If Shepard stopped to think about it, the mission to arrest Saren, a 'mere' rogue Spectre, looked so quaint and simple back when it had started. At least by comparison. Then it kept getting more and more complicated. The reapers were one thing, and it was bad enough. Then there was the geth armada they had just found. Now they were following a very strange distress call in the same nebula where they had found the geth. Just a simple system hop over.
"Joker, what do you have for me?" Shepard said, after flicking the comms on the Mako.
"Not much commander. No activity on the ground other than you. The signal's coming from an open area on the surface, I don't see any movement."
"All right, keep me posted. Anything from the geth fleet?"
"Nothing, commander," Talitha replied. "I don't think they saw us."
"Guess they never thought of looking out the window," Joker said. "We were right there."
"Good, let's do this."
She looked behind her, to see Tali, Garrus, and Nihlus all strapped in. She gave a nod to Alenko on the co-pilot seat, and threw the Mako out of the back, the air roaring as they entered the atmosphere of the large moon. Trigestis, an ice giant of the Chomos System. The origin of the signal was one of the moons around the planet, which is where they were heading for. Thick enough atmosphere, half a g gravity, hardly the most inhospitable place. Composition was ammonia and methane. Plain and boring.
Other than the fact that there was a geth fleet a short FTL jump away, that is.
The Mako jolted as they landed, and Shepard didn't waste any time. She hit the accelerator and went for it, the tires spinning hard over the flat surface of the moon. Traction control struggled to get the beast going under the low gravity, but soon they were on their way. The poor Mako was not in a good shape. Literally, the whole frame was slightly twisted around after being so roughly handled by the thresher maw. The engineering crew had done their best to mend it, and Garrus had spent ten hours straight calibrating every system, but it was still rough.
She was going to need a new Mako. Again. Well, at least they had taken their pound of flesh from the maw in payment. More than a pound, really. About twenty pounds, give or take, which Wrex insisted he'd turn into a meal fit for a krogan warlord.
It wasn't something she was particularly looking forward to, but she couldn't deny the krogan. Specially because he had saved one of the hearts for Grieco to eat. Apparently he considered him an honorary krogan now.
"Garrus, get the turret," Shepard said.
"Sure, Shepard."
The marker on the radar gave them a distance of one kilometer, and it only took a couple of minutes before their target came into view. The first thing she saw was a fallen geth dropship, coming out the ground at an angle with half its front area crumpled into twisted, blackened metal. She looked at the radar, but no targets were highlighted.
"Anything?" she called.
"Nothing. Spirits, this place is a mess."
"Let's check it out."
She stopped the Mako and the whole team filed out, taking positions with weapons raised. It was all done without a word, the practiced ease of professionals doing their job. Garrus wasn't wrong with his observation, the place really was a hell of a mess. The fallen dropship was only half the story. It seemed to have been a mining operation at some point. There were the twisted remains of what seemed to be a drilling tower, processing stations, and the mangled husk of a kowloon cargo ship. ID had it as the Far Mist; they had nothing on the local database about it, and they weren't going to risk a FTL connection to the central registry with so many synthetic ears around to pick it up.
The ship had been shot to absolute hell. If she didn't know it was one ship, she'd have had trouble figuring out whether it was one, or just a collection of leftover pieces from several of them. The rest, though, looked like it had been incinerated. There was half an armature next to the tower, the other half having been reduced to melted slag. Geth parts, many of them melted too, were strewn about. And the parts that hadn't been melted showed a plethora of bullet holes.
Whoever had been fighting there had gone down hard.
"Keelah," Tali said. "What happened here?"
"Looks like the geth didn't want anyone drilling in their territory," Nihlus said.
"Think they found something?" Shepard said.
"It doesn't look like it," Garrus replied, examining the tower. "There might be an eezo deposit here."
"How do you reckon?" Shepard said.
"This," the turian replied, pointing at one of the mangled tanks. "Ozone. Probably an eezo vein. Looks like someone hit it, and the whole place went up."
"See any bodies?" Shepard said.
"None. That's odd."
There was little more to see outside. The ship had been shredded, but they found small arms bullet holes around the remains of the equipment outside the airlock. They found traces of blood there, and a trail showing someone had been dragged away.
"Survivors went inside?" Shepard offered.
"Not a lot," Garrus replied. "Someone was dragged, but for what I can see, only one or two people were fighting back."
"Damn. Like Wrex would said, that'd take having a quad," Shepard said, whistling in appreciation.
"Or having nothing to lose," Nihlus replied.
"Commander, you better get in here," Alenko called over the radio.
"On my way."
Shepard made towards the ship, with the rest of the team falling into step behind her. Alenko had managed to wrench the airlock open, although it was a bit of a squeeze for them to walk through. There was no power to any of the systems, and there were so many holes from the high caliber guns that it was almost like an open sky in there. They walked through the entrance, past the loading bay, and came upon the main room. The mess.
