Tali' Zorah
Well, this is certainly the most interesting mission I've taken for the Fleet. A pilgrim, Veetor, was on pilgrimage to an Alliance Colony, Freedom's progress. Lately it seems Human territory is becoming a bit more popular for our pilgrims. They tend to treat us better than the other species. Relatively, at least. As for Veetor himself, he's mentally challenged, which is why a remote, quiet colony was his choice. Nervous, prone to breakdowns. The mission was to find and retrieve him, as the Colony had gone dark. We landed just minutes ago. No one answered our hails. Not a soul was in sight. We'll need to sweep the colony. At least we should have plenty of-
"Tali, there's a shuttle inbound. No IFF. Lana's trying to get a visual, but we should get ready for a fight," Prazza, the highest ranking of the Marines here, informed. Still, he was outranked by me.
"It may be Alliance, if that's the case, we should hail them. We could help one another," I countered. Prazza wasn't fond of that order. He was a hothead. Didn't trust any non-Quarians, and he clearly didn't like me. It made it difficult to keep control at times.
"Tali, it's a Cerberus shuttle. I see the Bosh 'Tet's symbol," Lana informed through comms. I couldn't help but feel some anger myself.
"Still, I'd rather avoid them if possible. We may be outnumbered for all we know. Don't let them know we're here, get Veetor, and just leave," I ordered.
"You can't possibly think of just letting those bastards be?!" Prazza exclaimed.
"If we find we outnumber them and can surprise them, I'll reconsider. What I don't want is for our small scouting party to get in a fight with Commandos in heavy armor," I retorted. Just let me handle it. Now, get in formation. Begin our sweep."
Commander Shepard
Obviously, I didn't spend the flight chatting either Jacob or Miranda up. I didn't trust either of them. Miranda was all business, cold. And Jacob? Even if he doesn't know all Cerberus has done, he's still with them. There has to be some things he knows and has overlooked. In the shuttle, I got my helmet and my new weapons, he did explain those to me. The helmet matched my armor, another N7, but Jacob showed me a little new feature on it. The helmet, normally, doesn't have a faceplate. It covers the head with a visor over the eyes. Press a button on the side of the helmet however, and a metal plate extends up and seals the helmet. Fully.
The assault rifle I was given was an M-8 Avenger. It opened at the top to reveal the slot for the thermal clip. Slap it in, close it up, fire. I still had the pistol from before, which he said was called the M-3 Predator. The sniper, the M-92 Mantis, is a heavy hitter but can only fire once before needing a new clip. That slot is in the side. Finally, a shotgun. The M-23 Katana. With a slot also in the side.
The facility I had been brought to must not have been that far from Freedom's Progress. So, it's either out in the Terminus systems or the Traverse. Within a few hours, Miranda left the cockpit and entered the crew hold.
"We should be arriving soon, Commander. Do you have any orders?"
"Look for survivors. Number one priority every time."
"That's unlikely, Commander. No one was left at the other colonies. Completely deserted," Miranda reminded.
"I know, and I don't care. It's always a possibility, and I won't just leave any potential survivors behind. Beyond that, try to find some sort of security center. Anywhere that might have captured recordings If it turns out we're not the first ones here, live and let live. Course, they shoot us, shoot back."
"Sounds like a plan, Commander," Jacob nodded. I couldn't help but raise a brow at the fact that Miranda was just wearing the same catsuit as before. It's not the kind of thing one should wear when going into a firefight. But, maybe there won't be one at all. I'll ignore it for now. Besides, I can't claim to care if she gets shot. Jacob though was wearing armor. Looked lighter and not as strong as my own, but it was armor. Still had the damn Cerberus logo, however.
The shuttle touched down and the doors opened. It was night, and it seems the Colony had been built into a kind of quarry. Well, least a quarry they stopped mining in. Large rock walls, obviously carved out, artificially raised up all around, with the wide sections cut out housing prefab buildings. It also seemed to be snowing, just slightly. Flakes gently floating down. I felt some of the cool air against my mouth. I debated just sealing my helmet. We'll see. Seems the colony still had power, external flood lights were all still on, and lights inside of the prefabs as well. Though some were flickering. Just to be ready, I took my rifle out, though I wasn't expecting to use it. We entered the nearest prefab, a dining area. Trays of food, with the food still on them, partially eaten, remained on the tables. No sign of any colonists. We exited, and were overlooking some natural body of water flowing… underneath the quarry? Hard to tell.
