The mako landed with a thud on the dusty red surface of Therum as the sun was rising, though most of the beauty of the sunrise was obscured by haze and smoke generated by the molten lava flowing above and beneath the surface. The air drop from the Normandy hadn't been as rough as usual, which Shepard noted as she began to steer toward the map point where the Prothean ruins were marked.
"I upgraded the shock absorbers," Garrus explained. "Of course, buying new ones that aren't twenty years old would be a better solution…"
"Thank you, Garrus," Shepard said.
The squad was crammed into the interior of the mako, all seated behind Shepard except for Garrus, who occupied the seat next to her to control the turret's firing mechanism. She had brought along Kaidan and Ashley as well as the three aliens. She would need all the help she could get, and after their work together on the citadel, she knew this group could cooperate in an efficient way.
As they were making their descent into Therum's atmosphere a call from Admiral Hackett at Alliance Command had notified them of geth sighted on Therum's surface. The news was unsettling, but somehow not unexpected. Whether Dr. T'soni was working with Saren, or wanted by him, Shepard had anticipated possible geth resistance. And after her fight with the AIs on Eden Prime, she wasn't looking forward to facing them again. They didn't think or react like organic targets, and that made them dangerous.
"It's as hot as Palaven in here," Garrus said, pulling at the black fabric beneath his armor.
Shepard was warm too. The mako had never had the most hospitable interior, and it usually wasn't this crowded. Normally two or three squad members might be occupying the back seat, which could comfortably fit around eight people in full armor. Unfortunately, Wrex took up two seats by himself. The body heat generated by a krogan was immense in such a small space, and the additional bodies didn't help matters. It was beginning to smell like sweat and body odor as well, which was only compounding everyone's discomfort.
"How long until we can get out of this thing?" Wrex demanded.
"ETA is 20 minutes before we have to get out and go on foot." Shepard glanced at the map. The path narrowed ahead and the map was indicating that the mako would not fit. From the stop point, it was another twenty minutes on foot.
"Have to?" Tali asked. "It sounds like a blessing to me."
"You know it's uncomfortable in here when the girl who spends her whole life in an enviro-suit is feeling cramped," Ash muttered.
"Why do quarians wear the enviro-suits?" Kaidan asked. "I mean, I know it has to do with your immune system. But do you even wear them on the flotilla?"
"We wear our suits everywhere," Tali explained. "Living off world weakened our immune systems. We only take them off under rare circumstances."
"It must feel isolating," Ash said, frowning. "No touch or skin contact. It's such an integral part of life to us."
"You can't miss what you rarely know," Tali shrugged. "Quarians don't need pity. It's a testament to our resilience that we've found a way to survive even with our immune systems as weak as they are."
"You're right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult you."
"You didn't insult me," Tali said more softly. "There's a lot people don't know or understand about the quarians, a lot of misconceptions. I've gotten used to it since I left the flotilla for my pilgrimage. I know you weren't asking out of malice."
Shepard was half listening to the conversation as she drove. Visibility was always low out of the front of the mako, but the smoke rising from the planet's surface was making it worse. The radar screen was a better indicator of where to go, and Garrus would occasionally comment when the mako was straying too near to a lava pool in Shepard's blind spot. He was good to have in the co-pilot seat. He'd spent the last week calibrating the mako and he knew it well, so he was a natural choice. Jenkins had filled the role previously on their missions, but they had lost him on Eden Prime. He'd been a good soldier.
Distracted by the memory of her former squad mate, Shepard didn't notice the radar screen until Garrus said something.
"There's something up ahead that's not indicated on the map. Could be Alliance, could be geth," he pointed out.
She looked down to see a tiny red dot blinking on the radar, approaching closer and closer. The squad in the back leaned forward to try and see what was happening. Shepard peered out the window trying to get a visual on the approaching target.
She and Garrus realized what it was at the same exact time. Garrus jammed his finger on the mako's jump mechanism, just in time to avoid the blast from a geth armature. The mako leaped gracelessly over the blast beam and landed back on the ground with a boom. Garrus aimed the turret and started firing while Shepard did her best to steer out of the way of the siege pulses being fired by the armature.
