The lost soldier

Chapter 1: New Arrival

Shepard had a huge problem, she had to destroy the collector base and survive. "I have the whole team ready but I need gain their trust or else we will all die."

Her thoughts were interrupted when Joker called on the comms, "Commander, EDI found something interesting on the radar."

Shepard simply replied, "I'm on my way Joker."

When Shepard walked over to the cockpit she was surprised to see what was on Joker's holographic display. It was a massive ship and what was slightly unsettling was the fact it seemed to be cut in half by some sort of energy weapon.

"Joker what is this thing."

Joker replied, "I have no idea but this was not by any known species."

"How do you know that?"

"Commander I'm not reading any traces of element zero anywhere, if it ever ran on it there would be some sort of sign."

"Edi what do you know."

"Shepard I just found something that will surprise you."

"What is it?"

"This is a ship that doesn't match any ship profiles from Cerberus or the Alliance but there is one feature that shows this is a human ship."

"That feature is?"

"Its name is on the hull and it is written in English."

The holographic display zoomed onto a small name that read Forward Unto Dawn.

"Holy Shit, EDI get my team into the briefing room we need to figure out what the hell were are going to do about that ship."

Ten minutes later in the briefing room Shepard started the briefing. "Okay people what we have is a ship that doesn't match any Citadel race ship profile, but its name is written in English."

"Shepard that ship is huge if we want to search it quickly we are going to have to bring everyone aboard." Garrus said

"We need to find new technology to fight the Collectors and this thing doesn't seem to run on eezo so imagine what technology we can find on that ship."

"EDI are there any life signs on board?" replied Miranda

"No Ms. Lawson, that entire ship is filled with nothing but vacuum."

"That's unfortunate; any survivors could have helped us adapt their technology to ours." Miranda sighed

"Well at least now we don't have worry about ambush. Bring your oxygen harnesses, and weapons anyway you never know what could happen. EDI what else do you know about this ship."

"Shepard while scanning the ship I detected one room that still has power but I could not learn anymore, I'm uploading you the coordinates now."

"Nice work EDI now we will split up into two teams. Legion, Thane, Miranda, Kasumi, Samara, and Jacob you're with me. The rest of you will be on the second team, Garrus you are in charge. Garrus go to the only room with power and see what you find; I'll go with my team and look everywhere else for anything interesting. If you find anything tell me."

"Okay commander" Garrus respectfully acknowledged.

"Joker can we dock anywhere or will we have to make a few trips with the shuttle."

"Sorry Commander you are going to have to take the shuttle."

"Alright, my team will go first then we will meet up with you Garrus."

"Okay lets go and get this done fast. I have a bad feeling about this." Garrus replied

After about twenty minutes of ferrying the team over they split up and started to explore.

Garrus's POV

"Okay people the room is around the next turn."

Tali stopped however and stared at the wall. Garrus walked over to see what was there and found an arrow the read Cryogenics. Well that explained why power would be there, that room might have had a few survivors but they should be all dead according to EDI.

As they entered the room Garrus noticed a holographic emitter in the center of the room and when he got within 3 feet of it a hologram came online. It simply asked "Is there anything I can I assist you with", in a monotone voice.

"Shepard we just found what looks to be a VI here you should come check this out."

"Okay Garrus we will be there in twenty minutes." Shepard responded

Cortana's POV

Cortana had set some of the electronic equipment outside the cryo bay that still functioned to ping her out of her standby mode if they detected motion. She had just switched to active mode when she realized what happened. She ran a diagnostic to make sure her systems were as good as they could be. After that she started tracking the movements of two different groups one was coming directly towards her while the other was going the exact opposite. When this first group arrived she decided she was going to act like a dumb AI so not to let on what she was.

In a calm monotone voice she asked, "Is there anything I can I assist you with."

The blue armored reptilian one told a "Shepard" that they found a VI and should come see. Cortana assumed this Shepard was the leader. She also noted that several of the creatures before her were mostly aliens she hadn't encountered before, and even stranger was the fact that there were two humans with them.

But before she had processed anymore data the blue armored one, probably the second in command, asked, "What is the mission of the vessel?"

Cortana simply said "This ship's general mission was to protect Earth and her colonies from any hostile forces. But the immediate mission of the vessel if classified and you do not have the necessary clearance to access that information."

The blue armored alien classified as Alpha seemed surprised and asked, "What cut this vessel in half?"

"This vessel suffered extreme damaged when traveling through a portal like device that teleported them from Earth to beyond the galaxy's edge. When the vessel tried to return through the portal, it shut down as half the ship had exited and resulted in extreme damage to all systems."

Alpha talked with the rest of the team he had with him and then asked her, "Is there any equipment that should be handled with extreme care?"

Cortana used her normal voice and responded, "There is that cryo pod over there that has the only living survivor of this ships mission." Cortana then shut of the energy to the holo pad as she didn't feel like talking anymore.

Garrus's POV

Garrus was extremely surprised that the VI might have turned out to be an AI. He turned toward Tali and asked, "Have you seen anything like that?"

Tali shrugged and said, "No, I haven't seen anything like that before but I'm fairly certain that was an AI. But before we decide what to do with it we should look at this living crew member."

Garrus agreed and signaled the rest of the team to go over to the cryo tube. But what was in the pod was mind baffling, a seven foot creature that had green body armor with a black under armor. Garrus stunned asked Mordin, "Is that thing alive and do humans really get that big."

Mordin rapidly replied, "Yes, display shows subject is alive, human may have naturally grown to height but is unlikely.

Tali then almost yelled, "Guys I think it's waking."

Master Chief's POV

When he woke up he felt like his whole skin was on fire, but that didn't alarm him. Freezer burn did that and he had experienced it many times. But when he opened his eyes and was alarmed when he saw six people around his pod, even worse was that only two were human, the other four were aliens. He then realized they knew he was awake because one of them pointed at him and the rest stared. They all pulled their weapons out. He knew this might be his only chance to attack first but he decided to keep them alive to interrogate.

Garrus's POV

The moment that he realized what was happening it was far too late. The green giant leaped out of his pod smashing the glass, knocking him down in the process. The green figure rose quickly then smashed Jack and Tali's heads together, knocking them out instantly. Grunt fared just as well because the figure jabbed Grunt several times in the head and stomach. It picked Grunt up with what looked like no effort at all and threw him into Zaeed. This resulted with two more knock outs. When he got up he found out Mordin was down as well. Garrus couldn't find it then heard a loud boo from behind. Garrus turned but when he finished turning he got an extremely hard punch to the stomach, his vision faded and all he saw was black.

Master Chief's POV

All the unknowns were safely knocked out but still alive. He was about to move them when he heard footsteps coming towards him. He hid by the door in the shadows. He saw one of them move in then pulled the emergency switch for the door, slamming it shut and locking it. He ran up grabbed her by throat before she could talk. Making sure not to choke her, he lifted her off her feet and brought her about an inch from his visor. Just by looking he could tell she was most likely the leader. There was nothing to confirm it but his gut said so and he learned to always trust his gut.

Using a calm but intimidating voice he asked, "Who are you?"

"My name is Commander Shepard and I suggest you calm down or I will have my ship destroy what's left of this ship."

"That won't happen, not with your people still onboard."

Shepard sighed then said, "Threatening the only people who can give you a ride is a bad idea though."

Chief had figured around this though, he dragged Shepard over to a small weapons rack and grabbed a pistol. He also grabbed some loose metal from the ship made a steel "rope" keeping Shepard from moving her hands then reset the switch locking the door.