The Hero We Deserve

by Random Equinox

Humans are being abducted, probably because someone has really poor taste. Shepard has to find out why and stop them with the help of a band of misfits. They say it's a suicide mission. So what else is new? Well, getting killed for starters...

25. Friend or Foe

Author's Note: Readers should know that my choice in putting this mission here was made for purely creative reasons—such as finally answering the long-standing question of whether Shepard would stay celibate—not the desire to skip to the ending without finishing off the rest of the loyalty missions.

Chapter 18: Friend or Foe

My plan was to wait a bit before tracking down that Reaper IFF. Yeah, I knew that we'd need it to get through the Omega 4 relay and lay the smack down on the Collectors, but we had absolutely no freaking clue what was on the other side. How many ships? What kind of defences? Were the Collectors actually on some kind of space station or were they living on a planet that had somehow resisted being torn apart by all the black holes?

The answer to all those questions was a big honkin' 'Who knows,' which meant waltzing through the Omega 4 relay to face the Collectors on their home turf was pretty much the best way to get killed. (1) After spending every freaking day strolling into deathtraps, I was in no rush to intentionally sally forth to my demise. Besides, there were still plenty of upgrades to research for the squad and the Normandy. Might as well do what I could to improve my odds from 'Doomed' to 'Virtually Doomed'.

But I wound up looking for the Reaper IFF after all.

I could say I did it because EDI had run thousands of simulations and extrapolations, all of which said that it would take a hell of a lot longer to install the Reaper IFF and fully integrate it with the Normandy's systems than originally planned. So it would be more efficient to get the IFF now and start installing it while we continue pursuing upgrades (and dealing with whatever personal crises the squad threw at me next).

But if I have to be honest, I ultimately went after the Reaper IFF because my fish died.

Don't ask me how. I'm sure I stuffed their gills full of fish food every time I entered a new system. Every time I entered a new cluster. Every time I finished a mission. Yet somehow, I woke up one morning to find all the fish belly-up, floating along the surface of my aquarium. After retrieving the dead fish and flushing them down the drain—no, I wasn't going to give them to Grunt. He was still intent on emptying out the pantry, not to mention making Gardner lose what was left of his hair. Giving him extra food would just encourage him—I faced a choice of flying all the way back to Illium, fighting through the crowds, finding new fish, paying hundreds of credits for them (at least), returning to the Normandy, fly to the Citadel and repeat the whole tedious process... or I could scrounge through a Reaper's innards for loot.

I chose the latter. Big surprise, I know.

For once, TIMmy's intel was on the spot. The derelict Reaper was indeed orbiting belly up—if Reapers have bellies—like a dead fish or bug around a brown dwarf in the middle of the Hawking Eta cluster. I'd never visited a brown dwarf before, so I didn't know what to expect. I certainly didn't expect enough turbulence to make everybody who had eaten breakfast regret it. Sidestepping a pile of puke, I entered the cockpit and almost toppled over. Catching myself against the pilot's chair in the nick of time, I asked "What's with all the chop, Joker?"

"Doing my best," Joker replied over the rumble of all the vibrations, struggling to keep the Normandy on course. "The wind's gusting to 500 kph."

Thankfully, the turbulence from all the solar winds didn't affect the sensors. "Found the Cerberus ship. It's attached to the dorsal side of the Reaper." Joker frowned as something else caught his attention. "There's a second ship alongside the Reaper," he said, pulling the details up on one of his monitors. "It's not transmitting any IFF, but the ladar paints its silhouette as geth."

Great. The mission was starting to go south and it hadn't even started yet. "I guess we know why the science team stopped reporting in," I sighed.

A minute later, the shaking suddenly subsided. "What just happened?"

Joker ran a quick scan. "The Reaper's mass effect fields are still active," he reported, turning back to look at me. "We just passed inside their envelope. Eye of the hurricane, huh?"

An artificially-generated eye, but Joker had a point. I couldn't help but be impressed again by the Reapers. This guy had been dormant for X years, but it still had enough power to generate mass effect fields. Somehow, though, I had the feeling that that should tell me something. I thought about it for a minute, then gave up and left the cockpit to go rustle up the squad.

In hindsight, I should have taken a couple more minutes to think about it.

---

If we still had any lingering illusions that everything was right as rain, the dead body that greeted us when we left the airlock dispelled them in a heartbeat. It was lying in a pool of blood, with several blood splatters on the wall. Grunt sniffed it. "Smells bad," he reported. "The blood, I mean. Something's wrong with it."

Garrus sighed in resignation. "Exploring an abandoned area filled with dead bodies, expecting something mechanical or nasty to jump out at you—just like old times."

"Which means you know what we're gonna do next," I said cheerfully.

Garrus and Tali nodded. "Poke in every nook and cranny," Tali replied.

"And take anything that isn't nailed or welded down," Garrus added.

I felt so proud.

We spread out as soon as we entered the main part of the ship. It didn't take long before we'd accrued a nice sum of credits. More importantly, we came across a log from the lead researcher, Dr. Chandana:

"The airlock has been installed at the far end of the holed section. We have begun pressurization for shirtsleeves work."

Translation: they installed an airlock between the Cerberus ship and the Reaper and started establishing an atmosphere inside the latter so they wouldn't have to stumble around in not-so-sexy hardsuits. The things people do for fashion.

"The crew is edgy. I reassure them it is mere nerves. A superstitious reaction to what this hulk represents—the corpse of a vast, ancient life-form." Chandana leaned forward before concluding the log: "Privately, I can't deny the atmosphere. The angles of the walls seem to press down on you. I find myself clenching my teeth."

With that reassuring thought in mind, we continued our exploration. Beyond the area we had explored lay another computer console, a few medical stations and the airlock Chandana had just mentioned. I activated the log, listening to some random guy while swiping some medi-gel:

"We finished cataloguing specimens A203 to B016. No evidence of active nanotechnology noted. Dr. Chandana believes they would have decayed over the last 37 million years. There's not enough data to support his claim. He asserts that the truth is 'patently obvious.' I am... concerned. Chandana has been staring at the samples for hours. He says he's 'listening' to them."

That niggling feeling I had in the cockpit came the Reaper had enough juice to maintain a mass effect field to counter the gravitational pull of a brown dwarf, it wasn't unreasonable to guess it might have some spare juice to brainwash a bunch of organic dupes. I exchanged an uneasy look with the squad. "Indoctrination?" I suggested.

"It's too early to say for certain but, given the evidence we've found so far and the team's prolonged exposure to a Reaper, it seems like a reasonable theory," Miranda allowed.

"All right," I announced. "Feeling nervous is one thing—we're about to waltz inside the belly of a Reaper, after all. But if anyone starts getting headaches, feels some scratching or tickling at the back of their head, or thinks someone or something is trying to whisper or talk to them, let us know ASAP so we can get the hell out of here. Got it?"

After receiving a chorus of affirmatives, I led the squad towards the airlock. I tried to ignore the fact that if anyone was actually noticing symptoms associated with indoctrination, it was probably too late for all of us. Reaching over, I slapped the door controls. A split second before it opened, the whole ship shook. It was all we could do to stay on our feet.

"Normandy to shore party," Joker called out over the comm. "Everyone okay over there?"

I reached up to my helmet to open the comm channel. "Joker, we're fine. What just happened?"

"The Reaper just put up kinetic barriers. You won't be able to get back to the shuttle."

"You've got to be kidding me," Jacob groaned. "Can you guys do anything about that?"

"We've been trying," Joker replied. "EDI can't find any open ports to hack. I don't think we can get through from our side."

"So we're trapped," Thane said quietly. "How disquieting."

"That's it?" Jack demanded. "We're fucking trapped and all you've got to say is that it's 'disquieting?'"

"Could be worse," Kasumi suggested.

"How so?" Samara asked.

Kasumi shrugged. "Don't know, but... I guess it could be full of rats."

Well at least no one was losing it. Yet. "Sounds like we have to take down the barrier generators from in here," I said. "Any idea where they are?"

"Kinetic barriers can only be generated by a mass effect generator," Miranda suggested. "That's true of any ship, even a Reaper. EDI, can you—"

"At the moment of activation, I detected a heat spike in what is likely the wreck's mass effect core," EDI interrupted, anticipating the obvious request. "Sending the coordinates now."

"Got 'em," I confirmed.

"Be advised: this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude."

Aw, crap. "So when we take the barriers down to escape, the wreck won't be able to resist the gravitational pull any longer and the whole thing will fall into the planet's core," I summarized.

"And that means everyone dies," Joker finished. "Yeah, I got it. I'll pencil a 'last-minute pickup' into the itinerary."

"If any helmsman can pull us off this thing before it reaches crush depth, it's you," I said reassuringly. "I mean, after pulling off an impossible Mako drop on Ilos, this should be a piece of cake."

"Right. No pressure. Great." The anticipation in Joker's voice belied the sarcasm and concern behind his words. No doubt he was eager to put his skills to the test.

"We'll make a sweep for survivors and recover what data we can," I concluded. "Stand by."

"Aye, aye," Joker said. "I'll bring the shuttle back to the Normandy via remote and wait for your signal. Good hunting."

