Prologue

Acheron LV-426, May 16

Reisa'Lenn vas Teira

The low hum of the engines broke through the silence that hung over the rocky surface of the moon like a fog. The landing vessel, a small scout ship called the Sarlisen, originally coming from the fleet vessel Teira, was compact enough to find her place between two large rock formations on the desolate surface of the planet.

Reisa had never seen anything quite like the thing that sat before them now. She stared at the large, wishbone-shaped craft that had landed so perfectly among the rocky spikes. She wondered who had built this vessel. She, being a young marine, hadn't seen very many works of other races in her time. This one, however, still struck her as strange and unknown. Maybe that was why she had ben sent to investigate the thing.

"C'mon." She heard the voice of a fellow soldier, Jai'Tor vas Teira, say from beside her, "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we go home. This thing gives me the creeps."

"Scared, Jai?" Reisa laughed, "Don't worry. It's just a hunk of cosmic debris, I'm sure. It's probably been dead years, that signal seemed really primitive."

Jai sighed, nodding slightly. Some of the others had begun to emerge from the ship now, and she figured they might as well head off exploring the thing already. Jai was right – the place seemed oddly foreboding. Nonetheless, she had never been scared away from a job before and certainly wasn't going to run away with a figurative tail between her legs now. She had more pride than that.

She motioned for the others to follow her as she walked up to the derelict ship's open bay. A young male, she didn't recognize him, kept close by her side along with her friend Jai. They all had their weapons drawn, ready to fire should something go wrong.

It was obviously a damaged vessel, but it didn't look like it had seen this damage before it had crashed. Most of the ship was covered in rock, though because of it's location it looked as if that rock had been part of the cliff-like spire to the side of the vessel, and had protected it from a more powerful blast. Or it may have been the ship's shields, which seemed fairly intact from their earlier scan. Reisa would never discover this answer.

The blue-suited Quarian soon found herself in a large central chamber. She clambered up into it, the other Quarians following with hesitant steps. It was a circular room, pipes and wires marking it from the center to the rim and up the walls and roof. Where the pipes stopped in the middle of the room was a giant seat of some sort. Reisa went to investigate.

What she found was a giant corpse of some sort of ancient alien. From what she could discern, it's head was pointed towards the butt of some sort of giant telescope-like structure, possibly the ship's controls. It's chest had some sort of opening or hole in it, but from what she was unsure. She took out a small knife and cut a sample of the fossilized corpse, handing it to a male Quarian in the back of the group; Tiy'Salen, their team researcher as well as a soldier.

"C'mere!" She heard Jai say from the other side of the seat, "There's an opening here. Looks to be carved by some sort of acid."

Reisa went around to examine the hole. It was, indeed, melted around the edges as if acid had created it. She peered inside to see nothing more than a blue mist, with a few places that showed a rather bumpy floor of some sort. She couldn't see it clearly from where she was.

"I'm going down there." She said, motioning for Jai to come to her, "Give me a rope. I'll yank on it when I want to come back up."

Jai handed her friend the rope, and Reisa made quick work of the descent into the cavernous cargo-hold area of the abandoned ship. She set down lightly on an upraised walkway-like area of the ship's hold and tied the rope around her waist.

She now could see clearly the cause of the bumpy-looking floor. All around here were large, oval-shaped objects with a cross on top, the place where she guessed whatever was inside would eventually exit. Eggs. The fleet had scanned this planet and found life in this ship – that was why SHE was here and not just a team of scientists – and now she knew that it was.

The Quarian woman descended to where the eggs lay, finding the nearest and running gentle fingers over it. She was surprised by what seemed to be a tough, leathery surface, one much drier than she had anticipated.

And then it moved.

She froze, and shined her light on the thing.

Something inside of it was moving. She couldn't see clearly what it was, but it seemed to have many limbs. Perhaps a tail? She examined it further. Maybe she could open it. See what was inside. She put a hand on one of the flaps and, to her great surprise, it came open almost on it's own. She peered over, and...

Wham! She didn't know what it was, but something had sprung out and hit her helmet as her vision suddenly went dark. She could see the flesh of the struggling creature on her helmet and tried to pull it off, but it had a firm hold on her head. Something was around her neck, too! She couldn't breathe! She tried to yell, but an eerie cracking sound cut her off as whatever had been on her helmet finally got through the glass. Her heart was pounding. Scared. Scared. She yanked on the rope, feeling it tighten around her stomach as the others pulled her away, but she didn't see them. It was dark. She couldn't speak or breathe, her mouth and nose were plugged. Then...nothing.

She slipped into unconsciousness some time before the others had pulled her to safety.