"Well, what about Shepard? She grew up in the colonies." Udina asked, flicking through the files on his computer's screen. From Anderson's end, all he could see was the ambassador moving his finger back and forth in thin air, as the screen didn't show up on the holo-projection.
"Perhaps," said the third member of the conference call. "But can she handle that kind of pressure? I'm not entirely convinced she's recovered from what happened on Akuze. Seeing your whole unit get slaughtered…that leaves serious emotional scars."
"Every soldier has scars, Hackett. Shepard's a survivor." Anderson said. "But I'm concerned you might be recommending her for the wrong reasons. You were the one who found her in the wreckage on Mindoir."
Udina snorted. "You know me better than that, Anderson. I'm recommending her because she's a damn good soldier, and a damn good person besides."
"And that's what humanity needs. What the galaxy needs." Hackett said, nodding in agreement.
"I'll make the call." Udina said, reaching for the comm button. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other things to attend to. Udina out." The ambassador's projection vanished from the comm room.
Despite being light years away on Arcturus station, Admiral Hackett locked eyes with Anderson for a moment. "Humanity needs this, Anderson. We can't afford any mistakes. Not like—."
"I know. I'll do everything I can."
"We all will," said Nihlus, who had been standing at the back of the room. "Your species is moving quickly, and you need to be able to stand on somewhat equal footing with the other Council races. This is the first step towards that."
"Good. Hackett out." Hackett's projection winked out, leaving Anderson and Nihlus alone in the comm room.
"You actually believe that?" Anderson asked, raising an eyebrow at the turian.
"I do. The Spectres need to be diverse, if we are to properly protect the galaxy. Every species brings their own perspective to the table, and all are valid. What remains to be seen is whether Shepard has what it takes."
—
"Arcturus Prime relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence." The helmsman's voice echoed through the CIC as Shepard walked through, greeting her new shipmates, learning their names and faces. Even though she'd already reviewed all the personnel files she could get her hands, Shepard liked meeting people face to face when she was going to be working with them. Most were polite but noncommittal, simply greeting her and getting back to work. She caught looks of pity on the faces of some. The ones who knew about Akuze. Shepard had to stop herself from snapping at them. It was a natural reaction. But Preservation's arms was she getting tired of it.
She stepped into the helm just as the pilot began to speak into the intercom again. Joker, she remembered. That's his nickname.
"Board is green. We are beginning the approach run." He said, hands moving over the holographic controls reminding her of an orchestra conductor. As the three humans and one Turian watched, the rings of the Mass Relay spun in their constant pattern. The pilot guided them closer and closer, and the blue glow of the Relay enveloped the Normandy. The Relay's field, powered by an immense amount of Element Zero, didn't just reduce the Normandy's mass. It sent it into the negatives. The ship's engines propelled it through the Relay's path at superluminal speeds, shooting across the galaxy in a matter of seconds.
"Thrusters and navigation check. Emissions sink engaged. All systems green. Drift is just under fifteen hundred k."
The turian who'd been standing at the back of the room nodded. "Fifteen hundred is good. Your captain will be pleased." Shepard glanced back at him as he turned and left the room, his black armor almost a perfect match for his carapace. When she turned back, the pilot was rolling his eyes.
"What a dick."
Kaidan Alenko, the soldier in the co-pilot's seat, raised an eyebrow at that. "Nihlus gave you a compliment…so you hate him?"
Joker glared at his co-pilot. "Hey, you remember to zip up your jumpsuit after taking a leak, that's good. I just jumped this ship halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. That's incredible! And besides, I don't like having a Spectre on board. Call me paranoid, but that's just asking for trouble."
"You're paranoid. Of course the Council sent someone to keep an eye on the ship, they helped fund it."
"Yeah, sure. That's the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story."
Shepard nodded. "Joker's probably right. They don't send Spectres on shakedown runs." The pilot nodded in satisfaction at Alenko.
"So you do think there's more going on here than the Captain's letting on."
Speak of the devil and he shall come, Shepard thought as Anderson's voice came through the speaker.
"Joker, status report!"
"We've cleared the relay and stealth systems are engaged, Captain. Everything's solid as steel."
"Good." Joker rolled his eyes at that. "Now find us a comm buoy and link us in. I want mission reports sent to the Alliance before we reach Elendel Prime. And send Shepard to the comm room for a debriefing."
"Aye aye, sir."
"I'm on my way," Shepard said. Joker snorted as she headed out of the helm.
"Is it just me, or does the Captain alway sound pissed off?"
"Only when he's talking to you, Joker."
—
When Shepard reached the comm room, the only one there was Nihlus.
"Ah, Commander Shepard. Good, I was hoping you'd get here first. It will give us a chance to talk." The turian said. His voice had that odd reverberating quality common to all members of his species. Why did they sound like that? Was it due to their carapace, or something with the vocal cords or voice box? She made a mental note to look it up later.
"Talk?"
"Yes. I'm interested in this world we're going to. Elendel Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful." He said, changing the display to show pictures of the colony.
"So I've heard. But if you want to know more about it, you should ask Jenkins," she gestured back toward the CIC, where she'd last seen the soldier in question. "He's the one who grew up there."
"You may not have been there, but you have heard of it. It's become something of a symbol for your people, hasn't it? Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy, but also protect them. But how safe is it, really?"
"If you've got something to say, just say it." Shepard said.
"Your people are still newcomers, Shepard. The galaxy can be a very dangerous place."
"Yeah, because I wouldn't know anything about that." She replied, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. "Not like I've ever had to deal with batarians or thresher maws or anything."
"Shepard! That's enough!" Anderson snapped, cutting her off before she could really get rolling. Shepard snapped her mouth shut and gave the Captain a salute.
"Sir!"
"Nihlus, I think its time we told the Commander what's really going on here." The turian nodded, and changed the display with a flick of his fingers. Now it showed what looked like an archaeological site somewhere in Elendel Prime's hills.
"Commander, this mission is more than a simple shakedown run."
Shepard shrugged. "I figured there was more to this than you were telling us, Captain."
"We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime. That's why we needed the Normandy. Its stealth technology make it our only ship that can move through the system without being detected."
"So why didn't you tell me about this, sir?"
"Orders from the top, Commander. Information strictly on a need-to-know basis."
"Alright," Shepard said, folding her arms across her chest. "So what's the payload, sir?"
"A research team unearthed something during an excavation. A Prothean Beacon."
Well, that certainly explained the secrecy, Shepard thought. "What else can you tell me?"
"This is big, Shepard. The last time we found something like this, our technology jumped forward a couple centuries. But we don't have the facilities for something of this magnitude on Elendel Prime. So we're bringing it back to the Citadel for proper study."
