AN: So, some of you are going to want to kill me over this but I'm rewriting S&S and retitling it Synthetics & Sinners. I've had a somewhat rough couple months and I just cannot get back to where I was, but what I can do apparently is start somewhat fresh.
You guys who have followed me might be ticked off, or furious, or something past that like blinded by pure rage, but if I'm being bluntly honest I'm not writing this for you guys, I'm writing it for me.
That being said, this is not just me adding more stuff, I've changed backstories, some parts will be removed/streamlined/changed, and there will be substantially more Spectre content before I jump to ME 1. Some of this will be based off of ideas I had afterward and regretted not being able to change, while some are from discussions I have had with some of my readers.
S&S
What does it mean to be human? Some would argue that it simply means being the dominant species on this planet of ours, others will argue that there is some divine spark inside of us that makes us, special.
But I disagree.
I believe that what it means to be human, is to know that you are going to die. To have to wrestle daily with that fact that despite whatever you do, that one day you are going to cease to be.
Until today.
Today I am revealing to the world the first step to a world without death, the first step to ascending beyond what it means to be human.
-Azime Cerci, CEO and Founder of Beacon Technologies, 2061 CE
S&S
"What do you mean you have another mission!?" The angry tone of her Father caused the young girl to flinch from her hiding place near her bedroom door, he never yelled in front of her but she knew that he and Mommy did when they thought she was asleep.
She figured that he just missed her because she was gone so much, but she didn't get why he didn't understand why Mommy had to leave, she went out and got rid of the bad people so that other people didn't get hurt. And if she understood that, then why didn't Daddy?
She spotted her Mother through the crack in the door, already in her combat gear while her blonde hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail, "John, I know you don't like it, but I can't just leave Jack to deal with this all by himself. I know you don't like him, or what we do, but if he loses it we are all in trouble."
A growl escaped from her Dad, "And what about us? What about your fucking Daughter, Hannah?"
For a brief second Evalyn saw a flicker of something cross her Mom's face, before she whispered something to her Dad, who just seemed to deflate, "That wasn't your fault." He sighed as he pulled her in close, "You're her hero, nothing can change that."
A chuckle emerged from the blonde woman, "Don't make a girl a promise that you can't keep." But she stayed in the embrace for a while, before shooting a look over her shoulder, "Shouldn't you be in bed, young lady?"
Evalyn let out a small noise of surprise as she darted back towards her bed, the door creaking open a few moments later as her Mother settled at the side of the bed, "I'm sorry for having to leave so soon, Eva." The smaller blonde just gave her Mother a look of pure adoration, "But you have to go out and make sure people are safe." The sheer amount that the girl believed in her statement caused Hannah's breath to hitch, leaning over and pulling the girl into a tight hug.
"I love you, Evalyn." The girl just hummed contentedly, "Love you too, Mommy."
She was dimly aware of a tone chiming in her ear, as Hannah pulled away, "I'll be home before you know it, Evalyn-" "Commander? Commander, we're about two hours from Akuze."
Eva jerked awake, glancing blearily around the small cabin that her rank entitled her to, "I'm awake, Toombs. Go and pester someone else." A sigh filled the cabin as her mind returned to the rapidly fading dream of a memory, the last time she had seen her Mother alive.
Hannah Shepard had never returned from that mission, the Batarian's had slammed a damaged ship into the structure that her Mother's squad had been using for cover, leaving no remains to fill the empty coffin that occupied the family plot back on Earth.
But it had pushed the younger girl to follow in her Mother's footsteps, even after she lost her Father years later she kept going, and now here she was.
Lieutenant-Commander Evalyn M. Shepard, N7. A smile flickered on her face at the last title, the N7 program had only been in its infancy when Hannah had served, but she knew the woman would be proud of her.
