It wasn't long before Shepard once more heard the nearby sounds of battle. The digsite was close now, only a hop and a skip away. Since making it to the bottom of the cliff, there had been no resistance from any of the synthetics. No snipers or smart-mines gave the two surviving marines any issue. Shepard had kept herself and Kaidan in cover for most of the past thirty minutes, leap frogging their way through the woods at the base of the cliff and keeping their eyes wide open.

"That sounds like a battle," Kaidan said. "Could someone be fighting back?"

"We'd better go and help them out," Shepard said. "Besides, they're right in our path anyway." Shepard took a chance by slipping out of cover and approaching the edge of the woods. The ground sloped down steeply into a rocky field with very tall dead grass. The sun was only just shining over the horizon now, in a few minutes it would be night time.

"Down," Shepard hissed, falling prone at the edge of the woods. Kaidan dove for the space beside her and trained his sights downward. Two figures suddenly ran around a set of massive rocks that cutoff line of sight across the field. One was very tall and the other was very short. Bullets tore up the ground around their feet, splashing bursts of plasma across the ground and making it steam and sizzle. Shepard looked through the sights of her particle rifle and recognized the girl and the armored woman from the evac transmission.

"A colonial marine and an academy cadet," Kaidan said quietly. "They're being chased."

"Fire on any clear targets that aren't organic," Shepard ordered.

The girl and the marine raced up the hill with gooey bits of plasma sticking to their boots and sizzling. Shepard could just see the approaching forms of the synthetics behind them. She didn't blink. She activated her particle beam, sending the stream of heat energy right between the two runners. They rolled away on either side, providing Kaidan a clear line of sight on the attackers behind them. Shepard cut one down while Kaidan managed to kill another and drive away a third.

"Damn, he got away," Kaidan muttered.

"Hands where I can see em'!" the armored woman suddenly roared, her pistol trained on Shepard's head. Shepard recognized the pistol as Alliance standard issue and knew right away that it would be a killing blow if the marine had armored piercing rounds. The threat alone was enough to make the hairs on the back of Shepard's neck stand on end.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy, executive officer to Captain David Anderson," Shepard said without standing. Kaidan remained silent. "We're here to help, marine."

"Ah, shit…" the woman cursed, lowering her pistol and moving her hands to her helmet. She popped the seal and lifted her helmet from her head. Dark brown hair that was nearly black spilled out and cascaded to her shoulders. She was a gruff looking woman that radiated strength. Her face was hard and unsmiling, not that Shepard expected differently considering the circumstances. Her chocolate brown eyes fixated Shepard with relief. "Sorry, Commander."

"I would have been disappointed if you hadn't pointed that gun at me," Shepard said, rising to one knee so that the woman could see her better. "You did the right thing." The woman nodded slightly.

"I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams with the 212th Colonial Marines." She turned her head and said, "Milo get out here." The kid from before emerged from her hiding place behind a rock. Her shoulder length brown hair was still a mess like in the transmission and her dark brown eyes were narrowed. Maybe fourteen or thirteen years old as far as Shepard could tell. She was` an angry looking girl that had a deeply set frown on her face. Her intelligent eyes were dark but also seemed to spark with pain.

"This is Milo Gallahan," Ashley introduced. "She and a group of cadets from her class back in Vancouver came here on a field trip to study group tactics and get a feel for colony life."

"She got a lot more than she bargained for," Kaidan observed.

"Not really," Milo said quietly, her voice rough and emotionless. "My classmates did though."

"Killed, ma'am," Ashley said regretfully.

"These synthetics killed children?" Shepard asked, her voice giving away her anger.

"They don't seem to care what is in their sights," Milo said. "If it's organic, it's prey."

"We think they're geth, ma'am," Ashley confessed.

"Geth?" Kaidan asked. "The geth haven't been seen outside the veil in nearly two hundred years. Why have they returned now?" He and Shepard shared a glance.

"Where's the rest of your unit, Williams?" Shepard asked.

"Wiped out," Ashley answered. She paused and glanced down. "We didn't see them coming, ma'am. Nothing I could have done." She seemed to be trying to convince herself rather than her, Shepard thought.

"Chief Williams saved my life," Milo said, her sharp eyes focusing on the woman in white. "More than once." She had spoken quickly to defend Williams.

"Maybe it would be best if you two came with us," Shepard said. "We could use the help."

"Yes, ma'am," Ashley said. Her face darkened. "It's time for some payback. But what are you doing here, ma'am? It's too early for a reaction party."

"We're here for the prothean beacon at the dig site," Kaidan said. "It's imperative that we find it."

"The beacon?" Ashley asked. She glanced at Milo. "Do you think-?"

