"I need you to investigate something for me." the Illusive man said coldly as soon as Shepard answered his call. Shepard growled internally at the mans arrogance, making sure that his feelings were well hidden from the Cerberus lead. Shepard hated having to show the man any courtesy but, even if he were loathe to admit it, he knew that he needed the man. Or rather they needed each other, which was the only reason they had developed a working relationship in the first place. That and because Cerberus had saved the Commander's life, but Shepard didn't like thinking about that. The thought that he had actually died at one point had never sat well with him, and he imagined it never would. A surprise attack on the Normandy had left his ship destroyed and the Commader stuck out in open space. It didn't end well, and the fact that there was anything left of him to recover at all was a miracle in it's own right. Cerberus had spent a fortune to bring him back and, from what he could tell, it took everything they knew about modern medicine to even make the project feasable. In the end, they still had to resort to giving him implants just to complete the process. The Commander shuddered just barely at the thought of it all. The less he thought about it the better.
"Perhaps you could give me some of the details before I make a decision." And maybe you could kiss my ass, he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue. Mouthing off like that never did anything to help his mood before, and the Illusive man always just ignored him as if he were a particularly annoying child. Better to just get the conversation over with as soon as possible.
The Illusive man didn't respond at first, instead sitting qiuetly while tapping away at a haptic interface in front of him. Shepard could see what he was trying to do, and he wasn't going to play that game with him. Instead he stood even straighter, stiffening his back and standing stock still, not showing an ounce of his growing impatience. Eventually the Illusive man found whatever he was looking for-or perhaps just got bored of trying to get a rise out of the Commander-and brought his attention back up to Shepard. Taking one last, long drag from a cigarette in his right hand, just to delay even further, he finally gave the Commander what he wanted.
"About twelve hours ago there occurred a gravitational and radio-logical disturbance over the planet of Lindofar, an unassuming and out-of-the-way planet that consists mostly of desert and only serves as a small Eclipse base." he said, smoke billowing out of him as he spoke. Briefly Shepard mused that he almost looked like a dragon, the red star behind him and his piercing blue eyes serving as great intimidators on lesser men. But that wasn't important right now, what he needed to focus on now was what the Illusive man was telling him, as the Cerberus lead continued on without waiting for a response.
"The anomaly was only there for a few seconds, and then it promptly disappeared as quickly as it came." He raised the cigarette to his lips once more and inhaled, eyeing the Commander. Shepard merely waited as well, and they both sat in silence. It was a small battle of wills to see who would lose their patience first, Shepard standing stock-still and staring straight ahead while the Illusive man poured himself a glass of bourbon, the bottle and glass provided for him from an assistant, who slipped in and out of the Quantum Entanglement feed as quick and quietly as she could. Eventually Shepard lost his patience, knowing that he was only wasting his own time.
"And?" he said with an irritated edge. He saw the Illusive man smirk for only the briefest of seconds before his face morphed into a stoic wall once more.
"And..." the Illusive man paused to take a sip of his bourbon, and as a subtle way to brag about his small victory Shepard was sure, "they found something."
That piqued Shepard's interest, and he quirked an eyebrow, but that was as far as he would go to show his interest. Thankfully this time the Illusive man continued without challenging Shepard to another duel.
"My sources within Eclipse tell me that a ship came out of the anomaly and then crashed on Lindofar." he said nonchalantly, following the statement with a short drag from his cigarette. Externally Shepard appeared calm and controlled, but internally his mind exploded into a whirlwind of questions. How is that possible? What kind of ship? Where did it come from? Whose ship was it? So many questions sped by his mind that he found it difficult to even register them all, but soon he found one that seemed the most pertinent at the moment.
"How do you know this information is accurate?" The Illusive man smirked again and Shepard realized he must have walked into some kind of trap in the contest that had developed between he and the Illusive man. Without saying a word the Cerberus lead pressed a button and a video began playing next to him for Shepard to see. From what he could tell the person taking the video was in a shuttle flying circles over the subject of the video, that subject being what could only be described as a very peculiar ship.
Surrounded on all sides by the brown colors that were often found in a desert, the ship's black coloring contrasted was visible for miles. That being said, it was a very dull, almost gray black that looked slightly metallic. The ship itself was comprised mostly of boxes and hard edges, an angular design that was reminiscent of Turian ship design. Still, this craft was markedly different from anything he had ever seen before. But even that thought couldn't prepare him for what he saw next, for as the shuttle swooped around the fallen craft, shepards eyes widened in shock.
