On board the Honorata, Tali and Keenah stood at the bridge as the ship entered Attican Beta. When they were within the Hercules system, Keenah had Tali go check the fuel reserves. As soon as she exited, the helm radioed, "We have a message coming in."
"Patch it through."
On the monitor, the image of a raven-haired man appeared. He had hazel eyes, a triangular jaw, and a very well-kept uniform. "This is Captain Burke of the Human Systems Alliance SSV Britannia," he stated.
"Keenah'Breizh vas Honorata," he replied.
"May I ask what a quarian ship is doing out here?"
"My crew was worried about possible geth in this system. We'll leave when we're done investigating."
"Well, your timing is impeccable; we're here because of 'possible geth' as well. Our scouts pointed out something moving on this planet that didn't match any native organisms, so their sending my team to investigate."
"With all due respect, Captain, geth are a quarian problem. So if it happens to be them, we have to be the ones to take care of them."
"We won't step on any toes while we're here. Besides, humans have a colony set up in Theseus. If there is geth this close, it could stir panic. We'd love some assistance if you're offering."
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"…Very well," the quarian said over the com. "If it's geth, we'll work with the Britannia until the matter is resolved."
"Agreed." Burke highlighted a point on Syided's surface map. "My team will regroup with our scouts before touching down here."
"Then we will land three clicks east of you. My team will consist of myself and one other."
"Myself and two. If your vessel is shorthanded, I'd be happy to lend you one of my men."
"No need. A smaller group will attract less attention. With only the two of us, we can watch all sides."
"And what about your flanks?"
Mitra cleared his throat. "Captain, we're here on a mission?"
"Right, sorry." He turned back to the projection. "Once the threat has been identified, we will engage hostiles."
"Meanwhile, we will take them with a surprise assault from behind."
"Be sure to keep in touch with us until we're done. Burke out." The com-link terminated, and Burke turned to Mitra and Shepard. "We will be working with the quarian ship Honorata for this mission. After we rendezvous with the scout team, we will go to the surface and put the geth in a live-fire sandwich. If there are no geth present, then we'll just be on our way. Any questions?"
"Just one," Shepard stated. "If the geth actually are on this planet, wouldn't they be more spread out? It would make no sense for us to leave after one assault."
"Valid question and point, Lieutenant. For some reason," the map flashed red in a point inside Syided's cave system, "they're clustered in this area. Our scouts know more than we do at this point, which is why we need to regroup with them. Once we have that information, we can meet the quarians on the ground to neutralize if necessary. Does that about cover it?"
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Tali returned to the bridge. On her way, she found that Keenah had left the CIC, and had started gearing up in the ship's armory. "There you are, Tali," he said, fumbling with his SMG.
"Did you need me for something?" Tali asked.
"I just need you to get ready. We're going down to the planet soon."
"So there are geth, then?"
"Most likely. What's more, we were hailed by a human ship in the system investigating the same thing we are."
"A human ship?"
"The SSV Britannia. We're working with them when we get there. It will be you, me, a Captain named Burke, and two of his comrades. And I'd love to chat, but we need to prepare. So, again, I need you to get ready."
Tali nodded and left. The Britannia, she thought, a strong realization coming over her. Shepard… Please, let it be him. Please… She rushed to her quarters to grab everything she'd need: shotgun, medi-gel, etcetera, you know.
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The small shuttle containing Burke's squad flew down to the scout station. One soldier was out to greet them; the leader by the looks of her. She stood at attention as the trio stepped off onto the platform. "Captain Burke," she addressed, "Lieutenant Carla Ferris, Romeo Squad. Glad you could make it, sir."
"At ease," Burke answered. "What have you got for us?"
Ferris beckoned them into the station as she spoke. "We've confirmed that the geth are on this planet since we last contacted you. They've holed up in a system of caves in the northern hemisphere, stretching out for ten clicks in all directions. The last detachment we sent was discovered just before the center."
"What kind of opposition are we facing?"
"Mostly infantry. Fido reported a couple of primes starting four kilometers from the center."
"…Fido?" Shepard asked.
A scruffy-looking man looked up from tinkering with a drone. "This little fella is Fido," he explained, switching the robot on. It buzzed to life and gave two short, yipping beeps. "He's meant to rush silently along the surface of planets to scan for subterranean activity."
"That's Chief Engineer Riley," Ferris introduced. "He maintains the equipment and keeps the station running."
"Can you tell us anything else that will help?" Burke continued.