Her Father, her Grandfather, even Anderson, had wanted her to follow in the family legacy of leaders of the fleet. Hell she had been groomed to take over the Alliance's R&D division from the moment she fabricated her first drone. And while it was petty, she would be lying if she said that she hadn't enjoyed the surprise on her Grandfather's face when she informed him she was joining the marines.
She yanked on her gear with mechanical precision, before lastly grabbing the visor from the nearby desk that fit over her right ear, a display extending forward to cover her eye, which after a few seconds had linked up with her artificial left eye's HUD.
By now everyone should be getting assembled, and so she made her way towards the briefing room, noting that Toombs must have awoken her first as there was no one else present.
She chuckled at that, Toombs had potential, but the man tried too hard to ingratiate himself with the officers. She moved over to the tactical table and began to input the data they had on the colony of Rust, named after the color of Akuze's soil.
Rust had gone silent a week ago with no communication but a repeating distress signal, and Evalyn's unit had been scrambled to investigate aboard the SSV Warsaw, an older but still serviceable Cruiser that had served with distinction during the FCW.
A trio of footsteps caused her to glance up as her squad leaders entered the room, Hale Smith their resident combat engineer from Arcturus,James Smith who was as generic as his name but overall a solid squad leader, and Thomas Barros who led the unit's small force of shocktroopers.
She tapped the table causing the display to light up with what they knew had been the colonies layout, Rust was an UNAS colony which meant that it had to follow certain protocols in how it was setup so they at least had an idea of how to approach the situation.
"Hale, central communications are located in this building here," she gestured towards a squat building near the edge of the colony, "Hopefully this was just an equipment malfunction that we can fix, and then be on our way. "
She dragged her finger along the display, leaving behind a light blue line on the display, "James, I want you to take the whatever men Hale doesn't need and do a circle of the colony in our vehicles. Report anything you notice as suspicious, if nothing is off I want you to pull in towards the colony and begin setting up a perimeter."
She tapped several buildings on the display, "Armory, emergency supplies, and fabricators, Barros I want you and your men to investigate all three buildings to see if anything is missing. If we haven't figured out what the fuck is going on by then, start checking each and every building in the colony."
She let out a sigh, "This is a small colony, only about 300 souls and we all know that UNAS doesn't give a shit as long as they claimed it first. So lets actually help these people."
That got some nods from her Lieutenants, but they were soon cut off by the comm system about them activating, "Commander, we just got in scanning range, you're going to want to see this."
"Can you patch it down to tactical?" No response came but the table quickly began to pulse as it received the data being forwarded to it, and as the image flickered into view a low whistle escaped from Barros, "That's bad."
The colony was beyond simply being damaged, it was destroyed.
Shepard just starred at the sheer level of destruction, it didn't make sense for pirates, or even Batarian's to do so much superfluous damage, so what could have done this. An angry growl escaped her lips, "Come on, we're not going to learn anything from up here. Smith, I want you to start from the colony then work your way out, Hale and Barros your orders remain the same. Let's see if we can get some answers, finding survivors though is our primary objective."
S&S
The nearby terminal began to chirp at her, causing the woman to angrily glare at it before she opened the channel, "You're not supposed to use this line unless it's important, Steven."
The grizzled face of the Admiral of fifth fleet filled the screen, "Is the Akuze project still active? Or did he have it deactivated."
An eyebrow raised at the statement, "And why would you be asking that? It isn't like you to get involved any more then you have to."
The man's eyes hardened, "This is important, Hannah."
The blonde woman sighed as she turned around in her chair to access the file in question, "Report here says that the colony beacon was left active, the others were deactivated, that seems," her mouth tilted downwards into a frown, "Sloppy."
She turned to see that Hackett's face had visibly paled as his eyes seemed unfocused, "Steven, what's wrong?"
Her voice seemed to shake him out of his stupor, "Second fleet just dispatched a team to investigate Akuze. Hannah, Evalyn was the leader of the team they sent."
