Unna'Karis: I know from history class you moved against the geth in the Skyllian Verge during the first part of the reaper war.
Tali'Zorah: Yes, the Normandy was dispatched to deal with geth threatening human colonies.
UK: Is that where you found the Song of the Ancients?
TZ: Yes. When I found it, it was through a sea of blood.
UK: Fitting. We inflicted too much upon the geth.
Chapter 9: Geth Incursion
Wiping the sweat off her brow was difficult for Tali, and the occasional drops of sweat that feel into her eyeballs irritated her. She grumbled as she worked on the drive discharge. The Normandy's stealth systems were advanced, but required constant maintenance.
"Come on you bosh'tet machine, work with me…" She grunted as she found the problem, another burned out piece of insulation had caused some wiring to fray. She quickly made the necessary repairs and called to Engineer Adams.
"Good work Tali, looks like it's working now. The Commander came looking for you a little while ago, seems like it was something important. Why don't you go check with him." Adams told her.
"You sure? Can't it wait?" Tali asked, "I think there's a few more maintenance issues we should resolve as fast as possible."
Adams shook his head. "The rest of us can handle it. You go see what the commander wants Tali."
Sighing, Tali walked out of engineering and headed for the elevator. Her emotions regarding the commander were still rather mixed, but this was still his ship, and stopping Saren was still a priority. She would be respectful and polite, and do her best not to obsess over whether or not he had abandoned Ashley on Virmir.
Arriving at Shepard's cabin, Tali pressed the intercom. "Tali reporting as ordered, captain." She formally stated.
The door opened and Shepard smiled at Tali from the threshold. "Tali, I have a few things I want to discuss with you. Please, come inside."
Swallowing hard, Tali nodded. She suddenly remembered that it had been Shepard who had been in love with Ashley, and that it was hitting him harder than anyone else. His face was lined and his eyes sunken with deep shadows beneath them, as if he had not slept in days. Even though it had been several weeks, Shepard seemed to still be grieving.
'If he grieves her, why oh why did he abandon her?' Tali wondered to herself as she stepped into the room.
"You called for me Shepard?" She asked.
Nodding, Shepard handed her a holo-pad. "Take a look at this and tell me what you think."
As she read through the report, Tali felt herself becoming increasingly alarmed. It detailed the geth moving in the Armstrong Cluster. While the scattered forces Saren commanded could be excused as a splinter faction, the number of reports of activity indicated a large number of combat platforms.
"This is bad Shepard, we haven't seen the geth move like this, not since the Geth Rebellions. And their positioning… It looks like Saren is moving to make a full scale assault on all human holdings in the Skyllian Verge."
"That's what I was afraid you'd say." Shepard said, his face tightening even further. "I just received this data from Admiral Hackett, and you are our resident expert on the geth. The brass is fairly certain this is jus t an intel gathering move by the geth, but with Saren hell bent on destroying humanity and bringing back the Reapers, I am worried this might be the start of something big. We also have reports of Saren having holdings on Noveria, a corporate planet renowned for its R&D services in an environment where people don't ask many questions. But I am prioritizing this geth incursion first."
"I think you are right commander, this could pose a serious threat to the galaxy at large." Tali stated worriedly, "The geth moving outside the Veil in such numbers is a very, very bad thing. It might even mean that Saren has convinced the majority of the geth to follow him instead of the small splinter group we initially thought was behind him."
Shepard nodded. "That there is no time to waste. We are about a six hours away from the first site. I'll alert navigation." Shepard started for the door, then turned back to Tali. "Tali, I know we all took Ash's death hard, but you're the youngest of the crew, and you and Ash were pretty close. You doing OK?"
There it was again, Shepard's compassion and love. Even in the midst of his own grief, he was reaching out to others. How could he still find the strength in the midst of his own torment?
"I'm fine Shepard," Tali hoarsely replied, "What about you? You two were lovers, were you not?"
Blushing, Shepard shook his head. "We might have been, we had feelings for each other yes, but we both agreed to wait until it was over." He half smiled his eyes distant. "I guess that was a mistake, huh."
Behind her mask, Tali felt a dozen feelings pulling her in a dozen directions. She chose her words carefully, not wanting to play on Shepard's grief to try to get close to him. "I don't know Shepard. She was my friend, and to you she was more. But she's gone, and all we can do now is make Saren pay."
Sighing, Shepard nodded. "Yeah. We can't live in the past. And we can't just stop living. Someday, maybe I will find another girl and settle down with her, raise a family. But right now we have a galaxy to save, and I just got a painful reminder that the battlefield is no place for romance." Shepard shook his head, then looked up with new resolve in his face. "There is still hope for the future, and I intend to make sure those colonies have one. Come on, let's go give the geth a kick in the teeth."
