A/N

Well it took longer than I expected to get this chapter out. I started school again to do a computer course and it has been a lot more intense than I expected. Still, I haven't stopped this story. People still like reading it and I still like writing it so I will keep going until either of those are no longer true or I finish the thing.

People have been asking me for a while if I am going to review games or music the same way I have done movies. Honestly, probably not. To be honest, I am going to take the movie reviews in a slightly different direction. You will see… this very chapter! Hope you enjoy that.

Anyway, you don't care about me blabbing on here. You want that sweet, sweet story, so here we go! On with the story!

PFTG Chapter 28 – EDEN PRIME

Beau walked through the complex towards the man who he knew would have the information he needed. It was a fast walk too, faster than usual. It wasn't that he was opposed to talking to people, Beau knew he was actually more social than most of the others on Brock's personal staff, despite appearances. Not that he had anything on Aleria, that little asari maiden was the epitome of 'social butterfly'. Still, he knew that when he walked fast like he was now, people knew not to bother him so he was left alone.

It meant that there was something urgent about to happen. Or was already happening.

Not bad, seeing as the Eden Prime facility had only been open for five months, that people already knew his habits.

He made it to the boss's office, that was nowhere near as opulent as people would think of a trillion-credit company. All the orders that had finally started coming through for the downgraded ODPs and the new gunships, called the Grim gunships, which had been taking orders from the quarians, volus and turian militaries, not to mention a decent contract with some above-board law enforcement on Illium, were finally paying for themselves. Not to say that Brock hadn't kept plenty of them in the massive underground hangar at the Eden Prime facility, because there were more than one hundred and fifty of the things sitting in the bunker, to be distributed to different Shieldstar bases for security, and that number was growing.

He saw Brock sitting with his feet up on the dark wood desk, his hands behind his head in a very relaxed pose, his scarred face thoughtful. If Beau hadn't known any better, Brock would look like he didn't have a care in the world. An unfamiliar song was playing over the office speakers that sounded old and fast paced.

"Brock, what's with the song?" he asked, frowning thoughtfully.

"Hey Beau," Brock replied casually. "It's an old Earth song that I thought was kind of relevant to our near future. I came across it and felt it was rather serendipitous."

Beau listened and he heard the lyrics come through clearly.

I think it turned ten o'clock but I don't really know

Then I can't remember caring for an hour or so

Started crying and I couldn't stop myself

I started running but there's nowhere to run to

I sat down on the street and took a look at myself

Said where you going man you know the world is headed for hell?

Say your goodbyes if you've got someone you can say goodbye to

I believe the world is burning to the ground

Oh well, I guess, we're gonna find out

Let's see how far we've come

Let's see how far we've come

Hmmm, well, if the reapers really were coming soon and they really were behind the extinction of countless races going over more than a billion years, then yes, the song would be disturbingly applicable. Not that he didn't trust Brock, because Brock had certainly earned his trust over the last two years. But even though he trusted his boss and friend, the story of the reapers was so very insane that it was hard to completely let go of his scepticism. So, he reverted to the old saying that he had used in the armed forces for dealing with unknown information. Trust, but verify.

Still, he had come here for a reason. "I have news from the colony," Beau said, bringing his friend's attention to himself. "Some of our contacts in the prothean excavation site have confirmed that they just unearthed a beacon. A working beacon."

Brock merely gave him a nod. "As I said so long ago," he replied calmly. "Unfortunately, that means that our time is up. Have all pilots and ground teams get ready to launch at a moment's notice. All leave is cancelled. I want Jurt ready at his post and all of our facilities locked from external entry, except for the gunships and troop carriers."

Beau tensed. It was times like this that Brock seemed almost like he knew the future. Like he knew more than he should have. Beau knew that it seemed like it was too fantastic for someone to know the future but he trusted his gut more often than not. If Brock said that they were going to be fighting then they probably were. "What makes you so sure?" Trust, but verify.

Brock gave a very small smile and gestured to his terminal. "Because I got a very strange message less than an hour ago that told me so," he said. "One that I don't have any reason to not trust, seeing as I asked for it to be sent, though I am surprised that it came to me."

Beau blinked, not having expected that, though the feeling in his gut intensified. "Who sent the message?"

He was right. "The geth."

Brock stood up and walked over to an armour locker on the wall, opening it to see a well-used, well maintained and very high quality hardsuit, with a Butcher automatic shotgun, Foehammer heavy pistol and an M-79 grenade launcher stashed inside. "You remember when we tried to contact them several months back? When I asked them to contact the Council if any geth wanted to follow the reapers, or as they would call it the 'Old Machine'? It turns out that they also thought to contact me too to give me the message." He looked at Beau with a wry smile. "Apparently we left a good impression."

Beau was having trouble processing this information considering how unexpected it was, but his experience in dealing with unusual orders over his time in the Alliance and the last two years with Shieldstar let him respond somewhat normally. "What did the geth have to say?"

