Chapter 1
He walked slowly across the grassy plain, reaching his hands out to feel the air blow against him. He remembered how he and his brother used to play hide and seek on the plain behind the scattered trees and bushes.
He remembered how he got his first scar on the plain, his first real fight with his brother, his first kill, and his first kiss….
He remembered how his father used to take him out on the fields to do target practice on some of the farm's wildlife. He used his father's gun, it was called a… he couldn't remember what it was called. All he could remember was that the gun was a rifle and made out of wood from Earth.
"Rob, hey Rob!" he heard, and the world dissolved around him.
"Ye… yeah?" he stuttered as he woke from his slumber." What do you want?"
"Hey man, don't remember your brother?"
"Oh, hey, sorry Dave." Robert grumbled, picking himself up from the seat he was sleeping in.
"Hey, don't you worry about it bro," said Dave and gave his brother a hug. "Anne let me in the front gate. She told me everything that's happened in the past few years, and I have to tell you, dad would have been proud."
Robert studied his brother and noticed that Dave wore a standard issue alliance military uniform." So, that's where you ran away to, to join the army?"
"I didn't run away from anything." Dave said, looking puzzled.
"Oh, really. So it was a coincidence that you left Eden just when dad died? That it was a coincidence that you left right when mom and I needed you the most?" Robert said with a mixture of hurt and anger in his voice. "Dad had a saying. A Vasquez never leaves another Vasquez behind, and they always stick together."
"Yeah, well dad's dead!" Dave snapped back." Get over it!"
Robert hated him for disrespecting their father.
"You get out of this house right now." Robert said calmly.
"Hey, come on now, I'm sorry man."
"Get out now!" Robert said, his voice raising along with his temper.
"I'm sorry ok, I overreacted!" Dave said in a pleading voice.
"Just go!" Robert shouted.
The two brothers gazed at each other in silence, and then Dave simply picked up his bag and left without saying a word. Robert seated himself back down on the chair he'd previously slept on. He rested his elbows on the desk and covered his face with his hands. He let out a deep breath.
Maybe he could have handled his brother differently. Maybe if he hadn't brought their father into the conversation, then maybe they wouldn't have had a fight.
"Things didn't go well with your brother I take it?" Anne said suddenly, appearing in the room. She leaned against the wall next to the front door, arms folded across her chest.
"I don't want to talk about it." Robert grumbled.
"Oh come on, Rob! You don't see your brother for five years, and when he finally pitches up he leaves faster than he came back." She said, leaning towards Robert.
"He just left us, Anne. Just when we needed him, he left." Robert said.
"That was five years ago." Anne said, irritated. "And besides, you and your mom did pretty well."
"We did, didn't we?" Robert said with pride, and looked at her.
She was wearing a black tank top with green cargo pants. Her hair was red as the sky, and her eyes were as green as the grass on the farm.
"What are you looking at?" she asked Robert suddenly.
"Huh?" he exclaimed, and tried to think of an adequate response to cover up getting caught staring. Before he could say more, a Turian entered the room. His skin was dark brown and his face clear of any tribal markings, signifying that he did not belong to any clans. His eyes were a deep black that pierced through you, and he wore a blue sleeved shirt with thick black horizontal lines and matching pants. If Xile wasn't an old and trusted friend of his, Robert would have been afraid of him.
"Robert, you have to come and see this." Xile said.
Robert and Anne exchanged looks and then turned their attention back to Xile.
"Lead the way then." Robert said with a grin on his face.
They followed Xile through the front door as dusk fell. The red sky of Eden was gradually becoming darker. Robert noticed the farm's field where the crops usually were. It had been the harvest day and all of the crops had been taken back to the colony.
"Come on Rob, enough sightseeing." Xile shouted out.
Robert realized he'd been standing still for a while, wrapped up in admiring his farm." Yeah ok, I'm coming." Rob shouted back.
They reached Xile's house, located on the Vasquez farm along with all the other workers' residence quarters. Robert was surprised to see that all the farm staff were in Xile's home, gathered together in front of a large hologram screen.
"Alright, everybody quiet please." Xile exclaimed, his hands raised into the air. "I watched some news on the extranet and found this." He leaned down to type on the computer console and the next moment a video appeared on the screen.
A woman with short hair became visible on the screen. "This is Elizabeth Renault reporting life from Eden prime." The camera panned to the left and showed a gruesome scene of corpses scattered on the ground, covered with cloth. In the background, the colony was on fire, red flames blazing and black smoke choking the air. The camera panned back to the reporter, catching the visual of a few alliance marines dragging a corpse past behind her.
"As you can see all around me, something terrible has happened here on Eden Prime. It wasn't a natural disaster." She paused for a moment and then continued. "It was an attack from the geth."
The silence in the room was disrupted when speculations were cast back and forth between the workers.
"It can't be geth. They haven't been seen for hundreds of years, right?" One of the workers questioned.
"Eden prime. That's in our cluster, isn't it?" a worried voice piped up.
"Isn't that just a few light years away from our solar system?" Anne whispered in Robert's ear.
Robert turned to her but before he could speak, the audio became louder and diverted his attention back to the screen.
"But thankfully the System Alliance Navy reacted and sent in a ground force, to repel the invaders. They were lead by none other than Commander Shepard, hero of Elysium." On the last word, the screen abruptly went out along with the lights, and they were thrown into darkness.
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A/N: I decline any copyright to Mass Effect, it's characters and the concept of the game. I own only the plot of this story, and any characters or planets that you do not recognize.