Brothers in Steel Part 27: Break


John and James were doing push-ups in the Armory when Commander Shepard came down to speak with them. John had just passed the hundred mark, not even having broken a sweat, no strain apparent on his muscles. James was going strong too, but it had impacted him more heavily, as his breathing was becoming shorter and came in spasms, and sweat was starting to drip from his brow. John immediately got up from the ground and saluted the Commander, and James slowly got up and did the same. Then he said, "What brings you down here, Loco?"

John raised his eyebrow and Shepard sighed, "My nickname unfortunately, John. Though still better than yours. Or Tali's."

"Oh yeah, the Quarian. Heard you guys took out a Dreadnought together, or am I wrong?"

"We did," said the Commander modestly, "Then their Admiral fired on us while we were still inside the ship."

"That seems, extreme," said John.

"Yeah, I almost lost my cool. But I survived, so I let it go. We need the Quarians' ships to win this war. But that's not why I'm down here."

"Sir?" asked James.

"I'm unfortunately not going to be using you on the next set of missions. The Geth conflicts require people with a lot of hacking and technological expertise, people who know how to run multiple omni-tool programs at once, and also make sense of Geth coding. Now, John, you've not even met any Geth yet, and James, well, you said yourself Tech wasn't your specialty."

James laughed heartily and said, "Yeah, you're right, Loco, I'm not needed on this one."

"Sir," said John, "I can still shoot, sir."

"I know, and you'll get to shoot some soon enough, but for now, why don't you guys just enjoy a nice break?"

"Break?" said John. I don't know the meaning of the word, he thought to himself.

"Yeah. Be ready as always, but for now, I think we'll be good."

"Sounds good to me, though maybe not so much for you," said James with a grin, "Don't know how much trouble I'll get to know. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, as they say."

"I'm sure you'll manage," said the Commander, and with that, he left.

James didn't prove good on his threat, instead it was Cortez.


John came down to the armory one day, when he saw James and Cortez working on the ship. James called him over, so John shrugged and walked over to the shuttle.

"Hey, Silencio. Esteban made some upgrades to the ship. He wants to put it through its paces. You want to come with?"

John shrugged and got in the passenger side seat, next to Cortez.

"Taking off in one...," Cortez began to count, "two...three...and...we have liftoff."

The Normandy's hangar door opened and the shuttle zipped around the expanse of space, gracefully, like a figure skater might move across an ice rink. From outside the virtual windows, John could see that the Quarian fleet had surrounded the Normandy. Patchwork ships the colors of rusted metal floated around solemnly, all of them of different shapes and sizes.

"The Quarian flotilla," said Cortez, gesturing all around them, "The largest fleet in the galaxy. Seventeen million people on ships. Though they lost a bunch two days ago during the battle. And it was a pretty big one too. Though I didn't fly the Commander there, I just watched from the cockpit of the Normandy. Still, an impressive view."

A large piece of debris started floating towards them. It had a sizeable hole in it so Cortez said, "Alright time for some tricks. Here we go."

He jumped the accelerator, increasing the thrust, and then pulled into the hole, like I did to your mom's last night.

"That was a close one, Esteban," complemented James from the back, "You're getting bold."

"Well, you only live once," said the Pilot simply.

"Isn't there an acronym for that?"

"YOLO."

"Ah right. That's an old earth thing. My uncle said that once, that's why I remembered it."

The ship continued to fly through debris, up and under Quarian ships. A huge domed ship appeared on the window, and Cortez skillfully drove the ship under it, then over it in a loop, to come over it again.

"Fancy," said John.

"Yeah."

"A lot easier than flying a Shortsword."

"A what?"

"Its a jet. A space jet."

"Like the Trident. Man, I love the Trident. You want to give this a try?"

"Uhhh..." John hesitated, "You sure? I mean, this is your ship."

"Its fine, just don't do anything to fancy and you'll be fine my friend."

"Alright," John and Cortez switched seats. The controls seemed simple enough to John, it had a lot in similar actually to the Shortsword. "Anything I should know?"

"Yeah, I have it on automatic, press that button," the pilot pointed on a flashing orange screen, "And you can take manual. Be careful though, it can be sensitive."

