A/N: Here's the start of the Rannoch arch. The next ten chapters will see some fairly important and hopefully interesting changes from the events of the game.
But of course, the most important thing about this chapter is... the return of the Tali!
Chapter 87 - That Old No Windows Trick
Shepard is nervously pacing up and down the Normandy bridge, Liara watching her with a nervous smile on her face, now and then offering some platitude to try and calm down the Commander. "Shouldn't they be here by now?" she turns towards EDI and Joker for what must be the umpteenth time, desperate for an answer.
"Following up on the information from the last message, the quarian envoy ship should appear on our scanners in approximately 4 minutes, 37 seconds," EDI replies.
"I'm a little surprised they even responded," Joker says from the pilot's seat. "I wouldn't have thought that your performance at Tali's trial earned you many friends amongst the Admiralty Board."
"Yeah," Shepard nods. "I'm guessing the war isn't going as smoothly for the quarians as they hoped when they started this fool's crusade."
"I was thinking along the same lines, yes," Liara agrees quietly. "They might be desperate enough to turn to us for help. Or they have some kind of suicide mission lined up for us, considering our fondness for impossible odds."
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," Morgan smirks. "I imagine Tali would have told them that I need the quarian fleets to fight the Reapers. I'm sure they are well aware that we would go to great lengths to secure this alliance."
"I wonder if there will be any species left by the end of this war that we haven't ran errands for in hopes for their aid," Joker chuckles.
"Uh... batarians?" Shepard replies, then freezing as she clearly sees the visual of an unmistakably quarian ship, approaching the Normandy. "Hey, they're here!"
"What, impossible, I have nothing on scan-" then Joker cranes his neck and also sees the visual of the ship outside slowly coming to drift alongside the Normandy. "Holy shit, they have a similar stealth technology to ours! I smell a rat, I wonder if we can demand that Tali pays us royalties."
"The Admiralty Board is requesting permission to come aboard," EDI says, going over the communications.
"What, all of them?" Shepard blinks. "Well, sure, permission granted. Damn, that war must really be going poorly if they wanted to get as far from the frontlines as possible!"
"I doubt that would be the reason. More likely that the whole Admiralty Board has to be present while making strategic decisions and devising plans for war," Liara says, watching the shuttle leave the quarian ship and heading straight for the Normandy. "Well, you better go and see to your esteemed guests, Shepard," she gives Morgan a pointed look.
Shepard sighs, remembering her last dealings with the Admiralty Board. "I guess I have to, don't I? Ah well, let's hope there will be a lot less shouting this time around..." And with that she proceeds towards the War Room, passing her time reading the latest reports compiled by Traynor, while awaiting the entrance of the admirals.
Finally they arrive, being shown into the War Room by Campbell and Westmoreland, Raan stepping through first, probably the most sympathetic one towards Shepard, possibly acting as a peacemaker of sorts. "Commander Shepard, a pleasure to see you again," she says, even if they both know that these words probably lack sincerity. "I do wish it were under better circumstances."
"You could say that, Admiral Raan," Shepard replies, watching the other admirals file in one by one, Xen, Koris, Gerrel, and finally a smaller figure that she recognizes only too well, sneaking in a quick smile to greet a subdued looking Tali. "I'm guessing you don't get many news out here on the Rim. The Reapers are tearing up the galaxy and we could have really used quarian support against them. But I understand you have decided that this would be a jolly good time to tangle with the geth."
"Seven days ago, with precision strikes on four geth systems, the quarians initiated the war to retake our homeworld," Gerrel states proudly, standing next to Raan.
"Which was a clear violation of our agreement with the Council to avoid provoking the geth!" Koris speaks up with his nasal whine, and for once Shepard has to agree with the man who had made such a nuisance of himself during Tali's trial.
"A treaty violation is nothing compared to recovering our homeworld and advanced AI technology," Xen waves Koris off dismissively.
Of course she would say that, Shepard sighs at herself. Well, at least they don't all approve of this war, surely Tali doesn't, with her and Koris, maybe we can persuade them to pull back or something... "Treaty violations just come naturally to your people, doesn't it?" she adds, a little insultingly. "Don't you think that your timing with this geth war is a little off? Now, provided that you succeed and retake Rannoch, if you don't join the rest of the galaxy against the Reapers, you will not get to enjoy the sights of your homeworld for long. The Reapers will come for you, sooner or later."
