Authors Note: Okay, this chapter damn near killed me. Lots of hours went into splicing this one together from its humpty dumpty state. Anywho, I give you Chapter Two: Eden Prime.
Thank you to the readers, favorites, and followers :) Please enjoy and as always feedback is most welcome.
Mass Effect
"Foreign Relations"
Chapter Two: Eden Prime
The Normandy broke Eden Prime's atmosphere as Sidda paced Nihlus with Kaidan and Jenkins behind her. Seeing Sidda in her trademark black and yellow armor brought back some memories for Nihlus, somehow seeing her decked out in her armor and loaded with weapons confirmed his backing of her joining the Spectres.
"Go in secure the Beacon and get the hell out of there, Commander." Anderson stated. "Secondary priority is to find out what the hell is going on down there."
Sidda nodded as she checked her pistol then tucked it away on her side. "Alright, Nihlus, you're with me…Alenko, Jenkins take-…"
"No, Commander, I'll scout ahead." Nihlus stated as the bay door began to open.
"Oh, no. No, no…Nihlus, you're not going alone." Sidda stated and Nihlus didn't seem to care. These two were going to suss out just who was in charge sometime during their 'time' together. Nihlus was used to working alone and Sidda was used to being in charge, a nasty mix. They were both stubborn, Nihlus was born that way and the Lante made Sidda's worse.
"I'll be fine." Nihlus stated and snorted, she'd heard that before.
"You always say that and then you never are." She stated. "I'm still waiting for a mission with you that doesn't involve gunfire."
Nihlus growled and glared down at her. "This is not up for debate, Commander." Nihlus scolded in a raised tone. "I will scout ahead and meet you at the Beacon."
Sidda's temper nearly flared, she didn't like being cut off like that. This was her mission and he was the observer but here he was putting her in her place and refusing back up.
"Let us back you up." Kaidan said and Nihlus shook his head, he'd made his decision. He checked his shotgun.
"I'm better on my own." He stated and Sidda grumbled to the most stubborn Turian she'd ever met.
The ship slowed to a rate he was happy with and jumped off the edge of the ramp landing on his feet 10 feet down. Sidda shook her head as he trotted off while the Normandy touched down. "Stubborn bastard." She stated loudly.
"Get in and get out, Commander." Anderson stated and Sidda nodded.
"We'll watch his back, Sir." She stated with an obvious grumble toward him. "If I don't shoot him first." She muttered through the grumble.
Eden Prime was a beautiful planet, it reminded Kaidan of home and for Jenkins it was home, but for Sidda it was just another planet. She'd been born and raised on ships and hadn't set foot on Earth until she was 17, honestly she was more comfortable on ships then she was on planets but she had come to appreciate the wide open spaces since ships were one giant rat cage.
Sidda left it to Jenkins to lead; the kid was from Eden Prime after all. As they moved along the path down the dig site Sidda paused along with the rest.
"Oh my God." Jenkins said. "What happened to them?"
Sidda looked over the charred human bodies with the same question only she didn't voice it out loud. Whatever killed them reduced the bodies to burnt skeletal remains. "What in the hell could have done that, Commander?" Kaidan asked and a Sidda stood up straight.
"I don't know." She replied and decided she'd spent enough time examining the bodies. "Let's go. Jenkins, take us out, get us to the dig site."
Jenkins nodded. "Yes, Ma'am." He said and Sidda lingered looking at the bodies before heading out.
"Nihlus." Sidda said into the Comm. "We've got some bodies here." She stated and there was a pause on the line before Nihlus answered.
"Yes." Nihlus replied. "I found a few too. Be careful, Commander."
Sidda nodded and continued on with her men.
Nihlus examined the human bodies at his feet. When Sidda made her report to him he had found several bodies already. The young woman before him was shredded and burned; the weapon used tore her body apart and cauterized the mangled flesh. He had seen hundreds of wounds from different weapons but now quite frankly he was at a loss as to what kind of weapon could have created so much damage.
He rolled the body over onto its back and shook his head to the continued damage before leaving it alone and moving on toward his destination.
So far the colony had been thoroughly uneventful, just creepy as hell. It was way too quiet and the dead bodies were a definite indicator that all was not well. Sidda couldn't help but think of the mission to Oriso, most of that mission she still didn't remember but it started out too quiet and fairly creepy also. In that moment Sidda missed her Turian crew, what she wouldn't give to see them again…what she wouldn't give to have them right now. Nov, Rajin, Ruvvak, and even Cerrus would make this mission go a hell of a lot faster no matter what the issue was. On the other hand judging by her track record on the Lante their presence could make things go to hell faster as well. Something unfriendly had to be on this planet and judging by the unknown creepy looking ship they saw in the vid Sidda wasn't going to like it.
Jenkins stopped as he saw movement up ahead. "Commander." He said drawing her attention to it.
