A/N: I don't own Mass Effect; this goes for the whole story... so that I don't have to write this a thousand time. :)

NathanHale2: please don't just send three guys in there like they always but instead a proper armed force... if the normandy has any interessting concept keep it up.

Response: Well, the player only saw three people. Seeing as Mass Effect never expanded on why other than giving the lamest reason ever, I tried to give a better reason to it in my fic.

Chapter 2

"Turtle… if only you were here…" Ratchet sighed once more, as he looked down on the drawing of his whole family. The incident that brought him in this universe did not allow him to carry anything other than memories with him, so he tried to redraw his family photo. His hand ghosted over his sister's roughly sketched figure.

It was a few minutes before deployment and the Lieutenant Commander was sitting on the bench in front of his storage locker. His whole power armor, except for the helmet, was already on, and weapons checked.

"…then I told Hatchet 'You're rocking that makeup!' Gosh, he turned so red-"Two soldiers walked into the room, one animated by her story telling and the other chuckling. Then they noticed that the commander they were talking about was right in front of them.

To their surprise, the male Shepard just put the picture frame back into his locker, locked it, and walked past them towards the exit area.

"Holy crap, I thought we were going to get roasted, Kaidan!" Jane jokingly wiped sweat off her forehead.

The other soldier, Major Kaidan Alenko, stared at the doorway that Ratchet left through, before looking back at his friend. "Is he always this… melancholic, Jane?"

"Every time he looks at that darn picture! I've never been able to get the story off him though." The female Shepard furrowed her eyebrows worriedly. "Something really sad must have happened, but until I figure out a way to make it better for him, I'm not going to care at all."

Kaidan just blinked at her self-satisfied, closed-eyed grin.

"So we go in, hide from enemies, shoot the enemies we can't hide from, and grab a beacon. This is going to be EASY!" cried Jane confidently through the comms. "Well… would have been, if we knew where the beacon was." At the female's narration, Alenko discreetly face palmed. The two Shepards and Alenko were currently slowly making their way across the green landscape of Eden Prime. The three of them were armored from head to toe in power armor. Ratchet, in contrast to the others, had a N7 stripe over his breast plate, symbolizing the much more difficult training he had to go through.

They came across an area where a hill and outcrop blocked a large amount of view. The leading Shepard signaled for them to stop.

"I think I hear something." He murmured.

Suddenly, without warning, two flying objects flew around the corner and instantly opened fire. Almost instantaneously, Shepard and his squad returned fire and the drones went down quick. The three soldiers stayed in their original position for a few more seconds, in case of more hostile contact, before Ratchet signaled for them to inch forward. Each of them carefully scanned their surroundings. Upon arriving beside one of the robotic remains, the Major crouched cautiously to inspect.

"Some kind of robotic organism. Looks like Geth." He said. "What are they doing outside the Perseus Veil? Hm… Geth are normally equipped with a technology denial system, destroying its insides, but we shot through it," the soldier paused as he seemed to remember something important. "Well damn it that's a bigger problem- BOMB!" The three of them tried to hurriedly dive to the ground. Because of the position of the damage, the remains of the power core exploded in a bigger blast than it was designed to. Been the nearest to Kaidan, the blast caught him in its inner radius and sent him flying into a rock face with a sickening crack. His unconscious body fell down onto the floor.

"Kaidan!"

Jane and Ratchet rushed to his side. The more medically inclined Shepard went instantly into doctor mode and put his assault rifle to the side.

"Is he alright?"

"Obviously not. Private Shepard, keep watch." As the worried female Shepard stood guard, he looked over the Major's vital signs and found that they were all barely in the ok range, for the moment. So, he went straight to Secondary Assessment and did a head to toe check. "No spinal fluid." If there was, it would be a big problem. Still afraid of a nervous system related injury, he also quickly scanned Kaidan using his portable x-ray device. A few bone fractures here and there, but they were all minor ones and the spine was intact. Lastly, the armor protected the soldier from most of the shrapnel and the few that got in did not touch skin. "Its lucky that he jumped away before the blast. He's stable, but down for the rest of mission. One of us will have to carry him."

