Chapter 1: Lady Luck's backhand
Eden Prime, Utopia system
The sun's rays penetrated through the window as the alarm clock sounded. A heavy hand quickly shut it off, annoyed after another night of poor sleep.
He got up and walked over to the bathroom where he took a long warm shower.
The sirens kept blaring through his head. Gunfire, screams...the screams kept him up the most at night. Especially hers. The way she reached her hand slammed on the red button as the creatures took her.
"Daisy!"
"Luke!"
The sound of the escape pod closing in front of him, the tears of their son streaming out as the pod launched away from the Hazard as a rock shaped vessel kept pounding into it despite it's own crew having boarded it.
He splashed some water on his face and stared at the mirror. His brown/black beard needed trimming as his brown eyes looked weary. He shaved the beard a little and splashed some more water on his face after. It was all routine now, anything to keep the pain away, anything to keep his son safe.
He slipped in his beige trench coat and took his brown fedora hat from the end of the bed as he came out of his room. "time to put the mask back on, old partner..." he told himself as he walked down the stairs.
In the dining room he saw an balding man wearing suspender on a blue jeansas he was dining on good ol' egg and bacon.
"Mornin' Geralt." Luke said as he took his seat.
"Mornin..." Geralt replied and took another bite.
"Anything new?"
Same ritual. Nightmares, shower, breakfast, drop John off at school, farm, lunch, farm some more, pick up John, farm, dinner, watch the extranet, bed, nightmares and the cycle continued like it did for the past ten years.
"Nothin' special, some talk bout a new ship the Alliance made with the turians." His brother-in-law replied.
"Barb and the kids?"
"Having a good time on Earth as always, divorce papers are nearly done."
"You shouldn't give up so easy." Geralt took some egg and bacon from the pan and slid it towards a slice of bread." My sister still loves you."
"We had this talk Luke...just drop it."
"Fine." He dug into his breakfast as both ate further in silence.
Luke looked at the watch on the wall." John up yet?"
"He's outside, practicing."
Luke looked up from his breakfast." Practicing...what?"
Geralt kept munching away. Luke sighed and slammed his fork down." For god's sake Geralt..."
"He aint my kid."
"That kind of shit cost you your family, Geralt." Luke pointed his figner at him as he stood up. Luke punched in the code for the locker and took his pistol and belt from it before he slammed it shut. He wrapped it around his waist and went outside.
He saw John place the but of the rifle to his right shoulder and aim the barrel of the gun towards an bottle on top of an cargo container. The boy, thirteen years old, was an ideal mix of both his parents. Brown curly hair, blue eyes, coy smirk and freckles. A single shot rang over the farm as the bottle shattered. Several farmyard animals started crying out in terror as the boy cursed.
"Shit, shit, shit...forgot the silencer..." he said to himself.
"John Jeremiah Boone..." Luke folded his arms and tapped his right boot on the ground. His son gulped and slowly turned around.
"M-morning, pa..." the boy whimpered.
"Morning, boy." The man smirked and took the rifle from the kid." What did I say bout guns?"
"I'm just...preparing, if Batarians or raiders show up." John protested.
"We both know that's aint going to happen." Luke placed the gun next to him." Do I need to give you the talk again?"
"The flowers and the bees one or the gun one?" John chuckled nervously. The chuckle melted away like snow in the sun as his father's eyes stared through him.
A long silence passed between them until Luke once more sighed and knelt down in front of his son so they looked eye to eye.
"I promised your ma I would after ya, boy. Your making it very hard for me."
"I know pa it's...i'm thirteen, in five years I can join the Alliance Navy if I wanted to, or go to granddad on Earth and work for his firm. I wanna be ready is all."
"Any moron can use a gun, John." Luke said." You need to be smarter then that. Your good with your numbers and got a knack for business. There's an future there.
"I don't want to be an accountant pa, I want to be an fighter like you and ma were!"
"I aint arguing boy, especially after the lip I heard from your teacher about sending messages from your omni-tool to that Burnsby girl..." John smiled a little." You should've been smart and passed an note like your old man did back in the day." He ruffled his son's hair.
"Paaaa!" the boy groaned annoyed and embarrassed.
Luke got up." You had some breakfast?"
"No pa." his son replied.
"Come on then before your uncle eats it all again like the pig he is." Luke took his son by the shoulder and set their way back to the house.
"What's an pig, pa?" his son asked.
He was about to answer as a sound rumbled in the distance. Instantly he reached for his pistol but didn't draw it just yet.
Luke turned around just in time as a convoy of three armoured vehicles with the logo of 212 branded on their side passed by.
"Another three?" John asked." That makes it...what, like sixteen trucks in the past three days?"
"Yeah..." Luke said as he followed the trucks with his eyes to the hills up ahead." They found somethin' there alright, and I'm sure it aint no Gas Bag colony..."
