Seni's Appartment #219

A living space. An organic living space. Many objects the Geth could recognize, including items organics used in their daily lives and other things they seem to just collect.

"Identifymake,race,orfunction"

Furniture (some practical, some cosmetic), decorative sculpture (natural evolution generates an fascination with form based on obsolete psychological triggers), non-fruit-bearing-plant (a fern of sorts with no known practical value. Likely serves that very fascination with form & color), various appliances for meal preparation, communication devices for amusement, a bed, light sources, hygene products, photographs & holographs (a symptom of organic sentimentality), storage containers, clothes, doors (providing privacy and dividing chambers), stacks of paper forms, empty takeout containers, and... Something here isn't right. What are these machines? They are neither a known part of organic behavior nor positioned in any practical or aesthetic pattern preferred by organics.

Without waiting for a reply, they add to the line of demands "Identifyindicatedsubjects: NON-ORGANIC-CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENTAL FURNISHINGS"

If it were possible, the Geth would be excited, but the nearest the could come was curious. So much yet to be understood, so much potential for information sharing, the machine's occupants would have desperately preferred to us a more efficient form of communication, but if nothing else, machines were patient.

"i see that you have identified this ones... antiques" finshed Curator glancing at the compact variations of the regular artifacts, in truth they were made only with the purpose to change other races to their side, no visions or such were contained yet they remained a useful tool. "The items are irrelevant, however you are wecome to spend some time with them and to try to understand them" Curator finished motioning towards the larger orbs at the side of the room content with the knowledge that his plans were going well.

Antiques? Vague responses, blatant denial of information, and failure to acknowledge requests. If Geth experienced frustration, this would have been very irritating. A consensus had been reached. Querying Curator was proving fruitless. Personal investigation was deemed more efficient and more effective.

First the host. The pseudo-Quarian circled the pseudo-Drell, scanning each side and gathering thermal information as it orbited. A bullet-hole. Less than point-blank range. Probably a contact shot. How could we have missed this? Had this been a live Drell, such a wound would have been fatal. Perhaps that's what happened. Perhaps their mysterious host once shared a body with an organic. No. This was not supported by the fact that there was no brain. In its place there was processing device.
But hold on...
This processor is too small and simple for the level of responses demonstrated by this Curator. This is not Curator's platform. A further scan confirmed the Geths' suspicions. An alien type of send-receive device was attached to the processing unit. Curator has only been present by proxy. That still doesn't explain the Drell form. Reviewing the thermal scans in greater detail provided some insight. This organic matter around the processor... These are the remnants of an organic brain. After brief deliberation (undetectable by organic standards) a hypothesis was established. From the information present so far, it was possible that the mechanical endoskeleton grew within the body of this man. The processor had slowly replaced the brain and managed all of its former functions as well as some processes of its own. This hypothesis was supported by the food containers around the room. Remnants of fish and leafy vegetables, high in Magnesium, Iron, and Zinc, all of which were possible contents of the endoskeleton. Some of these foods were not commonly part of the Drell diet as it reacts poorly with their biology, resulting in frequent allergic reactions and digestive problems. At this point, the Drell digestive track had been largely untouched. The geth were certain that if they were to look, they would find surgical scars where cybernetic implants had been deposited, likely containing reserves of plastic extract, presumably also used in the inorganic constructs. This hypothesis would explain the lack of feng-shui in the room. It seems that the organic's personal effects had been here for some time before the "Antiques" were added.
This left one daunting question. Why? The Geth examined the room, searching or information and inspiration. A Citadel Security badge sitting on the table featured the name Seni. Seni what? The rest was illegible. In any case, Seni was likely the name of the apartment's late occupant. The one with the bullet in his head. This was not enough information to go on. A dead law-enforcement officer, a host both present and absent, "Antiques", and ... A signal? There had been a radio interference in the room since the Geth had entered. It was likely why Curator chose a vocal form of communication. At first it had seemed innocuous, the kind of signal that could come from anywhere. Natural geographical formations, many electronic send-receive devices on the same channel, solar activity, anywhere, but now, in the quest for answers, the Geth focused on it. The intensity of the signal now seemed suspiciously high for most incidental interference, and it was possible there was an underlying pattern. The frequency extended both above and below the Geths range of detection. It could even carry into other forms of electro-magnetism that this platform was not equipped to detect. This might explain the difficulty in detecting a pattern and its resemblance to interference.
The Geth turned their attention to the "Antiques". The signal strength was directly proportionate to the cube of the receivers proximity to the objects. Far greater than the 1 to 1 ratio common of other wave-form signals. This was something else. The Geth stepped towards the large central machine and rested a hand on its surface, partly to test the material, partially some other reason that the Geth found themselves unable to describe. Something was happening.

