Chapter 3… It Pours
In the skies over Eden Prime…
Athena dives through the air with ease towards one of Eden Prime's many sea of trees as the SSV Normandy slowly disappears into the clouds behind her. To her left, she sees Corporal Jenkins and to her right, Lieutenant Alenko. Shifting her focus ahead of her she sees Nihlus open up his parachute and drift away from the squad as part of the plan to cover more ground. Soon, Athena and her team does the same and begin drifting down towards the planet. As the trio begin to drift down to the planet, a gust of wind blows Athena off course from the original landing zone, towards a patch of trees near the landing zone.
Athena pierces through the canopy of trees then slows down considerably as her parachute gets tangled up in the branches above her. Soon after, she comes to a stop which allows her to get her bearings when the sound of nearby gunfire catch her attention. Below her, she sees a familiar figure, in non-standard white and pink alliance armor, dodging and running away from a pair of Geth troopers that are firing at the fleeing figure. Athena struggles to detach the parachute module from her Onyx armor when the figure passes underneath her before tripping over an exposed tree root. She transforms her Omni-tool into an Omni-blade and slashes at the cords connecting her to the parachute, causing her to drop down onto a branch just below her.
When the two Geth troopers approach the spot where the white figure tripped, Athena drops down onto one of the troopers, burying her Omni-blade through its chest before drawing her Eagle heavy pistol and unloading an entire thermal clip into the second trooper. Athena gets up off the dead trooper as the white figure approaches her from where the figure tripped.
"Thank you for the rescue, ma'am." The woman greets in voice that Athena vaguely recognizes from somewhere as she straightens up and salutes Athena when she notices the rank on Athena's armor. Athena studies the figure for a moment, trying place a face to the woman's voice but woman's helmet obscures just enough of her face that Athena doesn't recognize her.
"You're welcome. Are you hurt anywhere?" Athena responds, shaking the small feeling of familiarity away to focus on the task at hand.
"No ma'am." The female marine answers.
"What's your name, marine?" Athena inquires.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th Marine Unit, ma'am" Chief Williams states.
"Staff Commander Athena Shepard of the SSV Normandy." Athena greets, holding out her hand which Chief Williams shakes. "What happened to the rest of your unit, Williams?"
Chief Williams relaxes her stance a bit. "We split into our respective squads and retreated in different directions towards the spaceport, the designated rendezvous point. But my squad ran into an ambush and somehow I got separated from them during the ambush."
"Have you been you been running ever since?" Athena asks.
"Yes ma'am. I tried to make my way towards spaceport hoping to reunite with my squad or what is left of the 212 along the way but everywhere I go, the enemy is there waiting for me." Chief Williams explains before looking Athena with a hopeful look. "If you don't mind me asking, are you part of this cluster's response fleet?"
Athena looks away guiltily. "Unfortunately, my squad and I are not part of the Fifth Fleet though the Fifth Fleet is already in-route and should be here in an hour." Athena hesitantly explains. "We are here to retrieve an important asset from the research camp at the Prothean ruins before it falls into enemy hands."
"Oh." Chief Williams simply replies with disappointment clear in her voice.
"Chief Williams, do you care to join me and my squad on our mission?" Athena asks, holding out her hand. "Considering how bad the situation is, I could certainly use the help of someone who is familiar with the area and hopefully we can find your missing squad along the way too."
Chief Williams is momentarily taken back by the offer then quickly straightens herself out. "Yes, ma'am!" Chief Williams proudly says as she salutes before realizing something. "Err… where is your squad, ma'am?"
"They should be in a clearing near here." Athena replies, checking the GPS on her OMNI-tool.
The two of them ready themselves and begin cautiously heading towards the clearing to avoid any more Geth troopers. Soon they enter a clearing and Athena sees a Lieutenant Alenko crouching over a wounded Corporal Jenkins, applying a pad of gauze to Jenkin's abdomen. Athena and Chief Williams immediately rush over to the other pair.
