Chapter 9: Hunting Geth
Armstrong Nebula, Vamshi system, Maji
Yang
Getting dropped in the mako was a new experience for Yang, who found herself holding onto the safety straps when Kaidan confirmed they were free of the Normandy. That means we're falling right? The turbulence that shook the machine as they descended very rapidly had her worried. Sure she had her own landing strategy planned out, but that meant going outside the mako.
The thrusters did help slow the final part of their descent, but everyone jolted when they hit the ground regardless. Yang let out a shaky breath as Ingersoll checked the systems quickly before the mako started moving. Looking out the front window Yang made out the reddish sky and a large hill in the distance.
"Scans indicate that the Geth have made an outpost on that high peak." Kaidan pointed out. "We'll stay inside the mako if we're able, only leaving if they have constructed a building that we need to clear, understood?" Everyone nodded, including Yang who had loosened her grip on the straps keeping her safe from moving around.
"Are you alright Yang?" Tali's concerned voice asked from her right.
"Yeah… just never fallen from orbit before."
"That was not orbit," Tali revealed shockingly, "that was just a few hundred feet. Joker is a skilled pilot, and this vehicle has thrusters to slow itself down before landing."
"Would have been nice to know beforehand. Guess I look stupid."
"No, your helmet is hiding your expression, mostly." Tali teased, the small glowing spots in her visor going out for a moment. Yang swore she closed her eyes and even smiled with the tone the Quarian took.
At least you're enjoying this. She thought as they fell silent, waiting for orders to come, but the only one who got an order was Ashley. As they started following a path that appeared to be carved into the large hill, Geth towers began firing at them. That was when Ingersoll ordered Ashley onto the turret and the fight really began.
There were explosions and small gun fire, sharp turns and sudden increases to speed. That must be the thrusters Tali mentioned. She recognised this feeling from when Ingersoll drove on Feros too and smiled, thanking the gods that it wasn't Shepard driving. It seemed like ages for the mako to finally get up the hill, but when it did Ingersoll's voice came through clear.
"Geth outpost! Tower positions and a wall, everyone hold on!" Her driving became almost erratic and the fire Ashley was laying down was nearly constant. She wondered how many bullets were being wasted, but as the mako rocked from getting struck by the Geth she found herself wishing Ash would only fire faster, or be a better shot.
The brief pause after the Geth had been eliminated, where even Ingersoll took her hands off the controls, ended when Joker's voice came through.
"Heads up. Geth dropship on your position."
Yang couldn't see it, but Ingersoll swore. "Colossus! Ashley!"
"On it! Get moving!"
Yang was trying to get a look at what it was they were now worried about, but through the firefight she didn't get to. As the scuffle concluded, the shields were offline but thankfully the mako hadn't been breached.
"Tali," Kaidan said, "see if you can find anything from those Geth, I'll give you ten minutes before we need to get going. Shepard's waiting."
Tali got out alone at first, before Yang followed her out and jogged to her side. She watched as Tali worked, picking through parts and dismantling areas of some Geth. It was all too technical for her, though her attention was drawn to a massive Geth creature.
"Wow, this thing is even bigger than that Armature." Yang ran her fingers over the heavy armour of the machine.
"Colossus," came Ingersoll's voice over the comms. "A larger version of the Armature. It has thicker armour, bigger guns, and is far more deadly, though I think even you can tell that."
"Lucky we had the mako, otherwise this guy looks like he would have caused us some problems." She tapped on its head and continued looking it over, it was certainly far more advanced than the Atlas mechs. It was made only scarier when Yang thought more about the Geth and how they were sentient beings, or could be.
Kaidan soon gave the order for Tali and Yang to return to the mako and for Joker to come and pick them up. Tali hadn't found anything of value but they still had three other planets to land at and eliminate the Geth forces.
Armstrong Nebula, Hong system, Casbin
Yang
Joker dropped the team off in the mako once more, this time to a greener planet. Yet it too had a rather hilly terrain in which they were dropped.
"Interesting," Tali started, "it appears this planet had been designated as a Sanctuary World by the Citadel Council. I wonder if the Geth know this?"
