4
Interview with Admiral David Anderson
"The mission to Eden Prime was a powder keg waiting to go off. Shepard and his team went in with no backup, no extraction point, and no intelligence besides the fact that the excavation site was crawling with hostiles. But they went in anyway."
"Some would deem that unwise."
"I was one of them. But we didn't have a choice. We needed the information from that beacon and we needed to find out just what was going on down there. Shepard was more than willing to brave the unknown factors to get us those answers."
"Admirable of him."
"I would say so. But it wasn't the Commander's first dangerous mission. And God knows it wasn't his last."
Normandy Cargo Bay
Shepard double-checked his pistol, then hooked the weapon to his belt and pulled his combat helmet over his head. Jenkins flanked his left, while Alenko was suiting up on his right. They worked in complete silence until Kaidan cleared his throat and said, "So, Jenkins, how does it feel coming back home?"
"It's not technically home," Jenkins replied. "I grew up on the other side of the planet. But I guess it's nice to be back. I can't believe something is going to happen here, though. Nothing happens here."
"I saw that video with my own eyes," Shepard said, picking up an Avenger assault rifle in its compact mode. "Something is going on down there. You ready for this?"
"Aye, sir," Jenkins said. Kaidan responded with a silent, grim nod. They finished gearing up just as Anderson and Nihlus stepped onto the deck. The three marines turned and saluted, maintaining position as the captain and the Spectre came to a halt in front of them. Anderson nodded to them and they slowly relaxed.
"This is it, gentlemen," Anderson said. The deck shook,then smoothed out as the Normandy broke into Eden Prime's upper atmosphere. Shepard could feel the acceleration in the pit of his stomach as they began to descend to the planet's surface. "This is your objective: get down to the planet's surface, find the beacon, and secure it for excavation and transport."
"What about potential hostiles, sir?"
"This is not a tactical operation. We don't know what we're dealing with so do not fire unless fired upon. We're not interested in starting a war."
"What about survivors?" Alenko ventured. "The marine detachment can't be the only people left in the colony."
"Of course the Alliance wants to rescue these people," Anderson said, "but as of right now that is a secondary objective. Your mission is the find the beacon and secure it for transport. Anything else is a liability to that mission. Understood?"
"Understood, Captain."
"Good." The captain looked up and said, "Joker, lower the exit ramp."
"Aye aye."
There was a deep rumble and a deafening clank before the wall-sized exit ramp of the ship broke its seal and lowered, flooding the landing bay with warm orange-red light. Shepard's visor automatically tinted against the sudden glare, protecting his eyes. He still squinted against the light until he could make out his first glimpse of Eden Prime: glistening water that reflected the smoke-stained orange sky, and steep rocky cliffs stretching out over the sea.
Nihlus wasn't paying attention to any of this and was instead arming himself. He quickly grabbed a pistol and a standard-issue military shotgun, green eyes blazing. If Shepard didn't know better, he would say the turian looked worried.
"Are you coming with, Nihlus?" Jenkins called. He had obviously also noticed the turian's actions.
He shook his spined head as he hooked the shotgun to the magnetic clamp at the small of his back. "I move faster on my own. And on a mission of this magnitude, I can't risk you three slowing me down."
"Wow," Alenko muttered. "That's only mildly offensive."
"I'll scout out the area ahead," Nihlus continued, "and meet your team at the secondary excavation site."
"Yes sir."
Nihlus waited until the ship was hovering around ten meters over the ground. Nihlus broke into a jog, then leaped right off the edge of the landing ramp. He landed hard on the ground, carving out a sharp crater in the top of the cliff . He then straightened and took of at a quick sprint toward the treeline.
"Well he's... excited," Alenko observed.
"You all know your missions, men," Anderson said. "Get down there, secure the beacon, and make it back in one piece. Understood?"
Shepard saluted, followed quickly by Jenkins and Alenko. "Yes sir."
Joker guided the ship gently down, lining up the landing ramp with the ragged edge of the cliff face. He then said over their helmet comms, "We're good to go. We'll drop you guys off, then head to low orbit and keep an eye on things from above. Good luck out there."
"Roger that, Flight Lieutenant," Shepard said. He pulled the assault rifle from the magnetic clamp on the back of his armor. He cautiously stepped down the exit ramp, grimacing against the downdraft of the Normandy's engines. He signaled for Alenko and Jenkins to fan out and secure the area. He hopped across the short gap between the landing ramp and the cliff, stepping up to a nearby rocky outcropping and taking cover behind it.
