Brief Author's Note: I was thinking of starting this chapter by apologizing in advance about it, but then I realized it'd be rather hypocritical of me, since I'm not sorry at all about it! That said, you may want to keep sharp objects away from reach or you may maim your screen. But I just couldn't resist once I thought of it.

2183 C.E., Armstrong Cluster.

Shepard took several deep breaths, letting the cool air calm him down. Slow his heartbeat. The crosshair stayed steady over the flashlight head of the sentry. He wasn't going to shoot. Not because of the sentry, but because of the approximately one hundred geth platforms that were gathered on the plains.

It was a definite change. Hackett had sent them on a fool's errand to find some advanced outposts the geth had established on the Armstrong Cluster. Or so it seemed at first. Every outpost they had found was empty. However, they all showed signs of activity, and correlating the directions and intensities of the last transmissions made from those outposts had led them to the central hub. Rayingri. A small, barren terrestrial world with a breathable atmosphere, and cool temperatures at night.

"What are they doing?" Tali whispered.

"I have no idea. They're just standing there. Wait, three more geth at the top of the structure."

The "structure" was nothing more than a raised platform, completely naked. Three geth were walking up a ramp on the back, carrying objects in their hands.

"What is that they're carrying?" Garrus muttered. Like Shepard, he was looking at the scene through the scope of his sniper rifle.

"Keelah..." Tali breathed out.

"Tali?" Shepard called.

"Those are quarian musical instruments! They-" She stopped talking when Shepard hushed her, and continued in a lower voice. "They have a reela, and a duliae. Oh my gosh, what are... No way."

"I'll be damned," Shepard said.

The three geth had set up the instruments, and without much fanfare, started playing them. Tali got back down, out of view, and started fiddling with her omni-tool.

"What are you doing?" Shepard whispered.

"Do you see any speakers?" Tali said. She looked at Shepard, and the commander simply shook his head. "They must be sending the audio from the three geth platforms on the... stage?"

Garrus gave a low growl, which Shepard wasn't sure what it meant.

"Three geth on stage. Now I've seen it all," the turian muttered.

Tali ignored him and kept working. After a few minutes she gave a low "aha!" of success, and the omni-tool screeched to life. A little bit of fine tuning later and they were listening to the music the three geth were playing.

"Uh, what are we listening to?" Shepard said. The music had a nice melody, but slow and not very varied. "Anything you recognize?"

"N- wait." Tali raised her free hand, and kept listening. "Yes, that's... By the ancestors, that's an old quarian religious piece. One my people played when they reached an oasis."

"They're not very good," Shepard said.

"What? Shepard, they're perfect! Every note is exact, it's amazing! Why are they playing this?"

"As I said, they're not good at all. Every note may be perfect, but it's absolutely dreadful."

"Just because it's not your music, Shepard, doesn't mean-"

"Actually that's not it. Come on, Tali. Listen to it. It's completely empty."

A rustle caught their attention, and three guns were immediately raised towards the noise. However, they weren't fired when a geth hunter shimmered out of stealth. Namely because it was accompanied by another dozen or so of them. They were all armed with shotguns, but neither of the geth platforms raised them.

"Human. Turian." The leading hunter spoke in a mechanical voice that completely took the three of them by surprise. It wasn't that they were ignorant that the geth could speak; they had originally served the quarians, after all. But they had never personally heard them do so. "Creator-female's capacity for assessment of geth music quality above yours. Yet disagreement noted. Explain."

The three organics looked at the synthetics in shock. They had obviously detected them and tried to set up an ambush, only to give up and make their presence know to find out why Shepard didn't like the music?

Shepard smirked. It was way too strange. Which seemed par for the course in his life.

"As I told Tali, mechanically it may be perfect, but it's empty. Your music has no soul." He folded his rifle, and hung it on his back as he spoke, much to Garrus' and Tali's alarm.

"Soul. An immaterial part of Creators that trascends physical limitations of organic form. Belief not compatible with music. Sound cannot possess soul. Explain."

"Music can totally have a soul!" Shepard replied. "Your soul. The soul that you put in it! Do you have a soul to put in it?"

The geth seemed to think about it for a second or two. Establishing a consensus.

