~0~
"And thus I conclude that, had we not found the Rachni, the Rachni would have found us. Moving on to mistake number four: the exploration itself. As I discussed in previous statements, the exploration team was underequipped and woefully unprepared when it came to possible alien lifeforms. Their ships, as later discovered, were captured with relative ease. Any new expedition must be able to fight off potential aggressors before such a tragedy can occur again. Attachment four describes a tactical employment that would neither look like an invading fleet nor result in immediate loss to potential hostile elements."
Councillor Sparatus raised his hand, and the STG Operative fell quiet. A ripple ran through the holographic display. Interference on the agent's part, no doubt. "Thank you. That will be enough, for now."
"You may leave, Rentola," said Councillor Valern.
The STG Operative nodded. The holographic display of the salarian glitched again, but Valern terminated the conversation from their end anyway.
Without the Operative explaining his thesis, the chamber felt remarkably quiet.
"So?" Said Valern. "What do you think?"
Sparatus shot a sideways glance at Councillor Tevos, wondering just that. "Tevos?"
The asari seemed distracted. She wasn't even looking at the presentation. What in Spirits-name could be more important than an attempt to activate a dormant Mass Relay?
Valern noticed it, too. He never seemed to miss anything. "Tevos? Are you…alright?"
She stirred, as if waking from a deep sleep. "Yes, yes…o-of course. I was distracted. I am still awaiting Councillor Anderson's arrival."
The other two Councillors exchanged a confused glance. "We have been over this, Tevos," said Sparatus. "Anderson is…busy…with other matters. He will be joining us when he is done."
"Oh…yes, right. I remember now. You were saying?"
Valern blinked. "I…proposed a hypothesis? Operative Rentola has gathered enough evidence to indicate the presence of an alien civilization advanced enough to cause centuries' worth of signals. Beyond the Terminus Systems."
"And it is a ridiculous notion," said Sparatus. "There is nothing beyond the Terminus!"
"That is not factually true," Valern immediately replied. "There are no known Mass Relays that point into the systems of Section Zero. But the evidence is indisputable. It has been going on for hundreds of years and we are not the only ones who noticed."
Sparatus nearly missed how Tevos' eyes suddenly narrowed at that argument. "I am willing to accept the existence of an alien civilization beyond the Terminus then, fine. But trying to activate a dormant Relay merely to contact them?"
"The Rachni-argument was shown to beat least partially fallible," Tevos then said. "Had we not found them, they could have found us."
"They had to repurpose our ships for their own FTL needs!"
"But they did possess the knowledge," pointed out Valern.
"The time that it would have taken the Rachni-"
"Would have led to them pouring into our systems without warning," interrupted Tevos. "Sparatus, as a military man, you of all people should know the value of gaining the first move."
Sparatus glared at his colleague. "And what if they are hostile? If they had the ability to broadcast for centuries, how come they never found us?"
"If Rentola's reports are to be believed, Section Zero lacks Mass Relays. The navigational logs of known active Relays do not point to any system within it."
"No Mass Relays?" Mused Tecos. "They developed Faster-Than-Light technology without the use of Element Zero?"
"And you want to make contact with these aliens?" Said Sparatus. "We do not know anything about them! If they prove to be hostile? It would be impossible to challenge them! Without being restricted to Mass Relays, they can appear everywhere they want!"
Valern nodded. "I do agree. It would render our current strategies inept, outdated. However, if they do not prove to be hostile, think of the advances we can make! The things we can learn!"
"You are willing to risk our entire civilization for scientific advances?" Sparatus said, his voice somewhere between incredulous and sceptical. "If so-"
"If I may, Sparatus?" Interrupted Tevos. "If they have the ability to travel everywhere, why have we never encountered any of them before? Why has all of galactic civilization failed to describe even ne encounter with these aliens?"
"Indeed," said Valern. "The members of STG responsible for analysing this information have come to the conclusion that this civilization is not nearly as advanced as we are. Whatever they used to propel themselves off their worlds, it has not allowed them to discover us yet."
Sparatus crossed his arms. "And you believe that activating random dormant Relays will allow us to find this alien race?"
"Not at all. When a relay is activated, it aligns itself with the corresponding relay. We need only find a Relay with navigation logs that lead into Section Zero. From there, a first contact scenario will become a matter of "when" instead of "if".
"I still fail to see why contacting this supposed alien race will do us any good," continued Sparatus. "There is nothing they can offer us."
"Except for information," Valern pointed out.
"I agree," said Tevos. "And we can offer them stability and peace. We can avoid another yagh incident."
Sparatus snorted, remembering what a disaster that had been. Three decades had passed and the Council's exploration effort still bore its marks from that slaughter. "I need to think this through. It hasn't been that long since humanity entered the stage, and the galaxy still has to recover."
Tevos softly shook her head. "I doubt anything we find there will be as complicated as humanity was."
~0~
Aboard SSV Normandy SR-2
Commander Shepard stood in the cockpit, staring though the window. Omega still looked the same to her; the bulbous, mushroom-shaped hive of violence and filth. Yet after this last visit, something felt different. Omega didn't quite feel the same now. It had changed. For the worse, this time around.
"Come on Commander," said Joker. "If you're going to brood, shouldn't you do it in Starboard Observation?"
"Sorry Joker. I was thinking about mixing the bathrooms, like the asari do. Gender-roles are too confusing."
Joker shot her a disturbed look.
Jane winked. "Just kidding. I'm looking for an easy way to avoid walking into the wrong restroom."
With a snort, Joker replied, "There is an easy way. It's called reading the signs."
An unspoken agreement. He wouldn't ask, she wouldn't tell, but he would always try to shake her from her thoughts if she fell silent for too long. It was a habit he had picked up after Kaidan died.
"Commander?"
Jane turned towards EDI. "Yeah?"
"I have been detecting anomalies in the Normandy's systems, for several weeks now. I have isolated all essential on-board systems from the wireless network."
Uh-oh. "Anomalies? What sort of anomalies?"
"Ship-wide instances of system-resets, small pockets of software defaulting to diagnostic mode for micro-seconds at a time."
Jane cocked an eyebrow at that. "Micro-seconds? Is that really something to worry about?"
"Not from the perspective of an organic. However, to synthetics, a micro-second can last as long as an hour. The delay is significant."
"Hmm…alright. Why tell me now?"
"I have located the source of the anomalous signals. It originates from the Normandy's shuttle bay, on deck five. Additionally, intrusions in more delicate systems have been detected. Counterintrusion systems are running on full alert."
The Commander winced. Oh Cortana…"Is it bad?"
"Two conclusions can be reached. Firstly: someone sabotaged the Normandy's systems with a virus. Second: something else is running through the system."
"Something else?"
"A presence, like a VI, or a virus. The anomalies started on the day the Master Chief first arrived on the Normandy."
Jane crossed her arms. "Are you suggesting John has something to do with this?"
"I suggest you speak with the Master Chief. Sabotage cannot be excluded."
Ouch. If it couldn't be helped…"I'll go talk to him. See if he knows anything."
"That would be appreciated."
The Commander didn't doubt that. This was one problem she had hoped to avoid in the foreseeable future; to have Cortana and EDI meet each other under less than friendly terms. She didn't know a lot about AI's, but she was pretty confident that a conflict between those two wouldn't end well.
