Disclaimer: I own absolutely NOTHING about the Mass Effect universe, just some characters created by me and some of my own additions to the storyline but that's it. If I owned the trilogy of games, the third game's ending would have been a little bit better. But just a little.
Author's Note: well. This is my first story ever. I've been thinking about doing something like this for a lot time though, just wanted to wait for all the DLC to come out for the ME3 Game and now that Citadel DLC is out and I'm done with it I can say I can start writing this story. Trust me is gonna be a hell of a long story if I ever decide to complete it alright?
Now there is also another thing I want to point out before you guys start to read. I'm from Venezuela and I'm 16 yeah? English isn't my mother language and the english education in high schools here in my country sucks really bad. I can handle myself in talking but when it comes to making stories... Well that is another matter. I'd like constructive criticism I want you guys to tell me my mistakes in a constructive way so I can learn more about the story-writing in english and also improve my abilities, I would really appreciate that.
Last but not least I have NEVER read any of the Mass Effect Books. I have no idea what the hell happens in them, and the timeline and time system itself confuses me. Trust me I've spent hours reading the Mass Effect Wiki just to do something decent about all the historical events that don't occur in the game. Also, the name of my Shepard is not John Shepard but because I'm a lazy bastard and I didn't have any idea of how to describe my own Shepard, his appearance is the same as the default Shepard.
Well, that is about it. Try to enjoy and if you're gonna throw tomatoes to me, I would like them to be in a good state, I cannot make sauce out of rotten tomatoes.
Chapter 1: The Great Introduction and the Origins of a Hero
Mindoir. It was a calm April day on the small farming colony in the year of 2170, nothing really stood out of the ordinary, just some families doing their everyday chores and the loud noise of some kids messing up with gas bags every now and then.
Everything was just perfect in the colony, even the uneasiness that the colonists had when the place was founded seventeen years ago seemed now like some stupid fear that was now unjustified.
All those years ago, Mindoir was founded by the human Systems Alliance as a galactic colonization plan that started shortly after the discovery of the Charon Relay, a "Mass Relay" devices that connected all of the galaxy in a network of fast ship transportation, Faster Than Light speed, the Charon Relay connected the Sol System to this transit network, it opened a lot of possibilities for humans, and this was the beginning. Humanity went unnoticed by other alien cultures and at the same time, a great part of the humans themselves even seemed to forget the myth of other species in the universe, the "we may not be alone in the universe" now seemed like a forgotten question of the 20th Century. In 2152 was founded the first human colony outside the Sol System, Eden Prime and in 2153, Mindoir was also founded, humanity seemed at its peak, expanding at great speed through the galaxy.
2154, and the first human child was born in Mindoir, he was not the first human born outside the human System, that right was to the first generation of the "Children of Eden" as some called them, but this little baby was like a victory to the colonists of Mindoir, the child was named Cameron Shepard and he was like a token for a brighter future in the colony.
The spot that the common human citizens gave to themselves as the owners of the universe crumbled as the Alliance started to make them remember, the possibility of First Contact with other species, with aliens. That possibility was getting higher as the days passed, because in the end, the more planets humanity discovered the more exposed they were to aliens, and since they didn't know what would happen when they made First Contact, it was never out of place to reinforce the security of the already established colonies, this was 2155.
Then, the moment everyone started to fear the year before happened. First Contact with Aliens was made in 2156. An intelligent life form that was so different from everything the humans have known before in terms of combat, armament and ship design.
To make the First Contact worse, it began a short war. Humans were trying to activate a Mass Relay, what was wrong with that? But nevertheless this alien race was "irrationally" hostile to humans, they attacked human ships that were founded in the system, humans took casualties, but the aliens took a lot of damage too.
The aliens attacked the closest colony to this inactive Mass Relay, known as Shanxi. The attack was somehow a surprise to the "all-mighty" human Alliance and the aliens were able to make the General stationed there, last name Williams, surrender. "The First Human to Surrender to an Alien", that was definitely a shame for Williams.
