Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Mass Effect. Thanks to Bioware for the Mass Effect series
A/N: This is my first fanfic, so bear with me. This idea's been rattling in my head for a while and its good to finally put it on paper, so to speak. This is a post-Arrival and LOSB adventure involving my head canon Damon Shepard and Dr. Liara T'Soni Rated M: for violence, language, and sexual encounters.
Genre: Drama/Adventure and Romance
Title: Shepard and Liara: Omega Adventures
Ch. 1: A Stressed Commander
Normandy SR-2
Commander Damon Shepard strolled though the Combat Information Center, or CIC, as was his usual routine, during the nights aboard the Normandy. A skeleton crew was operating the ship so only a handful of crew members were stationed on the command deck. Shepard like the quiet, unlike during the daytime hours when the CIC was abuzz with the crew carrying about their duties; gave him time to think, which was sorely needed at times like this.
Three hundred thousand dead Batarians laid on Shepard's conscious. The event was a recent wound, it had only been a few weeks since the mission that blew the Bahak system to hell. Admiral Hackett had presented Shepard with information that one of his Alliance deep cover operatives, Dr. Amanda Kenson, had be captured in the batarian system after finding evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Hackett asked Shepard to go in alone to rescue Kenson and confirm the evidence. Shepard had rescued Dr. Kenson and confirmed her evidence, but it was revealed that by leaving the Reaper device, dubbed Object Rho in an open environment, Kenson and her associates had become indoctrinated. Shepard fought off Kensons guards, only to be overtaken by them and knocked unconscious. Kenson held Shepard for two days leaving almost no time before the Reapers arrival. The Commander had no choice but to activate Kensons original plan: activating massive mass effect engines onboard an asteroid, hurling it into the Bahak systems Mass Relay, destroying it. It had been previously thought that the Mass Relays had been indestructible, but the doctor had reasoned that being the Relays were the most powerful Mass Effect engines in the galaxy, nobody had been willing to risk the consequences of destroying one. Kenson theorized that destroying a Relay releases massive amounts of energy, resembling a supernova and destroying the star system it occupied.
Shepard knew this while activating the asteroids engines, and he had tried to warn the Batarian colony in the system but the indoctrinated Kenson cut his transmission before it could be beamed to them. Shepard himself had barely been picked up by the Normandy, with the Normandy itself barely making a Relay jump out of the system before the asteroid crashed into the Mass Relay, detonating it. Now it was three weeks later and the Commander still felt haunted by what he felt was effectively a mass murder.
It was for the good of the galaxy. Damon had thought at the time. But slowly, over the weeks in the aftermath of the mission, that justification felt like a sham. All of his military career, with the Alliance and with his Spectre service, Damon had tried to save as many lives as he could. Sure there were times that there was collateral damage in firefights, stray bullets hitting a civilian or circumstances out of his immediate control, that led to the loss of a life, but never like this, in this magnitude.
"Fuck man!" Shepard cursed aloud as he slammed his fists into the rail holding him from falling from his position overlooking the galaxy map at the rear of the CIC. The few crew-members that were at their stations for the night, looked upon their commanding officer with concern, but he paid them no real mind. He was too lost in his own thoughts to care what they thought, even though the crew cared deeply for their commander and knew of the stress that he had been put through.
It seemed like an eternity but Damon finally stirred from his thoughts and headed for the elevator. As the metal doors of the elevator slid shut, and he punched the key to his private quarters, a familiar synthesized voice came over the elevators PA system.
"Commander, my biometric scans of your person indicate high levels of stress. Are you not feeling well?'' asked EDI, the Normandy's AI. Shepard could almost hear concern coming from the AI's feminine electronic voice
"Honestly EDI, I'm not ok at all." Shepard admitted to EDI "But your concern is welcome"
"Noted Commander. Anything I can do for you?"
"Nothing right now, EDI, thanks for asking. Goodnight" Damon said as the elevator came to a stop and opened. Damon stepped out of the elevator and waved his omni-tool in front of the door to unlock the Loft, the nickname given to the Commander's quarters by the fitting-yard workers.
