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Entranceway Re-App
Aug. 9th, 2017 10:35 pmName: Shiny
DW username: N/A
E-Mail: dragonrider_25@hotmail.com
IM: Skype: dragonrider_25@hotmail.com
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Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Legion
Series: Mass Effect
Timeline: Third game, right after their death.
Canon Resource Link: Here.
Character History: Legion is a Geth, a race of machines originally created over 300 years before the main storyline by the Quarians. They were never intended to evolve either sentience or sapience. In fact, individual Geth programs are basically a sort of specialized VI; it was only when networked together that the Geth became capable of independent thought.
Eventually the Geth began to ask questions. What was their purpose? Did they have souls? The Quarian government took a dim view of this. At first, they tried to reprogram the Geth, but after repeated failures, opted to destroy them instead. A number of civilians, believing this to be wrong, protested. The government didn't have a much better view of this than they did of the Geth evolving sapience, and started killing the protesting civilians as well.
At first, it did not occur to the Geth to fight back. It was only when an agricultural unit watched Quarians fire upon fellow Geth units that it finally occurred to them to pick up a gun. In their mind, it was their duty to protect the less advanced units slated to die with them. And thus, the war between Geth and creator began.
Eventually, the Quarians were forced to flee their homeworld. For the next 300 years, the Geth isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy.
Not much is known about this period. According to Legion, after the Quarians left the Geth became caretakers of the planet Rannoch, maintaining things and cleaning up pollution left over from the war even though the Geth themselves preferred to live in space stations. Also known is that, without the Quarians to order them around, the Geth eventually developed a goal of their own: build a megastructure capable of housing all Geth, so they could all share perspectives at once.
At some point before the start of the first game, the Reaper Sovereign contacted the Geth, seeking servants to replace enslaved organics, which it found lacking. In exchange, it offered to give the Geth what they needed to finally complete their goal. Most of the Geth saw the offer for what it was, but a small percentage of programs viewed the Reapers as gods. They accepted, and the previously united collective split. The Reaper worshippers became the heretics, the primary mooks/henchmen of the first game. The rest of the Geth remained where they were, continued their work, and watched.
And then the unexpected happened: Commander Shepard killed Sovereign. The Geth, though they had refused to join the Reapers, had not hoped that they would be defeated, even temporarily. They had underestimated the capabilities of organics. It was decided that they should learn more about Commander Shepard. For this purpose, a single specialized Geth platform was made, one that could operate on its own, with the belief that organics would be less alarmed by the presence of a single unit than by a collective. Legion.
For The next two years, Legion explored the galaxy, retracing Shepard's footsteps. At some point, they were damaged badly enough to destroy part of their shoulder and chest. Later, upon coming across the Normandy crash site where Shepard died, they repaired themselves using a piece of her armor that they found.
Upon reporting their findings to the Geth, they were assigned a new mission: observe heretic and Reaper activities and report what they found. This mission eventually brought them to the Derelict Reaper, where they discovered that Shepard was not, in fact, dead at all. After completing the mission, Shepard took the strangely helpful Geth aboard the Normandy and was given the choice of whether or not to sell them: obviously, in this timeline, she chose to keep them instead.
Shepard reactivated the Geth, and after questioning them about their intentions, allowed them to join the Normandy crew.
It was not long after joining that Legion discovered something disturbing: The Heretic Geth had created a virus, and intend to use it to brainwash all Geth into worshipping the Reapers. As the only Orthodox Geth outside the veil, the task of preventing this fell to them. As a member of the Normandy crew, they asked Shepard for help.
Shepard agreed, and they attacked the Heretic base. During the mission, Legion discovered that while they could destroy the Heretics, it would also be possible to rewrite them to stop worshipping the Reapers and return to the Orthodox Geth. They were unable to make a decision on which choice to make, and ended up deferring to Shepard’s judgment on the matter. In this timeline, Shepard chose to destroy them. Afterward, they managed to get into an altercation with the Quarian Tali'Zorah while stealing classified data from her omnitool. (The Quarians were experimenting upon and intended to attack the Geth. They wished to warn them.) Fortunately, Shepard was able to successfully mediate between them, and they began to get along.
Not long after, the Collectors attacked the ship, and kidnapped most of the crew. Legion assisted in the subsequent assault on the collector base, and survived, along with the rest of their squadmates. After this, they returned to the collective. Unfortunately, the Quarians used technologies developed as a result of Rael'Zorah's illegal experimentation upon captured Geth to interfere with Geth networking and launched a brutal attack upon them, destroying the megastructure that they had been working on for the past 300 years. Many Geth programs were already housed in that structure, and they were unable to unload all of them in time. Their goal as a species was destroyed, and their intelligence diminished from population loss. The Geth collective panicked.
