A/N: Hey folks. Sorry about the long delay. Apparently, life thought I was having it too easy, so it decided to fuck me this past week or so. Unfortunately, delays like this will probably become common. School shit is starting to kick in, and as much as I hate to say it, that takes precedence over this story. I'm still gonna shoot for one update a week, but no promises.

As if that wasn't bad enough, this chapter is my shortest yet. I'm splitting up my original first Feros chapter into two different ones. If i hadn't done this, you guys would be waiting even longer for this chapter.

Anywho, that's it for now. Enjoy the chapter!

A Fun Little Fight

With the colony map in front of us, Jenny, Ash, Kaidan, Tali, and I take a minute to study the layout. True to the game, the dock is just a level below the main colony. We can see all of the various sub-levels where the "hunt-and-gather" missions for the colony take place. I already know those are gonna be a blast.

"It looks like our best option is to simply dock here below the colony," I say, indicating the place in question. "From there, it should be easy to make contact with the colonists."

"I don't really see any other options," Jenny says, still looking contemplatively at the map. "We have no idea what the geth presence is like, so expect a hostile welcome. I shouldn't need to tell you watch your targets," she adds with a smile. "You guys know by now that flashlight head equals bad." That earns a smile from everyone. "Go get ready. Be at the airlock in 45 minutes. Dismissed." With that, the four of us file out of the comm. room. We all pile into the elevator to head down to the cargo bay. The ride is silent, and the door soon opens.

Our pre-mission prep begins in silence. Ash, Kaidan, and I need to get our armor on, and it looks like Tali is adding some pieces onto her suit. I'm not half way armored when my curiosity finally gets the better of me.

"What are you doing, Tali?" I ask, looking at the quarian machinist.

"I'm adding the armored sections onto my enviro-suit," she replies, still adding pieces on here and there.

"So quarian enviro-suits aren't naturally armored?"

"Only some parts are. The torso, for example, has the armor built in. However, most of the limbs are usually unarmored."

"Hmm. Learn something new every day," I say, resuming my preparations. I already have the leg portion of my armor on; now I pull on the armored boots, sealing them to the rest of the armor. Next comes the main torso piece. This one is always a pain in the ass: there's one seal that's almost impossible to reach without dislocating a shoulder. After much straining, I finally get the chest piece on. Compared to that small ordeal, the arms are easy. I take a second to make sure everything's feeling the way it should. I do a quick visual inspection and come to a conclusion: next time we're on the Citadel, I need to get this armor painted. It's still just a dull grey.

Finally I'm armored up; now I've got to arm up. My trusty Mattock goes on the magnetic strip on my back, and the Carnifex goes on my waist. Last but not least, my good ol' Bowie knife goes on my leg sheath. After Therum, I'm not going on any mission without that blade. Now that I'm loaded for bear, I look at the progress of my teammates.

Huh…they're already in the elevator waiting for me. Whoops. I hurry over and get into the lift. "Sorry," I tell them, giving a slightly sheepish look.

"Don't worry about it," Ash tells me with a smile. "We're still gonna be early."

"So…" I say as the elevator starts to rise. "You three ready for your first ground mission?"

"We were on the ground on Therum," Kaidan argues.

"Yeah, but you guys were just a distraction," I tell him, waving my hand in dismissal. "Now you're actually part of the main team."

"Yeah well, that distraction probably saved your lives," Ash butts in.

"Hey, I didn't say it wasn't important," I say with a smile. "I just said you guys weren't part of the main team. I know you guys did work in the Mako. Now I wanna see if you three can do work on foot."

"Dylan," Kaidan starts, giving me a look, "Ash and I worked with you on Eden Prime. You know what we can do on foot." Oh yeah…I kinda forgot about that.

"Yeah well…" I begin to say. Unfortunately, I don't have a comeback for that. "Shut up," I finish weakly.

"Nice comeback," Ash says, trying to repress a laugh. She fails, and the elevator is soon filled with the sound of laughter. The door soon opens, and we all file out, heading for the bridge.

