Nearly ten minutes had passed when the Normandy breached Eden Primes atmosphere, which would be an eternity to everyone in the colony. Shepard, Lt. Alenko, and Private Jenkins had all assembled, and they stood at attention as Captain Anderson and Nihlus approached, and the Captain began his briefing. "Alright, listen closely. We believe that the colony is under attack by Geth. We suspect it's because of the Prothean beacon we discovered. Your primary objective is to secure that beacon. Civilians and the colony are a secondary objective. Any questions?"

"No sir!" Shepard yelled, fighting to be heard over the howling of the wind pouring into the hangar bay. Nihlus was dropped off at the first insertion point, and Shepards team was quickly deposited at the second.

Unbeknownst to them, their deployment did not go unnoticed. They ignored the harmless gasbags that floated seemingly aimlessly around the LZ, and proceeded through a small opening to their left, Shepard taking point. She knelt as she came to the mouth of the passage, and surveyed the terrain before her, littered with rocks and trees.

It was too damn quiet. She raised her right arm and pointed to Jenkins, and swiped her arm forward, instructing him to advance. The private left the relative safety of his team, and moved forward, aiming for a large boulder in front of him. Once he was halfway to his destination, he froze suddenly as he spotted two Geth recon drones burst out from behind the trees. He was caught in the open and they had the drop on him, he didn't even have time to aim his rifle, he just grit his teeth and waited for the bullets to tear through his body.

Two shots rang out, fired so closely together they were almost indistinguishable, and the drones exploded before they could open fire. Confusion briefly overtook his senses, before he regained his composure and sprinted the rest of the way to cover.

"Sniper!" Alenko bellowed. Jenkins readied his rifle, so as to cover his squadmates. No further shots came however, and after a moment, Shepard gestured to Alenko, who nodded. He sprinted, and slid into a stop halfway between Shepard and Jenkins in a leapfrog maneuver, and pointed his pistol towards where the drones had come from. Shepard burst from behind her cover, and sprinted past Alenko, before she too took up a covering position at the boulder beside Jenkins. Alenko covered the remaining distance as quickly as he could, and rejoined the rest of his squad.

"Anybody got eyes on our shooter?" Shepard asked, not willing to risk moving again.

"Commander." Alenko said. Shepard pivoted to face him, and followed his gaze. A red beam was pointing at the ground worryingly close to them, only a meter from their position, and Shepard traced the light back to its source. Then she saw the sniper. The shooter stood, revealing themselves to the trio of humans. Shepards breath hitched. It looked like it was the same species as the alien she'd seen in the transmission earlier. It was massive, an even three meters tall, it regarded the humans before it for a moment, before it jerked its head in the direction of the trees, and towards the Prothean beacon. It walked backwards from the edge of the cliff above them, disappearing. "What the hell was that thing?" Alenko asked, turning back to face Shepard.

"I have no idea Lt. But we have a job to do, and we aren't going to let that thing distract us." She responded. She had to maintain discipline and focus for the sake of her squad, but truth be told, this situation really pissed her off. Uncertainties got soldiers killed, and they'd just been thrown into the deep end. Everything about this op rubbed her the wrong way, but she couldn't admit that.

"Yes ma'am." Alenko responded, and the three advanced, leapfrogging between cover. As they got closer to the Beacons location, they would occasionally hear more shots ring out, and find the mangled remains of geth who'd been on the receiving end. Their mystery sniper was clearing a path. As much as Shepard hated having an entirely unknown force operating in the area, it was comforting to know they seemed to be on her team. She just hoped they stayed that way.

They passed through the small forest, and soon found themselves at another small clearing, but this one contained the remnants of the marine detachment to Eden Prime, and… another one of the mystery aliens. The one Shepard had seen in the transmission. Its armor was a combination of orange and black, and the weapon it carried was over six feet long. Jenkins raised his rifle towards it, but Shepard quickly lowered his rifle, shooting him a don't you dare glare.

One of the soldiers spotted Shepards team, and quickly ran over.

"Name and rank." Shepard demanded as the woman came closer.

"Corporal Nirali Bhatia ma'am."

