Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.
-Saint Augustine
Afterlife, Omega - Shepard
March 26th, 2183
"I've just received a shocking report from Commander Williams back on Eden Prime. They've found a live prothean. An important one too, from what they can tell," John said. He was addressing what he'd come to think of as the last vestiges of sanity in the galaxy. Garrus, Aria, Miri, and Liara.
"I've been ordered back to Eden Prime post-haste. This represents an opportunity to decypher the vision we've received. I've also been given to understand that the presence of Dr. T'soni would be welcome, albeit secretly. There is another asset on the way to facilitate communication with the prothean, but Dr. T'soni would be the ideal subject."
"A live prothean?" Liara demanded. "How, how could that be possible? It's been 50,000 years."
"Cold sleep," John explained. "The facility turned out to be much more massive than we originally knew. Excavation was expedited with top priority and sleeper pods were found. All of the protheans encountered so far were dead, save for this last one. It's in poor condition, but it appears to have enough power for several more years at least."
"Would a prothean even be any good to us after so long in cold sleep?" Miri asked. "Medically it's proven unfeasible to use cold sleep for longer than a few decades for most species, and even then they can suffer long term damage."
"Prothean technology in this area was advanced," Vendetta stated. "One such proposed operation, the Vengeance initiative, would have had warriors in sleep for several thousand years before reawakening. The only constraints would be a steady power supply over such a length of time."
Garrus nodded. "And if you went from keeping a lot of pods active to only one or two pods active, I bet that power supply could keep those protheans alive for a good long while."
"Makes sense," Aria agree. "But why the hell are you telling the rest of us? I'm certain the League doesn't want a Council Spectre on one of its worlds, or an independent power aware of what it's doing with a treasure trove like a live prothean."
"I believe that you can still help us. The Reapers are and always will be the larger threat. I also have a tip about a League colony being raided by Saren; Feros. I figured I could point Garrus in that direction without taking too much of a risk. I won't be able to investigate both occurrences in time, and both could be key to defeating whatever Saren and the Reapers have planned."
"I'll track down Saren and figure out what he's up to," Garrus agreed. "If I can, I'll save the colonists as well."
"Thank you," John said. "Dr. T'soni, will you be accompanying me?"
"Yes, of course. Though I am going to need to send Samara with Garrus. We've received word that a highly dangerous criminal might be accompanying Saren, an asari criminal. If this is the case, Samara may be the only one capable of stopping her. I'll also be sending several CRISIS battlesuits to aide her."
John raised an eyebrow at that. From what he'd heard about the CRISIS suits, they were powerful machines that would give the Illuminated Primacy an edge in any ground conflict. "Will you be bringing any of those to Eden Prime?"
"Three. One for myself and for two bodyguards. Samara will insist if I don't."
"I can't promise not to attempt to get the specs for those while they're on my ship, Doctor. That's valuable technology," John said.
Garrus' mandibles twitched in agreement. "Same for me. The Hierarchy would kill to have that kind of tech. I've seen some combat footage one of the pilots showed me. Those things look deadly."
"That's a risk the Primacy is willing to take. We believe that very soon, this will be a full blown Reaper war. The Primacy is going to take steps to see that anyone but the Reapers is the victor in such a conflict," Liara explained.
John blinked at that, then glanced at Garrus. The turian was less taciturn, spreading his mandibles in pleasure. John nodded his thanks at Liara.
"Omega has already begun manufacture of the suits," Aria agree. "Good in space, water, land, toxic environments. It's like your own personal krogan that flies."
That actually made John smile. "No time to waste then. Garrus, I'll contact you over the QEC when I learn anything. Please don't try to open it, it's set to self destruct like all of them are."
The Phoenix Massing, The Sea of Storms, Heretic Station - Jak
March 26th
The station contained no air, and little gravity. Jak saw tiny dust particles floating in the thin air that should have settled long ago, and the sound of her warriors deploying was muffled in the near vacuum. The architecture was claustrophobic and angular, made of geometric shapes and hard lines. It underlined how alien and strange the geth really were. Which made the fact that a geth prime stood silently at Jak's side even stranger.
"Father, what the hell would you do in this situation?" Jak muttered to herself. She often thought of Urdnot Wrex in situations like this, her father and legendary savior of her people. Would he kill the geth without mercy for violating the Oath of Protection and killing humans and quarians? Would he take the chance to save the geth to foil the Reapers? Jak couldn't know for sure, but she was certain she could hear her father's spirit guide her in times of need and battle. Now was both.