"The geth came here only a few days after the beacon was discovered," Milo nodded. "No coincidence." Shepard was surprised at the girl's insight. Maybe she was older than she appeared? Then again, the only kids that got into the Academy were either very rich or very smart.

"You think the geth arrival is somehow connected to the beacon?" Shepard asked, looking at the girl, who nodded in response. "Then it's even more important that we find it."

"The dig site is back the way we came," Ashley said. "I can show you the way there."

"Thanks, Ashley," Shepard said. "We'll follow your lead for now."

"Yes, ma'am," Ashley said. She paused. "What about the cadet?" Shepard looked at the girl who sighed.

"Don't refer to me by title, Williams," Milo said. "Not after what's happened today."

"I'm not putting a child into harm's way," Shepard said. Milo fixated her in an icy stare that rivaled Shepard's own.

"I'm no mere child, Commander," Milo said sharply. "I've been trained for situations like these."

"That didn't help your classmates much, did it?" Kaidan said sternly. "This isn't a simulation. This is war." Milo looked at Ashley and shook her head when she didn't get any support.

"I am fully qualified to handle the M7 Lancer assault rifle, the M-6 Predator Pistol," Milo began to list off as if reciting a song, "and can survive up to a week with only a combat knife. I am qualified in basic and medium level operational command and have never scored anything below an 'A' on written and physical tests." She sniffed and closed her eyes. "I am also a black belt in Judo, qualified to teach."

"That doesn't-" Kaidan began.

"If you want to limit yourself to three shooters instead of four, go ahead," Milo said, opening her eyes looking at Shepard, ignoring the Lieutenant. "You're the commanding officer after all."

"She's got some lip to her, ma'am," Ashley said with a sigh. "Please, just don't mind her. She's had a rough day."

"You both have," Shepard agreed. "Milo, I can't let you fight in this battle. My morals won't allow it. But if you were to watch our backs, I would be appreciative of the extra eyes. You seem smart, so I'll trust you." She didn't wait for the kid to answer. Shepard hoped just exposing her back to the kid while standing in the open would be enough to convince her. Ashley and Kaidan both took position behind Shepard. Shepard heard Milo sigh once more and follow them at the back.

Ashley replaced her helmet and said, "Could you two open your suit systems to me?" Shepard quickly did so and was pleased to see Ashley's vitals show up on her heads up display.

"Excellent," Shepard said. "Milo, stick close to us and use us as shields."

"Yes," Milo said simply. Shepard could already tell that she would be worrying about the kid for the rest of the mission. Milo's blood wasn't what she wanted on her hands. What must her parents have been thinking? Information traveled so fast now there was no doubt that everyone in the Alliance already know about Eden Prime.

"Tell us more about this attack, Williams," Shepard said.

"They firebombed the barracks first," Williams said. "Very early this morning. All communications were cut off for most of the day due to an EMP. We sent a transmission this afternoon as soon as we got our equipment working. For most of the day we were fighting with half working hard suits and iron sights."

"No warning at all?" Kaidan asked. "With defenses like Eden Prime's?"

"We were caught with our pants down," Ashley admitted. "But the fight isn't over yet. The last I heard, most of the 212th in the city were holding. Honestly I think the enemy forces aren't as great as we thought, at least in number. But they're fighting with tech that we don't have."

"Like?"

"Advanced cloaks, beam weapons, and electromagnetic pulses that can wipe out a planet's electronics," Ashley said. "And they've been trying to…" Shepard looked at her. "This is it."

"What do you mean?"

"This is where the beacon was," Ashley said her voice angry. Shepard looked around. The dirt was dug up and piled high in four stacks. A massive hole was dug away just a few feet forward. It was as deep as a Mako was long and just as wide. Shepard stepped forward and looked down. It was dark down there, but at the bottom was a floor that looked like concrete stained yellow. "It was right here, someone must have moved it."

"Who, our side or the geth?" Kaidan asked.

"Your guess is as good a mine," Ashley sighed.

"It was the geth," Milo said. Shepard looked over at her.

"How do you know?"

"Because humans don't have only three toes," Milo said, looking down. Shepard looked to where she pointed. Shepard's face heated up in embarrassment. She should have seen that. She'd been trained to see that. Ugh. This was why they picked Roy. Shepard had been awful at tracking. Sunk into the dirt were multiple prints made by something other than human. To any person walking by they might have appeared as random depressions in the ground but to a trained eye, they were obviously not.

"Good thing we have you watching our backs," Shepard praised.

"Sure thing, N7," Milo said. Shepard chuckled ruefully to herself inside her helmet. The kid was doing this on purpose. Milo didn't strike her as a brat but the Commander suspected she was an ice queen before coming to Eden Prime. Maybe Milo took being treated as a kid as an insult to her intelligence. Despite her petulance, Shepard decided that she liked the kid. And she had already gone through a lot today, enough to break an average child. That didn't change her mind though.

