Chapter 171

Harry walked away from Hana in silence, something was going on here, but he couldn't really think of anything, it was like his instincts were telling him to be on high alert, so seeing how everyone keeps telling him to speak with Fai Dan, he might as well go see what he can find out from him.

Harry immediately headed to where Fai Dan was, he soon arrived and as he did so Arcelia looked down nervously when she caught sight of him, but Harry just ignored her and walked over to Fai Dan.

Fai Dan noticed Harry and raised an eyebrow not expecting him to approach him, though he pushed that aside and greeted Harry as soon as he got close "Your part of the Commander's squad right? How can I help you?".

Harry nodded and then went on to explain "Yes, I'm a member of Shepard's squad, I just wanted to ask something of you... look, some of the colonists are acting strange, do you know anything about that?".

Fai Dan frowned but still answered the question "We're a close-knit group, most of us have lost loved ones, friends...".

Arcelia suddenly spoke, but she seemed to be trying to speak as calmly as possible "The colonists aren't trained soldiers, nobody taught us how to deal with the horrors of war...".

Harry raised an eyebrow at Arcelia but didn't say anything else, Fai Dan, however, continued on "This is our home, we've watched the geth slowly destroy everything that is important to us, don't judge us too harshly".

Harry narrowed his eyes but nodded and then walked away, while doing so, he looked around and watched as the colonists went on about their day, however, he then noticed Shepard, the squad, and Kunou walking over to him.

Kunou suddenly took off running and jumped in his arms, Harry happily hugged his girlfriend, while Shepard and the squad caught up to them, Shepard then smiled and asked, "How did it go on your side, Harry?".

Harry put Kunou down and then began to report "I gave food to Devin, the guy in charge of the food supply, it should last the colony a month, what about you guys?".

Kunou spoke first and began to explain "The water supply issue can be easily fixed by turning on some valves down in the tunnels below, no one has been able to go down there because there's a lot of geth in the tunnels, but we should be able to easily handle it".

Harry nodded, Shepard then explained next "We need to find some power cells, but that should be easy, we just need to scavenge some from some destroyed or abandoned vehicles or machinery".

Harry once again nodded "Alright, then let's go turn those valves on for the water problem, on the way we can look for anything that might use power cells and scavenge them".

The squad nodded and now that they were together again, they walked out of the colony and headed down towards tunnels below the colony of Zhu's Hope.

-----

The group headed up the square spiraling stairs and then on the first floor took a turn on the first entrance they found, the group then found a staircase going down.

So they all climbed down the stairs and headed down, suddenly a colonist screamed "Oh god, they're everywhere!" the colonist immediately took off running trying to get away from the geth that began to attack.

Harry moved quickly and blocked the shots from the geth heading towards the colonist, Kunou suddenly flashed right behind the colonist, grabbed her by the waist, and then disappeared in a flash of golden light taking the colonist away from the battle.

Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan then quickly began to shoot at the geth, until a group of geth stalkers began to jump from wall to wall, so the squad switched to their assault rifles and gunned down the geth stalkers in a few seconds.

Harry jumped down the staircase and then destroyed a few geth shock troopers that were heading up the stairs to cut off the squad from reaching the tunnels, but they were instead cut into pieces by Harry.

Soon enough, the staircase was cleared and everyone walked down the stair to meet with Harry, Kunou also reappeared in a flash of golden light and told everyone that the colonist was safe back at the colony.

The group nodded and then went on, eventually they made it to the tunnels down below of the colony and began to look around as they walked through the concrete tunnels, Kunou then noticed some sort of terminal attached to a big pipe.

She walked up to it and stared at the machine, with a curious look on her face, she then decided to ask aloud a question "Is this a water valve?".

Kaidan walked up to Kunou's side and nodded "That's right, looks like we found it right away".

Kunou smiled and then said, "Oh~ how do I turn it on?".

Kaidan smiled and then began to explain to Kunou how to turn on the water valve, meanwhile, Ashley then turned to speak to Shepard "This valve looks like part of a larger system, there are likely others we need to activate as well".

Shepard nodded, but then pointed at Kunou who turned on the valve and happily smiled "Let's leave it to Kunou, she seems to be having fun".

Ashley lightly laughed as she saw Kunou happily smile as her tails wagged from side to side, suddenly a group of geth shock troopers shot at the group, but their armor's shields protected them, while Kunou and Harry were utterly unaffected.

But since the geth interrupted Kunou's enjoyment, she suddenly summoned her keyblade and then fired a spiraling beam of golden light toward the geth shock troopers.

