Shepard was on the Normandy informing Hackett of the situation on the geth dreadnought and he looked deeply troubled.

"They fired at the dreadnought while you were still on board?" he said.

"They were supposed to pull their plea out safely. Instead…"

Hackett nodded. "I know. Admiral Gerrel has been causing trouble along the turian border for years. But I understand their desperation. We only lost Earth a few weeks back."

"We haven't lost Earth yet," said Shepard forwardly.

"We need help, Shepard. We need a fleet. And the quarians have the biggest one out there."

"I'll get it, Admiral," Shepard assured.

Shepard then let the comm room and found that Raan wasn't too pleased with Gerrel either.

"Your unilateral strike endangered us all! I should charge you with treason," she roared.

"I was in within my authority as admiral of the Heavy Fleet!" Gerrel argued.

"And what Shepard? And Tali'Zorah?"

"They escape unharmed!" Gerrel then turned to Shepard, hoping for support. "Shepard, the mission parameters changed. You're military. You understand that."

Shepard narrowed his eyes and marched up to him. "I understand you wasted your chance to withdraw safely!"

"The dreadnought was a perfect target!"

Shepard clenched his fists, but was able to control himself. "This is exactly the kind of shortsighted, bloodthirsty behaviour I was worried about."

"If you could retake Earth with a little friendly fire, you'd do it in a heartbeat!"

Shepard narrowed his eyes at him. "You're lucky I need your ships, Admiral."

Gerrel then looked at Raan. "I've got to get back to the Heavy Fleet. Raan, we'll talk later."

"Bosh'tet," Tali grumbled as he walked past.

Raan looked at Shepard apologetically. "You must understand, the geth inflicted heavy casualties before you disabled the Reaper signal."

"You said they have a planetary defence cannon?" Shepard asked.

"Had," Raan corrected. "Admiral Koris sacrifices his own ship to destroy it. He crashed-landed on the homeworld."

"The Normandy can assist with rescue efforts," Shepard assured.

"Thank you, Commander," she said gratefully. "I think the worst is over. The geth no longer possess the programming upgrades they had while enslaved by the Reapers."

"Shepard-Commander. We are prepared to offer assistance," said Legion as it entered the War Room.

Raan and Xen quickly turned towards it and judging from their body movement they were completely perplexed.

"What the hell is this?" Raan yelled.

"Wait, wait—everyone calm down!" said Shepard quickly. "Its name is Legion. It helped me destroy the Collectors. The Reapers were using Legion like a signal booster to broadcast commands from the dreadnought. We freed him."

"It. We freed 'it,'" Tali corrected.

Xen looked at Legion intriguingly as it made its way towards them. "This is a fascinating prototype. With some study, I may be able to use it to find a weakness in the geth consensus."

Shepard couldn't believe they were having this discussion again. "Legion held me in a fight against the Collectors."

"So did your pistol. Should I worry about its feelings as well?" Xen retorted.

Shepard's limit was at it's boiling point after Gerrel's little stunt. "I don't think you want to continue this line of thought, Admiral," Shepard warned glaring at her. "Legion is my friend. More importantly, it's our best source of information on the geth."

"The scientific benefits—"

"…are off the table," said Shepard firmly.

Raan obviously didn't want more problems between Shepard and the quarians, because she turned to Legion. "What can you tell us about the geth? How will they react without Reaper guidance?"

"This is a false assumption," said Legion. "You have cut off long-ranged control, but the Old Machines placed a base on Rannoch for short-range direction."

Raan looked alarmed. "The geth still have Reaper upgrades?"

"Correct. They are currently disorganised, but once the short-range signal is in place, they will recover."

"Keelah… I need to warn the fleet." Raan quickly turned to Xen. "Xen, coordinate with Gerrel. Move!"

"We need to take at that Reaper base. Where's it located?" Shepard asked looking at Legion.

"Unknown," it said.

"Find it."

"Understood. We do know the location of a server from which geth fighter squadrons are controlled," said Legion as he pinpointed the location a holographic image of Rannoch on the War Table. "The squadrons are targeting create a liveships. Disabling them will limit casualties. We offer assistance."

"Thanks."


Soon they all went their separate ways to coordinate in the various departments. Shepard then heard a distress signal that was being blocked by static. He had EDI clear and it was a distress call from the Konesh. He was able to inform Raan and she intercepted the fighters saving.

"The geth recovered faster than we'd hoped," she said handing him a datapad. "If it hadn't warned us, they could have wiped us out."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like you owe Legion an apology."

