What did you do today in ME?

Karen Shepard, Soldier, ME2 cont'd:

Normandy

After ensuring EDI was ready to repel any hacking attempts, Shepard activated the geth platform they had found on the derelict Reaper. The ensuing conversation revealed some interesting tidbits of information:
- “We are all geth”. There is no individuality among the geth. The platform that was aboard the Normandy had over one-thousand programs running within it, leading EDI to give it the name “Legion”.
- The geth had been monitoring organics in general, and Shepard in particular, for some time.
- The geth that fought with Saren were not “true” geth, they were a splinter faction known as “heretics” (interesting choice of words).
- The Reapers were a threat to the true geth: “We are different from them. Outside their plans.”
- The geth wanted to help Shepard fight the Reapers (“Cooperation furthers mutual goals”.)

Legion revealed that it had boarded the derelict Reaper ship to obtain information on a virus that the Heretics created with the help of Sovereign. It was designed to turn all geth into Heretics. It sounded like the synthetic equivalent of Indoctrination, although Legion didn't describe it in those terms. Stopping them required going to a space station run by the Heretics, located in the empty space between star systems on the fringes of the Terminus Systems.

The Phoenix Massing - Heretic Station

The Normandy returned to The Phoenix Massing cluster, and travelled to the location provided by Legion. Heretic Station was a former quarian outpost abandoned by the Migrant Fleet as they fled quarian space following their defeat at the hands of the geth. The Heretics had rebuilt it and were now using as a base for staging attacks on organics. They also planned to use it to broadcast the virus that infect the “true” geth and make them think like the heretics.

Tali was an obvious choice to accompany Shepard and Legion in the infiltration team. Few people in the galaxy had more combat experience against geth than she did, and she'd fought at Shepard's side more or less constantly since getting away from Fist's thugs years earlier.

After they boarded the station, Legion discovered that the Heretic virus was now complete and could be used any time. He also stated that it would be possible to “rewrite” the Heretics using a modified version of the virus, turning them back into true geth. Tali was understandably wary of making Legion's faction of the geth stronger and advised against it.

As they made their way towards the Reaper data storage device that contained the virus, Legion gave Shepard insight into geth society – how they shared memories, experience, etc. “We gain complexity by linking together...We are many eyes looking at the same things.” The heretics were once a part of them, and their exile diminished the race as a whole. It was no wonder they were conflicted about what to do.

They came across a room full of databases, containing “a portion of the heretics accumulated memories.” Legion was shocked to discover that heretic spies had infiltrated the true geth networks and found out their patrol routes. He claimed that geth were “not suspicious, we accept each other.” The heretics wanted to leave, the geth understood why and let them. “There was peace between us.” He was baffled as to why they would subsequently feel the need to resort to subterfuge, and disconcerted that they could no longer understand each other.

They found the room with the data core, and Legion made preparations to upload the runtime that would neutralize the virus, while they held off a series of counterattacks by the Heretics. When the datamine was complete, Legion again asked whether to rewrite or destroy the heretics. Shepard asked why Legion was leaving it up to her, and he indicated that the geth were unable to reach consensus on the matter, and that Shepard, having fought the Reapers and the heretics, had “a perspective we lack.” This highlighted the flaw in the nature of geth society – in matters of ethics, morality, etc, when “consensus” was difficult or impossible, the geth lacked leadership, since the way their culture and society was structured made leadership impossible.

Shepard was unsure of what to do, but a decision needed to be made, and Legion wasn't going to make it. Shepard couldn't in good conscience kill potentially millions of living beings on the off chance they might be a threat at some point in the future. She couldn't do it with the Rachni queen on Noveria, and she couldn't do it here. She knew she was taking a risk – the geth weren't like other lifeforms, and the heretics had already been “tainted” by the reapers once – but she had to give them a chance. She told Legion to rewrite the heretics.

The team escaped Heretic Station and returned to the Normandy before the electromagnetic pulse that rewrote the heretics fried them.

Normandy

Back on the ship, Tali and Legion were not getting along. Tali had caught Legion accessing data about the Migrant Fleet from her omnitool, and was about to send it to the geth. She pulled a gun on him to get him to stop, and Shepard was brought in to referee before someone got hurt.

Both parties were justified in their actions, trying only to protect their people – the geth were worried about “Creator” plans to attack them, and the Tali knew that the Fleet would be in grave danger if Legion transmitted the data. Shepard told them that they were both right, but managed to convince them that they would both pay the price (along with everyone else) if they couldn't find a way to make peace. They reached a compromise, with Tali offering to pass on some non-classified intel for Legion to transmit. It was encouraging to see the situation diffused, but Shepard knew that war between the two races was probably inevitable, it was just a question of when.

Shep asked Legion for more information on geth government, society, and their history with Sovereign. She also asked why he'd used a piece of N7 armour – hers, as it turned out – to repair some damage. Strangely, Legion was unable to answer. She then headed for the CIC to check on the progress of the installation of the Reaper IFF.