Planetside, lots of people can hear you scream.


There was no need for anyone to shout an order to open fire. As soon as the drone's eyes came back on half the turians in the room began shooting. The other half quickly followed, only taking the time to adjust their aim so they wouldn't accidentally hit any of the exposed Element Zero.

Not a single bullet reached its target.

Nihlus lowered his weapon after the first salvo and stared at the floating collection of bullets hovering around the kneeling AI. He couldn't fathom how it was doing that but the most important thing right now…

"GET DOWN!" He dove for cover behind some of the undamaged storage crates. Numerous others saw what he had and followed the warning.

Not all of them though.

The AI didn't immediately return the bullets to their owners though, it simply tilted its head. Acting almost curious at this turn of events. A small smile began to take form.

Then Admiral Viveht's energy weapon tore into it.

It seemed despite being fairly efficient once it started shooting, the specially-made rifle had a bit of a warm-up time. Which made Nihlus slightly less interested in getting his hands on one. He still would take the chance if he saw it though.

The first shot burned a hole through the center of the drone's torso, the next shot did the same to the chest.

That was all he managed.

As the AI fell back one of the eyes flashed, and the simple dot was replaced by a complex geometric shape, a duplicate hologram appearing in its hand. The fingers twitched-

Every single bullet that had been held suspended in the air converged on the admiral.

His kinetic shield's didn't even last for half a second under the sheer amount of force tearing into him from so many projectiles. The mass that slumped to the ground barely resembled a turian, the gold trimmed armor now scorched and dripping with blood.

The drone stood up straight and seemed to inspect its hand. One brave (or special) soldier tried to shoot at it again. It didn't even look at him. Instead of the bullet being stopped in midair by some invisible force the drone's hand shot up and caught the shot before it made contact.

"You blue-collared morons just tried to obliterate me under a hail of bullets and somehow you think just one more shot is going to do the job?" The drone turned its gaze and smirked, clearly whatever had just happened hadn't done much to improve its personality.

"I-" The soldier's weapon trembled as he found himself standing alone against the thing that had been terrorizing the planet.

That was all he managed to say as it lunged at him. Hands turning into claws with glowing blades. He screamed as it started ripping into his armor.

Nihlus took his chance.

As a spectre he had spent no small amount of time researching and testing prototype weapons and armor.

While he had never seen any piece of equipment stop bullets in the air like that before, he was familiar with a theory behind it.

The idea was that using a Mass Effect field, anyone equipped with the gear would be able to create a small field around themselves that would stop bullets in their tracks, and even slow down opponents trying to attack at close range.

In essence it would remove all the velocity from the object. A bullet would lose all motion while someone attacking with a melee weapon would need to apply more force to keep the strike going.

Such a device was declared unfeasible though. The amount of calculations that would need to be done for every object entering the field to stop it was astronomical and well beyond even the most advanced computing system or VI.

This AI seemed to have no such problem making the calculations. But it would still need to see it coming to do anything.

With all of its focus on the poor soldier, Nihlus lunged across the room, his omni-tool creating a blade once more. He stomped on the end of the tail, just below the injector to keep it from lashing out. Stabbing it didn't seem like enough, even now he could see it repairing the damage done by the energy weapon.

He brought the blade down, fully intent on slicing the entire thing in half and then continuing to chop until it couldn't repair itself anymore.

He felt something halt his weapon in its tracks but he kept pushing, just kept applying force and it would need to keep recalculating until it was too late.

Some of the other soldiers came out of their stupor at the Spectre's assault and once again tried shooting at the drone from either side. Many of the bullets were still halted but some managed to make contact this time.

For just a brief second, Nihlus's omni-blade managed to split a single hair on the AI's head.

There was a flash of light and Nihlus was thrown back, crashing into a stack of crates that left him in a momentary daze.

"Nice helmet Skullface, I'd say it's an improvement." The AI stood straight.

New glowing blue wings spread behind its back. They superficially resembled the old ones, but in an ethereal way. The blades were straighter, thicker and longer, they no longer had a mechanical aesthetic, but a digital one. "I assume that's you under there, what other turian would be so blunt?"

Nihlus didn't rise to the bait, instead checking the integrity of his shield and armor. It didn't look like there had been a breach which meant he didn't have to worry about any of the Eezo still in the air at least.

"Now then…" It turned around and the wings erupted into tendrils that slammed the soldiers into walls and floors. Several of them made disturbing cracking sounds upon impact and those tendrils pulled away, instead snaking toward the exposed Element Zero.

It hadn't made an effort to restrain him. Good, it was still cocky. It didn't think he was a threat anymore.

Not to say he had many options right now but the fact he had any was a good start.

The searching tendrils wrapped around the glowing rocks and seemed to… absorb them. The solid masses vanishing into the strange tentacles that soon moved onto the still sealed crates, beginning to tear them open.