The mention of her long separated Daughter slammed into the older woman like a fist to her gut, a soundless cry trying to emerge from her lips. She had seen the result of the initial experiment, and while it had shown that the creatures had tremendous potential for destruction they were almost impossible to control.
And now Evalyn was in the middle of this mess.
Her gaze hardened as it landed on Hackett, "Then fix this, recall her, do something!"
The man's eyes flashed with pity momentarily as he allowed himself to not be the Admiral but instead be the man who had been her Husband's best friend, but then that was gone and all she got was a growled, "I did do something. I called you."
The man sighed, "I'm moving a medical frigate into position that will be ready if there is any distress signal sent out by the marines on the ground, but Hannah I can't just unilaterally act on intel I'm not supposed to have."
The unspoken fact that she could did not go unheard.
"Thank you, Steven." She tried, and failed, to muster a smile for the man, but all he did was shake his head, "Thank me if you get there in time."
Hannah made her way to her feet as she grabbed whatever gear she thought she may need for this situation, before finally tapping a contact icon on her omni, "Miri, I need you to prep a ship for us, and make sure it is ready to receive wounded."
There was no response, but she knew that Miranda would have it done by the time she arrived.
Miranda, the girl was for all intents and purposes her child save for the fact that they shared no genetic connection. But after staging her death the blonde had found herself bonding with the broken teenager, perhaps it had been selfish of her to replace Evalyn, but she had only to remind herself why she had cut ties with her family in the first place.
Saren.
The Turian Spectre blamed her and Jack for the fall of his brother to madness, and had in no uncertain terms informed her of what would happen to her family if she continued as a relatively untouchable public figure. The Turian was bloodthirsty, and he wanted her to suffer, but he also wanted to avoid trouble on his end of the matter.
And so she had chosen to sacrifice her life as Hannah Shepard, in the hope that Saren Arterius would keep his word. At first it seemed that he had, until John had died four years later and Evalyn had been severely injured.
She had been just about to step into the girl's hospital room when Jack had appeared, dragging her away from the child that seemed so small in the hospital bed. He told her that yes, Saren had been involved in the hit, but the Turian had actually tried to decline the mission. Which had forced Hannah to concede that the Turian was still trying to uphold his end of the bargain. Trying though, and actually doing it were two entirely different matters.
And that was when Miranda had entered the picture, and Hannah had selfishly allowed herself to bond with the young woman.
The same Miranda that stood at the foot of one of the numerous ships in the hanger bay, tapping away at her Omni before her eyes flicked up, "The crew is just hooking in the mobile surgery suite and then we will be able to takeoff. Do we have a destination?"
Hannah gave a small nod as she walked by, "Akuze."
She knew that if Evalyn ever discovered the truth she would never forgive her, she had long since accepted that fact. But Hannah was still her mother, and what mother could knowingly do nothing if their child's life was in danger.
S&S
The dropship rocked violently as the strong winds of Akuze slammed into it, causing Evalyn to wish she was piloting even if the rest of the marines were of the opposite mindset.
"We've hit the ground, Ma'am. Performing initial sweep of the colony." James' voice over the comm's distracted her from the lack of control she had over her current situation, "Good, we'll be touching down shortly, mark anything of interest on the tactical net."
The dropship's hatch swung downwards as the rest of the marines jumped from the hovering vehicle, the hatch already beginning to close before Evalyn had hit the ground, the pilot being eager to return back to the ship. The Warsaw had been pulled from her regular patrol to drop the team off here, and the Captain had informed her that a Batarian vessel had been spotted nearby which would necessitate him moving his ship out of orbit to investigate. Evalyn had of course understood, but the idea of being alone on this planet didn't sit well with her.
"Alright, we'll be moving up the route that James' squad already covered and until we link up with Hale's squad at the logistics building. If you spot something call it out, but don't investigate on your own. If you think you spot a survivor be cautious the Batarian's like to booby trap the victims they leave behind."
