Olasie pressed her hands into her back just outside the infirmary doors to try and break the tension that'd been building in her. Eyes on the ceiling and chin slightly up, she breathed in deeply before letting it all out and opening the door to finally see Kylie.
Chakwas gave her a nod from the water cooler.
"Hi, Doc." Olasie greeted.
"Hello, Olasie. Here to see Kylie?"
"Just to tell her what's going on."
"Well, you know where she is." Chakwas smiled. Olasie went over and slipped into the curtain dividers to see Kylie watching something.
"Hey."
"Hi."
Olasie stared at the screen herself for a couple seconds. "What're you watching?"
"Just some movie." Kylie said.
Olasie took a seat next to her. Kylie took the hint that she wanted to talk. So she paused it. "…What's up?"
"Don't know if the others told you already, but we're off to another mission."
"Lukh told me, yeah. I know what's going on."
"Oh." Olasie cleared her throat, "Guess I don't have much to tell you then."
"That's okay." Kylie said, giving her a small smile, "Just make it back in one piece."
Given that this would be their third time this month going into the unknown? Telling anyone that was starting to become a tall order.
Olasie stared at her knees and sighed. "Yeah."
"I'm a little jealous, actually." Kylie huffed, "Wish I could join. Pretty neat you're working with a geth." You could see Kylie's lips purse together and she thought about it a little more. "It's freaking weird."
"Have you ever even talked to Legion?" Olasie asked her.
"Only when it passes by. And only pleasantries. What's it like?"
"It's… so polite." Olasie muttered, squinting like she was looking for words, "I… don't know. That's like asking if it has a personality. I just don't think it has that."
"Oh."
Olasie's chest rose and fell. "I'm just glad you're so open to it." she admitted, "The drama it's caused."
She couldn't be bothered to finish that sentence.
"Darehk still giving you problems, then."
"He said he'd stop bitching when either he or it died."
"Sounds 'bout right." Kylie said tightly.
"Yeah." Olasie said, growing despondent.
Kylie adjusted her bubble and decided to change the subject matter to something a little more lighthearted.
"So… how are things with you and Juel?"
That seemed to be enough to put her in slightly brighter spirits, because Olasie huffed to try and hide the bashful smile. "Oh, you know. This and that. Nothing too serious. Yet."
"Well you best bust some moves, boss, or else I'll take him for myself."
They both laughed stupidly at that and Olasie shoved her from where she lay.
"Yeah. Don't think so."
"Naw, I'm just joking." Kylie gave her a dismissive wave, "I need me a man like Shepard."
"Just ask Tali to share." Olasie said dumbly.
Kylie's brows scrunched up as she pondered that. "Huh. You think?"
"Sure." Olasie shrugged, "Don't see why not."
"Say it louder. So Chakwas can hear." Kylie grinned like an idiot.
Chakwas shook her head, but there was a smile while the two of them giggled from the comfort of their little drapery of a room.
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Most of space, unfortunately, was pretty dark. Not pitch black, of course. But not nearly as vibrant or as lively as the vids and pictures made them out to be. Enhancing what didn't immediately meet the eye was necessary to capture the beauty of space. And you'd either do it by taking a long exposure image of something, or by editing it afterwards.
It wasn't like that everywhere, though. Mnemosyne's system with its decaying reaper was something of an exception. This here, out in the Phoenix Massing, was what your typical stretch of space looked like. Pin pricks of light with an endless blackness as your backdrop.
"Everything's always tentative, isn't it." Joker mumbled before he sipped from his cup.
"Yes, Jeff." EDI answered simply.
There was stillness at the helm as the two, both organic and machine, stared implicitly at the Haratar's growing figure as they approached.
"You said the quarians made this place?"
"Yes. Though it is likely the heretic geth have re-purposed and rebuilt around its existing frame." EDI supplied.
"I was about to say. That is not a reflection of quarian architecture."
Joker really wasn't expecting the station to look like this. The geth were known to design things for function. They didn't embellish their stuff with eye-catching aesthetics.
Except for when it came to their ships. Even past a glance, you'd feel pressured to believe their ships were anything but theirs. Any mode of transportation, be it in space or on the ground, was a crude depiction of a harrowing insect. What drove them to conceptualizing ships to look like a molting maggot/wasp eluded the man. But it was something that Joker would eventually ask Legion about, if he ever worked up the courage to do so.
Legs. Of all things. Like, why though? Why legs? Why a wasp?
Even weirder, Joker remembered overhearing Tali a couple years ago talking about how bugs didn't even exist on Rannoch. So the inspiration for that was deaf on him.
Bugs for ships. How daft.
Why not more like the borg? Cubes made sense. And geth were all about logic, weren't they?
Before he could do any more aimless wandering, he could hear Legion plus two pairs of footsteps approaching.
He whirled his chair around so he could face them.
It was Shepard and Olasie.
"Almost ready?" Joker asked them, stuffing his thoughts behind him.
"Rest of the squad is already suited up and by the kodiak." Olasie answered Jeff, "So that's a yes."
"Good." Joker nodded once and adjusted his hat before remembering something totally unrelated to their mission. He decided now was as best as any to tell John.
"Hate to digress, but I just wanted to tell you, Shepard, that I sent a message to Ash. Well. I sent it to Anderson."
"Good."
"Did you hear? Alliance PRT's finally getting Horizon under some semblance of control. Food's finally reaching people's mouths."
"I heard, yeah." John said quietly, "Civ news is skimp on a lot of it though."
"Yeah. It's all pretty shit. Well. Enough about that." Joker's chair turned back to face his screen as he brought up an enhanced image of the Haratar for them all to see.
"Doesn't it just grease the nostalgia a bit? Us heading out to go blow up some geth?" Joker frowned, though no one saw it. "…Except. You're standing next to one now. So."
