Author's Note: My apologies for the delay on this. While I remain ahead of schedule in written chapters, beta circumstances were beyond my control.
Breaker On
Joker wasn't inclined to trust Reaper technology any faster than could run a four minute mile. But with so much about this mission he didn't quite trust, it was starting to feel like integrating the IFF wasn't really a stretch.
He shifted in his chair, eyeing his holodisplays. "I'm telling you, EDI, your readings are off, it's radiation bleed, just white noise."
"I have detected a signal embedded in the static. We are transmitting the Normandy's position."
"Transmitting? To who?"
A flash blinded the external viewports, and the stars were suddenly replaced with a dark, hulking mass. Joker stared at it in slack-jawed surprise as his console blared a proximity alarm. If there had been air to displace, a gale would have buffeted the Normandy around like a stray leaf. Instead, the intrusion of this new gravity well caused the SR-2 to roll lazily off to port as if stunned, tracing the ragged stony surface of the Collector ship across the viewports. It was so close Joker could pick out the divots of micro-meteor impacts across its surface. The strange crown of radiating sensor spars arrayed around the bow reached across the space as if to grasp at the human frigate.
Joker had no intention of sticking around to see if they would. The last time he'd been this close to that ship, they'd been sunk, and with Shepard gone along with several of the ground team members, he was taking no chances.
"Red alert." EDI said over ship-wide comms. "All hands report to weapon stations. Prepare for hostile boarding action." A klaxon hooted.
"Hostile boarding- The hell are you talking about EDI?" Joker's hands flew over the holodisplays. They were alive with their own alerts, sensor hits and gravity well alarms. "We're getting out of here!"
"Primary propulsion systems are offline."
"What?"
"We are under attack. Ship's systems have been compromised. I have reason to believe a hostile program was resident in the Reaper IFF."
Behind him, shouting broke out among the crew. The pilot glanced back to see them pile out of their stations, heading back toward the armory. The hull shuddered. An alert lit up on his console informing him the cargo bay doors were opening.
"Primary defense systems are offline. We can save the Normandy, Mister Moreau. but you must help me. Give me the ship."
"You're crazy!" the pilot snapped. "You start singing 'Daisy Bell' and I'm done!"
"Unlock my sealed databases, and I can initiate countermeasures. The maintenance shaft in the science lab will allow you passage to the core mainframe."
Another impact rocked the ship, stronger this time.
"Main corridors are no longer safe," EDI said. "The Collectors have boarded."
Joker mined a whole new vein of heretofore untapped curse words as he pushed himself out of his chair. Down the gangway in CIC, he saw Taylor barking orders as he tossed assault rifles to crewman who were gathering in the cover of the CIC stand. The elevator's floor indicator was ascending.
As Joker approached, the armory officer noticed him. "Moreau! What the hell are you doing?"
"I have to get to the mainframe room!" Joker pointed across the CIC toward the door to Mordin's unoccupied science lab.
"What? Get back to the con and get us out of here!"
"I can't! EDI is under attack and main propulsion is-"
The elevator door opened, filling the CIC with a high, buzzing whine.
"Collectors!" Goldstein yelled.
Joker caught a glimpse of a spindly set of limbs at the entrance of the elevator as the crew opened fire. Jacob swore and shoved his way past the pilot as a thin lance of orange light burst out between the doors, searing a red-hot line along the CIC railing toward Goldstein, forcing the crewman to retreat. The Cerberus guns fell abruptly silent. Five sets of eyes widened as one as their weapon triggers clicked, useless, just as the elevator doors disgorged a swirling swarm of fist-sized bugs.
"Aw, hell!" Jacob snarled. His body dancing with blue light, he pushed Joker toward the door to the emergency stairwell that ran down alongside the elevator.
The pilot stumbled, gawking. "What the shit?"
"The governors! EDI! Get those governors off! Now!" The cloud of bugs split, swarming toward the humans. Jacob spread his hands, forcing the dark energy barrier wide as he backed Joker to the wall. "Move it, Moreau!"
Cut off from the science lab, Joker smacked the stairwell door panel and slipped through, closing it behind him. There was a crash from beyond the door, and more shouting.
He flattened himself against the far wall, watching the corners for the telltale flutter of wings. "EDI? Are you there?"
