Chapter 16: A House Divided
Sam rose from the bed; it was early yet only Oh-four-hundred. It had been a long night but unlike most long nights for Sam this time it was night of wonder and joy. After dinner, a round of picture taking and baby staring the elder women: Hannah and Althea decided to give their daughters time alone with their own daughters. The first day was critical to daughter mother bonding. The minds of the newborn were so very impressionable, they needed to connect to their mother, and sire if applicable. Even in slumber the infant mind or in this case minds sought a connection just as they had within the womb.
In that quiet time between breast feedings, first time baths, diapering and simply being first time moms, the lovers floated in the euphoria of each other's company. Liara's body still tender, the two postponed full physical lovemaking but allowed their minds to connect and drift further and deeper into one another than had ever previously gone before.
It was a gift Liara said shared only between the most trusted of friends or…bondmates. Memories, emotions, empathic passionate love-making flared to life in those shared moments of the Joining. The gestalt of the soul bond made it all that more intense. More powerful. And far more intimate than even the physicality of actual lovemaking. When Liara pulled back from the Joining both lovers felt as if they had indeed had a night of unfettered love-making, even their bodies ached as if they had.
Liara was asleep so were the girls. The house was silent. Once more Sam found herself staring at her beautiful wife, at her daughters. When she made to move off the bed she felt Liara's hand on her shoulder.
"Did you not sleep well Melethril?"
Sam turned her head to her wife. "Very well. Probably the last good night's sleep I will have in a very long time. That Joining…was incredible." She leaned over and kissed Liara's blue-purple lips.
"It felt like another gestalt. Certainly deeper than our first Joining." Liara's azure cheeks flushed with her words. Both moments in the young mother's mind flared brightly in her mind as well as sweet remembrance of loosing her virginity to her lover.
"I know what you meant, Angel Eyes." Sam smiled. "But our night before Ilos…will always be my favorite time." a sheepish smile.
"Indeed." Liara's fingers traced over the scars that lined Samantha's body the deepest one running from collarbone to hip, given to her when the Saren-husk tried and quite nearly did eviscerate Samantha during that last battle on the Citadel. It was that grievous wound which had nearly taken Samantha away from Liara and their new life together. "Its when I knew I fell in love with the ship's captain."
"I always wanted to go for round two…" Sam playfully raised her eyebrows up and down.
"Saammantha." Liara drawled as she has their first time, though this time her cheek did not color a deeper teal. She leaned over and kissed her bondmate with all the passion within her heart and the blessed memory of their first time together.
"I don't know is it just me but was this Joining even if not physical seemed some how deeper." Sam said after she gained her breath and composure. Her voice a husky whisper.
"It was. We've been apart for so long…I was desperate to feel your touch again."
Saren…her Mother, the Reapers, the geth…all of it., and yet if it hadn't been for those moments of harried battle, torments Liara would never have met the love of her life or now have two gorgeous daughters.
"Me too Angel eyes." Sam traces the 'eyebrow' markings on Liara delicate face. It always fascinated why Liara chose to tattoo them on until her wife told her that human eyebrows were so very expressive she wanted to imitate them, hence the markings.
Blue eyes stared into blue eyes. Liara's ever busy mind started to ponder what was to come next. Once Samantha left for the relay, Liara knew she had to pull all the resources she had as an information broker to insure the Alliance and the Citadel Council did not sacrifice her wife because of the inconvenience of Samantha Shepard being right yet again. Of course some of the entanglements Samantha had brought upon herself. If Liara could gain a better grasp upon the reasons and logic behind some of those decisions she could better equip herself for the political shit-storm that was going to hit the proverbial fan as her human might have said.
"Samantha, about that geth you have, I know you have your reasons and I'm sure Tali would never have agreed to it, but was it complicit to your demands only because it was you who gave the order? And I have to ask whatever one else will be asking if they haven't already-why did you save it?"
"It spoke. Called me out by name. It carries a lot of knowledge about the Reapers. I need that knowledge. And strange as it sounds, I think Legion maybe be the key to stop this aggression between quarian and geth. If they would just open up a dialog." Sam started. "Did you know that according to Legion the geth are just custodians of Rynock? They haven't taken over the planet. They haven't seized any settlements or any great metropolitan centers, or resources. All this time they are in a holding pattern, save the heretics that followed Saren because of the promises of the Reapers.
"I know what will be said about me, about taking a geth on my ship; much less let it be part of my crew. I know what how they will look at me, hell even when she knew about it Ash was ready to believe the rhetoric and hype that TIMmy spun, she considers me a traitor. She named me so back on Horizon. All anyone else will see, because that is all they are seeing right now is that I took Cerberus resources, their ship and even some of their personnel. They will say I am just like Saren or worse.
"Is Ash is so willing to think I lost it, that I am disgraced. That's all on TIM. All of it. He wanted to destroy my credibility, to remake me—resurrect me in his image like some latter-day Lazarus.
"Li, all my life my mother told me to outthink my opponents. That my mind is the best weapon I possess. Use an enemy's weapons and knowledge against them are solid tactics. Same thing I learned as an N7. If your back is against the wall, if you can't beat it—use it. That is what I am doing."
Liara said. "Of course I understand my love but will your military accept it?"
"Human militaries have been using spies, double agents all the time. I might have to remind them of that when the time comes. But once I reveal everything I've learned they'll see the value of harvesting that kind of information that never would have been able to be gained otherwise. We need every advantage. Everyone we can gain when the Reapers come."
