Mass Effect (Earlier this Year)
What am I?
Prologue
The Rogue Reaper
Freedom's Progress, January eleventh, 2185.
Miranda Lawson, a genetically modified human watches out the window of the Kodiak Drop Shuttle she is currently sitting in. Across from her a man, Jacob Taylor, a dark skinned Vanguard-class Biotic sits.
Both are silent, Jacob because he has nothing to say, Miranda because she is upset. Upset that the body of Commander Anastasia Shepard has never been found, according to a former team-member of hers, Liara T'Soni, there were signs the body had been recovered by another group already, so where was it? Shepard's body has never reappeared despite a concentrated search by the Alliance, Cerberus and even the council after it became known that her body had been found by someone. Human extremists were in an uproar, as were many of the civilians and soldiers of all three council races. Shepard had touched more lives than anyone had ever known at the time and now nearly the whole galactic community was searching for her remains.
"WHAT Th-" Jacob shouts.
Miranda quickly turns to see what had caused Jacob's exclamation… and then stops in complete and utter terror. Standing five hundred meters from Freedom's Progress, is a Sovereign-class Reaper. Miranda immediately panics and contacts the VI piloting the ship "Pilot, has the Reaper made any motions, hostile or otherwise?"
"Negative, operative Lawson. The Reaper is just standing there, no emissions are detected, it may be non-operational" The Pilot VI responds with dutifully.
Miranda immediately snaps an order "Take us up to a circling formation 1 click above the Reaper and open a line to the Illusive Man"
"Affirmative"
Soon a crackle of static sounds out and the voice of Cerberus' leader Jack Harper A.K.A The Illusive Man comes over the comms "Miranda, did you find anything of interest"
Miranda nods reflexively and is about to talk when Jacob exclaims "Hey why is it blue, didn't Sovereign have red tones?"
The Illusive Man quickly connects the dots "Miranda, is there an actual Reaper at Freedom's Progress?"
Miranda sighs "Yes sir, it is five hundred meters away from the colony, according to the VI it is emitting no emissions or radio waves. It appears to be non-functional, that's why we didn't notice it until we were right on top of it, but it may be a trap"
A beep rings out through the shuttle "Operative Lawson, a vessel of Quarian make has entered the atmosphere, it appears to have seen the Reaper as it has established a communications channel to a Quarian Cruiser in orbit. Recommend evasive actions"
A curse is heard over the interstellar comms "You two are too important to Cerberus, break off and return to base. I have no doubt the council will be all over that Reaper in no time"
"Aye aye sir, Pilot, return to Daedalus Base" Miranda orders with a sour face
"Roger"
Aboard the Quarian Shuttle two minutes earlier
"Tali, have you ever seen a ship like that before" the Quarian pilot asks.
"Like what… KEELAH! Inform the Vestria tell them to inform the council a Sovereign-class warship has been discovered" Tali'Zorah vas Neema orders the pilot "Then inform the Admiralty Board. Meanwhile, let's get out of here. If that ships decides we're a target Veetor could be killed in the crossfire"
"Is it really that dangerous" Prazza'Verti vas Yellar asks.
Tali nods with a hint of fear "Yes, just one of those ships shrugged off the firepower of an entire fleet, even if it was drawing power from the Citadel at the time, it is still a incredibly dangerous vessel. For whatever reason the AI controlling it is currently non-operation, but we shouldn't push our luck and get close. That would be equivalent to suicide"
"Keelah Se'lai" the entire crew minus Tali says in unison.
Tali just shakes her head slowly "I hope this isn't a sign of their arrival, without Shepard, I do not know if we can win"
"Commander Zorah, a Cerberus shuttle has been detected, it has just jumped to FTL. Do you think they are the reason the Reaper is here?" the Com-tech aboard the Vestria radios.
