Chapter 12: Eden Prime – Ancient Awakening
"We don't know what Cerberus is doing there, commander, but get down there and find out. Hackett out."
Shepard grumbled. Not only did the admiral say "Hackett out" again, but he had assigned Shepard to head back to Eden Prime, where Shepard began his journey of becoming a legend. He didn't have pleasant memories of that place, but he had no choice. Apparently, Cerberus had uncovered a prothean relic there. Shepard had come to hate the Illusive Man a lot since his return to the Alliance, so whatever the Illusive Man tried to get, Shepard would try to take. He grabbed a candy bar on his table before heading to the elevator. Pressing the button for the armory, Shepard unwrapped the chocolate coated sugar snack and took a big bite out of it. He chewed slowly as the elevator descended. He decided to establish communication with the armory before he arrived, to make it seem like he was some kind of big shot.
"Oh wait!" he said out loud, remembering something. "I am!"
He contacted the armory through his omni-tool. "James. Prep my gear. We're going back to Eden Prime."
The Kodiak landed on the grassy lands next to the settlement. Shepard was the first to get out of the shuttle as always, eager to see the changes the planet had gone through since the geth attack. The place was pretty much rebuilt, but along with the Cerberus presence, more damage was added to the place, with scorch marks and craters all around the place. A few dead bodies littered the ground, fuelling Shepard's anger against the Illusive Man. He probably forgot he was fighting for the greater good of humanity unlike himself, never forgetting anything he had to remember. The commander smiled to himself. That made him bigger than the Illusive Man for sure.
"Shepard," Liara spoke, pointing to a nearby pillar. "There it is."
Snake and Shepard turned to look at the tall spire coming out of the ground.
"That looks like something prothean," Snake whizzed.
Shepard nodded as the team stepped forward. As they got nearer, they saw it wasn't just a pillar sticking out of the ground. Stepping to the edge of the cliff first, Shepard saw the whole building, dug up by some Cerberus machinery. The spire was only the top of it. By the side, they spotted something else. The thing they had come here to find.
"There," Liara pointed again. "That's the prothean artifact."
Shepard saw it too. It was in the form of some sort of cylindrical shape. Something like a case you put your spectacles in. Before moving on, Shepard took a look at his surroundings. Not even one Cerberus soldier was in sight.
"Strange…" he thought to himself. "Usually they start popping up by now."
Shrugging the thought off, he moved towards the artifact, ready for a surprise sniper round from the enemy or something. He looked around once more, sure that they would get attacked any moment. Still nothing came. Turning back to the front, Shepard realized that Liara had gone ahead and was already examining the artifact. She tapped away at a console on its side. She started going on about scientific stuff, forcing Shepard to tune out the sound as he stood there.
"Shepard," she called, bringing him back to reality. "I've figured out how to open it."
The commander was shocked. "That was fast! So what do we do? Press the button that says open?"
"No," she said plainly. "There are two things we need to find. The command key and the stasis key. Without those items, the prothean inside will die."
"Ok," the commander said. Suddenly, he realized something else. "Wait, a prothean?! Inside?"
"Yes," the asari replied. "Didn't you hear me? I told you when I was examining the pod."
"Uhh…" Shepard tried to say. "Right! I remember. I was just testing you. Yeah. That's it."
Before Liara could protest, two Cerberus Kodiaks flew in, dropping off a few Cerberus and Helghast troopers to the opposite side of the platform before flying off towards some mountains.
"Ah…" Shepard smiled. "Here they are."
Three Helghast marksmen manned the roofs, while the ground troops took cover behind well-placed boxes and crates. There were a couple of new soldiers Shepard never saw before, but bringing up the Alliance database on his omni-tool revealed them as the FROGs, the Illusive Man's new assault force, safeguarding most of his prime base locations. Apparently, they all had nano-machines within them, enabling them to have perfect control of the battlefield. To Shepard, that didn't seem like a big deal, because he still had the best control of the battlefield. No one was better than him. Taking out his phaeston rifle, he took a few shots towards the ground troops, forcing them behind cover faster as they landed. Shepard turned towards Snake to see if he would go sneak around the enemy, but he was no longer there. The only person behind him was Liara, besides a strange looking cardboard box, moving slowly across the left side. Shepard ignored it and continued firing at the Ceberus forces. Liara pulled one of the Helghast marksmen off the roof, sending him down to his death. Shepard took a few shots at the troopers who stood up, killing a few before they could do too much damage to him. One marksman almost took his head off, but he managed to do a necessary combat roll to avoid it, but barrelled into another object, stopping him. Seeing their chance to attack him, two Cerberus troopers stepped out of cover and walked over to Shepard. Lying on his back, Shepard turned around just in time to see them fall as bullets penetrated their helmets. He looked to the source. Over to the far end of the area, Snake stood up, his phalanx pistol smoking as he ejected a thermal clip. Shepard would not have thanked him anyway, so he aimed down his gun and fired two precise shots upside down, taking out two Helghast soldiers.
