24/5/2059

Garrison barracks, Colony of Semson.

34th Volunteer Division.

"One thirty six, One thirty seven, One thirty eight…" O'Brannagan counted down as Jane pushed herself even further than her arms allowed her. A soldier was never one for showing off, lest it was in a parade, but then again Jane never was the model soldier, so she joined the little pushup competition her colleagues were having without a second thought.

Rules were simple, you do as much as you can until you either drop or the man next to you does the same. The winner gets a few minutes of rest while the next batch are having their little bout. Rinse and repeat until there's one left standing. So far, she had done alright. It was no surprise that all the others she was participating against were men, but she still held her own, as she always did. Now down to the last two contestants she wasn't about to lose to that two-timing Chicago fucker Jeremy.

He always loved to play cards with the rest of the group, and swindle everyone out of some extra rations. As much as she was ashamed to admit it, he had a hell of a poker face, mainly because half of it had been burned off. No one knew why, and he never told anyone.

It was at moments like these however that she wished that one of his arms got burnt off instead. As much as she hated to admit it, Jeremy was keeping up with her pace effortlessly, it made no surprise the two of them were the only ones left in the finals of this little competition, much to the amusement of their spectators. With heaving breaths and trembling arms Jane raised and lowered herself off the ground, never once breaking form nor losing momentum, because if she did, she'd fall flat on her face in a second's notice.

Jeremy however, eventually began showing signs of strain as well, that half-showing poker face of his eventually began to look suspiciously like the expression of a man on the verge of collapse. Lo and behold;

"Eighty five! Eighty six!" O'Brannagan's counts started to slow down until finally. "Eighty-..." the last push, she hoisted herself straight and pushed with all her remaining strength. Her comrades arms eventually caved in, and he fell to the floor with heavy breaths. "One hundred and Eighty Seven lads! We got a new bloody record!"

Thunderous applause erupted across the metal walls of the barrack's storage room as Jane was hoisted up on the shoulders of two of her comrades in cheer. She managed to pull out a weak smile and raised fists in reverence. Jeremy's shit-eating grin never persisted it seemed, even as he lost. Though no one could say he was a sore loser, seeing as how the moment he got back on his feet he awarded Jane with a weak set of claps.

High above the heads of all her fellow shoulders she could see the revelry, a few times even said revelry almost got her head knocked off by a stray metal beam. Off in the corner she could see the Valetti girl observing the whole spectacle, it was hard to miss that gold blond hair of hers, not to mention the fact that she was amongst the few female soldiers here, aside from Jane. She had a smile on her face, though it was clearly being hidden in an attempt to look stern, Carla never was one to join in on the fun. Being the team's on-field medical service provider, or just the "Doc" as everyone calls her, she was probably more there to oversee no one got any serious injuries in their rabble-rousing.

"Alright you two." she tapped the shaved heads of the two soldiers carrying her, "You can put me down now." and so they did, and Jane joined in with her comrades in rubbing the win in Jeremy's face. He took it in great stride, which soured the victory a little, no fun in rubbing it in someone's burnt face if they're a good sport about it. "Looks like someone owes me a few rations in the morning."

"Looks like it." Jeremy responded. "You're a tough nut Shepard, I'll give you that. Shame your card game isn't as strong as your thick skull."

"Keep talking like that and I'll take more than your rations next time, Alinsky."

Their break time was soon interrupted by their commanding officer, or rather the rookie they had stand watch in front of storage to see if he was coming over. Everyone quickly dispersed and went on with their duties. Duties that involved such wondrous and exciting things as, guard duty, guard duty, and, you guessed it, more guard duty. It was grungy work, clearing out trenches for the colonists or maybe helping old ladies get their alien cats off alien trees. Unfortunately she did none of that, as she was always assigned on damn guard duty.

