I know a lot of people find James Vega kinda bland, but I actually kind of like him. Mostly because he's the type of grade-A "Ooo-rah!" space marine you find in, well, Halo media. Seriously. I keep bringing him on missions in the hope that he'll call incoming enemies "Mike Foxtrots."
Now, while I have yet to reach the ending, I DID stumble upon a grave atrocity committed by Bioware...
In Mass Effect 3, Urdnot Wreav is NOT voiced by Jim Cummings.
To quote the Unggoy of Halo 2;
*points at Bioware*
HERETICS! HERETICS! HERETICS!
I was also disappointed that Michael Beattie didn't come back to reprise his role of Mordin Solus, but I guess William Saylers did a good enough job voicing Mordin. Though there were still times where I thought to myself "You're not Michael."
Finally, I decided to add dates and times to the chapters, since that's how chapters worked in the Halo books. Thought it would be a nice touch. It was kinda tedious, but we all must suffer for our art.
...
0630 Hours, March 5th, 2683
SSV Normandy
Feros Orbit
Theseus System, Attican Beta Cluster
...
"Approaching Feros." Joker reported. The Master Chief was in the cockpit with him, staring out the window at the planet's surface. It all looked grey to him. No sign of oceans, seas, or even lakes. Nothing but grey. According to Feros's codex entry, all that grey was solid concrete.
"Picking up anything on long range sensors?" Chief asked.
"Nada." Joker replied.
The Chief turned to Negulesco. "Picking up anything on radio?"
"Plenty of chatter on the surface." Negulesco reported. "Nothing in orbit though."
"Fits Saren's MO." Chief said.
"MO?" Joker asked.
"Saren swoops in, grabs whatever he's after, and then leaves, leaving behind a big cleanup crew to destroy any evidence he was there." Chief elaborated.
"Oh, I see." Joker said. "The hunter has become familiar with his prey..."
"Lock in on Zhu's Hope and prepare to dock." Chief ordered, ignoring Joker's comment. The Spartan walked over to the CIC. Indeed, Saren's MO was similar to the Covenant's. The Covenant too would go in, grab whatever Forerunner relic they were searching for, and then they'd glass the whole planet from orbit. Saren was more pragmatic though. He knew he didn't have to glass a whole planet to eliminate evidence that he was there. The Covenant glassed every inch of a Human-held planet for reasons more religious in nature. And of course, Saren's invasions were typically on a comparatively smaller scale.
To the Master Chief, the lack of any signals in orbit meant either one of two things. Either it meant that he caught Saren still in the midst of trying to find whatever he's after, or Saren's already found it, has left, and his Geth are now trying to destroy what's left to keep it out of the Spartan's hands. Considering it's been two days since Feros went dark, the latter scenario seemed more likely.
Master Chief walked over to the CIC. With all four major weapons already on his back, he was ready for action. So too was his team. Kaidan Alenko. Ashley Williams. Garrus Vakarian. Urdnot Wrex. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Liara T'soni. N'tho 'Sraom. They all stood before the Chief, fully outfitted with armor and weapons, ready for combat.
"Alright." Master Chief began. "We don't know much. All we know for certain is that the Geth are after something on Feros and we need to get to it and/or keep it out of their hands. This is a full-scale colonial invasion we're stepping into so expect heavy Geth resistance. Remember your fire drills, keep your heads down, and your odds of surviving this will be considerably better. We clear?"
All seven of them winked green.
"Good."
"Entering atmo now." Joker reported via intercom. "ETA to dock, five minutes."
"Weapons free." the Spartan ordered. "We're moving to the air lock."
...
"Equalizing interior pressure with exterior atmosphere." the VI announced. The door then opened to Zhu's Hope's docking bay. "Logged. The Commanding Officer is ashore. XO Pressly has the deck."
The Spartan observed his surroundings, his body and mind on high alert from the knowledge that this was a combat zone. The floor, walls, ceiling, just about everything on this planet seemed to be made of solid, if dusty, stone.
He glanced out towards the mouth of the docking bay. He saw some tall buildings out in the distance. The weather was very cloudy, sunlight being limited at best. Most off-putting of all was the cloud of fog that obscured the ground. Chief had no idea how high up he was.
"We're about fourteen hundred feet above sea level right now." Cortana reported, also noticing the fog obscuring the ground. "So yeah. Watch your step."
"Movement!" Garrus said as he raised his rifle, the rest of the squad following suite.
"Thank goodness! Help has arrived!" a high pitched, almost sing-song sort of voice said. The voice's owner buzzed over to the group and landed before them, its wings still out.
"A drone?" Ashley asked.
"Yanme'e." the insectoid alien corrected. Its wings vibrated every time it spoke, for some reason.
"What's a Yanme'e doing here?" Kaidan asked.
"This worker is here to work. Not important now." the Yanme'e quickly explained. "What's important is you're here! We saw your ship! You must speak with Fai Dan immediately!"
"Who's he?" Chief asked. By now he lowered his rifle. This Yanme'e had no weapons on it and didn't seem hostile.
"He's our leader." the worker said. "The Geth are making another push and he needs your help! He's up the stairs, past the freighter." it pointed towards a flight of stairs.
Suddenly, the Yanme'e exploded into green goo and bits of exoskeleton. A Geth rocket trooper's rocket launcher still smoked as it and four other Geth troopers came down the stairs. Garrus was the first to react. He unfolded his sniper rifle and fired, taking out one of the Geth's 'heads.' Blind, it turned around and opened fire in Garrus's general direction, prompting the rest of the squad to take cover.
"I hate Geth!" Garrus suddenly cried out. "Headshots don't work on them!"
"No, but this does!" Wrex replied as he whipped out his assault rifle and opened fire on them.
"So does this!" N'tho yelled as he threw a plasma grenade at the machines. It stuck to one and detonated, taking out two others. The remaining two, including the rocket trooper, still stood but with no shields left. Garrus shot the rocket trooper through the chest with his sniper rifle and Chief shot the other through with his own sniper.
"Move! Up the stairs!" Chief ordered as he dashed to the stairs, the rest of his squad hot on his heels. The Spartan climbed up the stairs and looked up. It was a stairwell containing over half a dozen Geth troopers and hoppers. His keen tactical mind went to work. These were not, by any means, ideal fighting conditions. The Geth had sheer height on their side. All they had to do was point their rifles down and squeeze the trigger. Master Chief's first idea was to just charge up the stairs and take out the Geth one at a time. It would be hard, but doable.
The Spartan then came up with a second idea. One that was quicker and easier.
He touched Liara's shoulder and pointed up the stairwell. "Singularity! Now!"
