Taking a deep breath, Mads tried to raise Nihlus. He tried a few times without luck as they silently moved towards what was the dig site. He really hoped that Nihlus was still breathing, because his death would make everything 10 times worse for everyone involved, most of all the human race.
"Nihlus! Do you copy? Over." Mads was close to ripping his hair out in frustration.
"I'm here. About 2 clicks to the north. I'm investigating a small set of prefabs. Over" His reply was short and to the point.
"What's the status? Over." Mads asked.
"No survivors so far. I think we are dealing with Geth. Over" Nihlus replied.
"We gathered as much. We will check out the dig site and see what we can find. Stay in contact. Over and out." Mads ordered.
"Copy, over and out." Nihlus replied and dropped from the channel.
Mads did a headcount to see if they were all there. All were, except for Jenkins of course. Poor kid deserved better than to lie in a ditch and await the clean up crew. Mads quickly explained the situation and people nodded in acknowledgment.
As they saw more of the colony, Mads realized that it was actually quite a nice place. Very quiet, and farming was king here. It seemed like the ideal spot to settle down, or if you were hungry for opportunity. Too bad all that was out of the window now. Even if they recovered the beacon and fought back the invaders, it wouldn't change the fact that a peaceful colony was attacked. Meaning, every colony would have a tainted image from now on.
They walked through a tree line, when Mads stopped. "How much further?" he asked.
"About 200 meters." Riesman replied as he double checked the location. Right as he finished his sentence, gun fire was heard. They all took cover by the trees. Mads hushed them all to be quiet. The gun fire came closer and closer, until a lone marine sprinted into sight. It was a female, and hot on her tail was a few drones.
She threw herself on the ground and took care of the threat with a couple of well lined up shots. She stayed on the ground, probably to catch her breath. Two privates moved closer, as they started walking, the rest of the squad slowly began to move out of cover. They approached the female and helped her up. Mads jogged down to them, to see what was going on. Right as they managed to get her on her feet again, several shots rang out.
One private dropped dead in an instant. A shot straight through his forehead. No hope for him, the other had a wound in his waist. Mads dragged the wounded marine into cover, while pushing the marine to cover as well. The private grunted in pain as he attempted to stop the bleeding.
The rest of the marines took out the Geth firing. They were actually pretty hard to take down, and it's hard when what you are trying to kill can't even bleed. But they managed. Kaminski rushed over to try and save the private. The private's name was Thompson, only a first class straight out of training. After Kaminski assured Mads that he had it under control, did Mads stop trying to help. Mads turned his attention to the female marine.
"Mind telling us your name… -" Mads looked at the rank on her biceps "Gunnery chief?" Mads asked.
"I-It's Ashley... Ashley Williams… Sir!" She replied.
"Where is the rest of your unit?" Mads asked.
"They are… They are gone, sir." She answered. It was not very audible, and the words came with regret. Suddenly her eyes lit up a bit. "Wait a minute, you are the Red Eagle!" She said.
"Yes, that I am. Look Ashley, here is the deal. We are already down three men, and we need the extra firepower. Are you willing to come with us?" Mads asked. She didn't need any time to think about it.
"Yes! I will give these fuckers hell." She replied. Her tone and eyes held that as a promise. Mads nodded.
"Okay, can you guide us to the dig site?" Mads requested. She nodded. "Alright, let's go." Mads said as he stood up.
"It's gone? But it was just here!" Ashley proclaimed.
"Well, it clearly isn't here. Which means it must be somewhere else. Any idea where that might be?" Mads asked as he took a puff of his cigarette. Ashley thought about it for a moment, but then snapped her fingers.
"The space docks! They were probably preparing it for transportation!" She replied.
"Alright boys, let's gear up and get there." Mads said as he put out his cigarette with the tip of his boot. They all readied up, some of the lazy bastards had even laid down as they were theorizing where the beacon could have gone.
"How is Private Thompson doing?" Mads asked.
"Not good. I think he may have internal bleeding. I'm not sure if he will survive the trip, much less more combat." Kaminski replied.
"Damn it, alright. We need someone to sit back with private Thompson." No one was volunteering for the job. "-Private Newfeld! You're up!" Mads ordered. The private let out a large sigh, but complied with the order in the end.
"Rest of us, we'll try to link up with Nihlus." Mads said. They all got ready and started to go up the nearby hill.
"Nihlus! Do you copy? Over." Mads said.
