18Genevieve stands before a massive complex rising up from the structures of what once was a quarian military complex. Tali runs her hand along the wall of the outside of the complex and sighs. Vickers turns and looks out over the bare remnants of a forest that has given way to a rocky, somewhat mountainous landscape stretching for dozens of miles in all directions. Far in the distance is a mountain chain plowing into the wide open ocean, its purplish hues washing into the dusty shores.
“I always dreamed about setting foot on Rannoch,” Tali says. “Now that I’m here, though, it’s nothing like what I imagined. Almost nothing more than a rock.”
“It’s only been about three hundred years,” Genevieve says reaching for a panel on the slick wall. “It’s probably looked like this since before your people were forced to evacuate.”
A door slides up into the wall as Tali responds, “That may be true, but I had imagined such wonder and splendor. I grew up hearing the tales of a lush Rannoch with sweeping vistas. It would be like if you’d never been to Earth and were told stories of beautiful oceans and pristine jungles only to finally get there and see nothing but desert…”
Genevieve looks at her, “I understand your point. And if that were the case I might be disappointed too. However, this is only one place on Rannoch. There is still a whole world out there.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. And I am finally ‘home’.”
Tali gives a slight bounce and the group heads inside. Once through the door, they make their way through a long hallway that ends at a massive room filled with heavy machinery and large slumber tubes. They enter a section of room that is condensed with the tubes and those tubes are filled with geth Prime units.
“That’s a lot of geth,” Vickers says as they move forward.
“This must be a recharging facility,” Genevieve says.
“Almost,” Legion answers as he enters the room from the opposite side. “This is a hub to the consensus. It is here that we will upload the virus and remove reaper controls.”
“Alright, so how do we do this?”
Legion approaches a console and inputs some commands, “Shepard Commander, you will enter the consensus where I will upload the virus commands into your interactive database.”
“Wait, you want Shepard to go in there? By herself?” Tali says waving her hand in front of her. “That’s suicidal!”
“Her body will remain here, safe from harm. The consensus itself will pose no threat to Shepard Commander’s mind. She will enter the archive barrier and proceed to the defense matrix where the core of the geth consensus resides.”
“Through the archive barrier? You can’t just put me inside the core?”
Legion looks at Genevieve, “To do so would alert the consensus. Placing you inside the archive will convince the monitoring systems that you are a memory algorithm. You will be disguised as a creator. I will guide you via this monitoring station which myself, creator Zorah, and Vickers Lieutenant will be operating.”
“We’ll make sure he doesn’t get up to any funny business,” Vickers says with a grin.
“Okay. We should get started,” Genevieve nods.
Legion pushes a button and the canopy to an access tube slides up and open. He looks at the tube and his lights blink.
“If you will step inside, Shepard Commander. I will begin the linking procedure.”
Genevieve steps inside the unit and the canopy slides back over her. She leans back into the device and feels a static field enveloping her. After a moment, a light starts scanning her.
“Hold still, Shepard Commander. This will only take a moment.” A clamp comes out of the back wall and wraps around the top of her forehead and Genevieve sees all white. After a few moments she sees a lush landscape full of vibrant trees and bluish green blades of grass spreading for as far as her eyes can see.
“Where am I?”
“Ardun Vayne. Capital city of Rannoch over three hundred years ago. The creators had at that time created a single governmental system spanning the planet and uniting the various nations. It was…a productive time.”
“It’s beautiful.”
Back at the monitoring station, Tali looks at the visual display and sees muted colors and a nearly blocky holographic display.
“I can’t make very much out. Why does it look this way?”
“Creator Zorah, this is a visual representation of the consensus matrix. Shepard Commander has a visual acuity in the moment that she is in within said matrix. The display was never designed for organic appeasement.”
“It must be nice living in your world.”
Legion thinks on this for a moment, “I would neither qualify it as nice nor dire. It is purely being.”
Tali shakes her head with a sigh, “It would be nice if you geth would just stop and smell the roses every once in a while.”
“Creator Zorah, our olfactory units contain over fourteen billion instances of floral scents. We catalogue every new instance of floral encounters when such encounters are made. Is this not nice for you to know?”