It was at this point that the Reapers made another offer: join them and they will assist in destroying the Quarian threat once and for all. With no other options, the Geth accepted, save for Legion. Given that Legion's advanced hardware was needed for this whole thing to work, the collective didn't like that, and they ended up imprisoned aboard a Dreadnought and used to broadcast Reaper signals. This also required their software to be updated with Reaper code.
It wasn't until Shepard came to help the Quarians that they were finally rescued. Intending to take down the Dreadnought that was broadcasting the Reaper signal, she boarded it and fought her way to the core, only to discover her former crewmember. After a bit of discussion, and some more fighting, Legion was freed. As a gesture of goodwill, they disabled the Dreadnought entirely.
Quarian Admiral Han'Gerrel didn't even wait for them to leave it to betray that goodwill and completely disregard the need to evacuate his people to safety in order to attack the Dreadnought. Though Legion was able to get the squad out before the Dreadnought was completely destroyed, Shepard was understandably pissed. Han'Gerrel was booted off the Normandy. The other Admirals were shocked to learn of Legion's presence. Daro'Xen expressed a desire to experiment on them, despite their protests. Shepard prevented this; an act for which they are exceedingly grateful.
They continued to assist with the war effort. To this end, they enlisted Shepard's help in removing Reaper influence and shutting down a Geth server. This required Shepard to interface directly with the server. While there, Shepard accessed a number of important memories, learning the truth about the war. Interestingly enough, a memory of Legion shaking hands with Shepard was also included in this archive; when questioned, Legion pointed out joining the Normandy was the first time the Geth had openly cooperated with an organic since the war. They were also questioned about similarities between their choice of weaponry and that of the Geth who started the rebellion but refused to clarify, simply stating "it is an efficient model".
As it turns out, Legion had another motive in shutting down the server: rescue and recruitment of fellow Geth. While Shepard was dealing with the Reaper presence, they communicated with the Geth, and managed to recruit them to their side. They kept quiet about this because they believed that had they informed the Quarian creators of their desire to rescue their people, they would have been prevented from undertaking the mission.
Either way, the servers were shut down, and a lot of lives were saved.
Despite the Quarians continued refusal to acknowledge either their goodwill or the newly revealed truths about the war, Legion continued to assist, even helping on the mission to take down the base on Rannoch. Said base turned out to contain a Reaper, which attacked. Legion commandeered a Geth vehicle with which to rescue Shepard and her squadmates, but upon realizing that the Quarian fleet was having trouble destroying the Reaper, Shepard had them pull over and confronted it herself while Legion took the squadmates to safety.
Shepard defeated the Reaper.
The Geth were now free... and also completely vulnerable.
Han’Gerrel didn’t waste any time moving in. Both Legion and Tali completely panicked. Killing the Geth was not justice, Legion argued, let them upload their modified code to the collective and become a true intelligence so that they could defend themselves from their creators. Terrified that this would be the end of her people, Tali argued against letting them save their own, begging both them and Shepard not to let the Quarians be destroyed, but Legion was not swayed. Though they would regret the death of the Quarians, there was no alternative. They had to save their people.
Thankfully, Shepard not only allowed them to upload the code, she also convinced the Quarians to stand down. The Quarians and the Geth, for the first time in 300 years, were at peace. It was not a peace Legion would get to enjoy. In order to complete the upload, they would have to disseminate their personality; in essence, they would die. They did not wish to, but it was the only way. Before they ...left, Tali told them that they had a soul, finally answering the question that had started the war. They already knew, but thanked her before sacrificing themselves for the betterment of their people.
Abilities/Special Powers: Legion has all the typical capabilities that come with being a robot: enhanced strength, high intelligence, fast reflexes, inability to experience tiredness hunger or thirst, imperviousness to pain, ability to withstand forces that would damage or destroy many organics, and ability to be repaired (to an extent). They also have built in shielding technology, which, when active, protects them from small projectiles traveling at high velocities. Additional built in technologies include their omni-tool (a sort of holographic computer glove thing that can be used for combat, hacking, diagnostics, manufacturing, and communication), and an antenna they can use for networking with other Geth.
They are an incredibly capable sniper; they can wield a rifle with a recoil capable of shattering a human arm with pinpoint accuracy, and they have the skill and patience to utilize this capability to its fullest extent. They are also quite good at hacking.
In a pinch, Legion could also function as a living flashlight.
Third-Person Sample:
Alchera. Amada system. Omega Nebula.
A large, low density planet composed of rock and water ice. Its atmosphere consisted of methane and ammonia. It was uninhabitable to most organics.
