A/N: Updated the summary. Updated story Genres to better fit current story.

Ratchet had not believed it. Turtle? Could it have been her? The more logical side of him had told him no. However, a part of him couldn't help but hope.

In the heat of the moment, he had put away the mysterious cube in one of his pouches for later study and made the decision to instead question the farmers about the beacon. They directed him towards a another shed that was slightly further off.

After the two soldiers plus one unconscious arrived to the building, they hacked the locked door and entered without much fuss.

"Thank the maker! More humans!" A woman wearing some kind of lab uniform called out of them hurriedly from deeper within the shed.

From behind her, a man wearing a similar uniform walked to her side. "Quick! Close the door before they come back!"

Seeing that the civilians were unarmed, Ratchet lowered his assault rifle. "Don't worry, sir, ma'am, we have secured the area." Just in case, he whispered to his teammate through his comms to watch the doorway. He turned his attention back to the survivors. "May you two identify yourselves?"

"I am Dr. Warren and he is Dr. Manuel."

"We are here to locate the beacon and secure a landing zone to pick it up. Do you know where it is?"

"We had moved it to the spaceport for extraction this morning. Before we could send a message out, our comms were jammed."

"Don't worry. The rest of the Alliance fleet has been contacted. Will you two be safe here?"

The female scientist nodded in response.

Then, Ratchet remembered the mysterious cube he had been given earlier. "Dr. Warren, did your team also unearthed something other than the beacon?"

"Oh! Right, we did, however, with the attack and all, we focused on the primary objective and forgot about it! Oh no!"

The male Shepard quickly reassured her. "Ma'am, one of the farmers was able to secure it and gave it to me. Could you tell me more about it?"

"Of course! It's a very interesting relic… our tests have revealed that it is at least two million years old, very likely to be older! Older than the Protheans! Must have been from one of the civilizations before them, as it cannot be natural."

Then the male scientist spoke up. "It is the remnant of a massacred species! The fire of life taken away from them, the frost transforming them into solemn prophesies of humanity's extinction!" Distress was apparent on his face.

Everyone else turned their head to stare at him.

"Sorry, he was always a bit unhinged. He is very intelligent, on the other hand. Don't mind him." Dr. Warren turned back towards the male Shepard. "Back on the topic of the relic, however, I feel that it doesn't feel whole. Maybe if we're able to find more things like it…"

Ratchet mentally took note of that. "Alright, thanks for the information, but we have to leave now-"

"We would have been saved, but our saviors are dead; destroyed by the Planet Eater! If history was different, then our future would not be clouded with death!" Everyone ignored the weirdo.

After saying their goodbyes, the two-man squad locked the shed door and went for the spaceport. Ratchet opened his comms.

"So the beacon was moved. Alright, Shepard, I'll meet you at the Spaceport." Answered Nihlus. He had gone in front of Ratchet's team to scout it out. Seeing as he was a Spectre, an agent of the Galactic Government and best of the best, he could take care of himself easily.

He raised his pistol and cautiously walked towards the meeting point he set with Ratchet. Making sure to stay near cover and scan the horizon, he still arrived at the entrance in record time.

The area, even if it was outside, felt a bit claustrophobic. Stacks of cargo boxes about the size of half a human were everywhere. Nihlus Kryik was inching forward behind a pile of the boxes when he saw another turian familiar to him. In surprise, he stood up and began walking towards him.

"Saren?"

Hearing his name, the other turian turned around to face Nihlus. That one was wearing white and black armor and had a greyish colored face with no markings. He was a Spectre like Kryik.

"Nihlus."

"This is not your mission. What are you doing here?"

"The council thought you could use some help on this one." Saren patted his shoulder as he walked past the other turian.

"I wasn't expecting to find the Geth here. The situation's bad."

"Don't worry." Taking advantage of the fact that Kryik was looking the other way, Saren aimed a pistol at the other turian's head. "I've got it under control."

"GODDAM IT!" Suddenly heard the two, followed by a sound of someone falling.

Nihlus crouched in reflex just as Saren pulled the trigger. The bullet missed Kryik and instead found itself lodged in a bipedal geth's head.

The disabled robot crumpled to the ground, to the surprise of its comrade and of a fallen pink alliance soldier. The Alliance soldier and the geth was a long way away from the two Spectres. None of the two groups had seen each other before now.

The red and grey Spectre took down the lone remaining geth with a burst from his assault rifle and rolled towards a stack of cargo beside them. "Contac-" He saw his fellow Spectre aim his pistol at him. "Saren, what are you doing!"

"It's for the greater good, Nihlus."

However, a burst of plasma covered rounds disabled the barefaced turian's pistol.

"Hands up! I don't know what is going around here, but I'm not allowing you two kill each other!" The soldier they had just saved had taken one of the geth's pulse rifles. She was now walking towards the two, pointing her new weapon at them.

The three of them had a stare off. A moment later, Saren chuckled. "Geth Pulse Rifles disable themselves after three seconds." Then he took out a combat knife and lunged for Nihlus. Suspicious, the alliance soldier tested the trigger of her gun and found that the turian was right. She angrily threw it away.

Not really knowing what to do, she hid behind a stack of cargo boxes as the two turians brawled it out. Ending up as collateral damage was never fun.

"Saren! Why are you doing this?" The turian wearing the red armor grinded out between his teeth. He was pinned under the other Spectre, trying to push away the knife using the flat side of his rifle. He wasn't getting much success, as his assailant had the advantage of gravity.

