AUTHOR'S FOREWORD: If you have never played Battlefield 2142, then you don't know what a Titan or an assault walker is. In addition to the three codex entries that I'll include with the story at the bottom, I suggest you search the following on Youtube: Battlefield 2142 Launch Trailer, Battlefield 2142 Titan Trailer, and Battlefield 2142 Northern Strike Trailer 3. They give a real taste of what both Titans and walkers are all about, and they actually fit in the ME universe quite well.
Shepard's background is also expanded upon in my Battlefield: Wars of the Systems Alliance story, particularly the Torfan chapters. It's recommended reading.
Other than that, I hope you enjoy the story.
Chapter One: Paradise Lost
The doors parted to the ambassador's private meeting room with a slight hiss, revealing the interior and its occupants. A spartan room with very little furnishings beyond a coffee table and a set of comfortable chairs, along with two of the most powerful human beings in the galaxy. Admiral Steven Hackett, commander of the Alliance Fifth Fleet, sat in his dress blues with a glass of bourbon and a satisfied air about him. The Admiral was widely tipped to become the new Chief of Staff for the Navy, now that there was a new administration. He was a hero of the conflict with the batarians, and well-liked by his subordinates. The other man was Donnel Udina, ambassador to the Citadel for ten years by this point and a political mastermind. He had helped steer humanity's diplomatic efforts through the difficult war years, and became such a force in his own right that he became untouchable, limited only by humanity's status as a minor power. Unfortunately, he knew it. His arrogance was both visible and audible. He barely looked at anyone straight except to go on the attack, and he talked down to anyone not in his game.
The Captain was no stranger to reporting to superiors, but the combination of civil and military power concentrated in that one room was unusual.
"Ah, Captain Anderson," said Udina, "Do come in and sit."
Anderson looked to Hackett by reflex, who inclined his head to confirm the order. Feeling better immediately, the Captain moved into the room and sat down in the nearest leather chair, opposite both of the others but closer to the Admiral's side of the table than the Ambassador's. He straightened his uniform and awaited the purpose of the meeting.
There was silence for a moment, until the doors closed, the guards outside locking it with a beep. Udina glanced at the Admiral, and picked up a cup of coffee, indicating that it was time.
"I'll get straight to the point, Anderson," said Hackett, leaning back into his chair, "Parliament has been pushing for more concessions from the Citadel for years now, and the Ambassador has finally begun to make some headway."
"No small feat, given how stubborn the turians are about our situation," Udina interrupted, "And past events." Anderson wondered just what he meant by the last part. He got the distinct feeling that there was some blame being put on his head, over Sidon and the controversy behind closed doors that had raged afterwards, but thought better of rebuking the man. He had made mistakes, just not the sort that deserved such a response from someone who had never seen combat. He held his tongue in check. Barely.
"Regardless, the Council has seen fit to evaluate a human for the Spectres again," said Hackett, "It's an incredible opportunity for humanity, a chance to prove that our capabilities can be used for the greater good, rather than just our own interests."
"In truth, it may be more of a leash. The asari were worried that we are being slowly isolated," Udina added, "They have a point. After our victory in the Skyllian Verge, the public are ready to believe that we can go it alone. We have to avoid that at all costs, you saw what it did to the batarians first-hand." The four-eyed slavers had withdrawn from their associate membership of the Council, and when war came, had found themselves almost completely without support among the other species. The only thing that kept them from utter defeat was fear of an expansionist humanity. Anderson nodded his agreement with the ambassador's argument.
"What has any of this got to do with me, sir?" the Captain asked, addressing his question to the Admiral.
"Shepard," said Hackett. No further explanation was needed.
"Shepard is our candidate?" asked Anderson, his eyes wide with incredulity. His XO was infamous, and not a very political choice for any position that the galaxy's public eye would scrutinise. That she was being considered at all was a surprise. The only reasons she was still in the Navy at all was that her mother had some kind of leverage and Anderson had a place for her. The politicians occasionally still had a hearing about her continued service.
The Ambassador wasn't among them, evidently, as he pressed for more details.
"Tell me about her," said Udina, glancing at a data tablet, "She's a spacer, lived aboard starships most of her life..."
"Born on Earth. Military service runs in the family, both parents are in the service," said Anderson, "Sharpest instincts in a fight I have ever seen, commendations in every operation she ever..."
"She got most of her unit killed on Torfan," said Admiral Hackett, interrupting his subordinate.
"And she killed an entire company of batarians single-handed. She gets the job done, no matter what the cost," replies Anderson, "We would have lost far more without her." The pirates and batarian specialists may even have gotten away to fight another day, to raid and pillage the small colonies on the Terminus border for months or years afterwards. Anyone who thought she could have acted differently was an imbecile in Anderson's mind, but he knew she felt strangely about it. She had been a mess when she had been dumped on him five years earlier. Completely unrestrained, he remembered.
"Is that the sort of person we want to protect humanity?" asked Udina.
"That's the only kind of person who can protect humanity," said Anderson firmly. He believed every word.
"Do you hate aliens?"
The question hung in the air like a fog, the only thing capable of clearing it; the answer. It was also a shot out of the blue, an almost whimsical inquiry.
The Normandy's CIC had been nearly empty. The lights dimmed for the night, indicating it was the night turian called Nihlus stood at the viewscreen, a holographic image of Eden Prime and the rest of its system on it. Captain Anderson was nowhere to be seen, no doubt asleep in his cabin. It was the executive officer's shift. The only crew awake there were ensigns and a spare bridge lieutenant, all gathered towards the front of the room, away from the only other two occupants. Transit from orbit over Palaven has been smooth, turian efficiency doing its part. Now, the ship was heading to Arcturus, to pick up its full complement of personnel.
Jane Shepard pushed a stray curl of red hair out of her eyes as she attempted to monitor fleet chatter, unable to concentrate. Aside from being tired, as it was near the end of her own shift, the presence of the turian on the CIC was not particularly welcome. True, the ship had been a joint turian-human effort. The Hierarchy's first Normandy-class frigate was due to roll out of the shipyards the next month. The fact he wasn't human wasn't the absolute cause of her uneasiness either.
