You’ll start this mission while talking to Udina and Anderson at the end of Citadel: Expose Saren. We suggest doing Therum, first, but you can do this mission or head to Noveria first, as you wish.

Travel to the Attican Beta cluster, visit the Theseus system and save your game, just in case you find you’re not up to the task of clearing Feros. When you’re ready, land on Feros, pick your squad and you’ll dock at Feros with very little fanfare. Guess they get visits from Spectres in state of the art ships all the time?

Feros: Geth in the Tower¶

Once off the ship, head forward and a colonist named David al Talaqani will talk to you and refer you to Fai Dan, the leader of Zhu’s Hope. You’ll get to see the extent of Feros’ geth problem shortly thereafter, as David will be smote by some geth. Fight through a host of Geth Troopers, Geth Shock Troopers and the odd Geth Sniper. Beyond them, you’ll reach a stairwell where two Geth Stalkers lurk. Take them out and you’ll be able to proceed to Zhu’s Hope.

The colony isn’t very lively right now, as everybody is in “don’t get killed by the geth” mode right now and have little of consequence to say. Continue west through the colony, enter the building-tube in the center of the colony (a salarian merchant named Ledra stands outside the entrance), pass through it, and you’ll find Fai Dan and Arcelia Silva Martinez to the right.

Talk to Fai Dan and before long you’ll be interrupted by more Geth, who are around some rubble (which conveniently serves as cover) and through a doorway, in what Arcelia calls “the tower”. Kill the Troopers and Snipers that first present themselves, then fight your way upstairs to find - and exterminate - another batch of Geth Troopers.

When you reach a fork, continue upstairs (west) rather than taking a right (north), as the latter route leads to some tunnels. They’ll be of interest later, but the tower is to the west. Reach the Tower and unsurprisingly you’ll find it crawling with Geth Troopers, Shock Troopers, Recon Drones and the odd Sniper and Destroyer. Kill Geth until a dropship flies off, signalling an end to the fight. Now you need to report back to Fai Dan, but before you do, continue to the western end of the tower to find a Medical Station [Easy] and an Upgrade Kit.

Feros: Assignments in Zhu’s Hope¶

Return to Zhu’s Hope and talk to Fai Dan. When he thanks you, respond with either “Happy to help.” for Paragon +2 or “I didn’t do it for you.” for Renegade +2. Aside from alignment points, this doesn’t influence the rest of the conversation much. He’ll also tell you that the geth are holed up in the ExoGeni headquarters - presumably whatever Saren’s after can be found there. You’ll need to take the Prothean Skyway to reach ExoGeni headquarters, and there’s an “army of geth” in your way, but a “skyway” means the Mako, and the Mako means easy XP, so this is just a way to pad your level a bit.

Speaking of padding your level, Fai Dan will mention “getting this colony operational again”, which is the substance of much of his extended, optional dialog. Pick “Investigate” followed by “Operational” and he’ll bring up four areas of concern for the beleaguered colony: Geth in the tunnels, a water shortage, food shortage and power issue. Ask him about all of these and he’ll refer you to other colonists.

This should outright start the assignment Feros: Geth in the Tunnels, and there are more you can pick up by talking to the colonists of Zhu’s Hope:

• Talk to Davin Reynolds in the central structure to start Feros: Varren Meat.

• Find May O’Connell to the east of the main building in Zhu’s Hope to start Feros: Power Cells.

• Macha Doyle can be found to the east of May O’Connell, fussing over a pipe. Talk to her to start Feros: Water Restoration.

While chatting with these colonists you should notice some odd trends - a compulsive focus on their designated task, obsessive deference to Fai Dan on matters outside of said task, a reluctance to accept external and/or short-term support, an overt focus on the communal over the individual, admiration of the colony (often without being able to clearly state why), and so on. Macha Doyle is perhaps the most interesting case, as she states she’s suffering pain that’s only relieved when she focuses on her objective of obtaining water for Zhu’s Hope.

Awfully strange bunch.

The oddness of the Zhu’s Hope colonists isn’t restricted to the assignment-givers, either, as you’ll see if you talk to Hana Marakami, Ledra (the aforementioned salarian merchant who will sell the Haliat Armory License - which we decline to purchase) and Hollis and Calantha Blake. Speaking of the latter two, you can find them in the central structure of Zhu’s Hope. If you talk to Calantha you can pick the dialog option “What’s wrong?” for Paragon +2 or “I hope you’re not contagious.” for Renegade +2. Other than that, check out a “Public Extranet Terminal” for a Codex Entry.

With that, you’re done in Zhu’s Hope. You can now return to the Tower and either take the stairs down the Tunnels where you’ll be able to complete the various assignments you picked up, or you can exit to the Prothean Skyway to start making your way to the ExoGeni Headquarters. We suggest doing the former, first, as once you’re done at the ExoGeni Headquarters, things at Zhu’s Hope will become… complicated.