Shepard volunteered for an expedition to Akuze: a lush world on the outskirts of Alliance space that had suddenly dropped out of contact.
The shuttles rumbled in the atmosphere as the heated air hit them. A new planet was always exciting, a passion buried deep below the surface of the Commander's expression. However at that moment her mind was not on the mountains of sand and dust gradually sweeping into view on the monitor but instead on the mission at hand.
Toombs sat beside her as Shepard contemplated the mission before them, his hand still on the metal bar above their heads holding them in place as the team on her shuttle stood ready.
A missing colonial pioneer team on Akuze was their mission. They needed to find out what happened; simple. Still Shepard's thoughts were racing trying to piece things together with what little Intel they had.
There were many on the original team so it was suspected that there was definitely foul play involved. Shepard turned to her own squad riding in the shuttle with her. There were fifty on her team under her command. "When we get to the landing pad, Toombs point with team Delta and scout out the settlement. We need eyes everywhere; the other teams will hold the perimeter. We clear?"
Everyone saluted her, "aye aye ma'am". She nodded and rubbed the scar on her face in thought. Something felt wrong. One team didn't just disappear. Something deep inside her told her they were being led but she couldn't be certain.
As soon as they landed they made their way to their assigned posts, Toombs leading his own team pouring from two of the shuttles. Shepard pointed directions to her own team to search the settlement for any survivors or clues.
The teams set out as planned, thirty skirted the perimeter while the remaining twenty scoped out the settlement. There was evidence of an attack but none like Shepard had seen before. Around a hundred had been on the team but only twenty bodies were reported. Shepard inspected the corpses brought to her attention. The sun had seared the flesh badly meaning they had been out in the open for a long time. It was too hot and dry for it to rot properly. What little smell there was, had blown away in the warm wind.
She had the corpses brought to the same tent so she could expect them all at once. One of her teammates was well trained in medicine, not that these corpses needed the help now of course but still. "Wesley," she called him over and he saluted as he stood beside her.
"Yes ma'am," he said as she gestured at all the corpses.
"What do these have in common,"
"Other than the fact that they're all dead ma'am?" another marine walked past and gave him a thump on the shoulder with her rifle.
"Don't be a smart ass!" she scorned. "Answer the Commander." She smiled at the commander and went about her business. Shepard couldn't help but smile. Wesley shrugged apologetically, knowing the commander could take it all in good humour.
"All of them are covered in deep cuts that are almost invisible under the scarring of the sun damage." She looked where he was pointing and true enough she could see the darker slender markings of vicious cuts where they had undoubtedly bled to death before their remains were scorched by the sun.
She knelt down and inspected the wound closely. Most were injured on the back and side, nor the front. They weren't running into danger, they were running from it. "What were these people equipped with?"
"Nothing that could do this kind of damage," he raised and eye at the commander before regaining his composure as she looked back up at him.
"No weapons?"
She stood. "Only the basics," he waved forward another soldier who held out a case. Inside were the remnants of six pistols and assault rifles, all were unused.
"They were taken by surprise then," she said beginning to pace the tent. "But what could take them by surprise out here?" she asked leading them out of the tent once again. Toombs was coming back with his report but seeing she was busy he turned into the tent to wait for her.
She gestured around at their surroundings. "Nothing can take you by surprise out here." She nodded at the watchtowers overlooking the empty landscape. "They even had a watch tower." She looked back into the tent to see Toombs now inspecting the bodies.
She watched him move the bodies but one corpses arm bent the incorrect way as he lifted it, as did the leg of another. The damage was not by gunshot, most were broken and mangled as though thrown or crushed by some unknown force.
Toombs looked up at her, "there's nothing out there Commander. No sign of anyone or anything." He walked past her but not before he gave her shoulder a short but gentle squeeze. "I've set the men to watch for any movement and to trade with one of yours every few hours," he said before leaving her with her thoughts.
She sighed before inspecting the rest of the camp.
