Recap: 'Now let's see what we can do.' Shepard thought as he waited for the door to open.
Now
A few hours after the first drop
The whole squad was on a mountain just outside of a taken outpost. This outpost had everyone on edge considering it was surrounded by multiple spikes that made those husks. The other outposts included fighting around 15 geth units including armature types and 2 dropships. This had been the fourth one they took on. After fighting on the inside of this, Shepard and the crew were set upon by even more geth when they exited. Luckily it was nothing they couldn't take on. The planet that all this happened on was Maji in the Vamshi System. It was a desert world of sorts with lethal radiation from the 2 stars the planet orbited due to its weak atmosphere. Shepard had heard that unsavory characters from the Terminus Systems occasionally use Maji for forms of cruel sport, dumping slaves, hostages, quarreling shipmates, or even (when bored) vicious animals on the surface. One must kill the other before they will be rescued from the lethal radiation of the giant stars. Disgusting pieces of crap would be too much of a compliment in Shepard's opinion. Though from the view Shepard was looking at, he had to admit it had a sort of... majestic view from his position. He was currently sitting down at the edge of the mountain they were all on, staring at the 2 suns and relaxed. Maji's suns differed both in size and color. One was normal sized and red, at least from his point of view, while the other was small and blue. Oddly enough the blue one reminded Shepard about his inner world's moon since it was the same color.
Shepard could hear some scuffling even though he and everyone else had their breather helmets on. He looked behind him, not bothering to get up. He saw his team doing different things.
Both Ashley and Garrus looked to be having a sniper competition to see who could get the most distance. Shepard looked further to his left and saw the group's biotics talking together. From what he could gather, Liara and Wrex were giving a lecture to Kaidan about various biotic abilities. Well Liara was giving the lecture, Wrex was just demonstrating, but it looked like Kaidan was very interested. Seeing this, Shepard couldn't help but smile at the scene.
'They've really come a long way.' He thought silently as he watched on. When they all first came together, he knew it was going to be difficult to get them all to work together, especially with how Ashley was with non-humans and how the initial tension between Garrus and Wrex had been. While there was still some light tension here and there, it was nothing to really be concerned about. The fact that the team worked so well together with backing each other up in different situations that missions brought out showed that much. After a minute of watching the scene, Shepard noticed someone was missing.
'Where's Tali?' Shepard thought as he looked around to find the energetic quarian. He finally saw her as she looked to be something different from everyone else. He could tell Tali was studying one of the spikes with her omni-tool, the so-called 'dragon's teeth' from what Kaidan and Ash told him. He found it a strange name to give to these spikes. In his opinion, it would have been better to call them something along the lines of 'reanimation stakes' or 'reanimation spikes' but hey, who was he to name them now that they have a name. He got up and began walking to Tali's location.
"Hey Tali, what are you up to?" Shepard asked as he got within 9 feet of her. Tali looked at him as he approached.
"Oh, hey Shepard. I'm just studying these... what did Ashley and Kaidan call them? Dragon's teeth?" Tali responded as she turned back to the spike she was studying.
"You find anything out?" Shepard asked as he observed her studying it. Tali nodded in response.
"Yes actually I did! The devices convert the muscle, organs and water content of a corpse into cybernetic parts, possibly recovering a minuscule amount of nutrients, then reanimate the body with an electrical charge, turning it into a simple-minded husk that attacks anyone who gets close enough. Releasing the new husk also retracts the spike back into the tripod, ready for re-use." Tali explained excitedly. Shepard's eyes went wide at the explanation.
'She figured that much out just from studying it here?' He thought quietly before saying, "Impressive. Did you find anything else?"
Tali shook her head before answering, "Unfortunately, the technology behind the dragon's teeth is still a mystery. It doesn't resemble any other geth technology and deploying the spikes seems to be a lot of effort for a minimal result, though their psychological effect on soldiers is undeniable."
"Ain't that the truth." Shepard agreed as he observed the spike with his arms crossed. As he continued to stare at it, he could sense its power. What really bugged him though was the feeling of familiarity that came upon him as he looked at it. Almost as if a part of him knew what it was for even though it was only his second time seeing. Shepard noticed that Tali was fidgeting slightly from something.