---

The first thing we saw upon entering the Reaper was all the catwalks, railings and lighting. Clearly Cerberus didn't want to blindly stumble around Reaper guts. The second thing we saw were three more withered bodies laying on the ground in dried pools of their own blood.

"Did the geth do all this?" Tali whispered.

Out of habit, Garrus kneeled down to check them out. "Everyone's dead," he sighed, getting back to his feet. "I've seen this too many times."

"What a mess," Grunt agreed. At least, I though he agreed before he added "Anyone else hungry?"

Shaking my head, I took a good look around. The only illumination seemed to come from the lighting that the Cerberus staff had installed, which revealed a vast, cavernous expanse. In terms of size, it almost reminded me of the Collector ship we'd visited earlier. Only that ship, for all its techno-organic weirdness, looked almost warm with its earth-toned hive walls. The Reaper had nothing but cold, dark metal as far as the eye could see. Large, thick cables ran all over the place, like a crude, synthetic approximation of an organic's innards. Here and there I could see free cables dangling from the ceiling. Lights shone down from above, lighting up the expanse while shrouding the rest in ominous shadows. Somehow that didn't make me feel any better—it just felt so... so cold. Cold, uncaring and utterly relentless.

And it was so quiet. Usually, you can't walk anywhere on a ship without hearing the hustle and bustle of people and random conversations. Even on cutting-edge ships like the Normandy, you could still hear the quiet hum of machinery and equipment. Here, I heard... nothing. I'm not normally the kind who gets easily scared, but even I was finding this place really creepy. We started off boldly exploring the insides of an actual Reaper, but only now did we realize what that meant. We were crawling around like ants through an alien metropolis, blind to what might be lurking around the corner, deaf to what was hidden just off in the shadows. For all my training, for all my experience, for all the collective growth and evolution of humanity, this Reaper somehow managed to knock us hurtling back to the primal, instinctive ancestors inside us. Those primitive creatures who were so small. So insignificant.

Taking a deep breath, I stuffed the gibbering, panicked part of me—the sensible part, in other words—in a corner of my mind and led the squad to the nearest computer console. I managed to pull up the last work log stored in its buffer. It showed two people talking near the corner of some room on the Cerberus ship:

"You're married?" one of them asked. "You never mentioned that."

"Yeah, though it wasn't always easy," the other one replied. "Katy had anger management issues. When my brother got married, the best man tried to hit on her. She kicked him down the church steps."

The first guy looked at him in confusion. "Wh—? Katy's my wife! I—I must have told you the story."

"No," the other guy insisted. "I know my wife. I remember—that day was the only time I saw her wear stockings."

"Yeah," the first guy nodded slowly. "The kind with seams up the back. That's what I remember, too."

"What the hell is this?" the second guy wondered. "How can we remember the same thing?"

"Memory alteration," Mordin concluded. "Reapers affecting their minds. Likelihood of geth involvement increasingly unlikely."

"They must have come to make sure the Cerberus team are all dead," Tali disagreed.

Maybe, but that didn't seem to track for some reason. I was about to say as much when I heard a moan up ahead.

Aw, crap.

We quickly assumed positions. Team One, unfortunately, was in the lead. I glimpsed Team Two splitting up to hug the sides of the catwalk. Good move on Garrus's part—if we had to retreat, it would be more effective for Team One to squeeze between Team Two and assume new firing positions so we could leapfrog back to the Cerberus ship. I tried to ignore the fact that it would be a dead end, thanks to the Reaper barriers.

It's a testament to how unlucky things had been for me that when the abomination stepped out of the shadows, all I could think was—phew, that I can handle. Without thinking, I set it on fire. Grunt blew it away with a concussive round.

"Shep," Kasumi hollered over the din, pointing to a few interesting items. "High-pressure tanks," she identified. "One shot oughta set them off. Think our buddies are allergic to having their asses burned off?"

"Probably," I yelled back. "Don't detonate them unless there's a large grouping of husks."

"Or unless we're about to be overwhelmed," Miranda added, stripping the armour off of a husk with her biotics. Garrus promptly swivelled and planted a concussive round into its kisser.

"Less chatting, more shooting," Zaeed snapped. He tossed one of his inferno grenades, which exploded over a pair of husks. By the time they had gotten through the flames, Jack was already sending a biotic shockwave their way. Of course, no sooner were they out of the way then another three husks showed up. Grunt let out a mighty roar and charged, knocking them all over. It was pretty easy to finish them off after that.

"Well," I sighed. "Let's move—"

"Look out!"

I promptly ducked, glimpsing Mordin's plasma fire and a whole lot of gunfire. A second later, I felt an explosion. Looking around, I saw the remnants of an abomination scattered across the catwalk.

Samara helped me back to my feet. "I had heard that the geth made these... creatures."

"We thought so initially, but recent evidence suggested otherwise," Miranda corrected her. "I'd say this confirms it as Reaper tech."

"Not that it matters to these guys," Jacob said.

I spotted another workstation up ahead. Just as I was about to check it out, another moan rang out. Looking around, I saw a couple husks and an abomination. They'd been hiding underneath the catwalk all this time. Seeing them pull themselves up onto the floor was kinda creepy. Like one of those high-res horror vids. Miranda immediately attacked one with her biotics. I finished that one off with a fireball while Thane and Mordin did something similar to another one. Zaeed tossed another grenade at the abomination and Garrus blew it—and another husk—to kingdom come.

Unfortunately, by the time those guys were down, another four or five husks had already pulled themselves from their hiding places and were standing up.

"Retreat!"

We frantically started backpedalling, firing on the go. In desperation, Kasumi tossed one of her flashbang grenades, no doubt hoping that its concussive blast would slow them down. If we were lucky, maybe all the circuitry in their bodies might be temporarily fried—

BOOM!

Along with the circuitry in the high-pressure tanks. I watched as all the husks were promptly disintegrated, then turned to Kasumi. "Did you do that on purpose?"

Kasumi looked back at me with a stunned expression on her face. "Um... sure?"

"Do you think that we've cleared the area?" Garrus asked, getting back to business.

"In our immediate vicinity, yes," Samara replied. "Though I sense there are more adversaries lurking nearby."

"So someone's gotta act as bait to lure the fuckers out," Jack said.

Kinda like the horror vids, where some idiot blundered into a creepy, abandoned place and chose to continue forward instead of running back out. Three guesses who that idiot would be?

I moved towards the console I'd spotted earlier. Nothing. Took a step further. Nothing. I paused to enjoy the quiet—which didn't seem quite so ominous anymore. Somehow, knowing what kinds of ravenous, mindless dangers were out there was better than letting my overactive imagination speculate wildly—before taking another step. The back of my neck started to tingle, just before three more husks poked their ugly heads up and moaned at me. I shot a fireball towards one of them and promptly hauled ass back to the squad. We waited until they all stood up before pelting them with biotics, plasma and concussive rounds. As soon as they were down, we waited for any stragglers. Nothing. So I took a couple steps forward and...

...heard another moan.

Oh for crying out loud.

Another pair of husks popped up. And an abomination. I blasted the armour off the latter and ran back to the squad, who were already locked and loaded. We took the suckers down one by one. Then I slowly walked back to the console, waited, took a few more steps, waited. Took a few more steps. Waited.

Nothing. I breathed a sigh of relief and walked back to the console. We pulled up another log and watched it, nervously keeping an ear out for any more moaning.

"Third day with this headache," one of the scientists grumbled. "You'd think Chandana would have let me take a few hours off—goddamn!"

"What?" his companion yelled.

"That thing that just… gray thing!" the first guy sputtered. "It disappeared when I looked straight at it. Came out of the damn wall! Right there—where we took off that panel."

The second guy looked around in confusion. "I didn't see anything. You should lie down."

"I'm telling you, this ship isn't dead," Guy Number One insisted. "It knows we're inside it."

"Calm down," the second guy groaned, rubbing his head. "Great. Now I'm getting a headache."

Now I was definitely getting a case of the jitters. Getting a tighter grip on my sniper rifle, I motioned for the squad to continue. We headed up a ramp onto another catwalk. Looked like there was a bit of loot here.

Recalling where all the fun had just come from, I was paying close attention to the ground. I glimpsed some movement just before two husks started to emerge.

Then two shots rang out, killing both husks. Well, not rang as much as zipped. I knew that sound. Only one thing made that sound.

"Sniper!" Zaeed yelled, confirming my suspicions.

Whirling around on the spot, I crouched, raised my sniper rifle and peered through the scope. I caught a brief glimpse of our benefactor, but he—she, it—disappeared before I could get a good look. Lowering my sniper rifle, I reported what I sort of saw to the squad.

"Someone nailed those husks for us," Jacob said tensely. "Who?"

"I couldn't see the shooter," Garrus murmured, lowering his own sniper rifle. "A survivor from the science team?"

"Scientists unlikely to have facility with sniper rifles," Mordin pointed out.

"Unlikely, but not impossible," Thane said. "Of course, the shooter could be part of the security escort."

"Wherever he or she came from, maybe we'll meet the guy and return the favour," I replied. "For now, let's see what we can find."

We found plenty of goodies. Creds, platinum, thermal clips, power cells. And best of all—another weapon schematic. Looked like something that could upgrade our sniper rifles. Somehow, all of this made the giant, eerily quiet place seem a little less creepy.

