SSV Normandy, March 13, 2183

Destination: Eden Prime

"The Arcturus Prime relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence."

The Normandy had deployed from Earth just over two hours prior. Its mission was a shakedown run on Eden Prime, a human colony on the Exodus Cluster.

"We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination."

As the Normandy flew through space, the crew had gotten views of the planets they were unlikely to see for the next few weeks. Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune being in the right positions to see them.

"The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector. All stations secure for transit."

As Pluto came into view, so did another object in the distance, emanating a blue hue and disks rotating on top of its element zero core.

"The board is green... approach run has begun."

Approaching the mass relay was quite a spectacle for anyone that had never seen this before. But being spacers had helped in aiding both John and Jane Shepard to know what was about to happen.

They stood on the bridge, looking out the front window, as Joker worked on his console, maneuvering the Normandy to hit the relay at the exact position needed.

"Hitting the relay in 3... 2... 1..."

Once it got close to the relay's side, energy began being dispersed between the Normandy and the relay, and almost immediately, the Normandy had been launched forward so fast that stars could be seen passing by them, and as soon as they had entered, they came back out again in another region of space.

Joker began doing some checks on the Normandy's systems, the thrusters and navigation being some of them before announcing "Drift is just under 1500 K"

From behind, they heard as Nihlus began walking backwards "1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." Nihlus left the bridge, leaving John, Jane, Joker and Kaidan alone.

Joker sighed as he shook his head "I hate that guy..."

They saw as Kaidan turned to look at Joker and smirking "So, do you just hate anyone that gives you compliments?"

Joker didn't even turn to look at Kaidan as he scoffed "You remember to zip your jumpsuit on your way out of the bathroom? That's good! I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead so that's incredible!"

Kaidan rolled his eyes as Joker continued "Besides they're a spectre on a shakedown run. Like seriously! You cannot tell me there isn't something off about this!"

"You're just paranoid Joker. The council helped fund this project. Obviously they would send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

Joker gave a small dry laugh and finally turned to look at Kaidan "Please. You actually believe the official story? Only an idiot believes that."

Before Kaidan could respond to Joker's insult, Jane joined in the conversation before it could escalate "Honestly Kaidan. I have to agree with Joker on this one. Even I know that one doesn't just send spectres on shakedown runs."

"That's two to one. What do you think Commander?" Joker asked trying his best to look behind him at a clearly amused John who simply shrugged and pointed a finger at Joker. Kaidan let out a defeated sigh as Joker smirked at his victory and went looked back at his console announcing the 3-1 vote for this being sketchy.

The small silence that ensued was interrupted by Anderson contacting the bridge "Joker. Status report."

Joker coughed a little to clear his voice before responding "Just cleared the mass relay captain. Stealth systems are engaged and everything looks solid."

There was a short pause as everyone looked in anticipation of what Anderson would say before the comms opened again with a click "Link us to the nearest comm buoy. I want the mission report heading to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime."

"Got it. Also, Nihlus i-"

"He's already here Lieutenant." Anderson interrupted him, knowing what he was going to say "Tell both Shepard's that I need them in the comm room for a debriefing."

"They already know captain." Joker closed the comm and sat back on his chair.

John had noted that throughout the conversation, Anderson had used a pretty aggravated tone "He sounded angry during the entire thing... think something went wrong?" He asked raising an eyebrow to look at everyone who shrugged.

Joker however scoffed "He always sounds like that when talking to me."

"Can't imagine why." Kaidan responded with a sarcastic tone.

John sighed and walked backwards out of the bridge signaling for Jane to follow him. They walked through the main corridor and the CIC, passing through Navigator Pressly who briefly saluted them before going back to work. Going towards the back of the CIC they were suddenly stopped by such a young voice "Commander! No way, the LTC too?!" Turning to look at the origin of the voice, they found Dr. Chakwas frowning with her arms crossed, and shaking her head, and beside her was someone who they didn't recognize at first but who was beaming at the sight of both Shepard's.

"I'm afraid you have us at a disadvantage..." John rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to remember if he had met this kid before. Sure he hadn't really tried to meet anyone yesterday, not when he had been so tired, but he was sure he must have met him.

