A/N

Oh boy, you get to read my terrible action sequences… Hopefully I don't screw it up too bad.

Chapter 20: Feros: Zhu's Hope

"Alright Joker, land at the spaceport of Zhu's Hope. Hopefully these colonists can shed some light of the situation."

"Aye aye, Commander."

Shepard closed the channel, and stepped into the airlock, Garrus and Tali flanking him. Several minutes passed by as they waited for the Normandy dock in the colony's space port, until Joker's voice rang out through their helmet comm channels.

"She's docked, Commander. I'm still seeing geth signatures, so stay sharp out there."

"Copy that, Joker."

The decon unit began its cleaning cycle, and Shepard and his squad prepped for immediate combat. As the cycle finished, the door unlocked, revealing a docking port connected with the Normandy. Shepard stepped out first, leading the way with his AR drawn. Tali followed closely, her shotgun held loosely, and Garrus brought up the rear with his SR.

As they reached the dock, a long path extended to their right, no doubt leading to the colony. Crates littered the pathway haphazardly, but most of them kept to the sides. A lone human was standing about halfway, hurriedly gesturing them to approach. Shepard lowered his rifle, and walked over to the sole colonist.

As they approached, the colonist spoke. His voice was deep, but held an undercurrent of fear.

"We saw your ship. Fai Dan want's to speak with you immediately."

"Who's Fai Dan?"

The colonist hesitated as he spoke.

"He's… our leader. He needs your help to… prepare for the geth."

Shepard frowned thoughtfully. I should have come sooner. These geth are probably slaughtering these colonists.

"Ok, I'll see if I can help. Where can I find him?"

The colonist began speaking, giving directions to this Fai Dan.

"Head up the stairs and go past the freighter. Please, we need your-" The colonist didn't get to finish his sentence. A bullet pierced through his head, splattering blood against most of the crew. His eyes went slack, and he fell to his knees, dead as a door nail. Shepard was initially surprised, but his combat instinct kicked in, and he immediately dove behind cover. Rounds began flying overhead, as Garrus and Tali sought cover seconds after. Shepard spied around the corner to see who their attackers were.

He spotted several geth, including a shock trooper and a pyro trooper. Shepard mentally marked their locations, and focused on it alone. As he waited for the gunfire to subside, he brought himself out of cover, and fired at the mental image in his head. The geth he had picked out dropped, white fluid spurting from its flashlight head.

As he brought himself back down into cover, the suppressive fire resumed, and he glanced over to Tali and Garrus. Garrus was desperately trying to get a shot off, but the area was too hot to take a shot. Tali was hunched over, working furiously over her omni-tool. Suddenly, the rounds shifted, no longer firing at them. Shepard glanced over and saw Tali had hacked the geth pyro, forcing it to attack the other geth. As the geth attacked their own, Shepard and Garrus added their own bullets into the crossfire. The remaining geth were decimated, and the pyro unit self-destruct on Tali's command.

Shepard waited a few seconds longer, to make sure there were no more, before finally moving out from behind his cover. Tali and Garrus followed, cautiously watching for any outside movement. The path looped around the Normandy, until they entered a stone doorway, with a short catwalk leading into a large tower. As they entered, a slight sound was heard, and geth 'language' was heard.

A small white shape suddenly darted out from its place on the wall, landing on the opposite wall. It was another geth hopper, but this one was different. As the geth 'talked', Everyone's radar suddenly became scrambled, and they lost track of the hopper on their radars. Tali and Garrus seemed a little frantic at the feeling of being effectively blind, by Shepard just turned his radar off, peering carefully over the area. Several pillars inside the tower blocked a lot of viewpoints, so the hopper could only jump to a few places in order to fire at them. More geth chatter was heard, and a white flash appeared, before disappearing behind another pillar. Shepard marked down the next possible areas for it to jump, and ordered Tali and Garrus to watch two other areas, while he watched the other. They raised their guns, poised to fire, waiting for the geth to make a move.

