A/N: Well, here we are again. I finally came out from hiding and after playing Mass Effect one too many times I finally decided to make a story. :) So hope you enjoy the adventure as much as I will enjoy writing this!
2183 CE-Alchera, Amada system, Omega Nebula
Right jab. Left cross. Block. Sidestep. Left jab. Right jab.
Following that near perfect execution, Lt. Kaidan Alenko found himself ass-first on the floor of the cargo hold's makeshift arena staring up at the ceiling. Laughter from next to him shook him out of his stupor.
"I had no idea falling was part of the exercise, Alenko."
"Yeah, well it would have been ended with you falling on your arse instead, Major." He took the offered hand and hauled himself to his feet, his dizziness and slight stumble jarring him fully alert before he could fall again. "Just how hard were you trying to hit me anyways? It felt like getting head butted by a krogan." He rubbed his sore stomach. It was going to bruise. Kaidan took his position on the other side of the ring, settling into a relaxed defensive stance.
Mark smirked and dropped into a stance, inviting Kaidan to make the first move."Trust me. If I was going to hit you that hard you wouldn't be conscious."
Kaidan struck with a low leg sweep followed by an uppercut, and Mark dodged them both. He felt himself over extend his punch, and received a hard roundhouse to his already bruised stomach as a reward, knocking the wind from him. He backed off and raised his hands in surrender, his opponent shooting him a smug grin in return. "Just wait until we get to biotics. Then you're really going to hate me."
Kaidan just gave him a dry look. "I can hardly wait." Mark grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. "What are we doing in this part of the galaxy anyways? There aren't any geth from what the scans say, and it has been relatively quiet regardless."
Mark groaned and stretched his arms above his head, his joints popping. "Well for starters, we were pretty much told to come out here. We have no other assignments, so that leaves a lot of free time. And lastly," he turned to stare out the viewport in the far side of the room as the silhouette of the Normandy flew through space. Kaidan caught his silent stare.
"You miss her don't you?" Kaidan asked.
Mark just turned to look at Kaidan him with one eyebrow raised.
"Like you don't? I notice a lot of little things, Kaidan, and I know that you and she were more than close friends." Kaidan's blush and the fact he was hiding it, or trying to, caused Mark to smirk. "But to answer your question...there isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish I could join her."
"Then what's stopped you? You were there on Virmire, hell you saved me! You could have let Shepard know you were alive after all these years."
"Well being technically declared dead does kind of hinder that. Besides, it's not like I was oblivious to what she was doing all these years." They entered the mess hall, greeted by other members of their ragtag group. "It's not like I'm the only 'dead' person in this group."
Kaidan grumbled and shook his head. If there was one thing that his former commanding officer and his current one had in common was they were both so foolishly stubborn. Almost as bad as Wrex. His thoughts drifted back to Virmire, on Shepard's decision to save Ashley Williams and the nuke, while he held off the geth forces with Kirrahe and his men. It was the right choice, he knew. He had fully expected to die on that hellhole, if it had not been for Mark and his squad that came out of the shadows and slaughtered the rest of the geth.
His thoughts were broken as alarms blared through the cloaked ship, startling him.
"Unidentified ship in range of scanners! Unidentified ship in range of scanners!"
Mark stood up and gazed around the mess, taking in the faces of his makeshift family. "Alright ladies and gents, Time to do what we do best. We move in five!"
XxX
2183 CE
One week prior
There were two things that Commander Katelyn Shepard despised more than anything at the moment: politicians and Geth. Two months have not even gone by since Saren and Sovereign's defeat on the Citadel , and already she was being sent back out into Citadel Space to hunt for the remaining Geth.
She dropped to a knee, her sniper rifle out and aimed at a wayward Geth Stalker, and fired. The bullet pierced the head and caused the stalker to explode, taking out a Geth trooper next to it.
Katelyn guessed that after killing thousands of them on her chase after Saren, she should have known the Council would look to her to finish off the remaining Geth forces. She guessed that traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other chasing after the Geth deemed her an expert. How? Most of the time her squad would go in blind and hopefully come out of the skirmishes unscathed. She had no clue as to what their inner workings were, if they were capable at using tactics or were just cannon fodder, or if the Geth had any weaknesses (Well, mostly.) Later on, she had Tali explain some of how the Geth functioned, and even had a few parts brought on the Normandy in order to get a hands on experience. It worked wonders as the hunt progress to its climax.) She just stuck to her preferred method. Point, shoot, and repeat.
It had yet to fail.