Shepard nodded. "Commander Shepard, what's the situ-" Shepard was cut off by the sound of gunfire. She looked past the Corporal, and saw that the alien had opened fire on a group of geth that had attempted to advance on their position. Six geth writhed as their bodies were shredded by the oversized gun, a single burst being enough to put them down. Shepard cleared her throat, catching the Corporal's attention, before continuing. "What's the situation?"

The Corporal looked as though she were having trouble with where to begin, and Shepard didn't blame her. Before the woman could answer however, she was interrupted by the arrival of another marine. The woman looked at the Commander, then too the Corporal, and jerked her head back towards the cluster of marines. Bhatia nodded, and retreated. "Sorry ma'am. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. I'm the one who was in charge."

Shepard nodded. "Can you tell me what happened here Chief?"

Ashley nodded. "Yes ma'am. We were on patrol when that thing," She pointed to the massive oddly shaped ship in the distance, "appeared. It made some kind of noise, screwed with our heads. By the time we recovered, the Geth were already on us. We lost a lot of people, including my C.O., we tried to counter-attack, but we were in bad shape. That's when those… things showed up." Williams gestured to the creature behind her. "They were flying some fighters or something. Messed up the Geth attacking us pretty bad, then they hopped out and started supporting us on the ground. Laura over there stuck with us, and… Nora, the other one, broke off. I guess it saw you guys coming."

Shepard gazed at the alien in front of them. Laura? Nora? Were they female? At least she had names. " We're here to secure the Prothean beacon, you know where that is Chief?"

Ashley shrugged. "I know where it used to be. Come on, it's not far." As Williams spoke, Nora reappeared atop the cliff, and Laura turned their head to look at them. Shepards eyes narrowed, she could tell that the two were talking, but she couldn't see how. Full encasement helmets weren't uncommon, but they were at least a little larger than the wearers head, allowing them to communicate, but these creatures' helmets looked too tight around their heads to allow them to speak. Their overall physique made them look alot like werewolves, with their elongated skulls, disturbingly long claws, and fur covered tails.

Shepard quickly pushed thoughts out of her mind, and followed Williams. As Shepard passed the marines, she saw that a lot of them were wounded, severely enough to render them combat ineffective. That would explain why Ashley's unit hadn't tried to advance to the beacon. Shepard paused as they came closer to Laura. "Hold up Gunny."

Ashley stopped, and Shepard approached the alien next to them. As she drew closer, Laura turned her head to face Shepard.

Commander Sarah Shepard was an N7. The best of the best that Humanity had to offer. She survived the hell that was Akuze, after the rest of her unit was slaughtered. Very, very little could phase her, and yet, as the giant alien gazed down at her, Shepard felt a twinge of instinctive panic. Like she was a rabbit staring down the drooling maw of a wolf, and was seconds away from being torn apart.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, and bit back her fear. She spoke slowly and clearly "My name is Commander Shepard of the Alliance navy. I have an important mission, and I think you can help. Can you help me and my team secure a beacon nearby?" Shepard might've have felt a little stupid trying to speak to a completely unknown alien species, if it wasn't for the fact the Laura here had apparently told Williams their name, which meant they could somehow speak the same language, which had some… worrying implications.

Laura shifted, then spoke in a friendly, if somewhat mocking feminine voice, somehow ignoring the limitations of their helmet. "Y'know I speaka da english. You don't need to talk to me like I'm an idiot, Commander." Laura then turned her gaze to Nora who hadn't moved since they'd appeared. Nora raised their rifle up and over their shoulder, securing it to their back, before they casually hopped forward over the cliff.

Nora fell over ten meters, and landed as if they had just skipped the last step down a staircase, before joining them. Laura turned their gaze back to Shepard.

"I can't go with you, somebody needs to look after these guys. But Nora here will keep you company. Wontcha sis?" Nora growled, and turned to face Shepard.

"Lead the way Commander."

As they advanced, with Nora now accompanying them, they encountered no further resistance. Nora informed Shepard that their squad had split into three groups. This meant that all the Geth that hadn't retreated to the docks were trapped, and swiftly picked off. The six geth Laura had shot earlier were the last, apparently forced to move by another member of Nora's squad. They reached the small pit where Ashley said the beacon was only to find it empty.

Ashley spoke up before Shepard could. "The beacon was here, the geth must have moved it."

