After the battle against the Thresher Maw on Edolus, Shepard had elected to stay behind on the next mission, and had ordered both Tali and Garrus to take a ship day off. Instead, Lieutenant Alenko took a troop of marines to explore the prothean asteroid, Chief Williams. While she was usually uncomfortable doing nothing, Tali had seen the logic behind the Commander's decisions. Extra rack time in the sleeping pods had been welcome. After the battle she felt exhausted, not only physically, but also mentally. Safe behind the armoured hull of the Mako as she had been, it had not been quite as bad as when facing that one geth patrol, or Fist's agents, but it had been bad enough. A surprise battle with a gargantuan space monster was nothing to just laugh off.
The Migrant Fleet used sleeping pods where it could too – they allowed for marvellous savings in space use, the prime lacking resource in the Flotilla. However, as with most pieces of non-essential technology, sleeping pods were limited, and not every ship had them. Her own birth ship, the Rayya, had a contingent of them, but nowhere near enough for its entire population, which was one of the largest of the Fleet. After leaving the environmental safe bubble of her early childhood Tali had rarely slept in pods, usually only after a heavy shift or outside maintenance to the Rayya.
Such pods were not mere holding containers, but instead involved a lot of technology. They allowed their occupants to sleep optimised and without turning, something entirely impossible within them. Without that technology, the few sleeping pods on the Normandy would never have been enough for the entire crew. However, those pods of course been designed with humans in mind, or at least levo-chiral beings of similar proportions. That Tali could now climb into a pod at all in order to use it was a small miracle itself, and she had to thank her colleagues in Engineering for it.
Apparently, even though nobody had foreseen that a krogan, a turian and a quarian could ever de facto become part of an Alliance ship crew, the pods had proven adaptable enough for at least the latter two – Wrex of course was simply physically too big to fit into a pod. Unsurprisingly, these adaptions were not perfect, though. Neither she nor Garrus could access some of the pods more advanced options, like employing neurodepressants. In other words, they had to fall asleep entirely on their own, and in Tali's case that had proven something of a problem. In her three sleep rotations aboard so far, she had noticed how uncomfortably quiet the ship was. Apparently, for most humans that was an ideal sleeping condition, the pods could even be made sound-proof. But as a quarian she had been culturally conditioned, so to say, to associate quietness on a ship with failing equipment – silent technology was another example of non-essential equipment that was uncommon and in this case even extremely rare on the Flotilla, and so quarian ship equipment was always loud – except when it failed.
So far, her excitement and enthusiasm about being aboard, and her commitment to her new work posting at Engineering had left her sufficiently exhausted at the end of each working period that she had been able to sleep anyway. However, even though she felt exhausted now, too, sleep just would not come. She lay inside the pod, starring outwards onto its opaque glass, not moving, too exhausted and lulled for thought yet too alert to fall asleep. When she finally did drift into a light and shallow slumber, it did not last long. Slowly she came out of it again, realising after a while to her chagrin that she was awake again. According to her suit electronics she had been asleep for only a little more than two standard hours. Grudgingly, she climbed out her pod, acknowledging the fact that she would not be able to get back to sleep. She could try again later, in her regular sleeping period.
There was one thing the Normandy for all its modern flashiness had in common with the Migrant Fleet – the extreme lack of space. There were no private quarters except for the Captain's, only the sleeping pods and the directly adjacent mess. While from a normal human estimation this did not leave much for privacy, for a quarians of this day and age like Tali it was the normal state of affairs. It was one thing at least where her suit provided her with a real advantage; it was an extra mobile layer of privacy, so to say. Not that such extra privacy was as necessary as on the Fleet. Despite the scarcity of sleeping and eating space, hardly anybody was in the area, at least to her sensibilities. That was another thing she only could get used to with difficulty: The Normandy felt empty to her, decisively understaffed. It was another issue she so far had buried under excitement and work, but now she realised just what had felt slightly amiss those last days: she knew the ship was in fact slightly overstaffed, what with Shepard's 'spectre entourage' on board, but she was used to the crammed condition on Flotilla ships, and compared to that the Normandy could almost as well have been a ghost ship.
Tired and annoyed at herself for not having been able to sleep properly, she forewent her usually rather graceful gait to slump towards the mess. Food dispersal was one of those things which were in conception surprisingly similar to their equivalents on the Migrant Fleet: food rations were supervised; yet within that supervision everybody was free to take some of it as they seemed fit. There were no central meals for entire watch crews, the mess was too small for it, and so instead everybody ate when they had time and place for it – or at least eveybdoy but her. There was dextro-chiral food available, brought aboard for Garrus and in theory she could eat the same stuff as the turian, but in practice that would lead to an intolerable contamination with germs. She would have to make do with her nutrition pastes from her pilgrimage reserves again.
On her way to the central mess table, Tali saw Lieutenant Alenko sitting there, surrounded by Chief Williams and a handful of the other marines. The Lieutenant waved her over, and after some short hesitation she made a mental shrug and sat down at the table. Some of the glances the other marines gave her made her doubt that everybody welcomed her presence, but she did not really care. She was quite sufficiently used to that kind of glances that they did not bother her any more. And while she was not as sociable as other quarians she could use distraction now, as she had nothing better to do anyway.
She nodded her head slightly in greeting as she sat down.
"Sleep well?" Alenko asked, after having gulped down a bite from his food, something human that Tali could not identify.
"Well enough," Tali replied, without going into details. While she was not averse to small talk, her lack of sleep was really her problem, not his. He was still mostly a stranger, and hence she did not want to burden him with her problems. "Was there anything unusual on the asteroid?"
"No asari archaeologists with questionable family ties, at least," Chief Williams answered with her voice as sharp as practically always.
"We found some old prothean optical disk, though," Alenko went on, "Fully intact, from what we can tell. Maybe we can bribe her with it. Well, once we find ."
"If she requires bribing, we'll drag her blue ass onto the ship instead," Williams claimed, and some of the marines laughed." Williams claimed, and some of the marines laughed.
"I'm happy I was not recruited that way," Tali joked.
"I'm sure an archaeologist will be a great battle prize" one of the Marines, a person Tali had not seen before on the ship, added, drawing further laughter from one of his companions and a chuckle from Alenko. Williams flinched at both statements, but did not comment. The remaining marine at the table rolled her eyes, and continued to give Tali a look of contempt.
"Anyway," Alenko cut in, voice deliberately loud, "from what I've heard you had a... more interesting ground mission than us."
"Interesting is not quite the word I would've used," Tali answered. "More like an unexpected mess we were lucky to survive."
"I'd call that interesting," Williams commented.
