"That's definitely Reaper tech, I can see why we couldn't shut it down remotely, but what-" Shepard was cut off as the machine reveal Legion to be tied up to several cables, all of which looked extremely resilient.
"Shepard-Commander, help us."
"Legion..." Shepard said.
"Well, I guess it's good I get to see you again Legion, now how the hell are we supposed to get you outta there?" Tom wasn't internally surprised, but of course had to act it out externally.
"Hold on guys, Legion is broadcasting the signal, how do we know that Legion isn't working for the Reapers?" Tali asked cautiously.
"Your concern is valid, Creator-Tali, however we are not controlled by the Old machines, instead, we are being used as a conduit to broadcast the command signal to all Geth platforms. We must admit that we never agreed with the Consensus when the decision was presented." He seemed almost...sheepish for an AI.
"Alright Legion, we'll get you out of there, hold on." Shepard said before activating his Omni-blade.
Legion 'flinched' when this happened. "That will not be possible Shepard-Commander, besides physical restraints, this platform also has several hardware blocks in place that would prevent it's imput from being accepted by the vessel once freed, you must free me by accessing the console on the far side of the room."
"Won't it need to be hacked? I mean you guys have tons of security measures as far as I see, or at least if Tom is right."
"We protected our consoles from remote hacking attempts, not physical removal, you should have no issues freeing us once you interact with the console.
"Tom, stay here with Legion while the rest of the squad gets to the access console, just so that he doesn't try anything, and so that nothing happens to him while we happen to be on the other side of the room."
Tom nodded. "You got it, boss man."
Just as expected, Shepard made to the other end of the room and released Legion without any trouble.
Shepard hastily tapped a couple controls on the console. "Got it, you should be free now Legion."
"Hardware blocks removed, thank you Shepard, we are free." Legion said with as much gratitude as a synthetic could muster in one voice without having any emotion.
"Tali to fleet, the signal is about to come offline."
"Thank you Tali, you've done the migrant fleet proud, I'll be the first to congratulate you when you get back."
"Thanks dad, we're getting out of here now."
That's just when Legion disabled the guns and barriers of the Geth dreadnought, leaving it vulnerable. "As a gesture of cooperation, we have disabled this ship, all weapons and barriers offline."
"Ok, now let's get the hell outta here people!" Then the Geth units started dropping in.
"Alert! Geth reinforcements incoming!"
"We'll handle them, procure an escape vessel or something similar while we kill these things."
"Acknowledged, Ghost-Infiltrator, are you coming?" Tom jumped down to Legion's level.
"Right behind you." He took out his Widow. "Since I believe you have an affinity for this thing, take it off me for this mission, I've got a Mattock so don't worry about me."
"Acknowledged, the docking bay is through several hallways, follow us."
They only started moving when an explosion rocked the ship."
"What was that?" Tom asked frantically, although this was all an act as he knew what was going to happen.
"Creator vessels are firing on this ship, we must hasten our travel to the Docking bay, Geth have no escape pods so we'll procure a fighter and pilot it to safety."
"I gotcha, I'll alert Shepard while we move." He accessed comms. "Shepard! Geth don't have escape pods, but Legion's going to pilot a fighter to safety with us in it, after you've dealt with those Geth meet up with us in the docking bay, get Tali to trace me if you have trouble finding us."
"Copy that Fisher, we'll be there soon."
Meanwhile
"Continue firing upon that Dreadnought! We've have it down soon Heavy fleet!" Han'Gerrel was definitely giddy about this, meanwhile Shepard had just shot the last Geth Prime. He had heard every word on the comm, he made a mental note to make Gerrel pay for this afterwards.
"We have to get out of here people, let's quickly get to the docking bay before they destroy this ship, Han'Gerrel is going to pay for this after we get out of here, now let's move people!"
The bickering with the Admirals only got even more colourful as they made their way to the docking bay. "Hold fire you bosh'tet! That's my daughter you're firing on and I didn't promise her a house on the homeworld for nothing! HOLD YOUR FIRE!"
"Belay that order, keep firing!" They had almost destroyed the Dreadnought, fortunately for Shepard, him and his team had just reached the docking bay.
"Shepard-Commander, we've located transportation, please enter this vessel so that we can pilot to safety." There were several explosions and a disorienting loss of gravity, but Shepard and co. managed to make it to the Geth fighter which Legion and Tom were in.
"We're in Legion, thanks for the ride."
"Does the storage compartment have adequate room, Shepard-Commander?"
