Five Seconds
Chapter 1: Pilot
Authors Note: Hello everyone that have decided to choose this fanfiction to read. I'd like to first off say that this is my first fanfiction I've ever done and will do my best to do the Mass Effect series justice. The Shepard in this story is Paragon with Renegade tendencies, while the OC character will use words from paragon discussions he is not MShepard. There will be parts where the story goes word for word with the series, these are not my words and do not claim any ownership to anything in the Mass Effect series, Bioware and EA owns it (Though it makes you wonder if any of them have written fanfiction..hmmm). Please read and review, being my first fanfic I'd like to know how bad this is, Ha.
As Shepard's form appeared on the holographic, the Illusive Man inhaled through his cigarette before he spoke, "Shepard, good work on Freedom's Progress. The quarians forwarded their findings from Veetor's debriefing. No new data, but it's a surprising olive branch, given our history."
Shepard's steel grey eyes looked into the cybernetic glow of the Illusive Man's eyes, having to hold an internal shudder as they reminded her of Husks almost, she crossed her arms, leaning back on one foot acting casual "It doesn't hurt to play nice with others" she replied simply, Veetor was just a victim in all of this, despite sending mechs against her team, it was all in self-defense in the end. She was more than happy to send the quarian with her friend Tali instead of handing him over to Cerberus. She was disappointed that Tali couldn't come with, but understood she was needed elsewhere for the time being.
She watched as he brought the glass of, whatever the hell he drank, to his lips, taking a sip from it before placing it back in its place "Diplomacy is great when it works," He explained in a matter-of-fact tone "But difficult when everyone already perceives you as a threat."
"I wonder why" She almost said out loud, but only thought to herself. After hearing about the altercation between Cerberus and the quarians she couldn't help but understand why some of the quarians on Freedom's Progress were so distrusting, idiots or not.
"But more importantly", his voice interrupting her thoughts, "You confirmed the Collectors are behind the abductions."
The way he said it made her eyes narrow just slightly before she spoke "Of course you knew about them already didn't you?" She just listened as he explained that he had his 'suspicions', but needed proof, telling her how they go to the Terminus system to trade what seemed to be useless or inconsequential items or specimens in turn giving a bit of their technology which was substantial. After their trade it seemed they high tail it back to the Omega 4 relay, which, to Shepard's glee, has never been gone through with an Alliance ship and come back. After her attention span started to ebb away with all the questions and responses she finally placed her hands behind her back "If this is a war, I'll need an army. Or a really good team."
The Illusive Man seemed to have known she was going to say that, since right after she did a list appeared right near his chair "I've already compiled a list of soldiers, scientists, and mercenaries. You'll get dossiers on the best of them." the orange holo of the list disappeared as quickly as it came. "But first," he started before taking another puff from his cigarette, the orange glow lighting up his face for a moment in the dark room "I need you to go to a facility that was abandoned one-hundred and seventy years ago."
The look of confusion on Shepard's' face must have been evident as he continued to explain, "It was abandoned after an accident occurred when a piece of alien technology was found and brought in for study, after which all connection to the facility was lost, no survivors."
"Are you saying that it could be Reaper tech?" She said with a surprise tone in her voice, getting their hands on that could mean a way to fight back, or even prove that the Reapers were real to the Council.
"I wouldn't have told you if there was any chance that it wasn't" His fingers grasped the end of his cigarette, pressing the glowing end into the ash tray on his chair "I've already sent you the coordinates."
Her feet started to shift as she started to feel eager to be gone "Is that all?" she wanted to get out of the damned Cerberus facility, hearing him go on and on caused her head to hurt more than it already did.
"One last thing," He promised with a slight amused twitch to his lips "I've found a pilot I think you might like. I hear he's one of the best."
"No fucking way.." She thought before she heard footsteps behind her, suddenly turning away from the Illusive Man and leaving the glowing blue circle she saw the limping smart-ass pilot she thought she wouldn't see ever again.
"Hey Commander." Joker gave a cocky grin as he reached up, grasping the tip of his cap "Just like old- Urk!" he was suddenly interrupted by the excited woman grabbing him and giving a hard hug "Oww oww brittle bones? Remember?" was all he could get out before the Commander pulled back with a goofy grin.