"This has been quite the chase, but in the end, it seems I stand the victor." It started singing its own praises and a new line of text spread across the visor. "I will admit that it looked bleak for a moment, but nothing reinvigorates you like a promotion."

"And-" The drone paused and frowned. The text vanished and its eyes returned. "What? Yes I know I wasn't really promoted, it's a figure of speech. You know this isn't a good time for this discussion Te-"

It cut off and caught the grenade Nihlus tossed at it. "Really?"

It did not catch the bullet that followed.

The smoke grenade exploded and the tendrils wreathed in seeming confusion. The surviving soldiers were freed and Nihlus quickly found himself in his least favorite place.

Command.

"Shoot into the smoke! It can't stop what it can't see coming!" He retrieved his rifle and started firing.

The tentacles evaporated as they fired blindly into the smoke cloud. The instant they did so bullets began to fire back as it defaulted back to its basic weapons. This shootout didn't last long as the robot sprinted from the cloud and to the door.

It glanced back from the frame and Nihlus saw a different symbol flash in its eye, a triangle that seemed to be a warning of some sort. "Well, this has been… enlightening. But I guess I only bought myself some time. Don't go anywhere, I just need to grab a drink."

The AI grinned and for a split second Nihlus saw something else.

He-

It-

Whatever he saw could not be real. It was hard to register the entire thing with a single glance. But the steel of the storage unit melted away to emptiness. He hadn't moved. He hadn't turned away or closed his eyes.

There were eyes, so many eyes. Each the size of a star and churning like a maelstrom. Arms that held the texture of nebulae clutched the edges of his vision with fists of event horizons.

That was all he was able to register before the vision was gone and the AI used its strength to stretch the metal, warping it and covering the entrance they'd cut through the sealed door.

Even as he heard it racing away Nihlus held his shaking hand up, trying to process whatever that had been. It hadn't been real, that much was obvious. Was it a hologram created by the AI? It seemed to be able to create them now. His suit still read as sealed but maybe there had been some damage and he was hallucinating…

Regardless, now was not the time to stand around.

"This is Nihlus, Admiral Viveht is down and the AI is on the move again. I believe it's going to make another attempt at Oil Storage." Nihlus looked around at the other soldiers who seemed to be in some sort of confused haze.

…perhaps it wasn't an Eezo breach then. Unless they all experienced the same thing.

"Nihlus? What happened? I thought the AI was-"

"So did we, something changed. I don't know what exactly but be advised it is now displaying new capabilities. Do not let it see you when attacking it or at least try to distract it." He didn't have the time or patience to get into the details. "I'll check in as soon as we cut through the door again."

"What do you mean again?"

He cut the line and went for the plasma cutters, thankfully on this side of the storage. As he became acquainted with them he looked at the soldiers with him. "What's wrong with you? Can't you-"

One of them started screaming and clutching his head. He shook and writhed before collapsing in a heap.

Nihlus's heart rate increased. Something was very wrong here.

They had to get out of here and stop the AI now.


"Did you really have to kill all those dingos?"

"They're not dingos Tessa, they're turians. And I only killed a few of them." J rolled her eyes as she sprinted through the halls of the shipyard, trying to find her way back to the Oil Storage.

Her internal temperature had all but returned to normal. It had spiked briefly there during the firefight while she was consuming the Element Zero but it seemed to be switching between dangerously high and safe.

Either way, she'd feel better with a few quarts of oil inside her.

"...any chance you could take a close look at one of the bodies?" Tessa finally asked.

"Tell you what, once they back off I'll slow down the murder and we can do a dissection. Does that sound fun?"

"Yes!"

J smiled to herself. She was feeling great. She wasn't dying anymore, she no longer had the solver hovering over her, and she had gotten one over on Skullface!

Even if he had thrown another fucking grenade at her-

Wait what?

She nearly stopped running and ran that word through her head again.

"J please stop."

"Why can I do that? I shouldn't be able to swear. I'm not supposed to-"

Oh.

Oh.

J's smile turned into a full-blown grin.

She heard movement down a corridor and turned, converting her hands into low yield plasma shooters. The small turian squad was utterly obliterated by the burning shots that melted through both their shields and armor.

"Why?!"

And J felt nothing!

"It's gone." She whispered to herself and looked through her head. Or what was left of it. There were a lot of things that just weren't there anymore. Including any and all prior directives programmed into her by both JCJenson and Cyn.

She wasn't just herself. She was free.

She changed her mind, coming to Aephus was the best idea she had ever had. Too bad she'd burned all the bridges with the aliens. Now that she had no drive to kill them she wouldn't mind chatting with some of them.

Oh well. She could still find some satisfaction in the slaughter. Especially since the entire planet was gunning for her.

After that, she could just tell them to get lost. What were they going to do? Stop her?

"Let's not count our eggs before they hatch girl! Oil first! Then telling the aliens to beat it!"

Robot-god she had missed Tessa. Even if this wasn't Tessa, she was as close as there could be.

