A/N:
This story is set as a prequel of sorts to my other story, Survival, and will follow the same Shepard as that story. I hope you enjoy it!
"If you would please state your name, for the record, ma'am."
Uncomfortably stark colors composed everything in the room around her, silently conveying the impression of sterility and cold efficiency. The few furnishings the room had were all angular in design, and of matching bleak colors. The woman sitting in front of her dressed in a way that seemed to compliment the room, wearing the sharp and perfectly fitted uniform of a Systems Alliance Medical Officer with pale yellow accents. She had close cropped brown hair, cut so close to her shoulders that one couldn't be sure whether or not it was able to touch her shoulders. She looked to be in her late twenties, though her face was coated in a near-uniform layer of makeup that betrayed a desire to maintain perpetual youthfulness. Her lips were curved into a smile that made he—
"Miss Shepard?"
Shepard's contemplation was broken by those two words, and her attention was gathered from the scattered analysis of her surroundings to a single focus on the doctor in front of her.
"Lieutenant." Shepard's voice was cool, but without a hint of contempt or arrogance.
"Pardon?"
"My rank, it is Lieutenant. The proper address would be Lieutenant Shepard." Her lips were pressed together in an indecipherable line, and Shepard's icy blue eyes were locked confidently with the doctor's. She still lacked any arrogance or contempt, but she also didn't offer any sense that she was apologetic for correcting the doctor.
Realization dawned on the doctor, and she seemed both amused and taken aback by the correction. "My apologies, Lieutenant Shepard."
Shepard didn't dwell anymore on the doctor's fopaux of foregoing her rank, and returned to the doctor's original question. "My name is Second Lieutenant Jessica Valerie Shepard."
Relief washed over the older woman at their return to her required line of questioning. "Thank you Lieutenant. Also for the record, do you know where you are, presently?"
"TitovSystems Alliance Armed Forces MedCenter, Arcturus Station."
"Indeed. Can you tell me the current date?"
"November 2177... The fourteenth I believe."
"Can you tell me how long you've been in the Alliance's Armed Forces?"
"I enlisted SAMC on April eleventh, 2172. That's a little over five years ago."
"Your memory is clearly very crisp, Lieutenant. I have one final question to establish our baseline, but it's two pronged: can you tell me when you first entered Alliance Special Operations, also known as the 'N' program? And can you tell me when you first came under the direct command of Admiral Steven Hackett?"
"I went through ICT in 2174, and was awarded N1 status. As for my work with Admiral Hackett, I was transferred directly to his command last year in 2176."
"Do you remember the event which prompted your transfer?"
"The Skyllian Blitz."
Illyria, Elysium
2176
Even from behind the walls of the city's garrison, Shepard could tell Illyria wasn't a city that belonged in the Verge. Shepard and her fellow marines had been running patrols and training exercises in the Verge for months now, part of the 103rd's focus on extreme situational preparedness. The little they'd seen of Elysium's capital city during their flight revealed it to be nothing like the rest of the Verge. The marines had largely been to single-settlement colonies during their deployment, and even the colonies with multiple settlements were almost entirely composed of prefab modular units. Illyria, on the other hand, boasted actual towers of glass and steel that sparkled in the afternoon sun. It's streets were well maintained and were often even decorated with local plants, or those from Earth.
Her unit was composed of fifty marines, including the unit Commander Cory Phelps, and they'd arrived only hours earlier for some much needed leave. Shepard could hardly remember the last time that she'd been able to go multiple days in nothing but civvies, and the thought of a week away from stiff uniforms delighted the young woman. Presently she wore a gray shirt with SAMC printed on the front in faded letters. She'd gotten it early in her marine career, evident by the faded ink and the way it pinched tight in a few places that she'd bulked up; Shepard had been a much smaller woman when she enlisted. To complete the 'trying to look casual' look she wore a pair of faded beige cargo pants. They were worn threadbare around the knees, and faded stains were splattered indiscriminately around the legs from years of wear.
"Aye Jess, you coming with us?" The voice belonged to Shepard's closest friend in the unit, Gunnery Sergeant Keir Burgess. She was a few inches shorter than Shepard, with shoulder length brown hair and a squared off jaw. She and Shepard were good friends, and better combat partners. The two could predict the other's actions in real time during combat.
"Who's 'us', and where are 'we' going?" She had an idea who 'us' referred to, but where the marines might find them in the sprawling city was anyone's guess.
The younger marine offered a smile and continued walking, "Hare, Romano, Pask, and myself. We were debating a few different places, but Romano kept talking about how cheap the drinks are at Ashimai Halls, so I think we're going there. If you wanna come, that is."
