Chapter 1

Reaper War: Day 1

Lieutenant Commander Charles Barkley sat at a table in the corner of the nightclub Purgatory, doing something he never saw himself doing…going out. While watching people flail about and restraining the utmost urge to smack himself in the face. Barkley decided to take a much needed break and head down towards Purgatory; the most popular bar on the Citadel. This idea was immediately deemed an awful idea, once he walked in through the doors. Former Alliance soldiers were splayed about the entrance in a graceful drunken fashion; he even saw one man trying to make out with a salarian. Now, he sat by himself waiting for entertainment and r&r to fall into his lap.

Being the quiet man that he was, one to never void off from the normal course of action, he suddenly decided he was way over his head, well when it came to socializing and having "fun." He was perfectly at peace with an old musty book in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, but from the consistent nagging of his colleagues, and his own mother, he decided to shut them up by going out. Again, an awful idea, how do people put up with the pulsating music and strobing lights? Oh, that's right. They consume copious amounts of alcohol. With his mission set in stone, Barkley debriefed himself on the mission parameters: Find the bar, get the booze, drink the booze, and get more booze. Yeah sure, that sounds like fun. Bolstering his self-confidene, he straightened his back, and begun his march towards the bar.

"Uhmm, Commander Barkley?"

Immediately he recognized the voice, not the person per se, but the tone of the voice. The tone of a nervous private, sent to retrieve a high-ranking officer, who was just about to begin having fun. Barkley placed two fingers, on both of his temples, and began to rub them. Maybe this private sent to retrieve him, actually saved him. All the lights and sound were giving him a headache, even though he did plan to drown that all out with whatever drink he could find. Placing his hands to his side, Barkley spun around and took note of the two saluting marines, waiting for him to respond.

"At ease, what can I do for you two?" Barkley replied with his husky voice, snapping in a salute as well.

The second private answered this time, "We've been told to retrieve you for debriefing."

"Goddamnit," muttered Barkley. Just when he thought he finally had some time off, work still managed to track him down, "On whose orders?" he asked.

"Councilor Udina's orders, sir"

A lump sunk to the bottom of his stomach, if Udina ordered his presence, then something must be amuck, but what? He recalled recent rumors of Commander Shepard claiming a dormant race of sentient machines, known as the Reapers, hell bent on harvesting organic life every fifty-thousand years, were returning within a couple of months. These rumors spread like wildfire throughout the Alliance, the citadel, and the galactic nation as a whole, but Barkley denied such rumors. He immediately tossed aside his assumptions once he heard about Shepard sending an asteroid into the Alpha Relay, wiping out over three hundred thousand batarians in the process. Only because Shepard learned that an imminent Reaper invasion would be upon the galaxy if action wasn't taken, but that was six months ago. Could all the rumors actually be true? Well, there was only one way to find out. Barkley straightened up and followed the two marines out of Purgatory.

Councilor Donnel Udina, not the most pleasant person Barkley ever met. His nose was always hunched like he smelled something fishy, and his awful dye job really made him stand out. The latter is what Barkley came to a conclusion as to why he had such a gigantic stick up his ass. But he did fight for humanity's stake in the galaxy, Barkley gave him that. Barkley glanced around the office noting how bright and open everything seemed to be due to the whole wall behind the councilor's desk being glass; leaving quite the view of the Presidium. Udina noticed the Commander entering his office and motioned for him to sit down.

"I'm assuming you don't know why you're here," asked Udina in a nasally stark voice.

"You are correct councilor," replied Barkley grabbing the first seat he came up to. "I was told you wanted to speak to me."

"I do," Udina replied while shifting through papers. "Ah, here we go."

With a flick of his left wrist Udina brought up the briefing on his vid screen and synched it to a datapad in his right, he handed the datapad to Barkley. Hesitantly, Barkley took the datapad. Barkly wasn't the kind of man to go into things blind, he liked to know where he stood and what he was up against. This was unknown, a variable he couldn't control, or bother analyzing. He had to plunge in headfirst and take it in strides.

"That datapad has three dossiers on it for you to read."

"Dossiers?" Barkley answered, "What am I exactly going to be doing with these?"

"Commander, do you watch the news?" Udina replied ignoring the question.

