For this meeting I was in fact the first one in the conference room, besides Shepard. Followed closely by Garrus who had been on the elevator up with me. He was completely professional in his silence as he sat on his chair.
Ashley and Wrex came in not too long after. Ashley was shooting Wrex a few glares but Wrex, in typically fashion, didn't give a fuck. I don't know what it could be besides Ashley's xenophobia but there had never really been a problem with her and Wrex in-game. Maybe it was just general distrust overall, which is understandable. She had definitely been watching me in case I did something; she wasn't very subtle at it.
Wrex for his worth either didn't notice, didn't care or was used to this type of treatment. All things considered the 3rd option was probably what it was. He's a Krogan, an obviously experienced and powerful Krogan, and he always had a weapon on him. Probably got seen as untrustworthy from anyone who saw him in public outside of a warzone.
Kaiden walked in his Tali. They were animatedly talking about tech abilities and omni-tool upgrades. Tali was taking the lead in this case with her experience and being a Quarian and all. However, once they walked inside the conference room they stopped talking quickly and took their places. With all of us here Shepard began the brief.
"This is the Planet Therum. The last known location of the Asari: Liara T'soni. The daughter of Benezia T'Soni, who is currently working with Saren and the Geth." A hologram of the planet sprung up on the projectors.
"There's a Prothean Dig Site on the planet and we'll be landing in the Mako a couple clicks away before making our way to the site. T'Soni's degrees and specialization is in Protheans and studying them so it's safe to assume she'll be in the area," the hologram zoomed in on the area where the Dig Site was.
"Unfortunately, we have no idea where she is in the site and with the ever presence of Murphy the Dig Site ceased all communications 2 days ago. No warning messages, nothing that we've been able to make out."
"What about Ai? They have anything for us?" looking at Ashley I was a bit curious what Ai was.
"With the quick turnaround on us getting there from when the mission started no. Ai has nothing concrete for us," Shepard explained. Imma assume Ai is short for Alliance Intelligence
"And what do they have that isn't concrete?" Garrus asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"There were a few readings from the Relay a couple hours before the site went dark. Readings that matched what was picked up outside of Eden Prime. So, expect a Geth presence."
"Any possibility of survivors?" Tali voiced.
"Not likely. The Dig Site didn't even have a mercenary group assigned to it. Our job is to go in and assess the damage along with looking for Dr. T'Soni; anything after that is just a bonus."
"Weapons free ROE*?" I asked. (ROE: rules of engagement)
"Check fire if it's organic. Weapons free on all synthetics," Shepards instant response came with several heads around the room nodding in acknowledgment. "Everyone's coming on this one so get geared up and meet by the Mako in 30. Dismissed."
Leaving the room no one made a sound as we all made our way to the elevator and then packed ourselves inside. Wrex tried to get in but when the elevator started to moan at his weight he sighed and got off simply stating he'd be right behind us. I chuckled a bit at his misfortune but didn't do anything beyond that. It was really silent in the elevator all things considered, none of the usual banter which was odd. Not exactly unwelcome but meh, expected more; guess they'll come around the more we work together.
Stepping out of the elevator I was the first one off and made my way to my locker. Taking my weapons back out after putting them up after getting back from the previous mission. Doing a quick disassembly and clean to make sure it was ready to go it took me a bit longer than usual. Nothing crazy.
Going back to my locker and opening it I rummaged into my pack for a couple seconds looking for my pouches. They would keep me just a little bit sharper during the mission and these ones were spit free. Perfect for my helmet.
With the pack now in hand I quickly made my way to a shadowy corner of the room and popped open my helmet before quickly putting the pouch in my mouth and putting my helmet back on. No one saw my face but when I came out of the shadowy corner the whole of the ground team was looking at me with a bit of suspicion.
Sigh "Y'all want one?" I asked, showing them the pack of pouches.
Tali and Garrus looked a bit confused at what they were. Ashley and Kaiden's eyes widened a little but otherwise didn't do anything. Wrex simply shook his head but Shepard was the surprising one.
"What flavor?"
"Wintergreen," at my response he held out his hand and I tossed him the pack. Popping it open he took one out and put it in his bottom lip before tossing it back to me and nodded to me in thanks. I didn't respond to that and he started his quick debrief.
