Mass effect: A new cycle. (Sanquin / Dervish)

[Dervish]

It turns out, in the future, everything looked a lot more complex than it should have. Ryan laughed, embarrassed that he had expected the lights to have been some kind of sensor... or something. Not just a light. As G and Ryan moved through the complex, checking new rooms and corridors for potential threats while planting the lights, Ryan decided to strike up a conversation. "So, is this weird at all for you, Lindsey and I being here? I mean, this whole galaxy is different than what I know and it's a bit hard to keep up with everything. I expected to wake up surrounded by asari, or turians or whatever... but I got you guys instead." he saw the look G shot him. Ryan slapped his forehead. "Shit, sorry. That came out wrong. I just feel like a house guest that's never going to leave and barely tolerated. Even walking through a structure my people built feels wrong. Mars used to be an inhospitable chunk of frozen iron-enriched dirt and rock. Now your people turned it into a tropical paradise of sorts and Earth's been devoured by the sun." he stopped to face G. "So, I'm not sure how to phrase this, but outside of doing assignments like this, I have no idea how I'm going to adapt to this whole new world and it kind of scares me."

_ _ _

Lindsey smiled warmly. Quilh was a friendly, already familiar face and considering how much her life got turned upside down, being immersed in an alien culture was new and exciting, and it kept her from focusing on what was gone. "I appreciate that, Quilh. I spent most of my adult life studying other cultures and languages, so it's a bit of a comfort zone to help you and your people understand what's mine left behind. I'm not sure what you hope to find here on Mars, though. All the prothean data we obtained here we uploaded on the beacon and this is just a regular observation and analysis laboratory. I think you've already figured out your civilization is already thousands of years more advanced than anything in my cycle." She pointed out, seeing if she could activate a terminal.

To her surprise, it booted up. The Alliance apparently built things to last, and the entire structure was absurdly well preserved for such a long time period. "If this works, it could find us the information you may have been looking for, but it's been... God, I'm still wrapping my head around the amount of time that's past. I wouldn't hold my breath, something's probably failed over the years. But then again, it's worth a shot. The keypad worked just fine." Lindsey turned to look at Quilh. "This all seems wrong to me. There's no reason this structure should be this intact. Even before being terra formed, Mars was a very harsh climate and something would have been weathered away by the atmosphere or the sandstorms over tens of thousands of years. It almost feels like... this was planted here by someone else, you know?"

[Sanquin]

"I'm glad I can help you too, Lindsey." Quilh replied with a smile. "I've been spending most of my free time with Ryan now... Please don't feel left out or anything." Lindsey chuckled and shrugged. "That's okay. I've been spending my free time with other linguists and helping to understand everything in the database, so I was busy enough. And it was fun too." Indeed the human woman was right. Their civilization was already at least a few hundred, maybe a thousand years more advanced than in their cycle. But even so there could still be valuable information in here. For instance about the cycle even before the human one. The more information they could get about the reapers and the cycles, the better.

When the console booted up Quilh was surprised too. She quickly came over and looked at it all with a puzzled expression. "I know the power supply comes from what the rebels did here. But to think that these systems still work... Maybe your civilization was less advanced, but ours could definitely learn a thing or two from yours about durability..." At most a computer system would be able to go on for 500, maybe 1000 years if kept in proper conditions. Nothing like this human tech, which had apparently lasted almost 50,000 years. It really was quite impressive. Lindsey spoke about how this all shouldn't be in tact any more. Quilh frowned, her mind racing to find an explanation. "This is just a guess, but what if the reapers made sure this was kept in tact? I've come up with a theory, you see. That reapers purposefully leave a little bit of tech behind from the previous cycle. Just enough for a civilization to find it once they reach space travel, and use it to advance. For what purpose, I don't know. But I've seen the same signs of this being true on the four other dig sites that have been found across the galaxy... The only one that didn't have such signs was the beacon we found you two in together with the database. It was the only one containing such a large amount of valuable and sensitive data and two still living, breathing humans."

----------------------

In the mean time G placed the last of the lights on the wall and then turned to Ryan, looking thoughtful. "I think I understand what you mean. My kind had the same problem, I heard, when we were contacted by the Andaross. We only had space travel in our own system by then, and had never met any aliens before. They invited us to a whole new world of space travel, other species, alien structures... It was quite overwhelming for the people that experienced that." He thought for a little bit again, then sighed. "I don't think I can be of any help though. Your best option is Quilh. You two seem to be getting along really well, and when you're with her you at least won't be treated poorly or rudely by others. C.I.S.A. agents are respected like that. Generally if you're friends with one, you're at least on friendly terms with everyone else as well."

