Chapter 15: Fallen

Migrant Fleet (The Skaza)

"That's preposterous! What makes you think I would even go with such a plan?" Koris asked outraged. The admirals were in a meeting on the biggest ship in the fleet the Skaza to discuss the future of their people. To make up for his mistakes on the Alarei Rael'Zorah proposed colonizing a new world for the quarian people. Rael's plan though hard was quite popular with the members of the Conclave, however not everyone was happy with the plan.

Gerrel scoffed, his proposal was war with the geth, ever since there was reports about the Geth being in lesser numbers the old admiral he's been even more outspoken on the need to destroy the synthetics which was popular with the Marines and some of the citizens, especially the young. "What would you suggest, keep running? You've read the reports, this is the best chance we've had in three hundred years!" he said. "The geth have weakened, we can take back our homeworld!"

"And doom us all! You would risk the fate of our people because of a temporary advantage?" Koris asked.

"It is better we strike now while we have the advantage! With Xen's new weapons…."

Korris scoffed. "Weapons that haven't even been field tested"

"I have to agree with Korris, what guarantee do we have that her weapons won't cause more harm than good?" Shala asked. "We should continue with Rael's plan of finding a new world to colonize"

"That would take years! You know the council has threatened us for even looking at a planet!"

"Which is why we are going to colonize a planet out in the Terminus System, the Council has no power there" Rael said.

Gerrel snorted. "So if our old ships don't kill us first, the pirates and the slavers will"

"As leader of the Admiralty Board, my decision is final, Gerrel" Rael said.

Gerrel frowned at his old friend, Rael and Gerrel had been through a lot throughout the years. Both were born on the same ship, and served the same captain and crew until they were chosen to be Admirals for the Neema and Rayya respectively. Out of the admirals, they were the ones with the most history and more importantly they were of like mind… "What happened to that fire you had, Rael? You wanted the homeworld back as bad as me in the past"

Months ago (The Alarei)

Tali looked at her father, he was alive, part of her was glad, although she had wish throttle him for everything. However this was not the time. "Tali…" Rael said. Tali took a deep breath trying to keep her emotions together, she had so many questions.

"What is going on here, Ayah?" Tali asked. "Why are the geth here? What have you done?"

Rael turned his back. "Getting our home back" he simply said.

She looked at the dead quarian, not far from them. "How? By killing our people?" Tali asked angrily. Rael shook his head.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this" he said. "The plan was to use the geth consensus as a weapon"

"Wait, how?" Garrus asked.

"Your pilgrimage gift, Tali, was more helpful to our people than you think, with it we had a deeper understanding of how the geth worked" Rael said. "And then we had a thought, what if we could use the geth consensus against them, like scrambling the data they received from each other, thus turning them against each other or collapse it, destroying them for the inside"

"W-what?" Tali asked. "Is that why you wanted me to go the Haestrom?"

"Yes, but, we needed an intact geth" Rael said. "Since you couldn't bring them back whole, I told you to bring back parts so we could rebuild it here"

"No…this can't be…" Tali slid to the floor, reeling from the explanation. She had thought they were going to use the parts to repair the ships, or improve the fleet's defenses, the truth was too hard swallow, her own father used her. All those dead on Haestrom, and the dead on the Alarei was because of her father, and by extension her. It was her fault this all happened, Shepherd came to her side and helped her up, he then glared at Rael.

"Bastard, you almost got your daughter killed!" Shepherd growled. "She going to be exiled for your damned mistakes"

"Why? Why risk the safety of the fleet for this?" Garrus asked angrily.

"Because I promised her mother" Rael said. Tali looked at him. "I promised her that I would build a house for Tali, I did for our family."

"What family?" Tali asked. She glared at her father, and all of a sudden the memories of her childhood came flooding back. "All of sudden, you care about our family? You who couldn't even be bothered see your own wife on her deathbed!"

"Tali…I…"

"How dare you use my mother as way to justify this….this abomination!" She growled. "Because of your actions, I may never see our home again!"

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry" Rael said. Tali felt a pain in her gut when she heard that, he was sorry? It was too little too late, he had years to be a better father and he wasted on his duties. Sorry wasn't going to bring back the dead, sorry wasn't going to stop the other admirals from exiling her, and sorry was definitely not going to stop this feeling of betrayal.

"So am I" she said.

"How do we stop this?" Shepherd asked.

"Their hub will be on the bridge. If you destroy it, their VI processes will stop forming new neural links."