"I'm driving the Mako," there was no room for argument in his tone. "Garrus, I want you on the gun. Tali, on the sensors. Ashley on the shields and co-pilot. Wrex, Kaiden and Wynne you'll be the first one's out in case something happens. Wrex and Kaiden first out to set up a beach head with your biotics to give cover. Wynne, flank anyone you see and if there's no immediate contact proceed with recon."
"Yes, sir."
We all chorused before we all piled into the Mako with me being the last one to enter. Strapping ourselves into our respective seats I was curious if we were going to drop out of the Normandy like in the games. My answer came from Joker's voice blaring over the radio into our helmets.
"We'll be at the drop zone in 15 seconds, commander."
Shepard didn't respond beyond clicking his radio in acknowledgement. Tali and Garrus were a bit confused by that as we were still in the Mako. Wrex and the rest didn't care as they knew what was coming. Exactly 15 seconds later the bay doors opened and Shepard shot the Mako out of it to freefall.
Tali squealed in surprise which caused most of us to chuckle. Garrus just sighed as he saw us plummeting. The rest of them didn't make any type of acknowledgement as we fell to the ground on Therum. Honestly it wasn't all that bad, except for when Shepard hit the thrusters to slow the descent. Just because he did it without warning and I may or may not gasped in surprise.
You okay pilot?
"Yeah, I'm fine Sam. Just a little surprised."
Sissy
I didn't dignify that with a response. The next two times he hit the thrusters to slow the descent I was ready for them. Hitting the ground was a bit harder than expected but nothing crazy and just a little uncomfortable. Once we landed we went through a quick equipment check.
The canon, sensors, shields and navigation were all working at peak capacity and with that established we got on our way. Like in the game too we landed right next to a bunch of lava with only a winding path to follow. Joker came over the radio again to tell us that the volcano was indeed active but was stable and had no signs of imminent eruption. With that established we got on our way. It didn't take long to make contact.
"Geth on the scanner Commander!" came Tali's voice.
"Punch'em as soon as you see them Garrus," Shepard responded and he got a grunt of agreement from Garrus. It would take another 2 seconds before the gun fired making the Mako reverberate followed by the comforting vibrations of the machine gun firing.
Now, when you read or see stuff talking about how Shepard is an infamously crazy driver after about a minute of his driving while in combat to see that they were absolutely correct. Like, holy shit, he was fucking crazy. Ran over a couple Geth, drifted around like we were in Tokyo Drift. Then to top it all off we almost went ass end into the lava only for Shepard to gun the thrusters and then hit the boosters to go even higher. Bringing us to fall onto a colossus completely destroying it. Gotta say, that was pretty impressive but god damn it was stressful.
"Fucking Christ Sir!" I exclaimed as we landed on the colossus. A satisfying crunch echoed throughout the Mako signaling its death. Ashley was holding her rosary silently praying, Kaiden did nothing and Tali was clutching the sensors for dear life still intently looking at the screen.
"HA HA!" bellowed Wrex. "Nothing better," his smile was bloodthirsty.
"Don't get your panties in a bunch Wynne!" replied Shepard as he did something you literally only see in movies.
There was an Armature accompanied by 2 Primes in front of us, all firing rockets or Siege Pulses in the Armatures case. Due to the craziness of shepard and his dodging we dodged them all. Speeding straight at them he jerked the Mako to the right and then proceeded to pull off the stunt.
As we pulled to the right Shepard hit the brakes hard while turning left just as hard. It spun the whole Mako around and slapped the 2 Primes and the Armature into the lava. Shepard just fucking fishtailed the Mako to elimate those 3. If he had been the woman Shepard I'm sure I would've fallen in love right then and there.
"Clear!" came Tali's voice once he did that. "No more geth on the sensors."
"Good. Everyone green?" Shepard got a series of affirmatives from everyone.
Once everyone checked in he got the Mako moving again. It was a couple minutes of silence before Tali barked out again that we were coming up on Geth and Turret signatures.
Rounding the corner we came face to face with a path on the right and three turrets facing us. Shepard, being the crazy bastard he was, went straight at the turrets with Garrus opening fire on them. Shepard spun the Mako like it was meant for drifting all around the turrets running over as many geth as possible as Garrus focused on the turrets. Once he managed to run over all the geth in the area the turrets were still active and he activated his comm again.
