What Was Lost
Chapter 20 - Rescue
Shepard watched Haestrom draw closer in the viewport. The Normandy had arrived in system a few minutes ago and engaged a geth cruiser. Thanks to their stealth drive, the battle had been brief and one-sided. Two shots from the Normandy's cannons took out the geth ship rapidly, and they proceeded on towards the planet.
Garrus hadn't wanted to waste time with the geth ship, wanting to simply use the stealth drive to bypass it and get to the planet quickly. Shepard had disagreed. She didn't want the geth ship interfering with the rescue operations.
Surprisingly, Miranda backed her up on it. The other woman pointed out that while the Normandy might be stealthed, the shuttles definitely were not. If there was any sort of delay, they'd be stuck on the ground, too.
They hadn't signaled the quarians on the ground yet, not wanting to alert the geth to how close they really were. They knew that some signal had probably gotten out to the geth surface forces, but the less information they could let slip, the better.
She met up with her team down in the shuttle bay. She was only taking Garrus, Kasumi, Mordin and Jack on the first trip, leaving plenty of room for any survivors they might find. Garrus and Kasumi would be going with her, to investigate the last known position of the quarian science team, while Mordin would stay with the shuttle to prepare for any medical needs. Jack would guard him, and be ready to play heavy biotic support if needed.
"Fuck yeah, Shepard! I've gotten to kill lots of shit, but never a geth! You better leave me one of those assholes at least." The tattooed woman's eyes practically gleamed in excitement.
"Support only, Jack. We have friendlies out there, remember? This is a rescue mission."
"Yeah, yeah, you watch your shit, I'll watch mine. I'll make sure it's one of those machine fuckers before I blow it all to hell."
"Right..." Shepard continued. "We have to land a little bit out from the building they're holed up in. The sun hasn't fully set yet, and the only landing area covered enough is there." She indicated a position on the map her omnitool displayed. "The bad news is, they're going to know we're coming, so be ready for heavy resistance. Before they fled, the quarian ship spotted at least five landing units, so that means around sixty geth, minimum."
"Seventy. Geth landers do not include life support or other such systems. Also, use airdrop for larger units. Plan on at least one assault-class weapons platform." The scientist interrupted.
"Okay, seventy plus some kind of heavy support. Thanks, Mordin." She considered the map. "At least they'll be spread out. They have to keep the quarians contained, so that should limit the numbers we'll run into at any one time."
She thought for a moment. "We'll still need to keep them distracted. Jack, once we get past the first barrier here," she pointed to a spot on the map, "I want you to break off and cause as much havoc as you can over to the flank. Do as much damage as possible. Have fun."
"Fuck! This is gonna be better than sex! Most sex, anyway. Oh fuck yeah!"
"Mordin, you stick with the shuttle still. We'll be clearing out any geth along the way, but careful just the same."
"Of course, Shepard. Will guard the shuttle. Also, wish to take readings on local buildings. Quarian architecture not often studied."
"...As long as you're ready to go when called." She looked at her team. "Any questions?"
Tali ordered the remaining scientists to take the injured and hole up in the basement. She stayed in the comms room of the observatory, trying desperately to establish communication with whoever had landed.
So far, she hadn't been able to break through the geth jamming. The enemy had too many jammers for her signal to get through. She kept at it, though.
"...-ming to-... ...-ill arr... ...ee min-" The comm unit sparked to life, relaying the incoming transmission. Unfortunately, the same jamming that obscured her signal also distorted the message from the other shuttle.
She adjusted the controls, hoping to clear up the message. She had no luck, though. The signal was simply too garbled. It repeated one more time, then the comm unit went silent again.
I hope that just means whoever is out there is having the same trouble with the-
A massive explosion rocked the building. Chunks of ceiling rained down, littering the floor with debris. A large slab of one of the walls crumbled to the floor. The force of the blast knocked Tali off her feet, sending her crashing to the ground.
Groaning, she picked herself up off the floor. Apparently the colossus unit had finished setting up. The geth must be desperate to wipe them out so they could concentrate on the newcomers. Their time was running out.
