A harem-themed story with an actual plot? That's a first.

Hope i nailed the explanation for the geth thing correctly...

[Still taking requests as to additional non-canon/canon quarians. Post at your own will.]


As usual in every morning, things were slow on the SR-2. Even the ships pilot, usually energetic and witty with jokes, was slowly tapping away at his terminal.

As of the moment, the targeted planet they were to make a covert drop on was none other than the one Daro was on. As requested due to party size, Shepard was to report alone. Any additionally forces would have made the mission more dangerous as the threat of detection increased with each person.

Grabbing a cup of military-grade coffee, which was usually tasteless, the pilot took a sip from his cup while EDI began explaining ship diagnostics to him. To bring some joy, if not minor, he began spinning in his chair slowly as to not spill the hot cup on himself.

"Thrusters are functioning well beyond their exceptional parameters. Weapons, if needed, are prepared for in instant discharge, but a secondary round will take time to prepare. Stealth systems are engaged and shields are at their maximum."

"Yeah, thanks for telling me what I already know."

"I was merely informing you of the key worries you requested I relay to you. If you want more complex explanations such as cooling unit ratios and the variables the forward capacitors currently have, I could relay those also."

"You'd think I'd learned enough in flight school." The pilot muttered. During his simultaneous third spin and sip of his drink, he ended up facing Shepard, arms crossed and a curious expression made from his brows. Naturally, the pilot would have been startled by the commanders sudden appearance, but the day had gone on so slowly that he returned Shepard's gesture, his brows mirroring the commanders. "What's up?"

"Nothing Joker." Shepard replied, dropping his wondering of the pilots actions and stepping to the pilots side. "How much longer until we get to the planet?"

"About an hour, maybe less." The pilot replied, ceasing his spinning and propping his elbows on the seats handles.

"Fifty-two minutes and forty-eight minutes to be exact." EDI replied, a hologram of a countdown timer appearing just above Jokers terminal.

"Kiss up." Joker muttered.

"Cut the act." Shepard responded. Joker gave a shrug, calling it a truce. Eying the terminal once more, Shepard added, "Did we receive any new messages from the admiral?"

"Aside from the coordinated you submitted and that reconnaissance report she sent to your private terminal, no nothing."

Eying the console for a further three seconds, Shepard eventually moved back. "Alright. I'm gonna go check on some of the crew. If anything happens, tell EDI to find me and tell me what's up."

"Aye aye." the pilot replied, once again tapping away at his console.

Turning completely from the pilot, Shepard made his way through the walkway and to the elevator. The few crew that littered the area currently gave him the usual 'good morning' talk as well as some salutes, but it was all protocol.

Though he was mostly liked, no one bothered him with long talks or trying to make him ease up. He was busy and the plan he probably had set left little time in the matter of intrusion.

Entering the elevator and pressing the '3rd Deck' symbol, the elevator doors closed relatively easily and began its descent to the lower floor. Shepard eyed the closed door, his thoughts to himself and the mission set in mind. All he had to do for the moment was talk to Legion.

The elevator doors opening, Shepard stepped out and nodded off to the few people who greeted him, even Gardner, who tried coaxing him to try an experimental dish.

As soon as the med bay doors opened, Shepard noticed a crew member sitting straight on one of the medical beds. The crewmen looked at him and gave a lazy salute, exhaustion evident.

"Don't worry about him commander, he's just experiencing a rather strange symptom from the events of the collector base." the doctor told him, gently moving him to the side and approaching the ill crewman with a syringe filled with a blue liquid.

"He's not the only one. People have been experiencing strange things these days, just two weeks since… 'those' events."

Shepard noticed a slight shudder from the doctor who experienced some of the events herself. The shudder easily went away as she grasped the crewman's shoulder and aimed the needle point over his exposed arm. The man flinched as the needle pierced his skin and emptied its contents into his bloodstream. Removing the needle and rubbing the would with an anesthetic-filled cotton swab, Chakwas eventually placed an adhesive bandage over the injected area and patted it twice in place.

