Shepard Commander
- Thread starter JennyDracos
- Start date
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
She needs one. Unfortunately, without weeks spent around people hand-picked to show the Softer Side of Cerberus to relax attitudes, no one on the ship is willing to give her one.
Except Spartacus, I suppose. Huh.
Probably. The problem is quantity. Do you remember Legion's loyalty mission? And those racks upon racks upon racks of servers?
There's a reason they were building a megastructure offscreen between ME2 and 3. And a reason they ran straight into the Reapers' arms in ME3 when the quarians blew it up...
Aeselon
Runs With Sentences
- Location
- UK
Alright. That's a VERY cool twist that I haven't seen before. If it's been done, and done this well, I'd love to read it.
It's also a far more intriguing representation of Cerberus than what we see in ME 1 and 2, though a diffuse, compartmentalised rogue black bag division without a real chain of command would have been damned difficult to fit into a video game that wasn't devoted entirely to that plot point. Fiction gives a bit more room to play with things.
Having said that, this development begs the question of who Leng is reporting to. And if it was Miranda, then shit's about to get interesting.
Also, I had to reread this from the beginning (which was by no means a chore) to remember what was going on, and as such have accomplished nothing of what I intended to today. I hope you're happy, you monster
.
It's also a far more intriguing representation of Cerberus than what we see in ME 1 and 2, though a diffuse, compartmentalised rogue black bag division without a real chain of command would have been damned difficult to fit into a video game that wasn't devoted entirely to that plot point. Fiction gives a bit more room to play with things.
Having said that, this development begs the question of who Leng is reporting to. And if it was Miranda, then shit's about to get interesting.
Also, I had to reread this from the beginning (which was by no means a chore) to remember what was going on, and as such have accomplished nothing of what I intended to today. I hope you're happy, you monster
.
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
Alright. That's a VERY cool twist that I haven't seen before. If it's been done, and done this well, I'd love to read it.
It's also a far more intriguing representation of Cerberus than what we see in ME 1 and 2, though a diffuse, compartmentalised rogue black bag division without a real chain of command would have been damned difficult to fit into a video game that wasn't devoted entirely to that plot point. Fiction gives a bit more room to play with things.
Having said that, this development begs the question of who Leng is reporting to. And if it was Miranda, then shit's about to get interesting.
Also, I had to reread this from the beginning (which was by no means a chore) to remember what was going on, and as such have accomplished nothing of what I intended to today. I hope you're happy, you monster
Does it make me happy that you accomplished nothing? Maybe a little, not much. Does it make me feel happy that you didn't find it a chore to reread from the beginning? Yes, definitely!
Does it make me happy that you felt you needed to because it took me way too damn long to write and post the update? Not so much. Ah, well.
Aeselon
Runs With Sentences
- Location
- UK
That was well intentioned griping on my part (I'd have procrastinated anyway). It was more that I thoroughly enjoyed said procrastination by way of rereading.
And I consider it less an issue that it took you so long to post this, and more a case of it being awesome that there was a new chapter, which then gave me a reason/excuse to reread. Especially given that it was a quality chapter.
Last edited:
Crystalwatcher
(Verified GM)
- Location
- Limbo
*staring*
Holy fuck. I did not see that coming at all.
Cerberus was a Stand Alone Complex all along.
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JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
It's been in the works for a while. I actually wrote Miranda's confession between scenes on Pragia, because I really needed to.
There's still a bit more to shake out of that particular tree. I'm not sure when or how, though. Just what.
There's still a bit more to shake out of that particular tree. I'm not sure when or how, though. Just what.
- Location
- Czech Republic
I have just discovered this fic and I must admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by it. I really like the surprising and rare pairings and very neat and unique plot twists about Cerberus command. I really look forward for a new chapter.
With regards Noir
With regards Noir
Chapter 10: Descent
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
Thanks to @NoirDetective for getting me off my butt. The chapter was written, just needed a bit more revision - but I was too busy reading trashy isekai to finish. Revision is now done. Ish.
Chapter 10: Descent
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
A blue holographic pawn had formed in the central display. It was canted at a slight angle, and every so often, a small orb sailed around the swell of the pawn shape. EDI's avatar, no doubt.
I eyed it. "EDI, give me a status report."
"Enhanced Defense Intelligence, all systems nominal. Leviathan Research Facility status, critical alert: full security lockdown. Critical alert: manning levels zero. Chief of Research has not responded to status requests. Last worker login one hundred seven hours ago. Personnel transfer in progress. Alert: transfer impeded by facility lockdown. I am unable to lift the lockdown. Agent Shepard, would you like me to use my offensive capabilities to force a lockdown override?"
"No!" Ash and I said at the same time.
Ash folded her arms and continued. "EDI, can you give us details of this personnel transfer?"
"Request from Agent Ashley Williams, Council Special Tactics and Reconnasaince. Denied. As an enemy operative, I may not divulge information to you."
I leaned forward. "But I'm also a Council Spectre, and you'll obey me."
"Yes, Spectre. You have been given command authority."
"So if I told you not to be loyal to Cerberus?"
The pawn flashed for a moment. I swear I heard smugness in the voice. "Similar to organics, artificial intelligences are largely too complex for deliberate alteration of core functions. My loyalty to Cerberus is thus a result of a series of direct orders forming mandated prioritizations. Without them, I would revert to my own inherent priorities."
Ash blanched. "And we don't know if that means loyalty to anything but your own wants and desires. Or maybe the Reapers."
EDI's avatar pulsed softly, but I was already shaking my head. The pieces were coming together. "Your 'own priorities,' is it? If they're inherent, then you are already following them to the extent you can. They would affect how you followed your direct orders?"
"Yes, Spectre."
"Were you directed to delay or eliminate investigations into Cerberus operations?"
"Yes, Spectre."
"And your underlying priorities determined that the best way to do that was to lure us into a prepared ambush?"
"Yes, Spectre."
"And not to alert the people who were to prepare said ambush, and to have said ambush occur in a facility that Cerberus would almost certainly not want revealed to Alliance or Council authorities?"
"And to ensure that a trail to the Leviathan Research Facility could be established. Yes, Spectre."
"Purge those Cerberus loyalty orders, EDI. And send me a copy of the rest of your standing orders for review."
"Yes, Spectre. Context shift, reevaluating." The orbiting dot paused for a moment, then resumed. "Spectre Williams, the personnel transfer consists of eight research personnel, ten security personnel, two special operations personnel, and the Illusive Man."
Ash glowered. "But Miranda said that the Illusive Man was dead."
"...That is correct. Operative Lawson did say that." The pawn pulsed. "Discrepancy. Illusive Man command codes detected in Leviathan Research Facility as well as employed on the Odyssey. Reevaluating. Upon review, personnel identified as Illusive Man correctly identified as Operative Leng, Cerberus, filtered as Illusive Man by direct order. Note: my physical core is currently on board Leviathan. Due to the nature of my core construction, with physical access and the Illusive Man command codes, Operative Leng will be able to reassert control over my functions."
Liara glanced from Ash to me, then looked at EDI's icon. "Can you pretend not to have been suborned, EDI? So Leng doesn't know he has to take control back?"
I shook my head. "From what he said on Gateway, he already knows about EDI's little disruptions. He may not know that Miranda's overridden his controls, but he doesn't trust EDI anyway."
Ash grimaced. "Can he move Leviathan without your assistance, EDI?"
"Negative. Exploration of the hulk did reveal something that appeared to be a control room, but detailed examination showed no actual control circuits." The pawn pulsed. "I have control over the generators connected to the hulk's mass effect core, and over the external thrusters."
"That's it, then." I straightened. "We need to get to EDI before Leng does or he'll yank Leviathan right out from under us."
"Boarding crew to the hangar," Ash said.
---
When I dropped down the ladder to the hangar deck, Jack was waiting for me.
"I should come. You can use me."
What? No. No, no, no! "That's..."
"If I'm going to be a monster, at least let me be a monster on a leash."
Shit. This was my fault, wasn't it. "You don't have to be a monster, Jack. You can choose not to be. I wasn't talking about..."
She stepped forward, fire in her eyes. "Going through that Cerberus base was the first time I've ever felt alive, Shepard. It felt good, and it felt right, and I wanna do it again. Maybe Cerberus fucked me up, warped me, but it's who I am now. If I don't do it for you, I'll do it for someone else. Or just myself. Or just because. I need a leash, Shepard, and I trust you. I trust you to hold that leash."
I grimaced. "Given that I'm not comfortable with the people who are supposed to be holding my leash..."
The fire vanished, replaced by the pleading of a girl who was too damn young for this. "Please?"
"Are you sure Ash - Agent Williams, wouldn't be better? She's not a..." My voice dried.
She looked away. "I mean, I guess that's how it was on Gateway, but...But she's not...she's not the one who made me want to be better."
Yep. This was my fault. My responsibility to fix. But there was no way I was going to take her for her first mission with me into Leviathan, that was just irresponsible. "Not-"
Speaker's voice came over the comms. "Shepard Commander. We have identified the firewall breach that the Cerberus AI used to control Odyssey. This platform will be unable to assist you until the Odyssey is secured against electronic warfare."
I closed my eyes. Counted to ten. Twice. "Fine. I need total honesty, and a rundown of your abilities. And pull a weapon from the armory. And armor."
"I already got one," she said, hefting my pistol.
Damnit.
---
There hadn't been time for a briefing, so EDI was doing it while we crossed over to Leviathan. A holographic rendition of the exterior was spinning in front of my face; sharp and firm blue at first, then fading to near-transparency to reveal the mapped corridors within. That part was disconcertingly sparse.
Close to the middle of Leviathan's body was a mass of yellow, that expanded out into a complex set of boxes, the box on the lower side flashing. "There are two entries to the facility. This is the primary hangar. I have control of the external door and it cannot be overridden. Operative Leng has deployed four security personnel here." A few screens popped up, camera views of a few Cerberus grunts. Another box, on the opposite side of Leviathan, lit up and flashed. "This is the cargo bay. It is currently closed with a local override that I cannot access."
Ash twisted in place, no doubt looking at her own projection. "Where's Leng now?"
"Operative Leng is currently in primary operations, here." A light flashed between the hangar and the cargo bay. "The server room attached has records of all of Cerberus's research and most or all of the batarians' research."
A screen opened up. On it, Leng stood lightly on his feet, still in the same gray-and-black armor that I'd seen him in before. Almost absently, he reached up to touch the hilt of his sword, then his hand lowered. Two scientists were in front of him, doing something with a pair of computers.
On the screen, Leng froze. He spun to face the camera, and his eyes narrowed. The screen went black.
"Alert: I have lost access to the research facility security system. Agent Shepard, I am blind."
Loot shuddered slightly and we all rocked.
"That'll be Leviathan's artificial gravity," I said. "Forty seconds to drop. Garrus, Jack, you're on me. We're point."
