Eden Prime was a hole.
A lovely tropical one to be sure, but a hole nonetheless.
"This is what people live in?" Jade looked at the prefab units stacked haphazardly atop one another and grunted. "Looks like a trailer park after an anal retentive F5 tornado."
She followed Shepard and Liara through the settlement, checking for survivors and looking for whatever it was that would open that box Cerberus had dug up.
"It wasn't always like this," Liara said. "It used to be much better developed. Before Saren."
Liara's not so bad, Jade thought as she covered the door while the other two fiddled with the computer. Sure, she's a little … excitable when it comes certain subjects, but hey, aren't we all?
In fact, Liara had been the easiest non-human crew member for Jade to adjust to. I blame it on Dad and all the Star Trek marathons he used to put on when I was a kid. Nothing like watching Captain Kirk make his way through the universe boinking every space babe that crossed his path, to let you accept working with a blue space babe from an entire race of space babes. Dad'd be in heaven.
Apparently, Cerberus had an unlimited supply of mooks they could afford to throw away on one archaeological dig. Jade blew a hole on another one of the bastards trying to set up a turret.
"Oi! You'd think these assholes would have noticed there was a war on and they should be throwing bodies at the Reapers rather than us," Jade slapped a new heat sink into her rifle. "Christ, don't these people want to live?"
"It's complicated," Shepard grunted and lobbed a grenade into a cluster of enemies. "The short version is that their leader wants to control the Reapers, rather than destroy them."
"Wait, these things are bigass fucking machines … right?"
"Right."
"Like the kind that can destroy entire planets?"
"Uh huh."
Jade thought for a moment as she lined up a shot on another of the bigger bastards, then shrugged. "Eh, I guess I can see the logic in it. I mean, from what I gather, these things are more advanced than anything else in the galaxy. That's a lot of power to give up if you can turn it instead."
The centurion went down under a hail of bullets as the three women concentrated fire on the last Cerberus operative on the field.
"Granted," Jade said leaving cover and checking the bodies. "I'm not sure I'd trust anything that fucking smart not to simply act like it was being controlled until it could turn the tables."
"And that's without even touching on indoctrination," Liara said, giving one of the agents a double tap.
"All right, that's the last of them," Shepard moved through the courtyard. "Let's find the rest of this data and get the hell out of here."
Twenty minutes and another couple of waves of dead Cerberus operatives later they had the data and were ready to open the box. Shepard began keying the sequence into the controls.
Jade looked at Liara. "You're sure this is a living prothean?"
"As sure as I can be under the circumstances," doubt flashed through her eyes. "It has been rather a long time."
"Well, I was just thinking of when I came out of cryo."
"Go on."
"Well it was disorienting as all fuck, and that was after only like, what hundred-fifty, hundred-sixty years? How do you think this guy's gonna react after fifty thousand? Especially if all these weird lookin' assholes are standing around staring at him with a buncha weapons pointed at his - Oh shit."
While Jade had been talking, Shepard finished the sequence and the coffin-like pod had opened. The being inside had woken surprisingly fast. Before any of the women could react a pressure wave threw all of them to the ground.
"What the fuck," Jade coughed, trying to regain her breath.
The prothean stumbled from the pod and ran s few steps before tripping again. Guess his recovery isn't going quite as well as mine, Jade thought as she wheezed. Course I had a few minutes in the pod to get my legs under me, bastard's quick though.
"Be careful!" Liara was the first to her feet Shepard only a fraction of a second slower. "He's confused."
"No shit, Inky," Jade said, finally standing as Shepard reached out to touch the alien who seemed transfixed by the site of the ruins in the valley below.
As she made contact, both Shepard and the prothean jerked like they just grabbed a live wire then stood stock still only occasionally twitching.
"Uh … is that … normal?" Jade asked Liara as they both stood and stared at the other two, uncertain how to proceed.
"Not really, but then we really don't actually know that much about the protheans," Liara seemed just as unsure of the situation as Jade.
"You think we should, I dunno, break the contact?"
"No, when Shepard accessed the beacon, three years ago it nearly killed her. I have no idea what would happen if we attempted to separate them at this point."
It was about then the alien fell to his knees and Shepard shook her head. The two conversed in low tones as Jade and Liara made their way over. He turned and addressed them.
"What is this?" His tone was unmistakably dripping with distain. "Asari, humans, have nothing but primitives managed to survive in this cycle?"
Huh, I think that was English! How the hell'd he pick that up? I'm pretty sure even the best translator wouldn't have a fifty-thousand years dead language in it.
Cortez came over the comms warning them of yet another wave of Cerberus troops headed their way.
Shepard nodded and gestured to the Normandy's inbound shuttle. "Look we can insult each other on the ship. Will you join us?"
"If you fight the Reapers," at Shepard's nod he turned on his heel and stalked away. "Then we will see."
"Well," Jade said stepping alongside Shepard. "He's a charmer."
"He watched his people die before his eyes," Shepard murmured as they followed him to the shuttle. "Try not to judge him too harshly."
"Heh, woke up to everything I know gone and everyone I loved long turned to dust, Commander." Jade replied. "You don't have to worry about me judging him. Believe me, I get it."