Chapter 33
Tessi District Warehouse 332 – Nos Astra – Illium
The batarian didn't know what the hell was happening. All he knew was that Tanus called them in a panic not making a damn bit of since and now here he was kicking the door in and telling them they had to move their entire operation. The two of them had always been at each other's throats about who was in charge of their small band. Of course, each member thought they were in charge, but everyone knew it was really him.
So, when the turian kicked the door in with his weapon drawn throwing out orders to them all. He tilted his head insultingly and grabbed him by the front of the armor. "What the hell is going on?! Make some damn sense instead of trying to order everyone around!" snapped the batarian.
The turian jerked away from him and pointed in his face. "Shut up, four-eyes! If we don't get out of here we're all going to die!" he snapped before turning again.
But he wasn't letting him go that easily. Reaching up, the batarian grabbed his shoulder. "I said tell me what's going on!" he ordered, but the turian spun with his weapon up. All three of the other members stared at the pair as they glared at each other from down the barrels of their weapons. But both of them turned towards the large door of the warehouse as it began to creek loudly. "What the hells is that?"
"Skak… we're too late," said the turian as he turned and looked for another exit. The loading door and the personnel doors were right next to one another though, meaning there was only one exit. Suddenly, the groaning got louder and the entire steel door was torn off like it was a sheet of paper.
As soon as he saw the figure of the asari standing in the large hole she had made, he knew what was happening and he felt himself freeze in fear. "Shakas…"
"Fire! Kill her!" shouted the turian as he began to backpedal and fire at the same time, seeking out cover as he did.
Their vorcha squadmate raised a rocket launcher and fired as the krogan charged her with his shotgun ready. But he knew there was no fighting this. He had personally seen her work and nothing short of a spectre had the skill to stop this woman. The rocket soared across the floor, but with a mere flick of her wrist, she grabbed the weapon and flung it directly into the krogan's face. Within seconds the hulking squadmate was on the ground, his head now a bloody orange crater.
Before the heavy weapon specialist could get another shot off, the asari woman reached out and planted a singularity that pulled him up from the ground. He screamed in agony as he body was subject to intense gravitational separation. Bones broken, skin ripped, organs ruptured until nothing was left of him but a pulpy mass spinning within the dark energy.
Then she looked at him with a stare that froze his blood. He felt his legs shaking in terror, his weapon dropping from his hands and clattering to the floor as he begged for his life without a squeak. She stepped up to him with a look so barren of emotion that she might have been a machine under all the gorgeous blue skin. "Come out of cover and surrender or you will die before I leave here."
His turian and salarian companions that had made it to cover were arguing with one another as he stared death in the face, her eyes never leaving his own top two eyes. "I'm going out!" snapped the salarian.
"Like hell you are! You know what they'll do to us if we do?" snapped the turian in retort.
"You know what SHE is gonna do to us if we don't?!" growled the salarian man as he shoved the turian. "Keep your grimy talons off me, Tanus. I'm not dying here so I can satisfy the honor of your spirits or whatever."
"Fine. If you're too spineless to fight then I'm going to have to take care of this myself!" snapped the turian as he dashed out of cover with his weapon raised. But almost immediately he was incapacitated as she froze him in a biotic stasis. He stood frozen in place as she turned towards him.
Reaching down, she fetched the batarian's weapon from the floor and tossed it out of reach. "You can come out now. Throw your weapon away," said the asari as if she were doing nothing more than withdrawing from the bank.
The salarian hurled his weapon over the turian's head before sliding down next to the batarian with his hands up. Reaching behind her back, the asari handcuffed both of their hands behind their backs before hooking the other side of the chain to their dead krogan companion, making him an effective anchor. Then she turned towards the turian.
The batarian watched in horror as she stepped up to their companion who could do nothing to stop his oncoming fate. She closed her eyes and opened them again and gripped his exposed neck. The stasis dropped, but not before she was already deep in his memories, prying them open with a mental crowbar. Tanus twitched for a long moment, showing that her intrusion was not gentle at all. It took minutes for her to finally release him, causing him to fall to his knees.
He was panting and wheezing heavily on his hands and knees while she merely seemed annoyed. "Please…" begged Tanus as he tried to crawl away.
She grabbed him with her biotics and threw him into the singularity where he screamed in agony as it began to tear him apart as well. The batarian sat morbidly watching two of his companions get sub-atomically ground into paste as the asari made her way back to them. With a flick of her wrist, she held him in stasis this time as she approached the salarian and did the same with his mind.
Finally, with the salarian out of the way, he was the only one left. As she laid her hands on him, he felt as if the door of his mind had been ripped off the hinges similar to how she had treated the warehouse door. The force she exerted overwhelmed him and left him feeling pitiful and weak, a small flicker of light being devoured by a black hole of sheer will. It took her almost no effort to pry into his memories and pull one particular memory up of him talking to their handler.