"She's pretty smart," Ashley relented. Milo looked at her and Ashley smiled back through her helmet. "Still a kid though." Milo didn't respond, but instead looked at her feet.

"Let's follow these tracks as far as they go and liberate that beacon from enemy hands," Shepard said. "I don't know why the geth want the beacon, but we're going to find out."


The four of them once again met little resistance for the next several minutes. They passed villages of science prefabs and multiple puddles of plasma and charred corpses. They moved quickly in search of the beacon, following the tracks closely. Shepard also found something rather odd strewn about the encampments. Tall metal spires like needles sticking out of large posts in the ground. Ashley and Milo attested that they hadn't been there before but none of them had any idea what they were for. They chose to ignore them for now but marked their various and seemingly random locations on their mini-maps.

Suddenly, Shepard heard a single shot fire in the distance. The team crouched and trained their weapons in the direction of the sound. They waited for several heart pounding moments, sweat pouring down their faces. Milo was the first to stick her head up, the damn kid seemingly caring little for her safety. Shepard shook her head slightly and moved forward.

"That didn't sound like a beam rifle," Kaidan said softly. "Something a bit more conventional."

"And big," Milo added. "Something high caliber by the sound."

"Could be a sniper," Ashley suggested. Shepard shook her head.

"I don't think so," Shepard said quietly. "What modern sniper nowadays has a weapon that isn't silent?"

"I agree," Milo said quietly, the girl moving to crouch beside Shepard. "We should get a better look." Shepard looked at her. Their eyes locked.

"Keep those eyes of yours peeled," Shepard said with a smile and moved forward quickly while staying low at the same time. They emerged at the top of a slope, much higher than their previous position. It ran all the way down to a wide concrete platform, raised a foot higher from the rest of the ground. The way down was littered with rocks and charred tree stumps. A few craters existed as well, deep enough for a person in light armor to hide without much issue. Or take cover. Warfare in the distance echoed loudly, as if a battle was raging a few fields over somewhere. Eden Prime's moon was rising now and the stars were beginning to shine, casting the landscape in a pale glow. Shepard saw various geth standing on a railway platform below, the lights in their heads casting yellow light. Shepard just managed to glimpse a train car pulling away from the station, its occupants silhouetted inside. It rocketed away down the line and out of sight, disappearing around a bend.

"That's a lot of them down there," Ashley observed.

"Fifteen," Milo said. "Beam rifles by the looks, no sign of that mystery gun."

"I'm still sure it isn't a sniper," Shepard said. "These geth are too advanced to be careless when it comes to sniping. Perhaps the gunman was on that train?"

"Perhaps the beacon was on that train?" Kaidan suggested. Shepard nodded.

"That's possible," Shepard said. "We'll need to attack then." Shepard lay prone on top of the slope and raised her particle rifle to her shoulder. Her 4x sight was enough to get her a good look at each geth. She confirmed Milo's observations and announced,

"I'm going to be the most accurate shot at this range. The particle rifle isn't bogged down by gravity or wind speed. Therefore I'll be providing covering fire. Kaidan and Ashley, you two will move down the slope to the platform, sticking to cover whenever possible. Don't stop moving, though. Duck and roll, get my meaning?"

"Aye," They both said.

"Milo is going to sit up here with me and act as spotter," Shepard said. "She'll keep me accurate and up to date in case any more assholes show up."

"Okay," Milo said. She lay down beside Shepard on her stomach.

"I know we're exhausted," Shepard said. "But we've got a job to do. Attack as soon as you both are ready and we'll act accordingly." Kaidan readied his rifle and Ashley swapped to her secondary shotgun. She rolled her shoulders.

"Let's go," Ashley said solemnly.


Ashley and Kaidan were moving down the hill at break neck speed, zig-zagging behind and around cover. The geth noticed them too late. Ashley and Kaidan had move in close enough to be effective with their weapons and had found cover behind two rocks. Shepard went to work firing her laser, slicing off limbs and heads shaped like flashlights.

"One o'clock," Milo said, prompting Shepard to fry the geth as requested. "Eleven o'clock… twelve o'clock…" Shepard saw at of the corner of her eye that Ashley's cover was being deteriorated by the sheer amount of plasma being fired at it. Ashley burst from the melting cover, fired in her attacker's general direction, and hurled herself behind a high stack of industrial crates. The surprise attack worked better than Shepard expected. They mowed the geth down before they could reach cover or charge their cloaks.

"Good work," Shepard said.

"I told you I could help," Milo said.

"I never said you were helpless," Shepard said. "Just young."

"Commander," Kaidan said, his voice coming in over their helmet link. "You need to get down here right away, ma'am. It's Nihlus. They got him."