Sidda focused and saw a figure in white armor running toward them. Whoever it was turned out to be an obvious soldier as it dropped down behind some cover to try and lose the drone that was chasing them. Sidda and her team picked up the pace and got closer to render better aid as more drones appeared and fired at the soldier in white.
"Scatter and take cover." Sidda ordered as the drones picked up on them as well and began firing.
Jenkins dove to the left and tried to get to the nearest boulder; his move wasn't fast enough and lined up on him and fired several times. "Jenkins!" Kaidan shouted but returned his attention to the ensuing firefight. The soldiers' Avenger barked and destroyed several drones with a few well-placed shots.
Sidda registered that Jenkins was hit but couldn't move from her position to assess him so she and Kaidan returned fire to help the lone solider. The area was swarmed with drones but that only made the autonomous weapons easier to hit. Sidda used a few throw fields to bounce a few of them away like golf balls as several more exploded from Kaidan's rather powerful warp strikes.
The area was raining debris as the three of them destroyed every mech they saw. When the last one fell Sidda and Kaidan lingered a moment before lowering their guard, Sidda was especially suspicious and Kaidan followed the 'Hero of Elysiums' lead.
Sidda eyed the area and spared a glance to the soldier who seemed just as suspicious as she was. "You alright, Soldier?" Sidda asked as the woman got to her feet.
She nodded. "Yes, ma'am, I appreciate the help."
Sidda lowered her rifle somewhat satisfied that no more drones were going to come out of the woodwork. "Name and rank?" she asked directly to the woman.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, the Marine detachment stationed here." Ashley answered properly as Sidda looked over her shoulder to Kaidan who was kneeling down next to Jenkins' body.
"How's Jenkins?" She asked and Kaidan's pause told her everything she needed to know.
"He's dead, Commander." Kaidan replied quietly and Sidda approached him looking over his shoulder before kneeling down to the officer she lost.
"Damn it." She said quietly and sighed putting a hand on Kaidan's shoulder. "Come on…there's nothing we can do for him now." She stated and stood but Kaidan couldn't act that callous. Sidda was a seasoned officer and he knew that but he didn't know she could just shut out the feelings he was having about losing an officer.
"Commander-…" he said and Sidda turned back to him.
"We'll come back for his body later but need to keep moving, Lieutenant." She explained and returned her attention to Ashely. "I'm Cdr. Shepard this is Lt. Alenko." Sidda introduced. "What happened here?"
Ashely was still on her adrenalin high but seemed to be coming off it a little; she paced and checked her rifle. "Oh, man…I don't even know. One minute everything's normal then that mothership appeared and Geth poured out from everywhere." She explained and Sidda narrowed her eyes along with Kaidan who looked to Sidda puzzled.
"Geth?" Kaidan questioned his tone taking the words right out of Sidda's mouth.
"What the hell are Geth doing here?" she asked and thought about the reason that they were there. Eden Prime was far from the Veil and they had no reason to be there. They must have been there for the Beacon though she didn't know why.
Kaidan apparently had the same train of thought. "They must be here for the Beacon." He said and Sidda looked over at him. "Same as us."
"Why would they be interested in a Prothean beacon?" Sidda asked and Kaidan certainly didn't have an answer to that but she really didn't expect him to.
Ashley shrugged, the soldier seemed frazzled. "I don't know." She replied and let out a ragged breath before regaining all of her composure.
This wasn't something she was going to get an answer to right now, there was no way to know why Geth were here unless she questioned one. All she knew about them was what she learned in school, the legendary cautionary tale in artificial intelligence. The Quarians taught the galaxy a valuable lesson with their failure. "Where's the rest of your unit?" she asked walking toward the bits and pieces of the Geth drones.
"Dead…I think." Ashley answered and Sidda narrowed her eyes to the last comment.
"You think?" She inquired sternly. "What do you mean 'you think', Chief?" she asked again in a harsher tone.
"We were overrun…our only choice was to retreat." Ashley explained and Sidda took a step toward her.
"How does retreat lead to 'you think' they're dead?" she asked her tone hostile toward the NCO.
"We were getting cut to ribbons, Commander, the Geth ran right through us…I didn't have a choice but to sound a retreat…there's no one else." Ashley explained and Sidda's opinion of the soldier dipped, abandoning a unit didn't sit well with her…it never did even before she was transformed into Turian by Victus and his guys.
"Commander…" Kaidan began nudging her to stay on course; they still had a mission to complete.
Sidda cocked her head back to him and eyed the Chief knowing what Kaidan was going to say next. "We need that Beacon; can you take us to it?" she asked letting the obvious building distain for Chief Williams show through.
Ashley looked the Commander up and down and could see she wasn't pleased about her explanation but was ready to defend her actions. In the end she nodded knowing full well she was going to have to explain herself in more detail later. "Yes, ma'am, this way."
Nihlus heard the weapons fire in the distance and paused. "Commander, are you alright?" he asked, he found himself pretty worried about her.
