…
"Alright team! Listen up!"-Shepard shouted at the members of the ground team.-" We're about to go in hot into enemy controlled territory with no knowledge whatsoever of who or what will be waiting for us. All we do know is that there'll be geth involved! So, I've decided to take Tali and Kaiden with me since they're our best bet against whatever's waiting for us out 'll be team Normandy. In case I'm totally mistaken, and we end up not needing tech on this mission, I'm assigning the rest of you to protecting the ship and readying the Mako for ground support. As of now, you're team Mako. Are there any questions?"
"Hmph, when do we start shooting?"- Wrex said, his thundering krogan voice revealing his little patience and unmistakable desire for violence.
"Not soon enough, Wrex. Now, team Normandy, ready up, we're leaving in ten minutes. Move!"
…
"Are you with the Alliance?"- the man in front of Shepard asked. He looked nervous, constantly checking his surroundings, as if he felt watched, a sense of impending danger looming over him. He knew it was of no use; the geth had those machines, those stalkers, with them, and if they were around he'd probably be dead before he knew it.
"Yes, I am. I'm Commander Shepard, and I'm here to assist you. And who might you be?"
"There's no time for that, you have to hurry, Fai Dan wants to meet you. You have to go, now!"- did they not understand the danger they were in? Did they not realize how strong the geth were, how invincible? They could be dead at any given moment!
"Calm down. You're safe with us. Just tell me, who's Fai Dan? Does he have any intel on the geth?"
"No, no, nononono, you don't understand, Fai Dan needs to meet you before they attack again. He's our leader, and he needs support before the geth push again! Please, just hurry!"-he could feel the geth's scopes aiming at his head, waiting to line up for the perfect kill, the perfect shot…
"Alright, take me there. You'll be safe with us, I promise."
"You can't make that promise now. No one can. Up the stairs, past the freighter. And Gods help us all."- it felt right to him that these were his last words, words of warning, words that might help save the others. He felt something scratching, and a sudden itch on the back of his brain, which took hold of him in time to warn him about the geth. Specifically, about the rocket that had just been shot at him.
His last thoughts went out to his ancestral master, and he acknowledged that he had failed. But at the least the Thorian might yet be saved.
…
Shepard couldn't tell what had happened. He couldn't explain why Kaiden was on the floor helping a man with half of his back missing. He couldn't tell why Tali was using her omni-tool to overload something in front of him. He didn't know why, or how, but in a matter of seconds after hearing the characteristic click of a shotgun, he had turned back and jumped away from the colonist, grabbing both of his teammates in the process. After that, he couldn't remember when he'd gotten up and started shooting at the geth and yelling orders, when his instinct had gotten the best of him and made him fight for his own survival.
He shot a burst of polonium rounds from his shotgun into a geth shield, taking it out immediately. Quickly switching to his pistol, he threw a grenade as he jumped into cover behind a few crates. By now, Tali had hacked the geth the furthest away from them, and the machine had started picking off his buddies one by one. Kaiden had given up on the other man, and rushed to the aid of the team in a fit of rage and biotics. He threw two geth units back, and Shepard seized the opportunity by quickly activating the marksman mod on his pistol and filling the two units with bullets before they could get back on their feet.
"Tali, get behind me! Alenko, covering fire!"
Shepard then surrounded himself in a barrier of pure biotic power, and rushed the three remaining geth units with his shotgun. The first unit hid behind cover before Shepard had a clear shot, so as the Commander ran past its cover, he jerked his upper torso just enough to get a good shot at the geth. This, however, meant he lost momentum, and as he rushed towards the second unit, that was standing in the middle of the hallway they were fighting in, he was shot by a red laser that instantly took his shields down to a third of their capability. Without any time to think, Shepard decided to go on the aggressive and rammed the second geth unit, using its boy as a shield against other lasers coming in his direction. He shot the geth in what would be its stomach if it had one, and white, gooping liquid flowed from within the machine, but before he could take cover, he saw that the third unit was about to use the Carnage version of his shotgun on him, effectively bypassing Shepard's geth protection and blowing him up for good. Without time to spare, Shepard threw the geth he had rammed onto the one about to shoot him, and as the rocket hit the flying body at point blank range of its sender, the third and last geth unit was blown to smithereens.
However, the Commander was also thrown back, his already fluttering shields now fully depleted. Looking up as he was sent flying back, he could see two more geth looking at him. But something was wrong. These geth weren't carrying any weapons, and they were on the walls. He hit the floor hard, getting the air knocked out straight out of his lungs, and didn't have time to react as he saw one of the geth's eye charge up and glow red.
