BERSERKER

42AE / 2683 GSY

Eden Prime. A farm backwater given to a race one talon from the grave. Both of them barely a footnote in the galaxy, insignificant and beneath mention. Save for one thing. The Protheans, in their wisdom or insanity, had seen fit to build something here. Enough to warrant a Beacon.

Not just any piece of ancient hardware, a Beacon was something special. An intact Beacon was priceless in the knowledge it might contain and release, if properly studied. The secrets of the Protheans, their civilization, their technology, the Citadel…. The extent of their ancient Empire, and all that lay therein.

An intact Prothean beacon could hold the clue that his own damaged relic was unable to provide.

Saren Arterius walked in range of the Beacon. Green energy lifted him into the air, arms spread wide, and he saw.

It felt only a moment before he dropped to the ground again, but he knew it had been longer. He was right. This intact beacon had held more information… but it had not granted him understanding. He was not a Prothean, he did not think like them, and his brain could not process information the way they could. Fortunately plans had already been made in that regard. Plans that could move forward now that the risk was worth the potential reward. Saren headed towards his shuttle that would take him to Sovereign.

"Set the charges," he ordered a Geth in passing. No more than a trooper, but the Geth would transmit the orders to other platforms and all would immediately know and obey. "Leave no evidence we were here."

Saren paused as a thought went through his mind. He turned back to the trooper.

"And open the shipping crate we found. The large one."

Kilo squad held loose formation as they entered the train depot, an area comprising a single monorail maglev train put in by the turians, a few buildings to service the station, and the shipping containers strewn about the shipping yard.

It was less than a backwater, a lone outpost that handled shipping for several hundred kilometers around it; food, equipment, anything that the widely scattered human farms in the area needed, the last bastion of civilization until the next stop nearly a thousand kilometers away. With only a clawful of millions of humans on the entire planet, it was basically pristine wilderness, mapped and explored in very little detail. Only a human farmer's chance discovery while digging a well had turned more traffic into the area.

The discovery of a new Prothean Beacon had electrified the galactic scientific community, especially one as intact as the farmer's photos had revealed. What galactic knowledge could this import upon the galaxy? What technological progress, what new understanding of Prothean culture, would this reveal?

Humanity didn't have the equipment to handle such a discovery. Thanks to the Locust War they barely even had a scientific community that could examine the artifact. The Hierarchy had decreed that it would be brought back to Palaven for study. There were arguments as to where it would go from there, with the Asari being the loudest, not without reason as their Prothean studies were renowned throughout the galaxy, and of course the Hierarchy had promised that the full fruits of all discoveries would be shared with the humans. Politics, as usual. But at the end of the day, the beacon would be removed from Eden Prime.

With such an important discovery, the Council had taken significant steps to ensure its safety; Nihlis Kryik, a turian Council Spectre, would escort it to Palaven, and the Jacinto, the most advanced ship in the Hierarchy fleet and only human flagged starship, would be the method of transport. Military precautions were only prudent; a discovery of this magnitude would be sought by many parties, each seeking to waylay it for their own purposes, from pirates looking for a ransom to set them up for life to the Shadow Broker looking to gain the knowledge of the beacon for him- or her- self. Impediment to the mission had been expected.

Invasion had not been expected.

Who would even invade? Salarians, Asari, Batarians, all were part of the Council, bound by its rules, and were already guaranteed the fruits of this expedition. The political fallout from such an extreme action would turn the galaxy to civil war, one the Turians would undoubtedly win; there were no rewards for invasion from any Council species. The Terminus Systems, maybe; they were a legitimate threat. But they were not united. An invasion of the kind that would be needed would undoubtedly have drawn STG attention and there would have been forewarning. The Quarians? They were the largest fleet in the galaxy, and had the warships to be able to force their way in if needed; but relations with the humans were good, and besides, that fleet was the entire quarian race, not to mention that their warships were decades old at the newest. They would lose everything. Invasion? Who would risk such a thing?

The Geth. The factor that no one had accounted for. No one had seen them in four hundred years, and they never ventured outside the Perseus Veil. No one had thought that they would be interested in a Beacon, they had shown no interest in other discoveries.

The Turian defense fleet around Eden Prime had been slapped aside like insects. Then robotic bodies descended upon the small shipping station and the human defenders. Communications had been cut shortly after that, only a brief message of a Gear platoon under fire, and in the background, the largest ship anyone had ever seen over the shipping outpost.

The Jacinto arrived nearly half an hour later. Nihilis wanted to scout ahead, and for Kilo Squad to follow him in as the muscle and the distraction. It didn't last long. Shepard, Alenko, Jenkins, and Tallur had made good progress, and had even found a survivor in the form of Gear Ashley Williams, currently the only known survivor of the 12th Regiment that was assigned to guard the beacon. Then Nihilis had gone silent. Ventus, and the rest of Kilo, found out why when they stumbled across his body in a pool of expanding blue blood just outside the shipping yard. Betrayed, a shipping worker who had witnessed it said, by a fellow turian with a mechanical arm.

