Zhu's Hope

After our quick stop off on Luna we headed over to Attica Beta, where a corporate colony has come under attack from geth forces.  There is no intel to suggest that Saren is behind it, but it very well could be.  It’s worth checking out and helping these people as well if nothing else comes of it.  A quick scan of the system when we got there revealed some minerals to be mined, so we set up a beacon as always.  What really interested me and Liara was what Chief Engineer adams discovered.  He got back some strange readings from the surface of Sharring.  It’s just a gas giant, however it does have 60 or so moons, two of them are rather large.  Tali and Adams took a recovery crew down and recovered some ancient prothean technology.  Not really certain what it is, but we are certain that at least one part of it is a prothean data disc like the one we found before.  

This ExoGeni Corporation founded a colony on Feros to explore the Prothean ruins that cover most of planet.  At least that’s what my Intel tells me.  I don’t really keep up with the corporate world, too credit driven for me.  We’re here to find out why the Geth attacked. Though I assume it’s all a part of Sarens plan.  Maybe there is something here that Saren needs.  If Saren needs it, I need it.  Not to mention it gives us a chance to help out these people, I haven’t heard but I assume they are suffering from the attack.  I’m bringing Tali and Liara along with me.  I’m leaving the rest behind to look after the ship, if there are Geth about the last thing i want is them to get a hold of the ship.  I”m not sure how long we’ll be gone, so they have orders to take shifts.  Wrex and Ashley take first watch, Kaiden and Garrus take second.  They’ll rotate every 4 hours.  I decided it would be a good idea to take Liara along since we’ll be digging through prothean ruins and Tali is coming along for her technical expertise as always.  

