AN: First of all, I want to thank everyone who has commented/followed/favorite/read so far. I am eternally grateful for the feedback! This is basically a filler chapter. Sorry. The real action will begin in the next, but we have to get the ball rolling. Also, I have something to confess – I only have about half of this story planned (whoops). So it'll be an adventure for all of us. (And please ignore any iffy science. Just remember you're reading a fanfiction.) Thanks again for reading!

Hope you enjoy!


XAC-837
Previously Unknown Alliance Archaeological Camp
1914 standard earth hours

"You know, this is a lot harder than it looks."

"Less talking, more moving." Shepard grunted. Already the sweat beaded across her forehead and dripped down the curve of her spine. The outrageously humid air around them did little to help. Still, it yielded, inch by inch, and that was enough for them.

Her arms began to shake from the prolonged effort, but she kept her mouth shut except for the occasional grunt. The sun behind them bathed everything in a golden hue.

"Hey Commander - Papa, Zulu, and I got the east perimeter secured." Echo's cheery voice crackled in her ear.

"Great. Status update on the rest?" she tried not to sound too breathless. She was pretty sure she failed.

"Uh," Echo stalled.

"Uniform here with X-ray and Charlie. We got the south perimeter swept and secured." Uniform's gravelly voice was a stark contrast to Echo's.

"Foxtrot, Alpha, and Yankee here. The north perimeter is clear. Nothing but storage units anyway."

"The rest are sweeping the outer perimeters around the camp. Lots of jungle to go through, it might be a while." Echo added.

"That's alright. Bravo, Tango, and I will be taking a…field trip." She finished lamely.

"You guys are going in that thing?" Uniform challenged.

"Just my two cents, but uh," Tango panted, "they try to excavate this thing and then disappear? It might have something to do with the big rock here."

"Or it's most likely the batarian mercs we're stepping over." Juliett quipped in.

"Get back to me on that when you find the slaveship." Bravo replied with false cheer. Juliett huffed in response and then went silent on the communication link. The look Shepard shot at Bravo was not a pleasant one.

At some point during the conversation, the stone had been moved halfway to reveal the inky blackness inside. Halfway was plenty enough for Shepard. The other two wasted no time lowering their arms as soon as she did, relieved from the burden.

"Kilo, you hear me?" she tapped the link in her ear. A moment passed and then static crackled in her ear.

"Loud and clear, Commander."

"Good. The boys and I are taking a brief adventure. If we're not back in fifteen minutes you guys need to bust your asses to come and get us."

Kilo snorted. "You got it, Commander. Sure you don't want us to join you?"

"No, we're fine. The rest need to keep sweeping the perimeters and radio if they find anything. Plus, you know how X-ray does in tight spaces."

"That was one time!" X-ray exclaimed.

"Aye, Commander. I'll be sitting pretty up here in the sky, monitoring vitals. Have fun in the ancient creepy tomb." Kilo chuckled, his music blaring in the background.

"We'll try." She answered, nodding at the two beside her. Guns were pulled from holsters and engaged as the lights on the barrels flickered on. Together they moved in.


"I haven't decided yet on if this is awesome or freaky."

"Definitely awesome, T." Bravo agreed, his flashlight doing little to pierce the inky blackness around them. They all had trouble breaking through the thick darkness. Their flashlights did little more than pierce a thin way through it; not even the golden rays of the setting sun got far into the cave before the blackness swallowed it whole. It was almost tangible.

Whoever – or whatever – had created the temple had essentially hollowed out a monstrous boulder and smoothed the walls until it was little more than a cavern. Her beam of light did little to pierce through the darkness collected at the ceiling.

"Shepard, you have to see this." Bravo's voice was somber, something so different from his usual sarcastic quips. She walked over to the wall where he stood, his light shining against the stone wall. She came to a sudden halt as the painting across the wall became visible.

"Holy shit." She whispered.

"Do you know what that is? Because I sure as hell don't."

"Hopefully," she swallowed thickly, "it's something long dead."

Compared to the stick-like humanoids cowering in fear at the bottom of the mural, the creature was massive in size and so unlike anything found on Earth. Her light panned upwards and outwards, and the paintings remained the same around them. Perhaps if they could stay any longer they might have been able to decipher the story the mural was trying to tell.

"You think this is place was created to worship it?" Tango walked up behind them, whistling lowly.

"If you could call that worshiping." She replied.

Tango walked around the edges of the walls slowly, taking in the paints that stretched all around and towards an unseen ceiling.

"Well, whatever the case, seems to me like this place has a running theme – and it's that." Bravo clicked his tongue. She was transfixed. The more she stared, the more it became slightly familiar, as if it resembled -

"Hey guys, come check this out." Tango called from the center of the cave. Shepard and Bravo shared a curious look and she shrugged. Together they walked over towards Tango's sliver of light that illuminated something unseen on the floor.

