Deus Ex Human Revolution is the property of Eidos and Square Enix

Mass Effect is the property of Bioware and Electronic Arts

Mass Effect: Human Revolution

Chapter 32: The Dream Machine part 4

~[h+]~

Lieutenant Corvin is voiced by Rory McCann

~[h+]~

Normandy — Cargo Bay

In the cargo bay of Normandy, Lieutenant Corvin had just finished talking to this Williams girl, discussing her future in the Alliance military. He leaned back against a large armor locker with his arms crossed, watching his two dozen men go through their training drills, making sure they were taking it seriously: he had insisted that they keep themselves in top form should the Normandy drop them in. He was, sadly, exempt from this, as he had just recently had his limbs reattached after his encounter with Jack's pet. The Normandy's doctor had insisted on him not exerting, despite the wounds being perfectly healed.

Don't fuck with the sawbones, he reminded himself.

That was when the captain of the ship, David Anderson, approached him.

"Who authorized those drills?"

"Piss off," said the gruff, tall Lieutenant after rolling his eyes.

Anderson could barely contain his outrage. "...Excuse me?"

"You wanted to start a polite, verbal dick-waving competition with me over who's in charge, a subtle back-and-forth in which you make clear who pissed on the lamppost first. You're a killer, I'm a killer: show some goddamned respect and tell me you want my men to stop directly."

"Alright then." Anderson leaned in, his glare full of menace. "Get those men to stop using MY cargo bay as a playground before I vent them out into space."

Corvin smiled, satisfied. "See? There, there's the look. Much better." With a wave of his hand, Corvin ordered his men to take an indefinite break. "We've got VR in those buckets they call helmets, anyways."

"So why bother with drills, then? You were just trying to piss everyone off?"

"No. Just trying to keep my men from going stir-crazy. There's no windows on this fucking tub, and it's tiny, and the goddamned elevator takes forever to go from one floor from another. Hmph. Anyways, is there anything else you want to ask of me, or can I get back to what I was doing?"

"You weren't doing anything."

"Not true. I was coming up with fantasizing about putting a bullet in Ramsus' brains." Corvin tapped his forehead, right in the center. "Right there."

"I thought you were here to extract him, not kill him."

Corvin chuckled. "Is that what Lawson told you? Heh, He lied. Ramsus went rogue."

That bit of information took Anderson completely by surprise. "What?! But we've put his name forward to become the next human Spectre!"

"I wouldn't put my money on that happening, ever, but my superiors think they can capture him and bring him back into the fold." he shook his head. "Hmph. They're going to fail."

"Bryce is a biotic accompanied by six men in power suits," said Anderson, referring to the heavily armed soldiers that the AIA agent had brought with him. Anderson had caught a glimpse of one of them without his helmet on, and to the captain's suprise, the man had turned out to be an albino. "I heard a few stories about Ramsus, but I don't think—

"— it's not good enough if they're going in for a capture. Bryce and the creeps following him are going to get chopped up, mangled, and posed, and when that happens..." Corvin stared longingly at his gun case: in it was a Widow modified with Phasic Ammunition, designed to pierce Shields and Barriers. "Me and these men will have to make sure that Ramsus can never harm anyone ever again."

"And if you fail?"

"Then you'll have to bomb the site from orbit."

"Not much faith in Lawson, I see."

"None. He's a liar, and smiler, and against Ramsus that simply won't be good enough. If I had my way we wouldn't even bother trying to get Ramsus back... but I have a duty to the AIA, and until the moment Bryce inevitably fucks up I have to follow his commands. What about you? Do you have a problem with Lawson?"

"I have a problem with every single one of you AIA spooks... But I don't have a choice. I'll do my duty."

"...hmph, none of us really have a choice, in the end."

Anderson left the AIA soldier, and mused on what he had just been told. If Ramsus had gone rogue, that meant the Council would have to pick from the other candidates... and that would spell disaster. The supernations of Earth were at each other's throats, waiting for something to break the stalemate. An agent granted nearly unlimited power by the Council would be an asset that might break the stalemate.

Hein. Hein put us all in this situation when he brought Grey to the Citadel.

The intercom beeped, and the voice of the ship's helmsman could be heard: "Joker to Captain Anderson? Draven found something on the scopes."

"Well, what is it?"

"...I think you should see this for yourself, sir."

~[h+]~

Normandy — CIC, helm.

"Sorry about calling you over, sir," said Joker. "But with Blacklight listening in, I figured it was best I didn't broadcast."

"Very wise, Joker," replied Anderson. He turned to Draven, who was sitting next to Joker in the sensor monitoring station. "Report, Draven."

"We detected an incoming vessel on IMREC, sir," she replied. "We barely caught it, but it's running cold: our sensors can't pick it up."

"A stealth ship? No, wait, don't tell me..."

"It's the Durendal, yes." She put an image up on her display, and a dark silhouette of the light cruiser was framed right in the middle of it.

"Hein..." Anderson muttered. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"The ship is headed towards Noveria at sublight, sir," continued Draven. "Its engines are off: she's running on inertia."

"Orders, sir?" asked Joker. "T'soni could still be in there..."

And it would be so easy to attack the Durendal, too: as a failed prototype, its firepower was negligible save for a few drones, which the Normandy's GARDIAN system could easily dispatch. Then again, this was Hein, and he had a bag of tricks bigger than the Citadel. "...No. Keep us in silent running. We're already on a mission, and I won't let Hein jeopardize it. Still, keep us as close to the Durendal as possible, and keep the optics on it. Report any change in the its behaviour."

"Aye, aye, sir," acknowledged the pilot and the sensor operator in unison.

As he left, Anderson told himself: "There's no telling what this madman is plotting at this very moment."

~[h+]~

Durendal — Hein's quarters

It had taken much effort, and much sacrifice, but it was finished. Mad, they called him. Couldn't be done they said... but Hein had succeeded in restoring the ancient data storage device, and was now viewing its contents on the screen of his laptop, leaning back in his leather chair with his feet up on his desk

"Do the splits!" screamed Finn.

"Err... I can't — um, I can't do the splits," said the Skeleton, hesitantly.

"DO THE SPLITS THOU MILK-LEVERED MAGGOT PIIIIIIIIIIIE!" screamed Finn from the top of his lungs, his Demon Blood Sword ready to cleave the undead abomination in two.

"Okay! Okay!" The Skeleton sighed, visibly cowed. "Okay..." And then, after some hesitation, the Skeleton did indeed do the splits.

"Bwahahahahahahaha! Oooh, isn't it ever so sad that they don't make cartoons like that anymore...?" he asked aloud, to no one in particular. Hein wiped a single tear from his eye as he continued laughing boisterously at the old cartoon, and caught sight of his watch, at which point he got up: He had a meeting scheduled with Grey in about five minutes.

Preferring to conduct his business personally, Hein decided that it was time to put away the scratch built Blu-Ray player he had made for Shepard's seventh birthday, and put it back with the rest of the items he recovered from Mindoir... along with the postcard, laying next to the books detailing Project Paragon and Project Galahad. The disc player went in first, right next to a plush toy and a few books, and then the disc, and then the postcard... which he then immediately fished out.

Hein held it in his gaze with both hands, and stared at it for a couple of minutes, and realized how fragile it was. He would have to encase it in something, just in case.

~[h+]~

Durendal — Cargo bay

"You should eat," said Aki, as she set a tray of food on Grey's workbench.

"It can wait. I'm in the middle of some modifications," said Grey, barely paying attention to the appetizing Illium-style seafood salad Lelia had prepared for him.

"And I thought I had it bad!" quipped Garrus as he put a plastic sheet over his project. "Seriously, though, you've been modifying weapons all day, and I haven't seen you take so much as a bathroom break."

"Grey," Aki patronized Grey, as if scolding a small child, "Do I need to make you suffer the humiliation of being spoon fed? Hm?"

"I'm almost finished!" complained the marine captain. "I just need to solder this capacitor, here, then..."

Aki picked up a spoonful of salad, and made whooshing, spaceship noises. "Oh no! The SSV Surf n' turf is coming in for an emergency landing!"

"Aki... I'm working."

"Open the landing bay!" she laughed, poking the side of Grey's mouth with the spoon. "Aaaaaaah..."

"Okay, okay!" Grey shut down his Wrist Halo, and took the spoonful of food away from Aki's grasp. "I can feed myself, for crying out loud..."

As the creamy bits of lobster and salad hit his tongue, Grey realized just how hungry he really was as the smooth peppercorn sauce made its way down his esophagus and lined his empty stomach. "Oh... oh wow. This is really, really good... wait, those are Terran veggies. Is this from hydroponics?"

"Yep. We just got our first harvest yesterday. Speaking of which..." she called out to Garrus. "Oh mister Vakarian? I have something for you."

"Hm?" said the Turian as he put his tools back into storage. Aki threw a small sack at him, and he caught it effortlessly. He opened it, and the smell of fried Pirum, an easy to make treat from Palaven, hit his nostrils. "Ooh..."

Aki smiled. "I managed to get some of these to grow in hydroponics for the Quarians, but I'm told those are a favorite of yours?"

"Whoever told you is right! I have to uh, eat these in private: the juices of these things tend to make a mess. A delicious, syrupy mess." and with that, Garrus Vakarian excused himself and made his way to the elevator.

