Chapter 1

A Fresh Start

It's been three hundred years since The Reaper Invasion. Earth has been rebuilt, the Terminus systems have been recolonized, and things got better for everyone. The year is 2486 and The Citadel is still in power, The Council still handles the 'verse and humans have finally earned their rightful place among The Council races and are no longer considered second rate. But things do change after three hundred years. For example people squabble about credits once more and information is big in trade. Plus rumors have spread that people might fight again. We've had peace for this long, why that would suddenly change I don't know, but I do know the heroic Commander Shepard died one hundred and eighty-seven years ago leaving the galaxy at a ripe age of one hundred and fifty years old. She left everyone in a universe without fear of synthetic machines attacking them ever again. But like I said things change, Commander Shepard will always be remembered. Hell she'll be in history books forever. I'd like it if I became a hero but that's all fantasy stuff, and right now that seemed like a fantasy that wouldn't be achieved. After all, I'm wanted by C-Sec. Name's Sapphire. Sapphire Shadow. I'm human, just became a legal adult today and what was I doing to celebrate my birthday? Not what I wanted to. Instead of enjoying a birthday party I'm running through the lower wards of The Citadel and C-Sec officers are chasing my ass like I was the most wanted criminal on the whole spaceport! Jesus Christ I didn't kill anyone, I warned them about a terrorist threat and this was the thanks I was getting? Bastards.

I threw myself over a wall and landed hard on the other side. I was pissed I couldn't help it. I had dedicated myself to serving Gunner and trained under him for the past five years. But it was all over now. I kept running around corners and dodging dumpsters. Sirens were going off; they were looking for me; for anyone who was with Gunner. I took a deep breath and concentrated on the gap that was coming up fast in front of me. I was down in the loading docks of The Citadel. The gap that was coming up was where a ship was getting ready to take off. There was a small crevice that a person could fit into. It was perfect for a person to crouch down and hang on. "Stop! You are under arrest and held under suspicion of the law! I repeat stop running!" Oh great now they had found me. That was too bad, I wasn't gonna stick around for them to pin Gunner's shit on me. I focused on that sizzling, crackling, power that was inside of me. Blue and black smoky wisps colored the air and collected around me. It filled me up and I jumped off the loading bay plank. I landed on the small platform and curled up into a ball under the small railings. C-Sec had opened blaster fire the moment I jumped off the damn dock.

The ship pulled out and the engines roared to life. C-Sec wouldn't stop this ship from leaving; I was a street urchin, not a big time street overlord. Hell even Gunner wasn't like that. But the idiot was dead now and I was escaping this place. The officers were still firing but I saw Lt. Volkin give the order to cease fire. He was a turian, a good shot as most turians go but his tracking skills were well known on the streets. He looked like most turians, dog-like with his muzzle, and spike fringes ending where the crown of a human's head would be and their spikes served as hair would for us humans. Every turian was different in their face markings. It's what made them unique. Volkin had green markings on his face. Among all the turians I had seen growing up none of them had any green markings on them. But the coloring of his markings weren't all that was different. Most turians had the markings as a pattern covering their entire face. Volkin had green ellipses markings on his cheeks and that was all. I had been one of his informants, a dirty kid who lived on the streets and kept an eye out for crime. You inform an officer of criminal activity and they usually gave you a meal, some extra clothes, or a few credits and told you to scoot. I had given Volkin more than a mug tip though, I told him about a serious smuggle operation and Gunner had gotten us mixed up in it. This was my only way out and Volkin knew it. We made eye contact and he nodded to me. He turned around and told his men to stand down and let me go.

They dispersed and he looked over his shoulder one last time. He tapped his nose and mouth. In response I pulled up the small, clear, see through oxygen mask. Then I pushed in the insignia on the shoulder of my jacket. The symbol lit up with white light and body armor slid over my limbs. He had given me the mask and jacket in return for my information. I raised two fingers in salute then touched my right shoulder and tapped my left hip. He returned the motion and walked away. I bunkered down in my hiding spot and waited for the ride to begin. Two seconds after I had secured myself to the platform with straps the ship left docking port and hit warp speed out of The Citadel. Man no wonder Volkin had given me the straps. Warp speed had a whole lot more kick than I had imagined. I figured out what this crevice was now, it was an old way that mechanics got up and down the outside of the ship for repairs. The platform and runes were still intact but the ladder rungs were gone. I got startled when the body armor started heating up, for a second I thought the thing had malfunctioned and was catching fire. But then I remembered that space is cold and airless, which was why Volkin had given me the stuff. With my fear taken care of I closed my eyes and slept for a couple of hours, being chased down by C-Sec officers can tire a girl out.

