Chapter 2: Unwilling Oracles

SSV Normandy, 30 Minutes from Eden Prime

Commander Nathaniel Shepard was now in the ship's impressive medical bay, sitting on one of the gurneys as the ship's doctor, who had introduced herself as Doctor Chakwas, considered her omni-tool. Both Alenko and Jenkins were there as well, Jenkins at the doorway as Alenko sat on another gurney. They were mostly silent but tense, along with the rest of the ship that had learned about the reason for their increased preparedness.

Chakwas, brushing aside a lock of graying black hair, looked up at Nate with a somewhat critical eye, as she had for the past 10 minutes of the check-up. "So, to finish things up, you're a biotics user with an L3 implant," she said matter-of-factly. "I've worked with a few L3 users before. Any outstanding symptoms that I should be aware of that might have appeared in the last 24 hours? Migraines, auditory or visual hallucinations, chills or fever?"

Nate shook his head, and Chakwas nodded. "Good. I'm sure you'll let me know of any symptoms should they appear."

"I can't argue with doctor's orders," Nate said with a shrug and a slight smile.

The corner of Chakwas' lip twitched up as she turned to face Alenko. "Alright, Lieutenant. Anything wrong with your own implants that should make me have a word with the Captain about deploying you to the surface?"

"Not today, Doc. The L2s are being nice today." Kaidan said with a smile. "You'll know if I do."

"Very good." Chakwas' smile grew as she stepped back. "Well then, I can confidently clear you both for duty. Good luck on Eden Prime."

"Of all the places to get some real action," Jenkins said with a grimace, "I didn't think I'd have to go home to find it."

"I sincerely hope that the 'real action' is kept to a minimum, Corporal," Chakwas said quietly. "I'd have to have any of you back in here laying on one of my stretchers if we can avoid it."

"I know," Jenkins replied. "It's just that I've never really been on a mission like this before. And certainly not on a mission with a Spectre."

"Just stay calm, Jenkins. Deep breaths if you need them. I know I do, sometimes." Kaidan said. "The shakes are going to be there. Just make sure you steady your gun before you fire."

"Alenko's right," Nate said. "Just keep your head on your shoulders, and things will work out just fine."

"I've gotta admit," Jenkins said after a moment's silent pondering, "I feel like it's easy for you to say. You're the Hero of Elysium, after all. Everyone knows you can do it. I just need to prove that I can too."

Nate stood from the gurney, walking over silently to Jenkins and pausing in front of him. "Look, Jenkins, I know what you're thinking. I used to think like that too. But if there's anything that you should know, it's that being a hero isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Don't worry about trying to be a hero. Just do what you need to do, and come home alive. That's all anyone's asking for."

It was silent in the medbay for a moment before Jenkins nodded. "Alright. I'll keep that in mind."

Nate nodded, and Chakwas cleared her throat. "Mr. Shepard, Mr. Alenko, you're free to go."

The three men walked out, taking a seat at the table in the common area. It was silent for a moment, then Nate looked over at Jenkins. "So, you're from Eden Prime?" he asked.

Jenkins nodded. "Yeah. From one of the outer farm towns. It's a pretty boring place. At least… I hope it is."

"What's the name of the town?" Kaidan asked. "Maybe it's pretty far away from where our op zone is."

"New Haskellon," Jenkins said, a slight, sad smile on his face as he said the name.

Alenko tapped on his omni-tool, comparing the map of the planet to a mission briefing that Anderson had circulated to those involved. "Yeah. The beacon was unearthed in Providence, a solid 20 kilometers from New Haskellon." Alenko looked up. "Whatever else, I think your family is going to be okay."

Jenkins took a deep, relieved breath before chuckling. "I think even if they were close, they'd be able to take care of themselves. I mean, my dad taught me and my whole family how to shoot before we could drive. Said it was 'farmers tradition' or some sort of nonsense like that."

"So, what's growing up on Eden Prime like, then?" Nate asked. "I mean, even on Mindoir, so many people I knew wanted to vacation there at some point."

"Well," Jenkins began, leaning on the table as a thoughtful look crossed his face, "I can't tell you about the main city, but I lived next to this big hill out across my family's fields. At night sometimes, I climb it and just… sit. Looking up at the stars."

. . .

Lieutenant Theisman crawled in the remarkably spacious maintenance ducts, Specialist Duvinian having met him at a circular juncture that housed the systems that controlled the ship's weapons systems. For as devoted to stealth as the ship was made to be, the Normandy could put up a hell of a fight. Here, Theisman could tinker with two prow-mounted coilguns, four missile and torpedo tubes, and a mass effect-based active defense system of turian origin.

Duvinian paused as she completed an explanation of the ADS, and Theisman decided to fill the silence. "So, Specialist," he began. "What brings a member of the turian Navy to work alongside the Alliance beyond simply being a part of the program?"

Duvinian was silent for a moment. "The Hierarchy Navy has existed for centuries. Centuries which we've had to refine and hone ship designs and technologies to a point where actual innovation is a breathtaking rarity. Your Alliance Navy, however… there's an air of possibility and willingness to experiment that's… almost intoxicating."

"I can see how," Theisman said with a slight grin. "It's a pretty interesting feeling, peeking into the ship development branch like I sometimes do. I imagine this ship was a pretty wild ride to be a part of designing and building."

"You have no idea," Duvinian said with a chuckle. "Probably one of the worst decisions I think either side could have okayed was putting even a few people on either side of the Relay-314 Conflict in place as part of the project. It was exhausting sometimes."

