"Garrus," Tali asked nervously. "What going on?" The turian didn't say a word; keeping his gaze on the elevator doors as they opened and the two stepped onto the CIC. Tali followed him into the armory where Shepard had been examining his weapons, trying to familiarize himself with any memories that may be associated with them.
"Guys?" said Shepard, noticing the fear in the turian's eyes as he and Tali walked past him. "What's wrong?" Shepard then shot up from his chair to follow behind Tali into the briefing room.
"EDI, bring up the 4th log entry from the data." Garrus demanded. "Play at 0.49 seconds." EDI's holographic projection appeared in the center of the table on his order.
"Loading log entry..." chimed EDI. After a moment EDI's holographic projection was replaced by a transparent screen that showed the same Cerberus scientist that Garrus had seen when he first viewed the data. The log began playing right where he had left off with the women in the video expressing the real cause of the incident that drove Dr. Kindeler insane and caused him to kill the rest of the Bermuda's crew.
"-His insanity is somehow related to the project.
We've made a huge mistake...we never should have recovered this technology from the Citadel..." The log then rolled over into the 5th and final entry that until recently had not been decrypted.
"Day 147...The mechs seem to have missed my room...I haven't heard anything for hours—I don't know if anybody else is still alive..." The woman's eyes began to water with tears. "They...They told us this technology would save us...that it would give humans the power to live independently without the need of aliens...everything Cerberus stands for is a lie..." The women turned to the door behind her as sparks began to fly from it. Clearly, it was being opened from the other end by a cutting tool.
"Listen, I don't have much time. The project, Black-heart, it was an attempt to harness the power of Reaper energy recovered from the wreckage of Sovereign; the reaper that was destroyed at the battle of the Citadel two years ago. The amount we collected was minimal. It's being kept in a small energy containment capsule. It should still be in the lab. If anyone receives this, listen. The fragment began as a spark no bigger than a finger tip, but over time, it grows. You have to destroy it before it becomes too powerful! You can't-" The door behind the woman fell forward and two LOKI mechs stepped into the room and gunned her down; their lasers also hitting her console in the process cutting the feed.
"Alert!" warned EDI. "There is a disturbance in the Tech lab!" Garrus and Tali shared a look of concern then stormed out of the briefing room toward the Tech lab. Shepard followed. The door hissed open and Mordin was sent flying past them into the hallway; knocked unconscious by whatever had attacked him. Legion was standing over by Mordin's desk, its single, circular eye had turned to a yellow in color and cracks of blue colored energy ran all over its synthetic body with an bright glow emanating from the hole in its chest. The canister containing the unknown energy lie open and empty on the table. Garrus and Tali drew their weapons as they slowly walked into the room.
"INTERESTING..." said the Geth platform; it's voice having changed drastically to a very low, booming voice that vibrated the room when it spoke. Garrus and Tali took aim and both fired simultaneously but their shots dissipated upon impact with the platforms kinetic barrier.
Legion raised both its arms, one aimed at each of them. "FUTILE," Shepard watched helplessly as red beams of spiraling energy blasted from its hands and wrapped around the neck of the turian and quarian, lifting them off their feet and causing them to drop their guns.
Legion stared at his two victims, held tightly in his grasp with its face plates extending wide. Shepard took this opportunity to grab Garrus' Vindicator Battle rifle but before he could fire, the platform shifted its gaze to him and fired a bolt of energy from its eye that struck the unprepared spectre in the chest and sent him flying against the wall.
"Shepard!" yelled Tali pleadingly as Shepard sloped against the wall, unconscious. The spiraling beams began to pull the two closer to the platform. Bringing them within a few feet of the Geth's face. Legion looked at each of them curiously.
"FOOLISH ORGANIC LIFE FORMS," said the synthetic as it observed them. "YOU ARE BUT MERE INSECTS BEFORE US."
"Ugh!" Garrus struggled to free himself from the Geth's hold. "What are you!"
"YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST TO RESIST US. YOU WILL NOT BE THE LAST. IN THE END ALL, WILL SUCCUMB TO-" the geth was suddenly hit by an icy blast wave that froze his body in place and caused him to release his hold on Garrus and Tali. They both glanced over at the Tech lab door where Mordin was standing with his omni-tool primed.
"Believe silence is in order! Far too much talking!" said Mordin as he stepped into the room. The geth's voice grew with intense anger.
"ARROGANT CREATURE!"
"Here, enjoy." Mordin proceeded to fire, this time, an incineration blast at the platform. After a moment it's already frozen body began to crack before shattering into pieces. Tali smiled under her visor triumphantly but it faded when she remembered Shepard, still lying injured and out cold on the floor.
