Near the monorail, Nihlus had snuck his way to his position when he spotted three beings. One was from the video footage, one of the armored beings with stealth technology, one has a similar silhouette as one of the gas bag creature on Eden Prime but it had a light luminescent blue hue about it and it's 'bag' was covered by metal 'armor' with an elongated neck and a small helmet covering the end. Nihlus wasn't able to get a good look at the third figure but he wasn't going to let that stop him from retaking the colony. With his assault rifle ready, Nihlus moved out of cover and took aim. He wasn't expecting this. Nihlus lowered his weapon as he called out the familiar being, "Saren?"

The armored humanoid grabbed a small metal handle from its hip when the other humanoid stopped it. The left arm was from a geth, grafted onto this being with tubes jutting out of the arm and body. The being turned as he replied, "Nihlus."

As Saren moved toward Nihlus, Nihlus was confused, "This isn't your mission, Saren. What are you doing here?" But Nihlus soon raised his weapon again on the armored humanoid, "And you're with that…"

Saren stopped him as he placed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "The Council thought you could use some help on this one. I was able to convince this one to fight with us."

Saren then walked out of Nihlus' view as Nihlus relaxed himself with that information and looked toward the spaceport. "I wasn't expecting to find the geth here. The situation's bad."

"Don't worry." Saren grabbed the pistol he had on his hip as he quietly raised it to the back of Nihlus' head, "I've got it under control."


Saren pulled the trigger, killing Nihlus in a single blow. Rayta watched as the body fell to the floor. "The way of a coward to kill."

Saren read his omni-tool as he replied, "Says the warrior who uses stealth technology on the battlefield." Not giving the Sangheili a chance to defend his honor, Saren told him, "Let us move to the beacon, I'm certain the geth and your men are awaiting us."

Rayta then stopped for a moment as he turned toward the garage. He looked at the crates and thought he saw something hiding among them. He huffed and continued on to the train.


Moving over the hill the squad of six heard a gunshot ring out from the valley ahead. But what caught their attention was the large ship above the spaceport. Alenko shouted, "What is that? Off in the distance."

Williams was shocked as it started to move skyward and exuded dark clouds and sparks of red 'lightning', "It's a ship. Look at the size of it!" The ship in question looked like a giant black metal squid.

But the three strangers didn't seem too impressed by the ship. One of the guys in black armor stated, "That's not a Covenant ship."

The man who identified himself as Cortez then reminded the other, "Doesn't matter. We still have a job to do."

The soldier in the strangest armor was already scouting out the enemies ahead of them. With the unique weapon the soldier had found a pair of geth patrolling dangerously close to two IEDs. But there were two spikes with bodies nearby. The soldier raised his left arm as he counted down from three. The instant the soldier hit zero, he grabbed the rifle and fired at the canister. The blast caused the other IED to detonate and engulf both geth in flames but the spikes lowered and the creatures charged them.

The creatures had to work their way up the hill but they had plenty of rocks to give them cover. Cortez switched his SMG for the assault rifle on his back as the creatures moved closer. One of the creatures had climbed onto one of the rock and tried to get the jump on them. Alenko caught it in a biotic Lift as Shepard and Williams riddled it with rounds. The soldier with the elongated helmet had fired at the furthest one, bringing it down before it was a real threat. A third one was running up a rather open path as the trooper in black armor opened fire with the SMG taking it out before it could reach them.

With the area cleared the team moved on. Cortez stopped as he turned to his right, "Look, another shed. Do you think we'll find more survivors?"

Shepard wasn't sure but she was being hopeful, "We won't know until we find out." Just like Dr. Warren's shed, this one was also hard locked. Shepard turned to her lieutenant as she said, "Unlock that door."

As Alenko did, the others took aim at the door just as a precaution. With the door unlocked, Alenko backed up. But the door opened as a man started to shout, "Everybody stay calm out there. We're coming out. We're not armed."

Three people in civilian clothing walked out, two men and a woman. Just from looking at them one could see that they were simple farms, nothing more.

The three of them had their arms raised as the woman asked, "Is it safe? Are they gone?"

Shepard tried to assure the woman as the group eased their weapons. "We took care of them."

The first man then told Shepard, "Those things were crawling all around the shed. They would have found us for sure. We owe you our lives.

The woman seemed in shock, "I—I still can't believe it. When we saw that ship. I thought it was all over!"

The man seemed calmer now as he added, "It showed up right before the attack. Knew it was trouble the second I saw it. So we made a break for the sheds."

