"I can't believe you actually considered soloing the dreadnought." Joker mused, "What the hell Kacey?"

"What? It wouldn't have been the craziest thing I've ever done." Kacey said in response.

The banter was reassuring for Kaidan; Kacey sounded a lot better than she was a few minutes ago. She sounded more relaxed, more calm, and confident. And while Kaidan still felt concerned, he was still more reassured than before.

"What would be the craziest thing you've ever done?" Joker asked, "Wait. Let me guess: going down to the bottom of the ocean alone to confront Leviathan?"

"No, it has to be the time she crushed all those geth by running the Mako off a ramp at high speeds." Tali added.

"I don't know, I still think that running through a Mass Relay in the Mako was the worst." Kaidan said.

"So, Kacey…?" Joker said with a smirk.

"Uhh…" Kacey was clearly thinking about it, "Probably when I told Harbinger to, and I quote, "Fuck off and blow me, asshat.""

"You…what?!" Tali gasped.

"Commander, what the actual fuck?" Joker said laughing.

"Wait. Didn't you also say that to that admiral that came by on the Tokyo?" Kaidan mused, "You know, the one that complained that you were "too merciful" on those batarian pirates?"

"Yep and got a disciplinary notice for my troubles." Kacey replied, "Also called him "the blue-button cockade" and got reprimanded by Anderson for that."

"Holy shit, Kacey." Joker laughed, "Well, at least we know why the Reapers definitely want you dead now."

"So does that admiral but that's besides the point." Kacey added, "Oh shit. I think I broke something."

"You okay, Kacey?" Kaidan asked.

"I'm okay." Kacey replied, "I've found another airlock. I think we're good to go."

"Great." Tali said in response, "If you override the controls, we'll be right there."

The Normandy swung around towards the airlock in question; Kaidan and Tali made their way to the Normandy's airlock and waited for Kacey to override the controls.

"Got it." Kacey said, "You're clear to board."

It didn't take long for Kaidan and Tali to board the vessel, and once they were inside Kaidan felt uneasy. The ship's interior was dark, with navy hues from dimed lights. Wires, cables, and pipes ran along every inch of the interior, coating the vessel like veins. The silence was still; no air in the vacuum that filled the inside of the ship.

Kaidan could see Kacey on a platform above, near the console that opened the airlock for them. He was relieved that she was okay, and that he had her within sight.

"You okay, Kacey?" He asked.

"Better now." She said teasingly.

"Get a room." Tali quipped as she climbed the ladder to reach Kacey.

"Could say the same thing to you and Garrus." Kacey teased, "He did offer you chocolate after all."

"You won't let that drop, will you?"

"Nope."

"I feel like I'm missing something." Kaidan spoke up, a tad confused as he climbed the ladder.

"I'll explain later." Kacey said.

"Anyway, let me see if I can get this gate open." Tali said, "In the meantime, take a look at this."

Tali gave Kacey a white, odd-looking pistol. Kaidan watched as Kacey observed the new weapon, she had been handed on a silver platter.

"There, it's open." Tali said as a nearby door opened up, "We're clear to go."

"Think I found that hull breach you mentioned." Kacey said as the headed on through.

"Admiral Gerrel tried a frontal assault." Tali replied solemnly, "We lost six frigates. That tiny hole was the only damage we did."

"I wouldn't call it tiny."

"What? The hull breach or…"

"Don't! You! Go! There!" Kacey replied and Kaidan looked away, "You need to stop hanging around Joker."

"Maybe."

"Back on topic." Kaidan said, steering the conversation away from…that, "Is that not the way you would've done it?"

"No, he was too aggressive." Tali replied, "I argued, but as admiral of the Heavy Fleet, it was ultimately his decision."

"Well, it's a fucking stupid decision." Kacey said, "What about the other admirals?"

"Xen backed the invasion, largely as a chance to test her toys. Raan gave provisional support. Only Koris opposed the war with me. And he was right. We could lose the whole fleet, Kacey."

"We'll get your people out safely Tali." Kacey replied, "Although I will say this gun looks impressive."

"Its Admiral Xen's design." Tali explained, "It transmits an energy pulse on contact that disrupts shields and synthetics."

