"Yes," Anderson confirmed. "Fully developed artificial intelligence, Captain. I don't understand in detail how this can be, but the engineering group of the frigate... is unanimous. I prefer to trust my men and their judgment, Captain," Anderson replied. "It looks like we have a third problem. If you count this monster as the first, and the two who are currently in the medical bay as the second, then the Geth... will be quite capable of solving the third problem."

"A report from Alenko?" The XO asked.

"He was, Captain," the frigate commander confirmed. I sent a cargo shuttle there a few minutes ago. He'll be back in the ship's hangar soon. Then we will remove the Lighthouse from the external suspension and load it into a container. I think that if necessary, we can load the Lighthouse into a container and outside the ship — we have the conditions and opportunities for this. So we can choose what is best to do. Let's not rush it. The archaeologists are happy that these "walkers" did not reach them. They dubbed these Geth paratroopers "Walkers." Alenko did an excellent job. And it seems he's got a match there." Anderson relaxed a little, hesitated. "Commander of a platoon of marines assigned by the Alliance Air Force to protect archaeologists. A certain Sergeant Ashley Williams. Alenko himself is happy and glad that now he does not suffer from migraines. He's able to think straight twenty-four hours a day. Although... next to Sergeant Williams, it's hard to talk about his sobriety...." Anderson chuckled... "Young people..."

I believe that Corporal Jenkins can be granted a short-term leave until our departure, Captain." Shepard left the main decision to the discretion of the frigate commander. "He has a mother, a father, and a sister his."

"Let's not let anyone off the ship for now, Captain." Anderson said calmly and quietly. "And, I suppose, something is bothering you very seriously again."

Chapter 13. Lieutenant Alenko. The archaeologists' camp on Eden Prime. Meeting with Ashley Williams

The shuttle driver nodded silently to the lieutenant who came up to the car. Kayden realized that not every Normandy soldier was used to the fact that now a biotic officer was not plagued by severe migraines almost every day.

After boarding the boat, Alenko motioned for the three policemen accompanying him to take their seats in the cabin, sat down in a seat, buckled himself in, and nodded to the driver who looked out of the cab. A few minutes later, the car leaves the hangar, heading for the location of the archaeological expedition camp, which unearthed the Prothean Lighthouse.

"But right now we could have been flying to the camp to remove the lighthouse. In completely different conditions," one of the policemen said to no one in particular.

"They could have," another policeman agreed with his colleague's opinion. "Only now we are flying to the archaeologists' camp in completely different conditions. I'm afraid that the fall of the Reaper and our fight with that "shrimp" were very clearly visible from there."

"And they're noticeable," the third policeman agreed. "In a variety of ways."

"Lieutenant," the driver's voice cut through Alenko's speaker. "The audio frequency scanner shows activity from the archaeologists' camp. It looks like... no, definitely... They've got someone indoctrinated there. And, it seems, more than one. If we get closer, we'll find out more precisely, sir."

"Let me hear it." Alenko looked up from studying the files "laid out" on the instrumentation screen. "Good. I can hear them. Yes, there are several Earthlings who have been indoctrinated. But judging by what I've heard, the indoctrinated are still behaving quite calmly."

"The camp is ahead, Lieutenant," the driver reported.

Alenko got up from his seat and went to the side salon door. The shuttle performed a traditional "box", choosing a place to land.

"Damn, they shot at us with an assault rifle," The driver was able to quickly divert the car to the side and the route of charges passed to the left. "A queue. This is clearly not an accident."

"If this is indoctrination..." One of the policemen said softly.

"We won't land the car. Let's land, colleagues! From five meters away," Alenko specified that manually, without using automation, he half-opened the cabin door and, crouching behind the sash, estimated the flight altitude. "Just a little lower. That's it, okay," He told the driver when he was just over five meters from the ground. "Let's jump!" He turned to the policemen who had come to the door. "Take the car to the perimeter of the camp. Don't fly inside yet," The lieutenant looked into the cockpit doorway and noted that the driver could see the speaker in the mirror.

"Yes, sir," the driver waited until the relieved car shuddered slightly for the last time — the biotic lieutenant jumped off last and, pressing the button to close the cabin door, took the shuttle away from the camp limits.

