Jane
A friendly face greets them as they step off the Normandy in the form of Ilden, Tali's apparent home contractor as well as already known boyfriend. Where in all the time knowing him did he change from assassin and hacker and get into construction Jane will never guess, but he carries a certain, happy glow. His work has to be hard, but it pales in comparison to the obvious love he has for it, in giving his love a real home here.
"Ilden," she greets with a smile, taking his hand and pulling him close to pat his back roughly in comradery. "Damn, is it good to see you." She steps back to let Garrus shake his hand. "I hear you've been busy."
He chuckles and motions to walk with him. "I must admit I never would have imagined myself here, and actually enjoying it." He smiles as Jane walks beside him, her mate holding her hand on the other side. "It is a nice change from all the violence we all had to go through. I never would have thought of building a home with my own hands, but it may be one of the best things to happen."
"Speaking of, how is the construction coming along?" Garrus asks as he looks around the docks at all the ships being disassembled.
It makes sense as the quarians, now finding themselves with a homeplanet, have more need of materials for homes and buildings than liveships. The geth surely wouldn't have been mining metals and manufacturing anything more than what they used for their own structures. Jane figures that they have retained their battle-ready fleet in the air as it would be naive of them not to, the resolution with the geth notwithstanding.
Ilden sees where their attention has gone and nods. "It was a long time before the Admiralty Board agreed to allowing engineers to take unused vessels apart for use in making homes. I think they still feared the geth turning on them." He frowns and adds as he drops his eyes to the ground, "I guess their fears came to fruition."
"That's why we're here," Jane corrects with a hand on his shoulder. "We will find a way to take out the heretics and maybe even find a way to fix what I fucked up when I pulled the kill switch on the Reapers." He looks to her in confusion before she shakes her head. "Long story."
"One that you shouldn't be blaming yourself for," Garrus adds with a squeeze to her hand.
"Yeah, yeah. I did what I had to. Doesn't feel any better," she says with a huff and takes a breath, closing her eyes, in attempt to push aside her guilt. Garrus knows she needs a motion to will her emotions into submission, but she's more thankful when Ilden simply nods looks over the building efforts.
When she collects herself, she blows out a heavy sigh and clears her throat. "Well, that shit is over with. Back to what you were saying?"
The drell looks to her, seeing the obvious falsehood of her words, but merely returns to his observing. "Tali is still a day behind you thanks to her efforts to convince the Council to return quarian liveships from the refugee transports. However, the Admirals wish to speak with you immediately concerning the geth heretics."
"Of course they do," she deadpans. "Spectres Vakarian, at your service to clean up all the galaxy's messes." Ilden hums and nods slightly as she gives noone a mock salute. "I'll be over the fucking moon when everyone gets their heads out of their asses."
"You'll be old and gray by then." She elbows her husband at that, glaring up at him.
"Keep that up and you won't live long enough to see that day." He chuckles, unphased as Ilden hides his smile behind his hand, pretending to clear his throat.
Her mate wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer to his side. She feels his gentle nip at her temple and knows it as it is - his own special version of a tender kiss. Maybe she'll forgive him thanks to that, but she'll have to think about it after reminding her she'll be one of those cranky, old grannies from the vids.
She can only hope she isn't cursed to wear the dreaded once piece nightgowns. That's just plain embarrassing.
Walking into the first block of temporary buildings - governmental and administrative by the looks of them - Jane smiles at the public sign of affection they can now openly express after so long of being cautious. It feels good to be touched without the fear of political backlash that could affect a war effort because of the stupidity of a fearful people looking for anything to lash out against. Leaning her head on the side of his chest plate, she squeezes his hand and only parts from him once Ilden stops at a large structure that reminds Jane vaguely of an amphitheater.
Tall pillars made of dark, smooth metal frame the threshold of a path down through the descending levels of seating. In the center, on the lowest level, is a raised platform with five podiums for each admiral of the Board. It's a shame Tali is not present to preside over this considering she's the best damn geth expert Jane knows, but she is pretty sure that this meeting is mostly to announce the issue and plan solutions. They wouldn't need her and Garrus if they knew how to get shit done by themselves.
"Where's the Admiralty Board?" Garrus asks as they come to a stop at the top of the stone steps. "You said they wanted to speak immediately."
Ilden nods and motions to the back wall of the amphitheater. "They are within the deliberation chambers." He starts to step down the stairs and the other two follow out of understanding. "I suspect they didn't want their meeting to be overheard by any passerby. I was told to escort you here. I won't be allowed in the chambers."
Garrus hums and says, "Make sense. A heretic resurgence could cause a wide-spread panic."
