3

What's going on?

"The Arcturus relay is in range. Initiating transmission sequence" said Flight lieutenant Moreau over the internal communication.

The SSV Normandy broke through the darkness and idleness of the outer Solar system. A frigate made out of both human and turian hands; first and only of its kind. She was now ready for her intentions.

"We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination"

She crossed the view of an endless universe, like a falling white star amongst all the others. She passed the orbit of Pluto. Her career had come to a beginning. A new footmark in the history was going to be made.

"The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector"

But the stars were just gazing from their spot in the galaxy, not carrying for what was happening under their gaze. Men were born and men died. Families were created and families where ruined. Civilizations raised and civilizations fell; all under a constant change. Every change had a significant impact on the men of mankind. The stars did not care though. They kept gazing from their spot, like they always did.

"All stations secure for transit"

The relay came in sight, the Archturus relay. The thing was like a star, gazing its own blue glow of dark energy in incredible amounts. Grand like a moon and fair like a star, the relays was the very heart of the galactic civilizations, removing the limitations of the home system and connecting the galaxy. These wonders had saved mankind.

"The board is green. Approach run has begun"

SSV Normandy looked tiny as she lined up with the enormous metal body with its glowing core, stretched out away from Sol. The relay comprehended the small frigate on its side and Normandy where cloaked by the blue energy from the relays core and the relay suddenly glowed up along its body, glowing up as it charged up to send Normandy billions of light years out into the darkness of the galaxy, to other worlds.

"Hitting the relay in 3… 2… 1…"

Away

"Thrusters… check. Navigation… check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift… just under fifteen hundred k" flight-lieutenant Moreau said while checking the systems of Normandy. She was a new ship with only test runs in her history, but she had new technology with no earlier uses, but she seemed to drift perfectly fine at the moment.

"Fifteen is good. Your captain will be pleased" Nihlus said from behind Moreau's pilot chair with the turian, humming voice. He had per usual no traces of affection while he spoke; sounding neither impressed nor unimpressed.

He turned and started walking away from the cock-pit in the noose on the Normandy.

"Commander" he greeted shortly without stopping when he passed Alex Shepard that arrived to the cabin.

Joker, as Moreau preferred that people called him, looked backwards to ensure that the turian was without hearing range. "I hate that guy."

"Nihlus gave you a compliment… so you hate him?" lieutenant Alenko teased from Joker's right side.

"You remembered to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible! Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid" Alenko replied quickly. "The council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"Yeah, that's the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story."

Shepard stood behind Joker, overhearing the conversation. He agreed that Nihlus' presence was a bit odd.

"They don't send spectres to do petty tasks like inspect ships. The council would send a bureaucrat for that matter." But something else was strange about the turian: since a few days before pre-launch of SSV Normandy, Nihlus seemed to stalk Shepard, well… not stalk perhaps, but sometimes when Shepard turned, like when he was down in the hangar inspecting his equipment, Nihlus stood there and just observed Alex, that looked back a few seconds before Nihlus, without any words or affection turn and calmly walk away, as if nothing happened.

"Exactly! And we aren't doing charters to Eden Prime so there must something else that attracted him here. This can't be just a shake down."

"So what are you suggesting? Don't you think he's just here to please you with his company?" Kaiden teased.

"OR" Joker paused for a second as if he was trying to make up a clever riposte. Before he could deliver it, however, the computer received an incoming communication, from the captain.

"Moreau, is Shepard with you?"

"He's right here."

"Good. Tell him to meet me and Nihlus in the communications room."

"Roger that" Shepard replied.

"Nihlus is heading your way, sir" Joker said.

"He's already here, lieutenant" Anderson answered with a slightly annoyed tone and hung up.

Joker shook his head. "Captain's always pissed."

"Only when talking to you."

Something was off with David. Alex always saw him as a man that loved the people around him, especially those he served with. He had not seen him in over a year and this time he seemed to be stressed over something. He was rarely amongst the rest of the crew; was seen speaking with Nihlus time to time. He had greeted Alex in his usual friendly manor, but they had not spoken since then. He decided to see what was concerning David upon opportunity.

