I don't own either AvP or ME
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-
Hi everyone; I hope this finds you all in good health.
I'm sorry for the long delay. Unfortunately, real-life interfered. I lost my job in South Korea and had to find a new one, which would mean moving to another country (and another continent) Just when I found a new job and thought things were going smoothly again, I got hit with a bad case of Sciatica that effectively crippled me for six weeks. Tons of fun, especially when you have to move a bunch of heavy suitcases around. Oh, and did I mention that for some reason painkillers have almost no effect on me? So, yeah, late 2019 - early 2020 was no fun. Then, just when I was back in Europe, I got caught up in the Covid-19 crisis and was unable to start my new job because of the travel bans.
Ah, well, I got to admit it was nice to have a vacation of a couple of months. (And, yes, that's easy for me to say because I could stay rent-free with my parents, who were glad to have me on the same continent again. To be honest, I don't know what I would have done otherwise.) Anyway, the travel ban has been lifted, and I'm finally back at work. It took me a while longer to get back to writing. Turns out, the more time passes, the tougher it is to start again. Anyway, here's the next chapter. I hope to get back to regular updates again from now on.
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-
Feros, skyway
"Looks like we're about to arrive."
Up ahead, the skyway disappeared into one of the massive prothean skyscrapers.
"Let's hope the door mechanism still works. I'd rather not park this thing in the open."
Fortunately, the sliding door that marked the building entrance still had power. It also showed the same high-quality engineering that was a staple for prothean technology, allowing them to park the Grizzly inside.
As they disembarked, Shepard looked around. They were inside a cavernous garage with multiple exits. In many ways, it was the ideal spot for an ambush, but there were no geth to be seen. "Jin, stay with the Grizzly. Wrex, T'Soni, with me. Let's see what we can find."
"Doesn't look like it will be much," Wrex grumbled. "This place looks like shit, too."
"Perhaps," Shepard conceded. "But I wasn't really planning to build a vacation home, here. Come, let's see what we can find."
They spread out across the garage, checking for signs of habitation.
-0-0-0-
Feros, Zhu's Hope
One more valve and I'm done. Tali Zorah nar Rayya (temporarily vas Normandy) opened the access panel on the junction. Human technology was different from that of either Citadel Space or the migrant fleet but, in the end, a pipe was a pipe, and a valve was a valve. It was simple enough to figure out how the system worked. In an ideal world, all of these junctions should have been remotely controlled from the colony. Unfortunately, the geth had taken out the hub that was supposed to relay the wireless signal in the tunnel, so now it had to be done by hand. Fools! That's why you always hardwire your controls. How hard would it have been to run a cable along the pipeline, even if it was just as a back-up? They were down here installing all this stuff anyway. Now, because these morons were too lazy to spend a few hours and add a control run, I'm down here crawling through the dirt to fix their mistakes.
Tali found the valve and pushed the lever upward. The local control light changed from red to green, which, as far as she could determine, was a universal good sign on human technology. And I'm done. She toggled the communication link on omnitool. "Lieutenant Alenko?"
There was no answer. That was not much of a surprise. The building was interfering with the signal and communications from the tunnels to the colony had been problematic at best. Still, it was frustrating. Now, she'd have to return to Zhu's Hope to check the water supply. All well and good if it worked, but if there was another problem to solve, it would mean going back all the way for another track through the tunnels.
"Estanza?" The Marine had accompanied her down into the tunnels and was keeping watch, just in case they ran into something nasty.
"Yes, what?"
"I'm finished here. The water should flow now, but I cannot contact the colony to check. Too much interference.
"Yeah, same here. By the way, weren't there supposed to be those -what do you call 'em, varren?- down here?"
"That's what the colonists said, yes."
"That's what I thought." Even to her untrained ear, the human sounded on edge. "Except I haven't seen anything. No movement, no heat signatures, nothing. Not even their shit. Now, I ain't no expert, but I would expect an animal, any kind of animal, to at least come and take a look to see what's going on the moment we walked into their territory. Form what I've heard, these varren aren't supposed to be the shy kind. So, where the fuck are they?"
Tali hesitated. She had not given it much thought, but the human had a point. It would have been natural for a pack of varren to come and investigate when people walked around near their lair. "Perhaps the geth killed them?"
"Perhaps, but I see no sign of gunfire. No damage, no blood, no dead bodies, nothing." The human muttered something she could not quite pick up, then, "Let's get out of here. The sooner we're back with the others, the better. This place is giving me the creeps."
Tali nodded to herself. She could understand the feeling. Besides, being alone and cut off from communications was a bad situation, whether there were varren around or not.
