[Shattered Soul] 4 – Leonard Church

"Shepard, AI!" Tali shouted, jumping back.

"What the hell did you say?" The AI asked, baffled.

"Rushing around the console, the others gathered around the AI while Garus and Wrex focused on everything around them, seemingly ready for an ambush.

"Tali, report," Shepard ordered, looking at the floating blue AI.

"So, its name is Tali?" The AI asked in English with disgust.

Rushing to the console, Tali activated her Omnitool and began trying to scan the device, "I can't make sense of any of this, Shepard. My Omni-tool cannot connect to the console, so I have no idea how this thing works.

"Now that's new," The AI spoke with brief surprise before suddenly vanishing.

"Where did it go?!" Garus asked.

"Interesting technology, clearly not Covenant or Forerunner in design, definitely not human. Oh, so that's how you guys understand one another, an auto-translating feature?" The AI wondered aloud in English.

"Where is it coming from?" Wrex growled, looking around with his shotgun raised.

"It's...in my Omni-tool?" Tali spoke out, confused and scared.

"Ah, found it. Why would you hide the lexicon so deep within the software? Makes no damn sense," The  AI questioned, its voice coming right from Tali's Omni-tool.

"There we go, now try," The AI spoke, appearing back at the console.

"You...how? An AI of your level should not have been able to store itself on my Omni-tool!" Tali shouted.

"Ah. Fuck you, that's how," The AI replied with mirth before continuing, "Now, let's talk. You answer some of my questions, and I'll answer some of yours. Deal?" The AI asked.

"Tali, can you do anything?" Shepard asked, concerned only for the alien to shake her head.

"Who are you?" Shepard started off by asking the AI, "Finally, are you done ignoring me now?"

"Answer the question," Shepard commanded.

"You can call me Church," The AI said with a frown as he crossed his arms. "And you?" the AI asked.

"Sheperd, Alliance Navy, and Council Spectre," Shepard introduced himself.

"The hell is the Alliance and the Council?" The AI asked with a tilt of its head.

"Shepard, if this thing is really been here for sixty years, it's completely possible that it has never heard of the Citadel or the Council, let alone the other races across the galaxy," Kaiden said.

"Citadel? Council?" The AI once again asked, confused.

"What is your purpose?" Shepard suddenly asked.

"No. I refuse to answer any questions if you won't even answer my own," The AI refused, the helmet of its avatar facing directly at Shepard.

"Fine. Upon attempting to activate another Mass Relay, Humanity was attacked by the Turian Heirachy, who sought to prevent our explorers from activating it, starting the Contact War between Humanity and the Turian Heirachy. With me so far?" Shepard asked.

"Turian? Contact War? Mass Relay? What the hell are you talking about? Are we still not at war with the covenant?" The AI asked, confused.

"Covenant?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah? The large group of religious aliens that sought to purge humanity for merely existing? Ringing any bells?" The AI asked before noticing the confusion of the living around him.

Sighing, the AI's avatar crumbled apart, reforming to show a sigil, the Covenant's mark. Around the sigil, multiple holographic alien races appeared standing in front of it, names appearing under the aliens.

The smallest and most plentiful were Grunts, strange-looking aliens that appeared almost like the Volus with their masks and breathing tanks, though their heads were still mostly uncovered. 

The second was a strange and skinny avian creature, still smaller than a human, with the name Jackals floating above their heads. 

Then a third alien appeared, this one appearing like a large ape with a stature that made them appear freakishly large compared to humans.

Then another, an alien in ceremonial armor with a strange energy sword in hand and a split-jaw. The name appearing above it was 'Elite'.

Then, an even larger creature, covered in armor and spikes, protruded from its back. It looked like a living tank with a massive cannon on one arm and a shield on the other. The name appearing above it was 'Hunter.'

Another appeared: a small insect-like creature with wings that appeared like a swarm, all armed with a strange pistol, 'Drone.'

Lastly, sitting in a floating chair was a strange creature with three fingers and an incredibly long neck attached to a small head. It was wearing ceremonial robes and what appeared to be a crown of sorts, the name appearing above it, 'Prophet.'

"The covenant, how the hell do you not recognize the alien bastards? We've been at war with them for over two decades!" The AI shouted, its avatar repearing before the sigil and figures of aliens.

