The four-man ground team consisted of Nihlus Kryik, Spectre; Corporal Richard Jenkins, soldier; Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko, biotic; and Lieutenant Commander Samantha Shepard, Vanguard. A Spectre was an elite Special Tactics and Reconnaissance agent, who was not bound by standard galactic law, and who carried out special missions for the Citadel Council. They were considered above the law and generally given complete discretion over how they accomplished the missions assigned to them, but Spectre status could be revoked by the Council in cases of gross misconduct. As a Spectre, Nihlus was used to working independently, so he moved out silently through the shadows to scout ahead and try to locate the beacon. He also needed to evaluate Commander Shepard, so needed to watch and listen from afar to see how she performed.

As team lead, Shepard brought a lot to the fight. She was a Vanguard; a deadly soldier with the added bonus of biotics, known for her high-risk high-reward combat style. With the augmentation of a biotic charge, Vanguards can close on an enemy with extreme speed and incredible force, killing them with heavy melee and hand-to-hand combat, frequently before the enemy is able to bring a weapon to bear. To maintain a balance between speed and front-line contact, they generally wear medium armor and carry both a shotgun and a submachine gun or heavy pistol. This was her first ground mission aboard the Normandy, and hadn't worked with either of the two soldiers with her. Captain Anderson had assigned the ground team, so she had to make do with who he picked.

As they started to move down the primary pathway to try to locate the research station where the beacon was discovered, Shepard watched Alenko; he was a pure biotic specialist, not a Vanguard. Rather than the 'crash and blast' style, Shepard expected him to manipulate dark energy with his mind to create a variety of effects to shield, move or destroy objects in the physical realm at a distance. He needed to be able to move light and fast, so wore minimal armor and carried only his pistol. The Corporal was back-up muscle, fairly young and very eager to make his mark in the Alliance military. As a standard soldier, Jenkins was a tough combatant, trained in a wide variety of standard weapons, who relied on martial arts, physical prowess and mental conditioning to outlast and outfight the enemy. A primary force troop wearing heavy armor and jumping right in to the thick of the fight, Shepard expected his load out to be a standard issue assault rifle, maybe with a back-up pistol for close combat.

As the team came to the crest of a hill, Shepard squatted and put her fist up to indicate a hold. Scanning ahead, she saw three attack drones in the distance; her fist changed to three fingers up, and then she pointed one of the drones out to Alenko. Suddenly the world exploded in motion...in the impatience of youthful exuberance, Jenkins jumped the mark before Shepard assigned him a target. He dashed out of cover, firing his assault rifle in the direction Shepard indicated, and took on the target that was supposed to be Alenko's. The Lieutenant reacted quickly and tossed a biotic throw at the selected drone, finishing it off. Shepard threw a warp at the second drone, but that still left the third drone unaccounted for. The last drone rapidly riddled Jenkins' exposed self with armor piercing rounds. Shepard and Alenko both launched biotic attacks and then rolled out of cover with weapons drawn to finish the last two drones off.

Alenko ran to Jenkins to provide medical assistance and realized it was too late. "Commander! Those rounds cut right through his heavy armor!" He reached up and closed Jenkins' eyes and collected one of the dog tags off his chain, not quite sure what else to do.

Shepard looked at her brooding teammate. "Alenko, just mark his location, so we can send a recovery team when this is all over. No one gets left behind, but we've gotta move!" Shepard grimaced as they pressed on, not five minutes into the mission and already down a man. Definitely not a good day. I hate writing those damn next of kin letters. They got back on the move and for quite a stretch all they found were more dead marines. The synthetics had advanced ammo and it was tearing the defending Marine units to pieces. Alenko thought the practice distasteful, but as they moved Shepard directed him to pull a dog tag from each body as well as salvage spare thermal clips and medigel. Alenko felt like they were robbing the dead.

As they continued to move forward, they finally started to hear gunfire, drawing closer by the second. Slapping her helmet to indicate take cover, Shepard ran forward to some rocks to find shelter. The pair moved from cover to cover as quickly as possible, as the gunfire continued to draw closer. Finally, as they worked around one last corner, they saw a lone marine performing a fighting withdrawal, greatly outnumbered by battle mechs of a type Shepard had only seen in history vids. What the hell? Geth? They haven't been seen outside the Veil for over 200 years! She called out to Alenko, "LT, let's save that marine!"

Focusing on the nearest mech, Shepard called on her biotics for her first charge of the day and blasted to the front, throwing the targeted mech like it was just hit by a 10-ton truck. Alenko tossed out a singularity and drew five of the remaining mechs into a floating pile in space, totally defenseless and easy pickings for his pistol. The tired marine whooped with a newfound sense of hope and picked off the remaining two mechs with her sniper rifle, breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Shepard called out, "Alenko, forward cover while I have a chat with our new friend here."

