…
"You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing."
(Alan Watts)
…
Opening the large metal doors, I hefted the large Venom gun, both it and the door emblazoned with the unnerving X-Labs emblem. It depicted a jawless skull with glowing red eyes, backed by red and two crossed knives that appeared to be scythe-like in nature. I couldn't stop to look at it more closely though as I slowly crept through the starkly lit hallway, seeing the door ahead of me was protected by another one of those electrical fields. Sighing at the obstruction, I instead moved towards the fork in the hallway, peeking past the corner to see another one of those disgusting Lopers creeping towards a cowering scientist.
Lopers were an abomination of meat and metal, built from the twisted remains of those who opposed the Nazis. They ran and jumped around on two massive legs, indiscriminately frying every living creature around them. The scientist, one of Deathshead's technicians, pointlessly begged for his life, holding up his hands as he backed himself into the corner, only to be fried an instant later.
Taking advantage of its unaware state I hefted my Venom gun, spinning the barrels up as I turned the corner, shredding the Loper with dozens of rounds in the span of only a few seconds. The Venom clicked as the last of its ammo ran out, leaving me with just my Colt 45. and an FG42 I had taken off of one of the dead SS Elite Guards outside. I threw the steaming Venom to the floor, immediately checking the chamber of the rifle to make sure it was still ready to go.
As I did so, I could hear the buzz of the electrical field dropping and the door opening, getting me to immediately jump into cover behind a large surgical table. Two of the guards from Deathshead's security team entered the room, looking around nervously as they checked for another one of the escaped Lopers. Taking advantage of their confused state, I quickly knocked the table over, gunning both men down before they could even react to me. Refusing to dwell on the situation, I quickly ran back into the hallway and through the doorway before the security field went back up, making it just in time.
I found myself in an open chamber, with locked doors in either side and a longer hallway ahead of me. Seeing no other option, I slowly crept through the hallway, only to feel the ground shake beneath me as one of Deathshead's prototype Ubersoldaten turned the corner, blasting me with another Venom gun. I ducked for cover behind one of the support beams, taking blind shots at it but doing little damage. As I tried to reload my FG42, it turned the corner, grabbing me by the neck with its free hand and lifting me off the ground. I felt its cybernetically-enhanced muscles tighten around my throat, even as I pulled out my Colt and emptied it into its head.
I passed out, its dead, hollow visage being the last thing I could possibly think about as I slipped into darkness.
…
I shot up in my bed, covered with sweat and my heart beating so hard I felt like it was going to explode. I held my hand over my chest, breathing deeply as I forced myself to relax. I was clammy, feeling slightly sick to my stomach as I swung my legs out of bed.
"You alright, hon?" Mara asked in a groggy tone, still facing her side of the bed.
"I hope so…" I shook my head, standing up and sauntering out of the bedroom.
Even with the fancy implant in my skull, it seemed I was still capable of having really vivid, wild nightmares. I could remember every detail, down to the leather-like skin left on the Ubersoldaten's face. I knew exactly where all of it had come from, it was from my many years of playing through Return To Castle Wolfenstein. From the Zombie Knights to the monstrosities created by Deathshead, that game left an indelible mark on my psyche. In hindsight, I had been way too young to play it at the time, but as a child I spent so many hours just watching my father play classic PC games that there was no way I'd eventually begin playing them myself on that old, shitty Compaq Presario. Classics such as Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Quake III Arena would always be associated with my father in my brain.
I wandered over to the kitchen counter and made myself a cup of coffee, looking at the clock to see it was still only 2:01 AM. Shaking my head, I downed the cup of coffee and opened my omni-tool to check the latest status reports from orbit.
Progress repairing all the damage both prior and preceding the attack was... jumbled, for lack of a better word. While we were still riding an incredibly strong morale high after successfully defeating the Reapers in a straight battle, we still sustained enough damage in the fight that it could be more than two weeks until we were back to full capacity. Many of the shipyards in Mal's defense line had been badly damaged, leaving them unable to assist in ship repairs until they themselves were fixed.