"Hold on!" there was nothing to hang onto besides the harness.
Then he began to drift around the central turret doing figure eights just barely missing the center one each time. I was confused at first as to why he was doing this but then dumbfounded by genius of it when it paid dividends. One of the rockets from the far right turret hit the center one and then one from the left turret his the central turret too exploding it. He was using the turrets against themselves!
It didn't take that much longer for his strategy and Garrus' firing to end the fight leaving us in the clearing. Driving up to one of the sides where I think the controls were he stopped.
"Kaiden and Wrex. You're up, clear this room and get those doors open. Wynne, you got the other side." We acknowledged his order as we all clambered out of the Mako, legs only slightly shaking from his driving.
Wrex and Kaiden immediately made their way inside their side and I sprinted my way over to mine. My helmet's scanner pulsed once before two geth signatures popped on my HUD. Creeping my way in the Geth weren't looking at the door and were instead on the other side not seeing me enter.
Looking at the giant pillars, I assumed were the hydraulics to open the gate, and the barring in front of them. An idea quickly formed and I jumped onto the bar using it to hop on top of the pillars. This gave me the highground looking down on the Geth who still didn't know I was there.
Using an overload on the one farthest away disabling it for a couple seconds I took the opportunity to open fire on the closer one. It's shields were instantly shredded by my Breaker AR and it died quickly after. Quickly switching targets to the overloaded Geth it barely got a shot off before it too got destroyed.
Hopping down and finding the controls for the door I pressed the biggest button. Shortly thereafter the door began to descend opening in front of us. Only for it to be answered with gunfire of Geth shooting at us.
"Wrex, Kaiden, Wynn. Give support where you can but let the Mako take care of this," came Shepards voice over the radio quickly followed by the boom of the Mako's cannon.
Getting out of my side I saw Wrex and Kaiden already going through the opening heading for some boxes on the left for cover. With my helmet pulsing again I saw that there was a singular get on my right by the boxes over on my side. Taking my pistol out I blitzed the geth.
It's back was turned to me and didn't turn to me until I had already shoulder checked it into the ground. Not giving it a moment to do anything I pumped 5 rounds into the lightbulb that counted as its face. The first 3 broke it's shields and the last two punched into the lightbulb face splattering electronics everywhere. The Geth didn't get up.
Putting my pistol away and bringing back out my AR, I should really name them, I set up at the crates and started pinging geth all around the clearing. Not a single one fell to my shots but it brought their shields down which made them very easy pickings for Garrus and Shepard. Plus the few I overloaded and sabotaged it made killing them easier when they couldn't fire back.
The fight didn't last long and once it had Shepard ordered Wrex, Kaiden and myself to do the same things we had done before. Myself on the right and them on the left.
Getting to the door I didn't want to do the same thing as the Geth would probably be looking for that this time around. Instead, stealth was thrown out the window and I charged around the corner, seeing a rocket geth and regular one.
Firing a quick sabotage at the rocket geth I unloaded into the regular one. He did the same in kind but my gun was better. Their shields went down quickly and died soon after to a singular shot to its lightbulb face. Rolling immediately after it died a rocket whizzed above my head and exploded against the wall propelling me into the railing bars knocking my AR out of my hands.
It hurt and would definitely bruise but it wasn't bad enough for me not to do anything. Firing an overload at the geth it stopped it's motion and sputtered giving me enough time to pull out my pistol. It took exactly one shot this time straight through it's lightbulb and then it was dead.
Sighing to myself I got up off the railing and picked up my AR. Once it was in my hands I made my way to the console and clicked the big button again. This time nothing happened for a minute before the gate opened, guess Kaiden and Wrex took a little longer.
Walking my way back out and too the Mako the doors opened as I approached. Tali was there and she offered her hand to me for help getting in. Taking it she pulled me in before going back to the sensors. Kaiden and Wrex were right behind me and I helped Kaiden up and we both helped Wrex in. None of that was exactly necessary but it was for respect and team cohesion; gotta let them know you'll be there even for the mundane.
