Chapter 29: Keyhole

The mass relay twinkled nearby, a giant silver-white key floating in space, the dark energy bubble within glowing bright blue. Around it was a giant spherical formation of ships, guarding the device from what might come through its paired sibling, thousands of lightyears away. The front had reached the Perseus Veil at last. The fighting from now on would take place not on human worlds, not in human homes, but in the very heart of the Geth Collective's stolen empire. The gloves could come off entirely.

Shepard, sitting in her chair with a cup of coffee on the CIC, watched the live stream of navigation data with a smile. Although neither Saren nor his superdreadnought had been spotted for a month, she felt real progress towards defeating him was being made. The Mu Relay remained conspicuously alone and untouched. The geth had failed to present a front in the Terminus Systems either, and the pirates had been routed before the newly formed Versailles Pact fleets could arrive. Rannoch was within reach. Surely Saren had to be as well.

Movement in her peripheral vision caught her eye. Tali was fidgeting nearby, either impatient at the delay of their new mission or nervous because of what it would mean for her personally. The Commander felt a scratch of impatience herself, and turned to Pressly.

"Do we have confirmation from Admiral Hackett yet?" she asked, as much to relieve Tali as herself, "We've been here for an hour."

"Nothing yet," Pressly replied, "Admiral Okajima is likely still holding us up, worried that we'll get caught and give away how many ships he's bringing. He's been sending the decoy probes through regularly to throw the geth off to our initial arrival, but he's not exactly happy about it."

Shepard snorted. "Like that matters, there is only one relay into the Far Rim that we know of, and only one into Tikkun. Besides, the Normandy is solid. We can sneak past anything."

"It's probably some political bullshit," came a voice from behind. Shepard turned, and found Ashley leaning against the bulkhead directly behind. "They don't want to risk the new toy, or humanity's first Spectre, on what might be a false lead."

"Nonsense, the probe sent its confirmation codes by FTL comm buoy right on schedule," Pressly said with a wave of his hand, "If the geth had hacked it, the failsafe would have activated and we'd know it was a trap. The thing doesn't even have a single central processor, there's no way the geth could have hacked it."

That seemed optimistic to the Commander. The geth were very capable problem solvers.

"Doesn't mean they won't know it was around," Shepard said, "The probe wasn't programmed to try and return for a reason. The Normandy's being sent so we can get the intel earlier than would otherwise be possible."

"My people helped design it, Shepard," Tali cut in, "The geth could not fake a signal from its comms systems, not without also hacking the comm buoy on our end."

"So, we sneak past the geth, land on the planet where it is hiding out, get it and get out," Ashley rattled off, "No complications. Right. Because we never go in for complications."

"Whatever happens, we'll be ready for it Williams," Joker called from the bridge, "I'll get us out of there, no problem."

"I hope for all our sakes that your cockiness is warranted, Flight Lieutenant!" Pressly heckled, "Otherwise, I'll make it my mission to personally kick you in the ass before the ship goes down."

"Ouch," Joker replied, "My ass isn't as hard as yours Pressly, that would be a terrible way to die."

Shepard and some of the crew had a good chuckle, the ones near Pressly himself restraining themselves to a suppressed grin. The XO continued his work, a scowl on his face.

"I guess we should look on the bright side," Ashley continued, crossing her arms, "If we survive this, we'll be the first humans to ever travel through the Perseus Veil."

A light bulb lit up in Shepard's mind, like the Chief had flipped a switch. She turned to the young quarian beside her.

"Tali, does this mean you'll be the first quarian to return to the Veil in three hundred years?" she asked.

Tali paused, her eyes moving behind her mask. "I.. think so. We've sent probes of our own through, but every time the Fleet has tried to go back, they've been stopped here at the Phoenix Massing..." she said slowly, "Wow. I hadn't even thought about that..."

The Commander could not help but be happy for the young quarian.

"Congratulations!" Shepard laughed, "You'll be as famous as I am, and for a better reason."

"I'm already an Admiral's daughter, remember?" Tali replied, "I hope you're wrong."

"Impossible," Ashley said, shaking her head, "You bring back the homeworld for your gift thing, people are going to idolise you. Trust me."

Tali looked between the two of them, and then at the floor, standing bolt straight. Shepard tried and failed to interpret the body language, but quarian cues weren't the same as human ones in a lot of cases. The obvious ones were the same with almost every species; lust, anger, relaxation. Everything else required a deeper understanding. She hoped to get such an understanding of the quarians, once it was all over. They were humanity's allies now, after all.