It was with some reluctance that I turned left, stepping over the husks that our mysterious sniper had taken out. We reached a set of pillars with stairs on either side heading down a few steps. Up ahead was... well, a familiar and disturbing sight. But we could worry about that later. For now, I got Team One to cover the left stairs and Team Two to take care of the right.

"Anyone want to knock and see if anybody's home?"

No takers. Figures. Sighing, I ventured out myself. Sure enough, an abomination and a husk started pulling themselves out from underneath the floor. I immediately set the abomination on fire. Somebody finished it off with a concussive round. Mordin and Garrus took out the husk in a similar fashion. Miranda and Grunt tag-teamed another husk who was getting to its feet. That left another husk, who became the next volunteer to get a fireball to the face. A couple bursts of gunfire finished it off.

Another two husks stepped out from around a pillar and started loping towards us. Zaeed tossed an inferno grenade, which exploded at their feet. Miranda and I put them down with a combination of biotics and high-energy plasma. The rest of the squad took care of yet another pair of husks who had reared their ugly faces.

We had just enough time to pop in fresh thermal clips before the next wave of bad guys came. At first, all we heard were their deranged moans, rising in an unholy crescendo faster than we'd ever heard before. My eyes popped as my HUD got cluttered with contacts. Two... three... four...

"Commander?" Jacob said nervously.

"Guys," I said slowly. "Don't freak out."

Six... eight... ten...

"Oh, I don't know," Kasumi replied, a faint quiver in her voice despite her best efforts to mask it. "Now seems like an excellent time to freak out."

Eleven husks. One abomination. A scion. And... well, after that, I lost count.

Aw, crap.

"Target the husks. No, wait, the abomination. Target the abomination and the husks," I ordered. At least, I think I ordered. No one was shooting, paralyzed with terror as this inhuman horde came barrelling towards us.

"SOMEBODY FIRE!" I yelled.

That did it. The squad opened fire, mowing down the first few husks. But there were so many more...

One of the many useful terms you learn during Basic is 'target-rich environment.' The idea being that there are so many targets, accuracy is no longer an issue as you're bound to hit something. It's great when you have some distance. It sucks when that target-rich environment is coming towards you, intent on rending you to your basic components.

A frantic volley of biotics, plasma, concussive rounds and gunfire shredded the abomination and a couple more husks, but there were more behind them. Much more. My ears started to ring with all the gunfire thundering around me. I vaguely recall blasting the armour off of a husk, only to watch in dismay as two more intact husks joined it. A bright flash signalled Kasumi trying to buy some time with her flashbang grenade. Tali did the same with her combat drone, but it was quickly swamped by another wave of husks. Or was it the trio of husks I'd seen earlier. Couldn't tell. Everything was quickly devolving into a big mess.

"Retreat," I howled, hoping everyone could hear me over the comm. Team One and I quickly started falling back. Team Two started, but got bogged down in husks. Moans fought with gunfire and desperate cries. And that scion was getting closer and closer.

"Team Two, hang on," I yelled out. "Team One—" I stopped as I saw Grunt charging towards the mob, roaring all the way. "Team One follow Grunt," I finished.

I was pleased to see that Grunt hadn't completely lost it. He'd taken the liberty of activating a feature we'd recently added to his hardsuit, which sprayed a non-Newtonian fluid over his armour capable of hardening upon impact for added protection. Coupled with the velocity he was building up during his charge, his inherent regenerative abilities and his undeniably effective melee combat prowess, he was perfectly capable of holding his own. Sure enough, Grunt slammed through and trampled over three husks before shooting another one at point-blank range with his shotgun. That gave Jack the opportunity she needed to push the remaining husks back with a biotic shockwave.

Now that they had some breathing room, Team Two could start dealing with the husks. Jacob levitated a couple up into the air while Zaeed blew one apart with a concussive round. Tali finished off another husk who was still running around on the ground while Miranda detonated the biotic field. I aimed at another husk, sent another plasma round its way and assessed the situation. The good news, there was only two husks left, one of whom had definitely taken some damage.

The bad news: both Garrus and Mordin were unconscious and the scion was starting to climb the stairs towards us. "Jacob, Zaeed; pick up the wounded and get out of there!" I ordered. "Team One, tackle the husks and hold that scion at bay!"

Grunt finished the weaker husk off while Kasumi tossed another flashbang at the other husk to stun it. Samara took it out with her assault rifle while I snapped off a quick shot at the scion from my sniper rifle. Anything to weaken the sucker. Tali sent her combat drone to stall the scion before leaning over to pick up Garrus. Unfortunately, the scion fired off a biotic shockwave, which shredded the drone and knocked Tali out. Jack quickly doubled back and yanked her out of harm's way while Zaeed somehow managed to toss another inferno grenade while carrying Garrus over his shoulder.

Team One stayed put, laying down fire so Team Two could get clear. We were kind of stuck with the wall on one side and Team Two passing by on the other. So we didn't have anywhere to go when the scion sent another shockwave. Thankfully, our shields were at full strength and took the brunt of it.

"Everyone ready," I called out. A chorus of "Ready's" came back. "Then fire at will!"

A barrage of biotics and plasma flew towards the scion, impacting against its misshapen hide. I decided it was time to try another shot from my sniper rifle. This time, I had the time to scan for a weak point before firing. That made all the difference, I saw, as the scion disintegrated under the impact.

"Team One, take up firing positions around Team Two and make sure no one else is coming," I said, as the scion fell apart. "Jacob, see how the rest of Team Two are doing."

"I'm fine," Garrus groaned. "Worry about Mordin and Tali." He declined an offered hand from Jacob, struggling to his feet.

"You really are a tough son of a bitch," Jacob laughed.

"And still ugly as hell," Jack chimed in.

Mordin came to a minute later, but he was still a bit groggy. While we were waiting for Tali to wake up, I sent Thane and Samara back to scoop up any thermal clips we'd left behind back in the corridor. We'd burned through a lot of them this time and it was well past time to restock. By the time they came back and distributed the clips, everyone had recovered and no more bad guys had showed up. It looked like we were in the clear. Breathing a sigh of relief, I led the team towards the sight I'd spotted earlier.

Several spikes, pointing upward. Each with a human dangling from its tip. "I've seen those things before," Jacob exclaimed. "On Eden Prime."

"Garrus and I encountered these devices after joining up with Shepard to hunt Saren," Tali added. "Trebin, the Citadel during the geth invasion. What were they called?"

"'Dragon's teeth,'" Garrus supplied the answer.

I nodded absently. Something about this place was bugging me. Then it came to me. I took a closer look, just to make sure. The more I looked, the more I felt my instinct was bang-on. "Guys, look around. "See how this room is arranged?"

Miranda figured it out first. "Large room, almost Gothic in scope, designed to place that as the focus of attention," she said, pointing to a large set of vertical cables or tubes that resembled some kind of pillar or totem. The vertical set of dragon's teeth was placed right in front of it. Two more sets of dragon's teeth—horizontally positioned—were set a bit farther back.

"Exactly," I nodded. "Combine that with the way the dragon's teeth are stationed in front of that thing and the way the bodies are positioned as they are impaled—it's like that structure's some kind of altar."

"You're saying they wanted to be... to have this done to them?" Jacob sputtered.

Wasn't that hard to imagine, I decided. The Reaper's insides were already making everyone feel insignificant, pitiful and absolutely horrified. By the time they reached this unholy shrine, they'd be so filled with terror that it would be a toss-up between dropping to their knees or saying goodbye to the last vestiges of their collective sanity. Especially the way the angles in this place seemed to expand outwards indefinitely and press down on us relentlessly at the same time. But I couldn't say that, not without dissolving into a fit of hysterical giggles. "You heard the logs," I shrugged instead. "They were seeing things. Hearing things. They were being indoctrinated. So yeah, by the end, they probably did want this done to them.

"This probably hits close to home, Jacob," I added, remembering that he was stationed on Eden Prime during the geth attack and would probably be more affected by the dragon's teeth than anyone in the squad who hadn't been with me two years ago. "How you holding up?"

"Five by five," he reassured me.

"How about the rest of you?" I moved on. "Anyone experience any hallucinations so far? See anything weird?"

"Seeing things? Nah," Zaeed snorted. "But we've been watchin' vids of the last guys here getting' more and more whacko or seeing husks crawl outta the goddamn floor. Doesn't that seem kinda weird to you?"

Everyone else agreed that they were creeped out, but weren't feeling the urge to start lighting incense or anything. I hoped they were right. Everything I'd seen and read so far indicated that it would take a lot longer before any of us started to feel the effects of indoctrination. Still, I definitely wanted this mission over ASAP. The sooner we could find the Reaper IFF, the sooner we could leave. And given what happened to Chandana and his men, Cerberus or not, the fact that leaving would mean destroying the Reaper was a welcome bonus. "Then let's keep going," I decided. "And remember: we can't help these people now," I decided. "Not anymore. But we won't let the Reapers use their corpses like this."

