Chapter 13: Those Flashlights Look Familiar
The last time I saw Tali, she said she was in the midst of a mission that took her into geth-controlled space. Haestrom—which TIMmy's dossier said she was currently mucking around on—definitely qualified. It was originally colonized as a scientific outpost by the quarians to study the system's star, which was exhibiting unusual instability, and thus warranted little in the way of security or military reinforcement. Needless to say, it was quickly overrun by the geth during the Geth War in 1896. I had no idea why Tali might be going back there. Not that it mattered—she was there, so we would follow. Likelihood of geth be damned.
"Off to find a potential recruit on a distant world filled with hostile geth," Garrus murmured as the shuttle touched down into the ruins of the colony. "Just like old times."
"At least I'm consistent," I joked.
"Shepard," EDI interrupted, "our data indicates that Tali is somewhere in these ruins. There is considerable geth activity and an environmental hazard."
"'An environmental hazard'?" I repeated, as we disembarked.
"Solar output has overwhelmed Haestrom's protective magnetosphere. Exposure to direct sunlight will damage your shields."
"Yeah, we should probably avoid that," Kasumi piped up. "I'm wearing black, after all."
"Then we will fight in the shade," Grunt snarled, "but no hiding!"
"Settle down, people," I said. "Let's move out."
EDI was right. As soon as we stepped into the sunlight, alarms would flash on our HUDs and our shields would start to drop. We quickly learned to sprint through any patches of sunlight as quickly as possible.
Up ahead stood a large gatehouse door that was sealed. The room on the side, however, was not. As we entered the room, we heard an automatic voice recording: "Emergency log entry. The geth are here. I've stayed to buy the others time. Anyone who gets this—find Tali'Zorah. She and that data are all that matters. Keelah se'lai." (1)
The person giving the quarian presumably was the quarian lying dead at our feet, who'd given his life fending off geth like the one collapsed next to him. We quickly searched the room. One or two items worth salvaging, a medi-kit and controls for the gatehouse we'd seen earlier. I quickly accessed the controls to open it.
As we stepped out, we saw the gatehouse doors retracting, revealing a courtyard filled with random bits of machinery and constructions supplies that provided shelter from the devastating sun. We also saw a distressingly familiar shape dove towards us. "What the fuck?" Jack exclaimed.
"Incoming geth dropship!" Garrus shouted. "Everyone, take cover!"
The dropship swept past us, but not before dropping off a bunch of geth troopers. I led Team One to shelter behind some pipes while Team Two huddled on either side of the gatehouse walls. Garrus zapped the shields of three geth that were clustered close together. Before they could separate, Jacob yanked them up into the air. Miranda was quick to detonate the biotic field, sending bits of geth raining down. Kasumi and Grunt tag-teamed another geth while Zaeed and I sniped the last two.
Looking around, I saw a ramp leading up to a catwalk that ran along the courtyard. "Garrus," I radioed, "I'll take Team One up the ramp and down that catwalk. You take Team Two to move through the courtyard."
"Understood."
The catwalk had plenty of nooks and crannies—thanks to all the barrels and crates lying about—that could hide geth. Especially since geth didn't mind cramming themselves into small gaps. So I had Team One leapfrog their way down the catwalk, keeping their heads down to avoid the sun.
Of course, the geth had to show their flashlight heads when I was the one moving towards the front. I immediately activated my cloak and sprinted towards the closest geth—who was also between me and cover—where I set about punching the heck out of it. Yes, it seemed that shields and a hardened chassis were no match for a thoroughly peeved guy and his fists. Maybe the krogan were onto something.
By the time the geth had succumbed to death—or is that deletion?—by fisticuffs, my cloak had collapsed. The other geth immediately started firing at me, draining my shields in short order. I dove for cover, noting out of the corner of my eye that one of the geth absorbed two successive EMPs, which caused it to explode in a cloud of shrapnel and conductive fluid. Another geth, whose shields had also been wiped out by the EMPs, took a concussive round from Grunt in the kisser.
Checking my HUD, I saw that Team Two had also run into some opposition, but they seemed to have things under control. In fact, they were making progress across the courtyard. Time for Team One to do the same, I decided.
The team started moving forward one by one, exchanging weapons fire with the geth, with the odd EMP, fireball or concussive round as the situation warranted. We had made our way down most of the ramp when three more geth showed up.
One of them was a rocket trooper.
"Okay, we'll definitely have to take the rocket trooper out first," I decided. "Miranda, get ready to hit it with an EMP. Once its shields are down, we can take it out and then deal with the other—"
Before I could finish, Grunt let out a roar and charged the troopers. He bowled them over like bowling pins. Well, he bowled the geth troopers over like bowling pins. The rocket trooper was crushed into the wall at the end of the catwalk. Kinda like when Grunt and I first met. Only I didn't have my chest cavity flattened and my innards splattered.
"Or we could let Grunt loose," I shrugged.
"Uncouth, unorthodox... and distressingly effective," Miranda was forced to admit.
We finished off the last two geth and went down a ramp towards Team Two. They were taking fire from a pair of geth at the far end of the courtyard. I assigned each geth to Miranda and Kasumi and counted down from three. On cue, they launched their EMPs, shorting out their shields. Grunt fired another concussive round to send one of the geth flying out of cover while I sniped the other one. Team Two promptly took advantage of the opportunity to take out the last geth.
"Report," I said.
"No casualties. Picked up some iridium and a weapons upgrade we can check out back on the Normandy," Garrus said concisely.
Meanwhile, Kasumi had taken the initiative to scout ahead. "Can't go forward, but there's a tunnel here," she said over the comm.
The tunnel also had some geth. One of them was guarding the tunnel, but quickly fell to mass weapons fire. The other two were busy firing at someone outside the tunnel, so we kinda caught them off guard.
Off to the side, there was a geth that was shimmering in and out of sight. Apparently, geth had cloaking devices too. I scanned it to see if I could copy their cloak. No such luck—all I got were some spare parts that I could sell for salvage. Better than nothing, I suppose. There was also a submachine gun lying nearby. No idea who it was, but I scooped it up for analysis and mass production.
