A/N: Hello readers. I took a long hiatus from my other stories to bring you this piece of fanfiction and I hope you will enjoy it. I have written a good part of the story already so updates will be weekly. The cover was made by an awesome friend of mine who is also my beta for this story. Special thanks to her! Without further ado I present you with the first of three arcs: Opening/Eröffnung
You know the days when the forecast tells you it will be the sunniest day in a long time and then you wake up to a tempest where lightning paints the sky and deafens you after you just make one step out of your door. Well it is a day like this in the year of 2013 where I had to go by train to my university to give in an assignment. Oh joy, one and a half hour of riding the train just to give in a paper. Sighing and finally accepting my fate I made my way to our local train station in this shitty storm. Needless to mention that I was soaked to my bones but never mind, such is life. By the way my name is Erik Black, 21 years old, 1,80 meters in height, with light brown hair and eyes a mixture of green and blue. I am currently sitting in a wagon watching the raindrops lashing against the window. Kind of depressing. In the same moment this thought was running through my mind an arc of lightning hit the rail and white-blue light was washing over the coach. My eyes went wide in shock. What the …. Before I could end this thought another lightning hit the train and in the next moment my world went haywire. My body was thrown around and before I could realise what happened my world ended in a white light.
Before I even opened my eyes again a sickening stench attacked my olfactory sense and I had to pull myself together not to empty the contains of my stomach. I did not find myself as expected inside a train wrack but inside a dumpster. That cannot be heaven, can it? As soon as I tried to pull myself out of this overdimensioned trashcan my whole body started to ache.
"Definitely not heaven!", I groaned out while clenching my eyes shut and letting myself fall back into the dumpster. It took about an hour until I was able to move a muscle without feeling any pain and getting myself on my feet. A quick roundabout look for a better orientation told me that I was in a side-alley and a dark one at that. Therefore I hastened my steps towards the noise of people coming from nearby. Lo and behold I made contact with humanity again, but something was most certainly amiss. The people did not wear any clothing I was familiar with and everyone was talking English. Last time I checked I was in Austria. So why the frigging hell is everyone speaking English. Trying my luck I asked the first random dude coming across my line of sight: "Entschuldigen Sie bitte, aber wo bin ich hier?" He only gave me a blank stare before he shook his head and answered my question.
"German? Really? This language went extinct a century ago. If I didn't have my omni-tool at hand I wouldn't even understand you." Now it was my turn to give him a blank expression as a million things were running through my mind. German extinct? Over a century ago? OMNI-TOOL!? God, please don't tell me…?
"Sorry, I am kind of into dead languages." I tried to cover for myself as my hand was nervously scratching the back of my head. "But please, can you tell me where I am and what year it is? I went drinking last night and woke up in a dumpster and now I cannot even remember the simplest things."
"If it is that bad you must have had the night of your life. At least you are looking like it."
"Thanks. I really needed that."
"Hey man, no need for sarcasm. Well back to your questions. We are on Earth and this is London the most awesome city in the Sol-system. Oh and it is the year 2180. Satisfied?"
"Yeah, thank you."
"No problem and take care of yourself. There are a lot of robberies around here. It is all over the news, although I don't think that you would be a primary target but you can never be too sure."
I just nodded before the sight of a person with a blue complexion and tentacle-fringe-thingies as hair gave me the rest. Not a second later I sunk to my knees clutching my head in between my hands. It has to be a dream. It has to be.
As the next two days went by, as I was cursing our train service, I was now completely and without a doubt sure that this was definitely not a dream. I am in Mass Effect. Three years before shit hits the fan. I have no family, friends, home, money, something to eat or drink. To sum it all up, I am fucked, royally and utterly fucked. And since Murphy's law seems to work in this dimension as good as it does in ours I was little to none surprised as a tank of a man knocked me out in the alley while I was thinking about what I should do from now on.
What did surprise me though was that I did not wake up in the alley again but this time in a storage room. I was not roped to a chair or anything so I was able to look around only to realise that there was nothing to look at.
"Ok, this cannot get any worse."
"Believe me, it can."
My body turned around at a neck break speed, only to see the smug smile on the face of a middle-aged man who was standing in the door to this room.
"My name is Sean Jäger and one of my employees picked your sorry self from the streets and put you under my care."
"Abducted would be the better way to describe this."
"Is that the way to talk to the man who gave you a roof over your head?"
"Tch. Fine, go on."
"As I told you one of my employees brought you here and put you under my care but this hospitality doesn't come without a price. You see, I am a provider for several branches of entertainment and competitions and I am always searching for new talents."
"And what if I refuse?"
This certainly did the trick as his eyes widened in disbelieve.
"Refuse? Hmm, you can leave of course but do not expect everything of you to leave."
The grin on his angular face grew even bigger then before.
"So tell me, do you have any kind of talent?"
I had to swallow hard and process everything before I responded.
"Well, I am good at tactics and strategy. It takes only a couple of minutes until I can grasp the concept of nearly anything you throw at me. So if there is anything like chess …"
"Chess, you say? Good, good, meet me in the lounge. One of my employees will show you the way but before we meet do us both a favour and take a shower. New clothes will be provided so you don't have to walk around naked."
Jäger turned around and instead of him a woman was now standing in his place.
"Please follow me." Since I did not really have a choice I followed her.
Half an hour later I found myself again in the company of Sean Jäger. My sight was immediately fixed onto the wooden board which had 8x8 squares on it. 32 squares in white, 32 in black and 16 pieces of each colour on either side.