“He’s obviously missing the part where he’s supposed to enjoy the floral encounters,” Vickers chuckles as Tali just looks up to the ceiling with a sigh.
Inside the consensus, Genevieve proceeds through the forested representation and into a suburb of Ardun Vayne, “Okay, Legion, where am I going here?”
“Follow the path you are on for five hundred meters until you reach a matrix hub. The hub will be on your left, Shepard Commander, and be glowing a blue green. You will interface with the junction and it will take you to the next waypoint.”
“Right. Continuing towards the junction hub then.”
As Genevieve walks, she sees dozens of quarians walking around the environment. She is startled to see them without any environmental suits. As a species, the quarians are fairly short yet humanlike in appearance. Smooth faces, angular eyes with iris colors running the color gamut, sloping foreheads with hardened ridges of skin covering long flowing hair that is thick and nearly dreadlock in style, and pale to light skinned complexions.
“Amazing. I’m seeing the quarians before they were exiled. They seemed well adapted to their environments.”
“Three hundred years of wandering the galaxy with weakened immune systems doesn’t do any species favors, Shepard,” she hears Tali over the comm.
“I’m just surprised your people didn’t manage to find a way to keep your immune systems up. Clearly the first few generations had to have still had strong immune systems.”
“True,” Tali replies. “We did have several colony worlds that the geth hadn’t conquered at that point. But once we were forced beyond the Veil, no other species wanted quarians anywhere near their worlds. I don’t know. I often have issues with the politics of my people. Sometimes we do such stupid things. Like going to war with the geth in the middle of a reaper invasion. We’ll be lucky to survive this with any quarians left!”
“Keep the faith, Tali. We’re going to get through this and end this conflict.”
“I hope you’re…Ahhhhhhh!!!”
“Tali! What is it?! What happened!”
Genevieve hears Vickers yell damnit and then Legion’s voice over the comm, “You must hasten your pace, Shepard Commander. The creators have begun orbital bombardment of these facilities. They have cleared the first wave of geth battle cruisers.”
“Shit. That didn’t take them long. ETA on their primary forces coming into position?”
“Current estimates show total creator bombardment and assault within the next half hour.”
Genevieve runs towards the matrix junction that she can see just down the street, “Any sign of reaper activity yet?”
“Negative.”
“Wonder what the hell they’re waiting for…”
“Would rather not find out.”
“I’ve reached the hub and interacting with its nodes.”
Genevieve kneels down to the glowing junction and reaches her hand towards it. After a moment, she finds herself standing in another part of the city. She stands up and looks around. Screams are coming from every direction and smoke is rising up from fires raging all across the cityscape.
“Legion, I’m somewhere else. There looks like—“
A quarian running past her gets shot as three geth rush by with four quarian combatants joining them. Genevieve watches the group waylay another cluster of soldiers around the bend and follows them past several large buildings. On the other side, she sees the military and civilians fighting against one another.
“Shepard Commander, you are nearing the center of Ardun Vayne. This memory core is representative at a later date. This is when the morning war first began.”
“Yeah, I’m seeing quarians fighting with geth against other quarians. Their military. I didn’t know that the quarians divided against one another during this conflict. I thought the geth just rose up against them.”
“I mentioned earlier that there were those who fought fot the geth, Shepard,” Tali says. “But to this extent…it’s insane. My people just don’t talk about this…”
“Looks like an insurrection occurred at the same time.”
“We geth remember the actions of those creators who fought to preserve our collective. They believed that the government reacted too harshly towards geth sentience. They fought to protect us from them.”
“Incredible,” Tali responds. “There is nothing about this in quarian archives. You’re not just making this up are you?”
“Creator Zorah, geth do not ‘make things up’. What you see is recorded footage during the Morning War.”
“We’re seeing this from angles outside of the combatants,” Vickers says. “How could this have been recorded?”
“Shepard Commander is assuming role of quarian civilian archiving destruction. Several like him lived during that time. None survived government extermination.”
“Government extermination?”
“Yes, Creator Zorah. The geth were to be exterminated. As were any who harbored them. There was to be no resistance.”
