Overall chapter X – Shepard story, chapter 2 – Find the Beacon, part 1

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction based on existing IPs. It cannot be distributed with intent of profit. All recognizable characters, lore and in general canon belong to their respective owners. All additions, deviations and reinterpretations of such are the fruits of my own imagination. Any similarities shared by the latter with other IPs or fictions is purely coincidental and unintended.

PRE-CHAPTER NOTES AND WARNING: while most of this chapter again sticks very close to the game experience, I have changed a few details here and there, as well as introduced the first major deviations from canon. If necessary, I can highlight the relevant parts at the end of the chapter, as pseudo codex entries.

Chapter posted on 24.07.2022

Tags: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure, Friendship, Drama, Family

Rated M: for violent themes and their depiction

Third person description

"Talking"

Thinking

"Disembodied talking"

The Normandy had now reached Eden Prime, completely undetected thanks to its stealth systems. Even if, ominously and unusually, there was no ship in orbit that could attempt to intercept them anyway. Neither friendlies, nor from the unknown attackers. Extensive cloud coverage hid the main sites of colonization, but even so there was evidence of the recent, or ongoing, attack, with widespread fires ravaging the normally idyllic and pristine surface. Without any sign of attempts to stop them. Even the sun did not help to sooth the mood, since at the angle they had come in, its setting rays painted the oceans too orange-red.

"Preparing for de-orbiting and atmospheric flight, reconfiguring stealth systems" came Joker voice, strictly professional, over the intercom

The ship quickly descended, producing an extremely meagre heat signature even from the friction of entry. Flying low towards the excavation site, the greenery that made Eden Prime famous as a paradise world became visible, including pinecone trees among broken rocks, normally a testament of the power of nature. But their colours appeared very muted, oppressed by unnaturally red clouds overhead. In front of the ship, the same structure Nihlus had been observing became visible. It was two thin steel towers, on two opposing shores, marking the very outskirts of urbanization, and where the beacon was discovered.

"Somebody was doing some serious digging here, Captain" another report by Joker, having spotted their target.

Back in the cargo bay, a cavernous black space illuminated by red emergency lighting, Captain Anderson was giving a last-minute briefing, tactical planning and motivational speech, all rolled in one. As well as mostly yelled, to cover the noise of the wind, of the moving supply crates, and of the revving vehicles. "Your team's the muscle in this operation, Commander. Go in heavy and head straight for the dig site." The audience was Commander Shepard and her team, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and Corporal Jenkins. As well as Spectre Nihlus. While Shepard and Nihlus had been in combat gear the whole time, the rest had suited up too. Alenko donning a dark grey segmented armour. While Jenkins a brighter grey non-descriptive reinforced suit. All of them with only eye covering visors down.

"What about survivors, Captain?" came a rapid, but still distressed question from Kaidan

Captain Anderson reply was cold "Helping survivors is a secondary objective. The beacon's our priority."

The wind almost completely drowned him out, as the loading ramp had just finished opening.

The intercom meanwhile still overpowered all other noise, with Joker's booming voice filling the cargo bay "Approaching drop point one"

Corporal Jenkins: "Nihlus you're coming with us?"

Nihlus replied like all would expect a Spectre, and without even stopping prepping his gun. But he still had to yell, unusual for the well drilled turians. "I move faster on my own." Satisfied with his equipment, he then began to run towards the ramp, to drop first. An action quickly explained by Captain Anderson.

"Nihlus will scout ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission; otherwise, I want radio silence."

Definitely better to send a planet-born to scout Shepard replied soon enough "We've got his back, Captain."

Captain Anderson finished his briefing, wasting no time reacting to the Commander's last statement "The mission's yours now, Shepard. Good luck."

The Normandy began pointing its nose up and slowing down over a rocky hill with a few trees, already targeted by infantry fire.

Joker: "We are approaching drop point two."