"No data available. Inquiry to Creator-Talieh by geth on platforms being in possession of a soul was not answered."

"Cre- What?" Tali said, the shock obvious in her voice.

Shepard raised a hand for her to be quiet. His small smirk had widened up into a full blown mischievous smile. One that Tali and Garrus knew well. And one that immediately worried them. He was about to do something unorthodox. Of course, that's what Shepard called his antics. The others usually employed much more colourful language.

"Unless you put your soul in the music, it will never be good."

"Irrelevant. Possession of incorporeal form not important. Sound and melody defined by rhythm, volume, and cadence. Geth create perfect music."

"Prove it."

The geth's eyeflaps twitched, and his flashlight head seemed to focus on Shepard much more intently.

"Prove it," Shepard insisted. "Our music against yours. Right now, on that stage."

"What?" Tali squeaked.

"Commander!" Garrus protested.

Shepard ignored them, so the two dextros exchanged looks. Whatever Shepard was planning, it sounded even more insane than his usual plans. And those "plans" included pushing his entire squad out of a moving Mako as they were fighting a Thresher Maw.

He did say 'trust me' before he did so that day though. At least this time he hadn't bothered with-

"Trust me," Shepard said, looking at his two companions behind him.

They exchanged another look. It was going to be bad.

"We do not understand your challenge, human. But we accept," the hunter replied.

"Excellent! I'm going to call my ship so that they bring our instruments. Feel free to listen." As understanding dawned on Tali and Garrus – as shown by their gaping open mouths and wide-eyed stares – Shepard put his hand to his ear, opening the comms channel to the Normandy. "Shepard to Normandy."

"This is the Normandy," Joker replied. "Please be aware that your call may be monitored by senior staff members for evaluation purposes!"

"Jokerrr," Shepard growled, trying to hide his chuckle. "Patch me through to Alenko."

"I"m right here Commander. Everything okay?"

"Just peachy. I need you to do something. Go to the rec room, pack up the instruments, and bring them down, with your own drum playing self."

There was this long, completely muted pause that tested new limits for the definition of awkward, then Alenko spoke again.

"Commander? What... What?"

"It's simple enough. We're about to give a music lesson to the geth. Drop at my position."

"Commander, you took the Mako, how-"

"Haven't you done HALO drops in basic?"

"I- Jesus Commander, you really don't like predictable missions, do you?"

"Chop chop, LT. You have about ten minutes before we get to the stage."

"STAGE? Wha-"

Shepard cut the comms. Sometimes Alenko worried too much. He looked at the hunter, nodded, and made a grand gesture with his arm towards the distant stage. The geth looked at him and, without a word, all the platforms moved out. Shepard followed, and the very stunned members of his squad took off after him too.

"Are you insane?" Tali hissed, the growl in her complex larynx loud enough that it sounded like a whole squad of quarians all by herself.

"It's been suggested," Shepard replied.

"YOU'RE GOING TO PLAY TO A BUNCH OF GETH!" she finally shouted.

"Yeah," the commander replied simply, a wistful tone in his voice and a faraway look in his eyes.

It was enough to silence Tali, which Garrus only took as a sign for him to intervene.

"You better not be planning on me taking the stage with you, Shepard. Your human music is not really my scene."

"We'll figure it out. Drum and guitar may not be enough."

As promised, they arrived at the stage about ten minutes after the transmission, only to see the Normandy passing overhead. It was a good distraction, with most of the utterly silent geth platforms following the frigate as it flew. A blue glow surrounded it, and three dots dropped from its back.

"Huh?" Shepard muttered. "Who jumped out?"

Garrus put his finger to his visor and zoomed in. His jaw went slack, and after a couple of seconds he started laughing, a throaty sound with high subvocal undertones.

"What?" Shepard said.

"See for yourself," the turian replied, taking the visor off and offering it to the human.

Shepard put it on and looked up towards the falling members of his crew. And once the image zoomed in, he too started laughing. It was Alenko all right, with a guitar strapped to his back, and his feet planted on the second dot, the large instrument case where they kept the drums and the speakers. The third dot was Ashley, with her bass on her back.

"HALO jumping with a guitar on their backs."

"They'll never forgive us if we don't take pictures," Garrus replied, still chuckling.

