As she walked, it registered in the back of Jane Shepard's mind that Eden Prime reminded her a lot of Mindior.
That wasn't unusual, of course—it could be said of nearly a dozen other agrarian colonies throughout the Traverse. They were all invariably temperate garden worlds dominated by rolling grasslands interrupted by the occasional charming little homestead, but all the same Eden Prime was similar enough to almost feel familiar, down to the lazy glow of the late morning sun and the warm breeze that tasted sweetly of the blooming summer grass.
As much as she denied being the sentimental type, Mindior was the closest thing Shepard had to a homeworld, and the sights and smells of her mission awoke a quiet longing for it.
She was spacer, of course, and through her childhood had followed her mother from one starside posting to another until she was old enough to enlist herself, but they'd still found time once a year to lay a wreath on her father's headstone. She hadn't seen Mindior since she'd signed on for ICT, but she still remembered the weight of the flowered ornament in her hands as she helped her mother lay it against her father's marker amongst the field of simple white pillars.
Standing there, she had never cried like her mother sometimes did. Jane wasn't sure what that meant.
"Commander," Lieutenant Alenko's voice on the short-range radio shook her from her daze. "We've got geth at the tram station ahead."
"Understood." She replied concisely, wondering if he had noticed that she was distracted. Normally she could rely upon the battle network to keep her focused with a constant stream of data and radio chatter, but without it her mind wandered, and she had realized how uncomfortably silent the group was as they walked. While their hardsuit radios were able to cut through the interference at extremely short ranges, they were still wary of geth that might be listening in.
Signaling a halt, she turned and had a moment to inspect the mismatched outfit as they set up security around the area.
Alenko and Williams had crouched with one another in the shade of a small tree, the latter pointing animatedly toward the facility in the distance while the biotic glanced back and forth between her and an orange map being projected from his omi-tool.
Jenkins sat opposite them, wearing a perturbed expression as he watched smoke rise from one of the steel colored spires that loomed on the horizon. Noticing his commander looking, the corporal quickly feigned preoccupation with a piece of equipment hanging on his belt.
Jane frankly wasn't sure why she'd only had two marines from the ship's detachment sent along, much less why one of those marines had been Jenkins. She much would've preferred to have been backed by the ship's entire complement of ground troops, though that decision had been quickly taken out of her hands when Nihlus had insisted upon a small team.
The thought of the spectre made her snort. What had the turian expected her to do with two people? Distract the geth while he searched for the beacon? To keep them occupied long enough for him to toss the thing over his shoulder and hike back the Normandy with it?
It would've been laughable if not for the prospect of them all getting killed.
Finally her gaze fell on Vandas. He sat slightly apart from the group, tenderly probing the swollen lip he'd given himself firing Jenkin's shotgun from the shoulder. When the party had been ambushed by husks upon entering the scientist's camp he'd remained on the fringes of the fray, though that hadn't stopped him from bringing down a pair of the shambling corpses and needing to be saved by Alenko when the weapon had overheated while a few more were still bearing down on him. Despite being dressed in nothing more than dirty fatigues and armed with a weapon he was clearly unfamiliar with, he hadn't done too badly for himself.
The young man had a military bearing about him—that much was certain, but he was out of his element just the same. His shredded fatigues bore a pattern she didn't recognize but knew was too light for a temperate world like Eden Prime and the grip of an antiquated black pistol stuck out of the back of his waist band where he had hastily shoved it.
All the same though, Shepard was grateful for the help—from Williams and the young stranger both.
The commander surveyed the valley below, her visor highlighting the forms of half a dozen geth milling about the cargo yard below. If there were any other option, she'd simply bypass the area, but the facility's tram line was the most direct way to the space port. If the beacon had been moved there as the gunnery chief had surmised, it was the only way they'd recover it before the geth could take it beyond their reach.
"Williams," Shepard called, pulling her sniper rifle from her shoulder and tossing it to the gunnery chief when she turned. "I presume the range shouldn't be an issue," the commander added with a smile, jerking her head in the direction of the cargo yard.
"No ma'am." The woman assured sternly, tucking the weapon's stock into the crook of her elbow as she cradled it.
