AN:- After the five-chapter-1500-word-gelatinous-mess that was Noveria, I resolved to get through Feros a little faster, and with more action. It helps that on Feros most of the time is taken up by side-quests, whereas if you just do the main plot it's the second shortest main campaign. Noveria is nothing but side-quests.

Chapter Twenty: Feros

"There's not much Commander."

Shepard sighed and chucked her own datapad onto the table. They were at the dining table, for lack of anywhere else they could gather and discuss things. None of them had been able to decipher anything out of the tangled mass of data they had managed to recover.

"I just don't think we got the right codes," Garrus was still poring over his, "We got the raw data, but not the encryption keys, or any of the really sensitive data. This is just shipping lanes, trade routes, things like that."

Tali nodded, "I think Garrus has the right idea, anything sensitive is either locked, or was deleted before we had a chance to get to it."

"Okay, I think we can call it a day then," Shepard stood, stretching the kinks out of her spine, "We've been at this long enough. I'll route this to Alliance command, maybe they can make something of it. Cerberus was an Alliance group after all." She gathered up her own datapad, "Everyone go have a break. We head for Feros in the morning."

The room cleared, and she headed back up to the CIC. "Okay Joker, one last thing for today. I need you to open a channel to Alliance command; we're sending them some data for analysis."

"Uh, Commander?"

"Yes Joker?"

"I've got someone on the line; I think you'll want to talk to them."

The voice was distorted, and not simply by the long range communication. "Shepard, I am a representative of the Shadow Broker. You have recently come into possession of some data on the Cerberus organisation. My employer would like this information."

"Why should I give it to you?"

"One way or the other this information will come to us, this way you gain the favour of the Shadow Broker, and he is a powerful man."

"Let me guess, if I don't give it to you I gain the ire of the Shadow Broker."

"Of course."

Shepard considered for a moment. Barla Von had given her the information she needed about Saren, so in a way she already owed the Shadow Broker's organisation something. "Alright, I'm transmitting a copy of the data now."

"Thank you Shepard, your cooperation will be noted."

When the line closed Joker's voice replaced it almost immediately, "The Alliance wouldn't be happy if they knew you'd done that."

"Kahoku must have dealt with them to get his information, and we already dealt with the Shadow Broker back on the Citadel." She submitted the data to go to the Alliance, "And besides, I'm a SPECTRE now, so the Alliance doesn't exactly have the authority to stop me."

"You like bending the rules, don't you?"

"Not exactly, but I see when it's necessary."

"Data away Commander, where to next?"

"We're going to Feros, it's time we got back on the trail for Saren, and those colonists may need our help."

"It won't take long to get there."

She had already thought of that, "Set up in orbit and scan the planet once we arrive. I don't want to go in blind here, and we need a rest."

"Understood Commander, laying in course now."

On her way down to her quarters she decided to stop by and see how Liara was doing. The asari didn't need to sleep as often as the human crewmembers, so she could often be found poking around the ship at odd hours. Chakwas was getting some rest, having patched up the minor injuries the crew had sustained, and the medical bay was entirely empty.

She opened the door to Liara's room and saw that the asari had headphones on and was intently watching something on her computer. Curious, she stepped further in and cleared her throat. Liara jumped and the jack fell out of the computer.

"Dir-ective?" Said the computer.

"Classified."

Liara hurried to pause the movie, while Shepard stood with a raised eyebrow and watched her. When the scientist was done she turned back to the Commander. "I'm sorry, that was nothing."

"Wall-E?" Shepard couldn't quite keep the grin off her face. "Why, if you don't me asking?"

Liara cast around the room as if looking or an excuse, then slumped a little. "I am trying to understand human culture a little better. I wanted to be able to help you as much as I could, and to do that I needed to understand your people."

"Which led to, Wall-E?"

"There are many asari scholars who believe that the works of Pixar are among the greatest your culture has ever produced. I am also reading your great works of literature, listening to your most acclaimed musicians. It is quite an education. Might I ask what a 'Hollaback Girl' is?"