"I'm surprised no one in the Alliance tried to keep that from happening. We've still got some xenophobes in Parliament, after all." Shepard said, scowling at memories of some of the more…violent pro-human rhetoric she'd heard.
"That's one of the other reasons this was kept secret." Anderson nodded.
"And in any case, withholding Prothean technology is a crime in Council space. If your species truly wants to become a part of the galactic community, then you need to cooperate on this. That's not the only reason I'm here, though."
"Nihlus is also here to observe you." Anderson said.
"Me? What does he need to observe me for?"
"I've submitted your name as a prospective Spectre candidate." Nihlus said, causing Shepard to raise her eyebrows in surprise. "Despite what some humans think, not all turians despise humanity. Many see the potential that your species has. We see what you have to offer the rest of the galaxy…and the Spectres. We're an elite group. It's extremely rare to find someone with the skills we require. I don't care that you're a human, Shepard. Only whether you can do the job."
"You'll be in charge of the team that secures the beacon, commander. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission. And Commander?"
"Sir?"
"This is bigger than just you. Humanity needs this. We're all counting on you."
"Of course." Shepard said. No pressure, she thought.
"Captain, you're gonna want to see this." Joker's voice cut in over the intercom. "Distress signal from Eden Prime."
"Bring it onscreen."
—
The image of the dig site was replaced by a marine firing at something out of the frame. The sounds of screaming and gunfire hit Shepard's ears as the sound from the video came online. The camera seemed to jump around without rhyme or reason until a woman in pale armor came into view.
"Get down!" The woman shouted, pulling the camera's bearer into the dirt.
"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties, I repeat, heavy casualties! We need evac! Rust and Ruin, they came out of nowhere!" Another man screamed, taking cover with his comrades. Something about the sound of some of the weapons didn't seem right to Shepard. She was no Tineye, but those definitely didn't sound like normal firearms.
And then the camera looked up, at something coming down from the clouds.
—
"Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic or anything."
"Reverse and hold at thirty eight point five" Anderson said. The footage reversed, stopping on the image of…something coming down out of the sky. Shrouded in crimson lightning, it was like the hand of Ruin himself. A glance to the side let Shepard see Nihlus staring at the screen, his mandibles flared. She wasn't well versed in turian expressions, but she was pretty sure that was the equivalent of wide-eyed shock.
"Status report, Joker"
"Seventeen minutes out, captain. No other Alliance ships in the area."
Anderson nodded. "Get us there fast and quiet, Moreau. This mission just got a damn sight more complicated."
"A small strike team should be able to move quickly without drawing attention. It's the best chance we have to secure the beacon." Nihlus said.
"Agreed. Get your gear and meet us in the cargo hold. Shepard, tell Jenkins and Alenko to suit up. You're going in."
—
Shepard stood up, watching the Normandy fly away over their heads, the vessel's shape quickly swallowed by the crimson sky.
"It's like we went back to the World of Ash," she murmured.
"You say something, Commander?" Alenko asked. Shepard shook her head.
"Just talking to myself. Hey, Jenkins?"
"Yeah?"
"You're from Elendel Prime, right? Do you know this area?"
"Yes, ma'am. Used to come out here with my friends, when we wanted to get away from everything else."
"Good. You take point, since you know the terrain," Shepard said, unhooking her shotgun from the magnetic point on her back and letting it unfold. Jenkins nodded, and started down the path. Shepard and Alenko fell into step behind him, each soldier forming the point of a triangle. It wasn't long before the stench began to make its way into their helmets.
"Ugh! Survivor's scars, what is that?" Jenkins groaned, slapping a hand over the front of his helmet in an attempt to stop the smell from getting in.
"Burning flesh and hair," Alenko said. "Whatever attacked, they've already been through here."
"Damn," Jenkins swore. "This place is never gonna be the same." Shepard nodded in agreement.
"No it won't. Now let's keep movi—."
The final syllable of the word was drowned out by the explosive report of Alenko's pistol, as he fired at something ahead of them.
"Hey, Alenko! Calm down, it's just a gas bag!" Jenkins said, stifling a laugh. Alenko lowered his pistol, looking chagrined.
"Gas bag?" He asked, staring at the thing he'd been shooting. It looked like a large, lumpy balloon that floated at about shoulder-height, with tendrils hanging down from the bottom.
"Yeah, don't worry. They're harmless," Jenkins said, giving the thing a soft push that sent it away from them.
"You're telling me that this place has living farts?" Alenko asked.
"Yeah."
"Come on, we can marvel at nature's absurdities later," Shepard said. They fell back into formation, none of them speaking as they made their way to the beacon. It was only a few minutes later that Alenko held his hand up, signaling for them to stop.
"Commander, there's something up ahead," he said, frowning at his omnitool.
"You're gonna have to be more specific than 'something,' Alenko," Shepard said, peering into the trees at the top of the hill. She didn't see anything moving, but that didn't mean much. With all this smoke and the sun blocked out, visibility was way down.
Shepard burned steel, and a web of blue lines sprang into being, extending from the center of his chest and pointing at nearby sources of metal. Most of them pointed to the squad's armor and weapons, but Shepard noticed a few that led to the top of the hill. These lines were moving.
"Yeah, I see them. What else you getting on there?" Shepard asked, ducking behind one of the boulders that littered the ravine floor.
"No idea. The energy output readings are absurd," he said, fingers dancing across his omnitool's interface.
"Must be some heavy armor," Jenkins said. Alenko shook his head.
"I don't think we're dealing with a tank."
"Then what are we dealing with?" Shepard asked, eyes still fixed on the metal lines.
"Looks like three signals, but that much power…"
Alenko's musings were rudely interrupted by something hot and bright slamming into the rocks, sending chips of rock flying out. With a muttered oath, Shepard yanked the biotic farther behind cover, and risked a quick peek over the top of the rock.
Three figures stood at the top of the hill, metallic bodies gleaming in the dim light. Shepard shielded her eyes, trying to get a look at the attackers' faces past the glare that obscured them. One of them turned, and Shepard realized why she hadn't been able to see their faces; they didn't have any. Where their faces should've been, each figure had only a single, blazing light.
"Rust and Ruin," Shepard whispered, ducking back behind cover, "they're geth."
"What the hell are the geth doing on Elendel Prime?" Alenko wondered.
"Does it matter? They're attacking the colony, which means they need to go down!" Jenkins said, springing up and firing at the geth. He fired short, six-round bursts at the geth, their shields flashing as the slugs impacted. Shepard joined him, her shotgun roaring as she focused on the lead geth, each shot draining its barriers a little more.
