Disclaimer: I do not own mass effect or strike witches.

Chapter 3: the beginning of hell

Jane Shepard smiled as she checked over her Striker sets. As an N7 Witch she was skilled in using all forms of weapons, this also meant that she had access to all the striker types including the prototype super-heavy land-strikers and frigate grade space-strikers. At the moment though she only had three sets; a light and a heavy land-striker as well as a set of airspace infantry strikers. Propped up next to her light land and airspace strikers was a triple-barrelled assault pulse cannon, while her heavy striker set had an integrated heavy plasma beam cannon

Jane her self was an athletic woman with short red hair and gained the ears and tail of a wolf when she drew on her magic. Her pale skin and short flame red hair showed her Scottish ancestry. Another thing that showed that ancestry was her choice of close quarter weapon; a claymore type longsword which was currently attached to her back in the heavy weapons slot, right between an assault pulse gun and a light particle beam cannon in her assault rifle and sniper rifle slots respectively. Clamped to her thigh was a H-5 shredder heavy pistol sidearm.

"Commander Shepard, please report to the briefing room," Joker, the ship's pilot, called out over the ships comm. "the captain wants to speak with you."

"I'm on my way," she called back

As she made her way towards the lift at the back of the hanger she wondered what she was doing here during a shake down run. And just why they had installed a slow elevator on a warship.

After a short pause to persuade the rookie, Jenkins, to double check his equipment she arrived at the briefing room only to find the Turian spectre Saren Arterius and no sign of the captain in the room.

Turning to look at her, he spoke, "Ah, Commander I was hoping to speak with you before captain Anderson got here".

"About what?" Shepard asked, her hand twitching towards the butt of her pistol.

"About this planet we are going to, Eden Prime, I hear that it is very beautiful." he replied, ether not noticing or not caring about how close her hand was to her pistol.

"Its said to be a paradise," she confirmed "but I would not know because I've never been there"

Saren nodded "A paradise, yes, but it is also a symbol to the alliance that they can colonise a beautiful world and keep it secure, but how safe is it really?"

"Do you know something?" she growled out while drawing on her magic

Raising his hands in a placating gesture he replied "Nothing like that, just a question from one solider to another"

Letting her magic withdraw she nodded "Pretty secure, its got the 108th demolisher witches and the 202nd biotic witches on planet at the moment"

Nodding, Saren thought about what he knew of those two divisions:

The 108th had gained their name by destroying all the fortifications on Torfan with no support or casuties. The 202nd biotic witches simply had their name because they were all Biotics but were the only people able to go toe to toe with a Matriarch and win in terms of biotic strength.

At that moment Captain Anderson entered the room.

"Spectre, I believe that it is time to tell the commander what is really going on"

Shepard shook her head "Captain, I think the entire crew knows that this is not a normal shake down run"

Saren did the Turian equivalent of a smile "Indeed Commander, there are two things going on, the first is that an excavation team has uncovered a Prothean beacon our objective is to get it to the Citadel before it becomes public knowledge"

She nodded "And the second thing?"

"You have been put forward as a Spectre candidate, Saren is here to evaluate you for that position"

Seren nodded, "This will be the first of many missions together, I hope we can get along for the duration of them."

"the mission is this; go in, get the beacon, get out. A simple mission if all g-" Captain Anderson was interrupted by Joker.

"Captain we've got an incoming emergence message from eden prime, they are under attack by Hegemony military remnants backed up by what seems to be Geth."

"Damit," swore Captain Anderson, "whats the ETA of the nearest fleet?"

"Just over an hour captain, and its the Yamato fleet."

"and our ETA?"

"20 minutes"

"take us in fast and quiet, and once you've dropped off the team begin relaying targeting solutions for the fleet's XRMs."

"Roger that" came the reply

"Shepherd get to the hanger and gear up, this mission has just become an order of magnitude more difficult"

she nodded before teleporting to the hanger.

Saren blinked before shaking his head, "I will never get use to that" he muttered as he made his way to his way to the hanger.

Codex: XRMs

extended range missiles, also known as XRMs, are a type of long range missile exclusively used by the systems alliance. They are unique in the fact that they are FTL capable enabling them to be used at FTL and between systems, attempts by the citadel races to replicate this capability have been met with failure.