Outside, I could see a pair of quarians shooting at something. They were about 72 metres from our position. (2) Before I could look around, I was interrupted by a voice. "Break-break-break. OP-1, this is Squad Leader Kal'Reegar. Do you copy? The geth sent a dropship towardsOP-2. Tali'Zorah's secure, but we need backup."
We started looking around. Miranda was the one who spotted the comm unit lying on the ground and handed it to me. "We're bunkered up here," Kal'Reegar continued. "Can you send support?"
Well I can, once I figure out how this—ah! Here we go. "This is Commander Shepard of the Normandy. Can we provide assistance?"
"Patch your radio into Channel 617-theta," Kal'Reegar instructed. As we adjusted our comms, he gave us the sitrep: "We were on a stealth mission. High risk. We found what we were after,but the geth found us. They've got us pinned down. Can't get to our ship, can't transmit data through the solar radiation."
"What's the status of your team?" I asked. "How many of you are left?"
"We were a small squad. Dozen marines, plus the science team."
Past tense. That's never good.
"We'redowntohalf-strengthnow," Kal'Reegar said, confirming my suspicions. "Made the synthetic bastards pay for it, though."
"What brought you this deep into geth-controlled space?"
"You're asking the wrong person, Shepard. I just point and shoot."
I liked this guy already.
"Something about the sun. It's going bad faster than it should. Some kind of energy problem."
That's what they were here for? "Any idea where the geth came from?" I asked, rather than try to wrap my head around it.
"One of their patrol ships found us," he explained. "Dropships started raining geth down on our heads before we could get off-world. System's under geth control. We knew they made planetary sweeps periodically. We'd hoped going low-emissions would hide us."
"Do we have to worry about the geth sending in reinforcements?" I pressed. It already looked like we'd be meeting my quota of geth for the day before the mission was over. I really didn't want any more geth dropping by. Literally.
"I don't think so," he replied. "Their patrol ship hasn't lifted off again and the radiation blocks all offworld communications."
"How are you holding up? We can be there in a few minutes."
"Take it slow and careful," Kal'Reegar warned. "Direct sunlight fries your shields all to hell. Weapons too. We're bunkered down at base camp across the valley. I left our mission lead, Tali'Zorah, at a secure shelter with the data, then doubled back to hold the chokepoint. Getting Tali out safely is our top priority. If you can extract her, we'll keep them off you."
"You've got confirmation that the geth haven't reached Tali yet?" I said.
Kal'Reegar didn't give any sign of surprise by my use of her nickname. Probably because he didn't have the luxury of indulging his curiosity with such matters. "Affirmative. Left my best men with her. Every marine on this rock is sworn to protect Tali'Zorah. Long as one of us is still drawing air, she'll be safe."
"Wait," I objected. "You said earlier you couldn't transmit data. That's what you're fighting for? You're going to throw your life away so she can e-mail a couple bits of data?"
"Negative," Kal'Reegar replied. "I'm going to give my life for the Migrant Fleet. All the difference in the galaxy."
Fair enough.
"I'm no tech expert, Shepard," he added. "I'm a marine. They tell me to shoot, I shoot. They said to protect Tali and the data, that's what I'll do. If you get them out safe, I've done my job."
"Hold your position," I advised. "We'll hit their back ranks and—"
"Wait!" Kal'Reegar interrupted. "Watch your ass! We've got a dropship coming in!"
A dropship swooped in and fired three mass accelerator rounds at the quarians I'd spotted earlier. On second glance, I saw they were guarding a doorway of some sort. The resulting explosions ripped them to shreds. It also destroyed the supports holding a pillar upright. It started swaying back and forth.
I got the feeling that that door might lead to someplace important, so I led the squad out on a run. We were too late, though. Barely took a dozen steps before the pillar crashed in front of us.
"Crap. Doorway's blocked!"
"Yeah, I can see that," I confirmed. "And the ordinance we're carrying either won't make a scratch or will blow us all up in the process. Got any other ideas?"
"Grab the demo charges in the buildings nearby!" Kal'Reegar told me. "Use them to clear a path! "They're coming in through the side!" he added with another curse. "I've got to fall back!"
"Understood," I replied. "We'll see you soon."
EDI had apparently been monitoring our communications. "Shepard, I have scanned the area and located the demolition charges the quarian commander mentioned."
"Upload the data to my HUD," I ordered.
"Done," EDI said without a pause. "You will need both sets of charges to clear the rubble."
Right. As soon as I've dealt with all the geth that were coming out to greet us.
There were only two of them at first. One of them was quickly eliminated. The other one cloaked.
In the midst of all the frantic "I can't see it!" "Where'd it go?" and "Lost contact," I could dimly see a flickering shape ripple its way towards us. I grabbed my pistol, cloaked and started shooting. Sure enough, the geth's cloak failed and it reappeared in front of us. Given the processing abilities of the geth, I'm sure it had enough time to give the synthetic equivalent of a gulp before it got shredded.
"How did you know where to shoot?" Miranda asked afterwards.
"I saw the haze around its cloaking field," I shrugged. "Didn't you?"
I got a round of shrugs and shaking heads, coupled with a lot of incredulous looks. Chalk one up to Cerberus and their mad scientist upgrades.
According to the scans EDI uploaded, the closest demo charge was in a garage on the left. Of course, it was heavily guarded. Team Two took cover and fired back while we advanced to a pile of machinery directly outside. Absently swiping a pack of iridium, I cloaked and sniped a geth. Miranda and Kasumi eliminated the shields from two more geth. Grunt, surprisingly, ignored them, choosing to fire at another geth that was coming down a ramp towards us.
Team Two was equally occupied. Garrus was launching EMPs as fast as he could; Jacob and Jack were causing all manners of confusion by levitating any unshielded geth they could see; Zaeed was sniping targets of opportunity and Mordin was merrily firing away with his submachine gun.
