Disclaimer: This story is based in Bioware's universe of Mass Effect. I do not own any of the characters, names, or places from the Mass Effect universe. This is simply my interpretation of the events that took place on Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz. All original characters and places are of my own creation, and all errors or inconsistencies are of course my own fault.

Deference for Darkness

2170 CE
Norton Colonial Farming Community, Mindoir, 0323 GST

The screams.

The screams were endless.

Elin had never heard anything like it before. Sure kids would scream when they were running wild on the playground, and Jason screamed when they'd watched that horror vid on the extranet; but not like this.

Not like this.

The worst part was that she couldn't tell the difference between the men and the women and the children. Noises were being torn from their throats, keening shrieks that ranged from fear to pain to despair. Some managed to form words like "Mommy!" or "NO! Please!'' Others were formless, long drawn out wails that cut off abruptly when... no, she didn't want to think about that.

They all stopped eventually.

The last shriek had died away to a low whimper, and then silence had descended on the darkness of the barn. She didn't know how long she laid there, hiding in the straw, and the dirt, and the muck, and the stink. Could have been a minute, an hour, a whole year even, but she couldn't bring herself to move, to come out of hiding. A horse whickered worriedly in the stall next to the one she was hiding in, and she flinched for the noise had been loud in the deafening silence. Her heart beat a frantic tattoo against her chest, and the blood pounded in her ears. Surely someone would hear the beat, someone would hear the pounding and the batarian slavers would find her and then she'd be screaming too. Tears slid down her grime covered cheeks and she bit the knuckles on her right hand to keep herself from sobbing aloud.

More time passed, and Elin still didn't know how long. The straw was poking through her clothes and she was getting increasingly uncomfortable sitting on the cold, hard dirt of the empty horse stall. It was so dark, she couldn't even tell if her eyes were open or shut. She could hear something though, very faint. At first she thought it might be one of the horses, but it continued to get louder and it wasn't any noise a horse would make.

It was artificial.

An engine.

Her heart froze in her chest.

Chunk-a-chunk-a-chunk-a

The batarians must have realized their mistake. They'd never checked the barn. Now they were coming back.

They've come back for me.

Chunk-a-chunk-a-chunk-a

As the engine roar grew, she still couldn't make herself move. She couldn't bring herself to leave the relative safety of the barn even when she knew the game was up.

The engines were deafening now, it sounded as if they were going to land right on top of the barn and crush it into oblivion. She almost wished they would, it would mean she wouldn't have to scream like the others. All of a sudden the sound stopped, and then there was the whoosh of a hydraulic door sliding away and the murmur of voices, muffled from where she sat. They were going to find her, she had to run, she had to go... but she couldn't move. The barn door creaked open and a dim orange light filled the darkness, cut by the surgical brightness of an assault rifle's tactical lamp as the beam traced back and forth, searching... searching...

"Alliance Marines. We're here to help, is anyone there?"

Elin jumped at the sudden and loud female voice, the straw rustled, conspicuously noisy. It betrayed her. The tactical beam fell on the stall where she was hiding, the white light blazing through the cracks in the wooden boards. Then the stall door was pushed open and Elin threw her hands up in front of her eyes, it was too bright, it hurt. They were going to take her away now, and she was going to have to scream like the others. A pitiful, desperate sob escaped her lips, and she hated herself for it.

"Please..." She whimpered. "Don't hurt me." It was absolutely disgusting. The combat armor made the woman look bigger than she actually was, as she went down on her knee in front of Elin. She took her helmet off, revealing that she actually was human and this wasn't a trick. Completely, and beautifully human.

"Hey," She made shushing noises as she gently placed a hand on Elin's trembling shoulder. "Its alright kid, you're safe now. I'm with the Alliance, my name's Sara Gomez. Everything's going to be alright."

Sara. Her name was Sara, just like her mother. Elin had left her behind. They had been running from the shelter because the slavers had found it and Sara Shepard had fallen, snagged her foot on a rock or something. Elin hadn't even stopped to help her, she'd been too scared. Even when her mother called after her, screamed for her to come back and help her, Elin had kept running. Then her screams had become like the others.

She never even looked back.

The Sara in front of her was speaking to someone on her radio, she had taken her hand from Elin's shoulder and was holding it to her ear now. As Elin listened to the one sided conversation she felt an odd squirming sensation in her stomach. It took her a second to realize it was shame.

"Sarge, its Gomez. I've got a survivor here in the barn."

In the barn, with the animals... like an animal.

"No, just the one brave soul."

Just the one coward who ran away and left everyone else to die.

"Right, hang on. What's your name kid."

Tell her your name coward.

"E... Elin Shepard." She managed to stutter it out.

"Shepard, Elin." Gomez said, talking to the radio again. "Check the colonial manifests and see if she's got any surviving family."

She didn't. They were all dead. She'd left them to die. She should be dead too, it was what she deserved... She just couldn't bring herself to say it out aloud.