"So," said Grey after another mouthful of salad. "How come I wasn't told we had a harvest?"

"I did tell you, but I believe your reply was 'uh huh'." Aki's expression turned serious. "But really, Grey, what's going on? You've been slaving over every gun in the armory, and you're still eyeing that gun on the workbench."

"I... I don't know. Ever since Caleston I've had... thoughts buzzing inside my head, and they all concern weaponry: how to make them better, stronger, how to make the shots go faster and farther..."

"...Is it your conditioning?"

"No... at least, it feels like my conditioning is working with something else entirely... something alien."

"Oh... do you want me to have a look in the Dreamcatcher?"

"I... I'm not exactly keen on going back in that machine after what... after what you had to do to save me."

"...I know, and I'm sorry, but if you can't keep this under control... come see me, alright?"

"...Yeah. Yeah, okay." Grey sighed. "Speaking of brainwashing, how's Toombs doing?"

Aki flinched, feeling a bit offended. "...He's going to be alright. I'm putting his body through electrical muscle stimulation: he should be able to walk of his own power within—"

"That's not what I'm talking about. Did. You. Do. It?"

Aki crossed her arms. "Yes. I sought out the last seven years of his life and neutralized the corresponding brain cells' voltages. He won't remember a thing."

"...Good. That's good."

"What are you going to tell him when he wakes up?"

"Hein's helping me with that one. So far, we've come up with 'you were brain-dead for the past seven years, and DARPA was working on a way to bring you out of that coma. It worked'."

"I think you and the rest of Deep Eyes are going to need to work out some details. The last thing you want are holes in the story. If he even suspects..."

"I know... Oh, wait a minute, what time is it?"

"1300 hours, ship time. Why?"

"Damn! I have a meeting with Hein!"

Grey put the spoon back on the lunch tray, and made his way to the elevator. As it turned out, Hein was inside of it, apparently waiting for Grey in there.

"Going up?" asked Hein.

"Well, I—" stammered Grey, taken by surprise.

"Of course you are. Get in. Walk with me."

The doors to the elevator closed, and as it rose to the Med/Sci level of the ship, Hein handed Grey a datapad without looking at him. "As you asked, here's a list of potential recruits for the Deep Eyes."

Grey smiled, happy that Hein had taken his request to start replenishing the Deep Eyes' ranks seriously. His smile died, though, when he saw the four (yes, just four) names on the list.

"Darril Trammel, Billy Renges and... Phillip Chaeffer? Those three layabouts?!"

"Well, you know the saying, Grey." Hein smiled as the elevator doors opened and he stepped out. "Beggars can't be choosers."

Grey followed Hein out. "And Marcus Adar Tân ? He's... he's not even human!"

"Really? I figured he was just a very, very big man. Tsk tsk tsk! Honestly, Grey, you've been working quite well with aliens so far, and besides, he's legally a US citizen!"

"...None of these are Deep Eyes material! Well, maybe Tân is, but..."

"Grey, anyone that's Deep Eyes material now gets sent to the Wyverns or the Barghests. Trammel and his two friends are talented, experienced fighters and Wanzer pilots. The only keeping them away from those two elite outfits is their attitude... but you're a born leader, Grey. You'll make real soldiers out of them."

"It's not their skills I question, it's their lazy, mercenary ways."

"Well..." Hein typed his passcode to open the door to Special projects. "Lately, being a Deep Eye under DARPA has proven to be quite lucrative. They'll jump at the chance to join in! Of course, imagine their look when they find out they'll have to do actual work... not to mention some real fighting."

"...Okay, I admit, I do like that part."

"Good! I'll send a few emails and I'll arrange for them to wait for us at Arcturus station in about a week. Now... I have something to show you."

Hein led Grey to one of the smaller rooms of the Special Projects — the one called 'Materials Lab'. It was full of fabrication hardware, and the walls were lined with monitors and rows and rows of small, empty containment cells. Floating above a podium was the Prothean tablet recovered from Caleston, plugged in to several computer towers that emitted a cold mist due to the coolant circulating through their circuits. Just how overclocked were those diamond wafer processors, Grey wondered?

"Hey, what are those?" asked Grey, pointing at some exotic looking crystals in the containers on the wall.

"Promethean Forma," answered Hein. "Don't stare at them too long, you'll get headache."

"Forma?" asked Grey, rubbing his eyes. Did that cube just morph into a star, or was that his imagination?

"Basically, schematics. Anyways, I know you've been staring longingly at the 108, wondering what kind of carnage you could do with that thing. So..." Hein opened a large drawer, and inside was a hardsuit made of flexible polymers with gold metal parts at the neck and chest, with a pattern of square polymer plates around the thighs, hips, and shins. The golden helmet was a veritable bucket, with handles and red optics. A boxy rifle made of black carbon Grey had never seen before was stored alongside the armor, along with a HF knife and combat vest.

Grey took special note of the left gauntlet: it looked like a heavy-duty portable computer they gave soldiers back in the early 21st century.

"Say hello to the Demonica. This will be the new standard set of equipment for the Deep Eyes and — hopefully — all of America's ground forces. I've got three more suits like this queued up in the fabricator, so the rest of yout squad will get a chance to try it out."

"What can it do?"

"It can provide just as much physical strength amplification as the Corvo gear I assigned to Proudfoot with only half the material, and it is already more than a match for the Colossus line of hard-suits in terms of damage resistance."

Hein pulled out his pistol, and shot the suit point blank three times. The suit held, and Grey could swear the suit thickened at the parts where it was shot. Some kind of reactive armor system, he thought? Interesting.

"It is also capable of providing protection against all sorts of hostile environments, resistance to extreme temperatures, provides emergency medical care, encourages cell regeneration and..." Hein typed a few commands on his Omni-tool, and parts of the armor shifted like a programmable sculpture, making a sound not unlike a cicada as it did so, only low pitched. "...It is also capable of evolving and adjusting itself to the needs of the wearer as the... VI inside the suit learns more about him. Which brings me to the real special feature of this thing."

Hein leaned in closer to Grey, and whispered. "It's a supercomputer."

"...Excuse me?"

"Most combat Omni-Tools can only hold and two, maybe even three combat apps in their active memory. This thing can keep a dozen active apps at the ready, and hundreds of passive, performance enhancing apps... Of course, I've only got a couple right now, but I'll make more available later."

"That... sounds very impressive. Not sure I like the helmet, though, or the eye-catching plating."

"Ah, but the Demonica is quite compatible with both M.I.P.S. and N7 custom armor parts. And you can always cover the gold bits with digital camo paint."

Grey nodded. "And the gun?"

"This little beauty," said Hein as he picked the weapon up. "...is a combination of a light machine gun and..." he pressed the little red button at the bottom of the gun. Instantly, the barrel split open into two silvery prongs, at the center of which was a lens. It made a sound like a flash bulb being charged, and lightning crackled between the prongs. "...a high power electro-laser! Guaranteed to ruin the shields on a target in one shot!"

"And you want me to test that thing for bugs, right?" Grey sighed. Working with DARPA paid well because, quite frankly, using Hein's newfangled hardware was essentially gambling with one's life.

"Oh, I suspect you won't find any. Still, I would like you to put it on and put it through its paces in the cargo bay. Now—"

"Bridge to Hein," Neil's voice echoed out from the intercom. "We've got a potential situation."

"Report," said Hein, all business.

"Well, IMREC was lucky enough to spot the SSV Normandy just twelve kilometers off our port side. Can you imagine the rotten luck?"

"Have they spotted us?"

"I don't know, but they're not making a move against us, so I assume not. Shall I go to yellow alert, sir? I'm thinking Anderson and the frog Spectre would like some payback..."

"...That won't be necessary. Is there anything else?"

"Nah— oh, whoa..."

"What? What is it?"

"I've got an European Union Carrier on the scopes, it just dropped out of FTL at about a hundred klicks to our starboard, sir... looks like... yeah, it's the VSE Acheron, alright."

"The Acheron?" Grey couldn't quite believe his ears. "What are the French doing here?"

"I... have my theories," said Hein mysteriously. "Mister Flemming, I'll be right there." He turned to Grey. "Put on the suit, and don't worry: Burroughs, that is, the suit's VI, will ask you a few questions and walk you through the suit's tutorial program.

"Aye, aye, sir."

~[h+]~

Durendal — CIC

Aki looked at the holographic representation of the VSE Acheron generated by the central holographic pit. It was an older vessel, the European's answer to the Victory-class medium carriers fielded by the UNAS back in 2125, when the relations between the two nations were at an all-time low. Of course, the Acheron had been refitted several times throughout its life, and had quite the complement of fighters and dropships capable of making Wanzer drops. With a length of over six hundred meters, a beam of ninety, and a height of sixty, it was an imposing, yet sleek vessel.

"Any ideas what the Acheron is doing this far into the Traverse?" asked Aki. "I've never seen it operate beyond Sol..."

"You don't know?" asked Hein right back. "The Acheron is the current home vessel of Lieutenant Elsa Devereaux, human spectre candidate number six— or four, if you exclude the first two— and better known as 'l'ange sans ailes' to her french compatriots.

"So?"

"Well, she's going up against some very tight competition, and she's going to need an edge, no?"

