Chapter 44a: The Geth Dreadnaught pt1

The Normandy

Shepherd was in the docking bay making final preparations for the assault on the geth dreadnought; he then heard footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw it was Rael, Tali's father. Shepherd turned around. "What is it Admiral?"

Rael put two funny looking guns in front of him. One of them was a blue-grey pistol called the Arc pistol…a gun that uses a nonvisible laser to ionize the air and create a path for a high-ampere electric shock. Meaning it was a scaled down Arc Projector. The second weapon was funny looking shotgun called the Reegar Carbine, in honor of Kal'Reegar's family service against the geth. "Weapons developed by Xen, she wanted me to give them to you"

Shepherd equipped the Carbine and put the Arc Pistol away for Tali to use. "Thanks" Shepherd said curtly. The silence between them was awkward, the two men both cared about Tali, but had different ways of showing it. Shepherd went back to preparing his armor.

Rael spoke up. "So how has Tali been?"

"Ah good…things have been well, I mean beside the ancient genocidal machines ravaging our galaxy…" Shepherd said. "And the fact we're once again cleaning up your mess"

"I'm sorry…"

"I'm not the one you need to talk to" he said. "You need to talk to Tali"

Rael sighed. "I've tried"

"So you come to me?"

"You may think I am a monster, but I care for my daughter, she is the only family I have left…" Rael said sadly. "After her mother died, I made a promise that I would build a house on the home world, for her to be happy"

"And is she happy?" Shepherd asked.

Rael sighed. "No" he said.

Shepherd looked back at the older quarian, he really did regret his actions…despite his mistakes he was a good man. Shepherd decided to break the ice a little, maybe clear the air with him. "What was she like as a child?"

Rael looked at the specte and he chuckled a little. "Energetic, even by Quarian standards, she was strong-willed, and a temper to match like her mother" he said. "She was happy…"

Shepherd looked at him surprised, he didn't sound like the hard-ass admiral but like a father and husband. He wondered if Tali even knew about this side of her father. "You guys sound like a happy family"

"We were, but then Ziva died, it left a hole in both of us, that was when we became distant" he said sadly. "I was a fool; I should have been there for her…"

Shepherd sighed. "Yes, you should have, but what's done is done, you still have a chance" he said. "As misguided as you are, you still care for her, don't waste this chance" He walked away.

"Why are you so willing to let me talk to her, even after what I done?"

"Because, as much I hate you for using Tali, you're still her father, and you admitted you made a mistake, that I can respect that" Shepherd said. "Life is too short, to live it with regret"

Cockpit

"We're nearing the Quarian home system, Commander" Joker said. "The Admirals were right, this is a huge shitstorm"

"How big?"

"For every two geth ships the Quarian's destroy, the geth ships destroy twice that" EDI said. "They are in a deep disadvantage"

"What she said" Joker said.

"Take us in" Joker nodded and worked his fingers on the control board.

"Stealth systems on, no way they'll be able to detect us" Joker said. "Not unless they look out a window"

"I seriously doubt it, structural weaknesses, remember?" The Normandy exited the mass relay and saw it was worse than they thought. In front of them was the geth dreadnaught, it was huge and it was tearing through the quarian fleets like they were nothing. All quarian ships were decked out with weapons to turn every ship in the fleet into a dreadnaught, even their civilian liveships. The quarians were so willing to break the ancient Treaty of Faixen, that limited the amount of dreadnaughts anyone race could have so they could have a fighting chance and yet all it seemed to do was make them a bigger target. The fleets retaliated with a barrage of cannon fire, however the large ship eat them up and returned fire. "My god…"

"How the hell the Quarians held on for so long?" Joker asked. "Look at that thing; it could give the Destiny Ascension a run for its money"

"Don't know, but we're stopping it" Shepherd said. "Find us a place to land" EDI nodded. The Normandy got close to the dreadnought, dodging fire from both the quarian fleets and the geth. The dreadnaught opened fired, took down a quarian ship beside them…that was too close for comfort.

Joker sighed. "Done" Shepherd nodded and saw the Javik and Tali coming to meet them. They went to the airlock.

"Okay here's the plan, we find the broadcast and disable it, and get out" Shepherd said. "Since Rookie is an expert on geth software, she'll be handling hacking and security"

"Good" Javik said.

"Er, Javik shouldn't you wear a helmet? You know no air" Tali asked.

Javik scoffed. "Your concern is not needed quarian; our physiology can endure limited exposure to the vacuum of space and we breathe through our bodies" he said. "Helmets are for primitives"

"Okay…"

EDI spoke up. "There is a problem, Shepherd, the extension bridge's tubes are secured except one" She said. "It would be too dangerous for the whole team to go"

"I see the free one, pretty torn up, we can find another, Commander" Joker said.

"No the longer that signal is broadcasting, the more trouble the Quarians are in" Shepherd said. "I'll go by mag-boots, and secure the docking area, everyone else can follow"

"Be careful, Wayne…" Tali said concerned.

Shepherd smirked. "I'm always careful"

Dreadnought (docking tubes)

He walked out; being out in space was disorienting to say the list, he saw the tube, torn up was an understatement. Shepherd could sneeze and the whole tubes could come apart, he shook his head…better to not think about it. He started his walk across, moving out-of-the-way of the debris. So far so good… he looked to his right as another quarian ship bit the dust from the dreadnought's guns, he continued on…nothing he could do for now. Half way across, he blocked by the debris, Shepherd looked for another passageway. He saw a clear path above him and went on. As he walked along the ceiling, a greyish-brown planet caught his eye, Rannoch, Tali's home.

