Chapter 20: Square Root of 912.04 is 30.2
It was with mixed feelings that I gave the order to leave the Citadel. On the one hand, it was filled with nothing but headaches—such as silly civvies that needed nosy strangers to solve their problems, pesky reporters and TPTB. On the other hand, it boasted shops where I could buy some nice toys. Plus, no one tried to kill me. Unless you counted random thugs and mercs who accosted me during my hunt for Saren. Or the Blue Suns who'd recently sneaked in while TPTB and C-Sec were napping and took offense to my efforts to chastise them. Or the elcor actors who were trying to kill me with their agonizingly slow and monotone rendition of Shakespeare. Or...
Okay, maybe those feelings weren't so mixed after all.
I spent some time trying to tinker with that copy of the Shepard VI I'd picked up. About an hour later, I'd come to the conclusion that I was no programmer. Finding patterns in computer code to exploit when hacking or bypassing was one thing. Actually figuring out what was wrong with it and fixing it was another matter entirely. Maybe I needed a break. I opened up my e-mail browser and...
Nuts.
The most recent e-mail was from my favourite pal in the galaxy: TIMmy. He wanted me to put the Mission on hold so I could sally forth on some random assignment. (1) For a moment, I was tempted to turn around, dock at the Citadel again and waste most of a day listening to a bunch of droning elcor butcher the Bard's work. And by a moment, I meant a good half-hour of listening to jazz. Plus ten or fifteen minutes re-routing the bug in my quarters to the AI core, where whoever was on the other end could spend their times watching Legion performing their rendition of the Robot dance.
Eventually, I gave in to the inevitable. After copying the e-mail to a datapad, I dropped by the cockpit to chat with Joker and EDI. Not surprisingly, our AI wasn't all that helpful, so I wound up telling Joker to lay in a course for a certain planet and headed down to Deck Three to pay Miranda a visit.
"Shepard," she greeted me with a smile. Yeah, that's right—a smile. Okay, maybe it was somewhere between a wide grin and a lip-twitch, but it was still a smile nonetheless. Still getting used to that, even though it looked really good on her. "What can I do for you?"
"You have a minute, Miranda?"
"For you? Always."
Still getting used to that, too.
"What do you know about Project Overlord?" I asked.
"ProjectOverlord," she repeated with a frown. "Do you mean Operation Overlord? As in the codename for the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II?"
"Actually, I meant Project Overlord," I replied, handing over the datapad. "As in the Cerberus cell."
She took the datapad and read TIMmy's e-mail:
From: Illusive Man
Shepard,
One of our cells just went off the grid without explanation. Project Overlord has been experimenting with highly volatile technology, and I need you to investigate. Their work is extremely compartmentalized, enough that I can't divulge operational details over this channel. You'll find them on the planet Aite, Typhon system, in the Phoenix Massing cluster. Please use care in this matter.
"I've never heard of it," Miranda admitted, returning the datapad, "but that's not all that surprising. I did say that Cerberus compartmentalized itself into cells."
"True," I sighed, "but I was hoping you'd know something. I'm a bit tired of blindly walking into a tourist destination recommended by TI—by the Illusive Man," I hastily corrected. (2) "I've already asked EDI, even though that was a waste of time."
"Really? What did she say?" Miranda asked curiously.
"'I have a block preventing me from answering that question,'" I mimicked.
Miranda gave another cute smile. "Let me reach out to my contacts in Cerberus Information Processing. I may be able to get a... a 'travel advisory' for you."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Miranda didn't have much time, since we arrived at Aite within a day. All she managed to obtain were a bunch of garbled and redacted e-mails and a shipping manifest. That was enough to give me a hint, though. Cryptographic analyzers, quantum blue boxes, flash-copies of entire databases from R&D labs specializing in VI research and similar equipment—all forwarded to a planet on the outskirts of geth-controlled space. Didn't take a genius to figure out that the Overlord cell was mucking about with the geth and something went totally FUBAR. (3) Again.
It took an awful lot of convincing to get the squad to follow me, but not for the reasons you might think. They weren't objecting about going off on some arbitrary assignment—I think I'd worn them down after the last several months. They weren't even objecting about jumping at TIMmy's beck and call—except for Jack, of course. No, they were objecting about how we were going to go planetside.
Normally, we'd take the shuttle down. But EDI's scans indicated four separate facilities on Aite. I didn't want to walk over. And the shuttle didn't exactly come equipped with anything remotely resembling weapons. So on the off chance that we'd run into some heat between buildings, I decided to take the replacement to the Mako instead.
It would make sense to me if they were worried about the fact that the Hammerhead sacrificed shields for manoeuvrability. But for some inexplicable reason, their objections were focused on the driver—that's me, by the way. Can't imagine why they'd be worried. The Hammerhead did have a self-repairing chassis, after all.
They finally agreed to let me drive on one condition: if we encountered any hostile forces, I had to use the Hammerhead's weapons instead of trying to run them over. And here I thought that I was the commanding officer.
I told Joker to drop us off at the building complex with the big honkin' satellite dish. Since any distress call that made its way to TIMmy probably came from there, it was as good a place as any to start looking. We'd scarcely stepped out when Miranda abruptly frowned and started tapping her omni-tool. She must've been monitoring Cerberus comm frequencies and patched one of them through in to the squad channel, because a hiss of static rang through our ears.
"Thank god you came!" a voice said. "My name is Dr. Gavin Archer. The situation is urgent—we're facing a catastrophic VI breakout. I'll explain the details later, but you must retract that transmission dish! The controls aren't far from your position. You have to hurry!"
Transmission—aw, crap. If this VI was as bad as Archer was saying, then it could use the comsat dish to broadcast itself offworld. Since we were on the clock, we had to move. I only spent a minute looking around for loot—never say no to free power cells or med kits—before entering the facility and heading down a flight of stairs into a large hall.
"Be advised," an automated announcement rang out over the PA system, "this is a secure facility. All weapons must be declared upon entry and checked with security personnel on duty."
Nudging the dead Cerberus operative out of my way, I doubted that that would happen any time soon. Call it a hunch.
"Over here—on the monitor."
Looking around, I saw a man with closely-cropped brown hair and a well-trimmed bit of facial fuzz. I finished descending the stairs, stepped around a pile of papers and a small fire and stopped in front of a giant flatscreen.
