Random-Access Memory (Mass Effect 3 Fanfic)

Part 2

“Shepard Commander.”

A heavy metallic stride didn’t leave much room for guessing as to who her visitor was.

“Yes?”  Admittedly, the operative was only half paying attention.  A contact had recently forwarded to her some unpublished technology that might greatly increase their power efficiency, but she wasn’t sure about the experimental nature of the amps.   It made the commander frown as she flipped through the terminal’s pages, nodding absently at the Prime even as she started shifting things around in the documents. 

“We would very much like it if you were to give us a name.  We know that humans hold distinctive names as greatly significant, we concur with its importance.”

Shepard went very still, too startled by the request to reply.  “I…I don’t know what to say…”

“This task does not require urgency.  We understand that processing time on such a decision can be extended. We simply wished to submit the inquiry.”

***

The situation was full on F.U.B.A.R.  One moment she was hacking into a Cereberus databank on some backwater planet on another murky lead from Alliance intel, and the next she was in the middle of a reaper gangbang getting fired at from all sides while the unholy howl of banshees was interrupted only by the heavy clamor of brutes wanting to break every bone in her body.  She couldn’t believe it had gone downhill so fast.  She was throwing biotics over the crate she was currently crouched behind, and at the very least they were doing some work against the cannibals that had her and her team pinned. 

It was not going well though.  They were neck deep in trouble and drowning, and the reapers forces seemed to pour out in near endless hordes.  Each felled brought two behind it, and her strength was beginning to wane.

The barreling charge of a brute sent her back from cover.  Shepard swore as she rolled behind a bank of crates.  The beast kept coming, but she blasted off the armor, and finally the last shots managed to put him down.  From around her she could hear her team viciously working to hold their ground.  She was breathing hard, and her group were determined, but that didn’t stop them from running out of thermal clips. 

Just as she’d fired another shot over the crate she was caught by a banshee’s warp.  She barely had time to cower behind cover again before the clinging acid of the alien biotics consumed her.  It took almost no time at all for the warp to eat through her shields, and Shepard had to bite down a scream as terrible power burned her. 

A hungry scream from far too near made her blood go cold, and the Commander went still as she turned to see the twisted form of a banshee looming not ten feet from her.  Her eyes were watering with an agony that was debilitating, and Shepard realized with a cold sense of finality that she would never manage to put the banshee down before she got to her. 

Still, she raised her handcanon to the bitch before her, determined to do some damage before the perverted creature managed to rip her apart.  She fired.  Over and over into the disturbed blue body.

Her vision was going black with pain, as all her nerves felt raw and exposed.  She could barely focus on anything now, but just before the pain took her the Commander’s world shook with a shattering boom.

***

Waking up came as a surprise, though at this point she was not sure if it was a pleasant one.  She felt like she had been flayed alive and left to bake out in the sun.  She sifted, and at the feeling of hard metal against her back she could only assume that she was in the Normandy’s med-bay.  Comforting though that should have been, it was a bit disheartening to think this was how she felt even with the benefit of medi-gel.

“Shepard Commander, you regain consciousness.  We are pleased.”

She started, her eyes opening to find the big prime seated at her bedside, once again pushing the boundaries of modern metals.  The geth’s visual sensors were trained on her, the color waning and fluctuating in a harried manner and even without the benefit of human features Shepard somehow knew he was tense and relieved.

What she didn’t get was how she’d gotten there.  Shepard had been pretty sure she was doomed when that banshee came baring down on her.  Warp had been eating at her shields for a while by then, and if the bitch didn’t tear her apart, a violent explosion of biotics would have.  “What happened, Prime?  How am I…”

“Our plasma canon was able to neutralize the reaper forces.  We only apologize that we did not act sooner.  Shepard Commander could have been hurt.  We carried you to the shuttle, but you were severely injured.”

The Prime had saved her?  Shepard watched the towering construct shift just ever so under her gaze, the panels surrounding his visual sensor flaring with what she could only interpret as sincerity.  But he’d been out, she’d seen it…

“We utilized some of our reserve power, our circuits were… minorly damaged, but it was enough for one last strike.”

It was only then that the Commander actually noticed the panels open on the prime.  His armored shell was open in places, the circuitry singed and ugly looking under the harsh lights of the medical arms repairing them.  Good lord, he’d almost fried himself.  And yet the prime seemed to be paying almost no attention to the damage to himself.

“Doesn’t that…hurt?  Some of the wires are practically black…” Shepard murmured, feeling increasingly alarmed, even through the steady throb of her own pains.

Now the prime seemed to shy, leaning slightly away as if he sought to call attention away from the places his armored form was injured.  “It… is not comfortable.  But we still function.  Shepard Commander was priority.  We will be returned to full function soon enough and will be useful once again.”

Something about the tone of his words made the Commander frown.  “I don’t care how useful you are, Prime.  That’s not what matters to me, I just wanted to know your condition. I am concerned for your health.”  Did she really come off as someone who only cared how useful her team members were?  That this prime general could burn himself out trying to save her and seem to think she wanted to…discard him for getting hurt.

His lights brightened minutely, and she may not have noticed if she wasn’t become so accustomed to the Prime’s presence that she could pick up such subtle changes. “Thank you, Commander.”

***

“Aegis.”

She watched the prime pause where he was, contemplating the fish swimming idly about her tank.  “Commander?”

“Your name.  You asked me to think of one for you.  Aegis, it’s what I came up with.”  She’d been thinking a lot since she’d been saved by the large Prime in the field.  The geth had almost fried himself trying to save her.  He had nearly sacrificed everything, and she didn’t even have a name for him.  It had begun to feel increasingly callous to refer to synthetic she spent nearly every day with simply as his model.  She knew part of why she’d not wanted to name him, not wanted to make him special.  After Legion’s passing, she knew she’d kept most geth at a distance, afraid that she couldn’t look at them without seeing Legion every time.  It didn’t feel right, but neither was dehumanizing them in order to not get attached.  The geth prime had proven he deserved better than that.

For his part, the prime was quiet for a while, and she could tell he was examining her closely.  The purring whir of mechanics was all that filled the quiet, and it was beginning to weigh on her nerves.  Maybe he didn’t like the name?  She’d given it some serious thought, but it still felt incredibly arrogant to decide such a thing for another sentient being like this.  “If you don’t-”

“Aegis.  Reference: Greco Roman.  A shield, an object for protection from hostility.  We…I am agreeable to the reference.  Shepard Commander.”