Going through the gate we went down a tunnel meeting little to no resistance before exiting the other side with lava on all sides. Not a particular pleasant sight and it wasn't made better by Tali calling out we had contact again. It wasn't too bad this time thankfully, most were just regular geth with a few rocket ones but nothing special. Well, one Colossus but it was quickly brought low as it was the only one there and with no support.
We came upon another tunnel and it was the same as the first, almost to a tee. Just a bit more geth this time around. Most we didn't even bother to stop and fight and instead just sped past them. Going out into another clearing which was, again, mostly similar to the last one. We got through this one even quicker before we came upon a rock formation, no way the Mako was getting through that.
"Everyone out, we're on foot from here on out. Wynne, link up your HUD. I want all hostiles market the second you get through that gap. Wrex, myself, and Williams will be on your six. Garrus, Kaiden, Tali; take up the rear."
Accessing friendly HUD's… accessed… Sharing real time data.
With that scrolled across my screen I made my way to the gap before my helmet pulsed. It picked up 5 geth signatures waiting for us, all with highground. There was cover a plenty for us so it shouldn't be too bad.
"Everyone get the data?" I questioned and got radio clicks in affirmation. "Commencing assault."
Sprinting through the whole to one of the rocks. Sliding into cover I used a pop up slide into a crouch and started suppressing the Geth as best as possible. It got a little easier when two were simultaneously lifted by both Wrex and Shepard. One was hit by a carnage round from Tali, of all people, eviscerating it and the other got hit with an overload from me as it floated in mid-air.
When the overload connected there was a sharp crack of an explosion and the get was ripped apart mid-air, each half of its body going a different direction. The blast also knocked the other 3 geth out of cover. Both Tali and Garrus hit an individual geth allowing us to rip them apart with combined fire. While Shepard and Wrex hit the last one with simultaneous warps, it was quite literally ripped apart at the seams.
Shepard then turned around and looked at me. "Did you know hitting it with an overload would do that?"
"A friend of mine theorized it was possible for that to happen but never had the opportunity to test it," that was true too. It was part of the things Ceelo made me study but even then he said it was theoretical at best; not anymore. Biotic explosions can happen anywhere now, not just 2, 3 or Andromeda.
"Alright then, let's move." and with that we were on the move again.
Sam, being the kind mini AI that he was, started sending pulses every couple seconds looking for any geth. It didn't take long for more to pop up as we moved along the path but there wasn't anything we couldn't handle. Just a few geth here and there and a couple rocket geth added in for good measure.
Williams and Wrex each took a direct hit from a rocket as we fought but they made it out a-okay. Wrex shrugged it off like a champ but it did force him to sit down and wait for his shields to recharge so that he wouldn't be shredded by incoming geth fire. Williams on the other hand was sent sprawling onto the ground and had the wind knocked out of her. Otherwise she was okay but her armor would definitely need to be replaced after this and her shield generator was functioning at only half capacity. She was regulated to sitting back and taking sniper shots with Garrus.
Moving up we made our way to where the entrance to the dig site should be only to be rudely greeted.
"Armature!" I barked out as soon as the scanner picked it up.
"Garrus, Williams. Take out those snipers in the back giving it support! Tali, Kaiden, on my six. Wrex, Wynne, take the left," Shepard barked out his orders and we moved to follow them.
Moving to the left I let Wrex take point as we took cover from the Armature. Unfortunately, the geth were waiting for us. I hit the first one I saw with an overload and it was immediately blown apart by Wrex's claymore shotgun at point blank range. The next 3 that were there forced us into cover.
My sensor then picked up a rapidly moving enemy, almost like it was hopping around. That was when I remembered the geth hoppers and looked up to see one lining up a shot on Wrex. Not even thinking I hit it with a sabotage and it fell from the ceiling completely vulnerable. I only got 2 shots off at it before the other geth forced me back into cover but it was enough. They were both headshots.
"Watch elevated positions," I barked over the radio. "The geth have a new variant."
There was no response from the others but I knew that at least Garrus heard me as when another popped up above Wrex and myself its head was taken off by a singular sniper shot. Looking back at the sniper I nodded my head in thanks.