This drew another joke from the same Marine as before: "You hang out with the krogan too often down in the cargo bay, Chief."
"Commander Shepard had some praise for the battle discipline of you and Garrus," Alenko explained, "so seems to me it was more than just luck."
Tali had never taken praise gracefully, and now was no exception. However, the fact that Commander Shepard held a high opinion of her performance pleased her very much. "It was close enough at times that luck must have had something to do with it," she answered, opening her paste tube.
"Luck is part of a soldier's life," Williams spoke up. "Better get used to it. Seems like you've done well enough so far. Well, that is... at least... for a civilian, " she said after some stumbling, and Tali had a pretty good idea what she had meant to say originally, and going by the short, sharp glance Alenko was shooting to Williams, so did he. She decided to ignore it, though.
"I got military training," she explained. "Before I left the Flotilla. I don't think I would've been able to perform any action at all down there otherwise."
"Three hooray for basic," Williams replied, sarcastically unenthusiastic and grinning.
"Hmpf," one marine grunted, the woman who given Tali judgemental looks. She now looked rather disgusted at the quarian using her paste tube "So even our military jobs are now outsourced to quarians?"
"Oh, come on, Ilona!" her companion exclaimed, while Alenko asked sternly: "Is this supportive of crew cooperation, Private Bethlen?"
"Uh... I guess not," Bethlen answered, though it sounded forced. "Sorry then, Lieutenant... Tali'Zorah. I... wasn't thinking. Excuse me ." And with that she stood up and left the table. A flight. To continue what Williams has said, three hooray for military discipline.
The Marine who had so far sat next to her shook his head and commented "The Migrant Fleet hasn't even been through Alliance space so far. It's silly, she's just parroting what the other races say."
"Many people do these days," Williams commented, and her voice made it clear that she was not at all pleased about that.
After that incident, the conversation at the table turned towards mere small talk. Still, Tali thought it good to socialise with people outside Engineering, especially people with whom she most likely would go on ground missions. Of course, she was already more or less acquainted with Lieutenant Alenko, and her image of him was only further strengthened in the conversation – he was a quiet, thoughtful and all around polite person. She had heard people in Engineering talking about how he suffered from periodic heavy headaches due to the poor quality of early human biotic amplifiers. Something Tali knew nothing about as there had been fewer than six quarian biotics in total since the establishment of the Migrant Fleet three hundred years ago, but if that was true, he was incredibly commandably stoic about it. Tali certainly had seen people with chronic pains who were more grumpy or angry with life, which was rather useless, in her opinion – there was no alternative to playing with the cards the universe dealt to one, after all.
In a way, Chief Williams was the exact opposite. It would have been wrong to say she was always angry, from what Tali had seen, but certainly always... spirited, temperamental. Tali did not quite know what else to think of her. It was plain that Williams did not trust her, but she did not seem to be as pettily hostile as Private Bethlen had been. At the moment she was entertaining the table with funny anecdotes from her family life. In general, such sense of family was always very appreciated by quarians, but in Tali's own case, with her own family, that had always been a bit more complicated. It was in a way ironic that apparently the Chief's father had been more or less just as absent as her own.. Well, just as I expected: Getting to know a new crew is always a challenge in itself. I'll just have to wait and see where this goes.
By the time she had finished her nutrient paste tube, the human soldiers had all left the table already, leaving Tali a bit unsure what to do in her remaining free time. as she decided to drop in on Engineering. Even leaving aside the fact that she generally felt more content if she could contribute to something, doing anything at all was in any case always preferable to utter boredom.
On the Fleet only very labour-intensive maintenance kept the centuries old ships flying. However, while there was never a shortage of tasks, there were always too many able hands, due to the ships' overpopulation. That resulted in enough free time for chatting and other social activities, careful arranged to stay out of the way of maintenance crews as they went about their jobs. In Tali's case, additionally there also had been the special demands placed upon her by her father. On the Normandy, however, she now she had no idea how to fill her free time.
On her way to the reactor core, down the elevator, she passed the cargo bay. It was filled with several cargo boxes, the Mako and now also the comm buoy from Edolus and in one corner several coffins stacked above each other. She was surprised to see Garrus standing next to the Mako, focused on a technical console. Apparently, he had not fully followed the rest and recovery order, either. She smirked at the thought of her verbal sparring with him on Edolus before the battle with the Thresher Maw. The turian in the end had to defend himself from both her and the Commander, but the ensuing vindication for her made for a good memory.
Garrus looked up just as she stepped outside the elevator. To her surprise, he spoke up: "Ah, Tali, a moment please?"
She briefly considered refusing him. It was not that she actively disliked him; too many people voiced prejudices and disapprovals of the quarians for her to get angry about it. She was simply wary. As far as she was concerned he could think whatever he wanted, but that did not mean she wanted to hear it or necessarily socialise with him. However, she was not quite sure what she would do in Engineering anyway, and for her part, she put a bit more stock in teamwork than he apparently did. So in the ended she heeded his call and walked towards him.
However, he did not quite seem to know what to say once she got there. So to break the ice Tali said: "Aren't you supposed to be resting?"
"Technically, yes," Garrus answered, "but I couldn't think of anything to occupy my time. And well, Commander Shepard doesn't really rest, either. He's restricted himself to easy work for the duration of this watch. So, I've turned to analysing the Mako. We might need it on our next ground mission. Repair can be done by Engineering, but simply running the checks on it isn't exactly hard work."
"But it could be taken over by Engineering as well," Tali stated.
"True," Garrus admitted. "But it seems somebody screwed up in making the deployment table for this ship. Engineering might become a bit overstretched if it also has to repair all non-ship mechanic on board, or so I heard. So this way I can take up at least some of the work."
Again there was a pause, and Garrus did not tell what it was that he initially wanted, so Tali went on: "What's the next mission, anyway? Have you heard?"
"Yes, Commander Shepard told me," Garrus replied. "Therum, an industrial outpost of the Alliance. We could've gone there first, too. It also has some settlers. If T'Soni is there it'll be tedious, but I guess better than having to continue searching."
"It allowed us to take out the Thresher Maw, and discover that covert attack on the Alliance," Tali pointed out.
"Heh. Same thing I told the Commander, in fact," Garrus answered. "Ah... well, he also said more than just that. It's... ah, thing is, I wanted to apologise to you. I, ah..."
Again he stumbled over his words, and so Tali used the pause to ask: "Did Commander Shepard order you to?"
