A/N: I own nothing except the laptop I wrote this story on.
They're all staring at me. Looks of stunned silence, and even muted horror in their eyes. I don't really care either way. They shouldn't have been surprised with this. It was inevitable.
Sis stares me in the eyes with a look that is a combined mixture of shock, disgust, and anger.
I'm not sorry.
EARLIER…
It had been a quiet morning. The sort that didn't lend itself to much of anything. And yet all the same, I was anxious. I think that most everyone was, to be honest. We had gathered the Reaper IFF, and picked up a Geth at the same time, but there wasn't anything going on. Sis was still hesitating on installing the IFF, for some reason. I got her rationale: the Collectors hadn't made a move in a while, no colonies had gone dark since Horizon, and we needed to make sure that the Normandy was absolutely ready to jump wherever it was that the Collector Base was…
…Which begged the question: where were those bugs hiding? Even the best cloaking in the galaxy can be traced with proper tracking or even knowing where to dig. Even the COBRA unit had to be extremely careful in not leaving a trail…and even then you could never completely erase your presence in the galaxy. You had to hope that whatever fraction of a percentage that formed your margin of error wasn't capitalized on.
But the Collectors? It was like they could vanish like tears in the rain. And it was thoroughly annoying. This was closer to a war than I realized: long stretches of skull-crushing boredom, followed by moments of absolute terror and insanity. It was a rollercoaster, and I was looking forward to when it would all end.
Though then again, there were a few reasons why I didn't want things to disappear quite yet.
"Honestly, John, it can be rather annoying when you just stare like that."
"What?" I asked, the grin forming on my face. She just rolled her eyes.
"I'm trying to do work while you sit there with that little grin on your face and it's…"
"Distracting?" I asked. Miranda is trying not to smile. She's not doing a very good job of it.
"…Perhaps." She admitted. She sighed. "You know that this isn't going to be a storybook, right John?" She asked.
"What do you mean?" I asked. She sighed again.
"I'm a member of Cerberus, an organization that at best is misunderstood as a black ops group and at worst is considered a terrorist cell." She said. "You're thinking about pursuing a relationship with a terrorist, John."
"And?" I asked. She scoffed.
"It's not like we're going to settle down to a little house in the Irish hills with a white picket fence, two kids and a dog."
"Then how about one kid and two dogs?"
"Take me seriously, please." Miranda said. She looked me in the eye. "When this mission is done, I have to go back to Cerberus. I have to help the advancement of humanity in the galactic stage. I have my job, and I'm sure that you'll have your own."
"But why Cerberus?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"You keep assuming that Cerberus is the only way for the galaxy to take humanity seriously. Why not the Alliance? Why not business? Why not politics? I know that politicians might be little better than terrorists at times but I think you'd be good at it. Or just being the Oprah of this generation."
"John, we've been over this-"
"Why stay the course with them?"
"Because they've done right by me." Miranda said. "I owe something to them. And I owe it to myself to make sure that the good I do is reflective of Cerberus as a whole. I want to be the exemplar for this organization, not the exception."
There was a silence for a moment. And then I sighed.
"As a matter of personal opinion, you don't owe them a thing." I said.
That's when Miranda's terminal starting squawking.
"Hold on…" Miranda said. "Encrypted transmission…" She typed a few keys to decrypt the message, and then started to read it. I watched her face fall immediately.
"We have to talk to your sister. Now."
…
That was how we found ourselves flying towards some raggedy-ass planet out in the middle of the Typhon system. The planet was called Aite. And from the way Miranda was frantically communicating with my sister as we prepared for the mission, it was clear that this Aite was home to a very critical research center for Cerberus.
"Is it just me, or does everything that Cerberus create end up going rogue and then killing everyone in the facility?" Tali asked. She grabbed a rather sturdy-looking shotgun out of her locker, and then racked it to make sure that it was ready. Garrus shrugged, grabbing his Widow sniper rifle.
"Beats me. I think that Cerberus could build a fruit stand that somehow went rogue and then killed everyone in the room." He said.
"A rather pessimistic conclusion on the effectivity of Cerberus." Legion said, grabbing a sniper rifle of its own. "Our consensus leads credence to this theory, based on personal interaction."
"You are all not helping." Miranda growled. She attached a few Predators to her hips, and then made sure that her armor was secure. She was going with that black on gold look instead of her usual outfit, and I have to say that this one was…a little more practical.
Not that I'd ever comment on that to her face.
"So are we just taking the Kodiak to the surface, then?" Sis asked. Miranda turned towards her.
"Actually, Commander, I was thinking that now would be the best time for us to test out the newest vehicular additions to the Normandy's cargo hold."
Sis looked positively gleeful.
"The Hammerheads?" She asked.
"Yes, Commander. I figured the combination of flexible movement as well as firepower would be a good change of pace."
Sis looked like the happiest woman on the planet.
"And I'll be behind the wheel!"
I noticed something. It seemed like the air in the room had gotten colder. Clearly, Sis had not gotten the reaction she was hoping for. Annoyed, she looked around the room.
"Okay, what gives? I'm gonna be driving! Isn't that great?"
Garrus and Tali both looked like they had been told they needed a colonoscopy. Garrus bravely raised his voice, turning towards Miranda.