The mission remained unchanged, though. Get the Beacon. Secure it. Load on to the Jacinto. Deliver to the Citadel. Shepard and the team pressed onward. They did not go far before finding their first obstacle. A cylindrical device on the ground, big as a human's torso, with a control panel and an ominous countdown on a small screen. The hazard warnings showed what it was to the whole team instantly.

"Nuke," Alenko breathed.

"Alenko, disarm it," Shepard ordered. The man immediately went to work, the squad's JACK bot de-cloaking to assist, while the team took up covering positions.

"Disarmed, Commander," Alenko reported after a few tense minutes. "But I'm reading three more signatures in the area. We don't have more than fifteen minutes, tops." Very short range communications had enough juice to overcome the jamming, and three waypoints lit up on their HUD.

"Jenkins, Williams, on point, get us to that first one," Shepard ordered.

Jenkins pushed by, his standard issue turquoise Gear armor and helmet easy to distinguish in this squad. Williams cut a very different figure. Her armor was more subdued, a yellowish tint to it, a bandoleer across her front holding extra magazines for her Lancer Mk2. Darker skinned than the other humans here, no helmet, the tattoos on the left side of her face and down the exposed left arm marked her as of Islander descent, as did the short mohawk she sported. She'd already proven to be tough as the last survivor of her squad, fighting to the last man when they came upon her. A good choice to be on point.

They found action soon enough, but Gears had a reputation for fighting tough and they lived up to it. Jenkins and Williams barely stopped for the first pair of Geth, bulldozing through them. Jenkins ignored his sparking barrier as he shotgunned one while Williams chainsawed the other into a pile of scrap. Alenko immediately got to work on the bomb the platforms had been guarding.

"Tallur, on me, we're securing the next one. Everybody else join us when this one's done," Shepard ordered.

Ventus fell into step just behind his hulking figure. Shepard was an exemplary specimen of the Gears, short compared to a turian but thick as a krogan, his chest deeper and wider than Ventus', his arms similarly proportioned. His heavy armor, black and grey, covered everything but his head, no helmet for Shepard for this mission. Ventus stayed behind him; he wore lighter ceramic armor and couldn't take as much punishment.

It was a good thing he did, as a Geth de-cloaked and shotgunned Shepard at point blank range. It only got one shot; Shepard was quick to cut the offending platform in half with his own chainsaw Lancer, a Mark 2 bullet gun just like Williams for this mission. Ventus, on the lookout now for invisible enemies, saw a shimmer and slammed a biotic pulse at it as Shepard was finishing his opponent. Another cloaked geth went flying into a crate. Ventus was quick to raise his pistol and finish it off since it was still moving.

They heard Alenko confirm he had disarmed the bomb as they engaged another group of normal platforms; these ones were smarter, keeping Shepard and Tallur at a distance rather than attempting to close. They were the inferior combatants, though, and did not last long, not to the Lancer's ability to keep up a constant stream of fire without significant pause to dump heat, not with Ventus' biotic manipulations. One, then two fell at the third bomb site, and Ventus finished the third with a biotic dash around a corner and a shotgun blast just as the team caught up to them.

Alenko was quick to disarm the bomb and the team was quick to move towards the last bomb signature, Shepard and Williams in the lead.

They rounded a container and found a squad of Geth, led by a Destroyer-class platform.

An overcharged blast left the shotgun, deflected by William's shield, and the rest of the four Geth platforms opened fire. Ventus performed a biotic lift on the rest of the Geth in the area at Shepard's quick direction, and while it was diluted due to the area effect it was enough to get even the Destroyer off the ground, leaving the Geth to bonelessly float in the air as the squad shot them to pieces, the Destroyer the last to stop moving. Alenko and JACK were quick to begin working on the last bomb.

The nuke deactivated with a few beeps just as whatever was jamming comms cleared up, freeing up their movement detectors. No movement with 20 meters.

"Scanning for further bombs," Alenko reported. He turned to the hovering Jack, which extended an antenna and a keyboard. A few commands, and a few beeps.

"No further bombs," Alenko reported. "I've downloaded the area map as well. According to the map the beacon should be-"

He got no further. Everyone's motion tracker alerted them to something moving towards them at the same time that a roar and a crash of metal was heard. Then another crash of metal as it moved towards them- fast.

Oh spirits no…

The squad backed away, guns pointed at the direction of the commotion, but hadn't gotten more than a few steps before the container in front of them was torn in half and a huge, armored grey beast burst through and ran full tilt towards the squad.

Berserker. A three meter tall Locust covered in near bulletproof thick skin, strong as a dozen reth, berserkers were insanely aggressive and nearly unstoppable juggernauts of pure rage and destruction.

