A/N: I will only say one thing.
Cue ominous music.
"I wanted to get a message to you," Tali explained a few minutes later, the trio still alone in the conference room. The young quarian was clearly distressed, fiddling with her fingers nervously. "I tried sending you one while you were on Earth, but the Alliance wasn't allowing any through."
"Yeah, I found that out," Shepard said with a sad glance toward Liara. The asari, recognizing Tali's discomfit, reached out and took one of her hands to halt its motion, squeezing it affectionately.
"Barely had I gotten back to the Flotilla than I found out the other Admirals were planning to try and take back the home world. I didn't think we were ready, Shepard. I tried to talk some sense into them, then I tried to at least slow things down a bit…but when Han'Gerrel and Daro'Xen get an idea into their heads, they can be more stubborn than you are."
"Why didn't you tell anyone else what you were planning?" Shepard asked. "The Fleet closed out the Citadel inspectors, recalled all of its Pilgrims, and then just disappeared."
"There was a concern that the other species, if they found out what we were planning, would put the entire Flotilla under sanction. Outright starting open war with another species, regardless of who that species is…well. They didn't want to risk the interference. Almost the moment we set out the Board implemented martial law. No unauthorized communications were allowed to leave the Flotilla and anything sent to us was blocked. We had very little information coming in from the rest of the galaxy in general…we only heard of the Reaper attack on Earth a couple of weeks ago. I…"
Her voice broke, her head lowering. "When I heard, I…"
Liara squeezed her hand again, Del reaching out and resting a hand on her shoulder. "I know. I'm sorry, Tali."
"I was sure you were gone, Jie Jie. That I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. We only found out you were still alive a few days ago, just before the geth joined up with the Reapers. The Moreh picked up scattered reports of you curing the genophage on Tuchanka. I begged to be allowed to send you a communication, but…"
She shrugged helplessly. Del nodded her understanding. "It's all right, Mei Mei. I'm just relieved you're ok."
"This war should not be happening," Tali said. "No one wants to return to the home world more than I do, but not like this. So many have died already, and for what? What happens even if we do take back Rannoch? How many weeks and months will it be before the Reapers arrive there as well? We'll be so weakened from fighting the geth we won't stand a chance against them."
"I know, Mei Mei, but Koris was right about one thing. The situation is what it is, and all we can do now is try and mitigate our losses. We need to take out that Reaper signal and figure out where we're going from there."
"We should meet the others in the war room," Liara said with a nod. Del looked at her wryly.
"I suppose you'll be wanting to come along on the assault again?"
Liara just looked at her, and Shepard nodded wearily. "Yeah. That's what I thought."
Standing at the threshold of eternity, Shepard could feel her palms sweating beneath her gloves, and focused on keeping her breathing steady and even.
The Normandy had pulled in as close as possible to the geth dreadnought but those aboard were hardly going to just open their airlock and let someone in, and latching on to it with the Normandy's ramp way was not possible from this access point, nor was it compatible with the shuttle.
The ship had been able to pull in within fifteen feet of the lock, but a gap of empty space still separated the two.
All three women were fully secure against the vacuum, but Shepard's memories of the first Normandy's destruction were making themselves painfully felt. Her eyes kept darting to the oxy-display on her HUD, though she struggled to maintain her air of calm in front of Tali and Liara.
Focusing on the quarian's belt, she clipped on the nylon line. "You ready for this?"
"I'm good to go, Shepard," Tali replied, giving a shaky thumbs up. Shepard tested the connection one last time, then clapped the girl on the shoulder.
"Sending Tali over now on my mark," she announced. "Three, two, one, mark!"
Bracing on the edge of the airlock, Tali leapt out, the anchor paying out behind her as she sailed for the hull of the dreadnought. Shepard didn't realize she was holding her breath until the quarian's boots struck the hull, and her chest started to ache. She let out the breath as slowly and inaudibly as she could.
"Tali, you all right?"
{Easy as crossing the corridor,} Tali replied. {My maglocks are engaged, and I have an access panel. Shouldn't take longer than a minute to get this lock open.}
Shepard watched anxiously as Tali got the panel open and began to hack the lock. While she thought that she had been hiding her nervousness rather admirably, Liara's hand suddenly resting on her shoulder indicated otherwise.
Or maybe she just knows me far too well to ever be fooled, she thought, her eyes moving between her oxy-display and Tali.
