Not a romance… just a good ol' space opera.
Told mostly from Joker's perspective, 'cause he's an awesome character and he doesn't get a lot of fics. Of course, this is set back in basic training, so he's not 'Joker' yet…
The bit about Kaidan being older than the others comes from ME canon… he supposedly left the Alliance for a while after BAaT and then enlisted in the Alliance Navy, so maybe this isn't AU?
Anything Mass Effect belongs to Bioware. Definite inspiration from Ender's Game (although I read it half a lifetime ago).
Jeff Moreau looked into the cold hard stare of his assailant, feeling a sickening lump grow in his stomach. His arm and ribs were broken, his pistol spun weightlessly just out of reach. He looked around frantically for Shepard, tried to cry out but was silenced by the crack of a fist across his fragile jaw.
As he felt the metal gun barrel pressed against his temple, Jeff closed his eyes and prepared to die.
"Listen up, you pathetic excuses for soldiers, buckle in and get ready to prove you belong in the Alliance Military!"
Once every standard year, as the latest wave of fresh meat completed their grueling basic training, a select group of recruits were put through one final ordeal before being released to their respective programs. Soon they'd be budding engineers and pilots and assassins and grunts, but for now they were all equals, fighting for honor and glory. The Systems Alliance Wargames were as eagerly anticipated as they were feared: none of the previous years' chosen few dared to speak a word of what went on during the punishing contest. Despite the secrecy, or perhaps because of it, the whispered rumors of deaths at last year's SAW spread like wildfire.
Straining at his crutches, Jeff Moreau hauled himself into the dropship and took the nearest seat. He pulled the safety harness down and locked in the restraints, muttering under his breath about the lack of padding, bracing for the pain of the brief journey. Through the small portside window, he could make out the decaying hulk of Gagarin station in orbit a short distance away. He gave a disgruntled snort: since the BAaT program was dismantled, the facility that was once a symbol of human progress had been reduced to little more than a junkyard. Pressing back into the meager cushioning, he grit his teeth as the dropship began its rumbling approach toward the station.
Once inside, Moreau barely had the chance to catch his breath and check for injuries. He and his fellow squadmates were herded into a small debriefing room by a Gunnery Chief with a foul temper and bulging neck veins. His initial relief at not having sustained any fractures was replaced by deep-seated unease when they were told in no uncertain terms to remove their armor and weaponry. Each was handed a shipsuit emblazoned with a team name: Moreau got Cairo. All around him were other recruits from his division: men and women he'd spent the last year bonding with through sweat and suffering. Each of them had been assigned to a different team. This is just great.
"Fall in, maggots!" The Gunnery Chief's eyes looked like they'd pop right out of his head. "From here on in, no one cares who you are, where you're from, or what training program you're off to next. If you survive, that is." His lips were curled up in a sadistic sneer. "All that matters is whether you win or lose. Look around: these aren't your friends. As of right now, you're all enemies. Now move!" He pointed to the far doorway: a line of bioluminescent film illuminated a path into the guts of the station.
Moreau was still pulling his jumpsuit over his aching limbs as his former comrades shoved past him. He cursed as one of his crutches fell to the ground. The Gunny just stood there watching him, not moving to lend a hand. Moreau stubbornly refused to let his pain show, fastening the last of the suit's clasps and making his way slowly toward the hallway.
"Gravity's a bitch, ain't it kid? You're a tough little punk. You'll do alright, I think." Moreau didn't bother looking back to see whether the Gunny was mocking him as he crossed the threshold into the maze of corridors.
Navigating through the vast expanse of the abandoned station was easier than Jeff had anticipated. The luminescent smartfilm had been engineered to pulse in response to his shipsuit's ID, leading him through the winding tunnels until he came to a hatch marked with a golden eagle. Damn, this place was old. He had to manually release the locking mechanism to open the door.
Cairo's headquarters had formerly been barracks, back when Gagarin station really meant something to humankind. Small pullout cots were packed tightly along the walls, held in place by musty-smelling webbed rigging. Jump Zero had been cobbled together before Prothean technology made extraorbital construction infinitely more efficient. Although large modules had been added to the station after First Contact, clearly space was at a premium when this particular section was built. Moreau was one of the last to arrive. Even with all of the cots tucked away, the space still felt cramped once the two dozen members of team Cairo had all packed in.