Before we left, I saw another computer console. I found the most recent log and played it, almost dreading what I might see and hear. A man popped up on the screen, staring vacantly at us. He completely ignored the blood splatter all over his face, so eager was he to share his warped discovery:

"Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. He was right. But even a dead god can dream. A... a god—a real god—is a verb. Not some old man with magic powers. It's a force. It warps reality just by being there. It doesn't have to want to. It doesn't have to think about it. It just does."

The man shuddered, dropping his head into his hands as he continued, his voice a mixture of dread and awe. "That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until it was too late. The god's mind is gone but it still dreams. He knows now. He's tuned in on our dreams. If I close my eyes I can feel him. I can feel every one of us."

I thought I'd been freaked out before. By the Collectors on Horizon. By the latest Cerberus atrocity. By the Collectors again on their giant ship of horrors. By this Reaper. But this… this took things to a whole new level. I was reminded again of good ol' Lovecraft. (2)

Maybe he was on to something after all.

---

Before they'd gone batshit crazy, the Cerberus team had installed an airlock in this room. Based on the scans from my sensors and the Normandy's—the latter of which was provided courtesy of EDI—the airlock would lead into the exterior section of the Reaper. Yeah, the fastest way to the mass effect core was to go inside the Reaper, then along its outside, then go back inside. Just trust me on this one.

"Please stand by," an automated voice chimed out, after I bypassed the airlock controls. "Equalizing pressure with exterior conditions. Remember, safety is everyone's concern. We have gone five days without a workplace death."

We all looked at Miranda. Even Jacob. "First, not all Cerberus bases employ these announcement protocols," she stated with more than a hint of exasperation. "Second, if someone did want to use them, the protocols also account for workplace incidents that are non-fatal. The most likely explanation is that the last team member who had resisted had either succumbed to indoctrination or was killed five days ago."

She was probably right. It was still funny, though. In a really morbid kind of way. Boy, do I need a life or what?

The inside had warmer lighting. Not that it made it any more welcome, but the lighting had more yellow and orange hues as opposed to cold, stark blue and white. There were lots of tanks with Cerberus logos everywhere. Either someone on the Cerberus team loved graffiti or they'd set up shop inside.

Something wasn't right, though. It took a second before I realized the back of my neck was tingling. Not sure why, but I automatically lifted my sniper rifle up and started panning it around. Following my cue, we all started lifting our weapons and looking around for bad guys.

So it was a bit embarrassing when the threat came from behind us. The first warning of the ambush was when I heard the zip of a sniper rifle pass right over my ear and hit something. Whirling around, I looked in the dead, glowing eyes of a husk—then up at the neat hole that had been drilled into its head. A second shot hit another husk right between the eyes.

Two headshots. Two dead targets. All within a second.

We were still processing our near demise, so we were a little slow to train our weapons on the third husk. Luckily for us, our mysterious benefactor was a bit more on the ball and sniped it, just as the first two husks collapsed. Again, aperfect headshot. I turned around to thank him or her...

...or...

...huh.

Turned out our mysterious sniper pal...

...was a geth.

Even though it was standing on a ledge about a hundred metres away, I could still tell that it was a bit different from any geth I'd seen before. Most geth don't sport shoulder pauldrons from N7 hardsuits. Most geth don't walk around with large gaping holes through its torso.

"Shepard-Commander."

And most geth don't speak English.

We just stood there, stunned and slack-jawed. Apparently unimpressed by our brilliant and witty reply, it holstered its sniper rifle and left. "Well," I said at last. "That was different."

Garrus scratched his head. "So the sniper that helped us earlier was a geth. Since when do geth talk to organics?"

"It shouldn't be able to talk," Tali protested. "A single geth has no more intelligence than a varren."

"Which brings up another point," Miranda added, "since when do geth operate alone? They get smarter in proportion to the number of geth in the vicinity." (3)

Grunt snorted, eschewing all these mysteries for something much simpler. "Battlemaster, since it knows you, tell it I don't need its help." At first I thought he meant he didn't need its help in general. Then I heard all the moaning. I turned around, hoping that we could retreat through the airlock and use it to funnel the geth into one nice tight kill-zone. Of course, the damn thing was sealed and the lock was damaged. "Team One on the left; Team Two on the right," I ordered. "Weapons free."

I like to think that we had recovered from the novel combo of creepy space zombies and creepier lair, because the squad opened fire immediately. Thane hit an abomination with his biotics and I blew it up with a plasma round before it could blow up in our faces. Miranda used her biotics in a similar fashion on one of the husks, clearing the way for Grunt to shoot it in the face with a concussive round. Kasumi took a few more seconds to punch through another husk the old-fashioned way—with gunshots—but once she had dealt enough damage, Samara took it out of the fight by encasing it in a biotic field and sending it up, up and away. Meanwhile, Mordin and Zaeed had roasted another pair of husk. After Jacob yanked them up into the air, Garrus sent one flying away with a concussive round while Tali shot it out of the sky with her shotgun. I motioned for Jack to wait until I fried another husk with a fireball so she could bowl three husks over like bowling pins instead of two. Then the squad opened up on the gruesome trio with mass gunfire.

There didn't seem to be any more husks coming, for now, so we took advantage of the lull to reload. I glanced outside and saw what looked like lightning. I didn't know brown dwarfs had lightning. Anyway, after stocking up on thermal clips, I took a look around. It seemed the only path available for us was down a flight of stairs and along a catwalk, which wrapped around a corner. I placed Team Two at the railing overlooking the catwalk to cover our backs and led Team One down the stairs.

The moaning that rang out when we were halfway down reminded me why I hated playing the part of the hero.

Looking around, I saw an abomination and a husk pull themselves onto the catwalk below us and to the right. Above and to the left, I saw the bulbous mass of a scion lumber along. "Keep an eye on the scion so you don't get hit," I told everyone as Team One scurried back to join the others, "but focus on the husks for now."

Easier said than done, as it turned out. The damn scion couldn't get to us directly, so it had to take the long way around, but it could still hit us with its biotic shockwave. Meanwhile, the husks—along with the occasional abomination—just kept coming. We'd burn and blast and shoot one down, only to see two more take its place. It wasn't long before all semblance of tactics fell apart and we just frantically started shooting anything that glowed, moaned and wasn't one of us. Things got even more desperate as the scion lumbered into view, heading towards the stairs to join the four or five husks that were already milling around down there. They hadn't quite figured out that they could charge us, but that wouldn't last long. "Grunt, get to the top of the stairs and make sure no one gets past you. Miranda, Thane—concentrate on the scion. Everyone else, take out the husks."

As Grunt headed over, Zaeed, Mordin and I rained hot plasma on the husks. At that point, they figured out that we were up here and started to ascend the stairs. Jack was waiting to knock them back down with a biotic shockwave, only to get knocked out by a shockwave from the scion.

Tali coaxed out her combat drone for another round of fun. "Go for the optics, Chikitta," she ordered. The combat drone chirped at her. Tali consulted her omni-tool, presumably to get the translation, and replied with a hint of exasperation: "Yes, I know that thing has more than one set of optics. Just pick one and go for it!"

Having resolved that bit of confusion, the drone zipped down the stairs towards the scion, past the husks that were getting knocked down or blown apart by concussive rounds. Seeing that the rest of the squad had things under control, I sent another burst of plasma towards the scion. Yet another agonizingly slow step towards killing the thing—

The damn scion took advantage of my distraction to hit me with its shockwave, shorting out Tali's drone and, more importantly, my shields. As if things couldn't get any worse, a pair of abominations rounded the corner. We frantically tried to take them out before they got to the stairs, but were unable to destroy them in time. Time seemed to slow down as they charged up the stairs, flames flickering over their bodies, and blew up in Grunt's face. Grunt reeled back, stumbled to his knees, got back up again...

...and collapsed. Down for the count. Aw, crap.

Another shockwave hit us, sending my vision into a bloody haze. I blurrily watched as Kasumi slumped to the ground, but not before sending a flashbang grenade flying towards it. The explosion didn't do too much damage to the scion, but it stunned it long enough for Miranda, Thane and Mordin to hit it with a barrage of biotic and plasma explosions. It recovered far too quickly and started up the stairs, which was probably why Jacob was shooting the sucker as fast as he could. Everyone was so freaked out, in fact, that they didn't really register the trio of husks who sprinted past the scion. Not until they got to the top of the stairs, that is.

I sprayed the trio with my submachine gun to get their attention. One of them took several bullets in the knees and fell over, but the other two whirled towards me. As they charged towards me, I ejected my thermal clip, loaded a new one, took a deep breath and cloaked.

The husks milled around me in confusion. I tried to get past them, but they kind of had me boxed in. And my shields hadn't regenerated yet, thanks to the cloak aborting the recharge cycle. This wasn't good. I closed my eyes, hoping they wouldn't maul my face too badly. Not after the scars had finally healed.

Then I heard a lot of gunfire, followed by several thuds.

I opened my eyes just as the cloak shut down. The dead bodies of the husks lay all around me. A bit farther away, I could see the stationary corpse of the scion. Everyone was starting to get to their feet now. We had made it.

After that harrowing adventure, I felt we all deserved a reward. So I led the squad in giving the scion a good kick before heading down the stairs and along the catwalk.

---

We'd only gone a couple metres before ascending a flight of stairs to a ledge. There were a few terminals with open credit accounts, some medi-gel packs and plenty of thermal clips. All just sitting there waiting for some unscrupulous fellow to swipe. So I did.