Jane nods in agreement as she looks up over the towering back wall. From this closer distance, she can see a distinct separation in the metal to the right side that must be the door to the chambers. It's not like she suspects onlookers to this meeting with the admirals, but if they're wanting caution, then she'll play along. Hell, the fewer gawkers, the better.
Ilden steps down the last step and leads them towards the few steps - more fucking steps - up to the platform. Garrus looks to her with a questioning rumble and she shrugs. She has no idea what the admirals will have to say beyond 'help us, please misses and mister Vakarian!'. There's also no telling how long it will take to come up with plans towards a solution. She and her mate have no clue how this entire geth situation got to where it is and they have no idea what the admirals expect them to say during this gathering. All they do is shoot things and blow shit up. However, if they're lucky, that might be just the reason they're joining this meeting, to be given a target and told to destroy it. Fat chance.
They stop at a dimly lit console on the wall where she had suspected was a door and Ilden turns to them, crossing his hands behind his back. "This is as far as I can go." He smiles and adds, "I would like to join you back to the Normandy. Maybe see the little ones?"
"I think Tali would be pissed you saw them before she got home." Jane chuckles and nods. "Sure. I can't tell you how long we'll be, but you can join us back at the Normandy to see the twins."
"They'd like that," her mate agrees with a smile.
"So would I." Ilden turns to the door before turning his eyes back to her. "I would wish you luck, but I know that's too much to hope for."
She snorts at his grin and rolls her eyes. "Thanks for that." Turning to the console, she lays her hand on the sensor. When it slides open to a small hall, she looks back and smiles. "If we don't make it out alive, tell Vega he can't adopt the kids."
Ilden chuckles and nods as Garrus smiles down to her. With a jerk of his chin, her mate asks a wordless question that she answers with a deep inhale and step into the hallway. Said hall is lined with hologram pictures of the construction efforts all over Rannoch and Jane can't help but to look at each in awe of how much the quarians have accomplished so far. It's as if Rannoch is an entirely different planet from what she saw before.
"Damn. They definitely got to work building this place."
"I'm not surprised," her husband responds, gazing at a picture of a set of homes being build on an outcropping overlooking the sea. "They have waited hundreds of years for this. It's only natural to want to settle here and not waste a second."
That thought reminds her of something and she chuckles. "I guess that means that, when we go to Tuchanka, the krogan will be doing nothing but fucking."
"That's all we do, Jane."
Barking a laugh, she turns to him when they reach the only door in the hall at the far wall. "Alright. Let's try to pretend we're professional. The quicker this goes, the better."
"I think the saying is 'practice what you preach', Jane." She swats his chest plate with the back of her hand and scowls. "Ouch," he then deadpans and she swats it again. "You're so abusive."
"Smart ass. Why did I even marry you?"
Just as she's opening the door, he gets the final word with a "Because of my big-"
"Shepard, Vakarian," Admiral Raan calls out from beside a large display of terrain, raising a hand to catch their attention and successfully cut off Garrus' retort. "We were starting to wonder if you were delayed."
Jane shrugs as they make their way towards the others. She gives a nod to Admirals Koris and Reegar. Xen gets a glance, but Jane still holds the woman's views of the geth against her, so she will get no more acknowledgement unless needed to move along this gathering.
"Good to see you again, ma'am." Kal'Reegar offers a hand. "And you, sir." He then takes Garrus'.
"You're technically higher ranked than us, so you shouldn't 'ma'am' and 'sir' us," Jane replies with a chuckle, taking Koris' offered hand and shaking it.
"Apologies. Hard habit to break. With everything you both did, it's hard not to give you the proper respect." He returns to the large display as Jane and Garrus take their place between Raan and Koris.
"Shepard and Vakarian are good, then," she offers to the room and they nod. "Good." Leaning her hands on the table, she looks out over a readout of terrain, but becomes more interested in the form of what looks suspiciously like the Reaper they destroyed here. Around it are what looks like small structures. "Please tell me this isn't of importance."
Raan looks down and shakes her head. "We've reports of the heretic geth forming around the destroyed Reaper."
Xen nods and holds her hand over the readout, zooming into the structures and revealing them to be small towers similar to the AA gun stations they had to disable with Legion. Mention of that name sends a pang through Jane, but she forces herself to shake it off, looking to Xen to hear what she has to say.
"The geth-"
"Heretics," Garrus corrects with a terse tone, looking to the woman and she gives a slight, uncaring shrug.
"They believe that the Reaper holds the fragments of code that they have lost," she continues without falter, ignoring the interruption. "This is the only territory they hold here on Rannoch."
"Unfortunately," Admiral Koris begins, addressing her and her husband directly. "They have ships as well. As I'm sure you know after you alerted Tali to a heretic attack on a diplomat vessel."
