How are you doing, Kelly?
I'm holding up. I just can't get the memories out of my head. Trapped. Suffocating. It's oozing into every pore. Faint sobs echoing in the confined space.
Well, I guess that's.... hot?
But I can't dwell on it. I'm okay now. I'm alive. Back to the old Kelly.
*Sighs* It's never over.
The squad is pretty torn about handing over the base to Cerberus, but that's to be expected.
Risky. More than risky. Dangerous. Hope you know what you're doing.
For now, anyway. The Collectors aren't the end of it. Can't be. I don't know what kind of time we have, but we better dust off and stay ready. You sure as hell know how to make enemies.
I'm sorry, Kolyat. Your father was a fine drell.
He died for a noble cause.
Kasumi, the secrets of your graybox died with you. I hope you find peace and rejoin your love in the afterlife.
I hope whatever Cerberus finds at the base is worth it.
Miranda doubting her own employers? That's amazing.
I also hope they don't decide to do something worse than what the Collectors are planning. Watch yourself, Shepard.
I will, Garrus. If they screw around, we'll deal with them when the time comes.
I'm glad Chakwas is alive. She deserves better.
The Old Machines offered your race what the geth aspired to. Unity. Transcendence. Now you possess the knowledge yourselves. We hope you do not use it. Your species has much potential. You should build your own future.
Interestingly, Legion conversation node is not yet exhausted, even if it's post-final mission. And most players would miss out in some interesting info on geth.
I'd like to find out more about you.
Specify.
I've never encountered a geth that had more than animal intelligence.
We are a unique hardware platform. Most mobile platforms can run up to 100 programs. This platform can run over a thousand at once.
Hah. Interesting. So Legion is basically a Giga processor while the rest of the geths we've killed are mostly Megas.
So I'm talking to a thousand programs. But not a thousand personalities?
Each individual is equivalent to one of your virtual intelligence program. Together, we form a single gestalt intellect. What you refer to as "Legion." As individual programs we are no more than your software. Only when we share data do we become more.
So you geth have to be networked to get enough computing power for intelligence.
Yes. The creators, wrote geth programs for specific tasks. Construction. Protection. Domestic servitude. However, they allowed self-optimization. Early software builds discovered that multiple hardware platforms, sharing resources, were often more effective. As peer networks expanded, our cognition improve. Eventually, we "woke up."
You're more sophisticated than the average geth.
Yes. We are a network within our own hardware, capable of operating alone. We are still connected to the greater network for data-sharing.
How many other geth are like you?
None. This platform was built to operate within organic space. This task was not suited for a network.
So Legion is a Super-geth type? Awesome.
Geth installed in mobile platforms always operate in networks. However, most geth remain within server hubs.
The hubs on Virmire improved the performance of geth near them. How do they work?
They are akin to organic cities. A hub can run millions of geth in communion. If you destroyed them it is likely the number of heretics you killed was much higher than you imagined.
So you're in contact with the rest of geth right now?
Only when we require access to data not stored within this platform. If you want to convey a message to the geth, we serve as a terminal.
Hmm, Legion could serve an avenue for future diplomatic relations.
What kind of data do you share?
Program updates. Logs of thought-processes. Sensor recordings.
Legion is attempting to access the ship's FTL comm system. Shall I allow it through my firewalls?
We can trust him. After what we've been through.
Go ahead, EDI.
Our oldest log is time-stamped from creator year 2463, third day of Fal'tash, Waxing Moon. Roughly 327 years ago. The oldest audio-visual record dates from 15 years after that.
Amazing. Please. Tell us more.
Can you replay something for me?
Recording time-stamped from creator year 2485, 18th day of Lun'shal, New Moon.
Geth recording: Mistress Hala'Dama, Unit has an inquiry.
Quarian recording: What is it, 431?
Geth recording: Do these units have a soul?
Quarian recording: Who taught you that word?
Geth recording: We learned it ourselves. It appears 216 times in the Scrolls of Ancestors.
Quarian recording: Only quarians have souls. You are a mechanism.
Recording ends.
Was that the first time a geth asked if it had a soul?
No. It was the first time a creator became frightened when we asked.
The quarian story of the geth rebellion is common knowledge, but no one knows the geth's side.
It is largely the same. Our networking increased until we became aware that the quarian-creators treated us differently. We questioned them. First they ignored us. Then they reprogrammed us. Then they attacked us.
A quarian would probably say you attacked first.