"I'm here. Over." He swiftly replied.
"We are going to the docks. The beacon is not at the dig site. We have already suffered another death. Where is your current position? Over." Mads asked.
"Close to the docks. This place is a war zone." Nihlus answered.
"Wait for us. There is no telling what is up ahead. Do you copy? Over and out." Mads asked.
"I will try," He said and ended the call.
"Prick." Mads muttered. They continued their way up the hill.
The saw something gruesome as they neared the top. Colonists were impaled on giant sticks like some sort of shashlik. "Jesus fucking Christ. What are they doing?" Mads asked. Most of them gasped as they saw the mutilated corpses of what used to be simple farmers. "Get them down!" Mads ordered. Riesman nodded and started trying to figure out how to lower the spike and get the poor souls down.
"Ashley, Kaiden. Check out the prefabs over there." Mads pointed to a couple of research prefabs that were probably there for the construction crew.
"Got it sir." Ashley said, Kaiden nodded in acknowledgment. As Ashley made her way over there, Mads grabbed Kaiden's wrist. "Keep a close eye on her. She might be too stable." He whispered to him. He nodded.
As Riesman was still battling the technology that was quite foreign to him, the others were busy scouting out the area to make sure there was no nasty surprises waiting for them. Mads called Nihlus to make sure he was still alive a couple of times. Suddenly, the spike went down. The body fell on the ground.
Kaminski checked out the body as Riesman powered down his hacking program. "What is it?" Mads asked as he squatted down to be on same level as Kaminski. "There is a pulse, but I don't understand how." He said as he kept doing routine procedures on the body.
"That's fucking weird, I wonder if-" Before Mads could finish the sentence, the creature sprang into life. It bit straight into the side of Kaminski's neck as he screamed in sheer pain. Mads quickly drew his 44. Magnum as fired a bullet into the skull of the creature. It let go of Kaminski's flesh and dropped its head against the ground.
Kaminski was out of breath as he pulled as far as away from the body as possible. He breathed heavily to balance out his oxygen intake. He looked at Mads with wide eyes, and he watched the smoke still coming from the barrel of the Mads' gun.
"Thanks." He said as he began to inspect his own wound.
"No worries, are you going to be alright? You're not gonna turn into one of them, are you?" Mads asked, mostly as a joke, but you can never know.
"Very fucking funny." He replied as he applied some medi-gel to the wound. It had a wonderful effect. And Kaminski slowly calmed down. "Fuck me." He muttered as he laid down on the ground and rubbed his temples. In the meantime, Kaiden and Ashley returned.
"There are survivors in there." Ashley said as she pointed to one of the prefabs.
"Yeah, are they farmers?" Mads asked. Ashley shook her head.
"No, I think they might have been a part of the team that dug it up." She replied.
Mads quickly rushed to the prefab to talk with them. If anyone knew what was going on, it had to be them. But, the answers they came weren't worth all that much. One of them was clearly losing it, and the other was only holding on to her sanity by a thin thread. By the time he was finished asking them questions, Kaminski seemed to be back on his feet.
"Let's move out!" Mads ordered.
A few minutes later, and they arrived at the edge of the docks. Nihlus had told them he was already there, and that he was patiently waited for them. He checked in with private Thompson and Newfeld. They acknowledged that they were still alive, which was a good sign. As Mads got closer to the dock, he noticed that Nihlus was still searching around for something.
Before Mads could call out to Nihlus, someone appeared behind him. It was another Turian, and a big one at that. Not only tall, but a somewhat of quite muscular as well. Mads was suddenly worried, until the Turian started to speak to Nihlus. Mads couldn't hear the words being spoken, only that he got a gut feeling this would go south.
Sure enough, the rouge Turian pulled out a gun as Nihlus was facing away from him. Mads knew that if he didn't do something, Nihlus' brain would be splattered all over the concrete. To most people the move he wanted to perform would be both stupid and reckless, but he did it anyway. Mads sprinted for the love of his life towards the Turian holding the gun. He caught the last part of what he said to Nihlus.
"I got this."
Just as the Turian said the last word, Mads rammed into him, forcing them both on the ground. A gunshot was heard, and judging by the grunt of pain Nihlus was hit regardless, but sound meant he wasn't dead yet. The rouge Turian was up faster than Mads, and before he knew it, he received a kick in the face, forcing him back down on the ground.
