Interloper Redux: Chapter 10

On Feros: Part I


"Knock knock."

"Come in," Liara responded through the metal door. I let myself into the small back office of the medbay. The asari archaeologist sat at her desk behind a massive stack of notes.

"Checking your old notes?" I asked. I pulled up a chair next to her. "Here, you weren't at dinner." I handed her a tray of food that I had rescued from the mess hall.

"Oh, thank you," Liara said absentmindedly, "and no, these are just the notes I've written today. Matriarch Dilinaga's writings are quite complex. The introduction alone is… oh, what is this?" she seemed to see the tray I had placed in her hand for the first time.

"I got you some food, you weren't at dinner," I repeated. Liara gave a small laugh.

"I'll admit, sometimes I can get carried away. I would spend days poring over ruins and digs, sometimes I would only eat once a week. I had a VI once that would remind me to take meals on a regular basis, I wonder what happened to that thing." She looked away distractedly.

"Wait, once a week? Is that healthy?"

"We Asari can get away with eating very little when we aren't utilizing our biotics. In fact, when Commander Sheppard found me, I hadn't eaten in weeks. I was actually convinced the entire team was an elaborate hallucination." She shuffled papers around to make space for the tray. She took a bite and said, "You wanted to hear about Feros."

"Yes, I know it's got some ruins and a small human colony, but that's about all."

"Not just some ruins… an entire prothean megapolis…. Stretching up out of the clouds." She said between bites. "I haven't been myself; the Exo-Geni Corporation only allows human archaeologists permits to search the ruins."

"Exo-Geni runs the colony?"

"Yes, they funded the venture for the purpose of medical research. Personally, I think they're tragically misusing their resources…"


From space, Feros didn't look like much of anything. The orb of the planet hung below us like a grey, soupy marble. Uniform in its lack of color or other identifiable features. It wasn't until we began our descent that the true scale of the construction covering the world became apparent. Tall towers rose up out of the grey haze like broken teeth to form wide avenues that stretched beyond our line of sight. Here and there a thin thread joined two towers, although to my shock they were revealed to be wider than the largest highways of Earth as we passed close by one. Ahead of the Normandy, Geth ships hung from some of the larger and more stable looking towers like malignant stinging wasps.

"You're sure they can't see us?" I asked. The Normandy had stealth systems, yes, but even my rudimentary understanding of space flight told me that atmospheric reentry was hot, loud, and bright.

"The Normandy's stealth systems aren't limited to just heat sinks and a big ass drive core, you know," Joker responded from the pilot's station. It was as if he'd read my concerns right out of my head. "We're stealth coated, LADAR cross-section like a Kodiak. The Geth might know someone dropped in to say hello, but amongst all this soup they might as well be trying to find a seagull in a blizzard." The image of the planet outside shifted as Joker took the Normandy into a steep banking dive. One of the towers filled the forward monitors. It looked a little less rough than the others, fresh steel peeking out from between gaps in the ancient concrete like scar tissue. Close to the tower's chipped crown, a docking cradle extended out into the sky. "You better suit up, looks like Shepard's requesting all hands."

I nodded, letting my eyes rest on the tower for a few moments more. Somewhere in the structure's rotten roots hid the Thorian. And with it the key to making sense of the images swirling about my head. The migraines hadn't gotten better since my release from the medbay. Nor had the nightmares. I tore my eyes away from our objective and jogged back toward the stairs down. Corporal Steiner fell in beside me as I reached the crew deck.

"You ready for some real fighting, Liddle?" She asked. Her face was a still mask, devoid of the anger she'd let out at the dinner table, but also missing her usual sardonic ease. I nodded in response. "Don't get yourself killed," She added shortly. We split up at the elevator, her continuing down, while I went for my locker. I suited up quickly, the movements coming mostly from memory. The heavy ceramic plates were getting easier to carry. My fingers brushed the nick in the chest plate over my collarbone that had caught a round on Sharjilla. The elevator pinged its return.

"Looking good, Deputy," Shepard greeted me as she passed to open her own locker. She pulled out her own slate grey armor and shrugged it on.

"Thanks, Commander. Am I driving today?"

"That's a negative," Shepard responded. She checked the ammo block on her long rifle and snapped it shut. It folded smoothly and the Commander stowed it on her back anchors. "We're going in on foot for this one. Let's go." I fell in behind her, trying to hide my nerves. The cargo hold was crowded. On one side, Kaidan and the other marines stood at loose attention. On the other side, Wrex, Garrus, Ashley, and Tali stood talking. Ashley looked a little uncomfortable.

