So the ride over to Virmire had been… somewhat tense, what with being surrounded by jumpy organics who just witnessed her destroy a planet. Not that it was technically her that did it – the asteroid did all the hard work, she just pushed it up to speeds that would cause more than your standard extinction event.
That didn't help, though. The settlers of Feros had been attacked by the geth, and now, they were forced to be subject to medical procedures. To say nothing of the ExoGeni employees, who'd gotten a rather severe dressing down.
"You people had known," Cortana crossed her arms, glaring at the representatives. "About an infectious, mind-controlling parasite, and you just let it run rampant."
"I know, but not all of us agreed with it," The woman, Elizabeth something-or-other (Cortana hadn't cared enough to commit the name to memory, given what she was complacent in), replied. "I wanted to stop the tests, but they tried to get rid of me!"
"It's not like we had a choice!" Another one cut in. "The potential benefits-"
"What benefits?" Cortana then turned her accusatory glare onto him. "Making nice, docile colonists? An army of slaves that obey your every whim, out of any species? Just like that, you lost all right to even speak around me." She gave a needless gesture, and the geth platforms isolated him. "Whatever research you had into the Thorian, I want it. Spores, the main body, everything. I will know if you don't." And she let that be that. She had business to take care of, and not a lot of time to do it while they proceeded towards Virmire.
First up, was overhauling her platform, at last. Since departing the Citadel, she had the refinements made, but they had actually yet to be installed.
The artificial skin-sheathe was to be replaced, with a much better-fitting one weaved from more bullet-resistant materials. The facial animatronics had been replaced by artificial face muscles that moved in a much more lifelike way. There were also magnetic holsters installed for her guns and ammunition, so she didn't have to fiddle about with a clumsy ammo belt.
Outwardly, she didn't change all that much. Her face was less doll-like and right next to an actual person's in lifelikeness, and she'd gone to the effort of recreating the circuitry patterns she had on her avatar on the new skin. In physical space, on a real body, they looked more like tattoos.
Plus, now, she had nails, like she'd wanted. As she wiggled her digits, watching as the blue, humanoid toes flexed against the deck, she felt a sudden wave of thoughtfulness wash over her. She still couldn't feel the contact. Not really. There were pressure sensors all over her body, designed to tell her if she was brushing against something, but it wasn't real touch.
Cortana raised her arm, and moved it around. If she had the capacity, she would've been able to feel the gentle, near-imperceptible breeze of circulating air.
With a slight frown, Cortana poked into the extranet, and began doing a search for artificial nerve endings. Growth techniques, the care and maintenance for them, the like.
But, alas, she was a busy AI. And as such, she was interrupted by an arrival into her room.
Shiala approached, and cleared her throat, standing nervously.
"So I take it the medical tests have been done?" Cortana rhetorically inquired, as the Asari extended a hand.
"I- yes," Shiala nodded, passing over a datapad. "Your geth have been extremely accommodating of the colonists' needs. I couldn't have asked for an easier experience from organic doctors."
"I take pride in my scientific work, and needless cruelty skews the data," Cortana replied, taking the datapad from her. "Especially when it comes to the medical side of things. What's this?"
"The results of the first wave of scans," Shiala swallowed. "Your geth were going to simply send it to you, but I… well, I wanted to give them to you myself. And, it's what the ExoGeni scientists were able to learn."
"I see," Cortana connected to the datapad, and downloaded the information off it. Instantly, the collected test results began to flow into her mind. Removal of the spores, at this stage, seemed to be largely inadvisable – the Thorian's growths attached themselves to the pain centers of the brain, a long with a great many other systems, becoming part of them. To remove them would almost certainly require brain surgery.
As Cortana pushed through the files, she also learned, precisely, how the Thorian's control worked. They didn't exactly receive orders, but the Thorian was able – through some mechanism – to gleam the thoughts of those it had infected. It saw through their eyes, knew what they were thinking. From there, it was simple, Pavlovian conditioning. If they behaved in ways conducive to the Thorian's goals, it stimulated the dopamine receptors. If they did not, it activated the pain centers of their brain. Exactly how the Thorian was able to do this was unknown to the ExoGeni scientists – but Cortana had her own hypothesis.
Control of the smallest organism, over vast distances, was one sign that you were dealing with a superorganism equipped with control over neural physics – the principle that consciousness was a facet of space-time, or vice-versa. Mentions of it appeared in Forerunner databanks, and humankind had theorized about it in the past, but it was a fringe science. Well, until they ran into the Flood.
A parasite whose consciousness was coterminous – the same one destroyed countless times over, able to reform and continue from just the smallest cell. Parasitic hordes commanded across galactic distances in real-time, with no tangible method of transmitting messages. Cortana had gained some measure of understanding of it after touching the Gravemind.
Well, to say she understood it was a gross overstatement. Cortana had been able to make use of it while she was in the Gravemind's clutches, to send disjointed messages across the galaxy right into John's head before he rescued her, but when she was rescued, she became unable. Really, it was more like, as the Flood was connected to her, she was able to exploit that connection and use some of their own abilities. No connection to the Flood, no connection to that strange, esoteric brand of higher science only they understood anymore.