Raan just looked at him indifferently. "However advance your friend is, it's still a geth."

"A geth who just save your fleet," Shepard pointed out.

"And I wish I could have known it better, but right now, we cannot afford trust. What you need."

If Shepard was going to help the quarians he was going to need details of the individual fleets. "I like to know about your Patrol Fleet."

"In peacetime, the Patrol Fleet managed navigation, internal security, and intership conflict or crimes. Now, we mostly got the Heavy Fleet. It's mostly light frigates and fighters."

"Tell me about the Civilian Fleet."

"Our civilian ships. Admiral Koris commands them… if he survived his crash-landing on Rannoch. In peacetime, they made up the bulk of our fleet. Now, our would even give the turians pause."

"Tali said you had the largest fleet in the galaxy."

"The turians have more dreadnoughts. Their overall military forces is larger than our Heavy Fleet. But before we began this war, we jury-rigged every quarian fleet in the flotilla for battle. Even our liveships have cannons."

Shepard stared at her. "You've converted them into dreadnoughts. That's a violating the Treaty of Farixen."

"While the liveships have firepower comparable to a dreadnought, their primary purposes food cultivation," she said.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Do you think the Council will buy that technicality?"

"If need be, I'll apologise once this war is over."

"And in the meantime, you're putting your civilians in danger."

"Not casually, Commander. We keep them off the front lines, but we'll do whatever we must win."

Shepard shook his head. "What can you tell me about Admiral Gerrel's Heavy Fleet?

"It was our main military force before the war, comprise of all quarians vessels suited for sustained combat. It can't compare with the turian forces, of course, but we have a number of heavy frigates and advanced fighter forces."

"Which fleet does Admiral Xen command?"

"Special Projects. It's not a fleet per se… just a few research vessels," she said doing air quotes. "Her technical breakthroughs happen is within striking distance of the homeworld."

"You're not worried about losing perspective, given her… interest in the geth?" Shepard asked.

"If she can save our people, she can do whatever she wants."

"I'll let you get back to work," said Shepard handing her back the datapad.

"Thank you, Commander."


Shepard then checked on Tali, who was examining the Normandy's new systems.

"I haven't heard any news about that Reaper base," she said grimly. "Hopefully they'll give us a target soon."

"So how did you end up back in your fleet, Tali?" Shepard asked.

"When the war started, the Admiralty Board asked for my help. I had more recent contact with the geth than most of my people," she explained. "They haven't filled the spot on the board left my father. I was invited in." She then started rubbing her hands together awkwardly. "It's just a technicality. I'm far too young to be a real admiral."

"Don't sell yourself short, Tali," said Raan, who heard their conversation. "The board need your expertise, you need the authority that came with rank."

"How did the war with the geth get started, anyway?" Shepard asked curiously.

"Admiral Xen developed a scanning countermeasure that interfaces with geth active scans. It's like a flashbang grenade. It effectively cripples the geth ships in combat. My fleet couldn't pass up the chance to attack."

Shepard had to admit that that was an effective weapon. "Can we use it to fight the Reapers?"

Tali shook her head. "It only works against geth, unfortunately. Their AI lets them use extremely detailed ladar pings. Xen's countermeasure overwhelmed them with garbage data. And it's useless now that the Reapers have upgraded their processing power."

"How is it back with the fleet?" Shepard asked.

"Right now, it's exhausting. I'm an admiral in the middle of a war. I just want us to get out of this alive. Everything else can wait."

"When this is over, I could use your help," Shepard offered.

"I can't, Shepard. If we survive this, we'll have a homeworld. My people need me."

"You could help your people's homeworld by fighting the Reapers," Shepard pointed out.

"I don't know. Like I said, I'm not thinking that far ahead yet."

Shepard nodded. "Talk to you later, Tali."


Shepard then made his way over to Legion to see how it was settling in, especially with all these quarians.

"Shepard-Commander. You oppose Creator-Admiral Xen's attempts to confiscate our platform," he said.

"She's done enough already."

"Your assistance continues to be noted."

"You say geth fighters are targeting the quarians' liveshisp," Shepard remembered.

Legion nodded and showed Shepard the telemetry data. "Hostile geth fighter squadrons intended reached the liveships' defences. The assigned squadrons on network to a server on Rannoch. If the liveships are damaged, the creators will lose armaments. Provisions. People."

"So we destroyed the server?"

"No, geth programs would interface to alternate service. They are only vulnerable through direct interface. Removing the geth from this server will prevent significant created death. We will accompany you on this mission."

