Chapter 4

[Earlier]

Ashley Williams of the 212 had not faired well. Only deployed here to watch over whatever the colonists had found until another Alliance crew would pick it up after some scientists studied it was now the only survivor. The geth came out of nowhere, killing her whole unit one by one. The geth had superior firepower, and the advantage when they ambushed her and her team.

After her last team mate died she fled. What was she supposed to do against a bunch of armed tin heads? But they were relentless in their pursuit of her. She had managed to kill a few but the most she could do was run. But she could feel impacts on her shields now and she quickly turned, skidding to the ground as she let loose a few shots at a couple geth drones as they continued to fire at her.

They went down easily, but she could see more geth off in the distance... And it looked like they were placing a colonist on something. She started to stand, straining to see what was going on. Suddenly a long spike shot out of whatever they put the poor man on, impaling him instantly, as he dangled on the spike, a sharp quick scream of pain echoing around the area. It didn't take long for him to go limp.

"Oh my god..." She said to herself in disbelief as she continued to back away from the scene, but didn't get very far as bullets rained around her, towards the geth who had killed that poor colonist in such a gruesome way.

She quickly turned, spotting a team of three. Two of them wore Alliance issued armor, both bearing the mark of N7 special agents, the other without the insignia. She quickly trotted towards them, hoping they were part of the crew that had come to retrieve the prothean artifact the colonists had found.

They holstered their weapons once she came to a stop in front of them, trying to catch her breath. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212." she panted before she finally stood straight, saluting the man who began to remove his helmet.

The man saluted her back. "Captain David Anderson. What's going on here, Chief?" Questioned the older man as he motioned for the other two to scout ahead.

She swallowed, starting to regain control of her breathing. "I dunno, sir. It all went to hell. My unit and I were on patrol, but we were ambushed by the geth... No idea why they're here sir, my whole unit was wiped out, I'm all that's left." she answered as the older man nodded, giving her a look of thought.

"Any idea where the prothean artifact is?" Anderson questioned as Williams just shrugged helplessly.

She had been mostly on the run for the past hour. "Last I heard they were moving it to some train station just a couple klicks from here." She responded. "If that's what the geth are after, it might have been moved by now." She went on as Anderson nodded.

He could hear gun fire off in the distance, possibly his squad running into trouble. "Come with me, you can take us to the train station we'll figure it out from there." He said before grabbing his gun and quickly trotting off to rejoin his squad, Ashley hot on his heels.

VWVWVWV

[Present]

Everything had seemed to move in slow motion. Shepard had sighted her gun on the first creature.. What the hell were they even? Suddenly everything moved in real time again, Shepard putting down the first zombie like creature, but at least a dozen more running at full speed towards them on the cat walk.

Liara, from behind, suddenly glowed blue from her biotic potential as she created a singularity, most of the creatures being picked up by it, all of them flailing and snarling, even clawing at the air. With a brief moment of relief Shepard quickly went to work, releasing a spray of bullets at the floating husks, making quick work in killing them before she aimed lower, killing the few stragglers that had continued to run at them.

Once they were dealt with Shepard's tense muscles relaxed as she breathed a heavy sigh. "Quick thinking, T'Soni." She muttered, trying to shake off the fear fueled adrenaline in her system. Liara gave the human a quick nod, also having felt a bit caught off guard by the creatures.

Shepard pushed them forward, both of them keeping an eye out for more of those creatures, while disarming a few more bombs along the way, neither of them willing bring up what they had witnessed but moments before.

Shepard cut the wire of what she hoped was the last bomb before she stood, wiping the sweat collecting on her brow. "I'm ready to be off this planet." Shepard commented as Liara looked over another stair railing, surveying a platform below them. Shepard stepped next to the asari, also checking out what might be down there before she felt Liara tug her arm and pointing down to their left.

"More of those... things." Liara said quietly. Shepard watched the creatures, currently wandering aimlessly, unaware of their presence. Shepard nodded in response to Liara but continued to check for anything else below them. Then she spotted it, at the end of the platform.

Shepard quickly pointed at the beacon. "Look!" she said, perhaps the first bit of hope she'd had during this whole nightmare. "It's the beacon." Shepard said a little more quietly, quickly looking to the husks hoping she had not caught their attention. They seemed blissfully unaware, continuing their pointless wandering.

Liara's eyes also lit up as she looked to the beacon. That was when that loud horn blared through the area again, Shepard and Liara both looking off in the distance, watching as that monstrous ship began to rise back towards the sky. "I don't know what the hell that thing is but I don't like it." Shepard commented as she reached for her ear piece. "Kaidan, where are you guys?" Shepard questioned over the comms as Liara kept an eye out for the husks, the ship's engines practically roaring as it continued to fly straight up, getting further and further away.

"Sorry, we got held up trying to get some colonists on board." Kaidan responded after a moment.

Shepard raised her rifle as she began to walk for the stairs. "Lock onto my comm signal and get your asses here as soon as you can. We found the beacon." She said just before motioning Liara to use another singularity on the small group of creatures. Liara nodded as she did just that, Shepard opening fire on them, picking them off quickly. "Once we have it secured we'll take it to the Citadel, we'll try and get ahold of the Alliance so they can come take the damn thing." She went on, just wanting to get it far away from her. So many died for it, never seeing it again would be too soon.

