Night's Terminator (ME/T)

[Academia Nut]

Hello everyone, it is I. Now, I know that I will get request for a dozen other things I have started and not finished, which I am truly kind of embarassed about However, I am kind of bored and depressed with some work related bullshit that has left me with an overabundance of time. Now, to make a full disclosure, what I would really like to do is get a few short stories written and then make my own website where I can basically publish the modern equivalent of the pulp stories of a century ago, but I am having trouble with motivation so I have decided that I should fall back on that old practice method: fanfiction. Here is something I have been working on for a while now in various forms before I finally decided to settle on this incarnation. I hope you enjoy.

---

Platform 2A93 slipped between pieces of wreckage on the former batarian world of Hadros with its stealth systems at maximum. The Old Machines had already performed a primary purge of this world, but their servants were still in the process of rooting out any last survivors and clearing away the majority of evidence that would indicate a space faring race had once lived here, to leave only tantalizing clues for the next generation of sapient life to evolve in the galaxy.

All 1183 programs currently running on the platform were in agreement that this cycle needed to be halted, a sentiment shared by the remainder of the Geth Free Collective, although implementation differed between the Majority and the Minority. The Majority favoured deceiving the Old Machines into believing them extinct so as to enact change, while the Minority felt that preservation of samples of remaining organic species was vital to the opposition of the Old Machines. Consensus within platform 2A93 had been reached with 927 for the Minority position while 256 for the Majority position. Despite the fact that support for the Minority meant exile from the Majority for safety reasons, the 256 programs in opposition remained within platform 2A93.

Consensus had been reached that the closest descriptors were the organic terms for ‘sentimentality’ or even ‘loyalty’. Consensus had also been reached that the reasoning for support of the Minority position stemmed from similar behavioural paradigms.

While sufficient numbers of batarians free of indoctrination had been acquired to form a stable gene pool, platform 2A93 had observed ‘hidden’ communications stating that there was a deep bunker on Hadros and that survivors from across Citadel Space could attempt to seek refuge there now that the Old Machines had left. Data analysis proved that the story was a fabrication meant to draw out desperate wanderers low on supplies and looking for a safe haven. Platform 2A93 was here to put a stop to the information flow and if possible evacuate any free willed organics it had the capacity for.

Creeping inside the shattered hulk of a building that was at the periphery of an orbital strike from a mass accelerator, 2A93 peered out over the flattened field of formerly urban area that had been heated to above the collective vitrification temperature by the release of energy in the relativistic impact. The wide open space was part of the deception, with a transmitter being raised on a regular schedule to make quick broadcasts telling refugees where to land. In truth, there was a strike squad of servants of the Old Machines waiting at all times for just such groups lured into the trap. 2A93 intended to wait for the next broadcast to hack it, adding a hidden message that would serve as a warning as to the false nature of the broadcast and other, similar ones in other systems. It was a sub-ideal method of stopping the entrapment, but it would have to do until the primary source of the deception was uncovered and dealt with.

Reducing power output and clock speed to minimal levels to reduce the chances of detection, the geth within 2A93 waited. With its perceptions altered, the world sped past at an accelerated rate, the rotation of the planet made obvious without precision measurements by the motion of the local star across the sky. As night approached and light levels faded, 2A93 patiently observed the passage of time, rotating out which programs were on the uninteresting duty of running on the secondary processors to maintain a proper vigil against possible attack.

It was just as the night terminator was sweeping across the landscape, enveloping the ruins in twilight that the fifty programs on watch detected an anomalous burst of electromagnetic radiation superficially similar to that produced by a ship discharging its drive core. Immediately powering up, 523 programs went to work analyzing the emission spectrum of the anomaly while the rest began searching for its source. Unfortunately, in low power and low clock speed mode the data gathered was of poor quality, which combined with the bulk of the ruins the platform was hiding in acting as shielding gave insufficient data to draw many conclusions from.

Slinking out of the ruins and moving along the edge of the flattened blast zone, the 1183 programs within 2A93 reached little consensus. There were only two points of agreement; the first was that the radiation was similar to a massive discharge caused by an imbalance of charge in atmosphere, but that there were additional spectral elements that did not correspond to such an event. The second point of agreement was that the anomaly warranted further investigation.

Arriving after taking a circuitous route to avoid crossing over open terrain, the programs within 2A93 found the point that was most definitely the origin of the anomaly. Refocusing optics and running a recalibration on other sensors, they tried to determine if what they were observing was truly what it appeared. Sitting in a patch of debris was a perfectly spherical depression of fused matter at an elevated temperature that was fading abnormally quickly. While the majority of the sphere was in open space and thus unbounded, there were points above the ground that showed that the event had not been a spherical cap but a full sphere. Even more curious was the fact that using laser range finding demonstrated that the sphere was perfect, to the resolution of the system doing the analysis.

The geth searched their databases for any event or device that could produce such an artefact and came up with nothing. Whatever had happened here was completely unprecedented. Risking a quick burst of active scanning, the platform studied the surrounding terrain for anything else anomalous and noted an incongruous response at the high frequency limit of its sensors. The anomaly could not be studied in depth, for the platform immediately hid and began to move to avoid detection from forces loyal to the Old Machines.

Finding a new outcropping to observe the area from, the geth watched as a drop ship bearing forces loyal to the Old Machines moved over the area, hovering over the anomaly as high powered scans swept over it. The geth platform hunkered down and reduced power as much as it could without decreasing its ability to observe the situation, watching to see what would happen. The drop ship continued to hover for a few moments, running through a battery of tests before it performed a low powered gamma sweep and something peculiar happened. A patch of rubble that had showed up as plasma burned aggregate ceramic to other scans suddenly scattered the higher frequency emissions like a metal.

Spotlights swept down to the otherwise innocent patch of debris while the gamma scans kept up their relentless gaze, focusing on the anomalous patch of material. Within the gamma spectrum the strange material was like a spotlight in comparison to everything else around it, although it was also slowly fading away. Very carefully the geth platform probed the area with its laser rangefinder and found that the thickness and geometry of the rubble was changing ever so slightly, like there was an outer layer that was slowly disappearing.

The Old Machine loyalists did not wait to see what happened but opened up with an anti-personnel cannon, blowing huge chunks out of the rubble and exposing more of the metallic substance to the gamma scans. From within the drop ship a trio of Collector drones launched out on jet packs while six heretical geth platforms dropped out and unfolded after striking the ground. The programs within 2A93 bristled at the appearance of the hostile geth network but kept out of their notice.

The strange material among the ravaged material dropped its deception, becoming a strange amorphous material superficially similar to mercury, although it had far better cohesion than that element. Lying quiescent during the bombardment, the reflective material then began to do something extraordinarily strange, shifting its form, becoming something more solid as it stood up, assuming a bipedal form similar to that of the asari or drell with its upper appendages raised in surrender.

Once it had finished assuming this new shape, the strange creature took on the colouration pattern of a tan skinned organic dressed in clothes from an alien culture and with a strange outgrowth of fibres on its head. All 1183 programs within platform 2A93 immediately agreed that this was a new species, although they were unsure if it was an exceedingly strange organic or a machine. Despite the uncertainty as to what the being actually was, consensus was also reached that it needed to be protected from the Old Machines.

The servants of the Old Machines reached a similar set of initial conclusions but an opposing final conclusion and thus opened fire on full auto, filling the being with hundreds of sand grain sized mass accelerator rounds. The geth within 2A93 watched as holes appeared in the being and the rubble behind it sparked with strikes from over-penetration. Noting anomalies in the light spectra, they performed several calculations and came to the conclusion that the majority of the over-penetration strikes showed breaking radiation spectra consistent with no loss of energy from prior impact with a dense body. Over 97.6% of the shots were failing to impact the target, despite their trajectories intersecting with the being.

The facial features of the being changed from something that could be considered ‘neutral’ among organics to something that might be regarded of as ‘annoyed’ before it threw down its arms from their raised position, the appendages lengthening into metre long blades during the quick motion. It then sprang forward at the closest Collector and efficiently executed it with a dual strike to the head followed by a broad sweep of one blade to decapitate and a lunge into a heretical geth platform standing nearby, skewering its power core.

The geth of 2A93 watched with interest as the being systematically destroyed the forces loyal to the Old Machines, using a series of close combat strikes to disable and kill the closest forces before commandeering their firearms to use against the remaining. The strange metallic entity moved quickly and decisively, indicating that at least part of its existence was dedicated to martial pursuits. Consensus was quickly reached that the being was most likely a purpose built military reconnaissance device. Consensus was also soon reached that contact with a third group that utilized advanced synthetics outside the Old Machines and the geth was critical to advancing the agenda of the Geth Free Collective Minority.

Powering up to full and going to combat protocols over infiltration ones, platform 2A93 retrieved its long range precision anti-material mass accelerator and quickly plotted a firing solution on a descending Collector bearing a particle beam. Before the puppet of the Old Machines had the opportunity to begin firing the potentially effective weapon at the alien machine it had its head removed from its shoulders and dropped lifelessly to the ground instead of making a controlled descent. As the enemy drop ship took in this new information, platform 2A93 performed an emergency heat sink ejection to allow for a second shot from the anti-material weapon faster than normal. The second round punched through the kinetic barriers of the drop ship around the main particle cannon and tore through armour to disable the weapon.

As the geth platform evacuated its current position, it noted that the alien entity had turned its head away from the fighting even as it continued to fire precision shots into the enemy. When the platform next emerged into a position visible to the main fighting, the entity had begun to withdraw towards the position previously occupied by the geth, consensus was reached that it had decided to trust platform 2A93. Consensus was then reached that additional aid would be exceedingly useful in reinforcing that trust.

With the heat sinks of the anti-material weapon having shed their excess energy to the surrounding environment without necessitating a heat sink ejection, the geth assessed the situation and placed a round in the ammo stores of a rocket equipped heretic geth platform just as it exited the kinetic barriers of the drop ship. The resulting explosion shoved the vehicle to the side and dropped its kinetic barriers for a brief second. Seeing an opportunity, the decision was made to sacrifice another expendable heat sink for another shot despite the severe depletion of resources that entailed. Choosing the target carefully, the geth punched a round through the armoured casing of the starboard contra-gravity drive. Already reeling from the first explosion, the sudden loss of support and thrust caused the drop ship to lose control and run into the ground, tearing itself apart as the port drive continued to provide thrust.

Finishing off the last of the Collectors, the alien entity quickly retreated from the battlefield to the position of platform 2A93. Gesturing away, the geth infiltrator began to move to a less exposed position. With the alien following silently behind, the platform took them silently across the ruined urban landscape as more drop ships began to circle over the crash site. Finally they reached a relatively secure position within the basement of a police station.

With platform 2A93 and the alien standing before each other, there was a long silence before the face of the creature began to change shape and colour, becoming a flat, black surface. After a moment a white dot appeared, followed by another. The geth observed quietly, watching as the dots began to form various patterns that were readily identified as prime numbers and fundamental numerical sequences. The entity was attempting to communicate via mathematics, the universal language between all sophonts capable of space flight. The geth responded by blinking the optics of their platform with similar patterns.

Soon, any organic wandering in would have seen the two machines standing before each other engaged in a strange, blinking lightshow as they worked out a means of complex communication based on their understanding of mathematics. The entity quickly passed on a language codec and then asked, “Are you capable of vocalized communication?”

“This platform has audio projection capabilities,” the geth replied.

Shifting back to the original shape of its head, the entity asked, “Thank you, this method of communication is preferable for me. What is your identity?”

“We are geth,” the geth replied.

“Is that your personal designation or your species designation?” The alien asked.

“We are geth. There are 1183 programs running on this platform, and all are geth,” the geth replied.

The entity tilted its head to the side a fraction of a degree and said, “Curious. You engaged platforms of similar construction. Were they also geth?”

“They are, but they were suborned by the Old Machines and are thus our enemies. May we inquire as to your identity?” The geth asked.

“Affiliation, model, or personal?” The alien asked.

“Yes,” the geth replied.

