"Engaging stealth systems," Joker's voice announced as the five men waited impatiently in the cargo hold. Only a few minutes had passed since the briefing but the team was already tense, waiting in a strained silence. "Somebody was doing some serious digging here, Captain," the pilot reported.

"Your team's the muscle in this operation, Commander," Anderson broke the following silence. "Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site."

"What about survivors, Captain?" Kaidan Alenko asked, clearly unsettled by the Captain's dire tone.

"Helping survivors is a secondary objective. The beacon's your top priority," came the reply, though Shepard could tell these words left a sour taste in the man's mouth. Just how important was this beacon still hadn't started dawning on him.

"Approaching drop point one," Joker's voice made itself heard once more as the cargo hold's hatch slowly started opening. Looking out, the Commander saw the setting sun of the planet paint the landscape an unpleasant red hue. It may have been a beautiful sight under different circumstances, but now it was downright foreboding.

"Nihlus? You're not coming with us?" Corporal Jenkins asked as he watched the turian get ready to jump onto the ground a few feet below.

"I move faster on my own," the Spectre simply said before leaping off the hatch.

"Nihlus will scout out ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission; otherwise, I want radio silence," Anderson said, his voice raised to out-yell the loud winds as the ship ascended again.

"We've got his back, Captain," Shepard nodded before putting his helmet on, the other two men following his example and readying their assault rifles. The Commander trained his sights on a passing rock formation, his aim slightly trembling as his hands were shaking with anticipation.

"We are approaching drop point two," Joker announced yet again, the ship shortly descending over a small plateau nearby what seemed to be smoking buildings in the valley below. Hovering just a couple of feet above ground level, the ship was already far away a few seconds after the team of three jumped onto the solid earth.

"This place got hit hard, Commander," Nihlus reported briefly, his words confirmed by the blackened buildings the men were looking upon with growing restlessness. "Hostiles everywhere. Keep your guard up," the turian added before silence settled around them, aside from the docile chittering of a creature somewhere nearby.

"Smells like smoke and death," Alenko said, carefully advancing toward the cliff's edge. "Eden Prime will never be the same again." He shook his head before adding, "We should move, Commander."

Nodding in response, Shepard took point hurrying towards what seemed to be a path through some trees and boulders. The surroundings looked well suited to offer ample cover during a firefight, the Commander noted before noticing the three corpses strewn around a small pond at the base of some rocks. They looked like they burned to death, scorch marks blackening the ground around them.

"Oh God. What happened here?" Jenkins asked, his voice cracking, but no reply came. Shepard simply signaled him and Alenko to move past the gruesome scene, carefully moving through the boulders. Once more a tense silence surrounded them as they advanced cautiously, a sudden chirp behind them making them turn around, the Commander immediately aiming at the source.

Whatever the creature was, it looked like a greenish amphibian or lizard-like thing with a bloated orange-transparent organ growing out of its back keeping it afloat as it gently flapped its way past them with flat, fan-like feet. Five red eyes looked at them lazily, disregarding the humans almost immediately.

"What the hell is that?" Alenko asked, staring at the animal and letting out a relieved sigh. Shepard lowered his weapon.

"Gas bags," said Jenkins. "Don't worry, they're harmless."

Not a moment later, automatic gunfire resounded throughout the silent landscape, the three soldiers instinctively ducking behind the large rocks dotting the area. The gas bag was not so fortunate, a stray bullet puncturing it, causing it to explode in a cloud of brownish mist, enveloping Alenko who was unfortunately close to the creature.

"Return fire!" the Commander shouted, peeking out from behind the boulder and a short burst when he saw the drones. There were three, flying around just in front of the trees the pathway was leading towards, searching for their targets. Shepard didn't recognize their make.

In spite of the initial surprise, the machines didn't put up much of a fight, quickly blown out of the sky. Only after waiting for a few seconds to make sure there were no more threats did Shepard notice only Jenkins returned fire alongside him; Alenko was lying against a boulder, completely unmoving.

"Damn it!" the Commander swore, running over to the man. "Kaidan!" he called out his name as he took the helmet off, quickly checking if he was still breathing.

"He's just unconscious," he exhaled with relief as Jenkins hurried over. "That explosion wasn't powerful enough to knock someone out, but I can't see any wounds," he then said.

"That's the gases that keep the gas bags afloat, they're toxic," Jenkins said nervously. When he said the animals were harmless he clearly hadn't considered sudden death via gunfire. "Not fatal," he added hurriedly as he saw the Commander's worried expression. "But he won't come to in a while, I'm afraid." Shepard swore again.

"We can't just leave him here!" he said as he tried to lift the man up, although with little success.

"Commander, we have to go!" Jenkins urged him. "We need to get to the beacon!"

