Author's Note

I finally finished the Mass Effect Trilogy! Boy did I cry a lot doing the playthrough. The Virmire scene, I sacrificed Kaidan because I was in the middle of Romancing Ashley, only to be stabbed in the back in ME2. Speaking of ME2, my god I was bawling. Thane and Kolyat scene. I'm sorry this is suppose to be the Author's note and here I am rambling.

Now a lot of people are wondering if the Infiltrator is mine, and the answer is no. The Infiltrator isn't owned by anyone. That one is just disguised ambiguously so that whoever submits an Infiltrator for this story can send me their Infiltrator OC. The Infiltrator was made to make the first change in the ME universe. Oh and for those who are going to say stuff about what the major changes that'll happen because this is similar to a "time travel" fiction, well you guys will have to find out for yourself. Because you have no idea how much I'll deviate away from the main plot.

Now let's thank a few people. I want to start off thanking the one hundred readers that gave the first chapter a shot of chance. I also want to thank FeZeTh13 and Shotgun Steve for their contribution to the story. I also want to thank the Bioware team for making the Mass Effect series, without them I wouldn't even thought of playing or paying attention to any of the SciFi genre.

There are more people to thank, but thats for another time.

"What were those things?" Jenkins asked as he checked his shields for the third time, there was no way he was going to wander off like that again without checking his shields. "They didn't look much like Alliance recon drones."

"Call me crazy," Alenko began, "But I think they might've been geth." That got a reaction for Jenkins, who finally stopped tinkering with his shield to share a moment of disbelief towards Lt. Kaidan.

"That's crazy..." He paused, "Sir." Jenkins added sheepishly before continuing with his earlier proclamation, "Nobody've seen geth in, what, three hundred years?"

"I took a seminar on quarian technology years ago." Kaidan waved off the formality, "They looked an awful lot like the drones used during their war. It's hard to say for certain from the pieces."

"Where there's geth drones, there'll be actual geth," Shepard surmised grimly. "If you're right we'll find out soon enough."

"Commander, could that insect ship thing be geth?" Jenkins pondered. Shepard had to stop to actually think for an answer to the question.

"Don't know. I've never seen anything like that in my life."

At that point, Nihlus' voice crackled over the com. "I'm finding a lot of bodies here, Commander. Something hit the colony hard, right at the heart of it."

That quieted any chatter. Not long after, the distinctive rattle of assault rifle fire echoed from up ahead. They picked up the pace.

As they crested the ridge, they saw a marine running straight towards them, still too far to make out more than a uniform. Behind her, two lanky, almost graceful machine creatures with long fingers and narrow heads were loading a moaning human onto some kind of device.

"Oh man..." Jenkins whispered as everyone's eyes went round when the Geth triggered it, sending the man up a fifteen-foot tall impaling spike. His tortured scream, as he died, was the stuff of horror movies- too unearthly and exaggerated to possibly be real.

Training took over in place of shock. Shepard dove for cover and brought his sights on the machines. Maybe Alenko was right, and they were geth- she sure didn't know of any other rogue AI wandering the galaxy. The unidentified marine stumbled as she ran.

In a flash, Shepard brought out his assault rifle, aimed at the Geth. "Go! We got you! Alenko, Singularity! Jenkins, with me! We're gonna blast em!"

Alenko's hand shot forward, and the bodies helplessly flew in the air, where Shepard's and Jenkins' gun turned them into shrapnel and grease. Two more drones, perhaps attracted by the noise, dropped in behind the fleeing woman and planted two shots squarely into her back in a burst of scattered blue light as her shield absorbed the impact. For a second Shepard thought they were about to lose the soldier, but the marine was quicker, throwing herself onto her back and returning fire. The drones were no match for the three of them.

The woman struggled to stand and managed to get off a weak salute as Shepard and Alenko approached, Jenkins behind making sure no drones or troopers were hiding to snipe them off. The marine took in their insignia. "Are you in charge, sir?"

Shepard looked the marine over. The woman's brown eyes were steady, but her hands shook around her gun. "I'm Commander Shepard, special forces. Who are you?"

