Ok, I'm back. I know it's been a long time, but sometimes life kicks you in the teeth, really, really hard. But, hopefully things will be settled for a while and I can maintain something of a regular upload schedule.

Chapter 2 - Contact

Date : 1.21.2183

Location : SSV Normandy - En route to Eden Prime

Jane

The excitement was palpable as she stepped out of the elevator and into the Normandy's hangar. Kaidan had gathered all the marines and was supervising as they fit their weapons with mods better suited to fighting geth. Their sergeant was bellowing instructions as they did so, chastising a pair of unlucky privates along the way for trying to install phasic units into their rifles backwards. While the two of them looked suitably embarrassed by the mistake, the unit as a whole got a good laugh, including the pair after the sergeant looked away.

Jane left them to it as she gathered up her own gear. Her armor cradle wasn't onboard, so she would have to keep the lighter plating she'd worn for the trip. As she was sliding a few special knives into her gauntlets, Kaidan walked over with a smile. "Kinda like old times, isn't it Jane?"

She gave him a sad smile. "Kinda… a lot of new faces though." The two of them turned to look over the marines. Most were younger than them. "What I'd give to be going down with everybody just one more time…"

Kaidan put a hand on her shoulder. "I know, but they're scattered across the galaxy. No time to go for a pick up. At least we're together again."

Jane nodded. "Yep, glad there's at least one person onboard that won't need me to hold their hand."

Before Kaidan could answer, the marine sergeant stepped over. "Make that two, ma'am." Sergeant Horst pulled a thick cigar from his pocket and lit it. After the Blitz, he'd requested a transfer from Elysium to a combat unit. He served under Major Kyle from then until the final assault on Torfan, earning a reputation for getting the job done that got him a place on Anderson's list for the Normandy's marine detachment in the process. After taking a deep drag he said, "And don't you worry about my squad either. They're all N1 at bare minimum, and there aren't any slouches in the N program."

He checked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was listening. "Still, I'd appreciate it if you brought Jenkins back in one piece. The captain wants him tested, but that doesn't mean any of us want him going home in a box."

"Aww, you do care." Horst's left eye twitched as Jane smiled at him. Eventually he murmured something under his breath and briefly smirked back at her. "Tell me sergeant, do you have any experience with the geth?"

"Only simulations." He reluctantly admitted. "I was gonna ask if you or the lieutenant had any advice for us. Going up against an unknown with no intel is a disaster waiting to happen."

"There's a few things that can help." Jane loaded a few extra grenades into her belt before saying, "Call everyone to attention and we'll share what we can."

Horst turned to his squad and shouted, "Attention!" The rest of the marines dropped what they were doing and stood at attention. "That's better. Now, Commander Shepard and Lieutenant Alenko have some information to share about what we're going into. Keep quiet and pay attention! This could save your sorry lives."

Jane stepped forward and looked over the squad. "As you all know, we're en route to Eden Prime. Less than an hour ago, we received a distress call. Eden Prime is under attack by the geth." A few of the marines looked confused, but they rallied quickly as they thought about a human world under siege. She could smell the building fury in the air, something she was intimately familiar with. "This isn't the first time they've emerged from the veil, but it is the first time they've launched an assault on humans. When we arrive, my team and I will drop into contested territory and move in to secure a priority objective. The rest of you will land shortly afterwards. Your job is to follow in our wake and make sure the geth can't circle around to regroup behind us.

"There are a few things to keep in mind while fighting the geth. First of all, don't go for headshots. Their flashlight heads make a nice target, but it's just one of several sensor units. There's nothing critical to them up there, and if there's more than one geth platform in the area they can share sensor data, so popping one's head won't have any effect. When you want to kill one, aim for center mass. Their memory core's position is roughly analogous to where a human's heart would be. They also have a power unit right below that.

"The smaller units rely on shields rather than heavy armor, so phasic rounds will shred them. For any unit larger than a human, it's a different story. You'll need to focus fire to break their shields before using armor piercing rounds to drop them.

She gestured for Kaidan to continue as the elevator opened, letting Spits and Jenkins into the hanger. While he detailed the best way to damage the local geth network, Jane smiled at her buddy and walked in his direction. Spits bounced up and down excitedly before trotting over, dribbling spittle all the way. Jane gave him a good scratch under the chin, getting a guttural warble from him. "How you doing buddy? You feeling better?"

He looked up at her blankly for a few seconds before jamming his tongue deep into his nose. Jane patted him on the head and looked up at Jenkins. He was watching Spits with more than a little fear. "First time varrensitting?"

He looked up and slowly nodded. "Yes ma'am… I read about them before but," He scratched his head and gestured lamely at Spits, "I never knew they got so big."