"Not exactly," Garrus replied. "He talked to me about that... incident. It's strange, really. Many turians do not like the concept of Spectres. The entire point of the Hierarchy is to have a due and proper order, and the entire point of Spectres is to operate outside any due and proper order. But what many turians, including myself, always admired about Spectres is how... focused they do whatever is necessary to reach their aims. Decisively and if, need be, ruthlessly. That's the image I had of Spectres - and Shepard has... upset it." Before Tali could answer the turian spoke up again: "Don't get me wrong, it's a learning experience. Shepard was chosen to be a Spectre by the Council on the nomination of a turian Spectre. So I cannot just dismiss that. It's just... a bit odd."
"He does seem to be somebody special. Well, that is, somebody standing out from the masses, I mean," Tali replied, stumbling a bit over her formulations. But it was true: Shepard did stand quite outside the norm. She was carefully curious where Garrus' explanations would lead to. "But what exactly has this to do with our verbal sparring match?"
"Well..." Garrus answered. "I usually have clearly defined notions about certain groups of people. I don't know if it's because of turian society, my upbringing or just me, but it's an attitude that was very helpful at C-Sec. C-Sec is good, bureaucrats holding us back are bad, and criminals are of course very bad, and so on." "
"And you also used that attitude of categorising people on races," Tali observed, annoyed.
"Well, yes," Garrus admitted. "Batarians and krogan are potentially violent troublemakers, asari potentially manipulative, humans disorderly, salarians obsessed with this or that and elcor stubborn. I know it's not always fair, and I know very well there are peaceful batarians, socially awkward asari and reasonable humans and salarians. But that isn't the point. By categorising people I always have a rough estimation of what to expect, and it rarely fails."
"And what is your usual estimation of quarians?" Tali asked.
"Well, that's just it. I have... well, had access to all the police records and crime statistics. I know quarians are not on average worse criminals than anybody else. All those prejudices are just that, prejudices. I know that. However, I guess, when you start to categorise people, you begin to view them in only black and white. The quarians have to fit somewhere on that scale, so I just dismissed them based on actions three hundred years ago, out of bad habit, so to say."
To Tali, such an attitude sounded simply incredibly stupid, but at least Garrus seemed to recognise some errors with it now, too. She struck a defiant pose, cocking her head back, crossing her arms and straightening her back, as she waited for Garrus to continue.
"I don't think having certain estimations of what to expect from certain groups is bad per se," Garrus went on, "but I took it further than that. I guess, from a turian point of view I could still hold the quarians today responsible for what your ancestors have done three hundred years ago, but the entire point of the Citadel is to have good relationships between the various species without one imposing their concepts on the others. So, I shouldn't just so have dismissed you or your people, and I really should not have brought this up on a ground mission on uncharted terrain. For both I apologise."
"I must admit, this comes as a surprise," Tali answered. "You sound honest enough. And few enough people think their mistakes over.
"As I said, Commander Shepard seems to have that effect," Garrus commented. "I'm not entirely giving up my way of thinking, but in this one case I've been stupid."
"We'll have to work together in any case," Tali continued, "so I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and accept your apology."
"Don't worry, I won't screw this up again," Garrus replied.
Another somewhat awkward pause ensued, in which neither side turned back to what they had done before, until a thought hit Tali. "How long until the repair crews are supposed to start here?" she asked.
"Ah, in a little less than two standard hours," Garrus answered, "Why?"
"Well, if Engineering is so overworked, I might as well give you a hand there," Tali explained. "Do the easier repairs at least. I think I've rested enough, anyway. Just let me catch my tools kit."
"Uh, right," Garrus agreed, apparently surprised by the suggestion. "Well, why not?"
000000
"Does this hellhole of a cluster have any worlds that aren't so damn inhospitable?" Chief Williams asked, from the seat behind Shepard. The Commander had to agree: Therum did not show any landscape variations besides rocks, lava, and dust. As the Mako continued to drive forwards, there were only more rocks, all wrapped up in a barely breathable atmosphere. Even Proteus had been friendlier.
Still, they might have saved a lot of time had they come to here first, which would have been a possibility, too, as the planet served as an industrial and mining outpost for the Alliance. And not only did it contain several newly found prothean ruins, it also was crawling with geth. They definitely had an interest here. It seemed more and more likely they would find T'Soni here, which was fortunate on one hand, but annoying on the other hand, as they could have shortened the mission considerably. But that was spilt milk now.
They had encountered a geth ship in orbit, easily identified from the sensor readings by Tali, and that was what Shepard was worried about most at the moment, more than any environmental conditions on the planet. He had deemed it impossible to operate on the surface with an enemy warship in orbit, as unlike the Normandy the Mako had no stealth, and would hence have been open to everything up to and including orbital bombardment. Thus, the Normandy had started attack runs from safe distances, under the cover of her stealth capabilities. Owing to Newton's First Law of Motion, that objects in a constant velocity remain in that constant velocity unless acted upon by an outside force, there were no maximum firing ranges for the element zero accelerated mass the ship used as ammunition, and hence no need to close in to dangerous proximities
However, the farther the firing distance, the easier it was for the enemy to evade. The first barrage had done hardly any damage to the geth, and after the second barrage they had simply fled, unable to act against the Normandy or even only detect it. However, that meant they were still somewhere out there, and they had definitely left their ground troops behind – and in ground combat there would be no safe attacks from afar under stealth In fact, that was how Navigator Pressley had identified a good spot for the Mako to land on: According to the sensor readings, the geth showed a remarkable interest in some small mining station, and that meant that it was potentially of interest for Shepard as well.
"Fun place to fight," Wrex answered to Williams. He occupied the sole seat in the last row, which was best suited to hold his massive figure. The Mako had a capacity of five, but Shepard had reserved one seat for T'Soni, and then bringing along his two best fighters, and his best tech specialist, Tali.
He did not quite know yet what to make of Wrex, though. He thought he had a good estimation of everybody else's character among his 'entourage' and among the Normandy's ground team, but the krogan was an enigma. Wrex rarely spoke, and when he did usually showed no emotions or attitudes at all. He seemed to be completely unmoved by whatever went on around him, which of course was extremely useful on the battlefield, but made team work with him rather difficult at times, as one could simply not predict what he would do or say in any given situation. Besides, of course, the usual stereotypes about krogan.
Williams apparently either relied on them as well, or the time she was forced to be in the general vicinity of Wrex in the cargo bay had given her a better picture of him. In any case she replied: "Isn't any place with fights a good place to fight for you? Or do you prefer additional enviro-dangers?"
"Yes," Wrex simply replied, and then remained silent causing Williams to exhale an annoyed 'harrumph' sound and Shepard to slightly shake his head.