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, sir, and boy am I glad to see you, if you don't mind me saying." Williams glanced over her shoulder, as if expecting more geth at any time, and drummed her fingers against the barrel of the rifle. Her words came at a staccato pace.

"Are you injured?" Shepard kept his tone soft. Williams had clearly been through something nightmarish. Harsh demands would only rattle her, press her into doing something regretful. Jenkins finally lowered his Avenger, satisfied that there aren't anymore drones to deal with.

"No sir. Not me."

Suddenly it snapped into place. "You're the one from the transmission. You shoved the cameraman to the ground."

"I didn't think anyone would pick that up. He didn't make it."

"Where's the rest of your unit?" Shepard didn't know why he was asking. He knew that look from the inside out.

God damn Akuze.

Williams shook her head, ashen-faced. "It's just me now, sir."

"This isn't your fault. You did exactly what you were supposed to." As if that ever mattered. The girl looked like she was holding up well enough for some questions. It would hit her later, in a great wave that threatened to drown her, but for now...

"I need you to tell me everything you can remember about the attack."

"Yes, sir." Williams straightened, holding her head a little higher. "We came in a few days ago to provide protection for the scientists. They found something huge. I heard one of them say it could be the greatest discovery in the last thirty years, since they found all that Prothean stuff on Mars."

"Where did the geth come from?" Jenkins couldn't help but to ask.

"Is that what those machines are?" Ashley paled beneath the bravado. "We were deployed to secure the site as soon as they figured out what they were dealing with. Some people said they saw some kind of ship. All I know is suddenly those things were swarming our camp. We did the best we could, but… All the scientists are probably dead, too."

She trailed off. Her eyes went out of focus and drifted somewhere over Shepard's left shoulder.

"Stay focused, marine." Shepard let a little sharpness into his voice, and Williams' face snapped back to hers. "What can you tell me about the beacon? The thing the scientists were digging up?"

"Right." She jerked a thumb back towards the destroyed geth. "It was really tall, and kind of… sweeping? Green. I don't know. It didn't seem to do much. They were keeping it at the dig site down the hill."

Shepard nodded. "Take us there."

"Yes, sir." Williams checked her gun and smiled with absolutely no humor. "Time for some payback."

Shepard let that one go- if that's whatever kept Williams on her feet then it'll be that, and hell, they were just machines. Whatever the chief wanted to do with them couldn't be wrong. "Move out."

The artificial crater of the archaeological dig was shrouded in ramps, mountings, cables, energy generators, and everything else a group of scientists might need to investigate an exceptionally valuable monolith. It was also swarming with geth. Shepard moved ahead himself this time. There was no need to have a repeat of Akuze. He lost his squad to the Thresher Maw, and today he almost lost Jenkins. There was no way he was allowing anyone die here. If they were spotted, he damn well wanted to be between their line of fire and the rest of his team, because he knew how to take it.

"Man," Kaidan admired, "For a gunnery chief, she sure knows how to move."

Kaidan made a point. From what Shepard could tell, Williams understood how to move- not a rookie, then. She didn't make a racket and there were no signs of hesitation or halting. And they'd passed several broken drones on the way. How the hell a woman with enough stamina and courage to survive that kind of assault was stuck as a gunnery chief defied speculation, to Shepard's way of thinking. Maybe there was something in her service record that couldn't be ignored.

They methodically gunned down the geth, working their way to the center of the dig, where they found… nothing. Williams stared in disbelief. "It was right here."

"Somebody moved it," Alenko glanced at her. "The geth? Or one of ours?"

Nothing's ever simple, Shepard thought, not without a touch of frustration. "Where would they have taken it?"

Almost on cue, the comm lit up again with Nihlus' grating turian voice. "The spaceport's up ahead. I'm going to check it out. Meet you there."

Their eyes met, each reflecting the same thought. Shepard cursed. "They're trying to get it off-world."

"We have to stop them." Jenkins started searching for a way up out of the dig.

Williams was confused. "Why would the geth want a Prothean beacon?"