Another metal line, one pointing into the trees behind the geth, moved. Shepard ducked back behind cover, focusing on that line, waiting to see if it was just a random piece of debris that the geth had disturbed, or…
It moved again, drawing closer to the edge of the trees.
"We've got a fourth one!" Shepard shouted into her radio, getting two grunts of acknowledgement in return. She leaned out of cover again, firing at the lead geth. Its barriers vanished in a final flash of blue, and Alenko's shots began to tear into it, knocking it back a few steps with each hit. Jenkins let out a shout, joining Alenko in focusing on the shield-less geth. Even the thick armor of the geth's body couldn't stand up to that much concentrated fire for long. Its limbs began to twitch, throwing off its aim as it tried to return fire. Then, with a final burst from Jenkins, the geth's light winked out.
Then the fourth geth, still hidden in the shadows, fired.
The rifle made an odd, pulsing sound, and a fraction of a second later there was a loud *crack* as the slug broke the sound barrier. That was swiftly followed by a second, wetter sound as Jenkins chest exploded outward in a shower of blood and metal.
"Fuck!" Shepard shouted, pushing off of Jenkins' armor, flinging herself backwards, landing behind a larger boulder. Alenko was close behind her, ducking and rolling as the geth opened fire.
"Rusts, what was that?" Alenko gasped, looking over his shoulder at where Jenkins' body lay.
"Sniper," Shepard said, closing her eyes. Even with them closed, she could still see the metal lines. She focused on one of them, and flared her steel, pushing with all of her might on the geth. She heard the sound of metal against stone and hit another geth with a push, this one less powerful. But she kept up the push, trying to keep the geth from moving.
Shepard opened her eyes and rolled out of cover, firing at the geth she was pushing against, its back pressed against a tree. Alenko joined her, their shots battering away at its shields.
The rest of the geth weren't standing idly by, unfortunately. All of them opened fire on Shepard and Alenko, and he only barely managed to throw up a biotic barrier in time, the geth's shots rebounding off of it.
"Alenko, I'll need you to hit them with an overload in a couple seconds," Shepard said, pointing her shotgun at the ground. "I'm going in close."
She fired the shotgun, then lifted it and fired again, this time at the rock behind them. With a shout, Shepard pushed against the two clusters of metal slugs lodged, flinging herself up and forward. As she flew, she tapped a metalmind, drawing on the speed she'd stored there. Around her, the world seemed to slow, the geth looking like they were wading through tar. Shepard fired her shotgun at the ground again, pushing against this new anchor to push herself closer to the geth. She stopped pushing once she was right above the geth, and slammed into the machines with every bit of force she could muster. The geth staggered as her fall slowed, and she fired down at them again, shotgun wearing away their already taxed barriers.
"Alenko, now!" Shepard shouted. And a second later, one of the geth's shields overloaded, arcs of lightning dancing along its body and leaping to the second geth. Still tapping speed, it was the simplest thing in the world to dash forward, press her shotgun's barrel to the twitching geth's chest, and blast the front of its chest out its back, all before it could recover from Alenko's overload. The geth fell, its 'eye' going dark, and Shepard spun around, looking for the second geth.
Alenko had that covered, it seemed. The geth was floating through the air toward him, surrounded by a field of blue light as it flailed its limbs and tried to escape from the biotic Pull. Alenko didn't let it, flinging a sphere of twisting energies at the geth just as the Pull began to fade.
The Warp reacted with the Pull, detonating with a deafening bang and tearing the geth apart. The remains of its torso landed on the rocky ground, smoking and leaking some sort of white fluid.
That just left the sniper.
Shepard kept tapping speed, draining the metalmind little by little. She'd have to make sure to stock up soon, but she'd used this thing for ages, filling it with days of speed. She followed the metal line to the sniper, still hidden in the stand of trees. Her visor shifted, cutting through the gloom a little, and she could just make out the geth, crouching low as it brought a monstrous sniper rifle up to its eye, the barrel pointed right at her.
Vin burned her second well of steel, the one from the pieces of her metalmind she'd shaved off and swallowed.
She burst into motion, dashing to the side before the sniper could fire and pushing against the weapon with a sharp burst of force. That flung the rifle out of the geth's hands, and gave her an opening to get in close. Her speed was burning away fast, but there was just enough to deal with the geth.
She brought her shotgun up and fired, a few shots at close range were enough to take its shields down. Shepard pulled the trigger for one final shot. The only sound from the gun was a shrill beeping as it notified her that it was overheated.
"Rusts," she swore, flaring her speed and diving out of the geth's way as it tried to tackle her. A flash of white caught her eye, and she grabbed the object off the ground. It was a chunk of armor from one of the fallen geth. Just what she needed.
She was a coinshot. She didn't need a gun to end this thing.
Shepard pushed on the chunk of metal sending it tearing through the geth's head in a burst of sparks and wires.
The geth fell, white fluid pooling around its head and soaking into the dirt. Shepard walked over to where the sniper rifle had fallen and knelt, examining it. She wasn't a sniper, but a weapon that powerful could definitely come in handy. Shrugging, she turned it over, pressing on sections of the gun until it began to fold up, placing it on her back once it was gun.
Sighing, Shepard turned to see Alenko making his way up the hill to her, the other two geth laying in smoking, sparking heaps. Right, she thought, robots vs someone who knew his way around tech. Sucks to be the geth.
Shepard's eyes fell on the slumped corpse of Jenkins.
"Shit," she muttered. In the heat of the battle, she'd completely forgotten about him. "Come on, Alenko,"she said, motioning towards the path. "We've still got a beacon to retrieve."
"Are we just going to leave him there? Doesn't seem right."
"There's nothing we can do for him now. We'll retrieve his body and give him a proper burial once we have the beacon."
"Alright, Commander."
"~epard? Do you copy?" Her helmet radio crackled, and Nihlus repeated the question.
"I read you, Nihlus," Shepard answered, index finger against the side of her helmet.
"Commander, the attackers are geth."
"I know. We ran into some too. Jenkins is dead."
"Damn," the turian whispered, "I'll keep moving ahead. Gather any intel you can. This is the first time the geth have been outside the veil in nearly three centuries, and we need to know why."
"Got it. Shepard out."
—
Shepard kept tracking the blue lines of nearby sources of metal as they made their way through the trees. None of the lines moved, but that didn't let her relax. Some of the geth might be made with aluminum alloys. Or maybe there were other metals that were allomantically inert, ones that didn't occur on Scadrial.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, one of the lines began to move, growing brighter as the source neared them. A second line joined it, followed closely by a third.
