Once the portal had been explained, Tali naturally insisted on testing it. The Normandy was capable of getting high resolution pictures from orbit, so they grabbed a blue shirt, tossed it through the portal, and watched as it flew out in real time. "If I hadn't already learned how to produce light with a snap of my fingers, I'd be complaining about the laws of physics right now," Tali said, sounding faintly ill.
"That is scary impressive, Tats," Vega said. "But I'm still waiting for you to beat a Reaper laser with a rock."
"It was a really big rock," Shepard added. "Everyone ready to go?" Helmets locked into place, heat sinks snapped into place, and everyone nodded. For a brief moment, she wished they hadn't sent Conrad and Jack and their students off to Hackett on the captured Cerberus ship before jumping out to Dholen.
Vega and Garrus were first through, with Shepard and Liara on their heels, EDI and Tali behind them, and Nameless bringing up the rear. They emerged from a natural stone arch only slightly too small to drive a Mako through. As Nameless stepped away, the portal vanished, but it reopened when he put his hand on the stone. "At least we can retreat if things go badly," he said nervously.
"We're going to get in there, gank this Reaper," she glanced with amusement at Vega as she used his word, "and get out while the geth are recovering. Then maybe we can figure out what happened to Legion and strike a more lasting peace." Lifting her sniper rifle, Shepard motioned them forward.
They covered the three-quarter kilometer distance quickly, the arid desert baking under local summer heat. To their surprise, no geth units appeared to stop them until after EDI hacked the door into the facility. Then various platforms, basic at first, started emerging to confront them, until finally they were stuck in a sort of courtyard, with two primes in front of them and a trio of juggernauts coming up behind them.
Gunfire and tech attacks were strong enough to keep them from being completely pinned down, and despite his still rather novice skill with a pistol, Nameless was helping to at least keep the geth off balance. Glancing up ahead, he saw the tell-tale shimmers of geth infiltrators coming up from behind the primes. Growling under his breath, he continued firing wildly, looking around for inspiration.
As inspiration struck, he ducked out of cover, running up one wall to grab onto the overhead beams holding the sunshade, and launched himself into a graceful tuck and roll, landing behind the infiltrators. Reaching out, he grabbed ones weapon, turning it and blasting one of the primes in the back before it could react. The one next to it he did the same, only blasting the first infiltrator instead. The backshot prime staggered suddenly as Liara's biotics started shredding its outer layer, and a moment later Garrus' sniping left it headless.
With their cloaks down, the geth infiltrators were much easier targets, and the wounded one dropped as Nameless looked around quickly, spying a third one heading his way. Casually, he reached out and tapped it on the shoulder, causing it to pause and look around, somehow not seeing him from two feet away. He waited until it took a step past him, reaching up and snapping the backwards and down, leaving it paralyzed.
With the primes now down, everyone could focus on the juggernauts, retreating while firing. When those foes had fallen as well, they took a brief moment for a breather. "Commander, we may not need to descend into the facility to stop the Reaper," EDI said suddenly.
Shepard swallowed a mouthful of water from her supply, looking interested. "Alright, why not?"
"From my analysis, the Reaper is broadcasting a control signal to an amplifier in orbit, most likely on board the geth super-dreadnought. If we can reach the roof, we can disable the broadcasting equipment." EDI pointed to a nearby part of the facility, three stories taller than their current location – a roof that bristled with both equipment and weaponry. "The Reaper will still be able to control local geth, but the ones in orbit will no longer be under Reaper control."
"So we can talk to them, convince them to help us," Shepard mused. "Can we get up there?"
"It is well defended," EDI cautioned, "but we will face less opposition than reaching the bottom of the facility to cut off power to the Reaper."
"Alright then, let's move," Shepard ordered, and everyone started trotting towards the door that, hopefully, would lead to stairs.
Tali was looking around widely, even as she held her shotgun professionally. "One thing bothers me about this place," she said. "Why would the geth design a building with a courtyard? It's not really functional, organics build them to add aesthetic and beauty to a building."