"We can ask those questions later. Right now, we make for the spaceport." Shepard jerked his chin at Williams. "Do you know the way?"

The chief nodded, and began walking.

Just as soon as they cleared the top of the dig site, they saw the sheds serving as temporary housing and field laboratories for the scientists. There weren't any bodies, which Shepard found strange. It was obvious a fight happened here. What were the geth doing with the corpses? Spiking them? What was the point?

Jenkins voiced the question, and Alenko shrugged. "Basic psychological warfare, right?"

"No." Williams hissed. "The geth aren't content with just killing us. They want us to suffer."

Kaidan and Shepard exchanged a look. It was clear Williams was clinging to stability by the skin of her teeth, but they couldn't leave her by herself, things were too hot for an evac, and there was nothing they could say or do to make it easier.

The first shed was unlocked, and held nothing of interest. It didn't look abandoned in any haste. Books were still on shelves, terminals neatly locked down. There was dark movement behind the tinted windows of the second shed. Jenkins, to Shepard's and Kaidan's surprise, hacked through the lock easily, and they stepped in with guns drawn and sighted, only to find five very frightened people in lab coats.

"Oh, thank god, you're human," gushed the woman, with a relief that couldn't be forged. She was the older of the five. The man squirmed beside her with wild eyes and little acknowledgement, twitching faintly. Two of the lab tech were siting in the corner, while the last one jumped out of bed, in fright.

Williams blinked. "You're Dr. Warren. The head of the science team."

"Yes." Warren nodded, then shuddered, elaborately. "When the attack came, we were all shellshocked. It was terrible, everyone was dying and-"

The man mumbled something, drawing an apprehensive glance from the doctor. She added lamely, "And this is my assistant, Manuel."

"The age of humans is ended in fire and darkness," Manuel intoned, suddenly meeting Shepard's eyes. He saw nothing of sanity in their depths. He mumbled again and looked away.

"Wait," Jenkins looked at the group. "If you guys were frozen in drop dead fear, how the hell did you guys get in here then?"

"W-well..."

"Get up!" he ordered. Dr. Warren and the others looked petrified at his presence. Who wouldn't? His face was masked and the green tinted optic lens weren't helping the situation. "Please don't hurt us!"

Even though he was masked, Dr. Warren could see that he bit back a curse. Suddenly they heard gun fire as the man quickly ushered the group to a building "Inside that room! Hurry! Before they come!" The workers saw the room he was pointing at and made a beeline inside. They moment the last one entered, he closed and locked the door.

"There will be a group of three arriving here, they'll get you to safety."

"...after a while, you four came along."

Something didn't add up, who was this person that rescued them, how did he know that there were people going to come after them- wait...did he say three?

Soon the squad caught on what the problem was. Nilhus went ahead to scout on. They recruited Ashley during mid-way. The attack was happening before then. Him, Jenkins and Kaidan... that made three. Did that person knew that they were coming?

His squad shifted behind him, unnerved, but Shepard steeled himself. They can ponder that little mystery later. Right now, there are more important things to focus on. "Dr. Warren, what exactly did you find here?"

"The discovery of a lifetime. Operational prothean technology! I've spent my whole life studying the protheans. It was like a dream…" She trailed off, her gaze drifting to the window and the devastation that lay beyond.

Manuel stirred again, slamming his fist against the glass and making them all jump. "They are coming. The return draws nigh. Soon they will cover the galaxy again and none shall be spared!"

His voice was rising. Not good.

After a pause, Williams continued with the questioning. "Did you see anyone move the beacon?"

"What? We moved it ourselves, this morning, down to the spaceport. We've done all we can in situ-" The scientist that was answering her question gasped. "You don't think that's what these creatures-"

"Could be." Shepard looked back at the open hatch, nervous. "Did you see a turian come by, not long ago?"

"There are no turians on Eden-" the doctor on the bed began to protest, but Manuel raised his gaze to Shepard's and spoke in a tone of awe and fear.

"I saw him," he stated, with the weight of dead certainty. "The prophet. He is their leader. He brought the machines. He will herald their return and grant them passage back to the light."