The spiraling beam of golden light went through the group of geth shock troopers and destroyed them in a single move, Kunou pouted at having her fun interrupted and sent her keyblade away.

But then noticed another water valve at the end of the tunnel they were in, she quickly grinned and ran towards the water valve, she even did so on all fours, which only made everyone smile in amusement.

While Kunou was turning the other water valve on, the group continued on, soon she finished her little task and caught up with everyone "It's not completely working yet, so there's probably more to turn on, we should go look somewhere else some more".

Everyone nodded in agreement and then continued on walking through the tunnels, they soon reached a door and it automatically opened for them, Shepard walked in first and cautiously looked around, suddenly, some loud and very aggressive growls began to echo through the chamber, Shepard had just stepped in.

Shepard immediately took his pistol out and cautiously walked inside, he was suddenly pounced on by a four-legged creature from somewhere above.

Luckily, his armor's shields bounced the creature off Shepard and he quickly shot it in the head when it landed on the ground, Shepard then noticed a big pack of the four-legged creatures rush towards him, he immediately called the name of the creatures to the squad "There's varren here!".

Harry jumped forward and then waved his hand at the varren pack "'Kathwack!'".

A wave of black energy spread out of Harry's hand and engulfed the varren, the creature suddenly dropped dead as the instant death spell drained its life force away in a matter of seconds.

Shepard then noticed a big varren heading towards Harry's side, so he quickly took aim with his pistol and then shot the big varren dead with a headshot.

Harry had noticed it, but he knew someone would take care of it, so he ignored the big varren, though he turned to take a look at the creature and then noticed it had its body entirely covered with some weird-looking slugs "Hm... this must be the alpha varren Devin mentioned".

Kunou walked over to Harry and hummed to catch his attention, Harry, of course, turned his head towards Kunou right away and she then asked him a question "Why did you use an instant death spell?".

Harry smiled at Kunou "Well, Devin said something about hunting these things for food, so I thought it would be best to keep their bodies intact".

Kunou nodded in understanding "Ah, that makes sense".

Ashley walked up to Harry and Kunou, to ask something that caught her attention "Wait... what do you mean instant death spells?...".

Harry grinned at Ashley and then said "Well, it's as the name implies, an instant death, though to be fair, this type of spell is hard to use and control, but since I'm the Master of Death.

I can use such spells and they will always hit, a perk for being so close to Death herself".

Ashley stared at Harry for a few good moments and then sighed as she said "Okay... Death is a woman... neat, but it's kinda scary to think you have a spell that can kill anyone without fail".

Harry chuckled, which did not make Ashley feel any better, Kunou just laughed and thought about how many instant death spells they knew, poor Ashley, she has no idea.

Shepard walked over to Harry, Ashley, and Kunou, he looked down at the alpha varren "What are those slugs all over the varren's body".

Kaidan also looked down at the alpha varren "We should burn this one, whatever those slugs are, we don't want them spreading around".

Everyone nodded in agreement, Kunou pointed her keyblade at the dead alpha varren and then fired a firaga at it, the dead alpha varren's body was turned into a pile of ash in a matter of seconds.

Meanwhile, Harry put the other dead varren in his inventory, so he can give them to Devin, Ashley took this moment to look around and then noticed some kind of downed vehicle nearby.

Thinking that she might find some power cells in that, she walked over to the downed vehicle and then checked inside the fuel compartment, she smiled when she did, in fact, found a few power cells "Nice!".

Ashley quickly took out the power cells and walked over to Harry "Hey Harry! Can you keep these in your inventory? They're the power cells we need".

Harry nodded and then put the power cells into his inventory, with that done, the group then continued looking around for the rest of the water valves, they moved to another room nearby and once inside, Kaidan was shot in the head by a geth sniper.

He grunted from the vibration and dropped to his knees, Harry quickly threw Oblivion towards the geth sniper and cut it in half, the group then watched the geth drop down to the ground and then exploded.

Another geth sniper appeared above the group, but this one was gunned down by Ashley and Shepard before it could even take aim, a few geth shock troopers then ran out of cover and immediately shot at the group.

But Kunou pointed her keyblade at the geth and yelled the name of her spell as she cast it at the group of geth "'Blizzaga!'".

A small snowflake flew from the tip of Kunou's keyblade and crashed against the geth shock troopers, the snowflake exploded and then a massive amount of ice and frost engulfed both the geth and the parts of the room they were coming from.

That entire part of the room was frozen solid and covered in ice, the geth shock trooper stayed standing and completely frozen, until the geth then cracked and then shattered into many small pieces.

