Flying from Therum, Engineer Adams requests Shepard's approval in making some repairs and modifications to better improve ability in-atmo, especially in dangerous situations like the one they'd just flown from.
"As you can see Commander, the shear forces on the wings were approaching uncomfortable levels as Joker dodged geth fire and attempted to exfiltrate the away team. The intense updrafts from the heat of the unstable tectonic movements exacerbated a problem that would have otherwise been overlooked."
"How bad is she chief?" Shepard asked. Adams grinned slightly.
"She's hurting Commander, she's just too classy to show it." Shepard put an arm on Adams' shoulder.
"Well, let's not let our lady suffer for too long. You had some ideas for modifications?"
"Actually sir, Tali is spearheading that." Adams led them over to Tali's workstation. Shepard pretended not to notice that she had been glancing their way every 15 seconds for the past few minutes. Her presentation was halting at first, but quickly gained speed and confidence as the details got more technical, and Shepard pretended to keep up. By the end, he had a vague understanding of the modifications, but thoroughly approved of them all.

After he dismissed the crew to begin the proposed modifications, he hung around Tali's station.
"You seem to be integrating well. Adams already relies heavily on you."
Tali seemed surprised. "Oh! Yes, it's been great." She shifted on her feet, wringing her hands. Shepard looked at her expectantly. She glanced down at her console, then back at him.
"I... I guess I still feel out of place. It's not the crew - they've all been great to me, really. Especially Adams. And your ship is amazing. The Normandy runs so smooth, and the engines are so quiet. How do you sleep at night?"
Shepard looked at her for a second. "The silence wakes you up?" He asked?
"Back on the flotilla the last thing you want to hear is silence. It means an engine's died or an air filter has shut down. I guess you don't have to worry about that here. But old habits die hard."
"Habits? You were involved in the engineering? I thought the pilgrimage was a coming-of-age ritual?"
"Well, yes. But my father always had high expectations. He got me an engineering apprenticeship several years before the traditional age - and being an Admiral, he was always up in such occasions as well. 'the fleet needs you, Tali'Zorah.' he would say to me." Tali bent her knees slightly, and folded her arms -a Quarian sign of inhibition, according to Shepard's research. She wasn't saying something. Shepard turned to face the drive core, leaning on the railing. "He sounds like a driven man."
Tali let out a short, homesick laugh. "He is that." A rueful tone entered her voice, nearly hidden by the modulator. She hesitated a second, then asked, "What about your family?"

Adams, who had been working on a pad some distance away, keeping one ear to the conversation, looked up and shook his head in frantic warning - too late. Tali winced, but held to her question. Shepard was silent for a long moment, staring off into the flickering blue of the drive core. He smiled distantly.
"My father was a big man – or maybe that's just how I remember him. But everything he did was big. He was an engineer. The other colonists were happy with a water filtration system for their homes. He didn't rest until he'd set up a system for the entire colony. They wanted a large gathering place for provincial-wide gatherings. He didn't rest until he'd built a massive marble building." Shepard didn't take his eyes off of the drive core. "While he was working on the filtration system. For a while he just didn't rest. He'd wake me up in the middle of the night, typing corrections to some diagram or another, and I'd peek my head around into the corner of our little prefab home that hosted his computer. It didn't matter how late it was, how much sleep I needed to be getting that I wasn't – he'd take me on his knee and let me sit there, and just work on around me, answering whatever silly little questions popped into my tired, 5 year old mind. We'd sit like that until I fell asleep. I'd wake up in my bed in the morning, and find a little note with a little joke on it, or a 'project idea' for me to help with." Shepard laughed a faraway laugh, his green eyes unnaturally bright, even in the reflected light of the Tantalus core. He hadn't noticed, but all the engineers were standing still, trying desperately to look like they weren't listening in.
"Even at 5, he had me practice making biotic fields. He even had me help lift some of the heavier stones for the town hall." Shepard looked down at the Alliance insignia on his shirt, and said, "He never did like the Alliance though. Not sure what he'd have thought of my decision."