"Eat Shepard's wrath, fellas!" the commander taunted, still staying in his reversed position, forgetting to stand.
Liara gunned down two FROGs as they ran from cover after she launched a singularity there, trapping a third. The soldiers were going down fast with the combination of Liara's biotics, Snake's sneaky attacks, and Shepard's upside down ego-shots. Not too long later, they were moving out, searching for the code keys for the prothean pod.
"That wasn't hard at all," Shepard gloated as they walked towards a building.
"Not hard at all?" Snake asked. "You want them to actually be a challenge?"
"Of course I do!" the commander replied, resting his fists on his hip. "I'm Commander Shepard!"
"He's like that," the asari told him. "Just go with it."
Snake made a weird grunting sound, but Shepard didn't think too much about it. Opening the door, he stepped in first; weary of more Cerberus forces appearing from nowhere. A lone Cerberus centurion stood over in the kitchen when he saw Shepard's team. He almost uttered a cry of alarm when a few bullets found his face. He dropped to the ground with a huge thud. All of a sudden, more troops appeared outside the building, dropping down from Cerberus Kodiaks. Engineers brought up their turrets as the other soldiers took their positions, ready for Shepard's team to emerge from the buildings.
Shepard looked out the window. "Well, if we don't go out that way, they can't attack us right?"
"I guess not," Liara answered. "There's no way their bullets can penetrate the building."
On cue, the sentry turrets opened fire on the building, but all the bullets just created little holes in the building that disappeared after a while.
"See?" Liara told the other two.
"I see," Snake wheezed. "That's good to know. It would only work if we were perhaps, on Mars with the Red Faction."
The two looked to Snake for answers, not understanding what he said.
He turned to them. "Mason told me. I'll explain later."
"Ok then," Shepard told him. "Remember to do that."
Walking around to another door of the building, Shepard's team moved away from the Cerberus forces as they shot at the building. Getting to side of the attack, Shepard looked over a well-placed kitchen table. They were still facing the building he was previously in, and wasting all their bullets at it. Strangely enough, enemies never ran out of thermal clips. Shepard lobbed two frag grenades over the table and down towards the unsuspecting enemy. One of the Helghast engineers looked down, but he was a little too slow. With two explosions, most of the attack force got blown away. With a loud war cry, Shepard leaped over the table and shot away with his phaeston. He got a Helghast soldier in the face as he ran down towards them, not fearing the bullets hitting his shields. The commander managed to get behind a large piece of metal before losing his shields.
"That was close," he told himself as he ejected a thermal clip.
Snake had moved off to a window in the building and took well-aimed shots at the Cerberus forces. Shepard saw a Helghast marksman fall from the roof as a bullet struck his head. Liara went all out with her biotics. She blasted soldiers back with her throw, slamming most of them into other things, while her predator pistol took out three more Cerberus troopers. Standing, Shepard launched a concussive shot at a Helghast soldier, taking him out, while he shot away at the remaining soldiers with his rifle. Soon after, only one Cerberus trooper was left. He tried to run, but Snake got him with a surprise CQC takedown. The trooper tried to get up, but Snake finished him with a quick knife attack.
"Alright," the commander huffed. "Let's get on with the search!"
Shepard quickly swept the room with the end of his gun, checking for any kind of enemy that might jump out from nowhere. It was clear.
"Area's clear!" he told his team as they entered the building.
Liara stowed her pistol. "The command key should be somewhere in this building."
"Spread out and find it," Shepard ordered.
