Crouching down behind a small formation of rocks, blue energy shots blasting the other side of the stone, while she kept down on the other.
This had gone to hell pretty fast for Samus.
She could've sworn the dig site was only another 100 meters, and with the amount of ground covered already, that should've been easy like the rest. All they have left to reach the site, is an uphill area with rock formations coming out of the ground, a small forest area which she could see, then the dig site beyond that.
What was firing on her, and Kaidan nearby, were small navy blue aerial drones, five of them, with glowing blue neon lights. They weren't space pirate tech, she could now confirm. They were blocking the path uphill.
On the ground close by, in the open, was Jenkins. As she and Kaidan got behind the rocks and waited, Jenkins had ants in his pants, and quickly moved ahead when Samus said nothing for about five minutes. He only got three steps ahead of her, when the drones appeared, and gunned the poor sod down, rip right through his kinetic shielding and armor like nothing, several burnt marks on his chest and stomach, before he finally hit the floor, dead.
She was thankful Kaidan was smart enough to know to wait. He did look at her when Jenkins started to move, as if trying to hint she needed to say something, but by the time she noticed, Jenkins was a dead man.
Finally, for a moment, the little machines stopped firing, and she quickly lifted herself up, aiming her rifle over the stones, and unleashing her own energy shots back at them, blasting three of them down before the remaining two begun returning fire. Kaidan stopped them short with a light purple orb of energy from his hands, throwing it at them, and when it got between the two drones, it erupted with a brilliant blue flash, knocking them both out of the sky, shutting them down.
Samus looked over to him, noticing a faint purple aura around him which slowly faded away. A Biotic user. She knows about them, a little. Biotics are people exposed to Element Zero during their time in the womb, and have the element literally embodied into their cells. With the right implants put into them, they use their alteration in a form of psychic attacks or defence.
She knows it isn't really psychic, it's to do with mass effect fields, but she prefers to leave it at the assumption it's about using the mind instead of looking at the details. She isn't one, so she doesn't fully care.
She moved out from her cover position, and went over to Jenkins body, along with Kaidan, who noticed that Jenkins died with his eyes opened, and so did the respectful thing of closing them with his fingers, before looking at the damage done to the body, and turning to Samus. "They ripped right through the shielding. He didn't even have a chance….Poor kid."
Samus shrugged it off. "He should've stayed in cover. I hadn't moved from my own."
Kaidan gave her a baffled look. "That's your reasoning for him dieing? He was anxious and raring to go Commander, you should've ordered us to wait."
Samus sighed a little, before starting to walk on, Kaidan following. "You had some common sense to wait untill I moved Kaidan, he should've had the same… Still, we'll get his body to the Normandy after this. Arrange a funeral service. His deserves that at least, for trying."
"Yes Ma'am…"
They soon entered the small forest, the faint sound of gunfire being heard in the distance, from across the landscape. Samus noticed one of the aerial drones on the ground close by, riddled with bullet holes…close to a strange new creature. A machine creature of some kind. She stepped over and looked at it carefully. It had three finger hands and feet, slender looking, steel plated chest, a neck that was made of hundreds of wires, and a slightly long, elongated head, with one, what once was, glowing orb in the middle, a sort of eye…
"Geth."
Kaidan looked at her, surprised. "Geth? As the machine race Geth? I thought those things have stayed in the veil system for the last 200 years. How did you know about them and what they look like?"
"The Chozo knew of the Geth's creators, the Quarians. Had a better history with them then the Galactic Federation, at least they did trades. They gave the Chozo data on what the Geth look like and what they are. I found the info whilst looking on Zebes before."
Kaidan seemed a little surprised at that answer. "The Chozo seemed to know about a lot of things, didn't they?"
"Only thing they seemed to care about when I was younger. It took me a few years to get the idea of what they actually care about." Samus soon trekked on, heading to the edge of the forest, heading in the direction of the dig site.
That's when they both overheard much closer gunfire, followed by an alliance trooper, female, wearing a white and pale red armor, came around the corner just outside the forest, from a small rocky passageway, and run for cover, hiding behind one of the trees, panting, holding her assault rifle close.
What came around after her were two Geth, both holding dark blue rifles of some kind, with neon green lights on them, no doubt looking for the woman who was escaping them. When they noticed Samus looking at them, they quickly aimed their rifles and opened fire.
Samus easily took them down, requiring only for her to jump forward, land on her front, aim and shoot at their heads, blasting their light bulb for eyes, killing them instantly. She got herself back on her feet, as Kaidan rushed over, having only noticed what was going on after having been staring at the already dead Geth earlier. "Commander! You okay?"
"Relax. Little winded by my style of fighting back, but I'm fine." She looked over to the female trooper, who looked shocked at seeing Samus and Kaidan, walking over to them.
"Are, are you the reinforcements we've been hoping for?" She asked, the sound of being hopeful in her voice.
"I'm Commander Samus Shepard, this is Kaidan Alenko. We're here for the Prothean beacon. And you?"
The woman saluted Samus. "Ashley Williams. Gunnery Chief of the 212 unit stationed at the dig site."
"…" Samus seemed to looked behind Ashley, at the rocky passageway, then back at the captain. "So where's the rest of your unit?"
She sighed deeply. "Dead ma'am. I'm the only member left of it…I retreated when the last person in my team went down. I kinda hoped I'd find someone. Lucky for me you both arrived. Are there others coming to help?"
Samus shook her head. "There's…There were, four of us, and we're all here to get the beacon off Eden Prime. One of our team mates is a Spectre, called Nihlus. His working alone right now to scout ahead for us. The other, now dead, team mate, is back there." motioning back to the forest. "Got killed by some aerial drones. Geth, right?"