An arrow of sadness went through Shepard as she realised other teammates were missing out on the historymaking. Garrus and Kaidan were still out with injuries, both getting used to their new body parts. Liara had remained on the Citadel. Her mother was getting better. Wrex had finally checked out, his insides having healed perfectly despite all the worry. The Commander's sadness went away as she realised Wrex would be the first krogan to return to the Veil. She wondered if that would gain him credit among his own kind.

Pressly looked up and spoke.

"Commander, we're receiving the orders now, message reads:

SSV Normandy from Space Command Terra.

Low likelihood of tampering in probe signal from the Perseus Veil. Space Command Terra believes that its confirmation of mission completion is authentic.

Proceed via Phoenix Alpha Relay to the Far Rim Cluster. Exit Dholen System and proceed to star cluster designated FR392. Probe will land on the second planet and reactivate its transponder in three days for retrieval. Conditions are habitable. Limited FTL comms are already established within the system, but may be detected at any time. If communications cut off, withdraw and evade enemy forces. General combat operations in the Veil will commence at the end of your designated mission time.

A packet with all available information is attached to this message.

Good luck, Commander.

Admiral Hackett, Commanding Admiral, Fifth Fleet."

Shepard straightened in her chair. The moment had come.

"XO, action stations," she commanded, "Joker, prepare for relay jump and immediate stealth mode upon arrival. Weapons master, prepare targeting solutions on all hostiles."

"Aye Ma'am!"

The Normandy hummed as Joker applied the engines' power, and slid the ship gracefully towards the relay. It began to spin up, the blue light glowing more and more as it prepared to send the Normandy to its fate. The CIC officers began sounding off their readiness, and Pressly gave the command to proceed. The relay grabbed the ship.

"One small step for a woman, one giant leap for humankind," Shepard joked to Tali. The quarian didn't get the reference, tilting her head in inquiry.

The relay activated and threw the ship into the unknown, before Shepard could laugh.

The geth fleet stood in silent columns, smaller tender vessels zipping through the gaps in the formations, but otherwise not manoeuvring beyond correcting their orbits. Navigating the way out wasn't difficult, though there were close calls with the tenders. A frigate was dispatched to the exact point the Normandy arrived at, but the ship would be long gone by the time it got there. To Shepard's great relief, they managed to get to FTL beyond the geth picket lines with no great trouble at all, and she was careful to have Pressly record the positions of the geth ships. There were more combat groups orbiting Haestrom, the former colony. More precious intel.

The journey to the system where the probe was to take sixty seven hours. The quarian name for the place had been lost. The planet where the probe was to land was Falun, discovered early in quarian expansion into the galaxy but largely untouched. The life there was levo, not dextro. Terraforming was viewed as too expensive for a world barely in the preferred temperature range for quarians. There had been no shortage of other worlds to colonise.

On arriving in system, Shepard ordered that the drives be discharged on the far side of the outermost of the system's four gas giants, away from any prying eyes, and had the ground team prepare for the drop onto Falun. She dressed in her armour and returned to the CIC for the hard part; the approach. If it was a trap, detecting it could only happen while they were in space. Trapped on the ground, they would be mincemeat.

When the drive discharge was complete and the stealth systems' heatsinks cooled, there was only one thing left to do.

"Take us in Joker, high orbit over Falun," Shepard said, "Nice and easy."

"Hell yes, Commander," Joker said.

The Normandy crested from its position behind the gas giant, turned, and went to FTL. It was a journey of seconds, given how fast the ship was, and the stealth systems flickered to life immediately on arrival. Anyone watching might have seen a brief flicker of light and heat at a point in the sky, and could mistake it for a random burst of radiation.

Shepard watched her monitors and the hologram intently as the sensors poured data onto them. The planet didn't seem to have any large structures, which was encouraging. The geth were known to place outposts pretty much everywhere. The planet's moon, Falun-Ni, was also missing any sign of a geth presence. Given that there were no known special resources on either body, that was unsurprising. The FTL comms buoy that the probe had dropped was intact and in a polar orbit. The Commander began to hope.

The data from further away from the Normandy's position kept arriving regardless.

A huge number of heat contacts, or shadows in the case of those directly in front of the sun, began to crop up, seeming to stretch in a great ring around an orbit further down the gravity well towards the parent star. The ring kept growing as the Normandy's VI made sense of the readings, sharpening the contact images progressively. A small number of the contacts moved, in the disturbingly familiar manner that had been seen of the tenders at the Far-Rim relay.