It was that he was observing her from across the room, and had been for hours.
Shepard had to admit he was good. Very subtle in his surveillance, something she thought essentially impossible for a turian in the first place. The only body language that betrayed him was that his shoulders remained squarely facing her, even as his head swivelled between a secure comms-station and the display. If he had been human, she might have mistook the display as attraction. But he wasn't.
Unfortunately, Shepard had not been so subtle in watching him. Their eyes met, Nihlus deciding that the game had gone on long enough. He stood up from the station he had been at, and paced over towards her, his hands behind his back. She followed his movements, not removing her gaze for a moment.
"Commander, may I ask you something?" the turian said, "Something you may find insulting?"
Wondering what sort of informal interrogation she was about to receive, Shepard frowned to herself. Why the turian cared, she did not know. Not knowing was troublesome. However, he was a Spectre. One of the many long arms of the Citadel Council, an operative for the turian, asari and salarian peoples that did not flinch from the most heinous actions, in order to protect them and their allies from threats to the galactic order. Simply fobbing him off with a platitude didn't seem like a good idea, so she quickly began closing up the windows on her console and leaned against the side of the CIC core.
"Shoot," Shepard said, rubbing the fatigue out of her neck. Attempting to look casual, and knowingly failing, in other words.
"Do you hate aliens?"
The question hit her like a baseball bat.
Shepard winced, frozen in place. It was a good question at least, however unwelcome. Did she really know the answer? If she did hate aliens, could she admit it? To a Spectre's face, no less. Nihlus' eyes cut into her, his impatience for an answer projected through them, yet everything else maintained an image of polite inquiry.
"Look... we began exploring the galaxy after I was born. I vaguely remember it all," Shepard said, "We fought each other when Earth turned to an iceball, stumbled onto the Prothean ruins on Mars, came out into the galaxy, right?" She glanced at the turian for confirmation that he was aware of this.
"I am aware of your recent history, yes," said Nihlus, "In fact, it may be that humans were the most advanced species ever to discover the mass effect. You already had all the technologies you needed to exploit it. You were able to integrate eezo into your tools in a matter of months. No other species can claim the same thing."
Shepard's eyebrows raised. She didn't know that. She nodded, and continued, knowing that indulging the tangent wouldn't be tolerated, no matter how kindly the turian appeared.
"So, we explored," she said slowly, "Eager, but cautious. Optimistic, but ready. And what happened?"
Nihlus' mandibles twitched. She knew that he understood exactly what she was getting at.
"Relay 314," he said, before correcting himself, "Shanxi."
"Exactly," said Shepard, standing up straighter, "Without warning, your own people decide to attempt to subjugate my species, and over what? Compliance with a law we had no idea about, made by a Council we had never heard of, composed of the leaders of species we had no idea even existed."
The Commander took a breath, realising that her voice had risen a few orders of magnitude. A couple of ensigns bolted away, as her gaze swung to them. Nihlus continued in his frustratingly resiliant stance of polite inquiry. He knew she wasn't finished.
"But then, we hit back, and the asari and salarians stop you," Shepard said softly, "You all help us integrate into galactic society, at a faster pace than any other species has had the privilege of before. Still too slow to us, but it was still damned generous by your standards."
"They hardly did it to oppose the Hierarchy, or out of the goodness of their hearts," Nihlus pointed out, claw raised in front of him.
"Of course," Shepard nodded, "But, the story doesn't end there. We integrate, but in doing so, we piss off the batarians, who view themselves as the rightful 'fourth species' at best, as the rightful rulers of the galaxy at worst. That their society is almost completely the opposite of our own didn't help. We fight two wars. And what happens?"
Nihlus' head cocked ever so slightly to the side. This time, he didn't understand. Unlike Shanxi, most non-humans didn't understand. Shepard found it utterly exasperating.
"The batarians leave the Citadel, attack us, and your fleets do nothing," she said, her jaw clenching, "But, thanks to good planning and hard fighting, we win anyway. We stand on the edge of bringing down the whole rotten ediface of the Hegemony. Only then did your leaders decide to intervene. Total victory snatched from us."
The Spectre did not react to her frustration. He just listened.
"But, in return, we get to jump the queue," Shepard said, "We're on the fast track to a Council seat, perhaps even in my lifetime. We're valued, more than the volus or the hanar at least, and they've been around for centuries... "
An amused growl erupted from the Spectre, and Shepard's voice trailed off. She had said too much, she realised, and there was no way to unring the bell. Understanding that she hadn't really answered the question, she got to the point.
"So, do I hate aliens?" said Shepard, "Apart from the batarians, no. And who knows, maybe Khar'shan will fall some day and I'll have a lot less reason to hate them. But I sure as hell don't know where I stand with the rest of the galaxy. One minute, humans are a liability, the next, we're an asset. Enslaving humans is okay, but so is unrelenting human expansion towards the Terminus. I'd prefer if 'aliens' stopped jerking us around. For a change."
She left the part about her personal reputation out. At least her human detractors were firmly in the minority.
Nihlus hmmed to himself, his hands grabbed onto the neck-ring of his armour, his eyes upturned. Shepard braced for his response. As far as she was concerned, her answer had been a very complicated verbal shrug, however honest it might have been. Her military upbringing didn't leave her satisfied with such a vague response to a superior.
"Do you resent my presence here?" he asked finally, "I understand that many humans do resent turians, even though we are now allies."
Shepard shook her head immediately. "Not at all," she responded, "I don't know you, and despite the stereotypes, I've met turians who don't fit them. You may be one of them, actually. The same is true of asari, salarians, quarians... I've never met a batarian or a krogan who didn't fit their stereotypes, but I suppose it's possible. Not like you ordered Shanxi personally."
Nihlus laughed heartily. "I'm glad I didn't," he said, seizing upon the chance to lighten the mood, "The generals responsible for that got demoted, and in the Hierarchy, that's no small thing. The people responsible for promoting them in the first place lost their positions too."
Shepard snorted her amusement. "We could do with a little of that," she said, "Among our politicians at least."