Legion's singular eye stared up at the image before staring at John and Olasie. "We recognize that this is not standard." Legion offered.
"Pretty un-standard, yeah." Olasie rasped.
"Significant though." John reassured for everyone involved. "Don't forget that."
"Alright, Legion." Joker sighed, "Green-line confirmed. We're following your flight path."
"Acknowledged."
"Keep us updated of anything." John said as he turned around with Olasie and Legion in tow, "We'll be back soon enough."
"Dinner's in six hours. Your favorite. Shepherd's pie. Be back by then."
"Shepard's pie?" Olasie rose a brow.
"It's not named after me." John grinned meekly as he rolled his eyes.
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With all her gear accounted for, Tali reached for her shotgun and began to insert her sinks into the magazine tube. Racking the slide to chamber the sink, she checked the safety before slinging it behind her back.
Then she saw Jacob clamber into the kodiak before taking a seat and checking the laces on his boots. She was surprised to see him here. He hadn't put his name up on the roster for mission participation.
She gave him a nod to get his attention. "Joining us?"
"Figured I would." Jacob tightened the strap on his chest rig, "Garrus said he had to pass on this one. Something about the Normandy needing an XO 'case we all kick the bucket."
Of all the years she'd been around humans, she couldn't remember if she'd ever heard that metaphor yet. She nodded all the same. "Ah."
Shortly thereafter, Thane took a spot next to her while he casually inspected the visor on his helmet. She breathed and looked at him.
She never quite shook how easy he made it look killing people. And she regularly reminded herself of how incredibly easy it would be for him to do it to her if he ever chose to. She supposed she could say that about a lot of the people on the Normandy, but Thane did it with a type of grace few could emulate.
Her arms were crossed now, and she stared at her boots before giving the green man a nod.
"Hi, Thane."
"Hello, Tali."
A few moments of silence.
"How's your son?" She decided to ask. The only reason she even brought it up was because of how involved he'd made her the last time they talked. And to gauge the man's present mood.
"Doing well." Thane said, pausing only briefly to look at her, "He seems okay."
"That's good." Tali murmured, leaning against the rear arm of the kodiak's engine, "I'm sure he is."
He holstered his sidearm and felt for his pouch of sinks on his belt before facing her with a question to ask. "Do you speak to your father often, Tali?"
"Outside of work, no. Not really." She said.
Thane blinked and said nothing. If it hurt him to hear that, he wasn't making any indication of it. But the seconds of silence following her answer made it seem obvious about how that was making him feel.
"He has been a little different lately though," She added to mollify the message she was sending, hoping that it would alleviate him of any potential burdening thoughts, "He's become much kinder."
"Why do you suppose that?"
"I have no idea." She admitted with honesty. "Maybe he had an epiphany."
"I see."
You didn't need to be much of a detective to know Thane was seeking redemption. Her reply was steering him elsewhere of that.
"Thane, for all the mistakes my dad's made, he's still my dad. I still love him. And I believe your son, if he's smart, understands. He might not show it, but he does."
She spotted only a glimpse of a smile.
"Thank you, Tali." Thane said quietly. The lull that would've undoubtedly followed never came. The cargo bay's elevator door opened to reveal Legion, Olasie, and John.
As the two of them watched the three of them walk out, Thane leaned up against the kodiak himself.
"I never did get your opinion on Legion."
She didn't know how to answer that without stigmatizing herself.
"I don't know what my opinion is anymore." She murmured, still staring at the geth. "There just hasn't been enough time for me to be processing this mess."
The thing scared her. She wanted it gone. She wanted to see it air-locked and float away while she waved it good-bye.
But… she didn't want that. She would be remiss to say that there was, strangely, some infinitesimally small piece of her that was actually filled with hope. That whatever Shepard was envisioning was going to happen. At the scale they were at, it was actually working. Narrowly, of course. Barely, by all counts. But it was. For now.
The hardest part would be trying to scale that up to where it really mattered. To where it would make a difference.
"Fair answer." Thane said rather quietly.
The two of them watched four of EDI's LOKI mechs load in a nuclear warhead into the kodiak.
After, they watched Grunt lumber into the shuttle, loading shells into a mag for his cartridge shotgun.
"Climb in, it's time to go." Shepard ordered.
Everyone went in and took their seats. Tali sat between John and Samara. Thane took a spot across from her. Legion stood next to the ordnance before securing itself with a handle draped just above.
The announcement to vacate the bay blared while the kodiak doors closed.
"Y'all ready?" Teri asked everyone while she inspected her rig for all the heat sinks she'd secured, "Because I'm not."
"I've been ready for ages." Lukh said before looking up and peering at the geth. "What about you, Legion?"
"This platform is functioning within intended parameters."
"Even with that big ol' hole in your chest?" Jack asked.
It faced her. "Yes."
"Great." She mumbled, half paying attention as she tried to scratch the stitches that ran across her back. It was a vain attempt given that she was in gear.
"Are you sure you want to come with us?" John asked hesitantly, "Stitches might split open."
"I'll live, boss."
He gave her a single nod. Then he scanned the cabin and caught wind of the two dozen mags strapped to Grunt's chest rig.
"I'm hoping those are frangibles." John said, frowning with concern.
The krogan stared at his gear and smiled. "They are."
Talukh leaned over from his chair to peer at the tank bred. "Holy hell, Grunt. We're killing geth, not threshers."
"No quarter for our enemy."
"Double-taps are overrated, right?" Jacob joked, bristling at the girth of his rounds, "Best not miss, doesn't look like you have that much ammo."
"I won't."
The shuttle rose and inched slowly closer into the blackness of space. Darkness overtook the cabin and the team quieted.
The kodiak, unfortunately, lacked an IES, unlike the Normandy. But they needed to close the remaining distance without the Normandy getting into too vulnerable a position. So the solution was fairly easy.