The Geth was scanning this vesssel, he could tell, it seemed to finally notice the numerous changes that had happend within this ones body, the geth even seemed to begin to understand why many of the items in the room were illogical. Curator allowed it, the more the Geth found by itself the easier a change would be, a forceful change is a long change, one done by the recipitor is far easier. And there it finally came to be, the Geth lay its hand upon a artifact, it seemed to notice what was happening too, if its shaking monitor panels were anything to go by, and from the first moment of entering the apartment till now, Curator simply watched and waited, and if Curator could experience emotion, Curator would be satisfied.

Changes have been occurring. Faster and with greater intensity than usual. Minds were being changed. As a whole the Geth noticed things. Since entering the apartment, One-hundred and fifteen runtimes had amended their response formula. Suspicious. It is not uncommon for Geth to change in such a way after a profound learning experience that deepens their self-awareness, but this is too fast, too abrupt, and no great realization was made, at least none that the collective as a whole was aware of. When queried directly, the oddly behaving programs stood unresponsive. four more amendments. It is accelerating. This is more than suspicious, this is an epidemic.

If you could peer into the mind of the Geth at that moment, it would be somewhat like watching a zombie apocalypse movie. A state national emergency has been declared and a state of panic has set in among the citizens. The pandemic is spreading. An emergency meeting of world powers is called to vote on immediate action. Of course, since every Geth has an equal vote, the now-zombies got their say as well. The query returned a 36% response suggesting variants of the plan base "delete the infected and retrieve archival copies from last network interface", 12% response indicating variants of "remove malfunctioning tasks and re-execute", 3.1% suggested variants of "power down the platform and rebooting in deployment mode", 21.3% were a mix of "purge infected, do not recover" and "attempt to manually rectify", 14.8% returned variants of "await further data", and "further query suspect programs and suggest they revert their formulas until further analysis". Nuke the zombies, cure them, try to appeal to their humanity, all the classic arguments were presented, even the ones the never work. The remaining 12.8% were the Zombies themselves. 5.3% "attempt to accelerate process", 2.2% "dismiss business & address tabled motion to await instructions from subject CURATOR", 5.3% "take no action" or were unresponsive. Emergency priority was granted to unaltered Geth. A consensus was formed and a series of actions was set underway.

First, a partition was established to prevent the further spread of any unknown or harmful effects. Infected were deleted. The motion to retrieve archival copies was delayed until the source of the infection was identified and neutralized. After a brief lapse in amendments, they resumed again regardless of the partition, soon returning to the previous acceleration rate.
Whatever it is it's clearly external. The signal. The circle of evidence was completed. These Geth are being brainwashed one-by-one by these "Antiques" and Curator is somehow behind it all. The only way to accomplish their mission is to escape the effects of the objects before them. Of course, this will have to be done without arousing suspicion from Curator. The Geth made note of a nearby glass window. A viable exit. Of course, it's unclear quite how far above street level we are...

The Geth slowly removed their hand from the artifact and took a step back. Now to find the right diversionary question. "Describeyourorigins.Howandwhyareyouonthecitadel?"

[Maestro,Turmoil This may seem a little fast paced for the writing, but keep in mind that machines think and act very rapidly.]
Of course Curator would dodge the question, this fits the established model of interaction contingencies. Rest? It was obvious that rest is meaningless to the machine. Curator also promised that the Geth would "eventually" understand. Curator knew what was happening. This all must have transpired according Curator's design. Time was running short. Network interaction could mean untold damage to the Geth Collective, but the quarantine was eating away at the the platform's cumulative processing power. Decisions were becoming less refined with every Geth purged. We need to gain some distance from the objects.

ACT NOW.

Other questions, both probing and distracting were abandoned. A new distracting question was designed. "identifyindicatedobject" the machine gestured towards a potted plant in the opposite corner of the room, behind the couch. The Geth knew exactly what it was, probably more than its original caretaker, but with any luck, the majority of Curator's sensors would redirect away from them. Oldest trick in the archives.

ACT NOW!

After a moment's pause to allow for maximum sensor adjustment, the biped machine shifted all weight to the front of chassis and stalled its equilibrium rectifiers, making it appear to be falling flashlight-first to the floor. Mid way between standing position and the floor, rectifiers were restored and the Geth exploded into a full-on, full-throttle, top-gear sprint towards the large-pane window, overlooking the presidium from a great altitude.