Before long, all the geth were down. I motioned for Team Two to watch our backs while Team One searched the garage. We found a few medi-gel packs and a computer with an audio file open. Curious, I hit the play button. To my surprise, it was Tali's voice we heard:
"We need a core sample to get a timeline on the rate of radiation increase, but our equipment keeps dying on us. Shepard once used a mining laser to clear some rubble back on Therum. Maybe I can do something similar with demolition charges."
Nice to see she hadn't forgotten all the fun we'd had together, I mused, finally noticing the demo charge. I picked it up and packed it away in a pouch.
It was as if that was some kind of hidden trigger for the geth, who plummeted out of the sky like bombs. A couple troopers...
...and a geth prime.
"Focus on the big one!" I shouted. "And Grunt—don't charge it. Trust me; it's tougher than it looks." Grunt looked skeptical, but didn't go off on a kamikaze run. Satisfied that he wasn't going to do anything crazy, I grabbed my sniper rifle before cloaking. My sniper round landed a second before Garrus's EMP. Miranda and Kasumi were quick to follow, draining the last of its shields. Mordin quickly launched some plasma from his omni-tool. As I added another fireball to the mix, I noted that the others were keeping the remaining geth off our backs. Three geth went down in a hail of bullets, as quick as you please.
Back to the geth prime, who was trying to distract us by spawning a combat drone to throw at us. Like we would be fooled by that. Miranda blasted the last of its armour with her biotics; Kasumi overloaded its weapons and targeting systems with an EMP and I gave it a quick headshot. Scoped and dropped, as Garrus would say. 'Bout time—we'd spent a lot of ammo taking that sucker down.
I decided it was our turn to stay put while Team Two leapfrogged ahead. They moved forward and to the left, where the next demo charge could be found. It didn't take long before they started firing. As we headed towards them, I saw a ramp leading up to a catwalk. It increased our exposure to the lethal sun, but it also gave us a superior vantage point to attack the geth. So we sprinted up, trying to limit our exposure as much as possible.
Sure enough, we could see six geth and a geth destroyer, as well as the broken bodies of the geth Team Two had already taken out. "Miranda, Kasumi; zap the destroyer's shields," I ordered. "Grunt, feel free to shoot whatever you like."
It was after those words left my mouth that I realized I could have phrased things a little better. Thankfully, Grunt interpreted my orders the way I had intended, and started firing at convenient targets of opportunity with his assault rifle. I quickly followed suit with my sniper rifle.
Noting that they had lost the advantage of cover, the geth advanced towards other shelter immediately below us, where we couldn't shoot them. By that point, we had already seriously weakened them. Our EMPs and our weapons fire had drained all of their shields, not to mention eliminating two of the geth troopers. Moving forward like that might have blocked our line of sight, but it also exposed them to more weapons fire from Team Two. Within a few minutes, all of the geth had been destroyed.
Since we were up here, I thought I'd scout around. First thing I saw, right next to my hiding spot, was another computer. Tapping the controls, I managed to pull up another of Tali's audio logs:
"It's next to impossible to get accurate solar measurements. The radiation keeps burning out our equipment. This sun shouldn't be like this. It was stable a few hundred years ago. Stars don't die that quickly."
Fine. Maybe that was as weird as Tali seemed to think. Maybe that meant something big, on a cosmic scale. Small comfort to everybody who'd died on this rock, though.
Some more scrounging—on the ground, away from that damned sun—yielded some more iridium, some medi-gel, a few power cells and the second demo charge. Now all we had to do was get to the pillar and crack it open.
Once we got past the geth that were dropped out of the sky, of course. Lots of them, including several rocket troopers on the catwalk I just crossed over.
"We're taking too much fire," Garrus yelled.
"If we head to the left or the catwalk above, we can flank them!" Miranda suggested.
Unfortunately, both teams were pinned down. Getting either one to move would be suicide. Thankfully, the geth could only shoot at what they could see. "Kasumi, cloak and head to these coordinates," I ordered, highlighting the desired route with a series of waypoints on her HUD. "Everyone else, hold your ground and wait for us to make our move."
Cloaked, the two of us headed back through a tunnel I spotted earlier and up a ramp to the catwalk. The rocket troopers were still there. Unfortunately, the only way to get any decent shot on them would involve exposing ourselves to the sun. Unless...
"Kasumi," I whispered. "Cloak and sneak up to the closest geth. Once I snipe one of the others, take it out. Then get back here."
"On my way," she said, vanishing in the blink of an eye. I gave her thirty seconds to get into position, then cloaked and leaned out. I lifted my sniper rifle, making a mental note not to accidentally look at the sun through the scope. My shields could regenerate, given enough time. I'm not so sanguine about my eyeballs. Finding a suitable target, I breathed out, refocused and fired.
The trooper's head exploded. A second later, the geth I had designated stiffened as Kasumi sent who knows how much voltage coursing through its circuits. It collapsed just as Kasumi cloaked again. Sure enough, the rocket troopers turned towards their ambushers. They turned back almost immediately, but that was enough time for Miranda and Garrus to knock out their shields. Jack and Jacob lifted them up for Grunt and Zaeed to fire concussive rounds into them. Floating as they were, the impact of those rounds sent them flying through the air. I later found out they landed all the way on the other side of the courtyard, where we'd first entered.
When we got back, I saw some good news and some bad news. The good news was that most of the geth had been eliminated.
The bad news is that the squad were scrambling away from a geth destroyer, who was trying its best to barbeque them with its flamethrower.
"Kasumi?" I asked, lifting my sniper rifle.
"On it."
Kasumi fired an EMP at it while I cloaked. My shot hit its flashlight a second later. Didn't quite kill it, but it was enough for Jack to finish it off.
Once everyone had recovered from the shock of almost getting barbequed, we went to the pillar and set the charges. "This should do it," Miranda approved.
"Have to move quickly," Mordin added, already backing off. "Large impact radius."
He had a point, but the eight second countdown was enough time for us to get out of the way. When the dust settled, we saw the charges had punched a nice neat hole through the pillar, opening the way to the door. Which opened to the other door. Which opened to the aftermath of one heck of a fight.
