Present Day: SSV Normandy

Jack awoke in a cold sweat and a jolt coming back to the present once again. While reliving Akuze was hard every time he had that dream, he was glad he tended to wake up then and not later. He never wanted to see the Mako being devoured, with Major Kyle still trapped inside, or Arnold blowing himself up to kill it ever again. Those deaths seemed pointless to him, especially considering that the population of the colony had been utterly wiped out before they had even arrived. Jack definitely didn't see himself as a hero in that situation, all he did was survive. In fact, Jack wouldn't call himself a hero for anything he had ever done in his military career. It was all based on lies certain members of the Alliance brass chose to tell. What had been true was that the tragedy on Akuze did teach the entire Alliance about a new species that was extremely dangerous to new colonies, the Thresher Maws.

Thresher Maws were 30-meter wide sub-terranean space worms that could wipe out a city like New York within thirty minutes flat, if the people living there didn't have the right protections. Unfortunately, the Maws originally evolved from lizards on a radioactive planet which gave them natural armor against conventional Alliance weapons fire. This natural defense mechanism meant they were a nightmare to deal with for a colony already struggling to get basic resources. Akuze had only been the beginning, over the course of the next three years, ten other colonies on the edges of Alliance space also experienced Thresher Maw attacks. Instead of seeing the Threshers as a legitimate threat though, many colony dwellers saw the attacks as part of a conspiracy to keep the Alliance from having to protect colonies that they deemed to be too far from Earth. Jack was always disheartened by the stupidity of people.

Knowing he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, Jack grabbed his omni tool to see if now was an acceptable time to start wandering the halls of the Normandy. The Alliance had summoned him here to act as security just a few days ago so he wasn't accustomed to the vessels schedule yet. Though once he put the device on his wrist and turned it on, he felt a pang of sadness and regret. The screensaver was an artists' illustration of two empty helmets, his Human one with the N7 logo near the earpiece, and the other a more elongated helmet belonging to a Quarian. Although it was in black and white, the drawing was incredibly detailed as though it came from a professional on the streets of Thessia. They were facing each other, and their mouthpieces were touching. He could almost hear the explanation now in the definitely not Asari's voice, "it's like they're kissing, so when we're apart we'll always remember each other." Jack sighed talking to himself, "You have to delete that, after what you did, he's never coming back, and you know it." Even though he just said that Jack merely shut down his omni tool and got up not even checking the time.

He stepped into the bathroom to wash his face and look in the mirror to make sure he looked ok. Jack was around 6'3" and 200 pounds of pale muscle, the only thing that separated him from the other soldiers here was his shoulder length dirty blonde hair. Since Jack and his team almost single handedly ended the Skyllian Blitz, the Alliance let the regulations go, just this once. He also had a set of three small scars running parallel across his forehead that he received on Torfan. They were a constant visual reminder of the pain he and so many others experienced that day. As a result, Jack often tried to hide them with his bangs as much as possible not wanting to answer too many questions about their origin. While splashing water on his face, Jack started to hear voices outside his cabin, so he put on his long pants and baggy N7 hoody venturing out into the mess hall.

Almost two days ago now, he got a call from some higher ups in Alliance command assigning him to a test run of the first stealth ship in the Alliance navy. To the best of his limited knowledge, it was actually the first stealth ship in the galaxy. Jack accepted the mission for something different to do but privately, he wondered what he was here for. Jack was a solider not a scientist and they had to know that. The official explanation was that he would be needed if the ship was stopped by Batarians before it reached its destination. Something in his gut was telling him that wasn't the real reason. His suspicions were only raised when he found out that the crew was mainly David Anderson's task force from the Blitz. If that wasn't enough, a Turian Council SPECTRE had been there and often followed him around specifically. He couldn't think of what was really going on here, yet he was certain it wasn't a simple test of new technology.

When he opened the door to the mess hall, he heard a fairly familiar voice call out from the coffee machine, "Hey Jack, want one last cup of joe before we all maybe blow up?"

It was Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams a veteran in Andersons' crew. On some level he felt sorry for the 26-year-old woman, like him she had a famous parent in the Alliance. However, unlike Jack's mother who was remembered for her valor and bravery, Ashley's father was remembered as the coward who started the Relay 314 Incident. Specifically, Jack Connig Williams had fired the Alliances entire nuclear stockpile at the time on the planet Shanxi. Not only were the humanitarian tragedies that took place there as a direct result of his actions truly horrific, but he also wasted their nuclear weapons on a small Turian scout fleet in the belief it was their entire military strength. The stigma attached to her name's sake seemed to make her try just a little too hard to show she wasn't her father. He knew he didn't know what it was like to be in her shoe's but, he'd like to think he wouldn't be so aggressive if their roles were reversed.