"Play" Damon said as he entered his chambers. Beethoven's 5th Symphony started to play lightly from his room's stereo. Some of his peers thought that Shepard's taste for early 19th century Earth music was bizarre and outdated, but the musical genius of that eras musicians always soothed him. As a matter of fact, the asari had found one of late 20th century Voyager space probes that had been launched by humanity in its early explorations of space. Although the Asari thought that the space probe had been crudely constructed, they also thought that the two pieces of humanity's music, by Mozart and Beethoven, the asari thought their pieces were melodiously sublime.
I need to relax..Way too stressed out thought Damon, as he ran his fingers through his short cut black hair. But he knew that relaxation would probably not reach him tonight. The ghosts of Bahak would grant the weary warrior no sleep; no reprieve from the constant assault to his conscious. Making his way to his bed, he threw himself on it, akin to a child throwing a tantrum, burying his head in his pillow. Turning to his side he saw a picture that made his heart flutter, ever so lightly
On the nightstand next to Shepard's bed was a photo of Dr. Liara T'Soni, an asari and the woman who had broke through the hardness in his heart. Losing your family and friends in a batarian pirate raid can tend to make one closed to emotional attachment. Mindior had been burned into the core of his very being and he had carried the scars with him all his life. Liara had helped him find love, something which the Spectre sorely needed with the trials he has been put through these last few years.
Liara...She was an all consuming thought rattling in his brain.
I have to call her...I need to hear her voice Damon thought. Those beautiful eyes oughta calm me down enough for some sleep at least. Getting up, he shook some of the weariness from him, with warm thoughts of his love fluttering in his head. Shepard had a communications hub hidden behind his model ship case on the clear wall above his desk.
He looked over at his desk and noticed that his personal terminal was flashing, meaning a message had arrived for the Commander.
Great, either its gonna be more random extranet junk ads, or possibly more Batarian threats thought Damon as he headed over to the terminal, I will check this before trying to reach Liara. Activating it, he saw he had two unread messages. One had indeed been junk mail, how junk mail wasn't filtered through the Normandy's system was beyond him. He thought that a military vessel would have better screening,
The second message caught his eye though. Unlike most other email's in his private terminal where the sender's carrier code could be used to locate the origin of the message. This message was probably sent from a public extranet terminal, not entirely rare since beings with unscrupulous or illegal activities used extranet terminals to avoid being directly traced.
Knowing this, Damon was weary of what the message would contain, but his curiosity eventually got the best of him. He opened the message and at first it was blank.
Great, another bum message. Knew it. Slag it, I'm calling Liara. Shepard thought. As he turned around to activate his communication hub, a video feed hidden in the message sprang to life.
"Commander Shepard, I am Loxium Vienda," a male Turian spoke, " I lead a small private militia, the Omega Defenders, in the Omega Nebula. Currently we are engaged in a proxy war with Batarian pirates in the sector, and one of my lieutenants has been kidnaped."
Damon furrowed his brow at this. Batarians, already being brought back into a conflict with them so soon after the Bahak incident. He didnt know if he should enter this one. It seemed like a bad idea; he had already heard reports that the Batarian Hegemony was out for him, seeing his actions as state sponsored terrorism on behalf of the Alliance. But the Commander could never refuse a call for help
"If you choose to come to our aid, we will have an envoy waiting in the club Afterlife on Omega. Do not attempt to warn your associate Aria T'Loak, we would like to keep this in-house and discreet as possible, More details will entail at our meeting. Once at the club our envoy will approach you. If you are a no show by tomorrow at 2100 hours, we will know that you will not respond to our pleas" the turian Vienda finished.
Damon sat in his chair running his fingers through his hair again, he felt that he didn't need to get entangled with anything involving any batarians, but a call for help was a call for help. He needed more information on the situation and he knew just the person to ask.
"EDI, are you up?" Damon called out in his room. EDI's blue visual representation popped up the instant he spoke
"For you Commander, always. What can I help you with?" EDI's synthesized voice rang out.
"What is our location? Haven't been paying attention to the logs." Damon said with a slight chuckle.
"Minos Wasteland, Arrae system. In geosync orbit above the turian colony on Gellix. Why do you ask Shepard?" EDI questioned
"Wake Joker, and tell him to set course for the Hourglass Nebula, Sowilo system, planet Hagalaz please. Wake me when we arrive."