"No bodies, no structural damage, no sign of any conflict," Miranda observed. We had just entered a slightly larger courtyard than the one we landed in. There were still mechanical parts sorted in piles. Crates, other supplies.
We passed through a door in one of the rock faces, large enough that a sizeable land vehicle could pass through. It opened and in a prefab just across another gap were two LOKI mechs. They turned, and opened fire. The nearest cover for me was some concrete barriers just ahead, so I kept my head down, ran, and dived into the corner it provided. Protected me from ahead, and the right. Miranda put down one mech as I got to a knee, and a burst from my rifle put down the other.
"I hear FENRIS mechs," Jacob called out.
"FENRIS?" I asked.
"Robot attack dogs. Charge up, taze you. Gets right through the shields and takes their targets down," Jacob answered. Firing as one such mech turned a corner. Hm, named after the Great Wolf in Norse Mythology? Name always seems to change with Fenris or Fenrir. Back to the task at hand, the FENRIS mechs, two of them, were also accompanied by another pair of LOKIs. Which we easily put down. The Fenris mechs had a quadruped body, and their head was large and round with two red eyes vertically aligned, just like the LOKIs.
"Strange, security systems on the other colonies had all been offline," Miranda murmured.
"And why were they hostile? They should have identified us as human," Jacob added.
"Someone must have reprogrammed them to attack on sight. Seems there is a survivor," Miranda mused.
"They're probably scared shitless then. Had no idea what attacked, so told them to attack everything," I suggested. "Move on." Our only route was to go where the mechs came from. Up into another prefab. This one, public living quarters. Again, not a soul in sight. The vidscreen had even been left on. But it only had a loss of signal message to play. "Are the comm buoys in this system still intact?" I asked.
"They are. Must have disabled the colony's own comm relay," Miranda answered. Outside of this prefab was an outdoor dining area, a picnic table essentially. It too, still had food and trays and drinks left unfinished. We had nowhere else to go except the next building. I opened the door and… Quarians?
A group of them, males and females, all with a variety of colors on the cloth wrapped around their suits were hunched over a holo display. Others were standing with weapons ready, talking or just watching. The prefab went around to the side, so there may be more we couldn't see. Hearing the door open, the Quarians shot up and readied their weapons. Jacob and Miranda started to put their own up, but I immediately slapped their weapons down.
"Stop right there!" A male almost growled, rifle aimed right at us. A female Quarian ran up, a purple hood with a swirling pattern.
"Prazza! You said you'd let me handle this!" That voice… holy fucking shit. She lowered Prazza's weapon, her back turned to me for just a moment.
I immediately tore my helmet off, and I just couldn't stop beaming. One of her three fingered hands pointed out to us, signaling to stop. And then, her glowing eyes locked with mine, gazing over my features.
"S… Shepard?"
I wrapped her in a bear hug, laughing, as she cried out in surprise. I couldn't help myself.
"Put her down, Cerberus scum!" That made me return to reality. I let her go, still smiling.
"Put those weapons down! Now!" Tali shouted, ordering them. She slapped Prazza's own rifle down. She turned back to me, and then, well, slapped me too. Stung a little. She's grown up a lot.
"Yeah, I uh, probably should have explained first, sorry," I managed a chuckle.
"Should have? I thought you were dead! Everyone thought that! I listened to you suffocate for Ancestors sake! And Cerberus?! The Shepard I know would have shot any of them on sight!"
"Ok, ok, ok. Hold on. First, I'll prove it's me. Then, I'll explain, that sound alright?" She crossed her arms over her chest. I noticed some of the Quarians were glancing amongst each other. "Alright, first, how about after getting that Geth data from the Armstrong nebula? I called you up to my quarters, so we could shift through it. When you found out it detailed the evolution of the Geth, you freaked out in excitement. Then just like that, you started wringing your hands as you began to ask for a copy. Before of course blurting that request out faster than I could register. I laughed, calmed you down, told you I expected the request, and didn't even hesitate with giving you a copy. You hugged me just as hard as I did just now," I chuckled again. "And if that's not enough, where's that shotgun I gave you? Still has that inscription, right?" Tali was frozen.
"H-how… Just, how?" she breathed quietly.
"Well… the uh… long and short? I did in fact die."
"Preposterous," Prazza sneered.
"Let me finish? Please?" I remarked sarcastically. "Anyways, these bastards for some reason thought it would be a good idea to spend billions of credits and two years rebuilding the man with perhaps the largest bone to pick against their organization. When I found out it was them, I nearly broke this guy's neck and broke his jaw with a punch."