John put it on manual and took full rein, making precise turns and giving out a smooth ride. A group of Quarian fighters flew by them, and John got in formation with them, flying behind them and moving with them in formation. The Quarians picked up on what he was doing and started to do more elaborate stunts, doing rolls and spins. John decided to follow Cortez's advice though and not attempt it.

Instead he turned around and started heading back towards the Normandy, "You want the controls back?" he asked.

"No, you're actually pretty good. A lot better than when I let Mr. Vega drive on Mars."

"Yeah," said James, "The whole reason Shepard promoted John above me, so that somebody less reckless will take over when he dies. Which could be more likely now that I heard Major Alenko won't be joining us again."

"Why not?" asked Cortez.

"Apparently, the Commander and him almost shot each other up there. The Major apparently didn't feel 'comfortable'", the Second Lieutenant said with disgust.

"What a load of horseshit," said Cortez in a calm tone, "Alenko would do much more good here as opposed to just sitting around, protecting the Council."

"Actually he's part of Hackett's new task force. I heard about it on Battlespace, that Diana Allers chick had a story on it. Also, did you know she actually tried to get on this ship for reporting? The Commander turned her down though. He wanted Emily Wong, but then she got killed on earth. Too bad on both accounts. They both had nice asses."

Cortez rolled his eyes. John grinned a little.

They pulled up into the Normandy with ease, John pulling down the acceleration and landing them with a sudden bump.

"Landing needed a little work, but besides that you could take over for me if I was like, sick or something."

"When do you ever get sick Esteban?" joked James.

"Lunchtime. Every damn day."

James laughed and John felt good.


John decided to go check in on Cortana.

What he found was something strange indeed.

She was already activating standing in her usual pink and blue state, but she was talking to something, and it wasn't human, asari, or turian. It was a creature made of metal, with man-like arms and legs, but a body like a chassis and a head that was curved and had a light-bulb on it, or what appeared to be a light-bulb anyway.

Cortana was speaking when John arrived, "So when John woke up, this creature, a giant tentacle monster named Gravemind had captured me and him, and had also captured a Sangheilli by the name of the Arbiter...oh hi John."

The light-bulb head turned to face John and said, "Greetings, Spartan-Lieutenant. We are the Geth platform known as Legion. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

The creature held out its hand to shake, and John raised an eyebrow at Cortana. She nodded and so John took the creature's hand. It had a killer grip and John had never felt something with so much pressure.

"You already know who I am, it sounds like."

" We already had knowledge on your bio and appearance before we exchanged date with Cortana-Intelligence. We have access to Normandy's files. We came to properly introduce and exchange data with Cortana-Intelligence."

"Legion is fascinating," said Cortana, clearly filled with awe, "It told me of its origins and its functionality. I would have never thought that multiple AI processes could be used so effectively. Makes me wonder if my Rampancy can be cured after all?"

"You told...Legion, this...Geth about your Rampancy?"

"No, we could tell immediately after connecting and analyzing Cortana-Intelligence. The circumstance that she is under is very interesting. It comes from a very flawed method of creating Artificial Intelligence. However, Cortana-Intelligence shows high levels of intelligence and memory skills."

John had trouble accepting that Cortana would allow herself to be called flawed, but he ignored it and said, "So can you fix her?"

"Insufficient data. It is possible that we could achieve it. We would have to run scans of Cortana's primary code sources, however."

"I'd be willing to do that," said Cortana cheerily.

"Very well. When time is appropriate, we shall do so, when conflict is over concerning Creators."

"Wait," said John, "I thought the Commander was fighting the Geth?"

"We are also Geth. We assist Shepard-Commander. The other Geth have been enslaved by the Reapers. Their consensus is corrupted. To help the Commander is to help the Geth."

"Consensus?"

Cortana explained, "Yes, the Geth are governed by consensus. Like I said before, they all have a bunch of AI programs within their bodies. Its very fascinating."

"As is your and Spartan-Lieutenant's entrance into this universe. We Geth theorized that there were many dimensions, but apparently that would now be confirmed."

John didn't have any more questions to ask so he merely said, "Alright. I'll leave you guys to it. I'll come back later, Cortana."

"Acknowledged." said Legion.

Cortana continued telling her story as John left.

John shrugged as he returned back to his room. There was nothing wrong with Cortana having a new AI friend, especially if he could help cure her Rampancy. But he couldn't help feel like something was wrong. But the Geth was there to stay, so John shrugged it off and went back to his Extranet-terminal.