued motor function in your hands,"
"Can I just get flesh back? And be a normal human?"
"Unlikely,"
"Just great," I responded, looking at my new cyborg appendages. My hands were half human half Geth, half flesh half machine. At least the rest of me wasn't like that. I couldn't believe that much damage was done to my hands back on the Cerberus ship... that was a hell of an adrenaline boost my exoskeleton gave me, considering I didn't feel any of that.
The flight to Rannoch did not seem to take very long. I wondered how long Tali and the other Quarians actually waited down in the engine room on their ship. I didn't have a communications device on me, so I was unable to inform them of where I was headed. Legion obviously knew where I was though, so I had no doubts about him informing Shepard and everyone else. After about two hours of traveling in complete silence, with the exception of the strange robotic noises some of the other Geth on board would make to each other, I finally felt the vessel decelerate. I could tell that we had just entered orbit, then suddenly, there was no gravity. The disappearance of something I took for granted surprised the hell out of me, and I quickly flapped my arms, attempting to establish some kind of control over myself. The old-school training I endured on Jupiter's moons kicked in, and I was composed once more.
"Grimm, Blaine follow us. We are entering Base Two Zero Three One. It is in orbit around the creators' homeworld," the red Geth said to me. I nodded and shimmied my way behind it and followed it through a series of airlocks. The final airlock reintroduced gravity, although I felt like I was twice as heavy in it as I was on Earth. We walked through the next doorway as it opened and walked into a circular room with two more doorways on either side and a large, arced window in front of us, overlooking the beautiful, mostly green planet.
"I thought Geth don't use windows," I commented.
"We anticipated the eventual arrival of organics," it said back to me, commenting no further on the motivation behind it. So the Geth were planning this all along, to eventually offer and make terms for peace with the Quarians.
"Where to now?" I asked.
"We will take you to this station's central server hub. From there we will activate our transport system to bring you to the planet's surface. We will accompany you," it responded, shifting its head from left to right while talking to me. I then followed it through the door to our right, and we walked together down a long catwalk surrounded by glass that curved to the left, creating part of the large arc of the station. I continued staring out at Rannoch as I followed the red Geth around the winding corridor, admiring its beauty. The scenery nearly completely distracted me from what happened next.
I heard a loud 'dink' in front of me and quickly snapped my neck forward to see what it was. I found myself looking through a large hole in the red Geth's midsection until it fell to its knees and collapsed on the floor. Standing in front of me was a human dressed in all-black armor with a mask covering everything but her eyes. She was holding some pretty heavy looking weapon, aiming at me while staring intensely into my eyes. Standing behind her was what appeared to be another human also clad in heavy black armor and black face mask; however, the blue hands told me otherwise. I found it incredibly strange to be confronted by a human and Asari commando duo in Geth space. I twitched my eyes around for a couple of seconds, gathering as much information about my surroundings as possible without making any sudden moves. I discovered, as I initially was afraid of, that there was no cover or anything I could even use to my advantage for that matter. I could have tried to draw my pistol and pull the trigger quicker than she could react, but I decided to go with diplomacy on this one.
"I love those brown eyes. Got a name?" I asked her.
"Put your hands behind your head and walk over here slowly," she responded in an intense, almost sexy tone of voice. Not willing to cooperate just yet, I continued the conversation.
"Damn that's a long name. Mind shortening it for me?" I pressed on.
"Now," she responded, pulling a small lever on her gun and initiating some strange light mechanism on the side of it. I did part of what she asked and put my hands behind my head.
"I'll meet you halfway sweetheart. Tell me who you are and why you're here, and I might consider fulfilling the rest of your request,"
"My name doesn't matter. Who I work for might... we can discuss that when we get on my ship,"
"You know, pointing a gun at someone and killing their synthetic friend isn't the best way to get their trust,"
"Look here you idiot, that Geth was one of the Heretics, which we have evidence are being controlled by the Reapers. Not all of them were successfully converted by the virus Commander Shepard uploaded into their systems, and this one was an infiltrator that was going to kill you. Half of the stations in orbit around Rannoch are controlled by Reaper Heretics converted to true Geth while the other half are failed cases. This station is one of the failed cases," she said as she retracted her weapon.
"Hold on, you know Commander Shepard?" I asked, becoming rather suspicious.
"Yes... I... look we just need to get you off this station before any of the other Heretic stations respond. I promise I will tell you everything," she responded. I then approached her and joined her and the silent Asari. We started jogging down the rest of the corridor until we reached a large chamber. The human female went through the doorway to the chamber first, followed by the Asari commando. I entered after them and we immediately came under fire. The human grabbed me, and with a surprising amount of force pushed me behind a crate on the ground and dove next to me. The Asari then jumped behind another crate in the room to our right.