"You will not understand, but I have seen their might- our end is here and the only way to survive is to help them!"

"Them?" Nihlus forced out. But, the answer was interrupted as Saren had to suddenly roll off. A heavy caliber sniper bullet flew right past the grey Spectre's original position, barely missing his face.

Shepard's squad ran into the area, Jane's sniper rifle still smoking. "Kryik! Are you wounded?" Ratchet hurried to the red Spectre's side while his teammate switched to a shotgun to keep an eye on Saren.

"Careful! He's a biotic!" However, the downed Spectre's warning was too late. A shockwave of purple energy sent the female Shepard flying.

Before the remaining soldiers could do anything in retaliation, Saren biotically pulled the pink one from behind her cover, threw three concussive grenades towards her and fled. The pink marine found herself landing right between the explosives.

"Well, shit."

A lot of times, concussive grenades are mixed up with flashbangs. For the record, flashbangs aim to disable using a loud sound and very bright light, while concussive grenades are made just to blow up. The latter uses purely the created pressure wave to kill or wound.

In the Mass Effect universe, the standard armor suits worn by almost all men and women in combat roles are equipped to deal with such things. Normally, they would just be sent flying with minimal damage by a physical shockwave.

However, what if the victim was surrounded and unable to move away?

A sickening crushing sound was heard as the blast went off. Everyone else, having dived away before the explosion, took a moment to look at each other, scared to look back.

They all stood up slowly. Almost as one, they stared at the dissipating dust cloud. It finally cleared.

To their surprise, no one was there. Then, two hundred pounds of feminine flesh and metal landed on Nihlus with a bang.

"Holy crap! You two alright?" called out Jane as she and Ratchet ran over. "Oh God! What happened to her legs?"

"Don't move, Agent Kryik, I need to make a diagnostic first." The medic kneeled beside the pile of bodies and took out his field scanner. "Your shields are holding at 27%, must have been Spectre grade." He then moved it so that it targeted the pink soldier. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Madeline Williams. She has severe bruising all over her body. The bigger problem is her legs," It was apparent that her lower half was squashed into a pencil tip like shape. No blood was leaking out, but that was more because the hardsuit was airtight. "Well, son of a bitch, those bones are almost dust. The muscles are shredded and the flesh is dealing with many ruptured main arteries." He paused. "We might be able to save her if we rush. Jane! Ready your clamps!" Then, after a quick first-aid application, Ashley was secured to the female Shepard's back just like what he did with Kaidan and himself. "Double time it!"

The three-man team then rushed into the spaceport as fast as they could, aiming for the important cargo area. They quickly burst down any geth they saw with ease and arrived to their destination quickly.

Saren was already there, a geth shotgun in his hands. It was aimed towards a large grey object, alone amid the whole open-air platform.

The object looked kind of like a very thick upside-down hoe. It didn't have many curves except for on its blade-like base. Green energy seeped out of a slit running down from the top.

"Saren, stop! Don't damage the beacon!" exclaimed Nihlus.

The grey Spectre was shaking and it was not because of fear.

"Put down that weapon, 'Saren', you are outnumbered! Stand down!" commanded Ratchet.

Suddenly, their enemy bent over, grabbing his head in pain. He screamed.

A wave of biotic energy rippled from the doubled up Spectre and sent everyone else into the wall. The architecture groaned as its metallic supports were tested. The beacon tipped over dangerously.

When Saren recovered, he looked towards the three-man team with an undecipherable expression on his face. Then, he did some sort of backflip right off the platform. He landed in a flying shuttle that was parked mid-air right underneath and made his escape.

Finally going past the point of no return, the beacon landed on its side with a bang.

The two Shepards and Nihlus picked themselves up painfully and grabbed their dropped gear with effort. Their intimate millisecond with the wall had done a number on them.

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Navigation Officer Pressly here, do you read me?"

Ratchet walked towards the edge of the platform for a better reception, before putting a hand to the side of his helmet to turn on his side of the radio. "Loud and clear."

"Something happened, and the geth are retreating. I have been ordered to check on all squads. What's your status?"

Shepard looked around at his disheveled group. "Major Kaidan Alenko is unconscious. We have also found Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, who is in critical condition. The beacon has been located… however, we have met this other Spectre named…"

"Saren Arterius." Nihlus filled in. "He had tried to damage the main objective and has wounded Williams. We need extraction at our location."

"Yes. That. ETA?" grumbled Shepard.

"Estimated time of arrival, three minutes."

"Roger." Finished with the call, Ratchet looked back towards the main objective of his whole mission. Not surprisingly, Jane was limping towards it with the intent to inspect it. The beacon was sparking from the slight dent it had sustained from tipping over.

"Jane… that's a bad idea-" Before he could finish his sentence, she was lifted off the ground. Green energy had shot out from the object and wrapped around her. She struggled uselessly. "Jane!"

He and Nihlus ran over to her and tried to pull her away. The green energy expanded to the two. From them, it spread to the floor. In seconds, the whole planet was wrapped in a halo of the stuff.

Then, just as sudden as the green swirly substance appeared, it faded away. Jane fell back to the ground at the feet of her teammates. All three of them were bewildered at what happened. However, before a thought was even formed, the beacon exploded, sending them into unconsciousness.

Because they were knocked out, none of them noticed the mysterious cube in Ratchet's pocket flash a beautiful gold color.

A/N: Remember to review! What doesn't make sense? What does? What did you like?

Can you guys guess what the cube is?

Probably not, as your closest guesses will be so close... yet so far.