Adams walked up beside them, and he put a hand on Shepard's shoulder. "He'd be proud of you, Commander. Whatever his feelings about the Alliance might have been, no one can say that you've been anything but a force of good – for the Alliance and the galaxy."
There was a slight pause, and Shepard nodded gratefully at his Chief Engineer. "Thank you Adams. Tali." Shepard stared at the drive core for a second more, then said, "I should go," His voice measured and even again.
Tali didn't say anything until she heard the soft whirr of the Normandy's elevator ascending to the command deck. She looked at Adams. "Was that a bad question?" She sighed. "His father was a good man. Is he –"
Adams nodded. He turned to face his console. "I'm not one to tell tales Tali. If you want the general idea search the extranet for 'the attack on Mindoir'. I don't think anyone knows exactly what happened save the Commander, and that was the most open he's ever been about it."
One of the other engineers spoke up. "Anderson even sent us an email asking us not to pester him about it. But really – an entire cruiser at 9?"
"Morris…" Adams said, warning the younger man.
Morris looked chastened. "Sorry Chief."

Bullets and shrapnel exploded across the shipping crate, the geth projectiles chewing into the steel. Shepard panted, the squatting next to Wrex and Garrus as they endured the withering fire. Ashley and Kaidan were some distance to the left of them, and Liara and Tali to their right. The Geth had them in a crossfire, peeking out from outcrops in mountains around them, and on the roof of the colonial structure in front of them.

"The flashlights are sending a squad to flush us out skipper." Ashley said, sounding harried. Shepard peeked around the corner, and swore, seeing a heavily armored Juggernaut and two troopers moving with machined grace over the rough terrain.
"Liara, on my mark, give a massive push on the Yakhari coming at us."
Liara's shaky breath was audible over comms, but she seemed calmed by the Asari invective. "Got it Shepard."
"Tali, disrupt their signal best you can. Ashely, Kaidan, cross us, knock out the ones on the roof. Garrus, drop back, grab the snipers on the hills. Wrex, you're with me." Wrex roared, popped around cover, and drove the juggernaut back four paces with a tight burst from his assault rifle.
"Mark!" Shepard roared. His team kicked into action.

Ashley echoed Wrex, and yelled as she leaped her cover and lit up the geth on the room. The juggernaut and his companions flew in front of them, a blue corona flashing.
"Shepard! it didn't take!" Tali's voice sounded suddenly, real fear coloring it. Half the team shouted, and bullets sprayed. The juggernaut, let out a blast from his gun, still prone. Ashley was blasted off her feet, spinning a meter in the air and coming down on her back, tearing into the red earth of the planet. Kaidan shouted, and dove for her, landing on top, barrier around his body. One of the troopers rolled a flashbang at the feet of Shepard and Wrex, who got a faceful of white noise and flared light. Garrus cracked into place, and got of three shots off. Three Geth snipers shuddered and went still.
"I can't hold commander!" Kaidan voice cracked with desperation. Garrus spun around and leveled his gun at the last sniper. The geth fired first. Garrus jerked, his left shoulder spinning backwards. He grimaced and held his gun straight, and pulled the trigger - one handed. The last geth shuddered and went still. There was a hiss, as the settlement's doors opened, just as Shepard got his sight back.
"Your team is breaking." Wrex said, his voice strangely calm.
"Well stop it from happening!" Shepard yelled. Wrex grinned, and then roared, and charged ahead, straight at the advancing Juggernaut. Shepard joined him, charging his body with a biotic barrier. Time slowed. Wrex, glowing with his own corona, slammed into the team sent to flush them out, taking out all three in one, massive charge. As the Geth went flying off their feet, he blasted on with his shotgun, then executed the others as they hit the ground. Shepard speared forward, becoming a blue blur, aimed a the reinforcements from the structure. He stopped, but kept the mass effect field moving. The doorway crumpled inwards as a massive force hit it, slamming all three reinforcing geth into the crates behind them. One's head was sheared off, spraying coolant on its brethren. The other two sparked and jerked, their bodies dashed to pieces along with the crates they'd hit. Shepard stood for three long seconds, his sense hyper-alert, adrenaline and biotic energy sparking through his system.
"Clear." he finally said, scanning the remains of the cannibalized colonial structure. Geth wiring carpeted the floors and the walls, centering on one main console in the middle of the room.
"Clear" his team echoed, one by one, some stronger than others. Wrex, blood dripping from three places in his armor, grinned a vicious grin at Shepard. Shepard raised a fist in salute to the Krogan, noticing the plates on his gauntlet had cracked in four places.
"Report." Shepard barked, post-battle euphoria suddenly evaporating.

