Surviving Saren
CHAPTER ONE
A RED HAZE ON EDEN PRIME
Heavy armoured clad boots came down onto the soft soil of Eden Prime, crushing grass and leaves under their footfalls. The distant thunder of weapons echoed endlessly in the red hazed sky.
Mercedes Shepard carefully scanned across her surroundings, eyes hidden behind her helmet's visor. The Normandy's ground team consisted of a five-man team, four soldiers that had seen combat and one that hadn't. Looking out of the corner of her eye, she saw the young Corporal Jenkins shifting slightly from foot to foot, his posture stiffening and then relaxing. It was his first real combat mission and it was on his home planet. The only weapon he was carrying was a standard issued assault rifle. Then there was the sentinel on the team – Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko - that kept flinching away from bright lights and loud noises, the visor on his helmet darkened as much as it possibly could. It didn't her long, maybe a few seconds, to figure out that he had L2 implants. The fourth member of the five-man team was the turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik. He was used to working independently, so he had moved out silently through the shadows to scout ahead and locate the mission priority.
A hand cloaked in black N7 armour rose in the air slightly, gesturing down a sloping path.
The team's designated leader was Lieutenant Commander Temperance Shepard – Mercedes' older sister. Temperance was an N7 Sentinel Paladin and one of the best the Alliance had. Despite being a sentinel, Temperance never just carried a pistol on her person and instead was fully decked out in weapons. She carried two shotguns that hung from oversized holsters on the wide armoured belt around her waist that was festooned with grenades and she also had a large sniper hung across her back, which she really only used to scout out her surroundings as she didn't like having to bunker down to use it.
As the team came to the crest of a hill, Temperance squatted and held her fist up. Mercedes dropped down next to her and scanning ahead, spotting three attack drones in the distance. Temperance's fingers rose to signal the number to the others and she then pointed one of the drones out to their other sentinel. As she blinks, Mercedes sees Corporal Jenkins dashing out of cover, firing his assault rifle in the direction Temperance had indicated to, taking on the target that was supposed to be for the Lieutenant. The L2 sentinel reacts quickly and tosses a biotic throw at the selected drone, finishing it off. As Mercedes fires her pistols at the remaining two drones, one manages to rapidly riddle the Corporal's exposed body with armour piercing rounds just before Mercedes' own round hits its metal frame and it explodes.
The Lieutenant races over to their fallen team member to provide medical assistance, only to realise that it was too late, for the rounds had cut through the Corporal's heavy armour.
"Lieutenant, we have a mission to do," Temperance said. "Take his dog tags and any medi-gel he has on his person."
"Aye, aye, ma'am," Lieutenant Alenko grimaced.
For quite a stretch past where the Corporal's corpse laid, all they found were more dead marines. Temperance directed them to pull the dog tags from each body as well as salvage any spare medi-gel and omni-gel. The Lieutenant complied to her command stiffly. As they continued to move towards where their mission priority was, they started to hear extremely close and loud gunfire, drawing closer by the second. Temperance slapped at her helmet to indicate for them to take cover before running forward to find shelter behind some rocks. The trio moved from cover to cover as quickly as possible, the gunfire continuing to draw closer. Finally, as they worked around the last corner, they saw a lone marine in white and pink armour performing a fighting withdrawal, greatly outnumbered by battle mechs of a type that Mercedes had only seen before in history vids.
Temperance quickly gestured from them to engage the hostiles. The Lieutenant tossed out a singularity that drew the mechs into a floating pile in space, totally defenceless and easy pickings for Mercedes to shoot with her pistols. As Temperance told their L2 sentinel to keep watch as she talked with the marine, Mercedes moved over towards one of the mechs as the marine hustled over to her sister and snapped off a sharp salute.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the two-twelve, ma'am."
Its face consisted of a now dead light and plates that surrounded that light in an almost dome-like shape, there were three digits on each hand and the legs were bowed backwards. They looked like metallic quarians and Mercedes sighed deeply. Geth. They hadn't been seen outside of the Veil for well over two hundred years, so the question was now, what were they doing on Eden Prime. They suddenly appeared out of nowhere just as the beacon – the team's mission priority – was discovered.
It couldn't have been a coincidence.
When Temperance gestured from them to move out, the marine following behind her, she contacted Nihlus on the radio and updated him on the situation. The Spectre's voice echoed in their helmets, confirming the identification of the synthetics as geth and stated that he was approaching the tram to the spaceport. Nihlus then instructed them to secure the beacon, while he would head to the port and cut off the departure location, to make sure that the geth didn't try to get off world.