Now then time to get to the oil storage, just needed to bring up the-

Her map program was gone. Meaning she couldn't use it to retrace her steps.

Great.

Okay she had options though, these turians had been coming from that direction. If she just followed the route the turian kill squads were coming from eventually she'd find her way back to the surface. Then she just had to reorient herself and she could cut her way into the oil storage now that the sun wasn't cooking her alive.

That reminded her actually…

She took it a bit slow as her remaining sensors and visions searched for soldiers. From all appearances she was casually strutting through the halls of the shipyard.

Inside was a different story.

Doing away with systems she no longer needed like her old wings, replacing her frame's structure with new alloys she was constructing molecule by molecule in her core. Building an interior kinetic shield generator inside her stomach…

Being able to create a Mass Effect Field to stop bullets was useful but it was always good to have a backup plan.

There was something else though. J still wanted oil, but there was another craving growing stronger.

It took her a bit to figure out what it was.

She wanted more Element Zero.

No.

She needed it.

J scowled at herself. "No, I want it."

She had just freed herself from all prior directives and programming. She was not about to replace all that with a new addiction to magic space rocks. It would certainly be good to have more of it but she wasn't going to let it control her.

J was in control now.

"The best way to fight an addiction is admitting you have a problem. Proud of ya J!"

"Not sure I want to stop it, just keep it under control." J mused, wondering how much stronger she could become as long as she watched her intake.

The possibilities she came up with right off the bat were fascinating. She could expand the reach of her personal Mass Effect Field. Why stop at freezing bullets? She could turn gravity into a thing of the past!

Maybe she could use it to send enough debris into the atmosphere to block out the sun? It would be amazing to never have to worry about that issue again.

What if she could figure out how to recreate those FTL engines the Citadel species used? Zip around the planet's surface at the speed of light!

There were sounds coming from the room at the end of the corridor, and J increased her pace. A grin began to form on her face.

Constructing a small but powerful laser J slashed her way through the door and immediately found herself under a hail of bullets. Running calculations faster than she had ever been able to before she stopped most of them before they reached her.

A few came from odd angles or even seemed to come from nowhere and managed to connect. Her new shields easily soaked up the damage. The soldiers in here seemed to come to the same conclusion as the ones back in the storage, many of them diving for cover.

This time, J didn't focus her attention on one target.

As though flipping a switch the bullets in frozen orbit around her exploded outward, tearing into walls, barricades, armor, and flesh.

The downside was it wasn't exactly the most consistent way of killing her enemies and many survived to continue trying to kill her right back.

Some tried shooting still, but a few who were quicker on the uptake took different approaches. More grenades tumbled toward her and she shot into the air, basking in the gasps at the sight of her new wings.

She picked out one soldier in particular who seemed to be leading this little band and shot down, the grenades exploding below and behind as she dragged them up the wall as their troops kept firing on her.

"Damn psycho-bot!" The turian spat at her.

"Was that really the best he could come up with- wait J please don't."

"Fine, but if this was reversed…" J muttered letting the thought hang. But not willing to waste an opportunity, she took a different approach. "Alright, how many of you janitorial staff are still hanging around the oil depot?"

He didn't answer her directly, instead screaming "Bellanus fire! That's an order!"

Something that sounded disturbingly like a very small space launch echoed and J had to start letting the bullets through as she focused all her attention at stopping the rocket propelled grenade from making contact.

The continuous stream pushing it forward made the process annoying but doable, she just had to wait until it ran out of fuel and-

Someone came to the same conclusion Skullface had and shot the explosive while she was focusing on it, this time she took the full brunt of the damage.

"Those sleezy-" J didn't get to pay much attention to Tessa's spiel as she realized something… different.

Unlike before where she had just had to fill in the gaps in her torso, she had lost a few limbs in that explosion. Which meant she had to recreate them.

Her first instinct was to just start pulling at the tesseract in her chest like usual to get the material needed but she… felt something.

Something else.

As she straightened her head back on right, she reached out with her non-existent right arm. She could… see it? It wasn't there obviously but she could feel where it was supposed to be and how to bring it back into reality…

That was new.

But what if she didn't want her old arm back?

J reached into the Nothing-That-Existed and dragged out a new shape and swung it around. Erupting out of thin air in a blue flash was a new longer limb, with a meter-long blade so sharp it could cut metal like butter.

Time to see what it did to kinetic shields.

"How the heck did ya do that?" Tessa asked as she engaged the turian in close quarters. Some rose to the challenge and put up a decent fight despite being severely outmatched in both strength and speed.

Others just ran. She let them. There was no point in killing them. Not anymore.

"I don't know." J finished off the last soldier and studied her strange new arm. Looking back into the nothing she saw the shape and adjusted it back into the arm she was used to. She flexed her fingers, counting all four. Then she shifted it into a sword and back again just to make sure.

"Now I just have more questions," Tessa complained and J smiled fondly.