"I'd imagine so," Theisman said quietly.

It was quiet for long moments, then Duvinian broke the silence. "So, did you have any family that was a part of the Conflict?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, thankfully. My family was still on Earth then. How about you?"

"I had an aunt who was an engineer aboard the HNV Porutari, over Shanxi. Watched the human fleet come in and break the siege. It stuck with her as she helped get me into the Engineering Corps. In fact, she's the one who always called it a 'Conflict' instead of an 'Incident' like everyone else does. I guess it just rubbed off on me."

It was quiet again for a long moment before Daniel's omni-tool chimed with an incoming call. He answered quickly. "This is Theisman, go."

"Theisman," Commander Shepard said, "come and meet me, Alenko, and Jenkins in the crew area. I need to talk to you about the mission we're going on."

Theisman frowned slightly. "Copy that. I'll be there in five."

The comm-link closed, and Theisman looked up at Duvinian. "Well, it looks like I'm needed elsewhere. Wonder what they need me for?"

"Something important if you're going planetside," Duvinian replied. "Whatever else, be careful out there."

"I'll certainly try." with that, Theisman rotated in the junction, crawling back out into the main engine room and making his way into the crew room. At the long table, he saw Shepard, the man who he remembered was Lieutenant Alenko and another man.

"So," he said as he sat by Shepard, "what can I help you with?"

"We're going to need your xenotech experience," Shepard replied. "We're going to Eden Prime to pick up a Prothean artifact. And we're doing it in a combat zone."

Theisman frowned slightly as he leaned on the table. "You're serious?" he asked. "Prothean? I… don't know how much I can help you beyond general guidelines. We'll need to be very careful with any ME-fields we use, as Prothean artifacts can be ridiculously sensitive to such things. We'll need a hover sled and some manpower to lift it on in order to get it into the ship."

"Well, you know more than we do," Alenko said. "You'll be coming with us to make sure everyone handles this thing without something exploding."

Theisman took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. If it's a combat zone, I'll get some armor and a weapons loadout from the armory. Anything else I should know?"

"Not as far as I can tell at the moment," Shepard said.

"Got any combat experience?" Alenko asked.

"I was a combat engineer at Torfan. I know my way around a combat zone." Theisman replied.

Shepard nodded. "Alright. We'll be there in 15 minutes. Get ready."

. . .

In the cargo bay of the Normandy, five soldiers waited as they listened to the slight growl of the ship entering the atmosphere of Eden Prime. They all turned to see Anderson approaching them, the human contingent coming to attention.

"You have your orders, Commander," Anderson said. "Secure the artifact, and gather any surviving soldiers so that we can extract them with the Normandy. You're here as muscle too, so make as straight a line through whatever gets in your way to the dig site."

"Approaching drop point one now," Joker said, the doors opening to a ruddy, almost hellish sunset.

Nihlus, silent this far, stepped up to the ramp, a disposable descent arrestor in his armor's back as it was for all of them. "I'll be going on my own. I'll see you on the ground."

"Wait a minute," Jenkins said, "shouldn't we try and stay together?"

"He'll be scouting ahead, feeding you information over comms. Between that and one or two tries at contacting surviving soldiers, I want radio silence." Anderson replied, all of them watching as Nihlus jumped.

"Coming up on drop point two," Joker interjected.

"Alright, Shepard," Anderson said over the howling wind, "the mission's yours now. Good luck!"

As Anderson turned away, Nate looked over at the rest of his team as he, and they, put on their helmets. "Alright. Let's jump."

Like Nihlus, they made their way to the ramp and leaped into the open air, twin mass effect fields like broad wings snapping open after slightly terrifying seconds. They maneuvered as best they could towards a clearing, touching down as their decent arrestors shut down.

Immediately, everyone's rifles were out, Nate, Jenkins, and Alenko carrying M7 Avengers, the standard assault rifle of the Alliance military, while Theisman carried a Vindicator marksman rifle as a recon drone, tiny and fabricated by his omni-tool, flew up and ahead to pathfind for them. They moved up slowly anyway, their movements practiced and rather well synchronized as they followed the drone.

"What are those?" Kaidan said as they came upon a small pond, several bulbous, pulsating… things gliding through the water.

"Those are just gas bags," Jenkins replied. "They're harmless. We can just…"

"Damn," Theisman said, and everyone could see the helmet feed for the drone had died. "We've probably got hard contact up ahead."

"Alright, then," Shepard said. "Jenkins, take point. Alenko, to my left, Theisman, hang back. Wide sweeps, and watch the air."

They proceeded thusly, slowly working their way towards a rocky valley. It was… quiet, save for the gentle breeze. The silence grated at them, seeming to crank the tension in their muscles ever so slowly.

Then, there was a howl of sound, several gray shapes streaking into the air from carefully hidden positions, and the pulsing chatter of strange guns firing. For Nate, the world was a blur for the briefest of moments as he threw himself into cover, popping out briefly to send controlled bursts of fire toward the cluster of strange, mono-eyed drones.

As Nate popped out of cover again, he focused, feeling a thrum building up within him and a buzz from the biotic amps that were installed in his body adding to it a split-second later. It was the mass effect, gravity itself, roiling within his body. He pressed the force into his free hand, a rippling field enveloping it as the weight of stars and a weightlessness even air could not match battled for control.

All this happened in the span of seconds as he sighted his floating target, and reached out, 'guide-rails' of gravitic energy guiding the little gravitic maelstrom from the tips of his fingers to slam into the drone, its kinetic barriers overloading in the blink of an eye before the drone, for lack of a better word, exploded, its power system cooking off and propelling the shreds of metal that remained still further than they already would have gone.