Waving at Wrex to get his attention he looked at me and I motioned for him to charge. He nodded and smiled before running out of cover at the geth. As they changed their fire to focus on the charging Krogan the remaining three bunched up. Made it easy to get all 3 with a singular overload and as they were helpless to stop Wrex one of them got a faceful of bullets from me.
Moving up behind Wrex as he finished off the other two geth I saw the Armature looking at him. Grabbing him by his arm I yanked him back behind cover. He whirled on me looking pissed only for the Armatures Siege Pulse to splash exactly where he had been. When that happened he turned his head back to me and nodded in thanks.
Waving it off there were no more Geth on our side and the other snipers had been taken care of by Garrus and Ashley. That left only the Armature which Wrex and I started to piss off. Multiple warps, overloads, and sabotages will do that to just about anything. Along with several carnage rounds from Wrex and as many bullets as my Breaker could fire.
A couple minutes into it we were just about to bring down its shields when Shepard and the others joined in. Once they did it didn't take long for it to go down. We moved from cover to cover, constantly moving so it could never pin us down. With the final shot going to Shepard as he hit it with a Carnage round in the eyes. It made a pained groan before collapsing.
"Clear!" I barked out over the radio.
"Everyone green?" Shepard asked. He got a series of affirmatives from everyone before continuing. "Check the area for anything interesting, we move into the dig site in 5."
And that we did. There wasn't much for us to gather but there were a couple mods in a crate that looked like they could come in handy. Most were stabilizers that would go to the others but I found a Polonium rounds mod which was put onto my Breaker right away. It would be nice for anything we faced in the future.
Once the five minutes were up Shepard clicked his radio to signal us to go to the entrance.
"Wrex and I are on point. Wynn, Kaiden, Tali are right after us; Garrus and Williams, you're last," We all nodded and then he hit the button and the door opened.
Going down the hallway we didn't see any geth at all. None were waiting around the corner or behind the boxes outside of the tunnel. What we did end up eventually running into were drones, 5 to be exact. They lasted all of 5 seconds. Tali, Garrus, Kaiden and myself each hit one with an overload bringing down 4 of the 5 almost instantly. The last one was hit by dual warps from both Wrex and Shepard atomizing it.
"Underwhelming," Wrex huffed, kicking one of the downed drones off the catwalk.
"You'll get your fill later Wrex. For now everyone on the elevator," we all got on at Shepards order.
It took us down a couple levels before stopping and opening. We all knew it was a trap by instinct and it was only confirmed when the periodic pulse from my helmet picked up another 5 drones coming at us. In unoriginal fashion we dispatched these drones the exact same way as before. They never even got a shot off.
Going back into the elevator it took us all the way down this time. Coming out of the elevator Liara wasn't in sight but we could hear her. Same exact voice from the game, though a little different. A little bit more Regal, like she was raised by royalty. Not pompous, just regal.
"Hello! Could somebody help me? Please?" Looking between each other we all turned and looked at the prison cell. There was Liara. We all instantly started moving towards here, stopping in front of her cell.
"Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped. I need help."
"We hear you. You Dr. T'Soni. Matriarch Benezia's daughter?"
"Yes. Why? Does this have something to do with the Geth that killed everyone else?" her voice got a little shaky at the end.
"Your mother is involved with the former Spectre turned terrorist Saren. How can I trust you?" at the back of the group I could see Ashley and Wrex nodding at that.
"Fuck my mother," well alrighty then. "I may be her daughter but I am nothing like her. I haven't even spoken to her in years," there was true venom behind her words. She meant everything.
"How do you suppose we get you out of there then?" Shepard asked.
"I don't know. The geth have been bringing in equipment recently behind you. Maybe something there will help. It can't be opened from the outside, you'll have to find a way around the shield," with that we left.
"Same formation as before. 2-3-2." Shepard ordered as we got off from the broken catwalk onto solid ground.
Not even a whole minute after touching solid ground we were being shot at by Geth. This time they had a Prime with them who was flanked by two juggernauts. That quickly threw Shepards order out the window and he came up with a new one on the spot.
"Garrus, take out the rocket Geth. Wynne, flank; Williams, cover him. Everyone else, focus fire on the juggernauts and the Prime."