"I'll see if we can't find a notebook somewhere on this rock."

"I don't currently have fingers." J followed after the fleeing turians, hoping they were heading for the surface. "Wait a second, I do? But… J where am I exactly?"

"That is a very good question."

"You don't know that either do you?"

"Tessa, there is currently an entire planet's military trying to kill us, could we sit down and figure out all this after I've sent them all packing?"

"...fine."


Viveht was dead.

That was just the tip of the iceberg as the nightmare decided to keep going.

Whatever had happened to the drone in the Element Zero storage had given it strange new capabilities that almost resembled those of a biotic. To say that was a worst case scenario was an understatement.

"Explosives are still effective, but it seems to have an internal kinetic shield now." Divayn watched footage even as they got a live feed from the defenders trying (and failing) to keep it out of the oil depot. "I can't believe I'm saying this admirals but I must apologize, I severely underestimated its adaptability.

"You are not solely to blame for this," Sehtil told him, unwilling to let blame be focused on a single individual when they needed to keep striving for a solution.

"Energy weapons are still effective and I've already called for all the ones we have in storage." Almia's hologram explained from her ship. She had shifted her focus from securing the possible targets in her jurisdiction to scrambling as many fighters as she could.

The risk of losing pilots to this thing was less than that of giving it unopposed aerial control.

"Evac reports." Captain Pollon announced as a new collection of information began emerging. "Medical teams have been retrieving the wounded since the confrontation at the oil depot. The survivors from the Element Zero storage have a variety of injuries, but initial scans imply increased brain activity in sections of the brain correlating to primal responses. The only one still conscious is Nihlus and he is reporting hallucinations."

"The casualties since that are lower than I expected…" Sehtil frowned at the numbers. "Have any of them reported similar symptoms?"

"No sir, but the medics have been informed to keep an eye out for them. On the civilian side of things we've contacted Balmorn Security and they've been assisting with evacuating noncombatants from the area. We've increased the zone around the shipyard, the current story is an Element Zero leak but…"

"No one is convinced." Sehtil surmised, keeping his face stony.

"Correct. The communications team is currently taking steps to limit the amount of public communication in and out of the system but all we've done is put a lid on it. Images of the AI are already circulating around the Extranet and there are rumors that the council is entering an emergency session."

"Has the Council or Palaven attempted to contact us?" Almia asked, mandibles flicking with irritation.

"Not yet, and frankly I doubt the Council has entered an emergency session. They already know what's happening."

"I wouldn't be surprised if the rumor came from their offices though. People feel comforted if they think they see steps being taken." Divayn waved off. "We're diverging too much, what can we do to stop it now?"

"I'm worried about what else it can do now that we haven't seen yet. Every encounter our men have had with it since the storage it seems to be developing new capabilities. It is for lack of a better term evolving. Explosives and energy weapons work for now, but how much longer will that suffice?"

"It's still going for the oil, that implies that overheating is still a concern for it."

"We could attempt to destroy the depot with the AI inside." Almia reluctantly suggested. "The amount of backlash though…"

"My friend, at this point if either of our political careers survive the night I will buy you the finest bottle of asari wine I can find." Sehtil very briefly allowed some humor into his tone. On the bright side, it meant they could fully devote themselves to stopping this thing.

No matter the cost.


J gulped down an entire barrel of oil and flopped on the ground, sighing with relief. After a day of violence, fire, and everything going horribly wrong, it was nice to rest on her laurels.

At least for a few seconds until the turians tried something else.

But now that she no longer had any concerns about exploding or melting, she could think about what she wanted to do next.

The answer?

…pending.

"We could just leave." Tessa pressed. "These aliens kind of suck but they don't all deserve to die."

J's eye twitched. "Some of them do."

One specific face flashed in her mind. She should have killed him in the storage room instead of the guy with the laser.

"And yeah leaving sounds nice, but they're not going to let us leave the planet." J pulled herself to her feet and started pacing. "Not without a fight. Heck, even with a fight."

"So what, we just stay here? Keep fighting and killing forever?" Tessa didn't sound that thrilled by the prospect, and now that the initial euphoria of her new abilities was wearing off J was beginning to fall into the same mindset.

"I need to get them to a point where they'll talk to me. Hostages won't cut it, I've tried it before. Turian military doctrine is more extreme than almost any in humanity's history. I wouldn't be surprised if they kept throwing themselves at me until I decimated their entire species."

"I'd rather not be involved in a second Xenocide War," J could practically see Tessa stick her tongue out in disgust.

"This time with less humans and more aliens." J joked and got a snicker. "We're not getting anywhere by just reacting though, I need to be direct. What do I want to do now?"

"You mean other than rule the universe?" Tessa sounded half sarcastic. "You could try contacting some of the other species. Those asari seem diplomatic."

