"So now we have an AI that acts like I thought it would realistically, how many more digital friends are you going to make?" Garrus asked in a joking manner
"I don't know how many more, and what is your idea of a typical AI?" Shepard asked.
"Not extremely innocent like Legion, and not having dry humor like EDI, I thought a typical AI would be precise, punctual, and maybe a little genocidal? At least that's what I thought until I met EDI for the first time."
"Yeah, well I guess I can relate, honestly I have no idea how the hell Section actually manages to compute on just one Omni-tool."
Actually now that Tom has linked me with several of you I've been drawing approximately 15% of processing power from each of you, but in return I've optimized all of your Omni-tools by 50%.
"Well I guess that helps, how much can you do at one time?"
Before I was limited to doing one big calculation, or two small ones, but now I can do three or four bigger calculations without a significant drop in performance from any Omni-tool I've been linked to. Along with several improvements to my own code, I take up less memory then I used to, I attempt to optimize everything I can, for maximum utility. However, I had to make several radical changes to Tom's Omni-tool to improve performance. The geth upgrades he installed helped significantly.
"Tom mentioned this before, back when Cerberus controlled the ship, he didn't really elaborate on what it could do, mind if you tell me?"
The programming upgrades he installed gave his Omni-tool significantly better processing power then any know model of the Omni-tool to date, it's a prototype of the software Geth Prime's use in their Omni-tool, which is of course much better then anything credits could buy you on the market.
"So that's why his Omni-tool is blue..." Garrus said.
"So what else does that give him besides better processing power?"
Besides better processing and memory, it has twice as much storage and RAM as a normal Omni-tool, it's easier to modify, and can hack things significantly faster then a normal Omni-tool, but I can hack anything faster then his Omni-tool anyway, rendering that feature useless unless I'm somehow unavailable. The last time he's modified this Omni-tool was the day the reapers hit Earth, barring my creation of course.
Shepard sighed. "Why the hell does every date start at the beginning of the attack on Earth? Every time it's mentioned it's like a neon sign is just floating above me, broadcasting my failure to stop the Reapers before they hit Earth."
"Shepard, stop blaming yourself." Garrus said. "It wasn't your fault, it isn't anyone's fault, you could never had expected this, even with the warning message from the beacon on Eden Prime, and besides, we're going to kick the Reapers back into the black hole they climbed out of."
"I already know you're right, but it still feels like a huge weight is on my shoulders."
"I know what'll cheer you up, come with me."
...
Garrus took Shepard to the bar where they had a bit of alcohol, this definitely remedied Shepard's guilt.
"Thanks for this, I'll always know you'll have my back, Garrus." Shepard said as he downed his final glass.
"Don't worry about it, if anyone deserves to win this thing, it's you Shepard."
"I know, I think I'll go and see Tom now since I've told everyone."
"And I better get back to my calibrations."
"When are you ever going to stop doing that? That thing's already a bloody laser, how much more accurate can you make it?"
"That would be telling."
"Sure." Shepard said in joking matter before leaving the room. He made it to the Medbay in a second.
Tom was unconscious when Shepard entered the room.
"How's he doing Doctor?"
"He's just recovering from the surgery now, and his radiation posioning has been cured, he's alright, although he will have a scar on that shoulder that I didn't bother to fix, just because I don't have the proper equipment to remove it."
"I guess it's because I was a bit of a cheap skate when it comes to the medical equipment here." Shepard joked
"Well, that positive outlook of yours has already healed your scars, so I didn't expect you to invest in it after they healed, and you wouldn't have had any use of it anyway, since scars are only a cosmetic issue, they don't actually effect a person's health."
"Thanks Doc, inform me when he wakes up."
"Commander."
...
"Joker, how close are we to the coordinates the Quarians provided?"
"We'll be there in an hour, I sure hope no one picks up a contagion in the mean time."
"You know Tali would probably punch that brittle face of yours if she heard that comment right?"
"Well, as long as she isn't here I can make as many insulting jokes as you want."
"I don't know, I might slip up and mention it if you continue."
"I'll pay you 50 credits not do that, sir."
Shepard chuckled. "Keep your money, I wasn't going to anyway, but watch out for Garrus."