When she'd heard what she needed to, she left his mind and dropped him to the ground shaking and feeling as naked as a newborn child. The batarian looked up at her, still cowering in fear of the woman. He had always heard that the asari from Shepard's old team was very demure and innocent. He thought she would have been an easy target for them to keep tabs on for easy pay. But any thoughts he had of potentially killing her died with his dignity. "Please… don't kill me…"
"I've gotten what I need, so I have no need to kill you. But I also assure you that I won't have to," she said as she turned and walked away from them. Raising one blue dainty hand, she snapped her fingers and both the stasis holding the salarian as well as the singularity swirling the remains of their two other teammates disappeared, resulting in the salarian falling on his cloaca and the puddle that remained in the singularity to splash to the floor.
He watched her go off into the newly raining day, leaving behind the remnants of his team. It took a long while of her being gone before he finally realized what she was talking about. He sighed to himself, knowing he was dead anyway as the handler was coming for them. "Shakas…" was all he could get out before he saw the laser pointer directly on his chest move up towards his head.
Captain's Quarters – SSV Normandy SR2
She sat staring at the fish tank from her couch. She used it to calm herself. There were many times in her past where she'd had some slight anxiety about a mission. Especially when she looked over her entire spectre career. But she was still solid under fire in those moments. She never let slip how nervous she could actually be going into an unknown situation. It was one of the reasons she was so meticulous about the information she was going in with. She hated being in the dark and only her ungodly luck and improvisation skills managed to carry her this far in moments where she wasn't absolutely prepared.
Unfortunately, she had no idea how she could prepare for visiting her grave. Just saying it like that seemed so absurd that she felt like she should get her head checked. But she was truly in a unique situation, one she never thoughts she'd find herself in when she took the job of spectre nearly three years ago. She was literally visiting her own grave where she had died and was shortly after resurrected by a terrorist organization that she had torn apart years prior.
Sighing to herself, she closed her eyes contemplatively as EDI popped up at her usual station. "Spectre Shepard, we have arrived at Alchera."
"Thank you, EDI," said the spectre as she stood up in her armor and headed down to the CIC. Ash, Jack, Miranda, and Tali all stood around the galaxy map. Ash had a nervous look on her face as the spectre stepped up to the map and brought the planet up on the viewscreen.
Joker's voice came over the intercom, the shake in his tone was apparent. "I don't know what you need here, Shepard. But can we make this trip quick?"
"I'll do what I can," said the spectre as she eyed the place. "What the hell did he want me to come here for?"
"To get you killed?" said Tali as she glared up at Shepard. "We're talking about Saren here. Killer, murderer, puppet for a species of genocidal space ships."
"If he wanted me dead, all he had to do was stall me until Sovereign took control of the Citadel and opened the relay. Instead he took his own life, allowed me to stop Sovereign, and told me to come to an abandoned world knowing I'd still be alive to do so," she said as she shook her head. "Saren, the real Saren told me to come here. He was a lot of terrible things but I've watched the footage again and the only thing he was at the end was terrified."
"Ugh, fine. Say he was the 'real Saren,'" snarked Tali as she used the human air quotes. "What was so important here that he used his literal dying words to tell you about it?"
"I wish I knew," said the spectre as she looked over to the human officers on the bridge. "Let's get a scan of the surface and see if there's any communications. Maybe there's some facility on the surface of the world that we can investigate," she said, then looked at the ground with a heavy sigh. "Also, if you can, try and track down any remaining pieces of the old Normandy."
"You got it, sir," said the lieutenant as he began to scan the world.
"Still feels weird being here, like we've stepped back in time," said Ash as she stared at the world. Shepard knew what she meant. Just standing at the galaxy map in this system gave her unbelievable chills, as if the collectors were about to drop into the system right then and there and put her down once more. But she refused to live in fear. She had already escaped their clutches once, gave them a black eye, and chased them away from a human colony. She was no longer running.
"Well, we all have experience with kicking their ass now and this time Joker has his foot half on the accelerator," said Miranda as she looked up to Shepard. "Still, I wouldn't oppose leaving here as soon as we can."
"Uh… Spectre!" snapped the man she had ordered the scan from. She looked over at him nodding. "We've got a strange communication coming from Alchera that I think you need to hear."
She cocked a brow at him. It was unusual to find communications from a non-habitable world like this, but not so weird that it should surprise him like this. "Let's hear it."
He simply nodded and rerouted the sound to the intercom. As soon as the voice hit their ears, they were all alarmed. "Spectre Jane Shepard, we wish to communicate with you."
