Chapter 7: Feros I
"Alright team! You've read the briefing. The geth are attacking the colony, Zhu's Hope and we don't know why. Our first priority is the safety of the colony, so check your fire around the colonists. Our second main objective is to find out what the geth are after, and then beat them to it. We've all been in battle before, but you're part a team now, and don't forget it," Shepard said, giving each team member a serious look. "We'll watch your back, if you watch ours." Everybody in the airlock nodded in affirmation. This was it. This was real.
"Logged," The Normandy's VI beeped overhead. "The commanding officer is ashore. XO Pressley has the deck." Ratchet shrugged around in his armor, making sure that it fit him well. He had restored his old Lombax armor, though it was still a bit stiff. He had modified the armor to hold the weapons that Shepard had given him. The Lombax decided to try and withhold using his weapons unless he really needed to. Ammo was scarce in this galaxy. As in, there wasn't any.
With the helmet covering his face, Ratchet had kept the hologuise off, as his ears and fur were hidden. His tail was still on display, but that wasn't as a big of a visual problem. Shepard had agreed that it would be alright.
As the crew made their way to the loading dock, they were surprised to be greeted by what looked like a colonist.
"We saw your ship," The colonist said in a strange monotone voice. "Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."
The crew all shared glances with each other. It seemed that they were feeling that something was not quite right here.
"Who's Fai Dan?" Shepard asked, seeing that the crew was getting suspicious, a sentiment he was beginning to share.
"He's our leader," the colonist explained. "He needs your help to prepare for the geth. They're making another push. Please. Up the stairs, past the freighter."
"Rockets!" Wrex suddenly yelled out. Before he even consciously registered the fact that a rocket was flying towards him, Ratchet pushed the colonist to the ground.
"Get down!" He yelled, before trying to take cover himself. Before he could, a rocket hit Ratchet with a bone crushing force, sending the Lombax flying back into floor of the dock.
"Ratchet!" Ashley yelled out, as her Assault Rifle began spitting rounds at the enemy. Shepard's team scrambled into cover, confused by the surprise attack.
"There are three of them!" Garrus yelled out, switching over to his sniper rifle. "But there's another squad coming down the right!"
Realizing that they could quickly be overrun, Shepard yelled out to Wrex and Kaidan, "Biotics, now! Snipers, Cover me!" As the familiar sound of biotic fields filled the battleground, Shepard broke cover and dashed towards the geth troopers at the far end of the dock, dropping his assault rifle. The trooper closest to Shepard, realizing the imminent danger, turned its pulse rifle towards the commander. Too late.
Shepard batted the weapon aside and gripped the geth by its optics. Using the robot as a human shield, Shepard rushed the other two geth. In the distance, Shepard registered the familiar boom of a sniper rifle, the accompanying round slamming into one of the troopers, downing it instantly. "Got him!" Garrus yelled out.
As Shepard's robotic shield shook with the impact of the third trooper's pulse rounds, he grunted and pushed the robot forwards towards the last trooper, slamming both of them into the wall.
Drawing his pistol with his left hand, Shepard began to unload round after round into the torso of the first geth, the shots passing cleanly through into its comrade behind him. As his overheated pistol beeped in protest, Shepard dove back into cover just as the geth around the geth around the corner began unloading. A rocket whizzed overhead, flying off into the distance.
A burst of electricity suddenly encompassed the group of geth, sending one falling to its knees, a heap of scrap metal. The other geth shrugged off the attack and set up Hex shields, their pulse rifles firing hot death. Another boom, and another geth fell, its head blasted off.
"One less!" Ashley yelled, claiming her shot. That left two. But these were craftier, making sure to stay behind their strong hex shields.
"Grraahh!" Shepard turned to see Wrex barrel past him, spraying shotgun blasts into the shields. His regeneration taking care of the wounds stray shots inflicted on him, Wrex broke through the shields and charged straight into one geth, bowling it backwards. With a quick turn, Wrex head butted the last geth, staggering it backwards. With a quick grab, Wrex threw the geth onto the ground and smashed its head with his foot, unloading a final blast into the geth's chest for good measure.
