Hello! As I'm sure you can see, (unless you've never read this before) this is the revised version of Chapter 1. After some constructive criticism, I decided to redo Chapters 1 & 2. I, along with some of my readers, feel I took the easy (and sloppy) way out in a few areas. I hope y'all enjoy this Chapter more than the original. As always, shoot me a review and let me know what you think!

Shepard was tired. Not only had he managed to reach the Collector base and destroy it and its inhabitants, he'd done it without losing a single member of his team or crew. However, his victory over the Human Reaper had been short lived after a second Reaper, called Harbinger, made itself known and told him how futile his efforts were, shortly before the base exploded.

After limping out of the Omega-4 Relay, the Normandy had managed to dock on Omega and received full repairs to all major systems, although the ship would never be quite the same due to a lack of necessary high quality parts. Shepard had been assured by all engineers on board that it wouldn't be any trouble but he had his doubts. He'd seen too many things blow up in his face not to expect the worse.

Shortly before leaving Omega, Shepard contacted his former commander Captain (now Councilor) Anderson to inform him they had survived and succeeded. Rather than the congratulations he had been expecting, he was given another assignment.

"Shepard, I realize you need a break, your whole crew does. Unfortunately the Council needs someone to investigate some disappearances on an isolated planet. Apparently a group of the Salarian Special Task Force was conducting an investigation of some odd signals coming from the planet's surface at the request of the Council."

"Let me guess," Shepard stated skeptically. "They haven't reported in for a couple days so the Council, in their infinite wisdom, chose me to find them."

"Not quite actually. They contacted us two days ago and requested immediate assistance from the Turians and Asari."

"Just the Asari and Turians? Why wasn't humanity included?"

"I don't know, they wouldn't say. But the scientists requested that they come immediately with a force of five Turians ships and two Asari ships, along with a full battalion of Asari Commandos."

"That many troops? It must be serious stuff. Are you sending us in so you know what's going on?"

"No. We're sending you in because we lost contact with the assistance force yesterday. Comm chatter before that suggests that they were being engaged by unknown hostiles planet-side and had lost one Turian ship, although we can't be sure. Shepard, you and I both know that it would take something serious to defeat those troops and ships. I need you and your team to check it out."

"Yes sir." Shepard replied, all thoughts of relaxing gone.

"And Shepard..."

"Sir?"

"Be careful."

The transmission ended, leaving Shepard alone with his thoughts.

"Joker, plot a course for the coordinates Councilor Anderson sent us. It looks like we have to find the Council's lost puppy."

"Aye, aye Commander."

Shepard then left the Briefing Room, nodding at Jacob as he passed, and headed to the elevator. Once he reached his room he locked his door and addressed the pedestal next to his fish tank.

"EDI, inform the crew that I'm not to be disturbed until we reach the planet. I need some rest."

"Of course Commander Shepard, anything else?"

"No thanks EDI."

"Very well Commander, logging you out."

Shepard staggered over to his bed, not even bothering to change clothes. He didn't take notice of it immediately and would later question why he hadn't, but he would soon come to wonder why EDI's avatar had changed from that of a globe to the form of an Alliance Naval Tech Officer.

Six hours later, Shepard awoke to the sound of EDI's voice.

"Sir, we have reached the planet Councilor Anderson mentioned. Joker requests your presence in the cockpit. He feels you need to see something." EDI said. She sounded troubled.

"Thanks EDI. Inform everyone to get suited up; I need everybody ready to go planet-side in three minutes... Is something wrong EDI?"

"No sir, of course not. May I be dismissed?"

"Of course EDI." Shepard said. What was up with her all of a sudden? When did she start to need his permission for anything? "Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir." EDI replied before her new avatar disappeared again.

"What the hell?" Shepard quietly wondered to himself. He then changed into his Combat Armor and headed to the elevator, pressing the button for the CIC as he entered. After exiting the elevator Shepard was joined by his entire team, minus the bounty hunter who had departed on Omega, just outside the cockpit. As Shepard approached everyone stepped aside to allow him to look at the sight before them.

