Chapter 5

The next chapter might take sometime as I want to re-write some of Shepards return or at least iron it out s bit better.

Story Start


Back with Shepard

After they left the research station and put some distance between them, they heard more shrieks followed by the distant sounds of a fight up ahead. What drew their attention away from that, though, was the sight of multiple people impaled on poles.

"Well" swallowed Kaiden "you don't see that every day. "

In front of them were dozens of the same tripod they saw before. In terms of looks, they all seemed identical. On twelve of them though, were people in various states of decay impaled by a long, thin spike that penetrated through their back and out through their chests.

A couple of them looked like they had only been dead for a couple hours at most. Most of them, however, looked like they were undergoing mummification. The more mummified the victims looked, the more they started to resemble the 'zombies' that had been attacking them. Also, from the blood stains on the empty tripods, they had definitely been used.

Shepard got the feeling that this was how the geth had been making whatever those 'zombies' were, exactly how she had no idea.

"That's an Andrews Fields uniform!" exclaimed Ash, pointing at a partially mummified human wearing a uniformed set of overalls that looked like it was about to fall apart. "It's a farm close to the spaceport. He looks like he's been dead for weeks, have... have we been killing our own people? Is that how they've been making the things that have been attacking us?"

"Whatever they are now, it's clear whoever they were is long gone, and even if a part of them was still in there somewhere...I couldn't imagine a worse fate. I don't know if it will make you feel better, but judging from the numbers they sent your way, I doubt all of them were from the colony. There's just too many of them to all have come from the digsite or spaceport in the time they've been attacking."

"Really hope you're right." said Ash, not quite convinced

"Me too." said Shepard before turning to face the impaled victims and tightening the grip on her rifle. "Kaiden, lift the ones that are still recognisable off. I'll take care of the others."

"What about the fight up ahead?" asked Kaiden "Shouldn't we get there as quickly as possible?"

"That fight's over. Nothing we can do about it from here, and this shouldn't take long. I don't want to leave people like this unless I don't have a choice." answered Shepard, pointing out that while they had been distracted by the bodies, the sounds and shrieks up ahead had stopped. Leaving only an ominous, dead silence behind.

Then raising her rifle, she put a round through one of the mummies that looked like it was close to becoming one of those things. Then she took out another.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Ash shocked

"If those spikes are turning people into what's been attacking everyone, then we need to make sure that they don't go after anyone else." Raising her rifle at another one, Shepard fired off another round. As she pointed at a fourth, another rifle cracked.

Turning back around she saw Ash, with her own rifle raised. Neither said anything, just a solemn nod before both pulled the trigger yet again.

After their grim work was finished, they examined the ones Kaiden had lifted off the spikes. Just to be on the safe side, their limbs had also been tied with a fabricated zip tie. They didn't have any idea how those spikes worked, and it was better to be safe than sorry.

"What the hell happened to them?" asked Ash "It looks like everything was sucked out of them, leaving just a husk behind. I mean, how does that even work?

"I have no idea, " Kaiden replied. I've never seen any kind of tech that could do this, and I wouldn't have any idea where to even start."

"We can work that out later. We're almost at the spaceport."

Soon after Shepard said those words, they entered in sight of the spaceport with the Reaper ship looming over it. Between them, though, were more of the tripod spikes, each with a victim on top.

As they watched, though, the spikes all lowered and the mummified remains pushed themselves off. After a bit of stumbling, they all charged towards them. Fortunately, the ones charging them were all grey, none of the other unique colours. Unfortunately, there was more than enough to be a threat if they got close and they were also being reinforced by some nearby geth.

It was mostly Ash and Shepard who took out the incoming threats, both mummified humans and geth. Kaiden used his biotics to either slow the nearest combatants long enough to be taken out or create singularities at a distance to trap as many as he could and create bottlenecks to funnel the remaining so they could be taken out more easily. Every so often, Shepard would activate battle stance temporarily, just long enough to make sure that nothing was trying to flank them or take them from behind. The only threats nearby, however, were in front of them. It was because of that she got her first taste of what the mummies felt like and they felt extremely wrong. Like you were holding or looking at a rotten piece of fruit. Unpleasant was an understatement.

As the last of geth fell and there were no more mummified husks, there was a loud rumble and a sound that was faintly similar to a whale call and the large ship parked over the spaceport started to ascend in a cloud of red-tinted smoke and lighting. Most likely carrying the beacon with it.

"Fuck!" swore Shepard. Part of her wondered if stopping to remove the people from the spikes was a mistake. Another part of her realised that even if she bypassed any delays, the ship still would have taken off before she made it to the first step of the spaceport.

"Okay, we need to get down there now. Hopefully, the Normandy got it as it left the atmosphere so they might have a chance on tracking it. If not there might be something down there that will let us know where they're headed. Maybe they used a console to check if there was going to be a meteor shower or something where they were heading." continued Shepard

Heading down the slope they passed the fallen geth and pseudo mummies. They were halfway down the slope when Ash noticed movement in the window of a nearby shed.

"Commander, I think someone's in there." said Ash, levelling her rifle at the shed. The or something went unsaid.

However, before they got close, the door opened, and someone peered out cautiously.

