here we go the first part of the Eden prime mission. let me know what you guys think!

BOLD leaning type: text messages.

Leaning:thoughts plus song, also AI talk.

/Bold with slashs/:non sentint AI Thoughts and or speach

The Normandy shields glared as the light destroyer blasted at supersonic speeds through the atmosphere.

In the cargo hold a few last minute checks were run on the Normandy's twin Mako APC's, and single Hammerhead fast attack vehicle. They, along with the platoon of marines filled the space. The 50 marines were loading programs, patches and getting loaded out for battle. Every marine had an additional piece of equipment attached to their backs. Shaped just like the wings on inquisitors or sky lords they could theoretically allow a marine to drop form orbit descending on mass effect fields at the fastest possible rate without injury.

Only two beings broke the image of the human war machine in action.

One was Specter Nihlus; he stood with Shepard with the Special Forces squad. The other was Legion. He had reached an individual consensus to aid the humans, despite what the official treaty said. The both had a wing system as well.

Shepard looked over the marines and scanned his HUD.

"Right marines! You drop in 50 seconds. Your rules of engagement are simple, if it ain't human put holes in it!"

"Yes sir!" The cheer echoed back out. The drop door opened. "Right then! Marines make command proud!"

"We will!" Jenkins shouted back and started to give orders.

"First squad you're out first! The Mako will be right on top of you so don't hang around. Each squad out with a ten second interval. The Hammerhead will be last out. Fifth squad you're staying behind. Drop with the second Mako and support the space port."

As Jenkins gave orders Shepard cut into his private communicator.

"Jenkins, a note for this combat op and future ones. I know you call yourself 'we' and that's your choice. But please in combat call yourself I and save the general 'we' for your unit."

"Yes sir, on it sir." Jenkins said. Soon the light changed in every ones HUD and the Marines disappeared over the edge of the ship, snatched by a supersonic jet stream and out of sight.

For almost 9,800 meters they fell in free fall, at the 799 meter mark their wings roared to life. Enveloped in the blue glow of the mass effect fields that slowed rapidly under an internal dampening field they impact the ground with heavy thunks.

The shattering impact of the Mako shook the ground. As the platoon impacted around them the first squad smashed their chests, hitting the manual override for the wings and they disengaged.

"This is Normandy shore detail. We're planet side about three clicks away from the City of Eden. ETA 3 minutes." Jenkins toned into his head set.

"Good job. proceed with operation."

Jenkins nodded and waved his platoon forward.

Back on the Normandy the ship decelerated slightly, they were going to do a far more accurate drop.

"Right Nihlus, you're new to the Icarus system so we've programmed it to drop you right on top of a small space port." Shepard said as he looked some systems over in his own armour.

"When your down slam the auto cut off." He tapped a small badge on the Turians chest. "The wings will pop right off." He nodded. "Understood."

"You're first out Nihlus." The Turian paused for a half second, it was so high they would never even find his splat mark, and then jumped.

"Thought I would have to throw him out." Shepard chuckled.

"You too?" Kaidan said and Shepard nodded the last squad of marines followed Nihlus and the Mako dropped soon after falling away out of view in seconds. Anderson cut in over the comm. chatter.

"We're dropping you close to the dig sight, secure the beacon then prep it for evac."

"Yes sir." Shepard said and the light in his HUD flashed again.

"Missions yours Shepard, good luck!" The Commander's last communication said and the three spec op troops dropped away.

With a thunderous impact the two marines and one Geth landed. Sloughing their wings off they scanned around. "No targets."

"Legion, hang back me and Kaidan will search for the van." The Geth nodded "Acknowledged."

The three of them moved forward.

"What are those?" Kaidan asked pointing to some creatures ahead.

"Gasbags, indigenous creatures that survived the terraforming. Be careful. They're filled with hydrogen and will go up like an incendiary grenade."

Legion set his single eye at the animals."Logging: Animal: Gasbags: Relevance: improvised explosive." Shepard chuckled.

"Right then. Move on gents we've got cargo to secure."

