Foreward and Disclaimer. I do not own by any means the characters places and events created by Bioware's Mass Effect. This is a fanfiction meant to show writing skill and also to allow a creative outreach for a game that I really have gotten into. Please enjoy.
Note all source material was mainly found from the actual game with a great codex of information and knowledge. Don't own those either.
"What I'm saying admiral is that my men are some of the best damn fighters in the galaxy and we stand united here. No one individual is to blame for what happened because we win or fail as a unit. The unit chose to act, no one man is going down because of your incompetence."
Volus General Itrad Hetui
Leader of former JTOP regiment code-named 'Cohort'.
Service Chief Jameson Fields hated space travel. Many opted to simply go into stasis pods for long voyages across the stars but Jameson had never successfully endured a cold sleep. Something about going into a near death state just rubbed his mind the wrong way and so he routinely slept the old fashioned way on a bunk. Of course being ready and able had its advantages especially now. A harsh beeping had woke James and he eagerly sought the source to turn it off.
The small space did not bode well with the marine's frame but he had learned to adapt and easily swung out of his sleeping area onto the cold metallic deck. He cursed himself for not thinking to put on socks before he moved but now the beeping was getting annoying and he moved quickly to locate the source. Life aboard the Osiris had slowed to a crawl lately. The small frigate had a crew of eight and routinely patrolled multiple Alliance worlds to scout the increased pirate activity throughout humanities territory. The ship was nimble and fast but had no teeth whatsoever, exactly what Jameson had hoped to avoid after being assigned to the 8th Fleet.
'2 years in the alliance and you already got yourself blacklisted, smooth Fields.' His superior officer had told him before assigning him to his newest crap detail. Its not that what the Osiris did wasn't dangerous, it was that when the danger came Jameson wouldn't be able to do squat besides sit their like a good robot and watch to see if some fresh out of the academy pilot could cut it against some hardened pirate. James pushed the thoughts away when he managed to find the thing causing him so much trouble. The standard alliance shipboard com unit's song finaly ceased as the marine accessed the console. 'Now what?' he entered in his access code and located what had started the alert.
The text flowing across the screen sank whatever hope James had of falling back into his slumber. "Priority Alpha Alert. Alliance destroyer Tranquil broadcasting on emergency band from the Farinata System. Life support down, engines crippled, hull integrity failing. Unknown enemy signatures dropped in right on top of us, need assistance." James quickly viewed the message once more scanning every word making sure he wasn't wrong. The transmission was seven hours old and had no follow up whatsoever. He immediately turned off the stasis locks and began thawing out the other crewmates. He started a diagnostic before finding their exact location while he prepared to drop the Osiris out of FTL speeds. Soon enough he found the Osiris' position, just entering the Hades Gamma Cluster. James immediately queued the distress call for when they entered the range of the nearest com buoy and then checked on the status of his shipmates.
All green across the board with some slightly heightened pulses typical of a quick thaw. Routing the chamber camera to monitor three he checked to make sure there wasn't anything externally wrong. His eyes lingered over one of the pods and then quickly set back to work. A distress call wasn't uncommon for the Osiris but most would always be from colonies along the frontier, never an alliance battleship that kind of thing just didn't happen regularly. He prayed that another larger ship had happened across the Tranquil earlier and assisted but he knew deep down such thoughts were fruitless. For a system alliance destroyer to have to send out a distress call the situation would have to be pretty grim given that most were in small garrisons of at least four to five combat vessels. No, the Tranquil had run into trouble and James prepared himself for the worst as he began plotting the course to the nearest jump point that would bring the ship right to the Farinata System.