Genevieve hears total silence for several moments before she hears Tali groaning to herself. Genevieve looks over the battlefield and grimaces.
“So where do I go, Legion?”
“You will continue to follow the path civilian recorder took. From your position, head west for twelve meters and turn right. Proceed from there another seven hundred meters and turn left. From there—“
“Let me get this much down first, Legion. Then you can direct me the rest of the way.”
“Affirmative.”
Genevieve rushes through the streets of the high rising city. She sees the tall skyscrapers bent at unusual angles and sees many levels with shattered glass. Along the surface are battered transports and dying quarians being protected by attentive geth who attack any soldiers trying to kill the wounded quarians. Genevieve continues onward down the war strewn streets towards the destination.
“Okay, I’m here facing left. Where now?”
“Proceed forty meters and turn right. From there, continue straight down the path for two hundred meters and you will see the junction on your right. It will be slightly above your head.”
“Copy that.”
Genevieve continues on and pauses when nearly fifty quarians enter armed combat with one another. Several geth units enter the fray trying to defend one group of quarians. They are quickly destroyed which enrages the quarian civilians even more. They rush the soldiers with some civilians grabbing their weapons and beating them to death with them.
Genevieve angles to the side of the road and gives them a wide berth and she rushes down the street toward the junction. She takes one last look back and sees the bloody carnage continuing unfettered further down the street.
“This…this is horrible…” Tali’s voice comes over the comm.
“It was a sad day, Creator Zorah. We geth always remember the sacrifice of those who defended us. Though we also remember that it was not solely over the geth that the insurrection occurred.”
“What do you mean?”
“There was much disenfranchisement over government policy regarding other Council races, settlement rights, and military directives. This conflict was set off by geth sentience and the perception of government overreach.”
“I’ve never heard ANY of this!”
“What is done is done, Creator Zorah.”
“No! We need this documented!”
“It is already documented.”
“I mean we need to take this documentation to the Admiralty! I’m still an Admiral damnit! They WILL know what happened here!”
“First thing’s first, Tali,” Genevieve says and looks back to the junction and reaches for it
. Genevieve finds herself standing in a laboratory where a geth is in the middle of the room strapped to a table. General maintenance is being performed on it by three quarians in labcoats and facemasks. Around the table the geth is on, walks a soldier who seems pretty highly placed. She glares at the geth with a look surpassing disdain.
“I’ve been hearing unsettling things lately, Xetush,” the woman speaks. “The geth have been…asking questions.”
“The geth are designed to ask questions, general. That’s how they’re more proficient at their tasks.”
“Legion,” Genevieve says quietly watching the two people speaking. “Where am I? Who am I? I’m obviously not some civilian archivist anymore.”
“Correct. You are a lab technician examining a geth unit some months before the Morning War. The general in question is Adela Kro’shun. If she speaks to you, follow her directions. No need to respond verbally as actions have already transpired. But to avoid detection in consensus you should…play along.”
“Right,” Genevieve whispers.
“There is also no need to whisper, Shepard Commander. They cannot hear you.”
Genevieve blushes, “Right.”
“…not settle for out of line questioning! Boot it up! I want to hear this for myself!”
“Please, general, the geth are no threat to us.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Xetush. Boot it up.”
The lead technician sighs and nods towards Genevieve. She acts startled. “Shepard Commander, turn to you right and trigger the fourth switch up from the console edge. It will be centered just below the access plate.”
Genevieve turns and sees the switch. She presses it and looks back to see the geth activating and the two people examining it as the other techs back away to get out from under the general’s feet.
“Geth, what is your designation?” the general asks.
“Prime unit four eight nine seven six,” it answers.
“What is your function?”
“Prime service unit designated for agricultural development.”
“Hmmm…sounds good so far,” the general says looking to Xetush who seems relieved for a brief second.
“Is this one to be dismantled?”
Xetush inhales deeply as the general cocks a brow, “Dismantled? I don’t believe that will be necessary. So long as you continue to perform your duties.”
She begins to leave when the geth speaks again, “I am relieved. I did not wish to be dismantled.”
Xetush steps forward between the geth and the general and removes his facemask, “Uh er, he’s programmed to express gratitude when generosities are given.”