"No thanks Williams, I'm trying to quit." Jack told her with a stiff if not professional smile.

She grinned sipping a cup while brushing a strand of black hair from her face, "I envy you, like I said though in a few minutes we might be dead. The Normandy is coming through a Relay with the stealth drive engaged, no one knows what'll happen."

Jack wanted to point out the Alliance wouldn't throw away a ship full of war heroes and a SPECTRE on a death trap, in the end he just chuckled saying, "Alot of Human and Turian scientists poured their lives into this thing, I'm sure we'll be fine."

Ashley looked uncomfortable for a moment before saying, "Unless, you know, the Turians sabotaged the ship to kill us all." When Jack didn't immediately agree with her, she smirked like it was a joke, "Pfft, you actually thought I...? Oh, come on Shepard, it was a joke."

Some on the ship might've been inclined to agree with her that it was a joke, even if it was in bad taste, Jack wasn't one of them. For starters, a Turian SPECTRE who made more credits than the two of them combined was onboard just looking for something negative to report. It would reflect badly on Captain Anderson if a debrief of the mission stated his ship was full of racists. Secondly, in the very little time he had known her, Ashley had made multiple jokes he would describe as insensitive suggesting at the very least she had a pattern of bad humor. He guessed that she became this way having primarily only experienced the brutality of the Batarians during the Blitz as her exposure to alien cultures. Having fallen in love with a Quarian during the same conflict, Jack had an entirely different perspective on their galactic neighbors. It also meant he had very little patience for people who were unwilling to even try to learn. The problem was he had no power here so all he could do was let it roll off of him and keep going on with his day.

Jack was about to say it wasn't very funny when the ships intercom crackled to life, "Good morning, everyone just wanted to give you all a five-minute warning before we go through the Relay. You could call all your loved ones or... you could come bring me popcorn for the fireworks show? Seriously though, anyone interested can come keep me company in the cockpit."

Jack pointed towards the winding stairs leading to the command deck as a silent offer for her to join him, Ashley shook her head speaking in a reluctant tone, "Thanks Commander, but I need to say goodbye to my siblings back home. I'll talk to you on the other side though for sure."

He was secretly glad she didn't want to come along knowing they would've had to continue their awkward conversation. The single flight of stairs curved up at a forty five degree angle to the command deck which was clearly what the Turians brought to the design of the ship. The Alliance usually had flight control towards the top and middle of a ship, so the pilot could see the whole ship, while the galaxy map was in the rear towards the engines. The Normandy had the flight control on the front of the ship like an arrowhead and the galaxy map in the center of the ship. Jack passed by many tense looking faces of people he still didn't know, on his way to the cockpit, they were obviously worried about what was going to happen.

When he opened the door to the cockpit, he heard the pilot immediately say, "Well I guess I'm not the only social reject here if someone actually took me up on my offer, did you happen to bring the popcorn?"

Jack chuckled and tilted his head even though the pilot wasn't looking at him, too focused on the controls, "I didn't even know there was popcorn on the Normandy, so I didn't bring any, sorry."

The pilot sighed, "There isn't, it was a joke to try and lighten the mood from the doom and gloom everyone is feeling. Ah well, at least you chuckled, I'm Joker by the way."

Jack watched the viewport full of swirling blue light from faster than light travel saying, "Nice to meet you Joker, how long before we can all take a sigh of relief?"

Joker smirked looking up at Shepard around his shoulder, "It's good to see some optimism around here for once, thirty seconds probably. Why? Do you have any confessions to make?"

Jack was about to start telling him all the bad things he had done as a child when he felt the Turian walk up beside him, "I heard we are about to go through the Relay." Nihlus said calmly and Jack put another tally mark in his mental note of how many times the SPECTRE followed him somewhere.

Joker took a more professional tone saying, "We're just about through sir."

A moment later the ship started to slow down reverting to real space. The stars that had appeared to be stretching on and on for thousands of miles were converting to tiny pin pricks again. Shepard looked around behind him and grinned, like he suspected, nothing happened to the ship. It took a few moments for the rest of the crew to catch on but soon enough there was a loud cheer throughout the ship. He even saw a few people hug each other like their team just won the Super Bowl. Jack was more interested with what happened now guessing whatever it was would be the real reason the Alliance dragged them all out here.

Nihlus was the first to speak acting as stoic as ever around him, "Is the stealth drive still active?"