Ferris shook her head. "Just infantry and primes, mostly. Shouldn't be too difficult if you have the right equipment. That's where Riley comes in."
Riley got a mad-scientist smile when he heard that. "Follow me." The team complied, tailing the engineer into the station's garage. He scurried over to a large object hidden under a tarp, grabbing the sheet firmly as he spoke. "Gentlemen, your chariot." He yanked the oilcloth away, revealing a massive, six-wheeled, armor-plated land rover. "The Mako: it's equipped with a forty-four millimeter auto gun for mowing through just about anything in your path; there's more than enough loaded for the mission if I did my math right, but it will overheat if you hold the trigger for too long. Whatever the MG can't handle, the point-eight heavy cannon can. Again, more than enough for the mission, but it takes a while to reload."
"Impressive," Mitra said, "but what about defenses?"
"I was just getting to that," Riley continued. "The entire rover is surrounded by a kinetic barrier specially designed to absorb heavy fire. If anything happens to get through that, the whole thing is plated with one-and-a-half inches of refined steel, ensuring safe passage from Point A to Point B.
"And, finally, I've taken the liberty of installing small, high-power thrusters to the bottoms of the axels that, when activated, will propel you into the air. Alternatively, these thrusters can be used to slow your descent while falling."
"Not bad," Burke commended. "Do you have weapons for us?"
Riley nodded, "Right this way." He proceeded to a table that held slightly more than an artillery silo's worth of weapons and ammo. "All forms of firearms between pistols and sniper rifles, assault rifles and LMGs. Take your pick."
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Keenah waited patiently in the Honorata's CIC for the next transmission from Burke's team. Tali stood behind him, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of the human that made her time on Mindoir so memorable. Unfortunately for her, the transmission received was audio-only. "Honorata," Burke greeted over the microphone, "we've confirmed geth presence in Syided's cave systems. My team and I are preparing to go down as I speak."
"Roger that, Captain," Keenah replied. "We'll meet you down there."
"Just be sure to save some for us. Burke out."
Damn it all, Tali thought. Heaven forbid there be visual while I'm around…
"I assume you're ready to go?" Keenah said.
She nodded, casting her thought aside. "Yes."
He rose from his seat, exiting the command center. "Then let's go."
As they walked, Keenah explained the mission. "Now, this planet we're going to, it's extremely hot on the actual surface; no life exists above ground-level as far as we've been told."
"So then how do we land without baking in our suits?" Tali asked. "Tin foil and foam?"
"I've already got a plan for that. All we have to do is land, such that our shuttle's exit is right on top of one of the many entrances into the caves below. If I'm right, we can be underground before we even break a sweat."
"And if you're wrong?"
"…We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He stepped into the bay, selecting carefully the pod they'd take to the mission, "And if worst comes to worst, the humans will have the same problem we will, and they don't have suits."
"…You're a little mental sometimes, you know that?"
"Only a little, but it's nothing to concern yourself with. It's a byproduct of my accidental overdose of immuno-boosters from a while back."
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Shepard, Mitra, and Burke were currently putting on their new suits. These ensembles, according to Riley, were supposed to be insulated from heat and triple-sealed to lock in an almost cold feeling, even in 200-degree heat. They also had specialized kinetic barriers that apparently blocked the intense solar radiation coming off of Syided's sun. "Before we go down there, I have one question," Burke stated. "Why don't we know what's at the center of their setup? Fido picked up primes four clicks in each direction; couldn't he go farther?"
"He did," Riley answered. "You see, they want to keep whatever their doing a secret, because they have something jamming Fido's radar when he gets to about three kilometers away."
"Could he pick anything up if we destroyed the jammers?" Mitra asked.
"Possibly, yeah, but who knows how many jammers the geth have set up? It could be one, or it could be hundreds. Or it could be the geth themselves are jamming it with their mobile platforms."
"In other words," Burke said, "kill any geth we see?"
"Let's just focus on learning what they're doing for now." He handed them each a belt, each one holding six small blocks.
"What are these?" Shepard asked.
"Electromagnetic pulse grenades. Instead of a fragmented explosion when they go off, they emit a powerful wave of electricity that shuts down electronics in a radius of up to ten feet."
"In English?" Mitra said impatiently.
Riley sighed. "When they explode, they should, theoretically, stun or shutdown geth."