To alleviate his worries of having forgotten him the marine held his hands up stopping him while smiling "Sorry sir. I've heard a lot about the two of you so I knew who you were. You are both legends!" The marines face went from being happy to a more serious one as he realized he had not answered "Sorry sir. Name's Corporal Jenkins sir!" He answered as he saluted.

John stopped him by placing a hand up "At ease Jenkins. You're better off saluting the captain and not me. At least you don't have to when not in combat scenarios."

"Of course sir." Jenkin's salute dropped and his grin returned "Man I am so excited. I hope we get to shoot something soon."

"You're better off not wishing that. Trust me." Jane muttered as she knew from experience what wishing that did to someone. Especially on Torfan, when she had wished she could find batarians to shoot, it ended with her being labeled as a monster by many.

"Peaceful life gets old really fast. I just want to see some action." The corporal's eyes were beaming with excitement, but that excitement was making both twins nervous. Nervous of how he would react when he was in a real life-or-death scenario.

"I would hope not. If you find action I'll end up having to patch you up." Chakwas interrupted the conversation with the usual frown both John and Jane remembered from their childhoods when they had met her. They could also remember the scolding she could give when she was pissed, but while Jane still didn't like them, John had grown up with being scolded to the point he was immune to it. Of course, to Chakwas's chagrin, it meant John made the biggest risks of the bunch. The usual act before you think BS that had earned John his fair share of scars that Chakwas remembered having to patch up.

Jane sighed as Chakwas and Jenkins were now in an... argument. She realized that they must have spent way too long there when she saw to her right and saw Nihlus looking at them with his arms crossed. Tapping John on his shoulder and signaling to him, the twins finally went into the comm room alongside the turian. Looking around they saw that Anderson was not there, and that only the three of them were in the room.

"Where's Anderson?" Jane asked first.

Nihlus looked back at Jane briefly before looking back at the front wall "He'll be here." He began pacing around the room with his hands behind his back before addressing them once more "I was hoping you two might get here first actually. Hoped I could ask you a few questions."

John and Jane exchanged a glance at each other trying to decide who would answer him. John saw Jane take a step back and make a motion towards Nihlus, inviting him to do it himself to which he groaned in frustration "What is it?"

"This colony we're going to. Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful."

"That's not really a question."

"Yes, but the planet is supposed to be a paradise, a symbol of your people. Proof humanity can establish colonies and protect them." Nihlus stopped as he looked back at the commander and crossed his arms "But how safe is it really?"

Okay? The hell is his point? "You're not threatening us are you?" John's eyes narrowed as he stepped forward towards Nihlus who looked unmoved "Listen, if this is about Mindoir. Drop it. That was over 13 years ago. Defenses have improved in that time."

Nihlus shook his head. "I'm aware of Mindoir. I also know the defenses you have now are only thanks to the quarians. But this isn't about any of that."

"Then what is-"

John trailed off as he heard the door cycle open, looking back he saw as Anderson took a few steps towards the room before addressing Nihlus "It's time we tell them what's really happening."

Nihlus nodded and looked towards both John and Jane "This mission isn't just a shakedown run."

They heard as Jane let out a loud scoff and a small laugh "Yeah, tell us something we don't know."

Anderson shook his head with a frown as he turned to look at both of them "We're here to pick up a prothean beacon we found on the planet. Last time we found one, our technology advanced by three hundred years. Now we need this one for better relations with the council."

"The council? So you're just going to give it away?" Jane asked.

"Humanity is on some thin ice with other species. Allying with the quarians left us in a state where no one wants to trust us. Hopefully with this we can show them we are trustworthy." Anderson explained.

"So... that still doesn't explain why we have a spectre aboard." John pointed at Nihlus while looking at Anderson.

"If you truly must know. He's here to evaluate you both." Anderson pointed at the twins.

"Well I guess that explains why he's been following us everywhere. But why?" John asked.

"Your records are highly impressive. We wished to place the two of you as candidates, and pick the best of the two." Nihlus tried explaining but it left John even more confused. Candidates? For what?

Like he could read his mind, Anderson answered "We placed the two of you as candidates for the spectres."

"What?"

"Spectres. This could be huge for humanity."

