Objective 1: Speak with Captain Anderson

Rumor and Speculation

Having made a perfect FTL jump into near orbit around Eden Prime, Joker places the Normandy into stealth mode for a silent approach.

Nihlus is pleased with the helmsman’s skill and departs to inform the captain of their arrival.

With the Spectre gone, Joker recounts his trepidation about the mission to his fellow officer, Kaidan Alenko, also stationed at the helm.

Kaidan calls his crewmate paranoid, maintaining that the turian Spectre’s presence signifies nothing more than the Council’s will to oversee the operation it has funded.

Joker scoffs at Kaidan’s ignorance, insisting that something larger than a simple shakedown mission is at hand.

Eager for a status report, Commander Shepard enters the bridge and approaches the helm. This is your first opportunity to participate in a conversation.

Select a response and click to make Shepard voice your opinion. Choosing the upper-right responses throughout this brief dialogue tree earns you a few Paragon points when the conversation concludes.

Selecting the lower-right responses shifts your alignment slightly toward Renegade.

Picking the middle-right options causes Shepard to utter neutral responses that have no effect on your morality.

During the dialogue with Joker and Kaidan, Captain Anderson radios in through the ship’s comm system. He orders Shepard to meet him at the comm room for a mission debriefing.

Leave Joker and Kaidan to their work and make for the comm room (marked on the map).

As you pass the combat information center, you overhear Navigator Pressly expressing his misgivings about the current mission with Engineer Adams.

Seems like everyone’s a little on edge with a Spectre aboard. If you’d like, pause for a moment to speak with Pressly for a chance to gain a few more Codex entries.

Corporal Jenkins and Doctor Chakwas stand just outside the comm room. Jenkins is on edge, eager to get into some action and prove himself to his superiors.

Take a moment to speak with these two crewmates to learn background info on Nihlus, the Spectres in general, and Eden Prime, the planet you’ll soon be exploring.

Investigate all left-side options of this conversation tree to uncover a new Codex entry. The right-side responses can net you a few more morality points, as well.

An Incredible Find

Entering the comm room, Commander Shepard finds not the ship’s captain waiting inside, but Nihlus, the turian Spectre sent by the Council to accompany the Normandy ’s crew on this mission.

Nihlus is pleased to see Shepard arrive before the captain, saying it’ll give them a chance to talk.

He probes Shepard about Eden Prime, but the commander has little knowledge to impart other than what he’s heard from his crew.

Arriving within moments, Captain Anderson greets Shepard, then quickly divulges that the mission at hand is far more than a simple shakedown run.

He tells Shepard, his XO (Executive Officer) that they’re making a covert pickup on Eden Prime, which is why the stealth-enabled Normandy was chosen for the task.

The target is a Prothean beacon that has recently been excavated by a research team on the planet’s surface.

Acquiring this technology is an extraordinary opportunity.

The discovery of abandoned Prothean technologies such as the Citadel and mass relay nodes is the core reason why galactic races of all kinds, including humanity, have advanced so quickly over recent years.

The beacon must be returned to the Citadel for study.

Naturally, the interests of obtaining the beacon go beyond that of the human race; the Council is eager to learn more about this intriguing find.

This is the main reason behind Nihlus’s presence aboard the Normandy, but he’s also here to evaluate Shepard’s performance in the field.

Humanity has been pushing for a larger role in galactic politics, and Shepard is under serious consideration for an appointment to Spectre status.

Such an appointment would go far in bolstering humanity’s status in the eyes of the galactic community.

The mission is simple in design: secure the Prothean beacon so it may be transported onto the Normandy and brought to the Citadel for study.

Investigate all dialogue options to end the meeting with two additional Codex entries under your belt. No morality points can be gained from this conversation.

As the meeting draws to a close, Joker suddenly radios in over the ship’s comm channel with a disturbing message: Eden Prime is being attacked by some unknown party.

The groundside feed is scrambled and chaotic, but it’s clear enough that the planet’s defenses are being overrun.

Captain Anderson orders Shepard to suit up and head down to the surface with a small away team. The beacon must be recovered at all costs.