"Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of long ago. Was it not you who split apart Rehob, who pierced that sea monster through?
Isaiah 51:9

1700 standard earth hours
Turian Base 0287
Digeris Moon
Apien Crest
Castellus System

The first time he saw her was through his scope as he lined up a shot with her head.

Dogfights overhead roared past his position above the enemy line a little too close for comfort. His spare ammo jumped and danced across the stone around him as something rumbled in the distance. His concussive ammo was running too low, but he had enough incinerating ammo to do sizable damage before he had to retreat for more.

She was nothing particularly new, at first - obviously vanguard with her heavy armor and lead position on the enemy line. He had ignored her for a while, popping off other more sizable and dangerous opponents that got too close to the encampment line for comfort. But over time she became more and more of a hassle the farther she pushed in, blowing multiple turians back with each blow of her surprisingly heavy biotics.

All in all, she quickly became a threat – and it was his job to take out threats. He eyed her position on the field, making a mental note before he drew his rifle back. He took cover behind the chipped rock wall and began scooping up ammo beside him and sliding it into his rifle with rapid precision.

"What's the count so far, Vakarian?" the turian beside him shouted over the popping of a turret.

"Lost count after sixty, Shantus. What, are you starting to get tired?" Garrus shouted back. He drew his rifle upwards and back into position.

"Ha!" Shantus barked, popping off a human engineer with ease. "You can only hope to beat my record on the field. I've been popping off humans since before you became a man, Vakarian."

Garrus laughed despite himself. His laughter died as he searched for the female vanguard through his scope. He growled deep in his throat as he realized she had grown alarmingly close to the main barricade of his encampment, and the turrets were doing a poor job of keeping her from advancing further and leading a small group of other vanguards behind her.

"Some of these humans just won't give up." Shantus commented gruffly as the butt of his rifle recoiled into his shoulder.

"Do we have any warp ammo left?" Garrus asked, dodging debris falling from a destroyed fighter. He kicked a molten piece of scrap away from his ammo as Shantus tossed him rounds.

"Just a few left. You trying to take out the vanguards?"

"Just the ones closest to the line."

Shantus tagged the vanguards at the barricade. "Spirits, how did they get that close?"

"I don't know," Garrus replied as he loaded the precious few cartridges of ammo into his rifle's chamber, "but they're not going any farther."

Garrus lined up his shot with the female's head. As he took a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger and felt the rifle recoil into his sore shoulder.

She should've been tired a long time ago, but the crackling of biotics filling the air made her almost feral. That rush of pure energy traveling through her muscles and veins? She lived for that feeling. It captivated her every fiber. There was something about being in the very thick of a battle that made her feel like an unstoppable force.

She had pushed inwards with the help of Tango and Bravo by her side matching her strike by strike – and here they were, standing before the barricade to the encampment of the last turian base on the moon.

"You guys ready to breach?" she shouted to the men on either side of her, the two holding barriers against the relentless onslaught of bullets with just a hand raised in front of them.

"Just give the word, Shepard." Bravo shouted. She nodded and quickly picked off a few turians attempting to flank them with her shotgun. As she turned around she felt it before she heard it – a bullet aimed precisely for her temple. An arm snapped out to her side effortlessly and her hand balled into a fist as her biotics caught the bullet just feet from her head. Shepard let out a shaky breath she didn't realize she had held as she let the bullet fall to the ground with a dull clink. Sometimes, her instincts still surprised her.

"Shep, waiting on your order." Tango shouted back to her. She turned to face the two in front of her.

"Go!" she shouted. And they pushed forth.

Garrus was - for the first time in his life - completely and wholly stunned speechless. She had stopped his bullet in midair before even noticing it was aimed at her. Was that even remotely possible? He watched her eyes scan the area from where it came from and he could swear she lingered on his rifle just a bit too long before turning back to her teammates. He watched her silently as she raised her hands to mimic the two beside her. Biotics flickered into existence and the three pushed the biotic barriers into the barricade. He watches turians fly off the wall and thick metal doors bend effortlessly.

The humans won the battle that day, thanks to a massive breach in the barricade.

10 months later, aboard the Alliance Manassas
System Alliance space
95,000 light years away from Earth

The first thing you should know about biotics is this: they are always hungry. Always. Just one human biotic can eat half their weight of food in a day. It's a bit ridiculous really, the amount of food they can put away. But when your metabolism is 400% faster than a non-biotic you really have no other choice but to eat.

Imagine what dinner looks like for a biotic. Pretty chaotic, right? Now imagine that times twenty-five.

That's what Shepard had to deal with every day. Putting together a team of biotic vanguards sounds great on the battlefield and on Alliance reports. But the day-to-day stuff? Not so much.

"Shit, Tango! Watch your elbow." Shepard yanked her tray to the side, barely avoiding an elbow straight to her food.

"Sorry, S."

"Is there any hot sauce on this damn ship?" Metric yells from the back. Shepard smiled as she picked up the one in front of her and aimed.