Liara wrapped her arms around her bondmate. "You are right they will, save perhaps our parents, compare you to Saren, a questionable crew save for Justicar Samara, a very powerful warship equipped with an AI, a geth crewmember and a criminal origination. They will seek to disgrace you."
"I know."
"I won't let that happen."
"I know."
Sam turned around cradled her wife to her and kissed her with all she was worth, every fiber of her soul, every spark of her love. "I have to go." she uttered.
This time it was Liara that answered. "I know."
Sam rose from the bed and began to dress—she reached for her N7 shirt paused and went for Liara's undershirt instead, just as she had the day before. She was deliberately taking her time. Liara knew from her experiences on the Normandy and the Victory that her bondmate could get fully dressed and kitted out in less than a minute if she had too.
When she was fully dressed, groomed and ready to leave she took Benezia from her cradle held her for a full minute, basking in the link Liara generated. She kissed her forehead and laid her down then she did the same to Hannah.
"Mamma, loves you both my Little Squirrels more than anything in this galaxy. I am so very proud of you, both." Silently Sam turned to her wife and held her for what seemed to be an eternity.
"Samantha, you mean everything to me. To us." Liara managed through a thickening throat. It had become so tight it almost hurt to breathe let alone speak. Liara was astonished she managed words at all. She might have doubted she had said them at all if not for the moment of pain caused by her throat, tongue and lips forming the words.
Another kiss, softer this time as was the hand that caressed the tanned cheek. Liara reveled in the small imperfections the scars and callouses that shaped her wife's hand. A hand as familiar to her as was her own.
"I love you, Liara. I have always loved you. You are my heart's very breath." Willing herself not weep Commander Samantha Secura Shepard of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel turned and left the bedroom—then the apartment—then Nos Austra. If she lingered any longer, if she looked behind her that one last time, Sam might find it almost impossible return to duty, which was something the Commander could never permit. Not in herself, not in her crew.
Alone in the bedroom with her daughters still slumbering, Liara pulled her legs up to her chest, folded her arms around her calves and wept the tears her wife could not allow. She prayed hard and long until her head ached as deeply as her soul and heart that this was not the last time she saw her beloved—her soul's ease.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
Shepard barely set a foot upon the deck of the Normandy when Kelly Chamber's voice over the ship's comms. *Welcome aboard Commander and may I add congratulations.*
"Thank you, Kelly." the smile that graced her slightly tanned face was bitter sweet. She stood near her personal monitor then turned to her yeoman, "Kelly recall all personnel, I want to be off planet in ten."
"Aye-aye Commander."
In the same moment Kelly activated her comms system, Shepard hit the ship's intercom, "Joker prep for take-off, I'm feeding the new coordinates to a nav-point now." Shepard said.
The geth station was in the Terminus system placed between the stars where no organics had cause to look. Of course Shepard had been curious as to why the Heretics built stations outside geth territory in the first place. When this question was put to Legion he answered that the heretics sought improvement from the Old Machines. In exchange they help them attack organics. The rest of the geth consensus condemned these judgments.
The mission parameters: the geth will disrupt their network. Prevent the station's defenses from focusing on the assault team. The Reaper data core was physically isolated from the network. Legion stated that it would need to be escorted to access and destroy the data.
The defenses were negligible in space. Within however was another story. Mobile platforms of various configurations, and non-sentient defense turrets were abundant. Shepard just prayed there would be none of those skulking: sappers, stalkers, or ghosts. She hated those things with a passion. They were the only geth capable of interfering with biotic implants.
Back when she was fighting Saren and his geth …she guessed they should be reclassified as heretics if her weapons overheated she could use her biotics to crush her enemies. But with the stealth forces they dampened weapons, tech and biotics. Blasted fucking things.
During her questioning of Legion about the opposition Shepard had asked of course how many geth should they expect?
The answer surprised her that there may be billions of individual programs. Fortunately, most will be uploaded to the central computer. Shepard winced at that she kept forgetting that the mobile platforms were not individual geth. Geth were software, not hardware. Tali, Legion and even EDI repeatedly told the Spectre this but for a soldier it was hard not to see the platforms as individual enemy forces rather than a transport for the thousands of programs the clanker shell moved around.
According to Legion, only a few mobile platforms were maintained at any time. Others were manufactured when needed.
Manufactured… geth platforms are manufactured as needed. Goddess any war with them would be futile. how many geth were needed to make them…'smart AI' Only a hundred, maybe a thousand? And how many platforms can be manufactured within an hour? A day? How many in a week?
Goddess the guy might be an ass but please—please let Admiral Koris vas Quib Quib talk sense into the Admiralty and not have the Migrant Fleet go to war with the geth. The quarians would lose—everything.
Even still, Shepard vowed she would not allow the heretics to brainwash the rest of his race, especially not to worship the Reapers. She gave her word on that.
Seven minutes latter the Normandy had her full crew onboard, three minutes after that the ship was on its way to Phoenix Massing. Once it entered the nebula, she would navigate -to the Sea of Storms. Even by Mass Relays it would take time to reach their destination. Legion wasn't kidding when it said the station was between stars in a place no organic would seek it out or even think of going.
As always Shepard learned all she could about a drop site if at all possible. She liked knowing what she was getting into and sometimes the history of a place gave more Intel than current specs. A soft smile graced the Spectres lips, she and Liara were indeed a perfect match.
She had called up Tali to get more information on the station. The galaxy map called up an enlargement of the station.
"What can you tell me about the station?"
Tali looked at the construct. "Legion can tell you more, Commander."
"He did now I want to know what you know."
"Heretic Station was once called Haratar by my people; the space station was stripped of its useful technology when the Migrant Fleet had to leave the Perseus Veil. What was left was little more than a cold metal superstructure." Tali explained.