Joker made a thumbs up with his free hand, "Yeah we're going 1500K and I'm not picking up the Normandy on our sensors. Someone would have to look out their viewports and see us to get caught."

Nihlus seemed to let out a breath, "1500 is good, I'm sure your Captain will be pleased. Shepard, would you mind joining me in the conference room for a moment?"

Jack paused not sure if he should let on that he suspected something else was going on, so he chose his words carefully, "Is there something wrong sir?"

Nihlus's gaze sparkled with a knowing glance only to shake his head, "No, nothing wrong, I just thought we should... clear the air as you Humans say."

Jack got the message, "Understood, well then I'll follow you." Jack followed him all the way down the hall of the command deck hoping that this meeting would finally reveal what the hell was going on around here.

The room was small in the shape of a half circle with only enough room to probably fit just eight people comfortably. Captain Anderson was already standing there with his arms folded, "Commander I think it's about time we tell you what's really going on here."

Nihlus added, "This mission is far more serious than a stealth drive test."

Jack wanted to be a smartass and say he could have already guessed that instead he moved on to the mission, "I'm assuming we don't have much time so just tell me what's going on."

Anderson spoke first starting to pace around the room, "Just before you were called, the Alliance received information from ExoGeni. They're claiming they dug up a beacon on Eden Prime, a Prothean beacon."

Jack started to understand, "Eden Prime is in the neutral zone, you wanted to make sure the stealth drive worked so the Alliance wouldn't get caught." He turned to Nihlus, "And your here to make sure the Alliance doesn't keep the data for ourselves."

Nihlus smirked seemingly amused, "Not exactly Shepard, I'm here to evaluate you."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "What are you evaluating me for exactly?" He asked in a defensive tone worried he slipped up and the Council somehow discovered what he did on Torfan.

Nihlus seemed calm despite Jack's tone, "Your heroism and bravery on Torfan was remarkable Commander, even with setbacks and losses, you completed your objective. That's why I'm putting your name forward to join the SPECTREs. However, I want to see you in action for myself, Eden Prime will be the first of several missions we go on together."

The revelation hit Jack like a ton of bricks, if Nihlus wasn't playing him for a fool that would mean he would be the first Human SPECTRE in history. Jack didn't want the responsibility of representing Humanity on the galactic stage on his own, it was too much pressure. What if he let his personal feelings get in the way of a mission? Again. He wouldn't just be ruining his own credibility, but the entire Human races'. There were also other things to consider like his former partners safety on the Quarian flotilla if their previous relationship was made public. Although humanity had moved on from that particular bias long ago, other species had not. His ex would most likely be exiled for not spreading his genes to other Quarians if it came out. For that reason alone, Jack wanted to turn down the nomination as quickly as possible.

With all of those reasons floating around in his mind Jack spoke, "I'm honored you think that highly of me but, I'm going to have to say no."

David turned to him with a serious expression, "We need this Commander, having a Human in the SPECTREs would bring the Alliance one step closer to joining the ranks of the Council races. Think of how the Skyllian Blitz would have gone if we had the full support of the Citadel?"

Jack was about to respond when Joker's voice came through the intercom again, "Captain I just received a distress call from Eden Prime, sir I think you're going to want to see this ."

Their discussion was cut short for now and David sighed, "Ok Joker, patch it through to the conference room now."

The screen at the back of the conference room buzzed to life starting with a black screen. A few seconds later though an image of a small creek bed filled the screen with feet walking forward quickly. Jack guessed they were watching the helmet feed of a solider on the ground of Eden Prime due to how much the camera was shaking. It was clear from the heavy pants of the man that he had been running away from something, but unless he looked up, they wouldn't know anything. As if Jacks thoughts willed it to happen, the camera panned upward revealing a column of around fifteen soldiers running down the creek, wearing the signature white, black, and yellow body armor of the ExoGeni corporation.

David watched with anticipation and soon enough, blasts of light were flying over their heads with the sounds of gunfire, "Shit.." He declared while starting to pace again.

Suddenly, a woman dressed in more of a professional garb came running from out of the frame on the right side. Jack didn't find women attractive at all but, he knew that most men his age would see her as drop dead gorgeous, worthy of being on a front cover for the next issue of Fornax magazine. She had straight brown hair that went down to the bottom of her neck and pale spotless skin that seemed too perfect to be real. What was a woman like that doing at a mining operation? Maybe he was just being too stereotypical, yet most miners got dirty. And if she was an ExoGeni administrator, what was she doing planet side? Jack was probably over thinking this. He just couldn't shake the feeling something was out of place.

"Get down!" the woman shouted before shoving the man with the camera down, so they were looking up at her now.