"Um…when you surgically restructured her, did you…um…"
"Mr. Vakarian, the concept of driving is related to fast-twitch muscles and hand-eye coordination. There was no need to tinker with the Commander in that regard."
"That's not what Garrus was getting at." Tali said. I could almost see her rolling her eyes.
I saw Sis' eyes narrow, as she put two and two together.
"Waaaait. Is this about the Mako?"
Dead silence.
"Hey Garrus? Tali? I'm gonna turn around. And when I do, can you do me a favor and twist the knife in my back a little bit?" Sis asked.
"Is this for real?" Miranda asked. "Are we seriously having a mutiny because of discontent with how the Commander drives?"
"No it's not that." Garrus said. "It's a mutiny because the Commander can't drive. She treats mountains as challenges to her dignity, and gorges as super ramps. A 45 degree angle on a cliff is a walk in the park, and there is no preventing the Commander from flipping the Mako at least once…per minute."
"That hurts, Garrus. That's hurtful."
"This is ridiculous." Miranda said. "Well, I'm not qualified to drive vehicles of this caliber. And I highly doubt that any of you are, either."
"…Is it a basic holographic targeting interface, with HOLOpoint driving?" I found myself speaking before I could stop myself.
"…Yes?" Miranda asked. I looked at her, and then I looked at the others. And then I shrugged.
"I guess I could drive the thing."
There was a pause.
"Oh spirits, it's genetic."
…
I'm not really sure what was better: the fact that, after years of being out of practice, it turned out that driving things is like riding a bike in that you never forget…or that Garrus was literally singing Hallelujah as I guided the Hammerhead out of low orbit towards the planetary surface…or the fact that Sis was sitting shotgun right next to me, her arms crossed over her chest in the most petulant posture I have ever seen.
I feel like I won twice with this one.
I activated the boosters, and the Hammerhead gently slowed to a crawl, and soon we were parked outside the front of the facility. It was your typical black ops front: you've got a bunker in front of you…but there was a big-ass satellite out in the distance. That was the firsrt thing that caused me to raise an eyebrow. What kind of project would need that kind of communicative prowess?
"Alright everyone, let's move." Sis said, still a little grumpy that I had usurped her as the best driver in the family. (Or maybe she was just flashing back to the times I had to pick her up from break-ups that went poorly) As the doors opened, we all rolled out of the ship and pulled out our weapons. As far as we knew, there was an active enemy presence in this base, and that was why it had gone dark.
Well, until a voice came in on our TeamCom.
"Thank God you came! My name is Dr. Gavin Archer. The situation here is urgent – we're facing a catastrophic VI breakout."
"Oh thank god, Dr. Archer is still alive." Miranda said. She pressed a finger to her TeamCom earpiece. "Dr. Archer, this is Operative Lawson, code authorization Alpha One-One Lazarus. What was the cause of the VI breakout?"
"There isn't time, Dr. Lawson. I'll explain the details later, but right now you must retract that transmission dish! The controls aren't far from your position. You have to hurry!"
Well, that was rather frustratingly vague.
"You know Dr. Archer?" Garrus asked. Miranda nodded.
"He's a very smart and principled man. Fully for the cause of advancing humanity in the galaxy, and has been a model Cerberus operative for a long time."
"That's…not exactly a badge of honor…" Tali muttered under her breath. I had to agree with her. Sometimes Miranda's cheerleading of Cerberus got tiresome.
"Let's move!" Sis said.
She led us into the front building, and as we descended the stairwell I could see that things had gone to hell in a hacksaw. There were a few dead bodies in the stairwell, with a charred patch on the wall from either an explosion or from weapons fire. Either way, these Cerberus scientists weren't getting up any time soon.
"Over here – on the monitor!"
We saw at the receptionist desk that there was a monitor that had crackled to life, and there was a man looking at us. Had a beard growing, head shaved bald, and his eyes were baggy and he looked like he hadn't slept in a while. So your standard scientist.
"Ah, there you are." He said, relief in his voice. "I've locked myself in a computer room on the far side of the base. There are Geth on the loose."
"We can confirm. Scanners detecting multiple platforms in the vicinity. All heavily armed."
"Is…is that a Geth platform? Speaking?" Dr. Archer asked.
"Consider it a pet." Sis said.
"Oh…fascinating." Dr. Archer said.
But I saw something pas through his eyes when he said it. It was barely thrre, maybe no more than for half a second, but I noticed it all the same. It was a brief flash of realization and terror. Terror about something, and realization about what? I wasn't sure, but there was one thing that I did know: this guy was hiding something.
"A rogue VI program has seized control of the base and…I've lost a lot of friends today. I'd hate to see you join them." Dr. Archer said.
"We won't." Miranda said. "We have to go evacuate Dr. Archer, and if possible put a stop to whatever it is that has liquidated the base."
"It sounds so…clinical when you put it that way." Garrus muttered. Sis rolled her eyes, but gestured for us to follow her deeper into the base. As we walked past a control console, I noticed a little holopad on the counter. I swiped it, and then checked: well, I'll be damned. It could fit into the jack on my iDroid. I decided to plug it in and listen.
"Status report: Please inform the Illusive Man that we've made great strides on our research." Dr. Archer's voice crackled into my ear. "His doubts about the lack of progress are unwarranted. A demonstration is forthcoming."