"Read for yourself," Brock gestured at the terminal. "I left the message up so it's on screen now."

Beau walked around the desk to look at the holographic display. It took only a few seconds to see that he didn't particularly like the information he was seeing. "Saren Arterius? A Spectre?"

"That's what they said," Brock confirmed. "Unfortunately, that puts us in a bit of a bind. Spectres have so much authority to act that he could almost get away with it if he was on a mission. So we are going to need proof that he is the one committing an attack on the colony with the geth. I have heard some pretty bad rumours about this guy, he plays hard and fast and doesn't care about collateral damage. Killed a whole bunch of civilians once to blame on a rookie he didn't like, got away with it because the rookie was human and under evaluation for entry to Spectres."

Beau clenched his teeth at that, not doubting that what Brock said was true. Criminals with a badge and near unlimited power. He hated that, but to have them be racist and let the racist system work in his favour, that sort of injustice infuriated him. It was a politer version of the batarians. The only thing different were the aliens.

"So, orders?" he bit out.

"Get suited up," Brock said immediately, halfway into his own armour. "Take a squad and drop some non-broadcasting cameras at hidden points at every spaceport in the colony, something that can't be jammed by radio waves. Saren, the geth and the reaper are on their way and we need to start evacuating civilians to the emergency bunkers. Coordinate with the local garrison, tell them that we have intelligence of an attack. We are going to show them how bad an idea that is."

The familiar rush started to push away all of Beau's anger, anticipation of impending combat filling him up. Time to go to work.

Valern was a busy salarian. It was part of the job, being the Councillor for the Salarian Union. He was the nominal intelligence coordinator of the Citadel Council, receiving all of the reports from the STG that required Council attention. It was how he also got the role of councillor, the first male salarian to do so in nearly a thousand years.

It also put him in a position where he could train his own replacement. Linron had been with him in his days as an intelligence operative, though the younger salarian had only just started as Valern had moved into politics. It had allowed Valern to groom Linron into the Councillor that the Salarian Union needed. If he failed and Linron turned out to be defective, then that would be the last time that the Councillor had a say in who got the role the next time. The dalatrasses would take full autonomy over the decision.

Still, his role allowed him a great amount of insight, due to the salarian's duties to be the liaison for the STG. Not all the information that reached his desk made it to his counterparts. Some of the information could be properly weaponised against them if used properly.

A flash of a new message lit up the corner of his display, breaking him out of his thoughts. He typically got one every few minutes, but he didn't recognise the sender. It wasn't unusual but also not common. It usually came from deep cover agents who didn't' want to reveal their identities, even in encrypted communications.

He opened the message and read the short few lines in less than a few seconds, his salarian physiology allowing him to read faster than the other races. Then he stopped. He blinked. He reread the message again. Then he slammed a hand on his intercom.

"Get me Colonel Kirrahe on the line now!" he snapped. He hung up before he heard a reply. They would call him back when Kirrahe was ready.

He cursed to himself. This… this information was not the type to keep to himself. The rest of the Council would need to know.

The door hissed open and Tevos looked up to see Sparatus enter the Council's private meeting room. It was an emergency meeting called by Valern, who had sounded rather panicked. That was unusual for the salarian, who was one of the most level headed beings that Tevos knew. He had a long history of intelligence work in the STG and the Council. It took a lot to make the salarian lose his cool and Tevos couldn't deny that his urgency was making her feel a little unnerved.

"Tevos," the turian greeted with a nod of his head. "Any idea what this is about?"

"Sparatus," she returned a nod of her own. "No, but Valern certainly made it sound urgent enough."

"Yes, he did," Sparatus said with a frown. "I don't think I have heard him be this nervous since the batarians… sorry, the unaffiliated pirates, attacked a cruiser carrying his wife near Omega."

Tevos felt her eyes narrow at him for that, feeling irked. After all, she had been the one to point out that there was no evidence that the attack had any connection to the Hegemony. Sparatus had not disagreed in public but in private he let it be known that he had very much disagreed with her on that. She couldn't help but feel as if she was being challenged for her stance.

"Yes, well I am sure that he will be here any moment to explain what has him so worked up," she said, ignoring the jab.

Sparatus gave a whistling sigh that was the equivalent of an annoyed hiss and his mandibles flexed slightly, but turned to look at his slate, ignoring Tevos. Clearly, he had decided to be a little rude.

Tevos gave the turian a mild glare, but chose not to respond. She knew that Sparatus was not alone in his thoughts in thinking that Tevos was too passive when it came to the batarians. But they just didn't understand! There was no way that anyone wanted to start another war. And while the slaves were not being treated necessarily well, they were alive. If they were to fight against the batarians, then it was likely that they would end up killing a large number of the people that they were trying to save, along with many more. It simply wasn't worth it in the long run. For the benefit of the galaxy, they had to avoid a war.