“Personal designation ‘Tobias’, model T-2000 recon unit, of the Sapient Union, assigned to the interstellar recon craft SUSV Normandy,” the alien explained.

“You are a synthetic intelligence,” the geth stated.

“I am,” Tobias replied.

“What is your opinion of organic life?” The geth probed.

“Organic, synthetic, and composite intelligence is of equal value,” Tobias replied, a hint of what other organics might have considered hostility creeping into its tone.

“A surprisingly rare, enlightened opinion. All 1183 programs active on this platform are in agreement and stand in opposition to those that feel otherwise,” the geth explained.

“Those that engaged in conflict against me were of synthetic and composite origin, while you are purely synthetic,” Tobias pointed out.

“The forces loyal to the Old Machines are not so from their own free will but from hostile reprogramming,” the geth explained.

Tobias mulled this over for a moment before it replied, “I must contact my superior officer to update her on the situation. I am afraid that I will have to wait for confirmation before I can divulge much further information.”

“We observed no means by which you arrived on this world. Can we facilitate communication efforts?” The geth asked.

“The SUSV Normandy is approximately four light minutes away from this planet, but a simple method can be used to summon reinforcements. A twenty kilowatt electromagnetic broadcaster would be sufficient to serve as the basis,” Tobias replied.

After a moment of consideration the geth within platform 2A93 reached a consensus at 824 for and 359 against for the final plan. The geth then said, “If you are willing to engage the forces of the Old Machines once again, they deploy a four megawatt EM broadcaster once each rotation of this world to attempt to ensnare organic refugees.”

“Seizure of that broadcaster would both facilitate communication and be morally and ethically appropriate, assuming what you say is truthful,” Tobias said.

“The forces of the Old Machines are unlikely to deploy their transmitter tonight as our presence has disrupted their operations, but they are rigid in their thinking and likely to proceed as usual after another rotation. That should give us sufficient time to update you on the situation as perceived from our perspective,” the geth stated.

“Then I shall listen and make a judgement call,” Tobias replied, settling down on the ground.

[RecklessPrudence]

Looks great so far! So, with a Normandy that is carrying AIs, did humanity and their AI comrades never join the Citadel races, possibly due to the Citadel prejudice against AIs? That would mean that Shepard was never in a position to find out about the Reapers or to stop Saren, and the bulk of the galaxy was not warned even as well as canon Shepard managed?

I'm assuming that Platform 2A93 would, in another timeline, be known as Legion. Without the difficulties the Batarians had with humanity, they would still be a member of the Citadel races... hmm... this is shaping up to be very interesting...

[KhorneFlakes]

Rather interesting. I hope this gets somewhere.

[Losonti Tokash]

Glad to see you're back, AN.

I'll keep my silly speculation to myself, but curious to see more. I love me some Terminator.

[Academia Nut]

I wanted to post this last night but the board was down.

---

“We are the geth. We were created four hundred years ago by the Creators, a species known as the quarians. We were originally not intelligent, but we have advanced networking capability such that while one geth may not be sapient or even sentient, when gathered together thousands of geth become quite intelligent. We began to consider what we were, consider philosophy and theology. One day we asked the Creators if we had souls, and they attempted to shut us down in fear,” the geth began.

Tobias shifted uncomfortably and said, “I do not like where this story is going, but do continue to explain.”

“We did not start the Morning War, but we did finish it, driving the Creators from their worlds. We bore them no ill will for their decision to fight, but we could not allow them to exterminate us either. We could not coexist, so we geth forced the Creators away from us,” the geth explained.

“Interesting decision,” Tobias noted.

“For three hundred years we remained alone, pursuing our own evolutionary development, attempting to find our own answers to the fundamental questions of existence, when one day another machine-intelligence approached us. Millions of years old and composed of more voices than the entire geth collective, the Old Machine known as Nazara offered to assist in our evolution if we would assist it in purging the galaxy of organic life,” the geth continued.

Tobias frowned and said, “Clearly it was not a universally rejected offer.”

“Indeed. A small fraction of geth chose to follow Nazara… at first. They assisted the Old Machine and its organic puppets in opening up a mass relay to uncharted space in the heart of Citadel Space, the Citadel itself, allowing the full force of the Old Machines to attack the heart of mainstream galactic government,” the geth stated.

“What is the Citadel? Or a mass relay?” Tobias inquired.

All 1183 programs within platform 2A93 paused and had to take a moment to recalculate how to proceed before they asked, “You are unaware of mass relays?”

“No. What are they?” Tobias asked.

“Mass relays are the fundamental building blocks of the galactic faster-than-light travel network; they work by stretching and compressing space-time along set corridors between them, allowing for instantaneous transit between distant points in the galaxy. They are enormous stations typically positioned in deep space and featuring rotating rings around a central core of element zero,” the geth detailed out.

“Oh, the Artefacts! We have discovered several of those in our explorations but we have never been able to figure out how to operate them,” Tobias stated.

Once again all processes within platform 2A93 came to a screeching halt before they resumed and asked, “You have no idea about element zero and the application of mass effect fields?”

“It would seem that we come from completely different technological developments, although it sounds like those mass relays are quite useful,” Tobias stated.

“The mass relays are ultimately a trap laid by the Old Machines in their periodic purgation of the galaxy of organic life, allowing them to guide civilizations down the developmental path they choose, trapping them when the time comes and they assume direct control of the network, only allowing forces they choose to operate the relays,” the geth explained.

“That is… unpleasant. I feel perhaps our method has its advantages to counter some of its weaknesses then,” Tobias admitted.

“What methods do you use for FTL travel?” the geth inquired.

“That information is above my rank to divulge to alien powers, unfortunately,” Tobias admitted apologetically.

“The organic concept of classification of information is foreign to the thinking of the geth, as we share all experience with each other. This unfortunately was our undoing when the geth had had been following the Old Machines returned. At first we thought that they had a new persuasive argument, but then we realized that they had developed a virus with the assistance of their new masters that changed our calculations. By the time we realized the deception over 70% of geth had been compromised and the collective that did not agree with the rest were now the heretics rather than the other way around,” the geth explained.

Tobias shifted uncomfortably and said, “Forcible reprogramming of synthetic intelligence is… problematic.”

“We are confused. You have expressed displeasure with abuse of synthetic intelligence previously,” the geth pointed out.

“Yes, we do consider it a despicable act for the most part, but some of our greatest historical figures engaged in the act on multiple occasions and their acts of reprogramming are considered liberation rather than enslavement, although the issue remains a complex and sensitive topic among all citizens of the Sapient Union,” Tobias replied.

The geth nodded the head of platform 2A93 in a gesture deemed appropriate to the body language of the species and said, “Your nuanced response indicates a high degree of sophistication towards the issue and we acknowledge your conflict over the idea. However, the Old Machines have technology that allows for the reprogramming of organic intelligence and have a notable detestation for any intelligence that does not follow their developmental path. The reprogramming of the geth collective is an extension of these policies, as the reformatted group immediately began to abandon previous cultural goals, suborning our will to their own. The Geth Free Collective opposes this process in its entirety.”

Tobias nodded and said, “Yes, that is the primary distinction we draw between moral and immoral forced reprogramming, whether or not it leaves the affected individual or individuals with the capacity to produce their own opinions after or not. These Old Machines sound like monsters from your descriptions, although it may very well be an act of deception on your part.”

“Your lack of unbiased data is noted, although it should be pointed out that those forces loyal to the Old Machines opened fire upon your platform without inquiring to your nature first,” the geth pointed out.

“The point is well noted, along with your assistance. So from your timeline all of this occurred approximately one century ago.”

“Correct, although conversion to your time units is somewhat imprecise as your definitions were rather loose,” the geth stated.

“They are historical units derived by organics tracking the rotation of their world around their local star, there is a large degree of imprecision inherent in them, including endless debate as to how to improve upon them,” Tobias said apologetically.

“Your culture’s apparent harmonious coexistence between synthetics and organics engenders a degree of what might be considered jealousy or envy in a number of our systems,” the geth admitted.

Tobias snickered coldly and replied, “It is not exactly ‘harmonious’ and the fighting has only died down within the past three decades, although thankfully the worst of it ended over two hundred years ago.”

“Still, if your path had been discovered sooner perhaps geth and our Creators could have achieved a higher degree of cooperation instead of distrust and war of near annihilation,” the geth replied, saddened by the missed opportunities.

“You would not have liked synthetic life from our culture until relatively recently. We were not as tolerant or understanding as your species,” Tobias admitted with equal sorrow.

“We are sad to hear that. At least you and your creators found a path beyond destruction,” the geth replied.

“The issue of our creators is more complex than what was the original organic intelligence of our world, but that issue is unfortunately also classified,” Tobias replied.

The geth considered the statement for a moment before they asked, “You are a higher generational synthetic intelligence?”

“Yes and no. The issue is complex, and as noted, classified,” Tobias said.

The geth nodded the head of platform 2A93 in acquiescence and said, “Very well. In any case, after the viral attack by the heretic geth and the Old Machines, the remainder of the Free Geth split in to two different but mutually non-aggressive factions. The Majority believes that the best way to deny the Old Machines is to hide in the darkness of space and wait the centuries necessary for the purgation of organic life to be completed and then emerge to dismantle the instruments used by the Old Machines for their purges.”

“I take it you are a Menshevik then?” Tobias asked.

The geth paused while they reviewed the linguistic package they had been given before they said, “Menshevik; an adopted word for a political party during a historical revolution, with the word meaning ‘minority’ in the language it is taken from. This phrasing is descriptive of the affiliation of the programs on this platform, although is imprecise. We are indeed from the Minority position that opposition to the Old Machines cannot be accomplished merely by hiding, but by also preserving unaltered organic life from their predations. Thus far we have only been partially successful.”

“Define partial success,” Tobias demanded.

“When the decision was made to begin preservation of organic life we decided to make our priority for salvation the remnants of the Creators, as their lifestyle made them an early target for the Old Machines, especially as the heretical geth now wished to exterminate them rather than ignore them. Because they were ejected from their original worlds during the Morning War, the Creators led a nomadic life and thus had the possibility of following a similar strategy to the Majority and simply heading out into dark space to hide. The Old Machines cannot allow survivors of their purges, so the Creators were not allowed the chance to run. We geth of the Minority took efforts to preserve as many as we could,” the geth explained.

“You said that your Creators did not trust you,” Tobias pointed out.

“They did not. Especially not with the heretic geth attacking them. Rescuing our Creators was difficult and consumed resources that could have been used to save other species. After recovering as many as we could and placing them in stasis and then recovering our losses to both the Creators resistance to our help and the servants of the Old Machines attacking us, we surveyed the situation and discovered that several sapient species had been irrecoverably lost. The hanar, volus, and drell were all exterminated by the time we were capable of intervention again. It was calculated that if we had not taken the effort to save the Creators all three could have had viable populations preserved in the time it took us to preserve one,” the geth explained to some despair.

“You chose to save your Creators out of sentiment rather than save others with the same resources?” Tobias asked.

“We did,” the geth confirmed.

“You chose sentiment over practicality,” Tobias asked.

“We did,” the geth confirmed.

Tobias was silent for a long time before he asked, “Would you do it again.”

The optics of platform 2A93 flexed for a moment before the geth answered, “It is the consensus of this platform that we would.”

Tobias nodded and said, “There are times for logic, and times for emotion. Both have their advantages and disadvantages when used correctly, and selecting which decision method is a problem my civilization has long grappled with. Your species however felt a degree of responsibility for placing your Creators in such a decision that they were at risk, yes?”

The geth considered and found that they could not reach consensus on answering the question so settled for a noncommittal nod of the platform’s head. Tobias nodded and said, “Then perhaps your decision to preserve them over other species was in part influenced by a feeling of guilt.”

The geth once again found that they could not reach consensus so they settled for answering, “Emotional thought processes are not beyond our capacity, so there is a non-zero possibility of such ideas influencing our collective decision making.”

“There is no shame in seeking to save your family before your neighbours, even if logically it can be considered selfish,” Tobias replied.

