Chapter 22: First Contact

Ashley looked at the readout for a third time and groaned, annoyed with the error symbols once again flashing across her omni tool. She was a soldier, could kill a Geth within just a few minutes, pretending to also be an engineer was a serious problem for her right now. It was on days like this that Ashley wanted to quit working in the AIA and go back to being a grunt on the frontlines, she would certainly have a much simpler life. The problem though was that unlike most of her colleagues that called Commander Shepard crazy, Ashley had seen Sovereign up close and knew it wasn't just some Geth ship. She stayed because Ashley knew that what was five hundred feet beneath her could change all of their minds. It was her way of honoring Shepard's memory.

The colony of Horizon was special in a lot of ways; it produced top of the line weapons technology, had a thriving multi-species community next to Batarian space, and most importantly, was sitting on top of an intact Prothean city. Much like the truly ancient city of Pompeii on Earth, this city had been buried under a layer of ash so thick that it was only discovered through deep drill mining. The Alliance would've swarmed the place decades ago for a chance at all the technology under the ground but, the people of Horizon were extremely independent. They believed that because they were on the surface first, they should decide when and how to research the ancient city. The Alliance wasn't willing to risk damage to the site through open war so, they sent her here instead.

Seeing the chief engineer march by, Ashley got up from her post to follow the woman, "Lilith! We've got a problem."

Lilith rolled her eyes taking a sarcastic tone, "Still can't calibrate the targeting matrix huh? Did you pay much attention to your instructors or not?"

Ashley sounded defensive of her 'work,' "I was top of my class, you know that, but I've never seen anything like this malfunction before. Those defense towers are useless if we don't figure it out. If you could just spare anyone else to help me work on it-"

Lilith interrupted her with a shake of her head, "Sorry Chief, getting our comm systems back online takes priority. We haven't been attacked in over twenty years, the defense towers can just be for show for another week."

Ashley knew there was no convincing her and so just took the defeat, "Yeah, okay your right. Surprised people haven't tried to blame the comms failure on me too."

Lilith looked back at her with an apologetic sigh, "People out here don't trust the Alliance. They seem to only be interested in getting the Prothean data under the ground and not the citizens who call Horizon home. It's nothing personal against you really."

It wasn't as though Ashley could blame her for the hesitation, she was indeed just here for the data. The people living out here were certainly a close community with plenty of unique talents but, the Alliance could give a damn about any community outreach here. If the brass could've come up with any way to remove these people without risking damage to the archaeological site, they would've. A part of Ashley felt depressed with the realization this was all just a show, then she remembered why she was here. If one small community had to be betrayed in order to get hard evidence on the Reapers, the sacrifice was worth it.

She was about to respond when Lilith pointed up into the sky, "What in all the galaxy is that...?"

Ashley turned around to look at what Lilith had seen and immediately her heart stopped, a giant cigar shaped object floated strangely in mid air. She wouldn't call it a ship in the traditional sense, it was made of rock. Her instincts would've told her that it was an asteroid except for the fact that it was floating in low orbit like a dreadnought. Deep down Ashley already knew what she was seeing had something to do with the Reapers, maybe a new ship design? They both just stared at it paralyzed from the shock of seeing something like that, until the black clouds started flying out from the ship at top speed.

She grabbed the assault rifle strapped to her back, "Get everyone to the safe house. I'll cover you. Run!"

_o0o_

Jack stared out the cockpit viewport at what had to be the Collector ship, he could see the clouds of seeker swarm bots deploying from here. It had to be truly terrifying for the people on the ground to watch, which begged the question, why hadn't the colonists on Freedom's Progress panicked? The video Veetor provided showed everyone celebrating Christmas mere seconds before the attack. Surely someone would've looked up and saw the Collector ship approaching and warned the colony. The only explanation he could think of was that this was the first time the Collectors brought their ship for a raid. Horizon was obviously a different animal from every other colony they targeted, he just had to figure out why.

Usually in a situation like this, Jack would've wanted Kal to come along for his explosives expertise but, he was glad the Quarian had to rest his back. He wasn't exactly sure he was going to need bombs for sneaking around a colony full of bugs. Just like on Eden Prime, they needed to be quiet in a mission like this with overwhelming enemy numbers. The rest of the crew had all volunteered to go to the colony with him but, Mordin had stressed his seeker swarm jammer was only a prototype and he was only comfortable testing it with four people. So, the team was made up of himself, Mordin, Garrus, and Saren.

