Just a quick in and out, smash and grab, one and done mission I thought to myself. There was no reason to expect resistance, I think my biggest concern was how we would secure and transport the beacon in the small cargo hold without having to leave our Mako behind.
When Normandy exited the relay, the situation had changed drastically.
"Sir!" Joker's voice came loudly over the comm. "You need to see this. Emergency transmission from Eden Prime."
Anderson immediately brought up the message on the console and a young looking Marine officer appeared on the screen.
"We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties! I say again, heavy casualties! We need evac!" Another explosion rocked the camera and the officer's scream was cut short. Another Marine in white armour, female, took up the comm link.
"They came out of nowhere! We need evac!" The gunfire stopped and the vid comm shifted to show the stunned and shocked looks on the faces of the ten or twelve Marines who had survived. The view then shifted to the sky where what looked like a giant hand descended from the sky. It sounded a low and incredibly loud pulsing howl.
The comm went dark after that.
Anderson said nothing as he accessed the viewer and began to rewind the video. He stopped midway through the message and zoomed into the upper right quadrant of the screen.
There it was again, that giant synthetic hand in the sky. Like the hand of God. We all just stared at it, silent. "Joker, take us in fast and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated."
Famous last words.
"A small strike team can move quickly without drawing attention." Nihlus said. "It's our best chance at securing the beacon."
"Right." Anderson turned to face me. "Shepard, tell Alenko and the detachment to suit up. You're going in and leading the strike force. Nihlus will scout ahead."
"Without the Mako, the detachment is just Alenko and Jenkins right now, Sir." I told him.
"That's fine," said Nihlus. "The fewer the better, you don't want to make yourself a target and you'll move quicker."
I snapped Anderson a salute and jogged to the staging area.
I was looking forward to seeing Kaidan in action. I head read his file and knew he was capable, but before the Normandy I never had the opportunity to work much with a biotic. I was eager to see what his abilities brought to the table.
As the Normandy approached the LZ, Nihlus readied his weapon and gave me a nod, signaling that he would be taking this one alone. While Marines find strength in numbers, Spectres prefer to take a lone wolf approach to most situations. I was fine with having Nihlus scout ahead by himself. It took a little of the pressure off, and allowed me to focus on my task.
The Normandy only touched solid ground when it really needed to, so our insertion was via parachute. Jenkins had never done this in a combat scenario and his enthusiasm to jump out of the Normandy in atmosphere put a smile on my face and calmed my own nerves a little. Once the brakechute opened and released, we fell the extra fifty feet or so with jet assistance and landed, all three of us in one piece, on Eden Prime.
I was instantly overwhelmed with that unmistakable odour of death. It's the combination of burning, rotting meat, urine and feces and trash. Charred bodies of both Marines and civilians, unrecognizable in their current form, littered the earth.
"This place was hit hard." Nihlus broke through the comm. "Hundreds of casualties. This force is thorough and professional. Definitely not pirate or mercenary. I'm continuing on ahead."
"Roger. Keep us advised as you approach the beacon. Shepard, out." I gave Jenkins and Kaiden a quick check over to make sure their equipment wasn't damaged, and set out with Jenkins as lead scout.
Jenkins was doing his best to cover the shock of seeing his home completely on fire. I knew what must have been running through his mind.
"What happened here…" He whispered as he made his way past a charred corpse.
"We're going to find out, Jenkins. Stay focused." I assured him.
As we moved around into a large defile, three geth security drones ambushed us. Kaiden and I both dove for cover while Jenkins took a knee and fired in return. The geth drones fired on him simultaneously and he was instantly killed.
No matter what you do or how hard you try, you never get used to the feeling of losing someone under your command. I pushed the emotion to the back of my mind and focused my energy on the drones. Kaiden and I made short work of them and we rushed over to provide Jenkins with first aid. He wasn't breathing.
"Joker this is Shepard. Jenkins is VSA, we need pick up for him at earliest opportunity. Sending coordinates now."
"Roger, Commander. Receiving coordinates and ack vital signs absent…"
I looked at Kaiden who was also having a bit of a hard time. Jenkins was his second in command. "We'll give him a proper burial when it's over." I promised. He nodded and we soldiered on.
We continued to bound forward in leapfrog movement, destroying several more drones along the way. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful Eden Prime truly was. Huge trees dotted the sprawling landscape, virtually untouched by human settlement. If it wasn't for the sickly orange glow in the sky and the smell of burning flesh in the air, I might have enjoyed it.
Kaiden and I came to a large open field, where a lone Marine was sprinting in a zigzag pattern away from three pursuing drones. She dove behind a boulder and popped up in an instant, placing three precisely aimed shots into the drones, effectively destroying them. Kaiden and I were about to move to her when she motioned for us to stay back. When two geth marched into the field carrying a terribly frightened human, and a strange looking tripod, we heeded her advice.
"Mortar tube?" Kaidan whispered.
"Maybe." I answered.
I watched in complete horror as the geth placed the tripod on the ground, and forced the shaking human on his back on top of the device. One of them triggered the mechanism, and the tripod shot a huge, metallic rod roughly seven feet high, right through the man's chest. It raised him to the top, and his blood slowly ran down.
