Mass Effect: Knight of the Old Republic

Shepard watched through a window as her team continued to gather the bodies of the Cerberus scientists. She wasn't sure who would be coming by to retrieve them, but leaving the bodies to rot out in the open didn't seem right. But she could only do that for a little while before she needed to turn back to her conversation partner.

"So what you're saying is – we need to find and destroy this AI or it's going to cause armageddon for the entire galaxy." Shepard said tiredly as she rubbed her eyes. Yeah, that vacation was looking less and less likely.

"Not an AI," Dr. Gavin Archer, lead scientist for the Cerberus facility corrected. "A hybrid VI made to influence the Geth by connecting to a human mind. The results have been…less than satisfactory."

Shepard pointedly didn't look around the nearly demolished facility. "You don't say?" She drawled sarcastically. "You'd think you would have taken some precautions before attempting something like that."

"You think we didn't?!" Dr. Archer snapped. "We took every precaution we could before my brother David volunteered to interface with the VI. But every precaution doesn't mean we could predict every outcome! Certainly not the abomination David has become."

Shepard held up a hand to calm the scientist down. "Okay, okay!" She said somewhat apologetically. "So we have a potential doomsday scenario. How do we shut it down?"

"Davi…the VI has fortified itself in the main laboratory at Atlas Station." Archer said haltingly. "It's currently in lockdown and to enter you will need to manually override security from the three surrounding stations." The doctor moved to the main security console that dominated an entire wall and pulled a control rod. One of the 'gates' displayed on the main screen retracted and turned green but the other two remained locked. "I can give you my authorization for Hemes Station, but you will have to manually reset Prometheus and Vulcan yourself."

"And why should we bother with that instead of destroying the station from orbit?" A new voice broke in as Revan walked through the door.

"Des-destroy it from orbit?! Are you mad? The data loss alone would mean this entire disaster was completely pointless. Let alone the complications it would cause!" Archer exploded.

"The crew finished gathering the dead, Shepard. We can return to the Normandy whenever you are ready." The Sith said, completely ignoring Dr. Archer and focusing on Shepard. "From there we can destroy the Station, contact Cerberus to deal with this –" Revan made a dismissive gesture at their general surroundings "– and return to preparing for the final portion of our own mission. We don't have time to waste salvaging something from Cerberus's mistake."

"Commander, you can't do that!" Dr. Archer protested again, shifting targets. "This project is years of effort! An orbital strike - if it managed to work - would erase all of that! B-besides my brother could still be alive in there." Shepard did notice the doctor only mentioned his brother second but that could wait for now.

"Why wouldn't an orbital strike work?" She demanded instead. Because while saving everyone she could was important, risking the galaxy over a single life wasn't something she could do.

She needed to know all her options.

"Atlas Station is hardened against attacks." Archer explained. "You would have to bring your ship very close to guarantee the complete destruction of the Station where it would have to deal with both the area's anti air defenses as well as potentially coming in range of the VI. If it manages to upload itself to your ship…"

The consequences didn't need to be said.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind." Shepard nodded. "One last thing…what if I have to kill your brother?"

Archer slumped and grabbed a photograph off his desk. "I'd prefer it didn't come to that." He said softly. The Commander could only nod supportively and walk away.

"Revan, hold up a second." Shepard called out once they left the control room. "I wanna talk real quick."

"Yes Shepard?"

"Any reason for the rush earlier? You normally don't care if we pick up an extra mission somewhere, or at least this is the first time you said something about it." Shepard asked, keeping any accusation out of her tone. The last thing she wanted was the Elven Sith Lord to start thinking she couldn't discuss things with Shepard without the Spectre taking it as an attack on her authority.

But she also didn't want to get into a potentially lengthy discussion about what their next move was with a Cerberus Lead Scientist in the room.

Thankfully, Revan didn't seem concerned by the question.

"On a tactical level, we shouldn't be getting involved with this." Revan explained. "This was supposed to be a relaxation trip in preparation to head through the Omega 4 Relay soon. Risking injury when someone else can handle the situation here is foolish."

"Fair, but if the VI breaks out of containment and gets onto the extranet or something it won't matter if we manage to stop the Collectors. The rest of the galaxy would lose too much if all our technology suddenly turned hostile." Shepard countered. "If it can control the Mass Relays, we might not be able to come back."

She thought about it some more.

"Besides it isn't like we couldn't wait longer even if we do pick up some injuries. We don't have to go the minute the IFF goes through shakedown."

"If we have the time to wait for the injured to recover, we have time to wait for someone more prepared to deal with the lab." Revan argued. "Only the Normandy can go through the Omega 4 Relay. Any armed force could handle the lab."

"So can we – and we're already here." Shepard pointed out. "On a tactical level, leaving a hostile force capable of wiping out our entire tech base in an entrenched position and hoping someone else deals with it is a terrible decision. So what's got you itching to leave so quickly?"

Revan sighed through her mask. "Unfortunately, all I can tell you is I have a bad premonition. Something is coming and it's a risk to the Normandy."

