Final Drills

"I thought you'd say that," Reimi replies. "I thought that was the way of things, but your opinion is more based on personal knowledge and experience than mine."

"Unfortunately, Krogan are hard headed and stubborn. They'd rather dwell on old grudges than do something about it." Graal answers, shrugging again.

"Probably part of being long-lived too," Reimi remarks. "There are probably some Krogan that remember before it all happened..."

"That is part of the problem. This isn't something that happened generations ago, there are Krogan who remember it. It happened in our life time." Graal says with a nod. "Still, going on the way we are isn't going to fix anything."

"Hopefully they can find their answers," Reimi remarks.

Graal was the first to take his leave from the club, though he had gone through several servings of Ryncol before taking his large frame back to the ICT barracks. Barrow wasn't far behind him, though Shae stayed late, until things started to die down on the dance floor.

The next day, late in the afternoon, the squad was notified to begin preparations for departure; that they would be briefed on route as things were time sensitive.

Once on the ship, ready to begin, the lieutenant's voice came over their omnitools. "You're being sent to Eden Prime, one of Earth's newer colonies. There has been an incident, and you're to clean it up."

"What do we know about the situation on the ground?" Reimi asks. With the mission involving a human colony, that would imply gravity, which would let her use her full load-out, though unless stealth was involved, arrows would do little good.

"Information is minimal, but intel seems to point towards the Geth." the lieutenant explains, "Another team, Alliance, had gone to investigate, but they've got a man down and are pinned in. You're to get in, help them extract, and clear out any remaining Geth."

"Geth..." Reimi remarks. While her skills included hacking, she'd never actually tried to hack a Geth, an actual AI, but she had no doubt she'd get a chance in the coming mission.

The number of them is unknown, but reports seem to indicate they're concentrated around a settlement and a nearby dig site." the lieutenant continues. "As the attack on the settlement is already complete, your primary objective is to find the Alliance team and get them out, once that is complete you can proceed to routing the Geth."

"A rescue mission then." Shae comments. "Must be someone important."

"Securing the team takes priority," Reimi remarks. "If we're overwhelmed once we have the team, we're to extract without removing the Geth presence?"

"Correct, the settlement was lost before the Alliance team arrived." the Lieutenant confirms. "If the Geth are too numerous or too entrenched, then orders are to abandon Eden Prime after successfully extracting the team."

"Understood, lieutenant," Reimi responds. They wouldn't learn more about the situation on the ground until they arrived, regardless of how many questions were asked, so there was little point in coming up with any more.

Unlike their trip to Saturn's moons, there would be a relay jump this time; taking them to the Utopia System, of the Exodus Cluster. The planet Eden Prime was one of Earth's first colonies, a frontier of farming and mining.

When the ship arrived at the planet and began the descent to the surface, there didn't appear to be any sign of a Geth ship either in orbit or on the ground; so their numbers likely weren't very large. The landing was rough and rather sudden, as something seemed to scramble the ship's system as they neared the settlement itself; disrupting communications and flight controls.

The disruption in communication would pose a problem, though the bigger problem was how they arrived on the planet; crashing would mean if they needed a quick evac, it wouldn't happen.

While the landing was a little jarring, it didn't appear that they had actually crashed; there was no damage, but with the systems scrambled, it wouldn't be easy to take off again until the issue had been dealt.

"Communication is out." Shae confirms, getting no messages from the lieutenant or anyone else. "Mission is the same though, find the team, get them out. Which will probably include getting rid of whatever is jamming comms and flight systems."

"We should focus on the primary objective first, get the team we're to extract back to the ship before the secondary objective," Reimi suggests.

"I'd agree, find the team, get them to safety, then worry about the rest." Shae answers, getting agreements from Barrow and Graal as well. "Comms are down, so its visual only. Keep within sight of each other."

Unlike on Saturn's moon, there was an atmosphere on Eden Prime; meaning gravity and breathable air, no need for helmets or masks. The settlement was close, a standing of now abandoned prefab units though there were mostly undamaged. It wasn't surprising, Geth were ruthlessly efficient, they didn't often destroy things unless absolutely necessary.

"Kind of eerie." Barrow comments, "Doesn't look like anything is wrong, but its a ghost town."

"Keep together and keep your eyes open," Reimi suggests. "Some Geth have optical camouflage, though it's not perfect, just very good. If we get separated, I can leave my arrows as markers."

Elected to use her Acolyte, wanting something that could deal with shields easier; her Carnifex pistol was a little slow, though powerful. In her other hand, she had a sword of Asari make. If anything happened to sneak up on her, a quick slash was faster than lining up a shot.

As they progressed deeper into the settlement, it remained much the same; deserted, with little sign of combat. With no resistance, they soon found a tram leading away from the settlement and out to a dig site where Prothean artifacts were being recovered.

Unlike their first mission, Reimi was using her full load-out for this one, though she had her sniper rifle in hand. Though it narrowed her field of vision, she used its scope to give her a view of the distance, looking for either their target or signs of Geth activity, so they could be ready.

"The digsite was mentioned in the briefing, and I don't see anywhere else they could have gone." Barrow offers, his gun up against his shoulder as he looked around; ready to fire at the first sign of Geth.

"Its deserted here, the dig site seems the next best place to check. We can worry about foraying out into the wilderness after that." Shae offers.

"And I see nothing with the scope," Reimi replies, before pulling it away from her eye. "The tram, then?"

Shae nodded, and hit the controls to summon the tram while Barrow and Graal kept watch. It arrived quickly, so at least it was still working, with no sign of Geth on board.

"Now why would the Geth be interested in a place like this? They don't typically leave their territory." the Asari asks as the tram carried them to their destination.

"Maybe someone found a way to hack the Geth," Reimi suggests. "They are AI, after all..."