The inside of the Hammerhead was quiet as everyone pondered the information Miranda had just told them. Tali couldn't believe her ears. They truly are insane. What the hell were they thinking? She was busy piloting the Hammerhead while comprehending the information. Shepard sat beside her and was clearly seething at everything he had just been told. To her surprise, Miranda didn't even attempt to defend anything the scientists had been doing. She muttered something along the lines of them being complete and utter fools.

"I can't believe he's used his own fucking brother for the experiment. Do Cerberus get off on this sort of sadistic bullshit?" Jack questioned, more to everyone rather than just Miranda.

"That's disgusting in itself. But the fact they want to turn the geth into a private army, to be used at the call of the Illusive Man?" Even Miranda shivered at the thought. "No. Fuck no. And anyone who thinks otherwise, that he'd take control of the geth for some grand purpose for humanity, is delusional."

"Miranda?" Shepard asked, clearly surprised at her words and tone.

"Too far, Shepard. Too. Fucking. Far. I care about humanity. I want to see our advancement. But the virtual enslavement of geth. Or using them as a private army? Have they not learned anything from what happened to the quarians? The only thing the geth need is to be wiped out."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with Miranda," Tali whispered, leaning close to Shepard.

"I can't believe Tim thought controlling the geth was actually possible," Shepard stated with some amusement, before shaking his head with a chuckle, "Jesus wept. I'm glad Ashley isn't here for this. She'd have gone absolutely ballistic at the thought of doing anything like this with the geth."

Silence descended in the Hammerhead once again as Tali focused on piloting the unwieldy machine. Ancestors, give me a knock-off couple of centuries old craft from the Fleet any day compared to this hunk of junk. She heard the occasional comment from her fellow occupants about the landscape surrounding them. She thought it was scenic at least, certainly beautiful in the distance. Shepard mentioned it reminded him of places back on Earth. Miranda then mentioned that it wasn't going to last. The moon residing high in the night-time sky would eventually descend into the atmosphere within a few generations, wiping out all life on the planet. It was why there was next to no major settlements or colonial expansion. It simply wasn't worth the time or money.

"Commander?"

"What is it, Archer?"

"Just a final word of caution. It is likely that the VI has taken over any security mechs currently operating in the area. Just… be careful."

"Yeah, sure. Thanks for the heads up." He clicked off the link. "Fuckwit," he muttered under his breath, Tali chuckling quietly to herself.

"He sounded almost nervous there, Shepard," Tali stated.

"I was very ready to hit the bastard back on Hermeus." He turned back to Miranda. "You looked ready to thump him too. Did you?"

"No. I took a deep breath then… interrogated him about certain things."

"Which station are we hitting first, Shepard?" Tali asked.

"We'll hit Vulcan first. Then we'll handle the geth. You sure you're up for that, Tali? I mean, all those geth apparently waiting there." She scoffed in reply at his sarcasm but didn't say anything.

"I'm left wondering what the geth were doing all the way out here in the first place," Garrus stated.

"We're close enough to the Veil that the geth would be suspicious of any activity near them, Garrus," Tali replied.

"That's why Cerberus would be here. Far enough away from the prying eyes of the galaxy, and no-one important would come snooping around," Shepard added.

Tali pointed forward. "Tunnel ahead, Shepard."

"I still can't believe we're heading into a volcano. And you call me crazy."

"Yet we're still being ordered into it, Shepard. By you."

"Never say I don't treat you to nice things, Tali. I mean we've got an active volcano here. Then a ship-load of geth next. And finally a rogue VI apparently intent on killing all of us."

"You sure know how to treat your girlfriend, Shepard."

"Are these two always like this?" she heard Jack whisper to Garrus behind us.

"You think this is bad? It was worse when they were constantly flirting in the old Mako, clearly in love with each other yet didn't do anything about it and seemed utterly oblivious. Maddening and utterly hilarious at the same time."

"At least the Mako handled better than this piece of shit, Garrus," Shepard stated, "And I'm not even the pilot."