Shepard wanted to know more about the ship she saw, "What else can you tell me about the ship you saw?"

The man rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to recall, "I was too busy running to get a clear look at it. I think it landed over near the spaceport."

The woman added, "Tell them about the noise, Cole. That awful noise."

Cole then told them, "It was emitting some kind of signal as it descended. Sounded like the shriek of the damned. Only it was coming from inside your own head."

Shepard wasn't sure but she thought that might be what caused the loss in communication. "It was probably trying to block communications."

Cole didn't seem to know. "Whatever it was, felt like it was tearing right through my skull. Almost made it impossible to think."

Shepard was still trying to piece together what exactly happened leading to the attack. "Tell me everything you remember about the attack."

Cole started to recall, "The three of us were working the crops when that ship showed up. We just saw it and ran. I don't know what happened to the rest of the crew."

The other man pointed to his right, "They were by the garage. Over near the spaceport. Right where that ship came down. No way they survived."

The woman didn't want to believe that, "You don't know that! We survived. If they made it to the garage, they could've had a fighting chance!"

Cortez asked them, "Were there any other ships? Something bigger or longer."

Cole didn't think so, "I just remember running after seeing that ship come down."

Shepard ended the conversation and started to walk away, "I have to go."

The other man stopped them as he talked to Cole, "Hey, Cole. We've just a bunch of farmers. These guys are soldiers. Maybe we should give them the stuff."

Cole seemed ready to smack the other farmer as he turned around, "Geez, Blake. You gotta learn when to shut up!"

Shepard turned around as she questioned him, "You have something to tell me, Cole."

Cole calmly explained, "Some of the guys at the spaceport were running a small smuggling ring. Nothing major. In exchange for a cut of the profits, we let them store packages in our sheds."

Shepard had grown up with the Alliance most of her life, and she didn't take kindly to lawbreakers, "You're breaking the law, Cole."

Cole knew but he didn't think he was hurting anyone, "We're not hurting anybody! Hell, most of the time, I don't even know what's in the packages. I just thought there might be something we could use. I found a pistol. Figured it would come in handy if those things came back. But you'll probably get more use out of it than we will."

Shepard persuaded him to help. "We're risking our lives to save this colony. You sure there's nothing else in here that could help us out?"

Cole conceded to her, "Yeah, there's one more thing. I was going to sell it after this was over. But you probably deserve it more than I do."

Williams interrupted as she asked, "Who's your contact at the spaceport, Cole? What's his name?"

Cole was hesitant to give a name, "He's not a bad guy. I don't want to get him in trouble. Besides, I'm not a snitch!"

Shepard found a way to convince him, "He might have something to do with whole attack, Cole. We need his name. It's important."

Cole didn't want to get into further trouble, "Yeah, okay. You're right. His name's Powell. Works the docks at the spaceport. If he's still alive."

Shepard turned to her team as she said, "Move out."

The team carefully moved toward the dock as the continued to check for hostiles. Alenko moved up first and found a body. "Commander. It's Nihlus."

As the moved to check the turian, the strange soldier aimed the odd rifle at the crates as Williams also noticed something. "Something's moving! Over behind those crates!"

Alenko grabbed his shotgun, as Cortez and the other trooper in the same combat armor aimed their SMGs at the crate with Shepard and her pistol. Soon a voice shouted, "Wait! Don't—Don't shoot!" The man slowly raised up, "I'm one of you! I'm human."

Shepard yelled at the man, "Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed!"

The man seemed scarred as he answered, "I…I'm sorry. I was hiding. From those creatures. My name's Powell. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him."

Shepard needed to hear this, "I need to know how Nihlus died."

Powell recalled, "The other one got here first. He was talking with something in maroon armor and they had something that looked like a blue gas bag. That's when your friend showed up. He called him Saren. I think they knew each other. Saren said he 'convinced' that one to fight with him and your friend seemed to relax. He let his guard down…and Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back. I'm just lucky that thing didn't look closer behind the crates."

Shepard then asked, "Where'd Saren go after he killed Nihlus?"

Powell pointed to his right, "He jumped on the cargo train and headed over to the other platform. Probably going after the beacon. I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mother ship showed up. Then the attack. They killed everyone. Everyone! If I hadn't been behind the crates I'd be dead, too!"

Before Shepard could ask Powell anything, Cortez questioned him, "Tell me about the other. The one in maroon armor."

Powell started rubbing his hands, "It was a big thing. Taller than Saren or that guy on the floor. The helmet looked like it had tusks and his legs were like a dogs."