"Still aches" Jacob murmured.
"That was just yesterday. Would have shot them all and gone right back to the Alliance, but, well… it's the damn Reapers, Tali."
"What do you mean?"
"These colonies. According to their leader, hundreds of thousands of colonists have gone missing. Just like here. They wanted me back to fight them. I agreed to at least verify that the Reapers are involved. Regardless, I sure as hell won't ever be taking their orders."
"No organization would waste so much to bring back one soldier," Prazza scoffed.
"You haven't seen the Commander in action. You don't know what kind of man he is," Tali retorted. She sighed. I think she was smiling. "I believe you, Shepard. I…" she just began laughing a bit again, and hugged me, which I gladly returned "I just… I'm happy to see you alive." Miranda cleared her throat. Awkwardly, we parted.
"So, why are you here?" I asked.
"We're looking for a young Quarian, Veetor. He was here on pilgrimage," Tali explained.
"Bet he was the one who reprogrammed the mechs. So, you know where he is?"
"Cameras on our shuttle recently saw him running away from us. He's here."
"So, group together for one big push there? Mechs shouldn't prove a problem like that," I suggested.
"I trust you, Shepard. I don't trust them. And I'm sure you don't trust them either. It's better if we split up," Tali shook her head.
"Now we're working with these Cerberus det'kazuats?!" Prazza exclaimed.
"Better idea. Hold on." I turned back to Jacob and Miranda.
"Both of you, back to the shuttle. Stay there. Don't even begin to argue. Your boss said I'm in charge, didn't he?"
"Shepa-" Miranda began.
"Don't. Fucking. Argue," I put on a fake smile. "If you do, I'm sure the others here would be happy to help me shoot you for disobeying direct orders." Miranda glared daggers at me.
"You know you won't convince him, Miranda. Just go," Jacob turned to the door. Miranda muttered under her breath and turned. Now, it was me and the Quarians.
"So, I gotta know. I know why you'd hate them, Tali. But what happened for Cerberus to piss off the Quarian race?"
"They killed our people, infiltrated our flotilla, and tried to blow up one of our ships," Prazza murmured bitterly.
"The fuck?! Why the fuck would they possibly do that?" I exclaimed.
"Three humans from the Alliance were on the run from them. One of them, a little girl, biotic. Apparently, Cerberus had secretly been experimenting on her. She and two caretakers escaped, stumbled upon our people, and the fleet. Cerberus failed," Tali explained.
"Fucking bastards," I growled. "Alright, why don't we get a move on before I blow a gasket, eh?" Tali giggled, which seemed to take the other Quarians by surprise.
"You haven't changed a bit."
"You on the other hand, damn. A leader now. They grow up so fast," I joked, feigning a tear. She giggled again and punched me lightly in the shoulder. "And I see the new suit. When'd you get that?" A female Quarian with a green cloth and boxed patterns came up behind Tali, lightly placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Tali, we really should find Veetor. You two can catch up later, right?"
"Oh! Er, right. Sorry, Lana," Tali answered awkwardly. I just smiled and gestured for her to go ahead, and put my helmet back on. "We should have an easy route, if we follow the ramp to the ground level and follow along. These are mechs we're dealing with, after all. They won't all begin converging on our position. Those told to guard other locations will continue guarding those locations. We shouldn't have much trouble unless we run into a YMIR, and even then, if we remain careful, we should be able to handle it without much trouble. Understood?" The Quarians gave their confirmations, and we got on the move. I remained by Tali. Once we were back outside and beginning to follow the path down, one which would first lead through another prefab, some drones flew overhead, obviously calculating that they shouldn't yet attack. Problem is, we still got some shots and tech attacks off. One was left sparking, and one went crashing down. The pre-fab we entered was in fact a small kitchen, one filled with plenty of smoke as they had apparently been in the middle of cooking something. I coughed, and sealed my helmet. One of the Quarians opened and passed through the next door first, her shields immediately flaring, and she was pulled back in.
"Took a hit, but I'm alright. Antibiotics and Medi-gel flowing," she grunted.
"Drones set an ambush?" I asked.
"They did, Commander."
"Let me take point then. Think my shields and armor are a bit tougher."
