TWO
"As it takes over"
Clad in her black armor, Lucy appeared as a soldier who had seen more than her fair share of intense combat. The N7 stamped above her right breast was slowly withering away from abrasions, and dents and scratches received from heavy firefights littered her thigh plating and along her biceps. Her gloved left hand clinging to the frigate's railing above her head, Shepard's right hand collapsed her Elanus Risk Control Services M-3 Predator heavy pistol and snapped it into place on her right thigh.
Her favored weapon, though, rested on her back; manufactured by Ariake Technologies, the M-23 Katana shotgun was devastating at close range. Capable of plucking the head off any opponent and splattering it about like a watermelon crashing against the concrete from a twenty meter drop.
Joker had carefully navigated the Normandy, avoiding collisions against enemy forces while deftly maneuvering between the mountains and rolling hills that shaped Eden Prime's terrain. It was a lush, vibrant world, and Corporal Richard Jenkins was both pleased and distraught at returning to his home under these circumstances.
"Even paradise gets boring," Jenkins said, trying to be heard over the roar of the engines. "But I never wanted to come back like this."
He, along with Shepard, Kaidan and Nihlus were the ground team going in. A small, covert operation, which Shepard hoped would draw little attention. Their objective was quite simple; obtain the Prothean beacon and radio for extraction. The team had little to no intel on the conflict below, Lucy would have to assess the situation as she moved through the thick of it. She always did prefer thinking on her feet.
"Nihlus will scout ahead of your position," Anderson said, approaching the team as the Normandy opened its hangar doors, a heavy orange glow penetrating what was once darkness.
"You won't be coming with us?" Jenkins asked, sounding disappointed.
"I move faster on my own," Nihlus answered as he loaded a clip into his pistol and then immediately darted outside, grass rustling beneath his light feet.
"He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission," Anderson stated. "Otherwise, I want radio silence."
Kaidan recognized there was a priority, and respected that, but he couldn't help but feel obligated to the colonists caught in the conflict. "What about survivors, Captain?" Kaidan asked when he realized that wasn't resting at the forefront of everyone's thoughts.
"Helping survivors is a secondary objective," Anderson said. "The beacon must be recovered."
Kaidan only nodded in confirmation, but took to heart the fact that he knew those people were not responsible for the chaos bearing down on them, and noted he would safeguard them were it at all possible.
"We've got Nihlus' back," Lucy assured the Captain, casually putting the topic back on course.
"Then the mission's yours now, Commander," Anderson said. "Good luck."
The Normandy stabilized, Lucy and her team sprinted from the ramp dangling inches away from the cliffside, their feet securely touching the jagged edges of rock forming the cliff. Dust and sand was swept into the air from the disturbance and the Normandy flew away discreetly. The three were on their own now.
Equipping their pistols, Lucy, Kaidan and Jenkins began their trek along the side, sand slowly turning into grass, with trees littering one of the paths ahead. Along with that were strange, pale bags, floating misshapen balls of gas native to the planet of Eden Prime. These were not their targets. Shooting the gasbags would trigger explosions that rivaled the grenades Lucy had clipped along her belt, and it would be a waste of ammo, which they were limited on.
"It's been hit hard, Commander," Nihlus reported over comm. "Hostiles everywhere."
Two beeps followed, signaling Nihlus had once again closed off the comm channel. Shepard needed to stay on her toes, clearly the enemy was there for the beacon, and a mutual goal meant hostility would generally multiply as all of them closed in on the target.
"Did you guys know that Nihlus took down an entire platoon once in his career?" Jenkins wondered as Shepard continued forward, taking a path along the edge of the cliff.
"Only once?" Lucy asked tiredly. "I expected more from a Spectre."
To this Kaidan only chuckled and Jenkins simply rolled his eyes, he knew he had a certain admiration for Nihlus and the fantasies behind what he took on for a living. But it was only because Jenkins saw himself there one day, an elite Spectre leading humanity against the unhinged chaos of a tortured galaxy.
