Chapter 15
Zhu's Hope
I know it's been awhile, but I suffer from bouts of laziness from time to time. There's another chapter of Fighting for a Purpose on the way, so keep an eye out. Rest assured, it will take awhile, but both of these stories will be finished.
"Alright Commander, we're docking with the shipyard of Zhu's Hope," Joker said through the COM lines. Shepard was standing in the airlock of the Normandy along with the rest of the ground team, Taylor, Ashley, Iasa, and Tali. The airlock opened, and the team exited the ship, stepping out into the colony. As they did, a starting colonist that had been standing guard, pointed an assault rifle at them in a panicked manner.
"You...," he said, lowering his rifle, "You're not Geth."
"What happened here?" Shepard asked looking around. The colony was a mess, signs of battle were everywhere, used shell casings covered the ground and spatters of red Human blood and white Geth blood covered the wall.
"The Geth did," the colonist said, looking around "They came out of nowhere and attacked the colony, easily half of the colonists are dead, there weren't that many of us to begin with. They set up some sort of jamming device so we couldn't send out an SOS." The colonist shook his head "It gets worse, you know how after the Shanxi War the Council upgraded their ships?
Shepard nodded. During the Shanxi war, the Council had been completely dominated in space combat, in response to that, the Council had completely refitted their fleet. The newer models of Council ships were much larger, each one only a couple dozen meters shorter than their UNSC counter part. In addition to that, their Mass Effect cores had been upgraded, causing their projectiles to be much more deadly, although they still were only half as powerful as a MAC they had twice the fire rate. Their kinetic barriers had been replaced with regular shields, as they were more effective being able to completely block plasma in addition to projectiles. As a matter of fact, the Normandy was equipped with similar designs, in addition to it's stealth systems.
The RSN didn't go out of their way to tell people about it, but they had given the Council the shielding technology, as they had grown to respect them as much as they did Humans, despite their disagreements about A.I.s and the Quarians. As a matter of fact, many Council politicians were no longer troubled by the Quarians being absorbed by the RSN, some have even grown fond of the concept. Both the UNSC and RSN were impressed by this display in part due to the fact that, apart from the shields, the Council had completely redesigned their entire fleet in a matter of years. As a matter of fact, due to these upgrades, a war between the UNSC RSN and the Council would be long a bloody with no clear cut winner.
"Yeah, well we're in a world of hurt, because it looks like the Geth did the exact same thing," the colonist said as he shook his head. "The frigate that they came in hooked up to main ExoGeni building, and it is fucking massive only a little smaller than one of our frigates. They completely overran the main colony, we had to hole up here at the spaceport, and things aren't looking well. They make a raid every once in awhile, but we've been able to hold them off so far, but I have no idea how much longer we'll be able to. What are you doing here anyway?"
"We came here to look for leads on a rouge Spectre," Shepard said "And it looks like we're here to help you to."
"I...thanks," the colonist said "You'll want to talk with Fai Dan. He's sort of in charge."
"What do you mean sort of in charge?" Ashley asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well no one elected or appointed him," the colonist said "But he calls the shots, and he does a pretty good job. No one has any issues with what he's doing so no one else tried to take his place. Hence forth he's sort of in charge."
"What's your name?" Shepard asked.
"Issac," Issac replied "Issac Morgan."
"You're going to be alright, Issac, we're going to solve this problem," Taylor said comfortingly.
"Um to be perfectly honest," Issac said "I'm more worried about the other colonists, they've been acting...odd."
"Odd in what way?" asked Tali.
"It's hard to describe," Issac said "But among other things, they seem to be completely bent on defending the colony, but they're not doing the way that you would expect. Some people stand completely still for hours pointing their guns at one of the entrances waiting for the Geth. They're acting more like machines then untrained colonists. Not to mention Ian Newstead, went down into the tunnels not too long ago and hasn't come back up. When I ask the others they just tell me that he's sick, but they won't tell me anything else."
Issac rubbed his eyes in a weary manner "Sometimes I think I'm the only sane man left on the colony, but I keep telling myself that they're only acting odd because they're not used to this kind of thing. Anyway, you'll want to head up that way," he said pointing towards a set of stairs behind him. "Please, if you can do anything to help them, do it."
Shepard nodded as he and the rest of the ground team proceeded up the stairs. "Do you think what Issac said about the colonists was anything to worry about?"
"Possibly," Iasa said "Those without proper military training, and some that do have it, suffer severe mental scaring in situations like this."
As they walked through the colony, they saw that things were in a very sad state. Everything around them looked run down and warn, the entire place looked like it was about to fall apart. As they walked past what looked like the remains of a freighter, they saw a man talking to a woman wearing makeshift armor. As he spotted the ground team, the man turned to face Shepard smiling warmly.
"UNSC, finally," he said as he extended his hand to Shepard "I was worried that we wouldn't be able to hold out much longer."
"You're Fai Dan right?" Shepard asked. A confused look spread across Fai Dan's face. "Issac told us about you."
"Ah yes Issac," Fai Dan said "Good kid, but he's not quite ready yet."
