[Entry 11: Eden Prime Part 4]

From the top of the rise, the entire spaceport complex was visible. We were coming in from the south. A security checkpoint was down the hill to the right and the trams to the docks as well as an impressive skyscraper were beyond the main cargo drop. Down the hill to the left was a road leading into the valley, probably towards the main colony hub, or maybe some fields. The hillside was littered in construction rubble and small grass fires. A car was flipped upside down, and more spikes held unlucky colonists aloft. Two more of the Geth patrolled the perimeter of the cargo port, walking mechanically from side to side. The clouds were thick and roiling, even though the rain had stopped almost altogether. No sky was visible, but an unsettling red hue bathed Eden Prime's horizon. I wondered where that ship had gone, the one from the transmission.

"Do you think you can take one of them out?" I asked Williams, watching the two synthetics through the scope of my Equalizer.

"I'm not fantastic with a Sniper Rifle," she murmured, peering through her own scope, "but say the word and I'll get the job done."

"Take the closer of two then," I directed, "Fire on my mark." I lined up my shot and ordered her released. We pulled the trigger at the same time, my shot cutting neatly through my target's head, hers puncturing the other in the chest. She fired a follow-up shot into her mark's neck, and it fell next to its partner before both short circuited and finally, combusted. I pulled out the Stiletto as we veered right down the hill, towards the security checkpoint.

"Weren't there some of those spike things around here?" the Chief commented. I paused, head cocked to the side, just before they leapt out from above.

"Fuck!" Alenko yelped, throwing his arm up to shield himself. His biotics lashed out, sending the closer of the two husks flying across the clearing where it hit a wall of jagged rock that lined the hillside. Before it fell, the husk released a deadly explosion of electricity, tiny bolts jumping and scattering before disappearing into the ground. The other was suspended in midair for a moment before it exploded. It fell between us in halves, its mouth lolling open. If I had a more sardonic sense of humor, I might've found it amusing.

I looked up to the Lieutenant and watched as he caught his breath, settling the energy that ran rampant across his skin. He met my gaze briefly, sheepishly. I just quirked my brow, wondering silently if he was alright. At the same time, it was nice to know I wasn't the only one who lashed out instinctively.

"I really don't like surprises," he murmured almost inaudibly, looking down to fix a better grip on his pistol. Sweat pooled at his upper lip betraying the physical strain his biotics had taken on him. I could tell he'd wasted more energy than he'd wanted to.

"Damn. I'll keep that in mind when I'm in charge of planning your birthday party," Chief Williams suddenly said. I snorted involuntarily, pulling a brief smile from Alenko who shook his head slightly.

"Let's keep moving," I gestured, turning to go. I stopped again, turning my head slightly to add, "Lt. ...take my weak side."

"Aye aye," he nodded, the smile audible in his voice.

We came up to the security checkpoint, a small, portable unit not unlike the one we found Dr. Warren in. This one had an air of permanence however, the native ivy crawling up the side of the building letting us know it'd been there awhile.

"Lock's engaged on this one too, Commander," Williams reported.

"Leave it," I shook my head, remembering the shot we heard at the camp. "We need to find Nihlus. He's supposed to rendezvous with us here but I don't see him."

"He is a SPECTRE," Alenko commented, "If anyone can take care of themselves it's him." I figured he was trying to reassure me, but I couldn't help but feel like the Lieutenant was undermining my gut feeling and it didn't savor too well.

"Someone important?" Chief Williams asked.

"Mission scout," I replied shortly, still bristling at the Lieutenant's comment, "the Council sent him with us on the Normandy." She seemed content to leave it at that.

Just as we passed the unit, I heard the tri-tone beep of the security lock deactivating. All three of us whirled around, weapons raised.

"We're human! We're human!" A husky tenor shouted, ducking back inside the shed. A tentative pink-fleshed, five-fingered hand peeked out in the open, waving.

"At ease," I breathed, my heart moving from my throat back into my chest. I thought of Alenko's distaste for surprises; he wasn't alone in that sentiment. "You can come out," I called, holstering the Stiletto. Alenko turned to keep an eye on our six, while Williams kept her weapon trained forward, despite my people exited the shed, hands raised, eyes wary: two men, one of my height with a bulky build and ruddy skin, the other dark, tall, and thin. Both were wearing a dock worker's uniform.

The first my eyes with a measured gaze, saying, "We're unarmed, don't shoot."

"Is it safe? Are they gone?" A woman cried -the third of the trio- before I could respond, grasping the first man's shoulders. Her eyes peeked at me from behind the man, bewildered. She was shorter than me, probably younger too. Coveralls three sizes too big dwarfed her frame, the heavy work gloves tucked into her belt a dead giveaway to her Farmer's occupation. Innocents. These people wouldn't know about the Geth or the beacon, they were just victims. To them, this attack was random, unfounded. They would probably never know the truth. I sighed. Nihlus was going to have to wait.