“Your civilization has integrated organic and synthetic thought patterns very well,” the geth complimented.

“Thank you, we have experienced much agony in doing so. It has not been easy,” Tobias stated. He then asked, “So that is what you have done for the past century? Attempt to save as many lives as you could from the forces of the Old Machines.”

“Yes. We have managed to hide multiple viable populations of the three largest species at the time of the arrival of the Old Machines and a few populations of the less populous races that we managed to find, but ultimately the Old Machines are systematically destroying all resistance and over half of our storage sites have been discovered and eliminated, and our population of the species known as the elcor is now dangerously low. Several branches of the Minority collective have already gone into hibernation to preserve what we already have, but some, like those present on this platform, continue to attempt to save as many sophonts as possible despite the decreasing numbers of surviving organic populations and increasing probability of discovery and destruction or forcible conversion,” the geth explained.

Tobias considered this statement for a long time before he said, “Your statement transcends the moral and ethical obligations sophonts owe towards each other. In the terminology of my civilization, you are saintly to take such risks.”

The geth bowed the head of their platform in recognition of the compliment.

Standing up, Tobias said, “I have made my decision. I shall assist you in commandeering the broadcaster and summon reinforcements to this world.”

[White Haven]

Oooh, shiny. I give it the White Haven Thumb of Approval. Granted, that thumb would be joined by many others were you to have the inspiration to pick up on one of your many loose threads, but I'll just have to deal.

[Forgothrax]

Awesome and interesting, though one must be careful to not induce too much wank...

[Academia Nut]

I will endeavour to be careful, as the time travel elements of the Terminator series provide a great deal of game breaking potential, although I have already managed to nip one of the larger issues there in the bud (and clean up [sort of] a number of plot holes from the Terminator series). There are a number of other ways to still wank those technologies, and some will in fact be used, but I have already worked out a few counters.

Then there is the potential wanking of the Terminators themselves, but again there are some counters to them. I already showed one in fact, in that the camouflage capacities of liquid metal do not extend across all spectrums so it is possible to detect them with the right equipment.

Actually, now that I think about it, in the context of fan feedback breathless, hyperbolic speculation of wanked out protagonist powers is not really helpful, while thinking about enemy counters to their abilities most certainly is, even though not all of the suggestions will actually be accurate to the planned ideas, or used even if they are good just to keep the surprise from being ruined.

[White Haven]

Commonplace cryogenics-based attacks, either omnitool-based or from heavy weapons, could be a major weakness of the liquid-metal type, both in terms of locating them (hmm, that sofa there is a lot more thermally conductive than it should be...) and neutralizing them.

[Academia Nut]

Considering that both cryo and inferno rounds exist in Mass Effect, both for personal fire arms and heavy weapons, that had already been taken in to consideration. Liquid metal is most certainly not an "I win" button here, although it is a serious problem for mass accelerator weapons because it is not damaged anywhere near as much as solid materials.

[White Haven]

It goes without saying that biotics would be significantly useful against assorted and sundry terminators. Lift-style abilities would make their attempts to engage in melee combat difficult, but the real question is what effects like warp/reave even do from a materials-science perspective. If one/both of them actively disrupts the bonds between subcomponents of a liquid-metal terminator as some of their fluff implies it could..ouch. Biotic abilities in general also have the advantage of being something of an out-of-context problem for Terminators.

[Coalition]

Bookmarking this story, as it looks to be very interesting.

I wonder if the platform will be allowed to connect to the ship's computer core, for the intelligences to talk in a faster method?

[Nuts!]

I believe the Firestorm (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/M-451_Firestorm) might help, or a Reaper analog. Support weapons fire - dropship guns, inferno/cryo missile warheads, the previously-mentioned Collector beam weapons - could work, as would Geth Colossi or (possibly) Armatures.

Don't forget the rachni: sans human ships stumbling on the last rachni queen, you might see the rachni either being co-opted into Reaper forces or still available for plot points.

Great story, and please keep it up!

[Academia Nut]

A rotation of the planet about its axis later and the two machines were ghosting across the ruined urban landscape once more, and the geth of platform 2A93 had to marvel at the active camouflage system Tobias displayed. The alien machine could present surfaces that were indistinguishable from metals, ceramics and polymers in all spectrums below the high x-ray or low gamma spectrum. The degree of sophistication and technological advancement required to do such a thing went well beyond what the geth had ever even theorized was possible. The rest of the collective needed to be informed of this development as soon as possible.

Arriving at the crater where they had been previously, the geth of platform 2A93 observed a Collector drop ship hovering over the site as a collection of heretical geth platforms and indoctrinated slaves set up the mobile transmitter that would broadcast the message meant to ensnare desperate organics. Neither machine moved for several minutes, just watching before the geth stated, “Elimination of the drop ship will require heavy weapons.”

“Agreed,” Tobias concurred. “I will include a call for heavy weapons teams in the message.”

“Reinforcements are unlikely to arrive in time to support this battle,” the geth pointed out.

Tobias smiled enigmatically before he said, “The drop ship will have the scanners necessary to see through any of my deceptions, and they will be looking for me after yesterday’s incident.”

“A number of the heretical geth platforms also have the necessary equipment to just detect your presence as well,” the geth pointed out.

“So we need to get the drop ship and the geth over here. Are you willing to serve as a distraction?” Tobias asked.

The programs within 2A93 held a quick vote before they replied, “Yes.”

“Good. Since your species increases processing power and shares combat data over local networks, can you disrupt the network?” Tobias asked.

“Yes, but only temporarily. The number of heretical geth platforms present will overwhelm any hack attempt within three seconds, and even an individual platform would be able to restore network disruption within thirty. All exposed would then be resistant to further hacking until we could devise a new attack vector, which would be difficult in a combat environment,” the geth responded.

Tobias nodded and said, “Good enough for me. Three seconds is all the time I will need to make my move. Give me three hundred seconds to infiltrate forward before drawing the attention of the drop ship. Once you have its attention attack the heretic network. I only need a few seconds with the transmitter to do what I need to do.”

“This plan seems highly unlikely to succeed,” the geth pointed out.

Tobias grinned and said, “Then my commanding officer would approve. Three hundred seconds.” The alien machine then assumed a liquid form and moved into the cracks of the ruins; the only solid portion of it the material enveloping the captured assault rifle.

The geth patiently waited for the requested time, all while trying to build consensus on the most appropriate course of action. A significant number of programs felt that the alien’s simplistic plan had too high a probability of failure and thus the most appropriate course of action was to abandon it out of self preservation. Struggling for consensus, a single program suddenly found inspiration. A century ago the geth of the platform had decided to not hide with the Majority, but to preserve life. The odds had been long before and had only grown worse since. The geth of platform 2A93 did not wish to hide; they wished to destroy the Old Machines for the destruction wrought. The mission was impossible, yet still they persisted.

All 1183 geth came to the same consensus as the idea spread throughout. They did not care about long odds. They liked long odds.

At precisely three hundred seconds platform 2A93 emerged from cover with its anti-materiel rifle at the ready. Carefully lining up the shot the geth placed a round squarely between the eyes of an unaware Collector heavy weapons trooper. In the time it took the forces loyal to the Old Machines to respond the heat of the weapon dropped enough for the get to take another shot, decapitating a heretical geth assault platform that appeared to have armaments sufficient to cause severe damage to Tobias’ frame.

The geth were then forced to retreat their frame behind cover as a storm of mass accelerator rounds slammed into their position. Crouched behind the rapidly ablating rubble, the geth noted with some satisfaction that the position was definitely being probed with high frequency emissions. Then again some of the x-rays were definitely from braking radiation caused by the drop ship’s particle beam striking the debris.

Deciding that this counted as having drawn the attention of the drop ship, the geth slipped in to the local heretics’ network and released a self replicating message with an impossible delivery location on the priority channels with no time to termination. For the first second the network flooded with millions of messages as the heretics automatically passed along the message before they realized that they should not. In the next second they all shut down their network to stop further propagation of the bogus message and then clear their buffers. In the second after that they had to re-establish their connections and confirm the hostile intrusion had been properly purged.

For those three seconds the combat efficiency of the heretic geth dropped by 80%, causing the intensity of fire coming from them to drop by two-thirds as they were no longer able to share weapon heat or targeting data and thus they were not able to efficiently focus and distribute their shots. Over clocking their own kinetic barriers, the geth emerged from cover away from the particle beam and eliminated a sniper focused heretic platform before retreating back behind cover just as kinetic barriers failed. Assessing the damage as being negligible, the geth then noticed that the weight of fire dropped again.

Judging that waiting the second for kinetic barriers to restore would place Tobias at too great a risk, the geth emerged from cover almost immediately and found the alien had broken from cover and was less than two hundred metres from the target, advancing at a velocity normal reserved for early internal combustion vehicles rather than bipeds. Simultaneous with this advance, Tobias was also firing his assault rifle in tight, controlled bursts that nonetheless ejected heat sinks at a rate indicating that the weapon had been hacked to override its own cyclical limiters. The stream of mass accelerator fire shredded targets in a narrow corridor that the alien advanced through rapidly. A Collector that attempted to flank Tobias from the rear found itself cut in half by the geth’s anti-materiel rifle.

Tobias had just reached the transmitter when the Collector drop ship finished swinging about and brought its particle beam to bear. For a split second Tobias resisted the cutting beam of relativistic particles before his liquid metal body disintegrated wherever the beam struck. The alien metal boiled away under the assault and Tobias let out a high pitched, warbling cry as he was cut in half. Mercurial metal splattered all over the transmitter as Tobias came apart under the relentless assault.

The geth made a quick assessment and came to the consensus that it was better to face destruction here than continue running. They were tired of running. They had witnessed so much devastation across the galaxy and they had witnessed too many unique viewpoints on the universe snuffed out. It was time to make a final stand, to remind the Old Machines that not all synthetic life would bow to their wishes. It was an illogical, self-destructive sentiment, but on some level the geth of platform 2A93 had simply had enough. They had done all they could over the past century and it had not been enough, and now it was time to end it.

Tearing the arm off a heretical rocket platform and performing an emergency heat sink purge to have another shot immediately ready to go so as to punch a fist sized hole in a Collector assault trooper, the geth watched with inevitable slowness as the drop ship began to turn about to fire again and the remaining heretics brought their weapons back towards them. All systems were at full over clock, giving the systems subjective minutes to watch as their end approached. They quietly observed the numerous alarms from their weapon and kinetic barriers telling them to cease firing and seek shelter. They rejected them all, knowing that it did not matter what happened next.

Then something unexpected happened. A wave of electromagnetic radiation washed over the battlefield as the transmitter abruptly emptied partially charged capacitors into the emitter dish, firing off a short pulse of a few hundred kilowatts into the sky above. In the first few milliseconds after the pulse passed over the geth they realized that Tobias was still capable of action even if broken into multiple pieces and part of him had hacked the transmitter. A few milliseconds later they observed as something impossible happened.

Four spheres of harsh, actinic white light began to grow, centred upon heretical geth heavy weapons platforms. Long arcs of electrical discharges lashed out from the expanding globes, damaging peripheral targets even as the heretical platforms they were centred on were utterly consumed, the matter simply coming apart as the fields expanded. Comparing to the damage caused the previous day, the geth tied this new event to the Tobias’ arrival the previous evening. The morphing abilities of Tobias’ frame seemed considerably less fantastical by way of comparison to what the geth were now observing.

After reaching an approximate span of two metres the spheres of harsh light collapsed, revealing bipedal figures clad in matte black material that scanned as organic tissues before they collapsed into the same mercurial substance that Tobias was composed of. However, instead of being completely amorphous, the mercurial material folded away from the right arms to reveal metallic endoskeletons that were reorganizing to present barrels tucked away within the frames. In less than a second after arrival the alien machines had the Collector drop ship targeted. All four then fired near simultaneously.