By all accounts, it was an excellent position—the ridge overlooked the gentle valley and tram facility below, and the scattered boulders and undergrowth offered good concealment. Below, the geth milled about a sizable clearing a few hundred meters away. It had all the makings of a perfect surprise attack. Still, if the geth fell back into the cargo yard they'd be in for a hard fight, one that the outnumbered Alliance team could ill afford.
"Good," Shepard nodded, "You and Jenkins will cover us from here while we push down to the yard."
With Alenko and Vandas in tow, she crept to into the undergrowth that ran along one flank of the ridge and down into the valley. Taking up position on a small depression in the sparse woodlands, the marine brought two fingers to the side of her helmet.
"Williams, are you set over there?"
There were two quick chirps of confirmation from the gunnery chief over the radio.
Turning, Shepard found both Vandas and the lieutenant staring at her intently. She waved them forward. "Come on."
As the trio emerged from the undergrowth there was a sharp crack from the ridge behind them and one of the distant geth collapsed in a heap. A second shot sent another synthetic reeling as the tungsten slug shattered against its shield, followed quickly by a burst from Jane's assault rifle that sent the machine to the ground a riddled corpse.
Caught off-guard by the attack, the geth offered only half-hearted resistance as they attempted to withdraw into more defensible positions, but any that got too near to reaching the rail yard were cut down by the precise fire of the Alliance sharpshooters.
In the brief span of a minute, half of the geth had fallen and the cohesion between the ragged survivors fell apart further with every additional casualty.
As a storm of plasma passed overhead in long blue-white streaks, Jane pressed herself deeper into the shadow of the small boulder where she'd sought shelter, steam wafting from the muzzle of her rifle as it glowed red-hot.
Off to the side, she watched several husks rush up the hill toward them and the foremost of the creatures reared back its head to give an awful, shrieking hunting cry that made the commander's hair stand on end.
However the inhuman call was cut short as the creature's gaping maw was shattered by tungsten shot from Vandas' shotgun, removing a considerable portion of the husk's head and sending it to the ground a gory mess.
Behind him Alenko rose from cover, the lieutenant's brow hard with concentration. With an outstretched hand he conjured a veil of translucent violet around the four remaining creatures, hoisting them into the air for a brief moment before slamming them back to the earth in a broken pile.
Shepard brought her rifle to bear on the remaining synthetic only to watch it collapse as the sharp report of a sniper rifle reached her ear. Surveying the scattered mechanical corpses with some satisfaction, the commander climbed over the rock she had sought cover behind and cautiously advanced as Alenko and Vandas fell into position on her flanks.
The facility—a large, open-air yard with narrow avenues set between the rows of long metal shipping containers, was silent as the team moved through it and they soon emerged from the maze of crates onto the wider vehicle road the bisected the compound.
"Williams, Jenkins," Shepard called into her earpiece, looking around as she spoke. "We're clear down here. Pack it up and regroup."
The gunnery chief's stern voice came from the other end. "Understood."
With the immediate threat dealt with and a few minutes reprieve at hand, Jane compacted her rifle and stowed it in the magnetic clamp over her right shoulder.
Turning, she found Kaidan had done the same and now stood with his helmet tucked beneath his arm as he sucked at the straw of a pouch of the slightly viscous, sickeningly sweet stuff that the lieutenant referred to as his "biotic goop". She could tell by his expression as he drank it that the name wasn't entirely affectionate.
Nearby, Vandas leaned against one of the massive crates, anxiously drumming his fingers on the grip of his weapon, still looking quite uneasy. Twigs and bits of vegetation clung to his olive shirt and his face and forearms shimmered with sweat. On his leg, a white bandage had been wrapped around the side of his thigh to cover a sizeable tear in his pants where blood had stained the fabric.
Pulling off her helmet and securing it to a hook on her belt, she casually made her way over to him.
"What's your name?" She asked, her brow crunched inquisitively.
"Private First Class Vandas," the younger man replied stiffly, sounding mildly surprised she'd addressed him. "Uh- ma'am." He added, now no longer leaning against the cargo container.
Well, he'd told her that much when he and Williams had initially met them. "Your first name, private first class."
"Uh- Nick."
"How's your leg, Nick?"