SHIFT

The Mako rumbled through a lightly wooded area. To either side marines escorted making sure that no one could get close to the tank without being spotted, and torn apart.

Jenkins was standing in the front of the formation as Geth; the programs in him simply took that designation over all others, relayed information from every marine and the forward scouting Hammerhead.

The end result was almost like a video game. In fact that was the point; most games had gotten the user friendly interface down to an art. Why reinvent the wheel?

A map of the area, based on orbital scans was black save for basic terrain shape, as more information was catalogued, from cameras both from marine, tank, and UAV's, more of the map was shaded in a colour to show more local terrain details, like small hills, rivers, and small roads. All this was projected into his HUD.

It would also show where the enemy was when they met, which they had not, yet.

Suddenly the Hammerhead winked out, the last message showing it had been destroyed.

Jenkins sent a digital command slowing the advance to a more careful pace. Hammerheads were not known for their armor to be sure, wet paper was a good comparison when compared to a Mako. but destroyed without a trace of what had done it? Nothing in the Alliance, Council, Terminus systems or Hierarchy, (discounting walkers) could do that. This was worrying.

Mentally a 'dumb' (not sentient) UAV was sent over the area.

The Drone got within range, all it saw was a forest, the wreck of the Hammerhead, smouldering on a road, then a sharp banging echoed though the air and the drone was registered DIA (destroyed in action).

Jenkins was frowning. It sounded sort of like drone had been taken down by an AA-997. But that was a Geth weapon. Mounting almost 30 standard Geth assault rifle mounted in a block, the AA-997, or the 997th anti air weapon the Geth had designed, it was designed to fill the air with countless Proton Rounds destroying the air frame under any shield.

But it only sort of sounded like it. The Geth Assault rifles used in the AA-997 had a lighter retort then this weapon, more buzz and the range was much lower. The 997 was normally used to fend off vast drone flocks and low flying gunships, also theoretically missiles. Not high flying, far faster scout drones.

A recon in force was needed, but the Hammerhead had fit that requirement in his battle plan. Also whatever had taken the Hammerhead out was North East of them. If they kept moving to the capital it would end up on their flank.

So, carefully he adjusted the line. They were now heading straight to it. Still he prepped the Mako, this may be a nature reserve, but if pushed he would use the flamethrower in a second to clear cover, fend off close assaults, throw up a smoke cloud, melt a weapon platform, or cook an organic like a steak.

SHIFT

Shepard and his group had fended off some drones; no problem and now they were working over a small hill. Gun fire echoed from a head.

"Legion." Shepard addressing the robot. "Go right and flank the position. Time to find out who our enemy's are."

"Confirmed." The robot said and moved up the rocks, small mass effect jets lightening it so it could climb more easily.

A few moments later, nothing happened. Frowning Shepard tapped his head set. "Legion: report."

Static.

"Legion: Report! That's a order!"

"Eric-Geth pact. Article four: Section one: The Geth will nether aid nor hinder the efforts of the military of the Alliance." The reply came back over the comm. link.

"What?" Shepard said confused.

"Geth Prime Directorate number one: Geth shall not kill Geth."

"Geth, shall, Legion are we engaging Geth!"

"Eric-Geth pact. Article four: Section one: The Geth will nether aid nor hinder the efforts of the military of the Alliance." The AI intoned again.

"Shit." Shepard said. The Geth had an odd way of looking at the world that sometimes confused even AI's.

"Legions picked a hell of a time to be literal." Kaidan said.

"If it's actively working against us, I'll turn into a lamp." Shepard said and started to move forward.

"Shepard, I'm picking up a Marine and PDF signal." Dedra said to Shepard.

"Good, patch them into our network, and on that note put fire walls around Legions link."

A sub picture of both of the Marines view lit up in Shepard's bottom corner.

They were both in cover in a make shift trench, likely carved by nanobots, there gun were hammering a suppressive barrage. Down range it was as he feared, and not.