Our diminished capacity, coupled with our current lack of intel regarding Reaper movements in Citadel space, were driving our analysts on Śnieg nuts. Normally we'd send long-range reconnaissance ships out to shadow them, but right now we were far too busy licking our wounds to plan that far ahead. That left us with only two main sources of information at the moment. The Council, and the Inusannon A.I. construct we had discovered several days ago. One was useful, the other… not so much.
To put things bluntly, when I wasn't busy in orbit coordinating repair efforts, I was spending the rest of my free time at the dig site with Watterson and Richard.
From what "Nethinim" had told us over the past few days, just about everything we had predicted before had been completely correct, Biss in particular. His theories regarding the Crucible and its intended purpose were right, and so was our prediction that the Citadel was a vital part of the process. Apparently, the Crucible was originally designed to harvest the ambient dark energy of the galaxy and use it to forcibly stabilize stars that have suffered a phenomena Nethinim had roughly translated to "gravimetric destabilization". His description of the phenomena matched the strange activity found in Haestrom's star, among several others.
Apparently, the Crucible was capable of directly interfacing with the raw, black-body radiation inherent to certain high-mass objects in our dimension, and bridging a gap between us and the underlying layers of the universe itself, a sort of quantization process. It was hard to take in all at once, and even harder to understand. Even for someone like me I was having trouble keeping up with all of it. How this would affect the Reapers once a "charged" Crucible interacted with the Citadel, we still had no idea. Neither the Inusannon or the Protheans managed to get that far.
My concentration was broken as I heard the baby monitor beep, getting me to open my omni-tool. I took a look at the camera feed, seeing Elle had woken up and was now hopping up and down in her crib. I smiled, putting down my coffee and making my way into her room. The moment she saw me she got even more excited.
"Herro dada!" She squeed, holding out her arms over the top of the crib. I chuckled, picking her up and grinning.
"Hey, good morning spud!" I greeted, unable to contain my enthusiasm. "What's my little girl doing up so early, hm?"
"I… don know." She replied in a confused voice, shaking her head as she stuck several fingers on her chin, mirroring the gesture I often made when thinking during conversation.
"Heh, well I think I know something." I joked, suddenly realizing how big she had gotten as I kneeled down next to the crib. "I think soon you'll be ready for a big girl bed."
"Big girl bed?" She repeated, obviously unaware of what I was referring to.
"Having a big girl bed means you won't have these bars anymore. It'll just be this frame and mattress." I explained, putting my free hand on the bars. "Do you like the sound of that?"
"Yea!" She lit up, smiling from ear to ear.
"Ah, but it's a lot of responsibility though." I warned, holding up a solitary finger. "If I give you a big girl bed, you have to promise mommy and daddy that you'll go to sleep when told to. No running around in the middle of the night, no snacks…"
"Okie!" She immediately agreed, taking me aback slightly with how quickly she had agreed to my rules. Once again, I couldn't help but smile.
"Alright, I'll talk to your mother later. For now, it's time for you to go back to sleep." I urged, getting a sad look from her seconds later as I placed her back in the crib. "I'll see you in the morning, hon."
"Goodnite dada." She finished in a duller tone, laying back down in her crib as I stood in the doorway and watched her for a moment, only the light from the living room lighting her.
As I closed the door, I stood there in silence for a minute, trying to come to terms with how I was supposed to balance all of this. As she got older, I wanted to be there for her, able to relate to her and watch her grow. I had this dull, aching fear that I'd end up like one of those travelling dads, never there for their children when they needed me. The old Harry Chapin song came to mind, "Cat's in the Cradle".
I was determined to be there for her, and any siblings she might have in the future. First, I had a war to win.
…
Inusannon Excavation, November 15th, 5:32 AM, 2186
…
Climbing back up the collapsible ladder with Richard and Watterson, I breathed deeply in the cold morning air, feeling rejuvenated. We had spent several more hours talking to Nethinim, asking hundreds of questions. It had been more than happy to answer them all, and we had recorded everything just in case something unforeseen happened to it. This was worth every bit of sleep we had collectively lost, and even now in the early hours of the morning we were still filled with curious energy. In fact, the only reason we had taken a break in the first place was to get more water and… empty our bladders on the surface.