Before Nate could get back into cover, several bursts from behind him made another drone's barrier flash out of existence before a blinking nodule slammed into it. The drone shuddered, dropping for a moment before it turned on its compatriots and fired. Taking advantage of the distraction, Kaidan sent a buzzing, humming superconductor, flash-formed by his omni-tool, darting to a drone that had just lost its shield, the artificial hum building until the drone overloaded, sparking and smoking as it fell to the ground.

Finally, as the final drone shut down, falling to the ground, the little valley fell silent once again. Nate slowly came out of cover, scanning the area for a moment before his gaze fell on the still form of Jenkins. As he made his way over to the slightly smoking corpse, he saw Alenko and Theisman on his flanks, standing vigil for a moment before Nate crouched and removed his helmet, closing sightless eyes.

"Well," Kaidan said quietly, "if there's any way to go, it's fighting for your home."

"Damn," Theisman said. "They focused everything on him. Barriers must have popped in the first second. At least it was quick."

"We'll make sure he gets a proper burial," Nate replied. "Right now, we've got a little room to breathe."

He paused as he keyed the comm-link that had sent the distress call out to them. "Sergeant Korrapati, this is Commander Shepard of the Normandy. Can you read me?"

It was silent for long moments, then the line clicked quietly. "This is Korrapati. Thank god, someone's here. Where are you?"

"We dropped about a klick out from the dig site. We're currently in a small, rocky valley."

"One moment, Shepard." Korrapati was silent. "We'll meet you about 100 meters ahead of your position. Be careful. These mechs are crawling around everywhere."

"Not just mechs," Theisman said, intruding on the comm link as he held up the disabled drone. "I'd bet my bottom dollar these are geth."

"What are geth doing here?" Kaidan said as they began to move again. "The way everyone else talks about them, they're almost a myth. Haven't been seen outside the Veil for almost 2 centuries. What's got them out here now?"

"I think we might already know the answer," Nate said grimly.

The trio continued in radio silence for a little while before Nihlus chimed in. "I'm approaching the settlement by the dig site. Some burned-out buildings. A lot of bodies. I'm going to check it out. I'll meet you at the site."

They continued on, pausing as they crested a hill and saw a sight that chilled them to the core. They found almost a dozen soldiers behind cover, a few of them peeking out to watch what must have been two squads of geth armatures surrounding one lifting a person onto some tripod device. The man struggled weakly, then the device activated, a spike running the man through his chest as it lifted him several meters into the air to join 8 or 9 others, the latest sprout in a macabre forest.

"My god…" Kaidan said as the fireteam moved toward the assembled squad as covertly as they could.

Finally, behind an outcropping, they went into cover next to a group of four soldiers. One of them, a woman in white and pink armor, heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, at least you're friendly faces," she whispered.

"Do wish there were more of you, though." another soldier, a British woman whose armor was accompanied by the sort of lightly armored ¾ skirt usually used by drop infantry, interjected. "Any chance you have a bunch of other friends waiting over where you just came from?"

"Wish we did," Kaidan said. "What's the sitrep?"

"There are geth armatures crawling over the site and the spaceport." the third soldier, her voice familiar, began. "They've been doing…" she paused as she peeked out of cover for a moment. "Well, that, to all the civilians they can get their hands on. We were waiting for you to show up before we moved toward their objective."

"The dig site," Theisman said darkly.

Nate nodded. "Let us know when to start laying down fire."

The third soldier, who Nate was sure was Korrapati, nodded. "Alright. Any bionics? We've got two in our squad across the way."

"You've got two here," Nate replied.

"Perfect. Stay here, bracket them, and box them in if you can. We'll send a wave of fire downrange."

Nate and Kaidan moved to the other end of the rock outcropping, waiting for Korrapati's signal. "How do you want to do this?" Alenko asked. "Kinetic barrier at each end?"

"Angle it so that we're funneling them towards us." Nate's eyes narrowed as he gauged the distance. "I'd say… 8 meters long, 45-degree angle."

"Sounds good to me." Kaidan paused as he looked over at Korrapati. "Who are the other two biotics?"

Korrapati glanced back at them. "I've got Langley and Nagisa. Switch your comms to channel 892.3."

Kaidan did so, relaying the gist of the plan to the two other biotics noted as Nate simply took a deep breath and focused on the area he'd be manipulating. Just a simple wall of gravity and their newfound friends would do the rest.

They settled into their positions, and Nate waited out that slowing of time that came with anticipation as best he could, the seconds seeming to stretch on as the group began to move off.

"Now!" Korrapati shouted, and Nate, Kaidan by his side, reached out, defining the space that they wanted to manipulate and focusing, their powers causing the air to shift into a red haze as the gravity there formed an impassible wall. Across the way, at the other end of the little valley, a similar barrier came into existence. And, just as promised, 9 guns, from shotguns to assault rifles to submachine guns and even a few sniper rifles, sent a sweeping tide of energy-wreathed slivers of metal crashing into their clearly somewhat surprised opponents.

The geth squads pushed up through the funnel, but the action simply made them ever easier targets, the sheer amount of incoming fire overwhelming their kinetic barriers and felling them in short order.

It never took long for a properly set ambush to play out, one way or another. After several tense minutes, the valley fell silent, and Korrapati began walking over to the other soldiers across the way. "Ashley, could you give them a sitrep?" she said as she walked away.