"Holy shit, Shep! That almost took off my head." He swears as he barely manages to catch the glass bottle.

"Step it up, Met. You fight turians for a living." She yells back, a smile still on her face. A group to her right roars in laughter over an unheard punch-line to an unheard joke. She keeps that dumb smile on her face as she shoves food into her face rather contently.

"It's not that good, you know." Tango nudges her playfully in the arm.

"I'm just glad to be off that moon, you know? I swear it rained a fucking ocean the few days we were there. I'm going to have to replace every insulation pad in my armor!" She exclaimed behind a mouthful of food. She shoved her fork into her mouth.

"Wow, that's so attractive."

"Shut it, T."

"No, really. That's hot."

She punched his shoulder. Hard.

"Hey, you on a mission to injure your best solider?"

She snorted.

"My mission is to make sure you stay alive." She replied.

"No, your self-attributed mission is to take out that turian Vakarian, which, by the way," Bravo slid into the seat in front of her. She could've sworn he didn't even come to a complete stop before he was digging into his tray. "Why isn't he dead yet?"

She stabbed the last remnants of her potatoes and shoved them into her mouth.

"I'm not trying to kill him. We just have this…mutual respect for each other's skill?"

"And by mutual respect you mean you're taunting him." Tango clarified.

"Hey," she jabbed her fork at him, "he hasn't gotten a bullet past my barriers yet. And it's been like, what, ten months? Some sniper."

"Isn't he supposed to be like…really good though? I know for a fact he's on the Alliance threat watch." Bravo mumbled around the food in his mouth.

"Well, I mean, yeah. Just not good enough." She shrugged.

Ginger hair caught her eye as it flashed into vision. The man was scrawny and a few inches taller than the rest of the team, with glasses that never seemed to be completely clean or on the bridge of his nose, but he was a damn good pilot.

"Hey, Shepard?" he called.

"Yeah, Kilo?" she replied.

"There's something you need to take a look at."

She didn't like the strain in his voice. Exchanging looks with Bravo and Tango, she stood from her seat and dumped her tray in the sink before walking out of the raucous room. Turn right, then down the corridor. She could walk it in her sleep.

Kilo was already back in the pilot's seat running a hand through already frazzled hair.

"So the system was running the usual specs like they always do right? Except there's supposed to be nothing out here. Except there is."

She blinked at him.

"So…"

"So," he nodded, "Our systems picked up a distress beacon from a planet that isn't on our maps yet."

Shepard stood speechless.

"That's – "

"Impossible, I know. I thought it could be a trap for passing vessels – "

"But no one is supposed to be out here ."

" – I know, so I ran it through every diagnostic we have. It's civilian, and it's authentic."

She breathed through her nose slowly.

"You're sure."

"One hundred percent. There is no way this could be fake. Usually they'd have little things here and there in the code that would send up red flags but…there's nothing."

"Then you know what to do. How long until we land?"

"But our orders," he stuttered, pushing his glasses up by the lens.

"Are first and foremost, protect those whom we swore to protect the very first day of Academy training. Make a course, Kilo, okay? I'll tell the others to eat faster."

"Aye Commander." He relented, nodding her way as she left.

1900 hours, breaching the atmosphere of the newly named planet XAC-837
95,050 light years away from Earth

"Jesus, Delta, would it kill you to not move for five freakin' seconds? These shuttles aren't a damn dance floor, man." Yankee elbowed the man beside him.

"Shut up, it's not my fault."

"I know for a fact you weren't born with no Tourette's."

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

"And here I thought this was a shuttle full of highly specialized and heavily trained vanguard soldiers." Shepard quipped from her bench spot next to Bravo and Hotel, whom could only look over at the other's childish arguments with amusement.

Delta opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by the voice crackling over their heads.

"Touchdown in t-minus two minutes, Commander."

Shepard blew through her nose in relief. "Thank you, Quebec."

The team on the shuttle became restless as the metal walls shook slightly from turbulence. Biotics hummed and crackled in anticipation. After a few months of ground time, the boys were finally getting action.

"Okay, listen up." Shepard climbed onto the bench to stand a head above the others who watched her as they loaded guns. "Easy enough mission ahead of us. A scientific community has been overrun by batarians, most likely slave traders. A distress beacon was activated somewhere in this area four days ago." She swallowed as the others looked at her grimly. She continued, "I know we weren't given the green light from Alliance headquarters to detour, but these men and women are civilians with families, and frankly we're the only ones close enough. Understood?"

The men gave a chorus of 'yes ma'ams' as guns whirred to life and biotics crackled.

"I can't land this thing properly without getting shot at by their heavies, Shep." Quebec called from the cockpit.

"No problem, Q. Just get us down as close as you can. We can handle it."

"Aye, Commander."

The shuttle doors began to whirr as they opened on either side of the ship. A warm, humid wind blew into the ship and whipped through.

"Feels like we'll be fighting through a storm. How dramatic." Tango elbowed her playfully. She grinned at him, flashing teeth.

