<i>"Commander, we have contact."</i><br/><br/>Lining the walls of Deck 5 was a stretch of broad windows at either side of the ship, allowing a casual view of the starry expanse as the Anzio cruised through space. Reese moved to the window, placing her gloved fingers against the thick layers of glass, her eyes widening.<br/><br/>"By the goddess," the drell rasped, inner eyelids flashing rapidly as his gaze followed dark metallic mass outside. "Commander, on Earth, would this be considered one of those 'oh shit' situations?"<br/><br/>Reese nodded, her jaw set tight as she attempted to take in even a fraction of the hulking, floating station with curious eyes. Unlike the Citadel, which glowed brightly with an ethereal light as it hovered among the stars, the geth station sat like a lifeless stone, black and cold as the space surrounding it. The station was immense in size, dwarfing the Anzio and eclipsing its windows entirely as Suni came in for a slow, delicate approach. Were it not for the incoming scans suggesting the station's defense turrets were only recently neutralized, Reese would have assumed the place had been offline for quite some time. Even in the open emptiness of space, things seemed terrifyingly lifeless here.<br/><br/>"You're not wrong, Suni. Something is most certainly fucky. I imagine the geth must have sent out their transmission shortly after their turrets went offline. Ground team, we must assume that whatever or whoever neutralized those turrets is still on the station. Proceed with extreme caution. No heroics. Come on."<br/><br/>Following her own team's lead, Reese pulled on her helmet, watching as her visor sprang to life before her eyes, relating full operational capacity on her communication, navigation, battlefield awareness and hazardous environmental systems. With a wave of her hand, the team began to move, positioning themselves in preparation for boarding the station. Reese held her position at the front of the group. Without a word, the rest of her team fell into their respective positions. Calypso to her left, Faustus and Talyet hovering at the rear. "You stay on her right, lover boy," Talyet instructed, gently smacking Cole's armored backside affectionately and nudging the lieutenant forward. "You'll be sandwiched right between me and the commander. What more could a handsome man like you possibly want?"<br/><br/>"Maos, you can flirt with Vanes when we're through," Reese snickered, lifting up one of her prized pistols. The ocular synaptic processors implanted at the base of her skull came alive inside of her, prickling with electricity as the doors slid open on Suni's count. She was ready to fire immediately if necessary, eyes trained and her sensory amplification spinal implant firing rapidly, allowing her fingers and limbs to move with a speed superior to her own thoughts. The commander's body had been trained and modified to virtually think of its own accord, to function and fight without the added weight of hesitation. Hesitation equated death and she had already made it quite clear she was not going to tolerate any of that nonsense on this mission.<br/><br/>The commander's heart beat steady in her chest as the doors slid open. Ready, prepared, armed, eyes trained on... nothing. Her head tilted in confusion as she peered out, her footsteps slow, cautious, expectant.<br/><br/>"It's like a damn tomb in here," Talyet husked, pressing forward beyond Cole and Reese, footsteps silent as he made his way into the cold, empty, metallic space. There were no windows, no atmosphere inside the station, no lighting other than strips of glowing blue wires embedded in the flooring. "Are all AIs this grotesquely dull?"<br/><br/><i>Artificial intelligences such as the geth have no use for superfluous and arbitrary aesthetics as organics do, Talyet. <br/>
</i><br/>"Clearly," he replied, shrugging his shoulders as if AIDEN were there to see, "but a little interior decorating would really liven up the place. Make it a little more welcoming for visitors."<br/><br/><i>Judging by the geth's voluntary seclusion for last few hundred years, I do not think they put any value on being 'welcoming,' Talyet.<br/>
</i><br/>"Well, maybe if they<i>did</i>, they wouldn't have gotten their whole station shut down," Reese quipped, following the reckless drell deeper into the eerie darkness. Her eyes briefly scanned his lightly armored feet, hoping his steps remained delicate and careful. "I realize the irony in saying this station seems lifeless, but where is everyone?"<br/><br/>"We could ask this guy, but I doubt he'd be able to give us any kind of intelligible answer." Talyet stood a few meters ahead, crouched down low over what looked to be a dark, inky pile of metal pieces with a single glowing red light in its center. Reese approached, lowering her gun a few centimeters as she scanned the dismantled mess at Talyet's feet.<br/><br/>"It looks as though this geth was purposefully disposed of," she commented, eyes narrowing as she focused on the smooth, clean pieces. "Less destroyed and more... disassembled. As if someone was searching for something, perhaps? But what purpose would anyone other than maybe a quarian have to take apart a geth?"<br/><br/>"It coudn't have been anyone from the Migrant Fleet. AIDEN said they're nowhere near this relay," Talyet reminded her, and Reese nodded solemnly in reply.<br/><br/>She looked up to the rest of her team, to Cole in all of his armored glory. "Any ideas of what to make of this?"