Shepard felt like she had been stabbed again.

"It's a whole geth fleet," she breathed, not believing her eyes. And a massive fleet it was too. If the geth had reserves of ships like this, the Alliance didn't stand a chance.

"What the hell are they doing all the way out here?!" Pressly complained, "There's no reason for the geth to guard this system." He began browsing the data on his screen directly, trying to find the answer. Joker beat him to it.

"They're not ships... well, most of them aren't," Joker said, "They're space stations. Look at the nearest one. Those huge plates have got to be solar panels, or the geth really like the shade. They're even connected to each other, if you look closely."

Shepard felt her lungs reinflate, pulling her data tablet to her hands and adjusting the hologram image. Sure enough, the nearest space station was connected to as many as six others. At the scale of the hologram, it looked like a spider's web, but the Commander knew that the 'strands' between each station had to be the width of a dreadnought. She realised she was looking at perhaps the greatest feat of engineering in the history of the galaxy.

"It's a Dyson sphere, or the beginnings of one," Pressly said, giving words to her thoughts, "Solar output is down a couple of percent of what you'd expect from a star of this class."

"Pressly, inform Tali and stream the data to her omnitool," Shepard said, "Joker, any sign that we've been spotted?"

The pilot didn't respond for several minutes.

"I've identified twenty geth military vessels, none of them have moved from their orbits to intercept," Joker said, "The stealth systems are working fine."

"Thank God," Pressly added, "Any idea what the whole thing is for? Why do the geth need or want a Dyson sphere?"

No one had an answer to that. Shepard didn't like it. She tapped her omnitool to ask someone who should.

"Tali, are you seeing this?" she asked, "Any idea what the geth are doing?"

"If I had to guess, I would say it was a giant server hub. The pieces have radiators at the back big enough to mean that there is a lot of equipment on each station," Tali said, before following it up, "But I can't know for sure!"

"So, it's like what? A giant geth city?" Shepard asked.

"More like the geth homeworld," Tali replied, "If I'm right about what it is."

Shepard frowned. Did this mean the geth had abandoned Rannoch? It seemed strange for the synthetics to do so. Even if they didn't need garden worlds, Rannoch was still their birthplace as much as it was the quarians' own. Either way, it was more information the Alliance needed to know.

"Have to say it's a lot uglier than Tuchanka," Wrex interrupted with a growl, "Hey Shepard, are we going down to that planet or what? I'm getting itchy here."

Shepard leaned back in her chair to consider the question. On the one hand, their cover was intact and the information the probe had could be extremely valuable. On the other, the possibility of being caught seemed massively increased now that she knew that the geth presence in the system was this heavy. If she ordered the Normandy home now, she wouldn't be walking away empty-handed. The geth fleet positions, the existence of the geth Dyson sphere, that was valuable intel.

But the Commander was not one for half-measures.

"Wrex, I'll be down there in a minute," Shepard said, rising from her seat, "Pressly, you have the bridge. Let's go get the probe."

"Yes, Commander!"

The trip groundside was an unusual one. No evidence that anyone had been present could be left behind, and if they were spotted, there had to be some doubt that it was an Alliance mission. That meant no drop pods, not that Wrex would have fit into one anyway, no wingsuits, and nothing that couldn't conceivably be bought in the Terminus. It meant a HALO drop, the kind which humans had been doing for centuries but had become obsolete with the dawn of the drop pod.

To Shepard's great relief, the prohibition on Alliance equipment didn't exclude her weapons, but it did exclude her armour. She found herself in some Terminus' armoursmith's work that was lighter than she was used to, packing a parachute into a camouflaged bag. That they would have to carry the things through the winding trees with vicious and large thorns rather than just dumping them was an annoyance, but landing the Normandy with the geth nearby in such large numbers would have been too risky. They hadn't strayed far from where the probe had transmitted its position to the comm buoy. Sure they had made the best landing they could, Shepard looked to the team.

Tali was dutifully checking her shotgun, entirely devoted to the mission in a way that Shepard hadn't seen before but wasn't surprised at. They were fighting on her 'home soil' now, after all. Wrex was already searching the surrounding woods with his eyes. Ashley was pulling her parachute bag onto her back, not really paying much attention to the surroundings. The krogan was far less confident than the Chief that the geth were nowhere nearby.

Shepard preferred Ashley's optimism.

"Probe is that way," she said, pointing off towards a rocky, open area to the south, "Let's go."