"What's on your mind?" Shepard asked as he uncrossed his arms. Tali looked at him for a moment before answering.
"It's just strange." She said.
"What is?" Shepard asked wondering what she meant.
"It's just that out of all the bases we attacked, none of these appear to be the main outpost." Tali said making Shepard think over what they saw. After a minute he realized she was right. None of the bases had that many defenses. This current one may have been the most difficult but that was only because of the turrents placed on the mountainside and the little ambush when they walked out of the base.
"Hmmm. Your right, it is strange.." Shepard said as he tried to think over more things.
'How could we find out if there are anymore bases?' Shepard thought out as he looked at the outpost entrance. His gaze turned toward the antenna on top of it.
'That might work!' Shepard that before he returned his gaze to Tali.
"Tali, hook up to that antenna and see if it's transmitting a signal to anywhere else." Shepard said pointing to it. Tali nodded and turned her omni-tool toward the antenna. This action grabbed the attention of the others who came closer.
"What's up Shepard?" Garrus asked. Shepard turned to him before answering.
"Tali and I believe that there might be another base, so she's checking any outgoing transmissions." Shepard replied before he turned back to Tali.
"Did you find anything?" Shepard asked.
"Hold on. This receiver's picking up some kind of transmission. Based on the signal strength, I'd say it's coming from inside this star cluster." Tali said. Shepard then told everyone to get ready to be picked up in the mako. Shepard turned back to Tali who was looking at him curiously. Knowing what she was going to ask he elaborated.
"It must be a message from the main geth base. Track the signal to lock onto its location so we can take it out." Shepard ordered. Tali nodded and began to trace the signal. By the time she got the location, the Normandy was already insight. When everyone was finally in the mako, Shepard floored the accelerator and hit the thrusters as they soared off the mountain. Now this would have scared everyone else if it was their first time. Luckily it wasn't and Joker was a pretty good pilot since he was able to catch them. With that, the Normandy closed her cargo bay and took off to the next destination, Solcrum in the Grissom System.
Around 2-3 Hours Later
After a quick rest, and some much needed maintenance on their weapons and armor, the squad combat dropped onto Solcrum. As the mako landed Shepard held off on driving for a minute. He suddenly turned to everyone in the back.
"Okay, what do we know about the planet?" He asked. He felt the need to know what kind of environment they were in since the some of the last few planets they had landed on in the past had environmental hazards that included pressure, heat and other things. That reminded him of his little side mission involving Helena Blake. He really had to do something about that. Liara's voice brought him out of his thoughts though.
"Solcrum is the largest moon of the gas giant Notanban. It has a trace atmosphere of krypton and xenon. The crust is composed of various metals with deposits of sodium. As with every body in the solar system, the surface is scorching hot and thoroughly irradiated by the blue giant Grissom. Surface excursions without proper protective gear are certain to prove fatal." Liara answered having researched it.
"That's it?" Shepard asked wondering if there was anything else.
"On our approach to Notanban, the Normandy's passive sensor array intercepted a fragmentary coded transmission from the surface of Solcrum. Attempts to decrypt the message were fruitless; it does not appear to be in any software coding language used by the Citadel races."Kaidan spoke up.
"And from the information that Tali got on Maji, it would appear that the main geth base is most likely here." Ashley answered. Shepard nodded his head before speaking again.
"The geth have the advantage here then. This environment can affect us if we attack on foot. So it may be in our best interests if we stay inside the mako." He said before Wrex jumped in.
"Shepard unlike you squishy things, I can take a lot more damage than you guys. Besides you know the krogan world Tuchanka is closely the same." Wrex said. Shepard nodded as he drove to where the signal was traced too. On the way over Garrus began to talk again.
"So Shepard, what do you plan to do after we get Saren?" He asked. Everyone noticed Shepard hesitated before answering, "I was thinking of going back to Omega, but... I'm not to sure now."
The reactions varied with each squadmate:
Wrex shrugged at Shepard's response. As far as he cared, Shepard's business was his own.
Garrus raised an eyebrow. Shepard was having second thoughts? Was he thinking about staying in Citadel Space?