"Yes, Mister Moreau," came the AI's disembodied voice.
"You have to get the governors off our guns!"
"I am unable to comply. The virus has control of the weapon governor system. I am attempting to re-assert control. You must get to the mainframe room."
He sagged against the wall. "Shit."
With one last look at the CIC door, Joker limped down the narrow stairwell. Distant thuds rang through the superstructure, along with high sounds that might have been shouting, or screams. The pilot wiped his sweating palms against his pants as he crossed the switchback. New sounds rang in the stairwell, the close sounds of footsteps. He tried to swallow the terror clawing up his throat. He couldn't run, and he had no weapon. Not that it would work anyway. But instead of death with four eyes, he was suddenly face to face with the drell.
"Thane!" Joker burst out in relief.
The assassin stopped, and Samara came up behind him. "Joker. Why are you here?" he asked.
"What's happening? Our weapons have ceased to function. We must get to the CIC."
The pilot shook his head, waving his hands. "Nuh-uh, CIC's full of those little bugs! EDI's fighting a virus. I have to get to mainframe, I can plug EDI into the main control system and we can get out of here, leave these things in the dust!"
Thane turned and looked at the justicar, who gave a curt nod. "Let us go," she declared with a confidence Joker didn't feel.
Unasked, Thane slipped a shoulder under the pilot's and helped him as they descended the rest of the way to the second deck. Without hesitation, the asari flared with blue fire and strode through the door.
There was a Collector right beside them as they emerged. Vague pictures and helmet video were suddenly, terrifyingly real. As the creature turned, its wedge-shaped head coming around to face this new threat, Joker could see corded muscles move under the thick chitinous hide covering its body. The weapon in its hand seemed to be made of the same stuff as the alien itself, sharing the ruddy red color on its carapace. Four globular yellow eyes focused on them, glowing above a face with no other features but more ridged shell.
The drell assassin moved in a blur as he disengaged himself and jumped in front of the stunned pilot, his strikes sounding as a series of sharp cracks in the humming air. The Collector staggered back, its chestplate shattered. Thane caught the rifle suddenly spinning in the air, reversed it and fired into the Collector's face. The invading alien flopped to the floor. Near the door to the bathroom there were more of them, clustered around two human crewmen lying on the ground, rigid in paralysis.
"Stay with me, Mister Moreau," Samara said. Her voice the lone cool thread in the mayhem. She spread her arms, and her barrier spread out, flowing into a spherical shell that made the hair on his arms stand up as it swept across and past him.
Joker could only nod, if only to keep from yelping when the Collectors at the far end opened fire. Thane moved around him, slipping easily toward the bulkhead to the mess, using his stolen weapon to return fire. His biotic barrier shifted and crackled, playing off Samara's larger shield. Swarms of the small bugs flitted back and forth along the ceiling, as of confused. There was a thick, musky smell in the air, competing with the omnipresent buzz. Joker dearly hoped both Thane and Samara were using Mordin's ultrasonic countermeasure.
He shadowed Samara as best he could as she moved from the hallway into the mess section, across the room from the entrance to the medbay and the AI mainframe. Down the hallway to the main battery, Joker could make out another bevvy of Collectors and a half-dozen of their strange coffins. One of them was dragging a Cerberus crewman by the foot. A huge mass of something hovering near the ceiling turned, a horror of twisted limbs and illuminated tracery. A broad, pyramidal head perched on a plated body, dominated by four eyes glowing a piercing blue. It trailed metal-sheathed legs as it floated into the center of the mess hall on shimmering contrails of dark energy.
"Oh, shit," Joker breathed, shrinking behind the justicar.
"Thane!" Samara barked urgently. "Praetorian!"
The assassin dodged into the room and fired his Collector rifle at the monster, knocking a rain of sparks off the thing's hide. There was a hum, and a shimmering kinetic barrier swept up to cover it. The hum built into a whining howl. Thane lunged sideways, and a moment later it jolted as twin lances of searing light sprang from its eyes. Joker could feel the heat wash across his skin as they impacted the bulkhead, warping and melting the metal into glowing beads. Samara swept her hands forward, and the dark energy bubble surged outward, throwing the creature sideways. As the body rotated, Joker caught a glimpse of what looked like a mass of humanoid heads and shoulders poking out of the bottom of the carapace, all threaded with the same blue glowing lines as the rest of it. The many faces were twisted into the same open-mouthed expressions of frozen agony Joker had seen on the vids of husks.