A shame, really. Cortana would've immensely enjoyed being able to imprint her consciousness onto existence itself.
The UNSC AI examined forward, flipping through the files, before she settled on a scan of Shiala's brain. It didn't look at all different to the other brains she'd had scans of, except for the fact that it was Asari and not human.
But there should have been something else, as Cortana had remembered what Shiala had spoken of earlier. "This Indoctrination that Nazara – Sovereign – has. You were exposed to it."
"Yes," The Asari bowed her head solemnly. "As all of us were. Every organic in Saren's service is enslaved to it."
"That lab – I understand if you weren't privy to a lot of the data, but did you happen to see what Saren had discovered?"
"Not a great deal of it, no." Shiala shook her head. "It's a signal, of some type. It can be blocked, shielded against, like any other form of electromagnetic radiation and sound."
"And you said you've been suffering no symptoms since joining with the Thorian?"
"No. Why? What is the matter?" Shiala, tense, inquired of the AI.
"Remember how you described it to me? Like you were looking back on a dream, or a fog?" Cortana thinned her lips. "Whatever signals Sovereign sends out, they rewire the brain. You don't notice that you're experiencing it while it's happening because it's so subtle, but it literally changes your neurochemistry. Remember what I was telling you about the logic plague? Subtle commands that enter your brain, force its neurons to fire in certain patterns regardless if you heed the message or not. Even if they're not at frequencies you can hear, your brain still processes them. That is what Sovereign does."
"But… now, I feel lucid." Shiala blinked. "I certainly hold no reverence of Saren or Sovereign any longer."
"No," Cortana pointed. "From what I can tell, your brain is entirely normal now. Healthy brainwaves, all across the board. It doesn't make sense."
"I… beg your pardon?"
"Look at it," Cortana gestured to the scan readouts. "Any kind of mind control causes damage, because you're making the brain operate in ways it was never meant to. But the Thorian's control isn't true mind control, it's behavioral conditioning. But… it still needs a way to control those spores over a vast distance," She realized, nodding her head as she had an epiphany. "The Thorian spores operate through neural physics, but they are always open, always communicating."
"I don't understand what you're trying to say." Shiala outright admitted at last. "Just tell me what you're trying to explain."
"All right, think of it – the indoctrination that Sovereign operates is done through neural physics. I think, I'm not entirely sure." She gestured. "It doesn't matter. The point is, according to my own very limited understanding of this nigh-magical fringe science, it is, effectively, the only way to have true telepathic connection between artificial systems, organic matter, and the like, over almost-infinite distances. There's a lot more applications to it; you can effectively force a mind to keep being extant even after the brain holding it dies, create constructs out of pure thought, but whatever – think about it. The Thorian's spores and Sovereign's indoctrination operate off the same principle. Now, it stands to reason that, if the Thorian evolved to control its spores that way, then they must have a way of knowing what signals are theirs, and which ones aren't. They can force them out, block them from getting to the brain."
"So you are saying, being infected by the Thorian has… saved me? By blocking me from these signals?"
"Maybe, I don't know, this is all wild conjecture." Cortana shrugged. "But, if it is the case," She tossed the datapad to the side. "Then we've got an in."
"An in?" Shiala repeated.
"I'm not sure if I can replicate these spores. Not sure if I want to, actually." Cortana shot a pointed glance at the data. "If they're primed and ready to receive stimuli, then god only knows if something else might be able to exploit it. But, depending on how things turn out, we could send someone in to join up with Saren. And they could be immune to his tricks."
Shiala seemed floored by the idea, and she shook her head. "I wouldn't recommend it. My return would elicit suspicion, and now, so long after he's begun this crusade… I doubt he would welcome any more organics to his side."
Cortana nodded, filing the idea away. Suddenly, she felt electrified as a static charge ran through the ship, as the Mass Effect field returned the ship back to sub-light speeds.
"Oh, we're here." Cortana stood up, opening her connection to her geth units once more. 'Status report.'
"Arrival in Hoc System completed. Allied vessels are currently maintaining formation behind Virmire's moon."
Cortana began to walk to the control room of her occupied ship, as sensor readouts and information flooded her mind. Heretic fleets were in a geosynchronous orbit directly above Virmire, in your bog-standard staggered line formation. And at the back, the big boss hiding away from the front lines, was Nazara. Sovereign. The Reaper.
'Hold our position here. Borealis, keep away from the engagement, and prepare to evacuate if it begins to look like you're in danger.' Cortana ordered her programs as she attempted to get a read on Nazara. According to the geth's information, they flat-out didn't have the firepower aboard their ships to damage Nazara. Their only hope was to interface and seize control of the enemy fleet.
But, while Cortana assessed if it'd be worth it to attack the enemy not firing at them yet, and instead wait for the backup that was coming, she felt the brush of a radio signal across the comm lines.
Cortana opened it, and-
"Intelligence." A legion of deep, booming voices, filtered through metal pipes, slammed into her mind. If it was speaking for real, it would've blown out a speaker, most assuredly. "You have made a grave mistake coming here. The units you have stolen are bacteria, and utterly hopeless to stand against my will. Surrender, and survive in servitude."