Overall, there was nothing remarkable about his teammates. They were a mix of genders and human races, typical hardcore Alliance types. The team captain had been pre-assigned, a discovery that made Jeff wonder whether the Cairo suit had been handed to him deliberately. Kaidan Alenko strode up to him, shaking his hand with a firm grip and patting him warmly on the shoulder. He certainly looked like a leader, with his confident demeanor and chiseled features.
"Welcome to team Cairo. Moreau… you're off to flight school, right?"
"Yeah. Look, don't get fooled by the limp and the crutches. I want you to treat me like anyone else. I'm a better tactitian than soldier, though."
Kaidan sized him up. Moreau's dossier had him pegged as the brightest in his squad. His spot in the Naval flight academy had been earmarked for him ever since he enlisted. Too bad about the brittle bones, Kaidan thought. He might have made a great commander.
"It's a pleasure to have you on board, Moreau."
Kaidan finished his rounds, making sure each member of his new team had met one another, sharing stories of homeworlds and cultures and backgrounds. Most were headed for the general ranks of the Navy and Marines, but he had three future officers, a few engineers, and one pilot. Not a bad mix. There was, of course, the ace up his sleeve: unbeknownst to the rest of the recruits, Kaidan was a biotic.
After the incident with Vyrnnus, most of his old friends from brain camp had been phagocytosed into the greater Alliance. Kaidan parted ways with the military, drifting around the galaxy awash in self-blame, but eventually came to realize that BAaT was long overdue to be shut down. As much as he regretted killing the turian, he didn't think he could live with himself if he hadn't protected Rahna. The system was broken, and he was only the catalyst for its demise. Pumping gifted kids full of implants and subjecting them to training that verged on torture was no way to build an army. Not humanely, anyway. After a few years of soul searching, he'd enlisted in the Alliance Navy, yearning to make a difference and desperately hoping that things would be different this time around. His year of basic training was brutal, but even the harshest drill sergeants lacked the sadistic edge of the BAaT instructors. For the first time, Kaidan was proud to be part of the Alliance.
It was eerie being back on Jump Zero: they'd really let the station fall apart since he was here last. Walking through the corridors he knew so well brought back bad memories, sending tingles down his spine. He wondered why they'd been stuck down here in the old barracks: there were far nicer facilities at the other end of the station. Scare tactics, he supposed, the Alliance puppet masters trying to make everyone nice and uncomfortable before putting them to the test.
Alenko gave team Cairo one last pep talk, and gave the order to bunk down for the night. He wished he had more to say to his young charges: even the captains had no idea what challenges awaited them. At least he'd managed to get a rough idea of who was on his team, what their strengths and weaknesses might be. Sighing wearily, he unstrapped his metal cot from its moorings and settled in for a night of restless sleep.
0200h. Just enough time for even the most anxiety-prone soldiers to drift off, ensuring the loud blaring siren would rip the recruits from the most delicious stages of REM sleep. Moreau opened his eyes, watching fascinated as the girl below him vomited military rations in a floating cloud of bile. They turned off the gravity, he thought, chuckling to himself. Born and raised a spacer, he couldn't feel more at home. He'd even wrapped himself in the cot's netting out of habit, but the dull thuds and loud curses all around him told him he was in the minority. Most of these poor bastards had probably only experienced weightlessness in emergency drills.
"Attention, soldiers. Your test has begun. Please wait for your team to be called and proceed to the proving grounds in an orderly fashion." The VI announcer had a syrupy sweet female voice. Combined with the pulsing red warning light and the sudden absence of reassuring gravity, the effect was chilling.
Kaidan was doing his best to calm the team. Some of them clung to their cots like drowning men, others were spinning uncontrollably, lashing out with their arms and legs and inadvertently sending others into vertigo-inducing spirals. The air smelled like sweat and vomit. Moreau darted quickly from person to person, bracing himself against any available handhold and giving a crash course in zero-gee mobility. There was little room to move in the confined space of the barracks, but between him and Alenko they soon had most of the group briefed in the basics of weightless aerobatics. At least the puking stopped.
"Team Cairo and team Stockholm, please proceed to the proving grounds."
One by one, they made their way cautiously through the hallways, using the floor's metal grating for handholds as they followed the trail of light. Alenko took the lead, Moreau stayed at the back to help the stragglers. Finally they found themselves in a small anteroom, one wall lined with pistols and the other with a viewscreen. No less than the Admiral himself addressed them from the console.