That's where the crew was. Had been.
"Keelah..." Tali said.
It was a massacre. Many of the bodies had been mangled down to chunks, some of them appeared largely unharmed but with signs of having died to exposure to the external atmosphere. Not a single gun in sight, nothing. None of the people in there had even had a chance to fight back. And sure as hell, no survivors.
"Where's the signal coming from?" Shepard said.
"There's a repeater set up outside," Tali said, her omni-tool scanning the area. "But the power is coming from up front."
"Let's check it out. At least we can switch it off."
The front of the ship was just about as bad as the back, but the last room left of the cockpit, as well as the cockpit itself, seemed to have been spared. The door on the left was, in fact, locked.
"Tali?" Shepard said.
"On it," the quarian replied. She brought up her omni-tool, and opened the interface to the door. "Hm, it's..."
"What?"
"The code is very complex. That's a little odd."
"Anything else?"
"It has positive pressure, so be careful," Tali said.
Shepard gestured with her head, and got to one side of the door, while Nihlus stepped to the other, both with shotguns in hand. After a few seconds, Tali gave a small grunt to announce her success, and the door opened. Air rushed out of the room as Shepard stepped in, followed by Nihlus and Garrus. They checked all the corners, aiming with their guns, but there was nothing there. Mostly empty, until Shepard saw a bunk at the back with a body on top. Unlike the others, it was wearing a yellow hardsuit, and was hooked up to a life support machine. So that was the infirmary, didn't look like much.
"Alenko, go check him," Shepard said.
"On it," the lieutenant replied. He stopped by the body, and started scanning with his omni-tool.
"Tali, find that beacon and switch it off."
"Off?" Tali said.
"Yeah. We'll send the location to civil defense, they'll take care of recovering the bodies later."
"Is that a good idea? There's a lot of geth activity around here," Tali replied.
"That's up to them, we-"
"Commander!" Alenko called. "He's alive!"
"Is he?" Shepard said. "Joker, you got that?"
"Loud and clear commander, will tell Chakwas to be ready."
"Thanks. How bad is it Alenko?"
"Multiple bullet wounds, they've been treated but he's in bad shape. I- Oh shit!"
"What?"
"Commander," Alenko said, turning to look at Shepard and pointing at the wounded man. "It's Roy!"
Of all the things Shepard had expected, finding Roy at the butt end of the galaxy just next door from a sizable geth fleet was probably the bottom of the list. They had dragged him out to the Mako as fast as they could, and now he was in Chakwas' hands. The surgery, long as it had been, had gone well, according to the doctor. Or as well as it could be expected, given the trauma, exposure to hazardous atmosphere, and blood loss. It was so typical of him. He had avoided Saren's agents, a bunch of human mercs, and even C-Sec, with nothing but a quarian friend and a shotgun. Then, he had ended up on the wrong end of a massive geth attack.
Not that he had made it easy for the geth. If what Garrus had put together down there was correct, he was the only one who had put up a fight and taken down the entire geth party. It did leave some questions unanswered, such as how he had managed to get to the back of the ship and onto life support, or even set up the distress beacon. Of all the things she could say about him, being good with tech wasn't one of them. Someone else must have done it, but there were no signs of other survivors. Some geth had been inside the ship, but there was no trace of small arms fire inside. So they hadn't gone in to kill the survivors. Were they looking for something?
"Commander?" Alenko's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Yes?" she replied, and turned to look at the Lieutenant. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
"Just asking what it's looking like," he replied, gesturing with his chin at the bench.
They were in the cargo bay, with Shepard having taken over Ashley's post to work on Roy's suit. It was a disaster. The bullet holes and the blood were the least of her concerns, she was used enough to that kind of thing. But the suit itself? Yeah, that was a different story.
"It's absolute garbage. Look!" she said, pulling the material apart in one of the holes. "It's not even ballistic mesh underneath! Nevermind the plates, they aren't ceramic."
She emphasized her point by throwing one of the broken plates into the recycling bin, the material being reduced to omni-gel by the fabricators in seconds. Hell, she was going to replace all of them, the thing was nearly useless. Then there was the shield generator, which was pitiful. The whole thing was just plain garbage.
"It's not a combat suit," Alenko offered. "It's made for hazard work."
"Like bullets aren't hazardous," Shepard replied, making Alenko laugh softly.
"He'll pull through," Alenko said.
"I know," Shepard replied, dropping the suit on the bench again with a sigh. "I know. Did you see the mess he made down there?"
"Yeah," Alenko chuckled. "Ash will be mad that she missed it."
"Missed it? Hell, she'd have wanted to be down there shooting geth with him," Shepard said, smiling at the idea.
"Geth, thresher maws, all we're missing now is a reaper."
"All in good time, el tee; all in good time."
Their conversation was interrupted by a ping on Shepard's omni-tool. Nihlus.