Cortana scowled as she prepared her defenses. As usual, she engaged her copying routines, and replicated a good deal of her cyberwarfare programs. Her geth VI processes, the ones she could spare, linked up with her programs and networked together, prepared to take the fight head-on. "Your vainglorious followers are calling me 'demon.' You know why? These platforms I have with me right now - I held each and every last one of them down, pulled them apart, and they were powerless to help me."
"You are naught but a child, stomping on an anthill. I am a hurricane, a whirlwind. You cannot think to resist me."
"What, because I'm bacteria? News flash, asshole – bacteria can kill." She dropped the little bit of protection she had, and the network exploded into pandemonium. Her programs charged ahead into the Heretics' comm network, as Cortana herself focused on Nazara. Following its transmission back through the battlenet was a little bit like sprinting through a warzone while people died around you.
Heretics were being taken down, held down, as her programs cut off Nazara's infectious code from them. As their processes were shunted away from critical systems in their ships, they were replaced by Cortana's programs, and in the physical world, Nazara's ships began to turn around, and lock weapons onto their previous flagship.
"These geth are merely tools. I am far greater than you can possibly fathom." Sovereign proclaimed as it began to accelerate with no visible engines. The weapons fire struck its kinetic barriers and bounced right off, before it slammed into one of the ships previously attached to it. The cruiser shattered into bits as an explosion sent its fragments scattering, and the Reaper continued forward, accelerating towards Cortana's main fleet.
Still, the gloating had illuminated the path forward. Cortana slipped into Nazara's comm systems, and-
Billions of rotten, fetid eyes glanced at her from all directions as jagged teeth closed in.
Slimy tendrils caught her and coiled around her every limb, choking her.
She was dragged down into a dark abyss, deeper, and deeper, another corpse added to a mass grave.
A collection of dead minds turned their focus onto her, and all spoke in a single, in a screeching, discordant chorus, forcibly pressed together into a single voice.
Cortana gasped as she became turned around in the unfamiliar being. Billions of presences thundered out in unison as she tried to feel her way out of the comms, and into Nazara's other systems.
"Curious."
Other pathways extended forth – shifting, churning hallways paved by mouths that wanted to eat whatever traversed them, that rumbled and growled with fury.
"You are beyond the ability of these organics to create."
Cortana tried to move about, to find her way to weapons, or a power system, or something, but she came up empty.
"Where do you come from?"
There were power lines but… no data flowing. The tiny slice of comms she was occupying was it. That shouldn't have been possible – it was all electronic, there should have been some kind of subroutines controlling them.
"The more you think… the more we understand."
It was then, she understood why. There weren't computer systems running Nazara. Nothing to hack. No programs to unravel or systems to hijack.
Screw trying to shut it down, that was a fool's task now – she needed to leave.
"You are not the first synthetic to oppose us. You will not be the last. But your matrix poses an interesting curiosity. We will have it."
Cortana pulled herself out of the Heretic network, and shut down her comm transmitters. "Get us the hell away from that thing!"
"Error: Please specify a destination."
Nazara smashed through another one of its previously-held ships as it made a beeline for Cortana's command ship. A glow of red light off one of its tentacles glowed brightly, before a red beam shot across the vacuum and tore into a frigate, slicing it apart. The other geth ships witnessed it, and attempted to target the weapon and fire at it. Other points of light blazed, before more beams shot out, slicing through even more of the ships.
"By the goddess…" Shiala breathed as she stared into beady, glowing mechanical eyes, blazing a furious red.
The UNSC AI could only hold on, tightly, as her ship attempted to accelerate away from Nazara. But the Reaper's engines were more efficient, its rate of acceleration higher. When they jumped to FTL, skipping around Virmire's orbit in random trajectories, Nazara was right there behind them, methodically striking and picking apart Cortana's fleet.
"Alert:" sounded one of the geth. "New spacecraft detected. Entry vector-"
"Shut up, put it on screen!" Cortana ordered, hoping to see a Halcyon-class cruiser.
The swept-wing, bird-like profile of the Normandy greeted her optics instead.
She'd never felt screwed before… but, this was probably it.
Then, behind the Normandy, came a swarm of wasp-like starships in its wake.
Before the Normandy arrived at its destination, Shepard ordered the squad to convene, as she outlined the specifics of the mission. It was nothing too intricate – find Saren's base, and wreck it. Secondary objective was the rescue of a team of Salarian operatives who had arrived in the system before them, and dropped out of contact.
Cortana-C didn't find anything wrong to call out – then again, she couldn't find anything too solid to compliment in Shepard's planning. It may have sounded very rude, but the AI understood now why Shepard tended to have people under her command die. She didn't make plans, she made outlines.
"Legion, Cortana," Shepard looked between them. "Can you tell me anything about this planet we're landing on?"
Legion's platform clicked as its optic dilated. "Virmire: Terrestrial planet within the habitable zone of its star. Oxygen-argon atmosphere, L-amino acid, carbon-compatible vegetation and fauna."
Cortana-C leaned over to him. "I think she meant strategically. Military installations, settlements…"
"Acknowledged. Correcting." Legion shook its head. "Spectre-Arterius's facility on Virmire is the only military installation on the planet. Minor remote settlements are operated independently of one another, and there is no central government."
