"Exploring an abandoned area, expecting something mechanical and nasty to jump out at any moment..." Garrus surveyed the area. "Just like old times."

The log of a Dr. Chandana played as Tali touched a console. "...superstitious reaction to what this hulk represents, the corpse of a vast, ancient life form. Privately, I can't deny the atmosphere. The angles of the walls seem to press down on you. I find myself clenching my teeth."

"I think I've seen this vid." Michael shook his head. "Everyone died."

"Did you ever watch any happy vids?" Jacob glanced over his shoulder at him. "Comedies, musicals, things like that?"

"There was this film about a time it rained sharks on Earth." Michael shrugged. When he caught Grunt's expression, he gave a small shake of his head. "I'll cue it up for you later and we can steal some of Kasumi's popcorn."

"Good luck with that," the empty corner over his left shoulder retorted.

#

He stared at the console as Tali played another log. "Yeah, that's not creepy at all. Let's all just ignore all the warning signs and stay here poking the spooky-ass dead monster ship." Michael rubbed the back of his neck. "Lawson, have any of you Cerberus goons ever once watched a horror movie?"

She just rolled her eyes at him. He rolled his eyes back and walked over to the airlock. As soon as it opened, the entire vessel rocked, making them stumble. His communicator sprang to life. "Normandy to shore party."

"Guessing that wasn't a good thing?" Michael stared at the readings on his omni-tool.

"The Reaper put up kinetic barriers. I don't think we can get through from our side."

"As curious as I am about Reapers..." Tali checked her shotgun. "I'd rather not be trapped inside one."

He tapped his communicator. "Joker, the Normandy's got guns. Use'em."

EDI's voice came over in response. "The Normandy lacks the necessary firepower. Reaper shields are impervious to dreadnought fire." She paused briefly. "Shepard, a kinetic barrier can only be produced by a mass effect generator. That is true for any ship, even a Reaper."

"Tell me where it is so Tali can blow it up."

"At the moment of activation, I detected a head spike in what is likely the wreck's mass effect core. Sending the coordinates now. Be advised: this core is also maintaining the Reaper's altitude."

Naturally. "So, when we take the barriers down to escape, the wreck falls into the planet core." Why couldn't it ever be simple? Walk in, shoot the blinking lights, walk back out.

"And that means everyone dies." Joker helpfully finished stating the obvious. "Yeah, I got it."

Of course, they were going to do it anyway. It was just sort of what they did. "We'll make a sweep for survivors and research data. Then we'll knock this ugly piece of crap out of the sky." He glanced at his team. Grunt was grinning, and Jack smashed her fist into her palm. Tali and Garrus also looked ready for action. Thane had a pained but resigned expression on his face, and Samara looked vaguely amused. "Be ready to pick us up. Being crushed in the heart of a brown dwarf is not on today's agenda."

"Right." Garrus echoed. "I scheduled that for Thursday."

Next to him Tali checked her omnitool. She shook her head, and then checked it again before kicking Garrus in the leg. "And it has now been deleted from the schedule."

#

"Husks just don't get any prettier." Michael kicked the gray thing back over the side of the walkway. "Guess we know what happened to the scientists."

"Where they husks in the vid?" Kasumi's voice came from his left.

"In the vid I'm thinking of, they were zombies, so yeah, I guess."

"Wait, I think I know that vid." Her voice sounded excited. "Was it the one with the creepy little girl AI and the evil corporation?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Michael nodded. He pointedly didn't look in Miranda's direction. "Those vids keep getting stuck in my head for some strange reason."

#

"Dragon's teeth, your people call them." Tali looked over the ledge at the horror show below. "The geth used them on Eden Prime."

He took a slow look around, then another before frowning. "See how the room is arranged?" He got a bunch of blank looks from most of his team.

Samara, however, nodded. "It almost seems as though they are treating it as some kind of altar."

"That doesn't seem right." Tali shook her head. "No one in their right mind would want this."

"Refresh my memory." Kasumi's voice came from somewhere behind them. "How many people have we encountered that were in their right minds?"

"I wish she didn't have a point." Jacob exhaled before double-checking his heat sink.

"You heard the logs." Micheal frowned. "They were seeing things. Hearing things." He narrowed his eyes. "They were being indoctrinated." He made a growling noise. "How about we all take a step back from the weird alien impaling devices?"

"I was just looking." Tali shook her head as Garrus grabbed her arm to pull her with them. "I wasn't going to touch them."

#

He went still as shots from somewhere above took out the husks coming up behind them. Moving into friendly fire was never a good idea. At least, he really hoped it was friendly fire. A count to three and no more shots. And no more husks. Michael looked up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the shooter.

Up on the ledge was a...

Geth?

