Halo: Mass Effect CH 16

UNSC: Date 2553

Shepard, Linda, Tali, and the Arbiter left the Normandy and approached a man who was near the docks.

"Fai Dan saw your ship. He wants you to see him right away" the man told Shepard urgently

"We will see him. Are you hurt?"

"No. Fai Dan should be beyond the stairs" the man said

That was all the man was able to say before he got thrown five feet in the air by a geth rocket. Shepard ordered his squad into cover. There was already a geth present, and several more were on their way.

"Linda, take out the ones further from us. Arbiter, Tali, you two help me take out the ones closer to us" Shepard ordered

Three green acknowledgement lights winked on, and everyone moved into action. Tali overloaded a geth trooper's shields, and the Arbiter fired off some bullets with his Carbine. A second geth trooper started firing at them, forcing them back into cover. Tali saw that the geth trooper didn't have shields, so she got to work on hacking the geth trooper.

While Tali was controlling one of the geth troopers, Linda was firing round after round at the four geth troopers in the distance. The shields weren't too much of a problem for her. She methodically fired shot after shot in an attempt to whittle down their shields. While she was reloading, a geth trooper sneaked out of cover. The geth trooper underestimated how quickly Linda could move, and that move was rewarded with a bullet in its chest. Linda moved on to the second geth trooper and fired off several disruptor rounds. She quickly reloaded again and resumed her onslaught.

Shepard and the rest of his squad were having a slightly easier time. The geth trooper Tali hacked took out two of the geth troopers attacking them before it self destructed. The Arbiter received several shots, which wasn't too bad. When he moved out of cover to shoot, one of the geth troopers took out his shields. The Arbiter roared, and then he took out his sword. Shepard took that as his cue to draw fire from the offending geth. While the geth was occupied, the Arbiter charged at the geth trooper and took out its shields. The Arbiter delivered another swipe from his sword and finished it off. The Arbiter moved back into cover while his shields recharged.

Shepard biotically charged at the remaining geth trooper. The geth trooper was temporarily knocked off balance, and Shepard took the chance to finish it off with a few shotgun blasts.

"All clear" Tali reported

"Good. Move on into the tower. Keep your eyes open for more geth" Shepard ordered

The four of them moved into the tower. Shepard saw some motion on his motion tracker, so he looked up to see what moved. It was a geth stalker, and in response he fired a shotgun round at it. Tali overloaded its shields, and Linda finished it off with a round from her sniper rifle. Three more geth troopers appeared, and the four went back to work. Tali overloaded the three geths' shields, and the other three took down one geth each. Once the geth were down, they moved up the tower to go into the main colony.

Sam and James, two of the colonists in Zhu's Hope, crouched behind a barricade near one of the entrances. They heard a lot of gunfire and what sounded like someone using biotic abilities. They had their rifles aimed, and they were prepared to fire at anything.

"Contact, I see one, no, two, no…four contacts! Four incoming tangoes!" Sam yelled into his radio

Sam and James were relieved and surprised to see two SPARTANs, a quarian, and a Sangheili walking into the colony.

"Hey, look at that! Two Mark Vis!" James said, ignoring the two alien companions

Sam ignored his comment because he knew there were probably more geth.

"They cleared out the tower. Go in there and look for stragglers" Sam ordered

"What!? What if I find geth there!?" James yelled.  He was horrified at the idea of encountering geth there

Sam faced towards James and put his face a few inches away from James'. Sam stared intensely in James' face, and he waited to speak until James became visibly intimidated.

"Are you saying you won't go, soldier?" Sam asked

"No, I'll go. I'll go"

While James went downstairs, Shepard and his squad moved through Zhu's Hope.

"Chief, we cleared out the tower. Bring in your team and clear out the stragglers. Meet us in Zhu's Hope. I will mark the colony with a nav point" Shepard ordered

While Shepard led his squad to  Fai Dan, Linda took some time to look at the colony. The colonists were barely surviving. The atmosphere wasn't too different from any UNSC colony that has been attacked by the Covenant. Perhaps not as hopeless and tragic as Reach, but it was still a somewhat hopeless situation.

"Oh, thank God you came" Fai Dan said to Shepard when he arrived

"You are a little late, aren't you?" Arcelia snapped

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan barked. Fortunately, she backed down.

"I apologize. This whole situation has us all on stims" Fai Dan explained apologetically, "We don't mean to be hostile"

"I understand. You are all under attack by a relentless enemy. People are bound to be tense" Shepard said

Fai Dan was about to say more, but he stopped when a colonist reported that a large group was coming in.