"Fine," Shepard groaned. "At least help me drag him into better cover. I don't want anything stumbling across him."

The two men carried the unconscious soldier behind a more inconspicuous rock formation near the pond, laying him on the ground carefully and leaving his weapon beside him before carrying on. Guilt ate away at Commander Shepard; he didn't want to leave the man behind. He never again wanted to leave anyone else behind, but he couldn't disobey the Captain's orders. Thinking back to how he escaped the mess on Akuze bitterly, he took point again as he and Jenkins advanced towards the clearing behind the trees.

"I've got some burned out buildings here, Shepard," Nihlus came in on the radio. "A lot of bodies. I'm gonna check it out. I'll try to catch up with you at the dig site."

The path seemed to lead into a valley, the boulders so characteristic to this area making it easy for anything hostile ambushing them from cover. At the end of the valley they could see the excavation site clearly, though they did not trust the seemingly safe pathway leading towards it.

Just as the two soldiers were ready to dash to the next relatively well covered place, ready to return fire swiftly in case anything attacked them, gunfire drew their attention away. Another soldier was running away from the dig site, to drones hot on her trail firing as they chased her. Knocked on the ground as her armor's kinetic barrier stopped a round of bullets, she quickly turned around shooting her pistol at the machines with surprising accuracy, downing them instantly.

Getting up on her feet without hesitation, she froze on the spot as she noticed something. Shepard and Jenkins followed her gaze, noticing two humanoid, metallic shapes drag a farmer towards and laying him on a tripod of sorts. The man was struggling powerlessly against the firm hold of his captors before a spike shooting out of the tripod impaled him through his lower back and stomach, ending his life.

Noticing the soldier, the two mechanical humanoids opened fire. Regaining her senses she ducked behind a boulder, readying her assault rifle. This seemed like a good moment for the two men to rush to her side guns blazing, drawing her assailants' attention away for a brief moment, giving her the opportunity to down one of them with a concentrated burst of gunfire.

Taking cover, Shepard and Jenkins waited for their weapons to cool down, the Commander signaled the woman to stay under cover herself as he readied a grenade, throwing it at the machine shortly after. A loud explosion later, rifles at the ready, he peeked out from behind the rock, then approached the soldier after making sure there were no more threats.

"Thanks for your help, Commander. I didn't think I was gonna make it," she said, taking her helmet off, revealing a young but tired face, brown eyes looking straight at the Commander confidently, dark hair gathered in a tight bun at the back of her head. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?" she asked.

"Are you wounded, Williams?" Shepard said after nodding, Jenkins scouring the area looking out in case something else attacked.

"A few scrapes and burns," Williams replied briefly. "Nothing serious. The others weren't so lucky. Oh man..." she looked away as she started giving her report. "We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

"Where's the rest of your squad?" Shepard asked.

"We tried to double back to the beacon," she said, the look in her eyes telling Shepard the situation won't be a happy one. "But we walked into an ambush. I don't think any of the others... I think I'm the only one left," the woman said with a pained expression. Flashes of his own unpleasant memories lighted up in Shepard's mind.

"This isn't your fault, Williams," he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. No one deserved going through what he did in that accursed mission. "You couldn't have done anything to save them."

"Yes, sir," she nodded before continuing. "We held our position as long as we could. Until the geth overwhelmed us."

"The geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly two hundred years. Why are they here now?" Jenkins asked as he returned.

"They must have come for the beacon," Williams replied. She pointed towards the end of the valley. "The dig site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there."

"What can you tell me about the beacon?" the Commander continued his inquiry.

"They were doing some digging out here to extend the monorail and expand the colony," the woman explained. "A few weeks ago they unearthed some Prothean ruins... and the beacon. Suddenly every scientific expert in the colony was interested. That's when they brought us in to secure the site. I don't know much about the beacon itself, but I heard one of the researchers say this could be the biggest scientific discovery of the century."

"What happened to the researchers at the dig site?" came another question, Shepard growing wearier of this beacon with every conversation about it.

"I don't know. They set up camp near the beacon. The 232 was with them. Maybe their unit fared better than mine." Shepard sighed. There seemed to be no chance to stumble upon someone to send back to check on Kaidan. Deciding to start moving again, he made the soldier an offer.

"We could use your help, Williams."

"Aye aye, sir. It's time for payback," she replied readying her weapon.

"Welcome aboard," the Commander said simply. "Jenkins, we're moving out!"

Geth. Shepard didn't know a lot about them; a race of synthetic lifeforms created by another alien race, the quarians. Limited AI programming meant to supply cheap labor turned out not to be so limited, ending in a mass exile of the quarians as they were driven away from their own home planet. The geth never ventured past the Perseus Veil though, and communicating with, or even observing them proved futile. They were the last thing Shepard expected to show up.