"Alright, Tali, I need a status report. Where are the geth?"
"Probably in hibernation; we seem to have taken them by surprize. Legion?"
"We sense no active geth platforms in this sector. There are geth programs running all systems, but they have no way of perceiving anything beyond their digital domain. The way forward is safe, for now."
The big flashlight, the one calling itself Lamentations, warbled a basso whisper. Well, whisper for it anyway. It was still too damn loud for Jak's liking.
"Platform designation Lamentations indicates that it has secured the corridor. There are more units down the hall. We will disable security systems and lock down each section as much as possible."
Jak nodded and turned to Char, her second in command. "You and two squads stay here. You're our vanguard. Keep this airlock secure, it's our only way out."
"Understood warlord."
Silently, Jak followed Tali, Ori and the two geth down the hall. Behind her were eighty of her finest warriors. They'd brought ninety to the station, which with Jak and the others made ninety-five against untold numbers of geth. Stealth was by far the best option. It wasn't Jak's favorite approach, but a good warrior knew when to walk softly. Her warriors had grumbled a bit at the need for stealth on the way over, but now that they were in the disconcerting station they seemed willing enough to keep quiet.
At the end of the coorridor was a room lit by glowing electrical patterns, rather like the clan tattoos some krogan bore.
"Alert: data streams detected," Legion beeped. "Breaking the streams will result in activating platforms in this area. We have quarantined this zone, but cannot deactivate the data streams."
Ori tilted her head to one side. The young quarian was an oddity to Jak, culturally asari if anything, yet still an ally. "Are you serious? What, do we have to jump over them or something?"
"That is advisable if we do not wish to alert the heretics."
Jak studied the room quickly, then shook her head. "Too many people are going to have to go through here, and if we get out we need to do it in a hurry. We have to clear the room. Thek, Bruul, Naka, get your squads into position to take out the platforms. They're clustered around those bulbous things. We trip the data stream on my signal, then blow up all the geth before they can even activate."
"This is also a viable strategic option," Legion said.
Jak grunted. Now would be the moment of truth. Would the two supposedly friendly flashlights stay that way when their kin started dying?
It only took a minute for Jak's warriors to fall into position. Tali and Ori covered the next door, having made it over the data streams easily. The quarians were more nimble than Jak's warriors, their armor being fairly light and well suited for easy movement. Jak's warriors all had heavy armor and large weapons-even the handful of shamans. Krogan battle doctrine and physics called for the biggest baddest armor they could manage. Krogan were not especially nimble in the best of circumstances. A human or quarian would beat the pants off of them in any gymnastics competition, but that was why they all worked together.
When all was ready Jak tripped the data stream. Immediately, an alarm blared. Weapons barked and warriors gave muffled war cries. It was all over in seconds: not a single geth had even gotten to its feet. The alarm quieted, and Legion declared, "All heretic platforms deactivated."
This went on for three more rooms. Jak left behind a squad in each room to watch their backs and keep an eye out for a flanking action. Not one warrior was harmed in anyway, and Jak could feel their morale improving. She grinned viciously, and sent a private message to all her warriors: revenge for Eden Prime. Soft growls and chuckles told her it was appreciated.
At last, the geth seemed to twig to the fact that something was up. A corridor was already full of active platforms, and as the door opened an electronic wail could be heard. The ease of the mission so far hadn't made Jak's warriors sloppy. They opened fire as the lead squad maneuvered forward to find favorable firing positions. Those warriors then kept up a steady barrage while the next squad leapfrogged in the classic fire and maneuver pattern employed by civilized races for centuries. The geth were forced to keep their bulbs down, and the krogan quickly closed to melee range.
Unlike most other races, the krogan prefered to fight in close quarters. They were stronger and more powerful than any citadel race, save perhaps for a biotics-enhanced asari commando. The geth were less suited to melee than anything but a volus though, and Jak's warriors quickly ripped them to shreds.
"Warlord, take a look at this," Bruul called.
Jak hurried over to find her squad leader holding up a rusted, almost slimy looking geth part. "Looks like reaped crap if you ask me, my lady. If I could smell it, I bet it would stink worse than cooked garma root."
"Indeed. This is worrisome. How many of the geth were like this?"