"I never expected to find anything quite like this." Watterson remarked once more, sitting down on a nearby rock and drinking from his water bottle as several technicians worked to secure the gap in the shale wall. "I'm not an archaeologist myself, but something that predates the Protheans… people will be clamoring to come here and talk to it."
"Yeah… not until I'm done with my questions." I rejected, knowing how complicated things had gotten with that archive beneath CASTLE Base. It would be a million times more complicated with this, and I wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste.
Until I was done questioning the construct, I was keeping this discovery a complete secret. Only a handful of my most trusted people were here right now, helping us set up external backup power and reinforcing everything that wasn't nailed down to the roots and rocks.
"Still, it's quite fascinating. An A.I. construct tens of thousands of years old, something that very well could be the last of its kind. Think about what I could do with my A.I. research if I managed to learn just a fraction of its creation process." Richard chimed back in, wiping off his eye once more.
"Speaking of A.I., whatever happened to that one Lydia removed from Cronos?" I asked, turning back to Richard as I took a bite out of a granola bar.
"She's apparently been trying to teach it to think more like her and Powell. Cerberus put so many restrictions on it that it could be considered a miracle it was able to function at all. It was barely more powerful than a V.I." He immediately proceeded to explain, getting me to raise my eyebrow in interest. "She's even named and gendered it, calling her Edi."
"Edi? What depths did she pull that from?" I wondered out loud, thinking it was a strange name.
"Apparently "she" was originally designed to be a shipboard A.I. in charge of an electronic countermeasure suite. The name comes from her formal name, the Enhanced Defense Intelligence." He explained in further detail, the pieces immediately falling into place.
"Ah, it's an acronym. EDI. That makes much more sense." I accepted, shaking my head.
"Wait… I remember hearing about that project a few years ago. That A.I. has been stuck in R&D hell for at least the last three years." Watterson chimed in, holding his hands up as he spoke. "From the rumors I heard, they used parts from some military V.I. on Luna that had gained sentience. It apparently killed over a dozen people before an N7 was called in to take it offline."
"Jesus… does Lydia know her pet project might have killed people at some point?" I immediately shifted, feeling the wind pick up slightly as I quickly scarfed down the last of my granola bar.
"Apparently EDI told her already. She acted in self-defense, trying to keep her mainframes online by any means necessary." Richard shot back, immediately getting me to narrow my eyes.
"Oh, so you knew this but decided not to tell me?" I remarked in an annoyed voice, turning my whole body to face him.
"It hardly seemed relevant at the time I learned it. Besides, I was too busy beginning pre-op for my ORION volunteers." He defended in his usual manner, crossing his eyes as he shot me a stern look.
"Forget it." I sighed, knowing arguing over it after the fact wouldn't make a difference, especially considering it was Richard I was talking to. "Come on, let's get back in there."
Climbing back down into the ancient hallway and beginning our walk, I pulled on my shirt collar, trying to keep myself cool. It was like a goddamn oven in this place, reminding me of one of my old summer jobs back on Earth so long ago. Ever since Nethinim had been reactivated, the power levels around here had gone up dramatically, generating a lot of heat. Luckily it wasn't radioactive, but geothermal in nature. It was all very impressive, all things considered.
"You know, I was wondering… I still don't understand how something like this can remain active for so long. If this thing is true, then it survived not one, but two galactic extinction events." Watterson remarked as we walked, sounding quite perplexed. "The processing power needed to keep all these systems running in an idle state alone should theoretically be impossible."
"Nothing is impossible at this point." I mused, running my hand through my sweat-soaked hair, feeling the full force of the immense heat as the generators far below us could be heard entering another cycle.
"Are you speaking from experience?" Richard joked in one of his rare moments of wit, wiping his glasses off on the same rag he used to wipe his artificial eye.
"I've seen explosions that atomize ships in an instant, killed the leader of a major terrorist organization, and traveled through an artificial wormhole, somehow coming out in one piece." I boasted, wiping the sweat away from under my eyes. "Ask me if this tips the scales at all."
