Chapter 5: Project Overlord

Rendezvousing with Tali and Garrus along with three other members of the crew was easier do to the proximity of the Perseus Vail to the Far Rim. The Mass Relay connections linked the Far Rim to Vail, Caleston Rift, Hades Nexus, the Omega Nebula, Pylos Nebula and the nebula given the name of Phoenix Massing.

It was here in Phoenix Massing that part of the Normandy crew namely Thane, Mordin and Samara went chasing after yet another failed Cerberus operation code-named Project Firewalker. They had departed at the same time as that farce of a trial on the Flotilla was happening.

According to the email from Cerberus the survey ship MSV Rosalie had apparently gone missing. Doctors Manuel Cayce and Robert O'Loy were aboard the ship which was last seen near the planet Zeona (Elysta system of the Ismar Frontier). It was on Zeona that the Project Firewalker was field-testing the Hammerhead planet-side exploration rover. And since the Normandy was in the neighborhood (relatively speaking) could they check it out?

On the surface Phoenix Massing was a fairly boring nebula, there was a small elcor presence on Salahiel and the scrabbling inhabitants of Aite. Other than those two 'colonies' the nebula was bereft of any major originations exploiting its untapped resources. Not even the geth activity that occasionally spilled over into the nebula from the Vail took any note of said resources.

Of course, that was why Cerberus was out here with two of their Projects and of course both failed.

The Typhon system had a singular planet of interest named Aite. Like most Golden-worlds Aite was a great deal like Earth with a variety of habitable land masses ranging from deserts to jungles to tundra. Faint rings encircled it not unlike those of Uranus, unusual for a non-giant planet say like Saturn. The rings contained rocks up to a meter in length and a wide dust cloud that stretched nearly 23,000 km from the centre of the planet.

The data scrolled up on the galaxy map making careful note of this impressive celestial phenomenon, however was dwarfed by the fact that Aite's largest moon, Lirate, was in an unstable orbit and according to the scans by astrophysicists the moon was predicted to impact the planet within the next two centuries - meaning that any Aitian venture was living on borrowed time. Colonial population and investment were of less magnitude than other garden worlds, which is why no doubt that Cerberus decided to build one of its infamous research facilities there.

There was in fact a colony of 1,540,000 people living close to the disputed capital of Adrasteia. Shepard noted in the probe's scans that Aite's day length was practically the exact same as Earth's. The variant in gravity was minimal to Earth's norm and the surface temp was a balmy 20c.

The popular add from Colonial affairs marked the place as 'Two beautiful moons, one spectacular ring, zero neighbours.'

The Spectre ran a calloused hand over her dark locks. "Yep, just perfect for one of TIMmy's creepy experiments. I mean what could possibly go wrong way-out in the ass end of space with a Project called Overlord?"

"Commander?" Kelly glanced up to the older woman, whom she still fantasized over, almost nightly despite the fact she knew the Spectre would never see her more than anything but a cheerful Yeoman.

"It's nothing, Kelly." Shepard tossed a half-hearted smirk to the redhead. Looking at the blue-green orb represented on the Galaxy Map: The Commander rubbed the back of her neck once more. From the brief handed to her by TIMmy the place had gone dark. No contact, no reports-nothing. Furthermore, TIMmy was positive the place hadn't been hit by the Collectors. At least not yet. He wanted Shepard to investigate.

The Commander only complied with the 'request' because one: she wanted to know what the hell Overlord was and how it was going to be used inevitably against the Alliance and her allies. 'Make humanity great again', my ass This time Shepard made sure she kept the thought to herself.

Two: Shepard had since her hunt for Saren vowed to shut down any Cerberus facility that crossed her path. So whatever reasons this place went dark, Shepard was going to make damn sure it stayed that way.

Three: The Council and Anderson / Hackett would be given any and all information gleaned from this place.