Ashley nodded. "Those things were pretty much the first wave, before the actual Geth came down from that huge monstrous ship. The horrible roaring sound that came out of it, the waves of those machines, and to top it off, the loss of communications as well…"
Samus reloaded her gun after hearing that. "You're alive Williams. Remember that. We could use you to get us to the dig site. The Geth might be after the beacon themselves, and I'm sure with the loss of your unit, you'll want to get some payback, right?"
The Gunnery Chief responded by reloading her own gun, feeling her confidence renewed. "Yes Ma'am!"
Beyond where they were, 20 meters away, was the dig site, on a small hill nearby it, was an outpost, with a few housing compartments, cylinder in shape, made of a metal known as Palladium. Close to them, was a few burning supply crates, and three tripod standing devices, with massive, long slender spikes sticking out of them, with a human body on each, impaled on top.
Samus could see the bodies from the dig site, which, to her annoyance, did not have the bloody beacon she was after. Around her, Ashley and Kaidan were about seven Geth, all either gunned down or blasted apart. Kaidan was busy asking Ashley if there is any way of knowing if the beacon was moved by the colonists as she was fleeing, or the Geth.
She responded to his questioning by saying it must've been the Geth, as she was sure she was the only one running through this area, not even bothering to check for the beacon as she went by. "Which means they moved it to either their ship, or over to the transport station nearby. it's about an extra 30 or so meters, so it won't be hard to get to and-"
Samus decided to interrupt her. "Williams, have you seen those before?" motioning at the spikes with the bodies on the hill.
Ashley and Kaidan both looked, and a slight look of dread crossed her face, as if she recalled something. "Yes Ma'am. I saw a few Geth put my team on those things when their lowered down. They just press a button, and the spike shots up, impaling them while they're alive…the screams and the blood…it was horrible. I think they're doing to any humans in the area that aren't gunned down."
"They're not humans anymore. Look carefully."
Kaidan noticed. The fact was these people on those things, had now a varied grey coloured flesh, blue light emitting from all over their bodies, from their eyes as well. There was bull brown wiring across their bodies, their appearance made them look as if they were humanoid robots. "What the…"
"I think those spikes must inject something into the bodies. Come on, let's go take a look." Samus begun heading up the hill, with her two allies following suit, when she got a call on the communication channel.
"Commander, it's Nihlus. I'm moving in towards a nearby transportation port. A fair few machines walking around, probably AI. Not sure, but I think they're Geth. I saw the dig site from a distance, noticed the beacon wasn't there."
Samus grunted in annoyance. "Thanks for the heads up. Could've told me sooner."
"Well I didn't expect you to get there so soon. I take it everything is going smoothly then besides the beacon? Any survivors?"
"Got one. Name's Ashley Williams. We lost Richard Jenkins early on, got ambushed by Geth aerial support. We're just moving onto an outpost. Seems to have something strange."
"Oh?"
"Spikes with impaled bodies on them, huge things."
"Spikes with impale-Oh no…Dragons Teeth and Husks."
This news came as Samus and the other two reached the top of the hill, and were heading towards the three bodies. She stopped dead, while Kaidan and Ashley slowly moved in for a closer look. "Dragons Teeth? Husks? I've never heard of them."
"It's something we spectres have encountered before in several locations with the Geth. It's been kept as top classified information. Don't get close to the things, the Dragons Teeth have a proximity setting that if living organisms get too close they'll activate the husks on them."
Too late.
It was like as if an electric shock struck the bodies, before the spikes started retracting back into the base part of the devices. The bodies twitched, and slowly got themselves off the dragons teeth, looking at Ashley and Kaidan, screeching, and then running at them.
Samus quickly aimed her rifle and unleashed a wave of bullets. "Nihlus! Speak to you later! Thanks for the late warning!"
Kaidan managed to use his biotic power to blast one away from them all, sending it flying and smashing into a nearby compartment, with a force that should've broken it's skull and spine…instead it managed to stand back up, getting ready to attack again.
Ashley found her gun being the only thing between one of the husks and her, as it tried to grab her. She used the butt end of her rifle to smash it in the face, knocking to the floor, and then holding down the trigger, firing as many bullets as she could at it untill her gun made a beeping sound, meaning she needed to change the thermal clip inside, as it overheated. The husk didn't move afterwards, it's head blown apart, with scorch marks all over it's body.
Samus had killed one of them with that first wave of bullets she launched, making sure to hit the head, one of the energy shots making a decent sized hole in it's face, killing it. She quickly aimed at the one Kaidan was dealing with, only for him to finish it off with his a pistol, three aimed shots to it's right leg, stomach then head.
"They took a few more hits then I expected with undead corpses." Kaidan pointed out, as he looked at the dead husk close by.
"They had a small grade of kinetic shielding on them. No doubt one of the things these 'dragon teeth' put on these people." Samus answered with, walking over to one the said dragons teeth, looking at it carefully.
"Dragons teeth?" Kaidan looked at her, a little confused.
"I was talking to Nihlus just now over the comm channel. He said spectres have encountered these before. His just ahead of us, at the transportation station. We should check the compartments for anything we could use, maybe clearer video recordings of the ship that brought these geth here, then go and join up with him."
Nihlus meanwhile, has just blasted the head off a geth that saw it's allies fall, and decided to come over and see what killed them. It was right in front of the metal crate Nihlus was behind, when he popped up and made its head into at least a hundred parts.
He looked around from where he was, and noticed that was the last geth hanging around the transport station. He suspected there might be a lot more around here, what with the fact the beacon could be around, but no. Ten geth, all dead. He felt a little pride in that fact.
