Chapter 47. The Beacon


14:41 Local Time, 4. January 2415 AD, HSASV Normandy

An application to Spectre Status.

It still didn't sound any less strange than when she had first heard about it a couple of days ago after being pulled away from her regular duties and being sent back to Arcturus for a 'special assignment', something she never would've pictured to turn into a mission with no other than Captain David Anderson, the first human Spectre. While she had yet to learn the actual details of her operation, her superiors themselves hadn't been able to tell her what it was that she was supposed to do once they arrived on Eden Prime, she simply worked under the assumption that it would be something equally important and difficult because again, this was apparently a test to see if she could follow in Anderson's footsteps. Emily wasn't exactly sure what had driven the people who had made this decision to choose her but she knew that she wouldn't let them down. After all, the opportunity she had been given was of immense importance, not just for herself but for the political future of the HSA.

"The Arcturus Prime Relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence," the pilot, who according to the marine lieutenant she had briefly spoken to after getting aboard chose to go by the name 'Joker', spoke over the intercom as she made her way to the bridge, sidestepping crew members and trying not to get into the way of whatever it was that they had to get done befoe they hit the relay. "We are connected, calculating transit mass and destination," the helmsman went on in an almost too casual tone considering he was about to fling them across space. "The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector. All stations secure for transit."

Her career had allowed her to travel on a lot of human ships but as she passed by the rows of holographic control screens lining each side of the narrow bow of the Normandy, she couldn't help but notice just how different this vessel was from most of them. The stealth ship wasn't just a state-of-the-art blend of human and turian engineering, it was ahead of the curve in almost all regards. When she had first heard of the Normandy and its sistership, she had chalked a lot of the recognition it got up to the ego of the navy's ego but now that she was actually aboard one of them, she could without a doubt say that the vessel was every bit as impressive as top-brass insisted it to be.

"Hitting the relay in three, two, one," she heard from the chair in front of her as she reached the bridge just in time to admire the blue glow of the enormous structure in front of her. No matter how often she watched this part of space travel, it never got less impressive. It was only when the visual spectacle had passed, that Emily noticed who it was that had claimed the seat next to the pilot.

"Thrusters, check. Navigation, check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online, drift just under fifteen hundred K," 'Joker' summarized with, ending on a rather smug tone.

"Fifteen hundred's good, you trying to show off for the Spectre?" the marine lieutenant from earlier offered in return while looking through a series of sensor readings, likely looking for something the ground team could use.

"Good?" the pilot asked as he turned his head, "I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. That's not good, that's incredible," he insisted before once returning to his duties, "Besides, Spectres are trouble. Call be paranoid but I don't like having him on board, not after what happened to the Budapest."

"Fine, you're paranoid," the dark-haired man replied. "An ambush like that could've happened to any ship. Spectre on board or not."

"The ambush's the official story, Alenko. Only idiots believe the official story. "

"Are you calling me stupid, Joker?"

"That is the logical conclusi-" Alright, enough of that. Emily cleared her throat, causing both of them to turn their heads.

"Commander Shepard," the marine said surprised as he rose to his feet, beating Joker to the punch, who by the looks of it hadn't felt the need to stand up either way. Given that he was the one piloting the ship, it was probably for the better. "I was wondering when you'd pay the bridge a visit. Do you have our orders?" he asked, his light-brown eyes looking at her in expectation.

"Because it would be nice to know what we're doing here," Joker added dryly as his hands danced over the controls, steering them away from the relay.

"I'm afraid I know as much as much as you do, Lieutenant- uhm," Wait. Damnit. What had been his name? She knew that he had introduced himself but with all the information that had been dumped on her in regards to the ship, she had already forgotten what his actual name was.

"Alenko, Ma'am," he said after realising what her current damage was.

"Right, Alenko," Way to make a good second impression with the guy in charge of the marines that would likely bail her and Anderson out of any potential mess. "Sorry," she added apologetically.

"No worri-"

"Joker, status report," Anderson's voice rang through the intercom.

"Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid," the helmsman replied while swiping a seemingly unimportant hologram to the side.

"Good. Find a commbuoy and link us into the network but don't announce us just yet. I want mission reports relayed back to Arcturus before we reach Eden Prime but I also want to keep a low profile," the N7 turned Spectre spoke before pausing for a moment, unaware that the pilot was shaking his head at each of his words, "and tell Commander Shepard to come and find me in the comm room."

"You get that, Commander?"

"I'm on my way," Emily nodded before going back the way she had come from to hopefully be told what exactly it was that she would be doing.

"I'm telling you, this isn't going to end well for us. He's on some kind of mission and he couldn't care less about what happens to us," she heard one of the crew members say as she passed by the large holographic map located in the center of the very turian CIC of the Normandy.

"He's a Spectre, Pressly, they're always on a mission," another figured as he checked some readings on a tablet. "Just cut the man some slack, will you?"

"I'll hold you to that when our escape pods are blown up."

Well, one thing was for certain. A lot of the crew really didn't like having Anderson onboard. Since she knew that the Budapest, for whatever reason considering it had 'just' been another cruiser, albeit one that rarely worked alongside larger naval formation, had drawn its crew from the same training programs like this stealthship, Emily figured that the cause for this apparent hostility was that a lot of the Normandy's handpicked crew had known people who had died on the day of the Budapest's destruction and still held a lot of resentment about it.

While she understood the logic behind it, she couldn't say that it was a justified notion and only the knowledge that Anderson was waiting for her to get to the comm room kept her from telling her fellow lieutenant commander just how far out of line he was considering that Anderson, Spectre or not, was still a captain in the same navy as the two of them and until further notice the acting officer of the ship they served on, the Normandy's original commander having passed the position onto him for the duration of his stay. Coming to a halt in front of the door just as she heared yet another crew member, this one a marine, tell the ship's doctor how nothing on Eden Prime would be of any interest to the Spectre, Emily began to wonder if her and the crew would've been better off being told the details of this mission before they had ever arrived at their destination. It certainly would've avoided the atmosphere all of this secrecy was creating.

Funny.

Secrecy.

If it hadn't been for her already turning the corner and opening the door to walk up to Anderson, that single thought would've succeeded in bringing her back six months in time to a place she'd rather not go to at the moment or ever really.

"Commander Shepard," Anderson, wearing an onyx black set of armor similar to her own, greeted as he turned away from the screen he had been looking at, the depiction of what she assumed to be their destination on Eden Prime behind her. "I think it's about time somebody told you what's really going on here," he offered. "Besides the obvious, I mean." That obvious would again be her Spectre candidacy, which still didn't sound a single bit less weird. "We're making a covert pick-up on Eden Prime," that explained the stealth frigate.