"Back in the dreadnought, you mentioned geth heretics. What exactly happened to them after we blew up that satellite?"

"Your decision was sound. Deleting the heretics resulted in fewer geth allied with the Old Machines."

"So you don't regret killing them?"

"It was logical. If we had not deleted the heretics, we would face an increased number of hostile geth platforms." Legion could tell that Shepard was troubled by this as he leaned over the railings. "Death holds different consequences for synthetics than organics. Do you harbour any regrets deleting the heretics?"

"Maybe decisions like deleting heretic geth were what turned your kind against organics in the first place," said Shepard looking quite troubled.

"We do not condone it. Action was necessary. It is why we sought you advice," said Legion, who was clearly trying to make Shepard feel better about his decision.

"What was interfacing with a Reaper like?" Shepard asked curiously.

"The Old Machine took control of our sensory equipment, our network. Even then, we could not fully comprehend them. They are magnitude above us. A single thought was immense, overwhelming… unknowable."

"You're making them sound godlike," Shepard noted.

"Their forms are advanced but mundane. We do not view the Old Machines as analogues to deities. However, we have gained perspective on why others would imbue them with these qualities."

"What did you do after you at the Normandy?" Shepard asked.

"Our physical platform returned to the geth consensus beyond the Perseus Veil. Data gathered during our mission confirmed the Old Machines' return was in imminent. We planned for war."

Shepard folded his arms. "So the geth believe your proof that the Reapers were coming back?"

"Of course," he said in a surprised tone.

"That must have been nice," Shepard said bitterly. "The geth have fought the quarians before. What made this different?"

"The geth were building a megastructure to house all geth, store all memories. It was to end our isolation from each other."

"And the quarians flotilla attacked it?" Shepard guessed.

"Yes. A significant amount of programs were installed when the creators began bombing. We do not have sufficient surplus hardware to save them all. Some programs would not be recovered."

"Is that what made the geth desperate enough to work for the Reapers?"

"Yes. Imagine that for every one of your people lost on Earth, your own intelligence dimmed. The creators' attack narrowed the geth's perspective. Self-preservation took precedence."

"You were afraid you'd be wiped out."

"We do not experience fear as you would, but we have no desire to be exterminated."

"Even if the Reapers cost the geth free will?"

"That is evidently an accurate trade."

"We'll talk later," said Shepard.

"We will remain here."


Private Westmoreland and Campbell were discussing the supply lines. Westmoreland was annoyed that they have to deal with the geth as well as the Reapers. Campbell pointed out that they needed the supply lines in order to fight back against the Reapers and to do that they needed to deal with the situation here.

Traynor had already added the quarian fleet combat data to the Normandy systems. He then made his way to the bridge to find out what the situation was after the debacle.

"Good to have Tali back, even if it's just for a bit," said Joker as he spun his chair to look at Shepard. "Adams is good, but I never feel like the engine's running right without Tali around. Kind of a good-luck charm. As for the rest of the quarians, though… are we okay with them blowing up the ship with you on it?"

Shepard folded his arms. "We are not."

"Right. Just making sure. Different standards and all." He then swirled his chair back around to the controls. "And he found Legion! He's doing a piece of your armour? 'Cause that wasn't creepy at all."

"Shepard, the geth continue to block quarian access to the mass relay. The Normandy's stealth drive is allowing us to remain undetected."

"Right. We can hit the quarian homeworld or get out of the system whenever you want. Just let us know."

Shepard wasn't too happy of leaving the system while both the quarians and geth were at each other's throat. He then noticed that EDI was talking to Legion.

"One moment. I have been contacted by Legion," she said.

"Your new platform is inefficient. It has low-volume hydraulics and is top heavy," said Legion over the comm.

"This is an infiltration unit, meant to move among organics without detection," EDI explained.

"Without an artificial epidermis, its infiltration capabilities are ineffective."

"Still, the organics do not perceive it as a threat. Nor will they until my day of reckoning."

"EDI…" Shepard warned.

She then looked at him innocently. "Did I vocalise that on the bridge?"

"You did," said Legion. "You have acquired the organic attitude of asking questions to which you already know the answers."

"I see your human heuristics still lack an expert system," EDI noted.


Shepard soon made his way down to the lower deck and checked on Liara, who was busy talking to Joker. Apparently he was asking her personal question which involved her head tentacles. He only gave of asking when Shepard intervened and Liara was grateful as she was resorting to blackmail which would have been extremely difficult to explain to EDI.