The three of them looked around, searching every file, and every cabinet. Shepard even looked under a chair, but it was not there. Eventually, the commander arrived at a console, and began typing away at the keys to perhaps find something in there. All of a sudden, his mind was filled with strange images of people chewing, and reapers. Everything was moving fast, making the commander feel sick. The images kept flashing in his mind, eventually stopping at a strange looking figure. Shepard didn't recognize the species of the alien, but he stood his ground well, firing his laser rifle at a bunch of collectors. The collectors didn't have any weapons on them, which Shepard found strange. Then he realized something. The alien he was staring at was a prothean!
"Wow!" he thought to himself. "I'm the first human to see a prothean in action! Awesome."
The prothean took out many of the collectors before they managed to kill one of his own. Dropping his rifle, he flung them back with biotics as he pulled his teammate back. Doors from the sides began closing in as he dragged his teammate back behind them. The collectors were almost upon him, but the doors shut them out in time. Shepard looked around. Dead littered the floor. Protheans lay all over the floor. Before Shepard could proceed further, the images flashed in his mind again, disconnecting him from the system, but leaving him with something important.
Shepard felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Liara. "What did you see, Shepard? The screen was blank."
The commander looked at the monitor. "I saw the protheans against the reapers! They were losing."
"We already knew that, Shepard," she told him.
"Right," he remembered. He walked towards the door. "Anyway, I got the command key."
Shepard blew a FROG soldier off the cliff with one of his frag grenades. On the way back to the artifact area, another group of Cerberus attackers dropped out of the sky, determined to stop Shepard's quest to retrieve the prothean. Shepard's team managed to take out more than half the force before a Helghast heavy trooper dropped in from a Kodiak. Its minigun spurred to life seconds before Shepard realized what was going on, but he managed to get down as the first bullet hit his shields.
"Heavy with a gatling gun!" he shouted to his teammates, hoping his warning got out in time.
The commander turned to see that Liara had gotten to another piece of cover before she got shot. Shepard looked around. Snake was nowhere to be seen again. Although, there was that strange cardboard box over to the rear of a building, but this time, it was moving a little. Shepard decided to ignore it again, and focus his attacks against the heavy. His bullets weren't even a little bit effective against his armored foe. Shepard didn't like this one bit, but kept shooting. The FROGs flanked the heavy, moving in from the sides, but Liara managed to keep them back while Shepard fired away at the heavy. The armor must have been heavy duty, as the heavy didn't flinch at all. He just kept walking forward, his minigun barrel spinning and firing rounds at the commander's position.
"Well, this is just perfect," the commander managed to say before he saw a grenade fall at his feet.
"Grah!" he shouted as he dove forward, trying to kick the grenade back as he moved. He successfully hit it further away with his left foot, but he didn't want to risk anything, so he kept moving. The explosion behind him pushed him forward, but he had gotten far enough to reduce the impact as he ran. He had to do a quick combat roll as the minigun sprayed to life again.
"How do we beat this guy!" Shepard shouted over to his teammates. "He doesn't seem to have a weak point!"
"There!" Liara shouted all of a sudden, pointing to the heavy. "The pouch behind him. Looks like a weakness!"
Shepard took a look at the heavy. Behind him was a square bag that hung on a sling. It seemed to be a holder of ammunition or something.
"The pouch behind him?" Snake's voice chattered on the omni-tool, startling the commander. "Worth a shot."
Snake stood up on the far side, flinging the cardboard box off his back as he launched himself up. He pulled out his phalanx pistol, and with a quick triple-burst from the barrel, the heavy's bag caught on fire, startling the Helghast. The heavy tried to beat at the fire, but all he did was spread it more, engulfing himself in fire. With a final grunt of defeat, the heavy slumped down, dead. With the heavy out of the way, Shepard's team took out the remaining soldiers without much problem.
"Well, that's that," Shepard cheered. "Let's get on with our work."
The team walked across a room as they made their way to a new area. From the room, the paths split in two. One led over to the right, with a garden nearby, and the other lead to another building. Shepard took the right side, while Liara and Snake went around to the left side of the building. Shepard turned to check on his teammates. He watched them until the cross the corner to make sure they were gone. With a sigh of relaxation, Shepard sat down on the nearby garden chair. He stretched out his legs in front of him, and stretched his arms up to the sky.
"Aah!" he stretched. "Finally! Time for a break! Every main character needs some time to relax."