They barely had time to react. Williams and Shepard shot it a few times, the bullets merely ricocheting off the thick, almost carapace like hide. Alenko dived for cover, the nearest thing that might stop it being a concrete and steel loading platform. Ventus used his biotics to dodge towards Alenko, out of the way of the charging behemoth. Jenkins, a bit slow on the uptake, brought his rifle up to fire.

He never got the chance to pull the trigger.

A huge hand swung like a battering ram at him, and though he dove out of the way, he did not escape completely. Jenkins screamed in agony as both his legs below the knee were crushed by the single blow. Even then the other arm of the beserker was moving, and grabbed the screaming Gear by one arm, lifting him into the air like a doll. Lightning fast it grabbed the other arm, then screeched as it tore Jenkins arms off. Jenkins screams of agony only intensified as blood splattered over the area as he fell back to the ground, his legs broken, his arms gone. The scream turned to a gurgle as he was picked up again and his chest crushed in one smooth motion from the creature. They only lasted for a moment before the other arm came up and tore his head off, ending his life. The berserker didn't care that it's prey was dead. It continued to scream and roar as it pummeled and smashed the bloody remains of Jenkins' armored torso into the cracking concrete of the spaceport.

Ventus watched the Gear helmet with Jenkin's head still in it land near him, the helmet's eyes glowing the signature blue of Gears equipment before flickering out. At least it had been quick; the entire thing had happened in heartbeats.

"Where the hell did a berserker come from?!" Alenko asked, utterly shocked.

"Doesn't matter, kill it Kilo!" Shepard shouted back, unloading a clip from his Lancer.

It noticed, alright. Certainly didn't hurt it, but it froze, and lifted its head, trying to pinpoint the exact place where Shepard was; berserkers were practically blind, but sound and smell were all heightened for it. After a few more bullets it decided and sprang like a sprinter out of their gate, letting out a screech as it did so, right for Shepard.

Shepard dove, at the last second, and the berserker continued past him for a short ways before running into a shipping container and promptly taking out it's frustration at having missed with a massive crash of fist into sheet metal. It's head snapped up and it began scenting, searching for it's quarry.

"Ventus, can a warp let us kill it?" Shepard asked quietly over comms.

"Maybe, if we're lucky," Ventus replied quietly, his pistol out and trained on the berserker as it hunted. Ventus had the distinction, lucky or unlucky, of being the only biotic in the galaxy to ever encounter a berserker. The experience had not left him confident in biotic effectiveness against such a creature, not after the squad had nearly run out of ammo and lost two members to it. Warp had been… well, it hadn't been completely ineffective, but a warp capable of weakening the carapace of a berserker had only a limited area of effect, and even then the chips and holes they made seemed only to anger it further.

"Well, we don't have a Hammer, and we don't have Scorchers either," Shepard said softly over comms. The berserker was slowly but surely zeroing in on him, and soon he would have to open fire and dodge again.

The Hammer of Dawn was the most effective way to kill a berserker, that, or several heavy mass accelerator rounds from a tank. In a pinch, flamethrowers could be used; berserker carapace seemed unusually susceptible to heat, and berserkers were vulnerable while their bodies were on fire, with small arms fire being able to penetrate the compromised carapace. Of course, once the flames were out, you would have an even angrier berserker on your hands as the armor cooled and its superior protection reasserted itself.

Williams let out a war cry and opened fire, from an area further down the loading dock, near an actual maglev train. The response from the berserker was a screech and a charge at the offending Gear. Williams was quick to dive out of the way as Shepard had, and it ran into another container, screaming its frustration.

"Move. Don't let it focus one person. Ventus, warp it and call it out," Shepard said over the comms. The team pushed out of cover and spread out into the shipping containers, as the berserker began to hunt.

Ventus got into position behind a crane and readied himself. He poked around the corner for just a second, seeing the berserker, head raised, sniffing around, twenty meters away. He ducked back behind the container, took a deep breath, then flared blue as he readied his biotics.

"When the warp hits, shoot it in the chest, and the chest only," Ventus said quietly over comms. He waited a moment, then swung around cover, his arms performing the gestures necessary to activate the eezo in his body in the proper way for the shearing gravitational fields known as a warp. The ball of concentrated biotics flew towards the berserker, her head already lasered in on him from the sound of his movement, when it hit. It screeched, not so much in pain as in surprise and rage.

Gunfire came from three separate sides, and Ventus added his own pistol. The gunfire from behind didn't seem to penetrate, but ones from the front did, as did his pistol. It didn't seem to notice, instead focusing all its rage and ire on Ventus as it charged him. Fast. The streams of bullets were quickly blocked by containers, the lines of sight to the other teammates cut as it barreled towards Ventus. He saw his life flash before his eyes as three meters of enraged muscle and carapace barreled down on him. Only a very quick biotic blink got him out of the way of the charging berserker, and another got him out of range enough that he felt comfortable letting out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.