"Dr. Archer, I presume?" I guessed.
"That's me. I've locked myself in a computer room on the far side of the base. There are geth on the loose."
"How did that happen?" This time, that is.
"A rogue VI program has seized control and... I've lost a lot of friends today. I'd hate to see you join them. Please watch yourself."
Awfully presumptive of the doc to consider us friends. Mind you, we were gonna shoot our way to him and get rid of all those loose geth. Guess that makes us his new set of buddies, pals, friends and so on. My musings were interrupted by Jack's outburst.
"Fuck," she spat. "I knew it. Same shit as always."
"That's enough," Miranda snapped.
"Aw, did I say something to upset the cheerleader?" Jack mocked. "What's the matter? Can't admit that your precious Cerberus fucked something up again?"
"We still don't know what Project Overlord is up to, nor do we understand the circumstances that led to the present situation," Miranda replied icily. "Idle speculation will get us nowhere."
"Bullshit! You—"
"All right," I hastily intervened. "I'll admit that Cerberus doesn't have the best track record when it comes to their pet projects, but we don't have all the facts yet. Until we do, let's focus on getting to the transmission dish."
Jack and Miranda quieted down, though I noticed the cold look Miranda sent my way. I'd like to think she was disappointed that I didn't offer more vocal support for Cerberus. Or maybe she was upset that another Cerberus project had gone horribly awry—as dedicated and loyal as she was to the Mission and the Cause, she was smart enough to realize that the evidence was starting to pile up. I couldn't shake the nagging possibility that she was looking for a more unequivocal and visible show of support from me, given recent developments in our... relationship. If so, I may have just sowed the seeds for our First Fight. Wonderful.
I quickly pulled myself away from that line of thought and back to the mission, something made easier by the lack of loot in the room. Moving into a corridor, we saw one door at the end and another on our right—the latter of which was locked. If memory served me correctly, there was a damaged window leading into that room from the hall. Backtracking, I quickly confirmed that my memory wasn't going yet. I pounded on the glass, but that didn't do the trick. I prepped my omni-tool to charge up some plasma—
Our heads jerked up as Grunt's shotgun discharged.
Eh, that worked, too. Vaulting over the window sill, I entered a small room. While the rest of the squad followed, I started looting anything I could find, casually activating a log in the process:
"Status report: Please inform the Illusive Man that we've made great strides in our research. His doubts about the lack of progress are unwarranted. A demonstration is forthcoming."
Great. Archer and his band of merry men were trying to do something with VIs and geth, probably screwing around with stuff that anyone with the smallest iota of common sense would leave well enough alone, and TIMmy just had to tell them to hurry up. Shaking my head, I led the squad out of the room, down a corridor and into a large room. Judging by the look of thing, it was the control room for the transmission dish.
Scooting around another dead body, I found a few computer terminals that weren't a pile of smoking ruins. One of them had another log from Archer:
"Memo to all project personal, I understand there is some concern handling live geth. I agree there is some risk, but the potential rewards are much greater. Someday your sons and daughters will thank you."
Somehow, I doubted that very much. After a bit of puttering around, I discovered that one of the other computer terminals housed the controls for the transmission dish. A bit more puttering uncovered the appropriate command sequence. With a barely noticeable rumble, the dish began to retract. About ten seconds later, it halted, sending violent shakes throughout the building.
"System error," a pleasant voice announced.
Then a large face made up of large green pixels appeared on, well, just about every computer screen. A loud blast of white noise or static or something boomed out from the—no, wait. It almost seemed like some kind of language. Like it was saying something to us. Well, more like screaming. Whatever it was, it did its thing—scaring the crap out of us, by the way—before disappearing as quickly as it came.
"Keelah," Tali breathed. "What was that?"
"Damn it," Archer cursed over the PA. "The VI's overridden the controls. We have to stop him—he's trying to upload his program off-planet. You'll have to destroy the antennae inside the dish."
"And we can do that... how?" I asked.
"There's a tram on the lower level. Get to it as fast as you can!"
Well, that wasn't as helpful as I'd wanted, but I suppose it was a start. Just as I was about to head for the exit, something caught my eye. Turning around, I noticed the camera mounted on the wall. That wasn't surprising—they were planted in every room and corridor we'd seen so far, automatically panning back and forth. Until now. Now it was definitely fixed on us. And the green glow from the camera lens indicated that it wasn't some convenient malfunction.
Great. Big Brother's watching.
I wasn't the only one who noticed. Garrus lifted his sniper rifle and aimed at the camera before reconsidering. Then he strode over to the camera, reversed his grip on the rifle and smashed it to pieces with its butt-stock.
"That's no fun," Grunt grumbled.
"Neither is running out of ammunition," Garrus replied.
"Agreed," I nodded. I wasn't sure how much of an advantage we would gain from crippling the VI's eyes one at a time, given that our path would be pretty darn obvious. Still, the VI had already hacked every geth and camera in the base, so every little bit would help. That reminded me: "Legion, can you close any connections you might have with the geth? Just in case the VI might try to use that as a weak spot to hack your... uh... your programs or whatever?"
"Shutting down remote subspace connections. Erecting additional firewalls and countermeasures."
I thought I glimpsed the VI's green pixelated face before I left the room. I know I saw it flicker on the overhead screen as I headed down a flight of stairs and through the door into a large room, as it howled out some more unintelligible speech.
The VI kept popping up on random screens or hijacking security cameras—the latter making itself obvious with the sudden green glow emanating from the camera lens. It also continued freaking us out by shrieking gibberish to us, usually when we smashed another camera. Apparently, the VI didn't know how to adjust the volume controls.
The automated messaging system was a lot quieter by comparison: "This is an automated security update. Geth activity has been detected. Please remain at your workstations until the all-clear is given."
The next room we entered was some kind of mess hall or cafeteria, judging by the automated messaging system telling us the special of the day was filet and egg salad. Somehow, I didn't think we were hungry. Or the Cerberus personnel who were lying dead on the ground. Or the geth who attacked us.
