Chapter Text
Geth are a true viral synthetic intelligence, capable of self-replication limited only by available hardware, and able to run on any networked electronics over a certain threshold. The most advanced machines they cannot run on are very early kilobyte-scale computers.
In short, unlike Blue-Box SI, Geth may very well be impossible to eradicate without the full and unequivocal cooperation of both every engineer in the galaxy, and every Geth in the galaxy. The first is very likely impossible from a political standpoint, and the second… well. Geth have clear self-preservation drives.
This commission’s work is facially an impossible task.
-from a report to the Council Commission for Geth Elimination.
“Why would there be a noveria greening... wait, no, why would anyone bother to canvass a corporate office?” Tali asked, helping Shepard haul a turian mercenary whose mandibles hung slack from paralysis and nausea into an office chair.
“That’s the point. Confusion.” Shepard said.
“Shepard is of the opinion that banter is a useful weapon in combat.” Kaidan said, hauling the last of their stunned mercs up and omnicuffing them to another office chair.
“It confuses all but the most hardened fighter, especially if they aren’t expecting hostile attack. Also it’s hilarious.” Shepard said.
Tali shrugged eloquently as Shepard finished printing and zipping the last omnicuff on the last of their prisoners.
“Five idiots on the take, tagged, cataloged and zipped up. Let’s get going.” Shepard said.
They retrieved the datablock from the lobby and headed for the high-security staircase at the edge of the office complex.
The door acceded more quietly to the credentials Qiin had given Shepard, and they headed down the stairs, weapons pointed ahead.
[]
Kaira Stirling took a long drag from a vape pen, leaning against the wall of sinks on one side of the office Lavatory, frowning.
“‘If I didn’t Know Better’. Right. Great.” She grumbled. “Goddamn Synthetic Intelligence.” she let out a gout of cloyingly sweet vapor, eyes narrowed, skin beginning to ripple with her biotic aura in a nervous tic particular to most biotics.
“Ice it.” she muttered, keying the pen to standby mode, pocketing it, and striding for the door.
“Not like the NDC doesn’t have bigger priorities than Anoleis.” she muttered, shoving through the door and out into the office.
“Alright assholes, change of plaaa… what the fuck happened to you idiots? I was gone for FIVE MINUTES!” she snapped, staring at five of her platoon’s most personally trustworthy, flopped limply in office chairs and omnicuffed in place.
“Boss, we got a problem!” her tech yelled from the balcony, running out of the office.
“No shit, did you see what happened?” she asked, as her omni reconnected lethargically to the tac-net, which, despite being keyed to the ECM they were using to obfuscate their smash and grab, still struggled to connect.
She started scanning her troops’ telemetry.
“Shit. Well, no, boss, but that’s because we got Geth! The OS was fighting me because…” the salarian tech began, wide eyes blown out in panic.
“Geth. Yeah. Heard you the first time. Kark that, pull the camera footage…” she yelled back.
“We slagged the cameras on the way in boss, remember?” the tech snapped back.
“Fuck.” Kaira said, glaring around the office. “Any of you chucklefucks see where they went?” she snapped.
Her only response were incoherent groans.
She studied the scan she’d just taken, and growled. “Goddamn idiots. Twenty-kilocredit top of the line security armor, and you dumbfucks got soniced because you didn’t set your barriers’ sonic bafflers. Lovely. Great FUCKIN’ job.” she snapped, surreptitiously keying her own barrier’s sonic bafflers on.
She glanced around again, then checked the tac-net. “And where the FUCK is Cartus and Brinn?”
[]
The basement level containing the Synthetic Insights’ office server farm was blocked by an actual security bulkhead, a heavy steel door sealed with an almost egregious set of ID confirmation devices.
It was wide open, the biometric ID system’s holographic projectors wreathing the system in red system error messages.
“What a mess.” Tali muttered, staring at it, and checking her omni’s signal detectors.
