Chapter 175: Structural Weaknesses

=== Summary ===
Admiral Hackett “strongly encourages” Shepard to step aside and allow Ambassador Freni to work on dealing with the Earth refugees so the heat over what happened at Sunrise House cools and instead focus on how her itinerary got leaked. After the call, Shepard asks EDI for something productive to do as she is in no head space for paperwork. EDI recommends speaking with Tali and Major Wynn on their research on Earth’s sun, and Shepard jumps at the opportunity to think about something else.
On board the Austerlitz, Tali explains that while Sol doesn’t appear to be destabilizing any further it’s current state is still frying Earth and her people. When Tali brings up the difficulty in erecting something like Tuchanka’s Shroud to soak up or block the excess radiation due to Minos interference, Wynn surprises the other two women with the information that Clara Goyle has been trying to construct something similar- but she doesn’t have the resources. Shepard immediately asks about backchanneling the resources needed and Wynn promises her that they will look into it. Tali immediately identifies the solution as a temporary one- the radiation is too strong for the satellites to last, especially given the available materials. Shepard suggests that given Clara Goyle appears to have a longer view than most of the rest of Minos, perhaps she would be open to talking with them and using alien technology- especially given that it appears the rachni are not having the same level of problems with their technology. Wynn accepts the orders of doing “spy stuff” with a smile before the group turns their attention to the problem of why the sun is deteriorating. Tali laments the lack of brainpower in regards to the enormity of the data they are attempting to go though, voicing a fear that they will not find answers before Earth becomes uninhabitable. CORI suggests asking the ao if they could spare some processing power on the Izar Bitxia given the ao living those databanks “experience time at a far increased pace.”
Tali also expresses frustration at the lack of detailed historical data. Shepard opines that getting data from Ilos shouldn’t be hard, and she will just ask the Keepers to help her get information from the Citadel itself. As for accessing geth logs, Shepard has an idea regarding the geth technology used to plug her into the geth network. Tali doesn’t like the gleam in her eye, but Shepard rightly points out that “fun things happen” when she does.
A quick stop at the Citadel has Shepard head to the Citadel Archives. After speaking to an apologetic but unhelpful receptionist, Shepard turns to finding the nearest Keeper. After telling it that she needed access to the Citadel records, a mysterious door appears leading through a maintenance corridor, past a glowing white doorway, and into a massive room with many large ramps. However, her omni-tool has no idea where she is, and truthfully neither does Shepard. Eventually, she comes to a circular room with a console and a large window looking out into the Serpent Nebula. The console lit up at her approach, displaying what appeared to be English to Shepard’s eye.
Shepard contacts EDI, and the AI asks where the Rear Admiral was due to her not being on long range scans and their connection not being stable. Shepard explains that she thinks she is in the Keeper’s control room and she has found a huge amount of information- too much data to put on her omnitool, and would like to see if EDI can hardlink to the omnitool in order to download as much information as possible. EDI warns that while she think she can help, it might be in an unorthodox way: EDI wishes for Shepard to find her in the iborihe, link with the console and feed the data to the EDI. After nearly uploading the entire Citadel by accident, Shepard is able to control the stream of data to only what might be relevant to their search.
On Ilos, their ground team makes the disturbing discovery that someone has recently moved the bodies of the geth killed in the pursuit of Saren Arterius. When they descend down into the bunker, much to their shock, Vigil activates. The prothean AI addresses Shepard as akaami, and answers her questions to the best of his ability: the geth bodies were removed by “the companions of the one who most recently accessed my systems”, the one who last accessed Vigil wanted historical information on the Reapers- especially the previous cycles. When the VI could not give them what they wanted, Vigil directed this individual to the sublevels of the facility. Vigil is not sure if they left because while the person who asked him those questions was there, they do not appear on his sensors.
Shepard comes to the obvious conclusion: the only way to get more answers is down.
=== Title Meaning ===
When Shepard accompanied Legion to destroy the Geth Heretic base, Joker reacted poorly to flying up to a geth space station exclaiming "You know it's just our HEAT emissions that are hidden right? They could look out a window and see us coming!" to the mobile platform. Legion replied "Windows are structural weaknesses. Geth do not use them," completely unbothered by the pilot's concern. In the Keeper's Control Room there is a very large window . . . for some reason.
=== Easter Eggs ===
==== Discord Highlights ====
Homestuck references in the year of Our Lady Shepard 2024, Flash games from the 2000s, and many a tinfoil hat.
Garrus quipping “Who votes we take the vehicle into the creepy underground bunker? Oh, shoot, it's in for repairs…” is a reference to something Liara said when they first descended down into the Ilos facility back in 2183. Also likely referring to the Mako chase afterwards that took about five years off everyone's life in fear with Shepard's driving.