"Oh my God, you're Commander Shepard! The Shepard that took on batarian slavers with an impromptu army, and then not long after that, lead the offense against the slavers that were left on Torfan! It's really you!" The young woman cooed over Shepard as if she was in the presence of a celebrity.
"In the flesh." Shepard mumbled sheepishly. She wasn't one to lack confidence, but she couldn't say her actions in the two battles were exactly heroic, she'd simply done what the N7 program had prepared her to do.
"Can I please have your autograph? Please!" The girl pleaded with bright brown doughy eyes, as Shepard reluctantly pulled her pen from the inside of her dress blues undershirt. Shepard's mother had brung the pen back from Thessia when Shepard was just a child. It was one of her most treasured gifts from her mother.
"You got a napkin or something?" Shepard searched around to find something that would withstand the ink of the pen.
"I had a better idea." The girl gave a shy giggle which made the hairs on the back of Shepard's neck stand up. Shepard wasn't one for paranoia, but this young lady was plotting something. Before Shepard could form a sentence to respond, the young lady pulled her shirt up, showing the earth toned color bra her shirt was once hiding. Shepard's eyes darted around the walls of the café to see if anyone had noticed the interactions between the two, but everyone seemed so absorbed in the lights and flickers of their Omni-tools. The young lady finally pointed to a place she saw fit; under her left breast. "Of course." Shepard thought, then quickly began to write on the exposed skin. Once the young lady had finally put her shirt down and walked away, Captain Anderson walked up, after catching everything.
"Some fan base you got there, Shepard." Anderson folded his arms and chucked then let his body relish into the seat across from Shepard.
"Tell me about it, that's the third one today. I'm no hero Anderson, I just did what I had to do." Her eyes hinted with a small gleam of sadness.
"You keep telling yourself that Shepard, but no other soldier could've done what you have. Hell not even me and that's saying something." Anderson gave her a playful, but somehow authoritative smirk. Shepard shot back with a forced smile.
"Well sir, we didn't come here to relive the past, what's this all about?" Shepard pulled the conversation back on topic. Only moments earlier she had been asked by Anderson to head to the small café that was on the Alliance base, since Shepard lived right next to the base it was pretty simple to get there.
"Of course Shepard. We are headed to Eden Prime to recover a very important prothean artifact."
"We, sir?"
"It's exactly how it sounds. We need you to be part of the ground team in recovering the artifact."
"Couldn't you get any ordinary soldier to go retrieve it?"
"This isn't an ordinary artifact Shepard." Shepard could see that Anderson was getting tired of the back and forth she was maintaining.
"But sir, I've been discharged. I can't just go run into the fire, when I don't have the proper paperwork filed." As much as Shepard hated paperwork, she had to admit to herself that it was there for a reason, saved her ass a couple of times in face. Anderson waved his hand as to dismiss what Shepard was saying. "That's already taken care of, meet me on the Normandy in one standard hour, that's an order." Shepard sounded off and let Anderson leave before getting up and exiting the door, the young lady waved goodbye to her as she exited, Shepard only gave her a weary smile.
Once Shepard reached her apartment she went to her 'closet' that wasn't even filled with clothes, just a bunch of armor. She grabbed her black N7 armor that was given to her after becoming one, along with a heavily modded pistol, and helmet of course. She walked over to her drawer and began grabbing a few pair of bdu's to go under the armor, knowing she would be given more once she reached the ship. She stuffed everything inside an Alliance duffel bag with the exception of one bdu, and headed towards the shower. Once she got in, she leaned against the wall and let the water run over her deep olive skin and through her deep jet black hair. Shepard loved her hair color, it gave her a rough edge she didn't necessarily have all the time, and it always showed through her bright, blue, sympathetic eyes. She was average hide, with a standard marine build, her muscles flexing whenever she took a step. Even that wasn't enough to make much of an intimidation on people, until she spoke of course. Her hair gave her that necessary firmness every commander was required to have. Once she got out the shower she wrapped a towel around her waist and threw on a sports bra, then headed to the mirror to begin tending to her hair for scissors. She had to admit, she wasn't exactly trying to keep her image as close to a soldier as possible, especially since she had been discharged. She began to cut raggedly and at different angles finally getting the hair to its regular shaggy shortness. The she took a razor and trimmed the back and sides. She wasn't one for perfection when it came to her appearance, but she had the feeling she wouldn't be able to do any of what she was doing again any time soon.
After finishing up she slipped her bdu's on along with her boots and omni-tool. The Omni-tool flickered to life as she checked how much time she had left. Great Shepard thought, I have a whole thirty minutes left. She frowned at the realization, being a soldier made you do everything twice as fast as a regular citizen. She plopped down on the bed pondering to herself for a moment. Then without a second thought, grabbed her bag and headed for the door. It wouldn't hurt to be a bit earl, there probably only still docked because of me.