"A-are they all gone? Is it all over?" asked the man

"It's safe. You can come out." said Shepard as she and the others continued to approach

"Oh, thank God." said the man, stepping out, followed by two others. Another man and one woman, making three in total.

"We thought we were going to die in that shed." continued the first man

"What can you tell me about the attack?" asked Shepard. With the beacon likely gone, any information about the ship or the attack could help them track it down.

"It's safe. You can come out." said Shepard as she and the others continued to approach

"It didn't look like any ship I'd seen before. And when it landed, it released this noise it was like a... Davie, your dad watches old movies. What was that sound called again?" asked the woman

"A foghorn." answered the last man

"That's it!" exclaimed the woman

"But we didn't just hear it with our ears. We felt it, too! Like it was echoing inside our skulls. I'd think I was going crazy if these two didn't say the same thing." said the first man who seemed to have become the unofficial spokesman

"That's when we heard sounds of gunfire and locked ourselves inside." said the second man

"How come the geth didn't find you?" asked Kaiden "This shed is right next to the spaceport; it should have been one of the first places they checked."

"The attack happened so quickly that I guess they thought no one had time to hide." said the woman

"If there wasn't time to hide, how did you get to the shed in time?" asked Ash

"We were on break. We were already right next to it." answered the woman automatically

"Hold on, you were on break...and you were here?" asked Ash suspiciously

"Well we..." started the first man

"Come on, we most as well tell them. What's it going to matter now?" asked the woman

"Tell us what?" asked Shepard

"Fine." signed the man "We run a small smuggling ring, nothing bad just some folks don't want to pay extra for asari wine and tea. The worst we do is take a few grenades here and there. Nothing that will get anyone killed and certainly no drugs or illegal weapons. We were meeting to discuss last week's shipment."

"Hold on, grenades?" asked Ash angrily "Those-"

"Just training grenades. The real ones get noticed if they go missing, and the last thing we want is people looking around." said the man quickly, attempting to ward off Ash's anger "We use them to scare animals away from the crops, they make a loud noise but they don't do any damage to the farm equipment, crops or anyone who gets too close. Listen, you're more than welcome to grab what you want. I doubt they will do much, though. They're all bang but no buck."

"Anything else?" pressed Shepard, having the feeling they still were holding something back.

"Yeah, there is something else. A few weeks ago a pistol got mislabelled and I put it aside. When no one asked about it I made plans on selling it...but it's yours if you want it. Apparently, it's a prototype that combines Citadel weapon tech with Alliance."

"Yeah, like I haven't heard that before." replied Shepard. While not common there were some attempts at fusing both weapon designs, all usually ended in failure or weapons that cost far more than they were worth.

"I'll take it." said Ash taking her by surprise "I gave my pistol up before when we were running low on ammo and guns. I could use a backup even if it isn't good."

"I'll grab it for you now." said the man ducking back inside.

When he came back he was carrying a box labelled 'dummy grenades' and red pistol that looked flashy but probably had a slower rate of fire than her pistol yet less damage output than Kaiden's. That said, a fancy but rubbish pistol was better than no pistol...though maybe not by much.

As Ash helped herself to the pistol and began to check it over, Shepard grabbed a few of the grenades. She doubted she would need them they could be useful if she needed the geth to look in a different direction.

When she was done she turned to look at the man who seemed to be in charge. "Head back to the shed and keep your head down, while I doubt there are any geth left around I don't want to take that chance. When things are safe I'll make sure someone comes to get you."

"That's fine, I'm just glad that today isn't going to be my last day."

As the civilians headed back inside, Shepard, Ash and Kaiden headed back to the spaceport. It didn't take long to cross the remaining distance.

From there it was a matter of moments before they found signs of a fight. Holes from bullets and grenades and some large dark stain marks. Like something bled out before the blood dried up. It was just like the dig site but the blood looked like it was spilled days ago, but thanks to the bodies that died hours ago yet looked weeks old that didn't mean much. Also she couldn't think of a single thing that bled black.

What gained everyone's attention however was the dead body of Nihlius. His armour, which had looked freshly repaired and painted before was scorched and marked. It looked like he had taken a grenade at close range and one of his mandibles was blown off. However, what was most noticeable thing was the two-meter arm going through his chest. Whatever had happened it was clear he had put up one hell of a fight.

"Shit." swore Shepard. Colony under attack, beacon gone and now a dead Spectre. She knew enough that someone would be looking for someone to blame and in all one someone else and in all likelihood that someone else was going to be her.

"He's still warm." said Kaiden checking the body "This couldn't have happened that long ago."

"The fight we heard before." realised Shepard "Kaiden can you get anything off his omni-tool?"

"Nothing, it's been wiped clean." answered Kaiden

"I guess I should have seen that coming. Ash if we were going to find something that could point to where that ship's heading, where would we go?"

"The main hub of the spaceport. That's where the ships load and unload their cargo. There should be a tram nearby that will take us there. It's then separated depending on where it needs to go. This is an agriculture port, anything to do with farming passes through here." answered Ash

"Which way is the tram?"

"Well, this looks like it could be the pick up and drop off area. So the tram itself shouldn't be far away." answered Ash "Sorry but all I know is what's in the defence plan, I've never actually been here."