While they would often switch out posts for each detachment of guards, her post always remained the same. Entrance into the mines about 2 clicks north of the colony settlement. It possessed some potentially valuable minerals the colony could use to earn some favors back in the inner rim. Keyword of course being potentially since they still haven't found a damn use for the thing, so there's been boxes of the stuff lining the storage building for months now. Still, it gave colonists an opportunity to earn their daily rations, and the guards to get a few miles away from the settlement.

After she had sneaked away from the storage building and gotten back in her uniform, the trek back into the entrance of the mine was almost a cakewalk, if it weren't for the little critters following her at every turn.

Strange crystallized insectoids they were. Completely harmless and barely a threat, yet the size of your foot. She knew they couldn't do anything to her, hell she didn't even know if they wanted to do anything to her. But the way they just stared off a few meters away always unnerved her. Three sets of glowing eyes and teeth looking like it could pierce into your neck just fine didn't help either.

Near the entrance of the mine stood the guardpost. A small mobile compartment fitted with a communications outpost for speaking with the miners inside and controls for the lift leading down into said mine. Near that was a single watchtower, she guessed it was more for show if anything. Since it wasn't really useful all that much. The guard post was already at an elevated position, any more and she'd just start getting altitude sickness.

She saw the foreman of the mine from the window of the guardpost inside, working at his desk. He waved at her and she waved back, but smalltalk really wasn't on her mind so she passed the guardpost and went straight up into the watchtower. Waiting for her there was the same man it always was.

"Where were you?" dull gray eyes met with hers almost instantly after she got to the top.

"Down in storage with the rest of them, you should have joined us, it was fun." she answered back, sitting down on one of the chairs next to a small coffee table.

"I could have." he answered. "If I wasn't stationed here. Like you."

"Oh cool it will you. We've been stationed here for months doing nothing but standing around and pissing on every new rock formation we find. If no one's attacked us up until now what are the chances we'll see some action in the near present or future?"

"It's not about seeing some action, Shepard. It's about being here if a miner get's leg crushed in by a falling rock. Or if all those bugs out there suddenly decide they don't like us being here. We're not here to do some romping about as Space heroes. We're here to make sure nothing gets messed up in the process of colonizing this God-forsaken planet."

"Alright, alright I get it. I understand. You're right, I'm wrong. I'm sorry." she pulled her arms up in mocking surrender. She knew there was no winning when it came to arguing with the man, and heaven forbid he start Bible-thumping at her about what's right and what's wrong. "Seriously though…" but she never was one to back down from a good confrontation. "You need to loosen up more. It's been, what, three months now you've been stationed here with us and some of the boys down there barely even remember your name. It's like this damn tower's your home, not the bunks down there."

"My home's on Earth, Shepard. And I could hardly give two cares in the world as to who knows my name on this blackrock, nothing of a colony."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it Demetrius. You're the foregone loner whose not comfortable around people, how special you are. But when the time comes for action, do you really think people are going to hedge their bets in with the guy they barely know, or can even trust? Who do you think they would rather choose to be with, me or you?"

"When and if the time comes for 'hedging bets' with people, Shepard, it'll be done the way command tells us to. I'll do my duty, same as I expect from everyone here. Including you."

The argument narrowed itself down to a silent staring contest between the two. Childish and petty was she being? Perhaps. But if months of moral outraging had brought her anything, it was just more misery in doing her job. She had no ill will towards the man, she had no real opinion of him in general, aside from his constant annoyance of everyone. This was, in the end, just another way for her to pass the time.

Demetrius in the end sighed, ending their little staring contest, Jane only smirked. "I'm going off to take a leak." he said, leaving the tower.

"Don't let the crystals bite off anything valuable." she commented as he left.

Alone to her thoughts now, she could only rumble on the annoyance that man was. He was no doubt higher up on the chain of veterancy than most of her other soldiers stationed here. From the looks of him he looked to be almost two decades older than Jane, but when she asked around the first time a lot of her buddies just said he was in his thirties or something. It was usually the sign of a soldier who went through a lot of shit to make him age like that. Of course she didn't know any of it, but Jane wanted so desperately sometimes to break that ice with him, it'll at least give them some talking points while sitting out here just a few stones throws away from civilization.

