A/N: And the second part of Eden Prime is here! This is going to be fairly different for the game level and will have violence and swearing throughout.

All franchises owned by their respective companies, only Mia and other OC's owned by me!

Chapter 3

Mia could not help the wince as she looked at the fallen Asari's body, a series of claw marks ran along her arms and the front of the her armour, some of them had gone through to tear at the flesh beneath. The worse part though was that a large chunk of her previously sculpted head, the flowing head-crests, was simply gone. A large calibre shot at close range, or some form of buckshot from an equally close, had killed her.

Thankfully such an injury would've likely meant death was instantaneous, any suffering would have been ended very quickly.

"Fuck!" Mia swore again, jogging to her side and shaking her head, "Who the hell can take down a Spectre?"

Ashley spoke up right away, "Another Spectre; or this army of robots?"

"I doubt this was the synthetics, too violent. They seem…" Alenko was interrupted by Ashley.

"Too violent; you did see them impale that colonist didn't you!?"

"Yes but this seems different…"

"It doesn't seem too different to me!"

Taking L'Sai's version of dog-tags the hybrid stood and looked at them and spoke sharply, "You're marines! Act like it!" She softened her tone, "Come on, we still need to save…"

"Movement," It was Harding weapon raised, "Behind those crates!"

"E-easy! I'm human!" A short man with short-cropped hair came into view, fear was etched into his features, his eyes not leaving Mia's form. "I… I saw what happened to your friend; it was that Turian."

"Turian?" Mia asked, signalling for Harding to lower his weapon as this man was obviously unarmed.

"Yeah, the Asari seemed to know him, let her guard down," He swallowed and took a deep breath pointing to L'Sai. "She called him Saren. Wanted to know what he was doing here as he wasn't the Spectre she expected to be here. This Saren just said that the Council decided to send him as well, as back up in case anything went wrong." The man paused again, taking several deep breaths. "Well, he attacked her when her back was turned, she fought back but he had synthetic arm with claws like yours," He pointed to her hands, "She tried to fight but those claws stopped her and he blasted her in the head. Just left after that, going that way," He gestured towards the Tram Station platform which was above them.

Mia nodded, "Thanks are you okay..?"

"Yeah, I will be. I used to be a marine believe it not, the names Powell." The rubbed his face, "Just never saw anything like this before…"

Feeling a little sympathy for the man Mia nodded again and smiled, "Don't worry, just stay hidden, it'll be over soon."

"Yeah, you don't have to tell me twice."

They moved cautiously into the tram-station, that strange hybrid on point, Harding and his high-powered SAW next, her and Alenko bringing up the rear. Ashley was getting nervous, they'd seen a large number of synthetics (who she now believed to be Geth but hadn't had a chance to voice this) enter this place, along with a fairly large number of those… husks. Yet this part of the station, a maintenance area for trams with a raised platform ringed by spotlights – all of which were still on, shining at the underside of tram car – with stacks of equipment and tools lining the sides of the room. A folding door was partly open to the left of the room; rails along the floor told her that this was where the tram-car had come in from. The walls were a dull grey metal, with blue stencilled lettering telling her that at least this part of the tram station was prefabricated.

Yet the room was seemingly free of hostiles, with an open door on the far side going into what appeared to be a storage area for parts, and a metal staircase going up the side of the building, over their heads to a sealed door. A lift was stuck in the corner; it looked like it would empty out right next to the door on the walkway above.

She glanced around at the Lieutenant a few metres away to her left, her eyes questioning, which he seemed to understand as he shrugged and mouthed, "I've no idea."

A hand signal for the bone-haired woman sent her and Alenko off to the right, circling along the ledge next to the raised maintenance platform, the hybrid and Harding covering each other as they clambered up onto said area.

Still nothing, the room was clear.

Another hand signal and she checked out the storage area, which was just one room with a row of shelving holding parts and tools. A workbench covered the wall next to the door, and was littered with the disassembled parts of something she didn't recognise. But the room was clear as well.

Moving out she mouthed clear – fully understanding the unspoken need for quiet when facing synthetics that might be able to hear them speaking a mile away.

With a nod the hybrid pointed upwards and made circle motion with her hand; regroup at the door. Returning the nod she covered the door as Alenko shifted to the bottom of the stairs, they moved like this until they were stacked up on the door, making sure to cover the door out of the room at all times.

The door out wasn't locked but they had no idea what was on the other side. She caught the end of a few hand signals to Alenko from Shepard, the man nodded and brought up his omni-tool, it pinged once and it took her a moment to realise what he was doing – he was hacking the cameras on the other side of the door!

After a moment he sent the images to Harding and the alien's omni's and tilted it so she could his. The Geth-like synthetics had set up a small defensive position on the other side of the door, while she could only see two of them watching the door from another camera view she could see maybe a dozen more facing the other way. And these appeared to be trading gunfire with… well a group of people she couldn't see from this angle.

The area appeared to favour the robots, this door the only way at them from this direction, meaning that the two watching the door could do some real damage.

