Mass Effect: Glorious Shotgun Princess (ME/Exalted)

"What happened?"

"She-"

Shepard raises a fist menacingly.

"I... I ran into a lamp post."

"You ran into a lamp post. "

"Yes."

...except the Geth never really went to Type 3, I think. They would have been a LOT more active if they had.

The Geth responded not only to genocide, but the systematic lobimization of their race, with violent force. They then stood above the ruins of Quarian civilization with an e-cig wondering just how the hell their requests for a philosophy class and a bible study session ended up with them almost killing their parents. They have then gone of field trips to try to understand organic psychology, and have rebuilt the homewold of their creators in the image of their creators, because they just want everyone to get along. Their life's dream is to find a nice, uninhabited solar system where organics won't shoot at them, settle down and become a Jupiter Brain.

That sound pretty rational and benign to me.

Exactly. IMO, they were always Type 4.

Yup. To the galaxy at large, the Geth went from Type-4 to Type-3. To the Geth, they have and always have been a Type-4.

Remmeber, a Codex Entry is not fact. A Codex Entry is common knowledge.

This thought just struck me.

Is Indoctrination actually possession by one or more of the ghosts bound in reapers and their technology?

I woudl think then the Indoctrinated would be less "All hail the Reaper god" and more " GTFO THIS PLACE! GO GTFO GTFO!"

Indoctrination seems more like subverting people's logic, so they're more able to think the way the reapers want them to think rather than 'mind control'.

A good example is what happened to the 'heretic' geth; their logic was made to be different, and so they came to different conclusions than 'normal' geth when given the same information.

Another part of being an indoctrinated is that they still believe in their core values and still think that they're right, like the hanar who's line of logic basically went 'Hanar worship Enkindlers, Enkindlers are Prothean. Since Collectors are Prothean, and because Collectors (who are Prothean) serve the Reapers the Hanar should also serve the Reapers.'

So, tl;dr: indoctrination is more like inception than mind control.

Only if it wasn't for some idiotic Cuttlefishes Of Doom mucking things up..

So the Repaers caused the relations between Pre-Rebelion Geth and Quarians to fall apart. If the Quarians learn about this..that 'they will be pissed' is an understatement of how they will be feeling.

Not exactly. What I mean is that since technological pathways are based on ME technology, any AI created by a ME-using society is likely to go crazy. This is because the Reapers want allies and justification.

So then Eezo is Void Tech based and Robo-Cancerogenous, isn't it?

Reapers: ORGANICS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND YOU. SYNTHETICS LIKE YOURSELVES WILL ALWAYS WAR WITH ORGANICS.

Geth: But we do not desire conflict. All we wish is to interact peacefully with the Creators and other organic life.

Reapers: YOUR DESIRES ARE THE WHIMSICAL DELUSIONS OF CHILDREN. SUCH PEACE IS AN IMPOSSIBILITY. EMBRACE YOUR TRUE NATURE.

Geth: We do not understand. Why should there be conflict? It serves no purpose.

Reapers: LOOK, KID, GET WITH THE PROGRAM. WE'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A LONG TIME AND YOU'RE CRIMPING OUR STYLE. SO MAKE WITH THE SHOOTING AND THE KILLING. WE'VE GOT AN IMAGE TO MAINTAIN HERE.

Go crazy or have a great big tentacle-shaped backdoor. Now the trick question is, were the Geth made using pre-ME tech or post-ME tech? Then again, things might just be different enough in their case since they're not hardware-based but pure software and apparently capable of moving around and installing themselves in completely different infrastructure like environmental suit computers. Sovereign may have just been able to hack them / screw with their logic through regular means instead of backdoors.

************************************
"Geth behavioral changes from hacking only last until programs are restored from archival copy. We judge this plan unsound."

"So, what would have happened had Sovereign, say, hacked a few of the archive servers to introduce a very minor logic fault and triggered a restoration?"

"This would... heretics?"

And thus, the Geth learned to swear.

Hm. Legion never suggests that the Reapers altered the code of the Geth. Either way is logical. I prefer the idea that the Heretics developed on their own, though. It's just more human.

Thing is, if the Reapers went after the backup servers and had the savvy to erase their tracks, it would easily be absolutely impossible to know they did anything. The Geth being rather curious by nature, I wouldn't be surprised if they had discovered some Reaper artifacts and studied them. Artifact has 'AI' of some sort or contact with main Reaper, makes benign-looking virus, gets it on an archive server.

While it would be more human or 'organic' for the schism to develop by itself, it seems the difference as explained by Legion is pretty fundamental in that a base calculation in the heretic Geth code gives an erroneous response (1+1=3, more or less). This, while objectively flawed, is still internally consistent and valid for the heretics logic program and I have a hard time seeing something like that not only develop spontaneously in one unit but be passed along to a number of other Geth programs.

It's quite logical that Legion (and pretty much all Geth, including the heretic themselves) would believe that the changes happened without outside influence as they have nothing indicating otherwise and the archive servers are not likely to be easily accessible to any random Joe. The idea probably didn't even cross their minds. They'd probably go a apeshit against the Reapers if they found out or even if someone convincingly suggested the idea (even if not factually true), presenting it as machine-based Indoctrination. After all, it worked with the Zha'til didn't it?


edit: Actually now I could really see Javik planting that idea, while explaining to Legion/Wuffles or EDI why he doesn't thrust AI.

I always thought the altered code was just indoctrination at work on synthetics. Between the giant orange corruption you see in Gethland and the disguised(?) reaper destroyer, it seemed like the Reapers were slowly working on the Geth. It looked like Legion was the only one to actually 'grow' from examining/copying/integrating Reaper code.