"Not a mortar tube." I confirmed.
Kaidan and I rushed forward with our guns on full auto and took out the geth patrol. We rushed to the tripod and desperately tried to help the civilian that had been impaled, but his injuries were catastrophic and we could not revive him.
"Geth! Actual geth beyond the Veil!" Kaidan exclaimed as we examined now deceased civilian.
"Thanks, Commander." The same female Marine who had motioned for us to take cover came jogging at us. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. I didn't think I would get through that one on my own."
Williams. I recognized the name, but not the face. Of course, I knew of General Williams, the man who surrendered the garrison at Shanxi to the Turians during the First Contact War and became the first man to ever surrender to an alien force. I wondered if there was a connection.
"You hurt, Williams?" I asked.
"No Sir, just a few bruises. Nothing I can't handle. The others though…"
"How many?" Kaiden stepped closer.
"All of them." She replied quietly. "We were doing patrols around the perimeter when the attack hit us. We didn't have a chance." She bowed her head. "They're gone. All of them. My whole squad."
I knew her loss, and the guilt she was surely experiencing. Losing a soldier under your command is one of the worst feelings in the world, and you never quite get over it.
"This isn't your fault." I assured her. "You were ambushed, there was nothing you could have done."
"Maybe." She replied. Maybe is a dangerous line of thinking for any leader experiencing survivors guilt. I would be sure to address her loss later, for now; I had to get to the beacon.
"The geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in centuries. What the hell are they doing here?" Kaiden asked.
Ashley shook out of her combat daze and turned to Kaiden. "I don't know. They must have come for the beacon. It's just over that ridge. It might still be there." Her switch had flipped on again.
"We could use your help, Williams."
"Aye, aye, Sir." She popped a fresh clip into her rifle and started to walk towards the ridge. "It's time for pay back."
We made our way over the ridge and into the dig site where we faced several more geth. I quickly discovered Ashley Williams' proficiency with an M7 Lancer assault rifle was more than above standard. She was an exceptional warrior.
The place was dotted with more of those strange spikes, but no beacon.
"They must have moved it." Ashley offered. "There's a research camp just up the hill. Maybe we'll find it there."
Kaiden was examining one of the spikes. "What the hell are these things?"
"Not sure." Ashley answered. "I've never seen anything like them."
"Alright." I interrupted. "We're wasting time. Let's head up to the camp. Hopefully someone survived this massacre." I brought up my comm. "Nihlus, this is Shepard. I've reached the dig site and no sign of the beacon. Continuing to the research camp to look for survivors."
"Roger." He responded immediately. "There's a spaceport I'd like to check out. I'll wait for you there."
We reached the camp and discovered more of the same destruction and devastation lying before us with one, horrifying exception. Three spikes, later nicknamed 'dragon's teeth', each held a glowing, mangled, completely disfigured human-like corpse impaled on it. As we approached, the spikes suddenly released some kind of air brake, and dropped the bodies to the ground with a sharp electrical pulse. The metallic, wiry creatures then got to their feet, and charged us.
Kaiden let loose a biotic lift that threw all three husks into the air, and Ashley put a bullet between each of their white, glowing eyes.
I wasn't sure why the geth did this to their captives. It seemed like a lot of effort for a small result, though I couldn't help but admire its effect as a psychological warfare tactic to make soldiers fight their own dead.
I had Kaiden examine the corpses, which were spewing a thick, green liquid and collect a sample to bring back to the Normandy while Ashley secured the perimeter and I took a closer look around.
"Shepard, it's Nihlus. I've reached the spaceport. I'm going to try to get closer to the ship….wait."
Popular culture has attempted to fill in the blanks on how Nihlus Kryik was murdered. I did not witness it, but a few seconds after he ended his transmission with me; I heard a single gunshot ring out in the vicinity of the spaceport. I rounded up Kaiden and Ash and we approached the spaceport with caution. A gunfight ensued. I took a spot on some high ground and picked off the geth with some well placed sniper fire while Kaiden and Ash held off the charging husks. The gigantic ship that I had seen in the video transmission earlier was now lifting off the ground. Its shape was completely unique, and I guessed its size had to be near two kilometers long. It was massive, terrifying, and completely awe-inspiring.
The destruction its liftoff left in its wake was cataclysmic.
I looked through my scope and observed a lifeless, turian body face down and was about to run to it when I heard someone banging on the door of a small, portable office module.
I had Kaiden decrypt the door and we found two very frightened scientists huddling in a corner. My conversation with them revealed nothing new about the situation. A Prothean beacon had been discovered, and then an attack had ensued. However, one scientist named Dr. Manuel was rambling about the end of the world like a madman.
I have always believed that an abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is completely normal, but I would later realize that Manuel had been touched by the beacon and had been completely ruined by its experience.
"No one is saved." He said. "The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin will remain."
His female counterpart chalked up Manuel's ramblings to general instability. "Genius and madness are often two sides of the same coin." She told me. But the way he spoke, both fearful and content later made me sure he had seen the message sent by the beacon.
"Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No. I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left."