"Heads up, Alenko," she said, drawing her pistol. "We've got incoming." He nodded, pressing his back against one of the trees and drawing his limbs close, reducing the chance of anything spotting part of him sticking out. His fingers began to flicker over his omni-tool's interface, doing something that escaped Shepard. She'd wanted to be an engineer, once, but that was before she learned how terrible she was at math.
A trio of geth drones rose over the hilltop, slipping smoothly through the air, accompanied only by the soft whirring of their mass-effect generators. Shepard focused on the three blue lines, and pushed on the drones' metal shells. The drones, made lighter by the same technology that let them hover and fly, flew backwards like dead leaves in a gust of wind. One of them let out an electronic screech, its single glowing sensor flashing red.
"Alenko, overload!" She barked. He nodded, omnitool flashing as he pointed at one of the drones. Its shields flashed, twisting fingers of electricity playing across them as the influx of energy proved more than the generators could handle. The electrical burst leapt across the air, striking another drone and weakening its shields in a final burst of electricity. Shepard kept pushing on the drones, increasing the intensity of it as they tried to force their way closer.
Teeth bared in a snarl, she lifted her pistol and fired at the one that Alenko had overloaded. Without shields, the bullets tore into the drone, punching holes in its metal shell and ripping apart its internal workings. The drone's gun pulsed, firing a burst of plasma in a final assault. Shepard ducked behind the nearest tree, releasing her push on the other two drones. The tree's trunk shuddered and shook as the plasma hit, adding the smell of burning wood to the other aromas filling the air. It started to creak, the shadow it cast over Shepard growing larger as the tree fell.
"Rusts!" Shepard rolled to the side, away from the falling tree, and came up with her gun at the ready, aiming at where the drones' metal lines were pointing. The one she'd shot was on the ground, most definitely dead. Or deactivated, anyway. Moments later, another drone flew past her, backwards, lit by a bolt of biotic force that hurled it against a tree.
She and Alenko both opened fire on that one, their shots destroying the barriers and blasting the drone apart. Even as she fired, Shepard noticed the blue line of the third drone, moving off to the side. She hit it with a push, and was greeted with the satisfying sound of metal hitting stone. Twisting to get a look at the drone, Shepard exchanged her pistol for her shotgun, the motions smooth and fluid from years of repetition. The drone's weapon flashed, plasma splashing against her barriers and sending a wave of heat rushing over her. Her suit couldn't handle another hit, but that was alright. It wouldn't get the chance. Shepard fired, and the drone fell to the earth with an electronic whine.
Alenko caught up with her, and they took a moment to look around, searching for any signs of geth ahead.
It didn't take long for the distinctive sound of geth rifles to reach Shepard's ears.
Someone in white and pink armor burst around a bend in the path, sprinting away from a squad of geth. Plasma scorched the earth all around the soldier, kicking up dust and dirt. Shepard tapped her steelmind, enough to triple her normal speed, and bolted forward.
The soldier they'd been chasing fired off a burst from her rifle, ducking back into cover when one of the geth returned fire.
Shepard slowed, pointed her shotgun at the ground behind her, and fired. Without fully stopping, she pushed off of the anchor she'd just created, flying into the sky and arcing over the battlefield. The line pointing to her anchor began to grow fainter, and Shepard started to fall. That was alright. She had something to slow herself.
Shepard let go of the anchor behind her, and pushed against squad of geth below her. Her push hit them like an invisible hammer, making one of the machines stumble as her weight pressed against it and bore it down. With the geth as supports, Shepard's fall slowed, then stopped entirely. Her shotgun roared, slamming into the geth's barriers.
Blue light flashed around one of them, a nimbus of twisting forces tearing at the geth. It twitched, firing back at Alenko, but he'd already moved to another bit of cover.
Shepard grinned, and stopped tapping speed. Instead, she drew on the ironmind that was built into her armor, quadrupling her weight as she stopped pushing against the geth below her. With the sudden increase in weight, she plummeted toward the ground like a stone, directly above one of the geth.
She hit it feet-first, metal twisting under the impact. The Geth's eye went dark, and she rolled to her feet, finger twitching as she fired the shotgun again and again. The geth had to face an attack on two fronts now, and defend themselves from Alenko and the soldier they'd been chasing on one side, and Shepard on the other. Done with the increased weight, Shepard dumped it back into the ironmind, restoring her to normal levels.
Shepard hit the nearest geth with another push, slamming it against a rock. Its leg twisted, the geth falling to one knee as it kept firing, but Shepard just kept pushing on the barrel of its gun. Its shots went wild, and it screeched in what, in an organic, would've been frustration.
Something landed between the remaining geth, a metal puck with a flashing light, one that was speeding up.
Shepard tapped speed again, sprinting away from the grenade so fast that she kicked up a line of dust behind her. The grenade detonated, splitting the air with a thunderous 'crack.' A wave of heat hit Shepard's back, one she could feel even with the armor on, and she slowed down, glancing behind.
All that was left was a scorch mark, radiating out from the spot where the grenade had been, and an assortment of geth fragments. Shepard turned back to Alenko and the other soldier.
"Thanks for the rescue, ma'am," the soldier said, "I thought I wasn't gonna make it." The woman pulled off her helmet, revealing dusky skin, dark eyes, and black hair pulled back in a bun. "Ashley Williams, Gunnery Chief with the 212."
"I'm Commander Shepard, Marines," at the mention of her rank, Williams snapped to attention, giving her a picture-perfect salute. "And this is Kaidan Alenko. Are you injured, Williams?" Shepard asked, giving her a once-over. Williams shook her head.
"A few scrapes, bruises, and burns, but nothing to worry about. The…the rest of my squad wasn't so lucky," Williams said with a grimace."
"We were sent here to retrieve the Prothean beacon they found here. Any information you can give us would be appreciated," Shepard said, softening her tone slightly.
"We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack came. We tried to send out a distress call, but those things cut our communications…"
Shepard snapped her fingers as something fit together in her mind. "That's why your voice sounds so familiar. You were on that distress signal we got!" Williams expression brightened a bit at that.
"So we did get through!"
"Only to us, I think. We were pretty much in orbit already," Shepard said. "Sorry for interrupting. What about the rest of your squad?"
"Nirali and I tried to get back to the beacon after the first attack, but we walked right into an ambush. I don't think any…I think I'm the only one left."
Shepard stepped forward, placing her hand on Williams' shoulder. "This wasn't your fault, Chief. You did everything you could."
"Yes ma'am. We held our position as long as we could, until the geth overwhelmed us."
"This still doesn't make any sense, Alenko said, prodding one of the geth with his toe. "The geth haven't been outside the Veil in almost three centuries. What are they doing here now?"
"They came for the beacon, I think. The dig site's just over that rise." Williams said, pointing. "It might still be there."
"We could use your help, Williams."
