A/N: (For pairing info, scroll down to the very bottom)
Okay, if you read my previous story, Dear Diary, I mentioned about writing a possible sequel, namely Ashley's point-of-view. However, due to good old Carleen, I suddenly got an inspiration for a new story. However, I'm not abandoning the sequel thing. If you're reading this, post a comment specifying if you would like me to do this or that story first. I'll still do both, at the same time. But I'll focus on the more popular one.
Do note that this story would be majorly AU. Kaidan and Ashley both survive. Wrex died. And this story takes place during the start of the third game. Event chronology will not be strictly followed. For example, some missions will not be mentioned at all, or some other character would be injured on Mars instead of the Virmire survivor.
So, this one's about my own OC. His name is Miles Colburn. Don't ask me where I got the name. It just popped up. He has brunette hair (don't know if that's the correct term), and blue eyes. Deep blue, like sapphires. I always liked that colour.
He's a Vanguard. He's from N7. He was first nominated to be humanity's first human spectre, but he declined. So Shepard took the title. He tends to over analyze stuff. Always suspicious. He disguises this with a pretty convincing sense of humor and friendliness, so everyone takes him somewhat like Joker. Well, almost everyone. He excels at playing politics, but doesn't like it. Thinks it's a waste of time.
He'll be introduced to the characters as the Normandy's new XO. His cabin is well, across Shepard's. Think as if they added an exact same mirror room on the deck 1. Except for the fact that the armory is replaced with a shelf full of alcohol and liquor.
This character has... An unusual way of handling things. Shepard's blonde, with light blue eyes, and impossibly sweet as can be. What can I say. Shepard's god-like anyway. Colburn is, well, not so much. Imagine him as somesort of a paragade. He's nice and polite to his teammates, civilians, c-sec officers, dadada. But he wouldn't hesitate to go all renegade on cowards and politicians, especially the latter.
He hates delegating duties to people, as he thinks that "if you want something done right, do it yourself.". As I said, he does things differently. Paragon Shepard would go "teammates safety first" or "Don't give up!". Colburn would go "we have to complete the mission at all cost" or "give anything less than your all and you'll die." He doesn't like to sugar-coat facts.
Do take note that Colburn isn't the "plays xbox then gets stuck inside the game world." kinda guy. It's as if he was a real person, like Shepard or Garrus.
I hope this notice clears all doubts. I'll write the real chapter 1 tonight. Updates will be longer, but not as often compared to Dear Diary.
Ps: Shepard's blonde, is a sentinel, and is a unrealistic goody-two-shoes who doesn't get mad. He's also a spacer and war hero. I'm trying to make him extremely unrealistically perfect as possible. (I know, you'll hate me)I personally hate this kind of characters, but I had to have Colburn's character contrast with somebody. Oh, and Shepard's single in this story. Colburn... Not decided yet. We'll see how it goes. His background will be explained throughout the chapters as it serves as kind of a sub-plot I guess.
Update, 3 May 2012: Just to clarify, in the MEverse, there are only two distinctions in the military. One is the ground infantry, aka the army. These soldiers are the ones you see during the final assault on Earth. They're stationed almost permanently at large bases and forts on Earth.
The second, are the marines/navy. There's a distinction between marines and navy in real life, but they're one and the same in ME. These are the people that are serving aboard ships such as the fleets and the Normandy. (Oh, and those that are posted at colonies like Horizon and Eden Prime like Ash, are under marines as well. Why? Because they're not serving on Earth!) Colburn belongs to the army, he served on Earth prior to the start of this story. As has been mentioned before, his father had managed to prevent him from being transferred to the navy, which would mean that Cole would be outside of his jurisdiction.
You guys understand what I'm talking about? I hope so. Anyway, to be clear, I'm listing just a few of the ranks in ascending order of authority/rank.
Army: Lieutenant Commander, Staff Commander, Captain, Rear Admiral, Admiral, Fleet Admiral.
Navy: Lieutenant Commander, Staff Commander, Major, General, Admiral, Fleet Admiral.
The ranks, as you can see, merely have different names. Captain and Major are essentially the same rank, but you can't use them interchangeably. I might be a General, but I ain't got power over a Captain, since we're under different chains of command. The reason I'm clarifying this, is because whenever I try to correct people, they go Oh really? I don't believe it. The US army doesn't even have the rank of Lt Cmdr!