Rivers of lava flowed ahead as Tali piloted the Hammerhead forward. Even while sat in the machine, and in an environmental suit, she could feel the heat from the flow, looking across to see Shepard wipe his brow with the back of his hand, looking slightly uncomfortable in the heat. She brought the Hammerhead to a stop at a larger river of lava, leaning forward in her chair as she ascertained a way to get across.

"Well, this ought to be fun," Shepard stated with a chuckle beside her. She turned to face him as he gestured forward. "Well, onwards then, Tali."

She backed up the Hammerhead. "Everyone hold onto something. This is going to be tight!" She glanced across at Shepard with the same sort of grin behind her mask that he always had for her, whenever the Mako would fly out of the old Normandy. He simply returned the same grin as she floored the accelerator.

"Spirits, why do I keep signing up for this shit," Garrus muttered to himself as the river of lava appeared ever closer out the windscreen.


The giant cannon was still a smoking ruin as she exited the Hammerhead. She walked to the railing, looking at the pylons still on fire, or at the very least still smoking having been blasted away by the very cannon set up to protect the ship. The ground was pockmarked and riddled with holes from the constant blasts of the cannon. The entire battle had been fraught with danger. The Hammerhead was unwieldy and appeared to have an armour of wet tissue paper. She hated the machine. Shepard was in agreement. Garrus stated a wish for a return of the Mako. At least the Mako had bloody good armour, he had said after they had taken constant turret fire at Vulcan. Twice the engines of the Hammerhead had burst into flame, only quick work from Tali getting the on-board fire extinguishers working had prevented a complete debacle.

Shepard joined her alongside the railing as Miranda worked on cracking the locked door into the geth ship. "You ready for this?" he asked quietly.

"Of course, Shepard. Just like the old days."

"Hopefully Archer is right and the geth are still fast asleep. Would be nice to get in and out without too many problems."

"And what do you think the chances are of that, Shepard?"

He grinned slightly in response. "Point taken. It never actually works out like that, does it?"

"Still, life is never dull with you, Shepard."

"Doors open," Miranda announced, the pair turning around to see the rest of their squad waiting for them.

Shepard took point, rifle in hand as the squad entered the ship. Tali put on a brave face, so to speak, but she was nervous. Geth! Why always geth? And a ship full of them too. Ugh… Cerberus bosh'tets. They should have just blown the ship up instead of trying to play God!She followed in Shepard's footsteps, feeling the presence of her colleagues close behind. Her eyes were already on stalks, darting left and right, up and down, looking for the slightest movement. She listened out for the slightest noise. But apart from her own breathing and the sounds of their footsteps on the metal floor, the ship was silent. For now.

"Attention visitors. This Cerberus facility contains hazardous AI technology."

"Yeah, no shit, lady," Jack muttered to herself, to the stifled chuckles of her companions.

"Shepard!" she called quietly. Shepard stopped and glanced back to her. She gestured to the wall. "More cameras. They're tracking us again. It must be the VI."

"Archer said the VI had probably infected everywhere." He sighed slightly. "There's nothing we can really do about it. Everyone stay loose. Hopefully we're in and out in a jiffy."

The next door led to some sort of cargo hold. She knew everyone immediately recognised the Geth Prime standing idle in the middle of the hold. It appeared to be shielded but otherwise it stood dormant. Shielded partitions had more dormant geth units stored, yet it was already clear that many had already been taken out, no doubt for Cerberus experiments. The team fanned out, looking for any record of what happened to the scientists. Miranda shouted out that she found a body. She found a recording stating they had been taking dozens of geth at a time for their experiments.

"No wonder the geth took over," Tali muttered to herself.

A ramp led to a series of terminals. She stepped forward and started typing, looking for any information regarding what they had been up to. She found a number of recordings of one researcher, apparently a diary of this thoughts more than the experiments being undertaken. Apparently he found it creepy.

"I'm inclined to agree with the guy," Shepard stated, "Certainly is an eerie feel to this place. You can almost smell it."

"What, Shepard?"

"Death."