"Nothing for us to lose," Prazza murmured. I notice Tali glare at him. I got against the door and readied myself. I primed an overload charge on my Omni-tool. I took a deep breath. I stepped out, already on a knee. The overload struck a drone, shorting it out entirely as a burst from my rifle cut into the other drone. Multitasking. Unfortunately, it took more shots than I'd have liked to put it down, and my shields were on their last legs when it went down. So, I got down, fully putting myself in cover along the sides of the walkway.
"Two drones left, just behind the building. There, and there," I pointed in their direction against the guard. Tali pushed her way to the front with another marine. A tech attack from her put down one, and fire from the marine put down the other.
"Clear. How's Maela?" Tali spoke.
"I just checked her. A flesh wound, nothing more. Suit's patched and I gave an extra dose of antibiotics to be safe," a male, their medic I would believe, answered. Tali nodded. We moved along to the lower level when more drones arrived. Fortunately, we heard them, and were ready. Tech attacks essentially annihilated them, shorting them out, causing them to collapse, and of course, some gunfire helped as well.
"There, that leads to the loading dock. We saw Veetor run there," Tali pointed to another large set of doors.
"If I was a terrified survivor of whatever the hell happened here, that's where I'd put the most resistance," I mused.
"Agreed. Form up in cover along the doors," Tali ordered.
"I'll take point at the concrete in front of it. Mind giving me a hand there, Prazza?"
"Fine," he grumbled.
"I'll get it open. On my mark," Tali stated. Everyone got into position. The large doors opened. There were some crates and machinery giving cover. Couldn't see any hostiles yet. But that-
Prazza vaulted over the barrier and about half of the Quarians rushed through.
"Stop! I order all of you to stop and fall-"
"We won't let Cerberus get their hands on- Ancestors! Fall-" Prazza shouted back, then cried out as we heard heavy MG fire. I looked up to see a YMIR mech turning a corner, already opening fire. Quarians were dropping. Trying to fall back. With a swing of its arm, it knocked a Quarian to the ground, shattering her mask, likely cracking her helmet. It then stepped on her back and she screamed out as it turned her head and torso to red mist. Only two of the Quarians who charged ahead managed to get back into cover. And they were clutching wounds.
"Damn it all!" Tali exclaimed.
"Take down its shields!" I shouted, having seen its shields already deflect rounds before. It seems the Quarians left were mostly combat techs, and they were lighting it up with tech attacks. Overloads, mostly. Almost instantly, when I fired a burst, I saw it hit armor rather than bounce away. It opened fire again, pinning us all down as it stomped forward. Well, good thing I still had this. "Another overload! Keep those shields down!" I noticed the one Tali call Lana raised her arm to fire off another charge as I requested. While I took the grenade launcher from my back, aimed high, and fired. Two grenades, two thwumps. They detonated on impact. One blew away some of its armor, the other tore through into something vital. The arm stopped firing, and it slowed. We just opened fire, tearing into it to make sure it was down. It detonated, turning to shrapnel and burning scrap.
"Check the wounded! Quickly! If they can still be saved, then Keelah, we will save them. Shepard, you go find and talk to Veetor, see what he knows. I'll be with you shortly," Tali stated.
"You sure? I have plenty of Medi-gel."
"Give it to our medic, Hesin, and go," Tali answered. I nodded, Hesin ran over to accept the Medi-gel canisters I had and I went to go find Veetor in the warehouse in this loading bay. The door was locked, but the encryption simple. There was a Quarian figure sitting in a chair, his back to the door. He was watching several displays, each showing different data.
"Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Save from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no-no-no." he spoke to himself. Not even registering my presence. I took off my helmet, clipped it to my belt. I got a few steps behind him. He was still muttering that to himself.
"Veetor?"
"No Veetor. Not here. Swarms can't find. Monsters coming. Have to hide." he answered without even looking.
"Nobody is going to hurt you any more, Veetor. The monsters are gone," I spoke gently. He didn't respond. He just repeated the same phrase again from earlier again. I activated my Omni-tool, and linked with the system. I turned off the displays. He leaned back, breathing. I put a hand on his shoulder, gently. He turned back to look at me.
"You… You're human. Where did you hide? How come they didn't find you?" he questioned. Standing up.
"How come who didn't find us?"
"The… The monsters. The swarms. They took everyone."
"I'm sorry, Veetor. I only just got here. I don't know what you're talking about."
"You don't know. You didn't see. But I see everything." He faced the console again and typed away, he got the displays back on, but this time, showed security footage. Small bugs flying around, strange, organic looking pods laying out, with one being moved. I then saw what figures were moving it. And… putting a body into another? They looked like giant bugs. The door behind me opened.
