[Prologue: Timeline]

War is progress, Peace is stagnation. -Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

2148 CE: Man uncovers a Prothean Database deep within the crust of Mars' Southern Pole, Promethei Planum. FTL Travel is developed from this cache of information and deep exploration of the Sol System begins.

2149 CE: Charon, Pluto's moon, is identified as a Mass Effect Relay encased in thick layers of ice. John Grissom leads the first team on an expedition through the relay to the Arcturus System, 36-LY away. The Mass Relay is discovered to be a Galaxy-wide network. The Systems Alliance charter is signed by the 18 largest nations on Earth and becomes the Military and Exploration spearhead of Humanity.

2151 CE: The Arcturus Station is built as the Systems Alliance begins massive Military Expansion. An accident at Singapore International Spaceport exposes hundreds of humans to dust-form Element Zero. Roughly 30% of the children born in Singapore after suffer from cancerous growths.

2152 CE: The Delta Pavonis Foundation begins settlement of humanity's first extra-solar colony world, the planet Demeter. Later that year, additional colonies are founded on Eden Prime and Terra Nova.

2157 CE: The First Contact War

2158 CE: Biotic Potential is Discovered, on April 11 Margaret Shepherd is Born

[Entry 1: Childhood Pt. 1]

My earliest memories were of fields. Sprawling, endless fields of tall grass, corn, barley, wheat, and soy. It all grew well in the rich soils of Mindoir, as well as the planet's own domestic vegetables. I had a small family, just two parents and an older brother. He was the shadow that blocked out the sun, looming over to grip me under the arms and toss me into the air. I remember his hands -like my father's- rough and caked with the rich soil, strong and warm from his hours of hard labor in the fields. I remember my mother's smile, just a flicker now, with all the warmth of Mindoir's unending Summer. I remember how quickly it all disappeared.

My mother and I manned a small produce stall at the Spaceport nearest the farm. She sold whatever small surplus we had as I sat and braided fat blades of grass and wildflowers into thick crowns. My brother and father were consulting the captain of a trade ship, bartering for the worth of our goods. I remember hearing a high-pitched whistling from above before a beam of light shot down and blasted the docked trade ship into the sky, crates and debris flying everywhere. My mother snatched me from the stall before it flew apart. I was suddenly an infant again as she carried me away from the wreckage, clinging to her tightly as she bolted from the destruction. The sky darkened with ships, unfamiliar and sinister, as a thousand more beams of light shot down at us, and set it all on fire. My mind couldn't process what was happening fast enough, the explosions, the wreckage, the people, the screaming.

"Mason!" My mother shrieked, "Jonathan!"

"Mom!" My brother hollered, his voice coming from across the port. My father was slung across his broad back, slumped over. We met in the middle amidst the chaos and ran towards home together. "Falling I-beam," he panted as we ran, "it caught him in the chest, knocked him back. He's still breathing."

"Where are the guards?" she cried, "Where is the Alliance?"

"Look out!" We hit the ground. My lungs collapsed under my mother's weight as she grunted heavily. Something hot was eating away at my arm, singeing, burning. I screamed, tears pouring down my face. She yanked my jacket off, tearing the heat away, but the pain dug deep. Picking me up, she swung me around a corner, crouching behind a large stack of steel shipping crates.

"You're okay, you're okay," She cooed, wiping my hair away from my face. My throat burned with smoke as I whimpered, clutching the charred flesh of my arm. "Stay here," she panted, looking over her shoulder, "Mom will be right back."

I could only watched her go, fear and confusion paralysing me against the hard, metal crates. Shouting filled the air before a burst of loud, short pops rang out. The screams I couldn't focus on while running became the only thing I could hear. Bullets slugged each and every surface, pinging off the shielded guard station and puncturing everything else. I cowered behind the safety of the crates, eyes wide open, the melted flesh of my arm bleeding through my fingers as I gripped it tightly against my chest, not even registering the pain anymore. Dust and ash fell from the sky, and all I could do was breathe it in, sit, and wait while the shots rang out. I remember when the screaming finally ceased and the stench of death had crawled into my blood to settle.

Minutes, hours, days, I don't know how much time passed before footsteps started coming my way. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed to the God my parents so dearly cherished.