"Everything's alright," I assured them, looking directly towards the young woman. "The area is secure, for now."

"Those... things, were sniffing around the shed," the man said, glancing behind him before brushing the Farmer off, "it's a good thing you came when you did or they would've found us for sure."

"I- I still can't believe it," the young woman continued, visibly shuddering as she hugged herself at the elbows. "When we saw that ship, I thought it was all over..."

"Ship?" I asked, my eyebrow lifting involuntarily. I thought back to the machine from the transmission, the claw-like appendages reaching towards Eden Prime's surface. Where they talking about that Behemoth? My brow creased.

"It showed up right before the attack," the dock worker said. "Knew it was trouble, what with that crazy red lightning and all, so I booked it towards the shed with these two on my tail." He jabbed his thumb behind him. The man behind the dock worker was silent, watching the Chief's grip on her Lancer Assault Rifle with a wide-eyed expression.

"What can you tell us?" I inquired, "Every detail."

"I-I was... working the cargo bay- as usual- with Blake," he started, looking back at his companion, "she...was walkin' around the spaceport-"

"My Uncle was checking our exports- we're orchard farmers," she interjected. A scene from my childhood flicked past as I blinked. Flower crowns and sunshine; a handshake. I twitched involuntarily, shoving the image farther back into the reaches of my mind, teeth clenched.

"Yeah, that. Anyway, that ship comes down through the clouds, I take one look at it and run. Next thing I know I'm in this shed with these two, security's gone, and there's this... noise. This fuckin'... shriek of the damned or some shit. Worst part is that it wasn't coming from anywhere, it was all in my head. I wanted to bash in my skull it was so bad."

I took a minute to think, "It was probably... a jamming signal of some kind," I mused out loud, looking to the Lieutenant. His eyes were trained on the cargo bay in front of us, but his shoulders lifted, signalling that he'd heard me.

"Well, whatever it was, it was horrible."

"Do you know anything about the artifact the archaeologists found?" I asked.

"I knew they found something old, something important," he shrugged, "but I don't get paid enough to care about the specifics."

"Lovely," Williams muttered from next to me.

"What about a turian?" I pressed, "Black armor, white markings on his face, green eyes, you can't've missed him."

"Uh-uh, we closed all the shutters to the shed. Hid behind some lockers and made ourselves quiet. If anybody came through... we were too scared to look."

I closed my eyes briefly. Dread had made a home inside my gut and sat like a lead weight.

"Thanks for the info. If I were you three, I would go back inside and wait until backup from the Alliance showed up."

"Hey -Cole- we're just dock workers," the other man, Blake, spoke up just as I turned to tap Alenko on the shoulder while signalling to Williams. "They're soldiers, maybe... we should give them the- "

"Geez Blake you gotta learn when to shut up."

I turned slowly, hand automatically resting on my pistol. When I met Cole's eyes, I was frowning. I knew the effect I had on people when I looked at them sideways with my scar in full view. The piece of metal that'd gotten lodged in my helmeted face had done a number on my left side, and I'd never been looked at the same way again. The way Cole looked at me now, I knew my minor scare tactics had done their job.

"If there's something you're not telling me..." I calmly warned, my voice layered with steel.

Cole raised his hands defensively, "Look, some of the guys were running a little smuggling operation- nuthin' big. We had a deal: they store their stuff, we get a cut of the profit."

"What kind of stuff are we talking about here?" Williams interjected, stepping towards them. Her grip audibly tightened around the Lancer's trigger.

"I found a pistol," he said, wringing his hands. "Figured it would come in handy if those things came back. You'll probably need it more than we will though." He pulled the pistol from his waistband at the back, and presented it. Williams took it and inspected it briefly before handing it to me. His eyes flitted around my gaze, holding it for half a second before darting to the ground. There was more, but he wasn't sharing.

"You're wasting my time," I growled, gripping the new gun. "I'm asking once and once only, and just think -long and hard- before you try and lie to me again: are you sure all you found is this one crappy pistol?"

"Uh..." he tried, his face contorting, "No, wait... I have this little thing too, I just have it in my pocket here..." he dropped a chip into my hand, quickly backing up. "That's it, I swear," he promised. I looked at it closely (a weapons mod of some kind?) before unbuckling the small pouch at my hip with some other miscellaneous things I never remembered to clean out, and tucked it inside.

"Who's your contact at the spaceport?" Williams asked.

"He's not a bad guy," Cole evaded, "I don't want any trouble, really. It's not even worth it. Besides, I'm not a snitch."

