On with the Show
Travel north from Morlan’s store in the Lower Wards to access Chora’s Den, a seedy bar run by the villain Fist.
Save your progress before approaching the bar: Fist knows you’re coming, and many more of his thugs lie in wait with weapons drawn.
Avoid storming into the bar or you’ll fall under heavy fire. Press Shepard’s back against one side of the doorway leading into the bar instead, poking around the corner with a pistol or assault rifle to pick off each thug in turn.
One of Fist’s guards is a formidable krogan bouncer, an adversary on par with a krogan trooper. The bouncer typically stays at the far end of the bar, which allows you to pick off many of the lesser thugs before drawing his ire.
Be careful when fighting the krogan: He has the ability to regenerate after falling in battle, coming back from the brink of death in a furious rage. Keep your distance and don’t let the krogan out of your sight until you’re certain he’s been killed.
After securing the bar, make your way to the back rooms and hallways that lead into Fist’s office. Eliminate the remaining thugs who make their final stand here.
Obliterate them in short order by targeting the volatile fire containment system positioned nearby.
Warehouse Workers
Beyond the final group of thugs, two lowly warehouse workers are taken by surprise when Shepard’s crew comes storming into their midst. The workers draw pistols but are obviously not looking for a fight.
If you’ve devoted talent points to either Shepard’s Charm or Intimidate skills, you can diffuse this scenario without bloodshed.
Charm the workers if you’re playing a Paragon Shepard, or, if you’re a Renegade, Intimidate them to convince them to flee the scene.
Either option earns you morality points as appropriate to the type of persuasion you employ.
Fight with Fist
Having no place to run, Fist makes his last stand against you inside his office.
Fist himself isn’t much more than a thug with sturdier shields, but the two defensive turrets stationed at either side of his desk can be quite troublesome.
Press Shepard’s back against one wall and take shots at Fist and his gun turrets. Don’t leave yourself exposed for long and lay low whenever Shepard’s shields happen to fail.
The fight ends when you manage to defeat Fist or destroy both of his defensive turrets. A team with skill in biotics should try to defeat Fist, while a tech-oriented squad will fare better at disabling his turrets.
Fist isn’t likely to rush you, so just take your time and work at whittling him down. Utilize your squad’s talents and abilities, but conserve Shepard’s grenades—you shouldn’t need to use them to achieve victory here.
Vengeance
The battle concludes as soon as you manage to drop Fist or destroy both of his defensive turrets. Fist pleads for his life, saying the quarian is no longer in his custody.
He confesses that he has tricked the quarian into a meeting with some of Saren’s men. Question Fist to learn that the meeting is set to take place at the Upper Wards’ back alley in just a few minutes.
Having learned all he needed to know, Wrex wastes no time in gunning Fist down. He’d been paid by the Shadow Broker to see the job through, after all.
If you’re following the Renegade’s path, choose to approve of this action to earn a few Renegade points.
If Wrex isn’t in your group, you may choose to kill Fist yourself to gain a similar number of Renegade points. No Paragon points can be earned from this scenario.
Race to Save the Quarian
There’s no time to lose. The quarian’s life is at stake; she’ll be killed by Saren’s men within minutes. A counter appears near your radar at the lower-right corner of the screen; hurry out of Fist’s office without delay.
Reaching the quarian won’t be easy; another gang of thugs has taken up position in Chora’s Den and they’re intent on stalling you long enough for Saren’s men to do their work.
You don’t have much time to waste on these underlings, but charging through their midst can be quite hazardous.
Fortunately, these thugs are a bit easier to kill than the ones you’ve previously faced. Pick off as many as you can as quickly as you can until you’re able to escape the bar.
Dash south and then east after fleeing the bar, heading for the nearest set of stairs leading up to the Upper Wards (the ones just north of Morlan’s store).
This lands you right at the alleyway in which the quarian’s meeting with Saren’s men is set to go down.
A Deadly Meeting
Shepard arrives just in time to witness the quarian being surrounded by a large turian and a group of assassins sent by Saren.
It doesn’t take long for the quarian to sniff out the trap, and she deftly tosses a grenade while flipping out of harm’s way.
Take cover as soon as you can and open fire on the assassins to help the quarian out of her predicament.
This is a short but challenging fight, as the assassins have use of a powerful ability called Overload that causes your squad’s shields to falter and their weaponry to overheat for a short period.
Eliminate the assassins to spare Tali from a terrible fate. Surprised but grateful for Shepard’s help, the quarian asks the Commander’s name and business.
Once Shepard tells her that they’re after Saren, Tali realizes that she’s safe among friends at last.
The group decides to retreat to less open ground and agrees to seek shelter at Ambassador Udina’s offices on the station’s Presidium level.
Tali’s Story
Agitated over Shepard’s bloody assault on Chora’s Den, Ambassador Udina changes his tone when the Commander tells him they have succeeded in retrieving proof of Saren’s dealings with the geth.
Tali steps forward to recount her tale. Query her about her pilgrimage to unlock a secondary Codex entry if you like. Tali tells her newfound companions how she managed to track a geth patrol to an uncharted world.
Biding her time, she managed to single out one of the geth, disabling the synthetic being and extracting its memory core.
Although they are designed to fry their data banks once disabled, Tali had known she could acquire at least a small amount of information from the geth if she were quick enough at removing its memory core.
Her people had been responsible for creating the geth, after all.
Most of the data had been corrupted, but Tali was able to extract a small audio file. When Tali plays back the recording, the group is shocked to hear the voice of Saren himself.
The sinister Spectre applauds the slaughter of Eden Prime, saying the finding of the Prothean beacon has brought him one step closer to locating a mysterious something he calls the Conduit.
No one knows what the Conduit might be, but Captain Anderson suspects it must have some connection with the beacon and the Protheans. Tali interjects, saying there’s a bit more to the message.
A female voice plays next and mentions something about the return of the Reapers. Like the Conduit, no one seems to know what the Reapers might be.
But Tali says the memory core has data describing the Reapers as a hyper-advanced race of synthetic beings who were responsible for the destruction of the Protheans roughly 50,000 years ago.
Udina finds the story a bit far-fetched, but things are starting to fall into place for Shepard.
The commander is now able to make some sense out of the vision issued forth by the beacon on Eden Prime: It must have been some sort of warning about the Reapers.
Tali fills in more details, saying the geth revere the Reapers as gods. They believe Saren is capable of bringing the Reapers back from wherever it is they may have gone.
Still unconvinced, Udina mutters that the Council will find all this talk about Conduits and Reapers hard to believe.
Anderson points out that it doesn’t matter: The audio recording proves Saren’s guilt as a traitor to the Council.
Udina seems satisfied with this and agrees that the time is right to approach the Council board once more.
Tali now joins up as a member of your ever-increasing squad; accept her petition, then pick out your new team of squad mates.