Alex walked inward the ship and left Joker and Alenko to their chat. He entered the command center, a round room with the big star map in the center, displaying the blue hologram of the galaxy. It was turning to evening (somewhere on Earth) and the day crew started to get replaced by the ones with night shift.

"Pressley" he greeted the navigator that greeted back without looking up from his pad while talking to Adam via intercom, about Nihlus it seemed. He was an elder, thin man with a bald planet. He was a man that preferred his work over people, with an exception for Adam in the engenering which he seemed to get along with; a hard man to deal with, but good at his duty nonetheless. He had "xenophobic" and "paranoid" labeled on his forehead and occasionally expressed his concerns about Nihlus' presence and alien involvement in the development of SSV Normandy.

"I grew up in Eden Prime, doc. It's not the kind of place Spectres visit. There's something Nihlus isn't telling us about the mission" said Corporal Jenkins whilst leaning with his shoulder to the wall.

"That's crazy. The captain's in charge here. He wouldn't take orders from a Spectre" Doctor Chakwas answered.

"Not his choice, Doc. Spectres don't answer to anyone. They can do whatever they want. Kill anyone who gets in their way."

"Ha! You watch too many spy films, Jenkins."

The elderly woman and boy came both from SSV Kyoto, like Alex himself.

Jenkins noticed Alex and straightened up and saluted. "What do you think Commander? We won't be staying on Eden Prime too long, will we? I'm itching for some real action!" he said with the enthusiasm of a boy who had not seen much of the world.

"I sincerely hope you're kidding, Corporal. Your 'real action' usually ends up with me patching up crew members in the infirmary." Jenkins was not unjustifiably equal to trouble back at Kyoto. He had potential in skills, but his enthusiasm could make him go outside his authority from time to time. He had caused no major problem, but Alex figured he would start to deal with it before it did. He had an appointment, but hopefully David wouldn't charge him for failure of duty.

"We do not look for 'action', Corporal. We fulfill our duty and that is to do what we are pointed at, nothing more" sounded good enough.

"Sorry commander. But this waiting is killing me. I've never been on a mission like this before. Not one with a Spectre on board!"

"Just treat this like every other assignment you've had, but without any stunts, and everything will work out."

"Easy for you to say. You proved at Terra Nova. Everybody knows what you can do" oh no… "This is my big chance. I need to show the brass what I can do!" Eight years had passed but the scenario still haunted him. He had get used to people talking ignorantly about Terra Nova, but he could not let Jenkins believe that anything that had happened there was of glory.

"The only thing that was proven there was how easy a life can be extinguished" Alex's over-all tone had dropped. He looked up at Jenkins. "A soldier that steps out of line out of foolishness do not only risk his own skin, but the life of all his comrades. Hopefully you will not have to learn it the hard way." He realized he had spent more time on Jenkins then he should have and left him the cold shoulder and left Jenkins questing. He had learned that a command must show a warm side, but also a cold one, even if he did not enjoyed the later.

He entered the communications room and expected David to ask where the hell he's been, but he only saw Nihlus standing in the middle of the room with his back turned to Shepard while facing an image of a country side at Eden Prime. Alex entered and Nihlus turned to face him as the door hissed shut behind him.

"Commander Shepard. I was hoping you would get here first. It will give us a chance to talk."

"Talk?"

Nihlus did not answer directly but moved to his subject. "I am interested in this world we are going to – Eden Prime. I have heard that it is quite beautiful."

"So I've heard" Alex replied simply. He had heard of people of power that analyzed their opponents for weaknesses and decided to give Nihlus little to work with.

"All those farmers there – working the fields to feed an overpopulated home world" Nihlus continued as if Shepard said nothing and faced the image. "Being in such a stray place with the Terminus close upon – they must be putting a lot of trust in your fleets, at least until they learn that you do not have resources to cover all your expansions. How safe is it really?"

What was he playing at? "Are you threatening me, Spectre?"

Nihlus faced him. He did not know turian expressions and could not make out Nihlus' new look. "Why would I do that? I am just giving you some advice. The colonists have chosen the Alliance as allies out of ignorance and will not find the help they expected when needed. What I am saying to you is that you should consider which ones you put your faith with."