"A pick-up?" she knew she shouldn't jump to conclusions but this didn't sound like the kind of mission that you'd sent someone who you consider as a Spectre candidate on.

"A research team unearthed a prothean beacon during an excavation," he explained. A working prothean beacon? Here on Eden Prime? This was the exact kind of mission you'd use to assess a future Spectre. Prothean artifacts, especially the ones which still worked after all this time, were among the most prized discoveries one could make. "In accordance to Council law, the two of us are going to oversee its transportation and hand it over to the proper authorities, preferably without tipping off any of the units currently exercising nearby," Emily raised her eyebrow.

"Why not just tell them to stop their maneuvers until we're done?" she finally decided to ask. She knew that these joint maneuvers were something of a tradition for Eden Prime but surely they could do something about it given the circumstances.

"Because we'll hardly get a better reason to lock down the excavation area than a nearby armored exercise," Anderson reasoned. "First lesson of the day, Commander, never pass up a good cover story," he offered with a smile. "Besides, a turian legion and a mechanized infantry brigade are probably the best security screen we'll get for this op," he added with a wave of his hand. "Now, let's get down the details, shall we?" the captain asked with a small smile. "Since this is just the first of several missions you'll accompany me on, I want to see how you do things so naturally, you'll be in charge of the ground team. Get to the beacon, prep it for transport and make sure to keep things quiet. Just a simple in and out for me to-"

"Captain, we got a problem," Joker's voice suddenly rang through the intercom, interrupting whatever else the Spectre had been about to say.

"What's wrong, Joker?"

"We just got an transmission from Eden Prime, audio only but it sounds bad," the pilot explained as the picture of the dig site disappeared from the screen behind them in favour of the frequency they were being hailed on, the familiar sound of gunfire causing both Anderson and Shepard to turn their heads almost instantaneously, the heavy static accompanying it making it somewhat more difficult to understand what was actually being said.

"I say again, threat condition Saber-One!" a voice called as a distinctively turian scream in the background was followed by the call for a medic. "Eden Prime is under attack. Forces of the 38th Legion rendering assi-" a detonation silenced whatever else the man had been about to say.

"Everything cuts out after that, no civilian comm traffic, no more transmissions from the local Colonial Watch. Everything just goes dead."

"Alright, give me a status report on the fleet in orbit," the Spectre asked almost immediately.

"I already tried them, it's the same thing. They're not responding, Sir."

"What do you mean they're not responding?"

"I'm getting no signal from either our own or from any of the turian ships supposedly present in the system, Sir."

"So they've been destroyed?" Anderson asked while nodding towards the door, causing Emily to fall in line with him as he left the room.

"Either that or there's some kind of jammer in place," the pilot figured as the two of them stepped into the Normandy's elevator. "I've already put a distress call back through the relay but even from Arcturus, the nearest QRF is at least another two hours out."

"Our ETA?"

He wasn't serious was he? Stealth ship or not, a single frigate wouldn't stop what appeared to be an invasion force big enough to not only take on the local forces already present on Eden Prime but also the additional soldiers currently partaking in the maneuvers between the HSA and the Turian Hierarchy. Considering that well over a hundred thousand soldiers were permanently stationed on the world, she failed to see how another frigate would make a difference.

"Ten minutes, Sir."

"Good," wait he wasn't really going to- "Take us in, Joker, fast and quiet," apparently he was serious.

"This mission just got a lot more complicated, Commander," that was one way to put it. "We've got to get to that dig site. Whoever's attacking Eden Prime has to know that we're here to pick up the beacon. It's the only reason they would risk an attack during the joint exercises."

"So they'll be expecting us," Emily figured as the elevator doors opened upon arriving in the hangar, revealing a squad of marines, Alenko amongst them, in the midst of preparations.

"Definitely," Anderson nodded as he grabbed one of the two lone onyx black N7 helmets of the armory table before tossing Emily's towards her. "It's all forest and hills down there, the Mako won't be of much use," he called to the engineer currently kneeling in front of the vehicle parked in the center of the hangar. If she had to take a guess, the idea to equipt the frigate with an IFV alongside of normal shuttles had been a turian one. While it wasn't exactly human doctrine to have frigates deploy tanks directly to the surface, the Paladins that accompanied each drop provided more than enough firepower, she knew that the Hierarchy loved to have their frigates do exactly that. "Besides, a small team can probably slip by easier," he added to Emily herself.

"Any changes to our plan, Sir?" she asked in return, all the while inspecting her SR-9. While it wasn't as familiar as the hybrid design she had worked with for most of her career, she certainly wouldn't complain about the weight and space freed up by the fact that the Valkyrie didn't require magazines or bullets to operate.

"Not at the moment but we both know how long plans tend to survive in combat," the Spectre replied as he nodded towards the marines. "We'll be on the ground soon so I suggest you make your pick and get ready to drop."

"Understood, Sir," Emily replied before turning towards the marines. "Lieutenant Alenko, on me," she called into the room, not entirely certain which of the armored figures he actually was.

"Here, Commander," one of the almost indistinguishable soldiers called as he turned on his heel and headed towards her.

"When we make Planetfall, I'm going to need your two best men with me," it wasn't the size of the unit she usually worked with but four people, including herself and Anderson, was as big of a group as she was willing to chance given that they were supposed to slip by unnoticed.

"Instead of taking the punch out of the squad, may I offer an alternative, Ma'am?"

"I'm listening."

"Jenkins is a local, Eden Prime born and raised. He says he grew up in the area. If we take him with us, he could give us some valuable insight."

"Us?" Emily raised an eyebrow at the soldier standing in front of her as she caught that particular detail.

"Yes, us. The other marine I'm recommending is myself, Ma'am," the lieutenant said.

"You're their lieutenant, Alenko," she pointed out.

"I trust Sergeant Harrison to lead in my place," he countered. "Additionally, I think my abilities will be far more useful for your assignment."

"Your abilities?" Alenko certainly was shaping up into one of the stranger marines she had met during her time.

"I'm a biotic, Ma'am."

"You're a biotic?" she asked surprised. This certainly wasn't what she had expected but then again, nothing about this special assignment was shaping up to her expectations.

"Yes, Ma'am" Alenko nodded.

"Don't get me wrong but shouldn't you be in a biotic unit then?" she asked again. Outside of N7, it was unusual to see biotics mix with regular grunts. Due to making up only an small portion of the armed forces, biotic humans tended to be put into specialized biotic units, a concept the HSA had most definitely adopted from the turian Cabal Corps.