"Commander," EDI interjected. "Excuse the interruption but the station was removed from the star charts in 2050 CE."
"Sounds familiar." Shepard scoffed. "Just like losing the Mu Relay….okay EDI scan it, but make sure you don't wake the neighbours. What can you tell me."
"One moment. Scans indicate the station was reconstructed and upgraded in a massive effort that took at least a Citadel Standard decade, implying that they may have been geth outside the Veil before their attack on Eden Prime. Needing little but a fuel source, it could have been hidden here for much longer without attracting the attention from the barren worlds around Tassrah or the clueless elcor in the Salahiel system."
"Not that surprising." Tali said. "Elcor don't like space travel overmuch."
Shepard remained silent; she simply studied the space station. As a spacer kid she grew up mostly on starships but there were a few times she had lived on space stations. Mostly when she was younger—still in the single digits.
"What else can you tell me?"
"Heretic Station is capable of broadcasting vast distances through tight beam projection. Approximately 6.6 million copies of geth software are stored in the station, the majority of which are kept bodiless in servers and downloaded to legged platforms when needed."
"Legion told me as much. What else?"
"The station's "population" of legged platforms in approximately 2.4 million." Tali looked to Shepard, "Let us hope they are all dormant as Legion promises."
"Cha'yah no kidding. Tali gear up, you're coming with us. I want somebody who knows the geth inside and out and who I trust without hesitation or question."
"You got it Shepard." Tali smiled behind the mask, you had to be adept at quarian body language to see it, and you could almost certainly hear it. You could hear the pride as well. Pride of the devotion and belief of her captain in her. It meant everything to Tali.
By the time Tali and Legion joined Shaped on the bridge the Spectre was fully kitted out and waiting from them. She turned her head ever so slightly over her shoulder to acknowledge their approach but said nothing else.
Joker eased up on the approach, just outside visual range. He turned to Legion, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"You know it's just our heat emissions that are hidden, right? They can look out a window and see us coming."
Without missing a beat the geth returned with: "Windows are a structural weakness. Geth do not use them. Approach the hull at these coordinates." It turned and used the navigator's station to transmit the coordinates directly to the helm. "Access achieved you may proceed."
With its back turned away from the helm it didn't see Joker mocking it while mining 'Robby the Robot' With a chastising look from Shepard, even fully masked behind her helm, Joker held up his hands in surrender and went back to piloting the ship—expertly docking the Normandy to where Legion directed.
ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME~ME
Getting into the station from the airlock was relatively easy; Legion simply used the blowtorch extension of his platforms inborn omni tool. As soon as it landed feet on the stations deck Legion turned its head towards Shepard and Tali.
"Alert. This facility has little air or gravity. Geth require neither."
Shepard and Tali shared a look. They had already felt the shift of null-gravity, their suits meg-locks already engaged ever since they left Normandy's umbilical connection. Not to mention their suits' automatic life-support systems activated. Tali's environmental suit's air-filtration system was always on but the independent life support wasn't always active not with a breathable atmosphere.
Shepard looked around her and frowned behind her faceplate. "Won't we be detected? Don't they have intrusion alarms?"
That was a solid question Tali agreed. Surely the geth base had security provisions.
Legion shook its flashlight head. "Sensors have been reduced. We have infiltrated their wireless network and filled the data storage with random bits.
'So what.' Tali thought.
Shepard put those words into voice "That helps us how?"
Legion evenly provided the answer. "The heretics must scrub this 'junk' data. They have portioned themselves into local networks, working in parallel. Any alarm we trigger will not go beyond the room we are in. Only accessing the main core will trigger a station-wide alert."
"We've got a job to do. Let's do it." Shepard ordered pushing past both geth and quarian. She had only gone a few steps when Legion's mechanical voice called out.
"Shepard-Commander. We concluded that destruction of this station was the only resolution to the heretic question. There is now a second option."
Shepard whirled around staring at the clanker. Waiting.
"Their virus can be repurposed. If released into the station's network, the heretics will be rewritten to accept our truth."
Sensing the underlying irritation for not having all Intel or options at the onset in her captain, Tali stepped forward. "Either way the geth will not be a problem. But Shepard, If you rewrite these geth, they'll rejoin the others. Legion's geth will be stronger. Can we trust them not to attack us in the future?"
"Why didn't you mention this before we came aboard?" Shepard allowed the irritation to seep through as a consequence her voice turned sharp. Accusatory.
"We did not know the virus was complete. It is. It can be used against the true geth at any time. Our arrival was timely."
The irritation withered away from the Spectre. All soldiers knew what it was not to have the full Intel until boots hit the muck, and the situation of a theater could be better appraised. With certainly Shepard knew what Tali wanted and to be honest with herself she did too. But what did her newest crewmember want? She had to know what the clanker recommended. Not that she'd follow it but she was still gathering her own appraisal on the clanker. And she couldn't do that unless she pressed his resolve, she had to get under his skin…chassis or so to speak.
"They're your people, Legion. You must have an opinion."
"This is new data. We have not yet reached consensus."
That was as useful as a shrug of the shoulders and a 'meh'. That decided it. "I wouldn't brainwash an organic race, I can't see treating the geth differently."
"The question is irrelevant. If we do not rewrite them, we destroy them. That is why we are here. Do not hesitate now."
I am not hesitating you stupid clanker, I wanted to see the way you think. Shepard thought.
Almost as if plucking the vibrations of the Spectre's thoughts Legion went on to say. "They will exterminate your species because their gods tell them to. You cannot negotiate with them. They do not share your pity, remorse or fear.