They advanced at a quick walking pace, not quite hurrying but not moving casually either. The terrain was difficult. The trees were more like giant weaves of thorned vines than anything you might see on Earth or its colonies. The air was cold and had more oxygen in it than Shepard was used to. It was strangely tiring and refreshing, hard to move in but easier to breath. It wasn't very long before the others began to comment.

"What the hell are these things?" Ashley asked, hacking away a large spiked tail from an overhead branch, "Giant rose bushes?"

"According to the information sent by the Flotilla, they are a dominant plant species indigenous and unique to this planet," Tali replied helpfully, "Something to do with how much the animals here like to eat flowers."

Ashley eyed the thorns narrowly. "So you're saying the six inch blades coming out of these trees are to stop animals?" she said incredulously, "Suddenly, I hope we don't run into them. They must be huge!"

"I've seen bigger," Wrex said, "So have you. Thresher Maws are everywhere now. Wasn't always that way."

"Don't say that," Shepard snapped, "Say that, and one of those will show up. Then our cover will be blown."

"Or we'll be dead," Tali added.

Most likely, Shepard thought. "Just keep moving, we're almost out of this tangle anyway," she said.

With a swipe from her omniblade, the last tapestry of gnarled wood gave way and the rocky plain ahead could be seen more clearly. It wasn't a beautiful planet, at least where they were. Ugly grey mountains sat on the horizon, and the soil began to thin out almost immediately from the forest's edge. Shepard stared at the scene blankly for a moment, thinking to herself that it was no mystery as to why the quarians hadn't bothered to settle the place.

It was harder going on the rock than it had been in the forest. There weren't any great chasms or cliffs to navigate, just holes that would grab a boot with ease, lots of loose stones to lose footing on, gashes that allowed falls large enough to hurt or break bones in, and just enough elevation changes to make seeing any good distance a problem. Tali led the way, Shepard taking up the middle with Wrex, as Ashley guarded the rear. Every couple of hundred metres, they would run a motion sweep. For three checks, there was nothing. Shepard began to hope. It was only four hundred metres to the probe.

The grass-speckled mud made its return as they moved in towards their goal. Shepard had stopped upon noticing this, when the unmistakeable noise of a sonic boom signalled the arrival of a ship. A geth ship.

"Down!" Shepard said, dropping to her stomach into the mud. They tracked the geth dropship as it slowed in a large circle directly in front of them. Geth troopers began landing, at least a dozen of them. No mechs or prime units. An investigation team, Shepard thought, but all it would take to ruin the mission was one of the geth identifying them.

Shepard cursed under her breath and motioned for Tali to come to her. The quarian crawled over, holding her shotgun off the ground and scrambling on the remaining three limbs.

"How did they know the probe was here?" Shepard whispered.

"Perhaps the broadcast drew their attention," Tali said, "It's encrypted, but a radio signal from the planet might be detected if they had the right sensors."

Shepard rubbed her face, reflecting on how close they must have been to being detected themselves if that was the case. She had ordered complete emissions discipline essentially on a whim, not really believing that radio signals would draw the geth in but not taking any chances either. The Normandy had orders to come in once it spotted the team at the probe landing site. The geth made things a little more complicated.

"Can you jam their communications?" the Commander asked.

"Oh... that shouldn't be hard, I guess," Tali replied, "But if they're in constant communication with their ship, the cut off might bring more ships."

"Can you determine if they are communicating with the dropship?" Shepard said, pulling her RAM rifle off of her back.

"I believe so," Tali said, before activating her omnitool in the lee of a large rock, where the glow wouldn't be seen. There was still plenty of daylight, so it was no danger, yet Shepard couldn't help but wince at the possibility of the glow of the tool being seen. She moved on her elbows over to Ashley and Wrex.

"We're going to advance, slowly," Shepard explained, "We need to get into position to take out the geth all at once."

Wrex peeked over the edge of his own rock. "They're spreading out," he said, "How do we do that exactly?"

"Easy," Ashley said, pulling her own RAM rifle out, "We wait until they're about to find the probe."

"It's not a standard Alliance design and it has no identifying markings," Shepard added, "They shouldn't be able to tell who it belongs to without taking it apart."

Wrex agreed by moving forwards, crawling from outcrop to outcrop. The Commander watched him get closer to the geth, where he could bring his shotgun and biotics to bear more effectively. The synthetics themselves had started moving, searching in what had to be a grid pattern. Shepard tracked them with her eyes.

"Chief, head left to that big monolith over there," she whispered, "Get up onto it. There are two 'destroyer' units. Take one with your AMR and then put a carnage round into the nearest group."