"We jumped off a little bit from the center of the camp," One of the policemen noted, dusting off his knees and adjusting his rifle.

"Alliance intelligence reports. Two hundred meters. For three hours," Another policeman reported, who was closely monitoring the situation around the group that had landed. "They're acting strangely...."

"They're... reprogrammed, Lieutenant," The third policeman barely managed to jump behind a boulder, avoiding the beam of a combat laser. "Destroy it?"

"Yes" Alenko, hiding behind another boulder, crouched down and, raising his rifle, caught the incoming drone in his sights.

Three charges — and the robot shatters into small pieces. The policemen destroyed several more approaching drones with single shots.

"So far, it's clear. The scanners and locators are clear," said one of the policemen, crouching down and cautiously looking around for new flying "troublemakers." "I don't understand," he lowered his gaze, scanned the recordings of the neural unit for objective monitoring of the situation. It turns out that the drones were patrolling here, but they didn't go into the camp?

"Indoctrinated in the camp, shooting at the shuttle with a rifle, now these reprogrammed drones," another policeman summed it up. "Something is very not clean here."

"And what can be clean here?! By the way, we found this huge ship already on the planet. It's a good thing they didn't let the Geth go far from the "shrimp,"" said the third policeman. "And it seems to me that these drones are herding the camp like prison guards. Neither the archaeologists nor the Marines can go beyond the perimeter, but..."

"Very interesting. Can't they shoot those drones?" The second policeman asked, looking at his irrepressible colleague. "What's that supposed to mean? Have the Marines stopped being warriors already?"

"Well... under certain conditions..." The third policeman hesitated, not knowing how to formulate and express his thoughts more precisely, and most importantly, more safely.

"The conditions are clear. Complex ones," Alenko said abruptly, straightening up. "Traffic from the planet is filtered by the forces of the frigate, we managed to do this, although it is difficult to achieve the absolute silence of Eden Prime and we cannot count on the complete silence of the planet. So let's find out the situation in the camp," he took a step from behind a boulder. As for "certain conditions", we will learn to fight in real conditions, and not in the conditions of a training ground. As a duty group, we must be ready for battle."

"And the fight is just beginning," the first policeman noted, listening. "They're shooting."

"And the shooting is going on around the perimeter of the camp," One of the policemen asked, taking his rifle at the ready.

"It seems that the soldiers of the archaeologists' dowry platoon have decided to deal with the demented drones, which have become too fully accustomed to the role of jailers." Alenko reloaded his rifle and listened. Forward. We will help the nearest shooters. And then we will solve our problem. We will not use the shuttle," the officer clarified.

A few minutes later, Alenko's group helps two space Marines fend off the laser beams of the reconnaissance drones.

"Sergeant Williams, sir, two hundred and twelfth Marine Platoon." A girl dressed in a medium-armored space suit introduced herself. "Help the others, Tom," she waved the second Marine away. He hurried to hide among the bushes. Somewhere in the distance, single shots could be heard as the confrontation between the drones and the Marines continued. "You've helped us out a lot", She saluted when she saw the lieutenant's badges on Alenko's suit, "Are you the leader of the incoming group, sir?"

"Yes" Kayden returned the salute. "Lieutenant Alenko, landing group of the frigate Normandy. Do you command a platoon?"

"Yes, sir," Ashley nodded. "But we have... difficulties that we haven't encountered before, sir."

"Report back." Kayden waited for Sergeant Williams to turn on his instrument screen. After listening to the report, he thought for a minute. "We have orders, Sergeant. Pick up the lighthouse and sort out the situation. So let's go."

Surrounded by policemen, the sergeant and the lieutenant walked closer to the camp.

"Here, in this place, we found a lighthouse", Ashley pointed to a circle of tilled earth. "The archaeologists... worked for several days. My platoon was assigned to guard. So we didn't go into details, we were mostly located on the perimeter of the excavation area. And there... you'll see a little bit. And you'll understand even less. Archaeologists are great silent people."