The humans managed to retake Shanxi a month after, the conflict was heating up, in no time it could have been an all-out war, but then other alien species stopped the hostile aliens from their attacks.
Taking the time to pacify and translate the humans and their language, a representative of the hostile aliens, alongside two other alien representatives of different species, a blue human-like woman but with tentacles in her head representing the "asari" and an odd-looking, slim man whose race resembled to the salamanders found on Earth, but anthropomorphic representing the "salarians", the representative of the hostile race, the "turians" looked tall, with a solid skin and dog-like feet.
The alliance was spared for their mistake "you didn't know what you were doing, human" said the asari representative.
The end of First Contact War displeased a lot of turians, since they were sentenced to amend the humans while a lot of humans held a grudge agains the turians creating xenophobic movements like Terra Firma and Cerberus. Although the public new a lot about the former, the latter was considered just a rumor by a lot of humans and even some of the low-ranked Alliance soldiers until they confirmed their exisctence with terrorist attacks on Alliance facilities.
These representatives also explained about the Council, how galactic politics worked, the unified money know as "credits" and even offered the opening of a human embassy on the most advanced place of the galaxy, The Citadel. As the years passed, humans were to learn about galactic history, about why they shouldn't reactivate that Mass Relay, making a lot of humans realize their mistake and understand why the turians attacked "What it seemed like an act of war to us, ended up being a law-enforcement action taken by the turians" was the explanation the politicians gave to the rest of humanity after the creation of the embassy.
The humans were to learn about all other galactic species, not only Council species. They gained a permission to keep colonizing and the colonies that already existed were legalized. Although the Council didn't like that last part, Eden Prime and Mindoir alongside many other human colonies like Elysium and Akuze were founded on the Attican Traverse, a real dangerous zone since it was known to be near batarian space and it was close to the Terminus Systems, area where the Council laws meant nothing. Nevertheless, humans didn't stop founding colonies in the zone.
Seventeen years have passed since the founding of Mindoir, sixteen since the birth of Cameron Shepard and fourteen since the first contact. Humanity's place in the galaxy is now solid, but they haven't faced a real threat since the First Contact War. Today, although is still a normal day on Mindoir for many humans, for one family is a special day since is Cameron's birthday.
"The celebration has been on for a while now, but nighttime is coming and tomorrow's gonna be a long day, babe" Said Robert Shepard, Cameron's father while hugging Hannah Shepard his wife.
"At least Cameron is having a nice day playing with his friends, is nice to see him away from gas bags. That boy hasn't learned and he's already a teen" She said relieved while enjoying herself in Robert's hug.
He let go off her "Well, I'm going to watch the game, who would have thought that we'd be having fun while watching some aliens play a sport… Bioball was it?" he said as he entered the house and sat at the couch.
"I think is Biotiball there, sweetie" Hannah said trying to keep calm, although something was bugging her, so she took a deep breath and said "I don't know, this is all so new and it has been fourteen years since First Contact. Besides, there's still a lot of grudge against extraterrestrials and not only turians, you remember what Morrison said the other day about supporting Terra Firma? What's next, joining Cerberus?" Hannah was concerned about this; Sean Morrison was one of his childhood friends.
"Yeah, I know that we don't want Cam to live in that hatred but it still worries me that he's growing up in such a tense environment, and I heard that Terra Firma was planning to become a party at the Citadel. Being a party on Earth is not enough?" Robert said while watching the game "don't think they'll succeed though, the only support they have is half of Shanxi's survivors".
"But it makes me think that humans will never learn the First Contact War was a mistake from both our race and the turians" said Hannah in a grim tone "if we hold this grudge for a long time, we may end up being hated by the other alien species, and trust me, the turians are doing their best to hide their anger"
"Don't see the big problem with some losing alien support" Robert said careless "but hey, Resentment is a bad thing, keep it for too long, and humanity may start another war if remorseful extremists take control of, you know… Something more important than a cake store"
"You're always like that my dumb sweetheart" she said playful "But I love you anyways" she reassured him smiling.
