Chapter 21: It All Seemed Harmless
Once we were back in the Hammerhead and away from Vulcan Station, the comm interference from the VI seemed to clear up a bit. Archer was able to contact us without any problems. "Commander, that was a daring piece of work. Vulcan Station was a success. You still need to go to Prometheus Station and override the lockdown from there."
Yes, yes, yes. Two stations down; two to go. "How 'bout you tell me something I don't know?" I asked.
"As I said before, Prometheus Station is a crashed geth ship that provided the machines for our experiments. The people assigned there have gone silent and I can't get any readings on their status from here. It's likely the VI has activated the ship's defence shields to keep you out. Good luck."
Great. I stomped down on the accelerator, following the GPS as we sped towards Prometheus Station. To relieve the monotony as I whipped across the terrain, I started up another song from the collection of tunes stored in my omni-tool.
"I've been looking for a driver who's qualified.
So if you think that you're the one, step into my ride.
I'm a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine.
With a sunroof top and a gangster lean.
"So if you feel me, let me know, know, know.
Come on now, what you waiting for, for, for?
My engine's ready to explode, explode, exp—"
"Oh God, I hope that won't happen."
"Whaddya mean?"
"Never mind."
"Got you where you wanna go, if you know what I mean.
Got a ride that's smoother than a limousine.
Can you handle the curves? Can you run all the lights?
If you can, baby boy, then we can go all night."
What can I say? It seemed fitting somehow. And no, I'm not referring to all the euphemisms. At least, not all of them. Anyway, it didn't take long before the Hammerhead—
"Look out!"
WHAM!
"Mooo!"
"The Galactic Humanitarian Society reminds you that animals are people too."
—turned another indigenous lifeform into road kill.
"Again?"
"Shepard!"
"Oops."
"He's gonna be the death of us all."
"Shut up and drive (drive, drive, drive)!
Shut up and drive (drive, drive, drive)!" (1)
The unfounded and undeserved—well, mostly undeserved—commentary dissolved into a muted round of muttering as I drove the Hammerhead through a lush valley of rocky outcrops and grassy hills, down a canyon and off a cliff.
Oh, don't look at me like that. Prometheus Station was nestled at the bottom of a valley. The fastest way to get to it was to go off a cliff and gently descend using the hover jets. As we entered the valley, I saw the geth ship—boy, it was huge. Mind you, any space-faring vessel would be huge compared to a dinky land vehicle. Anyway, I could see a large spherical kinetic barrier covering part of the ship—presumably the entrance. There were also four small structures stationed at equal intervals around the entrance, each protected by their own kinetic barrier. Curious, I activated the sensor array.
"Scanning area... Analysis: generators are providing power for main shield," the Hammerhead VI announced.
Ah. So those smaller structures were power generators. Which meant to get inside the geth ship, we'd have to take down the main shield. To take down the main shield, we'd need to destroy the generators. To destroy each generator, we'd have to take down their shields. Simple as—
"Warning: the VI infection has assumed control of the geth cannon."
The what? Looking up, I realized that there was an awfully big—by infantry standards—cannon poking out of the hull. One bathed in green energy. One that was turning our way. A second later, the VI superimposed a grid of red lines over the main viewscreen, highlighting a small region of the area. Specifically, the region we were hovering in.
"Warning: we are being targeted."
Aw, crap.
I immediately slammed my foot down on the accelerator pedal and jammed my thumb into the hover jet controls. We were all slammed back into the seats as the Hammerhead blasted away. I'd reacted just in the nick of time, as the sunlight around us was suddenly eclipsed by a fiery explosion reminiscent of a tactical nuke going off.
Looking back, I saw that the shields that used to protect one of the generators was now gone. The generator was still intact, but it was now completely unprotected. That gave me an idea. I moseyed over to the next shielded generator and waited.
"Shepard? What are you doing?"
"Warning: geth cannon is locking on our location."
"SHEPARD!"
I rocketed out of there, narrowly avoiding another death and drove towards the next shielded generator. Well, more like drifted sideways towards the next shielded generator, so I could use the Hammerhead's weapons to take pot-shots at one of the unshielded gener—
"Warning: we are being targeted."
Okay—take the shields out first, then worry about taking the generators out.
We continued this little dance for a couple minutes, letting the geth cannon do most of the work for us. It helped that the geth cannon took a while to recharge and even longer to swivel around to track us. Once the shields were down, I just went back the way I came, letting the cannon take out most of the now-vulnerable generators—I did manage to blow up one of them myself. Eventually, the last generator was destroyed and the main shield disintegrated in a cloud of sparks.
"Shields disabled," the VI announced, much to our relief. "You may now target the geth cannon."
Oh, goody. It didn't take long before the cannon was destroyed and we could enter the ship.
After mining a small vein of platinum and swiping a crate of refined platinum, of course.
"Attention, visitors: this Cerberus facility contains hazardous AI technology."
Nice to see that the automated announcements weren't affected by the VI. I wasn't sure whether it was due to incompatibility or good taste.
"You agree to assume all liability for personal injuries or death that may occur during your visit. Thank you."
Though I was leaning towards the latter.
Jacob rolled his eyes. "Good thing you disabled that thing at the Lazarus Cell, Miranda," he said.
"It was an unnecessary and annoying distraction," Miranda shrugged. "Removing it was..."
She broke off as we entered some sort of cargo hold. Dark gunmetal gray was the predominant theme, blanketing the floors, the walls and the ceilings. Pretty much like your typical starship that doesn't cater to aesthetics or artistic whimsies. The only thing that broke up the monotone colour was the blue lights that outlined the floor and a couple computer consoles on standby. (2) But that wasn't what silenced Miranda.
No, it was the geth prime that had caught her attention. It was hovering in the middle, displaying the green glow characteristic of VI infection. Thankfully, it was encased in an egg-shaped kinetic barrier. We hastily searched the cargo hold, keeping a close eye on the geth. Aside from a dramatic increase in our heart rates, all we found for our trouble was some equipment that could be salvaged. Plus, we stumbled across a datapad with a log entry: "Now we just got word that Atlas Station wants a dozen more geth for the experiment. I hope a breakthrough is close."
Spotting a ramp, I led the squad up to a second level overlooking the cargo hold. We looked around; one eye still firmly locked on the geth, the other looking for loot, doorways and geth—not necessarily in that order. Otherwise, it would have taken me a bit longer to find that second research log: "Hanging around all these dormant machines is creepy. Like death staring at us from the shadows. I'd rather work at Vulcan Station."
The VI picked that point to let out a mighty roar, as if responding to that log. Scared the crap out of us.
At last, we finally found another door leading out of here, so we opened it and went through. We found ourselves in a dark corridor. Strips of LEDs lining the floor and flickering ceiling light panels provided the only illumination. That and the pixelated face of the VI floating on one of the wall displays, shrieking at us again. The ship abruptly shook—maybe the crash site wasn't all that stable.
I glimpsed a medkit at the end of the hallway, so I hastened to pick it up. There was another datapad, so I thumbed it on. Sure enough, it contained another log entry: "Lanigan just ran a simulation—if these geth wake up, there's a 98% chance that we will be dead within two minutes."
Marvelous.
"I'm starting to hate Lanigan."
