Chapter 3

Not a Part of the Plan

"The Arcturus Prime relay is in range," Joker said as I stood next to Nihlus. "Initiating transmission sequence. We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination. The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector." I couldn't help the small smirk playing across my face as I heard someone approaching from behind us with a purposeful stride. "All stations secure for transit," Joker said, "The board is green. Approach run has begun. Hitting the relay in three...two...one..."

Watching as we were piped through a tunnel of space from the cockpit was a very different experience than seeing it from the side of the ship. It only lasted for a second, a bright blue flash, the sensation of time seemingly coming to a standstill... and then it was over. I smiled as Joker went through his check list of the ships systems and told us that the drift was just under 1500 K.

"1500 is good," Nihlus stated, "Your captain will be pleased."

Nihlus turned and walked back toward the CIC and Joker spoke up, "I hate that guy."

I had my arms crossed over my chest and glanced toward Shepard who I saw looking at me, apparently waiting for a reaction. I just shrugged as Kaiden started speaking, "Nihlus gave you a compliment... so you hate him?"

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible!" Joker replied, "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having them on board. Call me paranoid."

I tuned out the rest of their conversation, already knowing what it would be about, and thought over what Nihlus had told me after Anderson had left us in the CIC. He told me I'd be going with him to the surface. It wasn't exactly what I'd been hoping for. I just hoped I didn't have to end up fighting. I'd never fired a gun before, and even if I did have biotics like he'd said, I didn't have a clue as to how to use them. All in all, I wasn't really looking forward to this.

When Shepard was asked to go to the comm room, I was surprised to hear Anderson also request my presence. If it wasn't for the comment Kaiden made, I never would have noticed that Joker tensed up when he realized I was there and had heard him say he hated Nihlus. I smirked as I turned and followed after Shepard, heading into the comm room. When all four of us were there they began explaining to Shepard about the beacon. Joker interrupted and said there was an incoming transmission. When it was displayed above the comm terminal I felt a knot form in my stomach. It was the 212, Ashley's unit, and they were being slaughtered.

I went down to the hold with Nihlus and was given an extra suit of armor and a rifle. The two of us were dropped off first and I could immediately smell the ash in the air along with what I assumed to be ionization of the air, similar to what occurred during thunder storms. This however was by far more noticeable and made me feel nauseous.

I was really there. I was on Eden Prime.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Damn! Damn! Damn! Run! Run! Run! I couldn't get my legs to move fast enough it seemed as I sprinted across the open area, jumped over a rock and slid to the ground behind a building. Nihlus had given me his pistol and made me call in to Shepard that we'd been ambushed by the Geth. That was of course right after we'd spotted Saren down by the spaceport. Even from a distance I felt uneasy. I didn't want to get near him. So instead I waited until he'd left before heading down toward the spaceport. Of course I'd forgotten about the husks... and Geth... and the fact that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I got down there, was spotted, fired at, ran, shot back without really aiming, ran straight into a husk and fell on my ass, scrambled to my feet, and ran like hell. I wanted to go home.

I was standing next to that building that some people were hiding in in the game, trying to catch my breath when I heard a groan. My head snapped up in time to see a husk right as it ran into me and knocked me to the ground. "Shit!" My eyes went wide as I started falling back and I reflexively brought my hands up to keep the thing at bay. My arms felt like they'd been stuck in water with a slight electrical current running through it, the sensation increasing in severity, building up a feeling of pressure as blue wisps of biotic power began to emanate from them. It reached the point where I thought my arms would explode from all the pressure building up in them, and then it was suddenly gone, rushing down my arms to my hands and bursting out in a violent flash and shock wave. The husk went flying backwards, landing with a thud a good ten meters away, and didn't getting back up.

I leaned on my forearms, looking at it and trying to catch my breath, feeling as though I'd just ran a mile. Before I could even process what had just happened I heard the binary speech of a Geth as it rounded the corner, and then the sound of a rifle firing off a burst of shots, hitting the Geth in the chest and killing it. I turned and looked behind me to see Shepard, Kaiden, and Ashley quickly moving towards me.

"You alright, kid?" Kaiden asked as they neared.

I nodded my head and breathlessly replied, "Yeah."

"You're not used to using biotics, are you?" Kaiden asked as he offered me his hand.

I let him help me up as I shook my head, "No. It's a rather new development for me..." He gave me a questioning look and I turned my eyes away.

"You know this guy?" Ashley asked, looking at Shepard. I was a bit annoyed that she was talking as though I wasn't standing right there.

"Dazac Praeletum," Shepard said. I looked at Shepard and saw him looking at me with a frown and something bordering curiosity. He probably could tell that I wasn't familiar with combat, which made me a bit uneasy. Instead of mentioning it though he asked, "Where's Nihlus?"