"Dear God… Is that the fleet?" He asked in obvious disbelief. Before them were the remains of what were once no doubt seven highly capable ships of the Citadel Fleet. All that was left now was misshapen metal and the charred remains of what were once no doubt the proud crew of the ruined hulks before them.

Garrus almost choked as an obviously Turian corpse floated past the observation window. "Spirits..."

Shepard was silent for a long time, unsure of what to say. "Joker… are there any distress beacons? Anything that would indicate survivors?"

Joker checked one of the dozens of holographic screens that passed before his eyes before slowly shaking his head. "Negative Commander. Nothing at all."

"Damn... Is there anything coming from the planet itself? Life-boat signals?"

Joker scanned the screen again. "Yeah, here's something. Pulling it up now." He tapped a small section of the screen and a voice began to play in the small cockpit.

"This is-kshh-with the-kshh-Commandoes. Upon entering the-kshhhk-warning shot-kshhhhh-engaged them-kshhh. Hostiles—kshh-confirmed as-kshh-."

Shepard shook his head in annoyance. "EDI, can you clean that up?"

"Aye, aye Commander. Boosting frequency."

Once again the small room was filled by the voice.

"This is Lieutenant Daliri with the Asari Commandoes. Upon entering the system we received a transmission from what appeared to be a small space station, demanding we identify ourselves. Scans revealed it to be an immense ship. Following protocol, we sent a return transmission, ordering them to identify themselves by order of the Citadel. We received no reply. Admiral Bellarus ordered the Reverence to fire a warning shot to deplete their shields, but the shot tore through the lower half of the ship unimpeded – no ship-board shields. The ship fired a return shot that tore through the Reverence – shields and all – no survivors. The rest of the fleet engaged them while we were sent to the surface. We were ambushed by hostile ground forces. Warning: Hostiles have been confirmed as humans… This is Lieutenant…" The message was cut as it began to repeat.

The cockpit was silent as the squad members processed the message. Joker was the first to speak.

"Scanners managed to cut through the interference planet-side; EDI pinpointed the beacon's position. It looks like it's located near the entrance to a large valley. Could just be interference from the debris field, but it looks like there's a lot of activity in that area.

Shepard pulled up a display of the area on his omni-tool and inspected the site of the beacon.

"Looks pretty compact, so close- to mid-range." He turned to look at his old friend. "Garrus, you, Grunt and Jack are with me. Legion, I want you to help EDI get a clear comm line to the surface. Everyone else, feel free to go about your business."

There was an awkward shuffle of feet, as the others were not very keen on being left behind. Shepard smiled reassuringly, pointing out that too many boots on the ground left a lot more tracks to follow. After a moment's hesitation, they quietly left the cockpit, leaving Shepard and his chosen team to lay out the mission parameters.

"The three of you head to the armory and get outfitted for CQC, but make sure you have something to keep 'em at a distance. After you're done, meet me in Briefing Room so we can get a strategy laid out." The three of them nodded and parted from Shepard to prepare. He let out a long sigh and quietly said to Joker:

"What are we supposed to tell the Council about this, Jeff? If they hear that their fleet was wiped out by an illegal human ship, we could have a war on our hands, and we need to be focused on the Reapers; not a bunch of xenophobes."

The pilot was quiet for a moment before replying. "Well Commander, if they do declare war on us, we could always just ask the big-bad xenophobes to help us. They seem to know what they're doing." He finished in his usual snarky tone.

Shepard quirked an eyebrow at him. "Why do I keep you around again?"

Joker smirked, very obviously. "Because without me, you would have plastered the Normandy to a Mass Relay months ago.

Shepard did his best to hide a smile as he shook his head seriously. "That'll be all, Flight Lieutenant."

"Aye, aye Commander."