Jane chuckled. Spits' breed grew almost constantly until they died, and even if he was out of his armor, he would be almost as big as a small grizzly bear. Most would be killed long before they could get so large, either from disease, injuries from hunting, or from challengers if they were in a pack. "Yeah, he's a bit of a chunk, isn't he?" Spits chuffed happily at the attention, drawing looks from a few marines. They gawked in astonishment at him until Horst berated them for getting distracted. Having seen Spits back when Jane was in basic, her varren wasn't a surprise for him.

Kaidan wrapped up the geth lecture right as Anderson and Nihlus arrived. The captain gave a brief recap of the mission, with Nihlus offering a few vague answers when one of the marines asked what the pick up was. Afterwards they finished preparing for the job under Kaidan's watchful eye. The entire detachment was ready by the time Joker announced, "Approaching drop point one." Everyone took their place near the hanger doors.

Before they opened, Nihlus stepped up, checking his primary weapon as he waited. Jenkins called over, "Nihlus, you coming with us?"

The Spectre shook his head without turning. "I move faster on my own." The doors opened and he made the short jump to the ground below, quickly taking off in the direction of the digsite where the beacon was supposed to be waiting for them.

"Ass." Jane grumbled, adding to the general air of disapproval from the marines over letting the Spectre land first.

"Maybe, but he's under no obligation to stick around." Anderson stepped up alongside her as Joker announced their approach to the second drop point. "I know you two have a history, but don't let it get in the way. This mission is too important for that."

She gave him an annoyed look. "You understand that I'm going to access the beacon before we extract it… right?"

"And You know that there are procedures for this kind of thing, right? General orders, statutes to observe and whatnot?" He sighed, like a long suffering mother talking to a stubborn child. "I don't suppose there'd be a point in asking you to wait?"

"It might make you feel better." She said with a deadpan tone. After a few seconds Anderson cracked a tight smile.

"Any theory on what data it has stored inside?" he asked.

"Don't know. Schematics for weapons? Ships? Sex toys?" There was a snort of laughter from behind them, quickly followed by the sound of Horst slapping someone on the back of the head. "Truth be told, knowing my luck, it'll just be some repository for crop reports or some crap like that."

"Anything from uhh," Anderson hesitated, uncomfortable asking what he was about to say. He leaned in closer and quietly asked, "You know… the voices?"

Jane closed her eyes for a moment and let the murmuring buried in her head rise up to a higher level in her mind. It was little more than a pulsating morass of babbling nonsense, even from the few voices that tended to be more clear than others. The best she got was a faint hint from her immediate predecessor that a beacon might have a hint of information involving the dark hand she saw in the transmission.

"Not much," she murmured bitterly, "So it'll be a surprise… yay." She traded a knowing look with Kaidan. Surprises involving her usually ended with someone dead or dismembered.

Any further conversation was cut off when Joker called over the line, "Approaching drop point two."

The bay doors opened and Jane drew her weapons. She did a couple practice swings with Abyss to help loosen up, the meter long blade making a faint whistling noise as it cut through the air. The Normandy eased to a stop long enough for her to jump out with Kaidan and Jenkins before leaving for the third drop point. The rest of the marines would land further out to pick off any geth units ranging beyond the mission area before sweeping in to cover Jane's team and gather up any survivors.

The three of them took stock of their surroundings. The sky was red, with thick black smoke rising in the distance. Nearby, they saw the blasted remains of a small hut, its walls riddled with scorch marks and bullet holes, just like the bodies lying nearby. Jenkins froze for a moment at the sight, before cursing under his breath and taking position on Jane's left.

"This place got hit hard, commander. Lot of bodies." Nihlus said over the comm. "We've got hostiles everywhere. No heavy armor as far as I can tell, but plenty of infantry."

"Copy that. Watch out for armature units. They have heavy weapons and can fold up to look as small as a standard cargo unit." Jane saw plenty of armature units among allied forces during the war against the Wake and kept an eye out for the telltale curves amongst the wreckage they passed.

Eden prime was an Idyllic garden world, with a climate even more mild and supposedly even more hospitable for humans than Earth's. If not for the destroyed homes and fires, it would probably be a nice place for a vacation. Jane led her team through the hills, listening for the telltale sounds of geth. "I can hear repulsor units in the distance," Jane said to her team, "Watch for hover drones, they usually attack in small swarms."

"Got it." Jenkins said with a hint of discomfort. They passed the burned out ruin of a house and spotted a trio of bodies nearby. All three had been shot in the back. "Oh God…" Jenkins paused over the smallest of the three. "What happened here?"

Jane gestured for Kaidan to watch for hostiles before stepping up to Jenkins. "There's nothing we can do for them. Keep it together."

Jenkins took a shaky breath and nodded. "Yeah… I'm good commander."