When I next woke up it was because it felt like I was in an old tale of what earthquakes were supposed to be like. I noticed that the engine pipes were turning from their original color of a neutral blue to a darker shade of blue and then almost black with a purple ting to it. The color change of metal meant this damn thing was heating up! Would all of my hard work of getting off the Citadel be for nothing? Would my idea of starting a new life be stopped before it ever began? But then something remarkable happened. Vents on the sides of the double engine barrels opened up and blasts of recycled air cooled them off; the exterior of the engines returned to their normal color. Then I saw pieces of rock flash by the ship and things started to feel heavier. It was like a hundred pounds had been stacked on top of my body, gravity. I had a feeling that my body wouldn't be welcoming this change but there was some good news to this recent chain of events. The ship was landing, and it was landing on a planet that I could start fresh on. Then turbulence started to shake the ship again a few minutes after it broke through the atmosphere ring. Just when I thought my bones would fall off the ship quieted and stilled. I looked around at the scenery that was before me. The sky was a light color blue with some purple and green tings and streaks in it. The landscape suggested that there were cliffs somewhere that were part of this region but this area was relatively smooth save for the hills I saw just beyond the horizon. Strange layout for a planet if you asked me, but hey stowaways can't be picky about where they end up. With a sigh I unbuckled the straps that secured my legs, hips, and chest to the platform. I hit the insignia on my armored shoulder and it slid neatly back into the folds of the beautiful craftsmanship that was part of my jacket.

I rolled up the straps and stashed them in one of the many pockets I had discovered the day Volkin had given me the jacket. I hopped off the platform and landed lightly on the balls of my feet and created a small cloud of dust with my boots. I looked cautiously around both sides of the ship to make sure that no one would stop and question me if I walked out into the open. Nobody was around from the ship, but there was a trading post about two hundred yards away. I had a few credits on me, Volkin made sure I had enough for at least one or two decent meals. But I wasn't planning on wasting the credits on food alone. I needed to be smart with my money. I was checking out what was for sale that was legal. I wanted to try the honest way first and see if I could get anything worth having; if not then I would know how to find the underground trade; and if that turned out to be pitiful then I'd turn to the black market but that was my last resort. It was a bad idea to get mixed up in the black market if you didn't have a crew, resources, a rep, or a base of operations. A person could end up dead easily in that grimy trade and I wanted to avoid giving myself a headache for as long as I could.

There was a lot of fresh food at one kiosk like fruit, vegetables, bread, bread substitutes, and various forms of protein. At another kiosk I spotted clothes for civilians and another selection for the working class. It wasn't high maintenance or chaotic like some markets were on the Citadel but it wasn't that bad either. It certainly wasn't as dirty as some of the underground trading could be. There were plenty of people bustling about; men chatting up with their buddies at a local bar, women grocery shopping and trying to keep their little ones near. But was this it or was there more than one strip? I rounded a corner and saw more kiosks that were selling jewelry, ready to go meals, literature, toys, baby care, and weaponry. I didn't own any weapons, not anymore. I unconsciously rested my hand on the outside of my left hip. That's where I had kept my pistol; it shot thermal clips instead of operating on mass acceleration technology. Thermal clips depending on who you asked could be better than ammunition that relied on mass accelerator technology because they always struck your opponent; the reason for that is because the bullet is guided by a heat seeking system, and the shooter didn't have to be as skilled of a shot as say a soldier would have to be. Mass accelerator guns were better in my opinion because they propel a solid metal slug using precisely-controlled electromagnetic attraction and repulsion. The slug was designed to squash or shatter on impact, increasing the energy it transfers to the target. Because of this mass accelerator technology you never run out of ammo, and the reason why that happens is because if you shoot too many rounds the gun over heats. When the gun over heats it will no longer allow you to shoot until it has cooled down again; thermal clips don't work that way.

I eyed up the guns at the armory kiosk and next I knew I was standing right there at the bar. A salarian was running the shop; he had cream colored skin with darker brown markings on his face and milk chocolate colored eyes. He talked fast and in an excited manner like most salarians did. I ignored whatever it was he was saying, I was looking for a pistol and an assault rifle. Those were the kind of guns I had been trained to shoot first by Gunner. I could shoot anything else but I favored pistols and assault rifles. I checked my jacket to see I had nine hundred credits on me. I wanted to try and get a gun, food rations that would last me a couple of days, and some more clothes. I was looking for a cheap mass acceleration pistol, if the cheapest one was too much for my budget I'd just have to settle for the cheapest thermal clip pistol. I was going through the data pad the salarian had provided for his inventory and then something caught my eye. A mass accelerator striker pistol was on sale for three hundred credits! My eyes grew huge; did this salarian understand what he was offering?! A striker pistol had great accuracy and that's what made them a 'must have' for an alliance solider.