Tali looked to Garrus and Shepherd and walked passed her father. If she was going to be exiled, the least she could do is stop the madness her father released on the fleet. "Let's go"

Rael grabbed her arm. "Wait where are you going?" he asked.

Tali pulled her arm away. "To clean up your mess" she said. They walked away.

Rael sighed remembering how his daughter looked at him, with such contempt, Tali was right…Ziva would be ashamed at what he became. In trying to keep his promise, he had hurt his daughter deeper than any gunshot wound. He looked away. "Some things are just not worth it…"

Gerrel scoffed in disgust. "You've become a spineless coward, just like the rest of these suit wetters" he said walking away.

The Moreh

The Science fleet, they were the fleet responsible for the weapons and devices the rest of the fleet uses, though they are considered they are not really a fleet but a hodge-podge of different ships from the Civilian, Engineering, Heavy, and Patrol fleets. At the helm of the fleet was the Moreh, under the control of Admiral Daro'Xen. Xen was a genius of the fleet, her inventions and designs was what made her Admiral in the first place, however as much of a genius she was, she was also known to be cold and almost sadistic which is why not many were willing to work under her. When the report about the geth was made public, she was one of the first ones that jumped on board with Gerrel's plan to take back Rannoch, creating weapons specially designed to combat the geth. However the Admiral had other plans…she dreamed of the day where the geth returned under the control of the quarian people, a dream that was considered crazy until now.

Her omni-tool rang, Xen scoffed. "What is it Gerrel? I'm busy" She said.

"You might as well stop Xen, we won't be taking back our homeworld" he said. Xen looked at him and frowned.

"What? What the hell happened?" She asked.

"They've all voted to let our people colonize planets in the Terminus"

"The fools, even if we did colonize a new planet, it would take centuries for our immune systems to be strong enough to adapt to a foreign environment!" she said angrily. "Rannoch is only place we can be free from our suits"

"Don't you think I know that? Besides, that is not the only thing that bothers me, it's the fact Rael sided with the suit-wetters" Gerel said. "He's been acting strange since he was rescued from the Alarei, the fact that he proposed colonization still bothers me"

"The Alarei, huh?" Xen said. The Alarei, the ship were an army of rogue geth took over the ship and killed all the crew…well almost all the whole crew, Rael was able to survive against the synthetics until Tali and her allies rescued him. Although it was stated to be a tragic accident, Xen didn't believe the official reports and went back to the ship after it was cleared of the geth…there she found something interesting.

Gerrel frowned. "What's with that look, Xen? What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing you have to worry about, Gerrel? We shall talk soon"

"What are you…?" His com was shut off. Xen then raised her com.

"Yes admiral?"

"I want you to prepare a shuttle for the Rayya; I need to speak with Admiral Zorah"

"Yes ma'am!"

The Rayya

Rael return to his office, exhausted from meeting with the Admiral. As he sat down in his chair, he picked up a picture of his family, Ziva, his wife and a young Quarian girl in a bubble, his daughter, Tali. Things back then was so much simpler for the Admiral, he was with the woman he loved and their daughter was just born, he was a simple soldier, it was happier. Now, his wife was dead, his daughter hated him, and then there was that human.

Shepherd started to glow. "Do whatever you want with your toy ships, but leave my crew out of your political bullshit!" Shepherd said angrily. "And yes I said my crew, because you don't deserve her, you can accept Tali's word or you can exile the woman who saved the galaxy from Sovereign and the geth, who proved how valuable the quarian people are to the galaxy!" The crowd was so moved by this alien, this stranger's passionate support of Tali'Zorah that one by one the crowed stood up roaring in support of Tali, the Admirals looked nervous. Shala desperately banged on the posts trying to get the crowd to settle down.

"Order!" Shala said. "I will have order!" The crowd quieted down. "Are the admirals ready to render judgment?"

Tali looked down expecting the worst. "Tali'Zorah in light of your history of service, we do not find sufficient evidence to convict. You are cleared of all charges" Tali eyes went wide as she heard the verdict, her legs felt weak, Shepherd actually did it. Her father's sin would forever be a secret and she wouldn't be exiled. "Commander Shepherd, please accept our appreciation and our apology"

"I didn't defend one of you, I defended one of mine"

"So you did, Shepherd"

"This hearing is concluded. Go in peace Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Keelah Se'lai" The crowd dispersed.

Tali ran to Shepherd and hugged him. "I can't believe you pulled that off. What you said…"

"I meant every word" Tali hugged him. Kaiden, Garrus, and Lia came to them all happy with the verdict. Lia came hugging Tali as the two women laughed.