Garrus' aim was good, but the geth armature had strong shields in place, and it would take a lot of heavy fire to bring it down. They were so focused on firing, that they never noticed the second armature to the west of the first. A blast hit the mako's shields and shook the vehicle so forcefully that Ash went flying from one side to the other. Kaidan moved quickly to stop her with a biotic field before her head could slam into the wall.
Tali pushed her way forward and wedged herself uncomfortably between Garrus and Shepard. There was hardly room for two people at the front, let alone three, particularly when one was the size of a turian. The result was Shepard ducking beneath Tali to retain control of the vehicle, while Tali sat, almost perched on Shepard's shoulders, tapping hurriedly on her omni-tool.
"Can you hack the armature from here?" Garrus asked, incredulous.
"You need to get me a little closer. If I can hack the closer one, I can make it fire on the one up the hill. Then we can focus our efforts there."
"I'm on it," Shepard said, slamming her foot on the gas and moving toward the closer of the two armatures.
It fired another siege blast and Garrus hit the jump mechanism before firing back. Tali continued to tap heatedly at the omni-tool. Confirmation of her success came as they drew almost too close to the armature to fire. It seized up, shifted awkwardly, then began firing on its ally up the hill.
Shepard veered the mako toward the second armature and Garrus let loose with the turret. Tali continued typing commands into her omni-tool as they moved. With the help of the sabotaged armature, the second one fell quickly, collapsing in a heap before it exploded. Tali activated the self-destruct on the hacked armature and it followed suit.
The radar was clear once again, and the three of them collapsed in relief.
"We should have been prepared for that," Shepard sighed.
"Should have," Wrex agreed. "Pay more attention to your radar, Shepard."
"Thanks," she replied sourly. "Everyone okay back there?"
"Fine now," Ash said.
Tali climbed back into the rear of the mako when she realized how cramped it had become up front.
"Sorry," she said quickly.
"Don't apologize, you saved our asses," Shepard told her. "And good firing, Garrus."
"I'm a turian, of course it was good," he replied coolly.
"Well, now we know the geth are definitely here. Let's keep an eye on the radar and try to get to the dig site in one piece, shall we?" Shepard addressed the squad as she kicked the mako back into gear and continued on their path toward the Prothean ruins.
It was a welcome relief when the mako approached the narrow pass, surrounded by cliff face, signaling the necessity to continue on foot. Even Garrus had been feeling warm inside the cramped vehicle, and turians were known for their tolerance to heat.
The group of them spilled slowly out of the side of the vehicle onto the rusty red soil of Therum. It felt good to be able to move and stretch their limbs. The mako had been modified for human use, different on the interior than similar models Garrus had seen during his military training on Palaven. It wasn't designed with the long legs and arms of a turian in mind by any means.
Shepard brought up the map and radar on her omni-tool and motioned for the group to follow her up into the pass.
"There's a lot of red up ahead," she said. "Be prepared to encounter heavy geth resistance. Everyone have their shields up?"
Everyone replied back in the affirmative. Garrus readied his sniper rifle. He didn't like being enclosed like they were, the cliffs towering above them. From their position, there were a hundred spots a sniper might have the high ground to fire down on them. But the cliff-face was too high to climb so that he might have a better vantage point, so he kept his eyes peeled for any sign of movement or flashing light that might indicate an enemy troop.
The path was rocky and uneven, red dust kicking up around them as they moved. Turian feet were made for navigating such terrain, their bodies built to self-stabilize when balance was compromised. Garrus had no trouble sliding down stony embankments or climbing up steep hills, but the humans were a bit less graceful in their movements. Though none of the skilled soldiers managed to trip or fall, they held their arms out awkwardly to maintain balance, wobbling as they prevented themselves from toppling over. Of course, Garrus had seen the same behavior in humans when they were drunk (though they fell over more frequently then), but it was still amusing to watch all the same.
Wrex's lumbering form seemed to balance itself, despite its considerable roundness when compared to a turian's. Tali, however, moved like Garrus did. She was light on her feet and always three steps ahead of the rest of the group, except Shepard, who managed to maintain her place at the front of them, marching steadily onward, a close eye on the radar.