"But, why us?" Jane asked as she let herself shorten the distance between her and the trio.

"Like I said, your records are impressive. The Commander is one rank above you and has N7 classification." Nihlus explained looking at John before turning to Jane "You have excellent tactical expertise and your actions on Torfan made it clear you accomplish missions whatever the cost."

Jane however, became a bit aggravated as she heard him mention Torfan. To ease her mind, she turned to look at John and chuckled "Shit. Commander, N7, and maybe even spectre? I might just have to retire if you beat me at it."

John patted her shoulder "I'll go easy on you."

"Don't need you to." Jane stated with an almost smug voice.

"If that's done with," Nihlus interrupted the little moment "...this will be the first of many missions we have together. I'm looking forwards to-"

Nihlus himself however, was interrupted however as Joker's voice came over the comm "Captain! Transmission from Eden Prime. You need to see this." His voice sounded nervous, indicating to each of them that there was something going on.

"Patch it through Joker." Anderson responded with just a slight hint of worry in his voice.

Almost immediately, the terminal in front of them activated. And what they could see was something none of them really could understand, but it left them with their jaws dropping slightly. There were soldiers in the video, and they were... shooting at something. The audio was far too garbled to make out a single word coming from anyone. But they could see trees that had been set on fire, and just how desperate the soldiers looked. But what interested them more, was when a ship the size of a skyscraper came into view. Surrounded by a form of red electricity. And landing with its... legs?

John could hear Jane's low 'Holy shit' as the video ended and the transmission was cut. There were no words for what they had just seen. It was chaos down there, and they were going down there.

"Status report." Anderson said almost immediately after the transmission had ended.

"17 minutes to Eden Prime sir." Joker responded through the comm.

"Take us in. Engage our stealth systems. Bring us in nice and quiet." Anderson ordered before looking at the twins who hadn't averted their gaze from the screen. "Both of you get suited up. Whatever is going on, we need to make sure we are ready. Grab Jenkins and Alenko for the ground team. Looks like this just got more complicated." He finished with narrow eyes as he stared at the screen.

John and Jane nodded and hurried downwards after grabbing Kaidan, and reluctantly grabbed Jenkins too. They all took their equipment from their lockers and suited up in their armors.

John wore his signature clad-black armor, a red and white stripe running down his right arm and an N7 insignia on his upper-right section of the chest. Jane was wearing a gray suit with some red stripes running over her torso. While John's looked almost as good as new, except for the scratch marks on his right arm, Jane's armor was scratched and bruised to the point that most of its color had fallen off by then.

They waited in the cargo hold for around 15 minutes before they saw Anderson and Nihlus step out from the elevator and made their way towards them.

"Commander. You will lead this team and head towards the beacons location. Nihlus will get off here and provide support if you need it." Anderson said as he addressed John.

"He's not coming with us?" John asked.

"I work better on my own." Nihlus stated as the cargo doors of the Normandy opened and Nihlus waited for a few seconds before jumping out.

"Make sure to get this done commander. And good luck." Anderson said as he nodded towards John.

It took only a few seconds for the Normandy to get to the correct drop off zone in which the four marines jumped out. Touching solid ground for the first time in an entire day. They heard as the Normandy's engines were primed and as it flew into the sky out of view. Around them they could see drops of rain and they could feel as they got slightly wet from it.

There was also almost no fire, which they assumed must have been thanks to the slight rain.

"Everyone on me." John ordered.

Walking through the plains, their footsteps were followed by the sound of their boots impacting the wet mud, which consequently was getting them muddy. Looking behind, they could also see their own footsteps imprinted in the mud.

Although it didn't seem like anything was out of the ordinary, it was still obvious that whatever ship they had seen in the video had to be somewhere around here.

As they crossed some small elevated terrain, they heard noises from the tree line. Each of them immediately got their weapons out and John took point. Due to the small fog that had started developing and the rain getting slightly harsher, John couldn't see anything even with his flashlight being turned on. He carefully went backwards while still pointing directly at the trees until he deemed it safe and slowly turned to look at his team and shrugged.