Trying hard to bring some levity to the situation, Tali lamely quipped, "Or at least a good boot in the processor."
Laughing far more then the joke deserved, Shepard clapped Tali on the back and led her out of his room. "That's the spirit Tali. Go get Garrus and prep the mako. We are going in hot."
A few hours later, Tali wondered how anyone who was as capable a combat commander and leader of sentient beings could be such a horrific driver. Her teeth clattered as the mako bounced through Antibaar's frozen purple wasteland.
"Geth contacts straight ahead." She managed as the latest bump jostled her.
"I've got them, bring me closer Shepard, I want to put a slug right in that eye of theirs." Gurrus called from the turret.
"We'll attack from that ridge over there, should give us a good view point." Shepard declared.
"Look out, drones incoming!" Tali shouted as blips appeared on her readout.
"I've got them." Garrus calmly replied, and the cannon roared to life as the mako sped onwards.
Impeccable as always, Garrus's marksmanship made shooting down the geth look easy, despite Shepard's best efforts to careen about the landscape like a drunken sailor on shore leave.
Examining the geth comm. chatter, Tali told Shepard, "Looks like they are aware of our presence, and," She gulped, "That's a colossus in the center of their base."
"Heh, no problem." Shepard chuckled, "Take out their anti-air turrets. A hit from the Normandy's guns will turn that thing into slag in no time."
"Roger that. Those turrets will be a piece of cake." Garrus confidently boasted.
True to his word, the turian operative made short work of the geth's defenses, and the Normandy came roaring in from low orbit, obliterating the rest of the geth outpost and turning the Colossus into slag.
"It's like they almost expected us to try a ground assault." Shepard remarked as they prepped for evac. "Why on earth would we make a run at those rocket troopers and colossus when we have a nice big warship to blast them away?"
"Their geth Shepard" Tali informed, "They aren't smart enough to realize high orbit is the highest ground."
"True enough. I am guessing though that particular trick won't work again, and we have three more worlds with signs of geth activity on them. It's going to be a long couple of days." Shepard said as they drove into the Normandy's bay.
"Odd," Liara remarked as they poked through the scraps of the final geth base on Rayingri, sifting through rubble left from the firefight.
"What's odd Liara?" Tali asked, checking one of the geth troopers to see if it's memory core was intact.
"None of these bases appear to be any sort of command outpost. It's odd that we haven't found any signs of the geth leadership." Liara observed.
Thoughtfully, Tali replied, "Yes, even though the geth are a networked intelligence, I would expect some sort of central hub. Let me see if I can get any data indicating where it is from this one's memory core."
Sifting through the bits of scrambled data, managed to piece together some clues. "Hey Shepard, come over here a minute." She called.
Jogging over, the human SPECTRE asked, "What is it Tali?"
"It looks like this platform was receiving periodic command signals from five sources in this cluster." Tali explained, "We found four of them, but this points to a fifth outpost, and the unidentified source issued the most commands."
"Hmm." Shepard examined the data for himself, and after a few moments said, "Do you think you can triangulate the third set of coordinates from some of the signals we intercepted from the other outposts? We assumed they were all from the known bases and didn't examine them too closely."
"Absolutely. Once we get back to the Normandy, give me a few hours to analyze the signals with Garrus and we should be able to get a general idea of what system they are originating from." Tali assured Shepard.
"Excellent, let's head back then, doesn't look like there is much else to find here."
Back aboard the Normandy, Tali and Garrus began the long task of figuring out where the signal was originating from.
"I have to admit, back when I was in C-Sec I never would have imagined the smartest person I would know was going to be a female quarian." Garrus remarked.
"Oh? Is that racism, or sexism?" Tali asked jokingly.
Pretending to carefully ponder the question, Garrus replied, "Why, I think it's probably both. But you have shown me Tali, women and quarians can be alright. Even if they talk funny."
"What in the name of the Ancestor's makes you think I talk funny?" Tali laughed.
"Well there's that weird accent my translator gives you. Almost like the programmer was trying to make you sound dumb." Garrus mused.
"Well I don't complain about that weird reverb you turian's have in your voices, and it's not my translator that does that." Tali shot back.
Panto-miming being hit by an imaginary round, Garrus said with mock pain, "Oh, and such barb they sling at me!"
Giggling, Tali elbowed Garrus. "You've been hanging around with Wrex to much; you're starting to quote Hamlet."