It took a moment but Sidda responded. "Sort of, one KIA but I picked up a Marine from the 212. This place is under attack by the Geth, Nihlus, watch yourself." She answered and Nihlus looked behind him back toward the body he had examined. Now it made sense, the burns and damage from her wounds hit him; a Geth plasma rifle or shotgun, no mistaking it now.
"Why would the Geth be here?" he asked but like Sidda asking Kaidan he didn't expect her to have an answer to that.
"I'm not sure." She answered. "The Beacon was taken from the dig sight to the Spaceport, we'll meet you there."
Nihlus nodded and thought about trotting back to the body to study it more closely but decided not to; he didn't like the idea of Geth in the area and certainly didn't like the idea of being separated now. He was regretting his lone wolf brashness now. He should have listened to Sidda and picked up the pace.
Following Ashley garnered little chit chat between the three of them; Sidda was used to compartmentalizing the less endearing aspects of her career. Losing people was never something she enjoyed but it was part of the job.
As they crested the hill the area looked like it had seen lots of battle, modular units were in flames and there were several bodies littering the ground but there was something else that was extremely unsettling. Sidda's pace slowed as she saw one of the most horrific things she had ever seen before her. Giant spikes nearly 20 feet tall were topped with human bodies. It reminded her of Earth ancient history, Vlad the Impaler. What did this or better yet who did this and why? "Oh my god…" she breathed the horror in her voice apparent for all to hear and see as the same emotion colored her face. "are those the colonists?"
Kaidan and Ashley also had the same reaction of horror. They didn't have an answer to that but then again, who could? The Geth were a virtual unknown but what was the purpose behind this? Sidda stepped up to the spike nearest her in order to examine it closer. She looked up to the body that had been impaled; it had slid halfway down the spike due to its own weight, shredded clothes dangled from the body swaying in the breeze. As soon as she got close enough to touch it the spike dropped and the figure moved. Sidda's first instinct was to aim her weapon at it, this creature didn't look human anymore…she didn't know what it looked like.
The creature screeched and jumped on her discharging an energy pulse that made her tingle all over; it felt like an amped up static charge. The creature pulsed again and disoriented Sidda making her fall backward with the creature still trying to hit and scratch her. The creature was stronger than it appeared and Sidda was having a hard time fighting it off with the static charge it was putting off.
"Commander!" Kaidan yelled as Ashley fire a well-placed round into the creatures head blasting it off of Sidda.
Sidda scrambled to her feet and staggered back toward Kaidan and Ashley. Her unsteady gait prompted Kaidan to steady her; he caught her and let her lean on him until she regained her control. The rest of the spikes around them dropped and more of the creatures attacked. "Don't let them touch you." Sidda stated as another fight commenced. The creatures were melee creatures and didn't seem to carry any weapons; they ran right up to them and gave off an energy pulse but Sidda had the others back up and pick them off with relative ease. Alone they were easy to defeat but the three of them got the impression that if they swarmed it was bad news.
It didn't take too long to clear these creatures out leaving the three of them one more mystery. What the hell were they? They looked like they used to be Humans and Sidda got this sinking feeling that they were the colonists, in all the things that she'd heard about the Geth she'd never heard of anything like this. There was an occasional skirmish that surfaced about Mercs tangling with Geth too close to the Veil but no reports about putting men on spikes.
"What the hell are those?" Ashley asked as Kaidan flipped a dead one over with his foot aiming his pistol at it.
Sidda got closer and crouched down to get a better look. "No clue." She replied quietly and tapped her comm. "Nihlus, do you copy?"
"Go ahead, Commander, I heard more gunfire…are you okay?" Nihlus answered promptly.
"We just had an unsettling encounter." She said. "Have you found any giant spike about 20 feet tall, lovingly topped with humanoid creatures?" she asked and stood up straight backing away from the dead creature.
"I've seen the spikes but nothing on them." He said and Sidda scanned the area, this mission was getting creepier and creepier by the second.
"I don't like this, Nihlus, something is very, very wrong." She stated not afraid to voice her gut feeling to him. "I think they're the colonists…the Geth are…transforming them somehow, I'm not sure."
Nihlus paused in his movement to kneel down and examine a disabled Geth, it had been peppered thoroughly with weapons fire, and its light had been shot out completely no doubt the culprit for its current disabled state. He looked ahead seeing two dead human soldiers, members of the 212, he had passed a few other bodies flying Alliance colors and displaying the markings of the 212 Marine Detachment. "I understand, Sidda, thanks for the warning." He stated and rose to his feet looking ahead of him, his keen eyesight able to narrow down his destination. While Sidda had been busy encountering Geth at every turn he used her distraction to move freely, if the Geth were concentrated on her they weren't looking for him. He didn't like using Sidda as bait or placing her in that much harm's way but he knew she was tough enough to handle it. For a biotic she was more tactically adept than anyone else he'd ever met. "I can see the Spaceport…I'm going on ahead." Nihlus said and Sidda cursed.