He begun to look around the station, checking supply crates, tools, and only as he saw, and headed towards, a tramline, which had two supply trains waiting to go to the nearby station about 30 miles or so away, did he where footsteps behind him. Not the sort that was attempting to sneak around, but the confident sort. He quickly turned, aiming his shotgun, and just as quick as he was to aim, he lowered it, surprised to see who it was that was coming towards him. "Saren?"
The person who approached was a rather pale coloured Turian, his left arm was a much darker colour to the rest of him, dark grey, due to the fact it's cybernetic, with a good chunk of his torso being the same. His eyes glowed a light blue, replacements for his original eyes. This was Saren Arterius. His eyes and the arm did alert Nihlus a little, but he relaxed when Saren sounded relieved to see him. "Nihlus. I wondered who would have the ability to take these geth monsters without any trouble."
"Saren what're you doing here? I haven't seen you for a few years." Nihlus disabled his shielding, giving what the Turians call a smile, to Saren.
"I picked up the brief emergency transmission. I was busy hunting for pirates in the Terminus System when it came, so I decided to take it upon myself to come and sort this out." Saren walked past Nihlus, standing close behind him, seemingly looking out at the supply trains.
Nihlus gave a little chuckle, looking to the distance, knowing that out there, is where his potential choice for spectre could be. Saren chose him to be a spectre, and now he was choosing a spectre himself, time between then and now, with Saren being present, seemed a lot less. "You? Helping humans? You hate humans Saren, I'd thought you would rather let the geth have their way."
"I prefer to have humans suffer on my own terms Nihlus. What the geth are is horrible. No race deserves to face them."
"On that we can agree." Nihlus answered with.
"So Nihlus, what about you? What brings you here?"
"Me? I'm just here to collect something important for the Galactic Federation, and to also inspect a new potential spectre. Although I'll be honest, she doesn't need to even be watched. I'll just put in a good report and get her in as soon as possible. I even recommended her to be a spectre." Nihlus couldn't help but look at the sky, how blood red looking it was. The sun must be going down. He hoped that once the beacon was collected, he could spend a moment to admire the sun set a little. Wasn't often on missions he would come at a time like this.
"Oh? She's that impressive is she? Who is it? What species?"
"You won't like it." Nihlus warned.
"Try me, Nihlus."
"A human infused with Chozo blood. Formerly known as Samus Aran, now Samus Shepard."
Sarens eyes widened slightly. "Samus Aran…that's…interesting…and she's on this planet, even as we speak…"
Nihlus nodded. "Yep. I'm surprised they put her name on the list. I thought the Alliance would want her to keep a low profile after all that's happened. Still, having the Chozo warrior woman in our ranks is going to be a good thing. I just hope she's doing okay right now."
Saren slowly pulled out his pistol, which had been holstered in it's case around his waist, activating it.
"She's dealing with some Husks. Just found some of those damned dragons teeth."
Saren turned around, looking at the back of Nihlus' head, and aimed his pistol. "Don't worry Nihlus. She can look out for herself. She's known for it."
Samus heard the shot. She had just finished looking around one of the compartments, finding only a few dead bodies, and had just gotten outside. To say she had a bad feeling that out of all the weapons fire she heard today, that one, she was sure was a pistol shot, made her skin crawl.
Kaidan and Ashley soon joined up with her, noticing that she had just suddenly stopped and gone quiet. "…Shepard, you okay?" Kaidan asked.
"…We need to get the Station." With that, she begun to walk off, slowly turning it from walking into running, that bad feeling wasn't going away.
"Commander! Commander wait!" Ashley shouted, quickly going after her, and Kaidan following suit.
It didn't take them long to see the station…and the only flesh corpse on one of the crate platforms. There were several geth remains, but that's one body…Samus rushed down as quick as she could, heading right for it, the other two trying to keep up. When she got to the body, she knew who it was. One dead spectre. Nihlus. "Shit!"
Kaidan and Ashley eventually caught up. Kaidan was a troubled at seeing Nihlus dead. "Jesus…He must've been shot in the back of the head…someone must've managed to get behind him. Geth, maybe?"
"I doubt it. I heard one shot. If Nihlus had his kinetic barriers up, it would've taken more then one, which means whoever killed him must've somehow made him lower his guard." Samus bent down, looking at the body carefully, especially the hole in the head, the blue blood oozing from it.
Behind a few of the metal crates, she just, JUST, faintly heard something shuffling, making her stand up and aim her rifle at the crates. "Get the hell out here or I'll get my biotic partner here to blast the crates to flatten you!"
Kaidan frowned. Not what he expected from his commander. Ashley seemed to approve though. "That's right! Now show yourself!"
It was human. He stood up, raising his arms in the air. He was wearing a dark green shirt, black trousers and a grey bandanna on his head. "Don't do anything! I'm just one of the workers here! I'm unarmed! I've been hiding from those machines that came earlier!"
Samus lowered her rifle a little. "You're lucky. You seem to be the only survivor we've found so far that's not carrying a gun. I'm surprised you managed to keep a low profile this long."
"Yeah well, when you know where to hide to take a nap during work, you learn a lot of the good spots that no one looks for you at. I was almost caught a few moments ago, when this poor Turian bastard got shot by the other Turian!"
"Another Turian killed him? Was it a member of a squad? Did you get his name?"
The man nodded. "The dead guy called him Saren. They seemed like pretty good friends, chatting to each other about being spectres or something, even dropped the name of Samus Aran in their conversation before that Saren guy pulled out his pistol and shot this one right in the back of the head!"
Samus moved closer to the worker, looking dead serious. "Where did Saren go? Tell me, right now."
"He, he just went onto one of the supply trains, heading to the other station, where those machines took the that artefact we found sometime ago. The Prothean artefact."
