THE SKYLLIAN BLITZ

Arrival

Service Chief Kyler Shepard stepped off of the transport and onto the tarmac of the small outdoor spaceport on Elysium. This was her first time taking shore leave since she'd joined the Alliance Military at age 18 – and that had been over four years ago. It wasn't that Kyler hated relaxing; she just hated pirates, slavers, and batarians more, hated them enough that she preferred foregoing time off if it meant the chance to turn a slaver or batarian into a corpse. Though she had no idea, some of her more perceptive superiors had correctly guessed in private that the reason she drove herself and her fellow Alliance Marines so hard was because she had had a chip on her shoulder the size of Sol ever since Mindoir. It had taken her less than four years to earn the rank of Service Chief, and she had long since cemented her spot in the N7 Marine Special Forces. Her brilliant small unit leadership, resourcefulness, and tenacity had already earned her a budding reputation in the "N" community.

For her part, Shepard was content to put the scum of the galaxy permanently out of business. Promotions and recognition were nice and all - the extra pay sure didn't hurt - but Kyler Shepard hadn't joined the Marines on a misguided quest for glory or even revenge, and she certainly wasn't in it for the money. Her superiors were actually correct for once. She was a Marine because when her life had been destroyed six years ago she had promised herself that she would do whatever it took to prevent others from experiencing what she had gone through back at Mindoir. Whatever it took.

She would never admit it, but that was her dark little secret. It was why she had been engaged in four consecutive years of constant deployments and combat assignments without letting up once, until one day her new Platoon Commander looked over her service record and realized that she had not taken a single day off during her entire time in the Alliance Military. He had immediately insisted that his promising young Squad Leader take some well-deserved shore leave, and he had recommended Elysium because of its well-deserved reputation for being a good but affordable vacation spot - as colonial planets went, anyway. He hadn't said so out loud, but he had also recognized that she had nowhere else to go and no family anywhere. Shepard resisted at first, but eventually departed after Lieutenant Bradley finally resorted to ordering her to take some time off.

Now standing on the tarmac, Kyler Shepard silently laughed to herself. Good old LT. Always looking out for us, even if I really don't want to be here. As she looked around at the landscape she found her mind wandering, and it occurred to her how much the trees resembled the ones on Mindoir that used to grow around her old home. She brushed away the beginnings of a small tear at the thought. Pull it together, Kye, you're stronger than this. Come on… She quickly looked around to see if anyone noticed. Content that no one had, she strode into the flight terminal. She needed a drink.

"Kye! Kyler Shepard!"

Her heart skipped a beat in recognition as she turned and she hopped off her barstool to greet the friend behind the voice.

"Digs! I had no idea you were here! It's so good to see you again!" She gave Corporal Diego Ramirez a big hug and a bigger smile as he ran up to welcome her.

"It's great to see you, Kye! But what in the galaxy brings you out here?" He stared at her suspiciously, but with humor still twinkling in his eyes. "We're not about to start conducting urban warfare training, are we? I know that there's no way you're actually here to have fun."

"New unit, new Platoon Commander. He ordered me to take some shore leave."

Diego laughed loudly. "Ordered you? Ordered you? Geez, Kye, you are the only Marine I've ever met who had to be coerced into taking any time off. Sometimes I worry about your sanity."

"Only sometimes?"

"Okay, all the time. You really put the 'special' back into Special Forces."

They stayed at the bar for a while, reminiscing over past campaigns, laughing at old inside jokes and just catching up with each other. There was certainly a lot to talk about. Kyler and Diego had come up through boot camp and the Marine Special Forces Program together before getting assigned to the same operational unit. They had worked up through the ranks together and had even been in the same squad until she got promoted to Service Chief ahead of him and was transferred to a different ship's company to fill an open Squad Leader billet.

Aboard the SSV Canae, 2173 (three years ago)

"Do you think we should tell him about the dead fish we stuffed in the air vent of his sleeping pod before or after he yells at us for starting a food fight in the chow hall?" Private First Class Shepard muttered under her breath to Private First Class Ramirez.

"I vote that we let sleeping dogs lie," he whispered back. "And incidentally, the regs do officially call the chow hall, 'the mess,' so technically speaking, we were just making sure that everyone else was in keeping with the regulations."

She choked as she tried unsuccessfully to hold back her laughter. Now, as they both stood at attention in front of the Company Operation Chief's office, was not the time to suddenly develop a sense of humor. "Don't make me laugh now, stupid. I'll get us both in trouble."

Diego grinned from ear to ear. "Right. Because we're not already in way over our heads. Get real, Kye. We're toast, so we may as well have some fun while we crash and burn." Their whispers were barely audible now, even to each other.

"In that case, I retract my earlier question. And I think we're going to need some more dead fish.