Right as we walked off the ship after docking we were greeted by a man, who was trying to tell us who was in charge when he was gun down by a geth ambush.  Liara proved her worth, her biotics are every bit as good as mine, maybe a little better.  Not surprising, Asari are known for their biotic abilities.  We dispatched the Geth ambush with out too much problem.  A Geth sniper did get through my shields, but we spotted him and took him out.  Tali has learned how to hack the geth targeting system and make us appear friendly and other geth appear hostile.  It only works for a short time until her hack is figured out, but what a tactical advantage it has  brought us.  I know any time we’re going up against Geth i’ll be sure to bring her along.  The guy did tell us a name, Fia Dan.  We reached the colony after a short walk through the ruins.  I started to ask him what was going on here when we were hit with another geth attack.  It’s going to be rough going through these ruins, but it had to be done.  It was our most difficult mission yet. and it’ll probably only get more difficult from here on out.  A Geth drop ship hovered over head and supplied reinforcements.  Their defenses at the colony are pretty worn down from all these constant geth attacks, so we took care of it our selves.  With all of our abilities it really wasn’t too difficult.  Easier than dozens of rocket drones i can tell you that.  My suit still has burn marks on it from the rocket blast.  In talking to Fia Dan i learned this colony is in pretty bad shape, they need food, water, and power.  His second in command also informed me of a geth base camp set up some where in some under ground tunnels.  I’ll be sure to take that out first, hopefully it’ll make the rest of this mission easier.  As for the other things, i’ll do what i can but i’m not sure what i’ll find around here for them to use.  Specially to eat, i haven’t even seen any plant life around here.  I found some valves on what looks to be water pipes.  I’ll turn those on and check with the colony.  Killed two birds with one stone as the old expression goes.  Walked into a room looking for this geth base camp.  In there was a bunch of varrens, dog like creatures except very visious.  They attacked and we had to put them down, should provide quite a bit of food until resupply from exogeni can get here.  Also in the same room, and old power coupling from a broken down transport.  It’s in bad shape but i’m sure Tali can get it working.  There was a man down in the tunnels, all by him self.  which was strange enough.  The way he acted was far more bizarre.  He said some one, or something was looking to get rid of the geth, but every time he tried to tell us he yelled out in pain.  I tried to help, but it seems there was nothing i can do.  Whatever had control of him was taking his sanity as well. Ran into a group of Krogan mercs. That was a real tough fight.  Our biotics came in very handy indeed.  Liara kept to a loft with her botics while tali overloaded their shields, and i put up a singularity to throw the other two around.  You have to watch those Krogan they go into some kind of adrenaline induced rage and are almost unstoppable.  We found the geth transmitter and shut it down, they shouldn’t be as much of a problem for the colony any more.  Before heading off across the elevated highway to the research center i stopped of at the colony to let them know, about the geth transmitter, where to find the varren meat, drop the power cells off and to make sure the water is flowing.  It felt really great to help these people so much in their time of need.  They were all really grateful and insisted on giving me some credits for my trouble, it felt wrong accepting it but they wouldn’t have it any other way.  Once we were on the highway a geth ship dropped some armatures in our path. The high was little more than a ruin it’s self, large transports provided cover to fire at the geth armatures.  Along the way Tali picked up some radio chatter that sounded like more colonist.  She pinpointed where it was coming from and we stopped by to see if everything was OK.  We were not greeted so kindly.  A man named Ethan was quite hostile with us, however the woman standing next to him Julia was far more trusting and pleasant.  They were both with exogeni, not just colonist but employees.  I had enough of Ethan, he reduced life to nothing.  He stunk of exogeni corporate pig.  What’s worse is Juliana said her daughter was still some where inside the headquarters and Ethan said not to even worry about her, how unbelievable thoughtless.  I of course agreed to help this poor mother.  Another corporate employee asked me to recover some records, if i stumble upon them i’ll do it, but it’s not very high on the list.  Met an armature face to face, not something i want to do again, specially when my weapon won’t fire.  It seems fine now, but yeah that was scary.  Took all of our combined power to take one of those things out of foot and quickly, one blast from it’s cannon and we’d have all been toast.  We found the Juliana's daughter after not being too far in, she took a shot at us when we came around the corner.  Luckily it was just a pistol and we all had our shields up.  She said the geth are here for the thorian.  A life form that has lived on this planet for a very long time.  It’s what exogeni has been researching.  She gave us her ID to get through some security check points.  I’ll have to ask her more questions about this thorian after we take care of the geth problem.  We found our way around the crumbling exogeni headquarters to some stairs that led up to an office.  In the office was krogan trying to access some restricted files through a VI interface much like the one on the citadel.  He of course couldn’t due to the obvious lack of clearance.  The VI did out us when we were sneaking up on him, by telling him there was a queue starting to form behind him.  It was no problem, one krogan caught by surprise isn’t too tough to deal with.  A simple lift made him helpless, and i hit him with a warp and that was the end of him.  I wish everyone would just let us through, id rather not take lives if i don’t have to, but few people give me a choice.  This creature, the thorian also known as species 37 and resides some where under the colony.  Something tells me they know a lot less than they should.  The VI told us that it is not only a sentient plant but it also sends out spores and once those spores enter the body it can control people’s minds. This has to be the reason saren wants to get his hands on this creature.  To control minds, create an army to do his bidding.  The worst part about this is the colony, which the VI refers to as zuh’s hope, is a test group.  I’m positive they have no idea what’s being done to them.  That must have been what that crazy man in the tunnels was trying to tell me.  I tried to contact the ship to warn them, but the geth force field around the build was blocking all communication.  There what i assume to be large power cables running all over this place from the geth.  The geth ship has attacked it self to the building through these large claws.  We must be 20 or 30 stores up by now, if we could detach a few claws this ship just might plummet to the ground.  Unfortunately i didn’t bring along a strong enough explosive. We’ll have to find another way.  Not knowing the lay out of this place is proving difficult.  We stumbled into a dead end with a bunch of krogan mercs.  The first couple fell pray to my singularity, but the last one standing just wouldn’t go down.  We held him at bay with different biotics and constant gun fire, but wow, krogan are amazing.  They can really take a beating. Glad we have one on our side, i might have to start bringing him along some times.  The man’s data happen to be in this room, lucky for him, i hope it serves him well.  A quick inspection of the computers Tali discovered an alarming entry in one of them.  Some test samples were sent off world, to another colony, off the record.  Test samples of what i’m not quite sure, but it doesn’t sound good.  If we can get a little more information it might be worth checking out, at the very least i’ll be reporting this.  Tali was able to hack into the geth terminal they had set up and found some alarming information.  The geth are preparing a huge offensive in the Armstrong nebula, that is something that needs to be dealt with and very soon.  I’ll in form alliance command, but i’m not sure how quickly they’ll be able to dispatch a ship there, we may be the only ones

Clean up on Luna

We left artiumus tau and headed for Sol, the home to earth, i wish we had time to stop at earth, it would be nice for the crew to get some shore leave on our home planet.  I’ve only been there a hand full of times my self.  Unfortunately we only have time for a brief stop on the moon to take care of his rogue VI.  

