Chapter 23b: Feros pt.2

Jeong scoffed. "A human Spectre? Do you really expect us to believe that?" Shepherd glared at him and glowed blue, the security guards held up their weapons. However, one look from the Spectre made them think twice, he looked back at Jeong.

"If you want to test to see if I'm the real deal, be my guess, I would be more than happy to prove it to you" he said coldly. Jeong gulped and shut up, Juliana sighed and shook her head.

"Ignore him, he's just paranoid" she said."' I'm just glad to see a friendly face, and not geth for once"

"Do you know what geth are after?" Ash said bluntly.

Juliana shook her head. "No, they just attack without any warning, it was a massacre" she said. "We were lucky to get out"

"What was at the labs?" Tali asked.

"A lot of research material, that exceeds my pay grade to know" Juliana said. "But the geth have turned the building into a fortress"

Shepherd nodded. "Understood, then we better hurry, it might be a clue to our mission" Shepherd and team began to move out, but Jeong got in the way. Ash shook her head in annoyance, this guy was really asking for it.

"No!" Jeong yelled, "All information in there is property of ExoGeni! The main office won't be happy!"

Shepherd just rolled his eyes and walked past him. "You and ExoGeni can kiss my ass" he said annoyed.

Jeong gave up and dropped his shoulders in defeat. "Just... just don't do too much damage…" he said.

Tali shook her head. "Maaf manusia"

Before they left, Juliana spoke up. "Commander, before you go..." Juliana said. "My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing..."

Jeong snorted. "She's probably dead…" he muttered. Juliana and Shepherd's group all glared at him, Jeong cowered.

"If I find her, I'll bring her back, you have my word." He said gently. Juliana smiled and nodded.

The group made their way to the ExoGeni building; however the geth wasn't going to make this easy. "Uh! Don't these geth know the meaning of the word, break? She asked annoyed. The Mako mowed down the geth with its cannon and guns. The tank was then rocked hard.

"What the hell was that?" Shepherd asked. Shepherd and Ash heard Tali gasped.

"Colossus! Straight ahead!" she yelled. The geth Colossus, where the armatures were annoying, the colossus were outright menaces, they were larger, with stronger armor. They are equipped with mass accelerator machine guns and a more powerful Siege Pulse mass accelerator cannon that can create craters in the earth.

"Shepherd, what's the plan?" Ash asked. Shepherd gave back and gave a devilish smirk, Ash and Tali paled, that smile meant one thing, Shepherd was going to do something really stupid.

Tali's eyes went wide. "No, no, no please don't tell me you're thinking of…"Tali said before being interrupted. The Mako started to speed up towards the colossus. "YOU BOSH'TET!" she yelled. Shepherd ordered Ash to prep the guns. The Mako fired at the colossus while dodging its siege pulse. The Mako crashed against the Colossus just before it could unleash another siege pulse, and the team was harshly rocked.

"Ash, fire the cannon!" he ordered. Ash aimed the cannon and fired point-blank. The colossus broke apart violently. Ash and Tali glared at their reckless commander, however Shepherd didn't care he was really proud of his so-called 'tactic'. Shepherd looked back with a raised brow.

"What, we made it" Shepherd said.

"Tali you want to do this or should I?" Ash asked. Tali spoke.

"Of all the crazy…do you ever think before you do this stuff?!" She yelled. "You're lucky, the mako can take hits!"

Shepherd just smirked. "And had an awesome engineer" he said simply. "You know you love it, the way I killed that geth turned you on"

Tali blushed and then kicked Shepherd in the shin. "I…you..but….bosh'tet!" she said in frustration.

Shepherd jumped up, holding his shin in pain, he had forgotten how hard quarians could kick. "Aw come on, Rookie…"

Ashley raised a brow at the two arguing. Since Kohoku's funeral, they were becoming too chummy for her liking. She always had eyes for her commander, and seeing how close she was to him was making her jealous. She liked Tali, she saw her as a younger sister, but she was not going let Tali have him. 'Sorry Tali, but I sure as hell ain't willing to give him up to an alien' she thought. "We're here by the way, if you're done" Ash said. The two looked sheepishly at each other and blushed.