"You think she's going to get herself genetically augmented by Europa Genomics? But they're the primary supplier of gene mods to the Alliance. Shouldn't EG be backing this Ramsus?"

"... You're absolutely right, Dr. Ross. They would. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to contact our people on the surface. Mr. Flemming?"

"Yeah?" answered the pilot at the helm.

"Keep us between the Acheron and the Black. I don't want their IMREC to spot us, understood?"

"Aye aye, sir."

~[h+]~

[H+]: Brea? it's me.

Anon: Oh.

Anon: You.

Anon: What do you want?

[H+]: The Acheron is in orbit, and Devereaux is no doubt going to land in Dosadi soon.

Anon: I see.

[H+]: I strongly suspect that she's going to let herself be treated by EG to enhance her reflexes and reduce her need for 'Drive'.

Anon: I suspect as much as well. Drive is practically necessary to fly an Endymion super-fighter. Is she showing symptoms?

[H+]: After five years? Most likely. That's where you and your knowledge of biochemistry comes in.

Anon: Pardon?

[H+]: I'm uploading a formula that will fix Devereaux up and make her feel good as new, but you're going to have to put together the compounds yourself, of course. Then, you see to it that it is delivered to her by our knight in shining armor.

Anon: I see. And how this is NOT a distraction from our primary goal?

[H+]: Well, they'll no doubt want to take her somewhere discreet on Dosadi, perhaps a highly secure EG facility, hm? All Jensen has to do is follow her there to deliver the cure, and...

Anon: and find intel with the location of Peak 15, perhaps. I still don't understand why we're curing her, though.

[H+]: Come now, nothing will motivate our champion like curing an ailing woman from the ravages of years of drug abuse.

Anon: No. A placebo would have done the trick. You're up to something.

[H+]: Maybe :3

[H+]: See that? I made a smiley that looks like a cat.

Anon: Well, my employer is telling me to go along with your plan. I'll contact J immediately.

[H+]: :3

[H+]: :3

[H+]: :3

[H+]: :3

Anon disconnected

~[h+]~

Lower Dosadi - Funicular platform 42

"Armitage?" said Brea over the codec. "There's been a change of pl—"

"Not now!" Jensen screamed simultaneously through his subvocal comm and out loud as he pulled at the huge ZORG mech's armor plating at the base of its neck. "Kind of busy here!"

~[h+]~

Lower Dosadi - Hideout - Three hours ago...

As Kasumi took her shower (singing a terrible pop song all the while) Tali inspected the bundle of clothes she had dumped in the basket right next to the bathroom door. She was, apparently, intent on discarding them, as the distinctive look it gave her would have her spotted by every IMREC VI in Dosadi. Tali thought it was shamefully wasteful to simply throw good material away, and that she ought to try and recover the wiring in what was obviously a remodeled Quarian enviro-suit.

Much to her chagrin, the wiring was gone, and all that was salvageable from the suit was some polymer, as well as the metal from the buckles (of which there were perhaps too many, she thought). She reduced the stuff into Omni-Gel.

She checked on Kasumi: yep, still showering.

Tali decided to go and join Spooky in the makeshift electronics lab in the hideout, and help him sort out any issues with Kasumi's Omni-Sleeve: data storage corruptions, potential malware, and so on.

Tali quickly realized that, when it came to Omni-Tool apps, these 'Europeans' were way ahead of the curve, nearly matching the elegance, power, and complexity of Quarian apps from the days before the Geth uprising. The Falcon attack app, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga... all of these were available right here in Dosadi, and each of them were far more powerful than Incinerate, Cryo Blast and Overload respectively.

She discreetly uploaded them to her own Omni-tool, intent on using them some time later, although she would have to make some modifications to use them properly. Spooky just looked at her, and shrugged. It wasn't his place to judge: he had copied a lot of games back in his younger days, and cut his teeth on programming by bypassing or outright breaking DRM processes.

Jensen and Smuggler came back with a few things for Kasumi: some new clothes, a make-up kit, and a new set of clothes. As if knowing that Jensen had come back, the robotic clone came out of the bathroom in a hurry, wrapped in a towel with her wet black wig clinging to her head. Kasumi was all over Adam, peeking into the bags he was carrying. She took stock of the items:

A reddish-brown wig done up in a french bob style, a red woman's sports tank top, a black sports bra, loose black nylon running pants (with white stripes patterned with a few red lozenges on the sides) with matching fingerless gloves, and white sneakers.

"Ooh... so, you like the sporty type, eh Basch?" she asked, more than a bit too flirtatiously for Tali's tastes.

"Basch?" asked Tali, wondering why the clone was calling him something vaguely vulgar in the Quarian tongue.

"Well, " replied Jensen, not quite paying attention to Tali at the moment, "There wasn't all that much in the bazaar when it came to practical women's clothes, and I figured you would do a lot of running, so..." he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, wondering if he had offended Kasumi's tastes in clothing. "Is it alright?"

"Oh, it's perfect!" she approached him got up on her toes, landed a kiss on his cheek, took the clothes, and after claiming some privacy in the upper floor, in no time at all she was fully clothed.

But the makeup wasn't done, and while Spooky, Smuggler and Jensen worked out a plan to get up to Middle Dosadi discreetly (if outright undetected), Goto put on her make-up. Tali found herself watch her paint her face with a variety of brushes, despite herself.

First came the layer of pale foundation, then the lip concealer... and then Goto applied to her now deathly pale lips a blend of peach-colored lip tint, red lipstick, and orange lip gloss. Tali thought that the clone was done, but no. Then the eyes needed work, apparently. The clone traced lines of smokey black and red-orange mascara, filled the outlines (along with the rims of her eyelids) with some kind of white cream, and stuck on bits of hair on them, too! At first Tali had thought Goto had gotten crazy, that the AI construct had crossed a few values in her brain, but upon seeing the finished results, the effect was actually quite amazing, with Goto's eyes appearing a bit larger and more enticing.

Just one of the things I'll never be able to do for myself, Tali thought.

Goto looked into the small mirror, checking her work, and with a satisfied smile, decided to interrupt the men's planning:

"Guys, as interesting sneaking in the Mosque with monks habit's sounds, I think I've got a much, much better idea."

"Oh?" asked Jensen a bit surprised. "I take it you've decided to take my offer?"

"Yep, figured it might be fun, and besides, I've got some business in Middle Dosadi to take care of, too."

"Alright then, what's the plan?"

"Well," said Goto as she put her Omni-Sleeve on, "first, we're going to have to get you all better shoes."

~[h+]~

Dosadi - Eastern Junkyard - bottom of the funicular shaft - two hours ago...

"You must be joking," said Spooky out loud, staring at the 1300 meter funicular shaft that led up to Middle Dosadi. The group was facing the eastern wall of the arcology, and they had to walk a veritable maze of yet-to-be-recycled junk to get there: cars, shuttles, toys, consumer electronics. Everything that was unwanted by the world above was stacked up here in convenient cubes that had been crushed into shape by mass effect fields. A beat up Tendus Wanzer (a civilian model), equipped with a tow cable, was nearby, its cockpit open, waiting for a pilot. Tali had wanted to fix it, but without someone trained in its use, Adam advised against it.

"No joke," answered Goto with a smile. "They stopped using that shaft a year ago, and the bureaucrats never got around to fixing it. No security, no mechs, no sensors. All you have to do is climb the scaffolding around it, and if those chips you gave us work, we'll be as ghosts in Middle Dosadi."

"You've climbed that thing before?" asked Jensen.

"Yep. Seven times, and as you can see, I'm still here."

Spooky burned through his cigarette. "Look, I can still make the original plan work. All I need to do is seduce one of the nuns at the mosque, then—"

"Yeah, look, no offense, Hank," said Smuggler, "but I'm thinking with me being an Omar and Jake being a cyborg, it's more likely attempting to sneak into the mosque is going to get the lot of us shot by the Templars."

"That," said Tali, trying not to tremble, "is a long, long way to c-c-climb."

"Don't worry," said Adam, "I'll carry you on my back, just like last time."

"Really?" asked Tali, trying not to sound too eager. Then, she saw Goto doing warm ups and stretches, and a competitive streak in her quietly ignited.

"We won't have to climb far," said Goto. "See the huge platform some three hundred meters up? That's the elevator. I figure you two," she looked at Tali and Smuggler, "can work some of that technological wizardry and get it running again... just, uh, don't touch anything else but the linear drives, okay?"

"Is that right?" replied Tali. "...Okay then, I can manage to climb by myself."

"... Are you sure?" Jensen asked, worried. "Look, it'll be much safer for you if—"

"I said I can do it!" Tali snapped. "I've the climbing app she gave us loaded, I'll be fine!"

"Alright... alright, just..." Adam took out the Omni-Gel cartridge from his Omni-Tool and gave it to Tali. "Here, take my Omni-Gel, just in case. I won't need it."

"Are we ready to go?" asked Goto. "Hey, where's your Omni-Gel?"

"...Kaylee needs it more than I do. Look, maybe we should just take an aircar?"

"Every aircar is linked to the transit system. You'd be flagged and brought down within minutes of reaching the ceiling."

Adam sighed. "And we can't afford to be stopped at any checkpoints on our way up. This is the way to go."

"And the most fun. Hey, Basch? Or Jake, or whatever?"

"What?"