Jane nods and leans up, looking to the rest of the admirals. "We rescued whoever we could from a wrecked ship that was attacked by what they thought were geth. I have a suspicion it was the heretics. Why? I was hoping you might know."
Admiral Raan shakes her head. "We don't," she says as she half turns to address the shadows behind her. "But we may know someone who does."
"You can't possibly want that thing involved in this," Xen protests with a scoff.
"It already is," Reegar says with a slight growl to his voice, this issue obviously a sour subject. There's only one thing that would get the Admirals up in arms and Jane considers that this could either go really wrong or really good. "Admiral Raan, I think we should introduce them."
As Jane looks to Kal'Reegar in question and hope for explanation, Raan opens her Tool to a comm. "Please allow the geth in."
Good to see the geth and quarians working together even after the geth lost their fully conscious and independent AI status like Tali had said. Still, there was worry over the still tenuous relation between the governing body and 'old enemy'. There is the sound of a door sliding open from the darkness and, looking up, Jane sees the three glowing orbs of red high up in the shadows. Holy shit… A Prime?
Her shock is well deserved as a towering, battleworn Prime steps from the shadows. He - do they even have female orientated programs? - flaps his head plates once before dipping his head. "Greetings, Vakarian-Spectres."
"Hey," Jane says, still a bit stunned at the sheer size of the geth, and moves to offer a hand. "Shepard is easier for everyone."
The Prime looks at her hand before taking it, unsure of the gesture and simply holding it before she releases. "Understood. We will alter our programming to your preferences."
"We have begun to address the matter of the heretics," Admiral Raan offers, gaining the Prime's attention as it shakes Garrus' hand. "Can you tell them what you have already told us?"
The Prime - I will really need to help him come up with a name - nods and steps towards the hologram, motioning the structures. "The heretics have begun to attempt to integrate Reaper coding with their own to regain complete sentience. They believe the inactive Reaper holds that which was corrupted along with the Reapers'."
Jane frowns and looks down at the hologram. "Yeah, about that-"
"Jane-"
Sighing, she glances to her concerned mate before running a hand over her head. "Alright, so they are bunching up around the Reaper. Is that how they're communicating? Sending out some signal like they did with the dreadnought?"
The geth adjusts his head plates before his facial lights dilate. "Yes."
"It was never able to communicate past the Relay when it was active." Xen crosses her arms. "Heretic ships are starting to attack vessels outside the system. Explain that."
"How do they have ships that do not show on our sensors?" Reegar asks, never once changing his stance of steady attention.
"The heretic hub will have this information." The Prime looks to Jane and her mate. "We offer assistance in acquiring this information."
She snorts and chuckles, raising a brow as she crosses her arms. "Why am I not surprised?" Glancing over the group, she sees the truth on every one of the admirals. "When were you planning on telling us?"
They look to each other before Admiral Koris decides to be the one to bite the bullet. "Your ship is the only one capable of the task. We can offer smaller fighters to destroy the AA towers protecting it, but we cannot close in on the main base."
"We will offer fighters to assist the creators."
Garrus hums in thought before looking to her. His look says enough to know that he's entirely against this idea, that they've done enough to help Rannoch, but what is she to say? 'Sorry, no. Go fuck yourselves'?
One look at her eyes and he knows his answer, his mandibles flicking in agitation before he turns to the geth Prime. "What will we call you?" He raises a hand to stop what he and Jane know he will say. "And you can't call yourself 'geth'."
The Prime seems at a loss for words as its facial flaps flutter numerous times. Jane decides to help out as she turns completely to it, lifting her eyes to look it in the three lights she will tell herself are the equivalent of eyes. "I might have an idea."
"We will accept any designation."
"The geth have put you forth to speak for them, yes? You are like an ambassador for them?"
"Affirmative."
She looks to her mate and smiles. There is so much that comes to mind listening to the geth, in learning its purpose and ultimate goal to restore its people to what they once were. Perhaps there is still a bit of Legion within every geth even now with them not at their full strength.
"Legacy," she says as she turns back to the Prime.
"We do not understand the reason for this association." The confusion is obvious from everyone in the room, organic and synthetic. The only one that seems to understand is her mate, though it may just be because he trusts in her judgment more than he gets her sporadic and often crazy way of thinking.
"You remind me of Legion. You want to better your people and restore their independence and individuality, make them greater and no longer in need of being a hive mind to function." She chuckles when she sees the understanding spread through the room. "You are Legion's Legacy. You are the geth's Legacy."
It's as if she can see the gears churning within the geth as he contemplates the thought. Finally, breaking the feeling that she may just be holding her breath in anticipation, he nods. "We accept this designation."