I have to say, these are the times i love my job.  The view of earth from the moon is fantastic, and shutting down the VI should be pretty easy, all i have to worry about is keeping my people safe.  I took Kaiden with Tali and i this time, i need a little more technical expertise than ashley could provide.  Our intel was that there were three different cores to shut down a and each entrance was guarded by 2 automated turrets.  So i came up on a ridge far away and blasted away with our cannon.  The rockets never reached us while our cannon dismantled the rocket pods nicely.  It was more of a fight than i was expecting.  The VI has dozens of little drones with machine guns mounted on them hovering all over the place once we were inside.  They got through my shields but i put up a biotic barrier as kaiden did as well.  Tali’s has program much stronger shields in to her suit and didn’t really have a problem.  My biotics were pretty ineffective against them, so i rattled off a few rounds while kaiden and tali dealt with them by overloading their circuts and sabotaging their weapons systems.  Once we started shutting the cores down the VI starting fighting back by pumping in toxic gas, luckily we were already wearing our space suits and it didn’t matter.  It’s so strange this VI seems like it’s almost fighting for it’s life, recognizing we are organic life forms and using toxins to kills us.  I hate to say it but the alliance may have created an actual AI here.  We all know how dangerous that is.  The second bulding was much the same as the fist, except it put up shield barriers in all the doors and infront of all the servers we needed to shut down.  They weren’t much of a problem just a few rounds and we were through them.  The thrid building was the toughest. The VI had attached some rocket launchers to the hovering drones.  Kaiden and I took a few rockets, but luckly between the armor in our suits and our shields we were ok for the most part, we both put up biotic shields and i gave the order for tali and kaiden to do their technical magic.  I also had us take a position at the end of a long hallway, all the hovering drones funnled down that hallway so we could concentrate everything we had on them.  Aparently this VI is lacking any sort of tacticle programming, which is great news for us.  The last building was the same as the second, this time we were reaqdy for the rocket drones and took them out quickly, using the same tatics.  We shut the VI down for good, it was quite uncermonius.  A part of me feels like it’s not really gone, i may see this VI again, speically if it really was a full blown AI.  Our sensors picked up a crashed probe, so I checkd it out quite.  Turned out it was a pretty cool discovery.  This probe was launched 210 years ago!  I sent off a communication to let the alliance know it was in the area, i figured some musem would want it, it doesn’t need to be sitting in the middle of military testing grounds anyways.  The other really puzzeling thing that happened while we were on our way to the probe, was i could of sworn i heard whale songs.  I wasn’t the only one that heard it, kaidena and tali heard it as well.  There is no life on the moon, so where could these sounds be coming from? and what are they?  Our sensors didn’t pickup anything, at any rate i’ll have to let some alliance scientist know so they might be able to find the source. 

Enroute

Making my rounds after the mission.  I found out Navigator Pressly was hand picked by Anderson.  I can see why, he’s been quite valuable.  He told me he was in the skyllian blitz.  I’ve heard about it, interesting to talk to some one that was there.  There’s a reason this guy has a lot of wisdom, he’s seen enough not to want to make mistakes.  I’m starting to develop quite an informal relationship with Joker, which is just find with me.  I don’t need a salute every time i walk in the room so long as you’re doing your job.  He said he wanted a medal for saving us, i’d gladly present him with one, however after i explained to him that he’d have to sit through a bunch of speeches he wasn’t too thrilled about it, plus they would make him shave, apparently he’s quite fond of his beard.  He asked me why i really came up to the cockpit, when i said just to talk he got really defensive, about his disease.  After he calmed down i asked him how he got into the alliance.  He said his mom was a contacter with the alliance and he grew up around spaceships, while living most of his life on arcturs station.  It’s no wonder he’s so good at flying, he’s probably been doing it since he was big enough to reach the controls.  I wanted to know how the ship has been preforming being a prototype and all, and we’ve had to put it through a few paces here recently.  After getting to know joker i think he’s the right pilot for the job.  I expected it to be fast and he said as much, but he also said it doesn’t handle like other alliance ships of its size, i’m really glad he’s here.  Before this is over we’ll probably need every ounce of his skills.  

i went in to check on liara, she said she felt a little dizzy earlier from all the excitement and news of the protheans and reapers.  It was a lot for her to take in.  The doctor gave her the once over and cleared her.  I’m quite impressed that the doctor not only knows human physiology but asari as well.  Quite a thing to have on a vessel with so many different species on board.  She thanked me again, i suppose i did save her life, but it is my job.  It’s nice to hear a thank you though.  She claims the crew doesn’t trust her, and i guess i understand why.  I”ll have to have a talk with some of them, i don’t want them mistreating her just because her mother has gone rogue.  It’s not fair to judge like that.  I can think of a few people right now, pressly and Ashley.  I’m a pretty nice guy but i do not tolerate prejudice.  Everyone knows this is a joint effort between all species, if saren really is trying to bring the reapers back, it is everyone’s problem and we will need every species help.  I got to know liara a little bit, said she has spent most of her time on archaeological digs,  finding mundane stuff.  Not really all that interesting to be honest, but i understand the quest for wanting to know more.  I’m some what of a history buff, while i don’t know a lot about all the other speice’s history i do know quite a bit about human history.  Speaking of the quest for more, she does find me fascinating, which i was a little flattered.  I mean she’s asari after all, ya know. It’s hard not to be a little curious about what it would be like to be with one.  I say was, because she’s only fascinated with me because of my run in with the prothean beacon.  It was an awkward moment, but i reassured her.  She’s not use to dealing with humans, and i’m not use to dealing with Asari.  So i figured the best way to fix that was to just straight up ask her about Asari, maybe with a better understanding we can get a good line of communication down.  she told me qite a bit, like they were the first to discover citadel.  A lot of people misunderstand Asari, and it’s true, i know the rumor that goes around in the human culture about them.  That they are amazing lovers, and that’s all they are interested in.  This rumor isn’t helped much by the fact that all asari are female looking.  However she explained that they have to true gender, and because of the unique way they mate can reproduce with any species and any gender.  That’s quite interesting.  I guess they don’t even need to make physical contact to mate, it’s some sort of connection between the two minds of the partners.  Pretty crazy stuff if you ask me. I asked her some questions about her mother, she didn’t understand what her mother was up too.  So it looks like she’s not going to be helpful on that front.  She seemed quite hurt, even though she hasn’t spoken to her in a long time.  I can imagine how difficult this would be.  However at some point, this will come to head when we track her and saren down.  I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with liara when that time comes, i’ll need to give that some serious thought.  