Dead geth and quarians were lying everywhere. One of them was crawling along the ground. I put it out of its misery with a couple good punches. Then we searched the room. Some of the geth had a few intact components. Nothing unique, but enough to salvage for credits and an assault rifle upgrade.
Miranda was looking at the walls. "Look at this," she exclaimed. "The architectural design definitely predates the geth uprising."
I would have to take her word for it. I would have identified their date of construction simply by the fact that I'd never heard of quarians building anything with stone. Not now, anyway.
"Colony is deep in geth territory," Mordin scratched his head. "Why would quarians come here now?"
Garrus was kneeling by one of the dead quarians. "Whatever they're after, I hope it's worth it," he said grimly.
There were a few more computers and a holo-projector. Scrolling through the computer logs, I found another entry from Tali, one I hadn't heard yet:
"Our ancestors walked these halls with uncovered heads. The sun must have been normal back then. So much space. Walls of stone... it's amazing. I wish my friends could see it. I wish Shepard were here."
The phrase "Be careful what you wish for" came to mind. Before I could explore that, I was interrupted by Tali's voice: "Tali'Zorah to base camp. Come in, base camp."
It took a second for me to realize Tali's voice was coming from the holo-projectors. Her face was hovering in mid-air. "Hello?Isanyonethere?"
Clearly, the projectors weren't working both ways. Sun damage, no doubt. I reached over and activated the comm. "Tali? It's Shepard."
I couldn't see her face, obviously, but her voice was incredulous. "Shepard? I'm not complaining, but you show up at the strangest times! What are you doing in the middle of geth space?"
"Oh, you know," I replied casually. "I was in the neighbourhood. Got bored. Hadn't blown anything up since yesterday. Thought you might need a hand."
She laughed briefly. Probably the first time in hours that she'd done that. "Thanks for coming,Shepard. It means a lot to hear your voice."
"What's going on over there?" I asked. "We talked briefly with one of your companions, Kal'Reegar, but that was a while ago."
"Kal'Reegar and what's left of the marines got me into the observatory," she replied. "From where you are, it's through the door and across the field. I got the data I needed and I'm safe for now, but I've got a lot of geth outside."
"What's this research you're after?" I asked. "I gathered from your logs that it has something to do with the sun?"
"Yes. It's aging faster than it should. I can tell you more about it once we've got fewer geth shooting at us."
"They are rude like that," I said dryly. "Would it help if I brought in the Normandy to reprimand them?"
"Doubtful. These buildings are centuries old. If you bring down heavy fire, this whole place could collapse on us."
Right. Like the pillar that had sent us on a merry and hazardous detour. Scratch that idea. "Is anyone else still with you or are you alone out there?"
"Reegar had a team of marines covering me when I ran for the observatory," Tali replied. "At least some of them are still alive. I can hear them firing at the geth outside."
Miranda waved to get my attention and pointed at the only other door out of here. I immediately realized what she was getting at. "Tali, it looks like somebody sealed the door against the geth, and the adjoining console is damaged. Can you get it open on your end?"
"Uh, let me see..." Tali's head tilted down for a moment as she accessed whatever computers were on her end. "Yes, I can do it. Here. Should be unlocked now."
"We'll see you soon, Tali," I said.
"Be careful, Shepard," Tali replied. "And please, do what you can to keep Reegar and any of the others alive."
The geth wouldn't give us a break. We had barely stepped foot outside when a pair of geth recon drones swooped down on us. Miranda and Kasumi overloaded their shields. Apparently that was enough to drop them out of the sky. "There we go," Miranda said with satisfaction.
"Here they come," Zaeed warned in return, gesturing with his assault rifle.
More drones. Great.
We started taking them down, but their presence pretty much drove us back inside. It might not take much to knock them out, but their pulse weapons dealt a surprising amount of damage. As we returned fire, more drones appeared.
Out of thin air.
I wasn't the only one who noticed that. "It looks like the drones are equipped with some sort of optical camouflage system," Miranda observed.
"As long as they stop hiding long enough for us to shoot them," Grunt growled.
Actually, most of them seemed to eschew their cloak in favour for gliding towards us and firing our way. We kept dropping them with EMPs—the squad eventually began timing them to try and take out two at a time whenever possible—and bullets. But they kept coming. It was like the geth had a clearance sale on drones or something. And their weapons were pretty damn effective.
Off in the distance, I spotted a geth walking around. Judging by the size, it was a geth prime. Figures. Probably the one with the great idea to keep lobbing drones at us. I waited until the latest wave of drones was out of the way, then ran towards it. The closest I could get without opening myself up to fire exposed me to the sun, but it was enough for me to get a target lock on it. Using my lock to guide them, the squad launched as many EMPs as they could spare, with a few sniper rounds for good measure. That was enough to knock out its shields.
Speaking of which, I had to get back before myshields were toast. I made sure to launch some fire at it before retreating. Just in time, too—more drones had showed up.
We took the drones down and I sprinted forward again. Twin bolts of plasma, a few concussive rounds and three sniper shots reduced its armour to scrap. Now that that was clear, we could start overloading its circuitry. All those internal explosions would destroy enough systems to drop the sucker eventually.
Unfortunately, I had to retreat again as the sun drained my shields. Good thing, mind you. More drones had popped up. So I ordered the squad to engage the drones. Again. While they blew those drones out of the sky, I cloaked, gave the geth prime a headshot and watched with satisfaction as it fell with a thud.
Now that that was out of the way, I led the squad around to the right. There was a bit more cover from the sun that way, not to mention a clear path towards the observatory. We were about a third of the way when...
"Drones!"
Again?
Yep. More drones. So we took them down with... well, you know by now.
You probably also know what was lurking about in the distance.
If you guessed another geth prime, you win... well, bragging rights, I guess.
"Kasumi," I called out. "Think you can cloak and run over there? Get a bead on the geth prime and let us borrow your target lock?"