Understandable, I thought. The hallway had kinda hit a dead-end, aside from a door on our left. Opening it up, I saw a very steep ramp heading down, with another door at the bottom. We headed down to another level or floor. There was an open door facing us—well, it was open until we stepped into the corridor. Curious, I tried to open it, but it was firmly sealed shut. Power had been cut off to the door panel, so I couldn't even bypass the locking mechanism. Giving up at last, I headed left to liberate some equipment, then turned right and headed down the corridor. About halfway along the corridor, there was another open door. Before I could make a move towards it, the door magically closed itself. The VI roared again.
"Either the VI is intent on obstructing our path or we are being herded," Samara observed.
"Indeed," Thane agreed.
"Keep your eyes peeled," I ordered. Speaking of which, I spotted another datapad with a research log: "Halloween was yesterday. Lanigan ran around wearing spare geth parts. Spooked the shit out of everyone. Now I definitely hate him."
I don't know. I almost found myself liking this guy. Shame he was probably dead now.
"Yeah," Jacob shuddered. "I'd find that freaky. I mean, running around like one of those geth? Uh, no offense," he added, belatedly realizing that there was a geth right with us.
"We are not offended," Legion reassured him. "We do not experience fear, but we understand how it affects you."
"Oh, really?" Tali challenged. "What exactly do you understand?"
"Organics do not choose to fear us," Legion replied matter-of-factly. "It is a function of your hardware."
"'A function of my hardware?'" Tali sputtered. "Now look here..."
We went down to another level while Tali and Legion debated the finer points of philosophy. As we entered another corridor, another door slammed shut in our faces. Definitely being herded, I decided. On the bright side, it brought the philosophical discussion to an abrupt end. Plus, it motivated us to explore the corridor, which meant I found some more salvage. And another research log:
"Everything's offline. Archer declared a lockdown, but our station's already infected. What does the VI want? It keeps screaming at us—nobody understands!"
To be honest, I was wondering about that myself. I mean, sometimes it just let out a mighty roar. Other times... it really did sound like it was trying to say something. While pondering that mystery, I led the squad into a larger room. Maybe a lab or something. Sure were a lot of computers. And debris. A lot more debris than the upper levels. Partially collapsed girders, knocked-over machines. And another log: "The VI's closing some passages and leaving others open. It's like it's herding us. At least the geth are still dormant."
Yeah, I'm not complaining about that. There were a lot of geth lying around in the corridors. But they were sleeping... or dormant. Or dead. So far, the whole thing was kinda gloomy. And creepy as hell. But we hadn't run across any opposition. Yet.
The VI screeched at us again, as if to remind us that it was out and on the loose. Or to say something—I was positive that it was shouting something. But what the heck was it saying? Shaking my head, I looked around, as if I might find something that could explain all this. I didn't see any translation manuals for VI to English, unfortunately. I did find a door though, so I checked it out. It led us along a small corridor that was partially submerged in water. Maybe part of the geth ship had landed and ruptured in an underground reservoir or something.
"To all Cerberus personnel: in an effort to reduce workplace stress, music has been approved for stationwide broadcast."
For once, I gave Cerberus the benefit of the doubt and assumed that the tinny, off-tune music that rang out was due to damaged speakers and/or audio files, rather than appallingly bad taste.
We emerged from the corridor into a hangar of some sort, bad music still assaulting our ears. To our left, up a ramp, lay a large control panel. Off in the distance on the far left lay another large control panel—probably the one with the lockdown override mechanisms judging by the oversized screen and what it was displaying. There was also a small cluster of supplies on the far right. Unfortunately, there was a large body of water between us and both locations. Mind you, there were also a set of platforms randomly situated amidst the water. If only they could be moved to form a bridge of some sort...
Then inspiration struck me. I headed up the ramp to the control panel. Sure enough, I could use it to move those platforms around. It took me a couple minutes to get the hang of it, but I managed to move them into a configuration that allowed me to access the supplies on the far right. As soon as I'd retrieved them, I moved the platforms again so I could access the lockdown override on the far left. All things considered, it was pretty easy. Even managed to lift some credits from a laptop and pick up some more medi-gel, once we'd shoved aside the geth that was lying over them.
Without any more goodies to swipe, I walked over, grabbed the override control, twisted it ninety degrees and pulled. On the display, bar number 3 turned green, split into two segments that retracted to either side—just like the other two bars. "Override of Atlas Station lockdown accepted," an automated voice told us.
Then the display went blank. And the back of my neck started tingling.
A face composed of green pixels appeared on the display and roared at us.
"Guys!"
We immediately turned around and followed Zaeed's finger. The geth that I'd moved earlier had gotten to its feet. Its flashlight eye was blazing a brilliant green. "And there's the catch," I sighed. "I knew this was too easy."
Grunt and Jack blew the geth to smithereens before it could do anything. "Come on," I urged. "Let's move!"
As we jogged back the way we came, the PA stirred once more. "Hostile geth activity detected. Armed response is authorized."
"Hear that?" Tali snorted. "Cerberus gave us permission to open fire."
"Oh thank you," Kasumi said with exaggerated enthusiasm. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
"That's enough," Miranda snapped.
"Cerberus reminds all personnel that this emergency is now classified information. Disclosure to outside parties is a violation of your confidentiality agreement."
Oh for crying out loud, I thought, wading through the water-logged corridor for the second time. Seriously?
Then we emerged into the lab again and my thoughts immediately shifted to the geth—who were all wide awake, glowing green and very, very belligerent.
"Warning: geth nodes 7 through 14 are now active. Emergency action required."
Without waiting for instructions—from me or the PA system—Garrus led his team right, taking cover near the wall. While they mowed down the lead geth, Team One moved to the left, found cover and opened fire on another geth.
By the time Miranda launched an EMP, the first geth was down and the second one had already lost its shields, which meant it got its circuits fried. Eh, as long as the threat was neutralized. Speaking of which, I cloaked, raised my sniper rifle and fired, the shot blasting right through the shields of another geth and taking its head off.
Ducking back down, I consulted my HUD. It looked like a couple more geth were heading our way—which I could have figured out by the gunfire ricocheting off the walls. Even more were clustering on our right, no doubt because that was the only way out. I relayed my findings to Garrus, who gave a quick nod. "Move up," he suggested. "We'll cover you."
"Right." Motioning for Team One to follow me, I jumped over my cover and ran forward. True to his word, Team Two had eliminated the geth before they might have bumped into us, allowing us to advance and take cover in preparation for the next assault. Several geth, including a pair of rocket troopers, opened fire on us. The barrage of weapons fire and rockets provided a nice distraction for the cloaked hunter who snuck on us. Well, it would have snuck up on us if my optical implants hadn't picked up the tell-tale flicker of its cloak. I quickly ordered Miranda and Kasumi to light it up with their EMPs. Thankfully, they knew better than to ask why I wanted to fire at an empty part of the room. The EMPs were still crackling over the geth hunter when I cloaked and fired my sniper rifle.
I lowered my sniper rifle just in time to see two things: the geth hunter collapsing to the ground and Team Two joining the fun. Garrus got Tali's attention just before zapping the shields on one of the rocket troopers. A second later, it started firing rockets at its fellow geth, a clear sign that Tali had hacked its systems. Looking around to find the other rocket trooper, I noticed that its shields were almost depleted. "Legion?"
"Understood, Shepard-Commander." Legion fired a couple judicious shots—just enough to collapse the rocket trooper's shields—before hacking it. Now we had two geth pelting rockets all over the place. With the added firepower, it wasn't long before the tide of battle had turned in our favour.