Unless she missed one that got too close. Then her twin daggers Wolf and Shade came out to play. They were an anonymous gift that she had received after she graduated from the N7 program. She still did not know who had sent them, but upon first seeing them, she instantly fell in love.
She glanced to her left. Ashley Williams had cleared the path of geth that were about to flank their position. She was currently dusting off her weapon and armor when she turned to meet Shepard's quirked eyebrow.
"Sorry Commander. It fell when I got tackled to the ground." She finished with a kick at the sparking chunk of metal at her feet, flashing Shepard a grin. Katelyn grinned back before checking her visor. It was a gift from Garrus before the Normandy left the Citadel. It was the same model as his, though slightly smaller to fit over her eye, and instead of blue, the display was a violet tinge. She whistled as three numbers clicked in the right corner.
"Careful Williams, at the rate you're going I might lose this bet."
This just made Ashley's grin widen. "Someone's getting nervous! Afraid you'll lose?"
"I'm just warming up, Williams! You won't be ahead for long." Shepard pulled out her pistol and fired off three quick shots, downing two Geth troopers that were creeping up behind Tali's position in front of them. The Quarian's shotgun, which had taken out four Geth, was in the process of cooling down, or so Shepard thought. The two geth crumpled to the floor in a groaning heap, leaving an agitated Tali glaring at her Commander.
"Shepard! You stole my kill!"
"Opps? Sorry Tali. I thought you were waiting for your gun to cool down." Katelyn flashed her a sheepish grin. Tali waved her apology away and shook her head with an audible sigh.
"I still had one shot left. I could have taken them down easily. I think that was the last of them though."
Katelyn sighed in relief and rolled her shoulders. After an hour of chasing after this group of wayward Geth, they could finally leave and get back into open space. If there was one thing she loved the most about being a Spectre, it was the near constant travel through the galaxy. Something about it was peaceful to Shepard and she never felt more relaxed than on the Normandy. She walked up the steps to the platform that Joker had first dropped them off at, her comm system chirping.
"Commander I'm ready to extract you. No immediate Geth in the area for now. ETA twenty minutes." Twenty minutes? She had not realized he was that far off. A gnawing feeling started in her stomach. This group of Geth seemed too easy. A lot could go wrong in twenty minutes.
Katelyn rolled her shoulders again, slowly working the kinks and sores out of her arms. She worked her shoulders and neck loose, then stretched and flexed her arms. She twisted her torso side to side, the armor giving her enough movement to pop the kinks in her back. Finally she bent down and stretched her legs, finally allowing her body to ease the tension from the previous firefight. She had made it a habit after each mission, either right after or on the shuttle ride back to the ship. IT kept her body loose and alert, as well as helped to make sure nothing would cramp or tighten on her unexpectantly.
Tali and Ashley were off to the side of the platform, idly talking and watching for any sign of movement. They silently agreed with Shepard's thought. Something was wrong. It was way too quiet to be normal. Tali checked her shotgun again; making sure it was finished with the cool down while Ashley walked the perimeter of the platform. Katelyn, finished with her stretches, stood at the edge of the makeshift platform that stretched to the edge of a steep drop-off. She silently marveled at the beauty of the area they were in, the ground overgrown with shrubs and moss that stretched for miles, with a massive river running the edge of the cliff. Shepard peered over and whistled slightly. Tali came to stand next to her and looked over, her body tensing slightly.
"Why is it that when I tell you I have a fear of heights, you always take me someplace with a very very large drop off." Tali turned to glare at the Commander, who looked back at her with a lopsided grin.
"Aw come on Tali, it's not that far to the bottom. Maybe forty or fifty meters down. I've certainly jumped from higher."
"That's because you're…you."
The Commander gave an indignant huff, crossed her arms and mock glared at Tali. "What's that supposed to mean!? I am the most normal person out there!" The glare was ruined as the corners of her mouth twitched up.
Tali giggled, nudging Shepard a little as Ashley came up to stand beside them, joining in, "You? Normal? Seriously Skipper, you have to be the most unorthodox person I've ever met."
Shepard stared wide eyed at her two companions, before her trademark smirk fell back into place, "So says the woman who nearly jumped off a forty meter drop to escape a charging krogan." She laughed at the blush that crept up the Gunnery Chief's neck. Tali smacked Shepards arm, snorting.
"If I remember right, you were the one who ran over a Tresher Maw with the Mako…twice!"
"And don't forget the Armatuer on Therum with a couple of grenades and a rigged geth torso."
"And the mining laser."
Tali shuddered at the memory. "And that blasted mining laser."