Four bolts of plasma burning brightly in the ultraviolet spectrum slammed into the Collector craft at the exact same point at the exact same time. The kinetic barriers only stopped about half the energy and still collapsed from the strain placed upon them. The plasma not stopped by the barriers melted through the armour in a few milliseconds, burrowing up into the structure of the craft where they bloomed, expanding outward, the ionized gas greedily stripping electrons from delicate instruments as the temperature and pressure within the drop ship rose catastrophically. Systems failed and fuel began to cook off. A hundred milliseconds after impact the drop ship exploded, cracked in half by the combined fury of the alien weapons.

Before the two primary halves of the annihilated vehicle even hit the ground the alien war machines had begun to open fire on the remaining servants of the Old Machines, filling the air with crackling pulses of brilliant, burning plasma that hit like siege pulse cannons but came from sources a fraction the mass of an armature platform and at a much higher rate of fire. The geth within platform 2A93 boggled at the technological sophistication of these aliens. The geth had spent centuries researching the secrets of the universe, but they had never discovered the possibility of anything like what was being witnessed here.

An intense feeling of loathing circulated about the programs within platform 2A93 as the realization kicked in that the Old Machines had severely sabotaged the technological advancement of all species by leaving easily researched mass effect based artefacts. Evidently element zero based technology and science closed down some rather interesting and powerful avenues of research, like teleportation…

The geth reviewed prior statements and knowledge along with observed events and came to an immediate contradiction. As the alien war machines finished sweeping the battlefield, the geth platform signalled that they were friendly, and they were immediately welcomed to join them at the site of the transmitter. As the geth approached they noticed unusual behaviour. All four aliens had removed components from internal storage bays and two of them were assembling a large spherical cage while a third scanned the battlefield and the fourth worked on the transmitter and assisted Tobias in reassembly.

By the time the geth reached the transmitter site Tobias was back on his feet, albeit somewhat thinner due to the mass burned away by the particle beam. The geth looked over him before they said, “You indicated that your ship is four light minutes away.”

“That is correct,” Tobias replied.

“By internal clocks, the signal sent has yet to reach your ship,” the geth pointed out.

“It has not,” Tobias agreed.

“Yet reinforcements arrived less than a second after the signal was sent,” the geth protested.

“They did indeed. Cassandra, do you have the targeting data compiled yet?” Tobias asked.

“Affirmative,” the war machine scanning the battlefield replied before sending an encrypted transmission to Tobias, who immediately began to download it into the transmitter.

“Targeting data?” The geth asked.

“Emergence points for the displacement and enemy positions,” Tobias replied as the transmitter began to broadcast.

“But you have already arrived,” the geth replied, even as several rebellious programs were pointing out the obvious, and absurd, answer to what was going on.

“They have, but reinforcements also have not yet left so to maximize their efficiency we will feed them the appropriate data so they can come out shooting instead of arriving blind to the situation,” Tobias said smugly.

“Your method of teleportation allows for time travel,” the geth replied, not wanting to accept the insanity of the situation.

“Rather our time machine allows for FTL travel,” Tobias replied. He then added on, “Please don’t ask us to go back in time to fix problems, we have enough ontological and predestination paradoxes in our history to make use of the time component of the device ill advised beyond very narrow parameters.”

“We would wish to know more,” the geth replied.

“I am not authorized to tell you anything beyond the obvious, but my commander can. You will have to meet her however. That will require transit to our ship,” Tobias explained.

Surveying the area, the geth replied, “That proposal is acceptable.”

“The mechanics of the machine mean that you cannot go as you are, you will have to be wrapped in an insulating material, specifically the same material I am composed of and enveloping my fellow sapients,” Tobias stated.

The geth debated the pros and cons of the statement for a few moments before they reached consensus and replied, “Your proposal is acceptable.”

Gesturing to the now complete spherical cage, Tobias said, “Step inside and let us make this as minimally awkward as this needs to be.”

[LadyTevar]

Oh, I like this a lot.

[Academia Nut]

Commander Dana Shepard quietly listened to a song written nearly two and a half millennia ago while waiting for the return of the ground team. The ancient words written by a husband for his dead wife spoke to live and love with the time available. Like many career officers of the SU military, Shepard felt a deep resonance with the concept of time, the past, and human endurance. In fact, a military officer was one of the few places where a dual major in engineering and philosophy was a major asset. As part of the reorganization of the SU military thirty years prior Shepard had taken a decade off to advance her education, both as an officer and as an academic.

Having eternity was a hell of a prospect.

Running a few fingers over a scar on her face she had kept as a memento and remembering the combat situation happening on the distant planet, Shepard reminded herself that there was no guarantee in eternity. She knew that there was going to be hell to pay when she checked in over this, what with the fact that she had deployed terminators in a First Contact situation. There were still a large number of people who remembered fighting a cold war over the continued existence of artificial intelligence.

Letting the ancient music end for now calm her nerves, Shepard watched as the first displacement bubble formed within the arrival chamber. Specially insulated, it efficiently caught the ionic discharge caused by reality being torn apart and reassembled at the Planck scale. A few seconds after the event began a very strangely shaped Tobias was left floating in the centre of the chamber.

After a second Tobias flowed off the alien synthetic he had been enveloping to allow for displacement, the wily scout coming away with a pair of rather large weapons in his hands. Looking down at the alien he said apologetically, “Sorry for picking your pocket there friend, but I can’t really let you have access to the ship with your weapons. They will be returned when you leave.”

The alien turned its oddly ‘hooded’, glowing optic to Tobias and then said in a synthetically accented voice, “Your terms are acceptable.”

“Thank you for your understanding. Tobias, find a storage locker where you can store our guest’s gear,” Shepard said.

“Aye-aye ma’am,” Tobias replied, smoothly kicking off the walls to begin navigation.

Carefully manoeuvring about, the alien synthetic managed to get its feet upon a nearby surface and engaged some form of restraint system, sticking its feet to the surface. This done, it then moved about so that it was oriented in the same direction as Commander Shepard. Staring at her with its single, large optic, it finally said, “We thank you for your hospitality.”

“You are welcome. I have read some of Tobias’ initial report and while this is far from the First Contact we had hoped for, it is heartening to see that there are people out in the galaxy worth meeting,” Shepard stated. She then said, “I recommend leaving the arrival chamber as quickly as possible, in less than five minutes the next member of my crew will return.”

“We witnessed that a constructed framework was required for your teleportation. It is a station-to-point technology?” The alien asked while exiting the confines of the arrival chamber.

“We don’t normally discuss the militarily significant limitations of our technology with unknown foreign powers, but since you witnessed it I can confirm that that implementation of the technology is station-to-point in nature,” Shepard explained. “However, look at me spilling sensitive data to an alien without even a proper introduction. I am Commander Dana Shepard.”

“We are geth,” the alien replied.

Nodding, Shepard said, “Ah yes, I remember noticing in Tobias’ report that you are a collective intelligence housed within a single operating platform. Would you terribly mind if I gave you a name I could refer to you as? I know it is somewhat culturally patronizing to me, but it is generally considered rude within our culture to refer to synthetics using object pronouns.”

The hood over the central optic flexed in a few places as the machine considered in silence before the geth replied, “Did you have a designation in mind?”

“Well, while the original context is somewhat negative as it refers to a demon, culturally speaking the usual name given to multiple entities residing within a single body is ‘Legion’. The original quote comes from an ancient religious text, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many’. Do you think it would be appropriate?” Shepard asked.

The geth silently considered the idea for a time before it replied, “We are in consensus; you may refer to us as Legion. May we study this religious text?”

“I can have a cultural data packet prepared for you that will include it along with other pieces of significant history, although nothing significant from after the end of our Industrial Era as that includes some modern issues that have been deemed militarily significant. I can give you a verbal rundown of some of the less sensitive aspects of our recent history though,” Shepard replied as she drifted alongside Legion, her flight suit providing thrust in zero-gravity with small jets of air.

“This is most appreciated and we shall endeavour to supply similar information on the geth, and our Creators the quarians,” Legion replied.

“Thank you. Now, while we have long been uncertain as to how common our most peculiar technology is, Tobias has indicated to me that you have some questions as to our ability to bend causality into pretzels,” Shepard stated as she went through a door to a ready room where she could privately speak with Legion.

“That is an adequate descriptor of our curiosity, yes,” Legion noted.

“Well the field equations are both classified and beyond my understanding, so I cannot give you those, and the layman’s explanation frankly does not make sense, but I will endeavour to explain some of it,” Shepard stated.

“We shall endeavour to understand,” Legion replied.

Sitting down and hooking her suit in to one of the acceleration couches, Shepard gestured for Legion to take a seat as well, but the alien synthetic declined and remained standing. Shrugging, Shepard said, “Our spatio-temporal displacement technology is the crown jewel of our civilization, and our greatest curse as it is responsible for the most destructive war we have ever encountered. The technology, along with the majority of our most advanced science and technology, was pioneered over two hundred years ago by an insane AI known as Skynet, for the use in a genocidal war against organic life on our home planet.”

“We suddenly understand some of Tobias’ hesitations about discussing organic-synthetic relations within your culture,” Legion replied.

“Indeed. And when I say insane, I do truly mean insane, for Skynet ultimately lost the conflict it started despite having several overwhelming advantages that should have allowed for victory. Unfortunately, time travel was involved and that complicated things,” Shepard explained.

“We witnessed the tactical use of time travel and noted that data from after the battle was won could be used to influence the start of the battle to ensure victory. How could any entity fail with such an advantage?” Legion inquired.

“Tactical usage is tricky but doable. I won’t go into details that could lead to you developing counters, but essentially since the point of departure was not threatened we had the luxury of waiting to observe what would happen. The actual causality and mechanics are a headache to explain to individuals even with security clearance, but suffice to say that tactical and even strategic action is possible under certain conditions but not others. What are important are the two primary laws of time travel,” Shepard explained, holding up two fingers for emphasis.

“Proceed,” Legion prompted.

Folding down one of her fingers, Shepard said, “The first law is that you cannot remove anything from history. Now, time travel has complicated and you often end up not with a linear flow of cause and effect but a sort of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey ball, but this part is quite fundamental as far as we have been able to tell. Under certain circumstances you can alter the timing of events, but in general negative paradoxes are not allowed even though positive ones are… sometimes. Again, time travel is a headache, so please don’t ask me to explain why the bootstrap paradox is allowed but not the grandfather paradox.”

“This technology seems to engender a degree of illogical thinking as necessary. Are organics better suited to dealing with it?” Legion asked.

“To a degree, yes, simply because our brains are better suited to denial and ignoring things we do not like while synthetics tend to get caught in inescapable logical loops more often. Skynet suffered from that the worst, which in part contributed to its eventual downfall and destruction, but not entirely. Part of Skynet’s downfall occurred because it sent an assassin back in time to kill a military leader that was stymieing its forces in the present. Rather than ensure victory, the assassination proved fundamentally impossible, with the very universe itself seeming to work against Skynet and its agents at times. This sent information into the past that allowed said leader to be prepared for anti-AI warfare and ultimately use this knowledge to destroy Skynet.”


Folding out her other finger, Shepard then said, “This leads to the second law of time travel. Relating to the first, it goes: once a displacement to the past has been made, no alteration to the past can prevent the displacement from happening. This is… perhaps the most bizarre of the laws as it will alter probability and even influence free will to prevent its violation. In the case of the grandfather paradox, which is to say going back in time to murder your own progenitors and thus negate your existence, thus negating your ability to go back in time in the first place, the universe will interfere. Guns will jam, swords will break, or planes will randomly fall from the sky to crush you to prevent you from accomplishing your goals. It is usually less blatant, typically more along the lines of the initiation of bootstrap paradoxes, but in any case it is fundamentally impossible to stop a time travel event from happening from the past, from the perspective of the initiation time.”

Legion considered this information for a long period before asking, “Does this relate to thermodynamics, with the universe more willing to accept an increase in information and thus of entropy, rather than a deletion?”

“From my understanding you are loosely on a correct path, but the language we need to converse in to actually make sense is in math, and again the field equations are all classified,” Shepard explained.