As Alenko swept forward, the marine hustled over to Shepard and snapped off a sharp salute, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, ma'am." Shepard did quick introductions and then asked Chief Williams for a situation report, quickly learning the 212 has been pretty much wiped out and the synthetics were on Eden Prime in force.

Shepard was happy to see Williams was tired, but in good form and still able to fight, and gave the Chief a quick summary of everything they had run into since they made planet fall. When she was finished, Shepard looked Williams in the eye and asked, "You ready to avenge your unit and help us recovery that beacon, Chief?"

A cold fire kindled in Williams' eyes, "Happy to lend a hand, ma'am. With your help, those damn robots are gonna pay for what they did to my squad." Catching up to Alenko, they set off as a threesome once again. Shepard contacted Nihlus on the radio and updated him on the situation. The Spectre responded quickly, confirming her identification of the synthetics as Geth, and stated he was approaching the tram to the space port. Nihlus instructed Shepard to secure the beacon, while he would head to the port and cut off the departure location, to make sure the Geth didn't try to take it off world.

Shepard glanced at her new squad, "You heard him, let's get moving. Chief, take us to the beacon."

Williams nodded, "It's not far from here. The excavation site is just over this next ridge." As they crested the hill, the Chief stopped dead in her tracks; they had reached the dig site, and there was no beacon to be found. "Sorry, ma'am… they must have already prepped it and moved it to the space port."

Shepard was not pleased by the development. Crap, we're way behind the power curve here… The commander growled, "All right people, we've got to pick up the pace and catch up to Nihlus at the space port. Let's move it!" Progressing much more quickly now, they were almost out into a clearing atop the next hill before they saw the Dragon's Teeth…tall metal spikes, with bodies impaled on them. They weren't really bodies anymore…more like a husk with no skin, held together by tubes and muscle. Kaidan's face went white as he surveyed the scene...no way to help them now. Shepard waved to continue past the gruesome sight, but as they began moving forward again, the closest spikes started to lower, retracting into themselves and disgorging the bodies stuck upon them. That in itself was bad enough…then the husks started moving.

All the husks started moving toward the Alliance soldiers, first in faltering steps but gradually smoothing out and picking up speed, almost as if they were suddenly relearning how to walk... then run! A pair of soulless metallic eyes focused on Shepard and she yelled, "Shit, those things are no longer human! Take 'em out!" The next sixty seconds were chaos. The husks attacked in animalistic melee, trying to gouge them with hands that more resembled claws, gunfire ripping the silence to shreds, and Shepard, in full biotic mode, charging from husk to husk, slamming into them with incredible force and finishing them with point blank shotgun blasts, bouncing from target to target like a pinball. After what seems an eternity of battle, she whirled around, quickly scanning for her next target and realized there were none. Panting with fatigue, the commander dropped to a knee and pulled out a tube of nutrient paste to help replenish her spent biotic energy.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams watched in awe, finding it hard to believe what she just witnessed...she'd now seen the hero of Elysium in full glory and quickly realized the reports she had read didn't even come close to the real thing. She walked over to Shepard and extended a hand to help Shepard back to her feet, "Damn... ma'am. I've heard the stories, but I've never seen anything like that in all my life!"

Shepard grinned and took the offered hand, rising back to her feet. "Just the life of a Vanguard, Chief. I'm surprised you've never worked with one before."

Williams looked at her and shook her head, "Not what I'm saying, ma'am. I have worked with Vanguards...I've just never seen any of them ever do anything like...that."

Rejecting the praise, Shepard just shrugged, "Then you haven't worked with any good Vanguards. There's a bunch of us crazies out there." With that, she fell silent and motioned with her hand for them to start moving again.

As they approached the tram station, they quickly realized it was crawling with Geth. On the high ground with plenty of cover, it was rather easy pickings for Williams and her sniper rifle, so Shepard and Alenko used their biotics to make it easy for Ash to pick them off, tossing out singularities that suspend the Geth, helpless, in mid air. When the last group had been suspended by Alenko, Shepard tossed out a warp, resulting in a spectacular explosion that threw Geth parts all over the station. As they cross the station to get to the tram, Shepard paused, her eye catching on the inert form of Nihlus... their bad day just got worse. What the hell, Nihlus? Spectre killed by a single gunshot to the back of the head? No helmet? There was nothing at all right with that picture. A sound off to the side caught their attention and three guns trained instantly on a figure emerging from behind a stack of crates. "Hey! Human here! Don't shoot me, please!" After a very brief, but tense, moment, they realized the human was not armed.