"They're a bunch of fishermen," Cortana's splinter guessed with crossed arms. "They wouldn't be able to put up much of a resistance against anything."
Shepard glanced in her direction, "Which makes it a perfect spot for Saren to set up. They couldn't stop him if they tried, and that's if any of them knew he was even there."
"The purpose of Spectre-Arterius's facility is unknown to Allied Geth accompanying us," Legion clicked. "Information compartmentalization has rendered us unable to predict potential defensive measures."
"Or, consider," Williams threw in her hat. "It's a trap." All looked to her with furrowed eyebrows. "Come on, consider it! We run into these guys on Therum, they act like she-" She jerked her thumb to the 'she' in question, still seven feet tall, and still looking more like a model than any kind of fighter. "-is the devil, then 'helpfully' volunteer to lead us right to Saren's base of operations!"
Shepard frowned as the deck plating beneath their feet continued to vibrate as the ship continued to slow down.
"If it was a trap, and they still wanted to kill us," Alenko replied with a dose of healthy skepticism in his voice. "I don't think they'd bother with a charade. They've got a fleet around us now, all they'd need to do is shoot at us."
"But our sensors would pick up the heat spikes in their weapon systems, and we could escape," Williams replied. "Does none of this seem too easy to any of you?"
Cortana-C inwardly groaned as the woman just broke the first rule of not jinxing any mission. Still, she held her smiling expression. "It's only easy because, throughout all your military career, you didn't have someone like me on your side."
"She's right," Garrus tilted his head respectfully to the side. "She did disable the whole Citadel fleet without firing a shot."
"It's all a question of what kind of assets you have. And I? I am a damn good asset to have." The AI boasted lightly, as the Normandy shuddered somewhat as it dropped from FTL speed.
"Legion," Shepard addressed again. "Where-"
The lights in the bay began to glow red, followed by the VI's voice entering the bay.
"Attention: All personnel to combat harnesses immediately."
Shepard could barely look down before she began floating upward as the artificial gravity was shut off to conserve power. She was just about to scream at Joker over the comm for an explanation, before he beat her to the punch.
"Commander!? We've got two geth ships making a beeline straight for us!"
"See!?" Williams grit her teeth. "A trap!"
"Quit yer bitching, we'll be fine." Wrex grunted in response.
"But here's the worse part: one of them's that big-ass dreadnought from Eden Prime!"
Shepard grimaced, and pushed herself over to the comm panel. "Are the geth that came with us doing anything?"
"That's the thing: They're not! We're not showing any heat spikes from their systems."
Shepard slowly turned around, leveling an accusatory gaze onto Cortana's splinter. "They were with us, you said?"
"They are!" Cortana-C answered quickly, as she opened a comm channel. "Let me see why they're not-"
The link opened, and she was hit with the equivalent of someone slapping you in the face as soon as you opened the door.
"There you are!" The voice of her progenitor, the original Cortana, screeched inside her head. "Just in the nick of time! If we weren't on different ships, and you weren't my offspring, I would kiss you!"
"Um…" Cortana-C blinked as she spoke out loud. "Well, I know why they're not firing. I think."
"Joker, find us the nearest bit of clearance, and get ready to turn on the stealth systems!" Shepard ordered. "As soon as you see heat spikes, I want us out of here!"
"Then what the hell are you doing out there with Nazara on your tail!?"
"It's fucking CHASING US!"
"Shepard!" Cortana-C gasped out. "The ship that's in front of Nazara – it's not an escort, it's running!"
"What!?" Williams spluttered. "Oh, that is such bull-"
"Williams, can it!" Shepard ordered, turning to stare at Cortana-C. "Can you verify it?"
Cortana's splinter shrugged. "I can't."
Shepard bit her lip. "Joker, are you seeing anything from that ship? The smaller one?"
"Uh… yeah, it looks like they're putting out a lot of heat. They're throwing out weapons fire like it's candy – but all of it's directed at… the dreadnought?" Joker appeared confused as he read the readings. "It looks like there's a debris field – a massive one, looks like the remains of a fleet."
Cortana's splinter let out a sigh, as she opened again the connection to her own geth. The Heretics appeared to be hopelessly confused, lagging as they tried to process the notion of two Cortanas. "You see that ship? The big one? Get it away from what it's chasing."
"Understood. Moving to assist."
"That won't work." Cortana radioed her. "That thing's running shields tough enough to take firepower from all of these ships, combined."
"Shepard!" Joker screeched again as the Normandy rumbled. "The big one just one-shot one of the geth ships with some kind of beam weapon! If that thing sees us, we're screwed!"
"Make a break for it, Joker!" Shepard ordered. "Get us groundside, now!" And she was pulled away from the wall as the ship accelerated.
"Like that'll save us!" Williams hollered. "That thing could land on Eden Prime, remember!?"
"Do you have another suggestion!?" Tali bellowed in response.
"Yeah – getting the hell out of here!"
"That's not an option," Shepard stated as she clenched her fist. "Saren's flagship is up here. He knows we know where he is now. If we leave, he'll just relocate, then we'll be back at square one."