Alex was about to ask why Nihlus was telling him this, when the hissing sound from the door came.

"Perhaps it is time we tell him?" Anderson asked from his back.

"What is going on here?" What had sounded like minor coincidences before now became absurd.

David took a breath. "This isn't a regular shake-down mission. Nihlus is here to evaluate you."

Nihlus came to Anderson's side of Shepard. "Yes, the Council of the Citadel has decided to accept your specie's request to let you run the Spectre evaluation."

What? "Me, as a Spectre?" He could not come up much more to say. It kind of came out of nowhere.

"Yes the first one of you specie, if you would pass."

"This would have a significant impact on our relation to the rest of the galaxy; showing that we have the ability to adapt to the community" David said.

Well… What could he say? "Wow… I fell… Intrigued." That was the first feeling he had about it; making something new, different and important.

David smiled, as if amused over Shepard's reaction.

"But why all this mysteries? The crew got on spot with Nihlus, but why are we going to Eden Prime. It ain't just a practice run, is it?"

"You are right commander" Nihlus confirmed. "The colonists have dug up a prothean artifact; a beacon most likely. It possesses a different nature than earlier findings and attempts to read it on site have failed and due to the colony's close distance to the Terminus System, the Council has decided to relocate artifact to a safer location."

"Your team will be deployed on Eden Prime in the morning, secure the beacon and bring it on board of Normandy" David said. "Here's the necessary intel." David handed him a pad, containing various information of the local settlements and some maps. "Are there any questions, Shepard?"

Still a bit baffled, Shepard simply shook his head. "No sir."

"Good" David said with a smile. He took a step toward Shepard and put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "Your shift is coming to an end, Alex. How about you grab some food and take some time to rest and process all of this, okay?"

Shepard returned a smile. "Yes sir."

Without exchanging more words, David pated Alex on the shoulder and sent him on his way. Nihlus remained indifferent about the exchange of gestures.

He felt excited. He had never come across the thought about becoming a Spectre, but something about it seemed right.

And it was really good to see David again.

The outskirts of A-C6 looked the same way like yesterday – the exactly same fucking way. The same dirt road, the same trees, the same structures in the distance, the same morning stars that where eradicated by the sun beyond the horizon, the same jeep and everything else that looked the same way since her arrival a few months ago.

She had fulfilled her garrison service and was meant to be transmitted to further services, but instead she had been sent here of all places in the world. They said that it was not regular garrison service since it was a newly established colony and that her services were needed there, but that was bullshit. She had been placed there since no ships had accepted her on board. They always had some vague excuse like that they had no room or shit like that. It was not her skills (never her skills) and not her sex nor dysfunction – it was her damn surname, Willems. The idiots in the high ranks actually still cared for the actions of her ancestor 66 years ago – idiots. They feared their own reputation for having a Willems under their command. Despite this obstacle, her father had become an officer of communications during his career; not higher than Ensign, but still. Ashley had followed the steps, even if the instructors during recruitment had been extra demanding. It had gone well considering, but now the career had stuck on this sterile planet in middle of nowhere.

She could not complain at her company though – far from it. She had managed the time at the colony with the company of her comrades. They did not care about her family – or rather say did not know, unlike some other dinosaurs. In the garrison of A-C6 they were family and together the days went by.

She was with three of her comrades on the morning patrol around the perimeter: Zheng Xue, Chan Lin and Yuda Susila. She was a girl amongst boys, from a family with no members to keep her away from "masculine" activities. But they treated and respected her as an equal despite her sex. Some jerks had been messing around with her in the beginning, but after putting those in their place they had humbly fell in under her command.

The road was lightened by the spot lights from the jeep and the increasingly lighter morning sky and the fields and plateaus were uncovered from darkness. The colonies in the distance were starting to wake up, once again tending their fields of crops. Nothing really happened during patrols, especially during morning shifts. The climax of excitement was either some wild animals that had entangled in the fences or a tree that had felled over the road. Sometimes they picked up the senile old Harshad that had been wandering of from his family.