They were also expensive. I narrowed my eyebrows in suspicion, there had to be some strings attached to this gun. I waved over the salarian and he stopped talking in mid-sentence with two krogan who were looking at some grenade launchers. One of them had a light green hide and a crest that was dark green. His armor was black with some white patches covering his sides. The other one was a dark brown and his crest was tan colored; he was the bigger one of the two. His armor was a reddish brown color and he had yellow buckles that buckled everything together. The salarian looked at the bigger krogan and smoothly ended his conversation with them.

"Excuse me a minute."

He walked at a brisk pace and stopped right in front of me.

"May I be of service miss?"

I pointed at the striker pistol on the data pad, "I wanna know what the deal on this gun is."

He picked up the data pad and squinted as he read the screen. "It's on clearance. Three hundred credits. Good deal honestly. Would you like to purchase this item?"

The two krogan glanced over at me and one of them grunted. "We're losing patience salarian!" The salarian flinched in response to the krogan's roar. "Yes, yes of course. Coming sir."

I grabbed his arm, "There a place I can practice shooting the gun?"

His eyes went from me to the krogans and he noticed that they weren't hollering at him anymore; they were silent and staring at me.

"What? I um…"

The krogans trudged over and stood next to the salarian.

"Answer the question salarian."

I had a feeling that he wanted to keep himself from being squashed by two blood thirsty killers. "Yes! Yes! Of course you can try out the gun. We have a shooting room in back."

I shook my head and crossed my arms. "I would like to shoot it in an open space."

The brown krogan stepped closer to me and looked me over. "The smell of a warrior is all over you. But you look a bit young for such work."

The salarian handed me the pistol and I looked over the gun with an expert eye. No scratches that I could see, nothing chipped, I even shook it and there were no odd sounds.

"My age is of no concern to you. All you need to be concerned about is whether or not I know how to shoot this thing."

The salarian put himself between me and big brown.

"What exactly did you have in mind miss?"

I directed my gaze over to the archery shooting range on the other side of market. "That's an open space that doesn't have any equipment interfering with the gun. If I'm buying something I'm making sure it's the real deal and I ain't getting shorthanded."

Both of the krogan gave low chuckles and nodded in approval.

"I like the way this kid thinks."

"We want in on this deal too."

The now nervous salarian bowed, mumbled a reply and took us over to the shooting range. I sighted the target down at the end of my lane and lined up my shot. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly as I pulled the trigger. The slug hit the middle of the target.

Just for extra measure I fired two more shots and caught them on the two outer rings to make sure that the gun was actually shooting my ammo where I was directing it.

"You're a good shot."

I looked over my left shoulder to see big brown cross his arms over his big bulk of a chest.

"Where'd you learn to shoot?"

I lowered the pistol and sat down on a stool that was next to the krogan. "I learned to shoot on The Citadel."

He raised an eyebrow ridge at my answer. "What the hell are you doing out here on this dust crumb of a planet?"

I scowled at him and stood back up. I needed to make it clear that I could handle myself, especially since a krogan was asking me to explain myself to him.

"Do you hear me asking you a bunch of questions?"

My voice sounded low and lethal, it made the krogan take a step back.

"Relax kid, do I look like I'm gonna be turning you in for anything?"

I huffed in response, he was right. Krogans weren't all that big on following the law. They just liked having work, whatever work that may be. There wasn't any reason for me to jump down his throat. I bought the pistol and the salarian gave me a holster for free.

It was a trick that kept customers coming back and I appreciated his token.

"I'll pass word along to anyone else I run across that this shop is the best for weaponry."

The salarian smiled at me, "You seem like a smart kid. You ever need anything for weapons or ammo, come here. I'll give you a discount. You earned me a big salary with those two krogan. I owe you."

I shook his hand and made a split second decision. I had no idea if this tactic would work or not but I was gonna give it a shot, "Business partners should know each other's names."

The salarian gave me an approving smile, looks like he either knew my game and decided he liked me for my choice of words; or he was an honest salesman.

"My name's Qweenik."

