5
CHAPTER ONE
COLD COFFIN, OPEN CASKET
Joseph Shepard had not felt this happy in a long time. He had just been reunited with another one of his old crew, Tali'zorah vas Neema. A feminine monotone voice resounded from the speakers ruining his good mood. "Commander Shepard, The Illusive Man wishes to speak with you in the briefing room."
"Thank you, EDI," Shepard said sarcastically, as he made his way to the elevator to go down to the second level of the Normandy.
As the QEC activated Shepard saw The Illusive Man. "Shepard, good to see you," he took a puff of his cigar before continuing, "A Cerberus long range com buoy has picked up an S.O.S., signal of unknown origin. And I want you to find it and investigate it."
"What do you mean 'unknown origin'?" fearing that this was another trap the Illusive Man created to flush out the Collectors.
What I mean, Shepard, is that the signal has a coding unlike anywhere in the galaxy – human or otherwise!" The I.M. said slightly irritated.
"I'll check it out." With that, Shepard cut the communication line.
As Shepard made his way out of the com room, he was still worrying that this was just another Collector trap that the Illusive Man was walking him into just like on Horizon. When he reached the door, it opened to reveal a quarian rushing through it and now right at him. After they collided, the quarian landed atop her commander. "Uh…, Shepard, I'm sorry. I have something to tell you and I wanted to catch you before you went to another part of the ship," Tali said, embarrassed as she picked herself off Shepard.
"It's okay, Tali," said Shepard as he stood up. "What is it you wanted to tell me?"
"Back on Haelstrom I picked up an anomaly that seemed to be an S.O.S. signal, but we were not able to investigate it before Geth attacked," she said.
"Thank you, Tali. The Normandy just picked up the signal and I was planning to investigate it," Shepard replied. "I would like to take you and Garrus to search for survivors."
"Sure. Let me go get my equipment together and bring Garrus down to the shuttle bay," Tali said. As she left, Shepard could tell that she was embarrassed by what happened and wondered if the log he heard from her journal on Haestrom had more meaning to it than what he originally thought.
As the Cerebrus shuttle drew near to the derelict ship, they were able to read its name. "Shepard, is there any human ship by that name?" Garrus Vakarian asked. As Shepard and his squad mates wondered who owned it they began to dock with the Forward onto Dawn.
How long had it been the AI wondered? How long had it been since the destruction of the ancient alien doomsday weapon a second time? How long had the ship been drifting through the recesses of space waiting and hoping someone would find the distress signal and send help? The AI turned to face the precious cargo that the corpse of a ship had harbored, a cold coffin, which was holding the savior of a galaxy from untold horrors. Clad in titanic green MJOLNIR armor, the AI decided to use what little sensors the ship still had. It was surprised to discover the readings of what looked to be a shuttle heading towards the wreckage. Things were about to get real interesting soon she thought.
"Be prepared, there is no telling what's on this ship," Shepard told Garrus and Tali. Their beams of light shot off into the cargo hold, illuminating and revealing its contents. The two things that stood out the most were what appeared to be a tank and a light reconnaissance vehicle of some kind.
"Shepard, you're seeing this, too, right? Since when have human tanks used treads?" Garrus asked.
"I think a few years before the Prothean relics were found on Mars," Shepard replied.
"Well, to add to the confusion, my omni-tool is not picking up any mass effect fields on the guns or anywhere on the ship," Tali stated as she scanned the inside of the hold.
"So you're saying that the ship is not running on eezo?"
"To put is plainly… yes."
"Tali, can you trace where the S.O.S. signal is originating from?" Shepard asked.
"I've pinpointed it and by the signs on the wall it is in cryo storage," Tali replied.
"O.K., Garrus, you and Tali go see if anyone is there. I'll go and search for any more information on the ship."
This might not be good, the AI reconsidered. When the shuttle landed in the cargo hold, it used the internal security systems to scan those who disembarked, while happy for one to be human the AI was totally shocked by the other two occupants who were species never catalogued. They might not be species aligned with the covenant, but not yet seen, or vice versa. Never the less the chief needed to wake up, and it began the process of waking its friend from his cold slumber.
5 Minutes Later
The AI watched as the helmet lights flickered and began to move side to side. With incredible speed, the Cryopod's hatch was thrown open and the Spartan appeared through the cold mist. "Cortana, what's wrong," he said.