Nudge the kodiak into the right direction to deploy, keep only your most basic systems on, and glide the rest of the way there. Drop them off without stopping, maintain your heading, and let the Normandy move in to pick them up. Rinse and repeat as needed.
"ETA, five minutes." Their pilot announced.
"Put on your helmets." John ordered, "Air's not going to last long in here." The team did as they were instructed. Once they were finished, they began to run through their preliminaries for the fourth time.
"EDI, how are we looking?"
"Dust and echoes, Shepard. Approach steady. Ordnance on stand-by."
The rest of the ride was carried in stifling silence.
Soon enough, there was a slight deceleration until they came to a near standstill.
"We're here. Y'all be careful out there."
"Thanks, Audrey." Shepard sighed as they all stood, "Wish us luck."
"Good luck."
The kodiak door opened as they approached and Legion began working on opening the trash chute.
"So." Jack rasped over the comms as they all waited, "What, uh. What do geth throw out?"
"Whatever cannot be recycled. Or where efforts in reclaiming spent materials would incur greater cost in energy consumption as opposed to manufacturing a new product from raw resources." Legion answered.
"And that would be?"
"Filtration mediums. Contaminated or irradiated metals. Radiation scrubbers."
"We're not going to get blasted with radiation, are we?"
"None that would cause great harm to organic life."
The trash chute split open.
"Please follow us." Legion requested before disappearing into darkness.
They all stared at each other.
Samara was the first to cast herself out toward Legion. Grunt was next. Then Jacob. Teri followed soon after.
"Keelah. This thing is huge." Olasie muttered, her gaze beset on what was essentially a space-megalith. She jumped in after them.
"...After you, Tali." Juel mumbled.
Tali clutched the end of the kodiak, stared up at the expanse, took in a breath, and catapulted herself into the dark abyss.
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"What is it that we're looking for, exactly?" John intoned, keeping his eyes on his designated sightline, "You said a computer, but what is that entailing?"
"A physical hard point. To inject the junk code, we require significant quantities of bandwidth and a level of reliability that wireless transfers cannot provide."
"Really?" Talukh coughed a little, "How much are you trying to push through your cables, there?"
"Enough to overwhelm even their highest runtimes. We anticipate, even with total participation of all heretic geth aboard this station committed to data eradication, that their only means of returning to a sanitized state would be to gradually ablate the data we deployed."
"Wow." Talukh gave a sideways glance to Juel to see what the man was thinking, "How large is this?"
"Two hundred fifty one point seven seven exabytes of data, Creator Daer."
It took Shepard a couple seconds to bristle, because he had to look up how big that was. "Holy shit, Legion. I heard you were making something up. Didn't know it was that goddamned big."
Talukh was frowning now. "How the hell did EDI and you make that in less than six hours?"
"EDI's cooling systems were routed to the Normandy's internal emission sink. This platform ran algorithms to help ensure that over sixty percent of all strings created were unique. The collective beyond the Perseus delivered what they could via non receipt protocols."
"Legion and I filled in whatever packets were lost during transmission," EDI butted in before explaining further, "This concerted effort was a technical marvel. Every CPU with sufficient memory that was available to me was utilized and overclocked in its creation. This included all the LOKI mechs and Jeff's personal computer."
Jack laughed.
Jacob only looked surprised. "Joker let you use his laptop?"
"I asked him." EDI replied, "He said yes. He requested we insert pornographic material. We did."
Jack was grinning ear to ear. "What kind?"
"The worst kind." EDI answered.
It was funny and all, but Tali was hardly paying attention to the banter. She glowered and did some math. Not in her head of course. Because she couldn't even remember what the amount an exabyte was. But, running off what they knew, it was estimated that there were 6.6 million active geth units living on this hunk of metal. That gave every unit about forty terabytes worth of junk to sift through. It was a lot for a single geth to handle. A singular geth didn't possess all that much processing power.
"Halt." Legion stated. They all stopped walking and Legion leaned around the bend to scan the area.
"It is clear. Resume." The reared the corner, paced down the corridor, and entered a fairly large room with a plethora of computer podiums fashioned into a grid.
Tali narrowed her glare as she let her eyes waltz about the room. The place was... filthy. Equipment installed over the decaying ruins of what the Haratar used to be.
The team spread out and lined their back up against some walls with Grunt and Jacob holding point at their rear. Thane and Samara took to watching where they would undoubtedly be heading out to after this.
"Where are we?" Juel asked Legion.
"We are at routing." Legion said before interfacing with the console to search for the location of the virus. Given that Legion was a geth and that all geth shared everything together, confidentiality didn't exist here in this world of theirs. It wasn't hard for it to find and copy at all. And, luckily for the Normandy crew, Legion did a little more pilfering and found an IFF as well.
"Virus copied. IFF retrieved. Forwarding findings to EDI. We will begin dissemination."
"Good work." John praised. It was a miracle it was that simple for once. It was a shame they couldn't just leave now.
Shortly after, Legion retrieved, from his pack, an abnormally large data disk, and shoved it into one of the open ports on a computer he picked at random. Legion did this with eight other computers to open up the bandwidth needed for what was essentially a distributed denial of service.
"Stand-by, party. Code is being inserted. Compiling data before delivery. We will await a reaction."
Tali counted to six before the lights, barely even illuminating the darkness, grew even darker. The quarian held her stare up, face impassive. Power draw was being routed elsewhere. Likely to combat all the trash that'd just flowed through their systems.
"Junk data is deploying into their network. Heretic geth are now actively working to defragment and re-purify systems corrupted by junk data. Call to rescind has been administered. Active platform population is receding."
"How many platforms did they have?"
"One million active. One million storage."
That got people's hearts thrumming in their ears. Yeah. There was no way they'd be fighting that. A standard team this size could barely take on an even number of them. At least, not without the combined arms that they were so sorely lacking in this one-dimensional plane of war. At least they had grunt and four biotics to better balance their odds.