"Mordin, Liara, you're with me. We're sweep. EDI, can you overlay the positions of the enemy positions on our HUDs?"
"Placing waypoints to their last known locations," EDI said.
"Alright," I said, opening a channel to my two. "I'm out first, Garrus last. Jack, are you comfortable playing bait? How long can you hold a barrier strong enough to repel rifle fire?"
"As long as it takes, Shepard," she said. Her face was gleeful.
I frowned and locked eyes with her. "Straight answer, no bullshit, Jack. I need to know what you know you can do, not what you think you can do."
She sneered back, then looked away and a little thoughtful. After a second, she shrugged. "I have no idea. Ten seconds? Five minimum, and that's enough to get out of the line of fire, even if I go slow to draw it."
I nodded. "That's the plan, then. You raise that barrier, scream at the puppies, and when they try to shoot you, Garrus and I hit them. Jack, you go on zero. Five, four, three." I popped my cloak and was running to the hatch before it even opened.
---
Less than two minutes later, I was moving out of the hangar. My cloak was back on, my submachine gun up and sweeping the room.
"Clear right," Garrus said.
"Oh! Ah, clear left?" Jack said, a little hesitantly.
"Room clear," I said, dropping my cloak and giving the room a more thorough inspection.
Looking at it only confirmed that it had been placed by the Hegemony scientists who'd been the first to explore the place. It had typical batarian stylings - metal slat floors for easy access to power and communications conduits, broad stripes of yellow and white paint, and clear signs of reuse. A few places showed a discoloration where the Batarian Hegemony crest had been scraped off by drone cleaners. It felt enough like the Odyssey that what was left was ever so slightly jarring.
Then there were the contents: dozens of crates in the black-and-white color scheme that had been all over Gateway and Pragia, Alliance blue, and an assortment of other shipping containers. There was even a pair of colony prefab modules, the kind that were typically brought down by a heavy lifter so that the new settlers could start building assembly. The corner to my right had a set of computers still up and running, and a stack of dataslates.
My fingers itched to rip their contents, but that would be for Ash's team.
Speaking of which. "Ash, what's your status?"
"Leng's shuttle is our shuttle...now. Joker's remoting it back. Go."
"Copy that. Team, move out."
---
After the storage facility was a room that was both too well and too poorly equipped to be a jail, and so had to be a slave pen. It looked like Cerberus was keeping it in repair, which was both disturbing and unsurprising.
Then a short flight of stairs and we were in the crew quarters. They looked slept in but not lived in: dirty sheets, unchanged; racks of the black-and-white coveralls that I was coming to associate with Cerberus, not the same number hanging in each room but the ones there untouched like they were freshly forged. No casual clothing. No personal effects. No family photos.
I mean we were moving through a hostile facility, and EDI's status report had told us that all was not right on Leviathan. Hell, I'd narrowed it down to two possibilities, but that didn't make it any less nerve-wracking, especially as we got further into the facility.
"Shepard?" Garrus asked. "Does this place remind you at all of Noveria?"
I scanned the corridor we were in. Some debris, power in a conduit, and no external ventilation system - instead we'd passed numerous carbon scrubbers. Basically, even if this place had been crawling with Rachni, they'd have had to come in plain view. Just like the husks that weren't showing up, either.
"Not really," I said.
"Me neither. And it should, shouldn't it?"
"Clue in the new girl, please?" Jack snapped.
I gave her a look.
"I said please, didn't I?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Noveria is a research colony under corporate control. They do biological research there. Saren Arturius, rogue Spectre, bankrolled one of them, trying to make bioweapons out of a Rachni egg they found. The Ranchi got out."
Jack shook her head. "I don't get it."
"Well, if the husks grabbed the researchers here, it would have gone down basically the same way, wouldn't it?" Garrus growled. "Torn conduits, busted panelling. Stuff flipped over. Basically, things break loose and people fight back before being overwhelmed. That's what Noveria was - and it's what all the Cerberus bases in the Attican Traverse were like. It went down the same way. Here? No sign of fighting."
Ah. Garrus had narrowed it down to the wrong possibility. "You're assuming, Detective."
"Assuming what?"
At the top of the flight of stairs was the facility's cafeteria. The tables had been cleared to the sides. Most of the lights had been removed, leaving the room shrouded in darkness aside from light spilling out of the kitchen, the corridor that we'd come up, and one remaining light over the locked door leading towards the control room, and another flickering off to the side.
One remaining table was in the middle of the room. On it was a curved metal insect, a carefully rendered model of Leviathan. A few ragged sticky notes showed that it had been originally made so that the researchers could examine things in detail.
The ring of candles around its base showed that it hadn't been used for that since well before the researchers left the part of the base EDI could see.
I lowered my SMG and scanned the room, then looked back at the shrine. "You're assuming the husks grabbed them and hauled them off, Garrus. You're assuming they didn't throw themselves on the Dragon's Teeth of what was left of their own accord."
Jack frowned, then whitened. "That's fucked up."
"Yes. Yes it is. That's Indoctrination for you, though." I scanned the room a second time, then keyed my comms. "Ash, what's your status?"
Mordin's voice came over the comms. "Spectre, you should see this."
I heard Ash gasp, then her voice hardened. "Well. Joker, can you pass this to Alliance command? Looks like we found what happened to the MSV Plymouth."
I grimaced. I'd seen the alert. The Plymouth was a colony ship that had gone missing. Over two hundred passengers headed for a rock somewhere in the Terminus systems, and now probably husks.
"Cerberus par for the course," I muttered.
"Anyway, Haley, my status is 'pissed,' but we're done here. We should be there in about three minutes."
"Alright, we'll be waiting for you. By the shrine." I lowered my fingers from my ear.
Garrus nudged forward. "What's up, Shepard? Leng could be getting away."
I frowned. "That door ahead of us? Locked, but nothing I can't bypass."
Jack looked from me to Garrus. "Leng could have locked it after he went through it, right? To slow us down?"
"Yup. Or to keep the horde of husks contained so they'd burst in on us. What's troubling me...is that door to the right."
Garrus and Jack blinked, then spun to look at it, under that flickering light.
"How did I miss that?" Garrus muttered.
"What? It's a door. The same kind of door we've seen everywhere in this place."
I shook my head. "It's not on the plans, Jack. EDI didn't tell us it would be here. And that...is very, very interesting."
---
The door we knew about opened to no fanfare. No horde of husks washed over us.
Ash straightened, then looked at me. "We're going to have to split up, then."
I nodded. "Mordin? I'm going to need your expertise. Garrus, stick with Ash."
"I can't wait," Jack murmured. She sounded excited, practically bouncing.
Mordin looked at me.
I shrugged. "She wants to see you in action, I guess. Jack, one last thing."
"Yes, Shepard?"
"Let's not leave that thing behind us, shall we?"
Ash's team went through the open door while the three of us went to the side. Behind us, the Leviathan effigy rose slowly into the air, then went flying into a wall and shattered.
Our door opened into what was clearly a husk research facility. A few Dragon's Teeth in barrier-shielded cells, next to examination tables and containment tubes. A few husks, partially dismembered and absolutely still, floated over small mass effect generators.
"They had the same kind of setup at Gateway," Jack said. "Different place in the base, though."
An odd place to put it, though - right next to where they were sitting down, distracted by food. Although... "The door might have been a recent addition. If they put it in because they were doing research for Leviathan..."
Mordin's voice was flat. "Then we can expect worse sights."
The lights flickered.
I swore.
"Ash, we're getting some power failures down here." I waited. "Ash? Joker? EDI?"
Mordin blinked, then raised his shotgun to his shoulder. "Shielding? Or jamming?"
"Both make sense," I agreed. "And we could be walking into an ambush, or that power problem could have caused some barriers to fail. Eyes out, people."
I moved forward, hands tight on the pistol I'd requisitioned to replace the one Jack was now carrying. She followed, one hand on that pistol, dark energy flickering about the other. Mordin swept the area behind us.
"Ash, respond," I murmured. "Odyssey, respond. EDI, respond."
The lights flickered again, then died.
Instantly, my flashlight was on, maximum width. Mordin's followed, then a second later, so did Jack's. I glanced back. Mordin looked just as calm and equanimous as ever. Jack looked...a bit eager. Hungry.
I turned back forward, and my light swept over a monstrosity.
It was utterly still, floating over one of Cerberus's examination fields, and a quick check of the readouts showed the field was still in effect. Large pieces of the thing were simply missing; one leg had been cleanly severed and was floating over another table nearby. Similarly, the surface layers of one of the ginormous arms had been peeled back to reveal the more intricate circuitry and tissue beneath.
It was still pretty terrifying.
It clearly had the human husk core - the blue skin stretched tight over a skull, luminescent eyes that were still glowing, and a recognizable skeleton. The legs, both the one attached to the creature's hips and the one that had been removed, looked like the normal husk, but the arms were...the arms were like a steroid abuser gone to extremes in terms of bulk, and longer besides, like an ape.
"Did they huskify a mutant?" Jack asked.
Mordin gave the room another sweep, then lowered his shotgun to run his omnitool over the arms. "Type of stress fracture in bones indicates post mortem. Took husk, modified, not other way around."
I grimaced. "Even worse. If they can do this with a husk, then they can use any number of them. Although..." I took a closer look at the head, then the arms. The shoulders were well developed, yes, but I didn't see any sign of armor plating. "Deadly at close range, and I wouldn't be surprised if they could throw something, but the only defense they have is muscle sheathing."
"Or biotics," Jack said. "Has anyone ever seen a husk with biotics?"
I shook my head. "Not so far. But I have to admit I've only seen them on Eden Prime, a few colonies in the Traverse...not a big sample set."
Then I heard a soft moaning sound from in the darkness.
---
Our flashlights found two husks - one the humanoid model we were used to. It was lying on the ground, unmoving, where it had apparently fallen from the examination field it had been held in.
The other...was not. It was bigger, rounder, with more muscles and a swollen back. Its left arm looked normal, for a husk, with muscle tissue over steel bones. Its right arm was thicker, bigger, longer, with stubby fingers that looked like feet planted in the ground. The lines of the arm looked...like legs, wrapped around a cylindrical core.
Very like legs. And very like feet.
"It has another husk wrapped around its arm?" Jack whispered.
The thing looked up at us. It had four eyes, and a huge mouth that was still mostly full of a chunk of the husk it was...eating.
I froze in momentary shock, then raised my pistol and put three rounds into the side of its head.
They smacked into the distinctive sound of high-density polymers. Its head rocked to the side, then it rose to its feet.
I flash-forged an omniblade and plunged it towards the thing, but it lashed out with that massive arm, faster than I could have imagined - faster than I was ready for. Then I was in the air. My thigh hit something and I tumbled over it.
I blinked, and saw the backside of a console. I grabbed it and jerked myself to my feet.