"No, Nihlus, wait for me." She stated and looked back to Ashley. "How far from the Spaceport, Chief?"
"Right up the road, Commander, five minutes tops." Ashley replied and Sidda relayed that to Nihlus. "Who is this Nihlus?" she asked Kaidan as Sidda continued to bicker with Nihlus.
"A Turian Spectre, best in the galaxy sent to oversee the delivery of the Beacon to the Citadel." Kaidan explained.
"Five minutes, Nihlus, just five minutes. Wait for me." She stated her tone reflecting an order that she knew damn well he was going to ignore.
Nihlus huffed to her insistence that he wait for her but there was no reason to. Now that he knew what he was up against he could adapt and overcome. That was what made him such a great Spectre. "I'll be fine, Commander." He replied and could hear Sidda growl from her position far away from him, she had spent enough around Turians to adopted the Turian temper and learned how to growl with the best of them.
She was going to kill Nihlus, the stubborn son of a bitch. "No, goddamnit, I've got a bad feeling about this. Wait for me." The comm line ended and Sidda cursed a string of colorful metaphors. "Stubborn son of a bitch." She hissed and looked back to Ashley and Kaidan. "Double time it."
For as big as Nihlus was he moved quietly, Sidda was going to kill him for being so stubborn but that wasn't something he worried about. He knew what he was doing and didn't need Sidda mothering him. As he approached the station he saw a figure and dropped down behind a crate to decide how he was going to approach this. He came out of cover and trained his rifle on the figure; Nihlus paused surprised when he recognized who the person was.
"Saren?" he stated his tone mired in surprise. He wasn't supposed to be here, this was his mission not Sarens…why would the Council send him as well?
The other Spectre turned toward him. "Nihlus." Saren stated his voice cold, as it usually was. Contrary to the popular belief, Saren was a very charming and charismatic turian and Nihlus knew him well. He was like a brother to him. That being said Nihlus could hear something off in his voice. He attributed it the argument they had after hearing Nihlus had nominated a human for the Spectres. Saren's extreme hate for the Humans caused a rift between them and the last time they spoke it wasn't very friendly.
Saren looked different, a few years ago he was severely injured in combat and as a result he had several synthetic implants on his jaw and mandible. Nihlus knew he had more synthetic pieces as a result from that explosion but that didn't account for the obviously synthetic left arm. "What happened to your arm?" he asked and eyed the arm. It bore a striking resemblance to the Geth he examined on the way in.
Saren's expression didn't change. There was something off about how he was acting but Nihlus couldn't put his finger on it. "Just a prosthetic…a lot has happened since we last saw each other."
Nihlus didn't buy that but Saren was his teacher, his friend. He had no reason to feel threatened by him but his presence remained a mystery that he couldn't explain. "This isn't your mission, Saren. What are you doing here?" he asked relaxing and walking toward him.
Saren stood face to face with his protégé. "The Council thought you could use some help on this one." Saren replied and patted Nihlus' right shoulder with his good arm.
"I wasn't expecting to find the Geth here." Nihlus commented, he wondered why the Council would send another Spectre out on such a simple mission. They had no idea about the attack until they reached orbit, so as far as he knew the only people who knew that Eden Prime was under attack was the crew of the Normandy. Something didn't add up. "The situation is bad." He finished as Saren circled around presumably checking the perimeter for more Geth to show up.
Saren truly could have gone the rest of his life without seeing Nihlus on this planet but of course the one person who finds him was the one person he never meant to harm. "Don't worry. I've got everything under control." He stated and drew his Spectre pistol aiming it at the back of his friends head. One simple action would change him forever.
Nihlus spied movement in the direction he knew Sidda was coming from and could see the yellow stripes on her armor like a pulsing beacon.
Sidda made her way toward the Spaceport Ashley said the Beacon had been moved to and now they were finally regrouping with Nihlus. Odds were that he was already waiting for her to get there, he may have been irritatingly stubborn but he was fast as hell. "Hurry up." She said over her shoulder at a level that both Kaidan and Ashley could hear but not loud enough to announce her presence to everyone else in the area. As she approached the crest of the hill she looked down over the station and saw Nihlus standing with his back to another figure, he looked like a Turian…a very odd Turian. It dawned on Sidda that it was Saren, Nihlus' mentor and fellow Spectre, but panic spiked within her as she saw Saren aiming a pistol at the back of Nihlus' head.
A single shot rang out from the pistol and Sidda watched in horror as the round ripped through Nihlus' skull producing a blue mist of blood. Sidda could hear someone scream 'no' but it took a second for her brain to realize that person was her. Nihlus' body crumpled forward to the floor and Sidda drew her pistol as fast as she could. Her scream obviously startled Saren and Sidda fired as soon as she sighted him. Her round didn't miss but it only grazed Saren knocking his shields down.
Kaidan and Ashley appeared next to her as Geth poured out of everywhere covering Saren's escape. The firefight was one for the ages, the only thing Sidda and her squad could see was a ton of Geth making their way up the hill toward them.