The door hissed open and Valern rushed in, moving much faster than Tevos had seen him move since he had become a councillor.

"My apologies," he gasped, as he panted lightly. "I had to check a few things before I came here. I needed to be as accurate with my information as possible."

"Of course," Sparatus said, his flanging tone as reassuring as the turian likely could make it. "Take a moment to catch your breath, then we can begin."

The salarian nodded and soon his breath returned to normal. Tevos kept an eye on him, seeing if she could divine why her salarian counterpart had been so desperate to call an emergency meeting. Unfortunately, despite how well she knew the salarian, she had no idea on what was going on in his head.

"Thank you," Valern finally spoke up, drawing both their attention. "I had to get this verified by whatever sources we could which is why I was late. Unfortunately, the best STG analysts could only say that it was a maybe, bordering on possibly."

"Well," Sparatus said, his tone now slightly impatient, "don't hold us in suspense. What are you talking about?"

Tevos watched as Valern drew himself up stiffly. "I received a message from the geth."

Tevos felt a wave of shock blitz through her. Sparatus' mandible flared in surprise. "What?" he asked, his tone stunned.

Valern nodded. "Yes, I understand the complete lack of preparation that sentence can make you feel. I felt it when I read it the first time. As I said, I had this verified by the STG, who could at least confirm that the message does likely appear to have originated from the geth."

"What did they say?" Tevos heard herself ask in morbid curiosity. The geth hadn't ever made contact with the Citadel community. They hadn't made contact with anyone since they had kicked out the quarians three centuries prior.

Valern shifted awkwardly. "I shall read it to you directly so that you know I am not hiding anything from you."

He gave a small cough, then began reading from his terminal. "Greetings Valern-Councillor. We are geth. We are contacting you to warn you. There has been a schism. Many geth programs have chosen to follow the Old Machine, who seeks to eliminate all organics in the galaxy. Approximately 11% of all geth have chosen to follow the Old Machine. We are aware of organic agents that work with the Old Machine. One listed as a Spectre, Saren, was heard by geth giving orders on behalf of the Old Machine to the Heretics. They are headed to the human colony Eden Prime. We recommend you send warning. That is all."

"What nonsense," Sparatus growled out. "Saren is one of our best agents. He would never turn against the Council. It surely is a hoax."

"This does seem suspect," Tevos agreed slowly. "There are so many questions that arise from this message. Who is the Old Machine?"

Valern splayed his hands in a salarian expression that was the equivalent of a shrug. "No idea. There was no context given in the message and our analysts couldn't find anything in the short time since receiving this message. One analyst hypothesised that it may have something to do with the spaceship that the batarians stole from us at Dis, but our data showed no movements in batarian space that would indicate this was the case. The only thing that seems to make sense is that it appears to be a very old artificial intelligence that they stumbled upon, possibly used by the quarians to help them create the geth in the first place. It still does not explain how Saren is involved, only that he is apparently leading them."

"I don't believe it," Sparatus interjected immediately. "I recommended the man myself. He has an impeccable record and is one of our best agents. There is nothing that the geth could say that would make me think otherwise."

"Not even images that they sent along with the message?" Valern asked, sending them to both his compatriots.

Sparatus stiffened slightly. "That easily could be fabricated. We don't exactly keep it hidden from the galaxy who the Spectres are. We announce their appointments publicly."

"Perhaps," Valern seemed to concede. "But moving on from Spectre Arterius, there is still the apparent threat of supposedly renegade geth attacking a human colony, as well as the question of how should we respond."

The room went silent for a moment, as all three of them contemplated the matter. Truthfully, Tevos didn't know how to answer that. If they ordered fleets to move to the area, it would potentially leave gaps that could be exploited by the Terminus warlords, or any opportunistic pirate bands. The cost of deployment was also to be considered, which would make them all look stupid if this turned out to be a hoax.

Eden Prime was a fairly new human colony, only a decade old. The highlights of the planet were the old prothean ruins, though she did remember reading a report that showed that Shieldstar, Brock Nielson's company, had a factory there for something. Rumour was that they were building weapons or conducting research on weapons but they had been surprisingly tight-lipped about it. It was almost like none of Shieldstar's employees were willing to give away corporate secrets. Though considering what was rumoured to have happened the last time someone did that to Brock Nielson, that would be understandable.

If the Council didn't send fleets to reinforce the humans, the Council would be considered in breach of the mutual defence treaties, as well as have public opinion potentially turn against the Council for a perceived lack of action. While it wouldn't normally be much of an issue, the general public still looked somewhat favourably at humans after the massive increase in human media that was still making the rounds through the vid services.

It was a tricky issue and one that Tevos didn't see an easy response to.