"So his after the beacon!" She saw the spare train. "Kaidan! Ashley! We're going after him! We gotta get to the beacon before him!"
Once they got on the train, getting to its front controls and activating it, making it move and head off to the station they needed to be at, they saw it at last. The monster ship.
It was massive. The only reason they could see it now was because it made this, echoing, loud roaring sound, and the believed clouds that were around the area, begun to disperse, showing the grand vessel in all it's dark glory. It was close by the station they were trying to rush to.
The shape, best described, was like an upright squid. It had five massive legs that had been embedded into the ground, now closing together as the ship lifted off, with six extra smaller limbs higher up on the sides of it. It was a dark, dark eerie blue, with no visible symbols on it to show it was in aliment with any side. It's lift off sequence shook the land slightly, as blasts of heat come from it, scorching the ground it had landed on before, and finally, flew off into the sky, into space.
"Samus…You got a vast knowledge of alien ships, right?" Kaidan asked, after having seen all that.
"Kaidan. That's a lot larger then most ships I've seen during my hunting days, And I've seen nothing of that design before…" She answered, her voice showing the fact she was in awe of the ship. She has seen a lot of ships in her time, some crazy ass ones, some stupid looking ones, but never one that made that feeling of worry creep up on her.
They finally arrived at the next station, and quickly got off the train, heading up the ramps to the nearby metal walkways to get a better view…and then only to quickly hide behind a few of the crates left here as there was a few geth standing guard, who noticed the new arrivals quick enough.
Samus was the first one to get a few hits on the machines, taking down a couple, before having to get down again, as a few energy shots struck her shields, disabling them temporarily. She cursed the fact she REALLY missed her Power Suit right now.
Kaidan knocked three of them off the walkway with his biotics, sending them falling onto the track close by, frying them. Ashley picked off the last machine, that was carrying some sort of sniper rifle, as she realized when as she was firing on it to kill it, it fired one shot back that disabled her shields and singed her armor on her left shoulder. If her shields weren't up, her left shoulder would probably be missing by now.
As the sounds of the geth went silent, there was a new sound that had been going on during this, but only now can they hear it, four, faint beeping sounds, in four locations on the two walkways…one was close by to them. Close to Samus. She slowly looked around one side of the crate, and saw what it was.
A bomb. A huge one. With a timer on it, and a keypad with a small screen. She recognized the make of it. "Plasma bombs! They intend to take out the station!"
"Are you serious? We're not bomb disposal experts though! What do we do!" Kaidan was kinda hoping Samus would suggest to just get back on the train and leave.
"Relax, I've dealt with them before. You open the left side panel, break the red wire, the two whites, then the blue and finally the green one. That'll open up the cover to the trigger mechanism, which then you just yank out to shut off the bomb." Samus answered.
"…Can you repeat that?"
Ashley sighed in annoyance. "She said left panel, red, two whites, blue and green, then yank out the part which trigger the part that will kill us all if we don't! Let's move and find the others while she gets this one Kaidan!"
Samus heard them run off, while she slowly moved closer to this bomb, looking at it's timer…5 minutes and 17 seconds. Easy enough. She literally forced the panel open, and violently pulled at the wires, in the order she said, before the top of the bomb opened up, showing a thick, metal tong, which had been connected to all of those wires, close to a round glowing green orb of plasma. She ripped the tong out, causing the screen on the bomb to show 'ERROR! ERROR!" instead of the timer.
She stood up, looking around for the other two. Kaidan was close to the train they had come on. On a nearby crate, there was one of the bombs. Ashley was on the other walkway, looking like she found the third, as she was crouching down from what Samus could see, close to a heap of scrap metals placed together.
Samus listened out for the fourth, and just heard it, on the other end of the walkway she was on, which led out to the main part of the station, and thus to the lands beyond.
She sprinted her way across, leaping over whatever crates or bodies in her way, reaching the other end, and seeing the bomb, out in the open, close to the stairs leading to the main segment…
Which made her stop in her tracks, as she had turned her head to look.
The entire landscape beyond the station here, looked like it was burnt in a giant blaze. If there were trees, grassland, farmland…life…it had been incinerated. She could just barely make out the ruins of people's rooms, charred bodies that somehow survived, what she presumed, must've been where the ship took off from.
Close to the place where the ship left it's mark, close to the pathway that led into this station, was a rectangular shaped metal device, standing upright, glowing with an eerie green energy…
She quickly snapped herself back into focus, looking back at the bomb, and within a good ten seconds, had it dismantled. She was thankful she encountered these before, as it would've been a fast track out of this place.
She walked over close to the strange glowing device, as Kaidan and Ashley caught up with her. "Commander be careful. That's the Prothean beacon!" Ashley quickly pointed out, making Samus keep a distance from it.
"The beacon itself? It's active? Was it always like this?"
"It certainly wasn't before ma'am. These geth, or that Saren guy, must've activated it."
"…I see. I'll get in contact with the Normandy. Saren must've fled on the ship. We'll pick up the beacon for now." Samus turned away from the device and walked over to a nearby hand rail, looking over the damaged land, whilst getting in contact with the Normandy.
Kaidan looked at the beacon with Ashley for a moment, before Ashley went over to join Samus, leaving Kaidan to stare at it. "An actual Prothean beacon…"
He got curious, he heard Samus talking over the comm link, then speaking to Ashley about if she knows the rest of the colony is okay or not, and whilst they were chatting, he moved a few steps closer, staring at the beacon intensely…before he realized that it was glowing slightly brighter, and before he knew it, an energy emitting from it, some sort of invisible force, latched onto him, dragging him closer.