Kasumi smiled at Jensen for a while, giving him an appraising look, checking out his dark blue hoodie and matching sports pants. And then, just like that:

[Thé à la Menthe -La Caution- Instrumental]

"... Last one to the platform is a rotten egg!" And she darted off to the scaffold.

Adam sighed, and then went after her.

~[h+]~

Dosadi - The Scaffold - one hour and a half ago...

Tali was doing well. The climbing omni-tool app was doing its job: it scanned for weaknesses in the steel scaffold (due to lack of maintenance, there were quite a few) and generated safety ropes and clamps to ensure that Tali did not fall to her death. Adam asked how she was doing every five minutes or so, and it felt good to know that he was worried about her. As for her plan to beat Goto at her game, well... that wasn't doing so well. Goto was a trained acrobat, and apparently a suicidal one at that. She and Jensen were leaping from beam to beam, walking on narrow pieces of metal in perfect balance. Occasionally they would drop down a solid emergency ladder to help Tali and Spooky climb faster. Smuggler was climbing slowly, but steadily and fearlessly, eschewing Goto's acrobatics.

"Watch down below!" shouted Goto, and instantly the ladder slammed itself down right next to Tali, startling her.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Kaylee!" apologized Goto. "My bad!"

Tali kept looking up, and saw Jensen smile and laugh a little. as he got himself caught up in Goto's race. Tali lamented that she could not join him up there: she simply wasn't daring enough. Bring on an army of Geth, Tali would take them on with a shotgun... but climbing?

Oh well, even if I'm not as fast, I won't lose face to that thing by being carried around like a child on Adam's back, she thought.

Spooky, meanwhile, kept himself focused on climbing by chanting something about a man who could do whatever a spider could do, oddly enough, and when the chant ran out, he kept making a nah nah nah sound, then said 'batman', over and over again. Humans were so weird.

"Those two ninjas are such jerks, am I right?" laughed Spooky, disguising his fear as he used the more advanced features of the Climbing app with his Omni-Gun: a magnetic grapple launcher.

"I... I don't know what a ninja is," answered Tali.

"No? Well shit, remind me to show you some awesome vids when we're done here. My daughter? She would have loved this shit, though..."

"You have a daughter?"

"Yep. We went rock-climbing once upon a time, said she wanted to be a rock-climber. Being a teen, though, she quickly gave that up to become a super-model," he laughed. "But I got hooked to the sport."

"We're almost there!" shouted Goto. "Careful! There's some pretty powerful vents on the walls here. Stay away from them!... unless you can do this!"

Kasumi leapt in front of one of the vents, and the powerful blast of air pushed her towards a horizontal steel bar, which she grabbed, then swung herself up on a catwalk.

"Goddammit, Goto, no more stunts like that!" shouted Jensen. "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"Hey, nobody lives forever!" Goto laughed. "Might as well have fun."

"I'm serious! No more stupid tricks!"

Tali couldn't see Goto up there, but she imagined that she was pouting. "...fine," said the clone. The satisfaction that Tali felt at Goto being cowed was quickly dispelled by the awful feeling of gravity making its presence known. She could feel it clawing at her, angry that she was defying its will. It was irrational, of course, since she had defied gravity already by simply being aboard a ship... but this was different. This was fear. And when afraid, Tali came up with her own little litanies.

Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't look down Don't

And then, Tali looked down.

"Oh... oh no..." she whimpered. Each breath after the next became shorter and shorter, and her legs stopped moving, and that was fine, because now she didn't want to move at all.

"Sparky?" Moody called out to her. "You okay down there?"

"...no no no no what was I thinking?" she nestled herself where two steel beams met, and sat in a fetal position, her eyes shut. "I should have just stayed behind and waited for you all to come back why did I think I could do this why, why, why...?!"

"Hey!" shouted Spooky upwards. "Hey! Guys, Sparky's not doing too good!"

"What happened?!" shouted Jensen right back.

"I think she looked down! She ain't moving!"

"I'm coming down!"

[Sdatcher Soundtrack - Farewell]

With her eyes shut, Tali could barely feel the electromagnetic globe of Adam's Icarus system land and disperse near her, though it did tickle her feet a little. She knew it was him, but that didn't stop her from crying.

"Tali? I'm here, now. I'm here. It's going to be okay, I'm going to—"

She felt hands touch her shoulders, and she tried to slap them away. Out of fear or anger? She simply couldn't decide at that moment.

"Hey, shhh! It's okay, it's okay..." Adam soothed as he pulled Tali into a hug. "I'm here, now, I'm here."

"Why didn't you carry me?!" she cried. "It's not fair! I can't fly like you can! I can't follow you like THEY can! It's not fair...!" And she held him close, and tightened her grip around him, if only to keep herself from drowning in fear and terror, but that wasn't true: she just wanted him there, right here with her, not high above where she couldn't never, ever reach him. "...It's not fair..."

"I know, I'm sorry," said Adam a bit confused, "I should have done that from the beginning. I'm sorry. Tali? Tali, listen to me: Keep your eyes closed, and hold on to me tightly, I'm going to get you up the rest of the way, okay? It's just a little further."

"...Okay." she sniffled.

"Hey!" called out Drebin from above. "You guys are okay down there?"

"Yeah!" Jensen shouted back. "Go on without us, we'll catch up!"

~[h+]~

Dosadi - Funicular platform 42 - One hour ago...

Kasumi had helped Jensen by pulling Tali up on top of the elevator platform, and made sure she was okay. For her trouble, all she got was a glare from the Quarian girl.

"Yeah, I know that look..." Kasumi put her hands up and backed away. She had dealt with Quarians before, when they found out just how synthetic she was. She hoped this wouldn't end in bloodshed, like last time... "I'll just, um, let you catch your breath."

Adam hoisted himself up onto the platform, and saw that they weren't quite alone on the thing: there were hundreds of humanoid mechs heaped up in a dozen piles. They were of various different makes: Armadyne, Panzerwerx, Hahne-Kedar, and many more.

"Remember, don't touch anything," warned Kasumi as she made her way to the edge of the elevator platform, intent on enjoying the view of the city. Smuggler and Spooky were hard at work at fixing the linear motors, so that they could be on their way. After ten minutes of rest, Tali gathered herself up, and decided to go help them, as she wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.

Adam joined Kasumi at the edge in admiring lower Dosadi, but found little of beauty. It was all shanty-towns, elevator towers, factories, waste recycling plants and food sludge vats. No parks, no trees... nothing frivolous about it.

"What the hell was that back there?" he finally asked. "You nearly got yourself killed."

"So?" she replied flatly, not bothering to look at him.

"So? Do you have any idea what I risked to save you? Did I risk myself just so you could go off and get yourself killed for fun?"

Goto frowned, angrily."Hey! Lay off! You weren't exactly careful back there either!"

"Fair enough, but I've got safeties on just in case. You don't."

"...I don't owe you any apology for how I like to live, Jensen." At his barely repressed shock, she continued: "Yeah, that's right, I figured it out. I mean, the bio-cosmetics and the blond hair threw me off, but between the coat, and the Sarif Hermes legs and the voice and the attitude were some pretty good giveaways."

"So you know. Now what? What will you do once we're in Middle Dosadi? Leave? I can't imagine you'd like working with a cop."

"That's up to you, officer."

"...I think you should do whatever the hell you want."

"...Yeah, I think so too."

Adam walked away, but then a buzzing feeling came over the back of his head, and he remembered something Brea had told him.

"Clones, like Lawson, are subject to abnormally expressed genes as they get older. This can result in organ failure, premature aging, cancer..."

"...How long have you got?" asked Jensen.

Kasumi said nothing.

"Goto?"

She took a deep breath, a full lungful of recycled air, and sighed. "I don't know. My inception date was... ten years ago, I think. Sun-Mi clones have a shelf life of maybe four years. And yet, here I am."

"So you figure any day could be your last?"

"As you say. That's what the cyberbrain is for, you know. Backing up all that precious experience so that he could put it in his next favorite slave."

"Who are you talking about?"

"...Some rich south-african cocksucker, that's who. I don't recall his name..." She put a hand on her belly. "All I know is that he took something precious from me, and... Never mind. It doesn't matter. None of this matters in the end."

The elevator lurched, and screeched, and started to move.

"Looks like we're on our way." she said, and that was that.

~[h+]~

Dosadi - Funicular platform 42 - ten minutes ago...

After nearly an hour, the elevator had only just cleared the halfway point, and it looked like the group wouldn't be arriving in Middle Dosadi anytime soon.

"Jesus Motherfucking Christ Almighty am I bored," groaned Spooky as he sat on top of a detached metallic fist. "And climbing would have been faster, you know?"

Jensen, sitting between Tali and Kasumi against a leg, shook his head. "But more exhausting for you and Tali. You'd have never made it."

"Still, I could use some entertainment. Lunch had a whole library of games for me ready to play, but nooooo I needed all the room I could spare for my Tool apps." Spooky sighed. "I don't suppose you got movies inside your head? Maybe you can project them with your eyes?"

"It... doesn't work that way, Hank."

"Bummer."

"Why is there so much valuable junk on a broken elevator?" asked Tali, changing the subject. "It's such a waste."