The geth chattered once more, and it jumped. Shepard tensed, ready to pull the trigger, but it didn't jump to his area. Instead, a shotgun blast resounded, and the sound of broken metal hitting stone was heard. He glanced over to Tali, and saw a slight wisp of smoke leaving the barrel of her shotgun. Shepard smiled at Tali, and lowered his rifle. He glanced about the tower, and began taking steps up the staircase. It circled around the tower several times, and several more geth hoppers popped out. They dealt with them with relative ease, and continued climbing the tower.

Finally, they came to an area where the stairs continued no more, replaced by a grid of metal bars. A small hallway ran to their left, and some sunlight was seen flowing onto the corner of the hall. Shepard walked over, and rounded the corner, finger on the trigger. However, there were no geth aiming at him. Instead, it was the remaining colonists of Zhu's Hope. Shepard put up his rifle, and holstered it, motioning for Tali and Garrus to do the same.

The nervous colonists recognized the figures as humans, and lowered their rifles, their faces streaked with dirt, and their clothing caked with sweat. They were obviously extremely tired, but there were so few of them they couldn't afford to rest of they wanted to survive. As Shepard passed them, he offered them words of encouragement, in which they responded with weak smiles and nods of gratitude.

The colony was small, in the highest extremity of the word. It consisted of no more than 6 prefabs, and there were barely 30 colonists. A large freighter was parked in the middle of the colony, and was apparently completely capable. Confused, Shepard began to ponder why they a perfectly good freighter is just resting in the middle of the colony. He pushed the thought aside, and began to think of ways to help the colonists as he looked for Fai Dan. The men defending this colony are hard-pressed as it is. I could have Kaidan, Ashley, Wrex, and Liara run defense for them while we go deal with the geth.

However, he didn't have the time to call up the Normandy, because as he rounded a prefab at the farside of the colony, he saw a couple, a man and woman, standing near a large standing wall of stone. As he approached, the man, who he assumed was Fai Dan, turned to face him, a tired expression on his face.

He was short, and was no longer young and youthful, but he was no old man either. His expression was one of deep exhaustion, but he put on a brave face for the Commander. His voice made Shepard think of a weasel, an old Earth mammal.

"Ah, Commander! I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us!"

The woman next to him scoffed, and spoke with a little bit of venom.

"You're a bit late, aren't you?"

Fai Dan turned to the woman, his voice changing to a tone that a father would chide with son with.

"Arcelia!"

He turned back to the Commander, an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry, Commander, everyone's on edge since-"

Geth chatter interrupted Fai Dan, originating from the tower just behind them. Footsteps were heard, and Shepard drew his rifle, Garrus, Tali, and the woman Arcelia mimicking. Shepard took cover behind the large stone wall, and peeked around the corner. He spotted two geth just inside the door frame, and about to step out. He whipped his rifle about, and unloaded, burying them under a hail of bullets.

Both of the geth crumpled to the ground, their bodies mangled and that white fluid staining the ground. More geth chatter resounded out from the tower, followed by two separate tones of gunfire, indicating there were also humans in the tower. Shepard immediately took off into the tower, Tali and Garrus following, taking a short jump over the two geth corpses that were littered just inside the door. As they entered, the sounds of battle became clearer, and it came from higher up. Shepard took the steps two at a time, but remained ready for combat at a moment's notice. As he bounded up, he suddenly bumped straight into a geth unit, they both began to raise their rifles, but before either one could fire, its flashlight extinguished, put out by a well-placed round by Garrus. Shepard turned back to see Garrus lowering his SR, the tip of the barrel glowing orange. He nodded his thanks to Garrus, and took the corners slowly, despite the urge to make sure he made it to save the other colonists in the tower. As he reached the top, he saw two colonists holed up behind a fallen stone pillar, their backs against the wall. Geth fire was coming from outside the main tower, entering through a doorway. The colonists were ducked behind the pillar, too afraid to retaliate. Shepard jumped up to the side of the doorway, and spotted two geth a few feet in front on him. The two geth stopped their suppressive fire, and a figure darted past Shepard, followed by two resounding gunshots.