"Alenko, what happened?" Athena worriedly asks as she joins Lieutenant Alenko in crouching by Corporal Jenkins's side as Chief Williams stands guard.
"Soon after we landed, a pair of drones ambushed us and they tore through Corporal Jenkins' shield with ease before we were able to take them down."
"Don't worry, Commander. This looks worse than it is and as soon as Lieutenant Alenko is done patching me up, I'll be ready for combat." Corporal Jenkins says with a wince.
"How bad is it really, Alenko?"
"A through and through near the stomach and couple of grazes. A quick fix for a canister of medi-gel, ma'am."
"Good." Athena lets out a sigh of relief before standing up. "Alenko, Jenkins. This is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. For the time being, she'll be accompanying us on our mission as a guide."
"Nice to meet you guys." Chief Williams greets with a slight nod of her head. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins nod back.
"What's the game plan, Commander?" Lieutenant Alenko asks.
"The Geth came in force and the 212 was forced to split up and retreat towards the spaceport to regroup and reorganize. So we are going to go ahead with the original plan to get to the dig site and secure the beacon for transport to the spaceport. We will hopefully reunite with Nihlus along the way and any survivors of the 212. Any questions?"
"Uh, who is this 'Nihlus' person?"
"Nihlus is a turian Council Spectre who was accompanying my squad before he went off on his own to cover more ground.
"A Council Spectre …?" Chief Williams' eyes widen at the realization of how important the beacon is. "Then we better hurry to the dig site then."
"My thoughts exactly, Williams." Athena replies. "Any more questions?"`
"No ma'am" The rest of the squad announces at the same time.
After Lieutenant Alenko helps Corporal Jenkins off carefully, the squad leaves the clearing and begin making their way through the trees towards the dig site. Along the way, they encounter a lot of burnt out buildings and some charred corpses which Athena documents with her helmet mounted camera. Eventually, they arrive at the rocky pass leading to the dig site and see that it is lined with light purple spikes with clothed, shriveled up human bodies impaled on them.
"Well the dig site is through here but what the fuck is this?" Chief Williams states, pointing out the obvious.
"A psychological tactic, maybe?" Corporal Jenkins speculates.
"I don't think so, Jenkins. Some of these bodies look like they have been impaled on these spikes for days." Athena observes. Looking closer, she notices that some of the bodies are wearing civilian clothing that are typically associated with scientific field work while other bodies wear clothing meant for working in the cargo area of a spaceport and the few remaining bodies are wearing a full set of Alliance standard armor.
"Impossible, the attack started late this morning and these spikes weren't here when my squad started our patrol." Chief Williams responds.
"Whatever these spikes are for, it can't be good." Lieutenant Alenko uneasily says.
The squad nods in agreement and begin cautiously heading through the pass, wary of the increasingly ominous spikes. Soon they arrive at the dig site with partially uncovered Prothean ruins and a spiral ramp-like hill leading up to another area, only to discover that the dig site is seemingly empty and the beacon missing. Then a burst of gunfire splashes harmlessly against the squad's shields and instantly takes down Corporal Jenkins' shields. The squad immediately dives behind the nearest piece of the cover they can find. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins readies their Valkyrie assault rifles as Chief Williams readies her Avenger assault rifle and Athena readies her Hurricane submachine gun.
Athena peeks over her cover in time to see three Geth troopers rush up from the dig site, crouching behind cover nearest the dig site. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins pop in and out of cover, laying out suppressive with their Valkyrie rifles. Athena biotically pulls one of the troopers up out of cover allowing Chief Williams to quickly dispatch it. Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins pop back into cover to reload their rifles and Athena begins firing at the remaining two troopers to keep their heads down.