'Fuck.'
Suddenly, both of the geth detached from the wall and started floating up into the ceiling. Before John knew it, Tali was rushing them with her shotgun and taking them both out swiftly as they were crippled in this way. She then turned around to face him, and Shepard felt an hand on his shoulder as she approached him. Kaiden Alenko was there, looking at him as if he'd grown a third head all of the sudden. He wondered if Kaiden was angry at him.
"What the hell were you thinking Shepard?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"- yes, he was definitely angry.
"Keelah, Shepard, are you alright? Did they manage to hit you? Do you need medi-gel, I've got some right here… keelah, what were you thinking, you scared us!"- at least Tali showed her concern in a slightly less aggressive way. He laughed at his own thoughts, only a few seconds after he'd been in life danger. He picked himself up, dusted himself off, and turned to the rest of his team with a small grin across his face:
"I wasn't thinking. All I knew was that if I didn't take those geth out fast, they might attack us with those carnage rockets again. So I acted. Sorry if I made you both worry, hehe."
Alenko just stood there, staring deeply into him. Tali still had her omni-tool ready to dispense medi-gel if need be, but Shepard reassured he was just fine in a single gesture.
"After this is done, you and me, we're going to have a long talk about this crazy shit you pull out. We're a team, Shepard. Don't just throw your life away."- Kaiden looked and acted serious, but Shepard knew he was just worried.
"Geez, could have sworn I was the commander here. Don't worry Alenko, I don't intend to die today."- he took a deep breath and glanced over at the dead body of the colonist who had approached them earlier.- "Then again, he probably didn't either…"
"Real shame, that one. Could have gotten us to the colony, and to this Fai Dan guy he was talking about. Heck, maybe when we get there, there won't be anyone left to save."
"Then let's stop worrying and let's start moving! Those people will be helpless against the geth! We have no time to spare!"- Shepard felt a hand on his shoulder and three fingers gripping it.
"No, Shepard. These colonists are everything but helpless. These people have had their homes taken from them, their families killed, everything gone. But for as long as they stand, the colony will live. This is their home, and they will fight to the death to protect it from the geth."
Shepard was taken aback by her sudden emotional outburst. How could he have been so blind? He'd failed to see the similarities between these colonists and Tali's own people: only a small group of people left, driven from their homes by the geth, but still fighting. Never giving up. Shepard admired that in the quarians, and he admired Tali's straight forwardness.
"Tali… if you need to talk about something… me and Kaiden are here for you. You know that, right?"
A second went by without a word being said. What was she feeling, he wondered. Indignation at his assumption? Anger at a misunderstood insinuation? Confusion as to what he meant?
"Shepard, thank you but… I'm fine, really. We don't have time for me whining and those colonists still need help. We should go."
He looked at her with the most concerned expression she'd ever seen.
"Tali…"
"Please, Shepard. Let's just… go. Please."
She stared back at him, her eyes pleading him not to press further on the matter. To her satisfaction, he promptly respected her wishes, and followed her up a set of stairs, and into the entrance of the colony of Zhu's Hope.
…
"Mako team, do you read?"- Shepard's voice came through the communicator, static slightly clouding up his voice.
"Garrus here, I'm reading you Shepard. There's some sort of interference, be carefull not to break up."-Wrex and Ashley closed in to listen to the conversation. They'd been sitting in the cargo hold for about half an hour, so they were dying for some news.
"Copy that Garrus. The geth presence here is strong, but nothing overwhelming. However, I would request you to stay sharp and monitor the Normandy. Don't trust scans, we have confirmation that they are using jammers. If you see them, shoot'em. Got it?"-the Commander sounded worried, or was it just the interference? Garrus couldn't tell.
"Roger that, Commander. Those machines won't even know what hit'em."-Garrus tried to make his confidence evident in his words, but truth be told, he was anxious to fight a foe so amazingly different from anything else as the geth.
"And Garrus?"-Shepard's voice was getting lower, the interference must have been getting stronger.
"Yes, sir?"
"Be careful out there."
"Will do, Shepard."
After that, only static.
…
One hour later, Zhu's hope tunnels
"That's the last of them."-Kaiden said, walking away from the enemy corpse he had just filled to the brim with bullets.-"What now?"