The air was warm and he could hear the crash of waves against the cliff face behind him. The area ahead was deserted, the treeline seeming to sway as leaves fluttered in the breeze. In all, the scene looked completely peaceful. But beyond the forest, there were several plumes of jet black smoke rising up into the air, evidence of fire or a recent battle. Shepard checked the position of the smoke against his HUD database and noted, unsurprised, that it was coming from the primary excavation site.
He stood, satisfied they were alone, and put two fingers to the comm unit in his helmet. "This is Shepard. We're clear, Joker."
"Roger that. Pulling out."
With a roar and a blast of blue-white light from its multiple drive engines, the Normandy rose up and sped away into the sky, disappearing into the orange-tinted clouds. In moments, they were alone.
"Well," Alenko sighed, rising from cover as well. "No turning back now."
Shepard nodded. "Jenkins, take point. You grew up here. You know the terrain better than anyone else here. Take us to the dig site."
"Um... okay," the young marine said. "I'm not really familiar with this area of the planet, but... I think I can lead you to the right place."
He looked around, gathering his bearings, then pointed to the northeast and said, "Uh... this way."
They set off at a slow but steady pace, ready for any trouble. If the message they had received prior to landing was accurate, there was a hostile military presence in the colony. Shepard knew they wouldn't stay hidden for long.
As they made for the trees, Alenko nudged his shoulder and nodded to several large plumes of smoke rising into the sky several miles away. "Think that's the colony?"
"It's a safe bet," Shepard said grimly. "That's the rough location of the dig site."
Alenko sighed. "Everything I ever heard of Eden Prime said this place was paradise. It's a shame this happened."
Shepard was silent, only raising his rifle and squinting through the sight into the trees. The advanced targeting system picked out several warm-blooded creatures darting through the trees, but they didn't look like anything other than local wildlife; some kind of multilegged, deer-like creature.
"Was it like this on..." Alenko hesitated, then murmured, "Never mind."
Shepard shook his head. "Akuze was nothing but desert. It was nothing like this."
"Oh. Sorry."
"It's all right, Lieutenant. I appreciate the concern."
"It's just that... well, I know how hard it is to move on after stuff like that," Alenko murmured. "And we need everyone on this team in top condition for this op. Don't want to let down the Spectre and end up discharged, right?"
"Discharged," Shepard echoed. "Right."
He had yet to tell anyone on the crew about Nihlus' secondary purpose: to observe Shepard in action for potential induction into the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance Force. He didn't know how the crew would react, though he was sure Jenkins wouldn't appreciate Shepard being granted the opportunity he so obviously wanted.
Besides, Shepard didn't even know if Nihlus would submit his name for review. He still didn't believe the turian was as open-minded as he claimed. In his experience, turians harbored nothing but resentment for humans and would not allow mankind to gain any kind of foothold in the galaxy. Nihlus, for all his talk of maintaining galactic stability, didn't seem happy to break that trend.
Jenkins suddenly raised his fist, bringing them to a halt. Shepard ducked behind a tree, finger gripping the trigger of his Avenger rifle. The HUD in his combat helmet began scanning the area and picked out more than seven anomalous contacts. They appeared as red dots on his motion tracker, slowly but steadily moving closer to his position.
Looking over, he saw Alenko crouching behind an outcropping of rock, pistol raised in anticipation, one fist glowing with a blue smoky substance as he charged his biotics. He nodded, signaling that he was ready for combat if need be.
Shepard double-checked that his rifle was using the prototype incendiary anti-personnel rounds he had brought for this mission, then leaned back against the tree and took a deep breath, watching the contacts drift closer and closer, ready to encircle his team.
He sent a text-only message to Jenkins' and Alenko's HUDs: Don't fire until I give order. Keep calm/quiet.
They checked in with affirmations of his order. The contacts were only about two meters out now and approaching Jenkins' position fast. He could hear Jenkins anxious panting from his position a few trees away. He sent another text-based message. Keep calm, Jenkins.
Yes sir.
There was a moment of utter silence, then a strange warbling grumble. Jenkins shouted, "Jesus Christ!" and there was a sudden burst of rifle fire.