As soon as he did so however, another noise came from the trees and turning around quickly he saw a creature fly out of them. Whatever it was, John had no idea but it did float and was filled with some form of sacs throughout its body, and its legs dangled off the bottom. Behind them they heard Jenkins let out a small laugh and lower his gun "It's alright guys and gals. Just a gas bag. Completely harmless... well... unless you shoot it right next to you."

"Speak from experience Corporal?" Jane asked as she lowered her own weapon.

"Very much so." Jenkins didn't even try to deny it "Got poisoned for a week after I shot one."

Kaidan let out a whistle "Man, poisoned for a week. Imagine that."

"Don't have to imagine when you've lived it." Jenkins replied almost smugly to everyone's amusement of what Jenkins apparently deemed 'Being a badass'.

The group began making their way down very carefully. Well, everyone but Jenkins at least "Maybe slow down corporal?" John said trying not to trip in the deep mud.

"I lived on Eden Prime my whole life. I have experience with doing this." Jenkins replied once again with the smug tone in his voice to which John rolled his eyes and shook his head.

However, the gas bag had apparently decided to follow them as it went next to the group. Jenkins unfortunately made a wrong step and impacted with the gas bag causing him to lose his footing and fall face-first into the mud and roll all the way down.

"Jenkins!" John yelled as the corporal began standing up trying to clear his face of the mud as the three of them tried their best to not fall as Jenkins had "You alright?"

"I'm good commander. I just..." Jenkins spit out mud that had gotten into his mouth during the tumble and muttered "Damn gas bags... Harmless my ass..."

Jane couldn't even hid the smirk at the corporal's luck. But that smirk was broken as she saw two faint lights in the distance through the fog. Although she couldn't quite make out the entire form of them, she sped up to get a better view as Jenkins recovered from his mud fall. Coming closer to Jenkins, she realized the lights were... floating. Floating lights? What in the he- Her thoughts were broken as her shields took damage as she came under fire. She took cover with the rock next to her, as she looked to her side, she saw Jenkins trying to find the source of the shots as he let out some blind shots from the mud on his face. She saw as the floating lights pointed directly at him and fired. Immediately, she stood up and tackled him to the ground, one of the shots hitting Jenkins, but the others missing both of them.

John and Kaidan returned fire against the unknown enemy, immediately destroying one of the floating lights while the other attempted to retreat only for John to use a stasis field against it which gave Jane the opportunity to deliver a perfect killing blow with her pistol.

Jenkins had been hit in the stomach and Kaidan made his way to a groaning Corporal with medi-gel that caused him to hiss as Kaidan applied it to his chest wound.

As they worked on Jenkins, John went ahead to see what had just fired at them. Once the objects came into view, he saw that the looked like... drones. But their design looked familiar to John, and that's when he saw it. Whatever this thing was, it looked like geth design. The machines that drove the quarians out of their homeworld, Rannoch, over 300 years ago. The machines that forced them into living on ships, close to extinction, at least until humanity agreed to provide resources for them after Mindoir. But what was something that he believed looked like a geth doing here?

John pulled out his omni-tool and took a picture of the inactive drone and forwarded it to the people he knew would be interested in knowing about this. Admiral Hackett, and Admiral Raan. He had considered sending it to Tali too, but if she found out, she would worry too much, and he didn't want that. Besides, he knew the geth had never ventured outside of the Perseus Veil since the Morning War, but if they were here, on Eden Prime, a human colony? This could get ugly really fast then.

"What is that?" John slightly jumped at Jane's sudden question. He saw as she kneeled next to him and looked over the device.

"I don't know. But I... I sent Hackett and Raan a picture of it." John said.

"Why?"

"Look," John said as he picked up the drone and pulled up an image he had gotten from Tali of a standard geth years ago "Look familiar?"

Jane couldn't even say a word as she tried to comprehend what she had just learned. John was right, this thing looked way too close to a geth for it to be a coincidence.

She heard as John began speaking through the comms "Nihlus come in. This is Commander Shepard, do you read me?"

There was some small silence before the comm clicked open and Nihlus's voice came through "I hear you commander, what is the situation?"

"We have possible geth presence here."

"Geth?!" Nihlus's usually neutral and calm voice took an obvious hint of fear as the news were dropped on him "B-but that's impossible!" He stammered as his heavy breathing came through the comms.

"We're not certain it is them, but be careful, just in case."