"One last thing, Riley," Burke added. "How are we supposed to get down there? I haven't seen a heat-resistant shuttle since I've been here." Riley simply looked at him, smiled, and gestured to the Mako. Burke gave him an incredulous look. "You're serious?"
"Mind the fall, Captain, it's a bumpy ride on the way down."
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A while later, Shepard and company were loaded into the Mako. "And you're absolutely sure it's safe to do this?" Mitra asked.
"Oh yeah," Riley answered casually. "Romeo Squad's done it loads of times, and we've only had one person get seriously injured. Granted that was a few times…"
"What?"
"Bon voyage!" He pulled the lever, releasing the Mako and letting it fall into Syided's lower atmosphere.
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Mitra took the wheel, pressing all kinds of buttons in a frantic attempt to slow their descent. "We have a problem!" He shouted as they nosedived at the planet.
"What, Mitra?" Burke asked.
"We need to get the wheels pointing down or we'll be crushed against the surface!"
"Shepard!" The Captain grabbed him by the shoulder. "I need you to move all of our equipment to the back of the vehicle! With luck, the new shift in weight will be enough to balance us out; then we can use the thrusters to slow us down!"
"On it, sir!" Shepard worked against the overwhelming force of reverse-gravity as he lifted one of their crates of ammo to the back. Moving to the back of the vehicle was relatively easy. The hard part was actually getting back to the front.
For those who don't quite understand, reverse-gravity is a force that applies itself when certain conditions are met; for example, a container in freefall will experience normal gravity's pull outside while its contents experience the reverse, being pulled to the top of the vessel until it stops falling. This is due to the relative weight and falling speed of the object and the container around it, given that the container is larger and heavier than its contents. But, enough physics lessons now, let us return to the story at hand.
Shepard placed the last crate, finally feeling the vehicle begin to shift. "Mitra," Shepard called, "start the thrusters!"
"We're not level yet!" he replied. "If I fire them now, we'll miss our mark!"
"Just fire the damned thrusters!" Burke shouted. "We'll think of something!"
Mitra hit the switch, firing up the four high-power jets under the Mako's wheels. The pod moved, and their descent slowed. They were now falling significantly slower, but at the wrong angle at the same time. Burke got a look on his face like he just hatched a plan. "Shepard, get on the gun."
"Sir?"
"Trust me on this."
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Tali and Keenah's shuttle flew from the Honorata. On their way to the drop zone, Tali looked out the window, greeted by an unusual sight. There was a pod dropping, most likely carrying Burke's team, that seemed to be firing wildly through the air with a high-power cannon. As it fell, its trajectory continuously changed. "What the hell is that?" she said to herself. "Are they…?"
"I think so…" Keenah answered.
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In a scene straight out of the big screen, Shepard and company began to more or less fly the Mako to the ground. "Left!" Burke ordered, "thirty degrees!" Shepard complied, turning the main gun and firing. This curved their line of motion and turned the rover so that its wheels faced southwest. "Right; forty degrees!" Shepard rotated the cannon the opposite direction, firing so their spiraling slowly halted itself. Mitra occasionally would fire the Mako's thrusters, making their downward curve straighten out. "On three," Burke commanded, "Shepard, shoot straight at the ground; at the same time Mitra, fire the front thrusters only, followed one second later by the rear!"
"One!" Shepard rotated the cannon, pointing it straight down. I hope you know what you're doing, sir, he thought. "Two!" He rested his finger firmly on the trigger.
"Three!"
Lieutenant John Shepard immediately took part in one of the craziest plots that ever was conceived by a naval officer. He shot the point-eight heavy cannon straight at the planet's surface as Mitra simultaneously fired the front thrusters. The Mako proceeded to perform several back flips while the giant commander fired off the rear jets. When they stopped burger-flipping through the air, Burke told Mitra to carefully jet them to the ground using the rockets underneath their proclaimed super-tank.
They landed just slowly enough to not take down the Mako's kinetic barrier, but just fast enough to flatten a poor geth infantry with haste. "There," Burke said, his breathing heavy from the shift back to normal gravity, "that wasn't so hard, was it?"
"You're crazy, Captain," Mitra remarked.
"But it worked. You have to give me that one."
"Burke, Keenah," the quarian leader said over the radio. "I just saw what you did. Not bad for a handful of humans in a skydiving tank. My squad is landing now to the east."
"Roger that," he breathed, "We'll find you later."