Miranda, Garrus and Kasumi managed to launch EMPs at the geth as we scattered for cover. Made taking down the geth troopers a lot easier. The destroyer that accompanied them was a bit tougher, though, not to mention—
I quickly aborted my attempt to snipe a geth and hastily ducked back down as a rocket whistled over my head. Looking up, I glared at the rocket trooper who was firing rockets from its vantage point on the second floor and shot its head off. For the first time, I noticed that its flashlight head was also glowing green. And it was bathed in a green energy field. Guess the VI had gotten its virtual hooks into these guys. Team Two managed to finish off the destroyer just as another trio of geth rushed in, only to get mowed down by a concentrated barrage of EMPs and gunfire from Team One.
Naturally, several more geth showed up and were able to find cover while we were dealing with their buddies.
Undaunted, Zaeed aimed his sniper rifle and fired a perfect headshot through a geth trooper. Garrus's shot was also dead-on, but didn't kill the geth—probably because his sniper rifle wasn't equipped with a disruptor mod. However, the shot did drain its shields, leaving it open for Tali to hack it. The hacked trooper managed to last long enough to take out another geth trooper's shields. That geth, in turn, suddenly found itself floating in the air—courtesy of Samara. It floated in the air for a brief second before Grunt's concussive round sent it flying into the wall. Meanwhile, Thane, Jacob, Mordin and Jack ganged up on the last geth, who was fatally distracted by Legion's combat drone.
Once they'd mowed it down, we quickly searched through the mess hall. We managed to scrounge up a decent amount of creds from the cash register as well as thermal clips, power cells, medi-gel and another one of Archer's logs:
"Memo to all project personal. Congratulations on all your hard work. Tomorrow we take the next step forward. It will be a great day for Cerberus, and a greater day for humanity."
Yes, yes. All hail Cerberus and, oh yeah, humanity. We quickly headed for the tram before we had to pledge allegiance or anything.
"Damn it all."
We'd just gotten to the tram and activated the controls. I closed my eyes and counted to three. "Now what?" I asked at last.
"The VI—he's aligning the dish to a new upload target! He'll have a clear line of sight to our satellite."
"How much time do we have?"
"I don't know. It's going to be tight."
Well, that was informative. Guess someone had been taking lessons from TIMmy. Thankfully, the ride was almost over. The tram shuddered to a stop a minute later and we got out into the waiting area. We passed several bodies, ripped out cables and burn marks on our way to the catwalks leading from the tram station to the transmission dish.
"Arriving at dish access," the PA announced. "Attention: satellite broadcast window is opening soon. All upload data must be approved by your department supervisor."
Somehow, I didn't think the department supervisor would approve of my swiping some power cells that I found in a storage room situated near the start of the catwalk.
"Enemies!"
Of course, the department supervisor probably wouldn't have approved of geth running around loose. Especially geth with beady green eyes.
We were pretty exposed on the catwalk, with little room to take cover. Thankfully, the same went for the six or seven geth—and we outnumbered them two to one. Biotics, bullets, concussive rounds, EMPs and plasma took down one, two, three little geth. Geth number four was hacked by... eh, can't remember now, either Legion or Tali. Point was, that geth suddenly turned on its comrades and hosed them down with hot plasma. I'm sure they would have thanked us for putting them out of their misery if they could.
After we eliminated them, we stumbled across another little room. Aside from the various goodies that were lying around, we also found yet another log entry:
"This is Project Overlord with an emergency message to Cerberus Command! We have experienced a catastrophic security failure and are requesting assistance! We—what do you mean the outgoing comms are jammed? How can it do that?"
Gosh, it sounded like Cerberus lost control of another pet project. If only I had suspected this earlier—oh, wait. I did.
Heading back out, we heard the canned electronic voice repeat the earlier announcement: "Attention: satellite broadcast window is opening soon. All upload data must be approved by your department supervisor."
Right, right. Less looting, more shooting. Spoilsport.
Of course, there was a gaping hole along the section of the catwalk leading to the transmission dish. Of course, there was a control panel that extended a walkway to cover the gap. Of course, we ran into more geth. Four geth trotted out on another catwalk running parallel to our own; one of whom had a rocket launcher. "EMPs, biotic lifts, concussive rounds," I ordered.
Miranda, Garrus and Kasumi quickly complied, frying their shields so Jacob, Samara and Jack could yank them skyward. Then Grunt and Zaeed tagged two of them with their concussive rounds, sending them flying off into the distance so that when the biotic field keeping them aloft dissipated, they'd plummet to the ground. The remaining two were taken out the old-fashioned way. An angry shriek over the PA told us that the rogue VI probably didn't like that very much. Well, it probably wouldn't like what we were about to do eit—
"Attention: satellite broadcast window is opening soon. All upload data must be approved by your department supervisor."
All right, already! Give it a break, will ya? Geez!
I quickly bypassed the door and led the squad into the base of the transmission dish. It was a round, cylindrical chamber with a staircase in the centre spiralling up towards the dish itself. The chamber was cluttered with generators and cables. Plenty of things to bump into, trip over... or hide behind. The back of my neck started tingling again.
Aw, crap.
I had just enough time to say "Take cover" before the geth reared their eerily-green flashlight heads. They immediately attacked, charging towards us from two different angles, trails of green energy following behind them.
Good thing we had two teams. "Team One, priority on the geth hunter," I said. "Team Two..." I stopped, noticing the blank looks I was getting. "The invisible one," I clarified.
More blank looks.
Oh. Right.
For some reason—maybe because of my optical implants—I could sort of penetrate the geth hunter's cloak and see it. Well, I saw a big geth-shaped blur rippling as it moved, but that was better than everyone else, who apparently couldn't see them at all. "Never mind," I sighed. "Prioritize whatever can cause the most damage."
I let Team One handle the geth they could see while I pulled out my submachine gun and fired at the hunter. Had to use up a full clip to drain its shields, plus another clip to take it down with a headshot. Thankfully, there were a few thermal clips lying on the ground.
Then I paused and looked around. It seemed like the geth had decided to attack us in staggered waves, manoeuvring through the clutter at different vectors. I guess the idea was to provide as many distractions as possible, in the hopes of sneaking a few geth through to ambush us. Since Miranda and Garrus seemed to have things under control, I decided to focus on any geth who might have been unnoticed. I started with a destroyer who had its flamethrower primed and ready. I drained most of its shields with my submachine gun, switched to my sniper rifle and blew its head off.