"That's what every WTO arcology turns into, eventually," said Smuggler. "A monument to waste. Oh, sure, they're self-sufficient and one hundred percent efficient... at first. But greed is a powerful thing, and people always want more. It's why they're terraforming and developing all of Noveria, now. To have more."

Tali sighed, and got up. "I have to take a stroll, or else I feel like I'm going to go crazy..."

Adam nodded. "Sure. Just stay away from the edges, okay? Last I checked the WTO liked to skimp on work safety..."

"I'll be careful," she said, as walked out of sight.

"And don't touch anything!" warned Kasumi for the third time.

Tali ignored, already appraising the wealth of circuits boards, metal plates, and polymer actuators. She could never carry any of this herself, but perhaps she could get Neil to help her transport this to the Durendal, some time, or perhaps even leave a signal beacon for a Pilgrim. If he could make it here, he'd find this trove, and his pilgrimage would be over, and he could go back home that much sooner.

Deciding that was the best option, Tali produced a small signal beacon and decided to wire it to that mech's OVO cell, under that pile of other, smaller mechs...

Wait...

Was that a small Eezo core? What luck! If only she could pull it out—

~[h+]~

Dosadi - Funicular platform 42 - presently...

[Remember Me OST - The Zorn]

Kasumi and Adam fell back when the leg they were leaning suddenly moved away, and Spooky fell on his back just as he lit his cigarette when the fist he was sitting on slipped away from under him. Drebin drew out his pistol and scanned for hostiles, and saw Tali running out from behind a pile of scrap. Said pile of scrap sat up, reattached its leg and arm thanks to its Mass Effect field generator, and rose to its full height, its digitigrade legs propping its body up at a height of four meters.

Its featureless head popped out of its torso, and the sensors spotted five intruders, all of them armed. The Zorg scanned their chips, and found that they were using an encryption that it could not make sense of. It decided that they were intruders to be destroyed and generated a hologram over its chest, a huge, screaming mouth, and generated a roaring, howling noise from its loudspeakers.

"MY MASTERS DO NOT WANT YOU HERE."

"Aw, crap! ZORG!" screamed Kasumi. "Kaylee! I told you not to TOUCH anything!"

"I didn't!" Tali protested. "It just switched itself on!"

"Nevermind that, shoot it!" commanded Adam.

The whole group unloaded their pistols at the machine, only for their rounds to barely scratch the tarnished, thick ceramic composite plates that covered its black, metallic frame.

"YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE," it said, and leapt up in the air and landed in the middle of the group, its concussion wave generators mounted on its feet scattering everyone. The linear motors of the elevator groaned under the sudden strain.

"I'm going to hack it!" shouted Tali. The terror that had gripped Tali before was now gone, her training aboard the Flotilla having kicked in. It was a synthetic foe they were facing, and she was raised to kill synthetics.

"That's not gonna work!" warned Kasumi as she narrowly dodged getting stomped on.

Tali let loose a Sabotage attack anyways: the glob of Omni-Gel hit the ZORG right on the head, and it flash forged a micro-transmitter and a web of circuits that found their way into the machine's own electronics. Tali was shocked to see her Omni-Tool report 'PROTOCOL ERROR' in big red letters.

"I told you! It's a security mech! Wouldn't much use if you could just slap some Omni-Gel on it and hack it with a smart-phone!"

"I don't hear you coming up with any solutions, Goto!" Tali shot back.

"My solution is to run like hell!"

"Not an option, obviously!" quipped Drebin as he ducked under the ZORG's swipe.

"Well, how about this, then?!" Spooky loaded an incineration bolt in his Omni-Gun and loosed it at the mech, aiming for the black metal. Some of it melted into slag, and the rest of the group launched incineration attacks even as the ZORG fought like a gorilla and tried to smash them with its huge fists

"YOUR ANTI-ARMOR TACTICS WILL NOT WORK. ACTIVATING TECH ARMOR."

Golden plates appeared over the vulnerable parts of the ZORG, and while the incendiary bolts brought them down, they immediately came back.

"Oh, come on!" screamed Spooky in frustration, just before the ZORG threw an handful of engine blocks at him. One of them narrowly missed his head.

"Goto!" Smuggler vocalized through his speaker. "Where's the ZORG's maintenance jack?"

"It's in the nape, but it's armoured!" answered the thief.

"Jensen! Get that thing open! We'll cover you!"

"Can I shut it down from there?" asked Adam.

"No, but if you can Breach it it'll go into maintenance mode, and then we can rip out its guts!"

Without hesitation, Jensen Zero Shifted right behind the ZORG and climbed up on its back. He punched out the Tech plate covering the ZORG's nape, then grabbed the thick hatch covering the maintenance port with both hands and pulled.

"Come on, open, you son of a bitch..."

Just then, Jensen's AR reported a codec call, which, by reflex, he automatically accepted.

"Armitage?" said Brea over the codec. "There's been a change of pl—"

"Not now!" Jensen screamed simultaneously through his subvocal comm and out loud as he pulled at the huge ZORG mech's armor plating at the base of its neck. "Kind of busy here!"

"Busy doing what?!"

"Fighting a ZORG security mech, that's what!" said Adam, as the ZORG attempted to shake him off like an angry bull.

"A ZORG?! Are you insane?! Run!"

"Not an option! I'll get back to you once I'm done with it. Later!"

"Jensen! Don't you dare cut me—" Brea's sentence was cut off as Jensen shut down the connection.

"Come on, come on!" Jensen grit his teeth, and the hatch finally opened.

"DETONATING TECH ARMOR."

A pulse of yellow light hit everyone on the platform, scattering junk, debris, and bodies all over the platform, but Jensen had gotten the worst of it, and briefly lost consciousness and fell from the ZORG's back. The huge mech picked him up with its gigantic fist, and proceeded to try and crush him. Jensen, however, recovered enough of his sense to try and struggle against the crushing grip. Where it not for Hein's upgrades, Jensen would have died in seconds.

"YOUR METAL IS STRONG, BUT YOUR FLESH IS WEAK."

"Let him go!" Tali, the first to recover from the blast, fired an incineration bolt at the ZORG's elbow, and then another, and then another, until she was out of Omni-Gel. She reloaded her Wrist Halo with Jensen's cartridge, and fired again until finally the ZORG decided Adam was not the real threat, and decided to throw him off the edge of the elevator to his death.

"NOOOO!" Tali screamed in horror, but Spooky had come to, and immediately fired the Climbing app's grapple gun at Jensen, catching him just in time.

"I got h— WHOA!" The hacker was, of course, pulled forward by Jensen's momentum and fell on his face, and Jensen was promptly slammed to the ground, but they would both be fine.

The linear motors groaned again: they wouldn't take much more.

"The hatch..." Jensen groaned out. "It's open!"

Just as Tali was about to get attacked by the ZORG, Kasumi stepped in front of the mech, waving her arms and taunting it. The ZORG rose to her bait, and tried to crush her beneath his heel. She dove and rolled forward out of the way just in time, and climbed on its thigh, and held on to its chestplate. The ZORG tried to bash her away, only for her to somersault up onto its back. She raised her arm victoriously and brought it down on the port, and the Omni-Sleeve immediately got to work on Breaching the ZORG.

Kasumi laughed and whooped as the holographic voxels and Omni-Gel tendrils formed a conduit between her and the machine: the girl really liked to win, but then a look of horror came over her face. "Oh... oh no."

"NOOO! DO NOT DO THIS!"

The ZORG fell on its knees and its chest armor popped ajar, but lack of maintenance and the warped metal from the incineration attacks kept it from opening all the way. Adam and Drebin rushed the ZORG and forced open the chestplates with their bare hands, slowly exposing the Element Zero core.

"Guys, hurry up!" shouted Kasumi. "That thing's fighting me, I can't keep it like this much longer!"

Jensen and Drebin put their legs into it, and the chest plates popped open, exposing the core completely. The sudden opening caused Drebin and Jensen to fall away from the ZORG.

"I AM NOT USELESS!" The ZORG suddenly rose on its feet, knocking off Goto, and roared. "INCREASING MASS THREEFOLD!"

A wide area Mass Effect field, designed to pacify crowds, now covered the entirety of the elevator, forcing it to come to a complete stop. The elevator's linear motors groaned even more loudly this time, struggling to lift up all that mass. Adam and the rest of the group could barely move, let alone physically attack the ZORG's core. Adam did try to shoot it with his pistol, but the core held fast.

"PLEASE... DON'T THROW ME AWAY!"

It was no use, of course, as Tali knew. Even if the ZORG's power failed or the core was destroyed, the Mass Effect field would still linger long enough for the linear motors to break, and then everyone would plummet to their doom.

Thinking fast, she lined up her Omni-Tool at the Eezo core, loaded an Overload attack, and prayed that this would work.

It did.

The negatively charged Overload attack caused the mass of the entire elevator to be lightened by seventy-percent, and the elevator's speed rose accordingly, climbing faster and faster. Before the ZORG could do something about it, Tali unleashed a volley of incineration bolts into the ZORG's innards. It still wouldn't fall down.

"I... -c-c-c-can still... se-serve..."

"Argh!" Tali screamed in frustration. "Why won't you just DIE?!" Tali fired another incineration bolt, heedless of Kasumi and Jensen's shouts. She fired again and again, and still the ZORG stood, defiant to the end.