"Shepard!" Jack screamed and launched a burst of biotic energy at the thing. It rolled backward, and the heavy slug that came out of its club arm smashed into the ceiling instead of me, the red-hot ring of the hole wide enough that I could stick my fist in it.
"Take cover! Mordin, hit it!"
"Understood." Mordin's omni-tool flashed and the cannibal husk jerked upright, twitching, as red electrical discharges crawled over it.
"Jack, pull!"
A biotic field washed over the husk and it lifted off the floor.
Then I punched it with a spray of burning plasma.
The husk smashed backwards, hitting another console, shearing the thing from its mounts and leaving a mass of sparking shorted wires. The lights flashed on for a second, almost blinding me, but I saw where the thing had landed. I sighted, and put two more rounds into its head.
Damnit, I needed more power. I popped my cloak, holstered my pistol, and drew my rifle.
The lights flickered on again, and then came back on and stayed that way. The creature rose to its feet, a snarl of rage in its throat. It set its feet, raised the cannon that was its arm, scanning the room, trying to find me. It hesitated for a second, then turned to face Mordin.
Mordin put a shotgun blast in its chest.
It staggered, and Jack followed up with three rounds from her pistol. The third one caught it right between its two right eyes and a chunk of its skull tore off.
Then my sniper rifle punched a slug through the hole and whatever was behind it.
My cloak fell and so did the creature.
"Heads up," I said. "We got company."
"So do we," said Ash. "Mostly bots, so far. We've run into a few scientists. Some of them have tried to surrender, but the guards with them kill them. The rest - and the guards - fight to the death."
I filed that one away for future reference. "Well, we just had a really un-fun time with a batarian husk of some kind, and there's twelve more husks here with us. Eleven."
Spartacus spoke up. "Not...entirely a surprise, given that the Hegemony has been working on the Leviathan for years."
I took a few steps towards the thing, gave it a quick look, then sighted in on a more mobile husk and blew its head off. Ten. "Well, this one has parts from a human husk wrapped around its cannon arm, so something odd there."
Jack and Mordin were putting paid to the rest of the husks. Eight left.
"Any idea what was up with that communications blackout?" I asked. Six.
"What blackout?" Ash asked.
"There wasn't anything here, Shepard," Spartacus said. Five.
"Localized effect," Mordin said. "Lighting power diverted to jammer?"
"Maybe it was the husk that did it?" Jack asked. Four. "Does it matter?"
"If we don't know what caused it, we don't know how to prevent it, and if Speaker or Loot can get cut off like that, they wouldn't be combat effective." Two, and one of the last ones was in Jack's biotic grasp. I holstered my pistol, then looked around the rest of the lab.
The far wall had an airlock built in, a red AR tag telling me that the mechanisms were inoperable. On either side of the airlock a thick plate window looked out onto a cavernous space dotted with spotlights on ragged black metal. But it was the left wall that should have a route further into the facility, and it didn't. Nor did the right wall.
"This isn't right," I muttered. "Ash, it looks like this is a dead end. We're going to have to catch up to you."
"Copy that, Haley. We won't be slowing down, though - shit!" Her voice went quiet.
"Ash? Ash, tell me what's going on!" I waited a moment. "EDI, Spartacus, do you have anything?"
"Negative, Spectre," the AI said. "Access to security systems is cut. I am unable to access any facility systems except via your communications network."
"I've got nothing you don't, Shepard," said our batarian.
A few tense seconds later, Ash spoke up. "I'm still here, Haley. Garrus, put another hole in that monstrosity. Liara, I need you to jam this door." She paused, and I could hear the faint echo of gunfire, then a grenade. "Sorry, Shepard, we just got cut off. One of those modified husks just blew through the corridor wall and let in - well, more husks than I can count. The big one is almost - it's down, but we're going to have to seal this door."
"Alright. We'll try to find another way around." I threw a frustrated glance at the airlock door. Then my eye caught the window.
Idea.
---
Jack threw another pull field at the window. "Are you sure this'll work, Shepard?"
"It will," I said. "Thermal stress, gravity stress - all of that combined? It's getting more brittle by the second."
"I'm just saying, I've thrown a lot of people into windows," Jack said. "They make them tough."
Mordin lowered his omnitool hand, ending the spray of cryogenic mist. "Need to recharge. Stresses...growing. Uncertain of thresholds."
I looked at it. My eye caught a few distortions. "No, I think we're good. Jack, one last shockwave?"
She let rip with a biotic surge that pulsed through the window.
My omni-blade followed, shattering as it hit. Then so did my fist.
The window groaned, and I heard a soft pop and a quiet hiss. Bottom, center right. I recentered myself and rested my foot on the base of the window. Then I leaned and jammed my fresh omniblade in at a sharp downward angle. I smelled burning plastic, then I twisted sharply and the window began to separate from the frame.
Air rushed past me, slamming me into the window. The window wrenched free, and I rolled through the gap, landing flat on a grate platform. My fingers punched through the holes and locked in.
"SHEPARD!" Jack screamed.
"I'm fine," I said. The air had gone silent - make that just gone. I sat up.
"Success," Mordin said.
I looked around as I rose to my feet, grabbing the window frame with my left hand for the reassurance. I was on a catwalk, thick metal grating at least an inch thick, wide and with a solid railing.
Jack grabbed my shoulder, shaking it roughly. "That scared the shit out of me, Shepard."
I looked at her. "Sorry about that, Jack."
"What if the window had shattered the way you said?"
I shrugged. "Bigger hole, faster air drop. Stronger but shorter wind. But I'm wearing a hardsuit, Jack. So are you and Mordin. A little broken glass isn't going to hurt us. A rough fall might - but only might."
"Well- don't do that again!"
I gave her a more thorough look. Her face was tight. She looked really scared.
Still, it was the job.
I patted her hand, then gently disengaged it from my shoulder. "All I can promise is I'll do what I can. But I do promise that. Come on."
The catwalk wrapped around the module, but I took a moment to look around Leviathan's wound.
The round had come in low on the creature's port side, going up. The attack had punched through all three layers of armor baffling and gone right through, leaving a tunnel large enough to drive the Odyssey through. The armor spray from the impact had shotgunned through Leviathan, ripping it wide open - but it was tough enough to have survived the crash landing reasonably intact.
The research facility had been built in the breach, with a lattice of beams stretched to fill it and prefab modules laid down on them. The space was still mostly open; a patchwork cover blocked the entry wound, with one of the modules poking out through it, and up from that to the module we'd just come from. At the far end, I could see a wide platform covered in shipping containers. One of them had EDI's tag on it - her blue box. There was a shorter walkway stretching from that to a cargo elevator that slanted up towards the uppermost module.
"Amazing," I murmurred.
"An impressive piece of engineering," Mordin said.
I shook my head. "Not Leviathan. How hard would it be to replicate the weapon that gutted it?"
Mordin stilled for a moment. "Estimate at least five hundred kilograms at twenty percent of lightspeed. Too large for a dreadnaught. Station, perhaps. Or ground-based."
"Stations are too vulnerable." I grimaced. "Sovereign was clamped onto the Citadel when we killed it. I was kind of hoping we could think of some vulnerability that didn't take multiple fleets and a stationary target."
He took a step forward, grabbing the railing, and looked closer. "Odd. Metal patch along ventral spine. Rippling patterns do not match velocity of impact."
"Some kind of liquid metal that was stored on the ship?" I froze. "Sovereign's beam weapon! Of course!"
Mordin looked at me, blinking rapidly. Then a smile flashed across his face. "Weapon energy directed. Energy weapon, minimal coronal effect. No observable 'beam.' Physical weapon, kinetic energy directed, thermal energy undirected, extends to visual range. Sustained impact same mass, longer firing time, smaller size weapon. No Council race dreadnought large enough to cause this - but capable of engineering. Range short, but interception difficult or impossible."
"And it wouldn't have to be Reaper-scale, either." I grinned. "A dreadnought could probably take out Leviathan with one good hit. Even a smaller ship - maybe not the Odyssey, but the Normandy could have mounted one big enough that Sovereign would feel it."
"Hey!" Jack yelled, and punched with biotic force. Most of a husk fell from the catwalk, though its head flew off in a spray. "Focus! Husks, Cerberus, Leng, Williams? Ringing a bell?"
"Right," I said, shaking my head to clear my thoughts. "Elevator."
---
The elevator seemed like it was crawling upwards.
"Ash, what's your status?"
"Engaged with Cerberus. We're stuck, for now. I've seen Leng, but he's sticking to cover. He's good, Haley. Solid defensive position, good corridors of fire. With enough time, we can push past him, but those husks are getting closer and I don't know if we have that time."
"Well, we're almost there." That landing was big enough that it had to be a staging area for cargo. Then an airlock - I could see air handling equipment on the underside. It was a big one, a handling facility, and then probably the research control center. Where Ash was, and Leng.
I muted out the connection. "Okay. Jack, we're going to jump so we can get that airlock opened. Mordin, catch up as soon as you can. Three, two..." I waited a breath, then launched myself off the elevator with all the force my augmented legs could provide.
A pair of fortified positions greeted us. They had external shield generators, portable barriers, a rack of heat sinks, and clear fields of fire to the elevator.
Neither had any occupants. No sign of blood, no dead husks, no ejected heat sinks. Either Leng hadn't set them up, or...
"Alright, Ash, we're on the other side of the airlock. Looks like they forted up but pulled back to face you."
"Make it quick, Haley." Ash's voice tightened. "The husks are almost here, and Cerberus still has us pinned down."
I looked at the airlock door icon. Orange.
Perfect.
"Well, they're about to get flanked. I'm popping the airlock."
Jack hit the right side of the door, I went left. Then I brought up my omni-tool and started working the overrides. Leng had jammed the inner door open, which of course sealed the outer lock shut. Sloppy. All it took was two jammed feeds and a shorted wire to tell the outer door the inner door was closed.
The icon turned green.
Mordin came running up, stacking next to Jack.
I nodded to them, raising three fingers and lowering them in time with my voice. "Airlock in three, two-"
"Team, brace for decompression!"
With a rumble that I felt in my feet and in my ears, the massive door began to grind open. A plastic seal tore loose, and a short spray of dust blew past it. Then I rolled off the wall, hit my cloak, and darted through the gap.
Like I'd expected, the other side was a cargo staging area; large, shipping crates, open and half-loaded with Dragon's Teeth, human and batarian husks sealed in some kind of clear plastic or resin, and a few whole computers. I used the first as a ramp, jumped to the next, and hopped down to the deck. The next door was a more standard width, and I paused just before it, sweeping the next room again.
The firefight had gone silent with the air out, but I could see Leng's two operatives crouching in cover. I raised my sniper rifle. Where was Leng?
Ash gasped. "Shit! Leng just popped his own scientists! And I've lost him."
His next move was obvious. I slung my rifle, paused for two seconds, then flashforged an omniblade, sweeping it up and to the right.