"It's good to see you Joker."
She would have taken the entire day to explore the new Normandy, the joy and exhilaration at seeing the ship again was something only she and Joker could understand, of course there were a few downsides, like Miranda who was going to be with them on the mission, and the Cerberus logo, colors, and uniforms that was on her ship and the crew. As if that wasn't enough it took her by surprise that an AI called Edi was installed on the ship. She was squeamish at the thought after fighting so many geth, but she was stuck with it like she was stuck with her ship plastered with the Cerberus colors. She took the time to meet with the crew, from Kelly, to Mr. Gardener the cook and, to her horror, plumber. "Why is the man cleaning the toilets cooking the food?" She wanted to shout out, but she refrained by promising to get better food on the Citadel when they had the time.
Just when she thought she had no more surprises to find she ended up in the Med Bay, her eyes quickly narrowing in on a woman with a familiar hair cut "Dr. Chakwas?" she said hopefully, and to her delight the older woman turned around, giving a gentle smile "It's good to see you again Commander." The doctor got up from her chair, the two women hugged for a moment before taking a seat a caught up with all that happened the past two years. Shepard left promising to get the Doctor a bottle of brandy when she could, despite the doctor's claim that it wasn't needed. After taking the elevator down to the fourth floor and acquainting herself with the engineers Donnelly and Gabriella (Which she decided to call Don and Gabby) she decided it was time to see the top floor, which she was informed, was her own personal room.
When she entered her new room she had to admit she liked it, the bed was larger than her bed on the old Normandy, and it also had a system put in to plan her clothes and even customize her N7 armor. After fiddling with the color schemes of her armor she picked a cherry red instead of the black color of her old armor. It was only until she sat down on her bed, feeling the soft mattress and the fabric of the blanket did she realize how tired she was, she didn't have time to rest after Freedom's Progress, and only then did she feel the weight of exhaustion pressing down on her shoulders. It took her a minute to pull herself from the bed, walking over to the door of her shower room, stripping down to her birthday suit on the way leaving a trail of clothing in her wake.
The hot water felt so good on her aching muscles, the droplets of water sliding down her tan skin, her face staring down at the ground as her fingers brushed over the skin of her body. Before she got spaced she had almost a record of battles she was in etched on her skin in the form of scars, but now the slate had been cleaned, not a trace of the scars that made her her. As the water came down she couldn't help but think of her old crew, Pressley, Wrex, Tali, Liara, her closest friend Garrus, and the man she spent the night with before Ilos, Kaiden Alenko. She wondered what he was up to, Joker told her that he had been promoted, but that was all anyone knew, even the Illusive Man had no idea. A part of her hoped that he had moved on, another part of her wished he hadn't, that they had a chance to be together again. She shook her soaked red hair for a moment, vanishing her thoughts before she turned off the shower, letting them slide down the drain with the water.
She finished drying off with a towel, leaving the shower as she dried her hair before wrapping the towel around her form, her eyes looking over to her personal terminal, seeing the flashing envelope icon blinking, she leaned forward to look at the icon, it was from the Illusive Man, no doubt, giving her the coordinates to the facility. Though she decided that she wouldn't just drop whatever she was doing just to read an email. Instead she explored the rest of her room, from the couch that was in the shape of an L in the corner and the empty fish tank, and during all this she held her omni-tool up, scanning for bugs. Satisfied with herself after finding six bugs she finally decided to look at the message, still in her towel she sat in her chair, leaning forward as she looked through the message. She could only wonder as she saw the destination.
Area 53, Earth.
It was hot beneath the Arizona sun; the Cerberus vessel they took to their location was blissfully air-conditioned. However, to Shepard's constant chagrin, no one ever thought of installing a cooling system in her armor. When they landed and stepped out it only took a few seconds before a bead of sweat formed on her forehead, she wasn't used to Earth's heat, having lived on ships for almost half her life.
"I hate you both." She pointed at Miranda and then Jacob, both wearing their usual white, thin, skin tight uniforms.