Her brow furrowed. "You saw a turian?"

"Couldn't be Nihlus," Jenkins remarked, confused. "He was on the ship with us when the invasion began."

Manuel muttered something. Shepard stepped closer, cautiously, reaching out a gentle hand. "Please, I need to kn-"

At that moment, Manuel's eyes rolled back in his head and he opened his mouth, as if to scream. Shepard clocked him in the temple before he even realized what he was doing, acting on pure instinct. Manuel fell to the floor without so much as a sigh.

The scientists sprang back, shocked. "Oh my god!" Dr. Warren vocalized.

Kaidan rubbed his temple, evidently disappointed, but there was no mistaking the slight relaxation throughout the remainder of the group now that Manuel was silent. "That might have been a little extreme, Commander."

"He was going to attract the geth with his antics." Shepard was slightly apologetic, he didn't meant to punch the man. It was just out of instinct that happened. Shaking out his hand, Shepard muttered out "He wasn't in his right mind."

"I gave him some medication. I suppose this will give it some time to kick in." Warren sighed, not entirely appeased, but as relieved as any of them. "Was there anything else, Commander?"

"No. Thank you for your information. You've been very helpful." Shepard paused, "Though we can't help now, I promise you I'll send in an extraction team to take you all back to the Normandy. Until then, stay here and lock the doors."

They began to find more bodies as they moved closer to the center of the colony, and the spaceport. There still weren't as many as Shepard would have expected from an assault of this magnitude, or from Nihlus' periodic reports. The Spectre's prolonged silence began to worry him. Hostages crossed his mind along with several less pleasant possibilities, but it wasn't until they were within sight of the spaceport that he put it altogether.

"Hold up." Shepard peered forward through the haze. "What's that?"

Williams shuddered. "Jesus..."

Humanoid forms hung limply from several of the tall spikes they'd seen earlier, blood caking the sides and gathering into rusty pools at their base. The scent of iron joined the smoke in the air. Shepard didn't think the victims could truly be called human anymore. Their hair and clothing were gone, along with their genitalia and any recognizable facial features. Their skin, if you wanted to give it that label, was blackened, ashy, shot through with strange blue markings. Mouths were opened in silent screams.

One twitched on its post.

Jenkins' tone reflected everyone's own sudden nausea. "They're- they're still alive?"

Words failed all of them.

"We should…" Kaidan began but stopped. What? Cut them down? Shoot them?

Without warning, the spikes telescoped back into their bases as one and shook loose their cargo. The victims promptly shambled to their feet and turned their empty eyes towards the squad.

"Put them down!" Shepard yelled, bringing his rifle up.

The fight was quick and brutal. Nothing short of total disintegration of their bodies would stop the transformed humans. Thankfully, they seemed to be held together with spit and cobwebs. Shepard discovered quickly that shooting them out at the knees was highly effective. They waited a moment, ready for another wave, scanning the foreground, but that seemed to be all of them.

"I almost wish it had been just brutality," Williams commented, emptily, eyeing the muddled meat of the corpses and the quiescent implements that bled them dry.

Shepard was grim. "The geth are making them into those… things. Those zombies. I've never heard of any technology like this."

The commander felt like they ought to try to disable the spikes, somehow, or kick them over at least, but he couldn't bring himself to approach them. There was a brooding malevolence about the devices, like something out of a legend, that made his skin crawl. Every instinct recoiled against the idea of touching them.

"More sheds." Alenko pointed ahead with his pistol. "Maybe more survivors."

Jenkins shuddered with disgust. "Or maybe more of them."

"It's worth checking out." Shepard interjected. "We still don't understand what's happening here."

Shepard advanced cautiously. This whole mission had gone bad. There was some hope still of recovering the beacon, but Eden Prime would never be the same, not for years, not with this kind of destruction. A whole division of marines and god knew how many civilians were dead. The geth were back from behind the veil. How the hell had intel missed this?

They got within ten feet of the hatch when it zipped open and three humans, terrified and weak with relief, spilled out. "Oh, thank god, we thought we were the only ones left!"

