To all my readers, I apologize for the recent delay in the updates. Dala, my beloved little sister, has just passed away. Though I mourn her loss, she would've liked to see me finish Mass Effect Sentience. And that's exactly what I plan to do.
Little sis, if you're reading this wherever great and heavenly place you are, I love you. Give my regards to Georgie while you're at it, and make sure you rub him at his soft spot in the under the left ear, kay?
Big sis misses you…
Thank you all for your continued support of this fanfic. Please enjoy.
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"Commander Shepard, Prometheus station is a crashed geth ship full of dormant machines used in the experiment." Dr. Archer informed, "Our people have gone silent there for some time, and it's likely the VI has activated the defense shields to keep you out."
"We see it doctor." I reply nonchalantly, though feeling my fingers tensely wrap around the handles of the controls, "And I suspect the dormant state would not last."
"No, it will not. Good luck."
"Wow, just look at the size of that thing." I remark, eyes tracing the smooth frame of the geth dreadnought and marveling at its intricate design even though it lost its appeal with all the scratches and breaches in its hull as well as the fact that it was stuck nose-first into the earth. The geth truly knew how to construct a ship. Though the means Cerberus used to acquire such a specimen was lost on me…
At great personal cost it would seem, and I had no plans to pay the same just as well. I had the Jaeger scan the area for rogue VI activity, finding a considerable amount of its influence flowing into the main dreadnought cannon.
That could only mean one thing.
"Taking evasive manuevers!" I yell, yanking at the controls and taking to the skies, narrowly avoiding the salvo as it screamed across the air. I'd rather not think about what would've happened had I not done so, judging from how devastating geth dreadnought weapons have been reported as.
The quarians have experienced the same wrath firsthand, the team and I were just experiencing it for the first time!
"Think of it as practice for when we're fighting against the Reapers!" Miranda remarked, clinging nervously at the handlebar above from where she sat.
I, for one, will not stick to evasive manuevers when that day comes. When I return to the Cult, I will see to it that every effort goes to creating better armaments and even better armor.
Every ship in the Milky Way is as soft as tissue, and that's me telling the truth.
I quickly scanned the area for any energy source Cerberus used to power Prometheus station, spying several conduits sprouting out of the ground in a weird circular pattern. My hands deftly swiped through the controls, priming up the smart missiles on the Jaeger's undercarriage and marking up my targets.
They made that cheery whistle as they took to the skies, churning up large clumps of earth as they hit home. Soon, I sensed a withdrawal in the VI's influence in the area, and the critical loss of power rendered the geth cannon useless.
Took a while, sure, but worth every minute. With each combat situation, the Jaeger learns from the fight, adding to its stack of experience and well on the way to becoming a fully automated powerhouse.
Artificial Intelligence is a long way off, but she's getting there. Just look at what happened with Caliban.
"We're good to go." I say, unbuckling my seatbelt and motioning for the door to open. We step out onto the metal platform, eyeing our surroundings with suspicion. After what we've been through this day, I guess it wasn't any surprise we would do so.
"Attention visitors, this Cerberus facility contains hazardous AI technology. You agree to assume all liability for personal injuries or death that may occur during your visit. Thank you."
Inert geth platforms lined the walls like a coat rack, and a Prime was suspended in the common room within a stasis field. None of them moved when we entered the facility, so I walked over towards the platforms holding them up and planted an explosive charge on each of them. Y'know, just in case.
Shepard nodded in agreement to my plan, keeping point and leading us further inside. I felt the presence of the VI again, almost like we were walking inside its head. I wondered then if that's what I should've experienced when roaming within the Normandy's network prior to the Virmire incident?
"Ma9ke i8t St0p!" That distorted ghost did a jumpscare out of me, making me yelp and impulsively smash my fist against a nearby computer screen. The tinkling sound of glass shards falling on the metal floor was followed by a stifled giggle from the Commander.
And Miranda was looking at me with an amused smirk.