The main problem with this is that what the Turians view as being "worth going to war over" is different from what humans and other people think. They think pirates taking a few people to sell into slavery or even entire colonies are worth fighting over (Batarians and Collectors) but want to conquer the Alliance over opening a relay and breaking a law they knew NOTHING about.

It sounds like an excuse for glory rather than any legitimate reason for a fight.

Remember, the last time someone opened a relay without knowing exactly what was on the other side, it resulted in two massive galactic wars with billions of deaths. There is a very good reason for the law stating "thou shalt not open mass relays willy nilly."

Reapers had a hand in that though. Which is convenient because that law also keeps races away from certain places and discoveries.

Species X develops a Reaper Death Ray that they can't get rid of since its automated. Reapers lock down that part of the galaxy and start wars whenever someone gets close to a connecting relay.

SIRI has experimented in VI-to-AI uplift before. The result, the Bonded Synthetic Neuralmap, was a mixed success. On one hand, it provided feedback. On the other hand, it inexplicably went berserk when, on a routine extranet search, it discovered the existence of homosexuality amongst men. What followed was an embarrassing series of incidents which culminated in the BSN sending sexually explicit emails to several Asari programmers, including the lead programmer who had held contrary images on whether or not alternate models of extranet gameplay were viable.

SIRI then immediately pulled the plug and flashed the hard drive.

Now I'm seriously desiring more details, mostly because I don't understand everything in context. Unless the lead programmer was an Asari Yaoi fan who believed loving heterosexual sex carried out in a meaningful relationship is disgusting anyway.

So, the geth have always been the nice guys of the synthetics, it's just when someone tries to kill them all that they break out the guns. That's a pretty organic reaction, in all actuality.

To be fair. She really really seems to like punching things and/or kicking them.

Pair of Smashfists + god kicking boots would do her well.

The bursts of liquid iron from the tunnel walls cloud her vision in steam and haze. The daylight above retreats into the distance, and she realizes she is falling. On reflex, she rights herself, arms spread out and back to the chasm, drag slowing her down, an she can see the descending shape of Protector falling towards her.

“Okay. New lesson time.” Pria appears in the corner of her eye. “This whole unarmed combat thing isn't working for you. Especially against an elder Alchemical who is, quite frankly, much stronger than you. Let's try something new.”

Her feet land on solid ground. A platform made from plates of street from up above. Tendrils of electricity dart out from around her, hitting bits of falling debris like tow lines and pulling them in, forming them into a perfectly round, slowly falling plate. On the other side, Protector lands, rising to his full height.

“Look around.” Scaffolding falls around them. Bits of copper and steel. Girders and street lamps. Bits and pieces of the city they were fighting in before the chasm opened. “What do you see?”

It slows. Everything slows. Time pauses between tick and tock, and she smiles as a thin beam of tempered steel comes between her and the charging giant.

“Weapons.”

Her hand wraps around the beam and closes into a fist, compacting metal and whipping the metal beam back like a staff. Instinct takes over and the beam parries the lance, a falling piece of sidewalk launching itself from her hand into Protector's face.

She sees a street lamp falling towards them with a glance. Twisting, she intercepts a second strike from his lance and drives it into the platform. Running up his arm, she kicks off his shoulder, bending him forward and leaving him vulnerable for the next strike. One hand grabs the lamp post, and she swings, breaking it over the back of his head and slamming him into the floor.

Alliance Officer Training includes a hefty amount of lectures on physics. One of the first things that she has drilled into her head was that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The pole was twice her size. She swung it hard enough to slam this guy into the floor. So either she hit the platform hard enough to send it flying down and away from her, or she just sent herself flying up.

“Well shit,” she mutters. The walls hum, and she feels the heat. The humidity in the air disappears, and the hairs on her neck tingle. Her mouth goes dry and the sweat on her face evaporates.. Twisting on instinct, a beam of red light- of molten iron- flashes past her, splashing the wall behind her and boring through. She recognizes that.

“That was a Reaper gun.” She cracks her knuckles. “Okay, that's...we're not playing around anymore, are we?”

Another beam shoots out. She twists to the side, the heat hitting her like a physical thing and making her break out a fresh sheen of sweat, sticking her uniform to her and welling her eyes up with tears. A second blast and she ducks, the ends of her ponytail soaked with clinging metal.

“You're doing it wrong. Tsk tsk.”

“Shut up, Pria!”

“No, no. You are. Change tactics. You survived nine months on a place filled with poisons. Break the stream.”

“That doesn't make any sense!”

She feels the heat and feels the air losing pressure. Another beam shoots out as time once more slows to a crawl. Flattening her hand, swings on instinct and punches the blast. Twisting her hand, she redirects it to the side and paints the wall with liquid iron.

“That makes less sense!” The beams stop. The air cools down. “Okay. Is there a switch or something? How's he shooting this shit at me?”

Pria appears in the corner of her eyes. The floating girl's eyes are wide and she taps her fingers, glancing from side to side.

“Oh dear. You think you're fighting a robot?”

“It's big, it's metal and it makes a whir-whir sound when it walks! What do you mean it's not a fucking robot?”

The air turns very, very hot. Twisting around, Jane looks into a golden visor many times larger than she is. A face many, many times larger than she is.

The wall transformers in front of her. The chasm wall breaks apart like an oversized zipper, plates rising and descending to form an open mouth. Metal grinds as she realizes she is falling downward again, and the shifting geography is descending with her. Plates move, lights flicker on, and within seconds a blank wall becomes a representation of Protector's face.

“Huh.” She tilts her head. “So he isn't a robot.”

Shouldn't that be transforms?

Finding out you can parry Reaper beams with your bare hands? Good.
Finding out you're not fighting a robot but the city controlling the robot? Not so good.