As Shepard stared into the soulless eyes looking back at him from the screen, dozens of geth ships slid into orbit around the Normandy. He couldn't issue orders without the Illusive Man hearing as long as the feed stayed live, and if Joker so much as pitched the nose, the ship would be destroyed. With the gas giant ahead, the Normandy needed to follow its orbit around the moon before it could accelerate to lightspeed without risk of collision. Then, if they could make it back to the relay, the geth would be unable to follow.

He just needed to stall for time. "Human Prime. That has a nice ring to it."

"It wasn't my idea," said the Illusive Man. "It was bestowed upon me by the geth, though I don't know if I'll encourage its use. It's a bit ostentatious for my taste."

"Yeah, good luck with that. The geth are pretty set in their ways when it comes to names."

The Illusive man smirked. "It's amazing what one can accomplish when one has the proper access, combined with the conviction to do what needs to be done. This is a great day for humanity, even if you choose not to believe it."

Shepard shook his head. From the corner of his eye he could see both Miranda and Joker working furiously at their consoles. Action indicators flashed ready for stations throughout the ship, except for weapons and propulsion which were on stand-by for power-up. Externally, the Normandy continued its quiet orbit around the moon, now with dozens of geth ships on parallel courses, and who knows how many weapons tracking them from the surface.

The Illusive Man took a draw from his cigarette. "Commander, I want you to listen to me. More importantly, I want you to understand. If I hadn't intervened, the quarians would be in control of geth right now, not us. And you can bet that Daro'Xen would be trying to kill you, as she did at Dashta."

"Or you, with that little welcoming party you set up for us at Raheel-Layya."

"Which you obviously anticipated and avoided." The Illusive Man's eyes fell. "For what it's worth, it was not a decision I made with malice. In fact, it was done with great reluctance given everything you and your crew have done for us."

"Thanks. That means a lot to me."

The Illusive Man ignored Shepard's sarcastic tone. "But circumstances have changed. I have what I need now. I'm offering my apology as well as a second chance, when all I would have to do to otherwise is order the geth to finish you. That should count for something."

"A second chance for what?" Shepard kept an eye on the orbital display. Ammut was still in the way, but Normandy still continued on its path unchallenged.

"Another partnership. You and I, together, in one year have done more to protect this galaxy than all the other species combined, perhaps going back to when the reapers began their cycles. I have the vision and the resources, but you have the strength. I don't mean your considerable skills at decimating your foes, but your ability to bring them together, to rally them to your cause. It's the reason I brought you back. It's the reason the collectors were stopped. And it's the reason I'm talking to you now. Acting in concert we are a potent force. One that could give rise to the first galactic civilization to break a cycle of extinction that's lasted millions of years, with humanity at its apex. Only the reapers stand in our way. And we can defeat them, if we work together."

"As equal partners, right? Just like before?"

"I think you know as well as I that such an arrangement is no longer practical. I'm afraid I would have to exert a little more operational authority in any of our future endeavors."

"You really think I'm going to agree to that?"

The Illusive Man let out a puff of smoke. "No. I don't. But I'm hoping you'll listen to reason. With our dominance of the geth, humanity's ascendance is assured. You can be a part of that future, help shape it. in spite of our differences, your input and insight are still invaluable to both Cerberus and humanity."

"Human Prime," the geth said over the channel. "Sensor drones detect additional creator vessels on an intercept course with the Cerberus fleet at Orbital Body 413319."

"The Moreh," The Illusive Man said, examining the sensor signature on one of his holo panels. "Admiral Xen is in for a rude surprise if she attacks. Position yourselves to screen my fleet and destroy all Creator vessels."

"Acknowledged, Human Prime."

Shepard glanced aside to see that the Normandy was thirty seconds from achieving orbital position to escape. He glared at the video feed. "So you've turned the geth into your own personal army?"

"I'm not forcing them to do anything they weren't planning to do on their own. It seems that after Xen's latest betrayal the geth have condemned the entire creator species to extinction."

"No," Shepard shook his head. "They'd never do that. The geth aren't interested in revenge."