"It's fine, ma'am." The enlisted man answered firmly, straightening himself and standing more evenly. "Nothing to worry about."
"Here," Shepard began, using one hand to wrench the nozzle of her water pack from where it was clipped on her collar. "You look like you need- "
"Commander," a voice spoke in hear earpiece, their tone terse. "It's Williams, we're near the west entrance. There's something here you should see."
"On the way." The officer acknowledged, glancing in Alenko's direction. The biotic was also listening intently to the radio and he shot Jane a questioning look as he stood with a hand over his ear. Unslinging her rifle, Shepard gave a nod and the trio departed.
They found Ashley and Jenkins standing around in another section of the yard, but Jane felt her stomach drop when she realized they were standing over a body.
"I didn't think anything of it," The gunnery chief explained as the group approached. "But Jenkins said he thought he recognized him."
Shepard came to a halt beside the other woman, her gaze fixated downward.
"Nihlus."
The turian spectre lie face-up at her feet in a pile of his own coagulated gore, his blank expression interrupted by a bloody void where his left eye should've been.
"Council spectre." She stated coldly, her gaze not leaving the dead alien. "He was with us on the Normandy—supposed to help us recover the beacon."
What a mess, Shepard sighed, brushing her crimson bangs out of her eyes. If the whole mission hadn't been decidedly ugly before, it certainly was now. Shepard hadn't counted on the turian for much support from the moment he'd insisted upon going ahead alone, but his death certainly didn't make the mission any easier and it promised a lot of complications to come.
What had happened, she wondered. Had the geth caught him by surprise? His pistol was undisturbed on his hip and the fatal shot had apparently come from behind—hardly a suitable end for one of the Council's elite. Suddenly she stooped as something occurred to her.
Giving the body a tug, she rolled the dead alien onto his stomach, and there was a wet squelch as the contents of the turian's opened skull slid out of place and landed in the dark puddle of blood that had pooled around him, drawing an audible gag from Jenkins, who had already seemed somewhat queasy. Alenko looked similarly disgusted but didn't move as the corporal quickly disappeared behind a cargo container, and Williams took the opportunity to pointedly look somewhere else, appearing a bit bothered herself. Only Vandas didn't seem to react, wearing a placid expression and standing with his hands dug into his pockets as he watched the commander inspect the body, though he did lean over and murmur something to the gunnery chief as he stood next to her.
After a brief moment, Jane found what she was looking for.
The entry wound was on the right side of the turian's head beneath the bony fringe—forming a rough diagonal from where it had exited. The hole itself—about half a centimeter across and leaking thick, alien blood onto her gloves—was unremarkable. However, the tissue around it was scorched and raw, burned by the superheated gas of a muzzle blast. Surveying the gore splattered against the side of a crate a few meters away, Shepard's frown deepened. The shot had been from short range and from behind, and she couldn't help but feel a sickly feeling tug at gut at the revelation.
Turning, she found nothing before the body but the clearing of the yard's access road and she felt the sensation sink deeper into her stomach. Nihlus would've known the shooter was there and, more alarmingly, the spectre had willingly put them at his back.
Suddenly, Jenkin's voice rose in an alarm from behind the crate where he'd disappeared. "Holy shit!"
Shepard was on her feet and nearly to the container when a figure rounded the corner with Jenkins close behind him.
"Hey, take it easy, would ya'?" The man complained as the corporal gave him a light shove in Jane's direction. He a worker, unshaven and slovenly-looking in the wrinkled maroon coveralls he wore.
"I found him behind the crates, Commander." Jenkins reported, quickly using his cuff to dash a bit of vomit from his chin.
"Listen, I didn't do nothing," The stranger in question complained, beginning to sound irate before noticing Shepard's flinty glare. He became a bit quieter. "My name's Powell, alright? I'm a yard worker." The laborer swallowed, trying to find something to appease the woman. "But I saw your turian friend, yeah?"
Shepard gave a slight tint of the head, looking intrigued as the man continued. "Yeah, I saw him. Meet another turian, called him "Saren", seemed like they knew each other, and uh," The worker paused abruptly, scratching at his shaggy cheek.
"And?" Shepard prompted impatiently.