"The Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Pressley has the deck," the Normandy's VI announces. The door to the airlock opens, and I'm greeted with my first sight of Feros. There's a lot of…grey. That's about all I can see right now: grey stone. I can tell that I'm gonna get bored of this scenery very quickly.

Anywho, the squad advances across the gangplank. Turning the corner, we see long walkway with crates dotting the low wall. At the end, a single man is standing there. Oh shit, this guy gets cheesed* after we talk to him. I gotta see if I can save him. Poor bastard doesn't deserve that fate.

*It's like getting creamed, only harder and much more permanent.

"We saw your ship," the man, David I think, says as we get closer. "Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."

"Who's Fai Dan?" Jenny asks as we all stop in front of him. I'm starting to keep an eye out for any geth. None so far.

"He's our leader," David informs us. "He needs your help to prepare for the geth. They're making another push. Please, up the stairs and past the freighter." As he starts his last sentence, I see a few geth round the corner.

"Get down!" I yell as I basically tackle the man to the ground. We hit the ground just in time: I could feel the heat of the rocket pass by my head. Unfortunately, my timely save has left me dangerously without cover. Luckily, everyone else reacted almost immediately to my warning and is now providing cover fire. I waste no time getting behind one of the crates, pulling a terrified David along with me. After making sure David is safe, I lean out of my cover to assess the situation.

The squad has already taken out two geth, but more just keep rounding that damned corner. Hmm…I think now would be a good time to try out one of my new tech powers. Opening up my omni-tool, I open up the Overload program. Targeting a geth that's shooting at Ash, I let loose my first Overload.

It misses.

Fuck! The damn geth ducked behind cover right as I sent the potentially deadly pulse of electricity. Well now I'm angry. I look around to see another geth rise out of cover. It's not looking at me, so I'm able to let loose a few rounds before it starts to return fire. I can feel the first few rounds ping against my shields, but I'm feeling like a stubborn idiot, so I keep firing. Unfortunately, the geth's shields are stronger than I anticipated, and my own shields fall below 25%. Damn it, I need to take cover.

I quickly drop behind the crate I'm using for cover. I can hear bullets impacting the front of the crate; I really hope this thing can hold together. While I'm waiting for my shields to recharge, I look back to see what the rest of the squad is doing.

Jenny is doing what she does best: sniping with ridiculous accuracy. Every time I see her shoot, I hear a geth sputter and die. Ash has advanced to the crate right next to mine. She's unleashing surprisingly accurate fire with that shitty Lancer I of hers. I guess I shouldn't be surprised: she's been training with that weapon for years. Kaidan's just sitting back and seems to be flinging biotic powers left and right, with a few tech attacks for variety. And Tali…hmm, that's weird, I don't see Tali anywhere. I wonder where—

—Suddenly, what looks like a rocket zips right by my face. Then I see Tali standing there holding her shotgun. The barrel is smoking. Hot damn, I think she just let loose a Carnage shot! That was awesome! The explosion and sounds of dying geth that followed were just icing on the cake.

Well, my shields are finally up, so I pop back out of cover, looking for a target. I see a rocket trooper lurking in the back of the geth ranks…I think I'll give it some extra lead. Three shots to break its shields, and two to the head to put it down. Clean and simple. Scanning the area, I don't see any more geth, but the radar on my HUD shows that there are more around the corner. Apparently they're gonna let us come to them.

"Alright folks, move up, but be careful rounding that corner," Jenny orders. "Ash, you get to the far side and lay down covering fire. Dylan, once she's done that, you round the corner and do the same. Everyone stack up."

We all advance to the corner, clinging to the wall: Ash first, then me, Jenny, Tali, and Kaidan. Why do I get the feeling that something is going to get FUBAR? Before I can dwell on it further, I get a tap on the shoulder. I guess everyone behind me is ready, so I repeat the gesture to Ash. She waits a total of two seconds before sprinting to the crate on the opposite wall. She doesn't take two steps before the geth start firing at her.