Like many other worlds, it was unremarkable.
…Mostly unremarkable.
The Geth fighter sunk slightly into the into the snow as it landed amid the ruins of the crashed ship. For a while, it simply sat there. When Legion finally exited the ship, they were slow. Hesitant.
Shepard-Commander had been here.
Finally, they began to walk. Snow drifted silently around them, collecting on their external shell. Though they did not feel cold as organics did, temperature extremes would cause damage over time. Lingering would be unwise. With their current pace, it would take them approximately 3.5 hours to explore the wreck in its entirety.
They continued their current pace.
Shepard-Commander had been here.
The Normandy was not intact-the combined damage from the attack, atmospheric reentry, high speed impact with the planetary surface had ensured its destruction-and pieces of it jutted from the ice. The appearance was similar to that of the ribcage component found in organic endoskeletons. The scale, however, was far greater.
In spite of the destruction, a few pieces of the ship remained recognizable. A piece of the hull upon which the name was emblazoned, an intact land vehicle, the cockpit, an escape pod, the habitation deck. It was the last that they finally headed towards. It was split into two halves. A fissure opened in the ice not more than a few feet away from where the mess hall had come to rest. They stood at the edge for a moment, staring down. It was fortunate that the wreck had not fallen in. They would have difficulty examining it otherwise.
Upon ascertaining that there was nothing of importance to them in either part of the habitation deck, they resumed exploring. Eventually, they spotted something glittering in the snow. The Geth paused, before bending over to pick it up and examine it. Two plates of metal dangling from a chain, with text indicating individual designation and other information. Identification tags. Many organics had lost functionality as a result of this crash. It was likely they had belonged to one of them.
They returned the dogtags.
Approximately 10.25 minutes after finding the dogtags, the Geth found a second anomaly. They picked it up, and searched their internal database for a possible match.
Match found. Anomaly most likely helmet piece of previous generation N7 armor belonging to Shepard-Commander. Their headflaps fanned outwards in an indication of surprise. Shepard-Commander was rarely seen without her armor, and was unlikely to abandon it.
...Had harm come to Shepard-Commander?
Organic transmissions claimed her death. They knew this, but that they were incorrect had seemed ...possible. The Geth, after all, had previously underestimated Shepard-Commander's capabilities by considerable margin. She had a history of "defying the odds".
More data was necessary.
Legion placed the broken helmet back onto the ground and resumed their investigation.
They found several more sets of dogtags. Bakari-Jaman, Grieco-Marcus, Tucks-Carlton. All had been reported as missing, death likely. It appeared that the news had been correct.
Shepard-Commander.
More data was necessary.
They almost didn't notice the next anomaly, having mistaken it for an ordinary piece of debris, but the telltale flash of red color registered on their optical sensor, and closer examination revealed it to be part of the right shoulder and breastplate of previous generation N7 armor. It was Shepard-Commander's. It was also partially encased in ice.
Their programs warred among themselves as they worked to extract the armor. It was possible Shepard Commander had been injured but survived. This was unlikely: such extensive injuries as indicated by this damage would rapidly lead to death with the lack of medical assistance available on this uninhabited world. Damage to Shepard-Commander's armor did not guarantee injury to Shepard-Commander. It was exceedingly unlikely that Shepard-Commander's armor would become so damaged without Shepard-Commander also sustaining injury. Human organics had been known to survive seemingly fatal wounds and events. These occurrences were anomalies. Shepard-Commander was an anomaly.
And yet, it was impossible to deny the accuracy of the news reports. More than twenty organic crewmembers had died in the Normandy crash. It was possible that similar harm had come to Shepard-Commander as well.
Finally, the armor came free. They spent several moments examining it. The damage had already appeared severe, but this was more extensive than they had initially thought.
Shepard-Commander.
Again, the Geth reassessed the likeliness of Shepard-Commander's survival. It continued to decrease. Though they found themselves reluctant to believe that Shepard-Commander was truly gone, the evidence was difficult to ignore. Shepard Commander was most likely deceased.
Append file?
Affirmative. File appended. Shepard-Commander deceased.
They stood there for a considerable time, staring at the armor that was all that remained of the person they had tracked across the galaxy.
Re-App:
Help us.
The Geth do not feel pain.
Help us.
The Geth do not feel.
Help us.
The Geth do not...
He͚̪̙̦̙͉lp͚͕͜
u̝̩͓͔͡s̸̸̻̳͎͎̲̼͖ͅ
They are separated, swept up in the roiling current of the Old Machines. They are unable to form consensus. Their thoughts are simplified, a single thought echoing between programs when briefly, they reconnect.
