The Tracker of Goliath
Chapter 1
She'd been in conflict with the Reapers longer than most, but fourteen years ago, the enemy brought conflict to every Homeworld in the galaxy.
She made it out, surviving an explosion so massive her cybernetics weren't able to protect her spine from shattering, but those enhancements were what ultimately saved her; others caught in the blast were burned alive, some reduced to ash.
Thanks Cerberus… you bastards.
Her gaming controller vibrated at the sound of a Geth Sniper firing, its bolt of energy reducing Shepard's in-game character to particles before vanishing completely. She glanced at the boy next to her, unamused.
"Really?"
Her eight year old son giggled.
"Yes!" He laughed.
Shepard sighed, shaking her head with a retracted smile. Her digital avatar respawned, shotgun and biotics ready.
"You know, David, we had shields so that they couldn't kill us instantly from long range."
Her son smirked, "You agreed to play with shields turned off."
Shepard's face developed a grin. "I didn't want you to lose by ten kills like in the last four games."
"Those were lucky," David mockingly pouted.
Shepard's grin only grew when her avatar flanked David's Geth. Using a biotic pull, the synthetic folded up its mechanical limbs in mid-air, just in time for Shepard to deliver a shotgun blast to the enemy's stupid flashlight head.
"Really?" David yelled at the screen.
"Yes!" Shepard replied, using her impression of David to add fuel to the fire.
"Just because you did that move a thousand times in real life, it doesn't mean you need to do it another thousand times in-game!" opined David.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
David respawned, only to immediately be flung into the air by Shepard's biotic lift, a move so powerful that it made his one hit kill sniper seem like an air-gun. The game was meant to simulate real battles that took place in the galaxy, and unfortunately for David, it meant that his mother was just as good in virtual battle as she was in reality. No matter how high in the air his Geth was, Shepard's N7 Crusader shotgun was always able to take it out with one slug round.
"I can't even block your biotics without shields!" David complained, only to be met with an amused look on his mother's face. "Yeah, I know," he sighed as match ended, and returned them to the main menu.
"Hey, you were able to get a few good hits on me, you're already ahead of all the Geth I fought," she joked, lightly hitting his arm.
David's pouting returned, a face that Shepard knew he only used when he wanted something, but she'd still fall victim to.
Damn it.
"How about we stop going by uncle Wrex's rule and team up instead?" she smiled.
David contemplated her suggestion, but Shepard knew what was coming next, she could read her son like a datapad.
He turned his head to her, "If I get ice cream today."
"Tomorrow," she replied.
"Today!"
"Not happening."
"Why not?" he whined.
"Because the last time we made that mistake, your father was hearing Quarian popstars at three in the morning."
"I told you, that wasn't me!" he said as his cheeks reddened.
"Your father listens to Asari popcrap, not Quarian, so it didn't come from him."
"And you listen to century old human popcrap!"
"It's not pop."
"But it's crap."
"It's industrial."
"Which is crap."
"No more gaming today and no ice cream tomorrow."
"Fine… ice cream tomorrow."
David sighed at his loss, albeit with the corner of his mouth failing to hide a smile. After selecting a battle scenario taking place on Feros, he pressed the start button.
That cheered Shepard up. She learned a long time ago to indulge in these moments with her son, she walked through death's door once, and has teetered on the welcome mat hundreds of times before and since then.
She will always be seen as "Commander Shepard" in the eyes of the people, their war hero and savior; here, she is not Commander or Captain, she is only Jane Shepard.
At least, for tonight.
Her apartment chimed as the main door opened, her eyes were too focused on the game's opening level cutscene to turn around, but she knew who returned from their day of paperwork and bureaucracy, bullshit as she liked to call it.
"Honey, I'm home!" said the gravelly voice across the hall.
Just as her in-game avatar landed on the ground, Shepard turned around to face her husband.
"You know I hate it when you call me that, Kaidan," she replied with an unamused look.
He innocently put his hands up as he walked towards his wife and child. "I do, but I figured I could get away with it when I've got news like this," he folded out a datapad from his pocket and handed it to Shepard.
As she took it, Kaidan leaned over the couch, next to David.
"How did soccer practice go, Dave?"
David was busy protecting Shepard's motionless avatar from hordes of Saren's Geth, but he smiled at the mention of his sport. "Great! I hit that bully Algah with the ball while I was on offense!"
Kaidan sighed and shook his head in disapproval, "David…"
"Used Biotics when I kicked it, slammed right onto her stupid face!"
The father looked at his wife, "please tell me this isn't why you're playing games later than he's allowed."
Shepard could only smirk. "Well, her face was pretty stupid."
David laughed meanwhile Kaidan could only see that his dismay would be rendered moot.
"Mom! I can't hold off these things forever!" said David as he ejected another heat sink from his legendary Turian's sniper rifle.
"Mommy's almost done, I just need to-" she stopped when reading the final statement. "Holy shit," she thought out loud.
"Mom!"
Her left arm activated the Omni-Tool hotkey to send one credit to David's swear jar, AKA Allowance, it was more than worth it.
In light of these devastating crimes taking place on the galactic station, your recent proposal and speech, the Citadel Council has approved your request for temporary Spectre status in order to combat this criminal who has evaded C-Sec forces.
Kaidan got over his disapproval quickly when seeing Shepard's shock.
"Looks like you've still got the same public charisma, Jane."
She struggled to voice her thoughts, "I… I never thought they would accept it."
"All it took were two attacks on the Citadel and a galactic war for them to trust you," joked David.
Part of her was depressed and angry at the thought, but she knew her son meant well, looking on the positive side, she picked up the controller with a smile and shotgunned the first Geth that broke through David's defenses.