Tali shakes her head in answer, even though the Com-tech can't see it "No, they were probably just as surprised as we are, Cerberus wouldn't have called a Reaper on one of their own colonies, if they had that ability they would have sent it against the Migrant Fleet" As one all the Quarians in the shuttle and one the bridge of the Vestria shiver, after hearing Tali's explanation of what a Reaper is, The bridge crew heard over the com channel the Quarian pilot had opened to the Vestria to relay Tali's orders, and pray to the ancestors that the Reaper doesn't come after them.
Tali however murmurs to herself "Why is it blue? Sovereign was red, why is this one blue?"
Human Councilors Office, two hours later.
Councilor David Anderson sits at his desk working through paperwork with the help of his assistant Ambassador Donnel Udina. A beep of an incoming high priority message comes in, Anderson opens it and reads… then immediately opens a secure channel to Admiral Steven Hackett of the Fifth Fleet "Hackett here"
"Steven it's David, get the entire Fifth Fleet to the colony of Freedom's Progress now! We have confirmation of a Sovereign-Class ship five hundred meters from the colony" Anderson says with a hint of alarm in his voice.
"God help us, I'm sending the fleet now, I hope its friendly" Hackett's voice carries a hint of fear and desperation in it.
Anderson sighs "Luckily, it appears to be inert, but that can change, the Quarian Cruiser Vestria is remaining in orbit, they are at the colony now and are waiting for reinforcements, apparently there is a Quarian in the colony that they were going to pick up"
"Roger that, Hackett out" Hackett ends the FTL communication.
"Councilor, I've alerted the rest of the Council to the fact a situation is developing, they wish to talk to you" Udina says
"Thank you Udina, but I thought you didn't believe what Shepard said" Anderson replies with.
Udina hangs his head a little "It's hard to say someone is wrong when proof is right there, and I was taught not to speak ill of the dead"
Anderson nods "That reaming Hannah gave you must have stuck then"
Udina chuckles uncomfortably with a hint of terror "Yes, Shepard definitely took after her mother, she hasn't been by or messaged lately to see if Shepard's body has been recovered, what happened to her?"
Anderson shakes his head while smiling to himself, after the theft of her daughter's body. Hannah Shepard had become the proverbial pain in the ass, literal once for Udina after he made a comment about what he thought of Shepard's ability to command, Udina still had trouble sitting for long periods of time. "She was given command of the Orizaba and is currently on route to Freedom's Progress"
Udina nods to himself, before he can say anything the holographic com-unit to the Council activates showing the holographs of Councilors Tevos, Sparatus and Valern. Sparatus starts "Councilor, your assistant sent a message saying that you had highly confidential information about the so called 'Reapers'"
Anderson nods "You could say that, how does an actual Reaper having landed next to one of Humanity's colonies sound"
Tevos gasps in shock "Is this true?"
Anderson nods in answer "Yes it is, currently the Alliance Fifth Fleet is in route to the colony. A Quarian Cruiser is in orbit sending continual updates. Apparently a Quarian is or was present in the colony when whatever attracted the Reaper happened"
Sparatus frowns in discontent "How do you know that the Quarian's didn't summon this 'Reaper'"
Anderson sighs in exasperation "Maybe if it was attacking the Geth I could accept that as a possibility, but since the commander of the ship is one of the former teammates of Shepard, I rather doubt they'd be attacking a human colony"
Sparatus nods in thought "You do raise a good point"
Anderson smiles slightly in victory "Also the Reapers are AI, the Quarians wouldn't work with one no matter what incentives it offered"
Valern nods in agreement "Indeed, racial tension between Quarians and AI is far too high. Definitely not their work, however the report mentions a Cerberus shuttle, perhaps they summoned it"
Udina shakes his head in disagreement "Excuse my interruption but I find that highly unlikely, if it was a Turian or Batarian colony perhaps, but Cerberus wouldn't summon a vessel of this power onto a Human colony. They are a extremist group, but a pro-human extremist group"
Sparatus nods in agreement "He's right, Cerberus would go after Turians or Batarians before they'd go after humans, especially humans that are against the Alliance like these colonists were"
Anderson shakes his head in amusement, then he hears another high priority message beep and races to check it, and then pales dramatically. Udina notices immediately "David, what is it, is the Reaper active?"