"Everyone gather round, listen up. We haven't heard anything from the colonists, so we have to assume a hostile presence in the tower. Kaidan, you're going to take your marines down the ramp and sweep the lower levels. I'll take my squad out the airlock and take the upper levels. We meet at the colony; it'll be marked on all of your HUDs. Any questions?"

"No, ma'am!" Kaidan barked smartly.

"Good, move out." Shepard snapped on her helmet and motioned for us to follow. Behind us the marines rushed out down the ramp and into the city. It was a tight squeeze onto the elevator and a tighter fit in the airlock. We disembarked into a firestorm.

The docking tube led out onto a grey concrete avenue lined with age crumbled octagonal pillars. Partially cleared debris made it look like they had once supported the molded arches of a grand arcade. Now, it provided cover for warbling geth troopers. As one, they shifted their flashlight heads to follow us as we ran down the boarding tube. Their weapons were already firing before we set foot on the tower.

"Geth! Take cover!" Ashley yelled. The ground team scattered, seeking refuge amongst the nearest fallen stone. I went to ground behind a crumbling section of wall. A quick peek told me none of the Geth were looking in my direction. I sent a burst at the nearest platform. None of the shots landed, but it provided enough of a distraction for Garrus to plug it with his sniper rifle. The Geth's torso plate shattered and it fell over the edge of the platform to tumble into the depths below.

"Push up!" Shepard yelled. I came up to a knee and fired a longer burst, this time actually pitching a platform over. The overheat light flashed on my HUD a second before the gun stopped firing. My hand stung as the rifle vented, but I pushed it aside and rushed to the next piece of cover. Ashley fell in on my right, and Garrus landed on my left.

"Liddle, you see that fallen column at the end of the bridge there?" Ashley pointed at a broken pillar of rock.

"Yeah, what about it?" I asked. I popped back over our shared cover but was driven back down by suppressing fire. Beside me, Garrus braved the storm and put another shot into an attacking Geth.

"I'm going to rush it, try to set up a defilade on the Geth across the way. I need you to cover me." She gave the path ahead an analytic eyeball. "How's your arm?"

"My arm?"

"Yes, your arm, can you throw?" She mimed an overhand toss.

"Oh, yeah, I can throw," I answered. The gunnery chief pressed a bundle of flat metallic disks into my open hands. My initial confusion immediately gave way to shock as I realized what I had been handed.

"Hit the button on the top, send it downrange. Do not try and do something fancy like cooking them, you will be spending the rest of the mission trying to find what's left of your fingers. Placement isn't a big deal, just be distracting. Got it?" Ashley shot off rapid fire instructions. All I could do was nod along. "Alright, let's make some noise." The marine hopped her cover and charged forward. Immediately, the Geth in front of her acquired her as a target. I hopped back from our crumbling cover and readied the first grenade. As Ashley cleared the first hurdle, I let loose with the grenades, chucking them one after another into the gathered Geth. The disks exploded in a series of deep booms. Geth were tossed about with every dark cloudburst.

Ashley skidded to a stop just short of her cover as something stirred the polluted fog at the end of the bridge. The mist bulged out as a towering figure lumbered forward. A massive Geth layered with blood red armor. "Watch out! Juggernaut!" I cried, too late. Ashley attempted to backpedal, but the juggernaut had already laid in its heavy gun. It unleashed a torrent of tungsten in her direction. The bright-glowing rounds tore through the marine's shields and blew a hole in the pink-white armor of her midsection. Ashley went down hard in a cloud of red mist. My heart sank and I had to fight the urge to vomit.

"Focus fire on that target!" Shepard yelled. Our rounds skittered and bounced off of the Geth's powerful shields. It advanced slowly, its arm cannon firing continually. It raked our cover and forced us back into hiding. It plodded on. As it passed Ashley's still form, the downed marine's arm jerked up. In her hand was a grenade. She slapped the disk onto the pillar-like leg of the juggernaut. It ignored the attached explosive, continuing its advance. We all waited with baited breath, but the explosive did not go off. The grenade had not been armed.

"Garrus, I need you to detonate that explosive!" Shepard called. Her own rifle rang out, venting its heat sink.

"I'm pinned down here, Commander!" Garrus yelled back. The juggernaut seemed to be paying the snipers special attention. I flicked open my Omni-tool and scrolled through the alliance's standard library of combat programs. My eyes fell on the sabotage macro.

That should work. I thrust my arm past the cover and launched the program. The geth platform's gun hissed as it vented its heat sink.

"Garrus, now!" I called.

