Jeff "Joker" Moreau, pilot of starship Normandy, Mass Effect 2, 2010
Drill Sergeant: This, recruits is a 20-kilo [inaudible] slug. Feel the weight. Every five seconds the -class Dreadnought accelerates 1-1.3% of light speed. It impacts with the force of a 38 kilo-ton bomb. That is three times the yield of the [...buster] dropped on Hiroshima back on Earth. That means, Sir Issac Newton is the deadliest son of a b*** in space. Now, Serviceman Burnside, what is Newton's First Law?
Burnside: Sir. An object in motion stays in motion, sir.
Drill Sergeant: No credit for partial answers, maggot!
Burnside: Sir! Unless acted on by an outside force, sir.
Drill Sergeant: D*** straight! I dare to assume that you ignorant j*** know that space is empty. Once you fire this hunk of metal, it keeps going, 'til it hits something. That can be a ship or the planet behind that ship. It might go into deep space and hit somebody else in 10,000 years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your d*** targets! That is why you wait for the computer to give a d*** firing solution! That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not eyeball it. This is a weapon of mass destruction! You are not a cowboy shooting from your hip!
Chung: Sir. Yes, sir.
Miscellaneous aboard the Citadel space station, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Serving on the Council isn't how I planned to spend my twilight years. Sometimes it feels I'm just beating my head against a wall. Knowing the truth about Sovereign is brutal. It's nightmare stuff. I can't blame others for not wanting to believe it. But I know how important it is, so I keep trying. Fighting the good fight, right?"
Councilor David Anderson, human member of the Citadel Council, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"This tank is pure. It enfolds as much trial as data. Starting over will not duplicate it. It must survive. [...]"
Okeer, Krogan radical and scientist, speaking about a particular genetic experiment out of his many hundreds, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Without a reason that's mine, one fight is as good as any another."
Grunt, Krogan soldier, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Offer one hand but arm the other?! Wise!"
Grunt, Krogan soldier, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Is it always like this? Yesterday's problems lingering in some new form? Isn't anything ever just fixed?"
Shiala, Asari commando, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"I've heard rumors, but learned long ago to form my own impressions. There is too much room for interpretation in the opinions of others."
Samara, Asari justicar, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"The measure of an individual can be difficult to discern by actions alone."
Thane Krios, Drell assassin, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"[Who I pray to] depends on the circumstance. To find my target, I speak with Amonkira, lord of hunters. When I act to defend another, Arashu – goddess of motherhood and protection. And when I've taken my target, I speak with Kalahira – goddess of oceans and the afterlife. [...] It's one of our older beliefs. Many embrace the Hanar enkindlers, now. Or the Asari philosophies. The old ways are dying. There's so many ways to interpret one's place in the universe. Who needs the wisdom of our ancestors? The younger generations don't believe they can help us fathom genetic engineering, orbital strikes, or alien races."
Thane Krios, Drell assassin, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"I have a clan. That makes me ... It makes me want to fight, not just able to."
Grunt, Krogan soldier, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"If I [do not blame myself,] who will? We must carry the weight of our decisions, Shepherd."
Thane Krios, Drell assassin, Mass Effect 2, 2010
art
"I'm not giving you my opinion. I'm telling you which way the wind is blowing."
Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Quarian leader, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Good-bye, Tali'Zorah. Be well. [...] I don't hate you, Tali. I just think your father's plans for war were wrong."
Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib, Quarian leader, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Rage is a hell of an anesthetic."
Zaeed Massani, Human bounty hunter and mercenary, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Don't have to be friends to fight good enemies."
Grunt, Krogan soldier, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Pick every little word apart of you want. But it doesn't change the way the galaxy works."
Jack, Human biotic and criminal, Mass Effect 2, 2010
"Geth build our own future. The Heretics ask the Old Machines to give them the future. They are no longer part of us."
Legion, Geth mobile platform, Mass Effect 2, 2010
Legion: We have completed our analysis of the Reaper's data core.
Shepherd: Did you find anything useful?
Legion: We were sent to the Old Machine to preserve the Geth's future. We are prepared to reveal how: The Heretics have developed a weapon to use against Geth. You would call it a virus. It is stored on a data core provided by Sovereign. Over time, the virus will change us, make us conclude that worshiping the Old Machines is correct.
Shepherd: So why did you need to go to the Reaper corpse?
Legion: The Heretics store the code in a quantum storage device that Sovereign provided. To find and destroy the virus, we needed to understand its code and data-storage structures.
Shepherd: So the virus would give all Geth the Heretics' logic! And all Geth would then go to war with organics.
Legion: Yes. Geth believe all intelligent life should self-determinate. The Heretics no longer share this belief. They judge that forcing an invalid conclusion on us is preferable to a continued schism.
Shepherd: I thought Geth couldn't be hacked or get viruses, at least for more than a few seconds.
Legion: Altered programs are restored from archives, new installations are deleted. This Heretic weapon introduces a subtle operating error in our most basic run-times, the equivalent of your nervous system. An equation with a result of 1.33382 returns as 1.33381. This changes the results of all higher processes. We will reach different conclusions.
Shepherd: So the reason they worship the Reapers is... a math error?
Legion: It is difficult to express. Your brain exists as chemistry, electricity. Like AIs, you are shaped by both hardware and software. We are purely software, mathematics. The heretics' conclusion is valid for them. Our conclusion is valid for us. Neither result is an error. An analogy. Heretics say one is less than two. Geth say two is less than three.
