PHOENIX RESURGENT
A Mass Effect Story by Vyrexuviel
Disclaimer: The author of this story does not, in any way, profit from the story and all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).
She remembered the little ship the shiny-skinned one led her to. It wasn't anything like the wreckage of the ship she had woken among, being intact for one thing. Sleek, efficiently designed, almost all engine and power plant, it held a deadly grace that appealed to her, much like the shinyskinned one. It had taken some persuading to get her to enter the thing, but once she was aboard, the shiney one, who called itself Geth (and that name held some association that was maddeningly familiar) had taken off, letting her watch on a hologram (that was what it had called the glowing floating image) as the only world that she had known fell behind.
Over the days and weeks that had elapsed, it had refreshed her lingering memories of language and knowledge, showing several vids of her species, or so it claimed. The fleshy, pink-skinned creatures seemed downright rude in their brash self-confidence, but something about the "asari" that Geth had shown her had stirred another sensation within her. A name hesitated lingering on her lips, though she didn't have a clue who or what "Liara" was supposed to mean. In all, it was both familiar and maddeningly vague, and Geth seemed singularly unhelpful when she at first asked, then demanded more information. She spent the last day sulking, ignoring Geth's attempts at communication while she worked through her kata in single-minded intensity.
It wasn't until Geth showed her the massive space fleet in the vid that she realized they had arrived at...wherever they were going. Docking was simple, and Geth led her into a simple chamber, down a corridor, to a large open space, full of what she now recognized as computers, all of them seeming to watch her, though she knew from her conversations with Geth that they weren't equipped for such observation. After a time, Geth turned to her and spoke quietly.
"The Geth have reached consensus. We wish to offer you our help in regaining what memories you may retain. Do you wish Geth assistance?"
She hesitated, frowning slightly at her sole companion, then shrugged slightly, "I suppose."
The shiny-skinned one bobbed it's flashlight of a head in what she took to be solemnity. "Then we will begin."
What happened took place over the course of what she later learned was considered five small cycles in Geth terms. First, they scanned her in every way they could conceive of, learning exactly how she was constructed, down to the molecular level. That in and of itself had sent the Geth into a long silent spell as they considered the data, before returning with the next step: Testing.
Testing, she later decided, was another word for torture.
The impact tests were the first. They tested when she was aware, and when she wasn't, followed by heartfelt apologies. Then came the electrical tests. That was less painful, but occasioned what she took to be intense interest, as they kept trying various kinds of current. Direct, alternating, pulsed, phased, various levels of amperage, wattage, voltage and impedance of all sorts. The bewildering variety of tests she was subjected to took several weeks, and was followed by an equally bewildering variety of attempted explanations.
Of course, she wasn't just subjected to the poke-and-prod throughout that time, she was also given 'lessons' by the geth she had first encountered. She had been thoroughly disabused of her notion that that individual's name was "Geth", and after some discussion, had christened it "Legion", after some text she half-remembered, and which Legion had clarified.
Legion's lessons took the form of personal history, starting with her supposed birth on a human colony called "Mindoir". The slaver raid, the subsequent child counseling, a long string of foster homes, until she was discovered as a latent biotic. Shipping off to biotic training, and later on, a military career. The Skyllian Blitz. That one was a nightmare, as bits and pieces of her old life started surfacing, finding herself teaching Legion about how to turn a civilian street into a killing box using only a few supplies she could scrounge together. For it's part, Legion absorbed this reminiscence with the same polite, attentive interest the geth showed to everything she said.
And of course, she kept up her practice. Legion even took it upon itself to show her several formal martial arts forms that the Geth had observed from the other races. Geth did not practice such things, it told her, though they were capable in unarmed combat. It was mostly due to the fact that they relied on the durability of their combat units to survive melee, instead of quick reflexes and instinctive reactions. Sparring with Legion was a treat that she savored. The geth could keep up with her easily, and even give her a challenge, though after the end of the second month, it was clear it was having to rely more and more on it's superior mass to close to grapple and pin her. She couldn't overpower it, though she was getting very good at escaping holds.
Legion explained to her that it had been ramping up it's use of strength, to accurately gauge her own strength, and found it above human norm, though not as high as krogan baseline strength. Her reaction time, however, was nearly on par with the Geth themselves, and she didn't have to build consensus before acting, which cut down on her overall speed compared to the Geth. One thing that she had found out almost accidentally was the fact that she no longer had the eezo deposits that had, in her previous life, given her her biotic powers. She wasn't sure what to feel about that particular loss, but decided to wait to decide how she felt about it until she had regained her memories. More and more things were triggering flashbacks now, and her mind was starting to assemble her history little by little, though every time she felt close to a breakthrough, she caught a glimpse of herself in one of the mirror bright surfaces, and the moment slipped away.