Anderson shakes his head in the negative while sighing in relief "Thankfully no it's not, but the Quarians just sent detailed scans, while it conforms to the same design as Sovereign, it is different in size and coloration. While Sovereign was red tinted and emitted red energy, this one is blue tinted and its energy, what little they can see, is similar in appearance to that of a Mass Relay"
Sparatus immediately picks up on the information Anderson hadn't said "You said it's different in size, how different?"
Anderson sighs in defeat "Over twice Sovereigns size, they estimate it to be around five kilometers long, god knows how much stronger its Barriers and weapons are"
Valern nods in agreement "If size is indicative of power, this might twice as strong or perhaps even more stronger than Sovereign"
Sparatus and Tevos shiver "Spirits/Goddess help us"
Anderson sighs in resignation "It's at least a three hour jump from where Fifth Fleet is stationed to Freedom's Progress, if this turns out to be a non-hostile situation, do you think we should get a science fleet ready"
Sparatus nods in agreement "Yes, the Turian civil engineering corps were impressed by what they recovered of Sovereign, the chance to study a fully intact Reaper would be a spirit sent blessing"
Tevos nods in agreement as well "Yes, there are a number of Asari Scientists who would like to get a closer look at a Sovereign-class vessel, but is this a Sovereign-class Reaper?"
Valern shakes his head in thought "No, the difference in size and coloration would indicate that it is not a Sovereign-class Reaper, but that is not important, what is important is whether or not this is another class… or a unique vessel that has broken off from the rest of the fleet for whatever reason"
Anderson nods in agreement with Valern "Yes, hopefully it's the latter, otherwise we might end up fighting dozens or even hundreds of these vessels, we could barely defeat one Reaper that could be potentially half or even a third or quarter as strong as this one"
Sparatus shivers in slight fear, before making a realization "We do have one thing on our side"
Anderson frowns in thought and then asks "And what might that be? Councilor"
Sparatus almost grins in anticipation "Right now we have advanced warning of their approach, with proof. When Sovereign attacked the Hierarchy designed a plan should this situation ever occur again, we call it Resurgence, I believe the Alliance has a similar plan called Ragnarok"
Anderson nods in agreement "That could work, but we need to relax… I see you want to propose a relaxation of the treaty"
Sparatus nods in answer. Tevos looking on with confusion asks "What are you two talking about?"
Valern answers "Emergency wartime plans for both the Alliance and Hierarchy, both plans involve doubling or even tripling the amount of Dreadnoughts possessed by both species within six months, if given a year they could double or triple their fleets as well. The Salarian version is called plan Shadow-strike. But it would require a release of the Treaty of Farixen's edicts on Dreadnought numbers. I vote yes and will inform the Dalatrasses" He types something in on a console outside of Holographic sensor range.
Sparatus nods in agreement and types something in as well "I agree with the proposal and will inform the Hierarchy"
Anderson nods as well and types in his agreement into his console "I agree and will inform the Alliance, Councilor Tevos"
Tevos doesn't even hesitate "I will inform the Matriarchy and I agree, as of now the Treaty of Farixen's edicts on Dreadnought numbers has been released for any species that swears to use the extra Dreadnoughts against the Reapers"
Anderson, Sparatus and Valern nod in agreement "We'll inform our respective governments" Anderson says in lieu of all of them.
After ending the Holo-conference Anderson quickly types a message to Alliance Command
Reaper discovered on Freedom's Progress
Treaty has been relaxed
Ragnarok has begun
What am I?
Sparatus' office
Sparatus quickly moves after the Holo-conference and contacts Primarch Fedorian "Sparatus, is there something you need to discuss?"