"Grenade out!" Corporal Jenkins yells out after primes then tosses a frag grenade just as Athena pops back into cover to reload. The Geth troopers pop out cover to begin firing at the squad just in time to miss the grenade landing at their feet which explodes a moment later. The squad slowly moves from to one piece of cover to another with caution in case reinforcements suddenly show up. Seeing that the coast is clear, all four of them relax their stance slightly and lower their weapons. Athena looks over the empty dig site and it becomes clear that the beacon was moved recently judging by the obvious signs of heavy equipment being used still imprinted in the dirt.
"I'm sorry, Commander, the beacon was here this morning." Chief Williams apologizes.
"No worries, Williams. Someone must have moved the beacon sometime after your squad left for patrol."
"Yeah but who?" Lieutenant Alenko inquires.
"Let's find out at the research camp." Athena replies before looking at Chief Williams. "Williams?"
"Yes, the research camp is just up this hill. Hopefully someone survived."
The squad heads up the hill to find a devastated research camp a couple of pre-fab structures in the back, debris strewn about, and four more spikes with armored gray corpses impaled on them. As the squad draws closer to the camp, the corpses suddenly begin twitching and the spikes begin to lower as blue lights appear all across the skin of the corpes.
"Oh god, they're still alive." Corporal Jenkins reacts as the spike stop lowering and the corpses get off the spikes with arcs of electricity come off their bodies.
The four corpses charge the squad, causing them to snap up their weapons in a panic. The squad empties their thermal clips into the charging corpses, dropping them inches from their feet. The squad stands there shocked at what just happened.
"Everyone saw those spikes going through their CHESTS, right? Right!?" Lieutenant Alenko points out in a panic as Corporal Jenkins throws up and winces in pain somewhere behind the squad. The rest of the squad uneasily nods in agreement, moving away from the now confirmed dead corpses except for Athena.
Athena crouches next to one of the corpses and begins scanning it her Omni-tool and camera. A clearly disgusted Chief Williams cautiously steps over the corpses and begins inspecting the camp while Lieutenant Alenko checks on Corporal Jenkins. Athena immediately notices the armor is Alliance standard armor and the huge amount of cybernetics running throughout the body and that the corpses seemed to missing anything that could identify who the corpse was. She checks her Omni-tool for additional info and discovers that the corpse's DNA still reads as human but has been altered significantly into someone unrecognizable, which only adds to the confusion.
"Anything, Commander?" Lieutenant Alenko asks as he returns to Athena's side.
"Absolutely nothing other than the fact that it is a human body packed to the brim with cybernetics." Athena grimly says as wipes mud off of the armor chest piece of one of the corpses to reveal a rank insignia of 1st Lieutenant and the dog tags wrap around the corpse's neck. "And the fact that this body and armor belongs to Lieutenant Johnson from the emergency transmission."
Lieutenant Alenko's mouth hangs open to say something but closes it when he comes up blank for answer.
"Commander, I think you need to come see this." Chief Williams calls out from one of the pre-fab structures.
Athena stands up. "Alenko, take Jenkins and go scan the other spikes we saw on the way here and report back on whatever you find."
"Yes ma'am." Lieutenant Alenko salutes.
Athena jogs her way over to Chief Williams' position to find her standing outside one of the pre-fab structures holding a hand to her mouth as she leans against the structure.
"What is it, William?" Athena asks with concern.
"Bodies of two scientists from the research team in there. Both of them suffered a single shot to the head." Chief Williams says weakly.
Athena hesitantly steps inside the pre-fab and is greeted with the sight of the bodies of a female scientist and a male scientist, lying on their side in a small puddle of blood with fearful, shocked expressions on their faces and surrounded by various data pads strewn about. Athena grimaces at the sight as she carefully navigates the small space as she scans the room with her Omni-tool.
Scanning the bodies reveals the fact that they were killed an hour at most before the squad which in turn leaves a bad taste in Athena's mouth. When she does a more detailed scan of each bullet entry wounds, her Omni-tool tells her that the scientists were shot point blank execution style. Turning her attention away from the gruesome sight, she looks around the obviously searched room and sees an unlocked terminal with a webcam on a nearby table. Carefully stepping over the out of place crime scene, Athena discovers an active recording that is hours long that she stops the recording and begins playback from the very beginning.
