It Builds Character

I was born on the Colony Mindoir, April 11th 2154. My parents requested the posting, to give them time to raise me until I was old enough to be with them on ship-board posts. when I was four, they transferred to the SSV Harrogate, a mid-sized support vessel that never gets sent into combat zones until they aren't such anymore. By the time I was old enough to start high school, I'd been on a lot of ships and stations. Then they decided that I was better off living with an Aunt and Uncle on Earth. They'd never even been to earth, and short visits to the planet-bound facilities there for the Systems Alliance Navy doesn't count.

It's a lot different than they thought it'd be. For one thing, because my Aunt and Uncle aren't blood relatives, and it was more of an informal arrangement while I attending high school, when my dad died on duty, he'd transferred to a combat ship that was damaged in some attack... I didn't find out until mom sent a letter... three months later asking how I was handling the news about his death. And I dont mean that it took three months for it to reach me... I mean she literally waited all those months before getting in touch.

So yeah, Not a few issues with mommy dearest.

Then my Aunt died. She was just walking home, when some thug stabbed her, stole her stuff and ran off. she was left on the sidewalk for hours before a passing police car reported it... despite the fact that it was a public path that saw a lot of use.

My Uncle took it hard, and either ignored me or, in fits of rage at the world, beat me. I left.

For awhile, I was stuck on the streets, sleeping in dank corners, with nothing to stop predators. And god I wish I meant wild dogs. Eventually I joined a gang, to protect myself. I... prefer not to remember that period of my life.

I was fifteen when I had my chance. A recruiter down on his numbers ignored certain signs and put me through the system. It hadn't been the first attempt, but never more than once to each recruiter.

I lied about who I was and joined the Alliance. They sent me to a training facility they'd built on Mindoir, one of a dozen sattelite facilities for training enlisted personnel. Because Genetic enhancement was part and parcel of joining any of the services, that is, If I wanted to be more than a desk jockey that's only in it for 3 years of paid college tuition, DNA samples were taken, analysed for any incompatibilities with certain boosts for the only fields I passed for (all of which are combat related) and... they identified me. And my real age. So they dumped me out of the service, with a message to that old cow that I was barred from entry into the alliance due to lying about who I was and how old I was on my first application.

Thankfully, they didn't send me back to earth. No, they just kicked me out the door and that was that. Literally.

Mindoir... it... it was easy enough getting onto my own feet there. This lovely couple with their own rebellious daughter (Katya) my age took me in, and insisted that I went to High School, which I'd quit at the same time as I'd ran away from my Uncles. At first, I was in classes with much younger kids, because lets face it, the overcrowded classes on earth had teachers that couldn't be bothered, and my parents had been too busy working and changing posts every two to three months to let me have a stable education, whether it was them or someone else.

This, caused certain problems. I was bullied a lot... for the first few months. but like I said, the people who took me in were lovely. They helped me out, and (even to this day) I have no idea how, but they somehow roped Katya into tutoring me in the subjects she was getting top marks in - literature and history. On a scale of one to ten, with ten being top marks, and five being the minimum to pass to the next year level with everyone else, (Six being the average for those without genetic enhancement, seven with), because my parents were both enhanced and passed those to me, I rate an eight. An eight gets me from sitting in classes with eleven-twelve year olds, up to classes with those the same age - fifteen-sixteen, in six months.

It was mental, as Katya would say. When I turned Sixteen, there was a big party... well not big like I've seen my friends have... friends... even to this day it amazes me that I could call anyone a friend and mean it. Anyway, my friends had big parties where they'd invite several dozen people, there'd be loud music and stuff. But then again they were... popular is misleading, I dont mean popular as in they think they are because they're jocks or cheerleaders, in the 'in' crowd, no I mean, they're... average, everyone knows them and aside from a handful, didn't hang around the same small group every minute of every day, fluid friend dynamics is how my guardians described it once. But me, I settled for hanging around half a dozen, and even that wasn't all the time. I'd grown up solitary, had to learn how to have fun with my self... and that sounded alright in my head.

my 'big' party was just those six friends, my guardians, Katya...

three weeks later, and I was glad that I'd only gotten the boot from Basic halfway through, because by then they'd finished basic gun safety, maintenance and use. It was the beginning of the Skyllian Blitz. The Batarian Slavers were here.

I was one of the few that managed to fight them off physically. I'd learned a lot running with a gang, and a lot on my own before and since.

Did I mention that my parents had genetic enhancements that was passed onto me? I'm strong for my age... hell I'm stronger than many adults on this planet. And when I was young, listening to my parents when they'd have a briefing and thought I wasn't near... well I've picked up some things along the way.

Maybe that's why everyone turned to me for what to do.

I have to admit, as serious as it was... and as torn as I later had been watching my guardians being cut down in a hail of weapons fire despite having surrendered because they were 'too old'... I did have fun showing Katya how to shoot. And... after said incident, even I couldn't blame Katya for taking a little enjoyment what she did to those batarians in our counter attacks.

Where was the alliance, you'll be wondering?

Well... the batarians took out the token garrison at the same time as our Extranet bouys, cutting us off.

It took two weeks for the Alliance to even start sending ships. And it takes two days to travel - even between Mass Relays takes a while, and longer travelling with normal FTL to reach said relays or planets.

They sent out a patrol ship to investigate. It was destroyed two days later. The alliance gave them five days to investigate and send word. Note the use of 'and'. Four days travel, and a day to linger.

So it was into the third week they even sent out a proper force... to investigate how our colony went 'black', and to investigate what happened to the patrol ship... and in fleets, there's the slower ships in the group to account for. You can probably see where I'm going with this.

In all, we'd been fighting constant attacks for a month by the time the alliance arrived.

A Month.

Now, you'll probably wonder about just how the slavers were attacking.

Well, the initial attack on that first day was quite a lot of combat ships... then they switched to area-by-area heavy pacification, with a side order of planet-wide raiding parties to keep everyone outside their main target from rallying against them.

the town I lived in was hit in the second week, by that point I'd gathered a sizeable force and had been leading them against the raiders.

Over time, we got better, and bigger as more people flocked to... my banner, I guess, in the hopes of staying safe. When the batarians moved their eyes to our town, we were ready. I was ready... and we really gave them one hell of a fight.

I had a leg up, I admit, in more ways than just what I've said. Batarian tactics was one of the few things I'd learned about before I ever heard of algebra or trigonometry.

The alliance fleet that arrived was lead by a cruiser under the command of Captain Hackett. Yes, that Hackett. After 'Pacification' of the Batarian slavers, it didn't take long for the unit assigned to my town to hear about our group's success. He offered me a full enlistment and education scholarship for officers training on the spot. Apparently he'd served with my dad, and I'd inherited his tactical skills.

What about that ban from enlistment? yeah, Hackett got it overturned, and outright erased from my file.

So yeah, that's my life until I joined the Alliance Marines.

A/N: You can probably guess where I'm going with this :P and who.