"I'm Commander Shepard, with the Alliance." He glanced over the trio. "Who are you?"

"Farmers. We saw that mothership come down, and ran for the sheds. Those machines are killing everyone!"

Funny how such a terrible story could become so monotonous, so quickly. "Tell me about this 'mothership'."

The farmer held his hands wide apart. "It was huge! Black, almost like some kind of squid or something, covered in red lightening. Red! It deposited all those machines and parked itself just past the spaceport. It's not far."

"I see." So it was a ship after all. Shepard looked at Alenko. "You said the ship wasn't geth."

"It's not! At least not like anything they've used before. Not that I'm an expert."

"Alright. So we may be dealing with-" Everyone froze as a single pistol shot rang out from the direction of the spaceport, followed by silence. Shepard waited for the return fire but it never came. "That wasn't geth."

The machines weren't using pistols. Their armaments would ring with staccato fire, not single shots.

"We need to go," Alenko said, urgently.

Shepard turned matter-of-factly towards the farmers. "Thank you."

"Wait." One of the men grabbed the other's arm. "Look, they're military, we should tell them about the stuff."

"Stuff?" Shepard turned back. "What 'stuff'? Do you have something to tell me?"

"You just had to go and open your mouth." He didn't look pleased. "It's nothing. Look, we might have agreed to store some stuff in our sheds for a cut of the profits, ok? No harm in that."

"You lying asshole." Ashley was furious. "You weren't coming back here to hide- you were coming to check on your merchandise!"

"Listen, even if you had the best intentions, you're breaking the law." Shepard wasn't going to sugar coat it, but at least he'll be peaceful about it.

"It wasn't like that! I knew there were weapons in the shipment. I thought we could use them to protect ourselves." He unclipped it from his belt, and it obediently unfolded to its full size.

"Listen to me." The man hesitantly looked up, but Shepard was all but angry. He kept up a calm front, "We're risking our necks to save this colony, one of our squad member almost died trying to get here, so we need anything and everything that would help us in our endeavor. Is there anything else in there that can help us out?"

Jenkins could see the man feel conflicted on the manner, he understood why, but Shepard did highlight some good points. Thankfully, in the end, he conceded, "There is one more thing, I was going to sell it after this was all over. But you probably need it more than I do." he handed them various of grenades that were in the shed, something that rose Ashley's ire.

"In your hands, it'd just be giving a weapon to the geth." The man winced, but Ashley didn't soften her tone. "Who's your contact at the depot?"

"I'm not telling you that! I'm not going to get him in trouble! He's not a bad guy, and I'm no snitch!"

"It's the way of life here, Commander. In Eden Prime, everyone's family here." Jenkins explained as Kaidan stepped up with a smile. "Listen...um..."

"Cole." The farmer introduced himself. "Right, Cole." Kaidan continued, "He might have something to do with this whole attack. We need his name, it's important."

"B-But..."

Ashley gave him a glare.

"Alright, fine." Cole murmured, "His name is Powell. Works at the spaceport. If he's still alive." The Commander handed the pistol to Jenkins and gave him a nod. "I have to go, but fortify your shelter until the extraction team gets you out."

"Right." Cole nodded, "Good luck-"

"Wait." One of the farmers stopped. Shepard couldn't help but to groan, they didn't have the time to dilly-dally. "If you meet up with your scout, tell him thank you."

That made him pause. Nilhus stopped to help them out? Looking over at his two male squadmate, Shepard turned around. "Was he a Turian?"

"Turian? No he was human." The farmer pointed at one of the fallen geth beside the hatch. "That geth found us and chased us. We panicked, we couldn't get into our hatch and it was about to shoot us," he explained. "I thought he was going to kill us… then…

"Please… Don't shoot. We'll do anything!"

The Geth trained it's assault rifle at the trio. Cole took a breath and exhaled, this was it. This was the place where he and his friends were going to die. Not from a stupid disease or old age, but because of this...thing.