The soldier in white and pink nodded before she turned to Nate, saluting sharply. "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th, sir. I'd assume you're the one in charge?"

Nate nodded, and Ashley began. "My squad and Korrapati's were out on patrol when the geth hit us. Korrapati's squad managed to make it to cover before their alpha strike did anything bad. My squad… wasn't so lucky. The ambush that we walked into when we tried to go and secure the beacon… left me the only one."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Williams," Nate said. "Is there any new info we couldn't get after the comms jamming went up?"

"Not as of yet. We're close to the dig site, though. It's just over that rise."

Korrapati returned. "Now that you're here Commander, what are your orders?"

Nate was silent for a brief moment as he considered his options. "I'd suggest splitting into two groups. My group will range ahead and clear out any geth forces that are attached to the beacon. Korrapati, we'll need you to watch our backs and clear out anything behind us we might miss."

Korrapati nodded. "Alright. Ashley, you go ahead and keep with them. I'll send Private Marlowe here, Yamagishi, and Kirishima along with you as well. That should give you enough power to get through just about anything."

As the two soldiers jogged over towards them, Nate nodded. "Alright. Williams, go ahead and take point towards the dig site. Once we're there, Korrapati, I'll signal with three comm clicks for you to follow behind."

Ashley nodded, walking in the direction she pointed as the others of their newly reinforced fireteam followed past the grisly sight of bodies hanging limply above their heads.

It didn't take long for them to reach a strange structure that rose above the little canyon that they found themselves in. At least two geth patrolled the inside of the open structure in their view as the fireteam got to cover.

"That's the dig site," Ashley said as they scoped in the geth within it. "I can't see the artifact they dug up from here…"

"I'll get to a good vantage point over there, see what I can find." one of the soldiers, Yamagishi if Nate remembered correctly, said as she nodded over to their right. Slowly, she made her way nearly to the wall, setting her sniper rifle on one of the rocks and sighting it in.

"The artifact's gone," Yamagishi said.

"Any idea if the researchers moved it?" Kaidan asked.

"It's possible," Ashley replied. "But I wouldn't be surprised if they geth moved it either."

"Where would it go then?" Marlowe asked.

"Probably whatever spaceport is already here," Theisman replied. "Whatever the hell their ship is, they can't just… beam it up. Prothean tech needs to be handled carefully. That means facilities to get it on board."

"Williams?" Nate asked. "Is there a port here?"

"Yeah. Fairly close by, too." Ashley looked around. "The research camp should be in between here and the port as well. We should check and see if there are any survivors with good intel."

Nate nodded. "Sounds good."

"Shepard." Nihlus' voice interjected on his comm channel. "I've got some strange objects with withered, clearly modified humans. Take care when approaching them. They aren't as dead as you think."

"Good to know," Nate replied. "Alright, let's get to work."

It was a token force that patrolled the dig site, easily swept aside as the fire team bulldozed through them. As they made their way up towards the research camp, however, they ran into more of those strange spikes, several people mounted on them. Unlike the 'fresh' ones in the valley, however, these ones had gray husks impaled on them, strange tubes and metallic parts glowing with an all-too-eerie blue and purple light.

"God help them…" Ashley said. "I didn't think it could get worse."

"Stay sharp," Nate warned. "These… things are still alive."

"How does anything survive a metal spike through the chest?" Marlowe asked incredulously.

As if sensing their approach, the spikes, one by one, began to retract into their holders, the husks twitching and pulling themselves to their feet as they separated from the device with a crackle of energy.

Quickly, the fireteam went into cover, guns trained on the husks. The things regarded them for a moment, then turned their attention towards one of the pop-up hab blocks, slowly making their way towards it.

"Do they see us as a threat?" Kaidan asked. "And if they do… what's in that hab block?"

"Someone who can't fight back more than likely," Nate replied. "Take them out!"

The first shots slammed into them with seemingly little effect, the husks turning towards them immediately and starting to charge. The fire intensified, a concentrated burst from Nate, Alenko, and Thesman finally bringing one down as another, drawing close to their lines, was laid out from a blast of Marlowe's shotgun, tuned to throwing slugs instead of shot.

One dashed over towards Theisman, slipping past the withering barrage with enough 'life' still in it as a crackle of energy built up within it, bursting out as it toppled onto Theisman. The energy pulse overloaded Theisman's barriers, and he shouted in pain as the lightning coursed through his armor for the briefest of moments.

It was the first, and the last, to break through the firing line, the rest focused on and worn down in short order. Finally, the valley was silent once again.

Yamagishi made her way over to Theisman, picking him up and slotting a medi-gel container into one of the ports. "You alright?"

"I'm fine, Mayumi," Theisman replied, breathing deeply as the medi-gel patched him up. "Thanks for the pick-up, though."

"Aw, come on, May," Marlowe replied. "We've seen worse knock ol' Danny boy on his ass, and saw him get back up afterwards."

"You know this guy?" Ashley asked.

Theisman nodded. "Yeah, actually. This squad in particular was at Torfan alongside mine. It's good to see most of them made it out."

"So you're Daniel, then?" Ashley asked.

Daniel nodded. "Yeah. But there'll be time for stories later. I think we should go see what interested them about that hab block."

Nate nodded, beginning to walk over to the hab-block as the others followed him. However, as they came to the door, they found it unresponsive.

"Locked, probably," Daniel said as he came forward. "Let me see what I can do."

He linked his omni-tool to the door controls, long seconds spent testing standard encryption codes. As he worked, Shepherd pulsed the comms signal for Korrapati, signaling her to move up.

