Category: Aliens: Extinct Races
Type: Secondary

The beacon was a Prothean artifact unearthed on the Alliance colony of Eden Prime. Its resemblance to the Prothean data banks recovered on Mars provoked an immediate interest from the Alliance and the Citadel Council. It proved to be a solid state data storage device, part of a galaxy-spanning comm network similar to the modern extranet. Intact Prothean "paleo-technology" is rare; the beacon seemed to promise another quantum leap of technology, akin to the discovery of the mass effect drive and relays.

Unfortunately, the beacon also drew the attention of the rouge Spectre Saren Arterius and his synthetic allies, the geth. A dawn raid by his flagship Sovereign resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties. The beacon was badly damaged. The motives behind the attack are still being investigated.

During the recovery operation, the beacon fired a pulse of energy at the Executive Officer of the Alliance frigate Normandy. Lieutenant Commander Shepard survived and appears to have suffered no ill effects. Afterwards, the beacon fell inert. The mechanism appears to be dead.