By the end of World War III between battlefield casualties (both civilian and military), famine, and disease more than 1.2 billion people across the world were dead. It was hands down the bloodiest war in human history.

Following the defeat of the Chinese-Russian Alliance Russia was under Allied occupation and China lay in near ruin, with nearly a third of the war's casualties being Chinese. This left only two superpowers in the world, the United States of America and the European Federation.

But rather than becoming rivals, as other superpowers had done, the two nations decided to pool their resources to literally reach for the stars. Though neither knew it the historic cooperation of the USA and EF in the Lunar colonization laid the first foundations for what would become the Terran Federation.

Excerpt from, Building Hope: A History of the Terran Federation

Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams threw the smoking remains of her M-7 Lancer rifle aside as she hunkered down as low in the ditch as she could. Even so the incoming fire snapping overhead still collapsed her kinetic barriers the instant they tried to recharge.

"And when I get to Heaven,

To St. Peters I will tell,

One more marine reporting

I've served my time in Hell." Ash prayed as chunks of crystal were blown into her armor from a fresh stream of fire that stitched the ground near her head. "I get the feeling that I am going to be making that report here real soon," she muttered.

If she stayed where she was Ash knew it was only a matter of time until the Geth either got a lucky shot or moved into a position where they had a clean line of fire on her. As for running…

Her eyes fell on the bodies of Private 1st Class Nirali Bhatia and Corporal Ryan Higgs. Ash had tried to cover them as they fell back but the Geth had cut them down anyway, and she'd gotten several breaches in her armor and a trashed rifle for her trouble.

Now the corpses of her fellow marines gave mute testimony to the futility of running for it, and they'd both had full kinetic barriers when they ran. Something Ash couldn't say as Geth fire once again clipped the edge of her reinitializing barrier and disabled it.

She bit back a curse as she drew her sidearm and prepared to sell her life as dearly as possible.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACRACRACK!

For a moment Ash was stunned. For what felt like the last eternity she'd heard only the snapping TIT, TIT, TIT, of Geth weapons. It was distinct and easy to tell apart from the weapons the Federation, and everyone else, used. And those cracks, definitely weren't Geth weapons.

Ash closed her eyes and thanked God for her timely rescuers. Then she rolled over and tried to peek over the edge of the ditch she'd been trapped in.

There was at least a dozen of the bipedal Geth units advancing on her position across the open field, ignoring the available cover. But now their number had been slashed by at least a third.

In an instant all but two of the Geth turned to face this new threat as another stream of fire lashed them from a small rise on their left, Ash's right, and another Geth tumbled to the ground. But as it did Ash noticed something odd, she hadn't seen it's kinetic barriers flash.

Two of the Geth were continuing to advance on her position, and they seemed have picked up their pace. She double checked with her optical implants, and yes they had sped up, all the while they continued to fire on her.

Rolling a bit further over to try to make their shooting more difficult she leveled her M-3 Predator pistol at one of the Geth and opened fire. The rounds immediately struck home shattering the comparatively fragile mech body with no interference from a kinetic barrier.

She switched her target to the second Geth but it was already being blasted apart by a stream of rifle fire.

Just like that there were only three active Geth left, their barriers beginning to reinitialize. Before they could recover there was a flash of blue at their feet and the three mechs were launched up into the air and violently smashed back into the ground.

Ash scanned for anymore Geth. When she found none she let out a sigh of relief and crawled out of her ditch and onto her feet. Stretching she looked behind her, figuring the marine that took out the second Geth charging her was probably the closest.

35 meters behind her crouched behind a rock Ash saw a Turian with black armor and an intimidating looking black rifle. Immediately she dove back into the ditch firing her pistol at the enemy that outflanked her before her conscious mind could even begin to work through what was happening.

The turian ducked behind the rock rather than firing on her when he had the chance, and Ash was determined he would regret that. At the same time, she had a feeling in the back of her mind that something wasn't right.

Before she could work it out a voice came over her comm, "check fire Sergeant!" The command, and the authority resonating in the voice that gave it, instantly had Ash's finger off the trigger.