As the geth Wrex pushed backwards shakily got to its feet, another burst of electricity exploded around the geth, causing it to stagger. Another quickly followed, overloading the geth's circuits. "And that's another one for me!" Tali called out!
"Hey!" Kaidan called out. "You stole my kill!"
Satisfied that there were no more bogeys, Shepard hurriedly made his way back to Ratchet, readying an application of medi-gel. He hoped that the Lombax was alright. Kneeling down, Shepard shook Ratchet's shoulder.
"Oh!" Ratchet moaned out. "Did anybody catch the cruiser that hit me?" He asked, rubbing his head as he sat up. The crew gathered around the young Lombax, all equally relieved to see that he had survived the rocket blast.
"You got hit by a geth rocket! And your armor isn't even damaged!" Tali exclaimed in surprise.
Not understanding the full implications, Ratchet nodded, letting his helmet fold back, revealing his face. "Maybe not, but it sent me flying into the ground. My head hurts!"
The group chuckled, seeing that their resident extra-dimensional teammate was alright.
"Be more careful next time, short stuff," Ashley said with a grin that Ratchet returned with a glare, his helmet sliding back into place.
Wrex looked thoughtfully at the Lombax. He had eaten a rocket just to help that pathetic colonist. The kid had a strong sense of selflessness, that was for sure. Wrex had to grudgingly admit that it was admirable. There weren't too many people in the universe like that.
Shepard smiled and looked over to where Ratchet had shoved the colonist, he was crouching in the corner, but strangely enough, he didn't seem so scared. Moving to the colonist, Shepard offered his hand, which the colonist looked at and ignored as he got up himself. Shepard raised a brow as he withdrew his hand.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes," The colonist said haltingly. "Like I said. Fai Dan wishes to speak with you. Please. This way."
Unnerved by the man's strange behavior and halting speech, Shepard signaled to the rest of the group. As they neared a set of stairs, Shepard raised his arm, blocking their guide's way. "Wait," He said. This was a perfect place for an ambush. The entrance was practically a bottleneck.
Suddenly, a different geth dropped into their field of view, a red laser point flashing in Shepard's eyes. "Down!" He yelled, pulling the colonist into the side cover, just as a bullet came screaming past.
Immediately, the group swung into action, shooting at the geth through the entryway. But the geth was too quick, hopping away out of sight. The team decided to stay back, not knowing what faced them ahead.
"It's too quick!" Tali commented.
"I've got this!" Ratchet yelled, dashing through the doorway. Immediately, he spotted the geth hopper high up to his left. The geth swung its head at Ratchet, aimed, and let off a shot, all in the span of a second. But Ratchet was just as fast. Ducking, the shot blasted into the wall behind him.
Seeing the hopper launch off the wall, Ratchet flipped towards the wall on his right, launching forward in an interception path with the hopper. With a swing of his wrench, Ratchet crushed the geth's head, sending a heap of scrap metal towards the ground. Landing on the second flight of stairs leading up, Ratchet felt the hairs on the back of his neck prick, and he threw himself forward, just as another red hot bold buzzed overhead. Landing poorly, Ratchet stumbled forward, still gripping his wrench. Turning, he saw another geth hopper on the stairs, aiming at him again. He paled.
Suddenly, a whooshing echoed in the chamber. Gasping, Ratchet flinched backwards as a biotic field warped the geth's shields, the impact of the field stunning the hopper. Several shotgun blasts followed, shredding through the synthetic material. Ratchet looked up, seeing Wrex standing over him.
"Don't turn your back to the enemy, kid." Wrex's voice was half reproachful, and half amused.
Ratchet sighed in relief. "Thanks, Wrex. I'll keep that in mind next time," The Lombax said as he gripped Wrex's offered hand, pulling himself up.
The colonist that had greeted them then suddenly walked past. "This way. Fai Dan is waiting."
