Author's notes: Since I've finished my last Mass Effect fanfiction I thought it was about time to start writing a new one. This is me playing around with some ideas I had for Mass Effect 3. This is a story of my character, Jade, human vanguard. Her adventures may or may not exactly follow the game's timeline, story and/or outcomes. I am planning to add some romance into this story... but I'm not sure yet who I'm going to pair up with Jade. Suggestions and reviews are welcome and very much appreciated!

Many of Horror

It seems there will be no one to mourn me when I die. You're the only friend I've made in ten years.

Vibrant lavender eyes opened to the sight of a concrete ceiling. All throughout the room laid bodies, motionless. It almost appeared as if they were dead but then one of them would turn around or mumble something in their sleep that proved their current state of living. Current, yes, as it is impossible for one to know what a situation like this would bring next. This was a war after all – a war many people had, and would die in. There were a few among the bigger group that weren't moving or mumbling... and they hadn't done so for the major part of the night. By now they weren't even breathing anymore; adding them to the immensely fast growing list of casualties. People that the reapers had taken with them in their war against every race in the galaxy.

'We should have been more prepared.'

This thought left a bitter taste in her mouth. It was a thought she had been having a lot ever since this entire thing had started- ever since they first got the report of reapers entering the Sol System and when they'd lost the Lunar base. So much time had been wasted with attempting to get through to stubborn politicians, convincing them that there really was a race of synthetics, waiting beyond the relays for their moment to wipe out every form of life in the galaxy... and now that they were here all of those politicians were suddenly looking at them; expecting their soldiers to go out and solve this matter. Urgh.

She silently scoffed at the thought as she rose to a sitting position on the improvised bed she had found for the night; a coffee table. Not an extremely comfortable spot to sleep on but still better than the concrete floor, and the few beds they had were assigned to the more seriously wounded in the squad. One leg bungling over the side, she rested her head in her hands, only looking up when she felt a hand touching her shoulder.

A man dressed in a standard alliance military uniform stood by her side, mouthing something to her of which she only caught the word 'Anderson' and the fact that she was supposed to follow him – most likely to wherever the Captain resided at the moment. Nodding once to make clear that she understood, Jade stood up and followed the soldier through the maze of sleeping bodies, careful not to step on any outstretched limbs as they walked through the concrete, windowless room. They got to a half-collapsed hallway that she did not remembered being there before, but with the constant attacks of the reapers, she probably shouldn't be surprised by the building getting damaged... or maybe she simply did not remember it because she hadn't been entirely conscious when they had carried her in.

The hallway led to a staircase, which had led to a smaller room in the basement of the building that was set up as a temporarily command centre of some sorts. Aside from Captain David Anderson himself, there were about four people in there, all of them people that she knew by rank but not by name... and rank meant very little in this war. The soldier next to her for example could be Lieutenant by lunch and Major by nightfall, the death count was high enough for it.

The soldier went off to notify Anderson of her presence and soon a smile was casted in her direction. A tired and worn-down smile of a man that had seen too much death and destruction in the past week, but a smile nevertheless. "Good to see you're up and out of the sickbay." She heard his distant voice say, once again reminding her of the fact that her hearing had suffered from some great damage in the last explosion.

"Couldn't let you face this mess alone, Anderson." Jade replied, a faint smirk on her face as she walked over to the terminal Anderson had been typing away at. "What's the plan?"

oOo

"...retreat. Retreat! RETREAT!" The yell echoed away over the battle field, drowned in the sound of gunfire and the screams of dying men. It had no use. Each time body that was left behind would be manipulated by the reapers so that it would be fighting against its own the next day. How can you fight an enemy like that? But they had to fight. Earth would forever be lost if they didn't. Giving up was not an option.

The sound of growling husks intensified as the enemy back-up got closer, charging at the remaining few alliance marines that were still fighting. Jade jumped out of cover when the first stragglers of the group got within reaching distance, taking the first one out by smacking it against a wall with her biotic powers and using her shotgun to knock down the next. "BELAY THAT ORDER! We have to get to the pick-up point!" She yelled at the rest of her troop, releasing a round into the husks she had knocked away to make sure they wouldn't stand up again. At such close distance the husk's head all but exploded after getting hit by the shotgun, covering Jade and everything around it in thick drops of oozing black goo.