"Right, everybody ready, we'll be at the mining outpost soon," the Commander announced. The 'road' they had so far travelled was only defined as such by being the only narrow band passable (and even then only by robust vehicles like the Mako) between pits of lava and steep rocks. his path would almost definitely take them straight to the enemy. After all, there was nothing else here that could lead to the outpost. Of course, on the negative side that means...
"We're quite an open target here, aren't we?" Tali commented, sitting in the seat next to Shepard.
"Armoured vehicles are generally not good at hiding," Williams answered, "but we also don't have much manoeuvring space for mobility. I'd call that an open target."
"Okay, keep it down now," Shepard nterjected as the Mako crossed a rock 'bridge' between lava pits, and was now driving uphill, "the geth should be right ahead now, and... ah, goddamn!"
The geth proved indeed to be right ahead. Just as the Mako had taken a steep slope, it came under enemy fire from geth turrets, arrayed in a defence position at the road's entrance to the outpost.
"You two just had to just jinx it." Shepard complained while driving backwards.
"They have height and cover on their side," Williams commented. "And numbers. No way we are going to get past them."
"Yeah, we'll see," the Commander answered after just having brought the Mako was outside the enemy firing arc, and breathed out. "Right," he continued after a while. "They don't seem to have pursued us. They'll probably hole up there, afraid after their ship has left them. Damn, that makes it tempting, but I guess we still don't want orbital support. If the geth are there because they hold Dr T'Soni... yeah, bad idea."
"Yeah, asari are squishy," Wrex commented. "Competent, but squishy. We'll have to fight our way through. More fun that way, at least."
"And it's not exactly news," Williams said. "It's always been us ground pounders who have to do the hard work, so on ships it's always the marines detachment, uh, no offence, sir. It's just that sometimes I do wonder why we have all those nice ships when they never prove to be of any use on ground missions."
"I doubt a freighter would have scared the geth ship away," Tali commented dryly.
"Whatever," Williams replied. "That's not helping us now. We need to find a way into the target area. And best one the geth haven't barricaded."
"Even the Mako can't climb those rocks," Shepard said. "People can though, maybe at some points... Chief Williams, Wrex, dismount and scout the area. Tali will stay here; you never know when her repair talents might come in handy. Don't get engaged in fights, fall back to the Mako if necessary. And stick together"
"Aye-aye, Sir," Williams replied and followed Wrex outside. The krogan had left without giving any reply.
After a while, Tali spoke up: "I just hope they don't kill each other out there. Both of them seem so aggressive."
"I know what you mean," Shepard said, slightly amused, "but Williams is a fine soldier, she knows when and how to keep up discipline. As for Wrex – he's come around; he has enough experience to know the same." After a while of silence, with no report coming in from the scouts, he continued: "So, ready for your, well, second battle with the geth?"
"Absolutely," Tali answered, and Shepard imagined her grinning beneath the mask. The tone of the answer certainly made it sound so. "Having the chance to hit them is something I quite appreciate. I wouldn't have it had I not joined your crew... or had you not let me join, so thanks again."
Shepard laughed, a reaction of sheer surprise. "Come now, Tali, by now you've really earned it. If you keep up like you have so far then in the end I won't be able to thank you enough."
Saying that, the Commander realised he had been very generous in his positive feedback to Tali in general, and not just now. Part of it was certainly that she so often questioned herself in their conversations; apparently she was ironically self-certain whenever she actually did something, bordering at times even on hubris, like her first fight against the geth. However, she could completely lose that as soon as she actually reflected on it. Not always, of course, she had for example quite calmly presented her exploits to Ambassador Udina, Captain Anderson and himself back on the Citadel, after all, but it happened often enough. However, it was more than just that. Her Pilgrimage odyssey so far, the way she could hold herself up against other, and how calmly she carried herself in battle marked her as an outstanding person, and he liked to acknowledge that. He was simply glad to have such talent on the team, and if he could encourage said talent, why not?
"Commander?" Williams' voice came out of the comm unit before Tali could reply.
"I hear you, Chief," Shepard answered.
"I think we have found a fork in the path before us" Williams explained. "Some smaller path cuts through the rocks on the right side, and if our map is accurate it shouldn't be possible for it to go anywhere else but the outpost."
"Glad to hear that," Shepard commented.
"Yeah, it isn't only rosy news, let me finish, sir," Williams said, "That fork is actually in firing range of the enemy. That's why we... well, why I don't advance further. Wrex is another matter, though even doesn't seem inclined to try to take on those turrets head-on without backup . Some comfort in that at least, I guess."
"He isn't doing anything dangerous, is he?" Shepard asked.
"Not at the moment, but he's definitely taking more risks than I would," Williams replied. "And that's saying something, might be for the best, though. He's found quite a nice spot from where he could signal you the fork's location."
"Right," Shepard answered, "sounds like a plan. Tell him so, and then cover him. You two rejoin us afterwards."
"Aye-aye, sir," Williams confirmed.
Shepard started the Mako again, mentally prepared for the worst, but optimistic nonetheless. As Williams had predicted, they came under enemy fire before they could see any signal from Wrex. Several missiles hit and weakened the kinetic shields of the Mako, but the barriers held – and then they saw Wrex signal: In true krogan fashion an explosion, probably from a grenade, pointed out where the smaller path forked away from the larger. The mercenary's timing was perfect: The explosion cleared just in time for Shepard to enter the smaller path, escaping the enemy fire.
"Wrex, Chief Williams, link up to the Mako again," Shepard ordered "Don't remount, though. We gotta be careful, the geth know we're here, so cover our flanks."
"Aye-aye, sir" came Williams' response, while Wrex just grunted through the communication system.
There were a few geth turrets stationed along the path, though they posed no great threat. The Mako continued driving forwards at walking speeds, Williams and Wrex on either side. Shepard constantly expected the geth to come attacking from every direction. Small as the path was, with rocks looming over it on both sides, it would have made a great location for an enemy attack. But apparently the synthetics had all holed up in the small settlement they had occupied – and which after a time became slowly visible.
"Okay, Wrex, Chief Williams," Shepard spoke up. "We're nearly there. Assume enemy numerical superiority. According to the data we have, the outpost's buildings are grouped around a central square; do not let yourself get drawn into it. Let them come, or if they don't, advance carefully. Stay close to the Mako, and if you're hit fall behind it. Apart from that, give them hell."
"Gladly, sir," Williams confirmed. "And hit'em hard with that cannon, will you?"
"Roger that," Shepard laughed.
