The shuttle set down on the shady edge of some realy old quarian ruins which Tali was supposedly located. Fluttershy and Garrus were the first out of the shuttle to make sure their entrance didn’t attract the wrong kind of attention, Shepard followed by Rainbow and Luna came closely after as the shuttle flew off again to safety.
“Remember, solar output has overwhelmed Haestrom’s protective magnetosphere. Exposure to direct sunlight will damage your shields when exposed to it,” EDI reminded them as they found their.
“Understood. Let’s take this one slow people, we don’t want to get pinned down in a little bit of shade,” Shepard said, making the first dash over open terrain to the next piece of cover. Luna, who was the one bringing up the rear, kept her eyes peeled behind her helmet, the assault rifle Rainbow had talked her into taking at the ready were they to make contact with the geth forces that were occupying the planet.
“The magic in this place is oppressive… I do not think teleportation will be possible with any reliability,” Luna informed the commander after having passed through a couple of the sun-bathed areas. “I could feel it back on the Normandy but down here it’s magnitudes worse.”
“I can feel it as well,” Fluttershy commented while scoping out the gate they were rapidly approaching.
“Mee three, won’t be doing any rainbooms in this place any time soon,” Dash confirmed as the third pony there.
“We’ll just have to do this the old fashioned way then. Rainbow, Luna, check if you can open this gate from that guard room,” Shepard ordered the two. Rainbow took the lead on entering her shotgun ready but only finding a broken geth and dead quarian next to an active console.
“Poor bastard must have gotten stuck here,” Rainbow muttered, finding the door controls and opening the obstacle up for the squad before shortly rejoining with the squad as they pushed ahead.
A geth dropship then suddenly tore overhead, dropping a small squad of geth right in the path of advance of the group. Everyone opened up on the small obstacle in their way… except for Luna who exclaimed something in an old language, which didn’t get translated, and charged forward, skewering the closes geth on her sword before flinging it to the side.
“No element of surprise for us then I guess,” Fluttershy sighed as they pushed a couple more geth back so they could enter the shade of the ruins proper. A bit deeper in they could hear another ongoing firefight but the fire ceased as they got close, eventually dispatching a group of geth standing over the corpses of a set of fallen quarians.
“Damnit, they only just got killed,” Garrus cursed as he checked the bodies, finding an active radio.
“Break break break. OP-1, this is squad leader Kal’Reagar, do you copy?” The soldier on the other end called out as Garrus passed it along to Shepard. “The geth sent a dropship towards OP-2, we’ve got Tali’Zorah secure but we need backup.”
“This is Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Your squad here is dead, we are ready to assist,” He informed the quarian on the other end.
“Patch into channel 617 Theta. We were on a stealth mission, got our data but can’t transmit through all this solar radiation. The geth pinning us down isn’t helping either, can’t get to our ship anymore,” he rapidly explained.
“Copy that, what’s your location?” Shepard asked, now was not the time to make further inquiries.
“Across the valley we have a basecamp. I left Tali’Zorah in a secure shelter, then doubled back to hold a checkpoint.”
“Good, we’re on our way,” Shepard ended, moving on to a more open area again where they could see a squad of quarians defending the door to their basecamp from a geth assault.
“Wait, dropship coming in!” Reegar suddenly warned, the geth ship zooming over and blasting the quarians who were defending the door while also damaging a stone column which stood next to them. Some were killed instantly but others were able to crawl back to the door before the column could crush them as it fell in front of the door. “Crap. We had demolition charges in the buildings nearby you could use to clear the path, Commander.”
“I have an alternative to that, Shepard. It would be no hard task to simply lift you and Vakarian over the column while Rainbow Fluttershy and I can simply fly over,” Luna proposed while she advanced along with Rainbow and the Commander himself while Shy and Garrus remained a bit further back and sniping.
“That would make our lives much easier. Garrus, Fluttershy, get ready to sprint over to the column on my mark!” Shepard called out, the two snipers taking out the targets closest to where they were about to run before getting back to the group. “Mark!”
The squad of five ran over at full speed, Luna levitating both Shepard and Garrus over the obstacle before flying over herself with the two pegasi. What they found Inside the makeshift basecamp though was another horror. Another door on the far side had been opened and the floor was littered with the corpses of both geth and quarians as the machines had managed to get to the embattled quarians first once again.
“Crap, they’re all gone,” Garrus cursed as they were again just a little too late. Luna frowned too as she helped check the bodies, finding a geth that was still active and plunging her blade into it.
“These things are ruthless savages,” the Princess hissed venomously as a console sprang to life on the far end of the room, a hologram of Tali on the other end springing alive.
“Tali’Zorah to basecamp, please respond.”
Fluttershy was the closest to the console and immediately spoke up. “Tali, Fluttershy here, we were moments too late to save the quarians in the basecamp.”
Tali sighed and shook her head. “Damnit, we knew this mission was high risk… But what are you doing here, Fluttershy? I take Shepard is with you?”
“I’m here,” the Commander confirmed.
“Good, then we might just make it out of here alive,” Tali said, visibly looking relieved.
“Where exactly are you, Tali?” Fluttershy asked, keeping an eye on the others as they retrieved some of the quarian’s thermal clips.
“Through the door and across the field in the observatory, there’s a lot of geth I can hear outside though.”
“That’s an issue we can work with, we’ll be right there Tali,” Shepard said, closing off the connection.
Throughout the next section of the ruin resistance became significantly heavier than it had been up to that point, the geth they’d ran past before probably having moved over to stop them from reaching Tali. A couple of geth primes created some trouble but eventually they managed to reach the final open area before the ‘observatory’ which Tali was hiding in. Kal’Reegar and a few other marines, all hurt to various degrees but firing on the mass of geth trying to break into the secure shelter, the most notable of which being a massive geth colossus.
“Kal’Reegar?” Shepard asked hoping that the quarian’s leader was alive and among these, finding that he was indeed still alive.
“That’s me! Migrant Fleet marines. To be honest, I have no idea why you’re here but I’m not gonna be picky about my friends right now! We’re too hurt to make a push on your own but with your help, we can kick these geth’s asses!”
“You’ll all get killed!” Fluttershy countered, checking the individual quarians’ wounds. “None of you are combat-ready and all of you need medical help!”
“Risk comes with the job, ma’am. Our mission is to keep Tali’Zorah alive and safe,” Reegar argued back.
“With all due respect, I trust her analysis on medical issues,” Shepard told the quarian, “What’s your call Fluttershy?”
We don’t have time for this… But they really aren’t in a shape to fight at all…
1. They should be able to give cover to us from here.
2. We can handle this, have them stay down.
3. I should stay here to give them medical attention.