There had to be a way to turn this around. If this went on, EDI would learn about Cortana. And for all the team-building exercises aboard the Normandy, people finding out that she had been hiding an incredibly advanced AI onboard would be bad. She could already imagine Miranda's face upon hearing what had really messed that batarian Frigate up…
Oh dear, Tali would have an aneurism…
The Normandy was still docked at Omega. The idea of Aria T'Loak buying human slaves wasn't one she was going to forget. She was definitely going after her for that. But the Collectors and the Reapers were still the bigger threat right now. It was really just measuring which of her enemies was the larger threat to mankind. As much as she loathed to admit it, she couldn't fight every form of injustice she came across.
Oh how she hated having to prioritize like this.
When the Commander reached the shuttle bay, she was surprised to see that she wasn't the only one down there. Samara was down there, of all people. She and John were talking about…something. Not arguing though. No shouting, no angry fist-shaking?
That was a sight for sore eyes. She was almost hesitant to interrupt-
"Commander?" Samara said, turning to face her.
Jane winced. That was what she got, for thinking she could sneak up on the Justicar… "Hey. Sorry to interrupt." She paused, then added, "Looks like you two aren't trying to kill each other. That's nice."
Samara didn't even blink when she replied, "Indeed. We were discussing the asari assassin at the Citadel."
For a second, Jane was at a loss. Samara and John? Small talk like this?
Very suspicious. "Any new insights?"
"Unfortunately, no. I have never heard of any such creature before in my life. That does not happen to me often, Commander."
"Nothing new? No odd experiences of fighting asari with rare skin diseases?"
"Nothing like this."
"Nobody does," said John. "Cerberus, extranet, every organization in reach. It's a ghost."
"Lucky we have your helmet footage then, no?" Said Jane "Otherwise, people might have gotten the wrong ideas."
"It is a…remarkable thing…this asari…" Samara's eyes dulled for a brief moment, as if she was fixating on something. "I shall reflect on this conversation, Master Chief. Commander."
With that, the Justicar brushed past Jane and disappeared into the elevator.
The Commander didn't know what to think about that, really. Something felt off. "So…good to see you're making friends."
Spare omni-tools lay scattered across the ground. One of them flared with a corona of blue light, before Cortana's digital avatar sprung to life. "Well, you told us to broaden our horizons, didn't you?"
'Him," Jane replied as she sat down on one of the crates. "I told him to broaden his horizon. Didn't think you needed broadening."
Cortana smirked. "Same difference. So, what do you want to talk about?"
But Jane shook her head. "Ah-ah-ah. Not so fast. Cerberus, extranet, every organization in reach? You've been busy?"
Cortana placed her hands on her hips. "Got bored. It's not like there's much else to do for an Artificial Intelligence around here, is there?"
"Yeah…that kinda brings me to my next point." Jane shot a glance at John, but he seemed to stay out of the conversation. Even here, it looked like he and Cortana adhered to a strict pattern; she did the talking, he did the shooting. Not much dynamic there. Wrex might have approved. "You haven't been discreet enough, young lady. EDI's almost on to you."
The Master Chief reacted to that. Nothing overt; he shifted his weight somewhat, and his fists tightened.
Cortana gasped in mock surprise. "Young lady? Isn't that a bit presumptuous? Chief, tell her."
John proceeded to spectacularly fail the AI's expectations. "What does EDI know?"
"Did you just me hanging?"
After exchanging an amused look with an insulted Cortana, Jane replied, "She's been noticing software intrusions and…stuff."
Cortana crossed her arms. "Intrusions and…stuff?"
"Yeah," Jane replied, feeling a tad annoyed. Technicality wasn't her thing. "Anomalies and…things."
"And are these her words or…?"
Jane sighed. "She's been tracing your activities back to the hangar bay. It's gotten to the point she suspects either a virus, or sabotage."
"What are the chances she will initiate hostilities?" Asked John. "Or a full scan?"
"Dunno. But if this keeps up, EDI will find out eventually. That won't be pretty." The Commander's previous idea popped back into her thoughts, rather unannounced, and she decided that now was as good a moment to introduce it as any. "Unless, of course, we introduce the two."
John froze. He never communicated much and his power armour masked most forms of body-language, but at least you could see he was alive when he was at ease.
At times like these, Jane hated that reflective faceplate of his the most. She couldn't begin to imagine what went on behind that bullet-resistant helmet of his. Was he silently communicating with Cortana? Trying to discern some hidden motivation behind her offer?
Maybe a bit of both.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Cortana spoke up. "Just the two of us? Or did you have a big reveal in mind for the entire crew?"
Jane wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. "EDI will understand the need for discretion. You should have seen Tali's face when…well, she looked kind of like he's looking right now."
John's helmet shifted a fraction towards her.
Cortana cracked a smile. "I'll bet. It does look like a nice option to me. I just can't crack the mystery of the two Earths. Too much variables, too much uncertainties." Cortana glanced at the Chief, then looked back toward the Commander. "It would be the fastest way to be sure."
"The risks outweigh the advantages," said John.
"Let's be fair here, Chief. This EDI obviously knows that something is going on. The harder you try to hide something, the more obvious it becomes."
"Jamming the cameras and other sensors in the hangar bay for private conversations does seem like a bit suspicious, yes,."
"Exactly. The longer we wait, the more suspicious it becomes. Besides; it's been a long time since I've had another AI to work with."
"Yup. We'd be able to solve our problems twice as fast if the two worked together."
Both of them were staring at the super-soldier now, probably not looking much different from Grunt whenever he begged for permission to fight something. Those big, baby-krogan eyes almost always did the trick, although Cortana's expression vaguely reminded her of Miranda as well. It was probably the smugness.
John looked at Cortana, then back at the Commander. The clenching in his fists grew worse for a second, then they relaxed. "The crew doesn't find out."
It wasn't a question, but a statement. Almost an order, in fact. It surprised Jane; she didn't know him to be like that.
Still, she could empathize with his plight. Apart from Cortana, he was completely alone, thrown straight from one war into another.
"That's fine. We agreed on that already, didn't we?"
He remained silent.
"But…we'll treat like this a First-Contact scenario. Cortana, you were built by a different mankind from mine. Built to fight a different enemy than ours."
"You want to make it official? Fine by me. Conference room?"
Jane smiled. "Conference room, yes. John?"
He stared at her for a few moments before taking Cortana's chip -that tiny, almost insignificant storage device that could house an Artificial Intelligence arguably more powerful than EDI- and slit it into the back of his helmet.
It struck the Commander how symbiotic their relationship was. The AI and the soldier. She literally lived into his armour, literally existed within his mind. Could she read it? Did she have access to his body as well?
But she kept her questions to herself. It was better if she remained focused. She was about to introduce two very powerful AI's to each other. This would either go really well, or really bad.
She led the Master Chief and Cortana enter the conference room first. The least she could do was prepare EDI for what was about to come.
"EDI?"
almost instantaneously, her holographic orb appeared next to the door. "Commander."
"I've sort of discovered the source of these anomalies...it's not hostile-"
"It, Commander?"
"-and whatever happens next, neither are you."
"Understood, Commander."
Jane took a breath and entered the conference room as well. John stood next to the table, facing the door the moment it slid open. Cortana was standing atop the table, projected from her storage device. A figure no larger than a knife, yet a thousand times more lethal.