Well guess what? This isn't freaking real life for Christ's sake! You can't just use real life ranks for fiction! Go check the freaking codex before you come troll me, you twats!
And yes, I check and scrutinise every bit of the official info and codex by BioWare before I use terms and ranks. Call me a nerd or an idiot or whatever. I just like my stuff to be factually correct as possible. So, it really irritates me when other authors use false and incorrect terms like nobody's business. It just pisses me off, you know? I'm tired of idiots questioning me and making me explain the same damn thing for thousands of times and wasting my life, and after days, they go, oops, sorry. You're right, I didn't check the game codex earlier!
Moral of the story: Check the freaking codex before you come troll me! I even have the link for you here! Just go copy and paste it!
masseffect(dot)wikia(dot)com/wiki/Codex/Humanity_and_the_Systems_Alliance#Systems_Alliance:_Military_Ranks
Oh, and you might be wondering, isn't Kaidan the superior officer then? Well, Shep's not supposed to be part of the Alliance anymore actually, ever since he was appointed Spectre. But Hackett just had to complicate everything and make him an "unofficial officer", meaning his position isn't part of the aforementioned list at the link above. His authority just comes from his Spectre status and as CO of the Normandy, really. I think everyone's just in awe of him. Most of the time, people doesn't have to listen to his orders. He's probably the most powerless officer throughout the Alliance. 'Commander' is merely a title. Too bad those idiots are too stupid to notice.
Update, 26 May 2012: Here's an update on the pairings so far, though any of these can change at any time, including Cole and Ash. Garrus and Tali's though remains to be seen, but I'll let you in a secret: everyone knows they have a crush on each other.
Again, Shepard's a bachelor in here, a very eligible bachelor, I might add.
Colburn/Ashley
Kaidan/Liara
Tali/Garrus
Update, 1st June 2012: As there are readers here were literally jump straight in (they've never ever even heard of Mass Effect before, let alone know anything about the universe, here's some stuff for you to get familiar with.)
The following are a list for characters, along with their species. Yes, you have to wiki and google-image every single one of them to understand.
Commander Shepard / Human
Garrus Vakarian / Turian
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy / Quarian
Ashley Williams / Human
Kaidan Alenko / Human
James Vega / Human
EDI (pronounced as Eeee-Dee) / Artificial Intelligence
Javik / Prothean
Liara T'Soni / Asari
Steve Cortez / Human
Miranda Lawson / Human
Subject Zero aka Jack / Human
Kasumi Goto / Human
Zaeed Massani / Human
Mordin Solus / Salarian
Urdnot Grunt / Krogan
Samara / Asari
Thane Krios / Drell
Jacob Taylor / Human
The Illusive Man / Human
Jeff Moreau aka Joker / Human
Kai Leng / Human
Urdnot Wrex / Krogan
Urdnot Wreav / Krogan
Admiral Steven Hackett / Human
Admiral David Anderson / Human
Ken Donnelly & Gabby Daniels / Human (Go YouTube search the two names together and you'll get what I mean)
Engineer Adams / Human
Mess Sergeant Rupert Gardner / Human
Doctor Karin Chakwas / Human
Samantha Traynor / Human
Aria T'Loak / Asari
Kahlee Sanders / Human
Legion / Geth
Admiral Han'Gerrel
Note: The characters of Captain Miles Colburn as well as General Tantus Bexcal are purely mine.
That's all for now. There are also terms you need to know, so go wiki them!
Sentinel
Soldier
Vanguard
Adept
Engineer
Infiltrator
Biotics
Normandy SR1/SR2
Omni-tool
Omni-blade
Shuttle (You have to search long with the words 'Mass Effect' to get the results)
The Systems Alliance
Ceberus
Reapers
Citadel
Omega (Again, search along with 'Mass Effect')
Jon Grissom Academy
Sur'Kesh
Tuchanka
Thessia
Rannoch
Alchera
Also, you'll need to read up on the plots of all three games: Mass Effect 1,2,3. If you don't, you'll get lost very easily. There are a lot more terms I haven't mentioned, but if you see them along the way while reading, and you don't know what that is, better go wiki them.
Last but not least, here's a list of all the species in the galaxy.
Human
Turian
Quarian
Salarian
Asari
Krogan
Batarian
Hanar
Drell
Elcor
Volus
Vorcha