They turned away from the ruin and moved on. It wasn't long before the sound of repulsors came drifting towards them with a purpose. "Incoming!" Jane called, gathering a surge of biotic energy as she did. Three geth drones sailed out from behind a nearby rock formation, spraying plasma before they'd even taken aim. Jenkins was caught out in the open and took the brunt of the drones' fire. His shields quickly failed and a few of the incoming shots slammed into his armor before a shimmering amber field of energy surrounded him. Jane's biotic barrier absorbed the barrage with ease, despite the needling pain behind her eyes that came with every impact.

Kaidan sighted his pistol on one of the drones and blew it out of the sky with a shot to its hover unit. Jenkins recovered from his surprise and hosed down a second. The third tried to flee, only for Jane to grab it with a biotic field and crush it in a brief gravity pulse.

With the threats gone, Jenkins went down to one knee, gasping for breath. Kaidan was at his side in a heartbeat, scanning with his omnitool while Jane watched for more trouble. "What's the word?"

"His armor is compromised," Kaidan murmured, "and it looks like you've got some small burns, corporal."

"Small!" Jenkins' eyes were wide from the shock of near death. "It feels like my whole chest is on fire!"

Kaidan rechecked his tool and nodded. "Yep, there it is. A cracked rib too and your medigel injectors have stalled. Here," the older marine drew an injector from his belt and slotted into a med port in Jenkins torso, "this should help, but you'll need to see the doctor once we're done here."

Jenkins breathing got easier as the medigel was injected. He held a hand to one of the scorched impact sights on his torso. "Thanks LT." He sighed heavily, turning to Jane, "You too commander. If it wasn't for you, I'd be a goner."

"No problem. How are you doing? It's time to get moving and I need to know if you can keep up." Jane wasn't sure if he could. For her, cracked ribs weren't a big deal. Then again, she'd been impaled, shot, burned, and caught in the epicenter of an explosion before. Given what she was, cracked ribs were getting off easy for her.

"Yeah. Of course, commander!" Jenkins said with a bit too much bravado. He took a deep breath and tried to carry on down the path, only to stop only a few steps away to gasp for breath. "Okay, maybe not. It's really hard to breathe right now."

Kaidan shook his head. "Moving around too much will just make the damage worse. He needs a pickup."

"I'm not going back already!" Jenkins said. "This is my home LT! I can't just stop cause I'm hurt a little."

"You also can't keep up and we need to move fast." Jane said as gently as she could.

Jenkins looked at her defiantly. "I can deal with it, commander! Just give me a chance!"

He matched Jane's look, not backing down despite the obvious pain he was in. "Alright, you're staying." His brief elation was quickly doused when Jane said, "but not with us."

Jenkins eyebrows shot up. "But commander-"

Jane glared at him, forcing him to silence. "We need to stop the geth from taking or destroying the beacon and that means we can't afford to take it easy so you can keep up." The young marine visibly deflated. Jane brought up a map of the area and showed it to him. "You're from Eden Prime, right?"

Surprised by the question, Jenkins blinked a few times and said, "Uh, yeah."

"Do you know this area well?" She asked.

Jenkins nodded, "Yes ma'am. I grew up not too far from here. My friends and I used to play around in these hills."

Jane gestured to the spot on the map marking the digsite. "Is there somewhere you can go to get a good view of the site? Provide overwatch? More advanced warning for the next attacks would be great."

Jenkins thought to himself for a bit before smiling and nodding. "Yeah! There's a place with a perfect view. You can even see part of the spaceport from there, at least if you've got binoculars."

"Or a good scope." Kaidan added. "Can you get there on your own?"

Jenkins took a deep breath. "You bet, LT. I won't even have to put too much stress on my rib to make it."

"Good. Get moving as quick as you can," Jane said, "Let us know when you're in position." The young marine saluted before taking off. He was moving slower than before but he soldiered through the pain and quickly disappeared into the hills. His IFF tag was still transmitting to Jane's HUD as moved out.

"Good luck, kid." Kaidan murmured.

Jane nodded. "Come on, let's move." She set a quick pace, moving through the hills at a quick trot, with Kaidan and Spits right on her heels. Multiple groups of geth drones attacked, but were knocked from the sky before they could cause any trouble. After the fourth ambush by the little blighters, Jane paused behind a tree to listen. "There's at least one mobile platform nearby. I can hear its vocalization."

Kaidan asked, "Words or that robot chirping they do?"

"The chirping. Probably multiple units." She looked his way. "Ready?"

He nodded. "Good to go."

They both moved out of the trees and rounded a large mound of dirt, coming into a small clearing packed with at least a dozen geth infantry platforms. They were all focused on a small rise, firing their weapons in a concentrated barrage at a pile of metal scrap on top. Occasionally, someone would return fire from the rise, clipping a platform here or there, but never more than that. Before the geth could realize they were there, Jane and Kaidan attacked.

