Author's Note: So yeah, I'm still here. This might explain why Palmer and Six don't seem the same. Feros this time and a slight deviation from standard canon for the sake of the story. It always seemed so impersonal to me…
Disclaimer: I am not a psychologist so I have no idea if my explanation makes proper sense. I accept full responsibility for inaccuracies but none for misconceptions that result from it. No offence is intended.
Feros, Theseus System
Shepard, Palmer, Garrus and Ashley stepped out of the Normandy and walked over to a nearby colony. Before they could get much further than the pleasantries, a group of geth attacked, killing the colonist before turning their fire on the Spectre's team. After fighting through to the colony, they discussed the situation with the leader of the colony, known as Fai Dan. After running a few errands, the team climbed into the mako and started across the skyway. Only pausing briefly to meet some ExoGeni personnel with Palmer staying in the Mako, they blasted their way through the geth blockade. It was only when they reached the ExoGeni building that they encountered trouble.
After climbing out of the Mako and entering the building, they encountered a veritable army of geth. At least a hundred troopers, shock troopers, destroyers, hunters, juggernauts, Primes and hoppers were crammed into the room, weapons aimed but not firing. Saren's voice echoed across an intercom.
"Surrender, Shepard. You can't win this."
"He's right. Stand down," Shepard ordered after a minute's thought.
The group stowed their weapons and were approached by some geth who promptly stunned them with tazers.
The group came to as they were dragged before a hologram of Saren, two troopers dragging each along by their arms except Palmer who was being dragged by two Primes. Ashley and Palmer's helmets were pulled off once they were in view of Saren, who sneered at them all.
"Commander Shepard, you've become something of a thorn in my side. First you mess up my plans for Eden Prime, then you kill Matriarch Benezia and now you show up on Feros. I may have to make an example of you. Clearly, losing your father to batarians wasn't enough to teach you your place. Maybe losing your mother will," Saren threatened.
"Stay away from my mother, you son of a bitch," Shepard yelled, struggling against the grip of the geth.
"Tut tut, you really should keep that temper in check. What about you, Chief Williams? Planning on admitting your inferiority like your grandfather?" Saren commented, seeming genuinely curious.
"Shut up, you stupid fucker," Ashley snarled, also struggling against her captors.
"You humans, all the same. And what of Officer Vakarian? Care to do the right thing? Care to stop being a disgrace to turians everywhere?" Saren tempted.
"I'm not the one who's a disgrace, you cowardly bastard," Garrus roared, trying to throw off his geth.
"Maybe the SPARTAN is more reasonable. Surprised I know what you are? The AI was most helpful before it destroyed itself with its ship. Care to redeem yourself? You couldn't save Reach, could you?" Saren sneered.
Palmer, unlike the others, didn't struggle. Instead, her head dropped in apparent shame, guilt and remorse.
"So many dead. All those innocents, all those soldiers that you didn't save," Saren gloated.
Palmer didn't react, head remaining bowed.
"You couldn't even save your team," Saren grinned.
Palmer visibly tensed. In her mind, she saw as Noble Team fell.
"Tell them to make it count," ordered Jorge as she watched the Corvette and Jorge disappear into Slipspace with a third of the Supercarrier.
"I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost," Kat said as Palmer saw her collapse after a pink crystal tore through her cranium.
"Who's next? I'm ready! How 'bout you?" Emile bellowed as an energy sword erupted from his chest while Palmer watched.
"You're on your own, Noble… Carter out," echoed as Palmer watched the man who had become like an older brother to her crash a Pelican into a Scarab.
Carter's voice echoed in her head as she stared at the ground. When she looked up, even the geth almost stepped back in fear at the glint in her eyes.
There is something that must be understood about Sarah: she suffers from a degree of dissociative identity disorder. Whilst this is normally irrelevant as the personality of Sarah Palmer is dominant, in times of high stress her other personality emerges. This personality is in fact her original personality. The personality of Sarah Palmer was created after a two year coma following the Fall of Reach. It was this other personality that rose up now.