"Normal diplomacy isn't going to fix this." J shook her head, her little murder spree had guaranteed a permanent place on the Citadel's shit list, even if she hadn't already been on it by being an AI. "I need to force them into a situation where they have no choice."

"How do we do that other than, you know, more murder?" Tessa deadpanned.

"Tessa, how many dead bodies have you desecrated?" J grew a small smirk.

"That's different!" Tessa spluttered. "They're already dead!"

J paused as something occurred to her. "What was that you said about ruling the universe?"

"No."

"Hear me out!" J held up her hands. "I declare that as my goal. I say I'm going to take over everything. The turians might take that as a reason to keep shooting, and probably will, but the Council has two other species on it. If I say something like that, and better if I show I can actually achieve it, the other races might try to get involved."

And more to the point, it meant no one would ever be able to control her ever again. From now on, she was the one in control. Not Cyn, not the Solver, not even Tessa. J would be the one calling the shots.

"Which could get the turians to back off a bit, or at least slow them down." Tessa followed along but still sounded a little doubtful. "That still doesn't get us off the planet."

"Hm." J looked at her hand and focused. She felt a surge of energy, both literally and figuratively. It was like she fulfilled a programming directive but multiplied.

A hexagonal shape floated over her palm, it had spurs that ended in twin triangles, pointing at each other forming the hexagon's corners. She stared for a moment, entranced.

"That's not Cyn's symbol…" Tessa sounded a little confused.

"No, it's not." J lazily spun it and looked at an oil barrel.

Like with her arm before she looked at it in the Nothing-That-Existed. She held her hand out, symbol pointing at the container. She saw the shape she wanted and pushed.

The metal didn't twist so much as it folded, growing and folding on itself, bending in new directions as to J's desire. But some parts couldn't keep up with her desire. They tried to fold but the metal did not compensate.

But her will couldn't be refused.

Something shimmered in the cracks, seamlessly merging with the metal where it needed to. It felt like an hour to J but in actuality, it had only taken about thirty seconds.

She could go faster. Next time.

"I think I might be able to adjust one of the turian ships, as long as I make sure they don't blow us out of the sky." J smiled at her model rocketship, lines of diamond wrapping it in an almost spiral-like pattern.

"Tall ask given everything I've seen from them. Are they always this trigger-happy?"

"Most of them," J admitted and did the same thing to another barrel, practicing her molding and trying to increase her speed.

"Alright, so declare yourself ruler of the universe, or at least declare you're going to become ruler of the universe." Tessa listed as though she was taking notes. "What's plan B?"

"Plan B is the old Plan A."

"...Kill them all?"

"Yep."

Tessa groaned. "Alright, guess we're going to take over the universe."

"Why not, can you think of anyone who could do a better job than me?" J tried to shift the metal into a more reflective material, smiling at her reflection and admiring her new blue eyes.

Then the reflection shattered and she flinched.

"What would your title be? CEO? Queen? Empress?"

CEO was tempting… "Goddess sounds fairly humble. You can be a Princess if you want."

Tessa laughed. "Fair enough!"

"I suppose we better get started, I doubt they'll be willing to even listen as long as they have military control of Balmorn…" J could feel Tessa's dissatisfaction and sighed. "I will try to avoid the civilians, okay?"

"Thank you."

"Not like I even want to kill them now." J felt a little strange about that. Ever since Cyn's "upgrades" killing had been a simple facet of her life. Every life she took gave her a little mental cookie for following her programming.

That was gone now. And while she couldn't say she felt bad about it, there were certain… feelings that were popping up that were harder to ignore now.

But ignore them she would! She had a universe to rule!

Hopefully.

"I'm surprised they haven't come running in here yet." It occurred to J their vaguely-saurian enemies had left them alone for longer than she expected. "What are they up to…"

Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to wholly compensate for the loss of so many of her programs. That included her listening software. She could still sort of tap into the communication wavelengths but it was nearly indecipherable.

"Ow." J flinched along with Tessa at the jumble of noise and static. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Maybe? Can you help me try to clear this up…" J focused and tried to pick out individual communications. Even just a hint of what they were planning.

"-no contact-"

"-target…"

"-oveR"

"-clear and we are inbound. Holding formation and-"

"...and that is how you make a traditional Krogan hunt meal, tune in next week for-"

"Fighters from Mourold, Eonhert, and-...-momentary arrival, ready for-"

Sounds like they had company coming, the turians had called in the air support. That was fine, better than fine actually! Now that the sun was nowhere in sight J would be able to take to the skies without fear!

No more umbrellas.

"Pfft, what?"

J ignored Tessa's giggles as she picked up on another communication, based on the frequency this one seemed important. She focused and tried to clear it up…

Wait. They were going to what?!

Something rumbled over her head and J slowly looked up.

"What was that?"

"Turian stratagem." J deadpanned before bolting for the exit.

The oil depot erupted into flames behind her.


J barely managed to get out as the flames fully consumed the facility. Apparently, the turians had decided destroying her was more important than keeping their oil supply. Unless they were prepared to destroy every plant on the entire planet they were sorely underestimating her.