The recording begins with the male scientist, identified as Dr. Paul, making a video journal entry on the progress made with the excavation of the Prothean ruins and how bigger and bigger they are getting as the research team exposes more of the ruins. The doctor's explanation is interrupted by a far off explosion followed by soldiers shouting and barking orders in the background as they presumably rush off towards the explosion. The commotion draws the doctor away from desk and a couple moments of fast forwarding later he comes back into view of the camera frantically gathering various data-pads and other things.
More fast forwarding shows the female scientist, identified as Dr. Morrison, helping Dr. Paul gather up what Athena assumes to be research data and artifacts as the battle gets closer to the research camp. Suddenly the two of them stop what they are doing and duck behind the desk with Dr. Morrison locking the door. In the background, Athena hears battle between the marines and the Geth finally reaching the research camp with the marines losing horribly, judging by the sounds of the battle.
The recording goes quiet for a bit with barely audible sounds of four marines weakly protesting against their captors followed by the loud, unmistakable sound of those spikes being active and impaling organic flesh. The two scientists turn away from whatever they were looking at in disgust and silently puking moments later. Dr. Paul looks up past the terminal and immediately ducks back down again with a confused look on his face.
{What did you see?} Dr. Morrison asks.
{A turian leading those things.} Dr. Paul replies
{A turian?} Dr. Morrison echoes back. {Are you sure?"}
{Take a look for yourself.} Dr. Paul says, gesturing to something behind the camera.
Dr. Morrison looks up from her position and ducks down almost immediately with a scared look on her face. {"Shit! I think they saw me."}
The two of them make themselves even smaller in what appears to an attempt to hide themselves even further. But moments later the sound of the door unlocking makes them freeze in terror as three Geth Troopers storm inside with their rifles pointed at the scientists. Bizarrely, the troopers don't kill the scientists and they force them to reposition themselves to where they are sitting side by side on their knees.
Out of nowhere, an armored gauntlet holding a light grey Carnifex pistol appears in front of the camera with its barrel an inch or two away from Dr. Morrison's forehead but not the rest of the individual followed by the unmistakable dual toned sound of a male turian's voice. {"Where is the Prothean data beacon?"}
{"I- I don't what you're talking about"} retorts with shaky confidence much to the mystery turian's displeasure. The turian orders the troopers to search the structure for information regarding the location of the data beacon. He turns his attention back to the scientists and fires two shots that whizz by the scientists heads shattering their confidence. {"I won't ask again. Where. Is. The. Beacon?"}
{"Platform 11!"} Dr. Morrison blurts out. {"The beacon was moved to Platform 11 in the spaceport earlier today."}
{"Thank you."} The turian shoots the two scientists in the head anyways and signals the troopers to follow him as he leaves the structure. After the turian and the Geth leave, Athena fast forwards the recording for any additional information.
45 minutes later in the recording, the sounds of group of people cautiously making their way into the camp can be barely heard. As the group gets closer to the terminal's location, it becomes clear that it is another group of marines surprisingly led by Nihlus when his familiar dual toned voice can be audibly heard giving orders to the marines. Soon the group leaves and a gunshot followed by cacophony of gunfire can be faintly heard 5 minutes later. For last 15 minutes of the recording, nothing happens until Chief Williams could be heard choking in disgust and Athena entering the structure to examine the bodies. Athena stops the playback and downloads the recording to her Omni-tool and turns off the terminal as she leaves the structure.
"Commander, I did the sweep of the area around the camp and there's nothing much to report except that the construction area of the spaceport expansion looks like it too has been hit hard." Chief Williams reports as she steps out of the bushes behind the pre-fab structures. "Did you find the location of the beacon?"
"Yeah and an ever worsening situation." Athena replies as she activates her radio. "Alenko, what is the status of those scans?"
("The scans are complete and we are on way back now.") Lieutenant Alenko shakily replies.