"We take down this jammer, report back to Fai Dan, and set out to the ExoGeni headquarters to find out what the hell Saren was looking for in this ass-end of nowhere."-Shepard replied, walking over to his newest kill to inspect the body.-"Why the hell would the krogan be helping him? It doesn't add up."
"They're probably mercs like Wrex, sent here to stop you from reaching whatever it was that Saren found here."-Tali added, swiping the blood from her shotgun and setting her omni-tool back to passive mode.
"But what could Saren offer the krogan that he couldn't offer another species? Why are we not fighting asari commandos, or salarian mercs, or humans? Why the lack of other races amongst his ranks? And how can he afford to pay them if his Spectre status as been withdrawn?"
"We'll think about it later. Right now, let's just shoot this thing and get this over with. The sooner we get out of these tunnels, the better. Specially with that weird guy back there wandering through the halls. Talk about creepy."-Kaiden didn't want to admit, but he also felt rather uncomfortable in such tight quarters combat, in which Shepard and Tali excelled. That, coupled with some minor signs of claustrophobia, and Alenko just wanted to get the hell out of there. FAST.
"Do you think he'll be alright, Shepard? He looked and acted rather strangely…"-Tali asked, her genuine worry about a crazy man she'd just met coming as a surprise to Shepard. 'You never do cease to amaze, do you, miss nar Rayya?', he thought.
"Don't worry, Tali, we've cleared all varen and geth from these tunnel. If he got this far without us, he'll be fine. Besides, there's nothing we can do to help him if he doesn't want to be helped."-he tried to give her a reassuring smile, but he too was worried about the man. Not entirely about his safety, though, but also about his message about what it seemed to be that someone was controlling him through pain. 'What were you up to, you sly turian bastard?'
"I know, it's just, I don't feel well letting him just stay here unprotected."
"Wait a second. Protection? Tali, you're a flipping genius!"- Shepard said, as he smiled at her and Alenko and reached over to his ear to activate his intra-tympanum implant.-"Garrus, are you there?"
"Reading you loud and clear, Shepard, what's the situation?"- Garrus' voice carried a certain tone of defiance, not to Shepard, but to whoever even dared cause their team a problem.
"I need you to get the Mako and put your entire team into it. Get it to these coordinates ASAP."-he reached over to some active consoles and quickly hacked it with a single swoop from his omni-tool, gaining an impressed look from both Alenko and Tali, even though the latter's was harder to tell.-"I'm sending you the schematics to the building and a number of sub-levels you can take through these tunnels to get there. Once you get here, I want you to take Wrex to the underground and check a few krogan bodies before you set up defendable positions with Fai Dan, the colony's leader. Tell him I sent you. Your first priority is to keep the colonists alive, and keeping the Normandy safe. Roger that?"
"Yeah, on it Shepard. Getting the team ready right now."
"Thanks Garrus. And good luck."
"You too, Shepard."
…
"What is it about you that makes people think we enjoy being in harm's way?"- Tali said to Shepard as he talked with a colonist by the name of Gavin Hossle. Mister Hossle had approached the Commander after his conversation with the two leaders of his small group, Ethan Jeong and Juliana Baynham, requesting that he find a patch of data left behind at ExoGeni headquarters. They'd all managed to find a small, safe haven in one of the garages of the skyscraper, effectively avoiding the geth by hiding in the most obvious of places.
"I guess it's just a case of my reputation preceding me. Stick with me too long and you may find yourself famous for all the wrong reasons, Tali."-he heard her chuckle a bit, and smiled a bit at the small piece of innocence he'd managed to find in that geth infested hellhole.
"Great, like my father wouldn't dislike the idea of me in a human ship enough."-he looked at her curiously, trying to understand the meaning behind her words. She stared back defiantly-"You're not the only one with secrets, Commander…"
"Really? Well then, I'll just have to pry them out of you when we get back to the Normandy, now won't I?"- he said, giving her a devilish smile. Then he understood what he'd just blurted out. 'Oh crap, no. Please tell me I did NOT just say that. She's going to think I'm some sort of womanizer…', Shepard thought.- "I mean, if I'm not prying too much, that is, I mean, I'm sorry if I've stepped into something personal…"
Instead, Tali just lightly chuckled again, and gently, yet anxiously replied:
"No, that would be just fine by me, Shepard. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to."-he inwardly sighed in relief at her words.
"Good. We just have to save this world then. No pressure, right?"-the Commander said, turning towards the exit to the shelter and to Alenko, who'd been chatting up with a biotic ExoGeni security guard that had survived the attack.
"With you around? They never even stood a chance."
