The viewport on the Normandy’s observation deck was quality stuff.
Nothing like you’d see on most Alliance ships, it was clear and crisp to the point you’d be hard-pressed to miss anything reasonable even without digital assistance as well as being the kind of hardy that could easily weather a micrometeorite at sub-light speeds.
And that was without shields.All in all, nothing to complain about.Shame, it didn’t do shit to filter out how ugly the planet was, though.
A red-tinted ball of Prothean grave-dirt hung in the darkness as Zedd leaned forward, glass cold against his wrist as he took in the planet. Looks like a cueball left in the gutter for a good decade. Swirling bands of tan and gray-brown covered the surface, huge continents of long-dead urban texture making up the unnatural geometry of the crumbling megalopolis.
Nothing lush or oceanic about the place, it was dirtied by dust, gutted by grid-scars and riddled with ruined plateaus — everything about it just gave off the vibe that the whole planet probably tasted like pennies and lung cancer.
"Feros, huh..."
Zedd clicked his tongue, sapphire ring tapping against the metal railing as his aviators projected telemetry in front of his eyes; the young man scrolling data that told him absolutely nothing he hadn’t already figured out. Atmospheric pressure… of course, garbage. He tilted his head at the obvious. And yeah, whole surface is a mild oven.
A given, considering all the smoggy dust in the atmosphere.
"Do you know…” A faint airy grain of filtered breathing sounded out about a foot from his left elbow, Tali’Zorah stepping up to the glass. Three-fingered hands clasped together in front of her patterned enviro-suit as she paused her words, seemingly struggling with the thought as much as the vocalization. “...anything about the colony here? The reports we had..."
Not much more than you do. Zedd didn't look away from the glass, thoughts sliding back to the short briefing a few hours back. The Citadel Council had been kind enough to forward Shepard some data — girl Shepard at least, he was pretty sure they had already forgotten she had a brother — about the Geth and a recent attack by the flashlights.
Never bothered poking your heads out the Veil in centuries. He sucked his teeth as he kept eying the planet like it could give him the answers he wanted. And all of a sudden, you’re swarming a corporate rock in the middle of nowhere.
Hell, he at least knew why Tali had been picked for this op.
If anyone would know anything about odd Geth behavior, it would be a Quarian. “...Zedd?”Hm? He blinked over at Tali as the suited alien stared back at him. Even without her face visible under that visor, he could somehow tell she was waiting for something. Wait… Brown eyes blinked again as he realized… Did I not talk out loud?“Oh… sorry.” A laugh slipped free. “I meant to say, not much past the brief. It’s a rock. People lived on it. People died on it.”Quarian body language was really interesting — not because of the uniqueness at all. In fact, it was so close to human that even with only three fingers, the slump of Tali’s shoulders as she rolled her head told him that the polite nervous alien was holding back sarcasm with as much effort as she could muster.
"The Lt Commander shared a bit of detail with me I could offer."
Kaidan Alenko materialized to Zedd’s right, the biotic leaning his forearms against the railing as he joined both of them in staring out at the dead world. Zedd hummed. “Go for it.”"Apparently, it’s a very young project. By all standards, ExoGeni effectively just dropped a prefab op in the ruins of a Prothean megacity.” The man nodded as he spoke, low even baritone carrying even without much volume to it. “More an outpost than anything, really. And that’s by our numbers. Not Citadel metrics, even.”Yeah. Zedd bit back a snort, chin jerking up despite himself. Yeah, no shit.
He was well aware of the Council’s demographic gatekeeping. It was easy to miss if you didn’t pay attention but it was the best way to maintain power on what species technically had control of a planet, garden or not. Assholes, I swear. Long story short, if a rock didn't have a population point at least in the low millions, the Citadel treated it like a glorified campsite.
If you didn't have the numbers, the Council didn't have to officially recognize your ownership past ‘transient standards’, which meant anything from official Citadel business to Terminus pirates could see you packing off like your claim never mattered.
If you couldn’t defend it, at least.“So, the Geth attacked an outpost.” That was the real heart of this, both more and less suspicious than Eden Prime. “An outpost that’s technically Prothean.”
Technically, in the sense that it belonged to them.
Practically, with all the tech dead as a doornail, they’d be better off hunting for more Beacons.
"Less an outpost. More a labor camp for a corp, really." Not… Zedd blinked over at the man as the biotic’s tired eyes tracked some random data on his terminal. Not even close to the point of what I was getting at, man.
"Yeah, I bet he'd know a lot about that."
Ceramic plates announced her before her voice did, Ashley Williams a few feet behind them on the deck with her arms crossed tight over her hardsuit.
