Massively Screwed Up

Chapter 1: A Very Dangerous Place

The planet Maji was located in the Vamshi system of the Armstrong nebula. It was a desolate world only notable for its occasional deposits of magnesium, beryllium and thorium. None of the major galactic governments gave Maji a second thought. The Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic were too busy fighting each other in a bloody war to worry about obscure planets with only average resources. The various governments that composed the Citadel were too busy recovering from the recent attack by the geth on their colossal space station that served as their seat of government. That left Maji in the hands of mercenary and pirate gangs. None of the unsavory groups had the will or equipment to set up large-scale mining operations. They used the red planet for entertainment: they would dump hostages, prisoners, slaves, fellow shipmates, and even vicious animals onto the surface of the world and force them to kill each other. If the victor was lucky they would be retrieved from the radiated surface.

Tali'Zorah vas Neema had not been dumped on the world to engage in blood sport for the amusement of others. The quarian had chosen to come to the planet of her own free will. She had come to hunt geth. Tali had been to this particular planet before. The last time she was here she was under the command of the legendary Jane Shepard. Shepard's small squad had decimated a minor geth outpost that stained the red planet. With the hard fighting done the Systems Alliance had promised that they would increase patrols in the Armstrong nebula to deter future geth activity in the region, but that turned out to be one of many hollow promises they had made to the now-deceased Shepard.

Barely a galactic standard month after Tali's original skirmish on Maji and the geth were already sneaking around the Armstrong nebula once again. The geth were not difficult to find, they did have flashlight heads. Though the Systems Alliance and the rest of the Citadel were more than willing to turn a blind eye to the situation. They had more pressing concerns other than a small cluster of geth that were hanging around on the wrong side of the Perseus Veil. However, the quarians of the Migrant Fleet were very interested in what the geth were doing.

Tali and her squad had been sent on a mission to collect geth components for Tali's father, Admiral Rael'Zorah. In order to acquire geth components Tali would have to go hunting for geth, and that was something that she had quite a bit of experience doing. Tali'Zorah was more than happy to be destroying geth. The synthetics had been built by her people long ago. Three hundred years ago, the geth rebelled against their creators and the quarians lost the resulting war. The quarians had lost their homeworld and all their colonies to the geth and ended up wandering the stars in a space fleet.

Tali held a firm grip on her M-3 predator pistol as she hid behind an odd skull. It was the skull of some fearsome looking animal, though Tali had no idea what it was. It was full of teeth and full of holes. Likely it was some creature that the mercenary or pirate gangs had dumped on the planet some time ago.

"Tali, move up," an order came in over the radio.

"Got it." Tali sprinted out of cover and made a mad dash for a large bolder that had previously only been a dot in her vision. She slowed down as she neared her mark; ending in a lazy trot by the time she reached the large rock.

Tali waited patiently behind the boulder for several moments until a squad of geth finally passed by. Four standard geth troopers formed a tight group around a rocket trooper with a geth shock trooper up in the front. A geth sniper was trailing slightly behind the frontline foot soldiers. It was easy enough to distinguish the roles of the geth infantry. Standard geth troopers were coated in a dull lavender armor. The tougher geth shock troopers had white armor. Geth rocket troopers were painted in red. Geth snipers were a dim brown that helped them blend in with a variety of backgrounds on countless worlds. Overall the geth squad blended into their crimson surroundings quite well, with the exception of the shock trooper. Each of the geth's heads contained a single large eye that looked like a flashlight. They seemed to be carefully scanning their surroundings as if they were expecting quarians to jump out at any moment and attack them.

Further ahead of the geth another quarian hid amongst rocks of various shapes and sizes. Lena'Xel was around Tali's age. Both of the quarians had only recently completed their Pilgrimage. While one would assume such young quarians lacked substantial combat experience, nothing was further from the truth. Tali'Zorah was known as a hero that had helped Commander Shepard take down the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius. Lena'Xel was known for having stopped a group of Blood Pack mercenaries from kidnapping a small freighter full of quarians.

Lena'Xel wielded a M-100 grenade launcher in her hands. Lena wore light colossus armor. The black suit coupled with a red faceplate made her appear quite malicious, especially against the backdrop of the red planet. Tali hadn't known Lena for very long but at the moment she just hoped her teammate's aim was good.

The radio cackled to life again. "Wait for it… Wait for it… Now!" All at once the planet was treated to a scene of violence. A single grenade from Lena's launcher found its way into the center of the geth squad.

The geth voiced their surprise with the usual stuttering sounds that they made. The shock trooper managed to escape the initial blast intact, only to be riddled with fire from an M-8 avenger assault rifle.

Tali popped out of cover and let her predator pistol find the geth sniper's head. The first trio of shots was carefully aimed, but the rest was just wild fire as Tali emptied an entire clip at the sniper. Luckily, the geth still fell.

Only two geth remained: the rocket trooper and one of the standard troopers. It was a miracle the rocket trooper was still standing as it took the brunt of the first grenade. The red geth let loose a rocket in Tali's direction, impacting on the ground and knocking the quarian off her feet.

The remaining geth trooper was badly damaged and struggled just to stay on its feet. It was able to aim its pulse rifle and send a flurry of shots from where the M-8 avenger attack had come from.

Another grenade from the launcher was forthcoming and the two geth were put down for good.

"Eat that you bosh'tets!" Lena yelled at the smoldering piles of scrap metal.

"Watch it, Lena! You feed them too many grenades and there won't be anything left to salvage." A male quarian in white armor with black highlights appeared from a cluster of rocks where the assault rifle fire had previously emanated from. It was Penn'Norek, the leader of their small squad.

Tali scanned the area. "We're clear," she told the other two as she trotted over to the heap of smoking geth parts.