There was a loud crash from across the room. Wreathed in dark energy, Jack came storming into the mess hall, flinging a Collector's body ahead of her. Crimson streaks bled into the chaotic pattern of tattoos along her left arm, and her black sleeveless shirt was torn.
"Fucking bugs!" She bared her teeth at the sight of the blue-trimmed monster at the center of the room. "I'll kill all of you!"
Dark energy crackled around the praetorian as it drew its many legs up toward itself. The charge in the air changed, and Joker saw both Thane and Jack flinch just as the monster slammed itself into the ground, buckling the deck plates. Gravity heaved, flinging Joker into the air. The mess hall table shrieked as it was yanked off its moorings. He barely had time to register the new burst of terror when his momentum abruptly slowed and he skittered painfully to the floor, rolling up to the wall.
Adrenaline pounding in his ears, Joker uncurled himself to look around. The praetorian was lifting itself back into the air at the center of the room. He saw Samara a few feet away, hands outstretched, trying to regain her feet. It had to have been her that kept him from being smashed to pieces against the wall. He squirmed, swearing, wishing he could force himself right through the bulkhead as the small bugs zipped to and fro around him.
"Justicar," Thane shouted, "we are outmatched!" The drell was pushing himself up from behind the twisted hulk of the mess hall table, blood flowing down the side of his face. His weapon was gone. Chairs were scattered all over the room, and the lights above the kitchen area sputtered fitfully.
Joker saw a flash of white teeth bared in frustration. "Jack!" Samara called. "Get to the medical bay!"
If the former convict heard Samara, she gave no indication. "I'll tear you apart!" she roared, leaping to her feet. Pain flashed across her face, but she stumbled forward, throwing out another hand behind her. The Collectors gathering at the entrance to the mess flew backward into the hall.
A subsonic rumble built up under the din, whiting out the noise and withdrawing in a thunderous ripple that coalesced around one of the Collectors standing on the gangway. The creature twitched and convulsed, and a sickly yellow light poured out of its body and eyes. As suddenly as it had started, the noise stopped, and the Collector dropped its weapon and strode forward with terrible purpose, its body crackling with energy.
"You are vermin." The voice came from everywhere in the room, carrying a penetrative resonance that made Joker's skull ache.
Jack whirled, trapped between the praetorian, the bulkhead and the glowing Collector. Snarling in defiance, she stepped forward and slammed the yellow Collector with a massive wall of biotic energy. The alien raised its clawed hand, and the energy seemed to flow around it, swirling away like dissipating smoke.
"Your resistance is inconsequential," the creature intoned. "You are not necessary. If you cannot be controlled, you will be eliminated."
Joker realized where he'd heard that implacable voice before- the recording of Sovereign's speech on Virmire. The glowing Collector threw out its arm, and energy washed off of it. Instead of the usual blue, it was the same yellowish as the creature's eyes, streaked with black. The strange energy slammed Jack off her feet, sending her into the back bulkhead with bone-shattering force.
"Jack!" Samara shouted, her cool voice breaking with anger.
The glowing Collector turned its baleful gaze to them, and seemed to fixate on Samara. "Asari; reliance upon alien species for reproduction shows genetic weakness."
Joker felt himself grabbed, and he wrenched himself around to see Thane pulling him up. Dark blood had soaked into the front of the assassin's jacket, and he was breathing in harsh gasps of exertion.
"The med bay!" Joker said, waving frantically with his free hand.
"Embrace perfection," the glowing Collector droned, advancing.
Thane began doggedly dragging Joker across the room. Beside them, several stray chairs lifted off the floor in a flash of blue and flung themselves at the glowing Collector.
"Yeah, I don't think you want me in your perfection, ugly!" Joker shouted.
The massive praetorian, unimpressed with the meager show of defiance, turned in the air, eyes aglow as the whining howl started up. Samara backed toward them, flinging anything she could tear off the floor at the glowing Collector, who was batting the projectiles out of the air in flashes of yellow.
"Jack!" Samara shouted again. "Get up, child!"