"Chief, there is something up ahead" Lin interrupted.

Awoken from her day dreams, "What?"

"Over there" he pointed past her shoulder toward the distance ahead. Ashley moved a binocular to her eyes. Over there above a forest something hovered in the sky. It was far away and she could not see exactly what it was, but it was most likely some kind of air craft. She passed the binoculars to Lim.

"What do you think it is?" Xue wondered, slowing down the pace of the jeep. The craft left behind the tree lines.

Ashley had heard of reports from other colonies that Eden Prime was used by smugglers from both human and Terminus system as a drop point – one part would drop illegal goods somewhere at the colonies and local contacts (farmers looking for extra cash) would pick it up and send it to the next partner. Could this be one of them?

"Perhaps some action finally, eh?" Yuda said from the back seat.

The group agreed that the time of picking up old senile Harshad was over and the jeep set off toward the potential smugglers.

They reached the spot the craft had been sighted at. It was on a field just by the road that was covered by a mist. Ashley overlooked the space but saw no activity or anything that the craft could have dropped.

Perhaps it was the wrong place.

Or they did simply not drop anything.

They could not have missed the smugglers during the ten minutes.

Yuda expressed his disappointment loudly and sunk back in his seat.

Ashley closed out the guys and concentrated her eyes as she tried to peer through the mist that blocked the line of sight some hundred meters away. She knew that she had seen something here. She saw only a field which was framed by forest on each side and disappeared under the mist – nothing more than that.

"What if it wasn't an unknown craft?"

"The command would have told us that."

"Command ain't telling shit!"

Wait… There was something in there as the mist became slightly darker, but she saw no shape.

"Should we get back on patrol, Chief?" Xue asked.

"Hold on." She pointed out that she saw something on the field.

"I can't see anything." The guy's eyes were not as sharp as her. She commanded that they would have a closer look. They stepped out of the jeep and picked up the assault rifles from the trunk and walked out on the field.

The object was some hundred meters away and the guys also noticed it. As they got closer, using caution, a tall shape was formed.

They reached the point where they could make out that it had humanoid shape with arms and legs, when suddenly a blue projectile came from its direction in the blink of an eye. It reached Yuda and made him stagger. The others shot at the object (or being) by instinct and caused it to fall backwards with a strange electronic sound that died out.

"Jesus, are you all right?" Ashley rushed to Yuda.

"Yeah. It just bounced at the shield" he replied.

A moment of suspension followed. What the hell was that thing? It was made of metal and was now lying on its back with its feet pointing at the group. At its side was a smaller object; a gun perhaps? It was some type of mech, right? The kind that you deploy as security.

"Don't go near it!" Lim spat out as Ashley carefully walked over to the mech. She rarely cared much for safety measures and the thing was probably dead (if machines could die). She did not recognize this kind of mech. It was the kind that walked straight up with small arms – the strange looking gun at its side – but this looked bigger and kind of more biffed out with a big torso and arms, like someone well trained. It did not look human: it was a bit shorter, had a bullet filled chest with a tiny waist. Some kind of light blue liquid came out of the holes. I had no head but rather some kind of bent cylinder-looking top, pointing forward with no face, but a dark lens that Ashley briefly saw lightened before it died.

"What the hell is that thing?" the group stood around and looked down on the strange being.

More importantly was what it was and why it was hostile.

Zap

Before being able to think about these questions, another blue projectile flied through the sky right above Ashley's head.

"Get down!"

The moment they hit the grass a swarm of projectiles stormed over their heads. It was some kind of energy based weapon like plasma that made strange sounds as it burned through the air.

"They are in the woods!" Xuan shouted. The enemies were hidden in the forest on the edge of the field. They were heavily suppressed with no cover at all. They had to get off the field the damn field, but they needed a window. There was no place for doubt and reason and Ashley's instincts took charge. Contrary to the protocol of colony defenses, she had installed a grenade lounger on her rifle which she used to dismount during inspections from command, but now it was there and had a grenade in it.

