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 Mass Effect 3: From Ashes DLC and accessing your personal terminal. It is immediately available upon getting free rein of destinations with the Normandy SR-2 after departing the Citadel.
Preparation
You will be facing fairly heavy Cerberus opposition, meaning lots of shields and some armor.
Liara is a mandatory squadmate in this mission. Since Liara has focus on biotics and crowd control, you have yourself and the other squadmate to consider in deploying tech burst abilities.
Enemies tend to be clustered together, so area-effect evolutions of Overload, Energy Drain and the like are advised. If you have Sabotage in your arsenal, it can be put to very good use here during Cerberus' attempts at stopping you halfway through the mission.
In considering weapon loadouts, a good part of the mission will be spent engaging enemies at medium to long ranges.
Walkthrough
Head to the Exodus Cluster, and then Eden Prime to begin the mission.
The Stasis Pod
After you have been dropped off, follow the path until you reach the first set of buildings. A viewpoint ahead will trigger dialogue between your squadmates. Enter building 6 on your right. Salvage the computer (+3000 Credits) and pick up a Med Kit (+300 XP). Examining the terminal will trigger the mission Eden Prime: Resistance Movement and give you the first piece of Cerberus intel.
Make your way to the Nav-Point outside and use the elevator console. A cutscene will follow in which Liara discovers that Cerberus have uncovered a living Prothean in stasis. They damaged the Prothean's lifepod during excavation, and the life signs are unstable. To open the pod, a command signal has to be found to end the stasis mode, and a way figured out to physically open the pod without doing more damage. There are two labs nearby where Cerberus are researching what they found at the dig site. A Cerberus shuttle will then fly overhead and drop off two Nemeses and a Centurion at a distance: eliminate them.
From where you're standing, the lab researching how to physically open the pod is located on the left all the way to the back, and the lab researching the command signal can be found on the far right. These may be reached in whichever order you see fit, though the upcoming sections assume that you first head left.
Tactical Notes: The choice of which lab to head for first does present some interesting tactical variations for the advanced player. Though you will face the same number of fights either way, heading left tends to result in clear lines of sight between your position and the enemy Turrets; this is favorable if you prefer taking out Turrets first, and/or if you have Sabotage to subvert them to your side. Heading to the right first will have you encountering Turrets that are initially blocked from being able to fire on you; you can use this to your advantage if your preferred tactics emphasize taking out the human enemies before engaging the tougher Turrets. Finally, if you manage through guile to reach the lab computer stations without killing all the enemies, they will vanish during the cut scenes, bypassing the rest of the fight.
Obtain Pod Opening Instructions
Proceed forward and enter building 5 on the left. The second piece of Cerberus intel will be on a terminal inside, along with equipment to salvage (+3000 Credits). Then move to the building slightly down the hill, still on the left side. In the courtyard beyond it you will encounter several Combat Engineers, Assault Troopers, and Centurions. Their Turret is already set up, so approach with caution.
Go up the ladder to the top of the building for a good fighting position. Eliminate the enemies, go back down, and be sure to salvage the equipment (+6000 Credits), as well as pick up the third piece of Cerberus intel from the terminal and a Med Kit (+300 XP) 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 Kit (+300 XP). Go through a second door, and use the computer console.
Shepard's eyes glow green as a cutscene of a Prothean battle with the Reapers unfolds. A Prothean soldier has barely sealed the facility against an onslaught of Collectors with help from the VI Victory. The VI reports about 300,000 casualties while the soldier taps the GUI of a stasis pod and takes a moment of silence for its dead occupant. The war doesn't let up as Victory alerts the soldier of another incursion. He orders the VI to send all forces north, going himself before the scene devolves. In the present, Shepard learns how to open a Prothean lifepod (+500 XP).
Obtain Command 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. Examining the coffee table causes Commander Shepard to remark that they were killed while "watching the game." Be careful as you open the far door as the Cerberus troops beyond it already have a Turret set up.
Eliminate the hostiles, and from the room with the table, go across the courtyard and up the stairs, following the Pod Data Nav-Point. Salvage the equipment on the left desk (+3000 Credits). Open the door and use the computer console for another flashback to 50,000 years past.