"No heavy lifting or much movement for the next two days, and you should be fine. Report to me if you experience any other illnesses, sores or aches."

"Thanks doc." the man replied with a weak smile. He slid off the bed with a slight stagger and made his way out of the med bay, but not before giving one last salute to Shepard.

"How long has this been happening?" Shepard asked, eying the man leaving until the door shut behind him.

"All this week, just recently to be precise. I've prepared several similar doses since it's actually the third case I just fixed up." she replied with a shrug. "As a precautionary measure, I have also take blood samples from all three ill people and have detected a strange form of radiation poisoning within each. Thank goodness it showed when it did; I'm not sure what would have happened if I hadn't fixed it."

"Run an entire crew check." Shepard ordered almost immediately. "If it's contagious, I want the select crew quarantined. If you suspect it may be hiding within the crew's bodies, I want you to run thorough scans. If it's already gotten to most of the crew, we move to a secured medical facility, drop them off and use what crew we have until all are healed."

"Already have it covered." Chakwas replied, moving to her desk and opening a report. "Once the team came back, I ran scans thoroughly for each member, a minimum of five scans each. Those three must have had their very well hidden, but the rest aren't showing anything they are showing."

Closing the report, she crosses her arms and adds, "I forwarded the report to Mordin and he's already tested the samples. As it turns out, we were exposed to a pure form of radiation within the pods we were in. At first, it simply keeps you knocked out. Those fumes stay within the pod for as long as they have to and, for some sick joke or cruel act, the fumes stop venting, allowing you to awaken, only for the pure radiation to wash over you in more than just lethal amounts. From what else he'd been able to gather up from the pods on Horizon, there is a liquid substance that helped peel the skin off the flesh as radiation does its job. In other words, all that will be left are skin an bones, quite literally."

Melting them basically. The events of the base quickly flashed before him, every detail being seen clearly through his eyes in a split second. The musty smell, the moist floor, the hive-like structure and finally, the human Reaper. It was the most shocking revelation he had ever encountered, and he somehow knew there was more.

"Damn…" Shepard eventually voiced. "Chakwas, what happened down there, I'm sure, was rather traumatic. If you or any of the crew need leave, I'll see to it that you do."

"What happened on that base has left its scars commander." Chakwas replied in a sad tone, lowering her gave and looking at the floor. Her eyes easily came back, the same, determined medic still within her. "But I am a medic, and medics heal all wounds."

"Good to hear." the commander replied with a nod. "I have to go talk with Legion, then I'll head down to the Cargo bay and for my shuttle. If anything comes up, let me know."

"I will, commander. And thank you."

With a final exchange of nods, Shepard walked to the AI Core and soon found himself facing a geth not seven paces ahead of him. The darkness, along with the maintenance-red lights added a miniature ominous feel to the room, but it was easy to rid of if two people were in the room.

"Shepard-Commander." the geth spoke in its monotone voice, acknowledging his presence. "We have been expecting you."

"Legion." Shepard acknowledged with a nod. "Why were you expecting me? Was there something you wanted to discuss?"

"We wish to ask what your motives are." Legion replied in its natural, neutral tone. "You have helped us before in reclaiming much of the Heretics, who have now integrated almost fully with the true geth. Now, you are once more engaging in geth related missions, but are engaging in a lethal way to acquire tech for a weapon the Creators will most likely use against us in the future given the right circumstances. We wish to know, as questioned before, what your motives are."

'My motives? Is he thinking I'll betray the true geth, or geth as a whole?'

"Legion, my 'motives' are my own, and while I would like to know how you came to know what I was planning, I'd rather push that to the side as we talk about this. Now, to begin, I am not betraying your people, the geth, or aiding the quarians in making a weapon to use against your kind. As you are aware that I am going with Xen on this mission, I am certain you are aware of the message the admiral sent me weeks before, correct?"