Thumps sounded as the berserker moved on heavy feet, attempting to find a new target. Ventus took a deep breath. His arms were practically shaking with all the koralitin his body was dumping into his blood. He took another steadying breath, preparing himself for the next time he would warp the berserker.

The berserker gave a screech and charged, fortunately away from him.

A turian does his duty, he reminded himself. And a Gear fights like hell.

He stepped around his cover and re-acquired sight on the tall creature. It was currently screaming as it pummeled an offending metal container, fortunately no human beneath its blows this time. He used the noise as cover to move closer as he activated his comm.

"Tallur, preparing for another warp, shoot on my mark," he whispered over the comms. The berserker was done pummeling now and was searching for a new target, head lifted, sniffing the air.

"Belay that," Shepard ordered. "I found something better. Disengage and get into position to fire on the following coordinates. I'll handle luring it."

The berserker took a few quiet steps before bullet fire pinged off the tough carapace. It let out a scream and charged at the offending source, giving Ventus the opportunity to slip away quietly. He pulled up the map and coordinates on his omni as he ran, keeping his head cocked towards the sounds of rampaging berserker. The coordinates were on a side shunt of the monorail track. What did Shepard have in mind?

Thirty more seconds of running and he was in position. And he had instantly grasped what Shepard was up to. The target was an oil monorail car, set aside on the shunt to serve essentially as temporary storage for the area until it ran out. Even if long chain hydrocarbons had been phased out as a primary fuel source, they still held certain advantages; high energy and power in a stable form for long periods of time, capable of being used under any weather condition at any time. An excellent source of long term energy storage, not to mention oils were still excellent lubricants, necessary for hard working farm equipment such as those used by remote human farms.

And, of course, quite flammable under the right conditions.

He could see Williams taking up a position, across from him, and Alenko, to his left. They were ready.

It didn't take long. They could hear the outraged screams of the berserker, the crash of metal as it failed, several times, to swat the annoying gnat that was shooting at it. Shepard finally appeared, between Alenko and Williams, heading right for the monorail car. He turns, shoots a few times out of Ventus' sight, and Alenko subtly moved a bit further away from where the snorting, screaming berserker obviously is.

"Alenko get an incendiary ready," Shepard orders, backing up slowly, pulsing his fire from his Lancer. He drops mag and reloads as the pounding of feet come into hearing. Waits, standing in front of the car, dangerously close to an area soon to be covered in oil. Shoots at the berserker, the mechanical chatter of his Lancer and the bullets he sends to entice it.

The berserker does not disappoint.

It charges with a scream of rage and frustration, straight at the source of the bullets, thundering past Alenko's and Williams' positions without stopping. Shepard stood square, facing the enraged giant creature, waiting, waiting, waiting for the perfect moment when it would continue going and not stop or deviate from its path… Ventus thought it was almost too late when he dove out of the way, nearly trampled underfoot by the thundering creature, but his timing was perfect, and he was not there… and the monorail car was.

HItting it alone was enough to dent the car and send it rocking, a small trickle of oil now dripping from its distorted side, but the berserker took it even further with a huge punch of rage that nearly knocked the car off the side of the track. The fist entered the car, then tore upwards, sending oil gushing out the side of the newly created hole, spilling at the berserker's feet… and all over the berserker too..

"Hit it Alenko!" Shepard ordered.

He didn't need to be told twice, and an omni package of high temperature incendiary materials literally made to catch things on fire hit the oil soaked berserker. Its chest caught, followed a mere heartbeat later by the rest of the berserker and the oil patch it was standing on. The screams of rage and frustration turned instead to screams of pain; it writhed, hands coming up to protect its face then lowered as it realized its hands too were on fire, shifting from one foot to another as it stood in the flames.

No one needed to be told to open fire. The four of them let loose with everything they had, Ventus with his pistol, Alenko with his Hammerburst, Williams and Shepard with their Lancers. This time visible results could be seen, no bullets scattering off the dense hide, instead penetrating, leaving holes that wept blood even as the oil fire burned. The screams intensified, if that was possible. Ventus saw an opportunity to do even more damage and let loose a biotic warp. The ball of shearing gravitational forces was devastating this time, the berserker's chest visibly distorting under the gravitational eddies, sending burning oil flying as it took effect.

It was too much. The berserker collapsed to a knee, then fell heavily face down into the burning pool of oil under the withering assault of bullets. Nobody stopped firing until their magazines ran out, or their heat sinks vented. The crackle of the spreading oil fire was the only sound in the tense waiting; but the berserker was unmoving. Dead.

"Good job, Kilo squad," Shepard told them. "Let's find that Prothean beacon."