Just as the ramp began to extend, the massive frontal airbrakes making up the middle prongs noses straightened again, the ship ready to fly away as soon as possible. Shepard and her squad quickly jumped off, and the Normandy immediately left, her engines' whine disappearing in the distance. They were now on the water-side of the hill, with the urban centre and expected enemies behind it. The ground here was less luscious than expected, only a few patches of mostly short grass covering the bare earth. Surrounding them, were many scattered rocks, as well as a path of dirt and gravel. While normally one could write it off as a mediocre sight of an otherwise paradisiac world, with the current situation it took a sinister feeling, almost a warning of the planet's future doom. An impression soon aggravated by the ashes falling from the sky. The smell almost of burned flesh permeating the air. And the red clouds, painting all of their fiery hue. Corporal Jenkins, being born on this world, reacted first: "Oh homeworld. What happened here?"his comrades only replied with equally shocked, mumbled comments

I hope we aren't too late was the only coherent thought in Shepard mind, as her mind raced to analyse their predicament, and plan for the mission.

The squad meanwhile had begun to move down the dirt road, slowly, switching from cover to cover, wary of possible ambushes or just suddenly meeting enemy forces at all. Instead, for the first few tense minutes, they only met harmless gas bags, a species native to Eden Prime, and more horrifyingly, charred human corpses. That was, until they reached the rocky shore. The only warning had been some blinking lights, reflected on the more metallic surfaces. In mere moments, five combat drones emerged from the corner upfront and cut down Corporal Jenkins, who had taken the lead. His barriers held off the storm of blue-and-orange streaks barely long enough to scream, before he was riddled with holes. Years of experience kicked in, Kaidan and Shepard diving for the nearest rocks, immediately returning fire. Processing their comrade's death had to wait.

These things are too small. The Commander's mind was cool, methodical, as always. I have to get closer. She then yelled to her comrade: "Cover me!"

Kaidan sprang from cover, and opened up at full bursts, soon overheating his assault rifle. But Shepard hadn't let this distraction go to waste, and with a quick sprint, in part aided by her biotics, she had reached a rock formation flanking the drones. Unfortunately, the machines had spotted her too, yet instead of overwhelming her while Alenkos's gun cooled down, they simply divided their fire, attempting to suppress both. This was a grave mistake, spelling their soon-to-be future as scrap metal. After the loud hissing of the cooling mechanism ended, the Lieutenant fired wildly again, attempting to attract as much attention as possible. His biotic-enhanced barrier sparkling orange and blue with each few hits the drones landed. Shepard too stood up from behind the rocks, shotgun in hand, and ran towards the nearest drone, taking it by surprise. At this distance, and with large-pellet buckshot selected, it went down in only one shot, even with full barriers. The second-nearest managed to score a few in retaliation, all, unfortunately for it, stopped by the Commander's barriers, before it too suffered the same fate. Another drone attempted to flee back, but with a glow of Shepard's omni tool, its thrusters overloaded, sending it crashing into a nearby crest. Of the remaining pair, until then preoccupied with suppressing her surviving comrade, one turned towards the Commander. But before it could open fire, two quick bursts from Kaidan ended the encounter. Seconds passed by, an oppressive silence all that remained, both still on high alert expecting enemy reinforcements to come. But soon enough, it became apparent none would arrive. As the adrenaline started to wear off, the gravity of the situation dawned on them. And they ran towards Corporal Jenkins' unmoving body.

It wasn't a pretty sight. He had taken several mass accelerated rounds in the abdomen, and while the hypersonic grain sized bullets ionized the air into plasma, they still didn't cauterize wounds. There was no doubt he was dead. His still open eyes, turned into glass. His face contorted in pain, panic, and fear. Kaidan knelt close to his fallen comrade, extending a hand on Jenkin's face, to close his eyes. Shepard stood behind, her rifle and head both lowered.

"Ripped right through his shields. Never had a chance." Alenko suddenly commented, as he stood up from his friend's corpse

Shepard's reply was sorrowful, but professional all the same: "We'll see that he receives a proper service once the mission is complete. But I need you to stay focused."

There was no time to mourn yet. They would have to leave the body here, pick it up later for burial. As for now, they would not let Corporal Jenkins sacrifice be in vain.