"Well, you're the strong, tough guy. Seeing as I can run faster than you, I can do laps around you to secure a perimeter." The woman seriously suggested. Her leader nodded in response. "Though… should we call-"

"No. We must keep radio silence. Alpha, Beta and Charlie squads are running distraction and a few mysteriously dead troops will not matter to the Geth when compared to the sheer amount of damage the others are doing. But, if the enemy finds out about our exact location and our objective, the other marine's sacrifices will be in vain."

Ratchet locked down Kaidan's armor, making it rock hard in terms of joints and lifted him onto his back. Clamps secured Alenko on. Picking up his gun, he stood up with only slightly more effort, helped by his power armor. He motioned for them to continue.

They continued on their way to their first waypoint: the dig site at where the beacon was discovered. When they arrived, there were just a few Geth robots there. These were more humanoid, but had what seemed like flashlight heads. The two took care of the robots before deciding to check out the research camp for clues where the beacon was, hoping that the geth didn't take it.

Later, they arrived at their second destination and found it devoid of living humans too. However, what stuck out the most was a number of tall metal spikes each sticking out of a pod. Two of them had a body pierced on them.

"Stick together now." Ratchet quietly ordered. The other Shepard fell back to his position. The… 'Dragon's Teeth' (the spikes) was one of the few parts he remembered.

The night after his sister had started playing Mass Effect 1, she had come to his room. He had tried to shoo her out. But, after one look at her face, he had relented and made room for her on his bed. They lay there for a few minutes, with Ella shaking against him and him trying to comfort her.

Ratchet spoke up. "So what's got the great Turtle scared of something?"

"…w-w-what would you do… if I-I-I died and c-c-came back to life, different as my former self…?"

He snorted in response and told her that it would never happen.

Afterwards, she explained to him about the metal spikes and their creator, a species of 'Giant Metallic Space Squids' named Reapers that aimed to destroy all intelligent life.

"I have a bad feeling about those bodies. Keep your gun trained on them." Just as Ratchet finished saying that, the spikes retracted into their supports. The dead humans were released, but looked nothing like they did while they were alive. Instead, they looked as if cybernetics had replaced most of their flesh. Their skin had turned gray and glowing, metallic parts were poking out. The corpses then stumbled towards the small squad exactly like zombies.

Jane took a deep breath, her eyes wide in horror. However, she quickly composed herself. "Sir, do we neutralize them?"

Contrasting her, the male Shepard was completely impassive. "They were already dead. This is not them anymore. Open fire." A few well-placed shots from them took the undead down easily. "Continue." Each of the corpse exploded when they died, but most of these ones' kinetic energy converted themselves into bluish white light so were harmless.

Scanning the deserted buildings with her eyes, Jane spotted a building with a locked door. She calls her leader over. Ratchet glances at the lock and finds that it was surprisingly easy to hack.

"Probably only meant to keep things from brute forcing in," mutters the leader. The door opens. Three farmers are inside and the middle one shakily pointed a pistol at the two soldiers. "We are Alliance. What happened here?"

The male in the center lowered his pistol. "We don't really know. We were tending to the crops when a really scary ship flew in through the atmosphere. Then we rushed in here and locked ourselves in."

"Sounds like that decision saved your lives. Do you know where the beacon the mining crew unearthed is?" The male Shepard inquired.

The man took out a metal object from his pocket. "Oh, you mean this?"

It was cube-like, but had a very intricate looking design on it. Its dulled reflective grey color only added to its robotic look. The size of the it was about the height and width of an apple.

Something about it made Ratchet need to hold it. He reached to take it from the farmer and just as he touched the metal surface, a familiar voice vibrated in his mind. Ratchet flinched.

"Brother…"

"Oh God, oh God, oh God!" An Alliance soldier wearing pink and white armor repeated as she ran into a clearing that the Normandy squad had passed ten minutes ago. Two Geth bipedal robots chased her. Their target was just out of their gun's effective range, so they are instead choosing to exhaust her. "There's no way… I can outrun the geth… maybe I'll go… …to the space port," she muttered between breaths, "…to see… if there's help…"

A/N: Everything I write has a significance... well, except if I made an error.