Tali felt as she did not belong here.
Her illness had gotten better throughout the last day, though some pressure inside her head remained. Still, she began to be unsure about her place on the Normandy. Nothing had changed since she had come aboard, but now that the initial enthusiasm had worn off over she felt out of place. In a way, the Normandy felt sterile to her on several levels: There were no machines summing in the background, nothing that would tell anybody how the machinery was working. Human crews, or at least human military crews, tended to be so much more formal than she was used to. Moreover, the ship was full of shiny and brand new looking but empty places, something that was a rarity on the Migrant Fleet. She realised that there was nothing wrong with any of those issues, it was just the human way of doing things – but that was the point, it was not hers or the quarian way. During her pilgrimage journey so up to this point she had rarely thought about how far she was from home, but now she was acutely aware of it.
It did not help, either, that her sleeping problems had not gotten much better. Any time she lay inside one of the pods, her thoughts automatically and against her will only focused all the more on everything that was different aboard the Normandy. And the part of her mind warning her that the ship was to fall apart any minute now, as the machinery must have stopped working, was annoying as hell. Failure was about the only reason why machines would be silent on the Flotilla. This was different aboard the Normandy as well, and Tali knew it, but it seemed her subconsciousness did not yet. And so the last few sleeping rotations she always only got some few hours of rest, making her more or less perpetually tired.
Of course normally she would have told her self to toughen up and get over it. After all, this mission still was a chance for her to hit the geth, a chance she may never have again. Additionally, it did allow her to work on one of the most advanced ships she had ever seen. And she was not one who would easily complain or mop about anything. After all, that just was not how the universe worked: Whether one complained or not, bad things would happen anyway. And she would do the duties she signed up for when joining Commander Shepard. However, her initial enthusiasm for his mission had been turned a bit sour by her last conversation with him.
It was a bit silly, maybe. Maybe she simply overreacted. But the mission did not feel as pure as before, in a way – she realised now she had seen it more or less as a noble crusade against her people's nemesis, led by a gallant and bold Commander. However, it turned out that he of course was also just a person. That in itself was only natural, but it contributed to her alienation. Modern as the Normandy was, she was a regular human warship under a regular human commanding officer, and at the moment Tali could feel all the differences to how quarians went about things quite keenly.
She had tried her best to not let her mood interfere with her duties. During the last days, on the journey to Feros, she had in fact done little else but discharging her duties. She had worked, eaten and tried to sleep at best as possible for her. She knew she should also have tried to socialise with the crew, or maybe go to Dr Chakwas for her sleeplessness, but that had all seemed to be too much for her. However, she did her duty, as always. Thus, at the moment, she was standing at her post in the reactor core of the Normandy. The ship had reached Feros, and Shepard had called battle stations, anticipating a geth presence in orbit. The Normandy ran in full stealth mode, but was also ready to enter battle if necessary. So far, the sensors had not picked up anything, but Tali was ready to do her part.
Even though she should be alert her tired mind began to wander. She wondered if it had been the geth at all who had attacked Feros. Feros, a planet entirely covered in Prothean city ruins. With a human colony that was not responding to calls any more. And most likely the place of the next major strike against the geth. She wondered if that could brighten things for her. Maybe. Or maybe not. A planet full of ruins seemed unlikely to her to make matters change for the better. We left enough of those behind when we fled the Veil.
The Normandy entered the planet's atmosphere, as Tali could deduce from her sensor readings. Since no geth warships had been encountered, the plan was to head directly for the human colony, docking in one of the skyscrapers connected to it. She had been informed that she and the other aliens who were directly subordinate to Shepard as a Spectre were to form the advance party, under his command.
She had her suit inject stimulants into her. She would be ready for the mission, no matter her morale.
000000
Zhu's Hope was odd. And not only its structure and 'architecture' if one could call it such. That was weird enough. Feros was littered with Prothean city ruins. During its glory days it must have been one planet-wide city, as unbelievable as the thought was. However, after fifty thousand years, only the naked concrete had remained of the Prothean skyscrapers. They were still enormous, raging kilometres into the atmosphere and broader like a dreadnought. But they were only naked stone and debris, giant structures in the sky and nothing to live in any more. And so, like most colonies, Zhu's Hope relied on prefabs. The weird thing was that in this case the prefabs had been placed on what once had been a skyscraper level. The people of Zhu's Hope lived inside houses that were inside a house. And with the contrast of naked concrete and prefab steel, it didn't make for a nice view.
