Shepard calibrated one of her pistols for the third time, pacing back and forth like a caged animal as Joker brought them down to the first drop point. Nihlus was going to scout ahead of them as they made for the beacon.

Get the beacon back to the ship, look for survivors. Simple stuff. Except they still had no idea exactly what in the name of hell had attacked the colony. Walking into a situation they knew so little about was a good way to die.

Hey, Shepard, making your squad nervous even before we arrive is a good way to get them killed, too. She paused and looked over at Lt. Alenko and Jenkins. They looked back at her warily and she became aware she'd been restless and muttering to herself since they'd received the distress call. And they'd seen that…thing.

Nihlus just watched her. She didn't have a hope of reading his expression. Her eyes drifted to the turian and she frowned. "It was a ship."

He looked toward the door and nodded once.

"I've never seen a ship like that," Shepard continued.

"I was weird looking," Jenkins piped up. "It reminded me of a squid."

"It could be geth design. There have been a few reports of attacks drifting in the past couple of weeks." Nihlus didn't sound like he believed it, though.

"The geth haven't been seen outside the Perseus Veil in two hundred years," Alenko said doubtfully, looking between the commander and Nihlus.

"Approaching drop point one."

Jenkins broke the uneasy silence. "You're coming with us, Nihlus?"

The turian shook his head. "I work faster on my own."

Shepard stirred and looked over at him. "Watch your back."

He gave her a mildly surprised look but the offhand way she'd said it made it clear it was something she said on a regular basis. To anyone she worked with. "Always do." He moved forward, launching himself out the door and to the ground in a few long steps.

"You really think geth attacked the colony, Commander?" Jenkins asked hesitantly.

Shepard looked over at him, face expressionless. Jenkins had been born and raised on Eden Prime. He had to be worried about his friends and family but he was managing to remain stoic and focused. Kid, you're a better solider than I'll ever be.

Her mind flashed back to the ship hovering in the sky like some kind of dark god from a horror story. She didn't blame Nihlus for hesitating to call it a geth ship, even if they were something out of legend too. The description didn't fit, didn't quite describe the unease the sight of it inspired. "I think, corporal, we need to be ready for anything."

When Kaidan thought about Jenkins's death later…and he did, constantly, for years after…it still came as a shock how horribly fast it happened.

Nihlus had just radioed in to warn them there were hostiles and bodies everywhere. He remembered Jenkins whispered: "Oh, God, what happened here?" as they took in the amount of damage that had been done to the colony. He remembered the commander signaling to stop, her tall frame going tense. Remembered moving around at her motion as Jenkins eagerly moved forward, rifle at the ready.

He swept his gaze to the left cautiously, searching for movement and the things came out of nowhere behind him. Shepard called Jenkins's name, the cry drowned out immediately by his dying scream. By the time Kaidan had turned he was down.

Shepard flared as two…things…swept down the hill toward them, trying to flank them. One of them froze as she threw it in stasis and he turned toward the other one. He didn't think, his instincts carrying him, his biotics flaring as well as he lashed out. The thing…it was some kind of robot drone…geth…was propelled backwards and smashed into a rock.

He turned to find Shepard standing over the other one, gun in her hand as she stared down at the smoking thing at her feet. And Jenkins…

He was dead. Kaidan could see that even as he knelt beside him. The shots had ripped through barriers and armor alike like they were nothing. He'd never had a chance. Nothing to be done. He'd never defeat an entire platoon single handed, like Nihlus had. Or become a scourge to slavers, like Shepard had. Or get a tattoo. Or tell another of those stupid jokes everyone felt guilty about laughing at. He wasn't going to ask that cute technician out like he'd been building up the courage to do. He was dead. Gone. Dead.

"Alenko."

He reached out slowly and closed his friend's staring eyes, numb. He'd never lost someone in combat before, much less someone close to him.

"Kaidan."

The sharp command in Shepard's voice had him rising and turning toward her automatically. He saw understanding in her eyes. She knew. But her voice was firm as she spoke quietly: "We'll give him the burial he deserves but I need you focused, LT."