A circular something, it appeared, carved from the stone ground into a separate entity. Carved around its border was a language long extinct, its meaning long lost. She bent down carefully, running her fingers across the lines and dips and sharp corners as if maybe the meaning would flow towards her fingertips and reveal itself to her.

"You guys realize we're the first people to step foot in this place in thousands of years?" Shepard smiled in awe as the realization sank in.

"You mean those archaeologists couldn't crack it?" Bravo asked quizzically.

"No, they tried for months."

"So," Tango began, looking around them. "How come we could open it pretty easily and they couldn't? I mean we're good but not that good."

The three fell silent as the question settled in the air.

"I – " Shepard began, but was silenced by a deafening groan that echoed from all around them, bouncing across the walls. The ground beneath them shook violently and then stilled.

"Hey, Commander, you guys al – " Her link succumbed to a roaring static before the ground beneath them shook once more.

Oh. That was comforting. The circular stone beneath them began to grind and turn slowly before it completely dropped, taking the three soldiers with it.

They fell quickly, gaining momentum with every meter they dropped. The stone beneath them fell quicker than they did; leaving them in a free fall down a narrow, circular tunnel that seemed to take them towards the center of the planet.

"Dammit!" Shepard yelled around the roar of the air around her. She glanced upwards and saw the pinpricks of light beaming below as the others above rushed in too late.

"—mander—kay-" Her signal was lost as they fell.

Bravo tried to yell something towards her, but his voice was lost in the rushing of air around them as they plummeted. Tango tried in vain to grab the wall with his biotics, but it did nothing but bring down chunks of rock and dirt with them. It was no use; all they could do was fall helplessly.

So they fell - until the narrowed tunnel suddenly opened into a dark cavern. The three barely had time to brace themselves with biotics before they slammed into the ground unceremoniously. Shepard landed on Tango; his kneecap connected with her stomach brutally leaving her breathless beneath her armor.

"Sorry, Shepard." Tango groaned, pushing Bravo's foot off of his face.

"We're so screwed." Bravo panted, pushing himself upright.

"At least the guns made it." Shepard wheezed, lifting herself up. She froze as her eyes followed a stray beam of light pointing towards – holy shit.

"Guys." Was all she could manage, but it was enough. The other two turned their attentions towards the front where the light pointed and froze.

"I'm not an expert on physics but..." Tango managed.

She walked towards the water as it stood before them, untouched and yet standing upright as if some invisible force kept it from drowning them all. She turned sharply, looking around them; they were surrounded by water suspended all around them – Correction, she thought as she looked at what she stood on – around the circular stone they stood upon. She slowly picked up her gun, realizing the underwater cavern wasn't pitch black.

And then the groaning returned, this time absolutely deafening as it shook the water around them. Shepard and the others clamped hands over their ears in a futile attempt to protect their almost-shattered eardrums.

It rose from the unseen depths, massive and terrifying. It dwarfed them as if they were nothing more than ants against a titan. It's multiple, glowing eyes stared unblinking.

"It's the creature in the paintings." Bravo paled in the harsh, blue light the monster brought with it.

"A leviathan." Shepard added, unable to look away from the being before them. "Like the monster from the old book the missionaries used to talk about on the streets when I was a kid."

"An ancient sea monster." Tango whispered, in a kind of horrified daze.

And then the titan before them spoke.


Aboard the Turian Warship Nauxilis
Petra Nebula System
21 Standard Days Into Mission

"You handled your first mission as Commander remarkably well, Vakarian. No casualties, neither civilian nor militant – but you lost two shuttles in the process." Captain Hydrus skimmed Garrus's mission report over holonet. Garrus stood at perfect attention though his shoulder ached from a previous injury that day regarding a malfunctioning turret on the enemy's side.

"Rigged to blow, sir. Just in case our first plan of attack didn't succeed." He answered shortly. Damn, his shoulder ached fiercely. Nothing a thirty minute scalding shower wouldn't fix.

"I see. Well, considering that's all we lost and the vorcha mercenaries dispersed, I would consider it a success. Congratulations, Vakarian."

"Thank you, sir."

"Your mission is not why I have you here, however."

Garrus's frills twitched.

"What can I do for you, Captain?" he asked politely.

"We have received word from our intelligence operation that an Alliance ship has been spotted in the Viper Nebula system." The captain admitted, reluctance clear in his voice.

"Sir, there's nothing out there-" Garrus began.

"We have a team of turian scientists out there, on the planet Akuze. Civilians, Commander. I need you and your team to head out there and see why the Alliance are so far from their system, and how they got so far away without us noticing. Protect those men and women out there, understood?" The captain's voice made it perfectly clear that Garrus could not refuse, and could definitely not ask questions.

"Understood. We'll head that way at once." Garrus nodded.

"Good. Report back when you have adequate intelligence." And with that the captain's image flickered away. Garrus immediately slouched, rubbing his shoulder.

"Damn." He muttered. Looks like his shower time had just been cut down to fifteen minutes.

From one line of fire to the next, he thought. The door closed behind him with a quiet hiss.