Chapter 2: Shakedown Run
January 22nd, 2183
16:55, Galactic standard time, GST
Arcturus Station
Commander Estelle Shepard wandered the halls of the station, wondering what she had done that warranted a meeting with two of the most well respected humans in the Alliance. She arrived at the briefing room, and checked the message she received before stepping into the room, "Shepard, you are required to attend a meeting with Admiral Hackett, and Captain Anderson at 1700 GST in briefing room 7 Arcturus Station."
"Ah Shepard you're here. We'll start now." Anderson stated, straightening the paper in front of him.
"Take a seat," Hackett gestured to the chair opposite him, "I think we have some things to talk about."
"That we do Admiral. I don't understand why I'm here."
"Well," Anderson glanced at Hackett, "Have you heard of the Normandy?"
"No, sir. I can't say I have, should I have?"
"No. Well at least we've done one thing right." Hackett handed over a file in front of him, "The Normandy is a prototype stealth frigate, it is a collaboration between ourselves, and the Turian Hierarchy."
"She is optimised for reconnaissance missions, we had the assistance of the Council to complete this. They want this to work just as much as we do. It will show just how far Humanity has come since first contact." Anderson finished.
Shepard looked through the file, "That's all well and good sirs, but what does this have to do with me?"
"She needs staff running her, that includes a marine contingent, I want you to lead it and be my Executive Officer." Anderson said bringing his hands together and leaning forward, "You were able to do the unthinkable on Elysium, you held off the Batarians in order to save the civilians. I can't think of anyone more suited for this."
"The Normandy will be operating in unusual circumstances. Its missions will require the best operatives we have, that includes you Commander. This will be your new assignment, your current captain has been informed. You need to be at Vancouver for 1200 on 28th, you are on shore leave until then. You're dismissed Commander."
####
January 28th, 2183
13:44, Galactic standard time, GST
Normandy CIC & Bridge
Commander Shepard walked onto the CIC from the crew deck, as she did she runs into Corporal Jenkins.
"Commander"
She continues walking, nodding at Navigator Pressly as she heads the cockpit. As she arrives she notices that Nihlus is standing behind Joker who is currently performing the system checks, "Thrusters, check. Navigation, check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift … just under 1500k."
"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased," Nihlus monotony replied before he turned and left the cockpit.
Joker checked behind him, ensuring Nihlus was out of of hearing range, "I hate that guy."
His copilot, Kaidan,looked at him with scrutiny, "Nihlus gave you a compliment … so you hate him?"
"You remember to zip your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible. Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid."
Kaidan audubly sighed at that, "You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."
"Yeah, that is the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story."
Shepard decided to step in before this escalated into something further, "Spectre's aren't sent on usual shakedown runs, but this isn't a usual shakedown run, that could be why here's here."
"So…" the comm activated, cutting off Kaidan's response.
"Joker. Status report"
"Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid. Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way."
"He's already here, Lieutenant. Tell Commander Shepard to meet us in the comm room for a debriefing." Captain Anderson said curtly said, cutting the comm.
"Oh, he does not sound happy. Anyone think something went wrong with the mission." Shepard said trying to lighten the mood that had descended in the room.
Joker laughed, "Nah, Captain always sounds like that when he's talking to me."
Shepard headed towards the comm room, but heard Kaidan's response before she was out of range, "I can't possibly imagine why."
As she passed some of the other officers she overheard part of a conversation Pressly was having with Engineer Adams, "I'm telling you, I just saw him! He marched past like he was on a mission. There's more going on here than the Captain's telling us."
She continued on, stopping to talk with Doctor Chakwas and Jenkins, "Commander, we won't be staying on Eden Prime too long will we? I'm itching for some real action!"
Chakwas just slowly shook her head, "I sincerely hope you're kidding, Corporal. Your 'real cation' usually ends with me patching up crew members in the infirmary."
Shepard knew that he isn't as experienced as she would have liked, "You need to calm down, Jenkins. I'm sure we'll see some action soon, but a good soldier stays cool, even under fire. You have a long career ahead of you. Don't do anything stupid to mess it up."
Chakwas gave her a gentle smile and nod, whilst Jenkins shifted uncomfortably next to her, "Don't worry ma'am. I'm not going to screw this up."
She gestured behind them, "I've got to go. The Captain's waiting for me." She headed into the Communication room, and into an argument Anderson and Nihlus were having.
"The commander deserves to know what's really going on. She's why you're here!" Anderson shouted, his finger in the face of the turian.
"Ahem. Sir, Nihlus. Am I interrupting something? Is there anything I should know about the mission sirs?"
Nihlus stepped forward and spoke before Anderson could, "This mission is more than a shakedown run. We're here to pick up a Prothean Beacon." he paused, waiting for questions, when none came he continued, "Sharing the beacon will improve the relations your people have with other species."
Anderson then stepped in, "The beacon isn't the only reason Nihlus is here though. He's here to evaluate you for SPECTRE candidacy."