"Ma'am, I'm at the emergency beacon but somethings wrong." Shepard frowned, letting herself drift into the middle of the formation, "What's the problem, Hale?"
"The beacon is standard issue alliance hardware."
"Okay, so what is the problem?" She knew the moment Hale had said it that something was wrong, but the answer wasn't coming to her so she had to trust the engineer's judgement, "This is a UNAS colony, they would never use current gen equipment on a startup colony."
"Can you disable the beacon?" The response was almost instantaneous, "No, the damn thing is rigged to the building's eezo core. I toy with it and all that I'll have accomplished is making another hole in this colony, or a hole of this colony. Fuck! This place has a big reactor." Shepard's mind was already processing the likely outcomes of what that meant, the foremost being that this was a trap, "Warsaw, we need immediate evac, turn those birds around."
When no response came her frown deepened, "Warsaw, Warsaw come in. Fuck!" She noted the nervousness on the marines near her, "Everyone we're going to rendezvous with Hale's squad now, double-time."
As the marine's began to move her hand was pressed against her ear, "James, see if you can punch through this interference with the Mako. If you can't then all squad's are to rendezvous at Hale's location and then we'll move away from the Colony, that jammer has to have a range on it." What the hell was going on here, if the beacon only blocked outbound signals then someone didn't want the locals knowing that anything was wrong until it was too late, what the fuck had they gotten themselves into?
The moment her hand dropped she noticed Toombs giving her a worried look, "Something wrong, Corporal?" The man looked away but he apparently had enough courage to ask his question, "Do you think it was the Batarian's, Ma'am?"
"No."
Her answer seemed to surprise him, "Why not?"
A sigh escaped her lips, "Because when the Batarian's decide to destroy a colony instead of just raiding it, they don't love behind anything but glass."
Just before arriving at the comm center they were joined by Barros' men, the heavily armored man himself just shook his head when he approached her, "I don't know what the hell hit this place, but whatever it was, the damn thing was strong."
She brought herself to a stop, "You think this was an animal, some kind of local wildlife?"
Barros face showed his own uncertainty, "Some of it for sure, I mean the armory is empty but the fabricators are still there." He sighed, "The damage to the buildings though," he hefted up his omni showing a picture take from inside one of the nearby structures, "Look, there is a hole big enough for three marines to walk through that went through four layers of fabricated materials. I don't know of any weapon or piece of equipment that can do that."
Hale's squad came out of the building, the brunette scowling as she did so, "I don't know what James is doing but I managed to get as many of the colony's systems online that I could, and the seismic sensors are going through the roof."
Both Barros and her turned to each other as they realized the implication of that, "James, don't take the Mako's into the colony. Get the hell out of them and start running!"
"Ma'am, did you just order us to- " His transmission was cut-off as a sudden high pitched shriek filled the air. "James? James? Fuck will someone answer me!"
Before an answer could come the ground before them suddenly shifted as an enormous form emerged from the group, the force of its appearance sent Evalyn flying into a nearby building while those marines still standing began to fire upon the dust shrouded creature.
She grabbed the Sabre rifle off of her back, sighting on the huge form she could see writhing inside the red cloud floating in the air. A nearby marine let out of surprised scream as a massive tentacle slammed down on her form, Barros in the meanwhile seemed to materialize from the red haze that filled the area, as the shotgun in his hands flared as it blew the tentacle off of the prone human.
Evalyn stumbled toward them, beginning to bend down to help the man pull the injured woman to safety, but stopped as she found both her and Barros starring at the woman's body. Acid had eaten through the armor, and the flesh underneath, "What the hell is this thing?"
She activated her tactical net as a holographic projection of the battlefield appeared before her, "Hale how large of an explosion will that generator cause?"
"I don't know, a fucking big one!"
She nodded as a plan came to her mind, "Hale I need you to turn on the fabricators, the creature should be attracted to the vibrations. I want all squads to move out of the colony while I detonate the generator."