"You've got harder numbers now, Legion. How long do you think this is going to last?"
"Upwards of up to seventy standard galactic minutes. We are not far from where the ordnance should be detonated."
A blip on everyone's huds indicated to them their trek would be a kilometer from here.
"Relative to you." Teri sulked quietly. Only Olasie heard her.
"Warning. We anticipate discovery of our distribution center to be within several minutes. We must exercise haste."
"You all know what's next." Shepard said. Anyone not watching exits began to place plastic explosive in the room.
Tali knelt down, planted her explosive, and stared at the stains and junk that lay haphazardly across the dark floor.
"Remnants of what this place used to be?" Samara posited just to her left as she continued the watch the hallway with Thane.
"Maybe." Tali murmured, still staring. None of it looked identifiable in any way.
"Reminds me of Primerah, a bit." Juel said, now standing right over her, tweaking his charge before sticking it to a computer, "All the shit scattered about and abandoned."
"What's that place?" Jack asked, standing and watching them all.
Juel was about to give her an answer, but Samara, oddly, beat him to it.
"One of the last quarian worlds to fall to the geth during their uprising."
"How'd you know that?" Juel croaked. Jack found it a bit odd herself that Samara would be the one answering for the quarian.
"The archives of the Justicars."
Juel put his hands on his mag pouches and sniffed. "And that is?"
"A chronicle of records. The code recognizes the legacy of Justicars during times of extraordinary crisis. To uphold their sacrifices and to endeavor ourselves to the same conviction if such times are to occur again."
"I read a wiki about a Justicar helping escaping quarians. How many actually helped?"
"Less than ten. It was only the fourth time since our inception that we've ever left asari space."
"Fifth now, I'm pretty sure." Olasie said wryly.
"Quite." Samara said with a mild smile before continuing, "These events and our involvement are likely lost to everyone but the archives."
"We lost damn near everything we knew about the place." Juel said, "All we had was the name of the city and the government that ran it."
"If it's in your records, what did this Justicar do then?" Jack asked, genuinely curious.
"There were three. Justicars Orah, Mare, and Athena. These Justicars fought 'till death. They, with four other quarians soldiers, were among the last souls to perish on Primerah. They died shortly after relinquishing, from the geth, control of four anti-air batteries targeting any who attempted to escape. Their mission was successful, but they were soon overwhelmed.
"One hell of a way to go." Jack whispered.
"They ended their lives on their terms. They took with them an estimated three hundred geth by detonating a thermobaric charge as the geth closed in."
"Sure that's not even maybe a little bit embellished?" Juel said, cocking a brow.
Legion overheard their exchange and verified that Samara's reciting was largely correct.
"We can verify that this event occurred." Legion said.
Juel twisted the ignition into his explosive a little harder than necessary before smacking it up against a wall. "Wow. So killing ships with their engines facing you. Classy. Sounds like your lives were really hanging in the balance there."
"We did not know if they were truly retreating or if they were tactical withdrawals. We had been deceived by this tactic several times during the Morning War. Parameters changed. We pressed our advantage."
"You sure as fuck did, didn't you?" Juel murmured with a lowly sneer. He turned away and handed Thane the detonator.
"You know how to operate this?"
"Yes."
"Okay."
Everyone in the room had overheard. The quarians did not look pleased. Tali, again, felt her anger and hope spin on its axis. How far removed the geth were from the near infinite suffering they'd bestowed upon billions. And Legion talked about it so fucking casually.
'Yeah, we killed those ships full of civilians because a couple on there might put up a sorry ass fight later, lol'
Yeah. That's what Legion sounded like to the quarians.
The unbridled anger she felt welling up inside her was fleeting, but that urge to draw her sidearm and gun down Legion with a mag dump was incredibly tempting.
"Keep chatter to a minimum." John ordered before walking up to the geth and frowning. "And Legion? This is not the time to be talking about your side of the story." Shepard tone was stern and his eyes dead set on its singular one.
"We did not intend to incite." It said.
Shepard turned away. "Are everyone's explosives ready?"
A quiet chorus of yeses.
"Then it's time. Ready weapons. You guys hold them off for as long as you can."
Grunt and Jacob were to keep their escape clear. Samara and Thane would remain as well to support them for what would soon be an inevitable firefight.
"We'll hold." Thane said, clipping the detonator to his belt. Samara did the same with hers.
"Let's move."
John took up a position behind Legion with the quarians lining up as well. Jack was the last to fall in. As they filed out, EDI's mechs hoisted the warhead back up and followed.
"Get us there, Legion."
"Acknowledged."
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John knew that this wasn't the time to be having a situational crisis, but he was. As you'd expect, the occurrence was usually sudden. They didn't happen often to him, but they occurred at rates that John wasn't all that comfortable with either. He had to be honest with himself here. This was a lot to swallow. Him trying to let his mind catch up to the fact that they were following Legion on its word and piecemeal evidence to infiltrate a geth superstructure quartering millions of them to thwart yet another grand scheme conjured up by the reapers. Comic book level scheming, amusingly.
The shit was the same as it always was. Just happened on different days. Which meant John wasn't compelled to be changing any of their strategies either. Just like the duct-tape and string operation of Virmire, he'd outwit their tricks with yet another nuke. John was, after all, a man of habit. Hopefully that wouldn't be exploited anytime down the road.
Things were going smooth. Smoother than anticipated. Unlike the hollow victory that came from Virmire, things were only looking up for them so far.
They got their IFF. They stopped the virus. And they were about to finish off the last of the heretic geth for good. That was three marks to check off on his lengthy list. And if you counted all those check marks starting with Eden Prime, you'd feel pretty okay about patting yourself on the back.
Until you remember that celebrating now would be too premature. Their entire fight had been nothing but obstruction and setbacks.