Moving away from their fallen comrade, they began to instead inspect the destroyed drones. Much like the different coloured streaks had suggested, the ambushers were of two distinct designs. The first was completely unknown, even if both Shepard and Kaidan were quite sure of who it belonged to. And subsequently, which faction had led this assault. Painted a metallic purple, this design sported a flat, bulbous main body, with fins attached to the rear top side, and a blue-white frontal oval sensor array or light. Since there was no evident set of downward thrusters, it definitely flew thanks to some form of mass effect induced anti-grav. Attached to its bottom with a pylon and cables, was a rather oversized mass effect accelerator, probably incapable of a wide field of fire else the drone would crash from the recoil.

The second design meanwhile was very well known. But this only made it finding it here, on Eden Prime, far more shocking for both the Commander and the Lieutenant, who had become acquainted with such models only from history books. Still, since it was impossible to misidentify, it made it all more certain who, or more correctly what, the first model belonged to. This second design was painted white, but with several scratch and scorch marks indicating both a long life of service, and a lack of maintenance. It was very much a box, held afloat by air-to-plasma thrusters. Two oversized intakes, covered by grates, making up the sides. In the drone's front, between the intakes and an armoured central body, were two cuts, from which sticked out a pair of barrels. Mass accelerator these too, with freer elevation than the first model, but even more abysmal traverse. Another common feature between the machines was a frontal sensor array, except this time made up of spider-like sets of blinking, orange, notches. The first records of such model dated back well over a century ago. Long before humanity had met the Council species, when still lost in their Exodus, yet to emerge victorious from the treacherous Veil. None had ever really given this specific set of machines a name, as they hadn't been the most dangerous or numerous. They were simply lumped together with all others, all that made the Veil such an ancient, mysterious, but deadly and unexplorable, area of space. They were Mad Machines. Self-aware sometimes, mostly malfunctioning, artificial intelligences, left to infest and destroy without purpose by creators long extinct.

And if this drone design belonged to machines, with which no organic had ever successfully communicated or engaged in any form of diplomacy. Even when not shooting first as was Citadel law. Then so it was likely the other did too. That it was Geth. This was the only sensible assumption. Mad Machines, at least the ones closer to Citadel space, did not have the computing power to even entertain exiting the Veil. The rare times they did, it was done by blindly jumping to nearby systems in search of resources, without intent or more complex needs.

The Geth had too until now kept to themselves, behind the so dubbed Perseus Veil. Ever since they had exiled their creators, the Quarians. from their homeworld Rannoch. But, according to all quarian records and subsequent analysis, definitely displayed a degree of self-awareness, and couldn't be simply considered rogue or malfunctioning. While no record of alliances between Mad Machines existed, it was possible the Geth had simply hacked their less sophisticated brethren, as aid in just this raid or even a new campaign of incursions. Additionally, the Geth also had access to all quarian data on the Citadel, and likely were spying the Council species this very moment. Meaning they were the only machine candidate that could reasonably be able of finding out about the discovery of the Prothean beacon. There was also no doubt, in either Shepard's or Kaidan's mind, that only said discovery could have prompted the attack. Eden Prime was far from either Veil, enough so that traveling all the way here undetected had to have been quite a headache for the Geth. Or whatever equivalent to migraines artificial intelligences got. Raiding human colonies near the Veil would have made much more sense, and maybe even allowed them to conceal their involvement for longer, if this was a simple incursion against organics.

"Yet where does that… dreadnought… from the recording, fit in all this."

Kaidan nodded to Shepard's statement, the end of this long line of speculation, or as in jargon, intelligence analysis. The two had not stopped advancing on the rocky path despite this, having soon reached the outskirts of a forest. Their hushed discussion had been interrupted only once, by yet another model of drones, even if likely geth judging by the blue bullet streaks. These ones had been bigger, coloured dark grey, with a hunched body. Tripod legs took up the body's bottom, the mass accelerator sticking out of the flat, but sloped, face instead, with the sensors being moved under the barrel. Despite the sturdier appearance and higher fire rate, they had been dispatched far quicker, lacking the annoying agility of the previous ambushers.

"Can't really say I have any clue about that, Commander."