Shepard glared at the new arrival, "How the hell did you manage to not get caught by the Geth?"

The guy's face turned red with shame, but the revelation about the synthetics took over his response. "Geth? Those things aren't just mechs? Shit! I thought they were a fairy tale!"

Shepard slammed a new thermal clip into her shotgun and growled, "Answer the damn question..."

The guy immediately threw his hands up, "Alright already! Christ! Can't a guy be surprised by the mention of Geth?" Seeing the look from Shepard, he got around to answering. "I...I was on a lunch break, and was back here taking a nap when all the shooting started. I'm not an idiot! I stayed hidden!"

Williams snorted. "Yeah, right. Lunch break? It's 10 AM, you ass! You were saved because you're a lazy piece of shit, sleeping on the job! Can you at least tell us what the hell happened here?"

He told his story; a story of a second Turian, called Saren, who was responsible for Nihlus' death. Nihlus had known him, had trusted him and was shot in the back of the head execution style as a reward for that trust. The port worker then told them that Saren, with the beacon, had already taken the tram over to the loading docks.

As soon as she heard those words, Shepard cussed and started running. "Damn it! Let's move it people! I'm afraid we're going to be a day late and a dollar short to make this work!"

The first thing they saw when they jumped off the tram at the docks was a demolition charge. Alenko did a quick scan that revealed four total bombs, set to go off in just five minutes. Alenko started to diffuse the first one, talking at the same time. "Commander, we have to diffuse these! The combined yield of all four will be enough to destroy the whole colony...and us along with it!"

Cussing as they moved, Shepard and Williams started up the ramp toward the location of the second bomb, which proved difficult. More Geth were constantly flooding into the area from up on the docking ramp. Shepard glanced at Williams, "Cover my back! I need to move fast!"

Without waiting for a response, Shepard was gone in a blue streak of biotic charge, smashing into a group of Geth and then slapping them with a singularity, suspending them for the Chief to pick off one at a time while Shepard diffused the second bomb. Alenko finished with his and ran to catch up to the others, bypassing them when he realized they had it under control. He launched a singularity out at the next group of Geth and started picking them off with his pistol. Williams finished out the group floating over Shepard and moved to a more advantageous position to help out Alenko. As he saw the first Geth blown away by a sniper shot, he moved forward to the third bomb and started working on diffusing it.

As Shepard finished up the second bomb, she hop-scotched over Alenko to get to the last bomb, which sat right near the entry gate to the port. Instead of catching the defending Geth, she dropped a singularity in the entryway to block any more from coming through, then pulled her shotgun and biotic charged into the Geth protecting the bomb. As they scattered with the force of the charge, she blasted the one closest and then charged again, once again utilizing her crash and blast with great effectiveness. Alenko ran up and put a barrier over himself and the last bomb, working to diffuse it, while Shepard and Williams finished the fight with the remaining synthetics. Alenko stood up and released his barrier, looking to Shepard. "Done, Commander. We may not have the beacon, but at least more innocent people aren't going to die."

Shepard grimaced; as an N7, she was trained to do whatever was necessary to get the mission done, and saving the colony wasn't the mission. She knew it was the right thing to do, but recovering the beacon was still the primary objective and yet to be completed. She released her singularity in the entryway, and they worked their way up the final ramp to the docks. There were even more Geth at the port and Shepard was amazed... the beacon was still sitting on the docks. Shepard grinned, "Sweet! Let's clear the port and call down the Normandy for recovery ops!"

The team went to work, and with all three team members coordinating fire, they managed to clear the last few Geth without too much difficulty and secured the beacon. Shepard got on the comm to Anderson and passed the word they were ready for pick up. As the Normandy started its approach from orbit, the team checked out their prize.

Chief Williams walked around the beacon with a puzzled look on her face, and finally commented on the fact that it was glowing, and that somehow it had been activated since it was moved. "Wasn't doing anything like that last time I saw it, ma'am. It was just a big chunk of metal, totally inert."

Suddenly, energy off the beacon arced out and grabbed onto Williams, pulling her toward the beacon. Shepard could see her struggling to get free to no avail and charged in, knocking Ashley out of the pull of the beam. She realized too late that all she did was change places with the Chief, because she fared no better in her attempt to escape as the beacon lifted her into the air. Suddenly, her body was stretched out in incredible agony, and she felt like she was being drawn and quartered, all while being assaulted by horrible visions of death and destruction being pounded into her head at an ever increasing velocity. As she watched unknown worlds burning, Shepard let loose a primal scream, feeling the fires of a burning world erupt from her throat; the incredible pain sent her quickly spiraling into darkness.