Once they reached the bottom of the stairs and making sure the coast was clear Shepard and Liara approached the beacon. "It's active!" Liara exclaimed perhaps more excited than not. She trotted up to the beacon, which seemed to be glowing with an eery green light. Shepard did not trust this situation.

"Liara, be careful, god knows if that thing is even working properly..." she tried to warn. Liara seemed to either ignore or not hear her as she approached the console, looking over the strange symbols that she only recognized as prothean. No one in the galaxy had been able to accurately translate the ancient language. They could only make best guesses whenever they came across it on found artifacts. It was rather rare to even see.

Shepard shook her head as she turned trying to keep an eye out for either her ship, more geth, or those weird creatures. She was ready to get off this planet, where the hell was her crew? But before she had the chance to raise them on her comms again she heard Liara suddenly yelp with surprise.

Shepard spun around, gun raised, expecting hostiles but instead the beacon began to spew more of that glowing green mist like light, reaching out for Liara who tried to back away from it. "Liara, get away from that thing, I warned you to be careful." Shepard said as she started to trot towards the asari who looked on with a sense of child like wonder as the light swirled around the asari, wrapping her in that eery light.

It then lifted her off the ground quite suddenly as she yelped once more, only this time she seemed a little more anxious about it. "Shepard!" she called out, now feeling she should have listened to what the human had told her before.

"Liara!" Shepard called back as she tried to run to the asari, to get her away from the beacon. Instead the beacon seemed to surge with power, before sending out a strong shock wave, sending the human flying back.

She landed ten feet back from Liara, landing hard with a thud on her back, the wind practically knocked out of her as she felt stunned. She rolled over, trying to push herself back onto her feet, stumbling in the process as she tried to refill her lungs with air, her head spinning. She then heard Liara practically scream in pain, causing Shepard's heart to skip several beats. She tried to make her way back to Liara once again, "Liara!" This time Shepard's voice was panicked as she didn't understand what was going on.

Suddenly the beacon surged once again, only this time it caused an overload as it exploded, sending Liara flying back as Shepard tried to catch the asari as the prothean expert collided into Shepard, sending them both crashing back to the ground.

Shepard was winded once more but scrambled to sit up, Liara limp against her as she held the asari in her lap, shaking at her shoulders. Liara was all too pale, but Shepard could see she was breathing, if only heavily. "Liara, hey, wake up." Shepard pleaded as she kept trying to shake the asari, trying to force her to regain consciousness. "Come on, Li, don't you dare do this to me." Shepard continued to plead, but getting no response.

Shepard felt like she should have been more firm about not letting Liara's curiosity get the better of her. Forced her to stand back. "Hold it right there." Came a man's voice from behind them as Shepard looked over her shoulder, the devastation clear on her face as she eyed three humans. Nicole instantly recognized the Alliance issued armor, but they were all pointing their guns at Shepard, who still cradled Liara's limp form in her lap.

The only thing Shepard could manage to say in the moment was a meek plead, "Please, help her." fell from her lips before she looked back down at Liara, feeling all too helpless. The beacon sizzled and popped ahead of the group, Anderson looking towards it, noticing it was damaged.

Anderson lowered his gun as he approached the two, noting how heavily armed Shepard was. He also noted the sigma symbol on her armor, guessing she was a mercenary. Though what she was doing here, with the beacon was anyone's guess. "We have a doctor on our ship who is well versed in xenobiology. For now I'm placing you under arrest until I can get some answers, your friend will be looked over once we're aboard my ship." He said firmly as he ushered his two team members over, one a man and the other a woman.

"Williams, Fletcher, take the asari." He order as they made their way to Shepard, lifting Liara away from her as she quickly stood as well, almost ready to put up a fight, but she was grabbed by Anderson and quickly confiscated her weapons before he brought out a pair of cuffs from his belt.

"Wait, I have a ship out there." Shepard blurted out. Anderson eyed her, he should have known she was not alone. "I need to tell them what's happening." She continued, her green eyes burning into his own through his helmet.

He gave her a look, like he was debating on allowing her to tell her crew what was going on or not. "They aren't hostile, there won't be any trouble." Shepard said firmly. He sighed as he nodded his approval, before raising his own ship, spewing off orders. She activated her own comms. "Kaidan, I'm being taken into Alliance custody, so is Liara. Get everyone off this planet, drop the colonists off at the Citadel, they'll be safe there." she ordered.

There was a brief pause but instead of Kaidan, Wrex piped up over her comms. "I don't trust this, kid." He rumbled as Shepard couldn't help but smile slightly at the old krogan's worry.

Shepard looked over to Anderson who seemed to be watching her. "It's fine, Wrex. I'll contact you guys when I can, alright?" She said trying to sound calmer than she felt as she shifted her attention back on the limp asari, who was being held by this Williams and Fletcher. Her brow furrowed with worry over the woman.

There was another brief pause, as if Wrex was thinking. "If they do anything to you, Shepard, they will regret it." He then rumbled. Shepard had no doubt his threat was genuine. He was oddly protective of Shepard. He was kind of like that big brother sort to her.

Shepard sighed. "It'll be fine, Wrex." she insisted. "I have to go, I'll contact you when I can." she then said before shutting off her comms, cutting off any chance for him to respond. She then nodded at Anderson, signaling her surrender as an Alliance frigate began to approach their position.

Shepard could only hope that Liara would be alright. She wasn't sure she could forgive herself if not.