It wasn't until nearly four months of training, re-learning, testing, and experimentation that the Geth gave her a present.
Legion led her into a small testing room and she sighed softly, "I thought we were done with testing for today, Legion?"
The personalized Geth turned and lifted one of it's brow-plates. "We are."
"Then why are we here?" She glanced around at the electrical testing equipment, then to the two slightly-larger heavy-lifting Geth who were bringing in a crate.
"We wished to give you a gift."
That brought her head around to Legion, one brow rising in imitation of the geth's habitual expression. "Oh? I didn't peg you as the gift-giving type."
The other geth were quickly unpacking something. "We do not completely understand the human need for body covering, but our tests have given us insight into your unique needs. This," Legion gestured to the collection of oddly shaped pieces of metal, fabric and electronics, "is meant to provide you with covering, and provide a self-contained environment when you venture out of a Geth ship."
She blinked at Legion, then moved over to the collection of metal bits, the two geth clearing out with the now-empty box. Her breath caught, and she had a sudden flashback to what was clearly a locker room, pulling on her combat hardsuit's undersuit, then adding on the complex fittings of the armored shell, the generator, the weapon pack, the shield generators spread throughout the suit...she shook her head, clearing the sudden, vivid image, gazing at the suit.
The fabric pieces were grey, what would be called gunmetal grey, she thought idly. The metal armored shell was highly polished chrome, though the odd sheen to the metal indicated it wasn't just steel. she hesitantly reached out to stroke the single-piece undersuit, feeling it's cool, smooth softness. Her hand slipped to the breastplate, cast in one piece and meticulously machined to perfectly fit her contours, she had no doubt. The vambraces, shoulder pauldrons, weapon pack on the center of her back, hip plates, crotch plate, thigh plates and grieves, the boots and helmet... she turned to smile tentatively at Legion.
"Thank you. Um, do you mind if I try it on?"
Legion gave her a slight 'shrug' and a brow-plate rise. She'd been teaching him human-style body language. "You may. We need to test the fit."
She gave him a slight smile and turned back to the layed-out suit components, starting to strip off the tattered clothes she'd worn ever since she could remember. She had completely gotten over being body shy around the geth, what with having to be completely bare for them to test her completely. pulling the undersuit on, she hesitated, feeling the fabric. "Conductive?"
Legion stepped over and nodded, "Part of the suit's modifications include using you as a power storage unit. The suit itself has no capacitors. The conductive layer delivers generated power to you, and draws power to power it's various functions from your body."
She nodded slowly, frowning a bit but shrugging as she pulled on the bodysuit, zipping it up and feeling an odd flutter pass through her. She figured that storing suit power inside her was a good idea. Her personal ability to store energy, though not infinite, had an energy density cap that had sent the Geth into mild hysterics, though she had to get Legion to explain the shock of the various geth minds. Another thing that they had verified by those seemingly endless impact tests was that her ability to resist damage increased the more energy she was storing at the time.
She lifted the weapon pack and chestplate and slipped it over her head, pulling the two halves closed with a soft click. after a moment, in which she stroked the form-fitting chestplate a little, she glanced over at Legion with a slight quirk of her lips. "Normal armor chestplates don't include nipples."
Legion's brow-plate rose slightly and it ducked it's head slightly to the anatomically-correct chestplate. "Ahh. We shall make the correction."
Smothering a chuckle, she continued to add the armor pieces to the undersuit. "Care to explain what this suit does, aside from cover me quite well?"
Legion began explaining, beginning with the fact that the Geth infiltrated Systems Alliance R&D pipelines to obtain the basic specs of the armor unit, which had been codenamed Kestrel. In addition to the decentralized sheild generation scheme and full-armored faceplate with built-in HUD, they had added specialized geth technology to increase the efficiency of the power plant, reducing it's size enough to allow for a second identical power plant to be installed without compromising armor flexibility or adding too much encumbrance. The elimination of the need for power storage allowed for extra sheild arrays to be embedded as well as muscle-feedback and amplification fibers to augment her already-considerable strength. The central master processor unit had been decentralized to three main nodes, one built into the helmet, one at the spine, and one built into the back of the hip guards, allowing for parallel processing of all the various shield arrays, diverting power to where it's most needed.
Most importantly, Legion added, is the entirely geth-originated tech. "The suit contains a cryogenic cooling system, to keep you within your optimal temperature range, between -40 and -10 degrees C. The suit's gauntlets include small micro-thrusters in the palms, along with considerable wrist-bracing, and simiar, though larger, thrusters are concealed in the heels of the boots. The suit's kinetic barriers can be switched to a 'lift' mode, wherein they lower the mass of the suit-and-wearer enough for the microthrusters to be able to lift the wearer and allow for flight, given enough practice."
