Turns out that when Shepard said, 'barring emergencies or extreme circumstances', a faction of geth planning to brainwash the others fell under the category of 'emergency'. She just had to open her mouth. To make matters even better, EDI and the engineering team were puzzling over some anomalous diagnostics.
"I believe it would be more prudent to take the shuttle." EDI told them as they stood around the table in the conference room. Miranda and Mordin were both pacing, and Joker, who was present since she wanted his take on the problem as the pilot, sat with one finger tapping against his jaw, brow furrowed. Jacob was leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, having already said his piece on the issue (he thought the Normandy would be safer). Tali, who thought it was too risky, was drumming her fingers on the table, casting what had to be a disapproving look at the Cerberus officer.
Garrus' mandibles flicked thoughtfully as he examined the display of the station that Legion had brought up on the holoprojector, as if he was already puzzling over the complexities of infiltrating it. Yeah, he's gone. Garrus was off in his own world right now; he probably hadn't even heard the debate around him, she knew tunnel vision when she saw it. Legion's eye flaps twitched as he watched the rest of them try to come to an agreement. When asked his opinion on the matter, he had stated that 'we cannot reach consensus'.
It was a risk. The Kodiak had the same stealth tech as the Normandy, but it was still a Kodiak, and this was the stronghold of the heretic geth. They knocked this out of the way, and the geth may never be a major problem again, which would definitely be a plus when the Reapers arrived. On the other hand, the last thing they needed was for something on the Normandy to break while they were on the station...
So far, it was an even split between people who thought taking the shuttle would be ideal and those who thought they should risk taking the Normandy.
"Joker?" she prompted. He was the only one who hadn't spoken up either way. "You're the one who would have to fly her. What do you think about it?"
"I'm going to have to say shuttle, Commander." he sighed, leaning back in his chair. "I don't want something to die on us and leave you stuck over there."
"That settles it, then." she breathed. "We'll load the team up onto the Kodiak and treat this as a last-minute test run for the Collector base. Stars know the steaks will be high enough."
And give the team at least a little experience working with Legion on the ground. She thought privately. She would have liked to run a few drills with him, but they were long overdue for another colony to go missing, and if she waited any longer, she might risk the lives of thousands. The transmat project had been a test to see if the geth could be trusted and work with the crew, and Legion had proven himself. The crew had gotten more or less used to having him around, and Crow, at least, seemed to be amiable with him.
And Tali was less inclined to space him. Shepard thinks she might still like to and would probably help Jacob in doing so if it came down to it, but she was more in control of her 'kill all geth' urge.
"I'll gather up the rest of the ground team." Miranda told her, standing. "Anything you want me to pass on, Commander?"
"The shuttle will be crowded enough with a squad of fourteen, add Hawthorne and it might be too much for... some people. Inform him he won't be on this one and tell Zaeed he's flying." One benefit of letting Miranda actually do XO duties was that she could pawn off telling crewmen things they didn't want to hear. A little petty, she knew, but she wasn't going to let Miranda off that easily for her behavior earlier in the mission.
"Zaeed isn't going to like that." the genetically engineered woman raised an eyebrow primly.
"I need Legion on Alpha with me, and I'm not leaving one of my techs to pilot the shuttle when we're on a geth station." Shepard explained.
"I'll let him know." Her XO saluted and made her way out of the briefing room.
"The rest of you are dismissed." She announced. Chairs creaked as people got up to leave. Tali flicked Garrus' cheek, startling him out of whatever tactical daydream he'd been stuck in, and Shepard couldn't help but snort out a laugh. "Meeting's over, Garrus."
"I knew that." he gave a small cough. "Still though, we're helping the geth?"
"We either help the geth who don't worship genocidal AIs, or they'll all wind up worshiping the genocidal AIs." she reiterated, glancing at Legion as he left. "If Legion's geth are content just staying out of our way until the Reapers are dealt with, or even fighting against them, I'll take it. We'll have enough problems to deal with."
"True, but how do we know it will actually matter to them?" Tali pointed out. "The geth are machines, they can't feel gratitude, and they don't have a concept of honor. If they decide turning against us is in their favor, doing this will have been for nothing. Rapport won't matter with them."