The planet they landed on was covered with mountains, with large valleys in between. Orbital deep-scans showed that the mountains themselves were full of caves and tunnels while the valleys were full of native flora. For some strange reason no life could be detected. Engineering reports chalked it up to an equipment failure that would take a few days to fix. In other words they had no idea what to expect. Not to mention the fact that the comms appeared to be going haywire.

"Well this is just perfect!" Garrus began when they exited the drop-ship. "Nothing like a good ambush to get the blood flowing."

Shepard laughed before replying, "Its things like that that practically scream 'shoot me first!'"

Garrus was quiet for a moment before replying sarcastically, "Well, at least the rest you could make it to cover."

The jibes would have continued if not for an unknown voice catching their attention.

"But Captain, we need reinforcements."

"How are we supposed to get them Sergeant? All of our communication equipment went down with the ships carrying them, and we have no other way of contacting any surviving Turians – if they haven't all been captured or killed. We just have to hope the Council sends someone to find us."

Shepard glanced at his team, the unasked question hanging in the air. Garrus shrugged, Jack looked pissed and Grunt didn't seem to care.

"Hello? I'm Commander Shepard, Council Spectre. Is anyone there?"

Within moments, a platoons worth of heavily-armored Asari surrounded the four-man group, guns trained specifically on Shepard and Jack.

One of the Asari, a Captain judging by the insignia on her armor, was the first to speak. "A Spectre, huh? It seems odd that the only human Spectre comes to help us, all things considered." She said, making it very obvious that it didn't seem odd at all.

Shepard frowned for a moment, recognizing a deteriorating situation when he saw one. "What exactly is the situation Captain? The Council sent me to investigate the comm silence after the fleet's last report. We received a looped transmission when we entered the system, saying that there was a very large ship – a ship without shield technology – which the fleet fired upon. The ship then engaged the fleet, obliterating a single ship with a single shot. Ground forces were deployed and ambushed, apparently by humans. Is that about right, Captain?" He finished, lacing the final word with as much venom as he could muster. 'Try to help a person…' He thought.

She seemed to grasp for a response before heaving a massive sigh. "Lower your weapons. If they wanted to kill us, they wouldn't have told us they were here." She glanced at Shepard as the weapons were lowered, obviously humbled by the situation. "I apologize, Commander. It's been a long day already and we can't take any chances."

Shepard nodded, waving away the apology. "I understand, but you have to trust me. What happened once you got down here?"

"At first, nothing. We were in the last wave of shuttles. The Turians from the Stalwart reported that scattered AA towers had taken down a few shuttles and forced them to land. The other squadrons were saying the same. We set down in a clearing two-klicks southwest of here. Scanners indicated a lot of activity in the valley near here; the plan was to converge on the area from all sides. It looked pretty good on paper, I guess…"

"What happened next?" Garrus asked, finally feeling the need to join the discussion.

"Some strange type of re-entry vehicles started raining down everywhere. There weren't very many, but we had squads stay behind to hold off whatever was inside. Reports indicated that the same was occurring everywhere. We continued moving to the valley and lost contact with the squad we left as a screen after an about half an hour. Then we got comm chatter from everywhere saying the same thing: ambush. We managed to duck into the caves before we were spotted. Before the signals were lost, we heard that they were taking very few prisoners. Most of the Turians were killed outright; the rest of the Asari didn't fare much better. We haven't heard anything since." She seemed to shudder at the memory.

All of this information made Shepard suddenly realize just how outmatched he was. Even when fighting the Collectors and Reapers he had had some wild card. Here he had nothing but his team, a dozen Asari Commandos and the Normandy, versus an unknown enemy with unknown capabilities and a ship that had singlehandedly wiped out an entire fleet nearly effortlessly, despite a lack of shielding. For the first time in a long time, Shepard didn't know what to do. Little did he know that his mind would soon be made up for him.

Three tall, heavily armored figures sat hidden in the crags above the clearing, hearing everything that had been said. Over their secure comm network, the three were discussing their next move.

"Jerome, I think it's about time we let those blue ones join their comrades. We can't afford to hold many more prisoners, especially those ones." One of them, a male, said.