I nodded my head in acknowledgment, "I'm Sapphire."

Qweenik bid me farewell and I left to go buy a week's worth of military rations from another kiosk. I bumped into the krogans again when I was leaving with my purchases.

"Hey kid. Long time no see."

I nodded to them and they fell in step with me.

"My name's Rudnek, this is my partner Scyth."

Scyth was the one I had gotten hot headed with at the range earlier.

"I'm Sapphire. Sorry for jumping down your throat earlier. It's been a rough couple days."

Scyth accepted my apology silently while Rudnek asked me a question.

"So what brings you here Sapphire?"

They both had low gravely voices. But I had noticed that Rudnek's voice had a bit more of a nasal sound to it.

I replied in a casual and relaxed tone, "Fresh start."

Rudnek chuckled and laid a claw on my shoulder. "Same for us. I'm gonna be up front Sapphire. Me n' Scyth like you. We're gonna tag along with you for a while. If it's alright with you o' course."

I shrugged and walked over to a kiosk that was selling clothes. I still had about two hundred credits left.

"Fine with me. I'm just getting what I need."

I looked into the full length mirror that was there. My eyes were met with a person who stood at five foot nine and was fit. My hair was a mixture of dark brown with lighter brown streaks. The only thing that my hair allowed me to do was spike it. My hair was thick and it didn't grow fast so it was easy for me to manage. My eyes were true to my name and were a bright piercing blue; the shirt I wore under the jacket was a dark faded green that complimented my figure; the jacket itself was black with silver trimming at the collar and a single strip on each arm. The insignia on my left shoulder was also silver and to top it off I had dark cargo pants on. There were a number of pockets in these pants, which is why I liked them. My holster sat snug on my hips with my pistol tucked safely inside it. I had bought two more shirts; one was white and the other was brown.

Rudnek and Scyth watched me try on the shirts along with another pair of pants. Rudnek insisted on me trying on a pair that didn't look so baggy. When I told the big ol' reptile that I didn't have the money for it he said he'd pay for whatever else I needed.

I wasn't some charity case and I even said so to him but Scyth said, "You're a good shot, so you better look like one."

That shut me up real quick and next thing I knew I had two pairs of pants that were closer fitted than the cargo pants I had on along with some under garments. When the sun started setting Rudnek and Scyth suggested that we get some rooms for the night, and to my pride's shame they told me not to argue about it. So we got joined rooms and ate dinner at a bar. Rudnek was talking up a storm with an asari waitress while Scyth and I ate soup.

"How old are you kid?"

I swirled my spoon around in the bowl and kept my eyes down on my food.

"Eighteen."

Scyth gave an amused snort at my answer, "You're just a sprout."

He downed his drink and had the bartender give him another. Rudnek was as drunk as a pirate and his laughter was booming throughout the bar. Scyth looked away and shook his head at his partner. I was a bit puzzled by these two, krogan normally don't travel together in groups unless they're on business. Scyth and Rudnek said they were here for a fresh start so it clearly wasn't business. No reason to make myself dizzy over this. I'll just ask what the deal is with them, "Krogan normally don't work in groups of two on merc jobs let alone travel together. What makes you two so special?"

Scyth snickered and took a long pull from his mug. "That whelp over there is my brother and we've been doing jobs together since we found each other again after The Reaper invasion."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and my level of respect for him went up another notch.

"You were around during The Reaper invasion? That was three hundred years ago!"

Scyth nodded his head and finished his mug. He waved a waitress over for a refill, when she left he resumed our conversation.

"Yup. Me and Rudnek were adopted by the Urdnot clan when the clans were still fighting for power and we were trained to fight all those damn husks and much more. Don't know how we managed to stay alive but we did and I remember when those damn things were destroyed right in front of us. I was killing a husk when all of a sudden the enemy just crumpled to the ground and the Reaper ships that were on the planet's surface just toppled over like toys. Other warriors said that the ones in space just plain blew up. Once the fight was done I went back to Tuchunka and discovered that sorry green hide of a brother was alive and celebrating like any proper warrior would."

I rolled my eyes at his last sentence.

"He was drunk off his ass you mean."

Scyth gave a hearty chuckle and nodded, "That damn bastard was as drunk as a thresher maw spewing acid and I was glad to see him. We've been working jobs together ever since."

Once Scyth and I finished our dinner we carried Rudnek back to our rooms and I told the boys good night and I went to bed exhausted from a full day and part of a night filled with activity. I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep and before I slipped into unconsciousness I thought of Volkin and how much I owed him big time.