"Dumb? I can live with that… And know that I lo… " He was interrupted as a scream came from outside of the house "what was that?" Silence between both Shepards as the TV announcer said "Commercial break, don't leave!"
"Probably someone messing up with gas bags, this place has pretty much nothing else to…" another scream interrupted Hanna this time "in other news, the human celebration for the end of the First Contact War…"
Someone tried to open the door fiercely, even started knocking (which was unnecessary since 2090) as Robert rushed to open it "Hey, Louise!" he was surprised to see her, she was an adult and a young mother, blonde and a little tanned. She was the mother of one of the teens playing at Cameron's party but something about her was off, she was sweating and panting heavily.
"Talitha! Where's Talitha?!" She said and rushed inside of the house before she was let in "b-batarians! They-They're murdering everyone!" she added as if she was trying to explain.
"What?" Hannah said worried "Why would they…?" then she heard a shooting outside, the batarians were getting close to their house
Robert rushed at the backyard and Hannah started to look out of the window, as the shooting started to hear closer and closer Hannah's heart rushed more and more, it was becoming an unbearable sensation "What happened to the guards?" She whispered to herself as Robert grabbed her and pulled her to the kitchen.
"Dad, what's going on? My friends and I were just about to…" Cameron started but he was interrupted by his father.
"Babe, Cam. You know where the escape shuttles are, we are going to go to them and try to get the hell out of here, okay?" He said.
"Dad? What happened? Why did Talitha leave? What's going on?" The teenager asked.
"Cam, it's hard to remember you're already a teen, heh" he said in a short moment of happiness, with a slight smile in his face. He then took a breath and started to explain "batarians are attacking, I don't know the details but it seems like they're slavers according to Louise"
"Batarians? Why?" Cameron was interrupted by his mother's hand. Then he saw that the slavers were just outside of the house looking for someone to kill. Robert put up a bypass to the door from his onmnitool.
"It appears that there are kids in the backyard" one said "let's take them, then we'll kill some of them in front of their parents" other said "yeah, it'll be fun to watch those humans cry before we shoot them" a third one added "the ones that we won't kill are coming with us, make sure they're strong males or strong females, their going do a lot of hard work to where we are taking them" the second one added, that was clearly the leader of the three and the first one added "but Tanok, what's up with the rest of the team'" said the first "easy, they do what they want with the ones they found, we have enough slaves already but it is still fun to enslave more and more humans... They'll never learn, that's why we should probably just wipe everyone out of our planets" the second one, referred to as Tanok said and then with an explosion the door fell down making a big noise as it hit the floor "better than wasting omnigel, hehehehe"
The slavers walked past the kitchen to the backyard without looking at it, every instinct in Cameron told him to hurry and get out of there before the slavers decided to look everywhere in the house for people, he grabbed the arms of both his parents and started running, taking his chances through the main door.
Nobody was in front of his house, nothing more than corpses from Alliance Marines were on the street and the slavers seemed to be holding the civilians in the plaza since the shooting they heard was coming from there "Damn! They are executing us". The plaza was luckily in the opposite side of the shuttle bay, they started to run towards the shuttle bay but suddenly they were stopped when Hannah took a shot in the arm.
"Mom!" Cameron screamed as she fell in her spot, the shot hit right in a vein and she started to bleed badly.
"Thought you would escape human?" the batarian asked mockingly "well, I have bad news for you! You are not!"
Another batarian came from inside a house and another one from an alley and they kept coming until they were surrounded, it was a trap.
"Cam, take your mom and go, there should be medigel in the shuttle bay, there's always a medigel dispenser in almost every building" Robert
whispered to Cam then he took a concussive round to the stomach "Gah!"
"Dad!" Cameron screamed as he took Hannah from the injured arm and lift her "Maybe this way I can put pressure on her arm while running away". Preparing to follow his dad's plan, holding the tears that he was about to drop just by the idea of abandoning his father with these savages.
"Stop talking human, the next one will be a real one" the circle the batarians had was closing in until they were in Robert's reach.