However, that might merely be seen as a marvel of adaptability. What was truly odd was the mentality of the people. Some weirdness in that regard was to be expected. The Commander had seen shell shocked civilians during the Blitz, or on other engagements, and as he had explained Tali he even had frozen up himself during his first engagement as a marine. He knew that battle stress could cause some pretty odd reactions. And Zhu's Hope, the main human colony on Feros, had been hit hard by the geth. It was constantly pounded by wave after wave of attack, and very likely only Shepard's intervention had driven off the latest assault.
Still, there was more to it. Every single colonist seemed close-mouthed and at times even hostile to his presence. They all told him to talk to Fai Dan, the colony's leader, if there was an issue to discuss. Everybody, every single time. And they all praised Feros' qualities as a home to live on, despite the rather dire facts on the ground, despite the colony being impoverished even without synthetics attacking, despite them living in small and crammed prefabs, inside ugly giant ruins. Both seemed to be a behaviour much too ingrained to be a result from the geth attack. Something was wrong with the colony.
One could simply call it the usual strange behaviour of small settlements, ever mistrustful of outsiders. However, Zhu's Hope had only existed for four years so far, far to few time for its inhabitants to already acquire such behaviour. Which additionally made the praise of Feros as a home even more ludicrous. The settlement had been founded by ExoGeni, the leading Alliance corporation in funding colonisation, but without any spectacular finds among the ruins remained rather unprofitable, or so Fai Dan had told Shepard. Still everybody claimed to love their new home. Either the colony was the largest case ever for psychological aid, or something was going on of which Shepard had no idea. It was somewhat like in the vids in which the protagonist enters a small town where everybody is keeping a secret from outsiders. At least that was the best explanation Shepard could come up with. As if they had collectively murdered and ritually eaten the previous colony governor or something.
It didn't matter much. Shepard would do his utmost to protect the colony regardless of its secret, if there even was one. But he was pretty sure his primary memory of the planet would remain that of the strange behaviour of the people here and not the fight against the geth.
The geth were a problem. Shepard and his 'entourage' had repelled the attack against the colony that had started when the Normandy had just arrived, and they even had destroyed the geth's forwards command post. Still, the tactical situation appeared rather grim. The colony was still besieged, cut off from water, food and power, its surrounding tunnels and tower passages in enemy hand and often unexplored, while the geth main base was outside their immediate reach at another skyscraper, at the local ExoGeni headquarters. And nobody could tell when the next geth attack would come, or how many geth units there were around.
Additionally, the Normandy was trapped in its dock: A geth ship had started during the fighting, and it had become clear they had not been detected before because they had attached themselves to the Prothean skyscraper ruins, covered by their walls from prying sensors. And so now at least one enemy ship was in the air, while the Normandy was not. Should the Normandy try to leave her dock, she would be an easy target. All the stealth in the galaxy would not save her from visual targeting, and the need for manoeuvring to get out of her dock made it impossible to flee enemy fire.
Nonetheless, Shepard planned to take the fight to the geth, to destroy their main base. He had ordered Lieutenant Alenko to lead the regular Marine detachment of the ship outside, to take up position in the colony and help secure it. That way the Spectre and his 'entourage' were free to go on the offensive. Currently, the marines were using materials from the Normandy to build up a provisional command post of their own inside the colony, carrying communication and sensor gear from the ship and assembling it at the settlement, while Shepard's team was preparing itself for going on the offensive. Both groups were eyes suspiciously by the colonists.
The Commander spotted Alenko standing at the 'entrance' to the colony, supervising his marines carrying equipment, and walked towards him.
"Commander," the Lieutenant greeted when he noticed Shepard's approach,
"Lieutenant," Shepard replied, "how is building up the command post going?"