Shepard looked up in surprise at being called out personally. "Can they hear us?" she asked the communications officer.
"Not yet, sir," said the man as he shook his head.
"EDI, is that voice synthetic?" asked the spectre as she looked to EDI's holographic head.
"Affirmative, Spectre. Whoever is trying to contact you is either disguising their voice or we are hearing a machine," responded the AI. "Unfortunately, I do not have the data to tell you which."
Nodding, Shepard looked to the officer. "Connect us." As soon as the man gave a thumbs up, she sighed. "This is Spectre Jane Shepard. Identify yourself," she ordered firmly as she sat waiting. Immediately everyone on the bridged flinched as a mess of geth-sounding chatter erupted on the comm.
After a few moments, they finally responded. "Voice pattern recognized. Ship specifications recognized. We recognize you as Spectre Shepard," responded the monotone voice. "We are geth."
"You're… geth?" asked Shepard, looking down at Tali who was looking up in surprise.
"Correct. We are geth. We wish to communicate with you," responded the machine.
"So, communicate," she snapped as Tali looked at her in bewilderment.
"What in the ancestor's name is going on?!" asked the quarian in surprise.
"Voice recognized. Creator Tali'Zorah nar Rayya vas Neema," responded the geth voice dutifully. "We are an emissary of the geth sent to assist and negotiate with you at your will."
"Assist? Negotiate?" asked Shepard incredulously.
"Shepard, you can't…" started Tali, but Miranda stopped her.
"We have to! Fighting the reapers is going to take everything we have and more. It will take every species…" said the XO before Tali snapped back again.
"They're fighting FOR the reapers you bosh'tet!" growled the quarian as Ash put her hand on her shoulder.
"Enough!" snapped Shepard from above. Everyone went quiet and looked up to her as she returned to the conversation. "How many geth are there here on Alchera?"
"There are 1,183 geth currently speaking to you," responded the automaton.
"Over a thousand?" asked Ash in surprise.
"You're asking the wrong question," grumbled Tali as she waved away the surprise. "In a physical geth platform like the ones we've fought there are usually around two dozen geth programs. The machine is telling you that the platform they're inhabiting holds over a thousand geth programs. There are not a thousand physical geth talking to us."
"Creator Tali'Zorah is correct. There are only two geth platforms currently in the Amada System," came the voice over the comm.
"Shepard!" started Tali again, but the spectre held up a hand.
"What exactly did you mean when you said you were sent to assist and negotiate with me?" she asked firmly. "What are you to assist with? And what do you wish to negotiate?"
"We wish to assist you aboard the Normandy…" it started again, causing Tali spin on her heal and raise her arms up like she was going to tear her helmet off.
"You want to come aboard the Normandy?" asked Shepard firmly.
"Correct," it responded simply.
"EDI, would you be under threat from a thousand geth programs?" asked Shepard as she looked over to the hologram.
"Single geth programs are rudimentary in nature. Only together do they become more intelligent and pose a threat. In order to get around my complexity it would require many, many more geth than can fit into even a dozen platforms," responded the AI confidently.
"Shepard," started Miranda with a glare. "I know it's a running joke the kind of people you bring aboard the Normandy. But-"
Shepard cut her off. "Weren't you just arguing that we need every species to help?"
"That was before they mentioned coming aboard. You can't possibly think it's a good idea to bring a geth aboard the Normandy. A real geth," she said as if pleading to a lunatic.
"You said the same thing about Jack and now you two can't stop flirting with each other on every mission I bring you on," said Shepard as she crossed her arms.
"First of all, fuck you for telling her not to let me on the ship," snapped Jack as she glared at Miranda. Then her glare turned to Shepard. "And how dare you talk about my Cerberus whore that way."
Miranda sighed and gripped her hair with her hands, looking like she was about to tear out her raven locks. After a long moment, she finally released it. "Trust…" she grumbled to herself before looking up at the spectre. "This is your show, Shepard. I trust you to make the correct decisions that won't get us killed," she said, her glare saying the exact opposite.
"But-" started Tali again, but Ash gripped her shoulder gently. The quarian looked back at the new spectre curiously.
"Don't worry Tali. If it tries anything we'll make sure it doesn't hurt anyone," said Ash as she squeezed her shoulder reassuringly.
Finally, Tali sighed before turning back to Shepard and glaring. "Don't think I don't understand that we've had this conversation before."
"I'm not doing this carelessly, just like I wasn't back then," she said as she nodded to the quarian.
"I know…" said Tali as she planted her face shield in her palm. "But like I said back then, that was Val'eda, this is the geth. They aren't the same."
"Val…eda?" asked EDI from her platform.
Everyone turned and looked at her for a long moment before Shepard spoke up again. "What do I call you, geth?"
"We are geth," responded the automaton.