Before her involuntary spacewalk, Shepard wouldn't have given much weight to something as nebulous as what was basically a 'bad feeling'. Talked it over and have people on the lookout for something going wrong, certainly, because despite all the sensors in the galaxy sometimes there was just nothing better than a soldier's intuition. But she wouldn't base their entire deployment strategy on that feeling.

After dealing with Revan long enough to know the other woman could legitimately glimpse things from the future Shepard decided a little extra caution wouldn't hurt.

"We still can't allow the VI to escape and I'd prefer to see if there are any survivors. But I'll have EDI calculate how hard it would be to completely destroy the lab from the Normandy. I'll make a final call once we know more." She said and opened a comm line to her XO. "Miranda, can we get a secure line to the Norm–"

"Shepard, I was just about to call you. We have a situation." The raven-haired operative interrupted. "The Normandy is under attack by a Collector vessel!"

-o-

It didn't take long for Shepard to sprint back to where the rest of her team was with Revan following closely behind.

She saw Miranda, Tali, and Mordin pouring over one of the terminals and made a direct line over to them.

"Talk to me. What's going on, where are they, and what can we do about it?"

Shepard saw Miranda pull all her emotions back behind a professional mask and guessed she wasn't about to like the answers.

"About five minutes ago we attempted to send a message to the Normandy saying the VI had been contained for now, but we got no response. I repurposed some of the equipment here to try and see what was going on…this is what we found."

"Oh, fuck me."

On screen was a picture of the Normandy sitting helplessly below a Collector ship. And there was nothing they could do to help against something that big. The only space capable ship they had on hand was the Kodiak, and that wasn't going to tip the scales in the slightest.

This must have been the premonition Revan was talking about.

"Per regulations regarding a VI outbreak, the crew moved the Normandy into an antipodal orbit from our position. The good news is it is unlikely for the Collectors to know about our location." Miranda said, putting in some really good effort on putting a positive spin to the whole situation.

It was cold comfort compared to the loss of another Normandy.

Suddenly several consoles lit up as alerts scrolled down the monitors.

"What just happened?" Shepard demanded.

"FTL transition detected." Tali reported, hands flying over a keyboard. "Same position as the Normandy. Image on screen…now."

Shepard forced herself to look at the monitor and felt confused.

When she heard FTL transition, she assumed the Collector ship had gotten what it came for, destroyed the Normandy, and left. Instead, the massive ship was still there and any sign of the Normandy was gone.

"They got away!" She breathed.

Somehow at least part of her crew had managed to get back enough control of the ship to escape.

"Second FTL transition detected!"

There was no way of following someone once they engaged an onboard FTL Drive. You could travel in the same direction, but no one could tell when the ship you were following would drop back to normal speeds.

The Normandy was safe and the Collectors had decided to move on.

Shepard took a deep breath and organized her thoughts.

The Normandy was safe but the condition of the crew was unknown. Depending on how many were injured or killed it could take some time before they could return to the system. Which also meant she and her team were stranded on Aite for the foreseeable future with a hostile VI.

Well, no one else was around to deal with that. So it might as well be her.

-o-

"So what now?" Garrus asked as he paced back and forth after Shepard informed the rest of them what happened in space.

"We can't do anything about the Normandy." Shepard said firmly. "But there's another mess we need to deal with."

"The rogue VI?" Thane questioned softly.

The Spectre nodded. "It's a threat to the galaxy and we're available. Unless someone wants to sit this one out?" She asked, confident no one was going to take her up on that.

"Fuck it, permission to break more Cerberus shit? Sign me up." Jack volunteered almost immediately, followed by the rest of the ground team.

"Great, here's the plan. We have two stations we need to override to get past the security lockdown. We're going to split into two teams and take them out simultaneously."

"You sure that's a good idea, Commander?" Jacob interrupted. "We're already on our own here. Can we really risk splitting up even more?"

"Don't have much of a choice. If the VI realizes what we're doing and destroys one of the overrides, we're screwed." Shepard countered. "One team will take the Kodiak and head for Vulcan station while the other heads for Prometheus station in the Hammerhead."

"Vulcan is a geothermal energy plant so we're not expecting too much resistance beyond some security mechs, but Prometheus is built directly on top of a crashed Geth ship. If the VI managed to get control over the weapon systems, that one might get a little hairy."

Shepard paused for questions but no one brought any forward.

"Alright, the Hammerhead can only fit four so I'll be taking Kasumi, Tali, and Revan with me. Everyone else will take the shuttle to Vulcan Station. Garrus, you're in charge. Miranda, I want you to keep communications open between both teams and keep an eye out for the Normandy. Any final questions?"

"Would it not be best to have Legion replace Revan on your team?" Samara spoke up, clearly unwilling to separate that much from the Sith. "Given his nature, he would be a much greater help navigating the wreck."

Shepard shook her head. "I don't want Legion interfacing with any VI infected equipment. He's told me he should be fine but I don't want to risk it. Especially surrounded by infected Geth equipment."

"Yeah, I'd prefer not getting shot in the ass by a teammate going crazy if possible." Kasumi turned to Legion. "No offense, of course."

"Agreed. Teammate Kasumi's posterior will remain untargeted."

