Things didn't work out as Kacey had said it would. Kaidan knew that she was trying to be optimistic, but any sense of optimism the group had went flying out the window the moment they walked in and encountered several geth hunters, leading to a huge shoutout in the operations centre. Kaidan kept a close eye on his flank as he shot another hunter after finding its location. It was always a guessing game with the geth hunters and their cloaking shields.
"Watch your six!" Kacey shouted as she destroyed another one, "At least one of hunters is still active!"
"Found it!" Kaidan said as he popped the head off the last geth hunter.
"Okay, that's the last of them." Tali mused, "Let's see if that console is operational."
Tali ran towards the console while Kaidan and Kacey reloaded their weapons. Kaidan could understand Tali's worries, but he also knew that they had to be careful. The geth were getting pretty aggressive.
"Damn it, they've locked down the Reaper signal." Tali said as Kaidan and Kacey approached, "We can't just shut it down from here in the operation centre. Hold on…there! the Reaper signal's coming from the drive core!"
"So if we can get there, we can shut it down?" Kacey asked.
"Right, but how do we get there?" Tali asked worried, "The geth have sealed the emergency bulkheads to block us off. We need a route to the drive core that can't be blocked, a path the runs the length of the ship."
"What about the main battery?" Kaidan suggested, "Look, it runs right by the drive core."
"That could work."
"But?" Kacey questioned.
"The geth still have us locked in here. we need to get these doors open." Tali explained, "They've locked high-level processes. We need something basic…a ship wide emergency, like a fire."
"You want me to start a fire?" Kacey asked.
"No! Don't blow anything else up."
"Fine. Fine."
"What about the heat diffusion system?" Kaidan mused.
"Wait." Tali's head perked up, "If I faked a thermal warning, it would open all maintenance tubes for emergency!"
"Would that override the lockdown?" Kacey asked.
"Yes! Okay, I've got it primed. But be ready, I'm reading hostile geth on the other side of the door."
"Let's go!" Kacey said.
Wiping out the geth in the room was not as straightforward as Kaidan had thought. Truth be told he was struggling to shoot the geth hunters on top of the normal geth troopers that had flooded into the area. Kaidan fried their shields right out of the gate, making it easier for Kacey and Tali to shoot the heads off the synthetic machines. Once the room was clear, the trio pressed on through the door to a small hallway, where Kacey hacked the door open.
"Shouldn't be too much farther to the main battery." Kacey mused, "I'm surprised they'd send you on this mission, Tali."
"Even Admirals are expected to serve." Tali replied, "I'm better at hacking than I am ordering ships around."
"Somebody's got to be." Kaidan mused, "Most of us are only good at shooting."
…
"Damn it." Tali said, "Priority message: a planetary defence cannon just took down Admiral Koris's ship."
"Survivors?" Kacey asked.
"They got to the escape pods, and I've got Admiral Raan trying to establish a secure link."
"Put her through."
"Shepard, this is Raan." Admiral Raan said through the comms, "The Heavy Fleet is collapsing. I don't know how much longer we can hold out."
"We'll have the Reaper signal deactivated shortly, Admiral."
They were running down a shaft to reach the main battery before the call came through. The news wasn't great; all the more reason to get to the drive core and shutting down the Reaper signal.
Two doors later, they finally reached the main battery. Large, white sheets of electricity swept through the area in a rhythmic pattern. As the map indicated, it was a long, thin tunnel with a few bits of to the side filled with different computer terminals. This was going to be easier said than done.
"Watch the shockwaves!" Kacey said as the trio went down the ramp to reach the main catwalk, "That's a big gun."
"I'd hate to be in front of that thing." Kaidan mused.
"More geth incoming!" Tali shouted, "I think they've figured out what we're doing!"
Kaidan moved behind cover before opening fire on the geth that began to flood through the area, moving into position to open fire on the intruders. Kaidan once again worked to fry the shields of the geth, hoping that it would make their task a lot easier. But the geth kept on coming, replenishing their numbers quickly. What also didn't help was that the shockwaves did not affect the geth at all.
Tali's combat drone was a lifesaver in keeping the geth distracted so they could all mow down the geth without them retaliating. Kaidan lifted up any remaining geth to make them easy pickings as they carefully moved through the area. Kaidan remained glued to whichever piece of cover he could find to avoid the shockwaves that came each time the cannon was fired.
The arrival of geth hunters slowed them down as Kacey threw a grenade in an attempt to locate them; Kaidan immediately opened fire the moment their locations was revealed. Eventually, the trio found what they were looking for: the maintenance lock.
"Okay, that should buy us some time." Kaidan said as Kacey activated the maintenance lock. "No way they'll fire with the maintenance lock in place."
"I hope you're right." Kacey replied, "Let's move."
It was a small narrow catwalk. It was daunting; if that gun came back online, they would be in for a world of trouble.
Kaidan clearly spoke too soon as the moment Kacey hopped over the main catwalk, a bright white light appeared from the other end, with a whirring sound accompanying it.
"The gun's coming back online!" Tali shouted.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Kacey shouted.
The trio bolted down the catwalk, jumping over the gap and up the ramp. Tali was the first to make it, followed by Kaidan. Kacey managed to slide over just before the door slammed shut. She picked herself up as Kaidan took a sigh of relief.
"Cut that a little close!" Kaidan said.