"I was until I got a transfer to the Normandy four weeks ago," the lieutenant spoke through his helmet, the mirrored visor only allowing Emily to look at her own reflection. Four weeks? So that's how long top-brass had been planning this entire thing.

"Alright," she finally nodded. "Your recommendation has been noted. You and Jenkins are with me," there was no reason not to trust the officer. Biotics were considered a valuable resource for a reason and even if he only had been here for four weeks, he was still more familiar with the marines than she was.

"Two minutes out, Captain," a voice echoed through the hangar, causing the red-haired woman to pull her helmet on and make her way to the ramp to stand next to Anderson. "You might want to grab onto something, you know, just in case we get shot out of the sky on our way down." While on the subject of strange lieutenants, Emily began to suspect that the helmsman of the frigate would soon earn a place on that list as well.

"Shepard, once we're on the ground, I want you to head straight for the beacon. Don't stop for anything, is that clear?"

"What about survivors, Sir?" there were bound to be some of them. Colonial Watches didn't go down without a fight.

"Helping survivors has to be a secondary objective for you," Anderson replied with a sigh. "If you find any civilians, report them to Harrison and move on."

"And what about friendlies?" Alenko spoke up.

"Unless they're directly in your way, they'll have to fend for themselves."

"Understood," the biotic replied in a stoic tone. It wasn't the solution she would've liked but in a situation like this one, they couldn't lose focus in favour of every firefight they saw go on in the distance.

"Approaching drop point one, Captain," Joker informed them as a hiss caused the ramp to lower itself, revealing a dark-orange sky and causing the wind to rush into the hangar, its noise carrying with it the sound of distant explosions,

"I think this is my stop," the Spectre called as the Normandy began to descend even more, rapidly passing over the sea of green below it. While she didn't particular look forward to fighting through a forest, it was still better than urban terrain. "Remember, the beacon is our top priority. Get to the site and secure it at any cost."

"You're not coming with us, Sir?" the N7 wondered, too focused on the Spectre to pay notice to the sky that was slowly turning dark-red above them.

"Since we still don't know what we're up against, I'll scout ahead and give you status updates as you go," he explained as the frigate slowed down and he walked to the edge of the ramp. "Hopefully that way both of us won't walk into the same ambush," he added as he leaned forward, first taking in the ground below him and then looking back up the way some tracer fire was going. "Good luck, Shepard" Anderson offered before jumping out of the craft.

"Moving on to drop point two," the helmsman informed them as Shepard watched the black-armored figure vanish into the forest.

"What the hell was that?" she heard Jenkins mutter, causing her to look up again just in time to see another red lighting bolt shoot through the noticeably darker sky.

"You're the local, Jenkins. You tell us," Alenko shrugged as another surge fo red danced through the clouds above them,

"I've lived here eighteen years, Lieutenant," the young man muttered as the weather phenomena grew more intense, turning from lone lighting bolts into something that reminded her of a thunder storm. "Never seen anything like it."

"Whatever it is, we should stay as far away from it as we can," she figured.

"Approaching drop point tw- shit! Brace for evasive maneuvers," Joker interrupted his own transmission, giving Emily just enough time to grab a hold of one of the beams responsible for lowering the ramp and keeping herself and Jenkins, who she managed to catch just in time, from being thrown out of the craft during the hard-right turn the Normandy had to execute.

"What's going on Jok-" she began only to be silenced by her own lack of words when a bright, red beam shot down from the sky just behind them, impacting right on top of a railway bridge and incinerating the metal construct and everything surrounding it in an instant.

"Jesus," she heard Alenko mutter as she pulled Jenkins, who briefly nodded his thanks, back to his feet and away from the ramp right as the Normandy made another turn away from the destruction. "What was that?"

"I've got no idea, Lieutenant," Emily replied, failing to come up with an answer. While it had obviously been some kind of bombardment, she had never seen a weapon like this before. "Joker, talk to me. Do we have an alternative LZ?" she asked as she chose to focus on the problem at hand. There was no point in thinking about how screwed they'd be if they got caught in a blast like that.

"I can bring you down at the next clearing," the pilot offered. "But you're gonna have to walk to the dig site from there."

Well, they didn't have much of a choice now, did they? With the bridge gone, the train wasn't an option anyway.

"It's all we got, make it happen."

"Way ahead of you, Ma'am," the pilot said as she realised that the Normandy was once more slowing down. He might be odd but Joker certainly showed initiative, she could see the value in that.

"Appreciate it," she replied before taking a step forward and dropping out of the Normandy, the two marines following close behind her. When they dropped down and weren't immediately greeted by gunfire, the N7 looked around the small clearing they were in, suspiciously eyeing the tree lines in the expectation of an ambush before giving the other two the signal to move. "Gentlemen, let's find ourselves a prothean beacon," she said as the group began to move down a small hill, the fact that this was a battlefield and that they could be shot at any minute now present in each of their minds.

"Commander, I just passed by a couple of crashed Vultures, it looks like mass accelerators shot them down." Anderson radioed through.

"Copy that, Captain," replied, still searching the tree lines as they passed by. "Be advised, we were forced to divert from our drop point. Over."

"Yes, I saw that," the captain said, a tone she couldn't quite place accompanying his reply. "Can you still make your way to the dig site?" he asked a moment later.

"Already on our way, Sir."

"Good. Stay frost out there. Anderson out."

"Maybe it's just a bunch of pirates," Jenkins offered after the transmission ended.

"There's no way they'd get past the fleets, Jenkins," Alenko countered a moment later. "Besides, pirates don't have that kind of weapon," he added, nodding towards the large smoke pillar climbing into the darkened sky above them.

"What about the batarians?"

"If they got this deep into our territory without someone noticing? Possibly," he offered. "Still doesn't explain what just happened."

"Whoever it is," the commander said while the group passed another clearing, allowing her to get a good look at the distant outlines of one of Eden Prime's smaller settlements, likely the place Jenkins had been raised in. Noticing that it appeared to be completely undamaged in spite of the battle being fought near it, Shepard began to wonder what kind of invasion this was. "It doesn't look like they're here for the planet," she said. Anderson had been right, their enemy was after the beacon, otherwise they would push the battle into the direction of the city to establish a more permanent foothold, not fight them in the wild and wait for the army to come to them.

"So not the batarians either. Got it," the younger marine shrugged before turning his head into the direction of the forest, an action both her and Alenko had already taken a few moments earlier, their guns trained on the source of the snapping branches.