"This is the first we've encountered so far. It was a big bastard, one of the primes I think. It got Chyum, blasted him with some sort of suicide charge." As Bruul spoke, the armor bit melted into sludge, and the squad leader dropped it hastily. "Shit, it really is reaped crap."
"We knew that the geth were consorting with Reapers," Jak said, maintaining her composure with effort. Even the daughter of Urdnot Wrex was scared deep in her marrow of the reapers and their pawns. No wonder the station seemed so wrong. "Keep an eye out for indoctrination beacons. We find any of that crap, this mission is scrubbed. We get the hell out and nuke it. No messing with reaper tech."
"But the virus could-" Tali began, but Jak cut her off.
"Tali, listen. You fought reaped before, I know. But I was on Aratoht. You don't fuck with reaper tech. I saw warriors go mad after only a few hours of exposure. Some were tainted after only a few minutes. It's not worth the risk. Understand?"
The quarian woman was silent for a moment, then she nodded. "Yes. Ok. I saw Tevos transform. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Not even the geth deserve this. If we can save them, we should."
"Agreed. But not at the cost of our minds and souls."
They proceeded with even more caution after that. Jak ordered her warriors to check in with the ship constantly, and report anything at all weird. Voices, shadows where they shouldn't be, motion that disappeared when you looked at it. It was also stuff that jumped up warriors would see on a normal battlefield, but these were hardened troops. They'd fought in the Kite's Nest and knew the signs. None of them wanted to give up on the mission, but no one wanted to become Indoctrinated either. There were some things worse than death or retreat.
The way forward was now increasingly full of activated geth. Lamentations was keeping the alarm from spreading too far, but the geth could smell a pyjak on their station. None of the rear guard had come under attack, but more warriors were wounded and sent back to the ship for medical attention.
A cohort of geth was active and ready for them in the next section, and Jak feared they'd take heavy casualties. But she hadn't accounted for Ori. Jak had biotics, and she had trained with the best, including the legendary John Shepard. She was no weakling. But Ori was in a class by herself. The young quarian erected a barrier of enough strength to hold off all of the geths' fire for five whole seconds, giving Jak's warriors time to maneuver into firing positions. Jak didn't think she could have managed one alone. With all her shamans together, they could have equaled the feat, but only with training that the krogan just didn't undergo; they spread their biotics out to maximize support.
Tali herself lept forward through the barrier, her drone before her as it shot arcs of electricity at the geth ahead. Not to be outdone, Jak followed right behind with her warriors on her heels. Both Jak and Tali were equipped for close quarters combat, wielding shotguns and heavy defenses. Their weapons barked in a harsh chorus as the two amazons' fire struck down a geth juggernaut before it could unleash it's heavy arsenal. Tali extended a glowing omnitool at another squad of geth to hack one of the rocket troopers, which promptly blew itself up with it's own ammunition. Jak biotic-charged into the rest and unleashed a shockwave that knocked the others flying in the low grav. Before they could reorient themselves, Jak's warriors cut them down.
"Not bad Tali," Jak panted, scanning the room for more hostiles. "You did pretty good too, Ori. Your biotics aren't half bad."
"Thanks?" Ori said. "I guess yours are pretty good too?"
"Creator Tali'Zorah, we estimate that the physical repository for the virus is through the next room. We also detect increased levels of the unknown radiation characteristic of old machine artifacts."
Jak held up a closed fist, and her warriors halted. "Indoctrination beacon?"
"Affirmative, Jak Warlord. We are puzzled as to why this device is present. Indoctrination Beacons have no effect on the geth."
"Well, what if they were using it to create the virus? You know, make a robot indoctrination thingy," Ori asked.
Jak was silent for a moment, then glanced at Char. "Think that would work?"
Her aide de camp thought for a moment. "Probably. From what we know about Indoctrination it can take different forms and affects each species at different rates. They could be modifying the beacon to create the virus. Or perhaps they are replicating some other previously unknown feature of it."
"I'd guess they're using the beacon to create a code signal that they could broadcast on a large wavelength specific to the geth," Tali said. "They'd probably have to use some sort of amplifier to hack large numbers of geth. Would that be possible, Legion?"
Jak turned to watch as the two geth warbled back and forth to one another. "It is possible that with a strong enough signal, all remaining true geth could become slaves of the old machines."
To Jak, it seemed like pretty much all the geth were already enemies, but at least taking out the virus and this station could prolong the geth civil war and keep them out of the real fight, at least for a little while longer. That, and giving the Reapers more troops just seemed like an all around bad idea.