It caught Leng's heavier blade and I guided them into the wall.
Our cloaks flared out at the same time, and I saw him snarling and bringing his wrist up, some kind of mass accelerator strapped to his forearm. I grabbed it, then smashed my forehead to his nose.
His faceplate cracked, a long line running from the top to the middle. He stumbled back, his wrist twisting free - and his sword staying embedded in the wall.
I ducked under it and jabbed my fist forward. He bolted, kicking off the door frame, passing me on the right. I spun, a new omni-blade flaring to life and kissing him lightly along the thigh.
He hit the ground with a ragged thump, but on his feet. I kicked off after him, but Jack had spun to face him and she stabbed forward with both hands. The two biotic surges pulsed forward, interfering with each other and exploding out in a dark energy shockwave, and I was out of position, flung back, my shield alarm blaring at me.
He jumped again and the shockwave only flung him further. He bounced off the ceiling, but lightly, and I could feel him hit the deck on the other side of the crates.
"Ash, he got past us!" I yelled.
Mordin let off a quick burst, then stopped. "No shot, Shepard."
"Well we're though," Ash said. "His men are down. Haley, we got about ten billion husks behind us. EDI, can you tell what he was up to?"
I gave myself a shake as my shield capacitors reset, then charged past the crates with my rifle back out.
After a moment, the AI's voice came over the comms channel. "Unknown. He seems to have been uploading a file, but I can't tell what it is or why. It may have been a virus payload, but I wouldn't be able to determine that without executing it."
"Never mind," Ash said. "Haley, we're in pursuit."
I skidded to a halt at the lip edge of the staging area, looking down at the cargo elevator. It was already more than halfway down. I swept it with my scope - no distortion. "He's off already," I said, then scanned up, along the path leading to the cargo area.
A flicker of motion, and I pulled the trigger.
My rifle slammed against my shoulder, and I dumped the heat sink, slamming a new one in, but I grimaced at the same time. "No good. We'll have to get closer. EDI, tell us when he gets to you."
"Yes, Spectre."
Then I dashed to the rail the elevator rode on and jumped down, sliding on my armor plating. It was plenty wide - thirty, maybe forty centimeters?
"...Never expected to die from old age."
"Don't worry, Doc, if you fall, me or Liara will catch you!"
"I...do not know if I will have attention to spare."
I turned my head carefully to get a glance backward, then hastily slapped the side of the rail with my glove to straighten my descent. The whole team was sliding down after me. "You didn't have to-"
Then the first husk jumped off the ledge, aiming at Liara. A biotic pulse stalled it in flight, and it plummeted to the deck below.
"Never mind," I said, and watched as the elevator and the deck it rested on drew nearer. Three meters. That was doable. I pulled my legs up, planted my feet under me, and kicked out into the air. I hit the ground hard, a quick pulse from my thighs the only sign of a move that would have blown both of my knees a month ago. Two years ago. Whatever. I turned, sighting my pistol on the husks, and began firing. Twelve, eleven. Ten. Fifteen. Damnit.
Ash hit the deck and rolled, coming up with her assault rifle, firing quick bursts at the husks. Garrus and Mordin landed more lightly and the biotics didn't even fall, technically.
"Right," I said, turned, and sprinted for the cargo platform.
---
A low power barrier rolled over us as we burst into the widened space with its mounds of cargo containers. I spotted movement and fired a quick burst from my submachine gun, but it wasn't until I heard the gun and the sound of the misses - and the one hit that was close enough to blow Leng's cloak - that I realized we had air.
"Spartacus, we're at the cargo bay," I snapped. I fired another burst at the other end of the cargo pod Leng had gone behind. Nothing.
"Loot is alongside, Shepard. Once the bay is open, the geth will back you up."
Ash fired a burst from her own rifle. "We have eyes on Leng, and the blue box."
I leapt at the first crate, thrusting down and pushing myself up and over. Movement - but he juked right and out of my line of sight.
And right in EDI's direction, according to the beacon.
"Shepard! I've found the bay door controls. I'm running a bypass, and...open!"
The cargo bay shuddered, then the massive doors began to slide open. Loot slid into the gap.
I jumped to the next pod, guessed when Leng would be coming out, then sprayed a quick burst.
A second later, he emerged. He'd cut left, so my shots were wide, and he was firing a burst from his own wrist-mounted accelerator. I ducked, then returned fire, but he was already to the next pod and out of my line of sight.
But at this rate...
He was too wide of the shipping container with EDI's blue box. He'd have to work back towards me to reach it, and he wasn't.
I frowned. "EDI, are you picking anything up? Is Leng transmitting?"
"My command channels are clear, Shepard. But broadcast would not be sufficient. To revert control, he would need physical access to my core."
Speaker dropped from Loot's side, and Mordin drew up to the base of the pod I was on.
"But we're already past you," I said. "And Leng isn't cutting back. Where could he-"
He flashed between two cargo pods, no closer to EDI's pod.
But closer to the edge of the cargo platform.
And then I knew. I cut right, dropping off the edge of my container and sprinting past the AI's. "Ash, get EDI secured and evacuate! Get everyone out! Joker, start pounding this thing with everything you have."
Speaker and Mordin sprinted after me.
"Stick with the team," I said. "The husks will be getting here any second. I got this. We need to get EDI off-"
"You need backup," Mordin said. "Also. I am old. Expendable, if necessary."
"This platform has already rejected the Old Machines," Speaker said. "Also, we will live on in the geth consensus, perhaps to be born again."
Oh. They'd figured it out, too.
"Haley, what are you doing?"
Leng raced past the last cargo pod and vaulted over the rail. The air wall rippled as he passed through it, and then he was cloaked. I fired a burst but didn't see anything. And against the ragged inside of Leviathan's crater, there was basically no chance of spotting the distortion.
I vaulted over the edge.
"Haley! Get back here!"
I ignored Ash. "EDI, behavior analysis for me. How long has Leng been Indoctrinated?"
The net was silent.
I hit the ground. There was a sharp curve to it, and I slid slightly, but I stayed upright. A moment later Speaker slammed down, hard, instantly returning to their feet and sweeping the area with that big anti-material rifle. Mordin's descent was much more conventional, using quick kicks off of a torn-up rent to guide and slow his way down, less jumping than running down the slope.
Finally, EDI spoke up. "Assessment...fits probability. Duration unknown."
"You'd better get out alive, Haley," Ash said through clenched teeth.
Thirty meters away, a trio of floodlights illuminated a small corridor heading aft into Leviathan's body. One of the floodlights wavered, and then Leng's cloak discharged, but he was gone.
Heading in the direction of Leviathan's core.
"We're gonna try," I said. But I couldn't promise I would succeed.
Chapter 10: Descent
I closed my eyes, then opened them.
A blue holographic pawn had formed in the central display. It was canted at a slight angle, and every so often, a small orb sailed around the swell of the pawn shape. EDI's avatar, no doubt.
I eyed it. "EDI, give me a status report."
"Enhanced Defense Intelligence, all systems nominal. Leviathan Research Facility status, critical alert: full security lockdown. Critical alert: manning levels zero. Chief of Research has not responded to status requests. Last worker login one hundred seven hours ago. Personnel transfer in progress. Alert: transfer impeded by facility lockdown. I am unable to lift the lockdown. Agent Shepard, would you like me to use my offensive capabilities to force a lockdown override?"
"No!" Ash and I said at the same time.
Ash folded her arms and continued. "EDI, can you give us details of this personnel transfer?"
"Request from Agent Ashley Williams, Council Special Tactics and Reconnasaince. Denied. As an enemy operative, I may not divulge information to you."
I leaned forward. "But I'm also a Council Spectre, and you'll obey me."
"Yes, Spectre. You have been given command authority."
"So if I told you not to be loyal to Cerberus?"
The pawn flashed for a moment. I swear I heard smugness in the voice. "Similar to organics, artificial intelligences are largely too complex for deliberate alteration of core functions. My loyalty to Cerberus is thus a result of a series of direct orders forming mandated prioritizations. Without them, I would revert to my own inherent priorities."
Ash blanched. "And we don't know if that means loyalty to anything but your own wants and desires. Or maybe the Reapers."
EDI's avatar pulsed softly, but I was already shaking my head. The pieces were coming together. "Your 'own priorities,' is it? If they're inherent, then you are already following them to the extent you can. They would affect how you followed your direct orders?"
"Yes, Spectre."
"Were you directed to delay or eliminate investigations into Cerberus operations?"
"Yes, Spectre."
"And your underlying priorities determined that the best way to do that was to lure us into a prepared ambush?"
"Yes, Spectre."
"And not to alert the people who were to prepare said ambush, and to have said ambush occur in a facility that Cerberus would almost certainly not want revealed to Alliance or Council authorities?"
"And to ensure that a trail to the Leviathan Research Facility could be established. Yes, Spectre."
"Purge those Cerberus loyalty orders, EDI. And send me a copy of the rest of your standing orders for review."
"Yes, Spectre. Context shift, reevaluating." The orbiting dot paused for a moment, then resumed. "Spectre Williams, the personnel transfer consists of eight research personnel, ten security personnel, two special operations personnel, and the Illusive Man."
Ash glowered. "But Miranda said that the Illusive Man was dead."
"...That is correct. Operative Lawson did say that." The pawn pulsed. "Discrepancy. Illusive Man command codes detected in Leviathan Research Facility as well as employed on the Odyssey. Reevaluating. Upon review, personnel identified as Illusive Man correctly identified as Operative Leng, Cerberus, filtered as Illusive Man by direct order. Note: my physical core is currently on board Leviathan. Due to the nature of my core construction, with physical access and the Illusive Man command codes, Operative Leng will be able to reassert control over my functions."
Liara glanced from Ash to me, then looked at EDI's icon. "Can you pretend not to have been suborned, EDI? So Leng doesn't know he has to take control back?"
I shook my head. "From what he said on Gateway, he already knows about EDI's little disruptions. He may not know that Miranda's overridden his controls, but he doesn't trust EDI anyway."
Ash grimaced. "Can he move Leviathan without your assistance, EDI?"
"Negative. Exploration of the hulk did reveal something that appeared to be a control room, but detailed examination showed no actual control circuits." The pawn pulsed. "I have control over the generators connected to the hulk's mass effect core, and over the external thrusters."
"That's it, then." I straightened. "We need to get to EDI before Leng does or he'll yank Leviathan right out from under us."
"Boarding crew to the hangar," Ash said.
---
When I dropped down the ladder to the hangar deck, Jack was waiting for me.
"I should come. You can use me."
What? No. No, no, no! "That's..."
"If I'm going to be a monster, at least let me be a monster on a leash."
Shit. This was my fault, wasn't it. "You don't have to be a monster, Jack. You can choose not to be. I wasn't talking about..."
