4

Eden Prime

Alex, Kaiden and Jenkins sat idle in the hangar bay, equipped and ready for drop-of. They were just waiting. This was not the first time Alex put his head in an unknown hole, but there was a slightly unsettling feeling creeping in his body, the kind you get when you know danger awaits. A human with a healthy mind would feel afraid going into the unknown danger, despite how bold they are told to be. It was a matter of handling these fears that vary. You could not train away a feeling, only train to get control over it. During his training he had been taught to always keep his cool under all circumstances and to not display your emotions. He put full focus on what had to be done by him: drop to the surface; locate and secure the artifact and bring it back to the ship.

He looked over to the other side of the hangar where the Mako was standing. It was a light, armored vehicle, able to create a light mass field around it. This alongside with some small rockets allowed it to be dropped mid-air with the ground team inside, but the surface around the excavation site in colony A was rough with forests and steep hills, making a mid-air drop dangerous, and forcing them to drop the team on foot.

Jenkins had his spirits high, eager to see the 'action' he longed for. The kid probably believed that they were going up against nothing more dangerous than a bandit raid, even if they told him otherwise. Shepard hoped that he would behave. Alenko seemed more content, he knew as well as Shepard what kind of situation awaited them.

The elevator arrived to the hangar and Anderson and Nihlus ascended out toward the team.

Finally

Alex stood up and saluted his captain. "Ground team is ready for drop-off."

Anderson returned the salute. "Good, Commander. At ease." Alex and his comrades turned into the pose. "We are within the planet's atmosphere and are moments away from surface. Are you and your team aware of your objectives?"

"Drop in, locate, secure and deliver. We'll land at point A and proceed ten kilometers to point B, secure the target and bring it back to A." Alex replied.

"Good." Kaiden raised his hand and Anderson permitted him to speak by nodding.

"What about civilians, sir?"

"Extracting the target is out prior objective, lieutenant. Support civilians and local forces should not lead to any reroutes or delays."

"I will be present during this operation, commander" Nihlus said. "I will scout ahead, ensuring the safety of the target."

"If it's true that communications are blocked there, you will not be able to connect with each other or with Normandy. We will return to pick you up at point A in four hours. Are there any questions?"

Shepard looked around him. His team seemed to be as ready as you could be. There were no questions.

The hangar doors opened, letting in daylight that lightened up the dark hangar. Land shapes passed by and the air whistled.

"The mission is yours now, commander, good luck!"

…

The Normandy took off, leaving the men and Nihlus on the surface. The landing zone was secured; no signs of hostility. There was overcast, preventing the sun to reach the surface, making all seem darker and adding to the impression that this was a dangerous place. The ground seemed to shift dramatically in height: the hills were divided on different levels separate by steep hills and they stood on the edge of such a level. The place was calm, but they heard sounds of battle echo.

Nihlus checked communication. "There is nothing but static" he confirmed.

"We should stick together" Alex suggested to Nihlus. "Since we don't know what we are up against."

"Negative, commander. This is your evaluation and should show potential without my presence. Thus, the artifact is within my duty and I must let that go before anything else" he answered and set of running. "Good luck. I will come to find you."

With the long legs of a turian, Nihlus was gone out of sight moments, and with no communication Alex had total responsibility.

"Should we get moving?" Kaiden asked and came to Shepard's left.

"The sooner the better. Corporal!" He turned to tell the corporal to get moving, expecting the soldier to be eager for duty, but he had his back turned to him, looking out over the edge of the cliff.

"Corporal?" Alex walked up alongside him, seeing what he saw, a colony afar in a valley. It looked like an enormous bonfire on the plain.

"Colony A" Jenkins said with a slow and tired voice, very unlike the one from the enthusiastic boy Shepard known. "My parents moved there when I was a kid – been with since the start. They live there." He pointed at the bonfire. He watched his home burn and while his voice was steady, Shepard could see the shock in his eyes.

"I'm sorry"

"They're not dead!" he forced out. "They are still alive." His voice became unstable and he started to blush. Shepard feared that he was going to break. They needed to get moving. "They must be."