True to her word, less than sixty seconds later, the airlock door on the geth dreadnought began to open, a breath before Tali's triumphant, {I got it!}
"Good work. Get inside, we're on our way over."
Reaching over she adjusted the mag-lock holding the anchor rope to the Normandy, tightening the line now connecting the two ships as Tali entered the open lock. Clapping Liara on the shoulder, she pointed. "You first, Tianlán. Go!"
Liara hooked her own shorter length of rope to the span, ensuring if she missed somehow she would not drift off into open space. Clipped on, she braced herself, then jumped. She sailed easily across the distance, Tali catching her hand and hauling her in.
{I am good, Shepard. You are clear to come over.}
God fucking save me, Del thought as she disengaged the rope lock from this end, holding it tightly and taking a deep breath. She could not afford to hesitate. Releasing the mags on her boots she planted her feet, braced, and then leapt, the cord wound around her hand and arm. For a long moment, nothing but the endless heights and depths of space surrounded her, but she kept her eyes focused on the airlock and the two women within.
Her boot came down on metal as her arms were caught and gripped, and she re-engaged her locks. Handing the end of the cable to Tali who began winding it up, she turned and looked at the Normandy.
"We're clear, Joker. Maintain safe distance and keep this frequency open."
{Aye aye, ma'am. Good luck.}
She stepped back as the lock door slid shut and sealed, cutting off the view and allowing the inner door to be opened. The cord wound, Tali clipped it to her belt before she drew her pistol almost in concert with Del and Liara pulling their weapons as well.
"All right, ladies," Shepard said softly as the inner door slid open. "Here we go."
Shepard had been on geth ships before- well, technically one was a station, but the aesthetic and atmosphere were the same. So closed, so dark, so sweepingly alien, each and every one had a haunted feeling about them. She had never verified it, but she'd bet every last credit she had that the geth built the slopes of the walls and the odd sweeping angles of the floors specifically to disorient and disturb any organic that might come aboard.
Their entry had gone unnoticed so far, but Del wasn't banking on that lasting long. She kept her rifle up and prepared as she and Liara guarded Tali's back, the quarian carefully accessing data points to get a better layout of the ship and locate the source of the Reaper signal.
After the third data point she checked, she spoke up shakily. "I have it. It looks like the signal is originating in a small, aft operations center. Unfortunately it is on the opposite side of the ship from where we now are. I have over two dozen doors that will need to be hacked open to reach it, and from what I can tell, there are hundreds of active geth units along every direct path."
"We can't take out hundreds of geth on our own, and time is of the essence," Shepard said. "There's no alternative way? Maintenance shafts, access vents…anything?"
Tali regarded the schematic hovering over her omni-tool, then looked up. "There is one way…but you will not like it."
"Hit me."
"The energy shaft of the dreadnought's main gun runs the length of the ship and would provide the most direct route between us and the source of the signal."
Liara looked at Del, alarmed. "This dreadnought is in a pitched battle with the quarian fleet. A weapon of that size can still fire every few seconds. We cannot walk down the barrel of a gigantic plasma weapon while it is firing…we would be evaporated instantly."
"No, no…the geth actually design their weapons to allow maintenance even while they are in use. There are several alcove areas were we would be out of direct exposure to plasma. It may get hot and uncomfortable, but if we're quick and careful we could make it," Tali said.
"Is it the only way, Mei Mei?"
"It's either that or walk down the main corridors and hack doors while hundreds of hostile geth close in. Statistically, we stand a much better chance with the plasma gun."
"All right, then that's what we have to do. We need to stay very close and move as fast as possible. Once we're there, Tali, I want you to see if you can extrapolate the fastest firing time in the pattern. We'll have to keep our movements to that window."
"Understood, Shepard. The nearest hatchway access is over here. The ladder alcove should give us enough shelter from the plasma and allow me the chance to calculate the firing rate."
"All right. Let's move."
They crossed the room and down a small spiral stairway to reach the access hatch. Checking it for traps first, Tali quickly hacked it and hauled it open. The moment it released, Shepard felt the hair all over her body suddenly rise, a thunder of liquid lightning surging past below. The moment it had faded, she dropped down the ladder.
The alcove was small, and Liara was forced to hang on to the ladder just above their heads, Tali and Shepard still squeezed together. Another rumble of plasma shot past, a whale made of lightning that seemed to sing down Del's spine, rocketing static energy across every inch of flesh. The heat was strong enough to be felt even through her dense armor, and she felt her barriers flare.