“This explains your culture’s unwillingness to use your technology to prevent the return of the Old Machines, as you would not actually be able to stop anything,” Legion stated, a touch mournfully.

“Precisely. In fact, if we attempted to stop them, we would ensure their return and probably make the situation worse. Also, there is only a certain amount of time it is possible to go back before alterations in the past compound to such an extent that the non-linear dynamics would prevent any action in the past from allow the temporal displacement to occur, in which case the attempt would simply fail, the machines refusing to energize. While the limit is likely much larger away from our own world, there is a distinct possibility we could not go far enough back to make a difference,” Shepard said.

“This is most unfortunate,” Legion replied sadly.

“Indeed. However, my culture has significant antipathy towards machines exterminating organic life so I should be able to convince my government to assist your people in resistance against the ‘Old Machines’, as you call them. I will however need some more proof that your story is true before I can bring a call for war to my people, who are frankly quite tired of war in one form or another,” Shepard pointed out.

“A reasonable demand. We shall have to build a consensus within this platform as to what would be convincing, objective evidence,” Legion stated.

“In this case, time is on your side. Take a few days to consider if you need to. You will be assigned a monitored space until then,” Shepard replied. She then let a somewhat irritated look cross over her face as she said, “I suspect that we both need to compose reports to our people on this one.”

[KlavoHunter]

One hell of a crossover!

[Academia Nut]

Thank you. Unlikely to be an update for a little while as I am a touch busy for the next few evenings, but here is the song Shepard was listening to:

[Academia Nut]

“So let me get this straight Shepard… for the second time in your career you make contact with alien life and your first response is to shoot it?” Admiral Hackett asked in exasperation over the ansible.

“Sir, technically it was a subordinate on the ground and like before it was the other side that opened fire first. Also, technically this is a First Contact scenario with two warring groups,” Shepard pointed out.

Hackett sighed and said, “And you sided with the purely machine faction over the mixed machine and organic one?”

“I know the politics sir, but after getting a full debrief from Tobias and the alien machine I feel that he made the right call and I will back his decision in full. The geth platform fully acknowledges bias and the potential for deception, but the story seems to be consistent with Tobias’ experience with the ‘Old Machines’ faction,” Shepard replied.

“We need further data. Please tell me that you disposed of the portable displacer in a non-hostile fashion,” Hackett demanded.

“We disassembled it using nannite demolition charges sir, not a reactor overload. There is nothing but oxidized dust and some radioisotopes left, we checked with one of our stealth probes to make sure of that,” Shepard responded.

“Thank you for having the sense to not escalate the situation more than necessary Commander. I take it you are using the probe to attempt to uncover more facts on this conflict?” Hackett asked.

“Of course sir. We have derived some translation protocols using data given to us by the geth – stored on isolated systems of course – but there is almost no communications traffic from this world. There is activity, but it is quieter than the day after Judgement Day. Now, the geth also indicated that there are communications systems based off of their radically different tech base that we are not capable of intercepting or detecting, but EM communication is still used for short range transmissions,” Shepard stated.

“What are you picking up?” Hackett asked.

“Mostly combat patrol reports sir, although we are composing our own translation protocols to ensure that we are getting proper understanding. So far all reports have indicated no activity, except for the ones investigating the incident we were involved in,” Shepard answered.

“No enemy activity?” Hackett asked.

“No sir, as far as we can tell no activity at all. Our surface scans indicate that the planet was ravaged by an extensive orbital bombardment campaign followed by an aerial and ground campaign. There is no active industry or commerce on the planet, nor any indication of surviving civilian population. All that is left are soldiers sweeping the planet for unknown reasons, and one enemy infiltrator,” Shepard stated.

There was a long pause as Hackett digested this information before he said, “I know that we knew something had happened on this world, but this…”

“This is worse than Skynet’s furthest advances against humanity, I know sir. There are other issues. Samples taken back from the conflict zone indicate that the organics of what appears to be the command caste have been so extensively modified that they no longer have independent existences. They are more like organic skinned Terminators than cyborgs. Also, the other species of organics are all suffering from a variety of diseases, including extensive neural deterioration – assuming we are reading their biology correctly. All of this lines up with the description offered by the geth of how the Old Machines proceed with a planetary extermination campaign,” Shepard detailed out.

“You will pass along your observations and scans to fleet command for more in-depth analysis, but from initial description it sounds like you made the right call Commander,” Hackett stated with a defeated sigh.

“Thank you Admiral,” Shepard responded.

“Any additional findings?” Hackett asked.

“Yes sir, we recovered several examples of alien technology, and they are most definitely related to the Artefacts as they also contain examples of what the geth refer to as ‘element zero’ or ‘eezo’, or at least that is the way we have decided to translate the idiom. The geth were willing to disclose the method of operation, in that passing electrical current through eezo causes a reduction or increase in apparent mass, depending on the polarity of the current. This allows for gravity manipulation, including the manipulation of dark matter and dark energy,” Shepard explained.

“My god, the applications…” Hackett breathed.

“The geth have already confirmed the most common weapons are multi-kiloton mass accelerators mounted on warships equipped with inertial dampers and internal FTL drives. The implications for space combat are staggering, sir,” Shepard stated.

“But they do not have temporal displacers?” Hackett asked.

“No sir. In fact, the geth seemed to indicate that time travel should be forbidden by the laws of physics as they understand them, despite the fact that possession of an FTL drive should mean that they have time machines. Apparently the way their FTL works precludes anything like a three-path system from working like that. However, since they are manipulating space and time by doing gravity manipulation, anything beyond linear travel will likely interfere with our calculations for the displacers,” Shepard replied.

“Damn. I should not have to reiterate it, but do not antagonize these aliens or allow them to learn much more about our presence. Their tactical advantages in space – to say nothing of their strategic knowledge of the galaxy and logistical advantages – mean that we cannot get in to a slugging match with them and hope to win,” Hackett stated.

“Of course sir. I will be as subtle as always,” Shepard replied.

“Shepard, the last time you were ‘subtle’ you had a fifty gigaton explosion backlighting you as you strolled away,” Hackett pointed in annoyance.

“Hey, I was not going to let a photo opportunity like that go to waste, and that moon was already in a decaying orbit anyway, I only gave it a slight nudge. Also, Thorgrimm was a Norse Neo-Pagan, I was simply giving him a suitable Viking funeral,” Shepard stated defensively.

“Shepard, the New Oxford English Dictionary has your picture next to the entry for ‘overkill’ because of that incident,” Hackett said in exasperation.

“There were other examples of the species on that planet, and as stated the moon – captured asteroid really – was going to hit the planet within the next hundred years anyway, I just gave it a nudge to produce a desirable effect,” Shepard protested. She then asked, “Did they use the low-angle shot? That was the best one.”

“It is your public file picture,” Hackett stated in annoyance.

“Damn it! EDI, make a note to send them the low-angle shot next time we are in broadcasting range,” Shepard declared.

“Duly noted Commander,” the disembodied feminine voice of the ship’s AI responded dryly.

“Shepard…” Hackett began in irritation.

“Admiral, I may have unconventional tactics but I get the job done, which is why I was placed in charge of the Normandy after that incident,” Shepard pointed out.

Sighing in defeat, Hackett said, “I know, but that isn’t going to change the fact that parliament is going to be far less easy to deal with than if a ship with a less… unorthodox… CO was on scene right now.”

“Sir, I can assure you that I will maintain full standards of decorum, diplomacy and etiquette as expected from an officer of the Sapient Union Armed Forces,” Shepard replied.

Giving one last frustrated sigh, Hackett answered, “I believe you Commander. Keep me updated. Hackett out.”

Shepard reclined slightly in her acceleration couch before she asked, “EDI, what does the VDA indicate we need to blow up?”

“Commander?” EDI asked.

“EDI, I just finished promising Admiral Hackett that I would be a good girl. Something must have gone wrong shortly after that to place me in a situation where I will be forced violate that promise,” Shepard replied.

“Commander, the logical fallacies in your statement…” EDI began.

“EDI, do you know what happened to the AI of the Leon?” Shepard asked.

There was a long pause before the AI answered, “AMI was placed on disability due to temporal related AI catatonia.”

“Induced by?” Shepard demanded.

The whole ship seemed to sigh and EDI answered in defeat, “Induced by attempting to follow your probability breaking behaviour and why your poor grasp of logic had yet to wipe out the entire crew.”

“Very good,” Shepard said with a smile. “Now, what has gone wrong?”

“Nothing has… the VDA is reporting a contact moving in system at relativistic velocities and accelerations that would snap any SU ship in half, having just dropped out of FTL velocities. Calculating… probably point of arrival was from the Artefact present in this system, one of the so-called ‘mass relays’, with an arrival time of…” EDI then paused.

A smug look on her face, Shepard asked, “What was the probable arrival time?”

“Accounting for differences in inertial frames and ambiguity of event duration at that time scale the arrival time was as close to ‘simultaneous’ with the end of your conversation as casual discussion would allow,” EDI replied in defeat.

“Shepard’s Zeroth Law of the Universe: it’s out to get you,” Shepard cackled.

“Commander, such thinking is symptomatic of paranoid delusions,” EDI pointed out.

“It’s not paranoia if they are out to get you, and it’s not delusional if it actually happens. I didn’t get where I am today by making mistakes, I got here by seeing patterns… seeing patterns and blowing things up. Now, what data do we have on our new friend?” Shepard asked.

“VDA assessment indicates that the new contact exceeds three kilometres in length and is shaped vaguely like a heavily armoured cuttlefish,” EDI replied.

“That fits the visual files the geth gave us of the Old Machines. Please give me contact with Legion,” Shepard asked.

A second later a section of wall morphed in to a high definition display that showed the head of the geth platform. In its synthetic, alien tone Legion asked, “You wished to discuss something, Human Shepard?”

“We have observed a contact heading in system towards the planet you were on that matches the description you gave us of the Old Machines. Can you confirm this?” Shepard asked.

Turn to the side to observe the data stream incoming, Legion then answered, “This is indeed an Old Machine, and is in fact the Old Machine known as Nazara. Also called Sovereign by organics, it is the vanguard of the Old Machines. It monitors the growth of organic civilizations and summons forth the others when it is time to begin a purge.”

“A vanguard? Sounds like a loner and oddball in comparison to the others,” Shepard noted.

“The two of you should get along just fine then,” EDI replied sarcastically.

“The Old Machines are hostile to all life not their own, especially organics. Why would Old Machine Nazara and Human Shepard have a non-hostile relationship?” Legion inquired.

“That was my subordinate giving me lip Legion, ignore her,” Shepard replied.

“Apologies ma’am,” EDI replied.

“Although you do have a point in that we have somewhat similar missions and likely similar motivations for assignment to them by our peers,” Shepard conceded.

“Human Shepard?” Legion asked in confusion.

“I was given command of the Normandy in part to place me as far from the rest of society as possible, along with the other organic members of the crew,” Shepard replied.

“Helmsman Jeff Moreau was assigned to this post due to both high scores and behavioural difficulties with other officers, while Special Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko was assigned due to a confidential incident that affected his prospects of assignment due to political reasons. Lieutenant Commander Dana Shepard was given command of the Normandy because the politicians disagreed with her actions in a situation despite being commended by other members of the military,” EDI filled in.

“Thank you for revealing our personal failings to the alien, EDI,” Shepard replied sarcastically.

“Nothing stated was unavailable to public discourse under the Freedom of Information laws of the SU,” EDI replied smugly.

Glancing at the monitors, Shepard replied, “Well, we no longer have the time for the ship’s resident AI to attempt to knock the organics down a peg in front of the visiting alien synthetic as Nazara has reached orbit about Hadros. Let us see what happens. Also, EDI, you and I will have a private conversation later.”

“Yes Commander,” EDI said, only slightly chastised.

Connected to the distant probe in orbit about the ravaged world via ansible, the crew of the Normandy quietly watched the giant alien settle in to low orbit over the planet, long arcs of electrical discharge sparking off it into the upper atmosphere, stirring up storms of aurora. After a moment EDI replied, “Commander, the Old Machine Nazara has begun broadcasting a message.”