Shepard shifted and moved to next her, typing on her omni-tool and holding it up for her to see, 'Is there another way around this block?'

She nodded but then shook her head typing a reply, 'Yes but it would take too long.'

A nod and the hybrid signalled to the others to read what she typed, 'I'll go first, distract them, you get to cover, drive them out.' A flex of her claws, 'If we can get in close before they can react to an attack from both ways, we can take them.'

She watched as the strange woman rearranged her weapons so she was holding a shotgun with a gauge almost the size of her fist one handed.

They all nodded, it wasn't the most well organised plan but then it didn't really need to be, under attack from two directions the Geth shouldn't be able to hold out.

She hoped.

Activating the emergency escape the door slid open in a sudden movement, Mia charged out the door trusting her fellow military operatives can follow in her footsteps. Keeping her energy shield up – which was a good idea as the synthetics reacted far quicker than an organic would – she opened fire with her auto-pumping shotgun at the robot to the right, which would've had a better line of sight on the others. It was blown backwards with a whine and, being this close to one as it "died" for the first time, she felt a crackle go through her tendrils – radio signal maybe?

With no time to ponder, her shotgun sliding its own rack as it shaved off another pellet of the ammo block, Mia fire again at the one in front of her – this one's shields took most of the impact as it was sent spinning in a half circle, weapon flailing in one three-fingered hand firing wildly into the rear ranks of the synthetics behind it.

This caused the other machines to falter, some turning to face her, the others resuming firing in the other direction. Her shield held and the gunfire from the second one she hit hadn't really done much than take down one shield generator.

Which was all the other defenders needed, a shot struck the now shieldless robot in the side of the flashlight head, ripping a gapping hole in it.

Alenko and the others had moved now, their combined fire tearing down two synthetics that were facing her. Flicking her shield outwards, turning it into a form warp energy Mia slammed it into the nearest three robots, turning them into melted hunks of metal before ducking into cover – with one last blast of her shotgun taking out the one she'd hit moments before.

Now being hit from two directions the synthetics seemed almost confused, but they were getting over it quickly, starting to shift their lines to back away into a more defensive situation. Holstering her shotgun she allowed her energy to gather around her in another shield and to infuse her claws.

Mia refused to let that happen.

Ashley grunted as she dropped behind a storage crate – hoping that it was both strong enough to shield her, and that it didn't have anything explosive in it – as she waited for her rifle to cool down.

The tired marine also marvelled at the speed that, that hybrid could move and how powerful she was. Being able to fire that shotgun on the move – one-fucking-handed! – was a sight to see. Yes, she'd missed a direct hit on the second Geth-thing, but still! Glancing at the hybrid she frowned at the shotgun was clamped to the back of her armour; though any questions she might've had dissolved as the woman starting to literally glow with energy.

And then, with an inhuman shriek she leapt forward, over her cover and charged at the synthetics. Her left hand is held at her side glowing with energy that shimmers with purple flashes around her as gunfire strikes, her right hand lashes out leaving a glowing contrail that nearly burns into her irises. A scythe of energy slices into the nearest Geth… no, it wraps around it burning through any shielding in a second and the heat of it – which she can feel from here – melts and warps the armour of the figure. Destroying it within moments, before she reaches the remaining half a dozen Geth for hand to hand.

When the Commander reached the first synthetic she simply lashed out with her right hand, the energy infusing her claws tearing through the armour seemingly with ease. Five more to go, which was reached to four when Mia stepped forward and rammed her charged left hand into the next ones flashlight; which exploded with the blast of energy focused into it.

Without pause the hybrid spun the dead machine into the way of the incoming fire, using the things limp hand and gun, wrenched around, to spray the next two with the charged plasma shots. Following up from this the Commander charged forward again, kicking of the wall to seize on of the remaining synthetics around the flashlight head with her clawed foot, her weight and momentum drawing the machine down as it metal frame was crumpled. The last one was struck from gunfire from the survivors, battering it backwards before a blast of energy from the hybrid sent it spilling backwards to spark on the tramline itself.

All this had happened in perhaps less then nine seconds, "Holy crap, she's good." Ashley heard herself saying; which got a chuckle from Lt Alenko but not a lot else.

Swinging her rifle up as more figures appeared, she lowered it quickly as it was the ones that the Geth had been shooting at – led out by a Turian of all things.

A Turian that the hybrid seemed to know, "Nihlus?"

The tall alien, who towered over even Harding, mandibles flared (a smile?), "I'm not surprised to see you Commander, after all, I suggested assigning you to The Normandy. I am however quite surprised to you in charge…"

"What do you mean by that?" Shepard – she must stop trying mentally calling her anything other than her name, or rank, lest she cause offence! – tilted her head, surprise in her voice.

"Never mind that; where's Spectre L'Sai?"

A shake of the head, "She didn't make it, scouted off by herself. We found her body out on the loading dock," She pointed the direction they'd come from, "Marked it for pickup after we save this place."

Clear shock, even to Ashley's untrained eye with aliens, came to this Nihlus' face, "L'Sai's dead? How?"