Tali was kind of curious at what Shepard was thinking.
Both Ashley and Kaidan were wondering if Shepard was planning to retire as Ghost and possibly join the Alliance. Kaidan knew Shepard could easily make commander or captain if he joined the Alliance. Ashley wanted him to stay in Citadel Space and join in the Alliance and hopefully... get into a relationship with her.
Liara was kind of hoping that Shepard would stay in Citadel Space and hopefully try to start a relationship with her as well. She just felt compelled to be with him for some reason.
Before anyone could say anything the mako was shaken from something.
"What the hell?" Tali said. Shepard quickly noticed his sixth sense going off and could feel 2 large electrical signatures and 3 smaller ones. He quickly hit the throttle and did a doughnut before driving behind a hill further away from the location.
"What kind of damage we got?" Shepard asked. Kaidan checked the damage and reported the shields took all of it, but were depleted by 35%. Hearing this, Shepard decided to wait behind the hill until the shields were replenished. He could use this time to think of a strategy to get past those defenses.
'Okay from what I saw when we did that doughnut the entrance to the underground base is guarded by three Geth Rocket Troopers in sniper towers and two patrolling Geth Colossi. Now I could drive around the base in a circle and stay on the move to avoid missiles, then take out the Rocket Troopers first to quickly reduce the total Geth firepower... That's a start' Shepard thought out. He looked at his team again thinking about what he could do. He stared at Ashley, Garrus and Wrex. He knew that what he had in mind would not easy unless he could use these 3.
"Ashley..." Ashley perked up at her name being called, "have you improved with your accuracy on the mako's cannon?" Shepard asked. Ash looked at him annoyed by the question.
"Yes." She answered, feeling a little insulted. Shepard pretended to not notice it as looked to everyone else.
"Okay, here's the plan..." Shepard began to say.
A few minutes later.
The geth were waiting for the organics to come out seeing as they had hidden behind the nearby hill. Only one of the rocket troopers was able to face the hill with it's launcher ready to go as it waited for the opportunity. The 2 other Colossi were also waiting on each side of the underground outpost. Suddenly the mako zoomed out of its cover. The Geth Trooper aimed it at the mako as it fired at the colossus before running over it. Following the mako, the Trooper noticed something strange until the rocket it had ready to fire suddenly exploded, destroying the unit.
Back on the hill that Shepard and co. took cover behind was a lone figure laying down with sniper rifle aimed at the destroyed unit's perch. A helmeted Garrus looked through the scope of his Volkov Sniper as he surveyed the results of the plan Shepard came up with. He could still hear it as he watched Wrex combat roll out of the mako before it fired at the Colossus with the cannon. Mako quickly knocked down the colossus.
"Garrus, I know turians have trace amounts of Thulium in their metallic carapaces, enabling them to have a higher resistance to solar radiation than most species so here's what I need you to do: Stay behind on the hill outside, and when the opportunity presents itself, fire at the rocket the trooper on the sniper perch has ready." Shepard said before turning to Ashley and Kaidan.
"Ashley, you will be taking Garrus' place with the cannon while Kaidan takes up your position on machine gun. We'll be flying at the Colossus on our right so I want you to fire a mass accelerator round at it before I run it over." Shepard told the 2 who nodded. His gaze switched to Wrex this time.
"Wrex, your going to combat roll out of here just before we hit the Colossus. After we run it over, you will have a few seconds to get in close and destroy its main processor located in the head." Wrex was about say something when Shepard cut him off. Wrex quickly got up and ran to where the downed colossus was. As he got close, the second rocket trooper targeted him. Unknown to it, the mako's turrent aimed at it and began firing at it, eventually destroying it.
"Don't worry about the trooper who will have a clear shot at you. That's where Kaidan comes in." Shepard looked back to Kaidan. "After we knock down the colossus, you will aim at the rocket trooper who will have a clear line of sight on Wrex. You know what to do then." Shepard said as Kaidan nodded. Shepard then looked at Ashley. The mako swung around the base, getting within sight of both the remaining colossus and trooper. The cannon fired at the final trooper as the mako ran into the colossus.