Tali hit the other side of the doorway roughly, but unharmed. She peered around the corner, and saw the two geth she had fired at mangled, the buckshot from her shotgun practically shredding them. Shepard gave her a stern look.

"That was more than a little dangerous."

Tali shrugged.

"I got them, didn't I?"

Shepard wanted to argue with her, to tell her that she was being to reckless, but he couldn't. The militaristic nature in him told her she had done everything right. The geth had a lull in their fire, and she took the opportunity. Shepard realized his silence was beginning to drag out, and brought the butt of his rifle to his shoulder, grumbling softly as he stepped through the doorway.

He was in a hallway of sorts, a doorway leading into a large curved room directly to his right. The hallway extended in front of him, leading to some other part of the tower. A few feet on the opposite wall of the doorway, an elevator stood, leading to the garage.

He stepped inside the large curved room, and saw that most of the ceiling was blown wide open. Suddenly, a large purple shape flew into view. It was a geth dropship, delivering a brand new batch of geth to attack the colonists. As it passed over, it slowed down, dropping a squad of geth. Shepard and his squad dashed into cover, and prepared themselves for a long fight.

"The tower's secure, thanks to you Commander."

Shepard and his squad had just returned from their long battle with the dropped geth. Shepard fared better than Garrus and Tali, as he was used to prolonged fighting, but the other two were both still winded. However, they were recovering quickly, becoming more accustomed to combat situations.

Shepard replied to Fai Dan.

"I'm just glad I could help keep your colony safe."

Fai Dan nodded with a small smile.

"I appreciate your concern and your efforts against the geth."

Arcelia spoke up, bringing foreboding news with it.

"They may have been slowed, but they'll be back. They always come back."

Shepard turned to the woman, and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Help me find what the geth are after, and all of you can get out of here alive."

Fai Dan spoke up.

"We don't know what they're after, they came, they attacked us, that's all we know. However, we do know that their main base is at the ExoGeni Headquarters. A good place to start looking if you want answers."

Shepard nodded thoughtfully, and decided he wanted to know more about this ExoGeni company.

"Tell me about this ExoGeni."

Arcelia spoke again.

"It's the company most of us worked for before the attacks. They funded this colony. You can reach it by the skyway, you can't miss it."

Fai Dan continued after Arcelia.

"Only problem is, there's an army of geth between here and there."

Shepard raised an eyebrow at both of them.

"I didn't expect this to be easy. Don't worry, I came prepared."

Fai Dan spoke with some exasperation in his voice.

"Maybe then I could get this colony up and running again."

Shepard nodded, and remembered his earlier idea.

"Fai, I have some extra crew members on board my ship. I would be willing to offer them to help your colony while I go deal with the geth."

Fai Dan had a surprised look on his face.

"Really? I mean, I could definitely use the help, but are you sure you don't need them?"

"Yeah, I have all the crew I need to fight the geth."

Fai Dan looked apprehensively at Garrus and Tali, unsure if the Commander was completely sane only bringing two people with him to fight an army.

"Well, if you're certain, Commander, then by all means, bring them. And thank you for your help."\

"It's my pleasure, sir."

Shepard turned away from Fai Dan, and walked over to an empty area where no colonists were. Tali and Garrus followed him, and Shepard took a seat on one of the many broken pieces of masonry lying about. He brought out his omni-tool and opened a comm channel with Joker.

"Hey Commander, everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. I need you to connect me with the Wrex, Liara, Kaidan, and Ashley."

"Sounds like everything is not fine."

Shepard smiled down at Joker, whose face was apprehensive.

"It's fine, I just want them to run defense for the colony while Garrus, Tali and I go blow up some geth."

"Alright, Commander, just don't die. You and Anderson are the only CO's i actually like."

Joker disconnected, and Shepard's screen broadened until all four of the other members of his ground team were connected with him.

"Ok, listen up you four. I want you down here helping the colony in what ways you can, be that helping them drive out local geth, or restoring some of their power, I don't care, you do it."