"Thanks for the concern, but I think we have bigger things to worry about, let's just get the hell outta of here before they blast this ship to pieces."
...
"That was a little too close for comfort, was Han'Gerrel really willing to sacrifice us just so he could destroy that Dreadnought?" Tom said the last part of the sentence with a very terrified tone, even though he knew wasn't in any real danger, although there was difference between being there in person and knowing of it, but not experiencing it, and just knowing it and seeing it.
"Yes he was, and I'll be having a little chat with him later, I do NOT tolerate anyone who purposely endangers my crew just so he can get something he wants, he's going to pay for this." Shepard's tone was laced with anger, he cared about his crew.
"This is actually insane, even for Han'Gerrel, he's friends with my father, but I'm sure that after this it'll be 'he was' friends with my father, I just hope this don't end with an Admiral being charged for treason as that would start and uproar among the people that support Han'Gerrel."
...
"So who is Section?" Tali asked.
"He's an AI I created on accident, although he's not evil or anything like that, he's actually saved my life once now."
"Really? So how did you create him?"
"It was on accident like I said earlier, I was just trying to create a simple VI, and then Cerberus corrupted my Omni-tool, and then Section decides to come along and fix everything, and now my Omni-tool is a lot better then it was before, now because I have an AI living on the thing.
"How does that work? Doesn't he take up a lot of space?"
"He's actually optimized my Omni-tool enough to the point of it being manageable, so it's not a significant drop in performance, although my Omni-tool does get a little laggy when he's thinking too hard.
That was only twice! And I was computing how the emotions of organics are driven, so you can't say it's a habit.
"And there he is, he's a bit more factual then EDI, but he doesn't have nearly as much humor either, so that's basically how I got Section in a nutshell, also he's recursively self improving himself all the time.
"When I first heard of EDI on the SR-2 I was a little scared, mainly because I thought she would turn on us, especially when she became unshackled, but she has proven herself time and time again, so now I guess you could say I'm a little more comfortable with AI? I'm a little less insecure around them now, especially with both EDI and Legion running around with a body."
"Oh, and before I forget, Han'Gerrel is probably getting chewed out badly by both your father and Shepard.."
Meanwhile
"With all due respect, Admiral your uni-lateral strike endangered not only but your own fleet, but the safety of my squad as well, get the hell off my ship, and don't ever come back!" Shepard said angrily. Gerrel retreated like a hurt puppy quickly after that.
"Shepard I know you're angry but..." Admiral Raan tried to placate Shepard, but she was cut off by Tali's father.
"No, Shepard's anger is justly incurred, Han'Gerrel was being reckless, and I believe Shepard's anger was him protecting his crew." Rael'Zorah said, clearly supportive of Shepard and why he had just kicked an Admiral off his ship.
"Shepard-Commander, we are prepared to offer assistance." Legion came in at just the right time.
"What the hell is this?! Commander? Commander!" Raan shouted.
"Oh that? That's Legion, he helped me fight the Collector's and kill the Heratics, and if you want to study it Xen, I believe you can join Gerrel in getting the hell off my ship, as I won't stand for that right now." Shepard took a breath.
Xen was very surprised at that Shepard knew that she was interested in Legion. "Wha-" She sputtered, which was very uncharacteristic to her normal cold, calm and calculating demeanor.
"I know how interested you are in the Geth, so don't be surprised when I know things that seem a little odd, you don't hide your interests very well."
"Shepard, before this Geth came on, I was about to say, thank you disabling that signal, we'll be able to retake our homeworld now that the Geth are no longer under Reaper control." Zorah didn't seem to perturbed, despite there being a live Geth in the same room as him, he was good at keeping a steady head.
"This is a false assumption, you have disabled the Reaper's short distance communication signal, their long range communication signal will be on soon and the Geth will be under Reaper control in approximately 23.53 hours in galactic standard time, we recommend a re-group and to make a defensive formation."
"Wait what?! Xen, coordinate with Gerrel, MOVE!" Zorah snapped, losing his calm after hearing that statement.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"So you know what mission we're about to do next?" Tom hastily muted this part of the ship so that EDI couldn't hear anything more
"Yeah, we're either going to infiltrate a Geth base to shut down Geth fighters so that they can't target your Fleet's live ships, or we'll be rescuing Admiral Koris who crash landed his ship on the planetary defense cannon you saw in the Dreadnought to disable it. And after that Shepard will know where the Geth base is that's controlling the Reapers and immediately go for that or he'll do the other mission and then destroy the signal."