Everyone turned their head towards Kaidan, who was still kneeling on the ground and holding his head with a grimace on his face, Shepard walked up to him and then patted his back as he said "Kaidan, are you okay?".

Kaidan slowly nodded "I'm fine Commander, that shot to the head just gave me a headache, give me a moment and it should be gone soon".

Shepard nodded, Harry suddenly reached a hand towards Kaidan and then place a finger on his forehead, Kaidan's head suddenly glowed for a second and he then sighed in relief.

Kaidan looked up and smiled at Harry "Thank you, Harry, you're a lifesaver".

Harry nodded and gave Kaidan a smile "No problem Kaidan, but when we're done with this mission, we'll work on your L2 implants problem, so hang in there for now, okay?".

Kaidan nodded, now with Kaidan fine again, the group then continued on, a few minutes later, Harry narrowed his eyes and turned to look in front of himself and the group, suddenly a krogan came out from behind a wall and roared as he charged at him.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the krogan and stared at it with a perplexed look on his face "Huh?... So that's what the enemies feel when they see Wrex charging at them...".

Everyone shared a laugh at Harry's comments and then watched as Harry caught the charging krogan by the throat and then ripped his head off with his other hand, after that he just threw the body and head to the side without care".

Ashley shook her head but had an amused smile on her face "That was both cool and gross".

Harry chuckled and then two other krogan came out of nowhere and charged at the group, but Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan shot them down with their Harry-made assault rifles.

Kunou then walked over to the now-dead krogan and looked down at them "Hm, looks like Saren is now hiring mercenaries, he must think he can take us down with extra muscle".

Harry nodded "He might be getting desperate now, or there's really something on this planet that he really wants".

Kaidan frowned and then nodded to Harry in agreement "That has to be it, otherwise, why use such a big force against just one colony?".

Shepard thought the same as everyone but they had to keep moving so he called out to everyone "Let's go everyone, let's keep going and see what else we find in these tunnels".

The group then walked further inside the room, where they found a transmitter tower, Ashley grinned and then pointed at it "There it is! Those krogan must have been guarding it".

Shepard nodded and then aimed his Harry-made pistol at the transmitter tower, he shot it once and the transmitter tower instantly exploded, with it destroyed everyone then left the room to continue to investigate, after all, there were still more water valves to find.

-----

Walking some more around the tunnels down below the colony, allowed the group to find another water valve, Kunou quickly walked over to it and began to operate it to turn it on, she then smiled when she saw that the water was now running once again "Yes! The colony has water now!".

Everyone smiled happy that another problem in the colony was solved, everyone was ready to move on when another group of geth shock troopers appeared and attacked.

But the squad quickly shot them down again, Ashley frowned as she put away her assault rifle "This isn't right, no wonder the colonists are having a hard time here, there's just too many geth coming in here and attacking on sight".

Shepard frowned and nodded "Yeah, this is very unusual, I don't think we've seen this many geth all at once, add to that krogan as well, and well... it's a miracle this colony is still hanging in there".

Everyone nodded, Harry then said, "Then let's help as much as possible, we cleared out a lot of geth already, that should give the colonists some breathing room, but we do have to push the geth off of this planet soon, the colony won't be able to survive long if we don't".

The group nodded and then got going as well, they decided to check all of the tunnels down below the colony, just to make sure they clear as many geth as possible to help the colony even further.

-----

After heading to the back of the tunnel, the group found a sole person back there, this guy was just standing there in the dark and not doing anything, and this both surprised and intrigued the squad, Shepard being curious about the person, decided to approach him.

As soon as the person noticed Shepard getting close, he suddenly yelled at him "You don't want to go down there!".

Shepard was both caught off guard and surprised from being suddenly yelled at like that, but he just reacted by raising an eyebrow at the person in front of him, he then decided to ask the strange person a question "What are you doing here?".

The stranger shook his head and then said "Nothing I should be and anything I shouldn't... noooo!".

The stranger suddenly dropped to his knees and let out a big loud no, Shepard jumped back and got ready for anything as he stared as the stranger grunted in pain.

A few seconds later the stranger, stood up and shook his head "That was a good one, very intense...".

Harry frowned as he noticed a few things about this whole situation, but stayed quiet for now to see what else he can figure out, Shepard looked at the stranger with a worried expression on his face "What's the matter with you?".

The strange man just grinned at Shepard and then said "Just invoking the master's whip, helps remind me, I'm still alive... you're here for the geth, aren't you? You're not the only one interested in those... things".