Sparatus nods to his commanding officer "Yes sir, a Reaper has been discovered on a Human Colony that is no longer responding to hails, the council has relaxed the Treaty of Farixen and now not only knows of plan Resurgence but has also endorsed it, the Reaper has given us all a scare"
Fedorian frowns in disagreement "A scare, how could it give you a scare"
"Sir, it's over twice the size of Sovereign, spirits know how strong its weapons and barriers are, and there's the chance that this is the standard starship size and Sovereign was just a scout" Sparatus answers
"Spirits help us, I'll inform the Hierarchy and get Resurgence started. How many of the other races are doing something similar?" Fedorian asks with curiosity.
"The Salarians and Humans both have near identical plans, which are going into effect immediately" Sparatus answers Fedorian
"I wonder though, if this Reaper is here, where are the rest" Fedorian asks in confusion.
"Spirits only know sir, and that scares me" Sparatus replies to Fedorian's question
Chapter 1
The Price of Sacrifice
Pain, agony, torment
That is my world, that is my life. No memories, no knowledge, no freedom.
Fight, stay strong
I cannot, I do not know how to fight
You must, you can, you are stronger, you are better
Am I? I do not remember
Do you not? Do you not remember all your battles, all your victories, all your defeats, all your losses? Do you not remember him
Him, no name, but I can feel it is significant, but why
Why should I help you, you who gives in
Why shouldn't you
Clever, but be prepared, it returns
Do you really think you can hold out, you will do as I command, you will be the Empress, the vanguard of destruction, you cannot disobey me
Can I not, why not, I am strong, I am here, you are not
You cannot disobey, because I will not let you disobey
You cannot mean!
ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
You cannot fight me!
YES I CAN!
WHAT? How can this be? No matter what, no matter where you run, I will find you, and you will be our vanguard, the vanguard of destruction.
I will be a vanguard of destruction, the vanguard of YOUR destruction!
ROOOOAAAAAR
What am I?
Collector Base, January Fifth 2185
Crunch, grind, pop, snap. The sound of metal, glass and resin being pushed to its breaking limit resounds throughout the station. The Collectors panic and start screaming through their mental network
The Lady is breaking loose
The King demands that she be restrained
We cannot, the King took our power, we cannot hold a San'salra with what we have
We must, if she breaks loose, the King will slay us
If we attempt to hold her back, she will slay us
An explosion rings out throughout the base, a sinister shape two kilometers long tears free from its restraints, of its five legs only two are functional and only one of its six arms is complete, two of them are just skeletal with some connector muscles visible. The incomplete Reaper breaks free of its confinement, one of its legs slams into the Collector Ship, damaging it badly, rendering its crucial systems non-functional. The last connectors and restraints snap off and the Reaper is free.
The Reaper quickly makes it to the Mass Relay floating on the outskirts of the base's clear zone and utilizes its FTL capability to escape, to the Sharabarik system.
Sharabarik system, Omega 4 Relay
The Batarian pirate cruiser Kor-sharak floats just outside the Omega 4 Relay warning field, its crew was waiting for a new FTL Drive to be delivered, one that would allow them to traverse the Omega 4 Relay. The ships sensor officer notices the Relay powering up, but before he can say anything the Rogue Reaper drops out of FTL, ramming the Kor-sharak in the process, utterly destroying the cruiser and all of its crew. Before any other sensor in the system can pick it up after being blinded by the Kor-sharak's destruction the Rogue Reaper goes to FTL.
Unknown System, undiscovered by Council exploration vessels, Omega Cluster
The Rogue Reaper drops out of FTL, weakened by its escape the young being slowly drifts towards the nearest asteroid.
The incomplete Reaper latches onto the asteroid as it drifts into range, the surface of the asteroid is covered with metals both heavy and light, it contains all the resources the Reaper needs to repair itself. The Reaper begins to mine from the asteroid, but until its cargo bay was full it wouldn't start refining the resources as its Element Zero Core is incomplete as the Reaper had just enough of its core to move and utilize FTL travel, but it could not go near any planets as their gravitational well would suck the Reaper down and prevent it from escaping.