"They'll have less numbers than if we did nothing, though." Joker interjected. "Gotta count for something at least."
"Good point." Garrus' mandibles parted in a grimace. "But I still don't like it. What's that human saying? 'Making a deal with the devil'?"
"Let's hope it won't turn out like that." Shepard sighed. "I'd like to just... win and leave it at that for once, you know?"
"If only it were like that." Garrus shook his head. It was never like that, with war. You didn't just win, and everything was fine afterwards. You had to rebuild and recuperate from whatever loses you took in the process. You had to secure the victory. Sometimes you had to help the people you were fighting rebuild, too, if civilians got caught in the crosshairs. And the politicians had their turn, and all the treaties and other fuss that came afterwards. Sometimes you even had clueless civilians fighting each other over who was in the right for years afterwards; there were still people debating whether or not the nukes dropping in World War Two were justified, and that was centuries ago.
No number of soldiers wishing they could just win, got out of the foxhole, and leave it at that would change it.
There was no telling what the post-war mess would look like for the geth. She was absolutely dreading what it would look like for the Reapers; no matter how long they rampaged for, it was going to mess the galaxy up. Given Sovereign's size, it would only take a handful of Reapers and their giant main guns to cause an extinction level event on any planet of their choosing.
"Those are consequences for future us to deal with." Joker stated as the door opened. "Let's leave it to them, yeah?"
"Hey, have any of you seen Mordin?" Crow leaned through the door, wearing the leather jacket he'd gotten during their Citadel leave and brandishing a small device in one hand. "He asked me if I could bring him one of my smoke bombs, he's not in his lab."
"Dr. Solus is in the shuttle bay." EDI informed him. "You could have asked me."
"Sorry, EDI, I'm just, uh, used to looking for people." The Hunter apologized, trying to run a hand through his hair, which was now too short to do so.
"It's quite alright." EDI said amiably.
"Just leave it in his lab." Shepard told him. He nodded and backed out, giving her a thumbs up. It suddenly struck her how different he was now, that when he first joined them that interaction would have been much more awkward on his end. Everything down to the way he carried himself had changed.
"I'm going to go check the Thanix before we leave, make sure whatever's going on doesn't affect it too badly." Garrus announced. "See you at the shuttle."
"I need to go over a few things with the other engineers." Tali pats her shoulder. "Mostly what to do if his calibrations throw things off again."
"That was one time." Garrus called over his shoulder as he left. Tali snickered as she followed after him.
"Joker, you'll be in charge." Shepard addressed the only other person left.
"Again?" he huffed crossing his arms as she turned to leave and get ready.
"Don't wait up." She told him cheekily.
"Yeah, just get back before I have to further my law career." He called after her.
Despite Zaeed begrudgingly acquiescing to the role of pilot, and Legion being content to stand up front with the mercenary rather than strap into a seat, the shuttle was more crowded and uncomfortable than ever before. Crow found himself sandwiched between Grunt and Thane, and for once the former was as quiet as the latter. Everyone had become quieter in the presence of the void.
"But what is it?" Grunt asked again of the whirling, pulsing energy hovering over Crow's palm. He had told the others that he had mastered the dusk bow, and Kasumi had wanted to see it. He wasn't about to break it out in such a confined space, but this little speck of void in his hand was good enough an example to show off. They hadn't really seen his void Light, aside from Shepard and Thane, as he hadn't been confident enough in his abilities to use it in combat beyond truesight and invisibility.
Might as well show them now, get them used to it.
"Technically, it's related to dark energy and matter." Glint piped up. "Gravitational and space-time distortions, too. It's a lot of things, actually, so everyone will give you a different answer."
"What is it to you two, then?" Samara spoke softly, silver eyes locked onto his hand.
"My Guardian's Light." Glint said earnestly.
"The space between." Crow tells her. "Mostly because the mental visual is helpful."
"Alright, everyone, look sharp." Crow let go of his Light as Shepard stepped in from the cockpit. "We're coming up on the station. Double check your armor seals and oxygen, there's going to be little to no atmosphere since this is a geth installation. Consider this a sampler of how we'll be greeting the Collectors; I want all of you to bring your A-game on this one. All the stops... Yes, Grunt, including the Cain. Which we will not be firing unless I say so."