The path widened and sloped downward ahead and she held a hand up to stop them. From their vantage point, and with the help of his visor, Garrus could make out a small circular compound up ahead, filled with Alliance gear and guarded with mechanical gate houses. Manning the walls of the gate houses were sturdy geth turrets. Geth prime walked the perimeter, waiting for any sign of intrusion, likely alerted to the group's presence by the armatures they'd destroyed on the way in.
"Geth up ahead, Shepard," Garrus told her.
She turned and showed the group the map on her omni-tool. The entire compound looked like one huge red mark on the map. Behind those gates, it was swarming with geth.
"There's no way we'll be able to take them all on. Besides that, I saw turrets above the gates. One blast from one of those and your shields are gone," Garrus said.
Shepard pointed to a tiny opening on the east side of the path a few yards ahead. "We could go through here and enter through the back. Take them by surprise. It won't be easy, but I don't see what other option we have. That compound blocks access up to the dig site. We can't get there otherwise."
The new path led up and around to the side of the compound where no gate was indicated on the map. It was a small weakness, but if they could take the geth by surprise, it would be worth a shot. And Shepard was right, it was their only option.
Garrus could see the opening with his visor. It was out of view of the compound, so they could make their way onto the new path without being detected. There was also a bit of rock jutting from the cliff face that might be scale-able at this height. If he and Tali and Ash could get to higher ground, Tali could hack the turrets while he and Ash took out geth from above. This would leave Shepard, Wrex, and Kaidan an entrance on foot without being ambushed. Kaidan could provide a barrier for them upon initial entry, and once enough geth had been eliminated, join the battle.
He explained as much to the group and then folded his arms waiting for a response.
"It's a good plan. Very strategic," Shepard agreed. "Kaidan, how long do you think you could hold a barrier against the geth?"
The lieutenant shrugged. "Two, maybe three minutes. It would buy us enough time to gain the upper hand. Barriers take a lot of energy at that size. If I hold it any longer I won't be able to use my biotics to fight."
"That's plenty of time," Garrus insisted. "We'll be picking off geth from above, so that will help matters too."
"Once I've hacked the turrets, I can focus on several geth at once from that height," Tali added.
"It's a good spot," Ash agreed. "I could get a lot of shots in before you guys even reach the compound"
"What are we standing around for then?" Wrex demanded. "We wait much longer and the geth are going to figure out we're here."
"Wrex is right," Shepard said. "Keep in touch over the comm channel. Garrus, Ash, you give the word when we should move in."
"Commander," Ash saluted.
Garrus nodded, "Shepard."
The group moved out, into the narrow passageway. The set of rocks leading to the top of the cliff were small, not quite large enough for a turian foot, but still scale-able. Ash took the lead, scrambling up the rocks surprisingly quickly for a human that had been on the verge of stumbling down every slope along the path so far. Human hands had more fingers to grip with than turian ones, though Garrus had his talons to help the task.
Tali brought up the rear, the slowest of the three. Quarians were shorter than both turians and humans, and towards the top of a cliff, the gap between the rocks was too large for her to reach her leg up as if it were a step. Garrus had to pull her up, an easy task as she weighed hardly anything, especially compared to turians he had carried during his military service.
When they reached the top of the cliff, it was to immediately fall onto their stomachs to avoid being seen by the geth. They were above them, but close enough that if they stood around too long they would be easily sighted.
"Ash, you go to the other side of the cliff at the front of the compound with Tali. Keep the gunfire off of her while she's hacking the turrets. I'll head over here by the unguarded portion and clear the way for Shepard and the others. Meet me when you've cleared the gatehouse."
"Will do. Good luck, Garrus," she said. She sounded sincere too. Perhaps in the heat of battle, there were no species, just comrades.
Garrus crawled along the ground with some difficulty until he found a cluster of rocks that would provide excellent cover from gunfire, almost directly overlooking the compound and the opening where Shepard, Kaidan, and Wrex would soon be.