I saw Kaiden working on some tactical systems so i thought i would drop by and talk with him for a little while.  He seemed a little apprehensive to speak on the record, as always i asked him to speak his mind.  He said exactly what I was thinking.  Their rogue agent is after some extinct aliens, yet the councils doesn’t want to do anything about it.  Seems fishy to me.  He was in the BAaT program.  I’ve heard of it, kind of rough from what i’ve heard.  Kids were expose to element zero so they would gain biotic powers, under the guise of it being an “accident” kaiden nor i believe they were accidents.  This program he was in was designed to foster soldiers with biotic powers.  From the sounds of it, it seemed a little rough.  Kaiden didn’t want to share any more.  I”m glad i went through regular military channels.  He seemed fond of Liara, not surprising, most male of any species find Asari attractive.  I’ll admit i do, but that’s where it ends.  I have my eye’s on Tali, i could talk to her for hours.  

Wrex knew saren, worked with him even, imagine my surprise when he told me that.  Something you’d think you’d mention right away.  Wrex didn’t think it was important, however i informed him from now on that’s my call.  He was a hired gun for saren, wrex only saw him once while he was working for him.  Wrex didn’t even finish the job, left before he got paid, which is really surprising.  Turns out though that every other merc that was working for saren turned up dead with in a week.  I guess it’s a good thing wrex went with his gut, i imagine krogans do that a lot.  The more i hear about saren the worse it gets.  At least i got him to open up, even if we still aren’t seeing eye to eye.  well...we’ll never see eye to eye, he’s quite a bit taller than i am.  

Ashley stopped me as i was walking through the shuttle bay after talking to wrex, said she needed to talk.  I keep an open door, we serve together in close quarters and rely on each other for our lives, everything should be out in the open.  I was surprised when she voiced her concern over the “aliens” on board.  Maybe it’s because i grew up on a colony but i thought this sort of thinking was dead, or at least only elderly people thought this way.  But here a young solider is untrusting of non-humans, for no real reason. I was rather disappointed and i wanted to pull rank and tell her to get in line, but i don’t think that’s going to help her like it did pressly.  She tried to rationalize how humans are more improtant than non humans.  It’s not going to fly with me, we’re all alive, living life forms that deserve and equal chance in this universe.  She comes from a military family, she claims that because 3 generations of williams have joined the service, that she thinks of earth’s interest as her own.  I fail to see how that equates to automatically mistrusting other species that have already been very helpful to us.  Instead of getting into an argument i decided to change the subject and ask her about her family since she brought it up.  I told her i lost most of my family on minoir in a pirate attack.  She assumed that i was out here for revenge, but really i just want to see and explore space.  She didn’t share much about her family, and we started talking about her military career, i was curious, it didn’t seem like she had every worked with aliens before.  Turns out, she hasn’t.  She was mainly ground side, only did one rotation in a space station to get zero g certified.  Seems odd she’s only done one rotation, she seemed uneasy again.  I’m not sure what’s going on here.  In the end i told her she had to work with aliens, she claims it won’t be a problem, and it better not be.  

I talked to garrus about why he joined C-Sec.  I know out last conversation didn’t go so well.  In fact the more i get to know the people on my ship the less i get a long with them.  I’m starting to doubt my open door policy.  The only ones i get a long with are Liara, which i don’t know her very well, Kaiden who’s also kind of tight lipped and Tali.  Garrus joined C-sec because his father was a C-sec officer.  His father didn’t care for spectre’s and talked Garrus out of being one.  He also said that his father wouldn’t care for me, which didn’t surprise me, him being a Turian and all.  