Listening to the story, which did not meet the requirements usually imposed on a military report, Alenko understood that the girl was scared. It was hard to expect a Marine sergeant to be prepared for what had happened in the archaeologists' camp in the past few hours. The sudden defiance of security surveillance and reconnaissance drones, the indoctrination of archaeologists and space marines — all these were just small parts of one problem that now had to be solved.

"So it was... your ship... that brought down this "shrimp"?" Sergeant Williams asked the question that had been tormenting her for a long time, as Alenko understood, when they reached the first balok.

"Yes", Kayden nodded, confirming his words. He didn't go into details now, but looked around the neighborhood with increasing interest. "These boxes..."

"We don't understand, sir," the sergeant replied. "The virtual intelligences of the locks refused to obey even the service commands. These failures "covered" the camp in a few minutes and we were already forced to repeatedly just break the locks. Still." Ashley bent down, typed a certain combination of numbers and letters on the illuminated virtual keyboard, pressed the "enter" sensor, but there was no reaction — the lock remained closed. "You see, I enter the correct commander-level password, but VI refuses to open it."

"Reprogramming," one of the policemen said softly.

Ashley heard it. She straightened up. She turned to the policeman. I saw his sergeant's stripes and a police chevron.

"Is... is that possible, Sergeant?" She looked straight into the policeman's face. He hesitated, then nodded curtly. The other two policemen continued to silently survey the surroundings of the camp, occasionally noting something on the keyboards of their wrist omny tools. Kayden realized it was time to step in:

"This "shrimp", as we realized quickly enough, is capable of a lot", Alenko said quietly to no one in particular.

"We have no contact with the bases of the troops and with the authorities of Eden Prime", Ashley said. "We're cut off here. That too?!..."

"No", Kayden shook his head negatively, causing a look of genuine amazement on the face of the Marine sergeant. "This was done by the Frigate Electronic Warfare Service. The whole planet is silent now. We have severely limited the traffic from Eden, filtered it, and checked it. If you use the old, full format, then too many onlookers will come to Eden Prime. And we don't need it now. The fall of a ship like this "shrimp" onto a planet, and a clash with it are too ambiguous facts", He paused, lowering the volume of his voice to a whisper. "Sergeant, this is not for the press or for comments in smoking rooms. Bye," He paused a second time. We are on the verge of a major war with such semi-synthetic and semi-organic ships at the same time. This is the Reaper." Alenko fell silent, trying not to let the figure and face of the commander of the marine platoon out from under his gaze.

"But... the Reapers are a legend," Ashley said softly.

"Consider, Sergeant, that you have seen the legend in reality. And we saw that she was not only real, but also quite alive," Alenko replied.

"So it's... not destroyed? He's still..." Ashley was worried.

"I don't know." Kayden tried to keep his voice steady. "This is not my level of awareness. The frigate's command will decide. Where is the Lighthouse?"

"Archaeologists recently moved it... closer to the center of the camp," Ashley said, pointing in the direction. "They didn't even have time to put it in a container. There was no special security around the new storage location. That's when it started... I don't know how to even define it in short."

"Indoctrination," said one of the policemen, who was listening to the conversation between the two commanders.

"Indo... what?" Ashley snapped, looking at the police sergeant with an indignant, questioning look. "Do you know more than us?"

"We know," Kayden confirmed. "For example, we know that there may indeed be, and most likely are, quite a few indoctrinated people in your camp, Sergeant Williams. There are some among scientists and Marines," the lieutenant added.

"You mean... what about your shuttle when approaching the camp..." Ashley's voice had lost even a hint of commanding volume and clarity. "But we... we're not..."

"We're not either, Sergeant", Kayden answered. "What is that mumbling?" He listened carefully. "Who is housed in this trailer?"

"This is the workplace of Dr. Warren and her assistant— Assistant Manuel." Ashley turned to the front door of the beam. "Manuel... It's his voice. That muttering again. He's been mumbling like that for a long time, but as far as I'm concerned, he's been mumbling like that for a very long time. Repeats the same thing. It's... unnerving for everyone. And civilians... and Space Marines."

"Dr. Ilse Warren?" said Alenko, opening his wrist band. Yes... she's a scientist, the head of the Prothean Lighthouse excavation," Ashley confirmed.

Chapter 14 The Archaeologists' camp.