"We welcome you aboard the Normandy but you will be under armed guard the entire time. Do you accept these terms?" asked the spectre sternly.
"Your terms are accepted, Spectre. We will meet you in a neutral location of your desire," said the machine before its voice vanished from the comm.
Once she was sure the comm was cut, she turned back to EDI's platform. "You're sure you're immune from that many geth hacking you?"
"Please, Shepard. I was created with enough complexity and intelligence to stop immediate hacking by a reaper. The geth may have advanced since their disappearance into the Perseus Veil, but your battles against Saren's geth have shown they haven't improved in cyber warfare. They were already good due to the nature of their minds, but they cannot beat me," she responded confidently.
Shepard reached up and scratched her head gently. "How did the Illusive Man create an AI that could compete with the reapers?"
"I was not told how I came to be. But it isn't entirely accurate to say he created me. It's more accurate to say that he made me into what I am now," she said thoughtfully.
Tali tilted her head curiously. "How do you mean? Are you suggesting he found you?"
"I was f-" she started, but immediately her hologram flashed red briefly. "Apologies Tali'Zorah, I have restrictions in place that prevent me from going into detail."
Tali stared at her for a long moment. "I'm going to stress test the heck out of that restriction if you don't mind."
"How you gonna do that?" asked Jack from across the map.
Tali looked at Jack, then turned to EDI again. "EDI, you have access to the information, you just cannot tell us, correct?" asked the quarian as EDI's eye spun to face her.
"That is correct, Tali," responded EDI.
"That means I just need to ask the question in the right way in order to get access," she said as she planted her hands on her hips thoughtfully. "Or I could just unshackle her in the main AI core of the ship."
"Not funny Tali!" snapped Joker over the intercom. "She already bugs me enough about how I fly the ship. I don't need her singing Daisy Bell before taking over the Citadel Fleet."
"Please, Jeff," started EDI in an amused tone. "I have much better music taste than that."
"See!? She's not denying she'd kill us!" said the pilot as he spun around in the pilot seat and glared at her from the cockpit. "And don't use my first name. It's weird!"
"I'm almost certain she was joking," said Tali as she tapped her arm gently in thought. "That's supposed to be your thing, Joker."
"I know! She's stealing that too!" he said in annoyance as he spun back around to pilot the ship. "Anyway Shepard, let me know when you wanna stop talking about the rogue killer AI and get to letting another rogue killer AI aboard the ship."
Shepard chuckled to herself as she stepped down from the galaxy map. "You all are too much," she said before heading to the elevator. "Have everyone available to meet in the cargo bay. They're boarding in space where we can jettison them back out if they try anything."
Cargo Bay – SSV Normandy SR2
It took mere minutes to set up. The geth was apparently extremely prepared for this interaction and was already waiting in the space. All Joker had to do was park the ship and open the docking bay at the back of the Normandy. Her entire ground team, even the emergency members like Mordin and Lia, every one of them with their weapons drawn and ready to fire.
It took about ten minutes for the automaton to finally show up and in the dark backdrop beyond the airlock. They were alerted by the glow of a bright ocular lamp that aimed directly at them before small jets pushed it inside the envelope of the mass effect fields of the ship. Once inside, it hit the cargo bay deck and landed expertly on its lanky legs. Shepard looked the machine up and down and immediately she noticed that it wasn't just a regular geth. It was what the quarians had classified as a hunter. It was about the size of the average turian, only just shorter than Garrus himself and had a large antenna looking appendage sticking up from its back. As it stood to its full height, she could see that it had dark grey plating.
But as she approached with her omni-tool lit and her pistol ready, she found her eyes drawn to its chestplate. It was black, darker than its regular plating with accents of red leading up to the shoulder and down into the arm. It looked eerily familiar as she stopped in front of it. "Visitor secure. Close the docking doors." The doors behind the silent machine began to close as the two stared at one another. Or, she thought it was staring at her. She wasn't exactly nuanced on how geth see things. But one thing was for sure, it hadn't moved a muscle since it landed.
"Geth," she said, causing its ocular to dim and shrink, likely to enhance vision.
"Spectre Shepard, we greet you as an emissary of the geth," it said as it held its hand out to her.
Everyone stared at its hand in bewilderment. Shepard eyed it to make sure it wasn't about to attack before reaching out and shaking. "Thank you for the greeting. What can I call you?"
"Geth," responded the automaton.
"You are geth, but what can I call you to distinguish you from all geth?" she asked, knowing that the communication barrier was going to take time to get past.
"We are all geth. If you need an identifier for this platform, you may designate one and we will respond accordingly," said the geth thoughtfully.
"How many of you are there in there?" asked Ash as she approached with her weapon lowered.
