Chapter 3
Eden Prime: Part 2
Shepard jogged lightly down the slope toward the spaceport, Alenko and Williams close behind. As the metal edges of the spaceport garage came into view, she slowed her pace, holding up her left hand, palm forward, in silent communication to her squad to be alert and use caution. Her nonverbal warning was issued not a moment too soon as heavy, uneven footfalls pounded clumsily toward them up the metal walkway connecting the trail to the garage entrance.
More husks – this time supplemented by a small detachment of geth troopers firing from behind the cover of upturned crates littering the walkway below. Shepard and her squad manipulated their high ground advantage to its fullest, leaving the geth to join the colonists of Eden Prime in death.
In the silence that followed, a small group of colonists emerged from one of the surrounding sheds. The hope brought on by the brief firefight that somebody else was out there alive and fighting the enemy appeared to have coaxed them out of hiding. "Williams, go see if they have any useful information for us," Shepard ordered. "Alenko and I will head to the garage and start clearing it." They needed to keep up the pace of their advance if they were going to find the beacon…assuming it was even still there. Shepard set her jaw, refusing to consider the possibility.
Shepard pushed forward to check the bodies of the geth troopers, kicking away their weapons and searching for any signs of lingering life. Granted, she wasn't really sure what she was looking for. Geth biology, for lack of a better word, was foreign to her. Whatever their equivalent of a pulse was, she wanted to make sure it had been thoroughly extinguished. When she got back to the Normandy, she vowed, she would spend ample time doing thorough research on this new threat.
Until then, she would just have to settle with putting an extra bullet through their heads.
Alenko whipped around sharply at the sound of two single-shot slugs being pumped into the synthetic carcasses. He caught Shepard's eye, his gaze cool, and more than a little disapproving.
"Unless you know how to check for a pulse…," she quipped, shrugging nonchalantly as she inserted a new heat sink into her rifle.
Pacified, he shook his head. "No, I suppose not," he confirmed grudgingly, following Shepard up the steps to the loading dock of the garage. Then, with urgency in his voice, "Commander, it's Nihlus."
Sure enough, Alenko's keen eyes had spotted a taloned foot encased in black and red armor protruding from behind a crate. As they approached, it was no doubt the Spectre they had been seeking. The white tribal markings stood out stark against his red-hued skin and his formerly piercing blue eyes were dull, staring unseeing at the sky.
Shepard knelt down, closing his eyes gently with a gloved hand. "Ah, Nihlus," she reflected quietly, "Just when I was starting to like you." It was true. Ever since Anderson had put her suspicions about Nihlus to rest, they had shared a growing mutual respect and she had appreciated his willingness to accompany her on a mission so full of uncertainty. Now there was more uncertainty to add to the list, Shepard thought, noting the single entry wound in his back. Probably not a common cause of death for a highly-trained Spectre. She couldn't imagine that Nihlus had many people sneak up on him and live to tell the tale.
"Your turian friend, I presume?" Williams inquired somberly, approaching the pair from behind.
"Nihlus, a council Spectre. Single shot in the back," Shepard answered, rising from her crouched position. Her eyes lingered on the turian a moment longer, her expression dark. "Find out anything useful from the colonists?"
Williams shook her head. "Not really, ma'am. Same story as everyone else, though they did mention hearing some sort of piercing noise before the ship landed. They said it seemed to be coming from within their own heads, whatever that means," she shrugged. "But it wasn't a total loss. They gave me this," she continued, holding out a red Stinger II heavy pistol for them to see. It looked brand new, and was certainly a step up from the Alliance-issued Kesslers. "Take it, Commander."
Shepard made no move to grab the proffered pistol. It was a tempting bounty, but it was Williams' own rapport from her time here among the colonists that had netted the reward. "I appreciate the thought, but you did all the heavy lifting. Keep it, you deserve it," she commended, and then, as an afterthought, "If you don't think you'll use it all that much, then give it to Alenko. Heavy pistols are his thing."
Williams acknowledged the Commander's praise with a gracious smile, handing the weapon without hesitation to a surprised Alenko. He accepted it gratefully. Only a few hours into their first mission together and Shepard already knew his combat tendencies. He couldn't deny that he was impressed.
Alenko had just armed the new pistol when Williams' sharp voice rang out. "Commander, we've got movement! There, behind the crates."
In a flash, three fully primed weapons were trained on a huddled figure, frozen in fear within the shadows. "Hands where I can see them!" barked Shepard, her sights lined up just below his collarbone. The safety was off and her finger hovered lightly outside the trigger well.