"Got it," Daniel said as the door slid open. "Systems Alliance! Anyone in there?"

"Oh, thank god." a woman said as she and a man emerged from within the confines of the block. The woman, who had short red hair and a round but somewhat lined face, was clearly relieved, but the man, sharper-faced with brown hair, seemed disturbed, brown eyes darting around as he hunched slightly within himself.

"Somebody actually made it out." The woman continued. "Is it safe?"

"Here at the moment, yes," Nate said, stepping forward. "I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy. Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Warren, the lead scientist here at the dig site. This is Dr. Manuel, the scientist in charge of decryption and analysis."

"Dr. Warren," Ashley said, "do you know where the artifact went? It's not at the dig site."

Warren frowned slightly. "We moved it up to the spaceport in preparation for the Normandy's arrival. Manuel and I stayed back to pack up the camp." she paused as she looked around, spotting the corpses of the husks as Yamagishi and Kirishima checked them. "When the attack came, the marines here held them off long enough for us to lock ourselves in here. I guess… they gave their lives to save us."

"No, Warren," Manuel said, his head snapping over to look at her. "No one's saved. This galaxy is doomed. Soon enough, the only thing inhabiting it will be corpses in the ruins."

"What the hell…" Marlowe said slowly, everyone around her sharing her unease. "What d'ya mean by that?"
"The attack is simply a taste of what's to come, the geth agents of what lies in the void beyond. Heralds of extinction!"

Nate regarded the clearly unwell man. "How long has he been talking like this? Did he get hurt in the initial attack?"

Warren shook her head. "No, we both got here just fine. Although… he has been acting more erratic for the past few days."

"No, no, no!" Manuel shouted. "You don't get it! You haven't seen what I've seen! The prophet that leads them, the turian, he was here right before the attack."

"Turian?" Kaidan said. "Nihlus came here with us, though. There's no way he could have been here."

"Unless there's another turian here somewhere," Daniel said darkly.

"Do you have any idea why the geth might want this artifact?" Nate asked, glancing to the side as Korrapati and her fire team advanced slowly up the hill.

"Not at all," Warren said frankly. "As far as we can tell, it's a data receptacle that's likely supposed to be part of a network. Remarkably well-preserved, too. It must be something important if the Protheans were willing to go to these lengths to keep it fresh."

"It is," Manuel said calmly. It was perhaps the most unsettling he'd been thus far. "It's a message. A warning. We've unearthed the heart of evil, and there's nothing we can do but wait… and die."

"Manuel, what are you talking about?" Warren said incredulously. "What happened to have you talking like this?"

"The message in the artifact, it whispered to me while I worked. It was time for it to do so, just as the Protheans had intended."

Warren looked at the gathered soldiers with no small amount of concern. It was a look most of them mirrored.

Then, Nate took a deep breath. "Alright. Korrapati, secure the area. I'll continue to the spaceport. If we need you, we'll let you know."

. . .

Nihlus Kirrik went through the motions of just another mission, rifle and submachine gun precise and deadly. One shot through the ocular sensor, one through the CPU. It was kind, in a way, of these geth to have not changed their construction for the last 200 years.

The human husks that came after him were a somewhat hardier affair, but they had no weapons, and while his turian weaponry had, on the whole, fewer shots than most human-produced guns, it had far more stopping power.

Now, he was entering the spaceport proper, going from cover to cover. As he paused behind a concrete support, he glanced out. There was someone simply… walking around. He caught sight of black robes on a distinctly non-human build.

He popped out of cover aiming his rifle at… the last person he expected to be there. A fellow turian.

"Saren?" he said, scanning around him with his rifle as he slowly approached.

"Nihlus." the turian, black-robed in what was a classical style for their homeworld of Palaven, replied calmly.

"What are you doing here?" Nihlus asked as they stopped in front of each other. "This isn't your mission."

Saren simply walked past him, patting him on the shoulder. "The Council decided that you needed help on this one. I'm here to help."

Nihlus breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Good. I wasn't expecting to see the geth here. The situation's bad."

"Don't worry," Saren said.

As he paused for a moment, something clicked in Nihlus' mind. Something that threw everything back into question. 'The Council always informs its Spectres if they intend to send another one to assist. So why wasn't I told anything?'

Then, he heard the whirring click of a compacted weapon unfolding from behind him. "I've got it under control."

Nihlus turned and ducked, the first shot just barely grazing his head.

. . .

Nate heard the crack echoing through the valley. A shot. Maybe Nihlus?

Then more shots. "Come on! We've got to support Nihlus!" Nate shouted, leading the charge up the wooded hill. It was a charge that was cut short, everyone stumbling to a stop as they took in the sight before them.

"What is that?" Kaidan asked as the massive, cephalopod-like vessel Nate had seen in his briefing began to lift into the sky.

"It's… a ship!" Ashley replied. "Look at the size of that thing!"

It was a long moment staring in awe at the vessel before Nate shook his head. "Let's go! Keep moving!"

The fireteam resumed its charge, spreading out as they came down the hill and encountered a swarm of both geth and husks. Nate nearly dove into cover as shots zipped over his head. Peeking out as best he could, he fired at those geth that wandered into his field of fire, channeling his biotic powers at times into a gravitic push that sent whatever he managed to hit sprawling. As the sounds of battle intensified, his helmet's noise-reduction systems kicked in, making the battlefield, as it often did, an eerily quiet place, like something out of a nightmare.