"Maybe they're more like you than you thought," Garrus said, putting his back against the wall while EDI hacked the lock.
"Keelah, Vakarian, you don't need to tell me that," Tali shot back. "I fought with Legion."
"And sometimes beside him, too," the turian continued, causing the quarian's glowing eyes to narrow.
The door popped open, and Vega and Garrus stormed inside, quick bursts from their assault rifles taking down two basic geth platforms as everyone else piled through the doors behind them. "Now I'm really weirded out," Tali said, gesturing at a sign. "Why would geth need to put up signs in Khelish?"
Everyone glanced at the sign, though without pulling up a VI translation no one else could read it. It was still clear, with arrows pointing in several directions. "According to the sign, stairs are this way," EDI said, pointing down a side corridor. "The geth could have changed the signs, or even set it up as a distraction, however."
Shepard paused for a moment, staring at the sign, then finally shook her head. "We'll follow it for the moment. Stairs, that way, move out." They continued forward, taking out a group of hoppers that came popping out of the side rooms, and opening the door.
To their surprise, there was a stairwell, simple treads covered in dust and built closer to quarian size than human. "Huh," Vega said, looking over the safety railing down. "This thing looks like it runs the height of the building."
"Does that sign say roof access, maybe?" Liara said, gesturing at painted marks on the wall. When Tali nodded, she pointed up. "Three flights up, or twelve flights down. I'm in favor of up."
The stairs were just barely wide enough for them to climb, two at once, the treads high enough to make everyone but Tali take them one at a time. Somewhere below them, several flights at least, they could hear the heavy tromps of juggernauts and primes heading their direction. The roof access door was unlocked, and they stepped back out into the harsh sunlight, blinking rapidly. "Tali, seal the door. Weld if it you have to. Garrus, EDI, get those guns under our control – I don't think the Reaper will mind taking out some hacked troops if it gets us too. Everyone else?" She pointed her sniper rifle at a control box for one of the antennas, blowing the box into fragments. "Smash stuff."
Nameless pulled out the knives he still carried, using them to slice through cables and even, with a little effort, sever the supports for one antenna tower, tilting it crazily to the side. Vega had immediately swapped to his shotgun, blowing holes in the receiving dishes. "Shepard, we got the guns," Garrus said, a moment before they felt a small tremor in the building. "What was that?"
"The Reaper has exited the facility," EDI said, as it came into view, hovering some two hundred meters away, obviously sizing them up. "Opening fire."
Each corner of the building had missile launchers, similar to the Javelin launchers the Normandy used, and spaced evenly between those were smaller anti-personnel turrets. Liara was already standing on one, pulling the triggers and spitting a line of probably futile rounds at the destroyer-class Reaper. It dodged suddenly in the air, three of the four missiles sliding past it, the other leaving not much more than a scorch mark on the outside of its armor.
It landed, opening up the red eye, and everyone threw themselves to cover as it raked the roof of the building with the red beam. One of the missile launchers exploded, and Liara screamed as a piece of it slammed into her legs, pinning her. EDI calmly cycled the missiles again, and the Reaper closed the plates over its eye, again taking to the air to dodge.
Nameless was crouched at the edge of the building, a prickling sensation running up his spine. Some part of him had recognized the pattern, and he knew how to get out there to disrupt it. The problem, of course, was that it would have another shot before he could. Without hesitating, he threw himself off the roof just before the Reaper came back to the ground, opening its eye again.
He heard the chattering as two of the turrets opened up, spitting rounds the size of his finger at the synthetic monster. Somehow, he'd leapt four stories straight down, without breaking a bone, and his sprint outpaced the fastest geth unit. He heard the missiles fire again, and watched the Reaper take to the air. It had waited a fraction of a second too long this time, as an explosion enveloped one leg, leaving the armor panels cracked and melted from the blow.
He jumped off the facility, another four story drop to the arid mesa soil, leaving a dusty wake that he expected the Reaper would ignore, charging towards where he somehow knew it was going to land. In the split-second before the monster touched down onto the soil, he closed into range, and both knives flashed.