[Dervish]

"Fun..." Lindsey said the word, mulling over what Quilh said in a way that only a fellow researcher could. For most, the idea of methodically cataloging and indexing information from a culture and civilization that is not your own would be considered horribly dry. She thought about Ryan, a man of action and impulse, a soldier through and through. It was for the best he was helping the one called G and not either of the women currently accessing the data banks. She smiled at the andaross warmly. "Oh, I don't feel left out in the slightest. It's not every day you can say you get to come along for missions such as this, and I'm keeping occupied." Her head tilted slightly. "You have been spending a lot of time with Ryan. You seem to have taken quite a liking to him."

She kept moving through the console. It was weird enough knowing that she was looking at what was left of her people's legacy from tens of thousands of years ago, but it was quite another wrapping her head around it working. She decided to keep the conversation going as to not get a headache thinking about it. "It's possible... my own people advanced because of the Protheans, the ones who came the cycle before humanity. It jumped us forward by two hundred years, speaking from a technological perspective. We probably weren't mature enough as a species to have made the most of it, but we were an ambitious and adaptable people. The only thing we couldn't overcome were the Reapers." Lindsey said, sighing. "It's entirely possible that had the Reapers never harvested the galaxy, humanity would have become the most dominant species. We never were one to settle for second place or accept people ruling above us. What scares me is if you're right, and the Reapers ensured our technology and knowledge could be found, then they were trying to lure other species to advance ahead like we did so they'll have more worlds and genetic diversity to harvest. They were... are terrifying."

_ _ _

Ryan listened politely, continuing to mount more of the little lights as he listened to G explain how difficult it was for his people to adjust to joining the galactic community. At least this cycle didn't have turians; they never liked anyone going against the grain and breaking the rules. "I appreciate that, G. I really do. It's just hard not to feel entirely isolated and alone when there's only two of your people left, you know? I'd like to get to know this cycle and... well, adapt to it." he listened to G explain how Quilh's status was akin to an intelligence agent. At least, in humanity's social structure. "You guys put a lot of faith in researchers, don't you? I guess I am lucky I know her. It's hard to explain... she's making the transition for me a lot easier. I'm happy around her and feel like I belong." He grinned. "Plus, she isn't too hard on the eyes, either."

[Sanquin]

G grinned too, turning to Ryan after he placed the last light he was carrying with him. "There are already some rumors about you two liking each other going around. I'm not sure about Quilh, but you should talk to her about it. The Andaross are a very...reserved species when it comes to such things, so I don't think she'd ever express it if she liked you." G on the other hand was very up-front when it came to these things. So he had no problem telling Ryan about all this, and giving him some friendly advice. "Also, it's not researchers that we have a lot of faith in. It's the CISA as a whole. Soldiers, researchers, politicians, anyone can become one if you meet the standards and are selected for it. Quilh is also kind and considerate though, so she had earned a bit more good will and respect from others than a lot of the other CISA agents."

The team spent about half an hour indexing what was there and what would need to be taken with them. Since the console still worked Quilh decided to download as much data as possible, even the corrupted parts, to bring back with them. It would give her something to work on again as well. As this was her expertise. Working with data from ancient civilizations. Be it material or digital data. Once that was settled the team started to pack up again. Quilh left Lindsey to coordinate that while she went to look for G and Ryan. It was easy to find them as all she had to do was to follow the lights. This facility was actually quite large as it took her a while to find them. "There you two are. This structure goes a lot deeper than I thought." She spoke to the two, walking a bit closer. "We're packing up, so we'll be leaving again in 15 to 20 minutes. All we have to do is to drop everything off at the nearest city. Then after that we're needed on another part of the planet. Apparently they're having problems with a proxy factory." "Ah, the AI robots you've probably seen around the citadel." She added quickly, so Ryan would know what she was talking about as well. Indeed during their time on the citadel there had been a few quadruped robots, about half the size of a human, walking around. Sometimes working, sometimes following humans. They actually looked like larger, mechanical versions of the keepers in the citadel. Which was what their design was based off of even if the keepers were part biological.

Once G and Ryan were ready they all headed back. It was just a matter of getting everything into the cruiser now, and then they were off again. Once they were all sitting in the cruiser on their way back to the outpost Quilh kept looking at Ryan every now and then. She didn't say anything, but the man probably knew where this was going. If a girl looked at you like that, she usually liked you. And the Andaross weren't that different in their interactions to humans.