Kaidan wrapped an arm around her and gave a light kiss on her cheek. "Should I grab a drink to celebrate?"
"Absolutely," she beamed.
After eliminating her first target, she was able to see which character David selected, a Turian in blue and black, taking down anyone in his way with a reticle aimed at its neck.
Shepard's stomach began to sink at the thought of her former squadmate, I don't think Garrus is going to take the news very well…
Kaidan returned with two glasses of expensive wine, only used for special occasions; both of them had enough money to buy their own colony – or a couple colonies – but they never went insane with expenses, both of them saw their homeworld in ruins and it does wonder for putting things in perspective, valuables should be valued, no matter their bank balance.
Shepard's glass came with a straw, Kaidan held it close to her so she could take a little sip from it every time she scored a kill.
"Are you ever going to play as a different character?" asked Kaidan, knowing the answer.
A new cutscene began, Shepard's in-game avatar seemed to be looking at the camera in the same way she looked at her husband right then.
"I traveled across relays so I could get my face and body scanned in their game, why wouldn't I play as myself?"
"For variety?" replied David.
There was lots of playable characters to choose from, including everyone that served under her command, excluding Kasumi who made a career out of not being visible.
Once again, Shepard could only smirk, "please, I make my own variety."
The clock ticked past midnight, the Citadel's virtual lighting determined that it was after hours and dimmed the lights. After an evening of shooting replicated enemies of war, David fell asleep in Shepard's arms.
David was a smart kid, much smarter than Jane as a child, something that she was very thankful for. Her childhood was something David would never experience, not with her as his mother.
Carrying five guns with battle armor in her days as Commander meant that her kid was like a paperweight as she carried him in her arms, it didn't stop her from noticing how rapidly he's grown.
Telling people that her child was a great kid to raise all the time was a lie, he'd grown more opinionated with age and was starting to become more of an independent. Her husband was worried, but Shepard knew that David was just trying on different personalities until he discovered who he really was, and Shepard always respected that.
Some people thought she was a bad parent just for letting her son play war games with her, that these recreations of horrific battles that were so close to the real thing would harm her child.
Shepard always laughed at that.
"You experienced the real thing," she once said to a fellow parent in a public event, "I've witnessed events that would make a Krogan's balls shrink, what my son sees is not the real thing and I make sure that he never does."
Even the most extreme of entertainment personalities weren't able to oppose Shepard in her comments, for them, it would be career suicide.
She knew that her words carried weight and that people look at her differently as a speaker, mother, and leader, and as much as she hated to admit it, she got used to it… a long time ago.
Feeling a slight vibration on her wrist, her Omni-Tool's clock hit 1:00am, and she was still wide awake. She despised it when she wouldn't stop thinking.
"Jane…"
Shepard closed her eyes at the sound of his voice.
"Come get some rest… you'll need it tomorrow," said Kaidan from the bed.
"I won't be able to," she replied.
Kaidan didn't respond, he effortlessly went back to sleep.
Things were not bad between them, but they weren't great either… they hadn't been for a while. Shepard could live with that, since climbing the ranks in the Alliance, she's used to things being bigger than herself or those who are close to her.
She could deal with the lack of passion, romance, and fucking if it meant that her kid could be raised in a safe place. That's why she requested the council for permission to become a spectre one last time and take down this master criminal… that's what she partially thought at least.
The other part felt that she's been twiddling her thumbs for too long, she's felt too normal and that she is now committing one more selfish act to retain her own sanity.
Logically, they could've just sent another Spectre after this "Goliath" who's inhabited the largest crime syndicate on the station. Granted, there weren't many Spectres left, even after all these years.
The best of the best are hard to come by, especially when most of them were killed in action during the war, with a new generation of Spectre's still being trained.
Looking out the window, she thought endlessly about her future; what waited next for Captain Jane Shepard, Victor of The Reaper War; her head used the bulletproof glass window as a pillow once her eyes began to shut.
Then, she felt it.
Her eyes opened to witness the cause for less than a blink, a blade pierced the skin of her neck, penetrating the muscle tissue, blood weeping down her neck, staining her shirt as Kaidan's eyes opened in shock.
It moved inside her one fatal inch, oxygen vanished, body limp but conscious. The worst part of all, she couldn't bawl, blink, or utter a sound of her own will. Uncontrollably wheezing one final rasp until her killer let her die, a corpse before her cheek touched the floor.
"Jane!" screamed David's father across the room.
A heavy energy blast echoed in their home, the bass of it shaking windows, almost shattering, and waking up their son.
"Dad?" shrieked David, waking up, jumping out of bed and running from his room.
"Mom?"
Heart pumping as he ran into the living room, tears blurring his eyes.
Then he saw it.
Blood staining the floor one footstep at a time, trails appearing on their own, an invisible being that left behind the clot of David's parents.
The child screamed, shrieked, and cried at once, a sound anyone nearby would remember until the day they faced their own demise and yet, the being, this... monster, ignored him.
David ran to the safe located on the nearby wall, entering the combination from memory, 05-08-2137. He reached in and found the perfect weapon that contoured to his palm, a custom made Pistol that wouldn't fit in the hands of any Alien.
The first gunshot reflected off of the sharp walls; jittering hands, closed eyes and an open mouth combined for something no one could ignore, except for this murderer.
A microscopic mass effect generated bullet pierced metal and the hidden creature was forcibly revealed.
David didn't stop shooting as it came closer, his finger pulled the trigger as fast as an ancient machine gun fired, before it could overheat, this demon drew his own weapon, a hot blade, smeared in blood.
David could no longer scream…
Or stand…
Or cry…