"It is as I have told them many times, but they would not listen," Koris sighs. "And now, we may have destroyed our people for good."
"Nonsense, we will prevail in this war," Gerrel states confidently, then hesitating for a moment. "As soon as we have dealt with a small complication. We have driven the geth back to our home system, when this signal," he activates his omni-tool to display images on the War Room's vid screens, "began broadcasting to all geth ships."
Shepard feels slightly nauseated when she recognizes the all too familiar energy signatures on the screen. "The Reapers," she groans. Wait, how is that possible? We rewrote the heretics to oppose the Reapers! Damn it, if Legion has tricked me...
"Under Reaper control, the geth are significantly more effective. Our fleet is pinned in the home system," Gerrel admits reluctantly. "If we're going to win-"
"How can you still dream of victory, Gerrel?" Koris shouts. "You have involved even the civilian ships in this war! Unless we retreat, we will lose our liveships!"
"Wait, why are you putting your liveships in harm's way?" Shepard blinks in surprise. "I thought that if even one of those ships was destroyed, millions of your people would starve!"
"That is why it is imperative that we save them," Raan speaks up, evading the question. "We must disable the Reaper signal that the geth are receiving. It is coming from a massive geth dreadnought," as she speaks, Xen brings up the image of the geth ship. It's shape is slightly similar to that of any geth fighter, with the difference being its enormous size, larger than any Alliance dreadnoughts.
"This thing can outgun anything we've got and it is heavily defended," Gerrel says, sounding irritated. "The latest addition in the ranks of the Admiralty Board," here he points at Tali, her friend having kept silent the whole time. "Has suggested that an infiltration squad on a ship with stealth drive like your Normandy, could get close undetected, bring a team onboard of the ship and then disable the Reaper command signal."
"Your envoy ship appears to possess similar stealth system to Normandy," Shepard replies. "Dare I assume that if I hadn't shown up, you would have undertaken a similar mission yourselves?"
"Undoubtedly, but we cannot risk depriving the quarian people of our leadership and guidance at a time like this," Gerrel speaks. Yeah, the leadership and guidance that put them into this goddamn war. I think they would have done just fine with a different kind of guidance.
"You want the support of the quarian fleets against the Reapers?" Xen asks. "Then undertake this mission for us as a show of good faith."
"Very well," Shepard reluctantly agrees, knowing that she has been forced to back into a corner. "But on one condition, after we disable the signal, you will use the ensuing confusion to retreat and get your fleets back to safety."
"We will take your opinion into careful consideration," Raan replies politely, again avoiding committing to anything.
"Don't even attempt to force us into making a decision now," Xen shakes her head in disagreement. "Remember, Commander, you need our fleets, while we can do just fine without your aid. The only way you will get what you want is by working with us, not trying to dissuade us of our plans."
You need me, and you need the rest of the galaxy, you're just too stupid to realize it, Shepard swears mentally, forced to agree with a submissive nod of the head.
"Our newest admiral has also volunteered to offer technical expertise and accompany you on this mission," Raan says, turning towards Tali. "In fact, that was a part of her suggestion as soon as we heard of your arrival and formulated this plan."
Sure, and let's throw Tali into another suicide mission too, just to make this more interesting. "Well, I guess it is decided then," Shepard says, looking straight at her old, trusted friend, watching her fidgeting nervously. "Let us rejoin the fleet and I will put together a team to board the dreadnaught. Tali, I will need you with me to work out our strategies." Tali simply nods in response.
"Commander, a request if I may," Shala'Raan stops her as she prepares to leave. "I see that your ship has perfectly adequate communications systems to allow us oversee and direct our fleets from here. Would you allow us to remain onboard the Normandy, so that we can coordinate most effectively with our ships and your infiltration squad?"
"That sounds like a good idea, Admiral Raan, do it," Shepard nods, then excusing herself and leaving hastily, Tali having to rush after her. "Gods, one more minute with them and I would have..." Morgan breathes out once they are in the conference room, out of the earshot of the admirals.
"I know what you mean," Tali nods, next to her.
Shepard hooks her hand around Tali's elbow, playfully brushing her shoulder against the quarian's. "So, they roped you into that job after all, eh?"
Tali appears miserable. "It has been nothing but awful, Shepard. Gerrel and Xen just wanted to make use of my expertise against the geth, they had this war planned out from the very start. Auntie Raan means well, but she is just trying to make up for the guilt she feels for what happened with my father. And Koris should be my ally, but he has trouble getting past the fact that it was my father's research that it has led us to this war..."