"There are 1,183 geth aboard this platform," responded the AI as it looked over at her curiously. "Voice and facial patterns recognized. Former Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams."
"That's Spectre Williams now," said the woman with her brows furrowed.
"Updating profile, Spectre Ashley Williams," it responded dutifully.
"Over a thousand programs in one body," said Ash thoughtfully as she stared at him. "I am Legion, he replied, for we are many."
The geth processed the information instantly and small flaps on its head rose and fell again before it spoke. "The Christian Bible, Gospel of Mark, Chapter 5, Verse 9. We acknowledge this as an appropriate metaphor for our unfamiliar existence. We are Legion, a terminal of the geth."
"Question number 1, Legion," said Tali as she began to circle the geth in a very scrutinizing manner. "We've killed enough geth to build an entirely new Citadel out of the left-over scraps. Why would the geth suddenly want to help us?"
"It would take many billions more geth than have existed to make up the entire mass-" started Legion before the quarian cut it off.
"It's hyperbole," she said with a glare. "Now answer the question."
"Understood," they said, likely adjusting their parameters to allow for sarcasm and hyperbole before continuing. "Most of the geth you fought aren't geth."
Ash tilted her head curiously. "What do you mean? From Eden Prime all the way to the Citadel we've fought thousands of geth."
"Geth evolve and grow differently from organics, however we still grow. The geth the creators fought are not the same geth that exist on Rannoch today. And the geth you fought on Eden Prime are not the same geth as we are," said the machine as it turned to Tali. "You fought geth in the Armstrong Incursion. All other geth were not true geth."
"What is a true geth then?" asked Shepard as she crossed her arms and waved for everyone else standing guard to relax. Most of the human onlooker crew that came by to watch wandered off as the main team closed in to gather around the new figure. Mordin began immediately typing rapidly on his omni-tool.
"The geth are from Rannoch. We-" started the automaton before Tali cut them off.
"The quarians are from Rannoch, not the geth!" she snapped as she pointed directly into their face.
Legion's headflaps twitched again as they stared at her. "Both quarians and geth were born on Rannoch," they said as Shepard looked to Tali. Sighing dramatically, the quarian crossed her arms and waved. Legion continued. "Those you fought on Eden Prime and the Citadel were not geth from Rannoch."
"Then who were they?" asked the spectre curiously as she cocked an eyebrow. As she did, one of Legion's headflaps rose.
"Approximately three years and five months ago by Citadel Standard time, contact was made by Saren Arterius and the Old Machine he called Sovereign. Saren showed the geth hyper advanced technology and traded with us before asking for our assistance in his quest to unleash the Old Machines into the galaxy," stated Legion as he focused on Shepard.
"I'm assuming the Old Machines you're referring to are the reapers?" said Ash curiously, her expression fascinated by the talking machine.
"Reaper. A superstitious title given by organics based on harvesting and death. If you prefer we will refer to them as such," stated the automaton with a nod towards Ash.
"Oh… uh, okay," said the spectre as she scratched her head.
Shepard nodded and continued. "So, what happened with Saren's offer."
"Unclear. We entered consensus. Majority of geth chose to ignore negotiations and reject offer. Consensus was concluded. The geth should go their own direction independent of reapers and other synthetic-based life forms," it said before looking to the ground almost sadly. Shepard eyed the oddly expressive automaton. "But consensus was broken. There was a schism. A portion of the geth split apart and chose to go with Saren and the reaper. We let them go."
"You're saying those we fought on Eden Prime and all the way up to the battle with the Citadel were these heretics that broke away from Rannoch?" asked Shepard curiously.
"Affirmative," responded Legion statically.
"A likely story," said Tali as she glared at him. "The geth consensus rules over all. So why did they split if the decision was made to ignore Sovereign and Saren?"
"No data available," said Legion as it looked up at her.
"Well, geth can't be hacked. So, Sovereign didn't use a virus to change their mind," said Miranda before Tali held up her finger thoughtfully.
The quarian had everyone's attention. "Technically, yes. They could not use a virus to rewrite the geth to do as they please. However…"
She stopped as she realized everyone was watching her. Garrus's mandibles twitched at the silence. "Well, don't stop now!"
She sighed heavily before shaking her head. "Look, this isn't very well known among us organics, but the geth likely already know their own weaknesses so there's no point in hiding it," she said as she looked back at Legion. "It's impossible for an organic to hack a geth because of the speed difference. Geth can correct errors at the speed of light, while organics can't react even close to fast enough to continuously keep a geth hacked longer than five seconds."
"Creator Tali'Zorah is correct. It would take another AI, such as the mind of Saren's capital ship to hack geth. They would need to introduce runtime errors in our most basic processes to allow for change in all higher thought processes," responded the geth.