That particular revelation stopped her cold for a bit as she stared at Legion, almost completely armored, save for her hands and helmet, examining one of the gloves intently for the thruster. After some time, she finished armoring up, lifted the helmet to seat it firmly on her head, Legion ran through checklists to make sure the armor powered up and finished integration. She arched a bit as the cryo system came online, chilling her down to the point where she felt fully awake and aware, turning to give Legion a smile as the Geth stepped back, nodding reassurance. Her HUD flickered into existence, showing her her surroundings, along with it's unique built-in targeting system. She turned to Legion to thank him, and gets a got look at herself in the mirrorbright wall behind him.
~discontinuity~
It was like getting hit between the eyes with a hammer made of memory. Every moment of her life flashed before her eyes, blinding in speed and intensity. Mother. Father. Home on Mindoir. The slave raid. Jessica falling with a hole through her chest. James being dragged away from his screaming mother. The rescue. Child psychologists. Foster parents. Biotic training. Enlisting. Training. Her celebration with her bunkmates over her acceptance into specops training. The hell that is special forces training. The Skyllian Blitz. Gunfire. Blood and thunder. Watching good friends die and not giving up. Never giving up. The Normandy. Eden Prime. The Citadel. Feros. Therum. LIARA!
Her head felt like it was going to split. Still more memories came flooding back, as inexorable as dawn. Noveria. Matriarch Benezia. Little Wing. Comforting Liara later aboard the Normandy. Virmire, and the mess that resulted in Alenko's death. Ashley's sorrow. The lockdown on the Citadel. Ilos. The conduit. Saren. Soverign. More blood and thunder. Saving the council. Udina and Anderson. The ignominy of being sent to clear the galaxy of Geth. Geth. GETH!
Her hand dropped instinctively to her hip, looking for her pistol, any weapon, as she realized she was in a room with a geth. No weapons. Damnit! Sh threw herself at the geth, which, strangely, didn't have a gun pointed at her.
Legion instantly noticed when Shepard-Commander froze, staring fixedly at the wall behind it. A quick glance confirmed that the only thing visible was Shepard-Commander's reflection. Glancing back at her blank, slack-jawed face, Legion catalogued her posture, shifting slightly to the right, shoulders straightening, rising slightly on the balls of her feet. Her eyes were vacant, with a look that the geth platform noted for future reference, then snapped to it with an intensity Legion had never seen before.
What followed was a very near thing. Shepard-Commander's hand dropped to her pistol holster (empty), then balled into a fist as she suddenly sprang at it. She fought with a ferocity that it had never observed before, not pulling her punches and seeking to cause as much damage as she could. Legion was hard-pressed to counter her attempts at disabling blows, and several processes switched on the external speakers, attempting to reason with the Shepard-Commander.
The fact that the geth was TALKING finally penetrated Shepard's mind, making her pause for a beat, durring which her opponent slipped sideways and caught her in a bruising blow to the solar plexus. Gasping for breath, she staggered back a few places, then frowned slightly as the pain rapidly vanished.
The geth was speaking again, "Shepard-Commander. Please respond."
She hesitated. In all her long experience with Geth, she'd never once heard one speak. "Y-yes?" she replied, tentative and dubious.
"Shepard-Commander, we do not wish to cause you damage in subduing you, please desist in hostile action."
"And why should I, -Geth-?" The term for the divided-mind synthetic species was almost spat at the oddly-constructed platform.
"We have been assisting you in your recovery, Shepard-Commander. We only wish peaceful cooperation with you."
Shepard frowned and looked sidelong at the apparently unarmed Geth, then around at the mirror-polished walls. "Where are you holding me?"
"This is not a holding cell, Shepard-Commander. This is a secondary assembly room. We were testing the fit of your new armor." It gestured to the armor she wore.
Shepard couldn't resist a glance down at her armor, then was held by the mechanical precision of the suit. Gleaming chrome edged the ablative armor plates, a subtle highlight to the matte-black ceramic and steel carapace. Each hardsuit exoskeletal plate glided smoothly with her movements, overlapping and gliding against each other with soft whispery movements. She flexed her arm, hearing the faint whine of suit servos amplifying the power of the motion, the heavy armor plates gliding smoothly and with machine-like precision in response to her every move.
