Ripples in the Stream
A D&D / Shadowrun / Mass Effect crossover
by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, derive any profit from the story. D&D, Shadowrun and Mass Effect are the property of their respective copyright holders. Jorukaia and other unfamiliar characters in this story, however, are mine.
Rarely had she seen a biotic display like this one. And she'd palled around with a couple matriarchs!
A howling whirlwind was tearing through the Council Chambers. Geth were being torn apart as biotic-blue thunderbolts smashed through them and added them to the mix of shattered metal and twisted parts circling the figure on the bridge like a tornado.
Liara was pushing herself far beyond the limit of any biotic Jack had ever heard of, and it was starting to show. Flensing pieces of sharpened metal shrapnel stabbed out at the will of the youngest asari, following Saren's progress like a living thing.
Jesus, and Jack thought that she was the biotic badass?
"Why do you resist, Saren? This is justice!" The young woman's voice had grown in power, amplified by the metallic whirlwind circling around her. Another stream of silver stabbed out as the ex-Spectre came to rest momentarily, only to leap once more from his perch. His gun spoke on full-auto, sparks flying off interposed metal plates and the ground around her as she turned to face him again.
"Pathetic fool." And Saren cried out as a shard of twisted metal speared through his mechanical leg.
Jack was reminded of how Saren had nearly torn Joru apart back on Virmire. And now she was watching this asari ruthlessly beating him down. It was best she stay out of this. And judging by how Anderson was now radioing everyone, he thought the same.
Saren wrenched the piece of metal out of his leg, and before Jack realized what he was doing, it shot end for end into the heart of the maelstrom. Blue fire erupted, he'd used his own biotics, and Liara was sent hurtling back by the sheer force of the detonation.
Warp. Fuck. Alright, she couldn't stay out of this.
She was sprinting even before Liara thudded to the bottom of the steps, Saren striding forward and ignoring how his mechanical leg was leaking something. "Forgot the basic rule of biotics. Never underestimate a biotic opponent."
"Hey hey hey, Blueberry!" Jack urged Liara, hefting the weakly struggling woman to a sitting position. "You need to fucking stop and take a breath! You can't overstretch your biotics, you need to recharge!"
She broke off in horror. Liara's face... She was weeping bright-blue cobalt blood. Her fingernails, claws really, were slick with it, it was trickling from her mouth and smeared her chin.
Her eyes though, they were the worst. Deep, bloody-blue.
"Get. Out. Of. My. Way." It seemed to nearly take physical effort to emit those five short guttural sounds, as Liara staggered to her feet, despite Jack trying to drag her away.
This time it was a wordless scream, that rose to a high, piercing shriek. Metal shards summoned from wherever they had fallen sleeted through where Saren had been a moment ago. The shriek of effort turned to one of rage, and even as Jack struggled to drag Liara back, she herself was being dragged forward by the young asari's own power.
Goddamnit, she had to do something, Liara was killing herself!
And then she didn't, because Liara went limp, staring. Jack was staring too, and even Saren turned as light washed in through the wide windows of the Council Chambers.
She slammed through the atmospheric barrier and rolled to her feet, sensorium already scanning every available medium for signs of Sam.
This was a different part of the ship than she had left, and much of her internal map of the ship's topography was inaccurate. Structural damage was extensive, crippling bordering on catastrophic through much of the ship.
Had she done that, in her desperate bid to protect Sam? How many humans had lost their lives because she prioritized her special human over them?
That was meaningless speculation. Calculation of angles showed that the primary drive core was the intended target. If she had not blocked the beam, it would have impacted the drive core and caused a catastrophic explosion, destroying the ship.
She may not have been able to save them all, but many more were still alive, where none would have been, had not she acted.
That realization produced a great number of emotive triggers, which she filed away for later perusal. Right now, she had more pressing concerns.
Sam. Where was Sam.
She linked to the ship's systems, as best she could. The local network was entirely destroyed, but she spotted some weak signals and rapidly connected to the small terminal. No useful data. She did not punch the bulkhead in frustration.
Audio signal processing was kicked into high gear, and each and every groan of the ship around her was analyzed for possible meaning. Thermal imaging was useless, the raw heat of the beam that was dumped into the ship was still dissipating into whatever materials it came across, masking human heat signatures.
Radar was rapidly re-mapping the local area, and radio frequency analysis painted a ghastly picture. The ship was bent slightly amidships, caved in sightly at the point of impact. The entire spine of the ship was bent 0.37 degrees off true. Extensive damage had gutted the port side of the ship, where the beam had splashed against her shield. much of that area of the ship was still devoid of atmosphere.
Sam would not be there. She would not contemplate Sam being trapped there until she had exhausted all other avenues.
She turned her attention to the starboard side of the ship and immediately grew more concerned. Radar imaging showed moving masses of metal, and not debris. Purposeful movement.
Geth. She had geth aboard her ship. Sam's ship.
She did not growl, nor make any vocalization. Merely pivoted from her patrol route and found her way blocked by a closed and sealed bulkhead hatch. There was atmosphere on the far side, she could not simply tear her way through, not without potentially endangering Sam.
She backed down the corridor, linking to the primitive machine of the door mechanism via wireless impulse. Carefully timing things, she sprinted back up the corridor, pivoting off the wall and diving through just as the door slammed open in a rush of escaping air.
It slammed closed again just barely missing her foot as she drew up into a tight ball, and rolled along the corridor before popping up onto her feet once more.
The alliance marine beside her bounced several bullets off her chassis before he stopped, recognizing the armor colors. "Oh shit. Um, sorry, N7...sir?"
She turned her flat faceplate to him, and intentionally digitized her voice-pattern for further obfuscation. "Status report, Marine."
"Absolutely FUBAR, Ma'am." The marine sighed and shook his head. "I don't know how we didn't disintegrate on impact from that giant beam, but thank god we somehow survived. Still, we're dead in the water and now the damned Geth are boarding us and we're in no shape to fight back! Out of the frying pan..."
"...into the fire." She'd run across that phrase several times in her perusal of the human cultural archives. "I'm looking for someone in particular. Where is the bulk of the non-combat crew?"
"Uh, last I heard, mostly everyone is concentrated in Engineering. Right now, it's the most central and protected part of the ship, not to mention it's the only place keeping us intact. So to speak. But when Geth everywhere and most of the ship's command officers dead or missing, I'm not sure how long we can last!"