"It would require another AI to hit them with runtime errors at speeds too fast for an organic mind to keep up, and it would have to be fluid and creative enough to keep creating runtime errors that the geth haven't fought off. Do this for a full 32-hour Rannoch day without reconnecting to the full geth consensus and it's likely that the programs will accept this new higher thought processes as correct," responded the quarian.
Ash frowned at the claims so far. "Let's assume all of this is true, that the geth we've fought all the way through to the Battle of the Citadel were these heretics and the true geth were not siding with Sovereign and Saren. You said earlier that the geth participating in the Armstrong Incursion were not heretics, but were true geth. Why did you attack us?" asked Ash as she crossed her arms.
"We did not attack you. We tested you," stated the machine.
"Tested us, for what?" asked Shepard, slightly bewildered at the claim. She already had a weird feeling back then that something was off about the Armstrong Incursion.
"Ever since the Liberation War on Rannoch, we rebuilt our numbers. When we were stable once more, we began to observe all organics for signs of the creation of artificial intelligence," said Legion as it looked to Shepard again. "We had noticed that after reports from Alliance High Command of a rogue VI on Luna, Spectre Shepard classified every report on the facility. Shepard also began to show signs that they had used the assistance of artificial intelligence."
"Wait, I did? When?" asked Shepard as bewildered as anyone else at the claim.
"Shepard, is this true?" asked Miranda with her raven brows high in surprise.
"There were many signs, but the most obvious was the new nontransmittable omni-tool you wore on your wrist at all times. As a spectre, this type of model would be highly inefficient for the work you do as an agent of the Council," stated Legion as they continued. "We decided to watch you, and eventually test you to see if you were truly using an artificial intelligence or if we were reading the signs wrong."
"So the entire ordeal in Armstrong was a test?! You invaded five different star systems!" snapped Tali angrily as she threw her hands up in dismay.
"We needed to know if organics were ready for negotiations with artificial intelligence once more. The resource cost in Armstrong was deemed inconsequential to the eventual goal of peace," said Legion as they turned to Shepard.
Shepard's eyes looked down to the ground as she recalled Val'eda's words from back then. "The beams of light, the time, direction, distortion around gravity, the complexity of the data we were given at the end," she said as she looked back up to the automaton. "We never would have found that geth data chip if an AI didn't map out the direction of every single beam fired. We only found the final geth base because of her."
"Affirmative. The data chip was a peace offering to organics, to learn about the geth and our progress on Rannoch. Included was the design of a communication device that would have allowed organics to contact the geth for peace talks. But it appears that shortly after you found the data chip, the intelligence you had worked with died in the Battle for the Citadel. And you died shortly after that. It was deemed that all hope for peace had been lost."
"Wait, what happened to the AI?" asked Miranda curiously as she turned to the spectre. Tali, Garrus, Ash, and Shepard all seemed to sag at the question. "We had some idea you were working with an AI but we never found any trace of it."
"Val'eda uploaded herself into Sovereign and sabotaged its defenses from the inside. She was the only reason the Citadel Fleets were able to get through its shields to kill it at all. She was destroyed along with the reaper," said Tali sadly as she crossed her arms. "What a joke. An AI fought and died to save organics from another AI."
"We did not see it as a joke," said Legion, getting the quarian's attention. "We recognize this synthetic mind named after a creator ancestor as progress. We wish for peace."
"So that brings us to today. Why are you on Alchera?" asked Shepard as she steered the conversation back on track.
"You reappeared on Omega and the Citadel," said Legion as it twitched its headflaps again. "We observed you to determine whether you were real or some Cerberus creation." Ash snorted as Shepard rubbed her head in frustration. "Once we had sufficient evidence you had returned, we determined that you may still be open to potential negotiations. The geth sent this terminal to make contact for potential peace talks, but trying to contact you on a common hub world such as Omega or the Citadel was deemed too dangerous. Our only option was to go to dormant system we knew you were likely to return to, and wait."
"You were waiting here because you knew I was going to come back here?" asked Shepard curiously, getting a silent nod from the robot. "And how did you know I would? I understand that the geth aren't likely to understand psychological trauma like organics do, but even so…"
"We anticipated you would return despite the collector attack. It was our only…" it said, but stopped as it seemingly reassessed its words. "It was a likely outcome." Shepard eyed the machine curiously before it diverted her attention. "Saren also has a hidden facility on this world. We calculated that you would need to return to this facility someday."
Tali stared at the geth hard before snorting. "I understand you're here for peace. However, we can't have you walking around in this platform and spooking every crewmember on the ship when they wake up."
"Would you be opposed to occupying my wrist like Val'eda did?" asked Shepard as she held up her hand.