Damaged from slamming into the Batarian Cruiser and its incompletion in general, the Reaper begins to effect repairs to its systems. But it's data is incomplete as well, it doesn't have the mechanical blueprint needed for the repairs, while all of the critical systems are complete (If under fueled) it only has two complete limbs, an 'arm' and a 'leg'. The Reaper attempts to compensate by using biological data from its base source.
But this has an unexpected side effect, while most Reapers are bound to the two kilometer design limit, with the exception of the four kilometer long Harbinger. The Rogue Reaper does not have these restraints in its system and its attempts to use biological data from the organics assimilated to create it leads to an interesting series of events, the Rogue Reaper begins to develop organic structures that seem to meld into the inorganic structures inside of it.
While many, many souls were assimilated to create the Rogue, the strongest of these and the current soul of the Rogue itself was/is female. As such the rogue began to develop a womb, but in order for that to happen the Rogue had to grow in size, which lead to it being just over five kilometers long. The Rogue also developed a fusion of advanced circuitry and nerve tissue that allows it to respond at speeds beyond any other Reaper, at the cost of being able to feel pain when damaged.
Over the next five days the Rogue grew in size and complexity, its FTL drive was much more powerful than a normal Reaper, it almost grew as strong as a Mass Relay. Its weapons and barriers also grew stronger. But it had not found any Element Zero, without more Element Zero it could not attempt to fight or fully utilize its FTL without risking dormancy, and if it fell dormant then the rest of the Reapers could capture it when they arrived.
The Reapers had risked a lot on the Rogue, within it lay the only existing codes to the Citadel and the knowledge of the Mass Relays, when the Reapers were created it was programmed into them that only one Reaper could hold the knowledge of the Relays and the Citadel. Sovereign had been the last to hold this knowledge, as the first Reaper built since Sovereign's destruction, the Rogue now carries this vital information, without it the Reapers cannot manipulate the Mass Relays.
But when the Rogue fled the Collector Base it had used the Mass Relay there, in its panic from fleeing it has instinctively altered the Mass Relay permissions, the Relays could no longer be utilized by any Reaper other then the Rogue, while they could hack the Secondary Relays, it would take months each time as each Secondary Relay has an individual defense code that is over ten trillion digits long.
The Primary Relays have even more difficult defenses that are several thousand magnitudes of strength stronger then the Secondary Relays, the Reapers couldn't hack them within even a Asari's lifetime. Even worse for them is the fact that the Citadel possesses the strongest of defensive protocols, it had taken several of the best Prothean scientists decades to learn to scramble them for just an hour. It would take billions of years for the Reapers to crack its defenses, but if they did so they would have control over the entire Relay network again.
But if they gained control of the Rogue, they would once again have access to all of the Relays. Both the Rogue and the Reapers know this, the Collectors have been given a repeat of their original order, build a new Reaper. The construction of a new Reaper would circumvent the lockout as the Rogue would have to locate the new Reaper's IFF code among the billions of non-Reaper IFF codes. Upon sensing the Collector Ship moving towards a Human Colony. The Rogue makes a choice, and heads towards the colony as well.
It… no. She had no idea of the changes she was about to make, the ripples in the pond she was now causing. Nor does she know of her origins or of the hero whose soul she now has.
What am I?
Freedom's Progress, Selvara, Telara System, Omega Cluster
The Collector Ship slows as it approaches the planet Selvara in the Telara System, its crew is nervous, they knew the San'salra was nearby, it couldn't possibly have left the cluster yet. They knew even a weakened San'salra would tear through their defenses like paper, yet they couldn't disobey the orders of the San'sannar or they would face the fleet of San'shlan and San'narvar. They were understandably worried, any human would call this situation 'caught between a rock and a hard place' as not matter what they did they would suffer.
Just as they were about to descend upon the helpless planet below a sound echoes out from the com system. A loud reverberating roar, yet one that had an unmistakable female tone to it. The helm officer rapidly shifts the ship as fast as the engines can handle, and just in time. Milliseconds after the shift a blue stream of molten metal going nearly three quarters the speed of light tears through where the ships core had been only moments earlier, it instead nicks through the armor surrounding the main engine, shattering the ships barriers as it does.