The battle began as soon as the Mako positioned itself at the entrance to the settlement, , partly covered by some rock. Wrex and Williams advanced along the rock, using it for cover. The geth sniped from behind building corners and rooftops, not daring to enter open terrain. Both sides were properly dug in and bullets raged between the battle lines. Neither side was gaining the advantage; while the geth had superior numbers, their reluctance to enter open terrain didn't give them much of a numerical edge.
"How the hell are those geth so clever?" Shepard asked angrily. "They were nothing like that on Eden Prime!"
"With so many geth crammed into tight quarters the neural network is more compressed," Tali began, "making them..." She stopped when Shepard gave her a short, confused glance. "Ah," she continued, "I maybe should've given you the rundown on the geth. Later. Just assume the geth here are plenty intelligent."
"Great, just great," Shepard muttered.
They were able to whittle away some of the geth over time, but that only made the rest dig in deeper. Inside the Mako was relatively comfortable and secure, but Wrex and Williams had mass accelerated bullets flying around them like an angry swarm of hornets, forcing both to take cover behind a rock providing only fragile security. Every now and then, the Mako's cannon would thunder over their heads, on top of the main gun - that proved to be the most effective at dispatching the geth. Wrex and Williams' fire pinned single units down, and the cannon destroyed them. It was a painfully slow process. Nonetheless, Shepard was determined to not rush into the battle heads first as he had done fighting against the thresher maw. Or at least, that was the plan.
"Commander," Pressley's voice filtered through comm.
"Ah, kinda busy here, what is it?" Shepard answered through gritted teeth, firing the Mako's cannon.
"We know," Pressley said. "However, sensors picked up geth closing in on a mine behind the outpost. According to our records, the mine contains one of the prothean dig sites on the planet."
"So that means..." Shepard began.
"Unless they already hold Dr T'Soni, they might be an attempt to... retrieve her," Pressley stated. "So if ever there was a time for rushing in, this would be it."
"Understood," Shepard answered. "Ground team out." He turned towards Tali, asking: "Do you think you could handle the cannon of this thing?"
The question surprised her, Shepard was sure of it, but as she so often did, she tried to not let others notice it. "I don't know," she answered. "I'm certainly not trained to operate it, but I understand the mechanisms. And the interface is really simple. Point and click. Well, as you know. As long as you don't ask me to also drive this it should be possible."
"Then do so," Shepard answered. "The two out there might need some biotic support. Or well, more than Wrex can provide."
Tali nodded sharply, and Shepard left the Mako, jumping from its door to the ground where he immediately crouched. Bullets sped past him, hitting the Mako's shields. Running in a ducked position, he was nonetheless hit two times, but that was nothing the shields could not take care of.
"Glad to see you join us, sir," Williams said once Shepard ran up to her side. "The quarian's taking care of the cannon?"
"Yeah," Shepard just answered. He risked a short look over the rock and scoped the field, but was immediately forced back into cover by incoming enemy fire. "Too goddamn many," he spat out.
"That's how we know we're at the right place" Williams answered, before leaving her cover to take some shots at the enemy.
Shepard's next attempt against the enemy, using biotics, proved less successful as he had hoped for. Targeting a geth unit behind a building corner, he used a biotic punch to throw it away, intending to keep the geth at a distance to compensate for their numerical superiority. However, the Commander did not manage a very powerful throw.
"Always knew I should've trained that more," he muttered, while employing his pistol now instead. Wrex laughed at that, using an own biotic throw against an enemy – not to a much better effect.
The Mako's cannon thundered behind them as Shepard once again began a barrage of pistol shots and warps, bullets occassionally hitting him in the process.. Wrex and Williams soon did likewise, leaning out of cover to fire at the enemy, while Shepard sat behind the rock, waiting for his pistol to cool down and for his biotic powers to recharge.
"By the rate this is going..." Williams began, but did not get to finish. A bullet pierced her faltering shields and hit her at the shoulder. The Gunnery Chief immediately let herself drop to the ground, holding the wounded body part. "Shit!" she blurted out.
"Fall back behind the Mako," Shepard ordered, "you're no good without shields."
"Aye, sir," Williams answered through gritted teeth, half walking and half crawling away under the cover of further cannon fire.
"This won't help us cut down time," Wrex commented.
"Yeah," Shepard admitted, "but we need to concentrate on actually winning before we can think about speed."
Any hope of a quick battle soon vanished. The geth were slowly killed, one by one, but it was tedious. After a quick application of medigel and a fresh battery pack for her shields, Williams was able to rejoin the battle. Shepard returned to the Mako, allowing the team to advance under the cover of the armoured vehicle. The remaining geth were destroyed soon thereafter, and the crew carefully entered the settlement's square. Williams and Wrex remained outside the Mako, wary of hidden geth troops, covering all directions with their sidearms.
"I think we got them all, sir," Williams said after some time, quite unnecessarily.
The team's search efforts inside the outpost's building proved to be relatively fruitless. Leaving Tali behind to guard the Mako, Shepard took Wrex and Williams through the buildings one at a time, unwilling to further split up the team. However, all they found were a few remaining geth, some work equipment and metal scrap. Certainly no captive asari.
...
What Navigator Pressley had described it as a 'mine' turned out to be more of a natural cavern. Humans had made it accessible, with an entrance, metal stairs, platforms and functional elevators. All the equipment was human in origin, but the cavern was clearly not. It looked like it was already there before those newcomers on the galactic scene had arrived, and indeed it was dotted with millennia old remains of prothean technology.
And geth. The cavern also contained geth. It was abundantly clear the team had lost the race. After the battle at the mining outpost and searching the outpost's buildings, Shepard had tried to gain time by speeding up the Mako – according to the Normandy, the geth had moved at a speed equal to people walking on foot. However, this had not worked out, as the path eventually had gotten so rough that not even the Mako had been able to master it, and the team had been forced to advance on foot. Fortunately, they had arrived at the cavern not long after.
Unfortunately, it now appeared the geth already had arrived before them. At least so far they had not encountered any troop concentrations of them, but then they also had not come down far yet.
Stepping inside an elevator together with the rest of the team, Chief Williams asked: "Well, taking the route down seems like a logical choice, but then what? If that cavern is such a big place what if the way splits or something?"
Shepard thought for a moment and then shrugged. "We go wherever the most geth are. No, seriously," he added upon seeing Williams' face, which expressed great doubts about that plan and maybe even the Commander's intelligence. "We would have all the time in the world to search this place if it were not for the geth, right? So our first priority is preempting the geth. And if there are several of them concentrated in one area, they probably think that particular spot is promising. So we go to wherever there are several of them."
"I've never heard such an eloquent reason for charging into enemy superior numbers," Williams muttered in response "Uh, sir."