Two Protheans, a civilian and a soldier, are walking in a massive bunker complex. The civilian laments that he never thought the Empire would fall. The Prothean soldier assures the civilian of the Empire's rebirth and tells him to go to his stasis pod. Victory is then ordered to broadcast the stasis readiness signal to all pods despite the presence of refugees who have yet to reach the bunker. The Prothean states that their sacrifice will be honored in the coming Empire. An explosion rocks the far end of the bunker, and the Prothean readies his rifle against an incoming swarm of Collectors before the scene once again fragments into jumbled memories. In the present, Shepard obtains the command signal to end the pod's stasis mode (+500 XP).
Return to 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 the building.
Eliminate the hostiles and move towards the building with the door on the left. Note: On higher difficulty levels, an additional pair of Guardians will appear as you advance. If you retrieved the command signal before the instructions to physically open the pod, then instead of Guardians, you will find a Combat Engineer, an Assault Trooper, and another Turret.
Go through the door and three Turrets, three Guardians, one Combat Engineer and an Assault Trooper will be waiting. Going through the open ground route to the door's right to try to flank them is tactically disadvantageous as it has very poor lines of sight to the hostiles and the Turrets are likely to strip your shields or even kill you before you can attempt to lure the organic enemies close. It's simply more prudent to take cover inside the structure and whittle the enemy down one by one. Tip: If you have it available, using Sabotage on the Turrets will cause them to helpfully mow down nearby friends.
Warning: On higher difficulties, be sure to approach the area where the Turrets are VERY carefully (especially if you aren't sure where it is precisely), as it is very easy to come up a staircase or out a door and be instantly gunned down by them. If you retrieved the command signal first, you'll want to take cover on the staircase railing and slide carefully up it.
Alternately, instead of going Rambo through the door you can simply lure the entrenched hostiles out by taking potshots at any nearby enemy while taking care to remain out of the Turrets' firing range. Open the door, fall back as far as possible while eyeballing the hostiles, equip your most accurate long-range weapons, and take shots.
The organic enemies may be suckered in, and once that happens and they're in your preferred killing spot (or are far enough from the Turrets) feel free to let loose with the full fury of your abilities. If not, one enemy killed from afar is one less to worry about. Once all hostiles are terminated, proceed to their former location and destroy any Turrets that may have been missed, which should be a lot easier now.
Liara will tell you that they have retracted the bridge and to find another way across. Warning: Once you have made your way across you cannot go back, so make sure to first scour the area for any salvage or intel you might have missed and to reload your ammo. 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 lifepod. Activate it. Shepard will transmit the signal to the pod, but Liara tells you that it will take time.
Defend the Pod
Several hostiles will launch an assault on your position from the direction you came from at the start of the mission, and two additional shuttles of Cerberus troops will appear. Defend your position or take cover in the nearby building, 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 first appears near the Atlas, with the second attempting to flank the building by dropping near where you began the mission. The building will provide excellent cover from the Atlas. Bring it down with whatever means you have at your disposal, along with any footsoldiers in the way.
An alternative approach makes this fight a cakewalk. After activating the pod, quickly climb the roof of the building you were on top of earlier. The Cerberus troops will (mostly) not follow you and the Atlas can easily be worn down from your elevated position. It will move towards the building, and as it gets closer it cannot target you anymore. Repeated Tech or Biotic Explosions centered on the Atlas (even though the powers might show "red" on the Power Wheel) will annihilate most of the Cerberus squad as well as the Atlas with little danger to Shepard.
Note: The Atlas is hijackable if you want to attain the Hijacker Achievement. Proceed to shoot only the vehicle's cockpit until it cracks open, then shoot the pilot and it should be yours to board, thus allowing you to mop up whatever Cerberus troops are left on site with it. Be aware: surviving Cerberus troops might try to mount the vacant Atlas mech, so be prepared to quickly rush and enter the mech once it becomes available.
Once all troops have been eliminated, you will be able to open the pod and speak to the Prothean within. You will have a conversation with him both on the planet and back on the Normandy, after which he will introduce himself as Javik.
Aftermath
- The Particle Rifle becomes available.
- Javik will be available as a squad member and can be found between missions in the port cargo hold on the engineering deck. Note however that Javik cannot accompany you on Priority: Palaven.
Enemies
Crashing issue
During the mission, the game crashes right after Shepard watches 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.
This issue is fixed in an update patch.