Athena notices the shakiness in his voice. "What happened, Alenko?"
("The scan results of the spikes are… disturbing.")
Athena and Chief Williams raise an eyebrow at the news "Roger that, Alenko."
A minute later, Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins rush over the top of the hill as fast as they can with worried looks on their faces and soon they regroup with Athena and Chief Williams.
"Report, Alenko."
"The spikes they … they …" Lieutenant Alenko takes a moment to catch his breath. "They convert our dead into those… things."
"What?!" Athena and Chief Williams exclaim in alarm. "How?!"
Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins rub the back of their necks nervously before Lieutenant Alenko responds. "They slowly drain the bodies of its liquids and replaces the empty space with cybernetics, turning the bodies into some sort of cybernetic husk." The squad stands there in silence for a moments as they try process that piece of information.
"Okay then. I have some good news and some bad news that makes when current situation even worse." Athena says breaking the silence. "The good news is that the beacon is at the spaceport. More good news is that Nihlus is still alive and is with a group of marines and that they are heading towards the spaceport as we speak with a 10 minute lead. The bad news is that there is another turian leading the Geth and that they have at least an hour lead ahead of us.
The rest of the squad cringes and shifts uncomfortably at the bad news when Chief Williams speaks up. "I'm concerned that he hasn't radioed in at all after you guys landed. Is that too part of the plan?"
"Captain's Order to reduce the chance of detection not that it did us any good but Nihlus is a different story all together." Athena explains. "If that is all, then we better get moving."
The rest of the squad silently nod in agreement and they begin heading towards the spaceport when they hear a low rumbling sound of engines lifting something large and heavy upwards as they near the edge of the research camp. They rush in the direction of the construction area of the spaceport and in the distance they see an all too familiar red ship lifting off the ground near the spaceport. The squad watches in awe as the hand, possibly squid, shaped ship slowly makes its way into space leaving behind a trail of smoke and exhaust. Suddenly a bullet whizzes by Athena's head, snapping the squad out their trance. They immediately dive for the nearest cover as more bullets come flying towards them.
Athena peeks out from her piece of cover and sees five Geth troopers advancing towards the squad along 3 spikes that begins to lower towards the ground to release the husks from impalement. Athena signals to the squad to open fire as the husks quickly rush towards and the troopers cautiously advance. Corporal Jenkins, Lieutenant Alenko, and Chief Williams aim their rifles and fire into the surprisingly nimble husks. As the unfazed husks grow closer, Athena opens fire with her pistol but the husks continue forward despite getting shot multiple times while Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins shift their fire to suppress the troopers. When the husks get even closer, Athena biotically pulls the husks into the air and Lieutenant Alenko throws a biotic warp at the floating husks causing a biotic explosion that kills the husks.
The troopers begin moving from one piece of cover to another, popping up to take pot shots at the squad. Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins prime one of their frag grenades and throw them near the advancing troopers. The grenades explosions force two of the troopers out of cover and killing another. The squad immediately focus fire on the two out of cover troopers, killing the troopers before turning their attention to the remaining two troopers. The two remaining troopers begin when Athena overloads their shields and the rest of the squad quickly take them down. The squad cautiously approaches the spaceport entrance with their rifle ready in case more Geth show up.
"No!" Chief Williams gasps before she suddenly pushes her way past the squad, turning their attention to a scene that only worsens the current situation.
Lying in pools of freshly spilled blood is Nihlus and four alliance marines as Chief Williams kneels next to one of the bodies repeatedly saying no over and over. Athena approaches the distraught Chief Williams from behind and helps her off her knees as Lieutenant Alenko and Corporal Jenkins secure the area.
"Easy there, Williams, easy there." Athena soothes as she gets Chief Williams to stand up.
"My squad…" Chief Williams sobs as Athena maneuvers her away from the scene.
