Mass Effect - A Hero Rises Ch. 02

A/N -- My first chapter got a few people clicking that 'favourite' button, so that's good. But I would also like to hear your comments, particularly if you enjoyed a certain chapter, or if there is something you would like to see covered, whether it's a particular event or a certain romantic partner.

There will be no central romance to this story, but it won't be a harem either. Shepard will be too busy saving the galaxy to really think about romance but will be looking for 'stress relief'. I will eventually focus on other characters, splitting between Shepard's POV and others, and there will be focus on other partnerships. (I could change my mind regarding romance, but to be honest, I write stories for other sites and have already done the whole romance thing. I can go a little wild on this site!)

The idea I have going forward is for this to cover all three games, perhaps touching on other media as well (books and comics in particular). For Mass Effect, each main mission will have its own chapter, while there will be references or small sections in regards to side missions. For Mass Effect 2, each recruitment and loyalty mission will have a dedicated chapter, as will any Collector mission. For Mass Effect 3, each priority mission will have a dedicated chapter. And I will likely have an ending regarding the post-Mass Effect world, which is quite a popular genre in fan fiction.

The only other thing I have to note is that I plan on some chapters being mostly sex-free, simply because the story needs to progress, and a chapter with a sex scene isn't always required. Let me know what you think about that too.

Anyway, hope you enjoy what is to come. As I said above, comments and feedback is always appreciated.

*****

Book 1, Chapter 2 -- It Just Got Complicated (Eden Prime)

*****

It was far too quiet and peaceful compared to what we'd seen on the screen only minutes before arriving. Once we had boots on the ground, the three of us moved quickly into cover, waiting for what I thought would be the inevitable assault. Surely someone would have seen our ship come in?

But no, no-one came to greet us, so after assessing our position, we headed off towards the dig sit. It didn't take long to find the first victims of the fight. But it wasn't just the fact they were dead, they'd been charred until they were almost unrecognisable. Jenkins immediately removed his helmet and the breakfast he'd eaten came up. Even Alenko looked queasy. I crouched down, trying to breathe through my mouth. "The fire was intense but burned out quickly," I stated.

"Any idea who did it?" Alenko asked.

"None. But we'll find out soon enough."

Making sure Jenkins was okay, we moved out, eventually following a path that would lead us through part of the colony, the dig site located down a tramway. Approaching a barren field, I gestured to stop and took a knee. Perfect place for an ambush though all appeared quiet. I checked near and the horizon for any signs of hostiles. Seeing and sensing nothing, I gestured for Jenkins to run to the next piece of cover.

The bastards were waiting. He'd taken maybe a dozen steps when they appeared from cover and fired. Bullets ripped through the young Corporal, Alenko and I rising and firing back. Jenkins hit the deck as we managed to grab him with one hand, firing with our other. Sitting him back against the roc, Alenko and I stood up and dealt with what looked like drones. A few bullets made both of them blow up, immediately returning to Jenkins side.

His eyes were open but the life was already fading. I grabbed his hand as Alenko started to work the medi-gel, but I'd already seen this far too often. "Alenko," I whispered. The Lieutenant looked up and I shook my head. "Just give him something for the pain," I added softly.

I held his hand until I felt it weaken. He whispered something, though I didn't hear quite what it was. He managed to lift his head a final time, looking up at the sky, before he released a sigh and his body sagged, his eyes now lifeless. He was the first I'd ever lost under my command. I'd been on the frontlines around the galaxy but had always been subordinate to someone else. My first day on the ground, in charge, and I'd already lost a soldier.

I closed his eyes with my fingers and laid him down on the ground, reporting to the Normandy. They would pick up his body while Alenko and I moved forward. I was now pissed off, but not stupid to just go rushing forward blindly because I was angry. That's when mistakes are made.

We checked the drones we'd taken down. Definitely not Alliance, the technology foreign to my eyes. Alenko didn't know either. We moved on, more of those drones appearing in the distance. Alenko and I split into cover and returned fire. The good thing for us is that they simply hovered in the air, so were relatively easy to take down. Their rate of fire was concerning though, having to time when we rose out of cover to shoot.