"An eye witness is hiding below as well; he said he saw Turian named Saran – who Spectre L'Sai seemed to know – killed her." The Commander said it all calmly, not coldly, just like she wasn't sure what was going on.

Even as the Turian yelled in frustration, turning the armed local security he'd been with, "Go find the eyewitness and bring him here, keep him safe at all costs," They all nodded and headed the way Shepard had pointed, "Mia, do you remember who Saren is?"

A nod, "I recall a Spectre named that from a few years ago…"

"If L'Sai knew this Turian, if it was Saren… this is very bad."

"How bad?" The words came from her mouth before she could stop them; Ashley mentally cursed herself, trying to save it by introducing herself, "Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Sir."

"Well Chief Williams, as you humans say; the result would be a shit storm." A short pause, "He's the Council's most famous operative in the Spectres'. If he's gone rogue then there'd be a spirits load of political blowback, enough to shake up The Council. And that's not counting any military issues that come from this…"

He was interrupted by the hybrid, "Maybe we should worry about this after we save this place?"

Ashley couldn't agree more.

With Nihlus leading the way Mia felt a little bit safer, which was strange considering that this colony was still a war zone, but he knew where they were going – to flank the Geth that were on the tram station platform.

As it turned out Nihlus knew more of the location of the Beacon than Ashley – which was unsurprising really – and that this morning it had been loaded on the tram line to be taken to the space port, ready for when The Normandy arrived today. The Space port itself was off centre to the colony but had tramlines running to most areas, acting as a central hub.

And the synthetics she now knew were called Geth had taken up defensive positions on the second tram, and most likely the hub station as well. Mia had heard of the Geth from when she studying the various races in the galaxy but she didn't know much about them. Ashley had given her the run down, created by the Quarians, they gained sentience, big war which the Quarians lost. It didn't explain what they were doing right here, right now though – after all Alenko had commented that they hadn't been seen outside of the Veil in nearly 300 years.

So why attack now, was it just for the beacon?

Has Saren somehow aligned himself with them, though for what purpose?

And what the fuck was going on with that massive ship from earlier?

She was glad of the signal from Nihlus to stop; she could concentrate on something else for now. From there position they could see that the Geth had shifted some crates and metal benches to act as a barricade of sorts. This prevented direct access from the station building, though not from the side access where they were currently crouching. Normally this little ladder would be used by maintenance crews to get at the underside of the tramline; they had used it to sneak onto the end of the platform.

The only downside was that they couldn't see inside the station building, not to mention that the Geth had actually disabled the cameras here; so they couldn't use the same trick twice.

Nihlus took the lead here, signalling of her and Harding to enter the station – quietly – and try to provide a distraction with their heavy weapons. Mia wanted to get up close and personal with the Geth; though it was slightly worrying for her that it didn't feel as good as when she clawed organic foes.

Holding open a manually operated swing door, which in itself was a strange thing is this day and age, for Harding, she nodded at Nihlus and slipped inside.

The door opened up into a small staff room, with two round tables with 3 chairs at each, a small kitchenette area and a shut off haptic interface – she guessed that this was for tram times. Decorating the walls were pictures of workmen and staff of the tramline; with a caption 'Working towards a better Eden Prime' embossed on each frame. The door leading into the station proper was open, and it appeared to be malfunctioning. Harding pointed to his eyes and then held up two fingers, pointing to the area just beyond the door – two enemies inside the station.

Moving to the door Mia peeked out into the station, seeing the two Geth were looking the other way she slid out and behind a staff counter. Using the moment to take in the station, it was a partly prefabricated building. The other of end of the station building, towards where they would've approached from normally, was a grey and blue affair, two rows of cushioned metal benches broken up the room. With the end that they were in being a more "bespoke" area, though only to a degree; it was like they used several different prefab walls – which made it look quite mismatched.

Behind the counter Mia could see that these two Geth seemed to be the only ones inside – there was no upper floor for the to hide in at any rate – and with another peek she could see that the entry way into the building for non-staff was sealed; security shutters covering it; which would explain the lack of numbers inside.

Typing into her omni-tool to Nihlus, Mia sent the message – Two inside, easy marks. Will hit them and then move to provide distraction.

Signalling to Harding she brought up her sniper rifle, pointing to the one of the left and then herself, with a nod at Harding and the Geth on the right. Understanding Harding nodded and took aim…

As the Geth turned around – spotting Harding instantly.

Before they could take proper aim she fired, taking out the left hand Geth with a well placed headshot – the power of the rifle negating the strong shielding – which confused the remaining one just long enough for Harding to squeeze the trigger on his SAW; the noise of both weapons echoing through the small building; giving away their position to the Geth outside, as they planned.

Rolling out into the room, Shepard swings her rifle around and takes a snap-shot out of the door – point blank into the torso of an advancing Geth soldier; being so close to her the shot not only tears a hole the size of her head as the shot exits the machine, but it also sends it flying back perhaps 10 feet onto the tram itself.

