Kaidan quickly realized that adjusting his scanner to account for synthetics had been a good idea. He and Shepard had barely made it to the cover of the trees before another wave of drones descended upon them. The second wave consisted of a heavily armored assault variety in place of the recon ones they'd dispatched earlier. Kaidan charged an overload attack to drain their shields while Shepard pressed forward, pistol blazing. They skirted around the trunks of huge trees, taking out each drone they came across.
At the tree line, Shepard signaled for him to pause again. Fast movement streaked by in the distance. Synchronously, they ducked behind cover and carefully peered around to assess the situation. A lone human raced towards the trees, two recon drones flying fast on her heels. The figure stumbled and Kaidan sucked in a breath, sure she was down for the count. Instead, the marine rolled and brought her pistol up on the pivot. Both machines exploded when her aim hit true. Shepard's sigh of relief echoed over the link in unison with his own.
The marine scrambled to her feet and kept running. A closer look past her revealed the true threat to Kaidan. Two bipedal synthetics had a tight grip on a man. Kaidan could see the victim struggling in their grasp. Suddenly, a metal spike pierced through his chest as it surged to the sky. Blood rained down over the synthetics as the man was finally still. In eerie unison, the figures turned in the direction the marine had fled. Kaidan noticed that in place of humanoid features, a single flashlight rested atop their shoulders.
From this vantage point, Kaidan could see the marine cowering behind an outcropping of rock, clutching an assault rifle close to her chest. The synthetics crept forward and metallic clicking noises filled the air with what he assumed was some form of communication. He let his biotics flare over his skin. He wasn't going to let anyone else die. Not if he could help it. He snapped his head to the side when he heard a loud crack. Shepard had traded her pistol for her sniper rifle and had it tight to her shoulder as she lined up a second shot.
Calm. Focus. Patience. It was the creed of a sniper. Breathe in, acquire target. Breathe out, pull the trigger. Shepard repeated the mantra to herself as she took down the second synthetic. She didn't know if they carried their processing power in those damn lamp heads like brains but was happy to learn that headshots worked just the same.
A blue field of energy rippled over the lieutenant's armor; it was mesmerizing. She had to admit that she was impressed with his calm attitude under fire. Though Jenkins' death had obviously upset Alenko, he'd set it aside and kept pace with her. Not every marine could do that. Sure, they were trained to deal with death and carry on in practice, but in reality, not all of them could. She pushed herself off the ground and latched the sniper rifle over her back again. No time to take in the scenery.
"I'm Commander Shepard. This is Lieutenant Alenko," Shepard approached the marine.
"Thanks for your help, Commander. I didn't think I was going to make it." The woman breathed heavily. "I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You in charge?"
Shepard bit her tongue. No, I just was out for a stroll in full gear when I happened upon you. She settled for simple. "Are you wounded?"
Williams confirmed that she was alright and went on to explain what had happened. Routine patrol gone bad, ambushed by unknown sizable force. Unit wiped out. Shepard could relate.
"We held our position as long as we could," Williams' voice wavered. "Until the geth overwhelmed us."
"The geth haven't been seen outside the veil in nearly 200 years," Alenko reminded them. "Why are they here now?" Shepard's eyes narrowed as she considered his words.
"We need to get to that damn beacon," she concluded. Williams pointed her in the direction of the dig site. "Lieutenant Alenko and I will take care of this."
"Hell no," Williams fumed. "The geth slaughtered my unit. I want a chance to get even. Let me come with you!" Great. Just what I don't need. A goddamn solider with an assault rifle and a vendetta to settle. I don't think so.
"She knows the area, Commander. And we could use the extra firepower," Alenko pointed out as he sensed her hesitation. Shit.He was right.
"I won't tolerate any reckless heroics, Williams. Remember who's in charge," Shepard fixed her stare on the Gunnery Chief.
Williams gulped but, to her credit, did not flinch or object. "Understood, Commander."
"Alright then, let's move out."
After they encountered more synthetics—geth, she reminded herself—it was no surprise to find the dig site cleared. Shepard resisted the urge to let loose a string of expletives. It'd do no good to stand around and bitch about it.
"There's a research camp just at the top of this ridge, up the ramps," Williams supplied. "Maybe someone survived and can tell us where the beacon was moved to?"
"If it was even us that moved it," Alenko contemplated.
"I don't like the odds," Shepard muttered. "It's our best shot though. Keep your eyes open."
She felt her skin crawl as they crept forward, weapons drawn. There was nothing Shepard hated more than traveling up an incline in battle. It gave a horrible tactical advantage to the enemy, allowing them ease of access to shoot on you while blocking your line of sight. The ramps were steep, offering no insight of what awaited them at the crest. Spiraling towers of smoke were all that was visible above the rocks. Who knew what hid on the other side? It was no surprise when she winced as Nihlus's voice crackled over the comm system.