"Congrats, Tali" Kaiden said. He smirked. "Nice work Wayne I think they pissed their suits"

Shepherd smirked. "I try" Rael came up to them. "What do you want?"

"Shepherd can I speak to you alone?" he asked. Shepherd looked at the rest of the team and nodded. The team went to the ship.

"We're alone, what do you want?"

"Thank you for what you did for my daughter" he said.

Shepherd frowned. "A little late to be caring about her now, don't you think?"

"I did this for her! I wanted to…"

"Bullshit! All Tali wanted was her father, you! And you twisted her loyalty for your damn tests!" he said angrily. "If it wasn't for Tali, I'd kill you myself!"

He walked away. Rael spoke up. "Wait; tell me, what is my daughter to you?" He asked.

"I love her, with all of my heart" Shepherd said. Rael looked him with wide eyes. "She deserves better" He walked away.

Rael sighed. "I know"

"I have to say, to see the great Admiral Zorah melancholy, is a rare treat"

Rael was snapped out of his thoughts when Xen walked in, he frowned, he didn't like Xen, and he never did there something about her that was off. Like she was poison to the fleet, but to keep the look of a united front he buried those feelings "What do you want, Xen? If it's about…."

"No, it's about you…"

"I have no time for your foolishness, Xen, why are you here?"

"I wanted to speak about the Alarei" Xen said. Rael flinched.

"What there to talk about? The geth infiltrated the ship, nothing more, nothing less"

Xen crossed her arms. "Yes, that old story, you should stop lying, Rael, it does not suit you"

"Are you just here to play games, you tispe?" He asked angrily.

"Playing games, funny you should say that" She activated her omni-tool.

"Do we have enough parts to bring online?" Rael said.

"Yes, the new shipment from your daughter will let us add to more geth to the network"

"We're nearing a breakthrough, Admiral; perhaps we should contact the Admiralty Board, just to be safe"

"No we're too close. I promised my wife and daughter a house on the homeworld. I'm not going to sit and wait while the politicians argue." He said.

"We have an easier time of it if Tali'Zorah could send back more working materials"

"Absolutely not, I don't want Tali exposed from any political blowback" Rael said. "Leave her out of this, assemble the new geth with what we have, bypass security if need be"

Rael looked back with wide eyes. "Where did you get that?!"

"Your daughter and her human toy were sloppy in erasing the data" Xen said with a cruel smirk. "I wonder how our people would react to such a crime, or the fact you lied about it. I wonder how much this would affect your daughter"

"She would be exiled along with you for trying to cover up your crime, add that to her relationship to her human captain, and well…"

"You wouldn't…."

"Don't be so naïve, Rael, of course I would…" She said.

Rael sighed in defeat. "What do you want, Xen?"

The mad admiral smirked.

The Migrant Fleet (The Skaza)

Two days later, he called all the admirals in for a meeting. Xen decided to join the meeting this time to make sure Rael did what she said. When he decided on war, Shala and Koris looked shocked, but Gerrel was absolutely ecstatic to see his old friend had come around. Korris slammed his fist on the table. "War? Just days ago, you were against this!" he said outraged.

"Gerrel is right, it would take years to colonize the planet, we have the best chance to defeat the geth and reclaim our homeworld"

"But, we don't have enough combat ready ships, or people" Koris said.

"Which is why, I'm enacting the emergency powers law"

Koris and Shala eyes widen, the Emergency powers law, it was law that was created when the geth first rebelled. Under this law, all power is given to the Admirals and the Admirals are immune from being removed from power even by other Admirals. After they were exiled the rule became less common as the Quarians stabilized, but evoke the powers meant the person was serious. "Rael, you do realize invoking that power do, right?"

Rael turned away. "I do"

Shala took a deep breath. "Then I will get the patrol fleet, ready then" she said walking away.

"I had thought that you had come to your senses, Rael, but I was wrong, I hope you enjoy your war" Korris said in disgust. He walked out of the room.

Gerrel walked up and patted Rael on the back. "That's the old friend I know, I will get the heavy fleet ready, and we will win this Rael" Rael didn't say anything, just nodded as Gerrel walked away, leaving him with Xen.

Rael glared at Xen. "Happy?"

Xen smirked. "More than you know, dear Rael"

Rael felt sick, but swallowed his anger. "Good, now the recording"

"You know, I think I'll keep it, we wouldn't want you to have any ideas…" Xen said walking away.

Rael lowered his head. "Shepherd, Tali forgive me…."

Tispe: Keelish for bitch

War born of blackmail! With the reapers coming, how will this affect the coming war?

Find out next time! As always Review and Comment.