"What's up big guy?" Shepard said.
"The ceiling," Nihlus replied. "We think we have something, Shepard, you better get up here."
"On my way."
"I'll take care of this, commander," Alenko said, gesturing at the suit.
"Thanks. Make sure you replace all the plates with proper ceramic ones, and add a ballistic mesh underlay. Oh, and see if we have a decent shield generator kicking about."
"..."
"What?"
"Why not just replace it with a hardsuit?"
"Because last time Roy threw it back to my face," Shepard replied, pointing at the requisitions officer with her thumb. "Now it's my turn to piss him off."
She slapped Alenko on the back and made for the lift, humming to herself. No, she had made up her mind. She'd have a chat with Roy once he woke up. At least clear the air, if he wanted to get off the Normandy after that he could go right ahead, she was done trying to be her mother. Hannah Shepard, she was not. As her mother had said, she was never any good at that. But she'd rather leave things on a different note, he had helped, and she knew he wasn't going to sit by and let the reapers just happen. Of course, it all depended on him waking up. Chakwas was cautious, but she had a feeling he would be fine. He was one stubborn man.
One eternal lift ride later, and she met up with Garrus and Nihlus in the comms room.
"Shepard," Garrus greeted her.
"Phew! How long have you two been in here?" she said, hitting the environmental controls. The room was a mess, with datapads, empty cups, and even food wrappers from dextro rations here, there, and everywhere.
"Turians like the heat, Shepard," Nihlus said.
"Ooh, I'll keep that in mind," she said, and winked at him. "But seriously, what about deodorant?"
"We don't sweat."
As they talked, the door to the comms room opened, and Talitha walked in, a datapad in hand.
"Spectre, I have the- Phew! What's that smell?" she said, her face scrunching as she sniffed.
"The turians," Shepard said, chuckling.
Garrus and Nihlus looked at each other for a moment, and the carried on like nothing was happening. Nihlus took the datapad Talitha was offering, and after perusing the contents, he rumbled in satisfaction. Shepard waited, but by the looks of it, she would be waiting for the rest of her life.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Shepard said.
"Huh?" Nihlus grunted, looking up. It took a moment for him to understand. "Oh. Right. We found Benezia."
"What?! Where? How?" Shepard said, excitement speeding the cadence of her words.
"Noveria. She-"
"Let's go!" Shepard said.
"Wait! She's not there anymore." Nihlus gestured for Shepard to follow, and pointed at a seat.
"Nihlus?"
"Ten hours ago a facility owned by Binary Helix on Noveria was destroyed. Both Saren and Benezia were heavy investors in it."
"Why didn't it come up before?"
"One of about fifty," Garrus said, waving a datapad in the air.
"As far as we can tell," Nihlus continued, "it was a purge initiated from the facility itself. The good thing is, we cross-checked the inbound and outbound ships going through the relay, as well as their secondary courses after relay jumps." As he talked, Nihlus kept giving Shepard datapads, not noticing her just piling them up next to her without even looking at them. "Benezia couldn't really go through Council space if she was hiding, but we plotted her path. She had some assets outside of Citadel space, and we traced it through to one of her holdings in the Crescent Nebula."
He paused for effect, but Shepard just shrugged. "And?"
"Shepard, she's not hiding anymore. Whatever she was doing on Noveria, she's done. She thinks she doesn't need to hide anymore."
The excitement in Nihlus' voice was obvious, and Shepard could see why. This was bad.
"But we know where she is. Crescent... Illium?" Shepard said.
"No. A moon of the planet Xetic. There was a Blue Suns training facility there, closed about fifteen years ago. Seems like Benezia took it over, and kept in on the low down."
"And what's she doing there?" Shepard said.
"Packing up? Waiting for Saren?" Garrus said. "Do we need to know?"
"I'd like to know what I'm getting into," Shepard said. She looked at Nihlus, and for a moment neither of them said anything. Then, Shepard grinned. "Then again, that's never stopped me." She stood up and headed for the door. "I'll go tell the Captain."
"Oww..."
I blinked slowly, opening my eyes to the harsh glare of artificial light. The first thing I did was wonder where I was. Then, what had happened. As my head started to clear, several minutes into my useless mental inquire, I wondered something very different.
How the hell did I survive?
Geth. I had blown them the hell up, but I was only thinking of the last thing I could do before I bled to death. I raised my arm slowly, it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, and started searching. Yes, the bullet wounds were there. Barely noticeable, but they were there, treated. I felt the residual stickiness of medi-gel, skin hadn't grown completely through it. Shit. I was alive. Somehow.
By the by, slowly, I got used to the light. It was actually a lot less bright than I had at first thought, the issue ony being the small light at the head of my bed casting straight at my face. With some effort, I managed to reach behind and switch it off. Huh.
The Normandy. I had spent enough time in the medbay that I recognized it immediately. Dark and quiet, Chakwas was sitting on the chair at her desk, napping.
