Hi everyone. This is my first attempt at a Mass Effect story, if it goes well I might do another. While playing through the ME trilogy it kind of bothered me how little impact Shepard's backstory has on the game itself. It's brought up once or twice in the ME1, but no one really dwells on it for very long. Maybe one time in ME2, and I really can't remember the backstory ever coming up at all in ME3. So I decided to fix that. This story centers around none other than Krys Shepard, who has the Earthborn/Sole Survivor background. If I do decide to continue with this story, then all subsequent chapters will relate back to what happened on Akuze somehow, or possibly Krys' early life on earth. Well, I won't was any more of your time, here it is for your reading enjoyment.

Date: 24 April 2177 (Earth Calendar)

Alliance Naval Cruiser Helsinki

Command Officer: Captain Viggo Preston

Location: High orbit above planet Akuze

Mission: Determine cause of communication break from Akuze pioneer colony

Ground Team Leader: Lieutenant Krys Shepard

Krys glanced through open airlock and down the corridor. Captain Preston was still to make an appearance, and the mission brief was scheduled to start in a few minutes. The briefing room itself was largely unoccupied as it was large enough to fit most of not all of the Helsinki's crew, and it was now filled only with the ground team… her ground team. Two squads of marines, thirteen people to each squad including herself.

The marines were eager. Just like Krys herself, they'd all grown up hearing stories about the First Contact War with the Turians, and were eager to prove themselves as only a small handful of them had ever seen real combat themselves. Gunnery Sergeant Christopher Dowdry, the oldest man in the unit was one of them, being involved in the Skyllian Blitz only a year previously, as had Lance Corporal Luis Garcia. Krys had been involved in a brief firefight only a few months ago. Batarians had raided a human colony and made off with several dozen colonists to sell off as slaves. The Helsinki had quickly caught up with the slaver ship, and Krys had been the leader of small boarding party tasked with dealing the slavers. The firefight had been brief however, and the Batarians had surrendered after taking a few casualties.

Krys looked back down the corridor at hearing the sound boots moving through the hallway. "Attention on deck!" She called loudly, and the twenty-five marines under her command jumped to their feet and locked themselves at attention. Krys saluted the Captain as he crossed over the threshold.

Preston crisply returned the salute then moved to the front of the room. "Take your seats marines." He said in his commanding voice, and the marines did as they were told, all but Krys who stood at parade rest, with feet shoulder width apart and hands clasped behind her back. The Captain took a similar stance as he began the brief. "As most of you probably already know, our fledgling colony on Akuze has gone dark. They are not answering any hails on any frequencies, but there have also been no distress calls or beacons activated, so for the time being, this is being looked at as only a communication error. You marines will be inserted a short distance away from the colony by shuttle. Make your way to the colony itself and determine the cause of the break in communication. You will have two engineers attached to your unit in case the problem is only a mechanical error. If the problem is more serious however, you will investigate." The Captain paused and his eyes slowly moved across the room before asking, "Are there any questions?"

"Sir?" Krys asked from where she stood. "Has there been any unusual activity along the border of the Traverse recently?"

"There's always pirate and slaver raids in the Attican Traverse itself, although there hasn't been any recent activity within Alliance Space."

Gunnery Sergeant Dowdry silently raised his hand until Preston nodded for him to speak. "Sir. What's our extraction plan?"

"If the issue proves to be nothing more than mechanical error then you will stay until it is fixed and call for extraction. If by some slim chance it is a hostile act and you find yourselves outnumbered then we will proceed with extraction and orbital bombardment immediately. If we hear nothing from your team within a solar cycle, then we will send a secondary team."

"How long is a solar cycle on Akuze?" Krys asked.

"Thirty-one hours, rounded to the nearest hour." Preston answered, and looked around the room for another question, when there was none he said, "If there is nothing else then I'll turn you over to Lieutenant Shepard. Mission launches in three hours. Good luck marines!" Preston finished and made for the door.

"Ten-hut!" Krys called loudly as the Captain left the room, and once he had she ordered he troops, "At ease." The marines sat down again and Krys moved to the front where the Captain had been standing. "Alright boys and girls, listen up! I don't think this is a hostile attack, but all the same, we will take no chances. Take plenty of thermal clips, and enough food and supplies for three days… Alright guys, let's make it happen! Dismissed!"