God, give it a rest. Zedd rolled his eyes, but didn’t bother with even turning his head as a sigh escaped him loud enough for her to hear. "I'm rich, Williams. Not evil."
"There a difference now?"
“Well, yeah…” Zedd finally pushed off the glass to look at the Gunnery Chief. Hands shoved deep in the pockets of his overcoat, he let his fingers tap against the ball bearing-sized objects dancing around in there before bothering to answer the woman. "I'm not ExoGeni, for one. I mean, those guys are some demonic fucks."
Ashley’s jaw tightened, possibly at the profanity, but Zedd wasn’t going to let that stop him from getting his two cents out since she bothered dragging them up. "Not surprised they use some old Prothean setup with dead-tech to squeeze anything they can out of it. Real cheap. Cheaper than actual scaffolding. Why spend billions on infrastructure when you can sweep the dust off an extinction event and put up some cubicles?"
"Really?” A subharmonic buzz vibrated from the doorway as it slid open, their resident Turian long-striding into the room on digitigrade legs. “First I’m hearing about this. ExoGeni's filings on the Citadel are usually clean from what I’ve seen of their charter requests.”
“Really.” Zedd snorted, the sound jagged and with barely any humor to it. "It’d be funny if it weren’t a joke.” “Is…” Tali looked over at him, hands up with a question. “Is my translator broken?”“My fault.” He forced down another laugh as he shook his head. “What I mean to say is that ExoGeni are the kind of company that’ll reuse and recycle anything and everything they can get their hands on, Vakarian. And that includes their human resources.” He raised a brow high above his glasses. “You think a corporate board on Earth gives a shit about OSHA compliance in the Traverse? Please."The Turian blinked back at him. “...OSHA?”
"Don't know much about the companies, Victors…” All heads went up, two in particular standing at attention, as John Shepard walked in behind Vakarian. The large man’s presence was the obvious anchor in the room, even without both Marines immediately saluting him. “But it's dead salvage on a frontier world."
Liara T’Soni shadowed his steps, blue hands tucked against her white-suited chest. "The Commander is right. Feros has long been dismissed as… ineffective for any real Prothean research.”Shepard nodded, taking the cosign in stride. “No Beacon. No real tech to fight over."
"And you know this how?"
Jane Shepard entered the deck just a few paces behind her brother, already leaning forward with a question aimed at his back.
“Cause he knows the Council.” Zedd leaned back against the viewport, mouth already moving before the Commander could offer a diplomatic answer. "And anyone who knows the Council knows they’d rather nuke the planet themselves than let humanity keep a working Prothean cache to themselves."
“I…” John frowned his way, wearing confusion across his face like an old friend. "I didn't say that."
"No," Zedd tapped the side of his head with a smirk. "But you thought it."
"I definitely didn't."
"Well, I did." Zedd turned his back on the Commander and his sister, gaze returning to the swirling brown clouds above the planet-sprawling ultra-city.
He let the conversation behind him join all the other noise at the back of his mind, main focus geared on the variables around this op. Saren pointed the geth here. That much didn’t need to be restated, sure, but the question was simple: Why, though?
Unless there was something he knew that nobody else did, why go for a planet that had been scraped and searched by Citadel species for anything Prothean generations before humans even sniffed space-flight? There has to be something here worth it. Not unless Saren just felt like fucking up some humans for shits and/or giggles…
Not that I’d put it past the guy. Hate-boner for humanity aside, for a small armada of flashlights to swarm some corporate colony meant there just had to be something in the dirt worth shooting at.
The ship’s own deep-scans flickered over his lens with a guided blink from him, overlaying the reports from the Citadel with what was in front of him now. …not enough damage for the Geth to really be trying to bury this place.
Hell, for that matter, the Normandy’s approach was looking oddly peaceful for a colony supposedly under attack, so where were the Geth even supposed to be? Either these numbers are cooked, or someone’s playing a really weird game.
"Gear up," Jane clipped out, Spectre turning on her heel. "We drop in five."
Zedd turned around with a sigh held back as the team’s pre-decided deployment roster populated on his omni-tool. Eight people; Jane, John, Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus, Tali, Liara, and — of course — him.
He didn’t fight it when Jane informed him only he was going on this op.
Well, no more than Wrex did when the Krogan found out he wasn’t.
Still, he knew Jane’s game already. Isolate me from my support system. Who knew the rough and rowdy Jane Shepard had a psychological side to her? Whatever. Zedd let that slow sigh slide free, head tilted back. Don’t care enough to argue.
“Victors, get your ass on the Mako!”He blinked. “The what?”