The rest of the team, seeing that Ratchet was alright, shuffled past, following the guide. Wrex slapped Ratchet on the back and followed. "Don't die yet, kid. Things are just getting interesting."
Shepard brought up the rear. "Good job, Ratchet. Next time, though, be a little more careful. You always won't be so lucky, and we might not always be close behind."
Ratchet nodded. "Yeah. Sorry about that, Shepard. I got caught up in the moment. By the way, I have a bad feeling about this colonist. I don't even know his name. And the way he talks is a little weird. Is that normal here, in your galaxy?"
Shepard shook his head. "No. I know what you mean. There's something a little off about our guide, but we'll just have to let it play out."
Ratchet nodded, and the two caught up with the rest of the group, Shepard taking the lead once again. But before the group could exit the stairwell, the familiar clicks and beeps of the geth language echoed behind the crew. Whipping his head around, Ratchet saw five geth hoppers closing in. "Contact rear!" He shouted.
Without thinking, Ratchet equipped his Nitro Reaper and unloaded several blasts into the group, the powerful weapon tearing through the group. But more geth stalkers started pouring into the stairwell. "Move!" Shepard ordered, firing his pistol at the geth as he stormed up the stairs. At the top, several nervous looking civilians almost shot the commander until he put up his hands. "Friendlies!" He shouted.
As the civilians stood down, Shepard turned and ushered the rest of the crew through, firing over their heads at the trailing geth.
As the crew exited the confined space, Ratchet slowly backed up, covering their retreat. Seeing that everybody was safe, Ratchet turned tail and ran, the numbers too much for him. As Ratchet rolled into cover, Shepard ordered, "Return fire!"
The entire crew fired shotgun, pistol, and assault rifle blasts into opening, the shear volume of suppressive fire driving the geth back. The colonists, taking cover behind the barricades further back, gave a rousing cheer as they saw Shepard an his crew driving back the geth.
As soon as the geth decided to retreat, Shepard ordered the cease fire. "Ok. It looks like the geth aren't going to give up so easily. Ashley, I want you two to stay here and guard this entrance. I don't want a single geth getting through here, understood?"
"Yes, commander," Ashley said with a salute.
"The rest of you with me." Shepard then gestured to the colonist leading them to continue forward. As they passed by the defenders, some expressed gratitude to the soldiers for coming to help them out, while others introduced themselves slightly hesitantly to Ashley, who looked quite intimidating with her battle armor and weapons.
As they entered what appeared to be a makeshift headquarters and medical bay, Shepard let the rest pass by and took Ratchet aside to ask him a question. "What weapon was that you used? I've never seen a shotgun like it."
Ratchet scratched the back of his head guiltily. "That was one of the weapons from my universe. It's called a Nitro Reaper."
"Well, this Nitro Reaper made mincemeat of those geth. I don't want you to take this the wrong way, Ratchet, because I'm grateful that you covered us so well, but I think that it might be a good idea to minimize the use of your weapons, simply because they're so advanced.
Ratchet nodded. "I understand. Besides, most of my weapons require ammo or power sources that are just beyond anything in the Milky Way. I'll conserve what I have for when it's needed."
Shepard smiled. "Thanks, sergeant." Shepard then made his way around, talking to some of the colonists in the compound, giving them encouragement or trying to uncover more information.
To Ratchet, in this battlefield, it seemed like Shepard had entered an entirely different persona from the easygoing air he had on the Normandy. He stood tall, strong, and indomitable it seemed to the chaos around him. Everywhere he went, the colonists eyes were immediately drawn to the commander, his calm presence bringing encouragement it seemed. It was impressive to see the effect of Shepard's charisma.
Finally, on other side of the area, Shepard and his crew met Fai Dan, the leader of this colony. Or what was left of it, rather.
"Oh, Commander," Fai Dan said, turning from a hard-looking woman. "I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us."
"You're a bit late, aren't you?" The woman asked accusingly to Shepard. Ratchet noticed that she was in battle armor and had a pistol strapped to her leg.