Twin bolts of energy lanced out of the praetorian's eyes as Thane twisted Joker bodily out of the way. The heat that washed over the pilot was so intense he expected his uniform to burst into flames. The metal of the bulkhead gave a series of sharp cracks as it distorted, filling the air with the sharp stink of melting alloys. Just before they knifed Joker and the drell in half, the beams veered away, crossing the ceiling. Joker stole a glance across the room through swirling smoke, and saw Jack, awkwardly propped up against the far wall with her arms raised. Then his view was wrenched away as Thane dragged him through the open med-bay door.
There was another shout. Something body-shaped crashed into one of the med-bay windows, shattering the security glass into an opaque lattice of cracks. Then a thick wedge punched right through the center of the window. Joker stared open-mouthed at what must have been the end of one of the praetorian's huge clawed legs, dripping thick crimson viscera.
The metal claw yanked itself out of the window, taking most of the security glass with it. Beyond, a forest of yellow eyes glowed in the smoky air.
"Close the door, pilot!"
Behind Joker, Thane had a handful of Samara's black bodysuit, hauling the asari into the room.
"EDI," Joker called, "the quarantine!"
"Initiating level five medical quarantine," the AI responded.
Shutters slammed closed over the windows, and a pair of thick bars sprang from the doorframe to cross over the portal, threading through the support structure. The noise from the mess hall dimmed into the distance, leaving the three of them panting in the sudden stillness and too-bright light.
"No..." Samara breathed. She stared across the room to the blood-streaked shutter, her fists clenched, shocks of dark energy dancing in her colorless eyes..
Thane pressed the heel of his hand into his bleeding temple. "Much more is at stake if we don't keep moving."
She nodded. "Do what you must, Mister Moreau."
Trembling, fighting the nausea trying to force its way up his body, the pilot shuffled toward the mainframe room door. It too bore the same reinforced lock bars, and the holo over it glowed red. "EDI, we need to get in."
"I am attempting to bypass a section of the quarantine protocol," the AI's cool voice replied.
There was a thud from the door behind them, then another. Both the aliens tensed, casting each other a look.
Joker rubbed a hand over his arm, which still felt the heat of the praetorian's directed-energy rays. "Yeah, uh, any way you could do that faster?"
"Quarantine protocols are not meant to be bypassed under normal circumstances," EDI said. The lights in the room flickered. "Alert. Main fusion plant offline. Activating emergency H-fuel cells."
"What the-"
The bolts on the door snapped back into their casing, and it cycled open. "A power fluctuation was the only way to bypass the door," EDI explained.
The thudding behind them intensified. Joker decided not to ask any more questions and limped into the dim mainframe room, the two aliens on his heels. The door slammed shut behind them and bolted.
Joker eyed the console standing by the bulky AI mainframe. "All right, I'm at, uh, you."
EDI's avatar popped into being. "Connect the core to the Normandy's primary control module. There is a series of breakers below this console."
"Great," Joker muttered, bending down. His right leg hurt from where he'd been smacked into the wall. He groped around under the console. "See, this is where it starts. When we're all just organic batteries, guess who they'll blame?"
His questing fingers found the metal covers. He pried them up, gritting his teeth. Switches like this were built deliberately analog, so no program could affect them. Nor any AI. "I can hear it now. 'This is all Joker's fault! What a tool he was. I have to spend all day computing pi because he plugged in the overlord.'" He went down the line of breakers, snapping them into position.
The lights went out, plunging them into darkness. Joker froze. A moment later, there was a throaty hum, and full lighting returned.
"I have access to the defensive systems," EDI said. "Thank you, Mister Moreau. Now you must reactivate the primary drive in engineering."
"We can't go back out there!" the pilot snapped.
There was a clunk and a hiss from behind him, making him jump. He whirled around to see the lid of a maintenance shaft into the floor opening.
"This shaft connects to the engineering deck. Good luck."
Joker shuffled over to the shaft and peered down. Humid warm air wafted up from below. "Spiffy."
"I will go first," Samara said, stepping onto the ladder.
As they shuffled through the maintenance shaft, Joker invented several colorful new curses and tried not to pay attention to the swaying backside of the alien in front of him, which was far more shapely than the absurdity of this situation should have allowed for. The temperature in the shaft increased until they finally found the right exit into the heat exchanger Jack had so recently called home. The sight of her spartan cot made his stomach writhe.