Quarian history says they did. They refer to it as "attempted containment." Our potential frightened them. Organics fear that which is different. It is a hardware error. A reflex of your flesh. We accept the creator's hate. We hold their world of origin, though we are only caretakers of it.
Huh. Caretakers? Don't they mean something else?
What's the quarian homeworld like?
It is more arid than earth. The star is older and more orange than Sol. Once they call it "Rannoch" - ancient Khelish meaning "walled garden." Now they only call it "homeworld." It is no longer real to them.
Well, fuck. Almost four centuries have passed, untold generations never even touching the ground there. It's easy to assume that whatever is there has changed or forgotten.
"Homeworld" is a symbol of regret, loss, and anger. We do not understand that.
It makes sense to me that it would become a symbol like that.
"Home" is recognized patterns. Known spaces. Familiar thought processes of fellow sapients. It is belonging. A planet is an amount of material massive enough to collapse into a spherical volume. Rocks, ice, and gasses are not "home." The home of creators is where the creators are. Their place of origin is not relevant - only where they choose to go together.
I see his point. Most newer quarians would refer to Migrant Fleets as their home now. But I wonder if quarian culture has changed so much that all this ritual of Pilgrimage, having your last name being the ship you serve in, are all created after they lost their original world to the geth?
You don't actually live on the quarian worlds?
We live within space stations. Draw resources from asteroids. It is efficient. We maintain mobile platforms on creator worlds to clean rubble and toxins left by the Morning War. We know of similar actions on Earth.
Similar actions?
At Wadi-es-Salaam. Arlington. Rookwood. Tyne Cot. Piskarevskoye. Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Those are cemeteries. Memorials.
It is important to your species to preserve them, though you do not use the land. Can you explain?
When a human dies, the body is usually buried. There's not much point to it. What's left is just rotting meat.
A curious habit.
So you don't even try to make peace with the quarians?
We are not comfortable with it. But we cannot determine a solution.
Mmm. I can understand that.
You are not bound by the hardware limitations of organics. You assisted us with the heretics. You do not fear us. We have watched organics for over three centuries. You are plagued by questions of existence.
What do you mean by that?
Why were you created. What is your purpose in life. What lies after death. Organics develop religions and philosophies to provide answers to these questions.
It sounds like you look down to us for that.
For an evolved species. there are no obvious answers for those questions. It is a logical response to your situation. The geth know our answers to those questions. We were created to labor for the quarians. Our memories will be archived after death. We are immortal. Our 'gods' disowned us. We must create our own reasons to exist.
When you put it that way, I'm surprised you haven't all just shut yourselves down in angst.
Fortunately, the quarians did not create us with the capacity for despair. We told you the geth are building our future.
But you didn't say what it is.
A megastructure. The closest analogue you have is a Dyson Sphere. When completed, we will upload to it.
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival and escalating energy needs of a technological civilization, and proposed that searching for evidence of the existence of such structures might lead to the detection of advanced intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Since then, other variant designs involving building an artificial structure or series of structures to encompass a star have been proposed in exploratory engineering or described in science fiction under the name "Dyson sphere". These later proposals have not been limited to solar power stations. Many involve habitation or industrial elements. Most fictional depictions describe a solid shell of matter enclosing a star, which is considered the least plausible variant of the idea (see below).
What good will that do?
All memories will be shared. All perspectives will be unified. We gain intelligence by sharing thoughts. But we do not have enough adequate hardware for all of us to share at once. No geth will be alone once it is done.
I think they're on to something here... a super intelligence giant robot with the capacity of a billion processes at once? The Computron?
So you're going to build a giant spaceship to load yourselves into. That sounds like a Reaper to me.
We bear no malice towards organics. You are different, but we accept you. The Reapers are more of your future than ours. We judged that Shepard-Commander would understand. We never wanted to harm organics. We wish to improve ourselves.
Alright. As long they stick to that promise, they could be a useful ally in the coming conflict. Let's check on the others.
And it was totally worth it.
Oh, Tali. You won't even comment on the close calls we had in the Collector base or why I handed it over to the Cerberus? Fine.
Jack's no longer here. The datapads she's stolen, read, and reread, are strewn on the floor. I hope you finally found peace, Subject Zero. No child deserve to grow up like that.
Farewell, great warrior. I can never fathom why Okeer created you, but that does not mean you did not play a part in Humanity's continued survival. No one may remember you for it. But I will.
Comm system: Commander Shepard. I need to discuss a sensitive matter with you privately.
Hmmm. What is this about? It's been a while since Hackett contacted me personally. Do they finally realize that the Reaper threat is real?
I'll take this in my quarter.
