A/N: I didn't have a beta for this, so please review away. There will be some out-of-story notes at the end of this, and match footnote markers in the text; they're not strictly necessary to follow the story, but they should serve to clear up any confusions you might have.

When I was coming up with this story, it was mostly inspired by a sudden realization of what N7 soldiers must actually do. N7 soldiers are the most highly trained Special Forces soldiers that the Systems Alliance has available, which would make them the go-to forces for any Spec. Ops that cannot fail. Shepard, as humanity's first choice as candidate for the Spectres (well, besides Anderson, we all know how that turned out), is then put into the position of being the best N7 soldier... which puts her, in this story at least, in the position of doing a lot of the black ops for the Alliance (because who do you call to do something no one can no about and needs to get done? The best, of course).

In most fics I've read, we tend to think of Shepard as an exemplary soldier, an officer, and a commander, and Shepard is all of that... but we often neglect (either due to choice or just not thinking about it) that aspect of Shepard.

As far as pairings go, this will be FemShep/Liara for ME1, and FemShep/Tali once we reach ME2. It might end up as FemShep/Tali/Liara once we get through Lair of the Shadow Broker... but we'll see how it turns out as I write things, that's a long way off yet.

"This is dialogue"

These are Shepard's thoughts

Earth, 2183

Staff Commander Arianna Shepard,

Your next assignment will be serving under Captain David Anderson on the SSV Normandy on her shakedown run as Operational Commander of the Marines serving aboard, as well as Executive Officer of the vessel. Your Supporting Officer will be Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko; his dossier, the dossiers of the squad you'll be commanding, abbreviated dossiers of the crew, and all pertinent information regarding the SSV Normandy are attached.

Captain Anderson will have additional orders for you upon your arrival aboard the SSV Normandy. Bring your full equipment compliment. The shuttle to Arcturus Station will arrive at 0900 local time.

Carrie Vardaman,

Systems Alliance Special Operations Command (1)

She frowned at the message, appearing just as she'd settled down for weapon maintenance. Anderson... I served under Staff Commander Anderson back in '78,(2) taking out a human trafficking ring on Omega. Mission went south, but the man had a gift for holding a team together. She brought up the first dossier.

Kaidan Alenko... hmm. Functional L2 biotic, lucky bastard. Long service history, littered with decorations... and almost universally positive psych evals. Soft, though... doesn't like using his biotics on human targets. Well, shouldn't be an issue. Shakedown cruise shouldn't see any action anyway.

She set aside her HS-12, satisfied with its status, and began checking over the HS-9 while she brought up the squad dossiers. They were all fairly green, all had solid service records, but no honors or notable deployments. She memorized the names and faces, as well as those of the relatively small crew, frowning at the oddity of the crew makeup and brought up the ship's dossier, working on her HS-4 as she waited for it to load.(3)

The Normandy, however, confirmed her fears. She was fast as hell, only frigate-sized, and had the first working stealth system she'd ever heard of. What the hell is this assignment, anyway? N7 CO and XO, decorated as hell SO, and... a squad full of greenies? I mean, it's a shakedown run, don't need an experienced crew... but then why put me, Alenko, and Anderson onboard? She shrugged, dismissing the question, set a diagnostic program to run overnight and check her armor systems, and went to bed, trusting that Anderson would explain what she needed to know when she got there.

She was already at the shuttle bay when it arrived at 0850. She'd been there since 0830, actually, armed and armored up (only one bag to occupy a hand, that way) and piecing together Captain Anderson's history. His assignment history was classified, of course, but she was, over the twenty minutes she'd waited, able to put together a partial story.

Graduated with top honors (personally congratulated by Jon Grissom, damn).(4)Served in the First Contact War, missions redacted. Classified, classified... made Lieutenant in '64, placed as XO of the SSV Hastings in '65. Divorced shortly after the Hastings responded to a distress call on Sidon, took an uncharacteristically long chunk of shore leave. Sent on a rescue mission for one Kahlee Sanders by the Council after an appeal by then-Ambassador Goyle with... redacted. Spectre, maybe? Sanders was retrieved, but there are references to a lot of collateral damage, and some sort of discrepancy with mission reports.(5) More missions, either classified or boring... that one was the Omega incident. Made Captain in '79, placed in command of the Normandy a few weeks ago. Interesting. Wonder who this Sanders woman is-. She frowned as the door hissed open, but quickly covered it with a pleasant smile. Damn, the shuttle's early.