"Where has this been the entire time we were fighting geth three years ago?"

…

"So where are we headed?" Kacey asked as they walked along the catwalk.

"We're looking for an operations centre." Tali explained, "I can disable the Reaper command signal from there."

"Where's the closest one?"

"Past their defence network and through a sensor cluster."

They progressed through the silent ship, taking great care to avoid making any sound loud enough to attract the attention of the geth. The ship was eerily quiet, with only the sounds of the ship's heavy machinery. They progressed along the catwalk until they reached a gap in the road. Kacey then went and activated the bridge, which brought the geth their way.

"Watch out!" Tali shouted, "Geth incoming!"

Kaidan already had opened fire on the geth as they appeared from around the corner. Compared to the Reaper troops, the geth were pretty straightforward to deal with. Cyro blast did wonder for freezing the geth in place, allowing both him and Kacey to shoot them down with ease. Tali naturally handled the geth through the use of her combat drone and getting up close with her shotgun.

Despite this, there wasn't a lot of cover for them to hide behind. As Kacey moved around the corner, with Kaidan close behind, more geth shock troopers appeared, leading to Kacey firing two disruptor concussive shots at the group of synthetics. Kaidan followed up with a much larger cryo blast before Kacey threw a grenade that shatter the geth to pieces.

The gun that Xen had made had done wonders on the geth. One shot, and synthetics went down, but it had a lengthy cooldown. It worked best with picking off the stronger geth, while the rest were subjected to the firepower of the other weapons.

"Stay sharp!" Kaidan shouted as another group of geth wheeled around the corner, "More geth enroute!"

"I don't hear an alarm!" Kacey shouted back.

"They're geth!" Tali jumped in, blasting the head clean off a geth shock trooper, "They sent alerts to every unit on this ship! We need to get to the operations centre before they box us in!"

Kacey threw a grenade, clearing the path ahead for the trio to bolt down the catwalk quickly. Kaidan made sure to reload his gun as they jump down a platform just as more geth troopers arrived. Kacey had whipped out the experimental gun and managed to take quite a fair few of them out; with Tali's combat drone working as the perfect distraction to keep them occupied. Kaidan focused on overloading their shields where possible while also capitalising on the distracted geth by shooting them directly in the head with well-placed assault rifle shots.

"They're throwing their lives away!" Kacey mused after firing another concussive shot.

"Networked intelligence!" Tali replied firmly, "As we kill them, their attacks become more aggressive!"

Suddenly and without warning, sparks of electricity flew off from the geth that stood in the way of the trio. Kaidan had unintentionally fried the geth's shields all at once.

"What the hell was that?" Kacey asked.

"I must've fried all their shields at once unintentionally." Kaidan mused.

"Good." Kacey replied, "Hey, can we have more of those happy accidents of yours?"

"Please, Kaidan?" Tali said.

"Okay, okay, I'll work on it." Kaidan replied.

Once the wave of geth was promptly dispatched by Kaidan's mass overload and Kacey's new toy, the trio continued to press forward down the catwalk and into another room. Kaidan saw Kacey look over at a nearby monitor.

"Look," Kacey said, "the signal is hitting all geth processes. The Reapers have them completely under control."

"We've tried jamming it, hacking it, and piggybacking garbage data to corrupt it." Tali sighed, "Nothing worked."

"Look, there's some sensor data here." Kaidan pointed out, "Any sign of how the quarians are doing?"

"We're taking heavy losses." Tali replied, frustration in her voice, "The geth have planetary defence cannons. They're ripping through our fleet."

"Is there anything we can do to help them?" Kacey asked.

Tali sighed, "Just make their sacrifice worthwhile."

It was a bleak answer; and Kaidan couldn't get used to it. It was all he ever heard these days and he wished it would end.

"Why do we need to find the operations centre?" Kacey asked, "Wouldn't any access console do?"

"No. Anything we do here, the geth could counter." Tali explained, "Too many fault-checks and redundancy levels for what we need to do. Besides, the dreadnought's operations centre is right behind that door."

"Good." Kacey said as Tali went to hack the door open, "Let's cut the Reaper signal and get the fleet out of here."