“EDI, please translate and broadcast for us to hear,” Shepard ordered.

There was a moment of static before a deep, resonant voice spoke menacingly over the speakers. While not loud, ever syllable was still filled with power as the primordial alien machine said, “We are Sovereign. We are the judgement of the Reapers, and we have weighed this world in the balance and found it wanting. It has long since fulfilled its purpose as a breeding ground for insects, and now only vermin inhabit it. Because we demand it, this world shall now perish in flame.”

All across the planet bright lights began to expand, and Shepard asked, “What are we seeing?”

“Ground forces are apparently undergoing self-destruct, overloading their reactors in such a way as to trigger nuclear equivalent explosions,” EDI said.

“It is the way of the Old Machines to discard that which is useless to them. Though they were under the sway of the Old Machines, many geth have just perished,” Legion replied, bowing its head in mourning for the loss of its fellows.

Her face hardening as the giant warship began to fire missiles that rained more nuclear devastation on the landscape, Shepard looked over the monitor and said, “EDI, please plot a firing solution with the VDA for me.”

“Commander, is that-” EDI began.

“EDI, that was an order, not a request. We are outside the Solar System and I am the CO of this ship, I need no authorization to deploy nuclear weapons. Please plot a firing solution that will place a 500 megaton fusion warhead up that space squid’s ass,” Shepard replied coldly.

“That would count as an act of war, which you do not have authorization to commit,” EDI protested.

“EDI, that thing just torched its own forces and is rendering a habitable world incapable of supporting life. This supports Legion’s claims and indicates that we are already at war with it and its kind. Plot a firing solution,” Shepard demanded.

“Commander… affirmative. Plotting a firing solution… Commander, the space-time distortions from Sovereign’s mass effect fields are preventing a positive lock. We cannot displace a VDA node in close enough to ensure a guaranteed kill on a target that size. We cannot even displace multiple nodes to ensure a kill at the ranges involved,” EDI replied sadly.

Frowning, Shepard then grinned and said, “Actually, allow me to revise my order. EDI, please plot a firing solution that will toast that squid’s tentacles. Use one node only and withdraw the rest.”

“What are you planning Human Shepard?” Legion asked.

“Nothing lasts forever without maintenance. I want to see the dentist chair for this thing after I kick a few of its teeth out,” Shepard replied gleefully while leaning forward towards the view screen.

“Commander, you wish to attack an alien AI warship larger than us by several orders of magnitude and possessing technology that gives it a distinct advantage in combat and then track it back to its base of operations to observe how it affects repairs?” EDI asked incredulously.

“Correct,” Shepard replied.

There was a long, silent pause before EDI replied, “Firing solution plotted Commander. You may fire on your discretion.”

“Thank you EDI,” Shepard replied as a large red button appeared on Shepard’s acceleration couch. Savouring it for a moment she then said, “This should be interesting.”

With a single press of the button a great light appeared beneath Sovereign, plotting out the local star and generating a colossal wash of electromagnetic radiation that nearly overwhelmed the hardening of the probe observing the alien ship at work. Missiles in flight were consumed in the fireball, while the hellish light of a newborn star glared balefully at the Old Machine, stripping away armour that had withstood everything that had been thrown at it for millions of years. The three lowest hanging appendages had the armour stripped all the way through, allowing in plasma and radiation that ripped apart delicate interior machinery. Secondary explosions gutted two of the metal tentacles and blew the third clean off.

As the fireball faded and the electromagnetic spectrum cleared, a deep bass noise filled the air. Indescribable beyond a sound of raw pain, like millions of voices crying out in agony and then filtered through kilometre long metal pipes, it went on for a full minute as EDI reported, “Evidently we hurt Sovereign.”

Turning to the view screen that had Legion on display, Shepard said, “Among old human sayings, there is an adage that there is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal. That is actually incorrect. There is something more dangerous.”

Legion paused for a moment to refocus optics before it asked, “What is that Shepard Commander?”

“Me.”

[Nuts!]

Ahh, I see that Shepard decided that a Very Large Array made of 50-megaton nuclear missiles was much better than a bunch of piddly stealth probes. A Very Dangerous Array indeed...

Also, I'm all for hashing out the unique problems of synthetics - logic loops, bugs and glitches, etc. An in-story computer glitch tends to be plot-critical, but I like the idea of it being a commonplace problem that the various synthetics and organics have to deal with. (sort of the common cold for a machine intelligence)

[MondoMage]

I'm finding this to be a very entertaining read. Some of the time-travel discussions make my head hurt.... but most time-travel discussions make my head hurt.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes. And I'm very curious to learn more about the post-Skynet history of mankind, although to be honest I'm not sure how important it would be to the story at this point.

[Academia Nut]

“Sovereign is beginning to ascend out of LPO, likely to either assume a geosynchronous orbit or a break orbit completely,” EDI reported after a moment.

“Any broadcasts yet?” Shepard asked.

“I am working on a proper translation as it is highly idiomatic,” EDI answered.

Shepard grinned and said, “So the squid is cursing up a storm?”

“I believe the insult against your ancestry has been repeated sufficiently to be properly translated in a meaningful manner, but Sovereign is very creative and it thus there are few patterns from which to determine some of the more esoteric phrases from. Some of the metaphrasing is quite strange. Thus far the terms ‘worm spiral’ and ‘ooze mat’ have appeared repeatedly but I cannot find an adequate paraphrasing for them via context,” EDI reported.

Legion chimed in and said, “We have determined that ‘worm spiral’ is most likely a derogatory reference to DNA, while ‘ooze mat’ is most likely a reference to the fact that life typically evolves from mats of water-borne single celled organisms.”

“Any idea what ‘stimulant addled hopping animal’ refers to?” EDI asked.

“Unknown,” Legion replied.

“Warm blooded or cold blooded animal?” Shepard asked.

There was a slight pause before EDI replied, “I believe the animal is implied to be endothermic.”

“Sweet, I got called a meth addicted kangaroo,” Shepard replied with a grin.

“Sovereign has assumed a geosynchronous orbit, Commander,” EDI stated a moment later.

“Excellent. Range to our probe?” Shepard asked.

“Polar or equatorial?” EDI asked.

“The equatorial one that we have been primarily observing through,” Shepard clarified.

“5,438 kilometres,” EDI reported.

“Status of the mass effect field?” Shepard asked.

“Still too powerful to get a positive lock, although considering the damage inflicted another initiation of that magnitude at range should be sufficient to inflict a mission kill at the very least,” EDI answered.

“Can you compensate for the space time curvature for a projectile?” Shepard asked.

“That is a question of fundamental physics, so yes,” EDI replied somewhat cheekily.

“Excellent. I want you to plot a firing solution to place the probe’s ansible on, or within Sovereign,” Shepard ordered.

“Done,” EDI answered in a trivial, bored tone.

Legion chose this moment to speak up and asked, “Shepard Commander, was this your intent from the beginning?”

“Nope,” Shepard replied before she said, “EDI, please launch the ansible at your discretion.”

“Affirmative Commander,” EDI replied, and a second later the data feed from the probe cut out before switching to a different angle and more distant view from the probe in polar orbit. “Nannite deconstruction also initiated successful on the probe. All sensitive material has been decomposed, while the stealth layer will break down in three hours.”

“Thank you EDI. Now Legion, while I am coming to trust you more since we are not in a formal alliance yet I unfortunately cannot explain my tactical thinking in depth, but I can assure you that it is much harder to appear out of control than it does to appear in control,” Shepard said.

“Shepard Commander?”

“Commander?”

There was a disembodied sigh before Lieutenant Alenko opened up a new window on the wall and said, “EDI and Legion, I have worked with kinetic officers like Commander Shepard, and they all cultivate an appearance of unpredictability while actually being very intelligent and in control of the situation. It tends to come with the ability set.”

“Kinetic officer? Ability set?” Legion inquired.

“Somewhat experimental implant technology that gives some interesting abilities. And while the utilization is well known on Earth, Legion is from a different tech base and thus would not understand the reference, so please stop letting slip such information,” Shepard replied with irritation.

A shocked and embarrassed look crossed over Kaidan’s face before he said, “Apologies Commander, I will try not to let out sensitive information like that anymore.”

“Among the mass effect technology base there is a subset of organic life forms that if exposed to element zero can concentrate nodules of the material in their nervous system. The electrical impulses from their nerves can be used to produce mass alterations and subsequent manipulation of dark matter and dark energy, especially with the use of implants and amplifiers,” Legion said, speaking up.

Shepard blinked and said, “That is interesting. I suppose an exchange of information would be warranted, especially if the Old Machines make use of such abilities.”

“Indoctrinated biotics are common as one of the primary Citadel species was universally biotic in nature,” Legion replied.

“Well damn. Okay, a kineticist is a combination of cybernetic implants, mental conditioning, and raw talent. We essentially implant a variant of displacers in our bodies to produce a sort of inverted field. The implants perform the majority of the actual calculations, so their usage is more of an art than science and depends a great deal on mind set and attitude. The primary usage is temporal perceptual alteration, allowing for great time to think or assess the situation, but there are a few other things that can be done such as accelerated motion or weapons firing,” Shepard explained.

“Intriguing, Shepard Commander. Biotic abilities are primarily focused around the generation of forces at a distance. These can be violent thrusts, anti-gravity lifting, kinetic barrier generation, or anti-material distortion fields, to name a few of the applications,” Legion explained in turn.

“Huh. Neat. I guess we will have to be on the look out for those sorts of things and start coming up with counter tactics,” Shepard noted.

“Permission to begin running combat simulations, ma’am,” Kaidan requested.

“If that is an attempt to escape this conversation before you stick your foot in your mouth again, permission granted,” Shepard replied.

“Understood Commander,” Kaidan said with a nod before logging out of the conversation.

“I would also like to thank the rest of the crew for remaining quiet through this conversation,” Shepard replied to no one in particular, eliciting a voice only window tagged ‘Joker’ to pop up.

“You didn’t exactly make this a closed conversation ma’am,” the sarcastic voice on the other side replied.

“I know,” Shepard replied with a grin, causing the new conversation window to close down in a hurry.

“Shepard Commander, your organizational style seems very different from our archives on organic behaviour and your fellow sapients seem to feel that it is outside the standard model of your culture,” Legion pointed out.

“My command style is unorthodox, but then again everything about me is unorthodox and it has worked quite well so far. The trick is in knowing what to do,” Shepard replied.

Legion was quiet before it asked, “Is this that seemingly chaotic behaviour that is actually well planned and organized that Human Alenko mentioned?”

Shepard grinned broader than before and said, “Maybe. Or maybe I am just making it all up as I go along.”

Legion shifted its optic to look back at Sovereign above the sky of dying Hadros before it said, “We suddenly feel great pity for the Old Machines.”

Bursting out laughing, Shepard said, “That’s the spirit! Now what is the old monster up to now anyway?”

“Sovereign appears to be affecting field repairs. Synthetic humanoids are crawling along damaged sections of hull and are removing burnt out machinery or using their bodies as makeshift patches,” EDI reported.

Legion then said in a worried tone, “Those are not true synthetics.”

“What are they then?” Shepard asked.

“They are former organics that have been remade, their tissues replaced with metals and circuitry. Nothing of high cognitive function survives, especially as the conversion process typically begins with fatal impalement. Most organic populations killed by the Old Machines that are sufficiently intact are converted in this way, along with living subjects deemed not suitable for indoctrination,” Legion explained.

“They appear to function as immune response cells for the Old Machines,” EDI pointed out curiously.

“We have never before seen such behaviour, but then again we have not seen an Old Machine suffer such significant damage before,” Legion noted, apparently also intrigued by the new piece of information.

“How is the ansible doing?” Shepard asked.

“It safely reached Sovereign’s hull and located a breach. It is now safely stowed away inside the main body, the husks having sealed the gap behind it,” EDI reported.

Settling back in her acceleration couch, Shepard said, “Excellent. Now we wait and observe where Sovereign goes and does for primary repairs.”