A whistle was the only warning I received before a rocket almost took my head off. Looking up, I spotted a rocket trooper on the stairs and fired my sniper rifle again. As it sagged against the railing and slowly toppled over the side, I lowered my sniper rifle just in time to see a pair of geth troopers who'd arrived through a side entrance. Noticing that Miranda was free, I motioned for her to fire an EMP. As soon as their shields went down, I hacked one of them. I carefully let off several shots to weaken the integrity of their chassis, to the point where they wound up killing each other.
"Attention: satellite broadcast window is opening soon. All upload data must be approved by your department supervisor."
That was really starting to get annoying.
"Shepard! Anyone! Need assistance!" Miranda called out. I consulted my HUD to see where the targets were, only to find that my sensors had been jammed. So I used my eyeballs... optical implants... whatever. They weren't affected, so they clearly saw the geth prime marching towards us. The green energy sizzling over it made it even scarier.
Aw, crap.
Judging by the rockets flying around, there were a couple more geth in the area, including one with a rocket launcher. But we couldn't worry about that right now. If we didn't get a handle on the geth prime, we were screwed.
"Miranda, Garrus, Kasumi; stagger your EMPs," I ordered. "Zaeed; tell me your weapons are still equipped with disruptor mods."
"Tell me you still got a dick."
"I'll take that as a yes," I replied without missing a beat. "Help them out and get your inferno grenades ready. Thane, Samara, Mordin; be ready to strike once the prime's shields are down. Stagger your attacks as well. Everyone—weapons free."
EMPs exploded around the prime one by one, draining its shields bit by bit. With the added help of rapid gunfire, it didn't take long before its shields dropped and we could start melting or blasting apart its armour. Sounds easy, but trust me, it wasn't. Not when the damn thing is spraying every corner with a stream of bullets and its buddy is pelting rockets left, right and centre. Somehow, we ripped apart its armour, creating a nice neat hole in its neck. Perfect target for my sniper rifle.
With the geth prime down for the count, and its head still bouncing along the floor like a basketball, the jamming field shut down. Our HUDs cleared up, promptly telling us that only two more geth were left. Without any buddies in the area, it was easy to flank them and take them out.
"Attention: satellite broadcast window is opening soon. All upload data must be approved by your department supervisor."
Right. Gotta hurry. We quickly ran up the stairs, barely stopping to restock on thermal clips. As I jogged onto the dish itself, I wondered how the heck I was gonna block the VI's transmissions. I didn't really know how to work with communications software.
Archer must have been monitoring our movements, because he contacted us over the PA. "You need to destroy the support struts now. They have their own capacitors—try blowing them up!"
Destruction of equipment and property? That I could do. There was a support strut and a console within spitting distance of the stairs. A quick tap of the controls exposed the capacitor, which only needed a single bullet to blow to smithereens.
The rogue VI let out another angry howl as the entire dish shuddered and shook. Some of us fell over while the rest of us were hard-pressed to stay on our feet.
"Warning: Structural integrity of dish has been compromised."
We had just helped our comrades back up when the geth attacked.
While everyone immediately took cover and returned fire, I snuck a quick peek. I could see the next strut console within a hundred metres. There was only one geth—a rocket trooper—nearby, but there were several more geth closing fast. If I didn't do something fast, things would become a lot more challenging. So I ran for it, giving orders with my HUD as I ran. The rocket trooper suddenly found itself victim to an EMP and a biotic lift. As it soared over my head, I whacked the controls, waited for the panel to retract and blew up the capacitor with another bullet.
From where I was standing—before another shake sent me to my knees—I could see another strut console. Unfortunately, there was a geth destroyer and a geth prime between me and that console, no doubt directed by the VI that was screeching at me again. Rather than fight through them, I decided to double back. No, I wasn't running away for dear life. I was just checking to see whether there was less opposition on the other side.
"Warning: Structural integrity of dish has been compromised," the PA announced again.
As it turned out, there were more geth loitering around the other way. Thankfully, they were comparatively weaker, so the squad was able to start taking them apart without too much difficulty. By the time I arrived, there was only a heavily damaged rocket trooper and a destroyer standing guard. I took out the former while Miranda zapped the destroyer, then I blew it up by detonating its fuel pack with a plasma round. Racing over to the strut console, I scooped up a thermal clip that was lying on the ground, slotted it into my gun while activating the console and turned the capacitor to expensive junk.
That must've been the last strut. The dish started to shake again as console after console exploded. "You've done it!" Archer told us over the comm. "You've severed the link to the satellite!"
"Glad to hear it," I replied as I walked away from the last strut console. "Now what's our—"
A sharp tingling at the back of my neck was my only warning before a large cylindrical object—possibly part of the transmission dish's antenna—crashed to the ground. If I hadn't been moving, it would have landed right on top of me. Realizing that I'd yanked my pistol out of my holster on instinct, I started to put it away before I paused and listened. Sure enough, I heard a groaning noise, one that was steadily increasing. Looking up, I saw the antenna start to buckle. Judging by the way it was leaning—
"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned.
Nope, the universe was out to get me again. I broke out into a run as the rest of the antenna toppled over. "Move!" I yelled to the squad. "The whole thing's giving way!"
We all raced towards the edge of the dish and launched ourselves into the air without a moment's hesitation. There was a brief moment of vertigo before we landed on the catwalk that had originally taken us to the dish, bouncing and somersaulting and sprawling all over the place. Getting up, we watched as the entire dish fell apart, section by section, disintegrating into a heap of flame and smoke and rubble.
Garrus shook his head in amazement. "You did it again, Shepard. Just like old times."
Tali nodded her agreement. "I'd say this is equivalent to Therum or Noveria."
"Damn," I said, impressed in spite of myself. "I'm kinda hard on buildings, aren't I?"
Miranda raised an eyebrow. "You're only realizing that now?"
Before I could reply, someone shouted "Over here!" Looking over, we saw Dr. Archer run towards us through all the smoke and dust.
"Now can you answer a few questions?" I demanded. "Like what is this VI, exactly? What does it have to do with the geth? What the hell is going on around here?"
"Man's reach exceeding his grasp," he replied cryptically. "Come on, I'll explain."
I had a bad feeling about this.
Archer led us to another building in the complex. I walked with him to the office, motioning for the others to scout around, scrounge up whatever they could... and maybe find some caskets or coffins for all the bodies. "You have my thanks, Commander Shepard," Archer told me. "You bought us some time, though probably not much. This isn't over yet."
