Chapter 176: Deference for Darkness

=== Summary ===
Shepard and the squad descend down past the prothean research facility into the older inusannon part of the base. Walking past conductive walls and navigating a labyrinth, they descended further into the facility mostly in silence and darkness, aside from the walls lighting up with their footsteps.
A central platform lowers the squad into a dark series of rooms with unusual furnishings, many of them suggesting water. The fourth room contains tanks filled with some kind of liquid and one of them appears to contain bones. Before the four of them can investigate further, they are ambushed by humanoids in shadowy armor. Liara and James are dazed by some kind of mental attack, and the weapons cut through hardsuit and shield as if they aren’t even there. James is struck, and Shepard is forced to use all of her wit and space magic to get her team out of danger. In the firefight one of her nodes in her leg is damaged.
On board the Normandy, Garrus and Shepard come to the difficult decision that they cannot both go on missions together for fear of orphaning Viatrix. 
While Shepard convalesces, Tali works on transporting the geth pod that Shepard had used to interface with the geth collective. Shepard requests that EDI find for them the largest intact geth superstructure, with the highest concentration of servers and databanks. EDI settles on a place in dark space due to Legion once mentioning a project to her during the Reaper War. EDI believes it is the best shot at something undestroyed. Shepard agrees and gives orders to see what they would need for such a long journey.
Later that day, Shepard holds a debriefing with James, Liara, and Garrus to discuss what had happened with their last mission. Liara rules out the attackers being asari- the extremely rare technique she knows about only works on other asari. Garrus hypothesizes that the attack might have to do with the iborihe due to how it felt. Shepard has her own theory: The person who got to Ilos before them and attacked them was her father.
=== Title Meaning ===
"Deference for Darkness" is the title of a track from the game Halo 3: ODST Original Soundtrack, containing the tracks Rain, Trailhead, and Guiding Hand. The music can be considered the "theme" of the game, and is quiet and melancholy. Much of ODST is spent from the prospective of ODST "Rookie", who is attempting to put together the mystery of what happened to his team after a disastrous drop pod launch by retracing his team's steps and finding clues. Similarly, Shepard is finding herself retracing her father's steps in the inusannon base.
=== Easter Eggs ===
==== Discord Highlights ====
Plot holes with oblivious-protagonist lampshades, Nihlus and Samara's Get-Along Shirt, and how Garrus wears sunglasses.