Fortunately to her this only made her look more intimidating, leading to the fact that most of the troop held their ground – even when she was only a normal soldier and in no position to be yelling out orders to the rest of the squad. Or maybe they just remembered who she used to be, and respected her because of her previous accomplishments.

Either way, it didn't matter.. Bottom line was; they stayed.

A wave of dark energy was send towards the incoming foes, knocking them back and giving the Alliance Marines a few extra seconds to re-load their weapons and catch a breath before the fighting would continue. Jade on the other hand used her biotics to charge to the few stragglers that had been able to dodge the wave, her shotgun coming down hard on the head of one of them while she kicked away a second. The remaining husks let out a screech at they charged towards her like krogans on bloodrage.

Her shotgun released bullets non-stop at the charging husks, but when there were only three of them left she could hear the trusted gun make an empty 'click' noise which was quickly followed by a used-up thermal clip falling out of it. "Damn it." Jade reached for her belt but her fingers only grasped air, reminding her of the fact that she was fresh out of thermal clips. "Damn."

Cursing once again, Jade fell back to her biotic powers to lift up a nearby piece of wreckage and fling it in the direction of the charging husks. At moments like this she cursed her lack of a back-up weapon. If only they had brought more fire power...

"JADE! Behind you!"

She twisted around just in time to see a husk coming down at her, jaws opened wide and claws ready to attack. Jade suppressed a pained scream when the husk buried its claws deeply in the unprotected flesh of her left arm, easily breaking and tearing away the skin there only to suddenly fall back limply, never to move again. Following the path the bullet had made, Jade could just see a Alliance Marine armed with a sniper ducking back into cover. Looking back over her shoulder she noticed that the remaining husks now too laid motionless on the ground.

That had been a little too close, even to her liking.

Taking the hint, Jade fell back, jumping over the crashed car she had seen the marine taking cover behind and joining him there. "Thanks, James." She said, taking the thermal clips he shoved into her direction weapon before looking back over the car to keep an eye on any incoming enemies.

"Just doing my job, Lola. Besides, Anderson would have my head if I allowed that husk to have yours." He took a brief moment to inspect the gaping wounds on her arm, and the dark crimson blood that oozed out of them. "You need to get that checked out when we get back."

"If we get back, there will be a lot of people more seriously wounded than I am." Jade noticed grimly, making sure that the battlefield was completely cleaned of the vermin before moving out of cover and moving back to where the rest of their squad was counting the casualties. "And?" She asked, trusting them to know what she asking.

"We've lost the Lieutenant," One of them said, "Same goes for Jacobs, Smith, Evans, Johnson, Bowman and Summers. Todd and Collins are wounded, but they can still carry on... Cross cannot."

Nodding slowly, Jade looked over to where one of the members of their squad was talking to Cross. Like Cross himself he was a young soldier, fresh out of the academy and pulled right into the war... they had probably gone through training together. After having exchanged a few words the soldier, Harper, nodded at Cross and took out his pistol.

Jade sighed as she turned around, taking a few steps away from the main group as she activated her ear piece. "Delta Team for Alpha Team, come in Alpha Team." When there was no response Jade repeated the message, it stayed silent for a little while after that, but soon the voice of their operation leader came in through the communication channel.

"This is Captain Anderson for Alpha Team, Delta Team what's your status?"

"We were ambushed. We've lost our First-Lieutenant along with Jacobs, Smith, Evans, Johnson, Bowman, Summers.." She was interrupted by the sound of a pistol being fired, quickly followed by the sound of an armoured body hitting the ground. "...and Collins. We're down to seven."

It stayed silent for a second as Anderson processed the information. She could have sworn she'd heard him curse silently though she could not blame him for it - they had lost some good men and women in this battle. "Any wounded?" The voice on the other end finally asked.

