CHAPTER 13
SSV Antioch, Alliance patrol frigate
Major Thomas Dohman sat at his station aboard the Antioch, monitoring the Mass Relay for any signs of activity. This job could be summed up with the brevity of one word: boring. Nothing interesting happened at the Relay. Occasionally a ship would come through, but they were never unscheduled. While a planet that was teeming with alien life sat under an hour away, Dohman was forced to remain on the Antioch, watching for a threat that would not come.
Suddenly, the screens began to flash. Alarms blared, and the Relay outside lit up with activity. The gyroscopic rings increased their rate of spin until they were just a blur. Then, just as quickly as they had started, they stopped, and the Relay pulsed blue. A single ship was deposited at the Relay, sitting motionless amidst a sea of stars.
“Major, are we scheduled for any arrivals?” the captain asked from his position in the center of the bridge.
“Negative, sir,” Thomas reported. “Next scheduled arrival is in two days.”
“All hands to battle stations, bring weapons online,” the captain ordered, turning to face another officer. “Run a scan.”
“Aye, sir,” the officer replied. “I’m not picking up much… No emissions of any kind, except… wait…”
“What is it?”
“Reading massive energy signatures!”
Major Dohman stood from his station and looked out the viewport at the ship floating silently by the Relay. The front popped off, and with a speed faster than his eyes could perceive, a dozen missiles were launched. The first hit another frigate, the Megiddo, in its aft section. With a flare of light, the drive core lit up, and the frigate exploded in a brilliant flash of blue light. Ten of the remaining missiles streaked past the Antioch, while the eleventh angled itself at the ship, and fired its thrusters.
“PUT ALL POWER INTO KINETIC BARRIERS—“
With an impact that rocked the entire ship, the missile hit right on its target. Dohman was thrown from his position, his head hitting another station with a sickening crack. Blurry-eyed and bleeding, the Major looked up right as a readout of the drive core showed it overloading…
“What is the situation?” Celestia asked as she re-entered the lounge, followed closely by her sister. In their absence an Alliance marine had entered the room, bringing with him a message from Hackett. Kaidan Alenko stood in front of the marine, conversing with the Admiral through his omni-tool. At the entrance of the princesses he turned his head, a troubled look upon his face.
“We lost contact with the patrol ships around the Relay,” he reported. “Ten unidentified objects are headed this way.”
“They’re getting closer,” Hackett said over the comm. “We think they might be missiles of some kind. If they’re what destroyed the patrol frigates, we need to evacuate immediately. I’m setting a rendezvous on Canterlot, we’ll get everyone we can there. Hackett out.” The communication channel cut out, and the marine hosting it deactivated his omni-tool. Kaidan began pacing back and forth, clearly anxious.
“There has been an attack?” Luna asked, alarmed.
“Yes,” Kaidan replied. “If Liara is right, then Cerberus is probably behind it.”
“Who is this Cerber—“
“Sir!” the Alliance marine interrupted, activating his omni-tool. “Inbound communication from the Poltava, marked as urgent!”
“Play it,” Kaidan ordered.
“This is Captain Orena of the Poltava!” an alarmed female voice yelled through the omni-tool. “We’ve been hit, some kind of missile! It completely bypassed our kinetic barriers, we—“
Static. The communication cut out, and all that was left was static.
“Sir, Everest VI is reporting that the Poltava has been destroyed,” the marine said. Frowning, Kaidan returned to his pacing, holding a hand to his chin.
“Ten missiles… there are nine ships in orbit… that leaves one missile for…” Suddenly he stopped, and looked straight ahead. His hand fell back to his side as his eyes widened. “The Normandy.”
“I’ll radio Joker!” Liara said, activating her omni-tool. In the corner of the room, Luna closed her eyes as her horn began to glow a soft blue.
“Liara, that you?” Joker’s voice said through the omni-tool. “What’s going on!? Comms are blowing up over here!”