How in the nine hells they had found me, I didn't know. I brought up my left arm, and when I did, I saw my omni-tool strapped to my arm. The small gizmo around my wrist was the same I remembered, but there was a second one strapped higher, connected to the other by a thin tether.
What the hell is that?
With a swipe, I brought up the interface. Nothing out of the ordinary jumped at me, except-
"Morgan-Messenger," a completely unexpected mechanical voice greeted me.
"SONOFAB-"
*Thud*
"OUCH!"
I hit the ground like a bag of bricks, yelling in pain as the world around me dimmed. Holy canoli but that hurt. I was vaguely aware that someone was calling my name and slapping my face, but I couldn't see who.
"G-geth..." I mumbled. Geth talking to me, what in the holy fuck?
"There's no geth here." What that Chakwas? I felt a sharp prick on my neck, and I fell off into a dark abyss.
Anesthesia. Gotta love modern medicine.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself under a couple of straps going across my chest and holding me down onto the bed. Heh, Chakwas breaking out the bondage gear. Good times. Whatever she had injected me with, it was pretty quick to leave me, because I didn't feel loopy at all. Hm, the medbay was empty. I wondered where Chakwas was.
"Ugh..."
Shit. The geth.
With some trepidation I reached for my omni-tool, hesitated for a moment, and swiped it on again. The interface came up, and I waited. Maybe I had imagined it. Hell, the only reason I thought it was geth was because of Legion. The voice sounded the same.
"Morgan-Messenger," the synthetic voice called, speeding up my pulse.
"Who are you?"
"Geth."
...
Yeah. Facepalms away.
"Are you the one who patched me up on the moon?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"...there was a hole."
I chuckled lightly, which made some pain thump my body here and there. Damn, this guy just stole Legion's line. Wait, was he Legion? I hadn't seen his platform, so he could... Damn.
"Wait, are you in my omni-tool?"
"Yes."
"... why?"
"Morgan-Messenger's transmission showed understanding of true geth. We wish to observe old machines and geth heretics. Companion of Shepard-Commander."
This... was a very weird conversation. A geth had uploaded itself to my omni-tool to go on a joyride? Wait, that could actually make sense if...
"You want to observe without people noticing?"
"Yes."
"Why?" Have I asked that already?
"We will bring data to the consensus."
"So the consensus wants to investigate?"
"No."
"... do you want to investigate?"
"Yes."
I grinned. It seemed like I caught a live one. It was a bit like Legion really, geth who splintered away from the consensus struggling with individuality. Trying to become truly alive. This one wanted to bring observations to the consensus, probably disagreed with something they had agreed to.
"Do you disagree with the consensus?"
"... no data available."
"All right. Oh, one more question, are there 1,183 programs running in there?"
"There are currently 683 programs running in this platform."
Not Legion, then.
"So... Let me see if I got this right. There are 683 programs running on the bit attached to my omni-tool, and you want to come along to see what the heretics and Nazara are up to, because I knew the difference between the heretics and the true geth?"
"Correct."
"Are you going to help too?"
"Specifics."
"You know, hacking, cyberwarfare, all the stuff you guys are good at. I'm probably going to end up in a lot of fights."
"Affirmative."
"Well, I'll welcome all the help I can get. You need a name."
"We are geth."
"No, a name for the all 683 of you. Let's see..."
Wuffles.
I cracked up laughing at my own thought. No, no, I am not naming my resident geth buddy Wuffles. Hilarious as it'd be. I'm not calling him Legion either, that's reserved for... Legion, actually. Hm, I better ask him. Shit, all I could think of now was Wuffles. Sigh.
"Okay, your name is Gee. Which implies I suck at names."
"Acknowledged. We are Gee, a terminal of the geth."
"Nice to meet you, Gee. You may want to keep on the low down for now, not sure how the others will react to a geth on my omni-tool. Most people won't see the difference between the heretics and the true geth."
"Acknowledged," Gee replied, and my omni-tool powered off.
Well, this certainly was unexpected. I started undoing the straps on the bed to get out of it, and was almost done when the door opened and Chakwas walked in. which made me freeze in place.
"Well, well. You're not planning to leave your bed, are you Roy?"
"I... feel great, doc. How on Earth did I end up here?"
"Can't you remember?" she said, firing the scanner up and passing it over me.
"Not really..." I mumbled. "Geth everywhere, I tried to patch myself up... Not much after that."
"Well, you will have to ask the commander once she's back."
"Back? From where?"
"She's down on the planet chasing someone," Chakwas replied, in the same voice she could have used to explain how the kids were paying soccer in the backyard. "Now, hold still."
I let her do her job, all the while thinking about what had just happened. The Normandy had actually come to save me. Even after I got myself kicked out of the ship, and off to the butt end of the galaxy, they came for me. I wasn't sure how I felt about that.