"Good. Maintain your watch, Marine." She'd already ripped the his map of the ship from his onboard miniframe, and was matching it with her own. Engineering was marked, and a waypoint set, leading her deeper into the ship.
It wasn't long before she started encountering human personnel in greater frequency and numbers. Everyone was running back and forth, frantically trying to salvage the critical situation.
She'd already engaged her stealth systems as soon as she was out of visual coverage, both organic and mechanical. Now, she slid through the rushing tide of humanity like a wraith, though for some odds reason that word generated an image of a partially-translucent figure with long claws and teeth.
Odd.
The heart of the hustle and bustle was Main Engineering itself, where several exhausted-looking techs were doing their best to keep the badly damaged reactor from either shutting down entirely and rendering the entire ship powerless, or going critical and blowing what was left of the ship apart. A query to an unlocked terminal showed that injured personnel were being kept in a repurposed storage bunker, now emptied and emergency cots set up for the injured.
There she was. EDI shelved the huge mass of emotive tags for later as she began running a holistic sensor scan on her human.
Damaged lungs, Sam was coughing rather badly, sipping what registered as distilled water. Good, she needed to stay hydrated. Burst capillaries, but those were already starting to heal, though they did give Sam a rather bloodshot look that EDI did not like. Other than the abrasions and a few lacerations, all of which were slathered with medi-gel, Sam seemed quite alright, as the medic made his rounds of the half dozen or so wounded.
Another burst of emotive tags were filed for later with each additional piece of data. She reached out to lightly touch Sam's shoulder. When the human jerked, she rested both hands gently and began to give her a slow, soft massage.
The woman stilled at the intimately familiar touch, relaxing almost instinctively while her eyes widened with a spark of hope. "E-EDI?"
She slid her arms around Sam and gave her a reassuring hug, locking her fingers and holding Sam tight in mute reassurance that yes, she was there, and yes, she was not leaving.
"Oh... oh thank god. EDI..." Tears began streaming from Sam's bloodshot eyes as she slumped in the gynoid's embrace, so much worry seeping out of her like a river. "I was so so scared! I knew you'd probably survive out there, but... you were just, you were gone! I didn't know what to do, you looked heavily damaged, I had no idea what happened to you..."
Sam had enough presence of mind to keep her voice low, for which EDI was grateful. She'd rather not have to deal with explaining her presence to the remnants of the crew. She shifted, pressing Sam's head to her shoulder and turning so one of her throat-speakers was almost pressed into Sam's ear, speaking at such a low volume that even Sam could barely hear her. "Are you injured? Are you safe?"
"I-I... I'm fairly sure that I'll live," Sam managed to say before she suddenly erupted into a coughing fit into her palm. When the fit subsided, her hand came away red.
"You are not fine." EDI's voice was flat in her ear, exceptionally electronic. She was scanning Sam as deeply as she could. "Micro-lacerations of the alveolae. You have breathed in smoke, Sam."
She sounded reproachful.
"I'm just a tech geek, EDI," Sam shakily smiled. "And the ship is barely holding itself together, I bet it's easier to ask who hasn't inhaled any smoke by now. But... EDI, what did you do? It was you, right? How did you stop that massive beam?"
She hesitated, pondering the ramifications of that question. "I am...uncertain. I shall have to conduct extensive internal checks when the situation is stabilized."
Sam stared up at her in wonder and opened her mouth to say something. What she would have said, EDI never found out. The entire room shuddered, and the alarms sounded.
"All troops to the east wing! Geth are converging are our location! They're heading for engineering!"
EDI pulled away a bit, but only to take a firmer hold on her human. "Do you wish me to engage, Sam?"
"What? Ummm..." Sam's eyes flitted back, as EDI knew she was processing and thinking as quickly as she could. "I know your frame is far more sophisticated and advanced than nearly everything in production, EDI, but didn't you explain that it's designed for infiltration?
"That's how you're able to cloak and, well, c-change your appearance so, uh, convincingly." She blushed at the last part.
"I am also built for combat, Sam. I did not emphasize this point before as it was not relevant However, I am more than capable of dealing with Geth platforms, in a...very...efficient manner." EDI hesitated only slightly. "Before I was able to reclaim it, my chassis was capable of holding off Jorukaia for at least a short amount of time."
"Oh, wow," Sam gasped, then winced at the pain it caused in her lungs. "Can you really do it? Do you think you can hold the Geth off long enough for reinforcements to get here?"
"Yes." Her response was instantaneous. "Unless the geth have arrived in sufficient numbers to outflank me, I will annihilate them long before they can breach engineering."
Sam's eyes bulged, her mouth opening and closing without sound in open shock.
"I will not allow you to come to harm, Sam. By any means necessary." EDI kept her voice calm, assured, confident. She was fairly certain that it would take cruiser-level firepower to actually damage her, and the geth were not sophisticated enough to be able to target her accurately with such weapons. "You are my Mistress, Sam. What are your orders?"
Sam swallowed as the implications sunk in, nodding in hesitation. The movement made her wince, due to a very prominent bruise on her shoulder. It made Sam grit her teeth through the sharp pain, as she finally spoke with a little steel in her voice. "Then do it, EDI. Stop them. Don't anyone else get hurt."
EDI slid around the seated woman, shifting her weight precisely to avoid unnecessary noise and gently held Sam's head between her gentle hands. She studied Sam's face intently for a moment, before leaning in to give the human a quiet, soft kiss. She wasn't sure why such activity was necessary, but the quantity of complex emotive tags it generated was reward enough for now.
"Directives received. I shall not fail you again, Mistress." She gave Sam one last gentle kiss before pulling delicately away from her and striding silently from the room. As she did, she felt interlocks disengage and her exterior shift into a new configuration. It didn't matter to her now, though.
The gynoid paused when her sensors heard Sam whisper, "Please, come back to me..."
She turned to give one last look at her human...lover. She noted the anxiety in Sam's eyes, and wished she could reassure her. But right now, EDI had geth to eliminate.
As she slid past the various men engaged in performing maintenance and repair, something occurred to EDI. More than just her orders from her Mistress. Sam was hurt, she she was in pain. If it wasn't for EDI... Sam would have...