"Take it easy, guys," Jenkins suddenly chuckled as he lowered his gun in spite of the noise repeating itself. "It's just a gas bag," he added as a strange animal emerged from the forest to briefly look at them, moving on without even the hint of hostility not a moment later. "They're harmless," the private explained before the three of them once more continued their march, Emily only now picking up on the fact that the sound of battle, which had previously grown with every step they closed in on the dig site, had died down.

This was either a very good or a very bad thing.

Either way, they had to reach their objective.

"Jenkins, you're up. Take point," she ordered as she took in the rocky area up ahead, trying to decide how long it would take a hostile force to get from their objective to the small hillside ahead of them and coming to the conclusion that if they put their legs into it, they could already be waiting for them.

"On it," the marine replied before he advanced under the watchful eyes of both herself and Alenko, steadily making his way forward.

"Shepard," her radio came to live again as Anderson gave her another update. "I just ran into a bunch of army grunts, they're saying it's geth."

"The geth?" she repeated, still watching Jenkins who by now had made it to the foot of the hillside. "What would the geth want on Ede-" the N7 paused as a more pressing concern came to mind. Where was that low whine coming from and why was it getting louder every second?

Wait.

Shit.

"Jenkins, get down!" she called just a moment before a swarm of small purple drones shot from the forest and down the hill, the guns attached to their belly opening fire almost immediately and even with their terrible accuracy, tearing into the marines and shredding through both his shields and his hardsuit thanks to the sheer volume of their fire. As her own Valkyrie barked in an attempt to stop the onslaught, she saw the private go down in the corner of her eyes in spite of the drones rapidly falling victim to the sand-grain sized projectiles leaving her own barrel, their fragile shields and basically non-existent armor making it rather easy for the N7 and Alenko to take them out. Not a second after the last of the drones crashed to the ground and exploded in a rather spectacular fashion for something of its size, the commander rushed to the side of the unmoving Jenkins, kneeling down next to him and pulling a syringe of medigel from one of the pouches attached to her armor. Only when it became evident that the drones had riddled the young man's torso with small holes, puncturing his lung, heart and by the looks of the rapid red flow originating from just below his head, also his neck, did she realise that nothing she could do would make a difference for Jenkins.

He was already dead.

"There's nothing else we can do for him," she said as she pulled a set of identification tags from Jenkins' chest rig just as Alenko came to a stop next to her, looking down at both her and the corpse, his facial expression hidden by the darkened visor most of the HSA's helmets included. "I need you to focus right now, alright?" she added, receiving a brief nod from the marine that led her to believe that this wasn't the first time he had lost a fellow soldier. She was certain that he didn't like the idea of leaving the body like this but they didn't have much of a choice now, they could come back for him later.

"Captain, come in. I'm a man short. Jenkins is dead," she spoke into her radio while getting up and slipping into the mindset that she had come to adopt whenever someone under command died. There'd be time for that later, now she had to focus on the job.

"Damn it," the Spectre replied after a moment. "Alright, keep making your way to the beacon, I'll try to link up with you as soon as I can. Anderson out. "

"Alright Lieutenant, let's keep moving," Emily sighed as they began to climb up the hill, stepping over the remnant of one of the drones, a white liquid leaking from its damaged frame and tainting the grass around it, in the process.

"Right behind you, Ma'am," the man replied as she looked away from the broken machine, deciding that she best not think about what the geth were planning on doing with a prothean beacon. After reaching the top of the next hill, Alenko and her began to make their way through the wooded area from which the drones had emerged, the knowledge that more geth could be waiting for the two of them causing them to be far more cautious, especially once the familiar noise of gunfire began to echo through the trees.

"It sounds close," Alenko muttered as another burst, fired from what she recognized as an SR-8, rang through the air.

"It is," she confirmed as they inched towards the end of the small woods, coming to a stop only when she raised her fist upon once more hearing the low whine from before.

Not this time.

As the N7 readied herself to take care of the drones, leaning around one of the trees and aiming the way from which the sound was coming from, focusing on the hill opposite of them. Noticed that the human-made gunfire had vanished, she believed whoever had been responsible for it to be dead until a figure appeared from beyond the hill's bent, running towards them across the small valley, another swarm of the drones right behind her, their shots causing sporadic blue sparks whenever they hit her shields. Intending to save the marine, the dark-grey paintjob of her hardsuit allowing Emily to tell that this wasn't a member of the army, from Jenkins' fate, the commander opened fire on the first of the dozen or so drones pursuing the woman below, Alenko almost immediately joining in. Realising that she was no longer on her own, the new arrival threw herself into cover and produced a sidearm from the holster on her leg before also opening up on the drones. With three trained soldiers facing them down, the automated geth, which she figured would be far less competent than the actual war platforms she had read about, were soon defeated.

"Are you ok?" Emily called to the marine on her way down, who only now turned towards them, lowering her weapon as soon as she recognized them as friendlies.

"Yes, Ma'am," the woman nodded as she exchanged the magazine of her slightly outdated weapon. "Staff Sergeant Williams, 17th Marines," she added a moment later. "Are you the reinforcements?"

"Not exactly," the N7 replied. "What happened here, Williams?" This might be the only chance she'd get to ask that from somebody who had been on the ground from the moment the attack had begun.

"They just came out of nowhere. One moment the comms go dark and no one knows what's happening, then geth gunships start bombing our barracks and dropping off troops all over the region," she explained. "Me and my team barely made it to the woods. I don't think anybody else got out in time."

"Your team?" Emily asked next, already having her suspicions as she looked at another one of the broken drones.

"The geth got them," Williams confirmed before clutching her left side. So much for ok. "The bloody geth," she repeated as the adrenaline wore down, likely causing her to start feeling one of her injuries. "What are they even doing here? There sure as hell aren't enough of them to take the planet."

"I-" before Shepard could even think about whether or not she should lie to Williams, a scream echoed from the way the marine had come from, causing all three of them to turn around just in time to see two geth, this time not drones but real troopers, grab a hold of a dock worker that had apparently been trying to get to them and drag him back beyond the hill. Neither the marines nor the N7 wasted a second before breaking into a sprint, rushing past the broken drones and towards the hill. Pressing her rifle's stock to her shoulder, Shepard cleared the bent as the first of them, arriving just in time to see the geth force the man down onto some kind of device from which, much to her horror, a long spike emerged, impaling the human and carrying him up high, a burst of blood shooting from his chest and taking the air out of his lung.

Was this some kind of terror tactic?