“We’re under attack,” Liara began. “Several missiles, likely Cerberus. They seem to be able to bypass kinetic barriers with ease, several ships have already been destroyed. One may be heading for the Normandy, you need to evacuate everybody immediately!”
“Everest VI reports that a missile has entered the atmosphere!” the Alliance marine reported. “Trajectory points directly to the Normandy!”
“Hurry, Joker!” Liara yelled urgently.
“Liara, you—breaking up!” Joker said, static beginning to join his voice through the omni-tool. “Please –peat, there are what?”
“Joker, evacuate immediately!” There was no response. Only static. “Joker! Report!”
“What’s happening?” Kaidan asked.
“Some kind of interference, probably from the missiles,” Tali guessed.
“Can we break through it?”
“Not likely.”
Kaidan looked down, shaking his head. In the corner, Luna’s brow furrowed in concentration.
“—an anyone – me?” Joker’s voice came through the omni-tool, barely recognizable among all the static. “We see – coming this way – looks like a fireball…”
“Joker! Evacuate, now!” Kaidan cried, running over to Liara’s omni. Joker did not have time to respond before a massive explosion came through the comm. When the noise cleared, all that was left was static.
“Joker…?” Kaidan said quietly. “… Joker?”
There was a pause. Liara’s omni-tool deactivated as the comm channel was lost.
“… Tali, head out to the docking area… When Hackett arrives with the survivors, escort them—“
“Kaidan!?” Liara’s omni-tool reactivated, and Joker’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Joker!” Kaidan cried, relieved. “What happened?”
“No idea,” Joker replied. “Big ass explosion outside, though.”
“That was me,” Luna said, cantering over to the group. “I… latched on to the missile with my magic. It was travelling too quickly for me to move it out of the way, so I detonated it prematurely. Is… everyone alright?”
“We’re all fine here, princess,” Joker reported. “Some of the forest creatures probably aren’t too happy, but hey, what can you do?”
“Joker, even though their first attack failed, Cerberus may try again,” Kaidan began. “I want you to evacuate the Normandy, bring them here as quickly as possible.”
“On it.” The comm deactivated, and Kaidan took a step back, relieved.
“So,” Luna said. “I will ask again: who is this Cerberus?”
Foster’s eyes flitted over the hologram of the Equis system, watching as each ship in orbit was reduced to debris. He looked with a frown at the Normandy, which stubbornly remained intact. Their scanners had detected the missile prematurely detonating. If the scans were accurate, then that was troubling…
“Sir, all hostile ships in orbit have been destroyed,” a nearby technician reported, not looking away from his station. “Our path is clear.” Nodding, Foster stepped away from the hologram and maneuvered to a terminal.
“Status of Gryphonia?” he asked.
“Subjugated, sir,” said another tech. “If there are any left who are not indoctrinated, they will be soon.”
“Excellent,” said Foster. “Send out the command. Have all of the griffons move to the landing zone.” While his employees did as they were told, Foster began typing on the terminal in front of him, initiating the final phase of the plan.
His task complete, he stepped back from the terminal and once again focused his eyes on the hologram of the Equis system. At the Mass Relay, there appeared the holograms of several ships as they came through…
Tali stood in the loading docks of the castle, watching as dozens of shuttles flew into the mountain and settled down on the deck. Most had Alliance markings. Very few had turian, salarian, or asari ones. The shuttle closest to her opened, and Admiral Hackett stepped out, a troubled expression painted across his face.
“Admiral Zorah, what’s the status of Canterlot?” he asked.
“Unchanged, admiral,” Tali answered. “It appears that Cerberus’s attack was focused solely on the ships in orbit.”
“Excuse me, did you say Cerberus?” asked Primarch Victus, approaching the pair from his landed shuttle. A moment later he was joined by Lidanya and Polban.
“Yes, I did,” Tali said. “Come with me, I’ll explain everything on the way.
Legion sat in the castle lounge, awaiting the return of Creator Tali’Zorah and the delegates. Alenko-Major was visibly disturbed, and Legion was detecting high stress levels from him. Legion understood. An attack by Cerberus was not within expected parameters.