"Now!" Robert screamed, right after that he tackled one of the slavers and left a path open for Cameron to flee with his mother in his arms, chance that Cameron took to run without looking behind, the last he heard about his dad that was a faint scream of a 'I love you both' while the batarians shot Robert until their weapons overheated.
"That was fun" Said one of the batarians, and then he started a process in his omnitool "Yeah, it is me Namor. Tell the rookie that it's his chance to prove himself… Yeah, there are two humans; the female is wounded and bleeding out… May be the Shepards… The man is dead, so even if the humans survive this, which they won't, they will not have a leader… The kid is just a cry baby, I saw it in his face so don't even kill him, he might do a good slave with some training
… Whatever, the founder is dead, her wife is dying and we'll keep their son as a trophy, see it that way… As I said, let the rookie take care of them… Yeah, yeah. Out. Damn idiots that is why I hate this gang, should have joined the blue suns…"
"Hey, watch it. Remember their leader is a human" chastised another batarian.
"Shut up Cathka and take your position in case other damn humans try to escape" hushed Namor.
"Sorry Namor, but it was you who thought me that humans…" Cathka was hushed again by Namor, who was pointing his gun at him "yeah, I get it, humans could be nice mercs, whatever… You've changed"
"Someday you'll understand, but for now just focus on your next payment" Namor concluded
Cameron was soaking his right shoulder with his mom's blood; she was still losing blood and losing consciousness, so Cameron tried to double time his step. But it was hard since Hannah was barely even moving her feet, she was bleeding out.
"C-Cameron…" Hannah tried to say with whatever forces she had, there was a lot of blood coming from her arm "she's-she's… No! Don't think about it".
"Shush mom, save your strength. We are both getting out of here" Cameron comforted her
"I want you to know that… That" She ignored Cameron as they were closing the shuttle bay
"Mom, don't push it!" he tried again to calm his mom.
"We are so proud of you, we love you… Never forget that" she said before fainting, Cameron checked the pulse of her heart.
"She's still alive, I can make it in time, the shuttle bay is right there" he was about to enter the building that looked like a hangar when he heard a gunshot. It didn't hurt him, but that just made the fear even worse. Some seconds later his fear was proved to be real, the shot was to his mom, Hannah Shepard took a second shot in her head.
"There's no way… We are here!" he turned around and saw another group of the slavers, and one with the gun raised, the one who took the shot.
"Nice job Balak" said one of the batarians "Guess you have guts, even for a rookie"
"Well, she was dead anyway. That human was just target practice" Balak said "Now I'll take the other one"
Cameron was not moving, his feelings were mixed; he felt sorrow, anger, he was alone now and he knew it… Both of his parents were dead now; what would he do?, "is it worth to survive this? I…" Then he realized he felt vengeful too "I'm… I'm going to…" As he said that and his feeling of vengeance accumulated his body was being enveloped by some kind of blue energy. It felt like "element zero?" He had been in presence of working "Eezo" while the chief engineer of the colony worked on some crazy machinery when he was younger, it was quite a unique feeling.
Cameron heard stories that many living species had biotic potential and his father, who was chief of Mindoir and ex-Alliance told him that humans may get it if are exposed to Element Zero, a rare element capable of producing Mass Effect Fields, before birth. Did it mean that Cameron's mother was exposed to the rare "Eezo" in large amounts while he was unborn? That raised more questions that would probably never be answered, because both of his parents were still dead.
"Dead" The anger was rising in the last of the Shepards as was incrementing the intensity of the blue wave, the Eezo in his body. In the end, though, the biotic power that was charging around Shepard's body was too much for him. Cameron lost control of it and the energy was released in a form of a biotic energy spherical wave, large enough to throw the two batarians to the ground and costing Shepard a lot of his remaining energy.
He was feeling numb but still, he tried to enter into the shuttle. He activated an auto-pilot mode once he was inside and then he set the shuttle to the closest Alliance ship in the area. "SSV Stockholm" he got to see on the console, then he closed his eyes as he blacked out, but not before listening to the colonists still being shot at by the batarians.
"I'm gonna make them pay, they are going to fear me" was the only thing in Shepard's mind.