I was walking by engineering, so i decided to peek my head through the door and see if tali was around, and sure enough there she was.  I went over and said hello but she sounded a little sad by human standards.  When i asked her what’s wrong she said everyone had been really nice to her, which was a relief to me, but she still felt out of place.  She’s use to loud roaring engines, our engines by comparison run very smooth and quiet, thanks to our chief engineer.  I think she’s just feeling a little homesick.  She said this ship is quite empty compared to the ships she use to live on.  She said not everyone comes back from the pilgrimage, maybe that’s because they wanted a different life.  I don’t think i could live on the flotilla my self. I was curious if she would go back so i asked her, she was adamant about sticking around at least until we stopped saren.  That’s nice to hear, we’ll need her expertise when we have to deal with the geth.

One Liara T'Soni found at last

Soon after we landed LT Moreau picked up some very strange readings coming from just below the surface.  He gave us the location so we headed that way.  I thought we were just going to breeze right on in there, as we drove quite a ways with nothing but lava flows and sharp rock formations getting in our way. Then a Geth drop ship flew by and dropped in two Geth Armature. They weren’t too bad to take out at the very distant range were at, the mako’s cannon comes in very handy.  The lava flows are quite stunning but also quite dangerous.  As we were drove our way around the lava flows we ran into a fortification in the mountains.  Guarded by several rocket turrets.  Again, no match for the mako’s armament.  But still tali suggested that we find a way around instead of trying to knock down the front door, I have to say it was a good idea.  There were many many geth waiting behind that door and by flanking them we took them by surprise.  After we cleared them and the Mako’s sensor's didn’t pick up any more geth, we went in and opened the front gate, just incase we need to make a hasty retreat.  The fortification wasn’t very big, just big enough for a few solider encampments and a light structure which probably use to have a tarp over it big enough for two light tanks or some other vehicles.  That was by the back gate, which when opened, gave way to the path continuing on through the lava flows.  After navigating some tunnels that made their way around the lava flows and through the mountains we came to an impasse.  The place we needed to go was through a small crevice only big enough for one person at a time to pass through. We had to continue on foot. I had a recon team come down in a shuttle and pick up the Mako, after all it is our only mode of transportation on the planet’s surface, and a very useful asset, not something I want to lose.

This rilfe I put together almost makes my biotic powers useless, it cuts through shields and geth like butter, it’s been quite the useful tool.  When we finally made it to the structure we were greeted by a some elite geth soliders.  A very lucky and well placed singularity took them all out at once, except for the armature, which Garrus and Tali took care of quite easily. Tali hacked into it’s targeting system so it saw us as friendlies.  Garrus took its shields down by overloading its shielding subroutines and I blasted it with a warp that turned up it’s insides pretty good, a few shots with the old rifle and it made a nice fireworks display.   We arrived at the structure  the entrance looked like that of a mine shaft. Not to much else around, some large pipes running in and out of it, but that’s about it.  When we descended down the shaft, we ran into one or two more geth.  More importantly however, we were in a prothean ruin, Tali didn't think it looked like it was built under ground, more like the ground formed around it in the last 50,000 or so years.  This was an ancient city i’m standing in!  If only the circumstances had been different, it would’ve been great to have a look around and explore the area in detail.  I have to say, my job takes me to some pretty cool places.  Liara was most certainly down here, though at this point I thought she would be working with the geth. When we found her she was trapped in a stasis bubble of some sort, she said it was a prothean security device.  Kind of interesting it was still working after all that time. While she was trapped I questioned her, as good as time as any.  At that moment I held all the cards.  She claimed to not have spoken to her mother in years, wasn’t exactly convincing but I need her help.  She didn’t offer up much more information at that time. With all the Geth lurking around, I figured it was best to get her to safety and we can go from there.  The barrier she was trapped behind was beyond anything we could’ve punched through with our weapons or abilities.  I had to find another way around which presented it self in the form of an old mining laser.  Probably left over from when whoever was excavating the ruin.  I used it to drill a tunnel under the wall to get to the other side.  A quick chat with Liara again trying to get some more information from her.  After the responses she had given I determined that she was most likely not working with her mother, she knew nothing of saren or her mother. She did know about the conduit, however.  If she can lead us there we’ll be on the fast track to stopping saren.  Our conversation was cut short, apparently my mining laser short cut started a seismic event that resulted in the collapse of the ruins.  Not my finest hour, but things have to get done, unfortunetly I don’t always have time to do everything the best way possible.  I radioed Joker to pick us up ASAP as we rode the elevator up to the surface.  Liara warned of us of a krogan bounty hunter that was after her, she had escaped him earlier.  As the ruins were collapsing on us, he thought it would be a good time to show up.  He wanted liara but I wasn’t about to hand her over after all we’ve been through to find her.  I tried to reason with him, but to no avail.  The fight was over quick, another one of my singularities had them floating all over the place helpless while Garrus and Tali overloaded their shields and caused their weapons to malfunction, they didn’t stand a chance.  We barely escaped lava started pouring in from every where.  Thankfully joker was there to pick us up before the whole place gave way to a volcanic explosion.    After the mission we had a short meeting with everyone.  Liara thanked us for saving her, which made me feel a little better about her.  I doubt she’s a cunning spy, nothing about her history would suggest that.  She didn’t know a lot about the conduit, most likely saren was after her only because he knew we could use her to our advantage.  Seems he still has some inside contacts.  Liara said she’s spent the last 50 years trying to find out what happen to the protheans.  That seemed like a really long time to me, but she informed me the Asari live much longer than humans do, she also said she’s only considered a child at 106 years old.  That’s kind of crazy!  What she did find out though, is that this wasn’t the first galactic civilization to vanish, she claims  there were many more before them. Though she doesn’t have any solid evidence to back this up.  She feels pretty strong about her theory.  I shared my limited knowledge of the reapers with her, to my surprise she’s never heard of them but was very intrigued. We didn’t get a lot of answers, but I feel better about having her on board.  I’ll go have a talk with her later, for now though I set up a room for her in the med bay so she can get comfortable.  After my run in with th krogan bounty hunter I’m certain she’s not helping her mother or saren.  But how could her mother be ok with ordering the death of her daughter?  After I dismissed the meeting I had joker patch in the council so I could have a private meeting with them to file my report on the mission.  They were worried about Liara’s devotion to her mother but I reassured them that it wouldn’t be a problem.  The turian councilor was upset over the destruction of the ruins, but there was nothing I could do, I regret it as well but there’s nothing to be done about it.  the salarian councilor was a little more understanding.  Overall I kind of felt like they were talking down to me and I didn’t very much appreciate it.  Hopefully future meetings will go a little smoother. 