"It's not revenge, Shepard. It's logic. Cold, hard, pure logic. The geth have finally realized the folly of making amends with the quarians. Even if they were to spare the non-combatants and let the rest of the Migrant Fleet go, the quarian desire for revenge will always be there, just as it was after the Morning War. The only way the geth can ensure the quarians will never attack again is to eliminate them completely. It was a decision they made in a fraction of a second, long before I assumed control."

Escape trajectory clear, Joker sent via text to Shepard's station. Shepard up a restrictive hand outside of pickup range. "I can stop this."

"So can I." The Illusive Man brought up another panel next to him and briefly manipulated the interface. "The war between the quarians and geth can be over as of right now. All I have to do is issue the command, and the geth will step aside and allow their creators return to Rannoch. No invasion, no more war. Tali and her people could finally go home, live in peace on a world that could actually sustain them. All you have to do is surrender now and turn the Normandy over to the geth. You can still save the quarians, Shepard, and your crew. The choice is yours."

Shepard sat back in his chair. How would all the other civilizations fare in the Illusive Man's new utopia? He hadn't taken control of the geth just to preserve humanity's basic freedoms, nor would he generously hand control of the geth over to Alliance Command or any elected government of Earth so the citizens of the galaxy could enjoy a higher quality of life with his mechanical servants. No, the Illusive Man had much grander plans in mind.

Once it became known Cerberus controlled the geth, humanity would instantly become the greatest threat in the galaxy. The Citadel wouldn't stand by and let humanity take possession of an inexhaustible labor force that could render unfriendly economies extinct, not to mention of the most frighteningly efficient military force the galaxy had ever seen. Nor would they tolerate the danger of having the processing power of the entire collective under Cerberus control. No network in the galaxy would be safe from penetration, human or otherwise. The Alliance itself would shatter into pro- and anti-Cerberus factions, with any corporation or nation unwilling to work with Cerberus left to fend for themselves, to eventually bend to the will of Cerberus, or be crushed by its newfound power.

And what would become of the crew of the Normandy? The Illusive Man might make allowances for Shepard, but what would happen to the rest of them? How would Garrus react when Hierarchy fleets were ordered into Alliance Space to forcibly remove the terrorist group's illegal robot army? What would Tali do when her people were reduced to a vassal state of Cerberus? What would become of Miranda, Jacob, and the other members of the Cerberus crew, all traitors now in the Illusive Man's eyes? What would Grunt think of his Battlemaster's newfound subservience, or Samara, who had just given up her life as a Justicar just so she could follow Shepard?

Would the Illusive Man actually set them free to keep Shepard on his side? Or would they become hostages, kept under constant threat of death to keep him in line? How many of them would split off on their own, picking up the struggle abandoned by their once-heroic Commander?

Shepard couldn't even muster the willpower to lie. "For what it's worth, I appreciate that you made the offer. But I can't do that."

The Illusive Man blew a cloud of smoke. "That's your final answer?"

"It is. Unless I can convince you to release the geth and join me."

"I'm afraid that's not possible." The Illusive Man smiled sadly. "But it does prove we do have one more thing in common."

"What's that?"

"Neither of us believe in compromise. For the record, I never wanted it to come to this."

Shepard glanced out the forward window. The turbulent atmosphere of Ammut boiled overhead as the ice moon below continued to slide beneath. A sliver of black had formed between them. "Me neither. But I'm not going to go down in history as the man who gave rise to the first galactic human empire."

"So be it." The Illusive Man pressed a key, keeping the comm channel open so Shepard could see him to it. "Destroy the Normandy. Kill Commander Shepard."

Shepard opened his mouth to tell Joker to punch it when the geth's unmistakable voice responded over the same channel. "Unable to comply."

The Illusive Man sat forward in his chair. "Destroy the Normandy! Now!"

"Unable-" and the feed abruptly stopped.