"If we move our fleets, we will also need to tell the Alliance that they are under attack," Sparatus said, frowning thoughtfully. "We also leave gaps in our patrols along the other borders. If the geth are on the move this could be a diversion that would leave us vulnerable in other areas. They could take advantage of our vacant lines. But if they are being honest and we don't do anything, we lose face with the humans and the rest of the galaxy for not doing anything." He folded his arms across his chest and brought one hand up to his chin. "But…" he trailed off.

"But what, Sparatus?" Tevos asked, willing to seek the turian's advice on military movements and strategy.

He looked at her for a moment, before turning back to Valern. "Do we know if anyone else was sent this message?"

Valern gave a slow blink. "Unknown. But it is unlikely, or we would probably have heard more about it."

"What are you thinking, Sparatus?" Tevos asked, feeling wary. She could tell the turian was steeling himself, as if to give bad news.

"If we don't act as if we received a warning, and no one else got a message, then no one can complain if we don't move any ships to assist," he said tightly.

The room was silent for a moment.

"Do you mean to say, we act as if we never got the warning from the geth and don't move our ships at all?" Tevos asked slowly. "That will mean many people will die, Sparatus."

He gave a stubborn grunt. "Be reasonable here, Tevos. First, we get the geth, an AI race that doesn't care about organic species, sending us a message, warning us that they have had a group falling out from them who are the real ones that want to attack organic races. There is an impending attack on a human colony. They highlight one of our top Spectres as a traitor and speak of some other ancient AI that we have never heard of before being the one to lead them. It all just sounds too ludicrous to take seriously."

"Ludicrous it may sound, but the data does suggest that there is a chance that this is not forged," Valern spoke up. "On the, admittedly remote, chance that this turns out to be legitimate, it could mean very negative perceptions of this Council if it turns out that they have sent a message to others, this warning is legitimate, and we did nothing despite us having advanced warning the attack was taking place."

"You can't be suggesting that Saren Arterius of all people has turned traitor and is attacking humans?" Sparatus, growled.

"I am not suggesting that," Valern denied. "But the simple idea that there could be an attack that we received warning of and we did nothing to prepare or respond to it and we risk being called out on it, which would undermine our position as the Council."

"I refuse to believe that Saren would betray this Council," Sparatus barked back. "Certainly not without reliable proof. The geth don't count!"

"Gentlemen," Tevos pleaded, trying to restore calm, "there is another way that we could do this."

Both of them turned intense eyes at her, Sparatus was basically demanding an explanation with his body.

"We could send a message that we received intelligence of a possible attack on the human colony by the geth. That way, they have the chance to protect themselves and we can be free to leave our fleets where they are. If someone was to find out that we were given a warning, we can either deny it, or counter by pointing out the absurd notion about relying on the geth. But either way, the humans have a chance to protect themselves and we are blameless if we don't move our fleets."

"Except that we will be," Valern interjected. "The defence treaties we have are quite clear on the matter. We are obligated to respond."

"But not if there are other threats that we are required to see to at the same time," Tevos explained.

A thoughtful pause came as both her fellow councillors frowned. "You mean to say that we leave the humans with a message and pretend that there is another threat that we are responding to that is just as likely or more likely to have happened than a geth attack on a human colony?" Sparatus asked dubiously.

"Yes," Tevos confirmed, already feeling a slight twinge of guilt. "We can send a few frigates to check things out, say that we are merely following up on intelligence, that way we can cover ourselves. If there is an attack, they can send a message out to ask for reinforcements. If not, we look good for having a presence, even if it is just a token investigation."

The thoughtful pause returned. "I am uncertain that this will be sufficient for the humans," Valern said slowly. "If there is an attack, and we notified them of it, and yet don't send more than a few ships, they will say that we are failing to act in… how did Ambassador Udina put it?... the spirit of the agreement. After all, we are telling them that the geth have warned of an attack. You are expecting us to relay to them that their safety is not worth more than a few frigates worth of response?" He turned at tapped at his monitor for a second. "Especially as there is a population of four million registered at Eden Prime. If we do send a purely token force, we will need to grant them something significant if it turns out that there is a genuine attack and we didn't respond."

"The humans would be unlikely to let that go quietly," Sparatus growled out in agreement. "We wouldn't."

"Then it would need to be something of sufficient value that they would not consider the defence treaties invalid," Valern said, his tone firm. "That is, if you truly mean to allow potentially four million people to die and a garden world be lost to the geth."

Yes, Tevos conceded to herself. It would require something very significant from this sort of… she hesitated to call it betrayal, but it certainly wasn't good faith.

She blinked. At some point, the attack on Eden Prime seemed to have changed at some point from mere conjecture to absolute certainty, but she wasn't sure how. Another though crossed her mind. She brought up the file on Eden Prime again. There it was.