"Nihlus is with us," the same voice continued.

"Identify yourself," Ash replied.

"Major Jane Sheppard," the voice answered, "my squad and I are approaching on your left."

Ash's spine instinctively straightened a bit, even though she was laying down, at the mention of Sheppard's rank and glanced to her left. She saw three figures break cover from some of the trees and head down the slope. But she instinctively snapped her gaze back at the turian before she could make much out.

He was still behind the rock, though he had poked his head out at her. After a moment of her not shooting at him he stood up. When she still didn't fire he stepped out from the rock and began approaching her slowly with his rifle on his back and his empty hands raised.

He stopped 10 meters short of her and Major Sheppard's voice came from beside her, "you can stow your weapon now Sergeant." It wasn't a suggestion.

It was only then Ash realized she was still pointing her pistol at the turian, Nihlus apparently. Folding the weapon away she clipped it on her belt, stood up and faced the Major. Though she still felt vulnerable turning away from a turian.

"Gunnery Sergeant Ashley Williams of the 212," she reported, not saluting because they were on a battlefield.

"Major Jane Sheppard, Titan unit, off the FSS Normandy," said the woman in jet black armor as her visor became transparent. Nodding first to her left then her right she added, "this is my XO Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, and my brother Lieutenant Commander John Sheppard, Normandy's XO."

Lieutenant Alenko nodded at her, blood running from his left nostril to his upper lip, "Sergeant."

"Lieutenant," she replied thinking to herself, he must be the biotic who took out those last three Geth. Wonder why he didn't do it sooner? Her eyes fastened on his bloody nose again, maybe he couldn't.

"Sergeant," LC Sheppard said with a charming smile and rove of his eyes that took in her muddy and battered armor, and hair that had to be matted to her head with sweat, yet still seemed to like what he saw. Yet he didn't seem to be ogling her.

"LC," Ash said deciding to return the favor. He had a handsome square jaw with just enough stubble to make him look a little rugged, and from what she could see of his physique through his armor he appeared to be in excellent shape. But by far his most striking feature was his piercing blue eyes that seemed to core their way into Ash's soul.

Nodding to Ash's right Major Sheppard added, "and I think you have already met Nihlus."

As though summoned Nihlus stepped into her field of view, "you actually managed to hit me by the way. Given the range, my cover, and the fact you were only using a pistol, that was impressive." Turning to the Major he said, "you know I normally move faster on my own. But given that we are on a planet full of jumpy Terran troops I figured that might be a bad idea. It seems I was right."

"I could've told you that," Jane replied, and then turned back to the Sergeant. "Are you all that's left of your unit?"

Major Sheppard's voice snapped Ash's attention away from John's striking eyes. Ash swallowed back the sudden well of grief that was threatening to overcome her now that she had a moment to think.

Ash nodded, "yes ma'am. We were patrolling the perimeter of… I don't know what to be honest. A few days ago work to expand the colony's monorail was suddenly stopped and we were called in to secure the site, and every scientist in the colony was suddenly out here. They never told us, or at least they never told my squad, what we were guarding.

"We were walking the perimeter when our battlenet lit up, the fleet in orbit was scrambling and there were reports of incoming ships. We could see some of the flashes groundside when the orbital battle began. Then it when quiet until those things started falling out of the sky on us."

Despite her best efforts Ash couldn't stand still and she started pacing back and forth. "The initial attack caught us out in the open and those bastards cut down nearly half the squad. Lieutenant Clay decided to try to double back for the dig site and link up with the 232, which was providing close security for… whatever we were protecting. Combine our forces you know? But the Geth ambushed us, killed everyone else, and I was pretty sure they would get me too."

"They would have if we hadn't arrived in time," Nihlus stated matter of facktly and Ash turned and glared at the Turian.

How dare he…

"I meant no offense Sergeant, from what I saw you fought admirably and made the best possible use of your equipment and the terrain. But your situation was untenable, without help there wouldn't have been anything anyone, even I, could do in it, except die." Nihlus said in a cold tone that reached even across species barriers.