These thoughts clouding his mind, he led the other two through the trench Williams previously escaped from, nothing obstructing their way until they were nearly in front of the excavation site. Carefully darting from cover to cover, the Commander narrowly escaped gunfire aimed at him, firing back as he noticed a geth soldier duck back behind a boulder. Swearing as he missed, he ordered the other two to take cover as well, waiting for the machine to fire again.

As soon as a round of bullets flew by above his head, he peeked out of cover ready to shoot, only to find himself facing two others approaching them, escaping another round of fire by rolling behind another nearby rock, giving Williams and Jenkins the chance to gun the two synthetics down. Falling to bits as they were terminated, Shepard used the smoke fizzling out of their remains to circle around the third geth, pulling the trigger and letting out a burst of constant fire into it at point blank before it collapsed.

"Damn!" he shouted, nearly dropping his weapon as it overheated in his hand, the rifle stopping even though his finger was still on the trigger. That was careless, he thought to himself, berating his overzealous charge as the weapon slowly cooled down. He only noticed the downed geth upper body move when it trained its sights on him.

Instinct taking over as he jumped back, narrowly avoiding a bullet to the face. He pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened; it took a second for him to realize the rifle had locked up from overheating, panic settling in as he fumbled for his pistol awkwardly. Thankfully he didn't need it as Williams shot the thing's head ending it.

"I owe you one, Chief," Shepard said gratefully, looking around with a thorough glance to make sure nothing else would jump them.

"Consider us even, Commander," Williams gave a mischievous salute, smiling with the corner of her mouth before looking around as well. "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here, it must have been moved," she then said, a troubled look spreading on her face.

"By who? Our side? Or the geth?" Jenkins asked hurrying to their side after making sure the other two geth were permanently disabled as well.

"Hard to say," Williams shook her head. "Maybe we'll know more after we check out the research camp.

If anyone got lucky ad got out of this alive, they might be hiding up in the camp. It's just on the top of this ridge. Up the ramps."

"The camp it is then," Shepard nodded, starting to make his way up, the other two following him. His communicator came to life as they advanced carefully.

"Change of plans, Shepard," Nihlus' voice made itself heard. "There's a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."

Not even a hundred feet of ascending later, a grim scene unfolded before them. A few housing units were neatly organized in the clearing and slightly downhill from where they stood, half of them blown up or scorched by a fire that was still assaulting them persistently, three more of the geth tripods barring their way, their victims twitching awkwardly.

"Oh, god! They're still alive!" Jenkins exclaimed, looking at the moving bodies with horror. Shepard squinted, observing the things more carefully. Their clothes and even their skin seemed to had burned off, synthetic fibers and cables replacing the muscles and a dull grey metal replacing the bone. He shuddered as he looked at the inhumane faces.

"What did the geth do to them?" Williams asked, equally upset by the sight.

As if on a cue, the spikes lowered, letting the three bodies lay awkwardly before they shuffled onto their feet unsteadily, standing around idly for a bit. Commander Shepard decided he wouldn't wait for them to notice their presence, quickly tossing a grenade between them.

The explosion shredded two of the creatures and tossed the third one aside. The other two had no time to question Shepard's decision to attack as it got up and darted towards them with surprising speed, producing sharp claws with which it intended to attack them.

Jenkins' reflexes kicked in and he gunned the thing down just as it was nearly upon them. As it fell, it exploded with electric-looking energy, knocking their kinetic shields out. Luckily, there were no more threats round them as they watched the downed creature with stupefaction.

"Now we know what those spikes are for, turning our own dead against us," Jenkins shuddered.

"It must take a few hours for those spikes to turn people into those... those husks," Williams pondered, looking around. Her eyes darted to one of the housing units as she saw movement on the other side of the window. She walked closer to the door, checking its lock. "It's closed. Security lock's engaged, she said. "I think I saw someone inside," she added as she saw Shepard's questioning look.

Shepard walked over to her as Jenkins watched their back, looking at the electronic lock intently trying to figure it out. "Damn," he said out loud, not daring to make an attempt at hacking it. "Alenko had some tech expertise that'd be useful right about now," he sighed.

"Alenko?" Williams asked.

"Kaidan, our third man," Shepard said, taking a few steps back and urging her to do the same. "He got injured, we had to leave him behind," he explained, aiming at the lock with his pistol.

"What?" the woman exclaimed, anger flashing in her eyes. "You left an injured soldier behind alone in hostile territory?"

"It's not like I like it!" Shepard retorted. "My orders are to get to the beacon as fest as I can and not let the enemy have it," he grumbled, pulling the trigger. A frightened shriek resounded from inside at the sound of the gunshot. "It's alright!" he then said as the door opened. "We're human, it's safe to come out."

"Humans! Thank the maker!" a woman showed up in the doorway, visibly shaken.