He caught something moving to his left and saw a husk that had weathered the storm of gunfire to come crashing down on top of him. His rifle, which he tried to snap over to fire at the husk, was pressed to his chest as he fell on his back, the husk clawing at him and battering him.

Before Nate could react, the husk buzzed and hummed with building intensity, the electric discharge that seemed to be its signature going off and sending pain lancing through his body. Finally, he managed to respond, wrapping his foe in a mass effect field that blueshifted in hue as the husk began to float off of him, giving him the space to aim his gun and unload into the flailing target above him, whatever fluid now replaced its blood floating with it as it twitched, then went limp.

Nate blinked and the spaceport's entry area was now mostly silent again. Nate still waited for a few seconds to ensure that nothing was simply waiting for someone to pop out of cover, then slowly got to his feet, sweeping his gun as he fought the jitters that came as they always did, threatening to throw his aim off just that little bit that mattered if someone surprised them.

"You alright?" Kaidan said as he came to a stop by Nate's side. "That husk was pretty nasty."

"I'll be fine," Nate assured him, looking at the others. "Status report."

"I'll be alright in a minute," Marlowe replied from a few meters ahead, her armor smoking slightly alongside the barrel of her gun. "Otherwise, they're dead and I'm not."

"All fine here, sir," Daniel said as he led the other soldiers over towards him. "Even managed to shut down one of the geth armatures and get into its data storage. Give me some time and a stable data connection, and I could have something that might tell us what their force strength and current intel is."

Nate nodded, but before he could say anything, a voice, far weaker and more thready than it should have been, interjected on the comm line. "Shepard… here, in the cargo area…"

Nate's gaze darted over to the area that the geth had been defending, seeing one body… no, he raised a hand weakly. "Nihlus!"

He dashed over towards the turian Spectre, and as he came to a stop in front of him, knew that the situation was dire. "I need medi-gel to stabilize him!" he shouted back to the rest of the squad as they rushed over to him. He keyed the Normandy quickly. "Normandy, this is Commander Shepard. I need immediate casevac for Nihlus. We're at the entrance to the starport."

"Confirmed, Commander," Joker replied after long seconds of Yamagishi and Kirishima giving Nihlus as much medi-gel as they could spare. "We're en route. T-10 minutes."

"Keep him alive, Shepard." he heard Captain Anderson say firmly. "We're going as fast as we can with that… thing in orbit."

Nate began to rise, but Nihlus grabbed his arm before he could go. "Saren… is…"

He trailed off, his eyes glazing over as his hand slipped. "Damn it!" Yamagishi said. "He's lost consciousness. Mana, get into his suit's biometrics system, see if it can help us."

Nate stood, turning back to the rest of the fire team. "Alenko, Williams, Theisman, with me. The rest of you, secure the area and call the rest of the squad over here. The Normandy will pick you up as well."

Ashley, Kaidan, and Daniel fell in with Nate as they made their way into the spaceport. "Most likely place the artifact would be is in the cargo area," Ashley said. "We'll need to take the tram."

Before they could go much further, a hail of gunfire pressed the squad to find cover. "Have to say, this is one of the less friendly stations I've been on," Kaidan said dryly as he sent an overloading burst of energy towards the floating kinetic barriers that barred their path, overloading one of the hexagonal walls.

"Nah," Daniel replied as an attack drone, kinetic barriers swirling around it, popped out of his omni-tool's fabricator, buzzing over towards the walkway that was, at the moment, barred by their geth opponents. "Furzuron Junction on Torfan was meaner. At least the geth seem to have the grace to not hurl insults about you and everyone in your family."

"Stay focused." Nate reminded them as he activated a subroutine of his omni-tool, a mass effect field shielding him from the intense cold the supercooling element that was constructed a little above his wrist before he shot it at one of the geth.

The geth, struck by the supercooling element, soon found a sheet of ice crawling up its body until it was encapsulated by it. Kaidan, taking advantage of the opening, sent a biotic burst of power flashing towards the statuesque geth, shattering it into frozen fragments.

"We've got a big one coming up!" Ashley said, tuning her assault rifle and focusing a withering barrage on a much larger, red-painted geth that stood fast against the likely overloaded shots as the other three moved up to better cover.

Finally, however, its shields broke, and the weight of fire that the others laid down on it sent it sparking to the floor. "Move up!" Nate said as he charged forward.

. . .

Resistance was not exactly as hard as any of them were expecting, and soon, they got onto the tram that would take them towards the cargo bays. They stuck as best they could to cover, watching the walls around them for any overhead enemies.

As they began to slow down just before their stop, Shepard fabricated something he'd been tooling with in his spare time, his omni-tool whirring and humming as a magnetic disk formed in the palm of his hand. He waited for a moment as the device activated, then slapped it on the back of Ashley's armor, the soldier jumping for a moment as flash-forged armor, spiderwebbing across the armor until 'blooming' into plates, covered the vital spots in another layer of glowing red.

"Tech armor?" Daniel said. "Not bad."

"I've only heard of this stuff before," Ashley said as she readied her rifle. "Why not cover yourself?"

"You're our frontline," Nate said as he readied himself. "Even if they crack through it in a second, a second may just be all you need to keep us covered."

Kaidan glanced over at Ashley as they fully stopped. "Not bad. You'll have to show me that program sometime."

They got off the tram, their eyes locking onto a geth kneeling over a large device. It stood, seeing them and beginning to unholster a truncated version of the geth's usual rifles. It didn't even finish unfurling into its combat mode before the fire directed at its wielder made it crumple into a smoking pile.