She checked her suit, finding several small leaks. She did her best to patch them as quickly as possible, but she knew she'd have to see a doctor soon if she wanted to avoid a severe reaction. Fortunately, none of her main systems had been damaged by the blast.
After fixing her suit, she went to check on the scientists. The hallway leading to the room they had sheltered in was littered with debris. She found the room and tried the door, but the blast must have broken the mechanism. Cursing, she manually cranked the door open.
She got it partially open, but stopped when she got a good view inside. The entire outer wall had collapsed in on the room. She could see a few mangled limbs, enough to know that there would be no survivors inside.
She ignored the tears forming at the corners of her eyes. She could mourn later. For now, she needed to get back to work. Tali returned to the comm room, sealing the door behind her. One way or another, that door would only be opening one more time.
Shepard ducked around the corner, barely avoiding getting shot as a plasma bolt narrowly missed her. Another goddamn geth prime held the area between them and the next door. Worse, the side wall had crumbled, letting the sunlight in. The intense light shining in kept overloading their shields, slowing their progress to a crawl.
There had been occaisional bursts of static from the building ahead, but even EDI couldn't extract a clear enough message from them. Still, it cheered her to know that there were some survivors in the ruins.
They had already been delayed by a fallen pillar. The rubble had blocked in the only doorway leading to the location of the survivors. Finding a way to clear it ate up time. And of course, the geth had slowed them even more. They had to take out the geth patrol before they could set up the mining explosives.
Now they were stuck again. Between the geth prime and the airborne drones, not to mention the sunlight, they were stuck. They had been forced to pull back to the entryway. They were holding for now, but that wasn't good enough.
"Jack, we're pinned down here. Can you get over here?" She called into the comm.
"Shit! I'll try, Shepard." Jack's signal was choppy. "These fuckers are really determined. Can you hold on a min?"
"We're not going anywhere any time soon. Just hurry!"
"Fuck, keep your pants on. I'll be there quick." The convict cut off the signal.
Soon enough, the distinctive sound of Jack's biotic shockwaves filled the courtyard. Shepard added her own biotic blasts through the doorway. Together, they cleared out most of the drones and regular geth units.
Unfortunately, the prime was more durable. Even together, their biotics couldn't get through its shielding and stabilizers. They finally managed to take it down with combined tech blasts from Garrus and Kasumi. Garrus' sniper shots dropped it, shattering its central processing unit.
"Damn, that was fun!" Jack smiled broadly. "We gotta kill more of those!"
"Thanks for the save, Jack."
"Not a prob, Shepard. Shit like this really gets your motor running." She looked around. "Think there's more around here we can wreck?"
The team pressed deeper into the ruins.
Tali let herself hope for the first time since the geth had arrived. She could hear the sound of explosions and gunfire drawing closer. The colossus had halted its assault on her position, turning away from the observatory. The other team had to be close now.
She kept up her efforts to communicate with whoever was out there. Though, with the colossus unit right outside, she doubted she would get a signal through. She still didn't give up. She needed to let them know she was still alive.
"This is Tali'zorah vas Neema calling whoever is out there. I am trapped in the large observatory by a colossus along with three squads of geth. If you can hear this, please hurry. The building I'm in has suffered severe structural damage."
She repeated the message two more times. There was no reply. She glanced out the viewport. She could see some activity in the square down below. The distinctive black-purple flash of biotic explosions was visible even from this distance. She couldn't make out details from this distance, but it did appear that whoever was out there was getting closer.
"...-s on the-... ...-st to yo-... ...-cation. Sta-..." The message was a bit clearer, but she still couldn't understand it.
"This is Tali'zorah. I received your message but it came out garbled. Please repeat."
"...i, this is S-... ...-ld on. We're al-..." No luck still.
She returned to the window, trying to spot the other squad out there. Movement caught her eye. Her rescuers appeared to be about halfway across the square. They disappeared around a corner, almost to the small courtyard outside the observatory.
The colossus! She dashed to the comm unit.