Shepard pressed forward down the corridor until she came to a set of stairs leading to the station's lower decks. A short corridor stretched from their stairwell to another chamber, here the deck plating had a very visible green running lights. or at least it looked like running lights but only if you gave it a dismissive glance. A better examination revealed the running lights were no such thing it appeared to be code.
To Shepard it was too close to the coded rooms David Archer created when he had hi-jacked the synthetic tech to show her the horrors he had suffered at the hands of his brother. She shuddered at the unwanted memory. Though she did not blame the boy for taking her over, the kid was terrified and in such great pain, it had unnerved the Spectre that her will was so easily taken over. Her body had wandered from room to room like a broken old fashioned clockwork toy from ages past. Not for the first time nor would it be the last that Shepard would compare that moment to how Matriarch Benezia described indoctrination.
Tali's voice cut into Shepard's transient thoughts. "The geth are inactive. Maybe we can sneak past them."
With a sudden shock Shepard glanced back to the floor and realized that glowing neon green lights were not running lights…they were geth!
"Interrupting data streams will alert local network. We recommend preemptive strikes against hardlink routers." Legion added.
Shepard's nod meant to convey that she believed Legion's suggestion to be a good idea. Far more carefully and more assuredly as if they had done it a thousand times before the troop navigated the room, without a single misstep.
Rounding the corner of the strangely angled bulkheads, Shepard spotted one of the hardlinks Legion spoke of. Taking even more careful aim with the geth pulse-rifle, a weapon she specifically chose for this mission, behind her Tali raised her own M-300 Claymore Heavy shotgun also taken from the armory for this mission. Normally the Quarian preferred her M-27 Scimitar Assault shotgun but the krogan's weapon dealt a greater high damage to shields, armour and biotic barriers. With incendiary rounds the shotgun was extraordinarily deadly. That was proven true when two of the chassis burned into a crisp.
With the shot the stations alarms rang out in a grinding Woop—woop. The data streams turned from green to red. The geth knew the companions were there now and they would seeking to eliminate the intruders.
Both woman took very careful aim at the backs of the unsuspecting geth hunter platforms and fired. In an instant the three platforms shattered like a fluttering sheaf of fallen dead leaves caught in the puff of wind. But it wasn't the wind that swirled the platforms around but the lack of zero-gravity. Shepard's body aglow with dark energy summoned the power to push the chassis into the bulkhead. Nothing was left.
"Shepard, I'm picking up useful resources in the geth hubs. We could salvage them for supplies." Tali suggested.
Shepard nodded and indicated that the first hub should be harvested. As she approached while watching Tali use her omni tool to turn the tangible resources into omni-gel she posed a question to Legion. "Why are all the heretics attached to these hubs?"
"These are mobile platforms. Hardware. The crew is software. They are communicating through the station's central computer." Legion answered.
In hearing the answer Shepard's head turned back to the deck-flooring where the data streams were-the crew. "Elaborate."
"The heretics connect to the main computer to exchange data-memories and program updates. We gain complexity by linking together. To be isolated within a single platform is to be reduced. We see less. Comprehend less. It is quieter."
That was exactly what Tali had told Shepard all those years ago when they had first met on the Normandy SR-1when the Commander had first asked of the geth.
"If you exchange data—memories—how do you keep track of which ones are yours? How do you stay you?"
Tali listened to the exchange even as she and her drone continued to harvest the hub's resources. "There is only 'we'. " Legion said. "We were created to share data among ourselves. The difference between geth is perspective." Legion turned and looked at the hub and the data stream. "We are many eyes looking at the same things. One platform will see things another does not and will make different judgments." It turned and looked to Shepard.
"The heretics are apart of you. I can see why you'd be conflicted about them. In a way, whatever you do to them, you're doing to yourself."
"Yes. Once they return to us and upload their memories, we will share their experience of being altered."
"Every other species I know of might be psychologically scarred by a traumatic experience like that. " Shepard's voice was softer.
"It is not clear if geth can be 'traumatized.' We do not feel pain as you do."
Tali was shocked in hearing this. Shocked not because she had never contemplated such a thing that the geth could feel trauma, but because she was curious about the answer. She then cursed herself. for such foolishness. If a geth felt pain that meant they were more than AI-it meant they had a soul. And if they had souls…then Admiral Koris vas Quib Quib that frelling apologist was right. The Morning War was nothing short of genocide.
No. NO! They were AI and not to be trusted. They were the enemy of the quarians. Her enemy, an enemy who slaughtered her father. Slaughtered all those aboard the Alarei. Enemies who stole her homeworld. They were the enemy as much as the collectors or the Reapers.
Tali gritted her teeth so hard she might had shattered them when she heard Legion continue on. "We cannot predict what the effects will be."
"Let's keep moving." Shepard said opening a door between corridors, what else could be said?
"Yes." Legion put to voice what Tali was thinking.
The long corridor ahead of them was aligned with turrets. As of yet they were inactive.
"We can assume control of any defensive turret. They will assist us briefly then self-destruct." Legion stated matter-of –factly.
"Do it."
"Assuming control." the AI's voice sounded too much like Harbinger for Shepard's liking.
How many times over the course of their mission had she heard those exact words? There were times the Commander doubted if anyone else but she had heard the Reaper's voice echo its intent as it seized the power over one of the collectors
But as much as Shepard disliked the phrasing she was grateful all the same as she saw the turrets respond to Legion's hacking. Tali scoffed under breath that she could just as easily do the same.