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Minutes later, the trio was walking through the first of almost infinitely many tunnels that ran under Syided's crust. The cave was just barely big enough for Shepard and Burke to stand upright; the poor giant Mitra had to squat about two inches to fit. "If this place has primes," he said, "then why aren't the ceilings higher? Geth don't crouch."
"Maybe they rise closer to the center?" Shepard suggested, half joking.
"Cheer up, Mitra," Burke said. "When we're done here, I promise not to send you anywhere with low ceilings in the future."
Mitra frowned. "Very funny, sir."
"You know, something just occurred to me," Shepard said. "This planet is scorching on the surface, right? So how did the geth not fry before they got underground?"
"My guess is they went through the same prep we did; heat-resistant armor, rad-proof shields, that sort of thing."
"That's another thing: why did we need all of this if we went straight underground after leaving the Mako? It's almost unnatural how cold it is."
"Because, if the Mako is gone or destroyed when we get back, we can meet with the quarians and bum a shuttle back to the station without having to maze back through the caves."
"…That makes sense... I guess…"
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Tali crouched behind a crate with Keenah right beside as a geth patrol passed. "How're we supposed to get to the center," she asked, "when there are guards crawling every step of the way?" She bolted to a crevice in the wall, slipping out of sight momentarily.
"Simple," Keenah answered. "We keep going down this corridor, either dodging or destroying any geth present."
"Seems like a pretty blunt-force plan to me."
"It's worked before. Or have I told you that story yet?"
"No, and I'm not really interested."
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"…We've been walking for almost an hour now," Shepard noted. "You'd think we'd see some geth by now. I mean, I don't particularly want to, just…"
"Lieutenant," Mitra interrupted, "I'd really appreciate if you were a little quieter. We are in enemy territory after all."
"Technically, Mitra," Burke retorted, "the geth are."
"But seriously," Shepard reiterated, "where are they all?"
"Good question…" Their path split into three directions ahead of them. On the left, the trail had tons of crates to hide behind, but it seemed to stretch forever; on the right, there was absolutely no cover, and there was a faint light coming from the alluded end; down the middle, it seemed like a straight shot that bent further down after about thirty meters with a sparse cover of stalagmites. "What the hell makes these tunnels?"
"I'll go right," Mitra offered. "A nice, tall ceiling and a short walk."
"I feel sorry for anything that gets in your way. I'll go left; that means Shepard, you take the middle."
"Yessir." Mitra and Burke left him, and Shepard began his oddly long walk down a short corridor. As he walked, he couldn't help but think about what was going on, what they were fighting, who he was fighting with, and so many more questions that flooded his mind. His thoughts about the geth in particular shortly began to make his blood boil. They had caused the quarian race-caused Tali-so much pain over so long a time. He began to stomp through the hall, no longer caring for the far-between cover of rocks. He checked his rifle as he walked, but it did not ease his anger. He actually ran into a geth soldier on his way, and slammed it against the wall, shooting it until it stopped moving.
Lieutenant John Shepard was pissed.
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Tali blasted a geth in the back with her shotgun, finally figuring that the guards were far enough apart to allow her to throw stealth to the wind. Duck, shoot, run, repeat; she did this at least twelve times before arriving in a large antechamber. A large, four-legged machine sat in the middle of the room. It had the same space-black paintjob as the rest of the geth, and was equipped with forward plasma cannons.
As she stared in surprise, Keenah finally managed to catch up to her. "You could have given a little warning, Ta-"
"Shh!" she interrupted, keeping her voice low. "There's an armature here."
Keenah complied, and started to whisper, "Sorry… Why are there armatures here? What's so important it needs these heavy weapons to guard it?"
"I don't know, but we're going to find out. Follow me." She began to crawl along the wall, moving quietly across the room with Keenah behind her.
"I hate caves…" Keenah complained. "So many rocks you can rip your suit on. Not to mention the little organisms that dwell inside…"
That statement made Tali shudder. She never liked anything with more than four legs-though she did watch a video on hanar culture; they're alright. But none of that is important.
When they were almost to the corridor, Tali could faintly hear gunfire coming from another door. She waited, halting Keenah as something began to pound against the other side. The door opened, and a geth infantry, now missing a head, fell in. Behind it, a heavy-armored titan human with light brown, fairly wrinkled skin walked in, cracking his knuckles. "Who's next?" he said in a lightly accented voice. The armature buzzed to life, looking up at the intruder expressionlessly. It rose, standing just short of six meters tall. "Oh damn…" the human said, suddenly realizing the mistake he'd made.
Damn indeed… Tali thought.