She hummed as she saw the most recent update. Ah yes, the prothean beacon. Spectre Nihlus sent to pick it up with… Commander Shepard who was being assessed for candidacy. An idea came to mind. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she considered this and how it would work. It was feasible, but she knew there would be resistance.

"Something on your mind, Tevos?" Sparatus' flanged voice broke into her thoughts.

She was far too experienced to be flustered by the question so she just cleared her throat. "Yes," she replied. "I have an idea of possible reparations that the humans might accept, should this attack be legitimate." She took a long look at Sparatus, before the corner of her mouth twisted into a wry smile. "But you're probably not going to like it."

A burst of fire impacted on her shields, causing her to dive to cover with a bitten off curse. This really isn't how she wished her day had started.

Getting the mission to have the Normandy do its shakedown run to Eden Prime, which really turned out to be a mission to extract a prothean beacon, was fine. Having a Council Spectre embedded on board to oversee the extraction was annoying but manageable. Having that same Council Spectre also being here to evaluate her so that she could be assessed for entry to the Spectre was a surprise, a slight honour, but mostly confusing as she had to admit quietly to herself that she didn't really understand the significance, other than there was no human Spectre and she might end up being the first, which is where the honour came from.

Landing in what seemed to be a full-scale warzone was something she could have done without.

Geth frigates and even a cruiser or two had been dodged on the way to finding a landing zone near the colony's dig site. They didn't do so completely unopposed though. Once the Normandy hit atmosphere, they had to dodge through dogfights taking place between geth fighters and some unfamiliar type of gunship that seemed to be a hell of a lot better than any she had seen before, tearing apart the geth fighters, then moving on to wherever else they needed to go.

Shortly after they landed they ran into a firefight between several soldiers in black armour with a white star on the left side of the chest against a few geth probes. Jenkins had taken a few hits and went down, though he would live btu needed to surgery, which the soldiers had volunteered their medical centre for. Then they made their way through the colony, fighting against more geth mechs, only to come across a group of soldiers who basically threw their lone female sergeant at them in the guise of a 'guide' to the dig site where Shepard was supposed to find the prothean beacon.

Unfortunately, the beacon wasn't there, because of course it wasn't. Why else would something go right today? They made their way towards the small spaceport, only to come across some form of glowing mech zombie that started to attack them.

When they finally got to the spaceport, she found Nihlus Kryik dead, having apparently been shot from behind. A witness that had been hiding said, after some mild threatening that she had never intended to follow through on, that another turian called Saren was the one involved but they were also missing so she couldn't verify anything. And of course, the beacon was no longer at the spaceport. The geth and Saren had moved it somewhere else!

More fighting with a loyal Alenko, and a mouthy sergeant as they made their way through the colony, randomly running into groups of the black armoured soldiers fighting geth mechs or the zombies or just securing the locals as they went. She didn't know who these soldiers were but she guessed mercs of some kind. There were several different races represented, predominantly human, asari and turian.

Now finally, they managed to get passed the train that had been shut down, only to find that there were nuclear level explosives. But they couldn't deactivate them completely just yet, because, what do you know? Even more geth!

Looking around she spotted roughly twenty more geth mechs that she could see clearly. There may have been more, but another blast of geth pulse weapons had her ducking behind cover again.

"How long Alenko?" she barked.

The lieutenant was busy trying to disarm the explosive right near them. She and Williams were providing cover fire.

"One minute," Alenko called back. Then we still have two more to disarm.

"Roger." Shields recharged, she leaned out of cover and sent a long blast towards the nearest geth soldier, bringing its shields down and destroying the mech after three seconds of sustained fire.

A series of rapid bursts from Williams put down another one. "How many more of these things?" she cried out as she leapfrogged to the next cover.

A rocket flew past their position to blow up against a wall thirty metres behind them. "Too many," Shepard responded, quickly switching out for her sniper rifle and taking aim at the rocket trooper. Two rapid shots, followed by the whining alarm that told her the gun had overheated, told her that the rocket trooper was no more.

"Got it!" Alenko shouted as he stood up and held his pistol out, taking pot shots at a geth that was moving towards them. The mech's barriers flickered but didn't fall. Shepard was going to have to get him to use a stronger weapon.

"Next one is up on the opposite walkway," Alenko continued once he ducked down and let his pistol cool.

"Roger," Shepard acknowledged. "I'll take point. Cover me."

She threw herself out of cover, holding her trigger down to spray at two geth that were sticking their heads up over cover. Several of her shots hit and Alenko and Williams finished them off as Shepard crossed to the opposite walkway. The open walkway not providing cover, letting several shots drain her barriers. She leaped down to find cover behind a lip on the wall, quickly finding her feet and making sure that she stayed hidden long enough for her barriers to recharge.

Once ready, she provided cover fire to let Williams and then Alenko to make their way over.

"Is it just me," Williams gasped for breath after her sprint to cover, "or are there less geth than before?"

