Black Moon
Chapter 1
Shepard awoke with a twitch, just enough to jolt her consciousness back into gear. At first there was nothing, no pain and no discomfort. Then it all came back to her. The Normandy, the attack by an unknown enemy and finally, getting spaced. Her last thought had been on the destroyed wreck of the ship that had become her home. One that she cared for anyway.
Looking around she could see that she had awoken in what appeared to be a medical operating room. This didn't shock her, being alive did. What the hell had happened? She tried to move but was hampered by the fact that she was tied down with restraints.
"Warning, base is under attack. all personnel are to report to their assigned stations. This is not a training exercise. the base is under attack."
That warning snapped Shepard back to reality and she deftly slipped her hands thru the bonds and unlocked the bands on her feet. The restraints weren't there to lock her down, this was a medical facility and so they were there to stop her from rolling off of the table.
She stopped by a mirror in the room and looked at herself. Scars crisscrossed her entire body and some of them even glowed red. What had happened to her?
Gunshots outside made her crouch down and seek cover by the locker in the room. Hoping to find some clothes she opened the door to it. There was none and she settled for wrapping the bedsheets around her like a toga.
More gun fire outside the door made her push herself against the wall next to the door. It opened only a few seconds later to reveal a Cerberus soldier with a pistol in his hands. He was shooting at something and was too focused on the task at hand to even notice Shepard.
'A Cerberus soldier here? are they the ones attacking or are they defending?' Shepard's thoughts were interrupted by the multiple rounds that suddenly connected with the soldier and he died. Bending down she picked up the gun, a simple but reliable M3. It would do for now though without armor Shepard didn't like her odds. Not. One. Bit.
Woke up after dying in space.
Unknown facility and unknown cybernetics in her body.
Cerberus soldiers are present.
One gun and no armor.
No, Shepard didn't like her odds at all. First things first, get out of the room and find another hiding spot. Someone knew that she had been in that room and She was going to make sure that they didn't find her there once they went looking for her.
Out side in the corridor Shepard spotted several LOKI mechs. Had she been wearing her armor they wouldn't be a problem, but she wasn't and so she slipped around the corner undetected and ran for it.
Several mechs presented themselves but didn't last long as Shepard made maximum use of cover. There were two things she learned by running thru the labs and that was that she was on a Cerberus owned space station and the attackers made no distinction between friend and foe.
Several Cerberus soldiers fought with the mechs and the mechs took potshots at her when they could. Either something had shorted out inside the mechs or someone had hacked them. Either way She didn't want anyone to notice her.
There was a large explosion and shouts further down the corridor and around the bend. When Shepard carefully rounded the corner she was greeted by the sight of carnage.
The area had been fortified and defended by several soldiers. A large, massive vault door dominated the wall and the floor was littered by dead Cerberus soldiers. Two LOKI mechs remained with one missing both arms. They were opening the vault.
The moment the door opened Shepard moved. Her gun fired rapidly and she downed the armed mech before it could even turn. The unarmed one charged her but was dispatched when she slammed the gun into it's head.
Beyond the vault door was a simple storage facility. It was empty, but there was one more door straight ahead. Pushing them open revealed nothing but a large box in the center. Wondering what it was Shepard moved up to it and pushed the lid off.
There was a horribly twisted and mauled body in there. As Shepard bent down to study the corpse she failed to notice the group of soldiers marching into the vault. She did however notice when several gunshots pierced her chest, sending her tumbling over the casket and onto the floor.
Determined not to go out without a fight she pointed her gun over the edge and fired.
"Fuck, she's armed" one of them yelled and the group sought cover by the doors.
"Who the fuck is the chick?"
"No armor, think thats the hacker?"
"Must be, but how in the fuck did she even get here?"
"We haven't had a supply drop in a month, And now there's an unknown chick with a gun."
As Shepard listened to the rapid talk of the soldiers another noise made her freeze. Something inside the casket was moving. Something that was dead moments ago.