"Aye aye, ma'am. Time for some payback." Williams saluted again, then pulled her helmet back on.
—
While they walked, Shepard took the opportunity to grill Williams for more information.
"What can you tell me about the beacon, anyway? I didn't get much of a briefing before we got your distress call." Williams shrugged.
"Not a whole lot. I tried asking one of the scientists, but most of what she said went over my head. All I know is that they found some Prothean ruins a few weeks ago when they were digging to extend the monorail. Next thing you know, every scientist in the colony is crawling all over the site."
"Where are they now? The scientists, I mean?" Alenko asked.
"Don't know. They set up camp near the beacon, and the 232 was with them. Maybe they had more luck than my unit."
"What happened before the attack?"
"We got sent out a couple nights ago, to secure the area. Everything seemed normal until the geth hit us. And that ship of theirs…" Williams said. Shepard raised an eyebrow.
"Ship? I saw something on the distress call you sent, something coming down out of the sky."
"Yeah, that was it, alright. Never seen anything like it. But it made this noise, like a horn or something, and it made me feel like someone was drilling holes in my skull," Williams said.
"Huh," Alenko said.
"How much farther, anyway?"
"Not far. The beacon's at the end of this trench," Williams replied, pointing down the rocky area ahead. Shepard held up a fist, calling for a stop, and flared her steel. Apart from the lines pointing to Williams, Alenko, and their weapons, none of the nearby sources of metal were moving.
"I can't see anything moving my way. Alenko, what about you?" He shook his head.
"Looks like we're all clear, Commander."
"Right. Stay alert. For all we know, we dealt with the only geth that aren't made out of aluminum or something."
They continued down the trench in silence, nerves as tense as a tightly-wound spring, eyes darting this way and that as they searched for anything that could be a threat. Nothing came.
Nothing leaped out at them, nothing shot at them. This did nothing to calm Shepard down. And once they reached the place that the beacon should have been, they were treated to more disappointment.
"The beacon's not here!"
"The geth must've moved it," Alenko said, gesturing at the scratches on the stone. "Protheans built their stuff to last. Pretty much only prothean steel can do anything to their concrete."
"I'll take your word for it, Alenko. You're the history nerd."
"The research camp is just at the top of this ridge. Maybe we'll find some answers there," Williams said.
—
What they found at the top of the ramp wasn't answers. It was a nightmare.
Before them stood a group of metal spikes, each one at least two meters tall. And each spike had at least one body impaled upon it, suspended above the ground by the hideous contraptions. Tendrils of electricity danced along the corpses, making them twitch and shudder.
"Merciful Survivor," Williams whispered.
The spikes hummed with power, the hum growing louder and louder, and the bodies began to change.
It wasn't clear what was happening at first, the change was so slow, but Shepard had seen it happen before. The bodies were losing color. Not in the sense of the skin going pale from blood loss. No, they were becoming grey. Hair, eyes, skin…it all faded to shades of grey.
"Batarians," Shepard whispered, clenching her fists.
"What?"
"The geth must be working with the batarians. I've seen that happen before, the bodies going grey. The batarians who attacked Mindoir did something to a few corpses that made them turn grey, and start walking around." Shepard raised her shotgun, and switched it to incendiary ammo. "They didn't have these things last time, though."
The spikes shuddered, and with a heavy 'thump,' they retracted, unloading their grisly creations. The corpses fell to the ground, and through the tears in their clothes Shepard saw something happening. The holes through them, where they'd been impaled, were closing. It wasn't flesh and muscle filling them, but rather some sort of twisted mass of wires. Their skin deformed, splitting in places as the wires grew through their bodies like invading roots.
One of them stood, and Shepard watched his eyes burn out in his skull. The living cables shoved their way out of the empty sockets, forming glassy lenses that flashed with blue light. Behind it, the others were going through the same transformation, the machinery hollowing them out into husks of their former selves.
"Oh what the fuck," Williams breathed.
The first husk's jaw hung open and it let out a low, hoarse moan, a sound that seemed to come from much farther away than the creature that made it. The others answered, each moan slightly different than the others. Shepard suspected that the hellish chorus was going to feature prominently in her nightmares the next time she slept.
All of the husks charged at them, moving in unison, as though they were nothing more than puppets for some demented master. Shepard searched for any metal lines she might be able to use, and saw something very worrying.
The husks didn't have any metal lines pointing to them. Their bodies were riddled with metal, yet her steel-sight showed nothing.
A snarl bubbled up from her throat, and Shepard opened fire, the shotgun roaring and sending a husk stumbling backwards with each blast. Worryingly, they weren't taking as much damage as they should've. The husks weren't much more than skin and a bit of muscle over cables and tubes and machinery, but they climbed to their feet with little more than a few scorch marks from her shotgun.
"Incendiary rounds!" Williams shouted, her rifle chattering as she fired. Indeed, she seemed to be having better luck against the husks than Shepard or Alenko, having already reduced three of them to burning heaps on the ground. Shepard nodded, switching her gun to incendiary as well, and opened fire once again. The first blast caught a husk square in the chest, its skin catching fire like dry paper. It kept staggering forward, unaware of the flames that had already started to consume it, another wail issuing forth from its gaping mouth. Shepard fired again, aiming higher, and its head burst in a shower of metal and blood. Head gone, the husk fell to its knees, then collapsed onto the ground, flames still devouring it.
The one behind it leapt for her, making a maddened screech that set Shepard's teeth on edge. She raised her shotgun, but pulling the trigger only gave her a shrill beep as it notified her it was overheated. Shepard swore, and brought up her arms before her, forearms crossed.
The husk hit, sending her falling backwards. Shepard tapped speed once again, turning the fall into a backwards roll that broke the husk's grip on her. Shepard stood, ignoring the slight dizziness, and leapt out of the way as the husk tried to grab her legs.
Shepard brought her foot down on the husk's head, putting every bit of her armored weight behind the stomp.
It went limp as soon as the head was destroyed, and Shepard spun around, looking for the next one.
It barreled into her like a charging boar, carrying her forward until her back slammed against one of the prefabs. The impact knocked her for a loop, and gave the husk the opening it needed to lash out, clawing at the soft suit that was the only thing protecting her neck.
A foot slammed into its side, throwing the husk off of Shepard. Williams stepped forward, taking it in the head with a short burst from her rifle before it could get up, splattering the ground with gore.
"Are you alright, Commander?" Williams asked, holding out a hand. Shepard took it, and let the soldier pull her to her feet.
"Thanks, Williams," she said, locking eyes with Ashley for a moment. The moment lengthened, and a small part of Shepard noted that the gunnery chief had very pretty eyes. She shook her head, breaking eye contact, and pushed those thoughts aside. Now was not the time for that.