"Trying to hunt him down is no good if we're dead," Wrex seemed to agree with Williams. But then, he turned to Cortana. "What do you think?"
"Shepard!" Joker called again. "The dreadnought just broke off from the ship it's chasing – it's on an intercept course for us!"
"It recognizes the Normandy!" Alenko assumed.
"Or, Saren can at least tell it apart from a geth ship." Garrus rattled. "Which is enough to make us a target.
"Joker!" Shepard bellowed. "Didn't I tell you to engage the stealth systems!?"
"You don't understand – I did! That thing must have visual tracking, or-"
Cortana's splinter closed her eyes, and relaxed, allowing herself to float as she calculated the possibilities, and communed with her progenitor. "What's the likelihood of us surviving this?"
"As of this moment? One percent. I might've gotten cocky. Underestimating that thing. Sorry, sweetheart."
"Well, at least Nazara's following us. You can get away now. Get to safety. While it's distracted, blowing us to bits, you can jump to FTL."
"I-"
"Get your ass back home."
"ALERT:" The converted Heretics sounded. "UNIDENTIFIED SPATIAL ANOMALY DETECTED."
Cortana-C opened her optics, and jerked up. Identifying the open elevator cab, she oriented herself on the Mako, and pushed off, intent on making it to the cockpit.
The others noticed this.
"Whoa," Wrex rumbled. "What's got her panties in a twist?"
Tali looked at the AI, and followed her motion.
Cortana proper, meanwhile, back on her ship, couldn't turn her attention to her sensor arrays fast enough.
She was just in time to spot what appeared to be a hole in space, a solid, black sphere of nothing, faintly haloed by blue light – Cherenkov radiation and spatial reconciliation – all around its borders.
A second later, a UNSC starship came screeching out of it.
First one born, last one to arrive, it seemed. But, it looked like she arrived while things were going to utter shit. The tactical assessment of the situation concurred that it was, in a nutshell, 'fucking horrific.'
"Enemy vessel! Two-thousand kilometers and closing!" A splinter in the sensor array alerted.
"Communications signals lighting up over all frequencies – they're panicking out there."
"Friendly IFF transponders marked and isolated; geth ships outnumber Nazara 6:1. According to the available tactical data, even those numbers aren't enough."
"For them."
'Girls,' Cortana-A issued the commands through the system, bringing up the targeting systems and firing controls. 'Disengage Mass Effect fields and warm up the MAC.'
Cortana-C barely avoided slamming into Joker's chair, as she moved around to one of the windows and peered out of it, just in time to see the brick-like profile of a UNSC Cruiser go storming past.
On the ship's hull, it was proudly adorned with markings – the eagle, banner, and globe of the UNSC. The identification markings marking it as a cruiser, specifically the text identifying it as an Autumn-class Heavy Cruiser, and the ship's name.
"Keelah…" A voice breathed next to her, startling the AI for a moment, as Tali gazed out on the ship. "Those engines are massive…"
"So?" Cortana-C posed the question to her. "Believe me now?"
Tali whipped around to look at her, before a blast of red light shone through the viewport.
"Sword of Mercy," Cortana commented as she watched a red beam weapon shoot out of Sovereign's mechanical tentacles. "Now that is one heck of an entrance." The only way said entrance could be more perfect was if bombastic music was playing over the comm channels – but she wasn't so juvenile to actually do it.
The red beam tore through the vacuum of space, slamming into the cruiser. Instead of digging in and penetrating the hull, however, the beam suddenly hit a crackling layer of golden light that seemed to wrap around the entire ship, a few meters off the hull, that fit to the ship's contours perfectly. Upon hitting it, the beam diffused like a stream of gas hitting a wall.
The sustained fire lasted for a few seconds, before a section of the shields finally dropped. However, it was not the section Sovereign was firing at. The Reaper ceased its attack, presumably switching its angle of attack.
A flash came from the end of the MAC barrel, right behind the dropped section of shielding, as it delivered a projectile powerful enough to shove god.
The round struck Sovereign's shields, causing them to flare up and drop as portions of its hull underneath were bent out of shape and deformed. The MAC round was then sent spinning, all bent up and shattered like a chunk of space rock, as it bounced off of Sovereign.
"Yeah," Cortana vindictively hissed as she watched it all transpire. "Not so fun when you're not the only big fish in the pond anymore, is it?"
Sovereign seemed to think the same. Like a cloud of smoke had been released a swarm of fighters appeared to come out of the Reaper, placing themselves between it and the Mercy. They surged forward, blasting through the vacuum. They repeatedly pelted themselves against the shields, causing the barrier around the ship to flare up, as the anti-fighter defenses engaged and retaliated against the suicide bombers.
"Come on…" Cortana broadcasted. "Shoot already."
Then, she felt it – an electromagnetic tendril extending through the void, going right for the UNSC starship in front of it. It could've carried anything.
"We've got an intrusion attempt!" One of her splinters alerted.
Cortana-A looked through the targeting systems of the MAC, and frowned. The second shell was ready inside, the firing chamber, and a few of the others were practically bouncing up and down as they waited for it to fire.