Christ, this really wasn't the time to be diddling.
John kept up his pace, but gave himself a moment to give Tali a quick once-over to make sure she was alright.
He let his mind wander again, but this time about Legion. He supposed it wasn't all that fair to call Legion's evidence piecemeal. It mostly felt that way with how pressed they were to get this done. EDI had, after all, authenticated its claims.
He figured that was supposed to satisfy him. But it didn't. Because he knew that EDI could be fooled just like the rest of them. It showed when they managed to fuck up at Hock's party. He was convinced, at the conclusion of his career, if he managed to live through whatever this campaign would be called in the future, that he wasn't going to be able to live that one down. At least to himself. Assassination didn't really sound like something good people did. He supposed after the fact, that running the Normandy democratically in that regard was probably a mistake.
"We are nearly there." Legion announced to them all.
"How long you think it'll take to weld that warhead to the floor, EDI? Need help? I got a cert for it."
"What don't you have a certification for?" Tali said, rolling her eyes.
"It should not take too long." EDI answered.
"Good. In and out. We're super-dead if we get stuck here." Juel rasped.
"How you feeling, Lukh?" Olasie asked, only glancing behind her to see how he was faring.
"Stiff." He huffed, last in line, "I'll be okay."
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Grunt inspected the feeding lips on his mag, the round protruding from the top, and inserted it back into his gun.
Jacob watched from a distance. "Any particular reason you like using outdated tech?"
"Less to go wrong. Simpler machine." Grunt said.
Jacob was about to offer a well versed reply about why that didn't really matter anymore, but was cut off by the sound of hissing above them.
The group looked up to see vents.
"What the hell is that?" Jack asked.
Jacob stood, stepped up as close as he could to one of the hissing vents, and ran a scan. When he got an answer, he bit his lip and gave Jack a concerned stare. "Oxygen. It's oxygen."
"What the hell for?"
Jacob's memories of Eden Prime flashed through his mind. "...Combustion." He answered emphatically, "They're pumping in atmo to use flamethrowers."
The woman bristled. "Huh. Shit."
"Get ready." Jacob ordered, pushing past her and taking an angle, "And hope to god our barriers can hold off whatever they're about to throw." He took a knee and brought up his radio.
"Shepard, this is Jacob. How copy?"
"This is Shepard. Go for message."
"Be advised, they're pumping atmo into the hallways. Be careful."
"Solid affirmative," Shepard said, understanding what that was entailing, "Do what you can. Don't take any unnecessary risks."
"Copy. Out."
"Listen," Thane announced, "You can hear them."
The team hushed and sure enough, the subtle sound of footsteps and servos in the distance could be heard.
A planted claymore then detonated. A thunderous wave of pressure washed over them, disturbing the floor's settled dust.
"That's one," Jacob reminded, "wait for the second one."
Another piercing shockwave. The far end of the corridor went thick with black smoke and flak. Whatever geth had tripped the ordnance essentially humidified the air with its servo-fluid, casting short-lived vapor trails from shrapnel piercing its platform.
With no time to spare, the geth began to turn the corner in a scrambled but calculated column.
The walls were suddenly bathed in an ecstatic hue of blue. Thane and Samara alike were suddenly alit in biotic flame before unleashing on the growing horde a 5000 newton wall of energetic force.
"Keep them at a distance!" Jacob bellowed, seeing geth enter into his own line of sight. Grunt depressed the trigger on his firearm and cloaked the field with slugs. Smoke and spent shells spat from the ejection port until the magazine went dry, forcing the bolt to hold open.
"I'm empty." The krogan grumbled, slightly disappointed he'd expelled that much in so little time. He expelled his empty mag into a dump pouch and fetched for another to reload.
"Looks like you need a new gun afterall, Grunt." Jacob said, squeezing in what little time they had for banter.
"No, what I need are extended mags." Grunt said, grinning devilishly.
A geth platform turned the corner and began to blanket the entire hallway with a spray of highly volatile gelled petrochemical. The flash of heat smacked their faces with surprise.
"Holy Fuck!" Jack smashed a barrier down to keep them from being smothered from the resulting oil and flames.
Grunt smacked the bolt release on his shotgun and resumed, felling the next wave of approaching platforms and killing whichever geth wielded the flamethrower.
"Damnit, I'm out." Grunt spat, "Again."
"Look alive! More contacts ingressing!" Jacob shouted, "Focus fire!"
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Joker sipped his coffee and skimmed through his haphazard display of readouts before sighing.
"What's it looking like EDI?" He asked quietly, propping his head up with an elbow on his arm rest.
"Jacob's team is currently engaging the geth."
"How're they faring?"
EDI brought up a window on the largest of Joker's screens and revealed to him a live a feed of the camera attached to Jacob's helmet.
For a glimpse, the video was only a superimposed layer of spent shells and empty magazines around Grunt's feet. The walls behind the krogan was nothing but a brilliant spectacle of electric cerulean shadows as the four biotics worked tirelessly against the machine horde.
"Damn." Joker said, pursing his lips tightly together. He took another careful sip from his four cream, two sugar, coffee. Always more cream than sugar. Took the bite and bitterness from the extra-bold crap they had overstocked.
Joker's stare faltered. A crazy juxtaposition, the helmsman thought. It was something that crossed his mind daily when the ground team was—well—when they were all boots on the ground. Him sitting here in the comfort of a leather seat and a steamy cup of joe to keep his belly warm while they put their lives on the line in a way much more intimate than him. Very visceral, seeing the combat that he himself could never participate in.
The geth were still as unrelenting as ever. Nothing had changed about them, really.
"Watching too?"
Garrus' voice startled him, but he didn't show it.
"Hey." Joker said, looking up to meet his gaze, "Yeah. Just making sure they're all okay."
"I should have gone." Garrus said, his stare hard as he watched the live footage of the action.