That caught Shepard's interest, it sounded like someone else was after the geth as well "Who else is looking for the geth?".

The stranger shook his head "Not looking for, looking to get rid of, they're a thorn in the side of the- wlaagh! agh! trying to get to the- aaaiee! gyah ha ha ha! ahahahaha!".

Everyone stared at the stranger in confusion, except Harry, he was looking at the stranger with a look that told everyone, that he realized something, Shepard however, was more concerned for the stranger "Is there anything I can do to help you? Do you even want help?".

The stranger shook his head "Help me? No, no one can help me now... I rather die fighting!".

Shepard was now getting very worried and annoyed "Fighting what!?".

The stranger grabbed at the sides of his head and shook his head "Not that kind of fight, it's like running through a thorn bush, the more you struggle... time's up, company's coming... ask Fai Dan, ask him about the- aaaagh!".

The strangers suddenly screamed and passed out, but before the squad could check on him, geth shock troopers and geth assault drones attacked everyone from behind, but nothing happened to the group as their armors protected them once again, however, Harry quickly raised his hand towards the geth and then cast a spell "'Graviga!'".

A massive orb of purple energy appeared in the middle of the group and then the gravity increased drastically and unexpectedly around the purple orb, this crushed the geth shock troopers and made the geth drones slam on the ground and get destroyed from the impact.

Harry then turned to face everyone and then said "Let's go, I have something to talk about with you guys".

Shepard nodded but then pointed towards the unconscious stranger "What about him?".

Harry shook his head and then said "Leave him there for now, I have something to tell you guys before we can even try to help him, but I can't speak with him being close by".

Everyone shared a look, they knew that Harry had to have a good reason for this, so they immediately went to do what he told them to do, so everyone walked away from the unconscious stranger and then walked back to the staircase leading to the Colony.

Once there Harry stopped everyone and snapped his fingers stopping time "Look guys, I bet all of you have noticed something odd going on here right?".

Shepard nodded, he had immediately noticed something odd about the colonists "Yes, everyone in the colony is acting weird, it's like they're apathetic or something like that".

Harry nodded seeing that Shepard had an idea of what was wrong "Yes, and with what just happened with that stranger down there, I think I know what's going on".

Ashley frowned and then crossed her arms "If you stopped time, that means this is serious, I'm actually a bit afraid to know now".

Harry sighed and gave Ashley a nod confirming her words "Yeah, looks like these people are being mind manipulated here, or something similar, but it's being done very carefully and underneath the attention of everyone in the colony".

Everyone looked worried and frowned, this was a very serious situation they found themselves in now, Kaidan then sighed "That's pretty bad, can you do anything about it".

Kunou was the one who answered Kaidan's questions before Harry could "No, that would be a bad idea, if whoever or whatever gets alerted of something happening here, it might just decide to kill off everyone or disappear.

No, it's better to find out whatever or whoever is doing this first, then cut it off from whatever sort of mental manipulation it's using"

Harry nodded in agreement "Yeah, we don't know what we're dealing with here, to begin with, thus we don't know how the culprit would react, best to take it easy and find whoever or whatever is doing this first.

Plus we don't know why the culprit is doing this, this might be another Rachni situation as well".

Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan nodded, they understood what Harry and Kunou just explained, it was risky right now to make any sudden movements, so for now, they'll have to tread carefully and see if they can find out more information about who or what is causing trouble in the colony.

With that in mind, the group decided to get going, so Harry snapped his fingers and restarted time, with that done, the group then headed back to the colony.

-----

Shepard thought it would be a good idea to speak with Fai Dan and let him know that they already took care of the geth transmitter tower, with that in mind Shepard went to see him right away.

Fai Dan quickly noticed Shepard walking towards him and as soon as the Commander stopped in front of him, Fai Dan spoke up to him "The tower's secure, thanks to you, Commander".

Shepard nodded "I'm just glad your colony is safe".

Fai Dan nodded "I appreciate your concern... and your efforts against the geth".

Arcelia sighed and then said, "They may have been slowed, but they'll be back, they always come back".

Shepard nodded and then began explaining "I destroyed a geth transmitter in the tunnels, they won't be a problem any longer".

Both Fai Dan and Arcelia looked relieved that the geth problem I solved for now, Fai Dan then spoke up "Thank you, Commander, we're in your debt, you've taken a great weight off our shoulders, I just wish I had such good news for every problem".

Shepard, then decided to mention the stranger in the tunnels, see if that makes Fai Dan say anything about what's really going on in the colony "There's a guy living in the tunnels, is he one of yours?".