His training took over and he straightened up. "Aye, aye, ma'am."

She searched his face for a second longer and then nodded and stepped back. He saw her glance at Jenkins once before she turned away.

They were ready when more attacked. She was more skilled with technology and he was far stronger with biotics, and they ended up balancing each other out enough to make short work of them. Shepard kicked one lightly down the hill, shaking her head. "These aren't combat drones. No one with flesh and blood is controlling them unless they're doing it from a distance with plenty of things to interfere with a signal in the way."

Geth.

The word hung unspoken in the air.

Nihlus spoke over the comm. "I've got burned out buildings here, Shepard. And lots of bodies."

"Fuck." Her voice was so soft, he doubted the turian heard it.

"I'm going to check it out. I'll try and meet you at the dig site."

She could hear them closing in on her.

She was listening for the buzzing hum, was already diving to the ground as they fired, hitting the ground and rolling, her pistol in her hand, her world narrowing into two points in the air above her. She fired, blasting one, then the other.

A scream brought Ashley Williams rolling to her feet just in time to see two of the...geth they were goddamned geth...pinning a colonist down on one of those damned devices. Even as she rose, she knew she was too late. The spike was rising, plowing through the man's chest and pushing him up, up, up into the air helplessly, limbs twitching, making a horrid gurgling sound. Even as the needle device rose, they were turning toward her, heads formed of glowing lights resting on disturbingly human like bodies.

Ashley was already moving, diving behind a boulder, pulling her rifle as she crouched. She took a deep, shuddering breath and whipped around as one of the light headed fuckers swung around the boulder. Even as she brought her rifle up, the thing froze, dark energy holding it in place. A shot rang out behind her and she spun to watch a woman in light black armor striding toward her, a man standing a few paces behind her, energy dancing over his frame as he pointed at the frozen geth.

She took it all in during the instant it took her to turn and bring her rifle up, joining the woman as she attacked the other geth. By the time it was down, the man had reduced the second one to a smoking husk and stood, his hand resting on his helmet.

"Kaidan?" The sharp concern in the woman's voice was clear even through the buzz of her helmet's vox.

The man waved. "I'm fine, Commander."

Ashley stood straighter as the woman nodded and turned to her. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, ma'am?"

She nodded. "Lieutenant Commander Arian Shepard of the SSV Normandy. This is Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko."

He nodded. "Are you wounded?"

"Nothing serious. Couple scrapes and burns." Ashley swallowed. "The others…they weren't so lucky."

"What the hell happened here, Williams?" The commander squinted at her through her helmet's visor.

"Oh, man….We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit." Ashley shook her head, shifting backwards, wincing a bit as her armor rubbed over one of her scrapes. "We tried to get off a distress call but they cut off our communications. We walked right into an ambush." Ashley closed her eyes. "I think I'm the only one left."

"Not your fault." The man, Alenko, spoke up. There was a pained undertone to his voice.

Shepard nodded. "I don't think anyone could have been prepared for this. Do you know what these things are?"

"I think they're geth. They must have come for the beacon?" Ashley shrugged. She'd been asking herself the same thing.

Shepard straightened up. "That's about as logical a guess as we can make at the moment. Could you take us there?" She looked pointedly past Ashley to the smoking hulk of the geth behind them. "We could certainly use your help."

It lifted her spirits just a little. She hadn't been able to save her squad but she could still do some good. And do some damage. Ash nodded, a hint of a smile crooking the corner of her mouth. "Aye, aye, ma'am."

"Change of plans, Shepard. There's a spaceport up ahead. I'm going to check it out and meet you there."

"Careful, something weird is going on here." Shepard let her hand fall to her side.

"Who was that, Commander?" Ashley was standing at the center of the dig site, scuffing a boot over where the beacon had obviously been; and...more to the point...no longer was.

"Nihlus Kryik. He's a Spectre agent here to help bring the beacon back." Shepard joined her, looking down at the spot. "He's ahead of us somewhere. If the beacon's been taken he'll likely get to it before we do."