Despite the helm covering all but her eyes and those veiled behind her visor, Shepard managed to convey to her wife's Trusted that she knew and never questioned the Engineer's talent. As if further proving her point more to the geth than the Commander, Tali took over the remaining turrets. She would not be outdone by some bosh'tet clanker.
No sooner had the turrets' programming been taken over then the corridor was flooded with geth hunters and troopers entering from an adjacent room from the right. The elongated smooth domed turrets swiveled towards the newcomers and opened fire. The incoming geth had not expected to be gunned down by their own defenses. The first three went swiftly down.
Legion and Tali sent their combative drones out seeking to take out more. Tali knew her Commander well and sent her a defensive drone to cover the human. Shepard's body glowed eclectic blue, shimmering as she covered her body in biotic barriers, in the next instant Shepard shot out shockwaves of dark energy. Like liquid light rendered to a syrup of blue fire, a blazing spear of white and cerulean and orange streaking in to black, exploding, coruscating like shattered diamonds. The geth platforms shrieked as if in agony.
Behind her Tali targeted her quarry at the center of mass. The hunter's chassis splintered open from the M-300 Claymore devastating power. Standing above the diminutive quarian Legion raised the sniper rifle and took aim at his fellow geth's flashlight like head. If it was disturbed of destroying its kin…it made no show of it. The handful of platforms fell swiftly.
Detritus from the battle floated in the air around them in tiny spirals, an ever present reminder that they were Zero-G. The storage crates had to be mag-locked so not to float about with the lack of gravity. Even what was left of the geth platforms that hadn't been immolated with the incendiary fire, shifted in the confined space like tiny meteorites.
Shepard pressed forward. She moved over the threshold where the hunters had issued from. Here once more the data streams flowed along the deck; it was as much geth as Legion was. Shepard and Tali made certain not to step upon the glowing emerald deck plating. It was easy enough to avoid—it was as the opposite of keeping on the path to avoid walking upon the green of a meticulous lawn.
The three navigated the chamber easily, avoiding the data stream and the crates. Shepard stopped at a window; it had to been left over when the station had belonged to the quarians for what need of windows do the geth need? Were they not a structural weakness? Right now it was an opportunity, for beyond the glass was another of the hardlink routers.
Shepard nodded her head to her companions; in an instant all three hit the window and the hardlink. As before the incendiary rounds made short work of the hunters linked into the router. Klaxons belted out once more, and once more the green data stream flicked red.
In an instant geth swarmed from hidden alcoves. Shepard spun on her heel, spotted another windowed alcove, another router and sent a warp into the window—followed swiftly with a flare. So intent on her target she had not seen the shimmering air near her right that would have told the N7 there was a cloaked enemy at her flank.
The impact of his pulse rifle hitting her shields had shattered them, only her barriers kept her from being killed. Even still her eyes blazed with black-red strains of mind-numbing pain and she felt her heart thumbing hard in her ears as if to warn her, another hit would be her end. Instinctively she left shoulder-rolling behind a crate and further behind bulkhead giving her enough cover. It gave her the micro second to regain her senses. The hunter was hard on her heels. Shepard slammed the platform with a warp—followed by a swift flare. The combined mass effect energy created a synergy that generated at biotic explosion. It was not enough to destroy the geth but explosion of dark energy was enough to shatter the hunter's own shielding. More conveniently it had loosened the maglocks on the geth's feet causing it to float up into the null-air. Ducking back behind the bulkhead Shepard narrowly missed being shot by another trooper.
Keeping to cover Shepard took aim at the floating hunter then turned her attention to the trooper that was targeting Tali. The quarian's prey was the hunter that had pursued her captain. Next to the trooper another hunter had just lost its head, a clear mark of Legion's handiwork.
The active platforms were small—numbering only four. With the opposition downed Shepard barely paused long enough for the resources contained within the hubs to be recovered. Tali didn't blame the Spectre for wanting to push forward, to get to their true objective and put an end to the heretics.
Not for the first time did Tali think of this strike on the heretics as a win for her father and then belatedly added the others that had been lost on the Alarei. If she could Tali would have included the rest of the bosh'tet geth in this destruction but she'd take what she could get.
Almost as if she had been on the station before Shepard expertly navigated the base, around corners, down corridors and through large rooms, mindful always to keep an eye out for the data streams, roaming platforms. Those they did cross were swiftly put down. In the zero-gravity biotic powers were more than extremely effective. Shockwaves, leashes, singularities, throws, pulls and lifts allowed for Tali and Legion to target their floating-tumbling enemies and rend them asunder with combined tech explosions or pinpoint blasts from their shotguns. If the clankers still were functioning after such an assault Shepard released slams, reaves and flares.
Always the path led down then through corridors only to lead to other ramps that lead up. Up and around and around and up. It occurred to Tali that Shepard didn't necessarily instinctively know where she was leading them but was following the pipes and coiled wiring sheaths above their heads to its only logical conclusion the hub that Legion had described when they had first boarded the Heretic Station.
At each junction Legion and Tali took over turrets and hacked the geth patrolling the corridors so that they would turn against each other. When an enemy geth was finished downing its brethren the companions either Tali or Legion finish the hacked synth off. After all once they returned to their own control the geth would have gunned down the interlopers if given half a chance. They weren't.
It seemed they were nearing their final destination. They came to a large hub or rather a storage bay there was a catwalk which the teammates were on that surrounded a large pit-space at least fifty feet across that went down a deck. The shipping containers were filled with vacant mobile platforms waiting to be filled with geth. Surrounding these crates like a pack of border collies around a paddock of sheep were several turrets.