Staring out through the windows of the tower she looked towards the entrance of the mine. Wondering about all the things the miners were up to at this moment. Her mind raced to every which thing she could imagine, eventually landing on her brother. It had been a while since they last talked, and she sure as hell wasn't talking with their parents for a good few weeks after the last call went so swimmingly.

'I hope he's suffering as much as I am from all this boredom.'

25/5/2059

Fort Wintertern, Lion's gate.

Everyone got on their feet relatively quickly. John knew this was an attack, and instantly he thanked his guts for having been right about the situation beforehand. Tightly gripping his rifle, he looked around to see if there were any hostile combatants in the area. No one. Priority one had been dealt with, now he was on to more pressing matters, the state of his teammates.

By a stroke of blind luck perhaps, no one was hurt, John quickly turned his attention to the deafening alarm that was ringing in his ears. Seems like whoever had attacked this place had done so with great force.

"Overwatch, give me an overview." John requested as he got the last of his team up on their feet.

"This is Overwatch. We've got hostiles attacking the fort. Looks like a machine. I'm dropping the bastards. Over." John just knew there was a smile behind the radio.

'Machines? Who the hell could that be?' He wasn't aware of any machine race that held a grudge against the Reich. Could it be droids? Servitors? Maybe someone else was coordinating this strike. It didn't matter in the end, that's what John had to tell himself to stop his mind from racing.

"Copy that.'' He ended the first transmission before starting another. "Stonehill 3-1, this is Hawk 2-3 actual. come in. Over." John tried to raise Sten on the radio.

"Stonehill 3-1 copies." the voice of the Swede answered. "A little busy with the Geth though, over." John could hear the sound of gunfire through his ear piece, seeming like heavy fighting.

'The Geth?' It made some sense, to a degree at least. They were machines, so that lined up with Spielsmann's observation. But then again, the Geth hadn't been seen outside of the veil for the better part of 250 years, why would they attack the Reich? Then again, as far as Otto had said, apparently the Reich had been getting real comfortable with the Quarians, maybe that was it?

Or Maybe it was just this stupid Beacon they were after. In the end, it didn't matter. No one interfered with the Reich's dealings and lived to tell the tale. "Alright men, we need to help out with the attack on the surface. Jean and Nihlus, I want the two of you to stay here and guard the relic in case anything happens!" John quickly ordered, snapping back into action. The rest of the team followed John. He saw the small glint of defiance in the Turian's eyes, yet he chose the smart thing to do, and simply nodded along to Shepard's order.

The elevator ride felt long, drawn out. John could look around and see his team members getting ready for the fight ahead. John was a bit curious. He had never fought machines in serious combat before, sure he had fought them during training, but not in a serious combat setting. He tightly gripped his rifle as he waited for the doors to open, unsure as to what hell awaited him on the other side.

He could hear the sound of gunfire, only slightly deafened by the doors. The door opened, and they could see the carnage that was happening right before their eyes: Machines killing and tearing soldiers to shreds, heavy fighting with the KGU only barely holding them at bay. He quickly spotted that they had retreated into the base, meaning that the outside must have been completely overrun.

"Squad, let's move out!" John ordered with a stern voice as they all quickly grouped up with the soldiers defending. In the midst of it all, John could see Sten fighting in the thick of the battle. Showing no fear as he brought down Geth after Geth with his shotgun.

John took cover and returned fire and ordered his team mates around as best he could. It felt nice to see them obeying his orders, and it felt even better to be in real command. "STEN!" John called out. "GET BACK HERE, WE'LL LAY DOWN COVERING FIRE!" He ordered. Sten reluctantly agreed, and began to make his way towards them, but not before firing off a few more shots.

Luckily the Geth fell relatively quickly to said gunfire, they may have been made of metal and could take a few more hits, but with enough bullets they would stay down. With Sten back in the group, John could focus on how they could best hold out, or even push back their attackers.

"Overwatch! This is HAWK 2-3 actual, how many are we dealing with?" John asked, hoping Emil could hear him over the sound of gunfire.