"Geez, that is rough," Shepard sighs, putting a comforting hand around Tali's shoulder. "We'll get through this, somehow. We have to, really."
"I know, but damn it, Shepard, we should be fighting the Reapers, not the geth!" Tali exclaims, sounding upset. "I truly believed there was a chance for peace between my people and the geth, Legion and I got to form this... odd sort of friendship while we were taking him back to his people..."
"What happened with the geth, though?" Morgan asks, unsure what to think. "Legion claimed his people would never side with the Reapers, and yet what is happening now..."
"I don't know, Shepard, I honestly don't know," Tali shrugs. "They did not have these Reaper upgrades when our fleet attacked, and Xen's countermeasure worked perfectly, disabling geth ships one after another. I don't know how they came to be controlled by the Reapers yet again..."
"We'll get to the bottom of this," Shepard promises. "I'll put together a team of old friends and together we'll tear through that sodding dreadnought. Oh, and Tali... maybe it'll improve your mood a little bit to know that a certain turian is onboard with me."
"Oh... I see. I... well, that's good," Tali still sounds very shy and hesitant when discussing Garrus, something that Shepard finds adorable. "I hope he is doing well."
"As well as anyone can be doing, considering the state of the galaxy..." Morgan sighs. "Come now. He'll be happy to see you, I'm sure..."
"This is what we call a big ol' shitstorm," Joker grumbles as the Normandy makes a short jump to the quarian home system, approaching the location of the geth dreadnaught.
"I have detected several hundred unique ship signatures engaged in active combat," EDI adds, checking her feeds.
"Yeah, so a shitstorm," Joker shrugs. "And I do not like the looks of that dreadnaught," he adds as they gain a visual on the scene of battle, quarian frigates and fighters battling the geth forces, trying to punch a path through to the dreadnaught, but even when they manage to get a clear shot it does not seem to cause a lot of damage. And the return fire from the dreadnaught is impressive, time and time again reducing one quarian ship after another into a pile of space debris. "That is some wicked main gun," Joker adds with awe. "Real glad we have that stealth drive of ours."
"They appear to be using ultraviolet anti-ship lasers," EDI informs them again. "I am reading minimal structural damage to the ship's hull, but my cyberwarfare suite should be able to access their docking protocols and secure an entrance for the infiltration team."
"Sounds good," Shepard nods. "I'm glad the quarians at least aren't throwing their whole fleet at this dreadnaught. They'd get slaughtered."
"That seems very like-" Joker starts to speak, as suddenly the quarian frigate very close by gets focus-targeted by a dozen of geth fighters at once, catching fire and quickly exploding, sending chunks of metal dangerously close by the Normandy. "...likely. Shit! But we're nearly there, Commander."
"I have gained access to the docking bay doors, Shepard," EDI says. "You should join the others in the shuttle, I cannot predict for how long I will be able to maintain control."
"I can't believe they would fall for that silly 'no windows' trick again," Joker chuckles, slowly bringing Normandy in close, as Shepard is already on her way.
Morgan wastes no time in getting down to the docking bay, where the team she has chosen for this mission has already assembled. Garrus and Tali are standing close by, time and time again exchanging a few quiet words, and nearby Liara is telling something to Kaidan, who in turn nods and gesticulates, the two most likely coordinating their use of biotics against the geth. "EDI's cracking a docking tube open for us," Shepard says, urging the others to pile into the shuttle. "We best get moving."
Cortez flies the shuttle down the length of the docking tube, letting them disembark at the airlock, and Tali opens it with a single tap on her omni-tool, EDI's control over the docking protocols allowing them easy access. On the inside, the alien layout of the dreadnaught reminds Shepard of the Haratar Station, where together with Legion they traveled to rewrite the heretics, apparently one of her worst decisions to date. At least there is close to normal gravity aboard the dreadnaught, enabling them to move about without restrictions.
"So, Shepard," Garrus starts, while they have stopped, Tali checking the dreadnaught schematics for the optimal route out of the docking bays. "An interesting choice of the squad. Picking the obvious geth experts, are we?"
"Yeah, that and nostalgia," Shepard grins in reply. "I thought you'd all be jumping at the opportunity to shoot some more geth. Because, you know, we clearly didn't see enough of them while chasing Saren."