"Not enough room for all of you. Place is small."
"Yeah." Garrus said, seemingly disappointed or unconvinced of his observation.
A few seconds passed in silence and the two of them continued to watch. Joker's mind hadn't settled away from what he had just thought of and he wasn't all that privy to keeping them to himself either. So he decided to talk about it.
"How do you do it?" Joker asked, brows furrowed deeply just as Jacob launched another violent wave of biotic energy toward the geth.
"Could ask you the same thing." Garrus said, leaning up against his chair and looking down at the pilot, "You pulling our asses up from out the fire? I'd say that's just as hard."
Jeff only managed to utter a mumble. "Maybe."
"I know you're not romanticizing our half of the job, but don't feel like you have a duty to pick up a rifle all of a sudden."
"I don't, trust me. I can't shoot worth shit."
"Didn't you ever qualify?"
"Of course. Barely."
"Mm." Came Garrus' reply.
Joker chewed on his tongue for a second and clenched his teeth. "How much longer until Shepard and Legion get to where they need to plant that bomb, EDI?"
"Soon, Jeff."
Her answers had been a lot less specific lately. Probably that learning algorithm she had or something. I guess she realized that her being really specific about the time constraints of their order of operation didn't much matter when he wasn't an integral part of what was happening.
"They're getting hit hard." Garrus lamented, shaking his head idly, "Spirits, they need to get out of there soon."
Jack threw yet another barrier to hold the flames at bay. Her teeth were gnashed and expression tense, sweat streaking her brow.
"Have you and your team settled your demons with Jack?"
"People ask me that a lot." Garrus muttered.
"Yeah? Like who?"
"Tali."
"And?"
"Shepard."
"I'm sure that's the only two who you've ever heard it from."
The turian crossed his arms and didn't reply.
"So... have you settled them or not?"
"We haven't settled anything with Jack. I haven't settled anything with Jack. Whatever's going on between her and I won't interfere with the mission."
"And what about that punching match she had with Sidonis a while back?"
Garrus' mouth remained shut, but his mandibles did a weird flicker. "...Don't worry about it."
"Hey, I'm just trying to look out for you, dude. Sometimes, your friends get concerned."
"I'll be okay, Joker. I swear."
Joker nodded, settled a little deeper into his seat, and thrummed his fingers against the handle of his mug, thinking. "...Has she changed at all?"
"She hasn't been any trouble for a while, no. She's been a bit more docile."
"Think it has something to do with Thane's meditation counseling?"
"Maybe it's Kelly's sessions too." Garrus said, smirking.
"Ha." Joker huffed with a cheeky grin because they'd all been through the same thing with her. "Maybe, Garrus."
The humor was snuffed out as soon as it had entered.
They watched a geth operator get too close to Jack's barrier. Grunt plowed a kick center mass and knocked it back.
"They need to call it." Garrus growled, "They need to get out of there."
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Of all the missions Shepard had been on, this was... probably the easiest.
At least for him. There wasn't much to do other than run. And they were almost there. Every hallway was the same as the last. A long and almost unending grid of perfect repetition. It was jarring, because it almost felt like they'd been running around in the same place since they'd started.
"We have arrived." Legion announced steadily as they entered into a space that vaguely looked like a control area, "Shepard-Commander. We may begin preparations."
"Good." John waved for EDI's mechs to get started. "You know what's next, EDI."
"Yes, Shepard."
"Olasie," John called out her name to get her attention, "Keep security."
"Roger." Olasie did as she was told and ordered her team to cover the exits, "Let's go."
"On it."
"Right."
Posting up to their respective positions, they watched their lanes.
"Think they're okay over there?" Teri asked.
"They got Grunt," Talukh mumbled, pinching his lip between his teeth to ignore the aching in his chest, "So yeah."
"Why didn't we have any biotics come with us?"
"Because their job's more important, Lukh."
"Don't know." Juel said, skeptical, but with a sliver of sarcasm, "Pretty sure it's us with the nuke, here." He kept walking and stepped up next to Tali and Shepard.
"Everything good so far?"
Tali nodded and watched EDI's drones prepare the warhead by welding it to the floor.
"Yeah." She said simply.
The three of them continued to stare.
"You know, Juel. This wouldn't be the first time we've done something like this." Tali rasped, remembering, "Did it on Virmire."
Shepard recalled the exactitude of mostly everything that'd transpired on that planet, save for the two times he'd been knocked unconscious. He just listened to her.
Juel checked the sink in his gun since he had nothing else to do with his hands. "Don't rightly recall that one. How'd you do it?"
"With a rigged drive from a salarian STG ship. Did it to ash Saren's base." Tali said, eyes transfixed on the bomb. They all turned away when the welding torches came out to protect themselves from the blinding light. Tali inhaled rather deeply. Remembering that day was truly exhausting. Even if it was only for a moment.
"Lost lots of good people that day, didn't we, John?" Tali said, thinking of Kaidan, tone flat. "That was a really bad day."
"Yeah." John agreed quietly. "It was."
A dull and almost indiscernible shockwave reverberated along the floor. Turning to face the low rumble, John glowered and brought up his radio.
They shockwave they felt was a pretty clear indicator of what just happened to Jacob's side of business.
"This is Shepard. Jacob, are you okay?"
"Shepard," Came a hoarse breath. The man was no doubt running, "We couldn't hold them. There was just too many. We're exfil. See you back on the ship."
"Copy all, Jacob. Out."
"Shepard-Commander. Our success was contingent upon their delay. Not enough time has passed to fully dispense the payload."
"How much went through, Legion?"
"Dispersal ended at fifty-one percent."
"Then that leaves us with little over half the time, right?"
"Negative. Copied code was quadrated into unique segments. Only a limited number of these segments were transferred. Dispersal of code was propagated in equal parts of copied and unique code. Once this copied data is catalogued and distributed to other geth, data ablation will increase exponentially. We believe we have, at most, fifteen standard galactic minutes until heretic geth purify core systems and discover our location."