Shepard blinked, then frowned. A quick look out from her cover gave her the answer. "You're right. That really big one that was at the back has gone and a few others two. Watch your scopes and HUD for flanking mechs."

After receiving an acknowledgement, they pushed forward, reaching the next explosive device. Once again, Alenko set to disarming and Williams and Shepard provided cover. Now that she was focussing on it, there was definitely less geth than she remembered.

Looking out from cover, she pulled out her Mantis sniper rifle again and took aim at a position where a geth had taken cover. She let a breath out and the moment that the geth came out from cover, she put two shots into it, letting the overheat alarm sound. This time she didn't return to cover as she realised that there were no geth left to see. Williams had taken out the last one and the others that disappeared hadn't returned.

She kept her guard up but collapsed her sniper and drew the Lancer assault rifle. She was happy to take a short breather if she had a moment.

"This one's done," Alenko announced, standing up with his pistol drawn again. He took a look around. "Uh, did we get them all?"

"It looks like it," Williams affirmed. Shepard was happy to see that the sergeant still had her own Lancer out, sweeping for targets.

"Let's get the last one," Shepard ordered. "I don't want to know how long there is until it goes off but it isn't something I want to risk."

They made their way to the last explosive and this time Shepard took over disarming it. No offense to Alenko, she was just faster. She was an N7 for a reason, after all. Once it was over, she stood, assault rifle at the ready in case any random geth tried to take a pot shot. Nothing. It was eerily quiet now that the combat had settled. There were still sounds of geth fighters and the new gunships fighting out in the distance but it was far enough away that she didn't see any of them and they didn't sound like they were coming any closer.

She led the way over to a group of geth that she could have sworn were active when she had been counting numbers during the firefight but didn't remember destroying. They were lying in pieces, burnt in places, like they had been hit with miniature explosives, or simply torn apart then someone tried to set it on fire.

"Who the hell hit these ones?" Williams spoke up, looking around the platform. Shepard was pleased to see the soldier still had her assault rifle deployed and ready for action.

"I didn't see them go down," Shepard confessed. "I didn't even hear them being shot at."

"Whoever they are, I'm just glad they were on our side," Alenko chipped in, holding his heavy pistol down at his side.

"Alenko, we need to get you a more useful weapon for combat," Shepard deadpanned. She didn't mind a good pistol but a standard Alliance issue pistol was not the way to go.

"Sorry Commander," Alenko shrugged. "I am used to using my biotics. Two handed weapons aren't usually beneficial for it."

Shepard let out a huff. "Whatever, let's get to the beacon."

They walked down the walkway to what looked like a gap in the wall. Dead geth littered the ground as they moved, making Shepard feel more on edge. If they had been allies then why hadn't they helped out until the geth were gone? It all seemed a bit fishy to her.

It wasn't until she walked through the gap in the wall that she saw dozens of more geth bodies trashed around the area. Suddenly, the lack of further assistance seemed more reasonable.

"Whoa, that's impressive," Williams gaped as she looked around at the broken robots.

"That's got to be more here than what we fought on our way here," Kaiden exclaimed, his tone disbelieving.

Shepard hummed in acknowledgement. Credit where credit was due and all but she was here for the beacon, which was now clearly visible down at the edge of the platform. She kept a look out to make sure that none of the geth unit were still moving as she moved towards the beacon. There was none though. Whoever had done this had been thorough. And, judging by the black and twisted metal in some places from explosives and the extreme number of holes where assault rounds had impacted, heavily armed.

"This is freaking me out a bit," Williams confessed. "Who did all this?"

A gravelly voice spoke up from the rock wall behind us. "That would be us."

The sudden jump by the troops, along with the startled curse by Alenko, caused by me speaking up and revealing Torrin and myself pressed against the rock wall was pretty amusing. What was less amusing was Ashley Williams, in all her bright pink and white armoured glory, firing a quick burst from her Lancer that pinged off my barriers. The weapon was so useless and my armour kinetic barriers had fully recharged so it didn't stand a chance of breaching them and hurting me, but that didn't matter. It was the principle.

I looked down at the ripples of my shield and back up at Williams. "Who in the hell taught you trigger discipline, soldier?" I barked at her.

She tensed, but her rifle lowered quickly. "Sorry. You scared the crap outta me."

"That's enough," Shepard, a definitely very female Shepard, stepped forwards. "I'm Commander Shepard," she said, introducing herself. "This is Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, and Gunnery Chief Sergeant Ashley Williams. Who are you?"

I tilted my head slightly, not really sure how this would go. I had never played the femshep story line. "I am familiar with the Gunnery Chief and am aware that her unit is on the other side of the spaceport," I said, having kept track through my people. "How did she end up with you?"

"She got cut off from her unit when the geth sent in their ground troops in the valley back a ways," Shepard explained. "Now, I ask again, who are you?"

