Mass Effect: Recovery
By N7Savage78
The year is 2170, Humanity has been attacked by Batarian slavers. The colonists of Mindoir have been slaughtered. Only a few remain. The Systems Alliance ship, the MSV Nova Scotia, has been sent to recover the remaining colonists and push back the Batarian slavers. They will not arrive…
All was quiet in the CIC, which the captain liked. "No news is good news" as he always said. As the Nova Scotia arrived in the Attican Traverse, the ship started picking up a distress signal. "Sir, we have an ID of the source, it looks like an alliance shuttle." Said an ensign, "patch us through" said the captain gruffly, scratching his chin. A silence fell over the CIC as no one had answered the call. "Looks like a communications blackout, sir. I recommend we pick them up." Exclaimed the pilot. "Agreed." Mumbled the captain as he walked over to the galaxy map, "four weeks just to get here and now we're piecing together whoever's left…" the captain sighed.
Meanwhile, in the crew quarters. A small dispute had occurred between two crew members, "I don't like the idea of slave drivers." Said the woman, "it gives us more reason to shoot them." The man proclaimed, sounding as if he agreed. "That's not the point, Honey. The point is there's kids down there." An eight year old boy had interrupted the conversation, "there's kids here too" he said blindly. The woman looked at the boy and frowned, "Jack, could you run along and see if Arthur needs any help in engineering?" The boy jumped up in excitement, yelling "yeah!" Before running out the door. The man sighs and mutter "sometimes I miss Terra Nova…"
Engineer Arthur, an older man, with mostly white hair, smiled to the boy as he wandered into engineering. The boy runs up and exclaimed, "Hi Art, my parents told me to see if you needed any help." Arthur laughed, he liked Jack, the kid had a knack for anything technical. Just then, the lights flickered, and an explosion was heard as the ship rumbled. Arthur looked at his console and yelled, "We're under attack! From the inside!" Jack stumbled a bit "what do we do?" Arthur grabbed his pistol, and kneeled down to Jack "we have to get to the escape pods, we can't risk the shuttles, that's where they're coming from." Jack nodded his head, "My parents will probably do the same" Arthur smiled and gently punched his shoulder "that's right, let's go."
In the CIC, alarms were blaring. "Captain! We have Batarians on the ship!" Said the woman now clad in armor except for a helmet. The captain had already placed an order to get to escape pods. He grabbed a rifle, "Where's your boy?" The man walked up "we sent him down to engineering before, Arthur's probably taking him to the pods now." The captain nodded and, after a period of silence, said grimly "get to the pods, get to your boy. That's an order." The man, wearing N7 armor stated "while you do what, go down with the ship?" The captain sighed, "the emergency beacon is activated, but we have to re route power to keep it up. The alliance will find you all on the ground, Godspeed you two." Another explosion blew open the CIC door and a squad of Batarians rushed in. The man pulls his rifle out and kills two, but not before they can throw a grenade into the room. Without a second thought, the woman tries to throw it back, but it explodes in her hand, killing her instantly. The captain shouts as he's shot in the leg, the man moving to help him, his gun now over heated and unable to shoot.
Arthur and Jack moved quickly to the escape pods, as they got notified on any consoles they passed. It was a video feed, of the captain and the boys father, being executed by Batarians. Jack stood there, shocked, unable to move. Arthur, tried to console him "we have to keep going" he said softly. "We can't stop now." Tears ran down the boys face, Arthur hugs him tight, "it's okay." Jack sniffed and said "okay…" as they approached the escape pods, with a few other survivors, Batarians ran down the hall towards them. Everyone loaded up onto the pods, Arthur and Jack being last. "We have to go" he said. Jack saw the Batarians rushing towards them and pushed Arthur into the last escape pod with the others to move him out of the way of being shot. He moved to a nearby crate as the pod launched, the ship shaking and lights flickering again. When they turned back on the boy was gone, into the vents. He stayed quiet for a long time, then decided to move towards the CIC. Along the way Batarians remarked to their boss that all the humans were dead, except for a kid. "Leave him, he'll starve eventually." Said the leader. "Yes, Kylan" Kylan would be a name remembered for a long time.
Many hours after, the ship was silent. Dead. Jack had made his way to the CIC and found his father and mother dead, he took their dog tags and his fathers knife, as something to remember them by. In tears, the young child got on the emergency channel, "if anyone reads me, our ship was attacked… I'm the only one left… I'm all alone. Please, help me. I'm begging you…" he sat on the ground quietly sobbing. He took his mother's pistol, turned the safety on so he wouldn't accidentally shoot himself before help arrived.
This help that would arrive would be a small junker owned by two Quarians, who would find the ship empty and bodies strewn everywhere. When they reached the CIC they were surprised to see the eight year old aiming a pistol at them, obviously scared. "You…. You're not Batarians, are you?" The female of the two, with a white with light blue hood over the top of her masked helmet said calmly. "No, we are not" the boy lowered his gun and said "I'm sorry…" The man with red and gold accents to his armor and a black visor spoke up "it is alright, we heard the distress signal. I assume that was you?" Jack nodded "yes" the woman walked up gently to the boy and set a hand on his shoulder "you are safe now." The boy smiled but looked at her hand and asked blankly, "you only have three fingers… what happened?" The woman laughed softly, "we are Quarians, we only have three fingers. My name is Ziva'Laria. This is Ari'Laria"