"Arcelia!" Fai Dan rebuked sharply, although Shepard raised his hand, indicating he wasn't offended nor intimidated in the least. "I'm sorry commander, but everybody's on edge since–" Fai Dan continued but was suddenly cut off by geth chatter.
"Watch out!" Arcelia yelled out, taking out an assault rifle on her back.
"Geth in the tower!" Tali yelled out, she and Garrus taking position around the entrance, already unloading return fire at the group of geth coming down the narrow stairwell of the tower. The rest of the crew quickly followed suit.
"Protect the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan shouted, before Shepard roughly pulled him down, placing himself between the civilian and the direction of the geth.
This time, the geth were caught in the bottleneck and were destroyed easily. "Clear!" Garrus called out.
Hearing this, Shepard holstered his pistol and pulled Fai Dan up. Ratchet still kept a tight grip on his wrench, looking around warily. He could still hear a deep rumbling that came from the tower.
Making a quick decision, Shepard turned to Wrex and Kaidan. "I want you two to stay here by the entrance. Same orders as before. Not a single geth gets through, understand? Hold this position until we return."
"Understood, commander," Kaidan replied with a salute.
Wrex nodded and grunted in understanding, hefting his shotgun.
"Stay here," Shepard said to Fai Dan and Arcelia. He didn't need any wild cards in the equation right now. "The rest of us, move in on the tower! Tali, you're point. Garrus, cover rear. Ratchet, you're backup. Let's go!" The four moved into the tower, eyes open, senses alert. Then they heard it.
"Help me! Please! I don't wanna die!" What followed was an explosion of geth chatter on the floor above.
Realizing he had to act, Ratchet reacted immediately. "I've got this!" Then the young Lombax leapt onto one of the columns supporting the structure and leapt off of it onto the side of the stairs, leaping from there towards the second floor. Grabbing the ledge, Ratchet pulled himself up and came face to face with three geth pointing their rifles right at him. The colonist was lying on the ground, sizzling holes left where the geth shot him.
Without thinking, Ratchet pulled out his lightning ravager and rolled to the side, avoiding a salvo of bullets. Then he unleashed two quick strikes with the whip, the electricity chaining from one geth to the rest, frying the circuitry of the synthetics. Looking at the colonist one more time, Ratchet knelt and closed the man's eyes. Another life taken. Death was the one constant across universes it seemed.
Shepard, Tali, and Garrus stormed up the stairs, only to stop dead in their tracks when they saw the body. The silence was broken by the violent chatter of the geth. Looking to his right, down the hall which led to the tower, Shepard saw another squad closing in. "Ratchet, take cover!" He called out. As phasic rounds shot past, the squad returned fire, Garrus and Tali unloading their tech grenades into the group of geth, making short work of the synthetics. As soon as the coast was clear, Shepard spoke. "Is everybody ok?"
All three nodded. "This isn't the first time I've seen somebody die, Shepard," Ratchet said, his eyes hard. "Let's just stop these guys from taking any more lives."
Tali and Garrus nodded their agreement. "Let's get these damn geth," Tali spat out, surprising everybody there with the venom in her voice.
Deciding to put it aside for later, Shepard started moving down the hall. "Let's go then."
As the four reached the entrance to what was the top of the tower, they burst through, guns blazing, taking the geth by surprise at the speed and ferocity of the attack. Dashing up the side of a sloped incline, the four ducked into cover as the geth returned fire. Peaking out, Shepard noted a larger geth making its way towards their position, attempting a charge.
"Garrus! Take out that big guy!" A second later, Garrus' sniper rifle sang out once. Twice. Thrice. And the geth fell to the ground, a heap of scrap, synthetic fluid sprayed all around.
Unfazed, the rest of the geth closed in, firing their rifles in sustained bursts, keeping the four behind cover as they moved closer.
"Not good, guys!" Ratchet called out as he pulled his head behind cover, a phasic round deflecting off of the tip of on his ears, the trillium armor absorbing the damage. "There's about twelve of them, and they're closing in and fast!"