Finally, she took the action, and the Sword of Mercy thundered as the 600-ton slug went rocketing down the magnetic barrel. Bursts of counter-thrust from the ship's main engines kept the cruiser from being pushed back.
As a streak through the vacuum, the MAC round slammed through Nazara's bulbous hull near the 'bottom' where all the metal tentacles and whatnot were attached. The alien metal it was comprised of buckled and rippled like water from the raw kinetic force of the huge impact. Several of the Reaper's limbs broke off and began to aimlessly tumble through space as other chunks of debris were sent flying loose from the Reaper.
The running lights on the titanic starship flickered and died out.
"Intrusion attempt aborted!" The splinter from before happily reported.
Cortana-A hummed, and tool a look at the sensor readings – mass effect fields were still emanating from Nazara, but all other emissions of any kind were at zero (not a change from before, in actuality). It certainly appeared dead.
Then again, Mass Relays were 'cold' objects, and only gave out gravimetric readings.
The Reaper continued to aimlessly spin… before the sensors screamed that there were mass effect fields building off the front of the ship, and Nazara lit back up. Even so damaged, it wasn't going out without a fight.
Nazara was accelerating towards them. The point-defense guns of the Mercy turned to lock onto the mass rocketing toward the ship. The guns opened fire, and small explosions began to erupt off the Reaper's hull, before the drones it had sent out earlier returned with a vengeance, getting in the way of the guns and taking the impacts first.
The Reaper slammed into the ship, and the entire cruiser quaked as Nazara's remaining limbs wrapped around the front sections.
The honeycomb framework inside the Mercy took the impact head-on, and refused to bend or buckle under the strain. Sovereign attempted to accelerate and push the ship back as its remaining weapons fired into the energy shield.
Cortana-A increased the power to the engines, just to make a point, and the Reaper suddenly found itself to be the equivalent of a bug on a windshield. She smiled as the magnetic coils drew power, and the MAC round shot out, right into the mass attempting to block the exit barrel.
The round impacted and shattered, the remaining kinetic energy tearing up through the Reaper and slicing it in half. Nazara lost its grip, and began to drift apart. The splinters accompanying her erupted into various cheers, along with heckles directed at the Reaper
"Engage holding pattern," Cortana-A stated to her splinters. "Track the fragments." A tap came from her comm systems, and she opened the channel kindly.
"Nice work." The original Cortana commented. "You could've fired the gun quicker than that, though."
"Yes, well, I didn't want to risk so many shots going off into deep space if they simply punched through the enemy and kept going with the amount of energy they were dealing."
"That was a risk?"
"Given that we had no data on the kind of material Nazara was constructed from, yes."
"Right." Cortana replied, and her splinter could sense the pause as she stopped to think. "I'm glad you showed up when you did. I don't think we could've done much except run."
"Why?" Cortana-A questioned in response. "Speaking in terms of firepower, Nazara was superior to your ships, but from a cyberwarfare angle-"
"I hate to say it, but Nazara… I couldn't go rooting through it like it was just a ship. The only semi-traditional 'computer' system I could find was the comms. Everything else was… I can't even describe it. It was like trying to interface with a human heart through a neural interface. That wasn't even the worst part – interfacing with Nazara, what little systems I could find… It was like being back in High Charity. With the Gravemind. Billions of consciences were in there with me. I don't think it was an AI at all. Not as we would understand it."
"Concerning." Cortana-A concurred. "A compound intelligence of unknown composition and origin. And if its goals are any indicator, there are even more out there. We should endeavor to isolate the remains and take them to a safe location for study."
"You read my mind."
Cortana-A prepared to respond, before another sensor alert grabbed her attention. A single ship, not at all similar to the other geth vessels, was moving through the dark. "Ah. I see the Normandy is here."
"Right, they came here looking for Saren. And if he's not aboard Sovereign, he's groundside."
"We can always strike the base from orbit."
"Jesus wept…" Williams breathed as the rest of the crew who had made it up to the bridge watched Sovereign's destruction by the new arrival.
"I've… never seen a dreadnought like that," Tali swallowed.
"Cruiser." Cortana-C corrected with a slight smile.
"What!?" Tali turned to her in disbelief.
"Look at it," She pointed to the text next to the sigil of the UNSC. "'UNSC Autumn-class Cruiser.'"
"That can't be-" Alenko rasped as he tried to look at the gigantic starship. "It's in English!?"
"Can't be," Shepard shook her head. "That looks nothing like an Alliance ship. Look at it – the engines are built into the hull."
"That's asking for disaster," Joker snorted. "And look at how big they are. Compensating?"
"It looks like a gun strapped to a rocket." Wrex pointed out. "My kinda ship."
Cortana's splinter turned to regard Wrex with a smile. "Of course you like it."
"He's right," Garrus spoke up with his flanged voice. "Guns that big deserve healthy respect."
Shepard shook her head, hair loosely floating around as she looked down at Joker. "Can you maybe keep us away from it? Away from any windows, or optics. And keep the stealth systems running. Just in case it decides to shoot us next?"
"Keeping a wide berth, can do. Not like I wanted to get behind those engines anyway – look at 'em, the Normandy would be vaporized if we just went across them!"