Shepard grinned and dropped her gaze with a shake of her head. She doubted that the idea to go to one of Illyria's 'looser' casinos was solely Ary Romanos', but the idea sounded fun nonetheless. "You had me at 'cheap drinks', it means I'll have more of my dwindling savings left to blow on Ashimai's tables."
Shepard followed as the other woman turned sharply and began heading for the small gathering of three marines under a nearby tree. "I'm sure Alexis could have a field day psychoanalyzing that statement alone."
Shepard just let loose a pained groan and smothered her face in her hands exasperatedly. "I'm going to kick your ass one of these days."
"Didn't you say she was going to come out here to see you during our leave?"
"That's what she keeps saying, yeah."
"You're the least excited newlywed I've ever met, Shep. Aren't you the one that proposed to her?"
"That last thing—y'know, about kicking your ass—I wasn't kidding."
Burgess gripped her chin with thumb and forefinger in a contemplative pose, her voice feigning sophistication, "Hmmm, it does seem you're going through the motions of what you think a good girlfriend does, Mrs. Shepard. My professional recommendation is that you stop being a dumbass, but unfortunately you already went through with a rushed wedding so that isn't an option anymore."
Shepard spun her upper body and smacked Burgess' shoulder with a quick punch, causing the girl to teeter for a step as they drew nearer to the tree. "Why the fuck do I hang out with you?"
Burgess just shrugged, "Because I told you that you were being a dumbass at the time too, but threw you a hell of a bachelorette party—and still managed to look sober for the wedding the next day."
"Something like that." Shepard muttered. They were close enough to hear the conversation of the other gathered marines now, and close enough that they could also be heard.
"Sar'nts." Corporal Jarrold Hare sat on the ground in front of them, back against the tree they were all using for ahde. He was the only enlisted left amongst their group, and presently he was picking his fingernails with a small pocket knife. "We ready to get moving, or were y'all planning on playing poker under this tree?"
Ashimai Halls was only a kilometer from the garrison, intentionally so, and it'd only cost a few credits each for the gathered marines to get there via skycar taxi. The casino didn't officially allow weapons inside, but their guards were instructed to treat Alliance servicemen with 'extra hospitality'—which translated into only giving them a slight visual inspection for weapons and letting them in if nothing was obvious. The policy wasn't born from any patriotism on the casino's part, but rather that they hoped it would attract more business from the ever-increasing presence of armed forces—which it did.
Shepard's sidearm was concealed in a holster fitted to the inside of her jacket, a trick shared by most of the others in her group. Only Hare had failed to properly conceal his sidearm, which meant his pistol had been confiscated and locked in a casino locker until he was ready to leave. The Corporal had loudly protested the confiscation, that was until one of the house's roaming cocktail waitresses had brought him a complimentary drink—then all earlier complaints were silenced.
The group had been inside Ashimai Halls for over 18 hours now, though not all of them had spent the whole time gambling. Early on the five marines had staked out a cluster of booths where they crashed, ate, drank, and sometimes slept. Shepard had spent most of her time there, since a few fast paced drinks and poorly timed bets had relieved her of all the credits she'd brought—though she was now very glad that she'd chosen to leave her bank card back in the barracks. She'd resigned herself to lounging in one of the booths, eating and drinking only what she could convince her friends to cover for her.
Where Shepard had failed in the day's gambling ventures, Pask and Romano both had seen early success and were presently elsewhere trying to rake a few more wins. Hare had disappeared an hour and a half ago, in tow of a stripper or escort, Shepard couldn't tell. Burgess was crashed on the other side of the booth from Shepard, a half-eaten slice of cold pizza in one hand and a warm glass of water in the other.
"Keir," Shepard's voice was hoarse from a night of laughing and shouting. A few moments of silence told Shepard that she'd been drowned out by the loud music of the casino, so she raised her voice and tried again. "Keir!" That got the other woman's attention, and she shifted in place to look at Shepard—some of her water splashed out of the glass onto her shoulder and Burgess let out a low growl. "I'm fucking starving, and I'm pretty sure I'd qualify for a medical discharge if I sleep on this couch much more. Wanna go get some food?"
Burgess made a disapproving noise until her mouth was clear of the pizza she'd been chewing, "It feels way less nice when I know you're inviting me because you blew all your cash gambling." With exaggerated effort Burgess sat up, washing down the dry pizza with a long gulp of her water. "But yeah I'm down. This pizza was way closer to edible when it was warm, anyways." She lazily tossed the slice in her hand to the greasy box it'd come from and stood up.
Shepard and Burgess hadn't reached the exit yet when the casino shuddered from a low tremor, and the thousand lights around the room blinked on and off a few times. Shepard shot Burgess a concerned look, though the latter waved her hand as if to dismiss any concerns, "I grew up on a colony, Jess. Things go bump and make weird noises sometimes. Probably nothing."
