Shepard was about to leave the Citadel when she received a message from a Doctor Bryson, telling her to meet him in his lab.
When she got there, he walked over to her and began discussing his research to her. Something about how a bunch of Baterians salvaging a Reaper corpse and the Leviathan if Ish. He was about to say more but his assistant opened fire on him. Luckily though the man missed anything vital and only hit him in the shoulder.
After calling C-sec for help Shepard did what she could to stop the bleeding, but it was clear that he was going to lose his arm.
When C-sec arrived so did EDI, and after some investigating, they pieced together a rough plan of action and had the location of an associate of Bryson's, Dr. Garneau. He was in at a mining operation on the Mahavid asteroid in the Galeston Rift.
They headed out and hastily made their way there. It was under attack by Reaper forces, but they went down easily, though the people inside seemed none too worried about the attacking forces. In fact, they were so unconcerned by everything that Shepard was getting creeped out.
After some running around and finding codes and clues, they found Garneau, but he was clearly being influenced by something. After chasing him into the mines they watched as he blew himself and an artifact like one that Bryson had to pieces.
Then they found the real Garneau. They were approached by several of the mining crew who said something that shook Shepard to the core… they thought it was 2176, when it was 2189. She ordered that they all be put into quarantine and evacuated.
As they were about to leave the sector Shepard got a message that Cerberus was attacking Eden prime. They immediately headed there and worked up a rough plan of action. They landed and had planned on heading to the dig sight, grabbing the artifact, and leaving… but then they learned that it was actually a still operational cryopod with a living Prothian in it.
Thus, they proceeded to clear out the standing garrison of Cerberus troops and find any data they had that could help open the pod. First, they found the signal that would open it and while Liara and Garrus only saw staticy nonsense she saw what almost looked like footage of the start of an attack of the bunker the cryopod came out of.
Thanking the cipher they headed to the next research station and Shepard saw a soldier open a pod. Now having both of what they needed they headed back to the pod and started the signal while Cerberus troops began receiving re-enforcements.
It took a while but finally the pod activated and so Shepard hit the buttons sequence to open it. Talking to him was tough due to him having a superiority complex, Shepard and her friend's races being super primitive back when his people were at their height, but Shepard convinced him to at least join them on the Normandy.
At first the crew were skittish, thinking in terms of first contact rules, but after talking to him and getting him to join their fight the guards backed off. Shepard and Liara were about to leave before, "Commander?"
"Yes Javik?"
"May I see your mind?" When that got him a raised eyebrow he continued, "I saw pieces of your mind twice and saw pain. I wish to know what clouds it." Shepard tentatively walked forward, and he placed his hands on her shoulders. When she felt him brush her mind he growled with pain and jumped back, "Pain, fear, rage, humiliation, you've been through much in your life commander." He said after a minute of getting himself recollected.
"I could spend hours telling you about how it all shaped, broke, and then reshaped me several times over, but since you just saw it all… just know that I won't let you down."
Javik grinned, "That's good enough for me."
When Shepard re-entered Bryson's lab with Edi they immediately erected a barrier around his artifact. After that it was quick work figuring out where his daughter Ann was, so they headed back to the Normandy and made a B-line for her dig sight.
When they arrived, they found that it was already under attack by the Reapers and had to jump out of the shuttle and onto a rickety landing platform. In fact, due to the barrage from Reaper forces the entire structure that Ann's team had built was ready to fall apart at a moment's notice. Shepard had never truly been afraid of heights, but the rickety structure combined with the very long drop of the cliff it was built into made her nervous.
By the time they found her, Ann was the only one left alive. And afterwards they ended up destroying the artifact she'd found. No big loss though because it was clear that Reaper forces were using it to find Leviathan.
Getting out became tricky, what with every enemy 'soldier' heading their way. Once the shuttle arrived, they had about ten seconds to take off so that they wouldn't get swarmed.
The trip back to the Citadel was tense since Ann was worried about her father. Once they were at his lab Shepard gave her a few minutes to see him in the hospital before she had to ask her for help, and the idea she gave was crazy.
But it worked. Letting Leviathan take over her creeped Shepard out to no end, but they got a close enough result that Shepard was happy to shut it down early.
It took two days but they eventually found the planet. Oceans everywhere, and Leviathan was down deep, and naturally the Reapers showed up just a little after they did so they had to work fast to find a way down due to Leviathans' defense of a pulse that disabled ships and thus they had to resort on an old mech to go down to it.
Shepard loved using mechs. The feeling of nothing being able to hurt her while she dished out the pain made her feel like she could destroy all of the memories that made her freeze up.
The trip down excited her. While exploring space was nice there was just something about oceans that excited her. The deep oceans of Earth were like alien worlds on her own home planet.
What surprised Shepard the most about the whole adventure was that Leviathan was of the species that made the Reapers. Shepard understood the logic of why they made the AI that created the Reapers, but she still found the whole thing bullshit. Nevertheless, she convinced the remainder of its species to fight…
And fight they did. Starting with somehow killing the Reaper that was about to shoot them down as they were leaving the planet. Though Shepard heard this second hand.
As she'd exited the Mech her exposure to Leviathans' mental link left her feeling dizzy, disoriented, and like her head was full of cotton. Once Liara had gotten her onto the shuttle she'd promptly passed out then awoke two days later in the med-bay feeling like she'd been partying all night.
She took two days to get her headspace back to normal then got a message that an even more dangerous mission was awaiting her.
A political meeting.