They dashed over towards the device, and Nate took a knee as he linked his omni-tool with it. "Shit! It's a bomb!" he said as he began to send scrap code and ICE-breakers flying towards the bomb's programming. "Daniel, Alenko, help me out."

"I'm still downloading the geth armature's data," Daniel said testily, sweeping his rifle around to cover the tram as it slowly began to return back to the station they came from. "I'll need… 10 more minutes, tops."

"I've got you," Kaidan said as he crouched by Nate, linking his omni-tool, glowing a vibrant orange as it overlaid his armored gauntlet, with Nate's, providing more processing power and speed as Alenko worked in tandem.

"I see two more signatures matching the bomb in front of us," Kaidan said as he looked down at his omni-tool, sharing the signatures with the others, then looked around them. "I'm seeing a timer of about 3 minutes on this one. The others probably share it. We…"

He paused, a biotic barrier bursting to life in front of his face just moments before a shot impacted it, sending him sprawling as the others ducked into cover, Ashley spotting the marksman hiding behind cover and dashing towards it as she laid down a wild barrage of covering fire.

Daniel saw Ashley's target as she ducked into cover, her tech armor shattering as a wave of automatic fire washed over her in the moment before she found refuge. Acting quickly, he fabricated a small, fast drone, sighting the marksman with his rifle's scope as the drone zipped into the air and dove down on the target, a low whir preceded by a popping boom as the drone exploded.

"You alright, Alenko?" Nate asked as the bomb, successfully circumvented, shut down 30 seconds after they started.

"Fuck…" Kaidan replied as he got back on his feet. "I'll be fine. Let's get the rest of those bombs."

It always amazed Nate how time seemed to become… malleable in these sorts of situations. The dashes between bombs went by in the blink of an eye, what felt like dozens of geth standing, then falling. But everything seemed to slow to a crawl as they worked on the others, the simulated timers seeming to take minutes to tick down a second even as their programs and ICE-breakers grew more and more adapted to the bombs.

But finally, the last of the bombs were disabled as they heard the roar of the Normandy's engines behind them. "We shouldn't be far from the docks," Ashley said as they began to move up again.

Indeed, they emerged into the wide open space of the docks, several piles of crates scattered about the place. In a particularly clear space, what could only have been the Prothean artifact, a thin, ovaloid obelisk that flowed into its rectangular base, waited for them, a bright green glow traveling slowly up and down its height as it hummed softly.

Otherwise… it was empty. Oddly so. "Why aren't they, you know…" Ashley said. "Defending this thing that they went to all this trouble to get?"

"Maybe we were more than they expected," Kaidan replied as they began to spread out.

"Even still, keep an eye out around you," Nate said.

It was long moments before Nate stowed away his rifle, calling up the Normandy. "Normandy, this is Shepard. The beacon is secure."

As Nate conversed with the Normandy, Kaidan, Daniel, and Ashley began to approach the obelisk. "Crazy to see this sort of stuff intact," Kaidan remarked.

"It wasn't doing anything like this when they excavated it," Ashley replied, stepping forward almost… entranced…

"Stay back," Daniel said firmly, seeming to snap Ashley out of her reverie as he stepped forward. "We don't know what this is doing. Let me scan it first."

Ashley nodded, stepping back as Daniel's omni-tool interface flashed into being, the man slowly stepping forward as he took his readings. "This thing's going crazy…" he muttered.

Then, the hum built in intensity, Daniel only managing to take a step back before something invisible yanked him into the air, his arms shooting down as he shuddered. Nate turned to see Daniel's fist clenching, then moved, charging towards the obelisk.

In mere moments, shackles of redshifting gravity appeared around Daniel's body, tossing him aside. But before he could move, the obelisk decided to drag him in too, lifting him into the air. Before he could do anything he felt… something snake into his mind.

Everything became a distant whispering as he saw flashing by at a speed that barely let him comprehend…

Blood…

Circuits…

Pain and sorrow and hopelessness…

The shadow over the stars…

The end…

Finally, a loud boom, a flash of fiery green, sent him flying back, slamming into the ground as everything began to fade to black.

. . .

"Doctor? Doctor Chakwas? I think they're waking up."

'They're?' was the first thing that Nathaniel wondered as he slowly saw a… ceiling appear above him. He was lying… in the medbay of the Normandy. A part of him had to chuckle. Silently, of course, as it felt like something massive had sat on his chest.

He slowly managed to sit up, looking around the medbay and seeing Doctor Chakwas, Captain Anderson, Kaidan, and Ashley. Stirring in the cot beside him was Daniel, Flynn at his side.

And in the next one after, lying utterly still and hooked up to several machines, was Nihlus.

"You had us worried there, Commander," Chakwas said, drawing his attention back to her. "How are you feeling?"

"Frankly? Like hell." Nate admitted. "How long was I out? Is Theisman alright?"

"About 6 hours. Long enough for us to secure Corporal Jenkins' body and stow away the remaining soldiers from the 212th and 232nd, along with Nihlus." Captain Anderson said.

"Sorry about getting you into that mess, sir," Daniel said as he stretched as best he could. "Standard procedure didn't exactly treat either of us kindly, it seems."

"Well," Nate replied, "at least you and I made it out alive."

"Would that we could understand what, exactly, happened to either of you," Chakwas said.

"The beacon exploded, sir. Probably some sort of system overload when you knocked Theisman out of the way." Kaidan said. "The blast knocked you out cold, and we got you both back to the ship."

"Thanks. Both of you." Nate replied.