Dropping his mandibles in exaggerated horror, Garrus made such a horrible face Tali couldn't help herself but laugh.
"Oh stop it; you look like someone put pyjak meat in your feeding tube."
"Now who's been hanging out with Wrex to much? Pyjak meat? We can't even eat that stuff, even if it was edible." Garrus teasingly asked.
"True, but I like being around Wrex, for someone who acts like such a tough old merc, he's a real softie inside." Tali replied.
Garrus nodded. "Yes, I think it's a good thing you have someone like that to take you under your wing. Shepard's been a bit of a mentor for me as well. When he and I took down Dr. Saleon… Well let's just say he taught me more about justice in one conversation then I learned at all my years at C-Sec."
"Kaiden told me about that. How many years was it you chased him?"
Garrus groaned. "To many, that is for sure. All the lives he ruined." His mandibles dropped in sadness. "Those poor souls on that ship… I'm glad you weren't there to see it Tali, it was a nightmare."
Garrus straightened up, his eyes blazing. "But now he's gone for good, and his blood is on his own hands. It was a good feeling, taking down evil, knowing I never compromised my own principles. When we finish with Saren, I want to be able to continue doing that. I don't think there is a place for me at C-Sec anymore, but there are plenty of monsters like Dr. Saleon out there, who think they are beyond the reach of the law. I want to be the one that reminds them no one escapes justice." He turned to Tali, "What do you want to do after this is all over Tali?"
"Finish my pilgrimage and return to my people." She replied simply, carefully not remarking that she half wanted to stay by Shepard's side.
"Won't taking down Saren count as your pilgrimage service?" Garrus inquired.
"Oh no, it has to be a direct gift to the migrant fleet. We are a very insular people; we have to be when no other species will give us aide, no offense."
Grunting, Garrus waved it away. "None taken, I'm starting to realize the line hierarchy has taken on quarians was wrong. We should have tried to do more for your people, maybe welcomed you to one of our colonies. As it is, we've taken all of the good dextro planets for ourselves."
"Thanks, Garrus." Tali said softly. "It matters to me to know there's at least one turian out there who cares."
"I'm glad. But what about after your pilgrimage Tali? What do you plan on doing after that?" Garrus asked again.
Tali sighed. "I don't know. Be a mechanic on a ship? Maybe use my knowledge to help my people have a better future? I don't know Garrus. I don't know what I want."
"That's hard." Garrus said, giving Tali a sympathetic look. "I've always known I wanted to be on the side of justice, but sometimes I didn't know quite where that was. You will find your path Tali, I am sure."
"Thanks, Garrus."
They worked in silence for a few more minutes, then Tali shouted in triumph. "There it is, looks like the signals are originating in the Grissom system."
"And there aren't to many places there they could be there. Do you want to let Shepard know, or should I?" Garru asked.
"You go ahead. I'm sure we will be deploying shortly." Tali replied.
"Were not going to sit on this one I think, Shepard wants those geth dead." Garrus agreed, and headed off to give Shepard the news. Sure enough, the Normandy was shortly speeding through space toward the final geth base.
"There it is." Tali said, examining the base with her binoculars. "Looks like that's where the signal is coming from."
"Shouldn't we just have the Normandy bomb it from orbit?" Kaiden asked, "It would make more sense than trooping into that kill zone he geth have set up over there."
"Negative. Too much valuable data an orbital bombardment could destroy. That's why we're going in with the mako though, plenty of fire power." Shepard said. "You get the turret Kaiden, were finishing this."
Climbing back into the mako, Tali took a couple of deep breaths. For once, she was less worried about Shepard's driving and more worried about the geth. Whatever was in that base, they had to stop it. Humanity could not suffer the same fate as the quarians.
As soon as the geth defenders were in range, Kaiden opened fire with the cannon and chain gun, blasting a geth platform off of its guard tower. The rest of the geth returned fire with sniper rounds and rockets, and Tali worked franticly to maintain power to the mako's shields. But the geth were taken by surprise, and shortly nothing was left outside the building except for the hole riddled remains of geth combat units.
Disembarking, Tali hurried to the others by the door. "I'll have it open in just a moment." She assured the commander, and quickly broke through the firewalls to open the door. Inside, the geth were waiting.
"GRENADES!" Shepard ordered, and the team lobbed explosives into the door as the geth fired from defensive positions.
Once the explosives detonated, Tali used the momentary calm to hack one of the geth shock troopers, who proceeded to wildly fire at his comrades. "Now, while they are distracted!" Shepard ordered, and the team rushed in.