Kal's voice gently came through his omni tool, "Good luck down there Jack, call me if you need me."

Jack smiled down on his husbands face being projected on his arm, "Don't worry about me, Mordin said the jammer will work. Get some rest, I'll be back before you know it..." He shut down the comm whispering, "It'll be fine..."

Mordin walked up behind him as the Normandy made it's slow, stealth covered approach to the colony, "Truly fascinating. Collectors overly efficient at taking colony. Haven't fired a single shot, admirable."

Saren's gruff tone followed the Salarian's, "Yes, kidnapping millions upon millions of Humans would certainly have been admirable, forty years ago."

Garrus coughed taking his brother's flank, "I think what he was trying to say was the Collectors aren't doing anything good with those people and have to be stopped."

Mordin blinked for a few seconds sounding upset, "Oh of course, wasn't applauding work. Humans most likely test subjects for experimentation. Just observing a master at their craft."

Joker cut in sounding genuinely worried, "I'd hate to break up the wonderful academic discussion your having but, we're about to hit our drop point."

Jack gazed at Mordin with one last concerned look, "Your sure the jammer will work Mordin? If you have any doubts, now would be your last chance to say them."

Mordin gave him a soft shrug, "As certain as I can be with a prototype. Since the Collectors seem to only target Humans, you will be safe either way. If you get stung we will bring you back to the ship."

Garrus gave him a broad Turian smile, "If you get stung we'll take plenty of embarrassing vids with ya."

He laughed at Garrus' joke trying to calm him down, however, he wasn't exactly thrilled with that answer. The truth was it probably was the best he was going to get under the circumstances. The side door to the cockpit opened and Jack was the first to jump out to the ground below. Horizon looked like a small industrial colony, like something you'd see in a vid documentary highlighting the problems of pollution. For as far as his eye could see the soil was barren and there wasn't a tree in sight. It was jarring to see the smoke stack from the factories were still active while being surrounded by the seeker swarms.

A brief panic started to hit him when a small pack of the seekers started buzzing straight for him. Had it been too soon to expect Mordin to come up with a miracle from scratch? Just as Saren was getting ready to raise a biotic shield around him, the seekers turned around going in another direction harmlessly. Jack was still tense for the next few seconds until it was clear that the seekers were going to ignore them. Even though they were going to have to deal with the actual Collector troops, it was a relief to know he wasn't going to get kidnapped like everyone else.

Mordin let out a triumphant huff, "Can confirm seekers are synthetic then. Disruption of radio waves prevents Human identification. In a not so humble conclusion, I haven't lost my touch."

Garrus pointed at the sky back in the direction of the Collector ship, "Shepard look, I think they're sending down shuttles to pick up the colonists."

Jack indeed saw a dozen or more shapes the size of a Kodiak launch out of the Collector ship and towards the colony. He was tempted to order the Normandy into attacking them before they landed before ultimately deciding against it. Sure, he had no doubt Joker could've intercepted them with ease, he also knew the Collectors had more transports just waiting to launch. His best bet was to save just a few people so that they wouldn't be noticed. He hated that line of thinking but, he realized they had arrived too late to actually save this colony. They just had to use what they saw here to save the next colony.

With that in mind, Jack agreed, "It would make sense, we need to get to as many colonists as we can before those land. Once they do, we can't risk being seen."

Saren glanced at him for a few seconds seemingly surprised before answering, "A sound strategy, we can't hope to save everyone here and not be bombarded from orbit. I think we should just go around the outskirts of the colony, I'm sure there'll be a few stragglers we can reach without notice."

Jack still tell it was a little surreal that he was listening to Saren as part of his crew, "You heard him, let's go before those ships land."

They were able to run for a solid twenty yards before that plan came crashing down around them. It soon became clear that the actual Collectors only used the shuttles to transport the bodies and not themselves when they landed directly in front of them from their wings. Of course they would have wings, they were basically insects. Jack skid to a stop and slid behind cover when the Collectors started shooting at them. He looked behind him to make sure everyone had found cover only to see the Collectors projectiles literally burned a hole in the house they had been running past.

Mordin yelled over the sounds of gunfire, "Acid projectiles. Make sure you avoid skin contact. Will most likely burn through bones and armor!"

Jack took the chance to take a headshot on one of the distracted Collectors when Saren replied, "Thank you for stating the obvious doctor, do you actually have any good advice?"