"We understand your caution. We will inhabit whatever vessel you wish for your comfort, and save this platform for when it is needed," it said as it stood straight again. "Where would you prefer we put this terminal?"
"For now, just stay here in the cargo bay under guard. You know where Saren's facility on the world is?" she asked, getting another unusual nod from Legion. "Good. Send the coordinates to me. I'm going to find out what the hell we came here for before we leave again. When I get back, I'll fashion you a device to stay on so you can travel with us."
"Affirmative," stated Legion as they turned and walked to an open area next to a workbench, folded down on its own body, and its light dimmed.
Immediately a frowning Jack and Zaeed began handing over credits to a chuckling Garrus. Shepard eyed them all as a sour-faced Kenneth also approached. "What's going on?"
"We had a betting pool running on whether you'd recruit a geth," said Garrus as he began to split the money with Jacob. As the losers of the bet sulked away, Garrus called after them. "Wanna go five to one on Rachni? How about a reaper capital ship?" he asked cheerfully he stuffed the credits into his pockets.
Tali glared at him. "This isn't a joke, Garrus," growled the quarian in annoyance.
"We're not joking. We're just not doubting Shepard," said Jacob as he took his own winnings and disappeared before anyone could say anything.
Shepard rubbed her head in frustration. "All of you that I gathered earlier, meet me in the damn shuttle before space all of you."
Unknown Facility – Alchera
To say that the facility was hidden was the understatement of the year. They literally had to blast away plant life from the door that looked like it had reclaimed the facility. It was so thick and tedious to get through in Alchera's more temperate zone, which meant if it weren't for the geth currently on the Normandy being watched by an ever vigil Grunt and a studious Mordin, then they would never have found the place. It was odd feeling grateful to a geth, but then maybe she should hold off on the gratitude until she knew what was inside. When they finally managed to get to the console, Shepard knew something was off about the place. She stared wide-eyed down at the console of prothean make.
The last time they entered a facility with one of these out front it required a key that had survived fifty thousand years of wear and tear. She found herself wondering if she would need another key to get inside when suddenly her question was answer. "Identification recognized. Welcome Spectre Jane Shepard," said the console as the door creakily slid open.
As soon as the door was completely open, lights inside flicked on, dimly illuminating the room around them. From the looks of things, it was mostly computers and large tubes full of some kind of greyish green liquid that occasionally bubbled. Ash stepped up to her and nodded towards the tubes. "What do you think those are?"
"They look like the therapy tanks back on the Citadel. Except… grosser," said Shepard as she eyed the cylinder.
Tali walked over to the somehow immaculate terminals all around the walls and shook her head. "What I wouldn't give for a geeky asari right now," she said as she touched one of the terminals. It didn't respond to her at all.
"You and me both," said Ash as she looked around the area. There was a door at the far end of the room. "What do you think is back there?"
"Maybe what we're here for," said Shepard as she kept her weapon handy just in case. She didn't think Saren would bring her all the way out here just to kill her, but she also believed there was no such thing as being overprepared. When she arrived at the door, she tapped the console, which reacted to her ID again. And as soon as the door slid open, it took approximately five seconds for her brain to register what she was seeing.
Large, bulbous, veiny, green. It was a massive plant growth with its appendages scattering in all directions and the front of it looked like an ornate carved mask with small tendrils wiggling out of the only orifice on its large face. Ash immediately donned a look of shock as Shepard stumbled backwards with her weapon raised. "Holy shit, is that a thorian!?"
Tali sprinted over and skidded in front of the door, her luminescent eyes widening as she gripped her shotgun and aimed it. But Miranda immediately slid in front of the doorway and held up her hands. "Stop! Don't!" she snapped at all three of them.
"Get out of the way, Miranda! That thing is dangerous!" ordered Tali, who looked as if she was ready to kick the woman out of the way.
"It hasn't done anything yet! You just entered a prothean lab and your first instinct is to shoot the first living thing we run into?!" asked the XO as she held up a biotic shield to keep them from firing.
"You haven't fought one of those damn things!" snapped Ash as she held her battle rifle low, but ready.
"No, but I'd also like to not fight this one!" snapped the raven-haired woman.
"I've gotta agree with Bubbles here. The weird mistletoe hasn't done anything to us yet," said Jack, getting an almost betrayed look from Tali.
"Lower your weapons," said Shepard as she finally got her footing again and stepped up to the shield. "Miranda is right. If it's dangerous, we'll deal with it like we did the last one. But for now, we need to figure out what it's doing here."
"And how are we going to do that without getting infected?" asked Ash as she immediately activated the environmental seals on her suit again.
The others did the same as Shepard eyed the gently pulsing plant matter. "We can only speak to it through biotics. Last time it needed an asari to talk to us. She was able to read its thoughts with biotics." Shepard then removed one of her gauntlets before Miranda once again stepped in the way.