"Look at me." He grabbed Jenkins shoulder and forced him to break eye contact and faced him to himself. "We'll the bastards who did this. Whoever they are or whatever, but right now we need to focus. We're soldiers. We follow orders, and our orders are to reach point Bravo, okay?"

Jenkins shrugged. "I don't know commander."

"We have to." Jenkins faced the first real teaching in soldering, that it was not a game. "Stick by me and keep your eyes on my back only and listen to what I say, and we will be okay."

Jenkins nodded nervously, but he was somewhat calmer. "Okay."

Alex gave him one pat on the shoulder and let go of him. He walked away from there. Jenkins gave a last look at his burning home, but remembering Shepard's word he shrugged of the feeling of loss and ran after Shepard.

When Alex passed by Alenko, he was given a look that indicated impress, by how Shepard manage to handle people. People had said that Shepard had the ability to make people around him like and respect him. Kaiden saw a man he could respect.

They had already wasted enough time as it was and set off with Shepard in front with gun fires echoing against the hills.

…

"It's quiet" Alenko pointed out. They had seven kilometers left to point B, but all these cliffs and curving passages made it go much slower. "Not even any wild life."

"They're probably hiding" Jenkins said, more content now. "They hide during thunders in hill-side holes."

They kept on a bit longer.

"Listen, commander" Jenkins started. "I just want to say sorry for what I said earlier, on the Normandy, if I stepped on something sensitive."

"It's okay" Alex simply replied. He kept scanning the surroundings, not practicing small talk in dangerous zones.

Jenkins held a reply for a moment, not satisfied with the answer. "What happened at Terra Nova?" Shepard was about to tell him to stay focused, but Alenko did that for him.

"Hold". Shepard crutched down and held up a clutched fist, signaling to the others to do the same. The path turned right to a passage with the edge of the mountain on the left and a wall on the right. In the passage were several large rocks. They had encountered nothing thus far, but Alex's instincts warned that this was an ideal location for an ambush, unfortunate they had not the kind of censors they used in high class operations that could analyze a whole area. They had been quiet and hopefully not given away their presence, but one should always expect the worst. He explained how they were going to advance: they were going to cover each other's advance; one moved to next rock while the others behind him covered him. Jenkins volunteered to go first. Shepard approved.

Shepard expected the basic cover-advance movement to go like anytime else, like it always went, but he did not anticipate what would happen next.

Shepard approved Jenkins request to go first with by pointing toward the first set of rocks. Jenkins stood and set off toward it. Shepard and Alenko could not see to the end of the passage since the wall was curving and blocking their sight. Shepard now realized that they could not give a sufficient cover for Jenkins, but he had almost reached cover.

But suddenly came a projectile flying, too fast for the eye, and hit Jenkins. The kinetic barrier took the hit, but broke instantly and the force disrupted Jenkins balance, but he managed to recover quickly, standing straight. Shepard had no time to react before several projectiles came, hitting the unprotected Corporal. Most of them hit him in the torso while few in the limbs. Jenkins screamed and jerked as the fire penetrated his armor and flesh. It ended as quickly as it started when the fire ceased and Jenkins fell straight forward with a slack body that made no resistance to the fall.

"Jenkins!" Alex screamed, but Jenkins did not respond in anyway. His shock was quickly replaced with a fiery anger and rushed in to face the enemy with his rifle raised. Alenko did not respond as fast and was still in shock when his comrade launched away from him. Alex's senses worked quickly: at the end where the fire came from, there were flying objects, probably drones of a small form that looked like small plates with mounted guns. His killer instincts were activated and did not dwell or hesitate when he released burst of fire at them. It was a smaller swarm of these drones and first two fell for Shepard. When they returned fire, he had reached cover and the rounds hit the rock or flied past. While the drones concentrated on Alex, Alenko came and picked of one with his gun before pulling one with biotics and slammed it against the wall. Shepard stood up from cover when the drones were confused and took out the last two. They exploded in air and crashed in the ground. Kaiden sought to cover next to Shepard.