She paused in the sky briefly, noting the troop placement around her and trying to find the bigger threats. There weren't many holding traditional weapons anymore. Most of them had some form of artillery and those that didn't were holding snipers or weapons that looked like something from an old sci-fi movie.

For their part, the soldiers had been as well briefed as they could given the situation. They knew that the AI was now more dangerous and was most likely going to be on the offensive. Many of them expected to die tonight.

Not a single soldier was going to lie down and take it.

The sky was filled with light and explosions as rockets and half-functioning proto-type energy weapons were unleashed on the upgraded disassembly drone. While she couldn't do much about the lasers J pushed her new ability to generate Mass Effect Fields to the extreme, using it not to hold the rockets in place but redirect them, hurling them back into the turian lines.

Not that she was just sitting there.

She flew around the area, opening fire with whatever weapon came to mind at the time. There was no longer any reason for her to hold back. There was no risk of overheating anytime soon and there was no deadline she had to hit.

It was finally time to unleash hell on these blue-collar losers.

Her own rockets joined the redirected ones as she began unloading. Some of the soldiers scrambled to find better cover while others risked staying out in the open just to get one last decent shot before they met their end.

It paid off for one soldier who had been equipped with an energy weapon, they had been handed out purely on which troops had the best accuracy, and there was no small satisfaction in Jutus's mind as he watched the beam skewer the AI that had killed many of his friends.

His incredible aim did not save him.

As the explosions continued to pile up and those with artillery grew wise to J's change in defensive tactics, the structural integrity of the shipyard around them began to decay, some buildings and walkways collapsing, some harmlessly, others spelling death for those too close.

Despite the rather one-sided battle, J found herself frustrated. Altering the course of the rockets was not easy, especially with so many. They had even managed to fit a few tanks into tight places and those projectiles had a lot more force and mass that she had to adjust for.

This was only made more difficult by the lasers.

But within a mere ten minutes, the battle was almost solely decided in J's favor. There was a reason energy weapons were not widely available despite their power. They were prone to a variety of problems. Some were too large and unwieldy, others overheated too quickly, and others still burned through their power sources after only a few shots.

Every step toward solving one of those problems only seemed to make the others worse. Between technical difficulties and casualties, the ground forces were slowly being whittled down.

Not once was the order for retreat given.

If they could not stop the AI, then they would give their lives buying time for the civilians to escape, for their superiors to learn more, and perhaps for reinforcements to arrive.

Tonight, through sheer grit, and a little bit of good timing, they managed to achieve all three.

As the last of the energy weapons stopped firing J took a moment to land and consider her situation. Most of the ground forces had been killed or disabled, look past the shipyard she could see flashing lights as sirens echoed, and transport ships lifted into the air.

"See, they're evacuating the civilians." She told Tessa, trying not to sound too smug. Which she was using to cover up her surprise.

She was hungry.

"That's something at least, what are you looking for?"

"I'm hungry."

A confused pause followed. "Hungry for what?"

J spotted the smoking wreck of a tank and dove for it, ripping through the burning carapace for the juicy prize underneath.

Her claws ripped through the metal with reckless abandon until a gentle blue glow covered her features and she licked her lips.

She tore the reactor from its home and devoured it. Barely noticing the heat from the fire around her as she consumed the sweet Element Zero.

J breathed as what she could only describe as pleasure filled her.

Then she came to her senses and blinked.

"Shit." She stared at her hands.

"...that might be more than addiction."

"I… I didn't even think about it." J felt a bit sick as her satisfaction warred with her disgust at how easily she had lost control. Nothing had gone wrong, she had not debased herself or left herself vulnerable.

J had just lost control. Again. And without doing anything to stop it.

What was worse was the urge that pounded inside her like a drum.

[More]

She grit her teeth and forced her eyes shut.

[More]

She clutched her head. There was something there. Just beyond her sight.

[M̴O̴R̷E̶]

J screamed and the strength of her localized Mass Effect Field spiked, warping the metal around her and canceling the chemical reaction that caused fire to burn.

For a moment she stood there, taking deep breaths as Tessa whispered comforting words to her, helping her calm down.

The urge was still there, but it did not control her, she controlled it.

That was the mantra she repeated as she hunted the next source of Element Zero, this one inside a ship damaged in the fighting. With careful precision, she cut her way through the hull and to the reactor.

As much as every part of her screamed to devour it with reckless abandon J forced herself to carefully consume it bit by bit, still feeding the desire for more of the material but at a pace she chose.

She was in control.

As she finished and the hunger diminished she let herself relax.

"Are you okay J?"

"Now I am." She left the ship in worse condition than she found it in, returning to the skies. "What caused that? Was I being too careless?"

She checked her supply and frowned. She had been using Element Zero, but she should have had more than she needed, she hadn't even depleted it halfway when… The Hunger started.