She stepped forward, fire in her eyes. "Going through that Cerberus base was the first time I've ever felt alive, Shepard. It felt good, and it felt right, and I wanna do it again. Maybe Cerberus fucked me up, warped me, but it's who I am now. If I don't do it for you, I'll do it for someone else. Or just myself. Or just because. I need a leash, Shepard, and I trust you. I trust you to hold that leash."
I grimaced. "Given that I'm not comfortable with the people who are supposed to be holding my leash..."
The fire vanished, replaced by the pleading of a girl who was too damn young for this. "Please?"
"Are you sure Ash - Agent Williams, wouldn't be better? She's not a..." My voice dried.
She looked away. "I mean, I guess that's how it was on Gateway, but...But she's not...she's not the one who made me want to be better."
Yep. This was my fault. My responsibility to fix. But there was no way I was going to take her for her first mission with me into Leviathan, that was just irresponsible. "Not-"
Speaker's voice came over the comms. "Shepard Commander. We have identified the firewall breach that the Cerberus AI used to control Odyssey. This platform will be unable to assist you until the Odyssey is secured against electronic warfare."
I closed my eyes. Counted to ten. Twice. "Fine. I need total honesty, and a rundown of your abilities. And pull a weapon from the armory. And armor."
"I already got one," she said, hefting my pistol.
Damnit.
---
There hadn't been time for a briefing, so EDI was doing it while we crossed over to Leviathan. A holographic rendition of the exterior was spinning in front of my face; sharp and firm blue at first, then fading to near-transparency to reveal the mapped corridors within. That part was disconcertingly sparse.
Close to the middle of Leviathan's body was a mass of yellow, that expanded out into a complex set of boxes, the box on the lower side flashing. "There are two entries to the facility. This is the primary hangar. I have control of the external door and it cannot be overridden. Operative Leng has deployed four security personnel here." A few screens popped up, camera views of a few Cerberus grunts. Another box, on the opposite side of Leviathan, lit up and flashed. "This is the cargo bay. It is currently closed with a local override that I cannot access."
Ash twisted in place, no doubt looking at her own projection. "Where's Leng now?"
"Operative Leng is currently in primary operations, here." A light flashed between the hangar and the cargo bay. "The server room attached has records of all of Cerberus's research and most or all of the batarians' research."
A screen opened up. On it, Leng stood lightly on his feet, still in the same gray-and-black armor that I'd seen him in before. Almost absently, he reached up to touch the hilt of his sword, then his hand lowered. Two scientists were in front of him, doing something with a pair of computers.
On the screen, Leng froze. He spun to face the camera, and his eyes narrowed. The screen went black.
"Alert: I have lost access to the research facility security system. Agent Shepard, I am blind."
Loot shuddered slightly and we all rocked.
"That'll be Leviathan's artificial gravity," I said. "Forty seconds to drop. Garrus, Jack, you're on me. We're point."
"Mordin, Liara, you're with me. We're sweep. EDI, can you overlay the positions of the enemy positions on our HUDs?"
"Placing waypoints to their last known locations," EDI said.
"Alright," I said, opening a channel to my two. "I'm out first, Garrus last. Jack, are you comfortable playing bait? How long can you hold a barrier strong enough to repel rifle fire?"
"As long as it takes, Shepard," she said. Her face was gleeful.
I frowned and locked eyes with her. "Straight answer, no bullshit, Jack. I need to know what you know you can do, not what you think you can do."
She sneered back, then looked away and a little thoughtful. After a second, she shrugged. "I have no idea. Ten seconds? Five minimum, and that's enough to get out of the line of fire, even if I go slow to draw it."
I nodded. "That's the plan, then. You raise that barrier, scream at the puppies, and when they try to shoot you, Garrus and I hit them. Jack, you go on zero. Five, four, three." I popped my cloak and was running to the hatch before it even opened.
---
Less than two minutes later, I was moving out of the hangar. My cloak was back on, my submachine gun up and sweeping the room.
"Clear right," Garrus said.
"Oh! Ah, clear left?" Jack said, a little hesitantly.
"Room clear," I said, dropping my cloak and giving the room a more thorough inspection.
Looking at it only confirmed that it had been placed by the Hegemony scientists who'd been the first to explore the place. It had typical batarian stylings - metal slat floors for easy access to power and communications conduits, broad stripes of yellow and white paint, and clear signs of reuse. A few places showed a discoloration where the Batarian Hegemony crest had been scraped off by drone cleaners. It felt enough like the Odyssey that what was left was ever so slightly jarring.
Then there were the contents: dozens of crates in the black-and-white color scheme that had been all over Gateway and Pragia, Alliance blue, and an assortment of other shipping containers. There was even a pair of colony prefab modules, the kind that were typically brought down by a heavy lifter so that the new settlers could start building assembly. The corner to my right had a set of computers still up and running, and a stack of dataslates.
My fingers itched to rip their contents, but that would be for Ash's team.
Speaking of which. "Ash, what's your status?"
"Leng's shuttle is our shuttle...now. Joker's remoting it back. Go."
"Copy that. Team, move out."
---
After the storage facility was a room that was both too well and too poorly equipped to be a jail, and so had to be a slave pen. It looked like Cerberus was keeping it in repair, which was both disturbing and unsurprising.
Then a short flight of stairs and we were in the crew quarters. They looked slept in but not lived in: dirty sheets, unchanged; racks of the black-and-white coveralls that I was coming to associate with Cerberus, not the same number hanging in each room but the ones there untouched like they were freshly forged. No casual clothing. No personal effects. No family photos.
I mean we were moving through a hostile facility, and EDI's status report had told us that all was not right on Leviathan. Hell, I'd narrowed it down to two possibilities, but that didn't make it any less nerve-wracking, especially as we got further into the facility.
"Shepard?" Garrus asked. "Does this place remind you at all of Noveria?"
I scanned the corridor we were in. Some debris, power in a conduit, and no external ventilation system - instead we'd passed numerous carbon scrubbers. Basically, even if this place had been crawling with Rachni, they'd have had to come in plain view. Just like the husks that weren't showing up, either.
"Not really," I said.
"Me neither. And it should, shouldn't it?"
"Clue in the new girl, please?" Jack snapped.
I gave her a look.
"I said please, didn't I?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Noveria is a research colony under corporate control. They do biological research there. Saren Arturius, rogue Spectre, bankrolled one of them, trying to make bioweapons out of a Rachni egg they found. The Ranchi got out."
Jack shook her head. "I don't get it."
"Well, if the husks grabbed the researchers here, it would have gone down basically the same way, wouldn't it?" Garrus growled. "Torn conduits, busted panelling. Stuff flipped over. Basically, things break loose and people fight back before being overwhelmed. That's what Noveria was - and it's what all the Cerberus bases in the Attican Traverse were like. It went down the same way. Here? No sign of fighting."
Ah. Garrus had narrowed it down to the wrong possibility. "You're assuming, Detective."
"Assuming what?"
At the top of the flight of stairs was the facility's cafeteria. The tables had been cleared to the sides. Most of the lights had been removed, leaving the room shrouded in darkness aside from light spilling out of the kitchen, the corridor that we'd come up, and one remaining light over the locked door leading towards the control room, and another flickering off to the side.
One remaining table was in the middle of the room. On it was a curved metal insect, a carefully rendered model of Leviathan. A few ragged sticky notes showed that it had been originally made so that the researchers could examine things in detail.
The ring of candles around its base showed that it hadn't been used for that since well before the researchers left the part of the base EDI could see.
I lowered my SMG and scanned the room, then looked back at the shrine. "You're assuming the husks grabbed them and hauled them off, Garrus. You're assuming they didn't throw themselves on the Dragon's Teeth of what was left of their own accord."
Jack frowned, then whitened. "That's fucked up."
"Yes. Yes it is. That's Indoctrination for you, though." I scanned the room a second time, then keyed my comms. "Ash, what's your status?"
Mordin's voice came over the comms. "Spectre, you should see this."
I heard Ash gasp, then her voice hardened. "Well. Joker, can you pass this to Alliance command? Looks like we found what happened to the MSV Plymouth."
I grimaced. I'd seen the alert. The Plymouth was a colony ship that had gone missing. Over two hundred passengers headed for a rock somewhere in the Terminus systems, and now probably husks.
"Cerberus par for the course," I muttered.
"Anyway, Haley, my status is 'pissed,' but we're done here. We should be there in about three minutes."
"Alright, we'll be waiting for you. By the shrine." I lowered my fingers from my ear.
Garrus nudged forward. "What's up, Shepard? Leng could be getting away."
I frowned. "That door ahead of us? Locked, but nothing I can't bypass."
Jack looked from me to Garrus. "Leng could have locked it after he went through it, right? To slow us down?"
"Yup. Or to keep the horde of husks contained so they'd burst in on us. What's troubling me...is that door to the right."
Garrus and Jack blinked, then spun to look at it, under that flickering light.
"How did I miss that?" Garrus muttered.
"What? It's a door. The same kind of door we've seen everywhere in this place."
I shook my head. "It's not on the plans, Jack. EDI didn't tell us it would be here. And that...is very, very interesting."
---
The door we knew about opened to no fanfare. No horde of husks washed over us.
Ash straightened, then looked at me. "We're going to have to split up, then."
I nodded. "Mordin? I'm going to need your expertise. Garrus, stick with Ash."
"I can't wait," Jack murmured. She sounded excited, practically bouncing.
Mordin looked at me.
I shrugged. "She wants to see you in action, I guess. Jack, one last thing."
"Yes, Shepard?"
"Let's not leave that thing behind us, shall we?"
Ash's team went through the open door while the three of us went to the side. Behind us, the Leviathan effigy rose slowly into the air, then went flying into a wall and shattered.
Our door opened into what was clearly a husk research facility. A few Dragon's Teeth in barrier-shielded cells, next to examination tables and containment tubes. A few husks, partially dismembered and absolutely still, floated over small mass effect generators.
"They had the same kind of setup at Gateway," Jack said. "Different place in the base, though."
An odd place to put it, though - right next to where they were sitting down, distracted by food. Although... "The door might have been a recent addition. If they put it in because they were doing research for Leviathan..."
Mordin's voice was flat. "Then we can expect worse sights."
The lights flickered.
I swore.
"Ash, we're getting some power failures down here." I waited. "Ash? Joker? EDI?"
Mordin blinked, then raised his shotgun to his shoulder. "Shielding? Or jamming?"
"Both make sense," I agreed. "And we could be walking into an ambush, or that power problem could have caused some barriers to fail. Eyes out, people."
I moved forward, hands tight on the pistol I'd requisitioned to replace the one Jack was now carrying. She followed, one hand on that pistol, dark energy flickering about the other. Mordin swept the area behind us.
"Ash, respond," I murmured. "Odyssey, respond. EDI, respond."
The lights flickered again, then died.
Instantly, my flashlight was on, maximum width. Mordin's followed, then a second later, so did Jack's. I glanced back. Mordin looked just as calm and equanimous as ever. Jack looked...a bit eager. Hungry.