"You're welcome," I nodded. "Now, you owe us that explanation."
"This is Project Overlord," Archer began. "An attempt to gain influence over the geth by interfacing a human mind with a VI."
Interfacing a human mind with a—oh for crying out loud. Where do these guys get this stuff?
"The results have been... less than satisfactory."
"Gee, ya think?" I snorted. "If this is 'less than satisfactory,' I'd hate to see what you'd call a disaster."
"You can't dismiss the entire project," Archer protested. "We did succeed, at least partially."
Looking through the window, I saw Kasumi scanning a dead Cerberus agent. I decided that I'd hate to see what he would consider a failure. I also decided it was a good thing no one else from the squad was here. The last thing I wanted was another argument getting in the way of my increasingly relevant need-to-know. Or someone deciding to smear the walls with Archer's innards.
"My brother David volunteered to serve as a test subject, but his mind couldn't handle the VI connection," Archer explained. "He's like a virus now, infecting our networks and seizing control of any technology he finds."
And eliminating any organics that get in the way, I mused, watching Miranda tally the dead we'd retrieved so far. There were a lot of coffins out there.
"It's why you had to destroy the dish. Imagine if his program got off-world."
"How does he take control of electronics?" I asked. "Maybe we can work out a countermeasure."
Archer shrugged helplessly. "This is a hybrid intelligence the likes of which I've never seen. I don't know where the man ends and the machine begins."
"So... no countermeasure."
"I wouldn't know where to start," Archer confessed.
Wonderful. "What's the worst-case scenario?"
"A technological apocalypse. Every machine, every weapon, every computer could be turned against us. If he hit the extranet, who knows where it would end."
"Don't you think you should've considered that before you started the experiment?" I burst out, feeling more than a little exasperation.
"We couldn't be expected to account for every outcome! Certainly not the abomination David has become. Davi..." He broke off and bowed his head for a moment. "The VI has fortified itself in the main laboratory at Atlas Station. It's in lockdown now. To enter, you need to manually override security from our facilities in the Prometheus and Vulcan Stations."
He couldn't bring himself to call the VI by his brother's name, I noted. Understandable, but still... "How does the lockdown work?" I asked instead.
Archer walked over to a large screen. Three red bars were hovering in the middle, each clearly numbered one through three. "It's a fail-safe procedure in the event of an emergency. Normally, all three project leads have to agree to cancel the lockdown."
He reached down to a handle, twisted it ninety degrees to the right and pulled it up. The top bar flashed green and split into two bars that shrank and pulled away from each other, like two doors opening up.
"I'm the only one left now," Archer said grimly. "I can give my authorization, but you'll have to manually reset the other two yourself."
"So we go to the other stations, reset the locks and then go to Atlas to stop the VI," I summarized. "What happens if I have to kill your brother?"
He slowly walked over to a chair and sat down. There was a picture propped up on the accompanying desk, showing Archer with a hand around a smaller man—David, presumably. He gazed at the picture for a while before finally saying "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
Fair enough.
"Now let me ask you a question," Archer said. "Is your friend here going to be a problem?"
I followed his gaze out the window. Sure, Grunt was more than a little intimidating and Samara looked a little too serene and composed, but—oh. Right. Legion.
"If there's one geth in the galaxy who can't be brainwashed or hacked, that's the one," I replied. "Don't worry."
"I'll take your word for it."
"You do that," I said. "Now, tell me more about Project Overlord."
"We wanted to turn the geth's religious impulses into a weapon," Archer replied. "When we saw them following Saren, we realized they could be swayed. And if a proper figurehead was created—a virus with a face, if you will—the geth might be controlled."
"That's an ambitious undertaking," I said diplomatically. Sounded better than "Check your history: the quarians tried to control the geth from their inception. Didn't go so well."
"It would be the perfect weapon—victory without casualties!" Archer enthused. "We could avoid war with the geth altogether. That was the plan, anyway."
Except that Cerberus had a lousy track record with supposedly-perfect weapons. Again with history lessons that hadn't been learned. "'Best laid plans,' huh? What went wrong with the experiment?"
"David volunteered to interface with the VI to give it genuine consciousness," Archer said. "Theoretically it should have been safe, but... with artificial intelligence, there is no such thing as safe."
"Then maybe you shouldn't have attempted it," I pointed out, somehow getting my exasperation under control.
"And what if you had never attempted to find the Reapers, Commander Shepard? Where would the galaxy be then? Sometimes you have to ignore the risks."
"There's a difference between—never mind," I sighed, giving up. Clearly, pointing out the clear distinction between ignoring risks and creating them would fall on deaf ears. "Tell me about the Vulcan and Prometheus stations," I requested instead.
"Vulcan Station is our geothermal plant. It generates power for the four outposts. Prometheus Station is actually a crashed geth ship full of dormant machines. We use them for our experiments."
"Out of curiosity, what's this station called?"
"Hermes Station. It's our communications uplink with the wider galaxy... which is why the VI tried to access it. If you hadn't destroyed the dish in time, the outcome would have been catastrophic."
"And the last station? Atlas? What can you tell me about that?"
"Atlas Station is the main laboratory where all of our VI experiments take place. It's your final goal once you've overridden the lockdown. It's also where my brother... became something else."
"I'm heading out now," I finally said. "Upload the coordinates of the other stations into the Hammerhead's mainframe."
"Understood, Commander," Archer nodded. "Best of luck."
Archer contacted us once we'd gotten back into the Hammerhead. "Commander, the coordinates to all three stations have been uploaded per your request. It doesn't matter whether you hit Vulcan or Prometheus first, but you can't enter Atlas Station until you've overridden the lockdowns from the other two."
Didn't we already cover this?
"Also, keep an eye out for Cerberus security mechs. The VI has likely taken control of them. Archer out."
Wonderful. More good news.
I was already steering the Hammerhead towards Vulcan Station as Archer got off the comm, something that didn't escape the squad. "Maybe it'll be easier to tackle the other stations if we hit the one that's feeding them power," I explained as I pressed down on the accelerator.
"Possible," Miranda conceded as we skimmed across a grassy knoll. "But each site will likely have backup power generators that will kick in."
"You're probably right," I admitted. "Couldn't hurt, though."
"True eno—look out!"