Now the team. She'd need a tech-quite possibly two. So that was Tali and Kasumi. If anyone could hack into any system it was the black-hooded thief. Facing opposition – she wanted a heavy hitter, that was either one of three. Zaeed. Nope no good. She needed something more amenable to not destroying everything on the spot so that took out the old merc and Grunt. Maybe Thane?

Shepard locked that last name in the back of her mind. Jack or Samara would do - you couldn't jam biotics like you could tech. But with Jack you had all that hate for Cerberus coiled up like a live bomb just ticking away ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Samara had a far cooler head but with the Code...things could become complicated. Granted the Justicar had made the vow of Subsumation but still...Complicated.

And considering this place was Cerberus, Shepard knew she needed Miranda to help her not only gain access to Cerberus computer systems but she might be needed as a presence. One that other agents in the rogue black-ops organization feared and respected in equal quantities.

Normally Shepard took only two or three at the most with her on ground mission. This time she made room for four. If this was anything like Horizon or the Collector ship Shepard toyed with the idea of using her full squad which was why she had them all on standby.

In the end Shepard decided to go with her 'hoodies' Kasumi and Tali. Rounding out with Miranda and finishing with Jack. Working together so soon after their blow-out would force them to at the very least cooperate and be cohesive, if only to complete the mission. And maybe just maybe seeing yet another failed project of Cerberus could force Miranda Lawson to admit not only to Jack but to herself that Cerberus is a mistake. That they are indeed on the wrong side of history.

ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME

Almost as soon as the shuttle landed a voice crackled over the head set: male, British by the accent and highly educated if his diction was anything to go by. *Thank god you came! 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! * This Archer fellow was sounding more and more panicked. *The controls aren't far from your position. You have to hurry! *

Shepard took very careful note of what the man said VI breakout not AI. There was a very significant difference. AVINA on the Citadel was a VI whilst EDI and the geth were both AIs.

"He's lying." Tali said pointing out what Shepard already suspected. "Then again he's Cerberus so of course there are lies. It's one of the things they do best. Lies, disinformation and distraction." Everyone including the Spectre turned their gaze to Miranda but no one said a word. "No VI can break their programming parameters. They are simply not capable of that sort of complex 'thinking.' That is the purview of an AI."

"Why should we help these mother-fuckers at all?" Jack demanded.

"Because Cerberus fuck-ups always tend to hurt the rest of us. And they have high reluctance to accept culpability. In fact, they never own up their mistakes- they excuse it away." Shepard answered evenly. "Here's an example: They let husk experiments get out of hand and a whole colony was laid to waste.

"And of course, Cerberus didn't give a damn about the innocent lives taken. To them sacrifices are always necessary. They keep telling themselves this in hopes it helps those with a shred of consciousness left sleep at night."

Shepard gave a very pointed look to Lawson. "Their excuse. 'The husks were never really alive anyway'. Never mind the human casualties the colony of the dead caused. Hell, when we were there, it seemed Cerberus deliberately allowed the attacks to happen just to see how Reaper husks were made.

"Same story with the thorian creepers and the rachni. All three ventures were a deplorable failure and we of the original Normandy had to swoop in and clean it up. Whatever this screwed up 'Project Overlord' is we have to end it here and now. Even if it means bombarding the planet and every single Cerberus operative still alive from orbit lest the AI escapes into the extranet."

"Dead Cerberus assholes? Count me in" Jack said crisply. "They all deserve to burn."

"I agree." Tali avowed as did Kasumi though the other hooded woman said nothing.

Miranda stayed wisely mute. She after all had been the one to tell Shepard the husks were not alive whiles completely ignoring the lives of the colonists the husks either killed or Cerberus used to create the husks on the imported Dragon's Teeth.

As the four approached they took very careful note of the building. From the outside there seemed to be no external damage of any kind. One could easy discount the quietness and lack of activity including absentee security forces to furlough or some other benign reason.

To the left was a large bay window that overlooked the LZ, from their vantage point the room had all the bearings of a command center for this section of the base. The right wing had no such large scenic widows. No doubt it was the right wing not the left that lead to the CIC for the satellite dish comms-array. They could see the colossal disk looming over the door.