"Chief Williams, where is the beacon?"
"It's not far from here. The excavation site is just over this next ridge." As they crested the hill, the Chief stopped dead in her tracks; they had reached the dig site and there was no beacon to be found. "Sorry, ma'am, they must have already prepped it and moved it to the spaceport before the attack."
Temperance sighed deeply and Mercedes knew that if she wasn't wearing her helmet, she would be pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration, bright green eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Not only were they fighting geth, their mission priority that also been pushed further away from their current position. Their mission had not started off well and it was just continuing its downward spiral as they continued on through the colony. They were almost out into a clearing atop the next hill when they saw towering metal spikes with bodies impaled on them. They, however, weren't really bodies anymore, they were more like a husk with no skin, held together by tubes and muscle. Temperance waved to continue past the gruesome sight, but as they began moving forward, the closest spikes begin to lower, retracting into themselves and disgorging the bodies stuck upon them. Then the husks started moving.
All of them started moving towards the Alliance soldiers, first in faltering steps but gradually smoothing out and picking up speed, almost as if they were suddenly relearning how to walk, and then run. A pair of soulless metallic eyes focused on the group and Temperance yelled for them to take the husks out. The husks attacked in animalistic melee, trying to gouge them with hands that resembled claws more than hands, gunfire ripping the silence to shreds. A husk leapt at Mercedes and she sidestepped, watching as it crashed to the floor. Without a moment's hesitance, Mercedes brought her armour clad boot down onto the husk's head and crushed its skull beneath her sole, green blood pouring out of the cracks.
"Lieutenant, can you bypass the locks on that door?" Temperance asked once she checked there with no more hostiles, pointing towards a red locked door behind her.
He nodded in response, heading off towards the door, his omni-tool coming to life on his right arm. It took him a few seconds before he managed to force the door open and inside the building were two humans, dressed in scientists' uniforms. The woman had a look of panic on her face when the door first opened, but upon seeing that they were humans, she gave a sob of relief. The man was sat in the corner of the building, slowly and gently rocking himself back and forth.
"Can you tell me where the beacon is?" Temperance asked the woman, for the man was muttering about the age of humanity being over and how there was no hope.
"It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp," she replied. "When the attack came, the marines held the off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us."
Temperance nodded, ignoring Manuel in the corner. "Is there anything else you can tell us about the attack?"
"It all happened so fast. One second we were gathering up our equipment, the next we were hiding in the shed while the geth swarmed over the camp. We could hear the battle outside. Gunfire. Screams. I thought it would never end. Then, everything went quiet, we just sat there, too afraid to move. Until you came along."
Nodding once again, Temperance thanked the scientist before gesturing for the team to move back out. Trailing after her sister, Mercedes briefly lit her omni-tool and passed a scan beam over one of the husk corpses, watching as it filed the information in her log archives. With a quick press of a button on the omni-tool's keyboard interface, she forwarded the information to the Normandy.
"I sent scan information of the husks to the Normandy, Command-" Mercedes broke off, her head snapping up as a single rifle shot tore through the air. It was distant but still close. It was striking in that it was even audible, and she then realised that the colony defence guns and the sounds of distant battle had stopped. The afternoon was almost preternaturally still and silent.
"Look at that," the two-twelve marine suddenly breathed.
A ship was lifting off, a huge black leviathan bigger than any dreadnought the marines had ever seen before. Clouds of acrid black smoke billowed as it began to gain momentum and the very ground beneath their feet trembled at the great rumble of its engine, so deep that it was a feeling rather than a sound. The ship was black with a slight purplish tinge to it. It had eight multi-jointed arms along its long flanks, arms ending in slightly curved claws and its sleek shape ended in a tapering point at its back. It resembled a giant insect and in moments it was gone, vanishing behind the red haze that clouded Eden Prime, the coiling column of black smoke twisting and roiling in its wake.
"Approximately five kilometres in length, multiple limbs likely ending in weaponry, must contain a massive mass effect core to maintain altitude within the atmosphere, speed and agility that of a frigate. Dreadnought class," Temperance muttered. She then gestured and they fell in behind her as they started down towards the spaceport. More bodies, both marine and colonist, trailed down the hill. In the sea of red blood was a puddle of blue and the team once again stopped.
"Commander?" Lieutenant Alenko questioned.
Temperance took a step forward and went down on one knee, fingers briefly touching the hole in the back of the body's head. It was Nihlus. He was still wearing his black Spectre armour, but the weapons that Mercedes had seen him with just moments before they step off the Normandy were gone. As Temperance drew her hand back, a faint sound rumbled behind the crates that were off to one side. She was instantly on her feet, pistol snapping up to aim at the pale-faced colonist that stood staring at them as if he had never seen another human being before in his life.