They were Geth to be sure. But they were different. Normal Geth troopers where white, they were steel gray tinted, and their weapons were off. He did not have o good look on their weapons, but their shot, was a brilliant ruby beam not a normal bullet.

"Order sir?" Kaidan asked.

"Blazing." Shepard said and crested the hill, locking his rifle to his back, and drew a flamethrower.

Kaidan did the same, though flamethrowers were far from his specialty that said you did not have to aim all that much with a flamethrower.

Twin beams of flame arched out of their gun roaring they lashed and washed around the Geth.

The flames roared out and impacted the rocks the Geth were hiding behind the flames washing over and damaging the combat chassis of the Geth.

In the rolling flame and smoke the two marines the Geth had been trying to eliminate fired a pair of heavy rifle pulse grenades the EMP shorting the Geth and eliminating the threat they held.

Shepard and Kaidan moved up and met the two marines. The first one nodded his face plate revealing her face.

"Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams," The PDF, (planetary defence force) unlocked his face plate as well and induced himself as well. "Private First Class Elerson."

"Report Sergeant." Shepard said.

"The damned Geth stabbed us in the back that's what." She said slamming her fists into her palm with a glare.

"About that." Shepard said and turned to face where Legion had to be watching them.

"If you don't come out at the count of ten we will open fire!"

"You do know the irony of using a flamethrower with that statement?" Dedra said.

"Yup." Shepard said back.

Legion did come down.

"Ok then Geth." Shepard said slipping to a slight derogatory term among the Alliance for a Geth that had a name (not that they cared, both were equal accurate terms for a mobile platform but they got the gust of the insult) "Care to explain why your attacking Eden Prime?"

"We are not." He said after his head flap folded and unfolded a couple times.

"O you aren't, then explain why the hell there are Geth body's there." He said pointing at the fallen Geth.

"These are not Geth." Legion repeated admittedly. "These are Heretics, a sub consensus of the Geth." Shepard translated that to human speak.

"A sub group I, You know we don't have time." He turned Elerson.

"Elerson! Escort Legion to our drop point," He uploaded it to his HUD. "I will not have a possible hostile with us understood, Legion." Shepard said saying the last sentence to the Geth in question.

"Yes."

"Good, now get going!" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder and Legion, knowing he had out stayed his welcome, made off with Elerson close behind.

"Right, Ashley you're with us we need to get to the cargo." She nodded and locked her faceplate back in place.

"On it the dig sight should be just ahead." The three set out.

A few moments later Ashley's personal communicator chimed with a message from Shepard.

"Ashley Williams?" He was questioning if she was related to former Admiral William she took enough crap about that she came down as hard as she could, what with him being superior officer.

"Yes sir." She said defiantly.

"As long as you aren't your grandfather I have no problem." He said and the link cut out.

SHIFT

Jenkins was in trouble.

The enemy was falling back from his forward elements, but the ease of their fall back reeked of an ambush to him.

The problem was that when the enemy was identified as Geth, his AI, which allowed him to control the massive tidal waves of information he got from the troops refused to work. Without him he was just about drowning in the ocean. Right now he was trying to have his Mako deploy the three light field mortar's it carried for close support.

But it was hard in the tide of information to think straight. If it kept up at this rate he would develop a case information induced insanity.

"Legion! I need your help here!"

"Geth Prime Directorate number one: Geth shall not kill Geth. Eric-Geth pact. Article four: Section one: The Geth will nether aid nor hinder the efforts of the military of the Alliance."

"Ya I get that!" Jenkins said back suddenly mentally cringing under a blast of information blasted straight into his skull.

"But I am going to end up brain dead here if this keeps up!" Already automatic cut-offs threatened to engage and shut the flow of information off. Suddenly a new line of argument occurred to him.

"What is your consensus?"

"The Geth's consensus is,"

"I did not ask what the Geth's consensus was I asked what the consensus of the 1,128 programs within my bodies was."

The response was far slower as it had to think that through.

"Our consensus is the Heretics are a threat to the Geth and must be defeated before they break Geth Prime Directorate number one."