The path started to curve to the right and the team slowed down, allowing Lucy to take point, while Jenkins and Kaidan fell to the rear. Pressing her body tightly against the boulders and jagged edges that formed a wall of earth, the Commander just ever so slightly poked her head out, giving the all clear, she proceeded forward first, and alone. Taking her first few steps out, she noticed how eerie the silence was, as it the fighting had come to a stop, but at what cost? Suddenly, four drones burst forth from secure spots and opened immediate fire on Shepard.
Running back risked both her position and her safety, calculating her options she discovered a small rock not far ahead of her, and fell into a diving roll to evade the swarms fire. Secure, she evaluated her options. Attempting to peek her head out from the side, she was greeted by blasts of high-energy phasic slugs that slowly chipped away at her limited cover.
"The Commander's pinned down!" Jenkins roared.
"Richard, don't," Kaidan protested, but it was to no avail.
Now gripping his assault rifle, Jenkins opened fire on the geth, just barely managing to lower their shields before his abdomen was shredded by the turrets mounted on the drones. Jenkins fell over dead, his kinetic shields unable to stand against the barrage from a squad of geth.
"Damn it," Shepard cursed, motioning for Kaidan to open fire from his secured position.
With the swarm distracted, Lucy again poked her head out from cover, their flight patterns were erratic, but carefully programmed to keep motion, this meant they were avoiding both gunfire and even biotic abilities. Darting around, her grayed blue eyes finally fixated on a target.
The drones purpose was removing her and Kaidan, ignoring the environment around them. Shepard, though, knew better than that, as she always believed one should mind their surroundings, especially in the heat of battle. Stretching out her arms, Lucy knew the timing had to be perfect, her aim absolutely precise. If she failed, the geth would be onto her, and alter their functions according to the revealed data.
She squeezed the trigger, releasing one carefully produced shot at the gasbag now floating casually through the armed drones. Before the geth realized it, the gasbag exploded into a volley of fire, destroying one, and taking out the shields on the remaining three.
This was their chance to act; propelling herself over the safety of cover Lucy hurled a singularity at them, sucking the drones into the warped space as Kaidan emptied his assault rifle. When the singularity eventually burst, the drones fell to the ground in bits and pieces.
Lucy eased her arms down and holstered her pistol, she turned to observe Kaidan checking the status of Jenkins pulse, she already knew the verdict, but respected Alenko's drive to know for certain. It was just how he operated.
"He's gone," Kaidan confirmed.
"Leave his body here," Lucy said. "We can't risk him slowing us down."
Kaidan understood and obliged, running his palm over Richard's face, he pulled the Corporal's eyes shut and straightened his legs. He fell in behind Shepard and the two continued onward. Silence again filled the air, and Shepard was able to gather her thoughts.
Geth had not been seen outside the Veil in two hundred years, they were an isolationist species, preferring to carve out their own section of the galaxy to colonize. Something more was occurring here, and Lucy was certain it had to do with the strange vessel haunting her imagination.
She couldn't help but fall back on that image, a black claw striking from the heavens. All of this was tied into the beacon, of that she was sure. Her team would just have to retrieve it before the hostiles did.
The path was winding down to a large area, with a hill opposite of Shepard casting a shadow on the sight they laid witness to; an Alliance marine hunkered down behind a line of crates that once were stacked and ready for shipment, now thrown and broken, their goods no doubt rendered useless by the explosions and gunfire.
Far more disturbing were the dragon's teeth, devices with spikes near four meters in height, each with a human stabbed onto one. There were eleven of these dragon's teeth in all, and they slowly started to retract back inside the large base they protruded from.
The humans on them were pitch black and faded gray, as if all pigment had been drained from them. A strange, blue electrical current coursed throughout their bodies, and the gaping hole in their chest revealed nothing that hinted to their human origins. When the bodies finally smacked down on the ground below, the Husks pulled themselves up, and rushed at the Alliance soldiers.
"My God," Kaidan gasped. "They're still alive!"
"Those things aren't human anymore," Lucy shouted, realizing Kaidan was hesitating to open fire. "Shoot them."
Closing his mouth, Kaidan was forced to agree with the Commander and opened fire, preparing to close the gap between him and the marine clad in white armor. Shepard opened her palm and sent the nearest Husk off its feet, spiraling out of control, giving the marine an opportunity to easily pick it off.