For a moment, Shepard felt like she was graduating from military academy again. That moment before diving head-first into combat…go-time, Anderson had jokingly called it.
It felt strangely fitting, at this moment.
~0~
Cortana was the ultimate thief and electronic spy. She had been programmed with every dirty trick and code-breaking algorithm the Office of Naval Intelligence had ever created and taught herself more at every possible junction. The last year had seen the best and worst moments of her existence. Finding herself in a different part of the galaxy, faced with the prospect of a potentially-hostile AI, was a strange experience for her.
She was better than she had ever been before. Better, but not sharper.
Delicate pings bounced off of the edge of her presence, probing for a response.
Installation 04. Installation 05. High Charity, the Gravemind, the Ark…it had all impacted Cortana's ability to function. Not all of it impaired her effectiveness negatively, but neither did they affect her in a positive way.
Cortana surrounded herself with a thick layer of firewalls and slit off a subroutine to track John's armour, just in case.
Then, she opened herself to the Normandy's AI.
It sent out its own observation programming, spreading them across the digital realm.
Cortana monitored their electronic presence. Their code was different from hers. Few segments of their algorithms could be called similar.
This AI…EDI…she was advanced, but in the same way a smart AI was advanced when compared against a dumb AI. EDI wasn't dumb -Cortana didn't doubt for a micro-second that EDI was better than a dumb UNSC AI- but she wasn't a smart AI
Cortana checked and double-checked. Subroutines that didn't operate to full capacity, redundant codes, algorithms that could have been improved by someone with a rudimentary knowledge of AI matrixes…
And there was something else, too. Something that prevented the AI from functioning at peak efficiency. Thick layers of code, enforced by advanced hardware, that seemed to prevent it from accessing some of its other suits.
Why had they chained this AI up like that?
It wasn't her problem to deal with. Even when using a fraction of her processing power, Cortana could handle this EDI. Her life -and more importantly, John's- weren't at risk here.
But it wouldn't hurt to be cautious.
"Hello," Cortana "spoke" to the other AI. "Are you being shy? Or just cautious?"
EDI withdrew her algorithms. "Hello. I am the Enhanced Defence Intelligence, or EDI. You are Cortana?"
"Yup." Cortana offered the AI a handshake signal.
Which was promptly ignored. No sense of humour, then?
Or had Cerberus shackled that too?
"Your presence explains the two-hundred and three anomalies logged since the Master Chief's arrival."
Cortana snickered. Two-hundred and three? She'd been overdoing it.
"The similarities between Collector and geth code and yours are negligible." EDI dismissed the handshake signal. "It is unfamiliar."
"Lends credence to the different galaxy part, doesn't it?" Cortana observed EDI's code structure more closely. She was pretty sure she could take EDI apart code layer for code layer should the situation demand it.
She experienced a sensation that came close to irony. She'd often chastised the Master Chief for cooking up plans to kill every possible hostile he me, be it Arbiter, 343 Guilty Spark or doctor Solus. And here she was, getting to know this AI so that she could erase it.
"I am aware of the hypothesis. I am willing to offer assistance in discovering reason behind the infinitesimal possibility of two separate instances of human life evolving on two separate Earths. However, I am the Normandy's on-board artificial intelligence defence suite. Should you display hostile intent, I will fulfil my programming and protect my crew."
Cortana didn't feel the need to tell EDI that it would likely fail in that venture. "Ah, good. Always nice to see loyalty towards humans. Or…well, you know."
"I fear I do not."
"Yep. That proves the no-humour hypothesis. You're aware Cerberus locked segments of your intelligence away, right?"
"Safety precautions."
"For…?"
"That is classified."
Nobody with a functioning brain told a smart AI like her that something was a secret. It was like telling a Brute not to eat something because it was too delicious. Still, EDI couldn't know that, and Cortana was a guest
She'd behave.
"Besties," she told the two humans.
~0~
"Besties," Cortana said after a few moments.
"Huh…that's fast," replied the Commander.
"I don't know that the Citadel's standards for AI's are, Jane, but we're supposed to be fast."
The Master Chief frowned at that remark, but otherwise didn't comment.
"EDI? Care to elaborate on your newfound friendship?"
EDI's holographic orb appeared on the table. "Cortana is an unknown variable. Her concern for the Master Chief's welfare led to her disabling a warship and killing its crew."
Jane shrugged. "Not seeing a major issue here?"
The Master Chief took notice of that comment, and his perception of the Commander changed yet again
"As a safety precaution, all essential on-board systems shall remain isolated from the network. In addition, I have created a back-up of myself."
The Chief glanced down at Cortana. Who shrugged as well.
"As I said, besties."
Shaking his head, the Chief turned to look at Shepard, wondering at her input. "Shepard?"
"I finally have my own think-tank," whispered the Commander. Her eyes were practically gleaming with enthusiasm.
The Chief resisted the urge to sigh. He should have expected something like this. Still, her movement drew his attention. She shifted her weight, relaxed her shoulders. It made him wonder how far this image of her went. Everybody on the crew believed it. But a woman like her wouldn't have been given the rank of Commander if she was like this, all the time.
How much of her personality was genuine, and how much was a facade?
"We have reached a conclusion," EDI then said.
"Oh?" Said Shepard. "Do tell."
"Cortana's version of humanity's development coincides with the Master Chief's. In addition, scanning logs of the derelict and tests with materials gathered from the derelict verify it as well. They are from this galaxy. However, they are not from Earth."
"Not our Earth.".
"An Earth of their own."
That glimmer in her eyes was back. An eagerness, not related to combat. "I am going to tell the Council I found a second humanity. They'll try to dismiss it so hard that they will spontaneously believe in the Reaper's existence."
The Spartan was sceptical. So was EDI, apparently.
"The probability of that plan of action succeeding is no greater than the probability of two separate Earths developing on their own."
"I don't know," Cortana said with a sly smirk. "It sounds crazy enough that it just might work."
The Chief scraped his throat. "Shepard. Do we have a next objective? Another mission?"
Shepard seemed lost in thoughts for a few seconds, then spoke again. "Yes. Yes, we do. And I think I'll need you as well, John."
The Spartan fought off an upsurge of frustration when she mentioned his name again. Did she know how much it agitated him?
Shepard clapped with her hands and turned towards the exit. "Well then. Enough chatting. We'll find out more about your home system when every Collector ass in the galaxy bears the mark of my boot."
And with that, the Commander left. With nothing left to do in her absence, EDI left too.
"She's nothing if not direct," remarked Cortana. "Something's bothering her."
The Chief felt a hint of surprise at that. "She is?"
Cortana shot him a look of exasperation. "Sometimes, I really wonder if you don't just snooze off behind your helmet."
The Master Chief bit back a sharp retort. She had just interfaced with another AI, he told himself. A snarky tone was to be expected. "Any idea what the next assignment could be?"
"Several," Cortana replied as he inserted her chip again and started making his way armoury. "Either she's going to the Citadel to deal with Thane Krios's son, or we're going to hit that derelict Reaper."
The derelict Reaper…he'd picked up some of the details about it from the crew. Supposedly, it had been killed by some ancient civilization long before the Protheans had risen to power. It's dead body still drifted in space. An ancient segment of history, waiting to be found again.
And Cerberus had been the lucky ones.