Shepard snorted with laughter, immediately covering her mouth and trying to look serious. "Who exactly are these asari scholars?"

Liara brought up her omni tool, "There are several, and they are often contradictory. I watched the movies of a man named 'Uvy Ball' on the recommendation of one scholar, but I was deeply disappointed. The interactive movies from 'Bioware' were very good though."

"We call them videogames. Joker's a fan, you should talk to him."

Liara nodded, looking very serious, and took notes. "This is all so new to me, I have never had such prolonged contact with another species before, and suddenly here I am on a ship crewed entirely by other species."

Shepard chuckled and went over to her, "And we do appreciate you being here, but I don't think you need to go to great lengths to understand us."

"I am not trying to understand humans Shepard; I am trying to understand you."

Shepard's eyebrow shot up again, "Uh, why exactly?"

"You are trying so hard to overcome your problems, and I am too, and I wanted to be able to help you with yours."

"Liara, all you had to do was ask."

"Then I am asking now."

"Well it's a long story, and we are supposed to be on a mission tomorrow." Shepard considered, "Look, after Feros, we'll talk, properly, about everything. How's that?"

"That would be wonderful Shepard."

Shepard went for the door, "Okay, but if we're doing this then you're calling me by my first name. And you're telling me your life story as well. All one hundred and six years."

"Okay Shep..." Liara paused for a long time, then very sheepishly corrected herself, "Maia."

Feros was one of the nicer planets they had visited in quite some time. But then given their recent travelling that wasn't really a point in its favour. Some would probably consider the clouds beautiful, but to Shepard they were more foreboding, covering the planet's surface entirely. She shivered a little as she looked at them, glad that her armour concealed her discomfort.

"All right Joker, take us in." She turned to where her entire squad was waiting. After the practical ambush on Noveria, she wasn't taking any more chances with half squads. "Everyone get ready, we don't know what's on the other side of that airlock."

Ashley took point and they followed her along the dock to find a man waiting for them.

"We saw your ship," He said without preamble, "Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."

Shepard stepped past Ashley, "Who's Fai Dan?"

"He's our leader. He needs your help to prepare for the geth," Shepard grimaced, the geth were already here, again. "They're making another push." The man gestured behind him, "Up the stairs and urgh!" His chest exploded outwards as a red energy blast hit him. He pitched forward, assault rifle fire already slicing through the air after him.

The squad fired on instinct, moving forward to cover, and the geth who had dropped in behind them were wiped out in seconds. Shepard pushed forward, chasing more geth up the stairs. The machines weren't much of a problem anymore, and her shields barely even dipped as she fought through them.

They dashed through the makeshift colony, ignoring the looks they were getting from the frightened colonists, and came to the front defences, where a man gestured them over.

"Commander I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us."

The woman next to him wasn't quite so pleased, "You're a bit late aren't you?"

"Arcelia! Sorry Commander, everyone's on edge since the geth attacked us."

Before Shepard could even speak the woman was yelling, "Watch out! We've got geth in the tower!"

Once more her team leaped into action, Wrex and Ashley charging forward to clear a path. Behind them Shepard and Garrus moved quickly to take out the surrounding snipers while Liara flung black holes around the stairs. Before too long they had fought their way past several dozen geth and found some sort of transmitting tower.

Clearly the geth didn't want them there, because wave upon wave kept pouring through the tunnels at. "Tali, Kaidan, I want that transmitter down now!" She yelled back, "Hopefully it'll stop the geth, and buy the colonists some time as well."

The rest of the team took up cover behind some fallen masonry, holding the geth back while the techs worked on bringing the tower off-line. After a few harrowing minutes Kaidan rushed back, "It's about to blow."

"Move!" Shepard threw herself over her own bit of cover and hunkered down, the team followed her lead, just getting down before the top of the tower flew off and its body shattered open. Shards of metal dropped down around them, but none penetrated their shields.