"Change of plans. There's a small spaceport ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there." To the spaceport then.Obviously Nihlus hadn't seen the beacon yet either.
The path finally opened into a small clearing. Buildings were in flames, research equipment scattered and broken about the ground.
"Picking up nothing on the sensors," Alenko reported, "but it's a good spot for an ambush. We should keep our guard up." Shepard couldn't agree more.
More of the impaling devices sat at the edge of the camp. Whatever adorned them was no longer recognizable. Still human in shape, the…things were an amalgamation of wires and sinew. Shepard shuddered at the sight.
"Oh God, they're still alive," Alenko shouted in horror as one of the spikes lowered. Indeed, the husk of the person who once had been was now racing towards them, arms outstretched, like the zombie vids from back in the day. Unlike zombies though, these things were fast. The three of them opened fire and gave ground to keep themselves out of reach. Shepard didn't want to find out what happened if they got ahold of someone.
When they were down, Shepard cautiously approached their lifeless bodies and nudged the closest one with her toe. It lay in a puddle of green ooze. Will it stay down? To be on the safe side, she shot each abomination through the head. Instead of blood, a shower of sparks and a blue electrical pulse burst forth.
"What did the geth do to them?" Williams gasped. "And why?" Shepard realized that these things had probably once been her squad mates.
"I don't know the what, but I can guess the why," Shepard hissed. She felt the two staring at her. "You knew them, right Williams?" The woman nodded with pursed lips. "If you had hesitated, for even a second, because of who they'd been, they could have overwhelmed you."
"It's a shock tactic," Alenko marveled. "I didn't realize the geth's knowledge of emotions was so advanced."
"Neither did I," Shepard shook her head. "We need to keep moving."
"That door, it's closed," Williams pointed at a prefab just beyond the spikes. "The security lock's engaged." The gunnery chief approached it and checked over the circuit. "I can't get in."
"Out of the way, Williams." Shepard holstered her pistol and cracked her knuckles, allowing a small smile to grace her lips. It took her less than six seconds to decrypt the lock.
"Damn," Williams whistled. "You're pretty good."
"That was nothing," Shepard winked at her.
Inside they found survivors. A researcher and her assistant had holed up while a squad of marines tried to take down the forces outside. The researcher, as it turns out, had been in charge of the excavation. The woman confirmed that the Alliance scientists had moved the beacon to the spaceport that morning. Finally, Shepard thought, a stroke of luck.
"We have unearthed the heart of evil. Awakened the beast! Unleashed the darkness," the assistant interjected as Dr. Warren went into detail about the beacon. Shepard tried to ignore the man.
"Tell me about the attack," Shepard asked. Again, Manuel interrupted.
"Agents of the destroyers! Bringers of darkness! Heralds of our extinction!" Dr. Warren eyed her companion but let him finish his tirade before telling Shepard about the start of the attack and the marines that had sacrificed themselves to see the scientists to safety.
"Anything else you can tell me?"
"The turian! I saw him," Manuel wailed. "The prophet, leader of the enemy! He was here before the attack."
"That's impossible," Alenko pointed out. "Nihlus was with us on the Normandy when the transmission came through. He couldn't have been here."
"Manuel's just a bit unsettled," Dr. Warren explained. "He's always been a bit unstable. I'm afraid the attack exacerbated his condition. I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack but they haven't kicked in yet."
Manuel continued his wailing, each sentence portending doom and destruction louder than the last. Shit. He's going to alert every geth in a hundred meter radius of our position if he doesn't shut up. Shepard slammed her gloved fist into Manuel's face. His nose crunched with the impact and he collapsed to the floor unconscious. Dr. Warren dropped to the floor next to her assistant and stared up at Shepard in horror.
"That might've been a little extreme, Commander," Shepard heard the judgment in Alenko's chastening remark.
Shepard turned to her lieutenant. "There's an army of geth attacking just outside that door. His shouting was going to get all of us killed." I'm his commanding officer. Why am I even explaining myself? Alenko pressed his lips together as he surveyed Manuel's limp form and then nodded as Shepard turned to her other companion and commanded, "Williams, take us to the spaceport."
The three of them ground to a halt at the top of a ridge and watched as a huge ship appeared through the smoke. Red energy pulsed around it as it rose in the red sky. Kaidan gaped at the sight. Seeing the monstrosity on the vid had done little to prepare him for the reality.
"Hostiles up ahead," Shepard shouted as she fired a round from her sniper rifle.