It should have soothed the unintended slight, but it only made Ash angrier. The idea of a Turian judging her rankled her, and the fact that he admitted that he probably couldn't have made it out of her position without help only reinforced that she should have. As if being better than a Turian Spectre would change or prove something.

"How far away is the dig site?" Major Sheppard asked refocusing Ash's mind.

"Less than half a kilometer, north past those hills," Ash said pushing Nihlus's comments from her mind. They were on the same side at the moment, she didn't know why but then she didn't have to know.

Mine is not to question why, but to do or die, she thought.

"Alright let's get moving, everyone keep your eyes peeled for more Geth. This is the second ambush the Geth have set up defending the dig site, I don't want to walk into a third," Major Sheppard said heading in the direction Ash indicated. Looking back she added, "that was a nice trick taking out their barriers John. Might've come in handy after the Geth took out the Mako."

They took out a Mako? Fuck! Ash thought to herself before looking at Lieutenant Commander Sheppard as he fell into step behind and to the right of his sister. So, he was the one who took out the Geth's barriers. He must be a combat hacker or engineer. Engineer based on how many tools it looks like he is carrying.

"I only just identified their barrier subroutine, and I wasn't sure it would work," the LC replied. "I can probably do it again a bit quicker next time now that I have a better idea what I am looking for, but the Geth adapt and change their code very quickly. It makes hacking them a challenge. Good thing I like challenges."

The major simply grunted and continued scanning their surroundings as Ash was doing. Ash was so preoccupied watching outside their little group that she nearly jumped out of her skin when LC Sheppard tapped her shoulder to get her attention. She hadn't noticed him drop back to her.

"Sir, with all do respect I'm trying to scan for the Geth. This isn't a good time to chat," she said a little disappointed at his lack of professionalism.

"I know but this is important," he explained not even batting an eyelash at this slight rebuke from a subordinate. "Did you happen to see a ship on approach?"

"No, I didn't," she answered kicking herself for assuming he just wanted to chat. Why did I think that?

But his question brought a memory to the surface of her mind, and she grabbed ahold of it with both hands. "But Nirali, one of my squad mates, said she saw a ship coming down. Given what she said and the fact that it couldn't be much bigger than a destroyer it would have had to have landed close. Odd that I didn't hear it…"

"No maybe not," LC Sheppard said. "We got telemetry from the fleet engagement, and the enemy flagship was unlike anything we've seen before. It's more than 2 kilometers long and incredibly powerful. We didn't see it on the way in nor did we detect any debris large enough to account for it. Unless it jumped out, which I find highly unlikely after the path it carved through our ships, the only other place it could have gone is planetside."

"You mean land? No ship that big could land on a planet," Ash said incredulously.

"Two hours ago I would have agreed with you. But once you eliminate the impossible whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth."

"Have you actually read Sherlock Holmes?"

"Yes, they're quite good."

Ash looked at him doubtfully. But before she could say anything the Major spoke up, "less talking more scanning back there. Unless you want to be added to the casualty list."

Jane was surprised as they approached the dig site. She had been sure the Geth would stage at least one more ambush to protect the dig site. But aside from one six mech patrol, which they'd easily dispatched, there hadn't been any further resistance.

And it was making her paranoid as hell.

"Ok, the main site we were guarding should be just around this bend," Gunny Williams said nodding at the sharp turn in the narrow path they were taking.

The path was also raising Jane's hackles. It was narrow and obviously freshly cut and created a perfect choke point. A heavy machine gun, or its Geth equivalent, aimed at the mouth could cut down anyone trying to reach the site.

"I'm definitely picking up Geth signals," John reported, doubt in his voice," I can't be sure but I'd estimate anywhere from six to ten units"

"Major, recommend I take point," Kaiden said, "I can throw a barrier up. Try to give us a little cover."

"I doubt that will be enough. You saw how quickly Geth small arms cut through your barrier," Nihlus countered.

"I wasn't prepared last time, I'll put more behind it this time," Kaiden replied.

"Do you have a better suggestion Spectre?" Jane said sharply.