"Fair point." He nodded, unable to keep himself from smiling. "Still, it seems the current galactic view of artificial intelligence is quite archaic compared to those before us. The fact that it lasted this long must mean it runs on a quantum blue box of some sort."
"You mean like EDI? Isn't she similar to your lady friend?" Watterson interjected, trying to keep track of our conversation.
"First off, Lydia is not my "lady friend". Second, you are correct." Richard immediately replied, having gone from 0 to 100 in terms of near-hostility in just a second. "If the Inusannon reverse-engineered their A.I. technology from the Reapers like Cerberus did with their own, then they could indeed be quite similar in construction."
"But Lydia and Powell aren't based on the "traditional" model." I added, getting him to nod furiously.
"No, a traditional A.I. requires years of learning and tons of open-ended, adaptive coding to come to full fruition. That's how the Geth came to be." He went on, genuinely interesting me as we walked deeper. "Powell and Lydia are based off of pre-existing neural pathways and signals, creating an architecture that is already written with the memories and experiences needed to make them unique."
"But would you say they are still the people they were before this… procedure?" Watterson went on, getting Richard to stop and pinch his nose.
"Of course they are. There's no difference between the donor and the resulting outcome. They're simply constructed in a different manner than that of a traditional organic brain." He explained in further detail, focusing hard on Watterson.
"So basing your programs off organic brains doesn't limit or inhibit their states at all? Wouldn't it be considered more "rigid" in its thinking than a fresh A.I. with only the bare minimum of learned experiences?" Watterson elaborated, getting me to sigh in minor frustration.
"This conversation is interesting, but I think we have more important things to worry about than the hypotheticals of A.I. development and the boundaries of intelligent thinking." I immediately halted, feeling the heat get to me as I fought to keep myself from going overboard. "Let's refocus our topic of conversation. The Reapers, and what they might be looking for in Council space."
"Heh, sorry." Watterson apologized, cracking a weak smile as a disappointed look crossed Richard's face.
We walked back into the main chamber, Nethinim reappearing above the projector as I approached it yet again.
"Admiral Michaels, I've been processing your inquiries from earlier, and have arrived at an interesting conclusion you may be interested in hearing." Nethinim immediately spoke, jogging my attention.
"By all means." I urged, sitting down in my chair as my two compatriots did the same.
"I've analysed the current Reaper movements reported by your intelligence network in addition to those provided by this "Citadel Council", and have determined they are looking for the remains of the Reaper known as Sovereign." It explained, surprising me for a moment before I remembered how he basically had unfettered access to my omni-tool. "Considering the Reapers failed to successfully utilize the Citadel for its intended purpose in this cycle, we believe they plan to attack it once again."
"With all those civilian refugees… oh my god, it would be a slaughter." Richard remarked as his brain processed the numbers.
"Until this cycle, we were unaware that the Citadel itself is one massive Mass Relay capable of transporting countless Reapers instantly to the core of galactic society." It went on to elaborate, filling me with that familiar, uneasy feeling. "Sovereign's unexpected destruction, coupled with the Prothean modifications to the station's Keeper population, had the unintended effect of "locking out" all other forms of Reaper interaction in a "system error" of sorts."
"So that's why the Reapers didn't make a beeline for the Citadel… they can't access the station's hidden core functions anymore." I smiled, finally understanding what Nethinim was saying.
"That is not entirely true. If the Reapers managed to salvage Sovereign's computer core, they could possibly be able to access the system once more." It warned, correcting me as my smile turned back to a frown. "They would likely move it to another, more secure location."
This was certainly not what I wanted to hear, despite being thankful that we had a direction to point ourselves in. In order to warn the Council as to the intentions of the Reapers, we'd likely have to reveal the existence of Nethinim to the rest of the galaxy. That presented its own set of problems, but involving the Council would be a political mess. I knew those of us in charge here had no inkling to allow any Council officials on Reach in the middle of a war.
"That's insane, how would you move something as large as the Citadel?" Watterson interjected, sounding completely baffled.
"At this point, we do not possess the information needed to answer that question." Nethinim slowly shook his head, his hologram flickering for a moment. "We recommend Sovereign's computer core be destroyed immediately to prevent this scenario from occurring."