Shepard was about to order Alenko to open fire when a pulsating mass of pale beige skin and whip-like tentacles. Shepard cursed and threw himself away, bringing his Avenger to bear on the creature. But before he could fire, he heard Alenko shouting, "Wait! Wait!"
Shepard hesitated, then lowered his rifle. The creature flailed its tentacles, bobbing up and down in mid-air as the baggy portions on its back seemed to inflate and deflate again. It "stared" at Shepard for a few seconds, though it didn't have any eyes that Shepard could see, then made another warbling call and floated off. A few moments later, several others followed it.
Alenko slowly rose from his position behind the rocks, watching intently as one of the creatures floated toward him. He cocked his head and holstered his pistol. "Sorry Shepard, but these things don't look all that dangerous. I don't even know what they are."
"Jenkins," Shepard said, "What are we looking at here?
"Gas Bags," Jenkins said, sheepishly reloading his rifle. "They're harmless, but-"
Before he could finish, Alenko reached out and curiously poked the creature. It let out a high-pitched whine, then exploded into a shower of slime and green smoke. Kaidan cursed and jumped back, too late to keep from being drenched in the foul-smelling slime. The empty husk of the creature hit the ground with a wet plop.
"...but you shouldn't touch them," Jenkins slowly continued, a disgusted grimace on his face. "They're.. volatile."
Kaidan glared at the marine as he stood, slime dripping off his armor in long, thick tendrils. "Thanks a lot, Corporal. Next time, be a little more on top of your intel."
"Sorry, sir. Gas Bags float along by inflating flesh pockets of methane. If you bump them, they burst those pockets as a defense mechanism. See, it's already running away."
Shepard saw the remains of the creature were indeed sluggishly slithering away, back toward the forest. He knelt, watching its progress. "I can't tell if that's disgusting or fascinating."
"Fascinating," Kaidan growled, wiping away slime that had splattered his face through his open-visored helmet. "That's not the word I'd use."
"Yeah," Jenkins said slowly. "And.. well, you're going to want to find a place to wash that off, sir. Gas Bags are kinda like the skunks of Eden Prime. If you don't get it off, that smell will sink into your armor and you'll never get it out."
Shepard grimaced, already catching a waft of the pungent, putrid stench. "Thanks for the head's-up, Jenkins. Come on Alenko. Next stream we stop at, you're getting a field bath."
"Ugh," Alenko muttered, wiping a thick glob of muck off his shoulder pad. "Aye aye, sir. No complaint from me."
Shepard grimaced one more time, then motioned ahead. "Let's move on. It's still a long hike to the excavation site and Nihlus has a hell of a head start."
As they moved on, Jenkins grinned at Kaidan and said, "Still, that was pretty funny, huh Lieutenant? You just got farted on by an alien. How's it feel?"
Kaidan replied only with a dark glare.
They set off again, wary for any more exploding wildlife. For the next few minutes they walked on in uneventful silence, deviating only to avoid more clusters of the exploding Gas Bags. After some time they found a slow-moving stream and stopped for a bit to allow Alenko to wash his armor. The washing removed most of the now-dried and encrusted slime, but it didn't help with the smell.
"You know," Shepard said, leaning against a nearby tree trunk as Alenko powered down his helmet and scrubbed at it with a cleansing pad, "if there are hostiles nearby, you're going to give away our position just from the smell."
"With all due respect," Alenko sighed, "shut up, Commander. You were inches from one of those slime bags."
"Gas Bags," Jenkins corrected from further up the path.
"Whatever. The point is, you were just as likely to get covered in this stuff as me."
Shepard shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. "I had the common sense not to poke a potentially hostile alien life form."
"Yeah... I guess you're right," Alenko said, peeling a layer of sludge off the dome of his helmet. "Lesson learned."
He tossed the chunk of dried slime into the stream, then stood and replaced his helmet. "All right. That's as good as we're going to get. Ready to go, Commander."
Shepard nodded and they set off again, following a winding dirt path through the forest that would eventually lead them to the outskirts of the secondary excavation site. His helmet's motion tracker and radio scanner wasn't picking up anything out of place. In fact, nothing seemed wrong at all save for the dark plumes of smoke on the horizon.
"This is eerie," Jenkins said. "I mean, yeah this place is supposed to be under attack. But where is everyone?"