"Understood commander. I'll keep my guard up." Nihlus said as he quickly close the comm. Kaidan and Jenkins had heard the entire conversation, and they had hints of fear in their looks. If this truly was geth, then they were in big trouble.

"Come on everyone. We're a 20-minute walk from the beacon." John said as he motioned for everyone to follow.

"They couldn't have dropped us closer to it?" Jenkins asked through his heavy breathing.

"Nah, gotta get your cardio in corporal." Kaidan spoke next to Jenkins not breathing as hard as he was.


MFV Tonbay

Above Earth

Raan's work throughout the day had been nothing but approving and denying requests from the Alliance. She had played ambassador for relations between humans and quarians the past 13 years, and quite honestly she had grown tired of this after her first year. So doing it for 12 more years was taking its toll on her mental health.

To make things worse, Tali, her only source of entertainment, or the only person she could freely talk to, was now on her Pilgrimage, and Keelah she had chosen to pick the furthest spot possible from Earth. So now, she was stuck with tiring work for the time being.

And ancestors help her, she was never going to talk to Rael about family matters. Besides, she had never gotten over her anger at him. He had failed to be there for Tali in time before her mother died. She had only found comfort because of that human boy.

John Shepard... Raan smiled at the thought of him, despite preferring Tali to stay as far away from, really anyone, she felt as though John was the only one she would entrust Tali to. Besides, it slightly helped knowing Tali had a crush on him.

That fact had been reinforced almost 4 years ago, a few days after Tali had turned 18. Turns out that if you allowed Tali the ability to install the Nerve-Stim function into her suit and gave her extranet access, it would lead to having to embarrassingly hear her moaning one day muttering John's name.

She was suddenly broken out of her thoughts as she heard her omni-tool ping once again. She mentally sighed as she opened it, rolling her eyes at the thought of reading several paragraphs of information which could be bundled down to 'Do this or not' and she could easily say yes or no. However, to her surprise the message had come from none other than one Commander Shepard.

Raan was thankful that at least it wouldn't be another long read and opened it.

03/13/2183, 15:09

CJS: Admiral Raan, I'm sorry if I am interrupting anything you may have been doing, but this is of utmost importance. I am currently on Eden Prime on a mission I can't give the details of, but this is something I know you had to see ASAP. I attached a file to this message, be warned that it's not something you're going to like...

Download image: 53kb

Commander John Shepard

Systems Alliance

Frowning, and now quite worried, Raan reluctantly downloaded the image. After a few seconds she was able to open it, and what she saw in it cause her eyes to widen and her breathing to stop. Although it definitely was no geth on plain sight, it was way too close to their design for it to be merely coincidence.

She didn't move for what felt to her like the longest hours of her life, despite having only been 16 minutes, before she received another message from John.

03/13/2183, 15:25

CJS: Geth presence on Eden Prime... has been confirmed.

Download image: 72kb

Commander John Shepard

Systems Alliance

Immediately Raan downloaded the next image and there it was, her fears had been realized. It was a geth. Outside the veil.

Her trembling hand went towards the comm and she quickly opened it "Admiral Zorah, Gerrel, Koris, and Xen. I need you on the Tonbay. Now."


Eden Prime

The walk towards the beacon had been terrible. Not only had the rain gotten much worse to the point they couldn't see things in the distance, but they had been ambushed several times by the same drones from before.

"Why are there so many of these things?" Jenkins asked through the comms. Unfortunately, the rain had made it hard to speak without yelling, so they had decided to resort to comms instead.

"I'm not sure. But this isn't looking good at this point." John answered.

They heard as Jane laughed through the comms "So it was looking good when we got here?"

John sighed and shook his head "You know what I mean Jane."

Their comms were abruptly filled with static as a new voice came in, a voice none of them recognized "T...s is Gunne... ...ief Ashle... ...iams! Is any... frequ..."

The comms were filled with too much static to allow for a clear connection, but it had been enough for John to make out what the person had just said "This is Commander Shepard. What is your status?"

"Oh th... god. My was ki...d by g... I rep... the... geth her..." The comms went dead after her confirmation of geth presence.

"Dammit. Everyone! Double time on me!" John said as he began sprinting through the wet terrain.