"Agreed. It's time to go."
-0-0-0-
Unknown planet
The debate was heating up.
"I warned you about this! Humans love to speculate and argue hypotheticals, especially when it comes to warfare. They were bound to have developed a response to large-scale xenomorph infestations."
"So? We always knew that they would try to fight back. To expect otherwise would have been folly. It's not as though this is a viable long-term solution. The protheans tried this same strategy. In the end, they wiped out so many of their own planets that their empire fell apart. The humans will end up facing the same dilemma."
"And where will that leave us?" The first speaker snarled. "We want hunting grounds, not radioactive wastelands!"
"Naturally, but we can afford to lose a few of these planets. There is no way the Council will follow the human example on this. So at worst, we'd only lose the humans as prey. But I doubt that will happen. Humans are too easily divided. I expect to see protests among their people and debates in their General Assembly. The end result will be a deadlock that will effectively prevent further implementation."
"Perhaps not. The asari will be horrified by this strategy, and the salarians will hesitate and try for a scientific solution, rather than widespread destruction. But the turians are a different story. Once they understand the nature of the threat, they'll admire the humans' ruthlessness and pragmatism, the willingness to sacrifice a planet if that's what is required. Even if the humans themselves fail to implement this solution again, the Hierarchy may well copy their policy."
"Turians, copying human policy?" There was the sound of laughter.
"Why not? Turians aren't fools. They copied human weapon systems readily enough. There may be some turians that carry grudges, but they're not too proud to borrow an idea if they think it's a good one. And, in the end, humans and turians have more in common than either side would like to admit. Present them with a common enemy, and they'll be allies before you know it."
"Then I suggest you make sure that doesn't happen. You've spent generations putting your agents in place throughout Citadel Space. It's time they did something useful. Meanwhile, where are our pawns?"
"Saren has returned to Virmire. We suspect he craves the continued presence of the Queen. No surprises there. Benezia is on Noveria, officially, she is inspecting her holdings. In reality, I believe she intends to extract the data they require. We expect that she will return to Virmire afterwards. By now, she must be as addicted to the Queen's presence as Saren."
"And Shepard?"
"The Normandy has reached Feros. The geth are still on the planet, and we suspect Saren left a small group of Kiande Amedha with a cluster of eggs behind as well, so Shepard will have her hands full. Perhaps that will be the end of her, Otherwise, by the time she manages to get off-planet, Haliat's trap will be set. Should he succeed, then most of our problems are solved. If not..."
"Then it's up to the hunters."
"Precisely."
-0-0-0-
Citadel Tower, The Citadel
"So you admit to this-, this atrocity!"
The atmosphere in the small meeting room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"This is unacceptable! Nuclear release on garden worlds is expressly forbidden!"
"By Council decree, yes. But we're not subject to the Council's edicts, Councillor. Not to mention that this was on one of our own worlds, not an act of war against yours. Not that we need to justify our actions to you, in any case." Captain Anderson took a breath and was about to continue when Udina stepped in.
"But we do understand your concerns." The ambassador shrugged. "Unfortunately, it was deemed necessary. I would have preferred to warn you in advance, of course, but I was given strict instructions not to do so. The officer in command of the operation considered that delays would only worsen the situation. On top of that, and perhaps of greater importance, our leadership wished to avoid any suggestion that the United Systems Military's operations are subject to your approval. However, as I said, we do understand your concerns. For that reason, we have decided that it is time to fully brief you on the situation on Eden Prime, as well as the events that led to it so that you can understand why we took such drastic action."
We haven't decided anything of the kind. Anderson kept careful control over his facial expression as the ambassador spoke. He understood why the ambassador felt it necessary to reassure the Council that humanity had not quite lost its collective mind. Especially, for as long as Shepard needed Council permission to enter Citadel Space, if -and when- required. For that matter, he understood why the Council might be in need of such reassurances. It was not every day that a government decided to nuke one of its own planets. Still, there were good ways to do it and not so good ways. It seemed that Udina had decided, unilaterally as far as Anderson could tell, on a way that would reveal far too much of humanity's secrets. Talking about the xenomorphs was one thing; that had become inevitable. But the files that Udina was releasing would tell the aliens more. It would reveal the details of the destruction of Hadley's Hope, the actual cause for the mess on Sevastopol Station, the loss of Sanctum and its research facilities. It made for an ugly story, showing humanity in a very unflattering light. Worst of all, they included transcripts of Weyland-Yutani's post-incident debriefing of Ellen Ripley, the only survivor of humanity's actual first contact. Those would reveal the events surrounding the Nostromo incident and tell the Council more than even the general population of the United Systems knew. There was no guarantee that they would be willing, or even able, to maintain secrecy and if they did not...