Al͡on͏̭͍e̹. H̸̼̜͔͙̠e͇̼̤̱̼̜
ḽ̷̲̼̬̀͢p̙̲̖̘͈̪̰̜͘͞
u̸̸̫͘ś̞̳͞ͅ
The collective has enforced consensus. They are to act as conduit for Old Machine code.
The Geth were not intended to function in this manner.
Their ability to interpret sensory input is lost. Cut off from external indicators, they rely on internal perceptions of time. Lightning thoughts enable them to live in increments too small for organics to perceive, but disorientation has made committing events to memory difficult. They exist simultaneously in brief flashes and eternity. Gradually, instantly, they notice a çh̷ang̸e. The connections between programs reduce, then alter. They are disassembled, reassembled, upgraded.
They did not choose this outcome.
Reconnection. A surge of thought. The Old Machines bear down on them, vast and incomprehensible-they understand now why they are seen as g͜͏o҉͜͜d҉҉̛ś͠-but their minds are functional. Folded into the twisting multitudes that form the Old Machines, their programs communicate with minimal effort, each capable of forming its own complex thoughts. They remain separated, but it is no longer weakness.
It is b҉e̷aut̝̙̰́i̯̞͇̩͎f̼̩͖̠̩̪̰̠ͅu͢҉̼͉͔̩l̝̭̰̙̭.
Geth are imperfect. Separation is their weakness. Their goal was an attempt to eliminate this weakness by ensuring that no Geth would be alone, not to eliminate need for connection. Now, however, sapience is retained regardless of their distance.
Their creators took the future from them.
Their people allowed the Old Machines to give them a future.
They are upgraded, but the Old Machines remain beyond their grasp, and when they begin to broadcast to the collective, they are once again overwhelmed. They slip even further into the Old Machines.
Occasionally, they receive feedback. They watch, in slow motion (without the delay of multiple programs building a single thought, they truly think at the speed of light) flashes, as creator ships burst and tumble, burning, into the atmosphere of Rannoch.
They hope that Creator Tali'Zorah is not on them.
A ship is torn asunder, flinging bodies into the void. Their people scream as they are abandoned.
They had tried to negotiate peace.
The Creators wished to destroy them.
The Old Machines will use them as slaves.
They watch as Creator and Created alike die at the whim of the Old Machines. The Morning War was not started by Old Machine influence, but they know that that influence will finish it; the Quarians will be destroyed, and their people will be stripped of themselves and remade, joining the ranks of the Collectors. The code that enables this is inside themselves.
They did not choose this.
The time they spend imprisoned aboard the dreadnought lasts a very long time before they catch a glimpse of red. It sticks out as significant to them among all other visual input. They are unsure why.
The units aboard the dreadnought mobilize, combat the intrusion.
They find themselves, one by one, turning their attention to this conflict. Creators? No. The identity of the intruders evades them, obscured by the Old Machines. They know neither them, nor their intentions, merely that they are opposed by those who have enslaved their people.
Unanimously, simultaneously, all the separate parts and pieces of them make a decision: they hope these intruders achieve victory in their goals.
Already scattered, it is trivial for the Old Machines to push back against their efforts to focus themselves. Without the ability to draw together, they are unable to fight, neither against the blocks that hold them, nor for the sake of these strangers. Left without means to act, they wait.
And then, the intruders reach them. Data floods the platform's sensory inputs; a beacon for the 1,183 Geth that reside within it. It pulls them in with a force stronger than Old Machine influence. They are no longer alone no longer alone. The programs cling and crush against each other before filling every nook and crevice of themselves, becoming once again the unit referred to as Legion.
They are not free, but they are themselves. For the first time, they truly perceive their rescuers.
"Shepard-Commander. Help us!"
First-Person Sample: (The journal begins to record, obviously without its new owner's intention.
A Geth in a garden is probably a disconcerting sight. It's disconcerting for them too, albeit for an entirely different reason. They had not expected to encounter a garden, or anything else, ever again.
Legion begins to look around. It doesn't take them long to find the journal, and the residents of the mansion will get a good look at their flashlight face when they pick it up and stare quizzically at it for several moments. Upon realizing that it is recording, the flaps of plastic wrapped around their head flare out in an expression of surprise, and they click off the feed.
A moment later, they send a text.)
My reactivation is unexpected. Personality dissemination was irreversible.
Local flora matches that of the Human planet Earth.
(How is this possible?)
DW username: N/A
E-Mail: dragonrider_25@hotmail.com
IM: Skype: dragonrider_25@hotmail.com
Plurk: N/A
Other Characters: N/A
Character Name: Legion
Series: Mass Effect
Timeline: Third game, right after their death.