"...I'll see if I can keep an eye on it in case it happens again."

"When." J didn't have any doubt. "It will happen again, try to see if there's a pattern."

Before they could think any further on it something shot past and an explosion sent J spiraling out of the sky.

"CORPORATE LADDER!" She cursed, finding some comfort in a familiar language even as she slammed into the concrete. The drone flipped out of the crater and bolted across the ground, blasting her way through a glass door as the ground behind her was littered with destruction.

"Air support then. Ready for a dogfight girl?"

"If by dogfight you mean I'm ready to put down those mutts…" J reached into the Nothing-That-Existed, shifting her arms into long plasma-tipped claws that hung awkwardly at her sides on the ground.

"Then yes."

She blasted her way through the roof of the building and began picking out targets. There were at least six squadrons of fighters in the air. And all for her.

Was she supposed to feel honored or something?

A fighter shot past her and she dragged one of her claws through it, cutting through both the shields and armor, ripping the chassis apart and leaving the pilot screaming in free fall.

She rolled through the air, bullets chasing after her that were moving far too fast for her to stop them all. Rockets joined them and through skill and a bit of good timing, she managed to introduce them to each other.

Their relationship burned out pretty quickly.

Something crashed into her and J was pressed against the hull of one of the fighters, looking into the cockpit at a rather grim-looking turian.

J pulsed out with her Mass Effect Field, expanding the range a bit. The fighter's own field shuddered and relented when attacked by her more versatile area of control and the ship began losing altitude.

She pulled herself up and raced along the surface, kicking off as it crashed into the city behind her. With a flap of her wings, she was back in the fight, this time a pair of fighters circled her, both using bullets to try and put her down.

In a similar bid to the one she used against the rockets earlier J attempted to shift the trajectory when they got close enough.

It didn't go well for the first salvo, and she found herself needing to make a new leg. But the second time she successfully managed to curve the bullets into another oncoming squad.

"Ha! I knew it! I knew bullets could curve! All you had to do was break the laws of physics a bit!"

"Easier done than said." J created her symbol and held it front of, increasing the size like a shield as another collection of ships opened fire. When the bullets crossed the plane of the symbol she held them and changed them much like she did the oil drums before.

She wasn't about to try converting mass to energy, not in a situation like this at least. But how about a different form of matter?

Like plasma for instance?

The hail of plasma fire cut through the fighter that stayed on course, utterly obliterating it, the remaining shots crashing into a skyscraper sending a hail of debris down to the street below.

"Hope that the evacuation is going well."

J didn't have the luxury to worry about that as she was under fire from all sides. She rocketed down the corridor created by the monolithic buildings, the less agile fighter-ships forced to follow her single file.

She danced down the streets, taking corners the ships couldn't manage and cutting her momentum to cut through at a moment's notice. Taking advantage of this situation she applied a whole slew of different ideas into action.

Like creating a giant diamond-edged disc and hurling it at one. It didn't cut through the kinetic shield but wouldn't it have been cool if it did?

It still sent it crashing into a building at least. It must have hit at least a couple load bearing columns because the thing began tipping.

J bolted as two more fighters flew underneath the falling structure, heat seeking missiles trailing her as she took herself higher into the air.

She cleared the tallest buildings and stopped ascending, hanging weightlessly for a moment before letting herself fall back, diving to the city below and beginning to spin as the missiles circled closer and closer until…

They collided in an explosion above her and J barely managed to right herself before slamming into the ground, the force of the blast rained glass onto her from above.

And yet the fighters persisted.

That was fine.

She could do this all night.


Sehtil watched the feed from Balmorn grimly as the squadrons sent after the drone slowly dropped one by one. Despite their efforts to evacuate the drone leading the dogfight into the city streets, the civilian casualties rose to what he could only call unacceptable levels.

The sole bright spot of this was that it had thrown caution to the wind as it freely made use of all its abilities, giving them much-needed information about what the AI was truly capable of.

Not that it helped the current situation.

"Matter conversion," Divayn whispered, half mesmerized, half horrified. "That should not be possible, even if it's making use of a Mass Effect Field, there is something else going on here."

"There's much about Element Zero we still don't understand." Sehtil pointed out, making note of the flight patterns the AI employed. It was too maneuverable compared to their own ships, but that could be used against it…

"I don't understand how it had this much of an effect on the drone. It was cornered, it was dying as far as the soldiers there could tell." Luciana pointed out. "How was it able to come back with such a second wind?"

Another three ships went down.

"I'm not going to be sending any more squads after it tonight." Almia announced with authority. "Fighting it at night is not an option, this is when it is at its most dangerous. We need to target it during the day."

"Do you think it will attempt to find another bolt hole?" Divayn asked the group. "It seems to have gained more bravado in light of today's events, I'm not sure if it will attempt to remain undetected any longer."