Once they entered a female voice gave a canned warning that weapons simply were not allowed within the facility. A warning the Normandy team chose to ignore. What could not be ignored were the bodies of the dead or even the burning furniture. The stink of dead flesh and duroplast was enough to wrinkle the nose. It was not the first time Tali was thankful she could turn off the olfactory sensors in her suit. Though she did feel a pang of regret for her fellow teammates whew did not have such a luxury. Their hardsuit helmets turn out toxins not necessarily the stench of decay and charred furniture.

Descending down the stairs Archer once again addressed them. No doubt he had access to security cameras the rogue 'VI' hadn't yet seized. *Over here on the monitor. *

Shepard approached the flat screen and was rewarded with seeing a man about ten or fifteen years her senior. He was wearing not the typical black, yellow and gold of a Cerberus uniform but white and blue of Alliance science divisions. Maybe he didn't like the color scheme either, Shepard thought.

*Ah there you are. I've locked myself in the computer room on the far side of the base. There are geth on the loose. *

"Keelah!" Tali swore "Bosh'tet Cerberus goons playing with things best left alone. First EDI now this? What are they up too?"

Shepard silenced the younger woman with a slightest wave of the hand. She needed to hear what Archer had to say.

*A rogue VI programme has seized control and... I've lost a lot of friends today. I'd hate to see you join them. *

"Then perhaps you can stop with the lies, Dr. Archer. We both know this is no mere VI. AVINA never went on a rampage killing people. This has all the hallmarks of a rogue AI. Trust me I've met my fair share of them." Shepard said broking no room for denials.

*Yes. Alight. It's not just a simple VI but it's not an exactly an AI either. Please, watch yourselves. *

Shepard turned to her team. "Lets' do this."

"Why are we always cleaning up Cerberus crap?" Jack grumbled as she followed the Spectre around the receiving room.

"Because we're the heroes." Tali commented dryly which she received a half grin from Shepard.

The 'VI' had locked all doors with an algorithm that cycled too swiftly for either Tali or Kasumi to break or at least with their current equipment.

Shepard had a far more effective and immediate solution. She lifted her N7 Eagle and shot out the window. She turned back to her people with a shrug and hopped into the control booth.

"Dig into the logs and see what our little deviant 'friends' have been up to." Shepard gave the order not caring who carried it out. She herself scoped the room. The room had a table with three chairs around of couple tables and bay window that seemed to overlook a storage facility garage. The only thing in the room beyond was a transport truck and several durasteel containers holding who knew what.

It was Miranda who accessed the computer banks and played the latest file. The voice from the logs belonged to Archer: 'Status report: Please inform the Illusive Man we've made great strides in our research. His doubts about the lack of progress are unwarranted. A demonstration is forthcoming.'

"Great just great. Sounds just like those assholes. Those fuckers definitely like their demonstrations." Jack sneered. "Gotta wonder how many demonstrations they filmed and shipped to TIMmy having me kill other kids after they pumped me full of chems. God, I hate those mother fuckers!"

No one said anything, sometimes it was simply better to let the ex-con rant. Better for everyone, that way, not unlike letting the young tattooed woman have her hidey-hole without any kind of through-traffic.

They exited the only door in the room that had previously been locked. It was locked, wasn't it? Strange...

Turning to the right Shepard led her squad past another set of blast doors into the command center for the comms-satellite and dish control from here they were able to extend the bridge controls to the dish hub.

Still needing facts that Archer was either unable to more likely unwilling to disclose Shepard decided to tap into all mission logs. She needed a better sense of what they were going to face. Other than free-roaming geth that was. Geth were not an issue for several years now they've been battling the clankers and have become quite adept at it. This new 'VI' or rather now AI was new.

Archer's log was nothing more than a passive reassurance to all project personnel about handling live geth, he promised the rewards were far greater than the risks involved. He ended his statement with 'Someday your sons and daughters will thank you.'