The turian threw himself over the concrete block and sighted in his rifle. He tracked the grenade affixed to the Geth's leg as it lumbered closer. He pulled the trigger and the juggernaut erupted in fire. The massive platform attempted another step, its weight falling on the damaged leg. The armor plating buckled and the Geth toppled and crashed down in ruin. "Clear!" Shepard yelled, motioning for us to advance. We rushed to Ashley's position. The marine was still drawing shuddering breaths.

"Ash, you got him, just hold on!" Shepard leant over the wounded soldier and pumped medigel into the wound. A look of peace crossed over Ashley's face.

"I took a pretty bad hit back there, hey skipper?" Ashley asked in a pained voice.

"Hold still, Ash, we'll get you out of here." Shepard put a hand under the Chief's head.

"Vitals are stabilizing, Commander." Tali had her Omni-tool out, "But I don't think we should move her."

"Just leave me here," Ash said through gritted teeth, "the Normandy's just over there, I'll call the Doc. These colonists need you."

"She's right, Commander," Garrus added, "that gunfire in the distance isn't getting any quieter."

"That's a negative," Shepard bit back fiercely. "We don't leave wounded marines behind. Tali, call Doctor Chakwas, tell her we need the trauma cart. Garrus, Liddle, Wrex, perimeter duty." We hopped to her orders and settled into a watchful wait. The sounds of battle rattled away in the distance, but no further Geth came after us. Before long, the sound of feet came up behind us. Doctor Chakwas and a pair of orderlies rushed up carrying two halves of a stretcher. The orderlies gently assembled the stretcher under the marine's prone form while the Doctor affixed some kind of medical monitor to her forehead.

"We'll take it from here, Commander," Chakwas said.

"Thanks, Doc. You take care of yourself, Chief." Shepard gave the Gunnery Chief one last pat on the shoulder before turning to address the rest of us. "Okay, we're down one teammate, the resistance is stiffer than we thought. These colonists still need our help. Now, we're going to make a push up to the higher levels. I need you to stay smart, we can't afford any more casualties. Let's do this."

"Just point me at the action." Wrex thumped his chest. The rest of us simply nodded. We moved up the ramp, leaving Ashley and her medical escort to retreat back to the Normandy. We moved through the ruins quickly, going forward in pairs from cover to cover. The terrain changed as we pressed deeper into the colony. Less debris choked the passages and crumbling stone had been patched with fresh grey concrete. It had the effect of making the surrounding building look scabrous. Infected. Infested. But at least it was clear of active Geth. Several trooper platforms lay still on the floor. The walls were spattered with the off-white conductive fluid the Geth spewed when hit, along with darker, more morbid stains. The colonists had made a good accounting of themselves before being forced back into the colony proper.

The colony itself was in carnage as we gained the top of the ramp. The open space at the top of the tower which made the main body of Zhu's Hope was wreathed in smoke, though not enough to cover the derelict freighter at the colony's core. Geth platforms lay scattered about, gunned down before the barricade the colonists had cobbled together out of stacked supply crates and metal heat shielding. The colonists themselves peeked over their defenses with faces slack with shell shock. They motioned at us frantically.

"What are you doing!? Get under cover!" One of them called. "They just keep coming!" Called another. "Oh god, here they come!" They were right. As they spoke, the buzzling rattle of more Geth platforms was already getting louder. To our shock, they were coming up behind us.

"Turn and give fire!" Shepard ordered, "break and take cover with the colonists once the first wave goes down!"

As one we spun and dropped. I picked a geth platform at the edge of the pack. The trooper blew apart under a long burst.

"Break!" we ran back to the colonist's line. Behind us, I heard the whirr of Geth combat drones. Broken masonry chips began to bite at my heels as near misses rained down around me. The colonists managed to take out the drones with their collection of pistols, but more foot platforms had shown up. I vaulted the nearest stack of crates and found myself face to face with a surly faced man. He nodded gruffly and fired over the barrier. I followed suit, picking off one of the few remaining Geth.

"Looks like you got 'em all. You should head back and talk to Fai Dan; he's what passes for leadership around here," One of the defenders said.

"Okay. Garrus, you stay here and secure this approach. Tali, I want you talking to the colonists, find out what they need. Liddle, you're with me."

"And me?" Wrex asked.

"I want to you to walk the perimeter, shoot anything with a flashlight head."