What a way to go-

Suddenly a deafening boom rumbled across the landscape of Eden Prime as the Geth dropped dead, while the others ducked down at the sound of the gunshot. Cole stared at the now headless (or bulbless) Geth, flabbergasted. Suddenly a figured shimmered next to him as it pulled him off the ground and pushed him into the hatch.

"Get in."

Cole was frozen in spot as the figure hustled the other two farmers in before quickly closing the door.

With a lively melody echoing inside, the hatch was locked by their mysterious savior.

"We heard more gun fire before we decided to check out if it save. Thats when you guys came into the picture."

Ashley stepped closer to the body. "Right in the eye. This was a very precise shot." She turned to the worker. "And you didn't see the shooter?"

He shook his head. Jenkins curiously stepped up to the body as well and moved the corpse. He whistled appreciatively. "Wow. That is a clean shot."

"A perfect headshot with no collateral damage," Kaidan summed up. "Very impressive." His tone suggested that his respect for the mysterious hero went up a few notches.

"Change of plans, we cleared the Geths out on the way here. You should be able to get to Dr. Warren safely," Shepard advised.

The farmers sighed in relief. "No need to convince me."

The dock was covered in bodies. Too many, apparently, for even the geth's sadistic purposes. Shepard could feel the slickness of their deaths under his boots as it trickled down the stairs in sticky lines, and wished, for the space of a moment, that he had his breather helm to avoid the stench. Smoke, fire, traces of munitions and explosives, machine oil and rocket fumes, mixed with all the very human scents of carnage made for a hell of a cocktail.

One of the corpses belonged to Nihlus. Shepard knelt beside it. "One bullet to the head. Close-range, too. How does that happen to a spectre?"

"Movement, behind the crates." Williams' gun was already aimed. In a flash, Shepard, Jenkins and Alenko joined her.

A shaking man slowly stood, with both hands raised. "Don't shoot! Oh god, please don't shoot me."

"Who are you?" Shepard lowered his gun slightly.

"I work out here at the docks." He licked his lips. "Name's Powell."

Recognition dawned. "You're the farmer's smuggling contact."

"What? No! I mean, sure, maybe. It's not like anyone ever notices when a little goes missing off the top of those big military shipments!"

"You little bastard!" Williams was incensed. "We're out here busting our humps to protect your worthless asses and all you can think about is how to rip us off?!"

"It wasn't like I thought they'd ever have to use them!" He was sweating now, no doubt about it. "Who'd attack Eden Prime?"

Shepard threw out his arm to stop Williams from jumping on the guy, and replied calmly. "Apparently the Geth. Did you manage to see any of the attack?"

"Yeah. Sure. I woke up when that mothership-"

"Wait. You woke up? Didn't you say you were working?" Ashley interrogated to which Powell stuttered out his answer.

"Sometimes I need forty winks to get through a shift, know what I mean? Nobody finds me behind these crates. Not even those machines."

Ashley was incredulous. "So first you tell us you're stealing from the Alliance, and then we find out the only reason you survived the attack is because you're lazy?"

"What was I supposed to do?" Powell shot back angrily. "I don't even have a gun!"

It was hard to argue the point, and this whole op was getting the better of them. Shepard refocused. "Alright. You saw the ship land. What happened next?"

"There was this- sound- I don't know how to describe it. I don't think it was in my ears." The dock worker shivered. "Made my head feel like it was going to split open, like my brain was turning to mush."

Kaidan glanced at the commander. "They were probably trying to jam communications. We haven't gotten any transmissions from the surface since that ship appeared."

Shepard's nod was more confident than he felt. Everyone knew standard electronic communication frequencies didn't overlap human audible range. They could be looking at yet another exotic geth weapon, something to incapacitate targets, maybe make it easier to capture and spike their victims. "So what exactly were you smuggling? Arms? Information?"

He paled. "Look, I never… I'm a citizen of the Alliance, just like you."

Ashley resisted the urge to smack the snot out of him. "I don't steal from my own people. Instead I risk my life protecting them. You're nothing like us."

"Sorry." Powell swallowed, looked between their faces, each equally grim, and coughed. "Look, all I did was take some stuff out of the big shipments, things nobody would miss. I may be a coward but I'm no traitor, ok? Just let me go."