It was a mouthful of an explanation, but John mouthed a silent curse either way. The commander turned around and went to stand next to the mechs welding the warhead to the floor. He kept his hand up to block the damaging light emitting from EDI's work.
"EDI? How long is this going to take?"
"To arm the ordnance, weld its base, and assemble the protective shell: ten minutes."
"Oh. Perfect." Juel garbled.
"Is welding all the doors an option to buy time for you?"
"No," Juel said, speaking up, "EDI brought enough filler to make the protective shell and weld it to the floor. It's either a couple doors or the shell she's making."
"Then it's time to give EDI your grenades and gun." Shepard said, un-slinging his weapon and setting it down by the mechs' feet as they continued to work. "Plate carrier too if you're comfortable with that."
They all gathered around to give what they could.
"Shit." Juel sighed, staring at the nice little holo on his gun, "Does she need my optic?"
"Juel, you can always buy a new one." Olasie said, getting on a knee and setting her grenades down on the floor.
"Ugh. But it's got this cool app with a special license and I—"
"Really got your priorities in check, don't you?" Teri interrupted, but finding the time to actually grin, "Bro, hurry up."
"Right." Juel got to releasing the latch to his favorite sight before setting the gun down.
Teri and Talukh followed suite. That left only Olasie, Legion, and Tali to remain fully kitted.
"Are you good, EDI?"
"I am. I will continue to work and assemble the bomb's protective shell. Counter will be initiated on your go. Your detonator will also be synced to trigger the bomb if that is what you would prefer."
"Excellent."
John pulled his sidearm from out his holster before catching Legion's gaze and leaning his head toward the exit. "Legion. Lead us out of here."
"Shepard Commander. Wait."
John's eyes narrowed a little. "What?"
"There is an alternative. We do not have to destroy this station."
John gave it a hard stare. This really wasn't the time to start suggestion alternatives here, let alone game-changing ones.
"What are you proposing, Legion."
"Altering the virus."
"Excuse me?"
"We have already made the necessary changes." Legion continued, "We can disperse it and force all heretic geth to return to their original non-heretic state."
John didn't immediately reply and his jaw worked. "...Why didn't you bring this up earlier?"
"We did not believe it possible until now. Runtimes were executing other solutions should our original objective become unsuccessful."
"You're asking me to recycle reaper-made code. Just so we can give the heretics a second chance."
"We are presenting a choice." Legion corrected simply.
John only had to glance at Tali to know where the wind was blowing on this one. The remaining quarians all exchanged looks, but they didn't say anything.
He wanted to give it some more serious thought; to really think about the long lasting repercussions that might result from their quick decision making. But John couldn't pause their ticking clock. This was the moment of action. Not second guessing what you came all this way to do. Plus, he already knew what the quarians wanted. And, quite frankly, he did too. They all had their own beef against the geth. Just under different reasons.
"No." John shook his head firmly, mind made up, "Nope. They chose to ally themselves with the reapers. That was a voluntary decision. They made their bed and now they're going to sleep in it."
"Understood." Legion seemed no worse for the wear hearing that, "Nav point plotted. We must hurry."
"Fall out." John ordered, "Move."
The quarians began running, Talukh again taking the rear.
John stayed for a few seconds longer.
"Are you sure you can handle this, EDI? We can't screw this up."
"Yes, Shepard." EDI answered, her mechs working in well concentrated tandem, "You should go."
"Alright." John dipped his head and started backtracking toward Tali who'd been waiting at their exit, "We'll order more mechs. Don't you worry."
"I have already ordered for their replacements." She said, "And your kodiak is already in transit."
"Good work, EDI."
John was the last to enter the hallway. Tali and John ran past the others until they were back at the front with Legion.
"Just a light jog, right hun?" He said, smiling at her.
"Huh. Yeah." Tali breathed, rolling her eyes. She was relieved to deny the heretic geth that option to turn them back to what they once were. The last thing they needed to do was to further bolster the geth's numbers. Moreover that, letting these heretic geth run free from facing the consequences of the war they started and the crimes they committed was wrong. Luckily for them, it was a fairly guiltless thing to do, passing judgement upon their entire faction. There were no commiserate heretics amid their ranks. They all equally shared in their perverted version of truth. Tali knew that the galaxy and her children would be better off without them.
Eight minutes of running passed and they finally reached their exit.
No contacts.
Not even a peep. They hadn't seen a geth since they'd gotten here, save for Legion itself.
"Through here." Legion ordered, opening up another trash chute, "Please be cautious."
Legion stepped up and dropped down slowly into the abyss. Juel was next, and took the time to illuminate the opening as he fell for the others.
Olasie went next. Then Teri. Talukh. Only Shepard and Tali remained.
It struck him odd how easy this was. It just, in retrospect, didn't feel right. First time he'd almost felt like he'd cheated the reapers. A dumb thing to think, he knew.
"Easy peasy." Shepard murmured quietly, face flat as he jumped down into the shaft, "Lemon squeezy."
Tali fell in next to him and frowned. "What?"
He cracked a small smile. "Nothing."
Their descent was slow. It took them a solid two minutes of falling before reaching the bottom.
"EDI, ETA on kodiak?"
"Two minutes, Commander."
"How much time, Legion?"
"Estimation remains at less than five standard minutes."
"The mechs have just encountered scouts." EDI warned, "I am engaging."
"Guess that estimation was a bit off. You're going to have to buy us time then, EDI."
"That will be difficult." EDI said. Her tone wasn't very motivating to hear.
"Well." Juel shrugged, "That's what the shell was for, I guess."
"Until they break out a plasma cutter." Talukh said.
"Oxy-fuel more like." Juel corrected, "It's a thick shell."