Cortez and the others seemed concerned by that bit of information. Cortez then asked the man, "Did you see any other aliens? Things you've never seen before."

Powell remembered vividly, "There were these things, tan skin with armor and red shields. They screeched a lot and had beaks with teeth. I saw a few of them eating bodies that the geth weren't taking."


Cortez, Six and O'Brien spoke between one another about this new Intel, "Sounds like a Spec-Op Elite and Jackals. Something's not right. Where are the Grunts and the bodies?"

O'Brien started to look around, "Maybe the Covies are learning to clean up after themselves."

Dot noted, "Lance Corporal, I have no records of Covenant ground forces collecting or moving fallen soldiers during any known ongoing operation."

Six wasn't so sure. "I found some blood hidden underneath a patch of tall grass back where we fought those cyberized humans the first time. It was from a Grunt."

O'Brien then asked, "Then what about the Elite that didn't kill Powell. That's just unusual."

Cortez agreed, "If we're lucky we just might be able to ask it after putting a few rounds into him first."

Returning to the conversation between the Commander and Powell, she had asked him about how he survived and was sickened by the fact that his laziness kept him alive and he had handed over grenades and some experimental tech.

Shepard said, "We need to find that beacon before it's too late."

Powell gave them directions, "Take the cargo train. That's where the other turian went." Powell leaned against the crate as he said, "I…I can't stay here." He turned around and walked off, "I need to get away from all this."

Six had already moved toward that area before Powell snuck off to escape the fighting. Soon enough, Six's motion tracker detected moving coming toward her. She knelt down as she used one of the dock's support arms as cover. Six pulled out her knife as one of the hostiles moved closer. Once within her reach, Six threw out her arm as the knife jabbed into something, making a gushing sound with it. The Spartan pulled whatever she had hit toward her and down to the ground to see it. The knife was lodged in a tube on a geth as it tried to remove Six and the knife from it. Six pulled out her pistol as she placed it below the eye and fired two rounds to insure the machine no longer functioned. Her motion tracker detected two more targets; she signaled the group before grabbing the MA37 on her back and moved out to gun down the two geth. She put two sets of controlled bursts into each geth, about eight rounds per burst, spending the entire clip to eliminate both machines. Even with the precise assault, the geth managed to fire off a few rounds against the Spartan, though her shields had taken a few upgrades since their arrival to take the rounds.

Six retrieved her M392 from where she left it as the others moved up. Cortez took lead and as he moved toward the walkway to the train he was shot at. Cortez took cover as the geth continually shot at his position. Six pulled out her knife and tossed it to Cortez. The blade struck the guard railing as he pulled it out and used it to find the geth below. Cortez also spotted two IEDs the machines happened to be standing dangerously close to. He signaled O'Brien to pop the canisters. The ODST grabbed his pistol as he leaned over the railing behind the building and took aim at the closest canister. Two shots were fired, the first one released the gases and the second ignited them.

The canisters erupted into a green mist as the blast knocked both geth down. As the mist covered the machines it slowly started to eat away at them until both geth were reduced to a pool of ash and goo.

The group moved down to the train when the geth onboard opened fire. Most of the geth were hiding behind barriers. Shepard's group took cover behind some of the barriers as the started to retaliate. One of the geth however was far too big to hide behind the barriers but it didn't seem to matter to it as it started to move closer to them. O'Brien pulled out the sniper rifle as the others focused their attention on the regular sized geth. Six detonated another IED that sparked blue and electrocuted two of the geth. With the sniper rifle ready, O'Brien took the shot as the bullet traveled through the heart of the machine and a second geth before imbedding itself into the wall. Alenko used a biotic attack as the geth was thrown off the train and fell to its 'death'. In controlled bursts, Williams and Shepard were able to gun down one of the geth as Six finished the last one with two rounds from her DMR.

With the area clear, they moved to the front car as Shepard activated it. Now they had to find the beacon, and this Saren.


Rushing over to the site, Saren and Rayta found one of the geth as it awaited Saren's orders. "Set the charges. Destroy the entire colony. Leave no evidence that we were here." As the white machine moved to achieve this goal, Saren walked up to the beacon as the device gave off a strange green aura. Saren was a foot away from the bacon when he was suddenly lifted into the air. Information started to pour into the turians mind as Rayta walked over the Kig-yar raider waiting to leave the planet. As the process finished, Saren was dropped to the ground. When he recovered, Saren walked toward Rayta and entered the alien ship.