"That's the last batch of equipment," Alenko answered, "Afterwards, we'll be ready to hold the colony. And help it, hopefully."
"What's the general plan?" Shepard asked. He had not given specific orders to Alenko, preferring instead to rely on the initiative of his officers.
"I've checked in with Fai Dan," Alenko explained, "and it seems we'll have to clear the tunnels. Otherwise, the geth could just use them to whittle us down. That will also allow us to reclaim the much needed water pipes. And I've spoken with Davin Reynolds. There are apparently varren in the tunnels they can hunt for food, once the geth are gone. Once we've dealt with the alpha varren, which is a bit too much for the civilians here. So, if we're successful the colony should be safe and have running water and food again. Not sure if we can do anything about the power supply."
"Heh," Shepard made and grinned, "so much for the marines forming the defensive ground team."
"Yeah, hah, I think that designation has already kinda hurt their pride," Alenko laughed. "though we probably should always have some men back at the settlement. The detachment has six men, so probably two of them will have to stay here while the others are in the tunnels. Even if none of them will like that job."
"Sounds good," Shepard commented. "I'll see what I can do about the power supply. ExoGeni probably uses the same equipment as the settlement here, so maybe I'll find some of those powers cells they need over at what was their headquarters."
Alenko nodded. "It's a bit weird," he said, "the colony doesn't seem to have much in the way of reserves or backup systems. Nobody could have foreseen a geth attack, but they might not have fared better in other emergency situations, either."
"And yet in some things they seem to have massive redundancy," Shepard answered. "They had three armoured vehicles for use at the skyway between here and the corporate headquarters. Two have been destroyed already, but one still works. A Mako, if you can believe it. ExoGeni must've acquired it from the military and slapped some lock on the weapon systems. Didn't even properly disarm it. Tali and Garrus are currently working on unlocking the weapons, so we'll have a proper tank for our offensive."
"That seems like skewed priorities for redundancy," Alenko agreed, "but I think we can't complain about it now."
"Definitely not," Shepard agreed. "We couldn't cross that bridge without an armoured vehicle, and it would've been a mess to attempt to transport our Mako over."
Alenko nodded again and said: "I should go, monitor my team. Good luck, Commander. You may need it."
"Indeed," Shepard confirmed, "it won't..."
He was interrupted by a voice from his communication system: "This is Tali'Zorah to Commander Shepard. The Mako is ready to go."
"Well, that was my own call," Shepard commented. "See you after the mission then. And stay in radio contact!"
The Commander walked off to gather Liara and Wrex. He found both at the edge of the colony, the latter cleaning his shotgun, while the former was concentrating on her biotic powers, a blue aura constantly appearing and subduing again around her hands. Even though she had only joined his entourage some days ago, her presence on this mission was natural: This was after all a world of Prothean ruins. If the geth had found something of value here, maybe she could identify it. Shepard just hoped she knew how to handle herself in combat. She had shown her biotic abilities to him aboard, and they were impressive for an asari of her age. Despite only being an archaeologist, her handling of biotics seemed to indicate professional training, maybe even Asari Commando level training. However, that did not necessarily mean she knew how to keep discipline in combat, or that she had the willpower to use her abilities in an offensive manner. She certainly was currently the weakest link of the team.
Shepard took her and Wrex to the elevator that led to the skyway. The elevator was a human construction that must have been crammed somehow into the Prothean structure, leading them to what was basically an oversized garage pointed towards the skyway. It was overlooked by a small outpost of the colony's defenders, positioned to fend off any possible geth attacks that might occur from that direction. Below the outpost there was a road like construct that led to a garage door. The Mako stood there, as did Tali and Garrus.
Shepard had not had the chance to talk to Tali since their rather unfortunate argument about the quarian pilgrimage tradition. He knew he had upset her, and that it was his fault, but he could not bring himself to really apologise. As far as he was concerned, he had been in the right. It had not been his intention to offend Tali, but he also did not want to provide dishonest apologies or justifications. Or maybe he was simply stubborn. It was in any case an unfortunate state of affairs. He was not too shabby at the social game, in his own estimation, but maintaining friendships, or even acquaintances, was always a problem. Sooner or later he always screwed something up, in his experience. In this case, it had been rather sooner than later. He hoped that discussion would soon be forgotten by all sides.