Then, Jensen tackled Tali down on the floor, and then the ZORG's head was splattered against the roof. Its legs collapsed under the sudden strain, and the ZORG's torso became sandwiched between both the the elevator platform and the huge double doors that should have opened for it.

Tali opened her eyes, and realized that they had all narrowly avoided being flattened between the speeding the elevator and Lower Dosadi's thick, metal roof.

Also, Jensen was on top of her.

"Everyone? Are you alright?" said Jensen out loud.

Kasumi, who had been lying down face first with her arms around her head, opened her eyes and looked up. "Whew. Well, that was bracing..."

Spooky got up on his feet, and hit his head on the ceiling. "Ow! Well, I'm alive. I don't know about the rest of you."

"We should get back on the scaffolding," said Smuggler. "The Linear drives on the elevator aren't going to hold out much longer."

"Right, c'mon, Tali, get up." Jensen rose, and pulled Tali up, propping her on her two feet. She examined the ZORG, remembering that she heard a distinct splattering sound when its head hit the metal ceiling. A red liquid was dripping from the ZORG's neck, a sharp contrast to the grimy white of its armor. It looked a lot like blood.

"Oh... Keelah! Was that thing... was that thing a cyborg?" Tali's head tingled with horror: had she just... murdered someone?

"ZORGs use an animal brain as a central processor," said Drebin, and he made a sound that was a lot like a snort. "It's based on what scraps of Omar technology Baptiste Robotique got its hands on when the WTO looted Yekaterinburg."

Tali breathed a sigh of relief "Oh! Oh good... but, is that why I couldn't hack it?" asked Tali as Jensen helped her get on on the scaffolding. She reminded herself not to look down.

"Yeah..." said Kasumi as she jumped down from the platform and landed beside her on the scaffold. "I could feel it fighting me when I Breached it."

"...Let's not dwell on it and leave." said Adam.

"Gotcha. There's an emergency hatch over here, everyone, after that, it's just a short climb through the floof to Middle Dosadi."

~[h+]~

The short climb through the 'floof' took, in fact, around 15 minutes as the group climbed 115 meters up various types of stairs and ladders. Kasumi, leading the way, reassured Jensen that, while they'd see some sewage pipes here and there, they wouldn't have to go inside the actual sewers this time around.

"Just don't touch any pipes: it's either hot steam or cold shit and neither are particularly good for our healths. Think you can keep your hands to yourself, Kaylee?"

And that's when Tali shoved Kasumi.

"That was all your fault, you bosh'tet robot!" she spat. The whole group stopped to stare at her.

"Hey!" shouted Adam.

"Uh oh. The claws are coming out..." quipped Spooky. Drebin merely nodded at him, crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, watching the dispute unfold.

Goto was glaring daggers at Tali. "...Excuse me?"

"We nearly died because of you!"

"Hey, I'm not the one with sticky fingers!"

"That's good, coming from a thief!"

Jensen attempted to calm them down. "Settle down, you two..."

"I told you not to touch anything! Three times, too! And you didn't listen, you magpie!"

"I didn't wake it up!"

"Lies," said the guttural, digital voice that intruded in Jensen's ear. "The girl did indeed touch the ZORG, and triggered its self-repair mechanism."

"You again," replied Jensen sub-vocally. Adam had tried alternating his comms' encryption every ten minutes to keep eavesdroppers at bay, but they always seemed to find a way to force a conversation. "I'll bite: Why would she lie about this?"

"You should shut Goto's mouth. Zorah will never admit it putting your group at risk, least of all to a partially synthetic being like Goto... Or like YOU. Her people raised her to never, ever admit any fault when it concerns the Geth or synthetics. Quarian culture is built on self-victimization and revenge, and admitting their mistake would not only destroy that, but put the deaths of Eden Prime, and all who will die at the hands of the Geth, squarely on their shoulders."

"The Quarians certainly didn't decide to follow a madman and start murdering people by the thousands. That's on their shoulders."

"Should the father not take responsibility for the sins of the son?"

"...There comes a time when we all must owe up to our crimes."

Jensen's attention snapped back to the argument: Spooky had tried to divert the focus of their ire elsewhere.

"Look, ladies, personally? I blame the one who set up our flight arrangements: We should have been in Middle Dosadi right from the beginning, but nooooo, we had to ride in a freakin' cargo crate and—"

"So what other trap have you got planned for us?" accused Tali, completely ignoring Spooky. "An army of GETH, maybe?"

"Oh, you can NOT be serious! What is wrong with you?! I nearly DIED stopping that thing from KILLING all of us because YOU touched it!"

"None of this is my fault!"

Adam sighed, and motioned Smuggler and Spooky to follow him as he continued on his way up.

"Hey!" shouted Tali. "Where are you going?!"

"I'm walking away from you. If you two want to stay here and bicker like children and get yourselves caught by the SSC, by all means, keep going. Or, you can shut up and keep going."

Kasumi and Tali were about to say something, but Adam interrupted them both, pointing an accusing finger at them.

"Before you even THINK about giving me any kind of sass or snark, do remember that I saved both your lives, and you're both now doing a magnificent job of making me regret it. Come on, guys, let's go."

Smuggler and Spooky followed Adam, and Tali pleaded with Spooky with her eyes. The man simply shrugged and put his hands up. Goto and Tali loathed one another now, but neither wanted to get left behind and leave with Jensen being angry with them. So they followed him.

"Well played," said the voice. "Though... neither of them will walk away from this any wiser."

"Look," Adam vocalized, a bit frustrated and quite a bit annoyed. "What do you want from us?"

"I want to see if you're what I need to break a... stalemate. So far, I am not impressed: You are neither a leader of men, nor do you have the charisma necessary to be one. Still, I have yet to see you fight on your own... perhaps you are a lone wolf, and these four fools are holding you back?"

Then, out of nowhere Hein's picture appeared on Adam's AR. "Hellooooooooooo, Ad— hey, who's that eavesdropping?"

"You... Who are you?"

"NO DROPPING EAVES!" shouted Hein. "BAD DOG! BAD!"

"What are you— AAAAAARGH!"

Hein grinned smugly. "Well, you won't be hearing from him for a while."

"Hein," said Adam. "I may never say those words again, so enjoy them while they last: It's good to hear from you. I don't suppose you can keep him from hijacking my comms again?"

"Aw, so you do love me after all!... but I'm amazed that hacker got through, there's no way he could have broken the encryption even with VI assistance... unless..."

"Unless what?"

"We're dealing with an AI. Oh, this is interesting."

"I'm being stalked by an AI? Wonderful... can this situation get any more complicated?"

"Well... enough about that. What's the news?"

"We're in the floof, on our way to Middle Dosadi. We had to take out a beat up ZORG mech on our way up."

"A ZORG?" Hein whistled. "Was it a mark II?"

"...I'm not sure, but it was probably an old model if it was lying in a pile of junk."

"Well, thank your lucky stars, then. The mark III is even tougher."

"I spoke to Goto. She doesn't quite understand why EG sent SSC and Manticore after her. She thinks it was because she had frequent dream trysts with a turian by the name of Lorik Qui'in, who had some dirty laundry on everyone in Dosadi.. But I gleaned some info from her head: She caught glimpses of Ramsus' dreams, and I think they want her dead because of it."

"Hm, no doubt because they're afraid they might lead someone to Peak 15..."

"Right. I decided to get Goto to work with us, but without a good idea of what you or Brea are willing to pay, well... I couldn't offer anything concrete, and she's on the fence."

"Money is no object... but do try to keep it reasonable, yes?"

"I... think she'd be more interested in some proper medical aid. She's a clone with a cyberbrain: I think she'd be more interested in a supply of neuropozyne and Soap."

"I can arrange that."

"Good. That ought to sweeten the pot."

"Is there anything else?"

"Not a thing. I haven't been able to find any more leads. Peak 15's location remains a mystery."

"Well, I've got some good news on that front."

Hein told Adam about the Acheron's arrival, and his theory that the Spectre candidate, Elsa Devereaux, was here to get a leg up on the competition by getting herself bio-augmented.

"And discretion will be paramount for both EG and the European Union, of course."

"So, I track down this Devereaux, follow her to the EG facility, which will no doubt be very, very secretive, and look for any clues there."

"That's the gist of it, yeah."

"Dosadi is huge. How am I supposed to find her?"

"Oh, Brea has her ways." Hein smiled. "Have you found a place to stay at? It will take a while for things to get set up for your mission."

"We're not even in Middle Dosadi proper. Any ideas where we could stay?"

"Wasn't Brea supposed to make arrangements?"

"I get the feeling Brea intends for us to sleep on the street. She hasn't exactly been too concerned for our comfort on our way here, that's for sure."

"Is that so? Well, how about some payback, then?" Hein grinned.

~[h+]~

Though they had to evade some SSC patrols that came to investigate the commotion (as, apparently, the elevator finally gave way and crashed loudly all the way back down to Lower Dosadi), the group had finally arrived in Middle Dosadi. Thus far, it didn't quite look any better than Lower Dosadi. In fact, it looked much worse. The streets were flooded, and the homes were shanties made out of miscellaneous junk, stacked on top of each other so densely no one could make out the sky. The only sight of the outside world was the eastern wall, made out of thick, transparent polymer tiles, each the size of a frigate, framed together with thick beams of titanium.