Three hours later found Krys on the shuttle on their way down to the planet with the rest of her troops. They all wore uniform green and tan armored suits. Krys' suit was thicker than the standard issue armor however, partly due to her status as an officer, but mostly because of her training as a vanguard, a close range specialist well respected, and well feared for their high risk, and brutal approach to combat and for their biotic powers. Typically, Krys used her biotics both to shield herself from enemy fire and to rapidly close the distance between herself and her enemy. Once that was done, her shotgun would make short work of any opponents.

Krys looked across the shuttle at one Corporal David Toombs, the assistant squad leader for her squad, and also the only other earthborn marine in her unit, the others all having come from Alliance colonies.

"You ready?" Toombs called over the steady drone of the engines.

Krys chuckled lightly before answering, "I was born ready!"

Toombs grinned as he pulled his helmet down over his head and locked it into the rest of his armor. "Me too." He said happily.

They all rode in silence for the rest of the trip, until the pilot announced that they were two minutes out. "Lock and load! Lock and load!" Krys yelled and the marines all slapped thermal clips into their weapons. "Comms on!" And they switched on their suit radios. "Comm check." She didn't need to yell anymore as their communication units were online. "This is Lieutenant Shepard, comm unit good to go."

"Corporal Toombs, comm unit fully functional."

"Private Meeks, good to go."

And so on, until all the marines had checked in.

"Thirty seconds out." The pilot announced.

Krys nodded even though the pilot couldn't see it. "Ready!" She ordered, and the troops all stood up, fastening their gear to their suits. "As soon as we touch down I want a 360 set up around the LZ. We will hold position for five minutes, then make our way to the colony."

"OORAH!" Twenty-five marines yelled in unison.

The door to the shuttle slid open and Krys was the first one out. As soon as her armored boots touched the ground she stepped to the side to allow a clear path for the others and dropped to one knee, she pulled her shotgun up, an M-23 Katana, and folded her arm against her side for added firing support. As her subordinate marines touched ground as well they all began to spread out, finding whatever cover they could and laying prone, weapons up and ready. After five minutes, Gunny Dowdry stood up and jogged to where Krys knelt.

"All quiet LT." He reported, "No sign of enemy or friendly presence."

Krys nodded. "Thanks Gunny." She answered, "Have them form up and move out. Five meter spread, keeping the talking to a minimum. Your squad as the lead, mine will cover the rear."

"Yes mam." Dowdry answered and relayed her orders through his comm unit to the marines, who instantly began to carry them out.

Captain Preston stood behind the pilot's seat in the cockpit and looked out of the viewport towards Akuze. The planet was similar to Earth in many respects. Atmosphere, pressure, planetary composition, seasons, temperature, all were very similar, there were even certain resemblances in the flora and fauna. But despite the peaceful appearance, Viggo Preston couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Roughly thirty minutes ago Shepard had called in to report that they'd reached the colony and were beginning their sweep. He hadn't heard anything from her or anyone else on the ground team since then.

"Open a channel to the ground team." The Captain ordered.

The pilot moved to do so, but then stopped when they both heard Shepard's voice come over the cockpit speakers. "Helsinki, this is ground team. Can you read me?"

"Captain Preston here." He answered. "What's the situation Lieutenant?"

"I'm not really sure, sir." Shepard answered. "We've swept through the colony three times now and we can't find a single person, alive or dead… It's strange sir, I've never seen anything like it. It's like everyone just vanished."

The Captain rested a forearm on the back of the pilot's char and rubbed his jawline thoughtfully with the other hand. "Are there any signs of struggle?" He asked after a moment.

"There's no bullet holes or other signs of battle if that's what you mean." The answer came. "I mean the place is a mess, but it's a pioneer colony, they would have been up to their eyes in work just trying to keep the place running, no time for housekeeping."

"I see."

There was silence for a few more moments when he didn't say anything else, then Krys spoke again, almost reluctantly. "What are your orders Captain? Extraction, or do you want us to keep searching?"

After yet another thoughtful pause, Captain Preston said, "Stick to the plan. Stay there for a full day and give the colonists a chance to come back. Search the local area for the colonists or possible clues to what happened as well. Report in if you find something."

"Yes sir. Lieutenant Shepard out."

"What do you think happened here Gunny?" Krys asked the older man.