"Shepard-Commander." It lifted the rifle, then disappeared into the darkness.

"The sniper was a geth." Garrus looked from the corpses to the ledge where the geth had vanished before looking at him. "Since when do geth talk to organics?"

"To be fair, Shepard is no longer fully organic." Tali shrugged. When he turned to lift an eyebrow at her, she shrugged again.

Miranda moved one of the husks with the tip of her shoe. Was she really wearing heels on a derelict reaper? If she got them stuck in a grate, he wasn't rescuing her. "Clean head-shots on both husks."

"So, the geth are better shots than Vakarian." Michael shifted his own rifle. "Good to know."

Garrus just checked his load out and clicked his mandibles.

#

"So, step one, blow something up. Step two, run." Jacob just shook his head as they continued moving toward the mass effect core. "That's pretty much a standard plan A, right?"

"No." Tali tossed a grenade at the incoming scion. "Plan A is kill things, then blow things up, then run."

Samara got up a biotic barrier just in time to keep a husk from exploding on Tali. "Could perhaps plan A be modified to also include ducking?"

#

Entering the mass effect core revealed the geth had beaten them to it. There was a barrier blocking them. He was looking around for a way to bypass it when the geth turned to shoot the husks approaching it. Instead of running from the additional incoming husks, the geth returned to the console and...

Dropped the barrier for them. Michael had just a moment to ponder the action before a husk knocked the geth into the railing. He got up his rifle just in time to keep the husk from finishing the geth off. The geth wasn't moving. "Move, people." He shot another geth. "Tali, break that core."

"On it, Shepard."

He and Garrus moved into position on either side of her, using their rifles to pick off geth while their remaining companions sowed chaos among the incoming attackers. Another husk moved toward the downed geth. "Kasumi, check the sniper."

"Got it, Shep." A few moments later the geth was also vanished under her cloak.

"Brace yourselves." Tali shouted.

A few seconds later, the reaper started to lurch. Garrus moved toward where Kasumi was now visible. "Shepard. Want something done with that geth? It's still intact."

Good. He had some questions. Tali, however, was shaking her head. "Leave it there. You know what they are. If it gets into the Normandy's computers..."

Dammit, more husks coming. He looked over at Tali. "You said it yourself, no one's ever found one intact."

"That's true, but..." She looked at the geth. "I'm not sure it's worth the risk, Shepard."

"Tali, if it gets out of line, you can shoot it. A lot." He bent to pick it up. "Come on."

#

There was no way of getting back to the docks. The Normandy pulled alongside, and he started directing his team to leap for the airlock. Samara went first and began using her biotics to catch the others.

More husks, and a few of the big blasters. He kept his rifle up and leapt backward, trusting Samara to catch him as he kept up cover fire. She brought him in without so much as jostling his aim. "We're clear, go."

Behind them, the reaper fell into the star, exploding as it did. He couldn't quite stop himself from smiling at the sight.

#

"I think we need to discuss the unique piece of salvage we recovered." Miranda was bracing him about the geth before the briefing room doors had fully opened to allow him entry. "For now, we've stored it in EDI's AI core."

"Right. Cerberus hospitality. Put the dangerous and potentially hostile AI right next to our main computer." Michael stared at her.

She glared at him, folding her arms. "We need better equipment to fight the Reapers. An intact geth would be invaluable to Cerberus's cyberweapons division."

"I give it a week before Cerberus's cyberweapons division calls me up to rescue them from it." Michael turned to look at the display showing the apparently inactive geth.

"We'll have to disagree on that, ma'am." Jacob was starting to show signs of common sense. "I saw enough of these things on Eden Prime. Space it."

"Cerberus has a long-standing cash bounty for an intact geth." Miranda tried to catch his eye. "I assure you, the reward is significant."

Did she actually think he did this shit for the money? "I want to know why it has a piece of N7 armor strapped to its chest."

"Battle trophy, maybe?" Jacob tilted his head. "Would a machine care about that?"

"No. Trophies imply emotions that AIs don't have. I doubt it's more than a convenient field repair." Miranda unfolded her arms.

"What do you think, EDI?" He glanced up at the ceiling above the display.

"I fail to see the practical benefit of a hood ornament, Commander." He had a sneaking suspicion his ship was snarking at him.

"I've killed hundreds of these things, but I've never had the chance to talk to one." He looked over the display again. "This one tried to communicate with us. Hell, it probably saved our lives. Why?"

Rather than answer the question, Miranda just kept arguing. "Reactivating the geth is a risk. If you do so, it should be for humanity's best interests and not your curiosity."

"I still think our 'best interests' involve an airlock." Jacob leaned on the wall, his own arms folded.

"I'm not deciding one way or the other until I know what we've got here. I want to start it up. Interrogate it."