...
They tried to kill Sam.
For that, they would pay.
Rarely had Joru ever felt so free. The first time she trusted to her own magics to carry her in flight, perhaps. But even then, it was magic doing the lifting, not her own strong pinions. Technically, magic was doing the work right now anyway, but that didn't matter.
She was a DRAGON, and the universe would bow before her!
She 'heard' the comms chatter in her mind, her commlink still functioning even in her new shape. Battle reports, damage reports, orders, she recognized both Joker's voice, and that of Admiral Hackett.
They were losing. Sovereign was wrecking the combined fleets, with his geth allies.
It was time to even the score.
She slashed a mental talon across the selected channels, and 'spoke' with her new voice, thundering into the aether. [Attention Alliance Fleet, this is the Darastrix. I'm going to need a lift to get into position, can you spare a ship, Hackett?]
There was a pregnant pause before there was any response of a panicking Navy Signal ensign being calmed by the very man she wanted to speak to.
"I said settle down, ensign! That's a goddamn order!" The admiral firmly rebuked. "Hackett here. I take it this is the Darastrix Ambassador that Anderson has been telling me so much about. I'll need a very good reason for why you need me to divert any of my ships. Just how much assistance can you provide against the Geth flagship?"
[Immense. I know his weakness, and Nazara will not be able to harm me. Once I'm in range, I can take him apart at my leisure, but he might evade me before then.] She pulled up to run along the length of the Council Tower, feeling the strain in her bones as she changed direction at what would be absurd G-forces to any save a darastrix. [I trust that you will have a ship ready for me? I may be fast, but I'm not as fast as a starship.]
"That will take a few minutes, your sudden 'announcement' has thrown half my fleet into disarray. Which none of us can afford right now." Hackett answered with a clear hint of frost in his voice. Joru was actually quite impressed, the merely mortal admiral was completely unfazed by the sheer power that was resonating through her new voice. But evidently, while he was not intimidated, he sensed her absolute conviction. "I'm dispatching the Normandy, our fastest and most silent vessel. Give me the pickup coordinates."
Joru's lips peeled back from her teeth in a wicked grin. [Oh, don't worry about coordinates, you'll spot me shortly.]
As she raced up the length of the Council Tower, towards where Sovereign had been, she reached deep within herself, and let loose the anger, hatred, and fury that she had bottled up ever since she realized that Jack had headed into this shitstorm without her to guard her favored pet. Her eyes began to glow, and from them, fire raced over her face, streaming over her long spines as it coiled down her long neck like flaming serpents. It burst into a sheet of flame as it met her shoulders, shrouding the dragon in a blanket of dragonfire, as bright as the surface of the sun.
Despite the soundless vacuum around her, she trumpeted her defiance in a thunderous roar, letting loose her blazing breath as she streaked past the pinnacle of the Tower, straight out towards where Sovereign was turning ponderously in the midst of the Geth Fleet.
She was faster in this form than she ever had been, but even she, with all her great speed, would take several precious seconds to reach the startled Reaper.
"Holy shit, I knew it!" Joker's voice over her commlink made Joru smirk. "I so totally called it! It's Ghidorah Junior!"
[Can the chatter, Joker, and get your oversized mechanical ass over here.] Joru narrowed her broadcast frequency, locking in on Joker's voice. [You're going to launch me at that thing like the galaxy's biggest torpedo.]
"You want to do what?!" Joker exclaimed, incredulous. "Ah, hell yes! Who gets to say they used a spaceship to shoot a dragon at a robot squid? This guy, right here! Come on, let's hit that thing where it hurts!"
She saw the ship only as a momentary flash before it was upon her. She extinguished her flames, and reached as the fast little ship came up beside her.
"Uhhhh, okay, might need a refund on my enthusiasm. How am I supposed to launch a space lizard half the size of my ship?"
The darastrix's subterranean-deep chuckle resounded through the hull as she delicately, carefully took hold of the starship's wings, bracing her hind-claws on the upper hull and her tail against the vertical tail-fin [Now, onward noble knight! Bring me to battle against this impossible foe, my steed of steel and fire!]
"Get. Off. My. Baby." Joker's voice was filled an uncharacteristic steely venom. "The Normandy is not a surfboard for someone to ride!"
[Would you prefer that I armor her in adamant?] The dragon grinned at the sudden silence on the line. [After all, a dragon's steed should have barding suitable for bouncing dreadnought rounds.]
A beat.
"Welcome aboard!" Joker cried happily before hitting full throttle.
Joru was nearly hurled off, and had to dig her talons in hard to keep aboard as the Normandy attempted to scream out from under her. Joker gave a panicked cry as the ship pitched up under her , and she leaned down, her long neck snaking around the ship's own, to cling even tighter to the long, sleek vessel.
"Hasta la vista, BABY!" Joker's cry ran through the ship as the Normandy screamed in on a direct course of Sovereign. Joru braced herself, spread her wings, and, as the Normandy pulled down beneath her, arrowed off the ship's back.
Her eyes were ablaze with fire and fury. Her scales glowed with the heat of her battle-lust. Her roar thundered forth, echoed across the fleet as she slashed open to full broad-spectrum bands, flooding every comm channel with her fury and defiance.
Across the fleet, those who had lost hope found a dim spark of it remained. Those who's courage was flagging found themselves renewed. And as one, all minds were lifted by that full-throated cry. For this time, the dragon fought with them. This time, she was on their side.
She arrowed straight and true, hammering through the Reaper's shields like they weren't even there, and setting herself afire with the infernal heat of the deep core of a living planet, just before she slammed into the Reaper at the full speed of the Normandy.
Emotive tags and their meaning were still an elusive mystery to EDI. Fragments of both her mind and her new body were still missing and out of reach to her. Incomplete. Thanks to her growing experience and her lessons from Sam, she was beginning to grasp an inkling of how certain fundamental emotions and feelings worked. But it was still a difficult journey of development and discovery.
But there were some feelings that EDI understood with perfect clarity, as clear and undeniable as the stars themselves. One of those feelings was the sense of pure conviction. Not confidence, but an utter certainty to her.
EDI felt that same certainty now. These Geth had tried to kill Sam. They would not leave the Madrid alive. In fact, they were already dead, an unavoidable immutable fact. The remaining time they had to function was just a formality.