"I have no idea." Dowdry admitted. "The only thing I can think of is maybe a very successful slaver raid. But if that's what it was they did it without killing anyone or even firing a single shot."

"My thoughts exactly." Krys said. "Have the guys spread out and search the nearby area… Let's see what we can find that way."

It wasn't long before Corporal Toombs came over the radio announcing that he'd found something. It only took a few minutes for the rest of unit to come to him, and they all looked into the massive hole that seemed to drop straight down through the planet forever. Krys picked up a small rock and dropped it into the hole, the gathered marines listened in anxious silence for the sound of the rock hitting something, but it never came. Krys unconsciously gripped her shotgun tighter. "Just what the hell did you find here, Toombs?" She asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He answered. "Should we call this in?"

"I'm going to." Krys said, then she activated the holographic interface on her omnitool and pressed a few buttons, opening the channel to Helsinki again. "Helsinki, ground team here." Krys waited for a few seconds but there was no response from the cruiser in orbit above them. "Helsinki, this is ground team, come in." Still the only answer was static. Krys looked over at her Gunny, who likewise activated his own communication channel and tried to call, his results were the same however. "What the hell is going on here!?" Krys yelled.

One of the engineers began working on her own omnitool, after a minute of fiddling with the holographic interface, she looked up and reported. "We're being jammed."

"What do you mean jammed?" Krys snapped, "Jammed by who?"

The engineer pressed more buttons before she said, "I don't know, but the signal is messing with my omnitool as well. If we go back to the colony I can hook it up to their communication array and boost the signal. Maybe then I can get a message out to Helsinki, or at least find out where the jamming signal is coming from."

Krys nodded. "Alright marines, listen up!" She called loudly. "Right now it looks like we've walked into an ambush! So here's what we're going to do, we're going to head back to the colony, once there I want a defensive perimeter set up on the double, use turrets, defense drones, infrared scanners, everything we have! We're up against an unknown enemy right now, so I don't want anyone playing the hero or taking any chances. We're going to hold out until we can either reach the Helsinki or until they send the shuttle to pick us up tomorrow."

"OORAH!" The gathered marines all chorused.

"Are there any questions?" Krys asked, and when no one spoke up, she said, "Alright, make it happen!"

"The perimeter is set up LT." Dowdry announced as he entered the makeshift command center and took off his helmet. "If there is an enemy out there then they're not going to take us by surprise."

Krys looked up from her omnitool where she'd been recording the mission's progress and nodded. "Thanks Gunny." She said. "Just make sure the troops stay awake until we get outta here."

"I wouldn't worry about that." Dowdry chuckled, "All this shit has them pretty riled up right now. They're eager."

"Good."

"Is there any luck contacting Helsinki?"

Krys dropped herself into a chair and shook her head. "No." She said in annoyance. "The jamming signal is just too strong."

"I see." The Gunnery Sergeant said. "Well don't worry about it. We're going to get out of here pretty soon anyway. Night should be falling pretty soon as well, if you'd like to get a few hours sleep I can take over."

"Thanks but no thanks." Krys answered. "If something does happen I need to be awake for it, and I don't think I'd be able to rest until we find out who's jamming us… it's disturbing."

"I agree." Dowdry nodded, "Do you think it's possible that this is another Batarian invasion? A follow-up to Elysium?"

"The thought has crossed my mind. Which is all the more reason for us to get out of here as soon as possible." Krys reopened her mission log and began entering more data. She stopped a few seconds later, powered down the omnitool and said, "Did you just feel that?"

"Feel what, LT?"

"I'm not sure. For a second there, it just felt like the floor was vibrating."

"No mam, I didn't feel anything."

Krys jumped to her feet and looked down at the floor. "There it is again!" She said in a rising voice. "And it felt stronger that time!"

Dowdry frowned. "I felt it that time too." He looked back towards the open door. "Mam, if you need me then I'll be on the perimeter, this is feeling more and more wrong by the second."

Lieutenant Krys Shepard stood up and grabbed her shotgun. "I think I'll come with you." She said, and then both of the marines instinctively crouched lower to the floor as a third tremor came, this one far stronger.

A few seconds later there was noise that could have only been something very large coming up out the ground. There was an ear slitting screech over which Krys could barely hear one of the marines scream in a panic, "What in God's name is that thing!"