Well, a scientist wanting to make a big gesture to secure funding from his skeptical superiors. I'd read enough comic books and seen enough movies to know where this was going.
We made our way to an observation deck that overlooked some of the outer courtyards on the base. There were dead bodies and damaged consoles everywhere. We kept moving, but the tension was beginning to build. We knew that Legion had confirmed the presence of Geth nearby…but where?
I caught another holopad recorder, and inserted it into my iDroid. I made sure to pocket the other holopad recorder. Never know, sometimes my hoarding skills might come in handy.
"Memo to all project personnel: I understand that there's some concern about handling live geth." Dr. Archer said in my ear. "I agree it's a risk, but the potential reward is far greater. Someday, your sons and daughters will thank you."
"Miranda?" I asked. "What's the official Cerberus policy on handling live geth in a project?"
"I…I don't know, actually." Miranda admitted. "I was never involved in those sorts of projects, if they existed. My sole focus in the Lazarus cell was the reconstruction of Commander Shepard. I didn't need Geth for that."
Sis went over to the control panel, and pressed the button to activate the dish. We heard a rumbling as it began to descend towards the ground. It couldn't have been that easy.
SKREE SKREE SKREE
Of course it wasn't.
Almost immediately, every single monitor and screen in the room had the same image on it: a computerized…pair of pupil-less eyes. Green. And shrieking at us.
"What the hell is that?" Garrus shouted.
And just like that, it was gone. And the satellite remained in place.
"Dammit!" Dr. Archer appeared on one of the screens. "The VI has overridden the controls. We have to stop him –he's trying to upload his program off-planet!"
Wait…
"Why did you say him?" I asked. "Aren't Vis designed to be genderless, even if they visually have an appearance one way or the other?"
Dr. Archer blinked once.
"It's…a highly advanced VI. Almost to the point of being an AI. Thus, we took to calling it 'him' or 'he' as it exhibited sentience. It was a force of habit, to be honest."
That's not exactly the best excuse I've ever heard. But okay.
"You'll have to manually destroy the antennae in the dish." He said. "There's a tram on the lower level. Get to it as fast as you can!"
"You heard the man." Sis said, gesturing for us to follow her. "I don't like the idea of a near-omniscient VI fucking with us every step of the way. Let's try to get this taken care of, hm?"
On that, we could agree.
As we made our way down the hallway towards the tram, I noticed something. Well, two things, actually. The first was that every security camera was pointed towards us, and that instead of the usual red 'on' color…they were all green. The same green as the VI hthat had hacked into our plans. And as we heard the VI squawk again, I noticed that my sister seemed to be under some degree of distress.
As we made our way through the hallway, we were about to open the door when Legion stepped forward with its rifle. It activated the door, and then immediately fired. We're talking about a nanosecond's reflex here. But then I saw the headless body of a Geth trooper slump to the ground ahead of us, and realized that maybe it was good to have a walking computer with equally-quick reflexes on our side.
"GETH!" Sis shouted, sliding into cover next to Miranda, who was already shooting from behind a wall. Garrus took cover to the rear with Legion, and the two of them tok turns firing shots. That left Tali up front, where she quickly took the brunt of the Geth's fire. I looked over to the right, and saw the catwalk. Without thinking, I raced over towards it. That was about the same time that a Geth trooper showed up. Again, without thinking, I just threw a thrust kick right to the thing's chest. It clearly was not expecting that, and as it was staggered I plugged its head with a pair of shots from my Carnifex. With a half-destroyed head, it didn't really defend itself as I grabbed it and threw it off of the balcony and to the floor. From my heightened position, I had a great flanking position on the remaining Geth.
I used it.
Sis noticed that the dust had settled and motioned for us all to follow her. We went through the hallway ahead towards the tram line. I noticed another holopad with a recorder. At some point, leaving your memos around is just lazy. But I didn't really worry about that as I plugged it in. Once again, it was Dr. Archer.
"Memo to all project personnel: Congratulations on your hard work. Tomorrow, we make the next leap forward. It will be a great day for Cerberus, and an even greater day for humanity."
"Miranda?" I asked.
"What?" She asked.
"Would you describe Dr. Archer as…a visionary sort?" I asked.
"He was…well, is…a brilliant mind." Miranda said. "He was the sort that had many radical ideas for how Cerberus could be efficient in the future. I think that he worked in his civilian life in academia: the advancement of human-VI interrelations, or something like that. His dissertation was…well, it was definitely a read."
"Are you suggesting that you didn't know how to read it?" Tali asked, somewhat teasingly.
"I will confess that human-VI relations is not my strong suit." Miranda replied testily. "I'm not Wonder Woman, you know."
As we reached the tram controls, Sis paused and turned back to look at her.
"Did…did you just refer to something that normal people would read or look at?"
"What's wrong with knowing about Wonder Woman?" Miranda replied, now getting thoroughly annoyed. "She is the ideal woman. Powerful, smart, beautiful…dangerous…."
"Careful Miranda. If I didn't know any better I'd say that you believed you shared similarities." Garrus said.
Even I had to chuckle at that one.
…
As the tram moved along the line, we noticed that the dish was starting to turn towards a new direction. That couldn't be good.
"Damn it all! – he's aligning the dish to a new upload target!" Dr. Archer said. "He'll have a clear sight to our satellite!"