Miranda was trying to warn me about the rocky outcrop in our way. Tapping the Hammerhead's jump jets, I hopped—
"Gah!"
Maybe I needed a little more elevation.
"Geographic conditions indicate an aesthetically pleasing view nearby," the Hammerhead's VI informed us. "Organic life forms may wish to take note."
Either the VI was making a suggestion based on its programming or it was trying to tell a joke. I honestly couldn't tell. Especially since the view of the valley below us—outlined by picturesque mountains, punctuated by a thin sparkling stream and lit up by a brilliant summer's day—was pretty spectacular.
After taking a vid-pic, I resumed our trip towards Vulcan Station. As the Hammerhead sped over a rocky bridge, I noticed that we were less than eight hundred kilometres from our destination, so I pressed down on the accelerator. We abruptly picked up speed, whizzing over the terrain—
"Look out!"
WHAM!
"Mooo!"
—and running over a six-legged bovine animal. Oops.
"Analysis: Defenseless herbivores are no match for guided missiles."
Again, I couldn't tell if the VI was making a joke or not. "Technically, that animal was not an enemy," I pointed out, "so running it over doesn't count."
"Uh huh," Garrus said. For some reason, he didn't sound convinced.
"Commander, maybe you oughta slow down," Jacob suggested.
"Yeah," Grunt agreed. "Or stop so I could go back for that thing you killed. I'm hungry."
"Really?" Thane asked.
"Really. What, you want some?" Grunt offered. "There might be enough for you to have a bit. After I've eaten, anyway."
I ignored what they were saying, as a small outpost had caught my eye. Basically a small building elevated above the ground, with a ramp leading to a parking spot. As the Hammerhead got closer, I noticed some kind of object, so I turned to investigate, gently tapping on the brakes to bring us to a gentle sto—
WHAM!
"Ow!"
After extricating the Hammerhead off the roof, I used its probes to pick up the object. (4)
"An emergency Cerberus data packet has been recovered," the VI informed us. "It contains information on Project Overlord that other research cells need to review. (5) Be alert for more packets in the area. Five more remain."
Oh goody. A reason to go off the beaten path while driving along the surface of a planet for a mission. Just like old times.
By this point, we had entered a large tunnel boring through the mountain range sitting between Hermes and Vulcan Station. The only illumination came from the Hammerhead's hoverjets, which might explain why I didn't see the mechs guarding the tunnel until I ran over them.
Well, that and the fact that I was re-living that moment on Therum when I barrelled through a tunnel and mowed down a couple geth. It's the little things that get you through the day.
Archer must've been tracking our movements, because he contacted us over the comm. "Commander, this is Archer. I advise extreme caution. Vulcan Station stopped reporting in shortly after the experi-ri-ri-ri-ri..."
His voice broke off. The Hammerhead VI piped up a second later. "Scanning area... Analysis: VI infection present within plant machinery. Advise caution."
No, really?
It occurred to me that the mountain I'd passed through might actually be a volcano, judging by the flow of lava that spilled over a rocky outcrop and down the slope. There wasn't much else to see, other than a building tucked next to the—waterfall? Lava-fall? Anyway, I drove down a rocky ramp, hopped over the lava and drove inside the building. The floor was packed with large circular vents that spat out enough steam to bring the Hammerhead to a jarring halt. I later learned that these vents directed excess steam from Vulcan Station before the accompanying pressure reached critical levels. Fortunately, I managed to figure out that the vents opened at regular intervals and carefully negotiated my way through them.
Unfortunately, it took several tries before I succeeded. The squad would later point that out to me for some reason.
"Scanning area," the VI announced as I moved through the building. "Analysis: venting stations provide adequate velocity to enhance vehicle lift."
Now why would I want to—ah. The rest of Vulcan Station was dead ahead, but the building we were in had no way out—unless we went up through the large skylight in the roof. Which we did, thanks to a push from the vents.
I managed to steer the Hammerhead up a steep path towards another tunnel entrance. It was guarded by an automated turret, but I was able to respond with the Hammerhead's main gun. Doesn't seem right calling something that spits out rockets a 'gun,' but it did pump them out at a fairly high rate of fire—without any heating issues, I might add. Unlike the ol' Mako or all the modern guns and their thermal clips, the Hammerhead's weapon didn't have any heat buildup whatsoever, so I could pretty much keep my thumb mashed down on the 'fire' button continuously.
There was also another quirk with the Hammerhead that distinguished it from the Mako: as I said earlier, the Hammerhead had no shields. This meant that the Hammerhead didn't exactly come out of the battle unscathed. All in all, the damage wasn't too bad. My squad mates weren't quite so cavalier, though.
"Shepard, it's a good thing the Hammerhead can repair itself," Garrus said. "I don't have time to calibrate both the Normandy's guns and the Hammerhead."
"It's not that bad," I dismissed.
"Shepard," Tali interrupted tensely. "The Hammerhead's on fire. And we don't have any omni-gel to affect any field repairs."
"It's just a small one," I grumbled. "And it's almost out."
"This is my fault," Miranda muttered. "I should have insisted that Cerberus send over some driving simulations."
"There were driving simulations?" Jacob asked.
"If there weren't, there should have been," Miranda replied.
While the squad was insulting my driving skills, I drove through the tunnel. After making a slight detour to mine some iridium, we emerged onto a cliff overlooking a huge lava-fall that spilled into a veritable river. On the other side was a cliff, with another building built on a ledge halfway up. There appeared to be a few more vents, which I could hopefully use to make my way up the cliff. Of course, first I had to make my way across the lava flow. It was a bit big for me to jump over, unfortunately.
"Scanning area... Analysis: debris field provides adequate support for vehicle."
That debris field would be large boulders that spilled over the lava-fall and floated down the superheated river. For the record: the VI has a funny definition of 'adequate support.' My original plan was to hop across the river, using random boulders as a stopping point. Unfortunately, the boulders succumbed to the force generated by the Hammerhead's hoverjets and sank within seconds. That meant I had to plan my route in advance, madly hop from boulder to boulder and hope for the best.
On the bright side, all the momentum I'd built up driving towards the lava at "suicidal speed" paid off in spades. Take that, naysayers.
Once across the river, I used the first steam vent to hop us up to the ledge where the building I spotted earlier was located. Unfortunately, the steam vent on that ledge wasn't working, so I couldn't use it to get to the top of the cliff.