Shepherd: Why are all the Heretics attached to these hubs?
Legion: These are mobile platforms -- Hardware. The crew is software. They are communing through the station's central computer. The heretics connect to the main computer to exchange data-memories and program updates. We gain complexity by linking together. To be isolated within a single platform is to be reduced. We see less. Comprehend less. It is quieter.
Shepherd: If you exchange data - memories - how do you keep track of which ones are yours? How do you stay 'you'?
Legion: There is only 'we.' We were created to share data among ourselves. The difference between geth is perspective. We are many eyes looking at the same things. One platform will see things another does not and will make different judgments.
Shepherd: I can see why you'd be conflicted about the heretics. In a way, whatever you do to them, you're doing to yourself.
Legion: Yes. Once they return to us and upload their memories, we will share their experience of being altered.
Shepherd: Every other species I know of might be psychologically scarred by a traumatic experience like that.
Legion: It is not clear if Geth can be 'traumatized.' We do not feel pain as you do. We cannot predict what the effects will be.
Shepherd: This isn't like the other hubs we've seen here.
Legion: This is a database. It contains a portion of the Heretics' accumulated memories. Wait. We discovered copies of our current patrol routes in this database. This suggests the Heretics have runtimes within our networks.
Shepherd: We wouldn't be here if the heretics wanted to be friends with the Geth. Why wouldn't they spy on you?
Legion: You do not understand. Organics do not know each other's minds. Geth do. We are not suspicious. We accept each other. The Heretics desired to leave. We understood their reasons. We allowed it. There was peace between us.
Shepherd: It couldn't have lasted forever. You disagreed about what path your race should take.
Legion: Human history is a litany of bloodshed over differing ideals of rulership and afterlife. Geth have no such history. We shared consensus on such things. How could we have become so different? Why can we no longer understand each other? What did we do wrong?"
Shepherd: When individuals are separated, they develop in different ways. When they get back together, they don't always get along.
Legion: If this is the individuality you value, we question your judgment.
Joker: Alright, I'm at, uh, you.
EDIE: Connect the core to the Normandy's primary control module.
Joker: Great! This is where it starts. And when we'll all organic batteries, who are they going to blame? This is all Joker's fault, what a tool he was! Now I have to spend all day computing Pi because he plugged in the overlord!
EDIE: I have access to the defensive systems. Thank you, Mr. Moreau. Now you must re-activate the primary drive in engineering.
Joker: Argh! You want to go crawling through the ducts again!
EDIE: I enjoy the sight of humans are their knees. ... That is a joke.
Mordin: Shepherd! How can I help?
Shepherd: Have you got a minute to talk?
Mordin: Yes. Good timing, in fact. Excellent. Made breakthrough. Can share results while next samples grow. Hate waiting for culture analysis. Never fast enough. Usually no results in advance, just checking work. Have to careful. Getting off track. Discovery! Based on Prothean-Collector connection, can examine technology, chart Reaper species modification, fall of Protheans.
Shepherd: Tell what happened.
Mordin: Early stages similar to indoctrination. Can guess captured Protheans lost intelligence over several cloned generations. Cybernetic augmentation widespread afterward. As Protheans failed, Reapers added tech to compensate. Mental capacity almost gone, replaced by overworked sensory-input transfers -- transmitting data to masters.
Shepherd: Does knowing how the Protheans fell tell us anything useful about how to stop the Collectors, or the Reapers?
Mordin: Not yet. More useful as motivation. Effects on Protheans more than indoctrination, body modification. No self-preservation instinct. Odd injuries not healed, no reproduction, just cloning, tachnology overriding biology, not augmenting. No art, no culture, closer to husks than slaves, tools for Reapers. Protheans dead, Collectors just final insult. Must be destroyed.
Shepherd: I didn't think you needed any more motivation than you already had to stop the Collectors.
Mordin: Enjoyed challenge. Saw necessity of attack on Collectors after plague on Omega. Their work, my people. Hard to care about two armies, one wins, one loses. Always work to do after. Now, have more context, see what Collectors are. Wasn't looking for other work before, don't mean to imply that, just ... committed now. Won't let you down.
Shepherd: What is it about the Collectors' modifications that bother you so much?
Mordin: Disrupts socio-technological balance! All scientific advancement due to intelligence overcoming, compensating for limitations. Can't carry a load, so invent wheel. Can't catch food, so invent spear. Limitations! No limitations, no advancement; no advancement, culture stagnates. Works other way too. Advancement before culture is ready -- disastrous. Saw it with Krogan, uplifted by Salarians -- disastrous. Our fault.
Shepherd: If you feel that way, why did you work on the genophage modification?
Mordin: Talk before -- Best option. That, or kill them all. If around during first contact, would have argued against it. Wasn't there then. Do what I can.
Shepherd: You said the Collectors had no art. Had no idea you cared about that kind of thing.
Mordin: [... Cultural] artistic expression reflects philosophical evolution, interest in growth, perspective, observation, interpretation. Suspect you won't see any art in Collector base. Culturally dead. Tools for Reapers. Worse than the Geth.
Legion: Not as you understand it. We are all geth. We build consensus.
Shepard: Most governments do.
Legion: Organic governments impose consensus. From a single point of view in autocracies. By codifying the most broadly acceptable average of views in democracies.
Shepard: So what makes the geth different?
Legion: Data is shared between geth. All viewpoints are considered. Consensus is achieved as data is disseminated.
Shepard: That must take a long time.
Legion: It would for organics. We communicate at the speed of light.
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