With a stall, with added silence, the geth replied, "…yes."

"Then you know of the weapon Tali's father was making along with his own research with geth."

"We are aware. It was originally with the data Creator-Tali'Zorah refused to give, which was still not sent."

"And I thank you for that, Legion. Now, the weapon itself is a think I marvel at. It is an EMP superweapon. It is not one, but a large array of EMP devices wired together that will let loose a field strong enough to cover an entire planet and the space above it. If you are thinking what I am thinking, I am certain you are aware of what that could mean for any geth inhabiting any planet."

"Instant deactivation on a large scale." the geth replied. An EMP that large 'had' to be able to deactivate all the geth surrounding the planet. Naturally, geth have protocols regarding the deactivation through EMP, which was almost always a self-destruct, but an EMP of the force and magnitude could possibly cripple even the programs and protocols within every unit, leaving thousands susceptible to being rewritten.

"Though it is a powerful weapon, rest assured that it will not be used against your kind Legion." Shepard assured the geth infiltrator. "The two geth Daro needs are both experimental. From what intel she managed to gather, they have the shielding capabilities of a Reaper, but on a far smaller scale. If we can capture at least two and study them, the weapon will be able to cripple any device and disrupt any shield in its way, including Reapers."

Every node listening in understood completely, though it was mid-way through what Shepard was saying. Given the fact that they will know what Reaper shielding is like, even on a small scale, the EMP superweapon of theirs will be able to tune in to the right magnitude as to disrupt the largest of foes and leave it drifting in space for either a very, very, very long time or until it is destroyed. Such a weapon also had its negatives on the ship that would be firing, but from what the commander was telling him, they probably already had a plan for it.

"We understand completely now, Shepard-Commander." the geth replied with a minor flap of its pedals. "This will only be used against the Reapers."

Shepard nodded back at the geth. "That's right. That takes care of what I wanted to talk to you about, so if there's anything you'd like to ask right now, now would be the time to ask it."

With a minor stall, the geth replied, "Negative."

"Then I'll be going." Shepard responded. "I'll be in the cargo bay for the remainder of my stay until we reach the planet. If you need me, you know where to find me."

"Acknowledged." the geth replied evenly.

With a finally nod to the geth, Shepard turned and walked back to the med bay. Legion kept its glowing optics on the spectre until both doors, med bay and AI core, sealed. From that point on, it set its body to 'stationary' and began receiving the many reports his kind were sending to him.

..

As Shepard sat in the transport, he felt the new gravity force him down on his seat more. It was a little heavier than the one on the Qwerta and usually resulted in a curse, but he kept himself calm.

"Nearing the drop point, commander. One minute, fifteen seconds out."

The pilot didn't need a response and returned to his piloting the vehicle. In the silence and slight bumpiness of the gravitational pockets the planets atmosphere gave, Shepard pulled out his weaponry and checked them one last time.

Dual pistols, two combat knives and a sniper rifle with three-hundred-plus rounds, the rest being kept in tactical slots all over his armor. The armor he was at the moment was a lighter version, made for more flexibility while maintaining a same-level armor grade as the heavy armor he naturally wore. Along with being light, it was camouflaged to fit the scenery.

"Point located. Quarians near the vicinity. Marked as friendly and no weapons have fired upon us yet, nor tracking. Landing, now."

Shepard easily felt the vehicle lower rather smoothly. Determining now as a good time to move, he strapped he knives onto his shoulder pads, holstered his pistols and placed the weapon on his back.

With the opening of the door, Shepard took a step onto the planet and felt the propulsion of the ships thrusters behind him as it set of into orbit once more. Ahead of him were four marines and the admiral, along with a minor base of operations, easy to set up and take down in less than thirty minute.

Taking two steps forward, the marines moved behind the admiral as she herself moved forward. With a nod, the admiral acknowledged him.

"Shepard. Are you ready to begin?"


Short, but bear with me, we're gettin there.