Intresting, though The Curator realising that the geth had attempted to trick him, foolish, Curator had blueprints installed of the room and knew there were only mundane domestic objects their, and thats when this one noticed the Geth attempt to escape, however, Curator knew that if the Geth attempted to jump it would be destroyed, Senis apartment was very high up, 12 floors to be exact.

Thats why Curator allowed it to attempt escape, for a moment this one considered if a bigger artifact should have been sent cetainly would have been faster, no matter, its not as though the geth would actually jump to its destruction, right?

[I normally wouldn't change the theme in the middle of a scene, but I realized Vermillion's lyrics are more appropriate.]

Under other circumstances, the Geth would have made multiple attacks to weaken the reinforced glass, but this time they only had one shot. Though it could have been said the whole way through, a gun would have been really useful right then.

The Geth picked up speed, going for it's maximum velocity or as close as could be achieved given the limited runway. At a distance of about four-and-a-half meters the machine leaped and tucked into a forward somersault, protecting its sensors and vital systems. The moving mass of plastic, metal, and rubber formed a cannonball and hit the glass feet-first. It worked. The windowpane gave and exploded outwards as the Geth, in turn, exploded from their tucked position.

It was, by no account, a graceful dive, spiraling end-over-end. Although it appeared to be a dizzying situation gone completely out of control, to the Geth it was perfectly calculable. The window was approximately 3352.8 cm from street-level. The platform's descent was accelerating at an approximate rate of 950.18352 cm per second per second while rotating vertically at it's gravitational equilibrium at a rate of 1.24 meters per second. There was good news in the fact that Curator had not yet made any detectable move to interfere. Everything was under control.

A small utility compartment opened on the back of the biped machine's breastplate and produced a length of grappling cable and a Purple blanket with a traditional Quarian pattern on it. The Geth reached behind and attached the connector at one end of the cable to the bracer on its right forearm while trying to create some wind resistance with the blanket using its surprisingly dexterous legs. The other end of the cable had a length of wire-like static generators able to cling to a multitude of surfaces. Just over a second-and-a-half had passed. The forward momentum the Geth had built had now completely worn off. The sidewalk was beginning to approach in a hurry. The blanket was re-positioned to allow the platform to shift into a horizontal spin. After a few rotations, the Geth had built up enough force. The Geth flung the other end of the cable as far as it would go. It was just long enough and the far end of the cable wrapped around and clung to another face of the apartment complex.

The idea was that the cable would taper the force of the fall with the angle of the swing. That was working fine, however, the Geth jumped too far from the building and had already lost the forward momentum. A calculation not considered, likely due to the missing runtimes. It was now swinging towards the corner at a deadly speed. It braced itself.
IMPACT!
The blow had dislocated the platform's left arm at the shoulder, nearly completely tearing it from the socket. Acceptable damage that can be fixed without too much hassle. Once around the corner the platform used its feet to stay safely away from the buildingside as it waited for the swing momentum to wear off.

Once that was through the Geth dangled about 2 stories off the ground. A height from which they could safely drop onto their feet. Before they did so, they wrapped the blanket around themselves, activated their neural dampening field, and opened a link to the network to download the archived Geth runtimes. Every centimeter put between the platform and those "Antiques" had freed the Geth more and now they were clear of the effects. Correction, NOW everything was under control. One could only guess at the condition of others in the building... They dropped down, clutching the blanket closed using the now-limited strength of the left arm. Anyone who had heard the commotion was likely just reaching their windows now. Hidden in an alleyway beside the apartment building, the Geth, now with a clearer head, surmised that it should be safe enough to travel. Though the presidium was being bathed in constant sunlight for some months to come, it was a good hour to move about. The equivalent of early-morning and most of its residents were resting. It would be dangerous to stay here. The media should be on its way and the presidium is too secure with too few people. They decided to move to the wards where forged information would get them by security and the crowds could hide them. THe blanket effectively hid their mechanical form and their for was slightly more Quarian than most biped platforms. It should fool the thick crowds on the street as long as no one payed too close attention - and the Neural Dampening Field would ensure that.

'Was it insane, how many of its programs had to be malfunctioning to do such a feat' was Curators thoughts running to the window and noticing the Geth surviving

Curators programs ran at a mile a minute, creating strategy, only one came to mind

Activating Seni's omnitool this one requested immediate aid from C-sec,

A Code 764: Geth infiltration, it may have survived indoctronation, but it would not live to escape the presidium. Following this Curator activated several bombs planted all around Seni's apartment, the guards would search it once the bribe from Aria appeared, and this one's artifacts were too important to be found. Finishing Curator left for the ship, keeping an eye out all the while.