"Rookie, I think you're going to like the view" Shepherd said. "I see why, Rael did what he did, it's beautiful"

"Better than the vids?" Tali asked.

"Hell yeah, even more of a reason to stop this war"

"Agreed, but I'm more worried about you"

"Eh, don't be, this is kinda fun actually, kind of like those gravity rides I went on as a kid" Shepherd said half-jokingly. A lame joke for sure, but it was a way to keep his mind focused. One wrong move and it could be a repeat of the Collector attack on the first Normandy. He took a deep breath trying to block out that memory, at least he was almost to the other side.

"Only you would find such a thing as fun" Tali said. "The ship should have artificial gravity, you should be fine once inside" They then heard a rumble and Shepherd almost tumbled into space. He looked back as the now free tube flew aimlessly in space. "Wayne, are you alright!?"

"Yeah, but it looks like you guys aren't using the docking tube"

"So I'm guessing you'd rather not solo the dreadnought" Joker said.

"That would be awesome, but I rather not show up everyone, 'cause you know" Shepherd said.

"And you're so modest too." Tali said sarcastically.

Shepherd opened the door and went in. He felt a force as went in, the artificial gravity was pressing on his body. He turned off his mag-boots and opened his com. "I'm in"

"Hold on, I got the schematics…there should be a hull breach to your right, the nearest undamaged docking tube is on the other side" Shepherd went to the location of the Nav-point; it was a little slower than he would have liked. To his left, was a huge hole…the quarians was able to damage some of the ship.

"Some hull breach"

"Not really, Shala said that Gerrel tried a frontal assault. Lost six frigates and that tiny hole is the only damage they could do" she said. "More of my people will share their fate, if we don't do something…"

"Don't worry Rookie, we'll put a stop this, and then on to the home world"

"You've got a plan?"

"Er, I will…soon…"

Tali giggled a little. "Don't strain yourself"

"Ha-ha" Shepherd said sarcastically. He climbed the ladder and went into the next room. He overrode the controls allowing Javik and Tali to join him. Shepherd handed Tali a gun.

"What's this?"

"A gift from your father, a weapon Xen made"

Tali scoffed. "If that bosh'tet thinks this is enough for forgiveness…" Tali said.

"He wants you safe, Tali…he made a mistake and he wants to fix it" Shepherd said.

Tali crossed her arms. "Since when are you so buddy-buddy with him?"

"I'm not, but I can kinda understand where he's coming from, in his shoes I'd probably do the same thing…" Shepherd said. "You're that important to us"

"L-let's just do this…" Tali said. She hacked into the door and the team entered the new area.

"So what are we looking for?"

"An operations center. I can disable the reaper command signal from there" Tali said. "The closest one is past their defense network and through a sensor cluster" She shuddered as she looked at the area, a vent area…"Vents, always the vents…"

Shepherd looked at her, he knew what she was talking about. "You did fine on the Collector base"

"I got lit on fire!" She went to the terminal to find data. "Keelah…"

"What?"

"GARDIAN antifighter lasers, using ultraviolent instead of the standard infrared" Tali said.

"The same configuration as the reaper's weapons" Javik said. "This war was a folly from the start"

"No wonder the fleet didn't stand a chance" Shepherd said. "Come let's get to the op center" The team continued on to the bridge controls, Tali activated the controls and the bridge extended. The geth turn the corner, and fire. Javik and Shepherd threw some lift grenades and Shepherd shut them down with a warp field. Tali summoned her drone and hacked the geth in the back into firing at its allies. They moved across the bridge where more geth came in to fight, the rocket troopers bombarded them with missiles while the troopers tried to flank the team. "The hell? How come we didn't hear an alarm?"

"They're geth! They send alerts to every unit on this ship!" Tali said. "We need to get to the operation center, before they box us in!" Shepherd nodded and took out his Arc Projector and fired every geth in the team's way. The team went down, and was met with more geth.

"Just like a machine, don't even have the sense to get to cover" Javik said.

"They're a networked intelligence, as we kill them they become more aggressive!"

"Like an animal cornered…." Shepherd then felt a rocket whizzing past him. "Rookie, rocket trooper, hack it" Tali lifted her omni-tool and hacked the geth, the geth then proceeded to wipe out the geth in front of it. The battle was done, and they went on ahead.

"Wayne look, a log of the geth's processes" Tali said. "The reapers have them under complete control"

"Anything else?"

"They also have a planetary weapon; it's ripping my people apart"

"Anything we can do? Shepherd asked.

Tali sighed. "Just make their sacrifice worthwhile…"

"They did their duty, if they were my people, they would be honored as heroes" Javik said. "The machines will pay in blood" Javik moved forward to scan for more enemies.

"Maybe…"

"You okay, Tali?"

"No, no I'm not, my family and friends are dying left and right" Tali said sadly. "What if we fail, Wayne?"

"We won't "

"How can you be sure?"

"Because your people are survivors, they survived the morning war, they survived exile, and galaxy rejecting them" Shepherd said. "I have no doubt in my mind, they can survive this, so no more doubts, okay?"

Tali took a deep breath. "Okay" They went into the next area.