"Ah, an explanation for dummies please." Yang asked with a smile inside her helmet.
"It has the potential to become habitable for sapient life, over the next several thousand years." Yang let her head fall back and hit the metal behind her.
"Thousands of years… that's so hard to imagine though. None of us will be around to see if it does." Yang sounded a little sad about that.
"It's likely that not even an Asari or Krogan will see this place turn into a habitable world, none that are alive at the moment anyway." Kaidan added.
Yang found it incredible that the people in this galaxy were already thinking thousands of years into the future, pinpointing which worlds could become valuable in some way. Remnant seems so tiny compared to all of this. Yang reflected.
She soon found herself trying to imagine what Remnant would look like in a thousand, or even a hundred years from now. Would humanity and Faunus still be at odds with one another? Would her friends have succeeded against Salem and her allies even without her there to help? Would the Grimm and Salem still be a threat?
Being lost in her own mind for a while made her jump when she heard the turret of the mako open fire. More Geth already? She sat upright and looked towards the front where the terrain was changing quickly. She made out glimpses of Geth towers and walls once more as the occasional part of Geth was sent flying through the air. Are they really like Penny? She wondered, but then again, if Penny had planned to kill human colonies she'd be trying to stop her.
Another Geth ship was spotted incoming, but this time Kaidan gave the order to exit the vehicle and take cover and flank around the outsides of the walls. He went on his own to the left while Yang followed Tali. A Colossus wasn't dropped this time, instead Geth troopers were ejected. The mako's machine gun tore through them with ease, the cannon causing the Geth to break into dozens of pieces. With the addition of Kaidan and Tali attacking from the sides, and Yang's lesser assistance with her assault rifle, the Geth ship soon took off.
"Ship is leaving the system. Good work Lieutenant." Joker said as he confirmed the Geth retreat.
Similar orders were given once more, Tali was given limited time to search while Ashley was instructed to teach Yang how to shoot the rifle effectively and efficiently. They didn't have long, but Ash did try to instruct Yang on firing in bursts instead of just holding the trigger down and letting go just before it overheated. Rifles weren't her thing, she preferred up close and feeling the hits.
"If you fire in bursts you get two main benefits. First, you'll lower your recoil and be able to better control where you're aiming. Second, is that you give the weapon a brief moment to cool down, meaning you won't overheat it as often." Ash instructed, but their time was short and they were once again called back to the mako with Tali again finding nothing.
It was once they were back on the Normandy that Ash spoke up. "For an expert of Geth, you're pretty useless at getting data from them." She said to Tali. The Quarian looked back, leaning away from Ash and saying nothing. "I mean, if you could just find something, then we could go and back Shepard up, or go right for their command centre."
Everyone was quiet, even their commanding officer in Kaidan which pissed Yang off. She and Ingersoll shared a look before she made her way to the elevator with Kaidan.
"Hey, Tali's doing her best. And like you said she's the Geth expert, not you." Yang spoke as she moved to Tali's side, removing her helmet to let loose her long mane. "Think you could find something from them when she can't? Go ahead, tell the lieutenant that you want the ten minutes to find something next time."
Ashley glared at Yang but said nothing before walking past and shoulder checking Yang, or tried to. Yang held firm and showcased that she wasn't going to be bullied. Ashley went to her usual spot while Tali let out a long held breath.
"Kiyet." The Quarian said in Ash's direction.
"You all right?" This time it was Yang's turn to ask one of the three she considered friends, though Shepard was still up for debate on that front.
"Yes, I have been accused of and called much worse things than a useless Geth specialist before." Tali answered, walking to the engineering bay. Yang followed with questions.
"So Ki-yet, what's it mean?"
Tali just giggled, holding a hand up to the light that lit up on her helmet when she spoke, covering it like a normal person. "It is a word from my language, Khelish. Kiyet in your tongue means, bitch."
Yang snorted and started laughing at that. "Damn Tali, didn't know you had that in you."
The two spent their time together for the most part, Tali helping Yang with learning more about her omni-tool since Yang wished to know more about the galaxy she was now trapped in.
