A/N: Overlord! If you haven't played Overlord, it really is a great DLC. Except for the Hammerhead. God, the Mako was like a dream compared to that thing.

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Chapter 35: An AI Named David

"We're here, Commander. The shuttle's just waiting for you."

"Great." Shepard studied the planet underneath them. "Take the ship a system over, just in case. EDI, try not to shut down everything so you can make a quick escape if necessary."

"I will do my best, Commander. I cannot guarantee I will be able to keep any systems other than life support online, however."

"Do your best." Shepard rested her hand on the back of Joker's chair. "We'll head out."

"Be careful, Commander."

"I will. And Joker . . . that discussion we had before we headed to the heretic station . . ."

"Don't mention it."

"Thanks."

Shepard's boots pounded on the floor as she headed for the elevator, coffee cup still clutched in her hand. Joker waited until the shuttle and Hammerhead had dropped out of the bay to turn the ship towards the next system.

"One IFF, comin' right up," he murmured.

#

Miranda led the sprint down the platform towards the unintelligible shouting. At the far end, they could just see Tali and Legion starting to stand up, moving debris and dusting themselves off as they tried to find the other three. Tali suddenly stuck her hand down, and the duo pulled Garrus to his feet. As they got closer, the yelling began to form words – mostly profanity, mostly from Shepard, and mostly about how things always fell or exploded at the most inopportune moments. Someone started throwing debris biotically off the side of the platform as Kaidan stood. He stuck his hand back down and pulled a flared, cussing Shepard to her feet.

"Shepard! Are you okay?" Miranda slid to a halt. Shepard nodded, checking her armor.

"That was bullshit," she grumbled. "Archer better have a damn good reason for this."

Almost immediately, a man wearing a torn and somewhat grimy Cerberus scientist uniform sprinted towards them. Shepard pushed past the group. "What the hell is going on here?"

He slid to a stop, slowly casting his eyes to the floor. "Man's reach exceeding his grasp," he murmured. "I'll explain everything."

"Great. I love hearing that." Shepard jerked her head. "Go take account of the dead. Garrus, Miranda, take two teams and sweep for survivors and any other geth. I'll deal with Doctor Archer."

A few minutes later, Shepard paced Archer's office as her team moved bodies out of the main lab.

"Okay. So this project was trying to control geth by creating a human AI. Your brother David said he'd be the test subject, and now appears to have gone insane. He takes control of electronics, and can't be allowed to get off-world. How am I doing so far?"

"Excellent."

She shook her head. "You should have considered this before you started the experiment."

"How could we account for every outcome? Certainly not this abomination! It was nowhere in the data."

'Nowhere in the data.' Where had she heard that before? "So what do we do about it?"

"Davi—" Archer sighed. "The VI has fortified itself in the laboratory in Atlas Station. It's in lockdown. We need to override it – you need to manually override it from our facilities at Prometheus and Vulcan Stations."

"So what happens if the override works, and I have to kill your brother?"

"I . . . I hope it doesn't come to that." He paused, glancing out the window. Legion was currently discussing something with Mordin – or, rather, the salarian was rambling as Legion occasionally seemed to add input. "But first . . . is your friend going to be a problem?"

Shepard followed his eyes, then shook her head. "Trust me, if there's a geth in this galaxy that can't be hacked, it's that one. God knows my quarian's tried."

"I'll take your word for it. Good luck, Commander."

Shepard left Archer in his office and rejoined her crew. "Any problems?"

"None," Garrus said. "What did you learn?"

"We need to manually unlock the main station from the other two. This was some sort of VI/AI experiment involving interfacing a human with a VI."

"But that . . . that should be impossible," Tali replied, surprise evident in her voice.

"Yeah. Look at what they got. Anyway, I'll take Grunt, Jack and Legion in the Hammerhead to Prometheus Station. Garrus, take the project's Hammerhead, Alenko, Zaeed, and Tali to Vulcan and override the system there. Miranda, take charge here. I want you to keep an eye on Archer." Shepard paused, glancing back through the window before lowering her voice. "It's his brother in the VI program. If this goes south, I don't want him to interfere."

"Understood, Commander."

"Garrus, your team will meet back up with mine at Atlas Station. Come on. The sooner we're done here, the better."

Miranda waited until both Hammerheads had left to reorganize. "Okay. Make sure everything is secure. Jacob, Thane, organize a guard detail on Archer. If he disappears, I want to know. Everyone else, continue to sweep for survivors or bodies. We need to ensure that all Cerberus personnel are accounted for."

They moved off.

#

"Shepard." Garrus opened his comm. "We're at Vulcan."

::Great. We just blew up a geth turret, but we're at Prometheus. Be careful.::

"Copy." Garrus jerked his head at the door. "Come on."