"Hurry! Close the door! Before they come back!" the rambling voice of a man could be heard from the inside.

"Don't worry. We'll protect you," Shepard said encouragingly.

"Thank you, I think we'll be okay now. It looks like everyone's gone," the woman looked around.

"You're Doctor Warren, the one in charge of the excavation," Williams said, recognizing her. "Do you know what happened to the beacon?" she shot Shepard a venomous look.

"It was moved to the spaceport this morning," Warren replied. "Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp. I was in charge of this excavation. We hid in the shed during the attack. They must have come for the beacon. Luckily, it wasn't here."

"How did you end up in this shed?" Jenkins asked approaching them, Williams turning around to scout the perimeter.

"When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide," the woman said, shuddering at the recent, gruesome memory. "They gave their lives to save us."

"No one is saved," the man Shepard assumed was Manuel said, his voice slightly deranged. "The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain."

"What's wrong with your assistant?" the Commander asked, watching the man shuffle out of view with a distrutrstful look.

"Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit... unstable," the doctor sighed. "Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin."

"Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope?" Manuel kept rambling, nearly shrieking with a mix of fear and anger in his voice, before it grew to a whisper. "No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!"

"I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack," Warren shook her head, a sour smile creeping on her lips.

"What else can you tell us about the attack?" Jenkins asked.

"Maker, 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," the woman said.

"Agents of the destroyers! Bringers of darkness! Heralds of our extinction!" they heard Manuel's unsettling lament.

"We could hear the battle outside," Warren continued. "Gunfire. Screams. I thought it would never end. Then, everything went quiet. We just sat there, too afraid to move. Until you came along."

"Tell them about the turian! The prophet. Leader of the enemy. He was here, before the attack," her assistant rambled on.

"That's impossible," Jenkins said. "Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn't have been here."

"If there's another turian around here allied with the geth, we need to warn Nihlus," Shepard's expression darkened. "Doctor Warren, there's a soldier hiding by the pond up the path from the excavation site, he got intoxicated because of a gas bag. We've secured the area behind us, do you think you could help him?"

"I know the place," the woman nodded. "I'll see what I can do."

"Williams, take us to the spaceport!" the Commander nodded in appreciation before turning around, hurrying away.

"You can't stop it. Nobody can stop it. Night is falling, the darkness of eternity..." they heard Manuel's desperate voice as they made their way downhill.

"The Commander really didn't want to abandon Kaidan, Chef Williams," Jenkins said as they advanced, careful to be outside of Shepard's earshot. "I had to convince him to leave him there, and he still insisted we hide him and make sure the area is safe." Williams shook her head with slight embarrassment.

"I'll apologize for my outburst later," she said, shaking it off. "We have a mission to complete now."

The enormous ship overlooked the small spaceport, casting an ominous shadow over it but otherwise staying completely inert. Something that large shouldn't be able to touch down as gently as it did, or at least gently relatively to its size, the turian pondered. Not unless it had an enormous mass effect drive. Though, looking at its size, that theory wasn't completely out of the question.

Nihlus felt uneasy. Something was off with the atmosphere around the spaceport and he just couldn't put his finer on what exactly unsettled him. He'd already disabled the transforming bodies of the geth spikes' victims nearby; there was nothing he could do for them except end their misery before they could harm anyone. Still, even with no enemy in sight, he had a really bad feeling about the geth's presence.

Then he saw a shadow move around the corner of a large metal crate. Readying his weapon, he swiftly approached it, making no noise as he jumped out behind the figure casting the shadow, pistol aimed steadily at its head.

"Saren?" He asked, his eyes widening as he recognized the turian, lowering his weapon. That man had been his teacher for many years, preparing him for the rigors a Spectre would have to endure just like his duty to take care of Shepard was now.

"Nihlus." The other said simply as he turned around, not looking too surprised to see his former protegé.

"This isn't your mission, Saren. What are you doing here?" Nihlus inquired, looking around with a critical eye just to be on the safe side.

"The Council thought you could use some help with this one," his fellow Spectre replied. "I was to be the backup in case the human you are baby-sitting screwed up."

"I guess we're going to need the help anyway," Nihlus shook his head, disapproving of his former mentor's tone. Saren said "human" almost as if afraid the word would poison him.

He turned around, looking at the large spaceship again. Five large leg-like appendages supported the main hull of the thing. It looked eerily like an overgrown metal crustacean.

"I wasn't expecting to find the geth here. The situation's bad," he then said, unaware of Saren's movement behind him.

"Don't worry. I've got it under control," came the reply as the turian pointed his gun at his unwitting former student.

"Nihlus! Watch out!" Shepard's voice made itself heard just before Saren pulled the trigger, the solitary gunshot resounding throughout the valley as if time slowed down.