The Normandy skimmed over the ice moon's curvature, using its gravity to slingshot it away from Ammut. A geth cruiser, at least four time the Normandy's mass appeared above the horizon, visible now outside the cockpit windows. Bright jets flared from its sides, then quit and the enormous vessel pitched over into a slow tumble as it drifted to starboard. Simultaneously, its energy output on the sensor display faded to nothing. The other geth signatures all began to wink out all over the boards, their trajectories continuing in straight lines from their previous courses.

EDI's avatar pulsed brightly. "The geth ships are shutting down."

"Orders, Commander?" Joker asked, his finger hovering above the execute button.

"Maintain orbit." Shepard stayed focused on the sensor tracks. "They're fighting it. The geth are fighting the virus! EDI, can you raise them?"

"Shepard-Commander-er," said the geth, the final syllable breaking into an elongated buzz.

"We read you," Shepard said into the comm, but the geth signal was already beginning to fade. "What can we do to help? EDI, what happened? Did we lose them?"

"There was tremendous surge in transmissions between all of the geth platforms," EDI said. Fuzzy halos enveloped all of the surrounding targets on the tactical display, registering their signal output. "Then all platforms on range entered a hibernation state. But before thefinal shutdown I received a single unencrypted transmission. It appears to be navigational plot."

A wireframe rendering of Orbital Body 413319 appeared on screen, showing its sunflower-shaped array of solar panels and collectors. A series of coordinates and orbital trajectories appeared as an overlay. A handful of Cerberus ships appeared, hovering over the asteroid's surface in the shadow of the dark side. The scan centered on a wedge-shaped ship the size of Normandy, covered from bow to stern with arrays and antennas.

Miranda looked over her shoulder at Shepard. "That's the Xenophon!"

"The what?" Shepard said.

"Gavin Archer's ship! That's how they're doing it. There are no comm buoys in this system. The Xenophon has a quantum entanglement communicator on board, just like us. That's how they're issuing orders to the geth!"

"All right, we take it out."

"No," Miranda climbed from her seat. "Wait! They'll have all of his research there. The geth shut themselves down to buy us time. If we can board her-"

Shepard nodded. "Maybe we can find a way to reverse it. Joker!"

"On it," Joker said. "Course laid in! Gotta get around this fatass gas giant again, though. Wish you'd make up your mind!"

"Go!" Shepard waved for Miranda to follow and keyed the squad tactical net as he ran to the CIC. If they weren't going to destroy the Xenophon outright, there was only one other option. "Ground team, report to the Kodiak deck with full loadouts. Prepare for boarding action. I'm on my way!" Shepard switched the link back to the cockpit as he ran. "Listen, shithead, keep them off of us as long as you can, but if it gets too hot get the hell out of here. I'm not gonna be around to drag your ass to an escape pod this time. So don't let it get to that point."

"Did you hear something, EDI?" Joker responded. "It sounded like the Commander was telling us to run, but all I could make out was 'blah blah blah...' No way I'm leaving you behind."

"I'm gonna kick your ass out of that chair, Joker!"

"Yeah? You'll have to come back alive to do it!"

Shepard and Miranda shot past Kelly at her station, barely noticing the shocked expression on her face as they rushed past her to the lift. Of course, it was stuck on deck three. They continued through the armory to the ladder. Miranda, first down, wrenched the air-tight hatch open for Shepard to descend, then dropped down after him. They found themselves in the port sublevel, where only a week before Ken Donnelly died sealing the bulkheads to prevent a catastrophic explosion from destroying the ship.

Shepard rushed through the forward hatch to the maintenance corridor which lead directly to the hangar deck, with Miranda right behind him. Inside the hangar, the squad was already in position, securing armor plates and weapons to hard points, verifying suit integrity against chemical agents and vacuum. Shepard and Miranda split apart to their respective footlockers, already set up and awaiting their arrival.

The deck shuddered as Normandy blasted from orbit toward the glowing sphere of Ma-at. In its wake, the entire fleet of geth vessels tumbled silently along their orbits, oblivious to the small ship streaking away toward the sun.