With that, they both laughed together, and Shepard felt a great deal better about having a turian Spectre on board. He wouldn't be the first she had fought alongside, but she suspected he was the first she would appreciate. Besides, what greater opportunity than to learn from one of the galaxy's best.
That she was going to join him as humanity's first Spectre came out the next day. Shepard would not have much time to enjoy the idea.
"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You better see this!" interrupted Joker via the intercom, halting the mission briefing. Nihlus and Anderson had been explaining the true purpose of the mission. A Prothean beacon, and a chance for a human Spectre. But, the urgency in the voice of the Normandy's pilot was palpable. Impossible to ignore or dismiss. The hairs on the back of Shepard's neck stood on end.
"Bring it up on-screen," said Anderson, as they all turned towards the comm-room's viewscreen.
The image turned from a tranquil photo of the colony to infantry in a heavy firefight. The enemy could not be seen, and the squad in the video link seemed to be heavily suppressed. Explosions and incoming fire rattled past the camera man.
"We're under attack, taking heavy casualties! They came from nowhere, we need-"
The officer making the request for aid shut up as a loud humming started. The camera swung towards the sky. Surrounded by discharging energies, a giant black ship descended, tentacle like protrusions extending downward towards the ground. It looked truly massive, filling the screen and apparently the sky as well. The sound struck terror into Shepard for a moment, her chest tightening at the din as the ship finally landed. She couldn't figure out why. It was primal fear.
The video cut out.
"Comms are down, there's nothing after that," said Joker.
"Reverse and hold at 38.5," ordered Anderson.
The image of the giant tentacled ship returned to the screen. It was obvious. Eden Prime was being invaded. "Black Forest Protocol, sir," said Shepard.
"Looks like it," said Anderson with a nod.
"I don't understand," said Nihlus.
"If communications with a colony is lost, it is Alliance protocol to send recon, and then a planetary assault fleet. After Shanxi, we don't take any chances," explained Anderson, "We'll pass this information along, and go in for recon. High Command will want us in position for the orbital assault, and we can't let the beacon fall into the wrong hands."
"Take us in Joker, fast and quiet."
Shepard found Alenko and Jenkins in the cargobay, near the assault pods where Nihlus was already waiting. The two were busy checking their armour and weapons. Their armour was covered in the standard EU grey-white camo pattern for urban and arctic warfare. Etched on the side of their helmets and on their shoulder pads, the coat of arms of the Hell Brigade could be seen, a silver lion holding a sword and olive branch, surrounded by a halo of stars. Whatever Shepard had to say about the Alliance Army, they had sent some of the best to compliment the Normandy on this mission.
"Going to make trouble on this mission, Commander?" asked Alenko, with a generous helping of sarcasm, trying to deflect his discomfort about going into a warzone blind with humour.
"I always thought it was you Army boys that were wet behind the ears," she replied, happy for the distraction from what she had seen and heard from the vid-link.
"Only because we sit on glaciers for days on end while you Navy types sit in cozy ships, lobbing shells from orbit," said Alenko. Shepard laughed, throwing him his weapon in response.
Anderson arrived from the lift, Chakwas in tow.
"Your team will deploy by assault pod and make for the beacon, Shepard. It'll be your job to secure it against all threats. You're authorised to use whatever force you feel necessary. Nihlus will do recon on the area, and relay the intel back to the Normandy. Helping survivors is a secondary objective, the beacon has to stay in our hands at all costs."
"You can count on us, sir," said Shepard.
"And try not to get yourselves shot," said Chakwas, "I may be used to it, but that doesn't mean I like seeing you hurt."
Shepard raised a thumb to reassure the medical officer, and then closed the assault pod around her.
"Approaching drop point one," said Joker, and a moment later, a loud hiss erupted from the launch tube holding Nihlus' pod.
Anderson rapped his knuckles on Shepard's pod.
"Good luck."
"Drop point two," said Joker.
The world fell away, as the assault pod was shot out of the Normandy and towards the planet.
Shepard rattled around inside the pod as it powered its way through the atmosphere towards the dropzone. The ground closed at a lightning pace. Fires and smoke could be seen more and more clearly, but no signs of targets or civilians. The howling of the wind was the only thing to be heard other than the altitude reader's ever more rapid beeping.
The pod hit the ground with a dull thud, the mass effect generators firing up to allow a textbook landing. The sections of the pod opened up, and Shepard stepped out into the acrid air for her first real look at Eden Prime. The skyline was red from a mix of the setting sun and the light from burning buildings, but it was still easy to see why the colony was considered a paradise. Nothing but verdant hills, little woods and lakes as far as the eye could see. Now it was on fire.
"Dropzone secure, Commander," said Alenko, coming up on her position with Jenkins.
Shepard nodded to him.
"Troop Command Europa, Verdun squad is on the ground, going radio silent," Shepard transmitted, before waving her companions forward.
They rounded a large rock outcrop, and almost ran straight into a balloon creature of some kind that was floating lazily in the air.
"What the hell is that?" asked Alenko.
"Gasbags, they're harmless," replied Jenkins, "Watch."
The corporal shot the nearest specimen with his sidearm and it blew up with a bang.
"See?" the man said, satisfied with his work. A native of Eden Prime himself, his familiarity with the surroundings had completely screwed with him. Shepard slapped him on the backside of his helmet. She wished she could have slapped him on the back of the head. He was a little too new to the job, but should have known better.
"Giving away our position, real smart," she said, "Come on, let's get moving before someone comes to investigate why the party balloons are popping."
The group advanced onto the next ridge, with Jenkins on point. They had landed on the flat top of a rocky plateau overlooking a settlement, and had to negotiate winding paths flanked by stone. Shepard knew they would need the concealment, if what she had seen was as bad as she had feared. It was the reason why she had selected the area to land in. She also knew that the enemy would probably know that, and leave something to defend the passes.
"What is that smell?" Jenkins asked, a moment after they rounded yet another corner in the labrynth.
"Something familiar," replied Shepard.
"Smoke and death," said Alenko, clarifying.