Tali looked at Ash. "You okay, you seem angry"

"Nothing I'm fine" she said.

The ExoGeni building was large and expansive and full of rubble, the geth had hit it hard. "Split up, if you find any geth, don't take any chances." Shepherd said.

Tali shook her head. "I don't think you should be talking about not taking any chances" she said annoyed. "Considering your stunt with the Colossus and that armature incident on Therum." Shepherd stiffened and blushed at that. Ash blinked at that. 'Just what did I miss on Therum' she thought.

The group split up looking for any way in. That, however, was easier said than done, the main road was destroyed, likely from geth bombardment and the inner parts of the buildings were surrounded by a geth barrier. No matter through how many corridors they walked, how many staircases they used, how many door frames they checked, there was always a blue energy field in the way. After a while it became frustrating.

"Son of a-, what with protheans and blue energy fields" he said annoyed.

"One its geth, not protean and two I found a way in" Tali said proudly.

"Nice one" Shepherd commented, "but looks like it's a one way drop."

"We have no choice," Ash said simply. "We'll just have to find another way out" Shepherd, Tali, and Ash began to carefully slide down a steep rocky slope. Shepherd was the first one to get out in the open, Ash and Tali then heard a bang and rushed to help. The two women saw Shepherd fighting a group of varren, they went to help. Shepherd lifted them up with a singularity field, while Tali blasted them with her shotgun. That soon gotten the attention of a huge pack that came after them, Ash took out her shotgun and blasted them back while Shepherd thinned the herd with his biotics.

When the fighting was done, the woman with Shepherd introduced herself. "I... I'm Elizabeth Baynham," she said still shaken.

"Juliana's daughter?" Ash asked.

She looked at Ash. "you met my mother? Is she still alive?" Shepherd nodded. "Oh thank god," Lizbeth breathed out. Her voice was weak and tired, and even her knees seemed to give in for a moment, which made the team wonder hold long she's been here.

"What are you doing here?" Tali asked.

"Ah, it's my fault," Lizbeth said, "Everyone else was running and I stayed back to back up data. Next thing I knew, a geth ship latched on and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."

"The geth have docked a ship to this tower?" Shepherd asked. "Why?"

Lizbeth nodded. "I think that it to keep the energy fields up. I've noticed they're laying power cables everywhere, and they seem to lead to the ship. They don't want anyone getting close…to the.."

"Told you it wasn't prothean" Tali said with a smirk.

Shepherd rolled his eyes. "To the what?" Shepherd asked.

"I don't know," Lizbeth said. "but my guess is that they're here for the Thorian. It's an indigenous life form to Feros. ExoGeni was studying it."

Ashley thought back to Ian in the tunnels. "Shepherd"

Shepherd nodded. "Why are the geth interested in this Thorian?" Shepard asked. "What is it exactly, anyway?"

"I don't know," Lizbeth answered. "I think it's a plant being. I know it's very old, thousands of years even. But I don't know why the geth would have any interest in it."

"Maybe they're taking up gardening." Tali said sarcastically.

"Doubt it, but we're stuck in here until that field is disabled." Ash said.

Shepherd nodded. "Time to go hunting then" he said. Lizbeth came up to him and gave Shepherd a white and blue card with her picture and the ExoGeni's logo on it.

"This is my ID card," Lizbeth said, "it will open you any locked doors, or data console. You may be able to find out more about the Thotian, but be careful, the geth are really everywhere."

Shepherd smirked. "More fun for us then" he said.

"Search for somewhere safe, we'll be back soon" Lizbeth nodded and went to a little cavern to hide. Let's go" he ordered. The team went deep into the building.

Maaf: Keelish for sorry

Manusia: Keelish for person