Shepard stared at her two friends for a full minute, blinking. Mustering up whatever dignity she had left, she huffed and grumbled. "I'm not that overexcentric!" At their glares she went back to grumbling about insubordination some more. "Ok fine! I guess I can be a little…ballsy." Tali and Ashley snorted. "Ok, a lot ballsy. But can you blame me?" She gave another lopsided grin before turning back to stare out over the cliff again.
Her face took on a thoughtful look, a small smile forming. "My father always had a saying, something I grew up with trying to live up to: 'Don't follow what people expect you to be and achieve great things because that's what they want. Be unorthodox and achieve extraordinary things, then people will be sure to remember it.'"
Whatever Tali's retort was to that was interrupted as a light clink, clink, clink was heard. "Do you hear that?" Shepard and Ashley looked at each other and nodded, already pulling the pistol and assault rifle out. The trio inched forward on the platform, fanning out to keep an eye on the other, and to cover more ground.
Shepard motioned for Tali to watch her six as she took point, walking down the steps of the metal platform. She was about to turn when she felt something, like the butt of a gun, hit her in the back, sending her sprawling. She rolled on impact, flipping over and firing her pistol at the spot behind her. She heard the familiar ping of a kinetic shield before a geth appeared, shotgun pointed directly at her.
Katelyn yelped and flung her arm forward, a biotic throw flinging the geth back and away from her. "Ambush!"
As the words left her lips, another geth appeared near Tali, four more sprung up from the soil beneath them along with a Geth Prime.
XxX
2183 CE- Amada System, Omega Nebula
Six days later
Shepard's eyes fluttered open as she slowly came back to consciousness. She opened them fully, only to shut them again as the light from above shortly blinded her. She tried to sit up, but felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Stay still Commander. The medication has to wear off before you can go running around the Normandy again."
Katelyn groaned pitifully as she lay back on the bed. She opened her eyes again and took in her surroundings. She recognized the med bay on the Normandy instantly. She had been in enough to memorize the lay out perfectly. She did not know whether that was sad or not. "Are Tali and Ashley ok?"
"Tali'Zorah is fine Commander. She suffered minimal injuries and a suit puncture," Katelyn began to sit up, her eyes widening slightly. Chakwas smiled and patted her shoulder that was not wrapped in miles of bandages. "No need for concern. She said it was not major and that she could repair it. The Gunnery Chief is down in the armory. She came into the med bay soaking wet, carrying you in. Commander if I may ask…what possessed you to take a swim in the middle of a firefight?"
Even though her mouth was set in a firm line, Shepard could see her eyes twinkle in amusement. Shepard winced as she tried to move her right arm to scratch the back of her neck. She quirked an eyebrow, looking at the doctor. "I got pitched off a cliff."
"What!?" Shepard winced at the raised voice as Chakwas started probing her broken arm, muttering to herself about soldiers and their recklessness.
"I got blindsided by a Geth Prime and got thrown off a cliff. Apparently, I broke my arm t- ow! Damnit that hurt!" She hissed in between clenched teeth as Chakwas smacked her arm again.
"That should remind you not to be so careless Commander." She shook her head and smiled at the glare Shepard sent her. "Anyways your arm should heal up fine soon enough. Your collar bone is fractured and you have a deep cut down your forearm from the fall, I imagine."
"Great, another scar. Anyways, where are we? How long was I out?"
"Currently we are in the Omega Nebula, still scanning for Geth. We have been here for the past three days. As for how long you were out? I'd say about six days."
"Six? I must have been worse off than I thought. No wonder I feel sluggish." Shepard finally found the strength to sit up and swing her legs over the bed, bracing herself with her good arm. Her injured arm was bandaged and tied to her torso, just in case she tried to move it. Katelyn grumbled and slowly inched herself off the bed, her legs shaking slightly from the weight. Chakwas made to help her but was waved off, "I got this Doc. It shouldn't take too long before I can walk normally again." She started taking small steps around the bed letting her legs get feeling back into them. She gave the doctor a lopsided grin as she started heading for the door. "Is Tali still in engineering?"
"Yes Commander. Last time I saw her she was working with Engineer Adams on some upgrade or another. I'm not too sure." Shepard gave her a nod, gingerly touching her shoulder before heading first to her cabin to get her armor. Lately, ever since Saren was defeated, she made it a habit to keep her armor on. Her logic was that you should always be prepared. Moreover, apparently Garrus did not mind always wearing armor, so she saw no reason why she should complain.
XxX
The elevator door slid open as Shepard hobbled out slightly, still doped up on painkillers. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off the oncoming dizziness.