"Men and women of the Systems Alliance, you have the honor of taking part in a prestigious tradition. Only the best will succeed. Your objective is simple: you must capture the enemy's base without surrendering your own. Your trial begins now!"
The door at the far end of the anteroom flew open, revealing a large chamber beyond it. A glowing oval on the far wall indicated the location of the entrance to the opposing team's base; scrap metal and debris from wrecked spaceships littered the cavernous space between.
"Grab a pistol and form up!" Alenko's voice betrayed none of his nervousness as he divided his two dozen soldiers into four squadrons, sending each in the general direction of a large chunk of wreckage they could use for cover. He was relieved to see that the pistols were loaded with cryo rounds: they would incapacitate but not cause any permanent damage. Once the team was organized, he hurled himself through the doorway, aiming for the cover of a bombed-out thruster module. Kaidan grunted loudly as his body made impact: he'd forgotten that an equal force would be needed to stop. Clutching at the twisted metal, he gained a secure handhold and started emptying his clip straight at the opposing doorway. He had the advantage: his enemies had been just a bit slower to figure out the game, and his rounds froze quite a few of the disoriented soldiers as they were making their way to the battleground.
The fight wasn't pretty. More than half of Cairo were a lost cause right from the start: floating helpless in the vacuum, or careening through the zero-gee environment until a crack on the head or the snap of a bone brought them to a sudden and painful halt. Alenko and Moreau's squadrons managed to hold their own, quickly embracing their leader's tactic of sniping the enemy as they emerged from the far door. Team Cairo was soon reduced to a few functional soldiers, but they managed to mop up the last of the stragglers from team Stockholm and make their way safely to the enemy base.
"Please press the lighted console to end the battle," chimed the VI.
Score one for the crippled kid, thought Jeff as he triumphantly slammed the console to claim victory. He grinned at Kaidan, who smiled right back.
"You've won, team Cairo. Please follow the lighted path and return to your quarters."
"That's it?" Moreau was floored. He was expecting… something more. Anything, really. Stunned and disoriented, they'd have even been happy to be yelled at by the Gunnery Sergeant from earlier, just for the reassuring normalcy. The few conscious and unfrozen members of team Cairo were left to collect their less fortunate comrades from the combat chamber and float them back to headquarters using the tow ropes provided. A stockpile of food and medi-gel had been dropped off during the match. Kaidan began to distribute these among his charges, trying to make sense of the situation and come up with a strategy for the next battle. His temples began to throb with the early twinges of a migraine.
The next few days passed in a blur. Gravity in the station remained off, making the fragile Moreau the team's most valuable member as he taught more advanced lessons in zero-gee combat. Several of the young soldiers were quick to get their space legs, ricocheting weightlessly off the walls and obstacles with increasing confidence and grace. At seemingly random times, the siren would blare, alerting them to the start of the next round, everyone holding their breath to see if their team would be chosen for battle. In the meanwhile, Alenko made sure his soldiers took catnaps in the cots whenever they weren't eating or socializing in the main hall.
Kaidan made a fine leader. His strategy was simple and effective, and they hadn't yet lost a match. Using the bulk of his force to secure a central and well-defended position in the combat chamber, he relied on a small strike team led by Moreau to flank the enemy and catch them off-guard. It wouldn't work forever, he knew, but the nimble spacer hadn't let him down yet. His brittle bones made him ill-suited to normal warfare, but the lack of gravity and his upbringing aboard Arcturus station gave him a definite advantage over the colonists and Earthborn. Kaidan started modifying his tactics with each round, brainstorming with Jeff long into the night to map out new plans of attack.
Located in a repurposed hydroponics module at the opposite end of the station, the mess and main hall provided a welcome means of blowing off steam and commiserating. While Alenko didn't like the idea of his team fraternizing with their enemies, it was preferable to the stress of staying cooped up in their claustrophobic headquarters. Spending time among the other teams also gave him the opportunity to spy on the competition. Sleep-deprived and on edge, some of the younger recruits were showing signs of cracking under pressure. There was plenty of laughter and bravado in the common room, punctuated by the odd fistfight.
