Disclaimer: Bioware still owns them; I'm just taking them out and playing with them for a while.

Spoilers: None

Pairings. FemShep/OC

A/N: Please read and review. Now, this is my first Mass Effect fanfiction, so please be gentle. This is unbetad so all mistakes are completely mine. This is still a WIP, but I am maybe halfway through writing it, so hopefully I don't keep you waiting too long between updates. Please read and review, I know it's blackmail but it may just make me write a wee bit faster. Most importantly, enjoy

Chapter 1

Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy:

Private First Class Saorise Shepard stepped off the troop transport and looked up at the glaring sun. Earth. The homeworld. For a colony kid, the massive cities, the pollution, and the masses of people were stifling. She slung her kitbag over her shoulder and filed in with the rest of the recruits. Benning was much more to her tastes, but once she completed basic and underwent the biotic training course, she was recommended for the Officer Program on Earth. She was smart enough to know that if she was going to make a career out of the military life; and to be honest, after the slaughter on Mindoir; she had precious few choices, then she was going to need to advance up the ranks. The sooner the better suited her just fine.

The training officer stepped up to the group of 50 recruits that would be her new platoon. She was well accustomed to the aggressive shouts of her TO's and their penchant for shouting so violently they spit in the face of their victim. She stepped into formation, kit bag in her left hand, shoulders ramrod straight, and a crisp salute as the TO steps onto the landing zone.

The TO paces along the line of 10 recruits, eyeing them up and down with the trademark disappointed scowl she had come to realise was a requirement for all TOs. "Well if you aren't the sorriest looking whelps in the galaxy, you can grow my hair, give me tits and call me Rhonda". Saorise saw a tall brunette woman bristle with the sexist remark but she paid her no mind. If she was going to survive this, which she had every intention on doing, she couldn't let chauvinistic pigs get to her. Time and Place, Shepard she told herself, her arm tiring from holding the salute, as their TO quite deliberately had not told them to be at ease.

"I am Major Dean Gourd. But to you sorry sacks of shit, I am your master, overseer, lord, commander in chief, your fucking God while you're stationed on this rock in my program." As he walked along the lines of recruits, he eyeballed each and every person assembled, searching for signs of weakness or rebellion. The tall, athletic Marine stopped in the centre, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Now the morons on that spit of dirt think you have what it takes to be officers in the Alliance Navy. You don't. Not a single one of you children have the courage, determination and leadership required to respectfully wear this uniform. I'm here to change that. I will make you worthy of those uniforms you are now defacing. Do you hear me?" Every recruit having already spent a year at least in the Systems Alliance knew their required response. The sound of 50 pairs of heels clicking and a resounding "Sir, yes Sir!" resounded on the LZ. Gourd gave a curt nod. "Your will find your assignments on your bunks, now get out of my sight before I kick your sorry arses back to Benning!" Not a single recruit moved a muscle; though she was sure every single serviceman had muscles burning for standing to attention for Gourd's tirade. He gave a curt nod, impressed that none of them fell for his trick, "dismissed!" As one, the recruits relaxed and swung their kitbags over their shoulders, looking around the LZ to get their bearings.

Shepard paid no mind to the other recruits. She was not on this stinking cess pool of a planet to make friends. Finish her training, either be sent to the colonies or get assigned to a ship, so long as she was off this damned planet she didn't care. Having studied a map of the training complex before boarding the shuttle, Saorise broke away from the recruits and made her way to the women's barracks on eastern corner of the base.

Saorise cast her eyes along the bunks, and upon finding her name, dropped her bag on her bare bunk and opened the envelope containing her orders and class schedule. She sighed, pulling out the map of the facility and planning out her route to each of her classes and where to find the commissary when the barracks started to fill up. Saorise put away her orders and instinctively stood to attention as Marines made their way to their bunks. They did not even notice Saorise was there as they grabbed their things and then made their way to the showers at the other end of the barracks. Saorise relaxed and dropped her kitbag on the floor so she could make her bed. She then unpacked her very few things into her footlocker, knowing better than to leave anything in the communal bedside tables placed between each set of bunks. Saorise had also learned to take an extra precaution, clenching her fist to flare her biotics, she channelled it into her left hand and exerted her small mass effect field to further jam the lock in place. Saorise heard movement at the door and she dissipated her biotics and turned her head to see who the newcomer was.

A group of female recruits bounded noisily into the barracks, their kit bags on their shoulders as they laughed obnoxiously loudly about some joke they had just shared. They stopped in their tracks as they saw Saorise staring at them. Their eyes passed over her unimpressed and then they turned away, continuing their conversation as if they had never laid eyes on her. That's city folk for you she thought to herself as she grabbed her bathroom things and made her way to the showers. Saorise had never been comfortable in group shower blocks, but it was a necessary evil in military life, and she had learned to use her biotics to help speed up the process and get her out of the god-awful situation faster.