He looked at his digital clock on his omni-tool. "Maybe one day I'll go on an actual trip to relax. Maybe eat some sushi."
Before he could think of more trips he wanted to go on, the glass roof collapsed, dropping down two FROG soldiers. They stood and pointed their guns at him before he fell off his chair.
"Wah!" Shepard spat out as he hit the ground.
"Freeze!" One of the FROGs shouted.
They had him where they wanted him. Shepard realized at this moment, that any wrong move would mean the end of him. He had to think. He slowly raised his hands above his head in a form of surrender, while trying to stand. The FROGs walked slowly towards him, keeping their guns pointed at his chest. Shepard smiled. They had made it easier for him to dispatch them. Shepard quickly side stepped the first one, bringing him behind the second one, protecting him from the first one. He brought his arms down, activating his omni-blade at the same time, and with a quick slicing motion, he took out one of the FROGs. He grabbed her body, and used it as a shield as the second one shot at him. Pulling out his pistol, he fired four quick shots, the first three taking down the FROG soldier's shields, and the last one piercing the FROG soldier's helmet, finishing her. He let go of the body he was holding and both dropped down to the ground at the same time.
"That takes care of that!" Shepard told himself, proud of his victory.
Suddenly, more footsteps were heard along the corridor. Shepard threw down the garden table, and got into position behind it. He aimed his pistol over the table, ready for anymore threats to come. He quickly pulled the trigger as the shapes came around the corner. He was lucky he missed, otherwise, Snake might have needed another eye patch.
"Hey!" he shouted, startled by the closeness of a friendly bullet.
"Woops," Shepard said, relieved that he didn't give do anything wrong. "Sorry bout that. Just being prepared."
"No problem," Snake said, wiping some sweat off his head. "At least I still have all my body parts."
"Find anything?" Shepard asked, changing the subject.
"Yes actually," Liara replied, walking back the way they came. "We found the room to the stasis key."
Shepard stepped up to the console. It looked the same as the one with the command key. He tapped away at the keys, and on cue, the weird images of chewing and reapers popped into his head, moving around so fast, that it didn't make sense. After a while, the images stopped, and Shepard once again had a view of the prothean warrior, walking around the room. Many fallen protheans littered the floor, but there were also other stasis pods about.
"It's time," the prothean's VI said. "Get in the pod."
The prothean looked about, not getting in the pod, but nearby explosions changed his mind. He stepped in and lay down. The doors to the pod closed in around him, plunging him into darkness. Shepard was surprised he could still see the prothean, because the pod was really small, but he didn't think too much about that bit. The prothean grunted as the explosions rocked his pod, but it seemed to hold out as the shaking stopped.
The VI popped up again. "neutron bombardment complete."
"Good," the prothean said. "And the rest of the pods?"
"They're functional," the VI responded. "But the facility has been compromised. Self-reactivation is not an option. You will remain here until another culture discovers you. This might lead to a power shortage."
"Don't shut off more pods!" the prothean shouted. "I need the few that are left!"
"Power will be triaged accordingly," the VI assured.
The prothean calmed himself, resting down on the pod to wait.
"You will be the voice of our people," the VI said."
The prothean looked around his pod and closed his eyes. "I will be more than that."
Shepard didn't know what happened after that, but the strange images flashed in his mind again, cutting him off from the vision.
"What did you see, Shepard?" Liara asked as Shepard got out of his daze.
"You wouldn't understand," Shepard told her. "But I got the stasis key."
Shepard and his team fought through another wave of Cerberus forces before arriving back at the prothean pod. His teammates stood at his sides, covering him as he typed in the keys for the pod's reopening.
"Did it work?" Snake asked.
Shepard took a look at the result after he entered the keys. "It's got a timer. We've got to hold out until the pod opens."
"Of course," Snake wheezed. "It's always like that. I've dealt with this before."
As if hearing Shepard's team, Cerberus Kodiaks flew in and dropped off a bunch of Cerberus troopers. A few helghast troopers were mixed in with them, and worst of all, a Metal Gear Atlas came in as well. Shepard got into position behind a dumpster, readying his phaeston assault rifle. Liara stayed with the pod, while Snake had disappeared again.
"That man really is a legend," Shepard said out loud, looking around for the war veteran. "Even someone such as I has trouble seeing him."