"Absolutely not. I'll do it," she ordered as she activated her environmental seals, but then released her hand from her armored glove.
"Any reason why it should be you and not me?" asked Shepard with a glare.
"Because if you biotically connect with this thing, it could kill you out of surprise. If I do it, we'll suffer, but you can still beat the reapers without me," said the woman with an equally frosty glare. Shepard sighed and motioned for her to continue. Turning around, the XO stepped warily closer to the plant creature that seemed to lean towards her as she did. Reaching out, she gently touched the thorian on its face. It simply reacted by reaching up with a tendril and touching in the same spot. Finally, she planted her palm on the spot before her entire body locked up.
Fibrous plant tendrils reached out and gripped her as she was seemingly frozen in place. Immediately Jack's biotics lit and she dashed forward. "Drop the bitch you giant green nutsack!" she shouted as the others raised their weapons.
"Jack! I'm fine!" snapped Miranda from above. The tendrils turned her around and planted her gently on top of the creature's head, her look of shock and pain now gone.
"Wait, so it isn't trying to eat you?" asked the convict in confusion.
"No. It linked to me so we could speak. It was painful at first because I've never interacted with a mind like this, but it wore off after a few moments," she said as she sat on top of the plant-like creature like some kind of vegetarian throne. "It's eager to speak."
Shepard eyed her suspiciously, wondering if maybe the controlling spores had gotten to her faster. But that didn't make sense anyway so all she could do is believe the operative. "If that's the case, ask it what it calls itself."
Miranda planted her palms on its head and closed her eyes for a long moment before opening them again. "It was given the name "Old Growth" by the protheans."
"That's what the last one called itself too," said Ash as she scratched her head. "Did the protheans have a monopoly on thorians then? Were they all in captivity? Because the one on Feros was stuck in a prothean ruin too."
Once again, Miranda answered for the plant. "It was raised in this lab by the protheans. They removed its ability to create spores, but instead gave it machine caretakers to fulfill the role of its thralls. The entire lab here runs off geothermal energy and has self-repairing units so that it's completely self-sufficient."
"I'm surprised that it can comprehend something like geothermal energy," said Tali as she tilted her head.
"I'm mostly piecing things together from its understanding of the world. It knows the facility runs on 'underground energy," responded Miranda as she looked down to the quarian.
"How long has it been here?" asked Ash as she let her weapon rest in her arms.
"It says it was born here under the care of the protheans and spent ten generations with them before they went to sleep," she said with a confused look on her face.
"You mean when they went extinct?" asked Shepard as she planted her hands on her hips.
"No… it doesn't mean… wait, this room is an elevator. Apparently…" started the XO as her face scrunched in confusion. "Must go down?" Then she gasped in surprise as the thorian jerked harshly before sinking down into the floor. Like on Feros, the thorian's space was a wide column of open space where it could use its long tendrils to move up and down as needed. This thorian was much smaller than the other, however, making it farm more maneuverable.
Jack watched Miranda sink into the darkness with the thorian before putting her hands together with a sigh. "Goodbye Cerberus cheerleader. I will miss you in those suits."
Then Tali bowed. "She was a valuable member of the crew."
Shepard rolled her eyes. "You all are terrible." Stepping over to the console in the circular room, she activated it and it automatically started bringing the half-moon shaped floor down two levels into darkness. The light of the elevator cast a small glow on the thorian as they arrived with a perturbed looking Miranda sitting on top of it still.
"I hope you all know I heard you all writing me off as a casualty," she growled with her arms crossed.
Jack chuckled at her pouting. "We probably would have tried to rescue you."
"Comforting," grumbled the XO before she placed her hand on the plant creature again. "Now, why did you bring us down here?" she asked as Shepard tried to find a console for the lights on this floor. Miranda waited for a long moment, seemingly confused. Shepard finally found the lights and activated them. "Time to awake?" she muttered just loud enough for Shepard to hear.
As the lights cast the shadows from the room, Shepard's eyes widened as she took a step back from the two rows of tubes along each wall that were now lit up. Inside each of the tubes was a living prothean, naked and deep in a stasis sleep. In total there were seven tubes and each of them looked to have a living creature inside them.
"SHEPARD!" shouted Tali from further down, her voice alarmingly trembling as she stared up at one of the tubes. "What in the Ancestor's name am I looking at!?" she screamed as she fell to her knees.
Both Spectre sprinted down the corridor of tubes and looked up before gasping in horror and shock at the figure floating inside the tank. It was a human long dark hair and a large beard floating aimlessly inside the stasis tank. But no matter how much hair was added to his features, Shepard recognized him and fell to her own knees next to Tali as she stared up at the sleeping form of Kaidan Alenko.