Saorise stepped into her small cubicle, pulling the door closed and then stripping out of her fatigues. She dumped them in a pile and then stood under the barely warm water and quickly washed. She stepped out of the shower, drying herself off and using her biotics to help speed her dressing process. She gathered her things and made her way to the benches. She ignored the women that had preceded her, instead focussing on repacking her bathroom bag and then trying to comb her mop of unruly red hair. Scowling, she flared her biotics, separating the knots while she works at combing the rest of her hair. Saorise packed her comb away and secured her things in her footlocker. It was chow time, and as much as military food was far from a culinary marvel, she had skipped lunch while on the shuttle and now she was starving.

Saorise navigated her way to the mess hall and grabbed herself a tray. Recruits were scattered around the room, with a line forming along one wall as they waited for their food. Saorise stepped to the back of the line and focussed on the wall ahead of her, fastidiously ignoring the catcalls from the male recruits to anyone that looked like they might have breasts. Saorise couldn't keep from rolling her eyes as she loaded up her tray and walked over to the only empty table in the mess hall. Saorise flicked the various colour clumps of 'food' on her tray, trying to identify the plant, animal, or mineral they originated from, and failing completely. "It's better if you don't think about it," a cheery voice advised from in front of her. Saorise looked up and gave a wry smile and motioned the seat opposite, "what can I say, I like to live dangerously".

The boy laughed and slid into the seat opposite Saorise and offered his hand, "PFC John Meer". Saorise shook his hand firmly, her smile broadening as his eyes widened at her confident grip, "PFC Saorise Shepard, Echo Company". They ate in silence for the next few minutes before their table filled up with more recruits, "Johnny boy, trust you to seek out the talent right away" an arrogant, muscular cadet berates as he slides in beside John, pushing him further along the seat. He holds out his hand for Saorise, who eyes him with distaste and goes back to eating her meal. "Oh don't be like that, sweetheart. I'm sure you'll like me just fine when you get to know me."

"Hey perve, leave her alone" a soft voice appeals from behind her and Saorise can't help but turn to see where the dulcet tone comes from. "First Lieutenant Taryn Campbell". Saorise smiles and gives Taryn a firm handshake, "PFC Saorise Shepard, Ma'am". Taryn laughs and slides into the seat beside Shepard, dropping her tray ungraciously on the table, "just Taryn, please; I get enough of that ma'am bollocks from the fresh meat." The arrogant cadet eyed Saorise over lasciviously, "some fresher than others" he says in what he thinks is a seductive tone. John punches his arm lightly and the two women just glare at him, "is he always like this?" Saorise asks Taryn with a pained expression, which she matches, "unfortunately yes. Anything remotely female with a heartbeat, I haven't been able to beat it out of him yet, and believe me I've tried." "Not hard enough, clearly" Saorise murmurs under her breath, making Taryn and John chuckle, "I'm right here you know" the cadet says with a mock wounded tone. The trio ignored him, "Taryn, Shepard here came in with the Benning kids today. Echo Company". Taryn popped her eyebrow, "I hear they're restructuring Echo Company". The cadet across from them pipes up, "yeah I hear they're incorporating those Eezo freaks into the unit.". Saorise's emerald eyes shoot up from her tray and her fist clenches under the table. The welcome feeling of power flows through her and she pushes it down, calming the blue biotic field that begun at her hand and had started travelling up her arm. Taryn's eyes widen as she sees the blue ether swarming around Saorise's hidden arm, but does not betray her. "Eddie you're such a prat sometimes. A pervy prat at that. Why don't you go and bother someone else." Taryn's hard glare and Saorise's look of concentration are enough to disconcert him enough, "yeah… yeah there's better game than you to be had around here anyway."

Taryn gives John a pointed look and he gathers their now empty trays, "I'll uhh… go make sure no one breaks his nose." Taryn gives him a grateful smile and then rests her hands on the table. "Care to tell me what that was about, Private?" she asks with as much authority as her 19 years can muster. Saorise sighed, resting her hands on the metal table, her hands playing with the scratches and graffiti carved into its surface. "It's nothing Ma'am, just been a long day." Saorise replied automatically with the invocation of her rank. Taryn's hand rested on Saorise's lightly, "You'll need to keep better control than that if you're going to survive the program. There's much worse around than Eddie Purcell. Don't let them get to you."

Saorise turned her emerald eyes to Taryn, clenching her fist casually and causing blue waves to whirl around her closed fists, "sorry, dirt bags like him just get to me. My control is good, for a novice. I don't use the biotics, but I haven't been able to keep them from flaring just yet." Taryn gives Saorise a sympathetic look, "you'll get there; just don't let the ignoramus' of the galaxy weigh you down. You're too good for them." Saorise smiles lopsidedly at Taryn and stands up, "it was a pleasure, Taryn; thank you. I hope to see you around". Saorise makes her way back to her bunk, only just catching Taryn's murmurings, "you can count on it" as she departed.