"You were always the one with a flair for the theatrical, Tango." She replied, shoving him back.

"First one to the ground gets first shower?" he offered. He knew fully well she was never one to back down from a bet.

"You are so on, T." she turned to face him with her back against the open air. He opened his mouth to say something - no doubted witty - until he watched her fall back effortlessly.

"Goddammit!" he muttered as he jumped after her. Others began to jump, allowing their biotics to cushion their impact onto the dark soil. She was already ahead breaching the entrance of the excavation camp as if she was the damn scout in the group. The other twenty-four followed and branched out into formation as effortlessly as their training taught them. It was second nature. Check the corners. Check the higher ground. Be alert. Be vigilant. Never leave your teammates' six unguarded.

She dodged the bullet before she heard it whizz by her head.

"Inbound enemies!" she shouted, even if the others could hear her perfectly over their communications link. The bullets began to fly from both sides almost instantly and soon the biotics joined from their side. She slammed into the ground to get rid of a swarm of batarians that ambushed her and they go flying from the biotic rush. She cracks her knuckles and pumps her shotgun to reload.

They pushed towards the entrance of the ruins halfway excavated. Her team weaved through the tents and equipment taking down wave after wave of enemies until the last fell to the dirt ground.

"Feeling winded already, Commander?" Tango panted. His overheated clip whined as he emptied it onto the trampled dirt ground.

"You can only wish, T." she turned and shouldered her smoking shotgun. The batarian mercs laid lifeless on the ground, and yet she couldn't quite shake off the feeling in her gut.

"Hey, T?" she called.

"Yeah, Commander?"

"Did any of the guys see a slave ship around here?"

"Uh," he paused to look around, "not that I know of."

"Then where are all the civilians?"

He stilled, and she recognized the look on his face because she was pretty sure she was wearing the same one.

"Alright men, fall together." She called. "Partner up and spread out. A few hundred civilians don't just go missing. See if you can find out what happened here. Batarians are nasty but they're not particularly smart. I highly doubt any of them could dispose of that many bodies in such a short time. Tango, Bravo – you're with me."

The two followed her silently and the others dispersed among the abandoned encampment with a chorus of "Aye, Commander".

It was not an old settlement – in fact, it looked quite recent – which is why it did nothing to help ease the uneasy feeling she had twisting in her gut. The three wove their way through the tents, supplies, and crates towards the center of the encampment.

"You see this, right?" Bravo came to a halt.

"I…don't know what to say." Tango swallowed.

"I think that's the first time I've seen you almost speechless, T." Shepard tried to joke. She was betrayed by the crack in her voice.

Before them towered an immense and incredibly ancient stone temple created from natural rock that had a myriad of intricate carvings around the monolithic maw of a door that stood before them. To Shepard, it looked as if it was carved from one, lone rock.

Tango asked, "How did we miss this coming in?"

"Pretty sure we were more focused on the batarians trying to kill us." Bravo commented.

"Of course."

Excavation tools and handling crates were scattered and stacked all around the door, along with datapads that appeared to be hastily stacked and tossed about. Shepard bent and carefully picked up the closest one next to her boot and began to read. Her jaw tightened and her face ashened the more she read.

"What is it?" Bravo glanced around uneasily. His grip tightened around the assault rifle in his hands. She didn't blame him. The ruin seemed to emit an uneasy aura. She carefully placed the datapad back onto the crate next to her and glanced up towards the colossal door.

"We have to go in." she said.

"There's no way we can move that thing." Bravo protested.

"Sure we can." She replied.

"You think we'll find the civilians in there?"

"Maybe. Probably not."

"You still want to open the door anyway."

"You're correct."

Tango and Bravo exchanged hesitant looks with each other before reluctantly nodding.

"Aye, Commander." They said together. The two soldiers shouldered their guns and stood on either side of her. All three stared up towards the massive stone. Biotics crackled to life, and as they took their stances, the stone began to move.

2177.05.24
CASE ID 1167XAC68392
-ENCRYPTED-

It's been over three months since we set up camp around the temple and we still have yet to breach the entrance. Data analysis on the stone revealed an impossible age two weeks ago, and it only makes me want to move the stone door even more. This is the archeological finding of the millennia, Rick, I can feel it. Whatever is in there can change what we know about ancient history because it predates all current and extinct species and their respective histories. This could be the discovery of our origins. If only Dad could see this, huh? Of course he'd tell us to stop trying to preserve the door and just blow the damn thing up.

But I also have a bad feeling about this place, brother. Sometimes at night I think I can hear something beneath the rock – and I would completely dismiss it as my own imagination, but I'm not the only one hearing it. Yvonne described it as a groaning sound, and it's the closest we've come to be able to describe it. Rick, I think something could be alive in there. But that's impossible, right? The place has been sealed since before humans invented the wheel. Attached are the schematics we've drawn up of the exterior and sketches of the carvings in the rock. See if you can spot anything we've overlooked. it'd be nice to get fresh eyes on this.

I'll be sure to send you more information when it becomes available.

-Christine

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