"Grenades," Shepard said calmly, unclipping two of them from his belt, Ratchet following suit. Tali and Garrus did the same with their tech grenades. "On my count. One." Shepard called out, looking at each of the four there, smiling a small smile of encouragement. "Two."
Garrus grinned, his mandibles turning up. "C-Sec's got nothing on this!" Ratchet thought that maybe Tali smiled behind her helmet, but he couldn't be sure.
Shepard grinned. "Three!"
As one, all four unloaded with their weapons in one hand, popping out of cover, the other hands hurling their grenades into the midst of the enemy. It was only for a second, but already, Shepard's shields were blaring in distress, prompting the commander to duck down, pulling Tali with him, who was still firing away with her shotgun.
Not a second later, a massive explosion rocked the tower as the grenades all went off at once, ripping through the geth. As a silence fell over the battleground, Shepard finally noticed a low rumbling going on in the background. Glad to see that his squad was safe, Shepard looked around, before finally noticing a large mass moving near the ceiling.
"What's that?!" Garrus said, pointing his sniper rifle at the moving object. Then, it detached itself completely from the ceiling, the light illuminating the bottom of the object. Tali gasped in recognition.
"That's a geth dropship!" She exclaimed. "T-T-Th-They never had anything like this before the war! They've developed so far!"
Ratchet, unfazed by the sight of the dropship, having seen many in his battles, moved over the far end of the room where he found a console that looked like something the geth might set up. "Hey guys, I think I may have found something!"
As the group gathered around, Shepard looked at the console. "I was never so good with these things. Garrus? Tali?"
Tali stepped forward, checking the console. "It looks like a beacon of sorts. Almost like they were searching for something… Oh no! It's got a self-destruct sequence! Get back!"
The four dove away at the nick of time. The console exploded, bits of shrapnel flying all over. "Those bosh'tets!" Tali cursed. "Most of their technology is rigged to self-destruct if captured. Their firewalls and security protocols are so advanced."
Garrus got up and dusted himself off. "Seems like since the quarians create the geth, they've just been getting more and more out of hand," He said coolly.
Stiffening at this, the quarian in question whirled on Garrus. The turian could've sworn that Tali's glare was so cold that ice was forming inside her helmet.
Aware of the tension in the air as well as some tensions between the two species, Ratchet stayed quiet, unsure of how to intervene. Thankfully, Shepard stepped in. "Alright, you two. Cool it. We have a mission to complete." Maintaining eye contact with each until they finally looked away and apologized mutteringly.
Nodding, Shepard turned back towards the way they came. "Let's finish it then, as a team." The trip back was uneventful. When they got back, they found Wrex and Kaidan there, several more geth corpses at their feet.
"A few had stayed back, trying to get the drop on you guys from behind," Kaidan pointed out.
Wrex chuckled. "Pretty flimsy things. Can't imagine how the quarians lost the war to these machines."
Tali, hearing the comment, growled. It seemed like everybody today was trying to pick on her. "Probably for similar reasons the krogan were infected by the genophage by the salarians," She shot back coldly.
Wrex turned a slow stare onto the quarian, the two having a stare-off. Sensing that Tali's hand was inching closer to her shotgun, Shepard was about to step in before Wrex threw back his head and laughed.
"You've got spunk, kid! I think I like you." Tali stepped back, taken by surprise in Wrex's dramatic mood change. Wrex turned to Shepard. "More and more, I feel like I made the right decision in following you out here." The krogan nodded at the commander, respect growing in his eyes for the compelling human.
Shepard arched an eyebrow, but nodded. "Alright, just make sure that no more get through, got it?"
Kaidan, also relieved to see that the tension had dissolved, nodded. "You've got it commander."
Meanwhile, in the background, Garrus turned to Ratchet and chuckled. "Seems like I'm not only one Tali's angry with now."
Ratchet quirked an eyebrow behind his helmet. "Do you have something against Tali? It seemed like you were kinda upset with the quarian race in general with that comment back there."