They both raised their biotic barriers and while Jane readied to charge in with a surge of energy, Kaidan held back and launched tech mines from his omnitool. An EM pulse went off in the machines' midst right as Jane emerged from the charge, slamming into a geth unit with the force of a howitzer fired at point blank range. The geth was obliterated in a shower of scrap and oil, splattering its comrades. She was already in motion by the time the others registered its destruction, swinging Abyss in a horizontal slash that bisected two more platforms. Half the remaining units turned to engage, but with their local network disrupted so suddenly, there was a moment's hesitation in their movements.

Kaidan took the opportunity to blow a fist size hole in one's chest with his hand cannon while launching another into a boulder with his biotics. Before the unit could get back up, he'd plugged its torso with two shots.

Jane hosed down another geth with her SMG and turned to find Spits bulling over one that had tried to shoot her in the back. His massive jaws crushed the geth's torso like it was made of tin and it fell to pieces as he swung it around like a ragdoll. He hurled the shattered remains of the carcass into another unit and followed the wreckage, slashing at his new victim with artificial talons sharp enough to pierce its chassis.

The soldier taking cover on the rise emerged from their position, rifle blazing. They cut down two geth units in as many seconds and were about to move to a third when a shape ripple into being behind them, where Jane couldn't reach it in time. Jane shouted, "Behind you!" The soldier swung about right as the geth leveled its weapon. Rather than try to get away or back into cover, the soldier pushed in, shoving the barrel of the geth weapon away just in time to avoid being disemboweled by a blast of plasma.

With the human too close to shoot, the geth lunged forward and knocked them to the ground before attempting to crush their throat. The downed soldier pulled out a knife and started stabbing, trying to find something to jam the knife into that wasn't covered with curved plating.

Jane was moving in to help, but another geth unit decloaked infront of her, weapon raised. It fired, striking her in the chest. The plasma burst across her barrier, sending her armor's temperature skyrocketing, but not much else. Ignoring the migraine caused by the impact, Jane rammed Abyss into its torso, slicing through its memory unit before ripping out the blade and slashing behind her to chop another of the original units in two.

The last three units went down as Kaidan and Spits went to work, the former overheating their weapons with another tech mine while the latter tore them to shreds with brute force. With the last of the targets down, Jane turned to help the downed soldier, only to see them shove the geth off. One of its plates had been dented just enough for the knife to get in and pierce something important. It was still sparking as the soldier got up, recovered their weapon, and put at least a dozen rounds into the body.

With the geth destroyed, the soldier walked up to Jane and nodded. "Thanks for the help ma'am. I thought I was done for." The soldier stood up straight and said, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th."

"Anybody else Williams?" Jane asked.

Ashley's eyes dipped down for a second and she sighed. "I think I'm all that's left."

Jane grimaced. "Damn. I'm Commander Shepard and this is Lieutenant Alenko." She gestured to Kaidan and then to her varren. "And that's Sergeant Spits." Spits happily trotted over to the exhausted Williams and rubbed his armored flank against her leg.

Ashley briefly balked at the massive beast's attention before regaining her composure. "Right. Thanks for the assist ma'am. Wasn't expecting reinforcements so soon though."

"We were already on the way." Jane gestured for Williams to fall in as she continued towards the objective. "The distress call reached us right as we were entering the system."

"Oh…" Ashley groaned. "You're the pick up team, aren't you? For the beacon?"

Jane nodded. "Yes. Full reinforcements are still a ways out. Our job is to secure the beacon and get it out before the geth can take it. Do you know the way?"

"Yeah, the digsite is just ahead. C'mon."

Jenkins

His chest was burning and he was short of breath, but he was almost to the spot he'd told the commander about. As disappointed as he was to have been ordered away, Jenkins understood why it had to be done. It had taken him almost twice as long to get up to the right hill as it should have. He would have slowed down the entire mission if Shepard hadn't sent him here.

He had to climb up a short cliff for the last leg. Once he was finally up, Jenkins pushed through the small bit of foliage growing atop the hill and took in the vista with a smile, only for it to vanish when he saw just how bad the situation was. The hills were burning for miles all around and there was smoke coming from the nearest town. Pushing down the sick feeling in his gut, Jenkins made his way over to the best spot to look across the land, pulling out his Mantis rifle and double checking the scope.

"Commander, Jenkins here." he settled onto a rock formation where he could rest his rifle and still see the digsite. He could make out the commander's team through his scope, walking up a hill just a few dozen yards away from the prefabs that circled the place. "I'm in position and I can see you."

"Copy that. We've got a survivor from the local garrison leading the way." The commander said, explaining the strange third person with his teammates. "Scope out the path ahead of us and report."

"Yes, ma'am." Jenkins tilted his rifle enough to look over the path. At the peak of the hill, he saw something strange. "Commander? Got something on top of the hill."

"What is it?"

"There's a bunch of big metal poles with tripods. They've got spikes sticking about three meters out of the center and there's something on top of-'' he came to a full stop when he realized what was impaled on the spikes. His stomach clenched and he almost threw up. Tasting bile, Jenkins said, "Oh god…"

"What?" The commander said, an urgent tone in her voice. "Jenkins, what do you see?"