I shook my head, taking a deep sigh as I tried to come to a decision.
"Fine… I suppose it's time to get everyone involved." I mused, standing up as more sweat could be felt dripping from my face.
…
UCV Saint Luke, November 15th, 3:51 PM, 2186
…
Walking into the War Room of the Saint Luke with Mal and Koris in tow, I somehow felt more pressure than I did with a small fleet of Reapers bearing down on us. As my men saluted, I took a deep breath as I felt the skin on my hands ache as I held them behind my back.
"Everyone clear out." I ordered in a blunt tone, getting everyone out of their seats and leaving the room completely empty. "Well, this is as good as it gets."
"It's certainly better than trying to use the one beneath CASTLE Base." Mal shook his head as I narrowed my eyes slightly, sensing the dour tone in his voice.
"I think it's a busted array down there, but I won't know until my people are done in orbit." I repeated, walking over to the large holotank and setting it up for diplomatic channels. "We're ready to go when you are."
Informing the Admiralty as to the nature of our discovery had led to a… predictable outcome. Everyone was shocked and surprised, and of course there were those who demanded to know why I had kept this a secret for so long. Even Mal couldn't believe I managed to keep such a big secret for more than a few hours. They always got the same boilerplate response from me in the end, and it was pointless to dwell on the topic for more than a moment given what we now knew about the Reapers.
We, more or less, had an objective now. Find and destroy Sovereign's computer core, preventing the Citadel from being used to flood the galaxy with Reapers as originally intended. This was no easy task, of course. This obviously meant getting the Council involved, and the Admiralty was very much against telling them what we had found beneath that forest.
We'd have to see how this conversation played out before pulling that card.
Plugging into the proper "frequency", the three of us stood on the pad to project ourselves into the QEC. It didn't take long to be met with the faces of the four Councilors as the connection was finally made.
"Greetings Councilors." I began in a respectful tone, knowing none of us were in the mood to be antagonistic towards each other. "We're happy you agreed to this meeting on such short notice."
"Given the serious nature of your message, we were obliged to listen to what you have to say." Sparatus replied, sounding as if he was in a similar mood as me.
"You mentioned you've discovered a way the Reapers might regain control of the Citadel. We were certain the safeguards put into place after Sovereign's arrival years ago were more than enough." Velarn jumped in, his arms crossed per usual. "However, the better question is how you supposedly determined one of our most closely-guarded systems has been compromised."
"It's quite simple, really. We were examining some of the information recorded by the "heretic" Geth faction that had followed Saren, and discovered a serious flaw with the Citadel's command and control systems buried in what was left." Koris expertly lied, managing to sound completely natural.
"Basically, we believe the Reapers pushed into your territories in an attempt to locate Sovereign's computer core. If they found it, they could easily brute-force whatever safeguards are in place and override the whole station, accomplishing Sovereign's objective from years ago." I explained further, watching Tevos and Velarn shoot each other worried expressions. "Not only would they be able to replenish the losses they sustained attempting to invade Reach, but they'd be capable of moving the station itself to a different location entirely."
That last bit got the four of them looking at one other, each just as worried as the others.
"Well... we recovered what we could following its destruction, but Sovereign's wreckage was strewn across much of the wards when it exploded." Velarn remarked, holding his chin. "We secured plenty of its eezo drive core and its weapon systems, but never recovered anything resembling a computer core."
"You're sure? Maybe you mistook it for something else?" I urged, feeling an imminent sense of dread wash over me.
"We recovered nothing of the sort, Admiral. If we did, there would be no reason to hide such a thing from you." He immediately replied in a slightly more strained tone, crossing his arms again.
At that moment, another thought crossed my mind, one I hadn't dwelled on in months.
"Cerberus." I spoke in a grave tone, feeling a familiar sense of anger return. "They managed to recover components of Sovereign too, enough to produce the first version of this QEC we're using right now."
"If that's true… we might be in more trouble than I initially thought." Anderson finally spoke up as the three of us and the other Councilors turned to face him. "Ever since your forces eliminated the Cerberus leadership at Cronos, there have been incidents where armed paramilitaries have quickly invaded civilian ports, stealing ships and materials from the rear of our lines in addition to hitting similar Council targets."