The burnt bodies came into view soon after, laying where they fell. Each was arranged in a number of grotesque positions, showing exactly the dead person felt about being burning alive. Shepard pushed them on, mostly for Jenkins' sake. He had not seen much of that sort of thing before this mission, and Shepard saw no reason to introduce him to it yet. He needed to be thinking about something other than dying, if he wanted to stay alive.
They came up on another hill, the main settlement coming into view again. Jenkins rushed ahead as Shepard and Alenko sighted the buildings below, looking for signs of activity.
Without warning, two drones burst from cover. Jenkins shouted, trying to get the attention of his squadmates. The drones opened fire with some sort of rapid fire plasma weapon, and riddled the corporal with fiery holes. Shepard immediately ducked for cover behind an outcrop of rubbled stone. She heard Jenkins' body drop to the ground with a thud, as Alenko let off a few rounds to dissuade the enemy. The drones didn't get the picture, turning their attention and their gun barrels to fire.
Shepard groaned and quickly readied her pistol as the lieutenant continued to put down suppressing fire. If the drones got close, they might detonate. She knew they needed to end this before they could closethe gap. She decided to go for the longshot. Producing an EMP grenade, she tossed it at the drones' position. It exploded with a gratifying blue flash, discharging electricity over a wide radius. The drones dropped to the ground, and Shepard rushed up the hill at full sprint. The ploy had worked, to her surprise, but there was no time to dwell on it. She found the metal hulls lying on the ground near the top of the hill, and shot each three times with her pistol before they could reboot. The wrecks buzzed and died.
The lieutenant was crouching over Jenkins' body when Shepard returned, and she joined him.
"Ripped right through his shields, didn't stand a chance," said Alenko, standing up.
"We got lucky. If the EMP hadn't worked, we would be down there with have to carry on with the mission. We need to find that beacon," Shepard said, "Not to mention find out who those drones belonged to."
"Yes, sir," Alenko said.
The pair continued on their way, into a forested area. Shepard dispatched another group of drones from a distance with her sniper rifle, having spotted them entirely by luck through the trees. They had been hovering near something, patroling in a lazy pattern. That raised suspicions, as well as the hope that they had found something important.
The Commander repositioned to see what they were protecting, and put her eye to the scope again.
"What in the hell!" she shouted.
Two geth were dragging a screaming man towards a small platform of some kind. The civilian was utterly terrified, eyes streaming and face red, as the synthetics moved him forcibly backwards. Shepard felt the cold touch of her will to kill fall over her, the place she put her mind to fight within emotion. She began to aim in on the nearest of them, hoping to blast the damned thing to oblivion. As she was about to fire, the man was tossed onto the platform and held down. He squirmed, which moved the geth, preventing the shot.
A twenty foot spike slammed through the unwitting victim, hoisting him into the air.
Shepard opened her mouth in amazement and shock as she watched, as the blood streamed down the spike and the civilian twitched for a few seconds. The geth stood and watched, as if entranced. The Commander resisted the nausea of the view, took aim and fired, the cold killing instinct in her replaced with white hot rage. A rage she hadn't felt for five years. The shot burst through the chest of the first of the geth, toppling it over like a domino, as Alenko charged forwards to engage the second.
The biotic lieutenant closed the distance easily, and threw the target to the ground, smashing it with mass effect fields. White conductive fluid, almost like blood, sprayed into the mud and grass, congealing in the scrap metal.
"Good work, Lieutenant," Shepard said.
"Someone's coming, Commander," replied Alenko, pointing off down another one of the rocky trails ahead.
Sure enough, a figure emerged from a small crevice leading down to the town. The soldier was being chased by two more of the geth drones. She tripped and fell. Shepard sighted them, but it was too late. As the drones were about to deliver the killing blow, the white-armoured soldier rolled over. Bringing up a pistol, she blasted the things to pieces, before scrambling behind cover. Impressive marksmanship, thought Shepard, as she saw the newcomer was not alone.
More geth ran quickly into the space from where the soldier had come from. Alenko ran to cover beside the soldier, and together they began to engage the synthetics with controlled bursts from their rifles. It seemed to work, as the geth began to move to take shelter themselves. Shepard couldn't help but be intimidated by their immediate change in tactics. Fortunately, they had just played straight into her hands.
The Commander stayed back, plugging each geth with a well placed shot to the 'head' before targeting the next while they were distracted by the others. One by one, the combat units collapsed or fell on their back, disabled. The lieutenant pulled the last of the enemy towards his position, flinging them over the top of the rock they were hiding behind. The newcomer rushed forwards and poured fire on each of them. A brave woman, thought Shepard. The fight was over.
Shepard approached, putting her weapon back on its magnetic holster, and examined the soldier. The white armour the woman wore was scarred by hits, but she seemed to be in good enough shape to fight.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, 212th Colonial Infantry," the soldier said, putting her own weapon away, "You the one in charge here ma'am?"
"Commander Shepard, N7. What the hell happened here, chief?" Shepard said, kicking over one of the 'corpses', "Where did the geth come from?"
The question seemed to fluster Chief Williams. Shepard frowned, realising why. Name recognition. Her reputation preceded her almost everywhere. Williams took a deep breath and collected her thoughts quickly, evidently nervous and sad in equal measure.
"We were on patrol when they showed up out of nowhere. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off the comm buoys and I've been fighting for my life ever since." The Commander put her hand on the Chief's shoulder, to steady the soldier.
"We got your distress signal and passed it along," replied Shepard, "The cavalry is on the way. Are you alright?"
"No, I think... I think the rest of my squad are dead."
"We can find out when this is all over, but in the mean time, I need you to take me to the beacon."
"...Sure, it's this way..." said Ashley after a pause. The group walked past the giant spike, the man impaled on it now quite dead. Blood had stopped pouring down the length of the shaft, coagulating. The ferrous smell of it wafted through the breeze.
"Any idea what the hell these things are?" asked Shepard, considering how best to destroy the thing. Its design was more than function, and it looked like an altar to her. Which made the implications of its existence even more disturbing.
"No, the geth just started putting people on them as soon as they arrived," replied Ashley.