"This is Tali'zorah. If you are receiving this, be careful in the next area. There is a colossus assault unit outside the door. Repeat, a colossus in the courtyard you're approaching."
There was no reply. She guessed the other team was too close to the colossus for them to break through the jamming. She could only hope her message got through to them. It would be too cruel if they were killed this close to saving her.
Soon enough, she spotted activity at the edge of the courtyard. A group of figures stopped behind the rubble at the far end. They didn't have any recognizable insignia she could see from this distance. In fact, they didn't have a uniform appearance at all. So, they were probably not military or a merc band.
I hope you're friendly! And that you get here quick!
Shepard crouched down out of line of sight of the colossus. The quarian they had found, Kal'reegar, also ducked as the assault unit fired a blast overhead. Dust and small chunks of wall rained down as more of the building behind them crumbled.
"Damn! We're not going to last long if we don't take that thing out quick!" She nodded to Jack and fired off a combined biotic wave with the other woman. The colossus didn't even budge. Its shields flickered briefly, then returned to full power.
"Fuck..." Jack sounded awed. Shepard couldn't blame her - their strongest biotic attack, and the geth unit shrugged it off completely.
"Sorry, Shep, I don't think my toys are gonna do much for this one." Kasumi had already tried using several of her tools, but the geth was hardened against tech attacks too. "Looks like we're stuck taking this thing down the hard way."
"Shepard, I have a couple rockets left. I could hit it while your team flanks it." Reegar sounded a bit shaken but still determined.
"You've done enough, Kal." She shook her head at him. "I commed my medic, he's on the way here now, so stay down and stay alive."
"You're not my commander, Shepard. I can't just sit by and do nothing." The quarian argued.
"You won't help Tali by getting killed, either!" She pushed him back further into cover. "If you want to help, stay here and try to get in touch with Tali. We need to let her know we're coming."
"All right, Shepard, we'll try it your way. Just make sure you get all the bastards."
"Don't worry about that! We're gonna blow all these fuckers back to hell!" Jack grinned.
Shepard surveyed the courtyard. "Garrus, you take the catwalk to the side there, stay up and try to keep the lesser geth off us."
"Will do," he nodded. "Reegar, if I could have those rockets, I'll do my best to keep the colossus busy, too."
"Make 'em count. That's all I could salvage." The quarian passed him the remaining missiles.
"Kasumi, you use the distraction to slip by and get ready to try the colossus' shields again." She pointed to one of the bridges in the courtyard.
"Sure, Shep. Don't take too long, though. My cloaking won't last forever against that."
"Jack, you're with me. We're gonna sneak around the other side and take out that damn colossus when Kasumi drops the shields on it."
"Oh yeah!"
The team split up. Garrus fired a few bursts from his sniper rifle while Shepard and the others dashed through the open part of the courtyard. Even so, a few geth platforms took shots at them. If not for the strength of their barriers, the two women would have been in trouble.
They took out the geth in their path and made their way to the side of the colossus just in time to see Kasumi drop her stealth field and fire a tech blast at the assault unit, overloading its shields. Shepard sent an immobilizing wave at the geth, then Jack followed up with a full strength biotic blast. The resulting detonation rocked the ground.
"Fuck yeah! Shepard, we're fucking unstoppable!" Jack grinned widely her way.
Shepard normally would have smiled too, but she was too worried about Tali at the moment. "Yeah. I really hope that's the last of them for now. We need to get in there and find Tali."
"Yeah, whatever. Shit like this has to get you pumped, though. We fucking wrecked them, righteously." Jack looked around. "You go find your friend, I'll make sure there's no more geth bastards out here."
Kasumi nodded. "I'll stick with her. There's gotta be lots of stuff out here we can salvage." She lowered her voice, making sure Jack had wandered far enough away. "Besides, someone should keep an eye on the one-woman demolition team, Shep."
"Thanks, Kasumi, I really appreciate."
She got to work on the door, and soon Garrus joined her to help get it open. It took a bit, but between them they unsealed the door. After they finally opened it, they cautiously advanced into the room, checking for any geth.