"Make ready to run!" she shouted to her frightened comrades. Despite the risk of being shot, she made a brief prayer to make her shot true before mounting herself up to a crutching position. She took no more than a second to aim through the lightening mist and send away the grenade in a bow toward the tree line. The grenade made a perfect impact and exploded behind the line and disturbed the enemies which caused them to cease fire. The explosion send a mech to be pushed out of the forest with an electronic death scream like the first one had.

"Run!" she yelled and they set off from the death zone toward the road. Wait, not Liam…

He remained with the stomach to the ground. The guy had freaked out.

"Fuck!" she growled and stopped. With no hesitation she rushed back to Liam. A few rounds from the forest came, but they had not regained the same rate of fire as before.

"Wait! What the fuck!" Yuda yelled in panicked confusion and desperation.

"Start the car" she yelled back and heaved up Liam that was alive, but heavily shocked and his body was slack like a ragdoll, but she managed to get him up on his feet. They were clear targets, but the forest was further away than the jeep otherwise they would have been punctured already.

"Come on, Liam!" she wailed. Liam's face was pale and the face indicated nothing but horror, but fortunately he started to run alongside Ashley. The mechs spat fire toward them and Ashley constantly mumbled prayers to get out of the other side. Xue had started the jeep and Yuda had positioned himself behind the jeep to provide covering fire for his fleeing comrades.

They reached the vehicle and Ashley opened the back door and pushed Liam to the seat. She jumped into the front seat. She yelled to Yuda to get in. The rounds swarmed around the jeep and some hit its side. Yuda was in some kind of absence and would just keep shooting, but he was disrupted when the magazine ran out and heard Ashley's and Xue's combined shout and jumped into his seat beside Liam.

The front window was scattered as a projectile hit it and Ashley and Xue covered their faces when the glass shattered over them.

"Hit it!" The jeep gave away a roar and set off on the road with shots after it.

"What the fuck was that?!" Yuda bawled; Xue pushed the speed as much as he could; Liam was still in shock and Ashley tried to contact command. Was the whole colony under attack? She received static.

"Command, come in!" no frequencies worked. She tried to reach sector C command; colony command, the garrison, anyone, but there was only static.

"Fuck!" she spat and gave up. She ordered Xue to take them back to the garrison where the rest of the group was.

"Look!" Yuda pointed out over the edge of the ridge they passed where they had on overview of colony A. The sun had started to rise, but instead of the view of farmers heading out to the fields, the group was faced with fires and dozens of crafts in the sky, dropping objects and shooting at the settlements. Xeu slowed down and all of them watched in horror over the usually calm colony I flames. It felt surrealistic.

What the fuck was going on?

Shepard!

You damn fool!

You are not taking the boy

Aleks!

You must get out of here!

Don't take my children! Alla!

AAAHH!

You disgusting human

Do not make a peep

He will kill us all, dammit!

Just follow the script and nothing else

Shepard!

"Shepard!" He was shaken heavily with two hands on his shoulders where he laid. He came soon to realize that he lay in his sleep capsule that had been pulled out and lieutenant Alenko was standing over him with his thick eye brows and uncared black hair.

"Finally! You wouldn't wake up. Are you alright?" He must have noticed Alex's worried sleep and his sweating.

"I'm fine. It's… nothing; just bad dreams" he said with a tired voice. Kaiden backed off as Shepard sat up with his feet to the floor. His nigh mares were never cohesive, like a shattered puzzle. Pieces were flashing by and they contained nothing but misery, some which he remembered but others completely unfamiliar to him. He used to have them frequently; usually once per month and during periods he had depression he took calming drugs during sleep. He never remembered what he dreamt of when he woken up.

Kaiden, a usually sympathizing person would normally worry for someone in a condition like Alex's, but he did not do so now.

"Okay. Listen: you've got to get dressed. All commanding officers are to come to the com room." He tossed Alex his uniform which he caught to his chest.

With newly and unrested eyes he looked up at Kaiden. "What's going on?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but we have no contact with the colonies on Eden Prime."

They entered the com room where Anderson and Nihlus stood over the screen, communicating with Joker over the inter com. The screen showed a program, scanning for signals. Pressley stood further back where Alex and Kaiden entered.