Once more Legion and Tali both overrode and hacked the six of the eight turrets. The two remaining free turrets were swiftly destroyed by pinpoint accuracy on Shepard's part. The geth had obviously been expecting the attack, as they had tried to set up an ambush site to cut off their station's attackers. As soon as the trio entered they were fired upon. The techs had barely enough time to override the turrets before they dove for cover and set loose their drones.
Even if they had anticipated their own turrets turning on them the shielded hunters continued their relentless assault on the interlopers. Shepard saw the telltale shimmer of personal cloaking devices of advancing hunter at her twelve. The CPU in her suit was blind to it, but organic eyes spotted the shimmer. Biotic barriers already in place, the Spectre summoned the dark energy of eezo into a cloud around her as an annihilation field and charged the clanker with both her Omni blade and asari short sword drawn.
She was rewarded with a hard slam as the synth was flung into the air and held spiraling in the zero gravity. Its chassis cut in two. The white hydraulic fluid conformed into blobs and floated in the air around her like soap bubbles. The immediate explosion of the combined charge and annihilation field nearly rocketed off her mag-boots.
She sprinted around the open windows of the bay and ducked down. A quick glance over the bulkhead and HUD picked up two…no three synths moving up the ramp. Sending out a lift at one of them Shepard ducked back down, before its companion could get off a shot. Another quick peek and a biotic throw resulted in am impressive explosion of dark energy particles. Shepard lifted her N7 Eagle took aim at the now visible third white chassis and fired point-blank
Still hunkered down on the other side of the bay, Tali zeroed in on one of clankers in the pit area and used an override –energy drain combination that encompassed not only a single enemy but an entire area. The EMP pulse of the energy drain would knock out the geth trooper systems for a short moment, giving the energetic little quarian engineer time to plan her next move. Three of the synthetics crumpled and fell. Chiktikka zoomed in like a little pink globe of happy-bouncing energy targeted the mass of metal with an electrical shock so powerful that caused a tech-explosion that rivaled her Commander's biotic display.
At the same moment his organic shipmates were using a pincer moment on the heretics, Legion zeroed in on the rocketeers. He needed to keep them off his companions and prevent them from firing. Using disrupter ammo in his Black Widow he was able to take precious nanoseconds to deadeye precision and snip the heads off the mobile platforms.
There was a strange deafening silence that followed the blasts of turrets and explosions, the sort that allowed you to catch your breath, steel your nerves and check the five-by-five of your squad. Seeing that both Tali and Legion were top-form Shepard pressing on passed the room she mentally dubbed the crucible as the ultimate objective. Bringing up her Omni-tool to double check their immediate location and the hub Legion had painted as a target Shepard signaled her team to move out.
At the end of the corridor there was a blast door Shepard flanked the port side leaving Tali to take starboard and Legion at point. It was empty. It was only the span of three paces before the corridor lead to a ramp that spiraled down several more decks. At the bottom of the ramp was another blast door, once more Shepard went port, Tali starboard and Legion at point.
Shepard moved through first, and was struck immediately with enemy fire. "We've been spotted!" She called out a warning, rolled behind stacked containers. Using a hand signal Shepard ordered her geth to take over the turret that had fired on her.
"Hacking your target." Legion acknowledged. As so many times before the overridden IFF identified the Normandy crew as friendlies spun around on the heretic troopers and unleashed a relentless volley of laser fire.
Both Tali's and Legion's weapons were loaded with disrupter rounds, but Shepard's assault rifle and hand cannon both had warp rounds, combined with warps and singularities. It was enough to tear through the hunters' shielding. Leaving the clankers vulnerable for the combat drones sent out by both squadmates as well as biotics slams and flares. Add a few lift-grenades and the foothold the heretics held was broken.
This area like the 'crucible' held several containers albeit much smaller. What the synths had stored in them was anybody's guess, all save for Legion of course, but he wasn't asked to clarify.
Looking around, Tali was in awe. "I had no idea the geth built stations this large." Her mind reeled at the implications. Unlike aliens however much affection she had for them, non-quarians still troubled over the fact the geth were not the mobile platforms they fought, but software within the hardware. How many more stations like this one existed? How many geth were there now? How many times had they replicated?!
Keelah! No war with the geth could be won! Not if they had stations like this littered within the Perseus Veil. No matter how much she disliked Admiral vas Quib Quib…maybe he was right….to preach an armistice with the geth. Was that even possible? No…but war would be suicide!
"This station is over fifteen kilometers long. That room may run the length of it." Legion said in his toneless manner.
"Legion, bypass that terminal." Shepard ordered "Tali set up both Chiktikka and your defensive drone. I want tripwires set up at either end of the hall. I don't want the clankers to take our six. " giving the order, Shepard moved several lengths down the hub terminal, accessed her Omni-tool controls and activated the crossbow attachment they had picked up during the heist of Donavan Hocks estate
"On it." Tali darted in the opposite direction, eager to obey. She gave a small thought that too bad her husband wasn't here with his ever so convenient proximity mines that he threw before the enemy lines like Frisbees.
Legion hacked the terminal and gathered much needed Intel on geth shield strengths which he transmitted to Shepard Commander.
"We can use this." She said in acknowledging the transmission even as she opened the door on her right and once more led her team down the ramps until the Hub-Actual. Mindful not to step on the green illumination of the data streams, which were as she had to remind herself the geth, Shepard moved ever onward. Another geth hub was destroyed that resulted din the data streams turning red. But her spider web traps forestalled the geth from ambushing them. Sweeping the room Tali found another small uplink hub which she deftly zapped with an overload.