"Wait a second, what do you mean 'remain'? I'll have you know…"

Shepard deliberately ignored the rest of that conversation and focused on the rest of her team. "Anything else? No? Then let's move out…"

-o-

"This place is beautiful. I can see why someone would build a base here." Tali remarked as the Hammerhead raced over the terrain.

"Eh, it's pretty alright but I prefer someplace with a few more creature comforts." Kasumi replied.

"Preferably somewhere you could snag an expensive souvenir for yourself?" Shepard said mildly.

"You know me so well, Shep. Though if a billionaire with some nice trinkets decided to settle down here, I wouldn't mind coming to visit…" the thief trailed off causing Shepard to roll her eyes.

"What about you, Revan? Enjoying the sights?"

Three sets of eyes turned with varying degrees of subtlety to the Sith who was passively observing one of the monitors to an external camera. They weren't subtle enough because Revan audibly huffed at the attention.

"I am actually." The masked elf replied. "Aite reminds me of Tython quite a bit in some places. It's…nice to see something almost familiar."

"Did you spend a lot of time on Tython?" Tali asked.

"I grew up there. So, yes."

It was a shame they were almost at Prometheus station because this was exactly what Shepard wanted to happen during their time on Aite, her team relaxing and growing closer before taking the final plunge through the Relay.

It was just her luck that the most mysterious member of her team started opening up when another apocalyptic threat meant they would need to focus on the mission instead.

"Tython sounds like a nice place. You'll have to tell us about it later."

"Hmm, I suppose I will."

-o-

"Shep, we might have a problem."

"Yes Kasumi, I see it."

"Good, but I'm more worried about it seeing us."

"Thank you, Kasumi."

Revan did her best to ignore the nervous thief's chatter and focus on the problem ahead of them.

Prometheus station was less a human installation built on top of the crashed ship and more a handful of buildings crammed into the massive holes in the hull. That wouldn't have been much of an issue since even thick security doors would be easier to break through than the armor of a warship. No, the issue was that the VI had raised defensive shields over the crash site and several outlying generators and taken control of the cannon Cerberus had repurposed into a defensive turret.

That cannon was designed to fight ships bigger than the Normandy. Even a glancing hit would utterly destroy the lightly armored Hammerhead.

"Tali, any way you can hack their system? Disable that turret until we can get inside?"

"Maybe, but we'd need to get much closer." the Quarian replied. "And we'd need to divert a lot of power to get through the shielding."

…power, there was an idea…

"Tali'Zorah, can you get readings for the power draw coming from the station?" Revan asked.

It took a few minutes for Tali'Zorah to give her the numbers and a few more for the Sith Empress to calculate everything due to her relative unfamiliarity with Geth technology, though thanks to Legion she was making massive strides in correcting that. But eventually the Sith was able to determine that between the shields, the capacitors for the cannon, whatever active equipment was inside the station, and the VI being unable to divert more power thanks to the lockdown, the Station was at 99% power utilization.

"Okay, but what does that mean for us?"

"It means that there is hardly anything left just sitting there in a passive state." Revan explained. "But if more power was needed for say, tracking a fast moving target, ensuring the turret is locked so firing it doesn't rip the cannon off its base, and then recharging the capacitor, what do you think would happen?"

"The system would overdraw and slow everything down…" Shepard said in realization. "But that still doesn't help us get past the shield."

"No, but we can use the turret to disable the shields surrounding the generators and then destroy those to drop the main shield. We just need to wait close enough to one for the cannon to acquire a lock and I will be able to sense when the turret is about to fire."

"That's asking for a lot of trust, Revan. One mistake in timing means we're all dead." Shepard let out a long breath. "But we can't wait here forever and it's probably our best shot…so let's do it."

Kasumi snorted. "Well if we survive this, at least it will be one hell of a story."

Everyone braced as Shepard launched the vehicle forward. Revan briefly watched as the turret quickly jerked to life, only to sluggishly attempt to follow them seconds after. It seemed she was correct about the station's lack of extra power, but she pushed those thoughts aside and focused on her role.

The Force swirled around her as she focused on teasing the first indication of danger from the future. Unlike earlier, where her focus was spread out so much that she only managed to identify the threat minutes before it arrived, this time the Sith Empress focused everything on the turret and the surrounding area giving her near omniscience of the surroundings.

This was not Battle Meditation. Try as she might, Revan never managed to master that elusive skill.

Revan could not coordinate the others or direct their actions. She couldn't show them the images the Force gave her of the future or enhance their reactions and stamina. But right now that didn't matter. She could see everything she needed to, and with the only people around only a few feet from her…

"It's firing. Move now." She said calmly.

While the Hammerhead was a massively over designed, over complicated pile of scrap, it was very quick when it needed to be. Shepard was able to move completely out of the way before an enormous bang rocked the vehicle as the cannon disabled the shield around one of the generators.

"The shield is down, target the generator." Revan directed. Probably unnecessarily considering how quickly the others jumped into action, but soon enough the generator was destroyed and the team moved onto the next one.

Three repetitions later the main shield finally failed and left the turret vulnerable where it was quickly destroyed by the main armament of the Hammerhead.

The way into the station was open.