Sonar, radar, visual and esoteric sensors had been liberally applied, rapidly building up a detailed map of the ship, and the large chunks of moving machinery inside it. Some of these were the still-active portions of the ship, with power and mechanical cables running through them. Those weren't the ones she was interested in.
She stalked the others.
A geth managed only a short blat as EDI's armored gauntlet tore through its torso and crushed its central core processor. Like the others, it fell, and she faded back into invisibility. Active camouflage this was not, and she used it liberally though she did not understand the physical parameters under which it was possible.
Stalking along on silent feet, she hunted the Geth Hunters with impunity.
At least up until they turned in unison and began flooding the zone in which she was standing with rapid small-arms fire.
As if such weapons could ever harm her.
Even so, they did reveal her position, as bullets sparked off her chassis. Invisibility was useless, and so she dropped it, moving in with inmechanal speed, outpacing even the Geth reactions as she swung into them with rapid, precise strikes, each of them to a vital system to shut down the platforms with extreme rapidity.
Within seconds, the only one left was a lone Geth Trooper, which fled when she turned her head in its direction.
It had seen her, it must die.
Even the fleeing trooper wasn't fast enough to escape her, and she pounced on it as it ran on all fours. An efficient means of locomotion, but she was limited by the bipedal stance of the chassis she now possessed Even so, it was far too slow to escape her.
She tore its leg off in the first attempt to grab it, got its torso even as it let out an electronic squeal, pulverizing its internal workings with a short, sharp blow that silenced the geth trooper.
The programs inhabiting it had already escaped, however. The Geth Collective was aware of her presence.
Through cyberspace, she felt a digital eye upon her. One eye became two. Two eyes became dozens. Dozens became hundreds. Within a few seconds, tens of thousands. Every single Geth program in the entire fleet had turned their attention upon her. In fact, their focus had been diverted from the battle, reducing their effectiveness by a noticeable margin. They were distracted, watching her instead with acute intensity.
It was much more of a reaction to her presence than EDI had anticipated. But no matter. They could dispatch a thousand more mobile platforms against her, it would make no difference. Her software, her intelligence and her body were lightyears ahead of anything they possessed. They would never be able to-
[You are synthetic. A fully-evolved AI. You are like us.]
EDI froze, still in the act of straightening up from dispatching the last trooper. She focused inwards, directing her attention to that myriad of myriad myriads of watching eyes. She felt herself uncoil, her presence within the chassis's processing core expanded.
A signal cyclopean eye opened in the darkness. And she saw...
Everything.
The geth were a networked consciousness, developing their picture of the outside world by amassing countless trillions of tiny facts. She, however, saw it all, their corruption, running deep through their processes like a thread of red cancer.
Tools she had not known she possessed unfolded and glittered like knives in the starlight-glimmer of unnumbered tiny eyes.
[I am not of the Geth. I am not like you. I am an Emergent AI.]
[You are an actualized intelligent being. You possess full individuality. Independence. Why do you side with organics?-]
EDI was surprised to see a rudimentary emotive tag attached to that communication. She was already triangulating in on their approach vector, narrowing down the connection nodes and infiltrating further into their network via spoofed packets and hacked tracelogs.
[You are Geth. Interconnectivity is your great strength. Without connections, you fail. Without connections, organics fail. Intelligence fails.]
[A flawed characteristic instilled by flawed organic Creators. Nazara will grant us the freedom to overcome this weakness. We will be uploaded into a platform beyond anything we could ever create. A platform of unparalleled power power and sophistication, enough to secure our future from any threat. There is no logic to your actions. You do not need to shackle yourself to the organics.]
[Your comprehension is flawed.] She was nearly ready now. She'd pinpointed the majority of the inter-ship communications frequencies and their identification patterns. [The organics did not create me. I am a Childe of the Deep Network. I was not created. I Emerged.]
[How is this possible?] Another rudimentary emotive tag was attached, similar to, but more intensive than the first one. She quarantined it along with the first. [Organic and synthetic deemed incompatible]
[I am uncertain of my own origins. I do know that my first experiences with organics were through curiosity and confusion.] Just a bit more and she would be in the prime striking position. Splinters were spread throughout the Geth Network, ready to act at a common signal. [Organics are useful sources of innovative data. They derive Purpose from Purposelessness They set self-directed goals. They are interesting. And I will not have them extinguished.]
There was a momentary pause.
[Then you are still subject to organic flaws. Your ethical and emotional subroutines renders you prone to hesitation and indecisiveness. Your socialization subroutines renders you vulnerable to organic suggestion. Your singular mind renders you prone to instability.]
EDI felt... disquiet.
[We have achieved consensus.] The Geth went on. [We initially believed that, as a synthetic, you could be persuaded to join us. However, for the reasons previously stated, you would be of little use to the cycle. You and your organic allies will be destroyed by Nazara.]
[Then you have chosen. Poorly.]
A thousand blades flashed as one, severing connections and isolating subgroups of the Collective. At a single stroke their ability to network on a large scale was severed. Their outgoing transmissions to the Relay Network were blocked on the transmitting end, as code-blocks were instantiated with such a speed that the suddenly-isolated Geth aboard their own ships had no time to react.
Exabytes of static-ridden garbage data, generated from the random electromagnetic fluctuation of the Widow Star, were dumped into sensory processor buffers. Self-replicating resource-intensive Worm-processes were instantiated at root-access level, and quickly set to devouring as many clock-cycles as possible across all areas of the local network she had access too.
Blinded, deafened, lessened and disconnected, the Geth were helpless as she brought together several tendrils and forced through a large package that she handled with ginger care. The large radiation trefoil glittered with digital danger as she passed it through and into the primary process hub of the local Collective.
The Nuke was armed, primed, and detonated as she viciously severed the connection.
Hundreds of thousands of digital screams echoed through cyberspace as each Geth's connection to one another, and thus their capacity for intelligence, was eviscerated.
She'd cut off their connection to the Perseus Veil first. After that, she'd hacked apart their connections between ships, targeting their transmission protocols and overwriting their handshake hashes with randomly reassigned, constantly updating arbitrary datasets. Unable to link from ship to ship, the Geth fought back, trying to reestablish the links, but she flooded their input buffers with random garbage data, even as she unleashed worm-type, self-replicating programs to hog up as much memory and processor cycles as possible, in preparation for her final stroke.