"I'm Commander Shepard, and I have been sent here to help you. That's the Master Chief and the rest of the team" Shepard explained, "They are going to help us save the colony"

Fai Dan cocked his eyebrow, and he got a little curious as to how many people were coming in. He was going to ask about the new arrivals when Arcelia cut him off.

"We got geth! We got geth in the tower!" Arcelia alerted everyone

"Everyone, get to Zhu's Hope ASAP, we got geth in the tower!" Shepard ordered

Before they moved on, Shepard decided to change his squad. He wanted Ashley, Garrus, and the Chief with him because he wasn't sure how easy it was to hack an enemy that was hidden by a support structure. The stairs would only serve to complicate the task of hacking an enemy. Shepard, Ashley, Garrus, and the Chief went ahead of the group while everyone else provided fire support. Three geth troopers and two geth snipers greeted them at the foot of the tower.

"Defend the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan was heard shouting

Shepard and his squad dove into cover as the geth started firing on them. Shepard and the Chief primed one grenade each and tossed them into the group. Their grenades took out two of the geth's shields, which gave Garrus the opportunity to overload one of them. Ashley fired a bust from her rifle at the two weakened geth, and she killed one of them. Shepard fired a shotgun blast at the other weakened geth. While it was trying to recover, Shepard fired another shot. Garrus overloaded one of the geth snipers' shields. That gave Tali the chance to hack the sniper and turn it against the other sniper. At the same time, the Chief had taken down the last trooper's shields. He fired another shot, which destroyed the geth trooper. Tali destroyed the geth she hacked once the other sniper was destroyed.

Once the squad was finished, they moved upstairs to try to save the colonist trapped behind a barricade.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" the colonist pleaded

Unfortunately, the colonist was killed. Shepard unleashed a shockwave into the next room, and to his satisfaction the geth troopers were on the ground. Garrus and Ashley moved in and fired several bursts from their assault rifles. After the first burst, one of the geth troopers sputtered and died. After the second one, the other two were dead as well.

Once Ashley gave the all clear, Shepard and the rest of his squad met up with Garrus and Ashley. They were in a hallway, and there was an elevator near them. There were stairs leading to the rest of the tower, and there was a tunnel on the other end of the hallway.

"Cortana, do you detect any geth in the hallway?" Shepard asked

"Yes, and they have a few krogan with them. I recommend taking them out before returning to Zhu's Hope" she advised

"Understood. Garrus, Ashley, Chief, Tali, Linda, and Kaidan, you six are with me. The rest of you go into the hallway and clear out the geth there" Shepard ordered

Twelve green acknowledgement lights winked on, and the Arbiter nodded in agreement. Shepard and his squad made short work of the group in the tower. Linda and Tali focused on the drones that would come in. Kaidan distracted the geth troopers by throwing them around with his biotics. This allowed Shepard, Garrus, Ashley, and the Chief to fire on them.

At one point, Garrus fired several bursts at one of the geth troopers, and Linda took it out with a sniper rifle.

"That was my kill!" Garrus shouted

"I didn't see your name on it" Linda remarked

Garrus saw Linda moving her sniper rifle. This prompted John to run to her target and shoot it at point blank range.

"That was my kill" Linda said calmly

"Kill steal repaid SPARTAN"

Linda didn't reply, and she continued sniping her targets. She was impressed with how well Ashley and, and how effective they were at killing. In the UNSC, they had to babysit marines and ODSTs half the time. She wasn't the only SPARTAN who was impressed. Shepard and the rest of Blue Team were growing to see them as valuable assets rather than liabilities.

Ashley grabbed a plasma grenade that was abandoned by a long dead Unggoy, and she stuck it onto a geth trooper. She rolled out of the way before the trooper exploded.

"Nice work…for a marine" Shepard teased

Ashley landed in cover next to Shepard. She gave him a glare through her visor.

"What is that supposed to mean Skipper?"

"It's not every day we don't have to hold a marine's hand. I bet you can't get more kills than me"

"You are on Skipper"

Shepard sent out a shockwave that threw a few geth troopers on their backs. While the geth were getting up, Ashley took out a frag grenade and threw it into the group. Two of the troopers were killed. Shepard used his biotics to slam one of the surviving geth troopers into the air, and he fired a few shotgun rounds into another surviving geth trooper. There was one last geth trooper that was right behind them. They turned around and fired a shotgun blast into its chest, killing it.

"We're tied. Looks like you didn't get more kills than I did" Shepard remarked

"Yes, but I got the same amount" Ashley pointed out. She was quiet, then she turned towards Shepard to ask rather enthusiastically "Should we do it again?"