Garrus threw a smoke grenade over his head while he was in cover and yelled, "I think aim for the head is a pretty good tip if you ask me. Works every time."

While the four of them were able to keep up with the Collectors on the ground, unfortunately, more and more reinforcements kept coming. It felt like whenever Jack was able to get a good shot off and kill one of them, another immediately landed in it's place ready for a fight. Jack was typically comfortable holding ground until the enemy pulled back but, the Collectors were different. Not knowing how many Collectors were present on a ship of that size, he had no way of judging how much damage they were causing to their numbers. If the ship performed similarly to the Everest, this firefight was a drop in the bucket for them. The other issue was that they were running out of safe cover because of the acid weaponry.

Jack got up from his cover at a crouch and started pulling back, "Everyone get back to the Kodiak, there's no way we're going to win this fight."

Saren was glowing blue with biotic energy and glared at the advancing Collectors, "No, we can make them pull back! I suggest you all get down now."

He felt like he needed to argue with Saren and make him realize that they needed to retreat when the Turian let out a wave of biotic energy. Jack compared the force of the wave with that of a ship sized bomb going off. Collector trooper's bodies flew in multiple directions at awkward angles slamming into everything around them. Not even the indoctrinated Saren could produce this kind of biotic energy and that was saying something. When the dust settled, no more Collectors were flying towards them. The shuttles were still making their way towards the colony but, the four of them finally had some space.

Saren clutched at his stomach breathing heavily and Garrus quickly got to him with a pack of medi gel, "You ok...?"

Mordin tapped his chin lost in thought, "Eezo discharge.. Rare skill usually only found among Asari justicars. Mother perhaps? No. Asari children are always Asari. Hmm, must've trained in the Turian cabal. Will come in handy with future research."

The Turian rolled his neck around taking a deep breath, "I'll be fine, just don't expect any biotic acrobatics for awhile."

Jack kept looking around worried more Collectors were going to show up at any moment, "We should keep moving, I'm sure the Collectors will swing back around any second now."

A deep metallic familiar voice echoed from one of the dying Collectors laying next to him, "Shepard, you have achieved nothing. The cycle will continue no matter how hard you desperately claw at what you do not understand."

He didn't need to ask who it was, that robotic superior sounding voice was Sovereign. It didn't seem possible, he had literally been crushed by a piece of Sovereign's debris two years ago. And yet, Jack knew in his bones that voice could only belong to Sovereign. Even if all the Reapers waiting for them in dark space had the exact same vocabulator, the tone was specific to Sovereign himself. That only left him with a billion questions, an he was sure the Reaper wouldn't answer him even if he asked.

Garrus approached the dying Collector with a pistol in hand, "Sorry, we aren't interested in talking. Why don't you leave a message?"

Jack was more than happy to let him kill the talking Collector when Saren grabbed his arm, "Not yet." He wearily looked down to it, "What do you want? Why attempt to continue a broken cycle? We've won."

Sovereign answered in a flat, cold voice, "You are more arrogant then we first believed. To think destroying my shell changed the cycle is hubris on your part. The forge will grant me a new shell, one I will use to signal the coming storm. You have only slightly delayed the inevitable and will be destroyed."

Saren took Garrus' gun and pulled the trigger, "That was for Nihlus you bastard."

Jack knew that he wouldn't have gotten anything more out of Sovereign but, he had debated on trying. Still, just that little piece of information was revealing enough for now. He now knew that Sovereign was alive and still believed the cycle could be salvaged. Also, there was a place called the forge somewhere in the galaxy that could potentially rebuild Sovereign for another attack. What he didn't know was how the Collectors kidnapping Humans in the Terminus Systems was connected to that.

EDI's voice came through his omni tool, breaking the momentary silence, "Shepard, I am detecting Prothean weaponry strong enough to take down the Collector ship somewhere beneath you. I am sending you the likely coordinates to that location now."

Garrus took a long breath, "Great, just when I thought we could leave the colony full of friendly talkative bugs, you give us a reason to stay."

Mordin kept a professional tone as always, "If kidnappings are connected to forge, destroying the ship would slow down Reaper production. If lucky, could halt production indefinitely. Lots of ifs... Worth the risk though."

Jack's eyes widened with hope, they had the opportunity to destroy that ship, "On our way EDI, make sure the Normandy stays out of scanner range, they know we're here..."