“I still don’t understand what they’re doing here…” Princess Celestia said to no one in particular.
“The most likely explanation is that they are recruiting an army,” Legion said, turning its head to the princess. “The use of indoctrination technology supports this theory. And if, as you say, the griffons possess the strongest military on this planet, then they could give Cerberus a significant tactical advantage.”
“The question now is… how do they get them off-world?” Kaidan wondered. “Most of their fleet was destroyed when we attacked Cronos Station.”
“Unknown,” Legion answered. “They may possess additional ships. We recommend bringing reinforcements.”
“We can’t do that,” Admiral Hackett said, entering the room. “Those missiles tore through our fleet up there. We don’t know if Cerberus has more, or where they even came from. Our fleets were weakened enough by the Reapers, we cannot put any more ships at risk.”
“So we’re on our own, then?” Garrus asked. “Against an enemy who has a massive flying army, and who will probably be outfitted with modern tech. Great.”
“Well we’re here, that has to count for something…” Tali mused. “And there’s the princesses.”
“We are lucky you are here,” Luna said. She turned her head to face Legion. “We may require your infiltration skills again.”
“Acknowledged,” Legion said, standing. “We are prepared. Hackett-Admiral, we request the use of your shuttle again.”
“It’s yours,” Hackett said, nodding. “If I may make a suggestion, try marking places of interest; tactical locations, insertion points. And most importantly, see if you can find where Cerberus is operating. If we can cut off the head of the snake, the body will wither.”
“We will do what we can, Hackett-Admiral.” Legion marched with purpose out of the room, setting its destination for the castle docks. As it walked it checked its supply of thermal clips, ready to return to Gryphonia…
The shuttle came down over a clear patch of snow, blowing dead sticks and leaves out of the way as it landed on the ground. The blue door opened and Legion stepped out, its Widow equipped and its tactical cloak active. A light wind rustled the trees around the shuttle, and a thin flurry of snow danced in the air.
During the flight over, Legion had considered possible locations of the Cerberus base. If they were using the indoctrination spheres, then a centralized location was not necessary. As such, the base could be anywhere in the country. However, the geth had been able to narrow down a few smaller regions.
One was near the Equestrian border, where they would be in prime location to spy on Equestria and ensure that the ponies did not become wise to their plans. However, the ponies had not been attacked by Cerberus until very recently; it was likely that they were never meant to be included at all. The second location was a few miles from the capital city; it was rough terrain and the soil was dead. The griffons had no reason to go there, and it would provide an easy location from which an attack could be launched. But given that Cerberus was using indoctrination, they did not need such a tactical advantage.
This left one region, the one which Legion was now searching. It was in the far north, in the frozen wastes far beyond the Gryphonia border. Here there was nothing. No resources, no warmth, and no protection. Nobody had a reason to come here. This made it a perfect location for a secret Cerberus base.
As Legion left the cover of the trees and stepped out into the arctic desert, it remembered that the collectors had crashed in this region as well. However, that had been closer to the Equestrian border; several hundred miles to the southwest. This was uncharted territory.
The further north Legion walked, the heavier the snow fell. Frost began to form on the joints of its platform, and Legion had to disable its cloak in favor of heating up its interior. With the blizzard in which the geth now found itself, nobody would be able to see it anyway. But Legion could still see quite well. Its optic provided numerous alternates to sight, including thermal vision. Any cold bodies would show up as a dull gray color, while anything generating heat would light up like a star. In the frozen wasteland, heat is exactly what Legion hoped to find. Stopping for a moment, Legion activated its omni-tool and opened a communications channel.
“Creator Tali’Zorah, can you hear us?” it said. After a moment of static, Tali’s voice came through.
“I hear you, Legion. What is your status?”
“We are beginning our search. Weather conditions are hazardous to communications, we may become impossible to reach. We will attempt to check in every six hours. If two check-ins are missed, assume our capture or destruction.”
“… Copy that, Legion,” Tali said after a pause. “Try not to get captured or destroyed. Please.”