"A tramline should be easy to spot, when we see it it should be obvious." said Kaiden

Sure enough, after looking around, Ash found the tram line.

"I've got the tramline, but there's no tram here."

"It must be at the other end." remarked Kaiden

"Can you bring it to us?" asked Shepard as Kaiden located a console and started accessing it.

"No need, according to this, it's already coming our way." said Kaiden as he went through the console

"Time?" asked Shepard

"It will be here within minutes."

"Okay, then let's use that time to reload and get ready. Kaiden, you and I will be going in close. Ash, I want you to find a good spot to give us cover. The tram is likely covered with reinforcements. If we can take them out before they disembark, we'll have the advantage. I doubt there will be much room to maneuver so we can use those numbers against them. Should they push us back, though it will be us trying to get through the bottleneck."

Two minutes later, when the tram started to pull in, everyone opened fire. While they had no idea how many geth were onboard the tram, only a few of them had good angles. Meanwhile, each of them had a good line of sight. Despite this, the battle was in a stalemate. The geth couldn't push forward without taking heavy losses, but thanks to numerous crates, the geth had plenty of cover stopping Shepard's team from pushing towards the tram. Who knew how many geth sat behind the crates unnoticed? Also, the longer the fight went on, the quicker the geth got at shooting them. It was like each geth uploaded the coordinates of the person who took them out as they went down. Which due to their nature, would make sense. Even Ash, with her cover, had started to duck out of sight to let her shield recharge.

As Shepard got ready to start throwing grenades to make sure the area was clear Kaiden spoke up.

"Ash, what did you say this port was used for?"

"Mostly farming, feed and seed." answered Ash as she took the head off a geth that leaned out of cover for too long

"So nothing expensive?" asked Kaiden

"There's probably some farm machine parts, though the research station also has their stuff shipped through here."

"What are you thinking?" asked Shepard

"I'm thinking we get rid of their cover, can both of you watch my back?" asked Kaiden

"I've got you." said Ash

"Same here." added Shepard "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking we clear things out a bit." answered Kaiden

Summoning his biotics, Kaiden formed a large singularity, one that sacrificed stability for size and power. As the singularity started to drag in both boxes and geth, Kaiden sent out a result was boxes and geth flying everywhere, geth and crates hitting each other, and more than one falling over the edge With the area in front of them clear, they were finally able to start pushing forward onto the tram.

Moving forward past the fallen boxes and half crushed geth, the later of which they stopped to take out properly. No point in risking the chance of one of them recovering and shooting at their backs or crawling after them.

Just because they made it onto the tram though didn't mean the fight was over. There was more than enough geth remaining to be a problem. As Ash moved to a better spot, Shepard and Kaiden hunkered down to let their shields fully turned out to be a good idea, as the next time Shepard stood out of cover, a single round depleted her shields by about a third. Causing her to duck into cover as a second round hit the crate she was hiding behind.

"Watch out, we've got a sniper on our hands!" warned Shepard as she quickly formed a barrier around herself.

"That's not all. There's a geth bigger than a krogan charging towards you and another one right behind it!" warned Ash

Quickly checking, Shepard saw Ash was right. Down at the other end of the tram were two red coloured geth thudding towards them, both had to be around 11 feet tall at least.

"Shit! Kaiden tech attacks and constant fire, fire blind if you have to. If those get close, we're not walking away." ordered Shepard as she switched her rifle to full auto and held the trigger.

"Got it commander." replied Kaiden as he fired a sabotage and opened fire.

However, a single sabotage wasn't enough to take its barriers down. It did get a response, though, as it and its fellow fired a carnage shot towards them, forcing Kaiden and her to return to cover.

"Keep those tech attacks coming, Kaiden. Ash, cover us as much as you can; we might have to retreat." said Shepard, firing a burst before ducking into cover, throwing a grenade as she went. Unlike the geth they had been dealing with up to now though, these looked like they could take a lot more punishment. And thanks to the snipers, they had to be careful how long they stayed out of cover.

"Commander!" called Kaiden, getting her attention.

Unclipping a grenade pouch he threw it to her. Opening it, she saw it was full of grenades coloured an electric blue.

"Tech grenades?" asked Shepard

"I thought they might be a good idea if we ran into more geth than my omni-tool could handle. I've been saving them just in case we got surrounded." explained Kaiden

Unlike normal grenades, which were black, or training grenades which were similar but with an orange triangle on top. Tech grenades were an electric blue and designed to take out any nearby electronics, usually weapons or kinetic barriers.

They were commonly used in hostage situations alongside stun or smoke grenades to take out hostiles without putting the hostages at risk, or when they needed to take a target out without killing them. It was a lot easier to take out someone that just lost their shields and weapon, and for some reason they became really cooprative when they realised their weapon didn't work and that all it would take to put . Aside from that, though, they weren't often used. Not when any qualified engineer could do the same.

Grabbing two, Shepard threw them at the nearest charging geth. When they hit the ground, they released a charge of energy that caused the geth to stumble but not stop. As it continued further, it looked like it was unaffected. However, a round from Ash proved that its shields were indeed down.

