"Shepard… I've heard a lot about you. I never thought a big time Spectre like you would bother to stop at such a small colony such as this."
Before Shepard and his team stood a well-aged, but still relatively young Asari wearing a slim black. Dress assuming her age and status, one could guess that she was likely still in her Maiden stage. She paced back and forth in front of a large window that overlooked the majority of the colony.
"I like to experience new things." Shepard replied sarcastically.
"Sarcasm does you no good Shepard." Garrus remarked.
Shepard stared at Garrus for a second. Garrus shrugged.
"I must ask you though. What exactly brings you to my little slice of paradise?"
"Isala, correct? Our fuel supplies suddenly went to empty, and we had to make an emergency landing. I wouldn't suppose that you have any fuel for sale?"
"We do not. However, a freighter arrives every month to sell fuel and other necessities. You're more than welcome to stay until then. I must ask that you refrain from even moving for your weapons. We have a peaceful colony here, and I prefer keeping it that way." Isala said in a firm tone.
Shepard and his crew were escorted off the building premises, and allowed to roam the colony. Tali went to the laboratory to examine what they did there, Garrus went to the underground tunnels to cool off, and Legion went to the communications building to scan whatever they allowed him to. Shepard hated it when they did that. Whenever they did, "Shit went real bad real fast". It was some kind of Karma, or maybe just pure chance, that every time he let his team scatter, something went terribly wrong. He hoped it wouldn't be one of those times.
Shepard went to warn the rest of the crew that they were going to be stuck for a while. Grunt and Thane accompanied Shepard back to the colony, while the rest of the crew slowly made their way out.
Grunt took one look around the dusty and scorched landscape. He took a deep breath.
"Ah… sand… dust… reminds me of home." Grunt said with a chuckle.
Grunt spent the majority of his time sitting out in the sun, glaring at everyone who passed by him. Even children, who were incredibly curious towards him, weren't safe from his bad attitude.
"You don't look like a normal Krogan…" a young Turian boy said.
"And you don't look like a boy, but you don't see me talking about it." Grunt replied.
The little boy ran off crying. The rest of the children, now terrified by the Krogan, ran off as well.
Thane wandered about the walls of the colony, taking in the harsh desert heat. The sun beating down on his head felt incredibly natural. Shepard, feeling unnaturally secluded from his crew, spent his time sitting in a dark corner of the colony's bar, with his trusty Fornax #265. A lot of human's have said they weren't into Hanar, until they saw Fornax. "Gee, thanks Fornax!" had been a relatively odd campaign for a while.
After three days on the planet, everyone started to get irritable. Tali hated the feel of her own enviro-suit rubbing against her skin in the heat, Grunt despised being pestered by the locals, and Thane started to wonder how his species survived on a desert planet in the first place. Shepard, who had spent all of his time hiding in the dark, was feeling fine. Legion had a fried circuit, and was stuck on a repeating cycle. He unintentionally chanted "ERROR: Over-heat detected!" for hours on end, to the point that Tali had to replace his circuit just to shut him up.
Meanwhile, a Geth drop ship just entered orbit with plenty of troops ready to drop. A few moments later, the boys in the Communication post got their signal, but it was too late. Shepard looked out the window to see multiple Geth units being shot from the ship, and crash into the ground seconds later. He face palmed.
"THIS IS WHY I DON'T LIKE SPLITTING UP DAMNIT!" Shepard screamed as he went to gather his crew.
After ten wasted minutes of searching, Shepard found the majority of his crew. Grunt, Legion, Tali, Mordin, and Garrus. Jacob, Miranda, and Jack were all nowhere to be found.
"Alright. You know the drill, Geth attack… yadda, yadda… Save the day, blah, blah, blah. Go team." Shepard said in a sarcastic tone.
Everyone shook their heads. Even Shepard, the persistent and somewhat suicidal War-Hero was getting sick of the same old song and dance. Meanwhile, a Quarian just about Tali's age, if not slightly younger charged in. He stared at Tali.
"You're an engineer, right?" he asked.
"No… I just look like one. What kind of idiotic question is that?" Tali replied angrily.
"Dumb question, sorry. Follow me, I need your help."
Shepard nodded, and Tali followed the boy with a groan. He led her down multiple winding service halls in a large building, and eventually to a large storage room. He closed the door and locked it.
"What do you want?" Tali asked irritably.
"I just wanted to know if you wanted to make out." He replied with a grin under his helmet.
Tali, not tolerating such sexist BS, drew her Omni-tool and shocked the boy with enough voltage to make him pass out. Tali dug around in his pockets to find the room key, but something caught her eye in the background. Tali took the key, and walked to the back of the room. It was a Geth… but an incredibly old and rare model. One of the first to be designed with an AI mind actually. She dusted it off and stared at it. It had been deactivated for far too long. And it didn't appear to be one of the "infected" models-as some Quarians with superiority complexes called them- it was an old, unconnected model. Basically, it was a Geth unit that wasn't connected to the rest of the Geth "Hive-Mind".
"This thing might be useful…" Tali admitted to herself, though she despised the thought of restoring a Geth. It might've been her only chance though.
"I knew you'd come around…" the boy said as he slowly came to.
Not… YOU!" Tali snapped furiously, dropping her boot on the boy's head.
After half an hour of minor repairs with her Omni-tool, Tali was done. She heard a few gun shots, but not as many as she'd expected. Tali had managed to sync the Geth unit with her Omni-tool, meaning she could control it. Later, she'd just sync it to something else instead. To get the Geth away from her. The unit powered itself up.
"Loading Program: Reboot… adjusting vision levels… monitoring surroundings…" the Geth blurted out in a deep and heavily synthesized voice. The unit stared at Tali.
"Scanning: Quarian, female… possibly in heat…" The Geth said the last part in a somewhat humorous tone.
"Oh great, a smart-ass piece of soft-ware…" Tali groaned to herself.
"Query: What tasks are to be done, Creator?" the Geth asked, drawing its shotgun.
"Don't call me that. There are hostiles to be eliminated. Follow me."
Tali led the Geth outside, where Shepard and Grunt randomly fired down onto the other side of the barrier wall. Tali sighed.
"I brought help."
Shepard and grunt stared in awe as the Geth slowly marched up the ramp, and onto the wall. He saw the other Geth, and put his shotgun away. The unit drew its assault rifle, and stared at its targets.
"Analyzing: Synthetic, armed, moving at medium pace, lightly armored… weak area: stomach and head. Query: Shoot to kill?"
"No. Shoot to annihilate." Tali replied smugly.
"Roger… massacre program initiated."
The Geth began to fire off rounds at its targets. By the time the hostile forces reached the walls, they were too thinned out to be a problem. Multiple Geth bodies sat motionless on the desert plains.
"Massacre program: Complete. Query: what is my next task Creator?" the Geth asked, obviously directed towards Tali.
Tali just stared at the synthetic being in awe of what just happened.