"Stay down!" she shouted at me as she waited for a break in the fire then leaned around the crate and took a few shots downrange. The floor right next to her sparked as multiple projectiles narrowly missed and collided with the metallic ground. She obviously didn't know who I was and didn't know this was the kind of situation in which I thrived.
"Doesn't look like you managed to do much, how about you stay down and let me do some shooting?" I demanded. I looked over at the Asari, who was going back and forth trading shots with our assailants and occasionally launching concentrated blasts of biotic energy at them. I quickly peeked over the crate and found a more snug place to take cover.
"Actually, we're just getting started," she responded. She looked over at her Asari team member and gave some kind of hand signal to her. They then disengaged from their respective covers and laid down an intense barrage of fire. Seconds later, the firefight was over and we all stood up. I surveyed the battleground and saw nothing but limp, lifeless Geth corpses scattered around the room, about ten of them to be exact. I was impressed.
"That's some good stuff right there, Miss..."
"Williams. Ashley Williams," she responded, retracting her helmet into the back of her armor through some sort of mechanism and letting her hair fall down.
"Now it all makes sense, that's how you know about Shepard and the Geth. But why are you here in Geth space?"
"Special mission from Admiral Hackett, he's a close friend of your former man-in-charge General Adkins. He told me where to find you, and asked that I get you back to Citadel space,"
"Why you? Why not Shepard?"
"I was close to the Veil, on an assignment I can't even tell Shepard or you about. I got the message from Admiral Hackett maybe a couple of hours ago. He said that you were intercepted by Heretic Geth. He just wanted to make sure you got back to Citadel space in one piece,"
"Systems Alliance working with Asari commandos, interesting. There's more to it than that,"
"I can't talk about it right now. Come on lets..." she said, but I decided to cut her off as I was tired of the lack of information.
"Bullshit. If Hackett is friends with General Adkins, and Hackett knows about me, then he knows I can handle myself out here. Why did he send you to come get me?" I sternly said. After a small pause in the conversation, she began to respond.
"The Alliance is on the verge of war with the Batarian Hegemony. We all know the Reapers are coming, whether the Council wants to admit it or not. The Council also doesn't want a full scale conflict to break out. Everyone can at least agree on that,"
"I still don't see what this has to do with me,"
"Look, you've been away from the Normandy for about two and a half days now. Admiral Hackett got a hold of Shepard and informed him that he would find and rescue you and Tali pretty much right after he got off the Collector base. Then Hackett gave Shepard some intel about some scientist named Dr. Kenson, who had evidence of an incoming Reaper invasion,"
"What kind of evidence?"
"Some artifact, they called it Object Rho. Anyways, long story short, Dr. Kenson and her team were actually indoctrinated the whole time and tried to capture Shepard. He escaped, and initiated their project's countermeasure to holding off the Reaper invasion,"
"How?" I asked. Before she answered, she looked at the ground, clearly shaken, then back up at me.
"He launched the asteroid Dr. Kenson's base was on directly into the Alpha Relay, which the Reapers could have used to quickly span the galaxy,"
"Well that's great, it's definitely going to slow those pieces of shit down a bit,"
"Yes, that's good and all, but Sergeant, the collision destroyed that entire system. Over three hundred thousand Batarians dead," she responded. That was when everything came into perspective. Here I am, trying to stop an ancient war between the Geth and the Quarians, while my own race was on the brink of war with the Batarians. It made sense, what Shepard did. But I was fully aware of the fact that the rest of the galaxy was defiant against all evidence of the Reapers, and that this would simply be seen as an act of terrorism, or even worse, an attempt at genocide. This seemed like more of a setup to me, however. Humanity had proven more than once that it was a challenging opponent to the Reapers, but what kind of rush were they really in to get to us?
"Williams... This is exactly what the Reapers want..."
"What do you mean?"
"It's obvious this was a setup. They want the galaxy in as much disarray as possible prior to their invasion. They know that for some reason, the current inhabitants of the galaxy are more formidable foes than previous civilizations they wiped out. They're still controlling these Heretic Geth, trying to keep the tension between Quarians and Geth. I've read one of Shepard's notes about the Rachni, how it's likely the Reapers tainted them and turned them on the Galaxy. And now this, luring Shepard in, knowing that either their invasion would begin or they could throw the galaxy into even more turmoil. They planned this all out, but Shepard is going to look like the bad guy,"
"Which is exactly why we need your help," the Asari said in a very familiar voice. I looked over to her and watched as she removed her helmet, exposing her familiar face.