The sun was a nice change from the cold empty beauty of space. The majority of the camp was undamaged, a few things knocked over here and there and not much else. A marine called her over and explained about the radio. It was undamaged and there didn't seem as though there was anything else wrong, nothing was taken only thrown over as if knocked by a stampede of feet. The only thing that was amiss was that the majority of the team was MIA. Whatever did this, whatever came here, it came for blood not profit.
Shepard closed her eyes and reported to the main ship in orbit, disappointed that there was nothing she could give. "Negative contact sir. A small percentage of the bodies are here, no bullet wounds, and no sign of resistance." She paused allowing her superior to speak, "no sir, cause of death is most likely from a large unknown animal." Again she paused looking round to see two of her team sorting through data piles left on a console under the shade of another smaller tent. She waved them over to her as she answered, "the data the team recovered is still here, orders sir?" She nodded as her orders were given before removing her helmet; the atmosphere was breathable but uncomfortable. She shook her hair loose and readjusted her ponytail.
The desert wind was wonderful, warm and cooling at the same time. She reconnected her earpiece and contacted the rest of her team. "Hold the perimeter; we are remaining until a firm hold can be re-established. Remember this is not shore leave, eyes up and ahead, these people didn't just up and vanish. Shepard out". The night cycle of Akuze was fast approaching and the shuttles had left.
All seemed quiet for the moment, twenty five rested whilst the others remained at their posts, eyes open and ready. Shepard sat down with Toombs in one of the abandoned tents having checked her amp around six times. Stress tended to make it burn out quicker, at the moment it seemed fine.
They made dinner out of what they could find but Shepard didn't feel like eating. "Something wrong, Commander?"
Shepard shook her head. "This place...something doesn't feel right" she sighed thinking herself paranoid. She took a swig from her drink when there was a cluster of roaring noises from out of nowhere. The very ground shook under their feet causing Toombs to fall into the table. Shepard took her shotgun and charged out into the open to see something unbelievable.
Wormlike creatures were exploding from the ground in fast succession. They were abominations of teeth and tentacles, their bodies rising up from beneath the earth. There were at least five of the monsters attacking all at once.
Her marines were firing on the monsters but having no effect on their tough exteriors. The constant gunfire couldn't fully drown out the shrieks of her fellow soldiers as they were dragged down to a gruesome death.
She lost half her marines in less than five minutes. The settlement was destroyed as the armoured bodies rose and fell from nowhere. Shepard pressed her earpiece. "We are under attack, repeat, we are under attack. Enemy unknown, thirty marines down. Send the shuttles, extraction required immediately!" she almost screamed into the earpiece. She didn't hear the answer as her own gun was firing at one of the creatures approaching at breakneck speed. She pushed the remainder of her squad towards the landing pad as she fired. All clips were bouncing off of its impenetrable armour.
"Commander!"
Shepard yelled at Toombs to leave as she continued to shoot at the creature. As the maw came closer Shepard changed to biotics feeling the power flow into her skin before launching a shockwave directly at it, hitting it in the face and casting its maw out of harm's way of her team.
She spun round and yelled at her team as she shot the creature in the soft part of its mouth. "Get moving!" The creature shrieked and buried itself again. Shepard rushed to her team, some gave her quick praise but she waved it off. "Keep running, I didn't stop it, I just pissed it off! Move!" their pace quickened.
The remaining twenty of the team were closing in on the landing pad as they darted between the buildings set up for the previous team. There came a shudder barely before a worm exploded out of a building two feet away from them. It took down around five or so in one bite as it dived back down, crushing another three or more. When it disappeared back into the sand the marines barely caught their footing.
A pipe slammed down in place over the massive receding hole just as Shepard fell. She grabbed onto it with every ounce of strength she had. Toombs had not been so lucky. He was swept into the depths of the sand by a second creature pulling him under.
"Toombs!" Shepard screamed reaching for his hand as he was dragged down into the earth. He disappeared and all Shepard could do was allow her autopilot to keep her body in motion for her own survival. Shepard swung wildly until she was sure she would land on the edge of the hole. Letting go she flew across the remainder of the gap, landing on her hands and knees, rolling to avoid another maw flying at her without mercy.
