AN: This chapter will explain the connection between Borg and Reapers. I'll add an explanation for my decision here at the bottom, to answer any questions regarding why I did what I did here. Enjoy.
Chapter Twenty: We Are The Vanguard Of Perfection
The entire Normandy ground team was sat around the makeshift briefing table the Salarians had set up in their prefab base. Kirrahe and Shepard sat at the head of the table. Shepard looked troubled but resigned, as though what he was about to say was the only choice he had, which unfortunately it was. Kirrahe looked excited - maybe overly excited, given that he was about to discuss a life or death plan.
The STG officer had explained to them all precisely what the Borg facility was. Their reactions had been, as Shepard expected, a mixture of disgust, apprehension and eagerness to go wreck the place. In that regard, Shepard had good news for them.
"Captain Kirrahe has come up with a plan to destroy the facility," he explained, frowning slightly. "It's difficult, but its the only thing that'll take this facility out."
He looked at Kirrahe, who took this as his cue to begin.
"Myself and my team will launch a frontal assault to distract the Borg's forces," he told the assembled officers, his voice surprisingly strong for a Salarian. "While this is taking place, a secondary team, code named Shadow, will led by Captain Shepard. They will infiltrate the Borg facility with transporter pattern enhancers. This team's objective will be to place the enhancers at the dead centre of the facility. Once they are in place, a single photon torpedo will be transported in, primed to explode after a short time. The Shadow team, as well as my men, will then be transported out."
"Sounds like a risky plan," Kaidan commented softly, looking troubled. "Attacking the Borg head on is the textbook definition of a suicide mission, especially with their disruptor adaptations."
"It is a suicide mission," Kirrahe agreed with a grim nod. "But each and every one of my men is ready to make that sacrifice. However..." Here he hesitated, and suddenly everyone had a bad feeling about what he was going to say. "I need one of you to come with me."
The Normandy crew looked among each other, surprised at this request.
"Did you know about this, Captain?" Ashley asked. There was something odd in her tone that caught Shepard's attention, but he ignored it.
"Yes," he said with a tired nod. "Captain Kirrahe ran it by me during our meeting."
"And you approve?" she persisted.
"I don't like the idea of sending a crewman on a suicide mission," the Captain replied. He had a bad feeling he knew where this was going. "But to stop the Borg? Damn right I approve."
Ashley nodded, then stood up, standing to perfect attention.
"I volunteer for this assignment, sir," she said smartly, in such a way as to make it clear that if he denied her request, she'd probably go anyway. Shepard sighed inwardly. He had known she would react this way: he remembered his conversation with her about her reckless behaviour on the Garrett, about how she felt the only way to live up to her Grandfather's legacy was to die heroically. However, he couldn't just call her out on it here, in front of everyone, and as much as he hated to admit it, her volunteering made his life a lot easier.
"Alright, Ensign," he said, feeling more and more unhappy about the entire thing. "You'll go with Captain Kirrahe's men."
"Aye sir," Ashley said, almost smiling. "Thank you sir."
"Excellent," Kirrahe said, apparently not aware of what he'd just done. "With that sorted, I'll go ready my men. We go in thirty minutes."
He walked out of the small pre-fab, leaving the Starfleet crew alone.
"I want all of you to go ready yourselves," Shepard said to his team, who to their credit looked resolute, if in some cases nervous. "This'll be hard - one of the hardest missions we've been on. We won't be pushing Borg out of our territory, we'll be fighting them on their home turf. They'll know the layout, they'll have the advantage. I trust each and every one of you to do your best, no matter what we face in there."
The team looked heartened by his words, and slowly filed out - all except Ashley, who stayed behind, looking vaguely awkward.
"I thought you might want to speak with me, sir," she said. Shepard sighed - as a matter of fact, he did, and he had a feeling it wouldn't go completely smoothly.
"I think I mentioned something during our personal briefing about not throwing your life away, Ensign Williams," he commented, folding his arms as he spoke. The Ensign looked fairly defensive at his words.
"You also said, if a mission required self sacrifice, then you'd let it happen," she pointed out. "This mission requires self sacrifice, sir."
"Captain's call, not yours," Shepard snapped at her. He wasn't angry because she had volunteered - he was angry because he thought it was the wrong reason to volunteer.