Sidda tossed out some of the most impressive biotics that she could think of. Between her and Kaidan there were dark energy explosions that shook the ground. The onslaught of Geth was enormous but it didn't seem to stop Sidda, the strength of her powers tore the Geth to pieces like they were nothing at all. More creatures seemed to come out of nowhere and swarmed them but they were no match for the powerful, fury filled biotics Sidda wielded.
The level of biotic destruction was unheard of; Kaidan was a powerful biotic and being an L2 he was probably more powerful than Sidda was on any given day…except today…Sidda's anger amplified her power to the point she rivaled any Asari. Once Sidda was satisfied with the demise of the Geth that advanced on them she made a swift bee line for Nihlus shooting the Geth that were still moving along the way.
She sprinted at her top speed to Nihlus. "Nihlus!" Sidda yelled seeing his body. "Oh no, no, no, no, no." she said crashing down to her knees next to his motionless body. He wasn't dead. Nihlus couldn't die; he was the Spectre of Spectres and had survived worse. There was a pool of blood under his head and he wasn't breathing, she rolled him onto his back and let out a dreaded cry. "Oh no. Damnit." She said her voice showing the emotions she was feeling. She had a short list of true friends and he was one of them. The exit wound was just above his left eye. "God damnit!" she blurted trying to contain tears. "I told you to wait for me, you stubborn son of a bitch."
"Commander." Kaidan said trying to be gentle about it. "We have to go."
Sidda didn't understand, the last time she checked Saren and Nihlus were on the same team. Why would Saren do this? That wasn't her only question. The other one was what the hell was he doing here? Eden Prime wasn't exactly a tourist hotspot for Turians and as far as she knew the only Turian assigned was Nihlus. These were questions she'd happily ask Saren when she caught his ass. The interrogation that Nihlus went through would pale in comparison to what she was going to do to Saren.
Sidda set her jaw and looked down at the body of her friend. His striking colony markings were forever blemished by the exit wound above his right eye. "I'm sorry, Nihlus."
"Commander, we need to go." Ashley said and, while Kaidan's gentle prodding didn't bother her, Ashley's garnered a glare.
Sidda got to her feet and stalked toward Ashley. "Where's the fucking beacon?" she demanded her tone exceptionally harsh. Her body language was aggressive and Ashley stood up a little straighter unsure about how to take the threatening behavior from Sidda.
"They probably moved it to the secondary platform." She answered. "Easier to pick up and more secure."
"Then let's go." She snapped readying her Avenger. Ashley didn't question and scurried out first since she knew where she was going. Kaidan looked Sidda up and down, he didn't know her well but he could deduce that she was fairly pissed off. She considered Nihlus a friend and he couldn't blame her for being angry, hell, if he saw a friend of his executed before his eyes he'd be pissed off too.
On the secondary cargo train Sidda paced like a caged lion, she'd spent so much time with the Turians that she had started to act like them when they were angry. The learned behavior from Victus, Cerrus, and Nov was heavily reflected to those who knew what to look for but to Kaidan and Ashley she just looked like one determined bitch. She checked her rifle for the third time as the cargo train slowed to the secondary platform.
"Lead the way, Chief." She ordered coldly and followed the Marine down the first set of stairs. Kaidan brought up the rear scanning the area to make sure they didn't miss anything or get flanked by the enemy.
As they moved cautiously his Omni-tool beeped. He tapped it to check what it had found. "Commander, wait." Kaidan said as he tapped the holographic interface a few times to get a better idea of what he was looking at.
Sidda stopped sharply and looked back at him the determination on her face to catch Saren was almost unsettling. "What do you mean wait?"
Kaidan examined his Omni-tool. "I'm picking up thermal explosives." He stated and moved around to follow the indicator on his Omni-tool. He found the source and knelt down next to it. "It's a bomb, Commander."
"Bomb?" she questioned a little surprised that Saren or the Geth or whoever was the ringleader of this mess planted explosives on the spaceport.
"Yes, Ma'am." Kaidan replied and Sidda grumbled and saw movement from the other side of the platform. She recognized her target and the urge to kill him surged.
"Saren!" she shouted loudly trying to draw his attention as she fired, all but forgetting about what Kaidan had said. The shot hit his barriers and she cursed firing again and again hoping she could knock his barriers down. It was news to her that he was a damn biotic. The only biotic Turian she'd ever met was Desala but like any other species they did exist. Saren returned fire but only a few shots before ducking around a corner and left her line of sight. "Fuck!" she cursed, she wasn't about to lose him…that bastard was going to answer for the murder he just committed. "Let's go!"
"Commander," Kaidan called. "the bomb. We have to disarm it."
Sidda warred with herself; the side that wanted to exact swift justice on Saren no matter the consequences was tempered by the rational side that told her she needed to do her job. "Damnit…" she cursed watching Saren get further and further away. She growled out of frustration and turned toward Kaidan. "Disarm it." She barked to him her tone angry and frustrated.