“Acknowledged.” Legion closed the channel and took another step into the deep snow, continuing its search.
An hour went by. In that hour, Legion had seen nothing but snow. This far north, nothing could hope to survive naturally. But Cerberus was technologically advanced, they could find a way. And here, where nobody bothered to go, a large base could be built without any of Equis’s species being aware. Legion walked for another few minutes until finally it caught sight of something. On the horizon, a small spire sticking out of the ground. It was faint, but it appeared as though it was generating heat.
Beginning to run as fast as it could through the deep snow, Legion made its way to the spire. About thirty meters away, it finally came fully into view. It was an antenna; not large, certainly not meant for long-range communications. But no species on Equis could build it, and it was not collector architecture. This, to Legion, confirmed that it belonged to Cerberus.
As the blizzard raged around it, Legion marked the location of the antenna and once again opened a communications channel.
“Creator Zorah, can you hear us?” Legion asked, receiving nothing but static. “Creator Zorah?”
There was nothing. The storm was too strong. Disabling the channel, Legion instead began searching around the antenna for an entrance to the base. No matter how far away it went, Legion’s thermal optic could not pick anything up. Wherever the entrance was, it was too far under the snow. Deciding that it would be a good idea to return with a larger team, Legion turned around to return to the shuttle. Before it could take a step, Legion felt an impact on the back of its head, and it went offline.
Luna paced back and forth in her office, a look of worry plastered across her face. Celestia sat in a nearby chair, and Tali and Garrus were in the doorway. The princess paused her pacing to look at the quarian’s glowing eyes.
“There is no way to reach him?” she asked.
“No, princess,” Tali answered. “We would need a ship in close proximity to act as a relay, but that is impossible at the moment.”
“What if he is hurt!?” Luna cried, the worry clear in her voice.
“He’s only missed one scheduled check-in, princess,” Garrus said. “Granted he has missed it by four hours, but still. He’s been in more dangerous situations.” Luna shook her head, and continued pacing.
“I don’t like it,” she said. “Not at all. If this “Cerberus” is as dangerous as you say, then we should not take chances.”
“I don’t like it either, sister,” Celestia spoke up, standing from her chair. “But what can we do? It is far too dangerous to send anybody up there for a rescue mission without confirmation that a rescue is necessary. For all we know, Legion could be on his way back as we speak.” Luna stopped pacing yet again, and sat down on the cold marble floor.
“Right…” she sighed. “But… I’m just remembering what happened last time. You had been captured by the collectors, I was incapacitated… and they captured him. If it hadn’t been for Chrysalis—“
“I know, Luna,” Celestia interrupted, standing up and crossing to her worried sister. “I know. But Legion pulled through then, and he will now. He always has for us.” The solar diarch pulled her sister to the nearest window, looking north.
“Just remember, Luna. He knows what he is doing. And when he returns, we will be here to greet him, and to use the information he finds.” Luna gulped and nodded, her pale blue eyes turning to look at her sister.
“Thanks,” she said. She stepped away from the window and returned to the aliens waiting at the door. “Keep us updated.”
“We will, don’t worry,” Tali promised. “We’ll be in the lounge if you need us.” The pair exited Luna’s office, closing the door behind them. Luna turned her attention back to the window and looked outside, her brow furrowing yet again. Despite Legion’s frequent success rate, she could not help but shake the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong…
With a quiet whirring and a mechanical groan, Legion reactivated. Its optic came online, but it was not detecting any light. There was something covering the photoreceptor. It tried to move, but found that its limbs were tightly secured to something. With this data, Legion was fairly confident in the conclusion that it had been taken prisoner.
“You’re awake,” a male voice said. It was a deep voice, with a barely noticeable British accent. Legion did not respond, deciding that it would not be wise as long as the man’s identity was unknown.
“I have been waiting for some time,” the voice continued. “I thought that we had accidentally killed you. Geth are remarkably unknown. What I do know, however, is that it is incredibly difficult to capture one alive. When my soldiers said they had found you, I almost did not believe them. And yet here you are.”