"Veetor? Are you-" Tali began. "Keelah, are those Collectors?" Tali murmured.
"You know what those are?" I asked her.
"Did you ever hear about the Omega 4 relay, Shepard?" I nodded. Plenty of ships went through and never returned. "For what seems like ever, the Collectors were just a myth, a legend. Living beyond the relay. No one paid it much mind, but in the last two years, it's gotten more credible. We exiled someone because he sold some of our people to them. They offer advanced tech in exchange for living people. Normally, with some kind of abnormality in their genetics." The footage continued. Strange, one of the Collectors appeared to be on fire. But Veetor spoke before Tali or I could comment.
"The seeker swarms. No one can hide. The seekers find you. Freeze you. Then the monsters take you away."
"So, the little bugs are seekers?" I asked.
"Yes. They find everyone. They bite them. They take them away. Swarms didn't find me. Monsters didn't know I was here."
"Maybe the environment suit hid you from their sensors," Tali mused. "I suppose they weren't expecting any non-humans."
"So, what happened next, Veetor?" I asked.
"The monsters took the people onto the ship, and then they left. The ship flew away, but they'll be back for me. No one escapes," he whimpered.
"Thank you, Veetor. You were very helpful."
"I studied them. The monsters. The swarms. I recorded them with my Omni-tool. Lots of readings. Electromagnetic. Dark energy."
"Can I have a copy? Of your research and the recording?" Veetor nodded, and began the transfer. "How many of your people made it?" I asked Tali.
"The two you saw escape and one other. Always knew Prazza was hot headed, but this? Damnit," she murmured. "But, what's next for you?" I took a deep breath, hands on my hips.
"Believe me, I'd love nothing more than to just catch a ride with you, even if it's just to drop me off at a port, instead of going back with the Cerberus fuckheads. Just… fuck. The damn Reapers. This reeks of them. And Humanity is under attack. Besides, how much of a damn headache is the whole 'I'm alive again,' thing going to cause? I don't know… Part of me thinks I should just suck it up, go back, tell The Illusive- no, fuck calling him that. TIM, I'll go with TIM. Title is a mouthful," I muttered. "Tell him what I saw. See what happens next. I may not be able to stand looking at myself in a mirror, but, this is bigger than all that, I suppose."
"Lana, would you please bring Veetor back to the ship? I need a moment to talk with Shepard," Tali stated through the comms. A moment later, that woman came through the door, and led Veetor away. Closing the door behind them. Tali hugged me. Pressing her head up against my chest. I returned it. "I… I don't know what you should do, Shepard. But, I trust that whatever you chose, it'll be for the right reasons. Part of me even wants to go with you," she managed a chuckle. Though it sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "But I have another mission coming up. One important to my people. We'll have to see afterwards."
"Alright. Well… shit, guess I should go see what happens, then. Just, well, promise to keep in contact, eh? If I'm going to stay sane with those motherfuckers, I think I'll be needing to hear your beautiful voice," I remarked. Realizing too late just what it was I had said. Tali looked up eyes wide. She chuckled nervously, a chuckle I returned. Just as nervously.
"I promise. It… It's already nice hearing your voice again." Unsure of what to do, we just… hugged again.
"Think we're going to have to have a talk when we next see each other."
"I think so," Tali murmured. I cleared my throat, nervous.
"Well… uh… good luck. And… guess I'll be seeing you."
"Yes, yes. Uh… good luck to you too, Shepard." We started going our separate ways. Me to my shuttle, Tali to hers.
I couldn't stop smiling. Unfortunately, my mind decided to remind me about the Collectors, and about what happened here. Not to mention reminding me about the Reapers, and how so little has been done to prepare. But… hey, I may not be a religious or superstitious man, but coming back from the dead two years later, and less than a day afterwards, finding your… shit, crush? That's a goddamn sign.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Few things I need to mention that I think I forgot to mention in the foreword of this story. One of them is a kind of update of sorts. The update is a thanks once again to Way of the Sheikah for adding the second installment of the Normandy Saga into the A Quarian and her Captain Community. First of the things I need to mention, is that you may have noticed the use of "Det'kazuat." I've taken inspiration for Quarian culture and language from Calinstel. Not every aspect, but he made a well developed culture. Second, the Quarian names came to me simply because of the Quarian name generator at the Fantasy name generator website. That's all that's coming to mind for the moment. Anyways, hope you enjoyed!