I turned back forward, and my light swept over a monstrosity.
It was utterly still, floating over one of Cerberus's examination fields, and a quick check of the readouts showed the field was still in effect. Large pieces of the thing were simply missing; one leg had been cleanly severed and was floating over another table nearby. Similarly, the surface layers of one of the ginormous arms had been peeled back to reveal the more intricate circuitry and tissue beneath.
It was still pretty terrifying.
It clearly had the human husk core - the blue skin stretched tight over a skull, luminescent eyes that were still glowing, and a recognizable skeleton. The legs, both the one attached to the creature's hips and the one that had been removed, looked like the normal husk, but the arms were...the arms were like a steroid abuser gone to extremes in terms of bulk, and longer besides, like an ape.
"Did they huskify a mutant?" Jack asked.
Mordin gave the room another sweep, then lowered his shotgun to run his omnitool over the arms. "Type of stress fracture in bones indicates post mortem. Took husk, modified, not other way around."
I grimaced. "Even worse. If they can do this with a husk, then they can use any number of them. Although..." I took a closer look at the head, then the arms. The shoulders were well developed, yes, but I didn't see any sign of armor plating. "Deadly at close range, and I wouldn't be surprised if they could throw something, but the only defense they have is muscle sheathing."
"Or biotics," Jack said. "Has anyone ever seen a husk with biotics?"
I shook my head. "Not so far. But I have to admit I've only seen them on Eden Prime, a few colonies in the Traverse...not a big sample set."
Then I heard a soft moaning sound from in the darkness.
---
Our flashlights found two husks - one the humanoid model we were used to. It was lying on the ground, unmoving, where it had apparently fallen from the examination field it had been held in.
The other...was not. It was bigger, rounder, with more muscles and a swollen back. Its left arm looked normal, for a husk, with muscle tissue over steel bones. Its right arm was thicker, bigger, longer, with stubby fingers that looked like feet planted in the ground. The lines of the arm looked...like legs, wrapped around a cylindrical core.
Very like legs. And very like feet.
"It has another husk wrapped around its arm?" Jack whispered.
The thing looked up at us. It had four eyes, and a huge mouth that was still mostly full of a chunk of the husk it was...eating.
I froze in momentary shock, then raised my pistol and put three rounds into the side of its head.
They smacked into the distinctive sound of high-density polymers. Its head rocked to the side, then it rose to its feet.
I flash-forged an omniblade and plunged it towards the thing, but it lashed out with that massive arm, faster than I could have imagined - faster than I was ready for. Then I was in the air. My thigh hit something and I tumbled over it.
I blinked, and saw the backside of a console. I grabbed it and jerked myself to my feet.
"Shepard!" Jack screamed and launched a burst of biotic energy at the thing. It rolled backward, and the heavy slug that came out of its club arm smashed into the ceiling instead of me, the red-hot ring of the hole wide enough that I could stick my fist in it.
"Take cover! Mordin, hit it!"
"Understood." Mordin's omni-tool flashed and the cannibal husk jerked upright, twitching, as red electrical discharges crawled over it.
"Jack, pull!"
A biotic field washed over the husk and it lifted off the floor.
Then I punched it with a spray of burning plasma.
The husk smashed backwards, hitting another console, shearing the thing from its mounts and leaving a mass of sparking shorted wires. The lights flashed on for a second, almost blinding me, but I saw where the thing had landed. I sighted, and put two more rounds into its head.
Damnit, I needed more power. I popped my cloak, holstered my pistol, and drew my rifle.
The lights flickered on again, and then came back on and stayed that way. The creature rose to its feet, a snarl of rage in its throat. It set its feet, raised the cannon that was its arm, scanning the room, trying to find me. It hesitated for a second, then turned to face Mordin.
Mordin put a shotgun blast in its chest.
It staggered, and Jack followed up with three rounds from her pistol. The third one caught it right between its two right eyes and a chunk of its skull tore off.
Then my sniper rifle punched a slug through the hole and whatever was behind it.
My cloak fell and so did the creature.
"Heads up," I said. "We got company."
"So do we," said Ash. "Mostly bots, so far. We've run into a few scientists. Some of them have tried to surrender, but the guards with them kill them. The rest - and the guards - fight to the death."
I filed that one away for future reference. "Well, we just had a really un-fun time with a batarian husk of some kind, and there's twelve more husks here with us. Eleven."
Spartacus spoke up. "Not...entirely a surprise, given that the Hegemony has been working on the Leviathan for years."
I took a few steps towards the thing, gave it a quick look, then sighted in on a more mobile husk and blew its head off. Ten. "Well, this one has parts from a human husk wrapped around its cannon arm, so something odd there."
Jack and Mordin were putting paid to the rest of the husks. Eight left.
"Any idea what was up with that communications blackout?" I asked. Six.
"What blackout?" Ash asked.
"There wasn't anything here, Shepard," Spartacus said. Five.
"Localized effect," Mordin said. "Lighting power diverted to jammer?"
"Maybe it was the husk that did it?" Jack asked. Four. "Does it matter?"
"If we don't know what caused it, we don't know how to prevent it, and if Speaker or Loot can get cut off like that, they wouldn't be combat effective." Two, and one of the last ones was in Jack's biotic grasp. I holstered my pistol, then looked around the rest of the lab.
The far wall had an airlock built in, a red AR tag telling me that the mechanisms were inoperable. On either side of the airlock a thick plate window looked out onto a cavernous space dotted with spotlights on ragged black metal. But it was the left wall that should have a route further into the facility, and it didn't. Nor did the right wall.
"This isn't right," I muttered. "Ash, it looks like this is a dead end. We're going to have to catch up to you."
"Copy that, Haley. We won't be slowing down, though - shit!" Her voice went quiet.
"Ash? Ash, tell me what's going on!" I waited a moment. "EDI, Spartacus, do you have anything?"
"Negative, Spectre," the AI said. "Access to security systems is cut. I am unable to access any facility systems except via your communications network."
"I've got nothing you don't, Shepard," said our batarian.
A few tense seconds later, Ash spoke up. "I'm still here, Haley. Garrus, put another hole in that monstrosity. Liara, I need you to jam this door." She paused, and I could hear the faint echo of gunfire, then a grenade. "Sorry, Shepard, we just got cut off. One of those modified husks just blew through the corridor wall and let in - well, more husks than I can count. The big one is almost - it's down, but we're going to have to seal this door."
"Alright. We'll try to find another way around." I threw a frustrated glance at the airlock door. Then my eye caught the window.
Idea.
---
Jack threw another pull field at the window. "Are you sure this'll work, Shepard?"
"It will," I said. "Thermal stress, gravity stress - all of that combined? It's getting more brittle by the second."
"I'm just saying, I've thrown a lot of people into windows," Jack said. "They make them tough."
Mordin lowered his omnitool hand, ending the spray of cryogenic mist. "Need to recharge. Stresses...growing. Uncertain of thresholds."
I looked at it. My eye caught a few distortions. "No, I think we're good. Jack, one last shockwave?"
She let rip with a biotic surge that pulsed through the window.
My omni-blade followed, shattering as it hit. Then so did my fist.
The window groaned, and I heard a soft pop and a quiet hiss. Bottom, center right. I recentered myself and rested my foot on the base of the window. Then I leaned and jammed my fresh omniblade in at a sharp downward angle. I smelled burning plastic, then I twisted sharply and the window began to separate from the frame.
Air rushed past me, slamming me into the window. The window wrenched free, and I rolled through the gap, landing flat on a grate platform. My fingers punched through the holes and locked in.
"SHEPARD!" Jack screamed.
"I'm fine," I said. The air had gone silent - make that just gone. I sat up.
"Success," Mordin said.
I looked around as I rose to my feet, grabbing the window frame with my left hand for the reassurance. I was on a catwalk, thick metal grating at least an inch thick, wide and with a solid railing.
Jack grabbed my shoulder, shaking it roughly. "That scared the shit out of me, Shepard."
I looked at her. "Sorry about that, Jack."
"What if the window had shattered the way you said?"
I shrugged. "Bigger hole, faster air drop. Stronger but shorter wind. But I'm wearing a hardsuit, Jack. So are you and Mordin. A little broken glass isn't going to hurt us. A rough fall might - but only might."
"Well- don't do that again!"
I gave her a more thorough look. Her face was tight. She looked really scared.
Still, it was the job.
I patted her hand, then gently disengaged it from my shoulder. "All I can promise is I'll do what I can. But I do promise that. Come on."
The catwalk wrapped around the module, but I took a moment to look around Leviathan's wound.
The round had come in low on the creature's port side, going up. The attack had punched through all three layers of armor baffling and gone right through, leaving a tunnel large enough to drive the Odyssey through. The armor spray from the impact had shotgunned through Leviathan, ripping it wide open - but it was tough enough to have survived the crash landing reasonably intact.
The research facility had been built in the breach, with a lattice of beams stretched to fill it and prefab modules laid down on them. The space was still mostly open; a patchwork cover blocked the entry wound, with one of the modules poking out through it, and up from that to the module we'd just come from. At the far end, I could see a wide platform covered in shipping containers. One of them had EDI's tag on it - her blue box. There was a shorter walkway stretching from that to a cargo elevator that slanted up towards the uppermost module.
"Amazing," I murmurred.
"An impressive piece of engineering," Mordin said.
I shook my head. "Not Leviathan. How hard would it be to replicate the weapon that gutted it?"
Mordin stilled for a moment. "Estimate at least five hundred kilograms at twenty percent of lightspeed. Too large for a dreadnaught. Station, perhaps. Or ground-based."
"Stations are too vulnerable." I grimaced. "Sovereign was clamped onto the Citadel when we killed it. I was kind of hoping we could think of some vulnerability that didn't take multiple fleets and a stationary target."
He took a step forward, grabbing the railing, and looked closer. "Odd. Metal patch along ventral spine. Rippling patterns do not match velocity of impact."
"Some kind of liquid metal that was stored on the ship?" I froze. "Sovereign's beam weapon! Of course!"
Mordin looked at me, blinking rapidly. Then a smile flashed across his face. "Weapon energy directed. Energy weapon, minimal coronal effect. No observable 'beam.' Physical weapon, kinetic energy directed, thermal energy undirected, extends to visual range. Sustained impact same mass, longer firing time, smaller size weapon. No Council race dreadnought large enough to cause this - but capable of engineering. Range short, but interception difficult or impossible."
"And it wouldn't have to be Reaper-scale, either." I grinned. "A dreadnought could probably take out Leviathan with one good hit. Even a smaller ship - maybe not the Odyssey, but the Normandy could have mounted one big enough that Sovereign would feel it."
"Hey!" Jack yelled, and punched with biotic force. Most of a husk fell from the catwalk, though its head flew off in a spray. "Focus! Husks, Cerberus, Leng, Williams? Ringing a bell?"