"The controls for that vent must be inside that building," Kasumi suggested.
"Good idea," I approved. "Team One, we're going inside. Team Two; stay here, keep the Hammerhead warm and watch out for any surprises."
For once, we weren't greeted by gunfire. Instead, an automated announcement rang out over the PA. "Warning: automated controls are offline. Core systems have been compromised."
Somehow, I didn't feel better.
The interior of the building looked very industrial. Plain metal walls and girders, without any paint or primer—unless you count all the rust. Stark lights burning down on us from the ceiling. Very practical and functional, without the slightest attempt to look modern or sophisticated. How very... un-Cerberus.
We headed up a ramp, turned left and promptly ran into a half-dozen LOKI mechs. I saw Legion prep their omni-tool, presumably preparing to hack one of the mechs as soon as they were vulnerable. Unfortunately for our friendly neighbourhood geth, each and every mech was shredded before they had a chance to deploy their viruses or subroutines or whatever.
Another cheerful announcement greeted us as we entered the next room. "Warning: pressure levels in valve A3 have exceeded maximum threshold. Manual control is required."
Right. So we needed to find a valve. Maybe this was it. I reached over and activated a console.
"We have registered a huge spike in power consumption. My technicians traced it to the experiment underway at Atlas Station. We're trying to raise them now."
Nope, that was an audio log. Maybe I could access the valve controls from this other console. Of course, I had to bypass the lock first. That was the only challenge. Within a minute, we were informed that my attempt to open the venting outflow was successful.
Then we had yet another heart attack as the green pixelated face of the VI popped up over every console in the room and roared at us.
Once our hearts—well, my heart—had stopped pounding, we got back into the Hammerhead, used the vents to push us up the rest of the cliff and sped along a narrow crevasse, stopping just long enough to blow up another turret and mine some iridium.
Then we ran into another large torrent of lava. Fortunately, there were more boulders floating along that we could use to hop across. Unfortunately, these boulders were just as prone to sinking as the other ones. The alarms were screaming by the time we got to the other side, probably because we'd spent the last couple seconds drifting across the surface of the lava to get to terra firma. (6)
Once our hearts had stopped pounding—again—we looked around. Not much to see down here, so I hopped the Hammerhead up the rock face.
"Turrets!" Mordin yelled.
"I see them."
"Shepard-Commander, enemy turrets have established target lock," Legion pointed out. "Recommend evasive manoeuvres or tactical retreat."
"I know," I insisted, dropping the Hammerhead down to a ledge a couple metres below. "Just wanted to deal some damage before we retreated. Not too much to ask, is it?"
"There is a—"
"Rhetorical question," I interrupted.
"We are not in consensus on this matter," Legion replied.
At least, I think that was what they said. "Say what?" I yelled. "I can't hear you! Alarms are going off!"
"I wonder why!" Miranda shouted.
"What was that?"
Once the Hammerhead's alarms stopped howling, I brought it back up the ledge. I was firing the main gun before the turrets even began lifting out of the ground. It took a couple more hop-n'-shoots to destroy the two turrets, but I was rewarded with some more iridium. Hopping back down and jumping up another rock face got me another stash of iridium for my trouble—which triggered a round of groans and grumbling. Something about unnecessary strip-mining and the Normandy running out of cargo space.
A few more minutes searching turned up absolutely nothing, much to the squad's relief, which suggested that it was time to head to Vulcan Station's main facility. Not that I was stalling or anything, but I really wasn't looking forward to hopping across lava again. Then I saw one of the large steam pipes. Bad news: it was on the other side of the lava. Good news: it was pretty close to our current location—a single jump would probably suffice—and it ran straight to the main facility. So that's the route I took.
Just for something different, you understand.
Speaking of something different, I decided to bring the entire squad into the facility this time. We hadn't encountered much resistance so far. Logic suggested the bulk of the bad guys at this station would be holed up in here.
At first, I thought that logic had let me down. All we got were more industrial decorations, more dead bodies and an alert to find valve D4 and open it before the pressure levels blew the whole thing. I managed to find the valve in time, mostly because it was the only way to redirect some of the superheated steam gushing between me and a datapad on the catwalk. A section of the catwalk fell apart moments after I picked it up, but not before I liberated several hundred credits.
Things had been falling apart here for some time, it seemed. There was a lot of damage here, with pipes broken, equipment smashed and catwalks that were either buried under debris or broken off for one reason or other. The only way out of here that I could see was up a flight of stairs, one that was blocked by an enormous segment of pipe. Grunt tried to lift it, to no avail. Kasumi tried to climb over it, with similar results. They were just about to try and help each other over it when I realized there was a control panel next to one of the many steam pipes running willy-nilly throughout the facility.
"Guys, move back," I called.
I waited until they were clear, then fired a shot at the panel. Sure enough, the panel exploded, taking out a chunk of the pipe. A blast of steam roared out, blowing the pipe segment off the catwalk and clearing the way for us to run up the stairs. We found ourselves on another series of catwalks. Three LOKI mechs were crouching in standby mode nearby. More interesting to me was the steam pipe control panel next to them. Indulging a hunch, I blew up the panel. The resulting explosion sent a gush of steam that sent the mechs flying all the way to the other side of the room, where they smashed against the wall.
Unfortunately, that din alerted the other synthetic guards in the area, because we were soon under attack by, well, attack drones and LOKI mechs. Miranda lit one up with an EMP—which was sufficient to blow it up. I quickly assigned attack drones to Garrus and Kasumi, while telling the others to find someone else to play with.
"One down!" Garrus cried out gleefully as 'his' drone blew up.
"Ha, ha!" Kasumi chimed in as her drone followed suit.
Grunt let out a slightly more deranged howl of joy as he ran over a hapless LOKI mech, somehow shooting up another assault drone as he charged. And the others...
...were all destroyed. Damn, were we efficient or what?
Satisfied that we'd survived another brush with certain death, we decided to move on rather than tempt fate. We jogged down more industrial-lit corridors decorated with random splashes of blood, piles of rubble and equipment with hastily-yanked-out wiring. Aside from thermal clips and the odd bit of cash, I did find an interesting log entry:
"...received an SOS from Atlas Station. Archer has declared a project emergency! We're trying to shut down the power generators to starve the VI, but it's already hacked our automated systems! I'm ordering my people to sabotage the plant any way they can!"