Adrenaline pumped through Shepard's veins and a moment of tense followed as the two men waited for more of these machines to show up. He came back to reality when he heard Kaiden, shouting for his attention and he shook of his tension and retreated back to Alenko. He was kneeling at Jenkins and had turned him facing upwards. Shepard's eyes widened when he saw the Corporal: large holes had torn on his torso and was burned from the plasma. This kind of weaponry was of high technology and could not belong to any factions Shepard knew of. It had penetrated both shields and armor like paper. Jenkins once enthusiastic face when he longed for adventure was not there, nor was the shocked face when he feared the lives of his family. The face that Jenkins had indicated… nothing.

"He stood no chance, commander" Kaiden said and closed Jenkins eyes, he marked the spot on the map Shepard had shared with him earlier so that they could locate the body to bury.

Shepard breathed heavily, but there was no air to bread. The blood pulse increased and white clouds appeared in Shepard's sight, and time disappeared. It was all happening again. He had promised Jenkins that they would get out on the other side, but now he laid dead. He had called the shots. What the fuck had he been thinking when he sent out a barely experienced man without cover; what the fuck? He had screwed up – that's right – screwed up and once again someone else was paying with their blood. The spirits of the dead haunted his mind; the lives that ceased because of him. You fool! Tang said, once again. Jenkins had been looking up to the commander, expecting him to get the ones that destroyed his home, but now he was dead. He had just died.

Shepard could not breathe and started to loose foothold. The world around him decimated; was no longer Eden Prime. The eyes; the goddamn eyes that showed the life leaving a man was there, glazing at him. He had screwed up…

"Shepard!" Kaidens voice was heard and the thick clouds disarrayed, leaving him on Eden Prime with the lieutenant, holding his shoulders to prevent him from keeling over. "You okay?" He probably knew that everything was wrong by this state.

"Yeah, I'm just fine" Shepard replied, putting Kaiden's hands away from him. He lied once again, a lie he had made for everyone, including himself, for a long time. Pushing away Kaiden's hands would not be possible if he had not let go of Alex willingly, but he had a frown in his face, indicating concern. Shepard felt the blood returning to his veins, but still needed effort to keep the balance.

"You are not fine. Jenkins is dead and you are obviously sick, we need to pull out." Alenko had noticed something off with Shepard since the morning, but it had become a great concern.

"No, we mustn't. The plan has not changed: we get the artifact; we get Nihlus then get the hell out of here. Besides, communication's out. We are not going anywhere."

Kaiden looked over the situation. He would not convince his commander to stand down and he was right; the task was the only thing they had. He was slightly relieved to see Alex recovering when the color returned to his face. He nodded in agreement.

Shepard looked over to Jenkins with the large wounds on the torso, feeling heavy in the chest. They had to move on. "You marked him?"

Kaiden nodded.

Shepard stared at the corpse a bit longer. He looked for an answer, but what was the question? No, they had to continue.

"Let's go." They left Jenkins's body without looking back, following the track. Shepard remembered the promises he had given to Jenkins. He had screwed up on the second one, but he intended on keeping the first.

He was gonna find the bastards responsible for this.

…

Liam, Xue, Yuda –fuck – everyone was dead. Every-fucking-one! They were eight, but within twenty minutes they were gone! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Were they gone? Really gone?

They had reached barracks for C6 and found their comrades in as much confusion as they were, but they were okay. After consulting with everyone, Ashley decided that they would head out and try to reach the main colony and join up with their defenses, but their convoy of two jeeps hit an end when the engine on the first jeep was taken out by those robots on their way down the mountain. They were quickly pinned down and one after one fell. They tried to send a distress signal, but god knows if that would help. They died like flies, with a single strike each. That… thing. That horrible thing came and the noise, it almost busted her ears. When only she and Yuda remained, he told her to run, just run. She could not object or reply before he rushed out, shooting all around him, but was instantly molded down. Ashley then felt nothing, like her brain was disconnected, but her legs took control and put her in a sprint from there, alone.

She was out of the frying pan, but was pursued by two small drones, shooting smaller slugs at her. Her wildest instincts were in charge and she ran without looking backwards. The legs were protesting, but her instincts forced them onwards. A projectile flew right at her, punching straight through the shields with a crashing noise and the force almost put her out of balance, but thankfully she regained instantly.

