Alliance Navy Captain James Vega stood with his hands folded behind his back in the observation deck of the SSV Jefferson. His hair was now a dark grey and he no longer had the faux hawk, it wasn't really fitting for a "big boss" guy that he was now. The Lincoln beard had to go as well. He kept himself in shape and eventually beat Shepard's pull-up record of one-eighty-four. It was a challenge, but he did it. He enjoyed challenges, well, most of the time. One he could never beat was getting used to wearing his officer's uniform; it was just so damn uncomfortable.

Looking out the window, he reflected on past events. It had been twenty years since the destruction of the Reapers, the relays, the near destruction of The Citadel, and the deaths of Commander Shepard and Admiral Anderson. A lot had happened in those twenty years. The relays were hastily rebuilt, along with The Citadel. Soon after, Urdnot Wreav informed the galaxy that the genophage hadn't actually been cured - by starting another war.

Urdnot Wreav, clan dictator of the Krogan, blamed all of the races included in the mission the cure the genophage. He almost immediately attacked Earth, Palaven, and Sur'kesh when he had the chance. Nobody was prepared for the Krogan to attack either because nobody knew that Shepard and Mordin didn't really cure the genophage, and apparently neither did Wreav. Everything went to shit pretty quick after the first attacks. Everyone was just trying to rebuild and the Krogan put an end to it.

One of the first things Wreav did was try to track down Mordin Solis, he, "wanted his head on a pike next to his throne." He never found Mordin, or at least James didn't think they did; those Salarians were always sneaky putos. Wreav also used repaired Starships that had crashed on Tuchanka to invade planets of the races he wanted to destroy; turns out that the bastard wasn't as dumb as everyone thought.

Luckily, the war didn't last much over a year. The collective forces of Humanity, the Turians, and Salarians drove the Krogan forces off their worlds. After that, it was just a matter of pushing them back to Tuchanka. James even got the honor of leading his team of N7's into Wreav's palace of rubble. Sure, he didn't get to put the kill-shot in the hijo de puta, but he got a few good shots on him with his modded M-76. The Krogan were left nearly extinct, and the relay to the Krogan DMZ was closed. The Dalatrass had a field day with that.

After the war, it was back to rebuilding and recuperating from The Reaper War. Without the help of any robots, it was pretty difficult, but at least some people remembered how to use their hands. Though repairs were still going on, a good portion of them were done by now. Some of the dead Reapers were a bitch to move, but they cut them up and got 'em out of the way eventually. Most of the time, James wasn't a part of the relief effort, though. He was busy completing his N7 training. The grueling training, exercises, and courses kicked his ass, but he made it. James liked to think it would've done Shepard proud on that note. Hell, he had his own ship now. Shepard would definitely be proud of that.

Commander Shepard. He was a crazy SOB, but he was effective. Taking down Sovereign, stopping the Collectors with a ragtag team, and destroying the Reapers forever. He had single-handedly become the most famous hero in the history of… well, history.

They had a good run. He was almost like Shepard's protégé, or at least that's what most of the gang on the Normandy joked around about. Sometimes they'd even jokingly call him "Shepard Junior". James didn't really mind, though, he had always held him in very high-esteem. It was as good as any compliment could be – to him – at least.

Now that he had thought of it, yeah, Shepard would be damn proud of him. He kept his word, followed through with his plan to graduate from the N7 program, and got his own ship. To top it all off, the captain's cabin was nicer than the Normandy's, and the bed was softer.

James smiled and let out a healthy laugh, feeling cocky about all of his accomplishments. It wasn't very often he had the right to feel so overly-confident in his ability to achieve, but in this instance, he knew he could.

"Looks like I finally did it, Loco."