After Athena sits Chief Williams down, she moves back over to the bodies and begins scanning with her Omni-tool and camera. The first thing her Omni-tool informs her is that the gunshot wound in the back Nihlus' head was caused by a point blank shot from the same pistol that killed the scientists When she begins scanning Nihlus' body, she notices that his Omni-tool is still open and unlocked. She links her Omni-tool with his Omni-tool and discovers 5 recently created audio logs among other things. Athena plays the first audio log.
{"Entry #3 of the Observation of Staff Commander Athena Shepard's Spectre candidacy. The voyage is under way and so far I am impressed with the Commander's ability to lead. But I can't shake this feeling that I am being watched because every time –"} Athena stops the audio playback and looks behind her to see the surprised looks on the squad's faces when things go quiet suddenly.
"We'll discuss this later." Athena states before hitting play on the second audio log.
{"Made it on to the ground without getting spotted and the situation is already bad. There a lot of burnt out buildings but not a lot of bodies though. I'll keep moving towards the dig site and hope to find more information there. Nihlus out."}
Athena begins the third audio log. {"Joined up with a squad of the human 212th Marine Unit led by a Corporal Ramirez. From what he tells me of the retreat, the situation is lot worse than it looks like. We'll be heading towards the rendezvous point for the 212 and maybe we'll pass by the dig site along the way. Nihlus out"}
Athena begins the fourth audio log. {"We haven't made it to the rendezvous just but there's these spikes with human bodies impaled on them tha-"} The sound of someone getting impaled followed by an audible gasp interrupts Nihlus
{"Nihlus! They… they just impaled that colonist while he was still alive."} Someone says in the background.
{"What?!"} Nihlus exclaims just before the audio log ends with the sound of gunfire.
Athena begins the fifth and final audio log with some concern. {"We've arrived at the research camp and it has been hit hard. The beacon is not here and there more of these blasted spikes with four unlucky souls impaled on them. Thankfully there is an entrance to the spaceport through the nearby construction area of the spaceport expansion."}
{"Hey Nihlus, there's a turian waiting in the construction area."} Someone else calls out from the background.
{"What?"} Nihlus asks with concern. {Describe this… turian to me."}
{Uh, he is wearing some sort of gray armor I've never seen before, has visible cybernetics running along his left side and the back of his head to his neck like an oxygen hose for hard suits."} The marine explains.
{"What about his clan markings?"}
{"Clan what?"}
{"The face paint."}
{"He has none."}
Athena hears a worried growl escape Nihlus' mandibles before he barks orders to move towards the spaceport with caution. A minute of careful walking the recording ends with Nihlus saying. {"Saren!? What are you doing here?"}
The recording ends there and Athena checks Nihlus' Omni-tool's recording program for an active recording session but is disappointed to find that there are no other recordings. She shuts off Nihlus' Omni-tool and marks the location of the bodies in her own Omni-tool for later retrieval of the bodies. She looks at each of the bodies faces as she scans them to find that the marines have shocked expressions as if they were surprised while Nihlus' expression is one of thoughtful concern. The additional scans tell Athena that the odd angled entry wounds on the marines' bodies are a result of the marines being shot from all sides.
"Commander, we have an incoming cargo tram." Corporal Jenkins calls out, breaking Athena from her thoughts and prompts Lieutenant Alenko to join him by his side to see what is happening.
Athena gets off the ground with sorrowful face and puts a hand on Chief Williams' shoulder apologetically as she passes by her. "I'm sorry that this turned out like it did, Williams, but we need to get going."
"I understand, Commander and… thank you." Chief Williams responds giving a sad sweeping look at the squad she once led, silently giving them her goodbyes before steeling herself and joining up with Athena and her squad.
Once the squad is together, they cautiously approach the tram station as the incoming tram slows to a stop. On the tram, they see a large group of figures with a large figure near the back of the tram, waiting for the tram to come to a stop. The large figure looks at the squad, revealing itself as a large blue Geth with a yellow stripe and the rest of the group turn to look at what the large Geth is looking at, revealing themselves as Geth troopers.