"It'd be suicidal to split up the team given their numbers," Tali remarked, "Besides, it gives us the chance to destroy some more geth."
"Good to see someone here with the right attitude," Wrex commented just as the elevator reached its bottom. "Shooting scrap metal is not as satisfying as normal battles, but it'll do"
"If that's our logic, why don't we let the geth do the work for us?" Williams asked. "Just wait at the exit until they arrive with the asari in tow."
"And you know all exits of this complex, of course, Chief?" Shepard replied with a smile.
"Right, right," Williams answered, "I get it, I'm – watch it! Drones!"
The drones were easily dispatched, giving even more credence to the idea that the geth had spread themselves thin. Following Shepard's plan, the team went towards where the drones had come from, which led them even further downwards. No matter how far down they went, though, there always seemed to be a prothean-built 'chamber' in the most distant cavern wall. The chambers that appeared to form a sort of 'tower'. All of them were sealed off by what appeared to be a blue-ish energy field. It contrasted harshly against the rough cavern walls and provisional looking human constructs inside the cavern. Shepard had no idea what they were supposed to be, but as long as they posed no danger, he didn't worry about it.
"The protheans built to last," Williams commented after a while, "looks like a lava flow poured in here."
"The caverns do look like they formed around the ruin," Tali agreed. "After it was built, and yet parts of it still stand."
Shepard's attempt to reply was cut short by the appearance of two more geth troopers. They were easily defeated.
"Makes you wonder," he said afterwards. "whether some distant civilisation will dig up our artefacts some day and study us."
"No, sir," Williams replied decisively "When some distant civilisation finds our artefacts we will be right there to explain them."
"Hah, I hope so, Chief," Shepard answered, "But somehow I think the protheans may have thought the same thing."
"Sometimes a race's doom can come surprisingly quick, even though you never expected it," Tali commented.
"And sometimes, the cause of decay is already within a race from the start, and you never even notice it," Wrex added.
"Geez," Williams exclaimed, "what a jovial bunch we are."
Of course, Tali and Wrex have reasons to be cynics about that topic, Shepard thought, but did not voice it. Both the quarians and krogan were decaying races. The krogan were still plentiful enough in numbers, but their reproduction rates, cut down by the genophage virus, did not match their death rates. Most krogan chose violent jobs, due to their combat glorifying culture or due to fatalism about the plague, viewing their race already as doomed. And so they were headed towards slow extinction. The quarians on the other hand had stabilised their numbers, but at a most tiny fraction of what it had been. Seventeen million quarians, crammed together on ancient ships, with no homeworld. Both races were shunned everywhere by others. Those were pretty good reasons to be cynical about one's civilisation's future; it was even depressing for an outsider like him to think about it. Especially considering that instead of helping them, the other races seemed to deliberately keep them stamped down – a cure to the genophage was seen as generally undesirable by most galactic governments, while the quarians were actively and often violently denied a homeworld of their own by the Council. It's a messed up galaxy.
Appropriately, the team's descent was done in silence – no more attempts at team communication and no more or less witty comments. The cavern went down deep, and Shepard was grateful for the gangways and stairs which made further progress downwards possible – and thankful that the geth had not destroyed them after their own passage. Cave climbing would have been absolutely impossible, especially since they lacked the necessary equipment. The path did split up a few times, but each time the team simply followed the Commander's strategy to go where they either knew or suspected were more geth. Of course, Shepard wasn't exactly sure about the strategy himself. It was logical, of course, but far from failproof. Still, it was the best way to orientate oneself in the cave system at all. Spectre service seems to lead one to the oddest places.
The further the team went downwards, the closer they came to the main prothean remain in the cavern, the multi-layer tower of various energy field sealed chambers. As that tower always seemed to have one chamber after another, no matter how deep they had come, Shepard simply had come to ignore them. Their path downwards had led them towards the ruins and away from them again, but when they reappeared right next to them, using a broken, downwards bent stairway to continue their descent, Shepard was surprised to hear a voice calling out from the chamber they'd just landed next to.
An uncomfortably loud voice: "Hello? Is somebody out there? Can you help me? I'm trapped in here!"
Shepard turned towards the chamber to see an asari in working clothes behind its energy curtain, hanging in a energy ball of sorts. I wish I had taken more technology classes then maybe I would actually know what those things are. "Quit shouting!" he called in a hushed voice to the asari, "the place is crawling with geth!"
"Sorry," the asari replied, her voice only a little quieter, but at least indeed quieter, "I'm a little... look; my name is Dr Liara T'Soni. I am an archaeologist."
"We know who you are, Dr T'Soni," Shepard answered, "We came to here to find you. Are you okay? What happened to you?"
"To... find me?" T'Soni asked. "Why would you... well, the geth seemed to have the same goal. Can you believe that? Geth here, so far out the Veil?"
Shepard suppressed both a grin and a groan at that. Why yes, I can believe that all right. "We will have all the time in the galaxy to explain everything to you, Doctor," he replied, "once we've reached the safety of my ship. Any idea how we can get you out of... wherever you are in?"
"It's a prothean security device," the asari doctor explained. "I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it, all right?"
"Any idea how?" the Commander asked.
"I triggered it when I turned on the barrier curtains," T'Soni said. "There is a control here that should deactivate the device, but I am trapped, so I cannot reach it! You must get me out, please!"
"All right, all right," Shepard said, "calm down! And keep quiet! Any idea then how to get past that... 'barrier curtain'?"
"That's the tricky part," T'Soni explained, "the defences cannot be shut off from the outside. The geth have tried different ways to get past the barrier, all without success. They have a krogan with them, too, which I would not like to face without the energy field in between us, so there are also good aspects to that, I guess."
"S you have no idea how we could get into your cosy little chamber?" Shepard summarised.
"Chamber? It's not exactly... ah, I mean, you are correct," T'Soni admitted, "Sorry."
"We figure out a way," Shepard reassured her, and began to take a closer look at the 'barrier curtain' and its surroundings. Of course, that promise was easier made than fulfilled. The barrier curtain could as well have been solid steel, from the way it reacted to anything from knocking on it to gunfire. The wall around it was a prothean built brick wall and just as sturdy. The Mako could have blasted its way through it, maybe, and ship cannons could have for sure, but not hand weapons.
"So... what now?" Shepard asked after a while, somewhat exhausted.
Williams was looking at him, facing the barrier curtain, and pointed back over her shoulder. "It seems we've finally reached this holes bottom, sir, or near enough" she explained. "We pretty much have explored everything above us already, so really the only thing left to do is hope for something down there."