Shepard stood and dusted herself off, "Everyone okay?"

"I've got a few dings in the armour but nothing vital," Garrus reported.

"A few dings in my skin," Wrex grunted, and it sounded almost like he was laughing, "But nothing vital."

Shepard shook her head at the krogan, but everyone else only had their shields drained. She led the way back to the colony, where Fai Dan looked happy to see her.

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

She waved the praise away, "I'm just glad your colony's safe."

"I appreciate your concern, and your efforts against the geth." She frowned a little. There was something odd about his speech. It was almost like he was sounding out the words, it sounded mechanical. She pushed the concern away, it was probably just an accent she didn't recognise.

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

Shepard smiled, "I destroyed a transmitter tower in there. The geth attacks should be stopped until they can get a new one up. I've bought you some time, possibly days." She came back to business, "Help me find what the geth are after and you'll all get out of this alive."

"We don't know what they're after, they came they attacked us, that's all we know." Fai Dan tapped his gun against his leg a couple of times, then seemed to reach a decision, "Their main base is at the Exo-Geni headquarters, a good place to start looking if you want answers."

She nodded. Joker had pointed out the Sky-Way and the Exo-Geni building to her before they landed. It was likely to be crawling with geth, but they would make it. She led her team back into the tower and into the elevator to the colony garage, where a mako was sitting ready for them.

"It won't be calibrated right," Garrus moaned as they got in, "Just once couldn't we take out own mako on one of these geth traps? That's what I'm working on it for."

Shepard grinned and turned the thing on, "Alright people, hang on."

Liara looked a little concerned, "You do know that there is very little margin for error out there Shepard?"

"I'm a much better driver than I was."

Everyone else hurried to strap themselves in as Shepard shoved it into gear and they rumbled off.

The Sky-Way was packed with geth, just as Shepard had guessed. The mako shook again and again as Garrus fired the turret, and whenever Wrex opened up with the assault gun the resulting rattle shook their teeth.

"This is not an optimal mode of transportation," Garrus growled at her.

"Thank you Garrus," She swerved dangerously close to the edge to avoid a missile, "Next time I'll be sure to ask Joker to drop us right into the middle of a hot spot."

Tali pushed the thrusters and they jumped over an energy bolt, the tank shutting down for a moment when they landed. They sat in silence for a moment, trying to process the various pains running over them.

"How about we don't do that again?" Shepard asked when she had stopped shaking.

She started them forward again, much more careful about confronting the geth. Instead of charging right in she hung back and let Garrus and Wrex bring their numbers down before coming in close for the final few blows.

As they got closer to the Exo-Geni building transmission started coming through. "Kaidan, see if you can nail those transmissions down."

"Aye aye Commander."

They pushed forwards, Kaidan honing in on the signal. He piped what he had through every so often, revealing some sort of fight between a man and woman about the woman's daughter. As they passed through another doorway the signal strength suddenly boosted.

"Down there Commander."

Shepard saw a small ramp, with some lights set up along the edges.

"Tali, Liara, come with me, everyone else keep a look out for geth."

They dropped out of the mako and jogged down the tunnel, coming up short when a half dozen guns were thrust into their faces. A man stepped up behind the soldiers.

"That's close enough." He said. She recognised his voice from the communications.

A woman stepped up next to him, "Relax Jeong," It was the woman from the transmission, "They're obviously not geth."

The man wasn't convinced. "Who are you? What do you want?"

She lowered her hands, wishing the soldiers would put their guns down, "Commander Shepard, I'm here to remove your geth problem."

"You see, you worry too much."

The man rounded on the woman, "And you trust too easily Juliana."

"I'm just glad to see a friendly face," She turned to Shepard and managed a tired smile, "I thought we were the only humans left on this planet."

"Fai Dan and some of the members of Zhu's Hope are still alive."

Now it was Juliana's turn to get angry, "I thought you said they were all dead." She snapped at Jeong.

"I said they were probably all dead."