The Search Continues

With no real leads I’m just going to move counterclockwise around the cluster.  The next one is Macedon.  Scanning the system, navigator Pressly discovered a signal from an ancient beacon.  I sent down a salvage team and they recovered writing from matriarch Dilinaga.  Now if we could only find Liara she would probably love to get her hands on this stuff, being a scholar and all.  That’s of course assuming she’s not taking sides with her mother and Saren.  We also set up mining beacons for a gas and titanium deposits.  Alliance command should be quite pleased with all this free scouting we’re doing for them.  Down on the planet Sharhila we detected a few things, none of them were liara but since we were here, why not check them out?  Ashley and Tali will joined me in the Mako.Once down there, surprise surprise we found a crashed probe.  We had to be careful on the surface, the atmospheric pressure here was immense.  Our suits couldn’t cope with it for long, so exposure on the planet’s surface had to be limited.  The sensors did pick up a structure.  Which was really strange, this was suppose to be an uninhabited planet, nothing was registered to be here through anything I could find on the extranet. We were cautious checking it out.  What we did find when we got near it was 4 towers, all with guards stationed in them, all with very high powered rifles.  Once inside we dispatched the multitude of guards inside. While we found no one in command, and everyone fighting to the death.  The only answer we got was on a computer that Tali hacked into.  Apparently this was a slave operation.  An Asari ambassador on the Citadel is leading the operation!  I’ll be sure to track her down once I head back there. While on the surface we discovered some thorium, not sure what it is, but the computer suggested it was a mineral of interest, so a beacon is now in place. At the anomaly we discovered more matriarchs writings.  It looked like it once was an outpost but has been abandoned for some time now.  

Next we traveled to the Athens system.  Sensors picked up an abandoned base on Pharos’ moon.  There were no signs of life of any kind so I sent in a small recon team to see what was down there.  They didn’t find much, most of it had been stripped over the years.  It appeared to be an old turian base, could have been used against the Krogan?  The recon team did report there was a insignia marking most everything there. After doing a brief search on the extranet I discovered the insignia was of the Magna Colony, I’ll have to ask Garrus if he knows anything about that.  Another helium 3 and oxygen deposit were found, I hope the alliance can use all these extra resources efficiently.  That’s all we found in Athens, not surprising as most of the worlds there are completely uninhabitable.  