"Then we're on a tighter schedule than normal." Sis said.
The doors opened, and we made our way through another hall. This one was littered with the bodies of dead Cerberus operatives. Almost all of them had been running. Shot in the back, from the looks of it.
They tried running. We didn't give them the satisfaction. They were monsters, less than worthy of living. Killing them was revenge. Revenge for people that we'd lost both on this rock and elsewhere. It was only fair.
No. Not here. Not now. Keep it together, John.
As we made our way to the outside, and the wind howled around the catwalks, we encountered more Geth. It was easy cleaning them up. Whatever had been sent to kill us was obviously holding back for later as a future ambush. When the last of them fell, Sis reloaded her rifle.
"With all due respect Legion, I do not like Geth."
"We understand the frustration, Shepard-Commander. Most of the Geth dislike the heretics as well."
"Most of them?" Garrus asked. "Are there any dissenters?"
"Those of the Geth Collective that do not dislike the heretics simply advocate their eradication."
Well…nice to know that even synthetics have hardliners.
I noticed that there was another audio log sitting in a room off to the side. I grabbed it and pressed play.
"This is Project Overlord with an emergency message to Cerberus command! We have experienced a catastrophic security failure and are requesting assistance!"
Well. This place is called Project Overlord. Gotta say, it's pretty clear that Cerberus doesn't mess around when it comes to the dramatic naming department.
"We-what do you mean our outgoing comms are jammed? How can it do that?"
Well, that's a new development.
"John, what are you collecting?" Miranda asked.
"Yeah, you've been scrounging some things off of desks for a while now." Garrus said.
"They're audio logs." I said. "I'm listening to a real-time breakdown of Project Overlord."
"And is there anything useful?" Miranda asked.
"Other than yet another case of Man underestimating the ability of his creations to overthrow him? No, nothing out of the ordinary." I said. I looked over at the base of the satellite in front of us. "I'm betting that the VI is not too pleased with how close we're getting to stopping it."
As if on cue, there was a mechanized roar from…somewhere. And everywhere. And nowhere. Whatever it was that we were dealing with…it wasn't happy.
"John, sometimes I hate it when you're right." Tali said.
A few more Geth came out from a nearby walkway adjacent to the one we were standing on, and we were forced to talk cover behind the walkway's wall. As Sis went to work on the encrypted lock on the door, the rest of us took turns taking potshots at the Geth. That was the easy part. The hard part was when we got inside the satellite…and were swarmed by Geth.
It was hellish. I found myself cut off from the group, and began shooting at anything that moved. I heard a cry of annoyance, and realized that Miranda was close to me…and that her gun had jammed. Again, it seemed that it was time to do something stupid. I raced over, and threw my shoulder into the Geth trooper that had her pinned down. As it smacked down to the ground, I just emptied my gun in the side of its head. I helped Miranda up rto her feet.
"I didn't need help." She said.
I replied by giving her a brief kiss on the cheek. Miranda looked at me, raised an eyebrow, and then planted one on my lips. But not for too long. Wouldn't want anyone to see us.
"I don't do things half-measure, Jonathan." She said with a wink.
"MIRANDA! JOHN! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?" Sis roared from somewhere over on the other side of the satellite interior. I saw that she was beginning to fight her way up the spiral staircase that led to the support struts of the satellite. No…she's not.
"You need to destroy the support struts now. They have their own capacitors around here. Try blowing them up!"
Jesus, this might be the dumbest thing that I've ever heard of.
We got to the top of the satellite, right in the dish. And there were several support struts around the edge of the dish. Sis blew open the first one, drawing an angry howl from the VI. Garrus and Tali raced over to another one, and in a nice one-two punch they destroyed the second one. Legion fired the most perfect shot I have ever seen, and blew apart the third. I could feel the satellite start to wobble in the wind. That left me and Miranda. Ignoring the roars of the VI and the fire from the Geth, we raced over to the final support structure. Miranda opened it up, and then with a well-placed grenade I turned it into scrap metal.
And that's when I felt things shift.
"You've done it! The satellite link is severed!"
Yay. Great. Now let's talk about the more pertinent matter: the fact that the entire damned satellite is about to drop on our heads.
"MOVE!" I shouted, racing through the rapidly shattering satellite. The others were already ahead of us. It was just Miranda and I at this point. I felt stinging, nicking pains as shrapnel cut my cheeks and forehead, and any other pieces of exposed skin.
I felt the floor giving, and saw that we were only a few seconds away from the edge. The others had jumped. That just left us. With a yell of something primal and terrified, I leapt the gap. Miranda was right beside me. We landed next to the others right as the entire damned satellite went down. All that was left was a dust cloud and billions of credits in damage. Hope the Illusive Man had deep pockets.
"Over here!"
We all woozily got back up to our feet to see a man in a Cerberus science suit run up to us. Sis was right back up, and was speaking immediately.
"Dr. Archer?" She asked. "What the hell is going on here?"
Dr. Archer looked introspective and melancholy.
"Man's reach exceeding his grasp. Come on, I'll explain." He muttered.
He led us away, but I had a feeling that this story was just beginning.
…
"You have my thanks, Commander Shepard." He said, leading down a walkway somewhere deep in the bowels of the facility. It seemed that the entire planet was catacombed with research facilities. How the hell could Cerberus afford all of this?