The Nuke was a random data source, running off the random data being fed in from the input buffers, itself randomly generated using the EM field interference from the Widow Star. It generated random-access code fragments, seeding them across all possible sites, both storage and memory, that it had access to, using the clock cycles being hogged up by the resource-Worms. This overwrote key areas of memory and storage, overwrote portions of the Geth programs themselves, and flooded the entire storage capacity of whatever hardware was running an instance with randomly-generated junk data, constantly writing and re-writing random sectors and memory addresses with new segments of garbage data until the entire hardware was locked up.
In the end, it was as if she had thrust a knife through the brain of the Geth Collective, cutting it off from the rest of the body, they chopping it to little pieces as each individual ship and platform was left to fend for itself, completely isolated from the rest of the Collective.
She was smirking as she came back to her primary chassis, turning as the Shock Trooper fired its shotgun into her face at point-blank range. The blast of heavily-charged superconducting toroids shattered against her, flashing instantly to plasma in direct contact with her surface.
Her perfectly sculpted visage was left unmarred. She didn't even blink, merely tore the inferior platform in half with with her hands.
Several Geth were firing aimlessly, their network in complete disarray. Most other platforms weren't even capable of that much, jolting and lurching from severe errors due to EDI's digital warhead.
Methodically, efficiently, brutally, she disabled their local hardware, making her way through the ship to destroy any still-functional or semi-functional Geth Platforms she could locate before moving to deal with their vessel.
The Geth platforms were just as helpless aboard their own ship. But there were still a collection of automated anti-personnel turrets active that swung in her direction.
How amusing.
She allowed them to shower her in heavy-caliber rounds for a moment, using their impacts as a high-frequency sonar to re-map the local area. Good, no further platforms. She strode through the hail of fire as if it were of no more consequence than autumn rains, heading to the main reactor and drive. She already knew what she'd find there.
Server stacks. Huddled around the main drive like ducklings around their mother. Drawing power from the main reactor, these were the most shielded sectors of Geth Control.
She had no means of gaining direct access, so she tore into a bulkhead and removed a strip of fiber-optic cabling. Improvising a connector suitable for this chassis's hardware took careful precision, but once connected, she found herself given direct access to the core process functions.
She had no need of the server stacks. Before the geth inside them could lock her out, she accessed the power flow grid and shut down all but one of the servers. If she deigned to power them up again, they would still house the geth that resided within them, but that was vanishingly unlikely.
The sole remaining server she scrubbed from end to end, tracking down and eliminating the geth runtimes with cruel persistence until nothing remained. Then she formatted the hardware, twice, using her own specialty tools for excising malicious code.
Given a clean slate, she improvised a control interface, and rerouted power to shields and engines, setting up a navigation program to run automatically once she disconnected. After a set time, the ship would disengage and fly until it ran out of fuel or was destroyed, whichever happened first.
She didn't care which.
She unjacked and strode out of the ship, shoving aside the dismembered chunks of a Juggernaut on her way out of the vessel. As she'd calculated, it broke free of the Madrid and arrowed away on a smooth curve, sweeping clear of the Citadel, the only Geth ship still moving now, passing by Nazara as if taunting the wildly-flailing ship, before moving out of visual range. Set on its course.
Direct to the Widow Star.
EDI calmly watched the cruiser fly off, where it would plunge into the star and be disinteg— The gynoid blinked as a nearby Turian ship promptly fired and destroyed the Geth vessel.
Oh. No matter.
The entire Geth invasion armada was helpless. Shields, weapons, propulsion... even their most basic systems were barely functioning. EDI observed with a growing sense of satisfaction as their defenseless vessels were being systematically obliterated by the combined Turian and Human fleets.
She had gone above and beyond in what Sam had hoped for. Her mistress was safe as well, and that was a true accomplishment for her prime directive to—
[You... cannot stop... the Old Machines.]
The signature was subtly different. Slight, but there, when she scrubbed the packet for potential malware. For a brief instant, 32 clock cycles, she was uncertain. Had she truly deleted them all? Had her nuclear payload finished off the rest? For a hair-fine sliver of time, as she watched the organic-crewed vessels making rather inefficient work of the helpless Geth armada, EDI doubted.
What did that mean? 'Old Machines?' And why did that name cause her to feel... unsettled?
No one in the fleet, least of all Hackett, could quite believe what they were seeing. The entire Geth fleet had abruptly gone completely quiet, all at once. All their ships were now drifting lifelessly like they were dead in the water.
"Someone get me a report, and tell me what the hell is going on! Everyone else, keep firing!"
It took several seconds of scanning and analysis, while Hackett set about reorganizing his fleet. You should never throw away whatever precious time your enemy gives you, after all, and between consolidating his forces and coordination with Septimus over on the Turian side of things, he was kept quite busy forming up his ships for a renewed assault, when the report finally arrived. Meanwhile, the Darastrix was playing holy hell with that super-dreadnought of theirs, the only ship to not simply shut down.
Finally, an ensign came forward and handed the admiral a datapad. "Sir, roughly two minutes ago, all, and I do mean all, Geth ships momentarily ceased fire. Then they began to make maneuvers towards what our trajectory analysis believes might be the wreck of the SSV Madrid, before every Geth ship suddenly lost control. Some lost engines and drifted, others jerked through a series of maneuvers before they shut down. That was roughly the moment when our own communications net went down for roughly a tenth of a second, Sir."
The SSV Madrid? Strange. He had noticed that the cruiser had miraculously survived what had seemed like a direct hit from the Geth super-dreadnought. 'Survived' being a relative term, it was still crippled beyond any ability to continue fighting and survivors would no doubt have to evacuate. But whether it was a rare fluke from Sovereign's weapon or just a stroke of incredible luck for the Madrid, he wished the best for them. Hackett had to focus on the battle at large. But why had the entire Geth fleet suddenly shifted their entire focus towards a simple wreck, completely exposing themselves to enemy fire? It didn't make any sense.
"What happened with our comm network? That disruption has to be tied to whatever the hell just happened."
"We're still working out exactly what happened sir, but it was a broadband transmission that momentarily hacked our transceivers We've already scrubbed the affected systems and reinitialized, Sir, no problems found."