They headed through. The hot, dry air of the geothermal plant pressed down on them, hotter even than the air inside the Reaper. Tali fought with her suit for several minutes.

"This is guddamn suicide," Zaeed grumbled.

"You're kidding." Tali retorted. "This is nothing."

A group of attack drones assaulted them, accompanied by mechs. The VI's roar erupted around them, the drones and mechs glowing green. "Tali, Alenko, overloads!" Garrus ordered, bringing up his own omni-tool. Tali nodded – Kaidan remained silent. In a matter of seconds, both overloaded two of the drones, and Garrus took out the third.

The drones and mechs taken care of, he motioned them forward. They sprinted down a long hallway, Zaeed shooting one of the green-glowing cameras while mumbling about "having a damned VI watching" him.

"Heavy mech," Garrus barked. They dove into cover. "Alenko, Tali, focus on getting its shields down. Zaeed, focus fire on it."

"It has friends," Tali said. "Some mechs and drones."

"I'll focus on the drones. You focus on the mechs!"

A few overloads shot out the drones, who fell to the floor in a mass of crumpled metal. A few warps from Kaidan took out the mechs, leaving the heavy. It encroached on Zaeed's position as Tali pounded it with overloads. A few more taps sent her drone flying. "Go for its optics, Chikktika!" she shouted over the mech's fire. The little purple drone danced off.

Kaidan sent another warp flying its way, the mech's armor crumpling on one side. It paused, then fired a rocket into the biotic's cover.

"Alenko, if you get your ass killed, Shepard'll kill me," Garrus yelled over, opening fire on the mech. Kaidan ignored him, preparing for another warp.

There wasn't an opportunity. Zaeed fired a shot into the mech's memory core, sending it to the ground. It exploded, knocking the mercenary back on his back. "I'm too old for that shit," he said, pulling himself off the ground.

"The override should be up there," Tali said, pointing and ignoring the mercenary. "Let's go."

They headed up the walkway she indicated, the quarian hacking the door when they reached it. It slid open, revealing a lone, green-glowing mech kicking the override switch. Rolling his eyes, Zaeed shot it.

Garrus glanced at the merc, then wrestled the override switch out of its casing. Tali opened her comm as the VI's glowing face appeared onscreen above it, screaming at them. They winced. "Shepard. We just pulled the switch at Vulcan. We'll meet you at Atlas."

#

"There's always a catch," Shepard groaned as Grunt shot the encroaching geth. "Run like hell, and shoot anything that moves. Including cameras!"

::Shepard.:: Tali's voice came over their comms. ::We just pulled the switch at Vulcan. We'll meet you at Atlas.::

"Great! We're getting charged by a bunch of geth, so we might get held up."

"Announcement: Hostile geth activity detected," the computer intoned helpfully. "Armed response is authorized."

"Go!" Shepard led the sprint for the door they'd come through, as the computer continued its helpful monologue.

"Announcement: Cerberus reminds all personnel that this emergency is now classified information. Disclosure to outside parties is a violation of your confidentiality agreement."

"Shut up!" Grunt roared. They tripped when the ship suddenly moved.

"Shepard-Commander. It is likely this wreck is not stable."

"Thanks, robot," Jack snapped. "Couldn't'a figured that out ourselves?"

Geth continued to throw themselves at them as they fought their way through the ship, the computer continuing to provide not-quite-so useful information as they did. They made their way back to the entrance, and Shepard swore as she crouched inside the door.

"That prime's got to be active now."

"Ideas?" Grunt barked. "Or speculation?"

"Stay high." Shepard pulled her particle beam off her back. "I'll hang back and zap it with this. You guys focus on the other geth."

"Affirmative."

"Great. I love making geth fly."

Shepard elbowed open the door and immediately dove behind cover. The others followed her example, finding spots along the side near the ramp.

The geth garbled underneath them, and Shepard rolled out of cover to deliver a glowing yellow beam into the prime. Shots flared off her shields and she dove back in. Grunt slammed the butt of his shotgun into a geth that got too close to him, then fired a round straight through its optic. Across the way, another geth fell as Legion's widow, recreated from Shepard's, blasted it off the platform. Jack slammed a geth into the ceiling, where it fractured and showered on the others.

Shepard moved back, firing into the prime again. The geth's armor melted underneath the beam just as it ran out of ammo. "Shit," she murmured, falling back into cover as she pulled out the widow. One quick aim at the prime's optic, and it fell. She reloaded, taking out a geth that was sneaking up behind Jack.

The room fell silent as the last geth fell, and Shepard stood. "Great. We'll rendezvous with Garrus and his team at Atlas. Let's move."

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A/N: Up next: Meanwhile, back on the Normandy . . .