Armstrong Nebula, Tereshkova system, Antibaar
Yang
Antibaar was an ice coated planet with high wind, making going out on foot this time highly unlikely. Still, they had located another Geth outpost on this world. Trouble was finding it as the Geth had set up a large area jammer that had Ingersoll driving around while asking Ash to keep her eyes peeled and survey the area with the cannon's scope.
It seemed like another peaceful planet as the driving was taking longer than expected, up until they all started to feel a rumbling. "Earthquake?" Kaidan suggested, before Ingersoll made a sharp turn that brought the mako onto three wheels. Yang thought it was going to tip and made to brace before the other set of wheels crashed to the ground.
"Thresher Maw! Joker come in, we might need an immediate extraction!" Yang only heard Ingersoll swear as she started driving erratically again. "Williams! Shoot that fucking thing, now!"
"Stop driving like a maniac!" A stressed response came, but the weapons started firing more often.
Thresher Maw… what's that? Yang wondered as she activated her omni-tool and tried to search for it. Tali reached over and shook her head.
"Geth are jamming the signal, you'll see it if they manage to kill it."
"Shields down sixty percent! Tali, can you do anything to get them to recharge quicker?" Ingersoll asked, taking them over a bump.
"I think so, but it means not taking any damage for a while."
There was a long and loud screech that gave Yang goosebumps, she knew at that point whatever a Thresher Maw was, it was big. She leaned forwards trying to get a look through the windscreen of the mako, but the driving was too evasive. I wish I had my bike.
Ingersoll didn't stop moving and Tali did what she could from inside. On a particularly hard turn Tali was thrown, but Yang managed to grab hold and pull her back to her seat. This is wild! I wish I could go out there. Having never encountered most things in this galaxy had her curious, but being restricted to being inside the mako for most of the time was annoying.
After several minutes of struggling and cannon fire, the mako lurched to a halt. Their driver swore and slumped in her seat while Yang cheered, getting an odd look from Kaidan. She was let out and went to see what exactly it was that had caused such a problem.
What she found surprised her. Massive in size on the ice and snow, she could tell it was even bigger than it appeared since its body was still connected with the ground, hiding who knows how much more mass. It's like those big worms they say Vacuo have. Having learned about their neighbouring kingdom Vacuo at school, Yang had a little knowledge about the Blind Worms. She'd never seen one, but had seen pictures and a video about them. This Thresher looked very similar, save for the colour and lack of boney pinchers the worms were shown to have. This thing had massive tentacles that looked pretty handy for latching onto things. She didn't have long to look as Kaidan wanted the mission to continue, so Yang left, vowing to look up more information on these large creatures.
They pressed on for nearly half an hour more before finally discovering the Geth outpost hidden amongst a rocky outcropping. Ingersoll and Ashley made quick work of it, needing to since the mako had taken some damage. And once the final Geth lay destroyed, Joker came to pick them up.
They had some time to make some repairs to the mako, thankfully having Adams there as well as a dedicated crewmember to repair the mako, it was in pretty good condition by the time their arrival at the final outpost was announced.
Armstrong Nebula, Gagarin system, Rayingri
Yang
The final Geth outpost was positioned on a barren planet that had nothing of interest for anyone. Ingersoll wasted no time and drove them towards the Geth base which didn't have a jamming signal this time. Going around another steep and huge hill, she discovered an easy route up.
"Eyes peeled for turrets, Geth have had them at two previous sites." Ingersoll called to Ash.
Though they need not have bothered, as all that welcomed them at the peak of the hill was a single bunker, and more than a dozen empty dragon's teeth.
"What are those?" Yang found herself asking aloud.
"It's what the Geth used to turn humans into husks back on Eden Prime. Bunch of sick robot freaks." Ashley hissed, recalling what she had witnessed the Geth do to the civilians. Holding them at the base of the machine before activating it, causing a long pointed cone like spike to shoot up towards the sky, impaling the victim and slowly changing their corpse.
They all exited the mako and made their way inside, but not before Yang got a bit closer to one. A sick feeling came over her and she pulled away, not wanting to trigger anything dangerous.