"Overwatch reporting, HAWK 2-3 Actual. We haven't got a damn clue, I don't exactly have time to count them… Wait a minute-" Emil went quiet for a second.

"What's going on Overwatch?" John asked, perhaps a bit concerned.

"A huge ship just landed, and I'm talking massive. It's-" Suddenly the ground shook again, and when John got back on his feet, it looked as though there was a massive hole cut right through the building. "Holy shit, that fucker's got a laser on him, it just desitmated the AA stations! Over." Emil warned. John decided to focus on what he had control over, which was the fighting.

"Overwatch, keep up your suppressive fire on the Geth. I'll try and see if we can push them back! HAWK 2-3 Actual out." John looked around, and quickly saw that more Geth were flooding through the doors into the base. He switched channels on his radio. "Generalmajor Keller. Do you copy? This is HAWK 2-3 Actual." John waited a second before Michael responded.

"Go ahead HAWK 2-3 actual."

"We need more men at the entrance! Can you send more up here?" John asked as he made sure he stayed behind cover.

"I'm sending more as we speak. Over."

"Thank you." John then once again switched channels. "Captain Otto, do you copy?"

"Yes Shepard. What the fuck is going on out there? Sounds like there's a fucking war going on." Otto replied.

"That's not a bad description of the situation Sir. We could use all hands on deck for this one. We are under attack from the Geth!" John explained. He expected more questions from Otto, but instead he simply replied with a 'Understood' and went radio silent. "STEN MAN THAT MACHINE GUN!" John ordered once he noticed that the makeshift machine gun nest in the lobby was left without any soldiers to man it. They must have been killed already.

John had expected him to man it, and stay behind cover. By all accounts, that was a heavy machine gun, designed to be mounted, or at least used with supports. Yet the last thing Shepard had expected was for the man to rip the thing from its metal pod, and use it free hand. John couldn't find himself to be surprised, but he would have to disipline him later for the dumb act.

Just on cue, more KGU soldiers arrived from the elevator, eager to fight. "Alright everyone, this is it! Let us push them back!" John ordered, gathering everyone behind the order and began to lay heavy pressure on the chokepoint the Geth had created for themselves. With heavy fire from Sten, and supporting small fire from the rest, they managed to push the Geth out of the lobby and onto the surface. When John got out, he saw tons of bodies, both Geth and KGU. Looked like Emil was still keeping himself busy as well. They had a small moment to breathe. John saw that Otto and the rest came running out of the lobby. They must have fought their way here.

"Status report Oberleutant!" Otto demanded.

"The Geth attacked while we were underground, Sir. Looks like the KGU took the blunt part of the attack. We managed to push them back. I'm not sure if they'll be back. Have you called the fleet for backup?" John asked, but realized that Otto was focused on something else, something which John also noticed as he looked up.

It was a giant ship. Larger than even most super carriers of the Reich if he had to wager a guess. But it didn't look like any ship he had ever seen. It looked more like a floating black hand. He was in awe. Suddenly, the ship blasted a giant laser, but it didn't target them. Instead, the laser caught a hole through the side of the base, and straight down into the lower levels. John realized what happened. The fucking Geth just bypassed them. More Geth drop landed just in front of them, no doubt to keep them occupied while some others sneaked down into the base.

"Shepard, you go down there and protect that Beacon. Take Jenkins and Kaiden with you. We'll hold them off here." Otto ordered as he took defensive positions with the rest of the crew.

"You heard him boys, let's go!" John quickly hurried his team mates back to the elevator.

Jean was on the ground, all shook up as he tried to get his bearings. By the time he managed to look up, he noticed a giant hole, coming straight from the surface. It was maybe 4-5 meters in diameter. But within seconds, Geth poured from that hole like water from a hose. "WE'VE GOT HOSTILES!" Jean managed to proclaim as he trained his rifle on the invading machines. Nihlus and several KGU soldiers sprung into action, putting up as good of a defense as they could against the advancing waves.