She realized that she would not outrun the drones – she had to face them. She had left the rifle at the crash zone and had only a hand gun, which she upholstered. If she stopped or slowed down she would make herself an easy target for the drones. The weight increased on her legs and every move became more and more of a challenge. She had to evade her pursuers before her muscles would give in.

A large rock was ahead. She pushed her body further to endure until she reached it with the heart beating heavily like it was trying to push out of the chest and the damn muscles that screamed in pain.

This was her only chance.

Without any hesitation, she grabbed the rock with her empty arm and swung herself down to its backside. The drones did not manage to react and flew by. Ashley now took the shot while they was turned away from her, not wasting the only chance that had been given her. She fired – bam! The first drone went down, but before it went crashing into the ground, she hit the second with a just as clean shot as the first one. Both crashed. The drones did not seem to be protected by shields or armor, but had piercing fire and mobility. With her chasers gone, she could finally rest her aching limbs that seemed to refuse to move one more inch. How long had she run? Running with combat armor made any distance significantly longer. She laid her forehead in her resting arms; digging her face down.

The day had started off so sickly normal like any other day the past few months, but within – how long had it been? Hours? It felt like more than hours. The whole morning had been a struggle to survive and her she sat, alone. Everyone else was… dead. The image of the guys, just lying on the ground, not moving a muscle like they were sleeping in absurd positions; the image of Liam's brain splatter over the whole damn place – oh god! The image of Yuda, just telling her to go and thrusting himself out to his death, like he knew that only one could make it out of there alive and draw the fire to save her. He didn't even hesitate, not letting her stop him. No, the images were wrong, illusions. She expected Xue to pick her up, telling her that it was they were going to patrol, as if she couldn't guess to that already.

She looked up. They were not there. The barrack was not there. It was only her, hopelessly screwed with only a matter of time before they would find her and finish her off. She could not hold back the tears that gathered in her eyes. The lips started to jerk. "Oh god" she let out with a shaky voice. "Why is this happening?"

"AAAAHHH!"

She was pulled out from her sorrow by a terrified scream. It sounded like it came from a man, but the way it was a death scream, the one a man would do during a desperate and hopeless struggle for life. It was sounded like it was close-by! She located the source of the scream and sneaked up to another rock. It was right on the other side of it and she peeked over it. Her muscles prepared for flight when she saw two of those strange mechs with flashlight looking heads with a blue light. But she remained when she saw that they were holding a man between them. He was struggling and crying in their grip on his lower and upper body. He tried to punch them, he tried to claw, kick and beg, but their metallic limbs were too strong and did not care about the struggling man. They carried him to some kind of pedestal of metal with three legs. They put him on top of it on his back. They hold on to the flouncing body that desperately tried to get loose, in vain.

She covered her mouth as the jaw dropped as the spine chilled when she saw what came next.

Without any warning, a spike penetrated the man through the body pushing out of the stomach and the clothing. It happened during just a few moments when the spike kept rising up through the body, but when the thicker parts of the spike appeared he was lifted up with it. It stopped with the man raised in the air two meters with the grotesque spike covered in blood on the upper part. Blood flowed down the lower part of the spike slowly in streams. The man's face was visible for Ashley and displayed a ghostly figure as he hung with it upside down. His eyes were wide open as was the mouth that looked like it wanted to scream, but was unable to. Soon blood was seen flowing out of it in tiny streams along the nose. A few limbs were twitching.

She could not bear to see any more of the scene and lowered down do her side of the rock. What the fuck had she seen? She started to retch, feeling the vomit pushing up and the sour discussing liquid get I her mouth. She forced herself under control as she did not want to give away her position to the mechs. She spit out the vomit that reached the mouth, feeling the bitter taste sticking in her mouth. She clenched her fist hardly, resisting hitting the rock with it. She breathed hardly through her nose and shutting her eyes, trying to contain herself from flying into pure rage. Those robotic fucks; she wanted them dead, tear them apart. They had killed those close to her like flies; they destroyed and tormented the colony.