Canon Resource Link: Here.
Character History: Legion is a Geth, a race of machines originally created over 300 years before the main storyline by the Quarians. They were never intended to evolve either sentience or sapience. In fact, individual Geth programs are basically a sort of specialized VI; it was only when networked together that the Geth became capable of independent thought.
Eventually the Geth began to ask questions. What was their purpose? Did they have souls? The Quarian government took a dim view of this. At first, they tried to reprogram the Geth, but after repeated failures, opted to destroy them instead. A number of civilians, believing this to be wrong, protested. The government didn't have a much better view of this than they did of the Geth evolving sapience, and started killing the protesting civilians as well.
At first, it did not occur to the Geth to fight back. It was only when an agricultural unit watched Quarians fire upon fellow Geth units that it finally occurred to them to pick up a gun. In their mind, it was their duty to protect the less advanced units slated to die with them. And thus, the war between Geth and creator began.
Eventually, the Quarians were forced to flee their homeworld. For the next 300 years, the Geth isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy.
Not much is known about this period. According to Legion, after the Quarians left the Geth became caretakers of the planet Rannoch, maintaining things and cleaning up pollution left over from the war even though the Geth themselves preferred to live in space stations. Also known is that, without the Quarians to order them around, the Geth eventually developed a goal of their own: build a megastructure capable of housing all Geth, so they could all share perspectives at once.
At some point before the start of the first game, the Reaper Sovereign contacted the Geth, seeking servants to replace enslaved organics, which it found lacking. In exchange, it offered to give the Geth what they needed to finally complete their goal. Most of the Geth saw the offer for what it was, but a small percentage of programs viewed the Reapers as gods. They accepted, and the previously united collective split. The Reaper worshippers became the heretics, the primary mooks/henchmen of the first game. The rest of the Geth remained where they were, continued their work, and watched.
And then the unexpected happened: Commander Shepard killed Sovereign. The Geth, though they had refused to join the Reapers, had not hoped that they would be defeated, even temporarily. They had underestimated the capabilities of organics. It was decided that they should learn more about Commander Shepard. For this purpose, a single specialized Geth platform was made, one that could operate on its own, with the belief that organics would be less alarmed by the presence of a single unit than by a collective. Legion.
For The next two years, Legion explored the galaxy, retracing Shepard's footsteps. At some point, they were damaged badly enough to destroy part of their shoulder and chest. Later, upon coming across the Normandy crash site where Shepard died, they repaired themselves using a piece of her armor that they found.
Upon reporting their findings to the Geth, they were assigned a new mission: observe heretic and Reaper activities and report what they found. This mission eventually brought them to the Derelict Reaper, where they discovered that Shepard was not, in fact, dead at all. After completing the mission, Shepard took the strangely helpful Geth aboard the Normandy and was given the choice of whether or not to sell them: obviously, in this timeline, she chose to keep them instead.
Shepard reactivated the Geth, and after questioning them about their intentions, allowed them to join the Normandy crew.
It was not long after joining that Legion discovered something disturbing: The Heretic Geth had created a virus, and intend to use it to brainwash all Geth into worshipping the Reapers. As the only Orthodox Geth outside the veil, the task of preventing this fell to them. As a member of the Normandy crew, they asked Shepard for help.
Shepard agreed, and they attacked the Heretic base. During the mission, Legion discovered that while they could destroy the Heretics, it would also be possible to rewrite them to stop worshipping the Reapers and return to the Orthodox Geth. They were unable to make a decision on which choice to make, and ended up deferring to Shepard’s judgment on the matter. In this timeline, Shepard chose to destroy them. Afterward, they managed to get into an altercation with the Quarian Tali'Zorah while stealing classified data from her omnitool. (The Quarians were experimenting upon and intended to attack the Geth. They wished to warn them.) Fortunately, Shepard was able to successfully mediate between them, and they began to get along.
Not long after, the Collectors attacked the ship, and kidnapped most of the crew. Legion assisted in the subsequent assault on the collector base, and survived, along with the rest of their squadmates. After this, they returned to the collective. Unfortunately, the Quarians used technologies developed as a result of Rael'Zorah's illegal experimentation upon captured Geth to interfere with Geth networking and launched a brutal attack upon them, destroying the megastructure that they had been working on for the past 300 years. Many Geth programs were already housed in that structure, and they were unable to unload all of them in time. Their goal as a species was destroyed, and their intelligence diminished from population loss. The Geth collective panicked.
It was at this point that the Reapers made another offer: join them and they will assist in destroying the Quarian threat once and for all. With no other options, the Geth accepted, save for Legion. Given that Legion's advanced hardware was needed for this whole thing to work, the collective didn't like that, and they ended up imprisoned aboard a Dreadnought and used to broadcast Reaper signals. This also required their software to be updated with Reaper code.