"That's the last of them, commander!" Alenko shouted. He'd knelt beside the devices that had transformed the colonists, and was examining them closely.
"Alenko, stay away from those things!" Shepard snapped, striding forward. "Whatever they are, I don't want to find out what else they can do." He nodded, backing away from the spikes with a wary look.
"Why didn't you just push that husk off you, Commander?" He asked, giving her a sidelong look. Shepard frowned.
"Couldn't."
"What? But they're full of metal." Williams said, staring down at one of the corpses. "Dead flesh isn't supposed to be a problem for Lurchers and Coinshots, is it?"
"Yeah, well either it's aluminum, or…"
"Or it's heavily Invested somehow," Alenko finished. He furrowed his brows, staring back at the spikes again. Shepard sighed.
"We can figure that out later. Come on, we need to check if any of the scientists are still ali…" She trailed off as she took a good look at the prefabs. All the windows were shattered, the inside walls splattered with blood. "Oh."
"Shit," Williams whispered.
"Might as well check their computers, see if there's anything that'll tell us where the beacon is."
—
Nihlus stepped through the remains of the final husk, grimacing in disgust. He'd seen more than his share of death, but this…you never got used to seeing civilians killed. You accepted it, accepted that you couldn't save everyone, but get used to it? No. You couldn't afford to become so accustomed to seeing death and destruction that you stopped caring.
"Nihlus!" a familiar voice called out. He turned, brows rising in surprise.
"Saren? What are you doing here?" he asked, clasping the other turian's wrist in greeting as Saren did the same.
"The council thought you could use some help," Saren replied.
"I can't say I mind. The geth outside the veil!" Nihlus said, looking over his former teacher. It had been a couple years since Nihlus had last seen Saren in person, and the older turian had changed. His eyes, once dark and sharp, had been replaced by cybernetic ones that glowed with a deep blue light. His mandibles barely moved, held in place by metal pins and braces. The most notable change, however, was Saren's left arm. It was clearly mechanical, and unlike any prosthetic Nihlus had seen before. It was made of some sort of smooth, matte-black material, fashioned in curving shapes in imitation of muscles. Thick cables wound around it in places, connected to ports on the back of Saren's armor.
Saren seemed to notice Nihlus's gaze on him. He turned to face Nihlus, putting his arms behind his back.
"I'd heard you had been injured. If I'd known it was that bad, I would have gotten in touch sooner."
"No need to apologize," Saren said, waving a hand dismissively, "We both know how the job keeps us busy."
Nihlus fell silent, walking ahead of Saren as they approached the steps of the monorail station. Nihlus peered across the platform, swearing under his breath when he caught sight of the massive, crimson-armored geth below.
"Merciful spirits," Nihlus breathed.
In a moment of silence, Nihlus heard the sound of a gun being armed. In a blur of motion, he spun around and slammed the side of his hand into Saren's forearm, knocking the gun out of his hand and sending it spinning across the metal floor. Saren growled, low and predatory, and lunged forward, aiming to drive his fist into Nihlus's side.
Nihlus twisted out of the way, letting Saren's strike pass through empty air. He spun around Saren, coming up behind him and pistol-whipping the back of his head. Saren snarled, and his artificial arm struck, displaying a range of motion in excess of any flesh-and-blood limb. The metal claw closed around Nihlus's wrist and flung him forward, sending the turian flying through the air towards a stack of storage containers. He managed to turn his fall into a roll, coming up with his gun drawn and pointed at Saren.
"You're working with the geth? Have you lost your mind, Saren?"
"We don't have to fight, Nihlus!" Saren said, pacing out a circle across from Nihlus, while Nihlus did the same thing. "Join me!"
"In what? Your genocidal vendetta against humanity?"
"This is bigger than one species! Bigger than the council!" Saren replied, extending his living hand to Nihlus, palm up.
Nihlus answered with his rifle, aiming at Saren's head. A hardened spectre Saren may have been, but even he couldn't quite stop himself from flinching when the shots bounced off the shields, centimeters from his eyes. That flinch, that moment of distraction, was all Nihlus needed. He closed the distance in the blink of an eye, followed by a faint glow.
Nihlus struck on Saren's left side, a glowing orange blade spinning out from his omnitool as he drove his fist up under the mechanical arm. The flash-forged diamond blade bit into Saren's armor and the flesh beneath, filling Nihlus's nostrils with the scent of burning flesh. Saren gasped, and lashed out at Nihlus in desperation. And Nihlus, so consumed by anger and betrayal, didn't fully dodge Saren's strike. Blue light pulsed around Saren's right arm as he slammed his palm into Nihlus's shoulder. It was only a glancing hit, but the biotic attack threw Nihlus back into a pillar, his head striking it with a loud 'crack!' one of the spikes of his crest broke off, sending white-hot agony racing down his face.
Nihlus struggled to his feet, dazed.
"You…how are you a biotic?" he muttered, staring at Saren. Saren ignored the question, gesturing at him.
Two geth, which had been hidden in all the storage containers, grabbed Nihlus's arms and slammed him down onto the ground. They held him there, slowly crushing his wrists in their viselike grips.
"I'm sorry, Nihlus," Saren said as he strode forward, pulling something from a pouch on his belt. It was a spike, like a massive nail, fashioned out of metal that glowed with a soft blue light.
Element zero.
Nihlus arched his back, getting his feet flat against the ground as he tried to escape the geth and push himself to his feet. The machines tightened their grip, and Nihlus heard the bones of his forearms crack. He screamed, forgetting about anything except the agony that shot up his arms.
"Don't worry," Saren said, crouching down next to Nihlus. "I'll make it quick."
He drove the spike down.
—
As the last husk fell, Shepard caught sight of something on the ground ahead.
"Commander, it's Nihlus," Alenko said, leaning over the corpse.
Shepard's eyes went immediately to the hole in the turian's chest, her stomach twisting itself in knots.
"Something was driven right through his armor, into his heart," Alenko said, confirming Shepard's suspicions.
"Maybe it was a Graal? Batarians like those, and you thought they might be involved, right?" Williams said.
"Wasn't a shotgun that did that, and sure as hell wasn't a batarian," a man said. All three of them spun around, guns in hand. The man froze, hands in the air and eyes wide.
"Hey, whoa! I'm one of you! I'm human!"
"What were you doing back there? Shepard asked, relaxing a little. She kept her gun trained on the man, though. After the day she'd had, a little paranoia was warranted.
"I…I was hiding from those things. Name's Powell. I saw what happened to the turian."
"Tell me everything," Shepard said, activating the voice recorder and camera on her helmet.