More husks swarmed in their direction from three sides, guttural cries ringing out as they tried to flank the squad. Kaidan let his anger flood through him. He pictured the burned bodies, the men who had been turned into those…creatures; he pictured Jenkins. He blazed blue and flung his hand out, throwing the husks as far as he could. The release was heady, and mildly frightening. It'd been a long time since he'd used the offensive capabilities of his biotics for combat.
"Damn! Nice, LT!" Williams shouted as she finished them off with her rifle.
"Agreed," Shepard huffed with a smile, blowing a strand of hair from her face. Kaidan felt his face grow hot and saw Williams sneak a peek at him. The gunnery chief snorted.
"What's so funny," Shepard turned back to look at the two of them. Kaidan shrugged and tried to avoid the weight of his XO's stare.
They all moved forward and found another locked door. The orange light of the lock lit Shepard's face as she bent over the display. Kaidan watched as her long fingers flew across the panel. Sheisgood, he thought mere seconds later when the light blinked to green.
Another group of survivors exited the structure with their hands in the air. The relief in Shepard's voice at finding more people alive was unmistakable. And short lived. As Shepard instructed them to get back into cover, one of the farmers let it slip that their shed doubled as storage for a smuggling ring. Kaidan noticed her hands clench into tight fists. His own eyes narrowed when the man handed over a pistol. It was military grade.
"He's not a bad guy," the man insisted when Shepard demanded the smuggler's name. "I don't want to get him in trouble. Besides, I'm not a snitch."
"Would you rather be a snitch, or a corpse?" The barrel of her pistol came up, inches from the man's face. His eyes widened and he quickly spat out a name. "If I find out you were lying, I'll come back for you," she promised as the pistol came down.
As they made their way down to the main area of the spaceport, Kaidan asked, "Would you have really shot him?"
"I hadn't decided yet." There was no hint of humor in her voice.
With careful steps, the trio ascended a short flight of stairs onto the docking area of the spaceport. A turian body lay on the metal floor, his head resting in a halo of blue blood.
"Commander," Kaidan approached the body with a sad shake of his head, "it's Nihlus." What could have taken down the Spectre? He'd carried enough firepower to wipe out an entire platoon. Most of which are missing now, Kaidan noticed.
"Something's moving, over behind those crates," Williams shouted.
Kaidan and Shepard drew their guns in unison. Shepard lowered hers as the shadowy form coalesced into a grungy dock worker. She gestured with the barrel of the gun at Nihlus's body and then back at the dock worker, the unasked question obvious.
"It wasn't me," the man, Powell he said his name was, stammered. "I saw what happened, to your friend. There were two of them here, turians I mean! They must have known each other because your friend called the other one by name, Saren I think he said, and let his guard down. When he turned around, the other one just shot him in the back."
Kaidan and Shepard exchanged glances as they holstered their weapons. It didn't make any sense. What was another turian doing out here, with the geth no less?
"You're that smuggler the farmer told us about," Williams glared at the man.
The man sputtered as he tried to deny it. "Okay, so what," he finally shrugged his shoulders in defeat. "What does it matter now? Everyone's dead."
"You greedy, self serving bastard," Shepard's temper flared. "That pistol Cole gave me was military issue. Who knows what else you've got? You're stealing from the Alliance and they're dying for you!" Kaidan watched as her hand hovered over her weapon. Powell froze as he noticed it too. Everyone held their breath as time stopped for a second. Finally, her arm dropped back to her side. "You're not worth it," she hissed. "Get out of here before I change my mind." Powell turned to leave. "After you give me everything you've got stashed back there."
Powell handed her a few grenades and some modded ammo. "Use the cargo train to get to the other platform. That's where they took the beacon," he added over his shoulder as he ran through the warehouse doors.
"Move out," Shepard shouted.
A group of geth ambushed them as they rounded the corner to the train. Shepard charged headfirst into them, dispatching them with deadly efficiency at close range with her pistol. There were no combatants to take out by the time he and Williams caught up to her at the top of the ramp.
A slug whizzed past their heads and sparked against a metal crate. Think again. Kaidan checked his omni-tool while Shepard peered over a crate.
"Damn, there are a lot of them," Williams groaned.