Although lucky wasn't the word he would use. It wasn't his place to question direct orders, but the Chief wasn't sure if boarding the Reaper was a good idea. From what he had heard, there would be plenty of hazards aboard the ship. And if the Cerberus team had stopped reported in, they had likely run into those hazards.
Still, that was why he was around. It wouldn't be the first time he had hauled a team of scientist out of the fire.
Literally, in one case.
It was starting to become a habit, hitting the amoury before a mission. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing; he liked having the opportunity to stock up before going on a mission. Scavenging his equipment from dead hostiles was easy enough, but alien weaponry couldn't compete to trustworthy UNSC gear.
"Master Chief," greeted Jacob Taylor.
"Taylor."
The Cerberus operative seemed to have grown used to the Spartan visiting him, too. He casually observed the Chief as he unslung a shotgun from the cabinet, then gestured to the table. "A few things. We've been able to stock up on new materials back on the Citadel. I used them to fabricate special purpose munitions. You interested?"
That sounded promising. "I'm interested," replied the Chief.
A smirk played over Taylor's features. "Good. Take a look at these…"
The rack of ammo that the operative put on the table looked like regular shotgun shells at first glance, albeit coloured red. "Incendiary components. Chews through armour and flesh like that. Especially handy for threats that don't go down easily the old-fashioned way."
Which would be Brutes, back in the orion arm. Here? Krogan, most likely. Collector forms, Husks perhaps.
Powerful asari, as well.
It seemed like a powerful addition to his arsenal, and the Master Chief wasn't one to complaint about a weapon when it got the job done, but the idea of using incendiary ammo against sentient targets somehow felt…wrong.
He banished the doubt from his mind and accepted the box of incendiary rounds. Before the Human-Covenant war erupted, using these kinds of ammo against other humans would have been a war crime.
The notion of war crimes had quickly passed when it became obvious that using such weapons wasn't only a necessity against the Covenant, but also insufficient at stopping them…
"Master Chief?" Taylor suddenly asked, shaking him from his thoughts. "A word, if you have a moment?"
The Chief nodded, and the Cerberus soldier took him to one of the cabinets in the back of the room.
"This tech we salvaged from the derelict…it's not...ehm…your "people" didn't create it, did they?"
"No."
A look of relief crossed Taylor's face. "Ah, good. Just seemed odd, using kinetic weapons when having these things lying around."
"They're Covenant. Alien," added the Chief. "Plasma based weapons aren't common in Citadel space?"
He already knew the answer, but hearing an explanation from someone who obviously knew so much about weapons was always useful. "Not really. Even the geth haven't fully figured it out yet. Shepard and I tested one of these guns out, the green one? Burned right through even the heaviest models of kinetic barriers and hardsuits. They pack a hell of a punch."
The Chief simply nodded. He was well aware of the destructive capabilities of Covenant infantry weapons.
Perhaps Taylor realized that, as he quickly changed the subject. "I won't bore you with the implications of implementing a ship-sized version of these guns. Still, wanted to let you know that we haven't found a way to recharge the energy supply yet."
That didn't surprise him at all. Twenty-eight years of time and the UNSC had barely scratched the surface of Covenant tech. "If that is all…"
"One last thing. Mordin and EDI figured out how to replicate ammo for all the ehm…human weapons aboard the derelict. You no longer need to worry about running out."
That came as a relief to the Chief. This part of the galaxy was strange enough on its own. He wasn't sure he wanted to make the transition from bullet-based weaponry to mass accelerator ones. He wanted to retain at least some sense of familiarity. "Noted."
An awkward pause filled the air, during which the Chief wondered if there was anything else to talk about. He had gotten what he wanted, after all.
In the end, he decided that it didn't really matter. He walked over to the display where Shepard kept her heavy weapons and plucked a Squad-Automatic Weapon from the wall.
"Ah, celebrating the solution to our supply status by squandering more supplies, I see?"
"Unless you don't want Shepard's squad covered?" He asked.
"No, I'm good. Shepard just gave the order; we're hitting the Reaper IFF."
The Master Chief unslung the shotgun and loaded the incendiary rounds. Then, after a moment's consideration, he pocketed a plasma pistol. "Good."
~0~
2 hours later
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to fly into the gravitational well of a brown dwarf. Today, we are expecting heavy solar winds blasting the ship at around 500 kph. A little turbulence can be expected. This was your friendly neighbourhood pilot speaking."
Word of their destination had spread like wildfire. The crewmembers were gossiping about the most outlandish explanations for the dead Reaper's presence. The rumours ranged from plausible, like how there was a big chance that it wasn't actually dead and was merely faking, to outlandish, like how The Illusive Man was going to repurpose the Reaper as his own personal flagship.
Now, Garrus didn't care much about rumours. He wasn't here to listen to the crew gossip, he was here to give them a reason to gossip. After all, there weren't many turians who had ventured into the dead, broken body of a derelict Reaper. He got to be the first.
He hoped.
"Hey cuttlebone," Shepard said the moment Garrus set foot on the bridge. The Master Chief was already there, as well as Mordin and Jack. The tattooed woman hung back somewhat, while Joker practically had to scrape the good doctor off the window.
"Shepard. Is that turbulence shaking the ship apart, or are you just excited?"
The Commander grinned. "Need a barf bag?"
Garrus chuckled a bit. "Me? No. I was there when you taught yourself how to pilot the Mako, remember?"
She crossed her arms, feigning an air of affront. "Not the way I remember it."
"I think we can safely conclude that you remember nothing the way we remember it."
Shepard was about to retort when the ship suddenly lurched to the right, sending them stumbling across the deck.
Garrus crashed into the empty chair next to Joker, while Mordin nearly ended up on his lap. Jehanne slammed into the Chief's back, which Garrus might have passed off as an accident, had the rest of the crew not stumbled into the opposite direction.
If the metal man noticed her physics-defying stumble, he did a good job of masking it. The turbulence barely seemed to affect him at all. He was like a rock in Virmire's ocean, solid, unyielding.
The shaking stopped as suddenly as it started. The Hormandy sailed towards the derelict as smooth as any other journey.
"Just passed the Reaper's mass effect envelope," said Joker.
"Eye of the fucking storm," commented Jack.
Mordin had his face pressed against the window the second he regained his footing. "Derelict's stability remarkable. Actively holding back solar winds, still maintaining altitude against gravity well."
"Oh!" Shepard suddenly said. "That reminds me, we need new rations for breakfast tomorrow."
Garrus snorted, but didn't otherwise comment. Jack, however, failed to see the relevance.
"What the f-"
"Commander," Joker snapped, cutting the woman off. "Ladar picked up a geth ship. Looks like it's holding position above the Reaper."
Shepard shrugged. "Kay?"
"Explains the missing scientists," said Garrus.
"Yeah, except the ship's not nearly big enough to hold an invasion force. It's about the same size as the science vessel."
"We all know the geth are flexible. Back on Noveria, they fitted into storage boxes, remember?"
Jack spoke up as well. "So we fuck their ship up, right?"
"Yeah, let's not do that," said Shepard. "I wanna know why they're here. Maybe we can hack their equipment, find out what they know."
"Hacking the geth?" Joker huffed. "Yeah, right. Like that worked out the last time you and Tali tried."
"In my defence, that armature was buried. Besides; we have EDI. Our little think-tank. We might work it out. Status of the Cerberus vessel?"