Once all the geth—including our temporary allies—were down for the count, I checked my HUD. Based on the readings it had been taking during our formerly-peaceful sojourn, the fastest way out of here would be up a ramp to one of the upper levels. So that's what we did. As we ascended the ramp, the PA cheerfully stirred to life once more. "Attention: this is a geth stasis alert. Neural activity detected in nodes 1 through 6."
We must have tripped one of those nodes, because we came under attack a few seconds later. Several more geth troopers, plus a hunter. "Garrus, Miranda, Kasumi; standby to launch EMPs at the following coordinates. Everyone else; hit your designated targets, then fire at will." I quickly assigned targets then counted down from three.
The squad opened fire in unison, taking down the geth hunter and two troopers in a matter of seconds. We smoothly moved to new targets without missing a beat, shredding their shields and synthetic bodies. Caught off guard, the remaining geth momentarily paused before retreating to cover. A moment too long, as we managed to destroy all but one of them.
"Team Two; move up," Garrus ordered. He didn't tell or suggest that Team One cover them. He didn't have to. That was why Grunt blew up the last geth with a concussive round when it tried to launch a surprise attack, and why Miranda and Kasumi zapped the shields of the geth destroyer who ran into the room, no doubt hoping to barbeque someone. Mordin managed to ignite its fuel pack and blow it up, scoring a few points for Team Two.
Not that we were keeping track. (3)
"A geth outbreak has been declared. This ship is now quarantined."
Gee, really? Ya think?
I took a second to get my bearings, only to learn that, having gone to all this trouble to go up, we now had to go back down. Typical. Stifling a groan, I trotted down a conveniently positioned piece of bulkhead and through a door. The ship was starting to shake again, panels and bulkheads crashing down throughout the corridor. If we weren't careful, we'd get pinned down.
On the bright side, all that extra debris made for great cover when the next wave of geth attacked. They came alone or in pairs, allowing us to focus our fire and quickly wipe them out. Even the hunter who tried to sneak up on us was taken down before it got too close.
"Warning: geth neural activity increasing. Please isolate machines immediately."
"I fear that warning is too little too late," Samara observed.
"So what?" Grunt returned with a feral grin. "That's what makes it fun!"
I decided to head up the stairs to the next level rather than offer any sort of reply, which meant I could devote more attention to the next batch of hostile geth. There were a lot of them, but the narrow corridor quickly boxed and corralled them in. Of course, it did the same to us. I quickly looked around, hoping to find something that could give us some breathing room—ah!
"Team Two, hold the fort; Team One, follow me," I ordered.
While Team Two played the part of bait, I led Team One into the adjoining set of rooms and moved into a flanking position. Taking fire from two different angles, it didn't take long before the geth were down. Peering ahead, I saw that there was a mixture of geth infantry up ahead. "Guys," I said casually, "zap one of them and hack it."
Then we just sat back, caught our breath, reloaded and watched while the geth fired on each other. When the unfortunate volunteer recovered from its out-of-body experience, Tali or Legion hacked it again and the whole merry process started over. Sure, it took a bit longer to take the geth down that way, but it was a lot more fun. For most of us—Grunt had this pout on his face for some reason.
The next level was completely clear of geth, but the back of my neck was still tingling. So I wasn't too surprised when I heard the latest update over the PA: "Warning: geth nodes 20 through 35 are now active. Emergency action required."
I decided not to wonder why nodes 17 through 19 were asleep at the switch. I had enough on my plate, thank you very much. That much was made crystal clear when we opened the door, re-entered the cargo bay and found it full of geth—including the geth prime who was no longer trapped in a kinetic barrier.
Two things popped out at me: one, most of the geth were down below on the ground floor; and two, the only way up to the level we were on was the ramp on the far side of the cargo bay. If we could gain control of the upper level, we'd have the high ground, which would give us a definite tactical advantage.
"Team One: we're going to clear this level of geth. Team Two; keep any more geth from making it up here."
With that decided, Team One and I started moving counter-clockwise towards whatever geth had already made it up here. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed how Team Two was faring. They seemed to be shooting at whatever targets they could find, mostly to keep the geth occupied with returning fire rather than thinking of heading up. Garrus zapped a trooper's shields, clearing the way for Zaeed to land a concussive round. They paused long enough to see that the trooper was out of their line of sight before returning to random pot-shots. In other words, they'd seize any opportunity they could get to try and destroy individual geth, but they weren't about to risk their lives to do so. Smart move, I thought.
I had to use my eyes—optical implants, whatever—to see how many geth we were facing up here, since that damn geth prime was jamming our sensors. Looked like a couple troopers and—
Ducking behind a pillar, I noted the presence of a rocket trooper by the contrails of the missile it had just fired in my general direction. "Miranda, Kasumi; you're first," I decided. "Then Legion, then Grunt."
Twin EMPs exploded, zapping both troopers. Damn—I was hoping they'd be able to hit the rocket trooper. Unfortunately, it had moved out of range just before the EMPs hit. Oh well. Legion randomly picked a trooper and hacked it. Grunt fired a concussive round at the other one. The rocket trooper started pelting rockets at our temporary ally, who quickly returned fire.
While Samara and Thane finished off the trooper Grunt had attacked, I looked down to see how Team Two was doing. From what I could tell, there was at least one or two more rocket troopers, half a dozen geth troopers—no, five after Jacob, Jack or Tali hit it with their shotgun—a geth hunter and the geth prime. Team Two seemed to be trying to keep two of the troopers from heading towards the ramp. Understandably, they didn't realize that the hunter was already halfway up.
"Garrus, drop an EMP on these coordinates," I ordered over the comm. He quickly complied, but the blast only drained about half of its shields. Part of me was expecting that, which was why I was already firing my submachine gun before the EMP went off. It only took about ten shots to deplete the rest of the shields, clearing the way for Tali to hack it. The hunter immediately turned around and opened fire on the troopers, who quickly returned fire. A couple other geth joined in, much to Team Two's delight.
Turning back to my team, I was pleased to see that the other geth trooper was down for the count. Even better, that pesky rocket trooper had lost its shields. As I watched, Kasumi decloaked behind it and send who knows how much voltage coursing through its chassis. The trooper flailed madly for a second or two before collapsing on the catwalk, shuddering and twitching.
Now we could join Team Two in their fun. Miranda carefully fired her EMP at a pair of geth troopers, one of whom was in the process of restoring its shields to offset the damage it had already taken. Grunt took a little too much glee in eliminating the damaged geth. I activated my cloak and searched for the last rocket trooper. Spotting it, I raised my sniper rifle and fired off a quick shot. I paused just long enough to see it drop before assessing the battlefield situation. None of us had taken too much damage, though a few people were hanging back to let their shields recharged. Down below, Tali was still merrily hacking the geth hunter whenever it shook off the last hack, which gave us an extra set of guns to turn on the three geth troopers, one rocket trooper and the geth prime.
"Team One, hit the last rocket trooper," I called out, keeping a close eye on my cloak. That poor sucker went down in short order. By chance, my cloak and Kasumi's omni-tool had recharged at the same time. A quick assessment of the squad indicated that Jacob and Thane were also ready, so I gave my orders and activated my cloak. While I took out one of the troopers, Kasumi overloaded another trooper's shields. Jacob encased it in a biotic levitation field and Thane detonated the field—and the geth—with his own biotics.