If he hadn't been looking at her, Kaidan would have missed the smile that crept over Shepard's face. "Bring it on," she continued down the ramp, staying low to keep behind the metal railing. Something exploded to his left. Kaidan peered over the metal barricade and saw that one of the geth carried a rocket launcher. The geth was priming another round, this one aimed at the platform the stairs emptied on to, the same platform Shepard had just hopped down on. Kaidan grit his teeth and sent the geth flying backwards with all the force he could muster. Out of sheer luck, its body crashed into another, sending both of them sprawling. The constant clatter of gunfire echoed through the air as the geth fired on them, taking cover behind the many turnstiles that dotted the narrow platform. The three of them used the turnstiles to their own advantage, racing from cover to cover as they took down any resistance they encountered. As they neared the end of the gangway, a particularly large geth, larger than the rest, rushed towards them. With a flick of his wrist, Kaidan sent the synthetic floating in the air. A second later, its flashlight exploded as Shepard put a slug through the center of the bulb. That final shot brought with it silence.
"Alenko," Shepard nodded at the cargo train. He pulled up his omni-tool and scanned for any signs of tampering or sabotage while Shepard and Williams checked over their firearms. Finding nothing, the trio boarded.
"You think the beacon's even still here?" Williams crinkled her nose in doubt as the tram sped along the rails.
"We won't know until we check."
"Demolition charges!" Kaidan noticed the cylindrical tube the minute the tram had docked. "The geth must have planted them!"
"Cover me," Shepard dropped to a crouch, her omni-tool activating as she began to run a sequence to disarm the device. Kaidan hazarded a glance down at her. In the orange glow of her omni-tool, he could see that her brow was furrowed in concentration. An insistent, angry bleep filled the air as she hit a firewall. Her nimble fingers danced over the interface, making small corrections to bypass them. The blinking red light on the charge powered down and the beeping stopped.
"One down…" Shepard rose, pistol back in hand. The area around them was silent. Either the geth had already evacuated the area or—suddenly the sound of gunfire pierced the air—or they'd been lying in wait. "Alenko, find any other charges!"
Geth flooded the upper platform of the docking station. The Commander and Williams rushed up the ramp to meet the geth forces. Kaidan dropped behind cover next to the disarmed bomb to run a sequencing code on it. He needed to isolate the frequency so he could pinpoint where the other devices were stashed. "C'mon, c'mon," he whispered at the bomb through clenched teeth. Thirty seconds later, his omni-tool flashed with results. "Commander, across the bridge, eight o'clock!"
The next few minutes were a flurry of movement as they raced to each charge, taking out geth on the way, and then held their position to give Shepard cover as she disarmed the device. As soon as the light flickered off, they'd rush forward to repeat with the next charge.
"That's all of them." Kaidan checked over his omni-tool one more time to be sure while he caught his breath.
"It sure was nice of them to leave them in a straight line for us," Shepard grinned. Her face snapped back to a scowl after a second. "Now let's find that damn beacon and get the hell out of here."
A shallow tunnel led them out onto the landing zone. The beacon was there alright, but there were also geth and husks guarding it. Luckily, there weren't many. The machines probably hadn't expected the organics to get past the waves of geth on the other side. Assuming they did, there were still the bombs. With a few well placed shots, the platform went silent again.
The beacon sat on the edge of the docking bay before a backdrop of a burning Eden Prime. A green beam pierced through the top of it while wisps of green energy swirled around the base.
"This is amazing," Kaidan stared at the obelisk in awe while Shepard called for pickup. "Actual working Prothean technology."
Williams eyed it curiously. "Wasn't do anything like that when they dug it up."
Kaidan stepped forward. If Williams is right, something must have activated the beacon. If he could just see where—the green light pulsed and grew until it expanded outward into a singularity field with a whomping noise. Kaidan leaned back against the power of the field as he tried to break free of the gravity well. The pull of the field was too strong and he felt his boots drag across the metal grating of the platform. As he was sucked forward, he had the odd thought that the humming chime of the beacon was almost pleasant.
A compact shape crashed into his side, throwing him out of the radius of the field. As he rolled to a stop on the platform, Williams kneeled beside him to help him up. He clutched his head in his hand and shook himself as he tried to recover his bearings. God, he hated singularity fields.
The echoing of a hollow bass note rang out around them. Kaidan's head whipped up and he watched in horror as Shepard was pulled into the field in his place. The green light sucked her upward until she was suspended a few feet in the air. Kaidan scrabbled forward, clawing at the rivets in the metal grating to pull himself to her. Why am I not moving? He growled when he realized Williams had a tight grip on his waist.
"No! Don't touch her!" the chief shouted over the humming vibrations of the beacon. "It's too dangerous!"
He watched helplessly as Shepard dangled in the air. As the humming grew louder, her back arched further as her limbs twitched and writhed against the field. The sound reached a crescendo and exploded outward in a ball of light, throwing Shepard's limp form back. Kaidan shoved Williams and tore free of her grip as he rushed to the Commander's side. He rolled Shepard gently but she was motionless.