Liara's form was wrapped in a blue aura as she summoned all her biotic might. She thrust both hands forward and a small black hole formed in the stairwell. Every last trooper and hopper that was once firing down on them was sucked in and now looked as though they were caught in a whirlpool.
"Light 'em up!" Chief ordered as he raised his assault rifle and fired. Garrus, Ashley, Wrex, Kaidan, and N'tho did the same. Tali fired an overload into the floating mass of Geth to speed the process along. When the singularity faded, the dead machines all fell onto the floor in a massive heap of bodies.
"Aw man." N'tho said with a chuckle. "It's like that song by Frankenstein Joe. A Pile of Dead Everything."
"I'm not picking up anything else on motion sensors." Kaidan reported. "I think that was it."
"Not for long." Chief pointed out. "Bugger said the Geth were about to make another push. Let's move."
Master Chief led the squad up the stairwell. They came to a short corridor, at the end of which was an opening to the side. The Spartan swung out into the opening, rifle ready. He was met by four Humans pointing their guns at him from behind barricades. They lowered their guns as soon as they noticed the Chief wasn't a Geth.
"The Master Chief...?" one of the Humans quietly gasped.
"Glad to see you here, Chief. Our numbers are getting thin." another Human added.
"Clear." the Spartan reported to his squad. "I was told to look for Fai Dan?" he asked one of the colonists.
"Down that hall there." The colonist replied, pointing to a building of some sort. The Spartan nodded his thanks and marched in the instructed direction.
As he passed, he caught a glimpse of the colonists. Their faces and clothes were dirty with mud, dust and likely blood. They were all holding standard issue Lancer MK 1 assault rifles, but few looked like they had any business holding them. They stared at the Chief as he walked by, mouths agape. Chief knew the look by now. It was the look of renewed hope. The realization that, now that a Spartan was with them, maybe they'd actually survive. Maybe even win. Chief saw the look on hundreds of troopers and marines back during the war.
He walked by a woman who was working on a machine of some sort. "How's a woman supposed to think with guns going off all around?" she muttered to herself. "You. Hand me the five-eighths." The woman said to a drone. The bug searched through a toolbox before handing her the desired wrench.
Chief opened the door to the building, which revealed a long corridor. By now, he recognized that the building was, in fact, a partially disassembled Kowloon-class freighter. The squad followed him down the corridor. They passed one room with four other drones in it, who all seemed to be working on a broken computer. One of them had removed the access panel and seemed to be re-wiring it, the other three looking over its shoulders. They passed another room that had a Human couple in it. A woman was lying down, complaining of headaches while a man, presumably her husband, gently consoled her, assuring her that everything would be alright.
The Spartan opened the door at the other end of the hall and emerged back into the courtyard. A man in colonist garb walked over to the Spartan, a woman wearing a combat hardsuit next to him.
'Tired' was the only word Chief could think of to describe the man's face. He had tanned skin, a nearly shaved head, and a face covered in wrinkles. His eyes were the eyes of a man who had seen all too much and just wanted it all to end. Feros only went dark two days ago, so it's only been that long that the colony has been under siege by Geth, but from the look of this man, it almost made Chief wonder if the invasion had been going on longer than that.
The woman also had tanned skin. She had short hair as well, and much like her male compatriot, also had the face of a person who'd been through too much. But there was something else besides tiredness in her eyes. There was also suspicion, even resentment, as she sized up the Spartan.
"Fai Dan?" Chief asked the man.
He nodded. "That's me alright." Dan replied. "I'm glad they finally sent somebody to help us. And the Master Chief no less. It's an honor to have you here."
"Took them long enough." the woman grumbled at a barely audible volume.
"Arcelia!" Dan snapped at the woman, who seemed to jump at that. Calming down, Dan turned back to the SPARTAN-II. "Sorry, Chief. We've all been a bit on edge since-"
"Watch out!" Arcelia suddenly shouted as the Geth's tell-tale electronic stuttering was heard. "We've got Geth in the tower!"
"Protect the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan shouted as he whipped out an SMG while Arcelia withdrew her assault rifle and both opened fire. Master Chief threw a frag grenade at the approaching fire team of Geth. The explosion killed two outright and took out the shields of another two, which were quickly cut down by gunfire. Tali fired an overload at one of the Geth that still had its shields, which Garrus followed up with a sniper round right to the chest.
"Get over here!" Wrex shouted as he biotically pulled one of the Geth towards him. He unfolded his shotgun and fired it once the Geth floated into point blank range. The Krogan barked out a mocking laugh as the Geth's body flew away from him, a hole the size of a Krogan's fist in its chest. The last Geth didn't last long under the combined fire of seven misfit commandos, several colonists, and a SPARTAN-II.
"I'm detecting more Geth in that tower, Chief." Cortana reported.
"We need to clear out this tower! Move!" Chief ordered as he dashed through the tower entrance, his squad not far behind.
The squad fought and took down a few more Geth before arriving at another stairwell. It was just like the last one; multiple Geth Troopers and a few Hoppers, all pointing their weapons down, knowing full well they have the height advantage.
Well, if it worked once before...
"Liara. You know the drill." Chief ordered. The Asari once again summoned another singularity in the midst of the shaft, and almost every Geth present was sucked into it. The rest of the squad lit them up with gunfire before the singularity wore off, the Geth that got caught in it falling down to the bottom of the shaft in a pile of dead machines. Ashley and Wrex finished off the ones that were still twitching with assault rifle and shotgun, respectively.
"We should take you on missions more often." Kaidan complimented Liara.
"Up the stairs! Move!" Chief ordered as he dashed up the stairwell. The rest of the squad followed his lead. Behind the Spartan was Wrex, N'tho, Ashley, Garrus, Kaidan, Tali and Liara in that order.
They arrived at an odd room. It had a raised semi-circular platform with a sloped incline, while the rest of the room seemed to 'wrap' itself around the platform. The whole room was semi-circular, they quickly realized. And it was full of Geth.
"N'tho. Ashley. Tali. You three take the platform. Everyone else with me!" Chief ordered.
N'tho, Ashley and Tali rushed up the platform and situated themselves. N'tho propped his plasma minigun upon a concrete block and immediately began firing on the Geth. Tali rushed to the Sangheili's side and gave him support fire with her assault rifle.
Ashley rushed over to her own concrete block and unfolded her focus rifle. "Okay, let's see what this thing can do." the marine muttered to herself. She poked her head out of cover and quickly scanned the room. She identified a target near the back of the room; a Geth sniper. She quickly ducked back down to avoid further incoming fire, waited a few seconds for her shields to recharge, and then popped back out of cover, the focus rifle ready. She pulled trigger.