I saw Miranda look around, shrug and turn her EMP on the geth prime. Another glance below revealed why: the hunter was being shredded by the prime and the last trooper was hiding just below us—either out of self-preservation or some cunning tactical subroutine. Whatever the reason, she couldn't get a clear shot at the trooper, so she picked the next best target. Garrus had recharged his omni-tool by that point, so he quickly followed with an EMP of his own.
The prime finished off the hunter and turned around to see who was being so darn rude, only to receive a barrage of gunfire that wiped out its shields in a flash. Zaeed was waiting with an inferno grenade, so he managed to hurl it before Mordin and I could lift our omni-tools and launch our fireballs. Another concentrated round of bullets was enough to finish it off.
We carefully moved around the catwalk and down the ramp, cognizant of the last geth waiting for us. Turned out our caution was unwarranted—while we were busy, Tali and Legion had deployed their combat drones to take it out. Tali seemed a bit peeved that Legion had taken some of her fun.
Filing that observation away, I led the squad out of the geth ship and back to the Hammerhead.
Now that we'd overridden the lockdown, we could head to Atlas Station, something that Archer reiterated over the comm. He seemed to be the sort of guy to belabour a given point to death, consciously or otherwise.
Before heading over there, though, I thought I'd try and find more of those data caches.
"Hey! Not so fast, Shepard!" Jacob cried out.
"I always drive fast," I replied cheerfully. "It's the best way to avoid geth armatures and explosives."
"Too bad it doesn't help you avoid boulders," Garrus muttered.
"I'm more worried about the turrets," Miranda fretted.
"Oh, look," I said cheerfully. "Another data cache."
I won't bore you with the details on my hunt for the rest of the data caches. Suffice it to say, I found them all. Three were protected by turrets, one was guarded by a pair of YMIR mechs and the last one was completely unprotected. I managed to retrieve them all, but not without some running commentary from my squad:
"Left! LEFT!"
"LOOK OUT!"
"Do you smell smoke?"
"Shepard! Turrets!"
"Uh, huh."
"Gah!"
"Do you smell smoke?"
"Oh God! We're on fire!"
"You're gonna get us all killed!"
"Shepard! What the fuck're you doing?"
"Turrets! Turrets! TURRETS!"
"Uh, huh."
"Aaagh!"
"This wasn't part of my contract, Shepard!"
"I'm positive I smell smoke."
"Right! RIGHT!"
"We're all gonna die!"
"Uh, huh."
"Kalahira, Goddess of Oceans, Lady of the Afterlife. Guide me to your tranquil waters..."
"That's it! Game over, man! Game over!"
"Turrets to the right of them. Turrets to the left of them. Turrets in front of them volleyed and thundered..."
"LOOK OUT!"
"Uh, huh."
"Turrets firing. Very fast rate of fire. Estimated time of expiry..."
"Yeah, I'm definitely smelling smoke."
"Shepard! We're on fire! AGAIN!"
"Shepard-Commander. We have reached consensus: your driving skills endanger the integrity of the platforms under your command."
"Don't you hear those alarms?"
"LOOK OUT!"
"Sorry."
*Blech*
"I have just realized that there is nothing in the Code for the appropriate response to being vomited upon." (4)
"I said I was sorry," I insisted.
We had just descended into the hangar bay of Atlas Station, passing numerous scorch marks, several cracked windows and more than a few dead bodies. Everyone looked at me dubiously for some reason as they followed me out of the Hammerhead. Jacob was the last to get out; as he'd been voted as the replacement driver after the squad had all but yanked me out of the driver's seat. My efforts to veto that decision were completely ignored. Traitors.
The slights over my much-maligned driving skills were quickly swept aside when Archer contacted us over the comm. "Looks like you're in, Commander. Good. I'm getting some troubling readings here, though. The VI is trying to upload its program directly from your location."
"To where?" I demanded. "It's already infected everything on this planet..."
I trailed off, the answer coming to me as I uttered those last words. Miranda beat me to it: "It's trying to upload itself to the Normandy! If EDI can't keep it out—"
"Get to the server room," Archer urged. "You have to shut down the core before it can-an-an-n-n-n-n..."
Archer abruptly cut out, presumably thanks to the VI's interference, just as I'd noticed a damaged computer terminal. A quick look-over told me two things: one, it was too complex to bother taking apart for salvage; and two, there was a log entry buried in its data banks. Tapping the sluggish controls, I managed to pull it up and play it:
"Archer log 155.2. For years, my brother's condition has been a handicap. That changed today. His autistic mind is the breakthrough I've been looking for—he can communicate with the geth!"
Come again?
"Such a tremendous grasp of mathematics! It seems serendipity is alive and well in the 22nd century."
"Did Archer just say what I thought he said?" Jacob asked.
"Archer's brother and the geth bonded over math?" Kasumi shrugged.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Mordin nodded enthusiastically. "Mathematics, like science, is universal."
"We concur," Legion chimed in. "Geth speech is based on mathematical principles."
"Oh fuck that," Jack burst out. "Face it: Archer screwed over his own brother."
"We don't know that," Miranda protested. "For all we know—"
Personally, I thought the VI deliberately jammed the comm at that point so Archer couldn't provide any rationalization. But that would add fuel to the proverbial fire that was building around me. "Enough," I interrupted. "Server room now; debate later."
"Yes, sir."
We found ourselves moving down yet another corridor that was marred with scorch marks, blood stains and dismembered Cerberus personnel. The door at the far end was locked, but the adjoining door wasn't. At least, not until we hit the door controls to the latter. Then it opened for a brief second, abruptly closed again and locked itself. The other locked door unlocked itself and opened a second later.
Having no choice, we went through the open door and into a T-junction. To the right was a pile of debris, lots of sparks and a blazing fire. To the left was a security camera that was clearly co-opted by the VI, its green light the only source of illumination in an otherwise dark hallway. We slowly edged our way into the darkness, only to stop as the lights went on. Turned out the hallway was a ramp heading down. One with more scorch marks and dead bodies. Charming.
We had just gotten to the bottom of the ramp—which opened into another corridor—when the doors ahead of us sealed shut. The one at the end of the corridor. The one halfway along the corridor. The one a quarter of the way down the corridor. The one to the left of—you know what? Let's just say all of them.
"Okay," I said slowly. "Now what?"
As if the VI heard me, the three doors closest to us started locking and unlocking themselves. After a minute of random flickering, which reminded me of the last time I'd stumbled through a casino, all the holographic door controls disappeared. Then the left door opened.
Walking through, we found ourselves in a large room with several computers—a lab of sorts?—with an elevator at the far end. "Archer log 157.8: Unless he sees results, the Illusive Man is shutting us down next week. I have no choice."
Now that was a surprise. We came to a sudden halt. Again. "Did anyone touch anything?" I asked.
"It wasn't me."
"Not this time."
"Nope."
Either someone didn't want to 'fess up or the VI did that on its own. While I was pondering that, and realizing how much I preferred the former, the log entry continued playing.
"I'm going to tap David directly into the geth neural network and see if he can influence them."
"Say what?" I blurted out.
"Oh, fuck no!" Jack snarled.
"The danger should be negligible. David might even enjoy it."