Moving right to get behind the rocks I pushed my way forwards. Cover to cover firing off as many overloads as my omni-tool could handle. Pushing its limits it was getting dangerously close to overheating but I had no support here since Ashley didn't have a shot on most of the geth firing at me. So it had to be done.
I had about 10 total geth to kill on my own with Ashley as covering fire. Of those ten I got 7 of them. The first one got unlucky, Garrus had shot one of the rocket geth as it fired its rocket sending the rocket right at the geth blowing it out of cover leaving it an easy kill for me.
The next two just made mistakes, the same mistake but still. Each had a bit of their leg sticking out from cover. Shooting the leg both times they collapsed outside of cover leaving them vulnerable to an easy headshot.
The next three were just regular kills. Each poked out of cover at the best time for me and each got a face full of bullets. The next three were all taken by either Garrus or Ashley supporting me. I forced them to take cover from me and into areas where Ashley and Garrus had a clear line of sight on them. Easy kills.
Leaving the final two. The first of the last two I blitzed as it had sabotaged my Breaker making it overheat and me in the open. Blitzing them with my Breaker in hand I held it like a baseball bat and swung as card as I could, which was really fucking hard. The Geth was able to dodge the swing but it knocked his gun out of his hands. Spinning on one leg I delivered a spinning kick its chest pushing it away. With it far enough away I hit it with an overload before drawing my pistol and pumping 10 rounds into it; had to make sure it was really dead, definitely not my frustration.
The final one happened immediately afterwards. It was rushing me around the corner only to get hit by the body of a flying juggernaut. In fact, the juggernaut pinned it to the ground. Walking up to it I put my foot on top of the juggernauts body and pointed my gun at the geth pulling the trigger. Not gonna lie, I've always wanted to do something like that.
Looking back at the rest of them, only the Prime remained. I hit it with a sabotage right away before running back to where one of the rocket Geth had been. The sabotage left it open for everyone else to unload on it. To the point that once I got to the rocket the geth had dropped the fight was already over. Taken out by Shepards shotgun.
"Clear!" I barked out as my sensor no longer showed any geth.
"Alright, how do we get little miss blue out then?" Ashley asked as soon as I declared it all clear. Looking around I spotted the giant mining laser and pointed at it.
"Laser," I said simply. Everyone looked at me, then at the laser, then back to me but I was already moving towards it. It was our only real option.
"Get it on Wynne. Everyone else, take cover," Shepard ordered.
Now, let me just say that in the game itself it's pretty cool when the laser comes on all things considered. However, in real life it sounded like a fucking hyperbeam. Which was awesome and seeing it absolutely obliterate all that rock like it was nothing was almost as good as sex. My inner pyro was screaming out in joy and happiness.
"Yo, Shepard. Can we get one of these on the Normandy?" I asked immediately as the laser was done.
"Only if you-" he was cut off as the entire room started to rumble. "No waiting around. Let's move."
At that we sprinted towards the opening the laser had given us and bounded ourselves up the stairs to the platform. Getting on it, it took us up at a rather agonizingly slow pace. As we got to the floor with Liara there was no talking about whether or not we could trust her like in the games. We just unlocked her and once she fell out of her stasis Shepard gingerly grabbed her and handed her off to Kaiden. With that done we hauled ass back to the platform and made our way up.
As we reached the top level my sensor picked up hostiles. Telling this to everyone we all got into cover and waited.
"We don't have time to do anything but kill them. No talking, fire as soon as the platform stops, this is top level," Shepard said over the radio as we waited.
As the platform began to slow down and eventually came to a stop a Krogan with a lime green helmet plate, I can't remember what it's called right now, walked up flanked by 3 geth. He barely opened his mouth before literally all of us fired upon him. It took all of a second for his body to be in literal pieces, topped off by a carnage round from Wrex. The Geth didn't last much longer with all the overloads thrown at them.
Once the fight was, if it could be called that, was over we all took off again. I don't think I've ever run that fast in my life to be honest. Even then we barely got out of there. Making the mistake of looking back as we ran out the tunnel entrance that we came in as we were almost at the end the beginning of the tunnel was already coming down. Getting out Shepard, myself and just about everyone else put our hands on our knees and started panting.
"If this is how every mission will end Shepard I might just make you an honorary Krogan," Wrex spoke in between breaths.