In a fluid motion, the dead body jumped out and rushed the four Cerberus soldiers. Two of them died as the corpse tore into the weaker armor on their throats and killed them.
Several seconds of quiet made Shepard peek around the corner. The mangled corpse seemed to regard the two remaining ones with curiosity. When the leveled their guns on it Shepard took her chance and fired. The copse was peppered with rounds but as they were screaming bloody murder and focused solely on the corpse Shepard could easily dispatch them.
The corpse now turned it's attention to Shepard and again remained motionless as it observed her. Mostly the massive bloodstain on her chest. It took a step forward and picked up the dead soldiers.
As Shepard observed, the corpse sank some viciously sharp fangs into their throats and drank their blood. she was going to ask what the hell was going on but the adrenalin finally drained from her and Shepard slowly collapsed against the coffin.
The mangled corpse kept it's gaze firmly on the last survivor. The woman had aided it by dealing with the annoying soldiers and was now bleeding out on the floor. Once the body was drained it walked up to the woman and bent down.
"Do you desire aid" It's voice was as mangled as it's body was, and Shepard had a difficult time understanding it. The thing had a very distinct London accent to it.
"Yes." Shepard just barely managed to croak out as she was rapidly loosing consciousness.
The thing bent down and bit into her throat before draining some blood. Next it bit into it's own arm and forced the bleeding appendage into Shepard's mouth.
The blood had a nearly electrical taste to it and she could feel strength returning. That was when Shepard realized that she was drinking the blood of a vampire. A Night Walker, Blood Demon, the undead.
She quickly pushed the arm away in disgust and spat some blood out.
"Look at your wounds," the creature spoke. This time it's voice was much more clear, as if the damages to it's throat had healed. It probably had.
Looking at herself Shepard could see that the wounds were closing up. In fact they were closing so fast that she could see it.
"What did you do to me?" she asked in outrage.
"I gave you a new lease on life" The vampire replied.
"You turned me into one of the living dead!" Shepard yelled.
At this, the vampire frowned. "That is a myth, made popular by Stoker's book. Vampirism is a very specialized blood disease. The undead thing came from our extremely slow heart rate." The vampire replied with a sense of indignation.
Shepard listened and for several seconds did nothing other than stare at the slowly healing face of the vampire. By now she could tell that it was female and had dark red eyes that seamed to glow with bioluminescent light. They were actually rather beautiful now that they were close enough to see properly.
A blood disease? That made far too much sense. could it really be that simple? More gunfire echoed through the vault door and Shepard decided that being caught inside was a bad idea. She needed to figure out what was happening and then decide what to do.
The human guards were enemies and so were the mechs. They stumbled out from the room and slowly walked past several dead civilians. Every time they did, the vampire would stop and drain the blood from them. the more blood the vampire consumed the faster her regeneration jumped forward. As skin started to form Shepard grabbed a lab coat and gave it to the vampire.
Most of her body had regrown and now that skin was forming Shepard could see that the vampire was starting to get uncomfortable with being completely naked.
"My name is Shepard"
"Wilhelmina, a pleasure."
I like vampires!
They are awesome and deserve to be treated better than they mostly are. In this story they do not have any 'mystical' powers. Mass Effect is a science fiction tale and therefore vampirism should be treated the same.
Making it a transferable blood disease makes logical sense from a scientific standpoint. I'll explain the whole 'drink blood' thing later once Shepard starts to research what it means for her. ('Research' on the Normandy. This is ME2 and that was a pretty big thing in that game. Physical upgrades will instead be; understanding vampirism.)
I have taken the liberty of drawing on several various sources as references for the vampires in this story including; Bram Stoker (The basic Wilhelmina 'Mina' Harker), Hellsing, Carmilla and several other stories. There will be no supernatural abilities in this story.
I have a rather unique idea for the danger the Reapers represent. What I have in mind for this story I haven't seen in any other story so far, but I haven't read them all either so I can't be sure.
I'll get to writing on my other stories when inspiration kicks me in the butt. Right now this one just won't leave me alone.