"INCOMING!" a minotaur yelled as he fell back to a makeshift barricade.
A mortar shell detonated destroying the barricades but it opened up the way for a hidden turret to fire at incoming geth troopers. It also allowed for several security officers to fire at them and the armatures that they had brought in for backup. The rockets hit their mark and the geth were forced to fall back and regroup. While that happened, the red armoured security soldiers of Exogeni moved some rubble back into the main area to protect the entrance.
The minotaur grunted as he sat and let a medic deal with his wounds. He cursed as the asari medic tended to his wounds, they weren't bad, just painful. Looking around, the people moved what they could to try and reinforce the barriers that were destroyed during the attack. Most of them were civilians while the rest were security personnel. Some of them were attended by medics while others just got something to eat. Not that he would complain, they needed some kind of pick me up. As the medic worked as fast as he can as a taura walked up to the minotaur.
"Captain, you ok?" she asked.
"I'm good, reinforce out position," he ordered.
The taura nodded and made her way over to the barricades to help reinforce it. The asari looked to the taura before looking to the Captain,
"Sir, apologies for asking but why doesn't she..." she made a motion of having a septum ring. "…have a ring like yours?"
"You mean why is she ringless?" he asked getting a nod from the asari. "It's not a common thing, minotaurs have a ring to show that they belong to a group. Silver for belonging to a tribe, while gold is mostly a sign of marriage. But ringless means that you have no family to call your own. For lack of a better word, she's an orphan, and being a minotaur that is very rare,"
The asari just nodded looking over to the female minotaur. "Close family ties huh?"
"Indeed, we minotaurs pride ourselves on being a large family," he admitted. "I found her alone and scared, and took her in. But she refused to be ringed, but it's fine. Adopted minotaurs don't like to get ringed until they are married," the asari nodded again as someone came running up.
"Sir, we have a ship incoming from the alliance. IFF identifies it as the Normandy," he said. "They said that they are here to look for a turian named Seren,"
"Good, it's time we got help," the minotaur muttered.
OOOOO
The Normandy flew in to Feros' atmosphere with the stealth systems active. Before they entered, Joker detected several geth AA guns and fighters coming from the archology spires. Not wanting to get shot, he activated the stealth systems before flying into the docking bay. Inside the airlock stood Shepard, her team and Chackwas' medical staff. As soon as the airlock opened the group of 15 people walked out carrying medical supplies and ammunition. As they walked out a settler waited for them.
"Hi," Zenna said walking up to him. "You in charge here?"
"Yeah," the man said. "You need to talk to Fai Dan, he's just up the stairs past the freighter,"
Before anyone one else could say anything, a geth trooper with a rocket launcher blew the man apart and forcing the group to get into cover. Five geth soldiers had managed to find their way to the landing pad, this was likely a stealth attack to weaken the colonies forces. But it seemed that they didn't expect the Normandy to land. This took the machines by surprise, but being machines they just adapted to the situation. Two of them had moved up to confront the group while the other three help back and tried to pick off the medical team.
Zenna and Wrex emerged from cover and opened fire their weapons at the geth. While they did put up shields they didn't last with the oncoming fire. They didn't last as the shields went and Garrus took them down. As for the other three, Ashley and Kadian jumped over a gap and ripped into what was left of the geth before they spat out the oil and metal.
"Yuck, I hate that taste," Ashley muttered.
"Then don't swallow," Zenna smiled as she walked past.
Ashley just made a face before following the commander. The team moved up to flights of stairs before getting shot at by the colonists.
"Hey! Friendly!" Zenna called out coming out with her hands up.
"Shit, cease fire!" someone yelled and a man walked up to her. "Commander it's good to see you," he said. "They finally sent someone,"
"It's no problem," Zenna said as she indicated for the rest of the team to emerge with weapons, ammo and medical supplies. "This is for you, and my ship doctor with her staff will help out,"
"Thanks, this will…" the man tried to say but an explosion at the other end of the settlement. "They are coming from the tower!" he yelled. "Protect the heart of the colony!"
"Ash, Garrus you two are with me," Zenna said. "The rest of you stay here and reinforce this position,"
The crew nodded and they split up. Zenna, Ashley and Garrus moved up to the far entrance and took cover as geth troopers began to fire at them. Pulling out a grenade, Ashley tossed it into the entrance corridor. It exploded taking out three of the geth troopers allowing Zenna to unload a thermal clip into two other geth troopers. They then moved up into the tower itself. Reaching the top level, they noticed a geth dropship dropping in troopers to try and take the tower.
Zenna and Ashley advanced to the nearest cover they could find while Garrus held back and began to take out the geth's shields. Ash and Zenna fished them off with a quick burst of rounds. As they moved up the commander pulled out her pistol and began to fire high explosive rounds at the dropship. It didn't do much but it did send the message to send it back to where it came from. Satisfied with the fact that they aren't going to be back soon they headed back down to the settlement.
As they walked in the man who met them earlier ran up to them. "Thanks' for that, I'm Fai Dan, leader of the colony. For the time being,"
"It's not a problem, we are here to help," Zenna said.