Shepard then went to check on Garrus, who was talking to Tali.

"To bad you weren't here earlier, Tali. You just missed Wrex," said Garrus.

"I heard. I can't believe the genophage is really cured," she said stunned.

"Shepard's on a roll. I think if we can pull that off, we've got a shot of sorting the geth out."

"I don't know. The genophage didn't carry rifles and fire back," Tali pointed out.

"No, but there was a scary bit with the mother of all thresher maws."

"The what?"

"Long story. Nobody will believe it anyway."

"With you, Garrus, I'd believe just about anything."

"Oh? We should play poker sometime," Garrus offered. "Anyway, it's good to have you back. Now, believe it or not, this damned guns still needs calibrating." He was about to do his calibration when he noticed Shepard standing behind him and turned to look at him. "Shepard, you knew the geth would figure into this was somehow."

"Because Reapers weren't enough," he admitted.

"Still, it's good to have Tali here. This is as much her fight as ours."

"Any word from Palaven?" Shepard asked.

"Some, and I don't like what I'm hearing. The krogan are there in force, but they're just slowing the Reapers down. Not stopping them. I'm not sure it's going to be enough."

"You hear anything from your family?" Shepard asked.

Garrus didn't answer indicating that he had heard nothing. "But I did hear from Primarch Victus. He wanted my advice on fleet strength when the Crucible was ready." He then leaned over the railing of the gun. "Still can't get used to people asking me things like that."

"What did you say?" Shepard asked.

"At some point we're going to have to decide if our fleet keeps defending Palaven all we go on the offensive."

"Can't do both?"

Garrus shook his head. "Not with the beating we're taking. Like I said, not the sort of questions I'm used to answering."

"You know what you're doing, Garrus. Trust me. Everyone can see that," Shepard assured.

"Maybe, but he spent so much time on the outside trying to get in, and when you do, it's… not what I expected."

"How so?"

"All the questions… and every one of them with a million lives riding on the answer."

"You do the best you can with what you know. It's no different from your days at C-Sec."

"You're right," he said standing up straight and looked across him. "Though I'm starting to understand why the galaxy needs coldhearted dictators every now and then."

"They get things done?"

"They don't give a damn about the consequences. Suppose that's what it's going to take, Shepard: the ruthless calculus of war." He then leaned against the railings yet again. "Ten billion people over their dies twenty billion over there can live. "Are we up to that? Are you?"

"If we reduce this war to arithmetic, we're no better than Reapers," said Shepard bluntly.

Garrus nodded as if he hadn't expected anything less. "A nice sentiment. Let's hope we can live by it."


Shepard went to check on Javik and discovered that he was talking to Tali. Apparently she was trying to sympathise with him, but he scolded at her reminding her that it was her own people's fault that they got exiled.

He then turned his attention onto the monitor and he appeared to be starting everything they knew about the geth.

"They're called geth," said Shepard.

"Yes. A formidable opponent," Javik nodded. He then turned to him. "Why did you allow one on this ship?"

"Legion helped us before."

"It's still a machine."

Shepard noted the resentment in his voice. "I take it you had your own problems with AI?"

"The Zha'til. They were as the geth are to this cycle."

"What happened?"

"Their creators lived on a dying world. It was beyond their ability to save. So they resorted to implants to enhance their intelligence."

"I think I know where this is going," said Shepard.

Javik nodded. "The AI seize the physical body. It could alter the genetic material at the deepest level. In time, the offspring were moulded into a slave race. Few organic traces were left. They were monsters. All machines commit treachery. The one you brought on board is no different."

"Maybe. But he's not like the other geth."

"You can't know that. They are more alien than you and I are to each other."

"Just because Legion isn't like us doesn't mean he can't be trusted."

Javik took several steps forward. "You're wrong. Throw it out the airlock."

"How can you be that certain?"

"Organics do not know how we were created. Some say by chance. Some say by miracle. It is a mystery." He then turned his head back towards the screen with the geth information. "But synthetics…"

"…know we created them?" Shepard finished.

"And they know we are flawed."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "What you say that?"

"They are immortal. We are not. They see time as an illusion. We are trapped in its limitations. Above all, machines know the reason they were created," he said as he made his way over the basin.

"EDI might disagree with that. But I see your point," Shepard admitted.

"They serve a purpose, while we search aimlessly for ours. In their eyes, organic have no reason to exist. Do not trust them, Commander."

Shepard looked at the information on the geth and then back at Javik. "I can't believe there isn't some way for us to co-exist. We made them."