The figure stood up, hands raised above his head as directed. He was human, dressed in a pair of worn tan coveralls. A faded stocking cap covered his balding head. "Don't shoot," he cried, "I'm one of you! I'm human. I work here on the docks"
"What are you doing sneaking around back there? It's a good way to get killed," she chided, relaxing her posture slightly, but keeping her weapon leveled at him.
"I was hiding from those creatures," he explained. His eyes flitted from Shepard's hardened face to her weapon nervously. "If you put that down, I can tell you what happened to the turian. I saw the whole thing…"
A fair deal. Shepard lowered her weapon, indicating for Alenko and Williams to do the same. "Alright. Now talk. Tell us what happened."
The dockworker sighed in relief, relaxing considerably. "It wasn't those creatures. They were already gone when your turian got here," he began. "There was another turian here already when yours arrived. He called him Saren. They acted like they knew each other, and your friend seemed to trust him. He let his guard down….and then Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back!"
Shepard furrowed her brow, trying to recall if she had ever heard the name Saren in any of her discussions with Nihlus or briefings with Captain Anderson. Nothing came to mind. Except, perhaps, the eccentric babblings of Dr. Manuel. He had claimed to have seen a turian before the attack. 'A prophet. Leader of the enemy,' he had said. He had to have meant Saren. It appeared that Dr. Manuel wasn't quite as mad as it would seem. "And what happened to this Saren, afterwards?" she prodded, turning her attention back to the dockworker.
The dockworker pointed toward the opposite end of the garage. "He took the cargo train, probably to the other platform. There's some sort of alien technology that was moved there this morning. That's got to be what they're after, right? I mean, we're just a farming colony!"
It was the information they needed to resume the beacon's trail and they wasted no time heading toward the cargo train. "Link up with the other colonists up the hill," Shepard instructed the dockworker, who seemed frightened at the sudden prospect of being left alone again. "A shuttle will pick you all up shortly and take you someplace safe." Alenko was already sending the evac requisition request on his omni-tool as the squad reached the ramp to the train platform.
A contingent of geth greeted them with a spray of fire as they reached the lower platform level. Shepard immediately ducked into cover as Alenko unleashed a wave of biotic power that ripped the closest geth off its feet and sent it spinning over the platform guardrail. His water-cooler reputation was true after all; he had trained and honed his biotic abilities into a deadly force, unmatched in precision and power by any other Alliance soldier Shepard had seen before. Williams, on the other hand, wasn't fairing as well. She had taken an unlucky direct hit in the initial volley that had decimated her shields completely. The smear of red glittering against her armor's white background just under her right shoulder indicated that it wasn't the only hit she had taken. Rendered useless while her shields were regenerating, she was currently leaning back against one of the crates, applying a generous dose of medi-gel to the wound. "Just a scratch, Commander," she yelled as Shepard hollered for a status report from the other side of the platform. The medi-gel was already beginning to take effect, staunching the flow of blood as the clotting agent activated.
Shepard released another burst of fire from her assault rifle, covering Alenko as he moved up to a new position. While Williams recovered, Shepard and Alenko leapfrogged forward, taking out the geth one by one with a deadly combination of biotic and weapon prowess. Williams was on her feet again by the time the area had been cleared of hostiles.
"You alright?" Shepard asked, peering at her upper arm as Williams rejoined the squad at the train's control panel.
Williams nodded confidently. "It just grazed me, really. Short of actually killing me, there's nothing the geth can do to take me out of this fight." Her brown eyes hardened, flashing with anger and single-minded determination. "They will pay for what they did to this colony. For what they did to my squad."
Shepard nodded in understanding – she knew that line well. Vengeance was a concept she had become intimately acquainted with after Akuze. Her whole platoon had been wiped out, attacked in the night by several thresher maws. She alone survived. It was the longest night of her life, slipping in and out of consciousness with only the mangled bodies of her fellow soldiers to keep her company. She had recovered for two weeks in an Alliance hospital bed on a nearby colony. While others expressed pity and sadness, she felt only anger. It was a fire that consumed her both in waking and sleeping hours. She imagined herself hunting down all the thresher nests on Akuze, eradicating them in the most violent ways she could conjure. When word got out about her actions during the battle, they started calling her a hero. She only wanted to be an avenger. But it was all useless fantasizing. The Alliance wasn't interested in her personal vendetta and assigned her to a new unit in a different sector. Eventually, news came down that a significant earthquake had shifted the environmental conditions on Akuze. Excessive precipitation and flooding of the like never seen before in the planet's recorded history had resulted in several sightings of dead thresher maws washed up on the surface. There hadn't been a live sighting in weeks, then months. Shepard still had her craving for revenge boiling inside her, but suddenly there was nothing left to direct it at. So she buried her directionless anger, distracting herself with mission after mission, each more dangerous than the last. Eventually, the internal fire began to ebb into embers. But for Williams, her injustices were still fresh, and the responsible parties were just on the other end of the platform. Shepard would never deny her the satisfaction of evening the score.