Kaidan groans. "That is very considerate of you, Commander."
"It is good to have the old team back together, Shepard," Tali agrees. "With the exception of those who... can't be here. Where is Wrex, anyway? Still stuck on Tuchanka?"
"Yes, according to his messages, he is busy 'making babies'," Liara inserts. "It seems he has discovered something more important than this war."
"Yes, Garrus has been bringing me up to speed with what you have been up to," Tali nods. "I can't believe you cured the genophage! I'm glad you did, though I don't think I believe the part of the story about the mother of all thresher maws who showed up to eat the Reaper destroyer?"
"What?" Kaidan chuckles, shaking his head. "That sounds extremely unlikely even for you, Shepard." Morgan just smiles at that, not moving to correct them, too amused by the knowledge that this is one story that even the current generation will dismiss as a piece of fiction. "And Tali... since Garrus has been telling you things..." Kaidan then adds more hesitantly. "I suppose you are aware of what happened between us on the Citadel."
"I am. Shepard is giving you another chance that I do not think you deserve, Kaidan. But I hope you won't waste it," Tali says, then finishing going over the dreadnaught scans on her omni-tool, pointing ahead and they resume walking, conversing as they go. "Though perhaps I can understand you in a way. I mean, we've all felt like shooting Shepard at one point or another."
"Hey, this is news to me," Shepard mock-glares at Tali. "And when exactly did you feel like shooting me, missy?"
"Ha, that would be telling," Tali replies smugly.
"I must be the odd one out, for I have never entertained such desires," Liara shrugs, not finding the whole topic of discussion funny.
"It's just a matter of time, Liara," Garrus tells her, walking alongside Tali as they approach the exit from the docking bay.
"So where are we heading exactly?" Shepard asks, watching Tali quickly hack an access shaft, leading out to more interconnected passageways beyond.
"We're looking for an operations center," Tali replies. "I should be able to sever the Reaper command signal from there. The closest one is past their defense network and through a sensor cluster."
"Defense network... that sounds ominous," Kaidan says quietly, and indeed, as soon as Tali uses the controls to extend a bridge and connect them to the next system of platforms and passageways, the geth detect unauthorized access to their systems, immediately deploying several platforms to investigate the intrusion.
The attacking forces consist mostly of the rank troopers, who are destroyed quickly, but the irritating rocket trooper platforms have been upgraded with more powerful shielding, and cause something of a concern. Between Shepard herself, Tali and Garrus, they have plenty of options in disabling their shields, however, the only danger remaining is the very real possibility of taking a rocket to the face whenever leaving the safety of cover.
After successfully negotiating several other encounters with geth forces, the passageway eventually leads them to another part of the ship, looking like some sort of communications center, filled with consoles and Tali and Liara immediately jump to examine them, Kaidan politely staring over their shoulders while Shepard and Garrus busy themselves with checking the state of their oft-used rifles and waiting impatiently while Tali and Liara satisfy their curiosity and then explain what exactly is going on.
"I can monitor the Reaper signal on this console," Liara says, after poking around the equipment for a while. "It can't be shut off from here, but I can see it is hitting all the geth processes. They are completely under the Reaper control."
"Sensor data on this one," Tali adds, checking another console. "Just a moment, I want to check how our fleet is doing... Keelah, no!"
"What's wrong, Tali?" Shepard is instantly alarmed.
"The admirals have deployed more ships to the battle, but we are taking heavy losses," Tali explains, sounding distraught. "The geth have activated a planetary defense cannon on Rannoch. It's ripping through our fleet!"
"Then we should hurry and disable that signal, already!" Garrus exclaims impatiently.
"Yes, but we should not lose our heads and charge into an army of geth lying in wait," Shepard adds warningly.
"Why do we need to find the operations center, Tali?" Kaidan asks, staring at one of the many network consoles. "Wouldn't any of these access consoles do?"
"No, anything we do here, the geth could counter," Tali replies, shaking her head. "Too many fault-checks and redundancy levels for what need to do. Fortunately..." she looks at the dreadnaught schematics once again. "...the operations center is in the next room."
"Right, so let's disable that signal and get the fuck out of here, before our quarian friends have managed to get themselves wiped out," Shepard adds jovially, gripping her rifle as Tali works on getting the doors to the operations center open.