He glared at them sullenly. Shepard ignored it. "Did you see who shot Nihlus?"

"Nihlus? Oh, the turian. Yeah. It was the other turian."

Shepard's brow furrowed. "What other turian?"

"Your guy seemed to think he was a friend. Lowered his guard. Shot him right in the head!"

"Did you catch a name?"

"I think he called him Saren. It's hard to be sure, though. Like I said, I was sleeping." Powell eyed the four nervously, his eyes shifting from gun to gun.

He glanced at Williams, who shrugged. "Never heard of any Saren. Never heard of any turians on Eden Prime before this."

"I'll just be going now," Powell interrupted. "I need to get out of here."

"One last thing- do you know where they took the Prothean artifact they dug up south of here?"

The dock worker jerked his chin towards a tram rail running the length of the spaceport. "We took it to the other platform. It's all arrivals over here, not exports."

Shepard let him go. He slunk off, metaphorical tail between his legs. The dock was abandoned. Parts of it were on fire. Shepard was hardly a stranger to warzones, but each had its own unique kind of horror. This one stank of fear, shock, and panic. He licked his dry lips and raised his eyes up to the platform. "The train's stalled. There's a cargo platform halfway across."

Jenkins moved up to an abandoned terminal and holstered his weapon. "I'll see what I can do."

As he worked, Shepard watched Powell until he couldn't see him anymore through the smoke. If you ever wanted to know why it's always the good ones who die, it's because war favors weasels.

"I'm done." Jenkins straightened as the platform groaned into motion and began sliding towards their end of the port.

Shepard checked the action on his gun. "Keep an eye out for more of those spikes. We don't want to leave any behind us. Move out."

They fought their way to a cargo pallet and took it across the way, over a natural valley dividing the port. Nobody spoke at all on the ten minute ride. Whether the silence was out of exhaustion- they'd been on the surface, on high alert in a combat zone, for hours now- or out of shock or even respect for what occurred, he couldn't say.

Shepard spent it checking over his gear. It was a kind of meditation, something he'd done so many times it was almost comforting, and left him free to think. If the beacon was still on Eden Prime, Saren or whoever this other turian was would have it heavily defended. Shepard had only two goals now- get the beacon, if possible, and get his team and the survivors extracted out of here safely. Shepard fervently hoped it wouldn't change, but no four people squad could fight a full-scale invasion alone, and there was zero doubt remaining that was the precise nature of this attack.

"Approaching the station, Commander." Jenkins was already straining his eyes ahead, searching for enemies.

"Very good, corporal." Shepard slapped the heat sink back into the chamber. "Let's turn this place into a flashlight scrapyard."

The fighting started before their platform even came to a complete stop. Shepard hit the dock at a flat run and dived behind a sheet metal guardrail, ducking over the top to provide cover fire as her squad moved into position. The geth weren't mindless, and it took a few exchanges to polish them off. "The bridge! Go!"

Alenko and Williams dashed ahead, up a ramp to traverse the highly exposed area between the rail and the eastern dock before more geth could return. Jenkins followed behind with Shepard coming last, gun clutched to his chest and head tucked down to maximize shield efficiency. The whole time he felt like he had a giant target pasted on his suit.

"What is that?" Williams pointed. Jenkins swore as he crouched next to the cylinder. "It's a bomb. They must be planning to blow the whole station." The timer blinked a host of information. "Looks like it's wired to three other devices, all synced up."

"We've got to shut them down!" Alenko fired at the geth massing at the far end of the station.

Jenkins ripped the front piece off the explosive, exposing the wiring. "Cover me!"

"Jenkins, what the-" Shepard didn't finish as Geth began to rain down from the sides. Shepard began sniping at the geth to force them to hold position, as Jenkins hastily sorted through the tangle of circuitry.

"Good news is commander, this design is very basic. They must have been in a hurry." Jenkins frowned, "The bad news is it's in sequence with the remaining bombs."

"Meaning?"

"There's no way to disable it without starting the timers on its sister munitions."