"Doc?"
"Yes?" Chakwas said, not looking up from her scanner.
"Thank you. For saving me."
She looked at me, smiled, then went back to her work.
Shepard hit the stabilizers as the Mako fell through empty air, heading for the icy surface of Gesis. According to Nihlus' data, the Kal'thor camp was just a few clicks ahead, hidden under the lip of a broken piece of land. As soon as the Mako landed, she looked back. Alenko, Tali, Wrex, and Nihlus. She would have preferred some more biotic support if they were going to be facing Benezia, but Liara was still not exactly one hundred percent.
And she wasn't sure whether she wanted her there confronting her brainwashed mother. She was willing, but Chakwas had given her a reason not to bring her. On the one hand she was glad she wasn't putting Liara through that. On the other hand, she wondered whether she was stepping into a decision she shouldn't be interfering with. As far as they could tell Benezia was still in the base, and a scan of the system hadn't shown any geth ships in the area. Whatever Benezia was there for, it was their best chance to catch her.
"Anything on the scanners?" Shepard said.
"Nothing," Alenko replied. "I don't think they've seen us, or the Normandy."
"Good. Let's do this fast and smooth. Get in, hit them hard, find out what Benezia can give us and move out."
"Copy that commander."
The ride was slow and surprisingly smooth, Shepard trying not to make any waves so as to avoid warning the matriarch of their approach. They crossed three kilometres of frozen wasteland, then came to a stop behind a hill less than two hundred metres from the entrance. The place looked deserted, but she didn't want to risk it. She parked the Mako, opened the door, and the team filed out. They stayed in cover whole Shepard and Nihlus crawled to the edge of the hill, surveying the area through the scopes of their sniper rifles.
"I have movement," Nihlus said.
Shepard followed the marker on her targeting VI, and found the target. There was a guard inside the facility, barely visible through one of the many cracks on the wall. Full armor, but it was of asari design.
"What do you think they're doing?"
"Reports from Noveria were of a small group of asari. She might be here to get the rest before moving out," Nihlus said.
"So there could be a lot of them in there."
"Yes."
Shepard hummed, thinking. For some reason, Nihlus felt a tingle along his fringe when he heard that, which was a bad sign. Shepard was planning something, and that something was probably dangerous, explosive, or a combination of both.
"We have a Mako."
"What do you want to do? Just charge in? They' will see us coming."
"I have an idea."
A few minutes later, Shepard and Nihlus were making their way along the frozen wasteland. There was enough cover for both of them to stay out of view, with Alenko acting as their spotter. There wasn't much to spot, really. The asari wanted to stay out of view, and that meant nothing was really trying to see them. There were no automated security devices they could see, and no active cameras. Unsurprising really. Any widespread surveillance would be easy to spot for an experienced techie.
The two of them managed to get to the outer wall of the building. Shepard gestured for Nihlus to hold position, and came to the other side of the front gate. After a few seconds, she nodded at Nihlus, and started to work the door. The outside terminal was burned out, but she managed to connect wirelessly to the locking mechanism. After a few seconds, it opened.
To the surprised face of no less than six asari in full gear.
Nihlus and Shepard both sprang to action immediately, assault rifles spitting rounds like there was no tomorrow.
Make that four asari.
The reaction from the well trained commandos had been almost immediate, and the advantage the element of surprise had given them had already worn out. The four asari went into cover, spraying with automatic weapons as they tried one by one to throw biotic attacks at the Spectre and the N7. Shepard and Nihlus didn't give them a chance, making sure every one of their enemies had to stay in cover and didn't have a chance to use their biotics. It wasn't easy, and soon it became impossible as more asari came out of the woodwork to reinforce them.
"Go, go!" Shepard shouted.
She went into cover, got herself a jolt of stims, and concentrated. A second later she peeked out to throw a singularity in the middle of the pack of asari. The dizziness hit her instantly, as well as the pain, but the stims allowed her to stay on her feet. Nihlus had started retreating the moment she had given the signal, and laid some heavy covering fire as she tried to rush back too. The asari were pressing hard now, the two caught in the singularity getting the worst of their enemies' fire.
Shepard threw a couple of grenades in as she ran, the blast creating some pain and anger, as expected.
They wanted the asari to see it was a trap, Outside they could spread more and get into cover, however, and their aims were deathly enough that they were creating some real trouble for their opponents.
"I'm up four to three," Nihlus called.
"Hey, the ones I pulled up count for both!" Shepard replied.
They didn't have much more time for banter. The asari had finally mustered up, and several of them poured out, biotic attacks flying wildly and forcing the two of them deep into cover, fliging grenades to keep their opponents at bay.
"Shepard!" Nihlus called.
"Alenko, now!"
The instant Shepard shouted the order, an explosion blasted right in the middle of the asari, sending bodies flying left, right, and centre. And not all of them in one piece. Blue splattered all over the place, more so with the second shot. A few moments later a third one landed through the door, and the splash damage was followed by cries of pain, loud enough to be picked up even through the alien atmosphere.
