Author's note: Still special thanks to Zevik—without his walkthrough this wouldn't have been possible. The second equipment shed with the decryption lock reveals yet more survivors, but these ones have a horrible secret. Play it right and they'll give you a lot of useful stuff. Also it's a little time cross, between the beginning of this chapter and the end of the last, I had to do a little back track.
11. The Smugglers
Alyss heard the shot, from where she and her team were, on the ridge just above the spaceport. She knew the sound very well, but so far that was the only single shot fired—the Geth and her squad fired multiple times—something was wrong. They rounded the corner, and paused...there it was; the insect-like ship she'd seen in the distress vid. It was slowly rising up, like its purpose here was complete…were they too late?
"What is that?" Kaidan asked.
"It's a ship!" Williams cried, awed. "Look at the size of it!"
It was rising faster than something of its size should have been able to, red smoke trailing off of it. It most definitely looked like some kind of vehicle…but it was huge; was ship really the right word for it? A shot exploded against her barrier, and she looked down, pulling her attention from the ascending ship. Geth and husks were swarming over the spaceport, and making their way towards her squad.
One of the husks grabbed Kaidan—Alyss hadn't even seen it appear, her pistol trained on the Geth. Not him! Alyss fired shot after shot into the husk and she swore under her breath when her pistol overheated…she ran up to the husk and bashed it in the back of the head with the butt of her gun. Normally she was very careful to watch the heat meter on her weapons…she was getting sloppy, and almost lost Kaidan because of it.
When the last Geth fell, Shepard let out a sigh of relief, and she and Williams walked over to Kaidan to check him for injuries. Neither of them had seen the husk coming for some reason, and both wanted to make sure the lieutenant was okay. He holstered his pistol as he brushed himself off.
"You all right, Alenko?" Shepard asked.
Kaidan nodded slowly. "Yeah I think so. Thanks for the save, Commander."
His smile made her heart palpitate.
"Any time, Lieutenant." She said, absently staring past him.
She could see the red glare of a security lock engaged on another storage shed. Thank God, there were more survivors. She made her way carefully to the shed, and motioned to it wordlessly. Kaidan nodded, and his arm glowed orange. He typed on it furiously for a moment, and there was an acknowledging beep from the door. It slid open.
"Everybody stay calm out there. We're coming out. We're not armed." A male voice warned from the back of the shed.
Two mean, one with dark brown hair and a goatee, one cleanly shaven, and a women in a beanie stepped out of the shed, hands raised in the air. A gesture of surrender. Her team holstered their guns, seeing no sign of the Geth at the moment—as well as trying not to scare the colonists any more than they had to.
"Is it safe? Are they gone?" The woman asked, looking around frantically.
"You're okay now. Nobody's going to hurt you." Alyss promised.
"Those things were crawling all around the shed. They would've found us for sure. We owe you our lives." The clean shaven man sighed with relief, as he rubbed the back of his neck and the other man wiped the sweat from his brow.
"I—I still can't believe it. When we saw that ship I thought it was all over." The woman admitted, holding her head.
"It showed up right before the attack. Knew it was trouble the second I saw it; so we made a break for the sheds." The clean shaven man said.
"Tell me everything you remember about the attack." Alyss told him.
He wrung his hands together. "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 bearded man pointed. "They were over by the garage; over near the spaceport. Right where that ship came down…no way they survived."
"You don't know that! We survived. If they made it to the garage, they could've had a fighting chance!" The woman cried, shaking her head.
Alyss nodded, taking it all in. "Do you know anything about the Prothean beacon they dug up?"
The clean shaven man scratched his head. "We're just farmers. We heard they found something out there, but it never really mattered to us. Not until now."
"What else can you tell me about the ship you saw?" Shepard asked.
He rubbed the back of his neck again. "I was too busy running to get a clear look at it. I think it landed over near the spaceport."
"Tell them about the noise, Cole. That awful noise." The woman encouraged.
"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." Cole continued.
"It was probably trying to block communications." Shepard muttered.
Alyss dipped her head in thought; sounded like a jamming signal…only a bit different. There was no need to worry them; she'd never heard of a jamming signal sounding like that and coming from someone's own head, but they would probably never have to deal with it again after that day.
"Whatever it was, felt like it was tearing right through my skull…almost made it impossible to think."
"I have to go." Alyss began to turn away.
"Hey, Cole…we're just a bunch of farmers. These guys are soldiers; maybe we should give them the stuff." The bearded man suggested.
Kaidan, Alyss and Ashley turned back, curious.
Cole rounded on his friend. "Geez, Blake. You gotta learn when to shut up!"
"You have something to tell me, Cole?" She pointed, intimidatingly at him.
He held up his hands in surrender. He didn't want any trouble with the three very well armed people in front of him. Blake shrugged sheepishly behind Cole, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment—he hadn't meant for a confrontation.
"Some 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." Cole admitted.
Shepard shook her head in disgust; smuggling was a crime…not as serious as genocide or murder, but still a crime. The things people did just to make a tidy little profit sometimes amazed her.
"You're breaking the law, Cole."
"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." Cole cried, defensively. "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."
"We're risking our lives to save this colony. You sure there's nothing else in here that could help us out?" Alyss inquired.
Cole nodded slowly and reluctantly. "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."
"Who's your contact at the spaceport, Cole? What's his name?" Williams asked, as Cole handed Shepard some armoring upgrades.
Jenkins and the whole of Ashley's squad could have used those upgrades.
"He's not a bad guy; I don't want to get him in trouble. Besides, I'm not a snitch!
"He might have something to do with this whole attack, Cole. We need his name. It's important.' Alyss assured him, keeping her voice level.
"Yeah, okay. You're right. His name's Powell; Works the docks at the spaceport…if he's still alive." Cole sighed, resignedly.
Shepard reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, get to safety…we cleared the way back, and there are a couple other survivors near the dig site. See if you can find them, and stay bunkered down until someone sends out an 'all clear' okay?"
The three farmers nodded silently.
"Good luck." Cole whispered.
Shepard motioned to her squad to move out, and refreshed her barrier as she pulled out her shotgun. They made their way down the steep terrain, and walked up a set of steps. There was an all too familiar body lying at the top on the spaceport platform. Kaidan inhaled sharply as they approached it.
"Commander, its Nihlus." He confirmed.
