Shepard's squad stacked up against a wall near a narrow opening in the rock face at the end of the opening which acted as a perfect natural choke point. Shepard gestured with hand signals to Ashley to go in first and cover the right with Alenko going in last covering the left, Shepard would go through the middle and draw fire as his squad mates flanked any enemies and mopped up whatever his rifle and grenades didn't turn to scrap.

"Go" Shepard said with authority in his voice

Ashley responded to the Commanders order before he finished saying it and rushed out with her m-8 up searching for targets, she found two immediately and opened fire towards the closest Geth unit just to her right out in the open just forward of the dig site, with a few bursts its shields had flickered and failed with Shepard giving it a quick double tap in the chest from his Vindicator to put it down for good. The second Geth unit had taken cover behind some pillars in the dig site with several more units coming in from behind it taking up assault positions parallel to Shepard and his team.

Shepard had Kaiden throw a biotic pull towards the Geth platforms advancing towards them but they dispersed before the dark energy wave hit them and Kaiden only managed to hit one of them, the other Geth laid down a heavy stream of covering fire with their rifles and rocket launchers trying to pin down Shepard's squad. Shepard tossed a grenade behind the pillars that the Geth were using for cover which took out two platforms and allowed Ashley and Kaiden the split second they needed to advance on the few remaining Geth who were dispatched with a few bursts of rifle fire and a well placed biotic warp.

"Check out the dig site chief and locate the beacon, we will secure the area"

"Yes commander" with that Ashley went in search of either the beacon itself or a clue to its where abouts as Kaiden and the commander guarded against any more surprise attacks.

"The beacons gone sir, the Geth must have moved it"

"Ok chief this is your house and we're just guests, where are they likely to take the beacon and which way do we go" The Commander checked his rifle and brought up a map of the area on his Omni-tool

"Erm I can't be certain sir" Ashley was clearly uncomfortable having to make the call which could lead to the success or the failure of the mission

"Chief you know the area and you have seen the enemy advance this far for one goal, now make the call"

"Spaceport...errr I mean the Spaceport over the ridge there and across the tram way is the logical choice to move and transport the beacon onto a larger vessel sir"

"Good now both of you check you weapons and move out, Chief your on point"

With that the squad moved up a hill at the back of the dig site towards a small settlement, at the top of the hill were half a dozen of the spikes that they had seen earlier. As they approached the spikes started to retract with a terrible screeching sound. The bodies that were impaled on the spikes fell off when they reached the bottom but to the squads horror the bodies stood back up and began to run towards them screaming an unidentifiable tone that sent a chill up even the Commanders spine.

"What the hell are those things!" Ashley yelled desperate for orders "What do we do sir, they were the colonists"

"They don't seem like them anymore Ash" Kaiden added with his side arm at the ready and biotics flared up

"Defend yourselves whatever the cost" With that the squad opened fire in unison against the advancing corpses, it didn't take much and before they knew it the brief encounter was over with the only casualty being the squads kinetic barriers which had been depleted when the 'husks' had died and discharged a huge amount of energy.

Kaiden had some experience with first aid so he automatically went to examine what was left of the colonists "It looks like all the flesh and fluids has been drained out of them and replaced with cybernetics and tech Commander"

"They're just remnants of the colonists now, soul-less husks is what's left"

The Commander could see Ashley's visible combination of horror and anger as she stared at the husks and pictured what they use to look like, what they looked like when she spoken and laughed with them in the colony before the attack.

Nilus approached the tram station silently looking for any signs of life or synthetic life if the Commander and his squad was to be believed, Geth he thought to himself Geth beyond the veil, was he witnessing the start of a war over a working Prothean beacon. Just as he walked up a few steps towards the tram ways cargo area he saw a single figure from behind, it stood at 7 ft tall and was covered in a red metallic armour with a rifle strapped on its back and what looked like an antenna sticking out of a backpack. This was the confirmation he needed, the Geth were here and they had slaughtered this colony without any real fight back from the human garrison stationed here.

He pulled out the shotgun he had attached to his armour and stepped up the steps towards the Geth unit, he raised the weapon and aimed it toward the units head and fired. The Geth's barriers flared up and the unit staggered momentarily, Nilus didn't expect the unit to survive a shotgun blast to the head but his Spectre training stopped him from panicking and he unleashed a second then a third blast to the unit, without its barriers and at that range the Geth had no chance.

Nilus examined the cargo area in the hopes of locating the beacon or at very least a clue to its where abouts. He heard footsteps coming from behind from one of the cargo containers so Nihlus grabbed his shotgun and ducked behind some containers, a figure appeared giving Nihlus an image to the sound of the footsteps but this time he lowered his weapon and recognised the figure.

"Saren!? What are you doing here?"

Saren didn't bother to turn towards his old friend and carried on walking "Nihlus, the council thought you could do with some back up on this one"

"I wasn't expecting the Geth here, the missions more complicated than we thought. We could be looking at a full on invasion" Nihlus walked past Saren and looked towards the tramway where his friend had just come from.

Saren turned and pulled out his side arm "Don't worry old friend, I have the situation completely under control" Saren raised the weapon to Nihlus' head and fired.

Shepard and his squad had just finished searching the settlement and had found two scientists still alive locked in a mobile lab module, one of whom had a serious case of post traumatic stress so the commander had to...subdue him.

"I still can't believe you punched that guy sir"

"He was a danger to himself and others Chief I had no choice"

"I understand sir, guess he will have a big head ache when he gets up"

Kaiden had taken point and as the Commander and Chief were talking he heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. He gestured to the team to halt with a raised fist, with that the Commander and Ashley stopped and kneeled down.

"What is it Lt.?"

"Gunfire sir, down the hill. I can see a small cargo area"

"That will be the tram station Lt. the spaceport is what the tram connects to"

"Ok move out" The Commander took point now knowing that there was not far to go till they find the beacon.