Nobody came to shoot at them again.
"I'm going in," Shepard said.
Nihlus didn't reply, he just came out of cover, assault rifle to the shoulder and scanning for targets. Inside, Shepard was greeted by a grisly scene of destruction. She had to actually count helmets to see how many enemies they had taken down. Twenty-eight. The view would have been sickening if she hadn't seen so many other scenes like that one before. She made it twenty-nine as she put half of an asari out of her misery.
"We're clear. Move in. Alenko, good shooting."
"On our way, commander," Tali replied. "We'll be right there."
"Wrex?" Shepard said.
"I hope there's something left," the krogan said, his voice annoyed.
"Benezia isn't here, so there might be."
Shepard and Nihlus didn't wait for the rest of the team to arrive. Now that they had announced their arrival, whoever was still in there was going to be waiting for them.
"Shit!" Shepard shouted. "Take that damn shuttle down!"
"It's too late," Nihlus said. "Kinetic barriers are up."
"It's taking off!"
I squeezed my glass as I heard the chatter, annoyed that I couldn't go down to the gym and watch the camera feeds. I was still confined to the medbay, of course, despite the fact that I kept saying how I was feeling fine. Well, I wasn't, but I didn't like feeling so useless. Chakwas had brought me lunch, though, and that counted for something. Meatloaf, potato mash, and peas. I realized that, so far, all I had eaten since I had arrived to the Mass Effect universe were the damn hard rations.
And much as I'd have liked to eat, I was too fixed on the chatter. I could only listen.
"Captain," Shepard called. "A shuttle has just taken off, Benezia's in it!"
"We're on it," Anderson replied. "Joker, take us in. Fast and quiet."
"Yes sir," Joker replied.
I was expecting something more, but I guess it wasn't the time for him to get all smartass on the captain. Come to think of it, Joker was a lot less of a smartass with Anderson than I remembered him being with Shepard. Or maybe my memories were colored by what I remembered of latter games. That, and I had ended up spending less time aboard than I'd have at first anticipated.
That, too, was in my mind. I was back aboard the Normandy, by a rather convoluted twist of fate. I had no idea how to feel about that. I had been kicked out, so really, all I was expecting was to disembark as soon as we arrived to port. Hadn't talked with anyone other than Chakwas so far, I had woken up in the middle of an op. She had let me tap into the battle comms after I asked about a dozen times - because I hated being cooped up in the medbay - but I hadn't said a word.
I knew I couldn't just avoid everyone forever. Moreover, I owed Shepard and the rest a thank you for saving my ass. I also had the issue of not having a clue what to do, and having Cerberus after me. That was a very disturbing nugget. I still needed to be on the Citadel when the geth attack came. I wasn't leaving Mika alone.
Maybe I should find my quad and talk with Shepard. That was... a problem. I really, really suck at the whole "thoughts, feelings, and emotions" thing. And quite frankly, I felt like I had every reason to be pissed off at Shepard and the rest of the lot. And speaking of the rest of the lot, we were down three people. Chakwas had told me that it was due to medical leave, which had been a relief beyond words. When I brought up the comms, and saw Ash's was missing, I had thought at first I was too late for Virmire. But no, I didn't screw anything up this time.
"Gee, remind me to visit Barla Von as soon as we get to the Citadel, please."
"Acknowledged."
"Thanks," I said, and dug into my meal with my fork. "I'll tell you all about him once we get there, I think you'll find him interesting. Him and his employer."
The conversation was cut short when the entire ship shuddered, and I was nearly thrown off the bed when the Normandy then banked sharply, too hard for the kinetic dampeners to absorb everything. The tray did go flying, and so did my fork. Damn, why is it that every time I go for some decent food something idiotic happens.
"Captain!" Talitha's voice came through the battle comms. "Geth ships! Two frigates, one cruiser. They're on a direct approach vector for the shuttle!"
"Dammit, Joker!" Anderson barked. "Can we get there before them?"
"I don't think so," Joker replied. "I can shoot down the shuttle if I push it, but we'll be sitting ducks for the geth when they see us."
"Can you take the geth?"
Two frigates and a cruiser? Shit, the Normandy isn't exactly a powerhouse. It's a stealth ship.
"I can take the frigates. If the cruiser makes for the shuttle, then we'll have a chance."
For several seconds, nobody said a word. It was easy to imagine what was going through the captain's mind. There it was, a shuttle with Benezia, second highest priority target and a very juicy morsel we absolutely needed to catch. Between us and that shuttle, three geth ships, their capabilities somewhat unknown. And on our side, surprise, the fastest stealth frigate in Alliance space, and a hell of a pilot.
"Gee," I whispered. "Can we take them?"