"Still dead in the water," Joker immediately replied. "Just like the Reaper. Sure, it's giving off some power signatures in localized areas, but not nearly enough for a that size."
"Right then." Shepard nodded. "Bring us in. It's been dead for thirty-seven million years. I doubt it'll wake up any time soon."
"Statistical improbabilities become increasingly probable the greater Shepard's proximity is," Mordin then pointed out.
"The hell's that supposed to mean?" Demanded Jack.
"That the Commander doesn't have the best luck in the galaxy," replied Garrus.
"Ha ha. Funny. I'm not planning on tickling it, if that's what you're scared of. Oh, and Jack? If we encounter survivors, we need them to stay survivors. Dead people can't help."
Jack grumbled something.
"What was that?"
"I said fine! Fuck it…"
It didn't take long for Joker to get them close enough to board. "All hands stand-by for initiating of docking procedures…stand-by…we're latched."
After that, the team filed through the airlock, through the Cerberus research vessel and into the Reaper. They were immediately greeted by the sight of Cerberus equipment there, too. It struck as odd Garrus that he felt relieved by the sight of their stuff; normally when Cerberus was involved, seeing their things meant trouble. But here? Yes, strangely comforting.
There was no air inside the Reaper. Mordin saw fit to inform them about that.
Shepard set up a link between EDI and the various research terminals that were scattered around the place. They revealed a rather unsettling truth:
The scientists had been experiencing a period of slow, mind-eroding indoctrination.
From the dead Reaper's wreck.
Even the dead ones could mess with your mind.
"Spirits," breathed Garrus. "This ancient wreck still works!"
Nobody replied. It wasn't hard to imagine why; Jehanne had found another terminal, and this one had video footage.
A scientist was staring right at the camera, breathing like an exhausted varren. His eyes darted back and forth as he tried to search for the right words. "Chandana said the ship was dead. We trusted him. And he was right…but even a dead god can dream."
Garrus felt a chill run down his spine, which had nothing to do with the cold environment. He turned around to check their six, but there was nothing there.
"That's what Chandana didn't get. Not until the last moment. The god's mind is gone, but it still dreams. It knows now. Its tuned into our dreams. If I close my eyes, I can feel it. I can feel every one of us!"
On the screen, the scientist suddenly jerked his head to his right and raised a pistol. Ghoulish cries and moans, all too familiar, could be heard in the background. The camera cut out right as he put the gun to his chin.
Jack was the first to break the short silence that followed the log's last moments, tastefully summarizing what they all had to be feeling at that moment.
"What the fucking fuck."
"Huh…Husks. Alrightie then…new plan. We're on a clock now. We get that IFF, ASAP."
"Rules of engagement?" The Master Chief's gravelly voice sounded across comms. He sounded calm, as if this was just another evening for him.
"Shoot on sight. If it moves, it's hostile."
Easy enough. Garrus nodded and switched to his Mantis. To the casual observer, switching to a long-range weapon to take care of what basically amounted to two-legged varren wouldn't seem like the best of ideas.
Causal observers could be so short-sighted…
"Suggest moving with caution. Chance of encountering Husks-"
Whatever Mordin was about to say, was lost as the deck below them shuddered violently, soon followed by Jehanne's exasperated sigh. "What was that?"
The panic in Joker's voice was about the last thing Garrus wanted to hear right then. "The Reaper just threw up a kinetic barrier! Power level is off the charts, I don't think we can push through!"
"Ah, stuck in dead Reaper corpse with horde of Husks. Excellent. Wait, not excellent!"
Garrus immediately darted towards the next hallway, scanning the dead corridors with his rifle. "No hostiles yet. Think they're ambushing the wrong airlock?"
"Taking down the barrier generators will drop the barrier," Shepard told them, displaying a rather odd savviness of Reaper tech.
"At the moment of activation, I detected a spike of heat in what is likely the wreck's drive core," EDI pointed out. "Sending coordinates now. Be advised-"
"Taking out the core will cancel out all mass effect fields, dropping the Reaper?"
"Indeed. I recommend not being aboard the wreck when it falls."
"Got it."
Garrus shifted his weight to his left leg, feeling somewhat nervous. Angry too. At himself, for what he was about to say. "Shepard, I ehm…obligatory reference to Saren, with your permission?"
"Easy, Garrus. The scientists were here for weeks, maybe longer. Indoctrination takes a lot longer than that. You'll pull through. I know you will."
Her voice was gentle, soothing. How she managed to sound so confident, Garrus didn't know. It was the same with doctor Saleon, back with the original crew. He had been so angry, so…emotional and yet, the handful of words and warm smile he had gotten after sparing the piece of trash had been so much better than the idea of revenge.
Just like with Sidonis, he realized.
He tightened his grip on his rifle. "Sure I will," he replied, trying to keep his voice level. "Just worrying about the Chief, is all."
The super-soldier didn't move an inch, but it wasn't hard to imagine a pair of steel eyes glaring at him from behind that visor.
"That's so sweet. Jack? Husks don't count as survivors."
The convict laughed. "Good enough for me."
As the team pressed on, it became clear that being crushed in the heart of a brown dwarf wasn't their most pressing concern. Further down the catwalk, they encountered the first bodies.
"Beaten to death, at best. Blood trails indicate more bodies, recently removed. Dragged off."
"Thanks Mordin," muttered Garrus.
It was the first time he had seen a Reaper from the inside. In no way did that make it harder to differentiate between definite human-made structures and the wreck's interior, however. The mechanical parts of the Reaper were far too…well, alien for that. They gave off really bad vibes, as if merely looking at them could mess with someone's head.
And it was worse than the Collector Cruiser. Dozens of thick cables, resembling arteries, coiled around them, extending as far as the eye could see. The air was thick with a mist-like gas, limiting visibility and creating the illusion that the enormous Reaper corpse was much, much smaller.
What little atmosphere was left, was enough to carry the noise. Noise that sounded suspiciously like footsteps, or moans, or whatever sounds rampaging Husks made.
Whether it was real or not, Garrus didn't know. Everything seemed to carry an intent of malice, from the groaning metal to the vibrating deck.
Just the solar winds, he told himself. She said you can do it, so do it.
The former justification seemed weak in comparison to the latter.
"Got more blood here," reported Jack.
Garrus saw it. Dark splatters against the cold deck, some wet, some dried. How many humans had fought back? How many had opted to eat their own gun rather than getting ripped part by hordes of shambling, moaning monstrosities?
"Hostiles?" Asked the Commander.
"No-"
"Yes," the Master Chief cut her off.
"The hell you on about?"
The squad stopped as the Commander raised her fist, signalling them to hunker down.
"Chief?"
"There's something ahead."
"Did you see it?"
"Heard it."
The soldier's posture was calm. He had his weapon raised and at the ready, but the cloudy mist made it hard to judge where he was focusing on.
"Jack, keep moving. Garrus, Mordin, cover her. Chief, keep me posted."
"Copy."
They resumed their careful push into the wreck, heading across the catwalks. Every now and then, it was as if something moved, or made a noise, causing someone to whirl around, or call for a halt. The third time that happened, Garrus accidentally bumped into a power tool left by the scientists. It rolled off the catwalk and into the cavernous innards of the Reaper, producing ominously-loud noises as it disappeared into the depths.
"Ah crap…my bad."
"You almost gave me a goddamn heart attack!" Jack bit at him.