"It is odd, Commander," Alenko observed. "If this really was a battlefield, we'd see some kind of damage. Bodies, bullet marks, explosion craters, something."
"We haven't reached the outskirts of the colony," Shepard said. "If there was an attack, it probably didn't spill out this far."
"But we'd still come across something," Alenko said. "And we aren't getting any messages over comms?"
Shepard shook his head. "All comm channels are dead besides the one we're using to contact Nihlus."
"See, that's weird. The only reason we know about the attack here is because we received a distress call. Why wouldn't they try to contact us?"
"They may be dead," Jenkins said.
"Bullshit," Alenko said. "There were thousands of people in this colony. They can't all be dead."
"We'll all find out soon enough," Shepard said, scowling. "Just keep calm and we'll hit the secondary excavation site in about an hour."
They fell into anxious silence, watching their peripherals for signs of movement. They came across more of the multilegged deer creatures, as well as more groups of Gas Bags, but no hostiles and no colonists.
"So if we do come across any colonists," Jenkins eventually asked, "is there anyone we're looking for in particular?"
"The only confirmed Alliance personnel planetside is Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams," Shepard said. "If possible, she could led us to the beacon and tell us just what the hell is going on here."
"Looking forward to it," Alenko said with a scowl. "I'm looking for some payback."
Shepard looked over at the marine. "You okay, Alenko?"
"Not really. Eden Prime was a peaceful colony. Mostly farms. They don't have anything of value to pirates or slavers. Whoever attacked this place did it just to make chaos. Just for the hell of it."
"Don't forget the beacon," Shepard reminded him. "I find it hard to believe the attack isn't related to this Prothean artifact being discovered. Something of that magnitude is of great value to pirates."
"Doesn't matter who's responsible," Alenko said. "I'll make sure we make them pay."
"Easy, soldier," Shepard said. "Focus on the objective first. We get the beacon out of here, these attackers have no reason to stay. Then we can focus on fighting back."
"Yes sir."
After a long stretch of silence Shepard's comm sudden sprang to life and Nihlus' nasally growl said, "Status report."
Shepard kept his voice low as he reported in. He gestured for Alenko and Jenkins to secure the area some distance up a hill ahead of them. "We're still a ways out from the nearest settlement. Clear for now. No hostiles. You?"
"I've come across a few outlying buildings," the turian snarled. "Bodies everywhere. It looks bad."
"Any survivors?"
"None. And no sign of hostiles."
"Any clues on the bodies?"
"Burns from mass-effect-based plasma weapons. It could be anything, really. Slavers, pirates... It's too early to tell."
"We reasoned along similar lines," Shepard said, "We'll keep an eye out for anything unusual on our end and keep you informed."
"No. We don't know who we're dealing with here. Stay out of radio contact until I tell you otherwise. We don't know who might be listening in."
"Sir," Shepard said slowly, "in a situation like this we don't want to get separated."
"True," Nihlus replied, "but I'm sure you and your team can handle themselves. Or am I mistaken?"
Shepard sighed. "We can handle anything that gets thrown at us, sir. We'll maintain radio silence. Shepard-"
"Commander!" Kaidan suddenly called, appearing over the crest of the hill. "You're going to want to see this."
"Stand by," Shepard said, frowning. He broke into a jog, heading up the hill to where Alenko and Jenkins were standing. The look on Alenko's face told him that it wasn't anything good. When he drew near, the Lieutenant jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said, "We were securing the path ahead and we found... these."
Scattered across a clearing ahead of them were more than ten corpses, scattered about in various positions of fear or agony. Each of the corpses was burnt to a crisp, as if the slightest touch would reduce them to little more than ashes. The trees and grass around them were similarly blackened, as if the entire area had been lit on fire and left to burn.
Jenkins was walking among the corpses, looking a little green. His Avenger was lowered and he was shaking his head. "I've never... never seen anything like this before."
Shepard nodded and triggered his comm again as he surveyed the area, scanning the bodies with his helmet HUD to try and discover the original cause of death. "We've got our first batch of casualties here, sir. Severe burns across every inch of their bodies. There's similar burning across the entire area."
"That's not all," Kaidan said, gesturing further to the north. "Take a look at that."