Jean noticed just how skilled Nihlus was in a fight, the Turian moved like a machine himself. Coordinated and well adjusted. But despite the Spectre's fight, the Geth were relentless in their attack. They wanted this beacon bad, but Jean wasn't done yet. He loaded another magazine into his rifle and kept the pressure up. He just hoped back up was on the way.

Jean realized just how few of them were left standing now. The KGU guys seemed to be all dead, so much for their ironclad reputation, there was probably going to be some PR work to do in the future.

"Nihlus!" A voice spoke out. Menacing and dark. Jean peaked the cover to see a Turian, but he didn't look like any ordinary Turian. His armor was advanced, beyond what he had seen on Turians. In fact, he looked almost like a half machine with his eyes glowing.

"Saren?" There was confusion in Nihlus' voice as the Turian recognized the voice of his fellow Turian. Jean tried to search his mind for anyone called Saren, but none came to mind. Nihlus slowly got out of his cover to better see what was going on. The Geth had ceased fighting as Saren slowly approached the beacon. "Spirits, what are you doing here?"

The Turian named Saren turned to look at Nihlus, his eyes carried burning hatred. "I could ask you the same thing. But in the end, it doesn't surprise me you are colluding with the enemy." Surprisingly, Saren's voice was rather monotone, lacking emotion in that moment.

"Enemy? You're the one making an enemy of the Reich!" Nihlus proclaimed. Sure, Nihlus didn't carry a lot of love for the Reich, but he would keep the peace. If they would become an ally in the end, he wouldn't mind too much. They just needed to be kept on a tight leash, a bitter lesson the Turian learned after the Krogan rebellions.

"This is the only way to purify the Galaxy of all its sins. Wipe the slate clean." Saren proclaimed proudly as he stood close to the beacon. Suddenly it grabbed a hold of the Turian, pulling him into the air as Saren groaned. It seemed like it was killing him, but a second later it threw him back on the ground, no worse for wear. Jean was in awe, he had never seen prothean technology work it's magic before. "But unfortunately for you Nihlus, you won't be part of it." Saren pulled out his gun,and was about to pull the trigger. Just in the nick of time, Shepard appeared.

John ran as fast as he could, hoping to tackle the Turian. With enough force, he was able to knock the Turian and himself on the ground. He had heard the Turian's gun go off during the procedure, and he heard the groan of Nihlus, who presumably was hit. As John and Saren were on the ground, the Geth resumed their fighting. John just hoped his squad could get them off him as he dealt with the threat of this Turian.

Saren was the first one up, and John was promptly rewarded with a kick to the guts, rolling himself over on his back. He saw the glimpse of a knife coming down towards him, and he managed to raise his arms just in time to block it. They had a few second stand-off, as Saren tried to brute force the knife down upon John's throat. John had to think quickly, because he felt the Turian's strength far outweighed his own. He kicked the leg of the Turian, enough to stagger Saren back, and give John a few precious seconds to recover and get back on his feet.

The playing field had leveled, but John wouldn't last long. Saren summoned the Geth on his position as John retreated back to his comrades. However this Turian was, he certainly commanded the synthetic army. John got behind cover and picked up his rifle again. The basement storage area wasn't large to begin with, so the fighting itself was narrow. The enemy was never more than 20 feet away. The storage room itself had now devolved into trench warfare, with the German side having the elevator, and the Geth having the big hole in the room on the other end of the room. The beacon acted as the no man's land. All sides attempted to spare it as they fired at each other.

John suddenly saw Jenkins put his head a little too much over cover, exposing most of his upper torso as he tried to get a better shot in. John thought quickly and went to pull him back down, but before he could get the young soldier all the way down, he was shot in the shoulder. A painful place, but he would probably pull through. He suddenly remembered Nihlus and his injury, and was pleased to see that Jean had pulled the Turian behind cover and given him a dose of medi-gel to his gut wound. "Dumb fucking move Jenkins." John lectured the young corporal.

