Chapter 1
I walk into the warm house after spending the day working on my parent's farm. I slam the door closed after I pass through it. It had been a long cold day and I was exhausted, I walk into the bathroom turning the shower on a very hot temperature. I strip off and lean forward examining myself in the mirror behind the sink while I waited for the water to heat up to at least a lukewarm temperature. My oval shaped grime and dirt encrusted face stares back at me 'I'd almost be handsome if it wasn't for the oversized nose in the middle of my face' I think frowning the women in the area tend to be dreadfully shallow and weren't even interested. I sigh and smooth out my hair noticing the ever present and growing patches of grey in the receding short brown hair.' I eighteen and I'm both losing my hair and going grey, 'I'll be more decrepit than dad by the time I'm forty' I smile thinking of him. Steam from the shower begins to fog up the mirror I hit my head on the shelf above the sink sometimes being six foot has its disadvantages.
Rubbing my head I step into the shower grabbing the soap from the shelf and lather up my hands enjoying the scalding hot water caress my body. I rub the dirt and grime from my dirty body 'nobody ever said farm work was a clean job' I step out of the shower fifteen minutes later finally clean I wrap a towel around my body.
Walking through the hallway and into my room I take a quick glance at my cell phone, one new message. Opening it 'hmm Nicole's inviting me to a party' I send a quick affirmative reply and dig through my draws for something to wear I pull a navy dress shirt over my head and plain blue denim jeans, a mix of formal and casual clothes.
I glance at my watch another half an hour before I have to leave. I grab my iPod from its charger shoving it in my pocket and sag into my comfy computer chair and booted up my email client. One unread message pops up at the top of the page, I open it.
Brendon
You'll want to see this
Josh
The email has a link attached, I open and the mass effect 3 trailer starts to play. I sit riveted to my seat, excited despite the rational part of my brain telling me the game is still a year of development away.
At the bottom of the page an advert reads: "Bioware wants you". I quickly click it working for Bioware would be a dream come true. The N7 and Cerberus symbols appear on the screen, I click the N7 symbol. 'I don't trust how Cerberus works and the illusive man has an uncanny knack for pissing me off'. A bright white light appears blinding me "what the-"I say before I can finish blackness overwhelms me as I lose consciousness.
I wake to an alarm blearing and a thundering headache I groan pulling myself to me feet. I glance around at the plain grey steel walls around me.' Why does this place look like a mass effect station? Where am I?' The questions fill my head unanswered. Gunfire and screams in the distance snap me out of my questioning state of mind and trigger a more primal state of mind. 'Survival is the only thing that matters' the rational part of my brain screams at me. I ruffle through my jean's pockets searching for anything I could use as a weapon. The only thing in my pockets is my iPod I grimace 'fat lot of good it's going to do in this situation'.
Sighing I start walking down the corridor I'm in, its snakes around the complex the plain walls not having any identifying markings made navigation difficult. I stop as I reach a T-junction. Three corpses litter the ground, I try to maintain control of my stomach but fail vomiting over my shoes. I grimace at the smell and my lack of control. Looking at the corpses I force myself to objectively examine them, two of the corpses are human women naked with extreme pain contorting their faces. I turn away and look at the last body I gasp as I realize it's a batarian in light onyx armour with his throat cut and hammer sniper rifle just out of his reach his. At the front I notice an exposed zip at the front of the armour." He's not using it anymore" I mumble to myself as I unzip the armour and pull it off the batarian's stiff corpse. The batarian being roughly six foot tall and a slim build means the armour is a reasonable fit not perfect though and nowhere near as heavy as I had expected . I grab the hammer sniper rifle taking a second to familiarize myself with the scope and trigger.
I hear more screams and gunfire in the distance. I take the corridor at the junction that leads away from the gunfire, I may be armed and armoured but I don't want to find out exactly how good they are. A few minutes of walking later I come to a grey steel door pressing myself up hard against the door, I trigger the touch panel to open the door. I swing in the door as it opens with my sniper rifle scope to my eye I sweep the room. It's clear I sigh in relief, a window on the far side of the room displays a vista that takes my breath away. A lush green planet hurricane like storms ravages the planets beautiful surface surrounded by the absolute blackness of space.
A faint smile plays at my lips 'I had always wanted to go into outer space and now I'm here'. The beep as the door next to me opens breaks me out of my trance, I snap my rifle up pointing at the batarian's head as he comes through the door a look of surprise evident on his face, his assault rifle burst is deflected by my kinetic barriers. I pull the trigger, bam the powerful sniper rifle round passes through his kinetic barriers and the batarian's head explodes splattering blood and bone matter over the now closed door. Guilt floods through me I had just killed someone I didn't matter that he wasn't human a life is a life, tears fill my eyes what had I done. The rational part of my brain kicked in,' it was either you or him, what's done is done and no amount of crying will help that'll only get you killed now pull yourself together'.