A continuous golden beam of light shot out of the gun's barrel, sounding like a high-pitched freight train going at mach 2, and hit the Geth sniper right in the chest. The beam quickly burned through its shields, melted through and eventually pierced is armor. The weapon eventually overheated, but by the time it did, the Geth had hole in its chest from which fire billowed forth. It collapsed.
"A laser beam!" Ashley roared in triumph! "This thing is a foxtrottin' laser beam!" She ducked back into cover, waited for her shields and her rifle to both recharge, and resumed her laser assault.
Meanwhile in the lower section of the room, Master Chief had blinded a Geth shock trooper with a sniper round to the head. Taking advantage of its blindness, he folded up his sniper rifle and rushed up to the blinded trooper. Spartan time kicked in as he approached the shock trooper. Its rifle was pointed in the direction Chief's shot came from. The SPARTAN-II sidestepped before the Geth could pull the trigger. He then knocked the weapon out of the synthetic's hand. Disarmed, it was helpless as he grabbed the Geth's shoulder and forcefully turned it around. He whipped out his pistol and opened fire on the Geth, using the Geth he had grappled as a meat shield. Metal shield, he mentally corrected himself.
The Geth fired on him, but only succeeded in hitting their compatriot. Furthermore, the Geth seemed so focused on him that they had practically forgotten the rest of the squad was there as well. The remaining half-dozen or so troopers quickly fell. The last one, another shock trooper, tried to flank the Master Chief, but he tossed the body of the long dead Geth he'd been using at its still-functioning compatriot, knocking it down. Kaidan delivered a crushing warp to make sure it didn't get back up.
"We're good." N'tho reported.
It was then that the familiar sound of a Geth dropship's engines was heard. The squad looked up and sure enough, a Geth dropship was visible overhead through a hole in the roof.
"See, THIS is why I think you talk too much, squidhead!" Wrex shouted.
"Everyone back into cover!" Chief ordered as several more troopers dropped into the room through the hole in the ceiling, including two big ones. These were similar to Geth Juggernauts, but were slightly shorter and were, rather than red, black with yellow trimmings.
"Target the big ones first!" Chief shouted.
N'tho kept pouring the plasma on from his position. By now, the Geth had identified him as a threat and began focusing much of their fire on him. "Wort wort wort!" N'tho swore as his shields ran out. He ducked into cover, but dared not come back out with all the fire that was hitting the block he was crouching behind.
N'tho growled. His martial honor demanded that he come back out and return fire, but he wasn't that dumb. He knew that he'd be torn to shreds within moments.
"I think I can draw some of their fire!" Tali yelled as she began furiously tapping on her omni-tool.
"How?!" N'tho yelled back.
"Like this!" Tali said as she tapped her omni-tool one final time. Suddenly, her whole body was wrapped in a bright white overshield. She boldly came out of cover and whipped out her needler.
The type-33 munitions launcher, aka the needler, was a Covenant weapon that quickly gained infamy during the Human-Covenant war as one of the deadliest anti-personnel weapons in the Covenant arsenal. It fired pink needles that homed in on hostile targets, the weapon being wirelessly linked with the user's IFF system. Each needle was sharp enough to penetrate deep into the victim's flesh, possibly ruining a vital organ. As if that wasn't bad enough, if six or more needles hit the same spot, they explode, usually killing the target instantly.
The needler Tali was using wasn't a type-33 though. It was a type-34, an upgrade. A weakness of the type-33 was that the needles only detonated when they made contact with an organic target, which made it useless against synthetic enemies like the Geth. Needler manufacturers tweaked the formula of the hardened gel that needles were made of to detonate when the needles made contact with any sort of enemy at all; organic, synthetic, or otherwise. Chief issued needlers to both Tali and Liara, figuring that as the only two civilians in the squad, they'd need a little extra bite.
Tali aimed her needler at the Geth destroyer and opened fire. The needles homed in and, true to their reputation, they detonated on impact. Synthetics were different to organics though. The Geth now had a hole in its chest, but it was still standing. However, N'tho came out of cover and fired his minigun, aiming right for the Geth's chest hole. The plasma melted much of the Geth's innards and the behemoth quickly fell.
"Wrex! Grenade on that other big one!" Chief ordered.
"With pleasure!" Wrex replied as he whipped out a spike grenade and primed it. He stood out of cover and took aim at the destroyer. He threw the grenade like a throwing axe, the Jiralhenae explosive spinning like a wheel of death, until it embedded itself into the destroyer's chassis.
"Everyone down!" Chief yelled. He knew what a spike grenade can do in close quarters. He didn't want any of his team to accidentally catch a spike.
The grenade detonated, spikes flying. One Geth trooper was literally nailed to the wall by a stray spike. Another fell over, a spike protruding from its back. Another was miraculously still standing, but with a two-foot spike through its 'neck.' White hydraulic fluid gushed from ripped up hydraulic tubes as the trooper slowly collapsed. It was, to use an organic term, bleeding out.
With the two destroyers taken out, it didn't take much else to take out the remaining troopers. The last one was knocked down by a biotic push from Kaidan. Chief casually walked over to the Geth and stomped on its head before it could get back up. He pumped a few shotgun rounds into the Geth's torso to finish it off.
"Negative contacts." Cortana reported.
"Clear." Chief re-iterated. "Let's go find Fai Dan again. I need a proper sitrep."
...
Master Chief and his team arrived back in the heart of Zhu's Hope. The Spartan split the team up. Kaidan, Wrex and N'tho were watching the tower entrance. Ashley, Tali and Garrus were watching the dock entrance. Liara was going around tending to any colonists that might have been injured in that last Geth attack.
"The tower's secure. Thanks to you, Master Chief." Dan gratefully said.
Arcelia snorted. "They may have been slowed down, but they'll be back. They always come back."
"The Geth are here because they want something from you. Any ideas what they might want?" the Spartan asked, cutting right to the chase.
"We don't know what they're after." Dan answered with a shrug. "They came, they attacked us. That's all we know. Their main base is at the Exogeni Headquarters. A good place to start looking if you want answers."
"Where is it?" Chief asked.
Fai Dan pointed to the tower. "There's an elevator in the tower that'll take you to the skyway. Should take you directly to the ExoGeni building. Big. Tall. 'EXG' on the side. Can't miss it."
"Of course, there's an army of Geth between here and there." Arcelia darkly added.
"How many?" Chief asked.
"According to the last reports from the Yanme'e scouts I sent, hundreds. Maybe even thousands." Arcelia replied.
"There's a garage up the elevator, at our end of the skyway." Fai Dan pointed out. "We have a couple of warthogs available, but they were damaged by the Geth. Our Yanme'e workers are trying to fix them. You can use the hogs to get to ExoGeni HQ, but not until they're fixed, which won't be for a while."