"Sorry sir." He said behind gritted teeth as he attempted to show no weakness in his injured state.

"You'll live." John said as he applied the medi-gel in record time. He wanted to call Mathias down here, so he could ensure both Jenkins and Nihlus would survive, but there was no way for him to know what the situation on the surface was like.

Though the next time John looked up, Saren was gone, and it seemed like no more Geth were pouring down the hole and joining the fight. This was their chance to push the final bit. Just as they began to gain more ground on the Geth, John noticed they had brought a parting gift. A giant explosive device. It was Turian in design, meant for blowing up much bigger things than this base.

"Holy shit, we have a bomb over here!" John yelled out into the room. He made sure the finish off the remainder of Geth still there before he focused totally on the bomb. Kaiden and the rest of the KGU soldiers still alive saw to it that the last of the Geth were finished. John finally inspected the bomb, and true enough, it was of Turian design. "It's a Turian one." John added.

"Let me see." Nihlus pushed him away, while still clutching his stomach wound. Nihlus was a tough son-of-a-bitch, that much was for sure. Nihlus took one look at the bomb, and then put in a few sets of commands, putting it to sleep. John and the rest of the soldiers could breathe a sigh of relief. Clearly Saren hadn't thought about Nihlus being there and alive to disarm the bomb in such a short time.

"Nice work Nihlus." John said, still catching his breath. "Let me check with the surface to see the situation." John then said. He turned on his ear piece and called up. "Any call sign, this is HAWK 2-3 actual. Come in. Over"

"This is Overwatch. receiving you loud and clear, HAWK 2-3 actual. Over" Emil replied, and John was happy to learn they were still alive.

"Stonehill 3-1 copies as well. We're just taking care of the holdouts. The main ship blasted off just a few minutes ago. Over"

"This is Captain Otto. What is your situation HAWK 2-3 actual? Over." Captain Otto's voice was demanding.

"We've finished off the last Geth down here as well. A Turian was leading them, sir." John answered.

"His name is Saren." Nihlus added behind John. John turned around.

"How do you know his name?" He asked, curious.

"He is a Spectre as well. Probably the best agent we have… Never figured-" Nihlus took a moment to let out another groan as he kept the pressure on his stomach, which must have hurt like hell. "- Never figured he would pull a stunt like this though… Though he always did peg me wrong…"

"Stay with me, Nihlus. We're gonna get you patched up." John reassured the Turian. "This is HAWK 2-3 Actual. The Turian's name is Saren. Over."

"Saren…" Otto's voice carried such emotion. Hatred beyond beliefs. "What is the status of the package? Over." Otto then requested.

"Package is secure, over." John replied.

"I'm going down. Over." There was much convection in Otto's voice. This wasn't a matter up for debate, it never was with German superior officers.

"Copy that, Sir. Bring Mathias with you, we have wounded. HAWK 2-3 out." John then turned his attention to Jenkins, who was still alive. "You alright Corporal?" John then crouched down and asked.

"Copy. Over and out." Otto replied over the radio.

"Yes sir, still alive. Didn't expect to get shot though." Jenkins tried to laugh, but it hurt too much for it to come out as any more than a whimper. John gave him a small pad on his uninjured shoulder.

With the main threats out of the way, and Otto on his way down alongside most of his crew, John could turn his attention to the artifact. This Beacon had been the cause of this attack, but they hadn't taken it with them. Whatever that Saren feller had done, it had made the Beacon light up like a goddamn Christmas tree. John approached it carefully, unsure of its nature.

"Sir! I wouldn't do that!" Jean called out. Before John could turn back, he felt a force so strong pull him in, he couldn't escape it as it began to pull him into the air. All his muscles felt tense, and he could move any of them as he levitated in the air. Suddenly, his vision shifted.

He could see death, machines butchering organics. Machines melting and merging with the organic material, and a vision of burning worlds, accompanied with the black silhouettes of the ship he saw earlier. He could make neither head nor tail of it, but the Beacon left one finally parting gift.

It exploded and knocked him out cold.