As rounds continued to hit it, it started to take damage, but it showed no signs of going down just yet, and there was still another one behind it with shields at full strength.

Hoping the grenades would do more damage than just deplete its shields, Shepard continued to throw tech grenades while firing. She didn't want to see what a geth that looked like it was designed to take on krogans could do in close quarters.

Grabbing two, Shepard threw them at the nearest charging geth. When they hit the ground, they released a charge of energy that caused the geth to stumble but not stop. As it continued further, it looked like it was unaffected. However, a round from Ash proved that its shields were indeed down.

As everyone opened fire on the

The grenade after that must have damaged something as its legs seemed to seize, causing it to fall with a loud thud. As it tried to get back onto its feet, Shepard threw one of her normal grenades, it detonated just in front of its chest and face.

That final grenade seemed to have finally taken it out. But instead of slumping over, it suddenly exploded.

"Very happy that didn't happen closer to us." said Shepard as she started on the second giant geth.

It was much closer than she'd like, especially after seeing how much damage one could take. But with one down the odds went in their favour. The closer distance however made it easier to hit, at this range could fire mostly blind and still hit with most of them.

Throwing a few more tech grenades, Shepard then hits the large geth unit with a warp to the chest before returning to cover to check her shield levels.

"Kaiden can we get another shockwave?" asked Shepard, before directing her fire at the weakening armour.

"On it's way." replied Kaiden, sending out an underhanded shockwave as he spoke. Causing the large geth unit to not only stumble but get pushed back by a biotic detonation.

Keeping up the pressure, she followed up with another warp as it got to its feet, weakening it. After 20 seconds of concentrated fire, it finally went down and exploded. Thankfully, far enough away from them to not be a problem.

With only the snipers seemingly left, Shepard and Kaiden took turns advancing up the tram while Ash advanced at a slower rate behind them. The geth got a few shots in, but nothing that could take their shields or barriers down in one hit.

When they got close enough, Kaiden sent out a singularity near where one of the geth snipers were hiding. When it dragged it in, Shepard quickly detonated it, causing the geth to fly over the side. Knowing that there was at least one more sniper, they continued carefully. Not staying out of cover longer than they needed to.

Eventually, they were directly in front of where the geth was hiding, Shepard used a pull to tug it out of cover. A short burst of fire later and it was down.

Looking around to make sure there were no other geth, Shepard gave the all clear. After doing a quick check with battlestance to make sure there were no nasty surprises left."Kaiden, can you get this tram moving?" asked Shepard."Shouldn't be a problem." answered Kaiden, stepping towards a set of nearby moments there was a lurch and the tram started moving.

Up ahead. Minutes before the Unknown ship took off.

Approaching the beacon Saren was suddenly lifted up by a force that held him mid air. For a few moments his body hung there, spasming as it did.

Then just as quickly as the force had grabbed him...it let him go.

Gasping from exhaustion, Saren pushed himself upright. When he had collected himself, he turned to a nearby geth. "Set the bombs; I don't want any trance we were ever here left." ordered Saren before turning to a Reaperfied asari. "As for you, I want you to guard the beacon; no one gets near it."

The loss of a converted asari wasn't a small thing. There were a limited number of them and Nihlus had taken out more than he had hoped...but not more than he had said the geth had managed to capture several priestesses and converting them should go the same way as converting the asari had. Despite their subbosed differences, they were still the same species. 50,000 years apart didn't change the fact that on a biological level they were still quite similar. He could always take more acolytes from Benzia either way if he needed to. The Reaperfied versions of them were far more effective than them anyway, even if their expression always were unsettling.

Back with Shepard

Using the tram ride to reload once again and go over what they had. When they got off the tram though, they had a nasty surprise waiting for them.

"It's bomb, a big one." said Kaiden, immediately dropping down and started working on his omni-tool. "Cover me while I disarm it."

"How long we have?" asked Shepard

"About 4 minutes." answered Kaiden, not stopping

"Shit." swore Shepard for what felt like the tenth time that day

Using battlestance, Shepard got a quick feel on what the bomb 'felt' like. Then she pushed the battlestance to it's maximum safe distance...and then beyond.

"We have two more bombs upstairs, possibly more. There's also geth incoming." warned Shepard

"We need to take care of those bombs. If they go off it won't matter what their payload is. This place is full of both fuel and eazo, causing not only secondary explosions but eazo poisoning if it spreads over the colony." said Ash

"I'll also use our suit sensors to pick up any traces of active bombs. It won't be as good as your battlestance but it'll help stop us from missing something." added Kaiden as he continued to work

Thankfully it wasn't long before Kaiden had finished disarming the bomb. When that was done they moved on to the next one and then the one after that. Each time Kaiden was able to disarm the bomb that little bit quicker and each time the geth pushed back that much harder, forcing them to use up the last of the tech grenades to keep up the pressure.

Each time Kaiden disarmed a bomb, Shepard also activated battlestance for a brief moment and pushed out her perception as far as she could, risking severe and perminant damage to her mind. Considering that the alternative was a bomb going off, the choice was an easy one. Better a damaged mind than three charred corpses.