Ashley nodded. "That spaceport he's talking about is up past the camp over the rise. There's buildings there too, someone might have managed to seal themselves in."

"Let's hope so. Move out."

She wasn't surprised Ashley Williams had survived. She was a crack shot, better with a gun than she and Kaidan put together and she balanced them out very nicely. With Shepard and Kaidan working to hold them and take their shields down for the few seconds it took Ashley to line up a shot, they were making short work of the geth they encountered.

Although they didn't encounter any as they made their way up the rise.

Shepard frowned a bit, suspicious, her eyes scanning back and forth. Moving up the ramps didn't reveal geth waiting for them but for the first time she really noticed the odd needle like towers scattered here and there. She looked up and squinted at the figures on the tips, then her eyes widened. "Jesus Fucking H Christ!"

Kaidan looked at her, startled, then followed her gaze. He swallowed hard. "They're still alive..."

Ashley drew in a sharp breath. "I saw a couple people impaled but I haven't seen the corpses look like that...what did they do to them?" Her voice was shaky with rage.

"Can we get them down?" Kaidan took a step forward.

Shepard shot a hand out, planting it in the center of his chest. "No."

"Commander..."

"I know, Kaidan, I know...but we don't know what's been done to them. We don't know anything."

"It could be a trap," Ashley agreed.

Kaidan nodded reluctantly. He started to speak, then went stiff as one of the needles started to lower, perhaps triggered by their presence. It went down, folding into the round tripod it was set in so the body at its tip was laying across it and the needle withdrew with a sick, wet sound.

The body moved, energy crackling around it.

Ashley swore softly as the...it had been human once, now it was a husk shot through with wires and glowing blue circuitry...rose. It stood, swaying for a moment, blank eyes blazing with that dark energy. Shepard motioned for them to fall back as the energy exploded outward. Another needle was lowering and Shepard and Kaidan both fired up their biotics as Ashley backed behind a rock and settled her rifle on her shoulder.

The husk things charged, running toward them in a swaying, almost drunken run. It was the most hideous of insults, turning the colonists into some kind of mindless attack dogs against the people that had come to rescue them. Lucky for them...and Shepard hated herself for thinking it...the husk things were fragile and fell with relative ease. As they fired, dodging, keeping back, gunning them down because they had no choice, Shepard was aware that whatever anger she'd felt earlier was nothing compared to the rage in her now. How dare they. How dare they take the people here and use them like so much meat. Like tools to be used.

Riding on it, Shepard tried not to look at the now fully dead husks, heading for the buildings she saw ahead. She paused when she noticed Ashley standing off to the side, very still, like she was listening for something. "Williams?"

Ashley shook her head and looked at her. "Sorry, Commander I just...I thought I heard a gunshot somewhere in the distance."

Shepard frowned and listened. Ashley shrugged. "I don't hear any more, maybe I wasn't hearing right."

Powell wrapped his arms around his head as rumbling filled the air. He was pretty sure the turian was gone but there were still the damned geth everywhere and the ship above him, if that's what that thing was, was taking off. The very sound of it made Powell's ears ring oddly, it seemed to vibrate right inside his head. No...the sound almost crawled in through his ears and clawed along his brain, carrying the faintest whisper of voices beneath the rumble, making him feel half crazy. He hunched against the crates until it faded and squeezed his eyes shut. And prayed for a miracle.

"I think Dr. Manuel needs some serious R&R," Ashely muttered as they rounded the buildings and headed for the spaceport where the beacon had been sent. Shepard was hoping Nihlus had already secured it.

Shepard had radioed in the location of the two surviving doctors they'd found. It was too dangerous to try and take them with them especially with one of them ranting about the darkness of eternity and the age of humanity coming to an end. That cheerful thought wasn't elevated by the fact that coming over the rise to see the spaceport in the distance also brought them face to face with the ship they'd seen in the distress call. Shepard froze for a second, staring up at it. The screen had given them a clear look but hadn't captured the hideous thing in its totality. It was massive, bigger than any dreadnought she'd seen from any race. Once again she was hit with that weird sense of dread that left her cold and numb. She shook it off, watching as the ship rose, blood red energy crackling around it. She could feel the vibrations from it from where she stood and it made her nerves jump. She glanced over, noting it had a similar effect on her companions.