Before Shepard could reply, they were startled by her omnitool chirp. It was Nihlus, reporting the situation up ahead: "I've got some burned out buildings here, Shepard. A lot of bodies. But also, machine parts. I'm going to check it out. I'll try to catch up with you at the dig site."

Shepard and Kaidan quietly acknowledged the report, confirming their worst fears for the colony. They also cursed at the radio silence, since from the Spectre report it was obvious he hadn't met any hostile. And yet they couldn't warn him in advance.

So, they settled for quickening the pace, intent on saving what little remained of the colony. And re-joining Nihlus as soon as possible. This plan lasted for a whopping 5 seconds, because just as they exited the small wooded area, which they may have exaggeratedly expected to be a forest earlier, gunfire reports filled the valley ahead.

"It must be survivors!" Kaidan whispered, but with a tone that implied his suggested course of action.

Shepard only nodded in reply.

Emerging from down in the valley, the same white-armoured marine from the transmission was running for her life. Hot in pursuit, firing at will, two of the zippier geth drones. As well as one more asymmetrical than usual Mad Machine, with a bulkier shorter barrel on its right side. A Manipulator. Her barrier suddenly flared, concentric light-blue rings enveloping her back. Struck of all things by a machine mockery of a biotic push, the unlucky hit causing her to stumble and fall on the ground. But, true to her training, she recovered quickly, drawing her heavy pistol and returning fire. Immediately, one of the drones exploded, the rest veering off to avoid her sight.

A bit further back, two humanoid synthetics held a balding oriental man over some sort of purple platform, a plain plate held aloft by tripod legs extending from an oval base. He was wearing a striped black-and-red suit, with plenty of pouches. Likely a civilian. As for the synthetics, calling them humanoid may be excessive. They were bipedal platforms, with swept back legs like a turian, but resting on their soles instead of just toes. The leg and arms made out almost of tubing, as if moved by synthetic muscles. Again like the turians, they had only three digits, but much closer together. And where a head should have been, they had what resembled some sort of metallic yet flexible hoods, ending with a lamp instead of a face. Emotions, or simulations of such, were displayed by an array of moving plates on the hood. They were of course not modelled off turians, but their actual creators, the quarians. A species whose troubled history, surprisingly similar to humanity's, would take too long to describe.

Suddenly, a spike shot up from the platform, impaling the man. The white-dressed marine leapt in horror, caution to the wind as she desperately ran up towards the forest. But as her breath ran out, she was forced to take cover behind one large rock formation. The bipedal geth beeping and clicks, seeking a victim for their next sick sacrifice, soon reached her ears. Readying an assault rifle, she waited to fight for her life.

Fortunately for her, Shepard and Kaidan had not sat idle watching this horrifying spectacle. Despite rapidly advancing cover to cover, they had remained undetected, the synthetics too preoccupied with capturing the marine mostly alive to notice them. Having each marked one geth, with practiced coordination the Commander and Lieutenant opened up simultaneously. The platforms staggered under the heavy fire, barriers failing almost immediately, their processors pulverized before they could recover.

"Thanks for your help, Commander. I didn't think I was going to make it." This time there was no silence after the firefight, the marine professionally but with laboured and still panicked breath immediately addressing her likely saviours. "Gunnery Chief Ashely Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, ma'am?"

Wait, is she a relative of that Williams? No matter, some research for later "Are you wounded, Williams?"

Ashley Williams: "A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious. The others weren't so lucky. Oh man… We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

Shepard: "Where's the rest of your squad?"

Ashley Williams: "We tried to double back to the beacon. But we walked into an ambush. I don't think any of the others… I think I'm the only one left."

Shellshock and guilty consciousness too. Especially with her name's reputation Shepard: "This isn't your fault, Williams. You couldn't have done anything to save them."

Ashley Williams: "Yes, ma'am. We held our position as long as we could. Until the machines overwhelmed us."

Kaidan: "The geth haven't been seen outside the Perseus Veil for nearly 200 years. And the Mad Machines exit the Attican Veil almost only by accident. Do you think they're here for the beacon?"