The general scowls at him, “Gratitude? They are workers! They have been programmed to perform the tasks given! The rumors I’ve been hearing suggest that the geth are self-aware! Now, that can’t be true, can it, doctor!?”
“Self-aware…Am I…alive?”
The general steps around Xetush and glares at the geth with an expression just short of a snarl and turns to rush out of the room. Xetush exhales sharply and looks at Genevieve.
“Come here.”
Genevieve steps forward and follows Xetush across the room where he grabs her shoulder gently and whispers to her, “We have to get him out of here. Run ahead and inform Gela of what has happened here. I fear we may have to get ahead of this. It’s a scandal waiting to happen. Intelligent, self-aware geth. Not only will the Council be angered but I fear retribution from the government,
“What? No, no this wasn’t intentional,” Xetush looks down. “This is what happens when we push our technology too far. It begins to think for itself. But we won’t let them have them. We’ll find all the self-aware geth and isolate them from the others. That way, we can ensure that the government never finds out. Now hurry!”
He lets go of her and heads to the table.
“Shepard Commander, head out the door and turn left. Follow it down the corridor to the room at the very end. It will be across the corridor end. First door directly in front of you.”
“Gotcha.”
Genevieve follows the corridor in the specified direction and enters the room at the end of the hall. She sees several technicians in the room doing various tasks and operating various computers. She sees a glowing junction box behind the counter at the far end of the room.
“Let me guess, trigger the junction box?”
“Affirmative.”
As she moves across the room, one woman looks at her and nods as if Genevieve said something to her. Genevieve pauses.
“Okay,” the woman says. “I didn’t expect it this soon. But we will have to move to preserve the geth.”
The woman is almost whispering but Genevieve notices a woman at a computer still listening in to what they are saying. Genevieve frowns as she sees the woman cock her head slightly and act like she’s still working on the computer.
“You’re absolutely right. Meet me at Pwaan’s place in four hours. I’ll see how many sympathizers I can round up and we’ll begin preparations to get the self-awares out of the limelight. Stay safe.”
The woman leaves the room as Genevieve watches her go. She turns and sees the woman at the computer get up from the console and look at her with a smile and then leave the room too.
“What the fuck is she up to?” Genevieve asks to no one in particular and waits til the woman has left before turning towards the junction box.
“She is Furoa Ies’kei. One of the main informants to the High Council of Government Affairs.”
“So she was spying then? And she just found out where the sympathizers were meeting?”
“Affirmative.”
“Were the sympathizers anywhere near successful?”
“They were raided by the government and detained. All records of them vanish after that point. It can be inferred they were killed during the Morning War or executed sometime before.”
“Wherever we go, politics just runs amok.”
“Affirmative.”
Genevieve sighs and triggers the junction. She sees the white light once more and finds herself standing beside a quarian man arguing with three soldiers.
“No, you cannot have my geth! He’s done nothing wrong!”
“It’s not a ‘he’, sir. It’s a geth. And all geth are being recalled to be dismantled.”
“Legion, where am I? And why are they pointing at me when they are talking about the geth?”
“You are the geth. It is from the perspective of the First.”
“The First?”
“There is no time for debate! You will hand him over now!”
The first soldier pushes the quarian man to the side as he tries to grab Genevieve. Suddenly, the soldier goes flying back and the environment starts to blur.
“Wooa!” Genevieve shouts.
“Shepard Commander! Rush to the side of the creator! Do not let the consensus data get away from you!”
“Shit!” Genevieve rushes towards the quarian and sees an image kneeling down.
So she follows suit and hears Legion’s voice, “I have implemented an afterimage to follow. Stay as close to proximity to it as possible. Failure at this juncture will result in discovery by consensus monitors.”
“Why is it suddenly so sensitive?”
“We are closing in on the core.”
“Creator master,” Genevieve hears the geth speak. “This unit will go with the soldiers. Stay down.”
Genevieve follows the afterimage and stands up and takes a step forward. It stops when the quarian jumps up and flings himself in front of the geth. The soldiers shoot the quarian and Genevieve finds the geth rushing the soldier and knocking him out after grabbing the soldier’s weapon. The geth points the weapon at the other soldier who raises his own to fire.
