No I am not abandoning any of my stories, but sometimes I get side-swiped by inspiration and then I have to jot it down. Problem is, everyone thinks I am just jotting down ideas, but I actually work out an entire framework of a story before setting pen to paper. My only issue in my other two stories is that my heroes are OP (Commanding an entire military in Ghosts Of The Past and being a supersoldier in Intergalactic Effect) Also this one will be my first SI.

Paladin

Chapter I

I locked the door of my flat and set off down the stairs for my jog. It was pouring cats and dogs outside the building. Intermittently, the entire floor was lit up thanks to lightning.

Finally the monsoon has come, I think to myself. Summer in Mumbai is no joke. Add in the pollution and air conditioning becomes a necessity. Though waking up for a jog at 04:00 am tends to make it easy for me to go for my exercise routine.

Wake up at 03:30 am, brush, shave, get into my running rig, plug in my phone's earphones, start my favourite rock song and set off at an easy lope for a ten kilometer run. Reach milk stall near home before milkman, complete calisthenics, buy milk, walk home. Make breakfast, have bath and go to work.

Should have known that today would be an unusual day.

While I jogged through the rain, my mind kept wandering to the Mass Effect 3 walkthroughs I had watched the last night. I never worked up the energy to actually play the games but I still found the series fascinating. I had an interest in astronomy since I was a child and hoped I would be able to meet extraterrestrials, friendly ones, in my life time. Not things like xenomorphs, Flood, zergs et al.

But I was realistic enough to know that wouldn't happen in the next 10000 years. The simple reason? It is completely impossible for matter to retain information when it travels at speeds in excess of the speed of light.

These thoughts kept going through my head and I completely missed the lightning bolt that blasted down on the road in front of me. The blast tore at me and I was consumed by darkness.

I woke up suddenly on a cold floor, and heard a shrill sound, like an alarm. My eyes slowly open to crashing, tortured metal and try to get my body vertical. A hand grabs me and pulls me up and I am greeted by a familiar moustachioed face.

"Big Bird, this is Bravo-Six, we're on our way out. On your feet soldier!We are leaving!" said Price and he turned around and he, Gaz and Griffin turn to run. I pound after them. After much running on crazily tilting walkways, shouting and rain swept decks, we ran upto the Chinook and jumped into the cargo bay. Or in my case, jumped, nearly tripped over my feet and had to have my sorry arse being pulled in by Price. I nod my head in thanks and look back at the freighter carrying the nuke go down under the waves.

"Quite the sight isn't it?" a voice comments behind me. I nod, knowing what's going to happen in the days to come. Should I change things or shouldn't I? And why the hell am I here? And how did I land up here?

"You alright son?" Price asks me. He looked at me with concern.

"Just thinking about the mission sir" I surprise,surprise, my voice isn't a nice Scottish burr. To my untrained ear, it sounds like a South Londoner's the hell I know that, I don't know.

"Oh really? Care to share?" he replied, a little bit of sarcasm making it's way into his tone. I ignore the sarcasm.

"Sir, we did manage to, inadvertently, deep-six a nuclear device. So, what's stopped them from having already sent one over. And the cargo manifest in that container is in Arabic. So what is a Croatian freighter doing with cargo, from the Ultranationalists, being sent to someone who speaks Arabic? Do they have friends over there or something?" I say, hoping he gets the hint. One eyebrow of his is doing a good impression of adding volume to his hairline. He abruptly gets up.

"Gaz, set up a comlink with Baseplate. Get him to get the Yanks to start looking for radiological anomalies in and around the target area" Price ordered Gaz, who gave a sharp nod of acknowledgement. But I wasn't finished yet.

"Captain Price, sir!" I say and he turns to look at me.

"Al-Assad won't sit tamely when the Yanks hit him. He'll cut and run. And whoo do you think he'll run to?" I ask him

He nods at that,"Hopefully you're wrong Paladin" he comments. Honestly, I'm glad my mask was down to hide my shit-eating grin on hearing my codename.

Sorry about that McTavish, I think to myself.

After having dropped of my gear at the Quarter Master, I return to my bunk in the barracks, where I find a package waiting for me. I pick it up and open the envelope attached to it. It bore a London postmark. I opened the letter folded inside. It read:

Don't muck things up.

Sincerely,

The Doctor

I open the package and plopped it on my bed. And got the shock of my life.

The package was a computer game.

Mass Effect Director's Cut.

I couldn't stop the gulp I took.

Ooooooohhhhh shhhhhiiiiitttttt!

Hope y'all enjoyed it!

R&R!