"Well, and then the "Saren" turian shot your guy in the back of the head." The worker stated, rolling his shoulders nonchalantly. "Listen, can I get out of here? I don't wanna' be hanging out when those machines get back."
Powell didn't know much else of use, though that didn't stop Shepard from shaking him down for a handful of grenades and a bit of tech the smuggler had lifted from the Alliance armory. Making it abundantly clear that he hadn't heard the last about the stolen equipment as she tucked the items in the pouches of her belt, Jane and the group headed off and boarded the tram for the spaceport without further incident.
As the tram raced along the magnetic monorail toward the facility that loomed in the distance, Shepard took the opportunity to clean her gloves of the sticky, blue blood that coated her palms and had seeped into the workings of the armored joints on her knuckles. Standing together beside one of the tram car's railings, Ashley and Kaidan were chatting idly and Nick sat on a bench opposite them, his eyes shut and his chin tucked into his chest as he dozed. Elsewhere, Jenkins sat field stripping his rifle, the casing opened as he wiped down one of the weapon's mass driver coils with a cloth.
After some time, Shepard peered out the forward windscreen and rose slowly to her feet. "We're getting close." She sounded, the steel gray form of the spaceport facility quickly growing in the distance. Unclipping her helmet from the tether on her belt, she quickly snapped it in place.
As the tram's other occupants set about readying themselves, they were suddenly sent diving to the deck as the front window exploded in a shower of shattered glass and searing blue-white plasma. The transport's kinetic barrier, only intended to fend off bad weather and the occasional native avian, did little to stop the incoming fire. Fortunately, the car's thick metal bulkheads proved more robust as the team sought cover against them.
Shepard rose from behind the steel shield and returned fire, ducking back down when she felt the crack of an incoming slug grazing the outer casing of her helmet as her kinetic barrier disappeared in a burst of blue light.
A pair of geth stood on a catwalk the stretched over the tracks, firing at the monorail as it approached. Nearly impossible to hit with rifle fire from the speeding train, Lieutenant Alenko laid his weapon aside and thrust out both hands, in an instant seizing the maintenance walkway in fist of violet light.
Closing his hands and drawing them toward his chest as if he grasped the narrow metal bridge between his fingers, the biotic field shorn the platform from its supports and tore it in half at the middle, sending the two synthetics atop it tumbling off the room of the tram as it passed underneath.
As the car began to slow as it approached the station, Kaidan slackened, bracing his hands on his knees, sucking hard to catch his breath.
"Impressive," Ashley commented from beside him, sloshing around the contents of the canteen she offered. The sentinel took the bottle and drank greedily, dribbling water down his chin.
"I'll say," Nick added as he rose to his feet. "What was that?"
Starting to recover his wind, the Alliance officer righted himself, handing the canteen back to Williams without secure the cap. "It's an L2 implant," the man explained, no longer gasping for breath. "It's a lot more than most biotics can muster."
The corpsman responded with a nod, not seeming to understand but astonished by the display nonetheless.
As they spoke, the tram began to slow, coming to a smooth halt at a raised unloading platform flanked on either side by wide cargo ramps. There was a pleasant, electronic ding as the doors on either side of the car slid open.
"Let's get going," Shepard commanded, the stock of her rifle tucked into the crook of her elbow. "There's bound to be more."
Keen not to be trapped in the train, the party quickly exited and slowly crept through the spaceport's cargo area in a short column. Shepard sat at its point, followed closely by Ashley and Alenko. Nick and Jenkins brought up the rear.
"Williams?" Shepard questioned, her voice a strained whisper.
"If they were expecting a ship to pick it up, the beacon was probably moved to the forward holding area. It's at the other end of the facility, near the docks."
The commander nodded and the group continued onward before coming to an abrupt halt when they encountered a large cylinder deposited along the narrow walkway, partially obstructing their path.
The gunnery chief tensed. "Shit."
Alenko silently brushed past the others, taking a knee beside the object as his omni-tool wreathed his forearm in translucent orange.
From the rear of the procession, Jenkins leaned to peer around the others. "What is it?"
