A/N: I do not own either the Alien Franchise, or the Mass Effect Franchise, those belong to 20th Century Fox and Bioware. This is an M-rated fic, and as such, be warned. This also will feature an M!Shep/Ash relationship, and an F!Shep/Garrus. Yeah, you read right. I have both an M!Shep and an F!Shep at the same time. Be advised, both Sheps will be Renegade, but the M!Shep is more of a paragon than his sister.
A big thanks to Just a Crazy-Man, for being a person to bounce idea balls off of, and for a few suggestions as well.
M!Shep: Colonist, War Hero, Solider
F!Shep: Colonist, Ruthless, Infiltrator
Chapter quote: Revenge is like a ghost. It takes over every man it touches. Its thirst cannot be quenched until the last man standing has fallen.
Vladmir Makarov
Fanfic recommendation: Lazarus Cell: The Series, by Pepoluan. Highly advise that you read, Explanations and Excuses, also by Pepoluan, prior to this one. Features a Renegade Shep, who's also romancing Miranda. I highly advise that you read this fic, ASAP.
SSV Normandy, June 6, 2183
Lt. Commander Jane Shepard was used to the whispers. Growing up on a colony as a foster child after your entire family was killed by Batarian slavers, save your older brother, (Only older by 3 minutes), tended to make one used to them. And then after she had passed the hell that was N7 training, and had earned the N7 badge, complete with SSBC ribbons, the whispers had stopped, due to respect and awe of her. That or they were afraid she'd find a way to kill them without with nothing more than a toothpick. She smiled at the thought. While N7 training had been designed to make her use any and everything as a weapon, she had never had to use such an unorthodox weapon. Besides, toothpicks were too fragile and small to be an effective weapon! She preferred using chopsticks to toothpicks any day of the week.
Unfortunately, they had resumed, but with more attempts at being stealthy after operation VENDETTA, which had been intended to knock out Batarian raider ports, and hopefully find evidence to justify a war with the Batarian government, had culminated in the invasion at Torfan. Torfan had been a clusterfuck from the start of the mission, which had the Navy's bombardment that was supposed to clear out the Pirate strongpoints fail utterly.
The captain in charge of the bombardment had said during briefings that after his ships were done firing, the Marines could just stroll right on into the fortress. Needless to say, he was proven wrong, and, just to rub salt in the wound, he moved his cruisers back when the threat of losing a ship to ship to shore batteries was too high for him, despite multiple requests from the Marine colonel for orbital support.
While on the ride down, multiple SAM and AAA batteries had knocked out much of the heavy armor's transports, along with many of the artillery that was being shuttled down. The surviving forces had been forced to imitate the ANZACS on Gallipoli, and dig foxholes every 10 feet, just to advance up to the bunkers. Once they got within range, they would bunker down and call in artillery strikes, then advance right behind them, breaching and clearing the bunkers rapidly.
However, some of the hardest bunkers were armored enough to resist even the 175mm artillery shells that were being lobbed at the bunkers by the few surviving artillery that had landed on Torfan. In the end, they had been forced to throw incendiary grenades into the firing slots up close, and after the flames detonated the munitions, advance through the gaps in the bunker walls, to clear them out with shotgun and flamethrower.
When the troops had finally gotten access to the Batarian bunkers, they were tired, enraged at the Batarians, and not really in a good mood all round. The Batarians hadn't helped matters by trying fake surrenders either, so it wasn't too long before Shepard had decided to show them no quarter, an order which the Marines obeyed without question. Fortunately for the Admiralty, a Batarian slave raid had occurred barely a week prior on the colony of Elysium, so the press was considerably more sympathetic towards Shepard than what they had expected. After all, encountering the same people who had nearly killed your brother would make most people out for blood.
She hadn't heard most of the news reports however. She had been unconscious in a medbay on the Everest, the flagship of the invasion force, after covering a grenade with her own body, saving the squad she was with, but breaking 6 ribs, fracturing her tibia, and suffering from perforated eardrums. She had also nearly strangled the captain in charge of the orbital support, when he had made the mistake of coming down to inspect the wounded, and had leaned in a little too close to her bed, trying to read the name on her bed's headboard.
If it wasn't for all the casts slowing her down, it was very likely that she'd have managed to grab him in a chokehold that he wouldn't have been able to get out of. As it was, it took 3 orderlies to break the hold she had on his neck, plus an extra-large dose of tranquilizers to subdue her. The captain had tried to execute court-martial proceedings against her, but the Admiral in charge wasn't exactly keen on doing so. For starters, the captain was already facing some major charges of dereliction of duty, due to his abandoning the Marines, leaving them bereft of orbital support and he also wasn't keen on sparking off a media storm that would have headlines like "Alliance prosecutes Lion of Elysium's sister!".
The matter was quietly swept under the rug, with the captain being transferred to some outpost in the middle of nowhere, Ferris Fields or something similar, she hadn't really been paying attention to that part of the briefing, and she had been transferred to the SSV Normandy, which was on a shakedown run to Eden Prime. From there, they were going to head to the Citadel, and then they would go on a patrol in the Terminus systems, searching for Batarian raiders.
She sighed, and looked out the window, seeing the wondrous sight of the stars that were being highlighted by the Normandy's drive emissions. She missed her brother dearly. Besides her mother, he was the only one who she really felt some attachment to. It was a shame that she couldn't just link into the Hive Mind, and see what he was doing, but that was the consequences of leaving the range of her mother's abilities. She missed the Hive, with Drones ready to do her bidding, and the hybrids who she could converse with freely, and without being judged.