"A few scratches and burns. Nothing too serious." She paused for a moment. "Orders?"

"We need to get you and the rest of the team to the pick-up point, this is our highest priority. Continue with the mission as planned."

"Copy that. Delta Team out."

Cutting off the comm channel, Jade moved back to their little group of six. By now, Harper had joined them too, a grim expression on his face as he looked in her direction. The others followed his example, their unspoken question hanging heavily in the air. "We continue the mission." Jade simply announced, re-loading her gun and turning around before anyone could make any objections. Or at least, that had been the plan.

"Continue the mission? We've lost more than half of our squad! What the hell is going on?"

Not wanting to deal with personal issues right now, Jade send James a glare over her shoulder before continuing on into the direction they had been heading before all hell broke loose. "We're leaving. We need to get to the pick-up point before it's too late."

"Leaving?!" James exclaimed, irritation clear in his voice. There had been a reason not the entire team had been informed of the goal of this mission... Jade gritted her teeth as she stopped walking. She was so sick of people disobeying orders. Even when she technically was no part of the Alliance and had no rank over any of them. "The Normandy is gone Jade, along with Lieutenant Commander Williams. No other ship can get through the Reaper lines!"

James hadn't even finished his sentence before she'd spun around anger radiating off of her has she got into his face, their noses almost touching as she spat out exactly what she wanted to say to him. "Stow it Lieutenant! You don't want to leave, fine, we get it. But this isn't a democracy." Dark energy pulsated around her arms as she poked his chest with almost enough strength to make him step back. "Anderson calls the shots around here. We're leaving, if you want out you can catch a ride from wherever we're dropp-."

She was brutally cut short by a deafening roar coming from one of the alleys that had been cut off from the main street by a collapsed building. They barely even had had the time to turn around towards the origin of the sound before it burst right through the rubble like it was nothing, sending debris flying everywhere. Three members of their team were swept away by the rubble, getting either trapped underneath it or knocked away by it entirely. Only four of them were left to see what had caused all of this chaos in the first place; a hulking amalgamation – entirely protected by metal plates – of what reminded her most of turian and krogan... victims of the Reapers. Before they had the time to fully register what was going on the brute was already charging towards them in an attack, using it's over-sized claw arm to grab and smash the nearest person into the ground – which unfortunately happened to be Harper, who instantly died on impact.

"FALL BACK!" Jade found herself yelling towards the remaining two others, running as fast as her legs could carry her to the nearest place to take cover behind. As soon as she had ducked behind the large piece of debris she could see a crashed car flying over it, just barely scratching the debris' surface.

Damn. Too many close calls today.

Next to her she could see James and the other soldier taking cover, releasing round after round at the brute without it seeming to achieve something. Jade cursed loudly, activating her ear piece to get a message through to the other Teams. "This is Delta Team, requesting immediate back up! We've encountered a-" Another car was knocked against the debris she was hiding behind, quickly followed by an ear deafening roar... and right then, the transmission was cut off and became nothing but static.

Trying again and again was futile, something here was blocking the signal. "DAMN IT!"

She released more bullets at the brute but that too had no effect... nor did her biotic abilities. It only managed to piss the humongous thing off even more. The brute quickly advanced towards them, coming down next to her with a wide melee attack that easily dropped the shields of her two remaining squad members entirely.

Just then, when she felt like there was no hope left and that they would die fighting the brute a large door to one of the nearby houses was kicked open, armed men streaming out of their safe cover to distract the brute while four others moved over to them, helping them up and carrying them towards the house they had just come from. For the first time in years, Jade had no time to question their motives and simply went along with them; even if it would only extend her life expectancy by a few minutes. When everyone was back inside the armoured door was locked again. Jade herself doubted that it would be able to hold back a brute on blood rage, but for some reason their saviour did not seem to be the least bit worried about this. No, they were all looking at something that was located somewhere behind her, a strange expression on their faces.

"Ah, look who has found her way back to the Reds." She heard a silk voice say that made her skin crawl. "Little Jadelyn... or are we supposed to call you Commander Shepard now?"

Shepard.