"Ready for what?" Ashley asked "He seemed a fairly capable fighter from the way he held himself. From the state of things down there, he's probably had practice fighting Geth."
"Yes," Fai Dan said somberly "But he is not ready to do what must be asked of him, but he will be, very soon."
"When Issac said that the colonists were acting weird he wasn't kidding," Taylor whispered to Tali, who nodded warily.
"I assume that you are here to deal with the Geth," Fai Dan said. Shepard nodded. "You'll have to head up the skyway to the main ExoGeni building, they're the company that funded this colony. The frigate the Geth came in hooked up to it and flooded the building."
"We'll get right on that," Shepard said, raising his hand to his COM unit. "Richard, I need you to drop two Warthogs on the colony's entrance to the skyway, we're heading up to the ExoGeni building."
"Figures," the woman in makeshift armor muttered.
"Pardon me?" Ashley asked coldly, glaring at the woman.
"Oh nothing," the woman said sternly "You head on up to the ExoGeni building, we'll just stay here and fend for ourselves, we don't need help or anything."
"You ungrateful whelp," Iasa snarled "We are launching an assault on the enemy's main headquarters, most of the Geth will be in the frigate there, and will most likely be killed when we destroyed there. We are putting ourselves in harms way to remove the Geth from this planet, and all you do is complain? You are not getting what you want, you are getting what you need, so unless you have something worthwhile to say, stop wasting our time."
The woman was silent as she walked away. "Please forgive her, we've been under an extreme amount of stress."
"I understand," Shepard said "We really need to go, we have to sweep the ExoGeni building for leads about a rouge Spectre named Saren in addition to taking care of the Geth." Fai Dan nodded as they walked away.
"Where did that come from?" Ashley asked Iasa as the walked away, towards the entrance to the skyway, Taylor and Shepard slightly ahead of the others.
"I have a short temper," Iasa replied
"Why? You just don't get angry easily for no reason," Tali asked, entering the conversation.
"Have you ever heard of Asari with two other Asari as parents?" Iasa asked "They are mocked in the Asari community for who their father's are. Let's say I have an idea of how they feel."
"Why?" Ashley asked "Who is your father?"
"You might have heard of him," Iasa "He was an Arbiter."
"You father is Thel 'Vadam?" Ashley asked, clearly shocked.
Iasa gave a bitter laugh "I wish," she said stonily "No, he was the Arbiter before Thel."
"Oh Keelah," Tali said in a shocked voice "Your father is Ripa "Moramee?" Iasa nodded coldly. "But I thought that the dishonor of fathers didn't pass to their children in Sangheili culture."
"They don't," Iasa said "Not officially anyway. But when your father was a raving madman that loves slaughtering his enemy so much that he could be mistaken for a Jiralhanae, people tend to stare and whisper. It happened to me for years while I was a child, as I result I lashed out easily, it was a defense mechanism of sorts."
"Who would marry someone like that?" Ashley in an exasperated voice.
"No one," Iasa replied "No one ever did, and I doubt anyone would if he was still alive."
"But," Tali said, clearly confused "If he ever married, how did you...you know...happen?"
"Sword gene status," Iasa said in a voice dripping with venom. "During the Human-Covenant War only aristocrats were allowed to use energy swords. Due to a misguided belief that the skill required to become an aristocrat could be passed from parent to offspring. As a result, those who wielded energy swords were allowed to mate without whoever they chose, married or not."
Iasa's fists clenched in anger. "That disgrace violated my mother," she said angrily "He thought he would allow himself a treat before leaving on a major campaign early in the war. My mother was living in a town near the shipyard where he was stationed. After he 'satisfied' himself," she said, nearly growling "He left for the campaign." A small smile passed Iasa's face. "He died on that campaign, good riddance."
"Keelah," Tali said "I can only imagine what growing up with someone like that being your father."
"It wasn't easy," Iasa said "But luckily for me my mother helped me through the whole ordeal. While I am reluctant to admit I am even related to my disgrace of a father, I could not be more proud to be my mother's daughter. It's almost humorous when I think about it, she treated more like a son than a daughter. She sparred with me, she taught me how to shoot, she even taught me how to properly use an energy sword." Iasa smiled "I can't help but wonder what she would say if she knew what I'm doing right now. I haven't seen much of her recently, she was promoted to a Shipmistress not too long ago.
"Impressive," Ashley said.
"Indeed," Iasa as the walked through a doorway and onto the skyway, miles above the ground, where Richard had dropped two Warthogs.
Author's Note: I just want to say this, if you have something to say about UNSC and RSN vs Council ships, or how the Council will always hate the Quarians, or how the RSN would never give the Council shields, or something along those lines, then I only have one thing to say. Shut...the...f#$%...up, I really don't care what you have to say about it. I swear some people make a big deal about the most TRIVAL things.
For those of you who don't know, Ripa Moramee is the Arbiter in Halo Wars, you know Ensemble Studios Mr. Darth Vader times ten. I thought that it would be good character development for Iasa. By the way, before anyone complains about this, Bungie never gives us any numbers on how long Sangheili live, so as far as I'm concerned they live a couple of centuries.