"Our barriers are not going to last long under that level of static energy," she said. Tali quickly activated her omni-tool, and a few moments later another shot roared past.
Trying not to think that every single one might be tearing into a quarian ship or even her own Normandy, Del waited as patiently as possible as Tali waited four more blasts before nodding.
"Fastest firing speed is thirteen point eight seven standard seconds," she said, lowering her arm. "The alcoves are spaced on opposite sides of the shaft at regular intervals, and each should take only eight seconds to reach from the previous."
"That leaves us just over five seconds to react to the passing of one shot and start moving," Del said with a nod. "Very doable…just don't fucking trip."
"The first alcove is right there," Tali said as she pointed it out. "We can run after the next blast, but it will take Liara slightly longer to finish descending the ladder and start her run."
"Li, once we go get down here and follow us in the next window. Don't take any chances."
"Understood," the asari said. "Be careful, Del."
"You too," Shepard replied, then fought the urge to close her eyes as another blast sailed by. Barely had it started fading than she slapped Tali's shoulder. "Go!"
The pair bolted out of the ladder alcove and across the wide hallway, skidding into the next safe area with seconds to spare. Turning around, she met Liara's eyes and gave her a nod, before fixing her gaze to the next safe zone.
The next shot lit up the tube and once more their barriers flashed before collapsing altogether, the alarm beeps filling the air. They made the next alcove, Del almost absently reaching down and switching the alarm off as she watched Liara dart into safety.
So far so good, she thought, but dared not say it aloud. The last thing she needed to do was give her bad luck and the universe's apparent grudge against her any more fuel.
They had six more alcoves to go to make it to the other end of the tube, and then they had to get up to an access way over the weapon itself to reach the corridor directly before the operations center. Focusing her attentions only on each alcove, Del could feel herself pouring sweat by the time they reached the last one. The heat of the plasma felt like it was cooking them alive in their hard-suits, especially with their barriers down.
Reaching the bottom of the access way ladder, she urged Tali upward but lingered. Her HUD flashed a momentary heat warning as the final shot ballooned and then blew past, and instinctively she lifted a hand to shield herself. Moments later, Liara reached her side safely.
Del gave her a quick squeeze of relief. "You all right?"
"Beyond being a trifle hot, I am five-by," Liara said. Shepard urged her up the ladder, following on her heels.
On the other end of the access way, Tali was busy working on the second to the last set of doors. Though she was starting to cool a bit and getting plenty of oxygen, Shepard's impulse was to tear her helmet off and gasp for air. Doing so would be very bad, of course, as the geth had no need for an oxygen atmosphere and there was nothing more than thin, pressurized amounts of certain inert gasses all around them.
Instead she moved over to Tali's side, unshipping her rifle. As the door slid open she and Liara instantly covered the gap, scanning for any hostiles. Seeing none, Del waved Tali forward, the quarian rushing ahead for the last set of doors with the other two women following.
As the doors parted, Del moved forward, clearing the right as Li cleared the left, but there remained no sign of hostiles. They were on a wide catwalk that ringed the room, over some sort of enormous device that was pumping out nearly as much light and static energy as the plasma pulses had done.
"That's it. That seems to be the source of the Reaper signal," Tali said as she reached their side.
"What is it? I've never seen anything like it."
"Neither have I but…" The quarian seemed to hesitate. Sensing more about the girl's silence than mere puzzlement, Del fixed her with a look.
"What?"
"Shepard, I think this may be an amplifying transmitter."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, it's actually not the source of the Reaper signal," Tali admitted. "I haven't seen one designed like this before but I recognize elements. I think it is simply boosting the signal and using the ship's tight-beam array to transmit it to the rest of the geth directly. Its output is so high that it is completely blocking scans of the real signal and its source."
"So what happens if we take this out?" Liara asked.
"The transmission will remain but it will drastically be reduced in strength. The geth will still be under Reaper control, but the loss of power will likely confuse and disorient them and their ships. At best all their defenses would drop momentarily, leaving them completely vulnerable."
"And at worst?" Del asked.
"At worst they'd most likely fall back, regroup. Either way, it buys us more time."
"With this transmitter down we can trace the original signal?"
"I believe so."