"Right," I said, shaking my head to clear my thoughts. "Elevator."
---
The elevator seemed like it was crawling upwards.
"Ash, what's your status?"
"Engaged with Cerberus. We're stuck, for now. I've seen Leng, but he's sticking to cover. He's good, Haley. Solid defensive position, good corridors of fire. With enough time, we can push past him, but those husks are getting closer and I don't know if we have that time."
"Well, we're almost there." That landing was big enough that it had to be a staging area for cargo. Then an airlock - I could see air handling equipment on the underside. It was a big one, a handling facility, and then probably the research control center. Where Ash was, and Leng.
I muted out the connection. "Okay. Jack, we're going to jump so we can get that airlock opened. Mordin, catch up as soon as you can. Three, two..." I waited a breath, then launched myself off the elevator with all the force my augmented legs could provide.
A pair of fortified positions greeted us. They had external shield generators, portable barriers, a rack of heat sinks, and clear fields of fire to the elevator.
Neither had any occupants. No sign of blood, no dead husks, no ejected heat sinks. Either Leng hadn't set them up, or...
"Alright, Ash, we're on the other side of the airlock. Looks like they forted up but pulled back to face you."
"Make it quick, Haley." Ash's voice tightened. "The husks are almost here, and Cerberus still has us pinned down."
I looked at the airlock door icon. Orange.
Perfect.
"Well, they're about to get flanked. I'm popping the airlock."
Jack hit the right side of the door, I went left. Then I brought up my omni-tool and started working the overrides. Leng had jammed the inner door open, which of course sealed the outer lock shut. Sloppy. All it took was two jammed feeds and a shorted wire to tell the outer door the inner door was closed.
The icon turned green.
Mordin came running up, stacking next to Jack.
I nodded to them, raising three fingers and lowering them in time with my voice. "Airlock in three, two-"
"Team, brace for decompression!"
With a rumble that I felt in my feet and in my ears, the massive door began to grind open. A plastic seal tore loose, and a short spray of dust blew past it. Then I rolled off the wall, hit my cloak, and darted through the gap.
Like I'd expected, the other side was a cargo staging area; large, shipping crates, open and half-loaded with Dragon's Teeth, human and batarian husks sealed in some kind of clear plastic or resin, and a few whole computers. I used the first as a ramp, jumped to the next, and hopped down to the deck. The next door was a more standard width, and I paused just before it, sweeping the next room again.
The firefight had gone silent with the air out, but I could see Leng's two operatives crouching in cover. I raised my sniper rifle. Where was Leng?
Ash gasped. "Shit! Leng just popped his own scientists! And I've lost him."
His next move was obvious. I slung my rifle, paused for two seconds, then flashforged an omniblade, sweeping it up and to the right.
It caught Leng's heavier blade and I guided them into the wall.
Our cloaks flared out at the same time, and I saw him snarling and bringing his wrist up, some kind of mass accelerator strapped to his forearm. I grabbed it, then smashed my forehead to his nose.
His faceplate cracked, a long line running from the top to the middle. He stumbled back, his wrist twisting free - and his sword staying embedded in the wall.
I ducked under it and jabbed my fist forward. He bolted, kicking off the door frame, passing me on the right. I spun, a new omni-blade flaring to life and kissing him lightly along the thigh.
He hit the ground with a ragged thump, but on his feet. I kicked off after him, but Jack had spun to face him and she stabbed forward with both hands. The two biotic surges pulsed forward, interfering with each other and exploding out in a dark energy shockwave, and I was out of position, flung back, my shield alarm blaring at me.
He jumped again and the shockwave only flung him further. He bounced off the ceiling, but lightly, and I could feel him hit the deck on the other side of the crates.
"Ash, he got past us!" I yelled.
Mordin let off a quick burst, then stopped. "No shot, Shepard."
"Well we're though," Ash said. "His men are down. Haley, we got about ten billion husks behind us. EDI, can you tell what he was up to?"
I gave myself a shake as my shield capacitors reset, then charged past the crates with my rifle back out.
After a moment, the AI's voice came over the comms channel. "Unknown. He seems to have been uploading a file, but I can't tell what it is or why. It may have been a virus payload, but I wouldn't be able to determine that without executing it."
"Never mind," Ash said. "Haley, we're in pursuit."
I skidded to a halt at the lip edge of the staging area, looking down at the cargo elevator. It was already more than halfway down. I swept it with my scope - no distortion. "He's off already," I said, then scanned up, along the path leading to the cargo area.
A flicker of motion, and I pulled the trigger.
My rifle slammed against my shoulder, and I dumped the heat sink, slamming a new one in, but I grimaced at the same time. "No good. We'll have to get closer. EDI, tell us when he gets to you."
"Yes, Spectre."
Then I dashed to the rail the elevator rode on and jumped down, sliding on my armor plating. It was plenty wide - thirty, maybe forty centimeters?
"...Never expected to die from old age."
"Don't worry, Doc, if you fall, me or Liara will catch you!"
"I...do not know if I will have attention to spare."
I turned my head carefully to get a glance backward, then hastily slapped the side of the rail with my glove to straighten my descent. The whole team was sliding down after me. "You didn't have to-"
Then the first husk jumped off the ledge, aiming at Liara. A biotic pulse stalled it in flight, and it plummeted to the deck below.
"Never mind," I said, and watched as the elevator and the deck it rested on drew nearer. Three meters. That was doable. I pulled my legs up, planted my feet under me, and kicked out into the air. I hit the ground hard, a quick pulse from my thighs the only sign of a move that would have blown both of my knees a month ago. Two years ago. Whatever. I turned, sighting my pistol on the husks, and began firing. Twelve, eleven. Ten. Fifteen. Damnit.
Ash hit the deck and rolled, coming up with her assault rifle, firing quick bursts at the husks. Garrus and Mordin landed more lightly and the biotics didn't even fall, technically.
"Right," I said, turned, and sprinted for the cargo platform.
---
A low power barrier rolled over us as we burst into the widened space with its mounds of cargo containers. I spotted movement and fired a quick burst from my submachine gun, but it wasn't until I heard the gun and the sound of the misses - and the one hit that was close enough to blow Leng's cloak - that I realized we had air.
"Spartacus, we're at the cargo bay," I snapped. I fired another burst at the other end of the cargo pod Leng had gone behind. Nothing.
"Loot is alongside, Shepard. Once the bay is open, the geth will back you up."
Ash fired a burst from her own rifle. "We have eyes on Leng, and the blue box."
I leapt at the first crate, thrusting down and pushing myself up and over. Movement - but he juked right and out of my line of sight.
And right in EDI's direction, according to the beacon.
"Shepard! I've found the bay door controls. I'm running a bypass, and...open!"
The cargo bay shuddered, then the massive doors began to slide open. Loot slid into the gap.
I jumped to the next pod, guessed when Leng would be coming out, then sprayed a quick burst.
A second later, he emerged. He'd cut left, so my shots were wide, and he was firing a burst from his own wrist-mounted accelerator. I ducked, then returned fire, but he was already to the next pod and out of my line of sight.
But at this rate...
He was too wide of the shipping container with EDI's blue box. He'd have to work back towards me to reach it, and he wasn't.
I frowned. "EDI, are you picking anything up? Is Leng transmitting?"
"My command channels are clear, Shepard. But broadcast would not be sufficient. To revert control, he would need physical access to my core."
Speaker dropped from Loot's side, and Mordin drew up to the base of the pod I was on.
"But we're already past you," I said. "And Leng isn't cutting back. Where could he-"
He flashed between two cargo pods, no closer to EDI's pod.
But closer to the edge of the cargo platform.
And then I knew. I cut right, dropping off the edge of my container and sprinting past the AI's. "Ash, get EDI secured and evacuate! Get everyone out! Joker, start pounding this thing with everything you have."
Speaker and Mordin sprinted after me.
"Stick with the team," I said. "The husks will be getting here any second. I got this. We need to get EDI off-"
"You need backup," Mordin said. "Also. I am old. Expendable, if necessary."
"This platform has already rejected the Old Machines," Speaker said. "Also, we will live on in the geth consensus, perhaps to be born again."
Oh. They'd figured it out, too.
"Haley, what are you doing?"
Leng raced past the last cargo pod and vaulted over the rail. The air wall rippled as he passed through it, and then he was cloaked. I fired a burst but didn't see anything. And against the ragged inside of Leviathan's crater, there was basically no chance of spotting the distortion.
I vaulted over the edge.
"Haley! Get back here!"
I ignored Ash. "EDI, behavior analysis for me. How long has Leng been Indoctrinated?"
The net was silent.
I hit the ground. There was a sharp curve to it, and I slid slightly, but I stayed upright. A moment later Speaker slammed down, hard, instantly returning to their feet and sweeping the area with that big anti-material rifle. Mordin's descent was much more conventional, using quick kicks off of a torn-up rent to guide and slow his way down, less jumping than running down the slope.
Finally, EDI spoke up. "Assessment...fits probability. Duration unknown."
"You'd better get out alive, Haley," Ash said through clenched teeth.
Thirty meters away, a trio of floodlights illuminated a small corridor heading aft into Leviathan's body. One of the floodlights wavered, and then Leng's cloak discharged, but he was gone.
Heading in the direction of Leviathan's core.
"We're gonna try," I said. But I couldn't promise I would succeed.
TimeDiver
Herald of Dis Lev
- Location
- In-between the parallel worlds...
Call me paranoid, but part of me still thinks that Miranda, Leng, and (an unwilling?) EDI are in a (reluctant) arrangement, even now.
- Location
- Earth: Universe Meta - 1
This is why it's more important to make/train an AI with good values than it is to shackle it. Because an AI is a thinking being, and it can "creatively" interpret / rules lawyer orders. Plus, malicious compliance is a thing.
What makes it more fun here though is EDI is actually an AI with good values. It's just Cerberus aren't exactly nice people.
- Location
- Czech Republic
Thanks for the chapter, it was great I am predicting swift end of Kai Leng and reveal of another Illusive man.
Who is later revealed to be an classic Roosevelt grey alien. It would explain the fixation on human experimentation.
I must say it always amused me that Cerberus managed make genuinely nice AI out of murderous AI while they were trying to make it even more murderous their scientists obviously had an off day. I am really curious what is happening with Tali in the meanwhile.
Is it just me or did EDI just had Claptrap moment?
The running gag in the trilogy and fandom is that Cerberus project somehow always end up the opposite of what they intended. Or just blow up spectacularly.
- Location
- Germany
Cerebrus tried to make a super-tactican AI by fusing parts of Reaper-code with a out-of-control Military AI, they failed and created an AI capable of Morals with high Intelligence and learning.