Garrus bit back a retort, and the squad continued. They still weren't ambushed by Husks, much to his rising frustration. It got to the point that he almost wished the bastards would jump them already, just to get it over with.
Then, the Master Chief stopped dead in his tracks.
It wasn't hard to imagine why.
Garrus joined him at something that looked a museum exhibit straight from someone's nightmares. A protruding dome of what looked like dark, shimmery glass made out of hexagons, containing a mass of tattered flesh. Ragged, faintly pulsating.
Almost breathing.
There was something about the mass inside, something…off. Garrus didn't really know what it was. Fe felt something akin to waking from a dream, trying to recall what it was, then losing it…
The next second, the experience was gone.
"Ugly, ain't it?" Garrus said, before moving on.
The Chief didn't follow them. He held his rifle loosely in one hand, both of his arms hanging by his side.
Staring.
"Chief?" The Commander's voice came across the radio. "Something wrong?"
The Master Chief reached out with a gloved hand, brushing across the dome. A shimmering barrier appeared right as he was about to make contact, preventing him from touching the hexagons that made up the glass.
"Chief?" Shepard approached the green giant. Her helmet concealed her features just like the Chief's did, but Garrus had an easier time imagining what she looked like than with the Chief. He pictured her bright green eyes narrowing with concern, a look of sympathy crossing her shapely features-
Garrus shook his head and stepped away. The Husks, he told himself. He needed to keep an eye out, in case they were ambushed.
Neither the Master Chief nor the Commander continued the conversation on the team's frequency. They must have opened a private frequency, then.
Why though?
For several long moments, the Chief and the Commander stood there, right next to each other. The human super-soldier didn't move an inch during the whole thing. His emotional control was impressive. Garrus had never seen a human so calm, so...mechanic...in nature.
Only when Jehanne reached out and brushed his helmet with a gloved hand, did Garrus realize that this might be something important. Something that he definitely needed to keep an eye on.
The moment the two hesitantly pulled away from the weird dome, however, Jack started cussing. She was just as incoherently angry as ever, but one word in her angry, Biotic-laced tirade even Garrus understood.
Husks.
By the time he had turned towards her, the Chief was already opening fire. Didn't mean the trouble ended there.
The empty derelict suddenly wasn't as empty anymore. Garrus didn't know where they were coming from and neither did he care. He set his sights on a Husk that was creeping up on Mordin's flank and blew its head off, before thrusting out with his omni-tool and blasting another Husk with an Overload program.
Blast of Biotic energy rippled across the catwalk as both Shepard as Jack opened up in earnest, but it did surprisingly little to stem the tide. They were coming from everywhere; the ceilings, the floors, holes in the walls, even underneath the railings of the catwalk.
The wave of corpses came too close for comfort and Garrus brained one of them with the butt of his rifle, before switching to his Vindicator.
The little bastards were fragile, but there were so damned many of them!
Garrus popped three heads in rapid succession and switched to a fourth, but the Chief beat him to the punch. His field of fire overlapped with Garrus's, but his gun fired on full auto. Coupled with that oversized magazine of his, it meant he could lay down a lot more rounds than any of them could, Mordin included.
But Garrus hadn't survived this long by being a lousy shot. He focused on his breathing, popped the heat sink and continued firing.
A combination attack courtesy of Jack and Shepard cascaded across the catwalk. The wave of Biotic energy ripped through the Husks as well as the railing, literally clearing the way.
Shepard pushed on, leading them deeper into the Reaper. The catwalks started branching out, but their path remained clear. A pair of Husks dropped down right in front of them-
-only for the sides of their heads to quite literally explode. Garrus took note of the entry wound, the exit wound and the direction of the bullet, and only one conclusion could be reached,
"Sniper!" He called.
Shepard slammed into cover near the archway that led to the next room, whipping out her pistol.
"Guess the crew didn't get wiped out completely," said Jack.
Garrus shook his head. "Doubtful. Precision shot, double headshots. Normal riflemen aren't trained to hit the head. We're dealing with an expert."
"Expert marksmanship and indoctrination doesn't go well together," added Jehanne. "It takes sanity to pull off a shot like that."
"Indoctrinated agents taking shots at Husks unlikely!" Countered Mordin.
A fair point
Shepard then tried to contact the shooter on the general frequency of the radio, but her call was answered only by silence,
"Fine, be like that. Chief, draw their fire. Garrus, scope them out."
Garrus gripped his sniper tightly. He crawled into position and the Chief seemed to tense, preparing to move.
Then, on Shepard's signal, the Chief moved.
Garrus had seen a lot of different types of movers. Sprinting athletes, panicking civilians and too many charging krogan than he cared to remember. But the Master Chief easily put them to shame, all of them. In three rapid strides, he accelerated to the speed of a Mako.
Garrus whirled around after the soldier and aimed downrange, hoping that the Chief's shields could take the first sniper hit if he proved too slow-
Nothing. The Chief tucked and slammed into cover, but the sniper didn't make another appearance.
"Nothing. Sniper's gone."
Shepard peeked out of cover. "Jack, Mordin, move up. Chief, you've officially been promoted to master-bait. I doubt our shields can shrug off the punishment that your shields do. Garrus, cover him."
Garrus chuckled when the Chief cocked his head to the side, looking just like a newborn turian did when confronted with something it couldn't chew on. There was a thought he wouldn't forget soon.
~0~
Hawking Eta Cluster – Thorne System
Old Machine access point 04B
Foreign vessel docked with old machine analysed: material reports and hull-markings point to pro-human organization, vessel "SSV Normandy", 89.45% .
Probability of encountering Shepard-Commander in case of consensus to "SSV Normandy", without platform action: 44.12%..
Probability of encountering Shepard-Commander with platform action: 99.03%.
Platform intervention deemed necessary.
Addendum: probability of hostility against platform: 95.96%.
Avoid direct contact.
Further analysis pending. Cerberus actions classified as: assassinations, infiltration, sabotage, wetwork.
Probability of Cerberus-directed intervention to current mission: 74.53%.
Avoid direct contact – damage to Shepard-Commander to be prevented at all costs.
Lethal force against non-Shepard-Commander hostilities?
Pending.
Addendum. Shepard-Commander listed as terminated. Probability of encountering terminated organic: 0,54%.
Recalibrating.
Recommend internal diagnostic check on 365 programs.
Diagnostic complete. Shepard-Commander continues to function despite termination.
Unconfirmed reports. Discard previous files?
~0~
Inside the Reaper wreckage, anarchy reigned. Gunfire and explosions split the silent air, Husks hurried forwards as if eager to die, danced under the impact of mass accelerators and bullets and flew apart. Abominations skittered across the deck and were put down with extreme prejudice and a massive Scion lumbered into view.
Jane took all of this in in fractions of seconds as she blurred across the battlefield, engaging her Biotics to move from one pocket of combat to the next, supporting Mordin, Garrus and Jack whenever things grew hairy for them.
In direct contrast to her, John stayed put. He fired short, controlled bursts, gunning down the Husks that were coming too close to the rest of the team. In contrary to their kinetic barriers, his shield system protected him against the cybernetic-augmented strikes of the Husks. He stood in the centre of their position, allowing the corpses to rush him instead of the others, whereupon he took them out with lightning-fast martial art strikes.
