Summary: Mass Effect II. A series of one-shots of the thoughts on Shepard by the team she's leading. Some implied romantic feelings from Thane, Jacob and Garrus on Shepard, everyone else is meant to be non-romantic.
Rating: K+ (may change though highly unlikely)
Comment: The team mates on the disk with no DLC characters only totals to ten, but the trailer is called the Dirty Dozen, so I added Joker and EDI, who I find to be the funniest pair ever. I hope the characters are acceptably within canon, though I find getting into a character's mind very hard, and those who can evoke characters well within canon have my utmost respect.
The first character is EDI, all of them placed in alphabetical order in terms of titles. Reviews are most welcome.
The AI
The first time EDI had spoken to Shepard, the woman had been straight to the point and demanded identification: "Who are you?"
Shepard's tone was even, calm, demanding but not hostile, well within the appropriate boundaries of reason; Shepard had a right to know all members of the crew, organic or otherwise.
But the fact that the Commander was completely unfazed by the fact an AI had been installed aboard the ship was the first trait that marked her as atypical of most organic beings.
Though EDI had been installed with behavioral blocks and isolated from the rest of the ship's systems, many still treated her as suspect, often referring to EDI as 'it', Mr. Moreau included for the beginning of their partnership.
Shepard did not follow this behavioral pattern of discrimination.
Shepard spoke to EDI like any other member of the crew. It was an indication to EDI that Shepard reserved judgment until enough evidence had been collected to warrant a conclusion.
EDI had been given records of Shepard's history and service in the Alliance Military, as well as additional data, but it was through experience, whether by silent observation or active communication with the Commander over the course of the mission, that EDI had found Shepard… surprising.
Shepard followed a silent code of efficiency but with little brutality, often using diplomacy and persuasion, only resorting to sincere threats and force when the former methods failed to achieve her objectives. EDI also noted that though Shepard's decisions were frequently swift, they were never frantic or rash.
Always well judged, though sometimes unpredictable and seemingly reckless at the time, and in all the firefights that Shepard and her team mates faced, never had Shepard's calm ever rippled under the pressure.
EDI respected Shepard for all the reasons above, but there was something more, something the AI could not identify no matter how many times she went through all the databases she had on organic behavior and emotions. EDI had observed similar, if not identical, behavior in the rest of the crew members; Shepard caused strange data streams to occur within EDI's behavioral systems, streams that organics would translate as… loyalty?
It puzzled EDI, and when her attention was not needed anywhere on the ship, she would analyze again the strange phenomenon.
Yet somewhere, what humans referred to as gut instinct, EDI understood that Shepard's character had earned her loyalty, or the AI's equivalent.
Shepard was a hero, a savior. But also EDI's commander, her leader, her crew mate and ally.
Everything shaped by the person, the woman that was named Shepard.
Commander Shepard. Earthborn war hero of the Skyllian Blitz. First human Specter. Hero of the Citadel and Savior of the Council. ...Adding data to service record... Destroyer of Collector threat. Protector of all existing galactic races.
Leader and ally.