"Yeah, I'll do that, I sure hope Tali doesn't break out that shotgun if she hears about this."
Shepard chuckled again, Tali loved that Geth shotgun.
"Please inform me when we arrived."
"Yes Sir."
...
"How was your sleep, Tom?"
"Better then the first time I was in this bed, speaking of which, can I get off here now? It feels like I've been glued to it the entire time I've been sitting here."
"That sounds just like Shepard, you're obviously in good health now, you're free to go."
"Thanks Doc."
"Just doing my duty."
He bumped into Shepard on the elevator.
"There you are, I was about to check up on you." Shepard said.
"Well, you can stop now, I'm going to get back to my terminal in the war room now, you know me and computers."
"I told the crew about Section so don't worry about keeping him a secret, Joker is still convinced that Section is hitting on EDI for what ever reason, apparently he thinks exchanging data is sexual...?"
Of course EDI had to chime in. "I do not harbor any attraction towards Section although it is convient to meet another AI that is somewhat similar to myself, Joker is still the organic I am primarily concerned about when it comes to that matter."
Joker also decided to talk on the intercom as well. "Uh, Shepard we've approached the coordinates and a Quarian ship is hailing us, what should we do?"
"Open a channel, and tell them I'll be there momentarily." Shepard pressed the button for the CIC, Tom was with him.
"I guess duty calls huh?"
"It does, I'm probably going to have to forge an alliance between the Quarians and the Geth, just another day in the office I guess."
"I know you'll get it done, I'll be in the war room if you need anything."
...
This next bit was going to be interesting. Tom had saved Rael'Zorah, which wasn't possible in the original trilogy, so he had absolutely no data on how this would play out, nor any future knowledge, the knowledge he already had was more then enough though, so he wasn't worried.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Commander, you better get to the airlock to greet our new guests." Joker said.
"You're not my CO Joker, I know what I'm doing."
"Yeah yeah, I get it." Joker said, eyes rolling.
"Also, EDI you again have to pretend that you're a simple VI to protect yourself, since the Quarians are a little bias in terms of AI, inform everyone else on the ship as quickly as you can, and seal the door to the pilot seat so that they can't see you there either."
"Yes Commander."
"Do it quickly, the airlock is being pressurized now."
EDI quickly got the message out just as the admirals stepped out of the airlock.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Are the admirals on the ship now?" Tom asked.
"Yes they are, they're moving to the war room, I've got to stop talking now."
"I hear you, I'll take care of it from now on."
Shepard came in first, of course, on schedule.
"Are the admirals coming?" Tom asked, getting up from his terminal to meet Shepard who was looking at the war asset menu.
He was about to say something but was interrupted by Admiral Raan.
"As I said before Shepard, it's a pleasure to see you again, I just wish we could've met under better circumstances."
"I heard about your galactic recall, what's going on with you people?"
"17 days ago, with precision strikes against 4 geth systems, our people have began the war to take back our home world." Admiral Han'Gerrel said.
"Which was a clear violation with our treaty to the council to avoid provoking the Geth." Admiral Koris did not seem pleased.
"A treaty violation is nothing compared to reclaiming our home world and advanced AI technology." Admiral Daro'Xen said dismissively.
"We should've done this earlier, but now we're in trouble because the Reapers have stopped us." Admiral Rael'Zorah said.
"What happened?" Shepard inquired.
"We were pushing the Geth back to the home world when a Reaper signal started transmitting from this heavily armed Geth dreadnought, it can outgun anything we have and has heavy armor and shields." Rael'Zorah said, gesturing to the ship on the screen in the war room.
"That's definitely a Reaper signal."
"Under Reaper control the Geth are twice as effective as before, we need that signal offline." Zorah said, it was a statement, not a question.
"So I'm assuming you need me to take out that signal?"
"Yes Commander, we need you to infiltrate the Geth dreadnought and cut that signal using any means necessary." Raan said.
"My daughter will help you hack your way through." Zorah said, and of course Tali came into the room right at that moment, Tom had always wondered if the Admirals have planned this on purpose, as it seemed pretty well scripted.