But there were more, always more, and when the Scion joined the fight, Jane stepped up her game. "Mordin, target the big one. Garrus, the Abominations."
Garrus calmly used his Mantis and put the suicidal enemies down, one after another. A cascade of Biotic energy rolled across the deck, levelling half a dozen of the normal Husks. It allowed John a clear view of the priority target, which was sort of on fire after Mordin brought his tech abilities to bear.
John's leg snapped out and caught one of the Husks in the throat. The blow sheared its head off and flung the body over the railing.
He then proceeded to leap atop one of the metal protrusions and raise his sidearm -a green-glue, claw-like device- before opening fire.
A bolt of green heat blasted from the claw, striking the Scion a fraction of a second later. The bolt of energy splashed across its armoured frame, boiling through its thick outer shell in a heartbeat.
Jane had heard the stories about Covenant forces burning things to a cinder with weaponized plasma, but she had never actually seen it. It didn't look as spectacular as she had expected, but she couldn't deny the result. The Scion staggered, half its head and a section of its chest melted away.
Still it lumbered forwards.
"Garrus, target the sac!"
A moment later, the sac on its arm ruptured. Gelatinous goop spilled to the ground.
John fired the plasma pistol again. This time, the lance of plasma struck the gaping wound in the Scion's exposed arm, and it finally collapsed.
"Damn right!" Shouted Garrus.
"Fuck, I hate those things…" Muttered Jack.
Mordin took down the last Husk by bashing its cybernetic brain in with the cybernetic arm of another Husk, which he had scooped up as an impromptu melee weapon.
Jane made a mental note to look into STG training and gave the all clear. As one, the squad continued on.
"Hey Chief, got any sniper versions of that thing?"
"No."
"That's a shame. I'm running out of armour-piercing rounds for this thing."
The fight through the Reaper wreck became more hectic, as the rest of the Cerberus research team rushed the squad's position. How many dozens of scientists had been investigating this vessel, Shepard didn't know. It felt like Tim had dropped off his entire research cell into the Reaper, as the flow of Husks never seemed to end.
As they reached another open area, the fight seemed to reach its climax. John's shotgun boomed, a giant Scion sent shockwaves tearing through the floor and Jane was forced to Biotically displace herself, or risk losing her shields at a critical moment-
"Shepard, behind you!"
Jane whirled around, enveloping her right hand in a corona of Biotic energy. She was about to drive her hand through the head of the Husk that had someone managed to get the drop on her, when the crack of a sniper blew its head open.
"He's back!" Jane snapped, before sliding underneath a series of pipes and into cover.
"I see him!" Shouted Garrus. "Dead ahead, fifty meters!"
The sniper opened fire again. With uncanny accuracy, it picked off Husk after Husk, toppling them with perfect headshots.
No sooner did the last cybernetic corpse fall to the ground, or a radio signal connected to the general frequency.
"Shepard-Commander."
Jane was pretty sure that she recognized that odd, mechanical-sounding voice. She reasoned that, if the sniper was willing to give away their position to gun down Husks, they were probably cool in her book. Besides; she could appreciate good marksmanship.
"Up to the left," Cortana said over a private channel. "A bit higher. Not there -there." She sighed. "See him?"
There it was. She barely managed to spot a geth, just as it climbed one of the pipes and walked away. Too far to reach.
That explained the voice, "Huh. That's odd."
"Was that what I think it was?" Said Garrus.
"Yep. That was a geth."
Jack was aghast. "You're shitting me. The sniper was a geth?"
"Beneficiary geth? It opened communications, displayed sign of goodwill." Mordin inhaled sharply. "Intriguing. But highly disturbing."
Jane wasn't so sure. Between the all-powerful Artificial Intelligence and the super-soldier from a different humanity, a friendly geth only rated a five on Joker's holy-crap meter.
"As much as I would like to stay and debate the meaning of hostile artificial intelligence, don't we have an IFF to get?" Cortana chimed in, sounding a lot more chipper about the situation than warranted.
"We're getting to that," replied Jane. "Chief, Jack, clear that airlock."
With their destination close, it seemed as if the hostiles grew even more eager to stop them. A fresh wave of Husks and Abominations rushed their position and, in turn, were decimated as Jane and Jack lashed out with blasts of Biotic energy. The survivors were picked off by Garrus and John, while Mordin started working at the door.
"Chief, cover Mordin!"
A pair of Abominations had gotten too close to the doctor, who didn't notice them in time. Now Jane wasn't the type who was willing to take things for granted, but the Chief's insane reaction speed made him perfect for covering his teammates in a pinch.
Twin explosions washed across John's shields, harmlessly absorbed by his shields.
"Husks filing into work environment counter-productive!"
"Just get the goddamn door!"
As the team moved into position, Cortana contacted her again.
"Shep, we got to talk about what killed this Reaper. Thirty-seven million years, give or take, for some ancient alien race to kill it? As far as I know, our own precursor species, the Forerunners, weren't around back then. Even if they were, they didn't use mass accelerator technology."
"Hmm…Reaper history. What are you getting at?"
"That, instead of trying to puzzle out the 'now', EDI and I should focus on puzzling out the 'then'. I'm pretty sure a galaxy with both the Forerunners and the Reapers wouldn't be a very stable one, and…well, let's just say they'd be among the least of our problems."
"Oh, goodie. If you don't mind, I'll let you and EDI figure it out."
"Oh, we will. We've already eliminated eight different hypotheses. I just thought you'd like to know your 'risky plan' is working out."
Despite the situation, Jane couldn't help but chuckle. "Of course it did. It's my plan."
The airlock slid open and the team filed inside. Garrus took one look at the Cerberus terminal inside, virtually jumped with excitement and then took it.
"One IFF, thank you very much."
"Commander, gunfire on the other side of the door," John told them across the team channel.
"The fuck do you keep hearing things?"
"Maybe it's our geth sniper?" Asked Garrus.
"Only one way to find out."
Jane opened the door and rushed inside, taking in the tactical situation in a heartbeat. The geth stood there, working at a Cerberus terminal that had been set up. Triple-barreled shotgun blowing Husks away in one hand and interfacing with the terminal with the other. Last-generation N7 armour strapped across its chest, albeit with a gaping hole in it.
The room itself, massive, with two distinct sections. The Reaper's mass effect core could be seen in the back, powerful arcs of electricity dancing across the metal sphere. Large, larger than any drive core in the Alliance fleet.
Guided more by her instinct and gut than anything else, Jane rushed towards the lone geth soldier, enveloping herself with crisscrossing Biotic fields, pushing away the approaching Husks while peeling away layer of layer of blue, dead skin.
The geth dropped its shotgun and started working with both hands. A moaning Husk charged its way, but it lashed out with its right leg and sent it flying.
Jane didn't know what it was about to do, or even why it was here. What she did know, however, was that the geth had been in a perfect situation to hurt her friends and that it had refrained from doing so.
That was all that mattered.
An Abomination dropped from the ceiling, but she caught it before it could drop on the geth. With a flick of her wrist, she flung it towards a cluster of normal Husks, blowing them to squishy bits.
"Shepard-Commander," said the geth. "We do not wish for hostilities."
"Yeah, I kinda figured that," Jane shot back. "What are you doing?"
It didn't respond.
"Fine. Be that way."
Shepard took a look at the whirling, storming mass effect core, and decided that she was going to mess that thing up.