"We're heading around there on a fieldtrip today. Prothean ruins there." John said.
"Ruins eh...you know back in my day girls were scared of ruins..." Luke smirked.
"Pa, don't." John warned.
"Just saying, you and that Burnsby girl-"
"Pa."
"All alone in a dark room-"
"Pa!"
"Just a peck on the che-"
"PA!" john shouted as he blushed feverishly.
"That'll show ya to scare the cattle like that." Luke laughed and ruffled his son's curly hair again." Now get your ass in gear. You got to be at school in less then an hour."
A few hours later, Luke was working away as he repaired the fence with his omni-tool.
"Try again!" he shouted at Geralt. His brother-in-law nodded and switched the power back on. Geralt flicked it back by one the pillars switched on as blue beams connected to each other.
The moment the power hit the transformer sparks flew everywhere and threw Luke three meters into the field which made his hat fly off.
"Luke!" Geralt shouted and ran over. Luke blinked as Geralt offered his hand and pulled him up." You okay, buddy?"
"Think I misplaced a circuit..." Luke placed the hat back on his head with a small chuckle before he coughed.
"No...the circuit isn't the problem. Everything should be fine." Geralt replied. He scratched his head confused.
On his fourth cough Luke noticed the air turned red as lightning brew.
"Storm?" Geralt asked." Already? It's not even autum yet!"
Luke glanced into the sky as the winds picked up and nearly threw his hat off.
From the heavens came locusts and one large squid like...ship. It was massive, it even dwarfed the largest Batarian cruiser Luke had seen back in the day.
"Oh my god..." Geralt whimpered.
Out of nowhere, a ship flew overhead and toward the hill. It looked like one of the locust like ships, but smaller and guessing of the compartment it was carrying something, troops?
"They're going to the ruins!" Geralt shouted. The ruins! John!
"Geralt, get the rifles and stay inside! I'm going after John!" Luke said and ran off towards the car.
"Not my son, not my son, not my son you sons of..." he cursed as he slammed his feet to the pedal.
The hovercar flew over the hills, but banged against everything along the way.
"Not my son..." Luke kept saying." Not my son!"
He made it across a clearing...and found himself in a skirmish. Pulse lasers penetrated his car and made it spin around.
As the world spun around him, his training and experience kicked back in and he jumped out of the car.
He rolled on his side and winced as he felt the pain from the impact. Someone, no something shot at him. He only saw quick flashes, something mechanical with a large light in their head. He gathered momentum and stood up and pulled his weapon and picked his targets. Time slowed down as he pulled the trigger. He could see them clearer now and recognised them...Geth. Four Geth stood in between him and his son, and they had to go. He pulled the trigger four times.
Four gunshots later and the robots fell down, slowly at first and then fast like someone switched normal time back on. He winced as the pain numbed him.
"Damn..." he heard a voice saying behind him.
Luke groaned and fell to the ground as darkness took over.
"Kaidan, patch him up with medi-gel." He heard another voice say, a woman.
"Right away, Commander." The third voice replied.
A warm soothing feeling washed over him as he exhaled in relief. He got back up to his feet.
"Thanks..." Luke said as he caught his breath.
She was a woman, about five foot four. She had red hair that went to her shoulder, couple of nasty scars that dotted around her otherwise pretty face. She had a black-red armour with N7 on her chest. To her left and right there were two other marines.
One of them was another woman in red and white armour and the last one was a man in gray armour.
"Take it easy." The N7 marine said." You took a heavy fall there."
"I'm fine..." Luke said as he stretched." They didn't call me Lucky Luke for nothin'."
"Lucky Luke?" she asked.
"Long story. My name's Luke Houston Boone officer...?"
"I'm Commander Shepard of the Alliance military. This is Gunnery Chief Williams and this is staff Lieutenant Alenko." Shepard said." What are you doing here?"
"I'm looking for my son." Luke replied." He's on a fieldtrip to those ruins."
"Oh shit! Williams cursed.' I forgot, there was an fieldtrip planned near the beacon!"
"I need to get to my son!" Luke urged.
"Commander, we cant risk civilian lives." Kaidan said.
"I'm not a civilian...not really." Luke said." I was an corsair once."
"A what?" Shepard asked.
"Corsairs were Alliance Marines serving under an independent starship captain to conduct autonomous missions outside of Alliance jurisdiction." Williams said." And guessing of what we just saw, I'm willing to give him at least a shadow of a doubt."
"Please Commander.." Luke pleaded." I just want to find my kid."
Shepard thought for a moment, and then gave a quick nod.
"Okay, but you follow my lead. Understood?"
"Right behind you, Commander." Luke nodded.
As they turned around, they heard a distorting sound. Like digital clicking.
"More Geth!" Williams shouted and drew her assault rifle. The four took cover and fired away as another firefight ensued.
"Hold on john..." he said to himself." I'm coming to get you..."
TBC