Warthogs? Those were still in use? Good. No doubt they've been given a host of new bells and whistles for the 27th century, but if they were still as hardy and reliable as Chief remembered, he might stand a chance.
Arcelia did not seem to share the Spartan's sentiments, though. "Even if they were operational, you wouldn't last thirty seconds out there. Skyway's crawling with Geth infantry and those walking tanks they've got. Plus you'd be very exposed to their air-power there. To put it lightly, you're in for a hard fight."
The Spartan thought as much. He took a look around the colony. The colonists were beat up, sick, hungry, and just plain tired. They needed evac. Chief turned back to Dan. "Normandy's no dreadnaught, but we might have enough room to airlift you all out of here."
The colonial leader shook his head. "I don't want to risk it. The Geth have total air supremacy here. They're going to be watching the docking bay now that you're here. Those Geth fighters could shoots us down in pretty short order." He paused, and looked around the colony. "Besides, I won't be driven off this world. It's...our home. There is a chance for growth here that is simply not available on other worlds."
"But before any of that growth can take place, we need these Geth destroyed." Arcelia added.
"Agreed." Fai Dan said with a nod. He turned back to the Spartan. "Master Chief. Since the warthogs aren't going to be available any time soon anyway, I was hoping you could help secure the colony in the meantime."
"What can I do?" Chief asked.
"There are still Geth down in the tunnels. Maybe you can clear them out. We also have more mundane problems like food, water and power. Those can all be found in the tunnels too." Dan explained.
"They can?" Chief asked.
Fai Dan explained. "The tunnels are where the water mains are. Geth switched them off, you can switch them back on. Our generator needs power cells, and our mechanic seems to think there might be some vehicles down there with power cells that could be salvaged. As for food, there's plenty of varren down there. Shoot a few and bring them back up here. Their meat should keep us going for a few more days."
"And the Geth?" Chief asked.
"We think they might have a transmitter down there to help coordinate strikes." Fai Dan answered. "Taking it out would make it harder for them to organize attacks, which would make it easier for us to defend against further attacks. We suspect it's fairly-well guarded though, so be careful down there."
Eliminate another Geth threat to the colony while gathering supplies to increase the colony's survivability. Two birds, one stone. With the warthogs temporarily out of commission, Chief might as well.
"I'll do what I can." Chief said.
"Thank you." Fai Dan replied. "Do you have any other questions?"
The Spartan looked over to a crate where a drone was sitting. "Now that you mention it, yeah." Chief replied. He nodded to the insectoid. "What's with all the drones?"
"The Yanme'e?" Fai Dan asked. "They were sent here by the company. The Mu'ashi hive has some kind of employment contract with ExoGeni. I don't know the details, but basically the hive gets money and the company gets cheap labor."
"Why weren't they fighting?" Chief asked. He remembered how ferocious drones were in the Human-Covenant War. He wouldn't mind having that kind of ferocity on his side.
"Yanme'e are like ants and bees." Dan explained. "They have two main castes; workers and soldiers. All the Yanme'e you fought in the Human-Covenant War? They were soldiers. Those drones were born to fight. Literally." the leader turned to the drone. "These poor buggers though?"
The drone held a stinger mk. III in its claws. It pulled the hammer back, and then released it. The clicking sound it made startled the drone, making it jump. It chittered to itself as it examined the pistol more closely.
"They're workers." Dan went on. "All they know how to do is build and fix things."
"When we issued them weapons, it took them an hour just to figure out which end of the gun was the shooty end." Arcelia added.
"We taught them how to defend themselves against Geth, but they're simply not trained for this kind of warfare." Dan said. He sighed. "Though to be fair, the same can easily be said of most of the Humans here."
"Are there any Yanme'e soldiers here at all?" Chief asked.
"There used to be. They worked security at the ExoGeni building." Dan answered. "But they didn't last long when the Geth hit that building. Doubt they saw an invasion like this coming."
"Nobody did." Arcelia grimly added. "Human, Yanme'e or otherwise, anyone at the ExoGeni building who isn't a Geth is probably dead by now."
Chief nodded. He keyed the rest of the squad. "New orders. Gather at my position." Chief said.
After the squad gathered around him, the Chief gave them all the lowdown of the situation. How the Geth had seized control of the ExoGeni building across the skyway, and it could be a source of valuable intelligence. However, their best chance of getting across the skyway, the warthogs, were currently in a state of disrepair and needed fixing before they could head for the HQ. In the meantime, Fai Dan had asked them to clear out the tunnels beneath Zhu's Hope of any Geth presence as well as secure supplies.
"We split up." Chief announced. "Kaidan. Tali. Liara. Garrus. I want the four of you to head up to the garage. See what you can do to get those warthogs fixed faster."
"Will do, Chief." Kaidan said with a salute.
"Ashley. Wrex. N'tho. You three are with me. We're heading into the tunnels."
"Sir!" Ashley saluted. N'tho gave Chief the Sangheili salute. Wrex? Wrex just smiled, knowing the fun he was in for.
"Let's move out." the Spartan said.
...
Once the elevator doors shut, Garrus kept his eyes on the floor counter. Evidently, there were several levels to this tower that could be accessed via the elevator, which suddenly made the Turian question why the team didn't take the elevator up to clear out the Geth.
Oh. Right. The elevator wasn't available from the bottom level. Only the stairs were.
For all their technological genius, Protheans were evidently not very practical when it came to architectural design.
"So Garrus." Tali said, breaking the silence and snapping Garrus from his thoughts. "Do you ever regret leaving Citadel Security to pursue Saren?"
The Turian chuckled at that. "Fighting a rogue Spectre with countless lives at stake and no regulations to get in the way? I'd say that beats C-Sec." he replied.
"I'm pleased that the imminent destruction of all organic life has improved your career opportunities." Tali sardonically replied. Garrus turned to the Quarian and raised a brow plate.
"Lock it down." Kaidan said to the two aliens. "We've got a job that needs doing."
Right. Fixing vehicles. Just like the Mako back on the Normandy. Not the most glamorous assignment ever given to Garrus, but then again, it was either this or join the other team down in the dark scary tunnels where Geth and even varren were waiting to jump from the shadows and shoot and/or eat your face.
The elevator door opened up to the garage. Two armored colonists with assault rifles saluted the Lieutenant, who saluted back. "Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko." Kaidan said. "What's the status of these two vehicles?"
"Still under repairs, sir." the colonist said as he gestured to the vehicles. About a dozen Yanme'e workers were buzzing around them, replacing parts with other parts, re-wiring this and that, it was hard to tell what they were doing to anyone with insufficient mechanical expertise.
"We're under orders from the Master Chief to speed up the repairs however we can." Kaidan said.