Everyone followed him as they did their best not to trip in the wet mud that was at this point making it hard to maneuver through the path.

Eventually, they managed to see a figure running towards them. Contrary to the past enemies, this one looked more humanoid, and didn't have a flashlight head. And they were shooting behind them.

Indeed, the flashlight heads were behind her, and the entire team was quickly overrun by fire from the enemy.

The one that had been running at them accidentally slammed into Kaidan and fell next to all of them before they took cover alongside them.

John immediately noted that at least this person wasn't a geth. But tried not to stare at her odd choice of pink/white armor.

"You alright?" John asked at the marine who was practically too shaken to even speak, instead resorting to shaking her head.

The now group of five quickly got their assault rifles and pistols out and began firing at the new enemy. The rain was making it impossible to know for certain if they had succeeded, but they assumed that they had when the enemy stopped firing at them.

John took point and went towards the position of the enemy carefully followed by Jane.

Unfortunately the rain had been so bad, John didn't notice the barrel of a gun slamming onto the side of his head and knocking him down. With his vision being too blurry he tried looking back at who had just hit him and saw it. It was a geth. Not just a drone. But an actual geth.

Thankfully, since it had been so focused on John, the geth didn't see Jane running towards it and slamming into it causing both to tumble to the ground. The tumble caused the geth and Jane to lose their weapons and Jane was now trying to reach it but was being stopped by the geth grabbing her foot. As she tried to kick it off, the geth stood up and raised its fist to hit her but was stopped as it began convulsing and jittering due to some kind of overload. Looking behind the geth she made out John's omni-tool pointed directly at it.

She took it as her chance and quickly left the grasp of the geth to reach her gun and point it directly at its flashlight head sending out three shots before it fell dead.

"Damn!" Jane yelled trying to catch her breath "You alright John?" She asked as she held up a hand to help him up.

"I'm good" was his somewhat dazed response as he held a hand on his head.

"How did you do that?" She asked highly confused but impressed.

"Do what?" John was trying to formulate what she was talking about, but he was in too much pain from the hit.

"The electricity thing you did."

Shaking it off as best he could, John chuckled "You can learn a lot of things when you have a quarian for a best friend..."

"Oh right." Jane also chuckled.

"Commander! LTC!" They heard Kaidan's voice from next to them. Looking there they saw the three soldiers quickly making their way towards them "You two alright?" Kaidan looked at the geth's dead body and his eyes went wide "Shit..."

"Yeah." John said as he looked at it taking a picture and forwarding it to Hackett and Raan like the last one. John looked behind them at the shaken marine and went towards her "You alright soldier?"

She quickly saluted "Commander, I'm Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the Unit 212 sir! And..." Ashley sighed as she looked down, letting her militaristic demeanor drop completely "No, I'm not okay... my squad was killed, shot or... impaled by the bastards in some type of spikes."

"Spikes?"

"Not sure. Just know that they were impaled and they are all dead..." Ashley's voice was low. Whatever hell she had just gone through John didn't know. But spikes? Why would geth use spikes? Now wasn't the time to wonder those things, they had to reach the beacon and now.

"Where is the prothean beacon you guys found?" John asked.

"Right this way, follow me." Ashley said as she led the group back where she had come from. It took only three minutes before they reached the excavation site, but found the beacon missing. Ashley informed them the beacon could have been moved to the spaceport to everyone's chagrin. John informed Nihlus of it and they thought of informing the Normandy when they heard faint scream from in front of them.

They made their way towards the source of the scream and made out someone being pinned down by what looked like a human. But they quickly realized it wasn't one. It had so much machinery in it, but looked disgustingly organic. They fired upon the unknown creature and made their way towards the survivor.

Their words were so frantic that getting information out of them was useless. They couldn't even spell out a single word, so the group decided to enter the nearby building to leave him with some shelter.

The door had been locked which meant that John had to hack it for it to open only to be met with a gun at his head.

"Whoa, we're friendlies!" John said as he raised his hands in a surrender position.

The person holding the gun quickly lowered it at the sound of John's voice "God. I'm sorry, I thought you were one of those... things..." she said as she pointed towards the dead creature.

"We're not." John pointed out "What happened here?"