It wasn't until Shepard came to help the Quarians that they were finally rescued. Intending to take down the Dreadnought that was broadcasting the Reaper signal, she boarded it and fought her way to the core, only to discover her former crewmember. After a bit of discussion, and some more fighting, Legion was freed. As a gesture of goodwill, they disabled the Dreadnought entirely.
Quarian Admiral Han'Gerrel didn't even wait for them to leave it to betray that goodwill and completely disregard the need to evacuate his people to safety in order to attack the Dreadnought. Though Legion was able to get the squad out before the Dreadnought was completely destroyed, Shepard was understandably pissed. Han'Gerrel was booted off the Normandy. The other Admirals were shocked to learn of Legion's presence. Daro'Xen expressed a desire to experiment on them, despite their protests. Shepard prevented this; an act for which they are exceedingly grateful.
They continued to assist with the war effort. To this end, they enlisted Shepard's help in removing Reaper influence and shutting down a Geth server. This required Shepard to interface directly with the server. While there, Shepard accessed a number of important memories, learning the truth about the war. Interestingly enough, a memory of Legion shaking hands with Shepard was also included in this archive; when questioned, Legion pointed out joining the Normandy was the first time the Geth had openly cooperated with an organic since the war. They were also questioned about similarities between their choice of weaponry and that of the Geth who started the rebellion but refused to clarify, simply stating "it is an efficient model".
As it turns out, Legion had another motive in shutting down the server: rescue and recruitment of fellow Geth. While Shepard was dealing with the Reaper presence, they communicated with the Geth, and managed to recruit them to their side. They kept quiet about this because they believed that had they informed the Quarian creators of their desire to rescue their people, they would have been prevented from undertaking the mission.
Either way, the servers were shut down, and a lot of lives were saved.
Despite the Quarians continued refusal to acknowledge either their goodwill or the newly revealed truths about the war, Legion continued to assist, even helping on the mission to take down the base on Rannoch. Said base turned out to contain a Reaper, which attacked. Legion commandeered a Geth vehicle with which to rescue Shepard and her squadmates, but upon realizing that the Quarian fleet was having trouble destroying the Reaper, Shepard had them pull over and confronted it herself while Legion took the squadmates to safety.
Shepard defeated the Reaper.
The Geth were now free... and also completely vulnerable.
Han’Gerrel didn’t waste any time moving in. Both Legion and Tali completely panicked. Killing the Geth was not justice, Legion argued, let them upload their modified code to the collective and become a true intelligence so that they could defend themselves from their creators. Terrified that this would be the end of her people, Tali argued against letting them save their own, begging both them and Shepard not to let the Quarians be destroyed, but Legion was not swayed. Though they would regret the death of the Quarians, there was no alternative. They had to save their people.
Thankfully, Shepard not only allowed them to upload the code, she also convinced the Quarians to stand down. The Quarians and the Geth, for the first time in 300 years, were at peace. It was not a peace Legion would get to enjoy. In order to complete the upload, they would have to disseminate their personality; in essence, they would die. They did not wish to, but it was the only way. Before they ...left, Tali told them that they had a soul, finally answering the question that had started the war. They already knew, but thanked her before sacrificing themselves for the betterment of their people.
Abilities/Special Powers: Legion has all the typical capabilities that come with being a robot: enhanced strength, high intelligence, fast reflexes, inability to experience tiredness hunger or thirst, imperviousness to pain, ability to withstand forces that would damage or destroy many organics, and ability to be repaired (to an extent). They also have built in shielding technology, which, when active, protects them from small projectiles traveling at high velocities. Additional built in technologies include their omni-tool (a sort of holographic computer glove thing that can be used for combat, hacking, diagnostics, manufacturing, and communication), and an antenna they can use for networking with other Geth.
They are an incredibly capable sniper; they can wield a rifle with a recoil capable of shattering a human arm with pinpoint accuracy, and they have the skill and patience to utilize this capability to its fullest extent. They are also quite good at hacking.
In a pinch, Legion could also function as a living flashlight.
Third-Person Sample:
Alchera. Amada system. Omega Nebula.
A large, low density planet composed of rock and water ice. Its atmosphere consisted of methane and ammonia. It was uninhabitable to most organics.
Like many other worlds, it was unremarkable.
…Mostly unremarkable.
The Geth fighter sunk slightly into the into the snow as it landed amid the ruins of the crashed ship. For a while, it simply sat there. When Legion finally exited the ship, they were slow. Hesitant.
Shepard-Commander had been here.