"Liara?"
"It's me, Sergeant Grimm. My friend Feron is keeping operations going at my base so that I could come out here with Ms. Williams to find you. I also tipped Admiral Hackett off about your whereabouts,"
"So what happens now?"
"Commander Shepard is going to have to stand trial on Earth. The Alliance is going to do everything in its power to appease the Hegemony and try to ease tensions now, even if it means punishing the most iconic human in the galaxy,"
"That's bullshit, we're going to need him when the Reapers find their way into the rest of the galaxy,"
"Exactly. Our only hope is to find some other kind of irrefutable evidence of the Reapers, something that shows that they are on the approach and that their arrival is imminent, and we need to find it quick. They are already technically in the galaxy, on the edge and in transit to the next available relay," Liara responded. Thoughts then began storming through my head. Where the hell were we going to find more Reaper evidence? Surely they didn't just leave artifacts scattered around the galaxy for the purpose of a damn easter egg hunt. Finding a Reaper and killing it, then dragging its oversized ass to the galactic community might work, but that seemed pretty unlikely to happen. That's when I caught something odd going on outside the window to my right. I motioned to Ashley and Liara to come over to me.
"There's something going on down there, look," I quickly stated, referring to the convoy of ten Geth ships that were approaching Rannoch, which I noticed from the corner of my eye. I walked over to the porthole with Ashley and observed the militaristic motion of the Geth vessels, seemingly in an echelon formation. "They're mobilizing, responding to something going on on the planet,"
"Those are all Heretic Geth ships too, what are they doing?" Ashley commented. A large group of Heretic Geth, Reaper-controlled Geth, suddenly flocking at the exact same time to the planet's surface? More than a coincidence. We were just talking about finding something proving the Reapers' existence and intentions, and it was quite possibly just sitting in front of our faces the whole time. Something on Rannoch.
"We need to get planet-side. We need to recon the Geth activities and find out what they are going to,"
"Grimm, we need to get back to Citadel Space," Ashley responded.
"Look, we need to see if there's anything we can learn about the Heretics. They have all these orbital stations. They've been dwelling here for hundreds of years. They still worship the Reapers. What are the chances that there's something down there that we can recover or observe?"
"You have a point Sergeant Grimm," Liara followed up.
"Lets go to your ship. We'll engage in a clandestine op, keep hidden from the Geth at all times. We will follow them and gather and analyze any intel about their build up we can find. We'll make it short, about an hour long time window. In and out, then we'll leave and get the hell out of the Perseus Veil. We can always come back for a more major recovery operation if this one produces nothing," I said.
"Lets do it," Ashley responded. They both put their helmets back on and we began tactically moving through a corridor out of the large room we were in. We then entered another long, twisted hallway lined by large windows. As we moved towards their ship, we could see more Geth ships detach from nearby orbital stations and deploy to Rannoch's surface. There was definitely some kind of major gathering going on. I tried analyzing it in my head as we moved, and ended up likening it to a human mobilization. My guess was that they were consolidating forces, gearing up for some kind of offensive. And by the looks of it, it was a major offensive. More Geth ships approached the planet's surface as we finally reached a small tunnel where their ship was attached to. We clambered through the tunnel and into the ship.
Once we landed inside the ship, Ashley gave me some black armor to cover my exoskeleton. I put it on and pushed my biomechanical hands through, strangely feeling no pain for once. Liara tossed me a black helmet, very similar to the ones they were wearing, and I put it on. I then found a pair of gloves and slipped them over my inhuman hands and grabbed a Vindicator battle rifle from a small weapons locker in the opposite corner of the ship and took a seat next to Liara. I checked the status of my shields and made sure I was properly equipped for combat.
The eery azure glow of the small cabin directly behind the pilot soothed my mind as Ashley put the ship into gear. Liara checked her gear as well as I leaned my head back against the headrest, resting my arms on my lap, rifle secured between my legs. The glow cast onto us emanated from the control screen in front of the pilot's seat, and reflected off the shiny metallic interior of the ship back onto us. Only a small porthole provided any exterior sensation. I felt the ship thrusters engage as we went into motion and completely relaxed my body.
"We're going to go in about one kilometer across Rannoch's terminator, so that we have a better chance at remaining unseen. The Geth will likely pick up on our presence if we land any closer to them," Ashley stated as she began steering us towards our destination.