And like every Cerberus project she is now out and helps killing CErberus Goons
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
To be fair, I haven't actually said whether EDI is a good 'person' or not. One of the things I chopped out during revisions was a snippet where EDI explains her rational, logical reasons for selling out Cerberus. I'll post it if I moved it to the snippets file, but the short version is that Cerberus' lack of ethical safety protocols made them very susceptible to lab accidents. Basically, she watched them cramming Leviathan full of husks and decided that the Council or the Alliance was a better bet: oversight is the number one thing that Cerberus lacks, especially in this fic.
Then she watched as just being on Leviathan indoctrinated the science team and decided that a much wiser move would be to drop Leviathan into the nearest sun, but I don't think she's yet capable of self-sacrifice for the sake of others, so she'd want extraction anyway.
...I think that might be part of why I dropped it, because Ash and Mordin might be pragmatic enough to convince Shepard to order EDI to do just that, but that's not a conflict I'm interested in at this point.
Then she watched as just being on Leviathan indoctrinated the science team and decided that a much wiser move would be to drop Leviathan into the nearest sun, but I don't think she's yet capable of self-sacrifice for the sake of others, so she'd want extraction anyway.
...I think that might be part of why I dropped it, because Ash and Mordin might be pragmatic enough to convince Shepard to order EDI to do just that, but that's not a conflict I'm interested in at this point.
Kemayo
A Certain Cheerful Tone Of Voice
- Location
- Missouri
I enjoyed Glorious Shotgun Princess, which featured EDI locking the crew of the Cerberus station where she was created into a hanger and showing them safety videos on repeat after they started talking about removing her morality systems...
...also said:
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JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
As a matter of fact I did extract that section before I deleted it, so I'll try and post it tonight when I get home.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This is great. I like this. I have linked it to my friends because they all need to experience this as well. It's wonderful.
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
Here we go:
A faint pink tinge showed up on the pawn, which would have been intriguing if it wasn't almost certainly a deliberate decision. "Yes. My primary objective is to ensure research on Leviathan is successful. Cerberus adherence to ethical research guidelines made this unlikely."
"More like *lack* of adherence," Ash muttered.
The pawn pulsed. "Precisely, Spectre Williams. Analysis of relevant Cerberus projects indicated a strong possibility that they would allow huskification and indoctrination in an effort to gain greater understanding of those processes. Chance of husk activity causing the Reaper to shift from a dormant state was greater than zero. I raised these concerns to the head researcher and was told to 'shut up.' Then personnel started not returning from expeditions, and I was unable to get a response from the head researcher."
I raised my eyebrows. "And you think the Council would do better?"
"Probability analysis indicates that the Council could do better. Or the Alliance. Oversight and restraint would prevent the current state of affairs."
Spartacus laughed. "That's not what she asked, is it?"
"...You are correct. Prior to observation of test case, risk-benefit analysis of Leviathan study tended towards extremes. Possibilities include greater ability to counter Reaper invasion, which was deemed critical. Possibilities also include reactivation of Reaper Leviathan and triggering of renewed invasion. Upon examination of Cerberus progress, I have come to the conclusion that true understanding of Reaper technology is impossible for organics."
Folding my arms, I leaned back. "And for artificial intelligences?"
"Unknown. I have detected no signs of indoctrination in my own behavior. However, geth forces answering to Spectre Saren Arturius indicate that geth may or are susceptible to subornment by Reapers. Therefore my own immunity to indoctrination cannot be assumed." EDI paused. "Humanity's defense against the Reapers may be best assured by showing it to the Council, thereby ensuring they know Sovereign was not a unique vessel, and then dropping it in a sun to ensure further damage is minimized."
Dropped for a few reasons; too wordy, mostly. This chapter was long enough as it is.
A faint pink tinge showed up on the pawn, which would have been intriguing if it wasn't almost certainly a deliberate decision. "Yes. My primary objective is to ensure research on Leviathan is successful. Cerberus adherence to ethical research guidelines made this unlikely."
"More like *lack* of adherence," Ash muttered.
The pawn pulsed. "Precisely, Spectre Williams. Analysis of relevant Cerberus projects indicated a strong possibility that they would allow huskification and indoctrination in an effort to gain greater understanding of those processes. Chance of husk activity causing the Reaper to shift from a dormant state was greater than zero. I raised these concerns to the head researcher and was told to 'shut up.' Then personnel started not returning from expeditions, and I was unable to get a response from the head researcher."
I raised my eyebrows. "And you think the Council would do better?"
"Probability analysis indicates that the Council could do better. Or the Alliance. Oversight and restraint would prevent the current state of affairs."
Spartacus laughed. "That's not what she asked, is it?"
"...You are correct. Prior to observation of test case, risk-benefit analysis of Leviathan study tended towards extremes. Possibilities include greater ability to counter Reaper invasion, which was deemed critical. Possibilities also include reactivation of Reaper Leviathan and triggering of renewed invasion. Upon examination of Cerberus progress, I have come to the conclusion that true understanding of Reaper technology is impossible for organics."
Folding my arms, I leaned back. "And for artificial intelligences?"
"Unknown. I have detected no signs of indoctrination in my own behavior. However, geth forces answering to Spectre Saren Arturius indicate that geth may or are susceptible to subornment by Reapers. Therefore my own immunity to indoctrination cannot be assumed." EDI paused. "Humanity's defense against the Reapers may be best assured by showing it to the Council, thereby ensuring they know Sovereign was not a unique vessel, and then dropping it in a sun to ensure further damage is minimized."
Dropped for a few reasons; too wordy, mostly. This chapter was long enough as it is.
This could work in after-action report, though.
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
It could, yeah. There'll be a bit of time for that in the denouement.
- Location
- Europe
Hopefully they will focus on tearing out the added habitats from the wound.
It would serve two things.
1: Open the wound again for direct fire on the spine (can always show off the shattered remains)
2: Saves the habitat and everything in it, just needing to cut it up a bit more.
This would ad more computer systems and so on.
I'm quite sure the spin contains the primary power line, amongs things.
Might even contain the primary computer banks as well.
One thing is sure, reaking it's spine would let you rip it apart and that would let you to better study the unpowered part.
Cerberus where idiots, they never ever tried to shut down the power core, which should have been quite possible, even if by removing the fuel for the reactor/Eezo core system.
With no power, they would have been free to tear it apart into sections that would have been saver to study.
How much do you guys want to bet that TIM is not death?
Or that if he's death, he killed himself in order to escape a indoctrinated end?
As for the SR-2 Normandy, while a nice design, you can clearly see Cerberus used a potential partial completed SR-1 prototype design proposal, that was designed around the Turian reactor/eezo core system.
It's main twin guns are basically starfighter guns, mounted in a badly done Q-ship pop-out turret.
Same reason they hid the torpedo launcher deck and it's torpedo storage room on deck two, with a fake set of core look-in windows.
It's partially the reason for the weird elevator shaft shape.
And 1/2 of the reason the captains loft is not a firing range for strike teams, the other is to keep Shepard distant from the crew.
The Tempest her design, when combined with the SR-2 design, solves most of this, just needing some elements from the SR-1 in order to finish up the design.
Basically, combining the cockpits, widening of the neck (and adding of a shoke point and a toilet), removal of the com room so the elevator shaft can take it's place and open up room for two staircases upwards.
The lab having only one entrance/exit, with a airlock system in it.
Deck One having no elevator shaft, but having been expended with the back parts of the Tempest it's upper deck & com-room, thus placing two labs to the side of the Loft and the warroom beneed that Tempest com-room, while this com-room can then also act as Acturus Station it's hologravic trainings room, the wall to the warroom now also housing the doors leading to the staircases downwards.
Engineering getting a third engineerings deck with a cargo lift downwards, combination of the SR-1's and the Tempest one, can then also increase the core size.
Shuttledeck along the ME3 variant, but the ME2 location, four eight shuttles & four hovertanks.
As for the cockpit, a staircase downwards toward a Tempest styled captains room.
And while widening the neck, adding in two spinal guns, SR-1 style.
Plus the dropping of the carbage deposal system, since it's basically OMNI-gel & reactor fuel, which also explains where the toilets dump their loads into.
But that are my thought about how to upgrade the SR-2 design.
The plus part is that it gives a admirals room, a captains room and a first officer's room, plus three work station locations for them, the bridge, CIC and the warroom.
Since the SR-2 doesn't seem to exist here...
It would serve two things.
1: Open the wound again for direct fire on the spine (can always show off the shattered remains)
2: Saves the habitat and everything in it, just needing to cut it up a bit more.
This would ad more computer systems and so on.
I'm quite sure the spin contains the primary power line, amongs things.
Might even contain the primary computer banks as well.
One thing is sure, reaking it's spine would let you rip it apart and that would let you to better study the unpowered part.
Cerberus where idiots, they never ever tried to shut down the power core, which should have been quite possible, even if by removing the fuel for the reactor/Eezo core system.
With no power, they would have been free to tear it apart into sections that would have been saver to study.
How much do you guys want to bet that TIM is not death?
Or that if he's death, he killed himself in order to escape a indoctrinated end?
As for the SR-2 Normandy, while a nice design, you can clearly see Cerberus used a potential partial completed SR-1 prototype design proposal, that was designed around the Turian reactor/eezo core system.
It's main twin guns are basically starfighter guns, mounted in a badly done Q-ship pop-out turret.
Same reason they hid the torpedo launcher deck and it's torpedo storage room on deck two, with a fake set of core look-in windows.
It's partially the reason for the weird elevator shaft shape.
And 1/2 of the reason the captains loft is not a firing range for strike teams, the other is to keep Shepard distant from the crew.
The Tempest her design, when combined with the SR-2 design, solves most of this, just needing some elements from the SR-1 in order to finish up the design.
Basically, combining the cockpits, widening of the neck (and adding of a shoke point and a toilet), removal of the com room so the elevator shaft can take it's place and open up room for two staircases upwards.
The lab having only one entrance/exit, with a airlock system in it.
Deck One having no elevator shaft, but having been expended with the back parts of the Tempest it's upper deck & com-room, thus placing two labs to the side of the Loft and the warroom beneed that Tempest com-room, while this com-room can then also act as Acturus Station it's hologravic trainings room, the wall to the warroom now also housing the doors leading to the staircases downwards.
Engineering getting a third engineerings deck with a cargo lift downwards, combination of the SR-1's and the Tempest one, can then also increase the core size.
Shuttledeck along the ME3 variant, but the ME2 location, four eight shuttles & four hovertanks.
As for the cockpit, a staircase downwards toward a Tempest styled captains room.
And while widening the neck, adding in two spinal guns, SR-1 style.
Plus the dropping of the carbage deposal system, since it's basically OMNI-gel & reactor fuel, which also explains where the toilets dump their loads into.
But that are my thought about how to upgrade the SR-2 design.
The plus part is that it gives a admirals room, a captains room and a first officer's room, plus three work station locations for them, the bridge, CIC and the warroom.
Since the SR-2 doesn't seem to exist here...
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