"What about those four that just showed up? Think we should capture them? We could use the information and that blue leader seems to be answering to that human in the black and red. He could be their superior." The second, a female, replied.

"But what about the non-humans with them? We have no idea what they can do. I say we neutralize anything that may not be human and take the humans in. Jerome?"

"Hmm. Drop all of the blues. Capture the new players. We can subdue them easily enough. If you get too much trouble from any of them, kill them.

"Alice, you're on sniper duty. Douglas and I will get up close. We'll be cloaked and won't hit them till you do. Take out the blue leader first." The third, obviously the leader, stated firmly.

"Roger that." The other two replied immediately.

Two of them disappeared suddenly, quickly working their way down until they were standing behind the Asari, blocking their escape route back into the cave.

Shepard, not knowing what was about to happen, had devised a plan.

"Alright, listen up; I need you to take all of your troops up that path. Our shuttle is waiting there. Simply start it up and it will automatically take you back to the Normandy. We'll stay here and do some recon. When we've gathered enough information, we'll join you on the Normandy and we can return to the Citadel. Alright?" He asked the Asari Captain. She was already nodding.

"It sounds like a plan, good luck Shepard. I hope to see you so-"

The rest of what she was going to say was cut off as a HVAP round shattered her shields, entering and exiting her skull as well as the torso of the Commando behind her.

"Sniper! Take cover in the cave! Where did that come from Garrus?" Shepard yelled as two more Asari dropped dead suddenly. He never heard the answer; two soldiers in intricate armor materialized in the cave entrance. They quickly detached large, archaic rifles from their backs and began unleashing three-round bursts into the Asari. The clearing echoed with the sound of gunfire and reeked with the smell of the dead.

"Grunt! Two in front, they're all yours! Garrus, I need eyes on that sniper now! Jack, help Grunt! Everyone else get inside and provide covering fire!"

"Wahhh?!" Shepard turned and watched in dumbstruck awe as one of the two soldiers effortlessly picked up Grunt and threw him into his oncoming help. He then watched in horror as the second drew what looked like SMGs from his waist and killed the last two fleeing Asari. The two soldiers were then joined by a third who had jumped down from an overhang above them. The sniper had made itself known.

The one in the middle slowly looked around at the carnage before him, and then looked directly at Shepard.

The voice that addressed him was deep and unmistakably human. "I will say this once and only once: Tell your squad to throw down their weapons and surrender. If you agree, we will not harm you. You are to come with us for questioning. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. Am I understo-?"

"I don't know who the hell you think you are," Jack roared as she rose from the ground, a biotic field surrounding her lithe form. "But nobody orders me to do anything!" She finished, charging at the trio. Shepard actually felt sorry for their attackers. They had no idea what they were dealing with although... why hadn't they opened fire yet?

Everyone in the clearing was silent as Jack charged the leader of the three, who was discernible by a red stripe going across his emerald armor. Shepard was even more surprised when the other two soldiers calmly took a few steps away from their leader who had sheathed his weapon. It was then that Shepard knew something was wrong.

"Jack! Stop!" He yelled, trying to catch her attention, but he was too late. For the second time that day he was frozen in place from a mixture of awe and horror as he watched the massive soldier allow Jack's glowing fist to make contact with his chest.

There was a flash of blinding light and a loud boom as the biotics erupted. As the flash cleared, Shepard found that the soldier still remained where he had been, now surrounded by an orange glow. Jack, however, was now dangling a few feet from the ground, an armored hand around her throat. A quick, expert blow to the head rendered her unconscious. He then unceremoniously tossed her into Grunt's arms.

"As I was saying," The leader continued calmly. "Throw down your weapons and surrender. Am I understood?"

He was answered in the affirmative as the three remaining troops grudgingly threw all of their weapons to the ground.

"Good, now follow me." He then addressed his two squad-mates and told them to take up the rear of the procession. "Time to head back to base." He said in a neutral tone for all to hear.