"I hope we're not too late." Garrus quietly commented to her.
Shepard nodded in agreement with him, too anxious to speak.
Inside, they found a door on the side of the room near the entrance. She opened it, but couldn't get inside. The room was filled with rubble from the collapsed wall. She could also see several exosuited limbs.
"No..." She whispered. She heard Garrus mutter a prayer to the spirits.
"I... we..." Shepard didn't know how to finish. "We should check the rest of the building..."
Tali could no longer hear sounds of combat from below. Since she also didn't see any geth wandering around, she assumed that meant whoever was out there had succeeded in taking out the colossus.
She cautiously walked to the door, unsealing it for her rescuers. She headed down the stairs, towards the main room. She held her breath as the other group emerged from the hallway. She had to hope...
Keelah!
She broke into a run.
It's her!
She threw her arms around Shepard...
Shepard was frozen in place, shocked. Tali had her arms around Shepard's neck and was... well, she was kissing her. It was certainly the last thing she had expected to happen. The quarian had her helmet pressed against Shepard's face, the mouth area of her mask on her lips.
She awkwardly put her hands on Tali's hips, trying to regain some control over the situation. That only seemed to encourage the quarian, who pressed herself tighter against Shepard's body.
It must have looked weird too, because she could hear Garrus laughing quietly off to the side. She didn't blame him. She could only imagine what they looked like at the moment.
Finally, Tali broke the kiss, stepping back a little from Shepard. Even so, the she didn't seem to want to lose contact, because she took one of Shepard's hands in her own. She was staring up at the human, relief and happiness clearly evident in her body language.
"You saved me again, Shepard..." Tali leaned in, letting herself rest against Shepard. "I told myself... I... I promised I would tell you how I feel when I saw you again, and now..."
"I'll... ah... go check on the others, make sure the shuttle is ready to go." Garrus discreetly stepped from the room, still laughing.
Garrus, you bastard! She just knew he was going to tell Joker all about this one...
Meanwhile, Tali had slipped her arms around Shepard's waist, hugging her again. "I thought I was going to die without telling you." She whispered. "I should have told you back on Freedom's Progress but I was too scared."
"...Tali?"
"I really like you, Shepard. It broke my heart when you died. I don't ever want to feel that again. So I'm telling you know. This time I'm not giving up."
"Uh..."
Tali placed a finger over the human's lips, silencing her. "You don't have to say anything now. But now you know how things are. Think on it, okay?"
"Tali, I-" She started to speak, but Tali cut her off again.
"Not now, Shepard. I mean it." The quarian looked up at her, warning her that she was indeed serious.
Shepard nodded, not saying anything. It seemed to be the right thing to do, because Tali took her hand and led her back to the main room. "I need to gather the data we collected, then we can leave. I've had enough of this planet."
She followed the quarian, her mind still in a fog. Tali kissed me! It had definitely been a kiss. And despite the helmet and the general awkwardness, it had felt good. Really good. She looked over at the other woman. What do I do now?
Tali was thrilled when Kal'reegar walked in a few minutes later with Jack and Kasumi. While she talked with her companion, Shepard walked over to her team.
"Garrus called Mordin. He'll be bringing the shuttle to meet us in a few minutes. The sun is low enough that it's safe to land in the courtyard at last." Kasumi shot Shepard a quizzical glance. "Are you alright, Shep? Your face is red."
"Let's get out of here before more geth arrive." She ignored the speculative look the thief was giving her.
"Fine, Shep. Keep your secret for now. I'll find out eventually." Kasumi grinned widely at her.
Soon enough the shuttle landed outside the ruined observatory. They helped the injured Reegar into it, and loaded the cargo area with all the items Tali had collected. They took off, heading back to the Normandy.
Shepard stared out the windows as they flew, lost in thought. What should I do? She looked over at the quarian sitting next to her. Tali was dozing, finally able to relax. She looked so... cute. Shepard sighed quietly.
What do I want?
*Next Chapter: Encounters on the Normandy. Finding warlord Okeer. Trouble on the Horizon colony.*