A/N I just want to say that I'm happy to see that people are enjoying the story and that I hope everyone enjoys the main act.


Normandy SR1

2183

Commander Kayla Shepard walked onto the Normandy's bridge to check on how the ship was running on it's first patrol. As she approached behind the pilot, a man with short black hair and wearing a Wraith uniform turned and discreetly nodded to her as he walked by.

"God those Wraith guys creep me out" She heard the pilot saying, "Why do we have to have one on a vessel like this?" He questioned.

Before she had a chance to reprimand him a soldier sitting next to him spoke up, "Wraiths are just people Joker." He said, "And Chiron is a good man, if a bit personal, you should be able to look past those prejudices."

Joker sighed, "Ya well, he's still creepy." he mumbled.

"Enough with the gossiping soldiers." Kayla said startling Joker, "How's the ship handling Flight Lieutenant?" she questioned.

"Like a dream come true Commander." he replied, "Also, Captain Anderson would like to speak with you in the debriefing room right away." Shepard nodded before turning around and heading to meet Anderson. As she made her way through the CIC, she couldn't help but here the rumors. Pressley talking to Adams about how Anderson and a Wraith don't get assigned to "do nothing" missions. Pressley stopped the commander as she came near.

"Ma'am, I wanted to know your thoughts on all of this, if you don't mind." He said.

Kayla sighed, "Very well Pressley, but try to keep it quick, I need to visit the Captain."

Pressley nodded, "Do you and the captain really trust these aliens?" He asked, motioning towards the Quarians working at various stations on the ship, "I mean, sure they have never been hostile to us, but they aren't a part of the Empire."

Kayla slowly shook her head in frustration, "Pressley, the Quarians have been nothing but friends to the Empire since we first ran into the Migrant Fleet." she said angrily, "And it was their technology that assisted us in creating the ship you are currently serving on, they deserve to be here and they deserve your respect."

"Even if they are not a part of the Empire, they are still our friends."

Pressley nodded his head, "Right ma'am, I meant no offense, it's just that my family fought in the First Contact war, I have a slight distrust of those not with the empire."

Kayla sighed before nodding, "Very well Pressley, I understand your reservations but please at least trust in the Captain."

Pressley saluted Kayla, "As you say Commander." he said.

Kayla nodded and headed off to see the Captain. As she entered the debriefing room, she noticed the Wraith from earlier standing there, looking at an image of Eden Prime, "Sister." he said simply, in acknowledgment of her presence.

Kayla chuckled, "It's been some time Chiron, glad to see they put you with us." she said, "Though I wish they taught you how to not freak out my pilots." she joked.

Chiron turned around and smiled at her, "Maybe High Command will do a better job teaching social interactions with the next batch."

"Though you have to admit, it's funny seeing them freeze up in fear when you stare at them." he said and began to chuckle.

Kayla rolled her eyes at her brother, "See" she said, "That right there is how the rumors get started Chiron, couldn't you at least try to be friendly, and not creepy, to the people in charge of critical systems?"

Chiron chuckled some more, "Maybe." he said, "At least to the Quarians, the Human members are just to much fun." He grinned at her.

Kayla through up her hands in mock frustrations, "You and your Quarian fetishes."

Chiron laughed, "Xenophobe."

Before Kayla could retort she heard a voice behind her, "If you two are quite finished with your bickering." said Captain Anderson, "Then maybe we can get to the reason why we are here."

Chiron and Kayla turned towards the Captain and saluted as he told them the mission details, "We're not just out here on a test mission." Anderson confirmed, "Were going to meeting a Turian Council Spectre planet side."

Kayla spoke up, "Permission to speak freely, Sir?" Anderson nodded to her, "Why the hell are we meeting with a council operative?"

Anderson sighed, "We are no longer at war with the Council Commander, and we could use their help deciphering a device we discovered on the planet."

"Sir, couldn't we just decipher it ourselves, like we did with Mars?" Chiron asked.

Anderson nodded, "We could, but we wouldn't get as much information as we might be able to get by working with the Council." he explained, "It may also earn us some good will in the Galaxy, which would be a boon if war erupted between our two governments."

Chiron nodded before Joker spoke over the intercom, "Sir, we are getting a distress call coming from the planet, patching it through." he said. As Joker connected the message, footage of imperial soldiers being shot at and explosions appeared on screen, "We have confirmed multiple con... Oh my god." said a soldier on screen as the footage zoomed out to an enormous ship coming out of the sky and landing at the colony. The footage ended as the ship touched down.

Anderson addressed Chiron, "Wraith, take a squad down the surface, try to meet up with the Spectre named Nihlus Kryik and ensure the safety of the artifact." he ordered.

Chiron saluted before heading down to collect his ground team and deploy onto the planet. Kayla looked at Anderson for a moment, "What about me Sir?" she asked.

"Your needed here in case something happens Commander, a Wraith has a better chance against a hostile spectre and we can't be sure that this isn't Nihlus's doing." He replied.

Kayla saluted and headed back to the CIC.

Eden Prime

Chiron exited the shuttle, flanked by Major Alenko and Private Jenkins, "Alright, remember to stealth up as we near the colony." He ordered. As they neared the colony, Chiron began to hear a whirring sound coming from the air. Before he could issue a warning, three drones came out of nowhere and began to fire on Jenkins, tearing apart his armor before he had a chance to fire a shot, "Alenko get to cover and stealth up!" he shouted, "I'll try to draw their fire." Alenko nodded before diving behind a rock and activating his stealth module.