Samus had turned to look to him at that moment, as she was about to tell him to get over to where she was, but instead found herself running over to him, noticing the fact he seemed to be getting pulled closer to the beacon against his will, grabbed him around the waist from behind, pulling him back a little, before, with all her strength, throwing him aside, managing to stop the beacon's energy effecting him.
The beacon now had her in its sights, latching onto her with more of a force then it did with Kaidan, dragging her closer, whilst she tried to fight it with all of her might. She was like a tug of war, but whereas it was just her against a hundred people, with the rope tied around her stomach and back. She was straining every muscle she had to get away from it, pain stinging through her body, making it harder for her to fight back. She cursed her luck, of all the times the infection would act up on her, NOW it had to…
Ashley had gone over to quickly check Kaidan, and noticed he was a little dazed but okay, before she looked over to Samus, seeing her get pulled up right next to the beacon, before being lifted by into the air before it, arms wide, legs dangling, trapped in it's powerful force.
"COMMANDER!" Kaidan managed to focus enough to see what's going on, and tried to force himself up to go and help Samus, only for Ashley to stop him. "Kaidan it's too late! We might get caught up in it too!"
To Samus, Eden Prime was gone. Her eyes forced shut, her whole body twitching, as images begun to flash in her mind, dozens of images, of machines…of slaughter…death…war…
Faint whispers flowed into her mind with force, images of unknown worlds and locations, species and technology, feeding from the beacon to her brain, sheer pain coursing through her. She saw a race, moments of them being slaughtered, machines tearing through their flesh, galaxies burning…but as the images repeated to her, over and over, faster and faster, the whisper continuing, one single voice stood out, one from a father, an adoptive father from the Chozo, spoke clearly to her, his last words to her so many years ago…
"Samus, I leave the rest to you. You have become strong, so strong. Samus I know that your fate is harsh, but, though this will be hard for you, there are many people in the universe who need your strength, I want you to save them, be it only one or many, I want you to help them, this is my request. You have become strong...my child…"
The last image that came to her mind, was of him…Gray Voice…
The beacon exploded in a wave of green energy, sending Samus flying back, smacking into the ground, right on her back, rolling slightly, before coming to a stop, slumped over on her side, not moving.
"Shepard!" Kaidan and Ashley both ran over, Kaidan checking Samus for a pulse, before getting in contact with the Normandy.
To Samus, all she could see in her mind, from the darkness, was her standing with Old Bird and Gray Voice, her being no more then 5 years old, pointing out to them a picture she drew on a Chozo sculpture wall, of her and them, with a small sun next to them…The way Old Bird smiled about it, and Gray Voice frowning…she knew he cherished it deep down, he admitted it…she missed him so much…before she knew it though, Old Bird disappearing from beside her, and when she turned to look, Gray Voice began to vanish into the darkness as well.
"Gray Voice….Don't leave me, please…" Samus weakly croaked out of her mouth.
"She's starting to come round. Ashley, inform the captain at once." Samus recognized the voice. Dr Chakwas.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, finding herself looking up at the dark ceiling of the Normandy's medical bay, a few small white lights shining down on her, before she forced herself to sit up, and move her legs off the bed, planting them down on the floor, facing to where the voice had come from. Pain shot through her for a few moments, making her know she must've been out for a little while, missing her due time for a painkiller. Once her eyes fully focused, she saw Chakwas, smiling in relief.
"Commander. How many more times will I have to find you on one of my medical beds?" Chakwas jokingly asked.
"W-what happened? How did I end up here? What happened to the beacon?"
She heard another voice answer that for her, Kaidan, in his blue leather uniform. "The beacon is destroyed Shepard. It exploded after…whatever it did to you, you were flung back and hit the floor pretty hard. We couldn't wake you, so Ashley and myself lifted you and helped you back on the Normandy when it came to pick us up. It's been two days since then."
Samus shook her head slightly, holding it with her hand a little. "What, what happened with Eden Prime? The colonists?"
"The planet is okay now. The geth retreated along with the ship, and Saren. The colonists in the sector we were in? …A lot of them died, around 20,000, but the Alliance is sending assistance. Shouldn't take no more then a week for them to get there. The colonists should be okay untill then. They're just…sorting out their dead."
Samus went silent, looking at her legs, obviously thinking.
"…I wanted to say sorry. For what happened to you. You pulled my ass out of the fire and got burned yourself, so to speak. I didn't expect that beacon to do what it did, me getting close must've triggered a self defence it had, and it would've got me if you didn't act fast enough…I'm, glad your okay, and I'll try to not be so curious the next time Shepard." Kaidan gave her a little apologetic smile.
She looked at him in response with a very, very annoyed look, forcing herself off the bed, and turning to face him. "That was foolish and careless of you Alenko. All three of us had no real idea what it does or what it's for. You should've kept your distance. Do that again and I'll make sure you get spaced from the Normandy, are we clear?"
He quickly wiped that little smile off his face, looking serious and saluted her, not wanting to anger her any further, as she sounded damn serious. "Yes Commander. Sorry Commander."
Samus folded her arms afterwards, looking at him sternly. "…And thanks. For getting me back here."
"Commander, there was something I noticed. While you were out, a fair few times you would rapidly move your eyelids, a sign of dreaming. I take it must've been about your past, with what you said when you were waking up?" Dr Chakwas asked.
Samus looked at the doctor, and recalled the dream she had…the vision, she had. "It was more of a nightmare then anything…I saw…images, horrible images, faint, distant screams. While seeing the images I overheard my adoptive father, his last words came back to me. These images I saw weren't from my past though. These were…I'm not sure what they were, but it was when I was caught in, whatever the beacon did, they flashed in my mind."
"Interesting. Perhaps the beacon stored information that was transmitted into your mind…"
The footsteps of Anderson entering the medical bay were heard, as he walked up to where the other three were. "Chakwas, how's the commander? She alright?"