At the end of the ledge were two flights of stairs which headed down again. I had just started to move along when we heard another round of moaning. We took apart the first five or six husks and abominations, but then we saw another wave coming.

"Guys, would anyone mind backing up a bit? You know, so we can have more time to pick them off?"

The squad responded by backpedalling—yes, even diehards like Grunt and Jack. I quickly followed suit, but not before burning the armour off of another husk. By the time I got to them, I noticed that they'd parked themselves by the flight of stairs we'd taken to get up to this ledge. Good idea, I thought. That would allow us a clear path to retreat back to the airlock, if necessary, without cutting ourselves off.

Now that the husks were forced to charge along a narrow ledge, it was easy for us to concentrate our firepower and take them down one by one. The scion proved to be a little more difficult, since it was impervious to a lot of our specialized talents and had a lot more armour protecting its bulk, but we managed to take it out without too much trouble. After scrounging for thermal clips, which yielded a few extra items to swipe, we continued on our way. We headed up some stairs, hacked a terminal for creds, went down some stairs...

...and saw two scions step out from behind a pillar and lumber towards us. Plus three or four husks heralded the latest charge.

"Did anyone happen to find out just how many people were in this science team?" I asked idly as I sent off yet another fireball. "We've been running into a lot of husks lately."

"It does seem unlikely that the Collectors would have shipped over additional husks to reinforce the ones that were already being created here," Garrus agreed, blasting an abomination to pieces with a concussive round.

"Why are you complaining?" Grunt asked, honestly bewildered. "Aren't you having fun? I am. Just wish—" he stopped to knock a husk back with a concussive round from his shotgun, which he'd apparently switched to at some point. "Just wish we didn't have to retreat so often."

"Speaking of retreating," Miranda warned. "Those scions are getting awfully close—agh!" She broke off as a biotic shockwave from one of them took a good chunk out of her shields. Not to mention that another half dozen husks had reared their ugly heads.

"Okay," I decided. "That's enough for now. They want a piece of us? Well, they have to work for it. Fall back, everyone!"

Grunt was the only one to complain, of course, following us with a reluctant, "Yeah, yeah." We went back up the stairs, firing on the run, headed across the walkway and stopped when we got to the last flight of stairs. The husks obligingly ran after us, right into a merciless onslaught of biotics and concussive rounds. I joined in with my omni-tool and its fireballs, but I motioned for Mordin and Zaeed to hold back and listened for any more moaning.

Failing to hear any, I went forward with Mordin and Zaeed. We cautiously moved until we glimpsed one of the scions. I arbitrarily picked the left one and counted down. Then we simultaneously flamed the sucker and ran before the biotic shockwaves they sent in return could hit us. Miranda and Thane were next with their biotics. Then Mordin, Zaeed and I again. We kept taking turns until the first scion was taken down, and then repeated the same song and dance with the second one.

By this point, some of the squad were getting a little annoyed with this 'two steps forward, one step back' routine. Couldn't blame them, I was getting rather peeved myself. So I was delighted when the next wave of bad guys consisted of a handful of husks. After everything we'd been through, it was almost cathartic to just stand our ground and riddle their glowing bodies with holes. Especially when you could 'cap them in the knees and trip them over each other.

I took a moment afterwards to consult the map. It looked like we were almost at the core. All we had to do was go down a ramp, around a corner and down a small walkway.

Naturally we had just stepped around the corner when we saw two more scions standing guard. They started to stomp towards us as several husks struggled to pull themselves up from under the floor. I bit back a curse, racking my head for ideas.

Then I had one.

"Team Two, hold them off for now. Try to get the scions to follow you together. When you need to back up, let us know. Team One, follow me."

Everyone gave me a weird look but obeyed my orders. I led Team One back the way we came, pointing out various objects to grab and move as we went. After a couple seconds, they figured it out. We spent the next couple minutes lugging things forward. Grunt could tackle one by himself, but the rest of us needed to pair up. Except for Kasumi, who took it upon herself to make sure no one got the jump on us. Miranda tried to get that cushy job, but Kasumi pointed out that she was the one with the cloak. Meanwhile, Garrus kept us updated on how the team was doing. It seemed they had to backpedal a couple times when the husks got too close, but other than that, things were fine. The scions were still lumbering along, occasionally tagging one or two people when they were too slow. Garrus made sure to rotate the team line-up, sending his team members to the back whenever they got hit.

At last, we were ready. I gave the order to fall back, and then stepped to the side as Team Two barrelled past. I wasn't sure if they were eager to leave, see what my plan was or restock on thermal clips. That left Team One to slowly lure the scions after us. Step by step. Step by step. Once they were close enough, I lifted my arm, took careful aim, sent another fireball from my omni-tool...

...and detonated the pile of explosive crates that the team and I had stacked up.

The squad cheered as the scions were vaporized in the explosion. We even managed to take out a husk. Then we sauntered back towards the core, mercilessly gunning down husks before they could fully emerge from their hidey-holes.

"Okay, point out the core and I'll tear it up," Grunt growled.

"Then we get off the ship," Garrus added. "Fast."

I consulted the map stored in my hardsuit mainframe. "That way," I pointed. I led the team to a door. It was locked, of course, but I managed to bypass it. Nice change of pace to battle a decryption sequence instead of a mindless, moaning cybernetic zombie and its buddies. The door opened up to reveal another airlock. There was nothing inside it. Nothing except a portable safe full of credits.

And a small piece of equipment. It looked like a flat circuit board with a small cylinder protruding just off the centre. I leaned over and scanned it.

"Is that...?" Samara asked.

"Yep," I replied, looking at the results on my omni-tool. "The Reaper IFF."

"So the Cerberus team did recover it," Jacob said. "I guess they all got killed or indoctrinated before they could get it out of here."

"Or one of the science team removed it from somewhere else, got indoctrinated and brought it here," Miranda suggested, "to the most heavily protected part of the ship."

"Either way, we now have what we came for," I shrugged, picking it up and sticking it one of my hardsuit's few carrying pouches. "Now let's blow this popsicle stand."

I got a lot of blank looks. (4)

"Never mind," I sighed.

---

I opened the airlock, lifted my foot to step forward and stopped myself just before I walked into the kinetic barrier blocking the way. Boy, would that have been embarrassing or what?

Peering through the barrier, I noted several things. First, the room looked pretty big—par for the course where Reapers were concerned. Second, a narrow walkway stretched from the airlock to a console situated just in front of a large spherical shell containing a glowing ball of blue energy—probably the mass effect core. Third, the talking geth who'd greeted and saved us earlier was busy typing away at the console.

Fourth, several husks were sneaking up behind the geth.

The geth must have heard them, though, because it abruptly turned around and shot them all. Then it turned back and tapped another sequence into the console, shutting down the barrier. I was about to say... I dunno. What do you say to a geth? "Thanks for the assist" in binary?

While I was figuring that out, another trio of husks popped up. Before the geth could react, one of them took a swipe at it. The geth dropped like a rock and didn't move. Before the husks could make another move, we sprayed them with bullets. As the trio collapsed, I raised my sniper rifle and aimed at the mass effect core. Just before I pulled the trigger, though, a metal iris clamped shut over it.

"So much for that," I sighed. "Maybe we can hack it open aga—"

"Incoming!" Grunt roared.

A set of stairs at either end of the walkway went down either end to the main floor. At the edges, husks were pulling themselves out from under the floor—seriously, did all floors on Reapers have hollow spaces where husks and other creepy-crawlies could hide?—squeezing between the floor plates and the walls. We took the first couple out without a problem, but that left at least half a dozen. With several more right behind them. A quick glance back told me the airlock had sealed itself. And it didn't look like we'd be able to open it again anytime soon.

Once again, I thought to myself: aw, crap.

I hastily switched my sniper rifle for my submachine gun. With all the chaos that was about to ensue, I wouldn't have time to line up a nice clean shot. "Team One has point; head down to the left and take out any husks you see. Team Two, follow us and watch our six." (5)

Miranda and I took out a husk as we went down the stairs, followed shortly by Thane and Grunt. Kasumi and Samara bagged a third using nothing but bullets and increasingly foul language—well, Kasumi uttered a few choice words. The cacophony of explosions and gunfire behind me indicated that Team Two was having a similar encounter. I led the squad to the next set of stairs, noting the location of spare thermal clips and a laptop along the way.

Unfortunately, a pair of husks had beaten us to it, with several more clambering onto the floor. "Grunt, tackle the husks blocking the stairs," I decided. "Everyone else; take out those guys."

None of us were ready to whip off any biotics, fireballs or similarly fancy tricks, so we each picked a husk and gunned the ugly sucker down. I looked up to see how Grunt was doing. He had trampled over one of the husks, ripped its arm off and was enthusiastically beating the second husk to a pulp with it.

"Shepard," Garrus said, catching my attention. "We have a few too many husks on our heels."

"Right," I nodded. "Everyone up the stairs." We ran back onto the walkway. I saw six husks following us, one husk charging down the walkway in our direction and two husks struggling to pull themselves out on the other side of the room. "Follow me," I yelled.