Alenko manipulated the cargo train's controls and the car lurched forward, groaning with effort. Three pairs of eyes scanned the surrounding platforms for hidden enemies as they inched toward their destination. The receiving dock appeared deserted when they arrived. Stepping off the train, however, Shepard thought she could hear a faint beeping sound coming from behind a stack of cargo crates. Yes, getting warmer, she thought as she approached cautiously.
Lying at her feet, emitting a soft beeping sound, was a large box of explosives. Crude wiring snaked from the bomb's outer casing into the detonator on top. The display currently read 3:52. Another beep pulsed as the counter flipped to 3:51.
Shepard backpedaled instinctively, searching for Alenko. He was at her side in an instant, assessing the detonator with a trained eye. "I can disarm it, Commander," he acknowledged confidently. "No problem."
"Sure you can. Biotic, decryption analyst, bomb technician…," she smirked at him good-naturedly. "What can't you do, Alenko?"
Alenko laughed, practiced fingers sifting through the bundle of wires for the right one. "Well, I'm a terrible poker player," he admitted, still grinning as he glanced up at her.
"Good to know…," she replied smoothly, arching an eyebrow. Somehow, she didn't doubt that. She hadn't know him long, but so far, he'd worn every thought and emotion so clearly on his face that the mere idea of him trying to sell a bluff seemed as doomed to fail as if she had tried to disarm the bomb herself.
3:23, 3:22, 3:21. The screen went blank and Alenko wiped a bead of sweat off his brow, standing up. "Done!" he exclaimed, pride lacing his words.
"Not so fast, sir." Williams, who had been pulling security watch on the platform as they worked, indicated another stack of crates across the platform with her good arm. A smaller box was wedged between the crates, the unmistakable silhouette of wires jutting out of the side. "Looks like we've got another."
Alenko's face fell. "Where there are two, there could be three. Or more," he cautioned them gravely.
"And time is not on our side," added Shepard. "Let's move."
At Shepard's command, the trio began to move toward the second bomb. They were almost upon it when the distinctive sound of gunfire rang out. "Concentrate on the bomb, Alenko," Shepard yelled as she pivoted to face the advancing geth troopers. "We'll cover you!"
He worked quickly, his fingers only shaking slightly with the added distraction of rounds whizzing over his head. The timer read 1:57 before it blinked out as Alenko disconnected the ignition wire. In the meantime, Shepard had already spotted two more boxes in the vicinity. The four devices in total seemed to form a square around the train platform. She hoped that meant that was all of them. No doubt they had been set by somebody who wanted to erase the evidence of their presence, and ensure there was no trail to follow.
Williams cleared a path for Alenko to the next device as Shepard made her way toward the fourth, intent on securing the area ahead of him to save time. With their hardened synthetic skin, the geth lacked the speed and agility of an organic and Shepard was able to quickly overcome the defenses of the two directly in her path using her natural quick reflexes to her advantage. She reached the final bomb at the same time she saw Alenko and Williams reach the third. The detonator now read 1:17. The precious seconds slipped away as she monitored Alenko's progress in earnest. 0:44 and he was finishing up, it appeared. He and Williams started to make their way toward her, only to dive back behind cover as a rocket narrowly passed over their heads. Shepard didn't have a clear shot at the aggressor from her angle, and neither Williams nor Alenko were able to pop out of cover long enough to place any well aimed shots as the geth rocket trooper continued to rain down a deadly mix of gunfire and rocket grenades on their position.
"Commander, we're pinned down," came Williams' breathless voice over the helmet-to-helmet comm. "And the Lieutenant took a nice chunk of debris to the back of the head. He's okay, but he's pretty groggy." Shepard glanced at the timer. 0:32.
"Damn it!" Shepard swore in frustration. They were down one bomb technician and luck now offered them the only chance they had left. She grimaced, removing her gloves and kneeling over the device. She wasn't feeling particularly lucky today. "Alright, you two stay put and, well…..pray, I guess" she sighed.
The timer beeped ominously, now reading 0:26. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw in concentration, drawing on the memory of watching Alenko disarm the first device. He had reached under the first bundle of wires, she recalled, and then pulled out the blue wire below. Or was it green? She opened her eyes and stared at her fingers, which now held multiple wires of differing colors – blue and green included. Oh for fuck's sake, she muttered under her breath. The incessant beeping pulsed on. 0:12, 0:11…. Wait, it was the blue one. Yes, because she had noticed how it had blended in with metallic blue casing on the box when Alenko had held it. She grabbed the blue wire tightly. There was no time to second guess it now, anyway. She yanked, squeezing her eyes shut in anticipation for the blast that would surely kill her if she had guessed wrong.