"After that, I'll drive around the base, giving you a clear line of sight on the final rocket trooper. Take the shot. Sadly that would leave us open to the remaining colossus' counter-attack, but we can dodge it with thrusters." Shepard explained.
"And what can we do to destroy this one?" Tali asked.
"We do the same thing we do to the first one except when it's down, Ash and Kaidan unload everything on it." Shepard said as if it were adding 2 plus 2. As the mako passed the colossus it got enough distance to where the cannon and turrent could simultaneously pelt it with rounds, quickly destroying it. Having destroyed all the outer defenses, the mako swerved over to the hill, allowing Garrus to jump on top of it. With that the mako drove back to the outpost where Wrex was leaning right by the door. Everyone exited quickly, getting out their preferred weapon. Before entering Wrex spoke.
"I got to admit Shepard, that plan was crazy but pretty effective." Shepard nodded in thanks as they all entered the base. The elevator they were in delved down into the surface of Solcrum. On the way down Shepard told them to be ready for close-quarter combat. This made Garrus switch his sniper to his Breaker assault rifle. While not as powerful as the Kovalyov assault rifle Shepard had given Ashley, it outclassed it in accuracy and firing rate. When the elevator finally stopped they entered a room usually used in prefabs, but Shepard was sure it would be the usual tunnel layout for underground bases. As he approached the door, he stopped.
Seeing this Kaidan asked, "What is it Shepard?"
Shepard hesitated for a moment before answering, "I can feel 7 electrical signatures. Four are the same size while the other 3 are smaller." Shepard put his hand on the wall and began using what he liked to call Biotic Sonar. The whole team watched him with Liara and Tali looking on in greater interest since it was their first time seeing it. Liara especially was curious about it.
"Shepard, what exactly are you doing?" She asked. Without looking back Shepard answered, "A biotic move I like to call Biotic Sonar or just Sonar, or maybe Pulse. Still haven't really named it." Liara watched and noticed a faint pulse of biotic energy.
"How does it work?" She asked. Ever since meeting Shepard and seeing his power strike, she has grown even more curious about the human who had rescued her. She could see clearly that he was very intelligent despite his background and the way he planned things out as well as creating things from abilities to inventions was extraordinary. Still using Sonar, Shepard began to explain.
"You know how I can sense biotics and electricity correct? Well the Sonar works in combination with it. I send small pulses of biotic energy through an area and in combination with my sense, I can virtually map out the layout of the place and whatever is inside it. The drawbacks are that the pulses I make have to be a certain size and number to map the area out. Depending on the size and amount, the energy could be detected." He explained. Liara looked fascinated by it. If only other biotics had that sense of his then they could all do it. Then she realized something.
"What do you mean by size and amount of the pulses?" She asked curiously as she saw the pulsing become bigger and faster.
"Well it's simple. If I use a big pulse, I end up 'seeing' a wider area. If I use a small pulse, it will be within 2-4 meters depending on the size. With frequency, it allows me to map an area down in more detail. For example: This area I checked out here. If I used one big pulse, I'd be able to 'see' where exactly the geth are. Since I'm using big and fast pulses, I'm able to 'see' the geth, crates, computers, everything. And I can tell that the geth inside are as follows: 3 hoppers, 3 destroyers and a geth juggernaut." Everyone was amazed at how Shepard explained it so concisely, like he was a teacher.
"I call the Juggernaut!" Shepard said, calling dibs on the Juggernaut. And now they were back from adults to being kids.
"Dammit I wanted that one!" Wrex said groaning at the loss of the strongest opponent. Shepard smirked taking his hand off the wall.
"Hehehe, too bad! You can take one of the destroyers. It'd be best to let Garrus and Ashley have the other 2 destroyers too." Shepard said, mirth turning into seriousness. Everyone else noticed it and got out of their joking reverie.
"If they get the destroyers, then I assume Kaidan, Liara and I get the hoppers then?" Tali asked, though it sounded more like a statement. Shepard nodded to her.
"What do we know about the layout?" Kaidan asked.