"Commander, Geth, three o clock." Ashley announced making Sidda take up a cover position.
"Work fast, Alenko." She ordered as the weapons fire commenced toward the Geth that started approaching, obviously covering Saren's escape.
The Sentinel knew his job, he wasn't an engineer but he did have a knack for technology. "Commander, I'm picking up three more charges. Any one of them could level the area and destroy the Beacon."
Sidda grumbled, there was no way she could catch Saren now. "Fine, lets locate them and shut them down." She stated. The benefit to the cargo train platform was that it effectively funneled the Geth to them in a line. Two of the bombs were in that line and disarmed along the way, Kaidan was good she gave him that but it still didn't make her feel any better. Saren slipped away leaving his horde of Geth to cover his escape.
Ashley was proving to be a nice recruit; the soldier was very adept at her job. Her combat was adequate and she was a hell of a shot. The jury was still out on if Sidda liked her personally, but as a solider she couldn't fault her.
"One more to go, Commander." Kaidan announced as they moved up following his Omni-tool to the final explosive. Its location was a little harder to cover as the last group of Geth was guarding the area where the Beacon was. The sheer number of Geth was starting to overwhelm them in a tactically bad area. Sidda's shockwave pulsed through the ground knocking unshielded Geth off their feet but a bigger one closed in on her and got within arm's length. Sidda grunted as she was knocked back by a backhanded strike from its rifle. She mustered all the biotic power she could into a throw and hit the large Geth square in the chest blasting it backward away from her. The strain of that hit coursed through her brain, there was certainly a migraine going to form from that.
In the distance she saw the large unidentified ship lift off, Sidda cursed, if that was Saren's ship he was now far beyond her reach. The Geth did their job well and now she was going to turn them into scrap metal. Her anger now fueled her biotics and somewhere along the line she forgot about saving the colony from a Geth attack…she didn't care anymore. Her main focus was killing Saren because he shot Nihlus in the back of the head.
When the last Geth fell she turned to follow the giant crustacean looking ship ascending from the planet. She lost him, she had Saren within her grasp but she let him go. It was unsettling to realize that she was willing to sacrifice the colony to avenge her friend, a Turian, she knew people who would lynch her for that thought but she couldn't help it. Witnessing Nihlus' 'execution' wasn't something she was going to forget anytime soon.
Sidda couldn't help but think of Nihlus and his untimely end; she was upset but had a job to do. The Spaceport was secure, the Geth were destroyed but she lost Saren, the unknown ship, and the reason for the attack on Eden Prime. She glowered at the alien device and felt like destroying it right then and there. "Nihlus died for this?" she snapped looking at the Beacon sitting on the platform. "Shepard to Normandy…"
Kaidan heard her but stepped closer to the Beacon studying it, after a moment something came over him. The sound of Sidda's voice melted away and he felt like he was drifting away, entranced by the Beacon. Sidda finished her order to pick them up to Joker and she glowered at Ashley, she still didn't know what to make of her…honestly she didn't trust her. As she listened to the Chief talk Sidda spied Kaidan getting closer to the beacon but something wasn't right. She reacted and pushed past Ashley then grabbed Kaidan pulling him back from the Beacon. She didn't mean to make him crash to the ground but the Lieutenant did and Sidda tried to back away from the alien machine but the forces controlling it ensnared her instead. Sidda was paralyzed and she lost all sense of what was going on around her.
"Commander!" Kaidan shouted as he shot back to his feet and moved to pull her back.
"No, no! Don't touch her!" Ashley stated pulling him back.
Sidda's body was ridged and about two feet off the ground. She was grunting involuntarily and seemed to be in pain, they had no idea what was going on but Sidda knew nothing about what was going on around her. Flashes of unknown images flood her mind; they were confusing, horrific, and overwhelming. The beacon exploded and blasted Sidda backward a good 10 feet causing her topple head over heels before coming to rest on her stomach unconscious.
"Commander?" Kaidan exclaimed rushing to her side and rolling her over gently. "Commander, can you hear me?"
Sidda was completely unconscious; whatever the beacon had done to her incapacitated her on every level.
Kaidan paced in the Medical Bay looking at Sidda's still body. It had been nearly 16 hours since she was rendered unconscious by the Prothean Beacon, 16 hours since their mission took a catastrophic turn for the worse. He and Ashley radioed the Normandy and had to tell Anderson just how badly things had gone. They collected what bodies they could, including that of Jenkins and Nihlus, and transported them to the Normandy but even the frigate couldn't take all the dead. The Alliance was contacted to send aid to the Colony as they set course for the Citadel.
For hours Sidda didn't move, she was just still. He eyed her as he paced around worried about her, she'd been unconscious too long…something had to be wrong.