"Why would the geth come out of the Veil for the first time in two hundred years, only to impale people on spikes when they can shoot us far more easily?" mused Alenko, as they continued moving.
"Shepard, this is Nihlus. I've encountered geth and found the spaceport, moving to investigate. I'll meet you there once you've secured the beacon."
"Copy that, good luck."
Ashley led Shepard and Alenko to the edge of a huge pit.
It was filled with geth. Most had taken to hiding behind various pieces of equipment and rocks, as well as the Prothean structure that poked out from the ground, others continued digging, searching for something. Or at least, pretending to. The beacon had already been dug up, and there would be no time to dig deep enough to find anything else of interest. The Commander saw through their plan, glad that the robots were fallible enough for that at least. They were waiting for someone to come along.
"Ambush, with the digsite as the bait," said Shepard, frowning, "We'll turn it on them, get down there and hide."
Ashley and Kaiden followed the order immediately without complaint or hesitation, to the Commander's relief. They crept behind discarded rocks, moving slowly through the soil, crouching behind mounds of rubble and excavated rock. Shepard noted the Gunnery Chief's movements in particular. The woman was good, covering every angle of attack for a split second with her weapon until she was sure there wasn't a threat, before moving to the next position and flowing into the next movement. It took some time before they were ready for the next step, but the geth were patient, and went about their business like clockwork.
Shepard smiled as she levelled her rifle to start the show. She sighted the biggest of the geth, a seven-feet high yellow thing with fuel tanks on its back and a flamethrower in its grip. Not only the most dangerous of the enemy to the others, but by far the most entertaining. She set her ammunition type to incendiary, and picked out the obvious target point. At this range, she couldn't miss. All she needed to do was wait until the thing made a scheduled stop nearby six others.
The shot slung out of the weapon with a boom followed by a low whine. The bullet passed into the fuel tanks of the geth shock trooper, sparking as it went. A spectaculer ball of flame ten metres across enveloped all seven of the secondary targets, as well as the unfortunate fuel carrier, burning brightly for a split second. The fire in the air cleared into a thin black smoke, but it stuck like glue to the bodies of the geth. Parts of them began melting away, as liquid began leaking out of the spaces in their armour, before the charred remains dropped to the ground, deactivated permanently.
Shepard watched, as the geth spread out in disarray and took cover. It was satisfying, but a different sort of satisfaction to what she had felt when she had watched slavers burn. The geth were never alive, she thought, perhaps that was the difference. They committed evil without understanding it.
Predictably, the rest of the geth moved to attack Shepard, running right past the lieutenant and gunnery chief, blasting away at the Commander's position with their pulse rifles. As far as they knew, they were only fighting one lone sniper, not a team. So, when the geth had all broken cover, Ashley opened fire with her assault rifle as Alenko sent warp fields into them, they were entirely unprepared. The geth were cut down in mere seconds, caught entirely by surprise and in the open with their backs turned. They tumbled over each other, trying to return fire, but were unable to before being struck either by the two soldiers or Shepard's rifle.
"Clear," reported Alenko. Shepard rose up from and left her firing position to join him, as Ashley picked up a geth weapon for a moment.
"Well played guys," said Shepard, "Wasn't sure that would work."
"We'll have to remember that one," said Kaidan, strolling into the Prothean ruin, "It'll make for a good story when we get back. Something to take the crew's mind off Jenkins." Shepard nodded once. It was a good idea.
"More of the spikes," muttered Ashley, taking point. There was a whole line of the things queued up along the ruined walls. More people hung like trophies from them, more pools of blood gathered below. It was still wet. Shepard looked away, and for their objective.
"And no beacon," added Shepard, "Where would they have moved it?"
"The research camp," said Ashley, "It isn't far, this way."
The Gunnery-Chief led the way up another slope, out of the pit and towards a small encampment. Yet more spikes were waiting for them there, like grizzly totem poles, but there was no sign of the beacon. Plenty of equipment and pre-fabricated habitation modules, other artifacts that were obviously less important because they'd just been dumped at random with tags, and supply crates. It seemed quiet, with no one else around. Except the dead.
The spikes suddenly collapsed in on themselves, turning back into small platforms, leaving the formerly impaled corpses lying on top. Shepard tensed up, bringing her rifle to bear. The corpses twitched and then got up from the ground with a collective moan. They struggled to their feet, revealing their bodies fully for the first time. The dead had been embedded with some sort of cybernetics, metal implants that riddled their torsos and limbs entirely. Their eyes were sunken, and glowed a deep blue. With a terrible howl, the bodies charged towards the squad.
Shepard could barely believe her eyes, but opened fire. The other option was to be torn apart by the things. The others followed suit, sending a wave of shots into the wave of implanted flesh coming at them.
"Not good, not good!" shouted Ashley as she shot the husks.
About twenty of the things were hobbling quickly over, and bullets were a lot less effective than they should have been. Finding she was unable to keep up with the semi-automatic, Shepard switched to her assault rifle and hosed the abominations down. Alenko held them off with biotics long enough for the others to line up enough shots to shred each of the targets individually. The husks finally fell, chunks of them blown clean away.
The last husk was luckier however, managing to sneak up on Alenko. It grabbed him, and a huge electrical discharge erupted from its body. The lieutenant screamed with pain, before Ashley ripped the husk off of him and slammed her riflebutt into its face, crushing the front of its skull. Alenko slumped to the ground for a moment. The Commander ran forward, firing the last of her magazine into the offender.
"You alright, Kaidan?" asked Shepard, as the man struggled to get to his feet with Ashley's aid.
"That hurt like hell, commander," he said, "But I'm good to go."
"What the hell did the geth do to these people?" asked Ashley, turning her lip up at the broken bodies.
"Turning the dead into cannon-fodder," said Alenko.
"Clever," Shepard said, scanning the shredded remains of a husk, "Don't risk your own when the enemy can fight for you."
"Also, horrifying," said Ashley, "The geth will pay for this."
"No argument there," replied Shepard.
"I don't see the beacon. It must be at the port.."