"The interior of the base is laid out as a prefab two story with balcony on the left rather than the expected underground pattern. Luckily for you guys, your opponents will be on the ground floor and walls, while mine is on the balcony." Shepard said irritated at how his opponent was further away and much more difficult to reach. That being said everyone rushed in fast guns blazing. Almost immediately, the roar of gun fire sounded out. Everyone took cover in various places.
Shepard chanced a look out of his cover to see a geth destroyer making its way to where Wrex was.
"Wrex! Get ready in 3, 2, 1!" Shepard yelled out. As he finished, the krogan popped out of cover blasting his Sokolov shotgun at the geth destroyer, before using throw on it. Seeing as it wasn't going to be enough and the destroyer knocked of balance, Wrex charged at it, knocking it on the ground following it up with carnage. Not giving it the chance to get up, he continued blasting at its head until it finally stopped moving.
While Wrex was fighting his opponent the others fought their's. Ashley and Garrus both took on a destroyer each while Kaidan, Liara and Tali each fought a Hopper.
Garrus saw his destroyer aim right at him as it approached while he was crouched down in cover. Quickly vaulting over his cover to get away from the incoming fire, Garrus barely managed to get out of the way in time. He didn't dare stop though as the destroyer came into the open, intent on killing him. He popped up and used overload on it. The geth was immediately paralyzed from the shock and its weapon overheated from the sudden electrical discharge as well as loosing its shields. Garrus took advantage of the situation and quickly used overkill on it, killing it.
Ashley battled hers while taking cover since she didn't have the element of surprise like Wrex or tech expertise like Garrus did. She was currently being shot at by her opponent while in cover. Thinking quickly, she boosted her shields and entered an adrenaline rush before she got out of cover and used overkill on the destroyer. She had just managed to drain its shields and do some real damage when her shields went out. Her assault training gave her temporary immunity to the pain and stinging she felt as the bullets hit her armor. Finally, the destroyer went down, riddled with holes all over. Ashley came off of her rush as she finally started to feel a lot of pain. She sank to her knees and looked at where most of it was coming from. Two bullets had managed to go through her completely on her torso. She did what she could with applying medi-gel to the wounds, but eventually the fatigue of her fight and the pain overcame her. Ashley's vision slowly went to black.
Liara faced her hopper, a stalker class, having a difficult time trying to get a decent shot on it but the fact it was using hit and run tactics was making it nearly impossible for her. Realizing this, she adjusted her strategy from using her Karpov pistol only to throwing in a few biotics. At first she tried using singularity, but by the time it manifested, the hopper was already out of range.
'This is getting very irksome! What would Shepard or Kaidan do?... They would use a move that would home in on the target, but what could... lift!' Liara thought before trying her plan. It was an immediate success as the hopper was caught and began to levitate helplessly in the air. Liara showed it no mercy as she used warp and fired on it, taking it out for good. Kaidan saw this out of the corner of his eye and quickly did the same thing, quickly destroying it. Kaidan was about to go help Tali but noticed something was wrong when he didn't see Ashley. His blood chilled for a moment when he saw some blood splatter on the wall near the entrance. He quickly went over to see what had happened.
Tali was battling her hopper, a sapper, and it was starting to tear through her shields. Thinking fast, she used overload on it just as it landed. Its power distribution disrupted by the sudden charge caused it to crash into the ground. Tali then used carnage on the hopper as it lay there helpless.
Shepard had forgone using the stairs to get to the geth juggernaut and instead opted for some old-fashioned parkour. As soon as the Wrex attacked, he raced ahead to the wall furthest from the entrance. Shepard quickly ran to the wall, manifesting his biotics to gain speed and lighten himself. Isaac, seeing what his friend was up to, activated Shepard's magboots to help grip the wall. This caused Shepard to run up the wall like it was nothing before leaping onto the balcony. The geth juggernaut saw him and immediately fired with its pulse rifle. Shepard having already anticipated it activated his omni-shield.
'Let's see who's the better Juggernaut.' He thought as the geth's rounds barraged his shield. Shepard used both warp and overload on the geth. Its equipment damaged and its shields destroyed, the juggernaut could not defend itself from Shepard who switched out his omni-shield for dual disruptor blades. Shepard immediately closed the distance, stabbing the electrified forked blades into the geth's torso and neck piece each.