She felt a slight shiver travel her spine. She knew he wasn't trying to scare her. He was being realistic. No doubt the entire science team located in the ship were dead. She figured they would find their bodies soon enough. Though she was surprised there had been no active geth waiting for them as soon as they had entered the ship. More camera's quite clearly followed their progress, while the VI continued to rabble unintelligible nonsense as they progressed deeper into the ship. She wished to understand what it was saying. She almost thought it was crying out for help. She remembered the VI back on the moon near Earth. That VI had been sending the same message. The two scenarios felt similar, to her at least.

"Miranda, can I ask a question?" she asked as they continued to their progress.

She heard a slight sigh before the reply. "Sure, Tali. Ask away."

"Are you aware of a rogue VI on Luna that Shepard and I dealt with a couple of years ago?"

"I'm not aware of that. Well, it doesn't spring to mind. I focused on the main missions undertaken by Shepard during his time with the Alliance and then as Spectre."

She believed her but still… "It's just that what happened on Luna is remarkably similar to what is going on here. At the time, we thought it may have just been an Alliance experiment gone wrong. But now…"

She heard another sigh. "You think Cerberus may have been involved with that one too?"

She shrugged. "Perhaps. I don't know and certainly don't have the information to hand. Just thinking aloud, Miranda. Certainly not making any accusation. Against you, anyway. I think I do that enough."

"Wouldn't blame you if you did, Tali," she heard Miranda mutter in response. There was no anger in the tone. If anything, there was one of… sadness. Or perhaps disappointment. She glanced back again. What is going on with her? This is not the Miranda I first met. Shepard had turned upon hearing her reply as well, another look of surprise on his face. Tali looked at him, cocking her head in a way he would understand what she was indicating. He just shrugged in reply before returning his attention forward. I'll need to talk to him later about her. Something is definitely going on.

Another log from the same researcher as before held out terrific news for the science team and confirmed they were likely dead. 98% chance of death if the geth woke up? Who would ever agree to work under such conditions? She then chuckled. Wonder what the chances of death are while working with Shepard? Although we've all survived this far. Maybe we're just all really lucky!

Into the bowels of the ship they descended, turning left and right into what felt like a maze of corridors. Geth units, as far as the eye could see at times, appeared to be stored on the ship. Hundreds. Possibly even thousands. Certainly enough for a geth army. She wondered if the ship had been sent to Aite to invade. It wouldn't have been surprising. She knew the geth disliked any organic population encroaching on their region of space. Her own people had paid the price time and again when they took risks trying to gain data of what the geth were up to.

"We're going to be up shit creek if we need to bust out of here in a hurry and all these fuckers wake up, Shepard," Jack stated behind her as they descended again.

"I know," he muttered in reply, "I know. Just stay alert. Plenty of geth around for us to fight through when the bastards wake up."

"When, Shepard?" Garrus dead-panned from behind.

"Do you expect anything different, Garrus?"

There was a pause. "No." Another pause. "Shit."

"Just like the old days, Garrus. Just like the old days."

"I don't know which is worse. The geth. Or mercenaries."

"Geth, Garrus. Always geth. Although I also enjoy killing the bosh'tets much more at the same time," Tali stated.

"And I thought I owned the rights to all the hate on the ship," Jack joked from behind.

"Our memories of the geth are not particularly fond," Shepard stated, "I'm sure Garrus would agree. As for Tali, well… Completely understandable given her own history."

"Not going to disagree, Shepard. Don't like them already," Jack added.

They entered another large room, appearing to be another cargo hold. The five fanned out, looking for any information that may prove worthwhile or given an indication of what happened to the science team. They had found one or two bodies during their progress into the bowels of the ship but surely the science team would have consisted of dozens of people. Tali approached another console, keying away again. She came across a file that would soon leave the entire team spooked.

"The VI's closing some passages and leaving others open. It's like it's herding us. At least the geth are still dormant."

"Guess we're going to find the science team sooner or later then," Shepard said quietly.

Another corridor and the squad entered a cavernous room, which had all the appearances of a commander centre. The console to access the override lay on the far side, across a series of metal walkways. The room was otherwise flooded with water, electrical wires nearby sparking as they hung loose from the ceiling above, occasionally touching the water. The five crossed the walkway carefully as no-one wanted to end up wet. Or possibly electrocuted at the same time. Shepard approached the console, grabbing hold of the override. He glanced back at his team. "Be ready."