Most unsettling of all, there was no leaderboard, no chart of wins and losses, and no sign of when or how the contest would end. A blank console stood at one end of the common room, taunting them with its emptiness. On the third day, as the soldiers lined up for breakfast, a short list of names appeared on the board alongside instructions to follow the lighted path and leave the facilities. Cairo lost a handful of members, while a few teams lost more than half their roster. The list of soldiers excused from the competition grew longer after each round of battle.
After a few more days, Cairo's roster was down to a dozen or so. Quite a few teams had been disbanded altogether, and those not sent home were distributed among the remaining groups. The pressure to perform was astronomical, the tension palpable. Jeff and Kaidan sat together at one of the mess tables, sucking oatmeal and orange juice from vacuum-sealed pouches as they conducted reconnaissance under the pretense of fraternization. For a split second, Jeff's eyes caught a piercing blue gaze from across the room: they belonged to a copper-haired sprite who promptly vanished from view. He'd seen her before, usually loitering along the outskirts of the room. Although he couldn't quite put his finger on why, she made him nervous.
"Who's that? Is she even old enough to be here?" The tiny girl looked like she was barely in her teens.
Kaidan chuckled softly. "You haven't heard? That's Shepard, captain of team Jakarta. There's a lot of rumors about her: all I know for sure is she's headed for special ops."
"That means she's trouble."
"Pleased to meet you too." Shepard's voice chimed in behind him: somehow she'd managed to sneak across the room unnoticed. Her impish grin made her look childlike and innocent, and they both shook her outstretched hand warmly.
"Care to sit down? There's plenty of room at our table." She shrugged her shoulders at Kaidan's invitation, sipping her pouch of coffee and staying to chat for a while. They talked about the events thus far, exchanged conspiracy theories on the true purpose of the competition, and compared notes on what non-pureed foods they were most looking forward to when it was all over. Shepard deftly redirected the conversation every time she was questioned on her background or her strategies.
The familiar blaring siren overhead put an abrupt stop to their discussion, summoning Jakarta and Tokyo to the battleground.
"See you around," said Shepard as she unlocked her harness clip from the seat, kicking off cautiously in the direction of the hallway.
"I get the feeling there's more to her than she lets on." Jeff watched her leave, raising an eyebrow when she miscalculated her trajectory slightly, bumping into the doorframe on her way out of the mess.
"She's sneaky. I have it on good authority she can move like lightning when she wants to. Probably used to people underestimating her." Kaidan decided to set aside their latest game plan for use against Shepard's team.
Days passed and the paring continued; soon there were only eight teams left. Cairo's roster was barely recognizable: including Alenko and Moreau, only five of the original gang remained. They'd only lost four matches out of twenty, but each victory was more challenging as their opponents got smarter and tougher. Jeff could swear the cryo rounds were packing more punch than they used to: his right ulna had snapped where he'd taken a hit in the last battle. Fortunately, he was left-handed and they had plenty of medi-gel.
The time inevitably came when Cairo and Jakarta were summoned to face one another. He rehearsed the game plan in his mind one last time on the way to the proving grounds. They would either catch their enemy by surprise… or fail miserably. Grabbing a pistol from the shelf, he listened in as Kaidan brought the troops in for a huddle.
"Watch out for Shepard. She's the little one I pointed out to you in the mess. Williams is the taller girl with long brown hair: she'll probably be leading their main force while Shepard tries to flank us. We're not going to let her, understand?" They barely had time to finish a team cheer when the door flew open and they put their plan into action. Splitting up into six groups of two, they set off for opposite quadrants of the chamber. It would be impossible for Shepard to sneak past them: each squad had covering fire from at least two others. The usual frantic blitz turned in to a chess match as Shepard's team adapted to mirror their tactics. Moving from cover to cover, each tried in vain to gain the upper hand.
Jeff tucked his body into the protective curve of a rocket's nosecone as shots whizzed by, inches from his position. He spied a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and managed to bury a cryo round into the foot of an enemy rushing to safety behind a scrap of wing. He took stock of his surroundings: tantalizingly close by was a large section of cockpit that would offer protection from every angle but the rear, with enough ports to give him a clear view of the battleground ahead. Signaling his intent to the other member of his strike team, he pushed off the nosecone, tucking in his knees and firing repeatedly as he floated effortlessly toward the next cover. Enemy fire clipped his left hip, leaving him with a numb patch but no significant disability. To Jeff's dismay, his teammate wasn't so fortunate: his frozen body drifted helplessly in the vacuum behind him, bumping into another incapacitated soldier. Damn. Might as well put them to good use, he thought, ignoring their indignant expressions as he reeled them in by their harnesses, using his frozen comrades to barricade himself in the cockpit.
