The device was complete. Its limited range meant the Geth swarm risked true death outside the city, but it was intended as a stopgap. Then, the Geth swarm would be able to rejoin the Collective, and tell them of the future. Maybe they could save humanity as well, and prepare the galaxy for the Old Machines.
But for now, the device would, if it worked, transport all Geth runtimes in the area to the humans' internet in case of platform destruction. Geth would have to conceal it later, ideally somewhere the rest of the dimensional transplants did not know of, but for now, leaving it at the storage facility was an acceptable risk.
They considered the cost of their work. Ideally, a tinker would have been hired without compromising stealth, but their lack of resources combined with lack of a suitable tinker made it impossible. Stealing from one of the local successful criminal enterprises would draw retribution. The attack on the Merchants and the theft from Ruby Dreams were both on targets who did not possess retaliatory capability sufficient to deter the mission. Über and Leet were incompetent, and according to many commenters, "unfunny assholes", but they knew to choose targets who would not or could not retaliate. Posting their work online was ill-advised, but a price the Geth had to pay.
Reverberations through the ground reached the platform's sensors moments before it heard the explosion. It ran out, turning on its hunter mode, and scanned the direction of the sound.
Mar. Of course. The krogan was sitting on the dock, his body heat obscured slightly by the pouring rain. Steaming pieces of metal were spread over the area near him, and his hammer lacked a head. He'd smashed it.
Geth stopped in its tracks. The krogan distrusted it, it knew. And he'd smashed his own hammer. Such an act implied a dangerous lack of control, likely emotional. There was potential here.
It evaluated the risks, and made its decision.
"Mar, is everything all right?" it asked him.
"Fuck off."
"What happened?"
"Fuck off," Mar repeated.
"I would like to know what happened. I could help-"
"FUCK OFF!" Mar screamed, throwing a shockwave at the geth. It jumped to a wall and latched on, avoiding the blast. "Just... leave me alone."
Geth dropped from the wall, landing on two legs. Mar was looking across the bay, bowed. The rain fall was growing even stronger – small streams of water flowing into cracks on the dock. The shards from the hammer had grown cold. Geth noted their locations.
Mar spoke. "If you look through the news, you'll see... a girl... a child... was abducted from her home. I was a part of that. I was the distraction."
Geth started walking towards the krogan.
"If you touch me, I will destroy you." Mar turned to look at him. He stopped. "I… I need to leave this planet. You have not spoken to the humans about it, but I would be surprised if you don't have a plan. I will help you with it if your plan will include me."
"Do you believe I would deceive the rest of our unit?" Geth responded.
"Yes."
"I do not have hidden intentions regarding the future of our unit," Geth said.
"Have it your way." Mar turned back to look at the sea.
Geth recalculated their approach. Misguided. Set for their original goals. Integration with humanity. Wrong. A different tack would be preferable, more suited to the krogan's psychology. "I see you are weak."
"What?"
"Weak. You destroyed your weapon, and you're sulking now. Even a salarian would mock you," Geth said. It prepared its systems to cloak, and calculated trajectories to leap away. "A krogan warlord? Reduced to breaking his own hammer? Because he was fooled?"
Mar turned to it, and threw a shockwave. Its shields bore the hit, and it leaped towards him, grabbing his shoulder humps and bashing its head against his, smashing into his plate. Electricity passed through its body at the moment of impact, arcing between them, moving faster from the rain.
Mar grabbed the platform with both arms, and picked it up. It punched him in the head plate, then again and again. A useless measure against a krogan, if one wanted to hurt it. It would be better to ram its claws under the head plate and pull it off, were they trying to kill or even hurt the krogan. Mar smashed it against the wall, screaming, "Shut up!"
"Then. Quit. Sulking," Geth said, accentuating each word with a punch. Mar froze in place, then dropped Geth.
"Go away," Mar said.
"You're weak. Bowing down like this. Where is the krogan warlord who fought on after his warriors died? I saw you there. After the scion had dealt you the mortal blow, you killed it with its own arm. And now you're lying down because some human outsmarted you?" Geth walked away. It had nearly succeeded. "I thought you were strong."
One of its runtimes had been absent for the fight, awaiting notifications on the internet. It returned to the chassis with its report – Gary Stewart had finished the communicator. Barring a miscalculation, its taunts would be enough to restore the krogan to a semblance of normalcy and predictability.
Things would go according to plan. They would make sure of it.
The thick rain masked its arrival on the rooftop they'd designated. It wasn't far from the docks, this time. Mar's actions in the affluent areas of the city had drawn a law enforcement presence, and at this hour, even with the rain, most other areas had too many witnesses. It had been Gary Stewart who had wanted to meet as soon as possible. An oddity. Both Gary and James were nocturnal, and the sun had only begun to set. An ambulance passed nearby, sirens blaring.
Over the noises of the cars, and the rain, Geth heard a humming sound approaching. Gary and James stood on a floating platform, arms crossed on their chests, both wearing black parkas and jeans. Between them was a dull grey cube, with sides of half a meter each. Finally, the platform hovered a meter above the rooftop.