"Shepard!" she yelled as she ran over and knelt down by his side. She placed her two fingers on his neck to check his pulse; "Still alive...oh Keelah..." she thought as she breathed a sigh of relief. Garrus rose to his feet and looked back at Mordin who had a proud smirk sprawled on his lips. His smirk was quickly however, replaced by a frown as the bits and pieces of the Geth platform began to levitate up in the air and then, all together, reform the broken synthetic body with blinding lights sealing each individual piece back together.
"YOU CONTINUE TO UNDERMIND US," it turned its gaze to the unconscious body of Shepard with Tali fearfully standing over him. "YOU WILL LIVE TO SEE YOUR WORLDS HARVESTED BEFORE YOU," suddenly, it turned to the window of the lab and, with all its power, fired a blast of energy that blew a large hole in the side of the ship. It turned to observe them one last time. "YOU WILL FAIL, AND THE CYCLE WILL CONTINUE," it then leaped out the side of the ship, landing surprisingly gracefully on the catwalk below.
"No you don't!" Garrus shouted as he grabbed his rifle. "Tali! Track him!" Tali held out her arm and activated her omni-tool releasing Chitikka.
"Go Chitikka!" Tali's faithful combat drone flew out the side of ship and proceeded to follow the geth platform as it ran across the catwalk toward to the Zakera ward of the Citadel. Garrus followed suite, hopping out of the ship onto a docking clamp then running across it to the catwalks. He contacted Tali via com-link as he began his pursuit. "Tali, where is he?" Tali tapped away at her omni-tool bringing up the real-time footage her drone was feeding her.
"He's on level 26, moving fast!" she replied.
"I'm on em'!" the turian ran through a crowed of pedestrians as he continued his pursuit, eventually running down the stairs to level 26. When he reached the bottom he caught sight of the platform turning from side to side as if looking for an escape route. He sprinted toward him but held fire for fear of hitting civilians. The geth turned and caught sight of the turian right on his heals and leapt from the deck to land flawlessly on a hover car in flight. "Shit!" Garrus cursed in frustration. He then ran over to the nearest parked hover car, kicked in the side window, slipped inside and started the engine. Meanwhile, the geth had already punched its way into the cockpit of the hover car it had hitched and hijacked the unfortunate Volus driver who was thrown from the vehicle. Garrus immediately kicked the thrusters into overdrive and followed at top speed.
"Garrus, Chitikka has lost her visual, do you still have him?" Tali called over the com link.
"I got em' Tali. Looks like he's headed for the Presidium," Garrus replied.
"What is on the Presidium?"
"Conduit..." Mordin said quietly. Tali jumped slightly at the single word uttered by the Salarian.
"Garrus?" said Tali hoping he understood.
"I hear you, I'll stop him." replied the turian. Mordin held his finger under his chin and pondered nervously. Tali took notice.
"Why would he go there?" she questioned. "The Conduit can't be activated by anyone or anything."
"Except..." Mordin thought for a moment, "A Reaper..."
...
Garrus sped recklessly through traffic in his pursuit, the entire time keeping his eye on the hover car far in front him. He looked outside the driver seat window and noticed a shortcut through a tunnel that he suspected, would get him closer to the geth's vehicle. He made a sharp turn to the left and made his way through on-coming traffic. Meanwhile, the geth looked into the rear camera screen and saw that he wasn't being followed anymore, but just as he began to lower his guard, Garrus flew in from above.
"Time to pull over pal!" Garrus tauned as he reached for his rifle. He then pressed the release button on the dash which ejected the entire cockpit enclosure and with his right hand, aimed his rifle out in front of him and fired several bursts that did nothing but miss, and graze the side of of the geth's vehicle. The Conduit came into view moments later and the geth proceeded to eject its enclosure and fly straight at the conduit. Garrus took careful aim and fired a single burst from his rifle directly into the rear jet of his enemy's vehicle causing it to burst into flames. A fire broke out in the cockpit and the geth found it difficult to maintain control of the vehicle. Just before flying straight over the Conduit, it leaped out of its hover car and landed on the ground floor below, overlooking the Conduit, its hover car crashing into the well known krogan monument. Garrus brought his hover car to a stop in mid-air and hovered down on the geth's postion. He then leapt out of his vehicle and ran at the geth platform as quickly as his legs would allow.
"YOU ARE TOO LATE," said Legion. "I AM THE EMMISARY OF YOUR GENETIC DESTINY. YOU CANNOT STOP THE COMING TIDE," it proceeded to lift its right arm and aim it at the Conduit, firing a spiraling beam directly into the core of the miniature Mass Relay that was the Conduit. The double helix rings of the Conduit began to spin as it activated from absorbing the mass amount of energy being fed into it.
"WILL WILL MEET AGAIN," the geth's body disappeared in a blinding flash of light. It had escaped.
Panting heavily, Garrus watched the rings of the conduit come to a stop as it deactivated and whispered to himself in between breaths, "Yeah...I guess we will...Sovereign..."