"Ma'am, I can handle the generator." Before she could respond to Hale's comment Barros tackled her to the ground as one of the larger tentacles swiped at her, "How the hell do you know that, Ma'am?! For all you know they might ignore it and just go for us."
She shot him a glare, "This creature is subterranean, it would need to be able to sense vibrations to hunt." As she shoved him off of she spoke into her mic, "Plus I never said I was going to blow myself up, but I'm better with technology than you, Lieutenant. We can't risk it going off too early, but I'm extremely doubtful that we have a lot of time either to sit around and talk about this!"
She paused before she let out a breath to clear her mind of the chaos around her, "Any other questions."
As no response came she just nodded to herself, "Move out marines, good luck."
She scrambled to her feet before making a beeline for the structure in question, her HUD highlighting obstructions through the haze that had been relayed to it through the other soldiers' suits allowing her to avoid the worst of the obstructions that littered the street.
The moment she stepped inside the building she could feel the thrum of the fabricators that were located in the building, "Okay, that might attract its attention sooner then I hoped."
She took off at a dash through the structure her footsteps echoing oddly in the abandoned building, her omni glowing as she quickly forged the small device she intended to use on the booby trapped device. It was about the most simplistic machine you could make, one that simply let out an electrical charge when triggered.
Which in theory should set off the beacon, which should in turn make this colony into a crater, "theory," she muttered to herself as she skidded to a halt in front of the object in question.
Of course she could also, theoretically, trigger the damn thing the moment she touched it, but that was a risk she was going to have to take, "but first."
Her arm glowed as she did a quick scan of the device, her higher grade omni letting her take a more detailed look at its inner workings than Hale had been able to, a victorious smirk pulled at her lips as she realized that the casing was indeed not linked to any triggers. Her omni flash manufactured the tools she needed as she needed them, allowing her to quickly unhook a large panel from the device, which soon found itself tossed across the room the moment it was free.
She was midway through installing the device when the shriek of tortured metal filled the room, she glanced up only to be met with the sight of the building's hardened roof, the same roof that was rated to be used on some of the most hostile environments in the galaxy, being melted right in front of her. Which only became more surreal as the substantially weakened metal was peeled apart like the top of a ration pack by the massive creature.
This was her first true look at the thing, and it was hideous with numerous tentacles coming off of its thick wormlike trunk of a body. The grasping limbs began to surge forward but she had already grabbed the rifle laying next to her the moment it had began its assault on the roof, but instead of targeting the body she sighted the appendages that were making their way swiftly toward her.
She managed to connect with three of them, each one recoiling reflexively from the Sabre's rounds, before they snaked around her. She could already smell the stench of corroding metal as the acid coating the creature's limbs went to work.
One limb in particular wrapped around her neck and Evalyn tried to bite back a scream as the acid quickly ate though the thinner bodysuit which was that area's sole protection, but it escaped her throat regardless of her intention as she felt the skin below begin to be exposed to the substance.
Then as if by an act of God, she was let go. Her body hitting the ground heavily, and she became very aware of how her leg bent awkwardly under her armored weight at an angle which only elicited another groan of pain. She pushed through that pain however as she attempted to quickly pull herself back together, idly noting that she was being helped to her feat by Corporal Toombs, "I thought I gave everyone an order to get the hell out of here."
The man just shrugged, "Saving my CO's life on my first mission and this is the thanks I get." He began to move towards the exit only to be halted by a shake of her head, "Need to finish this, cover me." She hobbled over to her previous station as she worked to finish up where she had left off.
The man opened his mouth as if to argue but instead gave her a small nod, as he hefted the grenade launcher off his back and pointed it at the hole that exposed the room to the sky. The work itself took only a couple of minutes, but it felt like an eternity but finally she gave a tired nod, "Alright let's get out of here."
The detonator was linked through her internal systems, and just for good measure she made sure that it would go off if she were to flatline, at least then she could be confident that if the Warsaw was still in scanning range she would investigate the situation.
