I apologise for the delay, folks. College assumed direct control for a bit. Enjoy (or not) as it pleases, and any feedback is welcome. I'll just be over here... y'know, not touching anything.
Prothean Ruins: Eden Prime
That went well. I think… I thought to myself as Ashley lead the Commander, Kaidan and I through the smoking ruins of the Prothean dig site where the colonists had unearthed the beacon we were all here for. Except for me, of course. I was still just trying to wrap my head around reality.
Ashley had explained her situation to us: the ambush, the loss of her team, and what little she knew of the Geth's history (I kept my mouth firmly sewn shut the whole time). I fully expected for one of the three soldiers to try to get me to seek shelter somewhere safe, but to my surprise Shepard motioned me to follow. So I tagged along behind, making sure we didn't have any Geth sneaking up on us.
Ashley sniped the head off of one Geth who chose the wrong time to peek over its cover, then threw a sidelong look at me.
"So… time-traveler, hmmmmm?" She said in a voice loaded with skepticism.
"Makes about as much sense to me as it does to you," I replied wearily (literally; I was quickly running out of steam due in part to the pace the three were setting and my increasingly infrequent biotic usage). "I have absolutely no clue how it works. I feel like I'm in a Doctor Who episode."
"You watch Doctor Who?"
"A bit when I was a teenager. Still trying to get used to David Tenant as the Doctor."
"Wow. That is a century ago. Either you're a damn good liar, or you really are from the past."
"Quite down back there," Shepard whispered at us.
"Sorry," I whispered back with a grimace.
"How much further to the spaceport, Williams?" We were coming up to a small collection of pre-fabricated buildings.
"Just past this clearing and down the hill."
Nihlus's voice suddenly broke over the calm: "I'm headed toward the spaceport, Shepard. There're a lot of bodies."
"I know, we're seeing the same thing," Shepard answered, placing a hand on his ear. "Chief Williams of the 212 is leading us to your location, we'll meet you there."
"Copy Commander. But something smells off here; be careful."
"Roger that. Shepard out." Shepard motioned us past the ruins and up a ramp to the pre-fab units. I nervously glanced over at the impaled husks on the left.
"Uh… Commander?"
"What is it, Donovan?"
"Are those things supposed to be moving?" I may have jumped the gun a little, but we leveled our weapons at the teeth in the same moment they retracted, spilling their undead burdens onto the ground.
"What the hell," Ashley cursed and fired a few rounds into the husks as they tried to get back to their feet. It soon became clear that there were far more than just these, and we engaged in a pitched-if one sided-battle, standing back to back.
It was just as well my stomach had already emptied itself. The husks' smell was overpoweringly fowl, though few came within arm's reach. Sweat poured down my arm and into my eyes as I fired again and again.
The waves of creatures finally stopped, their bodies littering the ground around us like some sort of macabre mosaic. Shepard spat on one of them and wiped husk blood off his face while Kaidan and Ashley crouched down to examine it.
"What did the Geth do to them? Are these things human?" Ashley grimaced and jerked the husk's head from side to side with her rifle.
"They were human." I drew a ragged breath. "Now… they're more dead than alive. Tools, to be used then thrown away once they have no more value." I covered my mouth and a sour taste forced its way into the back of my throat.
Shepard glared at me for a second. "So what are they now?" He took a step toward me, a menacing expression on his face. "No cock'n bull story. What. Are. They."
I considered what I should tell him. This was, after all, the first time the organic races would encounter the Reapers' minions and live to tell of it. I finally decided that Shepard was going to find out anyway, so I replied:
"They're called husks. Dead bodies reanimated by cybernetic implants they get from those spikes." I was still bent double, trying to convince my stomach that it didn't have anything left in it to exhume.
"Right." Shepard surveyed the husks fallen bodies and nodded decisively. "Then killing them now is more a mercy than anything else." He motioned to us. "In any case, there's nothing we can do for them now. We have to keep moving."
"Just don't let them get too close," I called ahead when the four of us headed toward the pre-fab units. "They can emit an electrical pulse that will overload our shields."
"Uh huh. At some point, you and I are going to have a talk."
"Yeah; I know, Commander." I gulped nervously, not looking forward to that conversation one bit.
"Shepard, I'm getting life signs from these pre-fabs," Kaidan whispered.
After breaking through the locks on the prefab door and reassuring the two scientists that they were safe for the moment (me trying not to listen to the jittery apocalyptic predictions from the unstable one), we continued down the path until Nihlus's voice came again over Shepard's comm unit.
"I'm at the Spaceport, Commander, had to sneak past some Geth. I'll wait for… hold on, someone's coming-"
"Nihlus? Nihlus! Come in!" Shepard and Kaidan exchanged a worried glance and steadied their weapons. I held my breath, knowing full well what was going on at the spaceport. Sure enough, about 30 seconds after Nihlus cut out, a pistol shot echoed across the field.
"Damn it! All right, double-time it people! I want us at the spaceport yesterday!" Shepard barked, breaking into a run. We only had time for a hurried "Yes sir" before we too sprinted forward.