"Ch'ha right." Shepard shook her head. Dealing with geth was never going to turn out favourably. Not unless one of the clankers broke away from the Consensus and decided to fight the tyranny of the 'Old Machines.'

"Freaking dumbasses." Jack said it in one.

Shepard inclined her head and pointed with her chin to the large readout above their heads. It was a wire frame schematic of the dish-relay and points of interests that needed to be targeted.

Tali moved to the controls to retract the dish making it accessible to the bridge controls. The whole room seemed to shake once the massive thing locked into place.

Once it did the screens filled with a defragmented image of a green face. Whatever it was saying was completely unintelligible.

*Damn it! The VI's overridden the controls. We have to stop him—he's trying to upload his program off world.*

Tali shook her head why did aliens insist on giving things like software a proper pronoun? As if they had a true sexuality? VIs-AIs are ITS! EDI was an IT despite the female voice. AVINA is an IT! Geth are ITS. This thing this green-faced HULK image is an IT! Programs do not have genders for the Ancestors sake! If the quarian engineer had one pet-peeve that was it—the gender roleing of software. She never understood in truth no quarian did the compulsion to make AIs or VIs gender specific. The geth were never given such distinction during their creation. Those first engineers never ever referred to the software as he or she. It was always simply a numeral distinction. It was as it should be. It was proper. Software had no true-life so how could it be gendered? Of course there was Chatika...who she um...(cough)...referred to as a girl...

Spun in the internal rant Tali nearly missed Archer's orders. *Destroy the antennae inside the dish. There's a tram on the lower level. Get to it as fast as you can.*

"Okay you heard the man. We do this. Two teams: half clockwise, the half counter, we meet here." she pointed with her right index finger to the central node. "Do what ever is necessary to take it offline."

"Roger that." Tali nodded which was echoed by Miranda and Kasumi with Jack just smirking.

"Love blowing shit up." To prove her point, Jack pointed her pistol at one of the cameras monitoring the room and pulled the trigger. "VI's trying to play eye in the sky. How 'bouts we blind the motherfucker whenever we can." It really wasn't a question.

It was a solid point. Blinding the VI was a good strategy. Most of the cameras had a strange greenish glow about it, as had most of the screens in the room, indicated that they were infected with the VI's presence. It was almost as if it was allowing communication between the Normandy crew and Archer to a certain extent.

Why?

The door opened and the tram went down. Again, the unintelligible buzzing words followed them. But for a second Shepard could have sworn she made out the words. 'Please, make it stop.'

But that couldn't be right. And it also could be right that this VI was feeling fear or pain despite the pitch in its garbled words. She was just anthropomorphizing a machine-no a program. Programs didn't -feel, didn't have true emotion only simulated ones. AVINA's inflections were simply simulated it took a far more sophisticated program like EDI to have true emotions.

So why then did this VI should like it was crying out: 'Please, make it stop!'

Down flights of stairs though corridors, atriums and open chambers the team pushed towards the tram exit / entrance.

The announcements had changed from reminding people that they were not allowed their weapons to telling everyone there was geth activating and they were to remain at their work station until the all clear was given.

"Love how expendable your pals think their workers are." Jack tossed at Lawson.

"As if panic would do any good." the ex-operative shot back. "If they are at their work stations they are less likely to cause a stampede or panic." she looked to Shepard. "The military isn't any different."

"True, but most scientists aren't' leathernecks." Kasumi piped up. "No offence Shep."

"None taken. But Lawson has a point if people are at their work station they are less likely to draw attention from the geth or cause injury to one another in a flight of panic."

"Whatever." Jack pointed to the burnt scarring on the walls and the heads of Cerberus personnel that looked like someone stomped on their heads and popped them like an overripe tomato. "But these bastards didn't feel that way. Not that I give two shits that they're dead."