Inside, the operations center is crawling with active geth platforms, and several of them immediately activate their cloaking as soon as they see Shepard and her crew charging in. "We've got cloaked hostiles!" Morgan warns her comrades. "Hate those sodding hunters."
The ensuing battle proves difficult, with the Reaper upgrades the hunter cloaking seems so much more effective and harder to detect. Tali's pet combat drone does an excellent job at sniffing them out and Liara's biotic fields manage to cause some distortion of the geth cloaking, making them visible enough to be hit with a fuckton of weapons fire.
Unfortunately, the upgraded geth are smart enough to identify Liara as the most important target and they make a lot of effort to take her out of the picture. They nearly succeed when one of the hunters manages to sneak up right behind the asari, about to smash her head with the butt of its rifle, but then staggering back as Garrus overloads its shields. The heavy rifle still connects with Liara's head, but with less force, and the asari collapses in the same moment as a bullet from Morgan's sniper rifle shatters the offending hunter's flashlight head.
After the last of the geth have been mopped up, Liara is able to get up on her own, rubbing her head and wincing as Morgan walks over to check up on her. Meanwhile, the others are already on their way towards the consoles on the far end of the operations center, Tali throwing only a quick glance to see that Liara is moving, knowing that her people are getting torn apart by the geth, understandably feeling rushed.
"Damn it, those bosh'tets!" the quarian is clearly upset, having checked the main operations center console, Morgan leading Liara to rejoin the others. "They've locked down the signal! We can't shut it down from here!"
"Of course, that would have been too easy," Shepard nods sagely. "We haven't been put in life threatening situations yet, so clearly we cannot be done here."
"Speak for yourself," Liara mutters, gently elbowing Morgan in the side as she continues to rub her aching head.
"Everything alright, Liara?" Kaidan asks, looking a little worried.
"Just a little dazed, it will pass soon," the asari replies, clearly unwilling to make it an issue.
"Aha, there!" Tali exclaims, having studied the dreadnaught scans on her omni-tool for some time. "The Reaper signal is coming from the drive core! But... there is a problem. The geth have sealed the emergency bulkheads to block us out. Damn it! We need a route to the drive core that can't be blocked, some kind of path that runs the length of the ship."
"I know this is probably a crazy idea, but what about the main battery?" Kaidan asks, pointing at the relevant spot in the scans. "It seems to run right by the drive core."
"It is a crazy idea," Garrus shakes his head. "We'd get blasted and instantly vaporized, you madman!"
"Perhaps not..." Tali says thoughtfully. "The firing rate of the main gun is slow, once every... let's see, 125 seconds. We cannot cross the entirety of the ship in that time, but there are safe pockets alongside the path at regular intervals, here, here and here..." she points out at the scans. "Yes, that should be reasonably safe. I'm starting to like this plan."
"Alright, let's do it and hope that Tali's plan doesn't leave us reduced to microscopic particles," Shepard grins.
"Not so fast, Shepard, they still have us locked in here," Tali stops her. "Let me see if I can get those doors open... let me just try this, a fake thermal warning should open all maintenance tubes for emergency venting. Uh... but there are a lot of hostile geth massing behind the doors..."
"Fish in a barrel, like James would say," Shepard rubs her hands excitedly. "Okay Tali, get your warning primed, but don't send it yet, let us set up our positions at the entrance and wait for the signal."
Tali gives a quick nod as Shepard leads the others to take positions surrounding the entrance. "Garrus, could you fix some proximity mines around the entrance? And Liara, once he's done, set up some singularity fields around it. Kaidan, let's treat that mass of geth to a few delicious grenades as soon as Tali gets the door open." Everyone nods, and Shepard gives her signal to Tali. The door opens a few moments later, and the grenades fly towards the clustered geth, the proximity mines detonate and Liara's biotics kick in, sending the already decimated geth flying.
"Hey, you left nothing for me!" Tali complains good-naturedly, having caught up with them, shotgun at the ready, but finding nothing to aim it at.
"You can have the next group all by yourself, while we stop and take five," Shepard suggests.
"I'm not entirely in agreement with that plan," Garrus says, giving her a mild glare.
"Aw, Garrus, she's turning you into such a softie," Morgan winks at her turian friend.
"Why don't we just go to the maintenance shaft before more reinforcements arrive?" Tali asks, sounding just a tad exasperated. "By the way, Liara..." she adds, turning to the asari. "This is one of those moments when I do feel like hitting Shepard over the head with a blunt object..."