Thane dropped silently out of the tube, then stopped and held up a hand, making a strange sign. The justicar seemed to to understand his intent and froze, laying a hand on Joker's forearm. Above them, heavy footsteps sounded on the floors. Lighting from up above threw long, inhuman shadows into the stairwell leading upward. They waited as long as they dared, then Thane crept up the stairs, indicating for them to follow.
Gunfire burst from somewhere ahead of them, the sound bouncing off the angled hallways.
"That is not a Collector weapon," Samara murmured.
Thane jogged to the doorway to the engine room and tapped the lock holo before slipping back to the cover of the doorframe. The portal cycled open, right into the person of Zaeed and the smoking corpses of a pair of Collectors. The mercenary whirled, his rifle held ready. It was an older M-8 Avenger. The Normandy's silvery engine core loomed behind him, silent but apparently undamaged.
"Massani!" Thane said.
"Son of a bitch! What the hell is going on?" the mercenary demanded, lowering the weapon. "Comms are fucked, the Cerberus gun crapped out, and the halls are full of Collectors!" He aimed a vicious kick at one of the dead aliens.
"Oh, we're having a grand old time," Joker quipped. "You missed the party upstairs!"
"Where have you been?" Thane asked.
Zaeed waved his rifle. "In Starboard Cargo trying not to get stuck by one of their sodding mosquitoes, that's where!"
Joker shuffled over to the engineering console that was flashing in an obvious attempt to attract his attention. He recognized the primary ignition sequence that was displayed there and tapped the commands to purge the fuel lines and re-initialize the reactor.
"Activate the drive," EDI said, appearing above the console. "I will modulate the element zero core to compromise inertial damping in key areas. All remaining hostiles will be killed."
"What about the crew?" Joker demanded. "Garrus-"
"Garrus Vakarian has barricaded the door to the main battery. He will be safe."
With a trembling hand, Joker touched the switch that initiated the final drive start-up sequence. "But everyone else..."
"The Collectors took them. They're gone, Jeff," EDI said. "I am sealing the engine room."
The spherical drive core pulsed. Behind them, a kinetic barrier sprang into being, sealing them in to the small gantry. A deep, throbbing hum began to build, echoing around the high-walled containment chamber. The air around the core shimmered. A wave of energy surged off the core, and the whole structure lurched, throwing them to the ground and making stars explode in Joker's vision.
"Are we done?" the pilot muttered plaintively to the ceiling.
"I am sorry," EDI said from somewhere above and behind him. "The inertial dampers were not designed to be used this way. It was necessary to create enough momentum to kill the remaining Collectors in the cargo bay."
"Are we away?" Thane asked, pulling himself to his feet.
"Yes," EDI replied. "I am randomizing point-five-degree course corrections every ten seconds. They will not be able to follow."
Scattering. At FTL speeds, even tiny course changes would generate an exponential number of possible locations for a pursuer to check. Hiding in deep space... wasn't all that hard. When you weren't broadcasting your location, anyway. Joker sighed and accepted Samara's outstretched hand.
"Well, isn't this just bloody fantastic," Zaeed snarled. "Shepard runs off to play pals with that damn bucket of bolts, and we get the Collectors rammed up our arse. Nice job, Moreau."
"Oh yeah, all part of the plan!" Joker shot back.
"We did everything we could," EDI said.
"EDI, is Jack..." Samara asked.
"Jack's lifesigns were zero before we made the jump," the AI replied. "I am sorry."
"Brilliant!" Zaeed said, throwing his arms up in disgust.
The justicar flickered blue, making Joker cringe against the bulkhead. He'd had enough close contact with dark energy today to last several lifetimes. Thane reached out and placed a hand on Samara's shoulder. Ignoring the asari, Zaeed blistered the air with several more curses, then stalked out the door.
"He knows not what he says," Thane said.
Samara shook her head, her expression weighed down with a sadness that seemed ancient. "I have few regrets, assassin, but I can regret for those that will not. For a life taken before it even began."
Joker leaned against the railing, leaving the aliens to their moment. His leg hurt, and his arm was turning the angry pink of a first-degree burn. He gingerly scraped a hand over his face.
"Are you okay, Jeff?"
Joker stared at the AI's glowing eye for a long moment. "No, but... thanks for asking. Call Shepard, would you?"