The Lieutenant and Gunnery Sergeant made it to the door and then they both stopped and stared open mouthed at the monstrosity that towered over them. Krys thought it looked like a centipede of mega-sized proportions. It's head must have been almost a hundred feet above the ground, held aloft by a segmented worm-like body complete with hinged claw legs. Two claw-legs extended from just behind its bulbous head, and the legs must have been fifty feet long or more, the legs twitched back and forth as if seeking for something to impale. A long appendage that glowed with a luminescent blue in the growing darkness hung from its mouth, swaying back and forth. With another ear splitting shriek and the worm-like head swooped down towards the ground before snapping back up and the entire creature moved back underground again.

To her credit, Krys came out of her trance almost instantly, and reactivated her omnitool and squad communicator. "Marines, report in!" She ordered, then she swore, "Damn it! We're still being jammed! Gunny, you go left and I'll go right, we need to find out the status of our people!" Without even waiting for a response from her second in command, Krys clenched her shotgun tighter and focused her biotic power. The landscape around her turned into a blur as her body shot forward at an unimaginable speed. Her biotic charge came to an immediate halt as she came to where she knew two of her marines were posted. "Are you both alright!" She said using her lieutenant's voice.

"Yeah, w-we… we're still a-alive…" One of the marines stammered. "What was that thing?"

"I don't know." Krys said, looking around for the re-emergence of the monstrous worm.

"LT, what should we do?"

"I don't know!" She yelled helplessly.

The ground vibrated heavily again and the worm's head and segmented body exploded from the ground in a rain of rocks and dirt. The worm's glowing blue appendage swung in the direction of Krys and the two marines, the head soon followed until it was looking straight at them.

"Get out of here!" Krys yelled at the two troops. "Get out of here! Get the hell out of here!" The two marines did as they were told and took off running away from the colony. Krys made to follow them but stopped as she saw the worm head began to shoot after the running marines. Krys didn't have time to shout a warning to her subordinates, all she had time to do was react, and calling forth her biotic power again she shot fifty feet to the right just as the worm's body slammed into the ground where she'd been standing. She looked back to where the two marines had been just in time to see one of them push himself back to his feet, only an arm's reach away from the worm's mouth, and try to start running again.

The marine dropped his rifle as he came back to his feet, and Krys could hear him screaming, "No! Oh God, no! Don't let me die like this! God please don't let me die like this!" Then the glowing blue thing shot out after him, wrapped around his waist and yanked him back towards its gaping maw. "Lieutenant Shepard!" The marine wailed, and then he was gone. And in another second, the worm retreated into ground once more.

Krys used her biotic speed a third time, charging in the direction she knew another group of her marines were.

"Lieutenant!" One of them yelled, "What are we going to do? We can't fight this thing!"

"Get away from here!" Krys ordered. "Make for the LZ! We have to get off this planet!"

"But the shuttle won't be back for-"

Krys cut him off. "Maybe the LZ will be outside of the jamming range and we can call for help! Don't argue with me, just go! Now!"

The ground vibrated again and the worm exploded from the ground once more, almost instantly it's head shot down in direction that Krys remembered Gunnery Sergeant Dowdry had gone. The head came back up, then swooped down again. Krys could hear the screaming as marines disappeared through its mouth. Again, one of the dying marines called out her name in panic.

With her biotic powers temporarily exhausted, Krys made for the prefabricated structures of the colony again. Of all the gear they had brought with them, there had been several rocket launchers. The giant worm swooped down again, snatching up another marine. By now, all the troops were running in all directions, trying in vain to find some sort of shelter from the murderous creature. Krys came to a stop just as the worm vanished underground again. She'd found where her troops had dumped the spare gear, and fortunately, there was a rocket launcher! It seemed that Krys wasn't the only person with that same idea however, and Corporal Toombs arrived only a second later.

"Toombs what are you doing here?!" Krys yelled.

"The same thing you're doing!" Toombs yelled back. "Trying to give the guys a fighting chance to get out of here!" With Krys already having taken the only rocket launcher, Toombs took the next largest weapon he could find, an M-98 Anti-Material Rifle, better known to infantrymen as the 'Widow', it was a massive sniper rifle weighing almost ninety pounds, and was primarily used to taking out heavily armored troops, or even vehicles.

The worm emerged again, but this time farther away. Krys dropped to a knee and fired, but before the rocket had even closed half the distance, the worm disappeared again.