"Demolition charges." The tech called, his eyes not leaving the interface on his wrist as he tapped at the display with his pointer finger. After a few moments more, he gave a relieved sigh and closed his omni-tool. Rising to his feet, he ran a hand over the device's smooth silver casing. It was a massive charge—nearly as large as he was, with octagonal supports on either end that looked to double as carrying handles. "They look Alliance-issue."
"The geth might've taken them from the quarry." Ashley suggested.
That would've made sense, Shepard realized. Larger industrial projects on colonies in the Traverse usually got a lot of support from the Alliance Colonial Agency who in turn got a lot of their hardware from the Navy, but what would the geth benefit from destroying infrastructure here? Eden Prime was neither the largest nor most important Alliance world in the sector. It was another questioned that would have to wait, the lieutenant commander huffed. She turned to Alenko. "How big are we talkin'?"
"Oh, it'd make a dent, alright."
"It'd make more than a dent," Williams interjected, "There are lines piping starship fuel through the facility. If a blast reaches one of the storage tanks, it'll crater this place."
Inside the privacy of her helmet, Shepard groaned.
So they'd be playing bomb squad. Outstanding.
Kaidan pulled up the display of his omni-tool once again. "I'm picking up five more detonators on the same frequency. I can't activate the remote kill-switch, but I should be able to locate them."
The lieutenant commander gestured to the deactivated charge beside him. "How much time was left?"
"About fifteen minutes."
Jane nodded gravely. "Let's get to work, then."
Their good fortunate hadn't lasted, however, and the geth met them before they reached the next bomb. While the construction of the facility didn't allow the synthetics to get above or behind the Alliance team, the narrow metal catwalks and confined spaces between cargo crates turned the push to the other bombs into a grueling slog through the brunt of the geth numbers.
Shepard ducked into cover as another salvo of plasma flew past. Ignoring the trickle of cool blood that seeped between her skin and undersuit where a round had grazed her just above the left hip, she stood with her back pressed to the cold concrete dividing wall that stood between her and the hostile machines. The last bomb lay somewhere beyond the skirmish line of synthetics, but time was growing slim.
The rest of the group was behind her, tucked away in two other alcoves similar to hers. Suddenly, the sound of heavy footfalls advanced toward her and she turned to find a pair of geth troopers rushing down the path, scarcely five feet away as fire from their allies suppressed Williams and the others.
Shepard stepped from behind cover and met their advance, placing their bodies between her and the incoming fire. Jamming the muzzle of her rifle into the center of the lead synthetic's chest she compressed the trigger, yielding an anguished grinding sound from the machine as the rounds punched out through the other side of its torso in a shower of milky white mechanical fluid.
As the machine sputtered and collapsed in a heap of scrap, its companion discarded its rifle and fell upon Jane, one hand seizing tightly around her left shoulder. Before the other metal appendage could close around her neck, the Alliance marine threw her weight into the trooper and bashed its singular glowing optic with the stock of her weapon, driving it back a step and rending the butt of her rifle to the sound of splintering polymer. Taking the broken weapon in both hands, Shepard thrust it across the stumbling synthetic's chest and drove forward, steering it sideways toward the edge of the walkway. Giving one last heave, she drove the geth infantry unit over the metal railing and into the depths of the drydock on the other side.
Stumbling back into the alcove as her shields gave way, Shepard tossed aside her broken rifle and drew her shotgun and clutched it close to her chest as fire from the geth hissed passed her ear.
In a flash, Kaidan and Ashley appeared beside her, the gunnery chief following closely behind the lieutenant as the biotic's barrier deflected shots as the pair dashed from one alcove to the next. Behind them, Jenkins exchanged fire with the synthetics, darting out of cover to fire his assault rifle and then ducking back in as the machines shot back.
"Ready?" Alenko glanced to Williams who replied with a quick nod.
Making a half-spin, the sentinel stepped from cover and electricity leapt toward the geth from the omni-tool on his extended forearm, bringing about an abrupt halt in the shooting.
Ashley rounded the corner with her rifle raised and Shepard was quick to follow with her shotgun. The geth attempted a frenzied withdraw as their shields failed to activate and their weapons jammed, but the pair of Alliance marines made quick work of the handful that had blocked their way.
Stepping amongst the riddled corpses, Shepard gave an investigatory kick to one of the fallen troopers before waving the rest of the group forward.