"The other one was waiting for him when he got here. Sounded like they knew each other. Couldn't hear much of what they said, but your turian there called the other one Saren."
"This Saren, he was a turian? You're saying he killed Nihlus?"
"Yeah," Powell said, nodding vigorously. "They fought, punching and shooting and beating the hell out of each other. Saren threw Nihlus into that pillar, and that knocked him for a loop. He had a couple of those machines grab Nihlus and hold him down…" Powell swallowed, his skin going pale at the memory.
"What happened next?" Shepard asked.
"Saren drove a spike through Nihlus's heart," Powell whispered, looking nauseous. Then he took it out and put in a jar, and got the geth to fill the rest of the jar with blood."
Shepard's stomach dropped.
Hemalurgy. How the hell did a turian know Hemalurgy?
"What about the beacon?" Shepard asked, shoving the issue of Saren's knowledge aside for now.
"It's on the other platform," Powell said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the monorail. "That Saren…he took the monorail after he was done here. Knew that damn beacon was trouble. First that damn mothership shows up, then the attack. I'd've been dead if I hadn't been hiding behind the crates."
"Mothership?" Shepard asked.
"Yeah. That's what woke me up. Thing was huge, bigger than any ship I've ever seen. And it made this sound…like the world's biggest foghorn. Next thing you know, this place is crawling with those flashlight-heads."
Williams narrowed her eyes, leaning forward and jabbing at the man's chest with her finger.
"You were sleeping? You skipped work and did nothing while everyone else was slaughtered by the geth?" She snapped. Powell backed away, waving his hands in front of him.
"What was I supposed to do, hit them with a wrench? Sometimes I need a nap to make it through my shift, so I picked a spot where my boss would 't find me!" he said, voice shaking and face pale. "Survivor help me, I had to sit there and listen to the screams…"
"Williams, we've got more important things to deal with. We have to stop Saren from getting away with the beacon. And besides, this guy's already been through enough."
"Good…good luck," Powell said, heading toward the stairs, "I need to get away from this."
—
They got an unpleasant surprise when they reached the other end of the monorail, in the form of a large, cylindrical object laying on the platform.
"It's a demolition charge!" Alenko said, kneeling beside the bomb. "Saren must want to destroy any evidence he was here."
"Can you defuse it?" Williams asked. Alenko gave a terse nod.
"Alright, we'll cover you. Get that thing taken care of," Shepard said, drawing her shotgun. And not a moment too soon, as the sound of metal feet on the platform reached her ears.
Williams spun, firing on the geth at the top of the ramp. It screeched, returning fire as it advanced. And it had company.
Shepard snarled and pushed on the geth's weapons, knocking them aside and making their shots go wide. A couple even ended up hitting their comrades, barriers flashing and weakening under the plasma fire. Shepard blinked, noting that the plasma weapons seemed to do a lot more against the goths's shields than her own weapons did. Something to remember, maybe?
Williams kept firing, and Shepard didn't let on her Allomantic assault. She hit the geth with a barrage of short, sharp jabs, pushing on their guns and their joints. Their electronic screeches grew louder, giving the impression that she was really frustrating them. Assuming that geth could even get frustrated, of course.
One growl came from much closer, and Shepard let out a surprised yelp, turning around to see a single geth standing on the monorail car. It must've managed to sneak around and get behind her.
Shepard focused on the metal line pointing to the geth, noting all the different sections of armor, the joints that were visible beneath synthetic muscle, and the twisting cables and tubes that poked out in places. Her focus narrowed, all her attention centered on that single blue line. The line split, a line now pointing to each and every separate piece of metal that made up the geth.
Her first push hit the geth at the knees, making them bow outward in a way they certainly weren't designed to. The geth toppled, its weapon flying out of its hands as Shepard pushed on it. Her shotgun roared, and the geth's head disintegrated in a cloud of metal.
One down, she thought, turning back to the main group of geth. Williams was handling herself beautifully, whittling the squad of five down to two while Shepard had been busy with the one behind. As she watched, Williams leaned out of cover and fired once, the shot taking a geth trooper right in the neck. Its eye went dark.
Shepard grinned, then pushed herself up into the air, leaping up to the second level of the platform. She landed right next to the last geth, and hit it with a push that sent it flying backwards. Before the geth could get back on its feet, Shepard fired again, her shotgun punching a hole in the geth's torso.
"Bomb's disarmed, commander," Alenko said over the helmet radio. "But I don't think that was the only one."
"Of course not," Shepard sighed. "Let's move it. Find those other bombs!"
The next bomb was at the top of the ramp, up against a wall. But, of course, there were more geth coming. Shepard immediately set her sights on the sniper at the far end of the walkway, wielding another one of the massive rifles that had slain Jenkins.
"Alenko, disarm that bomb, and then I need an Overload on that sniper!" Shepard said, ducking behind a pillar. His hands danced across the bomb's control panel, and he gave her a distracted nod. Shepard turned back to the geth and noticed a pair of them placing something on the ground. A moment later, a hexagonal barrier sprang into being, blocking most of the walkway.
"Dammit," Shepard muttered, glaring at the shield. But Williams shook her head.
"That's only a short term shield," She said, firing at it. And sure enough, every shot that hit the barrier made the blue energy grow a bit lighter.
"Bomb's disarmed, Commander," Alenko said from behind them.
"Good. Alenko, overload the sniper. Ashley, take that shield down. On my mark." Shepard held up a hand, and counted down. "Three…two…one…Now!"
Williams opened fire, and the barrage was too much for the shield to handle.
Electricity arced around the sniper, lashing out and striking the geth next to it, spiderwebbing out over their barriers.
Shepard leaned back, bracing herself against the pillar and pushed with all her might on one of the large storage containers ahead. It was considerably heavier than her, even in armor, but with her back pressed against the pillar, Shepard couldn't move back anymore. The container ground forward, scraping against the walkway as she pushed it towards the geth. One of them managed to roll out of the way. The rest weren't so lucky. It hit them head on, carrying the geth back and slamming them against the wall with the sound of crunching metal.
"Come on!" Shepard said, tapping a sliver of speed as she sprinted forward. She spotted the next bomb at the end of the walkway, and pointed it out to Alenko.
From behind, a geth let out one of those electronic screeches. Shepard spun, shotgun raised, but she needn't have bothered. Williams was already firing, and at such close range, the geth's already weakened barriers didn't do it much good. It fell to the ground, white geth 'blood' leaking from severed tubes.
"Nice work, Ashley," Shepard said, nodding at her. Turning around, Shepard look down onto the lower level of the platform.
The beacon was there.
It was a tall, slim thing, with slightly curved sides, etched with thick grooves that glowed with an emerald light. The rest of it was a dull, steely gray.