'I guess it's me.' Shepard thought as he wrenched his blades out of the geth, letting it fall motionless. He looked over the balcony to see his team starting to finish their opponents too. Seeing how things were going, he went to where the computer terminals were seeing as he couldn't get anything from the damaged geth bodies. He entered the room and made a b-line for the geth terminal that was hooked up to the most technology. Before he could touch it however, he heard something. The terminal lit up with music and the hologram of a quarian before a hushed crowd. He noticed the quarian warbling a mournful capella of worlds and innocence lost. The part that had him freaked out a little was the fact that the hologram looked toward him when it finished almost as if it were alive. And just like that it disappeared. He could see on the monitor that the recording was dispatched to the geth worlds beyond the Perseus Veil. After that the transmitter shutdown.
'That was strange.' Shepard thought as he began to hack the terminal. Seeing the difficult encryption on it, he had Isaac take a crack at it. He knew as good of a hacker as he was, Isaac blew him out of the water when it came to firewalls and computers. After a minute, Isaac began talking.
"Shepard, there's a number of encrypted geth data files on here. In the right hands, it could show how much the geth have evoloved since the banishment of the quarians." Isaac said suggestively.
"Yea, this could help." Shepard said before Tali ran in.
"Shepard get down here fast! Ashley's been hurt!" She hysterically said. Shepard's eyes widened before he practically flew out of the room, with Tali following him closely, until he jumped of the balcony to get to the ground floor. He landed doing a tuck-in-roll, having used his biotics unconsciously to levitate himself down. He made his way to where everyone else was seeing as they were huddled around Ashley's prone form with Kaidan attempting to do first aid.
"Garrus, go get the mako, quickly!" Shepard ordered as he approached, having slowed to a fast walk. The turian instinctively stapped to attention at his name being called before nodding and running to the entrance. As soon as Shepard got to Ashley, he kneeled down to her.
"What's the damage?" Shepard demanded as he looked over her armored torso, where the blood was pouring out from.
"2 serious bullet wounds in her torso. One each has pierced both her lungs." Kaidan said before Shepard closed his eyes and layed his hand on her stomach. He then began using biotic sonar. A few seconds passed as Shepard ignored everything around him and focused on the energy pulsing through Ashley, then he felt what was going on inside her.
"Shit." Shepard said as he activated his omni-blade. Everyone looked shocked as he began to use the searing hot blade to slice through Ashley's armor.
"What are you doing? What is it?" Kaidan asked concerned.
"The bullets went completely through her, making her blood leak into her lungs. If we don't stop it now, she's literally going to drown in her own blood." Shepard said without looking up as he carefully sliced through the armor, making sure not to graze her with the blade. After finally separating most of the armor, he deactivated the blade and ripped the armor open. Seeing as she wore her fatigues under the armor, Shepard ripped that open too revealing her wearing a sports bra and the 2 wounds. Shepard then lifted her up revealing the 2 exit shots.
"Kaidan, apply medi-gel to the back wounds while I try to pull the blood out of her lungs."Shepard ordered. Kaidan, and everyone else, wondered what Shepard meant by pull, but did what he was told. He then saw what Shepard meant by pull. Shepard was using his biotics to actually levitate and make the blood flow out of Ashley's lungs.
'That takes near perfect mass effect field manipulation!' The biotics in the group thought stunned. After a minute Shepard told Kaidan to apply medi-gel to her front now. The sentinel did so with urgency. Shepard layed Ash down as he got back up. Seeing as she was out of danger for the moment, he activated his omni-tool to call Joker.
"Joker, I need you to land the Normandy quickly. Ash's been hurt. We've stabilized her but hurry anyway! I'd prefer Chakwas take a look over her." Shepard said into his omni-tool.
"On my way now." Joker's voice responded back seriously. Shepard let out a sigh of relief as he sat down, his eyes not leaving Ash's unconscious body for a second.
An hour later.
Shepard was leaning against the wall near the med bay's entrance with his arms crossed, eyes closed waiting for permission to come in. He wasn't the only one who was there. In fact the whole team was there. Kaidan was leaning on the wall adjacent to the med bay's entrance as well. Liara and Tali both were sitting at the table in the common area. Wrex was leaning against the wall next to them while Garrus was pacing back and forth. After a minute Wrex broke the tense silence with a question.