As the squad made its way towards the spaceport, a single gunshot rang out into the air. Shepard called for a halt, as she scanned their surroundings for a shooter. None could be found, and worse, a particular detail stood out in her mind as she stood up again.
"That didn't sound like a geth rifle," she remarked, "Double time!"
Rushing up the hill, she made it to the top in no time at all.
Taking off from the spaceport's main fieled was the giant kraken dreadnought, writhing in static discharge as it rose into the sky. Its limbs folded in behind its hull, the purple-black metal a stark constrast against the red sky of the late evening. The hairs on Shepard's neck stood on end once again, joined by her heart beating like it was trying to escape her chest. As a weapon of war, the Commander couldn't help but admire it. A ship that size that could land on planets was a formidable thing to have. She felt utterly powerless before its presence, like an ant watching a boot marching along.
As if that wasn't enough to take Shepard's breath away, the spaceport held still more surprises. At the entrance stood entire squads of geth and more of the spikes, the former moving to intercept her and the latter filled with bodies transformed by whatever foul process was at work.
Alenko fired off to Shepard's right, and she turned, seeking a target. The lieutenant had downed a husk, and now the entire geth force was aware of their presence. They turned towards the humans together with stomach churning choreography. Each raised their rifle simultaneously, as if they were controlled by the same puppeteer. The fire came at Shepard in a great wave. She dived. The hypervelocity shots broke against the cover of a metal platform. Perhaps it was what she had just seen, but she knew she couldn't win the fight. Knew it, like never before. As her heart pumped audibly in her head, even harder than before, she acted like she didn't.
After tossing a grenade in the hope of catching advancing geth unaware, Shepard turned on her comms.
"This is Verdun Squad, request fire support at Eden Prime spaceport near target coordinates," she said as calmly and loudly as she could, "Normandy, do you read? Nihlus?"
Nothing but static came as a response, and Shepard cursed profusely. A geth platform hopped over the wall beside her. She nearly jumped out of her skin, as it reached for her with a three-fingered apendage. As it took hold of a piece of her armour, she grabbed her pistol and shot the synthetic in the shoulder. The geth fell to the ground with a clanging sound, but Shepard kept shooting it until her pistol overheated, its thermal clip ejecting angrily. The gun hissed at her, as if it was complaining about the abuse, discharging hot air from its side. She stared at it, unable to understand why she was acting like this.
"Commander, look!" said Ashley, pointing to the sky. Shepard followed her finger, expecting the kraken-shaped dreadnought to have returned.
Instead, a dozen Alliance titans were dropping in from orbit, powering up their drives and coming to hover over the city. The cavalry had arrived at last. The hovering fortresses were accompanied by a number of gunships, which buzzed away into the hills to hunt. Showers of assault pods launched from the sides of the vehicles, depositing infantry to take and hold the key positions for the rest of the Army to come. Shepard's strange feeling disappeared in an instant, as a voice came over the comms.
"Verdun, this is T245, inbound on your position to provide fire support."
The hulking form of the nearest titan came closer, and the huge guns on its belly opened fire. The geth were stuck as if by the gods themselves, being blown to pieces as craters sprung up where entire squads of the synthetics stood seconds earlier. Those left standing regrouped and retreated in good order, as armoured walkers dropped from the back of the planetary assault craft. The geth turned and opened fire on the armoured giants. The assault troops immediately spun up the gatling guns sticking out of their walkers like fangs, streaming hypervelocity rounds towards the enemy. Cover was torn aside along with the geth themselves, their broken bodies unrecognisable for what they were. The fight was over.
Shepard breathed a sigh of relief, and got up from her position. Kaidan cheered and raised his rifle in salute to the newcomers, while Ashley slumped against a fence. All she needed to do now was go get the beacon.
The Titan landed, and platoons began disembarking, fanning out to secure the area. The walkers pounded away into the hills, walking past Shepard and her squad as they made their way towards the outer settlements. A tank leader saluted from a cupola on top of the lead walker as it passed by, and Shepard returned the gesture.
An officer walked up, escorted by several others, all decked out in full armour down to faceplates that made them all look like statues of some kind. Unlike Lt. Alenko, their armour was more suitable for the lush forests of the planet they were standing on, being a muted set of greens and browns. Shepard ordered her companions to search for the prize, while she waited.
The officer removed his helmet, revealing black hair and a grim face. Out of courtesy, she removed her own, so they could speak more easily.
"Commandant Coats, Legio II Britannia," the man said as he saluted, stating the official title of his unit in cockney-accented Latin, "I presume you're the N7?"
"Commander Shepard, N7, assigned to the Normandy," she replied, shaking the man's hand, "The beacon isn't secure yet, and there are geth everywhere."
"It's the bloody Angel of Death!" exclaimed one of troops to his counterpart, betraying a Scottish accent. Shepard rolled her eyes, jaded by the very common reaction to her being recognised. She might be infamous to the galactic public, but she was just plain famous in the Alliance military. Either admired as a hero or a cause of annoyance to soldiers constantly compared to her.
"Hush, sergeant!" ordered Coats, causing the pair to stand at attention, "Open your mouths again like that, and you'll be chewing on my bootheel!"
"It's alright, Commandant," said Shepard, looking the two over, "I'm used to it."
Ashley ran up from the loading docks, and saluted the officers.
"Commander, you're going to want to see this," she said, the urgency clear in her voice.
"Coats, with me," said Shepard, as she followed the gunnery-chief.
They came up onto the raised platform, where Alenko was stooped over yet another body. A turian body. Nihlus lay on his side, his weapons still holstered to their magnetic grips, a gaping hole in back of his head. Shepard swore under her breath, and massaged her temples. There was going to be hell to pay, and she was going to be the one to pay it, she realised.
"High Command is going to shit bricks," said Coats, "If this is who I think it is."
"It is," said Shepard, kneeling to examine the body, "Shot in the head, point blank if the muzzle burn is any indication."
A corporal approached from the side, giving a hurried salute before reporting. Shepard stood up to listen, noting the other people with him.
"Sir, we found a civilian hiding behind the crates," he said, the civilian in question being escorted between two burly privates, "And more down in the storage barn of the nearest farm." The Commandant looked the civvie up and down, surprised that the man had been able to survive.