"Yes, we should"

"Alright love birds, let's get back to the mission. Tower is secure Commander. Should we report to Fai Dan?" Garrus asked

Ashley's face turned red, which got a small chuckle from Tali. Shepard was grateful that his visor hid his slightly red face. Fortunately he could hide his embarrassment when he spoke.

"Garrus is right. Everyone, we are done here. Let's go back to Fai Dan"

Shepard and his squad returned to Fai Dan, who was relieved to have the geth gone.

"Thanks for the help Commander. Those geth would have killed us if you hadn't arrived" Fai Dan said gratefully

"I'm not only here to investigate the geth, I am also here to protect this colony. Do you know what the geth are after?" Shepard asked

"No, we don't. One minute everything was fine, the next geth swarmed all over the colony. I thought the end of the War meant we were safe from these kind of attacks" Fai Dan said sadly

Fearing a drop in morale, Shepard stepped in to reassure him.

"The geth may attack colonies, but we will make sure we won't be forced to abandon them. The Alliance and the UNSC care about their colonies, including this one. You are in good hands"

"I am so pleased to have your protection" Arcelia remarked sarcastically, "Especially since you SPARTANs have a penchant for blowing things up"

Shepard glared at Arcelia through his visor, and Fai Dan scolded her.

"We can evacuate the colony while we take care of the geth. Our ship has more than enough room and supplies to accommodate everyone here" Shepard offered

To his surprise, Fai Dan seemed very hesitant and reluctant to agree to that. During the War, almost every single colonist he ran across wanted to be saved.

"No, this is our home. We won't leave. We have to protect…" Fai Dan groaned in mid sentence, then he said "Our colony"

"I understand, but you have been fighting for days. We have –" Shepard was saying before he was cut off. Out of nowhere, Fai Dan had punched Shepard square in his helmet. Shepard heard Fai Dan's bones crack, and Fai Dan looked remorseful.

"Explain yourself! Now!" Shepard ordered

"I…I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. Like I said, we…we will stay and protect…our colony" Fai Dan babbled

"Okay. Do you want us to help your colony's supplies problems? I couldn't help but notice you seem to be low on food, power, and water"

Fai Dan's eyes brightened, albeit a little bit. He also seemed to have regained his composure.

"Yes. We need more batteries to power our generator. We need water to start flowing again. We also need the varren in the tunnels taken care of"

"I will relay these orders to my squad"

Shepard raised the Arbiter's squad on his private channel and relayed Fai Dan's requests. On the other end, it sounded like the squad was under heavy but manageable fire.

"With all due respect Commander, there are bigger things we should worry about" the Arbiter said

"I know, but it's the only thing Fai Dan would agree to, aside from eliminating the geth from Feros. They don't want to be evacuated"

There was a pause on the other end, and he was sure he heard Wrex make a remark about the colonists on the other end.

"We will keep an eye out for water, batteries, and food. See you when we return" the Arbiter said

"Yeah, and we can spoon feed their children and tell them bed time stories after that" Wrex remarked sarcastically before Shepard cut them off

"Do you know where the geth are?" Shepard asked Fai Dan

"They are in ExoGeni Headquarters, across the skyway. You can't miss them" Arcelia answered for Fai Dan

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan whispered angrily, and then he said to Shepard "There is an army of geth between here and ExoGeni HQ, but you look like you can handle them"

"Thank you. We will be back"

While Shepard and his squad were on their way to ExoGeni Headquarters, the Arbiter, Fred, Kelly, Jorge, Wrex, Liara, and Six worked their way through the tunnel.

"SPARTAN 087, please go back in the last segment and turn on the water flow switch we must have missed" the Arbiter ordered

Kelly winked green, and then she ran to the segment of tunnel they had been in a few minutes ago. To Liara's surprise, she came back in less than a minute.

"It's on. These colonists really don't want to leave. They are more interested in improving conditions than they are in being saved. For all I know, the entire Covenant armada could be raining fire on them, and they would still ask for help with their utilities" Kelly remarked

"I'm more interested in why the geth would attack here. It isn't a major Alliance colony, and the colony is barely holding on anyways"

"Construct, run a scan for anything odd that could relate to the Forerunners, the Protheans, or the Reapers" the Arbiter ordered

"I can't find anything relating to them. I did detect a massive organic mass, but something is throwing off the sensors. I can't pinpoint where it is" Cortana replied

"Is it…the Flood?"

"Unlikely. You would have met Flood spores by now. I suspect this is different"

"Is it related to the Precursors perhaps?" Liara asked, "We know very little about them, much less than we know about the Forerunners and the Protheans"

"No, I don't think so. I will keep you updated if I find anything"

By now Arbiter and his squad reached the other end of the tunnel segment. Kelly moved ahead of the group, and she saw a third and final segment of the tunnel. She also saw a door between the two segments, and a walkway leading across the chasm. Kelly relayed what she saw to the Arbiter.