Miranda leaned on the console. "If we activate it, there is no guarantee we can deactivate it again."

"Bullets can." Yep. Jacob was definitely growing a brain.

"That's not what I -" And Miranda clearly wasn't used to having Jacob argue with her.

"Thank you - both of you - for your recommendations." Michael held up his hand. "I've made my decision."

"Tali's going to freak when she hears about this." Okay. It was possible Jacob was the only one in the room using his brain. "So, what about this Reaper IFF?"

EDI changed the display from the geth to herself. "I have determined how to integrate it with our systems. However, the device is Reaper technology." Speaking of adding hostile tech to the ship. "It is important we test it thoroughly before attempting the Omega 4 relay. It will take some time to properly integrate it with our own systems."

"Are we talking hours or days?" He lifted an eyebrow.

"Impossible to say; the technology is complex. The crew will begin work immediately."

"Okay. We've got plenty to keep us busy in the meantime."

#

Kaidan leaned over the railing, watching his team practice a maneuver. The sniper Hackett had assigned to them was definitely not up to the needed standards. He frowned and made a note to request a transfer for the woman. They were a covert squad, having a sniper was necessary, but he needed one that could work better with biotics. Like how Michael had timed shots to take advantage of his biotic strikes.

Or maybe his standards for snipers had just been set too high. Kaidan shook his head and turned to look out the window. Part of him wondered what Michael was doing now. He rolled his eyes. Michael really didn't need looking after. The man wasn't that reckless and stupid.

#

"I'm turning this thing back on." Michael nodded to the guard on duty in the AI core. "Be ready."

"Aye, aye."

"I have isolated our systems and erected additional firewalls." EDI put up a forcefield around the alcove containing the geth. "I am prepared to resist any hacking attempt."

It only took a few minutes for the geth to begin moving. It sat up, then slowly turned to look at him before standing. "Can you understand me?" Michael nodded to it.

"Yes."

"Are you going to attack me?" Part of him wondered what exactly he'd do if the thing gave an affirmative.

"No."

"Every geth I met before you tried to blow my head off." He shrugged.

"We have not met."

"No, you and I haven't." How intelligent was a geth, anyway? "But I've met other geth."

"We are all geth, and we have not met you." As he started pacing the outside of the forcefield, the geth moved to mirror him. "You are Shepard. Commander. Alliance. Human. Fought heretics. Killed by Collectors. Rediscovered on the Old Machine."

"Old Machine?" He tilted his head. "You mean the Reaper?"

"Reaper. A superstitious title originating with the Protheans. We call those entities the Old Machines."

Interesting. "You seem to know an awful lot about me."

"Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. We watch you."

"You watch me, or you watch organics?"

"Yes."

"Which?"

"Both."

Might as well make their respective positions clear. "I fight geth. You do anything hostile, I blow you to pieces. Just so we're clear."

"We have no hostility towards you."

"Sure didn't seem that way at Eden Prime and the Citadel."

"You fought heretics. Not true geth." Michael leaned slightly forward. There was that word again. Heretics. An interesting choice of term. "Geth build our own future. The heretics asked the Old Machines to give them the future. They are no longer a part of us. We were studying the Old Machine's hardware to protect our future."

"So..." He leaned back. "You aren't allied with the Reapers?"

"We oppose the heretics. We oppose the Old Machines." It stepped forward to look directly at him. "Shepard-Commander opposes the Old Machines. Shepard-Commander opposes the heretics. Cooperation furthers mutual goals."

Well now. "If you want to follow my orders, say so. Clearly. Otherwise, I'll rip your batteries out right now."

"We will follow your orders."

"Good." He really needed someone on the ship to stop him from being stupid. Michael lifted his omnitool and deactivated the force field. "Now, what do I call you?"

"Geth."

"I mean you." It was possible he owed an apology to a few interrogators he'd dealt with in the past. "Specifically."

"We are all geth."

Michael exhaled. "What is the individual in front of me called?"

"There is no individual. We are geth. There are currently 1,183 programs active within this platform."

EDI's voice came from the comm. "My name is Legion, for we are many."

"That seems appropriate." Michael nodded.

"Christian Bible, the Gospel of Mark, chapter five, verse nine. We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor. We are Legion, a terminal of the geth. We will integrate into Normandy."

"Alright, Legion..." Michael exhaled. "Welcome aboard the Good Ship Daddy Issues."

I had intended to do Overlord after this chapter, but for yet unknown reasons the DLC isn't working on my new computer. If that changes, I'll add Overlord. Otherwise, Overlord had Michael keeping David safe from Cerberus and knocking out a few of Archer's teeth. He'd also take Legion on that mission and do a bit of bonding there.