Tali'Zorah vas Neema sat up the front of the Quarian shuttle, reviewing the available data on Freedom's Progress as they approached the Human colony. Her task was to find Veetor'Nara, a young Quarian who had gone missing whilst on his pilgrimage. She noted that the colony had over 900,000 registered inhabitants which made that fact that the colony had gone dark rather disturbing, especially considering that as far as she could tell their communication systems were functioning perfectly well.
As they came In to land she looked over her shoulder at Prazza, the senior marine and her second in command for this assignment, and decided to warn him against the trigger happy tendencies she had noted on his record.
"Prazza, just so we're clear, this is a Human colony so no firing unless fired upon, or if I give the command. We don't want to get someone killed or start a conflict if we can avoid it."
Prazza was annoyed about being second In command to someone he felt was only In charge because she was the admirals daughter. However since he could see the logic in her order and despite the urge to do otherwise he replied with a simple "Yes ma'am."
Tali detected the undercurrent of disdain in Prazza's voice, however before she could even consider what to do about it the shuttle was rocked by an explosion, shaking violently as it fell the final few metres to the ground.
To the great surprise of all of the marines Tali was the first to recover, bouncing straight up from her seat and over to the shuttle door, opening it before the marines could even stand. The moment the door opened Tali saw four Loki mechs moving towards her as they opened fire, but she was ready hitting two of them with a crippling area overload as she pulled out her Scimitar shotgun, firing two rounds that eliminated other two mechs.
"Everybody out now and find some cover!" Tali ordered as she surveyed her surroundings and spotted the Ymir mech which was most likely responsible for shooting the 84 year old shuttle down.
Prazza and the five other marines followed her out and took cover behind some crates and around the side of one of the prefabs that covered the settlement, successfully avoiding the gunfire from the twin mass accelerator cannons in the mechs right arm.
Tali used this distraction as an opportunity to fire off the remaining six rounds in her shotgun damaging the Ymir's shields slightly. As the engineer correctly anticipated, this also made the Ymir see her as the greatest threat and consequentially it started to focus on her position off to the side, drawing fire away from the marines.
As Tali moved back into cover Prazza and the other marines opened fire and unleashed successive overloads on the mech, dropping its shields and causing it to malfunction, swinging its right arm across the battle field spraying gunfire at the marines catching one right in the center of his visor which killed him instantly. The mech, which was now directly next to the downed shuttle, was then finished off by an infuriated Prazza who fired a single round into the Ymirs head.
Upon seeing this Tali shouted out franticly to her squad "Get away from the mech it's going to blow!"
The marines to their credit reacted instantly and scattered, narrowly avoiding the blast from the downed mech and the chain reaction which resulted in the shuttle itself being engulfed in a fireball.
Prazza was enraged by this point and now that the fight was over he was going to let Tali know it.
"By the Ancestors, what were you thinking?" he screamed as he moved towards her, not caring that he was yelling at his superior in front of the entire squad. "You engaged the mech by yourself, and now Uto'Gani is dead and our shuttle is ruined because of it!"
Tali was taken aback by Prazza's verbal assault, and she was saddened by the marines death, but she also recognised the danger in drawing the entire squads attention when more hostile mechs were likely still wandering around.
Directing her attention to the other marines and away from Prazza for the moment, she ordered "You four establish a perimeter and be on the lookout for more mechs." The marines paused for a moment their loyalties torn as they looked between the squad leader and friend they'd known for years, and the mission leader who they were sworn to follow. Prazza realised this, and nodded his head in agreement before waiting for her to continue.
Tali thought over the battle that had just occurred for a moment before she turned her attention back to the squad leader. She held his gaze and stared him down, determined to defend her actions as she spoke.
"Prazza, I successfully engaged it early to draw its fire away from the rest of the squad so you and the others could take it down. I am sorry about Uto, but as you should well know, incidents like that mechs malfunction do happen, and in being a marine you should be somewhat prepared for an outcome such as this." She felt that she was being a little cold with that last bit, but it was a point that really needed to be made. "And as for the shuttle, that was your doing Prazza. You have been briefed on mechs such as those, and should have known that a finishing shot to the head would cause an explosion like that."