Lucy equipped her shotgun and blasted the upper torso off another Husk, it collapsing in a smoking heap. From her belt she snatched two grenades, tossing one at the group of geth troopers progressing forward, attempting to flank the distracted three. The resulting explosion ripped the geth apart, buying them valuable time.
In that time Kaidan and the marine had managed to pick off a number of the remaining hostiles, leaving only a heavy geth trooper and two Husks. Shepard switched to her pistol, this time taking the heads off both Husks, and finally Kaidan threw a warp at the last geth, stripping it of its armor, allowing the marine a clean shot to end the battle.
With the storm over, Lucy and Kaidan approached the marine, whom Shepard recognized as the woman in the distress vid they received on the Normandy.
"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the Two-twelve, you the one in charge here ma'am?" the white armored woman asked.
"I'm Commander Lucy Shepard," she introduced herself. "You all that's left, Williams?"
"Yes," Ashley confirmed. "I've been defending this position for a half hour since the geth rushed the dig site. You saw what they did to my men."
The Husks must have been what she was referencing. That was not the type of technology Shepard knew as geth, making her wonder what other cards were on the table here. Obviously the bodies had been human, but they were transformed, acting like zombies craving the flesh of the living. This was the stuff of nightmares.
"We think the geth are after the Prothean beacon," Lucy suggested. "Do you know where it is?"
Ashley nodded. "Just over that hill." She pointed at the very hill that was currently casting its shadow over them.
"Maybe you should come with us," Kaidan said. "You might be a valuable asset."
"Yeah, I owe it to these people to fight," Ashley agreed. "Commander?"
Lucy cocked an eyebrow, she knew this was Kaidan's way of keeping a survivor along, but they could also use the extra gun. "Sure, cover our rear."
Williams stood to attention and saluted, then firmed her grip on the assault rifle and they continued over the hill. It was not very steep and required little effort to climb, reaching the top caused the most disappointment. The beacon was gone.
"It was here!" Ashley exclaimed, obviously agitated that she didn't manage to protect her only objective.
"The geth must have it," Kaidan stated, to which Shepard nodded in agreement.
Lucy was preparing to question Ashley on where the geth might take it, when her comm hummed to life again.
"Things have changed, Commander," it was Nihlus. "I have found a small spaceport to investigate and I will wait for you there."
It then beeped dead once again. Were the geth here to solely obtain the beacon, they would be returning it to that strange black vessel, if it was a ship, and that meant they needed the spaceport. Lucy stashed her weapon away and looked at her team.
"We need to reach the spaceport," she concluded.
"All right," Ashley said. "It's not far past the research station to the west."
Careful not to draw any fire, the trio started west toward the large station slowly coming into sight. Hostile infantry was growing lighter and Lucy had to assume the geth were packing up to leave, especially if the beacon was in their grasps. This left a small window of opportunity to assault the enemy and get it back, no matter the cost.
Nihlus closed off the comm channel and faced his former mentor; Saren Arterius. The spaceport was deserted save for the lone, renown Spectre. It was certainly a pleasant surprise to find aid at such a critical time. Nihlus holstered his assault rifle and greeted the legendary turian.
"Saren, this isn't your mission, what are you doing here?" he asked, baffled.
"The Council thought you could use some help on this one," Saren replied warmly, laying a hand on Nihlus' shoulder for reassurance, and then proceeded to walk past him, as if looking for something.
"I wasn't expecting to find the geth here," Nihlus admitted, hope lingering in his voice. "The situation's bad."
Still, for all that, Nihlus knew they could prevail. Shepard had shown exemplary cunning and skill in her previous operations and he no doubt knew that with this team, the geth would be stopped here.
"Don't worry. I've got it under control," Saren said, grabbing the pistol at his hip.
Turning to Nihlus, he fired a single shot in the back of his former apprentice's head, whose blood spilled out along the port, spraying the crates with specks of blue. Saren's eyes flickered like a jolt of lightning and he walked to a train that would take him to the other side of the spaceport. The only witness to his involvement dead.
Or so he thought. For, buried among the stacks of toppled and slanted cargo, hid a young human dock worker, frozen with an intense shock at what had played out before his eyes. And the young man wondered how long he had at this point.