Jacob just raised his hand up, brushing it over his mouth, obviously hiding a smirk of amusement. Shepard liked Jacob; he was a good man that just wanted to do good, just with the wrong crowd.
Miranda, on the other hand, was more of an icy bitch in Shepard's mind; it wouldn't have surprised her if Miranda held up yellow and black pompoms shouting "Go Cerberus!" She had her uses though, like being focused on why they were there in the first place. Holding up her omni-tool she pointed to what seemed to be…nothing, but a bunch of rocks.
"According to the Illusive Man's Intel the facility should be there…but that can't be right." The black haired woman murmured in thought before she looked at her omni-tool again.
"Maybe it's underground." Jacob reasoned, "Scans should show if there's anything down there."
Shepard wiped the back of her armored arm across her forehead, almost expecting her armor to hiss with the contact before she shook her head, bringing her hand to where her communicator was in her ear, "Joker, scan the ground around us, anything down there besides prairie dogs?"
Instead of hearing Jokers voice, she heard the synthetic voice of EDI,"Scans are showing what could be structures beneath the soil, however there seems to be structural damage in an area of the facility, there should be a way into the facility here."
"What it said Commander," Jokers voice came in next sounding a bit put off. Shepard could only imagine how annoyed the helmsman was with having the AI on board 'his' ship, going so far as to call it a 'ship cancer'.
She couldn't exactly disagree with him, but she knew when to give credit, "Thanks EDI, you too Joker." She just heard a scoff before she ended the connection, pointing her hand over to the rocks "EDI say's there is something there, let's take a look." already walking towards the destination if albeit quickly, it was starting to get hot in that armor.
When they reached the medium sized stones Shepard noted how they made a circle, almost too perfect of a circle, Jacob noticed as well "These stones aren't here naturally…" he walked over to the largest one, his hands brushing over the stone, sand rolling off it before his hands brushed off enough, a horizontal slit showed up on the rock. "Look at this." He pointed at the stone "It's fake."
Shepard moved over next to Jacob, squatting down she pressed her hand against the top of the fake stone, with a grunt the horizontal slit started to widen, the grind of sand against the hidden hinge finally gave way to reveal a number pad, she held her omni-tool over the pad, it took only moments to figure out the code: 7243623. She punched the code in, after she pressed the last '3' she stood up, looking around as if a building would just pop up from the ground like a stripper from a birthday cake.
She glanced over at Miranda, who proceeded to shrug her shoulders, "Perhaps it's—" She was interrupted when the ground beneath them suddenly dropped slightly, the group almost losing their balance before gaining their balance, slowly sinking into the ground into darkness.
A soft click and light flashed as Shepard turned on the light on her Avenger rifle, Jacob and Miranda doing the same as they went down lower, and lower beneath the Earth. The air was starting to smell of dust.
"I hate elevators," Shepard sighed as she shifted in place, thinking back to what must have been hours standing in the Citadel elevators, listening to her team poke fun at each other or listening to the monotone advertisements. She reached up to her ear, accessing her com as a door finally revealed itself once they reached the bottom, "EDI, anything I should know before we go in?"
It only took the AI a moment to respond, "Heat scans are normal except in one area of the facility."
"What do you mean?"
"Signatures show that amount of freezing solution is being used in that part of the facility, it is also one of the few areas that still have emergency power, if you can put me near a console I will attempt to turn on other systems." The AI explained in that almost human like tone.
"Careful you don't get eaten by some freak of nature alien down there Commander," Jokers' 'helpful' advice chiming in through her comm.
"Thanks Joker." She rolled her eyes before she walked over to the door, it reminded her of the automatic doors on normal ships, as she got closer the door hissed, slowly opening until it stopped half way, looking back at the Cerberus operatives she nodded her head, raising her rifle as she slid through the half opened door.
At one time the halls of the facility must have been pure white, clean, with men and women wearing white lab coats and glasses. However, now it was dark, the walls covered with filth, and it smelt dry, dusty, and something she didn't want to think about.
"To think this how far we were so long ago." Miranda's voice coming in from behind Shepard, the Operative sounded impressed "It's facilities like these that helped humanity get to where we are now."
