Geth Sphere background info

[01]/Homeworld/Geth Sphere

 

Intro:

 

Homeworld is the result of geth ingenuity, self determination, and innovation the likes of which the galaxy has never experienced. An obvious construct, Homeworld is the largest megastructure, and the largest “living” entity known. All geth aspire to be connected to Homeworld, which will unite their conscious, building consensus amongst all Geth. Just over the size of Earth's moon, the structure can be seen by some as a symbol of technological prowess to rival the Reapers. To others Homeworld represents a threat to be compounded with the Cycle War. Governments of the quarians and humans in particular are wary the potential Homeworld possesses.

 

History:

 

Slowly (or quickly, depending on how one looks at it) constructed beneath the clouds of the gas giant, Ploba, Homeworld (originally named “01”) was built as the prime hub for geth. After the exodus of the quarian people from Rannoch, the geth considered repurposing the entire planet to be their factory and base of operations. Instead, their consensus deemed that this was what the quarians would expect. The true geth decided to maintain the quarian's home, and live in space stations beyond the Veil. From these stations they were able to harvest resources, mine eezo and other precious materials, and build mobile platforms. These stations also diverted most attention away from the construction of the Geth Sphere structure.

 

The closest anyone ever came to discovering the construct was Matriarch Dilinaga. The asari saw one of the structure's continents rising from the clouds of Ploba, and taking in solar energy before sinking back into the gas giant. Because no geth platforms or recognizable geth signatures could be seen by Dilinaga, she assumed it was an unknown alien craft. She flew her ship in close to try and capture footage of the artificial continent receding back into the depths of Ploba, but it was too fast for her. Despite waiting for several days over Ploba, the Matriarch knew she would never be able to anticipate the reemergence of the structure, and departed. All that remained of this encounter was a sample of her writing of the event, which sparked the scientific communities of the races to attempt to make contact with the mysterious “Deep Anomalies.”

 

By the time of the time of the Cycle War the geth are ready to emerge as a recognized people. They use their reveal of Homeworld as a statement of their involvement in the war – either as allies of organics, or as servants to the Reapers (if Legion was never recruited in ME2). As one of the biggest attributes to the Reapers/allies Homeworld instantly becomes a target for conflict.

 

Construction:

 

The bulk of Homeworld is water (almost no solid matter), held into a spherical suggestion by a planetary core of eezo. The geth condensed enough element zero that it would cover the surface of Rhode Island on Earth, and use electrical generators the size of mega stadiums from Illium to carefully manipulate the fluctuations of dark energy emanating from the core. This allowed the geth to control the shape, gravity, and radioactivity of Homeworld. Using this artificial “ocean” as a conductor, the geth send electrical currents to and from the core. Near the surface of home world, atmospheric manipulation creates intense electrical storms over violent waves that can reach the size of mountains, dissuading unwelcome ships and explorers from entering Homeworld. The ocean of Homeworld does not face the same issue of water pressure as typical planets, despite having no subaquatic terrain. Water pressure within the planet only increases if the Geth stimulate the eezo core, manipulating the structure's gravity.

 

A handful of mini-continents irregularly shaped and hundreds of kilometers in size are thrown across the surface. These continents resemble the dark outer shell of a splintered egg – each land mass is slightly curved, and hints at “pieces” missing, though there are no connected continents. These surface “tectonic plates” take in solar energy, though they are cold flat and smooth. The surface of these shells are made of a dark cold material. The undersides of the continents have vast root-like “anchors”/arms that descend downwards into the depths of Homeworld's ocean, each pointing towards the core. These arms are like the stems that hold lilypads (or in this case, geth continental shelves) in place. These anchors act as geth server hubs, each harboring billions of geth programs, and receive electricity, dark energy, etc from the rest of the construct. The stems of these anchors have ripples of tens of thousands of lights that move up and down them when the geth located there are particulary active.

 

To organics, Homeworld appears at a distance to be a shimmering blue star, with a unique gaseous “tail” that extends back to Ploba, from when the Geth Sphere emerged quickly from the planet. Up close it resembles a dark blue oceanic planet, with its eezo core vaguely visible from the surface, glinting eerily from the depths of the ocean.

 

Defenses:

 

Homeworld's defenses are unconventional, but utterly effective. Due to the geth's study of atmospheric manipulation (as evidence of the Hammerhead DLC of ME2), they have mastered Homeworld's bizarre  weather patterns. Homeworld's sole weapon is simply known by Legion/Union as “geth's will”, by which the geth decide on the most efficient manner to dispatch with an enemy intruder. They can summon monumental tidal waves to swat away even the largest of spacecraft, and conjure extremely powerful lightning strikes. Dozens of geth dreadnoughts monitor and guard each continent from space, providing orbital strike capabilities if need be. There are no mobile geth platforms on the surface, and only a few hundred thousand in the subaquatic anchors, which monitor and maintain the servers, repair damage to the continents, and retrieve debris and resource packages that drop into the ocean. These few platforms are typically not armed, nor do they need to be. No army of organics or mechs could be effective if they landed on the surface of the rocky ocean, or the smooth and featureless continents, which could easily be flooded. From space, projectiles launched from enemy ships towards the surface would have little effect on the ocean, and powerful winds/tornadoes could knock aside any missiles launched at the landmasses. Furthermore, the geth can hack many smart-weapons before they could detonate upon impact.

 

The only way to successfully destroy Homeworld would be damaging the core which holds the structure together. This would cause the station to rapidly fall apart, with no gravitationally fixed point.

 

One could also find someway to hack one of the structure's subcontinental anchor hubs (billions of geth), initiate Homeworld's weather patterns repeatedly, and wait for the core to become unstable and have a biotic detonation. The biotic detonation would briefly paralyze all geth in the structure, allowing hacking all hubs to be successful. The best way to damage the structure completely would be to launch WMD smart- into the oceans, and strike at the vast anchors. This would kill millions of geth, while weakening the Geth-will, and eventually rendering most of the structure inert.

 

Role:

 

Despite the geth's show of strength in attempting to unify, the megastructure serves as a target for the Reapers who attempt to indoctrinate the entire race once and for all. Due to variables in ME2:

 

Shepard can either assist the geth in defending the  structure from Reaper indoctrination – effectively stating the geth's true independent self determination wishes against the Old Machines. Later, Shepard can assist David Archer in reaching out to the geth to create an olive branch between synthetics and organics.

 

Shepard can assist the quarians in damaging the structure, and uploading a Cerberus virus, created by Dr. Gavin Archer, which grants him control of the structure. Shepard can then turn over control of the geth to the quarians, or retain it for Cerberus'/Shadow Broker's needs.

 

Shepard can help the quarians damage the structure beyond geth repair, effectively scattering the geth before they can become too powerful. This greatly limits the Reapers ground force capabilities.

 

 

Other details:

 

If the rachni survived ME1, and the queen was successfully rescued in ME3, they choose to live in the Perseus Veil with the geth. After the Reaper is defeated on Homeworld, the queen is relocated to the megastructure for security purposes – signifying an alliance between the geth and rachni.

 

If David Archer was convinced to go and help Legion/Union and the geth, he can be found in a comfortable subaquatic apartment of the megastructure, where he communicates with the geth. David can upload memories and perspectives with the geth, allowing them to understand organic thinking processes significantly better. David will be happy working with the geth.