"Besides a small bruising to her back, and probably needing something for the normal issues she has, she's fine." The doctor then went over to a small metal cabinet nearby, and got out a white and red box, opening it, and opening something inside of the box, before pulling out a small, white round tablet. She went over to a nearby sink, got a plastic cup, filled it with water, then passed the tablet and liquid to Samus, who quickly swallowed the medicine, and the water.
Anderson smiled in relief. "That's good to hear. Now, if you and Alenko don't mind, I need to speak to the Commander alone."
Chakwas gave Samus one more smile, before she and Kaidan departed. Anderson turned to face Samus, looking her up and down. "Well…This hasn't precisely kicked off to a good start, has it? My officer gets tossed like a rag doll, an attacked colony, the geth, Saren as a possible suspect, one destroyed beacon and one dead spectre."
She sighed. "No sir. It hasn't."
"The Galactic Federation…the council itself, will want answers as to why their spectre is dead Samus."
"Saren did it. One of the transport workers saw him do it."
"We already got his confirmation on that, but I know the council, that alone won't be enough to accuse Saren. His a spectre himself, and the one who brought Nihlus to them in the first place."
"Obviously he also placed the bombs close to where the beacon was, planning to destroy it before it…did that, to me."
Anderson looked at her with curiosity. "What did happen Samus? What did the beacon do to you?"
She explained what she saw, the vision, the brief images, the signs of death, and war.
"Strange…Very strange…As for Saren, do you think he might've seen this as well? Do you think he led the geth on this attack on the colony?"
Samus nodded. "I'd bet everything on it. Why else would he kill Nihlus? Why else would he be there? Can't have been sheer luck he was on a murder rampage whilst the geth attacked."
"I agree. No doubt he did this just to attack us humans."
"You know Saren?"
"I know he hates mankind. Not exactly a secret to those that have heard of him…problem is that, as I said, his a spectre. He can easily deny everything…unless we can get his spectre status revoked. Much like how the council removed your title as a bounty hunter."
Samus frowned. "Oh great, the same council who not only revoked my bounty hunter status, but wanted me arrested for destroying a planet."
"You had no choice remember. The X parasite was dangerous. What you did was something I would've done in that same situation. The council can't understand it like we do." Anderson knows that time was still bitter to Samus. Despite the years that pass, she can never get over those few days in the citadel.
"So I was made a scrape goat, lost the only things that mattered to me at the time, and Adam was made to pay for it all."
"It was an AI Samus, an AI who had control of your ship. It was too dangerous, They had to terminate him...it wasn't Adam, Samus. Adam died on the Bottle ship, remember?" Anderson tried to put a hand on her shoulder to give support.
She shrugged it off, moving off the med bay bed. "I won't argue with you again about that David. I know who it was. I know who suggested to me the way to destroy that station, Who you allowed to take the fall for me…I'm going to my quarters to rest up, contact me when we get to the citadel." With that, she took her leave, with Anderson only answering with "Of course, Commander."
As she left, there was Kaidan, leaning near the door, nodding and smiling at her a little. "Hey Commander. Can I just ask you something quickly?"
Samus looked right at him. "Two minutes. Then I want to get some rest."
"Are you…uncomfortable with giving orders in a dangerous situation Commander? It's just it was rather obvious during our mission on Eden Prime, ya know?"
"...I expect common sense from everyone. You don't need orders."
Kaidan shrugged. "Someone's gotta give'em. It's how the chain of command goes."
"I don't. Orders mean deciding what happens to others. I've seen what happens when people give out orders during certain moments where someone's life hangs onto you." She started walking away, she didn't want to continue this subject.
"So? If you don't, people end up like Jenkins."
Samus stopped for a moment, looking back over her shoulder to Kaidan. "...Anderson gives orders. Untill his ever relieved, I'm content to not giving any in those situations."
With that, she headed to her quarters. She needed a shower, some food, and a bed without people looking over her…hopefully having dreams that don't include her past again.
The citadel.
A Space Station built to carry a civilization, with five 'arms' that carry cities, a mass effect energy field to keep it constantly revolving to maintain a level of gravity for life on it, and enough Turian warships and Asari vessels to be seen as the largest armada around.
The arms of the citadel are all connected to a circler central point, which houses the Presidium, which is essentially the place for politicians, ambassadors and the rich and famous. With it's own blue sky inside the metal ring, fresh, clean water, it was pretty much a utopia. In fact, the entire citadel was seen as that.
The Presidium also housed the council, the head of the Galactic Federation. If there were any galaxy wide threat, they would be the ones to decide the course of actions for most of the other species, and their own. The council members were of three races. Turian, Asari and Salarian. Humans, Volus, and many others were allied races, seen as second class to the three main ones. Those that couldn't agree to the Galactic Federation terms of an alliance, such as the Batarians and Chozo, were regarded as outsiders. They were welcomed on the citadel, but rarely would they ever get a chance to see the council after refusing to join their ranks, and if they were under attack, the Federation's council could easily turn a blind eye to it.
It was on this Presidium, in one of it's many luxurious offices, was where Samus was. She, Kaidan, Ashley and Anderson were standing at the balcony of the office, looking around at the place, it's massive lake of water, the statues placed close to it, the plantations, the sky…all waiting for the ambassador of Humanity, who Anderson had gone to, to sort this all out, was busy speaking to the council via holographic communications. The three councillors, a Turian named Sparatus, an Asari named Tevos, and a Salarian named Valern, were all quite unimpressed with the man before them, a male that looked well into his 60's, with grey hair, brown skin, a wrinkled face, brown eyes, wearing a white and beige coloured uniform. Donnel Udina.
