Final Drills

With the last of the resistance gone, Reimi advanced, keeping her assault rifle drawn. It would now fall on her to get into the door, and she set her omnitool to starting work on that.

The hack was difficult at first, as there seemed to be some resistance from inside attempting to keep the doors shut. After some muffled voices from inside however, the resistance stopped and the doors opened. Just beyond the doors, hunkered down behind an overturned table, were two alliance soldiers; one male, one female. Both of them had their rifles trained on the group.

"Aliens!" the female said, training her rifle towards Shae and Graal. "Who are you all?"

"N7," Reimi replies. "Reimi Saionji, these are Shae and Graal, along with Barrow. We're here to extract you."

Since at least of the two seemed more comfortable with the humans, both Shae and Graal took a step back; leaving things to Reimi and Barrow while they kept watch for more geth approaching.

"N7? Did the Normandy send some kind of distress? Our comms have been out since the geth attacked." the male answers, putting a hand out to lower his companion's gun. "I guess it doesn't matter how, just that you're here now. I'm Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko of the Alliance vessel SSV Normandy. This is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams."

"There is another with us, but they're injured. Alive, but unresponsive." Ashley adds, finally lowering her gun. "If we can get communications restored, we could hail the Normandy."

"We don't know the details of why we were sent," Reimi replies. "As for communications, there's some kind of strange signal being broadcast. I've never seen anything like it, but that seems to be what's scrambling systems."

"Thats likely the Prothean Beacon you're scanners are picking up, though I'm not sure that is what would be scrambling everything." Kaidan replies. "Its why the Normandy came here, and why the Geth showed up too. We believe so anyway."

"Who knows what its doing now that its damaged. The thing exploded, damn near killed Shepard." Ashley adds. "She needs an evac quickly."

"It's still putting out a signal I haven't been able to crack," Reimi remarks. "The explosion must not have damaged it too much. We can get you back to the ship, but without dealing with that signal, we're not likely getting anywhere; it caused us to land hard."

"Perhaps it would be best to return to the ship first, their injured ally could get some attention even if we're unable to fly." Shae offers, though she was still watching their surroundings; no signs of Geth yet.

"We'd be grateful. Then Ashley and I could take you to the beacon, and help find whatever signal is scrambling everything." Kaidan replies.

"Alright, let's get her back to the ship," Reimi replies. Some medical attention would certainly be better than none, though if this Shepard was as injured as it sounded, the ship's facilities wouldn't be enough...

Both Kaidan and Ashley went up the stairs, to the second floor of the prefab unit. When they returned, they were supporting a third person between them; a female in heavy alliance armor. There didn't appear to be any noticeable damage to her armor, despite being supposedly caught in some kind of blast. "We'll need you to watch our backs while we carry her, won't be able to defend ourselves like this."

"Most of the trip is on a tram," Reimi remarks. "I'll keep an eye on nearby signals for signs of Geth."

Though the return trip was a little slower, having to accommodate Shepard, the group was able to get back to the ship without incident. The signals, both Geth and what was likely the beacon; faded behind them as they rode the tram. Flight systems were still scrambled, among other things, but the medbay did have some functionality. The on-ship doctor took Shepard in, promising to keep watch over her while the team dealt with the signal.

"Now, we could show you the Beacon, or what is left of it anyway." Kaidan offers, "Unless you've picked up any other Geth signals."

"There's a Geth signal, but it wasn't as strong as the drones," Reimi remarks. "So we should be fine going back."

"Still, we'll go with you, nothing we can do for Shepard here but wait." Ashley replies, "Sooner we get systems back, sooner the Normandy can be hailed."

"That signal is likely whatever is jamming everything, so it shouldn't be too hard to deal with." Kaidan adds.

"Easy, he says," Reimi remarks with a sigh. "I can't even figure out what it is, let alone shut it down."

"If we can't shut it off, we'll just smash it." Ashley comments, getting an agreeing laugh from Graal.

"Ha, I like the way this one thinks." the large krogan says.

"That could make things worse," Reimi suggests. "We're dealing with some unknown technology here, we don't know how it would react to being attacked. We won't figure anything out just standing here, so let's go."

Another tram ride was required to get back towards the signals. The mysterious signal, likely the Beacon if Kaidan was correct, was to the north of the tram station. The Geth signal was in another direction, more to the south east.

"The Geth came from that direction originally, and their strange ship." Ashley explains.

"And the scrambled systems started before the Geth showed up?" Reimi asks. "This lone Geth signal doesn't make sense..."

"The ship landed, the Geth began attacking, then everything went down in the chaos." Ashley confirms, the only one among them who had been on planet when the attack began.

"It sounds like it's this Geth signal causing it," Reimi deduces. "And that I can probably do something about, if we find the source."

Following the signal to its source in the south east. Amidst the outskirts of the mines was a large area that looked like something had landed there. Nearby, was a device that appeared to be of Geth design, the source of the signal.

"This must be it, doesn't look like anything from The settlement." Ashley offers.

"And it's the source of the signal," Reimi confirms. "Now let's see if I can shut it down so we can get systems back online..." With that, the engineer started working with her omnitool on the Geth signal.

Upon checking the system, it became clear that the device wasn't going to be hard to hack; though it would have been if there were any Geth platforms nearby. On its own though, it didn't take long for Reimi's omnitool to connect.

"I'm in," Reimi remarks as she gains access to the Geth signal. Making a copy of it sounded like it might be good for the future, but she wasn't sure how that might screw things up in the here and now. Instead, she set about finding a way to disable it.