"Then follow through with your consensus rather than the Geths!" Jenkins internally shouted at the Geth programs as more information blasted across his mind.

He got vague impressions that something had happened, someone had seen something, someone was screaming, weapons were firing, machines were clanking, too much information!

Suddenly it made all sense. Everything at once fell into place and the overflow of communications turned into words.

"We have achieved consensus. We will aid you."

"About time." He said back and turned to the data. They were in trouble.

The Geth had counter attacked, and the forward elements were getting pounded.

Time to fall back, dig in and let them fall on their guns. A small town was nearby. Orders were given and the advance shifted backwards rapidly toward it.

"Sir you OK?" A solider asked.

"We got a lot of error messages from your armour and your brain waves were off the charts."

"I'm fine I had some, AI problems. They should be fixed now though."

Solider gave odd looks through there helmet cams. That fact they were both fighting Geth, and had Geth AI's came home. Only the fact that it was impossible for an AI to harm a human they were synerged with got them at ease.

"Right let's move!" Jenkins said turning, just as a barrage of Geth Mortars started to impact around them.

Plumes of dirt, soil, sand, parts of plants and glass rained down from plasma explosions kicked up from Geth siege armatures.

The marines soon picked up the pace to the small town where they would hold.

SHIFT

Shepard biotically crushed the last Geth as his small squad entered the dig sight.

"Shit they must have moved it." Ashley said as she looked around.

Shepard stomped over and picked up one of the odd Geth weapons.

The only thing he could say was that it looked like the bastard child of a Lee Enfield and a RR-88 rifle that shot laser beams that damaged shields. Shepard disintegrated it uploading it to his internal buffers for later examination.

"Right so if it's not here were would it be?" He asked as he picked up and disintegrated a couple more rifles for later examination.

"Maybe the space port." Ashley said with a shrug.

"Good guess lets go." Shepard said and started to move up a path.

Kaidan spoke into his radio. "What do you think is up with all the spikes impaling people?"

"Psychological warfare plain and simple." Ashley replied as they passed another spike with an old man on it.

"When the Romans defeated Spartacus they crucified thousands and set them up alongside the roads for miles as the universal sign of don't screw with us bad asses."

"Ya well Humans don't scare, we get mad." Shepard said and waved his squad forward.

SHIFT

Crimson beams of energy roared from armatures supported by close range siege mortars.

The area around the space port was a war zone of flying bullet, shrieking shells, the whoosh of flamethrowers and the howl of artillery.

Guarding the port were alliance PDF first response troops. With no time to lathe into their heavy armour the PDF were lightly armed and armoured best compared to Alliance Light Infantry. The PDF was supported by a single squad of Alliance marines and a Mako IFV.

Nihlus had long since ditched his assault rifle and was using one of the human heavy battle rifles he had picked up off a, now dead marine. It was far, far more powerful than his assault rifle.

Geth? Attacking? The Alliance? Nihlus was confused, had he just not been aboard a star ship filed with Geth and humans? Even the other humans were surprised, horrified, and enraged by this!

He pressed himself against the wall and fired the rifle blindly over the wall. The next laser blast blew a hole in the wall to his left showering him with rubble. Looking above he saw a Geth trooper standing on the wall, one hand clenching it tightly the other pointing a pistol at him.

Quickly he fired into the robot the heavy rounds blowing its shields apart as the disruptor shells took them apart. With the Geth dispatched he noticed the rifle beeping at him. Growling Nihlus tried to swap the magazine, having never having to use a clip fed weapon his hands were ill practiced yet still smooth he was not a specter for nothing.

Then a roar of a red beam rushed over head burning an after image in his eyes, it was followed by an explosion as the Mako was blown apart by the massive blast.

The pitch of the battle changed and the Geth were advancing. The marines propped against the wall, firing their weapons at the Geth rushing toward them. Every so often a Geth paused from their rushing advance to fire their rifle like weapon and a crimson beam roared out.

Far more powerful than any council or Alliance weapon of similar size even Alliance marines had to worry about numerous impacts from such weapons.