He forced himself to count the number of spikes and said, "There's people on top of some of the spikes. They've all been stabbed through the chest with them. It… it looks like a few of them are rotting up there." He was about to carry you when something rustled in the bushes behind him. "Hold on, commander. I think something's up here with me."

Jenkins trained his rifle on the bushes, finger on the trigger. The rustling got more and more violent, shaking the foliage so hard that leaves were falling off. He tightened his grip on the rifle, trying to ignore the hammering in his chest and the beads of sweat trailing down his neck. Suddenly, a flock of birds shot out from the bushes and took off into the air with a cacophony of frightened squawks.

Jenkins let out an explosive sigh. "Damn birds…" he murmured, lowering his rifle. Then, a blur of black and blue burst from the bush and tackled Jenkins. He and his attacker went to the ground, with the corporal shoving his rifle against the things torso to try and keep it at bay. All he could see was rotten black flesh and gnashing teeth as whatever it was tried to take a bite out of him, hissing and shrieking at him the whole time. It was strong, almost strong enough to tear the rifle out of his hands. He fought to keep hold, bracing one foot against the flailing monstrosity and shoving as hard as he could. His attacker was sent reeling long enough for him to get a good look at it.

"Holy mother…" he murmured. Whatever the thing was, it used to be human, but the thing was nothing more than a glowing revenant now, its flesh dry and flaking off, yet somehow still moist enough to smell like it was rotting. It glared at him through empty eye sockets that shined an ethereal blue before letting out a guttural howl and hurling itself at him again.

Jenkins braced himself, then sidestepped its charge and gave it a heel kick to the gut as it tried to round on him. The creature was thrown off the edge of the small cliff and Jenkins moved up to finish it with his rifle. Instead, he stopped short on seeing it at the base of the cliff, its brains splattered across the jagged rocks it landed on. Panting like a runner after a marathon, one hand braced over his brutalized rib, Jenkins suddenly heard the commander trying to reach him. "Jenkins?! Jenkins come in!"

He let out a shuddering breath and said, "I'm here commander. I just got attacked by…" He looked back down at the thing and shuddered. "I don't even know how to describe it. It's like a… um… a robot… zombie… thing, I guess."

There was a pregnant pause over the line before the commander spoke, her voice low, "Come again?"

"I know it sounds crazy but-" The commander cut him off.

"Is it glowing blue?" He was shocked as she continued. "All dead skin? Smells like a week old corpse?"

"I… yeah. How'd you know?" He asked, befuddled.

"Listen to me very carefully, corporal." The commander's voice was deadly serious and Jenkins listened like his life depended on it. "Put two rounds into its head, now."

"Uh, it's already down and-"

The commander cut him off, "I don't care. Vaporize its head, now. They can get back up sometimes."

Shocked at the idea, Jenkins nonetheless did as he was told and took aim at the corpse. Right before he pulled the trigger, the thing twitched and started to rise from the ground. Terrified, Jenkins blew what was left of its head off with his first short, then fired three more times to be safe. "It's done, commander. You were right. I don't… how the hell did it start moving again?! Its head was already smashed on the rocks!"

Jane

Spits whined as he dragged his tongue through the dirt, trying hard to get the taste of the creatures out of his mouth. They'd crested the hill and seen the spikes Jenkins mentioned, just in time for half a dozen of them to retract and let loose the monstrosities on top.

Jane was taking her own advice and putting two rounds in each of the fallen creatures' heads as Ashley and Kaidan approached. Ashley looked shaken to her core, while Kaidan just grimaced at a sight he and Jane had long hoped to never see again.

"What did the geth do to them?" Ashley asked as she looked down at the rotting creature.

"Drained them of everything that made them a person," Jane growled, "rammed them full of cheap cybernetics, fried their brains, and turned them into cannon fodder." She ignited her biotics and vaporized the corpse they were looking at. "We saw something very similar a long time ago, but this seems… different, like a cheaper model."

She examined the rest of the creatures, finding them to be shockingly similar to the Wake's creatures and their 'priests', but there was something off about them. While the things had the same rotting flesh and hue, their movements were less fluid, less alive if she had to put a word to it.

"These seem a bit less dangerous than the Wake's monsters." Kaidan murmured offhandedly. "Those were actual soldiers, more or less. These things seem like mindless fodder."

Jane nodded. "Yeah, but a swarm of them would be a nightmare to deal with."

Ashley looked back and forth between them, her eyes wide and unbelieving. "There are more things like this out there?"

Jane sighed. "Yes, but not exactly like this. Something to deal with later though." She stepped away from the spikes and got back on the path. "Come on, let's get to the beacon."