She shook her head. "My computer doesn't have those targeting protocols."
Figures. I leaned out and took out another drone. "Then it's up to me." Again, I thought sourly.
I sprinted towards the geth prime, clenching my teeth as I ran through a ray of sunlight. Why was it always up to me, I wondered. The potentially suicidal move of mine brought me close enough to lock on the geth prime, allowing the squad to knock out its shields and take a decent chunk of its armour out before I had to retreat from another swarm of drones.
"This is getting real fucking old," Jack spat, shooting a drone out of the sky.
"Indeed," Garrus grunted, having strayed a bit too far out of cover in his efforts to short circuit a pair of drones.
Within a minute, the latest batch of drones was gone. I sprinted forward again, trusting the others to watch my back. As soon as I was within range to lock on to the geth prime again, we hammered it with fireballs and sniper rounds. I ducked for cover as it returned fire, then leaned out to fire another round. That took care of its armour. Three EMPs crackled over it in quick succession. I was just about to deliver the kill shot when—
Yes. More damn drones.
We took them out, dropped the geth prime, then took out another swarm of drones. After that, we reached a small room, whose window shutters and doors were sealed thanks to a security lockdown issued from a nearby console. I quickly overrode the lockdown.
The shutters hissed open, offering us a nice view of another courtyard, with various ramps snaking along the walls and a building—presumably, the observatory—at the far end. We glimpsed all that for a second before something loomed into view.
Aw, crap.
It was a geth. A big one. One of those guys I used to hop-and-shoot against in the Mako back in the day.
Only we had no Mako this time.
"Colossus," Mordin identified with some alarm. "Problematic."
No shit.
The colossus bunched its legs together. I remembered what that signalled: "Get down!"
We hit the floor just before the siege pulse impacted against the walls. Miraculously, they held, though a lot of dust had been stirred up. Garrus coughed. "Definitely like old times," he sighed.
Now that the door was open, we ran out and down a ramp. We saw a quarian in a red hardsuit huddled against a pillar. "Over here!" he yelled. "Get to cover!"
Sage advice. We followed it. He got up—with some stiffness, I noted—and fired a rocket before ducking back down. "Squad Leader Kal'Reegar, Migrant Fleet Marines," he identified himself. "I'm guessing you're the one I talked to on the radio before that dropship arrived."
"Yeah, that's me," I nodded. "Commander Shepard. Good to finally meet you."
"Likewise. Still got no idea why you're here, but this ain't the time to be picky," he said. We flinched as another siege pulse from the colossus slammed against the pillar. "Tali's inside over there," he continued, tilting his head towards the observatory we saw earlier. "The geth killed the rest of my squad and they're trying to get to her. Best I've been able to do is draw their attention."
I tried to take a peek, but the geth infantry supporting the colossus kept driving me back down with weapons fire. Finally I gave up.
"Are you sure she's still alive?" I shouted over the impact of another siege pulse.
"The observatory is reinforced," he replied. "Even the geth will need time to get through it." He took a moment to chuckle. "And it's hard to hack a door when someone's firing rockets at you."
I gave a chuckle of my own. "Yeah, that's pretty distracting. What's the situation like?"
"The geth are near platoon strength," Kal'Reegar reported, "but the colossus is the worst part. It's got a repair protocol. Keeps huddling up and fixing itself."
Aw, crap.
"I can't get a clear shot while it's down like that. I tried to move in closer, but one of those bastards punched a shot clean through my suit."
Uh oh. For most people, that could slow them down. For quarians, it was much more serious. "How bad is your suit damage?"
Kal'Reegar knew what I was getting at. Or he just gave the answer he'd give to any other quarian. "Combat seals clamped down to isolate contamination and I'm swimming in antibiotics," he reassured me. "The geth might get me, but I'm not gonna die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That's just insulting."
Yep. Definitely liked this guy.
"What can you tell me about the battlefield?" I asked.
"The right side's got a catwalk with a sniper perch."
Ooh.
"You could wreak some havoc from there, but none of my men made it past the geth."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Geth are tough. But the sniper perch... (3)
"The middle's got cover, but the damn colossus has a clear shot at you the whole time, and you've got geth coming in from both sides."
I'll pass, thanks.
"The left gives you some cover from the colossus, but your ass is hanging out for the geth. That's how I got shot."
And that shoots down Option Number Three. Guess we were going down the right. It's nice to have an excuse to do what you want. "Any ideas on how to deal with the colossus?" I hollered over the gunshots.
"Standard protocol with armature-class units is to sabotage the shields and whittle it down. You know, kill it with bug bites."
Death by a thousand cuts. Nice and safe. I liked that.
"But the repair protocol blows that plan to hell. You try to wear it down, it just huddles up and fixes itself."
That I didn't like.
"So whatever we do has to scrap that bastard fast. Probably means getting up close, past that cover."
Thankfully I'd lugged something along that might help with the scrapping. Good thing, too—it was heavy running around with it on my back.
"Got any ideas?" I shouted.
"Just one," Kal'Reegar said cheerfully, slapping his weapon. "I'm not moving so well, but I can still pull a trigger, and I've got a rocket launcher that the sun hasn't fried yet. You move in close. I'll keep the colossus busy, maybe even drop its shields. With luck, you'll be able to finish it off."
I shook my head. "You've done enough, Reegar. You don't need to throw your life away."
"Wasn't asking your permission," he replied. "My job is to keep Tali safe." He forced himself to his feet and lifted the rocket launcher. "This is our best shot."
I quickly jumped to my feet and pulled him behind the pillar. "Don't be fooled by the numbers I brought with me—we don't have enough people on our side for you to take one for the team! Stand down!"
Kal'Reegar disagreed, but at least he crouched back down while we continued our debate. "I'm not going to stand there while you run into enemy fire!" he snapped. "They killed my whole squad!"
Understandable, but I had other plans. Plans that would keep his ass—and mine—in one piece. "And if you want to honour your squad, watch our back!" I said. "I'll leave half the squad here, but I need you to stay with them in case the geth bring reinforcements! Especially the kind that need more firepower than pistols and assault rifles!"