"Don't get mad at me. They didn't wanna die. I had to give them a little convincing. Overkill is better than one of us getting a suit rupture from not putting these monsters down fast enough."

"Alright," Penn conceded. "Let's just see if there's anything usable left."

The three quarians picked through the remains of the geth. Most of the parts they chose came from the trooper and rocket trooper that were the last to fall in the battle. All the while they were working Penn and Lena conversed about a variety of topics ranging from quarian politics to wondering what the volus looked like underneath their pressure suits. Tali was relatively quiet compared with the other two.

Even though Tali was now among her own people, she couldn't help but feel alone and isolated. She missed the old familiar faces that she had worked with for so long while aboard the Normandy: Commander Shepard, Navigator Pressly, Engineer Adams, Dr. Chakwas, the Alliance Requisitions Officer…she forgot what his name was though it didn't matter much since he had died in the attack on the Normandy.

Tali didn't know why she found it difficult to find her voice around Penn and Lena. Perhaps Tali had spent too much time with non-quarians. Or just Penn and Lena were motor mouths that wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise. She wasn't sure.

The quarians returned to their ship with their prizes. The Ebon Hawk was an ancient Dynamic-class freighter that Penn had won in a game of sabacc. It was not usual for a Dynamic-class freighter to be seen flying across the Galaxy. Only the most hardcore of historic starship collectors would own one. If an individual wanted a Dynamic freighter of their own, their only chance would be to scrounge around the scrap yards of Raxus Prime for untold years (or win it gambling against a ship collector like Penn had). The ship model was nearly four thousand years old. The quarians were scavengers and skilled at repairing spaceships, though even by their standards having a nearly four thousand year old ship still in working order was something to be proud of. It certainly gave Penn a great deal of bragging rights and was a boon when trying to court quarian women.

Once the ship was loaded with the choice parts, Lena started back out into the crimson background that was Maji. "Come on, let's go get more parts."

"I don't think any of the other pieces are even worth taking," Penn went after the other quarian. Tali stood near the loading ramp and merely watched the other two. In their original plan they were making only one trip to the ship.

"Why don't we let Admiral Rael'Zorah and the others decide what is and isn't valuable?"

"We're on a timed mission here," Penn protested.

"No we're not."

"I'm not willing to risk more geth showing up as we drag our feet getting more parts that probably aren't even worth it."

"I'll take care of them just like I did with the first group. Bring 'em on!" Just as Lena had finished her declaration there was an enormous thumping sound.

A geth dropship had come in fast and low and had just dropped in a geth armature followed by four geth troopers. Without delay Penn and Lena were running for the Ebon Hawk. The stuttering noises the geth made sounded angry.

"You just had to say that, didn't you?" Penn jeered as they ran for their lives.

Tali had run up the loading ramp and came back out wielding a ML-77 missile launcher. She fired several missiles at the dropship to deter it from attacking the Ebon Hawk while it was parked.

"Move it! We gotta go!" Penn said as they reached the ship. Tali followed Penn and Lena up the loading ramp. The geth troopers and armature fired at the freighter as it roared to life and lifted into the sky.

Once the Ebon Hawk had reached the upper atmosphere the quarians appeared to be in the clear. Geth dropships weren't exactly effective at combating other starships and there appeared to be no geth fighters on the way to incept them.

"That was close." Lena breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, you just had to say that didn't you? You need to be careful what you wish for." Penn started setting in the hyperspace coordinates.

"Yeah, because the geth wouldn't have shown up if I hadn't said "bring 'em on."" Lena was irritated. Penn had already mentioned her unfortunate choice of words when they were running from the geth on Maji. She didn't need to be reminded of it again.

"That's how it generally works, yes?" Penn asked.

Tali was quiet as the ship took them to the safety of hyperspace. When everything was set the three quarians went about their separate tasks on the ship. Tali was classifying and cataloging the geth parts they had taken. Lena was cleaning and reloading the grenade launcher and missile launcher that had been used in the fighting. Penn stayed in the cockpit and kept an eye on the old freighter.

Even though the quarians were away from Maji's radioactive environment, they still don't take off their suits. Quarians were known for their weak immune systems, which were only made even weaker over time due to living on the sterile environment of the Flotilla. Quarians never took off their suits. Their suits protected them from germs their bodies couldn't handle. Their weak immune systems were what was keeping the quarians stuck as space nomads. It would be a lengthy and painful process to acclimatize to a new world. The quarians had yet to start a new colony world, for three hundred years that had been flying around space focused on taking their homeworld back. Only time would tell if they would ever get their planet back. It seemed unlikely to happen in the near future. The Citadel, Confederacy and Republic all appeared to be content with leaving the geth alone as long as they stayed to the former quarian planets. If the quarians were going to retake the homeworld they would have to do it themselves. It didn't seem like much but Tali hoped their mission on Maji was at least a step in the right direction.


Author's Note: The title of the chapter, A Very Dangerous Place, is named after one of the tracks from the Mass Effect: Original Soundtrack. A Very Dangerous Place is one of the standard planet exploring tracks for the game.

The planet Maji appeared in Mass Effect. The odd skull that appears in the chapter is on Maji in the game.

Tali'Zorah is a squad member from the three Mass Effect games. Penn'Norek and Lena'Xel are OCs.

The description of the geth is based off their appearance in the original Mass Effect game. The standard geth troopers keep having their armor color changed in each game of the trilogy. Geth shock troopers, snipers and standard armatures only appear in the first Mass Effect. Geth rocket troopers appear red in the first and second games, but change in the third. I just decided to go with their appearance from the original game for this story.

The Ebon Hawk appeared in the Star Wars videogames Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.