This got their attention, diving to one side to avoid a hail of gunfire which tore up where she just was; and wrecking one of the benches. The hybrid was glad she didn't try to hide behind one of them! As it was the wall might not hold up to concentrated fire for too long, it certainly wasn't designed to take this.

Thankfully Harding was able to reposition as the Geth focused on her; his SAW spitting high velocity slugs out at an astonishing rate, tearing through two exposed Geth on the platform.

Using the distraction they'd caused to be able to get close enough to ambush the Geth, Nilhlus; Ashley and Alenko opened fire; high-powered modded shotgun rounds from Nihlus; bursts of avenger fire from Ashley; and pistol shots, plus biotics lifting Geth into the air easy pickings from Alenko.

Hit from two sides the Geth didn't collapse like many organic foes would've done; but they did start to try to back off.

Until Mia felt something grab her arm – she was too distracted to hear, or see, the massive Geth red-armoured Geth unit approach, she cursed her stupidity; even as the hulking machine threw her around in a half circle, right into a protective screen for the engine compartment of the tram.

The impact was taken mostly on her armour, though her head did clack onto the screen painfully, with the thin metal sheeting bent under the force of the impact; her sniper rifle scattering to the ground feet away and, from the sound of it, her shotgun had been damaged by the blow.

Rolling to the side – ignoring the flare of pain in her back – Mia managed to avoid a blast of energy from the large Geth unit; which melted a hole in the screen. Snarling like her Zerg kin she sent a blast of energy of her own at the unit, sending its gun spinning so the next shot whizzed over the tram and struck the rock wall on the other side of the tram.

And then she did something that she might regret later – she charged.

With a series of waves of energy to stagger the hulking form she closed in, circling out wide to be able to kick off a crate and leap into the air; slamming into the Geth with her claws full of energy.

The resulting boom as her claws tore through the heavy armour might've thrown her clear if she hadn't gripped with her feet on the thighs of the machine, grabbing an arm in one hand and lashing across its "face" with the other. Her attack was furious but uncontrolled; she tore open the head of the Geth but took a hard blow to her side for her efforts; which if not for her claws would've tossed her away.

As it was it just hurt like hell; she could feel a section of her carapace crack under her armour – which bowed inwards painfully from the punch. Pushing away before another blow could be landing she rolled over her back, onto her claws and knees; snarling at the damaged Geth.

Which was then cut to pieces when all the other four soldiers opened fire on it.

Sighing, Mia relaxed and wished she hadn't; her back and side screamed at her. It wasn't as bad as some of the injuries she had in the past – most notably when she escaped her prison – but it still hurt.

Harding was the first to reach her, Nihlus moments later; Ashley and Alenko were making sure the area was secure.

"Holy shit Ma'am!" Harding exclaimed as her helped her up, "That was insane!"

"Yes it was and I'm paying for it now," Mia grunted, looking around at her side; the armour would likely hold as it was cracked but, if it was reshaped soon, her side wouldn't heal properly. "Remind me not to do that again, unless my natural armour can take it."

Nihlus was scanning her as they spoke, "Well the good news is no internal bleeding. You do however have two cracked plates of carapace and a broken rib; I'm surprised it wasn't more considering how strong those things are."

Snorting Mia replied, "Well I'm just lucky that my armour, and natural armour, stopped the worst of it then." She took a few steps – something had to be done about her armour!

Moving to her fallen sniper as Nihlus shook his head, "You are tough Commander but not invincible."

Using her clawed feet to flick the rifle in the air she caught it, "I know Nihlus, I know. But I heal quickly and if hadn't acted that thing could've killed me or one of you lot."

Leaning her rifle on the tram safety rail, she reached down and checked the clasps holding her armour in place, unclasping the ones near the dent in her armour.

"What are you doing?" Nihlus asked, moving closer again.

"My armour is bending into my carapace, if I don't bend it back out or remove it my carapace might heal at an angle," Ma grunted as she pulled the armour away, trying to push the metal out by hand but to no avail, "I cannot get the right angle…" With the she stripped of her chest and back piece; groaning as she did.

Ashley gasped when she saw the skin-tight undersuit under the armour – which revealed the extent, which was most of her torso, of the carapace. Ignoring this, as she was used to it by now, she placed the armour piece on the ground and punched it – not hard enough to break her hand, or damage the tough carapace there; but enough to roughly bend the armour back outwards enough that it wouldn't dig in.

That she could do this made the Gunnery Chief gulp.

"There. Better than nothing, though it won't hold up to much direct fire," Mia couldn't help but grin slightly at Ashley; who flinched.

Nihlus was less amused, "Come on, we need to get to the space port!"

The tram was easy to control, Mia thought to herself as Alenko controlled it, it just appeared to be a simple point and click interface and the computer did the rest. Why the Geth hadn't shut it down was beyond her; unless they still needed to use the tram system for some reason?

Almost shrugging to herself she returned to watching her axis of the tramline; they were starting to enter the more built up areas and they needed to be on the alert of any Geth ambushes. Thankfully her beloved sniper rifle was no worse for the wear from flying into a wall and clattering to the ground, and she was able to cover her area without worry.

