Shepard walked into debriefing room. Holo kicked in and soon he saw Illustrious Man.
"Shepard. I got something for you"
"I already have collection of hot babes and fancy guns, got me a stuffed animal?" Shepard smirked. He felt delight seeing how Illusive's eyes narrowed.
"This is no time for tacky jokes Shepard." he deadapnned and opened a holo of a planet.
"Klendagon?" Shepard recognised planet with unique rift.
"Very good Shepard. Our scientists concluded that Great Rift there, is actually an impact crater from mass accelarator weapon. A very old weapon."
"Then this gun must've been useful, maybe even good against the Reapers."
"Exactly my thoughts. I've sent a team to recover the weapon or it's target. They found both. Weapon was defunct beyond recovery but the target turned out to be a Reaper. Estimately a thirty seven million years old Reaper. The ship is badly damaged and is orbiting in around brown dwarf"
"One mass accelerator taken down a Reaper? I saw Sovereign first hand. Combined fleets barely finished him." Shepard was skeptical. And smelled another trap.
"The weapon was enormous and left by a race that fought Reapers when our mammal ancestors were just beginning to evolve."
Shepard wanted to make an old Earth joke about a reptillian race regarding Illusive's Man origins but recalling krogans and drells he was sure that Illusive would not get the reference. "Okay yeah that's really convenient and all but if it's inactive then why not send some science team? I'm sure you're just itching to get every piece of Reaper tech you can."
"I've already sent a team there. Shortly after they boarded, the communications severed. It's been a few weeks now."
Shepard chuckled in his mind. Yeah that's more like it. You fucked up and need Shepard to clean up the mess...Every power is the same, no matter the flag they all just want to get their dirty work done.
"Okay...I'll go for it, but only because I know you wouldn't try roping me down into another trap. Not in a row at least"
"Despite what you may think, you are a valuable asset to Cerberus and to humanity" Illusive terminated the link.
"An asset..." Shepard spoke in empty room. "I more prefer human...Or Tali's boyfriend" he walked out chuckling to order assembly of team.
/.../
Max, Tali, Samara and Jack glanced at Shepard.
"Downed Reaper? Seriously bro?" Max gazed at John.
"Don't get me started. We need that damn IFF and this is our only chance. We have to roll the dice here." John replied unamused by perspective of boarding a Reaper.
"We're the first to go there?" Tali asked.
"No, Timmy said they've sended a science team and shortly after they went dark."
"Timmy?" Tali stared at John. Max started laughing.
"Oh for the jumping gyros...My brother cracking jokes...Apocalypse now" Jester was barely breathing when realized that whole squad was looking at him "The Illusive Man? T-I-M?" he explained.
"Holy shit!" Jack yelled and laughed too. She loved whenever somebody was shitting on Cerberus but Illusive Dick himself being the butt of a joke? Jackpot.
"John, you're turning into Max sometimes" Tali shooked her head.
"Oh come on Tals, why so serious?" John mocked favourite punch line of his brother.
/.../
John stood behind Joker as Normandy flew closer to derelict Reaper. Even after 37 million years and visibly significant deterioration, the menacing squid-like machine sent shiver down Shepards spine. He remembered Sovereign very good.
Normandy began to shake as they battled through gale-force gravity winds of an unstable brown dwarf. After some time everything calmed down.
"What the hell?"
"Reaper must still have mass effect fields active, we're in the envelope Shepard." Joker replied.
"Good. Dock us in"
"Aye aye"
/.../
Team deployed and walked through the airlock. right in front of them there was a decomposing body.
"Rotting for days, blood smears on the wall...Something's off, that's no gunfight" Max said after kneeling near corpse.
"John look at this!" Tali motioned from nearby console. A man in cerberus uniform appeared.
"Operation Log, Doctor Chandana, scientific supervisor. We installed airlock and begun preparations for work in short sections. Team is tensed, I assure them it's only nerves from unknown technology. Form of superstition...But I have to admit, place is menacing. You feel like the walls were pressing on you..."
"Being inside a Reaper for longer time messes with your head..." John recalled how Saren and Benezia become indoctrinated.
"Then we better crack on" Max retorted. "If I'll start singing Daisy Bell bacuse of it don't blame me"
Shepard got whole squad into airlock leading into the Reaper. As the doors slammed shut a hum of machinery rang and Joker's panicked voice sounded in comms
"Normandy to shore party!"
" 'Sup?"
"Reaper just put on kinetic barriers, we won't get through to get you out!"
"Ah son of a-" John spat
"Trapped in a Reaper...I wanna kill someone" Jack scowled.
"Shepard..." Samara spoke, silencing everyone with her voice. "It's a ship, every one must have a mass effect generator core."
"You're right Samara. We put it down after getting IFF and we're good." John opened comm to Joker. "Joker! We'll find IFF then shut down the mass effect generator, keep us on radar and stay near for fast exfill. We'll start falling after killing juice."
"Aye aye."
/.../
Team walked on the catwalks, surrounded by gigantic open spaces, halls and corridors making you feel small. The also found a few research consoles along with more decomposing flesh. Researchers shared their concern about the ship. They mentioned signs of psychosis and hallucinations.
"The ship started getting in their heads..." Tali commented.
Passing along John heard a howl. "Husks!" he screamed automatically raising his gun. Mechanical zombie begun climbing onto catwalk still moaning.
"Guess we know what happened to scientists" Max yelled throwing a concussion bomb. A shockwave blast threw husks into abyss below the floor.