In the direction Alenko was pointing was a two-kilometer stretch of land that was similarly burned and blackened; trees reduced to twisted, blackened husks, surveillance outposts reduced to rubble, and rocks melted away by extremely high temperatures. All of it was on fire. There was a single long swath of destruction across the forest, almost as far as the eye could see. It was almost as if this small, narrow stretch of land had been bombarded from the air and left to burn.
"Nihlus," Shepard said slowly, unable to tear his eyes from the view. "We've got some kind of remnant of forest fire here. A good two kilometers of forest burned down. Recently, it looks like."
"I've got the same here," was all Nihlus said.
"What could have done this? It's too focused and contained for it to be natural. Could it be some kind of heat-based beam weapon?"
"In all honesty, I don't know," the Spectre said. "And I don't like that."
"What do you want us to do with the bodies?"
"Leave them. Nothing much you can do for them now. Push on to the excavation site. We're losing light fast. We don't want to be separated out here in the dark."
"Roger that," Shepard said, nodding to Alenko and Jenkins and signaling them to move on.
"Remember, radio silence from here on. Contact me only if you come across hostiles."
And with that, the comm channel cut out and the Spectre was gone.
Alenko shook his head. "I'm getting such a bad feeling about this. How are we supposed to stand up to whatever did all this?"
"If all goes to plan," Shepard said, "we won't have to. Keep calm and we'll-"
"Commander!" Jenkins said. "Contacts!"
Shepard jumped into action, instinct taking over more than anything else. He ducked behind a tree and motioned for Kaidan to do the same. His motion tracker indeed showed four contacts heading for their location, much quicker than the Gas Bags they had encountered before. What was more, the new contacts were heading straight for Shepard's position.
"Jenkins," Shepard whispered, "do you have eyes on target?"
"No!" Jenkins hissed. "I can't see them."
Shepard couldn't hear anything besides the call of animals in the forest and the distant rumble of thunder. If the contacts were hostile, they were moving extremely fast and very quiet. Kaidan caught Shepard's gaze, unwilling to speak, and mouthed, Drones?
Shepard shrugged, staring solely at the motion tracker in his helmet. The contacts were only a few meters out now. He tightened his grip on his rifle and thought, We have to make a move, not sit here and wait to get cornered.
He nodded to Kaidan and the man charged his biotics. Shepard counted to three, then threw himself around the tree, raising his rifle and tightening his grip on the trigger. He was about to fire when he saw the blue-gray colors of colonist uniforms.
Shit.
"Hold!" he called, raising a fist to signal his teammates to hold their fire. "Hold!"
Four colonists cowered, tears running down their faces. Two of the colonists were carrying a third between them, his chest covered in blood and the left side of his face burned and blackened. The last colonist was covered in dirt and blood, mud caking the entire left side of his body as if he'd crawled through the dirt for some time. His eyes were wide and terrified and he had his hands raised in submission.
"Don't shoot!" he shouted. "For the love of God, don't shoot, please!"
"Calm down," Shepard said, lowering his rifle. "We're Alliance. We're not here to hurt you."
The man broke down into terrified sobs and fell against Shepard, clutching at his armor. "Oh thank God! Thank God! We heard you talking... prayed it was a rescue team..."
Shepard held the man at arms length. "Sir, what happened here?"
"We're finished!" he cried. "We're all going to die! It's all over!"
"Sir!" Shepard said firmly. "What happened here? Where are the other colonists?"
"Dead!" the man cried. "Dead, dead, dead! They're all dead!"
Kaidan stepped toward the group of other colonists and put a hand on a woman's shoulder. "Ma'am, I'm a combat medic. Can you let me take a look at your friend?"
She nodded numbly and let down the man she was helping carry. Kaidan helped lower the man gently to the ground, then pulled his compact medkit from his belt and began taking diagnostics. After a few moments, he pressed his fingers against the man's throat, checking for a pulse. He sighed, looked up at Shepard, and slowly shook his head.
Shepard closed his eyes for a moment, then firmly gripped the shoulder of the man in front of him and said, "Sir, we're here to help you. But unless you tell me what's happening, we can't do anything. Now what happened here?"
The man opened his dirt-encrusted mouth, looking like he was about to speak, then Shepard heard a low, monotone hum nearby that cut the man off. The dirty man's eyes widened even further and he gasped, "They're... they're coming! They're coming!"