"Sure." the colonist replied. He turned to the Yanme'e. "Hey ladies."
The buggers all turned to the colonist. "These four are here to lend a hand."
"Good." One of the Yanme'e replied. "These workers will take all the help they can get."
"Alright then." Kaidan said. "Garrus, check the suspensions on these things. Liara and I will check the engines. Tali, see what you can do to weld up those holes in the transport hog's chassis there."
Garrus nodded and walked over to the warthog nearest to the elevator and checked the suspension systems. He was intrigued to find them quite loose. These things probably bounce around more than the mako, and that was saying something. He shuddered to think what would happen if the Master Chief got behind the wheel of one of these.
Then again, the Humans did have slightly more primitive versions of these back during the Human-Covenant War. No doubt the Master Chief drove those back in his day. Maybe the reason he drove the mako so erratically was because he wasn't used to it? Maybe he'd drive more smoothly if he got behind the wheel of a vehicle he was somewhat more familiar with? Garrus would have to ask Cortana about that.
Cortana. The AI. The Turian was working with an AI, and one that was seen as a war hero at that. Garrus never thought he'd be working with an AI, but then again, he never thought he'd working with a super-soldier Spectre either. Nor did he think that he'd ever be fighting a rogue Spectre and his army of genocidal Geth.
Garrus's life certainly took an interesting turn when he took the case on Saren about two weeks prior. And to think, he'd still be stuck on the Citadel, hacking his way through red tape if he didn't take that case. It's funny, the places the Spirits can take you to.
He looked off to the others working on the other warthog. A Yanme'e handed a torch to Tali, which she then used to weld closed a hole in the chassis. Meanwhile, Kaidan was poking around in the engine with the hood up while Liara stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. He felt a pang of pity for the Asari, who was the least technologically inclined of this group. She probably felt like a burden.
He wondered how the others would react if Cortana's existence was, hypothetically of course, revealed to them. He figured it would be a toss-up between admiration and revulsion.
Garrus knew that, prior to the Relay 314 Incident, the Humans were very fond of AI's and used them to good effect for centuries. They supervised science projects, warships, even the day-to-day maintenance of entire cities. A lot of Human groups, especially the Pro-Human group 'Terra Firma,' were extremely displeased with the prospect of having to give up AI's as a cost of peace. So, Garrus suspected that most of the Humans back on the Normandy would rejoice at having an AI, a legendary one at that, among them.
And yet...
Upon their creation, the Geth nearly drove the Quarians to extinction. Three hundred years later, they attacked Eden Prime, one of the Alliance's oldest colonies outside the Forerunner Cluster. He found it hard to imagine any Human trusting an AI after that. And then of course there were the few Non-Humans on the ship. Tali in particular would probably throw a fit.
Then again, Cortana was almost nothing like the Geth. Cortana and the Geth were both AI's...and that was about it. Unlike the Geth, Cortana bore no ill will towards organics. In fact, if the documentaries were to be believed, then she was one of the Master Chief's closest companions.
If there's one thing the galaxy learned from the Geth Wars, it's that AI's should not be trusted; they would eventually turn against their organic creators. So why didn't the Humans' AI's?
If the Turian had to guess, he'd probably say it was because of Cortana's origins. She was flash-cloned from a Human brain. So technically, Cortana wasn't a synthetic mind at all. She was a synthetic copy of an organic mind. She can empathize with organics. She can understand them. The Geth can't do any of that, so that was probably the key difference. So, maybe she really can be trusted? If the Master Chief trusts her, then so could the Turian right?
He then remembered something else about the Humans' AI's. He then realized that they eventually did turn on their organic creators. 'Rampancy,' the Humans called it. Garrus was fuzzy on the details, but basically Human AI's would go crazy after an operating cycle of seven years. They become about as dangerous as, well, the Geth. Maybe that's why the Geth turned on the Quarians. The Geth went rampant. Following a rogue Spectre claiming that he can return ancient sentient machines to destroy all organic life certainly sounds like something a crazy AI would do.
Seven years. That's how long it took from the day a Human flips the on switch. How old was Cortana anyway? Chief told the Turian about the 'data storage' thing Cortana did on the Forward Unto Dawn, which basically pressed 'pause' on her rampancy clock. So long did they have until Cortana turned on them? A year? Two years? Three? Maybe more? Maybe less?
Garrus grumbled a bit despite himself. He's starting to see why Chief wanted to keep Cortana a secret from the rest of the crew. If the Turian was having his own internal conflict regarding the AI's trustworthiness, imagine if the whole crew did the same thing.
Still, maybe the Chief should tell the crew about her. He can't keep her a secret from everyone forever. They're going to find out sooner or later, Garrus felt. If there's one thing he learned in C-Sec, it's that the truth always finds a way to rear its ugly head. Another thing is that it was usually better to come clean than get caught.
Garrus wasn't going to tell anyone though. He promised the Master Chief that he wouldn't tell, and it was a promise he'd keep. Besides, it wasn't the Turian's decision to make.
Garrus shook his head. Now was a bad time to think about these sort of things. He really needed to focus on these calibrations.
...
*SNAP!*
The snapping of the alpha varren's neck was a satisfying sound for the Master Chief after spending nearly two whole minutes grappling with the monster from behind, his arm around its neck as he tried to wrench it up. He let go of the fresh corpse, letting it collapse to the ground. He took a look around. The other three varren were also dead, filled with gun shot wounds.
Make that two. One was trying to limp away, even with four different gun shot holes in its torso which were all bleeding profusely. Chief didn't expect simple animals to be this difficult to kill. Then again, considering they came from the same planet as the Krogan, he probably shouldn't be surprised.
Cortana accessed the codex and told the Chief a bit about the varren on his way down to the tunnels. Varren were omnivorous hunter / scavengers hailing from Tuchanka. In the period of Krogan expansion that took place in between the Rachni Wars and Krogan Rebellions, the Krogan would bring the varren with them nearly everywhere they went. As a consequence of this, varren were common pests in many parts of the galaxy thanks to their adaptability and rapid breeding cycle. Varren were the worst kind of pests though. They weren't like rats or cockroaches. Rats and cockroaches weren't five feet long, two hundred pounds, and didn't have sharp teeth, powerful jaws, and a willingness to attack anything that moved.
However, there was a silver lining to this cloud. Varren meat was surprisingly rich in vital nutrients; not just protein and fats, but also carbohydrates as well. So if one could successfully hunt and kill a varren without getting killed themselves, then local varren populations could theoretically be a valid source of food.
Which brings the Chief to why he's down here; getting food for the colonists so they'd be able to last longer in a siege by the Geth. They may need this meat. It's possible that this battle could go on for days.