She didn't waste a second before opening up on the geth. Whatever it was, she'd put a stop to it. As her sights aligned themselves with the flashlight-like head of the geth and her finger pressed against the Valkyrie's trigger, she barely had time to register just how unconcerned the trooper seemed to be about its impending destruction. Instead of diving for cover or panicking, it simply made an attempt to go for the weapon on its back before her shots ripped apart its torso, spilling more of the white fluid onto the geth next to it and the device between them. Before she could shift her aim to repeat the process on the other synthetic, it was effortlessly lifted from the ground by a purple field before being flung into the distance.

Alenko had been right, his abilities were useful.

"What were they doing with him?" the lieutenant asked a moment later, looking up at the dead human impaled on the spike.

"I don't know, but this isn't the only one of these thing. I saw more of them on my way here," Williams replied as Shepard herself looked at the device, its strange dark-purple coloration quite unlike anything else she had ever seen."Is this what they've been doing beyond the Veil all this time? Coming up with more ways to kill us?"

"Williams," she said as she made a decision she may come to regret depending on Anderson's reaction. "What do you know about the dig site?" She had been told to keep a low profile but with Jenkins dead and the geth invading Eden Prime, she needed all the help she could get, profile be damned.

"We were told to stay clear of it, don't disturb the eggheads while they dust off some prothean antenna," the marine replied. "Why?"

"Because my mission is to retrieve a prothean beacon from it and starting now, you're part of that mission," she said, her eyes set on the series of green tents, prefabs and the large, black pillar close by. "Fall in." To her credit, the NCO didn't ask any further questions before the group moved past the strange spike and on to the hilltop on which the dig site was located.

"Captain, we're about to reach the beacon," she spoke into her radio just as she stepped into the first tent, her weapon at the ready from the moment she entered its sterile white interior. "Where are you?"

"I ran into some geth but I'm on my way," he replied. "Secure the objective and wait for me."

"Understood," she said before her group cleared what appeared to be an airlock set up between the entrance tent and a large prefab, coming to a stop when quite literally stumbling upon the remains of at least two dozen geth troopers, several dead scientists and a squad of deceased soldiers clad in white, blood-stained sets of heavy armor marked with nothing but a golden hexagon she didn't recall ever seeing before.

"Who are these guys?" the lieutenant wondered as they moved past a series of computer terminals that looked like they had been torn open by someone searching for something.

"Whoever they are, they put up a hell of a fight," Williams noted as they passed another one of the unknown soldiers, a knife stained by a white fluid still clutched in his hand and a destroyed geth lying by his feet.

Who were these people and what had they been doing inside of the excavation site? By the looks of it they had definitely been guarding the site and its staff but even then, the fact that she couldn't place them made Shepard weary. The most obvious answer that came to her mind was that this was some kind of HSAIS field team but she knew from personal experience that these teams didn't do asset protection, leaving only the possibility of these soldiers being part of either a private military outfit, which seemed unlikely given the HSA's dislike for mercenaries, or, more realistically, a black ops outfit that worked on a level beyond N7 security clearance.

Did Anderson know?

Emily shook her head, this wasn't the time for questions like this. Marching into the next airlock, which by the looks of it lead into a much larger tent covering the excavation site itself, she decided to cut the decontamination short upon seeing the remains of more dead humans and geth up ahead. Instead of waiting for the protocol to finish, she ordered Alenko to force open the door and stepped inside, the mess of disconnected cables in the center of the large tent, the distinctively empty transport platform and the absence of the prothean beacon confirming what she had already been fearing from the moment they had found the first of the geth.

"Check the cameras," she told Alenko before radioing the Spectre. "Captain, the beacon's not here," she began. "It looks like the geth took it."

"Damn it," the Spectre cursed. "Do you now where to?" she turned to Alenko.

"Looks like the Smith Cargo Spaceport, Ma'am," he offered quickly.

"They went to the nearby spaceport," she replied.

"Probably trying to get if off-world," the Spectre muttered. "Alright, reroute to the spaceport, I'll try to meet you there."

"Commander, If they plan on moving it any further, we won't make it in time," Alenko injected again.

"You catch that, Captain?"

"Yes. Lieutenant Alenko is right, they already have a head start. If they got a ship ready, there's no way we're going to catch them," Anderson replied. "I might have an idea, switch to a general frequency," he ordered.

"Copy that," the N7 said before complying and making the necessary adjustments all the while beginning to leave the tent behind her.

"This is Captain David Anderson calling any forces in the vicinity of the Smith Cargo Spaceport. Come in, over."

So much for the low profile.

Desperate times, desperate measures.

"Any survivors near the SCS, please come in," he repeated when no reply came, audibly sighing into the radio just before a crackle came through.

"What's a Spectre doing on Eden Prime?" a flanging, turian voice replied between bursts of gunfire. "This is about the beacon, isn't it?" he added after what sounded like an explosion

"How do you kn-" Anderson caught himself. "Who is this? Please identify yourself," Anderson called as Shepard and her two companions stepped out of the tent, suddenly finding themselves face to face with a squad of geth waiting next to more of the strange machines from earlier, strangely disfigured, bluish human figures impaled by each of them. As they started to engage the synthetic soldiers, her radio remained active.

"Captain Darius Xentax, Sir," the turian spoke as she downed the first of the geth. "Turian Blackwatch."

"Do you have eyes on the beacon?" Anderson asked as Shepard herself was forced back into cover, her shields on the verge of collapse after taking a burst of a geth assault rifle.

"Yes, Sir. Looking at it right now," Xentax replied as Alenko and Williams took care of the last of the geth. "Just give the word and we'll dig in and wait for you to get here."

"I can't tell you how long that's going to take," the Spectre said between sharp breaths, indicating that he was currently running.

"We'll be fine, Spectre," the Blackwatch soldier said not a moment later. "Xentax, out."

"Shepard, what's your ETA on the spaceport? They could probably use the help," Captain Anderson asked, this time over the frequency from before.

"Five minu-" she was about to reply when the noise of metal hitting metal caused her to spin on her heel just in time to see the spikes retract back into the device that had produced them, causing the corpses impaled on them to be freed and drop to the ground.

"What's the point of this?" the marine NCO wondered before one of the corpses produced an almost animalistic growl, revealing that it was in fact not a corpse. "God they're still alive," she whispered as Shepard raised her weapon as soon as the figure, which looked even more terrifying now that they were up close, rose to its feet, looking at them for a moment before launching into a sprint.