"Yes ma'am," Ashley replied, before crawling away on her stomach.

Satisfied that job would get done, Shepard looked around for something resembling high ground to take out the other destroyer. There was a flat-topped rise to the right. With a nod, she returned to Tali.

"Well, what's the verdict?" she asked.

Tali deactivated her omnitool. "They put out a more powerful signal every three minutes. That has to be their check-in. Two more cycles, and I'll be able to jam their comms."

"Three minutes should be enough time to kill them all," Shepard said, "The Normandy should get the picture when the shooting starts. We should be able to escape before the dropships return."

"With the probe's core," Tali said.

Shepard looked at the quarian. "Join Wrex at the front," she said, somewhat reluctantly, "I want those smaller geth units firing at their friends."

"Sure, Commander," said Tali, determination in her tone, "Let's get them."

With a pat on the shoulder, Shepard crawled away again.

By the time she had reached her firing point, the geth were closing in on the probe. Its signal had deactivated as the pod detected movement, but the geth had triangulated its position. From their movement, the Commander had been able to train her sights on the thing herself. It was a long cylinder with a rounded nose, short stubby wings and thrusters coming off of them. It reminded Shepard of what the old pre-First Contact frigates, like the model one that her mother always kept in her room. It was coloured black, but had taken some heat damage that had turned the extreme edges of its profile white. If the geth hadn't been closing in on it, it might have been easily missed, laying on its side like it was.

Wrex and Tali were approaching perfect distance to begin the attack. Ashley was aiming between two parts of the rock she was perched on, the grey and black of her armour hiding her profile further. The geth were almost at the probe themselves. Shepard smiled, and placed her crosshairs on the back of the geth destroyer heading up the group on her side. With one eye on the scope, she watched with the other for Tali's signal. Sure enough, the quarian lay down on her back beside Wrex, held up her hand, and began a countdown from three with her fingers.

Three.

Two.

One.

Shepard's hand tensed to pull the trigger, but her aim was suddenly thrown off as the ground began shaking slightly. She attempted to compensate, figuring it was merely a seismic anomaly, but it began to get worse. The ground began to bulge off to her right, tracking across her field of view. Straight towards the geth.

"Oh no," she said to herself, "Wrex, you just had to say it."

As if to mock her, the Thresher Maw burst forth from the ground adjacent the probe. It turned towards the geth and roared its challenge. It made the rachni look like god damn flies by comparison. Not even their queen looked like it could have withstood the sheer size and power of the creature staring down the synthetics.

To their credit however, the geth wasted absolutely no time. The destroyers opened the engagement with their missile launchers, lancing shot after shot towards the maw. The other geth fired too, concentrating their efforts on the open jaw, the eyes, the mandibles of the thing.

The thresher maw shrieked and dove forwards, dangerously close to Wrex and Tali, crashing into a group of three or four geth, tearing metal and plastic to crushed pieces in an instant.

"Shepard, do we shoot the geth or that thing?!" Ashley asked.

"Are the geth jammed?" Shepard asked.

"Yes," Tali squeaked, as she edged away from the maw's mass.

"Shoot the maw!" Wrex said, making the decision for everyone. He stood up, and sent a warp bolt towards the creature. The blue ball of dark energy tore a hole in its side, even as the maw spat a ball of acid at the geth destroyers. Green-yellow blood spilled forth, as the krogan followed up with his rifle-grenade, landing the shot perfectly. The thing jumped away with another roar in response, crashing into the next cluster of geth. Away from Tali and Wrex, to Shepard's relief.

Ashley's RAM rifle thundered, announcing her participation. The hypervelocity slug penetrated one side of the maw neatly and exited messily out the other, drawing the first truly pained noise from the creature. In retaliation, it struck down more of the geth, and spat at Ashley's position. The rock she was hiding on cracked, but she had wisely decided to reposition just beforehand. Showered with rock splinters, the Chief moved at a crouch to find another place to shoot from. Shepard watched her go, hoping she was alright. She couldn't break radio silence to know for sure. It would doom them all. She turned her attention back to the fight.

Tali and Wrex continued to fire Carnage rounds at the maw as it continued its rampage through the geth. Only the two destroyers were left now, but they were manoeuvring around the rocks with great agility and firing off multiple missiles as they did so. Shepard didn't like the conclusion she was drawing in her head, and Ashley's second shot through and through the thresher maw convinced her that she was right. The destroyers might very well survive the encounter. And the clock to them re-establishing communications with their dropship was ticking.