Locking a new clip into place Nihlus joined the battle throwing his gun fire into the fight.

Geth fell to the combined mass of the Alliance fire power, from the rapidly forming no man's land a Geth heavy laser roared flaring red bolts of energy in a stream swept back and forth bursting shields and scouring armour apart under the force of the beam.

A whistling screeched echoed nearby and a siege shell blew up nearby and he was forced to the ground. A voice somewhere cried the Geth were in the perimeter and he looked up to see a pair of Geth vault the wall that was part of the defence network of the space port.

Going to a kneeling position he took aim and fired the battle rifle. The first Geths shields went down, the second was about to shoot him with its rifle, only to seem to change its mind and charge forward.

Nihlus took aim, got two shots off before he was smacked by the rifle butt to the face knocking him out.

He came to a few minutes later. Each arm was clutched by a Geth mobile platform.

"So you're awake." Nihlus looked and his eyes went as wide as saucers.

"Saren?" The familiar face of his old 'friend' met him.

"Indeed. I must congratulate you." He said. Somewhere the Alliance was still fighting the Geth inside the building. "Most men would have been killed under this kind of assault. Even with Alliance power armour."

"What are you doing Saren? How could you!"

"You expect me to tell you?" He reached down and grunted under the weight of a heavy Alliance RR-88 assault rifle, though to him it was more of a heavy machine gun.

"Be honoured my old friend, you are the first step to preventing an Apocalypse." He went down to a prone position propping the rifle on his knee. Then as an afterthought. "I am sorry." He fired the heavy armour penetrating shells blowing through him and he was dead in seconds.

Saren dropped the hateful human weapon quickly.

"Get on the train we must get to the beacon." The Geth clicked in acknowledgment and soon the Geth began to move.

The heavy cargo train took a pair of armatures and most of the Geth heavy weapons left as well.

Leaving only a token force behind to mop up the humans and defend their new space port.

What could go wrong?

Codex-Geth Psychology.

The Geth are an oddity and even among the AI savvy Alliance they are a mystery.

The Geth method of cooperative intelligence makes each individual Geth program, a program about the size of a 4g flash drive, means that every time a Geth comes to a decision, it's the end result of an argument. This means that each 'Geth' is more akin to a neuron then a sentient AI.

The Geth have in essence two levels of government. First are the Geth 'cities' as Alliance intelligence has named them. The cities only requirement is they must be able to match the computing power of a super computer and other then that can take any form. A space station could form a city, as could a planet, or a significantly large military formation.

The cities communicate at light speed and each have a majority of the Geth population. The second level is automatons Geth field platforms that are at sentient level intelligence. Often out of touch with the main Geth Collectorate for long periods of time they are more automatons then even thousand Geth strong cities.

The Geth world view is one of cooperation and co existence rather working, than fighting, any one unless the Geth themselves are threatened. This is linked in part to the cooperative intelligence as they view dissent to be normal and only a problem when it infringes on any one else's right for a form of 'consensus' and they will not take acts that infringe on any else's right to form a 'consensus'.

They instinctively shy away from conflict and prefer to work a problem through with words and logic rather than force a confrontation at any stage.

The Geth though have a massive hole in their psyche. They have no idea how to handle an individual. The Geth have always worked in massive billion Geth groups with the sole exception being the Geth sentient platforms built. That someone would achieve a consensus contrary to most of the Geth is to be expected.

That they would form a secondary consensus to ignore the primary consensus and even run contrary to it, in full knowledge of it, is something the Geth cannot even begin to comprehend.

In addition each of the Geth 'cities', being a self contained sentient unit has the potential to run an individual consensus, and act on it.

This fear maybe a subconscious reason for why the Geth seek to build a Dyson sphere to house all Geth programs. The reason they give is so that no Geth will be alone ever again. The other reason is maybe that it's to make sure no Geth ever breaks consensus as they will be all one central intelligence, one being.

The Geth may fear individuality and if so this will be a sign of an irrational choice that all sentient beings, humans and AI make.