@solarodes // starter call. (2 of 3, verne edition!)
the terminus systems are a tricky place to navigate. ordinarily, shepard couldn't care less where they go — all that he need concern himself with is the why and the what of what they're doing there. here, they're outside council jurisdiction ... and that wouldn't matter so much to him, either, if those that roam the systems didn't so vehemently and so often need to remind the galaxy that they freely operate just outside the law. it's never long between reports of raiders assaulting colonies on the edge of the traverse, fleeing back to the terminus systems after — before any council authorities can even begin pursuit. shepard would have preferred that they were helpless to do anything at all about it. but, worse than that, the council seem disinterested in sending reinforcements to their terminus-adjacent colonies. he's learnt not to bother wondering; there's always some excuse of navigating rough political waters, and of hesitance to incite war with the lawless fleets and bands of mercenaries that inhabit the terminus systems.
it reminds him of the verge. ( so much so that only when the normandy's emerged from passing through the relay and at last stabilised does he take in the alarmed glance from a nearby navigator. right — he should relax his jaw and hands. it takes some force ... his fists are clenched tight enough that his knuckles have whitened and, if he had pressed any harder, his nails might have drawn blood from his palms. ) that certainly isn't a good thing.
a warning from joker over his comms startles shepard out of his contemplation: an incoming transmission from hackett. another problem that he no doubt trusts only shepard to manage, for whatever reason — as if shepard commands the only alliance ship within a day's FTL travel. he would rather focus on saren, but the latest trail they've been following has led them temporarily into a dead end. for once, a mission from hackett might be a welcome distraction.
he steps forward, grasping at the railing between the map and the CO's station, and waits for hackett to be patched through.
" shepard. admiral hackett here. we're getting a distress call from the colony of new canton near your location. there's some signal interference that's making it difficult to decipher. but, from what we can make out, they're detecting geth activity in one of their nearby science stations. we're not getting much on the status of the colony itself, but we know that the station the geth are targeting has at least been abandoned for some time. "
an abandoned science station? huh. that strikes him as somewhat odd. " hunting prothean beacons is one thing. but what do geth want with an abandoned science station? "
" what the geth are planning is unclear. this isn't far out from the perseus veil, but geth activity beyond the veil is still unprecedented outside of the attack on eden prime. we don't know yet if these geth are working alongside saren ... regardless, it's in our best interests to contain them before geth forces push out further into the terminus systems. and to other colonies. "
there's not much to work with in that answer, at least not in relation to shepard's question — but there's nothing that admiral hackett can do about that. and the rest of the logic checks out. " understood. "
" we're transmitting the colony and station coordinates to the normandy. with any luck, you'll find colonists able to direct you through accessing the station. do what you can to ensure the safety of the colony, commander, but it's imperative you get the situation with the geth under control, and quickly. hackett out. "
once the connection is cut, shepard leans back, exhaling a heavy sigh through his nostrils. some geth on a space station near a colony ... like admiral hackett said, it isn't terribly far from the veil. he doesn't know much about the geth beyond what williams had to say about them staying within the perseus veil, and that seems to be about as much as the rest of the galaxy knows. he wonders, for a moment, if this is a task better left to someone else.
then again. eden prime seemed like nothing out of the ordinary, too, and look what they ended up with — a dead spectre and one running rogue. whatever the geth were up to, it could have something to do with saren. and if it doesn't? then, well, it's a few less geth to worry about down the line.
" change course to new canton. we're dropping in. "