Great.

"Do it anyway. It's better than letting Saren set them off." Especially if he was going to do it at his leisure and catch them by surprise.

Jenkins nodded and in two seconds he responded back. "Done! We've got to find the other ones ASAP!"

As they ran, Alenko panted, "First hacking through a shed then accessing a terminal and finally disabling a bomb! Where did you learn to be tech savvy?"

"My uncle! He was part of the N7 engineering program! Taught me all the simple things." Despite everything, Shepard grinned. Leave it to Jenkins to say that hacking and bomb disabling was simple.

"Geth!" Williams called out, crouching against a wall.

They fought through the defense, lighter than Shepard had feared, and there was a collective exhale as Jenkins diffused the final bomb with three minutes to spare. Which was very impressive considering how the timer was set to explode in five and geth were around them. Jenkins mentioned that the bomb had enough ordinance to level the entire spaceport. Saren was playing hardball.

The geth were all either dead or gone, along with the zombies they'd found guarding the beacon. It was something to behold. As tall as three men, it glowed faintly green in the haze and smoke, and was to all appearances undamaged, a small victory against the losses here today. Of Saren, there was no sign, and the insectile ship departed around the same time they arrived at the port.

Williams was startled by the glow. "It wasn't doing that before."

"We'll let the scientists figure it out once we get our asses out of here." Shepard turned away, radioing their position so the Normandy could come pick them up.

Alenko and Williams continued staring at the device. Jenkins sat down, resting his back on one of the crates across the obelisk in front of them. His head bobbing before as his eyes tiredly stared at the obelisk.

"Real working prothean tech," the lieutenant said, amazed. "Just imagine what it can teach us."

"It's a wonder, alright." Chief Williams shook her head. "I just hope it was worth it. C'mon."

She turned and sauntered back towards Shepard. Alenko continued to admire the device, drifting a few steps closer. Then another few. He found, suddenly, that he was unable to control his own steps, no matter how he dug in his heels. His whole body started to shake.

"Luitenant Alenko!"

Shepard pushed past Williams, but froze when Jenkins, Jenkins of all people, managing to grab him about the waist and half-haul, half-toss him to safety before the alien device seized control of his own body in Alenko's stead. It was a matter of moments before it gripped him with the full power of an extraordinary alien device from the previous masters of the galaxy, and lifted him from the ground, transfixing him in midair.

Alenko shook off the blow and made to go after the coporal, but Williams held him down. "No! It's too dangerous!"

Shepard watched in terror as Jenkins began to scream. What shook him was the fact that the scream was just...monsterous. They could feel Jenkins' agony, they could see every nerve illuminating his body. Jenkins' spine arced with the force of the conflict and the power of the visions moving through him.

Then there was a massive wave of energy- the beacon's hold vanished- exploding in the process as Jenkins fell to the ground.

As Ashley and Kaidan pulled Jenkins away from the carnage, as Shepard roared into his comm to get the Normandy here ASAP, the figure pulled himself away from the scope and lowered his sniper rifle with shock. It stared at the beacon before staring at the unconscious corporal. He slid down behind the railing, staring off into the sky.

"...Unbelievable."

Author Note

I did warn you all that this story is going to be completely different...still I have to admit I didn't see into the story that Jenkins would be important. He will have an important role in the story. Just not what a lot of people are going to expect in a time travel fiction. I know that Jenkins is a joke character, but I learned from my English teacher that even a Joker has it's purpose. Something meaningless can mean more than it appears.

Honestly, it's a staple to see someone by the name Jenkins be killed off because of the on-going gag of Leroy Jenkins, but it does get over redundant to see something like this. I'm also tired to see someone save Jenkins and never use him significantly. Just know this. Every character in this story has a purpose. Hell in my YuGiOh GX fanfic, I made Crowler more prominent than make him a joke character.

In any case, I'll be seeing you in the next chapter. I need three more OC's for this story to work, and just to remind everyone: Infiltrator is not taken, and gender doesn't mean squat. Just because I labeled him as a dude doesn't mean he should be a dude.