Grunt lowered his hand, ginning, and did his fist-to-palm 'let's go kill something' motion. Crow's face, unfortunately, was in the line of fire for his elbow; pain shot through his nose as the armored appendage made solid contact, eliciting several 'oos', 'ouches', and similar sentiments from the others as the sound of his nose cracking echoed through the cabin.
"Oops." The krogan said.
"S'fine." Crow assured him, clutching his nose. He's pretty sure he felt his lip split as well.
"Let's try to keep things calm until we reach the station, Grunt. We're five minutes out." Shepard sighed as Glint repaired the damage swiftly.
"We really need to work on your spatial awareness." Glint commented to the krogan once he was finished.
"Sorry." the large reptile huffed.
"It's okay." Crow pat his shoulder awkwardly.
"I still don't like this." Jacob commented as Legion joined the others in the main cabin. "Our heat emissions are hidden, but they can still look out a window and see us. We're in a dingy little shuttle."
"Windows are structural weaknesses; geth do not use them." Legion told him.
"That's awfully boring." Glint said. "You don't try to appreciate a view at all?"
"We do not derive the same pleasure from aesthetics as organics do." The next few minutes were spent with relatively little talking; mostly the sound of people checking their weapons, armor plates clicking together, omni-tools beeping. Crow stood briefly so Glint could put his armor on, and he was still caught off guard by the weight of his new cloak. He pulled the hood over his helmet, feeling even through his gloves how thick and sturdy the material was compared to his old one.
"What happened to the dish rag?" Jack sneered, looking him up and down.
"Set it on fire." Crow told her.
"Is this new cloak more aesthetically pleasing than the old one?" Legion asked, eye flaps flicking to the right.
"Yes." Glint informed him. "And it's tougher. Aesthetics and function can go very well together."
"We have flagged it as a potential hazard. It impairs mobility." Garrus snickered at this.
"I think it looks dashing." Kasumi commented, eyes fluttering at him from beneath her own hood. "Downright storybook, really."
"T-thanks." He stuttered, trying to figure out whether that was what flirting looked like.
"Look alive, we're coming in." Shepard warned from up front. "Grunt, Mordin, get the cutters ready. Legion, whatever you need to do to cover us, do it."
"Acknowledged." With that, everyone stood up and stood back as Grunt and Mordin moved to wait at the door with their laser cutters, and Legion went back up front, likely to work some kind of hacking angle. Glint bumped his shell against Crow's forehead before phasing. Soon enough, the doors rolled back, and the geth airlock was cut through in a manner that seemed a little too easy to Crow.
Then again, they probably thought no organic was stupid enough to storm their castle. Let alone with a Kodiak. The thought makes him chuckle as he and the rest of Charlie jump down after the rest of the squad out onto the station.
"What's funny?" Tali asks in a whisper as they secure their entrance. The general air of the place is... empty. Eerie. It reminds him of an old football field he found when he was a few months old; grand and large, impressive, but bereft of people it was uncanny even to someone who had never seen it when it was populated. A place that was too large to be empty, but at least the stadium had life to be found in it, even if it wasn't human life. This station was haunting in another way entirely, even the sound muffled to near nonexistence by the airless environment, and he's pretty sure the others all feel it.
"We're about to take out all the hostile geth for sure." He told her, trying to lift the mood. "By breaking into their house using a Kodiak, some laser cutters, another geth and potentially a nuke launcher. Any geth we come across will probably have to 'adjust perceived parameters for organic stupidity'."
"I guess when you put it like that, it does sound a little crazy." She chuckled as Shepard and the rest of Alpha check the stairs before giving the all clear.
"Legion, how long before they know we're here?" The Commander asked, waving Bravo forward. Garrus led his team down to clear the rest of the way.
"Sensors have been reduced." Their geth informed her. "We have infiltrated their wireless network and filled the data storage and with random bits."
Shepard nodded, seemingly understanding what he meant. It must be some kind of tech speak, because Crow doesn't understand at all.