"Then we go in anyway, despite the Beacon. We blow that up right away, then take out any remaining geth. We get the virus, and we get out."
Legion's little head thingies fluttered around a bit. "That will not be possible, Jak Warlord. The virus is stored inside the chamber, but it will have to be downloaded to a secure container that we have brought with us. This will take some time, and alert all the heretics on the station."
"Right, right, I knew that. We'll still run like hell once we've got it. The beacon makes this even more time critical."
It took several moments for the flashlights and Tali working together to get the doors open to the last chamber. When they were through, Jak was greeted with a chilling sight. More reaped geth. These had obvious spikes and corruption on them, rusted metal and missing hunks. They came in the several flavors of geth too, big bastards with heavy weapons, little ones that looked almost organic and leaped around, and the standard troopers.
With a bullhorn like sound, the big black flashlight lept into the fray first. It's big gun tore one of the smaller reaped geth right in half, and its rockets peppered the chamber with explosions. The smaller flashlight wasn't as obvious with its rage, but Legion's rifle cracked twice then let out the familiar scream of an overheating weapon. Normally, Legion was more conservative, letting its weapon cool down between shots, which was the efficient thing to do. Evidently a bunch of its fellows turned reaped was enough to make the machine lose its cool. Interesting.
The reaped proved deadlier than the untouched geth though. Wounds leaked a black oily substance that repaired wounds made, though it left them with rusty, pitted scars. That took some of Jak's warriors by surprise, and several of them were cut down by foes they had turned away from, thinking them dead. Jak let out her own hate-filled battle cry and leapt forward, using a biotic throw to hurl one of the larger geth into a squad of its fellows, then trapping them in a singularity. Ori threw a warp into the field and collapsed it, and she and Jak gunned down the writhing remains. Tali let loose with some cleansing fire from her omnitool, and one of Jak's heavy weapons specialist joined her in hosing down all the geth.
"Where's the indoctrination beacon?" Jak demanded, looking for the light absorbing pillar.
"The signal has faded," Legion stated.
Jak looked at the flashlight without understanding. "What, did they shut it off or did we get it in the assault?"
"Negative. The signal faded with each of the slain heretic abominations. They were functioning as repositories of the virus, and broadcasting a signal that could infect both synthetics and organics. We are scrubbing our subroutines now. We do not know what to do for organics."
"We pray," Tali muttered. "And hope we're OK. Get the virus Legion, and let's get out of here."
It didn't prove that easy. There was no audible alarm, but within moments Legion warned that more geth were coming. All of Jak's squads began to report they were under attack, though not heavily. That was likely because they were going to hit Jak and her warriors hardest.
"Get me fields of fire on those hatches! Cover the flashlight while it downloads the virus. Tali, you focus on helping it however you can."
Soon the geth arrived. Their first few probes used the lithe, muscular crawling geth. They lept in almost too fast to track and began to fire on the warriors. Jak and Ori used their biotics to trap some of them, and Jak's warriors took down the rest with relative ease. But that was just a probe.
Soon more leaping geth sprang in, followed by their heavies wielding rockets and squad support weapons. Jak and Ori worked together to contain them with biotic explosions, but a few of the leaping geth managed to take down some of Jak's warriors, and one was blown apart by a rocket.
"Any time now Tali!" Jak roared as she ducked down behind cover and fanned her overheated weapon. Then she took a few sips of energy drink: she was feeling tired, and low on energy. She couldn't' sustain her biotic usage forever.
"Almost done!" Tali called.
Almost only counted in nak sticks, hand grenades, and thermonuclear warfare, as Jak's father had always said. More geth poured in, and Jak's warriors continued to dwindle. Char took a glancing hit from a rocket explosion, and the old warrior fell back with the wounded toward the ship.
"We'll keep the way clear," he promised, and Jak prayed that he was right as she blasted a leaping geth out of the air, centimeters from her face.
"Got it, got it!" Tali cried, rushing toward the exit with Legion.
Jak gave the signal, and they began a fighting retreat through seemingly endless corridors. The geth pressed them from all sides and appeared to sense where they were running, probably by the swathe of destruction they'd carved getting to the virus.