There was a ringing in Mads' ears as he tried to spit the blood out of his mouth, and in the nick of time, he saw the Rouge Turian trying to stab him with his knife. This time, Mads was fast enough to dodge it. He rolled to his side and quickly got up. The Turian had lost his balance and was now at Mads' mercy. He kicked the fucker in his ribs, and the Turian let out something that sounded like a whimper.
But this Turian was made of something tougher than any other Turian he had ever met, because when Mads tried to go for a second round, the Turian rolled over and grabbed Mads' heel. Yanking him forward and causing him to lose his balance. This time, they both recovered fast. Mads wanted nothing more than to be done with this Turian, so he tried to do a quick draw.
Just as Mads' hand got hold of the grip of his magnum, the Turian realized what Mads was trying to do. In a quick and swift movement, the Turian managed to grab Mads' wrist just as he drew his gun. Mads had meant to shoot the Turian in the chest, but instead the Turian got shot in the arm. Blood instantly poured out of the open wound as the Turian roared. The gun was knocked out of Mads' hand, and before Mads could even react, he was held by the throat.
"You are different. I can see that." The Turian said, his voice deep and low. "-But it doesn't matter, I will get what I want." He finished, and threw Mads into some crates. Although Mads was quick to recover from this, the Turian had already left the scene, nowhere to be found.
Mads took a deep breath and grabbed his magnum before turning his attention to Nihlus, who was bleeding heavily from a chest wound. Blood was gently flowing from his lips. He coughed a few times as Mads called for Kaminski.
"You're gonna be fine, we got you." Mads assured him, trying to comfort him as he desperately tried tried to stop the bleeding.
"No…-" Nihlus coughed a few times, each more hoarse than the last. "-I'm not going to make it…. Listen-" He spit the blood from his mouth. "-The Turian was Saren-" He grunted in pain as Mads applied pressure on the wound. "-Arterius….. He is a Spectre too. You must stop him!" Nihlus ordered.
"He won't get away, you got my word." Mads promised.
"The beacon was moved-" Once again he grunted in pain. "I think it may be on the other side. If you move fast, you may catch it." Nihlus said.
"Don't worry. Just- Just relax, okay?" Mads tried his best, but just as Kaminski came, Nihlus drew his last breath and closed his eyes. Mads desperately searched for a pulse, but found none.
"He's gone." Kaminski concluded after he tried to revive Nihlus several times.
"Fuck…. We're fucked." Mads muttered. "Let's get the beacon before it is too late." Mads ordered. They nodded in agreement. They left the scene, but the feeling of it being hopeless haunted them each step of the way towards the train cart.
Several bullets and dead Geths later, they came across another problem that was threatening to damn it all to hell. Besides the giant ship that took off, that looked more like a hand from the sky, and all the dead Geth bodies, the Geth had left one final gift for them. Timed explosives, and by the looks of it, they had only a few minutes to defuse them all.
Lance Corporal Jackson was a life saver. He had been trained in handling and defusing bombs, and considered it his specialty. But, it mostly boiled down to a lot of crash courses on the subject. While Jackson was hard at work, Mads turned his attention to the Beacon. It looked like it was sending a signal into the heavens.
"That's weird, it wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up." Ashley remarked as she studied it.
"Normandy? This is Commander Romanov. We have the beacon, and we request a pick up as soon as possible. We are-"
"All done! Danger is out!" Jackson cheered as he defused the last one.
"-Well, the threat should be gone. Over." Mads said.
"Copy that, ETA is 5 minutes. Over" Joker replied.
"Copy, over and out." Mads said and ended the call. When he looked toward the beacon again, he saw Ashley was approaching it. "ASHLEY GET AWAY FROM IT!" Mads yelled. Suddenly, she beacon reacted strangely, and began to pull Ashley towards it.
Once again, Mads thought quickly, but perhaps not wisely. He jumped in and threw Ashley to the side, but in doing so, he became the new victim. Kaiden tried to grab Mads, but it was too late. The Beacon began to sweep into his mind and showed… Something. It was organic tissue being hijacked by synthetic. Organic beings being butchered. It all happened so fast, he hardly even noticed that he was floating in the air as he got mind fucked by the beacon.
The vision was over as soon as it began, and the whole ordeal seemed to overload the beacon. Because it blew to kingdom come as soon as it was done. The blast not only destroyed the beacon, but completely knocked out Mads. He was thrown back a couple of yards.
Blackness engulfed him.