"Not really, but if you don't mind me asking again, why am I reading these dossiers?"

Udina ignored him again, "The Reapers have invaded Earth, Commander." Udina leaned in his chair, resting his arms on his desk and looking directly at Barkley, with grief in his eyes. "You have heard of the Reapers, correct?"

Barkley felt the lump in his stomach erupt, "They're actually real? Shepard was right?"

"They're very much real and regretfully, yes. Shepard was right about their inevitable invasion."

Barkley's immediate thoughts were of his family on Earth, he hadn't seen them in years. Work always got in the way and the cost to travel from the Citadel to Earth was always more than he wanted to spend. So he settled for calls over the extranet and the occasional message back and forth. At least he wasn't married; he had seen plenty of marriages crumble from the weight of the military and he did not want to go through that.

"What are we doing to stop them," Barkley asked hearing his voice crack, "What have we done to prevent this from happening?"

Udina's brow creased and he turned toward the vid screen tapping the upper right hand corner of it. A vid begin to play, a news report of the devastation happening on Earth. Entire skylines were burning, smoke plagued the streets, and screams of citizens filled the office. Barkley watched as skyscraper tall machines blasted buildings apart, incinerating anything near them. He knew, right then and there, that he was watching the extinction of the human race. "There is nothing that we could've done to prepare for this!" Udina said with the pain and loss in his voice becoming more noticeable, "I knew many people back on Earth, Commander. I'm sad to say I won't be seeing many of those people again, so I apologize for my… rash behavior."

"I understand, but we should've heeded Shepard's warnings!" The image of a whole city becoming a smoking crater in seconds was burned into his mind. "We could've prevented some of this!"

"That's why you're hear, Commander." Udina said in kind. "The council has put into motion the start of a task force to help combat the Reapers."

Barkley glanced at the datapad in his hand, "Like the Spectres…don't you think this is a little too late, Councilor?"

"Time is not a factor anymore," rebutted Udina, "What we need to do now is act. In your hands is the start of that, with the authority of the council, I and a few others were able to locate three others, like yourself. A team, so to speak, a team that can help assist in the liberation of colonies under Reaper control and extraction of its citizens."

Baffled by the resolution of things, Barkley took in Udina's words and asked, "Why me then?"

"Looking at your records, you were up for promotion, and we needed an individual with the authority and experience to lead this team. You've fought on more planets then any man dreams of and you've fought with more species then any man could think of." Udina answered.

This was true, right when Barkley graduated from the N7 program he was immediately thrown into the thick of it. He gladly accepted it as well, the experience of a lifetime it was, and still is. Barkley was one of the few to be placed in cross-species training, hence the experience with different species. Placed in a squad of all turians on their home world of Palaven, he recalled the pride of being given the honor, by the man himself Admiral David Anderson. Those months were tough, but hell of good time. He made some lifelong friends those days; he smiled at the thought of having more alien friends then human ones.

"How are four guys then, going to be able to make a difference against something like that?" Barkley questioned, pointing at the frozen still of a Reaper on the vid screen.

"Like I said before, the purpose of this team is to help liberate colonies and extract civilians from Reaper control."

Barkley gave up; it was useless getting answers, or any information out of this man. He turned on the datapad and began to scroll through the dossiers. Something caught his eye; there were no humans on any of the three dossiers. He hesitated and asked anyway, "Councilor, why aren't there any humans on this squad? All I'm seeing is a batarian, a turian, and a quarian."

"The council wanted to show a united front against this Reaper threat," the Councilor held his breath and chose his words carefully. "We can only win this war if we stand united as a whole, not as separate entities. It's a great honor to be a part of something like this, an even bigger honor leading something like this. A shame it's taken us till now to actually do something like it."

Barkley felt the familiar weight of responsibility fade onto his shoulders, "When do I start?"

"We're waiting for confirmation from the other individuals on that list, I'll notify you within the week," replied Udina immediately going back to his work. "You're excused, Commander."

Grateful for the opportunity to leave, Barkley got out of his chair and exited the councilor's office.

"Well, this is going to be fun." He muttered to himself as he walked down the stairs of the embassy and into the crowds of the oncoming lobby.