Cresting a hill, I pointed out the dig site was ahead. It looked abandoned from where we were standing, and I could see no sign of any sort of Prothean beacon. Alenko pointed as I heard gunfire. "Look, Shepard! One of ours!"

I'd never seen a geth before, though heard a lot about them and we'd certainly learned of them over the years. And she was definitely being chased by geth. A few of them in fact. What the fuck are geth doing on Eden Prime? I didn't vocalise that thought, simply moving with Alenko as we fired at the geth. That distracted most of them, letting the soldier get into cover. Firing from two directions, the geth didn't fall easily but Alenko certainly proved he had some smart, using some tech abilities to help overheat weapons or disable shields, leaving them as easier pickings.

Approaching the soldier as they stood out of cover, they removed their helmet to reveal it was a woman. Brunette hair and rather lovely brown eyes when they met mine. She was no shrinking violet though. This woman was a soldier, through and through. If you are one, you recognise one in return. Thing is, women serving in the military was normal but their numbers were still fewer than men so it could still be a surprise at times, which is why it was a slight surprise. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, sir," she replied, saluting, I assume recognising the armour. "You are?"

"Commander Shepard, and this is Lieutenant Alenko. We're from the Normandy."

"Commander Shep...? What are you doing here, sir?"

"We're here to collect that Prothean beacon the scientists dug up. What's going on here? What are geth doing on Eden Prime?"

"Must be about the beacon, sir."

"And that ship we saw?"

"No idea, sir. Been too busy fighting off geth to worry about anything else... er, sir."

I waved that away. "Well, we're here for the beacon and now we're investigating what's going on here. Where's the rest of your unit?" She grimaced, so I gestured for her not to answer. "Come with us, Chief. We could use your help."

"Aye, sir."

The geth knew we were now coming as, the closer we came to the dig site, the more that seemed to come towards us. I knew enough about geth to know what they were, but I had no idea how they worked, just knowing they were AI and on some sort of neural network. The geth we fought that day? Pretty fucking dumb, if you ask me. Didn't seem to know what the word 'cover' was, for example. Ashley and I lit them up with our rifles as Alenko performed tech attacks, generally aimed at weapons and shields. The geth replied in kind, my shields taking a hit more than once, necessitating either a small retreat or a quick jump into cover.

Making it to the dig site, there was no sign of any beacon, Ashley adamant it had been there though obviously been removed. Before we could move on, Nihlus finally got in contact.

"Commander Shepard, copy?"

"I read you, Nihlus."

"Change of plans. No sign of any beacon though have seen a few geth around. There's a small spaceport ahead that I'm going to scout out. What's your location?"

"We're at the dig site. Beacon isn't here either."

"Okay, I'll meet you at the spaceport. It's not far from your position. Fifteen-minute walk maximum. Once you get here, we'll move together."

"Copy. Moving out now."

We'd barely left the dig site when we came across these strange... things on the ground. Looked like dragon's teeth. But it was the things that were on them that startled the three of us. "They used to be human," Ashely muttered as the husk like creatures converged on us. They appeared to be as dumb as the geth that just attacked us, as they came straight for us, despite not being armed. But their bodies were lined with all manner of tech, so I suggested we make sure they don't come too close, just in case.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Ashley asked, I don't think expecting a response from either of us. I had a feeling she'd already been through some shit.

"No idea. This was meant to be a simple pick up job."

The geth were definitely aware of our presence, as we met plenty of them as we moved out. Thankfully there was plenty of cover, and Ashley proved to be a rather competent soldier, and a definite crack shot with her rifle. As for Alenko, he definitely proved his biotic strengths, generally dragging or lifting geth out of cover, leaving them as easy pickings for us.

We didn't see too many bodies around, though it was concerning that the entire colony felt deserted. That lasted until we found a few shacks that looked to be offices. Searching through them, we finally found some people, two of them appearing to be scientists. Dr. Warren was the lead archaeologist on the dig site. She assumed most of the workers had either fled for their lives or been killed, as had the marines which had been stationed near the dig site.

"The 232," Ashley said quietly, "Good men."