"Commander you're up! Thank God, I was worried a broken arm wasn't the worst of it." Ashley made a beeline for her, stopping to salute, and then pulled her into a light hug.
Katelyn smiled and wrapped her good arm around Ash's shoulders, walking towards the gun table. "You know me Ash. Always looking for that new thrill. Jumping off of a cliff seemed like the way to get it." She grinned broadly as Ashley snickered, pulling away from Shepard and gathering her weapons.
"I did what I could to them. Some parts though were damaged on your sniper rifle from the fall. And the Prime demolished your pistol after Tali knocked it on its ass."
Katelyn blinked, "How did she manage that?"
Ashley smirked, "She will have to relay that one to you, ma'am." Shepard shook her head and bid farewell to Ashley as she made her way down to engineering. She found the Quarian near the Normandy's drive core, huddled against the railing with Engineer Adams working on her omnitool. Shepard's own omnitool was lost as she tumbled over the cliff, which she was sad about. She loved her omniblade attachment and felt a little empty without having the familiar object on her right arm. Just as that thought passed her mind, she saw Adams jump back slightly in surprise at Tali's squeal of delight as the familiar orange blade shot out.
Shepard grinned at the sight and cleared her throat. "Careful Tali. I wouldn't want you to poke his eye out. We still need Adams." Tali turned as she heard the door open and close, her posture indicating to Shepard that she was surprised and excited.
"Keelah, Shepard, thanks for scaring me out of my enviro-suit!"
"Anytime." Shepard laughed as Tali shook her head. "What are you working on Tali?"
Tali turned around and picked something off the table that Katelyn could not see at first. When Tali turned back around, she saw her omnitool in the quarian's hands.
"I had found it near the shore when Ashley helped pull you out of the water. It was damaged so I repaired it, and upgraded your omniblade as well." Katelyn cut her off with a grin and a quick hug, before slipping it on her wrist and activating it.
The orange omnitool flared to life, illuminating Katelyn's face. As she was pouring over the different menus and settings, she glanced up with a questioning look. "What's this prototype function? That wasn't there before."
"Oh you're going to love it! Here let me show you." As Shepard offered her arm to the excited quarian, Tali inputted a few commands on the omnitool. After a few moments, a little purple digital orb materialized in front of the two women. Shepard blinked and circled around the orb, peering from side to side as it followed her.
"What is it?"
Tali giggled as she watched her Commander and best friend, who she thought of as a sister, play with the orb, moving it around, until she twisted her hands and made it spin in a circle rapidly. "It's just a small prototype that I created before coming onto the Citadel. It's called a combat drone. I believe the Alliance is in the process of incorporating them to the engineers."
"Hm, well it's great! I love it! Thank you Tali." Katelyn beamed at Tali as she collapsed her hands together, making the combat drone phase out. "Now I have to think of a good name for it."
Tali and Shepard talked for another hour afterwards about arrange of different topics. Most of it centered on the Flotilla, and Tali's plans to return with the data Shepard had given her as a gift. They talked about the potential upgrades for Katelyn's combat drone, and she showed Tali her daggers. Tali told her of an upgrade she could give them, and very reluctantly, Shepard handed them over to the Quarian. As Shepard turned to leave and bid Tali farewell, the alarms in the Normandy flared to life just as the ship rocked from an explosion.
XxX
Katelyn floated in the vast emptiness of space, staring in shock at the burning remains of her ship. She had smashed her broken arm as she got blasted out of the Normandy and right now she was fighting the searing pain it caused. She couldn't believe how it happened. She watched as the large unidentified ship tore into the smaller frigate again, finally rendering it into burning pieces as it fell into the planet below.
She felt gravity start to pull her body towards the planet, and all she could think about was how she did not want to go out like this. She felt around her helmet as she rechecked her oxygen lines, relieved to find that her now useless right arm saved her from the inevitable oxygen loss and suffocating in space. Now she had to worry about being burned alive as she entered atmo.
"Well…at least I will get to see you again, Kaidan…I just hope you can forgive me."
As she drifted further towards the planet she thought (or at least her rattled and tortured mind wanted her to think) that she saw a familiar figure in blue armor reach towards her. She weakly raised her arm, and as she saw his familiar brown eyes, smiled as she let the last of her exhausted body fall into darkness.
A/N: Well here's the first chapter. :) Don't worry though, everything will be explained as the story gets off the ground. The first few chapters will just sort of an introduction to most of the major players. ^^
as always R&R's are very welcome!