"With pleasure." The Krogan ambled away. Shepard set a brisk pace through the colony. I followed closely, eyes peeled. The colony looked worse from the inside. The pall of smoke clung to the colony like a bad mood. The defenders at the barricade had looked rough around the edges, but the colonists within looked positively frayed. They squatted against walls and in corners, barely looking up as we passed. Many filled the lull in battle noise with deep, wracking coughs.

"Lieutenant Alenko, what's your situation?" Shepard was talking into her radio.

"It's not good, Commander," Kaidan replied over the net, "the Geth are putting up a stiff resistance. We lost Kowalski."

"The Geth?" Shepard asked.

"No, this huge Varren came at us out of one of the side passages. We managed to put it down, but not before it managed to take a chunk out of Kowalski, ma'am."

"Shit. What's your current position?"

"We've hunkered down outside the doors up into the tower. We're locked out from here, Jenkins just went up into the venting to try and run a manual bypass."

"We're in the colony itself, keep us posted on your progress."

"Will do, Commander." The scenario worried me a bit. I recalled a similar situation in which a non-tech was asked to crawl through a vent to open a door. At the end of the colony, a severe looking woman with close-cropped black hair stood arguing with an older man. The two stopped as we approached.

"Who the hell are you?" the woman didn't look too impressed.

"I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Military. We're here to help." Shepard extended a hand. The man accepted it gratefully.

"You're the reinforcements? I thought there'd be more of you." His voice was slightly distant, like he was focusing on something else. The words came out slowly, robotically. "I'm sorry, where are my manners, I'm Fai Dan. I pass for a leader around here."

"I have a team of marines sweeping the lower levels as we speak, and my own squad is holding on the far side of the colony," Shepard said diplomatically, "Do you know why the Geth are here?"

"You'd have to ask the people over at the Exo-Geni headquarters. They have all the cool toys, and most of the Geth who aren't here are there." Fai Dan replied. The colonial administrator seemed to shake some of the stiffness as he spoke. It was if the man was coming back to a skill after a long time without practice.

"How do we get to there?" Shepard asked, checking the surroundings.

"There's an elevator in the next tower that'll take you to the old prothean skyway. I think a few Grizzlies should still be operational. But the next tower is still full of Geth. You'll have to fight your way through if you want to get out that way."

"Alright, we'll clear out the next tower when we're ready to move. For now, the Geth seem to be holding off. We'll secure the colony before we move on."

"Thank you, Commander," Fai Dan said. We walked back towards the colony. Shepard looked out across the cloudscape. In the distance, one of the ruined spires collapsed under the weight of time and stray anti-aircraft rounds.

"Michael?" Liara's voice filled my helmet. Shepard didn't seem to have heard. I switched my radio over to private.

"Liara, what can I do for you?"

"Doctor Chakwas wanted the ground team to know that they just got Chief Williams into surgery. She says things were close, but she'll likely recover if the procedure goes well." Relief filled me at the pronouncement. Seeing Ashley so still…

"That's good news," I replied. "did you want me to pass that on the Commander Shepard? Actually, why didn't you connect directly to her?"

"Oh, I…" Liara stuttered awkwardly, "I was hoping you would talk to the Commander for me. I… haven't been authorized for combat operations. I could help, um, secure the colony."

"So you can sneak off and look at the ruins?" There was a long silence.

"I suppose I was not nearly as subtle as I had thought," Liara admitted. I had to stifle a chuckle. The Shadow Broker this Liara was not.

"I don't know, Liara, that really sounds like something you should talk to Shepard about. She seems pretty reasonable. I'm sure she'll let you take a poke around the colony, at least the secured parts. I might lead with the fact that you want to do some archaeology, though."

"I do not know if the Commander trusts me," Liara replied, "but the two of you seem to be closer. She might be more willing to listen to you."

"Well she certainly won't be more willing to trust you if you go behind her back to do some off the clock adventuring." I replied. I immediately cringed at my own words, stunned by my own hypocrisy.

"There a conversation going on in there, Deputy?" Shepard was actually waving to get my attention. "Hello?"

"Oh, sorry, Commander," I said, suppressing the urge to jump out of my skin. "I have Liara on the horn. Sounds like the Chief is going to pull through. Oh, and Liara is requesting permission to join us. Might be handy to have a prothean expert around, you know."

"That's good news," Shepard replied. I could see some measure of the tension go out of her frame. "And yes, we need all hands on deck here; the colonists are stretched pretty thin. Any reason she couldn't bring that up to me directly?"

I held my reply for the second, stuck for a response. I didn't want to sell out Liara so soon after she'd opened up to me about her love of history. But on the other hand, I didn't want to add more lies to the stack already building up between me and the Commander. Shepard's eyes sharpened, forcing the words from my throat.