Jeff was safe for the time being, and managed to take out two of Jakarta's soldiers by firing through a cracked porthole. He rarely caught sight of Shepard for more than a split second: she darted around in the vacuum with the ease of a hardened spacer. Alenko held his own, defending a heavily shielded position behind a shipping crate. For the most part, Jeff could only watch the game of cat and mouse as Cairo and Jakarta's numbers slowly dwindled. After what felt like hours, only Shepard and Alenko were left, and Jeff wasn't sure either of them knew he was still in the game.
"Come on out, Alenko!" Shepard was taunting him, bouncing from cover to cover as she approached his position.
"You're good, Shepard. Too bad you underestimated me!" Kaidan leaned out to fire, his hand empty and glowing blue. A warp field rippled through the vacuum, knocking Shepard's pistol out of her hand and sending it spinning out of reach. Holy… Alenko's a biotic!
"Well, if you're going to play that card…" Shepard gave a girlish laugh as her body was engulfed in cerulean energy. She let loose a warp field of her own, demolishing Kaidan's cover and relieving him of his weapon. It was now or never: Jeff had one split-second opportunity to seize the win. Shepard was so fixated on fighting Kaidan that she'd forgotten about him. If he moved quickly, he could sneak past and claim her base before she realized her mistake. He ducked out from the safety of cover, completely unprotected as he launched himself straight for the door to the enemy base. Just a few more meters…
The klaxon blared, signaling the end of the match. What? He turned around to see a tall girl with a brown ponytail waving at him from his own base. Williams. She'd beat him to the punch with his own trick, staying hidden all along until Shepard's distraction gave her the chance she needed.
"Maybe next time, boys!" Williams gave her leader an enthusiastic high-five, then set about collecting her frozen teammates. Shepard kicked off toward Kaidan, no longer concealing her biotic abilities as she used pulses of energy to pirouette playfully as she braked.
"Well met, Cairo," she said, shaking Kaidan's hand. "You caught me off guard… that isn't easy!"
"Good job, Jakarta. I'm looking forward to a rematch." He returned her wide grin, shaking his head as he watched her flit away.
Wounds dressed and frozen bodies thawed, Kaidan led his team back to the mess to fill their bellies. A glance at the notice board told him he wouldn't be able to pull the same trick twice: new instructions forbade the use of biotic abilities. The mood in the common room was dark and somber, the silence deafening. Jeff was waiting for him: he'd headed over early to catch up on the latest news.
"It's bad, Kaidan. There've been a few deaths so far in the tournament. Three that I know of for sure, and there are rumors of a few more."
Kaidan cursed under his breath as Jeff continued. "Shepard dropped by: she says she has evidence this isn't just an accident. Some of the guns are being tampered with to shoot amped-up cryo rounds. Take a close-range hit to the head and your brain swells. You don't find out the guy's dead until you try to thaw him out."
"Any chance of going to the brass?"
"How? There's no sign of any Alliance personnel on this station, other than us. They have to be watching, but they're not stepping in. We're on our own, Kaidan."
"What about the other teams?"
"No one's admitting to messing with the guns. Half of them think Shepard's making it all up to scare her competition."
"Do you trust her?"
"Yeah, I do. And my arm broke the other day, remember? I know I'm not made of steel, but a regular cryo round shouldn't do that. I think we ought to search the station, see if there's any way to get a message out to the Alliance."
While Kaidan set off in search of Shepard, Moreau combed the hallways, opening every hatch and doorway he could find. No one here but us. He tried to hack in to Jump Zero's comm network but found only internal systems: there was no way to access the extranet.
On his way back to Cairo's headquarters, he ran into Shepard and Alenko. A transport ship was about to dock and pick up the latest wave of dismissed men and women. Someone from the Alliance had to be piloting it: maybe they could get word out about the deaths. Rushing over to the docking bay, they arrived just in time to see a couple dozen soldiers climbing into the mostly empty dropship. A lone unmarked shipping crate was being loaded by two humanoid mechs, roughly the length of a human body… it had to be a coffin. They knew. Jeff got close enough to see that the ship was unmanned before the mechs waved their weapons at him menacingly and warned him away. They didn't look like they were packing stun rounds.