"Liara, Wrex, and Six will come with me and check the room in front of us. You three go across the bridge and investigate the room over there" the Arbiter ordered

Six green acknowledgement lights winked on, and they moved onto their assigned tasks. Fred, Jorge, and Kelly went across the bridge to investigate the room on the other side of the bridge. When they reached the door, they saw two red dots on their motion trackers. Fred and Kelly leaned against the door frame while Jorge stood in front of the doorway. The door opened, and Jorge opened fire on two geth drones. The drones were hiding behind the door, waiting to attack. Their attack didn't come because Jorge's minigun ripped through the drone on the left, and Fred fired a few shotgun rounds into the drone on the right.

"Hallway is clear, move forward" Fred ordered

The three SPARTANs were greeted by a group of krogan in the other room. The three krogan were accompanied by a geth trooper. All three SPARTANs got into cover, but not before Kelly fired her assault rifle on the trooper. The trooper's shields were knocked down, and it tried to get into cover. His attempts were rewarded with a spray of gunfire from Jorge's minigun.

One of the krogan tried to charge Fred. Fred fired two shots with his shotgun, and each bullet landed in the krogan's armor. The krogan was still charging though, so Fred jumped over him and fired a few more rounds. The krogan landed, thinking he was safe. He wasn't. He landed in Jorge's line of fire, and the krogan felt a heavy stream of gunfire slamming into his armor. While the krogan turned to face Jorge, Fred ran behind the krogan to assassinate him. He opened the top part of the krogan's helmet, and he slammed a knife downwards. The combination of the knife and Jorge's minigun were enough to take the krogan down.

Kelly was pinned down by the other two krogan. Of course, she was keeping the two at bay. Every time one krogan tried to advance, Kelly delivered another round. The one to her left was the more persistent one, and consequently, the more wounded one. He was about to charge towards Kelly again when Fred fired a concussive shot. It knocked the krogan onto the floor. Fred then unloaded his whole clip into the krogan.

"I got your back Kelly" Fred said

Kelly saw the last krogan move towards Fred before he did. Kelly ran forward and slammed into the krogan. She slammed her assault rifle into the krogan several times, and then she stabbed him with a combat knife.

"And I got yours" Kelly replied back to Fred. She quickly placed two fingers on her helmet below her faceplate. Fred returned the gesture and told the Arbiter what had happened.

"Good, I'm not surprised the krogan fell so easily. It seems nothing can stop you demons. Did you find anything?" the Arbiter asked

"We found a communications array in the back of the room. Blue Five is taking it down now" Fred paused when he heard an explosion nearby. He turned around to see Jorge walking out of the adjacent room. He gestured that the array was destroyed. Fred continued with "Correction, Blue Five just took it down"

"Good. The Commander will be pleased. We found several varren here for the colonists to eat. Meet up with us by the tunnel, we have another section to go through"

Once Fred, Kelly, and Jorge joined up with the Arbiter's group, the six of them went through the next section of the tunnel. They weren't very surprised to find no geth there. They had fought through a few waves of geth troopers earlier in the tunnel. In the tunnel they found another switch for the water pipes. Kelly got to work on it while Six talked with a man on the other end of the tunnel segment.

"What…what are you doing here? Are you here for the geth?" the man asked Six

"We are here to get the geth off of Feros, if that's what you are asking"

"Good. You aren't the only ones looking to get rid of those…things"

The man suddenly screamed in pain. He grabbed his head with both hands, and he squeezed his eyes shut. The pain seemed to have passed, and he stood back up. The man then laughed. It wasn't a humorous laugh. It was one of desperation and pain.

"Are you okay? Do you need help?" Six asked

Six got out some medigel, but the man shook his head.

"I'm fine. I was just…invoking the master's whip"

The man screamed again, and he laughed again.

"That…that was a good one" the man grunted

"We can protect you. Just tell me who is hurting you"

"Protect me? You can't protect me" the man said before he laughed bitterly, and then he shouted "We are all doomed, but I would much rather die fighting!" His voice seemed strained, as if he had been shouting often.

"Fighting the geth?" Six asked

"No, not them. It's not that kind of fight either. It's more like running through a thorn bush. The more you struggle…" the man trailed off. Six turned to leave, but the man stopped her. He said to her "Ask Fai Dan. Ask him about the –"

The man's words were cut off by more screaming. Six applied a little bit of medigel, and then she joined the Arbiter and his group. Six found the way the colonist was acting to be weird, but something in her gut warned her that the same may be true for the rest of the colonists.