Unfortunately, this still didn't give them a good view of the attackers, only giving them more shots of the woman. She had her M-3 Predator pistol drawn shooting in several directions in front of her at once. She was seemingly overwhelmed by the number of aggressors judging by the number of thermal rounds flying over her head. Jack noticed that none of the lasers coming towards her actually hit her, implying that the attackers were very inexperienced marksmen. Before they could see what happened to her the camera turned around revealing one of the soldiers panicked looking face. He was extremely pale obviously never having been in a combat zone before. Dust and dried blood peppered his cheeks as he moved to a large tree for cover.

Jack didn't know what to think about this entire situation yet. Judging by his behavior, Anderson seemed to automatically assume that the Batarians were behind this, but Jack wasn't so sure. First of all, the Batarians were smart and would've jammed communications before they arrived to avoid fighting with potential reinforcements. He had experienced this maneuver on Elysium firsthand, they wouldn't suddenly stop doing that. Secondly, they were pretty much soldiers from birth so missing shots on a person in the open like that would've gotten you kicked out of the military for good. However, the Captain had seen much more front-line combat during the Blitz, so Jack stayed quiet still watching the video for more clues.

Even though the man was yelling they could barely hear the sound of his frightened voice over the sounds of a shootout all around him, "We are under attack... I repeat we are... heavy casualties...-eed evac... we..." He trailed off for a moment looking up behind the camera with a look of horror on his face, "Oh my god!"

The soldier dropped the helmet and it rolled in the other direction showing something in the sky for a split second that Shepard really couldn't make out before the feed turned into fuzzy particles. Joker's voice came through again sounding very worried, "The feed just cuts off after that. It's only static."

Nihlus somehow seemed more concerned than the rest of them when he said, "Joker, reverse the playback to the last visible frame of the feed and pause."

It was hard to not notice that Nihlus seemed to have a look of recognition at the screen. Jack didn't know a lot about male Turian body language, so he wasn't sure. Turning to the screen again, Shepard frowned at first thinking he was looking at some abstract artwork that could be found in a museum. The tree line on the lower half of the screen was on fire although, that wasn't what caught Jack's immediate attention. The orange sky usually associated with twilight contained a large purple looking hand that appeared as though it was plucking one of the trees from out under the ground. Upon closer inspection though, Jack saw it was made from metal with each piece being connected by a thin line of dark blue lights. Also, what he thought were fingers were actually just long thick weapon barrels presumably pointed at the colony just below the view screen. While he had no idea who that ship could've belonged to, he did know that the poverty stricken Batarians couldn't possibly have the resources to build something that enormous.

David turned to them both with his arms folded, "Well, this mission just got a lot more complicated."

The words seemed to pull Nihlus out of his own thoughts after staring at the ship for a while, "Not necessarily, if we go in with a small strike team we still could get in and back out pretty quickly."

Jack wanted to argue that they needed to pull back and get more ships but, David nodded turning towards him, "Shepard get suited up with Williams, and Alenko and meet us in the cargo hold in thirty."

The N7 veteran knew that David was set in his plan and made no attempt to argue with him. He was used to stealth missions before, but, not since Torfan had he attempted one where they were clearly outnumbered ten to one. So, without another word Jack followed Nihlus silently out of the conference room and then separated as Jack went back downstairs to collect Ashley and Kaidan Alenko. While he had a hard time relating with Ashley, he knew Kaidan since they were children. Kaidan was a first wave biotic like him and so they had gone through the same Alliance training program to learn to control their powers. Unfortunately, Jack had done far better in the program, so he received the latest implant upgrades while Kaidan always stayed a generation behind him. Jack had privately fought for better treatment for Kaidan but, the Alliance brass never changed their minds on the issue.

As soon as he was down the stairs, Jack immediately started looking for them while not trying to look like he was in a rush. In stealth missions like this one, it was important not to alert anyone to a potential problem to not start a panic for all the support staff. He had only succeeded in launching the mission to Torfan by not letting anyone else know the severity of the mission. You could argue if he hadn't of done what was necessary six months ago that they'd still be at war with the Batarians today. It luckily didn't take long to find them as the pair were sitting at a table, chatting and eating cereal.

Kaidan looked up from his plate smiling, "Hey Commander... what's wrong?" Kaidan knew him well enough to know by his facial expression something wasn't right.

Jack sat down acting like he was just about to have a normal conversation with them before whispering, "I need you both armored up and ready to go within fifteen minutes, something big is happening on Eden Prime and we have to respond."

Kaidan nodded getting up quickly and headed towards the crew quarters but, Ashley tilted her head, "Something big? What do you mean Shepard? Is this the real reason that SPECTRE is here?"