A corridor greeted them with a single door at the end. Kaidan gave the order to ready their weapons and proceed. Yang stayed in the middle with Tali, Ingersoll bringing up the rear. The door opened with a quiet hiss and revealed to them an empty room with a single door further to the left.
They pressed on with Ashley going first and Kaidan being close behind her. Yang's finger was on the trigger, ready to fire should anything bad come at them. Passing through another corridor and then entering into a much larger room than the previous one, Yang felt her nerves rising. Come on, you've faced Grimm before, and you've destroyed plenty of Geth already. And although she had faced them both and beaten many, what she found shocked her.
After a brief battle where she pulled and held the trigger of her own rifle a few times, she got up close to one of the creatures that had attacked them. They looked similar to what the Thorian had made, the creepers, only these ones looked more mechanically infused with glowing blue parts, even after they'd fallen.
"What the hell." She breathed, disgusted by what she was looking at. They were similar in appearance to the Apathy, another creature of Grimm that she had run into just once before. She remembered them being horrifying, slow, physically weak but their cries had sapped them all to the point of near unconsciousness.
"Husks," Ashley told her. "Altered from living humans, made from those spikes on the surface."
"And the Geth are responsible?" Yang's question was answered with just a subtle nod. Right, if they're doing that to humans, then it makes it a bit easier to destroy them. She knew Penny would never do that sort of thing, but from what she learned from Tali the Geth might be a far cry from what Penny was.
Proceeding further into the structure they were flanked by two opening doors of which two husks rushed from either side. Kaidan and Ash held one side while Yang found herself beside Tali and eliminated the other two. Flashing a smile at Tali, they were interrupted by Kaidan who told them to scour the rooms before returning to the mako.
Yang let Tali do most of the searching as she watched the Quarian's back since she had more knowledge about their enemy and where they might hide things. She still wanted to know what her kind looked like beneath the visor, but the risk Tali had told her about made that unlikely.
"Geth!" Ingersoll yelled, the sound of her rifle reverberating through the area along with the loud crackling that was unmistakably Geth, even Yang recognised it and she had very little experience with them, perhaps more so than than anyone on their mission.
As Ingersoll rounded the corner to where she could see either pair, she made her way towards Yang and Tali, though didn't get far before two explosions just behind her forced her off her feet. The sergeant crashed to the floor with the wind being knocked out of her and two large figures stepped into the corridor, one looking towards either group.
Yang dropped the gloves and the forearm armour from her right arm, freeing up her bracelet and prosthetic from the constraints of what she thought of mostly as a spacesuit to the ground smiling. "I've been waiting for this." She said more to herself. Ember Celica activated, the bracelet on her left arm expanded towards her elbow and over the top of her prosthetic opened up and a similar shape formed over the same area of the prosthetic. It was a swift activation from Yang, who thrust her arms back to cause a common explosion to propel herself forwards.
The Geth Destroyer that was just aiming its weapon to the back of Ingersoll looked up at the loud gunshots, finding a human right in its face. A white smile accompanied the punch from her real hand that cracked and broke the faceplating of the destroyer, causing the Geth to spin uncontrollably and fall to the ground. The other by this point had turned and was charging at Yang who was hoping for it to come closer.
As the destroyer made to strike her with its metallic elbow, her own prosthetic fist met and shattered the joint. There was a whirring sound as the Geth processed what had just happened, before it too was falling as Yang kicked it's left leg out from under it. She followed that up with a left punch that connected with the destroyer's head and helped force it into the ground where the entire headpiece was shattered as Yang's punch served as the hammer and the floor as the anvil. As it rested motionlessly, Yang heard movement behind her.
Firing off another blast, Yang propelled herself off her feet and into the air. She caught sight of the recovering destroyer and moved to avoid the aim of the machine. Just as it seemed to line up its shotgun with her, Yang again used a gauntlet shot to change her direction midair. Plasma shots raced past her as she spun out of the way, her leg coming down and booted the weapon from its robotic grasp as her left arm came swinging around to catch it in the other side of its face. The armour from the gauntlet didn't crack or even scratch, but the destroyer's headlight, its eyes shattered as Yang followed up by punching it in the sternum. Her prosthetic bending the metal of the Geth's chestpiece inwards and she felt the creature go limp.