The N7 didn't know what she was looking at and she didn't know what the geth had done to that human but she was certain of one thing, the claw-like fingertips of this monstrosity would tear right into Williams unless she acted now. As she fired of a burst aimed at the head of the creature, she expected to see blood but instead of the sadly familiar sight, a jet of thick, bluish liquid not unlike the one leaking from destroyed geth appeared. Justifiably expecting that a headshot would put a stop to the creature's charge, she prepared herself to switch targets only to be even more horrified when the reanimated corpse, in spite of missing half its head, leapt towards Williams, who only barely managed to sidestep its attack. Before the bluish being could recover, Shepard fired of two more bursts, an action that while succeeding in killing it, also reduced the time she had to stop the next one which was charging right towards her. Knowing that she wouldn't get another accurate shot off right now, she instead brought her rifle between herself and the thing that was now trying to claw out her throat, briefly mustering her strength before shoving it away just enough to buy her the time necessary to align her rifle with its torso. When she fired, she was surprised to see that a single burst to the circular, glowing orb in the center of its chest was much more successful at putting down this nightmare than the earlier headshot.

"Are you alright, Commander?" Alenko asked as a purple glow dispersed itself around him before he pulled her to his feet, the mangled bluish corpse to his left indicating that the biotic had found an even more effective way to deal with this kind of enemy.

"I think so," she nodded, throwing another look at the three beings and the spikes they had come from, suppressing the uneasy feeling settling in her stomach. "Williams?" she called.

"Fine, Commander," the marine replied through her teeth as she got up, again clutching her left side.

"Don't be stubborn, put some medigel on that," the N7 countered before pulling out one of the several syringes stored in her chest rig and tossing it to the NCO. She wouldn't do any of them a favour by trying to tough it out. When the marine looked at the small tube for a few moments instead of applying it, Shepard sighed. "Consider that an order, Staff Sergeant," she added, finally causing Williams to comply.

"Shepard, are you still there?" Anderson's voice suddenly injected, the hint of concern it carried likely produced by how sudden her last transmission had ended.

"Yes, Captain. We just ran into some trouble. ETA to the spaceport should be two minutes," she said as she looked at the disturbing sight for a final time before instructing her companions to once more move into the direction of their objective, again noticing the dark-red sky above them and recalling the bombardment from earlier, hoping that the port istelf wouldn't be a smoldering crater by the time they go there. "If you run into any of the spikes," she was about to warn him.

"I know, Shepard," the Spectre replied almost to calmly, cutting her short and giving her the impression that he had seen these things before. If that was the case, she and Anderson would need to have a talk after this was over. "I'm almost at the spaceport as well but I can't get through to the turians, something's jamming my comms," he paused for a moment. "Watch yourself out there," he said just as the echo of nearby gunfire reached the commander's position. "Anderson out."


Eight Minutes Earlier, 2156 CE, Eden Prime

As he marched past the destruction the geth had left in their wake, passing both destroyed troopers and deceased organics, most human, some of his own kind, Saren took another look at the map in his HUD, intending to figure out why all communication with the geth unit tasked with protecting the beacon until he could access it had cut off, the turian Spectre found solice in the fact there was a meaning behind all of this death, that through his actions here, he'd ensure the continuation of something infinitively greater than himself. When he was about to step over the corpse of a dock worker of dark complexion, he paused ever so briefly, not entirely sure why the resemblance had caused this moment of uncertainty. Feeling the whisper return, it was stronger than before thanks to the vanguard's imminent arrival, he felt encouraged to continue, raising one of his Carnifex pistols as he got closer to where the geth had initially brought the beacon. Walking past several squads worth of geth destroyed in what he recognized as a textbook ambush and noting that the turian demolition charges that had been removed from the cargo hold of a freighter with the aim to destroy the beacon had been permanently defused, the Spectre was more than surprised when he moved up the last platform and found the prothean beacon seemingly unattended, the only indication of any fight having taken place being dozens of broken synthetics scattered around the platform.

"Hold it right there," he suddenly heard a flanging voice demand. While its tone was altered by the helmet it wore, he almost immediately recognized it, a strange sensation flooding through his mind as a piece of him began to rebel upon being reminded of his past.

"Wait," he muttered as he lowered his weapon and turned his head to see four turian figures clad in black armor emerge from their concealed positions, their Phaeston rifles trained on him. "Is that you, Darius?"

"Remove your helmet, show me your face," the other turian instructed, the sound of his voice suggesting that he had already done just that. Slowly moving his hands to the seals of his white helmet, aware that the whisper was telling him to use his relation to Darius, one of the soldiers with whom he had completed Blackwatch's training, to his advantage, he undid the seals, allowing the back of the helmet to come apart, and pulled the piece of armor from his head, revealing his white-plated, unmarked face before turning around.

"Saren," Darius said, his own grey features shifting into a small expression of joy, the sight of his familiar, blue-marked face giving more fire to the part of Saren that was now very much fighting to be set free. "It's been long," the Blackwatch officer added as his mandibles returned into a more serious expression. "What are you doing here?" he asked as his comrades, who likely were the same ones that had graduated alongside Saren and Darius, Blackwatch teams were rarely split up, also lowered their weapons, visibly relieved. He knew that they considered him to be a welcome sight, that they thought of him as reinforcements, but he also was painfully aware of what the ever-present whisper was demanding of him.

His presence here couldn't be known.

They had to di-

"I thought Anderson was the Spectre in charge of this operation?" Darius asked with his back turned towards him, the sound of his voice giving Saren the first moment of clarity ever since rejoining Sovereign.

What was he doing here?

All this death, all this destruction.

It was all his fault.

He needed to be stopped, he had already lost too much control.

"He is," Saren offered, the lie of the whisper rolling of his own tongue with ease. "We split up at the landing site," he added as he turned around to check on the other Blackwatch soldiers, finding only one set of eyes on him. Realising what the whisper was commanding him to do, he wanted to scream at Darius not to trust him but felt himself incapable of doing so, merely able to watch the events unfold as they happened, no longer being the one in charge of his own decisions.

"He didn't mention that," the other turian said while scanning the horizon for more of geth forces.

"How much did they tell you?" the Spectre asked as his hands inched closer to his gun, the knowledge that Sovereign would provide him with a distraction overwriting his internal screams begging for Darius to stop him.

"Saren, I didn't even know about this thing until I saw it standing right here," the other turian chuckled before once more placing his face in his helmet and sealing the back of the piece of armor again, rolling his neck exactly once as soon as it was a place. "I almost shot you back there, you know?" the turian added as he kicked one of the destroyed geth. "Your armor makes you look like one of these things."