The woman was afraid to even answer as she rubbed her shoulder only for another survivor to appear behind her "Our judgment is what happened! Don't you see? We're all paying for our arrogance!" The survivor's words caused John to raise an eyebrow at their rambling.

"They okay?" He asked as he nodded towards the crazed person.

"Manuel is... off his meds..." The woman explained as she looked at Manuel "He's gonna be like that until they kick in."

"I don't need meds when I've got my mind! I'm the only sane one left, that's how I know this is our fate! You can't silence the truth! My voice must be heard!" Jane was growing aggravated by whatever BS this guy was saying. Sure it would be fixed by meds, but the guy looked incredibly unstable.

"And how long will that take?" John asked the woman.

"About 30 minutes."

Jane looked between John and the woman as they spoke and sighed as she turned to look at Manuel. If left unchecked, the guy might end up doing something stupid that would lead the small group of survivors to their deaths. Reluctantly, Jane stepped closer to Manuel and in a flash hit him on the side of his head knocking him out.

"Oh my God! What did you do?!" The woman asked as Jane picked up Manuel to put him in the bed inside the shelter.

"What the fuck Jane?!" John yelled out beside her.

"Can't risk him doing something that will put you in danger while he's in that condition. At least this will give him time for the meds to kick in." Jane explained.

The woman rubbed her shoulder and looked down "Yeah. I guess you're right."

"Still. That was extreme Jane..." John said behind her. She did look guilty over what she had done, but even John knew that it was likely for the best. Better safe than sorry...

As they went to exit the building the woman stopped them and gave them some equipment that would allow them to see better in the rain. After so long of walking almost blindly, the group finally had something to see more than a few feet in front of them.

Once they exited the shelter, the group made their way towards the creature from before and examined it. Jenkins threw up at the sight of it while the others were left incredibly disgusted by it. It was a humanoid shape. But it's body was almost completely destroyed and it's organs replaced by machinery.

Jane let out a soft gasp as she looked in front of them and they saw the spikes Ashley had mentioned. Impaled on them were what looked like humans, but all of them looked just like the dead one next to them. They looked like husks...

Suddenly, the husks came alive, startling them as the spikes were lowered and the husks got off them to run at the group. There must have been over 15 of them, but they were no match for the combined fire of the group.

This was getting too far out of hand. They had to inform Nihlus about this and get to the spaceport as soon as possible.


Nihlus had encountered the geth by this point. John's warning had helped him immensely as he saw the ambush set up in front of him and he went around it to ambush the geth himself.

He had been informed about the spaceport and made his way to it, encountering a few husks on the way too.

Once he reached the spaceport he looked around, but he saw nothing. There was no beacon there. Dammit.

Crates beside him were abruptly shuffled and Nihlus raised his weapon as he looked over to them. But as a figure came out of it, Nihlus lowered his weapon surprised at the sight before him. It was another turian, but it wasn't just a regular one. It was Saren Arterius. The best council spectre, and his mentor.

"Saren?!" He asked surprised as his mandibles spread at the sight of him.

"Nihlus." Saren responded almost emotionless.

"What are you doing here? This situation is bad. The geth shouldn't even be here." Nihlus said as he turned to look for geth in the distance.

"Agreed. As for my presence... the council thought you could use some help on this one." Saren said as he reached for his weapon "But don't worry..." He clicked his weapon and raised it "I have it under control."

Saren pointed his weapon at Nihlus, but the sounds had been enough for him to know what was happening and roll out of the way before Saren could fire. Nihlus took cover behind some crates and yelled "What are you doing?!"

"What must be done." Was Saren's response as geth rounded the corner behind Nihlus, surrounding him. Nihlus took out a grenade and threw it at the geth quickly obliterating a few of their troops.

One of them managed to get the jump on him and charged at him. Nihlus got out of the way just in time for him to shoot the geth from behind and turned to shoot at the remaining ones. The spectres's training was handy in quickly getting rid of the geth.

Unfortunately, the geth had distracted him from the danger behind him who shot his weapon at Nihlus three times, destroying his shields and getting through his armor.

Nihlus fell and tried to stand and shoot at Saren but was stopped by a geth slamming him against the ground and shooting him on the chest.