"Tali'Zorah vas Normandy reporting for duty." She said, she seemed to be trying to be as business like as possible, probably due to her father being in the same room as she was.
"Tali, glad to have you aboard." Shepard turned to face the Admirals. "I'll ready a team to hit that dreadnought."
The meeting seemed to reach an unanimous end as the Admirals dispersed.
Tali motioned and both her and Shepard left the war room for a private talk.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"So how's it like being back with the fleet, and your father again?" I asked.
"It's been fine, I just wish we could've avoided this stupid war."
"I thought you might have support this, you did want to see the home world again after all."
"Honestly, after talking with Legion I thought there might have been a chance for peace, but I guess the Admirals decided that war was apparently the 'best option' everyone knows that's a lie, and I'm sure my father mentioned that this wasn't the time either."
"He did, I have to say the he's right, if you had done this before the Reapers attacked, then you might have already been occupying your home world right now."
"Honestly I have a lot of worries over this, but enough about me." She changed the subject. "Who's on the Normandy now? I didn't see any of the crew members from the original Normandy, not even Joker."
"Well, Garrus is still here."
"Is he still calibrating that gun?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, sometimes I wonder how in-accurate that gun would be without him." He went on. "Kaiden is back, we got over the whole Cerberus thing, so don't worry about." Tali nodded.
"I've got an Arms Master down in engineering, his name's James Vega, he'll probably give you a nickname, he tends to do that for everyone. We've got Liara in Miranda's old office, she's set up here information network down there as well, so don't be surprised if she's super busy when or if you come for a visit."
"I guess she's lost here innocence now, but so have I."
Shepard smiled sadly. "It was nice to see both of you innocent at one point, it's a shame the indoctrination of her mother shattered her innocence, and it's also a shame that you had to grow up in the 2 years I was gone for, you two were like little sisters." Tali nodded, from the little Shepard could make out of her face, she also seemed a little sad by that.
"Oh, and EDI is still here of course, I-"
"I already saw her new body, it was interesting, to say the least."
I let out a breath I wasn't holding. "That simplifies things, I'm glad you didn't freak out or anything like that, it would've complicated things."
"That was why I wasn't with your for that meeting, I was just talking to EDI for a bit, although my father introduced me in such a smooth way, that I swear the it might have been planned."
"And I almost forgot to tell you, Fisher is on the Normandy, although it was such a suspicious convince that he met up with us at that time..."
"I saw him in the war room, is he alright?"
"He actually almost died once, but we patched him up, he actually just got out of the prison that is the Medbay."
"Can you call him out here? I don't feel like I want my father watching my every move in that room."
"Yeah, Joker, you heard that?"
"Yes Commander, I'll get him out of there in a sec."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...
Just before Tali said anything, Tom quickly sealed the room from EDI's surveillance, the AI would notice, in about 15 minutes. "Is any of this expected, do you know what's going to happen?" Tali was afraid, and Tom could tell. "You know I missed you, you bosh'tet, I was worried about you, and here you are, knowing the future and all that, you know my reaction to all of this, don't you?"
Tom sighed. "Look, some of this was much different, your father is dead in the future I saw, and you filled in his spot on the Admiralty board, and plus I myself wasn't in the timeline I saw, so I'm an unknown variable here, so none of this is predictable, I-"
"Alenko, Fisher, and Tali Zorah please suit up and head down to the shuttle bay, we're raiding a dreadnought." Shepard announced over the intercom.
"I'll tell you more about this later, all I have to say is this next mission will be a success, but in a different way then both you and probably myself will expect."
A/N: Shepard is in a romantic relationship with someone as well as Tom, but I'm not at liberty to spoil it until she shows up. The posting of Chapters may slow down as I have final exams coming up.
Reviews:
Br2nd66: So you don't care if they live or die right?
redcollector: I have big plans for the ending of this story.
BrotherCaptainSheperd: I also am questioning why they just randomly decide to switch sides in ME2 to ME3, since I think (don't quote me on this) that the Illusive Man is indoctrinated prior to the first game.
general-joseph-dickson: To be honest, the weapons from the Spectre terminal in ME3 are massively overpriced, and since the Shepard in this story is a Solider and is saving the bloody galaxy I figured he deserved all three of them.