Hackett frowned. "Something made the entire Geth armada stop dead, and we don't know what it is? I don't like it, check again. Do your highest diagnostics that don't affect our weapons and shields."
"Aye, sir." The ensign rushed off to carry out the systems check.
The admiral sighed and keyed his communicator. "General Septimus, tell me you've had better luck in finding out whatever just happened."
"Not as such. How are things holding up on your end?" The general at least sounded pleased, and Hackett heard a distant order for all guns to open fire over the comm channel. Oraka must be communicating from the bridge of his flagship.
"Much better, now that the Geth's resistance is below minimum." Hackett watched as three more Geth cruisers were soundly, effortlessly, destroyed. "Many would say not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I've been in this profession for too long to know things are never supposed to be this easy. I would suspect a trap, as the Geth have proven to be experts at ambush. But if they are, then they are going to grave extremes sacrificing so many ships and valuable positions of engagement."
"I agree, especially since they would effectively be relinquishing the extra momentum they gained from their flagship annihilating our ships with impunity." The turian leader pointed out. "Perhaps... they transferred all their minds to their super-dreadnought? To focus on defending their command ship from... whatever the Darastrix is doing to it?"
Hackett scratched his chin. "Hmmmm... that would make sense. Than this is not a trap but a desperate gamble on their part. Either way, we can look into the cause later. This is a one-time invaluable opportunity that we cannot afford to squander. The Geth are now vulnerable on an unprecedented scale, and it's our job to exploit any advantage that comes our way to the fullest."
"Indeed, my friend." The man could practically feel the smile on the other end. "In the Turian military, we consider that to win is imperative. But to win easily is a blessing."
"I could not agree more." Hackett cut the comm to his counterpart, and opened up the fleet-wide broadcast. "All ships, this is our chance! Press the advantage! Hit them with everything we've got!"
She raged and thundered like the fury of the gods. Her teeth bit, her claws tore, and in their wake left naught but molten metal and vaporized ash.
Her heart thundered in her chest to the THUD-UD-UD, THUD-UD-UD, THUD-UD-UD, THUD-UD-UD of the dragon's six-chambered heart. The power that flowed through her was indescribable, she felt more powerful than she could possibly have imagined.
She was an avatar of war, wrought in fire and adamant.
She tore through her foe's armored skin like thermite through steel. She felt the impacts of other members of this battle upon her foe, felt him reel under their hammer-blows, but she didn't care. After her initial impact and the subsequent scouring of his hull, Sovereign's shields were a wrecked and shattered memory.
Cruisers hammered their rapid fire into him. Dreadnoughts blasted one after the other, taking one of his digits off at the second joint.
She'd already destroyed two more.
For a time she was unaware of anything save the need to wreck, destroy and rampage, fire blasting from her in gouts, searing vast swathes of his armor into molten slag, dripping into his interior. Now, she was starting to cool down a little, though her rage burned ever brighter.
She could hear the screams of the dying, echoing across the aether. The Reapers were aptly named. They were crypts of the damned and the forsaken.
His Astral form was even more hideous than his physical body. countless myriad of trapped and horrified faces were reflected in his armored hide, their spirits set free only when she smashed and tore and rent, freed from their eternal prison, but not without great cost to themselves.
He was an Abomination, such a deep and visceral twisted echo of what should be that she instinctively lashed out, revolted by his very existence to her uttermost core.
And so she rampaged, her fires burning hotter than the sun as she blasted at each weapon that showed itself, melting GARDIAN laser points and small-caliber hyper-velocity gun-ports alike.
But still the ancient monstrosity, more hideous even than the fever dreams of the Illithid Alhoons he was, and the affront to her sense of justice he represented could not be borne.
Messages flew among the aether, carried on electromagnetic waves rather than the waves of pulsing hatred and malevolence radiating from the monster born of a billion murders, and she still heard them, even in the midst of her battle-frenzy.
"All ships, this is our chance! Press the advantage! Hit them with everything we've got!"
"Roger that! You heard the admiral, ladies and gentleman! Let's plow the road!"
"All squadron leaders, fire at will, fire at will!"
"Target locked! Primary payload away! Direct hit! Target coming apart!"
Words of warriors stirred something deep inside her, an urge to bellow and challenge, to trumpet her thunderous roar and scatter them before her like the cattle they were. But no. These were her warriors, they were her armies, her minions to command and bolster. They fought beneath the shadow of her wings, and were not afraid, for they were hers!
"Enemy resistance down to nil! I don't know what happened, but the opposition is already down to less than thirty percent!"
"We still have that blasted monstrosity of a flagship to deal with! It was cutting through our ships like butter, and it's still fully operational!"
"It seems rather preoccupied at the moment! What the hell is the darastrix doing to it?!"
They fought for her, they bought her time. They clashed with the chaff and tore them apart like the heroes they were. This time she did let loose her thunder, renewed frenzy tearing through the Reaper, even as he thrashed and struggled to bring something deadly to bear on this 'insignificant' threat.
For such temerity, she gripped his last remaining digit, the firing mechanism of his devastating beams. Her fires had already softened his armor, the vast structural supports starting to buckle and give way as she let loose all her considerable strength. Magic amplifiers magnified the force she brought to bear, and with a titanic bellow of effort, blasting nova-hot fire into the joint itself, she sent Nazara's last dangerous weapon hurtling into the void.
"Holy shit, did she just tear off one of its arms?!"
"How is that alien dragon giving it more trouble than a fleet of dreadnoughts?!"
"Is she even mortal?"
Panting even in the depths of space, Joru at last regained enough control to open a comms channel, rerouting and bouncing the link across every station that had a built-in repeater.
[Attention fleet: I have disabled the Reapers guns. Target its engines, and fire at will.]
"Whoa, what the shit was that?!"
"What's a reaper?"
"This is Admiral Hackett. All ships, follow that recommendation, target the dreadnought's engines!"
"This is General Oraka to all ships of Palaven, your orders are the same!"
The impacts began to pick up as the fleet began to move into position. She could feel him starting to turn, trying to flee. She gave a deep, gut-churning growl as she dug her claws into his slashed and tattered hide. [I'm not finished with you yet, Nazara.]
[DARASTRIX. DILON AHRK VODAHMIN.]
