When you head to speak with the quarians, it will become immediately clear that the race doesn’t have its priorities straight. Instead of bucking up for the inevitable Reaper onslaught, the species has kept old prejudices alive and launched an attack against the synthetic geth. Now, the quarians are in trouble. They have been pinned down by a geth Dreadnought, and without a way to get themselves out of the bind, they call on the prodigious Commander Shepard.
A quick survey of the geth forces will reveal that perhaps the quarians aren’t so far off the mark, though. The geth are strong, so strong in fact that they must have been strengthened by an outside force, such as the Reapers. You will find a signal that the Reapers will be using to control the geth, not only gaining control of the species, but making them stronger and more merciless in the process. If Tali lived through Mass Effect 2, she will show up here as well. She will offer to join you on the battlefield and lend her Tech powers to your squad as you take on the geth. If Tali died in your game, she will be replaced during the mission by Admiral Xen. The quarians will argue about what to do, and whether or not to join the battle against the Reapers, but for now nothing will be solved. You will need to get the quarian forces away from that Dreadnought before they start to consider sending their forces elsewhere.
If Tali is alive, head to your private quarters after the cutscene ends. From here, you can call Tali up to have a conversation with her. She will confide in you, and you can either encourage her or go with the hard facts of the situation. If you want to romance Tali in Mass Effect 3, this is the perfect place to start. Note, however, that you can only pursue a romance with Tali in this game if you also did so in Mass Effect 2. Also note that if you don’t import a game, or if you import one in which you did not complete Tali’s loyalty mission, she will have been exiled from the quarian fleet as a result of your inaction when she was taken to trial.
Don’t forget to level Tali up as you leave to pursue the rest of the mission. Give her powers like Energy Drain and Sabotage, as you will be facing a lot of synthetic geth enemies in the next few parts of this mission.