"Then let's take this puppy out and get the hell off this dreadnought."
Tali headed for a control panel, quickly accessing it. As she did so, a far door suddenly opened. Del whipped her rifle to her shoulder as forms began to rush in. "We got company!"
She and Liara ran forward, guns igniting as the geth opened fire. Tali glanced nervously their way, but knew better than to draw her own weapon. Right now, the transmitter had to go down, and she trusted Del and Liara to cover her.
There were not many geth entering; chances are, it had been a routine patrol that had simply stumbled across them. Still, as the last one fell, Del knew their time was up. They would have instantly transferred the knowledge of the organic invaders to the rest of the geth the moment they engaged them. They were going to get hell torn down on their heads in just a few moments.
"Tali!" Del called out, forcing the door closed and shorting out its connection.
"I've just about got it! There…the transmitter is powering down and…oh, Keelah!"
Rushing back to her side, Del's eyes followed the quarian's gaze. The transmitter had opened as it powered down, part of the top lifting upward as the sides fell open, almost like petals on a blooming flower. Suspended by its wrists and dangling free now…was a single geth soldier.
"What the fuck?" Del frowned, then narrowed her eyes. She saw the N7 slab welded to the unit's chest and realized who it was, even as it lifted its face-light toward her.
"Shepard-Commander?"
"Legion? Shit! Tali, can we get him out of there?"
"I-I think so…yes. Here we are…"
As the quarian pressed commands, the equipment moved, swinging the suspended geth over the catwalk before its grip on him popped free. He slammed down to the metal, sagging a moment. Forgetting for a second that he was not organic, Del ran to his side and tried to steady him.
"Easy there."
"You have halted the transmitter," Legion stated as he straightened.
"Yes we did…how the fuck did you get in that thing? Why?"
"When the Creators attacked our people, the Old Machines offered us aid. We refused-"
"But then we started winning," Tali said softly.
"Yes. My people feared we would be doomed, and in desperation accepted the Old Machine's offer. We protested, wishing peace. We did not wish our people to become heretics. That is not the way to our future. Our protests earned us a place in the transmitter. The Old Machines used this platform to fine tune their signal to better interface with geth programs."
"They used you as a tuning fork to make the signal more direct?"
"The analogy is not exact, but sufficient. We are grateful to Shepard-Commander for removing us. It was…uncomfortable."
"Not to interrupt, but things are about to get even more uncomfortable," Liara said. "Hostile geth are attempting to get through the door you jammed, Shepard."
"Then we need to get gone. Legion, you know a quick way out of here?"
"There is a fighter bay four decks beneath us," he said.
"We're going to be shooting any direction we go, and I'd rather not go in that plasma cannon again. Let's move, people!"
They hurried across the room and ducked through another door, following Legion. Barely had they entered the corridor, however, than Joker's voice broke in on their comms.
{Captain-}
"Joker, we've got the signal off and we're heading down to the aft fighter bay! We need-"
{No good, Captain, we have a serious situation. You need to hear this.}
His voice broke off before there was a click. EDI had apparently tapped them into the war room because the next voices they heard were the quarian Admirals, arguing with Garrus. Han'Gerrel was the first to speak.
{…geth ships are disoriented and weapons are down on the dreadnought! We need to take this opportunity while there's still time!}
{My commanding officer and crew are still aboard that dreadnought, Admiral,} Garrus replied hotly. {One of your own is still aboard! You cannot open fire on that vessel until they have a chance to evac!}
{I will not risk that signal becoming re-active, or the dreadnought's defenses resuming! This may be our only opportunity!}
"He can't be serious!" Liara gaped.
{Tali is on board, and Captain Shepard!} Shala'Raan. {You can at least afford them a few minutes of time!}
{No, it's too risky-}
{Admiral, the Normandy will not fire on that dreadnought so long as our people are still aboard!} Garrus sounded beyond pissed, his voice rock hard.
{She doesn't have too. Heavy Fleet, this is Admiral Han'Gerrel. Move in and concentrate all fire on the dreadnought! Take it out!}
Garrus's furious outburst was lost in Shepard's own shout as she grabbed Tali and Liara and shoved them. "Fuck! RUN! Legion!"
"We heard. We must take one of the geth fighters-"
The hull all around them shuddered hard just then, debris raining from above as smoke suddenly poured around them. The jar was hard enough to skip their feet out from under them, and all three women fell, only Legion barely remaining upright. The distant sound of heavier explosions further in the ship punctuated the beginning of the quarian onslaught.