Great. Acting time. Let's see if I can pull this off... I took a deep breath and cast my eyes down, hanging my head and slowly shaking it. "The Geth ambushed us..." I said quietly, hoping that the wavering in my voice was taken as being shook up about a death and not as worry at getting caught in a lie.

"Damnit!" Kaiden muttered.

"Who's Nihlus?" Ashley asked.

"A Turian Spectre who came with us. He and Dazac were scouting out the route ahead," Shepard explained. He looked at me pointedly, "What happened?"

Shit... he wants details. I shook my head and took another deep breath, partly to stall for time, and partly because I was suddenly feeling extremely drained of energy. That's when I remembered, biotics took a lot of energy to use. I looked down toward the spaceport as I started speaking, not trusting my face to not betray me if I looked at them.

"We found out that the beacon had been moved to the spaceport and headed out this way," I explained, "When we got to that rise," I motioned toward the steep hill that overlooked the spaceport to our right, "We spotted someone using the tram to head to the other end of the spaceport."

"Who?" Shepard asked.

"Another Spectre," I muttered, finding it easy to lace some malice into my voice, "Saren Arterius. Nihlus recognized him immediately and we went for cover before he could see us. He was ordering the Geth around."

"You're kidding?" Kaiden said in shock, "Another Spectre? And he was giving orders to the Geth?"

"What do you know about him?" Shepard asked.

I shook my head and looked toward him, "Not much. He's one of the most decorated Spectre's. And really, really dangerous."

"What's he doing here?" Ashley asked, pressing for answers.

I knew what he was here for. I knew, and I couldn't tell them. Nihlus knew what he was doing... I'd just have to trust him on this. "How the hell should I know?" I replied sharply, "I was too far away to hear what he was saying, and I didn't have time to get a better look because the Geth popped up out of nowhere and started attacking us!"

Ashley looked like she was about to retort when Shepard put his hand out in front of her, stopping her before a sound even escaped her lips. "We can worry about it later," he said, "Right now we need to find the beacon. Let's get moving." He started walking down toward the spaceport and I followed closely.

"There's pry still Geth up here," I warned. He nodded in reply and shouldered his rifle as we reached the steps leading up to the spaceport. Almost as soon as we got up them, Geth popped out from around the corner and Shepard and Ashley opened fire, while Kaiden did something with his Omni-tool and one of the Geth started sparking. As for me, I stood there stupidly for several seconds before I realized I was being shot at and was standing in the open while the other three were moving toward cover. I scrambled toward a crate and dove down behind it, putting my back to it. I looked at my hands to find I was holding my pistol and decided it was now or never. I leaned out of my cover to see a Geth moving toward the crate Shepard was standing behind and took aim. I squinted my eye shut as I looked down the sights on the pistol and squeezed the trigger. Bang! Miss. Bang! Miss. Bang! Sonuva- I nearly just took Shepard's head off!

I stopped firing as Ashley popped out of cover and unloaded several rounds into the Geth, tearing its head to shreds. I really, really need to learn how to shoot a gun properly...

Getting onto the tram and to its front went pretty much the same way. I managed to get in a few lucky hits, one of them even hitting a geth in the head. Other than that though, I couldn't aim for crap. So when we finally made it to the front of the tram and activated it Ashley turned to me with a scowl, "You came here with a Spectre?"

"Yes..." I replied suddenly feeling nervous. I was grateful that the helmet covered most of my face, but I had to struggle to not look away.

Ashley crossed her arms as she leaned back against the railing. "So, you came here with a Spectre, but can't aim for shit. You're obviously not familiar with combat. You're in what, your early twenties, and yet your biotics are a 'new development?' I'm sorry, but it just doesn't add up."

Dammit! What the hell do I do now?

"I've got to agree with Williams," Kaiden said, "I've never heard of anyone older than a child not know how to use biotics with at least a little finesse. When you blasted that husk away, it was a completely uncontrolled and excessive attack."

Crud. I turned to look at Shepard and saw him frowning at me as well. It looked like I wasn't going to get any support. I guess that was to be expected though, all things considered. What wasn't expected was the implied accusation Shepard gave when he said, "It is a bit odd. Especially since you were with a Spectre. One who is now dead according to you, but just so happened to managed not to get 'ambushed by the geth' until after telling you the name of this other Spectre that we have yet to see."

I gawked at him. "I-... You think that I- I didn't-... are you fucking kidding me?" I stammered, "You think I, killed Nihlus?"

"I never said that," Shepard said. "I just said it was quite convenient."

I was looking at the three of them with wide eyes and in complete disbelief. "I came here with Nihlus!" I explained, "I was helping him!"