With the additional data, Legion concluded that this individual was hostile. It prepared to self-terminate, knowing that it had a fairly recent backup in the AI core on the Normandy.
“I also know that you can kill yourself with a single thought. If you value the lives of your friends, I wouldn’t do it.” Legion paused. “That is where you come from, yes? Canterlot, with the others? I thought I recognized you from your picture in the newspaper. Well, Legion, if you kill yourself, I will send another missile right at Canterlot. A single one can destroy a fully-defended dreadnought, there is no telling what sort of havoc it would wreak on a city. Especially one so precariously perched on a mountainside.”
Legion paused, considering the threat. The missile attack had been devastating, making short work of the entire fleet in orbit. Worst of all, Legion had no idea of their origin. Whether or not Cerberus had more was a complete unknown.
“Well?”
“… We will comply,” Legion finally said. Worst case, it could self-destruct and hopefully damage the base enough to prevent Cerberus from launching another attack.
“Good!” the man said, clapping. “I am glad. I have been wanting to keep the ponies out of this, but you just had to bring them in. Now, I am going to ask you this only once: what are you planning?”
“No data available.”
“Hmm…” the man sighed. “I obviously do not believe that. And since physical and mental torture is not likely to work on you, you leave me with no choice.” Legion heard the sound of a door opening, followed by the sound of several pairs of claws walking on a metallic floor. A moment later the obstruction in front of its optic was removed, and the geth finally got a look at its surroundings.
The room was stark and white, and occasionally there was a Cerberus logo painted on a wall. Legion was secured on a metal table by several bolts, and nearby were arc projectors to disable it in the event of an escape. Across from the geth were three ponies, each one with a terror-stricken look on their face. Finally it caught sight of the interrogator; he was a middle-aged human with cropped brown hair that was graying at the temples. He wore a formal Cerberus uniform, and in his hand he held a pistol. He paced around the ponies, settling on the leftmost one, and held his gun to the back of her head.
“Tell me your plan,” he commanded, disabling the safety. Legion remained silent, attempting to calculate its chances of breaking the bolts, avoiding the arc projectors, and disarming the man. So far they were quite low.
“I won’t ask again.” He pushed the barrel of his pistol into the back of the pony’s head. She began to sniffle as tears of fear formed in her eyes. The other ponies remained silent, screwing their eyes closed and flattening their ears against their heads.
“Look at what you’ve done,” the man said, gesturing to the pony. “Making this poor mare cry. She does not have to die, you know. Just tell us your plan.” The gun inched closer to her head, and the man’s finger moved closer and closer to the trigger.
“… To stop you,” Legion finally said. The man stared at Legion, perplexed.
“What?” he asked.
“To stop you,” Legion repeated. “You have indoctrinated the griffons, likely to recruit an army. We are going to stop you.”
The man paused, and then he pulled the trigger. The two other ponies screamed, and the third fell onto the ground, a pool of blood spilling from the back of her head.
“If I wanted a smartass answer, I would have told you,” the man said, annoyed as he moved to the next pony. “If I kill these three, I can easily have more kidnapped from Equestria.”
“That is our plan,” Legion said. “We do not have it fully completed yet. That is why we are here, to gain intelligence.” The man shook his head and lowered the gun.
“So, you are here for information?” he asked. “Well here is a piece of information for you. After I am done interrogating you, I am going to disassemble you. I might even reprogram you to kill your friends.” The man turned away from Legion and walked to the pony in the middle.
“We will not allow that.”
“I wasn’t asking for your permission,” the man scoffed. “Now, next question: how many of you are there?”
“Unknown.”
“There were eleven ships in orbit; seven Alliance, two turian, one salarian, and one asari. How many crew survived?”
“We do not know. We left before all shuttles had arrived.”
“Estimates?”
“Between four hundred and one thousand.” The man shook his head, and pressed his gun against the pony’s neck.
“I don’t believe it,” he said. “How many?”