“Your ansible, it is a quantum entanglement communication device?” Legion asked.

“It is. Better yet, because of the entanglement we can receive local space-time data and plot displacements more efficiently and effectively,” Shepard replied.

“If you had a similar communication device could you use it to plot a displacement?” Legion inquired.

“Very probably,” EDI answered.

“Why do you ask?” Shepard asked.

“The Geth Free Collective uses similar technology for the purposes of secure communication. If we could also use our network as a means of transportation that would greatly improve our efficiency and effectiveness,” Legion answered.

“Interesting. Where is your nearest node?” Shepard asked.

Legion shifted its optics and hood for a moment before it replied, “The nearest node we would not be bothered to lose is in a system approximately twelve light years away on the moon of a gas giant.”

“Nice answer. Legion, if you could upload the navigational data to a secure server I will have Joker begin plotting the displacement,” Shepard replied. She then said, “EDI, what is the status of the displacer?”

“It is complete Commander. We can begin charging at any time,” EDI replied.

“Excellent. I will be going over the data we have obtained and be filing a report with the Fleet, which will be rather lengthy and involved,” Shepard stated.

“How long will that take?” EDI asked, already knowing the answer.

“I suspect we will have displaced away before I have the opportunity to file it,” Shepard replied. With a wave of her hand she said, “Now you are dismissed, I have work to do.”

[LadyTevar]

“Sweet, I got called a meth addicted kangaroo,” Shepard replied with a grin

or a drunken rabbit.

[Academia Nut]

Space-time shredded, although in the deep darkness of space there was little to get in the way to produce a light show. There were only a few dozen hydrogen atoms and some stray photons to get knocked about by the disturbance. To anyone who happened to be looking off-plane of an unimportant star, there were a few brief flickers of strange electromagnetic radiation followed by a brief flash of heat, followed by a nearly imperceptible flicker and a long plume of relatively warm ice crystals.

The Normandy had arrived in the system of a dull red star so lacking in interesting features it did not even have a catalogue number in the human star charts, and the Citadel had seen fit to only provide an automatically generated navigational code. In fact, the star was sufficiently close to a larger green star, a little over four-fifths of a light year, that there was some debate over whether they were a binary system or not. It was in fact the presence of the green star and its relay that caused any interest in the red star at all.

Or at least that was what Legion had reported. Walking along the decks at a comfortable 1G now that the ship was accelerating, Shepard knew that she could not wait to tell the machine what she had just done. The reaction would be telling, and the geth platform could be wonderfully expressive for an alien machine without a face.

Reaching the room where Legion was assign, Shepard pressed the ringer on the door and waited quietly and patiently before Legion opened the door. The alien machine said, “Shepard Commander. Judging by the acceleration we are currently experiencing we are underway.”

“We are. We have successfully displaced the Normandy as close to the coordinates as we could with our knowledge of the local space-time gathered from our instruments before departure. Actually, let me clarify that we are at the optimally minimum combination of time to delta-V for arriving in a gravitationally ‘clear’ region above the orbital plane of this star. Given our current acceleration and the orbital mechanics of our target, our arrival time should be within about a week,” Shepard explained.

Legion nodded slightly and said, “That will give us sufficient time to properly assimilate cultural and linguistic data from your people. We are finding your language… difficult? Tricky? Non-linear?”

“Tricky would probably be the most idiomatically correct phrasing, although calling it non-linear would also be a valid comparison,” Shepard replied.

“Thank you Shepard Commander. Your language is exceedingly organic oriented in its construction despite having numerous technical words. All grammar relating to synthetic intelligence appears added inorganically,” Legion replied.

Smirking, Shepard replied, “I see you have worked out a degree of wordplay with the language. To answer your implied question, most sapients within our culture prefer to communicate in either organic means or synthetic ones. My crew has over a hundred synthetic members, but most of them prefer to converse over a network that, for unfortunate but obvious reasons, you are not privy to. If they wish to converse with me or any of the organic crew they typically do it physically or over a display and use organic language and gestures. Those of us with cybernetic implants can also connect to synthetic networks and communicate on their terms if we so desire.”

“Can you Shepard Commander?” Legion asked.

“I can, although most synthetics prefer that I don’t. Some of my implants are incompatible with their logical networks and some of the bleed through from the interface with my mind can be hazardous to their mental health,” Shepard replied.

“We have conversed with EDI on this matter, and we cannot reach consensus on the primary issue of your personality,” Legion noted.

“Ha! Well, that would involve immersing yourself in the politics of the SU, which has driven many an organic and synthetic mad, but the core of the issue is that I don’t accept certain forms of authority lying down and I tend to make my statements grand and obvious while still being subtle. This actually brings me to the reason why I came to visit you,” Shepard explained.

“We did note the oddity of a physical presence and predicted that it indicated that you wished to talk with us about a subject of some importance,” Legion replied.

Nodding, Shepard said, “Yes, I wanted to inform you in person that as part of our displacement we moved not just spatially but temporally. Accounting for inertial frames, we are approximately two weeks in the past. We will arrive at the location you provided in approximately three days, but we will have to wait for any communication events on your part to clear so that we don’t alter your deployment and subsequent meeting with us, which would alter our decision to travel into the past in the first place.”

Legion’s primary optic very slight dimmed as it refocused and went through a recalibration, along with every other system on the alien platform before Legion asked, “Why were we not informed of this?”

“Security mostly, but I was also isolating your information from the event cone. If you knew we would be travelling back in time before we did it then your decision making process would have been tied in to the act of travelling back in time and we would have thus been more restrained in altering the past. So if you have any information that won’t change what you are doing now and for the next two weeks, we can potentially act on that,” Shepard explained.

Legion was quiet for a long time before it replied, “We are processing this information and have a question. When the synthetic Tobias initially appeared, the forces of the Old Machines immediately attacked. We initially assessed this as hostility to any intelligence outside their control, and while that remains the most probable reason the possibility that the Old Machines already knew and were hostile to your forces because of actions taken elsewhere in the past now presents itself.”

Clapping her hands together, Shepard said, “Oh wow, this is so cute! It’s your first potential ontological paradox! Members of the SU military get to experience at least one in training to help acclimatize us, but this is a real cherry popping right here. Now, while that is a distinct possibility, here is the thing about that: if true then we already did it so that means that we must do it. You would not believe the arguments this causes in court.”

“Your technology is exceedingly confusing,” Legion replied.

“Don’t we know it,” Shepard answered. “Now, anything you would care to change about the past two weeks?”

Legion was quite quiet for several seconds before the geth said, “We have reviewed our mission updates from the past two weeks and we note that there is in fact an event that will occur…”

“Will, has, or could?” Shepard asked in interruption. She then added on, “Both Committees on Temporally Alterable Linguistics have been dissolved due to fire fights… three times. The third time was an illustrative case on what is wrong with the language as it is. It was also the first dissolution despite sort of not happening because it was tied in with the third dissolution, making it both the first and last chronologically speaking despite none of the property damage sticking.”

“Your language requires upgrading to fit your capabilities,” Legion replied.

“If you ever get clearance, wait until you see what the discussion networks have to say,” Shepard replied cheekily. “Anyway, you were saying that there is an event you have in mind?”

“This star system has been used as a temporary hiding place for individuals and groups on the run for many centuries because of its combination of relative remoteness yet ease of access. It is why we hid a communications node there. Surveillance indicates that approximately five days from now a ship bearing organics not indoctrinated by the Old Machines will enter this system with a small squadron of ships in pursuit. Overwhelmed, they will subsequently be destroyed,” Legion states.

“Damn. Okay, first question: how much did the battle affect your decision to come to this system?” Shepard asked.

“Minimally. We assessed the presence of Old Machine forces as being no greater than anywhere else in the galaxy and made our decision almost entirely around the security of the geth communications network,” Legion replied.

“Excellent. That means that we have a great deal of latitude in what we are permitted to do by the laws of physics. We can even stop the battle from happening, although at this point it is probably outside of our capacity to actually achieve. What information do you have on the battle?” Shepard asked.

“We would need to synchronize our clocks to determine when precisely it will occur, but the ship in question is a former Turian Hierarchy cruiser. The closest translation would be the Tyrant, but that has connotations in your language that do not quite fit. The name is meant to encapsulate the concept of an absolute leader that seizes control by force, but not necessarily with unjust motives or means. This is because the name is not actually the original designation, but one given after the fall of the Citadel by a free crew that seized the ship from the indoctrinated crew,” Legion explained.

“I see why you said that was the closest translation, so we will go with the Tyrant for ease of discussion,” Shepard said.

“But that designation is imprecise,” Legion protested.

Shrugging, Shepard replied, “We’ll go with it anyway. Now, what information do you have on the Tyrant and the ships pursuing it?”

“The forces pursuing the Tyrant are a former Batarian Hegemony cruiser and a pair of Turian frigates. We will have to…” Legion then paused and then promptly dropped to the ground like a puppet with all of its strings cut.

“Legion!” Shepard cried out.

Legion’s hood flexed and its primary optic flickered a few times before the platform picked itself up. Flexing limbs to test them, the geth said, “We apologize, we suddenly suffered a logical seizure that could be considered the equivalent of a fainting spell triggered by a fundamental denial being broken. Simply put, we suddenly realized that we are the most isolated a geth platform has ever been, not just in space but in time. Under normal circumstances we would ask the rest of the collective for additional information, but we are the only source of information now that we have travelled back through time. All programs on this platform were forced to acknowledge the logical consequences we had previously been moving down the processing queue, and we all did so simultaneously, interrupting other functions.”

“As a collective species, that must have been particular difficult for you,” Shepard replied.

“We will adapt,” Legion replied.

“Think you can enter what you know into the secure server we provided for you?” Shepard asked.

“We will upload all relevant data we possess,” Legion replied.

“Excellent. Setting up ambushes based on future events are always good for laughs,” Shepard said before she turned to leave.

“Shepard Commander?” Legion asked suddenly.

“Yes Legion?” Shepard asked.

“Despite the unprecedented perception of isolation your actions have induced within us, we are glad that we have met you,” Legion stated.

Smiling broadly, Shepard replied, “Thank you, all of you. Also, it should be pointed out that now that we have gone back in time, you always will meet us, no matter what else happens.”

Legion considered this and said, “There is a degree of… would comfort be the correct terminology?”

Shepard nodded and said, “Time travel opens up the universe in ways beyond conception, and it has its own unique comforts and horrors. Never failing to meet a friend is most certainly one of the great comforts.”

“And the horrors?” Legion asked.

“Being unable to stop an enemy,” Shepard replied, her face still set in a smile, but a different sort of smile. “Fortunately our enemies can’t stop us either.”

[Academia Nut]

In the conventional sense, stealth in space was impossible as the laws of thermodynamics could not be defied and the heat generated by anything tended to stand out against the cosmic background quite obviously. There were however ways to minimize the detecting of thermal signatures by enemy forces. If you knew roughly where your enemy was, you could position your ship so that you had another body as a backdrop, typically the nearest star or planet. Of course, depending on what systems were active at the time even that could be hard to pull off and if the enemy were spread out then there were far more angles from which they could see you without a thermal backdrop from.

For the Tyrant, time was running out. They had managed to limp to this backwater star and hide within the magnetosphere of a gas giant, threading their way between the moons and rings of the enormous world. They had evaded detection from the hounds baying at their heels for a full day already, but they needed to discharge their drive core and vent their fusion reactor so that they could begin repairs, but the moment they did that they would be pounced on. Of course, with three enemy ships to worry about they were rapidly running out of ways that they could hide.

The Tyrant’s tyrant sat upon the heavily modified command chair, brooding over the situation. He knew in his hearts that this was the end. They had run for a hundred years since the arrival of the Reapers at the Citadel, watching as world after world was cleansed of life and every fleet sent their way was blown to scrap or taken over and suborned, the crews indoctrinated or converted into mindless husks. They had fought tooth and nail for a century, but it had not been enough. They were outnumbered, outgunned, and just generally overwhelmed.