"Random bits of what, exactly?" Grunt apparently shared this sentiment. "Better be the code equivalents of grenades."
"Junk data." Legion clarified, and the krogan looked disappointed. "The heretics must scrub it. They have partitioned themselves into local networks, working in parallel. Any alarm we trigger will not reach beyond the room we are in. Only accessing the main core will trigger a station-wide alert."
"Alright, enough chat." Shepard took the reins. "We came here with a job to do, let's get to it. Charlie, move forwards."
"Shepard-Commander." the geth stopped her before she could move forwards, and Crow only caught part of what he said next as he and Grunt followed Jacob down the stairs. "We concluded that the destruction of this station was the only resolution to the Heretic question. There is now a second option..."
"They're geth. What other options could there be?" Grunt huffed.
"Who knows." Crow shrugged as they joined Garrus' team at a door, Grunt moving forward to stand beside Mordin in case this one needed breaching as well. Crow only felt one hand tap his shoulder, as Thane moved to crouch by the wall opposite to him. He glances behind himself and frowns. Where's Tali? Ideally, she should have moved in front of him with her shotgun.
He switched his attention back to the door but kept an ear out for her as well as he could in such a muffled environment. Soon enough, she joined them along with Alpha.
"Garrus, how's the door?" Shepard asked, voice tight. Whatever that 'second option' Legion was talking about, it must not have been a good one.
"Looks good." The turian told her after a few moments of examining it with his omni-tool. "They probably never expected people to get in here, this thing isn't even programed to lock."
"Legion managed to find the virus." Shepard reported. "Said he might be able to repurpose it to rewrite them."
"Brainwash them first?" Jack said. "I like it."
"I don't know." Garrus shook his head. "That sounds an awful lot like indoctrination to me. Doesn't matter if it's geth we're talking about, I don't like it."
"And Legion's geth would be stronger." Tali added quietly. "Can we really trust them not to attack us in the future?"
"It's irrelevant for now." Shepard shook her head. "They're Legion's people, it's up to him and he's still 'building consensus'."
"Right." Tali said uncomfortably. Jacob fidgets slightly with his rifle, and Garrus reaches up to his helmet to adjust something. Crow can tell that this new information makes a few people uneasy and finds himself faced with yet another thing he didn't have a clear stance on yet. The matter of the geth had been something the people of this reality were used to; most knew how they felt about it, and since the attacks nearly three years ago, those feelings were strong and absolute.
Crow had no experience with the geth aside from the extranet and interactions with Legion, who had been specifically designed to interact with organics as a one-of-a-kind unit. He had no idea how he feels about Legion's geth getting more numbers, doesn't have the context of living here long enough to feel or understand whatever apprehension the others are experiencing... but he knows how he feels about brainwashing, and indoctrination.
According to Glint, a lot of the rumors about Uldren's descent into madness and murder held similar stories about an Ahamkara stringing his mind along, twisting him into what he became. It didn't make what he did any less terrible; the Reef was in shambles, thousands of Awoken dead after he slaughtered those who bowed to him, the whole system weakened because he had essentially taken a Queendom already fragile after the Battle of Saturn massacre and brought it so low all they could do was fight in an endless time loop for a single asset.
He couldn't excuse Uldren's evils on wish magic alone; stuff like that... there had to be conscious choice involved in at least some of it, and he had obviously made terrible choices. But mind trickery, brainwashing, whatever one might call it was the seed that started it. Crow didn't like the sound of brainwashing the heretics, even if he made the same wrong choices as Uldren he would rather die as himself than live as someone he wasn't, because it would be a fake him with fake feelings, and that wasn't redemption. It was a cover-up, like pulling a silk burial sheet over an ugly box so you can pretend it's actually a really nice table underneath.
"Focus up, everyone. Garrus, hit it." Shepard commanded, and the turian did so, revealing a room that looked just as grim as the station's first impression, lit by green, circuit-like paths along the floor.
"Interrupting data streams will alert local platforms." Legion indicated the paths. "We recommend caution."
Shepard looked back to signal Crow forwards. "Crow, Kasumi, go dark and scout ahead."