"How's it coming?" Kaiden asked.

"The whole place is dead. The colonists usually have breakable technology and tend to black out sometimes, but all three of them?" Pressley replied.

"Captain, we need to head down to the surface. The artifact must not be caused by harm" Nihlus said.

"We don't know what's down there"

"And we will not find out by remaining here. The plan has not changed: we go in under discreetly, retrieve the artifact and leave – no matter what is going on down there."

"Wait" Joker interrupted. "The scanner picked up something."

"What is it?"

"A distress signal from the surface; a video."

"Bring it up on screen, lieutenant."

The computer launched the video program and then the video played. Instantly, sounds of shooting came out of the speakers and the image of a sky filled with flying projectiles filled the screen. The camera tilted down and viewed a group of around eight soldiers in the standard Alliance colony grey armor. They were in a firefight and had taken position behind a set of rocks. The camera tilted down further more and displayed the legs of a siting soldier – the camera was probably the one on a helmet – on his side was another soldier, nursing a wound on the cameraman's thigh where the armor had been cut up.

The soldier finished patching up the cameraman and showed a face of a female to him.

"Stay here!" she said and stood up with an assault rifle and took position at the rock with the camera following her.

The officers and Nihlus stood in front of the screen in disbelief. A day ago the colonies was perfectly normal and had contact with SSV Normandy. Now the place seemed to be under full attack. The system lay close to the Terminus system, but they would still have been able to send away a distress signal to every inch of Alliance space. The foe seemed to use plasma weapons, not the choice of the common bandit.

The projectiles kept swarming through the air and some hit the soldiers – one in the face.

A soldier came crashing down in front of the camera man, evading an explosion. He grunted as he pushed himself up with his elbows. He looked into the camera.

"You have the camera running?" he shouted to voice over the guns and the camera tilted up and down as if the owner nodded.

"Good. This is garrison group C6. We are in a fucking mess right now" the speaker was stressed and skipped formalities. "They came out of nowhere! All communications are gone! We can't ho…" a close-by explosion interrupted him and shuffled dirt and rocks onto him and a little on the camera lens. "...need evac! They are everywhere! We can't hold them-"Blood spat out from the side of his head when a projectile silenced him. The life disappeared from the recently shocked eyes and he tipped over in front of the camera. The female soldier looked back and horror spread over her face when she saw the dead man. She looked at the cameraman, shocked. Before she could do anything, a roaring sound over-voiced everything else.

It was a strange sound that reminded of a vibrating heavy machine and was extremely loud and caused the speakers to spark. The officers blocked their ears under groaning.

The soldiers stopped shooting and looked up toward the sky behind the rocks, their faces in horror. The cameraman crawled to one of the rocks and peeked over it. At the distance, clouds were forming in the sky and flashed with sparks. It dropped down from the sky and soon a black object was revealed in the clouds and more deafening roaring came, but it was only visible briefly as blood sprayed around the camera – the cameraman had been shot! He dropped backwards with the camera viewing the sky.

"Liam!" a female voice screamed through the noise of shooting and explosion. Frame rate decreased and soon static overtook, leaving the officers in a strange feeling. You never really got used to see people die. What was going on down there? And what were that noise and the thing that came out of the sky? Shepard looked around him and the others seemed to be in as much disbelief as he.

"Is that the whole message?" David asked.

"That's all" Joker confirmed.

"Reverse to 2:55 and freeze." The video jumped and showed a still image of what had cought the attention of the soldiers. The image was… strange. From the dark clouds that surrounded it, a… hand? That was the only thing Shepard could relate it to, a hand. It was black and seemingly out of metal with five "fingers". It looked absurd and terrifying, like in that terror film where titans terrorized humanity and spread destruction. Was this real?

Nihlus moved his mandibles. The only thing he showed thus far that resembled an expression. He also seemed to be in disbelief.

"Captain" he said. "We must get down there. The situation has turned dire." He did not look at Anderson while saying that, staring at the image."

David nodded. "Joker, activate the stealth system and take us in, nice and slowly."

"Aye, captain."

David looked at the screen in concern.

"This mission just got a lot more complicated."