A/N
From this point I'd like to thank user Sarge1995 for generously letting me use his ideas in my story. Credit for some of the things I don't want to spoil now goes to him. Rest assured that in time I'll point everything out, but for now all I can say is "Go check him out!". His story "The Outsider" inspired me greatly and gave a motivation to write my own.
So yeah... This is my first story and I hope you'll enjoy it. I'm not a native english speaker, and I've probably made some mistakes so I would greatly appreciate if you could point them out in reviews or PMs. :)
PS: I do not own Mass Effect. Bioware does.
"Create new audio file"
"Record"
"To whoever is listening: My name is Raphael Winters, I'm nineteen years old. I am recording this, because the following story, as crazy as it sounds is actually very true. Well, it's kind of still happening so I'll just tell you what has happened to this point, where I'm right now. Bear with me, I'm not mental. I think."
It was late spring, day like every other this time of year - sunny, with addition of rain and thun- derstorms. I was sitting in my room, looking out of the window in hopes to catch something that would take my mind off of the overwhelming boredom I felt. I was always kind of socially awkward, sure I had friends but none I could call a true best friend, so to speak. Never felt like I should be a part of the community, always standing alone with my beliefs and ideals. I'm no athlete, although with my medium-length dark blonde hair, six feet and 185lbs I always thought of myself as a pretty good looking guy (if I've only taken care of myself). I have brown-to-green eyes and I usually don't mind growing facial hear.
I don't smoke but I used to occasionally get drunk – that was one of the ways for me to loosen up and forget about the reality I lived in. I wasn't depressed but lonely and I sometimes felt like I didn't belong in there. I wanted to do something that would matter, that would motivate me to live and be a better person. Every time I had spoken with my peers, my colleagues I got more and more disgusted by just how far different priorities we had. I am far more mature than my age says. That's my opinion though, and I don't like to sound cocky, but that's just how I feel. I bet I'm not the only one out there with such thoughts. I think generally people liked me, but not that much to hang out with.
I always wanted to be a policeman, or special ops. Someone that could reinforce law, protect the weak. Instead I worked an IT job – never really liked it minus the video editing part. But I thought, hey! With all the trouble people have finding a decent job I probably wouldn't experience it, since there's always a vacant place for good IT specialists.
Either way I sat down and turned on my laptop. The weather outside picked up and I saw a lighting crossing the sky in some distance. Back to the computer screen and there was a pop up window saying I have a scheduled system back up. I clicked ok, and reached for a bottle of Coke, but before I opened it something weird caught my attention. What the hell? My computer screen went black and lines of commands started appearing.
executing meu*bat
executing elysium*bat
executing stringsetup*bat
commencing upload 1%
commencing upload 9%
Drops of rain started banging on my window, and a huge blue lightning tore the sky right above my house. "God damn feds, they found me" I laughed at myself, amused by just how easily I've been hacked. "Elysium, huh?" – that's kind of a cool name for a computer virus, but Black Screen? Isn't it a bit obvious?
This way or another I was actually going to run a full format some day this week… so. It could be today, I guess.
commencing upload 67%
Wait, it's uploading my data, what the hell am I thinking? I hit the power button, but nothing happened. Then I plugged it off of the socket. What the… ah yes. The battery.
commencing upload 99%
I put my hands on the battery exactly in time to be hit by the strange lighting. I heard the lighting rod outside the house buzzing followed by a huge struck. Hairs on my arms got electrified and stood on their end. I could feel the pressure flowing through my body as I and my laptop started glowing, fueled by enormous amounts of energy. "So that's it? I am a bit disappointed." – I thought to myself. Well, at least I'm probably going down with a bang. The pressure was growing and I started losing sight. Then everything froze for a split second and my guts went absolutely full retard. My stomach decided to go on the dance floor, while my lungs started to make out with each other. Then an overwhelming sense of pressure and everything went black.
I don't know how long I was out, but when I finally woke up I wasn't good at all. Headache and a massive one too; imagine you get hit head-on with a train. Well, it wasn't even close, I felt like I grew a black hole inside of my skull. I managed to look around – I was laying on the ground in some dark alley. "Shit, I'm in hell" – I muttered, and just before I blacked out again I felt someone laying hands on me and pulling me against the wall.
I feel better now, easy… easy. I opened my eyes as the sun shining directly above my head sent its bright light. I could still feel pumping deep in my head while I got on my feet. Just what the hell happened? I looked around looking maybe for an answer and I noticed some of my stuff laying on the ground. iPod, bottle of Coke, laptop, and my backpack full of books – basically the stuff that was laying around me when this… this thing happened; and surprisingly everything was intact. I checked my pockets – one pocket tissue, one chewing gum and one… credit chit? Okay now… What the hell is happening, where am I?
I looked around once again trying to figure things out. I looked down at the credit chit I was holding in my hand. "1000 credits left." – I read out loud. Credits? The thing itself also looked familiar – a simple rectangular shape 5 by 7 inches maybe… The little screen that read its value glowed bright orange.
"No way in hell!" – I said to myself, pieces coming together. I knelt down and reached for my laptop, opened it and pressed space. It was still showing the black screen with commands but now there were few lines more.
commencing upload 100%
upload in progress…
upload completed
.
.
.
Raphael, I know it must be shocking for you, to say the least. But you will be just fine. As you probably figured by know, you are on Elysium – a human colony in the year 2176. It makes no sense to you right now, but I will explain you everything in time. We will be in contact.
C.H.
PS:
Get yourself a gun. This is VERY real.
I picked up the backpack and trashed into it everything I found including my precious laptop. I slowly made my way through all the trash lying on the ground, my heart beating frantically as the city noises I was hearing grew louder. I went around the corner and there was a way out of the alley, connecting to what seemed to be a high street. I could get just a glimpse of it from where I was standing, but it was well enough to get me petrified. Group of pedestrians walking down the sidewalk wouldn't be anything scary, but they weren't exactly all human. Two Turians babbling loudly with their Salarian buddy wasn't on my list of what I expected to witness after being struck by a lightning. And there was this big neon with Alliance Navy logo hanging on the wall directly across the alley.
"Patriotism, Honor, Valor – to serve is to know yourself. Enlist know!"
Yep, that's official – I'm crazy.