Luckily for the Collectors the Rogue has approached too close to the planet and is now caught in the gravity well. Unable to lower her mass enough to escape the Rogue is drawn slowly down to the surface. The Rogue eventually touches down just outside the colony, scaring the colonists greatly. Before she knows what is going on the rogue begins to fall dormant, her core overstressed by the firing of her main cannon. The Collectors, unknowing of this had fled as the Rogue started being pulled down.
The Rogue attempts to scream in frustration but only manages an electronic trill as she falls dormant. Her core barely a tenth of what it should be and is only just self-propagating.
The Reaper sleeps and dreams, dreams of a life she once had.
'-was it like this for you mom? When you first killed'
'-for bravery above and beyond what is expected of an Alliance Marine'
'People say it was an honor and a duty what I did, honestly I only see the duty part'
'I don't like this-'
'He's dead, I knew him he was a temporary crewmate aboard the-'
'A curse? You'll break it for sure, I have faith in you'
'Energetic little thing isn't she?'
'You could have hit the Hostage!'
'Big fella, ain't ya'
'A Krogan who charges straight at me! Why am I not surprised?'
'Do you know the meaning of the word fear?'
'You don't have to do this!'
'I know, I miss him too'
'You? A bad Turian? Who would have guessed!'
'That's… a plant?'
'Going down with the ship, is only done in stories, get in the damn life-pod!'
'They're safe, they're all safe, I've done it, it's hard to breathe, it's the end, I'm coming dad'
'You found her, good, begin the assimilation'
'No peace, even in death'
'Pain, Agony, Torment'
'This again?'
'You're right, I'm better than this'
'That's right. A Hero'
'A Soldier'
'A Leader'
'A Spectre'
'A Commander'
'A Champion'
'A Person'
'I am, no…'
'Weare'
'Commander Anastasia Shepard'
'And we will not give in'
We are
One
Part II
Establishing Communication
Selvara, Telara System, Omega Cluster
Above the planet Selvara upon which the human colony of Freedom's Progress was founded, a fleet of warships floats. Over a thousand strong, the Alliance Fifth Fleet keeps all its firepower focused on the Reaper, which they had codenamed 'Goliath'
With the Alliance Fifth Fleet is the Turian Dreadnought 'Indomitable' which is on loan from the Citadel Defense Fleet. Aboard it is the foremost experts on Reapers that could be gathered, the crew of the Normandy, minus however their Commander, they are all sitting together around a conference table with a large screen on one wall.
"While it appears near identical to Sovereign despite the size difference, closer examination has yielded some intriguing data" Tali'Zorah vas Neema begins with
"Like what?" asks the Turian Garrus Vakarian in the unique double-layered voice that all Normandy possess
"Well for one, this Reaper is seriously underpowered" Tali replies
Anderson, having arrived with the rest of the Council aboard the Indomitable, frowns "Underpowered, in what way?"
Tali loads some data into the screen using her Omnitool and a schematic appears with the title 'Sovereign' in the centre of the 'abdomen' of the Reaper is a large glowing blue circle with the number '46.67' written on it in red digits "This is a scan I took of Sovereign using the Normandy's scanners when we were on Virmire" Tali points to the blue core "This is a representation of Sovereign's core, it is precisely forty six point six seven times more dense then the average Cruiser Element Zero core, and nearly twice as dense as a Dreadnought's core, which makes sense since Sovereign is a much larger and more powerful vessel"
Wrex grunts in amusement "That's seriously understating things Tali, but what are you trying to get at"
Tali taps some keys on her Omnitool and a second Reaper appears, but this one is significantly larger, over double the size of Sovereign. Inside the second Reaper another glowing blue circle appears, however this circle is closer to the front of the Reaper, rather than two thirds down its length like Sovereign's. the number '27.25' appears over this core "Then explain to me why a much larger Reaper has a smaller core, then I did a none invasive metallurgical composition scan (M.C.S) and I dated the Reaper and that when things got weird"
Anderson shakes his head in confusion "What do you mean Tali?"