Alenko let a low whistle, eyes widening slightly. "Wow," he breathed.
"Hate to break it to you, but we've got more pressing issues than the beacon," Williams said, pointing to the side of it.
The beacon had been so eye-catching that Shepard had somehow missed the massive geth standing in the shadows.
"What in Harmony's name?" Shepard whispered, her blood running cold. The geth was at least seven feet tall, covered in deep red armor. Where the rest of the geth had only a single eye, this thing had three smaller lights, each one a burning crimson.
"That's going to take more than an overload and a few shots," Alenko said, voice soft.
"We can make this work," Shepard said, with a lot more optimism than she really felt. "Williams, how good are you with a sniper rifle?"
"I'm good enough for whatever you need me to do. Besides, I'd have trouble missing that thing."
"Alright. Stay up here and cover us," Shepard said, unhooking the geth sniper rifle from her back. "It's got a hell of a kick, so be careful."
Williams nodded and rested the rifle on a stack of boxes, while Shepard and Alenko made their way down the ramp.
The moment they got to the bottom, a bone-chilling groan reached their ears, followed closely by another, and then another. And sure enough, there were several of the spikes set up on the other side of the platform. The spikes retracted, letting the husks fall to the ground. They got to their feet, growling and flexing their clawed fingers.
Alenko leapt into action, flinging his hands forward and pulsing with blue light. A point of darkness formed near the husks, making a rushing sound as the air was sucked in. A couple of the husks were too close, and their feet left the ground as they started to orbit the singularity.
That got the big geth's attention.
It turned, eyes flaring brighter as it surveyed the battlefield. It made that grinding sound that must have been the geth version of speech, deeper than others of its kind, and it raised its weapon.
Its very large weapon.
"Oh hell," Shepard swore. More geth were making their way to the central section of the platform from one side, and more husks were coming from the other. Only a few more geth troopers, but that was more than enough to be a problem when combined with the big one.
"Alenko, can you think out the husks? I'll do something about the rest of the geth."
"Got it," he said, golden tech armor forming around him. Shepard left him to it, pushing against the metal floor and launching herself into the air. Once she was high enough, Shepard added a push on the pillar next to her, flying over the geth troopers. They opened fire on her, some of the rounds coming close enough to skim her barriers. Shepard landed with a thud, drawing her shotgun and flicking on the brassmind built into it.
The geth came into view, all of them firing, but she was ready. Shepard picked out the blue lines that led to their guns and pushed on all of them, hitting them with as much force as she could. Two of the geth lost their weapons entirely, her push ripping the guns out of their hands and sending them skidding across the floor. The rest managed to hold on, though one geth's rifle flew up and hit it in the 'face'.
Shepard's shotgun roared, blasts slamming into the geth's barriers. The ones who still had their weapons tried to stop her, but Shepard tapped more speed, watching as the geth seemed to slow to a crawl. She dashed around them, getting behind the geth as they tried to find where she'd gone.
She raised her gun, and blew one of the geth's heads off. Before they had time to react, Shepard did the same thing to the geth on either side of that one. Three shotgun blasts rang out almost simultaneously, and three geth fell.
One geth left, she thought, checking for moving metal lines. She found it nearby, retrieving the rifle that she'd knocked out of its hands. She didn't give it the chance to use it, her shotgun roaring yet again as she reduced its head to crap.
With the geth taken care of, Shepard pushed on the ground again, flinging herself upward. She soared in an arc, coming down on top of one of the husks with the crunch of breaking bone.
She didn't have time to catch her breath, though, because the massive geth was stomping toward her. Alenko launched a warp at it, but the geth barely seemed to notice as the shifting mass effect fields started ripping it apart on the molecular level. It waved its hand, and an orb of orange hard-light appeared before it.
"Combat drone! Alenko, overload!" Shepard shouted, tapping even more speed and sprinting out of the way. Disconcertingly, the geth's gaze followed her, its cannon coming up and starting to glow.
From above, Ashley's stolen sniper rifle boomed, the shot hitting the cannon and sending the shot wide. The geth growled, and thrust a hand forward. The motion launched a ball of electricity. Shepard didn't know what it did, and she had no desire to find out. With a shout, she pushed herself into the air again, coming down behind the geth.
The electricity ball hit the platform, and Shepard learned what it did. A pulse of electricity raced out from the point of impact, overloading her barriers and knocking her backwards. She crashed into a stack of crates, groaning in pain.
Williams fired again, weakening the geth's barriers some more. Not enough, though. It aimed the cannon again, and Shepard struggled to her feet, moving far too slow.
Williams fired again, and the geth finally deigned to notice her, turning and aiming at her vantage point above.
Which was exactly what Alenko had been waiting for. He rushed forward, biotic energies dancing around as he hit the geth with a Lift. It floated off the ground, suddenly ignored by gravity. Shepard smiled, took a deep breath, and slammed the geth with every ounce of strength she had left.
And as she did that, Alenko hit it with a Throw. Their combined attack launched the geth through the air, only stopping when it slammed into a wall.
Slowly, with the sound of grinding metal, the geth stood.
"Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me," Shepard said, and opened fire.
The kill went to Williams. Somewhere in all the chaos, she'd tossed a few grenades to the ground, setting them to act as proximity mines. The geth's foot came down on one, and it had about a second to realize what that beeping sound was, before it was blown to smithereens.
Fragments of geth rained down around them as Williams joined them at the bottom of the ramp.
"We need bigger guns if we're ever gonna fight one of those again," Ashley said, and both Shepard and Alenko nodded in agreement. Shepard raised her hand to the side of her helmet, pressing the radio button.
"Normandy, the beacon is secure. Requesting immediate evac," She said, keeping the line open while she waited for a response. A few seconds later, Joker's voice cut through the static.
"Roger that, Shepard. On our way to your coordinates."
"This is amazing!" Alenko said as he approached the beacon. "Actual working Prothean technology!" Williams, on the other hand, frowned.
"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up," she said, gesturing at the green glow surrounding the object. "Someone must've activated it or something."
Alenko took another step closer.
The beacon's glow flared, sending a needle of emerald light into the sky. Alenko was lifted off the ground, as though an invisible hand had grabbed onto his gorget and hauled him up by it.
With only a second to think, Shepard flung herself with a steelpush, slamming into Kaidan with her shoulder and knocking him free of the beacon's grip.
Bands of force coiled around Shepard's chest, forcing the air from her lungs. The beacon's light grew brighter, surrounding her, her vision overtaken by the blazing glow.
"Shepard!" She heard Ashley yell, in the moments before something wormed its way into her brain and barraged her mind's eye with images.
Shepard cried out, and the beacon showed her the end of everything.