Wrex let out an unpleasant sound, but Kaidan, Ashley and Liara all seemed willing to help out the struggling colony.

"Good, Kaidan will be in charge, considering he is the highest ranking Alliance member. I expect you guys to follow his orders. This is mostly directed at Wrex, and if you don't follow his orders, I'll punch you in the face."

Wrex narrowed his eyes at Shepard, and Shepard cocked an eyebrow back, waiting for him to comply. Wrex harrumphed noisily, the hints of a smile tugging at his face.

"Heh, you just might be half-krogan, Shepard. Alright, I'll play along and listen."

"Good. Now get down here."

A chorus of voices sounded out, each one agreeing to help out the colony. Shepard disconnected, and looked back to Garrus and Tali. Garrus seemed somewhat agitated, but Tali was as calm as a still pond.

"Commander, are you sure you don't want to bring someone else along? I mean they did say an army of geth was between here and there. And are we just walking there?"

Shepard shrugged, and placed his hands behind him, leaning on them.

"I don't know Garrus, I just kind of go with the flow. We can't really get the Mako out of the Normandy because I don't see enough room for a drop. With luck, maybe they will have a vehicle we can take, and if we're super lucky, they might even have a Mako."

Garrus opened his mouth again, Shepard's plan not sitting very well with him, but Tali interrupted.

"Come now, Garrus, since joining with Shepard, have you heard him formulate one plan?"

Garrus pondered thoughtfully, thinking about any time Shepard had a battle plan concocted. As he searched his memory, he could not find one instance where Shepard discussed a full plan with them. He dished out orders, but never had a plan before combat ensued.

"No, I can't say I have."

Shepard had a hurt look on his face.

"Hey, I can form plans just as easily as not form one. I just prefer not forming one."

Tali rolled her eyes and folded her arms.

"I'm surprised you even lasted this long without having a plan."

Shepard smiled at her and spread his arms out wide.

"What can I say? I'm pretty awesome."

Tali shook her head slowly, and Garrus looked between both of them.

"Y'know, Shepard told me about you two."

Tali immediately felt a pit form in her stomach, and she glared needles at Shepard.

"You. Did. WHAT?"

Shepard immediately put his hands up in defense, speaking hastily.

"Hey, now, you didn't let him finish. I told him how I felt about you while we were on the way to the Citadel after Therum. I had to, he was upset at how I acted out, and I needed to apologize to him. Besides, he's like my best friend. He probably deserves to know."

Tali's anger and embarrassment subsided, and she breathed out.

"Fine, but I'm still angry with you."

"About?"

"I don't know, I'll figure it out later."

Shepard sighed, and glared accusingly at Garrus.

"You see what you got me into now?"

Garrus shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry Shepard."

"Man, I need to get some alcohol on my ship."

Garrus suddenly nodded empathetically.

"I agree. Get some Dextro alcohol too."

Shepard cocked an eyebrow.

"I didn't know you liked drinking that much."

Garrus scoffed lightly, and planted the barrel of his rifle on the ground, using the butt end as an armrest.

"That's because there's no bar on the ship."

Shepard laughed heartily.

"Maybe I can get a bar requisitioned. Get some Turian liquor, Asari wine, human beer…"

Tali let out an exasperated noise.

"Ugh. Men. In case you forgot, we're still on a mission here."

Tali waggled her shotgun back and forth, and Shepard nodded quickly.

"Right, you heard the lady, let's move out Garrus."

Shepard stood up, and walked off towards the elevator they had seen earlier. Tali followed after them, and Garrus closed the distance between himself and Shepard, and whispered softly so Tali couldn't hear.

"Great, now I'm taking orders from your girlfriend. See what you got ME into?"

Shepard just chuckled softly, and entered the tower. Despite his current occupation, despite the galaxy at risk, despite the imminent danger they were in, Shepard felt that his life was finally looking up.

A/N

Done, next should be the Prothean Skyway/ExoGeni. That should be fun. I wonder if anything interesting will happen in the next chapter.

Review, Keelah Se'lai.