Aboard the Moreh, Captain Rundan gripped the armrests on his chair. The tactical plot showed a dozen geth warships on an intercept course, directly between the quarian fleet and the geth hub on the asteroid. The Moreh herself had only rudimentary weaponry, but its electronic countermeasure capability rivaled any in the known galaxy. Her escorts would have to do the heavy lifting. The quarians were outnumbered two to one, but Moreh's support might be enough to make a difference.

Xen pulled the ship's ECM suite up on her omnitool. Her algorithms were already programmed to severely cripple the geth's ability to analyze the returns. This close, thy had no choice but to engage. But it wasn't the geth she was worried about now, but who was controlling them. When salvage teams pulled human remains from the unknown ship that had destroyed the Litanno's escorts, the sequence of events became clear. Cerberus was now in possession of Mobile Platform Two, and possibly the entire geth collective. They'd delivered Platform Two to the hub, and claimed the geth as their own.

"Ten seconds to intercept," the targeting systems officer announced. At a combined velocity nearing the speed of light, both sides would have to aim carefully. Xen kept watch on the geth ships for any sign of deviation. They continued to close straight and true. Then, as if a switch had been thrown, the geth ships stopped accelerating or even maneuvering.

"Registering drop in power output," the sensor tech said. "Barriers just went down on all targets!"

Rundan jumped to his feet. Had Xen managed to shut them down? But how it happened really didn't matter. "All ships, all batteries! Open fire! Fire at will!"

Beams of light connected the converging fleets, along with high energy pulses followed by the tiny artificial comets of torpedoes. The geth ships stayed on course, carried by momentum, their hulls shattering beneath unrelenting hail of fire. One by one they exploded, their mass effect cores creating miniature nebulae to mark their passing.

"Enemy targets destroyed," the sensor tech reported, giving voice to what all of the Moreh's bridge crew could see.

Xen climbed to her feet in spite of the throbbing pain in the stump of her leg. "The power loss was simultaneous. Something in their network brought them down."

"What does that mean?" Rundan asked.

"If they're down here, they might be down everywhere. Get to the hub!" There was no telling how long the reprieve would last nor how far the geth outage reached. But their path to the hub was now wide open.

"Helm!" Rundan shook his head. The Moreh was one of the few ships in the fleet capable of transmitting FTL thanks to its own communication relay. "Steady course for comm relay alignment. Tell the fleet to attack!"

"Belay that!" Xen's shriek made everyone on the bridge of the Moreh flinch. "Get us to that hub!"

The Illusive Man paced so rapidly that his image tore horizontally as it was sent across the light years to Archer on the Xenophon. "What happened, Doctor? Why did the geth shut down?"

Archer's ghostly image was buried behind a half dozen holo screens which he tried to read at once. The ordinarily unflappable scientist stuttered as he spoke. "I- I don't know. I've never seen anything like this. It's not a shutdown. It's like the entire collective is caught in a loop. All their processes are devoting cycles in unison to block a single command. They're drawing power from everywhere to stop it. It's the same across every node I can reach."

The Illusive Man left a trail of smoke behind him as he continued to pace. "Can you break the loop?"

"I don't know what caused it! What did you tell them to do?"

"The Normandy is at Ma-at. I ordered the geth to destroy it."

Archer's face paled visibly, even over the QEC. "The Normandy's here?"

"Focus, Doctor. Your only priority is re-establishing control over the geth collective."

"I told you! We needed more time-"

"I'm not concerned with your excuses. Only your solutions. What if you erase the offending command?"

"That may not matter now," Archer said. "The simultaneous action of all these runtimes across the collective are actually eradicating the infected code. The collective is essentially re-forming consensus! The best course of action might be to re-inject a modified version of the virus specifically altered to countermand the loop and revert control back to us. But that will take time!"

An alarm sounded in the chamber. "ALERT," reported the commander of the Cerberus task force escorting the Xenophon. "Quarian ships have bypassed the geth screen and are on course to Orbital Body 413319. We are maneuvering to engage. Time to intercept, 30 seconds."

Smoke billowed from the Illusive Man's nostrils, obscuring eyes that glowed with concern but without a trace of compassion. "It sounds to me like you need to hurry, Doctor.'