"Who are you, citizen?" asked Coats, waving his hand towards Nihlus' body, "What were you doing back there?"
"M-my name is Powell, I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him."
Shepard's eyebrow raised itself at that. "Other turian?" she asked.
"The other one got here first, he was waiting for something. The dead one showed up, and dropped his guard like he knew him. Called him Saren or something. Then the Saren guy just pulled out a pistol, and shot him in the back. I'm just glad he didn't see me, he was the meanest looking turian I've ever seen." A turian working with the geth made no sense, but that could wait. For the moment, she wanted only one thing.
"Do you know where the Prothean beacon is?" asked Shepard, getting impatient.
"It's on the other platform, at the other end of the port," said Powell, "Saren hopped on the cargo train, after he shot your friend."
"Alright, Mr. Powell, consider yourself detained by the Alliance Army for questioning," said Coats, nodding to his men to put the man in cuffs, "We'll need everything you know."
"Hey, wait!" said the dockworker as he was pulled off towards the landed titan, his feet dragging between his captors.
"Alright Coats, we need to get to the beacon before the geth make off with it," said Shepard, "You're with me, bring a platoon."
"Yes, Commander!" said Coats, before ordering up a unit to meet them at the cargo docks.
The journey on the train was only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity to most of its passengers. The geth seemed to have disappeared, and the vulnerability of the transport to attack had everyone on edge. With nothing to hide behind, the troops took to setting up deployable shields along the length of the train. Anything to get the drop on the trap they were sure was waiting for them ahead. Shepard ignored them, standing at the very front, watching the end of the line intently as it moved ever closer.
"Where are they?" asked Ashley, joining the Commander.
Shepard kept her eyes pointed dead ahead. "Getting ready for us," she said, "They'll hit us the moment we get to the station." A prospect that positively delighted her. As far as she was concered, the geth would be lining up to die. The fight that had abandoned her in the presence of the mystery dreadnought had returned quickly, once it had left.
"Shouldn't we take cover?" the Gunnery-Chief asked, "Won't you be hit first?"
"Not if I hit them first," grinned Shepard, before retrieving her rifle from her back. Whatever had happened before, she was ready now. For something to strike fear into her heart like the dreadnought had would require some further investigation. But for now, it was time to fight again.
The cargo train took a few minutes more to arrive, and did so with a lurch. Gripping the rails to steady herself, the Commander vaulted the railings onto the platform before it had even stopped, and began running towards the cover of some crates. Sure enough, a geth unit popped its head around the storage as expected. Shepard closed down the distance, as the geth screeched at her. As the geth began bouncing shots off of her kinetic barriers, she activated her omnitool and sent a flash-forged blade straight through the thing's head. Ashley and Kaidan scrambled to follow her, as she blasted another geth that emerged beside the now-headless target. She ducked behind to reload, adrenalin sharpening her senses.
The rest of the geth emerged from the station and fired on Commandant Coats' troops as they disembarked from the train. To the soldiers' credit, they spread out and returned fire as best they could. Shepard knew some of them wouldn't make it though, there was just too many guns pointed their way. Determined to do something about that, she switched to her sniper rifle and began eliminating the geth with swift efficiency. As long as they had something else to shoot at, she would wreck them all. That was the cold fact she had intended to rely on all along. Several soldiers went down to the geth fire before they made it to adequate cover, but she carved down the synthetics' numbers nicely before they began reacting to the threat.
Once off the platform, Coats' squad made better progress, not least because of the flanking fire from Shepard's team. the exchange of fire grew more even-sided as Coats' command squad shadowed the platform's edge, shooting up onto the station proper. The Commandant was brave, Shepard thought as she watched. She wouldn't have gone that way. There was a reason why he had, however.
"Radiological alarm!" said Coats, stopping his fire and examining his omnitool, "We've got something nuclear nearby."
"Find it," Shepard ordered, "Quickly." Being vaporised into radioactive dust wasn't how she planned to die, and who knew if the geth even feared death. It could have just been nuclear materials for all she knew, but her history didn't suggest she would be that lucky.
The officer complied, and began searching the crates for the source. The geth began to take a greater interest, moving to get a clear shot at the team below. Something was definitely up, the Commander realised, before she turned her lethal attention to them. She shot a brace of them, before being interrupted by the bad news she knew had been coming.
"It's a bomb," Coats reported, "Or it looks like it. You better get back here."
"The geth are coming," said Shepard, "On the way."
By the time the Commander arrived, the bomb had been opened, with Coats' men standing around him looking very unhappy as they swapped shots with the geth. Shepard let off a few in the direction of the geth herself, pour encourager les autres, before making her way to the Commandant himself. The man looked worried, which unsettled her a little. She asked what the situation was, falling into her professionalism to guard herself against doubt.
"We have less than five minutes before it detonates," reported Coats. In other words, not nearly enough time to get clear, even with an aerial extraction. It all depended on how powerful the thing was. They might get away if it was only a tactical device. Shepard knelt beside the thing, examining the bomb and its detonator.
"It's a multi-kilotonne nuclear warhead," said Shepard calmly, "It'll destroy this settlement and everyone in it. Probably most of your legion too." With no escape.
"Can you disarm it?" asked Alenko.
"If I had more time, yes, but I doubt this is the only warheard," said Shepard, closing the casing again, "The geth would have put it somewhere more defensible if this was the only one."
"So we're all dead?" asked Ashley, hardly believing her luck. Shepard wasn't quite so sure as she stood up, putting her hand to her mouth and pacing towards the railings for a moment. Ashley and Alenko looked at each other, wondering if she had given up. She hadn't.
"Coats, order your men to turn off their NetBat systems and omnitools," The Commander said, turning her own off with a tap of the haptic interface.
"You heard the woman, turn your shit off!" he said loudly, trusting in Shepard's reputation. The troops complied quickly, a glimmer of hope sweeping through the faces.
"Normandy, this is Shepard. I need an immediate wide-area EMP strike on my position."
"Copy that, strike package on the way," said Joker, "Thirty seconds until blast."