A woman stepped out of the shuttle, in standard issue fatigues. Shepard looked her over. Five five. Long brown hair, so definitely not a ground-pounder, unarmed... no visible scars, no more than light CQC,(6) tired... description matches Serviceman 2nd Class Melia Lasik. Shepard kept her pleasant smile, standing. The woman jumped a little as she saw Shepard, snapping to attention and saluting, her face coloring as she hastily spoke, "Commander Shepard! You're... early." A tinge of disappointment colored her final statement.

Shepard kept her smile and spoke easily, "At ease, Serviceman Lasik. I've just been doing some reading. Wanted to get some coffee before I got here?" she guessed.

Lasik started with surprise, "I, ah, yes Commander... how did you know?"

"You look a bit tired," Shepard replied, "coffee machine on the Normandy break down or something?"

"Yes, actually, replacement doesn't come in 'till 0930."

Always helps to make a good first impression... besides, she seems like a nice girl. "Ouch, tough luck. Well, tell you what, take this," Shepard reached into her bag and took a gift card, handing it to Lasik, "and go get yourself something. Coffee place is down this hall, second turnoff on the left. I'll wait on the shuttle."

Lasik thanked Shepard and jogged down the hall, while Shepard moved into the ship, settling down and resuming her research. Kahlee Sanders... comp tech, worked at the research base on Sidon under Dr. Shu Qian, researching... something redacted. After Anderson rescued her (no info on what exactly he was rescuing her from, of course, or who Anderson's mystery partner was), ten years of classified projects, then she left the service to be a civilian consultant. Placed on the Ascension Project's board of directors last year. Even vaguer than Anderson's info. Well, that doesn't provide much explanation.(7)

Shepard had just finished her research when Lasik returned with her coffee, handing Shepard her card back. Lasik chatted with Shepard idly as she settled down in the pilot's seat and guided the shuttle through the Relay and on to Arcturus Station, but it was just small-talk. They set down on the docking cradle nearest the Normandy and made their way briskly there, where they found Captain Anderson waiting. Shepard and Lasik sprung to attention immediately, but Anderson set them at ease, gesturing for Lasik to head inside.

"Commander Shepard," he said warmly once the two of them were alone, "good to see you again after that mess on Omega. Holding up well?"

"Well as can be expected, Captain," Shepard replied replied, "took a nasty knife wound in a bar brawl on Ilium couple months back, but nothing major besides that." Not a lie... at least, not if you use the term "bar brawl" loosely.

Ilium, 2182

Shepard took the table in the back corner of the bar, her back to the wall and facing the rest of the room. She ordered a beer, but only so she didn't look out of place – she didn't drink on-mission. She had her gear in a duffel at her feet, but it wouldn't do to be conspicuously armed – all she had on her was a combat knife and her civvies. She frowned. Where's McGavin? He should have been here already, to confirm completion of his half.

The two of them had been assigned to destroy an Eclipse smuggling ring and retrieve their records. The plan had been relatively simple: Shepard would make use of her tactical cloak to get into their HQ and place demo charges, then blow the place; she'd capture one of the mercs in the chaos, hand him over to McGavin so he could get their system codes, and lead the others on a merry chase around Ilium until she lost them. They would meet up to confirm that the mission was complete, and only then would they get back to the ship and lift off.

Things had gone relatively smoothly on her end. Demo charges went off, building came down, she gave McGavin the merc and the name of the meeting place, and lost the remaining mercs inside of ten minutes.

Armored footsteps echoed inside the bar, and Shepard's attention snapped up from her bottle... to see four fully-armored Eclipse mercs entering the bar. Two asari, probably vanguards or adepts, one salarian, probably an engineer, and a human, too well-armed to be a biotic or tech. She slid down in her chair slowly, trying to evade their notice, but it didn't work – the salarian pointed at her. "That's the one!" he exclaimed. Shepard's mind raced, formulating a plan as one of the asari and the salarian approached her.

"Come with us quietly, human, and we'll let you go unharmed after you answer a few questions," the asari said. Lying, of course. Shepard stood, keeping her hands away from her sides, and allowed the asari and the salarian to get close enough to reach for her arms to guide her out of the bar. The two mercs remaining in the rear hadn't bothered to draw their weapons.

