[Shattered Soul] 11 – Feros Part 4

"Tali. I am not the Geth. Please stop judging me based on your preconceived notions about AI," Church interrupted her before she could speak further, getting tired of her bullshit the more she talked.

Tali glared at Church from under her helmet.

“Church,” Shepherd spoke up, his voice utterly calm and collected despite the battle not even a few minutes ago.

“One second, I think I found the problem,” with a green flash over his figure, Church’s holographic avatar reached into the Geth Platform’s chassis and pulled.

With a start, the Geth Platform’s optic eye flashed on, glowing a cool blue light before its head panels began to flap open and closed. Its optic looked down to one of its hands as it clenched and released its fist.

“There, that should do it for now,” Church answered, now remotely controlling the Platform, much to Tali’s dismay if her coiled muscles were any indication of her fight or flight response.

“Church,” Shepherd spoke again, getting Church’s attention.

“Yeah?” Church responded halfheartedly as the Geth Platform under his control climbed to its feet.

"What are you doing?" Shepherd questioned as if it was not obvious.

"I work better with actual hands," Church said as his new platform clenched its fists to show off what he meant.

"Huh. It seems I will need to continue communicating through the speakers of your Omni-tools. These Geth Platforms don't have sophisticated voice modulators capable of human speech unless one of you can speak in Binary." Entirely in control of the Geth Platform, Church commented as the Geth began to make a variety of sounds in ridiculously high and low pitches that sounded quite similar to the warbled Geth speech that typically emitted from a Geth Platform.

"Church," Shepherd tries again, making Church groan in annoyance.

"Shepherd, let me ask you this. Do I present a danger to you and your allies? Yes. Am I a threat to you and yours? No. I already promised to help you and yours, and if you can't believe that I do it of my own free will, then let me make this simple for you, our goals align. Saren must be stopped," Church began, only to be interrupted by Tali. 

"It's an AI! Don't believe it's deceit and lies!" Tali interrupted, only to jump back when the Geth Platform under Church's control snapped to her.

"Seriously, lady, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!" Church snapped, getting royally pissed off as his digital avatar's voice distorted and seemed to start sucking in light, becoming remenicsenct to a black hole.

"Tali!" Shepherd shouted, getting her attention. "This is not the time nor the place for this. You two will work together, and I will not tolerate insubordination during this mission. Am I understood?"

Wrex and Kaiden merely watched from the sidelines, Wrex seemingly enjoying the show while Kaiden sported his usual frown.

"Now let's get a move on, we do not have any more time to waste," Shepherd commanded, boarding the Mako, the controlled Geth Platform following not far behind.

Once everyone was on board, Tali being the last to board and clearly showing some resignation towards the Geth Platform sitting alongside the others, Shepherd started the Mako and briefed everyone on what was about to happen.

"There's likely more Geth ahead, but with how the Geth work, they will be expecting us, and the same trick will not work twice, so we'll floor it past them. Wrex, man the Cannon. Kaiden, I want you on the machine gun. Tali, Church? I want you two on the shields, and Mako's hull repair," Shepherd made his game plan, waiting for everyone to get into position before suddenly pushing the pedal to the metal, sending everyone back into their seats from the sheer force. 

Drifting around the rubble, Shepherd rocketed up to the top road of the Skyway and floored it towards the ExoGeni headquarters. As he did that, Tali pulled up some data on her Omni-tool that caught Church's attention.

It was raw data, recorded by her Omni-tool, that seemed to target the Geth specifically. Church felt inclined to ask questions, but stuck to his surface-level scanning of everyone's omni-tools. Besides, Church could hazard a few guesses as to why the female alien was gathering raw data on her species' robotic creations.

Speaking of the Geth, Church had to completely wipe out the memory banks on the Geth Platform he was piloting, due to Geth Programs still inhabiting the platform and trying to regain control. Still, with Church cutting off the platform’s connection, the small number of programs, Church was having no issues deactivating them one by one, for future use, while reconfiguring the Platform's software to be more efficient and more in line with what Church was used to, instead of being as inefficient as it was before.

Church also took a moment to test the features incorporated into the Geth Platform, finding it has several different camera mods for its optic sensor, a transceiver to both send and receive data, magnetic locks in the hands to prevent any metallic weapons from being taken or removed from a Platform mid combat, a data storage capsule for emergency storage of data to avoid data loss or loss of Geth Programms outside of range from an FTL relay or the Geth network, and lastly, Church noticed that the Platform seemed to have been designed with extreme flexibility and strength in mind, though lacking in agility and speed.

What bothered Church the most with the Platform was all of the redundancies. The singular optic camera was a flaw that would cripple the Platform's vision if the optic was to be damaged, the hands designed with only three fingers and the reverse-jointed legs would prove to be a maintenance issue as well as a significant disadvantage compared to regular bipedal legs, as the reversed-joint legs would be slower, less stable, and more energy intensive.

Though the design of the Platform closely mimicked a Quarian, it seemed to be more of an aesthetic choice than a practical one, which raised the question of why the Geth didn't simply improve their Platforms with all the time they had on their hands since they rebelled against their creators.

Pushing the rising questions aside, Church focused on keeping the Mako's shields up as it rocked with each rocket that a hostile Geth Platform hit it with. The Shielding on the Mako was military-grade, but clearly far less superior than the shielding utilized by both the  UNSC and the Covenant that Church was more familiar with; these Shields seemed to have great trouble against significant kinetic impacts and certain energy, such as the rather expensive and dangerous plasma weaponry the Geth were clearly employing as the Mako's shield overloaded under the assault of the Geth as Shepherd floored by a few more Armatures and Geth Platforms that were attempting to block the way further down the Skyway.

But, despite Shepherd's driving, the Mako made it through and into a large tunnel...where the Mako's radio cut to life.