Mass Effect: As the Years Go By
Chapter 1: War Games
"Garrus! Give us some cover fire!" Shepard yelled as he raced across the battlefield, shooting a quick glance back at his turian friend, perched on top of the hill behind him.
"Got you covered Commander!" Garrus shouted back, firing into a couple of enemies a few feet in front of Shepard.
Shepard nodded as he turned to his companions around him, "Wrex and Ashley, follow me while we try to push the mechs back! Kaiden! Protect Tali while she tries to override the mechs! If she can do it, this battle will be over!"
"Aye aye Commander!" the rest of his squad replied, nodding.
With both Wrex and Ashley by his side, Commander Shepard raced forward into the line of mechs marching towards him and his team. He fired into the robots, managing to take down five of them with perfectly aimed head-shots. Wrex, his krogan comrade, didn't even bother firing at the mechs. He simply roared as he charged at them, his head bowed. He barreled through the enemies like they were nothing.
Shepard dove behind a rock, barely missing the bullets from the mechs, which bounced off the boulder harmlessly. Commander Shepard stole a glance at his other squadmate, Ashley Williams. She was pinned down by at least six mechs. She stood behind a tree, not even getting the option to counterattack, the mechs never stopped firing.
"Hey Garrus! I need some help here!" Ashley yelled, which the turian answered by taking out half of the mechs with head shots in just a matter of seconds.
"You're welcome Williams!"Garrus said, smirking a bit from his position on the hill. Ashley simply stuck out her tongue at him, before leaning out of her cover behind the tree and taking care of the rest of the mechs.
"Tali! We need these mechs taken care of now!" Shepard ordered, speaking into his comm in his ear.
"I almost got it Shepard!" Tali replied, frantically tapping on her omni-tool. Mechs were slowly closing in on her position, but was having a bit of trouble getting to her thanks to Kaiden. Suddenly, the mechs started making a whirring sound, stopping in place. As if a switch was turned out, the mechs all across the battlefield powered down and crumbled to the ground.
"There we go! Success!" Tali squealed in delight, raising up and jumping in place happily.
"Bout time." Wrex said, grumbling a bit. He walked up beside her, completely covered in a vast array of paint colors.
"You do know Wrex the object of the game was to NOT get hit right?" Kadien asked, laying his paintball gun to the side.
"Hmph. I'm not afraid of getting paint on me and hiding behind cover the entire time." Wrex replied as the rest of the team joined them.
"Wrex this was a pratice simulation. If those were real bullets you would have been creamed!" Shepard said, waving his arms around. The krogan simply rolled his eyes, but mumbled in agreement.
A nearby door suddenly opened as Captian Anderson walked into the playroom. He had a big smile on his face as he looked down at his students, who for only being ten years old, were showing remarkable skills. Out of all the kids in the school, Shepard and his friends were showing the most progress. Anderson knew that while he did have a hand in that, it was mostly Shepard. That kid showed amazing leadership skills, even if he was just a child.
"Shepard's right Wrex. You can't simply charge into a group of enemies like that and expect to live. You need to learn how to duck and cover once in awhile." Anderson said, patting his krogan student on the head.
"Yes Captain Anderson." Wrex replied, looking down and kicking the dirt.
"Other than that, you all did remarkably well. You even beat your previous time on taking down the mechs. I'm proud of all of you!" Anderson praised, which received a bunch of shouts and cheers from his little students, "Now go on and get cleaned up. Lunch should be ready soon."
His students nodded as they tossed their paintball guns to the side and raced out through the open door, following their "Commander" Shepard. Anderson couldn't help but laugh, tapping a bunch of numbers onto his omni-tool and reactivating the mechs. The mechs quickly rose back onto their feet and began cleaning up the room. For awhile now, all the rest of his students started calling Shepard Commander. It was true that he was obviously the leader of their group, even if no one had openly stated it. He had no idea when they started calling him that though, it just started happening over the course of their war games. Even when they weren't in the playroom practicing, the rest of the kids called Shepard Commander. Shepard didn't seem to mind it though.
As Anderson began picking up the discarded guns, he never thought he would be training and guiding kids all of species, not that he was complaining. It was part of a Council plan, to try and get the species of all the galaxies to coexist peacefully with one another. The best way to do that was with children of all the species. That's how the school was founded, and how Anderson was recruited. Other teachers and soldiers from different species were also hired for this project, so the staff of the school was an assortment of human, asari, salarian, krogan, batarian, and even vorcha. While it was difficult for the staff of the school to get along, and even some of the students, it seemed Shepard's group got along quite well. So far, the Council's plan of a multi-species armed force was working, at least when it came to Shepard's group of friends.
"Never thought I would spend my golden years teaching races of all worlds," Anderson said to himself, smiling a bit, "and I wouldn't have it any other way."