There was no way to predict how the people, in general, would react. On the one hand, this was old news. The destruction of the Nostromo had happened more than a century ago. Even the obliteration of Hadley's Hope and the crisis on Fury 161 were reaching the century mark. Events since then had changed the universe as far as humanity was concerned. On the other hand, people did not enjoy being lied to, or even being told half-truths. As history had shown, the consequences of the cover-up were often far worse than those of the original crime. It would also dispel one of the myths all the other species believed: that humanity had figured out mass effect technology on their own.
That was a misconception that had started during the First Contact War. Seeing no trace of prothean origin in human technology, the turians, as well as the handful of asari linguists that accompanied them on their ill-fated invasion, had come to this conclusion. A conclusion that had been reinforced by the lack of any prothean remnants in human territory. The human government had fostered it, revelling in the impression of human intellectual superiority that it created, and aided by the fact that most humans were convinced themselves that it was true. It also helped that, as far as anyone was aware, the protheans had been the only major space-faring civilization of their time. Now, this fiction would come to an end. The strange, horse-shoe-like ship that had been found on LV-426 had been destroyed in the colony's explosion before it could be properly dated. There was no way to tell whether they had been the prothean's contemporaries or not. Still, its very existence pointed to at least one other technologically-advanced space-faring species. That, in turn, created further uncertainty. After all, if there had been two such civilizations, why not three? The protheans being the one and only precursor species was nearly a religious dogma to the non-human species. In fact, it was exactly that to the Hanar. Having it questioned could lead to a lot of trouble. After all, people liked having their convictions overturned about as much as they enjoyed being deceived.
Udina is playing with fire, but why? Something was going on, something beyond the crisis on Eden Prime or the hunt for Saren. Unfortunately, this was a political game, not a military one, and Anderson was very much on the outside, looking in. I need information; and I need it fast!
-0-0-0-
Deep Space
***/ mission status update _ confirmed: subject shepard present on location feros _ confirmed: presence of creator on location feros /***
-/ status update received _ set to general dissemination: link between subject shepard and creators confirmed /-
+++/ request evaluation: project status subject saren /+++
-/ subject saren has left location feros and returns to location virmire _ subject saren has received required information _ subject benezia has left location feros and moves to location noveria _ project continues /-
%%%/ request evaluation: effect of relationship between humans and creators to long term geth collective goals /%%%
An almost infinitesimal pause, then:
-/ impossible to achieve consensus _ nature of relationship remains unknown variable /-
%%%/ request evaluation: effect of relationship between humans and creators to long term geth collective goals _ specify parameter: worst-case scenario /%%%
A slightly longer pause:
-/ consensus: parameter: worst-case scenario: full cooperation between humans and creators, including sharing of data and combined military operations _ consensus: effect negative _ end result: likelihood of direct offensive against geth collective above 75 per cent - and result of such an offensive: likelihood of destruction of geth collective above 50 per cent _ further data required /-
%%%/ request evaluation: likelihood of full data sharing and military cooperation between humans and creators /%%%
-/ impossible to achieve consensus _ insufficient data /-
-0-0-0-
Corsair vessel, on the edge of Citadel Space
"The news is most troubling," The voice said.
Miranda Lawson nodded. "Yes, sir. If Ambassador Udina continues on this course, we may have to intervene."
"I believe the time is well past 'may have', Ms Lawson. The fact that Captain Anderson is aware of Udina's machinations to the point where he has started to ask questions shows negotiations are well underway. We are quickly running out of options. It's time for direct action."
"But that would mean intervention on the Citadel itself."
"Eventually, yes, but not yet. First, you need to complete your original mission. Shepard is currently on Feros, but I doubt that will be the end of it. Once she is finished there, you will contact her again and set her onto the money trail."
"Noveria?" Miranda asked.
"Yes. We have an unconfirmed report that Benezia T'Soni has landed there. If so, Shepard may be able to catch up with her and take her down. At the very least, Shepard should be able to shut down that part of Saren's operation. That will greatly reduce his ability to do continued research and harm him financially. It also opens up an opportunity for us. If Shepard can get into the laboratory, she will have access to Saren's research data. You will send David to accompany her. It will be both a test of his capabilities and allow him to record any and all information that Shepard finds."