"They are surviving despite everything the geth have done to them." Liara was obviously trying to be reassuring.

"We know what that's like, those damn synthetics are relentless."

Shepard decided to try asking for help."I'll do whatever I can to keep them away from you, but I need some information."

Jeong was instantly suspicious, "What kind of information?"

"Ignore him; the geth are up in the Exo-Geni headquarters. Just a bit further along the Sky-Way." Juliana was much more reasonable.

"Those headquarters are private property soldier," Shepard resisted the urge to punch Jeong, "Remove the geth and nothing else."

For the love of... I thought we'd gotten enough bureaucracy on Noveria. "I'm not interested in your company's secrets."

They turned to leave, but Juliana stepped forward, "Commander, before you go, my daughter 'Lizbeth, she's missing."

"They shouldn't waste time poking around, we can do a proper accounting of our casualties after the geth are gone."

"That's my daughter you're talking about!" Juliana turned back to Shepard, her eyes pleading, "She's still alive, I know it."

"If your daughter's alive I'll find her." Shepard said, and led her squad back up to the mako.

"Anything interesting?" Ashley asked as they clambered back in.

"Not really, some pencil-pushers and a concerned mother. We're going to find her daughter when we get into the headquarters."

"And if she's dead?" Wrex grunted.

Shepard met his gaze levelly, "Then we find her body."

She shunted the mako into gear again and they powered off.

The Sky-Way was a little less crowded on the way in, the geth apparently pulling back into the building. That's gonna make things harder inside.

Sure enough, at the building there was a door, closed partway to allow the geth to shoot through. The mako wouldn't have fit at all. "Dammit." Shepard slid them to one side so the geth couldn't get a good angle. "Everyone out, and go in careful. They've got every advantage here."

Wrex went first again, letting his shields take most of the fire as he tried to sight the enemy. "We've got about twenty geth, all behind heavy cover, all with a good angle on the door." He told her.

"That's not good, Garrus, you and me, sniping from back there, see if we can thin the herd. Williams and Wrex on the door, when you see one of them move for any reason, try and bring them down, but no heroics. Liara, if you can get any sort of biotic thing in there, do it, same for you Kaidan, and if you can hack from here Tali, it might help."

She took a position to the right of the door, Garrus to the left, giving them maximum coverage, and they both set their rifles. The geth might have been shielded from a direct assault, but there were plenty of angles they hadn't covered, and it was child's play to snipe two or three each. The geth realised they were in danger and scrambled to find better cover, giving Ashley and Wrex perfect opportunities to take even more.

Soon the geth were reduced to a last handful, all running deeper into the facility, Wrex gleefully gave chase while the others regrouped, and came back a moment later with synthetic goop all over his armour.

"Having fun Wrex?" Shepard asked dryly.

"If this building is full of geth, it will be a good fight."

"There is a barrier which will keep us from taking a direct route in."Tali waved her omni-tool in the direction of the doorway. "We will need to find an alternate route."

Shepard sighed, "It can never go smooth, can it?" She led her team to a small opening that dropped down deeper into the facility, "We can never just go somewhere and fix the problem, we always have to go running around a base filled with geth or creepy monsters."

AN:- Commander Shepard channels Captain Reynolds at the end there.

I have been waiting to use that Pixar/Wall-E/Hollaback Girl joke since before I even started writing this. The entire story was just an excuse for me to have Liara T-Soni watching Wall-E at some point. On a related note, Uwe Boll sucks, Pixar rules and the ability of the characters in this story to play Bioware games is so meta is beggars belief, so I won't mention it again.

I do think it's interesting to think about what an alien culture might consider to be good though. After all they sent Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Stavinsky and Chuck Berry on the Voyager space prove to represent our culture, so heaven knows what any aliens who found that would think of it. Also, the asari could have an entirely different culture to us when it comes to entertainment (though the fact that the Justicars seem to be equatable to hero cops in movies might suggest a similar culture idea)

I spent way too long thinking about this one off joke.