I don't know why I was so shocked. Cerberus doing stupid, screwed-up things was par for the course. They did haul my ass back from the dead, after all. Lying about it wasn't a kick in the teeth, either. But to willingly volunteer your own brother? Especially one who couldn't possibly advocate for himself or give any kind of informed consent? That was just... just...
"See, that's what I'm talking about," Jack spat. "Cerberus fucks everyone, every time. Shoulda known that Archer wasn't any different."
"But to do that to his own brother?" Tali whispered. "That's horrible, even for Cerberus."
"I told you, cheerleader!" Jack hissed, building up a head of steam as she whirled on Miranda. "I told you. Same shit as—"
"Enough," I broke in, despite a sudden urge to chime in. Everyone looked at me. Everyone but Miranda, I noted. "Miranda?" I piped up.
With a visible effort, Miranda blinked and tilted her head towards me.
"We're going to find the server room," I said firmly. "We're going to stop this."
"Indeed," Miranda agreed a little too calmly. "Then we're going to find Archer. I think I'd like a word with him."
Everyone took a step back involuntarily.
"Now that that's settled," I said with forced cheer, "let's start looting."
That bit of familiarity got everyone moving again. We quickly cased the area, which consisted of a bunch of damaged computers sprawled over half the room, two sets of stairs descending a metre or so to a lower level, and an elevator. After scrounging a few goodies amidst the debris, we clustered by the elevator. It was on level 0, apparently, so I hit the "Up" button.
"Arriving at Level 2."
The panel to the side of the elevator moved from "0" to "1" to "2," then stopped. I reached over and pressed the "Up" button again.
"Arriving at Level 4."
The door still didn't open. I pressed the "Up" button again.
"Arriving at Level 6."
Door still wasn't open. What level were we on, exactly? I hit the "Up" button again. With my fist.
"System malfunction."
The elevator went all the way back to Level 0. For crying out loud. "This is gonna take a while," I groaned.
My words proved to be all too prophetic. It took a lot of experimentation with the elevator controls as well as several other controls scattered throughout the room. Eventually, we got the elevator to our level—level 7, in case you were wondering. That was when a bunch of sparks started flying out at the top of the elevator doors, right where they touched each other. As we watched, those sparks started to slowly move down.
"Those doors were welded shut," I realized. "Which means someone's trying to cut their way through."
"Someone who probably isn't very friendly," Garrus grimly concluded. "Maybe we should find firing positions."
"I guess," I said as we spread out and found cover. "Just to be boring and all."
The VI... David... whatever it/he/they let out a mighty howl over the PA, just before the doors opened. A geth prime had its back to us. Several geth troopers were jammed behind it. In other words: the greatest threat was giving us a perfect target while blocking any possible return fire from itself or its comrades. I had no problem with that. Neither did anyone else, judging from the barrage of bullets and EMPs that immediately poured from the squad. The geth prime's shields practically dissolved. Its armour was the next to go, thanks to all the plasma and biotic energy that was flying around. I didn't actually see the geth prime—or any of the other geth—collapse, as the glare from the ricochets and tracer rounds was so darn bright. All I knew was that every single geth was down for the count and that the entire fight had only lasted a couple minutes.
The elevator ride was a lot shorter. It started off smoothly enough. We shuffled in, hit the "Down" button and watched as the elevator doors closed.
"Arriving at Level 6."
"This could get old very quickly," Garrus observed.
"'Could?'" Grunt snorted.
"Arriving at Level—"
The elevator suddenly stopped. It started climbing up. It stopped. A green pixelated face appeared. It blurted out something which seemed to end with the word "Stop." At least, it did to me. Then we started descending again.
"Please contact facility support."
It was then I realized that the back of my neck was tingling—and had been for some time now.
"This elevator is not in service," we were told, as the lights went out. As red emergency lights flickered to life, we noticed with some unease that smoke was trickling in through the doors. "Please choose another."
Yeah, that wasn't gonna happen any time soon, I thought ruefully as we slowly started ascending again. "Smoke detected. Please extinguish all cigarettes. This is a non-smoking facility."
Our ascent suddenly accelerated. We almost made it to Level 7 before we went down. And by 'down,' I mean plummeted. The brakes kicked in seconds before we reached Level 0, the sudden change in momentum knocking all of us over.
We hastily got to our feet as the doors opened and positively dove through, welcoming whatever we might face over the harrowing ride we'd just endured.
We found ourselves in some kind of lab. Several geth were attached to a large column or alcove that was standing right in front of us. As we stepped out of the elevator—which promptly plummeted to the bottom behind us—one of the geth detached from its slot on the alcove and collapsed. There were several other geth as well, attached to similar alcoves along the wall.
As we looked around, the VI... or David... broadcasted another audio log. "Archer log: 168.4: I'd be lying if I said no harm could come to David. His autistic mind is as alien to me as an actual alien. Anything could happen when we plug him in. But I have to try, don't I?"
Actually, no. No he didn't. Somehow I kept the presence of mind to indulge my usual kleptomania before leaving the room.
The adjoining corridor had a couple doors, most of which were closed. Not seeing any choice, I hit the controls to open the door in front of me. It didn't open.
Instead, the door control actually migrated off the door, meandering along the wall to the closest door on the left, which obligingly opened up.
"Huh," I said. "That was different."
"And disconcerting," Thane added.
"Indeed," Miranda frowned. "That room over there? The one that just opened up? That's the server room." She looked up to see all of us staring at her. "I accessed and memorized the station's schematics when we arrived here."
"A bold risk," Samara observed. I wasn't sure whether she was admonishing or complimenting her.
Miranda shrugged. "Not as risky as actually downloading the schematics."
True. I still had a bad feeling about this, though. "Well, let's head in. But stay alert."
We slowly entered the server room, half-expecting an ambush. No such thing, surprisingly enough. Just a lot of computers, which made sense. I chose the one with the largest keyboard and walked over. "Get ready," I warned. "I wouldn't be surprised if this thing summoned a Reaper."
With that out of the way, I touched the panel to bring up a command menu. As I typed away, I heard the hum of machinery. It was a steady hum, almost quiet. So why was the back of my neck tingling?
The VI's giant, green, disembodied head popped up over the console and screeched at us for a couple seconds. As it disappeared, I suddenly felt my arm tingling. Looking down, I saw a stream of green pixels gushing from the console into my omni-tool. Was it trying to hack it or...
...or...
Why did I suddenly feel so cold? It was like ice suddenly pouring through my veins, coursing through my body. Everything suddenly felt so numb. I was suddenly aware of every implant in my body, as each one abruptly flared up in a blaze of intense cold before numbing the surrounding tissues. Gradually, I started drifting away into the black void of oblivio—
NO!
Collapsing to the ground, I gritted my teeth and tried to fight back against the VI's attempts to hack me. As I struggled, I saw a field of orange pixels sweep over the room, replacing the floors, walls and ceilings with glowing orange wireframes and holographic circuitry. I also glimpsed a flickering image of two men leading a third one through the doors and into the corridor. Could that be the doing of whatever part of David survived? That would make sense, I suppose. Maybe David was trying to fight the VI it had been forcibly merged with. That would explain why they were helping us as much as hindering us.
With a grunt, I... I don't know how to describe it exactly. I'd been fighting or pushing back against the VI all this time. All of a sudden, I... overcame the cold pressure of its hacking attempt. Looking around, I suddenly realized that I was in the corridor again. How the heck did I get here? Maybe the VI had temporarily gained control of my motor functions. Which was really creepy if you thought about it. I mean, that VI had actually hacked me! Sure, it didn't completely succeed. But it had scored a victory of sorts.