Any reply that Prazza could deliver was cut off by the sound of an approaching shuttle, They both glanced over to observe a white shuttle landing behind some prefabs a couple of kilometers to the south.
"Alliance recon team?" Prazza enquired ignoring the earlier hostilities between them for the sake of the mission.
"No we are well outside Alliance territory, most likely scavengers or possibly whoever is responsible for the colony disappearing." Tali replied. "We should get moving and try to find Veetor without attracting their attention. We don't know who or what we would be facing, but if they are the ones who took out this colony, it's likely that they would be too powerful for the six of us."
Prazza nodded in agreement before they gathered the rest of the squad and moved off into the settlement, trying to avoid the mechs and the new arrivals whenever possible.
Shepard looked over the two Cerberus operatives on the opposite side of the shuttle, trying to gage what type of people he would be working with.
Jacob Taylor seemed like a decent man, although he could tell the man had seen more than anyone should ever have to. Jacob just had that look in his eyes that told him he had lost any naiveté about the possible horrors one could encounter through life.
It was a look that Shepard knew all too well, a look that Shepard had himself.
He had learned over a brief conversation before they boarded that Taylor used to work for the Alliance but had become disillusioned with them over their bureaucratic red tape and inaction against serious threats, something John could fully understand. In short he was fairly certain Jacob was someone he could work with.
Miranda Lawson on the other hand was a whole other story. While she(like Jacob) certainly didn't seem like a true believer in the terrorist organisation, she was very loyal to them for reasons completely unknown. She was obviously highly intelligent and had looks that many women would kill for, however she certainly was not a 'people person' her outwardly cold demeanor and her unwillingness to share personal history of any kind saw to that.
Though he hadn't yet seen Miranda fight, the trust the Illusive man had put in her suggested that she not only knew what she was doing in combat but also had some leadership ability as well. Shepard also knew that she wouldn't show any hesitation in killing on the battlefield, after witnessing her execution of the traitor Wilson first hand.
John knew he couldn't trust her with anything other than the mission, at least he wouldn't be able to anytime soon.
John's thoughts were disrupted by a query from Jacob "Captain we are almost at Freedom's Progress, what are your orders?"
Shepard's response was clear but firm and without any hesitation. "While we're here to look for evidence, our first priority are any survivors. They will likely need help if there are any left and an eye witness testimony could give us valuable intel on who or what is behind this."
Shepard took a closer look at his team mates apparel and just as the shuttle was about to touch down he remarked. "In future you two might want to wear something that doesn't have the Cerberus logo on it. There are enough people in the galaxy inclined to shoot you on sight for working for the Illusive Man, so advertising it isn't the brightest idea." He paused before continuing "Also you both need to get some gear that will at least stop shrapnel if your shields go down. I can assure you no one on the ground team of the Normandy came out of it physically unscathed, and as you are currently dressed I have very high doubts for your respective survivals if we face any force of real significance."
"Yes sir." Jacob replied instantly.
Miranda was slower in her response, seemingly both annoyed and surprised for some reason unknown to John, before she acknowledged his assessment with a nod and replied with "Of course Captain."
The shuttle touched down and the door was opened, the three man team set foot on solid ground and Shepard lead from the front with a short order. "Ok you two, let's move."
I thought Tali as the leader of a ground team would be an interesting topic to cover and there is a point to their shuttle being wrecked, which I will get to later. As for the second part of this chapter I think its good to cover Shepard's assessment of his new team, it goes towards his present mindset and will have an effect on their interactions throughout the story. As for the armour it always struck me as odd that they would fight what is essentially a war, in skin tight leather with the Cerberus logo on their chests just asking for people to try and kill or capture them.
For anyone who is wondering Ash will pop up again a couple of times before Horizon, but there isn't a heck of a lot to do with her until then. Although its still a long way off I'm also considering giving Traynor a cameo appearance on Horizon, I'd like to know what people think about that.
I should be able to get the next chapter up by the end of the week. Reviews are always appreciated by me so please especially if someones a little too ooc, so post them if you are so inclined, and thank you to those following this story, it is nice to know that people are at least enjoying this.