I left them feeling a little more nervous than I would have liked and made my way towards Nihlus, who way lying facedown in a pool of dark blood.
Ash took watch while Kaidan and I rolled Nihlus onto his back. "Sir. Look at the exit wound through his eye. He was shot in the back of his head."
"Not many people can get the jump on a Spectre." I said.
Kaidan and I both jumped with our weapons on the ready as a nearby crate fell to the ground, and a shaking human sprung out with his hands in the air. My finger was halfway down on the trigger.
"Wait! Don't shoot!" He cried. "I- I saw who killed your friend."
I lowered my weapon and encouraged Kaidan to do the same. "Start talking."
"It was another turian. Your friend knew him. Called him…Saren…I think. They were talking and your friend seemed to relax a little. Then the other one shot him."
"You're sure about this?" Kaidan inquired.
"Yes. I'm just lucky he didn't find me."
"What did he look like? This 'other' turian." I asked.
"He was big." The man answered. "Really big. Grey. Scary looking."
"That's a big help." Kaidan muttered.
"At least we have a name." I said. "What about the beacon?"
"It's over at the other platform, that guy Saren jumped on the train right after he killed your friend." His speech was getting quicker, his pitch higher, and his eyes were wide. He was starting to go into shock.
"Listen, I need you to calm down. What else can you tell me about the attack. Do you know anything about that ship?" I asked, trying to calm him down.
"It was massive. The whole sky went dark as it came down." His voice got lower. "And- and it was making this noise. This- this sound that bored right into your brain. It made it hard to think."
"Alright." I said. "Stay here until the all clear is given. Alliance personnel will be along shortly to evacuate you." I gave him some water and had Ash escort him to where the scientists were hiding. Saren was only minutes ahead of us, but it was clear he and I shared a similar goal of recovering the beacon.
I radio'd Normandy and Captain Anderson that we had found Nihlus VSA and continued forward. We fought our way to the train controls using standard fire and movement. One placing covering fire while two moved up, and took out the geth with relative ease. When we arrived at the platform, we were immediately bombarded with fire from all sides and forced to dive for cover. My body slammed into an enormous demolition charge placed next to a fuel silo and I could have sworn my heart completely stopped.
"Christ! That thing is huge!" Kaidan yelled, while throwing down fire over head. "Looks like they want to destroy the evidence!"
"Can you disable it!?" I called back.
"Shouldn't be an issue, just buy me some time!" he yelled.
While Ash and I used most of our ammo firing at the surrounding geth, Kaidan used his expert technical skills and disabled the bomb averting a major disaster for the colony.
The platform was extremely well defended and I knew we were drawing closer to the beacon by the sheer number and type of geth raining fire down on us. An old adage (which apparently dates back to World War I and refers to incoming artillery) states, "You don't hear the one that gets you." When an explosion is close enough to slam your body with a powerful concussion, you do not hear the sound and your ears do not ring afterward.
A rocket hit no more than three to five feet in front of me. I saw the fireball but did not feel the concussion, nor did I hear the sound. I felt a hard punch in my chest, just underneath my left shoulder, and was knocked hard on the ground. I didn't hear the shot, and my ears still weren't ringing. My body was experiencing two simultaneous overwhelming stimuli: the sound of the gun, and the feel of the bullet hitting. At first I didn't feel any pain. Then, everything seemed to go into slow motion, as undoubtedly, a large amount of adrenaline was released from my adrenal medulla, causing my central nervous system synapses to fire faster–like a high-speed camera, producing a slow motion effect. I remember being dragged behind cover by Ashley Williams, who quickly applied medi-gel, checked my vitals and hardsuit status, and snapped me back to reality.
"You're alright! Barely penetrated!" She said. It had suddenly become very quite and I figured the battle had been won. "The beacon's just up ahead!" She grabbed my hand and pulled me up and I walked forward. It didn't look like much. It was a long, skinny, barely remarkable structure with a faint green light running its length. I was having a hard time fathoming how it was worth so many lives.
"Normandy, the beacon is secure. Requesting immediate pick up. Sending coordinates."
"Receiving coordinates. ETA One Five mikes." Joker replied.
"Roger. Standing by." I ended the transmission as Kaidan approached me. I could see Ash out of the corner of my eye, studying the beacon with an intense curiosity.
"She says it's different." He stated. "That it wasn't glowing like that when they unearthed it. She thinks something might have activated it."
"Right. Just don't touch it." Just as I said that, I noticed Ash slip and fall, and slide towards the beacon, like she was being dragged. I pushed Kaidan out of the way and ran towards her, picked her up and literally threw her away from the beacon.
I felt my lungs begin to squeeze, and my breaths were agonizingly painful and terribly short. Every breath was a knife turning in my lungs. My head suddenly began to throb, like I had been hit with a sledgehammer and then, I began to loose my vision–like white-out erasing my visual field. I lost my ability to see temporarily, and the outside world became a distant blur. I was bombarded with a series of unidentifiable images. I remember smelling death, seeing death, and feeling very, very afraid.
There was a sound that was like a screeching in my brain. I saw a city, people running, people dying, and then, darkness.