Nihlus looked up the rock faces as John spoke up, "I might have an idea. These guys are impressively resilient against hacking attacks, but I've got a nasty little daemon I call Gatecrash that I've been working on. I think I can adapt it to the Geth systems, and it should crash their net. But I expect they will recover quickly."

"Like a cyber flashbang grenade?" Gunny Williams asked, and John nodded.

Jane took a breath, her decision made. "Alright, Kaiden you're right behind me throw your barrier when we advance, Nihlus then Ash behind you, John you bring up the rear and unleash your daemon on my word."

"With respect Major if I took point…" Kaiden began before Jane cut him off.

"Objection noted, you have your orders," Jane replied tersely. Stowing her rifle and drawing her grenade launcher Jane took another breath and cleared her mind of everything but the coming fight.

"John daemon, barrier now!" She yelled as she surged around the corner, before she finished speaking a translucent blue film rose up in front of her.

Jane had her grenade launcher shouldered before she got a clear look at the dig site, ready to knockout the heavy gun she knew would be there. Except, it wasn't…

She saw seven Geth, each one stopped dead in confusion, but no mounted heavy weapons. None of them had anything larger than a rifle. After a fraction of a second's hesitation she spotted three Geth clustered together near a large rock and fired her grenade launcher. The grenade took out their barriers and sprayed their chassis across the rocky ground.

She didn't like wasting a grenade on them, but she already had the grenade launcher shouldered and she needed to put pressure on the Geth. That accomplished she dropped the grenade launcher, drew her assault rifle and hosed down the first Geth she saw.

Behind her she could hear the sound of Nihlus's rifle and a submachinegun, that had to be Kaiden's, opening up. Jane gunned another of the mechs down and then everything went quiet.

"Secure!" Nihlus's voice called out.

Jane swept the area, not immediately registering the unfamiliar call, confirming there were not more hostiles in the immediate area and shouting, "Clear!" Kaiden and Williams echoing her as they also confirmed all hostiles had been eliminated.

Only then did her mind recognize Nihlus's different call. But before she could say anything the Turian spoke, "no heavy weapon and only nine Geth. Incredibly light resistance."

"There's a reason for it," John said grimly gesturing to Jane's right, "look."

Jane looked. To her right she saw a large circular metal object in the ground. It had probably been a pedestal before it had been buried. In the center she saw an empty space where something was clearly meant to be.

Where the beacon was clearly meant to be.

"Fuck!" Jane swore vehemently.

"Damnit," John cursed under his breath.

Kaiden groaned in agitation, and even the normally unflappable Nihlus let out a string of words the universal translator didn't understand. But Jane could guess it was a series of Turian expletives.

Only Williams didn't join in on the foul language. Most likely not because she was averse to it, but because she didn't know what was going on, and her next words confirmed that.

"It looks like something's missing from that dais, and judging by the cursing," Williams glanced at Nihlus, "or what I assume is cursing, you were sent to retrieve it. I'd also guess it's the reason the Geth are here."

And the reason her squad was wiped out, Jane read between the lines as John glanced at her, and she nodded.

"The excavation teams uncovered a Prothean Beacon," John said, "a working one."

Gunny Williams gasped and muttered, "fuck." Nihlus looked at her with an odd expression but didn't say anything.

"The question is who moved it? Our side or the Geth?" Kaiden asked.

"I don't think it matters," Williams said focusing on the business at hand, "either way they'd have moved it to the spaceport. It's just over a kilometer north of here, and it would have the equipment needed to pack something like that for transport and load it on a ship.

"Do you know the way, Williams?" John asked.

"Yes sir, we can make it in five minutes at the quick march."

Jane mulled it over it her head. If the Geth had the beacon they need to move quickly. On the other hand, the Geth clearly knew how to set up deadly ambushes. Then on the other other hand, they hadn't hit any ambushes approaching the dig site.

"I have some portable recon drones," John suggested reading her mind. "I don't have very many of them and their pretty vulnerable flying low enough to the ground to be of use in this terrain, which is why I didn't suggest them earlier, but they should be able to sniff out an ambush."