There was a snowstorm outside, and Tali found herself feeling safe, knowing that one hundred centimeters of ultralight resistant material was standing between the harsh climate and her.

Kasumi, being very familiar with the area, took the lead. "I know a spot where we can get some black taxis," she said. "They're not connected to the Arcology's navigation system, and the drivers are good enough to drive around without it. Got some cold hard cash, though? Nuyen credsticks are no good to them."

"We've got some platinum," said Adam.

"Yeah, that'll do it."

Said Black Taxi drivers apparently liked to hang around an outdoors bar called The Wet Street, on account of being built onto an old metal bridge, over a small industrial canal. The patrons, Jensen found, were a lot happier than the folks living in the poorer, lower level of the Arcology. He figured that while they lived in shacks, their livelihoods were far better.

The taxis, aircar parodies of New York cabs painted yellow, were hovering nearby, waiting for passengers. Kasumi proved herself to be a competent haggler, and managed to secure the services of two cabs. Jensen gave them the sector and level (but not the address, just in case). Drebin and Spooky had volunteered to accompany Kasumi in the cab driven by an african, while Jensen and Tali would ride in the one driven by someone he had initially mistook for a green-skinned Drell, but most certainly wasn't, since his neck was covered in gills and he spoke heavily accented french.

The inside of the odd alien's cab was decorated with beads, its seats were covered with thick woven wool carpets with Rastafarian patterns (no doubt to cover the many, many holes in the fake leather), the windows were painted with flowers, and more than a few post cards of Earth locales (such as the New Eiffel Tower, the Ketchaoua Mosque, and the African Renaissance Monument) were plastered on the back of the front seats.

The ride was slow and quiet save for the algerian music the cabbie played, and to pass the time, Jensen decided to converse with the guy.

"Bonjour, je m'appelle, euh... Jacques."

"Ah, tiens, ça fera un autre!" laughed the cab driver, a happy glint in his eyes as he looked at Jensen in his rear-view mirror. "Moi, c'est Idrissa. Bonjour, bonjour!"

"Vous avez visité la Terre?" Jensen asked, tapping the front seats, calling attention to the post-cards."

"Ah! Moi, je suis né sur la Terre, monsieur! Sur la Terre! Pas la lune, pas Mars, et surement pas Kahje!"

Born on Earth? Adam looked at the alien again, and looked past the gills and smooth, oily skin, and found his facial features to look almost... african.

"Vous venez de l'Afrique?"

"Oui, oui! Ah, il faut toujour que j'explique au gens, parce que ils pensent qu'il faut venir d'une autre planete pour me ressembler. Mais non, mais non, que je leur dit! Il faut juste que mon grand papa et ma grand maman decident de ce fair changer leurs... euh, leur Jeanne?"

"Leurs gênes."

"Ah oui! Ah oui, c'est ca, leurs genes! Eh bien, l'un d'eux avait décidé qu'il voulait nager dans l'eau comme a poisson, et l'autre voulait avoir l'air d'un poisson, et ils ont fait mon papa, et mon papa m'a fait, et tout d'un coup, Idrissa l'homme poisson est né!"

"Err, what are you two talking about?" asked Tali, her translation software not having caught a single thing. Adam went on to explain to her that the cabbie was, as it turned out, perfectly human. Apparently, his grand-parents had been modified with fish DNA for cosmetic or practical purposes, and as a result their children were mutated.

"...I think I saw a lot more humans like him in the marketplace when we were getting the hideout set up," said Tali, after pondering what Adam had just told her. "No two were ever alike, not like on the Citadel. I saw a man with snakeskin, and a large man with horns, a woman with cat eyes... They were from Earth?"

"Qu'est-ce qu'elle dit, la jolie Mademoiselle?" asked Idrissa.

Adam translated between the two, and Idrissa went on to explain why there were so many mutants in Dosadi: Yes, it was hard to get work on Earth if you looked like Idrissa, but that wasn't the only reason: being a mutant was difficult; random mutations could cause cancers or even new maladies, and only Europa Genomics had the know-how to deal with them. Most mutants worked in Lower Dosadi's Marina and in the fisheries. The prettier ones lived here in Middle Dosadi, where they worked as dancers or even secretaries.

"Vous n'avez jamais visité Dosadi, avant?" asked Idrissa.

Adam translated, and Tali replied: "Me and... my friend visited Port Hanshan, but we assumed we would be denied entry into Dosadi itself. You know how it is for us Quarians..."

Adam translated, and Idrissa laughed. "Oui, peut-être ailleurs, mais dans les arcologies de la WTO, ils se foutent complètement de ça! Je connais une dizaine de Quariens comme vous qui vivent comme des rois. Vous aurez du rentrer plus tôt! Les Quariens sont en demande, ici! Vous serez riche! Riche!"

That was food for Tali's thoughts. If true, she would have to visit Dosadi again once her contract with Hein was over.

"Attendez, attendez!" said Idrissa, with a big eager white smile across his face, "Je vais changer de route virtuelle. On va prendre une route scénique, vous allez adorer ça!"

[Remember Me OST - Hope]

Idrissa took the cab on a route that took it above the forest of buildings, past trees of holographic signs written in a variety of human languages — Mandarin granting Tali a perfect view of the entire level.

It took her breath away.

Middle Dosadi was an enclosed city, far more dense than Lower Dosadi, and also far larger and far more busy. One of the elevator towers, which went from the floor to the ceiling, was around 4 kilometers tall. The city`s buildings were an eclectic mix of old byzantine cathedrals, art-nouveau apartments, and post modern, skyscrapers lit up with holographics that simulated a blue sky.

At the center of the city was park that surrounded an artificial lake, above which floated a starfish shaped building with a ring of holograms hovering above it. Tali squinted, and could make out tiny little row boats that stayed close to the beaches of white sand.

In the blue fog above were clusters of buildings that seemed to hang in the air like clouds. Thousands and thousands of skycars flew in the air between them, like little fish in an aquarium, and amongst them were airships acting as holographic billboards. And to Jensen's pleasure, racing across magnetized roads were cars, actual cars, not the flying oven mitts that were ubiquitous across the galaxy. Hundreds of different combinations of sizes, colors, and makes of cars. The way it should be.

"C'est beau, hein?" asked Idrissa, smiling, his huge cheekbones swelling with mirth. He liked showing the newcomers just how great this place is.

"This place is... this place is amazing!" Tali breathed out. "I had heard humans liked to build cities on top of their cities, but I thought it was a joke!"

"There are even bigger Arcologies back on Earth," said Adam, trying to sound proud, but failing. "Neo-Seoul is twice as large, easy."

"I can see why the rest of the galaxy is worried about the rise of humans. You could easily outpace the Asari within a century!"

"... Behold all my works, ye mighty, and despair."

"...What?"

"Nothing... it's nothing." Adam turned to Idrissa. "On y est presque?"

"Presque! Presque! Just quinze minutes, monsieur Jacques! Quinze minutes!"

~[h+]~

Brea closed the laptop, then formatted its hard drive. The plan was in motion. All she needed to do now was to go home and rest, and wait for Jensen to contact her... though judging by the fact that he wasn't answering his codec, she assumed that by tomorrow morning she would find one 'Jake Armitage' in the morgue. While that would be a shame, it would also mean that she would also have to leave Dosadi immediately.

Brea wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. As far as Arcologies went, Dosadi was rather small, but it was shaping up to become a nexus of development in biotech and terraforming. There would be many dealings, secrets and scandals, and the Shadow Broker would do very well by letting her stay here and develop a spy network on Noveria. Managing the local SSC force was also a nice bonus: she liked to organize things, liked to make systems more efficient.

Yes, she would like it here. Maybe Jensen dying or just being hunted by EG would not be such a good thing, either.

As she stepped onto the VI operated cab, Brea went through her plans in her head again, just to be sure she had covered all the bases. She had thoroughly examined the formula Hein had transmitted to her, and while she was confident none of its elements would be too toxic to a normal human being, Devereaux's use of Drive might complicate things in unpredictable ways. Ostensibly, this medicine could completely revitalize someone from the ravages of Drive overuse, or it could cause him or her to melt into a puddle of ooze. If that were the case, Brea would be accessory to murdering a European military hero. Even if it was a cure, treating Devereaux's Drive complications would bring Europa Genomics billions in Nuyen, and the biotech corporation would not be very happy about having a high profile client being snatched away from them.

Brea decided it would be best to be as removed from this chemical with as many degrees of separation as possible. Thus, through several false identities, she contracted several lab technicians across Dosadi to put together the necessary compounds separately, then deliver them to another lab. Then, this lab would combine those, and finish the cure itself. A courier would deliver it to Jensen at a predetermined time and place, and Jensen would apply it discreetly on the Spectre candidate.

Hopefully, he'd get closer to Peak 15 along the way.

Said courier would be a man by the name of Damien Raffaeli, formerly of the SSC. Apparently, Jules Kai Leng, a Manticore contractor, had not appreciated Raffaeli's treatment of another Manticore employee, and had pulled some strings to get the man fired. Said strings were now monitored by Brea herself, and she had run a background check on the unemployed frenchman. Apparently, the man used to run with a gang of teenage drug runners in Lower Dosadi, and was very, very good at making runs on foot while evading cops. Raffaeli had, at a critical point in his life, decided to put his considerable skills and talents into a career in law enforcement, and became part of the SSC's Icarus division. His motivation? A sick mother, and a couple of hungry younger siblings.