The pair had only made it halfway across the open terrain in front of the building, mostly thanks to her hobbled walk, when the ground began to rumble beneath their feet. Shepard sighed as she knew there was no way the Corporal would leave her side, so she did the only thing she could think of that would make sure at least one of them made it out alive, and so she drew on what limited biotic ability she had and pushed Toombs as far away from the epicenter as she could, "Run!"
She barely even registered the pain her biotics caused as the creature's maw closed on her body, instead her eyes were wide saucers as she found herself lifted over the haze that had settled over the colony, and she could see at least a dozen of the shrieking creatures surrounding the killing field that was Rust.
And as hope drained from her, a cruel smile formed on her features as she activated the makeshift bomb.
At least I'm taking you down with me, was the final thought that filled her mind before the world turned white.
S&S
Her world became pain, and in that pain she lost track of time, of who she even was. All she had was the pain that permeated every molecule of her being.
And her attempt to escape it.
S&S
Hannah blanched at the sight before her, her omni held up track any signs of life in the area. Miranda stood by her side, a frown on her face, "I triggered one of the alternate devices a few miles away, but there is no guarantee there won't be some of those creatures still in the area."
The older woman nodded, "Then we'll have to find her quickly then." Miranda shot her a glance that obviously asked what they were to do if they didn't find the Commander, but Hannah ignored it for now and simply focused on the task at hand.
She moved towards the crater that had been the colony, while Miranda began to move around the battlefield that the area surrounding the former outpost of civilization had become. The blonde found her pace quickening to a run when her omni detected a heat source ahead, coming from one of the still partially standing buildings that had sat on the edge of the habitat.
The entrance was blocked loosely with rubble, but it only delayed her for a minute or two before she pushed her way inside, her omni illuminating the area in an orange glow.
As soon as she was in the chamber a male's voice quietly called out, "Commander, is that you?" The voice came from her right, and as she turned her head she saw a wounded marine that was obviously not her Daughter.
She knelt down, "No, but I'm looking for her. Did you see what happened to the Commander?"
The man opened his mouth to speak but only succeeded in coughing a few times before Hannah pulled a small canteen from her hip, grabbing the man's jaw she caught his gaze, "I'm going to give you some water, drink it slow or you're going to choke on it."
After a few moments she lowered the item, growling out her question again, "Where is she?"
The man shook his head, "I don't know, one of those creature's appeared and she hit me with one of those biotic shoves to get me out of the way. Next thing I know is that I can hear her screams and then the bomb detonated just a few moments after." His head dropped, "I fell into one of those thing's tunnels, I managed to pull myself into this building but there was some quake, maybe it was one of those creatures, and then the exit was blocked." His voice dropped to a whisper, "I was so tired."
"Mother, I've found her. She, she doesn't look good."
Hannah nodded at Miranda's news, reaching a hand out to rest on the young marine, "Thank you for your help." And then she activated her gauntlet, letting electricity arc from her suit into his, she would feel bad for giving him to Jack's mad scientists but she would need to justify saving Evalyn to him somehow and bribery always helped.
But she could come back and grab him when Evalyn was seen to, and so she took off at a run through the loose soil of Akuze.
Miranda was already hard at work using her medical training in an attempt to stabilize the sheer degree of damage done to the younger human. She had lost both her right limbs, and there was substantial damage done to what armor remained on her right side, but until she cracked it open she had no idea if the flesh underneath was compromised or not.
What was more amazing was that the woman in front of her had dragged herself for nearly a kilometer using only her remaining arm.
But now wasn't the time to reflect on the absurd pain tolerance the subject possessed, now was the time for her to do her job, even if she was only doing this for her Mother's sake.
She dropped the pack she had slung across her shoulders, and began to deploy the hover stretcher so that once Hannah arrived they could move the girl without delay.