Once again, the Commander drew a bead on the nearest destroyer with her RAM rifle, waited for the synthetic to cross onto her sights, and fired. Her thunderclap signalled the end of the target, the slug catching the destroyer in the spine and shattering its body in half. The missile launcher in its hands discharged into a nearby rock, and the explosion threw the remains to the side. A satisfying end, Shepard thought, as she quickly reloaded.

The thresher maw, injured but still very much dangerous, turned its attention to the greater threat; Shepard's team. The destroyer still fired, but the Commander's shot had made it perfectly clear which group was to be feared most. The maw aimed at Shepard and lunged forwards. Her heart almost jumping out of her throat, she rolled backwards and onto her feet, sprinting as best she could over the rough, muddy ground, as the giant beast came on to kill her.

She paused for the briefest moment to fire her RAM rifle, off the hip no less, straight into its abdomen. It recoiled in agony, grunting its displeasure at an almost impossible volume, before resuming the hunt. Shepard moved and reloaded, as Ashley missed a shot in support, creating a deafening ping off to the rear. Slowly, her mind began to tick down the seconds to the moment it would catch her. She poured every last drop of energy she had into running.

The maw's head exploded, burst downwards in a spray of greenish innards. The body fell with a deep thud onto the ground, the death gurgle loud as the last breath escaped the thing's lungs. Mud splattered everywhere, the weight of the maw displacing it.

Shepard stopped running and stared, relief washing over her, gulping down whatever air she could.

The Normandy recovered from its sharp dive and circled around to land. The Commander could almost hear Joker's bragging from the cockpit, no comms required. Of course he had came in to help. She smiled up at the ship, until out of the corner of her eye, the last geth destroyer took aim with its missile launcher from the outcrop she had been shooting from. Not that it would do any good, but it was still an attack on her ship. Shepard drew her pistol and jumped aside.

A shot rang out, and the geth's legs gave. Tali appeared from below, and delivered the killing blow with two more shots, before giving Shepard a wave. The Commander sighed, shaking her head with disbelief.

"Good work!" Shepard shouted out, "Get the probe and let's get the hell out of here!"

Tali nodded and rushed off to do just that. Shepard hunched over, catching her breath, unable to stop herself from smiling like a madwoman. There was no way the geth dropship would arrive in time to discover them. Wrex was already striding over to help her, while Ashley waved the Normandy down.

They had done it. The geth would rue the day.

Cassandra DeRuyter boarded the command titan, stepping through the airlock of the SSV Ulan Bator onto the command deck. Her reduced command staff rushed in after her, taking their seats and securing themselves with straps. The hologram glimmered to life, displaying their intended dropzone, deformed by bombardment as it was, the geth underground structures exposed. Everything was ready, she noted. No one had expected her presence, yet everything was in perfect order. Even their guests.

A quarian marine stood in the limited space at the centre of the titan's CIC, waiting, his glowing eyes staring at her through his visor. The alien's body was well toned, but still had the impossibly exaggerated shoulders and thin hips of the males of his species. He was a lieutenant, a fact testified by the Alliance-standard double tab with double stars in the middle. All quarian forces now used human rank insignia.

Cassandra smiled at the young man, approaching and holding out her hand for him to shake. She liked quarians. She had history with them, and they had never betrayed humanity before. His eyes thinned slightly, indicating that he shared the sentiment or very much did not. The handshake was brief, and without the test of strength that some liked to put on.

"Field Marshal," the quarian said, "Lieutenant Kal'Reegar vas Neema, ready to kill geth."

"Glad to hear it," Cassandra replied, inspecting the hologram briefly. There had been no changes to her proposed plan due to naval problems. "I'm glad we have this opportunity," she added.

"I just wish we could retake the Veil in a way that didn't cost so many people their lives, ma'am," Reegar replied, "Like I said, my marines are ready to join your soldiers in whatever happens down there."

"Good," Cassandra replied, "Don't suppose you have any special insights into this planet?"

"Not really," Reegar said flatly, "A lot of the ancestors lived here. Largest colony before the Morning War. Was easier to escape from than Rannoch itself. That's all I know."

"Hopefully it'll be just as easy to land on," Cassandra mused, crossing her arms. The Navy had done a very good job softening up the place for the invasion, but there were some unique conditions that made the whole enterprise risky.

The internal comms crackled to life, announced by a short cough.

"This is the Captain," the speakers said, "T-minus five. All personnel secure for titan drop."