The price was high. Garrus, Ashley, Kaiden, and Liara all had wounds that would take some time to recover. Liara had taken a bit of shrapnel for Tali, as she had been frantically working with her omni-tool. Wrex had been injured as well, but he refused to let Chakwas work on him, grunting that wounds never scarred right after doctors messed with them.

It wasn't entirely unprecedented when Shepard asked to transfer Admiral Hackett to the war room, but Pressly was still surprised. Most of the conversation was obscured, but muffled shouting did manage to make its way through. Pressly had a crewmember alert him when Shepard emerged, metaphorical steam rolling off of him.
"Politics, Commander?" Pressly asked. Shepard wearily rubbed his eyes. He hadn't rested since their assault planet-side.
"Politics." he grumbled.
"Damned good team you're forming, even if half are aliens." Pressly whistled softly. "40 geth and no casualties." Shepard gave him a wary look, his eyes unreadable, then he sighed.
"Brass wanted me to repeat the stunt. On every planet in the system."
"The geth are that entrenched here?" Pressly asked, incredulous. Shepard nodded. Pressly clapped his superior officer on the shoulder, suddenly feeling his pain.
"You talk Hackett down?" Shepard snorted.
"No." Pressly frowned. Hackett was a stubborn old battleship, but he wasn't unreasonable.
"He's sending a single squad of N5 operatives. Fresh out of daycare." Shepard rubbed his eyes again. Pressly winced. Daycare was the term of endearment for the weeks of grueling training that every soldier went through. While the reinforcements could make their bunks in less than 5 seconds flat, they would be green as a batch of ship-grown grass.
"You've done more with less, Commander." Pressly gently reminded him. Shepard sighed, but nodded.
"Thanks Pressly." Pressly slapped him on the shoulder once again, then headed back to his post, noting the Commander's eyes were already thoughtful.

Miraculously, they seized the next four geth stations without incident. The arrived N5 troops were wide eyed, but competent, honored to be working with the Hero of the Skyllian blitz, the first human SpecTRe. They were a little wary of the aliens at first, Wrex's dry sense of humor didn't particularly help things. However, they took a shine to Tali, who, burdened by the guilt of her failed countermeasure, worked ceaselessly to improve her combat performance and general helpfulness. So much so that Adams had to take her aside to tell her not to overstretch herself. The determined quarian nodded seriously to Adams, then proceeded to ignore the advice completely. By the time they had reached the fifth planet in the chain, she knew the most of any on the Normandy about geth, and had developed more sophisticated anti-synthetic weaponry than was available even through Shepard's new SpecTRe channels. Kaidan and Garrus would occasionally help her when she needed extra hands, but by the end of the that long week, her work had gone way past their expertise.

Their assault of the final planet went off without a hitch as a result. Joker took out the dropship in orbit, preventing geth reinforcements. The ground team plus their N5 recruits, moved swiftly through the resistance. The colonists were stacked gruesomely on the dragons teeth, but seemed to lack the sudden, terrifying vitality that had appeared post-mortem on Eden Prime. They shot them all the same. The recruits were used to it by now, but the haunted look reappeared every time the geth spikes did. There were more geth present at this final site - one last push to hold on on to the information collected. Tali's defenses scrambled their sensors, and they all went stiff at once. The N5 recruits threw tech-mines, disrupting the southern flank while Shepard, Liara, Wrex, and Kaiden used their biotics to funnel the frontal assault into a killzone.