He considered that for a moment, then let out a frustrated grunt. "All right, Shepard. We'll do it your way. Hit 'em for me. Keelah se'lai!"
To get to the right side, we had to go down a ramp into the courtyard and up another ramp to a catwalk. That would be considerably easier—and safer—without the troopers storming in, so we had to deal with them first. Then I led Team One to the catwalk while Team Two stayed to cover us.
We had to drop another geth trooper that was guarding the catwalk before we could huddle behind some crates and I could lay out my plan: "We need to drain as much of the shields as possible from that colossus." I reached behind me and slapped the heavy weapon I had chosen for this mission. "Then I can let this baby loose."
Miranda rolled her eyes. "You just had to try it out."
"You have to admit, if I had brought it last time, that Praetorian would have been much easier to deal with," I rebutted.
"If you had brought it last time, it would have been destroyed before you had a chance to deploy it," Miranda reminded me.
She was right, of course. "Well, second time's the charm," I shrugged.
Grunt grinned. "This should be good."
There were another geth close by, so Kasumi and Grunt dealt with it. Unfortunately, that seemed to draw a few more geth our way. Several troopers, plus a destroyer. I remembered how the last one had a flamethrower and an awfully itchy trigger finger. "Take out the destroyer first!" I advised, draining most of its shields with my sniper rifle.
The destroyer went down quickly. Miranda timed things to zap out the shields of two troopers a second later. Grunt followed suit with an equally well-timed concussive round that damaged one trooper and sent it flying back to knock out two more. By the time those three got back to their feet, Kasumi was ready with an EMP, which she dropped on them.
Taking a quick glance to see that the coast was clear, we sprinted to the edge of the catwalk. We had to duck a lot, but we eventually made it. From there, we had a clear shot at the colossus. Two EMPs and a lot of gunfire took the shields to half strength, while Grunt covered our rear. That was about enough, I judged, and I exchanged my sniper rifle for the heavy weapon I'd brought along.
You see, after studying enough heavy weapons and the power cells that kept them going, the men and women on the Normandy had finally figured out how to accelerate a 25-gram slug to five kilometres per second and how to build a gun that could do that without shattering or blowing up in your face. That might not sound like much at first, especially given the fact that it cost 25 000 units of iridium to construct... unless you factor in the fact that the resulting explosion was equivalent to a tactical nuke. And I could carry it on my back without falling over. Technically it had been designated the M-920 Cain. Jacob and I had given it a new name as soon as it popped out of the Normandy's fabricators.
Grinning to myself, I cloaked, stood up and aimed the Nuke Launcher. It took a while to charge up and fire, by which point my cloak had shut down, but the results were spectacular and satisfying—and not just because this was the first time I'd seen a mushroom cloud outside of historical vids.
Kal'Reegar let out a loud whoop as the Colossus was obliterated in the nuclear firestorm. "Nice job," he called out. "Now get to Tali!" (4)
"Right." I opened the comm channel. "Tali? The geth are gone."
"Just a second," she replied. "I locked the door to keep more geth from getting inside. There," she said after a pause, "that should do it."
"Reegar?" I yelled.
"Go right ahead," he yelled back. "I'll be just a minute."
"Take your time," I laughed, checking my HUD. "Looks like we're in the clear."
Famous last words, I know. But for once they were true. We were free to wander around and take whatever iridium or thermal clips we wanted, with only the sun to get in our way. I also found a couple power cells, which I happily snatched up. The Nuke Launcher had lived up to its name and promise, but it was a greedy bugger. I knew the power requirements were so high that I could only use it once—so I couldn't waste it trying to nuke a mere trooper—but the damn thing had drained two-thirds of my power cells. (5)
Once I was satisfied, I led the squad into the observatory. Jacob immediately homed in on a geth assault rifle and started playing around with it. He seemed fascinated with the way it worked. Something about sine curves and firing ratios that would be ideal for knocking out shields and barriers. Whatever. I immediately homed in on a broken geth that seemed to be worth salvaging. Something about salvage and loot and more credits to line my virtual wallet. Whatever.
The squad waited patiently until Jacob and I were done. Tali had finished downloading the data she'd collected and was waiting with them, her body posture speaking volumes about her familiarity with my habits. Yes, habits. Much better than addictions. Because it's not. An addiction, that is. I can stop whenever I want. Really.
I'm getting off track, aren't I?
"Thank you, Shepard," Tali said, turning around. "If not for you, I would never have—Garrus, what happened to you?"
I looked at Garrus. He still looked more or less the same. Blue hardsuit, visor, scars—oh yeah. "Garrus decided to block a rocket with his face," I told Tali.
"He WHAT?"
"To be fair, he was fending off three merc groups with nothing more than a sniper rifle," I explained. "And then we showed up and turned the odds in our favour. After that, I guess he wanted a challenge. Though maybe he should've done it a bit more gradually. You know: start by deflecting a pistol shot, then a shotgun. Work his way up to a grenade before trying to deflect a gunship rocket."
"I told you," Garrus said patiently, playing along for kicks. "I was trying to give you a shot at all the girls."
"And look how well that worked out," I retorted. "They keep trying to shoot me!"
"Maybe it was something you said," Garrus suggested.
"I didn't say anything!"
"That's the problem. Don't you know how important it is to make a good first impression?"
Tali was shaking her head. "At least some things haven't changed. Thank you again, all of you. I wouldn't have made it out alive without your help."
"You're welcome," I replied, "but I'm sure you would have figured something out."
She sighed. "This whole mission has been a disaster. I wish I'd joined you back on Freedom's Progress, but I couldn't let anyone take my place on something this risky."
"Now that we have a moment, what can you tell me about your research here?" I asked.
Tali brought up an image of the sun on her omni-tool. "Haestrom's sun is destabilizing. Back when this was a quarian colony, it was a normal star. There were indications that it was getting close, but it shouldn't change that quickly."