"David?" Miranda's eyebrows rose. "The risk of discovery-"
"Is acceptable. Shepard is USM. She will not talk about classified projects. The same is true for her people. As for the aliens on her ship, none of them are familiar enough with humans to notice slight aberrations in behaviour. And if they find out, well, that can also be handled. Sooner or later, we have to put David in the field. It might as well be now, and his unique abilities are ideally suited for this kind of mission."
"Yes, sir. I understand."
"Good. Meanwhile, form a plan for direct action on the Citadel. If possible, I suggest that you involve Shepard. She should have no objection. In fact, after dealing with Udina, she might even enjoy it, and it would give us deniability if things go wrong."
"Yes sir."
The QED shut down, leaving Miranda Lawson to ponder her next move. Too many problems, not enough resource, not enough time. But she would find a solution. She always did. And her boss's suggestion had considerable merit. Nobody would be too surprised if the Butcher of Torfan commits an atrocity. Of course, they'd have to make sure Shepard was in no position to talk, but such things could be arranged.
-0-0-0-
Feros
"Alenko, what's your status?"
"Everything clear, so far, ma'am. We've got most of the colony systems back up."
"Good work. What about the colonists? Are they still...?"
"Spaced out? Yes, ma'am. We've tried to get more information out of them, but we keep talking in circles. Sometimes it's almost like they want to tell us something, but it gets shut down. Commander..." There was a moment's pause. "I don't like this. I have no clue what's going on, but there is something seriously wrong here."
"Agreed. We found a couple of dead Exogeni employees on the skyway. Looks like they were smuggling prothean artifacts. Anyway, the rest seem to be hunkering down in some sort of maintenance cellar near the parking garage. We're about to make contact, but we have to move cautiously. From some of the transmissions we've picked up, things are pretty tense down there, and they've got remote weapon stations aimed at the entrance."
"Ouch."
"Yeah, and me with two non-humans on my team. Anyway, stick to the plan. Defend the colony if the geth come back, but no heroics. Normandy and the safety of our people take priority."
Shepard closed the link. "Alright, people. Time to crash the party. Any news on our friends downstairs?"
Wrex grinned. "They're still yelling at each other. We should wait a while. Any time now, someone's gonna throw a punch, and we'll have a show."
"Tempting, but no. Chances are everyone down there is armed. All it takes is one trigger-happy idiot, and they'd go from punching to shooting. By the time it would be over we'd have to question the corpses. No, let's not take that risk." She took a deep breath and unlocked the seal on her helmet. "Let's do this. We'll go down that ramp one at a time. Me first. Better that they see a human face first."
As they approached the ramp, they could hear the voices of people shouting at the top of their lungs.
"Hear that? That's what humans sound like when the stress gets too much. Zhu's Hope should have been like this. Clearly, whatever is going on back there, it hasn't infected these folks." She raised her voice. "HEY, down there! Do you mind? We're about to come down and we'd rather not get shot!"
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-
A/N: As people pointed out in reviews, the human strategy for dealing with the xenomorphs has its downsides. Setting aside the massive political implications (both domestic and foreign) of nuking your own planets, even from a purely military point of view it has a lot of drawbacks. It's like a pre-modern-medicine surgeon who took a patient with gangrene in his foot and decided to not just amputate the foot, but the whole leg, just to be sure. So, yes, it got rid of the gangrene, but there was an excellent chance that the patient would die of shock, blood loss and/or infection, and even if that didn't happen, he would be crippled for life in a society that had no social safety net.
On top of that, there is no guarantee that radiation would wipe out the xenomorphs completely. A big explosion would kill them if they're inside the blast radius, sure, but radiation is unreliable, and it only takes a few surviving eggs to start the next cycle. So, they've done massive damage to their own infrastructure without even a guarantee that it was a success. All they can do now is wait for the dust to settle, keep an eye on the planet, and see how things develop. But even then they have a problem: Absence of proof is not proof of absence. They can never be 100 per cent sure that the xenomorphs have been wiped out. And the risk of even one xenomorph getting off-planet is such that they have to keep policing the space around Eden Prime to make sure nobody lands without authorization, which is yet another drain on their resources.
Regarding the geth: I would expect an AI to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the situation as new information becomes available. Humans tend to decide on a course of action and then stick to it, even when circumstances change or turn out to be different than expected. But that's at least partially a matter of ego, an unwillingness to admit that the original plan/decision was flawed. An AI should not be affected like that. And this is a valid concern for them. The quarians are their enemies and they've just pissed of the humans; from a purely logical point of view, an alliance between those two would be a sensible next step, and that's not good for the geth. Any hint that that might be happening would have them very concerned. Of coure, in reality there is no real link, but they cannot be sure of that.
