Dear Disclaimer: I do not own the Mass Effect franchise, Bioware, or any of it's subsidiaries (but we can all dream can't we?). I also want to make a special note to all viewers that this is not only my first SI, but also my first time ever submitting anything into , so I'm really excited to see how it turns out! Lastly, I would like to send out my sincere thanks and appreciation to Sarge1995 who was my main inspiration for this. He's a damn talented writer, people, so check out his stuff if you ever get the chance!
Note: Oh, and, I apologize beforehand if the Intro's a bit dull. I just wanted to make sure I really fleshed out the main character (that's me!), so just bare with me here.
INTRO.
If your reading this, than you either know me, or are about to. Whatever the case, understand this: you have just picked up a compilation of self-written journals by me, describing past events over the course of five long years. Everything you are about to read is the truth, carefully recorded and recounted up to the most specific of details. My name is Austin Miles*, and this is the story of how, in but the blink of an eye, my life changed forever.
As I look back on it now, it sure was a hell of an adventure. There were always moments where I had my doubts, of course. Often I found myself overwhelmed by indecision, and fear. The fear of failing those who I knew were counting on me to make the right choices. I experienced love, hatred, betrayal. I even came to know the unwelcome presence of regret. Yet, all in all, I'd say I did the best with what I was given, and always stayed true to my ideals.
But before I get ahead of myself, I'll start from the beginning, and by 'beginning,' I mean the very very beginning. I originally grew up in a small rural town in southwest Oregon, a nice place called Springfield. It was a decent enough area I guess, quiet and homey, considering it had recently been plagued by a string of violent robberies. The police linked the crimes to the notorious meth-heads that Oregon was known for, but no one really seemed to care that much. Meth was one of the most addictive and destructive drug types known, and the underground market for it in the US (especially Oregon) had grown to a massive size ever since it's start-up in the 80's. Things like that happened all the time, especially since the state focused most of it's efforts on pursuing the less harmful, more recreational substances, marijuana and peyote, for example. But such is the system. Corrupt and inefficient.
That was part of the reason why my mom decided for us to move away, around when I was the tender age of nine. That, and the sudden divorce which had financially crippled her. My father, a man that I can barely picture any more, was nothing more than a selfish liar. As a high-school drop out he had little interest in family life, still caught up in the glory days of his past youth. It wasn't that much of a surprise really when he announced his wish for permanent separation. My mother was beside herself, but she reluctantly agreed. She gained full custody of me and he was assigned a regular annual payment of child support. He didn't even ask the judge for visitation rights.
Not long after, we moved to the east to go stay with my maternal grandmother in upper Michigan. A woman equal parts kind and strict, she became my primary parenting unit while my mom worked tirelessly day and night as a bank accountant. She guided me and scolded me when necessary, and gave me the parenting my father never would, and my mother couldn't spare.
Time passed slowly during that period, nothing ever truly assured. I transferred from one school to the next until finally we found a place for me to settle down. Lakeside High school, a large, reputable place with plenty of opportunity for me to make new friends, which my mother and grandmother urged me to pursue. Due to the nature of my mostly confined childhood I found it difficult to fit in with the other kids. I considered few of the people there to be actual acquaintances, and even fewer still as friends.
Throughout my freshman and sophomore years I did find great pleasure in the available sports programs, particularly wrestling and cross-country. The appeal was less related to the social aspect as it was the sense of accomplishment. The physical exertion was simple and to the point, but the knowledge afterward, that you were able to finish successfully despite the difficulty, despite the pain, gave me a satisfaction I couldn't get anywhere else. Also I loved being able to see my progress as an athlete, to look back at the hurdles I overcame, which gave me encouragement to face the harder ones still to come.
At around the end of my second year at Lakeside I began to develop a newly found interest in writing. The ability to express yourself in words (and in as many of them as you wanted) was something I found to be amazing, even freeing. It allowed me to sort out all of my troubles and desires and ambitions, and gave my mind a much needed reprieve from the day to day. Eventually, my desire to write branched out into new horizons, most prominently among them being poetry and journalism.
In the summertime of the sixteenth year of my life, I devoted much of my new free-time to writing and pondering. On some days I would write about the beautiful simplicity of insects or the trees, while on other days I would write great texts on far more controversial subjects, such as the creation of the universe, or whether or not life beyond our own inhabited it.
But that's all beside the point. So anyway, one morning, while reading through a small internet forum discussing the probability of our sun going supernova, I noticed someone make an unusual reference to a game that I had never heard of before, "Mass Effect". Jokingly, they said that the implosion of our sun actually wouldn't be that bad, because then we would be able to harvest 'eezo' particles that would enable us to travel to different solar systems. I asked the forum member about Mass Effect, what it was exactly, and from there he began to enthusiastically describe an rpg of epic proportions. Decidedly intrigued, I bought a PC version of the game a week later, just to see if it truly was as fun as he claimed.
To my pleasant surprise, I was blown away. I had never been much for gaming beforehand, but this was enough to make me a believer. This action rpg combined a sci-fi universe with key role playing elements that manifested into a truly awesome gaming experience. The diversity of alien species, the fun plot and gameplay, and the overall originality of it was just UN-freakin-believable, for lack of a better term. However, amongst all it's great qualities, the real reason I found it so immersive was, well, just that. Through Mass Effect you could plunge into an entirely alien, yet not wholly different, universe. You could become a paragon of justice, looked up to by others, or a ruthless renegade, feared by all but the foolish. It was far more than a game, it was an alternate reality where the most powerful tool of all was yours to wield. The power of choice.
From there the rest is pretty much history. I finished Mass Effect on multiple playthroughs and even went on to buy it's sequel, Mass Effect 2, which, I might add, was equally bad-ass. The rest of that summer I mostly spent replaying through Mass Effect, and writing, here and there. I couldn't have known, though, that that unsuspecting game would soon alter my reality in ways I could never have imagined. Even now I can't say whether it was for better or for worse. So here it goes. Your about to read the craziest story you're gonna hear in a long time.
And so it begins . . .
A/N: Well that's it for the intro! I really hope you all enjoyed it. And yes, that's basically my life's story. I plan on continuing further so long as I get enough interested readers. If not then I'll trash it and do something different. Like I said before the intro didn't have a lot of action in it, but then again that wasn't really the point. I promise the next chapter will have a LOT more going on though. And I can't stress enough that constructive criticism is always appreciated. Post a review anytime. A little input goes a long way! Keelah Se'lai!
*My last name has been changed, for obvious reasons.