Alenko swore and slowed the tram down, "We've got Geth in the station hub, if we get too close they might just blow the track from under us."

Nihlus shifted and looked at the control screen cursing to himself, "Commander, can that rifle of yours hit them from here?"

Nodding she moved up, popping the scope back into place, "It can; were do'ya want me to shoot?"

The Turian pointed at the screen to highlight which Geth he wanted gone, "This one has a flamethrower – see those tanks on its back? Hit those and boom."

Mia grinned wickedly, "That'll be a record shot from here. It's doable but going to be the hardest shot I've ever done."

"Can you do it? If you miss the rocket launchers don't need a direct hit." Nihlus was deadly serious.

Looking around she nodded at a slightly higher building, "If I climb up there I should have a clear line of sight, can provide overwatch from there," She checked her omni-tool, bringing up a street plan she'd downloaded from the tram itself, "Yeah, it'll give me a view into the hub itself; or at least 80% of the main areas."

"Good, head there and start taking down anything with rockets and flamethrowers; we'll get off here and send the tram in as normal to draw their eye."

Nodding she swung her rifle onto the magnetic clamp on her back, "I'll head up the rear of the building, I'll send three taps down the comm. line when I'm in position, ping me when you want the fireworks to start." With that, and a nod from Nihlus, she leapt off the tram onto the street below; checking her surroundings after landing the drop before darting behind the building, claws clanking of the pavement.

Part of her didn't like leaving them, though she did could work alone (and was very good at it when she did), she preferred to have people around; she put this down to the social nature of the Zerg, with her kin's hive mind mentality. Sucking it up she moved into the alley, rifle now up again and the barrel checking out all hiding spots.

The alley itself wasn't large but it was smelly, she couldn't see where the smell was coming from at first; until she spotted a charred corpse near the rear door to the building she was about to climb. Shaking her head, she looked up and the building – which was really nothing more that a series of prefabricated blocks put on top of one another, with a ramp around the side. It shouldn't be too hard to climb; she hoped as she holstered her weapon again.

Taking a kicked off the wall leap her claws gripped a fold in the metal easily and hauling herself up she dug her clawed feet into the metal, reaching up and sideways to grab a balustrade and pull herself up. The metal bar groaned under her weight but held, giving her plenty of time get her feet in place and gripping the wall; she repeated this – with a couple of jumps up – seven times before rolling onto the roof of the building.

Unclamping her rifle Mia belly crawled to the edge of the roof facing the space port hub; as expected she could see right down the length of all four tracks. Unfolding the bi-pod at the front of the rifle with slow careful movements, she braced it on the floor of the roof, checking the scope was operational she tapped her comm. three times.

Less than a minute later she could hear, but not see, the tram moving again. So did the Geth. They moved to see if it was occupied or not and, as they did, her comm. beeped with a "go" signal.

Bringing her goggle to the scope she took a slow breath, aiming for the fuel-tanks on an exposed Geth…

Phwip-BOOM!

Her shot was true, the fuel-tank sparked and went up with a thunderous denotation, shattering some of the remaining glass on the station front and showering the nearby Geth in molten plasma. Shifting her aim she fired again, this time taking down a Geth that was bringing a rocket launcher to bear.

This was how the opening stages of the fight went; she was firing at will, taking down Geth after Geth. When the others reached the station however, she was providing fire support, gunning down Geth that tried to flank or targets that were called out to her – including a hulking red-armoured Geth like the one she'd had a close encounter with.

It was clear that the Geth knew where she was, some had tried to fire in her direction even, but with the assault coming right at them after the tram had entered the station, well, they simply had other things to worry about.

Mia didn't think that she'd fired this many times before in a single mission, a read out on her goggles – which was being relayed back to The Normandy as part of her assessment – told her that she'd fired 97 shots, with 88 confirmed kills. She was glad she'd brought an extra ammo block for her rifle along, since the extra power in the calibre actually burnt away a microfilament of the block each time she pulled the trigger; this block had maybe 10 more shots before it was spent.

Sliding the new block out of the belt pouch she kept it in, she pressed the button on the side of her weapon to open the ammo compartment, ejecting the block onto the roof and slamming the new one in place; closing the lid in a swift movement.

Thankfully the fighting seemed to be over, "Commander? This is Ashley; we need you down here ASAP."

Tapping her comm. she replied, "Roger that, on my way now."

After hopping down from the roof, Mia heard a gasp from inside the building itself; knowing it wasn't one of the synthetics – since they didn't gasp, not having lungs and all that – she merely glanced around.

The sight that greeted her was a young tanned woman pointing her sidearm at her, in an Alliance uniform but it was clear she wasn't a fighter; her pistol was waving about in the air – not to mention the symbols on her lapel were of the R&D division.

Before either of them could speak, or move, a solitary Geth emerged from the apartment just behind the human; the weapon it carried seeming to rise in slow motion.