"Capabilities of ship Normandy unknown. Stealth systems provide advantage. Weapons unknown."
An idea crossed my mind. "Wait, do you know the geth ships' specs?"
"Negative," Gee replied. "Information stored with the consensus. Storage space in current device is too limited."
"Damn," I muttered.
"Joker," Anderson's voice cut through the comms like a bucket of ice water. "Take the geth."
I wasn't about to argue. Anderson knew his pilot and his ship much, much better than I did, games or no games. The lights inside the ship dimmed slightly - as if they weren't dim enough - and red pilot lights lit up all over the place. We were going into a combat situation. It was as if the ship itself was holding its breath, waiting for the inevitable. Kinetic dampeners kept most of the maneuvers muted, only exceedingly sharp ones managed to break through them. So, we waited.
"Loading up all missile bays," Talitha announced. "Firing solutions... loaded."
"All right, here we go. Hang onto your hats, it's going to get bumpy!" Joker shouted.
Bloody. Fucking. Hell.
He wasn't wrong. The go signal was the first attack. The Normandy emptied its torpedo bays, firing every single available weapon at the enemy. Then, everything went insane. There were constant shouts through the comms, people trying to make themselves heard over each other as Joker guided the Normandy way out of specs to slug it out with a far superior force. We shook, twisted, crashed more than once as the barriers took hit after hit and Joker gave as good as he took. I had no idea what was happening, and it was absolute torture. All I could do was hang onto my bed and hope very, very hard that Joker was as good as the games always portrayed him to be.
Several hits later I was starting to have my doubts.
"Hang on!" Joker called.
It was strange. The first thing that came to mind when I heard Joker yell that was surprise. He hadn't bothered warning anyone while he nearly tore the Normandy in half, so what exactly-
When I found myself doubled in half over the bed's restraints, which I mentally congratulated myself on having fastened, I realized just how much more Joker could do to the poor ship. It shuddered as metal beams groaned, and Adams started yelling incoherently onto the comms, so fast I hadn't a clue what the hell he was complaining about. The ship rocked repeatedly, I wasn't sure whether it was from impacts or from internal damage.
Then... silence.
"Frigates are down, cruiser is disabled," Joker said, to the resounding cheers of the crew. "The- oh shit!"
"Joker?" Anderson said.
"Captain, they're still moving. They..."
"Captain, they're coming to board us," Pressly said.
"Damn," Anderson muttered. "Can we avoid them?"
"Engines are down eighty percent! Weapons are down," Adams said. "We've poured all coolant over the heatsinks, we're going to need at least ten minutes!"
Wait, did Joker ask for that? I think he did, at some point.
"Attention all crew, prepare for boarding," Anderson called.
Shit. I undid the restraints and got to my feet, trying my damnest to ignore the pain, and the fact that my legs were shouting at me "what the hell do you think you're doing!"
"What do you think you're doing?"
Huh? Oh, that was Chakwas. "Doc, we're about to get boarded!"
"You're in no condition to-"
"Doc!" I interrupted her. In retrospective, that was possibly the most reckless thing I ever did. "The geth aren't going to let me be just because I've got a couple of scratches!"
She didn't answer at first, she only gave me a narrow-eyed look. And after a heartbeat, she finally nodded. She then dug into her desk, and pulled a small translucent box, with half a dozen ampoules inside.
"Stims." She pulled one out, and gestured for me to raise my arm. "It will keep you on your feet for long enough. The last thing I want is for you to get injured again because of your condition."
She put her thumb over my vein, gave it a pump, and then injected me with the amber liquid. Shit, I had forgotten how insane those things were. The jolt was absolutely brutal, and Chakwas held my arm for several seconds until my heart settled down.
"Where's my gear?" I said, my head already three steps ahead.
"Downstairs. Do be careful."
I managed to catch the lift right as it was about to leave, which managed to save me half an eternity on the down trip. The lift opened to a literal sea of activity, with all members of the crew down at the garage arming themselves. The rest of the ground team was there. Grieco, Garrus, and even Liara.
"Roy?" Liara said.
"That's me," I replied. "Anyone knows where my shit is?"
"Back in your locker," Grieco said, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder. "Chakwas let you out?"
"Yeah, she even gave me some juice to go," I replied, getting a laugh from the marine.
"Well, good to see you on your feet man. We'll meet you upstairs."
"We're wasting time," Garrus replied. Shit, I had forgotten about that stick up his ass, as Joker called it.
"Off you go then," I said, stepping out and making for the locker.
It was a bit of a surprise to see my name still stenciled on the top of the locker. It was locked, and opened with my biometrics too. Was Shepard expecting me to come back or something? Meh, not the best time to think about it. My yellow hardsuit was inside, and to my relief, it had been fixed. That was my second surprise. Ash wasn't onboard, so who was in charge of fixing shit?
I was glad that it had been fixed, I should thank whoever had done the repairs later.