"You owe us that explanation." Sis said.
"This is Project Overlord." Archer said. "An attempt to gain influence over the geth by interfacing a human mind with a VI." He paused. "The results have been…less than satisfactory."
"I'd hate to see what you call a disaster." I said. Tali was understandably livid.
"You're trying to create an abomination!" She said. "Organic minds and synthetic minds don't work the same way. It's like trying to compare apples with dining room tables!"
"That's…an oddly specific analogy, Tali." Garrus muttered. "And very human-centric."
"I like the phrase. It is very evocative." She replied back. "And human daytime television is full of such expressions."
If all of Tali's interactions with human culture were through watching old daytime television, then it's no wonder that most species hate us.
"You cannot deny that the experiment has been partially successful." Dr. Archer said. Below us, in one of the rooms I saw that Legion was checking the corpse of one of the good doctor's colleagues. "My brother David volunteered to serve as a test subject, but his mind couldn't handle the VI connection."
At this, both Sis and I stared at him.
"Your own brother volunteered?" Sis asked.
"And you didn't discourage him?" I asked.
"Of course I did!" Dr. Archer said somewhat testily. "I told him that the side-effects could be catastrophic, but he didn't care. He wanted to do this. Looking back, he clearly didn't understand what he was getting into." Dr. Archer sighed. "Now he's like a virus, infecting our network and seizing control of any technology that he can."
"You still shouldn't have let him do this." I said.
"It's too late for that now." Dr. Archer said with a hint of annoyance. "We have to focus on the 'now.' And that's why you had to destroy the dish. Imagine if his program got off world. The technology is such that… he could even bring the Citadel to its knees."
"How does he take control of electronics?" Sis asked.
"This is a hybrid intelligence the likes of which I've never seen, and I've been studying this field my entire life." Dr. Archer said. "I don't know where the man ends and the machine begins."
"That Citadel line…you're joking, right?" I asked.
"Do I look like I'm in the mood for jokes?" Dr. Archer asked. "If my brother gets off-world, we could be looking at a technological apocalypse. Every machine, every weapon, every computer could be turned against us. If he hit the extranet, who knows where it could end?"
"You should have taken this all into consideration before you did this." Sis said.
"We couldn't be expected to account for every outcome!" Dr. Archer said. "Certainly not the abomination David has become."
"Aren't scientists supposed to account for all outcomes?" I sneered. He glared at me, but said nothing.
"How do we stop it? And where is it centered?" Sis asked.
"Davi…the VI has fortified itself in the main laboratory at Atlas Station." Dr. Archer said. "It's in lockdown now. To enter, you'll have to manually override security from our facilities in the Prometheus and the Vulcan Stations."
"How does this lockdown work?" I asked.
"It's a fail-safe procedure in the event of an emergency. Normally, all three projcts leads have to agree to cancel the lockdown." Dr. Archer said. "I'm the only one left now. I can give my authorization as the head researcher on the Overlord Project, but you'll have to manually reset the other two yourself."
"And what happens if we have to kill your brother?" I asked. Jane shot me a look, but she knows that that was a question that needed to be asked.
"Let's…hope that it won't have to come to that." Dr. Archer said. He took a seat, and then glared over at Legion. "Now let me ask you a question – is your friend here going to be a problem?"
"If there's one geth in the galaxy that can't be brainwashed, it's him." Sis said. "Don't worry."
"I'll…take your word for it." Dr. Archer said.
"Well, time is of the essence." Sis said. "Let's head back to the Hammerhead. We need to get to Vulcan and Prometheus Stations."
"It doesn't matter which one you hit first." Dr. Archer said. "Just so long as you hit them both."
With that, Sis signaled for the others to follow her, and we made our way back towards the opening of the facility and towards the Hammerhead. I felt like things were going to get more difficult, but I wasn't sure why. I just knew it wasn't a matter of if, but when.
…
The Hammerhead ran on the ground as smooth as glass. I was still getting a kick out of Sis' petulance that she couldn't drive, but apparently she was as bad at driving as she was at dancing. And believe you me, you have not seen "bad" until you've seen my sister trying to dance. Or attempt what she thinks is dancing.
"We're approaching Vulcan Station." I said, looking at the nav-computer. "Looks like it's buried in those caves over there."
"Why do laboratories of dubious ethical backgrounds have to be in such uncomfortably creepy places?" Garrus asked. "Wouldn't it be a nice change of pace it they were on a beach or something like that?"
"I imagine the beach property owners would object to their new neighbor being a wannabe supervillain, Garrus." Tali said.
"Perhaps. But think about the pricing! I could afford one of those houses on a soldier's salary!"
"And periodically have to deal with shooting the overflow of whatever abominaitons that lab cooked up."
"Eh, nothing crazier than what I've already seen with Shepard."
"…How are you two my friends again?"
As I led us through some caves, I realized something. This wasn't a laboratory that was based in a cave. It looked more like a place that was based in…a volcano.
"Commander, this is Archer." Dr. Archer chimed into the Hammerhead's radio. "I advise extreme caution. Vulcan Station is our geothermal plant. They stopped reporting in shortly after the experim-" the line went dead.
"Great. No outside communications, then." Sis said.
"Scanning. According to the M-44 Computer, VI infection is present within the plant machinery. Advise caution." Legion chimed in from the back.