The only place left was Knossos.  I guess she has to be in there somewhere.  Our sensors are picking up signs of civilization on Therum.  Most likely the sensors are picking up remnants of ancient Prothean civilization.  I guess we’ll head down there and check it out.  It’s a very good chance she’s down there.  The ship also picked up some platinum on a nearby asteroid and an nitrogen rich atmosphere on another planet, so I’ll have the team send out beacons so the alliance can come by and pick those up.  Not sure what we’ll run into down there.  I also don’t know if we’re the only ones looking for her. Chances are very good we’ll run into some Geth. If she’s working with her mother and Saren, they will probably send protection along in the form of Geth, if she’s not working with her mother, they’ll likely try to hunt her down using Geth.  So I’m taking Tali along, she is the only one that really knows how to deal with them.  Ashely would normally provide the firepower, but as I’m expecting to run into a lot of Geth, Garraus’ tech know how will come in more handy than an extra few guns.  I hope and pray that all we find down there is Liara digging in the dirt.  However we may find much, much more.  As exciting as it is, zooming around seeing the far reaches of space and setting foot on so many planets, I’m out here to do a job.  This could very well be one of the most dangerous operations yet.  Everyone needs to focus, because I am not losing one more person under my command. 

Searching for a Needle in a Solar System

On our way to Artemis Tau, Admiral Hackett sent in an urgent message.  A VI, virtual intelligence, went haywire and killed 17 marines.  As soon as I’m done here, I’ll be heading there to take that thing out.  I don’t mind helping the alliance in this instance.  Innocent marines were killed.  If they start asking me to fight their wars for them though I might have a different answer.

The first system we visited in search of the Asari, Liara, we found an automated distress beacon.  Well I was always taught to help a stranger in need so we headed down to the planet's surface to see what’s up.  I took Ashley and Tali with me.  At first I was against taking these women into potentially dangerous situations, specially Tali.  But Ashley was a marine she can handle herself and Tali did quite well handling herself against 3 assassins in the Citadel.  They are both so specialized in their field it’s hard to deny what a perfect team we make.  This was our first mission together.  We landed in the Mako, a 6 wheeled vehicle with a cannon on top and a mounted machine gun, should get us around the planet’s surface nicely, no matter how rough it is.  Tali was pretty excited to get her hands on the new omni-tool.  A Logic Arrest tool by Ariake technologies.  It amplified her skills nicely.   

When we arrived at the beacon, a Threwsher Maw popped up out of the ground and attacked us! Man I hate those things!  They come up out of the ground, like giant armor plated worms.  The part above the ground had to of stand about 20 feet above the ground and about as big around as our vehicle.  I’ll never forget the first one I saw on Akuze.  Took out my entire squad.  This one was easier to take out in the Mako, but it’s not easy, they are tough, took several shots from our cannon.  It sprays this acid that goes right through the shields and eats away at the hall.  I just kept driving while firing, it seemed to have trouble with that.  I’ll keep that in mind for the future.  Sadly we did not get there in time to save the squad of marines.  It really pains me to see yet another crew fall the fate of one of these monsters  These must have been the men admiral Kahoku was trying to find.  When I get a chance I’ll have to let him know the fate of these brave souls.  There were a few other things on the planet’s surface our sensors picked up, so I figured since we were there we might as well check out. One was an anomaly, and the other is just some old debris.  The anomaly was pretty crazy.  A mummified Salarian, how in the hell he ended up out here, I’ll never know.  Captain Milon was his name, we recovered his dog tags, just in case we can get a hold of any next of kin. The debris was just an old crashed probe, I shudder to think how many of those are floating around out there.  The Mako’s sensors picked up a lithium deposit, so I put a mining beacon there for the alliance to come by later and mine it out. These extra resources should come in handy. After that we returned to the normandy, surveyed the rest of the solar system,  we found was a gas deposit and some plutonium elements.  The most interesting find was and old still functioning bio-dome on an asteroid.  There was no signs of anyone still living there, however we believe we have found a Prothean data disc in an old console.  Should be quite valuable if we can find a way to decipher it.  No Liara though. On to the next solar system.  

Making Rounds

Made rounds and we’re just about to ship out.  Lieutenant Moreau or Joker as some call him, was the first one I talked to, since I was right there in the cockpit anyways.  Pretty sure of himself, but maybe he should be, his service records show he earned top honors in flight school.  Doing all that with vrolik’s syndrome (brittle bone disease) is pretty amazing.  Must of been difficult for him.  Perhaps he’s such a good pilot because if he crashes he won’t be able to escape.  I had to ask why the nickname Joker, he was a little defensive at first but he told me he got it from an instructor during flight school because he never smiled.  I guess he’s pretty serious when it comes to flying and that’s the way I want it.  He’s my kind of soldier, he doesn’t care much for regulations and neither do I.  

On my way through the CIC I saw navigator pressly, so I thought I would have a quick chat with him.  I know he’s not fond of Turians and now that we have one on board while also hunting down a Turian I wanted to make sure he was ok with everything and that I wasn’t going to have any problems.  I could tell he wasn’t too keen on the idea, unfortunately I had to pull rank on him and he fell in line.  I don’t  really like doing that, but we have a job to do, and if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem, I’m glad he fell in line.  These old Alliance guys have a lot of wisdom that can come in handy.  