Jane nodded and voiced her last consideration, "Nihlus think you can do 15 kmph for a little over a klick and still fight at the end?"

"I'm a Spectre, harsh physical training is part of the requirements."

"Alright, Williams lead the way. John deploy the drone."

As soon as John's drone took off Williams set a good pace north. Nihlus aside she and Kaiden were the big limiting factors for speed. With his N7 implants John could maintain a quick march speed of nearly 25 kmph, and Jane could do near 40.

But they had no idea what kind of resistance they'd face. While normally a Titan was a force unto themselves, against an unknown foe Jane wasn't willing to take that risk. Or the risk of just having her brother for backup. Plus, there was also some sense in not letting Nihlus gauge exactly what N7 and Titan implants were capable of.

"Can I ask you a question Major?" Nihlus asked breaking in on Jane's train of thought,

"Sure."

"I noticed when we found the Beacon missing both you and the other female, Williams, both said sex. It seemed an odd thing to say."

"What?" Jane asked bewildered. Quickly she scanned the audio recordings of both her and Gunny Williams but didn't see any place where they said sex. Then she compared the two for similar words, unsurprisingly there were several, but one stood out.

"Fuck," she said with a slight smile.

"You said it again," Nihlus stated.

"No, I didn't, I said fuck," Jane replied without thinking, but Nihlus seemed to realize what was going on.

"Ah, my translator is translating two different words in your language to one in mine. I am assuming the word you did say was an expletive, and that it is close to the word sex is likely an interesting statement about your culture."

"My base language is English and most of its curses are based on sex, excrement, and parentage. What about you?" Jane asked.

"I speak Vullunish, it's the third most common Turian language, and our expletives are based around not respecting authority, cowardice, and denying responsibility."

"Interesting," Jane said noting that despite their pace Nihlus wasn't having too much difficulty maintaining conversation. Before she could reply Gunny Williams held up a fist and dropped to one knee. Everyone else followed suit, with Nihlus only slightly slower, and Jane moved up next to the sergeant.

"Space port is just over the next rise," Williams reported.

"John, have you sent your drone ahead?" Jane asked.

"Not yet, I didn't want to alert the Geth."

"Do it," Jane ordered patching into the drone's feed. She was again surprised they hadn't hit any resistance as they advanced. She wanted to signal Normandy and find out how the situation looked from above, but if somehow the Geth had lost track of them or this section of Geth were unaware of their presence she didn't want to tip them off. And for the Geth a signal strong enough to reach the Normandy would probably be like lighting off a flare.

An arial view of the space port snapped over Jane's optics. It was a standard prefab design, a large open work area made of high durability plastic surrounded by sheet metal warehouses and a small administrative office.

What was not standard was the several dozen of what looked like spikes with human shaped machines impaled on them and the 16 Geth infantry units. Almost as soon as the drone entered line of sight the Geth opened fire, downing the drone in a little over 2 seconds

"Uh, Jane," John said.

"Yeah, I saw those spikes too," Jane replied, knowing what had caught her brother's attention. "It looks like they have some kind of extremely human mechs on them, but I can't imagine…"

"Jane!" The fear in John's voice snapped her attention away from the drone feed. He was staring at the spaceport with his jaw hanging open. "It was so big I thought it was a building next to the spaceport. I didn't see it until the Mass Effect field started to strengthen."

Looking in the direction her brother was Jane didn't see anything aside from an odd skyscraper in the distance. Jane took a closer look at it and realized it was sitting on five tentacle like legs and was much farther, and much bigger than it looked.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," Gunny Williams exclaimed, "is that a ship?"

"Holy shit," Kaiden muttered.

In the corner of her eye Jane saw Nihlus's mandibles twitch as he said, "spirits…"

For her part all Jane could manage as she saw dust kicking up around what had to be the enemy flagship was, "fuck me." Not the most eloquent response to be sure. "Everyone make sure you're recording, full spectrum," she ordered, getting ahold of herself.

"Already done. That has to be the enemy flagship," John said echoing Jane's thoughts.

Williams had a hand over her mouth as she said, "I know you said it might have landed… and how big… but I… I didn't really…"

"Until right now I didn't either," John said before muttering to himself, "I hate being right."