The squad collectively let out a groan before once again diving behind the nearest piece of cover as the Geth step off the cargo tram towards the squad. The squad opens fire into the group, killing a couple of troopers and wounding a couple more as the rest of the group scatter behind cover. Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins drops back into cover to reload her rifle as the large Geth begins to charge through Athena and Lieutenant Alenko's bursts of fire.
Corporal Jenkins and Chief Williams quickly replace their rifle's spent thermal clips and pop back out of cover as Athena and Lieutenant Alenko drop back into to reload their weapons. Chief Williams and Corporal Jenkins focus their fire on to the large charging Geth unit but it ignores the fire to continue charging towards the squad, readying what appeared to be a shotgun of some sort. A couple bursts of gunfire forces Corporal Jenkins to lower his head behind cover and when he brings his head up in time to see the damaged blue/yellow Geth unit pointing its weapon at him. Before any of the squad could react, the damaged blue/yellow fires its weapon once into Corporal Jenkins' chest, taking out his shields instantly and killing him.
The rest of the squad fire their weapons until they click empty into the damaged blue/yellow Geth unit, bringing it down before it has chance to do more damage. The squad reenter their pieces of cover to reload their weapons as the remaining Geth units cautiously reposition themselves for a better tactical advantage. Athena peeks over her cover to assess the situation and sees that the remaining Geth have spread out in one group.
Weighing her options in her mind, Athena comes up with a plan of action and begins charging her biotics. "Williams, how many grenades do you have left?" She asks via her radio.
"Only one ma'am." Chief Williams replies.
Athena takes note of that then turns to Lieutenant Alenko. "Alenko, I'm going pull as many as I can into the air in couple moments. I need you to throw out as many warps as you can into those that are floating while Williams throws her last grenade at the feet of those not floating. Hopefully the resulting chain of explosions will take out most of them and the rest will be stunned momentarily for us to rush them. Roger that?"
"Yes ma'am!" Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams acknowledge.
With that Athena pops out of cover and unleashes a powerful pull field in the most clustered part of the group before returning behind her piece of cover as Chief Williams primes her final grenade. When the enemies begin to rise, Lieutenant Alenko throws out the warp that splits off into two warps while Chief Williams throws the grenade at the semi clustered group that was not pulled into the air. The resulting chain of explosions was massive leaving very little behind aside from scattered parts of Geth and charred remnants of cargo containers.
The squad cautiously moves from their pieces of cover and slowly make their way towards the now empty cargo tram. Athena crouches down next to Corporal Jenkins' body, while Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams stand silently behind her with their heads hung low, to close his eyes and they give him their silent goodbyes before they continue onto the tram. Athena starts the cargo tram before making her towards a nearby crate to sit down against. Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko get themselves into relaxed defensive positions as the tram begins to move.
10 minutes later, the cargo tram rounds a corner bringing Platform 11 into sight. As they approach the platform, Athena spots several different colored Geth troopers milling about on the catwalks above the tram tracks through her binoculars.
Lowering her binoculars, she turns towards her squad. "Ok squad here's the situation." She brings up 3D holographic map the platform. "The Geth are already here and their possible leader, Saren, as well. There are currently several troopers patrolling these catwalks *Athena points to both catwalks* which means there are more patrolling the loading bay on the left side of the tram tracks. From what I can see from the loading bay is filled with small cargo containers, so expect close quarter combat."
Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko nod in agreement.
"Lieutenant Alenko, you and I are going to take point and go down the middle of the loading bay. Chief Williams, you'll cover us from rear."
The tram begins to slow down as they approach the platform. The squad gets themselves into cover expecting the inevitable gunfire that is sure to come once the tram pulls into the tram station. Chief Williams and Lieutenant Alenko grip their rifles in anticipation and Athena draws her Eagle heavy pistol.
As soon as the tram begins the platform's tram station, a Geth trooper lets out a shrill alarm, alerting the others to tram's arrival. The other visible Geth stop in their tracks to look at the tram, creating an opportunity that the squad exploits by popping out their cover taking 2 troopers out, injuring the third one, and forcing the last one to hide behind a nearby crate.