Ashley Williams: "Wouldn't have hit my squad so hard otherwise. The dig site is close. Just over that rise. It might still be there."

Shepard: "We are down one rifle. Think you can help us, Williams?"

Ashley Williams: "Aye aye, ma'am. It's time for payback."

While her eagerness is commendable, and we have little time to waste. I need more intel before launching a suicidal charge on a dig site. "Agreed. I have already lost one friend today too many. But first, I need you to tell me everything you know about the beacon, the dig site and the attack."

The conversation went on like this for a few more minutes, as the Gunnery Chief gave a full report. According to her, the dig site was quite small, having started as a pylon base for a monorail extension before being enlarged recently. The discovery had sent scientists into a frenzy, Ashely having heard a few call it 'the greatest of the century'. Two brigades of marines, Williams' 212 and the 232, had been assigned to secure the site. At the time of the attack, the former had been patrolling the area, while the latter was guarding the researchers' camp. Taken by surprise and with comms jammed, she had lost all contact with the 232.

At the end of this condensed report, Shepard decided for one last question: "We came here with a turian Spectre. Have you seen him?"

Ashley Williams: "Sorry ma'am, I haven't seen a turian since I was stationed here."

So satisfied, the Commander gave her own brief rundown of the mission. On a need-to-known basis of course, omitting all details not relevant to the ground team. And finally of their speculations so far, speaking of which Ashley and Kaidan soon got into a brief argument over the spikes the geth had used to impale that poor man. Lieutenant Alenko believed it to be nothing more than psychological warfare, meanwhile Chief Williams insisted there had to be some ulterior motive. Before they could settle on an agreement, the back-at-three-members squad had reached the dig site.

Like the entire valley, scattered rocks filled the area. The sight was otherwise dominated by two rectangular towers, jutting out from still half-buried trapezoid bases, which in turn rested on a circular floor, sinking towards its centre. All around, the steep walls left from the excavation had been reinforced with concrete. A few synthetics, of both factions and various models, were spread across the area, seemingly unaware of their kin's demise. With the lack of flanking routes leaving no other option, and using the machine's disorderly formation as an opportunity, the trio charged. While organic opponents may have been left stunned by such shock-and-awe, the synthetics reacted in mere milliseconds, their cold if simple logic allowing no such things as hesitancy. Two humanoid platforms, with a direct line of sight, immediately opened fire, meanwhile a third and a Mad Machine drone quickly emerged from behind the ruins. Williams, being a simple garrison marine, a few military grade augmentations at most, managed to get only a few steps in before having to drop behind a rock, her barriers already at 50% strength. As opposed to Shepard and Alenko who, with a biotic dash, had reached much better positions, respectively near a stone pillar deeper in the site, and a stone wall to the left of Ashely. Just as one geth platform, caught between the three of them, collapsed riddled with holes, the Chief's laser-warning system began screaming in alarm. From behind the ruins, hand-sized missiles arched up, but before they could reach the ground, the Mad Machine drone painting Williams abruptly turned down, courtesy of Shepard's extensive viruses' library. With the missiles no longer tracking her, the marine wasted no time switching cover, her former position turning into a whirlwind of shrapnel. Kaidan had meanwhile crushed a second geth platform under a rather large rock, nudged down the nearby ledge with his biotics. The third humanoid synthetic, not scared but understanding it was outmatched, attempted to retreat to better cover, but was too felled by three Alliance assault rifles full bursts. The last hostile, a Mad Machine fixed Rapid Deployment Guided Missile Pod, couldn't even defend itself as Shepard calmly walked behind its pillar cover and cut a few wires.

Of course, even before the fighting had started, they had all realized these weren't sufficient forces to guard the beacon. A quick search of the dig site simply confirmed it had been moved. The question being, if just before the attack, during it, and if by their own or by the geth. As well as where it was now. Checking the camp nearby was the most obvious choice, in case any survivors had retreated there over the now visible ramp too.

As they climbed the first few steps, the Commander's omnitool received another report from Nihlus: "Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there."

Since it was in that direction anyway, the spectre's input simply solidified their decision.