Then we saw it. Sovereign. The Reaper. An enormous ship with tentacles and lasers. The one that had shot me down in the first place. The vanguard of the Reapers' harvesting cycle. I was the only one who knew any of this, obviously, and I kept my reaction low-key while Kaidan and Ashley exclaimed in surprise and dismay.
So I was the only one who was looking in front of us when we were spotted by the Geth guarding the spaceport. I ducked behind the lip of the landing pad as we were once again set upon by angry Geth and vicious husks. Shepard and his team had the situation well in hand, but as usual there is always that one snag that manages to sneak past the best defenses ("best" being a very flexible word at this point: I had no shields, and keeping any sort of effective barrier up was draining to the extreme).
A last Geth unit staggered around the edge of the pad I was crouched behind and took aim at me. I didn't have time to think, and my energy reserves were at dangerously low levels, so another barrier was out of the question. I dived to the side in the same moment the Geth pulled the trigger.
Either I was very fortunate, or very crazy. Still, I couldn't avoid the shot completely. An explosion of pain ripped through my left shoulder as I landed on the ground; hard. "Gaaahhhhhhhh!" I couldn't help it: my first ever bullet wound, and I was lying on the ground yelling like an idiot.
The Geth looked down at me and took aim, but before it could fire again a discharge of electricity coursed through it and sent it toppling backwards. It lay twitching for a second or two before its "flashlight" dimmed. Kaidan walked around the corner and kicked the inert machine in disgust, his omnitool still flickering with static. He gave me a sympathetic grin and helped me to my feet.
I hissed through gritted teeth at the pain in my shoulder. Kaidan just rolled his eyes and brought out a packet of a gel-like substance, smeared it on the gash.
"Barely nicked you, Conner. Let me guess: this is your first time being shot?"
"First time being shot at, much less… arghhhhh," I grimaced from the unusual sensation of the medi-gel on my wound. "I've never gotten in a serious fight in my life, never mind had someone trying to kill me." I breathed deeply through my nose in an attempt ignore the agonized protests coming from my shoulder.
"You two okay back there?" Shepard yelled. "We've got a few workers in this unit over here; step on it!"
"We're on our way Shepard," Kaidan replied, picking up my pistol from where I had dropped it and handing it back to me. "Conner just took a little too much fire. He got hit in the shoulder."
"How bad?"
"Just a scrape Commander. He'll walk it off." The two of us walked around the landing pad to where Shepard and Ashley were interrogating a trio of terrified dock workers. I worked up the courage to actually look at my injury, and to my surprise Kaidan was right. It honestly wasn't that bad. Now that the shock had worn off I could see that the bullet had barely grazed me. I had received worse injuries from falling off a cement wall, and at that moment my bigger concern was growing exhaustion.
Once the dock workers had given us some supplies (and the name of a local smuggler after some subtle pressure from Shepard), we climbed up the stairs to the spaceport proper. We were then greeted with Nihlus's dead body.
At least, I assumed it was Nihlus. After all, I had never seen a Turian in person before. But Kaidan recognized him, saying as much. Shepard motioned for us to fan out, and I walked to the left, nursing my shoulder; still trying to block out the sting. My weapon hand was still good however, and while there was a headache developing behind my eyes it wasn't too serious. Yet.
Just then I heard the sound of something being dropped. It came from behind the crates that littered this part of the spaceport.
"Commander, something's moving back here!"
We all trained our weapons in the direction I pointed, and soon enough we were rewarded with a frantic: "Wait! Stop, don't shoot! I'm one of you; I'm human!"
\/
I sat on the cargo tram as it carried us to the other side of the spaceport, knocking my knees. Powel, the dock worker we had flushed out, had turned out to be the smuggler the other three used to bring in contraband. Ashley had not been happy to learn this (obviously), but Shepard persuaded the poor man to hand over his upgrades.
After this we (Shepard and his team, more like; I was growing to be more of a nuisance than a help) recaptured the tram station from the errant Geth stationed there (and a rather frightening encounter with a Destroyer… frightening for me, that is), and were soon speeding along to the beacon's platform.
I debated whether or not to warn Shepard about the nukes Saren had set up ahead of us, but decided against it. Probably not a good idea. Don't want them thinking I'm a spy, or something. Instead I fiddled around with my omnitool (once I figured out how to activate it).
Fortunately I didn't have to fumble in the dark for very long; there just so happened to be a beginner's guide still loaded. As well as a few hacking protocols that scared me. I devoured as much of the tutorial as I could before the train came to a stop at the next checkpoint, focusing on the combat applications.
I noticed a small icon in the shape of a lightning bolt that seemed to be connected to a targeting system. I pressed the icon experimentally, wondering what it did. I found out a second later, as the air in front of me cracked and sizzled with an overload burst.
I yelped, lost my balance and tipped backward off the seat to land unceremoniously on my rear. Shepard rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything (for which I was very grateful).
The cargo train finally stopped at the Garage area of the docks, and Shepard motioned Kaiden and Ashley to cover the stairs and walkway above us while he took a closer look at the tactical nuke Saren had set in our path.
"Conner, cover me while I disarm this! The Geth must have planted these bombs to destroy the colony!"