The group was currently in a small section of what looked like a collapsed subway tunnel attached to the main tunnel. Ashley was watching the entrance, Wrex was busy piling up all the dead varren, and N'tho was busy trying to get a power cell from a wrecked vehicle. However, it seemed as though the young Sangheili was having some trouble.
"Come...on...you...worting...thing..." N'tho growled as he pulled on the power cell. It wouldn't budge. He planted one of his hoofed feet firmly on the side of the vehicle, hoping it would give him better leverage. He tugged on it with all his strength.
Chief walked over to the young elite. "You need help?"
"No...It's okay...I got it..." N'tho strained to say as he continued to tug on it.
"I'm detecting clamps around that power cell Chief." Cortana reported. "The clamps will only let go of it once they're electronically deactivated."
"Can you deactivate them?" Chief asked after turning off his speakers.
"I could..." Cortana trailed off.
N'tho then planted both feet on the side of the vehicle and tried to use his entire body to pull out the power cell, his torso planking outwards as his eyes bugged out of his skull.
"...But I'm having too much fun watching this."
"Cortana..." Chief warned.
"Okay, fine. You win." the AI conceded. Chief's tool activated and flashed a blue pulse, the clamps around the cell deactivating soon after.
However, N'tho was still pulling on it when that happened. When the clamps deactivated, he fell to the ground with a startled yelp.
Cortana laughed at that.
"Booyah!" N'tho shouted as he held up the power cell triumphantly.
"Good for you." Chief deadpanned. "Come on. We still need to turn the water mains back on and find that Geth transmitter."
"And the varren meat?" Wrex asked as he nodded to the pile of corpses.
"We'll come back for that when we're done. Let's move." Chief replied.
The team of four left the room and re-entered the main tunnel, which was strewn with the bodies of several Geth they had killed on the way in here. They eventually came to the second main switch. The Spartan pressed a button. He looked through the pane of glass on the pipe and watched as the newly-released water flowed back the way he came.
"That's two for three." Cortana reported.
Master Chief keyed Kaidan. "Alenko. What's the status on those hogs?"
"They're in bad shape, Chief." Kaidan answered over TEAMCOM. "Geth shot them up pretty bad over the last few strikes, but I think we can fix them."
"How long will it take?"
"Well, we just finished welding the bigger bullet-holes shut. We just need to fix the engines, and we can patch up most of it with omni-gel. I'm thinking ten, fifteen minutes? We should be close to done by the time you wrap things up down there."
"Acknowledged. Keep me posted." Chief replied as he keyed off.
"I'm detecting the transmitter across the bridge, just down that hall." Cortana reported as she highlighted the objective on Chief's HUD. Chief gestured for his team to follow before he crossed the bridge with his weapon drawn. Cautiously, they approached the door. Chief saw a lot of red dots in front of him on his motion tracker. The door opened when he got close enough.
Above was a Geth hopper surveying the long corridor the team emerged in. Below it were a pair of Geth snipers on a balcony overlooking the hall. Four more Geth troopers were at the end of the hall.
As well as three Krogan.
"It's the Master Chief!" one of the Krogan barked. "Get him!"
"Oh look John. More fans." Cortana quipped. The Krogan that shouted the Spartan's name five seconds earlier bounded down the hall at the Chief while the Geth opened fire. "Activating overshield." Cortana reported. With a flash of blue from the Chief's omni-tool, the Spartan's armor was wrapped in swath of bright white. With an overshield on hand, Chief would be able to work. He put away his weapon as the Krogan continued to charge.
Spartan time kicked in.
The Master Chief had learned his lesson well from Therum. Due to redundant nervous systems and high vitality in general, hand-to-hand combat with a Krogan was typically trickier than it was with other species. However, after studying Krogan physiology more closely since then, the Chief was confidant he could take a Krogan one-one-one this time. The trick is to know where to hit them.
First, he'd hit the Krogan right in the nose with a right cross. The nose was a sensitive area for most species, and the Krogan were no exception. Even though the Krogan was wearing a helmet that completely obscured his face, a punch to that area powered by augmented muscles and MJOLNIR armor should still be felt. With any luck, it should stun him for a second.
He'd immediately follow up with a left uppercut to the most obvious weak point on a Krogan, the throat. This blow would knock the wind out of the alien, stunning him further. Again, the area was covered, but the armor around there looked to be of a kevlar-like material. Once again, if Chief could hit it hard enough, the Krogan would feel the blow.
Stunned and out of breath, there will exist a small window of opportunity for the Chief to grapple the Krogan. Grab the alien by the crotch in his right hand, by the collar in his left. The Chief would pick the alien up over his head, and then slam him back down to the floor.
Finally, Chief would plant his boot on the Krogan's throat, putting all his weight on it while he whipped out his shotgun and pump several rounds into the Krogan's head.
The Krogan continued to charge. It was time to execute.
...
As soon as that Krogan yelled 'get him,' Ashley had already whipped out her assault rifle and began pouring on some fire. But when she saw that Krogan charging right at the Chief, she thought to turn her fire on that overgrown bullfrog before he did any serious damage.
Then, the Master Chief punched the Krogan right in the nose, uppercutted his throat, picked him up, threw him back down, stomped his throat and the pumped a few shotgun rounds into his face. All in the span of about three seconds.
"Woah." Ashley said. Shots from the Geth snapped her from her reverie as she took cover behind a pillar-like nook in the walls. Chief did the same after noticing he too was under fire.
...
Master Chief tossed a frag grenade at another Krogan. The Krogan swatted away the grenade, which landed at a Geth trooper's feet. Upon detonation, it killed the trooper and took out the Krogan's shields, the blast making him stagger a bit. Chief popped out of cover to pump some shotgun rounds into the alien, Ashley following the Spartan's lead as she poured the fire on from her rifle.
Meanwhile, Wrex was priming another spike grenade. Those two snipers on the balcony overhead were getting annoying so he decided to deal with them. He threw it underhanded, aiming for it to get high enough so that it landed on the balcony. It wouldn't stick to anything, but the blast radius should do enough damage that it wouldn't need to.
The grenade landed right between the snipers and detonated. Both of the machines were impaled with spikes and collapsed. Wrex smiled. That's two nuisances dealt with.
The Krogan Chief and Ashley were shooting at eventually collapsed. Even a Krogan could only take so much fire. N'tho had been pouring plasma fire from his plasma minigun down the hall since the Chief went into cover. And with a such a narrow field of view, the Sangheili could not hope to miss. After another trooper fell, the remaining two Geth were smart enough to take cover in the nooks in the walls, but the last remaining Krogan tried to charge down the hall. Believing the Krogan would at least shield them, the Geth came out of cover and returned fire.