But the blast never came. Instead, just another beep. 0:04. And another. 0:03. Wait, what?
Her eyes snapped open and without a moment's hesitation, she grabbed the green wire, yanking it out of the detonator. The screen flashed for a moment and then went black. Shepard was sure her heart was going to beat a hole in her chest as her body flooded with relief. She didn't trust herself to stand up just yet, her legs felt so rubbery.
Williams approached a still-kneeling Shepard, supporting a starry-eyed but still functional Alenko. He had recovered enough to assist Williams in finally gaining the upper hand on the geth rocket trooper as it was reloading. "Good job remembering the green wire, Commander," Alenko congratulated, gingerly rubbing the lump now forming on the back of his head.
She knew his words were sincere, but she swore she could have punched him. "Yeah, the green one…" she trailed off flatly.
Probably no need to tell them that they had only been three seconds away from death.
Shepard stood up stiffly as the last remnants of adrenaline dissipated into the air. In its absence, the heavy cloak of exhaustion began to settle on her shoulders. Jenkins' death seemed like weeks ago, when in reality, it had only been a few hours. Surely they must be getting close. If the beacon wasn't here, the trail would go cold. The trio resumed the search as the Eden Prime sun began to dip below the horizon.
It was, in fact, much closer than they realized. A simple descent down another ramp and there it was, resting unguarded on the main spaceport docking platform. The Prothean beacon. It resembled a church steeple, standing on a wider base and then tapering at the top to a height of about twelve feet. It radiated a soft green glow that refracted off the swirling dust and ash still floating in the air. It created the illusion of shimmering liquid, as if water was rippling along the smooth surface of the spire. Definitely alien.
"This is it," whispered Williams reverently, "although it looked nothing like this at the dig site." She tilted her head curiously, but kept her distance. "The green light, it wasn't like that before. Something must have activated it."
Shepard stepped away, letting out a prolonged sigh of relief as she connected to the Normandy's communication channel through her omni-tool. The beacon was still here and, by the look of things, still functional. Her team may not have prevented the geth from getting there first, but the beacon could at least shed some light on what the geth had been after, and possibly how this Saren character was involved. When Joker answered her hail, she transmitted the coordinates of the beacon, verifying that the site was secure and requesting a pickup.
"This is incredible," breathed Alenko, stepping toward the device to inspect it further.
At his approach, a distinctive hum resounded from the device, vibrating green shock waves fanning out from the spire as the glow brightened fiercely. "Sir!" Williams' concerned voice rang out.
Shepard whipped around to see Alenko nearing the device, but not under his own power. He was resisting strongly but the spire was pulling him in like a magnet. His combat boots screeched as they slid across the platform.
"Alenko!" She was moving toward him in a flash. Oh no, she resolved as she raced toward him, I am not losing BOTH my squadmates today.
The beacon had just begun to pull him off his feet when he felt a pair of armored arms roughly encircle his waist. Shepard tackled him with the full force of a charging linebacker, the impact of the collision knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him bouncing across the metal flooring before sliding to a stop at Williams' feet. He was now clear of the beacon's magnetic force, he saw, but Shepard hadn't had enough momentum to break free herself. The field was pulling her in, just as it had done to him. He scrambled to his feet, but Williams restrained him. "Sir, no, it's too dangerous! You'll just get stuck again," she reasoned in his ear. He cursed the probable truthfulness of her words, and grudgingly remained out of the beam's reach, trembling with apprehension and frustration.
Shepard felt her body become weightless under the influence of the beacon's power. She was vaguely aware that her feet were no longer in contact with the platform's surface, but she couldn't quite formulate the notion of concern. Her mind felt disembodied from her physical being, her thoughts hazy and confused, as if drugged. And then came the pain, sudden and paralyzing, as if somebody was raking sharp fingernails through her brain. Askew images paraded before her, vivid snippets of war, fire and death featuring creatures she had never seen before, but too quick to fully comprehend. And the sounds were there too, like the high pitched wails of a legion, a constant cacophony of horrors in the background. It was all too fast, too loud, too much. Her mind was on fire, and it would surely consume her.
And then, as if the power had been suddenly cut, the beacon released her. Black stars exploded behind her eyes. Her body, no longer held up by the device's force field, crumpled to the ground in a heap.
She was out cold before her feet even touched the platform.