After a moment to shake off the horror of what they'd seen, Ashley fell in, eventually winding up at the front to lead the way. Right before reaching the digsite, Jenkins called in. "Commander, got a lot of movement at the site. At least a dozen geth and some more of those robot zombies."

"Copy that. Can you drop a few?"

There was a brief pause before he said, "I think so. My rifle's not rated for this range, but I might be able to-" There was a tiny flash through the air to the north of them as Jenkin's first shot screamed into the site, quickly followed by the report of the rifle. "Got one! I'll keep pegging them as you approach."

Jenkins was able to fire two more times before the team arrived at the main site. The geth were all focused in the direction of the sniper fire and were out of position for a flanking attack. Jane launched herself in first to draw their attention, with Spits barreling in after her under covering fire from Ashley. Kaidan kept frying their weapons with tech mines and occasionally slamming a unit into scrap with a biotic push.

Jane was a whirlwind of destruction, slashing into geth with her blade in a blur and firing her SMG with precision bursts. The geth quickly identified her as the greatest threat and tried to focus fire, giving the rest of the team all the breathing room they needed to push in and wreak havoc. Plasma bursts repeatedly slammed into her fading barrier, driving the spike of pain deeper into her temple with every impact. Her sight slowly turned red, driving her into a state of savagery she'd not experience in months. Jane hacked and slashed, snarling like an animal.

When the last unit fell to the ground in three pieces, Jane had to take a deep breath and remind herself that there were friendlies nearby to reign herself in. The red tint in her vision slowly faded away and she found herself at the center of mechanical massacre. Shattered geth platforms were scattered around her in a circle, with Spits trotting between bits here and there to try and find something shiny to play with. As he searched, Jane spotted one geth unit still active, trying to drag its shattered torso away from the site with its remaining hand. She stomped over and grabbed hold of its comm antenna.

Lifting it up to eye level, Jane glared into the glowing optic unit and snarled, "Why did you leave the Veil? Why did you break the treaty?!"

Limited as it was by the lack of runtimes nearby, the unit responded with a blurt of mechanical chittering before its torso suddenly began to glow. With a frustrated growl, Jane tossed the unit to the ground as it fried its memory core. "Damn it."

Ashely looked at her strangely. "Umm, commander?"

Jane met her eye and said, "What?"

The marine cocked a brow. "What treaty? I've never heard of any treaty with the geth."

Jane shook her head, more than a little annoyed that word hadn't been passed to the bulk of the Alliance, or the rest of the galaxy for that matter. "There's a lot you haven't heard of, chief. I'll let you in on some of it if things work out. Now, where's the beacon?" There was nothing in the area save for ruined prefab units, some bodies, and the remains of the geth.

Ashley looked at the center of the carnage and shrugged. "It was right here earlier. The eggheads must have moved it when the sirens started going off."

The comm crackled as Nihlus made contact, "Shepard, what's your status?"

"We're at the digsite, but the beacon's gone."

Nihlus rumbled over the line and said, "I figured. There's a huge contingent of geth moving through the spaceport. They're bottlenecked at the tram station and they've got an impressive formation surrounding something at their center. It's gotta be the beacon."

"Keep your distance for now." Jane gestured for the others to fall in and they started up the hill towards the spaceport. "We'll regroup and make a move on it together."

Nihilus

"Copy that. Let me know when you're close. We may not have time for anything more complicated than an all out attack. I assume that's fine with you?" There was a chuckle over the line as Nihlus repositioned for a better view of the loading docks. Dozens of geth units were marching in perfect lockstep, with several larger entities working together to carry something that the Spectre couldn't see. Given just how many geth were pressed in around it, he had to assume that it was the beacon.

"I like a straightforward plan, Spectre." There was a smattering of gunfire over the line, followed by an explosion. "I'm calling in the rest of the marines. When we arrive, I'll make a scene to get the geth's attention. The marines are fire support. Where will you be?"

Nihlus surveyed the area, looking for a good way in past the geth. "Not too many options. I'll have to wait until you arrive. Once they shift to face you, I'll find an opening and then-" He couldn't finish as a mechanical roar sounded from on high. Many of the geth turned to look skyward as Nihlus did the same and his mind briefly went blank. The dark clouds overhead parted and the dark shape he'd seen in the distress call once more fell from the sky, red lighting arcing from its curved hull. It slowly descended, like a sea creature deciding where to touch down on the ocean floor. It would sink, then rise, only to dip down again. That something larger than a dreadnought could drift through the air with such grace, it left Nihlus in shock, his mind reeling at the utter sense of wrongness that flowed off of the behemoth.

He was still gawking at it when his comm came alive. "Nihlus, down!"

Jane

When the ship fell from the sky in front of them, it took all Jane's willpower to hold her ground and avoid charging ahead of the team. No matter how impossible it would be, all she wanted was to reach the dark hand, to rend and tear it to pieces with her bare hands and defile the remains. The voices screamed and begged and roared for her to ignore sense, to abandon all logic and give in to the crimson rage that set her chest on fire.