The Reaper hit the ground and staggered to the side. It had favored the already damaged leg, and the sudden, unseen strike had left one of its functional feet suddenly useless, stabbing deep enough to strike bedrock. The red eye had already started opening as it lurched, trying to pull that leg free. Then Nameless slashed into another one, several power cables and communication lines, leaving a second foot non-responsive and locked in place.
Since it was primarily synthetic, with the much higher reaction time that entailed, the quarter of a second between this and the missile impact was more than enough for the Reaper to realize just how screwed it was at that particular moment. Two missiles slipped between the already-closing armor plates, their explosives amplified by the enclosed space.
Ponderously, the dead Reaper swung to one side, crashing into the ground heavily to toss Nameless off of his feet. He lay there, a dust cloud swirling around him, and started laughing. He had seen pictures of the previous him fighting a thresher maw on foot, and thought that was insanely dangerous. Now, he'd apparently taken on a Reaper, albeit a small one, in melee combat, and won.
Unexpectedly, his omni-tool suddenly crackled to life. "Nameless, are you alright?" Shepard asked urgently.
"I'm fine. Patch things up with the geth, I'll walk back," he responded, still laughing.
"To the geth Consensus, this is Commander Shepard. Please respond to me. I came here to free you from Reaper control," she said, obviously broadcasting on an open channel.
For several seconds, there was no response. "Shepard-Commander," Legion broadcast back, "we thank you. However, sensors indicate the Creator fleet is powering up weapons to destroy us. Our Consensus turned to the Reapers because we knew the Creators were coming to destroy us."
"All quarian vessels, this is Admiral Zorah," Tali said. "Do not fire!"
"This is Shepard. The first ship that fires on the geth will be fired upon by the Normandy. Hold your fire." Nameless sat up, his good humor vanished.
"This is Admiral Xen, continue your attack run." He stood up, his spine crawling with ice up into his brain. "This is our best chance to destroy the geth for good!"
"If you attack the geth, you will die," he said suddenly, icy fury pouring through his veins.
"You can't stop this," Han'Gerral said. "We are going to finish this war, and then, with Rannoch secured, we'll help Shepard fight the geth."
"Then die," Nameless said. One strangled gasp came through the channel, followed by a heavy thud.
"Admiral Gerral is dead," a quarian said faintly. "He, he just, oh keelah!"
"You will call off your attack now, or I swear by my immortal heart I will slaughter every last one of you," he said, even as the cold prickling vanished, being replaced by confusion. How did he do that? They were not even in orbit, they were still off, halfway to the orbital track of the next planet, and somehow he reached across millions of kilometers and struck down a man with a single word.
"This is Admiral Raan, call off the attack immediately!"
"Admiral Koris, confirming that. All ships, hold position. Shepard, we will await your decision," Zaal chimed in, though he didn't seem too happy about it.
"Commander, I have a firing solution, and Xen's ship is continuing to accelerate towards the geth fleet," Joker said.
Shepard only hesitated for half a second at most. "Take the shot, Joker." Tali sobbed in the background.
Another few seconds of tense silence went by. "The Moreh is disabled, Commander. Engines and main drive are offline, they are floating dead in space."
"Admiral Raan and I will send over a marine squad to seize control of the ship and place Daro'Xen in custody," Zaal said heavily.
"Good. Legion, are the geth rebooted?" Shepard demanded.
"We are. Clearance lanes are being provided for landing." Legion hesitated a moment before continuing. "Shepard-Commander, we must know how you managed to land on the surface without being detected. Even the Normandy cannot remain stealthed when producing an atmospheric wake."
"Magic, Legion," she said tiredly. "Magic. Nameless, get back here. You're going to be security for a peace conference. Raan, Koris, I want both of you and a couple of senior captains to replace Gerral and Xen, here on the surface in an hour. We're going to have a peace treaty before sunset, or else."
"Understood, Commander," Shala responded. Nameless looked up at the wall of the facility he'd jumped off, trying to figure out how to get back inside and up to the top.