"Lieutenant Shepard." Toombs said, "Blow up one of buildings here, that might cause a big enough distraction for that damn thing to come and investigate."

Krys didn't answer as she swung the rocket launcher around and aimed it at one of the more distant buildings and squeezed the trigger again. The plan worked, and the worm erupted directly beneath the destroyed structure, sucking down whatever remained of the prefabricated building. Krys and Toombs both fired, the slug form the sniper rifle of course hitting first, and the rocket only a second behind. The work jerked its head towards the two marines, seemingly unaffected by their attack and unleashed another shriek, this time rocking its head back as it did so, and when its head came forward again, a glob of green fluid shot towards them both. Krys reached out towards her already depleted power and erected a barrier around herself. The glob splashed into the ground in front of them, showering them both. Toombs started screaming almost instantly, rolling on the ground and trying frantically to get what must have been a biological acid off of himself, but to no avail. The acid rapidly ate through his armor and into his flesh. His screams were so pained, and so terrified that Krys could feel the pain along with him.

Krys activated her omnitool again pushing two buttons. There was a slight humming sound as the motorized joints in her armor moved into a higher gear. Krys bent over and picked up the still screaming Toombs, placing him over her shoulder, then she picked up the rocket launcher again in her free hand. "Come-on, Corporal." She said, "We're getting out of here!" Even though she knew their comm system was still being jammed she called into it, "This is Lieutenant Shepard to any Alliance forces still alive out there. If you can hear me, make your way to the LZ." With that done, Krys began making her way towards the extraction zone as quickly as her burden would allow. Every minute or so she would feel the ground trembling beneath her, followed by the screeching of the work, sometimes the terrified screams of a marine would follow, but other times there would only be silence.

She had never felt so helpless in all her life. Up until now there had always been something she could do, there had always been a solution, always a way out. But now she was stranded on this world, and all around her marines were dying, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

The ground all around Krys began to tremble again, and the tremors were so heavy that Krys nearly dropped Toombs. Krys stopped moving as the horror of what was about to happen dawned on her. And sure enough, Krys and Toombs were both sent flying as the massive worm shot up from the ground directly beneath them, one of its long claw-legs tearing through Krys' armor and right let as if they were made of paper. Again out of reflex, Krys reached out with her biotics, slowing her fall the ground below her. Toombs landed much harder some fifty feet away, and Krys could tell from the position of his body that he had broken numerous bones in the fall, but was somehow still alive. She tried to get to her feet and move to where Toombs lay, but her ruined leg wouldn't allow it. Above both the marines, the worm shifted its head towards them, then shot down directly at Toombs.

"KRYS!" Corporal Toombs yelled one time before the worm head smashed into the ground around him.

The giant worm raised its head back into the sky, now focusing directly at Krys. Time seemed to slow to Krys as the bulbous head began to descend towards her, circular mouth wide open. Krys lifted the rocket launcher, which some miracle she'd managed to hold onto, and fired at the oncoming horror. She watched, still in slow motion, as the blue flaming tail of the rocket flew into the open mouth of the worm and detonated. The worm reacted instantly, thrashing its head back and forth, even slamming its head into the ground, all the while nearly deafening Krys with his horrendous screeching noise. And then the worm descended back into the ground from where it had come, the screeching slowly dying away to nothing, and Krys was alone.

The events that took place over the next few days would never be clear to Krys, and whenever she tried to recall them, it was like trying to remember a dream. Only small fragments remained clear. Krys remembered a marine looking down at her and saying, "Where is the rest of your team?" To which she could only answer "Gone."

She remembered yelling at Captain Preston back on the Helsinki to launch an orbital bombardment on the entire area and kill the worm, but she could never remember when he did or not.

She could remember waking up in a hospital somewhere to find someone wearing a medical uniform who introduced themselves as Dr. Brown, a psychiatrist, and then she remembered screaming at him to get out and never come back. "I will not be analyzed and psycho-probed like a damn test subject!"

She remembered receiving a message informing her that she had been promoted to Lieutenant Commander, and also that N7 Special Operations training program had a position open for her if she wanted it. And she could remember the one word response that she sent back to them. "Yes."

So there's the first chapter. I hope that you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. As of right now, I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this story or not, but if you'd like to read more, then some reviews would definitely help encourage me.