He could see her dog tag hanging loose over her clothing; he spied a pendent hanging off the chain that resembled a Turian Colony pin. Vyrnnus carried one but it looked much different, obviously a different colony. Seeing the pendent confirmed the rumors he'd heard that Sidda was a mate or lover of a Turian. The Turian General she served under on the Lante. He blinked and looked away from the tags after realizing he was staring and brought himself back to the current situation.
Anderson was not pleased with the outcome of a mission that he believed would be relatively easy for a Spectre and the great Cdr. Shepard to conduct and had grilled Kaidan for nearly an hour about just what the hell went wrong. Geth sighting, a colony destroyed along with a working Prothean Beacon, and a Council Spectre dead was the epitome of a bad mission. Kaidan did what he could to fill in the blanks but Anderson wanted to hear the full version from Sidda.
Sidda was dreaming, more like having a nightmare. The same repeated images flashed through her mind, graphic horrible scenes of an alien race being ripped apart like a video feed set on a loop. It was burned into her mind, something that she would never forget but perhaps that was the intent. She got the distance impression that this was a warning of some kind but she couldn't put it together. The images started to drift away but were by no means gone and she felt herself start to wake up hearing a voice that she recognized, it was Kaidan's.
"Dr. Chakwas, I think she's waking up." He said and Sidda opened her eyes seeing both Kaidan and Dr. Chakwas looking down at her.
"Commander?" Chakwas questioned as she opened her eyes and brought everything into focus. "Commander, can you hear me?" she asked as Sidda started to move around more. Sidda simply nodded to Chakwas as she attempted to sit up. "How do you feel?"
Sidda's head was pounding, she had ranked the worst headaches she'd ever had…this one fell somewhere around the after effects of Oriso and drunken debacle at Oblivion. "Like the morning after shore leave with a bunch of Turians." She groaned as she hands went to her temples. "What…what happened?"
"The Beacon…it did something to you." Kaidan stated and Sidda started to remember the events that unfolded. "I was careless, Commander, I got too close to the Beacon and must have triggered some kind of automatic defense." He stated and Sidda commended his admission that it was his fault even though she was pretty certain it wasn't.
"No." Sidda said and grimaced to the throb that went from the left temple to the right and then back again. "It's alright, Lieutenant, you didn't do anything wrong."
Kaidan allowed a smile to appear for a second then covered it up. "You pushed me out of the way and it did something to you…then it exploded."
"You've been unconscious for nearly 16 hours, Commander, Lt. Alenko carried you back to the ship." Chakwas added and Sidda looked over her shoulder to him and nodded her appreciation.
"Thanks." She said softly trying not to upset her throbbing head any more than it already was.
The rest of the mission came back to her and she came to the memory of Nihlus. "What about Nihlus?" she asked quickly and felt a slight pang of guilt for asking about him and not the soldier she had lost.
Kaidan shifted his weight from foot to foot and cleared his throat. "We recovered his body, along with Jenkins and few others…I'm sorry, Commander."
"Commander, can you tell me what the Beacon did to you?" Chakwas asked trying to steer the conversation back to the medical mystery that shrouded her for the past 16 hours. "Your brain waves registered unusual delta waves…were you dreaming?"
Sidda scoffed as she rubbed the back of her neck in the hopes to make the pain in her head dull away. "I think nightmare is more apt a description, Doc." She stated and shuddered as she thought of those horrible images again. "It was…a vision…I guess…a vision of death. Our death maybe, I'm not really sure."
The door to the Med Bay opened and Anderson walked in, as Alenko stood at attention Sidda would take the reprimand and remained precariously slouched on the bed. "Doctor, how is she?"
"With a little rest, she'll be fine." Chakwas stated and that was all Anderson needed to hear.
"Excuse us, both of you, I need to speak with the Commander." He stated and Chakwas walked out with Kaidan. "Do you mind telling me what the hell happened down there?" he asked even before Kaidan and Chakwas left the room.
Sidda had but one answer to that and it wasn't the one that Anderson was going to want to hear but she said it anyway. "I have no clue." She replied. "I would have bet money on seeing Pirates, Slavers, Mercs, hell Santa Claus down there but Geth? Geth…of all the things to attack a colony so far from the Veil."
"And what the hell is this I hear about Nihlus being killed by another Spectre?" he continued as Sidda remained in her position sitting on the bed. She still hadn't found the energy to get up and move around.
"By Saren." She stated firmly and Anderson's facial expression twisted to confusion.
"Saren?" he asked. "You're sure?"
Sidda nodded, that she would remember until the day she died. "Absolutely. I remember seeing him on the Lante after we rescued Nihlus from Ihm'Shal…Nov told me his name was Saren. Unmistakable, that son of a bitch put a gun to Nihlus' head and pulled the fucking trigger."
Anderson's personal dealings with Saren told him that she was probably telling the truth. "The Council won't believe this." He stated. "Saren is their top agent they'll never believe he executed his protégé let alone a fellow Spectre." Sidda got up off the bed now fairly aggravated; she didn't care about the Council or the Colony, now she had one mission and one mission alone: to kill Saren, end of story. "And the Beacon was destroyed, the Council won't like that either."
