A brief note to my invaluable reader,

This project would not have been possible without the request of user FeralG3. The sculpting of Shepard's appearance and personality was mostly done by them, with me filling in a few gaps. All compliments may be directed towards FeralG3, while I will happily accept any insults! If you are feeling up to it, a review and/or request is always appreciated so I may continue to provide you with more worthwhile content. As always, my work is always dedicated to you, my reader. Please enjoy responsibly.

~AltF5

*AltF5 Productions is not held responsible for any hurt feelings, disappointment, sprained wrists, broken bones and other forms of physical injury or boo boos, accidental death or dismemberment, acts of god, or general dissatisfaction. Please read at your own risk, viewer discretion is advised. He he he

Prologue

Tali'Zorah watched with curiosity and anticipation as the lone Geth's patrol pattern brought it closer towards her, while it gradually became more separated from its companions. It obviously had not detected her as she hid in a small, frozen alcove which did not contrast itself from the surrounding frozen wasteland. This was the first Geth she had ever seen in her life - pictures and old recordings did not count - and Tali was both intrigued and slightly frightened. She assumed she was likely to be the first quarian in a few hundred years to be looking at a Geth, let alone stand a few metres away from it; however, Keenah'Breizh was also hiding nearby so she could not take full credit for the discovery. Tali shivered and pulled her purple hood tighter around her head while she wrapped her arms around her torso for warmth. It was not cold enough for her heads-up-display to blink a temperature warning, but it was cold enough to make her wish for an additional thermal layer. She quietly turned her head to look over in Keenah's direction and saw him crouching at the other opening of the alcove. His blue suit was barely distinguishable in the icy depression they were hiding in, but Tali was able to see that he was also shivering. He slightly moved his head to face her and a text message popped up in the corner of Tali's HUD.

"So, do you still think this is a good idea? The Geth doesn't know we're here. It's not too late to leave. We can wait for it to walk away and make a break for it."

Tali looked back over to the Geth to see it was scanning a piece of rubble a few feet away from the alcove. It was closer to where she was, so Tali assumed Keenah was looking to her for guidance. He was not wrong to be reconsidering the plan; after all, what they were attempting to do with the Geth was not exactly safe. Tali and Keenah were the only two crew members who came planetside while the rest of the crew was still orbiting the planet aboard the Honorata. If anything went wrong and the lone Geth decided to call for reinforcements, they would be alone and unable to call for help. Tali instantly became more frightened at the realization that the plan needed to go perfectly, or it was very likely that she and Keenah would be killed; however, Tali learned how to hide fear behind sarcasm and sass from an early age: the admiral's daughter could not be seen as a coward. It was better to be seen as abrasive and rude, rather than scared and submissive. Tali input a reply with her omnitool and waited for her companion to respond.

"What's the matter, Keenah? Too scared to follow through? If you'd rather dig a hole to hide in, I can handle this myself. Don't worry, I'll only tell EVERYONE."

Tali immediately regretted her strong words, as there was a good chance Keenah might actually decide to sit this one out. She needed his help and there was no way she could complete the plan alone. Tali hoped Keenah would take the bait instead of misinterpreting the taunt.

"One moment, I'm considering it… Screw it, I'm in. If you die before I do, I WILL laugh."

"Good, then let me know when you're ready."

Tali keyed in a command to her omnitool and prepared an overload program. It needed to be strong enough to paralyze the Geth without giving it time to call for help, but not so strong that it fried its electrical components, or arced to Keenah. This was going to be a very delicate procedure and there was no room for error, this needed to go smoothly. Keenah activated his omnitool and an omniblade extended out of the holographic housing.

"Alright ,Tali… this is it. There's no turning back after this. If you want to change your mind, now's the time. We are either going to pull this off perfectly, or die. What's the plan?"

No turning back. Keelah, he's right… but then again, this whole pilgrimage is something with no turning back. Well, if there's no turning back then I better make this count.

"Keenah, do it. I'm ready"

Keenah bumped his omniblade into the frozen wall of the alcove, causing an audible thump as snow fell from the top and landed in front of the cave-like opening. The Geth immediately stood upright and pointed its plasma rifle over in Keenah's direction.

It's done. No turning back.

The Geth began taking slow, cautious steps towards Keenah's hiding spot and Tali prepared her omnitool. When it was close enough for its optical searchlight to cast Keenah's almost invisible shadow, Tali leaped forward and activated her omnitool. The electrical discharge arced to the unsuspecting Geth and surged through its body, causing it to utter a metallic squeak as it began convulsing. Keenah sprung forward and plunged his omniblade into the Geth's neck, tumbling into the ground along with his robotic victim.

"TALI!" Keenah bellowed. "HURRY!"

Tali sprinted over to the pair of bodies on the ground and lunged to the Geth's nearly severed head. She used her own omniblade to break open the metal casing on the back of its skull and began stripping apart any electrical components she could wrap her fingers around. After a few short moments the Geth ceased attempting to move and lay motionless on the ground as white smoke began rising out of its neck.

"It fried its internal circuitry", Keenah observed. "That's what the white smoke is, I think. I can't believe that worked! Nice one, Tali! Did you manage to grab anything that wasn't roasted along with it?"

Tali began rummaging through a small pile of metal and circuits, searching for anything intact or usable. She finally pulled out a small motherboard that was split in half, but looked as if it was still functional. Keenah scanned it with his omnitool and began sifting through the readings.

"It's a memory core", he pointed out. "So far, nothing stored inside is usable. Pretty much all the files are destroyed or corrupted. Did you manage to… hang on. I found something! It's an audio file! No visuals to go along with it, but I'll see what we can restore." Tali watched intently as Keenah rapidly input commands into his omnitool. He groaned in frustration and looked up with electric blue eyes gazing through his faceplate.

"Are you sure you didn't grab anything else?" He implored. "I don't think this memory core is going to give us anything"

"Well", Tali sneered. "Why don't YOU search through our loot pile, and I'll take a look at the memory core? Obviously, you're doing something wrong." Keenah rolled his eyes and passed Tali the broken motherboard.

"Keelah", Keenah exclaimed. "Next time, I will let you do it yourself and go dig myself a hole to hide in."

Tali scanned the motherboard to discover the only intact files remaining were heavily encrypted; furthermore, there was no way to know for certain if the files were usable even if they were to be decrypted. Concluding that she had nothing better to do, Tali began running her decryption program on the remaining files. Keenah finished looking through the small pile of Geth innards and looked over to watch Tali.

"Good luck", he scoffed. "I'll make sure his friends don't come looking for him." The decryption program sounded off in a quiet beep, indicating it had completed its task.

"No need!" Tali quipped. "It's done. I'll even let you listen to the audio file if you tell me what a savant I am, and how nobody will ever be able to surpass me. Especially not you." Keenah gently tapped his knuckles on her faceplate and moved closer to her.

"Hello?" He teased. "Anybody in there? All I see is hot air coming out of that suit. Is there actually a quarian in there?" Tali huffed and poked him in the chest, then opened the audio file while streaming it through her comm channel with Keenah.

"Eden Prime was a major victory, and the beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit!"

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers…"

Tali and Keenah paused in silence for a few moments, both of them wondering if they had heard anything significant. Keenah was absolutely correct: there was no turning back.