Cassandra waved for Reegar to join her at the command post, and together, they sat down, pulling the seat harnesses on and clipping the latches together. She wanted him right beside her for what was going to happen next.

"Major Scharnhorst, I want a front-wide line," she commanded, "Now."

"Right away, Feldmarschall," the adjutant replied, tapping on the screen to his left.

Reegar was looking at her. The reason why was not obvious. The mask hid his emotions well. This continued for a minute or so, before it became a matter to address. And Cassandra was good at guessing motives.

"Lieutenant, you are aware of my rank, correct?" she asked, "My real one."

"You're Chief of Staff of the Army," he responded, "You command all human forces that fight on or from planets or other orbital bodies." He had said so in a tone that made it clear that he was quoting his briefing document from memory. The Field Marshal kept her face blank.

"Correct," Cassandra said, "You must be wondering why I would be risking my life in a hot combat drop, given my rank?"

The eyes of the other human occupants of the CIC began finding her. It was something on their minds too. The highest ranked officers that ever made drops were major-generals, and they had only ever done so twice in Alliance history. Once at Shanxi, once at Elysium. A field marshal doing it, never mind the Chief of Staff, was entirely unheard of.

"The question did cross my mind, ma'am," Reegar said in earnest.

"Well, I'm about to tell you," Cassandra finished, "And everyone else."

"T-minus three minutes," said a new voice over the comms, "Ending hard-seal with payloads."

The sound of the connectors detaching from the airlocks sent a groan through the titan's hull, followed by the hiss of an airlock integrity test. There was no escape from the titan now. They were all in the 'falling fortress' for better or worse. Cassandra sighed at her fatalism, thinking it an overdramatic appraisal of a simple part of the procedure. She suppressed any last drop of nervousness, just in time for her adjutant to point to his earpiece. The line to all the other titans, shuttles and landing craft was open.

"Soldiers of the Veil Expeditionary Forces, this is your Field Marshal speaking direct from Titan Z96.

Once again, we find ourselves on the precipice of a great battle, in a great war for our survival. Humanity, it seems, cannot help but find itself at war. The galaxy is cruel, and often seems to yield only to the force of our arms. But as with every war, this one will end, and we can now see that end.

Yesterday, the Navy attacked the geth fleets guarding the way into the Perseus Veil with great success, courtesy of a stealth reconnaissance mission led by Commander Shepard. The first wave managed to completely break up the geth formations, and in response, the synthetics cut and ran to fight another day. Most retreated to Tikkun, the home system of the quarian people.

Today, the Navy is fighting one of the fleets that didn't run back to Rannoch, but has instead run to Vepra, a former colony and what intelligence has called a server hub. Now it's our turn. In order to understand the defences we are likely to face on Rannoch itself, we must take as many of the geth servers as we can and cleanse the world of any geth presence so that our new quarian allies can reoccupy it. The Army will fight alongside quarian marines today. As we fight for revenge and justice, they will fight for their birthright.

Against much advice and the recommendation of the consuls, today I will stand with you all and personally command the assault. I have lived long enough to have little to fear. I have already seen my children grow to splendid adulthood. I couldn't be more proud of them, even if one of them did join the Navy! My first grandchild was born a month ago. A new life to protect.

The geth want to take that away from you. Your family, your legacy, your people. They want to take your homes, your towns, your colonies, your homeworld, just like they took the quarians' own. They want to slaughter us, starting with you and ending with your loved ones. They want to tear down our civilisation and ground it into dust. Their synthetic gods command it.

We can have no mercy for the invader. Hate them, for they deserve our hate. Kill them, for they will kill us all. We shall tear their Reapers from their thrones and cast them to hell. That is our destiny. And it will all begin on this rock.

Be prepared, and good luck."

The comms crackled again, the same even female tone announcing the commencement of proceedings.

"Titan drop in:

Three

Two

One

Execute drop."

The gravity plates didn't entirely compensate for the force of the titan detaching from the cruiser, sending the bodies of the crew briefly upwards into their restraints. The acceleration soon came under control as the titan's thrusters kicked in and the planet's atmosphere began to buffer, sending everything back to zero-g as the whole craft hurtled towards the ground.

Comfortable enough, Cassandra slapped her console control, and the hologram obeyed. From a two dimensional map, the image changed to a three dimensional representation of the planet. Namely the part that her soldiers were going to be landing in, and the space above it.

The Second Fleet hung in geostationary orbit above the landing zones, shooting at the geth in space and on the ground. Somewhere out of the image, the geth fleet was engaged with them. Fighter squadron icons were making their way from the human fleet and off into the void. The icons of the Army's titans rained down on Vepra, as if the human ships were spitting at the planet.