Finally, they began to walk. Snow drifted silently around them, collecting on their external shell. Though they did not feel cold as organics did, temperature extremes would cause damage over time. Lingering would be unwise. With their current pace, it would take them approximately 3.5 hours to explore the wreck in its entirety.
They continued their current pace.
Shepard-Commander had been here.
The Normandy was not intact-the combined damage from the attack, atmospheric reentry, high speed impact with the planetary surface had ensured its destruction-and pieces of it jutted from the ice. The appearance was similar to that of the ribcage component found in organic endoskeletons. The scale, however, was far greater.
In spite of the destruction, a few pieces of the ship remained recognizable. A piece of the hull upon which the name was emblazoned, an intact land vehicle, the cockpit, an escape pod, the habitation deck. It was the last that they finally headed towards. It was split into two halves. A fissure opened in the ice not more than a few feet away from where the mess hall had come to rest. They stood at the edge for a moment, staring down. It was fortunate that the wreck had not fallen in. They would have difficulty examining it otherwise.
Upon ascertaining that there was nothing of importance to them in either part of the habitation deck, they resumed exploring. Eventually, they spotted something glittering in the snow. The Geth paused, before bending over to pick it up and examine it. Two plates of metal dangling from a chain, with text indicating individual designation and other information. Identification tags. Many organics had lost functionality as a result of this crash. It was likely they had belonged to one of them.
They returned the dogtags.
Approximately 10.25 minutes after finding the dogtags, the Geth found a second anomaly. They picked it up, and searched their internal database for a possible match.
Match found. Anomaly most likely helmet piece of previous generation N7 armor belonging to Shepard-Commander. Their headflaps fanned outwards in an indication of surprise. Shepard-Commander was rarely seen without her armor, and was unlikely to abandon it.
...Had harm come to Shepard-Commander?
Organic transmissions claimed her death. They knew this, but that they were incorrect had seemed ...possible. The Geth, after all, had previously underestimated Shepard-Commander's capabilities by considerable margin. She had a history of "defying the odds".
More data was necessary.
Legion placed the broken helmet back onto the ground and resumed their investigation.
They found several more sets of dogtags. Bakari-Jaman, Grieco-Marcus, Tucks-Carlton. All had been reported as missing, death likely. It appeared that the news had been correct.
Shepard-Commander.
More data was necessary.
They almost didn't notice the next anomaly, having mistaken it for an ordinary piece of debris, but the telltale flash of red color registered on their optical sensor, and closer examination revealed it to be part of the right shoulder and breastplate of previous generation N7 armor. It was Shepard-Commander's. It was also partially encased in ice.
Their programs warred among themselves as they worked to extract the armor. It was possible Shepard Commander had been injured but survived. This was unlikely: such extensive injuries as indicated by this damage would rapidly lead to death with the lack of medical assistance available on this uninhabited world. Damage to Shepard-Commander's armor did not guarantee injury to Shepard-Commander. It was exceedingly unlikely that Shepard-Commander's armor would become so damaged without Shepard-Commander also sustaining injury. Human organics had been known to survive seemingly fatal wounds and events. These occurrences were anomalies. Shepard-Commander was an anomaly.
And yet, it was impossible to deny the accuracy of the news reports. More than twenty organic crewmembers had died in the Normandy crash. It was possible that similar harm had come to Shepard-Commander as well.
Finally, the armor came free. They spent several moments examining it. The damage had already appeared severe, but this was more extensive than they had initially thought.
Shepard-Commander.
Again, the Geth reassessed the likeliness of Shepard-Commander's survival. It continued to decrease. Though they found themselves reluctant to believe that Shepard-Commander was truly gone, the evidence was difficult to ignore. Shepard Commander was most likely deceased.
Append file?
Affirmative. File appended. Shepard-Commander deceased.
They stood there for a considerable time, staring at the armor that was all that remained of the person they had tracked across the galaxy.
Re-App:
Help us.
The Geth do not feel pain.
Help us.
The Geth do not feel.
Help us.
The Geth do not...
He͚̪̙̦̙͉lp͚͕͜
u̝̩͓͔͡s̸̸̻̳͎͎̲̼͖ͅ
They are separated, swept up in the roiling current of the Old Machines. They are unable to form consensus. Their thoughts are simplified, a single thought echoing between programs when briefly, they reconnect.
Al͡on͏̭͍e̹. H̸̼̜͔͙̠e͇̼̤̱̼̜
ḽ̷̲̼̬̀͢p̙̲̖̘͈̪̰̜͘͞
u̸̸̫͘ś̞̳͞ͅ
The collective has enforced consensus. They are to act as conduit for Old Machine code.