Ashley snarled, "Until he was no longer of any use, right?"

"I don't believe this," I muttered as I shook my head, looking at the ground. They actually thought...They actually thought I had something to do with all this. I threw my arms out to my sides as I turned around. "Unbelievable!" I practically shouted. "You really think I killed the one person in this Universe that I can trust! The only one!"

I turned around to find them all looking at me still, though by the looks on their faces I guess what I had just said took a bit of the fire out of their accusation. I looked past them to see we were coming up to the spaceport platform and saw a large cylinder on the walkway. Even these were here? I groaned, "Please tell me that's not a bomb."

They all turned to look at the platform and as we pulled up to it and slowed down Kaiden spoke, "...It's a bomb."

We quickly got off and went over to it while Kaiden started fiddling with the device. "It looks like it's one of four bombs that have been placed around here," Kaiden explained.

"Four is a bit of an overkill, isn't it?" Shepard asked.

I grabbed my pistol and looked warily at the upper walkways around us while speaking, "They don't want anything left."

"There's one!" Kaiden said as he stood, "Let's get the others, we only have three minutes!"

We ran up the ramp to the upper walkways and took a right finding a second bomb blocked from view by a crate. Kaiden managed to get it disabled and we made our way to the third. That was when the geth finally showed up and we had to scramble for cover while Kaiden worked on the third. I slammed my back into a crate and peeked around the corner to see four geth moving towards us. One of them was carrying a rocket launcher.

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't aim well, but they were rather close. I took a deep breath and then leaned out of cover a bit and pointed my pistol at them. I fired shot after shot until the gun overheated and I had to get back into cover. I managed to hit two of them, one of them enough to knock it down, though it had still been moving. While I waited for my gun to cool, Shepard and Ashley both leaned out of cover and fired their rifles.

"That's all of them," Ashley said after they stopped firing.

I scoffed, "Don't count on it."

She scowled but didn't have time to say anything as Kaiden got to us. "We've only got a minute to disable the last bomb!"

Shepard nodded and led us down toward the last bomb. When we got to it without any opposition Ashley smirked at me, "So much for that 'don't count on it.'"

I looked at her with a frown and glanced toward where I knew the beacon would be, and where more geth should have been coming from. I bit my lip and kept my pistol up and ready, pointed toward the ramp. "This isn't right. There should be more..."

It stayed silent while Kaiden finished disabling the last bomb and we all breathed a sigh of relief, though I was still nervous. I slowly started toward the railing and was able to see the beacon down on the platform, glowing green and sitting silently. I saw a few Dragons Teeth too, but they were just sitting there, stained with blood. There weren't any bodies.

The others moved past me and started down the ramp, but froze when there was an echoing moan. "Husks!" I warned as the transformed humans appeared from around the corner and charged up the ramp. Shepard filled the first one with bullets but the second got close enough to let off a discharge and take out his shields before going down. The sound of binary made me panic. Shepard's shields were down. Apparently the other two realized this though because they both pulled Shepard back as the geth fired their weapons. "I don't suppose anyone has grenades?"

"Good idea," Shepard commented as he grabbed two and primed them, tossing them around the corner one after the other. Once the explosions faded away everyone's shields were at full strength, and we carefully made our way down to the platform. The remains of three geth were scattered around, with one of the geth still, barely active. It had no legs and only one arm and was trying futilely to crawl toward a weapon. It got nowhere as Shepard slammed his foot down on its back and fired into its head until it went limp.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Ashley's POV

It seemed like the fighting was finally over. I saw Praeletum relaxing anyway as he put his pistol back on his hip. He had stopped and was staring at the beacon as the rest of us walked closer towards it. It was glowing with a green light that hadn't been there when they found it.

"Incredible!" Kaiden declared, "Actual working Prothean technology!"

"It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up," I explained approaching it more closely, "Something must have activated it."

I took another step forward and there was a sudden flare from the beacon. I felt something tugging on my entire body, actually dragging me closer to the beacon as I tried to stay upright and stop sliding. The pulling was getting really intense and I felt as if I was starting to float when something slammed into my side and grabbed me, yanking me away from the beacon. I went tumbling and felt two pairs of hands grab my shoulder to help me get up. It was Shepard and Kaiden. I looked at the beacon and felt myself go numb. Praeletum was floating in the air, convulsing and screaming. I'd never heard anything so chilling before.

Then something went wrong with the beacon, and it exploded outwards, knocking the kid back towards us. We all scrambled to his side as Kaiden contacted his ship for a medivac. I looked at Praeletum in disbelief. He had blood leaking out of his nose and ears, and even his eyes. I thought he was dead.