In an attempt to draw some of their attention, I lean around the corner and provide cover fire. I'm not even really aiming; I'm just trying to get those damn synthetics into cover, so Ash can actually survive this sprint. Finally, Ash slides in behind the crate. She takes a few moments to let her shields recharge before providing cover for my own advance. Alright, it's show time.

I take a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for what I'm about to do. Before I have a chance to chicken out, I round the corner, hugging the wall. Luckily, I was able to scout for a position while I was giving covering fire. Unfortunately, the nearest crate on my wall is halfway up the damn path. I hunch over, going into a crouch-run; it's not as fast as a full sprint, but less of me is out in the open. Soon I feel rounds impact my shields. They're holding, but I still want to reach cover ASAP.

Ok, I'm half way there. Everything is going as smoothly as possible, and—HOLY SHIT A ROCKET! An explosive projectile the size of my head is coming right at my head! Without conscious thought, I simply drop to the ground. I once again feel the heat as it passes over my head. This is the second fucking time I've barely missed having a Garrus moment. And unlike Garrus, I wouldn't be walking away from that.

Holy fucking shit-balls, that was close. My heart is pumping faster than Ash's Lancer as I get up off the ground to continue my sprint. After what feels like an eternity, I slide behind my target crate. Damn, my shields dropped to 10%. I didn't even hear the warning…probably happened when my life flashed before my eyes. Fucking rockets.

Anywho, now that my shields are full, I pop out of cover to start whittling away at the geth. I see five regular troopers, one rocket trooper (bastard), one sniper, and two shock troopers. This should be fun. I hear a loud crack, and what's left of the rocket trooper's head is now chilling with some nearby neutrinos. I decide to focus on the sniper; those little fuckers can be a real pain in the ass. On an impulse, I decide try an Overload again. Hopefully this time it won't fucking miss.

I send the pulse of electricity screaming towards the sniper at the speed of light. This time, my target doesn't duck at the last second, and the Overload connects, sending the geth sniper into spasms as its circuitry is fried. It's still out in the open, so I put two rounds into its head to finish the job. Looking for a new target, I see that Kaidan has lifted one of the shock troopers out of cover. Without hesitation, I start to empty my heat sink into the helpless synthetic. I hear another loud crack, and suddenly the shock trooper has a brand new hole in its head. I'm always getting my kills stolen by people with fucking sniper rifles! I've got to get me one of those.

Before I duck back into cover, I survey the battlefield. It looks like two regular troopers have also been killed, leaving three regular and one shock trooper left. Dropping behind my crate, I take a few moments to let my shields recharge and to take a few deep breaths. This firefight hasn't been going on for very long, but I'm feeling quite tired. Ehh, we're almost done with this, so I'll just tough through the tiredness.

Right as I exit cover again, I hear the sound of another dying geth. Guess that's one less to worry about. It must have been one of the regular troopers because I see the shock trooper almost dead ahead. Before I even get a round off, I see it start to spasm as electric bolts are discharged from its body. Hurray for Overload; this just makes my job even easier. It shares the same fate as the sniper: two shots to its flashlight head. I focus on another geth right as it takes a shotgun blast to the torso. I'm gonna guess that was Tali's handiwork. It was a nice shot, so I won't complain.

As the echoes of Tali's shotgun die away, I realize that the gunfire has stopped. Alright, fight's over! I stand fully erect for the first time in what feels like forever and notice that the rest of the squad is moving to regroup around me. Jenny speaks up when once everyone is here.

"Excellent job, everyone," she says, beaming with pride for her squad. Then she looks at me. "Dylan, great job saving that colonist. I don't think any of us saw those geth move up."

"Just doing my best, Shepard," I reply with a grin. Compliments always feel good. Compliments from Jenny feel even better.

"Well, keep it up," she tells me, returning my smile with one of her own. "Now, we need to get to the colony. It looks like we got here just in time." Oh Jenny, you have no idea how right that statement is.

Time to save some colonists.

A/N: And there we go. The first little firefight on the dock is done. Not really much else to say about this chapter. Like always, I love getting reviews and hearing from my readers. Till next time (whenever that may be), goodbye!