Sidda growled and started toward the back room of the Medical Bay, the designated Morgue. "Then they're just going to have to get used to fucking disappointment." She snapped and opened the door. She felt her heart sink and deep well of anger start to surge as she saw Nihlus' body on one of the tables, she clearly remembered his last moments the blue mist that sprayed as the round exited his forehead. "I'm going to kill Saren." She stated confidently and closed the door.
"You can't strong arm the Council, Commander, they'll need proof." Anderson stated as Sidda turned toward him. "And you will cool your jets before you talk to anyone and that's an order." He stated making Sidda glare quietly. "We should be at the Citadel soon…I'll speak to Udina about getting us an audience with the Council and I want you there."
Sidda nodded heeding his advice to calm down. "And what about what the Beacon showed me? My vision…I guess. I'm damn sure that was a warning." She asked and Anderson had the same opinion that she had at the back of her mind.
"Keep it as our ace. They Council might not believe you…hell I'm not even sure I believe you." He stated and Sidda couldn't blame him there, if she wasn't the one having the vision she'd probably not believe it either. "We should be nearing the Citadel, I suggest you prepare."
Sidda nodded and quietly made her way out of the Medical Bay. What she wouldn't give to go back and do this whole mission over again, she'd given anything to save Nihlus. It killed her to know that if she had just been a little more forceful with him she could have been there to back him up, she could have saved him, been there to watch his back and prevent someone from putting a round in it. He just got married and she didn't even want to think about Rajin learning about this, there was a strong possibility that Rajin was going to blame her for this and she couldn't fault her there. Sidda regretted not attending the ceremony, right now she regretted a lot of things, and her friend's death was her fault.
She stopped at her locker and glanced over her shoulder to see Ashley, it was odd to see the Marine out of her armor but she looked like any other female Marine she'd ever met. The hair was pulled back into an inverted braid and she was slim but fit. Taller than Sidda by a few inches she had jet black hair, tanned skin, and dark eyes. Sidda furrowed her brow not really clear why she was on board. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, her tone the aggressive one she had when she wasn't in the mood to be diplomatic. Another trait she learned from her Turian family.
Ashley let the tone slide, this time, and answered. "Capt. Anderson wanted me to come along; he thought you might be able to use me."
Sidda scoffed, so far she wasn't overly impressed. "Can't imagine why." She muttered and Ashley became defensive to her tone.
"Do you have a problem with me, Commander?" she asked and Sidda closed the locker and turned toward her.
"I have a problem with incompetent soldiers." She growled and Ashley took offense to that, she could tell by the body language. "So far you've only proven to me that you cut and run when 'you think' your squad is dead."
"Begging the Commanders pardon but you were not there. You didn't see your squad cut to pieces and slaughtered by the Geth." She snapped and Sidda had to give her props for that, at least she has some backbone and stood up for herself. "I'm here by Andersons' orders not yours so take it up with him, ma'am." She snapped but kept the last bit as respectful as she could given the tone of the conversation.
"Commander?" Kaidan called drawing Sidda's attention from the Marine before her. At least Ashley had a backbone but she had a ways to go if she wanted to impress Sidda. She walked away from her and was paced by Kaidan asking about why they were heading to the Citadel. She was pleased to hear that biotic had been there before as she had never had the pleasure. Not even serving on the Lante, it seemed they went everywhere else but there.
While Ashley garnered Sidda's loathing Kaidan had the opposite effect, he was a hell of a soldier from what she had seen so far. He was good with the technical aspects and an extremely powerful biotic, there were no other Human biotics more powerful than the L2s. No one had told her officially but that is what she guessed. He had to be an L2 biotic; if he was he was a lucky one.
"Kaidan," she said pausing before she left for the CIC. "thanks for getting me out of there."
Kaidan nodded with a smile. "Anytime, Commander." He stated and Sidda gave him a nod before turning to leave again. "And…Commander," he began making her stop and turn toward him. "I'm glad it was you down there."
Sidda scoffed. "I lost two people and the beacon, how are you proud of that?" she asked and Kaidan cocked his head.
"You salvaged what you could out of bad situation." He stated and Sidda sighed to the platitude. "I'm proud to have you as my commander."
A smile graced her face and she extended her had to him. "Thank you." She replied as he shook her hand before walking away to the CIC. Her mind still clouded by losing her friend and couldn't shake the notion that his death was her fault. Of all the things that happened, that hit her the most, part of her was disgusted with herself for taking the death of a Turian harder than losing an entire colony. She was willing to sacrifice the Beacon and the colony and let those bombs go off just to get to Saren. Lucky for her Kaidan was there to keep her on track, this wasn't over…not by a long shot, Saren was still out there and she had a round with his name on it.
Post Script: Nihlus fans...I do apologize. When I outlined this whole story in its entirety I agonized over this for days. I did not come to it lightly. Mija002 my dear...I do apologize.