Would you rather be a snitch or a corpse? I thought angrily, my frustration stirring up the already tumultuous energy beneath my skin. I nearly threw my hands in the air, exclaiming, "Just fucking tell me," barely holding back, before I beat the shit out of you. People who wasted my time shortened my hard-earned patience by miles and I was having trouble finding any to deal with this ass. Williams cocked her Lancer, deep irritation burning in her eyes. I almost didn't want to stop her.

Cole got the message, quickly saying, "Powell, his name's Powell."

"No honor among thieves anyways, right?" she smiled darkly. There was something deeply disturbing about her that I needed more time to figure out. Her temper was fiery, to say the least.

"Please don't shoot me," he whimpered. "That's really everything."

"Get back into the shed, and don't ever try and pull this shit again." I turned, thrust the pistol towards Alenko, and stalked up to the cargo port, my helmet suddenly feeling too tight for my head. Smugglers were trash, not even worth boiling my blood over, and yet, my temple still throbbed with irritation. The thing about trash is that it's unavoidable. You can choose to pick it up and deal with it, or leave it to rot on the ground, but it'll always be there.

I climbed the ramp up to the main loading area, Alenko on my eight, Williams on my four. My eyes scanned the area, searching for Nihlus through the haze of small fires and sea of metal crates. I found him almost immediately, face down on the ground.

"Fuck," I let slip, my jaw clenching. I pulled the Stiletto out. "Guards up."

I knelt at his side, using the rounded shape of his armor to my advantage as I rolled him over. Alenko stood in front of me to cover.

"Straight through the head," I observed, scanning the wound with my omni-tool. "Close-range, maybe not even a meter... went right through his skull... this was an assassination. Damn it! I knew that sound from behind the ridge was something to be worried about." I reached under his neck guard and searching for something like the turian-version of dog tags from around his neck. I found them, and tucked them into the same pouch that held Jenkins's. Standing, I recorded the position of his corpse into my omni-tool so that reinforcements could pick him up.

"What do we do now, Commander?" Alenko asked, meeting my gaze. His eyes were steady, but I couldn't read whatever emotions they were conveying. Concern? Determination? I didn't bother guessing.

"We complete the mission," I stated simply, "Find the beacon, call the Normandy, report to Anderson. The parameters haven't changed. It's just a little... trickier now."

"Aye, aye," he nodded. Something rustled suddenly behind him and I shoved him protectively to the side with my left arm, whipping out the Stiletto. Ashley moved in beside me, Lancer trained on the group of crates where the sound had come from. Alenko's body thrummed with biotic energy as he pulled out his own pistol, but it was silent.

"Out the open. Now." I ordered. I saw the hands first; a human. The rest of the man followed slowly.

His whole body shaking, the skinny, pallid, rat-faced man in front of me cried, "Don't shoot me I-I-I-I'm a human, I promise you!" I suddenly felt slightly ill, as if I'd done a rollercoaster simulator one too many times.

"We could have shot you dead," I chastised. "Speak before moving next time or you might not be so lucky."

"Sorry, I-I'm sorry, I was scared. My name's Powell, I'm just a dock worker. I swear. I saw what happened to that Turian," he gestured towards Nihlus's body, "the other one shot him."

"Powell, the Smuggler, Powell?" Williams blurted.

"The other Turian?" Alenko followed.

"Y-yeah," Powell nodded, slightly bewildered, "the other one got here first... he was waiting... when that one showed up. Your friend... seemed to know him... called him -what was it?- Salmon? S-S-Saren? Yeah, Saren, it was definitely Saren. Anyways, he relaxed... you know, let his guard down a bit, then Saren shot 'im right in the back of the head. I'm lucky the guy didn't see me behind the crates, or that would've been the end for me."

I didn't answer for a while, mulling things over in my head. If another Turian was here and he killed Nihlus, there was a conflict of interest somewhere. Where did the Geth fall in this? What about the beacon? If Saren killed Nihlus, it was probably because of that, but why? Did the Geth or the Turian have anything to do with the giant ship? If so, where was it?

"The beacon that they found was supposed to be here," I finally said, "Where is it?"

"It's over on the other platform, the main docking area. Probably where that Saren-guy was headed. He went down the stairs and hopped on a cargo train right after he killed your friend." He shook his head, leaning over the crates. "I knew that thing was trouble the moment I saw it. Everything's gone to hell in a hand-basket since we found it. First that damn mothership showed up, then the attack... they killed everyone, everyone. If I hadn't been behind the crates, I'd be dead too!" He was working himself into a frenzy, sweat beginning to bead at his brow. His hands white-knuckled the crate in front of him, his whole body convulsing with a shudder.

"Alright, alright, you're safe," I tried, trying not to let annoyance seep into my voice. First Cole now this, I was tired of dealing with it, but they were scared. I couldn't exactly blame them. Scared people did stupid shit. After a few seconds Powell settled, wrapping his arms around his body.