"Please take a seat."
I wordlessly complied with him and he took the seat opposite of mine.
"Before we start, I want to know who I have the pleasure to play with."
"My name is Black, Erik Black."
"Oh, what a coincidence. So you won't mind me playing white then?"
"No, pick whichever colour you like"
Sean's eyes narrowed instantaneously.
"Well, well, well aren't you a confident one? Lets see if you can hold true to your word, shall we?"
Only fifteen minutes later Sean Jäger suffered a crushing defeat at my hands.
"It seems like you told the truth. You are going to be a valuable asset to me,"
For the next three months I played at almost every underground chess tourney Jäger sent me to and I quickly made a name for myself. It was then on one of the most prestigious ones that I reached the finals. The room was dark and only a single light illuminated the table with the elegant chess board on it. Like many times before I took my seat, waiting for my opponent. It did not take long until he arrived. He was about 50th years old, grey streaks here and there in his hair and his eyes a piercing blue. His image alone was kind of intimidating. The man silently positioned himself on the other chair and as soon as he was seated the announcer proclaimed the final match.
"Today we have the pleasure to behold a match between the uprising star Erik Black and the former champion Marcus Greatfield. In this encounter Black will play white and Greatfield black. Let us watch the battle of these two masterminds for the prize money of 1 000 000 credits.
Me and Marcus shook hands and after that begun the most challenging chess game I have ever played. There was no time limit for this game and we only reached the midgame after five hours. It was at that point that Marcus said something other then "check", actually initiating a conversation.
"Tell me Black, how did a young man like you get involved in this underground business?"
His voice was like the one a grandfather would have. With the softness you would harbour for ones grandchildren but mixed with the authority of age.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I had no other choice. I had nothing and was rotting away in the dark of a side-alley until Jäger `recruited` me."
"Jäger? I know him. He is one lazy bastard who lets other people do the work for his money."
Smiling I replied: "I couldn't find a better way to describe him but as it stands he is my only hope to survive in this world."
After that Greatfield leant the upper part of his body forward and staring deep into my eyes.
"And what if I tell you that you have another option? What if I tell you that you can come with me?"
"I appreciate the thought but I don't think Jäger is so easily dealt with."
My eyes were nervously darting around to register any movement but as it would seem we where still alone. Greatfield let out a heartfelt laughter before he continued.
"And what if I tell you that I am an Admiral working for the Systems Alliance?"
"I wouldn't believe you.", came my sceptical return.
"Good, I didn't expect to convince you so easily. The higher ups have you under surveillance since you achieved your first major victory three months ago and I was told to persuade you to join the Alliance. We definitely can use someone like you."
"What do you mean?"
"I am talking about someone who isn't afraid to sacrifice something to attain his goal. Just look at the board. You are planning to sacrifice your queen in order to deal the finishing blow with your knight, am I right?"
"You… You saw through my plan?"
"Kid I am longer in this business than you are alive. Of course I saw through your plan but it takes a lot of conviction to actually pull it off because if it backfires you have lost, with no way to salvage the situation. But never mind that. The question is, are you coming with me or not?"
It did not even take me a second to consider his offer. If I join the Alliance I have a chance to help Shepard if not I can at least prepare earth for the reaper invasion in secret and as a bonus I do not have to fear for the integrity of my body.
"Ok, I am in."
"Good, otherwise I would have to order the commando outside to storm this building and captivate you."
"Come again?"
"You didn't think we would let this chance pass and simply let you walk out of here, do you?"
"Well erm… I… erm…"
"Alpha, Delta and Sigma make your selves ready, we are heading out."
Marcus was tapping his ear while he said that and soon after that he stood up and gestured me to follow. As I was walking behind him the sound of gunshots were resounding in the hallway.
"Seems like our pick-up service met some resistance."
Marcus mentioned as we hastened our steps towards the exit. After we stepped outside there were a lot of dead bodies on the ground but before I could even take all of this in I was shoved into a skycar and brought away from this place. I could only marvel at all the skyscrapers which we passed on our way to wherever we are going.
"So what do you intend to do with me, admiral?"
"You're going to be sent to our headquarters in Copenhagen. There is an academy specifically for tactical warfare nearby where you will commute to. I expect much from you, kid."
I nodded quietly, resigning to my fate that will await me probably the next three years of my life. It was not long until we reached the London Heathrow airport. A lot of aircrafts were in the process of landing or lifting off the ground while hundreds of people were trying to catch their flights. Greatfield, who was standing right beside me, was talking to one of the commando unites which escorted us to the airport before he gifted me with his attention again.
"Our aircraft will be ready in 10 minutes. Do you want anything before we are heading towards our flight?"
Hearing that I looked at him with quizzical eyes.
"Our flight?"
"Of course our flight. I am the headmaster of the Copenhagen academy."
"You are what?"
"I told you that I expect great things from you since I put my hand into the fire to get you under my patronage."
"So, as you said that the Alliance was interested in me…"
"Yes, I pulled some strings to get you into our program since you caught my attention."
"I promise, that I will not disappoint you." Since there are more lives in the balance than you can imagine. That is my chance. I somehow need to get onboard the Normandy and help Shepard save the universe. I cannot let my knowledge go to waste. Three years from know I have to enter the fray and kick those space-squids into their metaphorical balls.
"Are you ready kid?"
"Yes. Yes I am!"