“I think I have three signals coming from in there, but the walls are disrupting effective identification.” Tali said, queuing up more overloads.
“Same as last time.” Shepard said, “But watch your aim. We don’t want to damage the servers.” She said.
Tali lowered the datablock to the floor to the side of the open bulkhead, and the three of them pressed in.
The room was cold, the hiss of the air exchangers and liquid cooling systems punctuated by the quiet chatter of three mercenaries.
Shepard and Kaidan peered around a wall of servers, and found a technician, a human, with their omni wired into the server stack, two other mercs looming over his shoulder.
The tech let out a yelp as their armor suddenly erupted with electrical discharges and warning alerts. His friends leapt back, slamming into the opposite wall, and turned…
and took a hail of sonic pulses which sent all three spasming to the floor.
Tali checked her queue of overloads, and sighed, canceling them for the second time.
A signal pinged Shepard from the twitching technician’s armor.
Unknown Sender: [Are you here to exfiltrate us?]
Shepard pinged the armor with Qiin’s passcode.
Shepard: [That’s us. Sit tight, let us handle the goons first. Good timing on the cyber-attack.] she sent back.
[]
Kaira peered up and down the corridor, then stepped back into the office. “Shit.” she muttered.
“Cartus and Brinn are AWOL.” she snapped, striding back into the office. “Fuck only knows why, but I’m gonna string them both up once we’re done here. Dalis, hit the Flashfire, hash the data, we’re getting while the getting’s good.” Sergeant Sterling snapped.
“And what happens when they check the forensic buffers and find out it was us?” the tech yelled back from the balcony.
“Be sneaky about it then! You’re a tech, figure it out! I’m going to poke my head downstairs since everyone else seems to be otherwise occupied. You get the data fried and you and Octis set up a firing point up there.” She yelled.
[]
Tali carefully wired the block to the server stack, her suit locked down to outside signals, and stepped back.
“It’s in.” she said.
“Good.” Shepard said, checking the block’s display.
It indicated a download was starting.
Then an alert sounded. “[Warning- Security Breach- Flashfire Protocols Enableeeee#####]” with a hiss of static, the alert cut out.
Though the download also paused.
“[Error] [Blackfire Security Administrator Override][Warning: Blackfire Security Offline][Please contact an administrator to reactivate.]” the intercom said, then the download resumed as Tali, wincing, plugged her own omni into the server stack and queried the system.
“Someone else is in the system, but they’re working through an office terminal.” Tali said.
Shepard nodded. “Makes sense…” she went back to the end of the server wall to watch the door, at which Kaidan was lurking. “Are we good?” she asked.
“The… uh… ‘VIP’ had the credentials to lockout the security, and the office terminals are too low-trust to override them. Yet. Though there might be credentials that ERC has which could.” Tali said.
“How long on the download?” Shepard asked.
[]
“What the fuck just happened?” Kaira yelled up at the balcony as she turned from the staircase and ran back into he office.
“The damn Geth happened, that’s what!” the tech yelled from the office.
The last of Sterling’s trusted group of mercs, a turian, was setting up a heavy rapidfire mass accelerator on the balcony, aimed at the door. She tore past him as she headed for Qiin’s office.
“Wadaya mean the Geth happened?” Kiara snapped, as she poked her head in, seeing the bright red of error messages floating above and displayed on the smart-desk.
“The Geth have sysadmin privileges, and they’re on the damn server, so their credentials trump anything I have!” the tech snapped. “Without the NDC Blackfire Masterkey, which, need I remind you, only a board member or EVA Capone have, I can’t do shit.” the tech snapped, irritably.
“Oh yeah, they’re also uploading themselves somewhere.” he said.
“Where? We’re jamming the place so hard our tacnet can’t connect.” Stirling said.