Chiron gathered a barrier around himself and threw a singularity at the drones. One of the drones became caught in the singularity and ended up being slammed into a nearby tree. As the other two began to focus on Chiron, Alenko was able to shoot down one of the drones.

As the remaining drone began to fire at Chiron, he pulled out his sidearm and shot it down just as the drones turret broke through his barrier, "Hmm, it seems there was a bit of a burn there at the end." he mumbled to himself.

Alenko looked over at the dead soldier, "What should we do about Jenkins Sir?" he asked.

Chiron looked down at Jenkins before turning off towards the settlement, "We continue on with the mission." he said. Alenko nodded and followed him towards the colony.

As they turned around another corner they heard gun fire and saw a soldier running from a group of synthetics. As she dove behind a rock, trying to catch her breath, Alenko began to fire at the synthetics as Chiron threw a couple of the synthetics into the air and crushing them against rocks.

When the last of the synthetics died Chiron approached the woman, "Report soldier." he ordered.

The soldier looked at the Wraith with a shocked expression before responding, "Geth Sir, they arrived late last night and began suddenly attacking my squad." She reported, "I'm all that's left."

Chiron nodded, "What's the status of the artifact?" he asked, "And have you seen a Turian around here?"

The soldier looked shocked at the mention of the Turian, "Um, sir I'm not sure why you would ask about one of them being here, but no I haven't seen one." she said, "As for the artifact, it was back at the port, but the Geth have overrun the facility."

Chiron sighed, "Very well, more work to do." he mumbled, "You still able to fight soldier?"

The soldier nodded and they began to head towards the port. As they reached what appeared to be a dig site, they saw a group of Geth restraining a number of colonists on top of devices. Before Chiron could issue any orders, spikes erupted from the devices, impaling the colonists.

Alenco noticed Chiron begin to bristle in anger as his biotics flared around him. Before he could do anything, he saw the wraith throw a large ball of biotic power at the group of Geth. When the ball made contact it exploded in energy, shredding the Geth to pieces. As he was about to comment on Chiron's display of power, he noticed that the Wraith had briefly collapsed from exhaustion, "Wraith, are you alright?" he asked.

Chiron chuckled as he slowly got back up, "Ya, something High Command taught us, packs quite a punch but it really expends energy." he said, "I wont be able to use my biotics again for a little while."

Alenko nodded as they headed up towards the port. When they came up towards some science buildings, the found some more colonists impaled on spikes. As they got nearer, the spikes began to retract and the bodies began to get up. Chiron took a look at the bodies and noticed that they appeared to be dried up and had what appeared to be implants spread throughout their body, "Kill these creatures." he ordered the two soldiers.

The soldiers quickly killed the husks, "What in the world did the Geth do to them." the soldier wondered aloud.

"It doesn't matter right now" Chiron responded, "We need to complete out mission now."

The soldiers finally arrived at the port and found a Turian's body lying on the ground with a bullet hole in the back of his head, "Was this your Turian, Wraith?" asked the soldier.

Chiron kneeled down and inspected the body, "Hm, I'm not sure but it would make sense." he responded

Alenko raised his gun as he heard a noise come from behind a bunch of crates, "Come out from behind there, slowly." he ordered. What appeared to be a colonist appeared from behind the crates.

Chiron stood up and approached the colonist, "Did you see what happened here?" he asked.

The colonist nodded nervously, "Ye..yes, Sir." He replied, "That Turian there was chatting with another one named, Saren or something and as he let his guard down, that Saren fellow shot him in the head."

The soldier walked up to him, "And what exactly were you doing behind those crates Dhelan?" she asked glaring at him.

Dhelan looked back at her nervously, "Well, I was just taking a nap because the day was slow." he said sheepishly.

The soldier just glared at him, "Unbelievable, my entire squad dies fighting these things, and he survives due to laziness."

"Enough, we must get to the artifact now." ordered Chiron.

The soldier guided Chiron and Alenko to the Geth infested tram. After they fought their way past the Geth they got on the tram and headed for the port.

As they waited to arrive, Chiron looked over at the soldier, "You don't happen to know what happened to the ship that we assume the Geth came from do you?" he asked.

The soldier shook her head, "It left shortly before you saved me sir." she said. Chiron nodded and prepared to leave the tram as they arrived.

As they exited the tram they noticed Geth guarding a number of bombs positioned around the facility, "Alright Alenko, stealth up and take out the geth at the bomb across the way from here, deactivate it if you can." Chiron ordered, "Same orders for you soldier, though I want you at the far bomb this side."

"I'll take the bomb near us and we can all meet up at the final bomb." The soldiers saluted and headed off to take care of their duties. Chiron upholstered his pistol and took aim at the Geth's weak points, using his cybernetic eyes. His first shot killed the centermost Geth instantly, while his second and third only wounded the other two as they got out of the way. As the Geth dove behind some boxes, Chiron threw a grenade towards them. When the grenade exploded it sent out a biotic wave the lifted the Geth into the air, letting Chiron shoot them in critical areas.

Chiron and the soldiers met back up at the final bomb and after disarming it arrived at a set of stairs leading to the artifact. As they went down the stairs, they noticed that the Geth appeared to have left and the artifact was glowing strangely, "Ha! Looks like we scared off those flashlight heads, Sir." said the soldier as she started walking towards the artifact.

"Joker we have the artifact and are ready for extraction." Chiron said to through the communicator. As he turned back towards his team he saw the soldier they had picked up being suspended in air near the artifact. Chiron raced over to the soldier and threw her out of the artifacts grip. However he was not able to get away from it as it suspended him. He began to feel an enormous burning sensation in his head as brief images passed in front of his eyes, before he blacked out.