It was clear that the ship had taken some damage, which was a bit of an understatement as seemingly half of it had been cleaved off, but that wasn't what had Shepard so dumbfounded. Instead what Shepard was focusing on was the lettering in white paint on the side of the ship. Even though the paint was chipped and faded he could read the text it made because it was written in perfect English. Forward Unto Dawn.
"It's a human ship?" he asked aloud when the video ended, not caring to hide his confusion anymore. The revelation that a ship had come from the anomaly was one thing, but the fact that it very well could be a human ship was unbelievable. Shepard knew it wasn't from the Alliance, and he would have assumed it was a Cerberus ship had he not seriously doubted that the Illusive man would tell him about it if it were. Still, he had to ask.
"It's not one of yours?" The Cerberus lead scoffed at the notion, replying, "I would not have brought this to your attention if it were." Shepard nodded. He knew where they stood and he was all the more happy for it. Still, he was now fully interested in investigating this ship, and he was eager to get started.
"Send me the coordinates, I'll check it out as soon as I can."
"Good" the Illusive man said as he took a sip of his bourbon, the ice clinking against each other in the glass. "I'll send you any other relevant data. Good luck." he added before promptly ending the call. Shepard blinked for a moment as his eyes got used to seeing reality again instead of the pitch black office of the Illusive man. He still had yet to get used to the transition and, with a little luck, he never would get the chance to.
"EDI, tell Joker to get us to the coordinates the Illusive man is sending us immediately, and call the squad to the conference room." he said into the air, as the ships AI could hear him anywhere. "Affirmative, Commander Shepard." it droned in response, and Shepard nodded as he prepared to brief his squad about the new mission.
It hadn't taken the Normandy long to get to Lindofar, as they were closer to the planet than Shepard originally thought. That being said, it didn't mean that he was happy to be on the desert planet. It was hot, which was a lot like saying that thresher maws were dangerous or that the Reapers were mean. It was a gigantic understatement, in other words, as the sweltering heat made him want to strip off his armor. Doing that would most likely result in him getting a killer sunburn or, more likely, getting killed from all the gunfire going off around him. A stray bullet slamming into his cover proved his point and made him think twice about popping out for another shot.
"Zaeed, burn 'em!" he shouted, the grizzled old merc smiling as he pulled out an inferno grenade. The large scar that covered half of his face and ruined one eye made him look like a monster out of a horror vid as he primes the grenade. Shepard had some concerns about using such a thing inside the ruins of the crashed ship, but his desire to not get plugged full of holes overruled that concern. Zaeed popped out of cover just long enough to throw the grenade into the enemy position and smiled once more as it went off, consuming the Eclipse mercenaries in a wave of flames. Shepard signaled the squad to move up and take their position, and they all arrived to find that that was the last of them. For now, anyway.
"Good work, team. Let's keep moving." All nodding they trudged on behind him, taking care to avoid the burnt corpses as they moved further into the mysterious ship.
They had originally landed outside of the shipwreck, mildly interested in the sight of a crashed shuttle nearby, and were immediately attacked by a squad of Eclipse mercenaries that were guarding the ships perimeter. Shepard wasn't worried about the Eclipse at all, and everyone else seemed to feel the same way. The Eclipse were just a nuisance, a distraction that was in the way of their discovering the truth behind the ship. But the Eclipse weren't the only ones they needed to worry about because, according to what Cerberus could gather, there was at least one survivor, and they were making life difficult for the mercenaries.
Most concerning of all, they weren't human.
Cerberus hadn't been able to determine what species the survivor was, mostly because Eclipse hadn't been able to determine that either. Shepard just scowled at it all. Here they were in a ship that didn't match any known designs, with every indication that it was a human ship, and the lone survivor was an alien. It was maddening, to say the least.
"Life's never dull with you, Shepard, is it?" Garrus asked behind him as if reading his thoughts, and Shepard scoffed. He turned to look at the Turian who was grinning like an idiot behind his damaged armor. He had come dangerously close to biting the bullet, but the Turian had toughed out his injuries and recovered faster than anyone had ever expected him to.
"Well, I do like to be where the action is." he replied jovially as he lead the squad through the ruined corridors of the ship. It was cramped and tight, leaving little room for maneuverability, but there was plenty of cover to hide behind when the bullets started flying.
"Thought work with STG was dangerous. Have realized how tame it was, compared to work with you, Shepard." Mordin said, adding to the conversation. For a Salarian he looked just as grizzled and deadly as Zaeed, his missing cranial horn almost as worthy a scar as the one adorning the old human mercenary's face. Speaking of the mercenary, Zaeed crinkled his brow and scoffed.
