Chapter 25: Colony of the Dead
A month had passed since that fateful encounter with Talitha at the Citadel. Shepherd kept in touch with her when they were not on missions, because it would help Talitha recover from her trauma of being in batarian custody for so long, and it also helped Shepherd with his own healing with Mindoir. Tali could see it in his face too, Shepherd seemed happier, and other than Ashley, he was joking a lot more with the crew other that the Normandy's ground team and as a plus, their relationship was stronger. Tali and Shepherd were lying in the bed, it would be long time before they could do more other than lie on the bed, but it didn't matter. They both simply enjoyed the presence of one another in the peaceful silence of their cabin. It was a huge surprise to her when Shepherd asked her to move in with him in his cabin.
Three weeks ago
Tali was moaning, she didn't get much sleep, the sleeping pods may have been quiet (something she got use to a long time ago) but it sure wasn't comfortable, her back was killing her. A Quarian that had not a good night of sleep was very, very irritable. Something Shepherd had learned the hard way.
"Morning, rookie" Shepherd said with a smile. Tali glared at him.
"Shut up" she growled. Shepherd looked at her.
"Someone's angry, must be that time of the month again "he joked. Tali narrowed her eyes at him at kicked him in the shin hard.
"Bosh'tet" She said annoyed.
"Geez, I was joking, no need to try to break my legs" Shepherd said in pain. "What's wrong?"
Tali sighed. "Sorry couldn't sleep"
Shepherd raised a brow at that. "Too quiet to sleep?" Tali shook her head.
"No, the sleeping pods are so damned uncomfortable" she growled. "How can you humans stand it?"
Shepherd chuckled a little. "A strong back for one" His next words completely surprised her. "Why don't you try sleeping in my bed tonight? Maybe we can share the cabin" he asked simply.
Tali blushed. "Sleep in… your room? In your bed? I—wow, I… uh, thank you, that's very generous, but I don't know if that's—are you being serious?"
Shepherd nodded. "Sure why not? Everyone knows we're dating at this point and I doubt someone is going to say something"
Tali tried to calm down a little. "I don't know Wayne, isn't that a big step for us to start bunking together" she said. Shepherd just smiled.
"I suppose, but you want a place comfortable and I want my girlfriend by my side" he said simply. "Win-win, I say" Tali lowered her head, Shepherd waved his hand nervously. "Oh, shit, whatever I said, I'm sorry, I was an idiot!"
Tali shook her head. "No, you didn't say anything wrong, but….you know we can't do anything" she said sadly. "I'm stuck in this suit…" Shepherd lifted her head.
"Doesn't matter to me, I'm doing this because I care about you" he gently. His words made her determined.
"I'll figure something out," Tali responded. "I promise."
Her thoughts were broken by the sound of Shepherd's Omni-tool. It was Joker. "What is it, Joker?"
"Come to the cockpit, you've got to see this" Joker said.
Shepherd sighed and looked at Tali. "See you later, Rookie" Shepherd left his cabin to go to the cockpit, Tali decided to go down to Engineering, she was sure Adams needed her help. When she got to elevator, she ran into Ashley. Ever since the human found out Shepherd and her were dating, their relationship had cooled, they were still professional, but the atmosphere was tense much like the elevator ride.
"So, how are you and the Commander doing?" Ash asked without emotion.
"Uh, f…fine, you know…uh fine" Tali said. The elevator stopped on the floor.
"Great" Ash said. She went to the weapons bench, and Tali went back to engineering, she looked back at Ash and sighed sadly. She hoped they could be friends again.
Chasca is a large, but low density world, fundamentally similar to its inner neighbor Inti. Like Inti, Chasca is tidally locked to Matano. The same side always faces the sun, resulting in a scorching day side and a frozen night side. In the temperate areas around the terminator, temperatures average around 30 Celsius. Combined with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, this slender band of habitable terrain allows limited colonization by humans.
Chasca's ring is unique. It appears to be, for lack of a better term, a massive piece of alien "installation art." The rings are made of small pieces of synthetic material, and are almost invisible from space. From the ground, they catch and scatter the light of Matano in picturesque ways. It is not known who created the ring or when.
Chasca is very early in development, with little more than a few pioneer teams scattered across the surface. Information is being collated about native hazards and ecology, while a massive colonist recruiting drive is gearing up back on Earth.-Codex
The team was riding along in the mako to the location of their next mission. The silence was of course awkward, because Shepherd had decided to bring along Ash and Tali for the mission. Tali wondered why, considering the tension was a risk to the mission, but Shepherd explained it would good, something about danger repairing disputes. "So, Wayne, what are we doing here?"
"Joker caught wind of an SOS on this planet" Shepherd said. "We look for any survivors, Rookie, you'll exact the data, Ash and I will guard you"
"Understood, Commander" Ash said. The mako drove up the ledge, where they saw a horrifying sight, dragon's teeth, lots of dragon's teeth. Shepherd had told her about the dragon's teeth, the huge spikes that geth use to turn human corpses – and other unfortunate living victims – into husks. Tali felt great sadness at the sight of them, the geth weren't satisfied with ruining her people's lives, they seek to ruin others' lives also. "Just like Eden Prime, dammit…Commander…"
"I know, if there's this many, we can forget about seeing survivors" The mako parked on the side of the building, and got out. Tali looked around quite nervously, when there are dragon teeth, husk are not too far behind. She heard feral growls behind her; she jumped up and latched on to Shepherd. "Whoa, rookie, what the hell?"
"Sorry, I heard something" She then saw, Ashley laughing silently and knew what was going on, she was the one making that noise. She was going to say something, but Shepherd beat her to the punch.
Shepherd frowned. "Not cool, Ash, knock it off"
"Sorry, commander" The team went inside the buildings, it was quiet, too quiet, husks weren't known for stealth, they nothing more than wild animals now, but see nothing was really making the team nervous. And then another growl, Shepherd and Tali glared at Ash. "What? I'm not doing it this time" Another growl, Ash was right, it wasn't her, the team got out their weapons as the growls had gotten louder. And then a scream of pain, Shepherd and Tali looked back and saw Ash grabbing her side, and the cybernetic zombie going in for another hit until a shot rang out. Tali blasted the husk with her shotgun, and then a symphony of growls made themselves known.
Shepherd and Tali surrounded Ash, while she applied medi-gel to her wound. The husks had other ideas as they charged the team. Shepherd glowed blue and used his singularity field tossing some of the husks like rag-dolls. Tali took care of the stragglers with her shotgun, but the soulless creatures kept on coming, if they didn't do something quick, they were going to be overrun. Shepherd threw a grenade at the husks, and the husks were scattered, letting Ash, who was now patched up, and Tali to kill the rest. The battle was done, and Tali went to a terminal in the back.
"Oh Keelah…"
Shepherd looked at her. "What is it, rookie?" Shepherd and Ash looked at the data and their eyes went wide. This colony was actually an ExoGeni research colony, they were working on samples on husk, until Cerberus asked for it, but something happened. Someone from the research team unleashed the husks, and they slaughtered everyone, in the logs of the last survivor, it was revealed that the one who unleashed the husks was a mole for Cerberus, as a way to cover their tracks. Shepherd frowned. "Cerberus…those bastards again"
"But Admiral Hackett and the fifth fleet, dealt with them a month ago" Ash said.
"Cerberus may be a bigger problem than we thought…come on, let's get out of here" Shepherd said. The team got out of the base, fighting more husks as they got out. When they returned to the Normandy, the ship was ordered to blast the dead colony to oblivion. The Normandy then flew away; they never wanted to see such horror again.