[Dervish]

"Reserved?" Ryan repeated, grinning while giving his head a slight shake. "Her body language is a lot easier to read than a human's, but I see your point." The man ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly, looking away from G. "Rumours, huh? I thought I was a bit less obvious than that. I'll talk with her, sure." he chuckled nervously, starting to head back to the main terminus that they had left Quilh and Lindsey at, walking in step with G. Ryan mulled over what he said about the CISA agents. The message was clear; they weren't the kind of people to fuck with. Ryan counted himself fortunate to have been found by the people in his current team, he was starting to get the impression that this cycle was almost as dangerous as his own, just his own was a lot more up front about it.

It wasn't long before the pair ran into Quilh, who had come looking for them. She explained the upcoming objectives. Ryan blinked. "Wait... proxy... you mean the Keepers?" he looked between both Quilh and G. "You manufacture replicas of them? They shut down and die whenever anybody tries to look too closely at them. Shit, they are usually the ones who activate the Citadel for the Reapers to return." He slapped his forehead, suddenly remembering. "I forgot! The Citadel, and all the Mass Relays, were built by the Reapers. The Keepers are given a signal and the Reapers return at the Citadel. I don't know if the beacon has the information about that, but I'd start looking into blocking that signal if I were you guys. We can thank the Protheans for figuring that one out, I wouldn't be here to tell you about it otherwise. It bought us a few more years." He shook his head sadly. So many things they tried to stop the Reapers, and absolutely none of it worked.

On the ride back, Quilh's glances at Ryan weren't lost on him, and it did much to brighten his mood. Having G's shameless reassurance about how things stood helped. Once he managed to make eye contact, he smiled warmly at her, wanting desperately to cross the isle to sit in the seat next to her. Instead, he mouthed. "Me too." at her, holding his rifle with both hands, the stock resting on the floor between his legs. "So, what kind of problems is this factory having?" He asked the team, looking around, but his returning gaze lingering on Quilh. She really was quite attractive, despite her rather exotic appearance.

[Sanquin]

Quilh blinked. Replica's? They didn't make replica's...that was pretty much impossible. Their technology was advanced, but not so advanced that they could make biological and mechanical hybrids like the keepers. "No no...not replica's. The design was based on them. On what they look like. We didn't actually recreate them..." They too had found out the hard way that the keepers would self-destruct whenever you tried to examine them. Scanning was possible, and they had found a deeper connection with the citadel than just maintenance. The keepers had receivers as if someone could give them commands, and they themselves had transmitters that could communicate directly with the citadel. Though the part about the keepers being able to bring back the reapers through the citadel was news for her. "But to think the keepers had such a purpose...as soon as we're on the ship again I'll send the information to the citadel so they can look into it." If this was indeed true then it was a top priority to try and counter that. As otherwise the main hub, and seemingly most dependable fortress of the galaxy could be turned into their greatest weakness in an instant. Granted, some of the newest destroyer-class cruisers they had came pretty close. But still the technology behind the armored plating and shields that the citadel had was a bit of a mystery even to the Andaross.

When Ryan gave a silent reply to her glances her feathers flared up a little again, and she quickly looked away. Quilh knew what he meant with his silent words, even if the translation technology didn't allow for lip reading. But that was for another time. They first had a new mission before heading back to the main ship. "Well, we don't know much of the details yet. Just that apparently one or two of the robots showed signs of dislike towards the factory workers. Communications completely stopped about 18 hours ago. The ruins had priority for me, but since we're still the closest military team that can handle any possibly threats from the proxy's without casualties we're going there next. I expect that the rogue proxy's have infected the others with their programming and that most of the units have gone rogue now as well. We'll need to find the main console at the end of the assembly line. It has an EMP pulse attached to it that will wipe every robot in the factory out simultaneously. Though it will also render our weapons useless for a minute or two, so we'll have to make sure that we get them all that way."

Since rogue AI's had started to pop up in factories and other important places, EMP's had been installed in key area's. It was a security measure to stop the proxy's from getting too far. The trip took about 40 minutes, it being pretty far from the ruins they had been in earlier. And to go back to the ship first would be a waste of resources at the moment. Once there the facility looked rather...peaceful. Like nothing was happening at all. Even so when Quilh stepped out she grabbed her pistol just to be sure. "It may look peaceful, but don't let your guard down. Unless we find a few people alive that can confirm what's going on we have to assume the worst for now."