While Kaiden disarmed the second bomb, Shepard picked up a fourth. As Kaiden was disarming the fourth bomb Shepard sent out a pulse one more time. She didn't pick up any more bombs, but she did pick up something that was completely foreign to its surroundings. She had an idea on what it could be but didn't want to jump to conclusions, she also felt a lot more of the mummified husks near it. However what stood out most was something that felt similar to the husks...but a lot worse and as soon as she 'felt' its presence it seemed to 'snap' towards her. Almost like it felt her presence as she felt its.

"I can't feel any more bombs but we have more mummies incoming and something that feels a lot worse." said Shepard

"Ahhh, Commander you have..." trailed off Ash, brushing her nose with a finger.

"Wha..?" asked Shepard as she touched her face and came away with blood, a lot of it. "Shit."

Using her omni-tool, Shepard shot a small amount of medi-gel up each nostril. A bloody nose was a clear sign that she had over used battlestance but she couldn't deal with it right now. It'd be annoying getting the gel out but it was better than leaking blood everywhere and becoming light headed.

"How long till we know if there's a bomb we missed?" asked Ash as Shepard squeezed her nose.

"Give it thirty seconds." answered Kaiden, checking his omni-tool.

As the thirty seconds came and went they all breathed a sign of relief.

"Alright, just because the bombs are gone doesn't mean this is over. Stay frosty, I don't want to lose someone when we're at the finish line." warned Shepard

Heading towards where she picked up the foreign object and the mummies it wasn't long before they were once again under attack from both sides. As Shepard levelled her rifle towards a charging enemy she picked up the signs of a biotic charge coming in. Instinctively reacting with her own biotic evade, she barely dodged the incoming claws that almost cut her rifle in half.

Dropping the remains of her rifle, Shepard immediately pulled out her sidearm and fired two rounds right at the new hostile only to be stopped by a powerful barrier. A barrier that was matron class at least. As she examined the new hostile it horrified her. The mummified humans were bad enough; the Priestess equivalent in front of her was even worse, and thanks to her evade it was now between her and her team.

Her first instinct was to try to rejoin Ash and Kaiden, but she quickly curbed that idea. While she didn't know its capabilities, it could perform biotic charges, and from Nihlius' dead body and her destroyed rifle, she knew that its claws could tear through armour without a problem. If it got close to them, all it would take was a single mistake, and someone would die. Possibly all of them when the mummified humans took advantage.

Her only option was to keep it at a distance, lead it away from the others and let Ash and Kaiden deal with the mummies while she tried to deal with this new threat. Hopefully one of them would be able to finish and help the other. Hoping to finish this quickly in the same way they took out the first giant geth, Shepard threw a grenade at the new monstrosity only for it to be biotically slapped away, causing it to detonate harmlessly mid-air. As she reached for another grenade, her hand brushed against the dummy grenades and she got an idea.

Continuing to back up and fire, she threw another grenade, and just like before, it was biotically slapped away before detonating. Unlike before, though, this one was only a dummy, so even if it had connected it wouldn't have done much damage. However, it didn't seem to realise that and as she threw another dummy grenade it repeated the action.

"Commander?!" warned Kaiden, noticing how far away she was getting from him and Ash

"Keep focused on the rest, I'll care of this bitch." replied Shepard not losing focus.

Just when she had started putting distance between her and that thing, it performed another biotic charge. Forcing her to do another biotic evade at the last minute to make sure she was nowhere in range of that thing's claws. She then continued firing and throwing the dummy grenades; for what she had planned, she needed it as distracted as she could get it.

Eventually, she reached some large shipping containers, keeping a clear line of sight as long as possible before going around the corner.

While it can be devastating, a biotic charge is not without its weaknesses or flaws. If your target could react quicker than you or they knew where your charge would end up, things would quickly go sideways. Shock and awe tactics didn't work that well without the shock or awe. Another weakness was that you could only charge in a straight line.

As it rounded the corner, she resumed firing, as before though a powerful barrier blocked each round, and when it had walked forward enough, she threw two more grenades. Just like before, both were swatted away, and that's when she detonated the grenades she had stuck to the crate. Grenades that were now less than a metre behind it.

It didn't have enough time react or to reinforce its barrier, and even if it did it wouldn't have mattered due to the number of grenades she had stuck to the side. The former Priestess or asari was blown completely apart and as she watched, it dissolved, leaving only a dark, black stain behind. Just like the ones that had been near Nihlius's dead body.

"Commander you okay?!" asked Ash worriedly over comms

"I'm fine, coming your way now." replied Shepard as she moved to rejoin her team.

It didn't take long to take out the remaining mummified husks. It seemed that there were only a few left, a skeleton crew. Evidently, they expected the bombs to go off and take out anyone nearby. The geth and mummies left behind were just there to make sure that the bombs went off while everyone else retreated. Even if the geth were very much digital they still had a physical form and carried weapons. Wasting them defending an area that about to blow up wasn't very logical...but maybe that was their mistake.

As they checked to make sure their surroundings were indeed clear they were quick to spot the Protean Beacon, confirming what Shepard had picked up in the battlestance.

"Come in Normandy, this is Kaiden Alenko we have the Beacon. I repeat we have the Beacon, requesting immediate pick up."