"Then order me not to go!" Ashley yelled at him. He raised an eyebrow - that surprised him. She continued. "If you order me not to go, I won't. Someone else can go with Kirrahe's men. Otherwise, deal with it!" She took a breath. "Sir," she added as an afterthought.
The two of them stood there for a moment, both equally angry with the other. Then Shepard sighed, and looked away.
"You volunteered, Ensign," he said. "You wanted to go for the suicide mission, for whatever reasons you had, and I'll respect that call." He looked her in the eye. "But I expect you to make it back in one piece."
"I'll do my best sir," Ashley promised with a nod.
Thirty minutes passed faster than Shepard would have liked, and soon the time had come to move out.
Kirrahe's team and Shepard's team moved at the same time, weapons out, movements efficient. Kirrahe's team did as they said they would, heading for the main entrance to the Borg complex and beginning an assault. Shepard's team meanwhile headed for the rear of the complex, across a series of small outposts and walkways that were easily cleared of the handful of Borg sentries left behind.
Shepard, for his part, hated the entire plan, but it didn't matter; it was the only plan they had, and without it they had no way to stop the Borg threat here.
His team moved swiftly and efficiently, taking out hostiles as they went with quick bursts of IMod and TR-116 fire. As they did so, they head updates from Kirrahe's team.
"Bunker down, draw them out." "Fire on their left!" "Incoming fire, keep down...!"
The transmissions weren't one hundred percent reassuring, but then again, Shepard hadn't expected them to be. After all, this was a suicide mission.
Quickly, they had managed to fight their way to a series of walkways that led to the rear of the facility. With a sharp hand gesture, Shepard motioned for Tali to find a way in while he and the rest of the team covered her. More Borg were coming out of various access points, or from other parts of the walkways, and though the IMod's and TR-116's were proving their worth, no one could hold off this many enemies forever. A disruptor blast impacted near Shepard, but fortunately his Hazard suit absorbed the splash.
"Found an access console, Captain," Tali reported after a moment. "Give me a moment!"
"We don't have a moment, Lieutenant," Shepard called back. "Get us a way in, now!"
Tali grunted in response and quickened the pace of her hacking. A moment later, she yelled in triumph.
"Got it!" she called to the team. "Hurry, though, I don't know how long it'll last."
The group fell back, firing as they did so. More Borg fell, but even more were coming.
"I hope Kirrahe's having a better time of it," Kaidan commented.
"Don't worry about them for now," Shepard said sharply. "Just focus on our half of it."
"Aye sir," Kaidan nodded, understanding.
The entranceway was, as most Borg architecture tended to be, dark and foreboding. There were empty regeneration alcoves all around them, a testament both to how many Borg were here and how many Borg were active. It was definitely not a pleasant reminder.
"A lot of Borg are retreating back towards the facility," Shepard heard Kirrahe's voice on the comm. "They may be going after Shadow team."
"We have to do something!" Ashley's voice spoke.
"We are," Kirrahe snapped. "Our job. And they are doing theirs. There's nothing else to be done."
Harsh, but unfortunately all too true. Shepard sighed, regretting the radio silence that was part of his team's side of the mission. He took point, leading his team onwards.
They walked through a door and across a catwalk, where they heard a voice calling out.
"Is there somebody out there?" the voice called. "Hello?"
Shepard looked down over the catwalk - there was a Salarian behind a force field, in what appeared to be a... Shepard gulped. It was an assimilation chamber. It was empty of completed Borg, but there were at least a half dozen partially assimilated individuals lying on beds, in various stages of 'completion'.
"There's someone unassimilated down there," Garrus said urgently. "We have to help him!"
"You're right," Shepard said softly. "Come on."
They walked into the next room, taking down the two Borg guards that were there, before descending the ramp to the lower level. Once they got to the assimilation chamber, they saw him: a Salarian soldier standing behind a force field. He seemed relieved to see them.
"You're Starfleet, yes?" he said. "Am I glad to see you!"
"Identify yourself," Shepard asked.
"Lieutenant Ganto Immess," the Salarian replied. "Captured while on patrol. Thought I'd be assimilated, but they appear to have scheduled me for last. Lucky for me." He gestured at the half assimilated Salarians. "Not so for them."