And now, he would be in desperate need of money, and Brea would be certain to be very generous.

Brea stepped out of the cab, and approached a high-rise residential building. 'Donna Morgan', being an SSC lieutenant, was privy to some very, very good living quarters on the top floor. The elevator ride was unbearably long, but it was worth it to reach the two story-high loft apartment. It hadn't taken long for Brea to set it up just the way she liked it.

As she was just about to enter her apartment, however, she heard noises and voices coming from inside, and she drew her custom pistol before opening the door. Inside, Brea saw Smuggler and Tali'Zorah gutting her hoverbike and examining its entrails.

"Careful now, those Tokugawa bikes are worth a fortune," warned the Omar.

"I can see why," said the Quarian, fascinated, "there's lots of specialized parts I've never seen before..."

Brea cleared her throat, her gun pointed at the pair. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"Guys! Guys!" shouted a woman from the second story. Brea turned around, and saw a red-headed sportswoman on the balcony holding two pairs of shoes in her hands, and wearing dozens of necklaces along with a manic smile on her face, like a child at a toy store. "You would NOT believe how many clothes she's got, and the shoes! Aisles and aisles of SHOES and — uh oh."

"Put those things back where they belong!" shouted Brea.

"Hey, what's going on?" said Spooky as he came out of the bathroom with only a towel protecting his modesty, held in place around his waist with his left hand. Brea whirled around and pointed her gun at him, and he instantly put his hands up in surrender.

"Well, there's not much I can work with here, folks," said Jensen as he came out of the kitchen, eating a protein bar. "Hello, Morgan."

"...Armitage," Brea seethed. "What are you doing in MY apartment?"

And that was when Spooky's towel dropped to the floor.

~[h+]~

CODEX ENTRY: CYBERNETICS: WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION : THE CHIP

The WTO Subdermal Multipass Transmitter, also known as The Chip, is a piece of identification granted to all citizens of a WTO Arcology, though employees of WTO corporations also receive one upon being hired. It is simultaneously an electronic passport, a wallet, and a smart-phone all rolled into one convenient package. Typically implanted in the wrist, the chip can alter pigmentation of the arm to create a sort of 2d user interface. Extremely difficult to forge, the chip is highly sought after for the social security it provides, and many governments on Earth are looking into making it their standard method of identification for citizens.

Another version of the chip, known as the Krypto brain-chip, is being beta tested in the Dosadi Arcology on Noveria, allowing the user greater control over the Chip's features, as well as opening up new ones. Nearly fifty percent of the Dosadi Arcology's population (including non-humans) have a Chip in their brain in lieu of their skin, giving them access to the Arcadia dream system, a vast, multi-user network of Dream Catchers.

Though anti-augmentation activists denounce the brain chip, thorough examinations of the implant by third parties have revealed that it cannot augment a human being, save perhaps by granting him the ability to dial a phone number with his mind and to better regulate his sleep cycle. As such, they are perfectly legal under any anti-augmentation law, and are predicted to be released on Earth in two years.

CODEX ENTRY: EARTH: ROBOTICS: SECURITY: ZORG SERIES SECURITY MECH

Built and designed by the Baptiste corporation as a riot control mech, the ZORG is designed for not only intimidation and control (using a suite of holographic taunts to scare would-be criminals), but also to deal with Wanzer crime, a growing concern across Terran space. As such, all ZORG models feature thick composite armor and over-powered servo motors. It is also noted to be the first platform on which the early versions of Tech Armor were successfully field tested, as the ZORG's highly durable frame could easily withstand the stress of conflicting mass effect fields required to move around in one. The Tech Armor's infamous 'detonation bug' was turned into a feature, enhancing the Zorg's crowd control abilities as well enhancing its defense against sticky bombs, such as LAMs.

The most interesting (and controversial) feature of the ZORG is its central processor, a cloned animal brain irrigated with a network of hair-fine super-conductive polymers that aids the ZORG's VI in processing audio-visual data. This was thought to be a violation of both the Citadel Accords and the Sudham-Wolcott Genetic Heritage Act concerning the creation of a new sapient species, as well as various anti-augmentation laws. Lawsuits leveled at Baptiste Robotics were deflected with the reasoning that the ZORGs were proven to be no more sapient than an animal, and human augmentation laws concern just that: humans.

ZORGs, thanks to their aggressiveness and ability to adapt to new circumstances, are highly sought after by the rich to keep their estates secure, as well as PMCs out in the Terminus to terrorize insurgents.

The Mark IV is due to be released in Winter 2184, while the mark I is being phased out.

[h+]

Author's notes: I've had some complaints about the untranslated french in the fic, so here's the translated Idrissa conversation:

"Hello, my name is, uh ... Jacques."

"Ah, well, it'll be another one!" laughed the cab driver, a happy glint in his eyes as he looked at Jensen in his rear-view mirror. "Mine's Idrissa. Hello, hello!"

"You visited Earth?" Jensen asked, tapping the front seats, calling attention to to the post-cards.

"Ah! I was born on Earth, sir! On Earth! Not the Moon, not Mars, and most certainly not Kahje!"

Born on Earth? Adam looked at the alien again, past the gills and smooth, oily skin, and found his facial features to look almost ... african.

"You're from Africa?"

"Yes, yes! Oh, I always have to explain to people, because they think that someone must come from another planet to look like me. But no, no, I tell them! All that was needed was for my grandpa and my grandma to change their... uh, their Jeanne? "

"Their genes."

"Oh yes, Oh yes, that's it, their genes! Well, one of them decided he wanted to swim in the water like a fish, and the other wanted to look for a fish, and they made my dad, and my dad made me, and all of a sudden, Idrissa man fish is born! "

"Err, what are you two talking about?" asked Tali, her translation software not having caught a single thing. Adam went on to explain to her that the cabbie was, as it turned out, perfectly human. Apparently, his grand-parents had been modified with fish DNA for cosmetic or practical purposes, and as a result their children were mutated.

"...I think I saw a lot more humans like him in the marketplace when we were getting the hideout set up," said Tali, after pondering what Adam had just told her. "No two were ever alike, not like on the Citadel. I saw a man with snakeskin, and a large man with horns, a woman with cat eyes... They were from Earth?"

"What did the lovely young lady say?" Idrissa asked.

Adam translated between the two, and Idrissa went on to explain why there were so many mutants in Dosadi: Yes, it was hard to get work on Earth if you looked like Idrissa, but that wasn't the only reason: being a mutant was difficult; random mutations could cause cancers or even new maladies, and only Europa Genomics had the know-how to deal with them. Most mutants worked in Lower Dosadi's Marina and in the fisheries. The prettier ones lived here in Middle Dosadi, where they worked as dancers or even secretaries.

"You have never visited Dosadi before?" Idrissa asked.

Adam translated, and Tali replied: "Me and... my friend visited Port Hanshan, but we assumed we would be denied entry into Dosadi itself. You know how it is for us Quarians..."

Adam translated, and Idrissa laughed. "Yes, perhaps elsewhere, but in Arcologies of the WTO, they could not care less about that! I know a dozen Quarians like you that live like kings. You will have come home early! The Quarians are in demand here have yourself rich! Rich!"

That was food for Tali's thoughts. If true, she would have to visit Dosadi again once her contract with Hein was over.

"Wait, wait!" said Idrissa, with a big white smile across his eager face, "I'll change the virtual road. We'll take a scenic route, you will love it!"

Idrissa took the cab on a route that took it above the forest of buildings, past trees of holographic signs written in a variety of human languages — Mandarin granting Tali a perfect view of the entire level.

It took her breath away.

Middle Dosadi was an enclosed city, far more dense than Lower Dosadi, and also far larger and far more busy. One of the elevator towers, which went from the floor to the ceiling, was around 4 kilometers tall. The city`s buildings were an eclectic mix of old byzantine cathedrals, art-nouveau apartments, and post modern, skyscrapers lit up with holographics that simulated a blue sky.

At the center of the city was park that surrounded an artificial lake, above which floated a starfish shaped building with a ring of holograms hovering above it. Tali squinted, and could make out tiny little row boats that stayed close to the beaches of white sand.

In the blue fog above were clusters of buildings that seemed to hang in the air like clouds. Thousands and thousands of skycars flew in the air between them, like little fish in an aquarium, and amongst them were airships acting as holographic billboards. And to Jensen's pleasure, racing across magnetized roads were cars, actual cars, not the flying oven mitts that were ubiquitous across the galaxy. Hundreds of different combinations of sizes, colors, and makes of cars. The way it should be.

"This place is... this place is amazing!" Tali breathed out. "I had heard humans liked to build cities on top of their cities, but I thought it was a joke!"

"There are even bigger Arcologies back on Earth," said Adam, trying to sound proud, but failing. "Neo-Seoul is twice as large, easy."

"I can see why the rest of the galaxy is worried about the rise of humans. You could easily outpace the Asari within a century!"

"... Behold all my works, ye mighty, and despair."

"... What?"

"Nothing ... it's nothing." Adam turned to Idrissa. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost! Almost! Just fifteen minutes, Mr. Jacques! Fifteen minutes!"

[h+]