Otherwise, she'd bunkered down in the shack with her assistant, keeping the door locked and the shack otherwise dark. As for the beacon, she told us that it had only been moved to the spaceport that morning. I did ask about the beacon, wondering why the geth were attacking. The only thing she could tell me explicitly was that the beacon was part of a galaxy wide communications network. But other than that, she simply hadn't had the time to research it.

Heading out of the shack, we locked the door, telling her to stay put until she received the all clear. We moved out and I wasn't the only one to hear the gunshot echo around. We shared a glance and started to jog ahead. Heading down an incline, we came to a stop as an enormous ship was taking off in the distance. It looked like no ship we'd seen before.

"Hang on, that looks like..." I started to say.

"What?" Alenko asked.

"The video feed we got from the planet. I swear it looks like the same ship."

"Think it's a geth ship?" Ashley wondered.

"No idea. I've never seen one of their ships before."

Moving on, as that lone gunshot still troubled me, the geth were now dug in and waiting for us. Kaidan was exerting himself with his biotics, noticing the sweat on his face. He saw me look and nodded he was okay. I'd worked with biotics before but only briefly. Most of the time, they were in their own units. Anyway, the geth were not a major issue to deal with, the husks certainly tried to swarm us, Kaidan using his biotics to keep them back, Ashley and I lighting them up with rifle fire. It was fairly easy to figure out why the colony was now practically deserted. Whatever the geth were doing to them, it wasn't pretty and stripped them of their humanity.

We found a few more survivors in hiding, all of them farmers who had taken cover during the attack. They couldn't tell us much but Alenko recognised they were being rather shifty. It didn't take much pressure to get them to admit to smuggling, going so far as to give us the name of their contact at the nearby port. They handed over what they had, considering all they were going to do was hide.

Arriving at the port, we found the body of Nihlus. Poor bastard had been shot in the back of the head. Didn't stand a chance. Didn't have his weapon out either. "Executed," I muttered as I crouched over the body.

There was a clatter of cases nearby, the three of us holding up our weapons, ordering whoever it was to come out. A frightened dock-worker appeared, introducing himself as Powell, the name given to us by the farmers. We played good cop, bad cop, accusing him of killing Nihlus. He proved very co-operative after that, telling us what happened. "Another turian by the name of Saren killed him," he said.

"Saren?" I asked. Name meant nothing to me.

"Yes, Saren. The dead turian..."

"Nihlus."

"Yeah, Nihlus, he seemed to know him as he relaxed upon meeting him. Turned his back then 'Bam!', Saren just shot him in cold blood. Took off towards that big ship straight away."

There was nothing we could do about Nihlus, simply reporting it into the Normandy before moving out. The train that would take us to the beacon lay ahead. Between that and us were even more geth. Used to fighting them by now, Alenko took care of their shields and weapons, Ashley and I simply shot them. We took our time and were careful as, if Saren had departed, then I assumed he hadn't taken the beacon. I didn't want to end up dead either.

The geth seemed to throw everything at us to prevent us making it to the train but, somehow, the three of us made it there unscathed, only the occasional shield loss or overheating weapon slowing us down. Kaidan now looked exhausted from his biotic use, making sure he was okay, suggesting he just stick to his tech attacks as I had a feeling we'd simply be dealing with geth going forward.

How we made it through the next ten or so minutes, I'm still not sure. I thought we'd fought a number of geth earlier. It was nothing compared to those waiting for us. Made me glad, with all the bullets we fired, that we basically had limitless ammo, the only thing preventing continuous fire being overheating. A simple Avenger, which Ashley and I had, needed care when firing. There were other, better weapons, though far more expensive, that could near enough be fired constantly, with the right modifications.

In addition to geth, someone, and I could only assume it was Saren, had laid explosives, as we stumbled over the first one, Kaidan managed to defuse it, and we then had around five minutes to find the others. That sucked completed, the three of us splitting up to find them. Thankfully, we did find all four, defusing the last one with only a minute to go. As we were doing that, the geth continued to press, forcing them back through sheer force of will, and the fact I would not let myself be killed by a bloody robot.