"That's not funny." I say with a scowl. Shepard's smile said otherwise, to which I answered with a dismissive roll of my eyes.
"To all Cerberus personnel. In an effort to reduce workplace stress, music has been approved for stationwide broadcast." The Promethean station VI announced, sending a weird and equally distorted set of bars that reminded me of an old Christmas music box Mother kept in her office a lifetime ago. The distortion totally defeated the purpose of its stress relief.
Funny thing though, the doors in our paths started shutting down as soon as we approached them, forcing us to take routes through both glass and walls, literally. It happened over and over, like some kind of ellaborate pattern.
It mattered little to the Commander, as I soon found, since all she cared about was getting through this and back into our comfort zone, which was the Normandy. Shepard must be exhausted. When was the last time she had a good night's sleep?
My thoughts were put on hold for the moment, however, when we came upon the final override console. With a trip like that, absent of incident, one can only expect a catch. And just as soon as the Commander brought down the switch to override the lockdown, I sensed the geth platforms come to life, proving my assumptions of the trap as truth.
"And there goes the catch." Shepard muttered, putting a cap through the geth trooper nearest to her. "Come on, let's move!"
We wasted no time scrambling over to the exit, my thumb pressing down on the detonator on my belt to render the inert geth permanenty decommissioned, along with bits and pieces of Prometheus station torn from the resulting explosions.
By the time the geth had climbed over the rubble, we were long gone and on our way towards Atlas station. Dr. Archer's transmission said as much, "Commander you've done it! The lockdown has been lifted, you can now enter Atlas station and end this nightmare."
"My guess is that the VI would've fortified itself heavily now that it knows we're coming." Miranda informed.
"That's not going to stop us." I reply, applying more pressure on the accelerator to speed up our arrival.
"You'll need to find the main server room there to shut down the VI. Best of luck, Commander."
"Copy that, doc." Shepard said, sighing as she rubbed at her neck.
Atlas station was a bunker dug deep within the earth, as opposed to the normal design of Cerberus structures. Perhaps the Illusive Man intended for this place to survive the aftermath of the collision of Aite's moon? If so, it was an ingenius manuever, one that I can learn from.
The entrance doors slid open with a loud creak, as if they themselves acted as a warning for the abominations lurking within the base. This was no time for cold feet, I told myself. It was time for and end to things.
If Archer's brother was still hooked up to the VI as was depicted, then I can only hope what we do for or to him is a mercy. I'm guessing that seeing it for ourselves will be the right moment for that kind of judgement, and so I shall save my thoughts for it.
A screeching noise in the back of my head jolted my consciousness to the present. I felt myself cut off from the Normandy, the Jaeger, and really the outside world itself! The shroud was a lot more intense and thick in this place, and that's what scares me.
"Kara, you alright?" Shepard asked in concern, hand on my shoulder.
I was silent for a moment, "Yeah…I'm okay. Let's do this."
We pass the ruined hallways lined with the dead, stepping over charred cracks where pseudo plasmic weapons fired upon, and over the corpses of fallen scientists and geth alike.
I spied a nearby console with a specialist still hunched over it, prompting me to access what was left of its memory banks and extracting one of Dr. Archer's personal logs. I played it out for the whole team to listen to.
"Archer's log 155.2: For years, my brother's condition has been a handicap. That changed today. His autistic mind has been the breakthrough I've been looking for- he can communicate with the geth!" The excitement in the doc's voice made me wonder how he was able to convince his brother, even through autism, to agree to a dangerous experiment voluntarily. "Such a tremendous grasp of mathematics! It seems serendipity is alive and well in the 23rd century."
Another log was present in the feed, so I played that too.
"Archer log 157.8: Unless he sees the 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."
The log ends, and I was left with doubts to the doctor's initial explanation to the whole incident. The man was hardly likeable, but that shouldn't give me cause to not give him the benefit of a doubt. Or should it?