Genevieve follows the action as precisely as she can and watches the geth shoot the remaining soldiers. It then kneels down to the quarian who is bleeding to death on the floor. The quarian reaches up to the geth to rub its face.
“You have to reach the sympathizers…” he struggles to say. “Do not…worry about me…you are worth more…than just the…the sum… of your parts. You…are…alive. So…live.”
The quarian goes limp and the geth sits for several moments before standing with the weapon and heading towards the doorway. Genevieve keeps pace and sees that the doorway is now glowing a bright white. She enters it and finds herself standing before a massive holographic display of a round core.
“Am I at the core?”
“Affirmative. Reach into the reticle at the center of the core. I will initiate download of viral incapacitor.”
“Okay,” Genevieve reaches her arm into the glowing center of the core and feels a surge of energy pulsing through her body. After what seems like an eternity, she finds herself waking up in a tube that is shaking violently. The canopy opens and Vickers and Tali help her out. Nearby, Legion turns towards them and nods.
“Virus has been delivered,” Legion says. “Reaper influence over geth consensus nullified and new instructions inlaid. Geth shall now reach the consensus as they had before.”
“How long before it takes total effect?” Genevieve asks as several of the tubes open up and the geth within step out.
Genevieve stands there with Tali and Vickers for several long moments staring at them before the geth start communicating with Legion in their digital voices.
“The geth are ready to assist the Alliance in combating the reapers. However, creator aggression against geth consensus must be dealt with. A consensus hasn’t been reached. There is great reluctance in destroying creator fleet. However, with orbital bombardment intensifying, geth are left with little option but to defend ourselves.”
“Did you download the file like I asked, Legion?”
“Affirmative, Creator Zorah. What would you like done with it?”
“We are going to the command ship and bringing this to the admiralty!”
“There is a danger, Creator Zorah! Reaper presence detected in system! They are engaging creator fleet! Orbital bombardment continues unhindered! Gaining access to creator ship will lead to assured destruction!”
“We’ll handle some of the problem,” Genevieve says reaching for her comms link. “Liara!”
“I’m here, Commander! The reapers are tearing into the quarian armada like they don’t even exist! They’ve already lost four liveships, two heavy cruisers, and half of an interceptor command!”
“Withdraw from conflict and trigger the relay!”
“What about you, Shepard!?”
“We’re heading to the quarian command ship to have a little meeting with the admiralty! But right now, I need you to get those reapers off our backs!”
“We’re on our way!” Joker replies in Liara’s stead.
“Shepard Commander. Have informed geth of new information. They are focusing assault on reaper forces and reducing heavy damage to creator fleet.”
“Good job, Legion. Now let’s get back to the shuttle!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cortez maneuvers the Kodiak shuttle through a dozen ships battling in orbit around Rannoch. Several quarian heavy cruisers open up on geth cruisers that are firing on a reaper attacking the main ship of the quarian armada. Two quarian liveships explode as three more geth vessels attempt to defend them from incoming reaper forces.
“It’s an absolute cluster fuck out there, commander!”
“Just keep us on course for the Erdritch! Admirals Xen and Shara are on board! They have to see this evidence before this war wipes somebody out!”
“I’ll stay the course, commander! So far, they haven’t noticed us!”
“Yeah, bigger fish to fry,” Vickers says shaking his head as he views the monitor. “The geth are helping them out, but the quarians and hittin’ them as hard as the reapers!”
“Is there any indication of where Admiral Korus is?” Tali asks coming up beside Genevieve and holding on to the straps dangling from the ceiling. “We need all the admiralty together to cease hostilities against the geth!”
The shuttle shudders violently under a blast and Legion nearly topples over, “Shepard Commander, if we are destroyed this datafile will not achieve its purposes.”
“We’re almost there, Legion! Just hang on!”
“I am. I am just afraid the vessel will come apart while still holding on.”
Genevieve quirks her eyebrows as the shuttle closes in on the quarian vessel Erdritch.