Jak stayed with the vanguard, and was surprised to find Ori and Lamentations fighting with her. Her biotics were wearing out, but she didn't see any sign that the young quarian was slowing down. Her throws and kicks still took of geth heads, and Jak just did what she could to support her with her own abilities. Jak never thought a quarian could outfight her, but this one was coming close. True, Jak's marksmanship was better, but Ori's submachine gun took down more than a few geth.
Lamentations' rockets helped while they lasted, blasting apart whole squads of geth. When those ran out, it switched to a big mass accelerator cannon that was nearly as useful. When a squad of geth ambushed them out of a side corridor, Lamentations put itself directly in harm's way to save some of Jak's warriors. It was able to take even more punishment than a krogan, and it was almost always the last out of any room.
Still, by the time they reached the last room before their exit, even Lamentations was clearly hurting, with multiple holes in its armor and sparking wires poking out from its wounds. Jak had several shots of medigel in her, as did Ori. All of Jak's remaining warriors were wounded to some degree, and she didn't want to think about how many she'd left behind. The last room was packed with her warriors, forming a defensive line as geth came from every possible entrance. Their fire was withering, but as many geth as they struck down, more came.
Jak ran flat out for the barricade they'd erected, with Lamentations hard on her heels. Char was waiting for her, using a low oxygen flamethrower to melt the geth that pursued her.
"Go! We will cover you." Char ordered.
Jak fought to catch her breath, and looked up at her old friend. "Will you come?"
"No. I will stay with those who will die soon. They got both my livers. I'm dying. We don't have the supplies to treat such a wound on the quarian's ship. My death poem is uploaded to your command net. Don't worry, I'm on so much medigel I can hardly feel it."
Internally, Jak began to scream. Had this raid been worth it? Likely not. Still, it had been a good fight. "Take this." Jak attached a large, cylinder shaped object to Char's belt. "It's a low yield nuke. It will crack this station in half. Let it be your funeral pyre, old friend. We will sing songs of your heroism on Tuchanka for an age."
"Christ grant it so," Char said, surprising Jak. "Oh don't give me that look. I've attended plenty of services for many gods. That particular human one's songs always appealed to me. Perhaps if I pray now, I can enter into his heaven and hear more music. Or not. I choose to believe in the afterlife, but I do not claim to know how it works. Now go, you've stayed too long already."
Jak's shotgun screamed it's overheat warning, and with a stifled cry she ran toward the exit corridor where Lamentations was waiting.
Eighty-five had gone aboard the geth station. Thirty six left it. Before they had gone far, the station silently split as it was consumed by fire. Even the geth wouldn't last long with their power supply destroyed. Jak turned away from the viewport and made her way to the bridge.
"Well?" Jak demanded. The unspoken half of her question hung in the air: was this worth it?
"Jak, I don't know how to say this. I've never seen anything like it, and I'm not an expert on the reapers," Tali began.
Ori interrupted. "She thinks she might have found something in the virus. A code that shows how indoctrination actually works."
"And that means what?" Jak demanded.
"I can't make any promises, not yet," Tali temporized. "But this is raw data on indoctrination, and as far as I can tell it's safe. Oh sure, if I gave it to a VI or an AI it would probably be corrupted, but looking at it on a simple data slate should be safe. If I burn the slate after using, anyway."
Jak stood silently for a moment. "So we could use this. Reverse engineer it somehow?"
"Yes, but I recommend we don't do that. Indoctrinating our own foes strikes me as a bad idea," Tali said.
Jak flicked the idea away. "Obviously. But what about a way to block it? Or even to reverse it?"
"Can't say yet. We should take this Omega right away."
"Omega? Why not Arcturus?"
"Because someone there would want to reverse engineer it! Like those damn Cerberus pukes and The Illusive Man!" Ori cried.
Jak hesitated. Damn it all, but Sorcerous Tim WOULD try some shit like that. He'd not wanted to completely cure the krogan after all. And on Omega were gathered any number of experts on the Reapers, Aria had been rather obsessed with that. "Alright. But I'm taking a copy to Tuchanka. The krogan won't give it to Cerberus."
Now it was Tali's turn to pause, but she nodded after a moment. "Alright. That makes sense. We should disseminate this information, it's too valuable to keep completely hidden.
"And too valuable to use freely," Jak added. So. It had been worth it after all.
Authors Note:
Well, that took longer than I like. Still, schools out now (yay!) and a very difficult quarter is over. I'll have a lot more time to devote to reading, and I plan on putting out another chapter in less than a week.