"Relax, I'm fine." Kacey dismissed, "Come on, let's get moving."
…
How Kacey kept landing into the most precarious of situations truly astounded Kaidan sometimes.
She was reckless; he knew that. And hell, he found that to be one of the things he loved about her. But damn, did she give him a heart attack each time it happened. The situations the ruby-haired commander found herself in was through one of two ways, either self-inflicted recklessness or just sheer bad luck. There was truly no in-between with Kacey.
After fighting their way through another hoard of geth troopers and hunters, the trio found themselves in an elevator shaft, or what looked to be one anyway. They got on the platform and rode it up; everything was fine until geth appeared from one of the doors and started to fire rockets at them. all three of them tried to jump off the platform; but Kacey, being the furthest away, didn't manage to and had to climb up the platform to reach Kaidan and Tali's hands as the platform started to drop. The platform gave way the moment Kacey manged to get a grip on the floor as Kaidan and Tali pulled her up.
"You okay?" Kaidan asked.
"I'm all right." Kacey replied.
"Good. Hopefully, we're done with elevators." Tali said, a bit jumpy, "Come on, the drive core shouldn't be far."
They climbed up a ladder to reach the floor where the drive core was located. Thankfully, no more infrastructure accidents occurred between then and their timely arrival to the drive core.
The drive core was empty; no geth in sight. The place was dark and eerie; Kaidan remained on guard as Kacey approached the terminal, right next to a large piece of Reaper tech that sat in the middle on the room.
"That's definitely Reaper tech." Kacey mused, typing on the terminal, "But what's…"
She didn't finish; the Reaper contraption opened up and revealed aa singular geth unit, badly damaged yet still operational. It was hooked up the Reaper machine by several wires and tubes. The geth unit looked up and Kaidan couldn't believe what he had heard next.
"Shepard-Commander. Help us."
'It talks?' Kaidan thought to himself. Geth don't talk; they hadn't done since the Morning War as far as he knew. Yet the geth seemed the recognise Kacey. Kaidan pointed his gun at the geth unit only for Kacey to put her hand on the gun to lower it.
"It's friendly." Kacey said before Kaidan could ask, "That's Legion. It helped us stop the Collectors."
"A geth helped you stop the Collectors?" Kaidan mused as Kacey nodded, "Wait, you recruited a geth?"
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either." Tali added.
"Don't worry Legion, we'll get you out of there." Kacey said.
"Shepard, wait!" Tali interjected, "The geth are being controlled by the Reaper signal."
"Oh, yeah. The giant flower-spore thing."
"So, for all we know, Legion is with them."
"Legion helped fight the Reapers before. There's no way it would've agreed to this." Kacey replied.
"I know, I'm just being cautious."
"Your caution is understandable, Creator Zorah." Legion replied, "Once freed, we will submit to any restraints Shepard-Commander deems necessary."
"I never thought I'd say this, but…" Tali took a deep breath, "it's good to see you again."
"Likewise, Creator Zorah."
"Tali getting along with a geth?" Kaidan said in a joking manner, "Who are you and what did you do with the real Tali?"
"Oh haha." Tali replied in a snarky tone.
"So, what is this thing?" Kacey asked Legion.
"It uses our networking architecture to broadcast the Old Machine commanded signal to all geth simultaneously."
"Then getting you out of there will shut off the Reaper signal."
"Wait." Legion said quickly, "You cannot simply remove the restraints. We are secured via hardware blocks nearby that shackle our operating protocols. The hardware blocks are on the far side of the room."
"Far side of the room, you said?" Kacey repeated as the trio climbed up to the next platform.
"Yes." Legion replied, "Deactivation should be simple. The geth protected them against viral attack, not physical removal."
"How'd the Reapers get control of the geth?"
"They did not. The creators attacked. The geth wished to live. The Old Machines extended an offer."
"So we went to that geth station and rewrote the heretics for what? Nothing?"
"No. You successfully rewrote the heretics. The decision to ally with the Old Machines was difficult." Legion explained, "Had the creators not attacked, it would have been unnecessary."
"We'll have you out of there soon, Legion." Kacey said as Tali began to free the restraints.
"Sound like they only joined the Reapers because the quarians attacked." Kaidan mused.
"Nothing excuses an alliance with the Reapers." Tali countered, "They could've found another way."
"What other way would there have been?" Kaidan pointed out.
"Damn it! I begged them to negotiate rather than attack." Tali said, "I did."
"Let's just Legion out of there, first." Kacey said, "Then we can have this discussion later."
"Got it." Tali said before radioing the fleet, "Tali'Zorah to fleet. The signal is about to go offline."
"This is Admiral Han'Gerral." Kaidan heard through his comms, "We're in your debt."
"Hardware locks offline." Legion chimed, "We are free."
It only took a few minutes for Legion to free itself from the wires. Once it had done so, the drive core had seemingly disappeared.
"Keelah." Tali gasped.
"As a gesture of cooperation, we have disabled the dreadnought's drive core." Legion said, "All weapons and barriers are offline."
A rumbling noise began to echo throughout the ship; it was not a reassuring sound. Kaidan got his gun ready as Legion confirmed what the biotic had suspected.
"Alert! Geth reinforcements incoming!"
Geth dropped into the area, opening fire on the trio as landed. Getting in seemed to be the easy part to Kaidan; getting out was going to be interesting.