Mia roared which her rifle echoed, the wind of the shot whipping the woman's hair as the slug passed by; ripping the Geth's head apart at this close range. Even as she fired, two more emerged from behind her.

Knowing that this young woman couldn't defend herself, Mia charged, kicking off the railing to the walkway and sailing over the now screaming woman's head, charging her powers as she leapt; her rifle fired one-handed but her shot only caught the nearest Geth in the arm, sending it spinning.

Dropping the rifle as she landed, rolling towards the Geth Mia drove her charged right fist into the second Geth, using her forward momentum to turn it into the path of the fire from the now recovering one – which was mimicking her and firing one-handed. The rounds impacted on the Geth she held, ripping her claws upwards to tear it apart. Still moving she kicked of the wall of the prefab this time, ignoring the sting as a burst of fire struck her, the talons on her left foot seized the synthetic by its "face", her right impacting with its torso.

Both of the spilled over, down a flight of steps to end up in a heap. The machine recovered quickly, even damaged, and tried to return the favour and grab her skull – no doubt to use its mechanical strength to try and crush her head. Using her own highly considerable muscle she stopped the hands a foot away from her face, digging her claws in to try and ruin the servos in the things wrist; as her clawed feet tried to find purchase to throw it off her.

The sound of a pistol going off and the almost startled whine of the Geth made her blink in surprise – the woman had opened fire!

As the Geth turned it damaged optical unit towards the stairs Mia acted, letting go with her right hand and grabbing the Geth's chin; there was a tearing of metal and a spray of milky-white liquid as the head nearly came off. After one last whine it fell still and silent.

"Holy… shit…" The woman's very British accent was thick with fear.

Shoving the nearly headless synthetic form from her Mia rose to her feet, feeling a sting along her already wounded right side but ignoring it for the moment, as the woman was still pointing her weapon at her.

"You… you killed it… with your hands, claws, whatever…"

Looking the woman she noted that even though tears had ruined her makeup, leaving lines down her face, she was still quite attractive by human standards, "Well I did drop my rifle."

The sidearm lowered and the figure laughed nervously, "I wasn't expecting this happen. I mean, I'm on my way to Earth and pow! Attacked by robots! Saved by a friendly alien like a bad sci-fi movie!"

Mia didn't really know what to do here even if this person wasn't exactly a civilian, she wasn't privy to her nature, "Are there any more survivors around here?"

A shake of the head, "I… I doubt it. I shouldn't have come back here in the first place, stupid, stupid." She sobbed slightly. "I was too far from the nearest shelter, you know, in case of pirate attacks. So I ran to my hotel room."

Moving up the stairs, she noticed that the woman was a bit shorter than her, her dark hair a mess, "Well, I'm probably going to end up in more fighting so it's probably best if you go back into your room and stay there until the all clear is sounded."

Another nervous twitch, "I… yeah, you're right. Probably a good idea…" Another nervous chuckle, "I barely passed basic training anyway…" She looks around, "And thanks for, you know, saving my butt just then."

"It's nothing…"

"Oh but it is! There was me going to shoot at you 'cos you don't look human…" The woman rubbed her temple, "God Samantha! Do shut up and hide!"

"That's for the best I think," Mia moved up the stairs as the woman – Samantha – moved back, grabbing her rifle from where it fell.

"Well, for what it's worth; thank you my unknown, quite scary and brave rescuer."

"Commander Shepard." Best to just leave it that, Mia thinks.

"Oh! A Commander? I'm just a private in the Alliance R&D and communications division – hence my terrible handling of weapons, give me an encrypted transmission any day! Sorry, Private Samantha Traynor!" A mock salute as Samantha pauses at the door into her room.

"Well Private Traynor – keep your head down!"

After leaving the terrified human – Private Traynor, she reminded herself, who'd locked herself in her room. Mia went along the walkways to the front of the block and, after checking for any remaining hostiles, started to swing herself down a level at a time until reaching the ground. From there she readied her rifle again and ran up to the station, ignoring the crunch of glass under her talons and the growing sting in her side.

Reaching the door and stacking she called out, "Friendly to South-East entrance!"

Alenko's voice rang out, "We're by the secure doors!"

A quick check of the floor plans on her HUD and Mia swung around the door frame, rifle checking the room still; they had no idea as to how many Geth actually remained after all. The station was designed to mimic the earth city of London's Kings Cross station – which was all she knew about this building to be honest – the curved glass roof was partly shattered, massive steel beams and glass littered the floor and tramlines.

Mia had to take a long way round as part of the tramline had in fact been smashed through completely by falling debris; taking a running leap over one part, until she reached Alenko.

Who nodded at her, "Commander."

She nodded back, "Lieutenant," Looking at Ashley she added, "Chief."

Harding was sitting on a bench, applying medi-gel to a wound on his leg, seeing her looking his way he smiled, "I'll be alright ma'am, just didn't get my leg behind cover quick enough is all."

"Good to hear Corporal, you're a damn good shot with that death-spray of yours," Was she reply, complete with smile.

