Priority: Eden Prime

Cerberus has discovered a Prothean artifact on Eden Prime. Land on the planet to recover the artifact.

Acquisition
This mission is acquired by downloading the From Ashes DLC and accessing your personal terminal.

Head to the Exodus Cluster, and then Eden Prime to begin the mission.

Walkthrough
Liara is a required squadmate on this mission; choose your other companion accordingly. There will be a brief discussion on the shuttle that varies slightly depending on which companion you brought with you.

After you have been dropped off, proceed down the pathway until you reach your first set of buildings. Enter the building on your right. Salvage the computer (+3000 credits) and a med kit. There will be a terminal inside that will trigger the mission Eden Prime: Resistance Movement (first resistance intel). Make your way to the nav-point and activate the excavation lift. A cutscene will trigger and Liara will tell you that Cerberus uncovered a living Prothean in stasis, but if you open the pod without the proper signal it will kill the Prothean inside.

A Cerberus shuttle will fly overhead and drop off several enemies. Eliminate them and proceed to the first set of buildings on the left. The second piece of resistance intel will be on a terminal in the building, along with some equipment to salvage (+3,000 credits). Then move to the building slightly down the hill, still on the left side. There you will encounter several Combat Engineers, Assault Troopers, and Centurions. Go up the ladder to the top of the building for a good fighting position. Eliminate them, go back down, and be sure to salvage the equipment (+6,000 credits), then pick up the third resistance intel, and a med pack in the same building through the door. Liara will mark a nav-point on your heads-up display, telling you that Cerberus was studying footage of the Protheans to figure out how to open the pod. Bypass the door, move into the building and pick up a med pack. Go through a second door, and use the computer console. You will see a cutscene of a Prothean battle.

Once you have obtained the signal, move outside, go left and up the stairs, across the courtyard, and up the second set of stairs. You will enter a building with four corpses. Examine the coffee table so that Commander Shepard will remark that they were "watching the game." Open the door where you will find several Cerberus troops. Eliminate the hostiles, and from the room with the table, go across the courtyard and up the stairs, following the Pod Data navpoint. Salvage the equipment on the left desk (+3000 credits). Open the door and use the computer console to retrieve the information about how to open the pod.

When you proceed outside you will see two Cerberus shuttles race overhead. Four Assault Troopers and two Combat Engineers will drop out before you can make your way outside of the building. Eliminate the hostiles and move toward building with the door on the left. Go through the door and three Turrets, three Guardians, one Combat Engineer and an Assault Trooper will be waiting. Eliminate them, as well, and move towards the Prothean stasis pod.

(Alternative approach for this part, recommended for soldier and infiltrator class players) Concerning the approach to the passageway back to the stasis pod, from the right will pit your squad very close to the bulk of the Cerberus forces deployed there along with multiple turrets, while you could lure the troops away into killing grounds to your favor you'd be forced to be exposed into the dangerous crossfire several times to do so; however the approach from the left (where you learn the signal) actually have a very long sight-line all the way there from the lab - from just outside the lab, you can actually see the Guardians waiting but they couldn't see you. Start engage them and you could actually lure them to trickle into the long walk and pick off by you and your team - sometimes there might not be any turret deployed on the approach, or if there is any you can safely pick them off without the troopers to harass you around.

Liara will tell you that they have retracted the bridge and to find another way across. Before finding a way across, make sure to scour through the area for any salvage or intel you might have missed and to reload your ammo. Once you have made your way across you cannot go back. To cross, jump down and move to the left. You will see two ladders; scale them. Once on top of the building where you found the first intel terminal, move forward and vault over the two ventilation ducts, then make a right. Climb down the ladder and make your way to the Prothean stasis pod. Activate it. Shepard will transmit the signal to the pod, but Liara tells you that it will take time.

Several hostiles will begin assault on your position from the direction you came from at the start of the mission. Defend your position and eliminate all hostiles. Once all enemies have been dealt with, proceed inside the building to stock up on ammunition (if you need it) and then prepare for another wave. An Atlas will drop from the sky near where the Cerberus troops had dropped off during the first wave, along with several shuttles filled with Cerberus troops. The building will provide excellent cover from the Atlas mech. Eliminate the hostiles and fall back to the Prothean stasis pod where you will now be able to activate it.

Note: This Atlas is hijack-able if you want to attain the hijack Atlas Achievement, just follow the "shoot cockpit only" procedure and it should be yours to board, plus allowing you to mop up whatever Cerberus troops left on site with it. Be aware: surviving Cerberus troops might try to mount the vacant Atlas mech, so be prepare to rush the mech once it becomes "available".

Once you've done so, you will have a conversation with Javik both on the planet and back on the Normandy.

Enemies

 * Assault Trooper
 * Atlas Mech
 * Centurion
 * Combat Engineer
 * Guardian
 * Nemesis
 * Turret

Crashing issue
During the mission, the game crashes right after Shepard watched a video data detailing the Reapers' invasion of the Prothean empire. If you try to reload to the last check point, Shepard's team will appear in the Kodiak shuttle along with clipping issues.

To overcome this crash, load your last save game prior to watching the video. After watching the video and the conversation with Liara, immediately hold the Shift key (Command HUD) for a few seconds, bypassing the issue.

Also, since there are two "Prothean flashbacks" Shepard must watch, one tied to the way to open the Prothean pod and another tied to the signal that must be disrupted first, sometimes the crashing issue will not happen if the player makes sure to watch the "opening pod" video first, before watching the "signal" video. Although the mission is designed so the player gets the "signal" data first since the signal must be disrupted before the pod can be opened, watching the "signal" video first seems to cause the mission to crash, so the player must go a bit out of his/her way to watch the "opening pod" first.

This issue is fixed in an update patch.