If I needed further proof, all I had to do was open my eyes. The floor, walls and ceiling of the corridor was overlaid with a moving patchwork of holographic circuitry. Even my hardsuit was covered in a orange grid. And I was pretty sure I wasn't seeing things. Somehow, David or the VI—funny that I was now considering them as two separate entities—had tweaked my optical implants. This was seriously creepy. Almost as creepy as the fact that I was alone. Looking behind me, I saw that the server room door was sealed and locked. I still didn't know how I had gotten out of there, but apparently no one else from the squad had managed to follow. Which meant I was all alone.
Great.
At least the corridor was now wide open. So, without any other choice, I started walking. After a hundred metres, I hit a T-junction. Left was a dead-end. In front of me was—
The green pixelated face suddenly popped up again. "***** ****se make it stop!"
Oh boy. Now I could actually understand that thing. Maybe it was David. Was that what he'd been doing all this time? Yelling at us, imploring us, pleading with us to make it stop? What had Archer done to him?
I was almost relieved when the geth started firing at me. Gunfights were something infinitely simpler and easier to understand. For one thing, I didn't have to worry about coordinating any squad. It was just me, my guns, my cloak and my omni-tool.
Of course, the geth that come after me usually don't have their entire bodies glowing green. More importantly, I usually have some backup. You win some, you lose some...
Stifling a sigh, I raised my submachine gun and fired at the closest geth. Not that hard a feat, even without the experience that comes with countless unwanted firefights—it's kinda hard to miss them when their glowing green bodies stood out from the orange background like a strobe light in the dark. It only took the remainder of my thermal clip to whittle down its shields and turn the geth into...
...
Oookaaaaaayyy. I've never seen geth explode into a pile of cubical pixels before—
Gah!
I hastily ducked behind a pillar. While I'd been staring at the quickly disappearing pile of geth-turned-pixels, another pair of geth had showed up and had taken advantage of my distraction to whittle down my shields. Pulling up my HUD, I kept one eye on their approach while my hands switched weapons. This plan would either work really well or spell my ultimate demise. I took a deep breath and counted down from three.
On 'one,' I activated my cloak, whirled out from behind the column and raised my sniper rifle. One well-aimed headshot turned the lead geth into so many pixels. Before my cloak collapsed and the remaining geth could re-acquire its target, I charged towards it and started pounding away with my fists. I'd feel sorry for getting the drop on it like that, but I had better things to do. Like wonder how much of this was real and how much was virtual reality. Certainly I'd felt all those bullets deplete my shields and the geth who I'd used as a punching bag. And the readouts from my weapons clearly indicated that I'd used up some ammo. But I was still seeing orange circuitry float around me. And I definitely saw the geth vanish in an explosion of pixels. So how much of this was real? What was real, anyway? And why the heck did I always get sucked into pondering these big philosophical questions?
It was easier to focus on the mission, so that's what I did. Seeing that there were no more hostiles coming my way, I resumed trotting down the corridor. The only company I encountered was a pair of dead Cerberus personnel outlined in orange. And the David/VI face. I could see it through the window.
I should explain that.
There were windows in the corridor that looked into a central chamber. Tons of wires and cables snaked around the room, connecting to an orange sphere that was surrounded by a set of rotating green barriers. Above it loomed a giant head composed entirely of green pixels, staring at me with a complete lack of emotion.
Kinda creepy, if you ask me, so I quickly turned my attention back to the corridor. Unfortunately, that could only distract me for so long, since I quickly reached a dead end. Fortunately, there was a door on the right. My surroundings turned green as I hit the door control. I instinctively pulled out my submachine gun as the doors opened...
"Square root of 906.01 is 30.1... square root of 906.01 is 30.1..."
Um. Huh. Wasn't expecting a math lesson. Or show and tell: I'd stumbled into a lab of some sort. To my right were several green geth attached to consoles. In front of me was a more-or-less colour image of Archer. Behind him was a young man, sitting on the floor and and rocking himself back and forth, and a geth strapped down to a gurney. "Time on this project is running out," Archer said. It looked like he was reciting a log entry into the datapad he was holding. "There are no options left. How to get the geth's attention?"
As if it had heard him, the geth spoke in its usual digital chittering. Didn't mean anything to me. Nor Archer, judging by his lack of reaction. The man on the floor, on the other hand, perked up. Getting to his feet, he mimicked the geth's words. I stared at him as the geth spoke back. Unless I was mistaken, he looked like Dr. Archer's brother, David.
"The robot says hello," David informed his brother.
Archer turned around so fast I thought he'd give himself whiplash. He looked back and forth between David and the geth before settling on the former. "Eureka!" he exclaimed. "David, you're a miracle worker!"
Uh oh. I had a bad feeling about this.
My musings were interrupted by a somewhat guttural set of clicking. I automatically tensed up, expecting another not-so-fun fight for my life. Instead, everything turned orange again. The walls, the floors, the slumped bodies of dead people. The only things that weren't outlined or bathed in green were two shimmering clusters of green pixels. I moved over towards one of them. Nothing happened. So I reached out and passed my hand through it. I know, I know—rookie mistake. Anyone who's watched enough vids would know better. As stupid as that move might have been, it worked. The room turned green again. Holographic images of Archer and David appeared. David was on his feet, but was bobbing back and forth, almost as if he was constantly bowing to someone. "Square root of 906.01 is 30.1… square root of 912.04 is 30.2…" he babbled.
Archer turned around from the computer he was using. "David, can you repeat my notes from Thursday's experiment?"
"Square root of 918.09 is 30.3."
"David! Please pay attention!"
David winced. "Loud! It's getting loud in here."
Personally, I didn't think Archer was speaking or yelling that loudly. But maybe David picked up on a nuance I missed. Or he was incapable of distinguishing such nuances. Whatever the reason, Archer hastened over and patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "You didn't deserve that. Would you mind repeating my notes from Thursday's experiment?"
"Log 137.3: the experiment yielded no discernible patterns of geth obedience. End dictation now, David. Hell, the Illusive Man will have my head for this."
"Thank you. And how are you feeling today?"
"Square root of 924.16 is 30.4… earplugs would be good."
I didn't know whether to be impressed that Archer was making an effort to keep David in his life or creeped out that he was using him as a walking backup storage device for his logs. I went to the second cluster, scooping up some power cells and palladium along the way. Waving my hand through the second cluster, I watched as everything turned green. Archer appeared again, along with David and a pair of nameless Cerberus lackeys. A geth was dangling from an overhead harness of some sort. "David," Archer said, "I want you to order the geth to take a step forward."
David obediently uttered a string of warbling clicks. The geth obediently moved its legs for a minute. "How does he do it?" one of the Cerberus guys marvelled.
"David is a mathematical savant," Archer explained, looking at David, who'd elected to sit on the floor and gently rock back and forth. "His autistic mind can interpret the geth language at its most basic form and mimic their phonetics. With his photographic memory, cross-referencing the meaning is a snap. He's literally a human computer."
"And you think he can interface with the geth's neural network," the same Cerberus guy asked.
"I do."
"Is that even safe, Doctor?" the other Cerberus guy asked, proving that not all Cerberus personnel were reckless idiots.