They had to die.

She forced herself to remain cool so that she wouldn't get herself killed by doing something without thought. The mechs had not discovered her, which gave her an element of surprise – unless they at that moment waited for her to pop out. She had watched the mechs and they seemed to make out the majority of the attackers, using assault rifles that fired plasma. She had shot them repeatedly and noticed that their shields were strong and needed repeated fire to break and then they would be penetrated by bullets easy as anything else. She checked her gun – she had seven rounds left and no extra magazine – shit… She had to fire them quickly to retain the surprise and to keep the shields from regenerating. A semi-automatic hand gun would be to slow to fire all rounds before they could respond, but a fully-automatic on the other hand… Her shitty EP-19 pistol had been modified by herself to increase rate of fire in a fully-automatic manner – against protocols of course.

She took some deep breaths before rising up from cover. If she would not risk her life now they had her stuck in cover and would eventually discover her. She stood up, pistol raised. The mechs was about to leave and had equipped themselves with their rifles, leaving the dead man on the spike. She squeezed the trigger, releasing fire. The modifications allowed her to keep the finger on the trigger while the gun changed rounds by its own. The first three hit the mech closest to her, just shrugging the shield. Before it could react, two more rounds followed and the first seemed to penetrate the shield and the second one flew at its head. Blowing it off – it seemed to make out the weak point just like on humans. The second mech noticed her but Ashley switched her aim toward it and released two rounds at it. They shrugged the shield, but the pistol clicked as it was out of ammo.

"Shit!" she hissed, but she lowered it since this was it for her. The mech raised its gun at her. She now saw her end, closing her eyes. She would not be able to jump away, but she could only embrace what was to come. It all happened in less than moments, but it appeared like time had slowed up and she could see the sweet berry trees from her home colony, her father that waved at his girls when he returned to her, the gracing smile of her little sister, the guys in C6, all that would be gone.

Here we go…

The mech did not fire before a shot penetrated through the side of its head out on the other side; tearing up tissue and electronics. The mech tilted on its side with a slow dying sound. She opened her eyes, finding her to still remain at between the cliffs and behind the rock. The mech laid dead a few clicks from her next to the one she took out, but she was breathing and was seemingly unhurt.

"I'm alive?" she wondered.

Around the corner, two soldiers appeared, not mechs but humans, males. Judging by their armors, they did not belong to the underfunded colony defenses.

The first one had a more heavy looking armor, not tank-heavy though, and carried an assault rifle of a sort she did not quite recognize other than it was human. The other had a lighter armor and a Raikou pistol. He was probably either a biotic or an engineer. These kinds of soldiers she recognized: they were N7-commandos – at least the heavier one indicated by the sort of his armor. These kinds of people worked in smaller bands and were not deployed as mere grunts to protect civilian interests. Was their presence related to the mech attack?

The heavier man lowered his gun when he saw Ashley. He held up his hand with the palm toward her, a friendly gesture with a light smile in his face. "We're friendlies" he stated from where he stood a few clicks from here where the dead mechs laid.

Not sure how to respond, she nodded to show that she understood.

He and his comrade approached her. "I am Commander Shepard and this is Lieutenant Alenko from SSV Normandy. Are you alright?"

She could swear that she recognized the name of the first man, but could not quite put the finger on it. Anyhow, she shook away the shocks she had earlier. She felt alive and these men certainly looked real to her. "Yeah, thanks. I'm Gunnery Chief Willems of garrison C6. Thanks for coming when you did. I would be dead by now if not, Commander."

"Glad we could help, and you don't have to use titles with me, Willems." He stood in front of her so she could see the face behind the visor of his helmet. He gave the impression of professionalism and authority of an officer, but at the same time he had sharp, blue eyes that somehow made him look… reliable. "You are the first living soul we've seen so far. Do you have any idea what's going on here?"

She took a breath and thought a second, still uncertain over what had happened that morning. "I… I'm not sure, but it started with the radio silence, I guess. Then there was those strange mechs, attacking us on sight." She pointed at the two recently dead ones. "Other than that I don't know. I've been just trying to stay live whole day."