"Any idea what's destabilizing the sun?"
"If I had to guess, I'd say that it was dark energy affecting the interior of the star," she shrugged. "The effect is similar to when stars blow off mass to enter a red giant phase, but Haestrom's sun is far too young for this to be natural."
So the sun research wasn't a cover or anything. It really was the onlyreason Tali and the others were here. "A lot of quarians lost their lives here," I pointed out. "Was it worth it?"
Tali spread her hands helplessly. "I don't know, Shepard. It wasn't my call. The Admiralty Board believed the information here was worth sacrificing all our lives for. I have to believe that they know what's best."
I've been in her shoes before and gave that exact response to all the higher-ups who ever reviewed and second-guessed how I carried out my missions. Amongst the men and women who fought and suffered, however, we were more frank. That's what I was looking for here. "I didn't ask what some admiral thought. I asked what youthought."
Equal parts grief and anger fuelled her reply: "A lot of people died here. Some of them were my friends. All of them were good at their jobs. That damn data better be worth it. The price was too high."
"Whatever the reason, I'm glad I could help," I told her. "Once you deliver that data, my offer still stands. I could use you on the Normandy."
"I promised to see this mission through. I did. I can leave with you and send the data to the Fleet."
Inside, I did a little happy dance.
"And if the admirals have a problem with it, they can go to hell," she spat. "I just watched the rest of my team die."
"Maybe not the whole rest of your team, ma'am."
It was Kal'Reegar. He'd finally made it.
"Reegar!" she said in relief. "You made it!"
"Your old captain's as good as you said," he replied, limping up to her. "Damn colossus never stood a chance."
I thank the big gun I brought with me, but I'll take whatever accolades I can get. "If need be, the Normandy can get you out of here, Reegar," I told him.
He shook his head. "The geth didn't damage our ship. Long as Tali and I get out of here before reinforcements show up, we'll be fine."
"Actually, I won't be going with you," Tali corrected. "I'm joining Commander Shepard."
Reegar took that news in stride. "I'll pass the data to the Admiralty Board and let them know what happened," he promised. "She's all yours now, Shepard. Keep her safe."
As was our habit with all the new recruits, Miranda, Garrus, Jacob and I met with Tali in the comm room. Given the strained circumstances in which Miranda and Tali... interacted on Freedom's Progress, I thought it would be safer for Garrus or Jacob to do most of the talking. Well, all of the talking, if possible. I said as much to Miranda. She took it well, all things considered.
"Cerberus saw footage of you in action, Tali'Zorah," Jacob started. "We're looking forward to having you on the team. Your engineering expertise will really benefit the mission."
"I don't know who you are," Tali replied coldly, "but Cerberus threatened the security of the Migrant Fleet. Don't make nice."
Guess her earlier gratitude over Miranda and Jacob helping to save her butt had worn off. Garrus hastily made the introductions. "Jacob Taylor, armoury chief. Miranda Lawson is the executive officer and second-in-command here. And after chasing Saren around the galaxy, I hope you know me and Shepard."
"Nobody's saying you have to like them, Tali, but we're on the same side this time," I added.
"Miranda and I weren't part of what happened to the Migrant Fleet, but we understand your distrust," Jacob tried again. "I hope we'll get past that as we work together."
Tali ignored him and turned towards me. "I assumed that you were undercover, Shepard. Maybe even planning to blow Cerberus up. If that's the case, I'll loan you a grenade. Otherwise, I'm here for you. Not for them."
That was more reassuring than she knew. Or maybe she did know. Regardless, that was good enough for me.
"If it helps, check out the Normandy," I offered. "She's quite a beauty and we've gotten quite a few upgrades."
"I'll get Tali'Zorah the necessary security clearance to access our systems," Miranda said, speaking up for the first time. Technically, that wasn't what we had agreed to earlier, but I never actually ordered her to be quiet. Besides, that did fall under her purview as XO.
"Please do," Tali said coolly. "I can't be part of your team if I don't know how the ship works."
OK, things were getting frosty here. Time to wrap things up before she made good on her promise about grenades. Garrus thought the same. "Why don't I give you a tour?" he suggested.
Tali accepted his offer with a nod and moved to join him. As she passed me, she paused to add "Remember, Shepard, these people thought enslaving Thorian creepers and rachni was a good idea."
Then she and Garrus headed for the door. "Shepard, I'll be in Engineering if you need me," she called over her shoulder.
Undaunted, Jacob tried one more time. "Don't forget to introduce yourself to EDI, the ship's new artificial intelligence."
Aw, crap.
Tali came to an abrupt halt. She turned back and stared at Jacob for a minute. Garrus reached back, grabbed her and hastily dragged her out of the room.
Jacob turned and looked at me and Miranda in confusion. "Was it something I said?"
Oh for crying out loud.
"Jacob," Miranda said patiently. "How did the geth evolve to their present form?"
To his credit, Jacob didn't need her to spell it out any more. He shook his head and started cursing. Miranda exchanged a look with me—which I swear contained a mixture of resignation and amusement—before gently escorting Jacob back to the armoury.
Later on, I dropped by engineering. Judging by the conversation I overheard, the engineers had collectively appointed Tali as Chief Engineer.
"So Gabby, what do you think of our new quarian boss?" Ken asked out loud.
"Shh! She's right over there," she hissed, nodding to the left.
"Ah, she can't hear us with her head in that bucket," Ken dismissed. "Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful bucket. The whole suit is lovely. Quite snug in all the right places."
"You know I can hear you," Tali interrupted.
Gabby laughed. So did I. If that was any indication, she'd be just fine. Just to check, I walked over to her after saying my hellos to Ken and Gabby.
"Shepard," she greeted me. "What can I do for you?"
"How's the Normandy running?" I asked.
"Say what you will about Cerberus, they know how to build ships," she admitted. "The Normandy's running even better than before. Most of the problems I remember tackling with Adams on the old Normandy have been resolved, though I don't know if it can stand up to a Collector attack. I'm researching some ideas that might help."