"The fact is Eden Prime was attacked! I demand you take action!"
Sparatus glared at Udina. "You are not in a position to demand anything, Ambassador Udina."
Tevos tried to calm him down a little. "You must remember that it was up to humanity to choose to try and colonise on the borders of the Terminus system. We had warned you about this before."
"And what of Saren? Are you just going to ignore a rogue spectre then?" Udina argued.
Sparatus was quick on the defence about him. "Saren is our most respected Turian spectre. He shall speak for himself during the hearing, not before. If you have anything else to add, you can do so when the hearing starts."
Tevos finished by the brief chat. "I'm sorry we can't really speak anymore on the matter before it. We will speak again soon." With that, they disconnected the call, the three holographic figures of them disappearing.
Udina cursed under his breath, as Anderson noticed the call was finished, and motioned Samus and the other two to follow him as they went over to Udina. "Ambassador. I take it the council aren't being helpful?"
"Of course not. This is Saren we're talking about. Their favourite tool in the spectre department. They won't just accept any claims of him possibly going rogue and attacking other spectres."
Samus sighed in pure annoyance. "I swear, if I had my power suit I'd damn those bastards and chase after him right here and now instead of trying to get them to dismiss his rank…Hell I'll go now if you want. Give me a rifle and a ship, and I'll hunt him."
Udina frowned at her. "You've done enough already Samus. You're not popular with the council as it already is, and your chance at being a spectre has been jeopardized thanks to Nihlus being killed and the beacon getting destroyed."
"I can't vouch for the beacon, but I can for Nihlus. That wasn't her fault. Saren killed him, that's the truth." Anderson spoke in Samus' defence.
"Well you better hope that's enough to convince them Anderson. And as for you, Samus, when the hearing starts, I suggest you keep your calm and do not go into another fit of rage like last time we were there. Your assault on Anderson and several C-Sec officers was something that stayed in the media for some time, and I doubt the council have forgotten it anytime soon."
"Heh, I swear my jaw still hurts from that punch of yours commander." Anderson joked.
Samus didn't take it. She just wanted to get this over with. She wanted to deal with this Saren, and hopefully then go about and sort out this…vision, the beacon left with her.
All five of them soon left the office, and headed to the centre point of the Presidium, the council tower itself, within the place, once they entered, were beautiful blooming trees of all colours, several small water fountains, and at the height of it all, a long, metal walkway, leading to the hearing point, as beyond it, where three computer consoles, where the three councillors stand.
It was on their way up, after climbing a set of stairs, close to a water fountain, stood two Turians. One was wearing blue and black suit of armor, with grey skin, which had a small amount of blue face paint, green eyes, with a blue holographic visor over one eye, and the other wore a black and light set of overalls and trousers, black skinned with white face paint on him.
The one in the armor sounded desperate. "Look, I know I'm almost onto something with Saren. Can't you just stall the hearing for a little while? Several hours isn't enough to look for evidence!"
The other one shook his head. "You can't just stall the council. I'm sorry, but your investigation is concluded. You've been given the time needed to check the databases." with that, he walked off, down the stairs, past Samus and the others.
Udina didn't stop to listen to this, he went off ahead, as did Anderson. Samus, Kaidan and Ashley were about to, when the other Turian saw them, and waved a little at Samus, before coming over, as she stopped. "Samus Shepard? Previously Samus Aran? Garrus Vakarian, C-Sec Investigation Division. I've been tasked with trying to find evidence of Saren going rogue."
Samus looked at him oddly. "Vakarian? Wait a minute didn't I hit you before six years ago?"
Garrus smiled, giving off a small chuckle…well…as much as a Turian can smile with their mandibles. "No, that was my father Samus. Two weeks before he retired. according to him the famous human bounty hunter who broke down the size of the space pirates and wiped out the threat of the Metroids, smashed him across the face with her arm cannon. Damaged a fair bit of his jaw, had to be put in the hospital for those two weeks."
"Yeah...I don't regret that." Samus remembered now, the jerk off that was Garrus' dad grabbed her arm, unfortunately, for him, it was not her arm cannon, and she responded to him grabbing her, with violence. She knows it was him as that was the only person she hit across the face with her arm cannon…the rest felt it in their stomachs or backs.
"I don't expect you to. Hell of a shot, he didn't expect females of the human species to be able to give that much of a swing."
"Well if you see him, say hello to him for me. So, did you find anything on Saren?"
Garrus shook his head. "Unfortunately no. The Turian ambassador didn't give me much time, and everything on Saren is classified, so even if I did have the time, the chances were slim that anything we could use to get him dealt with, would be small. But still, I wanted to try. Sorry. Good luck with the hearing though, I'll still be trying to find evidence regardless."
"Alright, thanks." with that, Samus walked on, with Kaidan and Ashley both saying farewell to Garrus as they went by.
Kaidan and Ashley now were waiting down the last set of steps that led up to the place of meeting the council. On the walkway, was Samus, Udina and Anderson. The three councillors were at their consoles, and a holographic image, of Saren himself, was nearby them, looking quite disinterested about what was going on.
It had been half an hour of trying to convince the council, but they were just stone walling everything.
"We have a witness that saw Saren kill Nihlus in cold blood!" Udina was trying his hardest not to lose his temper.
The Salarian Valern shook his head. "One traumatised worker, based on your words alone, is hardly compelling evidence Ambassador."
"Let's not forget, that the geth were present on Eden Prime, according to the reports that I've gathered. No doubt the geth killed Nihlus, probably as he was speaking of me to someone, and the poor workers mind produced something entirely wrong." Saren spoke, sounding bored.