He nodded, and moved forwards, glad he was already focused on void Light. Looking to Kasumi, the thief flashed a peace sign before disappearing, and Crow slipped past the others surrounding the door, pulling the void around him as he did so. The safety of invisibility wrapped around him, he crept quickly through the room, hopping nimbly over a data stream as he followed it. Unlike Kasumi, he was on a time crunch; staying invisible too long strained him, whereas she relied on tech that she could manipulate to keep it running longer.
Bingo. Just as his instincts had thought, there was something at the end of the stream; some kind of blocky... server thing that three geth were hooked up to. A single vortex grenade could take care of all that! If he made it wide enough, that is...
No, as tempting as it was, he should go back and tell Shepard. Checking to make sure he wasn't about to trip an alarm, he turned and made his way back.
"There's only three of them, at the end of the data streams." He told the others once he let go of his invisibility. Kasumi popped up beside him as he moved back to his old position near the back of the pack.
"Yeah, and the streams don't connect to anywhere else outside the room. There's also some really convenient cover just across from them, should give a clear line of sight." The small woman added. "Seems almost too easy if you ask me. I mean, three geth against all of us? It's overkill."
"I've never been so tempted to chuck a grenade at something and be done with it." Crow said. "They're just standing there, clustered together around some kind of server. Just one vortex grenade, that would be all it takes."
"Let's not get cocky." Shepard held up a hand. "We're just getting started. Legion, would they be able to hear us approaching?"
"No." The geth shook his head. Crow wondered if he did that to actively mimic organic body language, or if there was physical habit in the motion like with other people. If you were saying 'no', you didn't really need to shake your head; that was like saying 'no' twice, it didn't need clarifying. People didn't have to do it, it was unnecessary, yet they did it anyway. A machine certainly didn't have to do it, even one who made to interact with organics, and throughout the transmat project Crow had noticed that the geth never said or did more than was necessary to get a point across.
Yet Legion shook his head anyway.
"Crow, how many people do you think would be able to line up a shot?" The Commander asked.
"About half of us could squeeze behind that cover if we tried." He shrugged. "But like I said, a grenade could probably end it quick, even if they have shields. With the positional advantage, we could probably shred them so fast, cover wouldn't matter."
"You really want to throw that grenade." Grunt commented, and even though his face was hidden by a helmet, Crow can easily imagine the crocodile grin on the young krogan's face. "Hey Shepard, can he? I wanna see that void stuff eat something."
"Fine." She sighed. "Charlie, move up with me and Legion."
"Oh, uh." Crow is caught off-guard by Shepard actually agreeing with Grunt. Did he want to throw a grenade? Yes. But not enough to upset the order of things. On the other hand... "I guess we're field testing the thing."
"Thing?" Shepard echoed questioningly as they moved into the room.
A ballistic impact alerted them to a potential hazard. In one nanosecond, the geth pulled back from the local network. In the next, they registered thirteen organic beings [hostile geth detected] within fifty meters of their physical platforms, four of them crouching behind cover while two[drell-male] [species unknown-male(?)] stood ready to duck back into cover if needed.
In the nanosecond after that, sensors register-
[unknown energy signature detected]
[no data available]
[error]
[query (what is this)]
Swirling nothing registers as [gravitational anomaly detected] but it isn't biotics, the [species unknown-male(?)] eyes glow visibly through the helmet visor, bright and dark plum and violent. The[drell-male] is flaring with mass effect distortions [biotics detected].
The geth pilot their platforms to turn, and raise their weapons but [gravitational anomaly detec-
Crow's grenade flares as it lands in the middle of the geth, and Thane throws a biotic warp right into the middle of it before they both duck behind cover, though everyone is slightly guilty of peeking over the edge to watch as the biotic and void Light interacted in a violent explosion. True to theory, the atomic destabilization of a warp combined with the spreading hunger of the void resulted in an interesting display.