A cardboard box appeared near the Cerberus forces, but that wasn't important right now. What's important, is that the pod is protected. Shepard aimed down his rifle and squeezed the trigger, quickly taking out a helghast trooper as he walked forward.
"Contact!" a cerberus trooper shouted, alerting the troops to Shepard's direction.
Shepard leaned out and sprayed his bullets all over the Cerberus forces. He took some down, but most survived because of their energy shielding. They shot back at him, taking his shields down, and forcing him behind the dumpster.
He was careful not to admit defeat. "I need to take an important call!"
"So?" Liara asked, confused at that sudden statement.
"Attack them while I call, I can't shoot and talk at the same time!"
"Alright," Liara replied. "I'll see what I can do."
She pulled a cerberus trooper up into the air and finished him with a burst from her shuriken machine pistol.
"Yes!" Shepard thought to himself. "She should be able to deal with them for now."
He would never admit that he needed help, so that was the best excuse he could think of. While he waited, he brought up his omni-tool and dialled James. After a few seconds, the burly soldier picked up.
"Yeah, loco, what can I do for you?"
"James, don't play too many video games," the commander ordered. "And remember to change my sheets."
"But-"
Shepard cut him off before he could protest and checked out his shields. They were back to full power.
"Great!" he shouted, reenergized.
He pulled out two frag grenades and tossed them at the Cerberus crowd. He heard a soldier shout "grenade!" before two mighty explosions cut out the noise. He looked around the corner to see what survived. Two Cerberus troopers and the Atlas remained. Out of nowhere, Snake stood up and took out the two troopers with two well-placed headshots. Shepard wished he had aim like that, but now wasn't the time to try it out. Only the Metal Gear was left, and that was a problem on its own. Shepard shot a concussive shot at the Atlas, but only managed to stumble it. The Atlas fired a shot from its railcannon, forcing Shepard to jump out of the blast range. His shields were taking down a bit, but nothing serious. Snake shot at the cockpit with his pistol, cracking the glass a bit, but the Atlas turned to face him and fired its gatling guns. Snake managed to duck down behind a piece of metal just as the first bullets heated the air around him.
"Close one," he said, unable to stand without getting shot. Shepard threw another frag grenade and shot away at the cracked glass with his rifle. With the combined effort of his attack, he managed to break the glass. Liara saw her chance and used a pull on the pilot. He slowly floated out of the cockpit and stayed there until Liara used a throw and sent him sailing over a building and down the gorge that Cerberus had made trying to get the prothean.
"Nice work, team!" Shepard shouted, standing up triumphantly. "I did most of the work of course, but you guys did great too!"
"Most of the work?" Snake hissed, appeared behind the commander, slightly startling him.
"Anyway, Shepard," Liara cut in. "The pod should be opening any second now."
A hiss sounded out from the pod just as Liara said those words. The team walked over to the pod to take a closer look. Gas was pouring out from the sides as the lids slowly opened. Liara let out a small gasp while Snake widened his visible eye. Shepard stood there, unamused. He had already seen the fella in the visions, so nothing here surprised him.
"Should we help him up?" Shepard asked.
Liara didn't answer. Shepard turned his attention back to the prothean. His eyes were open, and he was looking around.
"Boy, that was fast."
The prothean suddenly rose up and fired off a biotic wave, knocking down Shepard and his team. He jumped out of the pod and started to run, but the years of being unable to move started to catch up to him, causing his legs to give way. He grabbed for the ground as he fell, stopping the impact. Shepard ran up to him and put an arm on his shoulder.
"Hey-"
Suddenly, more visions filled Shepard's head. They moved too fast for him to make them out properly, but before he could lose his mind, they stopped, bringing him back to reality. The prothean was looking around, seemingly amused at the sight of this new world.
"What is this?" the alien asked.
"You can speak English?" Shepard asked, bewildered by the alien's language.
"Of course," the prothean said. "I can read minds with the touch of an organism."
"Wow," Shepard thought. "How I wish I had that power."
"Anyway," Liara said, suddenly cutting in. "We were hoping you could join us and help us against the reapers."
"You fight the reapers?" the prothean asked. "Then I will join you."
"That was easy," Snake added.
Shepard stretched a hand forward. "Great to have you around then, uh…"
The prothean grabbed his hand. "I am called Javik, and I will find vengeance against the reapers."
Project Eel – Eden Prime
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