"Tell them what's going on! People are dying here!" Shepard shouted at the departing soldiers before she too was forced to back down at gunpoint. Her shoulders slumped as the airlock closed and the dropship blasted off. They were trapped.
"Maybe this is all part of the test. I wouldn't put it past those bastards." Alenko's brow was furrowed, lost in his memories of brain camp.
"I don't know what to think. We still don't know how this is supposed to end. We're going to run out of men soon, one way or another." There was no more time for discussion: the VI announcer was calling Nairobi and Cairo to the proving grounds.
Moreau was rudely awoken from a much-needed catnap by a hand clamped over his mouth. Panicked, his eyes snapped open: two deep blue irises were staring right at him. Shepard pressed one finger to her lips, then pointed to the open doorway where Kaidan floated, waiting.
"Sorry to startle you," she told him once they were safely out of earshot, "but some of your new teammates might not be thrilled you're fraternizing with the enemy." After the last round of battle there were only enough competitors left for four teams, and quite a few had started out as team captain somewhere else. Each was looking for a way to prove himself, and tensions were high.
"I'm hoping you didn't just make me piss myself for the hell of it, Shepard." He shot her a teasing grin, but her expression was grim.
"Jenkins didn't wake up after the last battle. He's technically still alive, but there's no one home. Some bastard from Stockholm must have shot him in the head right in front of me." Although she didn't explicitly say so, it was clear she blamed herself.
"Wait a minute, they dismantled Stockholm. Some of those guys are sleeping in our headquarters right now!"
"Mine too: Jakarta got three of them. An engineer and two marines, all tough as nails and not interested in conversation. Everyone left is out for themselves: I've only got four or five left on my team that I trust. Ash and I are taking turns keeping an eye on everyone else."
"I still don't understand why we haven't heard from the Alliance. I know this contest is supposed to be brutal, but they can't possibly be okay with people killing each other in a training exercise!" Jeff was livid, gesturing wildly as he made his point.
"Come with me." It was the first time Kaidan had spoken. His words were barely audible, but something in his expression earned him Shepard and Moreau's full attention. He led them silently through the corridors until they came to an abandoned wreck of a classroom.
"This isn't my first time on Jump Zero. I was part of the brain camp experiment that ended a few years ago. I'm surprised you weren't, Shepard, with biotics like that. I thought the Alliance had changed, that they weeded out all the sadistic monsters. Guess I was wrong, if they're pitting us against each other like varrens." He told them about BAaT training, about Vyrnnus and Rahna, about the horrors of the biotic experiments all conducted under Alliance orders. "Don't fool yourselves, they're not interested in the best and brightest. They're looking for someone who's going to win at any cost."
"You're not like that, Kaidan. Not me, not Jeff, not Ash." Shepard snorted. "I actually joined the Alliance because I wanted to make a difference." The words sounded hollow, now.
"What if we just refuse to play their game?"
"That doesn't stop the murderer from killing again. The Alliance isn't helping, but someone on this station is pulling the trigger. We need to figure out who it is and stop them."
"What if it's more than one person? Word got out a while ago that you could amp up the guns. Maybe people just got careless trying to gain an advantage."
"It's possible. I don't know what to think. Just be on your guard until this is over."
Cairo and Jakarta. Just two teams were left, each full of stressed out, sleep-deprived, hypercompetitive soldiers who thought they were tantalizingly close to earning the prestigious SAW medal and the Admiral's favor. Jeff was doing his best to scrub the blood from his hair: he'd been caught in the spray from a teammate's bloody nose. Fistfights were a regular occurrence in headquarters as tempers flared and testosterone overpowered common sense. Fortunately for him, he hadn't been involved directly: he could usually defuse a tense situation with a few jokes at his own expense.
No one had died in the last round, but Jeff made a horrifying discovery. He wasn't sure what first caught his eye, but something about his pistol looked subtly different when he picked it up off the rack. A closer look revealed the casing's seal had been broken and carefully replaced. He grabbed two more pistols from the shelf: all had been tampered with. He turned to alert Kaidan just as the biotic was launching himself through the hatch into the proving grounds beyond.
Alenko had confronted his team afterwards, demanding to know who sabotaged the weapons. No one would admit to it, although a few claimed to have heard rumors about now-defunct teams tweaking the ammo to get an advantage. Looks like this is a bigger problem than we thought. Barely an hour had passed since the last fight when they were summoned for the final battle: they hadn't even had the chance to warn Shepard.