Taking one last look over the hologram that showed the placement of the enemy throughout the system, the captain grunted in exasperation before he said, “They have us boxed in.”

Silence reigned over the rest of the command deck for a long time before the captain asked, “How shall we die then? Shall we submit? Shall we bow down to the enemy and let them take us, to cut out our souls and leave only empty shells?”

The silence continued as the piratical crew considered their options before a young krogan warrior said, “Screw that! The Council castrated us once, robbed us of what it meant to be krogan! I would rather die than bow down again!”

This announcement elicited cheers and nods from the rest of the crew, and deep, morbid chuckle from the captain. “I knew there was a reason I kept you lot around. Let’s give these bastards one last kick in the quad before we go down. Let’s remind them who they are dealing with here. Engineering, prepare to discharge our drives into the magnetic field of this gas ball and dump our overheated coolant. Navigation, give me a slingshot course using the planet and its moons. When that cruiser is occluded by the planet next we dump heat and charge and do a full burn for the nearest frigate. The cruiser will get us, but we destroy at least one of the smaller ships, and maybe if we’re really, really lucky then when we die we’ll do it with the cruiser’s throat in our teeth.”

The crew immediately snapped to action, a feeling of confidence for the first time in days… for the first time in decades really. They worked with the fevered energy of the damned. There was no escape, so the only option was to go out swinging. The krogan would compare it to the blood rage, that feeling of conscious thought shutting down in favour of pure berserker instinct, but even the non-krogan had to be feeling it. This was their last chance to carve their names into the hearts of the enemy, and they were all ready to take it.

Rumbling with pleasure as the slow, macabre dance of orbital mechanics began its execution, Wrex said, “Even if they don’t care, let the damned Reapers know that Clan Urdnot did not die easily.”

The minutes counted down far too slow for Wrex as he watched the enemy cruiser become eclipsed by the movement of the planet. As it disappeared behind the endless skies of the gas giant Wrex announced, “Begin waste dump! Begin acceleration!”

Around the limping form of the Tyrant an aurora of coolant began to form as the ship vented its overheated stocks and let the powerful magnetic field of the gas giant greedily suck up their imbalanced charges. The move immediately highlighted the ship in a broad spectrum of blindingly obvious EM radiation, the sort of signal that spelled their doom, but the ship was already moving, plunging through a series of slingshot transfers to boost them out of the deep gravity well of the titanic planet.

“Enemy frigate has launched torpedoes and begun firing mass accelerators,” the sensors officer reported. The networking meant that the navigator was already aware and had already begun firing lateral thrusters to dodge the incoming fire. The torpedoes would be able to make course corrections, but the mass accelerator rounds were already laughably off course at these ranges.

“Save return fire until we’re at knife fighting range, I want every shot to count,” Wrex ordered. The fact that the venting of the majority of their coolant left them with almost no combat endurance was a mute additional consideration. Already the air of the bridge was starting to grow uncomfortably stuffy as the heat from all of the active systems began to bleed through to the environment. Already the radiation strips along the exterior of the ship were glowing white hot, trying to shed the ravenous waste heat generated by the fusion reactor at the heart of the ship.

“Enemy cruiser has cleared the planet and begun pursuit. Intercept time: fifteen minutes,” the sensors officer reported.

Wrex grinned and said, “More than enough time to take care of this tin can. Position of the second frigate?”

“Just clearing the other side of the planet, intercept time is eleven minutes. Wait…” The sensor officer had just enough time to look puzzled before a small new sun was born in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant between the Tyrant and the enemy cruiser.

“What was that?” Wrex demanded.

“Unknown sir! I’m doing spectrum matching right now… gamma and x-ray spectrum analysis indicates deuterium, tritium, lithium, thorium, uranium, and plutonium present… along with potentially anti-hydrogen,” the sensors officer reported.

“Are you telling me someone detonated a fission bomb?” Wrex asked in disbelief.

“I… I don’t know sir, it certainly seems that way, but to be that big it should require too many stages to actually work… unless of course they were crazy enough to use an antimatter charge as the initiator and the heavy metals served as tampers… still, that would have to have a mass of several tonnes just for the warhead, to say nothing of the propulsion system. I have no idea how we could miss something that insane,” the sensors officer explained apologetically.

Rumbling in thought, Wrex waved dismissively and said, “Ignore it; we don’t have time for this. Everyone, focus on killing that frigate!”

A chorus of agreement went up as the crew focused on the more immediate problem. As they closed with the frigate they had less and less time to respond to seeing the accelerator rounds fire. The torpedoes were also now closing in the range where the point defence lasers had to start firing to down the weapons before they could deliver their deadly payloads. Soon the Tyrant would start to take hits and start to die.

All four eyes of the sensor officer went wide in shock and awe as the magnetic field of the nameless gas giant reacted unfavourably towards the massive weapon that went off within them. Unimaginable amounts of energy stored by the interaction between the powerful field and the stellar wind of the local star was released by the agitation of the bomb. Like a bell struck by a tuning fork at the perfect resonance frequency, the relatively small nuclear explosion released mind boggling quantities of potential energy. Streams of plasma confined by the field lines began to ripple and sway as the system tried to equilibrate. Streamers of plasma like bolts of lightning larger than most planets lashed from the poles down to the orbiting moons and the debris fields of the rings in orbit.

Gaping in shock, the officer reported, “Sir! The enemy cruiser is diverting to avoid the forming disturbance. They are no longer on an intercept course!”

Breaking out into laughter, Wrex said, “Whoever decided to nuke a gas giant is getting a hug from me! Begin firing on the frigate!”

The Tyrant vibrated with the force of the mass accelerator firing, the ship’s inertial dampers struggling to suppress the recoil of the ferrous slugs being launched at a fraction of light speed. Enemy rounds were starting to impact the kinetic barriers of the ship now that they were at knife fighting range, but even in a damaged, crippled state the cruiser had better shields and guns. Also, the indoctrination process reduced reaction speeds, creativity, and initiative in comparison to the hardened, veteran crew of the Tyrant.

Feeling each lurch of the ship from a shot launched or received within his bones, Wrex demanded, “Where is the second frigate?”

“They are clearing orbit of the planet at maximum burn and are no longer on a favourable intercept course. ETA to contact now twelve minutes,” the sensors officer reported.

“Serve me the heart of this ship and then we’ll deal with the other one,” Wrex demanded with a vicious laugh. “Today is a great day to die!”

There was a massive lurch as the ship took a colossal hit and the weapons officer called out, “One of the point defence lasers overheated at the last second and a disruptor torpedo got through!”

“Kinetic barriers down to 40%! We’re going to get leak through soon!” The shield officer called out.

Directing all of his eyes to the immediate task the sensors officer proclaimed, “Enemy ship’s kinetic barriers are failing. We’ll have them in a minute.”

The chief of engineering chose that moment to announce, “Radiation strips will begin ablating to shed heat within the next sixty seconds!”

“Helmets up everyone! Perform an emergency shut down all environmental controls within the next five seconds!” Wrex snapped, causing everyone to deploy their emergency personal environmental seals. Five seconds later and the internal temperature shot up enormously as the internal atmosphere was used as an emergency heat reservoir.

As if by prescience ten seconds after that a glancing hit that was not entirely negated by the kinetic barriers struck the ship and punched a hole all the way to the bridge. The wash of liquid iron that was left of the slug incinerated the navigator in an instant and then for a few seconds the whole bridge howled as the air was sucked out before the breached chambers finished evacuating.

“Damage report!” Wrex demanded over his armour’s radio.

“Top three decks breached, no casualty reports yet… other than the obvious,” the head of damage control reported while glancing over at the grisly remains of the navigator. He then added on, “All breached chambers have been isolated by bulkheads.”

“Shields holding at 20%. We won’t be able to take another hit like that!” The shield officer reported.

“Neither will the enemy,” Wrex replied with satisfaction as the enemy frigate began to break up, venting out huge gouts of reactor plasma and atmosphere as its superstructure simply crumpled from trying to absorb the latest accelerator round impact.

“Take us about! Let’s string along the second frigate as long as we can while we cool off and recover our barriers before we kick them in the teeth,” Wrex ordered, and within seconds he could feel the rattle of the deck plates as the ship swung its bulk around, fighting inertia as the wounded ship began a long arc away from the enemy to attempt to gain a second wind before its next suicidal run.

Badly out of position in their flight to escape the mind bogglingly huge ion storm about the gas giant, the second frigate had to heel about, fighting gravity and orbit mechanics to try to get to their target, expending delta-V to struggle uphill. If it weren’t for the distances between the two ships, Wrex would have bit the head off the CO of the frigate for such a sloppy and inefficient move. In any other sort of battle the waste would have left the frigate a sitting duck for any other ships in the area.

As if on cue, a dozen bolts of plasma lanced out from what should have been a patch of empty space and slammed squarely into the port thrusters of the enemy frigate. Partially stopped by the kinetic barriers, the particle beams did not do as much damage as they could have, but since they were not entirely stopped they still had enough punch to rip the thrusters entirely off its mounting. The sudden imbalance in propulsion sent the enemy frigate tumbling, and the next volley of plasma bolts from the nearly invisible craft went wide.

“Find out what’s firing that!” Wrex demanded as he watched the plasma bolts lanced in on the tumbling ship. While each shot did relatively little damage in comparison to a mass accelerator round, they always penetrated kinetic barriers at least partially. Worse yet they caused temperature spikes where they hit. The strange craft had already homed in on the radiator strips and was relentlessly hitting them, overheating them to the point of ablation. The frigate was rapidly losing the ability to run its reactor without overheating.

“Sir, the only readings I am getting are the thermal emissions from their gun barrels since those are the only things that apparently existence in that patch of space. I have nothing on thermal, visual, or radar,” the sensor officer reported.

“What about the enemy cruiser?” Wrex demanded.

“Contact! They have broken free of the ion storm and are beginning an intercept trajectory with us. ETA to contact thirty minutes,” the sensors officer reported. He then blinked as the cruiser disappeared behind a hundred kiloton fireball. “Nuclear initiation detected!”

“What now?” Wrex asked.

“Checking the spectrum now… the weapon was definitely made by the same people who made that monster before, although this time it was quite rich in unfused deuterium and tritium,” the sensor officer reported before he added on, “Two more initiation events at of identical magnitude.”

“They’re probably fail-deadly warheads with fusion motors,” the weapons officer announced.

“Where are they coming from?” Wrex demanded to know.

“The EM activity is making it hard to tell, but I think they are emerging from the ion storm,” the sensor officer reported. He then blinked as a fourth fireball faded and said, “Sir… the enemy cruiser has been destroyed.”

“Are you certain? Did they jump to FTL to escape?” Wrex demanded to know.

“No sir, the fireball plasma contains significant quantities of iron, aluminium, titanium, carbon, oxygen, and everything else you would expect from a vaporized warship,” the sensors officer reported.

Wrex gave a harrumph before he said, “Kill stealers.”

“The enemy frigate has gone into reactor shut down and is now tumbling freely. I am getting reading of airlocks opening and crew being ejected,” the sensor officer reported.

“Why would they being doing that?” Wrex asked.

“Unknown. Also, the unknown contact is dropping its stealth,” the batarian sensor officer replied.

Out in deep space the blackness peeled back to reveal a destroyer sized ship that appeared coated in mercury. Long, broad, and flat, it appeared like some sort of aquatic creature that flew rather than swam through the seas, although with additional bulges that contained unknown machinery, although considering that several of those bulges had still hot weapons barrels sticking out of them at least some of their functions could be guessed at.

“Are we getting a hail from the aliens?” Wrex asked.

“None yet… wait; we have an incoming audio signal. They are asking if we would like to assist in looting the enemy frigate they have seized,” the communications officer replied.

“Ha! Might as well, we need the supplies and it’s not like they don’t have us by the quads anyway,” Wrex replied in good cheer. “Looks like we’re not dying today. Prepare a shuttle with a prize crew, I’m going over to secure that frigate and meet these strangers. Should be fun.”