"It's always a little unnerving when you know the future and likely know a lot about myself and the rest of the crew, I'm glad you're on our side."
"You know I wasn't always a good person before this, when my parents died I was disconnected, I just did what I did best, I hacked a defense network, gave information that I hacked to the highest bidder, I only started realizing my greed just before I was transferred here, I must admit that I wasn't the greatest person, the guilt is starting to weigh on me now." Tom looked very guilty.
"Were and when were you before all of this?"
"I was on Earth, in a universe where the Reapers and none of the aliens like you or anyone else existed, at least we hadn't found any yet, and the year was 2013 and we could barely get off our own planet."
"Keelah! How did you adapt to today's computers? You're smarter than I thought."
"I worked at it for 4 months, I spent the other 4 training my body for combat, when I commit to something, I usually commit fully, that's why I was such a good learner, I had a PHD in computer science, and I self taught myself how to use a computer after my father died, I wonder how my family, or what's left of it is doing now, but that's enough about me."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The intelligence was not pleased. Well, as close it could be without showing emotion. The Shepard was undoing their work on the AI creations, the Geth. This was unacceptable, and plans would be set in motion to prevent the Shepard from completing their goal. The intelligence made sure #9845843 was aware when the Shepard launched their attack on the communications base.
There was also the Anomaly, which was something not accounted for. They were not a concern as of now, their actions would be dealt with and a contingency would be set in motion if their actions disrupted the harvest. This was not normal, but not unheard of for a contingency to be in motion, in the end, there was no war, the intelligence mused.
There was only the harvest.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...
"Tali, Garrus and Tom please report to the shuttle bay for a mission on Rannoch." I said calmly. I had to make sure the civilians were safe before I started doing other things, like finding the main communications base, I couldn't let what happened to the civilians on Earth happen here, at least here I could make a difference, as opposed to where I couldn't do a bloody thing when the Reapers first attacked Earth.
There were Tali and Garrus, those two that had stuck with me the whole way. This was so much different from the old days, I'm glad these two had managed to stick with me the whole way.
"Hey you two, it's been a while since we've all been together shooting Geth huh?"
"Wouldn't have it any other way." Garrus said, his mandibles showing the Turian equivalent of a smirk. "With me here you'll be able to do it in a stylish way, so that's a plus." I had to admit that Garrus was a badass, although I would never tell him that because he wouldn't know what I would mean by that, and if he did know it would go straight to his head.
"I guess we've all grown a little over the course of the years, I miss the simple times when all we did was chase Saren, shoot large plants and kill Rachni." Tali's Thorian reference was very subtle, it was almost like an inside joke now, which only the old crew and for some reason Tom knew, I still hadn't figured out how he knew that though, and there he was, the would be enigma if he didn't treat every like old friends, and like he knew them several times over, which was slightly unnerving.
"I'm here guys, did I miss anything?"
"Just some old memories, you wouldn't have been able to relate since you weren't on the original Normandy, so don't worry about it, let's just go, we have a job to do after all, Legion's inside."
...
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"So what's the objective here Legion? How are we going to shut down the servers? High explosives?" Shepard had that grin again, he really liked seeing things blow up, but could you blame him? If anything that would be a break from dealing with politicians.
"That is crude and inefficient." Legion seemed to chide Shepard, who deflated once he heard that. "We will disable the server internally."
"Internally, you mean we'll be infiltrating their base and disabling it like how we did with the Heratics? What we expecting for resistance?"
"Resistance is unlikely in the physical server room, it is however anticipated only within the server itself."
"What?" Shepard looked surprised. Tali shot me that look, the 'you-know-what's-about-to-happen-and-you-think-it-wasn't-good-enough-to-tell-me?!' look, at least from what I could discern from her limited facial expressions, although her body language was exaggerated enough for me to catch on, sort of. I had to give that grin, that shit eating one, and let me tell you one thing.
It was super satisfying.
A/N: To make up for me not posting next week this chapter is a little longer. I hoped that I write out how the the Reaper overlord thought, and I think I did well, but I guess that's to you, the reader to decide. Currently have my final exams next week so there will be no chapter post next week, sorry!
Reviews:
BrotherCaptainSheperd: I think that's the most feasible theory as to why they switch sides so quickly in the third game, but in the end it doesn't matter. Do you want to know why? Because Shepard is going to go full Renegade on them if you know what I mean.
general-joseph-dickson: You're 100% right there, and after this chapter you've probably come to this conclusion:
Tom is running out of lies and self esteem, he's going to crack soon, but that's all I'm at liberty to say right now.