Shepard turned to look at the half assimilated victims. He sighed, then gestured to Wrex, who took out a phaser and shot them, one by one.
"What are you doing?!" Imness yelled, shocked.
"The merciful thing," Shepard replied. He unlocked the forcefield, letting the Salarian out, and handed him an IMod from his buffer, switching to a TR-116 for himself. "We're blowing this facility. Run as fast and as far as you can. This weapon will get you past any Borg you meet."
"I... thank you," Imness said. "Before I go, you ought to know: I think they're experimenting with a new form of assimilation."
"New form?" Shepard was confused. What could that mean?
"I don't know the details, I only know what I saw," the Salarian former prisoner said urgently. "They did something to the minds of my team while they were imprisoned. Good men walked willingly to the assimilation tables - without any sign of nanoprobe infection." He shuddered slightly. "Before you ask, I don't know why it wasn't done to me, I'm just grateful for it."
If what the Salarian was telling him was true, this was a terrible development. The Borg's assimilation had been something that could be avoided before. Now? Who knew?
"Thanks for the intel," he said to Imness. "Now get moving!"
"Yes, I will," Imness replied, starting to jog. "Thank you again!"
"A new form of assimilation?" Garrus commented. "That could spell real trouble for the Citadel races and the Federation."
"You're telling me," Shepard sighed, unsure what to think. He shrugged the thoughts off for the moment: they had a mission to complete. "Come on. We need to move."
They continued on through the facility, clearing out any Borg that were unlucky enough to run into them. Shepard couldn't help but wonder precisely what was going to happen next, but his mind was mainly preoccupied with the idea of an upgraded assimilation process. It was terrifying, the thought that the Borg had just become even more efficient in their chosen method of destroying people's lives. Shepard couldn't help but wonder if this had anything to do with the Reapers...
The team eventually reached a large room, empty aside from a single artefact.
"A beacon!" Kaidan called out, pointing down a ramp. At the bottom of said ramp stood an object identical to the Prothean beacon Shepard had seen on Eden Prime, apparently unaltered by any Borg technology.
"What's a beacon doing here?" Liara asked, entranced by the sight of working Prothean technology.
"Most likely the Borg wanted control of any Prothean technology they could get their hands on," Garrus theorised.
"Or maybe," Tali postulated, "there's more information in this beacon than was present in the other?"
Shepard couldn't help but be drawn to the artefact: his experiences with the beacon on Eden Prime, coupled with his receiving the race memory of the Protheans from Shiala, made him acutely aware of the controls at the bottom of the beacon. The console seemed to beckon him closer, as though activating it was something he needed to do.
"Maybe if Shepard used this one, it might give him more info about what the Borg are after?" Kaidan commented, as if echoing the thoughts in Shepard's mind.
Only one way to find out," the Captain replied. He walked up to the beacon, pressed a few controls, and waited. A moment later, the green glow increased in intensity. Suddenly, images flashed through Shepard's mind, images of death and destruction - a warning, he realised, his new knowledge giving him insight. One for the entire Prothean empire, though far too late to save them. But there was something more.
Reapers... Cannot be stopped... The Great Enemy... Ilos project...
And as suddenly as the images had flooded his mind, they ceased, leaving Shepard crouched on the floor, breathing heavily.
"Shepard, are you ok?" Tali's voice seemed to be coming from very far away. He slowly pushed himself to his feet, still unsteady after the encounter with the beacon.
"I'm..." He didn't know whether he was fine or not, but it wouldn't do to worry his team when they still had a mission to complete. "I'm ok. Let's get back to it."
As he ascended the ramp and moved to leave the room, though, the lights flickered, and then they dimmed. A large, vaguely aquatic shape appeared - it's lines were harsh and mechanical, a blood red holographic projection. Shepard frowned at it: it looked almost... familiar...
"Is that some kind of VI?" Garrus wondered aloud.
"Intruders in the complex, near the Prothean artefact," a harsh metallic voice spoke, full of inflections that no normal Virtual Intelligence should have been able to make. "Your presence was not unanticipated."
"I don't think this is a VI," Liara opined, her eyes wide in a combination of awe and fear.
"Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, imperfect and now obsolete," the image said, somehow conveying a glare brimming with malevolence despite lacking eyes. "You seek answers to irrelevant questions. You chase illogical goals. Your time is at an end."
"You're..." Shepard couldn't believe what he was seeing. "You're a Reaper."
"Reaper," the thing said, almost musing on the word. "A name given to us by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction. In the end, irrelevant. What we are called is irrelevant. We simply are." It paused, almost thoughtfully. "I was at one time destined to be the herald of your destruction. Instead, I will be the vanguard of your perfection. I am Sovereign."
Shepard knew it was futile, but he had to try talking to the thing, convincing it to stand down somehow. "I'm Captain Shepard of the USS..."
"John Shepard, Captain of the USS Normandy, registry NCC 90000. We are aware of your designation," Sovereign said, it's voice - and vocal patterns - all too familiar to Shepard.
"You're Borg," he said.
That seemed to give Sovereign pause for a moment. "We are not. The Borg are different." There was another pause. "They were a different solution. They did not develop as we had anticipated, as species always develop during the cycles. They had adapted, avoided the trap organic life has fallen into since before the cycle began, and so we approached them to discover why. Exchanges were made. A new goal was found, one that best fit the new data and new information."
"What is it saying?" Kaidan muttered in an undertone. Shepard, however, understood.
"You destroyed the Protheans," he said with mounting disgust and horror in his voice. "And the ones before them. But the Borg were more than you anticipated, or different somehow."
The Reaper again paused for thought, considering Shepard's words.
"They are a synthesis," Sovereign finally said. "A synthesis between the organic and the technological. They circumvent the usual pattern, the pattern we have seen countless times. With our help, they will be the ultimate pinnacle of evolution. The cycle will end."
"What cycle?" Shepard asked.
"The cycle of destruction," Sovereign answered. "We come. We harvest. We leave. It has been this way for many millennia, but it cannot continue for eternity. The synthesis is a new solution."
"What if we don't want to be part of that synthesis?!" Shepard yelled, suddenly furious. How dare this machine try to impose itself? "What if we prefer to die with our individuality intact?!"
"Then you will die," Sovereign said, it's voice filled with the simple matter-of-fact manner that one would expect from a machine. "Either option continues to solve the problem we were created to remedy. The synthesis of all life worthy in this galaxy will continue, until all are part of perfection. It is inevitable. Your resistance is, and always will be, futile. This exchange is over."
The hologram vanished, it's purpose complete.
"Well, that was suitably terrifying," Garrus said, his levity puncturing the tension only slightly. Shepard cursed. Whatever the Reapers were, this one had apparently joined the Borg, seeing their way of thinking as logical. Who knew, maybe one was responsible for the other? That, however, was a question for a time when lives weren't riding on Shepard's decisions.
"Alright," he said, his voice grim, "let's get going with this."
He only hoped they could still defeat the forces here - and more importantly, that they could defeat the forces that were still out there.
AN: So... that happened.
It only seemed logical to me, when planning out the relationship between Borg and Reapers, that the Reapers would be aware of alternatives to their cycle of destruction. It also struck me that the Borg were oddly similar to one of the Star Child's/Catalyst's solutions at the end of Mass Effect 3, namely the Synthesis ending. That being the case in my estimation, as well as consideration of several tech similarities between Borg and Reapers, I decided that Sovereign encountered the Borg and the two effectively merged: the Borg become more powerful with the addition of Reaper tech like weapons and kinetic shields (which, mind you, they would have assimilated anyway) as well as Sovereign's millennia of knowledge, and Sovereign not only figures out a solution that ends the cycles - because at 'heart', for want of a better term, I reckon the Reapers do want the cycles to end, if only because they don't work perfectly (even if a more perfect solution has yet to be found) - but brings everything closer to a new kind of perfection (the fact that I'm comparing the Borg with the results of the Synthesis ending should tell you how much I dislike the green option). Otherwise known as, Sovereign and the Borg are equally batshit crazy, and they joined forces to do crazy shit.
Obviously, you might disagree with me that any of this stuff makes the slightest bit of sense, and I am more than happy for you to do so. That is, however, the basis for all Reaper/Borg involvement in this series. Hope that clears everything up for those who wondered precisely what the hell was going down, and that you don't think I jumped the shark too badly there.