Following the corridor to where it took a sharp left, Shepard found herself in the wide expanse of a hangar area, beyond which sat several massive steel cradles to accommodate landing starships. What caught the commander's attention, however, was the tall, streamlined pillar that sat coiled in emerald light.
"That's strange," Williams murmured from behind her, "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up."
One by one the group filed in and there was a long moment of silence as the deep thrumming of the device filled the air. The beacon stood a half a dozen meters tall, its sloped rectangular base rising into a tall silver column split by a swath of green light.
Alenko tapped Shepard on the shoulder. "Commander, we've got comms with the Normandy."
"Do you think this is why the geth attacked?" Jenkins questioned, shifting anxiously from foot to foot as he spoke.
"It seems the likely answer," Jane said at last, her gaze still fixed on the device. She turned to Kaidan, "Get the Normandy down here. We need to get this thing aboard."
The thing looked heavy, but she imagined the five of them might be able to set it on its side and manhandle it back to the ship if it touched down nearby. Still, she didn't relish the task. "Alright," the lieutenant commander clapped, not sounding entirely thrilled. "Give me a hand."
Jane had taken hardly a dozen feet forward when she perceived the feeling of electricity in the air and the overwhelming smell of ozone suddenly filled her nose. She didn't even have time to call for the others to get back before sensation like molten steel seemed to rush into her skull and she was hoisted into the air by an invisible hand.
Nickeli had actually been caught unaware by the pulse of energy that put him on his back and it took him a few seconds longer than the others to pull himself to his feet. Despite the ringing in his ears, he could distinguish the commotion of the rest of the party scrambling back to their feet as well.
Surveying the scene, he found Jenkins staring dumbly in the direction of the beacon as Alenko stood with Ashley held firmly by both shoulders as the two shouted. Digging at the tinnitus with a pinky finger, his hearing finally cleared enough for him to realize they weren't simply shouting, but arguing.
Nick took a step toward the pair, but any interjection died on his lips as his gaze followed Ashley's frenzied gesturing toward the beacon.
There, held three meters above the ground, was Shepard—her arms locked at her side as she convulsed like a marionette doll.
Before he could even comprehend what he was seeing, there was suddenly the noise of rending metal and the pillar shattered in a burst of twisted steel and arching electricity, sending out another shock wave that tossed the commander from her invisible perch, and she slammed limply into the deck a short ways back.
Kaidan rushed to the fallen officer's side, bringing up his omni-tool as Nick found a spot beside Williams opposite him.
"No sign of a neck injury," the lieutenant declared, prompting Nickeli to scoot back a bit as the gunnery chief quickly set about undoing the latches of Shepard's helmet. After a moment, it pulled free and was set aside, revealing a pale face framed by fiery red hair.
"Head trauma?" Nick inquired, playing out the possible diagnoses in his mind. Without any external wounds and with none of his equipment, the corpsman couldn't be certain how bad her condition was, but realized well enough that she was in dire need of a proper medical facility.
The biotic shook his head. "Getting odd readings on brain activity—her hardsuit's medical suite might be fried. Heart rate and blood pressure are pushing into the red."
"Breathing is rapid and shallow." He observed, hearing the unconscious woman's gasping breaths. "Do we want to secure an airway?"
Any answer Alenko made was cut off by a thunderous howl from above, and Nick's gaze shot upward in alarm. A sleek-looking craft hovered only a little overhead, the downward thrust from the ports on its belly buffeting the docks below. Maneuvering with surprising grace, the ship turned, a wide ramp hinging open like an enormous jaw as it descended.
"Come on! Our ride's here!" Kaidan called, having hoisted Shepard across his shoulders while Nick stood dumbfounded. Scrambling after the rest of the group as a trio of armored figures rushed down the ramp with their weapons raised, he was close behind Jenkins as he clambered inside.
With everyone aboard and their mission's objective a pile of twisted scrap, the armored figures withdrew up the ramp as the engines thrummed and the Normandy began to lift away from the spaceport. Its hangar door locking shut, the Alliance vessel pivoted and climbed, and in a few moments it vanished into Eden Prime's blood-colored sky.