Nora spoke then. "They must have moved it towards the docks before my team moved in. If they were trying to find a secure location, they'd move it as close to that ship as possible. Otherwise our fighters would have torn them apart by now." Shepard nodded in acknowledgment. That made sense, they had no idea what that thing was, so of course they wouldn't try to get too close to it.

"Then that's where we're headed."

As they rounded the hill next to the dig, they reached a small habitation center. Shepard spotted several pedestal looking things dotting the terrain, but couldn't tell what they were for. As they approached one of the buildings, Shepard spotted a small figure standing atop one of the buildings. The figure shifted as it saw them approach, and activated a jetpack to fly over to them. It landed a few feet in front of them, and removed the helmet it was wearing, revealing the face of… a raccoon. Shepard resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. What the actual hell was going on. She stepped forward to address the raccoon.

It turned its gaze to her, its brown eyes narrowing in seeming distaste. "My name is Commander Shepard, can you-"

Shepard was interrupted when the racoon waved one of its hands dismissively, and spoke in a deceptively gruff, masculine tone. "Yeah Yeah Commandant sheep herder, I don't give a flark." The raccoon turned his gaze to Nora as Shepard was stunned into silence. "What's with the humies? Where's Laura?"

"Laura is maintaining a defensive position with the bulk of the human forces. I'm accompanying these monkey's to find their beacon." Ashley scoffed, and Shepard was struck by the distinct impression that the two aliens didn't much care for humans.

Nora ignored the increasingly incensed humans near her. "Where's Kara, Rocket? Wasn't she with you?"

The raccoon, Rocket, shrugged. "Yep, she was. We saved those humies from the flashlight heads and packed 'em in that building over there." Rocket pointed to the building he'd been standing on top of. "Once they were secure, she regrouped with Samantha and Machiko by the docks. And left me here to babysit them." Rocket said, not bothering to hide his distaste with his station.

"You know protecting the Civilians is our priority Rocket, we couldn't leave them alone, and you know how easily intimidated they are, we wouldn't want them thinking we were going to eat them."

Rocket shrugged. "Anyway, most of those things have been dealt with, they're just holed up at the docks now, Kara and the rest have been having a helluva time blowing them to bits."

"Thanks Rocket. We'll regroup, and then advance to the docks. Then you can shoot robots to your twisted little hearts content."

Rocket grinned mischievously.

Before the six of them pressed onwards to the docks, Shepard briefly spoke with some of the colonists that filtered out once they'd seen the humans approach. Most were in varying levels of shock, but most seemed physically unharmed, which Shepard realized was mostly thanks to Rocket and this Kara they'd mentioned.

After she'd determined the colonists were safe, the six pressed on towards the docks. As they did, the massive ship that had loomed over them this whole time shuddered, and a low mechanical hum boomed through the air as the ship ascended, leaving the colony behind.

As they reached the top of the hill overlooking the docks, Shepard spotted three more of the large aliens. The smallest of the bunch wore jet black armor, which matched their fur perfectly. Rocket quickly dashed ahead, and swiftly climbed up their leg and torso, before coming to rest atop their shoulder. The alien reached up with a single claw and stroked Rocket's chin affectionately, eliciting a small smile from the procyonid.

Nora bowed her head as she passed the obsidian beast, who jerked their head upwards in acknowledgement. They approached Shepard, and knelt on one knee, making it so Shepard didn't have to crane her neck quite so high.

Shepard introduced herself. "I'm Commander Shepard, Systems Alliance Navy. This is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Lt. Kaidan Alenko, and Private Richard Jenkins."

In spite of her apprehension, there was something about this particular being that Shepard trusted. She extended her arm to shake. The aliens head flinched backwards almost imperceptibly, and Shepard wondered if she'd inadvertently offended the alien, but the creature gingerly reached forward, and wrapped its claws around Shepard's wrist, its hand too large to do a proper handshake.

"General Kara, Augmented branch of the Hunter Assembly of Clans Expeditionary Forces. A pleasure to meet you Commander." Kara turned her gaze towards the other humans, and nodded in greeting. "You've already met Laura, Nora and Rocket. That just leaves Machiko and Samantha." Kara gestured to the two respectively. Samantha's armor was a mixture of olive drab and dark red, and she was wielding two SMGs, both had bayonets fixed to the bottom.. Machiko donned a dark blue and gray armor, her weapon was… odd. A revolving cylinder sat in front of the trigger, and instead of a conventional muzzle, the tip of the weapon had crackling electricity flowing from the top of the muzzle to the bottom. Overall, Shepard could see why the Geth had been pushed back. The weapons and armor Kara's team used seemed exceptionally effective, and wasn't like anything Shepard had ever seen before.