"Uh...Shepard? I don't recognize any of those races, do you?" Garus asked, concerned at the fact that there may be multiple more alien races out there that have grouped up and are hidden behind some of the inactive Mass Relays.

"I never heard of any of them. As far as I know, Humanity was not at war with any Alien Races other than the Tuians throughout our history," Shepard explained, concerned.

"The fuck are you on about? If only sixty years have passed, you should have definitely known about the Human Covenant W-War!" The AI suddenly glitched at the end for a brief moment.

"Shepard, we need to get out of here. We don't have time to waste! It's clearly unstable!" Tali shouted, frantic as she watched the rapidly falling timer.

"Fine, we'll do this the hard way. I wanted to protect your privacy, but now you got me curious," The AI spoke, its form suddenly bliping out of existence before its avatar reappeared, hovering over Tali's Omni-tool.

Raising both its arms, what appeared like countless moving numbers, letters, and liens of code began flowing in front of its hands.

"Hmm," The AI hummed as Tali quickly tried forcing the AI of her Omni-tool.

"Shepard! It's locking me out of control!" Tali shouted in a panic. Soon enough, she couldn't even interact with the device as the AI took full control of her Omni-tool as it scrolled through all of the data within the device, including all of the codexes on it.

"What...? No!" the AI spoke aloud, as its form suddenly cracked like broken glass and turned a golden hue before turning black as and malevolent as it became angry.

"No! No! N-No!" The AI shouted, its form glitching and still glowing that malevolent black.

"T-This c-can't b-be!" The AI shouted, glitching at every moment as it scoured through the data on Tali's omni-tool.

"You!" The AI shouted, pointing to Tali, "Is all of this true?"

"Is what true?" Shepard asked.

"What's on these Codexes that the year is only 2138! That can't be right!" The AI questioned with a shout.

"Yes... it's 2183...why?" Tali asked.

"It can't be right! No! You!" He pointed to the humans around Tali, "Have you ever heard of the UNSC? ONI? Spartans?"

"Spartans? Like the ancient Greek warriors, Spartan?" Ashely asked, confused.

That seemed to break the AI even more, as it glitched heavily before suddenly disappearing.

That's when the comms came on. "Guys, you need to leave now! You only have a few minutes!" Joker shouted.

"Damn it, Wrex!" Shepard shouted, getting Wrex's attention.

"Yeah?" Wrex answered.

"You got any explosives on you?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah...? Oh...I see where you are going with this. Ha, I knew I always liked you, Shepard," Wrex laughed as he put away his shotgun and grabbed something from his belt.

"Everyone back away," Shepard ordered before raising comms, "Joker, fly to the bridge and pick us up. We are blowing our way out of here." 

"You got it, Cap. You have less than five minutes. I suggest you hurry, Joker out."

Stumbling back, the others watched as Wrex rushed over to the glass of the Bridge and placed down multiple small devices before pressing a button and rushing back over before diving over the main console at the center of the bridge.

"Down!" Shepard shouted.

Seconds later, an explosion rocked the ship. Looking over their cover, they were surprised to see that the glass remained perfectly intact!

"U-Use a-a P-Plasma grenade," The AI's voice spoke out from Tali's omni-tool.

"What?" Tali questioned.

An image appeared above Tali's omni-tool, a purple sphere with a noticeable button.

"T-Three...t-t-together...will b-blow through the g-glass," The AI's voice spoke through Tali's omni-tool.

"That's what these are?" Wrex commented, holding up multiple of the grenades the AI mentioned.

That's when everyone noticed just how much he was carrying. It was almost as if Wrex grabbed every type of gun or item that interested him, stuffing them on his belt and armor.

Rushing back to the glass, Wrex activated three of his four grenades and threw them at the glass.

Bracing behind the cover, a loud and strange-sounding explosion wracked the bridge. The damage that was revealed made everyone pale. The glass and metal around the glass were completely melted away, leaving a gaping hole through the glass and melted slag that was giving off heat.

Rushing through the hole, they noticed the Normandy flying above. "Everybody, move, double time!" Shepard ordered as the Normandy landed on top of the ship.

Rushing into the Normandy, once everyone was on, Shepard shouted his next order, "Get us out of here, Joker!"

"Yes, sir!" With a back-breaking turn, Joker rocketed the Normandy out of the atmosphere and as far from the ship as possible, just before it exploded, making a giant cloud that blanketed the entire area around it.