As Kaiden called in a pickup, Shepard and Ashley checked the surroundings, making sure that there wasn't any incoming geth or other threats.

"They left it?" asked Ash, voicing what everyone was thinking as she cautiously walked towards the Beacon. Checking for any hint of a trap as she went. "Why?"

"Maybe they got what they needed?" suggested Kaiden "It looks like its been activated."

"But why leave it here? Why not blow it up before we could get to it?" pressed Ash

"To be fair, Kaiden barely stopped this place from blowing up." responded Shepard "Perhaps they didn't expect us to make it this far?"

"Still though." replied Ash as she continued to walk cautiously towards the Beacon, looking out for anything that could be a trap. But then suddenly something seemed to grab her without warning and lift her into the air. Instinctively Shepard rushed forward, grabbing her and throwing her as far as she could.

As she struggled to free herself, images, smells, scents, thoughts and senses she couldn't begin to describe entered her mind with the grace of a freight train. The only thing she could make sense of was the smell of dust and smoke, the sound and smell of sizzling meat. Tech being pushed into flesh and bone and then fused together. A race that she didn't recognise fighting a race that looked similar but off, like what happened to the colonists happened to them too. Another much different race and then, the same ship that she saw before looming out of the shadow of a strange planet, and then thankfully it was over.

Back on the Normandy

"She's walking up, go get the Captain."

Shepard's first sensation felt like a gang of krogan with hammers having a death match inside her skull: that or a competition on who could bring the house down first.

"Commander how do you feel?" asked a voice

Trying to fight off the headache, Shepard pushed herself upright; which somehow made the pain even worse, and looked towards the voice to see Isla Stewart. A healer Priestess in her seventh century, Isla had spent the majority of her life studying the healing arts.

She spent her time mostly serving on ships, having a break every decade or so to take courses on any new or experimental techniques. She also taught older practices that were no longer used, some of which dated all the way back to druidic times. She could teach you how to make a medical paste from moss and plants that could rival Medi-gel.

"Like the time my sister and I had shore leave together." groaned Shepard. She was pretty sure the both of them got close to losing their livers that night.

"That's what happens when you overuse battlestance and then have an encounter with a Prothean Beacon." remarked Isla dryly "You're lucky you didn't incur any permanent damage."

Just then the door to the med bay slid open and Captain Anderson walked through.

"How is our patient?" asked Anderson

"She's good. However, she isn't to meld in the next 24 hours or use battlestance over the next three days." ordered Isla "I'll also need to check her over later, make sure there isn't anything the machines missed."

"What you haven't done that already?" asked Shepard

"You overused battlestance, which combined with the Beacon made it too risky to check the usual way." responded Isla "For safety reasons, both for me and for you I couldn't'."

The ability to meld could help with mental strain and PSTD; however, while it helped the patient it also put a strain on the therapist. One could go from being a doctor to being a patient all too quickly if they weren't careful. Imagine all the trauma someone experienced; with meld, you could help but at the same time you also exposed yourself to it. It was like a wave on a beach; either you used it to carry you to shore or it dragged you under. For that reason, rules were put in place to protect both parties. No point in saving a drowning man if you drowned along with them.

"Speaking of the Beacon, what happened down there? I have the reports, but I want to hear it from you." said Anderson

"As soon as we landed it turned into a shit show. We had no backup and we were entering a fight without a clear idea of what was going on. While I don't like to speak ill of the dead Nihilus should have stayed with us, a Spectre would have made a lot of difference. Shortly after landing, I had to leave Jenkins behind when I realised his kinetic barrier wasn't working."

"They told me about that, while a rookie Jenkins should have known better. I'm just glad that it didn't get him killed." replied Anderson

"Speaking of Jenkins, what is going to happen to him?" asked Shepard

"He's staying behind on Eden Prime. It seems adventure isn't quite what he expected, from what I understand he's going to join the local defence force. He's actually become a bit of local hero; he was part of the team that helped take back one of the defensive guns. By that point, though the ship had long since left but its still good for morale and will make a nice story regardless."

"Speaking of the defensive guns, how come they were offline? I thought they couldn't be hacked remotely?" asked Shepard

"They can't." answered Anderson "Not even by the geth, they need a physical link and I think I know just who gave it to them."

"Who?" asked Shepard

"Another turian Spectre, one that goes by Saren. After the attack we had all available technicians go through anything the geth didn't wipe. With a lot of work and more than a far shot of luck, they found a single image of Saren sneaking into one of the stations that controls the guns. What happened after you left Jenkins behind?" asked Anderson

"We started running into geth almost immediately after. We eventually ran into some survivors, one of which ended up joining us." answered Shepard

"Yes Ashley Williams, I've gone over her record and was quite impressed. That combined with her performance on Eden Prime had me assign her to the Normandy to replace Jenkins." revealed Anderson

"She'll be a great addition, from what I saw she's a big reason so many people made it out. After running into her we made our way to the spaceport where we unfortunately found the body of Nihlius. Continuing we discovered bombs planted throughout the main part of the spaceport."

"Kaiden put a lot of detail into that part of his report. It's clear that if any of the bombs had gone off the colony would have been devastated, it would be just like Saren to do something like that, an attack that causes death and suffering on equal terms."