Shepard shrugged. "Sound and pragmatical thinking, Chief," he said. "You are right, anything is better than nothing." He turned towards T'Soni: "We're going to check out the base. Call us if geth come your way, but keep quiet otherwise!" When she nodded in affirmation, he turned to walk the last few meters downwards, followed by the rest of his team.
No gangways had been constructed at the bottom of the cavern; it was natural, uneven, rocky ground. And filled with technical debris from all the levels above it, or so it seemed. Random tools and pieces of electronics lay scattered across it, as did some pieces of scrap metal. If in fifty thousand years another civilisation were opening up digs sites to learn more about humans, this surely would have been quite a find. But for his own purposes Shepard saw nothing useful at first. The only interesting thing down here were some more geth, but they were easily defeated. Still, it made the Commander even more pessimistic.
"The geth seemed to have looked here for ways to get past the barrier, too," he said, watching a downed unit "Without success."
"That's not saying much," Tali responded, wandering around looking at the stuff on the ground "with so few geth down here I don't think they'd be able to figure out, well, anything at all."
"That again," Shepard said, turning towards the quarian. "Fewer geth mean less intelligent geth?"
"Basically, yes," Tali answered, looking shortly up before continuing her undirected search "but I can explain this to you in full back on the Normandy."
"Right, of course," Shepard admitted, "this is neither the time nor the place for it. But it means we might find a solution here the geth overlooked?"
"Here or in the dozen or so levels above us," Tali said, apparently distracted by a find.
"Going up and down those levels in the small hopes to finding anything at all does not sound like a fun exercise to me," Williams complained. "Or constructive for that matter."
"It might not be necessary" Tali answered, "Take a look at this here, seems to be an old mining laser. I'm sure I could still get two or three discharges out of it."
"And?" Williams asked in a long drawn voice.
"And if you take a look at the wall where all the prothean chambers are, you'll notice that there is none on this level," Tali replied, somewhat tersely.
"You want to open up the chamber from beneath it?" Shepard asked, surprised.
"Why not?" Tali answered. "That laser has more power than any of our hand weapons, and the natural stone is surely easier to cut through than the prothean built walls. It's a possibility."
"And once inside?" Williams asked "You want us to climb up the walls like spiders?"
"If necessary," Tali replied. "I'm sure we can get some ropes here for that purpose."
"Getting my mass upwards in ropes will be fun," Wrex commented in a deadpan voice, but before Tali could reply he grunted in a way that could also have been a laugh and added: "But I like your spirit."
"As I said, anything is better than doing nothing" Shepard commented. "So, see if you can get that laser running, Tali."
"I suppose nobody here is a geology expert?" Tali asked without much hope. When unsurprisingly no reply came she continued: "So we have to base our aiming on good luck."
"This gets just better and better," Williams muttered.
It took Tali relatively little time to get the laser running again. She was unsure about where to aim it, basing her aim barely on guts and vague estimations on how how far down the prothean structure actually went. In the end, she aimed the laser a little lower than the assumed middle of the wall in front of them, and hoped for the best. "Laser is ready," she announced.
"Fire!" Shepard ordered, and Tali obeyed.
Dust immediately erupted from the hit wall, pouring forth in every direction, obscuring everyone's vision. Only the laser itself provided some minimal light. It continued to hit the wall, disintegrate it with an ear numbing sound. Shepard crouched down for cover behind the laser device, fearing any enemy might exploit the situation. However, when the dust finally settled no attack had occurred. The laser had cleared a hole in the rock, opening a way to one of the prothean chambers. This one was not sealed by a curtain barrier.
"Great work!" Shepard exclaimed, and began to walk towards said chamber, followed by the others. "Hm, we still need to find a way to go upwards," he said while entering the laser-created hole.
"The ceiling still stands," Williams pointed out, "so do we use the laser again?"
"That or the elevator there," Wrex pointed out, again in a deadpan voice, inducing a short laughter in Shepard: Indeed there was an elevator platform at the back of the room as he could now see.
"Well, does it even still work?" he asked.
"T'Soni's security device still had energy, and so should that thing." Tali answered and stepped onto it. When she touched what appeared to be a control unit a green shimmering holographic interface popped up. "Well, that settles that question then," the quarian announced. "And that interface looks intuitive enough"
"I take that as an 'everybody aboard!'" Shepard joked and walked onto the elevator, followed by Wrex and Williams.
"Not bad," Williams commented once the elevator went upwards, "Not bad at all." For once, there was a real sense of impression and praise in her voice.
And Shepard, too, of course could not avoid being amazed by Tali again. God knows how long we would have fumbled around here without her, he thought if in fact we ever had found a solution.
The elevator stopped at T'Soni's level, though Shepard could not see if that was per default or also Tali's achievement. In any case, the way to the asari archaeologist was now undoubtedly completely clear. Despite the team being in her back, she noticed their approach early enough, asking: "How... how did you get in here? I didn't think there was any way past the barrier."
"We blasted our way through with a mining laser," Shepard explained, "Now, how can we release you?"
"A mining laser? Yes, of course, that makes sense," T'Soni replied. "And, ah, that button over there should shut down the containment field."
Shepard nodded and waved at his team mates to keep watch over T'Soni. It still wasn't clear whose side she was on, after all. While it was not overt, Williams and Wrex turned in a way that would easily and quickly position the asari in the crossfire of their guns. Content with that, Shepard turned towards the prothean device T'Soni had spoken of. He could indeed only see one button. Pressing it, however, only brought up a holographic interface diagram and, unlike Tali, the Commander did not find it 'intuitive' at all. Relying on the assumption that T'Soni knew what she was talking about, he simply touched the interface at some point – and heard a dull thud behind him, as the asari fell to the ground, freed from her energy field prison.
She got on her feet quick enough, and Shepard turned to her, asking: "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she responded, "but we need to get out of here before more geth arrive. There's an elevator in the back..."
"Yeah," the Commander interrupted her, waving her to go "that's how we got here. Let's move then."
Even now, as the team began to move again, it took care to have T'Soni in the middle, blocking any potential escape routes of her and taking her into the potential crossfire of their weapons.
"I – I still cannot believe all that," T'Soni said while stepping onto the elevator, followed by Wrex and Williams, "why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia is involved?"
Williams started to form an answer, but Shepard raised his hand to quieten her. "Yes, she is." he answered, "But as said, there's time for explanations aboard my ship. Now move."
"Oh, of course!" T'Soni exclaimed, "I didn't mean to..."
The rest of her sentence was drowned by large rumbling that went throughout the cave.
"What was that?" Williams asked, sounding more annoyed and terse than curious.