"Oh no you don't!" Wrex shouted as he thrust out his biotics. He hit the younger Krogan with a biotic push, sending the alien flying down the hall, knocking over his two Geth buddies.
"And take this with ya!" N'tho yelled as he threw a plasma grenade at the Krogan. It stuck to his chest and then detonated.
The blast killed the last two Geth troopers, but miraculously enough, the Krogan survived. Barely though. He struggled to get up to his feet. There was a hole in chest, his ribs visible through his partially-melted flesh. He groaned and coughed as he struggled to rise.
Chief switched out his shotgun for his sniper rifle and finished off the Krogan with a shot to the head. Considering the amount of pain the creature was in, it was probably a mercy kill. The corridor was silent.
"We clear?" Ashley asked.
The Geth hopper from earlier lunged at the Master Chief.
The Spartan swatted the hopper to the ground as it flew towards him, then he stomped on its torso. The hopper's headlight faded as it went limp, dead.
"We're clear." Chief said as he took his boot off the Geth's caved in chest. He wiped the white synthetic fluid off his boot on the floor before casually walking down the corridor to the next chamber.
As Wrex examined the bodies of the other Krogan, for valuables Chief assumed, the others walked into the next chamber and found the Geth transmitter in an alcove at the far end of the room. It looked like any other transmitter tower. A base at the bottom, a shaft in the middle, and a rotating top with a couple of dishes and antennas on it.
Chief whipped out his shotgun and unloaded on the transmitter. First shot damaged it. Second shot started a fire. Third shot made it explode. Chief's visor momentarily polarized from the flash of light of the explosion before going back to normal.
"Guess that just leaves the water." Cortana said. "The third water main is further down the tunnel. I'll mark it on your HUD."
"Chief! Get over here!" Wrex called. "There's something you need to see!"
Chief, accompanied by Ashley and N'tho, walked over to where Wrex was. The merc was standing over one of the dead bodies of the Krogan, the one that eventually succumbed to the combined firepower of Chief and Ash in the last firefight. Wrex had pried the helmet off the alien, revealing his dead face. Orange blood trickled out of his nose and the corner of his mouth while his eyes stared vacantly at the ceiling.
Wrex turned to the Chief. "You notice anything odd about this Krogan?"
Chief looked down at the body. It did look different from any other Krogan Chief had met before. Rather than a hard crest, its forehead was covered in bony ridges. "It's got ridges instead of a crest." Chief observed.
"That's a sign of adolescence in Krogan. The ridges gradually fuse into a crest as they get older." Wrex elaborated, tapping a finger on his own crest for emphasis. "I took the helmets off all three of them. None of them have full crests, just ridges. They're all adolescents."
The Master Chief shrugged. "They were dumb kids who signed up for a bad cause." the Spartan stated. He'd seen this kind of thing happen before. He remembered how, back during the Outer Colony Rebellions, the Insurrectionists would target citizens below the age of thirty for recruitment. You own the youth, and you own a powerful tool. Apparently, Saren knew that as well as the Insurrectionists did.
Wrex shook his head at the Spartan. "You don't get it." the Krogan said. "Thanks to the genophage, the odds of a Krogan pregnancy carrying to term is a thousand to one." he gestured to the dead Krogan. "So what are the odds of encountering three adolescent Krogan in the same place at the same time?"
"...Very low." Chief realized.
"Maybe it's just a coincidence?" Ashley suggested.
"Maybe." Wrex conceded. He looked back down to the dead Krogan and scowled with distaste.
"Come on. We need to turn on the last water main and then we can head back to the surface." Chief said. He walked out of the corridor and back into the main tunnel, his squad following him.
They slowly made their way further down the main tunnel, weapons out and at the ready. They had been fighting a lot of Geth, varren and now Krogan in those tunnels. Another ambush could hit at any given moment.
So it was a great relief to the Spartan when they finally arrived at the third water main without encountering any more hostiles.
However, they did encounter a man. Another colonist by the looks of him. Chief spied him out of the corner of his eye after activating the third water main. He instructed Wrex and N'tho to stay put and guard his rear while Ashley accompanied the Spartan to check on the colonist.
His black hair was of a typical military-style buzzcut and he had a square, solid jaw. He looked over the railings to the tunnel floor below, as if in a trance. "You shouldn't be here." he said without looking at the Chief.
"Neither should you." Chief pointed out. "The rest of the colonists are holing up at Zhu's Hope. What are you doing here?"
The man smirked. "Nothing I should, anything I shouldn't." he cryptically answered. He suddenly collapsed to his knees, his face and body convulsing in pain. Chief held up a fist as Ashley reached for her gun to keep her from doing anything rash. Admittedly though, Chief himself had a hand on his pistol in case things turned ugly.
The colonist steadily rose, panting heavily. Oddly enough, he was smiling. "That was a good one. Very intense." he noted in between breaths.
"What's wrong?" Chief asked.
"Oh, don't mind me." the stranger replied. "Just invoking the master's whip. Helps remind me I'm still alive." He looked the Chief up and down. "The Master Chief. You're probably here for the Geth. You're not the only one interested in those things."
"Who else is interested?" Chief asked.
"They're a thorn in the side of-EEEUUUUURRRGGGGGHHH!...Trying to get to the...GGGGRRRRAAAAARRRGGGHHHH!..."
The Master Chief watched as the man was suddenly racked with pain. "Sounds like somebody isn't in their happy place." Cortana commented.
"...GGgrrrraaahhhhgg...GGGGehehehehehehehhhahahaha hhahahaha..." The man's screams turned into laughs and then he began to clap his hands together in mock applause. "Now THAT was a good one!"
"...Or maybe he is in his happy place and is utterly disinterested in leaving." Cortana amended her last statement.
"Do you need help?" Ashley asked.
"Help? Me? No." the colonist replied. "No one can help me now."
His face scrunched up in pain again as he gripped his skull. "I'd...rather...die...fighting!" he proclaimed through clenched teeth.
"Fighting what?" Chief pressed.
"Not...that kind of fight." he explained. "It's like running through a thorn bush. The more you struggle...the..." He looked further down the tunnel. Chief followed his gaze. Incoming Geth troopers.
"Time's up. Company's coming." He struggled to say as he limped to cover. "Ask Fai Dan...Ask him about the AAAAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
Master Chief had already thrown a grenade and was pouring on the fire by the time the colonist got that last scream out. There were only four troopers, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Wrex and N'tho quickly joined the fight, N'tho's fire joining Ashley and Chief's, while Wrex biotically lifted a Geth into the air and filled it with holes. Its lifeless body fell into the chasm below. Its three compatriots also fell in short order.
Chief glanced at the man, who was now rocking back and forth on the floor, gripping his skull, muttering something or other to himself.