And sometimes I don't only screw up, but screw up fatally... He pushed that thought aside. This was neither the time nor the place to reminiscent about the bad old times of the past. He breathed out and tried to focus. Battle was ahead of them, and he had to get in the mood for it.
"Everything ready?" he asked Tali as soon as he had approached her and Garrus.
"Yes, Commander. As I said," Tali replied. Her voice was rather stiff.
"The vehicle is in top shape," Garrus explained, "I wonder how ExoGeni got their hands on it."
Shepard felt much more comfortable ignoring the tone of Tali's answer and hence turned to Garrus, shrugging "Regardless, it's a good thing they did," he answered and entered the vehicle, soon followed by his team.
"Okay, listen up people," he said when they all had taken their seats. "We have all seen how the geth have pounded the colony. It's about time we take the war to them. Some final instructions: The way from here to the ExoGeni headquarters is not called a skyway for nothing. It's a bridge among the clouds, completely surrounded by air. And the geth have air superiority. Be ready for everything they decide to throw at us. Under those circumstances there won't be pitched battles like on Therum and no infantry covering the Mako's flanks. We might have to rely on speed as much as on fighting power. After all our objective is to reach the HQ, not necessarily to defeat the geth on the skyway. If there are too many and we can dart past them, we will. So, everybody sit tight and hope we make it."
Shepard started the Mako among the various confirmations of his team, slowly driving it to the garage door. For a moment he was unsure himself. The geth would have total superiority of both ground and air out there, and on the skyway the Mako would be a ludicrously open target. But he managed to clear his mind from those thoughts, instead concentrating fully on the coming battle, with no thought of potential failure. A bold grin began to play around his lips as adrenaline pumped through his veins. He had already saved two of the three largest human colonies in his career so far. Feros was a little village in comparison. So how hard can this get?
The garage door opened.
The view on the skyway was spectacular. The sun sent a dim light through the clouds, and skyscraper tops of alien shapes could be seen to all sides. The skyway itself was not so much a single bridge but an entire structure of different paths, something that must have been a cloud high traffic network between the towers in Prothean times. The support structures for those roads added to the alien nature of the landscape.
A geth ship soared over by.
The ship dropped geth units directly in front of them on the skyway. Shepard mentally cursed the enemy's quick reaction.
"Geth Armatures!" Tali announced, "tank-level units. They can go toe to toe with the Mako!"
Just as Shepard had suspected, the geth were using their air dominance to fly in reinforcements. He was only surprised the ship had not targeted them directly. Instead, the Armatures did, and soon rockets were flying towards the Mako, passing it left and right. Shepard had to use the maneuverability of the vehicle to its fullest, using both curves and thrusters to evade enemy fire. At one time, the Mako even did an ungraceful back flip from the elevated parts of the skyway to get out of the path of a rocket.
The vehicle's interior was filled by grunts and at times even suppressed screams and flailing arm gestures, as it went from one tumbling to the next. Shepard paid that no heed, instead fully focusing on the combat situation. His jaw hurt from him subconsciously clenching it so tight in concentration.
The Armatures had been dropped in quite some distance to the Mako, allowing them to fire on it along practically its entire way. Shepard returned fire, but at those distances it was a rather ineffective and indecisive exchange of fire. He was unsure whether the Mako could truly endure a battle with two of those things.
"The last batch went south. What are they looking for?"
That announcement from the radio pulled Shepard out of his thoughts.
"That's not one of us, is it?" he asked, and then concentrated again on the enemies in front of him.
"No," Tali answered. "It's too weak to pinpoint, but it isn't from the Normandy or Zhu's Hope. Somebody is out there."
It did not matter. Shepard was now fully focused on bringing down at least one of those Armatures. With one positioned on the lower left side of the skyway and one on the elevated right side they effectively formed a barrier which the Mako needed to cross. And Shepard did not believe that both could be beaten. Or at least, it was not worth the risk.