"Any word?" Shepard's voice came over the speaker on his comm link.
"In position," Ash's voice said. "Tali's hacking the first turret. Waiting to fire until the turret activates against the geth."
"Roger, holding fire," Garrus replied.
He peered around the rock he was leaning against to observe the compound. Shepard's radar had painted a fairly accurate picture. There were at least fifty geth patrolling the compound, chattering in electronic noises that had no meaning to Garrus' translator. Most of the group was composed of geth prime and snipers, a few hunters interspersed. They could be dangerous if they activated their cloaking devices, but taken from behind they wouldn't have time.
The most worrisome finding in the compound, however, was the massive geth colossus stationed in the center, balled up and inactivated, it would be at the ready as soon as the shooting began. Garrus was familiar with the names of every type of geth from military training, but he'd never actually seen any of them until now. The colossus had been its own two-day unit. They were similar in build to the armatures, but larger, with stronger shields and armor. To bring one down without the mako's turret would be a challenge. Further complicating things were the geth hoppers, lithe, sinewy things that could scale horizontal walls and moved too quickly to fire accurately against. Ash and Garrus would have to act quickly or Shepard and her squad would be walking into a death trap.
"Begin fire now," Ash's voice came over the speaker. At the same time Garrus heard the geth turret fire up and looked over across the compound to see it firing on the unsuspecting geth guarding the gatehouse.
Retaliation was immediate. The geth were all connected through their own network, one mind and one thought, able to respond to stimuli in a way organics couldn't even imagine. The colusses leaped to life, scanning the compound and firing up at the malfunctioning turret. In turn, the turret turned to fire on the colossus.
Garrus didn't have time to watch the scene unfold. He lined up a shot with his rifle and fired, blasting a geth prime in the chest with a shot that fried its internal components. It landed in a useless heap in the dirt. He moved on to the next target, and the next, firing off round after round, stopping only to reload his thermal clip. When he was in sniper position, the world seemed to slow down around him. Despite the adrenaline of battle, he always felt an unusual calm when he was shooting. Everything else faded away and it was just him and the target.
"First turret has self-destructed," Tali called over the speaker system. "Hacking the second one now."
The immediate sound of gunfire mingled with the artificial sound coming in through the speakers, creating an odd lagging. Garrus had taken down at least eight geth by then. He would need to take out more if Shepard stood a chance against the colossus. He couldn't take it by himself, but if he fired at it now, its missiles would obliterate his cover and he'd be as good as dead. He would have to wait to fire on it until it was distracted.
A quick glance to the left revealed a fair number of geth that Ash had managed to shoot down. The geth were firing back, but with no immediate way to reach the snipers on top of the cliff, the turian and the human kept the upper hand.
"Getting bored down here," Wrex said. "When can we charge?"
"Not yet," Garrus spoke into his comm link. "We've taken down twenty maybe. There's still a few hunters. I'm trying to take out the hoppers, but they're too fast. There's a colossus in there and if we don't take down more, they'll ambush you."
"A colossus!?" Shepard sounded almost nervous.
"Just one. If you can't handle it, we'll just keep firing from up here until it annihilates us with its missiles. Don't worry."
"Garrus," Ash cut in. "I'm going to use a concussive shot on the hoppers. Be ready. If I can hit them, you take a shot while they're stunned."
"On it!"
He ducked out of cover, ready to fire. A geth bullet clipped his shields, but they were still holding strong. The sound of Ash's gun releasing the concussive shot was louder than her other shots had been, but she found her mark: one of the hoppers fell to the ground, twitching, but not destroyed yet. Garrus cheered silently as he aimed and fired. The bullet tore through the hopper, causing the geth to explode, which had the added benefit of taking out the shields on a nearby hunter.
Ash and Garrus played that game of back and forth for several more shots, taking out four hoppers in the process. Ash missed a few, but her aim was better than Garrus could have hoped for against targets that moved that quickly. There were only two left, which would help the odds considerably.
"Second turret's gone," Tali said. "We're heading for you Garrus."