"Are you saying you don't like the white?" he heard himself say, the almost perfectly faked chuckle the whisper made him produce sending chills down his spine.

"Black suits all of us better," Darius replied with a shrug as the whisper told him to get ready. "I think more geth are on their way here, it's a good thing you came when you did," the Blackwatch officer said as he watched the red lighting storm unfold above them. "It's gonna be just like old times," he added as the Spectre realised that this was the moment Sovereign wanted him to seize.

As the question as to why none of them saw him going for his gun raised through his mind and his silent scream begging for them to stop him remained unspoken, Saren felt his grip tighten, the strength needed to keep himself from leveling the weapon with Darius' head growing bigger with every second.

"Yes, just like old times," he muttered as his finger inched to his trigger.

"Spirits, is that a ship?" he heard one of the operatives mutter behind him as the dark-purple shape of Sovereign began to descend from the dark-red sky, emitting a deep, haunting tone in the process.

"Alright get re-"

I'm sorry, Darius.

It's too strong.

I can't fight it anymore.

In a split second, he brought up the pistol and pulled its trigger, three shots leaving its barrel and ending his friend's life. Before Darius even hit the ground, Saren heard the shout behind him. Turning on his feet, firing off the overload program and leaping to the side just as his barriers had been about to break, he quickly dispatched two of the Blackwatch operatives that had been stunned by his attack, again aiming for their heads since he knew from personal experience just how tough the chest piece of Blackwatch armor really was. As he searched for the fourth and final member of Darius' team, he was suddenly thrown to the ground, losing his grip on his pistol in the process and staring at the tip of a black-coloured knife just one thrust shy away from piercing his throat.

"Spirits, what are you doing, Arterius?" the turian on top of him asked before forcefully pushing down the knife, only a last-second twitch and the soldier's own reluctance to outright kill him allowing Saren to shift his body just enough for the blade to pierce his shoulder instead of his neck, still producing a hellish pain in the process. "What is wrong with you?" the Blackwatch operative added while yanking the blade from his shoulder to increase the damage, raising it again in preparation to finish Saren off but failing to do so when a biotic thrust sent him flying backwards. Ignoring the blue blood leaking form his shoulder, the Spectre shot to his feet and grabbed his other Carnifex before advancing on the other turian.

"Are you a fucking traitor now? Is that what this is? You turning your back on the Hier-" whatever other accusations the injured turian had been planning on delivering was ended when a pair of rounds reduced his head into a messy mixture of blood, bone and broken pieces of plates.

With the deed done, Saren walked over to the Blackwatch operative, turning the mangled remains of his head just enough so that he could remove the memory card of his helmet camera before pulling the turian's omni-tool of off him, a process he intended to repeat on the other corpses as well. The vanguard's instructions were clear, his presence here had to remain a secret. As he collected two more of the small cards, crushing each of them in his hands and tossing their broken frames off the platform, he secured the omni-tools at his own belt. Then, after he had crushed the last of the storage cards, he found himself lingering over Darius' body, not certain what was keeping him from going through with his own plan. As the whisper demanded that he do his purpose, he was subconsciously aware that he had forgotten about the omni-tool but headed to the beacon regardless, feeling an odd sensation as he looked at the black frame. Its pull was almost magnetic and the closer he got, the more drawn he felt to the green energy that surrounded it. Unsure of how to proceed, he extended his hand and made another step forward, suddenly feeling his feet leave the ground. Before he could wonder as to what was going on, his eyes shot wide open and he felt like he had been set on fire, the entirety of his body burning with a pain that increased with every image that flashed through his mind.

Then, as soon as it had began, he dropped back to the ground, at first dazed and confused, only the faint memory of a black city spanning an entire planet helping him understand that he needed another piece to understand the entirety of the vision. As he walked away from the beacon, past the deactivated bombs and rallied the remaining geth around him, faintly remembering shooting two troopers who had tried to plant new explosives near the beacon, he realised what he had to do next.

Feros, he had to go to Feros.

There he would find the Cipher.

The cycle would not be broken.


15:49 Local Time, 4. January 2415 AD, Smith Cargo Spaceport of Eden Prime

"Is that a ship?" she heard Alenko mutter while all three of them stared at the colossal object rapidly climbing into the sky above them on their way down to the spaceport.

"Captain Anderson are you seeing this?" she asked into her radio, noticing the same red lighting that had predated the Normandy's evasive maneuvers.

"Yes but there's nothing we can do about it right now, Commander," the Spectre replied, his tone again suggesting that this ship, much like the spikes, wasn't entirely alien to him and solidifying Shepard's resolve to have a conversation with him once the mission was complete. "Keep moving to the beacon, I'm just behind you."

Passing by what could only be described as utter destruction, Shepard made sure that Alenko and Williams kept their mind on the task at hand in spite fo the corpses that seemed to litter the port. As they marched by a burnt-out Mako, the charred remains of its driver lying close to a turian that had likely tried to extinguish him only to be shot in the back, Emily thanked the creator of her helmet for sparring her from the worst portion of the experience, the smell.

"Christ. Do you think anyone survived?" the NCO who had only recently joined her group asked as they moved across what had luckily been one of Eden Prime's smaller spaceports. Quickly pushing the thought as to how bad this would look if the attack had hit the one in Eden Prime's capital instead of this one, Shepard shook her head.

"Doesn't look like it," she said as they marched up the stairs, passing blood stained cargo crates, trucks, destroyed military equipment and dead people in the process. "They slaughtered everyone, even the civilians."

"Do you think the Blackwatch team made it?" Alenko observed as the number of geth casualties increased with every step they moved up the platforms close to the railway system of the port.

"If anybody could've survived this, it's them," Anderson's voice, this time not through their radio but from behind them, sounded. "I see you picked up someone along the way," he added as he looked at Williams. "Glad to see somebody made it out in one piece," he offered while briefly planting a hand on her shoulder, beginning to jog up the stairs after a reassuring nod. "Come on, the beacon should be just up ahead," he called.

"You heard the man, double time it," the N7 ordered as they followed the Spectre upwards, the brief moment of optimism that Emily had allowed herself vanishing as soon as she arrived at the top to see Anderson kneel down next to a dead turian located some five meters away from the beacon, his black and golden armor stained with the same blue blood that covered the other three corpses and an empty portion of the platform.

"Shot in the back," the Spectre observed before looking for something on the body, pressing his thumb against a small circular button near the bloodied helmet camera, revealing a small, empty compartment in the process. "Damn. Someone took it," he muttered before grabbing a hold of the small box attached to the turian's hip, storing the combat-grade omni-tool in one of his pouches. "Secure the beacon, Commander, I'll check the other ones for intel."