"Who's coming?" Shepard demanded. "Damn it, who's-"
His motion tracker registered six new contacts, heading toward them fast, as if they were floating over the ground. He cursed and raised his Avenger rifle again, making the dirty man scream and scramble back. Shepard gestured for the three colonists to get behind him.
"Alenko, take up position behind that boulder," he ordered, constantly keeping one eye on his motion tracker. "Jenkins, behind that tree. Don't attack until I give the word."
"Sir."
They fanned out to follow his orders. Shepard fell back with the colonists, ordering them to move behind a collection of large rocks behind which they could take cover. He then shouldered his rifle and turned his attention to the path ahead.
"I think this is the real deal," Kaidan called. "They're getting closer. Not slowing down."
"These things are fast," Shepard observed. "Don't waste your ammunition. Short, controlled bursts, all right?"
"Yes sir," Jenkins said nervously.
"Thirty meters..." Alenko reported. "Twenty-five... fifteen..."
"I'm not sure I want to be a Spectre any more," Jenkins muttered. "Seriously."
"Ten... five... here they come!"
As one, they all fell silent. A split second later, four floating, oval-shaped machines flashed over the crest of the hill, making the same loud, wavering hum Shepard had heard earlier. They came to a halt in the middle of the path, bobbing slightly up and down in mid-air and turning back and forth as they seemed to scan the area. From his position, Shepard could see they were definitely mechanical, made of some dull purplish metal he'd never seen before. They had a horizontal rectangular viewfinder at the front of their flat, oval-shaped bodies and had some kind of heavy assault cannon mounted to their underbellies. They turned back and forth, seeming to "speak" to each other in computerized buzzes, hums, and gurgles. As he watched, two more of the drones hovered into sight, obviously watching the group's back.
Shepard tensed. Whatever these things were, they weren't friendly. He raised three fingers, making sure Jenkins and Alenko could see him. He took a deep breath and counted off in his head simultaneously. Three... two... one!
"Now!" he shouted, throwing himself out from cover and opening fire at the drones. They let out a warbling blare of an alarm and loosed blue-white energy fire at him. He ducked as the energy bolts flashed by him, his battle suit's shields absorbing those lucky few that managed to hit him. He somersaulted forward, rolling to his knees behind the cover of a mid-sized boulder in the center of the path and firing at the nearest drone. A hail of bullets hit the machine right in its viewfinder, shattering it. The drone twitched in mid-air, then exploded in a shower of shrapnel.
Alenko charged a fist full of blue-white biotics, then shoved an open hand forward and sent a ball of energy shooting from his palm. It hit one of the other drones in the side, knocking it out of the air. Moments later, it exploded as well. He had to duck back down behind cover as the four remaining drones swiveled and opened fire at him. Jenkins stepped forward to help, but one of the drones swiveled and fired at him, forcing him to move back behind cover as well.
Shepard could hear the colonists behind him crying and whispering among themselves about making a run for it. Shepard turned and shouted, "Do not run. Do not run!"
It was too late; the three colonists sprinted out from behind the rocks, heading back down the hill and toward the forest treeline. Shepard cursed and moved to destroy the remaining drones before they could open fire. He didn't even have time to turn before two of the machines roared past him in hot pursuit, one of them striking his armored shoulder hard enough to knock him off his feet.
"No!" he shouted, clambering back to his feet. He could see the drones open fire at the fleeing colonists. One fleeing figure collapsed under a rain of energy bolts, then another, then finally the third. They sprawled into the dirt and didn't move again. As they finally caught up, the drones slowed to a halt, floating over the still bodies on the ground. Then they opened fire again, pouring energy bolts into the bodies with ruthless precision.
Shepard sprinted back toward his cover behind the rocks, tossing aside his Avenger and pulling his sniper rifle from his back. He sighted in, instinctively propping the rifle against the rock to steady it. He squeezed the trigger once, then twice. The two drones exploded, one after the other.
He turned back to the firefight behind him in time to see Alenko unload an entire pistol magazine into a drone floating over him. It fell back under the barrage of fire before crashing to the ground and bursting into flame. Jenkins, meanwhile, was being pushed back by the last remaining drone. The machine was unloading a constant stream of fire in the direction of the young marine, allowing him no time to return fire.