(I figured two missions after each other would be good. We had such a long streak of just roleplay before it after all, so a bit more action than just one mission is a good change of pace. :P)

[Dervish]

From Quilh’s confounded gaze, Ryan could tell he completely misunderstood exactly what her people were doing with the machines. He decided to keep his mouth shut on the matter for now, lest his 49 thousand years of ignorance rear its ugly head again. “Yeah, make sure you don’t sweep that under the carpet and forget about it. As far as I’m aware, the Citadel’s been the weak point in every cycle and among the first things to be taken by the Reapers… along with most of the heads of government.” Ryan pointed out, looking out the window at the passing countryside. It was still hard to fully grasp the concept of lush forests on Mars. “I’m still not 100% on why you guys are building robots that are inspired by the keepers, especially following that form. And if they’re just supposed to be machines, then why are they incapable of being unhappy and uncooperative?” Ryan asked, he felt he had to. It was difficult to wrap his head around and the other thing he could think of was the geth.

The human listened to the plan. Rogue robots slaughtering a bunch of people just doing their day job because a couple were discontent. This cycle seemed to be the sort that rushed into discovery and development without thinking of the consequences and then hastily cleaning up the messes after the shit already hit the fan. No wonder why they had rebels who were unhappy. Still, it wasn’t his place to judge. Even before the Reapers came, there was enough discord and anger between the races it was a surprise that there weren’t more genocidal wars. It was just a sign that it didn’t matter how seemingly different a race was, everybody made mistakes or fell into their pride a little too hard. It made every alien disturbingly human.

The shuttle landed, and it looked like any other manufacturing facility Ryan was familiar with. There wasn’t any sign of trouble, but Quilh voiced exactly what he was thinking. Looks could always be deceiving. “I don’t think the proxy’s would trash the facility, especially if they could use the machines to construct more of them or to repair any damages they suffer. There’s always the possibility we’re being baited in.” He paused in thought. “Shit, could they talk, or mimic voices? If so, we can’t dismiss they made the distress call and have been waiting for people to arrive. More accurately, our ship. I don’t think we should leave it unattended in case an overly aggressive trash compactor decides to go for a joy ride.” He turned to the others. “Want me to cloak and scout ahead? I can be pretty sneaky and I’d rather find out what we’re up against instead of everybody walking into an ambush. “

[Sanquin]

Quilh sighed, shaking her head a little. "Surely in your cycle the races at least explored the advantages over AI's opposed to VI's? There are just things that AI's can't do. The problem is working out the last faults, like them choosing rebellion once they're infected with certain code. Maybe we could change that if we could give the proxy's a sense of life and self-worth. As right now, as intelligent as they are, they're still just disposable machines that can have a replacement made within a few days." Quilh didn't want to go into the small details. She had had this conversation with plenty of proxy sympathizers in the past as well. And although slowly there was a movement towards giving better treatment to the machines, they were going slow. It was only the year before that a proxy 'diplomat' met with two Andaross diplomats to have a discussion about just this. It hadn't led anywhere as the demands on both sides were apparently unreasonable. But even so they were slowly getting there.

When Ryan mentioned them mimicking voices Quilh nodded. "That's why I said we need to stay alert. They could have recorded voices and played them back as a distress call. It's why we came here with just the small land cruiser. So they can't get to our main ship." They moved inside, to the entrance hall where there wasn't anything interesting visible yet. As they scouted the area Ryan offered to scout ahead. Quilh thought for a moment and nodded. "Okay, go. Egwi and G will stay with me since we can't cloak. Be careful, by the way. Proxy's have means to detect cloaking devices if you get closer than 6 feet." With that she let Ryan do his thing as the three remained behind. They would very slowly move forwards until he came back with a report.

Inside Ryan would find that there were indeed plenty of proxy's. But not all of them were alive. Here and there he would see a destroyed or deactivated one laying on the ground. The active ones were patrolling around the conveyor belt, while two were working on the machines to modify them. There were about half a dozen in the area, though there were most likely more of them elsewhere in the factory.