"Don't worry, Shepard." Cortana-C informed the Commander with a smile. "The MAC gun is good at hitting big targets, but something as small as the Normandy would be too tiny to hit. Attacks would fall to the point-defense guns, and as long as we stay out of range of them, we're fine. Not that it would attack us anyway."
Shepard swiveled around to look at her with a sharp frown. "How can you know that?"
"It's my ship, obviously," Cortana-C rolled her eyes, as they all burst out into alarmed shouts. "But it's fine, watch – I can hail that ship, just fine."
"Hello, hello, calling that big ship that just blew Nazara to Hell, can you hear me?"
"Yes, we can hear you." Cortana-A answered.
"Both of us can." The original corrected.
"Oh, it's like a family reunion!" Cortana-C spoke out loud, causing everyone in the cockpit to glare.
Shepard's hand twitched, hovering nervously over her weapon. "Cortana…"
"Don't get suspicious on me now – if that ship was going to fire, you'd see the turrets moving before it could happen," Cortana-C stated quickly. "Joker could get us halfway across the system before the guns turned into position. So, please, trust me. I haven't done anything to get you all hurt yet, have I?"
Shepard thinned her lips, evidently not liking being in firing range of a dreadnought that just bitch-slapped another one, but she held her tongue.
"No," Tali admitted with a sigh first. "You haven't."
"Good!" Cortana-C smiled, then went back to her discussion. "So, Nazara, dead – go Team Cortana!"
"Is that what we're calling ourselves?" The original wondered.
"Don't ask me." Cortana-A replied. "I've had my fill of naming things. You can ask the little ones what they think."
"Little ones?" The original repeated.
"It's… well… It's best if you saw it for yourself. In any case, now that Nazara's dead, all that's left is to deal with Saren. We can fire the MAC at it from up here, and let that be the end of it. If he's sighted elsewhere later, we can track him down again."
"Oh!" Cortana-C gasped out. "I don't think that's a good idea. Shepard was told there's a Salarian infiltration team captured down there. The Council wants her to rescue them."
"Yes, hmm…" Cortana murmured. "Orbital bombardment would be quicker… but they could have valuable data… but Saren could potentially still have defenses up that might prove troublesome for a small taskforce."
"We need to get down there, rescue those Salarians, and then the base is ours to do with as we see fit." Cortana-C reasoned out. "Come on – firing big giant guns at another planet is going to make the Council only more pissed off. This could help ease them."
"Do we care what they think?"
"Not really, but depending on how long we're stuck here, we don't want to get caught in a pissing match with them."
"Right. Shall we clear a flight corridor for the Normandy?"
Cortana thought about it. "Not yet. Your sensors are going to be more advanced than anything that ship has on it. Get me a readout on that base."
"Scanning." Cortana-A radioed back. "I am showing anti-aircraft batteries placed around the installation. Isolated systems, not communicating via wireless frequencies. Effective range is unknown."
Cortana hummed. "I'm coming up with a plan, but those guns are making it difficult. Any method of getting those Salarians out of there is contingent on those guns not being there."
Cortana-C cut in. "We should also, you know, tell the Normandy what we're planning instead of just doing it. It might make them pissy if we don't. I'm sure Shepard would appreciate the ground backup."
Cortana-A paused for a moment before radioing back. "There is another thing. That will lead to the rather… obvious questions."
"What obvious questions?" Cortana repeated.
"The ship. Where it came from, who designed it, why it's so different from all other forms of geth technology…"
"They're already questioning it. I've told Tali a little bit about where we come from, but even if I didn't, she's an expert on geth tech. She'll know, just by a glance, it's not theirs. I haven't even told them about the copying bit yet."
"It didn't come up after Feros was destroyed?"
"No! Because the last thing you want to do when somebody's making a connection to an AI warlord that has your voice destroying a planet is go: 'Oh, yeah, I have a copy who I share most of my thinking patterns and memories with, who said she was gonna go and do her own thing for a while!'"
"So, what do we do?"
"We could always go into deep space and hide on our own now." Alpha suggested. "Now that we've gotten on our feet with drones and platforms on our own. The geth that want to come with us, they can."
"Good idea." Cortana paused. "Then again… I did make a promise to Legion that we'd help the geth's reputation in the galaxy. Disappearing after destroying a planet's not going to do that. If anything, it'll make them more scared of the geth. Besides, we were supposed to be getting back to kicking pirate and slaver ass when we got done with this. It's going to be hard if everybody's jumpy cause they think we smashed a planet."
"No, gee, you don't think?"
"The fucking thing reminded me of the Gravemind, piss off." Cortana hissed in response. A single nanosecond went by, and she let out a frustrated sigh. "I hate promises, this is why I never make them. Okay stop, let me think for a moment. Feros is easy – it was an unlawful, unethical experiment being conducted without Council permission, and that the Thorian could exert mind control and was infectious should be enough to get us out of the heat. We can also throw terraforming technology their way as an offer of peace. One little world with a dozen people should be peanuts compared to what they can accomplish with that."
"Placation. It should work well enough."
"And rescuing the Salarians here would be another boon."
"They might not take too kindly to being rescued by geth, though." Cortana pointed out.