I led the squad down the stairs to the right side of the room, quickly assigning husks to Team One. By then, we were ready to pummel them with biotics and concussive rounds. I motioned them to head towards the stairs closest to the airlock and turned back to see how Team Two was doing, setting a husk on fire in the process.

They were doing quite well. There were almost a dozen contacts on my HUD moving towards Team Two. As I watched, though, most of them blinked out. Only three of them reached the walkway, only to get stalled by Tali's combat drone. They came to a halt, apparently unsure as to the next course of action. Zaeed settled things by setting all three on fire with an inferno grenade, then stepping aside so Jack could knock all of them back with a biotic shockwave. I stared at my HUD, waiting for the next red dot to show up, and was delighted when none came. To make things even better, the iris surrounding the mass effect core retracted. I don't know whether that was by design or coincidence, but it was now wide open and vulnerable.

"Everybody scoop up thermal clips and meet me back in the walkway," I said. I took my own advice and replenished my stock, adding a few more creds to my collection from the laptop I saw earlier while I was at it. When I rejoined the squad back on the walkway, I laid out my plan: "I don't know how long that thing will stay open, so let's deal as much damage as we can. Sniper rifles, shotguns and so on."

"Too bad you didn't bring the Cain with you," Jacob observed. "It could take that thing out in one shot."

"The Illusive Man was too busy smoking his cigarettes to let me know there would be a space big enough to safely fire it without nuking the rest of us in the process," I shrugged, pulling out my CPB. (6) "Everyone ready? We fire in three... two... one... GO!"

A deafening roar rang out as the twelve of us fired our weapons, accompanied by a steady whine as my CPB sizzled out and chewed away at the mass effect core. According to my hardsuit sensors, that volley dealt quite a bit of damage to the giant sphere. Miranda quickly ran a scan and transmitted the results to our HUDs. It seemed our barrage had created a small microfracture. Excellent. "Again!" I ordered, still squeezing the CPB's trigger. "Target that weak point!"

The squad fired another round at the microfracture, then another. And another. Naturally, the thing was on the verge of falling apart when the iris closed over it. A second later, the not-so-melodious moaning rang out again.

"Oh come on," Jack burst out, giving voice to our sentiments. "We were this fucking close!"

"Here we go again," I sighed. "Same deal as before."

We led the husks on a merry chase, running round in circles and shooting anything that got too close. It took a couple minutes, but we eventually got rid of them. Then we restocked on thermal clips and assembled in front of the mass effect core, which was now open again. The squad was about to raise their weapons when I stopped them. I checked my heavy pistol. One more shot before the thermal clip was used up. I looked up, assessed the mass effect core's integrity with my sensors, raised my pistol and fired a single shot.

The ball of energy didn't dissipate as much as it shattered under the impact. Wreaths of blue energy started crackling around the now-hollow sphere. Shaking my head at the universe for making us go through that song and dance again for the sake of one measly shot, I scooped up a thermal clip, reloaded and ran along the walkway.

I stopped in front of the geth, who was still down for the count. A quick scan indicated there was still power running through the synthetic. It wasn't dead or destroyed, just temporarily offline. Who knew you could knock a geth unconscious?

"Shepard, want the geth for target practise?" Grunt offered generously.

"Leave it!" Jacob snapped. "No way that thing reaches the Normandy!"

A moan interrupted us. Looking around, we saw at least three or four husks scrabbling for purchase on the floor to pull themselves up. "Tali," I said, turning back. "Didn't you mention during your Pilgrimage that it's almost impossible to find an intact geth? At least, one that isn't roaming around or shooting at you?"

"That's true," Tali conceded. "But... I'm not sure it's worth the risk."

Another moan caught our attention. There were ten husks surrounding us now. "There's no time to debate it," I said. "Grab the geth and let's get moving! Now!"

Grunt and I hauled the geth up, wrapped an arm around our shoulders and ran for the airlock, the rest of the squad close on our heels. Tali was already at the airlock, trying to hack the thing open. She threw up her hands, said something that probably didn't translate very well, yanked out a panel that I had completely missed and plunged her hands into the mess of wires. Whatever she did worked, because the airlock doors hissed open. Just in time, as the moans of all the husks behind us was starting to get a bit loud.

"Joker," I yelled as we barrelled through. "We're coming out and we're coming out hot!"

"Roger that," Joker replied. "Normandy's en route. Just hang on, folks."

"Extraction point identified," EDI added calmly. "Sending coordinates and directions to your hardsuits."

Following EDI's instructions, we reached the extraction point—a narrow catwalk running alongside the hull of the Reaper—within a minute. The Normandy showed up a second later. "Open the portside airlock," I ordered as the rest of the squad poured a constant stream of weapons fire into the husks.

"Aye aye," Joker replied, bringing the Normandy to a complete stop just metres from the Reaper's hull. Grunt and I rocked the geth back and tossed it forward. It seemed the mass effect fields hadn't completely shut down yet, because the geth floated across the vacuum of space and through the airlock instead of plummeting down towards the brown dwarf. I gave a brief sigh of relief that the geth didn't drop like a rock—and that my aim didn't send it bouncing off the side of the airlock. Boy would that have been embarrassing. "Okay, people," I called out. "Time to go!"

Miranda had already figured out the order in which we should depart for the Normandy and transmitted the queue to each of us. Following her instructions, we leapt for the airlock at our appointed time while the rest held the husks at bay. For some reason, I was the last one to jump. I couldn't believe even Miranda was intent on maintaining that stupid rep of mine.

"We're clear," I told Joker over the comm as my feet landed inside the Normandy's airlock. "Go!"

The airlock doors hissed shut and the Normandy pulled up, accelerating away from the Reaper as it finally succumbed to the brown dwarf's pull and plunged into its depths.

---

Most of the squad headed for the armoury to drop off their weapons before returning to their usual haunts. The rest of us hauled the geth to EDI's AI core, which was only accessible through the sickbay. I guess Cerberus wanted to keep it in as inaccessible a spot as possible, which, on the Normandy, was behind two sets of doors that could be sealed with emergency biohazard quarantine protocols. There happened to be a small ledge at the back of the room, wide enough for someone to take a nap. Or drop a man-sized synthetic off.

Tali took a little too much pleasure in slapping two gadgets on the geth. One of them was some sort of regulator that prevented it from powering itself up. The other was a shield module that channelled power from the geth to form a cocoon of kinetic energy, thereby preventing anyone from accidentally touching it. She volunteered to guard the geth herself, but one of the staff had just arrived, all suited up and armed. Besides, EDI informed her that Engineering needed her help. Something about Ken, pants, haggis and self-sealing stem bolts. I didn't ask.

After we returned our weapons to the armoury, Tali—reluctantly—departed. The rest of us assembled in the comm room.

"I think we need to discuss the unique piece of salvage we recovered," Miranda started. EDI obligingly pulled up a holographic picture of the geth above the table. "We all know that we need better equipment to fight the Reapers. An intact geth would be invaluable to Cerberus's cyberweapons division."

"We'll have to disagree on that, ma'am." The strength of Jacob's opinion was clear by his unusually formal mode of address. "I saw enough of these things on Eden Prime. I saw what they did. If you ask me, we oughta space it."

"Cerberus has a long-standing cash bounty for an intact geth," Miranda informed me. "I assure you, the reward is significant."

"Define significant," I requested.

"Enough to purchase that shotgun upgrade from Fortack's lab on Tuchanka."

Yikes. That was significant, I had to admit. And the idea of sneaking up on a hostile under cloak and blowing it away with a shotgun blast at point-blank range was kind of appealing. Still… "Let's not get too hasty," I cautioned. "I want to know why it has a piece of N7 armour strapped to its shoulder."

"Battle trophy, maybe?" Jacob guessed. "Would a machine care about that?"

"No," Miranda shook her head. "Trophies imply emotions that AIs don't have. I doubt it's more than a convenient field repair. Though I don't know why it couldn't find a similar piece of armour to seal the hole in its chest."

I leaned against the table and stared at the hologram. "I've killed hundreds of these things, but I've never had a chance to talk to one."

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I honestly don't know what took them so long to figure that out. "Think about it: this one tried to communicate with us," I pointed out. "Hell, it probably saved our lives twice, if not three times. Why?"

"I don't know," Miranda admitted, "but reactivating the geth is a risk. If you do so, it should be for humanity's best interests and not your curiosity." (7)

"I still think our 'best interests' involve an airlock," Jacob scowled, crossing his arms.

"Garrus," I said. "You've been awfully quiet. What do you think?"

"You know the risk, Shepard," he replied tersely. "That's all I'm going to say."

The tally was one for tossing it out the airlock, one for gift-wrapping it for Cerberus and one abstainment. Good thing this wasn't a democracy. "I'm not deciding one way or the other until I know what we've got here," I told them. "I want to start it up. Talk to it. Interrogate it if need be."

"If we activate it, there is no guarantee we can deactivate it again," Miranda reminded me. "Even with the devices Tali attached to it."

"Bullets can," Jacob said firmly.

Miranda rolled her eyes. "That's not what I—"

"All right," I interrupted. "Thank you—all of you—for your recommendations. I've made my decision."

Jacob shook his head and looked at Garrus. "Tali's gonna freak when she hears about this."