"I see no harm in finding out," Archer replied, proving that the vast majority were, however. Another round of guttural chattering seemed to echo that point. If I had to guess, this was David's handiwork following his forced—because it sure as hell wasn't voluntary—merger with the VI. His way of illustrating what had happened.
Looking around, I saw that the only way out of here was through a broken window and across the adjoining room. Past the three geth that were hooked up to a hub. Call me crazy, but I wasn't eager to leave enemies behind to potentially sneak up on me at the worst possible time. So I opened fire on the hub. The geth perked up and returned fire, but not before I blew up the hub. The resulting explosion sent them sprawling, making it pretty easy to pick them off.
Hopping over the windowsill, I looted whatever I could and left the lab. I found myself in yet another corridor, with a bunch of large windows overlooking that central chamber. Maybe it was my imagination, but the disembodied face seemed to be staring at me.
"***** PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!"
I knew I wasn't imagining that. And I definitely knew that Miranda wasn't the only one who wanted 'a word' with Dr. Archer.
At the end of a corridor was a door, blocked by a thick orange-yellow… well, tendril was the best way to describe it. At one end was a large green sphere of coruscating energy. My sensors identified it as a VI connection. I wasn't sure what that was, or what it could connect to, but I figured it wasn't something I should leave intact. I'll admit I had half a mind to riddle it with bullets, but I did have to conserve ammo. Especially since I didn't have any backup. So I attacked it with my fists until it shattered.
Yeah, violence was apparently the solution to a lot of problems. Sad, really.
The tendril vanished shortly after the VI connection blew up, leaving the way clear to open the door. A quick round of scrounging uncovered some power cells, some palladium, some salvage and a control panel for an elevator shaft that came out of the floor.
Not seeing anything else to swipe, I activated the elevator controls. I heard a lot of groaning and moaning before the elevator lift began to rise. "Warning," I heard over the PA, "Elevator exceeds maximum weight capacity."
That was probably not a good thing. Taking a closer look at the elevator, I saw a thick irregular line where the doors met. The kind of line consistent with a hasty welding job.
Aw, crap.
I ducked behind some cover as a harsh flare of sparks burst through the welding and slowly cut its way through. I was already cloaked and aiming my sniper rifle by the time the geth emerged from the floor-a hunter and two rocket troopers. One shot eliminated the hunter's shields. Quickly switching to my submachine gun, I managed to finish the hunter off before the rocket troopers' return fire blew my head off. It was times like this that made me wish I had the rest of my squad backing me up. Hell, I'd even take one or two other people, preferably with an EMP-generating omni-tool. That reminded me—I quickly hacked the rocket trooper I'd been attacking before it could regenerate its shields. It didn't last long before its partner blew it to pixels, but it lasted long enough for me to find another area of cover and take the last geth down.
With that latest encounter out of the way, I took the elevator down. Within half a minute, I found myself in the central chamber. It was illuminated in green, which meant show-and-tell time again. I saw Archer and another Cerberus operative, several computers and a sphere surrounded by rotating concentric barriers. Somewhere in the room, David was babbling "Square root of 906.01 is 30.1... square root of 912.04 is 30.2..." If I squinted, I could make out…
…
I suddenly and fervently hoped that my eyes—or the damn VI hacking—were playing tricks on me.
"We're ready," Archer told the other. "Open a connection to the geth network."
The other Cerberus operative reached over and tapped a few controls. A loud whirring noise rang out before David howled "QUIET!" Then three geth appeared, weapons aimed at Archer and his brother. Two thoughts immediately came to mind. One: why would any of them think that giving the geth guns was a good idea? Second: this must have been when everything went to hell.
"David, no!" Archer yelled. "Tell the geth to stand down!"
"QUIET! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" David yelled back.
With that, the orange hue returned to the majority of the room. "Node acquired: Normandy SR-2 is within range." I wondered what that meant before I saw another VI connection shimmering and twinkling as it drifted out from the sphere and along one of the tendrils. Somehow I instinctively knew that if that VI connection made it all the way to the other side of the tendril, EDI might have its hands full. Grabbing my submachine gun again, I blew it to pieces. David—or the VI—clearly didn't like that. It howled for a brief instant before the barriers rotating around the central sphere flickered and disappeared. Guess blowing that connection up wasn't good for the VI's security. Suddenly, my sensors could lock on to the sphere. Identifying the globe as a 'VI Core,' it told me that it was covered in some sort of armour. Well, that I knew how to handle. Raising my omni-tool, I fired off a round of plasma. I had enough time to fire another round before the concentric barriers came back.
"Pull the plug!" Archer cried out as the room turned green again. "Tell Vulcan Station to cut all power!"
The response was the exact opposite of what anybody would want to hear: "It's too late! We've lost control!"
The room abruptly returned to its usual ersatz orange hue. Back to (virtual) reality, I guess. This time, the VI's disembodied head came along for the ride. As it loomed over me and stared at me with its lifeless eyes, the PA cheerfully announced "Attempting to establish upload link."
Apparently the VI had learned from its previous attempt, because it sent out two VI connection spheres. I promptly blew up the first one.
"Connection lost."
As I fired at the second connection, I felt several shots bounce off my shields. Looking around, I saw a geth trooper shooting at me. Guess the VI decided to spawn some bodyguards. I only managed to snap off a couple more shots before I had to eject my thermal clip. Ducking behind a pillar, I realized that serendipity was smiling on me: my hiding spot had a perfect line-of-sight to the second VI connection. Slamming a fresh thermal clip home, I raised my submachine gun and blew that connection to pieces. Pixels. Whatever.
"David, you have to stop this!" Archer shouted as the room briefly turned green.
"DAVID DOESN'T WANT TO BE HERE!"
With that, the defences around the VI core—including that pesky geth—vanished. Spying a thermal clip lying on the ground, I ran over to pick it up, launching a fireball along the way. Once again, I could only get a second round of plasma goodness off before the rotating barriers came back up. At least I managed to hit the same spot. Not sure if that kind of thing mattered in virtual reality, but maybe it would translate somehow to the real world. Whatever that was. Hopefully my aim was good enough to burn up the VI interface and not... well... who it was attached to.
"Attempting to establish upload link."
There were three VI connections this time, plus another geth. This time, I didn't bother worrying about it. Instead, I concentrated on the VI connections, taking care to keep the VI core between me and the geth.
"Connection lost," I heard just before the geth disappeared. The room turned green once more.
"David, calm down!" Archer urged. "I can make all of this go away if you let me!"
David either didn't buy it or was in too much pain to comply. "QUIET! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" he howled.
As soon as the room turned orange again, I launched another ball of plasma. I kept a close eye on my omni-tool's status as it recharged—I had to time this just right. As soon as my omni-tool was ready, I let loose another fireball, dropped my submachine rifle and pulled out my grenade launcher. Before the VI core could raise its defences, I fired a grenade.
That did it. With a final cry of "QUIET! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" the core seemed to explode, sending pixels and virtual shards flying. I instinctively raised an arm to shield my face. Then I lowered it and stared at…
…
Oh God.
I barely noticed the virtual reality flickering and fading away, too preoccupied with the horror of what lay before me. Somewhere in my noggin, I remembered an old picture of acrucifixion from a Social Studies class I took way back when. It was this old, slow and painful method of execution where some poor guy—including Jesus Christ—was tied or nailed to a wooden cross and left to hang until he or she died.
