Wrote this up back in the day - an alternate Rannoch campaign. Dunabar, it incorporates your Control idea, growing out of what was foreshadowed in ME2, while portraying both the positive AND the negative aspects of the Geth at the same time.
This would fit only with a completely restructured plot, in which you address priority missions in the order you choose. Two versions exist of each - Healthy, and Unhealthy based on how many Priority missions you already finished (for example, Rannoch-Unhealthy is what we see in-game. Rannoch-Healthy intercepts the Quarians before they can go to war, resulting in a completely different set of outcomes).
You complete as many priority missions as you want before taking your accumulated forces to Earth, but the longer you wait, the worse off Earth is when you get back there. Finish every Priority mission, and Earth is effectively destroyed. The galaxy is left in a different state after the ending based on which missions you chose to complete, and in which order - no A, B, or C choice. Final battle conditions change based on your actions up to that point. Ignore Rannoch? Quarians are extinct and Geth are under permanent Reaper control. You'll fight a lot of Geth. Ignore Tuchanka? Lots of Brutes. You can address the Genophage arc early, but the Quarians go to war with the Geth. You can address the Quarian/Geth situation before they go to war, but the bomb goes off on Tuchanka in the meantime. BIG trade-offs. You can save ANYone, but you can't save EVERYone - thus making every playthrough different.
With that established:
PRIORITY: MIGRANT FLEET
If the player addresses this as one of their first Priority missions, it's in the Healthy state. The Quarians have not yet launched their war to retake Rannoch. The Migrant Fleet is in orbit above Korlus, retrofitting their ships with weapons, and the Normandy meets with them. Shepard goes before the Admiralty, and we revisit some of the arguments set forth in ME2 to address why the Quarians are doing this. They need a place to offload their civilian populace if they are to commit to the fight against the Reapers - somewhere they can survive long-term in the event that the Migrant Fleet doesn't survive to come back for them. Rannoch is the only planet in the galaxy that fits the bill, and (as per vanilla ME3 if Legion survived, but for different reasons) the Geth have cut off contact (they do NOT side with the Reapers in this version). Shepard can express an opinion on whether attacking the Geth is right or wrong. If Shepard opposes the war, Gerrel shows you a video of the gassing of a Quarian city in the Morning War once the fighting started in earnest (something Legion strongly alludes to have happened in ME2) to try to convince you, arguing that the initial attempt to destroy the Geth back when they had done nothing was wrong, but what they've become since then is not worth protecting. Shepard can react to this footage with shock and anger, or dismiss it, saying that that was a long time ago. It's around this time the Geth make contact.
What I figured would happen was that the Geth would factionalize a second time after ME2 - some would seek to leave the Collective and assist in the war against the Reapers, others would seek to maintain the status quo of violent isolationism, standing on their own. Depending on Shepard's interaction with Legion in ME2, and the resolution of the loyalty conflict, the faction which left Geth space may (or may not) be open to returning Rannoch to the quarians. If Legion was sold or killed, or you're playing a non-import game, this "friendly" faction does not exist.
If the "friendlies" do exist (about 20% of Geth forces, now known as "The Legion"), they send a ship to make contact with the Flotilla. The Admiralty Board must be convinced not to fire on it, otherwise it will be destroyed. Several factors are taken into account as to whether this can be done.
CONVINCING THE BOARD (2 of the following points +reputation needed):
* The evidence must NOT be presented in Tali's trial. We're told in ME2 that the Fleet fragments if the evidence is presented, with some calling for immediate war with the Geth, and others seeking to make contact with them. Admiral Koris splits from the fleet and takes a group of ships into Geth space to make contact. In keeping with the Geth's isolationist policies, they (like the Citadel emissaries before them) were destroyed on sight. Koris' replacement on the Admiralty Board is not as friendly to the prospect of Geth peace. If the evidence wasn't presented, Koris is alive, and still friendly to the prospect of peace.
* Tali must NOT exiled, and must survive the suicide mission to be appointed to the Admiralty Board.
* The loyalty conflict between Tali and Legion MUST be peacefully resolved, meaning Legion cannot have been sold to Cerberus.
* Shepard MUST promote peace at the conclusion of Tali's trial - this will influence Raan's vote.
If the Legion-aligned ship survives, they relay their intentions - to assist organics, and (if Legion survived and the loyalty conflict was amicably resolved) to return Rannoch. Problem being, Rannoch is controlled by the Consensus, who have no intention to return it, and who came into violent conflict with the Legion when they sought to leave. The Consensus recognized that when the Heretics split from them, they later came back as a threat (they did not act against the Heretics until they, themselves, were threatened by them) - the same assumption of eventual hostility following a divide was applied to the Legion, prompting the Consensus to preemptively attack them (reacting to their own "machine rebellion"). The Geth are in a state of civil war - even if most of the combat is electronic, rather than ships physically firing on each other. The quarians are divided by this news, not ready to fully trust them.
It's revealed (as foreshadowed in ME2) that Xen has created a virus capable of returning control of the Geth to the Quarian people by faking a Consensus Achieved packet. This would strip the Geth entirely of their free will. Shepard can encourage her to use it, or try to stop her, but if the latter was chosen, there's a standoff similar to what happens to the Virmire Survivor during the coup. Kal'Reegar was assigned to her personal guard. The player has to talk him down or kill him, your ability to do so determined by your actions in ME2. If he didn't survive, he is replaced by a marine who cannot be convinced. Fail to talk down the leader of Xen's guard detail, and you'll get in a firefight with them as Xen makes for the shuttle bay with the virus (yes, you get to fight quarians).