"Nice design. Why?" She glanced up at the geth suspiciously, her hardsuit's tactical heads-up display rife with data about her surroundings. It was only a split second before she realized that in the bottom left corner there were -three- gauges instead of the traditional two. In addition to the normal 'Shield Strength' there was something labeled 'Residual Charge', and an extra bar labeled 'Cryo Containment'.
"We wished to provide Shepard-Commander with the best possible equipment for her return to Citadel Space." The Geth actually lifted a plate over it's flashlight head in a very human gesture, that of raising an eyebrow. Shepard had to suppress a grin at it's attitude of 'haven't you figured that out yet?'.
"Again, why? Geth don't take prisoners. Where am I and why have you brought me here?" She managed to get that out without betraying any of the butterflies in her stomach, and, wonder of wonders, keeping her voice steady.
"We found you on Alchera. You had been suffering from amnesia, perhaps due to your..." It paused for a moment, tilting it's head in a gesture so human Shepard just -had- to smile, and was glad her helmet concealed the gesture from her adversary. "Your transformation."
That stopped her humor. "What transformation. What the hell did you bastards do to me!" In a rush, she unsealed her helmet and yanked it off. She froze. Her FACE! Somehow, these thrice-damned machines had changed her face! And her skintone, and hair, and eyes...
"We did not, Shepard-Commander. We found you in this state, and have been performing tests to determine the extent of your transformation."
She uncoiled in a rush, slamming into the platform and driving it back into the wall, "What. Did. You. DO!" She emphasized each word by slamming the thing's head back against the wall. She slowly got her temper under control. Physical violence, short of destroying the platform, would be useless. The Geth would just shift their instances around and abandon the shell she destroyed. "Explain. Now."
And the Geth did. At length. And in excruiating detail. How they had sent out an experimental prototype platform with enough processing equipment onboard to act autonomously, when Shepard was listed as missing in action. How it had tracked down her last known location, through means that had made Shepard stare with wide, horrified eyes. Apparently the Geth could crack any security code used by any organic government in minutes, and had duplicate files of all of Shepard's reports, not to mention the Council's private files.
It went on to describe how it had found her on Alchera, and realized that in addition to her physical differences, her mind had been affected by the year and a half (that figure made Shepard wince) on the frozen wasteland. How it had persuaded her to accompany it back to the Geth, how they had tested her. It went over her entire repertoire of physical abilities again, but this time Shepard grasped the implications instantly.
She was stronger than any human had ever been, and with a reaction time damn near as fast as a Geth. Her crystalline structure could absorb electrical energy and store it within her, her eyes slowly glowing brighter and brighter as that charge built up towards it's theoretical limits. Her temperature requirements. The suit, designed specifically with her in mind, lacking any form of capacitor, but triple the power output of any suit created by the Systems Alliance suppliers, and with a better shield array than any suit she'd heard of, in Council space or out of it. The thrusters that, with a tweak of her suit's shields, would allow her to fly, which drew a soft smile from the woman.
She took a step back, absorbing the information, then spoke, "Why? You still haven't answered that question. Why me? Why did the Geth seek out the woman who's destroyed so many of your platforms?"
Legion (it had explained how she had dubbed it that) paused slightly, then raised one brow-plate. "We desired an intermediary. We have been monitoring unusual developments among the organics, and wish to convey our findings to the Council. For that purpose, we sought you out, Shepard-Commander."
She gestured with one hand slightly, "Spectre. I had to resign my Alliance commission once I was confirmed as a full-status Spectre, once my probationary period was up." She gave a slight quirk of one side of her wide, mobile lips. "That put Metalus into a week-long snit. The stick-up-the-arse turian has always had it in for me."
Legion's brow-plate rose slightly. "As you wish, Shepard-Spectre." That drew another slight smile from the woman.
After some time, it was decided, mostly by Shepard herself, to go to Freedom's Progress. Primary in Shepard's mind was the uneasy truce she and the Geth seemed to be enjoying, but she wanted a second opinion about them, and the only person she could think of off hand that'd have a diametrically opposed view to that of the Geth would be Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Vas Neema, now, the Geth informed her, which made her shiver a little. Did they have to keep such close tabs on -everyone-?
For some reason, Tali and a group of her people's Migrant Fleet Marines were dispatched to Freedom's Progress, a human colony in the Traverse. Why a Quarian would be on a human dirt-side colony was anyone's guess, but she figured this Veetor was on his Pilgrimage. In any event, that's where Tali was going, so that's where she was going too.
Author's Note:
Here's the second chapter, as promised. If this gets enough hits (dunno, is 20 too much to hope for? ^^;;) I'll post the next chapter early, maybe.
One other thing: Any and all suggestions for where to go from here are vastly appreciated! If you've got an idea you wanna toss me, please so!
As always, Read & Review, please!