"Maggie," someone whispered, "it's me." Johnny. I looked up and saw him, fresh tears streaking down my face in relief. My older brother was caked in sweat, blood, and grime, his shirt soaked fully through. Tears fell down his own cheeks, carving a clean path through the dirt. My breathing came in short gasps as I launched myself into his arms. I felt them tighten around me, something hard and metal knocking against my back before he pulled ever so slightly away. "Are you ready to play a game, Monkey?" he asked, using my childhood nickname to try and sound lighter. I didn't like the steel edge in his voice.

"Where are Mom and Daddy?" I asked, my voice coming out in a strained whimper.

Something flickered across his face, something that crushed my heart and deflated my lungs. He didn't answer, a grim line setting his jaw as he met my gaze. Silence communicated the rest.

"We have to go, Mags," he said, looking all around us anxiously. "I want you to hold on tight like a good Monkey, and whatever you do, don't look. Okay?" I nodded. "I need you to promise."

"I promise."

I was the only lie I'd ever told.

Twined together, my parents laid on the ground of the spaceport, almost as if they were asleep in bed. The blood pooling around their unmoving bodies told me what Jonathan didn't... couldn't. I held on tight with both arms around his neck and both legs locked tight around his torso, letting my body's pain drive out the image of the two of them. I couldn't bring myself to look away from the carnage. Pale, deadened faces, broken, twisted bodies like puppets cut from their strings. I breathed in whatever acrid dust was drifting to the ground, and choked on it. Jonathan's breathing was fast and laboured, but he didn't stop. We had almost made it to the carport before a shot hit the ground near his feet.

Jonathan screeched to a stop and whipped around. Three men who weren't men raised their guns. two pairs of dead, black eyes peered from each of their tall, slick faces. Long, scaly jowls hung from their jaws and disappeared into suits of hard, steely armor. Three pairs of nostrils on three faces flared and twitched, breathing in blood and fear. My brother crouched slowly, peeling me off his back with a strength he'd rarely shown me.

"When I say run," he murmured without turning his head, "Find the guard station by the carport and stay there until I come and get you, okay?"

"Don't move, human!" One of the aliens spoke- Galactic Neutral- his voice deep and thick like the toad-brown skin covering his body.

"Run," Jonathan whispered, giving me a push. With the other hand he raised the metal thing I'd felt against my back, and fired. I ran, as fast as my twelve-year-old legs could carry me, down through the spaceport's entrance, past the gate and around the corner to the guard house. I heard a burst of shots, an explosion, then silence.

"Are you clear over there?" I heard from nearby, another dark voice.

I had climbed through the broken window of the battered, abandoned post, cutting my hands and legs in the process. I was hiding under one of two desks, clutching a gun and a shiny, disk-like object in my hands. The gun was heavy, and uncomfortably warm. Thick steam was coming out from the sides, curling into the ceiling of the desk and dissipating. My breathing was ragged, the dust from outside coating my lungs, invading my blood. I was tired, but my body was a tight live-wire, ready to lash out at a second's notice.

"Uh-huh, yeah we'll check. How many did you round up? Alright. Yeah we have about forty-five. It'll be enough." Something clicked and the voice grunted. Heavy footsteps rushed the building. They were going to kill me. The security door went flying into the back wall as two pairs of footsteps burst into the room.

"Found you."

I was staring into the face of Death, and as It reached down to grab me, the world went white.

"Clear! All dead in here Sir!"

"Private, try plowing ahead again and see if I don't kill you myself."

"...Yessir, but Sir I think you should come look at this."

"Local watch must've put up a fight."

"I don't think so Sir, the guard that was in here might've been able to kill these two inside, but not the eight outside Sir. Not by himself, and not the way these aliens were done in. His gun is missing and they're completely- is that a child?"

My head was pounding. A thousand black spots danced across my vision as I slowly came to. My head lolled out to the side, catching a glimpse of hard blue.

"Hey, hey are you alright?" A warm hand rested on my shoulder. My body charged up like an electrified fence. I felt the energy whip out, throwing the hand and its owner back against the opposite wall of the post.

"Woah there, easy now," a gruffer, deeper voice soothed. "Private are you alright? Don't touch unknowns without confirmation of safety. It looks like we got one of them biotics."

"Whe...re..is..Mom...Johnny?" I managed. I opened my eyes wider, my hands unconsciously dropping the gun and the metal disc.

"Easy now," the voice eased, careful. The gun and disc disappeared. "Private, take the grenade, the gun's warped beyond use." My vision cleared. A big, white-haired man was in front of me, crouched in an open stance, one hand steadying him on the floor, the other gripping the table above me. "What's your name, kiddo?"

"Shepard," I choked out. "Maggie Shepard."