Girl, what a silly way to describe an individual who had set most of the records at the N school in Rio.
The sound of approaching footsteps caused her to glance upwards at the oncoming figure of Hannah Shepard, or as The Illusive Man still called her Eva Core. The women's shared mother came to a halt just shy of the prone form of her biological child, but then the woman's eyes hardened as she gestured for Miranda to grab the upper portion of Evalyn's body while she handled the lower half.
The pair tried to make it as smooth as possible but a muted scream of pain still emerged from the damaged human's helmeted head, Hannah's face visibly paled but she quickly schooled her reaction, "Miri, take her back to the ship and start whatever treatment you can. I need to pick up a present for Jack before we take off."
Miranda gave her a brisk nod as she tapped a control causing the platform that Evalyn was situated on to lift upwards, and as she made her way to the ship she didn't deny that the thought of simply eliminating the blonde in her care was not an unattractive option to her.
But Mother would never forgive her if she found out, and Miranda Lawson hated ifs.
S&S
Evalyn awoke to the sound of raised voices, one was unfamiliar and tinged with an unfamiliar accent, while the other was hauntingly the opposite.
The unfamiliar one was speaking, words finally beginning to make themselves understood to the Commander's addled mind, "doing the best I can but this equipment isn't designed for this level of damage, and I sure as hell don't have the ability to create even inadequate cybernetic replacements for her, let alone one's to the sophistication that she requires."
The one she recognized replied, "I just need you to keep her alive, Miri. Steven has a medical frigate in position, you just need to keep her stabilized for a few more hours and then this is all over."
Eva tried to push herself up, realizing that was a mistake when pain suddenly bloomed in her chest, alarms like sirens began to blare around her as a gasp of pain escaped her lips, she vaguely acknowledged the accented voice cursing in the background.
A woman whom most would call gorgeous appeared above her, her hands moving with the swiftness that only came from experience working under pressure. But that was not the figure that drew her attention, instead her eyes bored into a face that was a mirror of her own, Evalyn's mouth tried and failed several times to speak before a whisper emerged, "Mother?"
Hannah leaned down over her, and before the younger Shepard could realize what was happening had pushed an injector against her neck, "Sleep, Evalyn. In the morning this will all be just a bad dream."
S&S
Hackett let out a sigh as he entered the medical frigate, the crew was all his people so he had no worry that word of the transfer that had just occurred would get out. The Warsaw too had been bought off, but he now owed several favors to Admiral Drescher that he wished he didn't.
But he had made a promise to an old friend to look after his child, and if he was being fully honest maybe this incident would finally get the girl to fall in line.
He had spoken to the rest of the Admirality about this, including talking to Harrison Shepard for the first time in nearly half a decade, and they were all onboard with the plan.
Evalyn Shepard was going to put her God given talents to use for the Alliance, one way or another.
S&S
Credit Song: This Time Tomorrow by The Kinks
AN: There you go, intro chapter. Later one's you should expect to be longer but I didn't want to drag this thing out too much.
Obviously Hannah/Eva and Evalyn's relation has been substantially altered, which is going to please some people greatly, other's might hate it but it fits better with how I wanted Hannah to be and I just couldn't pull it off since I had her as too central a part of Evalyn's life.
That being said I really need to work on my consistency, Evalyn was originally inspired as an engineer who was terrible with biotics and sucked at close range. Which somehow morphed into her being a brawler who barely used tech aside for when the plot demanded it once we got in ME 1 proper. I realize all of this was my fault for not having planned this story out better, which is what I've been working on since I last updated.
I was originally going to take down the originals, but there is a quote that I love which paraphrased essentially says that, 'An edit is the most violent of actions that an author can take, and that we mourn the murdered word.' So I'll be keeping them up, if only so you guys can use it to focus Sith like anger at me.
Anyway if you want to curse me out send me a PM and I'll gladly deal with your anger, otherwise use the buttons below because I'm supposed to say that.