What I saw before me was kinda similar. Only the 'poor guy' was stark naked and strapped into some kind of apparatus in the middle of the room, that structure being the only thing preserving any semblance of modesty. Tubes and cables of varying thicknesses weaved around and bored into his arms, legs, chest and just about every other part of his body. Two particularly large tubes were forced into his mouth. Sharp prongs dug underneath his eyelids, forcing them open. He… he stared at me helplessly, eyes filled with confusion, pain and horror beyond imagining.
That was how I found Archer's brother. That was how I found David. "Quiet—please make it stop," he repeated plaintively.
I took a step forward, trying to wrap my head around what I was seeing.
"Wait! Commander!"
It was Archer. He ran into the chamber, hand raised to halt me. "I'm begging you," he panted, "don't do anything rash."
I whirled around to face him, body tensed with… anger? Fury? Whatever it was, it must have been reflected on my face, because he came to an abrupt halt. "Rash?" I repeated. "You mean like fooling around with the geth? Or forcing your own brother into an experiment?"
"I know how this must look, but I never intended any harm to come to him. You must believe me."
"No, actually," I replied coldly. "I don't have to believe you. The evidence says otherwise."
"It's not like I planned this," Archer tried. "It was an accident. Seeing David communicate with the geth... it all seemed harmless."
I glared at Archer. "Harmless? I saw his memories. You forced him into this nightmare. He begged you to stop, but you just kept going. How could you do that?"
"I had no choice," Archer protested. "I had deadlines to meet and the demands were incredible! The Illusive Man doesn't broker failure!"
"And what demands and deadlines did the Illusive Man deem to be so damn important?"
"I told you: to gain influence over the geth. Any war we fight with them will be bloody. I was asked to find a way to avoid that."
"Really?" I challenged. "And how's that going, huh? How many have already died for this project?"
For a moment, Archer found the floor very interesting. "More souls than will ever forgive me." Then he raised his head and looked me in the eye. "But I won't apologize for radical ideas. If my work spares a million mothers from mourning the loss of a million sons, my conscience will rest easy."
"Seems to me like your conscience has already been taking it easy," I snorted. "I mean, it must've been asleep at the switch, or thoroughly screwed up, for you to do this to your own brother?"
"Well—"
"I mean, look at him!" I continued. "David will never be the same."
"The damage may not be permanent. He might recover some semblance of his mind."
Did he just... oh this was just fucked up. (5) Small wonder that he refused to look at David. "He'll never recover anything as long as he's stuck with you—and Cerberus," I snapped. "He'll always be a lab rat."
"But a well-cared for lab rat. At least he'd still be alive."
I shook my head in disbelief. "He's not a lab rat. He's your brother. Doesn't that mean anything to you? Look at him, real hard, and tell me it doesn't matter that you sacrificed your brother's happiness. His innocence. Maybe even his sanity.
"LOOK AT HIM!" I yelled.
Archer jerked, but complied. David looked back—not that he had any choice in the matter. "Square root of 906.01 equals..." he started, his voice echoing over the comm.
"...30.1," Archer finished softly. "You're... you're right, Commander. Help me get him down."
"What?"
"What I've done to David is unethical. If he dies, it's unforgivable. Let me take care of him. Please."
Oh, now he found his conscience?
"Quiet—please make it stop."
I'd come to a decision before David spoke up. "It's too late for you to be discovering that this was beyond unethical or unforgivable. I've seen enough of your cruelty—of Cerberus's cruelty—to know that he'll never be free from it here. That's why I'm taking him down from there and taking him away from here."
"No!" Archer cried out immediately. "Leave him! He's too valuable!"
I don't know where he was hiding it, but he pulled out a pistol and pointed it at me. A shot rang out, striking him in the shoulder and throwing his aim off. I ducked his shot and grabbed my own pistol. Time seemed to slow down as I jabbed the muzzle into his forehead. One squeeze...
...
In the end, I pistol-whipped him instead.
"You're not worth wasting the ammo," I told him coldly. "Not today, anyway. But I'll save a bullet, just in case. You even think about coming after your brother and it'll be waiting for you. Then we'll see who's valuable."
Archer couldn't raise his eyes to meet me. Instead, he glanced at David. Ignoring the blood streaming from his nose, he asked "Where will you take him?"
"Some place where people can help special cases like David—minus the torture," I replied. "And if you try to track him down, they'll have strict orders to shoot you out of the sky. The Illusive Man can fire me if he doesn't like it," I added, in case this asshole wanted to play the boss card. (6)
With that, I turned to see who had helped me out earlier. I saw the rest of my squad, who'd obviously caught up with me. It didn't take a genius to tell who fired the shot.
Miranda was still. I don't mean not moving around or stationary. I don't mean standing in one spot and quivering. I mean still. Her body was stiff and rigid, positioned in a textbook shooter's pose. Her arm was fully extended. Her pistol was now aimed at Archer's head, smoke trailing from the muzzle from her last shot. Her face...
Her face.
Her face was clearly frozen in shock, a feat made more impressive by how controlled and disciplined she usually was. In public, at least. A single tear trickled down one cheek. Her eyes were shimmering with a complex dance of emotions. Surprise, shock, disgust, anger, horror, fury. And betrayal.
Definitely betrayal. (7)
"Garrus, Tali, Kasumi; help get David out of there," I finally ordered. "Everyone else; secure the perimeter." Reaching to my ear, I switched to the Normandy's comm channel. "Joker, this is Shepard. Mission complete, hostiles neutralized. Be advised that we'll be taking a passenger onboard. Someone who needs our help."
"Aye, aye."
As the squad moved to comply with my orders, David began talking again. He kept saying the same thing over and over. Maybe it was his way of expressing his thanks.
"Square root of 912.04 is 30.2... it all seemed harmless..."
Maybe he'd been so traumatized, he didn't know what else to say.
"Square root of 912.04 is 30.2... it all seemed harmless..."
All I know is that his words would ring in my mind for a long, long time.
"Square root of 912.04 is 30.2...
"...it all seemed harmless..."
(1): 'Shut Up and Drive,' released by Rihanna in 2007. The choice of this song is somewhat ironic, given Shepard's demonstration of his driving skills.
(2): It is common for Alliance ships to paint floors a different colour from the walls and ceilings. This provides a point of reference for navigation in zero-gee when the artificial gravity systems are disabled or turned off—for example, during combat scenarios. It is curious to observe that geth may have adopted a similar practise.
(3): While Shepard never explicitly mentions this in his personal logs, he made it known to his squad that keeping track of kills was frowned upon due to the lack of professionalism such a practise displayed, the inherent difficulty of keeping an accurate tally during combat, and the increased risk of casualties—the latter of which may have been of particularly importance to him.
(4): I feel a certain sympathy for the harrowing ordeal that Shepard's squadmates went through.
(5): Shepard's use of profanity, even in private, was highly unusual. One must admit, however, that this was an unusual situation. Unusual, unethical, horrifying and highly, highly disturbing.
(6): Shepard took David to Jon Grissom Academy, a space station orbiting Elysium designed to teach and educate gifted children—particularly musical and mathematical prodigies.
(7): Readers will recall that Miranda went to great lengths to protect her sister and give her a relatively normal life. The discovery that other Cerberus operatives were not so caring towards their own relatives—and the horrors that Dr. Archer subjected his brother to—was a shock of incalculable proportions.