(Say...how about we add a new crew member to the team? An infected proxy that did not want to join the others a-la legion? :P)

[Dervish]

"Yeah, the quarians made the geth. It didn't turn out well." Ryan said, scoping out the exterior of the factory with his rifle sights and paying attention to windows and doors. "Long story short, the geth turned sentient, started asking questions the quarians were uncomfortable with. Quarians tried to destroy the geth, who rebelled and drove the quarians into exile from their homeworld for three hundred years until they returned working with a Reaper that they worshiped as a god as they saw it as the pinnacle of synthetic life, so to speak." He removed the rifle from his shoulder, pointing the barrel to the ground as they walked towards the building. He nodded towards it. "Sounds like you guys are well on the way to discovering why AI research was banned in my cycle. Hopefully these proxy things aren't nearly as good at killing or tactics as the geth were."

The human listened to Quilh explain their capabilities. He was enjoying the prospect of this mission less and less. He was hoping his suspicions were simple paranoia, but Ryan always had a knack for guessing the worst. It did help keep him alive in the war against the Reapers, so it wasn't entirely an awful thing. Ignorance was bliss, but it also left you dead. As they entered the building, Ryan was surprised by the scope of the damn place. It seemed whatever happened was inside and hadn't decided to come out and spread terror and unhappiness upon the nearest organic settlement. Thank god for that silver lining. Quilh agreed to let him scout ahead and warned him about their scanners. It was good to know, even if he never liked to get close to anything while cloaked. It wasn't infinite, so suddenly reappearing by an attentive enemy was a good way to get killed.

He turned at the door, touching the radio piece in his ear. "I'll call when I find out what's waiting for us. I won't shoot anything until I get the go ahead, except if I need to defend myself. I won't be long, try to raise me in 15 minutes if you don't hear from me." With that, he was through the door and into the belly of the beast.

The factory was a pretty damn large building, and it didn't take long for him to stumble across the first proxy, which appeared to be disabled with some signs of visible damage. As Quilh suggested, its form reflected the inspiration that the keepers provided, and as a rule, anything that had more than 2 legs tended to creep Ryan out. He passed by the still robot and continued further into the facility. Over time, he passed by several similar-stated proxies and was a bit unnerved. What the hell happened? It was almost like they ran out of people to kill so they turned on each other. He wasn't looking forward to them finding him if it came to it. Ryan reached the assembly floor where he saw the first active ones. About four were working on the lines, although he couldn't make out exactly what they were doing, while two more were working on the manufacturing machines. It was time to call in. "Ryan to ground team, we have some live ones..." he began, running over exactly what he had seen and witnessed, plus the activity he was looking at right then. "Orders?"

[Sanquin]

So Ryan's cycle had the same problem with artificial intelligence... It was a bit odd to realize how similar their two cycles were. Apart from this one having one race as the dominant one instead of several races working together on leadership.

Ryan took a bit of time to scout the area. By then Quilh, G and Egwi had already moved to the room with the dead proxy's in it. This had also struck her as odd for a while now, as she had seen it before. At first it was just thought that humans in such area's had killed the proxy's. Yet upon further investigation it wasn't humans that could have done it. Which meant there were only other proxy's to kill their own kind. Which was...disturbing to say the least. They were full AI's, yes, but no one had expected machines to turn against themselves like that. The group of three waited behind the door that led to the assembly area, waiting for Ryan to report in. When he finally did Quilh smiled a little bit as she listened to his words. Nothing had happened yet...good. The man explained where exactly the proxy's were and how many, then also what they were doing. It made sense really. The machines seemed to have a predictable pattern whenever they took over a factory like this. "They're probably working on infecting the programming codes that are uploaded to each newly made proxy. They want to make more of like-minded machines after all." Quilh explained before thinking on what to do next for a few moments.

"Here's what we'll do. I'll give you some time to prepare. Find a decently defendable location where you can create a temporary distraction from. Once you're done you're to create said distraction on my mark. A moment later we will enter, and take out as many of the proxy's as possible before they have time to react properly to the situation." Proxy's weren't combatants. They were made for aiding people. Heavy lifting, carrying, storing data, helping around the house. Basically the equivalent of a butler, only in machine form. So if you used the element of surprise it was easy enough to distract them for a few precious seconds. Enough for a team of four to take out two, maybe three of them before they could react accordingly.

Once Ryan was in position Quilh counted down. "3, 2, 1...mark!" She spoke through the com, then waited another two seconds before bursting through the door. Egwi charged in right away, getting up close and personal with the nearest Proxy by shoving a shotgun in it's face. G at the same time used biotics to lift one that was much further away into the air. And Quilh sent a cryo blast towards a third one to keep it out of combat for a few seconds as well, following up with her pistol to cause some damage.