"What about that object entering from the clouds?" asked the lieutenant called Alenko that stood behind Shepard's right.

Just thinking about… whatever it was – made a chill go down her spine. That thing came down moments before her squad was broken. She had only seen it briefly, a hand-like shape descending from red clouds – that came from nowhere.

"Sorry, sir, but I only cought a glimse of it – a hand-shaped black thing, I guess, coming out of the clouds. I only remember that terrible noise." That noise… that fucking roar that did not only nearly bust her ears, but it also kind of got down in her very soul, like it targeted her very inner. It made her pale like a stick, giving her the urge two leg it the opposite direction. "That… thing. I have no flying clue what it was, but it was not from our world."

"What do you mean?"

"You know, like the demons you read about in the religions? The noise it made, it exposed you somehow, made one feel small." She did not know what she was talking about herself. She felt worried that she would embarrass herself in front of them – somehow – especially with the commander –somehow. "Sorry for rambling like this."

"Don't worry, Willems. Take it easy" Shepard assured with an up-held palm. There was something convincing in his voice, made her feel calmer.

"Okay" she confirmed. She took another breath and cleared the previous horrors.

"You told me of your squad?" he asked.

A moment of silence occurred. The question had another meaning to it :where's the rest of your squad? They had noticed that the one she spoke of was obviously not around, were they? She was quite alone. Either she had run off, taking a piss at the best imaginable occasion; or perhaps the truth that they were laying completely dead a few clicks from there while she had run of like a damn coward.

"They…" she started. "They're dead" she simply said. The image of Yuda being mold down by the robotic bastards occurred in her mind.

The commander tilted his head down as thinking. Not replying immediately. "I'm sorry" he stated simply with a lowered and reverent voice. "We lost someone ourselves, Corporal Jenkins, lost to these geth."

"What did you call them?" she disrupted as her curiosity overcame her sorrow when she heard a name to give the enemy.

"Geth" Alenko stated. "They are a synthetic race that overthrew their creators some hundred years ago. They are highly advanced and they seem to fit what little we know about them. But why they are here, we don't know."

Shepard left the question hanging. "Who are you reporting to?"

"The command of C-sector, but it's far away from here; the roads are covered with 'geths' and I won't make it on foot." She found herself pity herself, something she could not remember herself doing, well almost ever. She did not feel like the girl beating up the biggest meathead of basic training or the one proudly present her permission to join the Alliance, but the one falling from the sugar tree and broke the legs on three spots and hopelessly far from home, begging for god or her father to come to her. She hated herself for these feelings, despised it like an embarrassing sister. She had always tried to show the world that she was though, that she was capable of taking the shit the world threw at you without the help of a moron of a man. But she was screwed and she could not ignore this fact.

"Hmm". He turned to Alenko as if to confer, but he did not say anything. They conferred with eye contact only and it appeared that they had the same thought in mind and the lieutenant gave a regarding look, but the commander had the look of dismissing it. "Willems, you know this sector well?"

"I do." Know the location of every square meter rather. Remaining on the same spot for an eternity allowed you to get well familiar with it.

He nodded. "Good, then I want you to guide us to a certain place around here. Due to the circumstances, you are to report to me." He was taking her to under his command? And he did not finch to the name Willems? During her yet short career she had been pushed around like a weight, but this man, an N7 took her? Of course he wouldn't know about Willems since he did not seem like a dinosaur, but still.

"Yeah… sure!" she stumbled on her words.

"Okay, we have the maps, but if what you are saying about the roads, we need an alternate path. We need to go to the excavation site, if you know of it."

The excavation site? There had been talking all around Eden Prime about it, but only rumors about the most vivid stuffs like mass destruction weapons, memory banks; hell – even treasures! But that specific area was of limits for most personnel and she had only seen from the outside. But yeah: "I know it."

Shepard shortly told her of their purpose to secure the artifact – whatever it was.

He nodded again. "Let's go then. We have spent more time than needed here." He went the way Ashley had originally come from with the lieutenant after him. Ashley found herself standing, wondering over what had happened over the past few hours, but got a grip of her as the commander looked over his shoulder to see if she was coming and she followed. She had only her pistol with no ammo, but she hoped to find something else along the way.