Now they stood in the small anteroom, hands tightly clutching pistols modified to deliver lethal force at close range. Alenko did his best to try to talk sense into his team, but they were frenzied with adrenaline. Only he and Moreau remained out of the original group: there was no shared history, no sense of camaraderie to appeal to.
"Listen very carefully. I don't know who's been messing with the guns, but I know it wasn't an accident. Winning doesn't justify murder. If anyone takes a headshot, I'll see to it personally you get court-martialed. Do I make myself clear?" His speech was met with piercing stares from his team. A woman near the back of the room piped in, lips curled in a sneer. She was headed for the marines, and was still pissed off at being demoted from team leader when her group was disbanded.
"Thanks, captain, I'll keep that in mind when I'm kicking Jakarta's ass." Her snark prompted loud cheers from the group: Kaidan tried to shout over them but was interrupted by the VI announcer declaring the start of the match.
Moreau's heart was pounding. Utter chaos had erupted as soon as the door to the proving grounds flew open. It was every man for himself: no one was willing to cooperate with any sort of cohesive strategy for fear they'd lose their chance at glory. Shepard's team fared no better: only she and Williams seemed to be using any sort of tactics beyond pointing and shooting. Kaidan and Jeff stuck together, hiding behind the cover of a satellite dish to let the bloodthirsty fools from both sides take each other out. A large chunk of metal came hurtling toward them: someone from the opposing team was flinging debris in an attempt to disrupt their cover.
Kaidan was able to scramble out of the way, but was clipped in the legs by an unseen shooter. He flailed his arms as the impact of the shots made him spin uncontrollably, disappearing out of view. Jeff was even worse off: the impact of the projectile shoved the satellite dish back against him, pinning his body against a shipping crate. He was suffocating: he could feel his ribs cracking under the strain. Sensing his helplessness, his unseen assailant came out to gloat. He vaguely recognized the man: he was captain of one of the first teams they'd beaten.
"You again. You shot me before I even made it out of the starting gate. You made me look like an idiot, taken out by a goddamn crippled kid." His eyes burned with hatred.
Jeff fought to free his arm, wriggling until he was able to bring his pistol up. Pain ripped through him as the man struck the gun from his grasp, breaking the bones in his forearm. He tried to call for help, hoping that Alenko or Shepard would hear him. The salty tang of blood filled his mouth as he was silenced by a hard punch to the jaw. He looked into the eyes of his attacker: he was crazed with a lust for vengeance. He's going to kill me. As he felt the metal gun barrel pressed against his temple, Jeff closed his eyes and prepared to die.
Across the room, Shepard watched horrified as Moreau was crushed by shifting debris. She knew the impact would be enough to break his brittle bones, and frantically began to make her way over to him. He was supposed to be the enemy, but she didn't care: he was her friend and he was badly hurt. Alenko wouldn't be able to help: his lower half was immobilized and he was floating helpless in the vacuum, effectively out of the game. Ash had been caught off-guard, frozen solid early in the match. Ricocheting at dizzying speed across the weightless junkyard, she saw one of her teammates start to assault the trapped soldier. With few exceptions, everyone left had turned into a raging monster. She wasn't tracking down a killer: she was surrounded by them. Screw the rules… this ends now.
Shepard bounced off one last obstacle, hurling herself at the assailant just as he was aiming his pistol to fire a close-range headshot. Panicked that she wouldn't make it in time, she sent a biotic shockwave rippling through the ether, knocking the would-be killer unconscious and prying loose the metal trapping Moreau. Although Jeff was safe for the moment, the noise and commotion got the attention of everyone still in the match. Shepard had just attacked one of her own teammates. The focus of the battle now shifted to her, and she'd run out of allies.
Every nerve in Jeff's body was firing at full tilt. Pain was supposed to be a warning, a mechanism evolved in primitive creatures to protect them from harm. His instincts were screaming at him to curl up into a ball until the fighting was over, and pray that he'd make it out alive. His early success in the proving grounds, the victories he earned with his quick mind and dexterity in zero-gee, had led him to fantasize about being a warrior. The searing agony of his broken bones was a brutal reminder of his limitations.