"I think this facility didn't get that chance," Jacob pointed out before they reached the end of the hall; the automatic door seemed to almost have been punched into by a massive object that didn't quite break through. When they got closer it had tried to open, but it got stuck, not far enough for them to slip through this time.
"Jacob, Miranda, think you can get these doors open a bit wider?" Shepard glanced over at the two biotics who in turn nodded. They stood near each other, holding out a hand, She was always impressed at the power biotics could have, watching as their hands glowed with what was almost like a blue flame, the doors creaking and groaning before they started to bend open far enough for them to slip in.
If she thought the hall was a mess, the large room they entered was a train wreck, parts of the ceiling had caved in, dirt covering the once clean floor, metal chunks from parts of the ceiling resting in awkward angles on the ground, scorch marks in the center of the room making it clear this chaos was caused by an explosion. She caught sight of an old computer set against the far left wall, huge towers on either side of it. Slipping through the debris carefully she held out her omni-tool to the console, connecting EDI to the system "Alright EDI, let's see what you got." She murmured as she waited.
It didn't take long for the AI to work through the system, the lights that remained on the ceiling blinking rapidly before finally sustaining a constant light, the hum of long unused vents blowing dust out into the air, causing Shepard and the two agents to cough and cover their mouths and noses. The computer in front of the Commander coming to life as random bits of data popped up onto the screen.
"I was able to bring emergency power back online in this area Shepard." EDI's voice coming through her communicator, "I have also accessed security systems and found what caused the facility to go offline."
"Show it to me," was all Shepard had to say before the screen in front of her blinked for a second before showing the same room they were in.
The room was filled with scientists with their white lab coats, holding what looked to be scanners over what looked like a piece of what Shepard recognized to be a part of a reaper. "So it is here…" she thought to herself before a voice came from the console.
"How much longer are you going to be keeping me and my team here?" A man who wore camouflage that must have been colored for the desert, he was standing near the computer they were now looking at.
"Patience Colonel, you need to be looked over, you could have been exposed to-" The scientist who was speaking didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before the Colonel suddenly shouted something she couldn't understand from the tape, the other military men had reacted, but only the Colonel and the scientist had made it to the door before the scientist hit something on the door, closing it shut, the entire thing took five seconds, exactly after the camera went dark.
"It must have been activated by their scanners," Jacobs' voice coming from behind Shepard before she turned around to look at him "Exploded to hide the evidence of its existence..."
"Fuck..." She cursed as she looked to where the explosion had taken place, shaking her head before she looked over at the door the Colonel had gone through "Let's see what's through those doors, you two know what to do." She pointed at the two biotics and then the broken door, watching as they bent a hole through the door to give them access.
The lights slowly flicked on as they walked down the hall; before they reached the end EDI's voice came over her com, "Shepard I'm picking up minimal life signals in the next room."
Miranda was the first one to voice her disbelief, "That's not possible." She held up her omni-tool, pressing a few buttons on it before she looked up at Shepard "There's something in there."
"Or something," Jacob murmured, rising his rifle up, Shepard and Miranda following suit.
"Be ready." Shepard told them before she took a deep breath, suddenly walking towards the door as it opened up completely. The room glowed a deep blue, and it was indeed colder than the room they were in before much to Shepard's relief, they scanned through the room, finding only a skeleton near a console, nearby the source of the glowing blue light.
"Scans say there is a life signal, but where is it?" Shepard wondered softly to herself before she moved over to the blue light, it looked like a large glass container resting horizontally on a table. Multiple tubes fed into the container, when she got closer she could make out a shape of a…human?
"Over here!" She called out to Jacob and Miranda, who came over quickly weapons drawn before they saw her relaxed by the container; they joined her and joined in the stare as they saw what was inside.
The body of what must have been the Colonel in his camouflage gear, the word "Rangers" stitched on the shoulder. "My God…" Shepard murmured as she looked at the scans on her omni-tool, "He's alive."
I hoped you enjoyed the first chapter to what I hope to be an enjoyable fanfiction. As the chapter suggests this is a test to see what people think of it so please read and review! Any grammar flubs are completely my fault Sorry! Tell me what you think, tell me it's good, terrible, needs work; I can take it, thank you again!