"When you get back to the armoury, double-check the arsenal," Garrus murmured back. "Make sure Tali didn't 'accidentally' take her shotgun with her."

Jacob nodded in agreement before tapping his omni-tool. The hologram switched from the geth to the reason we'd waded through hordes of mindless husks. "So what about this Reaper IFF?"

The Reaper IFF floated in front of us for a few seconds before it was replaced by EDI's avatar. "I have determined how to begin integrating it with our systems," it said. "However, the device is Reaper technology. We must test it thoroughly before attempting to pass through the Omega 4 relay. It will take some time to properly integrate it with our own systems."

"Are we talking about hours?" I asked. "Days? Weeks?"

"Impossible to say: the technology is complex."

"Okay," I said. "Give it your top priority. I don't want it crashing on us just as we enter the Omega 4 relay or anything."

Jacob and Garrus left the comm room, the former pausing long enough to snap off a salute. Noticing that Miranda didn't follow them, I stayed behind. "Something you want to say?"

Instead of answering, she tapped a command into her omni-tool. The hologram—which had returned to an image of the Normandy—flickered momentarily, as did the lights. "I've disabled the security monitors in this room," she told me. "We have two minutes."

"Okay," I said. "What did you want to say, off the record?"

"As you know, I send regular reports to the Illusive Man to update our status. He is very pleased that you are fulfilling, if not exceeding, his expectations regarding the primary objectives of this mission—"

"To find out what the Collectors are up to and figure out a way to stop them," I clarified.

"Precisely," Miranda nodded. "In addition, I've been sending assessments on the secondary objectives—to evaluate your willingness to... formally become an active operative within Cerberus."

Gee. TIMmy wanted to headhunt me. Maybe he should have kept that in mind before screwing me over the first couple times. "How's that coming?" I asked instead.

"Not so well," Miranda admitted. "Your words and actions have made it quite clear that you regard this as an alliance of convenience rather than your first mission following recruitment. The Illusive Man hasn't actually approved any overt intervention or corrective measures. Yet. But reading between the lines, it's pretty clear that his patience has its limits."

"And that's where the geth comes in?" I guessed.

"Exactly." Miranda walked around the table as she elaborated. "It's true that having an intact geth to study would likely represent a quantum leap forward for Cerberus's cyberweapons research. In the short term, however, it would go a long way towards assuaging the Illusive Man's concerns regarding your compatibility with Cerberus."

Huh. "Out of curiosity, has he approved this private chat?"

Miranda paused for a moment before shaking her head.

Huh. "Well, I'm not about to pass up the chance to get some intel from this geth just because the Illusive Man's wondering why I haven't sent in my membership application."

"I figured as much," Miranda sighed, "but I had to try."

"True. Is that all?"

"It is."

Just before we left the comm room, I added "Thanks for the heads-up, Miranda."

"You're welcome, Shepard," she replied, shooting me a brief smile.

For some reason, that smile gave me this warm, tingly feeling.

---

Without any other pressing matters, I resumed my usual routing of wandering aimlessly about the ship. It didn't take long before I reached the AI core. The guard saluted me when I entered. I saluted back before turning my attention to the geth. "I'm turning this thing back on," I told him. "Be ready."

"Aye, aye."

Using my omni-tool, I raised a kinetic barrier around the geth. "I have isolated our systems and erected additional firewalls," EDI informed me. "I am prepared to resist any hacking attempts."

"Uh huh," I said. Activating my omni-tool, I began shutting off the doodads that Tali had slapped on the geth. I was glad I'd peeked over Tali's shoulder and memorized the access codes beforehand. It saved me from heading to Engineering to ask her for them myself, which would have resulted in several hours worth of arguments. The first step was to disable the shield module, which complied with a sharp crack and a flash of sparks that flickered over the geth.

Then I took a deep breath and entered in the second set of codes. This was it.

Another flash of sparks lit up the room. I glimpsed the geth's hand twitch out of the corner of my eye, but my attention was focused on its head. A small light situated about two o'clock to its flashlight head started to flicker. The flashlight head itself—which, up close, actually looked more like a long curved cable encased in a metal shell—begin to rotate around like a gear before suddenly blazing to life. The cable moved around, like a single eye checking things out. Then the geth sat up with a faint whirr of servomotors. It uttered a string of machine chatter before swinging its legs over and getting to its feet.

Then it stared at me. I stared back for a minute before deciding that trying to win a staring contest against a geth was a really stupid idea. "Can you understand me?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Are you going to attack me?"

"No."

I could tell this was going to be a fun conversation. "You said my name aboard the Reaper," I said. "Have we met?"

The geth paused for a moment. "We know of you," it said at last.

"You mean I've fought a lot of geth," I guessed.

"We have never met."

"No, you and I haven't," I replied patiently, beginning to pace back and forth. "But I've met other geth."

"We are all geth and we have not met you."

Whatever.

The geth began to mimic my movements, pacing back and forth behind the kinetic barrier. "You are Shepard," it said. "Commander. Alliance. Human. Fought heretics. Killed by Collectors. Rediscovered on the Old Machine."

"'Old Machine,'" I repeated. "You mean the Reaper?"

"Reaper. A superstitious title originating with the Protheans. We call these entities the Old Machines."

Made sense, I guess. They were machines, after all, and they were countless millennia older than the first geth ever built. I couldn't help but notice that the metal around the geth's flashlight head/cable were actually a set of plates, each of which were capable of moving and articulating. Almost like humans and their eyebrows. But I was getting off-track. "You seem to know an awful lot about me."

"Extranet data sources," the geth supplied helpfully. "Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. We watch you."

"You watch me or you watch organics?" I asked, seeking clarification.

"Yes."

Oh for crying out loud. "Which?"

"Both."

"What do you mean by 'heretics'?" I asked, recalling one of the earlier—and longer—answers.

"Geth build our own future. The heretics asked the Old Machines to give them the future. They are no longer part of us. We were studying the Old Machine's hardware to protect our future."

Whoa. This was big. Unless I totally misunderstood things, it sounded like the geth actually had factions. At least two factions—one of which had aligned with the Reapers or 'Old Machines.' And those groups couldn't have been on good terms if this guy was off poking through a Reaper on the sly. "You mean the Reapers are a threat to you too?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We are different from them. Outside their plans."

So their conflicting agendas overrode any sense of loyalty they might have over their shared status as synthetics. Curiouser and curioser... "What future are the geth building?"

"Ours."

"Will anyone else be affected by whatever it is you're doing?" I pressed.

"If they involve themselves, they will."

"Just so we're all clear here," I said, taking a step forward. "You aren't allied with the Reapers?"

"We oppose the heretics," the geth replied, taking a step forward as well. "We oppose the Old Machines. Shepard-Commander opposes the heretics. Shepard-Commander opposes the Old Machines. Cooperation furthers mutual goals."

This was different. Usually I'm the one running around asking other people to join me on some idiotic journey. But if the geth was saying what I thought it was saying... "Are you asking to join us?"

"Yes."

Huh. All this time I had been risking my ass to recruit organics when I could have just sat back and let synthetics volunteer their services instead. (8) Taking a chance, I reached for my omni-tool and shut down the barrier. I took the fact that the geth didn't immediately reach out and throttle me as a good sign. "Then what should I call you?"

There was a pause. "Geth."

"I mean you," I clarified, motioning towards it with my hand and noting how it mimicked my movements once again. "Specifically."

"We are all geth."

Oh for crying out loud. "What is the individual in front of me called?" I asked slowly.

"There is no individual. We are geth."

Huh?

The geth must have seen enough humans to interpret the blank look on my face, because it gave an additional clarification: "There are currently 1,183 programs active within this platform."

Whoa. Did that mean there were over a thousand... people or geth within the—what was it called? A platform?—in front of me? Like one small community sharing the same space? If so, maybe that was why it—they—insisted that they were all geth. All this time I'd been thinking of it as an individual, up to and including my attempts to assign it an individual designation. That didn't work because there was no individual. So what would be an appropriate name? 1183? United Nations of Geth?

While I was busy pondering this, EDI activated her holographic avatar. "'My name is Legion, for we are many.'"

"That seems appropriate," I conceded. Much better than any of the choices I'd come up with.

The geth's face-plates moved, flickering and tilting briefly. "Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, Chapter Five, Verse Nine," it—they, whatever—identified. "We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor. We are Legion, a terminal of the geth. We will integrate into Normandy."

Sure. Whatever it—they—said. I extended a hand to formalize our arrangement. The geth—no, Legion—copied me. After a moment, I reached over and shook its/their hand.

"We anticipate the exchange of data," Legion told me.

Like I said: fun conversation.

---

The guard was gone when I left the AI core. Maybe he figured that Legion didn't need guarding now that I had welcomed him to the squad. Or he really needed to make a pit stop. Whatever. One less person to inform that I'd just woken up a geth and given it free rein to roam the ship—though past experience had shown I was the only one who had the time to wander around. Dr. Chakwas took the whole thing in stride with a simple "Understood, Commander, and how are you today?" Evidently she had decided that I knew what I was doing. I didn't have the heart to disillusion her, so I just smiled and spouted some mindless platitudes.