I wipe the tears from my eyes and pull the batarian's avenger assault rifle from his cold dead hands and slot into the magnetic rack on my back. Ignoring the blue blood and brain matter staining the door I trigger the touch panel and step through into the short corridor I stop at next door gunfire could be heard beyond the volume told me that this was a major firefight I sigh 'backtracking isn't going to accomplish anything I still have no idea how to get off this station'.
My mind made up I open the door, sniper rifle scope at my eye I see a small group of humans huddled in the centre of the room with human and a turian defending them they'd rearranged storage crates to provide low cover, I see two batarians step out in front of me ten metres away their backs to me flanking the defending group. I hear my father's voice in my head as I line the rifle with the first batarian "breath out as you pull the trigger and never take a shot you are certain it will hit your intended target". I pull the trigger bam and have the next batarian lined up before the first has even hit the ground and second pull of the trigger bam and the batarian's head explodes I move to a nearby tall storage box the tell tale sound of my rifle overheating fills my ears and pain explodes in my head from the recoil of the rifle slamming it into my shoulder. Ignoring my pain I glance round the corner an asari is leading the batarians throwing biotic warps and throws keeping the defending group pinned down and unable to return fire. My rifle finishes dumping its excess heat and is ready to fire. Taking aim the asari's blue head fills my scope holding the rifle steady and exhaling I double tap the trigger bam, bam. The first shot is deflected by the asari's biotic barrier the second hits dead on penetrating the distorted barrier and blowing her head apart.
As she goes down the squad no longer pinned down and opens fire on the batarians catching several out of cover and unaware of their leaders demise. My rifle overheated from the two shots, it exposes its firing mechanism to the air to aid cooling, glancing out of cover a shot rings out and a sniper rifle slug grazes my kinetic barriers. My heart pounds from the close call. I leap out of cover and move to a storage box five metres away. Another sniper rifle rings out narrowly missing me I spot the muzzle flash on the other side of the room as I reach my next cover I look down the scope at the other snipers hiding place an idea strikes me I lower my scope a bit lining my target up and fire. A scream sounds the containment cell explodes covering the batarian sniper in white hot metal I grimace not a nice way to go. I turn my attention back to the batarian, one of them is charging the turian with a shotgun while he's distracted dealing with another two batarians lining my rifle up I fire. The batarian with the shotgun falls to the ground headless.
A few seconds later the rest of the batarians fall to the ground dead, I place my rifle in its magnetic rack and walk over to the squad. "Thank spirits you arrived when you did" the turian says as I walk towards him. "No worries just helping out" I reply shakily the human soldier comes over to me "here take this" she says holding out an equaliser rifle that she'd retrieved from the now dead sniper. She's wearing phoenix armour with helmet and all, the visor is blacked out, I give her a winning smile as I take the rifle from her. "thanks" I say. An explosion rocks the station "I think I'd be a good idea to leave now or we may be stuck here for the rest of our short lives" I say dryly "come on" the turian shouts running toward the other side of the room one of the civilian women two carrying to children followed close behind a ten year old she was slowly falling behind getting closer to me as I brought up the rear then she stops suddenly and bends double panting hard. I almost run into her I stop "what's wrong? " I asked worried "can't... run... any... further" she says between pants I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder running as hard as I can.
"Hurry up" the turian yells standing at the door to the shuttle I run inside and put the girl down. The shuttle is long and thin with seats lining the dull grey walls. The turian steps inside closing the hatch "get us the hell out of here" he yells to the pilot his mandibles twitching wildly. The pilot nods I take a seat next to the turian as he sits down. I'm pushed into my seat by the acceleration as the shuttle leaves the station. The shuttle bucks as the shockwave from the exploding station hits it.
The turian turns to me "Valrak Mesara" he says extending a talon "Brendon ****"I say taking his talon in my hand and give it a shake. His mandibles twitch and he smiles. I take a second and give him a once over, his metallic exoskeleton is silvery white with his face being covered in a dark blue face paint 'he looks a bit like Saren' I muse "look we're going to let the civilians off at the nearest alliance base you're welcome to get off there too but we could use someone like you" he says 'hmm going with them could be dangerous from what I can guess they're mercs but trying to get a job would be difficult I devoted my last few years of my life to studying science and that knowledge is almost useless here, joining the alliance would be difficult I've got public no record I don't exist.' "What's the pay like?"I ask "depends on the job, your share for the next job is a hundred thousand credits" he replies quickly "alright I'm in" I say hoping I won't regret it. "We'll be at the alliance base in two hours "he says consulting his omnitool then he reclines back and closes his eyes.
The women with three kids including the one he had carried to the shuttle was opposite him catching her gaze she smiled "thank you for saving Sally" she said brightly. "No worries just doing what I can" I reply dismissively. The soldier who had recovered the enemy sniper rifle was sitting on the other side of Valrak she leaned around him she still wore her helmet so her expression was hidden from me "welcome aboard I'm Lana" she says quietly I nod suddenly I feel exhausted the adrenaline rush that had been keeping me awake had finally wore off pulling my iPod from my pocket I shove the headphones in my ears recline back and go to sleep with various rock songs blaring through my skull.