I was interested to talk to Kaiden, you don’t meet many human biotics, specially not L2’s.  He wasn’t very forthcoming.  That’s alright, we’re all on a edge a little.  It’s a very different and difficult time.  I trust the doctor when she said that he should be alright even with some of the severe symptoms that come with having an L2 biotic implant. Hopefully as we get to know each other he opens up a little more.  I’m not real GI, I like to get to know the people I’m serving with.  Specially on a mission like this. His record does show over a dozen service commendations, if he lives up to that he’s welcome aboard this ship anytime.

I’m not sure why, but I’m really interested in Dr Chakwas, not like hey you’re kind of sexy interested, but more of a wise doctor that has a lot of wisdom to share. I feel like she’s seen more than her share of painful stories.  I went over to talk with her in the medical bay.  I asked how she got into the alliance. She said she joined right out of med school, but had a more romantic view of the military than what it really was.  I’m glad she stayed in anyways.  

Went down to the shuttle bay, Wrex, Ashley and Garrus were all down there doing their own thing.  At first I was worried about Garrus and Wrex, but when I got down there they seem to be minding their own business.  Garrus said he was glad to get out of Citadel security, too much politics he said.  I guess I had to agree with him there, but just wanting to leave because you didn’t like how things were done, that I didn’t like. He stepped out of line, trying to tell me he was going to do things his way.  If his way involved endangering innocent doctors, we will not be doing things his way.  Our talk ended a little abruptly but i’m not going to have that sort of thing happen under my command.  I realize space is black and white, but everything else is shades of grey.

Ashley is still blaming herself for the loss of her unit.  I keep telling her to let it go, you can’t do that.  It’s hard i know, I think about my unit on akuze every day, but I do better because of them.  You can’t control everything all the time.  She was a little busy for a personal chat so hopefully before the next mission I’ll get a chance to find out more about her.  

I had to prod Wrex for conversation.  I know Krogans aren’t the most personable species in the galaxy, that would probably be the Asari.  I was hoping maybe Wrex is different. So far all I know is he is an unrelenting bounty that cares little for anyone else but himself.  That sort of attitude isn’t going to work on my team, I want to know he has my back, and loyalty isn’t going to fade at the drop of a few credits.  He’s going to have to earn my trust.  He did go on to tell me about the genophage.  I’ve heard a little about it, but never really got the chance to talk to a Krogan about it.  I was a little surprised he was willing to talk about it at all.  It’s a pretty terrible thing the turians and salarians did.  They infected all Krogan females with a virus, so that only 1 in 1000 babies are born alive.  It’s been pretty hard on him, and now he tells me he has given up on his entire race.  What a thing to do, I guess Krogan society is different.  Such a race of warriors has no interest in progressing the race as a whole, only personal gain.

I have to say i was really excited when Tali agreed to come on board.  There’s just something about her I find really intriguing, alluring you could say.  She was down in engineering. no big surprise there, I hear most Quarians love technology.  Makes sense since their entire race lives in on big flotilla of spaceships that travel around the galaxy.  She was amazed with the technology on this ship.  I did explain to her that this ship was a prototype and that not all alliance vessels were this advanced.  She was really excited to be here to get a chance to look at it up close.  Normally I wouldn’t like this sort of thing, but she seems to be innocent and naive, I seriously doubt she will do us any harm.  After talking to her, I bet this ship seems really advanced,  most of the ships in the flotilla are 300 years old!  I can’t imagine what it takes to keep those things running.  That’s why she’s on this pilgrimage.  She’s suppose to bring back something that will greatly benefit the fleet. Resources are scarce in the fleet so anything they can bring back is very important.  Life is quite different there, a lot of things we take for granted, they don’t have, or aren’t allowed to do.  Since space is limited in the fleet, couples are only allowed one child.  This keeps their population in check.  I could’ve spent all day talking to her, but I have duties to perform. I hope to get some down time again soon, I’m curious about this suit they were.  It looks like a biohazard suit.  I know a few species can’t breathe oxygen so they were the equivalent to space suits even in inside area’s.  I wonder if she can take it off ever, how does she eat or go to the bathroom?  Maybe that’s too personal.  I wonder if they were these suits when they are on their own ships as well.  So many questions, I look forward to more time with Tali, I hope she doesn’t get tired of all the questions.  

First thing I want to do is find Liara, she may be able to tell us more about these reapers and the protheans, not to mention her mother is apparently working with Saren.  I feel she holds the most answers.  She was last known to be studying prothean ruins somewhere in the Artemis Tau Cluster, but no one knows exactly where.  The ships computer indicates there are 4 solar systems in which she could be.  So we’ll have to do a search of each one.  The ship’s sensors should be able to detect the ruins from space so the search shouldn’t take too long.  Just a little bit of travel time.