That would explain all the debris, damaged pipes and broken catwalks we'd seen so far.
I almost jumped as the VI roared again. Guess it was pissed. We quickly halted and looked around, but no one was attacking us. Yet. That pause gave me a chance to take a closer look around. The corridor we were in had windows that gave us a view of the adjoining room—a large chamber clustered with support columns, giant pipes snaking everywhere... and geth.
Of course.
Miranda and I quickly split Team One into two smaller units, designating a target for each one. Garrus and Jacob quickly followed suit. I waited to make sure everyone was clear on their assigned task before leading the assault.
The VI promptly started shrieking again, probably because LOKI mechs were dropping like flies. The few assault drones it sent in didn't do much beyond pinning us down. I wondered why the VI wasn't sending more drones in when I felt a tingling on the back of my neck. A split second later, I felt the floor vibrate. My heart sinking, I peered around the column I was hiding behind.
Sure enough, a YMIR mech was clomping down a set of stairs on the far side of the facility.
Aw, crap.
The squad didn't need me to shout out orders before firing off EMPs and bullets like they were going out of style. Unfortunately, we paid for our eagerness to rid the galaxy of another oversized mech. Garrus grunted and doubled over. Tali quickly grabbed him and yanked him down behind a large turbine before the other side of his face could get torn off. I tore my attention away from Team Two and back to the mech. It wasn't where I'd last saw him.
It was about five or six metres away from me.
I quickly unloaded the rest of my submachine gun's thermal clip in the mech's mug, noting with satisfaction that it drained the last of its shields, and ducked behind a support column. The clanking sound told me that the mech was trying to follow me around the column. I instinctively moved as well, trying to keep the column between me and the mech, just like that time on Freedom's Progress—
—except when I was playing tag on Freedom's Progress, my antics didn't expose me to weapons fire from assault drones. So much for that plan. "Guys?" I called out. "A little help?"
"Just hang on," Jacob called out.
Funny. He said that at Freedom's Progress too. "While we're young," I called back. Suddenly recalling what had happened the last time we'd had that conversation, I hastily added "Don't throw yourself into harm's way this time!"
"Right," Miranda said, hurling a sphere of biotic energy at the heavy mech. "That's Shepard's job now."
"Are you making fun of me?" I demanded, tossing some plasma at the mech.
"Of course not," Miranda replied with a straight face.
Uh huh.
While I was silently questioning Miranda's veracity, Mordin hurled another ball of plasma at the mech. Zaeed followed up with an inferno grenade, while Thane and Samara joined in with their own biotic talents. It was that last hit that cracked its armour. I hastily cloaked, pulled out my sniper rifle, quickly lined up a shot and fired.
The resulting explosion made blowing up the drones somewhat anticlimactic. But no less fun, let me assure you.
Once all the mechs and drones were down, and Garrus reassured us that he was fine, we scrounged for loot. Well, I scrounged for loot. The others were preoccupied with boring essentials like ammo. Putting aside the thought that I still had a long way to go with my squad mates, I searched for the control room. It didn't take long before I located it. The door was locked, of course, but I managed to bypass it. We stormed into the room, guns at the ready...
...and paused to properly assess the situation. It looked like a lone LOKI mech—under VI control, judging by the green energy crackling over it—trying to destroy the lockdown override mechanism before we could get to it. And failing miserably, judging by the way the mech gave up on its gun and started stomping on the override.
Then it noticed us. It actually jumped, lifting its hands up in surprise. The squad looked at me. I nodded. They immediately began firing, landing shots with surgical precision. It only took five shots before we blew one of its arms off. The VI considered the situation before commanding the mech to lift up its weapons arm—that is, the one holding the pistol. A single shot was all it took to blow that arm off. The VI assessed the situation again, concluded it was hopeless, and withdrew its control over the mech. Now in control of its own digital faculties, the mech analyzed the situation for itself, factored in its own condition and came to what I thought was a perfectly logical conclusion.
While the mech proceeded to jog around the room like a chicken, I walked over, grabbed the override control, twisted it ninety degrees and pulled. Then I looked at the display panel in front of us. With a hum, the bar marked "2" turned green and split into two smaller bars, which retracted to the sides. "Override of Atlas Station lockdown accepted."
The rogue VI roared in anger.
"...a-a-a-are you receiving this-is-is? C-C-Commander Shepard, this is Dr. Archer. Please respond-d-d-d-d."
"I hear you, Doctor," I replied, reaching up to activate the comm. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that the mech had come to a halt right next to me. It was so tempting... "We've hit the override at Vulcan Station and are moving on."
I managed to resist the urge for a couple seconds more before casually lifting my pistol and blowing the mech's head off at point-blank range. Yes, I was setting a poor example for the squad by wasting a bullet unnecessarily, but it was just too tempting an opportunity to pass up.
"Shepard out." I concluded before turned to the squad. "Let's get going."
As I led the squad from the control room, I noticed Mordin tapping at his omni-tool. "Mordin?"
"Yes, Shepard?"
"What're you doing?"
"Preparing medication for motion sickness."
"Oh." I walked a few steps before asking "What do you need that for?"
(1): Readers may recall Shepard's mild frustration with Admiral Steven Hackett, who often contacted Shepard in the midst of his hunt for Saren to request his assistance on several assignments. I believe it is out of respect for Admiral Hackett that Shepard refrains from making a comparison between him and The Illusive Man.
(2): An uncharacteristic slip of the tongue for Shepard—and an understandable one, given the progression of his relationship with Ms. Lawson.
(3): An acronym for phrases such as "fucked up beyond all recognition," "fucked up beyond all repair" and "fucked up beyond all reason."
(4): The Hammerhead was equipped with a probe bay similar to the Normandy. While it obviously had a smaller range or carrying capacity, it was perfectly capable of retrieving small caches of minerals or other objects of interest.
(5): An exaggeration, as Cerberus did not consist of that many cells. The VI likely meant to say that the research divisions of Cerberus's cells—or perhaps some research arm that reviewed the data obtained or gathered during Cerberus missions or projects—would be interested in these data packets.
(6): The hoverjets of the Hammerhead could only maintain a constant altitude of a metre or two. Any greater height, for the purposes of navigating over obstacles or hazards, could only be maintained for a couple seconds before they began overheating.