"Commander, this is the guy Cole was talking about," Williams roughly reminded me. I exhaled, squeezing my eyes shut. "The Smuggler?"

"I got that Williams," I nearly barked, barely managing to temper myself.

"W-What? N-No!" Powell stammered, fear creeping back into his eyes. Great. "I mean," he floundered, "w-what does it matter now, huh? So what? Who cares? My supervisor's dead. The entire crew's dead. Even the fucking marines are dead. It's doesn't matter now, does it?"

"If you have something useful," I shook my head, "maybe."

"Eh, yeah there was a shipment of grenades that came through last week. Nobody notices if a few small pieces go missing here and there, especially from the military orders."

"You greedy son of a bitch," Williams snarled. "We're out here trying to protect your sorry ass and all you can think about is how you can rip us off?!" She leaned in, and probably would've pounced on the guy if I hadn't laid a firm grip on her shoulder. She was radiating anger, the memory of her dead squadmates fresh in her mind. I knew the feeling well.

"I mean, I didn't think you'd actually need those things," Powell tried to reason, backing up a few feet, "Who the hell would want to attack Eden Prime anyway? We're just a bunch of Farmers for Christ's sake! How the hell was I supposed to know?"

"Just, hand them over," I forced out, letting the Chief snatch them out of his hands when he hurriedly offered them.

"My smuggling days are officially over," he said hurriedly. Not likely, I thought.

"There's too much to profit in it, especially now that everyone who's a threat to your operation is now dead," Alenko interjected, surprising me. He'd been silent the whole time, gun trained on Powell. "I was thinking," he continued, "how could you have survived the attack when everyone else died? You're a very lucky man, Powell." His face was stone hard, the cool demeanor he'd affected all the while wiped clean. The skin of his jaw prickled with an almost lilac energy; he was furious. So even one of the calmest men I'd ever met had a tipping point.

"L-look I've got something else..." he sighed, scratching his head aggressively. "Could be worth a small fortune -maybe not- I don't really know. It's an experimental technology, apparently it's top-of-the-line. Take it. It's yours. I don't even need it... I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, really." He placed it on the crate and pushed it to the edge closest to us, hands raised defensively. Williams grabbed it and handed it to me. Without looking, I tucked it into the pouch with the other mod. I was beyond caring at this point.

"How did you survive?" Williams asked. The set in her shoulders told me she was looking for a fight.

"I..." Powell looked like he was about to soil himself. He sighed heavily, the rest of his words rapidly tumbling out of him, "Sometimes after a night out with the guys I need a nap to make it through my shift, so... I sneak off behind these crates to catch a few Z's before heading back to work. It really was just luck. All of it."

"You bastard-" she lunged. I grabbed her around the waist, and -with a bit of a struggle- pulled her back, putting myself between her and Powell.

"Get out of here," I ordered him, forcing all of my steel into each word. He wasted no time running in the direction we had come, Alenko's dark glare propelling him faster up the hill.

"Pull yourself together!" I barked, releasing the Gunnery Chief. She stumbled forward, but caught herself, whipped around and snapped into a salute. Her face was a smooth mask but her eyes glittered with unrestrained rage. "Now is not the time to let your personal feelings get in the way. The beacon comes first. If you want to take your anger out on something, take it out on the Geth, but right now we have to move. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" She didn't meet my eyes, but remained silent.

"Let's get to the cargo train."

Two Geth met us on the way down the stairs. Alenko threw one off the side and onto one of two pairs of tracks where it jolted wildly before self-destructing, while Williams unloaded slugs into the other until her Lancer needed venting. I glared at her sternly before we moved on, feeling my facial scar pucker. She looked away, emotionless.

Just as we found our way onto the back of the train, the ground began to rumble.

"Earthquake?" I shouted, my knees weakening as it grew stronger, drowning out everything else.

"Commander up ahead!" Alenko pointed. I turned, and what I saw knocked the wind right out of my sails.

What I had thought was just a towering building was, in fact, the Behemoth of a ship that I had seen during the transmission. It emitted a horrible screeching noise as it ascended into the stormy clouds, filling my ears and head until black dots swirled in and out of my line-of-sight.

"Look at the size of that thing!" Williams hollered. I could barely hear her, and she was inches away from me.

The sound crescendoed as the ship gained momentum, rocketing out of the atmosphere and away from the planet. Only when it had pierced the atmosphere did the sound fade. My senses came back slowly, and I blinked several times, trying to see even three feet in front of me. The ground was still shaking as I looked to my companions. Alenko was to my left, sitting behind one of the section barriers, hands cradling his head. Williams was kneeling on one knee behind another on my right, gripping the metal barrier for support. I looked ahead, eyes still focusing, just in time to see the brightly-lit lamp-face of a massive Geth barreling towards me.