"Shepard, who trained you in biotics?" The man mentioned opened his eyes at the question and looked at Wrex, almost as if he were considering the pros and cons of telling him the truth. Finally he relented.
"Aria T'Loak." That answer caused shock in not only Wrex, Liara, Garrus and Kaidan. The only one who wasn't was Tali having not known who Aria was.
"Your telling me that you were trained by the Pirate Queen herself?!" Wrex said after snapping out of his stupor. In his years of being a bounty hunter, he heard how ruthless and powerful Aria T'Loak was. She was known as the equivalent to the Council in the Terminus. The fact that this human managed to get her to train him was nothing short of mind boggling.
Liara was in shock at the name to having heard of the Pirate Queen from her mother. She knew an asari matriarch with that much power was definitely dangerous.
"Who's Aria T'Loak?" Tali asked not knowing who they were talking about. She got the feeling she was missing out on something big when everyone turned to her with stunned eyes.
"W-What?" She asked, uneasy by the stares.
"You were taught about the Council and their space, but not about the Terminus?" Shepard asked. Tali shook her head.
"We keep a distance from most of it." She responded.
"Well let me tell you about Aria T'Loak just in case. Aria T'Loak is the asari de facto ruler of Omega, the nominal capital of the Terminus Systems. Also known as the "Pirate Queen" of Omega, Aria is fiercely possessive of that space station and will do anything to protect it and maintain her dominance." Shepard explained a basic idea of Aria. Tali nodded in understanding, a little bit of fear mixed in too.
"What's it like?" Garrus asked drawing Shepard's attention.
"What Aria T'Loak or working for her?" Shepard asked with a small unnoticeable smirk.
"Both." the turian clarified. Shepard sighed before responding.
"Aria is very authoritative of her reign on Omega, ruling the station with an iron fist. Her organization is quite strong and her men unbelievably loyal. Almost nothing that happens on Omega escapes her notice, causing mercenary groups to think twice before crossing her. No matter who she deals with, she makes sure she has the upper hand in the bargaining. She has centuries of experience dealing with people who thought themselves being in better positions. Simply by observing a person, she can easily read a lot about them and usually immediately knows when they are lying. She is determined to always get the last word in a conversation, reinforcing her position and authority as Omega's ruler. That is until she met me." Shepard explained with his smirk growing.
"What do you mean?" Garrus asked confused by the last statement.
"Aria didn't find out who I was until I was 23 when I became the Ghost at 16. Add the fact that I was practically living right under her nose, well." Shepard said cheekily.
"So what was it like working for her?" Garrus asked again with a smirk of his own. Shepard's smirk vanished at the question.
"Have you ever seen the old human movie series 'The Godfather'?" Shepard asked with Garrus shaking his head no.
"Watch it. It's like that mixed with some other stuff." Shepard said.
"So what happened to make you get into Aria's good graces anyway?" Kaidan asked. He knew that someone like Aria was smart and very cautious, having been in a position of power for centuries.
"I saved one of her most important agents and escorted them to Aria herself. She had been looking for me ever since I started out to try and either manipulate or eliminate me. She tried to do the former with training me in biotics. After that, I started doing jobs for her and eventually rose in her ranks as her spectre equivalent." Shepard explained vaguely.
"Does she have any others?" Garrus asked. Shepard closed his eyes in thought having not moved from his position on his wall.
"I know of only 2 others, but from what Aria told me they abused their power too much. So much so that they became a detriment instead of a benefit to Omega's economy, and by extension her. In recompense, she had them eliminated." Shepard said. Everyone was a little worried for him now seeing as his 2 predecessors were killed by their benefactor.
"From what I heard though, I could see why Aria had given them their jobs considering they didn't go down easily." Shepard continued.
"And your not the least bit afraid the Aria might kill you too?" Wrex asked. Shepard shook his head no in response.
"Unlike them, Aria, along with several of her high ranking officers, has said multiple times that I am better than the previous 2 considering I don't really abuse my power, and actually brought a form of stability to Omega. That and the fact that I've lasted longer than them says something." Shepard said with a shrug. Before anyone could ask anything else, Chakwas came out. She immediately ushered Kaidan and Shepard in, but kept everyone else out.