The look on Shepard's face influenced little on the subject, but I would like to believe she had thoughts of a similar tune.
"You seem on edge, what's with you?" Miranda inquires, addressing a mannerism I expressed that somehow escapes scrutiny when convenient. Undfortunately, this isn't one of those days.
"Everyone here's on edge, Miranda." Shepard cut in before another argument ensues, "Eyes peeled, move out."
The elevator that would take us further down was situated in a very dangerous looking position, and I knew that if the VI learned anything, it knew how to throw in a surprise or two.
"Ladies." I warned, "I think you should get to cover."
Just in time too! Three geth Primes tore through the doors and sprayed the whole room with their cannon fire, narrowly scraping across the two women's shields and then digging deep into the desks they used as cover.
I soaked up as much fire as I could with a biotic barrier, giving Shepard ample time to lob a grenade in the middle of the formation. The explosion knocked me back, but did little to harm me.
I got up with a grunt, drawing my Hoplites to finish off the downed synthetics.
"Nice catch, Kara, as always." Shepard congratulated, boarding the elevator with the XO.
I opened my mouth to answer, but all that followed was a cry of warning before the elevator doors slammed shut. I could hear the VI ghost cry, "Ma9ke i0t St9o0p!" , before the ear splitting screech of the elevator car falling from its shaft reached my ears!
Then, there was a loud crash.
"Commander!" I call, hand on my earpiece, getting agitated the longer the silence reigned. "Shepard! Come in. Answer me, damn it!"
A weak groan came as reply. "Ouch."
"Are you alright?"
"Stop yelling! We're both fine." She moaned, the faint scraping of bootheels on grated steel ringing from within the shaft.
I position myself between the locked doors of the elevator, and plant my fingers through the stubborn wedge, prying them open with all the force I could muster. "Roger that, I'm coming down." I leap from there down to the car's roof, punching a hole and rejoining the squad within.
Had Shepard chosen to go on this mission absent her helmet, she would've had a fractured skull rather than the scratch adorning that beautiful forehead. The blood though, it complimented her fiery red hair as much as her eyes, strange as it sounds.
"A scratch." She said, gently slapping my hand aside when I tried to touch it. "I've had worse, let's keep moving."
We emerge from the ruined elevator with little difficulty, chancing upon another room filled with inert geth platforms. Unfortunately, I hadn't the space to pack another set of explosives like the ones I used on Prometheus station.
This might be a problem, if they wake up.
"Look into that computer, see if there's a connection to this like in the previous stations." Shepard commanded, pointing at an intact console where I would guess another data packet contained one of Dr. Archer's logs.
And as expected, there was.
"Archer's log 168.4: I'd be lying if I said no harm would come to David-
But then, there was an interruption.
"What happened?" Shepard asked.
"The files have been corrupted." I replied, attempting to clear it up, but to no avail.
"Never mind, we're close to our goal, let it alone for now." She ordered, leading us forward and into the VI main server console in the next room.
Miranda posted herself at the door in case someone or something got the drop on us, per Shepard's request. "Get ready, I'm wouldn't be surprised if this button summoned a Reaper."
A small joke, though something I would take very seriously given what we've been through.
As I watched Shepard touch the surface of that console I again felt the VI influence, even greater than the instances before! This was reason enough for me to shove the Commander aside from the console and get zapped myself!
Or wait, both of us got zapped with whatever the hell that energy pulsation was.
The entire room was rendered in a digitized state, even Miranda looked like a fading hologram once the VI took control of my mind and body! Shepard and I walked like shambling zombies, the loose strings of our unseen puppet master goadin us forward.
All the while, I can hear the muffled yells of the Cerberus XO, as if she was a hundred miles away. The door slid shut behind us, the only moment where control was returned to us. Everything else remained the same, digital.
"Wh9t the He11's happen9ing?!" Shepard sounded just as distorted as the VI, though her words seemed not at all that far out of coherent to me.