Harding nodded and jerked his thumb towards Nihlus, who crouched at the entryway to the space ports secure loading dock, "He wants to speak to you Ma'am."

Nodding she swung her rifle around and clamped it to her back as she moved over to the Turian, "Nihlus, I hear you have need of me."

He only glanced around, "Yes, I take it you got held up going by the gunfire."

"Found a survivor, stopped some Geth from putting her down; she was quite nice looking."

Snorting Nihlus spoke again, "I take she saw you then?"

"Unfortunately yes, I dropped down from the roof right in front of her; didn't know she was there."

"Guess we'll have to deal with that later; right now we have a bigger problem," He pointed at the corridor out on the dock, "You see that box right at the end of the corridor?"

Looking down the blue and green path she could indeed see a bright orange and black box... with a radioactive hazard symbol on the side.

"Fuck me!" Was all she could manage to say.

"Exactly my thoughts," Nihlus muttered, "Whatever's in there isn't leaking much radiation or our alarms would be going off; however I don't like it. It's almost like something is off about it."

Mia frowned, pulling her goggles down to get a proper look at the box, with her different vision – she'd noticed that she could see things that other people didn't, almost like auras was the best way she could describe to someone – that the box had a shimmer around it.

"It looks shielded…"

Nihlus blinked, "Really? I'm not picking up anything."

"Can you see that slight shimmer around it?" A shake of the head was all she needed from Nihlus, "I think it's a booby trap… shall I go look?"

The Turian looked at her with a very serious look on his face, "I know you have a higher tolerance for these things but… be careful."

"When am I not?"

A Turian laugh was, to her, a beautiful mix of sounds, "Yes, jumping on a Geth Prime unit is being careful!"

She could only smile and shrug, pulling her goggles back into place and starting to creep forward. Ashley, who hadn't heard her conversation with Nihlus hissed after her, "Commander! What are you doing?"

Said Turian calmed her down, "Easy Chief, she's very resistant to radiation."

Mia almost snorted, it was one thing to say that but another to get close to something that could be leaking a lot of radiation. As she got about halfway to the box she could feel a slight… tingle in her tendrils. Looking at the electronic tag on her arm – which as still calibrated for normal levels, not her levels, since she travelled with species' that didn't quite have as good radiation resistance as she did. Well Nihlus had good radiation resistance, what with being a Turian, but she could take more than he ever could.

Flicking the cover open the tag was still showing green, high for green admittedly, but still within safety limits. Keeping half an eye on the tag she kept her pace up, rifle now un-slung from the magnetic clamp on her back – since machines didn't have to fear any radiation. Reaching the brightly labelled box she felt herself pass through some kind of shielding. And the tag on her arm suddenly started beeping rapidly; starting to glow a bright red. And she could feel the radiation hit her like a wave.

She'd felt radiation before – she could actually sense the damage that it does – but this was another level entirely. It almost forced her to her knees with a pained grunt; somehow managing to keep her rifle held tightly in her right hand, her left going out to steady herself.

She could hear a worried shout from Nihlus, "Mia! Are you alright?"

Pushing herself backwards, through the shielding again she gasped, "I will be… the shielding is very strong… holding in the radiation… it's not leaking though… it's a salted bomb…"

"Shit… can you disable it?" Nihlus asked and then added, "If you can survive the radiation hit that is."

"I can live through it for a few minutes in the radiation but, if it takes longer than a few minutes, well I doubt I'll be much good for a while afterwards." Mia knew that she would be okay due to her Zerg DNA, which would enable her to survive without any real damage – since Zerg could absorb such radioactive waves and turn them into energy. However she wasn't entirely Zerg – she would heal but it would hurt after a while.

This time Alenko spoke up, "Take care Ma'am…"

Putting her rifle back onto her back – yet again – she pushed back through the shielding; this time ready for the wave of dull pain. Taking the last few feet in a couple of strides, kneeling next to it she scanned the box – ignoring the warning beeps and slightly distorted complaints from The Normandy in her ear.

It was indeed a dangerous bomb; however it was set on a simple timer that could be hacked to shut off. This would not stop the leak that she could feel however.

Cursing she spoke into her radio, crackling due to the shield, "Shit… it's a big fucking bomb… on a timer… I might be able to hack it… but the leak… the shield will need a power source… until we can… get a fucking… get a containment team here."

"Can you hack it?" A simple question from Nihlus; not a good answer however.

"I cannot, no. I don't have this level of training."

Nihlus gave an expletive that her translator didn't bother trying to translate, "Alenko; could you do it?"

"I might be able to… I'd need to be able to see the trigger and timer though."

Mia smiled to herself voice still distorted through the shielding, "We can do that… if I synch up my omni… and goggles… to Alenko's omni… he can see what… I see – act through my… omni-tool."

Joker's voice came through, "Already done Commander; and hurry the hell up will you?"