It wasn't long before the two of them landed softly. Once again, Joker had showed his prowess by having them land square in the centre of the stage. If that had been a human concert, the crowd would have likely gone wild. As it was, a hundred flashlights had turned to them, but not a word had been spoken.

"Dramatic entrance?" Shepard said.

"Just following orders," Alenko replied, looking all too pleased with himself.

"Ash, glad you could make it," Shepard said.

The Gunnery Chief smiled, although under a grimace of pain. "Chakwas said I'll pay for it later, but I wouldn't miss it. Are we seriously going to play to a bunch of flashlight heads?"

For an answer, Shepard gestured at their audience. Ash looked at them, not a single geth twitching even slightly, and started laughing. And groaning as her broken ribs protested.

"Humans, the geth are ready."

"Yeah, just let us get our stuff out. Alenko, we're on the clock here, I'll set up the speakers."

"Geth do not need sound amplification systems," the hunter said. "We-"

"Look," Shepard interrupted. "You are going to do music your way, we'll do it ours."

It didn't take long for their gear to be set up. As everything was wireless, and self-powered by energy cells, they didn't have to worry about cables at all. Something that apparently had plagued twentieth century musicians to no end.

"We're ready," Shepard said, caressing the strings of his electric guitar. "Do you want to start?"

The hunter nodded, and without even having to give a sign, the three platforms with musical instruments started playing. Like before, the melody was slow, profound. Shepard thought it sounded almost like a pentatonic, but it was a little off. Quarian hearing frequencies were apparently somewhat different, as Tali had explained in one of their training sessions.

When the piece finished, a good five minutes later, the hunter looked at Shepard, and the commander could almost guess what was going through the synthetic's head.

Beat that.

"Ladies, gentlemen. I believe the geth require a... history lesson," Shepard announced dramatically. "Ash, guitar. Tali, bass."

"B- Shepard! You know I suck with your... your..."

"Strings."

"Whatever! You have way too many fingers! You-"

"Come on Tali," Shepard said, stepping in front of the quarian and putting a hand on her shoulder. "We need you. You can do it," he finished, in a low and encouraging voice.

After holding his gaze for a couple of seconds, Tali muttered something involving a bosh'tet and something anatomically impossible, and nodded, taking the bass Ashley was offering her.

Shepard flicked the microphone in his suit, nodded at Alenko, and with a clack of his drumsticks, the guitar started screaming to the tune of AC/DC's Rock.

"In the beginning, back in nineteen fifty five," Shepard sang, his voice carrying out loudly through the speaker system. "Man didn't know 'bout a rock 'n' roll show, and all that jive!"

All over the crowd, not a sound was made, but flashlight heads followed the antics of the commander on the stage with almost synchronized eyeflap twitching. After the second guitar solo came the finale, which Shepard made loud and lively, as if he was singing to a full crowd of organics.

"And the music was good and the music was loud! And the singer turned and he said to the crowd!" He raised his hand and pointed up above the crowd. "LET THERE BE ROCK!"

And as soon as he did, he started his final, extended guitar solo. The strings were picked, bent, and hammered-on at Shepard's will, and for a glorious two minutes and seventeen seconds, the entire geth collective, those in the planet, and those in connection to those on the planet, was fractured, as processes became bound to their current platforms almost like they were under a spell. The crowd of geth lost its cohesion, individual platforms looking at each other, or at the stage, or at the sky where Shepard had pointed, as whatever limited number of geth programs tried to process the sounds the three humans and the creator were making.

When the final chord was strummed, there was a clicking and clacking one could actually hear as the geth got their bearings back.

Shepard turned to the hunter with a cocky smile on his face. "Your move," he said.

The geth responded by getting even more units on the stage. Twenty of them total, all carrying instruments. There were four reelas, a lot of duliaes – a string instrument with only three strings – and even a couple of shell-shaped wind instruments, which the geth had attached to some device Shepard surmised had to be what blew air into them.

He made a small bow to the hunter, inviting him to go ahead.

And so, the geth started playing. While the previous piece had been slow, dignified, this one vibrated with power. All instruments played together with mathematical precision, all reelas amplifying each other's notes. It was a melody that hammered regularly in an uplifting crescendo, until it finished with a hard, fast jigging of thee different melodies chasing each other as one.