Before Jane could say anything else a burst of Geth weapon fire over her head returned her attention to the Geth currently heading for a path that led up to the rise she and her squad were occupying. Looking around she spotted a few trees planted by the side of the path that would make decent cover while giving them an elevated position from which to fire on the Geth.

"Nihlus, Williams, take cover on the right," she yelled pointing at the trees. When they nodded, she sprinted for the left most tree calling, "Kaiden with me, John find a good safe spot to hack them."

As soon as she was in a crouched position Jane let off a long burst into the leading Geth. "Can you disable their barriers again?" She asked her brother.

"No, they've already changed that encryption path. I'll have to find another way into that part of their systems, for now I think I can jam their targeting with random bits." He answered squeezing off a burst from his SMG as he laid behind a small boulder a little forward of Jane's position.

She ground her teeth at his interpretation of a 'safe' place to hack from. But she knew he'd be in more danger now if he tried to fall back.

"Do what you can," Jane said as the heavy stream of fire from the Geth forced her back into cover. She had an advantageous position in terms of height and cover that should have let her squad cut the Geth down with relative ease.

But once again the insane rate of fire from the Geth weapons negated that advantage. And once again she had to wonder how the Geth were able to do that. But at the moment it didn't matter how, only that they could. After the battle the Federation engineers would learn the hows and whys.

She could tell the moment that John's hack took effect as the volume of Geth fire on her location dropped. Technically it didn't drop, as the Geth were still firing the same amount of rounds at her, it was just spread over a larger area as the Geth's accuracy took a hit.

Even so it gave Jane little breathing room. But her armor could take more punishment then anyone else's here, even Nihlus's Spectre gear, and a little breathing room was enough. Unslinging her M-100 she leaned around the tree and launched a grenade into the closest cluster of Geth.

The grenade shattered two of the mechs, sending them flying like confetti, and took out the barriers on their two companions. John quickly stitched these with SMG fire before they could recover. Jane fired off another grenade, destroying another Geth and inconveniencing two more, before her failing barrier forced her to duck back into cover.

Apparently inspired, Gunny Williams pulled the pins on two of her grenades and hurled them at the Geth, calling out the requisite warning of, "grenade out!"

With a gesture of his hand Kaiden boosted the grenades carrying them into the Geth's rear. The twin thuds marked the end of five more Geth. With Nihlus cutting down the two Geth Jane's second grenade stripped the barriers from and cutting down another, the 16 Geth had withered to 5.

Switching to her rifle Jane gunned down another Geth. Down to four! Her feeling of triumph quickly evaporated as she caught sight of more than a dozen hunched, humanoid forms rushing up the slope at them.

She recognized them as the mechs she had seen atop the spikes from the drone. Now she could see they looked almost like grey skinned people with glowing blue cybernetics replacing their eyes and forming an armor around their torso and limbs.

They were rushing towards her squad like something straight out of a zombie sim. Switching targets Jane swept her stream of fire across their front ranks, and although it slowed them none of the mechs went down.

Forcing down an instinctive panic Jane focused her next attack on one of the mechs and it went down relatively quickly. Moments later four more streams of fire stabbed out at the oncoming horde, incoming fire from the Geth all but forgotten, and slowly the horde began to peel away.

With enough time they could stop this attack.

The problem was Jane could tell they didn't have enough time. There would still be seven or nine of these zombie mechs left when they reached the squad's position. Jane had no idea what they would do at that point, and she would have strongly preferred to not find out.

But that didn't seem to be an option. A harsh chirping sound in her helmet alerted her that her kinetic barriers were down, but she didn't care as she pulled one of the grenades from her belt despite knowing it would be too little, too late.

A wave of blue biotic energy surged past Jane throwing the 10 remaining zombie mechs at least three meters back. Seeing her chance Jane ordered everyone who had a grenade to throw it as she threw the grenade in her hand.

Three more grenades joined it sending dust and pieces of mech flying. Somehow two of the things still struggled back to their feet. The squad mercilessly riddled them before turning its attention back to the surviving Geth, which had used the distraction to work their way further up the slope.