"Great. Instead of the Geth, it would appear that literally the entire station is trying to kill us." Miranda grumbled.
I noticed some steam releases that were blasting hot gas into the air. Thinking on my feet, I maneuvered the Hammerhead directly above the gas vents. There was a lifting sensation, and the Hammerhead took to the skies.
"Wheeeeeee!"
"Garrus, knock it off!"
"Sorry, mom."
"I'm not your mom, Turian!"
"You're acting like it, Quarian."
"Contact!" Miranda shouted, pointing to a Cerberus turret that had popped out of the ground towards us. I activated the targeting computer, and pressed the firing button.
A series of missles erupted from the turret ring of the Hammerhead, turning the turret into scrap metal.
Garrus and I literally had the same reaction.
"HOOOOOLLLLYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTT….YEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS."
Miranda just rolled her eyes.
"Ugh. Men."
We soon came to a stop. The cave tunnel had ended, and there was another tunnel across the gap towards us. But there was no way that the Hammerhead could make the jump.
Without a head start.
"…John? Why are you looking like that?" Miranda asked. Sis seemed to perk up.
I put the Hammerhead in reverse.
"John. John, don't do this." Garrus said.
I made sure the boosters were fully charged.
"Keelah, John. We have families! We have lives! You have to live with yourself. Don't do this!"
I made sure to line up the Hammerhead perfectly.
"John, dammit don't do this!"
Sis looked me in the eye.
"Doooooo iiiiittt!"
I floored the gas.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Everyone screamed as we took to the skies.
I landed it perfectly.
As we kept rolling through the tunnels towards the base, Garrus found his voice.
"Spirits, it does run in the family."
"Our consensus was that Shepard-Jonathan more than capable of making the jump. There was a 99% chance of success."
"Legion, we're organics. We're always going to be freaking out about that one percent." Miranda muttered.
"…Revised consensus. Organics are irrational."
"Thank you, Legion!"
As we kept driving through the volcanic interior, I noticed that the temparture outside was rising. And that the main building for the Vulcan Station was on the other side of the increasingly-high heat.
"Oh spirits."
There was a flow of lava between us and the building that we needed to get to.
"Fuck. FUCK!" Sis said. "There's no way that we're gonna be able to get across. Even if we tried to get out on foot, the heat would fry our shields."
"…And then us." Garrus muttered, earning him a smack on the head from Tali.
I looked at the lava flow. There were chunks of non-molten rocks in the stream…
Sis looked at me, and then at the lava flow, and then looked at me again.
"John."
I was lining it up…
"…John."
I made sure that the boosters were fully charged…
"…John."
I made sure that the gas was readied.
"Don't even think about it, John!"
"I never do." I muttered.
I floored it.
The sounds of their screams as we basically pogo-sticked from rock chunk to rock chunk, as the heat shields started screeching in protest, alone made this all worth it.
As we pulled up in front of the main building, Sis grabbed me by the shoulder.
"We are never doing that again."
She led us out of the Hammerhead, and we made our way into the main building. It was a disaster zone. Dead bodies, damaged walls and doors…pockmarks of damage…it was the worst I'd seen. I activated one of the audio logs in the room.
"…received an SOS from Atlas Station. Archer has declared a projct emergency! We're trying to shut down the power generators to starve the VI, but it's already hacked our automated systems!"
We made our way into the main security room. There was a single LOKI mech. It was radiating a strange green interface and color, as though it was not on its original programming.
Sis looked at us, and then we looked at her. And then we looked at the LOKI.
BANG BANG BANG BAM BOOM
As the scrap metal fell to the ground, Garrus chuckled.
"Rest in pieces!"
SMACK.
"Spirits Tali, that hurt!"
Sis went over to the main control, and pulled out the lockdown mechanism, overriding the system. With that, we heard Dr. Archer's voice in our ears.
"…are you receiving this? Commander Shepard, this is Dr. Archer. Please respond."
"I read you, Doc." Sis said. "We've overridden the security lockdown at Vulcan. We're headed off to Prometheus now. Shepard out."
…
I had figured that Prometheus Station would be an actual, you know, station. The last thing that I thought it would be, as well as what anyone else thought, was that it was a crashed Geth dropship.
"Wow, sometimes I hate Cerberus really bad." Tali grumbled, as the ship's defenses activated and started pelting the Hammerhead with fire.
"It's not my fault!" Miranda snapped, as I weaved in and out of enemy fire. There were little pylons around the ship. If those went down, then we could get to the geth cannons and then to the interior of the ship. "I'm not the commander of Cerberus!"
"You're close enough to the top, though." Tali retorted.
Finally, I decided to test one of the deeper weapons in the arsenal. Garrus pointed one of the commands out to me.
"Oh, try that one! I helped calibrate it, but I don't know what it actually does."
I pressed the button.
"Activating Macrosse Missile Massacre."
We watched as literally every missile in the arsenal all ejected from the Hammerhead, and all flew towards the targets that were indicated on the targeting computer. It was a roar of hellfire, and soon every target in our path was nothing more than a smoldering lump. And then it went deadly quiet.
Garrus spoke quietly.
"…I think I just had a mangasm."
SMACK.
"Oh come on, Tali!"