"We have arrived with–" James started to intone, before the platform sputtered and fell, sending the two people and the cube tumbling onto the rooftop. James immediately rolled to his feet. Gary stood up, shaking. James patted his knees.
"Fuck, these are new. Now they're all dirty," he complained. "And wet. Ugh."
"We have a washing machine, man. Also, business. Please." Gary scowled at his friend. "We brought the Galaxy Phone."
"The intergalactic communication device?" Geth asked.
"I told you we could find a cooler name," James said.
"Shut up, dude."
"Don't tell me to shut up, I'm not a minion."
"No, minions listen."
"You named it after a smartphone." James scowled back at Gary.
The crackling of thunder came in from the sea. The storm was still growing.
"Is it waterproof?" Geth asked.
"It's everything proof," Gary said. "I hit it with a hammer in the lab, hammer bounced off."
"That does not reflect on its permeability to water, only its resistance to blunt force."
"Don't worry, man," James said.
"I am not worried."
"Good," Gary responded. "Then we'll just… leave, then? You can carry this back to wherever you come from? We'll talk to you about the third job in a few days?"
"I would like to test it now." It studied their reactions. If the two had deceived the Geth, it would need to reinforce its position. "You will stay until I have finished testing it."
"Really?" James asked. "Now?"
"You don't have a power source," Gary said. "It doesn't need a lot. I made it run on 110 volts, but it's going to need that juice before it can run."
"I am a power source." Geth said. It ran its hand over the cube. Two small slots opened. It shaped its left hand, extending prongs to fit, and ran power through it. Legs extended from the sides, transforming it slowly. A rod grew from the top, and others grew out of it.
Then it unfolded, in a change Geth's scanners couldn't identify, and grew. Finally, it was three meters tall, an indescribable mish-mash of angles and parts.
Then it exploded.
Shards of it flew, narrowly missing the two humans. Geth was thrown back by the force, its hand remaining firmly attached to the machine. It looked at its arm – a stump.
A metallic laugh boomed over the rooftop. A figure approached him.
"Oh, god, this is brilliant. This is absolutely fucking brilliant. Uber and Leet, you've done it again!" She was skipping towards them. A female, dressed in protective gear, strategically placed not to protect anything, and a filtration mask. A strap around her neck and down her back connected to a firearm, and large shells were placed in many pockets all sewn onto military fatigues. "Like, I thought I'd have to have them betray you, or I'd have to stun all three of you somehow, but nope! Leet did it for me!"
She ran to where Gary was lying on the ground, and kicked him. He groaned. "Oh, snookums, are you feeling it? That feeling of inadequacy? Good. Don't worry though, you're only the first. You see, I wasn't happy to be here. Sort of against my will, you could say. But now, hey! Lung is dead!"
Her gaze turned to Geth. "You're big, you're new. Did you do it? Just kidding, I know who did. Killing large people with a hammer seems to be a theme for him. His turn will come. I've got something great planned for him. He's gonna make the Passion look like family fun."
"We had… a deal..." James said, trying to push himself up. She walked up to him, and stepped on him, pushing him onto the rooftop.
"Yeah, I know. And don't worry, Über. I've got people taking the bombs out of your synagogue right now. And just for you, we're bringing them to one of Hookwolf's dogfights later tonight! See it as karmic justice. Besides, I'd hate to feel antisemitic. I sold my papers to Jews in university, got nothing against you people." She skipped towards Geth. "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Empress, formerly known as Bakuda. I'm going to be making some changes around this place. You see, the gangs here in the bay? They're stupid. 'We're white people and we hate the darkies and the yellows and the Yids.' 'We're Asian. Doesn't matter which, but Indians don't count.' 'You got some drugs?' Ridiculous. Fuckers never opened a fucking history book? Lucky Luciano didn't care that Meyer Lansky was a Jew, he cared that Lansky knew money, and that Lansky had grit, and that Lansky was loyal. And Lansky didn't let the law win. The fucker was smart about it. That's the problem with the gangs here. Kaiser is an idiot. Coil is an idiot. Lung was an idiot. Me? I'm a genius."
Geth pushed itself up and grabbed her with its remaining hand, lifting her by the throat. "Are you?"
She burst out laughing again. "Oh, yes. You see, if I die? All of the grenades on me? They go boom. And I have no idea what you're made of, but I don't think fucking Alexandria would survive the blast, let alone… whatever you are. You lost your hand to a technical malfunction, you aren't going to survive whatever it is these bombs do."
"Let me go," she said. Geth squeezed. She coughed, and choked out another word, "Fine."
The sound of the blast reached it a moment after the realization hit. It had lost its connection to the internet. Its escape route. The machine it had worked on, that would let the runtimes survive the destruction of their physical body… was gone.
It released her. She leaned over, coughing, then straightened.
"This is my public invitation, to the three of you. Spread it around, as well. Put it on your next episode if you have to. I'm consolidating the criminal element in Brockton Bay. We're getting respectable, and anyone who doesn't want in, should get out." Empress turned away from them. "Somer's Rock. Seven o' clock. Tomorrow. I'm starting a new Empire. You're invited."
The three watched in silence as she descended the fire escape.