Shepard and Kaidan quickly moved to the where Ashley was laying on. She looked relatively okay. The only indication of injury was the bandages wrapped around her torso. Shepard noticed she was sleeping peacefully too making him feel relieved.
"You two patched her up didn't you?" Chakwas asked from behind them making Shepard freeze for a moment before they both turned around. Chakwas was looking at Kaidan more than Shepard seeing as he was the medic of the group.
"It was a pretty good job considering it was on the field excellent work." Chakwas said to Kaidan. Kaidan merely shook his head before pointing to Shepard.
"Sorry Doc, but Shepard was the one who did most of the work. All I did was apply the medi-gel." He said making Chakwas look at Shepard in approval.
"All I did was use mass effect manipulation to draw the blood out of her lungs while you applied the medi-gel, Kaidan." Shepard said before he looked back at Ashley. He noticed she was smiling a little in her sleep.
"Well, all that matters is she is safe. I didn't really have to do anything but check to see if she had any other damage." Chakwas said before she turned solemn. Both men saw this.
"What's wrong?" Kaidan asked with Shepard looking just as concerned.
"The geth had used polonium rounds on her. The medi-gel that you both used had effectively wiped out the poisonous toxins from her system, but were unable to heal the damaged tissue. I'm going to have to keep her in here for at least 2 weeks. Even then she won't get back into the field for a week after that." Chakwas explained.
Shepard let loose a sigh of relief that he had been holding in. "Fine at least she's safe."
"Now you 2 are going to leave now and let her get some peaceful rest." Chakwas subtly ordered. Both men left the med bay to tell everyone the news. Everyone else left to do something after having heard Ashley will be fine. Everyone except Tali and Shepard that is.
"Shepard I need to talk to you, it's important." Tali said.
"Sure what's up?" Shepard asked.
"You know the data you took from those geth control nodes? The information you had Joker send to the Alliance? I want a copy of it." Tali said with confidence.
"For your Pilgrimage huh." It wasn't a question.
"Those files could have information that could be vital to our efforts to understand the geth. It could be the key to helping us reclaim our homeworld!"Tali reasoned before Shepard raised his hand up to calm her down.
"Okay I'll give you a copy." Shepard said as he took out another OSD from his pocket. Issac had already copied it to the personal OSD anyway.
"My people-I- owe you great debt. One we can never repay." She said as she reached for the OSD before Shepard pulled the OSD from her reach.
"On one condition." Shepard said with a small grin. Tali looked shocked at him before narrowing her eyes.
"What?" She said in a cautious tone. Shepard wasn't going to ask for something really unreasonable... was he?
"You don't leave our little group until we stop Saren. Deal?" Shepard said as he handed out the OSD.
"Deal. I promise to stand with you till the end." Tali said before swiping it from him. She then hugged him. Shepard was mildly surprised by the strong grip she had on him.
"Thank you Shepard." Tali whispered before she bolted to the elevator. Shepard was about to go to his room when Joker called him.
"Hey Shepard, Admiral Hackett called again. He wants to speak with you." Joker said.
"Be right there." Shepard said as he went up to the galaxy map. When he finally got there, Hackett spoke to him first.
"Ghost we just received your report. Looks like these geth incursions were bigger than we thought. They were probably preparing for a major offensive in the system."
"What are you going to do about it in the future?" Shepard asked.
"We're increasing patrols in the Armstrong Cluster to make sure they can't establish another foothold in the region. Nice work Ghost. You saved a lot of human lives on this mission."
It wasn't just me, it was my team." Shepard retorted. Before he began to leave when Hackett spoke again.
"I never would have imagined Hannah Shepard's boy to become the person you are today, Shepard." Shepard froze in mid-step along with the rest of the crew from hearing that comment.
"What did you just say?" Shepard asked as he turned around to the map.
I'm very sorry for the delay! I had a bad case of work piling up, college preparations and some laziness mixed in. But I'm back. Tell me what you think and please review.
I also have a new poll up so please vote!