Eden Prime

As the Normandy touches down on Eden Prime, Cpl. Richard Jenkins, Lt. Kaidan Alenko, and Commander Shepard prepare to head down to the planet. Nihlus is going groundside too, but goes on ahead to scout the area. In the first few minutes on the surface, synthetic assault drones appear without warning and cut down Jenkins.

Richard Jenkins. KIA.

    Shepard and Alenko continue towards the dig site, discovering one of the few surviving marines, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, who is being chased by synthetic troopers. Shepard and Alenko help her fight them off. Williams explains that she believes the synthetics to be geth.

    The geth are a race of networked artificial intelligence that reside beyond the Perseus Veil, in the uncharted deep space beyond Citadel space. The geth were created by the quarians, as laborers and tools of war. When the geth became sentient and began to question their masters, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war, and reduced the quarians to a race of nomads.

Geth Trooper.

The history of the geth's creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and to the legally enforced, systematic repression of artificial intelligences throughout galactic society.
    Williams leads Shepard and Kaidan to the dig site but the beacon has been moved to the spaceport. While they examine the nearby camp, the squad run into a group of Husks, human corpses reanimated by the geth, which they manage to kill. Shaken, they continue towards the spaceport where Nihlus agreed to meet with them.


Saren Arterius.

    Meanwhile, Nihlus is surprised to see Saren Arterius, a fellow SPECTRE, at the train platform. Saren tells Nihlus he's got everything under control, but when Nihlus turns his back, Saren kills him and leaves, ordering the geth to destroy the colony with explosives. He approaches the Prothean Beacon, which reacts by lifting him off the ground.

    After finding Nihlus's body, Shepard's team continues to the tram area where they defeat the last of the geth and disarm their demolition charges. Shepard sees the beacon and calls the Normandy while Alenko and Williams take a look at it. Ashley gets too close and is caught in some sort of field—Shepard intervenes but is caught in the field instead, pulled off the ground as Saren was. The commander suffers a horrific vision—synthetics waging a terrible war—before the beacon explodes and Shepard is thrown to the ground, unconscious.
    Ashley and Kaidan carry Shepard back to the Normandy.