She was tired. Tired of having to walk through her ship, and hearing the whispers stop as they noticed her figure. Tired of being stared at behind her back. Tired of having to hide her… heritage from the rest of the universe, and having to suppress her enhanced abilities and senses. The only time that she had really been able to let loose was in the Hive, or during Torfan. Admittedly, the Marines who saw her moving faster or stronger than a normal human dismissed it as a result of N7 training, or just plain didn't care where it came from. They were grateful that she had helped them survive.
Eden Prime
Lt. Commander John Shepard was having a fairly decent cool down period on Eden Prime. He had been ordered to keep an eye on the recently uncovered Prothean beacon, and wait for the SSV Normandy to come and extract the beacon. He doubted though it would be that simple. As it was, the news had spread through the Marine garrison, and from there to the civies, but for the most part, it had not really sparked much concern. Many of Eden Prime's citizens were farmers, and weren't too concerned with affairs that didn't involve them directly.
The Marine garrison, on the other hand, wasn't exactly happy with the beacon's discovery. Finding out that you only have a couple companies to garrison the planet against potential invaders wasn't exactly good news. Thus, the Alliance garrison commander had split his troops up, putting the majority of them around the cities, and leaving a platoon to guard the beacon. While Shepard could understand his reasoning, it still raised his hackles to see how low priority the beacon was on the commander's list of priorities.
Shepard had casually wandered past several of the garrison's positions, and had taken a experienced soldier's eye to them, checking for any major errors. They were placed in relatively decent firing positions, and they seemed well equipped, but the soldiers themselves were Shepard's real worry. Most of the soldiers were either rookies barely out of Basic, or were incompetents who had decided to just coast through until their discharge. There were exceptions however. One of the platoons, the 212 if he remembered correctly, had managed to surprise him in terms of competence and leadership.
He walked around the spaceport, searching for a good space to set up an OP. if someone tried to remove the beacon, they would have to pass through here to get to the platform for extraction. There was a shed that was in a prime position to overlook the entire spaceport, but it was a bit too obvious for his liking. Unfortunately, he had no other option, so he began trying to bypass the lock, so he could get a look inside, and see how much room he had to play with. Fortunately, the farmers had already harvested the nearby fields, so the shed was going to remain disturbed for the foreseeable future, at least until the Normandy got here.
Out of nowhere, he heard the unmistakable sound of a ship coming into atmosphere, and he looked up, expecting to see the welcome silhouette of the Normandy flying overhead. Instead, he saw multiple smaller vessels, which resembled wasps. However, those ships paled in comparison to the flagship of the invasion fleet. He estimated that it was about 2 or 3 klicks long, but he heard something.
It was an incredibly loud and high pitched noise, sounding like metal bending, but at a much higher level. Shepard collapsed to the ground, convulsing and screaming in agony. His enhanced hearing was normally a boon, but in this case it was a curse, as the noise was amplified considerably. He tried to reach for his helmet, which was stashed in his bag, but the pain made it difficult to concentrate.
He gritted his teeth, and began repeating a mantra inside his head, hoping to block out the pain through force of will. Pain can be ignored, pain can be ignored, pain can be ignored, pain can be ignored. He felt something begin clawing at his mind, trying to get in. fortunately, growing up in the Hive had made him competent at blocking out unwanted mental contact, and he began erecting the mental barriers that he hadn't had to use in years.
The bag was about 2 feet away, and he stretched out his hand, clawing desperately at the strap. The strap was just six inches short of his fingers. Then it was 4 inches away. The mental pressure began to make his barriers bow and bend, but they were unbroken yet. He was desperate to reach the helmet, and with a surge of energy he managed to grab the strap, and he yanked it, pulling the bag towards him. However, the surge was accompanied with a massive wave of pain, but he ignored it. Not bothering with the zipper, he ripped open the bag, and grabbed out his blood red helmet, and placed it on his head. The noise abruptly died, and he collapsed to the ground, giving a massive sigh of relief. Then he heard gunfire.
He rolled to his feet, while simultaneously drawing his modified Hahne-Kedar Kessler VII, and looked around. He saw the Marines being slaughtered by odd synthetic looking figures. For some reason, they reminded him of Quarians, but he opened fire on them none the less. The high caliber armor piercing slugs ripped through their shields, but they quickly reacted, turning and firing on him with unusual weapons that fired pulses of blue light. Grabbing his bag, which had the rest of his armor and weapons, he ran for the shed. The small kinetic barrier generator he wore under his clothes would only block a few shots, and he wanted to get his nice heavy Hahne-Kedar armor on as fast as possible.
Hearing footsteps behind him, and quickly pivoted, and saw, instead of the synthetic figure that he expected, a female marine wearing pink and white armor. He nodded at her, and turned back and kept running. The shed's door, which he had thankfully left ajar, loomed in front of him. Without pausing, he slammed into the door, and rolled hard to the right, avoiding being smashed by the armored figure of the female marine. She reached out, and slammed a fist on the door close button, the metal portal closing with a snap. The dark interior of the shed was filled with the sounds of loud panting, as both Shepard and the marine began recovering from their rather rapid retreat.
He heard the whine of an Avenger Mark I assault rifle powering up, and he looked at the marine, or rather down the barrel of the rifle, which was aimed at his head. The person holding said rifle said, in a voice that was rather irritated, "Who the hell are you?"
Shepard sighed, but seeing no alternative said, "My name is Lt. Commander John Shepard, Alliance Navy."
(1) Scout Sniper Basic Course. 3 guesses what the course teaches you to do.