Moments later, 2 more Geth troopers appear in the middle of the platform and begin firing upon the squad, forcing them off the tram. They immediately dive behind the nearest cargo container with a couple bullets bouncing of their shields. Athena quickly peeks over the container between volleys of gunfire to assess the situation and comes up with a plan.
"Williams, I want you to suppress the two in the middle. Alenko, I'll pull the injured one out of cover for you to take out and I'll try to take out the last remaining one. Then we'll move in as planned. Roger that?"
"Yes ma'am."
When the break in the troopers' suppressive gunfire ends, the trio suddenly break cover with Chief Williams firing bursts down the middle killing one unprepared trooper and forcing the other into cover, Athena pulling the injured trooper out of its cover before turning her pistol onto to the remaining Geth trooper killing it with a couple shots, and Lieutenant Alenko easily picks the floating trooper with his rifle before snapping off a shot down the middle to finish off the other trooper who decided to pop out of cover briefly when Chief Williams went to reload her Avenger assault rifle.
They sit there for a moment to catch their breaths before continuing further into loading bay that soon opens into a spacious adjustable docking bay overlooking a humongous angrily glowing crater and sea of trees. In the middle of the docking bay, sits the Prothean data beacon sitting on top of a pallet, unsecured and glowing green, along with a strange beeping box in front of it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Athena sees movement and immediately snaps up her pistol in the direction of the movement. What she sees is a Geth trooper hitting a rather large man over the head with the butt of its rifle with a resounding crack. As the man crumples to the ground like a bag of bricks, she unloads the rest of her pistol's thermal clip into the trooper, killing it.
"Alenko! Williams! Secure the beacon!" She shouts as she runs over to the fallen man while activating her radio and an emergency beacon as Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams comply with the orders. "SSV Normandy, this is Staff Commander Shepard requesting immediate medivac at my location." She reaches the fallen obviously unconscious man and gets on her knees to assess the man's profusely bleeding head injury before continuing on. "I have civilian in need of immediate medical attention."
"Commander, we have a bomb here." Lieutenant Alenko calls out.
("Commander, the Normandy is in-route to your location. ETA 5 minutes.") Captain Anderson announces over the radio.
Athena pulls out a field dressing and applies it to the head wound, securing it tightly in the process. Behind her, she hears Lieutenant Alenko yelp in surprise and she turns around to see him getting pulled towards the beacon by an invisible force while Chief Williams kneels by the bomb torn between helping Lieutenant Alenko and continuing defusing the bomb. Athena's body immediately jumps into action, rushing over to Lieutenant Alenko and takes his place by pushing out of the way. The Prothean data beacon lifts Athena into the air and begins rapidly downloading information into her as the other two squad members watch in confusion as this happens.
Shortly after the download begins, sparks and arcs of green electricity come flying off the beacon and it explodes, knocking Athena out and sending her flying across the docking bay. Just before Athena lands on the ground, several pairs of ghost hands appear out of the ground to cushion Athena's fall before disappearing. Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams finish defusing the bomb then rush over to Athena's side to assess her injuries.
"SSV Normandy, this is 2nd Lieutenant Alenko. Tell Dr. Michel to prep the med-bay for an additional person. Commander Shepard is down! I repeat Commander Shepard is down!" Lieutenant Alenko frantically says into his radio. "Williams, secure the civilian for transport."
"Yes, sir!" Chief Williams replies before sprinting over to the unconscious man only to be perplexed when she sees the man's strange uniform that looks strangely familiar. With a shake of her head, she begins checking over the man's body for any other wounds and she takes note of the knifelike hole in his lower back and the various shrapnel like tears in his strange uniform. In the distance, she faintly hears the low rumble of the Normandy's engines getting closer and closer as the curved silhouette of the ship gets bigger and bigger in front of the sunset.