"How many are there?"
"My ladar is picking up four nukes in this area!" Shepard finished disarming the first one, and started running up the walkway. "We only have about four minutes, people! Step on it!"
It was a race; against the Geth, and against time. There were three other bombs to disarm, and only so long to get to each one. There were also multiple Geth in between us and the others. Every second brought us closer to a quick and gruesome end.
The second was easy enough to find, and it was behind a ledge: the other three of us kept the advancing Geth pinned so Shepard could finagle with it. That was two down; the rest wouldn't be so easy.
I glanced at my omnitool and noticed that it too had picked up the bomb's detonation timer: 1:43. I started to sweat, my gun hand shaking worse and worse all the time from the strain I was putting myself through just to keep from collapsing.
We managed to dodge around the corner to take out the third bomb, but the Geth sent in a Sniper to jam our ladar. We couldn't see where our enemies were coming from, and the bomb was off our sensor array as well.
45 seconds.
There wasn't time-even if we could get to the last bomb-to disarm it conventionally.
40 seconds.
I then did something incredibly stupid.
35 seconds.
Bellowing like a maniac, I charged forward into the midst of the Geth, shooting everywhere I could think of (except at Shepard and his team). My body glowed with an unconscious biotic barrier that bowled over any Geth that was unfortunate enough to stand in front of me.
30 seconds.
I cleared the Geth and frantically searched for the last bomb, ignoring the outraged shouts of Shepard and his squad.
25 seconds.
Come on, you're around here somewhere! Come on!
20 seconds.
There it was, behind the last support beam. I limped toward it, omnitool aiming.
15 seconds.
I had no time to think. No time to worry I was going to hit the wrong button.
10 seconds.
I punched the icon for overload and selected the bomb's trigger mechanism from the dropdown display.
5 se-bomb disabled.
"Yyyyyyyesssss!" I pumped my fist into the air triumphantly, my heart pounding in my ears. The adrenaline rush didn't last long. It left as soon as it arrived, leaving me to crumble to the floor of the garage. Once again I gazed down the barrel of my imminent demise, held this time in the hands of around half-a-dozen Geth.
My head hurt so badly I couldn't even cry out. I gritted my teeth and tried to assume a semblance of bravery… though I think the only thing I managed to get across was a pained grimace.
Before any of the Geth could fire, however, every last one of them was sent flying in an explosion of biotic force and gunfire. The few that weren't knocked off the platform exploded in a blaze of whitish fluid.
Shepard had, once again, saved my ass.
The man himself stepped over the bodies and glared angrily down at me. I could only grin sheepishly up at him, still unable to move. He grabbed me by the front of my jacket and hauled me into the air.
"Never. Do. That. Again." He hissed. "What did I tell you about not being an idiot?"
I gulped, licking lips that had gone very dry. I knew how reckless and idiotic I had been, and I also knew I was about to receive a well-deserved dressing-down.
I was still so winded that I couldn't say anything. Neither did Shepard, and for about a minute we stared at each other, nose-to-nose. His eyes blazed with anger, while I probably looked like a scared kid (which I was).
He finally set me down. And brushed me off with a grudging "Nice job, soldier. Just do me a favor and warn me the next time."
"Y-y-y-yes sir," I squeaked.
After that , the rest of the Geth and husks were relatively easy to mop up. But Shepard and his squad did most of the work, while I staggered blearily behind, too worn out to even complain about the pace Shepard set.
He signalled the all clear, and scanned the area to make sure we hadn't missed anything. All that was left to deal with was:
The Beacon.
The Prothean beacon, the reason so many good people had died, was standing on the platform, looking far too innocent for all the pain it had caused. It was emitting a faint greenish haze, not quite luminescent, but just enough that it was obviously "on."
"Unbelievable. Working prothean technology," Kaidan breathed, turning back to Shepard-who was contacting the Normandy.
"I wonder what turned it on," Ashley said in wonder, bending in for a closer look. "It wasn't doing anything like that before."
"Uh, yeah." I backed up nervously. "Let's not stand too close to the glowy green object. I have a policy about not messing with something that looks radioactive."
Too late.
Ashley scoffed and inched closer to the beacon, giving me a look that clearly said "I dare you."
The air around the beacon pulsed forward, and started to drag Ashley closer to it. I shouted and stumbled backward, crawling crabby-style away from it. Shepard, on the other hand, saw what was happening and leapt forward, grabbing Ashley by the midriff and shoving her to one side.
Which of course, left him in the influence of the beacon.
It was a sight I will never forget. Shepard hung suspended in midair, his body jerking convulsively. When Ashley tried to get to him, both Kaidan and I held her back by the arms.
After about five seconds (though it seemed like ages), the beacon exploded and hurled Shepard away, leaving him collapsed and unconscious on the floor. Ashley broke free and ran to his side. "Shepard!"
"Commander!" Kaidan joined her. "Shepard, are you alright?" He got no answer. I limped over to where they knelt over Shepard's inert body.
I should have warned him…
And there it is. The lengths of these are probably going to vary wildly; I usually try to pick a good place to stop (try). I'll include a key/legend in the next section. Thanks.