"For Henderson's sleeping pod?"

"No, for the rest of squad minus Henderson. I still can't believe he told LT that we started the food fight."

"But we did start it."

"That's beside the point."

"Wait, you mean put dead fish in our pods too?"

"Of course."

"You can't be serious."

Her turn to grin. "Only way to frame Henderson. Don't tell me that you don't want to see that little rat squirm when he tries to explain to LT and the Chief why his is the only sleeping pod that doesn't reek of shellfish. We might even be able to pin the food fight on him retroactively."

"You're insane, you do realize that, don't you?" He thought about it for a second. "Okay, let's do it. But we need to make sure that we acquire some serious air freshener from the cargo deck before we pull this job, because we won't be able to find any once we're done."

"Hope you like your sushi pungent and rotten, Digs."

"Yup, certifiably insane."

"Well, we ought to head over to customs pretty soon, unless we just want to drink away the whole morning." They looked at each other. Diego grinned. He knew how much she hated bureaucrats and wannabe soldiers. "Come on, Kye, let's just get it over with."

As she got to the customs entrance, Kyler noticed that the spaceport guards were making a big show of the security checkpoint. She frowned slightly and bit her tongue to prevent any rash comments from coming out. The whole act was so obviously superficial, you'd have to be either naïve or ignorant to think that it was actually accomplishing anything other than marking a check in the box. Your precious red tape won't protect you if you get attacked. Trust me. Kyler shook her head. God help us if these showboats are indicative of the local security garrison around here.

When it was finally her turn to go through the gate the snot nosed rent-a-cop in charge found himself suddenly taken aback as he stared into the coldest pair of blue eyes he'd ever seen, daring him to give her an order. "Um, you can go," he gulped meekly. Shepard glared at him with a gaze that could freeze the sun. He gulped again. "Please?" Kyler swirled her bright red hair behind her, and she and Diego walked out into Elysium without looking back.

Outside of the spaceport, Diego was laughing so hard that it took him a few minutes to get his words out. "Geez, Kye, I couldn't make up my mind if he was going to piss himself or die of constipation first. Did you see the look on his face?"

"Well, I put it there, didn't I?" Kyler grinned back at him. "What? He deserved it."

The attack came so suddenly and so viciously that Shepard almost missed the tell-tale contrails of gray-green smoke emitted by the attack skiff after its first strafing run on the spaceport. As she and Diego were looking around to assess the damage it came around for a second run. Kyler instinctively dove for cover, rolling to the side and grabbing her pack as she did so. She saw Diego do the same out of the corner of her eye. The pirate skiff wasn't interested in killing people - yet, anyway - and targeted the fuel reserve close to the hanger bay, causing an enormous explosion that rocked the building and sent shrapnel and shattered glass into the crowd who had been leaving the spaceport with her. Screams and cries for help punctuated the air, but Shepard felt suddenly sick to her stomach for a different reason. Even from where she was, Kyler could see that between the two quick strafing runs, nearly all of the ships that were docked in the east Elysium were now either destroyed or in desperate need of repair. None of them were space worthy any more, and she was willing to bet that they wouldn't be able to go very far or fast in atmo either. Whoever had planned this raid wanted to ensure that none of the inhabitants would be able to escape for some reason. I guess this means visiting the beach is out of the question. In spite of her situation, Kyler laughed at her own private joke. Since joining the Alliance Marines, she lived for moments like this.

From her place of concealment Kyler heard the low-pitch whine of another vessel, one she immediately recognized as an orbital transport as she continued to focus on getting her armor and gear prepped. Okay, there's the drop ship. Pretty standard for a raid. Digs and I probably can't kill all of them, but if we can dodge that attack skiff we should be able to make their lives miserable enough that they might decide to just lea… The thought died in her mind as she suddenly heard another transport, then another, and another. Pretty soon she couldn't distinguish from the noise how many orbital transports were coming down. But there were a lot. Where are they all coming from? Shepard crawled out, looked up at the sky just beyond the atmosphere, and froze. She had never seen that many non-Alliance warships in one place before in her life.

Oh. Shit. This isn't a raid. This is a full-scale invasion. They mean to wipe this colony out completely. She glanced over at Diego. His face looked as shocked as she felt. Shepard did a quick estimate in her head as she assessed the enemy situation. Most of those ships are batarian, but there are definitely some other alien vessels, maybe even a few human ones. They must be coming from the Terminus Systems. I wonder who organized that coalition… She shook her head. There was no way of knowing, and anyway, did it really even matter? She made a quick adjustment to her biotic amp. You're not walking away from this one, Kye. No way. But at least you get to die defending a human colony. She took a deep breath and clenched her teeth before putting on her helmet. You bastards attacked the wrong freaking planet. This is for everyone who died at Mindoir. This time, it's personal.