Reaching the rise's end, they were greeted by a vision of destruction. The camp had been hit hard, several prefab buildings on fire or collapsed. No bodies were left on the ground, likely recovered and impaled by the geth. No sounds but the crackling of the few flames could be heard, not even the desperate last stand of any survivor. Worst of all, to the left of the ramp, they found three other spikes, all holding up high one pierced human body. They crept closer, to tear down the desecrated bodies, wary nonetheless of a trap. But soon noticed something was wrong with them, so much so they couldn't have been colonists. The most distinctive features of whatever they were looking at were several glowing electrical blue wires, as if a mockery of veins, running through the whole body, and a charred black skin. Coupled with the lack of hair, at a distance one could almost believe they were looking at the burned corpse of a heavily augmented human cyborg. Yet, the black skin turned out to be dead tissue strangled by even more wires, this time opaque. The last detail, confirming either extensive modifications unheard of, or that these weren't human corpses, were the eyes. Instead of a single pair, the bodies boasted four glowing circles, two of which smaller under and further to the side of the main pair. Their mounts hung open, revealing human-like rows of teeth, somehow sharper and electrified as well.

A horrified scream form Kaidan, who was closest to the spikes, shattered the half-respectful, half-anxious silence: "Oh, homeworld! They're still alive!"

As soon as he had crossed some invisible line, the impaled bodies had begun to spasm. The spikes retracted soon after and, as a bolt of electricity ran through their wound, the assumed dead began to rise. They hobbled forward uncertainly for the first few steps, before starting to almost drunkenly run towards the three, as if bad sci-fi zombies. Fortunately, apart for the absolutely traumatic psychological effect and inducing an unexpected half-second of panicked retreat, they quickly fell to the highly prejudiced storm of deadly needle streaks. While none of the impressive training the three had received ever prepared them to fight their own dead, the reanimated corpses seemed to lack any kind of barrier or armour, as well as ranged attacks. Even if judging by the electrical whirlwind unleashed during their second death, it would be much better to not find out what they could do in melee.

When their rifles finally ceased cosplaying teuton buzzsaws, the last horror flailing on the ground in an electrical discharge, Ashley was the first to ask the question on everyone's mind, with as much disgust as she could put in her voice: "What did the geth do to them?"

No one could answer. They could only hope it was a slow process, else they would soon find themselves overwhelmed by colonists, twisted into husks of themselves, thrall of the machines. Having developed such a weapon, no wonder the synthetics had become so bold. Even cut off deep in Citadel territory, like here on Eden Prime, they could resist attrition by turning organics into more troops. Husk seems a fitting name, I'll add it in the report. Shepard added mentally as well, and proposed to her comrades.

While making such small talk, they had been affixing remote charges to the three spike platforms. They quickly dispersed afterwards, and on the count of five, detonated. The explosion was unexpectedly strong, something in the spikes amplifying it, shaking many nearby prefabs. From one such rectangular structure came many crashing noises, as well as muffled cries of surprise. Fearing an ambush, but hoping for survivors, the trio dashed into cover, before methodically moving towards the source. It was second next to the spike, having an identical neighbour. Both had their doors closed, black polarized glass surrounded by a metal frame, with 'P8' written vertically in red letters on the left side. But the first had its windows smashed, exposing what looked like either an office or a very underequipped lab. While the second prefab had its blinds closed down, much like a panicked civilian survivor would do.

Motioning the rest of her squad to cover her, Commander Shepard reached the door to the second complex. The security lock was engaged, but fortunately its encryption was lacking even for civilian standards, broken in mere seconds by her omnitool. The door slid up, revealing a walkway entrance, walls of metal scales and a sharp 90 degrees turn to the right, into a dark laboratory. Ideal for an ambush. Taking it with caution, Jane threw a small sensor drone, which attached to the wall in front of her, but instead of synthetic or even armed contacts, only detected a single apparently non-husked human woman. Satisfied with her precautions, the Commander signaled her squad to move up, and entered the structure.

"Humans! Thank the Maker!"