"These ruins are not stable," T'Soni explained while looking around, probably afraid of falling rocks and the like, "That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event. We have to hurry. The whole place is caving in."
She walked towards the holographic elevator control. Tali at first tried to block her way, but a short head shake by Shepard signalled her to make way for the asari. Unlikely that at the moment she has any ulterior motive besides getting the elevator up and generally getting the hell out of this collapsing hole.
While the T'Soni used the interface and the elevator was set in motion, Shepard used the intercom to call the Normandy. As part of the human mining efforts in these caverns there was a ship dock at the very top, a weird construction reaching out from the rock, looming over the cavern entrance, which of course made for an ideal evacuation point. Joker set an estimated time of arrival of eight minutes, but Shepard was not quite sure if that was quick enough. However, even Joker and the Normandy could only go so fast.
The elevator reached the top fairly quickly – only to greet them with an unpleasant surprise: At the edge of the top level stood a huge, yellow-skinned krogan, surrounded by geth. Instinctively, Shepard grabbed T'Soni and put her behind himself. She was the military objective of their mission. He shouted to everybody to take cover – except there was none. They were on an open, circular elevator platform, with nothing that could provide them with any sort of protection.
"Don't run," the krogan said, "you would spoil all the fun. If you do that, at least surrender."
No way out of here Shepard thought feverishly, looking around him. He and his team had no cover, and the enemy had their weapons pointed at them. The only thing they had going for them was the enemy's over-confidence.
"What do you want?" he asked the krogan.
"The asari doctor," the mercenary answered. "Thanks for getting her out of those energy fields for us." Shepard made held his right hand behind his back, trying as best as he could to perform the navy hand signal for 'attack on my sign' one handed and covered, hoping to heaven and hell Williams would see it and understand, and that the others would then follow suit. "Now turn over..." the krogan continued, but was cut off when Shepard sharply pointed at the geth at his right side, and fire from three different weapons took it down.
Shepard was pleasantly surprised that Wrex, too, apparently understood Alliance military hand signs, and even his crippled version of them, too. "Now concentrate on the krogan," he shouted. He had absolutely no desire to let such a combat monster run around unchecked.
Of course the krogan ran towards him anyway. Shepard backed away and raised a biotic barrier around him, but it appeared that shooting the Commander was not on his mind – he charged top speed at Shepard and tried to enter close combat, visibly enraged by the surprise attack pulled on him. The Spectre blasted his shotgun several times at the krogan, but the enemy shields and armour held fast. He soon found himself face to face with a giant, angry monster, growling and gritting teeth. At that moment the enemy appeared like an unstoppable force of nature in full rage – he surely could not stop it.
He was thrown back by a savage blow to his chest, and made an ungraceful fall onto his backside. Even in that position he further pumped shotgun accelerated mass into the krogan, but without any apparent effect – the mercenary only came further charging to him, now nearly looming above him. Shepard, still not fully standing, rolled away sidewards, but when he had a clear look on the battlefield again, the krogan himself was off his feet. Shortly looking around, the Commander saw both Wrex and T'Soni glowing blue – a double biotic punch had knocked over the enemy krogan. His chest pulsated with pain as Shepard got to his feet again, but he ignored it, instead again taking aim at the enemy mercenary. He was soon joined by Tali, while the rest of the team seemed now fully occupied by the geth, and two shotguns blasted at the krogan – until he finally keeled over.
"Good job!" Shepard shouted, now trying to focus on the geth. However, he instead noticed how Wrex turned around alarmed.
"Wait! He regenerates!" Wrex shouted, and fired a shot to a target behind him.
The enemy krogan was slowly rising again, clutching his weapon. Before Shepard could shout any warning at his own, and before Tali, who stood way nearer to the enemy than Shepard, could turn around again to face him, a shot had left his weapon hitting the quarian at short distance. And then another one. The krogan soon afterwards died for good under a hail of gunfire, but Tali seemed to have been hard hit, holding her side, half-downed, shields down..
"Goddamnit!" Shepard cursed. Anger wailed up in him, which he channelled into a biotic warp against the nearest geth. The remaining synthetics were attempting to cover themselves as best as they could, but were shot down by Shepard's team. With his own chest throbbing like hell, he ran towards Tali, who slowly came to her feet again. "You okay?" he shouted.
"Think so," Tali responded, though it came in almost hissed voice. Her omnitool glowed, and Shepard suspected she was applying medi-gel on hersef. "As long as no more geth come"
"Right," Shepard answered and looked around. All geth seemed to have been processed to scrap electronics. He took the time to also use use some medi-gel, but it had only a limited effect – it was an emergency measure, not a cure for everything.
"Let's get the hell out of here!" he commanded.
He tried to help Tali walk along, but he soon noticed he had enough trouble moving only himself forwards. Wrex passed him by and took over supporting Tali; while he did not look particularly gentle in doing so, he was very effective. Williams made sure T'Soni hurried, so all that was left to do for Shepard was to take care of himself, to run as fast as his chest allowed. At minimum there were several large-scale bruises, though he suspected some fractures – however, he could still walk, and that was the only thing that mattered right now.
The elevator had transported the team, unsurprisingly enough, to the topmost prothean "chamber". While it was still sealed off by a curtain barrier, too, that energy field collapsed after more seismic movements. While the way was clear now, the quake began in earnest: Walls shook, ceilings collapsed, and stones fell down all around them. They rushed as best as they could, straining themselves in the process, narrowly avoiding the falling rocks and other dangers. Shepard was quite frankly not sure whether they would make it out of the cavern alive. His breathing turned hard and ragged and he felt dizzy and light-headed. He wanted to say something, but he did not have the breath for it any more. He barely had enough breath to move himself.
Chief Williams shouted orders in his place.
"Move! Move! Move!" she shouted, like a stereotypical drill instructor. Shepard did not have the energy for smiling any more, but he felt like it. It was Williams now who took care of them getting all out, of the stragglers' pace, of motivating them. She seemed to be at front, in centre and back of the group all at the same time now.
And finally, finally they reached the ramp that led outwards, towards the ship dock. While the entire cavern seemed to collapse behind them, they were now surrounded by human-built steel. They reached the exit – and in front of them, waiting for them, was the Normandy, prepared and ready for take-off. It was one of the most beautiful sights Shepard had seen in his entire life.
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Sorry for the long time it took for this update. I completely wrote myself against the wall at one point. But now it's here, and the next chapter is also already with the beta readers. On that note, my deepest thanks to quantumparadigm and sergiusthegreat for having taken over that job. That chapter would have been a lot poorer and at times more awkward without them.
Oh, and as said earlier, do assume any divergences from canon are deliberate.