"There will be more" John spat. "Samara, concetrate on throwing groups of husks off the ledges. Jack, line up and showave couple at a time. Don't waste biotics on stragglers."
Biotics acknowledged and squad moved on. The reached a turn when they heard a heavy thud. Slow repeated shots.
"Sniper rifle. Big one." Max reported. John defered to his judgement. Jester was good at it, and John already learned from Garrus a lot about sniper fire.
Team carefully crawled closer to the corner. A bunch of husks was lying around. Dismembered. Jack whistled at it.
"Hell of a kick"
"Yeah...Oh! Check that shit man!" Max made a quick dive behind a nearby crate. "A nice souvenir for Garrus. Heavy as your humor Logan." He pointed at heavy anti-materiel rifle he was holding. Gun resembled few hexagonal tubes connected to each other with added short stock and trigger parts. Long and thick barrel promised heavy punch.
"That's a beast, usable?" John asked.
"Not now, looks overheated...and packed with blood and guts. I'll get it operational but not here." Max managed to collapse the rifle, it packed into one big tube losing all resemblence of a weapon.
"Well give it here then" John slung rifle on his back and gasped. This was heavy.
Fighting through the Husks they reached an open hall, overlooking far away into deep bowels of the ship. They could see a perch above that probably mysterious sniper used but he was absent.
"Strange" Tali mumbled opening nearby console. A bruised and panicked face showed up.
"Chandana said that the ship was dead...But even a dead god can dream..." the man was speaking tiredly, out of breath. " A god...not some tale or person...a god is a force, force that warps world around it without even knowing it...Chandana realized it too late. The god may be dead but echoes of his mind are still here...We all feel them. We feel It. We can feel each other..." he finished in whisper and ended log.
"They got indoctrainated...Now way I'm letting this happen..." John commented at the log
"Then you wanna see this" Max motioned behind the catwalk, A huge structure of spikes, with people impaled on them...every few seconds some of the bodys twitched.
"Dragon teeth...Whole team ended up as husks... stay sharp, we have unknown numer of husks and some sniper hiding from us..."
/.../
Shepard lead his team through another airlock and into more destroyed part of Reaper. Bulkheads were tear down and they could see dying star glistening outside. Whole surroundings were bathed in disturbing, reddish light. john wanted to order move out when a shot flew right next to him...taking out a husk leaping from behind. John turned around realising somebody just saved him.
"Shepard-Commander" He heard a mechanized voice, he looked down the hall and saw an unmistakeable silhouette of a geth, holding a sniper rifle. Geth only turned and ran away from the porch before anybody could react.
"This was a...talking geth?" Samara asked.
"And how in the hell it knows you?" Max piped in.
"Don't look at me!" John shooked his head. "How a single geth got here? And why it talks? If not for the dead husk I'd say that ship is getting to me."
"We'll have to cut it short! We have company!" Max yelled and threw some grenades at husks accomapnied by weird, mangled creatures armed with cannons they encountered at Horizon.
They battled through the catwalks and corridors, cleaning up husks and abominations that Samara dubbed Scions, as they did looked like some mutated offspring made from husks. Now and then a sniper shot rang and John caught a glimpse of geth. This was very disturbing. Geth wasn't openly hostile to them, even helped. Finally they reached another airlock set up by Cerberus. Inside there was a shipping crate and a log regarding that the part stored there should be Reaper IFF. John scanned it and called in EDI. AI confirmed it and Shepard picked small package from container, trusting it Tali who always had limitless pockets of all sizes all around her suit.
"Okay EDI, we got the package, Lead us to the core!" John ordered and NavPoint appeared on his HUD.
Moving through few corridors more, they encountered no enemies. Finally reaching the core room doors, a kinetic barrier kicked in. As Tali was hack her way through it, John saw a geth inside the room. It was manipuating at the console.
"I can't get in!" Tali shouted. A second later the barriers went down and geth looked at Shepard.
"Shepard-Commander." It spoken again when a red husk exploded next to the synthethic, knocking it off it's feet. John ran up to the console clearing the husks out.
"Max, Tali! Get this core down! Rest of us we'll keep husks at bay!" Shepard shouted coordinating defense against large group of Reaper zombies.
"Done!" Max yelled after a minute.
"Joker! lock in on my position! Get me a closest route to the ship!" John ordered.
"Hey Logan! What about the geth? It's talking and weren't hostile! And this...Why this thing has an N7 armor plate welded to it?" Max pointed at distinc logo on a plate crudely welded to geth body. "They make a copies out of you or what?"
"I always wanted a lamp out of geth head!" Jack added. "I ain't carrying shit though!"
"Fine! Let's grab it!" John ordered. The N7 mark caught his interest.
They ran back onto the demolished part of ship. One of the catwalks were extending out the bulkhead and Normandy was hovering near it.
John ran first, Samara and Max carrying geth with Jack at their heels and Tali covering six.
"Go! Go! Get in! Jump!" Shepard yelled seeing Husks converging on them. Max threw the geth and jumped along with Samara. Low gravity made it easy. Jack followed suit.
"Tali go!" John yelled. He then threw a grenade he was holding for special occasions and begun to run too. He easily outrun Tali so he grabbed her by the waist and launched from the edge of catwalk. Flew through few feet of open space right into the Normandy airlock.
"That was a vid class stunt Logan" Max commented once they bolted out into FTL.
"Jealous?" John smirked. "Alright, anybody injured report to Chakwas, rest unwind. Get the geth into AI core and shield it with hardest barriers you'll find. No in or out physical or another."