Bombs defused, we proceeded with caution, but we'd managed to kill all the geth, and bonus, we'd located the beacon. I radioed into the Normandy, letting them know our position and that the beacon was now secured. While I was doing that, Ashley and Kaidan were obviously fascinated by it. Kaidan approached me as Ashley stepped close. I didn't even hear myself shout as she was suddenly lifted into the air. Pushing Kaidan out of the way, I grabbed Ashley and pushed her out of the way. Then I was suddenly in the beacon's grasp, feeling myself lifted high and my mind filled with all manner of horrific images. It kept going and going until I passed out, not even feeling my body drop to the ground like a stone.

*****

I groaned as I opened my eyes. I had a throbbing headache and really needed a drink of water. A face appeared above me. "You're awake," Doctor Chakwas stated.

"What happened?" I wondered.

"You've been out cold for a few hours. I was told something about contact with a beacon and, well, it didn't sound very good. Were you dreaming?"

I ran a hand down my face. "More like nightmares. Just... horrific images and scenes. Can't quite figure it all out. Head's pounding though."

"Hmm. The tests I ran while you were asleep suggested something was up."

She ran a few tests on me now that I was awake before giving me a couple of tablets and a glass of water to swallow. Ashley and Kaidan were both there. It was nice they worried, explaining that they carried me back to the ship and to the med-bay. After that, Anderson did walk in to have a proper debrief. Chakwas was going to argue that I was her patient but I said it was fine now that I was awake. After asking how I was, after I told him I was basically fine, he asked for privacy before he gave me the rundown of everything that happened. Nihlus dead. The beacon had exploded after my contact with it. The colony was practically wiped out. The Alliance were send in ships to rescue those that did survive. All in all, it was an absolute clusterfuck.

"Chief Williams is on board now?" I asked.

"Aye, she is. I've had her reassigned to the Normandy for the time being."

"Good choice. She's one hell of a soldier. Showed it in our brief time together already."

We walked into his office across the mess, taking a seat at his desk after he closed the door. "I'll be honest with you, Shepard, the Council will want answers about what went on. The geth invading will certainly raise plenty of questions."

"Reckon they'll try and pin the blame on me?"

"Perhaps, but I have your back in that case, Shepard. You did a damned fine job and, quite frankly, from what I was told, the beacon damn near nearly killed you. You eliminated the geth presence. Helped a few survivors. And managed to live through whatever that beacon did. So, in my eyes, you did your job and you did it well. Elements outside our control are to blame. There's one other thing that concerns me, though, and the Council... well... It's Saren, the other turian mentioned."

"What's the problem?"

Anderson sighed, and I figured it was going to be bad news. "He's a Spectre, Shepard. One of the very best. A living legend in some parts. Any shithole assignment that needed doing, he'd be given it and he'd get it done. But the concern is, if he's now allied with the geth, he's gone rogue. And if he has done that, it's trouble. He hates humans." Could have asked why, but I didn't think it really mattered. "He was clearly after the beacon, that's what I do know, I just don't know why. You have any ideas?"

Scratching my chin, I leaned back in my chair. "Just before I passed out, I had some sort of... vision, I guess."

"What sort of vision?" he asked, definitely curious as to what I'd seen.

"I saw synthetics. Maybe the geth, but I'm not sure. It's all kind of scrambled in my head. But they were slaughtering people. Butchering them. I'll be honest, it was horrific. Just endless blood and guts. And the noise... Chilling to the core."

"We need to report this to the Council, Shepard."

"What, that I had a bad dream?" I wasn't being sarcastic. I figured the Council would laugh us out of the room if we went to them because of a simple vision.

"We don't know what was on that beacon, Shepard. All we do know is that Saren took it. And I know Saren." I was going to ask how, but that could be later. It was clear Anderson didn't like him though, took what happened as a personal affront. "I know his reputation and the fact he's a danger, not only to humans, but perhaps now the galaxy. He believes we're a blight, a stain to be erased. This attack was an act of war!"

"He's using the geth as soldiers to fight us?"

"Probably. We're friendly with the turians now. Hell, they helped design and build this ship. Someone like Saren would hate that sort of co-operation. No, he clearly has designs on what he wants to do with us. Eden Prime is just the start."