Master Chief sighed. He could already tell this man's problem. He cracked under the pressure, an all-too common occurrence in war. He reminded Chief of this one marine he encountered near the end of the Battle of Voi, around the point the Flood showed up. His name was Jameson and his entire squad was infected by the Flood, and Jameson was forced to put them down. By the time the Chief found him, he was crouched in a corner of the room, sobbing to himself as he held a gun to his head. The Spartan managed to get him to pull himself together and accompany him and the Arbiter to the core of the Flood ship so they could overload it and take out the Flood infection before it spread to the rest of Earth.
Jameson fought as effectively as a marine could, possibly from an intense desire to exact vengeance on the Flood for what they did to his squad. When they finally reached the Flood ship, they had to fight through various forms of Flood to get to the core. During that skirmish, Jameson found himself surrounded by Flood. His pistol had only one shot left. Before the Chief could reach him, Jameson chose an easier death to endure than infection by the Flood.
Jameson couldn't be saved. Doubtful this one could either.
"We're done here." Chief said as he began leading his squad out of the tunnels.
...
"That would be Ian. He's very sick." Fai Dan said in reply to the Master Chief's question.
"I think he might have PTSD." Master Chief said.
"You're probably not wrong." Dan agreed. "He hasn't been the same since the attack. We tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen to us." He shrugged. "I can't help my people if they won't listen."
Master Chief nodded. Ian was probably beyond help anyway and probably wouldn't even be of much help himself. At most, he'd be able to kill a few Geth before finally snapping and turning the gun on himself. Or possibly the other colonists. Giving unstable people like him guns is always a bad idea.
"Anyway, thank you for all you did in the tunnels." Fai Dan said with a nod of gratitude. "We have food, water, power, and our Geth attackers have been weakened. You've taken a great weight off my shoulders. We're in your debt."
"Just doing my job." Chief responded. He keyed Kaidan. "Alenko. Those warthogs fixed yet?"
"Yes sir. Fixed and ready to go." Kaidan replied over TEAMCOM.
Chief nodded and turned back to Fai Dan. "My second in command says the warthogs are ready. I have to go now."
"But of course, Master Chief." Fai Dan said. "Thank you for all you've done, and good luck."
...
The Master Chief remembered the M12 Force Application Vehicle very well and very fondly. The warthog was the UNSC vehicle of choice for ground transportation, scouting, reconnaissance, and even light assault. Chief knew it as intimately as he knew his own gun back in the Human-Covenant War. General Marcus Matthews said it best; 'The Warthog is as much a part of the UNSC as boots, guns, and tasteless coffee.'
So naturally the Chief was glad to see that the vehicle's design had endured well into the 27th century, though not without some alterations.
The first immediate difference between these hogs and those of the past was the color scheme. While UNSC warthogs were a dull shade of green, Alliance hogs preferred the white-grey-blue color scheme that was present in most other Alliance equipment. The second most notable difference was the canopy. A bullet-proof glass canopy completely encased the driver and passenger seats, presumably to offer them better protection, and the hogs were actually slightly bigger than their 26th Century iterations to accommodate the new canopy. And of course, the chain gun was replaced with a mass accelerator chain gun.
There were two hogs in the garage, a light reconnaissance hog and a troop transport hog. The back of the troop transport hog was also wrapped in a glass canopy to protect troops, but the chain gun on the back of the light reconnaissance hog remained exposed.
"Dibs on the gun." Wrex said with a smile.
"Shotgun."
"Shotgun! Wort!" N'tho swore after Ashley beat him to the punch.
"Alright, new objective." Chief turned to his squad. "ExoGeni Headquarters lies at the other end of the skyway, and the Geth are using it as a command post. We still don't know what they're after, but we'll find out once we're inside the CP. Expect heavy Geth resistance once we're on the skyway. Questions?"
"Who's going to drive the other one?" Kaidan asked, nodding his head at the troop transport hog.
"I can drive it." N'tho volunteered.
"You got driving experience?" Chief asked.
"Sure. I used to race ghosts all the time back on Sangheilios." N'tho replied. "I know my way around a vehicle."
"...Alright." Chief said. He turned to Kaidan. "Go with him. Make sure he doesn't crash it."
"Aye aye, Chief." the biotic replied.
"Alright. Everyone mount up." the Spartan ordered.
Chief turned to the light recon hog. Sensing his presence, the glass canopy opened up in a fashion similar to the air cars back on the Citadel. "Stylin'." Cortanna commnted.
Wrex, Ashley and the Master Chief boarded the light recon hog. Chief as driver, Wrex as gunner, and Ashley riding passenger. The others piled into the troop transport hog, with N'tho behind the wheel.
"Onwards to the Geth base." Garrus commented once he was seated in the transport hog. He paused. "Not something an intelligent mind expects to say." he added.
"Come on, man. You know you love it." N'tho wryly quipped.
"Don't get me wrong. I do love shooting bad guys." Garrus admitted. "It's just that I'd like to live afterwards."
"Cut the chatter. We're moving out." Master Chief said over TEAMCOM. He waved at one of the colonist guards. The guard nodded and pressed a button on the far wall. The garage door opened, revealing the skyway ahead.
"Good luck!" the colonist yelled.
With that, the two warthogs sped off down the path.
...
Codex Entry (Aliens - Non-Council Races): YANME'E
The Yanme'e are a truly unique race, as they are something the galaxy hasn't seen since the Rachni Wars; a sapient race of insectoids with a hive-based society. Formerly allied with the Covenant and later the Covenant Loyalists during the Human-Covenant War, the Yanme'e struck out on their own after the end of the war, and much like the Kig-Yar, the Yanme'e have since grown into a galactic power unto themselves.
Yanme'e society works very much like ant or bee colonies. The two principal castes are workers and soldiers, the works being responsible for economic management and structural maintenance, the soldiers responsible for Hive security and military movement. All workers and soldiers are biologically female, but sterile. Running each hive is a queen, with a king serving as her mate and advisor. The king will be the only male Yanme'e in a hive.
Yanme'e are almost completely incapable of grasping the concept of individual identity. Similar to Hanar speech patterns, a Yanme'e will never address herself in the first person, instead referring to herself by her profession, such as 'this worker' or 'this soldier.' Only the queen ever refers to herself in the first person, and will address herself as the name of her hive.
Today, the Yanme'e are known throughout the galaxy as a productive, if somewhat autonomous, race. Many hives make their living by loaning workers and soldiers to corporations for relatively cheap labor and security, respectively. Other hives run businesses of their own, one of the more successful examples of this being the Hu'shu Hive Pizza chain of restaurants.
...
...God, I gotta find a way to pump these out quicker. Suggestions?