With the override complete, an announcement stated the overrides were now completely. That should have led to a sigh of relief. The screen in front then faded to black before the rogue VI appeared, screaming unintelligibly again. Tali couldn't help but jump slightly every time the VI did that, left feeling slightly more confused every time. It was certainly not angry, whatever this VI was. If anything, it's trying to… defend itself. But, then again, that's what people claim the geth were doing.

A series of clicks and whirrs grabbed their attention, the five turning to see two dormant geth that had been lying nearby had woken up. Clearly under the control of the VI, their flashlight heads were coloured green instead of the usual blue. She heard Shepard sigh next to her. "And there's the catch. Fucking hell. Knew this was too easy."

"Dammit, Shepard. You just had to say when," Garrus muttered as he took out his rifle, he and Shepard blasting away the pair of geth before the machines could even reach for their weapons.

"Hostile geth activity detected. Armed response is authorised."

"No shit, lady," Jack stated, echoing her response from when they entered the ship.

"Ideas, Shepard?" Miranda asked.

"Not a lot of room for manoeuvre. So, we'll keep it simple. Find geth, kill them. Sound good?" Four weapons were checked and readied in reply. "Tali, you focus on your normal thing. Hack the bastards. Overload them. Sabotage them. If you can leave them as easy picking for us, then that'll be nice too."

She kept her shotgun in hand as Shepard took point, heading back into the waterlogged corridor they had used to enter the command centre. He didn't pause at the next door, storming through and sliding into cover, before immediately getting into firing position and unloading a hail of bullets at the nearby once-dormant but now very awake geth. Tali slid into cover next to him, keying her omni-tool immediately, looking over to see one of the geth spark as she sabotages its weapon. She then keyed another attack, looking on with amusement as one geth turned and fired at another. A shockwave appeared in the middle of geth appearing from a doorway to their left, all five then turning to fire as geth streamed into the room.

"The bastards are bloody shielded. Tali. Garrus. Focus on taking them down. Miranda. Jack. Switch up to disruptor ammo. It'll take out shields and geth at the same time."

She flicked her own shotgun to the same type of ammo before keying her omni-tool, watching the shields of another geth fail then fall to the ground as Shepard put half a dozen rounds in it. He gestured for the squad to move forward, leaping over the barrier, walking quickly with rifle raised. Tali was at his side, her shotgun searching for anything they may have missed. The VI had already started opening and shutting doors ahead of them, appearing to herd them where it wanted. They entered a small room to find at least a dozen blood-spattered bodies.

"Guess that's the rest of the science team," Miranda stated quietly.

"Doesn't look like they even had weapons to fight back," Garrus said.

"They may have been Cerberus, but even they didn't deserve this," she heard Shepard state. She heard the tone. He was pissed off, as he'd so delightfully call it. He turned and leapt over the barrier into the next room, opening fire on a pair of approaching geth. Tali followed him closely behind, keying her omni-tool to take out another set of shields. Announcements continued to echo, stating even more geth units were being woken by the VI. The squad rushed up a ramp to the next level, screeching to a halt as two cloaked Geth Destroyers appeared, armed with flame-throwers. She took a few steps back as a sheet of flame flew past nearby as she then sabotaged its weapon. The other Destroyer found its shields taken out, another shockwave then sending both geth machines into the air. She stepped forward and unloaded a trio of shotgun blasts into one of the prone machines, looking across as Shepard unloaded nearly an entire clip into the other one. He looked up at her and smirked. "Just making sure the bloody thing is dead."

"A geth outbreak has been declared. This ship is now quarantined."

"Quarantine? Ugh, why do I suddenly have bad memories of Omega?" Garrus only half-joked behind.

The next door led to a corridor which they have previously travelled down. As Tali followed Shepard in, the ship was rocked by a series of explosions. A loud groan echoed in the silence as metal beams fell from the roof. Shepard glanced back at her, concern etched on his face. "We've got to move!"

The team worked quickly, Tali and Garrus constantly working their omni-tools, Shepard running riot with his rifle while Miranda and Jack switched between guns and biotics. With such a confined space, there were no orders required. Everyone knew what to do. Tali stuck close to Shepard as the group inched their way forward, stepping over the bodies of geth as the ship continued to shake and shudder. She didn't hear the sound of any explosions nearby, so that was something positive at least.