Shepard grimaced, wondering if it would be enough.
"Will that stop the geth?" asked Coats, evidently thinking the same thing.
"It should stall them for a few minutes, but that's not the point," explained Shepard, "This bomb isn't shielded for electronic countermeasures, the detonators will short out and the bombs won't fire." Nor would they turn her or anyone else into shadows on the walls.
"That's quite a gamble," said Alenko, "What if we don't get them all or if other charges are shielded?"
"There's no way we'll be able to fight through the geth and disarm each bomb in time," Shepard replied, "We have to take the risk."
"Troops, reload," said Coats, "As soon as this hits, we charge."
The Normandy came into view, soaring down from the sky like a bird of prey. As soon as it lined up with the station, everyone took cover. The EMP cannon pulsed repeatedly, humming with each discharge, bathing the entire station in blue-green electrical blooms. The ship then pulled up at the last second, buzzing the station and the troops in a stunning display of piloting. Joker would be bragging about that one for weeks, Shepard thought as she got up.
The smell of ozone filling the air, she reactivated her systems and ran forwards. Joined by her own crew and the soldiers, she sprinted into the station quickly. The synthetics were disorientated, some lying on the ground, others getting back to their feet. A touch of amusement crossed Shepard's mind, as she realised the attack had done a lot more damage than she had anticipated.
The squads relished the opportunity to kill each of the geth, tossing grenades at them and smashing them with omnitools and rifles. More of the enemy descended from more of the mysterious spikes, and ran towards the vengeful soldiers.
"Watch the husks!" said Shepard, plugging one from the top of a balcony as they rushed forwards. For three of the soldiers, the warning came too late. The husks grabbed a hold of them, detonating their cybernetics. The troops were crippled with pain, and the husks tore the men to pieces before enough fire returned the favour. The advance halted abruptly, but it seemed as if they had gone far enough anyway. The geth were in full retreat.
"What in the hell were those?" asked Coats, as Shepard hopped down off the balcony.
"The latest horror show," Shepard said, "The geth make those things from the colonists by impaling them on those spikes." She briefly remembered the man she had seen killed in that way, before putting the thought away.
"That's ... beyond words," Coats replied, as his troops saw to the dead. None of them would be forgetting this, the Commander realised. Thankfully, the way was now clear to her objective.
Shepard turned to the cargo area, and there it was. The Prothean beacon. A pillar of polished metal, etched with a strange language in green lighting, with a computer attached to the bottom. It looked like a model of a skyscraper or something to her, but it gave off a strange aura. An inticing one.
"So this is it?" asked Alenko, "It's smaller than I thought it would be."
"It better be worth it," said Coats.
"Nihlus thought it was," replied Shepard, eyeing the surface of the artifact. It seemed to hum at her as she looked. Had it detected her presence?
Ashley approached the beacon slowly.
"It wasn't doing that when they dug it up," she muttered, taking another step towards it, "Something must have activated it."
The beacon started to power up, with green lights shining down it's entire length now. Shepard looked on as Ashley appeared to be pulled towards it by some force. The beacon started making a lot of noise, which was rising in pitch.
The Commander, fearing the worst, rushed to Ashley. The Gunnery-Chief began screaming, holding her head as she began to levitate in the arm. Taking her by the waist, Shepard flung her back, and was caught in the beacon's grip.
The device pulled her just in front of the interface and lifted her. Shepard's head pounded with pain for a moment. Images flashed into her mind. More of the kraken-like ships descending from the sky. People being torn apart. Bodies piled as high as houses. Planets scorched from space. Massive fleets doing battle.
The beacon exploded, tossing Shepard to the ground. She fell unconscious.
Codex: Titans
A Titan is a huge airborne fortress that serves as a transport, air support vehicle, gunship carrier and mobile operations base. Developed by the Pan-Asian Coalition before the 2139 Cold War, the European Union developed their own line of Titans to counteract the project and the vehicle has served with human military forces ever since. The addition of mass effect technologies means that these flying behemoths can be dropped from orbit with entire companies of troops on board, along with armour and limited air support.
The role of the Titan in late 22nd Century combat is constantly debated, especially outside of the Systems Alliance. A Titan's kinetic barriers are essentially immune to damage from the vast majority of conventional arms capable of being deployed on planets. They now carry vertically mounted EXALT launchers for dealing with ships attacking them from orbit, but they remain vulnerable from attack from space. The Turian Hierarchy, the only Citadel species to have direct combat experience against titans, has started a limited construction run of a titan project of their own, which may lead to the adoption of the concept by all major military powers.
Codex: L5 Riesig Assault Walker
A bipedal assault walker or armoured mech famed for its reliability and firepower, the L5 Riesig is entering its sixth decade in the service of human militaries. Developed in Germany before the 2139 Cold War, the Riesig originally possessed twin vulcan cannons, a multiple rocket launcher system, an anti-aircraft cannon and an active defence system not dissimilar from naval GARDIAN batteries. By the 2170s however, it has been upgraded significantly, with gatling mass accelerators, a variety of anti-vehicle weaponry mounted both in the hull and the top turret. It is also now capable of being dropped from orbit or in atmosphere, from ships or Kodiak Heavy Lift shuttles.
Sheathed in hardened and ablative armour, sporting both active defence systems and kinetic barriers, the Riesig is a truly tough nut to crack. The turian occupiers of Shan'xi found that their anti-armour weapons based on missiles were entirely inadequate, and they did not possess enough high calibre accelerators to turn the tide. The batarians by contrast studied the human way of war extensively both before and during their conflict with the Alliance, and equipped their forces with both fast firing anti-barrier weapons and large calibre AT guns to try and compensate. Despite their advantages, no other military powers in the galaxy have decided to design walkers, leaving the Riesig the only walker officially in service with any species' military.
The Riesig was upgraded after the Skyllian Blitz for even more barrier strength and ablative armour, and remains the Alliance's go to armoured vehicle for operations on irregular terrain. It has become so ubiquitous that it is said that if Mikhail Kalashnikov designed an assault walker, the Riesig would be it.