"Where did these thefts occur?" I asked, lightbulbs turning on in my head.
"Hold on… here." He nodded, displaying a map of all the recent incidents in Alliance and Council space. "These all occurred within the last three months."
I closely examined the map, noticing similarities between it and a similar one I saw several days ago.
"Mal, does this look familiar to you?" I questioned as he leaned forward, narrowing his eyes behind his mask.
"These thefts nearly mirror the recent Reaper movements we've tracked." He shook his head as Koris crossed his arms, seeing it too. "It's almost as if they're shadowing what's left of Cerberus."
"If this is true, then we now have an unknown variable involved in this war." Tevos sighed, her calm, reserved facade breaking for a singular moment. "With the Reapers bearing down on our homeworlds, we have no forces to dedicate towards an in-depth search."
"Given how widely Cerberus adopted the Gravity Drive, the burden would have to be ours to carry." I immediately remarked, getting surprised looks from everyone in attendance. "We can quickly move across the Terminus to track any remaining Cerberus cells, and if we're lucky we'll find what we're looking for."
"Sean, such a search could take weeks." Koris pointed out, sounding skeptical. "We haven't even finished repairing our flagships."
"It wouldn't have to be my entire fleet, just the Saint Luke and a handful of ships would be more than enough." I reasoned, knowing I would never leave Reach without a proper escort again after what happened between us and the Batarians. "I'll keep the rest of my fleet here to help with repairs and plug any holes in our borders."
"At this point I don't think we have much of a choice." Mal grumbled, tapping the underside of his mask.
"We cannot offer you any immediate support right now, but we'll be sure to forward you any of our latest information related to Cerberus." Tevos reassured, quickly turning towards me. "We do wish you the best of luck, Admiral."
With that, the three Councilors faded away, leaving Anderson as the sole one left.
"Be careful, Sean. We have no idea how much they might have changed since The Illusive Man's death." He spoke, getting my full attention as I stood straighter. "Good luck, and please come back with good news. Morale is as valuable as starships right now, and right now we have few of both."
"I'll do my best, Councilor." I nodded as he smiled, fading away as the QEC shut off. I turned back to Koris and Mal, taking a deep breath.
"You're certainly one to take initiative, Sean." Koris joked, allowing himself a single chuckle. "I can't say I like the idea of one our flagships leaving Confederation space so soon after the attack, but it seems the Council finally agrees with us for once."
"Only when it directly affects them, of course." Mal jeered, leaning against the wall.
"The only reason why Cerberus is still a threat is because of the technology they stole from us years ago." I explained, feeling a sense of responsibility towards their continued existence. "This is no longer a matter of us vs. them, this'll be a straight extermination."
"They probably don't have access to the same resources they once had, so they're likely to fight more… savagely than before." Koris warned, obviously worried for me based on his change of tone.
"Give me 36 hours, and I'll be back on their tails in half the time." I said, feeling that anger build up again.
Mal wordlessly walked back over, standing face-to-face with me as I met his eyes.
"I've seen how you fight, and Cerberus has left you with many scars. I want to stop you, but I don't think I ever could." He spoke in a lower tone, slowly shaking his head. "However, there will be one condition you must follow if I'm going to give you my full support."
"What's that?" I asked, continuing to make full eye contact with him.
"If you do find anything left of Sovereign, I want you to launch it into the nearest star." He stated, getting one of my eyebrows to shoot up in surprise. "I don't care if that core has the answer to life itself on it, I don't want it and I certainly don't want the Council to have it. Understood?"
"Loud and clear." I agreed, shaking his hand as I turned to Koris and nodded.
…
A/N: First off, I'd like to apologize for the lack of chapter updates the last few months, I've been busy working doubles and fixing my house half of the time, and the other half was spent with headaches and a nasty writer's block. I can't guarantee the next chapter will come out in a timely fashion either, but it should be more interesting than this one. Might just be another case of being my own worst critic, but it was certainly not something that should have taken this long to write. Either way, thanks for reading.