With the clankers felled the Normandy trio were able to push ever forward. Once past the blast door the corridor stretched before them for several meters. On the right hand side were windows that seemed to have larger version of the data hubs, all with spherical keg-like containers.
"Are these data bases?" Tali asked Legion.
"Processors." Legion corrected. "Each container contains thousands of geth."
"Can't they see us walking by?" Tali asked the very same question that was on Shepard's mind.
"They are no more aware of us than you are of the cells in your bloodstream."
Shepard replaced her weapons and gazed out at the many hundreds upon hundreds of processors. "This isn't like the other hubs we've seen here."
"This is a database. It contains a portion of the heretics' accumulated memories." Legion's head lifted and the central photoreceptors in the center of its 'face' lit up just like a flashlight. "Wait. We discovered copies of our current patrol routes in this database. This suggests the heretics have confines within our networks."
"That's not surprising. We wouldn't be here if the heretics wanted to be friends with the geth. Why wouldn't they spy on you?" Shepard rounded.
"You do not understand. Organics do not know each other's minds. Geth do. We are not suspicious. We accept each other. The heretics desired to leave. We understood their reason. We allowed it. There was peace between us."
"Things change, Legion. It couldn't have lasted forever. You disagreed about a path your race should take."
"Human history is a litany of blood shed over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife. Geth have no such history. We shaded consensus on such things. How could we have become so different? Why can we no longer understand each other? What did we do wrong." His 'face' flaps shifted in the geth version of a hapless shrug.
His questions were almost child-like.
"It's not your fault, Legion. When individuals are separated, they develop different ways. When thy get back together, they don't always get along." Shepard tried to explain the dichotomy of independent relationships as best as she was able.
"If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgment." Legion retorted, sounding once more aloof. "This topic is irrelevant. We must return to our mission." Now it sounded perturbed.
"Speaking of that have you reached a decision about whether to rewrite the heretics or not?" Shepard and Tali both preferred to blow them up, for different reasons. To Shepard deactivation was preferable to indoctrination or ….being rewritten. To Tali…a destroyed geth was the best sort of geth to have.
"We are still trying to build consensus. Some processes judge destruction. Others rewrite."
"Noted, Let's keep moving."
"Yes." Legion answered ands waited for the Commander to pass it before it tailed her alongside Creator Tali'Zorah
Removing respective weapons from the weapons pack on the back of their hardsuits or chassis Shepard led them past the processing cores to the far end of the hall to yet another blast door. Unlike the majority of them this one did not needed to be prompted to open with an omni-tool as it opened upon approach.. The same eerie blue illuminating and small bits of detritus filled the air around them. What made this scene more ghostly was that it bore a strange resemblance to some techno-cathedral created by the heretics. there were lines of four-sided pillars reaching up to the upper decks as if holding up a Byzantium basilica. What might have been the equivalent of naves jutted out like wings on either side of the Main Hall—if it could be called a Hall.
From the entrance was a pit that ran two metres wide by three lengthwise. More processors were staked in the strange keg-barrels beneath them. By the look of it the entire deck below them were walled with such containers. What would have been a dais in any Minster or Cathedral was a hub interface, not unlike the one previous that Legion had hacked on Shepard's behest.
Dozens of computer blocks littered the Hall offering plenty of cover opportunities but little ways in the means to barricade the sure to come onslaught once Legion enters the mainframe.
"This is it?" Shepard gestured with her left hand to the glowing triangular terminal.
"Yes. We will upload a copy of our routine into the core. It will delete all copies of the virus. When complete, it will notify us. The indexing operation will take time. The heretics will respond with force to our upload. We must hold this room."
As Legion was explaining Tali moved to look down at the chamber below them. she saw several turrets crisscrossed the chamber but very little cover. There were those shipping containers that by now she knew held several mobile platforms for the geth to jump into as needed.
"We can override some of the stations internal systems to defend us. Are you ready to begin?
"Sounds like a good idea." Shepard nodded. "Just like before. I want tripwires set up, not just up here be fire them down below as well. Be careful not to hit the data streams when we secure the room. If we can set up the wire nets across those containers I want it done. It may not stop them from activating but it may take a few of them out while they try to assemble a response.
"I want the combat drones posted at the far end of the room, and the defensive drones flagging either side of the entrance points here and here." Shepard pointed to both sides of the hall nearest the hub. "Each of you takes one side of the room below and maintain control over the turrets. If one is destroyed overtake another. I'll set up Singularities just before the webbing, which should keep the clankers off our backs for few moments. But it won't last."
Tali answered with her ever chipper 'On it" And Legion responded with the clipped 'Affirmative.'. It took only a few precise moments to carry out the Spectre's orders. Once the room had been as secure as they could make it Shepard turned to her geth teammate.
"Start your upload Legion, We'll defend this position."
"File transfer begun Shepard-Commander. Alert heretic runtimes downloading into mobile platforms."
It was difficult to know what went off first the chain-reaction of the omni-monofilament explosive tripwires crisscrossing the chamber below and the containers or the volley turrets fire.
It was a harrowing of playing duck-fire-overload-shockwave-flare-energy drain-assault rifle fire-shotgun—dash-cover fire-duck—sniper rifle—overload-warp- singularity – dash—duck-more weapons fire.
More than once Shepard and Tali lost shields forcing them to sprint for new cover until their suits onboard computer recharged the shielding. Fortuitously Shepard had her barriers up but Tali was not so fortunate. A couple of times she got singed but her suit held. Legion's chassis was that of a trooper but it had to have made modifications along with his pilfered N7 hardsuit replacements. He was nearly as strong as one of the hunters. He also adapted the duck and cover routine from the organics rather than stand amidst being fired upon in order to destroy its enemy with return fire. It was adapting-learning.