Stepping back to examine her handiwork and ensure that the two large Geth constructs were indeed dead, she looked over to Tali and gave a thumbs up before offering a hand up to Ingersoll. The sergeant had remained on the ground, happy to stay out of the way of the almost blur of action as she and the others witnessed first hand exactly what Yang did to two of the more dangerous Geth creations.
Further Geth noises meant no explanation yet, so they moved on to wipe out the Geth that had moved in behind them and taken the largest room. It was another quick fight, one that Yang had left them to handle as she took the glove and vambrace from Tali, the ones she had taken off before and put them back on.
"We need to check the surface, if they came in behind us then there could be more of them waiting for us." Kaidan told his team, letting Ashley take the lead back onto the planet's surface.
Before Yang could get outside, being pulled back by Ingersoll and made to emerge last, gunfire erupted. She was about to take her vambrace armour off again but thought better of it. They were all wearing their helmets again meaning it must surely be unsafe to proceed with a breech in the suit. Dammit. She cursed, joining the fray late and only getting to fire off a few rounds of her rifle.
She did see the Geth ship flying off into space though, wondering where it was going now. Ingersoll made it to the mako however, and blasted the final two geth from their cover. Everyone took a moment to search the area for any more Geth lying in wait but found nothing and returned to the mako to regroup.
"Strange, I thought one of those outposts would be the main base of operations for this incursion." Kaidan said as the firefight came to an end and the ship had disappeared.
"Hang on," Tali started. "This receiver is picking up some kind of transmission. Based on the signal strength I'd say it's coming from inside this star cluster." Yang once more felt so small, so primitive compared to these people. A message from within the same star cluster as Tali had put it, yet they didn't even have interkingdom communications after the Fall of Beacon.
"It must be a message from the primary Geth base. We can use this signal to lock onto its location and take them out. Joker, pick us up. And relay a message to the Commander that we've located a fifth and hopefully final Geth base."
With Kaidan's orders given to Joker, the ground team remained inside the mako awaiting pick up. There was silence amongst them all, their missions having shown a little division amongst one another outside of combat. Ashley was against Tali for her apparent lack of Geth expertise and then Yang for siding with an alien. It was Tali however who did break the silence.
"What you did to those two Geth Destroyers, that was incredible. I've never seen or heard of anyone, even a Krogan, taking apart Geth like that." Her excitement was easy to pick up on and had Yang smiling.
"That was nothing, you should see me when I get serious." Yang said, boasting sure, but knowing she could back it up if given the opportunity.
"Humans can't do that, not even ones that have been altered to be stronger and faster. I'm starting to believe what you and the Commander have been saying." Kaidan said.
"It was just that metal arm she's got, you're giving her too much credit." Ashley chipped in, looking away from the blonde and looking to Ingersoll.
"No, I saw the real one turn that destroyer's head and electrical brains into wires and broken pieces." Ingersoll looked into Yang's eyes and sighed. "Thanks for saving me kid, and I'm sorry for doubting you."
"Meaning you believe I'm from…"
"Starting to believe." Ingersoll interrupted, stating where she was with processing that information, but given what they'd all witnessed, she was starting to.
"That's good enough for me." Yang said happily, crossing her ankles and putting her hands behind her head, doing her best to look relaxed and satisfied with her helmet on. I think I'm Going to have to cut my hair though. This helmet is messing it up.
Once they had safely got the mako back aboard the Normandy, Kaidan gave the order for Joker to take them to the Grissom system where they had traced the transmission back to. Yang went back to her bunk while the ship was speeding towards their next target. Researching what this galaxy had to offer was at the top of her priority list whenever she wasn't helping the Normandy crew deal with the Geth. So she settled in for the journey, eventually falling asleep as she couldn't keep track of the time thanks to the planet jumping and flying through space. Drooling on her own shoulder with one arm hanging out over the bunk, Yang wouldn't be shaken awake until the crew had found which planet they were to be landing on next.