Finally they started ascending as more geth lay in wait at the next level. She continued to key her omni-tool, a variety of tech attacks taking out shields, disabling weapons and ensuring the tactical cloaks of Geth Hunters failed. Rocket troopers in the distance were more a nuisance than a substantial threat, Garrus taking out his sniper and casually wiping them out. She glanced to her right where Jack and Miranda were side by side, combining their biotic abilities to devastating effect. Tali didn't know much about biotics but knew the ball of dark energy Jack sometimes managed to produce was known as a singularity. When Miranda threw a warp into that little ball, the explosion was immense, leading Shepard to whoop with delight, laughing away as nearby geth were utterly destroyed.

Another stairway, the team almost bursting into a sprint, Shepard warning them to be careful as there were liable to plenty of geth waiting for them ahead. He was right. The door head led to the first cargo hold they had entered. As soon as the door opened, they came under incessant gunfire. Tali ran forward into cover, peeking over to see the Geth Prime was now awake and firing. The Prime was supported by at least a dozen more geth, a trio armed with rocket launchers. The group fanned out and got to work. Knowing she'd be working at distance, she put her shotgun away and simply worked her omni-tool. Shields were disabled. Weapons were sabotages. To her right, Shepard had taken out his own rocket launcher and was answering fire with fire, the Geth Prime the main target for nearly all their attacks.

"Jack. Miranda. Do your combo. Right in the middle of these fuckers!"

She looked across to where the pure biotic and Cerberus operative had based themselves in cover. Jack glowed in an aura before summoning a singularity, geth below slowly being drawn towards it. Miranda then stood up and launched a warp right into it.

The explosion in the small cargo hold was almost deafening. Tali ducked behind cover as geth parts were blown in around the room. She peeked back to see only the legs of the Geth Prime remained below, smoking slightly as the floor was otherwise littered in fluid and little else, certainly nothing once recognisable as geth. But again there was silence as she stood up, taking a deep breath. She glanced at Shepard beside her, who simply wiped down his brow, glancing towards her and giving her a brief smile. He then gestured with his head, falling in alongside him as they walked down the ramp to the door leading out.

"Atlas Station, Shepard?" she asked once they were settled back in the Hammerhead.

"Correct."

Archer was soon on the radio, stating the lockdown had been ended and Atlas Station was now ready to be taken.

"Remind me that I want to punch him in the face once this is done," Shepard stated as he clicked off the comm. link.

The journey to Atlas Station otherwise took place in silence. She glanced at Shepard as he sat back in the chair with his eyes closed. She thought he looked exhausted. It had already been a long day. Her three companions behind said little either. She figured everyone was now thinking of what they could possibly find once they entered Atlas Station. It almost didn't bear thinking about, considering what Cerberus had proven time and again what they were capable off.

Atlas Station appeared to be buried deep in a mountainside. A massive set of steel doors opened as the Hammerhead approached, Tali guiding the unwieldy machine along a path before noticing a landing pad ahead. Positioning the craft, she allowed it to slowly descend until feeling the Hammerhead settle on the pad. She reached up to flick off the engines, enjoying the brief silence as she heard Shepard take a deep breath. He then glanced across with another slight grin on his face before he opened the door and got out. She followed him out her own door, the trio behind joining them soon after as they gathered before the walkway leading into the station itself.

"You're in, Commander?"

"Yeah, we're in, Archer."

"Very good. You need to make your way to the main server room. That is where the VI is located."

"Can do. What do we do once we're there?"

"Shut down the core and…"

"Archer?" No response. Shepard just shrugged. "Oh well, at least we know what to do."

He pointed the way forward, taking out his rifle once again as they approached the door. He turned to look at her. "You know what to do, Tali." She stepped forward. The lock wasn't particularly difficult, cracking it within a matter of seconds.

"Everyone ready?" he asked. She turned to see the other three reply with a brief nod of the head. He looked at her last.

"Let's go save the day again, Shepard."

He just grinned as he opened the door leading into the station.