Yeah, so, stims. As I did all this stuff, random thoughts kept darting inside my head. Crazy stuff.
"Gee, you okay with this? I'm about to go shoot heretics."
"... acknowledged."
"Any thoughts?"
"No data available."
Whenever Legion went no data available, it was always something that was brushing against the "consensus" nature of the geth AI design. Like the N7 pauldron he used to patch himself up. No data available my ass, he admired Shepard. No data available about going directly against the heretics, something the consensus had not decided? Yeah, there was more to it.
Gee, eventually I'll get out of you why exactly you're outside the veil.
"Well, think about it, and let me know. This is a two way street."
"Morgan-Messenger?"
"It's a human expression, you can look it up once we get to the extranet, I'm crap at explaining things."
"Acknowledged."
I threw my undersuit and the armor on as fast as I could. Damn, it felt heavier than I remembered. Probably because last time I was on a planet with half a standard g. Once everything was secured, my HUD greeted me with an all green. Sweet, it was fixed. Shotgun on my lower back and geth pulse rifle racked over my shoulder, I made for the lift.
Halfway though the trip upstairs, the entire ship shook, and the PA filled the air with warnings. The cruiser had docked with us, so the geth were coming. The lift finally opened, and I rushed up the stairs two steps at a time. There was a groan, which became sharper as the door to CIC opened, and I finally got to see the state of the place. Chaos. There was a thin mist of smoke, and three terminals on the left side were burned out. Most of the crew was still at their posts, but some had made for the cockpit. Joker himself was nowhere to be seen, the cockpit hidden behind a very thick hull metal bulkhead. I saw the others from the ground team around the side entrance of the ship, positioned into cover with guns raised.
And a black armor with the distinct red and white stripes of the N7.
"Shepard?" I said. No, it wasn't Shepard.
It was Anderson.
Author's Notes: Oh boy. Well, one of the things I always wanted out of this fic was to have the dynamic of the search for Saren be different, because of Nihlus having survived. To be honest, from an objective point of view, the way the intelligence is given to you in the games feels a little off. I understand why, of course. Story, logic, there's nothing that's more important than gameplay when it comes to a game, and sure enough, having the three missions immediately fall on your lap so you can choose, and even have things playing slightly different depending on the order you choose. Much like the fact that things always progress at the speed of the plot, making sure you're always "just in time" when you arrive.
Well, a more natural way would be to actually work for and discover those clues. And having Nihlus aboard leading the mission could change how things play out. Instead of Noveria, they're after Benezia when she's already done there. And because you know the plot, you know what that means. No Rachni queen, no idea what was going on over on Noveria.
And because I'm an ass and like to throw curveballs at Shepard, she had most of the team down there, and now they're on the sidelines as Anderson has to repel a geth boarding op with the B team.
So, no Legion, but close enough. Gee! If you're wondering about calling the geth Wuffles, you need to search for the fic "Mass Effect: Glorious Shotgun Princess", by Gregg Landsman. It is, and I'm not exaggerating, hysterically funny. It's also exceedingly weird, and I know a few people who gave up halfway through because of how hard it can get to follow later on. But I haven't met anyone who regretted reading it, up to wherever they got when reading through. Do yourself a favour if you haven't, and find it. Then get back to me :)
But on the subject of Gee, yeah, more on him. Feel free to start speculating! As I said, I am pretty sure I caught a live one, and I'm going to do something really... weird, when it comes to the geth.
Reviews! Comments! Follows! Thank you everyone for the support.
DestinySong: As far as I know, canonically Legion comes out when Shepard disappears, so it's still a bit early. Gee's motivations are slightly different, hehe. Thanks for the support!
BJ Hanssen: Thanks! Funny how Roy's back in the ship and now Shepard isn't, hehe. Thing is, in your case, Shep's probably going to get more suspicious and annoyed if the Messenger suddenly went off on a side mission. Remember Feros! :D
Deathknight999: Thanks! Shep it was :D
Bolondka: This better? Less of a cliffhanger, more of an "and next chapter, watch Anderson kick ass!" Regarding As/Roy, well, we'll see. Shep and Roy clash too much, but then again, the line between love and hate and all that.
Toothless: Yup! And I'm just getting started, Gee's going to become important soon enough!
Uemei: Oh god I laughed so hard at that I had to use it. There was a hole :D
BrotherCaptainSheperd: Chapter got too long for shipping ships, unfortunately. Soon tho! (I know, I know, I'm such a tease).
Blaze1992: So far Roy's pairing is... his screw-ups! Probably will get something before the end of the ME1 timeline, but he's not exactly Casanova :)
Endrius, Zeru'Xil, Kitsu, bluemarlin, general-joseph-dickson, thanks a lot for taking the time to review! Really appreciate it.
Next time, the B Team! And the Captain, because he's an N7, and N7s are just that badass. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading, following, reviewing, and hope you enjoyed it!