She didn't bother replying to Joker but Alenko, "He's right Lieutenant… I'm not going to… to be able to… stay inside the shield… for too much longer…"

She could hear Kaiden swearing as well as Nihlus, "Fuck…" Her omni flashed as he took control, "Well I can do this… I can do this…"

Blinking to clear her vision as she watched the images flash by on her HUD, the timer blinked and then shut off after about 3 minutes of hacking.

"Get the fuck out of their Mia!" Nihlus practically shouted into her comm.

She tried but her legs were stiff from crouching, almost giving way as she forced herself to pace towards the shield edge; pulling herself through the barrier with small gasps of pain.

Nihlus run towards her, tapping on his omni as he did so, passing her and tossing something through the shielding to land next to the bomb – a cable hanging from it's side, "Shit, the shield slowed my throw; that's a spare power source to keep the barrier up. We need to figure a way of…"

Without a word Mia threw herself through that fucking shield, grunting painfully as she moved and picked up the power source, glancing at the bomb, "Where's it go?"

"The socket on the bottom right."

Reaching over Mia picked up the cable – which should've automatically connected had the shield not screwed with Nihlus' throw – and after several attempts managed to get device plugged in.

Crawling out of the shield after a few more long moments, Mia sat by the edge of the tunnel panting – her heating vents were on fucking fire!

Nihlus scanned her and shook his head, "You should be dead Mia, if not for your Zerg side."

"I feel… feel like shit…"

"You will do for quite a while I'd expect; thankfully you've absorbed most of the harmful radiation. It won't kill you but if you hadn't been able to do so it would've likely killed us with the bled off from you."

Mia pulled her goggles off panting as she vented heat rapidly, "Remind me… not to… do that again…"

"I'll try," Nihlus finished his scan, "Right, your armour is radioactive but within the limits of our armour, we can leave you here… we cannot carry you in case of hostiles."

Mia waved him away, "Leave me here… I'll catch up to… to you in a minute…"

Nihlus nodded but paused before he moved, "That was a brave thing you did Mia, a very brave thing."

She laughed, waving a claw at him, "Give me a… a medal later…"

After a few minutes, Mia managed to stand and started to slowly hobble towards the secure dock. The others had already passed by – followed by some gunfire not long afterwards; she wanted to be involved but her legs just felt like weights.

Pushing herself she neared the dock proper, seeing a few shattered human corpses and a few Geth forms littering the place she knew that the others had passed through here. Pausing at the sight of some more of those husks, Mia moved forward, carefully heading around the bodies.

Pinging the first comm. line she could she spoke, "Hey, where are you?" Her voice still felt… heavy.

Ashley replied, "On the right loading platform Commander."

"Right, I'll be there in a few minutes," She could feel a strange tingling sensation in her hair tendrils as she neared the ramp.

"Roger that Commander."

Looking around it was clear that something massive had landed close by – likely that monstrous vessel they'd seen earlier – and judging by the rubble and torn metal, it had flattened a large structure in doing so. Off to the left were the others, plus a few broken Geth and husks bodies littering the area, standing not too far away from what could only be the beacon itself.

It was about 10 feet tall, made of the some dull brownish looking metal and curving from the base.

It was glowing however and Ashley was remarking on this, "It wasn't doing anything like that when they dug it up, something must've activated it…"

Nihlus tapped the woman's shoulder as she made to move closer, halting her, "I wouldn't Chief, previous beacons activated by mistake have killed, or driven mad, those that got too close."

"R-right… thanks for the save."

Alenko gave a small wave at her, seemingly ignoring the other conversation, "Are you alright Ma'am?"

She nodded, taking careful steps down the ramp, her claws not gripping the metal very well, "I will be LT, don't worry about me." The closer she got to the beacon the more her tendrils quivered.

The human started to open his mouth to speak but Nihlus got there first, "Commander, after this mission we need to talk privately," A pause, "After we sort this mess out of course."

Mia was about to reply when a startled yell came from Ashley – who was being dragged towards the beacon!

Pushing past the males who had started to look around, she grabbed Ashley and shoved her away from the beacon – the Chief landed with a bark of pain – as the beacon seized her. Trying to pull back she flared with power but it was too late.

A wave of energy hit her, lifting her into the air. She could hear shouts from behind her but not what said.

Even as another wave of energy slammed into her, making her hair tendrils flare outwards as she felt, rather than heard, herself scream; pain arching through her body as images started to flood her mind.

Images of death, destruction, and war.

Another, even more intense wave of pain hit her as voices, voices which she didn't understand, started flowing with the images.

Suddenly it all went black…

A/N: I didn't edit this too much, so there's probably a bunch of mistakes!

And we've got to the end of Eden Prime! The next chapter will be a little different from the game, as we also have to deal with the fact that the general public don't know of Mia's existence. I'm hoping to portray her loneliness in the next chapter… but I'm not that good of writer, so it might come across forced… we'll have to see!

I'm also working on a side-thing for this, based on a few things by LogicalPremise – who's Of Sheep and Battle Chicken series is must-read! – with kind permission. The first part of this is about half-way finished, if I can get a full day tomorrow I should be able to get it done and up on here.

Thanks to all who read, review and comment!