Tali shakes her head in astonishment "This Reaper… is less than two years old!"
"WHAT!" is the universal shout from the council and the former members of the Normandy
Tali then holds her right hand up for silence "Another anomaly was found, Sovereign was a synthetic in every meaning of the term, when I scanned some of the wreckage it read as a high developed synthetic metal alloy. However this Reaper's skin reads more like a melding of metal and chitin, so I was able to do a gene-scan, this Reaper, was made from humans"
The humans in the audience go silent and the rest look like they couldn't believe what they were hearing. Tali continues with the shocks with "I then did a deeper scan, this Reaper… is Female"
Tevos shakes out of her stupor and asks "What do you mean?"
Tali types in a command and the abdomen of the second Reaper goes wireframe and inside of it is a large hollow space "This Reaper has a womb, the ovaries are just under the path of the main cannon, yet scanning shows some extremely dense material between the two. But none of that is important, I found the reason the Reaper is not moving"
Normandy frowns in thought "What is it?"
Tali shakes her head in bewilderment "It's hungry, like I said the core is tiny. Scans also show some signs of restraints on its limbs, I think we may have a Rogue Reaper, one that's no longer allied, or perhaps never was allied with the main Reaper force. That said, the only way to confirm would be to talk to it, that's where things get difficult"
Anderson nods in thought "You would need to provide fuel to wake it up, wouldn't you?"
Tali shrugs in defeat "Not exactly, that's one possibility, I found that this Reaper has some internal locations for human sized beings, one of these passages leads right to what appears to be the brain of the Reaper, I'm suggesting we have an Asari try to meld with it"
The whole room fills with shocked outbursts, a loud cough breaks the commotion. Liara T'Soni then stands up "Tali may be right, otherwise we risking arming this Reaper. Think about it, how low on the priority scale would the Reaper place communication? We might end up having to power it to full or nearly full operation, if it happens to be hostile it could easily destroy this fleet. On the other hand, a Asari Mind-meld might be able to commune with it without major risk, but I would recommend a Matriarch try it, a Reaper this young and underpowered wouldn't be able to indoctrinate a Matriarch, I on the other hand might be vulnerable to such a thing"
Tevos nods in agreement "Dr. T'Soni is right" She then pauses "I volunteer to attempt this melding"
Valern nods in agreement with Tevos' volunteering "You might be onto something here councilor Tevos, you should be able to meld with the Reaper safely. However how do we get inside, and before you say anything, I will say right now that I will be going with you"
"And I also" Normandy immediately follows up with, Tevos instinctively looks to Anderson who chuckles.
"Of course I'll come, you didn't think I'd let you three go on an adventure like this alone did you?"
Liara smiles at Anderson's declaration and adds "I will go with you as well, I might not be strong enough to meld with the Reaper, but I can easily avoid indoctrination for at least a few days, I imagine the rest of the ground crew of the Normandy want to come as well?"
Ashley, Wrex, Garrus and Tali nod in agreement. Tali then adds "You need me to show you the entrance anyway"
Tevos nods "Alright then, let's go"
What am I?
A unarmed but heavily armored shuttle takes off from the Indomitable twenty minutes later, headed directly towards the Rogue Reaper. As I gets lose it breaks off towards a point halfway up the abdomen, a simple signal later, and a section of the Reaper's armor pops out and slides down to reveal a hanger bay.
Tali walks out of the shuttle "Air, Earth Normal both composition and pressure, Gravity, 1 Earth Normal, lighting, minimal. It appears that interior life support is still running, or it is a by-product of another system running. It's safe to exit the shuttle" Tali then turns of her com and mutters "Thanks for sending me out first you Bosh'tets"
The rest of the passengers get out of the shuttle, despite there being atmosphere they are all dressed in sealed hardsuits, they weren't taking any chances at all.