Shepard almost shot the woman inside when she, shouting and overcame by relief, all-but-leapt towards her, probably for a hug or something, before gaining some composure back, fidgeting and caressing her hands instead. Taking a good look, Shepard identified her as one of the site's scientists, a monotheist one at that. She was wearing a uniform not unlike Doctor Chakwas in design, even if with very different colours. It was mostly white, except for upper flap, the collar and the left arm, all of an apparently very mute blue. White outlines highlighted the zips, and turned into concentric bumps on her long cloves. Her orange armbands were dominated by a black 'X-05' designation, with some more text under it unreadable with such little light. Her short hair was even redder than Shepard's, while her eyes blue and skin very pale for an archaeologist.

"Hurry! Close the door! Before they come back!" whispered with determination another, less pale, man, wearing a matching uniform, just with black zip outlines instead of white, as he awkwardly stood up from under the bunk beds. His eyes were green, and he had two prominent balding spots between his dorsal hair and his head sides, giving it a rather unique undulated shape, with a crest in the middle.

"Don't worry. We'll protect you." Shepard quickly countered, attempting to calm him down. He seems extremely unstable, likely traumatized even more than Williams

"Thank you. I think we'll be ok for now. It looks like everyone is gone."

Ashely, having been stationed here, suddenly took the lead: "You're doctor Warren, the one in charge of the excavation. Do you know what happened to the beacon?"

Dr. Warren: "It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel, my assistant here, and I stayed behind to help pack the camp. When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us."

Dr. Manuel's voice, taking a high pitch yet staccato half-whispered tone, interrupted her suddenly: "No one is saved. Humanity thought her worst fate left behind, yet it was for naught. Soon, only ruins and corpses will remain."

Talk about traumatized. I'm a XO, not a psychiatrist. Shepard decided to ignore him for now, focusing instead on the apparently much saner dr. Warren. While she was as cooperative as possible, given her circumstances, she had little to say that was useful for the mission. Not helped by her assistant's constant interruptions. In the near future, Shepard would note with irony how she had written off as annoying ramblings what was probably the most important intel in the conversation. With a mind as shattered as his, the prophetic outbursts seemed to be caused by hearing certain words. Like when Warren uttered 'geth', to which he retorted with: "Agents of the destroyers. Bringers of darkness. Heralds of our extinction."

When the conversation moved to Warren's area of expertise, the beacon, she managed to give some useful info, explaining that the beacon was "a type of data module from a galaxy-wide communication network". A detail Shepard had then memorized for mere curiosity but that, like dr. Manuel next interruption, Jane would soon find out to be true, at her own expense: "We have unearthed a warning of evil. Yet too late, the beast is awake. The darkness unleashed!"

But it was at the Commander's last question, that for once she took his words seriously, identifying at least this of his ramblings as simply greatly twisted truth: "Did you notice a turian in the area?"

This time, it was Manuel who answered first: "I saw him! The prophet, the leader of the enemy! He was here, before the attack."

Everyone else soon dismissed him of course. Kaidan and Ashley, unbecoming of special operatives, were inflexible in their belief Nihlus was the only turian on Eden Prime, and argued that the spectre had been on the Normandy when the attack came. Dr. Warren meanwhile justified his ramblings as results of being 'unsettled' by the attack. According to her, they hadn't seen any turian either, to which Manuel countered: "No! Beware the bareface! He'll bring our doom!"

Nihlus isn't a bareface. Was the Commander immediate mental reply. Kaidan and Ashley gave their own explanation, that Manuel had indeed seen Nihlus, but gotten confused on the timing and details because of the trauma. But as N7, Shepard knew to be wary of the smallest of details. The mad doctor turned out to be referring to another turian.

Dr. Warren, wrecked by anxiety and panic too, attempted to defend her assistant, even if by taking some dubious strategies. "Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit… unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin."

Dr. Manuel's pleading retort was this time much less prophetic, and more articulated, maybe seeing it at a jab at his ego: "Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape, no hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!"

Dr. Warren: "I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack."

Shepard was silent in the whole ordeal. She would catch up with Manuel later if he turned out correct: "Williams, take us to the spaceport"

With that, they left the doctors, assuring them they would be safe as long as they remained inside the prefab.