It was best not to carry on the conversation. Shepard chose to ignore by doing down yet another flight of stairs. As she passed all the flat screen panelling that once might have held data or news feeds were filled with their new green ghost companion. And in the corner of the hall was yet another camera. This time it was Shepard's turn to pop a shot into the lenses.

The doors lead to the mess hall. The announcement changed from 'stay at your post' to announcing the day's lunch menu.

Almost as soon as they entered they were assaulted by an array of geth troopers: rocketeers, hunters, destroyers and flamer units. They had positioned themselves on the facing balcony and within the kitchen proper. The four were struck by a volley of plasma fire, fortunately however the stairwell they were on had a glass partition to take cover behind. It wasn't much but it was better then giving the enemy clean shots.

"Target the Flamers and Rocketeers!" Shepard ordered. "Keep your heads low, stay frosty people!"

Long training whether the team members spent years at Shepard's side or simply months had honed her squad in a very effective fighting unit. The geth were already hacked by the Green-Faced AI aka the HULK but that didn't mean they were immune to tech-assault. Tali and Kasumi unified their assaults with deploying overloads which Miranda aided in.

Tali and Kasumi used energy-drain while simultaneously Jack and Shepard deployed heavy area warps and singularities. Once a geth platform were rendered vulnerable Tali swooped in with her AI hacking. The window was very small and wouldn't last long not with the swift shark-like aggressiveness of The HULK but it was enough of a window for Tali to turn geth against geth: just as she had countless times during the hunt for Saren.

The ring of geth began to converge on them, staggering the attack and trigging bursts at random. Orbiting the Normandy team, the biotics warded off every volley, deflecting them into the faces of the cafeteria surround them or into other clankers. At other times Shepard made no attempt to redirect the attacks, but simply twisted and torqued her rangy body, allowing the bolts to miss her by centimeters. It was the Echo Game, she was becoming as masterful at its complexities as any asari Huntress.

Around the Normandy team, the automata collapsed one after the next, gushing lubricants from holed reservoirs or exploding in a hail of alloy parts, until all were heaped on the ferrocrete floor.

To the back portion of the café where the tram lounge there were several gear-lockers,

aligned seats for those waiting to board the tram or disembark from where they worked, the living quarters or entertainment facilities.

Over the speakers played some sort of classical music that seemed to be warped and warbled as if someone were playing an old fashioned antique tape cassette that got caught in the cogs of the player.

As for the tram itself it was utterly utilitarian with no seats to sit in and more than enough room to transport heavy cargo. The journey was very short, considering but the necessity of the tram was evident as the main station overlooked an expansive ravine of forest and river. It less time it takes to tie the laces of an old boot the tram docked at the dish relay.

It was almost startling when Archer's voice came over the tram's load speakers. *Damn it all... he's aligning the dish to a new upload target! He'll have clear line of sight to our satellite! This is going to be tight!*

*Arriving at dish access.* proclaimed the same female announcer that had been issuing all previous announcements. *Attention satellite broadcast window is opening soon.*

"That can't be good." quibbled Kasumi.

"No, it isn't" Tali agreed.

*All upload data must be approved by your department supervisor.*

"Somehow I don't think that will be an issue for Green-Face." the thief added.

The gale blew as fiercely and frozen as it had on the Dantius towers

Geth on the catwalks, battle

get to the controls that extended the catwalks to the dish proper

Alongside the dish main construct. Shepard issued her teams to the hub center, hear geth click-chatter

Garrus looking through the scope. Targeted on of the geth popping it in the head.

"You see that?" Tali pointed out. "They're not like the ones we fought with Saren, or on the Alarei. They have this sheen about their chassis."

"Green-sheen. Copy that." Shepard said. "Can you override it?"

Tali who managed to hack and override nearly every other mech, Ai and VI they came across shook her head. "Not with the time frame we have, Shepard. I've never seen any programme like this. VI maybe but its thinking is...more than even an AI like EDI. It's more organic than that."

"Like a Reaper?"