Kaiden hit a geth juggernaut firing from a balcony above the entrance with a combination singularity a nd overload, sending the huge construct spinning wildly around the room. Using her own tech skills, Tali overloaded a power station and watched as the geth clustered nearby were electrocuted while Shepard riddled them with rounds from his assault rifle.
"Clear!" Tali called, looking around.
"Looks like all of them Commander." Kaiden said, nudging the fallen juggernaught with his foot.
Suddenly, a quarian began to sing from speakers in one of the geth terminals.
O people, weep for thy children
O people, cry for the lost
O people, morn for thy homes
O people, thy garden is lost
"What is that?" Shepard asked, looking at Tali.
"Shh, I'll tell you in a moment." She hushed.
O children, lost and without a guide
Weep for thy parents that disown thee
The garden lays abandoned
Its caretaker has fled
The gardener has left her children
To play alone among her flowers
"It's a lament, one I've never heard." Tali said, listening as the song continued.
O people, why do you destroy your children
O children, why do you slay your parents
The garden is stained with blood
Blood of the gardeners, blood of the children
The garden waits for its maker's hand
As the children roam its streets, lost
O people, O children why are you lost
Ice ran down Tali's spine as the song finished, and she checked her omni tool. "I… I recorded it." She affirmed to herself, the played it back as Kaiden and Shepard crowded around her.
"What's she singing about? She sounds sad." Kaiden remarked.
"As I said, it's a lament, but it's not one ever sung by an actual quarian that I know of." Tali said.
"What?" Shepard asked, confused, "But that's a quarian singing, I can tell."
"Yes." Tali nodded unhappily, "But she sounds old, ancient even. And she's not singing with a mask on, I can tell."
"I thought you almost never took your masks off." Kaiden said slowly, "Why would she be singing without one?"
"I think… I think this is from shortly after the Rebellions." Tali said carefully. "But the song she is singing, it sounds like it's about the geth and the quarians. I'll make a recording to bring back to the fleet. I don't think this would be a pilgrimage gift, but some of our scholars will definitely want to see this."
Shepard nodded. "It's a piece of lost history. I'm sure the times after the Rebellions were chaotic, lots of things were lost."
"Yes." Tali agreed, "But this is still disturbing. Why would the geth have this song if my own people do not?"
They spent the next few hours combing the compound with another team from the Normandy, carefully retrieving any data on the geth they could find.
"This is all classified people, top secret. Make only one copy to be transmitted to FleetCom." Shepard ordered. "We don't want the geth finding out just what we learned about their plans."
As the others cleared out once everything had been carefully gone over, Tali approached Shepard nervously.
"Shepard, I want to ask you something." She said hesitantly.
He smiled at her wearily, obviously tired after the days of hard fighting and travel. "Sure Tali, what's up?"
Tapping her fingers together, Tali gathered her thoughts. "I was wondering if you would consider allowing me to make a copy of the data on the geth you have found."
Shepard frowned, looking at Tali carefully. "Why do you want a copy of that data Tali? You know its classified Alliance intel, I can't just go handing it out."
Gathering her courage, Tali stammered, "Well, when we found that recording, I realized that the geth had changed since they rebelled. That data we gathered, it could help my people understand them, their weapons, tactics, maybe even whatever passes for culture among the geth. That sort of intel would help us reclaim our homeworld." She blushed, and managed to get out, "It would mean a great deal to me, and would even be something I could bring back to the fleet as my pilgrimage gift."
Shepard's features softened, and he placed a hand on Tali's shoulder. "I see. This must be important to you."
Blushing at the sensation of his touch and looking down, Tali gathered her thoughts. "Yes… Though I understand if you can't help me, I will just have to find something else to give to my people."
"Hey." Shepard tilted Tali's chin so that she was gazing up into his eyes through her mask. She was very glad he couldn't see her face, she was blushing furiously now, her lips trembling. Part of her hoped he wanted to hug her, and part of her wanted to pull away from the man who had let Ashley die.
"Tali, you have been a great ally in this. I won't ask you to turn your back on your people to stop Saren. I will make a copy of the files before I transmit them back to fleet and give them to you. I don't know what it must feel like to have your homeworld taken, and as your friend I will do whatever I can to help you get it back."
A wave of joy washed over Tali, and she trembled in relief. "Thank, Shepard." She whispered. "Keelah Se'Lai."
Tali'Zorah: And that was how Shepard helped me complete my pilgrimage, and how I brought the Song of the Ancients back to our people.
Unna'Karis: Incredible that at the time the data on geth military formations was more important at the time.
TZ: Yes, the song was the first words of the past we had listened to in a long time. The first words of regret we ever heard. And one that we too soon forgot.