The battle was over in minutes. As they ensured they had truly killed the machines, Tali motioned Shepard over. Shepard's boots crunched on the burnt gravel in front of the the nominal center of the annihilated colony town. He opened his helmet visor as Tali shifted back and forth, opening her omni-tool and scanning the downed geth units around her.
"Shepard, none of these units have flashed their memory cores." The commander could hear the frown in her voice. He crouched down, examining the remains.
"We were quick, but not that quick." He said, looking up at the quarian. She nodded.
"I'm downloading the data to a segregated drive. It could be the most internal information on the geth in generations." She said. Shepard tried to recall the body language cues he'd learned from his readings. Tali was bouncing her knees, slightly, and flexing her toes, even as her omni-tool flashed in recognition of her haptic commands. The passage eluded him, but he had gotten better at connecting the dots, and assumed a mixture of excitement and anticipation. Shepard stood.
"Or it could be a trap."
"Could be they're trying to tell us something Commander." Kaidan walked up, his own omni-tool flaring the usual bright orange.
"Perhaps - but what?" Shepard mused, striding towards the village's meeting building. As he and the team approached the command center, Tali, dashed over the central console.
"Commander! The console is still operational!" her omni-tool out, she hardly noticed as the back-up squad made their way, carefully stepping over the wire carpeting.
"Commander, I've got a bead on Saren's warship!" Joker's voice crackled over the comms. Everyone tensed. "Permission to pursue?"
"Can you mark it?"
"Holy... Negative Commander. He's halfway to the relay already." Shepard swore, and turned to his N5 team.
"Check the area for any presents Saren might have left us." Nguyen, the defacto leader, saluted, and began ordering his men to search the room. A low chuckle echoed around the chamber, and three huge krogan came charging from all corners, seemingly from nowhere. Decked out in geth-designed armor, they blended with the hive of wires and mysterious lights that blinked in odd places throughout the commandeered room. One bowled into the marines, sending one flying and blasting away one's shielding with a blow of its shotgun. Another roared and headed for Tali, who was hunched over the console in the middle of the room. She looked up, her silver eyes going wide, and hunched down again. Ashley and Wrex stormed in behind the krogan, and took shots at its knees. Its barrier flickered, but didn't give way.

The krogan after Shepard was the biggest of the lot, a blue corona surrounding and protecting its form. Shepard instinctually drew his pistol, the firearm puny next to the roaring bulk of metal and muscle. He executed a mnemonic and sent a small warp at the battlemaster as he reached to throw Shepard through the wall. The impacting mass effect fields exploded, staggering the krogan, and blasting the hip joint (and shield generator) of the charging alien. Shepard allowed a blue corona to surround his fists, and began his own charge. Tali gave a shout of triumph, and there was a sudden hiss and whine as the servos and joints of the krogan warriors sealed. Shepard's fell chin-first onto his coming biotic uppercut, shattering the jaw and sending two tons falling flat backwards. Shepard put 10 rounds into the krogan's eyes, not taking chances. The N5 team had recovered beautifully, and efficiently ventilated the krogan between them, recovering from the shock of the charge. Wrex ended the one charging Tali. No one saw the flicker of remorse in his impenetrable red eyes as he did so.

"Tali, you're amazing." Shepard said. The marines agreed fervently, and went to give the quarian their enthusiastic praise and back-slapping. She began babbling and wringing her hands, giving a thorough explanation of what exactly she'd done. It was completely incomprehensible to the marines, but they whooped encouragingly all the same.

Wrex stomped over to the fallen battlemaster, his scarred face expressionless. True battlemasters were rare. Extremely rare. A corona flickered over his hands briefly, as he closed his eyes and smelled deeply of the fallen krogan. Pale. Sterile. Pain. Wrex opened his eyes, and nudged the body with a foot, a slight frown creasing the corners of his wide mouth. Exactly the same as the other three they'd found in this campaign.

i) "Shepard, I need to talk to you. It's important. You know the data we saved from the geth control nodes?" Tali's visor shifted down, then back up, the bright spots in her face plate widening, and her hands shifting."I want a copy of it."
"You want to bring it back to the Fleet?"
"That information could be vital for allowing us to understand the geth. It could be the key to helping us reclaim the homeworld!" Shepard looked her up and down, seeing the earnest plea in her voice. He connected the dots.
"It would make a fine pilgrimage gift." he said quietly. Tali nodded once, expectant. "Your pilgrimage would be over. Would you got back to the Migrant Fleet?" Shepard shook his head, and help up a hand, forestalling the answer.
"You saved all of us down there - multiple times. Go ahead and make a copy."
"I- And my people- owe you a great debt. One we can never repay." Tali reached out and hesitantly touched Shepards forearm. "The only thing I can offer is what you already have: My solemn promise to stay with you until Saren and his geth army are defeated." Shepard couldn't see her face, but her body language and tone indicated a rare pride, and a drive unmatched. He bowed his head.
"That's all I could ever ask, Tali."