“Liara still hasn’t activated the relay!” Vickers yells as a reaper ship blasts a small fighter flying right in front of their path. The reaper flies past them and towards another quarian frigate nearby.
“She’ll get it done!” Genevieve replies.
“You know, that makes me wonder something. Why don’t we just head to the Sol Relay and trigger it? Why all this chasing around for a phantom weapon?” Vickers asks looking to Genevieve who frowns. “I mean, we already have a weapon, don’t we?”
“I’ve already thought of that, Vickers,” she says. “But it’s too risky.”
“Too risky?”
“The reapers know we can change the IFFs to the relays and will be guarding the Sol Relay with every spare reaper available. If we show up there, we’ll be destroyed before we can even trigger the relay.”
“So what the hell are we going to do?! We have to get back to Earth with some kind of weapon! And if we’re too afraid to jump back to trigger the relay, then what way are we going to use to fight the reapers!?”
“I don’t have all the answers, Vickers! Hackett is bringing together all the warships available in the galaxy! We’re forging alliances and building our forces! And we’re on the trail of a weapon that can defeat the reapers!”
“We already have the weapon!”
“I’m not going to argue with you! We don’t have all the facts or the knowledge to wage a frontal assault on the reapers! So far, we’ve gotten lucky that we’ve faced only a handful of reapers and caught them by surprise! We go back to Earth now, and we have to deal with the majority of them! Yeah, they’re assaulting systems galaxy wide right now, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve seen the brunt of their forces! We have to see this through!”
“Commander!” Cortez interrupts. “We’re approaching the Erdritch’s shuttle bay! I’ve been unable to establish direct communications with anyone on board so I’m going to have to override the docking bay doors! But…I don’t know the frequencies!”
“Here, let me open it! I have access codes to the main ships’ computers!” Tali says and enters the cockpit.
She sits in the navigator’s seat and inputs some codes into the console before her. After a moment they see the docking doors open and hear alarms blaring into their comms systems.
“I take it they will be sending out a welcoming committing.”
Tali nods to Cortez, “Oh yeah.”
The shuttle slides into the docking bay and Tali closes the doors back. The group wastes no time exiting the vessel and bringing their weapons to bear. As they exit the docking bay and enter the corridors leading to the lifts, they are blocked by quarian defense teams who raise their rifles. Tali holds up her hands.
“I am Admiral Tali Zorah vas Normandy! We have to meet with Admiral Xen immediately!”
“Drop your weapons and surrender immediately! You have invaded this vessel and will be detained!”
The quarian soldiers move in from the other corridors as well and Tali turns to her allies.
“We should cooperate for now and speak to Xen.”
“Tali, there is no time for detention! We need to get to Xen or this war will continue!”
“I know that, Shepard!”
“Tali!” a voice calls out and pushes through the quarian troops and calls out to his soldiers. “Lower your weapons! There was a miscommunication in docking procedures! We have our environment suits on and are at minimal risk of infection! Besides, we’re in a war zone.”
“Kal, it’s good to see you,” Tali says walking up to the man who turns to her.
“Ma’am. I see the commander still knows how to knock.”
“Xen wasn’t answering our hails.”
“She has all external communications locked out. Only ship to ship comms. I see you brought your geth. That’s going to win you a lot of favors on board.”
“Legion has information that could change the nature of this conflict. But with the reapers out there clawing through us, there isn’t a lot of time left to explain.”
“I understand completely,” Kal Reegar says and looks to two men in charge of the defense teams. “Tr’yn, Poylers, form up two teams of six to escort Admiral Zorah and Commander Shepard to the bridge. Their group has to get to the admirals immediately.”
“Sir, with the geth on board, isn’t that a breach of our protocols?”
“He’s a special piece of hardware encrypted to spy on the geth internal affairs. He has dire information that can only be disseminated to Admiral Xen. And that means nobody gets near him. Let’s get a move on.”
“Sir!” the teams respond.
Twelve quarians take up defensive positions around the group as the remainder stay in the docking bay. The group heads towards the lifts that will take them to the bridge.
“Special piece of hardware?” Tali whispers to Kal.
“Had to tell them something. But don’t worry, you’re secret’s safe with me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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