"Incoming!" Ashley shouted.

Shepard snapped to attention and snarled as geth and more of those husks came up the hill toward them. The spaceport was swarming with them. The three of them spread out in a V, using the hill to their advantage. Shepard grunted as a bullet hit her shields and made her stumble back and she heard Kaidan yell as one of the husks managed to break through and threw him...her...it...self at him. Energy crackled around it, exploding outward, knocking Kaidan to the ground and sending Shepard and Ashley both reeling for a moment, shields faltering. Kaidan threw his hand out in pure reflex and sent the thing flying. Ashley nailed it right between the eyes before it even hit the ground.

Kaidan climbed to his feet and all three took a moment to catch their breath and let their shields power up again. Shepard scanned the spaceport, frowning. She hadn't heard anything from Nihlus for the past while and she didn't see...

Her thoughts stopped as Kaidan pointed to a form laying still in the center of the platform. Not geth or husk. Shepard felt a weird hitch in her chest as she caught sight of distinctive red and black armor and she rose unsteadily to her feet. "Oh, shit..."

"It's Nihlus." Kaidan's voice was hushed.

"A turian?" Ashley came up behind him, looking down.

Shepard crouched down. She hesitated, not certain if turians had similar pulse points to humans, and leaned close, listening to his chest and mouth. He wasn't breathing. She looked him over and stared as she saw the blue blood at the base of his neck and the ruin that was the back of his head. It took her a second to register it fully. Shot in the back of the head. Someone fucking shot him from behind. Why that offended her so much she couldn't precisely say. Except it seemed like an insult to injury that someone as obviously skilled as Nihlus had died in such a way. Not in a fair fight but shot from behind in a coward's move.

On the heels of that was the sudden thought: A shot to the back of the head. One shot. How the hell did someone get the drop on him enough to get a clean shot like that? Sniper? No...no way, that has to be close range...

Ashley yelled suddenly and Shepard shot to her feet, her pistols aimed at the crates across the platform.

"Don't shoot!" A man stood up quickly, his hands out, his voice hoarse and desperate, obviously terrified. "I'm one of you! I'm human!"

"Sneaking around behind crates. That's a great way to get shot, man," Ashley snapped.

"S-sorry. I was hiding from those...creatures." The man seemed jumpy even as they lowered their guns, speaking quickly. "My name is Powell. I saw what happened to him. The turian. The other one shot him."

"Other one...wait, what?" Shepard blinked.

"The other turian! He was waiting around when that one showed up. Called him Saren. I think they knew each other."

"Saren." Shepard frowned, committing the name to memory. It tugged at the back of her mind. She'd heard that name somewhere before but she couldn't remember for the life of her where.

"Your friend seemed to relax. Let his guard down. And the other one shot him right in the back! I'm lucky he didn't see me."

"Where'd he go?"

"He jumped on the cargo train and headed over to the other platform. That's where the beacon is." Powell whipped off his cap, grimacing. "I knew that damned thing was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mother ship showed up. Then the attack." His voice shook as the put the cap back on. "They killed everyone. Everyone!" He seemed to shake himself. "I..I'm sorry. I just...I need to get away from here."

He was obviously a dockworker and scared out of his mind. Shepard motioned back the way they'd come. "Join the doctors in the cabin up the hill, we've radioed in for help." This mission kept getting weirder and weirder with every passing minute.

"Oh, boy..." Shepard's long, thin fingers flew across the pad set into the middle of the demolition charge.

The geth had only gotten worse as they'd made their way to the other platform. Bigger, more elaborately armored, and carrying heavier firepower. And now...

"Uh, Commander, I think there's more than one." Ashley sounded slightly nervous. Shepard didn't blame her. This was heavy duty stuff, enough firepower to not only take the platform but the entire damned colony out if there were enough of them. "Just keep them off me." She breathed out a sigh of relief as a beep sounded, indicating the bomb was disarmed. She pulled a tool from a pouch at her hip and clipped a few wires, then programmed it so there was no way to reactivate it easily. Not that they were planning to leave anyone behind to reactivate it, but still.