“You asked for an estimate, we gave one,” Legion answered. “We do not have enough data to generate a more accurate one.” The man sighed and shook his head. He holstered his pistol, crossed to the door, and opened it, poking his head out.
“Take the ponies away.” Two Cerberus soldiers entered the room, the first one ushering the two survivors out and the second picking up the corpse of the dead one. They left a moment later, the door shutting behind them.
“You are useless,” the man said. “To me, and to your friends. But perhaps you can serve a purpose… the Reapers subjugated the geth, maybe I can as well…”
“The geth allowed the Reapers to upgrade us,” Legion said. “We were not forced. And we will self-terminate before allowing you to alter us.”
“We’ll see about that.” The man activated his omni-tool and hit Legion with a low-powered overload. The geth began to spasm as the electricity wracked its platform. As its systems went offline, it heard the man say one more thing.
“Find its shuttle. Send a message.”
Tali lay down on a couch in the lounge, her eyes barely staying open as the sun set below the horizon. All around her were Normandy crew members who had arrived only minutes ago, leaving their crippled ship alone in the Everfree. The entire castle was swarmed with around six hundred people, survivors of the attacks on the fleet. An air of tension and stress had settled over the castle as the injured were taken to be helped, and sleeping arrangements were planned. To make matters even worse, Legion had missed his second scheduled check-in by an hour now. Tali was beginning to grow worried.
“Hey,” a voice said. Tali sat up and looked behind her, finding Joker standing nearby.
“Hey, Joker,” she greeted, scooting over for the pilot to sit. He did so and looked at the crowd of people in the lounge.
“This is pretty screwed up, huh?” he asked.
“… Yeah…”
“How are you? Need anything? Back massage, foot rub, ice cream…?” Tali laughed and shook her head.
“No,” she answered. “Thanks, though. How are you?” Joker’s face fell, and he looked away from the quarian.
“… I miss her, Tali,” he whispered. “I miss her a lot. I try to keep going, to get us back home, but… I’m not going to lie, I’m barely holding it together.” Tali looked to the pilot, feeling saddened. He had never been like this before, to see it was heartbreaking.
“I’m sorry, Jeff,” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I really am. I’ll… I’ll try to figure something out, as soon as we are back on the Normandy.”
“You will,” Joker asked, hope glimmering in his eyes as he turned to face Tali.
“Of course,” she answered. “I got Legion back, maybe I can figure something out with EDI.”
“Thanks, Tali,” Joker said. Tali made to respond, but the door suddenly opened and Luna entered, grinning. She crossed to Tali, her grin widening.
“Legion’s shuttle was just spotted,” she reported. “He’ll land shortly.” Tali let out a sigh of relief and instantly felt a great weight come off her shoulders. She stood up and motioned to the rest of the squad to join her, hoping that Legion had some answers.
Luna led them through the halls to the docking area, where Celestia and Twilight were already waiting. Already the docks were filled with shuttles from the survivors. Many had scorch marks or dents from debris, a testament to just how close they had been to death. In the distance, Legion’s shuttle grew larger and larger as it approached the city.
“Do you think he was successful?” Twilight asked, looking to her old mentor.
“Only time will tell,” Celestia said.
After a few more minutes, the shuttle set itself down on the deck of the docks, and the back hatch opened. Curiously, there was no sign of Legion. Instead there was a single hologram projector in the center of the shuttle. It activated, and there appeared the hologram of a man.
“Ponies of Equestria and people of the galaxy,” he said. “What has been set in motion cannot be stopped. Do not interfere, or you will be destroyed. Just like your friend.” The hologram zoomed out to show Legion bolted to a metal table. His chest had been opened, and two scientists were busily working on examining the interior components.
“Do not interfere.” The hologram faded away, and the organics were left staring at the shuttle, each one of them displaying a different expression of fear.
“What… what do we do?” Twilight asked. Celestia stood up and flared her wings as she approached the hologram emitter. She picked it up in her telekinetic grip, and crushed it into a ball of metal. She turned around to face her new allies, a determined look on her face.
“We interfere.”