Jack didn't have time to fill her in, so he just shrugged, "No idea Chief, just get suited up and meet me in the cargo hold." He could tell she was annoyed by the lack of an explanation, however she got to her feet and followed orders.

"Commander, Commander wait a moment." A voice called out to him before he could even get his own armor.

Looking over his shoulder as he stood up Jack saw two figures approaching him, one was the ship's doctor, Karin Chakwas, and the other looked like he was a new recruit no older than sixteen. Jack had to wonder how short staffed the Alliance was if they were bringing new recruits to a mission like this. The doctor was holding some medical equipment in her boney hands as she was practically chasing the recruit as he marched up to Jack. He didn't know much about either of them since he had tried to stay in his room as much as possible for this trip but, he knew that look all too well, untested determination. Jack remembered Arnold Vega having a similar look when he volunteered to join Jack on the Akuze mission. While he wished now that Vega hadn't come along, it was important to keep in mind that the man had saved his life twice that day.

He didn't say anything letting the man approach, "Sir, Joker just paged the medbay, is it true that Eden Prime is under attack?"

Jack wanted to hit the pilot for breaching secrecy on the mission, but there was no point lying if the cat was out of the bag, "Yes its true, me, Gunnery Chief Williams, and Lieutenant Alenko are going down there to respond to the distress call."

Karin spoke up while grabbing the other man's arm, "We're sorry Commander, Richard here is actually from Eden Prime and so he wanted to hear it from you directly. Good luck out there."

She attempted to drag him away but, Richard freed himself from her grip, "I wanna come with you then sir, I got an eighty percent on my marksmanship exam and can follow an order to the letter."

Karin cut in, "You haven't even finished your physical yet Richard, I'm sure you'll have more opportunities to help in the future."

He shook his head, "Not in front of a Council SPECTRE and the best N7 the Alliance has ever had, I need to show the brass what I can do!"

Jack tended to agree with Karin saying, "Easy Private, there's no need to go out there today, I'm sure you'll have a long career in the Alliance. Let me handle this."

Richard scoffed folding his arms, "That's easy for you to say Shepard, you were on Torfan, everyone already knows what you can do. Come on, I'm sure you'll need everyone you can get to help you down there."

Jack really didn't have the time to argue anymore, and the young man had a point, "In fifteen minutes we're leaving for the cargo hold with or without you."

He went back to his room thinking the boy wouldn't actually have time to get ready before they were set to leave. Jack's old dented N7 Onyx armor was scattered across the room in several pieces forcing him to quickly pick it all up and put it on. The armor itself had lost some of its black color and was more of a dark, dusty, gray but, Jack couldn't let go of it yet. Even though it was covered with scratches and bullet marks, it was still functional and gave him the few fond memories of the Blitz that he had. He tied his unruly dirty blonde hair in a bun and put his helmet on for the first time in six months. Jack went to the elevator where Ashley, Kaidan, and Richard were waiting for him.

Ashley regarded him while pushing the button for the cargo hold again, in a whisper she asked, "Commander, do you really think it's a good idea to bring a kid into something like this?"

Jack shrugged, "I didn't really have the time to tell him no, and we might need him down there." He was about to tell all of them about what he saw on the distress call when the door opened revealing the large cargo hold.

The wind was really whipping around the room since the back hatch showing the evening sky of Eden Prime. David and Nihlus were both standing near the edge of the hatch but, Nihlus was in his full battle armor and holding a M83 Claymore shotgun. Anderson approached them with a newfound urgency knowing they didn't have much time, he had to shout over the howling wind to be heard, "Shepard, I was able to get a hold of ExoGeni Executives on the Citadel, they're saying that the beacon should be in the center of the colony so that'll be your top priority!"

Kaidan sounded confused, "What about survivors sir?!" His voice was full of alarm like he assumed David had somehow forgot this place was primarily a civilian colony.

Anderson sighed turning to look at him, "Do what you can but, this mission is to retrieve the Prothean beacon before whoever is down there attacking. If we let them get that data every death will be meaningless, understood?"

Kaidan agreed while Richard was looking in Nihlus's direction, the Turian looked like he was getting ready to jump out of the hatch, "Hey SPECTRE, you're not coming with us?"

Nihlus shook his head honestly looking preoccupied, "I move faster on my own, Shepard meet me in the center of the colony as soon as you can." The Turian proceeded to jump out of the moving ship using his armor's jetpacks to stabilize his descent.

David stepped out of the way to let them pass, "You heard him, the mission's yours now Commander, good luck."