"S-stop..." Nihlus pleaded as Saren raised his weapon at his head. Through closed eyes he was able to make out the sound of a yell. He didn't know from whom, but he was sure they had yelled his name.

He expected the shot that followed the yell to mean he was dead. But to his surprise, he instead heard as Saren yelled out in pain. Opening his eyes, he saw Saren had dropped his weapon and was now clutching his bleeding hand. Looking to his right, he saw the figures of five humans who were now bombarding the geth and Saren with gunfire.

Saren quickly retreated away into the spaceport train as the geth laid cover fire for his escape.

Once all the geth had been destroyed, the team made their way towards Nihlus who was sitting against a crate as his breathing slowed.

John kneeled in front of Nihlus and applied medi-gel to his wound. Things were going from bad to worse way too fast. John contacted the Normandy and informed them of the situation before turning to the corporal.

"Jenkins. Get Nihlus to the Normandy and to the infirmary." John ordered.

"But..." Jenkins tried to argue but was stopped by John.

"Now corporal!" He barked at him to which Jenkins relented and picked up Nihlus to the pickup location as John and the rest went after Saren.

They followed through the train to Saren's location while fighting off any geth that stayed behind to stall them.

Once the train stopped, they made their way out and realized that Saren and the geth had left behind a nice little gift for them. Bombs.

Jane took the lead and made the orders towards Kaidan and Ashley as John worked on the bombs himself. The resistance they found was harsh, but whatever the geth were planning was going awry for them quickly as John's hacking skills easily defused the bombs, and Jane's tactical skills destroyed any geth that tried to so much as look in John's direction.

As John defused the last bomb, the group looked for Saren, but failed to find him. Instead, they found something else. The beacon they had been going on a wild goose chase for was there.

As Kaidan and Ashley inspected it, John informed the Normandy of the target's location while Jane stood guard for any remaining geth.

However, as Ashley inspected the beacon, it began to glow. Whatever it was doing, it created a small aura around her which immobilized her. John took notice and hurried towards her as Kaidan struggled to free her. John used his biotics to free Ashley and threw her and Kaidan away from the beacon.

His actions however, caused the beacon to instead target John as Jane realized what was happening. The beacon suddenly lifted him off the ground and his head began being filled with some form of visions. Death and pain was all he could make out from the fast moving images. The beacon suddenly shut off and exploded causing the visions to stop as John fell to the ground and went unconscious.

Jane made her way to John and shook him trying to wake him up to no avail. Jane contacted the Normandy to inform them of her brother and the beacon. Immediately the Normandy's garbled response came in informing them they were on the way.

As they waited though, in the distance the three soldiers could see red electricity. The same as the one Jane had seen in the video. And she saw the same unknown ship from before lifting off. The ship was huge, yet it moved so fast. Fast enough that it sent out a shockwave so powerful that it caused the rain clouds to be pushed away leaving a huge hole in the sky on top of them in which sunlight could finally seep through.

As the huge ship left everyone aghast and left the planet, the Normandy finally came into view of the others and opened its cargo doors allowing the soldiers to enter it. Jane and Kaidan carried the unconscious John towards the med-bay as the Normandy lifted off once again, and left Eden Prime behind.


Earth Orbit

It had been at least five hours until the Admirals had finally arrived at the Tonbay.

At the news of geth on Eden Prime, each of them were left confused. Confused and scared. Sure, Raan could see that Xen was more fascinated than scared but with a person like her it was obvious what her reaction would be.

As soon as the news were dropped, Hackett had called them informing them of also receiving the news.

Immediately, Gerrel ordered every single ship under his command to create perimeters around Earth as the Patrol Fleet provided some shielding for them.

The Alliance had quickly done the same as they imposed a lockdown on Earth. Sure, they didn't know if the geth would be stupid enough to attack Earth, but if they had easily gotten through to Eden Prime, it was necessary to lock everything down for the time being.

Within hours, Earth had been encased by dreadnoughts and cruisers from the Alliance alongside Heavy Fleet vessels.

News quickly traveled across the galaxy about Eden Prime, and sure enough, everyone was left afraid. The geth had left the veil, and now they were attacking colonies. There was only one thing clear... This could be the start of something terrible.