"The name is Brock Nielson, President of Shieldstar Corporation," I said. "This is one of my best, Torrin. We were on planet over at our facility when the geth attacked. It's my troops and gunships you see going around defending the place seeing as the Alliance decided to take their time to come to the party."

It was a little funny to see all three of them stiffen up. "I think that our presence here would prove that the Alliance is on top of things," Alenko bit out.

"Uh, huh," I replied, unimpressed. "Except that the communications that we received here were reported you were coming in to pick up a prothean beacon with a Spectre Nihlus, and not as a response to the imminent geth attack that the Council was warned about before it happened. Sergeant Williams was already here as part of the garrison, which was warned by my team that there was an attack coming through our early warning system. And, seeing as I don't recognise him from the garrison roster, I am assuming that Lieutenant Alenko is one of your lackies. As is the injured Corporal Jenkins who has been taken for surgery at my company's medical station. So please, tell me again about the Alliance response?"

"Listen jackass…" Williams growled.

"Not you, Sergeant," I cut her off. "I am talking to the Commander, not some small fry." I tilted my head and looked at Shepard. I had to admit to myself, I enjoyed not showing my face to the Alliance mobs in front of me. It was a psychological game right now, and not having a face to show, helped put me at an advantage.

Though, if someone of Shepard's reputation was put off by it, she had more than enough experience to not show it. "You're right," she spoke up, the top part of her face likewise hidden by her N7 helmet. "I wasn't sent here as part of an Alliance response to the geth attack. I was sent here to shadow Spectre Nihlus as he was sent here to pick up the prothean beacon."

I nodded. "I know," I said calmly. "But the problem is so do most of the civilians. The Alliance is going to need to play catch up on the PR for this as to why they didn't have ships here to protect the colony. You would think that after Shanxi and Mindoir they would focus on having more defences on their planets if they wish to keep them as their planets."

It was a dig and not one that any of the Alliance soldiers missed. Williams grit her teeth and turned away, clearly not wanting to either hear any more or risk saying something she shouldn't. Alenko's hands tightened on his pistol but he stayed silent. Shepard stiffened, then sighed. "You're not wrong," she conceded. "But the Alliance isn't what I am here to talk about. I need to get this beacon back to the Citadel and I need to know how the Spectre that was with me died."

"I can't say much about a dead Spectre right now," I said, my tone thoughtful. "I would need to see what our monitoring equipment at the spaceport shows. And before you ask, I was told about that a few minutes ago by one of my teams that are there now securing it." I interrupted before Alenko's open mouth started spewing nonsense.

I tilted my head. "And if you want to start getting the beacon back to the Citadel," I said, my tone very casual, "I would probably start by saving the gunnery chief."

Shepard whirled around to see that Williams was being sucked into the beacon by a gravity field of some kind. I watched as the N7 ran over to the gunnery chief and wrestled her out of the field, throwing Williams clear. It had the effect that I knew would happen, Shepard was caught in the field, hovering in the air for about fifteen seconds while Alenko held Williams back from try to save her. Then, with a small green flash, the beacon exploded and Shepard dropped like a marionette with its strings cut.

"Shepard!" Alenko barked out as he and Williams ran over to help her. Alenko started checking for a response while Williams just stood there looking worried. To be honest, I was kinda let down by her lack of usefulness. Torrin stood right beside me quietly, taking his cue from me. He had come so far in the last two years. I was extremely proud of my friend.

Still, there was work to be done. I activated my comms. "Ground base this is Oracle, I need air cover and a medic to my location, over."

"This is Base," I heard the voice of the coordinator, a turian I had rescued about a year ago from a Blood Pack slave camp. "I copy. I have two Grims on approach to provide overwatch. ETA is fifteen seconds. Medic on route in a shuttle and will be there in about three minutes. As a heads up I have an Alliance frigate up unknown make headed to you, ETA forty seconds."

"Roger that, cancel the medic then," I said. "It was for one of their and they will have one on board the frigate, over."

"Roger that, Oracle," Base said. "Medic stood down and all areas secured. The geth have left orbit and are making full speed to the relay, over."

"Thanks for the heads up, Base. Oracle, out."

Sure enough, by the time that I had finished talking to base, the roar of my gunships arriving was clearly audible. "I think that as far as field tests go on the gunships, this was pretty successful," Torrin spoke up thoughtfully as he watched the two approaching gunships.

"Agreed," I said. "I still need to talk to Nelathie about specifics but overall, they are probably the best gunship in the galaxy by a mile. I think it will be twenty years before anyone else has something close to this on their own."

"As long as no one leaks the designs, probably," Torrin concurred as the sounds of the approaching Normandy made themselves known.

The Normandy smoothly moved in and made a landing in what appeared to be an area far too small for it, highlighting Joker's skill, and the ramp for the vehicle access opened. A small group of people rushed over to where Shepard was lying, clearly assessing and getting ready to take to the med bay. Then, a figure marched out with the posture of a man who was in charge.