"Alenko?" Shepard said. The other man was closer to Jenkins and would be more easily able to help him. But Kaidan just shouted a curse, still struggling with the drone he had just destroyed. The drone's cannon was still targeting and firing at him, despite the fact its body had been destroyed. He was hopping back and forth among the trees to keep the cannon from hitting his legs.
Shepard cursed and broke into a sprint, running for the drone that had Jenkins pinned down. He was only a few feet away when a blue-white energy bolt caught Jenkins in the arm, knocking him back a few steps. Three more bolts hit his chest and his shields shorted out with a flash and a crackle of electricity. Another bolt hit him just above the knee, cutting through his armor. He cried out in pain and fell to his hands and knees. The drone hovered closer, preparing for a killing shot.
Shepard didn't give it the chance. He gripped the sniper rifle by the barrel and swung it like a baseball bat. It hit the machine's housing with a loud clang and sent the drone flying, spinning wildly as it went, through the air. It crashed against a tree and exploded, catching the low-hanging branches on fire.
Shepard didn't pause to survey his handiwork. He jogged over to where Jenkins was lying and knelt next to him. He put a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Corporal? Are you all right?"
The marine shook his head. "It hurts... son of a bitch, it hurts."
Shepard looked over his shoulder. "Alenko! Medigel!"
The other man seemed to finally tire of his dance with the cannon. He charged up his biotics, then used the gravitational power to hurl the pieces of drone into the air, over the trees, and out of sight. He took a deep breath, then sprinted over and pulled a tube of medigel from his belt. Wasting no time, he unstrapped Jenkins' damaged greave plate and pulled up the young marine's pant leg.
Jenkins' leg was burned and blackened, blood coating his leg. The flesh was actually smoking and let out a hiss every time Jenkins moved.
"How bad is it, sir?" Jenkins asked tightly.
"Not bad," Kaidan said. Some moderate burning. Your armor took the brunt of it. A little medigel should patch you up until we can get you back to Chakwas."
Alenko picked up the tube of medigel, squeezed the salve onto his hand, then pressed it onto Jenkin's bleeding leg. The young marine winced, gritting his teeth as the gel gripped against his leg, sealing the wound. "Ah, shit."
After a few moments, the gooey substance seemed to harden, then turned completely clear, almost invisible against Jenkin's skin. Alenko clapped the young man's shoulder pad and tucked the medigel tube back into his belt. "Suck it up, marine. You're going to be fine."
Shepard nodded and hauled the young man to his feet. Jenkins hopped a little on his uninjured leg, bracing himself against a tree for balance. He looked at the ruins of the mech Shepard had destroyed. "Thanks Commander. I think its safe to say I've never seen a sniper rifle used like that before."
Shepard nodded grimly while Alenko glanced down the hill and murmured, "The colonists?"
"They didn't make it," Shepard said, scooping up his Avenger rifle from the ground. "We need to keep moving before more of those drones come to investigate."
"What about the colonists?"
"We can't afford to inform the Normandy," he said. "Not without giving away our position. We'll mark our coordinates, then inform Captain Anderson of their location. Their families will be informed."
Alenko nodded, satisfied. "Yes sir."
Shepard turned away from the two and activated his comm. "Nihlus, come in."
"Go," came the turian's terse response.
"We just came across hostiles," he said, checking over his rifle to ensure it hadn't been damaged when he tossed it aside. "Six mechanical drones of unknown make. They opened fire on us. Killed three survivors we had found."
"Any other casualties?"
"Jenkins took a shot to the leg. Nothing major. We're mostly concerned with what we're up against."
"I can't answer that, Shepard," Nihlus growled. "I've come across those drones as well. They're unlike anything I've seen. Fast, deadly, and very intelligent. Stay on your toes."
"Yes sir."
"The colony itself is too far to make it on foot today and it's too dangerous to continue in the dark with those drones patrolling the area. We'll meet up at the excavation site, make camp for the night, and review our findings. I'm sending you my coordinates now. Get here soon, before those drones force me to change position."
"Sir."
He signed off the comm, then turned to Jenkins and Alenko and said, "Come on. We're packing it in for the night."
"Good," Jenkins said with a wince. "I don't fancy walking on this leg anyway."
Shepard looked back to the cluster of dead colonists, then bowed his head and thought, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to end this way.
"Shepard!" Kaidan called. "Let's go before more of those things show up."
Shepard nodded and sprinted after them. "On my way."