“Hardline, probably.” the tech said. “Someone went down there and is pulling them off the server the hard way, and probably soniced the rest of the guys.” the tech said, pulling his omni’s hardline from the desk. “If we don’t book it…”
“Shut up. If they’re physically removing the geth, then we got them. Assaulting an officer, tampering with evidence, hell, corporate espionage… it’s our word against whoever was stupid enough to help Qiin. And we have Anoleis in our pocket. All we gotta do is shoot ‘em up when they come out that door.” Sterling said. “Grab your gun, get set up on the balcony.” she ordered.
[]
The datablock pinged pleasantly. “Download’s finished.” Tali reported.
She reached for the cable, then the lights flickered, blazed brightly for a brief moment, and the server cooling systems began to hum louder and louder.
“[Blackfire Security Alert: Flashfire Protocols Enabled, beginning Scorched-Earth Datapuuuuurrrrrrge...]” the intercom began to stutter, and the lights dimmed as the server cooling system began to approach a sound more like an engine than a cooling array.
The lights flickered once, and then something let out a final-sounding clunk deeper in the server farm, and the room was suddenly and unexpectedly plunged into pitch darkness, lit only by the Normandy team’s armor and omni running lights.
Red emergency lights clicked on a moment later, and Tali yanked the cable from the server.
“Not sure I want to know how you trigger a power outage form the servers, in a place with this much redundancy.” she muttered, glancing around nervously.
[]
The lights in the corridor flickered briefly. When they stabilized, a hooting alarm began to sound in the corridor.
[]
“What the shit was that?” Kaira snapped at her technician.
“Uh… massive power surge. Probably the Geth.” they answered, staring around at the now red-lit room, then glancing at his Omni. “Oh yeah. The mains is out, which means the ECM’s offline.” he said.
Sterling glowered at the stairs. “Well, we better gut whoever the fuck this is when they get up here then.” she snapped.
[]
The three of them headed back up the stairs, Shepard leading, Kaidan starting to flicker with electric charge.
Shepard led the way out of the staircase, and looked up, to see three figures set up behind the cover of the balcony overlooking the main cubicle area.
One figure was actually standing.
“Hey, whoever you are, you’re done!” Stirling yelled. “We got you on assaulting an officer, among other things. Whatever Qiin offered you, you ain’t gonna be able spend it in a bodybag.” she yelled down.
Shepard rolled her eyes. “Small problem… your little smash and grab wasn’t sanctioned.” Shepard called back.
“Who gives a shit? We’re the cops ‘round here. It’d be your word against ours.” Stirling said.
“I like those odds.” Shepard said, stepping forwards into the light from the ERC mercenaries’ gun-lights.
“Yeah, well, you aren’t gonna survive to testify. You know what we do to people who assault cops ‘round here?” Stirling sneered.
Shepard grinned back. “You know what we did to cops back on Anhur?” she snarked back. She glanced at her HUD. “You could surrender.” Shepard said, shrugging. “I’d prefer you didn’t, but technically, it’s an option.”
“You three are so sure you’ll be walking out of here alive without the element of surprise?” Stirling asked.
“Eh… I’ve faced worse odds.” Shepard said, then elbowed Kaidan.
Kaidan erupted with crackling yellow lightning, folding his arms and glaring up at Stirling.
Both of Stirling’s last two soldiers flinched back.
“Cute.” Stirling said, and her own aura pulsed, blue light cascading over her armored form. “You aren’t the only person with tricks.”
Shepard grinned back. “Care to introduce yourself? I feel like we probably should before we try to kill each other.” Shepard said.
“Whatever. Sergeant Kaira Sterling, Elanus Risk Control, Port Hanshan Enforcement Division.”
“Captain Sophia J. Shepard, Systems Defense Initiative. The Hegemony’s ninth most wanted.” Shepard said, grinning.
“Yes, That Shepard.” Kaidan said, the occasional arc still crackling along his arm.
“Shiiiiit.” Kaira muttered, then hurled a bolt of biotic force at them. Shepard and Kaidan scattered, Tali followed Kaidan, as he returned fire with a crackling lightning bolt, and the turian soldier opened up with the heavy mass accelerator.
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