"She was worried that you wouldn't be open to her request to inspect the ruins. Because the Geth might still be lurking," I managed.

"I see," Shepard responded. "Well, she wouldn't be wrong on that point. I need to add more bodies on the firing line, not peel more off for escort duty. However," she added as my face fell, "these people need our help. Tali's investigation brought up some major and pressing shortages. If Liara's prothean knowledge can fix at least one of them, I'd consider bringing her over. As long as she promises not to leave the perimeter of the colony."

"I think she'd be okay with that," I answered, relieved.


Liara scurried up the ramp into the colony with hurried, frantic steps. She peered left and right, her eyes searching for Geth in the shadows. The tails of her green and white lab coat flapped out behind her like the wings of a frightened bird and she held an unfolded pistol to her chest like a totem. The gruff alliance marine who followed her made a more dignified ascent. The asari archaeologist scampered past the weary colony guards and stood before the gathered party, leaning on her knees to catch her breath. She breathed out a quick 'thank you' in my direction as she straitened.

"Doctor T'Soni, nice of you to join us," Shepard said. She steadied the other woman with a firm hand on her shoulder. "Welcome to Zhu's Hope."

"Thank you for letting me, Goddess," Liara started. She stared around, wide eyed. "So much intact, even after all this time. I've never seen more than an installation or two in one place, and here we have an entire city. This was their home! Commander, you cannot imagine the wealth of cultural artifacts that might be unearthed here." Liara's fear had gone, her face was rapturous as she drank in the colony around her, apparently seeing right through the smoke and blood.

"Woah, slow down there," Shepard responded. "First things first, we need to stabilize this colony before we can let you loose on the city below. That and we have the whole geth situation." The Commander motioned for the group to follow her deeper into the colony. "Tali, what are our pressing action items?"

"According to the colonists I asked, we're looking at an infrastructure disaster. What we in the Flotilla call a deadly triangle. Or breath-burning if they're feeling dramatic."

"Breath burning?" Garrus asked.

"Yeah," Tali responded, "No food, no clean water, no power. On a ship, you're essentially dead in the water. All you're doing is using up the air you're breathing. Breath burning. Anyway, the colonists used to hunt varren in the ruins to supplement their rations, but this big alpha moved in a few weeks ago."

"Didn't Kaidan and his team run into a big varren down in the lower levels?" I asked.

"Right," Tali said, "between that and clearing out the Geth, we can probably call that problem solved. That leaves the water pumps and the power. The water is routed through the lower levels too, so the Lieutenant and his team should keep an eye out for that."

"What about the power needs?" Shepard asked.

"They don't know, Commander, they say they could have repaired their power systems with some vehicle power cells if we'd shown up a week ago, but they took another hit recently that knocked out they're generators completely."

"Keep at it, Tali, I'm sure you'll find something. Liddle, I want you walking perimeter too, at least until we've found some way to get the power on. Take the Professor here with you. I don't want to leave these colonists until we've secured a better fallback position."

"Yes, ma'am." I saluted and walked away. Shepard contacted Alenko to get him to look out for damaged water conduits, while Liara and I trekked out to the outer edge of the colony. Liara cast her eyes about nervously. "You okay?"

"Oh, yes. I've just never been in an active war zone before. Well, I suppose there was Therum, but that moved so fast. And there was that dig on Pharos."

"Liara, you're shaking." I laid my hand on her shoulder, steadying her.

"Oh, am I?" She asked. "Yes, I suppose I am. I'm sorry, I should never have come. I'm no good with this hero archaeologist act. She played with the handgun between her fingers. "Thank you, for escorting me around. I know you must have preferred to be closer to the action. Instead Commander Shepard has you playing bodyguard."

We stopped under the overhang of a nearby conduit. "No. I don't mind, I mean. I get nervous too. I really didn't see any kind of combat before Shepard picked me up. I… shake too, before each fight."

"You do?" Liara said, but by the way her eyes looked past me it looked like she wasn't really hearing me. She slapped for her radio. "Commander Shepard, this is Liara. I'm found something you should see."


Author's Note:

Solarian- I felt pretty safe interpreting the ME1 class abilities as plug and play omni-tool programs. Reviewing it now, though, I do see that incinerate and the like didn't come around until later games. We'll just call it Liddle downloading third party applications that haven't been adapted for official Alliance military use.

Jotunsquid- Good to know. I suppose when you put it that yay, media representation of saluting etiquette (and therefore my misuse of same) doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Thank you for educating me.

-Liddle Out