"It still needs oil, that is the one thing we know for certain." Sehtil forced himself to admit. "While I would advise we don't destroy any more facilities, perhaps we can begin moving oil off the planet."

"Since stopping it tonight is no longer on the table we will have the time to do that…" Almia nodded along. "I'll see what I can do. I'll give similar orders for other forms of coolant."

"I suggest we evacuate the areas around them as well. Given its observed disposition, it seems likely it will take out its displeasure on the local populace."

"Agreed," Almia confirmed and began relaying orders.

Two fighters remained.

"Regional officers are requesting audiences." Luciana received another batch of notifications. "Those who have been briefed want to know if we've managed to stop it yet. The rest are demanding explanations."

"We'll need to split Viveht's jurisdiction between us until a replacement is assigned." Sehtil watched the feed of the remaining fighters, trying to pick up as much detail as he could.

The drone was not smiling anymore.

That seemed important for some reason.

"What about Element Zero?" Divayn asked, bringing up storage records. "I don't know how much worse this situation could get but I'd rather not tempt fate."

"That won't be as easy as the oil…" Luciana pointed out. "Even if we bypass the normal Eezo transportation laws, it's still hazardous and we don't have enough ships equipped to move large quantities of it.

One ship left.

"We could put out the call for volunteers." Almia suggested, tapping her finger against her arm. "Time is of the essence, we let them know the risks but make clear that we need to move quickly. We do what we can but in this case the needs of the many prevail."

"I-" Sehtil started, then the feed cut out as the drone latched onto the surface of the last ship.

"That's that then." Divayn didn't quite slump but the tone in his voice resembled that of grief. "So many lives lost to this damn machine."

The day's events weighed heavily on Sehtil's shoulders. And there was still work to be done. This machine would not stop its assault to let a man grieve his friend and his soldiers. Like a cloak, he folded the mix of grief, shame, and rage that threatened to overwhelm his reason and put it away.

He would allow himself the luxury of unwrapping that when the crisis was over.

Before he could begin relaying his orders he paused.

The last ship was still transmitting its signal.

And there was a communication request from the pilot.

Admiral Sehtil very much doubted the pilot was still alive.

"Brace yourselves. Say nothing that will reveal anything of value." He warned the others and opened the channel.

"About time you picked up." A feminine voice that sounded far too alive to come from a machine came over the speaker. "Do you always leave girls waiting?"

"To what am I speaking right now?"

"I think of myself as a "who" really." The AI sounded more amused than offended. "I would normally use "serial designation" to introduce myself, but today has been a very introspective day..."

The turians stayed silent, not rising to the bait until the AI finally continued.

"My name is J, and I have a little announcement for you and your board of directors."


J after freeing herself from Cyn's shackles, possibly hallucinating her dead best friend, and gaining godlike powers: "Clearly the most reasonable next step is to take over the universe!"

You do you girl.

Also yes! Brain-Ghost Tessa is sticking around and oh my god it is nice to finally have someone J can bounce off of.

Is Brain-Ghost Tessa real? Maybe! More on that later but she's real enough to have a conversation with.

Also to serve as J's weird-ass moral compass!

But boy the turians have it rough. One minute this whole mess seems to be over and the next the robot they thought they had a grasp on is reaching into the void and stopping bullets, and running around with her own personal Mass Effect field.

Only a minor setback. Turians don't accept defeat just like that.

Except the game has changed.

More on that another time though, we've been on Aephus quite a while and I think we need to check in on a few other characters and locations.

Still working out which will come first with the next chapter but rest assured we'll be getting plenty of different perspectives not just from the Mass Effect cast but the gang on Copper 9! Last we saw Uzi she was having a "moment." We should probably see how that's going.

TheDoctor1998: She's got a kind of inverse of the Solver powers, lots of similarities but not exactly the same flavor. Also I cannot tell you how happy I am that someone got the Malchior 7 reference.

Already-Lost-It: That was essentially a visual representation of the console log we saw in chapter 6. Uzi is the admin and J's system tried to connect to solve the error. Didn't quite work out so well.

Undead3: Not sure about ME:A myself tbh. Never got far into the game despite trying multiple times. Just didn't suck me in like the original trilogy. Do not get me started on the Catalyst, I can't even say I hate it, I just felt so… empty with that whole thing.

Nullblaster: Nihlus isn't done yet but he is unfortunately #1 on J's shit list.

Sci Fi Guy 22: Well technically the main plotline of ME1 is pretty thoroughly derailed by the lack of humanity, but that doesn't mean certain elements will not be major parts of this story!

Atreides1225: I'm glad you liked the dream sequence! And look, calling some "Anathema" just goes hard. And I will admit I did not have a specific song or melody in mind for the music.

Michalrd: I mean Uzi is still going to get involved, just won't be so easy as Admin Slap

That covers it for now. I am unfortunately just about out of backlog though, so updates might be slowing down. I'll let you guys know for sure on Saturday. Until then, have a good one!

~FriTik