"If that's what it takes I'd rather not."
"Gotta say, I've never brought down a cave system before," I got out before straitening up and taking deep breaths.
Pilot Frank never did so either. It was invigorating! Sam said in my helmet and I just sighed. Looking up, the Normandy was there, waiting for us. A couple of crew members threw down some rope for us to climb up on as there wasn't enough room for it to land.
"Too close Commander," Joker's voice blared over the intercom. "Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulphur. The Normandy may be beautiful but she ain't equipped for that. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull, just for future reference." I chuckled at that.
"We almost died and your pilot is making jokes?" Liara asked incredulously
"He just pulled our asses out of a literal volcano in the middle of it erupting. I think he's entitled to a few jokes," Shepard clapped back instantly.
"Forgive me. Human customs still confuse me. However, thank you for saving me. I would not have lasted much longer, either by the Geth or dehydration," She sent him a rather alluring smile.
When we had gotten back on the ship as soon as Shepard took off his armor she started staring; not subtly. She was also in my seat, leaving me to stand in the corner like a douche.
"What did Saren want with you anyways. The geth obviously wanted you. Do you know anything about the Conduit?" Kaiden asked.
"Only that it's somehow connected to the Prothean extinction. That's my real expertise. I've spent the past 50 years trying to figure out what happened to them."
"I've got a theory." Shepard stated matter of factly.
"With all due respect Commander. I've heard every theory out there in my field and all are plausible. The problem is finding evidence to support them. It's almost as if someone didn't want anyone to find anything about them, like they were purged. According to my findings too, they aren't the first ones for this to happen. Almost like a cycle."
"Who came before then?" I asked. Speaking up for the first time since getting on the ship.
"I don't know. There's barely any evidence of the Prothean empire and even less so for the ones that came before. I can't prove it but I know I'm right. The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction. Every time a great civilization rises it is violently and suddenly cast down with only ruins remaining. As I said before, like they were purged."
"I can help you there. The protheans were killed by a race of sentient machines. The Reapers."
"Wha-How? How do you know this?" Liara all but demanded.
"There was a damaged prothean beacon on Eden Prime. It burned a series of images into my mind, the Reapers chief among them. I'm still sorting it out."
"Visions… Yes, that makes sense. The beacons were designed to send images directly into the user's mind. No wonder the Geth attacked Eden Prime. A working prothean beacon, even a damaged one, is worth almost any risk."
"I don't think they would be able to use it," Tali spoke up. We all turned our attention to her. She seemed to wilt a little at that but her backbone came out. "They're synthetic. They don't have a mind."
"Makes more sense now that Saren was there," Shepard muttered.
"Still, the beacons were meant for Prothean minds. Not ours. If it happened the images would be confusing; I'm amazed you would be able to make sense of any of it. You must have a remarkably strong mind commander," yeah, the sultry tone came back into her voice. Ashley rolled her eyes and then stared at Liara with enough intensity to melt steel beams.
"Not helping us find Saren," Ashley spat at Liara.
"Yes, sorry. My scientific curiosity got the better of me," yeah right. More like you wanted to jump his bones. "Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Saren or the Conduit. I can't help you."
"I don't know why Saren wanted you out the picture but for now you'd be safer with us. And you could help us."
"Her biotics will be of good use too. Can never have too many," Wrex stated simply. Liara got up and approached Shepard at that.
"Thank you commander. I don't know anywhere I would be safer no.. now," she started to sway on her feet a little there but caught herself. Shepard reached out too and gently grabbed her arm.
"You okay ma'am. When was the last time you ate, slept or even had water?" Kaiden asked breaking up the mini-moment that was developing between the two. "You should go see Dr. Chakwas, she'll help you."
Nodding at that she smiled a bit before Shepard pulled back. "I think I will do that. To much has happened to me lately, a rest and check up would be good. Are we finished Commander?"
"Go see the doc Liara. The rest of you dismissed."
With that we left and as we did one thought went through my head. I'm going to have to find a new place to eat. Fuck.
There we go folks. Review and follow or don't. Do whatever you want. Imma keep bringing this story out cause it's good.
Love y'all.
Reviews are appreciated though just to see how I'm doing.