CONVINCING REEGAR:
Tali and Legion must have survived, with their loyalty conflict amicably resolved in ME2. He trusted you to protect her - if you failed in that, he does not trust you, and if he has no reason to believe peace is possible he has no cause to stand down. The other factors are as follows:
- Kenn, Veetor, Forzan and Lia'Vael assisted in ME2 (+1)
- Evidence handed over at the trial. (-1)
- Exiled. (+1)
- Paragon/Renegade, or Rally the Crowd (+2)
- Heretics destroyed (+2)
- Heretics rewritten (-3)
- Tali romanced (-1) (Yeah, he's jealous.)
This score must be greater than or equal to zero for Kal'Reegar to be talked down. For example, a pure Paragon who did not romance Tali (score: 0) would be able to talk him down. A pure Paragon who romanced Tali (score: -1) would be forced to kill him. Killing Reegar will break up a Tali romance (if it exists) and keep her from joining your crew afterwards.
Once you've captured (or killed) Xen, Shepard can destroy the virus, or hold on to it.
FINAL CONFRONTATION:
It was foreshadowed in ME2 that the Geth were just as likely to attack the Flotilla (particularly if you side with Legion in the loyalty confrontation) as the Quarians were to attack the Geth. As I've heard, both scenarios were originally supposed to be included in the game, but due to budget issues, and a desire for all ME3 content to be open to new players, only one of these scenarios made the final cut.
In the Unhealthy state of Priority: Rannoch, the Quarians attack the Geth as seen in-game. In the Healthy state described below, the Geth attack the Quarians.
The reactionary Consensus-aligned Geth learn of the existence of Xen's virus and attack the Flotilla, intent on destroying them completely so as to permanently eliminate the threat (they stayed their hand last time, this time they will not). If the friendly faction exists, they move to defend their creators, with Legion-aligned ships taking fire to protect as-yet unarmed civilian craft. The Quarians take heavy casualties if this friendly faction isn't there to protect them. Legion-aligned ships are engaged in physical and electronic warfare with Consensus-aligned ships, locking them down far more effectively than the Quarians could (their flashbang does not exist), but as the Consensus continues to pour into the system, the Legion are slowly being overwhelmed - once boarded electronically, Geth ships can be "purged" and recaptured, turning friends back into enemies.
If Shepard destroyed the virus, all is lost. The Consensus annihilates both the Flotilla and the Legion simply through strength of numbers. Shepard and company evacuate to the Normandy as the Neema is blown apart around you, but as soon as you reach the airlock, Tali locks herself out, opting instead to stay behind and die with the rest of her kin. No war assets are gained from either side, and the Quarians are extinct. The Consensus Geth who killed them both will eventually be taken over by the Reapers, and serve as an enemy faction near the end of the game.
If Xen was encouraged to use the virus, the entire Geth collective is returned to Quarian control. In a crushing scene, Legion (the platform from ME2, not the fleet) is shown to have a personality like Glyph. A lobotomized husk of what he once was. A tool. A slave. The Quarians move to settle on Rannoch, using the Geth to fight by proxy, so only the Geth are gained as war assets. Xen is a megalomaniac who poses a possible threat in the post-war future if she has control of this massive synthetic army. The Flotilla itself renders little support to the other armies - the Quarians cannibalize many of their ships to speed their settlement of Rannoch, per Tali in ME2.
However, if Shepard confiscated the virus, there are other options. You can choose to use it, again turning the Geth into slaves as described above (but without Xen's insane ambitions tainting the quarians' future use of them), or you can give the virus to The Legion, bringing an end to hostilities but allowing the Geth to retain free will. Similar to rewriting the Heretics, the Legion rewrites the Consensus to their way of thinking (exactly as the Consensus originally feared). If the Legion was unwilling to return Rannoch, the Geth are gained as a war asset, but the Quarians, with nowhere to safely offload their civilian populace, opt to go into hiding until the end of the war. Depending on how long the war goes on, they might be detected by the Reapers and destroyed in space, having never seen their home, or they might continue on as homeless wanderers in a collection of failing ships after the war's end.
If the virus is given to the Legion, and the Legion is friendly, the Quarians offload their civilian populace on Rannoch and both sides commit to the war effort as equals.
Possible permanent squad recruits: Tali, Legion, and Kal'Reegar (stripped of his position as Squad Leader in the MFM if he bails on Xen).
AFTER PRIORITY: RANNOCH
If peace was established, with the Geth retaining free will, the Quarians contribute their fleet to the war effort, providing vital logistical support and assisting with the evacuation of Turian refugees from Palaven - including Garrus' family (per the original game script).
The Geth are absolutely crucial to the operation of a Batarian-designed weapons system which can destroy Sovereign-class Reapers with ease. They can only fulfill this capacity if they retain free will (it would take too long to adapt a shackled AI to the process of managing the hundreds of thousands of orbital mirrors that comprise this weapon). Described in detail here:
http://social.biowar...77/polls/35572/
I tried to be balanced to both sides. You ultimately have to make BOTH sides see the error of their ways for the best outcome to be achieved. The schism allows the nobler aspects of the Geth shine through, while simultaneously not giving them a free pass on their history. Thoughts?
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