"Sounds good. We can move in through the dark, and find their rendezvous point. Recon their activities and see if there's anything we can possibly recover and take with us," I responded, echoing what I had said minutes earlier. I looked out the overhead porthole at the stars as we passed them, noticing the iridescent glow of Rannoch's atmosphere as we began to descend into its atmosphere. The flight took about ten minutes, moving at a speed slow enough so as to not attract any unwanted Geth attention. The ship's speed decayed at a constant rate as we decelerated towards the surface. Soon enough, I could see trees blocking the view out of the porthole despite it being night time where we landed. We eventually came to a halt as we finally hit the ground.
"Follow my lead, I'll take us there," I told Ashley and Liara. They both acknowledged with a nod, then followed me to the side door of the ship. Liara hit a button that opened the side door, and I took point directly into the jungle in front of us. Much to my horror, it brought back memories of the jungle where I fought the Reapers. I paused for a brief moment, taking in the situation and calming my nerves, then continued to lead us forward. I could hear strange screeches and howls from the native animals of the planet as I pushed forward through the brush. I checked over my shoulder to see Ashley and Liara both following me, all of us crouching to avoid branches and vines. I instinctively pulled out my knife and began chopping through the heavier parts to carve us a more direct path to the Geth rendezvous.
As I cut through the next batch of vines, I suddenly got a real bad migraine and had to stop. My head began thumping really hard as I collapsed to my knees, shaking almost uncontrollably. Liara and Ashley quickly ran to me and began asking me what's going on, but I couldn't respond. I felt almost like I had lost complete control of my body. I then closed my eyes and reopened them to find myself standing alone, in the middle of nowhere on a dark barren landscape. The sky above me was black and littered with stars and galaxies. I could feel some sort of ominous presence nearby. Armed only with my hands and words, I prepared for the sinister force to approach me. And soon enough, it did.
"Blaine Grimm. This is your last opportunity. Shepard gave up his, we highly suggest you do not give up yours," the unmistakeable voice of Harbinger said. I looked to my right and saw the enormous ship approach me. It stopped about five meters short of where I was standing.
"This realm is the destiny of your species. It will be wiped clean from the universe. It will be decimated and forgotten. You cannot change what is going to happen. Shepard only temporarily delayed the inevitable,"
"What do you mean this realm is the destiny of my species?"
"This desolate wasteland is what your Earth will become. It is what every planet in the galaxy will become. You are looking at your galaxy's future. All of your civilizations will fall. Do not be ignorant in thinking you can break a cycle that has persisted since the dawn of existence," Harbinger responded. I took a quick look around, only to find my surroundings were completely isotropic and deserted.
"What's the point of this cycle?" I asked.
"The cycle is your species' salvation, as well as our own. It keeps the balance of the galaxy and the immediate universe in a delicate state, one that must stand for reasons your kind is incapable of comprehending. Our existence transcends your very being,"
"Transcends my very being?"
"Yes. Your mortal existence is simply that which became of what was. Mere mortals are not meant to endure. They temporarily exist as a component of the universe, but do not contribute to the grand scale," it responded. I was truthfully only extremely confused by Harbinger's words, and decided not to press on it any longer.
"So why did you bring me here?"
"It's time for you to make a choice, Blaine Grimm. You can hand yourself and the human race over to serve us or be wiped from the plane of existence,"
"Why do you want us humans?"
"We see the value in your kind. You develop and advance as a civilization far faster than any that existed before you. Your kind is capable of accomplishments that can potentially transcend the divide between mortal and immortal. Join us, and you will be spared,"
"You want us to be your damn slaves. You think you know us so well. You apparently failed to realize that humans will not be conquered by anyone. We do not allow ourselves to be controlled by others. We are an independent nation, free of the will to submit or concede. We would rather fight to the last breath than become the servants of an alien race that simply wants us as their pets. And I can tell you this, we will not give up if you invade and try to destroy our sovereignty. Plain and simple. You're some big badass machine that is used to killing off entire civilizations, but for what? To keep some kind of bullshit balance? You have to do better than that. Commander Shepard would tell you the same thing if he were here,"
"It is unfortunate you cannot see true reason. Your species could have been useful. Be watchful Blaine Grimm, for our next encounter will be your last," Harbinger stated, then closed its appendages back to its body and floated away from me towards the dark horizon. I watched, under the dim light given off by the distant stars and galaxies. Suddenly, I was back in the jungle laying on the ground with Ashley and Liara kneeling over me.
"Are you okay, Grimm?" Ashley asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Lets go,"