The salarian placed his hand on Shepard's forearm. The asari reached for her other arm. Shepard made her move. She grabbed the salarian's wrist, twisted her arm free, and broke his wrist as she went. She was on the asari before she had recovered from her surprise, knife appearing in her hand and striking deep into gap where the asari's helmet joined with the rest of her armor, ripping open the artery on the side of her neck.(8) Shepard dropped the knife after finishing, pulling an SMG from the dying merc's belt to replace it.

The salarian fumbled to use his omni-tool with his broken wrist, but managed to do something nonetheless; Shepard could hear the whir of his armor's shield generators as they overclocked. She grinned nonetheless and flowed into hand-to-hand range, easily evading the salarian's clumsy offhanded defenses and pressing the gun flush against his stomach, over the heart, before pulling the trigger. The tech's shield held for a few seconds even against the onslaught of fire, but it fell before long, and the rounds, fired at such close range, tore through his armor with ease. The gun sounded an overheat warning just as rounds chewed their way across the wall next to her. Damn, other two finally got their guns out. Shepard made a fist, arm angled diagonally across her torso – the mnemonic which triggered her biotic barrier. It wasn't a moment too soon: no sooner did her body flare with dark energy than rounds began striking the barrier. Won't last long... need to take them down fast. She took the engineer's pistol and aimed carefully, firing at the human. It took only a pair of shots for his shields to drop, and the next two rounds punched through his helmet. Say what you will about mercs, this one knew how to mod a gun.

Her elation didn't last, however, because no sooner did the human fall than a brutally powerful warp struck her fraying barrier, tearing through it, mangling her hand. Her gun fell to the floor. She cursed as she saw the asari approaching and moved to re-establish her barrier. The asari adept was faster, and Shepard froze, locked in place by a stasis field. The asari drew a combat knife, walking up and waiting for the stasis field to lapse.

The stasis field fell. The knife plunged into her stomach. Twisted. Cut vertically. Shepard stumbled back and fell. The pain clouded her vision as she saw the asari bend down to retrieve her blade. She took the pain, focused it. I'll only have one shot at this, need to make it count. The asari's fingers touched the hilt of the knife. Shepard flicked her mangled hand up, pointing at the merc's head. She saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, and looked over at Shepard's hand with surprise... just quickly enough to see the warp Shepard had released before it turned her head into a mangled mess.

Shepard grimaced, dragging herself over to her bag. She heard another pair of armored footsteps in the bar. No point in turning to see... need medi-gel or I'll bleed out whether or not the new one kills me. She reached her bag. A short burst of gunfire rang out. Her stomach flared with pain. She got the medi-gel, fumbled with the dispenser with her mangled hand, vision fading. Grey-armored hands took it from her. She slipped into unconsciousness.

Ending Notes:

Review please! (I assume you read it already, if you're at the end)

1: As the Systems Alliance is both the political and military power structure of humanity in the ME-verse, SASOC (which is my invention, don't take it to be ME canon) should be thought of like a combination of the US Military's SOCOM and the CIA's Special Activities Divison (sorry to those readers not in the US, I give examples with what I know. There are excellent Wikipedia articles on both organizations)

2: I wanted some background, to make Anderson's selection of Shepard as Spectre candidate make a bit more sense – having worked together fit the bill nicely.

3: It bugged me that every single gun in ME2 had the same prefix, provided they were upgraded evenly; the model for gun names I'm using is that each manufacturer has a prefix (sometimes one letter, sometimes more), and the individual models are differentiated by a number. S designates Hahne-Kedar Shadow Works, which according to the wiki supplies arms to Alliance SpecOps. The guns in question are an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, and handgun, respectively.

4: Big Alliance hero, led the first team through the Charon Relay

5: The Anderson profile includes some invented stuff and also a number of details from Mass Effect: Revelation, if you're not sure where some of it came from

6: CQC here refers to Close Quarters Combat training; the reason it's stuck in here is that people with significant martial arts training often actually stand and move differently

7: Bits from ME: Revelation and ME: Ascension

8: I wasn't failing at anatomy here, just playing with alien anatomy – they're all relatively humanoid-shaped, which means that they need major arteries going to the head, and the best place for a heart is on the torso, but those arteries and heart don't need to be in the same place as they are on humans.