Shepard had to take a minute for it to sink in, when it did she realised Nihlus was talking again.
"-hy I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres. I don't care that you're human, Shepard. I only care that you can do the job. Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together."
"Just give the word, Captain."
Anderson just nodded his head, "We should be getting close to Eden -"
He was interrupted by Joker over the internal speakers, "Captain! We've got a problem."
Shepard looked at the Captain, "What's wrong Joker?"
"We've got a transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You'll want to see this."
Shepard looks at the screen and watches as Alliance marines come on, clearly under attack, one of them shoves the one recording the message down, "GET DOWN!". The camera then shows what is presumably the units CO, "We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties. I repeat: heavy casualties! We can't…argh! -eed evac! They came out of nowhere. We need —" before they could finish they get shot and the camera shows the team astonished by a ship coming in to land. The transmission ends abruptly with static.
"Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all. Nothing."
"Status Report."
"Seventeen minutes out Captain. No other Alliance ships in the area. There is a ship just sitting at the Relay though."
Anderson looks worriedly at Nihlus, who notices the look "A small strike force can move quickly without drawing attention. It's our best chance to secure the Beacon. You gather intel on the ship near the Relay at the same time."
"Shepard tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up. You're going in."
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January 28th, 2183
14:15, Galactic standard time, GST
Normandy Cargo Bay
"Your team's the muscle in this operation, Commander. Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site." Anderson briefed them, obviously sensing the question he answered it before Shepard could ask "Helping survivors is a secondary objective. The Beacon's your top priority."
"Approaching drop point one." Joker told them, opening the Cargo Bay doors.
"I'll scout out ahead, feed you status reports throughout the mission, see if that ship dropped anyone off," Nihlus stepped toward the opening before just dropping out of it.
"The mission's yours now, Shepard. Good luck."
"We are approaching drop point two."
Shepard waited until Kaidan and Jenkins had dropped before following. They were securing the area as Shepard landed.
"What are those things?" Kaidan pointed his pistol at the floating form.
"Gas bags. Don't worry - they're harmless." Jenkins quickly replied, glancing between Kaidan and Shepard, before settling on the burned corpses in front of him, "Oh god. What happened here."
"I don't know. Keep an eye out for anything unusual."
She motioned for Jenkins to take point around the corner, when multiple drones appeared and shot him, taking his shields down instantly. She took the closest one down with a couple of well placed shots from her pistol, while Kaidan used throw to disable one, and toke the shields down on another with his pistol, allowing Shepard to use overload on it.
Kaidan closed Jenkins eyes, "Ripped right through his shields. Never stood a chance."
"We'll make sure he gets a proper burial once the mission's complete. You need to stay focused."
They reached the tree line, and Shepard was just about to signal to move, when they heard gunshots, and something else.
"You know is it too much to ask for a distress call to somewhere a bit less on fire?" A woman's voice called out.
"Vala less talking more shooting. We don't seem to be causing much damage, but Teal'c does. Any ideas people?"
"I believe this is a race that has adapted to projectile based weapons, and not the Goa'uld weapons. It would be prudent to use the Zats Colonel Mitchell."
The sound of weapons fire suddenly stopped. "Do you think we should bring some of these back for Sam? They could end up being as dangerous as the Replicators."
"The Asgard brought a 'disabled' Replicator onto one of their ships and it nearly killed them. If we do bring this to Colonel Carter, we will need to be more vigilant than they were."
Shepard chose that time to bluff them. "Drop your weapons. We have you surrounded."
"Yeah, sorry but we don't believe you. If you did have us surrounded you would have helped the robots, or helped us take them out. Come out, we won't shoot at you, so long as you don't shoot at us first.
She was about to shout back when she heard two large whoomps, "I thought you said you wouldn't shoot!"
"Oh, that wasn't directed at you. It was for the two humanoid robots heading this way. Here as a show of good faith we're lowering our weapons. I'm Colonel Cameron Mitchell, United States Air Force. We picked up the distress message and came to investigate."
"Your not Alliance, and there hasn't been a United States Air Force for nearly one hundred years. Who are you really?"
"Ah, this could be a problem."
A/N: Thank you for all reading the story, and as I didn't put it in the last chapter a MASSIVE to Disco-Wing who Beta read the previous chapter. To those who left a review on the previous chapter here you go.
Swiftblood: I hope this chapter answers your question.
TheLordOfFics: I tried to keep them all as close to how they were shown in the shows, but I may have deviated a little.
EffervescentNova: They would have connected one of the 304s Asgard cores to the Destiny, for power and the specifications for the FTL engines, and then created the engines for the other ships, and a hyperdrive for the Destiny, and used them together.
Eve-a: I might not have made it very clear, Sam didn't get to see the plan before Jack rejected it for her. I also meant for Jack to mean that the mission wouldn't be going through the IOA, and they wouldn't be receiving any help from them.