"T0 te9ll the tr6uth, C0mmAnd8er. I ha9ve n0 ide8a." I answered, though a vague feeling, close to instinct, told me that the VI was trying to tell us something. Why else would we be in this state of mind? It was then that I realized what those words meant.
The VI kept shouting for someone to turn it off. Maybe it wasn't so far out after all?
"VI wa9nts us t0 tu7rn i8t off. Let'8s d0 ju7st that, ye8ah?"
Shepard was completely unsure what to do, so she decided to follow my lead this time. "Alri8ght, let0s do th8is." We navigated the halls, ignoring how disturbing the dream sequence was like. Perhaps the only reason Shepard was still not freaking out at this moment was because she might've gone through a similar experience somewhere in her life.
I'll ask her about that later, among other things.
"The square root of 906.01 is 30.1…square root of 912.04 is 30.2."
Shepard and I halted in our tracks, seeing a glimpse into the past where Dr. Archer was present with what looked like the young man David of whom this whole story was centered on.
"Time on this project is running out. There are no options left. How to get the geth's attention?" Dr. Archer's digital phantom glanced at the datapad held in his hands one last time and dropped it in defeat, placing his hands on his head in frustration.
That was when David got up from where he sat, mimicking that dashy bit language the geth have been using and somehow communicated smoothly to the geth trooper strapped to the table.
"The robot says hello." David says, smiling proudly.
"Eureka! David, you're a miracle worker." Archer cried, embracing his brother at the leap in his research.
There was a growing frown on Shepard's face at the whole scene, mirroring my own thoughts about the whole thing just as well. Another disturbance brought in another scene, something a lot more recent than most.
It depicted an agitated Dr. Archer and the same David standing in the corner of the lab as his older brother worked on his research.
"The square root of 906.01 is 30.1…square root of 912.04 is 30.2…"
"David, can you repeat my notes from Thursday's experiment?" Archer asked, turning to face his brother.
"Square root of 918.09 is 30.3"
"David! Please pay attention!" The doctor yelled.
"Loud, it's getting loud in here!" David whimpered pitieously.
"I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that." Archer was quick to apologize, repeating his request at a more gentler tone. "Would you mind repeating my notes from Thursday's experiment?"
"Log 137.3: The experiment yielded no discernible patterns of geth obedience. End dictation now, David. Hell, the Illusive Man will have my head for this."
"Thank you, and how are you feeling today?"
"Square root of 924.16 is 30.4…earplugs would be good."
"This0 d0esn't lo0k good." I comment.
Shepard nodded in agreement, smashing through a glass door towards the final lift that would take us towards David himself, or whatever monster that was created in the bowels of this facility.
We wasted little time dispatching the rest of the geth in our path, although the effects of the VI influence in our heads made it look like something ripped right out of a video game.
We came upon a well rounded chamber, with an ellaborate setup in the middle. A large orb with interconnecting cables and other technological accessories sat in the center of the room.
A final scene played out before us. This one cleared up any doubts we had on Dr. Archer's brainchild.
And here it was. David was strapped up to the machine, with Dr. Archer and a group of specialists standing by for the head scientist to give the order.
David, badly frightened, started babbling in that mathematical routine of his, "The square root of 906.01 is 30.1…the squre root of 912.04 is 30.2…"
"We're ready, open a connection into the geth network." Archer ordered.
The instant the boy was connected, he screamed. "QUIET!"
Geth troopers came to life, surrounding the helpless scientists with guns drawn, including Dr. Archer.
"David no! Tell the geth to stand down!"
"QUIET PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
Oh. So that's what it meant.
I felt a lift in the VI influence, and found both mine and Shepard's voices fixed almost immediately. Gone were the distortions, but then came the final dillemma.
"He's trying to upload his code into the Normandy!" I cried, sensing the VI's intent and the influx of energy about to go into an all out burst. "If he gets in there, he can get hit the Extranet anyway!"