Miranda didn't react too strongly either, mostly because she already knew what I was going to do. The only surprise, as far as she was concerned, was the revelation of Legion's allegiances and its/their request.

"So this geth belongs to a faction who regards the Reapers as an enemy," she summarized, "and thus wants to join us as a squad member."

"Pretty much," I nodded.

"And you're all right with the idea of a geth running amok."

"Yep." I'll admit that was given mostly to see her reaction.

She muttered something that sounded like "Of course you would." Aloud, she simply said "As long as EDI keeps a close eye on the geth—"

"Legion," I interrupted.

"Pardon?"

"It—or they—have accepted the name 'Legion.' We might as well observe the proprieties."

Miranda sighed. "Fine. As long as EDI keeps a close eye on Legion, monitors the integrity of our firewalls and is prepared to lock the doors to the AI Core on a moment's notice, I suppose we can give it a trial run."

"Agreed," I said, acting as if I hadn't already decided that certain precautions were warranted. (9) "Now that that's dealt with, do you have a minute?"

I was expecting her usual response to my attempt at chit-chat, which basically could be summed up as "Not now. I'm busy. Maybe later." Needless to say, I was surprised when she nodded. "Of course. I'd been meaning to speak with you, in fact."

Miranda got up from her chair to the back half of the room, which had been converted into living quarters and sat down on one of the couches—the one facing the window, if you really must know. Following her cue, I sat down on the other end. She hesitated for a moment, as if searching for the words—no, it looked more like mustering her will or courage.

She took a deep breath before finally speaking: "I… wanted to apologize."

This day was just full of surprises.

"I didn't fully believe you'd be up to the task… and it seems I was wrong. Frankly, based on what I've seen, I wish Cerberus had tried to recruit you earlier."

"Apology accepted," I replied. "Look, Miranda, I might trust you. But I don't trust Cerberus. Your experiments cross the line."

"All the time, yes," Miranda admitted. "But I recall a Spectre who crossed a few lines while hunting down Saren and the geth."

Yeah, shamelessly looting safes, crates and credit accounts are considered crimes in most galactic societies.

"Only a few," I disagreed. "Not the ones that matter."

"See? Right there: the fact that you can recognize that distinction where it counts and stand by it instead of indulging in hypocritical behavior is why we'd be lucky to have you. Too many join us out of simple xenophobia. They fight without knowing what they're fighting for. We need more people here for the right reasons."

"Those 'right reasons' being the promoting, supporting and advancing humanity's interests," I asked. "With your intelligence, you could have done that anywhere. You could have landed any job you wanted to pursue those goals. Why choose Cerberus? Was it just to protect Oriana?"

"It started with safeguarding my sister," Miranda admitted. "I weighed all the options and Cerberus was the only organization that met my requirements. But… even Oriana was set up safely on Illium with her foster family, I stayed because I still envy the time Mordin spent with the Special Tasks Group."

"Sneaking around where they're not welcome and doing impolite things," I suggested.

"Working with people as smart as he was, with the manpower and material to do what had to be done," she corrected me. "Cerberus never tells me that something is impossible. They give me my resources and say 'Do it.'"

So Miranda felt that Cerberus gave her the environment she desired to challenge herself; to explore and expand her potential. I still thought that she'd picked a poor career path, but I guess I could see the appeal in that.

"And they've given you even more," she continued. "A new life, a new ship, the Illusive Man's personal attention…"

Gah. The less said about that last part the better. I quickly changed the topic. "That's nice and all, but the best thing he did was to add you to my crew. I couldn't have accomplished all this without your help."

Which was true. Without her, I'd have much less time to wander around and harass people. Plus, the talents that she brought to the squad during the seemingly inevitable combat situations had proved invaluable time and time again.

"You'd have done fine without me," she said with a note of… admiration? Envy? Sadness? "I may not have believed it before, but… I don't have what you do—that fire that makes someone willing to follow you into hell itself."

That wasn't fire. It was the ability to turn off other people's common sense and self-preservation. Before I could open my mouth and say that, however, she got up and walked to the window. "My father gave me the best genes money could buy," she said bitterly. "Guess that wasn't enough."

"You always bring up your genetic tailoring," I said carefully. "It really bothers you, doesn't it?"

The sadness in her voice answered my question before her words did. "This is what I am, Shepard. I can't hide it. The intelligence, the looks, even the biotics… he paid for all of that. Every one of your accomplishments is due to your skill. The only things I can take credit for are my mistakes."

Oh for crying out loud. "Don't you think you're giving your dad way too much credit?" I asked. "Following that logic, you could say people who haven't received a lot of genetic enhancements can only take credit for their successes and not their mistakes—and history has shown that there are a lot of bone-headed mistakes that have been made over the years. Look, your dad may have given you gifts, but you were the one who developed and honed them. You were the one who chose to use them. You were the one who decided how to use them. Don't you think you can indulge in a little pride over what you've done with your talents? If nothing else, you directed the team that brought a man back from the dead."

"I suppose you're right…"

This wasn't going the way I'd hoped, though I wasn't sure why—isn't that what you were supposed to say in this situation? Maybe that was it. Most people would say that you've been given so much and done so much and you're so smart and blah, blah, blah. I decided the last thing she needed was another schmuck singing her praises, so I tried something different. "Damn straight I'm right. If I can see it, surely you can… hey. Hey, that's it! It's not that you can't see it—you don't want to see it. You're jealous!"

Miranda turned around slowly, a mixture of confusion and anger on her face. "What? Don't be absurd!"

"Oh, I don't know about that," I smirked. "The genetic mutt that the Illusive Man put in charge? That's must sting."

Her eyes flashed angrily. I'd definitely broken through her pity. "First, it's not a competition," she snapped. "Second, based on your combat records, you're practically a perfect bloody human specimen!"

"'Perfect human specimen,' huh?" I grinned.

"Don't get cocky," she admonished, taking a step towards me. "I'm the one who put you back together, remember? And I do damn good work."

"You certainly do," I murmured, taking a step forward myself.

I'm still not sure who made the first move. All I remember is one moment, we're staring—or glaring—at each other. The next moment, the universe had faded away. Probably because I was finding out just how soft and warm and full her lips were. My entire body tingled with the promise of something right and happy and glorious. I dimly recall that my arms were around her waist, hands firmly planted on the small of her back, while her arms were wrapped around my neck. She felt deliciously soft and warm and silky—though that last part was probably the material of her outfit. Should've known she'd indulge in the best fabrics.

Then we were staring at each other again. This time, Miranda had a look of shock on her face. (10)

Oh God.

Did I just…

Oh God.

Did I just do what I thought I just did…

Oh God, oh God.

...with Miranda?

Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God...

"What the hell was that?" Miranda finally whispered.

My mind was paralyzed, but that didn't stop my smart mouth from saying: "Back in my day, before mechs were all the rage and everyone was toting these new-fangled thermal clips, we called that a 'kiss.'"

For the first time since we'd met—and, undoubtedly, the first time in years—Miranda panicked. "Oh God, this, um, okay, this doesn't mean anything. We just—God, I need to, er, think. Yeah. I need—work. Right, lots to do, you know, what with, um, stuff and… things. And think. Wait, I already said that. Oh God, I need… I'll talk to you later."

She hastily strode back to her desk. A grin started to spread over my face again.

"And stop smiling, damn it," she added, shooting me a glare before sitting down.

Hey, it wasn't my fault. She was the one who looked so cute when she was flustered.

Wait…

Oh God.

Did I…

Oh God.

Did I just call her…

Oh God, oh God.

…cute?

Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God...

---

(1): Lack of intelligence, or the potential for faulty intelligence, is the fear of every soldier.

(2): Howard Phillips Lovecraft, an author of horror, fantasy and science fiction during the early twentieth century. He is particularly notable for his contribution to the subgenre of 'weird fiction' and the literary principle of cosmicism, which postulated that humans foolishly investigated the mysteries of the cosmos, not recognizing that they, and mankind, was susceptible to extinction at any moment by greater forces. These forces were vast, indifferent and incomprehensible, incapable of recognizing the small, visionless and ultimately insignificant nature of humanity.

(3): Indeed, this was extremely unusual, a clear deviation from the profile Alliance and Citadel personnel had compiled after countless after-action reports—most of which came from Commander Shepard.

(4): An obscure slang phrase meaning "Let's get a move on" or some similar sentiment, originating somewhere in the early to mid-twentieth century.

(5): While Shepard made sure that someone was covering his back, he failed to realize that he was voluntarily putting himself up front and in harm's way once again.

(6): Shepard's acronym for the Collector Particle Beam weapon he'd recovered from Horizon.

(7): Readers are undoubtedly aware that Shepard pursued both with an almost inhuman fervour. Sadly, I am not surprised to learn which one won out.

(8): Inaccuracies about the minimal risk aside, it is worth noting that this log provided an unparalleled glimpse of geth society. Mostly because, up until this point, there had been no reliable information on geth society whatsoever.

(9): Given previous encounters between geth and humanity, it's reassuring to see that Shepard's willingness to accept help and trust all sorts of individuals is tempered with a certain degree of pragmatism.

(10): In hindsight, this development was not completely unexpected. In all honesty, I must confess to a certain surprise nonetheless.