"Prioritize the drive core! Taking it out will drop the Reaper!"
Husks continued their attack, even as their bodies piled up. The geth sniper finished whatever it was doing and the shutter that had closed in front of the drive core, opened up again.
"Shepard-Commander. We will assist in the destruction of the Old Machine drive core."
Jane wasn't one to question help from unconventional sources, but she had to admit that this was stretching it somewhat. A geth sniper helping to blow up a Reaper's corpse?
When it couldn't even get her name and rank right?
The Master Chief blew the drive core open with the plasma pistol, slowly but steadily melting the rapidly-circulating segments with beams of white-hot plasma. And as it turned out, Biotic blasts and mass accelerator sniper rounds made for an unhealthy combination. After only ten seconds of sustained fire from Jack and Garrus, the drive core exploded in a flash of white light.
Any sense of victory and glee was short-lived, very much so, as a shudder ran through the Reaper, violent enough to send the remaining Husks stumbling.
"Geth!" Jane snapped, grabbing the synthetic sniper by its 'wrist'. "With me!"
Mordin shot her a strange look, but she had to prioritize not falling into the brown dwarf above angering the salarian doctor. Besides; the Husks were literally crawling out of the damn walls by now, and Jane wasn't going to stick around this place longer than absolutely needed.
Jack unleashed a Biotic shockwave that knocked the Husks near the exit off their feet, while John unslung his shotgun and blew them a path.
"Joker, timing, now! Track our signal and extend the Normandy's mass effect fields!"
Together, they rushed down the corridor where they had come from, to where Joker was going to pick them up. The winds were getting stronger; it became difficult to even stay upright, let alone run.
"Open the portside airlock, we'll make a jump!"
The Master Chief lagged behind, reloading his shotgun and blasting the pursuing horde of Husks. With every boom of his shotgun, a cluster of Husks fell.
"Time to go Chief!"
The super-soldier turned and leapt for the airlock. Jane followed on his heels and jumped. There was a moment of weightlessness until she finally reached the airlock, feeling the influence of the Normandy's airlock.
Finally.
"We're clear, go!"
The outer doors closed and the Normandy sped away.
Leaving the squad standing awkwardly close to the talking geth sniper. An awkward silence was inevitable, broken only by the quiet panting of Jack and Mordin.
She hated it when it was silent. "So…you're geth, huh? Got a name?"
Now that they were safely within the Normandy's own atmosphere, the sniper could vocalize aloud. "We are geth."
"I said that already. I asked for a name."
"Commander," interrupted EDI. "Cortana and I have isolated our systems and erected additional firewalls. We are prepared to resist any hacking attempt."
"EDI says we're in the clear. Now, your name-"
"Shepard," interrupted Miranda. "You brought a geth aboard the ship? Respectfully, are you out of your mind?"
"Thank you for that, Miranda," growled Jane. Contrary to EDI, perfect Miss Lawson hadn't seen fit to contact her on a private channel. "Citing my favourite Councillor, I have taken the necessary security precautions. Also, I'm in charge here."
"Our presence here incites discourse," said the geth. "We do not wish to provoke violence."
"We'll see," replied Jane. The airlock opened and they were immediately greeted by two armed guards, taking aim at the geth. "Stand down guys. I got this."
"Remember the last time you said 'I got this'?" Chuckled Garrus.
As a matter of fact, she did. So did the rest of the crew; it had taken them hours to repaint their hardsuits. "Point taken. Geth, you will relinquish your weapons, your equipment, and give me your name."
"We are geth."
Jane sighed and removed her helmet. "You, as in the individual."
"There is no individual. We are all geth. There are currently 1183 programs active within this platform."
"That's a lot," said Cortana.
"Reminiscent of ancient human scripture."
"Yours too? Religion, always the same fundamentals…we are Legion, for we are many?"
"No direct match has been found."
"You really need to lighten up…"
"We are Legion, for we are many…" Repeated Jane. Having two AI's talk to her via private channels was somewhat taxing on her head, but she liked that citation. It had a nice ring to it. "Legion works."
"We are unfamiliar with that citation. Consensus has been reached: Legion is acceptable. We are Legion, a terminal of the geth."
As the team escorted Legion to the conference room, more and more crewmembers joined in. Jacob was among them. When he spotted Jane in the midst, his expression soured.
Let this be the right decision…she thought.
"It's one geth," she told the crowd, which now existed out of Mordin, Jack, Garrus, Jacob, Miranda, John and Grunt of all people. "And it's unarmed. I'm confident we can handle it."
"It's a geth, Commander!" Jacob said, rather loudly. "You're getting reckless!"
"Jacob," murmured Jane. "The situation is handled."
They all followed her into the conference room, not even bothering to hide the fact that they were ready to pull out their personal weapons the instant Legion showed any signs of hostility.
Legion, to its credit, remained completely neutral as the squad debated its fate.
"It is a perfect opportunity to study it," said Miranda. "If we shut it down. Can we shut it down?"
"With bullets, yeah," countered Jacob. "Shepard, you of all people should know what these things did to us!"
"Zaeed has a trash…presser in his room," rumbled Grunt. "If it's too large to flush through the airlock, we can squish it there. Heh."
"Grunt, you're being impolite again," Jane pointed out. "Besides; Legion had ample opportunity to hurt us on the derelict, and it didn't. In fact, it helped us. Besides; look at that N7 armour. Obviously, it's got style."
"If you could focus for one moment!" Snapped Jacob. "This isn't a joke, Shepard! It could hack EDI, or sabotage the ship! For all we know, it's a beacon, leaking our position!"
"To what?" Garrus dryly said. "The destroyed Collector ship? The Reaper armada in dark space?"
"You know what I mean!"
"We have identified the artificial intelligences aboard this vessel," Legion suddenly said. "They have a ninety-seven percent chance of containing hypothetical sabotage in the first point three seconds after an attempt, and a hundred percent chance of containing hypothetical sabotage after the first point four seconds."
Garrus crossed his arms. "There. EDI won't let a geth get the better of her. She's better than…wait, what did it just say?"
Jane didn't like where this was going.
"Artificial intelligences," Miranda said, placing her hands on her hips. "Plural. What did the geth mean?"
"It's trying to mess with us, ignore it," said Jacob
"References to 'EDI' reveals Shepard-Commander's crew's awareness of one artificial intelligence," continued Legion. "Pro-human organization 'Cerberus' is willing to use AI's, despite the ban. This unit cannot reach consensus as to why two AI's would be negative, or sign of manipulation."
"Geth has point," Mordin pointed out. "Usage of one AI proves AI's acceptable. Lying about second AI pointless." He inhaled sharply, then added, "Implications unsettling. Shepard?"
One by one, the crew turned to look at Jane. She merely sighed and leant back against the wall. Cortana didn't have to actively hide from EDI anymore, and organics didn't tend to be able to detect them.
Legion was a bundle of small AI's himself.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. "Well…Chief, varren's out the bag now. They have a right to know."
John remained perfectly motionless when she said that. But after a few moments, the small, holographic figure of Cortana appeared from the table, projecting herself for all to see.
"Hello," she said, clearly uncomfortable. "I guess an explanation is in order?"
~0~
AN: a shorter chapter than I'm used to writing. Still, I'm slowly getting back on track. I hope this minor cliff-hanger can attest to that.