"Sir...may I ask why you are so sure that this...Saren is the one?" asked Shepard cautiously, sensing she was touching a delicate topic.

"Prior experience." signed Anderson "That and logic. Eden Prime is a small colony; even if he had a reason to be there he shouldn't have been anywhere near the defence guns. In my mind ,there are only two reasons why he would have been there, the first is to sabotage the guns and the other is to steal the design, whether for Council or someone else. I wouldn't put it past him to do it for any of these reasons or all of them. He could have gone rogue or taken advantage of all the rope the Citadel likes to give him.

He hates the Alliance, humanity and the Priestesses in general. His elder brother served in the First Contact War and took a lot of blowback from all sides when it was over. Forcing him to retire in less than honourable circumstances. He took up heavy drinking and ended up dying in a bar thanks to a bar fight that escalated and you can guess who Saren blames. He would love an excuse to do any damage he could on an official or unofficial mission. That said I doubt this was either, there might be powers that want the tech in those guns but there is no way they would risk the Beacon in the process."

"Hate is a strong word, he might have wanted to blow up the colony, but I doubt he did it just for kicks. I don't know much about the Spectres, but I doubt they let anyone who's unstable work for them. He was here for the Beacon, getting it, destroying it while it was in our position and then destroying the Colony while covering his tracks would have covered all the bases of both business and pleasure. Sir, how do you know this guy?"

Looking at her Anderson seems to make a decision.

"You weren't the first Spectre candidate for the Alliance; I was. It was to help bolster Alliance and Citadel relations, and because of that, I was put with one of their best Spectres. But while he might be one of the best, he's also a sociopath. He has no problems getting his hands dirty."

"Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty. I don't like it, but it can sometimes be necessary." responded Shepard

"That's the problem; Saren doesn't get his hands dirty because it's necessary; he does it because he wants too. Years ago, Saren and I were sent after a dangerous criminal, we located him inside a chemical warehouse. To cover more ground, we split up. I found him first and just when I was about to take the shot the warehouse blew up. It turns out Saren had been planting explosives throughout the warehouse, if we hadn't split up, I would have known earlier. I barely got out of there alive, hundreds of workers didn't, and the fallout ended up killing a lot more. About two thousand in total died, the workers...plus their families that lived nearby, both women and children."

"How the hell did he get away with that?" demanded Shepard

"He blamed it on me, said that the criminal had planted the bombs as a deterrent, that we both spotted him at the same time and that I had spooked him into detonating them. Since he was and still is their top Spectre, they took his word over mine.

Thankfully, the Alliance wasn't so quick to believe him and investigated the matter further, part of which was a week of questioning followed by mind melds. There was enough evidence to prove it wasn't my fault but not enough to go after Saren. Since then the Alliance has tried to keep an eye on him whenever he was in our territory. He has a habit of leaving bodies behind, but the Council doesn't care because he gets results."

"Well, he won't get away with it this time. If we've got that he was there when he shouldn't have been the Council has to investigate." argued Shepard

"They won't at least not willingly. We don't have enough proof; an image won't be enough for them. They'll just accept whatever lie Saren makes up. Thankfully, a photo isn't the only thing we have. We just need to buy time for it to arrive and make sure the Council listens when it does. We also need to make sure Saren doesn't know we have more proof, or he'll do whatever he can to make it vanish. Now back on topic, what happened next?"

"After running into one last batch of mummified husks, most of which were human and one who used to be a Priestess we found the Beacon. I don't know why it was still there, when the hostile ship took off, I thought it would've been onboard but yet there it was in front of us. While Kaiden called it in Ash and I checked and secured the surroundings. Then without warning the Prothean Beacon grabbed onto Ash and started dragging her in." continued Shepard

"You can expect an apology from Ash about that, she blames herself for what happened. Healer Isla here had to order her to get something to eat and get some rest when she showed no signs of leaving." remarked Anderson

"It's not her fault, she didn't get anywhere close to the Beacon before it started dragging her in. If I had known something like that would have happened I would have left the actual pick-up for someone else." defended Shepard

"No one knows how Prothean Beacons work, there is no way someone would know how a fifty-thousand-year-old Beacon would react when someone got close." agreed Anderson "What happened when you interacted with the Beacon?"

"A flood of information, most of which I couldn't understand. That said somethings stood out." answered Shepard

"Such as?"

"War, a big one. Smells of smoke and burning bodies, I also saw three new species I don't recognise. One looked like had something similar to tentacles for a face while the other two looked similar, yet different. I was like I was looking a normal version of them, and one where they went and did whatever they did to the colonists on Eden Prime."

"Anything else?" asked Anderson

"The last thing I saw was the same ship that attacked Eden Prime coming right at me."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure." said Shepard with certainty

"It's not that I don't believe you Shepard, I do. But it's possible some of your memories got mixed up with the Beacon. I don't think it did as you suspected it was a Reaper ship before, but I need to make sure before I send it up the chain of command. The geth having Reaper tech as a theory isn't a problem, confirmation and proof that they do is something else. You're going to face a lot of undeserved blowback because of the Beacon. If the Alliance hears that a ship that attacked Eden Prime matches the appearance of one in an ancient Prothean Beacon the Priestesses are going to push for an increase in military strength as are a lot of other people

"Understood, when we get to the Citadel I can.." started Shepard

"Absolutely not!" interrupted Isla "No melding for at least a day, especially ones that involve a Prothean Beacons. Those involve a lot more mental strain than usual."