It was impressive, something Shepard had no trouble admitting. Tali had whispered a soft "keelah" when the piece had finished, while Ashley and Alenko looked like they were having trouble holding their lower jaws in place.

"Very impressive. But you still haven't found your soul." He turned to Ashley, and mouthed a single word.

Hurricane.

The Chief smiled, and gave him a nod. And so started another song, with Ashley hammering the opening chords of the Scorpions' hit.

At first the geth didn't seem particularly impressed. Past the opening, the first lyrics seemed rather tame. Then Shepard got to the first chorus.

"Here I am!" He sang, hammering several chords. "ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE!"

By the time they got to the second chorus, Ashley and Shepard had organized a little guitar duel of their own, Ashley picking single notes at a speed that defied logic, Shepard hammering chords that seemed to chase each other in a bid to blow the auditory receptors of every geth in front of the stage.

The geth collective didn't know what to do with itself. Processes bunkered down in individual platforms, splitting from the consensus as they argued over which guitar they wanted to follow as the lead, or whether the creator's use of the human-constructed bass merited more attention, or even whether the apparently irregular but snappy rhythm of the human drums was what was carrying the melody.

When Ashley picked through the final notes, running her fingers up and down the neck of her guitar like a camel spider after its prey, the geth collective was in splinters. It took a full minute after the end before the platforms started to get a resemblance of cohesion.

Shepard wasn't even going to wait for them to try a third piece.

"Garrus," he called, startling the turian out of his well-practiced plain-view invisibility. "Get the shotguns."

"The... Shepard, are you sure? They'll probably shoot us if we do that."

"At least we'll salute them when they do," Shepard replied, grinning like a madman.

Madman being was what Garrus thought, since he kept muttering something about the mad human and the vilii turian that was following him.

As before, it was Ashley who started the piece. Three chords with varying rhythm, followed by Shepard picking up his own, and Alenko hammering the drums hard with an apparently slow cadence.

"Stand up and be counted, for what you are about to receive," Shepard sang. "We are the dealers, we"ll give you everything you need!"

And so AC/DC's epic piece went on, until they got to the real good part. Garrus would have been sweating, if Turians could do so, and the rest of the band wasn't looking too convinced, but it was time.

"Pick up your balls and load up your cannon, for a twenty one gun salute. For those about to rock! FIRE!"

Dutifully, Garrus fired the two shotguns he had into the air. The response from the geth was instantaneous, every single platform fixing their flashlight heads on Garrus. Almost as one, the band, and Garrus, snapped a salute, and they all shouted at once.

"WE SALUTE YOU!"

And did the song ever pick up after that. Shepard was giving it his all, and so was Ashley. Garrus was leading the cannon shooting, and when the final "FIRE!" order came from Shepard, almost all the geth hunters, and those geth platforms armed with shotguns, joined in the twenty-one gun salute.

Codex: Commander of Rock.

"Commander of Rock" is the first album by the geth group Iron Riders. It was released six months after the geth signed the treaty of Rayingri, which allowed for the return of the quarians to their ancestral home of Rannoch, and stipulated the modification of Citadel laws against sentient AI.

The album sold an approximate two hundred million copies in its first month of release, with most sales coming from the Systems Alliance. It is said to be strongly influenced by old twentieth-century human bands, such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and others. The title is believed to be in reference to Commander Zack Shepard, but when queried about it, neither of the geth members of the band said anything other than "no data available."

Author's Notes: So yeah, there you go. Saving the galaxy through the power of ROCK! Sovereign never knew what hit him.

If you're wondering how that's topical, the mission UNC: Geth Incursions has you looking for geth bases in the Armstrong Cluster, and in the last one you find geth recordings including things from before the Morning War and quarian music. I just took it to a ridiculous extreme.

And as usual, answering to previous reviews:

Right Hand of Palpatine: What happened to the Krogan in the previous chapter: Nukes. Lots of nukes. The salarians had to uplift the Turians instead to beat the Rachni, and it was a long and bloody conflict.

And thanks everyone else who reviewed, Blackout1170, 9, six samurai, and of course, thanks to all the readers! :)