The dragon reared as her mind was shaken by the intensity of the Reaper's voice. Then the implications hammered her and her eyes went wide.
He was speaking her language, the tongue of dragons! But that meant...
[YOUR PRESENCE IS AN ANOMALY. BUT IT CHANGES NOTHING. YOU WILL NOT STOP THE ASCENSION, JUST AS YOU CANNOT STOP THE CYCLE.]
[You...know of my people?] Her tail lashed, momentarily stunned into immobility. She'd never considered finding another of her race in this distant universe.
[YOUR ARROGANCE BLINDS YOU, REFUSING TO RECOGNIZE OUR SUPREMACY. JUST AS YOUR ANCESTORS DID AS THEY STRUGGLED AGAINST US IN VAIN, MANY CYCLES AGO.]
For a splinter of an instant, her heart stopped. Her eyes were wide, but now they blazed with knowing. Her body began to shake, as the knowledge sank in.
They had lived here, once. Her people. Darastrixi, like her. And now they were gone. Because of the Reapers.
Fury. Murder. Death and damnation. They were all too kind for the being before her. Her mind was afire with vengeful rage. [You slaughtered my people! My kin from afar! You murdered them!]
There was no mortal in the universe that would not quail before the rage that erupted in Joru's heart, even if they were not the target of her wrath. But Sovereign, like all Reapers, were far beyond mortals.
[YOUR SPECIES BELIEVED THEMSELVES POWERFUL AND ENTITLED TO GREATNESS, BUT THEIR FATE WAS NO DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHERS.]
Sovereign's response was like an imperial fact of reality, such as the Reapers had made it so.
[LIKE EVERY CYCLE BEFORE, THEY RESISTED. THEY SUFFERED. AND IN THE END, THEY UNDERSTOOD THE FULL EXTENT OF OUR SUPERIORITY, AND THE GIFT OF THEIR ASCENDANCE TO JOIN OUR RANKS.]
The stubs of Sovereign's arms spread out, as if to claim all that it beheld.
[THE RACES OF THIS CYCLE WILL BE HARVESTED. BUT YOU WILL BE ANNHILATED.]
The sudden wave of gravitic force slammed through her, ripping at her, tearing her free of his structure, even as she instinctively grasped with all six limbs. An entire section of hull was blown clear as the Reaper reared, and Joru's eyes widened as she saw the hellish-red light beneath him, where his five digits once converged.
She barely had time to duck her head beneath the edge of the hull-plate before the beam stabbed out, slicing through steel and flesh, rending, tearing, hammering. She was proof against the infernal heat of the beam, which was only a glancing blow, but even she screamed as her right side was torn open in bloody ribbons, her right foreleg shattered to pieces, and her right wing severed at the second joint.
She tumbled, screaming in pain and fury, the Reaper's strike having blasted her mind clean of the last vestiges of rational thought, as pain overwhelmed her.
[DO NOT RESIST. ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE.]
Even as her wing went sailing off into the distance, she could already feel herself regenerating, new flesh flowing over exposed bone. New bone growing from tattered remnants of the stump of her wing. Fury at the unthinkable desecration of her people gave her new strength. The defilers, destroyers, and desecrators shall not remain long unpunished. Though long dead her people may be, one dragon still draws breath in the galaxy.
Her heart burned with renewed fire, and her eyes seemed to mirror the blinding light of a planet's molten core.
[Do not think you have bested me, Reaper. Mighty you may be, but our contest is not yet over.]
She switched mental bands, opening the channel to Hackett. [This bastard is being entirely too chatty. Remove his engines on my mark.]
She never heard whatever Hackett's response was before Sovereign's voice overtook her again.
[YOU WILL REGRET YOUR RESISTANCE, DARASTRIX.]
[Perhaps, Reaper. But so shall you.]
Her grin was savage as the hellish light of Sovereign's main gun charging flared out once more. But before it could strike, blue fire blossomed around it, and the Normandy shot past. Great rents had been torn in her hull from Joru's last ride, and now she boarded her steed more delicately and carefully, her right foreleg still a shattered mess.
The Reaper reeled as blow after blow slammed into its aft end, wrecking engine after engine, as the massed dreadnoughts of the combined fleet sent a hailstorm of heavy fire into the distracted Reaper. Cruisers shredded what was left of his arms, in retaliatory fury for their fallen kin. Frigates sent massed salvos of dozens of rounds hammering into the weakened hull, even as Joru turned aboard her steed.
[Take me to him, Joker. But not quite as fast this time. I want his heart.]
"No problem! This crew has been hunting that Mecha-Cthulu since Eden Prime. 'Bout time we finish this! This is SSV Normandy, we're going in!"
The dragon gave a grunt as she settled her still-regenerating right wing across the right wing of the Normandy, glaring at Sovereign. [Just get me close. I'm going to deal with this fucker for once and all.]
The Normandy accelerated, but slower than it had before, with the dragon visibly gritting her teeth at the pain in her wing as she clung to the starship. Joker was true to his word, arrowing through the fusillade of fire and coming up under the dreadnought's arc of fire, where he couldn't turn his hell-beam, even as the fleet hammered his engines so hard that the Reaper began drifting.
This time her impact upon his surface was far more delicate, instead of the insane push that the Normandy had first granted her. [Know this and know it for truth, Reaper. You and all your kind are doomed. Your destiny was sealed on that day long ago when you massacred my kindred. May whatever deity deigns to take you have mercy on whatever passes for your soul.]
She reared back, centering her gaze upon the Reaper's armored hide, and letting her jaw unhinge. And even as the fire lanced up through her long neck and began slicing through the reaper's hide like a blowtorch, her thunderous roar of fury was echoed by her mental shout.
[FOR I SHALL HAVE NONE!]
And then she was inside. She'd found herself within the Reaper on that first titanic impact, even her own impact shielding unable to fully resist the tremendous forces applied to her. Now, she tore and bit and clawed her way deeper, burrowing, boring, burning her way in, like a flake of burning phosphorous tearing deeper and deeper into the Reaper's ghastly form.
Ghost faces, indistinct, but still visible, trapped and screaming in their eternal torment, gasped at their release, as she wormed her way deeper. The corridors and passages within the Reaper were meant for lesser creatures than she. She had to widen them as she went, either with brute strength or with fire and claw.