"I recorded some strange neural activity in both you and Lieutenant Theisman." Chakwas continued. "An abnormal amount of beta waves, in specific. Along with that, you both had multiple occurrences of R.E.M. activity. In short, the both of you were dreaming."

Nate and Daniel looked at each other. "If you saw what I saw…" Daniel said slowly. "I wouldn't exactly call it a dream."

"The artifact showed you both something?" Anderson asked.

"Yeah," Nate replied, his brow furrowing. "Death. Destruction. Sorrow…"

"A warning." Daniel finished. "And apparently, one of the scientists in charge of the dig might have more to say. As crazy as it might sound."

"That's right," Ashley said. "Dr. Manuel. But he's still on Eden Prime."

"We can worry about that later," Anderson interjected. "Commander, I'm going to need to speak to you in private."

"Here, sir?" Nate replied.

Anderson leaned over slightly to look at Daniel as Kaidan and Ashley, reading the room, left it alongside Doctor Chakwas, Flynn following after. "Anything you're about to hear won't be leaving this room without my permission, Lieutenant," he said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, sir," Daniel said.

Anderson took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm getting reports from other Alliance and Council worlds that the geth have begun a large-scale attack. Nihlus is in a medical coma, and the beacon's been destroyed. The Council's going to want answers, and they're going to want them yesterday."

"It's a good thing that all we'll need to do is tell the truth, then," Nate replied.

"That the beacon gave you a vision? Along with two others?" Anderson shook his head slightly. "Even with multiple witnesses, that's going to be a tough sell. But I'll back your report. You did everything that you could, Shepard."

"There was something else," Nate said after a moment's silence. "Nihlus said something before he went unconscious. 'Saren is'. It was all he was able to get out."

"Saren…" Anderson went silent, and a look of concern crossed his face like a stormcloud, anger flickering for a moment like lightning. "If he was there…"

"You know Saren, sir?" Daniel asked.

"He's another Spectre." Anderson began. "The best of the best, almost a living legend. If he's working with the geth… we have a rogue on our hands. A supremely dangerous one. Especially because he hates humans."

Nate felt more than a little uneasy as Anderson continued. "I don't know how and why he's sided with the geth, but everything tells me that he wanted the beacon. Why? That's another mystery to solve."

He paused, looking at Nate and Daniel critically. "Was there anything in your… visions that might tell you anything?"

Nate looked over at Daniel, who shrugged silently. "Nothing you haven't already heard, sir. Maybe something to do with synthetics and people going to war?"

Anderson nodded slightly. "I see. We'll need to tell the Council. After all, that beacon could have held lost Prothean technology. Maybe even a superweapon of some kind. Whatever it is, Saren likely has it."

Anderson's jaw clenched. "But I know Saren. His reputation, his politics. His service in the First Contact War. Humans are a blight on the galaxy to him, and with the geth, this would be as good as an act of war for him!"

"Then we work together to stop him," Nate replied. "If he's a threat to the Alliance, then he's going to become a threat to the Council as well."

"I just hope the Council sees that reasoning. Being a Spectre means he can go anywhere in Council space and beyond, do almost anything."

"Can the Council revoke a Spectre's status?" Daniel asked.

"It wouldn't surprise me. I'll contact Ambassador Udina to get us an audience as soon as we reach the Citadel."

"Hopefully, sir," Daniel said, "by the time we reach the Council, the data I pulled from one of the geth armatures will be decrypted and show us something useful."

"See to it when you get out of here," Anderson said before looking at Nate. "Until then, you rest up, son. That goes for the both of you."

. . .

Three hours later, Daniel Theisman, doing much better considering the alien vision that had coursed through his brain the day prior, sat in his crew quarters with a few of the members of the 232nd they'd gotten off the planet. Apparently, Captain Anderson had pulled some strings in Alliance Command, and now those marines that they'd rescued were now the ship's complement of them.

"So," he said to the four soldiers in front of him, two men and two women, "how was your little vacation on Eden Prime?"

One of the women, with bright blue eyes and a head of fiery red hair, smiled broadly. "Downright boring at times, Bruder." Private Langley replied. "Still, it's better than Torfan."

The others nodded, some more emphatically than others. "Even if Nynrya ran our unit a little harder than most other units." the other woman, Private Ayanami, replied as she brushed a strand of brown hair out of the path of her equally brown eye. "But I suppose that's how the soldier's life goes."

"I suppose so." Private Ikari, a man with short brown hair and dark blue eyes said with a shrug. "At least, until we saw them."

Daniel was silent for a moment. "Ka'rava?" he asked quietly. "When did you see them?"

"During the first moments of the geth attack." the last man, Private Nagisa, said, pulling up a navy blue omni-tool and opening a picture that looked like it had been taken with a helmet camera. It showed a remarkably plain-looking man who was surrounded by geth. Escorted by them.

"And you're sure that's them?" Daniel asked. Nagisa replied by simply zooming the picture in, the helmet camera's impressive resolution allowing him to get a good look at the eyes of the man. Gray, with a glint of gold going through them the only other visible indicator.

Daniel sighed quietly. "Is there any indication that they're working with Saren?" he said.

"Not so far as we can tell," Ayanami replied. "They seemed to mostly avoid Saren's location. They never seemed to reach the beacon either. But one of their geth did rejoin Saren's forces."

Daniel took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. The secret seems to remain so for now, kids. And until something forces our hands, we're going to keep it that way. Heaven knows Nate Shepard is about to have a lot on his plate soon enough."