"Yes, exactly. This isn't Reaper tech. But maybe influenced by it? We all know Cerberus likes to pirate things and turn it to its own."

"Okay then we do this the old-fashioned way. Lay down as much firepower as possible, use the trip-wires from the omni-bows. Tali use every other trick in the book you and your drones have. I'll take care of the support struts, the rest of you keep the geth off of me. Keep your eyes open for assault drones."

"Roger that."

"Copy that Shep..."

"Understood, Commander."

"I'll pop 'em hard until candy comes out."

*Attention satellite broadcast window is opening soon.*

Shepard sprinted to the first structural support strut. She had no opposition. It was not unlike the first room on the Lunar base where Shepard and her team consisting then of Liara and Tali took out the VI conduits. The first was easy then too and then became increasingly more and more difficult. Shepard had no illusions that it would not be the same now.

Shepard sprinted clockwise to the next strut. She heard behind her the sound of gunfire. None of it even reached her to bombard her barriers and shields. She cast a look over her shoulder and saw that Jack was moving with her, shielding her with a barrier shield. It gave her enough time to reach the second strut.

With each destruction of a platform came an inorganic scream of pain from the HULK. The team didn't break stride or pause in their mission.

"Behind us! Go get them Chatika, good girl! "

"On it! Deploying overload!"

"Oh that had to hurt!"

"Fly bitch."

Shepard did what she did best, a pure artist on the battlefield. A wave-front of cool passed over Shepard with the shade's embrace. She became the turbulent swirl of wind whistling through the towering radio dish, she became the sunlight outside the shadow within. The power of dark energy surged within her granting her body the power to charge past the geth line to the next strut. The action surge granted her the power to use a shadow strike one of the flamers, rendering its shields inert.

A warp-slash took out another's shielding allowing Jack and Miranda to simultaneously use warps and slams against it. Tali and Kasumi peppered remaining geth with a volley from the Locast SMG and a pulse shotgun Tali had taken from the Alarei. Their attacks were aided by Tali's combat drone and tech assaults.

Third strut down. Four more to go. And the geth kept pouring out of the base of the dish. Where ever the HULK was getting the clankers he seemed to have an endless supply.

"Here we go."

"Just a second."

"Cover Shepard."

"Sure thing."

Shepard sprinted ahead to the fifth strut; she took it down and used a biotic charge to take out the sixth and seventh leaving the geth to her team. Sparks flew. The dish shuddered and groaned.

The announcement went from warning about the window of data transfer to warning everyone that the structural integrity of the dish was in-danger as if the team needed to be reminded of that.

Hitting the last support strut destroyed the needle. Over the radio Archer seemed hopeful—ecstatic even. * You've done it! You've severed the link to the satellite!*

The inorganic screech of pain, all faced turned as one and looked up. As the needle came down it tore more of the satellite around them.

Shepard's eyes winded. "Oh you gotta be kidding!" she muttered darkly sprinting away from the falling structure. Her hind brain went back to the Citadel Tower when a chuck of Sovereign landed on her which nearly killed her. Hell a little more than half her body was now cybernetic because of that crash. She had no inkling to add the other half to that cyborg cocktail.

"Move! The whole thing is giving way!" She shouted out, running as fast as she was able. At the edge of the catwalk she used her biotics to launch her forward on to the platform beyond not unlike an asari huntress or Justicar. Kasumi's acrobatics aided her, Jack and Miranda also used their biotic to hurl themselves to the lower platform taking between them Tali. They tumbled and rolled to safety. – Effectively speaking.

Around them in a spiral ring of fiery destruction the whole of the dish collapsed into the ravine far below in an impressively explosive fireball. Black smoke billowed up covering everything and everyone.

Out of the smoke came Archer. "Over here!"

"What the hell is going on around here?" Shepard demanded marching up to the scientist, glaring at him. enough was enough.

Archer looked away, his blue eyes staring in to the sapphire orbs of the Spectre. "Man's reach exceeding his grasp." He waxed poetic. "Come on, I'll explain."