"Don't shoot!" he yelped, holding his hands out in front of him.
Temperance breathed through her nose, lowering her arm. "Word of advice, don't sneak up on a marine."
"I-I'm sorry, I was hiding from those creatures. My name's Powell. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him."
"Explain," Temperance practically growled.
"The other one got here first. He was waiting for t-this one," Powell starts, hand gesturing towards Nihlus' corpse. "H-he called him, Saren. I think they knew each other. The other one seemed to relax, he let his guard down and Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back. I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates."
"Where did this Saren go after he killed Nihlus?"
"He jumped on the cargo train and headed over to the other platform. Probably going after the beacon."
Temperance swore under her breath and gestured for the team to move out, not giving the dockworker a second glance. As soon as they stepped off the cargo train, they were greeted by the sounds of more gunfire as geths descended on them. However, Mercedes could hear something else just beneath the gunfire, a ticking noise that she knew never resulted in anything good. Ducking behind cover as Temperance and the others laid waste into the geths, Mercedes glanced around for the source of the noise. She found the source fairly quickly, but it wasn't just coming from one, but four demolition charges, which when combined would be enough to completely destroy the colony of Eden Prime.
"Commander!" she snapped, drawing in Temperance's attention briefly. "I've located four bombs!"
She could see Temperance's bright green eyes widening behind her helmet's visor momentarily before she gestured for Mercedes to head over to the nearest bomb. Eight geth were in her way. Breathing in through her nose, Mercedes called on her biotics for the first time that day. She charged from one geth to another, slamming into them with incredible force and finishing them with point-blank pistol blasts, bouncing from target to target like the ball inside of old-fashioned pinball machines. Once the last geth near her dropped to the floor, Mercedes charged over to the bomb, skidding across the ground as she came to a stop and dropped down on her knees. With her fist glowing blue, Mercedes slammed it into the corner of the bomb's panel and the casing bent enough for her to get a grip on it. Ripping it off, the holographic display that had been shimmering in front of the panel shorted out and Mercedes saw both her arms light up as her omni-tools turned on.
Just like using two pistols to fight with, Mercedes used two omni-tools just because it shortened the time it would normally take one to do anything. Downloading, browsing, hacking. Holographic displays opened up on her omni-tools and lines of data quickly darted across the screens as the young vanguard began to disarm the demolition charge. She could hear the rest of her team fighting against the geths and briefly heard Temperance snap at the Lieutenant to start working on one of the other charges whilst she and the two-twelve Gunnery Chief kept the geths away from them. The timers on the bombs read five minutes. They managed to disarm all the bombs with another minute to spare.
"Well done, Lieutenant, Gunny," Temperance said as the two joined back up with her. "Let's get to that beacon."
The team went to work and with all four team members coordinating fire, they managed to clear the last few geth without too much difficulty and secure the beacon. Temperance then got onto the radio with Captain Anderson and passed the word that the beacon was secured and they were ready for pick up. As the Normandy started its approach from orbit, the team glared over at the beacon. It stood at the far end of the docking platform, tall, thin and unmistakably alien. It was wreathed in a thin green aura, a brighter spotlight lancing straight up into the air. Mercedes could feel a faint hum through her boots, like the pulse of a small machine working overtime.
"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up," Gunnery Chief Williams said as she squinted at the ethereal green-yellow light. "Something must have activated it."
"Lieutenant, do a full sweep. I don't want any more surprises waiting for us, particularly of the exploding kind," Temperance ordered.
The air suddenly shimmered, rippling in distortions similar to heat waves, the emerald light around the beacon growing in intensity. As the distortion reached Gunnery Chief Williams, she gasped, jolting forward and then backwards as if lassoed around the waist, stumbling to regain her balance. Mercedes raced forward, grabbing the marine by her waist and throwing her away from the beacon. As the marine rolled across the platform floor, Mercedes suddenly snapped backwards and green light flooded into her eyes, burning through her brain. She couldn't hear her sister's frantic cry, nor could she feel Temperance's arms coil around her waist to pull her away from the glowing beacon.
Muscles bound as rigid as steel around bones that blistered, swelled and cracked with heat. Guttural, violent noises rumbled and shrieked through her ears and horrific visions of death and destruction were pounded into her head at an ever increasing velocity. As she watched unknown worlds burning up in front of her, she let loose a primal scream, feeling the fires of hundreds of burning worlds erupt from her throat as she quickly spiralled into darkness.