"Big mistake, Arterius. Sarah Palmer, Executive Officer of the UNSC Infinity, commander of its SPARTAN complement, might have shown you mercy. From Sarah-B312, Noble Six, one of two hyper-lethal vectors in the UNSC, the only mercy you will receive will be that I'll kill you quickly," B312 growled.
Before more could be said, B312 swung her legs up and wrapped them around the neck of one Prime, using the momentum to yank the other to the floor while her weight pulled the first down onto it as she swung to the other side of it, flipping onto her feet. Drawing her combat knife, she jammed it into the neck of the one on top while she crushed the head of the other between her fist and the ground. Yanking the knife out, she flung it across the room and straight into the head of a geth juggernaut. She scooped up one of the Primes and flung it at a trio of troopers (hard enough to crush them against the wall) before ducking out of the path of a series of rounds from a shock trooper. Ducking and weaving through the stream of bullets, she closed the gap between her and the shock trooper before punching it straight through a nearby wall.
A destroyer tried to punch her in the back of the head but she spun and caught the hulking robot's fist before flipping its arm around, snapping the arm off in the process. She smashed her other fist into its torso with sufficient force to double it over, allowing her to grab its head and smash it on her knee. She yanked its shotgun out of its hand, shot an approaching trooper and then threw it through the head of another.
The six geth holding the other members of the ground team were the only functioning geth left in the room and it had only taken three seconds. B312 smirked at Saren's hologram as she stalked toward the troopers, who made the mistake of dropping their captives. Shepard delivered a biotic punch to the head of one before tossing the other through a wall. Ashley yanked the gun out of the hands of one and gunned both down while Garrus flipped one over his shoulder by the arm into the other before overloading both with his omni-tool.
Saren's mandibles flexed in shock and slight fear as B312 scooped up her helmet and pulled it on before turning to him.
"Start running, Arterius, because you're next," the SPARTAN threatened quietly.
Saren visibly gulped in fear before the hologram shut off.
"There's still an army between us and the way out," Garrus pointed out.
"Commander, permission to engage?" B312 requested.
"Permission granted," Shepard answered after a moment's hesitation.
Sarah allowed a feral grin to appear on her face as she activated her active camouflage and vanished to deal with the geth. The other three stared in shock at the spot she'd occupied for a moment before moving on. After fighting through some geth and krogan, those that weren't rushing toward the lobby, they acquired the information, were warned about the crazy colonists by Joker and started to head back. When they reached the entrance to the lobby, they not only encountered an ExoGeni scientist but also silence from the next room. Fearing the worst, they got into cover before opening the door. The sight that greeted them would stay with them forever.
The SPARTAN was sat on top of a small mountain made up of broken geth and dead krogan. Pieces of geth littered the room and the walls were covered in white and yellow. Sarah was calmly wiping the blood from her dripping knife on the last living krogan's cheek. As the others walked in she calmly sheathed the knife before casually smashing a fist down through the krogan's crest. She sauntered down from her perch and waited for them to reach her. As the soldiers and scientist made their way through the mayhem toward her, Garrus noticed that nothing seemed to have been shot by anything other than geth weapons.
After climbing back into the Mako, the group began the return journey across the skyway. This time when they stopped at the ExoGeni hideout, Sarah accompanied them under orders not to kill anyone. When the scientist gave away their position, the group confronted the man known as Jeong. Apparently, ExoGeni wanted to purge the colony and he was obliged to do so. When it became apparent that Shepard's attempts to negotiate weren't working and Jeong was on the verge of shooting her, B312 stepped in.
There was a bang and a cry of pain as one of the SPARTAN's pistols fired and shattered half the bones in his trigger finger. At Shepard's look, B312 shrugged.
"You said no killing so I didn't kill him," the elder woman explained.
Shepard seemed to decide that this was not the time to berate B312 and so, after being given specialised grenade mods, they returned to the Mako to continue to the colony. After fighting through the colony to the freighter (without injuring any of the colonists), the team were able to move the freighter and proceed down toward the thorian. Sarah demonstrated her ruthless efficiency, taking point and eliminating the majority of creepers in their way. After dealing with the thorian and meeting an asari commando formerly loyal to Saren, the team returned to the ship and left the colony.