She was starting to snarl like a feral beast when Kaidan put his hand on her shoulder. "Jane… come down from it."

She snapped her head to look at him with a growl, but was finally able to ease back at the knowing look in his eye. He took a few deep breaths, giving her a steady rhythm to follow. Once she was somewhat calm, Jane called over the comm. "Jenkins, can you see the spaceport?" There was a long pause over the line, so she tried again. "Jenkins? Snap out of it and talk to me!"

After another pause, Jenkins answered, "Yeah… Yeah I can see it commander. That thing… how the hell can something that big just… just hover there?" She could hear him shaking through the line. "I didn't even think ships could be that big."

Jane cleared her throat. "I know it sounds insane, but I need you to ignore the giant thing and focus on the port. Can you see it? Nihlus is there somewhere and we need to make sure he's not in the way when we start shooting, especially for when the other marines arrive."

She heard Jenkins take a shuddering breath before slowly letting it out through his teeth. "I… yeah, copy that commander. Give me a second, I'll find him." As she and the others moved on the spaceport, Horst and his team's IFF's showed up on her HUD, rapidly approaching from the west. They stopped just behind a hill with a good vantage over the port. As they reported good to go, Jenkins called again. "Got him, ma'am. He's hunkered down about fifty yards away from you, just opposite the marines."

Jane was about to call the Spectre when Jenkins asked, "Uh, commander? Is there another Spectre here?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, already dreading what it might mean if another of the Council dogs was around.

Jenkins continued, "Well, I can see Nihlus, but there's another turian a little ways behind him. Looks like another Spec Ops guy. Nice armor, damn good weapons too, I think."

Jane rounded on Ashley and asked, "Have you ever seen a turian on this planet?"

The marine shook her head. "No ma'am. A few asari and a salarian once, but no turians. Why?"

"Jenkins, patch me into your scope feed. Let me see him." It took a couple seconds before a tiny feed popped up in her HUD, showing her what Jenkins was talking about. The second turian was approaching Nihlus from behind. Something about him was familiar. She had a nagging sensation at the back of her mind, as if she should know who the grey armored figure was. It had almost come to her when the grey turian drew a pistol and leveled it at the back of the Spectre's head.

Jane instantly called out, "Nihlus, down!" Thankfully, the Spectre didn't hesitate and dropped to the ground in time to avoid the shot, though the other turian still had him dead in his sights. "Jenkins, supporting fire! Drive the other bastard away in any way possible!"

Shots started screaming overhead and Jane sprinted the rest of the way over the hill with Spits on her heels, while Kaidan and Ashley struggled to catch up. As she came over the last rise, she spotted Nihlus in time to see his shields fail before he took three rounds to the chest. The Spectre went down, but his attacker was forced away as Jenkins fired shot after shot at him. The young marine was too far away for pinpoint accuracy, but volume of fire counted for something. The unidentified turian spotted their advance and sprinted into the spaceport, quickly disappearing into the horde of geth.

Jane made a beeline for the Spectre, right as the geth began to move en masse towards him. Dozens of units were already shooting her way as Jane skidded to a halt over Nihlus, throwing up a barrier to cover the fallen Spectre. She shouted, "Spits, Mico Nihlus ars zan!" As she held against the storm of incoming plasma, Spits bit down onto Nihlus' torso enough to grab hold and drag him behind the nearest rock. Jane backed away from the advancing geth to stay with them. She grit her teeth, trying not to focus on the feeling of pressure rapidly building behind her eyes.

"Commander!" Horst called over the comm. "What the hell's going on out there?"

Kaidan answered for her. "We've engaged the geth sergeant." He and Ashley made it to the rock. Kaidan raised his own barrier to take some of the pressure off Jane while Williams started chucking grenades. Knowing Jane needed an opening to attack without leaving Nihlus to die, Kaidan said, "Get somewhere high and rain fire on them, we've got their attention."

"Copy." Seconds later, they could hear Horst and his men firing. With some of the pressure off, Kaidan turned to Jane and said, "We've got Nihlus, commander."

With a nod, Jane collapsed her barrier, pulling the energy in and using it to launch a concussive wave at the nearest block of geth. Briefly clear, she leapt over the rock and charged towards the enemy with waves of dark energy rippling ahead of her in a destructive tidal wave. The first few units were ripped apart while the ones behind suffered extreme damage from unstable gravity fields. As they tried to pull back, Jane hit them.

Giving into the rising fury she'd been holding back since landing, Jane let herself fall into a berzerk rampage, tearing into the geth with wild abandon. In the back of her mind, she could hear Kaidan and the others providing fire support. Occasionally, she even recognized Spits running wild with her, but it was all seen through a blood red haze. The beast in her mind had been roused from its years-long slumber. Not since Torfan had there been a need for it to fully awaken. Its rise was sluggish, but as it began to roar and gnash its teeth inside that darkest parts of her psyche, so to did Jane in the real world.