Shepard could hear more shouts over her headset but couldn't make heads or tails of them. Slapping her hand into her helmet she shut off the Normandy feed and surged to her feet.
Explosion after explosion boomed toward them, like the oncoming footsteps of a distant, crushing giant. The ground heaved again, then slanted as they neared the launch bay, before finally leaving their feet altogether.
"Gravity's compromised!" Del shouted. "Get your mag-locks on!"
She pushed off a wall and shoved toward the floor, her boots latching down as they came into contact. Liara moved herself back down with biotics, but Shepard was forced to grab Tali by the ankle and haul her in.
Legion was already at the far door, forcing it open. "We are nearly there," it said as Del reached its side and grabbed as well, straining against the broken mechanism to increase the gap. Looking through she saw smoke and strobing lights over the wide launch floor. They were on the second level catwalk over the launch bay, ranks of geth fighters silently waiting.
The world suddenly compressed hard enough that Del felt her suit crack as a shot from a quarian ship tore into the bay. The blast threw her forward into Liara, pitching the pair off the walk and into the open air. The gravity malfunction, it seemed, was only momentary, for they crashed with brutal force into the bay floor twelve feet below.
Legion landed on its feet nearby, having jumped off the torn remains of the upper level to drop beside them. It grabbed her and hauled her up. "Shepard-Commander!"
"I'm all right," she coughed, pulling Liara up as well. "Li?"
"I am just stunned, I do not believe I am injured," the asari said weakly. Whirling around, Shepard sought out Tali, only to see the young quarian still on the upper level, staring down at them over the railing.
"Jie Jie, are you all right?"
"We're fine, Tali! Get down here, we have to move!"
Turning, Tali rushed for a nearby stairway, the rent in the hull nearby shimmering with a barrier…one that was stuttering faintly, only further demonstrating the severe amount of damage the dreadnought had taken. They could be only moments away from an eezo containment breach.
"Go, start up a fighter," Shepard ordered, pushing Liara after Legion before she turned and ran for Tali. Realizing her HUD was flashing yellow at her, she blinked and then groped a hand along her side as she ran.
She felt tears in the reinforced soft joints of the hard-suit, under her arm and on her side. There was another at her waist. They were small tears caused by shrapnel, and when she hauled her hand away she could see blood on her gloves.
The wounds were hardly bad, mere shallow cuts. Putting them out of her mind she picked up speed, nearing the bottom of the stairway just as Tali neared the top.
The hull ballooned out right in the middle of the stairwell. Shepard twisted, one arm flinging upward as layer upon layer of reinforced metal and plastic were torn like wet paper. Somehow, miraculously, she kept her feet.
Tali was not so lucky. On the catwalk just above the rent, she had been thrown off into open air by the force of the blast. Almost as swiftly as the hull burst inward, it suddenly whipped the other way, debris and what little actual flame had appeared blowing right back out into space as the barrier failed to kick in.
There might have been no appreciable oxygen atmosphere, but the inert gasses that filled the geth ship did provide some pressure differential…enough for sudden if brief decompression. Tali, midair and right over the breach, was tiny and insignificant in the wake of this decompression. As if snatched by a lasso, her falling arc halted and she was yanked toward the rent in the hull like a fish on a line.
Del lunged forward without thought, hand stretching out desperately. Time seemed to slow a moment, and she could see Tali's wide eyes behind her face-plate. She could see the indescribable black of space behind her, shimmering with a trillion stars and lit by the blooming explosions of the ongoing firefight.
Her leap was hard enough to break her mag-locked hold on the deck. Her hand closed on Tali's at the same time she passed out through the rent, pushed along by the last of the compression. Just that quickly, both Shepard and Tali were sailing into the void.
By some miracle, Tali's exo-suit was not compromised…at least if her own HUD was to be trusted. As the side of the geth dreadnought retreated away from them, and as the realization that they were actually tumbling loose and free through space dawned upon her, she noticed something.
A thick white cloud was billowing around Del.
For a moment she simply could not comprehend it, her mind still taken up with their terrifying situation. As she saw the cloud frosting over the front of her face-plate a little, as she saw the brief patterns of ice in its wake, realization slammed into her.
Shepard's oxygen was leaking out of her suit.