Fai Dan frowned a bit but then nodded "That would be Ian, he's very sick".

Now, everyone knew that was a lie, Harry had already told everyone what happened to Ian, so this already drew suspicion on Fai Dan, Shepard then said "He seems to be more than just sick" just to keep appearances.

Fai Dan nodded "He hasn't been the same since the attacks began, we tried to help him, but he wouldn't listen to us... I can't help my people if they won't listen, Commander".

Shepard decided to keep asking questions, to see if Fai Dan would give out more information "Don't you have medical supplies? Something to help him?".

However, Fai Dan just shook his head "I wish it was that simple, Ian was a good man, I'd like to have him with us... please, Commander, I'd prefer not to talk about it anymore".

Shepard nodded and then walked away from Fai Dan, though he shared a look with Harry before starting to walk away, it seems Fai Dan is lying and might know more about what was happening, but for now, they can't force it out of him, not now at least.

Instead, Shepard decided to go let everyone else know, that they solved the problems that the colony had.

-----

They first decided to go talk to Devin, however, as they entered the bunker, they heard a woman complain and a man speaking with her, curious about what was going on, Shepard followed the voices and found himself in the medical bay.

In there they found a man sitting on a chair, right beside a woman who was laying on a cot, Shepard approached the couple and the man sitting down in the chair heard the group walk over and instantly began to speak "You'll have to forgive my wife, Calantha is not in her right mind, she just needs to relax and accept what's happened".

Shepard raised an eyebrow at the sudden explanation, but he was now curious about who this man is and what he does in the colony "I'm Shepard, who are you and what do you do for the colony".

The man sitting in the chair nodded and then introduced himself "I'm Hollis Blake, I'm a medic, or I am since the doctor died, I've tried my best since she was killed".

Looks like the colony's doctor was another victim of the geth attacks, but at least the colony still has a medic to rely on, Shepard then decided to ask more questions "So you know anything about this planet?".

Hollis then began to tell Shepard what he knew "Just what I was told by colonial affairs, it's a little... different from what they claimed.

It's not all bad, though, when the geth are gone, we'll have a chance to create something even more spectacular than before".

Harry and Shepard liked that enthusiasm and nodded to Hollis, Harry curious about Hollis' wife, decided to ask about her "What happened to your wife?".

Hollis frowned but still explain "The constant attacks have strained us all, she'll adapt, we all have".

Harry gazed at the woman laying in the cot and then asked "Is there anything we can help you with?".

Hollis shook his head "No, she just needs... time to absorb everything, we'll be fine".

Harry frowned but nodded, he didn't want to raise the suspicion of whatever or whoever was manipulating the colony right now, so it was best not to do anything to extreme at the moment, especially in front of the colonists.

-----

Having spoken with the medic, everyone then said their goodbyes and left the med bay, Harry then took everyone to where he had found Davin, Harry wanted to let him know that the alpha varren is taken care of.

So everyone followed him until they arrived in front of a guy standing in the middle of a hallway inside the bunker, Davin noticed Harry and then spoke to him "Oh your back, thank you again for the food".

Harry nodded and then said, "The alpha varren is dead and I brought some dead varren, that should hold you out for a long while now".

Davin smiled "Excellent, thank you for bringing the varren you killed, now we can also hunt them down for meat again, once the geth are gone that is".

Harry smiled "No problem, I'm just glad I could help".

Davin looked more relaxed now, he suddenly reached into his pocket and then handed Harry some medi-gels "Here, for your trouble, it's not much, I know, but it's all we can spare".

Harry handed them to Shepard and then nodded to Davin "We have to get going, so hang in there a while longer".

Davin nodded and the group then said their goodbyes to him, they then left to meet with the next person on their list of people to help in the colony.

-----

Shepard then guided everyone to where May O'Connell is working on the generator for the entire colony, it didn't take them long to reach her though and when they did, May immediately stopped working and stood up "Oh? Did you guys have any luck finding any power cells?".

Shepard nodded and then signaled Harry to take them out, the dragon god took the power cells out of his inventory and handed them to May, Shepard then smiled and said "We found these power cells in the tunnels, are they what you're looking for?".

May looked at the power cells and smiled "I knew they'd turned up eventually! Here, Fai Dan gave me some requisition money, it's all yours, now if I can kick these power cells into place, I'll have this colony up and running in no time".

The group smiled at May and she immediately began to work to install the power cells into the generator, meanwhile, the group left her to her work and headed for the last person that needed help in the colony.