"Yeah... probably nothing." Shepard's eyes were still darting around the busy casino floor for what might've shaken the building, but so far she'd come up with nothing. Resuming their earlier business the pair exited Ashimai Halls, Burgess steadily talking about where they could go to eat—though not a word she uttered made it into Shepard's ears. As soon as they'd stepped into the open she'd performed a habitual check of their surroundings, and her eyes were locked on something startling.
Above them she could make out the erratic movements of ships, fighters she thought, one always leading with another desperately in chase. At first she thought it might've been drills, and that explanation would've calmed her anxieties about the tremor, but she realized that wasn't the case—one by one the leading fighters were blown apart by those chasing. Even more concerning was that she could hear a distant thudding sound, one she couldn't quite place until she saw one of the ships break apart when it got too close to the ground—AA cannons.
Her hand was already in her pocket, reaching for comm to radio the garrison and ask what was happening, but she was interrupted before she could. A shrill alarm cut through the air around them, and was followed by the soft voice of a V.I. "Attention residents of Illyria, please proceed to a safe location or shelter. Please refrain from venturing out from your homes. Thank you."
She pulled her comm out and switched it to the garrison frequency, she was going to get a report of what the hell was going on. Next to her Burgess was noticeably less comfortable than she'd been earlier, and her hand was resting on her sidearm.
'Illyria Garrison, PFC Hendricks speaking.'
"This is Sergeant Jessica Shepard, I'm calling to see what the hell is going on—I can see what looks like a dogfight from where I am, and there's an emergency alarm going through the city."
'We are currently in a state of emergency, ma'am. Please proceed to a nearby safe location until we otherwise stated.
"Fuck it." Shepard clicked the line off and switched to a direct line with their unit commander.
'This is Phelps.' His voice was tense and sharp, meaning whatever was going on above was serious enough to stress their laid back unit commander.
"Lieutenant, this is Sergeant Shepard. I'm about a klik away from the garrison with Burgess, Hare, Romano, and Pask. What's the situation?"
'That's the magic question. I can't seem to get a straight answer out of anyone here, but that's largely because I don't think anybody really knows yet. We've got a dozen unauthorized warships approaching planet right now, and twice as many fighters harrying the upper-orbit defenses. The warships dropped out pretty fast though, so I doubt that we're looking at final numbers. This is some kind of attack, but we don't have any confirmation on who is behind it.'
"Who are we suspecting, unconfirmed?"
'The make of these ships, combined with the strategies in play, heavily match recent Hegemony supported raids on Alliance colonies. I'd put money on batarians being in those warships.'
"Goddamnit. I'm on my way to your location now, sir. Shepard out."
The line clicked off and left Burgess and Shepard alone in silence. Burgess had a tense look on her face, but she was unmoving. "Okay, I was wrong, this is serious. I'll go back in and get the others, you start heading for the garrison."
With a nod Shepard turned to head for the garrison, but she stopped in her tracks. The marine sergeant turned and looked back at her friend, her face tense "Hey, Keir—keep yourself safe."
"Don't worry Jess, I'll see you at the garrison."
That was all Shepard needed to hear. She departed the entrance of the casino at a brisk jog. The sooner she reached the garrison the sooner she was in proper armor, with proper weapons—and the sooner she could figure out what the hell was happening.
Codex:
Rank Structure: Note: while the Marine Corps are technically a part of the Systems Alliance Navy, they have been allowed by High Command to retain some traditional rank titles. Sometimes a rank within the Marine Corps can bear multiple titles, owing to the common marine behavior of referring to certain ranks by historical names of equivalence. Such can be observed with the rank of 'Chief', in that marines will commonly switch between 'Chief' and 'Sergeant' along with the appropriate prefix (such as Gunnery, Operations, etc.). This can also be seen with the rank of 'Lieutenant Commander' and its traditional name of 'Major'.
The Navy rank structure is as follows:
Officers
Fleet Admiral
Admiral
Vice Admiral
Rear Admiral
Commodore
Captain
Commander
Lieutenant Commander
First Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Ensign
NCO
Operations Chief
Gunnery Chief
Service Chief
Enlisted
Specialist
Serviceman First Class
Serviceman Second Class
Serviceman
The Marine rank structure is as follows:
Officers
Field Marshal
General
Lieutenant General
Major General
Brigadier General
Captain
Commander
Lieutenant Commander / Major
First Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Ensign
NCO
Operations Chief / Sergeant
Gunnery Chief / Sergeant
Service Chief / Sergeant
Enlisted
Corporal
Lance Corporal
Private First Class
Private