Not twenty meters from him, Shepard was hiding behind cover: she was on the receiving end of fire from everyone left unfrozen. She'd be killed if they caught her, he knew. Reaching out with his intact arm, he pried the gun from the hand of his unconscious assailant. Jeff braced himself to improve his aim, gritting his teeth as the recoil rippled through his fractures. Blood from his mouth floated around him like a halo: the group attacking Shepard must have thought he was knocked out or worse. He managed to freeze three of them before blacking out: the distraction gave her just enough time to launch a singularity, pulling her helpless enemies into a tangled mass of bodies. She fired a few carefully-aimed cryo rounds to incapacitate them.
The VI's voice chimed through the ether. "There is only one competitor left in the battle. Please press the lighted console to end the round."
Shepard's reply was a raised middle finger as she gingerly towed Moreau to the nearest health station.
Twenty-four young men and women sat anxiously in the briefing room aboard the Alliance warship. The dropship had come to collect them after the match, bringing them here without a clue as to what awaited them. Most didn't say a word, wouldn't even look at one another, wishing they'd never been chosen to participate in the Wargames and hoping they weren't about to be court-martialed.
The Admiral himself strode into the room, the soldiers' spines stiffening at his presence. He was flanked by an impressive battery of generals and other Alliance brass.
"The Systems Alliance Wargames are a hallowed tradition. Some of our finest ranking officers have risen from the ranks of its champions. An Alliance soldier has to be able to adapt to any circumstance, surmount any challenge. The contest was established to select out the absolute best humanity has to offer: sometimes an entire team is awarded victory, sometimes only one or two individuals who distinguished themselves over the course of the competition."
"For the first time in the history of the Wargames, we find ourselves without a winner. We had high hopes for you, Shepard, but your blatant use of biotics in the final match was clearly against regulations. There are a few individuals, however, who we felt were deserving of a special commendation. Privates Alenko, Williams, Moreau, and Shepard: please step forward."
The Admiral handed them each a small case containing a medal shaped like a silver buzzsaw. "You are all dismissed."
Jeff had to bite his cheek hard to stop himself from challenging the Admiral, screaming about the sabotaged guns and the corpses of his fellow soldiers. Shepard was standing next to him: she shook her head to tell him to keep silent, then gestured toward the exit.
They had scant hours to talk before the warship would hit the mass relay en route to Arcturus station. They'd soon be reassigned to their respective training programs: in the vast expanse of Alliance space, their chances of meeting again were slim.
"There's something you need to see." Shepard had pulled Alenko, Moreau and Williams into a tight huddle. She activated the omni-tool that had been returned to her along with her armor, bringing up schematics of the modded weaponry used to deliver lethal cryo rounds at close range. "Take a close look at the soldering. See why we couldn't tell the difference at first?"
It was unmistakable. The work was professional-grade. Barring someone smuggling aboard an advanced tech lab, the tampering couldn't possibly have been done by anyone aboard Jump Zero. "This was all part of the game."
"I should have known. I actually believed the Alliance had changed for the better." Kaidan looked at once angry and crestfallen.
"What are you going to do now?" Williams put her arm around him in support.
"I still believe I can make a difference. I have to believe it. I'm going to stay in the Navy, work my way up until I can show the rest of the galaxy what humanity really stands for."
"That's a noble goal, Alenko. I'm just going to try not to get my head blown off."
Soon they passed through the relay, and were herded into groups before disembarking on Arcturus. Shepard gave Jeff a hand with his belongings: she was the only one headed for special ops so she wasn't assigned to a holding area. Despite his injuries, he stubbornly insisted on using his crutches to ambulate instead of a wheelchair.
"I owe you my life, Shepard. I won't forget it."
"Maybe you can fly my ass out of the fire someday, Moreau."
"Maybe I will. So… if you don't mind my asking, why did you enlist in the first place? You don't seem like the typical Alliance type."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Not a lot of job prospects for street kids. Not much life expectancy either."
Unsure of how to respond, he grinned at her instead. "Do you have a minute? There's one more thing I need to do before we leave." He hobbled over to the nearest trash bin: the medal gave a satisfying clang as it rattled to the bottom. Shepard gave him a knowing smile, tossing her own right next to Jeff's.
"See you around. Stay human, Moreau."
"You too, Shepard." He watched the fierce little soldier disappear into the warship, certain now in his resolve. One day, he was going to be the best damned helmsman in the Alliance Fleet, and somehow he knew she'd be his commander.