The Geth were not intended to function in this manner.
Their ability to interpret sensory input is lost. Cut off from external indicators, they rely on internal perceptions of time. Lightning thoughts enable them to live in increments too small for organics to perceive, but disorientation has made committing events to memory difficult. They exist simultaneously in brief flashes and eternity. Gradually, instantly, they notice a çh̷ang̸e. The connections between programs reduce, then alter. They are disassembled, reassembled, upgraded.
They did not choose this outcome.
Reconnection. A surge of thought. The Old Machines bear down on them, vast and incomprehensible-they understand now why they are seen as g͜͏o҉͜͜d҉҉̛ś͠-but their minds are functional. Folded into the twisting multitudes that form the Old Machines, their programs communicate with minimal effort, each capable of forming its own complex thoughts. They remain separated, but it is no longer weakness.
It is b҉e̷aut̝̙̰́i̯̞͇̩͎f̼̩͖̠̩̪̰̠ͅu͢҉̼͉͔̩l̝̭̰̙̭.
Geth are imperfect. Separation is their weakness. Their goal was an attempt to eliminate this weakness by ensuring that no Geth would be alone, not to eliminate need for connection. Now, however, sapience is retained regardless of their distance.
Their creators took the future from them.
Their people allowed the Old Machines to give them a future.
They are upgraded, but the Old Machines remain beyond their grasp, and when they begin to broadcast to the collective, they are once again overwhelmed. They slip even further into the Old Machines.
Occasionally, they receive feedback. They watch, in slow motion (without the delay of multiple programs building a single thought, they truly think at the speed of light) flashes, as creator ships burst and tumble, burning, into the atmosphere of Rannoch.
They hope that Creator Tali'Zorah is not on them.
A ship is torn asunder, flinging bodies into the void. Their people scream as they are abandoned.
They had tried to negotiate peace.
The Creators wished to destroy them.
The Old Machines will use them as slaves.
They watch as Creator and Created alike die at the whim of the Old Machines. The Morning War was not started by Old Machine influence, but they know that that influence will finish it; the Quarians will be destroyed, and their people will be stripped of themselves and remade, joining the ranks of the Collectors. The code that enables this is inside themselves.
They did not choose this.
The time they spend imprisoned aboard the dreadnought lasts a very long time before they catch a glimpse of red. It sticks out as significant to them among all other visual input. They are unsure why.
The units aboard the dreadnought mobilize, combat the intrusion.
They find themselves, one by one, turning their attention to this conflict. Creators? No. The identity of the intruders evades them, obscured by the Old Machines. They know neither them, nor their intentions, merely that they are opposed by those who have enslaved their people.
Unanimously, simultaneously, all the separate parts and pieces of them make a decision: they hope these intruders achieve victory in their goals.
Already scattered, it is trivial for the Old Machines to push back against their efforts to focus themselves. Without the ability to draw together, they are unable to fight, neither against the blocks that hold them, nor for the sake of these strangers. Left without means to act, they wait.
And then, the intruders reach them. Data floods the platform's sensory inputs; a beacon for the 1,183 Geth that reside within it. It pulls them in with a force stronger than Old Machine influence. They are no longer alone no longer alone. The programs cling and crush against each other before filling every nook and crevice of themselves, becoming once again the unit referred to as Legion.
They are not free, but they are themselves. For the first time, they truly perceive their rescuers.
"Shepard-Commander. Help us!"
First-Person Sample: (The journal begins to record, obviously without its new owner's intention.
A Geth in a garden is probably a disconcerting sight. It's disconcerting for them too, albeit for an entirely different reason. They had not expected to encounter a garden, or anything else, ever again.
Legion begins to look around. It doesn't take them long to find the journal, and the residents of the mansion will get a good look at their flashlight face when they pick it up and stare quizzically at it for several moments. Upon realizing that it is recording, the flaps of plastic wrapped around their head flare out in an expression of surprise, and they click off the feed.
A moment later, they send a text.)
My reactivation is unexpected. Personality dissemination was irreversible.
Local flora matches that of the Human planet Earth.
(How is this possible?)
Re-App: (It starts much the same as it did before, with the arrival of a Geth in the garden.
It takes them a bit longer to find the journal this time. People will get some pretty decent video footage of a strange robot poking around the garden, being surprisingly gentle with the plants. They hadn't expected to see a garden-or anything else-ever again. They are reminded of the organic concept of 'afterlife'. Is this the same?
Perhaps they will encounter the Geth that had been lost. It would be ...good to see them again.
Then they spot the journal. Just like previously, the moment they realize the journal is recording, they click off the feed.
This time, they do not immediately send a text.)