"Two unidentified aliens coming this way. There was also a human that came in with them, Chief."
She replied quickly, "I suggest you passively take them down. We don't need another intergalactic war on our hands."
The silent soldier nodded and took a small chip out of the console. As he did that Cortana's feminine image disappeared. When Chief put the chip in the back of his helmet, he shivered as it felt like a cold liquid filled his veins as he heard Cortana in his helmet. "It's good to be home." With that, the Master Chief disappeared in the shadows.
"Tali, do you think that you can hack this door?"
"Of course, I can. It will take a minute to sync my omni-tool to the ship's systems if they're still functioning," she quickly retorted. As she knelt down and activated her omni-tool the door slid open. This was a shock even to those who had seen the horrors of the Collectors.
"Uh…Tali, did you do that?" Garrus asked surprised.
"No, I just turned my omni-tool on," she nervously replied.
Garrus readied his Vindicator rifle and entered the room with Tali close behind with her shotgun drawn. After they entered, they noticed that one of the pods was opened and went to investigate it. When they neared it, Garrus said grimly, "This room reminds me of the Prothean Archives on Illos."
"Yeah, it does," Tali somberly said as she looked at it.
"It was opened recently… do you think your omni-tool can tell us when it was last opened?" Garrus asked.
"I'll try, but…" Tali was then interrupted by a loud thud that came from behind them. As they turned around to see what had caused the sound, they saw a figure in hulking green armor staring at them from a blazon visor. Garrus' instincts took over and as he turned, fired a burst from his gun at the figure. To the marksman's surprise however, none of his shots met their mark, for the figure grabbed his Vindicator and tossed it aside. As he did this, he delivered a kick to Garrus' abdomen, which propelled the unlucky Turian into the open pod. Garrus began to raise himself out of the pod when the armored monstrosity slammed the lid of the pod into his head and then Garrus blacked out.
With one threat incapacitated, the Chief switched his attention to the other alien. It was different from the other one. It looked to be female and was wearing a strange suit. It reached behind its back and brought forth a rectangular piece of metal. Few things shocked the Chief, what happened next gave him pause; the hunk of metal expanded and formed the shape of a gun. He sidestepped out of the barrel's way; grabbed hold of the gun and pulled it free from the alien's hands. This caused the alien to lose balance. Master Chief seized the opportunity. He brought the gun down to the floor, used the grip as a hook raking the alien's legs out from under his hand position on the odd gun, and aimed to the side of her head. Before he could ask the alien any questions, he heard the familiar sound of a gun being readied behind him.
Joseph Shepard was trying to open the ship's bulkhead to the C.I.C., but it would not move when he tried to hack it. He wished that either Kasumi or Tali were there to help him, being just a soldier had its drawbacks, but he felt that the more options he was open to in combat paid off. He had sent Tali with Garrus to find the signal to do some thinking about the prior events of the day; hearing Tali's recording in the Quarian bunker and the way that she reacted when they crashed into each other on the Normandy. Shepard realized that he had learned of what had happened to most of his crew after his death, but with the short time, he had met her on Freedom's Progress or Haestrom. Shepard never knew how his death and the following two years affected Tali. Garrus became the vigilante. Archangel on Omega, Wrex, to his knowledge, was still leading his clan on Tuckanka, trying to unify the Krogan. Kadian was promoted and hated that he was working with Cerebrus. Joker had been grounded until Cerebrus recruited him, Dr. Chark was still helping the Alliance before she came to work on the SR-2, and Liara changed almost too much for words to describe; she was nothing like the shy Prothean archeologist he remembered. However, the only thing he knew happened to Tali was that she completed her pilgrimage and went back to the migrant fleet. Shepard told himself that after getting back to the Normandy he should go down to engineering and… Shots interrupted his train of thought as he raced through the ship to locate his friends.
As he reached the cryo chamber, he saw that the door was open. As Shepard rushed in, he saw a gigantic figure in a green armor he had never seen in all his years in the Alliance. Whatever it was, it looked tough, so he grabbed the collector particle beam rifle off his back, if anything could cut through that armor it was his best bet. As he brought the rifle to his shoulder, the figure turned around with lightening speed bringing his captured shotgun to meet him, but neither fired.