"I appreciate your concern and your efforts against the geth. I just wish there was more I could help out with," Fai Dan said as an irregular minotaur walked up.
"They have been slowed but they will be back," he said. "Sorry, I'm Captain Vuras head of security, or at least what's left of it,"
"Pleasure," Zenna said as she held out her hand and the Captain shook it with a smile.
"Your ringless?" he asked with a raised brow. "Orphan?"
"Yeah," Shepard answered. "Grew up on earth. No family, but I'm a Chimera,"
"Ouch…" Fai dan muttered. "Rough childhood then,"
"You have no idea," the commander muttered as she rubbed the side of her head. "Anti-demi human group," both of them looked a her with a mild shock.
Anti-demi human groups were not uncommon, but they were normally just protestors and the like. However, ones for ones who had more drastic idea's, they got shut down pretty quickly before any damage could be done. So, it was rare to hear that someone was captured by them, even if they were a shadow organisation.
"Anyway, that's in the past," she said shaking her head getting rid of the painful memories. "The geth are here for a reason, I need to know what,"
"We don't know what they are after," Fai dan admitted. "They cam and just attacked. Took out most of the harpies as well. Their main base of operations is at the Exogeni headquarters. You can look there if you are looking for answers,"
Zenna nodded. Before she arrived, she made sure to check up on the details of the world. The planet was supported by the Exogeni company for research purposes. But the file was a little sketchy on what that research was. She made a mental note to check up on that. Even if it was company secrets, if Seren was here then there had to be a reason for it.
"Where is the headquarters?" she then asked.
"At the other end of the skyway," Vuras said. "You cannot miss it,"
"Thanks, come on guy's," Zenna said as she led her team back up the tower.
Once they were out of earshot Fai dan turned to the minotaur standing next to him. "She just looks her, you don't think…" he muttered.
Vuras shrugged. "It's possible, they look enough alike. But that could be just coincidence," he shook his head. "But then there's the demi-human group and being an orphan. Minotaur orphans are rare, so it's more than possible,"
"Isn't she defending the entrance?" Fai dan asked.
"Yeah…" Vuras nodded as the tower began to shake.
OOOOO
The geth decided to try another attack on the Zhu's hope defensive line. This time however, it was more of a success as they took out several of the security personnel. But the barrier and heavy fire from the defence line kept them back. One of the demi-humans however was posing quite a threat to the geth forces. Phrara charged in using a rebar club to smash two of the geth soldiers into the ground. One of the armatures tried to get a shot off at her but she just moved out of the way, but the blast staggered her.
That allowed the machine to re-target her, but before it could get a shot off, she moved faster then it could register. It tried to relocate her but its legs were crushed underneath it. A hand then reached in and ripped the pipes and wires from the inside forcing the machine to shut down. Phrara smiled as she threw the wires down and looked at her next target. A prime walked down the skyway holding a massive weapon in hand. Cursing, the minotaur moved out of the way as the prime fired. It was flanked by several geth soldiers and armatures.
As she moved back to the defensive wall as the rounds hit the barricade. In the skies several harpies flew in and fired several rockets at the incoming geth forces. The explosions managed to take out several of them. But they still advanced. But this time they fired at the flaying demi-humans. One of the rounds managed to hit one of the harpies in the wing making him fly behind the barricade. Phrara ran up to him and helped him over to the side. Pulling out a medigel canister she applied it to the wound.
"Thanks," he muttered with a moan.
The lift door then opened with a hu-hound, tuarian and a surprising sight of a minotaur which made Phrara just stare at her. Dark skin, silver hair, 6 feet tall, muscles ready to burst other armour. But that wasn't what caught her eyes, it was her face. While she had a few scars, she looked just like her. The officer's mind raced as she watched the minotaur move up to the barricade and help the others fend off the attack. She didn't notice Phrara and just focused on the geth attack.
That was probably a good thing, for now. Questions can wait, right now the defence of Zhu's hope was needed. Grabbing her weapon, she ran up to the barricades and began to fire as well.
Codex:
Harpies:
Harpies are one of the more common types of demi human out there. But due to their ability to fly, their biology has placed limits on them. It's rare to see a harpy over 5 feet and have any sexual organ to be large. Their bones are also quite light, but this also makes them quite weak. Broken bones are a common thing with this demi-human species. But making them stronger wound negatively affect how they fly.
Their arms, aren't really arms however, they are wings which makes things requiring arms and hands problematic for them. But this is solved with cybernetic arm implants, but they need to be removed before the harpy takes flight. Personality wise, harpies are some of the kindest people you can meet. But they do focus on food when it's around.
In terms of jobs, harpies tend to be quite varied. Restaurants, pilots and more, there is not set thing that the harpies cannot do. When it comes to combat, harpies perform a very niche role. While they are used as dogfighters, they can also be used for recon and bombing. Given their small stature, any radar that picks them up makes them look like a large bird. This is one of the reasons why the turains had trouble with demi-human forces.
Because they have no arms, but wings the weapons they use tend to be machine guns or rocket launchers fixed to their chests. While this maybe dangerous, the technology has been perfected over years of trial and error. It also makes combat harpies highly tried in order to use these weapons safely.