Shepard fled as fast as her legs would carry her, using her biotics to charge when she felt a presence at an undesirable distance behind her. She was almost to the landing pad when one exploded out of the ground in front of her. It screamed like a banshee. Shepard didn't falter. She ran onwards as it moved closer to swallow her whole. She propelled a shockwave in its face. The part of the maw she struck seemed to hurt it as it retreated a little, but not before knocking her into a pile of metal. The blow rendered her arm dead and her head span. She was nothing compared to this creature.
She threw a biotic pulse that exploded on impact covering it in blue flame. It shrieked and withdrew into the earth. Shepard could barely breathe, the landing pad wasn't far, she just had to keep moving.
Easier said than done.
She was pretty sure half her ribs were broken as she limped onwards. The screams and gunfire had turned to a low hum in her ears. Her men were dying around her, her best friend was gone yet she still lived. It didn't seem right. Her body cried out in agony but still she fought for survival. She dropped her gun a while back.
She was barely aware of where she was; consciousness was slipping away fast. The last thing she heard was the cries of her men and the shrieks of the monsters tearing them apart with mindless relentlessness.
Armed soldiers rushed towards the Commander, the only one left. She still stood although she was semi-conscious but still, unbelievably, moving. They carefully helped her to the shuttle, she was in terrible shape. They needed to get out as fast as possible. Shepard seemed to regain some of her senses as they took her into the shuttle. She looked round as the door closed. There was an image that would haunt her for years to come. She had failed her unit. She had failed as a Commander. Their blood was on her hands.
Shepard spent a few further days comatose in the medical centre of Alliance HQ. She spent her waking hours mourning her friends and lost team. She had known all of them by name but only half by nature.
Toombs...
If she'd been a little quicker she could've saved him. Her best and only friend was gone because of her. Her chest tightened in emotional agony and her eyes stung, but no tears came, she didn't deserve to mourn him. She'd lost only two squadmates before Akuze, they'd been more embarrassing than anything else, the remnant of her early years as a gang member was the cause of her heartlessness no doubt.
It was during the quiet and painful moments of thought that Admiral Hackett visited her. "I've spoken to the medical team; they say you should be on your feet again within a few days." Shepard had enormous respect for Admiral Hackett but at that moment she was stricken with grief though she didn't show it. She made no attempt at a salute only nodded.
There was a screen above Shepard's bed that shimmered into life once Hackett rearranged some data on his omnitool. Feeds came through almost instantaneously revealing a recommendation for the N7 program. Shepard's name was at the top.
She looked questioningly up at him as he lowered his omnitool. "Why would they want me, sir?"
His usual frown gave nothing away. "For many reasons Commander."
Shepard shook her head, "I just got my team killed."
"That's not the way they see it," he said, his brows furrowing making his facial scar crinkle. "Where everyone else perished, you survived. You struggled on against the odds and made it out alive."
Shepard closed her eyes and sighed, her hands on her stomach quelled the sick feeling building. "Either way", she said "I'm not right for the job." She turned her head away for a moment before finding her respect again and turning it back.
"They've already decided otherwise Commander; it's now up to you to decide whether or not you want that to mean something." The Admiral turned to leave. "You have a month of recuperation time to decide." Shepard watched the ward doors slide closed behind him before putting her face in her hands. Everything had turned upside down, they seemed to be rewarding her for her team killing skills; it was ridiculous.
After a few days thinking about it, Shepard believed she could be one of the best if she really tried, the N7 program could help her get that far.
She eventually accepted but still felt terrible as she walked out of the medical centre fully healed but still weak and stiff, she heard news feeds fly out of speakers all across the station.
Shepard was apparently a hero for surviving what were now revealed to be Thresher maws. She made sure to let Hackett know that she had accepted before she returned to her temporary quarters on the officer's deck. She had heard about the rigorous training each member went through, twenty hours a day, with hardly any food or rest. Something Shepard had done before but not since she left Earth. It was going to be a tough few years as an icon of the Alliance.
Fifty marines died on Akuze; Shepard was the only one to make it back to the landing zone alive. A monument on the planet commemorates the massacre; a grim reminder of the price humanity must pay as they spread throughout the stars.