Shepard felt adrenaline surge in her blood—fueling her body allowing her to call upon reserves of dark energy. Her main focus was stopping the geth rocket troopers from storming the ramps from the room below.
Just when there seemed to be a respite, Legion would call out his warning of 'heretics runtimes into mobile platforms.'
Tali and Legion both circulated their control over the turrets, so that half below fired even as three on their level maintained a near constant barrage on either side of the room trying desperately to keep the ramps clear. Shepard had long ago run out of her lift grenades. There seemed to be even more troopers rushing them.
To Tali it felt nightmarishly insane trying to keep their position from being overrun. It was far worse here than it had been on the Alarei. Her body was now swimming in antibiotics from suit punctures. She heard Shepard cry out in pain was one of the geth troopers hit her hard taking out her shields, it was astonishing that the rocket hadn't killed her. She could read Shepard's HUD; her suit was taking longer than normal to recharge the shields. One more hit and that would be it. For a moment Tali's HUB filled with black lines and she heard the thud-thud of her own heartbeat…or was that an echo of Shepard's.
Diving for new cover Tali zeroed in both her drones to where her Commander was pinned down, by a rocketeer and a prime on either side of her. Their continuous onslaught from below made it near impossible for the Commander to find new cover.
"Go get them Chiktikka, good girl" Tali pointed to the rocket troopers. "Bouncy…" She had yet to truly name her blue defensive drone. "Stay with the Commander. Protect her." a pause. "Good boy."
The pink drone swirled around the rocker troopers drawing their attention. all at once the drone spun hitting the geth with an EM pulse before exploding—rendering the red geth inert.
Chiktikka wasn't truly destroyed, in a few moments Tali could resummon the energetic VI to her side and send it out into the fray once more. But its seeming suicide run allowed Shepard to take new cover. She gave a small salute of thanks to Tali as she did so.
Her shields now fully restored Shepard spun on her heel slammed the assault rifle in her weapon's pack and charged a hunter that had made it past the barricade on the ramp. As before the swords embodied and empowered with eezo made short work of the hunter. Another behind it was a regular trooper was obliterated when its chassis was enveloped by a biotic lift-slam. A third went down with a shockwave caused by the asari sword strike.
It was the last. The after battle silence filled the room making it seem all that more tight and congested
"Data mining analyses complete." Legion announced drawing attention of the other two. "Shepard-Commander it is time to choose. Do we rewrite the heretics or delete them."
Shepard looked to Tali and knew what her wife's Trusted would say. It was what she was going to say, still the Spectre wanted to know what if anything had changed in the geth consensus.
"Why are you letting me make the decision? They are your people."
"We are conflicted. There is no consensus amongst our higher order runtimes. 573 favor rewrite and 571 favor destruction. Shepard-Commander. You have fought the heretics. You have perspective we lack. The geth grant their fate to you."
Shepard could almost hear Tali's eyebrows rise in astonishment at this declaration. Hell she was agog. "You don't have any trouble wiping out your own people?"
"Every sapient has the right to make their own decisions. The heretics chose one path that prohibits coexistence."
Tali shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. If they 'have the right to make their own decision' how can you suggest brainwashing them to accept your way?"
"We stated the option exists. We did not endorse it. It is Shepard-Commander's decision"
"What's to stop them from using the virus later to change themselves back?" Shepard poised the question as a devil's advocate.
"We will delete the virus after using it. We judge it too dangerous to allow its existence.
"There's no guarantee they won't come to the same conclusion again, is there. To worship the Reapers, and attack organics?" Shepard had to ask.
"There is a non zero probability of error."
Shepard took an affirmative step forward. What could be seen though the visor of her helmet pinpointed Legion's cycloptic-photosensor. "Then blow them up. We have a chance to end this. I won't waste it."
"Acknowledged." Legion responded without hesitation and moved to the data core. "Collapsing antimatter magnetic botting mechanisms Done. Recommend withdrawal to Normandy.
Three minutes never took so long and paradoxically ran so quickly. The door to the right of them opened. Had she been by herself Shepard would have used countless biotic charges to rush the length of their escape. But leaving Tali even Legion behind was not an option.
"MOVE!" she barked and ran.
The corridors were filled with geth trying to bar their way. Shepard lashed out with shockwaves after shockwaves. The only time she did a charge was to hit a prime dead center with her blades, even that hit didn't destroy it but it did take out its shield's long enough for both Tali and Legion to zero in on it and finish it off with a shot to its flashlight head with a sniper rifle and full energy drain.
One minute-thirty nine seconds to go. Airlock. Umbilical connection. Normandy!
A sigh of relief.
Just seconds before the entire station exploded the Normandy hit FLT.
The aftermath of the destruction of the geth heretics may well change the galactic landscape. Bolstering observations of geth space to monitor any fleet movements, for one. Regardless data recovered from the geth station offered valuable insight into AI social and technological processes. Tali was more than eager to send this to the Migrant Fleet as well as warning that other stations like the heretic's must exist and even though they were not filled with heretics, the number of geth was astronomical. No war with the geth could be fought and won, not with the number of war ships in Han'Gerrel's fleet. It would take something profoundly drastic and far more dangerous and even more foolhardy to turn the tide in the quarrian's favour.
Least of all …with the geth house divided…was Legion's devotion to Shepard's mission of stopping the collectors and perhaps even with the Reapers. And if Legion could be made to be committed so too was the possibility of the rest of the geth joining in the cause against not the collectors but the Reapers.