"Suborbital trajectories are good," Major Scharnhorst reported steadily, "Meteorology predicts no adverse weather conditions. Landing will be on schedule and exactly correct."

Cassandra gave a single nod, keeping her gaze on the hologram. Scans by the probe recovered from the Normandy indicated huge server infrastructure in the northern and southern quarters of the planet. Where the machines could best be kept cool, no doubt. Her titans drifted towards the north pole, where most of the landmass was. The south was being bombarded to oblivion with pinpoint shots and some nasty new dark-energy WMD created just for the occasion.

A rash of new contact icons appeared in angry red on the surface of the planet. Cassandra felt her eyebrows inch upwards.

"Major, what are those?" she said, pointing at the hologram.

The adjutant repeated the question into his mouthpiece, albeit in more detail. His eyes moved from side to side, something Cassandra had noted he did when the response not quite what he was expecting.

"They're geth titans, ma'am," he said at last, "A hundred of them."

Cassandra frowned, remembering the reports from Feros. The battle had just become far more complicated.

"Inform the navy we're going to need fighter support," she ordered, "All forces, form up close for anti-titan operations. Looks like we outnumber them, but the geth aren't known for playing fair. Exact deployments to follow soon."

Affirmatives rang out from the humans, followed by chattering of orders. Cassandra turned to Reegar.

"I hope your people are ready to board titans," she said, "Because we don't have the firepower to take them all out quickly without getting our hands dirty."

Reegar nodded, saying nothing. But his hands grasped the seat restraints a little tighter. Cassandra understood.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: We're really moving now! The end of this fiction is now in sight! I can't believe it! Not that it means the end of the story. BF2184 already has words on paper, and BF2185 is planned out.

Wasn't sure if the canon capabilities of the Normandy would allow for a stealthy relay jump. I know a standard FTL arrival couldn't be hidden, not by the SR-1 anyway, but I figured it could be done. Relays do the work on their jumps, not the ships, so there would be less radiation to begin with. As long as something was done to lull the geth into a false sense of security, i.e. send a bunch of probes through regularly to throw them off the scent.

Notice: I intend to make a TV Tropes page for this fic, but I need help. If you see a trope, write it into your review! Cheers!

Demon Lord Razgriz: Thanks very much for that information. As I suggested in our PMs, I will indeed be using that as part of the plot, most likely in BF2185.

Braclark: Kai Leng probably won't be returning simply because I find him utterly two dimensional, and I don't think I can write him better than Bioware did. I won't rule it out entirely, because it's an interesting idea, but it's unlikely. I have a much more worthy opponent for Shepard in mind.

The future of the geth is something you'll just have to wait and see about, won't you!

Legion will be in this story. Briefly.

Glad you like this style of Humanity Fuck Yeah. I hope it seems more... realistic. The curbstomps are great fun to read, but tend to draw off at the end.

KnightOfHolyLight: There's a definitely clash of the services at play. It's one of the biggest changes to the canon about the Alliance I've made. The idea that the Navy would take over what armies have been doing seems utterly absurd to me. The Navy didn't fold into the air force when the aircraft carrier was made, and armies didn't immediately come under naval command when the sailing ship was invented. Bottom line is that fighting in space and fighting on the ground somewhere are still two very different types of combat. Not to mention a merger would destroy centuries of tradition, and militaries are big on tradition. The tension between Haider and Hackett goes far beyond the issue at hand as a result.

The Luna VI became an AI. Or at least, that's the impression I got. Add the Battlefield 2183 canon Alliance and its thirst for greater and greater capability, and you get the Athena AI.

General-joseph-dickson: I'll address this in the story in due time, as I said above. Glad you liked the Hackett response.

Jim: Glad you like it!

Axcel: The Turians don't believe in the civilian-military distinction. Given the resistance being put up, there was no way they would stop attacking. That said, the reason why there was no surrender will be explored in my Battlefield 2157 story. Which will be the next story to get an update or two, I might add.

Highflyer: Cheers!

Necronicus: The WMDs are indeed a balancing thing. The turians use cheap but readily available methods like asteroids and deorbited space stations, but that requires time and security to prepare. The salarians have biological and chemical agents. The asari have the Destiny Ascension, if they really want to bring the hurt to a world. Humanity has nukes and dark-energy weapons (like giant disruptor torpedoes).

You've gotten the exact impression I was trying to make about humanity, which is an absolutely delightful thing to hear.