"You want danger? Try going through a goddam docked Batarian cruiser with nothin' but a pistol and a pack of adrenalin stims. Fun like you wouldn't believe." he added sarcastically, and everyone else just rolled their eyes. Everyone had already heard about some of Zaeed's exploits by now and, while a lot of them were indeed impressive, he just always felt the need to one-up everybody. He was still good to have around in a fight, though.
"Alright, cut the chatter." Shepard said, reigning in everyone's focus. "We're nearing the bridge, and there's bound to be Eclipse there. Stay sharp."
No sooner had he said that than they all turned a corner and all of a sudden heard a hail of gunfire and panicked voices. After jumping into cover, they quickly realized that the gunfire was not meant for them but for something else up ahead. They listened quietly as the battle raged on, presumably in the bridge.
"Where the hell is he?"
"Fuck, is he invisible?"
"What the fuck is that? It's glowing!"
"Gah, my arm!"
The last voice ended in a cry of anguish before being immediately silenced. Shepard and his squad continued to listen to the firefight intently, trying to figure out what could possibly be happening. Then they heard another voice that was immediately followed by the hollow pounding of boots against metal, and it was coming there way.
"It's no use, fall back and regroup!"
Shepard signaled for everyone to get ready, and soon enough a group of ten Eclipse mercenaries were speeding down the halls towards them, oblivious to the danger ahead as they desperately tried to get away from the danger behind them. Without saying a word Shepard opened fire on them with his assault rifle, the others following suit immediately after. The report of gunfire echoed off the walls, mingling with the death throes of the mercenaries as half of them were gunned down outright. The other half quickly joined their comrades as they swallowed up by another of Zaeed's inferno grenades.
A deafening silence fell over the ship, as Shepard and his squad watched the corridor ahead, waiting for whatever was chasing the Eclipse to come after them, but it never did. Instead all the dust that had been collected on the ship, which had been thrown around violently due to the fight, lazily drifted back into place. After another moment the silence was broken by a low chuckle coming from Zaeed. The other three members of the squad turned to quirk their eyebrows at him, and he merely shrugged.
"That was goddam hilarious."
Shepard just chuffed and motioned for them to continue onward. Cautiously they moved their way through the last few feet of the cramped hallways and entered a large room filled with chairs and broken terminals of all shapes and sizes.
"This must be it. Stay frosty." Shepard said.
Wordlessly they stalked through every inch of the room, checking every nook and cranny for survivors. They highly doubted there would be any Eclipse left, judging by the amount of bodies littered across the floor, but they couldn't find any sign of the lone survivor of the ship. Besides the bodies there were peices of broken glass and wiring everywhere, and a few pieces of equipment that the mercs had brought with them, such as tablets and data spikes. After a few moments of finding no one but the dead, the room was called clear and the squad reconvened in the center of the room.
"State of these bodies is...concerning." Mordin said with a deep intake of air. No one could argue with that as they looked about the room once more to survey the carnage. Some of the mercenaries looked to have been chopped in half, others had whole limbs removed. The most peculiar thing though, besides the fact that someone appeared to be using a sword of some kind, was that the wounds were all cauterized. Not a drop of blood was in sight, and besides the general disarray that comes from being on a crashed ship, it would have been a relatively easy killing spree to clean up. Even the mercs that hadn't been slashed into didn't look much better, though, for their armor and any uncovered skin looked melted and burnt. Neither Shepard nor any of his squad had seen anything like this before, and even Zaeed looked befuddled.
"What kind of weapons could do this sort of damage?" Garrus asked aloud as his mandibles twitched in curiosity. The answer he got didn't please him.
"Cauterized wounds and general melting of target areas suggests a medium of very high temperature. Fire? No, fire couldn't match the precision of these wounds, severely limits options. Only possibility is not possible. Curious." Mordin rattled off like he always did whenever he was on to something, and the others let him. He was likely the smartest out of the four of them, anyway. But what he said didn;t make sense, and Shepard needed him to clarify.
"What do you mean?" he asked, and was a little unnerved by the mixed expression of horror and scientific curiosity that appeared on Mordin's face.
"Plasma, or perhaps some sort of laser." he said simply, and Shepard stood there dumbstruck for a moment. Plasma weaponry had pretty much been written off by most species of the galaxy as impossible or too costly. The only race that had made anything close were the Geth, but even then they didn't have true plasma firing weapons. Judging by the expressions on both Garrus' and Zaeed's faces, they could hardly believe it either. But none of them were willing to debate about it, as they had no clue as to what else could have caused this sort of damage. Shepard furrowed his brow at the situation. With each new discovery on this ship they only got more questions. It was imperative that they find this survivor, but they were nowhere to be found.