…
The interior of the Geth ship was quiet and dark and eerie. There were a few geth suspended in animation, held by green fields that were built of the same sort of visual coding that the VI seemed to control. I grabbed an audio log and plugged it in.
"Hanging around all these dormant machines is creepy." The voice said. "It's like death staring at us from the shadows."
We made our way down the hallway. The VI appeared on the screens, that face of sorts just staring at us. No sounds. No screams. Just…staring. It was unnerving. I grabbed another audio log from a dead Cerberus researcher.
"Lanigan just ran a simulation – if these geth ever wake up, then there is a 98% chance we'll be dead within two minutes…I'm starting to hate Lanigan."
I bet I would have hated this Lanigan guy, too.
I grabbed another one.
"Halloween was yesterday. Lanigan ran around wearing spare geth parts."
…Seriously?
"Spooked the shit out of everyone. Now I definitely hate him."
Yeah. Fuck this Lanigan guy.
We kept descending into the bowels of this dark ship and facility. The fact that there were no geth was starting to get on my nerves. And the fact that the VI was just watching us…oh man, that was getting rough.
I noticed that some of the doors were opening and closing in the distance. Like this VI was just fucking with us. I hate it when I'm not the smartest people in the room. And especially when the smartest man in the room isn't even a man or a woman. In what felt like the main research facility of the building, I grabbed another log.
"The VI's closing some passages and leaving others open. It's like it's herding us. At least the geth are still inactive."
We made our way towards the security lockdown. Sighing, Sis pulled out the last lockdown cylinder.
"That was…easy." Garrus muttered.
And then the VI started screaming.
"Garrus, by Keelah I will flense you!" Tali shrieked, as we saw Geth all over the facility starting to move.
"Run. RUN!" Sis shouted.
There was no time to fight them all. I turned to Legion.
"Legion! GPS us out of here!"
"Understood, Shepard-Jonanthan. Please follow our lead."
A robot was trying to kill us, and the only way that we were getting out of there in one piece…was through a robot. Oy…the irony was gonna kill me.
If the Geth didn't kill us first.
Legion was a glorious tracker. It was hard to deal with how quick it changed directions, but the geth was absolutely leading us outwards and upwards. We could hear the shrieking of the geth and the VI behind us. And now there were bullets peppering the ground, floor and ceiling and walls around us. But we were almost at the exit.
"John! Cover fire!" Sis barked. She and I instinctively turned around and started backpedalling, firing towards the advancing wall of geth while our friends continued running. We were working on instinct, shooting anything that moved. The geth were squawking, the VI was screaming. It was hell.
They were everywhere. Everywhere and they choked the air with bullets. Men and women alike dropped like flies as we rushed for desperate cover. Whatever the intelligence we'd gotten in the beginning was, all of that had gone out the window.
And then, just like that, I could feel light on my back. Sis and I turned around, and dove for the outside with the rest of them. That was right as the door gave way, trapping the geth inside the rapidly collapsing ship. It was over.
"Commander, you've done it!" Dr. Archer said in our ears. "The lockdown has been cancelled. You can now breach Atlas Station and end this nightmare."
"Please, for the love of God." Shepard muttered. "Let's just get this over with."
…
The drive to Atlas Station was tense. We all checked our ammunition. We made sure that our shields were fully functioning. We ignored the Hammerhead computer letting us know that there was an aesthetically pleasing landscape view coming up, and that organics might wish to take note. And as we drove to the dark that was Atlas Station, I couldn't help but feel that there was still one trick left to deal with. One more twist in this hellish story.
I pulled the Hammerhead into the docking station. We hopped out of the Hammerhead, and immediately started running for the main control room.
"Looks like you're in, Commander. Good. I'm getting some troubling readings, though." Dr. Archer said. "The VI is trying to upload its program directly from your location. Get to its server before it-"
The line went dead. Sis walked up to one of the consoles and began to interface with it, in the hopes of shutting the server down. I noticed that there was another audio log on a table. I grabbed it, and was about to play it…
…
And then Sis screamed in pain. We watched as the same green coding seemed to coat her. And her eyes…her eyes were burning green. She swung a fist and caught Garrus by the cheek, knocking him down. And then she staggered out of the room. Ran, really. We had a few moments to react, and then we ran after her. But as soon as she entered an elevator, the door closed and locked behind her. I watched the others try to pry the door open, but then I finally reacted.
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY SISTER?" I howled.
"I have no idea!" Miranda shouted.
"Consensus: the VI has interfaced with Shepard-Commander's synthetic attachments. Most likely outcome: the VI is attempting to communicate or overtake the Commander through neural overload."
"Motherfucker!" I snarled. I turned on my TeamCom. "ARCHER! How do we get to the server room? And how do I save my sister? TELL ME NOW GODDAMMIT!"
"Um…uh…"
"ANSWER ME!"
"Follow the pathway to the left! There should be a hallway that leads down the way! And-oh my…"
"What now?" Miranda asked.
"It appears that David has detected a new program to piggyback onto. Is there…an artificial intelligence on your ship?"
"Holy shit." Garrus said.
"EDI?" Tali asked.
"There is? God, you must get to the server! If David can establish an upload with your ship, he will rip through that AI like tissue paper!"
"MOVE!" I howled, taking point. I smashed through the weakened door, and started running down the hallway. My mind started to degrade back to the minds before, when Jane and I were just children.