Complying with the captain's orders, Emily and the two marines moved on to the strange, black obelisk that seemed to radiate waves of green energy. As she turned around to look at the area around them, feeling far too exposed on the small transport station, she tried to figure out why the geth had moved the beacon away from the dig site. Sure, this area was easier to defend, especially if you had sharpshooters, but it seemed like an unnecessary action to take. Why had they gone through all of the trouble of moving it to the port, only to leave it behind? What was so special about the port? Eyeing one of the cylinders near her, she spotted a small red wire that immediately demanded her attention. The commander waved her omni-tool over the device and after a moment the results of the scan gave her a good scare that only vanished when they also assured her that the charges had already been rendered harmless, likely by the now deceased Blackwatch team.

What was going on here?

"Lieutenant!" she heard Williams shout behind her. Turning around just in time to see the green energy surround Alenko, a very simple realisation hit her.

This wasn't good.

Shooting into action without even thinking about what would happen to her upon the completion of her plan, the N7 closed the distance between herself and the biotic in what was likely a personal record before grabbing a hold of his waist, putting all her strength into the following throw and getting enough space between him and the beacon to cause the energy to latch onto something else.

Her.

As she felt herself being lifted into the air, aware that the beacon was growing brighter with every moment and that the waves of green were becoming more and more violent, Shepard felt a terrible pain shoot through every inch of her body. Thoughts that weren't her own flooded into her mind and gave her a glimpse of something terrifying. The images of death and destruction lasted for only a mere second but the overwhelming force they carried with them was more than enough to overpower Emily, who simply gave in to the cold embrace of unconsciousness, only somewhat aware of Alenko, Anderson Williams rushing to her side.


Codex: Human Systems Alliance Marine Corps

Established as one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Human Systems Alliance during its founding in 2151, the HSAMC was created from the United Nations Joint Defense Initiative's Expeditionary Force (See Entry 'United Nations Joint Defense Initiative)', carrying over both the traditions and tasks of its predecessor. Charged with the responsibility of leading assaults against foreign worlds and establishing beachheads for regular forces, human marines also carry out missions like boarding hostile vessels or raiding enemy outposts in and outside of planetary atmospheres.

Working hand in hand with the HSA's navy, the HSAMC, unlike the mostly planet-based army, only maintains a handful of permanent bases across human planets, instead basing their operations around the carriers, dreadnoughts and assault carriers of the naval forces they accompany. In spite of its space-bound nature, the corps also supports armored elements consisting of Paladins, armored personal carriers and infantry fighting vehicles and regularly trains, and is deployed, in prolonged planetary campaigns. Used to fighting from the frontlines, marine units tend to be deployed as shock troops, a fact that led to most human biotic units being integrated into the corps. Generally speaking, marine forces are considered to be more mobile than their army counterparts.

Being the smallest of the three armed branches, the importance of the HSAMC hails not from its size but from its ability to quickly deploy anywhere in and around human territory, their deployments during the Human Mercenary Intervention and the Skyllian Blitz serving to demonstrate this ability to the galaxy at large. In addition to this ability, the HSAMC has also played a surprisingly diplomatic role, playing a keyrole in the string of military exercises that built the foundation for the relationship between the Turian Hierarchy and the HSA.

It should be noted that the HSAMC, in spite of the recent recruitment effort of the HSA's government, remains the smallest naval infantry corps amongst the ranks of the Citadel Council.


A/N:

And with this, Mass Effect 1 begins. I know a lot of you have been waiting for it, so here we are.

As you can tell I picked some lines from the games but chose to give most characters my own kind of dialogue because franky, I didn't just wanna copy the mission.. that seemed boring. Sure, the way it goes down is mostly the same, except Nihlus is of course replaced by both Anderson and Darius (who thought Anderson would be the one to buy it in the beginning? be honest. ;) ) and our Saren here makes some very different decisions.

In this chapter I felt like the way I decided to write indoctrination was the right one, mostly because I think it adds a whole nother layer of scary and tragedy to Saren's situation that he's at times completely aware of what's going on but can only really make small differences (being in enough control to forget one omni-control or shooting two expendable geth, something we know sovereign wouldn't give a shit about because well, he's sovereign.)

So yeah.

Next up we'll have the aftermath of Eden Prime, for those of you who've been wondering, this is where Desolas makes his Season 3 debut, obviously, and we will very likely (depending on how the other portions turn out) also dive into Redford's and .. less likely Morneau's (That's the parade background for those who forgot ... which are probably some considering his last chapter was 41 and that was like... two and a half months ago?) plotlines.

Interesting tid-bit, it was only in this chapter that I realised that turians can't actually take of helmets as easily as humans.. their head-thingeys kind of fuck that up, hence me strangely describing that the back portion of their helmets opens up before they take them off like a mask..

Funny what you notice when you try to picture a scene and the thought "wait, he can't actually do that like this' pops into your head.

... I wonder if Bioware ever thought about that ... somehow I doubt it.

Do I have anything else to say? Let me think...

Well, the only really thing I want to put out there is that with Mass Effect 1 beginning, I'll do my damnest to stay true to the world I built. A lot of what happened in ME1... just can't go down like that in Semper Vigilo, it wouldn't work from both a narrative and a 'canon' perspective (as in the rules I built for my world)

Also, considering that next chapter is also going to adress what Anderson is going to find on that omni-tool, prepare to have your heartstrings pulled a bit and also prepare to see the first 'major' divergence from the games plotline, namely Shepard's and Anderson's relationship from here until an unspecified point a lot of people who played the games will probably be able to pinpoint.

On that note, I also wanna say that I found it somewhat strange to exchange Saren-heavy point of view-chapters, which I've basically been writing ever since Akuze, in favour of Shepard's POV... maybe it's gonna come with time but a lot of why this chapter wasn't out two days ago goes down to me having a little bit of a writer's blockade in terms of the tone shift...

Shepard's just not Saren yet.

Now, that's no reason to worry, I suspect that once I get more into writing her and the other major POV characters who'll have the lionshare of scenes dedicated to them, the backgrounds, it's gonna become easier for me to adapt to the toneshifting again (I didn't have this problem when we jumped around a lot in the earlier parts of the story)

Alright, this AN is already way to long. enough.

For the record we're at 394 Reviews, 617 favorites and 716 folllows (those are two neat numbers mates, still want to see them go up tho :p)

Review and let me know what you think.

See you around next time.