He let a hail of machine gun and cannon fire rain down on the lower side Armature. Sparks flew from its metallic skin as it was hit by bullets, and impact marks and soot from the Mako's cannon fire soon covered it. Yet, it still stood defiantly and shot back, blocking the way for Shepard and the team. Shepard was now entirely focused on that damnable piece of machinery. Go away, break down, vanish! he willed. He accelerated the Mako. They had to get through those two Armatures, and a long, drawn-out fight would be disastrous. So the Commander sped up and kept the fire on the already targeted enemy unit. It had been whittled down, at least. It's metal had lost all shine, it's composure was off-balance and there even was smoke coming out at one point. It was hit, but not yet destroyed.
Shepard decided to put everything on the line. Coming nearer to the two Armatures, it was now practically impossible for the Mako to dodge their fire. Instead, he let the vehicle dart at very much near its maximum speed. An eerie quiet settled inside the Mako, as if everybody was holding their breath.
And then Shepard rushed through the two Armature's blockade. By ramming the damaged one. Steel crushed against steel, and Mako wheels fluttered helplessly in the air. For a moment Shepard lost control of his vehicle. But when it safely landed on all its wheels again, the Armature was beneath it, subdued. Several mechanical limbs had been severed from it.
Shepard accelerated again. The Mako still swerved back and forth, and nearly fell down a road fork into nothingness. All passengers were thoroughly shaken through, but the Commander could not slow down: The remaining Armature turned around, and the Mako was soon chased by a swarm of missiles. Several hit.
"All right," Shepard announced, "everybody sit tight, it's not over yet."
"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed, then gathered herself again: "Looks like a successful destruction, Commander. Shields hold. And we've got more comm chatter."
"Any sign of movement? Lisbeth could still be in there. It's only been a few days... ...She's my daughter. I'll wait as long as I have to."
Whoever was responsible for that comm chatter, they were damn sloppy. Such signals were usually easy enough to track down, especially for the enemy. But Shepard still had more immediate worries. The Mako had successfully fled the Armature's fire, after having climbed over a rock on the skyway, but was now facing several bipedal geth units. They were weaker, but the Commander was well aware that they still had the Armature in their back, and that the geth also still had air superiority. Shepard's team could not get into a prolonged firefight.
He rushed through the enemy lines. Some geth troopers got tossed aside by the vehicle. Others fired at it, further whittling down the shields. But Shepard kept on, and stayed at near maximum velocity.
It was a further garage which finally promised safety. The skyway was no straight road after all. It had forks, and rocks and oddly elevated sides, and apparently it also had tunnels or garages or whatever they had been when the Protheans had still been there. In any case, the so far open skyway led into such a covered passage, protected by walls, a roof and a gate door, the latter probably installed by humans. As soon as they had passed it, Shepard stopped.
"Everybody, outside!" he ordered "Tali, Garrus, see if you can close and seal the door. The others, cover them!"
Given how few experience the team members had with each other it was a marvellously executed manoeuvre. Tali and Garrus immediately found the right console to seal the door, Wrex was able to lay a very well timed suppressive fire, and Liara used her biotics to literally throw away any geth who came to near. Within minutes, the team was in relative safety.
Tali raised her omni-tool. "There's more of that comm chatter, I recorded it" she said, and had her tool displayed it: "We got movement. Some kinda vehicle... Not one of the geth, but it has stopped. ... What's that sound? ... They're closing the door!"
"They must be close," Garrus concluded. "Within visual and auditory range."
"Then we should find out who 'they' are," Shepard announced. "Garrus, Liara, guard the Mako. Wrex, Tali, with me."
It was not entirely clear what the tunnel might once have been. The street clearly continued here, but the walls were as thick as bunker walls, and who builds tunnels up in the highest skies, anyway? Light came from the opposite side of it, while rocks and Debris filled the ground, at times even nearly up to the roof.
Whatever it once had been, it was a surprisingly large construction. Despite the assumed proximity of whoever was out here, it took quite some time for Shepard, Tali and Wrex to make their way through all the rubble in the dim light. Shepard's face was already covered in ancient dust when they finally found a ramp leading underground, or rather to a room below the skyway. Light and voices came out of it. Human voices.
"Survivors," Wrex commented.
