When the Seas Turn Red, My Hailed Hero.
Prologue
Milena Denneth was a retired soldier of the Human Alliance. She had served her years, progressing and moving up the ranks. Milena was a strong woman, independent, free with no real problems in her life. She grew up in the Terminus colonies an decided to serve her race when she was legally old enough to sign up for the Alliance. She was taught discipline and respect in the military and knew to get where you wanted to go you had to work hard. Though her heart had always wanted to go exploring the Prothean ruins for unknowns. These days were instead spent fighting the war against the reapers so settling down in a colony deep in the Terminus systems seemed more ideal to Milena then on the front lines. She would help protect her family and friends but the woman was retired. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life in the military if she couldn't help it. The humans needed all they could get in every field to help support the cause. Enlistment lines were long for the military so Milena wanted to instead dedicate her time in sciences any way she could for the cause.
The 28 year old woman lived mostly by herself. She lived in a small colony. Small enough to not bring enough immediate attention from the Reapers. With the amount of progress Commander Shepard was making on the war, the Reaper fleet was beginning to slow down an focus more on Earth, Palaven an the recently hit Thessia. Things had gone quite. Many ships didn't really travel to her small colony so much anymore. Those that did were colonists out searching for their missing family members. None of this really concerned Milena, water an food were abundant, she had communication open to the Alliance in case she had found any useful information in her research digs. Anything and everything had helped.
Chapter One
It was Four o' Clock earth time when Milena received the call. The muscled woman crawled slowly out of her recliner an pressed the connect button on her communications tablet. Holding it out a small hologram of her friend Diane popped up.
"Milena you should immediately come down to the dig site. You need to see this!" Diane sputtered, almost chuckling.
"Alright, alright hold on, let me get dressed an I will be down as fast as possible." Milena took a breath in, excited.
Hanging up the call Milena dropped her communications pad back down on the end table. Stretching her arms out in front of her, she rolled her neck. Every muscle ached and her bones wanted to grind. Life in the military beat you down. It took the young an made them want to crawl along the floor like a broken mech. It didn't take long for Milena to get dressed. Everything was ever so organized and clean; Her clothes put away and shoes set up in a neat rack. The woman kept her small house organized but comforting. Everyone needed their own piece of heaven, especially in the middle of the war.
The former soldier-turned-scientist didn't take very long to reach the dig site. She lived about a half hour away walking on foot and it took half the time to reach it by sky car. It was her very dream to live a life like this, and the contacts she had made during her time in the Alliance had made it possible. A good friend had come to know Liara T'Soni who held knowledge of some great Prothean dig sites. It didn't take very long for Milena to take up that opportunity when presented to her.
Diane quickly greeted Milena at the top of the dig site. Her arms outstretched and a warm smile grew across her face. Diane was a young and knowledgeable Asari. Milena had met Diane some time ago during a visit to the Citadel. Diane's father was actually a human who insisted on naming his Asari daughter after his mother.
"I knew it wouldn't take you very long. We came across this very odd cove just shortly after you left the dig site this morning. I had a gut feeling an decided to just keep digging. I am glad I did.. Why don't you come see for yourself." Diane beamed.
Following the bright young scientist, Milena quickly understood why Diane wanted her to come down to visit so quickly. The cove wasn't just another broken Prothean beacon or some unknown fossil. It was a buried Prothean archive. The old language was sprawled across the walls like some ancient Egyptian hieroglyph. Pieces of broken technology lay scattered all over the ground.
"It looks like a old tomb of some kind," Milena mumbled. Walking up to the wall, she ran her hand a crossed it, taking in every detail like a new child.
"I don't think it's a tomb, the door is locked," Diane almost whispered
"And.." Milena looked up at her
"It's still active.. This.. tomb as you call it.. still has power," Diane's eyes brightened up.
"What!?" Milena's eyes widened.
Milena ran over to the door an started prying at it. It was like she didn't care she was dealing with an ancient Prothean archive; Diane calmly stepped beside her. The two women started tugging and pulling, the heavy door started to creek open. The air inside smelled old an dusty. Peering in quickly to the dark room, Milena's eyes scanned around. Not much was visible in the dark. The archive appeared empty, cold. Dirt had begun piling up along the sides of the room over the years. The woman's eyes hit an odd shape laying on the far side of the room. Nestled in a small pile of dirt was a stasis pod. The pod was dark green in color, glowing around the very edges. The soft green glow peeking out from under the caked dirt that had settled over it. It was in fact online. Seeing this took the woman's breath away.
"It's a stasis pod… Diane it's a stasis pod. We need to hurry an get this door open," Milena begged.
Wriggling her small fingers in the crack of the door, Milena started heaving hard at the door until it groaned open. The gears caught an pulled apart the door the rest of the way. Taking a step back closer outside, Milena absorbed in the very sight in front of her, her breath was stolen. Not knowing what to do or say she just stood there, her body unable to move. What lay in front of her was a live Prothean, sleeping.. frozen inside that stasis pod. Before her, Commander Shepard had found another Prothean sleeping. He was a soldier and vowed to fight the Reapers. Who had Milena found? Was this Prothean a leader? A scientist, a soldier? She did not know, but the significance of finding another live Prothean was huge. It was living proof there was more of them out there to be found like Javik had been a little earlier.
Diane stood back watching Milena. This was her friend's moment, she was only going to follow the other woman's orders. Milena's dark brown eyes darted from the stasis pod over to Diane before her mouth suddenly pulled up into a smile.
"A real living Prothean Diane…"
"Yes"
Taking a flare in with her, Milena walked over to the stasis pod an slowly kneeled down. Observing the stasis pod the woman danced her fingers over the side, trying to figure out the controls. Suddenly a part of the top pulled back revealing a small menu. Next to the menu was vital signs of the life that had lay inside the pod.
"You know Diane.. I am going to be very sad if this fellow inside turns out to be a Collector," Milena joked dryly.
"Don't say that he could be." Diane shook her head.
"Uh huh.. Like a Collector would use a stasis pod.. I doubt that." Milena smiled warmly once more as her friend looked on.
The former soldier observed the small menu that had revealed itself to her. Small buttons and codes flickered, she didn't understand any of what it meant. Trying to open up the stasis pod the wrong way could prove fatal, it wasn't like they could pry it open with a crow bar an expect everything to turn out just fine. The Prothean was 50,000 years old. The pod could shut off any moment with one wrong move. Biting her bottom lip to help concentrate better, Milena's fingers danced over the buttons. It was out of pure luck if she pressed the right ones. A huge hiss of air pushed out of the pod and a red light started flickering on the panel in front of Milena.
"That's not good.. I think it's depressurizing.. But I don't understand these red lights," Milena's voice quivered in slight nervousness.
Working quicker to press a different set of buttons, the stasis pod started beeping. Milena stood up an took a step back. She had gotten the code right…