When it looked like there would be arguing Isla continued "Or have you forgotten that I'm a healer Priestess with seven centuries of experience? While the melding arts have never been my expertise, I know enough to recognise an original memory, one that came from a Prothean artifact and one that comes from a combination of conflicting sources. When it is safe I will examine the memory and not a moment before."

"Very well." agreed Anderson, somewhat reluctantly. He might understand and even agree with the reason but that didn't mean he had to like it. "In the meantime, the Alliance is sending footage of the ship to our Prothean experts. If they agree it could be Reaper in origin then it would ease a lot of he pressure on you. Now I suggest you go and get some rest, we're about halfway to the Citadel and you're going to need all your strength when you're up against the Council."

Deciding that sleep did sound good, Shepard took Anderson's suggestion and headed back to her room. Forgoing going back down for a shower, Shepard merely striped before putting on a plain black t-shirt and shorts.

Before she got any sleep, though there as one more thing she had to do. Heading to her small office desk she turned on her console and made a call.

It took a few moments to get a response. Even with modern tech, space was a wide open void.

As the face of a woman in her middle ages appeared Shepard gave her a tired smile.

"Hey mum, how are you? I'm not bothering you am I?"

"Of course not darling. How are you?" asked Hannah Shepard warmly

"I've been better." signed Shepard tiredly "Is Jane with you?"

"No, her leave's already finished. I think she's doing scouting on Alliance border, making sure the Batarian Hegemony aren't thinking of doing another raid." answered Hannah

While the Batarian 'Government' might insist that they never provided support to pirates or slavers everyone knew that was complete shit.

Unlike herself who trained as a Valkryie, someone who was trained to use biotics, blades and bullets to rain death down on her enemies and look good doing it. Her sister on was an infiltrator. The number of times she had snuck into a batarian camp for intel before the Alliance had publically made their presence or other similar situations were probably more than she or her mother would have liked to know.

"Sweety are you okay?" asked Hannah worriedly, noticing how tired Shepard was.

"Just finished a bad misson." answered Shepard "Hey you know that trip you were planning? Can you put it on hold?"

"Why?" asked Hannah

"It wouldn't have hit the news yet, but the mission was on Eden Prime. It was attacked by an army of geth, and while it hasn't been confirmed yet, I'm certain the ship leading the attack is Reaper in origin. I'd rather you were somewhere safe, at least until we have a better idea of what's going on." "Of course dear. But it really should be me worrying about you. I am the parent after all.

Shepard continued talking for twenty more minutes before she had to regretfully cut the call short.

As she lay down to sleep, Shepard thought back to when Hannah started to become her second mother. It had probably started when she used her skirts to hide behind when Shanix was under attack. When the attack was over she stayed with her, it wasn't until days after the attack that they realised her mother wouldn't be coming back. She had lost both her mother and her father on the same day...but she had gained someone who would become a sister to her and a woman who treated her like her own.

She had family that could have taken her in, not on her dad's side, who was an only child to elderly parents but on her mother's side. Unfortunately, it had been years since she saw them and she could barely remember them at the time. Since she was already comfortable with Hannah at that point, who was more than willing to keep looking after her and to try and avoid anything else that might traumatise her further she stayed there. That wasn't to say she didn't meet or get along with her aunts, she did.

Also, in hindsight having a little sister to look out for was probably the best thing for her at the time. If it wasnt for that who knows if she would have gotten out of the shell she made for herself as she came to grips on what she had lost.

However, because humans and Priestesses aged differently she didn't stay the 'big' sister forever. Eventually, Jane seemed to be the litttle sister a bit less each day. And then suddenly she wasn't; then for a year or two they were basically twins. They liked the same things and did practically everything together. Then Jane become the big sister and between her late teens to early twenties she definetly acted like it. Keeping an eye on her 'little' sis and making sure no creep got any ideas. Just like Shepard had made sure no one had picked on Jane when she was younger and helped her with bruised knees when she fell over.

After Jane's early twenties, it settled down as she herself went through adolescence. Jane was still the elder sister in terms of maturity but not by much. Jane was 27, and if she was human, she would have looked 25 when, in fact, she was nearly double that. Both sisters had been the younger and the older, or the twin, at some point in their lives together.

Sadly, she knew as her aging started to slow over the next few decades, time would appear to move faster for both Hannah and Jane. Eventually both of them would become old and grey while she looked nearly the same...something that she wasn't looking forward to. No Priestess did, in a Priestesses' lifetime it wasnt uncommon for them to be friends with at least three generations of the same family tree or tell the great great grandchild of their childhood friend what they used to get up together when they were young. It was bitter sweet thing, but trying to avoid that pain would only result in more. You could either make the most of time you had, or let it go to waste. Shepard knew which one she would regret choosing when it came time to lay her mother and sister to rest.

With that morbid thought, Shepard drifted of to sleep while making plans to talk or see Hannah and Jane more often when she could.