After their introductions were over, the team, now numbering nine in total, advanced, with the Hunters taking point. This was where the Geth resistance was strongest, but it didn't prove as difficult as Shepard had anticipated. They shot down three geth that set up defensive positions at the base of the hill, Kaiden used his biotics to yank two more out of cover, and Machiko used her rifle to shoot both. Shepard was stunned, as a bolt of electricity lanced forward, and connected with the closest geth, before arcing to the second. The superheated plasma melted the geth, leaving behind charred husks. They made short work of the remaining geth, and they pushed forward, coming to a long walkway, populated by the last remaining geth defenders this side of the docks.

Shepard and the rest of the humans took cover behind the Hunters, whose shields and armor was able to tank everything the geth fired at them. Kara turned to Samantha, and jerked her head forward. Sam nodded, and sprinted towards the geth, while everyone suppressed them. Shepard was stunned by how quickly the Hunter moved, sprinting well over 70 miles per hour. She sprayed laser accurate fire as she moved, the rapid fire from her twin SMGs cutting through the geth's kinetic barriers, and ripping their platforms to shreds. A geth destroyer left cover, and sprinted towards Samantha. The platform was almost as large as she was. Sam hunched low as they collided, knocking the geth to the ground. It fired a burst straight into her armor, the scale-like material covering her abdomen rippled as the kinetic energy was dispersed, and Samantha responded by firing dozens of rounds from both weapons into the geths head, which exploded in bits of metal and electricity.

The rest of the geth went down easy, and the squad used the tram system to reach the other side of the docks. Kara looked down at a device attached to her forearm, and tapped several commands. She then turned to Shepard.

"Commander, I withheld my fighters due to the presence of that ship, but with it gone, I've ordered them to attack what's left of the geth, we shouldn't face any meaningful resistance when we arrive."

Shepard nodded, grateful that she didn't have any more problems to deal with today. And true to Kara's word, as they came closer, Shepard could see the fighters slaughtering the geth with precision plasma fire. It was always nice to have air support.

As they reached the docks, they saw that the geth had managed to arm several bombs before they were destroyed. Without any geth to pester them however, they quickly disarmed them, Kara and her team observing the disarming process, and moving on the rest, while Shepard and her team moved to secure the beacon.

Shepard spotted the beacon, but before she could move any closer, Kaidan called her over. She move to join him, and found Nihlus's lifeless body, a pool of blood leaking out from a hole in his head. Shepard winced. In all the chaos, she'd forgotten about the Turian entirely. Kara walked up behind Shepard and gazed down at the corpse. "Friend of yours?"

Shepard sighed. "No… wait, your team was watching the path to the docks right?" Kara nodded. "Did any of you see him?"

Kara turned, and waved Samantha and Machiko over, and repeated Shepards question. Machiko answered. "Yeah we saw him, and we saw somebody else that looked like him too. They must have shot him in the back of the head. We couldn't have done much, we had to stop the geth from advancing."

Shepard sighed and nodded. "Thanks. Now about this beacon…" Shepard turned and gazed back at the beacon, spotting her squad approaching the device, she moved to join them. They stopped, and Kaidan and Ashley turned to leave, but Jenkins approached, slowly, before he lurched forwards, as though an invisible force gripped him and dragged him towards the beacon. Shepard sprinted forward as fast as she could, before lunging forward, wrapping her arms around the private, and throwing him backwards, only to be seized herself. She was yanked forwards, and suspended in the air, as her mind was assaulted by near indecipherable images, mutilated corpses, cold lifeless machines, and an overwhelming sense of dread. Before she could realize what was happening to her, she was blasted backwards as the beacon exploded.

She landed on the ground with a dull thud, and she was dimly aware of shouting coming from those that had accompanied her. She shifted her head and eyes, trying to focus on one of them, any of them, before she slipped into the void of unconsciousness.