"The ship!" Williams shouted pointing towards the Geth flagship.

Jane looked just in time to see a massive cloud of dust envelope the ship as it began it lift off. Her thermal optics had no trouble continuing to track it as it accelerated skywards. In seconds it was gone leaving only the crash of a massive sonic boom in its wake.

"I've never seen mechs like these before, I wonder why the Geth would make them?" Nihlus said examining one of the zombie mechs.

"I don't think they're mechs," John said kneeling over one. "My scanner is detecting organic traces, they're cybernetic."

"Why…" Jane began before Williams' shout cut her off.

"Oh God! They're people! Look!" She pointed to more of the spikes.

There Jane saw two, what might have been dock workers, impaled on the spikes. Their skin had turned a ghastly grey and the same glowing blue cybernetics she'd seen on the other cyberzombies erupting from their skin.

"Dragon's Teeth," John said, "turning people into husks of what they were."

"Husks," Kaiden said, "that's an apt name."

Better than cyberzombie, Jane thought, shorter too.

"We'll need to take them down and make sure to disable them before they become Husks," Jane said heading down the slope to the spaceport. "But first let's see if the beacon is still here, or if we can find out where it went. Hopefully not on that ship."

No sooner had she stepped up onto the docks then a Turian stepped out from behind one of the buildings. Her rifle was shouldered and aimed at him before he could take a second step, only the fact they where fighting Geth alongside a Turian stopped her from immediately shooting him.

But there was something she didn't like about him, and she was about to shoot him anyway when she heard Nihlus speak.

"Saren?"

Saren's bright blue eyes immediately locked on the Turian Spectre, "Nihlus."

Ok so I have no idea what happened with my first attempt to upload this. In my attempts to fix the formatting issues something else has clearly gone wrong.

Wow, the number of Turians on this planet is really going through the roof isn't it? And poor Nirali, I wonder if we'll be seeing her later? 😉

Sorry I couldn't resist being a bit cheeky. So yeah this is taking about three time the number of chapter I originally thought it would. But that is normal for me, I always underestimate the length of my writing.

Also I have been trying to add spacing to my stories on FanFiction, if you are reading them on Deviant Art there doesn't seem to be the same issue. I'm going to keep trying to find a way to make it work, and once I do I'll probably go back and fix the rest. So if you are reading this in the future after I have fixed this and wondering what I have been talking about, hi nice to meet you how are the polar ice caps?, but that's why.

Any who.

If you are wondering about John being an OP hacker, don't worry. First he won't be on a lot of the missions and second this is the Geth's first encounter with a cybernetic species and the hacking capability that comes with it, they will adapt their defenses and the hacking will never be this effective again.

Also some of you are probably wondering what I mean by John being a "steamdiver." Basically humanity's version of the extranet is called the Steam. It is much more intense due to cybernetics. But most people only interact with the surface level of the Stream, those who dive into the deeper layers are called steamdivers.

I know that is an extremely basic explanation of those, but I will get into more detailed explanations is the story.

As for answers to a few questions. In Mass Effect it is stated the primary way of detecting a ship is looking for their EM emissions, I am extrapolation from that some of the methods that would have to be used to analyze a contact that has already been detected. But the idea of using gravity waves to find ships might have merit in a different way. Well just have to see…

The weapons are definitely Mass Effect style weapons. This is set in Mass Effect, I only made mentions of the Spartans to give some idea of what I am thinking. Though I did consider changing the Mass Effect weapons to make more sense. But I decided not to risk losing my audience by making too many changes. (I am not going into the multi-page rant I could about why they wouldn't work the way they do in the game; you don't want to hear that).

As for "Titan Reflexes" I read that and immediately wanted to smash my head through my keyboard. 😉 FUCK! I can't believe I forgot that! That is absolutely something that should be present, and I didn't even think about it. [apply dunce cap to writer]. I will be including it going forward and at some point retconing it in where it should have been.

As for the other species… Well I know how they are doing and you''' all just have to wait and find out.