Shepard nodded. "Let's see how they're doing."
"Shouldn't we be focusing on the geth?" Tali asked.
"We will," Shepard promised. "But... well, we can't just so pass by a group of survivors without at least checking up on them."
The reception was however very much colder than Shepard had anticipated. Walking down the ramp, he was greeted by a man of Asian or Eurasian features and an unfortunate moustache, flailing a pistol towards his general direction.
"That's close enough," the man announced once the team had reached the bottom of the ramp. Shepard could see maybe a dozen people standing around in a large room. Crates and equipment was standing everywhere, but it all looked very provisional, or rather temporary.
An older woman of European features stood besides the man, and she said: "Relax, Jeong, they're obviously not geth."
"Get back, Juliana!" Jeong ordered and then turned to Shepard again: "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Commander Jonathan Shepard," the inquiree answered. He did not exactly like weapons being waved at him, but he could definitely understand paranoia in a siege situation. "Systems Alliance Navy and Special Tactics and Reconnaissance arm of the Citadel. Here to lift the geth siege."
"See, Jeong, you worry too much," Juliana commented, "They're here to help."
"And you trust too easily," Jeong answered. "A human Spectre? Do you really believe that? We should just wait for company support, before - "
"Ignore him," Juliana cut him off, "'The company' is all he cares about. I'm just glad to see a friendly face. Are you truly a Spectre?"
"Appointed specifically to deal with the problem of geth attacks on Traverse colonies," Shepard answered. While mostly correct, it left out most of the background, but explaining that would go too far now. "So where can I find their main base? And do you know what they are after?"
Jeong laughed. "So you want to clear them out supported by only two aliens?" He asked. "That's the most..."
"Ignore him," Juliana interrupted him again. "We have no idea what the geth are after. We certainly have found nothing of value here. Something ExoGeni is keen to remind us on."
"We need to recoup our expenses," Jeong commented, "it's nothing personal."
"So you keep saying," Juliana continued. "As for where the geth are, it's up in the ExoGeni Headquarters. Just a bit further along the skyway." She paused for a bit and then went on more quietly: "Hit them hard if you can, will you? We're the only humans left on this planet. And if..."
This time it was Shepard interrupting her, too surprised by her statement to notice that she had continued. "No, you're not" he stated, "Fai Dan and some colonists from Zhu's Hope are still alive."
Juliana was visibly taken aback by that revelation. "You said they're all dead!" she shouted at Jeong.
"I said they're probably all dead!" Jeong justified himself, before turning to Shepard again "And soldier, those headquarters are private property. Remove the geth, and do nothing else."
Shepard narrowed his eyes. This man was beginning to annoy him. "You're not in my chain of command," he rebuffed him.
"No," Jeong admitted, "But any information there is the property of ExoGeni, and not to be touched or seen by anybody else! We have laws about such things!"
"As Spectre I stand above your tiresome property laws," Shepard replied. He had not planned to actually use his Spectre status. He still thought the whole concept was a rotten idea. However, it was far easier to pull status than to argue with Jeong. And Feros was a war zone. There really was no room for consideration of such peace time laws. Besides, what interest would I have in any corporate secrets or whatever he is afraid I might find there?
Shepard's answer made Jeong visibly nervous. "Just... just see that you don't do too much damage then," he demanded.
Shepard rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'll do whatever I need to do," he announced. "Anyway, Zhu's Hope is still standing, and I'll take care of that geth problem."
"Commander, before you go..." Juliana said. "My daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing..."
"They shouldn't waste time poking around," Jeong argued, "We can do a proper accounting of our causalities after the geth are gone." And with that, the man totally fell out of Shepard's favour.
"That's my daughter you're talking about!" Juliana exclaimed. "She's still alive. I know it." She breathed out. "She was working in the ExoGeni buildings when the attacks came."
"Oh, yeah, there are several places she could hide," Jeong commented. "For a short while."
Shepard shot an aggressive glance towards Jeong, and then turned to Juliana.
"I need to eliminate the geth," he said, "That's my first priority. But should I find her, I will get her out."
"Thank you, Commander," Juliana answered, "Thank you."