"Well shit." Zaeed said bluntly, earning a nod from Garrus. "At least the bridge is secured, for now." the old mercenary added.
"Were it so easy." a new voice said, and all hell broke loose.
Shepard saw a shimmer in the air, but before he could warn anyone about it it tackled Garrus and sent him sprawling to the ground. Next he saw it shift in Zaeed's direction which resulted in the old mercenary flying through the air behind him with an 'oof', the air rushing from his lungs. Shepard reacted on instinct and fired point blank into the shape, his rounds crashing against the outline of a towering form wreathed in a glowing barrier, what Shepard learned too late to be a shield. Before he could do anything else the shape lashed out at him and smacked his gun to the side while he was then kicked away in much the same fashion as Zaeed. Recovering as quickly as possible, Shepard launched himself to his feet and whipped out his pistol, only to find that the form had subdued Mordin and was using him as a sort of meat shield. Garrus and Zaeed had recovered by then as well and were doing their best to get a good angle on their new foe, but they were making good use out of Mordin as a shield.
Every muscle in Shepard's body tensed at that moment as the shape grabbed Mordin's good horn, lifted his head high and ignited...well, Shepard didn't know what the hell it was. It looked like a two-pronged sword, but it was made of light, or perhaps pure energy. The shape moved the object to Mordin's neck, but didn't finish the move, simply holding the sword in place dangerously close to Mordin's neck. The Salarian looked odlly calm, seemingly resigned to the fact that he couldn't do anything at the moment.
What happened next was what Shepard would have described as akin to an old western standoff. No one said or did anything as Shepard and the free members of his squad all aimed their weapons at the shimmering shape holding Mordin hostage. The invisible shape in return did nothing but hold the sword precariously close to the Salarian's windpipe. Time seemed to crawl as they all stood as still as statues. Eventually the shape decided to speak first.
"You do not appear to be with these Eclipse mercenaries, which is the only reason you are not dead." it said, its cold voice low and deadly. If Shepard was correct in his assumption, the voice belonged to a male. He was also mildly surprised that the shape was speaking perfect English, but that wasn't important right now, for the shape spoke again slowly, as if talking to a child who was being reprimanded. "But I will not hesitate to kill you the next time I strike, should you force me to act."
The message was clear: lower your weapons or die. Shepard had half a mind to keep his weapon up, but one look at the carnage filling the room told him that this shape, whoever he was, wasn't bluffing. Plus, while he might gamble with his own life on the line, he wouldn't do it with one of his squad mates. Shepard slowly lowered his pistol and gave Garrus and Zaeed a nod that told them to do the same. Hesitantly, they followed his order. While he was no longer aiming his weapon at the shape, he didn't holster it either, keeping it in his hands but aimed at the floor. The shape was seemingly fine with this, as it spoke again a second later.
"Now speak, Human. Who are you?"
Shepard took a deep breath and spoke as calmly as if he were giving a speech to a class of students.
"I'm Commander Shepard, and these are my squad mates Zaeed Massani, Garrus Vakarian and...Mordin Solus." he said while indicating each one respectfully, gesturing awkwardly to the Salarian in the invisible shape's grasp. "We came here to investigate your ship, and to help any survivors." he added as a way to try to placate the shape. He couldn't tell if it worked until the shape suddenly faded into being a revealed itself to be an alien. Shepards eyes widened in shock as he learned that this was an alien of a species he had never seen before.
It towered over the Salarian in its arms, standing taller than even a Krogan. It looked odlly Turian, but mostly in the way it held itself with the same rigid, military discipline that most Turians did. It was clear to Shepard that this alien was a soldier, not just by its demeanor but by the armor it wore, which looked highly advanced but ancient and ceremonial at the same time. Its blue skin was rippling with tension due to the muscles underneath, and Shepard looked into the golden yellow eyes of this alien, the eyes of a killer if ever he saw one, he knew this was not an alien to be trifled with. As it spoke again, Shepard was amazed that its four mandibles could form the words it was saying with little difficulty.
"I am called the Arbiter, and this is not my ship."
A/N: Well, I've been wanting to start this one for a long time, and I feel relatively happy with how this chapter looks, but let me know what you think. Please review and all that other stuff, and thanks for reading.