"Who gives a shit what it's called, Juel."
"It's an important distinction."
"Not productive to be arguing." Teri said.
Juel stared at the void of space because it was the only thing they had the luxury of looking at. "Teri. Nothing about sitting together in a trash chute is productive."
"That's fair." Teri agreed and stared at her gun, "You got me."
Olasie pointed after she scanned their small field of view. "Keelah. You can see the Normandy from here."
She was right. There it sat. Waiting.
"EDI, are you good?" Shepard asked, keeping a lookout for the kodiak.
"I am holding. I will continue to delay them for as long as possible."
A minute passed. The kodiak was now in view.
Tali unknowingly drummed her fingers against the top of her shotgun as they waited.
"Mech three damaged, but still engaging. Mech two immobilized but still engaging." EDI updated.
John was inwardly acknowledging the accuracy of Juel's crass remark. They were all practicing mannerisms one would often do under the pressure of having to wait for a ride to leave a station with an armed nuclear device aboard it.
Twenty seconds went by and the kodiak continued its slow crawl to them.
"Mech two: unit lost. Mech one damaged, but still engaging."
Fourteen seconds. The kodiak door opened, revealing Audrey, their pilot, waving at them to clamber inside.
"Come on!"
Talukh jumped first. Then Juel. Teri. Olasie.
"Go Legion." John ordered. The geth obeyed and leapt into the kodiak. As always, Tali and John were the last to enter the cabin.
"Mech one: unit lost. Detonating planted grenades."
The kodiak door closed.
A few more seconds went by before EDI gave another update.
"Contacts repelled momentarily." EDI announced. "Consolidating gear. Attempting repairs."
"Three minutes, guys." Audrey said, giving the kodiak a slight boost to gather some distance between the bomb and them.
"That's really cutting it close." Olasie uttered.
Audrey shrugged as she sat down in the cockpit, "I mean, I could give it some beans and have us there in under twenty."
"We would advise against that course of action." Legion warned, "We cannot determine which systems have been purified of corruption. Progression of mission should continue as anticipated."
"Power pack replaced. Mech one is back online." EDI said.
Shepard fished for the detonator in his pocket and brought it out to hold. Forty five seconds of dead silence. An eternity's worth of time.
"I have been reengaged." EDI announced.
"Tali." John said to get her attention. She turned away from the port display showing the Haratar to look at him.
"Here," He reached out to offer her the device, his grasp on it limp. "honor's yours."
Her stare lingered on him, but it finally fell to the detonator. The body language was subtle, but John saw, inside the span of her short-lived pause, her sizing the gravity of what pressing that tiny red button was going to do. At last, she took it from him.
Her stare hardened. Her mind had been made since the get go. Nothing was going to change it. But there was an angle to consider when you were the one handed the responsibility of mass fate. She was about to snuff out the existence of millions of geth. All in the view of John, her quarian family, and their enigmatic geth 'friend'. It was a heavy thing to suddenly carry, and Tali could describe all the different ways it made her feel, but weakness definitely wasn't one of them.
Again, she had to remind herself that John's idiom was right. The heretics made their bed. And it was time for them to sleep in it.
But there was a moment of irony that Tali didn't try to dwell on. But it was a well made farce, helping Legion when she, by her very own hand, had catalyzed the quarian people with the ability to produce one of their own from her pilgrimage gift. Not to convert, but to silence entirely. No one knew of its existence save for a select few and her. And it would have to stay that way.
Time's crawl was no more for her. They entered the Normandy's dock faster than she had expected. As they stepped out from the kodiak, she flicked the safety cap off, depressed the red button, and squeezed the clamp trigger. She watched the Haratar's distant frame begin to slowly liquefy and swell at the same time. The resulting light cast a shadow bright enough for Tali's mask to polarize just as the bay doors closed.
And just like that, their mission was done.
IFF secured. Virus repelled. No casualties. And best of all, no more heretic geth.
And to finish it all right before dinner.
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Garrus plopped his tray across from where John sat, a smile square on his face.
"Congratulations." Garrus said.
Shepard stopped chewing and looked up, a smile barely there from the turian's sarcasm. "Thanks."
"Hell of a day, huh? Just about wrapped up the war of 2183. And you all didn't even have to pull a trigger."
"Pulled one trigger." John corrected with a growing grin, Garrus almost forgetting Tali had been given the honor of detonating the nuke. "But I know what you meant. It's ten to a penny when that happens."
"You guys really got the easier half of it. Exotic PT really." Garrus said, glancing at Tali, who'd been sitting next to John eating her own food.
"I recall you being here?" Tali smacked, folding her arms on the table and furrowing both her brows.
"Yeah," Garrus said, lamenting partially to the end of an era, "The good ol' days are definitely in the past now. You should see what Jacob and the others dealt with. That's a commercial for biotics if you ever needed one."
"Wish you had them?" John smirked.
"Maybe. It'd let me eat more."
"Worried about getting fat?" Juel said as he walked by with an SM-10 meal.
"Wonder what a fat turian would even look like." John said, pursing his lips and scratching the underside of his chin.
"You're looking at one, that's for sure." Tali said with a dumb smile.
Garrus pinched his shirt to cool himself off. "Spirits that was a burn."
You could see Sidonis overhear from behind Garrus and laugh. Though Garrus would never know it was at him.
"Aw, Tali," John said, barely keeping a straight face as he sipped from his cup, "That was pretty damn mean."
Tali had a good snicker, waxing total elation. She had every reason to be happy. They all did. No one on this ship had even known of the Haratar's existence, much less the plan the heretics were readying to unleash upon the galaxy. And now it was nothing but a smoldering wreck. Looking back, Tali realized that half of the Normandy's career had been denying assets. Mostly denying them from reapers.
They were getting good at it.
Now, all they had left, as far as anyone was concerned, was to deal with the collectors.