Shepard bounded up the platform stairs, sweeping her gaze here and there. Ashley moved in front of her and Kaidan moved to Ashley's side, the two of them keeping the incoming geth in check as their commander moved to the next charge. Four more minutes. Ignore the countdown, ignore the countdown, dammit.

Beep. Disarmed.

They had geth coming at them from all sides now. No more drones, all of them were heavily armed soldier types. The human looking ones. Shepard ducked behind a crate, overloading one geth's shields, her and Ashley's combined shots taking it down. Another flew over their heads as Kaidan sent it flying, its arms waving almost comically before it smashed into a railing opposite of them and tumbled down to the ground below in a broken heap.

Shepard spotted another charge and dodged fire, feeling bullets hit her barriers as she ducked down to the bomb. Three minutes. Ashley stood over her, shouting at the geth.

Beep.

Shepard did a sweep with her omni tool, looking around. "All right, one more."

Ashley sighed in relief. They moved down slowly until Shepard spotted the final one and moved toward it.

"Watch it, Commander!"

A geth popped up from around a beam in front of the bomb like some kind of weird-ass evil Jack-in-the-Box. Shepard dropped to the ground and Ashley and Kaidan threw themselves to the side. Ashley landed on her back, already firing, and Shepard snapped her omni tool forward, overloading the thing's shields before it could bring its rifle around toward her. She dodged it, trusting Ashley and Kaidan to take it down, and lunged for the final charge.

One minute. Goddamn it.

Shepard worked frantically as the countdown went to two digits. She heard the other two come up behind her. She was pretty sure they were both holding their breath. She sure as hell was.

Beep.

Ashley let her breath out in a whoosh of air. "Oh, man..."

"Yeah..." Shepard did the reprogramming and leaned back, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Thank God for tech geeks." Kaidan sounded almost giddy with relief.

Shepard couldn't help but chuckle as she got to her feet.

"I think the beacon is over there." Ash moved forward, glancing over her shoulder.

And so it was. Shepard stared at the thing that had cost two good men, not to mention scores of soldiers and colonists, their lives. History would probably claim it had been worth it, but raw and weary as she was, Shepard found that hard to believe at the moment. It looked, compared to what it had cost, spectacularly unimportant to her.

It was also interfering with her damn comm.

Shepard scowled as she tried to call back to the Normandy and got only static. No matter, they'd just have to bring it back on the cargo train and...ah, wait a minute. "Normandy, the beacon is secured. Request immediate evac."

"It wasn't glowing like that when they dug it up," Ashley commented as the wandered up to the commander. Shepard glanced at her, focusing more on Joker's voice as he tried to reply through the static.

Kaidan let out a startled cry behind them and Shepard spun. Horrified, she watched the green beam of light from the beacon drag the biotic toward it.

And Jenkins was there, moving in front of her at her order, looking around with sudden bewilderment as the things came out of nowhere...fucking nowhere...shooting at him, the beams ripping through his body and sending him to the ground like so much meat before she could even blink. Before she could even move to help him.

Shepard was moving before she thought, that burning memory tearing through her head. No, no, no, you can't have both of them, not both of my boys... She hit Kaidan full force, wrapping her arms around his waist and throwing him aside. She started to fall and felt a hard pressure in her middle, like some fist of energy wrapping itself around her insides. Digging hot fingers into her brain. She gasped as she felt herself drawn up, her feet leaving the ground.

"Shepard!"

Ashley was shouting something but Shepard was beyond hearing.

burning tkilledandkilled

andkilledshadowsthat

warnthem WARNTHEMWARNTHEMWARNthe doorwayopened

thebeastrosesillouetted againsttheburningplanet

theyneverdie

Ashley hauled Kaidan back as the beacon exploded. The force of it threw Shepard halfway across the platform where she hit with a dull thud, crumpled at their feet like a broken doll, green energy still dancing around her.