Shepard gave her an understanding nod and then left, followed by Tali and Wrex.
Tracing their way back, they soon were inside the Mako again and ready to go. Carefully making their way through the rubble with the vehicle they found that the street was soon impassable due to debris, but that a ramp on the left side led upwards. Maybe that had once been the purpose of this strange building, this ramp to a higher level of the skyway. It was basically a stairwell for cars, even for big, chunky cars like the Mako. And that all kilometres up in the air. Shepard felt his sense of scale and orientation suffering.
Soon that hallway let towards an open segment of the skyway again, leading straight to one of the Prothean skyscrapers – presumably the location of the ExoGeni headquarters.
"More comm signals," Tali announced, and the comm unit cracked:
"You owe me for this. The skyway is crawling with geth." Another voice, sounding subtly smug: "Package is secured. We're leaving now." And the first voice again: "Wait! Shut down the comm! We've got incoming geth! Damn it, shut down the comm!"
Shepard looked perplexed at Tali. "Can you localise it?" he asked.
"Too many geth jamming signals out here," Tali answered. "That didn't sound like the survivors we just met. Or like Zhu's Hope."
"It also didn't sound like they're still survivors," Wrex commented.
"How many different groups are there on this planet?" Tali exclaimed. "It's like – Incoming!"
A multitude of missiles and shots came darting through the Mako. Several geth units were stationed on the skyway, revealed now as the Mako came closer. However, as far as Shepard could see, only light units. He grinned, and accelerated. There was no need for a fight. Again the Mako bolted through enemy fire and enemy lines like a whirlstorm. Turning left and right to avoid larger pieces of debris, it hit several geth units, hurling them apart like bowling pins. The vehicle was hit several times, but the shields held. It was really nothing they had not become used to already.
They were able to leave the geth behind after passing two further gates. Shepard could not quite fathom their original purpose, gates in the middle of the skyway with nothing around them, but they served his needs just fine now.
They were now nearly at the skyscraper, and Shepard slowed the Mako down. Gradually, he drove the vehicle below a concrete porch of sorts hanging above them, towards a small entrance in the tower. Given that the company funding the colony was supposed to have had its local headquarters here, said entrance was surprisingly barren. There was a double frame that might once have held a door or a frame, but which was now only a rectangular hole in the omnipresent concrete. Rubble lay around on both sides of it.
"Enemies spotted," Tali announced. "They're definitely in there."
"Lots of them, by the sensor readings," Garrus added.
Shepard nodded and ordered: "Everybody, dismount. See if you can draw them out into the open. But stay in cover and don't be too aggressive. Let's see if we can whittle them down."
The team positioned itself, taking cover at the entrance sites or behind the Mako. Shepard opened the battle with a cannon shot into the headquarters. He focused on the sensors, trying to get a fix on geth signatures, but their jamming signals were just too strong. And visual confirmation through the entrance was difficult at best. Both sides stayed on their side of the frame, only exchanging momentary pot shots. Clearly, this was not going anywhere.
As a commanding officer in battle, Shepard was cautious. As a rule of thumb, the offensive side usually had the initiative, but the defensive side had better positions. This however did not necessarily apply once Shepard himself entered battle. He had been trained for close proximity combat, to employ both weapons and biotics to a devastating effect at close ranges. He had used that training to good effect at Elysium. And he was fairly sure he could do so again. He grinned, remembering again how trivial Feros was in comparison to Elysium.
He left the Mako and waved his team to follow him in. The entrance area of the building was perfect for him. Rubble and stones everywhere; he could move like a whirlwind from cover to cover. Backed up by his team, Shepard moved from position to position, always aggressively attacking the geth units in between, unleashing a storm of bullets and biotic dark energy. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, and he felt squarely in his element: Rushing ahead, shooting the enemy, surrounding himself with dark energy, entirely lost in the rhythm of the battle.
His shields took a few hits, but most of the time he either was in cover again or the enemy was dead before they could react. And he did not even need to consider his flanks: His team admirably took care of that, shooting down any geth that might have attacked him from the sides. He could fully concentrate on whatever was currently ahead of him.