Garrus rolled onto his side and watched as Ash and Tali ran from their own cover, a hail of geth bullets raining down on them. Their shields held up though, and together they rolled and ducked into Garrus' cover, Ash slamming her shoulder hard into the rock as she came to a stop. Bright red blood blossomed on her protective suit in the small gap between her shoulder guards and her chest armor.
"Are you all right?" Tali asked.
Ash winced, "I'm fine."
"Here," Garrus applied some medigel to the wound. "You can't fire with a wounded shoulder."
"Thanks," Ash smiled. "Feels better already."
They turned to assess the damaged they'd done. The geth were holding their fire to conserve thermal clips, waiting for one of them to step out of cover. Garrus changed his visor to reflective mode and tried to angle it so that he could see the compound without giving up the protection of the rock they were leaning against.
They had taken out at least thirty of the geth, if not more. They could get the others while Shepard, Kaidan, and Wrex stormed the colossus. It was still going to be a tough fight, but the playing field was a bit more even now.
"All right, Shepard," Garrus said into his comm link. "There are some Alliance issue makos inside the compound. When you enter, run to your right and take cover behind one of them. We'll keep the geth from your unprotected side. You won't stand a chance against the colossus without cover and nothing else in the compound will hold up to its missiles. Go in when you're ready."
"Roger," Shepard replied. "We're heading in."
"About time," they heard Wrex grumble before Shepard's communication cut out.
Garrus and Ash wasted no time. They jumped up from their cover and began firing on the geth that remained on the perimeter wall. Tali hovered between them. She deployed a defense drone and then began hacking into the colossus' network.
"The bigger ones always have better encryptions," she muttered.
A bullet clipped Garrus' shields as he was firing on another geth prime. He was about to fire back when the colossus decided to take action, firing a missile up at the three of them. They all ducked back under cover, but the missile took out Garrus' shields. Another shot from a geth prime tore into his side before he managed to get back down.
His own bright blue blood blossomed from the wound at his side. The bullet had gone in and out, that much was clear, but damn had it hurt. He clasped his hand to the wound and struggled to bring up the medi-gel administration on his omni-tool.
"Are you okay, Garrus?" Tali asked.
"I'm fine," he said through gritted teeth. "Hack the damn colossus."
He finally managed to get the medi-gel onto the wound and almost at once a pleasant, cooling sensation overtook the throbbing pain as the gel held the wound closed. He hopped back up and began firing.
Shepard, Wrex, and Kaidan had made it inside the compound by then. Kaidan's barrier was up, shielding her and Shepard from their position beind the right-most mako. Wrex had taken up a spot behind a separate mako closer to where they'd entered the compound. He didn't have the benefit of Kaidan's barrier, but he did have stronger shields and armor than either human. He was letting off shot after shot on the colossus with his assault rifle, ducking back behind the mako each time he finished firing.
Shepard was busy firing on two geth approaching from their open side. Ash shot one down and Garrus took care of the other just in time for Kaidan's barrier to fall. Shortly after, Tali managed to hack the colossus. The encryption was too powerful for her to access the self-destruct, but she had at least caused it to seize up for a few moments, which gave Shepard and Wrex clear shots. Shepard sent out a blast of fire from her omni-tool, which knocked out the colossus' shields.
Kaidan went to work on the remaining hoppers, catching them both in a mass effect field and slamming them across the compound into the concrete walls. There were only a few geth troopers remaining, so Garrus, Ash, and Kaidan divided them. The hunters took too much energy for Kaidan to slam, but he could hold them in the air while Ash and Garrus fired. Together, they made quick work of what was left, then turned their attention to the colossus in time to see it collapse into the dirt, its spider-like limbs twitching before it exploded in a huge cloud of flame and smoke.
Garrus slumped down against the rock that had provided them cover from the geth gunfire, relief washing over him. As frightening and intimidating as the whole affair had been, he'd never experienced a battle quite like that, and with a team that could work with such coordination. He had the feeling he was really going to like traveling with Shepard and her crew.
A/N: Chugging along. I actually just beat ME3 for the first time today (I know) and the ending DESTROYED me (no pun intended) so the natural solution was to write/post more. Thanks as usual for all of the favorites/follows!