"So she isn't giving you any trouble?" I prodded.
Her body posture answered me before she even spoke. "Please, Shepard. I'm a quarian. Give me a chunk of scrap metal, a circuit board and some element zero, and I'll have it making precision jumps."
"Careful," I warned. "I just might ask you to do that one day."
She laughed briefly before getting to what I was really asking. "I was worried about working with Cerberus engineers, but they know what they're doing and they've been very polite."
"That's good to hear," I nodded. "So do you have time to talk?"
She looked around, then led me to the power core room. Between the privacy and the various EM fields dancing around, we wouldn't be overheard. Unless someone could read lips—the power core extended through most of the decks, with windows on every level looking out into the room. Strange design feature, though I had to admit the power core was an impressive sight.
"We didn't really have time to chat while taking out geth on Haestrom, did we?" she said.
"Probably because geth appreciate small talk like we do," I responded.
This time, my joke didn't elicit a response. Fair enough, I thought.
"Thank you again for getting Reegar out alive."
"He seems like a good man," I replied. "Have you heard any word about him? Did he survive his injuries?"
"He sent me a message," she confirmed. "It looks like he'll make a full recovery."
"That's good," I said.
"Any time you get a suit puncture, it's a matter of luck. Reegar got out with a relatively minor infection. That's practically a miracle considering what..."
She broke off for a moment before continuing. "I can't believe so many people died. All for data about stars blowing up. I hope the Admiralty Board gets some use out of it."
"So you haven't received any word back on the data you sent?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I'm not likely to hear anything for a while. Or on an unsecured channel, for that matter."
Yeah, with Cerberus and EDI looking over everyone's shoulder, trying to send or receive anything that didn't compromise the integrity of the Migrant Fleet would be tricky. I wasn't surprised that she hadn't had time yet to set things up.
"Having any trouble settling back in on the Normandy?" I moved on. "I remember how you had trouble adjusting to the silence when you first joined us."
"I like the quiet now," she said. "I miss the old faces, though. Pressly, Adams, all of them."
"Same here," I agreed. "Though there's Garrus and Dr. Chakwas and Joker, so there are some familiar faces around here."
"It doesn't seem right having Cerberus in charge of this ship," she told me. "Are you sure working for them is the right thing to do?"
I evaded that with another question. "About that: I caught some tension back on Freedom's Progress and again when you came aboard. What happened between Cerberus and the quarians?"
"They attacked one of our ships, the Idenna," she replied. "It seems they were attempting to kill or control a young human biotic who was on the Fleet. I don't really know the details. (6) I do know that Cerberus made an enemy of the quarian people."
And thus an enemy of Tali'Zorah nar... vas... well, whatever her name was now. (7)
"But you never answered my question." Clearly, Tali wasn't about to let me off the hook.
"I'm not working for them; I'm working withthem," I clarified. "Not that I like that anymore than you do. But we need them."
"I know. Just watch yourself," she warned me. "You're their best weapon right now. But as soon as you no longer serve their needs, be ready for them to turn on you."
"The thought had crossed my mind," I said dryly.
"Good," she approved. "For now, I should get back to work. Thanks for coming by."
When I got back to the CIC, there was a message from the Admiralty Board waiting for me. It read as follows:
From: Admiralty Board, Migrant Fleet
Commander Shepard,
Per Tali'Zorah vas Neema's request included with her data delivery from Haestrom, the Admiralty Board has approved her transfer to your command. She has been informed that additional duties to the Migrant Fleet may still be necessary on occasion, but has been given extended leeway to determine when her mission with you is considered complete.
This choice was hers, but your role as de facto captain during her Pilgrimage may have caused her to be more susceptible to your requests. The Admiralty Board trusts that you will treat your new crew member with the respect due an honored member of the Fleet. Should any harm come to her due to negligence on your part, this board will take severe and appropriate action.
Admiral Rael'Zorah,
Migrant Fleet Admiralty Board
Translation: You may be a bad influence on Tali. She's the crown jewel of my eye and you will treat her as such. If anything happens to her, Daddy will be seriously pissed.
Good to know.
(1): A quarian phrase, likely a benediction or religious oath. Similar human phrases might include Allāhu Akbar (Islamic for 'God is Greatest'), Deus Vult (Latin for 'God Wills It'), or Baruch Atta Adona (Hebraic for 'Blessed are you, God').
(2): Shepard was peering through the scope on his sniper rifle, which had a built-in range finder.
(3): I admit that Shepard picked a strange time to obsess over that fact.
(4): Impressive, even by Shepard's standards.
(5): When I received Shepard's data burst containing this particular log, I sent an encrypted reply requesting the specs for this weapon. His reply contained little in the way of technical information, but included an exhaustive breakdown of the costs required to manufacture, supply and operate this weapon, along with the clear implication that the Alliance couldn't afford it. Putting aside Shepard's obvious desire to keep as many aces as possible up his sleeve, he was probably right.
(6): A former acquaintance of mine at the time, Kahlee Sanders, was working at the Ascension Project, an Alliance initiative to train biotics in their powers and educate them on how to integrate with the galactic community. Unbeknownst to her, Cerberus had an interest in one of the pupils, an autistic girl named Gillian Grayson. After a botched attack by a Cerberus operative, she and a colleague took Ms. Grayson on the run, along with her father, in an attempt to escape Cerberus in the Terminus Systems. While they were caught, they were eventually rescued by a young quarian on his Pilgrimage. Recognizing her as a researcher at the former base on Sidon, which was duped into doing early research into Sovereign, he offered them sanctuary in exchange for any insights she could provide into how Saren—and Sovereign—controlled the geth. Unfortunately, Cerberus was able to follow them by acquiring access codes from an injured—and delirious—quarian, and attacked the crew of the Idenna.
(7): Following the successful completion of her Pilgrimage, Tali'Zorah was accepted by the captain of the Neema. As per quarian tradition, her name would have changed from Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (literally, 'Tali'Zorah, child of the Rayya') to Tali'Zorah vas Neema ('crew of the Neema').