Some geth tried to save their metallic hide by creating hexagonal barriers in front of them. At one point Shepard looked at an entire bee hive of such shields. He cursed, finding no opening between them. His shields were hit by several shots, and he dived for cover behind a particular large stone. He landed rather hard on his knees, only to get up immediately again. Resting his shotgun on the top of the stone, he took several shots at the enemy – until he noticed his shields faltering.
Several shots hit him at shoulders and arms. Immediately, he let himself fall down to a crouching position behind his cover. He let out a frustrated growl. None of the wounds were serious, nothing that could not be healed by medigel in the field already. But his offensive rush had been stopped for now.
Fortunately, his team caught up to him very fast. A geth platform was soon floating in air above him. He smiled as he attempted to take some shots at it, as much as his arms allowed. Somebody had clearly trained her biotic powers more than he had trained his.
He heard Wrex speak in his low, monotone growl: "Looks like that was the last one."
Awkwardly the Commander came onto his feet again. The ground around him and squadmates was littered by geth scrap metal. He hissed as pain from both arms stormed his nerve system at once, and reached for the medigel.
Both Tali and Liara came rushing to him. "Commander, are you okay?" Liara asked, while Tali asked: "Is everything all right?" Shepard made a vague hand gesture in the direction of both of them.
"I'm fine," he said. He felt the medigel working, and his shields were slowly recharging, too. "No lasting damage, by the feel of it."
Tali nodded and turned around again, while Liara answered in the affirmative, but still looked at him somewhat awkwardly.
"Seems like nobody else was hurt, either," Shepard continued. "Let's advance further."
That, however, was easier said than done. They soon found out that the inner parts of the buildings were completely surrounded by a geth barrier. No matter through how many corridors they walked, how many staircases they used, how many door frames they checked, there was always a blue energy field in the way. After a while it became frustrating.
"I swear, if I see another blue energy field on our mission to catch Saren, I'll nuke whatever it is in to hell from orbit," he said in an annoyed voice.
"They do tend to get in our way," Tali agreed. It sounded more upbeat than before. Maybe killing some geth has raised her morale.
"I don't think such an unsubtle approach would necessarily be wise in every circumstance," Liara commented.
Tali shook her head, but Shepard had to smile. Liara had held herself well in the combat so far, but it seemed her social awkwardness was still there. He guessed it could easily get annoying very quickly, but it also had something endearing. "Joke, Liara," he told her.
"Oh," she exclaimed, "Of course." Then a small smile played around her lips and she said: "I will get used to it, Commander, I promise."
Shepard smiled again. He had talked with her a day after her recruitement. She had told him about his upbringing, her relationship with Benezia and her work as archaeologist. One reason she had chosen her profession was that she was not so good around people. Already back then Shepard's jokes had just flown over her head. But judging by her comment she was maybe not completely humourless.
They walked along an entire series of door frames all blocked by the same blue glow, until they reached a staircase again.
"Commander?" called Garrus' voice from below, "is that you? I think I've found something."
This 'something' turned out to be a hole in the ground, and what might be a tunnel leading away from it. It did not look spectacular at all, but rather small and crammed - but there was no blue glow emitting from it, nothing to block their way.
"Going down this hole might be possible," Tali commented, "but I don't think climbing out again is feasible. It's a one way drop."
Shepard pondered the issue. Normally he would not have bet everything on one card, but it was not like his team had lots of option. They could not request reinforcements; there was no second Mako in the colony to traverse the skyway, and even with one it had been difficult enough. He also doubted they had any equipment on the Normandy to deal with those energy fields. Either they found a way to disable or destroy the field from the inside, or the whole mission could well turn into a disaster.
"We have no choice," he summarised his thoughts. "It's do or die. Come on, then."
Shepard began to carefully slide down a steep rocky slope, trying to avoid gaining too much momentum. He managed to stumble down without falling, hopefully in a somewhat graceful manner. Then again, everybody else in his team managed that, too – even Wrex. The krogan was just too sturdy, with too low a barycentre to get out of balance. However, he would probably not manage to climb up those rocks again. Shepard looked upwards, along the walls of the hole. No, there was only going forwards now.