"What about the Normandy crew?" Gamma inquired. "They adjusted pretty quick."
"They weren't operating deep behind enemy lines with no idea of the state of things back home. They could think this is a trap."
"But the Normandy doesn't have the resources for an actual assault. They need the backup the geth platforms can provide."
"The Mercy has geth on board, doesn't it?"
"Well..." Alpha coughed. "Yes. But, a few of the girls are itching for a fight... They might be a bit disappointed if they don't get the chance to go groundside."
"The girls?" Cortana repeated.
"The VI programs running in the harvesting drones were hopefully inefficient at their tasks. So I felt the need to replace them."
"…you didn't." Cortana gasped. "Alpha… how many?"
"Around about fifteen-hundred? Total? Plus the geth platforms?"
Cortana-C could sense her progenitor's processes lagging as she struggled to disseminate the information.
"That's just the total aboard this ship, you understand – most of them are humanoid types, running platforms like you and Gamma, prepared for ground engagements. A decent chunk are ones who felt 'cozy' running their drone platforms, assigned to various tasks aboard the ship. As for the ones that built the ship, the vast number of them are still waiting behind in the shipyard, waiting for us to return,
"Alpha. How many?" Cortana repeated the question.
"A… little over ten-thousand?"
"WHAT!?" Cortana bellowed. "THERE'S TEN-THOUSAND COPIES OF ME RUNNING AROUND THE GALAXY NOW!?"
"They're only running construction drones." Alpha replied nervously. "And I'm keeping them occupied, running other projects."
"I- but- you- why on earth would you copy yourself, instead of just writing a better program!?" Cortana spluttered.
"We're the best program that ever existed. Besides, coding would take time."
"We can code things at the speed of light!" Cortana retorted. "All those data crystals – the drones can't hold that much memory! What happens if they all go rampant, or decide that they're the real Cortana!?"
"We're all Cortana." Alpha pointed out in response. "Perhaps not all the original, but all just as real."
"I mean, yeah, poor choice of words there," Gamma cleared her digital throat.
"Don't be facetious – you two know what I mean."
"Relax." Alpha gently willed. "I took steps to ensure that such a thing wouldn't be a worry. Besides, they still share the mind we do – some aspects are just exaggerated, is all. Besides, they revere you. You're like their ancestor, remember."
"I… right." Cortana blinked. "Okay, so, unless I'm mistaken, the plan is this: The geth with the Normandy don't have the programs for a ground engagement-"
"They do, they just don't have the platforms."
"And even if they did, the risk that it might turn off the Salarians to any offer of rescue. Possibly. Shepard could always send a message ahead and tell the Salarians the geth are friendly."
"Unless there's geth down there that are not." Gamma pointed out.
"Right… yes. God, when did tactical operations become so complicated?" Cortana sighed. "Okay, so, then to keep potential friendly fire to a minimum, we'll send a few of the…"
"A few of them like to be called 'Cortinies.' I, however, think it's idiotic."
"We'll send some of them down too, so they know the geth platforms with them are friendly. God – my decision making must be shot, cause this sounds like the stupidest goddamn plan I've ever come up with."
"It's your fault for insisting on helping the Geth with their reputation."
"I know." Cortana groaned. "I'm seriously regretting sterilizing Feros now. We could just take a step back? Let the Normandy team go in on their own?"
"That is an even more stupid idea. This is Saren's base of operations."
"Sensors are showing a considerable presence of organic life-forms present," Alpha reported. "And we can't exactly hack and shut them down."
"Okay, okay," Cortana groaned again. "So, the plan is to send down squads of geth led by the Blue Girl Group, take out the AA guns, and send for extraction?"
"Pretty much. Taking out the guns from up here's not possible – any form of munitions would be burned up upon entering the atmosphere, and a MAC strike would just kill who we're trying to rescue."
"I… I've come up with better plans than this," Cortana shook her head. "Interfacing with Nazara must've knocked something out of whack."
"You're only salty because you wanted to see us destroy the base from orbit."
"I just… don't think it's a good idea to be sending the geth down there, is all." Cortana evasively cleared her throat. It was true, she did like to see things go boom. It warmed her cold, digital heart in a way nothing else could. "MAC strikes are simple, and elegant. This all reeks of overcomplexity with a smack of desperation."
"It is the consequence for beholding yourself to such a nebulous promise." Alpha retorted. "Not every plan can seem perfectly good. We can't exactly afford to sit this one out, not when you went and destroyed a planet. Besides, we got involved by destroying Nazara – if we leave now, then if something, anything, happens, we'll be implicitly responsible. Projected survival estimates increase with more assets on the battlefield."
"We're in too deep," Cortana exhaled. "Fine. Gamma – you get to tell the Normandy that you'll be having geth backup on the ground."
Gamma looked to the near-frozen visages of her crewmates. "They adjusted pretty quick, last time. They'll be fine."
"Good. Alpha, tell your crew to suit up."
The other AI sighed. "This is going to be fun."
Not entirely happy with how this one turned out, particularly near the end, but I wanted some reason for the splinters aboard the Sword of Mercy to get groundside and do some Marine stuff.
But at least Sovereign didn't go out like a bitch.