Captain David Anderson in all his N7 glory, marched over to where Torrin and I were standing. I noticed that Alenko and Williams left Shepard to the newcomers and followed the good Captain.

"What the hell happened here?" he barked, clearly not meaning it as a question.

I raised my eyebrow at him, not that he could see it behind my helmet. I have to admit I was annoyed being ordered around. I didn't care if he was a living legend. I was the head of a trillion-credit company and veteran anti-slavery campaigner with possibly more field missions than his entire crew. I didn't take orders from anyone.

"Why hello," I couldn't help snarking. "Yes, the weather is rather beautiful here. No, I don't think the geth were friendly. Yes, I do respond better to polite questions than being barked at."

"Hey jackass!" Williams snapped, clearly beginning a rant.

"Enough!" Anderson cut her off. "My apologies," he continued to me. "Today has been a very trying day and I have a lot left to do. I am Captain David Anderson of the Alliance, commanding officer of the SSV Normandy. Who are you?"

Well, if he was being polite then I could respond in kind. "Brock Nielson, President of Shieldstar Corporation and apparently ground commander of the response force to drive away the geth."

He raised an eyebrow at that. "Sounds like one hell of a tale," he said. "Can you tell me what happened with the beacon?"

"There were some reports that the geth moved it to this location after they took it from the spaceport," I answered. "Torrin and I tracked them here and got dropped off by one of my gunships. They cleared a landing spot and then we cleared the area and were making our way through the geth to where I am guessing your commander was coming from when we came back to secure this location. After Shepard got here, the beacon activated and almost sucked in Gunnery Chief Sergeant Williams over there. It looked like a biotic pull had hold of her. Shepard got her out of it but looked to be stuck in her place. She got lifted a few feet in the air for a few seconds when the beacon flashed green and exploded and Shepard got dropped. Then we called for overwatch and a medic that I called off when I was told you were coming. That's about it."

"I see," he said, frowning. He looked around the platform. "This is a mess. We need to head back to the Citadel and report this. I am going to take Shepard back and probably ask the local barracks for Williams to join me in case she is needed for evidence." He looked back at me. "It would probably be a good idea for you to head there as well. Any information that you can give could be extremely useful."

I nodded thoughtfully. I had planned on going to the Citadel after this anyway, but it was a bit of a surprise for Williams to tag along if her unit was still alive. It must have been all part of the Big plan for her to be there. "Yeah, probably a good idea. I'm going to head there pretty much now."

"Did you need a lift?" Anderson asked, gesturing to the Normandy.

"Nah, I have my own ride," I denied him. "It's no Alliance frigate but I should only be about an hour after you if you are leaving now."

"Good to know," Anderson said, already starting to turn away to head back to the Normandy. "I will meet you at the human embassy when you get there."

I nodded in agreement and watched as the good captain marched back to the shuttle bay on the Normandy. Once they lifted off I activated my comms again. "Control, I need a shuttle to my location. I am heading back to my ship and going to the Citadel. Contact Aleria and have the Balrog ready to go by the time I am on board."

I received an acknowledgement and turned back to Torrin.

"Looks like everything is kicking off, building up to something big," I said, looking straight at his faceplate. "Are you still with me?"

His head tilted down. "Till the end of the line."

I gave a grunt of affirmation. "Then let's get going. Time to get to work."

1 film, 4 reviews

Gladiator

Thessian Suns Publication

By Helia Mis'audis

A masterfully done vid that highlights a time we asari can only image in our most ancient histories. It was truly inspiring. A general who became a slave. A slave who became a gladiator, a gladiator who defied an emperor. A touching story that eclipses the war around them as the protagonist faces trial after trial to seek revenge against those who wronged him. Excellently done.

Sur'kesh Leaf Script

By Silarn Modusk

The composition, directing, and artistic effect were all used to great effect. The set designs were amazing and the main and supporting actors played their roles exceptionally. Though he is no longer alive, I feel that Jaquin Firebird was overlooked in the awards for his magnificent portrayal of the antagonist.

Palaven Daily Call

By Cassias Messua

A story about duty being turned on itself. The greater duty to the people, or the duty to a current corrupt leader, in a time when the leader determined the peoples' morality. When Maximus refused to follow the corrupt leader, he loses everything and turns his mind to fulfilling the last command of his true leader, in the only way he can. Very well done and the action scenes do a good job of depicting the natural chaos of battle.

The Krogan Word

By Ognut Grax

Those fighting scenes gave me a boner.

A/N Please Review/Follow/Favourite as you please

Took a slightly different path with the movie reviews at the end. As I said, because more people are interested in how the other races look at our movies, I will probably use this format from this point on. If that's what you do or don't want me to do, drop a review and let me know your thoughts.