The horde of geth pressed in, shooting and blasting with plasma or coilguns. Her barriers held back the worst of it, fueled by rage and unleashed hatred, but some shots still connected. A concentrated blast spun her around, only for Jane to launch herself at the source and beat the geth unit to pieces before moving on to the next.

After a time, the horde began to thin, leaving her with less and less to satiate her rage on. At the last, a pair of towering geth units with dark grey plating stormed towards her, pouring plasma fire at her with repeater cannons large enough to be mounted on tanks. Her barrier finally broke under the barrage and Jane was struck with the full force of a charged shot from one of the geth, hurling her back from the unit that fired it. She hit a cargo crate hard enough to cave in the steel and knock some sense back into her. Jane shook her head, trying to clear the double vision that was making her dizzy. When her eyesight came back into focus, she was looking down the barrel of one of the geth's cannons, right as Spits leapt at the hulking machine.

Her buddy did not disappoint as he sank his massive fangs into its optical unit and ripped it away in a shower of sparks. The geth managed to grab the thrashing varren and hurl him away. Spits bounced across the metal floor of the port a few times before rolling to get his feet under him, armor dented, but otherwise fine. He charged at the geth again right as Jane got back to her feet and swung Abyss to slice its cannon in two. It reeled away with arms blacked by the weapon's exploding power core. Spits rammed straight into it, sending the hulking geth tumbling down with him savaging its torso with his claws.

The other geth's cannon was spinning up when a storm of gunfire cut the machine off at the waist. Kaidan and Ashley were marching towards it with Horst's squad right behind. They maintained the barrage on the massive geth until its optic went dark and it stopped moving.

Panting, Jane took a brief moment to flash her biotics and burn off the splashes of oil and synth fluid that she'd been doused in. "Check every geth. Don't leave a single one functioning." The marines quickly split into pairs to scour the area, plugging the few somewhat intact geth before continuing their search. Jane turned to Kaidan, "Nihlus?"

Kaidan siad, "Alive, but in a bad way. The marines' medic is keeping an eye on him and the Normandy's inbound for a pick up." Jane nodded and led her team towards the beacon. The geth had been in the middle of moving it onto the tram line, but were forced to stop when the attack began.

Jane stopped several meters away, listening to the voice of her predecessor as it warned her to keep her distance at first. She scanned it with her omnitool and found that the power unit had been tampered with. Given how much more advanced prothean tech tended to be, it wasn't a surprise that the sabotage was relatively simple. With a little help from the voice, she disarmed the trap and made ready to activate the beacon.

Williams tried to step closer to get a better look but Jane held out an arm to stop her. "Stay back and cover me. I won't be able to defend myself while using it."

"Using it?" Williams asked. "How do you use this thing? Are you even allowed to do that?"

"Technically no." Jane stepped closer, already feeling the first tendrils of the mass effect field emitted by the beacon enveloping her. "But I don't care." She was lifted into the air by the beacon and a flood of images began to pour into her mind. She saw worlds burn and machines slaughtering people. A roar came from the skies as darkness spread across the galaxy in a tidal wave of screaming doom. Her nightmares made manifest. Jane grit her teeth under the deluge of information and fought to maintain her sanity as her mind was slowly overwhelmed.

Geth

Primary objective- secure beacon for transport… failed.

Secondary objective- prevent Alliance forces from accessing beacon… failed.

Tertiary objective- Obstruct/limit Alliance usage of beacon… in progress

The geth platform was badly damaged. One arm was limp, its hydraulic lins severed by shrapnel. Its weapon was destroyed and its optics were damaged. The runtimes inside its core took stock of the situation and quickly came to the conclusion that escape was impossible and a pair of Alliance marines were closing in. It needed to act quickly to ensure that at least one of its objectives was completed.

The runtimes came to a consensus and waited until the marines were at point blank range. They were relaxed, believing that it was already destroyed because its optic wasn't shining. The humans were talking loudly with each other when the geth made their move. The platform kicked out, knocking the legs out from under both marines. It slammed a fist into one, breaking ribs before grabbing hold of the other by the throat and hurling it away screaming.

The unit scrambled to its feet and scanned the field. The other humans were already firing and it had no time to reach for a weapon. Instead, the geth tore a piece of its endoskeleton out of its ruined arm. It braced the other arm, drawing back its makeshift weapon before hurling it at the human accessing the beacon. The geth unit was destroyed in a hail of gunfire as the human was impaled by the flying piece of metal.

For anyone interested in my non-Mass Effect work, I have a story available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. Its called Bastion: The Priestess. It's the first part of a series and its only $0.99. Every little bit of support is deeply appreciated and helps give me the kick in the ass I sometimes need to get going.

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