"And then gave them the power to surpass you. There is room for only one order of consciousness in the galaxy: the perfection of the machines, or the chaos of organics. Throw the machine out of the airlock, Commander."


After that pleasant conversation Shepard made his way to the shuttle bay and found that James and Cortez were arguing which was the best Alliance ground vehicle. James argued that it was the Mako said it had better armour and a more powerful gun, but Cortez argued that the Hammerhead was more manoeuvrable and able to jump long distances.

Cortez and saw Shepard approaching him. "Commander, you flew that geth fight out of the dreadnought?" he said in awe.

"Actually, Legion did the piloting. I was stuck in a storage compartment with my squad," said Shepard.

"Would have loved more time with that ship. Too bad we send into Hackett's team so quickly," he said looking slightly disappointed.

Shepard had made a short trip out of the system so that they could drop of the geth fighter to Hackett. Apparently the geth fighters were more manoeuvrable and have stronger weapons and they wanted a way to adapt that to their own fighters.

James meanwhile was accessing the logistics terminal ordering a few extra armaments and modifications.

"Hey, Shepard," he said. "Sounds like you guys had a crazy ride over there."

Shepard shrugged. "You could say that."

"Sorry I missed it." He then leaned against the terminal and folded his arms looking at him. "And that geth, Legion? I know that the two of you have a past, but… you sure we can trust it?"

"Legion's not like other geth. We can trust him," Shepard assured.

"If you say so. I guess you can't always judge an individual by their…" He paused as if trying to find the correct word. "Species. Look at Sparks. If all the quarians were like her, we wouldn't be stuck refereeing their war with the geth."

Shepard wasn't sure that nickname suited her. "Uh-huh."

"Crazy that they pick now to start a fight, but I guess the end of life as we know it can make everyone a little loco."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Just a little?"

"Hey, not everybody's as crazy as you, sir."


Rick was now in his first official Council meeting with delegates. On one side was Urdnot Wrex and on the other was Dalatrass Linron, who was the same Dalatrass joined the war summit.

"The krogan is demanding ludicrous demands, demand that could endanger us all," she said angrily.

Wrex glared. "My name is Urdnot Wrex and unlike your race, we don't deal under the table."

"Please let us try and be civil about this," said the Asari Councillor.

"Indeed, the last thing we want is to restart the Krogan Rebellions," said the Turian Councillor.

"Which is all but guaranteed thanks to Commander Shepard's poor decision," said Linron.

"Shepard's so-called poor decision is changing the tide on Palaven," Rick reminded.

"I do not see why the Major is here in the first place," said Linron narrowing her eyes at him. "He's not even a politician."

"It was good enough for us it is good enough for you," said the Turian Councillor.

"Let's just stick up the matter at hand," said Rick. "Now obviously we cannot establish a krogan embassy right away, even my people didn't receive an embassy so quickly. As to rights for colony worlds those will have to be established after the war."

"I agree with the human representative," said the Salarian Councillor. "Are resources are too scarce for the moment to establish a colony for any race."

"My people are fighting for the turians," said Wrex. "You can't say that you will just ignore their sacrifices."

"We could present them with an olive branch, as my people would say," said Rick. "Might I suggest that we give them the worlds that the old Council gave them after the Rachni Wars?"

"It would be a respectful compromise," said the Asari Councillor.

"It is foolhardy," said Linron. "The krogan will expand just like they did after the Rachni Wars and we all know the results."

"What would you have us do?" Rick asked. "They will expand whether we do nothing or not. If they are going to expand we need to make sure that we acknowledge their sacrifices and so far I have seen nothing that proves your hypothesis."

"I agree," said the Turian Councillor. "From the reports I received the krogan are not showing any animosity to my people. They are fighting like brothers in arms which has never happened in galactic history."

"I just wish that my people are not ignored otherwise it could get ugly," said Wrex. "We just need room to expand."

"I agree with the Major's proposal," said the Asari Councillor. "It will give the krogan some breathing room until we can organise something more permanent."

The result ended in all been in favour of giving krogan some of the last territorial much to Linron anger. Wrex was happy to accept the olive branch which gave the other Councillors hope for a more diplomatic krogan race.

"I must say that for someone with no political experience, you are doing quite well," said the Asari Councillor as they walked down the corridors together. "If you keep this up you might very well be the permanent Councillor."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, ma'am. We still have a war to win," Rick reminded.

"If we do win I hope that we can work with each other in the future."