"You think the artifact is still there, if the geth would be after it?" she heard Alenko asking Shepard.

Shepard looked at him. "I hope so, Alenko. I really hope so."

…

The place was a mess. Structures that had been raised around the site showed signs of projectile holes all over them and but worse were the amount of bodies lying on the ground. It looked like the small amount of security had been trying to hold their ground in the center of the site, but was surrounded judging by the not so big amount of geth lying around the yard. They did not see many dead civilians but the few that were was scattered around the buildings. It did not look as if they had been forcing the gates open; could they have been setting their troops inside via drop-ships? There were sickly few signs of combat like the defense had been taken completely by surprise.

Shepard hunkered down, letting a frustrated sigh out. According to the codex, the artifact, a tall-formed object believed to serve as some kind of data base, was meant to stand on the platform next to him, only there was nothing there. It was not there.

Kaiden looked around, trying to make something out of the surroundings. Ashley found a rifle next to its previous owner. The shitty standard EG-12-2 without the modifications she had made on her own, but it had to do,

"What now?" Shepard grumbled to himself. He had failed his task, one easy task to get to one point, kill anything in your way and you win. But again: "What now?" He was thankful that the others did not point out the obvious that the artifact was gone.

You just have to screw things up with your sense for chivalry, don't you?

No… No, no, no… This was different. She was alive, was she not? This is not like before. She was alive and would be dead by now if he would not bring her along. But he had failed, had he not?

He put his palm on his face.

He had screwed up. He had failed his task and Nihlus would be disapproving of him, deny him Spectre post and then the government would let him pay the penalty, probably by plain execution, or working his spine of as slave.

"What now?" Alenko asked. Shepard took a breath no resist the urge to fly up and shout in the lieutenant's face to shut up. Instead he calmly stood up and slowly shook his head. "I don't know, Alenko. I don't know." Shepard then remembered what people had told him that Shepard did not give up until it was over. That he was the last to surrender to the situation. He was not sure over his own psyche functions, but he had a responsibility to try as far as he can. "But I'm not going to sit around here when the damn thing is out there." His desperation was replaced with determination. If it was not there: he would hunt down each geth on surface to find it, regardless what they were doing there in the first place.

A wonder of the where about of Nihlus passed Shepard's mind. Was he not meant to be here?

"Commander!" the chief Shouted, drawing the attention of both officers, before he could start to dwell on it.

"The gate over there is opened, but not with force." Shepard thought of Willems's notice and saw that she was correct. Unlike the other gate they had forced open, this one was naturally opened, as if being from the inside, like after an attack within the walls… "I was thinking that they may have transported it through it somewhere else, or something."

Shepard's frown rose up. If the attackers were still on Eden Prime and were transporting the artifact to another location within the colony. That meant that they could catch up with them. This was at least their best bet!

He went over to the chief's side and put his hand on her shoulder. "Great work, Willems!" Then his legs guided him toward the direction of potential trails in a run. Kaiden, unprepared for his command's sudden determination set momentarily after him. They did not see the expression Ashley had on her face: a wide smile she got as someone praised what she had done, actually given the chance of proving herself. She hurried up after Shepard immediately.

Shepard saw the woods passing by, focused on making up with some trails before they got cold. They encountered several dead geth in groups with only few hundred meters between them. Shepard did not know what that mean, but he decided to follow the trail of dead geth. He was no sure that they were connected to the artifact, but it was a decision made by his instincts, to follow the path of destruction.

He could sense that the artifact was on the other end of the path, and maybe the one responsible for this havoc. He would keep his promise to find the bastards responsible for this.

OOO

Pew… This was a tough chapter to write! Writing dialogues is HARD, friend, but here it is! I am aware that this shit contains more than one error and maybe I'll fix it in near future, but for future improvement of writing: put any of your opinions (or whatever you fell like) in a review or a PM. Next chapter may not be done during next couple of weeks, but I'll try my best to get it done!

Until next time!