"Not if I can help it!" Shepard growled, "Give it everything you've got!"
We aimed our guns at the Omnishield encasing Archer's brother, unloading every clip left in our chambers until the barrels practically belched steam. It wasn't enough to sever the connection, but it opened a crack large enough for me to grasp at biotically.
With a bit of strain on my part, I tore open the envelope. Shepard seized the opportunity and took careful aim with her plasma rifle, sending a thin jet of that magnetized molten substance and shutting down the geth network completely.
All that's left for us to see…I have little words to describe what I felt.
There, dangling as if crucified, David Archer hung naked as the day he was born, eyelids drawn back with a set of hair-thin wires with cables stuck into his mouth. Tubes and other monitoring devices were attached to his spine, forearms, some key arteries and veins, as well as the back of his head.
His gaze flitted here and there, lips moving despite the bit placed in his jaws. "Quiet…please make it stop."
I looked to Shepard, speechless, seeing the same reaction. "My god…"
"Wait! Commander!"
Shepard was livid at the sound of that familiar voice, head slowly turning towards the doctor running from the elevator. "Please, don't do anything rash!"
"Rash?" Shepard's tone was low and even, "Like forcing your own brother into an experiment?"
"I know how this must look-
"Do you?" I glare at him, "Don't make me laugh, doctor, and don't you dare try to justify your actions here."
I knew he would anyway. What's the point?
"I never meant any harm to come to him, you must believe me!" He pleaded, "It's not how I planned this. It was an accident. Seeing David communicate with the geth, it all seemed harmless…"
"And before you knew it, you were running your own private hell."
"I had no choice!" Gavin defended, "The demands were incredible. The Illusive Man does not broker failure! Any war we fight with the geth will be bloody, and I was asked to find a way to fix that."
"And how many already died for this project?" Shepard asked, keeping her anger just below the surface.
"More souls that can ever forgive me." He answered, head hung in shame. "But I won't apologize for radical ideas." Dr. Archer turns to look at his brother, "If my work spares a million mothers mourning the loss of a million sons, then my conscience can rest easy."
As much as I hate to admit it, and as much as I hate the results of Dr. Archer's work here, I can see he makes a good point. Bad man with a good point, reality of life as it is.
Won't stop me from wanting to put a bullet in his head though.
"Shepard, Cerberus will never leave David alone." I say in a hushed tone to my Commander, "Especially with what's been accomplished here."
"I know." Shepard's frown deepens. I knew her disgust for the Illusive Man condoning such atrocities had grown. That's a…good thing.
"The square root of 906.01 is…"
All eyes turned to David, and Archer's voice falls. "What I have done to my brother is unethical. If he dies, it's unforgivable." He then turns to Shepard, "Let me take care of him. Please."
The Commander had already made her choice, "I've seen enough of your cruelty to know he'll never be free from here. I'm taking him away."
"No! Leave him!" I see Archer's hand reach towards his holster, moving quickly to intercept the action with my own, "He's too valuabl-
My hand closes over the barrel, and I wince slightly as the mass accelerated round bore through my hand and stops just under the surface of the back of my hand. I took advantage of Archer's surprise and wrench the gun upwards, breaking his forefinger still hooked on the trigger guard and knocking him down with a well placed punch to the sternum.
I step on his stomach and lean down, right arm raised with the Omni-Blade primed at his throat. "You even think about coming after your brother and I'll bury this blade in your skull. Then we'll see who's valuable."
Satisfied that I got my point across ( no pun intended ) I take my foot off the doctor and rub at the gaping wound in my palm. The shroud had already lifted, so I was free to summon help from the Normandy.
"Where are you taking him?" Archer groaned, nursing his broken finger and rubbing at some fractured ribs.
"Somewhere." I answer, thinking about Matriarch Ilenae and the Cult. "Far from you."
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Thank you for reading, please be sure to leave a review after, it'd mean a lot to me. Peace out :)