"I know you Saren. You would gladly side with something like the geth in order to get your way with humans. Nihlus was just a stepping stone in your goal." Anderson gave Saren a hateful glare.
He responded by chuckling, darkly. "Ah, Captain David Anderson. Of course, if there is any allegations towards me, it would be led by you. Still bitter about 20 years ago and your inabilities?" He then looked to Samus. "And this must be the once legendary bounty hunter who you've taken under your wing. Samus Shepard now, isn't it? I used to have some of the utmost respect for your accomplishments, for a human, anyway."
Samus chose to ignore him, looking to the council instead. "So what? You'll just accept his word? Abandon the human colonies to be his playthings like you abandoned the Chozo to the pirates?"
Whoa did that get Sparatus' attention. "You cannot blame us for the fate of the Chozo. They had chosen to be isolationists, and only run to us when they felt like it. They refused to be part of the Galactic Federation, and even after that, we Turians had tried to maintain a close alliance with them, they were a neighbouring race to us after all. But they never wanted to trade anything, and always tried to find ways to keep off-worlders away from their planets. We extended the hand of friendship, and they pushed it away constantly."
Saren smirked. "The Chozo were fools Samus. They had their chance. At least humans have the sense to accept hand outs from the Federation."
Samus briefly looked at him, then back at the council. She knows he was trying to get under her skin. "You need to allow your investigators more time to look over Sarens records. I was there on Eden Prime, I could tell that the worker wasn't just making things up, and the bombs were a sign that Saren here waited to remove all evidence of him being there, including the beacon."
"You mean the same beacon that was destroyed by you? What? Wasn't the destruction of other property of the Federation enough for you? The B.S.L. Station? The Bottle ship? If I recall you even listened and obeyed an unshackled AI with the B.S.L…"
Samus locked eyes with him. Her voice rising along with her temper. " Adam did not order me Saren! He suggested it, and I did it in order to stop the X parasites!"
The council members looked at each other, surprised with the AI having a name. Udina quickly turned to Anderson, who stared in horror at Samus for letting that slip.
Saren worked with this. "Adam? As in based on the name of your once commanding officer, Adam Malkovich? How interesting, you named him after your deceased CO. the same man who allowed you to cripple all the research projects on the bottle ship. A very affectionate attachment to an AI, wouldn't you say so Samus?"
"It was Adam himself! Remade into an AI! He helped me stop the parasites from attacking the rest of the galaxy you ugly sonnova bitch! Adam would run your ass through for all this! He would-"
Anderson had to step in. "SAMUS ENOUGH!"
She stopped, looking at Anderson now, seeing he was angered by her. She didn't notice the fact the council was talking amongst itself, and Udina was face palming…it then dawned on her that the fact the AI was named after her old CO was never mentioned before.
"Samus I want you to leave! Wait with Alenko and Williams! You're dismissed from this hearing!"
"Anderson-"
"That is an order!"
Samus knew at what point when to not push it any further, and simply saluted Anderson, before she turned and walked away…pretty much actually stomping her way off the walkway, her boots hitting the floor, echoing in the hall.
She didn't have to wait long for the other two. Udina and Anderson soon returned to Kaidan, Ashley and Samus. Udina looked mortified. "I knew it was a mistake bringing you and Samus to that hearing Anderson. Samus can't keep her mouth shut, and you have too much history with Saren. The council want to have a word with me in my office about 'Adam' shortly. I'm going to pass it off as the AI perhaps tricking you into thinking it was him on purpose to convince you to work for it. You'll owe me for this one, woman."
Samus didn't give him an answer, instead looking to Anderson. "Why didn't you tell me you know of Saren? You both seemed to be well acquainted, more then just knowing him by information alone."
"I'll speak about it when I'm ready Samus. For now, the hearing is closed. Unless we find actual proof Saren was on Eden Prime, attacking the colonists or going after the beacon, then we may as well pack up and go home."
"And how are we suppose to do that? I mean, the only guy around here who's supporting us with that is the Turian Garrus. And hell, this place is big, he could've gone anywhere if he finds any information."
"I think I know someone who may be able to help us find him. I don't like him at all, and our friendship is non-existent, but maybe he'll talk to you. His name is Harkin. If you can find him…and knowing him, he'll be getting drunk in a place called Chora's Den, he might know some information. His a member of C-Sec like Garrus, and seems to know how to keep tabs on almost everyone from there. Most likely hacks the terminals, knowing the asshole. Regardless, find him, find Garrus, and see if his found anything or onto something."
Samus nodded. "Alright."
"Take Alenko and Williams with you, just to make sure if anything, you don't cause me anymore trouble, alright? Any objections Commander?"
She saluted him. "No sir."
Saren was in a dim light room, glaring angrily at the console before him, having just disconnected from the hearing…before he snapped, snarling, and roaring out, storming around the room a little, smashing a few other consoles, and punching his fist into a wall.
After seeing Samus' eyes, he knew what she had seen. He knew she had seen the beacon's vision. He had hoped the bombs took it out, but he knew from her eyes, that she managed to see it all.
The hunter was once again about to get in his way…his masters way. He couldn't allow this, he mustn't allow her!
He stormed around, untill an Asari, one who was advanced in her age, stood before him, stopping him, looking right at him, despite the fact he was panting in anger, ready to tear her to sheds. She wore a long black leather dress, with long dress, and a gap in the middle, showing a part of her bosoms. She wore a leather helmet, which seemed to have two black antennas sticking out, her blue eyes looking right into his, her aged face before him.
He slowly calmed him a little, before snarling out. "I want Samus Aran, out of the picture. She cannot be allowed to live!"
1. But that don't mean them bullets didn't leave you nuttier then a bighorner dropping.-Doc Mitchell, New Vegas, quoted cos'…I don't know.