Garrus just shrugged. "I don't have anything against quarians per say, but you have to admit they were pretty stupid for creating the geth. They should've known that it would get out of hand, but no," Garrus said mockingly. "They thought that they knew it all. Now look at them. Floating in exile, outcasts of society. Serves 'em right. Shh!" He said suddenly as Tali drew closer to them.
She glared at Garrus once, causing the turian to smirk before sauntering off towards the complex to restock on supplies. Tali turned to Ratchet, looking down at the short Lombax. Ratchet was a newcomer to this galaxy, and for good reason, she didn't want Ratchet to gain a bad impression of quarians from the onset because of the comments of a stupid turian and krogan.
"Ratchet," She began hurriedly. "I can only guess what Garrus was probably saying about me, but I just wanted to set something straight." As Tali explained hurriedly about the quarians war with the geth, and why she hated the geth, but hated possibly even more the hatred shown to her people because of their creations, Ratchet was taken back to the Lombaxes.
He had no idea if they were loved by the people of the galaxy or not. But one thing was for sure. They had taken in Tachyon, and he turned their own technology against them. The Lombaxes were now in exile in who knows where. He could definitely relate to Tali on some level.
As the young quarian finished, Ratchet looked around to make sure the coast was clear before letting his helmet fold back into his armor, showing Tali his face. Tali was still slightly taken aback by the alien sight of a fur covered face.
Ratchet grinned. "It's okay, Tali. I get it. At least, a little bit. You know about what happened to my people. Tachyon, somebody the Lombaxes raised from birth, turned on them. Now, they're also in exile…"
Not for the first time, Tali wished that she didn't have to live in that suit, so that others could see her face. "…"
Ratchet grinned again, before letting his helmet fold over his head again. "And don't worry about those guys. They're just being stupid if they can't see that you're a great person."
Tali's eyes lit up as her smile shone through her helmet, causing a grin to light up Ratchet's face behind his helmet. "Thank you, Ratchet. I appreciate your encouragement."
"No problem!" Ratchet said, giving a thumbs up. "I've got your back!"
Just then, Shepard called the two over. Garrus was already there, checking his gear.
"Alright," The commander began. "I just talked with Fai Dan, and it sounds like the geth are concentrated in an area around the ExoGeni corporation headquarters. There's a lot of geth between here and there, but there's also a garage nearby. There's a Mako in there, which we can use to cross the sky bridges."
Garrus nodded. "Ok, so where's this garage?"
"It's through the tunnels, but I just talked to Ashley, who's been talking to some of the colonists, and apparently, the people here are running short on supplies."
"That isn't hard to believe. What with all the attacks," Tali said.
Shepard nodded. "So because of this, it's just going to be me, Garrus, and Tali going to ExoGeni. Ratchet, I want you and Wrex to head into the tunnels and take care of the requests. Talk to Ashley to find out what you need to do, got it?"
Ratchet nodded and saluted to Shepard, who was already making his way towards the elevator to the sky bridges, Garrus talking to him at his side. Before Tali could follow, Ratchet reached over to Tali with an outstretched palm, confusing the quarian. "It's a high five," He explained. "You slap my hand with your hand. Except you only have three fingers instead of five…"
Tali snickered as understanding dawned on her. "I think it should be a high eight then. Five for you, three for me."
Ratchet only grinned further as Tali slapped his hand. "Awesome! Good luck out there. Keep those two guys safe!" He called out as he went to find Wrex.
Tali grinned as she called back, "You do the same for Wrex." Ratchet laughed. Keep Wrex safe? From what? Even a falling asteroid wouldn't have a chance against that krogan.
A/N: Hey guys. Hope you enjoyed Feros Part 1. It took a while, but I finally got it done. Due to popular request, Ratchet has finally started using some of his guns, but again, this is only for emergency situations, since he can run out of ammo quickly, and he's going to need it for the harder battles up ahead! Please give me feedback about my combat scenes and my story scenes. Are they too hectic? Too rushed? Too slow? Too descriptive? Thanks! And until next time!