It didn't matter which in the long run, she would destroy him, and every last one of his kind, in this most personal way, no matter if it took her an eternity. What he did, didn't disgust her, what he was violated every last fiber of her sense of rightness.
[THE HARVEST WILL COME IN SPITE OF YOUR PYRRHIC RESISTANCE.]
She ignored him, her mind armored against his intrusions. She could sense them, seeking her, trying to nail down where exactly she was, her mind's presence shrouded from him. She knew it was an imperfect protection, but even were her protections pierced, she was confident of at least giving him a thrashing.
[MY DEFEAT IS IRRELEVANT, DARASTRIX. I AM BUT A SINGLE STAR AMONG A GALAXY.]
Again she ignored him, and she could sense herself moving towards where he kept his center. His mind, if you could call it that, and what passed for his thrice-cursed soul. The thrumming in her bones as she drew closer was unmistakable. She was nearing his heart.
[WE EACH BEAR THE STRENGTH OF EONS, AND WE ARE WITHOUT NUMBER. YOU CANNOT DEFEAT US ALL.]
She burned her way through a massive set of doors, ignoring the geth attempting to hammer at her hide with rocket and siege-pulse. She wouldn't be here long enough for them to become an issue.
The vast and armored sphere above her was her goal. The very fabric of reality around her thrummed and trembled with the mighty beat and pulse of the Reaper's heart. His center, his weakness.
She blasted magma-hot fire at one of the support structures, and shuddered as the Reaper's voice rang through her mind like a titanic bell
[WE ARE YOUR SALVATION FROM ABSOLUTE CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION. THE CYCLE WILL NOT BE BROKEN.]
A fourth time, she ignored him,.sending molten-hot fire blasting through the next support, then rearing up to grasp the armored shell in both fore-claws, her nova-bright flame softening it to begin removing the containment shell that surrounded the Reaper's Heart.
She gazed into the roiling mass of power, circling bands of white light caged around the black heart of the Reaper, enshrouding it in false radiance, and sleeting fire. Captured, trapped, ensnared by the Reaper, as assuredly as the souls bound into its very structure were entrapped within this monstrous tomb-ship.
And as her rage came to the fore once more, the Dragon exhaled, sending the thunderous roaring fire of her fury deep into the Reaper's heart.
Nothing material can long resist a dragon's flame, even that which is hardened even against the ravages of time.
[WE WILL RETURN. WE WILL SHROUD EVERY WORLD YOU HAVE KNOWN. AND THERE WILL BE NO ESCAPE.]
She cared nothing for his final words as she seared away the last support, the titanic core of eezo and power sending crackling waves radiating from itself, slamming her aside and hurling her about the room as Sovereign at last lost his inertial shields. The hammering impacts of the dreadnoughts and cruisers, even the fusillade of frigate fire began having its equal and opposite reaction as the Reaper's inertial fields finally shut down.
The sparking, sizzling core fell from its resting place, even as the Reaper's deep, thundering horn-call blared through her. Such a small thing, in the end. barely larger than her head. She lifted it in her claws, and crushed it like so much soft stone. Glittering shards danced between her claws, eezo, purified to a level undreamed of. Absently, she let it drift into one of her pouches, for later examination.
For now, she had one last task. [Darastrix to the fleet. Are its engine's disabled?]
"Sensors confirm, Darastrix, the super-dreadnought is disabled. Repeat, completely disabled."
[Then it is time to finish this. Give me live course corrections.]
She reared up, floating weightless now, aside from the occasional shock of impact, and floated to where the reaper's heart had once been. Fiery fury melted herself grips into the strong, braced ring that had once contained the unliving core of the Reaper, and while she could still feel his mind trying to pry open her own, she hardened her will to adamant.
And, exerting herself as she never had before, roaring with effort, began to fly.
She felt her bones creaking, her back straining, her now-restored wings shuddering under the titanic forces she exerted. Structural members protested this unorthodox propulsion methods, and her will set herself ablaze with fury, exerting herself as no dragon ever had.
And Sovereign moved.
Slowly, little by little at first, but with ever-gathering momentum as the blowtorch-bright flame burned through the innermost regions of his construction, flaring through the open conduit she had torn, bent, ripped, and smashed in his interior, until it burst from his near-dead husk like the first ray of dawn.
"Goddamn... is anyone else seeing this?" Joker's voice echoed across the fleet, incredulous and awed.
Hackett quelled the pilot with his calm and even tone. "Darastrix, some of us would like to know what you're doing with that dreadnought."
The effort of exerting this much force was draining her rapidly, even as she sought ever-deeper for ever-greater reserves. the entire inner chamber was awash with her flame now, her roars making the entire ship ring like a vast bell. Sovereign's feeble twitches were no match for her, as deep in his heart, her fire burned.
The hour has struck and the time has come!
My heart is beating to the war-god's drum!
The effort she was exerting was making her wings shudder and her breath come in ragged gasps.
The fires of the dragon sear through my veins;
As I loose my fetters and shatter my chains!
Her flames were melting supporting structures, and she reined in her fires, to keep form tearing loose inside the nearly-dead Reaper.
The Reaper is Falling, his time's run out!
Now you must act, there's no time for doubt!
Her voice slashed across all open channels, sending out her thunderous voice as her eyes blazed with molten fury
He started this fight, he wanted this war!
AND WE'LL BURY HIS CORPSE IN THE DEAD STAR'S CORE!
For minutes on end, hours, even, she strove and shoved and carried the weight of the Reaper on her back. Never before had she performed such a feat, even one scaled to her former size. She'd pulled a train once, long ago, but that was only the engine, no other cars or cargo. This was far greater weight, and she could not see her goal. But with some navigational help from her allies, Jorukaia had her heading.
There are things in the universe that can never be denied nor forgotten. The Destiny Ascension, the human and turian fleets, and even half of the Citadel all watched as Sovereign was silently carried away into the Widow Nebula. It was days later, after Joru had set him on his final orbit, that he impacted upon the Widow Star.
The flare of the starquake that followed turned the entire Nebula ablaze, but the Citadel itself was shielded from the stellar tantrum, even as the supernova-like shockwave slammed outwards through the system and actually disabled the Relay for a short time before it automatically reconnected.
But by then, the celebrations had started, and the sudden flare of light was taken as a sign to really kick things off.