It wasn't the typical explosion. Normally, the grenade would just eat at something with gravity until it was gone. But the vortex spread the warp until it had weakened the integrity of the geth so that instead of breaking apart into embers sparking with void energy, they disintegrated rapidly with bright, violent flashes. Several people swore, and one or two actually jumped a bit. It was loud enough that they all only caught the tail end of Legion's 'Warning; potential nuclear fission imminent'. It was over quickly, with loud pops like sparks from a firecracker issuing from the grenade as the remaining energy caused by the combination dissipated.
After a few moments, the grenade dissipated as well, and the whole team was silent for a bit.
"I fear..." Thane broke the silence calmly, "that we nearly just split atoms."
"Awesome!" Grunt slapped them both on the backs so hard it winded both of them, and Crow swears he feels his vertebra crack. "Do it again! But with a reave this time!"
"No." Shepard says firmly. "No more nuke grenades. Vortex grenades and biotic bad."
"Sorry Shepard." Crow wheezes.
"It's okay, this is why we test these things." She assuages. "Shows over people, let's get a move on. And from now on, keep in mind; vortex grenades and biotics bad. Do not tempt fate if he throws another one."
"But-"
"No."
Meanwhile, in the Destiny universe, Lord Shaxx wakes up in a cold sweat, knowing with every fiber of his being that someone, somewhere, has perfected the grenade to the point where it has evolved the potential to level a city should the right(wrong) conditions be met. He sheds a single tear of joy. The more I thought about how a vortex grenade would interact with a warp field, which weakens the atomic integrity of a target the more I realized that particular combination might be problematic.
As far as what's been going on at Bungie is concerned, you've all heard every single opinion from every point of view by now; you came here to read fanfiction, so beyond this, I'm not going to talk about the layoffs or what I think of the situation. I'm just going to write fanfiction and chill.
BiazarKaiser: Thane helped, I mean...
Guest: A big problem with making biotics and void abilities interact is that it's much less clear what's happening to an enemy we've say, made volatile, than an enemy we've inflicted with the jolt effect. Jolt is obvious; arc isn't exactly electricity, but the visual ques and verb definition makes it clear that we are electrocuting an enemy. Volatility is much less clear cut. Arc and solar verbs are easier for us to comprehend because they are, visually at least, known quantities; fire and electricity. It's easier to imagine and extract what's going on when we use those abilities on something. The void is alien. It doesn't evoke something familiar to draw on, making it harder to extract exactly what's happening to enemies we use verbs on. I'm still figuring it out. And it will be a while before I even think about giving Crow any special tools, he's already OP in the Mass Effect universe and I don't want to encroach on Gary Sue territory.
JGThorncross: NGL, I really am trying to capture the 'cheek clench' moment the abduction was for anyone who went into the game blind like I did. At that point in my life, the most stressful moment in gaming had been when I finally plucked together enough courage to go under the well in Ocarina of Time. You just don't expect to suddenly be playing as JOKER while your base of operations is getting broken into by scions and praetorians. I don't really do discord, sorry. I only use it for clan stuff, and even then I merely lurk unless there's a raid on, I prefer to keep to myself.
kataang00: I actually liked the new version of Garrus' segment better than the old one, and Miranda's read easier, so deleting half the chapter isn't ALWAYS a total loss. I am making the collector abduction a bit more intense than it is in-game, mostly because this is another medium; writing can tell so much more about a situation, can give so much more detail and suspense and it would be a crime not to use that.
Important: Some of you may have noticed already that I've started posting a new version of To Trails End. I started this series as a writing exercise, and rather than updating the old version and losing it forever, I've decided to post the new version separately, to exist as a comparison. Two years ago, I just posted that fic as I wrote without any real plan for where I was going with it. But now, I do have ideas, however vague they may be, and to set them up, To Trails End needed an overhaul. This is not a complete rewrite, just a renovation built around the original material. There is a high chance I'll be giving the earlier chapters of this fic a similar treatment (a lot of stuff up to chapter fourteen feels a bit rough), though they will be outright replaced, and when/if it happens, there will be a fair degree of warning beforehand. I'll be updating the new version of To Trails End instead of this fic throughout the rest of this month, both so I can polish the upcoming chapters, and write ahead for a bit, perhaps even give one of my side projects some love. I hope the new To Trails End satisfies.
Fare Thee Well!