Jane was my sister. She was my best friend growing up. I remembered the first time that she'd gotten in trouble: she'd gone and broken some equipment in the ship that Dad was stationed on. She was crying and thought that she was going to get Dad fired. I'd told her that everything was going to be alright. That they wouldn't fire Dad for something like that. And they didn't. But they did have him working double time with no overtime pay for a week to cover the cost of repairs. Jane and I learned the importance of being careful. Of being vigilant.
And now Janey was going to get her mind melted by a rogue VI. No matter what happened or who was responsible, somebody was going to die.
I crashed through another hallway, kicking a Geth in the face and then blowing it apart with shot and punches. I don't know if I broke my hand or anything. Not that I would have felt it anyway. My sister was in trouble. Janey was in trouble. And there wasn't anything that I could do to save her.
"David! Just let her go! I can make this all stop if you let her go!" Dr. Archer was screaming through the intercom. I saw another door. I could just tell that the server room was on the other side. It was a locked door. I didn't even think about it. With a primal roar, I charged at it with the point of my shoulder.
This door was designed to be blast-proof and fire-proof. But it wasn't designed to be Jonathan-proof. It crumpled like tin foil, and I skittered into the server room. My shoulder was throbbing with pain. I might have dislocated it or broken something, but I was in here. The others came in behind us. And then I looked up.
"Oh my god…"
Sis was holding her head, shaking her head back and forth as though she had a massive hangover. Her eyes were normal, like she'd kicked whatever it was that had controlled her. But that wasn't the terrifying thing. The terrifying thing was what was in the center of the apparatus.
David was pale as a ghost, emaciated like he hadn't eaten in days. He was held spread-eagle in the machine, with tubes and wires holding him in place. There were tubes going into his mouth, and wires drilled into his head. His eyes were held open like a Ludovico treatment from hell.
There was a voice.
"Quiet…please…make it stop…"
It was David.
"Wait! Commander!"
Dr. Archer had run into the room.
Sis grabbed him and steered him out of the room. The others followed. She turned to Legion.
"Legion. Be there with him. Try to tell David that everything is alright. That things will be alright."
They all stormed off, and though they went to the other room I could hear the voices of Sis and Dr. Archer from the other side of the wall.
"I beg of you…don't do anything rash."
"Rash? Like forcing your own brother into an experiment?"
"I know how this must look, but I never intended any harm to come to him! You must understand. It's not like I planned this-It was an accident."
"Until people started dying?"
"I had no choice! The demands were incredible. The Illusive Man doesn't broker failure!"
"He doesn't, Commander."
Miranda's words cut to my core.
"Any war that we fight with the Geth will be bloody. I was asked to find a way to avoid that."
I couldn't hear or listen to any more.
…
I realized, as I stared at the pathetic wretch that David had been turned into by the VI program, that I still had not played the audio logs I'd grabbed throughut the Station. I inserted them into my iDroid and hit play all. Dr. Archer's voice came on in my ear.
"Archer's log 155.2: For years, my brother's condition has been a handicap. That changed today. His autistic mind is the breakthrough I've been looking for – he can communicate with the geth! Such a tremendous grasp of mathematics…It seems serendipity is alive and well in the 22nd century."
"Archer's log 157.8: Unless he sees results, the Illusive Man is shutting us down next week. I have no choice. I'm going to tap David directly into the geth neural network and see if he can influence them. The danger should be negligible. David might even enjoy it."
I stared at David, hooked into that monstrosity. Legion was quietly chirping to the boy, trying its best to calm him down and assure him that it was all over. That the noises would stop. That in the end he would know peace and quiet soon. And I kept thinking. About the scientists. About the dead. About Man's reach overextending his grasp.
And I thought of what this had turned my sister into for a brief moment. And what it had done to David.
"An unfortunate redundancy."
I turned to Legion.
"What do you mean…'redundancy?'" I asked. Legion turned to face me.
"Archer-Doctor wished to learn a means with which to communicate with the geth. While this platform's speech mechanisms are unique amongst the geth, that does not mean that the process could not be replicated."
"…Legion, what are you talking about?" I asked. Legion almost looked mournful.
"It is unfortunate that organics in recent years have associated the actions of the heretics with the actions of the greater geth collective. If organics had sent a probe to the Perseus Veil, the most likely course of action from Rannoch would have been either a polite rejection or an openness to dialogue. And the geth would construct platforms so that organics could communicate with them in ways beyond the Geth language of numbers."
I felt cold in my stomach. And then finally I asked the question that needed to be asked.
"…Legion. Are you saying that…that all of this could have been avoided? That if we'd just asked the Geth we wanted to talk…they would have listened?"
"…We see no reason to build a consensus speculating otherwise."
I looked up at David. I could see the tears running down his eyes.
And I saw red.
Wordlessly, I left the room. Dr. Archer was still talking to the others, though it was clear that they were unconvinced with whatever it was that he had to say. I didn't really care what he had to say. He'd been talking long enough. Spitting out words that didn't mean anything. Meaningless platitudes and exultations of regret and pain and misery. The only regret that he had was that he'd been caught.
Without saying a word, I walked up behind him, drew my Carnifex, and blew his brains out onto the floor.
A/N: The Butcher returns…